001okay good evening everyone I'd like to call this meeting of the Prince William County School Board to order uh a motion is in order for the approval of the meeting agenda Miss Jackson thank you I move that the Prince William County School Board approve the meeting agenda as recommended do I have a second Mr chairman Mr AR seconds any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed I'm moving on to the motion enter close session a motions in order thank you Dr sorry um I mve that pursuant Virginia code section 2.2 3711 and 2.2 3712 the Prince County School Board enter a close session for the following reasons one to discuss with staff the appointment transfer release assignment and promotion of specific officers and employees under Virginia code 2.2 3711
002a one two to evaluate the cloak of the school board and approve annual goals for the office of the school board cloak for the 2022 2023 under Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A1 3 to evaluate the vision Council and approve annual performance goals for the office of division Council for year 20222 23 and four to discuss with the division Council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students under Virginia code section 2.2 3711 A7 and 8 five to consult with staff and legal councel regarding the legal requirements and procedures for collective bargaining by Schoolboard employees which requires legal advice and guidance as provided by Virginia code section 2.23 711 a 8 six the discuss and receive brief discuss and receive briefing by staff members related to the security
003of school facilities and the safety of persons using facilities and actions taken to respond to such matters where discussion and an open meeting would jeopardize the security of such facilities Pur to Virginia code section 2.2 3711 a 19 and 7 to consult staff and legal counsel regarding the acquisition of real property for the construction of a school where discussion and open meeting would adversely affect the school board's bargaining position or negotiating strategy as provided by Virginia code section 2.2 37113 and eight to consult with legal counsel and receive legal advice regarding pwcs non-discrimination policies and regulations under Virginia code section 2.23 711 A8 do you have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed the Prince William County School Board will now
004enter close session and return Open session at 7 o'clock thank [Music] you [Music] okay good evening the Prince William County School Board is now returning to open session from Clos session a motion is in order Miss Jackson thank you Dr ltif I move that pursuant Virginia code section 2.2 3712 the closed session of the Prince William County school board meeting of September 21st 2022 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be it resolved that the prince H County School Board hereby certifies that to best each member's knowledge one only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which the certification resolution applies and two only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered
005by the school board do I have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams a second any discussion please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed moving on to the approval of appointments and releases of motions in order Miss Jackson thank you Dr T I move that the princ County School Board approve the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in close session do have a second Mr chairman M Williams second any discussion please vote the vote is s yes one absent Ralston motion passed okay great at this time we'll do the Pledge of Allegiance and tonight we have chance uh Williams from Forest Park High School with us as our new um student member on the school board and we're going to have him lead us in the pledge this evening
006I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and thank you chance um moving on to our thriving Futures Focus which is our um Regular part of our meeting um today we're um going to um pleased to continue our our launching thriving Futures Focus this school year to recognize several outstanding students and employees Mrs Adele Jackson board Vice chair and brentville magisterial District representative will recognize the award-winning Patriot High School family career and Community leaders of America Club Miss Jackson hi good evening the Patriot High School families career Community leaders of America or FCCLA program and members of the family relations classes work together to earn the National High School standup award for their advocacy project this
007project was called No More trash bags and focused on donating and filling backpacks for Comfort cases organ organization in Rockville Maryland Comfort cases distribute the backpacks Nationwide to Social Service agenes they give bags to foster children traveling between homes Patriot High students collected and filled 48 backpacks with Pajamas books blankets toiletries and more they also made 24 fulls siiz thae fleece blankets this summer The Patriot High School FCCLA joined joed more than 7,000 FCA student members advisers and guests at the annual National leadership conference in San Diego no more trash bags project was one of the very few in the nation recognized the Patriot FCCLA received $11,000 to continue their philanthropic efforts several students also submitted entries at the national level this chapter also won awards at the state level last year congratulations to Katherine
008jet McVey family and consumer Sciences teacher and fccl a adviser principal Dr Michael Bishop assistant principal David Van Geller and FCCLA students for this outstanding honor Miss McVey will come forward now to say a few words and introduce her students thank you Miss Jackson board members chairman Latif Dr McDade and the superintendent staff on behalf of patriot FCCLA for inviting us here this evening my name is Katherine jet McVey and I am one of the advisers for the Patriot chapter of Family career and Community leaders of America my colleague Mrs Jessica stot held and I are so grateful to be able to work with motivated students to complete such awesome advocacy and educational projects such as the FCCLA standup National program our chapter president Mrs Abby traany was instrumental in our endeavors that started as
009a simple brainstorming activity in our family relations classes which led to over 65 students getting involved in implementing Our Winning project Abby has joined today by Miss Rowan and Miss rosan selam members and state and National competitors for Patriot FCCLA as you may know leadership is one of the four pillars of Patriot High School and something that our principal Dr Bishop strongly encourages for all students FCCLA is a nationally Affiliated leaders of America Career and Technical student organization that that encourages student members to identify needs set goals plan engage and evaluate worthy projects that help our local and greater communities we are so appreciative of our administrative support from Mr Dave Van gelder our assistant principal over family consumer sciences and of course Dr Bishop who helped secure funds for our students trip to San
010Diego this past summer to compete and receive National recognition for our no more trash bags advocacy project when students are acknowledged for their hard work it ignites a contagious motivation that deepens the sense of Pride and determination with recognition of being a national award winner and a visit from the FCCLA national executive director to our school Patriot FCCLA members continue to make a name for themselves as leaders in Prince William County schools and towards their own thriving Futures thank you so much for your continued support you did great s congratulations Patriot High Schools family career and Community leaders of America uh please stay a few more minutes while we recognize the next group so we can take a picture um and it is um my honor to introduce Mrs Le Lisa zapor of the koh's
011district to recognize our next group Miss zapor thank you Dr Latif I am excited to welcome the Charles J colan Senior High School Center for fine and Performing Arts creative writing program here tonight under the direct director of Jessica desay our students earned the Virginia High School league state championship in creative writing The Winning Collection submitted by colan High School included four pieces earning the superior ranking additionally Indigo green a recent graduate took home an individual state championship for poetry from a competitive field of 31 other Virginia schools with a little over 186 students colan unseed Thomas Jefferson School for Science and techn te ology who were the state champions for three consecutive years congratulations to miss desay principal Dr Tim Healey and our outstanding students for this honor we are very proud of you
012mray please come forward to introduce your students good evening honorable Prince William County board thank you so much for that lovely introduction Mrs zapor thank you chairman Latif thank you Miss McDade or Dr McDade excuse me um and for all the other board members of Prince Willam County Schools I would first like to introduce the Cen creative writing students who are present tonight Savannah ly honorable mention in Creative non-fiction Kitty Pierce moistner of superior ranking in Creative non-fiction as well as Aiden Sadler Superior ranking in fiction I would like to thank them deeply for their hard work and their dedication to creative writing I also wish to thank Dr Healey as as well as kogan assistant principles M riddle and Dr Parish in particular for the continued support of kogan creative writing supporting us in
013our active extracurricular Endeavors including our two literary journals and B monthly reading series Sirens Cove I would also uh like to thank Prince William County schools for their continued support in the creative arts as we all are well aware in this room today that when you support the Arts you support the whole student you support their creativity and individuality and I see it every day and that's so much more than a trophy and even unseating TJ my students devote so much of themselves their time energy passion to their craft and our program we really truly together become a community of writers and that's what's winning is I am thankful that each morning I enter my classroom and I help Mentor my students as writers and as individuals to watch them grow wings and soar and
014they do and as a teacher as a writer and as a person I cannot be any prder of them thank you again Prince William County Board of Education superintendent McDade Tim Healey and all of those who support Cogan creative writing on behalf of our program and our students thank you Dr McDade thank you Dr Latif I would just like to acknowledge uh one more time the award-winning Patriot High School family career and Community leaders of America chapter along with their sponsor Miss McVey um and their principal Dr Michael Bishop as well as his administrative team for supporting um this work and congratulations to uh kogan high school for your amazing Fin and Performing Arts creative writing program and creative writing teacher Miss uh D so thank you so much congratulations to you all both programs
015encourage students to engage in activities um that meets their interest and build Connections in their school Community beyond the academic classroom experience and these connections really lead students to having more caring adults mentoring and supporting them with academic and extracurricular success as well as social and emotional well-being so job well done we are incredibly proud of each of you congratulations you know we we've been doing this now for almost a year and I have to say um you know I this a little bit off script but I I have to there's an ancient Chinese proverb that says teachers open doors but it's up to the student to go through you know in our community we have parents we have administrators we have principles we have um volunteers that are helping push those kids through the
016doors and I can't thank you enough especially our principles Dr Bishop Dr Healey both of you are here tonight this is after hours we know the kind of work your high schools do the kind of programs you guys are running the time Mrs McShay M or M McVey M desay spend with these kids over and above the time over and above any dollar we can give you um there there's no there's no way to repay you and it is just so important the work you're doing and I just can't thank you all enough for that and so again one more round of applause and I'd like the students to come up uh and the um coaches for a picture with a school board thank you e I thought we would do one at a time
017let's start [Music] with all right right here I'm going to take like three shots I'm going to count to three and c one two three try one more one two three and one last one two thank you e app okay fantastic so that concludes our thriving features Focus for this evening we're moving on to the adoption of the consent agenda a motion is in order Miss Jackson I move that the Prince County School Board approve the public meeting consent agenda as recommended Mr chairman um do I have a second and second Miss William second's motion uh any discussion Miss Jesse uh I'd like to discuss items one item 123 I'm sorry item 122 the equity representatives and my representative is Mrs Robin Rubio and I know Dr Brown she's going to do a great job
018for you guys so I'm very pleased to to have recommended her and under the uh 129 the naming of the independence non-traditional I think we have a slide do we have a slide for that I sent it to Mr Gilmore he may not Mr Gil for it's up okay thank you oh look at that handsome guy uh when I uh learned of Dr isman plans to retire immediately got on the phone and called him to do what we call down south to fuss at him I was fussing at him for one two reasons one he was leaving and two that he needed my permission to retire and when I called uh he was not there miss Jan Smith his secretary talked to me and she said well he's not here we'll have you I'll have
019him call you but she she said I'd like to make a request she said she'd like to honor this man by permanently displaying his name on the school he founded and fought for we wanted to do it prior to his retirement so he would know you didn't want to tell him because he would have said no don't do it but uh we are doing it now uh we're a little bit late doing it but we're still doing it and I want to first of all say to miss Jan Smith please raise your hand you know when you hire when you're a principal they said get a good secretary this lady has done it all I mean she formed a committee she received letters from staff professional colleagues elected official we have some from Miss supervisor
020angry bod and Franklin and from Dr Leonard uh Lacy who is the husband of uh Renee Lacy her name is on the side of the building also she conducted student video student surveys video this notebook full of letters was sent to Dr McDade and also to the board Clerk and I've sent letters uh for those people who did not read that entire notebook uh I would like to start by you know being and I were talking to maybe a resolution I'm not really the resolution type the whereas is getting next to me uh so I did write a special tribute to him and following this uh the person who is representing that District Mr wils will also follow my presentation and anyone else who wants to add this is what the committee wanted to say
021about him founder Visionary Visionary change agent and so this is a tribute to Dr Robert iorn I came to this board 10 years ago without a sense of direction but quickly changed when I visited a school called new directions I thought my visit would last for 30 minutes when it lasts a half day I thought no way I met a man with the most infectuous smile and his passion for his students made me stay for a while I had worked in institutional settings where children label special live behind gated walls only to be learn that they were not special at all I quickly learned that Bob Bob iorn not only treated his students like they were very special every day but special in a gifted kind of way he showed me students ex exit portfolios
022that were required for graduation he said this was a minimal expectation I stayed so long that I've met students who had completed their morning Elementary tutoring they so they so reminded me of the unfortunate students that I had previously worked and were mistakenly locked away in a Chicago institution not you didn't have anything to do with do gu was students from this school demonstrated underwater his school demonstrated underwater robotic skills and were highly competitive in each com comp comptitive drill I decided to attend a graduation ceremony expecting a little pump and Circumstance when I walked into the graduation at the site which was Hilton performance art it truly put me in a trance yes I was impressed with the chandeliers the operatic setting and all the glitter and the glow but what blew me away
023was who was running the show the students were the speakers not some adult special guests Bob and his staff selected them because this event required only the best when it became time to take New Direction in a New Direction building a new school it was the students who named the school because that was an icon rule Bob was an unsung hero who had found a way of transporting his students had had to find way of transporting the students to school because we the School Division did not provide a bus for them that was a School Division rule unlike others principles who were given a year of leave to open a new school he was required to open a new school while running three other schools because that was a new rule for him he did
024not mind the extra hours because he had a new ey C rules students at Independence would be allowed to ride a bus to school the difference between a moment in history and a moment and an event is that the latter requires sacrifice my hope and the hope of Schoolboard members by showcasing the contribution of this man who made sacrifices tonight we will make his contribution a historical event that can have a lasting impact on how certain we see certain students I was given this quote by a parent I don't know it's origin but it's a good quote so I said if you're going to steal steal from the best and this is the quote I think highlights who Dr icon is he is a man who cares for children whose pictures are not on anybody's
025dressers for children whose Smiles make us [Music] cry whose Nightmares come in the daytime and those children who may live and move but have no being he gave them hope and being thank you Dr icon and the independent staff for taking students like these from all all of our district who were fragmented and even broken and for making them whole again thank you Mr wil thank you Dr Latif uh I didn't make mine rhyme although I can sing you know that but you can sing um good evening everyone uh the naming of the building library has been a long process I do want to to applaud my colleague Mrs Jesse for her commitment and insistence insistence on doing right by this amazing person Dr Robert icorn I must admit I do not know Dr iorn
026as well as some of my colleagues Mrs Jesse Miss Williams who have worked much closer with Dr iorn than I have however I do not believe I need to have a personal relationship with Dr iorn to be aware of his many accomplishments and his overall impact on our School Division and the thousands of students he both directly and directly supported with his life's work two weeks ago I again had the pleasure of visiting Independence and meeting with the new principal with Mrs Jesse as I walked into the building I realized for the first time since Dr ior's retirement that almost every hallway and room in the building was touched by as many years of working with the students of Prince William County from the overall Design Furniture Bolton boards and murals every one of them
027reminded me of how much Dr iorn dedicated to our Prince William County students one Bolton board stood out to me and helped launch my interest in learning more about the accomplishments of this community servant the poem the road not taken by Robert Frost was published in the Atlantic Monthly in August of 1915 in the poem Frost writes about his acquaintance at the time writer Edward Thomas Thomas Thomas was often described as indecisive and often lamented how he should have taken the other Road when faced with the choice The Road Not Taken argues for the importance of our choices no matter if these choices are big or small because in the scheme of Life all decisions play a critical role in our future successes unlike the main character of Frost's poem Dr icorn was not indecisive
028in his in his decisions that aimed at providing a highquality Equitable education for his students each decision he made along his educational Journey no matter how small had a significant impact on all students in Prince William County he was persic there was no Divergence in his pths Dr iorn made both large and small incremental decisions consistent throughout the mission of educating and being an advocate for all students in our County his career in Prince William County began as a principal new directions alternative education center after 17 years of steadfast service to Fairfax County schools during his first full Year's principal Dr icorn redesigned the school by introducing the 4x4 modified block schedule winning the pwcs one Earth One change recycle proposal and providing free breakfast and lunch for all students some of the other notable
029accomplishments during his tenure include offering advanced placement courses for the first time to non-traditional students adding a school Counseling Center in a building redesign establishing the first commencement and awards ceremony for new directions and expending expand expanding excuse me Blended learning by offering his students 247 access to Educational Services over his 10 years over 2,450 students have graduated now the list could go on and I could expound on these accomplishments in the next hour but I realize I have a limited amount of time and want to leave the opportunity for some of my other colleagues to add remarks I want to add that Dr aror was an exponent for equity and led by actions as he became recognized became a recognized figure in Virginia and throughout the country in 2009 he profer a plan to
030the school division to create a new K12 non-traditional brick and mortar School in 2015 as a result of his assiduous efforts Dr ior's Vision was approved and in 2018 the independent non-traditional School opened with over 700 students I want to note that Dr icorn saw not only the construction of the state of this the state-ofthe-art facility but he was also leading the three non-traditional schools at the same time Dr iorn is an innovator a man with panach someone willing to think outside the box and introduce new ideas and Concepts to the school division Dr iorn is a champion for the underserved and disenfranchised youth of our County he brought all his students onetoone access academic opportunities that had not previously existed and a building that brought equity and access to opportunities to our special need
031students by offering flexible scheduling and the ability to participate with peers in general general education courses and Student Activities Dr icorn introduced virtual learning long before it became a standard presence in public education after 31 years of advocacy for non-traditional and special education students their families and his dedicated staff it is now time that we place his name proudly on the name of his vision an fulgent worldclass non-traditional school that will continue to serve all students in Prince William County Dr iorn the choices we make are impactful but the way way we remember them is what helps us shape us as individuals I honored to support the naming of the library at Independence to commemorate your longstanding service to our school division Miss William thank you Mr chairman um round two for honoring Dr aror
032we did at the end of the school year last year the final meeting and there was a lovely retirement ceremony and I was proud to have a Congressional Record introduced in his honor um so that he will always be remembered what I will say as someone who graduated from Prince William County schools at a time where there was no alternative education and saw so many of my peers left without the ability to continue their education I am so proud that I was able to grow up and be a board member and participate in ensuring that no student will ever have that experience again Dr iorn is probably one of the most humble genuine and kind individuals that I've ever met in my entire life I also think that he would be mortally embarrassed by all
033of this attention on him but I'm very glad and honored to be able to participate in having his name placed in the gym I will leave you with the story of uh Dr iorn that I think sums him up so very very well um before I say that I just want to say that he is the man responsible for changing and continuing to evolve the perception of those students and loving them for who they are which is key to anybody's education but he once told me the story um which forgive me for sharing Dr icorn but way before he was a doctor uh on his way to New Directions um school because it used to be in an office building in Manasses before we gave him a building um he saw a young man in
034the in the median on the way to school and the young man had been a former student who was now panhandling because he did not have have a home and he did not have support and not only did he pick him up get him re-enrolled in school found him housing and fed him and it was no judgment and that is the kind of principle the kind of person that he was he opened up new Independence um not only for the students who were there for disciplinary issues but for all students who didn't fit a traditional mold in a Traditional School environment and I'm really honored and blessed that I had the opportunity to work with him to support him and his staff and to develop a Prof professional relationship with him and I hope that
035he can I will be able to continue to do that because he is a person that if you don't know provides excellent mentorship and always an alternative lens which we should all be reminded to view the world because no no individual is the same we all have our ups and downs and we should all be put in a position where we interact with someone who loves us and accepts us unconditionally without judgment when trying to achieve our goals so thank you okay please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed excellent congratulations um moving on to the oh I I'm skipping here we're on citizen comment time we do have those citizens who've signed up in advance with the clerk May address the school board this evening when they are called to
036the podium the citizen comment period for regular school board meetings is limited 1 hour the first half hour reserve for comments on agenda items and second half hour for comments on non-agenda items and other topics gerain to the operations of the policies of Prince William County schools citizens signed up to speak on the agenda items must speak to the agenda item they have identified or they'll be asked to step down we have two speakers on agenda items and 10 on non-agenda items speakers have three minutes to speak the exception to this tonight will be for two speakers on the non-agenda who will be using an interpreter additional time will be allotted to those two speakers to allow time for translation as provided in policy 134 please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium
037or you will be asked to step aside we ask that the audience please be respectful of each speaker and refrain from any clapping cheering or jering to avoid disruption of the meeting if you do not do so the board will recess and I will ask the room be cleared to restore public order when I call your name please come up to the podium state your name and address for the record our first two speakers are going to be Jan Smith and pedius prider Miss Smith good evening Dr Latif school board members and Dr McDade my name is Jan Smith and my address is on file with the clerk on behalf of the students their families and the staff of independent net Independence non-traditional school I would like to thank you for your support and consideration
038in naming a portion of independent's non-traditional School in honor of Dr icorn Dr iorn has a special place in the hearts of all who are part of Independence non-traditional School his vision and commitment to Alternative and non-traditional education and students is unparalleled Dr iorn is truly a Visionary when it comes to working with children it is this Vision that created independent non-traditional school a school that is not matched anywhere in the country Dr icorn showed his leadership daily by having flexibility compassion and understanding not only for the students but also for staff Dr ice corn also created a climate and culture that is safe caring orderly and that promotes relationships among adults and among students for many of our students this safe and caring climate and culture is the main reason why so many of
039our students choose to stay at Independence non-traditional school and why so many of our former students come back to visit Dr icorn is truly missed but his vision is still present at independent non-traditional school and therefore this great honor of naming the gymnasium of independent non-traditional school after him he is a founder of our school it was his vision and he will forever be a change agent for all students now on a personal note I want to thank you Mrs Jesse for your support and making this happen words cannot express the appreciation I feel from your guidance your time and the heart that you have for the students at Independence I love you Mr wil thank you for your efforts and the support to miss Jesse and the independence naming committee and all stakeholders Miss
040Williams you have always supported Dr ior's vision and Mission and without a doubt I know that will continue lastly is my hope that the executive leadership will meet and work with the independent ging committee and School staff to confirm a location of the inscription on the building it has always been my understanding and belief that the school board is here to support the schools which you do and the superintendant is here to ensure that what you all direct is followed and in place Dr iorn leaves a lasting imprint in non-traditional education not only in princee County Schools but nationally as well and thus we should honor him accordingly with his name on the exterior of Independence gymnasium thank you for your time patrias prer good evening Dr Latif Dr mate and school board members I'm
041pedus prer and I'm a member of the neapco district uh the item I'm speaking on tonight is legislative priorities uh the school division is committed to providing a healthy learning atmosphere reducing its carbon footprint while contributing to a more resilient environment for future generations and producing cost savings with infrastructure efficiency improvements I'm speaking on this topic tonight because princ County School's lobbyist Mr Jim during the last Schoolboard meeting he talked about how there's a $3 billion Surplus uh in in Virginia 1 billion is already spent and I mean the uh the powers to be en richment think that they've done enough for the school system so he said parents come out and speak up so I'm just taking that note from um uh Jim I'm excited to see that princ County continues to take steps
042to improve the Energy Efficiency in school buildings K2 K through2 school districts operating budgets are consumed by energy costs second only to Personnel cost and overall budget expenses a reduction in energy cost means more money for the classrooms Prince spring County supports legis ations that will provide State funding for energy efficient initiatives and opportunities and Dr Latif this is the part where the person who shows up late to the uh cookout tells you how to spend the money this is this is my part there first the funding should be prioritized by Title One schools which are those with at least 40% of children from low-income families a high number of Title One schools are in Black and Latino communities Title One schools on average are older than schools in more more fluent areas and the
043teachers and the students are more likely to suffer from health problems that are exacerbated by mold and poor indoor air quality it's my opinion that princ counties should if they should come into a wifall of additional funding it makes sense to start with the students most in need my hope is that additional infrastructure funding uh Prince County Schools can continue to focus on renovation and modernization efforts in areas where our agent schools would benefit most it's no secret that with every opportunity I have I will promote neapco District where we have several schools that could benefit today thank you again for supporting legislation that will provide for additional funding for the modernization of our schools the next five speakers and they can come sit up in front will be Jaylen custus magley her mgal herado
044Richard Jesse Maggie Hansford Amy McCarthy jayen custus good evening superintendent mcday Dr mcday um Mr chairman and members of the school board uh my name is Jaylen custus I live in the Woodbridge District I'm here tonight to address two incidents that occurred in our schools over the past two weeks one being incident at Freedom High School which occurred on September 12th where a student brought a gun to school another incident on September 13th where a middle schooler brought a knife to to a school and held it to another student's neck where a teacher got injured this isn't the first time weapons in weapons got into our school or other drugs have gotten into our schools as a former student I remember worrying about whether or not I would get shot I believe I'm not the
045only one who has thought about this students and teachers should feel safe going to schools parents shouldn't have to worry whether or not their child will get shot at school as stated before not only do guns get through but other foreign substances I remember last year going to lunch and down the hallway there's a bathroom and I remember it was some like marijuana I've seen videos of kids making lean on Snapchat inside of our schools for those who don't know what lean is drug substance to mix it up stuff like that they drink it we can't wait for a student to overdose in our bathrooms we can't wait for a student to get shot in the classroom for us to take actions something must must be done to prevent this from happening I strongly support
046the placement of metal detectors and x-ray machines inside our schools to combat the weapons and Other Drug substances that are continuous continuously getting into our schools and distracting the learning environment we must also enforce the code of behavior to the fullest I want to thank Dr mcve for taking the time to look into how scare of schools and hiring more SS parents shouldn't have to worry about whether their kid will make it home students should feel safe inside schools and teachers shouldn't have to be police officers thank you my name is Jaylen custus and I reside in the Woodbridge [Applause] District No clapping jeering or cheering folks we maintain deorum please magley herado miss herado Mr Jesse my name is Richard Jesse live in aquan District a couple things I want to talk about tonight
047one is since the beginning this year there's been a change of of something where the speakers like I am right now are only shown for a few uh seconds and then the camera shows the board and I think that's inappropriate it should show the speakers the whole time they're speaking uh Mr chair when you say clear the room perhaps if it's possible clear this person who is creating the problem and don't punish everybody else but if it's an issue then clear the room I also want to talk you know I made a lot lot of recommendations last year and you don't get feedback from from the board that often but some of the members said that they were going to look at it over this summer uh there's not a lot of things on the
048agenda this year so far so I don't know why some of the things if you did make changes or recommendation that we're not discussing that now I do want to say to the public that if you agree with some of the things I've say it's important for you come to the school board and if you can be one of the 20 people to speak uh to speak up and so forth to the board we talked about boundaries last year and made some recommendations on that I talked about citizen time where we only have 20 people that can speak uh and I disagree with that uh the other thing is I would like to recommend that when you have the students and teachers come up here for recognition let the students talk let them tell you
049what's happening you know we give the recognition to the prin the principals and and the coaches but the students were the one that did it let them talk I'm sure that they can uh take care of speaking and and getting that done the other thing is I'm so happy that you are going to do something for Mr acorn you know doing something while a person is alive is important doing something meaningful in a way and that again one of the things I said to this board I think we should have a day where you recognize what the school is name for and some of the rooms and stuff in the school and give recognition so people don't forget so I just hope that we begin to look at some of these things and I'd like
050to see more people if you agree with with me or if you don't agree with me at least come up and speak thank you Maggie Hansford hello my name is Maggie Hansford and my address is on file with the clerk I'm here tonight to um thank the board for passing collective bargaining on June 15th of last school year I'm also here to say um that's part of the assignment the full assignment is to now pass a meaningful resolution and I just want to touch on a couple important pieces about what makes a resolution meaningful and what makes a resolution meaningful when you're drafting a collective bargaining resolution is to make sure that there is all pieces of what a staff member's profession has in it so we have to ensure that the resolution has compensation
051benefits and work environment that's what makes a collective bargaining resolution meaningful it also has to be binding arbitration which means both parties with good in good faith come to the table and find a resolution they come together and we agree we find common ground and agree and we need to be able to do that with good faith and we need to make sure that both part must come to the table to ensure that our staff is felt that they're that they have a meaningful seat at the table and when you have a meaningful seat at the table your voice is heard dur during important conversations that are had with regards to your compensation your benefits and your work environment so I look forward to you all drafting a resolution and passing one in a timely
052manner so that we can come to the table and in um in a respectable amount of time I know that Educators and Prince William have been working with our other labor groups in the county we're working with police and fire and County Employees to ensure that we all have a voice because uh with the new law that was in place over two years ago it ensures that the county boards are able to provide collective bargaining rights for our public sector employees your public servants our community work because we work we work with our our community's children and our police force works for our families our fire department works for our families and County staff Works tirelessly to ensure that Prince William is a great place to live work and play and for us to be
053able to do that I think the greatest tool you all have right now to ensure retention and recruitment of certified employees is to pass a meaningful Collective bar arting resolution I look forward to working with Dr McDade and partnering with you to ensure that our staff have a meaningful seat at the table and I appreciate your all's time thank you Amy McCarthy and after her would be Tammy Fick and Brandy provenzano Amy McCarthy good evening um chairman Latif Dr mcdad and members of the school board uh welcome back to this new school year and already I can feel a difference in this room as I look around I really am seeing so much Common Ground mostly we are all here because we believe in our public schools in Prince William County and most of us
054want all of the students in Prince William County to succeed as our leaders you want to make the best decisions to assure this success and safety of all the students parents and staff of Prince William County schools this is clearly no easy task yet you have stayed the rocky course through the entire pandemic and have guided us along the way as your teachers teachers assistants bus drivers Food Service workers and other School Employees we are the ground workers that make this system run based on the decisions made from our leaders we are in trusted with the safety and education of the children of Prince William County schools every single day and as the parents moms dads grandparents Guardians and community members we share the same concerns and worries about our own children and the children
055in our communities while we try to recover from the past 2 years with increased mental illness learning loss and the strong need for all of our social emotional learning we need to challenge all ourselves to do this together with all stakeholders fully invested in the decision-making process and given a seat at the table we have a space for parents administrators and community members but there is an empty seat that needs to be filled by someone on the ground that does this work every single day it is time to pass a meaningful resolution and show your communities and all of the surrounding communities that you value your employees and are ready to commit to having our voices included in the decisions that affect us and your children every day Collective bar bargaining is a tool for
056Teacher retention competition and Student Success collective bargaining is a democratic value collective bargaining is a human right thank you Tammy Fick good evening Dr McDade and Schoolboard members my name is Tammy Fick and I live in the brinville district and I teach in the Kohl's District my address is on file uh let's talk about one way that we as a district can attract and retain teachers especially those that live across our county lines let's stop charging these teachers for tuition for their students their children to come to our schools last June when we were still looking for special education teachers for our students with autism we had an absolutely fantastic with interview with a teacher from Lowden and after running the numbers of the pay cut and the cost of tuition to bring her kids
057to our district for school she passed on it because it was too much of of a pay cut this could have been one less vacancy in our district at Bennett we have a third grade teacher that lives in Manasses and has to pay tuition to bring his kid to school with him now yeah Manasses where depending on what side of the street you live on could determine if you are in our district or a different District why on Earth are we telling teachers that we want them but hey if you come you're going to have to pay to bring your kids to these outstanding schools with these amazing teachers it just doesn't make sense that seems to discriminate against family status our County like so many others around us are still in the need of
058Staff members in the classroom we are having an event on October 22nd according to Dr latif's retweet retweet that I saw this evening to help non-teachers find their path to get license I think that's wonderful we need to do more to get people licensed in our classroom that's a great incentive we should be do doing more to help people not only get their license but to be able to afford to get it as well but let's hope they don't live outside the county lines and want to bring their kids to our school as you're writing our resolution which I'm sure you're working on because we all know that that's vital to recruiting and retaining teachers and it was part of your assignment keep this issue in mind please get rid of tuition for teachers kids
059we as teachers put forth way more money in our classes and classrooms than the district would ever lose by giving us a break on making it a sound financial choice to teach here and with a seat at the table we can discuss many more concerns thank you Brandy provenzano I'm just waiting for the clock sorry good evening my name is Brandy provenzano and my address is on file tonight I am reading on behalf of a fellow staff member who is afraid of retaliation for speaking up I quote I always wanted to teach until now this year I reached a breaking point I'm continuously asked to do things that I know are not in the best interest of the students and I'm tired these poor kids are taking test pre-test post test quick checks retakes State
060tests County tests SOS and I have to keep testing generate more data study the data test and generate more data that I take to meetings where exhausted Educators sit around and listen to Why students are not learning then we are sent off to test some more and collect more data I know what my my students need and this is not it they are becoming tiny blur eyed test taking robots glued to Canvas and computers all day they complain of headaches constantly who can blame them didn't we come back into the building to give them social interaction and Hands-On learning that their brains needed when is there time for that I wish I knew I used to do science experiments playing camp out Fridays where kids brought in blankets and FL flashlights and read in their
061PJs I used to take them outside to learn about gravity I used to teach now there is no time for that after all the testing and the meetings and staff development and online training and forc volunteering for after school clubs and activity bus Duty covering classes for sick co-workers CLT meetings endless data analysis parent meetings IEP meetings documenting the meetings sending emails to follow up on the meetings there isn't time for any anything there is definitely not time for planning for Quality teaching how can I do that if I don't even have time to pee a meaningful collective bargaining resolution could change this for staff members staff members and Educators would provide input and actually be heard why are they leaving the public keeps asking this is why give them a voice and a seat
062at the table work with them instead of a against them passed a meaningful collective bargaining resolution please unquote my own words would be every teacher in every classroom that I know could tell you who's learning who's not and what they need we don't need to continue to test and gather data we need time to teach and we need a voice so that you can hear us and give us that time thank you take Leslie Tom Lena Mendoza and Carlos Zinga Leslie Tom hello um I am lle Tom I'm a resident and voter of the Kohl's district and I'm a special education teacher in the Gainesville District my address is on file with a clerk for my three minutes of a lot of time I'd like to focus on the ideas of expectations and values how
063before you can put an expectation on a person you have to show them that you value them I would also like to ask for to pass meaningful resolution on the on collective bargaining before you can put an expectation on your school staff you have to show that they're valued I've been actively involved in Prince Willam County schools for almost a decade now I started as a parent volunteer then I became a a substitute teach teacher I was a sponsor of the kindness Club a first Lego League robotics coach a pal's tutor I also volunteer at a lot of Robotics competitions I've seen chance at a few um and I also most recently became a special education teacher supporting kindergarten first grade and second grade students in a self-contained classroom I'm also a parent I placed
064a tremendous amount of trust in schools to Foster the educational growth for my own children I want them to be challenged by their academic work I want their perspectives to be broadened I want their identities to be honored and valued these are my expectations for Prince William County schools and I show every teacher every school representative and employee that I honor them because I'm right there along with them as a teacher I hold myself accountable to the same expectations for the students in my classroom it is my responsibility to ensure that students are safe and that they're learning before I can put an expectation on them I have to show them that I value them how do I do that in my classroom my students my assistants and I make up a learning community everyone
065has an equal share and an equal voice in that Community we start out the year with interactive writing we all share the marker and create our classroom promise this year it is as follows we are safe we are kind we work hard we have fun we are a family zooming out on the same promise that my students have made to each other in Mr Sketch marker in a is a very con condensed rainbow colored fruit scented kidfriendly version of the Prince William County School's strategic plans values and commitments it's amazing to me that our very youngest students know that they Thrive best in environments that are positive and inclusive safe and will allow them to be involved before I can put an expectation on my students I have to show them that they are valued
066before you can put an expectation on us we must know that we're valued please pass meaningful collective bargaining resolution for the sake of our students and our staff thank you miss Tom thank you Linka Mendoza and she'll have an interpreter so uh there'll be extra time allotted okay okay good afternoon my name is Linka M Linka Menda I would like to thank you to the school board for having us here umed High School I am a mother of of a a school person who attend a Freedom High School I am here along other parents from the same school because we are very worried about the high risk and the for the Safety and Security uh that is presented right now uh within the schools it's only been two months since we start the school year
067and it already happened four really bad incidents at the schools a couple of days ago the school Freedom had to close his door and actually that closing last for three hours for ourself as a parents and our childrens we like more than 200 parents we were there waiting trying to figure out what was going on it was the three hours with the longest sness and I was very worried about what happened to my child when the school closed at 9:40 a.m. just we just happened to have news like around 111 in the morning about what was happening inside the school and this is a this is actually very worried for me we as parents we want to find out and being active and trying to figure out what to do to maintain safety in our
068schools we don't want to continue with a anguish to leave our kids at school without knowing if we are going to be able to see them again I don't know if you guys have children at your schools at the present moment but right now it's really complicated right now to have children back then it happened to be one of the classmate having a gun actually had the g at the school with him the policemen they went detained the person but the gun was never found we don't know the is is still present at the school or actually left the property it was not the only issue that happened with a Firearms the other day kids from another school came to the school and hid one of the children from Freedom this happened at one of
069the bathroom my daughter actually tell me that she's not able to go to the bathroom because the smoke that is present there and it's impossible to get and breathe when they're smoking at the bathrooms we ask to have detector metal detectors at the schools to make sure not only that Firearms are not present at the school but any other type of metal that can harm our kids we need more a police present only one policeman per school it's not only for our children is also for the safety of the admin people and the teachers that works there as parents we would like to find out if we can have a meeting with the people that actually represent freedom to find out what is going to be done to ensure the safety of our kids at
070Freedom thank God that time nobody was harm but we don't have to wait until that event happen that somebody probably can be dead we don't want that to happen we're here to work together for the safety of our children thank you Carlos Zinga well good evening we along with my wife and other parents come to represent I have a daughter that is attending Freedom it's been I've been living in Prince Willian for more than 20 years my two all the kids actually ended high school at the pomac back then we we could feel the present of a policeman more than now so it has been 515 cases of alcohol and drugs present at the schools at this moment 344 more compared to previous years 722 fights uh PL violence events and it was 400 more
071compared to the previous years I don't understand why why security was taken out of this I've been working for more than 22 years unfortunately last year I couldn't work I have an issue and they actually let me go during this year that I haven't been able to work I haven't been I have been able to find out that is what is missing at the school for safety our children came back from the school and they afraid of what they have seen they please don't forget that you as school board represent the parents of each children that is attending different School uh at the present moment today just coming here it is very nice to come to see by the door two security guyses and then policemen all over here two safety guyses it is very
072nice but when you go to schools you don't see that presence how many cameras right now now at at the present moment uh the admin people and the teacher needs the same uh the same commitment that you have you have here since September we have been having four different cases in Freedom one I think it was on Laker another case of a girl that almost got um a caught from another a lady that want attack thank God a teacher was able to find out that it was happening I would like to thank if you can take an action and to avoid something similar has happened in Texas more than I I don't know how many kids that actually got kill thanks for listening to me tonight okay thank you that concludes citizen comment time uh
073moving on to the next part of the agenda we'll be doing 1401 the proposed sale of vpsa bonds um this is on for Action we heard this last meeting um a motion is in order Miss Jackson thank you Dr Chief um I move that the Prince County School Board a authorize the completion and submission of the application to Virginia Public School Authority vpsa for the fall 2022 Standalone Bond sale on the amount of 44,6000 to finance certain Capital Improvement projects for school purposes B authorize a superintendent or such other officer as she may designate to submit such documentation as if required by the vpsa C request for the board of County Supervisors to authorize the completion for a fall 2022 vpsa Standalone Bond sale and to take such other action as may be necessary to
074complete the bond sale and D direct that this resolution shall become effective immediately do I have a second Mr chairman Miss Williams a second okay any discussion questions okay please vote the vote is seven yes one absent Ralston motion passed moving on to the student representative time our student representative on the Das this evening is Chance Williams a senior attending Forest Park High School we are thrilled to have you Mr Williams please thank you good evening to the school board Dr McDade and the community present and watching online I would like to start off by thanking the Prince County school board for this amazing opportunity to make sure the thoughts feelings and concerns of the Prince County student body are heard and understood often students throughout the county feel unheard and unseen by the school
075board and school leadership my goal as a student representative is to make students visible and amplify their voices to build consensus and address issues that affect all students as many of you already know the teachers and staff in this County are phenomenal before the school year began I got the chance to attend the new educator induction head of my high school Forest Park there I met dozens of amazing staff members all excited and eager for the school year to begin it is our amazing staff that shape our students and our students that go on to shape our world it is true prin County Schools provide students with a worldclass education pwcs is the 10th most diverse County in the nation and this diversity is shown in our students when addressing diversity in the county I
076want to look at its effects on our schools and the curriculum currently in Prin County African-American history is being offered at various high schools as an elective credit while American history covers some of African-American history there are limitations are no coverage of Afro indigenous history and culture as schools and organizations incorporate diversity and inclusion into their day-to-day operations it is important to consider offering this course as a history requirement rather than an elective most of us learn to be Global Citizens in the classroom offering African-American history is a great place to start dialogue of where we have been where we are and where we can where we can go together former Governor Ralph Northam said black history is American history but for too long the story we have told was insufficient and inadequate African-American history
077starts from the early Beginnings in Africa through the transatlantic slave trade the Civil War emancipation reconstruction the Civil Rights era until the present day covering just as much as any history course yet still only counts as an elective in subjects such as mathematics and science there are various Pathways students can choose to complete the requirements including what courses to take and the level of difficulty for history there is only one choice in the difficulty of the course such as choosing AP or dual enrollment with college board beginning to assess an AP African-American history course it is time for an update though the board itself cannot make this decision I believe the board should advocate for African-American history to transition from an elective credit to a history credit on a more positive note I would like
078to address Dr mcdade's recent implementation of a security assist in every Elementary School in the county not only does this provide peace of mind for the parents but it also provides peace of mind for the students at the high school level though students will not admit it the security guard provide a sense of safety in a world where dangers in schools are unfortunately common when Dr McDade entered this County students were concerned with how this new superintendent from Chicago respond to us in our Suburban neighborhoods the pwcs policies and our love for snow days but now that she is here her effect on the county has been nothing short of positive steps toward our future the students truly look forward to your visits thank you Dr MCD for everything you do to continually support our
079students finally I would like to turn to the Capital Improvements program as a student I had never heard of this initiative until a few days ago as such I want a simple ify it a bit that way students staff and community members know the board has addressed issues pertaining to the physical school buildings the Capital Improvements program is a document detailing the County's plans to renovate repair and build schools in the county to effectively sum it up directly using the document the CIP serves as a tool for planning and implementing the capital Improvement projects needed to house students and employees adequately students at Forest Park pic and osor Park High School beginning last year expressed the point that some of the newer schools may have benefits the older buildings do not have access to so
080I'd like to present this document to let the students know the county has notice and does have plans to renovate these schools the Capital Improvements program also outlines new schools coming to the county to address the concerns of overcrowding at current schools I would like to encourage anyone with concerns for their building to review this plan as most issues have already been identified outlined and addressed and with that I end my I officially end my remarks for my first Schoolboard meeting during my last year as a student in Prince County schools go brons thank you all right go Bruins Fantastic Mr Chance Williams we are excited to have you and we look forward to to hearing you uh hearing from you each week um now on to superintendence time is that correct I'm I looking
081to my schedule right Dr McDade thank you so much Dr Latif and thank you chance for such a wonderful presentation and we're excited to have you join us on the board um I've mentioned many times how critical it is to ensure we are educating our students in a safe and secure environment recent local events reminds us of the importance of working together proactively to address safety concerns I appreciate our teachers and staff and students and their families and our school resource officers who work collaboratively as partners to address issues in observance of national security officer appreciation week I would also like to recognize the efforts of our security officers to build relationships with our students and staff members with the goal of creating a nurturing climate in which students can learn at high levels thank
082you each for all that you do on on behalf of pwcs students families and staff and speaking of Partnerships along with our commitment to improve school safety our strategic plan focuses on the importance of Community Partnerships in helping schools address student needs that go beyond the classroom last week the military child education Coalition through the Marine Corps based quanico recognized Prince William County Public Schools as the 2022 outstanding individual program project Award winner for our pwcs gos purple initiative congratulations to our student services department and our schools for their hard work and for this recognition pwcs understands the importance of recognizing the sacrifices made by the members of our military as well as the support required by our mil military families our website www.pwcs.edu includes multiple multiple resources for military connected students and their families
083I also want to share information on an additional award bestowed upon pwcs within the past week last Friday the US Department of Education announced that koh's elementary school has been named one of 297 National Blue Ribbon Schools for 20122 koh's elementary is one of only seven National Blue River schools in Virginia and is being recognized in the category of exemplary achievement Gap closing schools congratulations to koh's Elementary School's teachers and staff and students and their families for this well-deserved honor koh's Elementry exemplifies our school division's commitment to launching thriving Futures by providing Equitable opportunities so that all students May learn and Achieve before turning this over to our next presenter I would also like to share that September 15th through October 15th is National Hispanic Heritage Month our Hispanic students collectively represent the largest demographic
084in our schools and I look forward to witnessing the efforts our school of our schools to celebrate the histories cultures and contributions of American citizens whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America I encourage our community members to participate in festivities honoring Hispanic Heritage Month and to watch our website and social media for highlights of observance of this important month I also want to acknowledge that recently new guidelines have been released from the Virginia Department of Education related to transgender policies we are reviewing the guidelines to determine implications for the school division but I want to reaffirm our commitment to protecting the overall physical emotional and psychological safety of all staff and students inclusive of our lgbtq plus community and pwcs currently implements a non-discrimination and harassment policy which we
085will continue to enforce positive climate and culture is a key commitment in our strategic plan and in pwcs we will always treat all students and staff with kindness compassion and respect for their identity and overall well-being in keeping with positive climate and culture it's an honor this evening to share more information about our Prince William County Public Schools heels program grounded in commitment number two positive climate and culture out of our strategic plan the pwcs heels initiative is a comprehensive plan to provide social and emotional support to students and staff miss heer our associate superintendent of student services and postsecondary success along with her Dynamic team team will share more information and updates about our pwcs heels program which is in the second year of implementation Denise thank you good evening Dr Latif Vice chair
086Jackson members of school board and Dr McDade I'd like to start by thanking Dr MCN for H wavering support for this initiative Prince William Hills is not just about our students it's about our staff it's about the culture and support of our vision for our strategic plan in creating a thriving future and that has to start with positive climate and culture I'm going to turn the presentation over to the heart of our team director schlater who has our heels team with her thank you good evening chairman Latif Dr McDade and members of the board my name is Becca schlater and I'm proud to serve as the Director of college career and student support for Prince William County schools this evening I will share some information about an initiative that my department leads for the school
087division called pwcs heels My Hope Is that you will hear and see the impact of the collective work of hundreds of Prince William County Employees we know that the past few years have impacted the social and emotional well-being of many staff members and students we are here tonight to show you that we are paying attention our on our logo here you will see the hashtag that has become our mantra culture of care being explicit about showing the love and care that we have for the students and staff of Prince William County schools is how we begin to heal why healing when we all think about the shared experiences of the past two years many images come to mind stress trauma fear anger frustration and sadness our emotional roller coaster has left no human being untouched
088healing is the most natural Next Step so we can all learn and move forward to launch our thriving Futures why now all pwcs staff are continuing to see the impact of our recent experiences on emotional regulation we see it within ourselves with our students and with our peers now is the time to ensure that we have the skills needed to manage our experiences to focus on Wellness so that the students of pwcs can realize our vision for them in response to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic and Associated school closures Prince William County Public Schools formed the pwcs heels initiative as a division-wide response that focuses on the emotional well-being of students and staff for our students we assess emotional needs and respond with tiered intervention so that we are best positioned to remove barriers
089to student learning this initiative includes resources and support for our staff as well the work to support our students and staff was enhanced last December when bdoe approved our proposal and arpa funds were awarded to support the pwcs heels initiative who are the people behind this initiative we have several employees that make up our pwcs heels team here centrally and then several many school-based employees we have a supervisor of Social and emotional learning administrative coordinators school counselor on special assignment social and emotional learning coaches healing sound engagement Specialists and support core counselors while some of these employee salaries are paid for through our local funds the majority of these positions and the services of the pwcs heals initiative have been funded through the Prince William County School's American Rescue plan funds this evening I would
090like to take a moment to recognize a few staff members who are are here with me we have Miss Heather wines our supervisor of Social and emotional learning Mr Corey Eaton former pwcs heels administrative coordinator and newly appointed director of School counseling at Freedom High School and Miss Shannon deisa our school counselor on special assignment who oversees the support Corp program thank you all for coming this evening the task the pwcs heels initiative brings School Division school and division support resources together to wrap around all employees and students there is much evidence-based research available to support the school division's work in this area but let's keep it simple this evening in order to make our students well we have to make the adults well first period we started this work by listening to staff assessing
091their needs and offering purposeful activities designed to support their Wellness with a focus on social and emotional learning of adults and then students and accelerating student social and emotional growth we believe that true healing can begin to occur by deploying trauma-formed and healing strategies we have begun the work to address the collective and individual trauma of the past few years adult social and emotional learning has been focused on enhancing the knowledge of Social and emotional learning as well as skills and mindsets for adults the Career College and student support department collaborated with with our wonderful team in the employee benefits Department to focus efforts on adult holistic well well-being burnout prevention and workplace balance and ways for all of our division staff to increase self-efficacy I want to also acknowledge our R Rich partnership with
092Kaiser Permanente and healthier generations to focus on this work Prince William County schools is beginning the work of laying the foundation to embed Virginia Department of educ ation five main components of Social and emotional learning into our students experiences our strategic plan has lofty goals in this area which bolster our Focus you will hear often about these five components which are social awareness relationship skills self-management self-awareness and responsible decision-making in early 2022 VD V doe released their framework for social and emotional learning for students that also included standards that descri skills that each student within each grade level should acquire these standards are also in alignment with Virginia's profile of a Virginia graduate now I want to share some information about the people behind this initiative social and emotional learning coaches some of you all
093may have heard this term from some of our wonderful staff members who come to speak at sport at our Schoolboard meetings we have 350 seal coaches who are current school-based employees that include a variety of dedicated staff members such as teachers school counselors Librarians and even instructional technology coaches each School in the school division has between two and seven assigned coaches 30 central office seal coaches have been appointed to support 16 central office departments trained centrally to deliver Wellness Resources knowledge and tools to utilize with all of our staff and students these staff members have become such an important part of this initiative further our social and emotional learning coaches focused on creating a systemic approach for implementation of Wellness activities work to create a common understanding of seal amongst the adults clarified thatal is
094not just emotional regulation but also includes the teaching of relationship skills and decision-making skills and focused on creating environments in which adults can offer their best selves and model seal by providing opportunities for re-energizing learning about burnout prevention and creating collaborative and supportive relationships finally our social and emotional learning coaches participated in a myriad of professional development sessions 204 of our coaches representing 91 schools participated in the three-part training series filling your cup to increase knowledge on the burnout cycle 104 coaches representing 47 schools participated in a me moments Workshop that focused on tools for adults and students to enhance skills on self-regulation and managing emotions 68% ofal teams indicated having regular opportunities to deliver seal related trainings to their peers within their schools and 87% ofal coaches indicated that the trainings enhanced their knowledge
095and ability to supportal here you see some of our hardworking staff members taking time to focus on their own well-being during the 2122 school year as a result of the covid-19 pandemic our need to increase School engagement offer mental health support and create environments which are responsive to trauma became even more evident the Norms of attending school that we took for granted had to be re R taught at the start of the 2122 school year we recognize that for some of our students the pandemic also brought about increased stress anxiety and deficits to social skills as well as new or more acute trauma the employees that are best suited to address the unfinished social and emotional growth of our students are sitting in our schools every single day we are blessed to have approximately 500
096school-based mental health professionals serving our students beginning in March 2022 50 of these professionals stepped up to use their skills to offer more intense support for students in need we call this group the pwcs support core 84 students were serviced between March and may of 2022 we work with the student and the family unit outside of the normal school day in a non-clinical manner to increase School engagement and enhance social and emotional skills over 800 direct service hours were provided and this summer over 1,000 phone calls were made during the month of July to students and parents and Guardians who needed further support to re-engage with Prince William County schools the final area of focus in our pwcs heals initiative is trauma informed care and healing engagement strategies prior to the pandemic we had trained
097over 4,000 of our teachers in the basic concepts of adverse childhood experiences or Aces we know that when adults understand the impacts of these adverse experiences on Child Development we are better positioned to meet meet each unique student's needs when the pandemic occurred we quickly saw that we had a large percent of our student population experiencing an unanticipated adverse childhood experience that we in the school-based mental health field never expected and short we never planned for this as we return to inperson learning we recognize that our teachers and other student and support staff members would face situations for which they may not have the tools in their toolbox to address to meet this need we turned our Focus to filling those toolboxes with the right tools we knew that we need to move from a
098stance of what happened to you to what's right with you to create a positive environment of thriving for our students and staff the next group of employees I would like to highlight is our healing serent engagement Specialists once again we had 80 school-based mental health professionals step forward to learn and to serve assigned to support schools with developing plans to increase positive School culture and climate these employees are making a difference we created a training that over 4,500 of our teachers engaged in surrounding trauma informed care and healing practices this training received a four out of five rating and 82% of teachers participating indicated that the training would positively impact their classroom practices we created and provided gratitude to over 700 bus drivers bus attendant and bus mechanics prior to the start of their mornings
099and mind you this was at 4:30 a.m. provided over 250 Central staff members with Wellness at work information and 18 of our Specialists are now dedicated to work with our colleagues in the student management and alternative programs Department to provide direct individualized support for students who have been involved with the discipline process as I have stated throughout this presentation equipping staff with the right tools to meet student needs was at the Forefront of much of the work we conducted during the 2122 school year we have several education options for staff members and students to help all of us better understand positive mental health and the need to pay attention when we see something wrong 30 of our pwcs professionals are trained to teach a course called youth Mental Health First Aid full day youth Mental
100Health First Aid sessions are offered at least at least once per month throughout the school year over 4,000 staff members trained on trauma informed care and the importance of understanding adverse childhood experiences over 15 50 staff members have participated in a self-paced course on managing stress and res resiliency and finally our signs of suicide lesson delivered by trained mental health professionals was sent was delivered to 19,943 school year in 2020 we launched our first division-wide parent emotional needs assessment we learned that the parents and Guardians were ready to share important information about students that may not have been collected in any other manner we built upon that foundation in 2021 and began assessing the needs of students from both the parent guardian and student lens the results have allowed our school-based mental health professionals to
101launch targeted support to the students with the most need we are pleased that this short emotional needs assessment has now become the way we do business in pwcs for the 2122 school year we had 6,500 parent Guardians participate in the student needs assessment over 53,000 of our students in grades 3 to 12 participated in the student social and emotional needs assessment and our social workers were able to immediately reach out and offer basic need support to 874 families so far in the 2223 school year we have already heard from over 2,300 parents and Guardians as part of our survey to date almost 50,000 of our students in grades 3 to 12 have responded to the students social and emotional needs assessment as I mentioned early in this presentation we know that we cannot do this
102work alone we need the support of our community of our parents and Guardians and essential business partners to that end we have built strong collaborative Partnerships with several national and local businesses and organizations through these relationships pwcs is able to gain access to research-based strategies and resources from leaders in the field of adult and student wellness and social and emotional learning some highlights from our partnership are Kaiser Permanente provided eight virtual workshops geared towards physical and emotional health for our division staff and four specialized virtual workshops for our bus drivers bus attendance and custodial staff Kaiser Permanente is engaging in a monthly dig know visuals to promotee adult wellness and provide monthly virtual workshops healthier Generations partnered with seal coaches to conduct a thriving schools integrated assessment within each of our schools healthy gener healthier
103Generations also provided 12 workshops to oural coaches with over 300 participants and will continue to provide training workshops our seal supervisor who's here with us this evening Miss Heather wines was selected to participate in the fellows Academy to gain further knowledge and insight into research-based seal practices and Miss wines was also invited recently to be a panelist for the change for good forum led by the healthy schools campaign that was attended by over 400 participants from across the country including representatives from the US Department of Education and the US surgeon general's office we continue to partner with our um with spark to enhance our local Partnerships that benefit the health and well-being of our students and staff in closing I want each of you to know that our work is not done our goals for
104our second year of this initiative are specifically aligned with the launching thriving future strategic plan and specifically set to address commitment 2.1 and 2.2 that focus on positive climate and culture for our social and emotional learning programming we will have ongoing and continued training around promoting social emotional learning specifically to our students continuation of supporting well-being practices for staff and increasing knowledge of the vdoe standards in trauma informed care and healing engagement programming we will have a second series of teacher training and we will be teaching staff about universal precautions and Trauma informed C practices in our classrooms our support Corp will expand services to additional schools and we will also focus on Improvement of attendance and Dropout interventions thank you for your time this evening to talk about the pwcs heels initiative as a
105leader I see such promise in focusing on the mental health and well-being of our community I want to give a special recognition to our associate superintendent Mrs heer who's here with us this evening and to Dr McDade both of these people believed in my team and I and placed faith in our vision because of this we will continue to make each day better for all the Prince William County schools students and staff members thank you very much Mr chairman that concludes um my report and um if there are any questions from the board related to the pwcs heels um initiative I know that uh Denise and miss hner and her her team are ready to take any questions that you might have Miss Williams thank you I don't have um at least right now I
106don't have any questions what I will say as someone who has followed this topic for several years and was here under the previous administration I I don't have enough arms and fingers to applaud you and going from a siloed voluntary approach to a division wide inclusive um systematic approach that starts with our adults who are students and our young people look to to model good behavior um how to handle themselves in in schools I I am just so appreciative and really overwhelmed and taken back in the best way positive by this presentation it is so well laid out it speaks to our strategic plan so thoroughly and I think for me going through the experiences that we have in the past two years and not having uh the opportunity to really explain to our public
107um by itself what social and emotional learning is to clear up some of the misinformation that's out there floating around um to provide this opportunity for our public to really understand and see what our program is about how it affects our staff and our students it's just an amazing opportunity um I am so grateful because I know that there are so many within our division that don't come from homes with parents or homes period or um have generational knowledge to pass some of these skills on to the young people so they can grow up and then model it for other young people I I'm just excited because this is a norm in the world um in Corporate America and so many nonprofits that our students will graduate and then H not have to relearn this
108type of culture they will already be prepared to Dive Right In And it show their skills and that is what some of our employers are looking for and to give them this Advanced start and to know through this program that they are cared for that they are respected um is something that I've been waiting for for a very long time and I know so many others have again I just can't tell you how thank you Dr McDade and to all of your team how much I appreciate that this is an inclusive program in our division and I don't mean inclusive just because it involves our staff and students but it's embedded in every aspect of our School Division and culture culture um and and finally I just want to I'm just overwhelmed but I'm I'm
109I'm excited that we're no longer siloing I can't wait to hear the updates for the remain of the year and I'll just stop there thank you so much for initiating this program and provided in this opportunity for the public to really understand what social and emotional learning looks like Miss Jesse sorry brother uh when Dr McDade came here uh I said said to her I want you to walk on water I don't know what you're doing I think you're swimming walking gliding you have a boat you have a yacht I I don't know I don't understand why you still look so good because I don't know when you sleep uh this this lady and this staff this School Division has been turned upside down and around and I just want to thank you guys for
110this uh we have some friends whose father died uh who have grandkids whose father died this year this year 37 years old and they're going to middle and so he said I don't know what I'm going to do and my only advice to him was that someone has to listen to The Silence listen to their silence uh these kids give us warnings the metal detectors are going to detect the metal but something happens before the metal hits the school and having people in the building to address not just the student needs but the adult needs and central office and staff because all of us have been traumatized I think my husband and I learning how to go out and eat dinner again it it's it's very interesting what this covid response has done but I
111think the good thing about this has been it has driven us to made us stop and think that everything is not all about ABCs learning ABCs and your numbers and all these things it's about knowing who you are and when I talked about Dr uh icor today I talked to a student when Jess and I were there and I talked to this young lady and she said uh I said what's going on I just you know kind of hanging out with her what's going on she said well I'm here because I got involved with the wrong group and my mother came to school and that wasn't good and then my mother was upset because she felt I'd been bullied but she said I'm glad I'm here because now I have a small group so the
112schools those specialized schools help us but most of our kids before they go to uh Dr iorn School the independent they give us signals and I think it's great that you guys have all these signals I want want to ask a question I'm not sure I understood there was so many staff positions that I could I just gave up trying to figure out how many are volunteers and how many are paid staff and the third question is where did you find these people you answer so miss Jesse I will let um director schlater talk about that and I think one of the things I would like to just emphasize is the majority of the work in the schools that is being done in the schools these are our employees they're the heart of our division
113um they are our mental health professionals and those are the people who know our children and are there on a day-to-day basis and those are the ones who are changing the culture I'm so I don't know if Dr or Mr Mrs schlater wants to answer enhance that so when we put out the call um to see if people were willing to step forward and do something different we were immediately amazed with how many people said yes without even knowing the details and I think it's important for everyone to understand that the heart is there with the teachers and the staff in the school division um we are funding these positions currently um with the American Rescue plan funds so uh these are supplemental pay positions right now um an hourly rate of pay but um
114again you'd be amazed at the number of people before we even said anything about pay that raise their hand um one one thing I just want to add and be clear about can you explain um Rebecca the fact that the school a lot of the school-based employees were existing employees and these weren't new FTE that were added but but these are Educators in the building that stepped up and willing to um go the extra mile and then then their pay is being supplemented by the ARA funds can you explain that just because it sounds like it's um you know 350 new and that's not the case right um we very quick when we started to plan for this initiative we could see that hiring new staff was not going to be an option so we
115went to our existing staff members so when you I talked about the different roles all of our seal coaches and healing s engagement Specialists are all current Prince William County employees who have stepped forward to do work outside of school hours and to be compensated for time outside of school hours to support this initiative and our support Corp counselors as well are another group that work only outside of school hours and are compensated for their time but they're existing employees and can you also I'm sorry one thing can you also add about um some of the I think it's important to note the support core that they do home visits and things like that yeah so our support core counselors um are you know trained school-based mental health professionals so we have uh people who
116are already highly skilled in um assessing for um any mental health concerns that may exist but we do try to be clear that it is non-clinical it is more mentoring in nature and yes as soon as as we could when we first started in this um we were still in masks and doing a lot of distancing and things like that in the minute that we could uh they started going into homes so they are now going into um homes working with parents and Guardians that is a really a big Focus for the support core counselors we want to work with the entire family unit so those staff members again working outside of school SCH hours nights weekends um working you know in person virtually we've got people meeting at libraries meeting in school cafeterias um
117to be able to offer these students some more targeted support so they stay engaged and they can be academically successful I just want to say that uh this is a program that was needed and I love the goals and objectives and is proactive instead of reactive and I the training I think is really important because you know you can tell people to counsel people but they don't know like you can go just talk to people but it's very precise and I don't know how you guys put the thing together in this short period of time but like Miss Williams I'm amazed and I'm just really pleased to see this program thank you very much Miss uh wall and then miss zapor thank you chairman La um thank you for this presentation I learned a lot
118about what we have going on um with pwcs heels um and I there was a lot that I didn't I didn't know and I didn't realize so I appreciate that um I have two questions my first question has to do with um parents and so my my question is for parents who may uh want to learn more about what um this program is or want to understand it more deeply um I know you mentioned that there are VOE standards on emot social and emotional learning so would is that something that can we find information can parents find information on our website where's the best way to go to where to go to find information and also is there a particular curriculum that we are following or is it mostly the vooe standards and then just
119like best practices within the counseling world I'm not really sure so if you can I can definitely answer about uh where parents can go for more information about social emotional learning so um the Virginia Department of Education standards are public information and they have an seal website set up we also have a Social and emotional learning website where we have linked all these valuable resources the brains behind our organization is Miss wines over there um as far as um specific curriculum we do not have a specific curriculum that we are deploying right now we are using the vdoe standards and we are uh working if you peruse the Strategic plan in your spare time you will see multiple goals about uh the work that we'll do over the next three years to really look at
120our existing curriculum and different subject areas and different grade levels and find where are the intersections where we can just be a little bit more intentional with things like relationship skills with things like decision making that's the work that lies ahead for us so those Video St videoe standards are really our guide and that is public information thank you very much um and my second question has to do with the it's on slide 16 um 18 specialist dedicated to work with um student management and alternative programs um and I know um I my question is I wonder is this um a guaranteed offer is this something that we say you don't get to you know we're going to provide you this support or do we do it as kind of an opin like it's available
121if you want it do you see what I'm saying do we like how how proactive are we in reaching out to children who have are going through our disciplinary process and providing a specialist to work directly with them even if they maybe don't think they need it or if they do need it so um this the the work of The Healing Center engagement Specialists that are working with our student Management program is in its infancy right now um so as far as protocols for who a person is going to you know be assigned to or or which student is going to be um you know asked to meet with one of these Specialists those are not finalized at this time so um you know when I when I think about the work you know we
122did have the funds last school year um we actually didn't start any of the work until about February so um that is still in the planning stages right now but we have identified the people and um my wonderful colleague Dara Dugger who uh leads that office is currently working with those employees to examine you know what is it that a student needs who has made a mistake and and what kind of support can we give them to learn from that and I'm just going to step in and and answer a little bit of that we do have dedicated staff that work through this mapped office and when we identify a particular need we connect those um the idea was actually born out of the collaboration between the two departments in the two offices um when
123we recognize the need we do look at Trends and data and um Implement you know some some rehealing and restorative practices and we did borrow some of our Healing Center engagement Specialists and then the light went on and we said aha this is something than we need on a regular basis so that we can provide more support to help our students um get back into what we want to be as a positive and thriving future thank you I appreciate that because you know going through that discipline process can be it can be life-changing for students if it's handled and approached in the right way you know can really turn them around and so I do appreciate um the efforts that are being made to help this particular cohort of students um thank you I don't
124have any further questions Miss zort uh thank thank you um this was an amazing presentation I I was uh uh very interested in everything you had to say I would like to just focus on one little part um and it said here on slide seven adult social and emotional learning it talks about holistic wellbeing burnout prevention and balance and self-efficacy and I'm assume you're talking about the adults who are working in our division um I happen to um just have read an article about burnout prevention in um early career teachers and and what that does are are we going to be moving to looking at burnout in our in our um employees this seems reactive not and that's not a criticism because we're just been through a pandemic but there's really there's a body of
125research that talks about you know the emotional toll uh that burnout can take on people and depending on where you are in your career how it can push people in one place or another so are we going to maybe be able to expand into a pro professional place where we're really looking at our teachers and what uh burnout would mean for them so we are working with our partners and human resources and Kaiser Permanente to really offer a preventative and proactive with wanting wanting our employees to take care of themselves our goal is to prevent that burnout as far as a research or a study I would have to you know defer to the human resources department on that but our goal is really to support the teachers to prevent that and help them recognize
126signs of how that they they can take care of themselves to there's yeah there's also um a body of work on um compassion fatigue which is you'll find with nurses um police fire doctors teachers um it's something I've I've uh keep bumping up against and um I I have an opportunity in my life now to do a little more research so this is one of the things I am interested in so thank you m uh Jackson thank you Dr R um just thank you for the presentation and for saying this evening to give it it's was very informative um because we have to see the whole child in order to access the standards um I kind of equate seal tools to like the snacks that a student a teacher would keep in their classrooms because
127to see the feed the whole child and you in order to teach them um I just I had a question about the standards which you answered and then I went to the website and there the vdoe is list is hyperlink on the um pwcs edu so that was helpful so thank you and then the last one is like from a parental perspective the um I think it was the social emotional needs assessment can you please just detail the relationship um between parents and the students in the social emotional needs assessment and like like when it's given or with you when would you allow a parent like you know just so um thank you for that question so the parent Guardian needs assessment is launched at the start of each school year um that is sent
128to All parents um via email and our wonderful Communications team also puts out um information about it on social media so that they can uh provide us with input uh the student social and emotional needs assessment is conducted throughout the month of September um and that is for grades three to 12 uh parents are given Advanced um information about that needs assessment and we place a preview on the website for them to view before the needs assessment is conducted it is quite short um when you think about third grader and asking them about you know how they're feeling and if they're happy or if they're sad you know we really are focused on very short concise questions that allow us to render Aid if we see that aid needs to be rendered so parent Guardian
129started the school year every year um and the student social emotional needs assessment throughout the month of September could I just clarify if um would you notify the parent or Guardian if there was a red flag or just to clarify that that is something that I I was stepping forward that we use the assessment and the student information to connect with parents to form a plan respecting parents rights and knowledge that they need that they primary person who takes the wellness and and the care for their child so we always do include parents in that process I thank you mind reader thank you m Williams thank you I just wanted to provide some really instant feedback on that my household we took the survey at the beginning of last year I noticed some um things
130that made me concerned about my elementary school student um who was virtual not only did I receive feedback from the virtual school um staff because I was able to communicate with them that my student was having some issues but his Bay School the guidance counselor the social worker and myself were able to develop a plan where he his needs were serviced from the school directly which I think is an important thing to note because so many of our families whether you have health insurance are not Mental Health Services not only they hard to find but sometimes um are not covered well um through health insurance plans so my household we were fortunate to be able to go seek mental health outside of the school facility but it was comforting to me as a parent to
131know that his needs were being met within the school day resources were provided for me as a parent so that I could continue my education on his issues and learn and support him as a parent and then also directed to places where I could receive outside um assistance as well so I just wanted to kind of explain to some parents we it it was very simple like filled the survey out within I think a week I had a social worker reaching out to me is this accurate how can we you know schedule some time to talk and discuss some issues and how can we make a plan to best help your student um in my case we continued on and my child is in a much better place social emotionally because of the start of
132that program because it was nice to be enveloped around him in our home environment in our school environment and then outside in the community so I think that's a really good example of just I think it took me maybe three minutes to fill out the survey um and the response was quick and a plan was put into place so I thought that might provide some further feedback from Miss Jackson's question and also to the public of how simple and easy it works and how involved a parent or a guardian is in this process um and just a reminder we inundate parents with information I know a lot of parents are like oh my goodness another email but these are things that come through on emails and and um it's important to to check as often
133as you can thank you so I appreciate that Miss Williams I do want to emphasize it is about the partnership with the family and the parents and the information that has been shared with us has really given our teams and our school teams the opportunity to connect with parents that's the goal well it this has been a terrific presentation um on a on a artistic note uh Miss wall and I enjoy the slides the background of the slides fantastic whoever did that good good thematic approach there um you know Plato said that all learning has an emotional base that was 2,000 years ago right um it's like it's we're still talking about it I mean it is so important the work you're doing you know as um it's the right thing to do it's the
134kind of work that we need to do to make sure you know we we're not just a place for 990,000 students but we're 15,000 uh employees of some sort part-time or full-time and um this is the kind of work that we want to do do as you pointed out well is uh create a positive culture in climate and God knows you know after the pandemic the seal uh you know our frustrations anger bitterness whatever you may call it U Mine is well documented um but the um the you know we all need this and and it's it's really good and and and and so it's the right thing to do but so so one question I had just real quickly slide 18 so we have the needs assessments do do we have a tool to
135assess whether what we did worked or helped or um do we do we have a way to follow up you know and I don't know if that's just a counter one-on-one thing or if it's something that we do regularly so we absolutely um do have tools to be able to follow up Ian that looks very different depending on the situation but our school counselors are very used to doing uh what we call a pre in a post test and it looks different with an individual or a group or a classroom but to say okay what did you know when we started how did you feel when we started and and asking those same questions again after we uh put forward the intervention so that's yes that is a a tool of the trade for us
136as school counselors that we always try to see we want to answer that question how is this student different because of my work with them yeah and that is our focus in every interaction and um the school counselors in this school division are some of the most amazing people that I have seen work with students especially in this past year and so again they're they're they're assessing they're looking at that data we also um have really work to integrate some questions in our division wide survey um to be able to assess some of those um you know how are we growing how are we changing how are we feeling about our positive climate culture as well so I think that those are some good examples well I mean I think your your sentence there um
137of what the councelor does how our work has changed the person the student I mean that's what every teacher and all of us and the school division is trying to do every day and so I think you just nailed it I mean you in a nice way encapsulated everything we're trying to do here all of us and and your work really does uh you know really align with our strategic plan you know and so I said this is the right thing to do so that's great but also as you look at at Corporate America or you look at the free market the free market has said we look at companies and organizations ESG their environment their social and their governance and you know as with our sustainability plan we were recognized for that you know
138um triaa Bond ratings are given out you know the rating agencies are looking at all these things now that they've added to how they look at a company you know what kind of culture and climate do they have there what is their social what is their governance uh what is the kind of things they're doing for the employees and you know we were recognized by Forbes for being the best school division to work for in the Commonwealth and I think this will just continue to build on that work that we've already done miss hner you know kudos to you for carrying us through a lot of the pandemic and now you're you know you're you're still hanging around and and and and and and doing this work this worked nicely and I'm very happy you
139know I mean it's it it really is a you know as as you go to slide um the one where we talk about how it lines up with this strategic plan you know that is the guide for the work we're doing and and and it's really it lines up nicely and I think we'll get to our goals by doing this work together we really appreciate it m Dr McDade you weren't here but Jen ju and I love the slides we love the Thematic approach here with the space so you know outstanding work team um thank you very much we really appreciate it Dr McDade turn it back over to you um I want to thank uh uh Denise hner as well as Rebecca Slater and her entire team when I first came on board uh
140Rebecca was one of the first um employees to come and talk to me about um the work that needed to happen and she was so incredibly passionate and you know really made sure that I understood you know what was at hand and what we needed to do about it and um I was fully on board as soon as I heard about the plans and the initiative and so I want to thank you for even educating me on a lot of things and ways that we can be creative and Innovative in our practices and our approach and um you and your team have been able to accomplish things that you know many probably thought was impossible um but you did do it and it also is a testament to our um staff and Educators in our
141buildings and their willingness to step up and go above and beyond in service to our students and to our families so thank you so much and awesome appr um presentation this evening that concludes um our my report Mr chairman thank you Dr McDade excellent report and we are now moving on to board matters I think think uh where did we start last time you which side do you want me to start on okay so we'll go Miss Jesse uh okay thank you well I had two site visits and one big activity that I'd like to talk about uh Justin wils and I went to Independence and we realized that we we probably negligent as a board and not just me and him going to that school and so we were patting ourselves on the back
142well at least we're here and then I had I said who has been to the detention center and I realized I've been here all this time I've never been to the detention center and those are our kids too and so we went to the detention center and I know he has some thoughts about it but I don't know it was just I I don't know how to describe it because there was just something happened when I walked into that facility with the large doors that bang and the small beds that hung out from the side and uh these kids that probably if they had gotten some social and emotional support would not be there and so I just want I want to thank Rita Gods who tried to repair us she said first of all
143you can't go in with anything you can't take your keys you can't I thought oh my God we're going to be in there by ourselves without our keys and everything but I want to thank you for providing that support the other thing I think I have a slide for Fanny Fitzgerald for the courageous four okay so uh Yolanda green and the historian uh historic commission have put up this historic marker for the corageous four the courageous Four Women Fanny Fitzgerald Zella Brown uh Maxine Coleman and Mrs Porter Lillian Porter these were four women that were sent to a school overnight to integrate the school system uh I was a speaker because many people think that I named Fanny Fitzgerald and that I was the the person behind it but I was not the person it
144was really Denise mcf who I think you met her with kpac she sent out a list she sent out to several of us and said who would like to help with this name and I sent back my name I said I would because I knew Fanny what I didn't know was that Mr Saunders herb Saunders selected these four women and said overnight rather than integrating our schools with students they integrated with these women overnight he sent them and that the new thing that I've come to realize after all of these years to be honest with you was that I stand on the shoulders of Fanny Fitzgerald because when Fanny Fitzgerald decided she no longer want to be at Central which is where he placed her next he replaced her with me and I didn't realize
145that until about two or three years ago I said oh my God because honestly he picked people and he picked me to be a supervisor of title one without knowing me and without an you and I'm saying that to say that sometimes you open doors for people and this happens and I also want to say that in fourth grade I also uh had the opportunity to talk about Virginia history it never occurred to me that during the massive resistance although I read about it and I scanned over it I didn't realize that in Prince Edwards County that these students were not allowed to go to African-American students were kept out of schools for five years so if you imagine that by the time you hit first grade you were 11 they were grants given to
146the students that were um who were uh white kids and medle class kids the other thing that I did not realize Justin decided that and they wanted to rename Godwin as it turns out Mr Godwin was part of the massive resistance so we supported that as a School Division and my thoughts were why would you put the name of a person who kept kids out of school for five years on a building so I know my husband Mr Jesse by the way I never know what Mr Jesse is going to say I never do I don't want to know but he made a point that in africanamerican history we don't know our history and Fanny Fitzgerald I will say this she and I were very close her family and I were very close they thought
147they they just every year I got a Christmas present from her saying thank you but at the end of the day she when I called her and said what we going to do she said how I I didn't think anybody cared her last statement to me was this and she had lost a memory she forgot I had anything to do with it I will I will close with this and she said the following she came back to my car CU I took her to lunch and she said did you know they named a school after me so she lost everything but she remembered that she didn't remember me but she remembered that that school was named after so what you guys did tonight for Bob iorn I want to thank you because he's going to
148be alive and he will see and it mean will mean a lot to him thank you and I know I'm over time thank you Miss Williams thank you Miss Jackson um so I would like to officially welcome chance even though he's gone and I'm so excited to hear from um our public speakers this evening during public comment time that he was at robotics I love Robotics and I now have a robotics child again so go robotics um and it was very nice to hear him speak so eloquently um and explain explain to students and listing public more about our CIP and the security efforts that we have in our schools um and to speak to the African-American history elective um as Miss Jesse was just speaking about um you know it it should be embedded
149in history period um there were Africans here before the SL the at Atlantic slave trade commenced um and I think you know American history is just that it's American history um and I think it's important that it it is done inclusively and I know there are conversations at the state level to make that um an AP level class that was counted for credit not just an elective but part of our curriculum and I would love to hear more um about that from the state level uh in in the future I just also um want to congratulate U well moving on excuse me congratulate um the principal of Freedom High School as well as the principal of Fred lint on the first because they are new principles they first back to school nights um they were
150both very successful events and I don't think I've ever seen anyone give a 30 minute very wellth thought out concise welcome and greeting and information to parents in both English and Spanish and um have them off and running to their students classes on time that was just amazing congratulations Mr Romero on doing that um Freedom High School had a wonderful display of Community Resources as well as activities um in the school for parents and students to participate in and then the evening um ensued into a football game which I was not able to attend but it was nice um to see all that school spirit um I'm excited to be able to attend the vsba legislative conference later this week um and I want to uh formally apologize for events that I had RSVP to
151but would not was not able to attend due to a death in the family um so I'll provide updates about the and Social Justice Commission meeting that occurred last week um I am sorry to have missed Afghan day because I did RSVP and as Miss Jesse uh so politely uh showed us the courageous forward dedication marker I will continue to advocate for a meeting for joint board uh meeting between this board and the board of County Supervisors so that we can explain to the public where one board meets the other and how um our protocols and operating procedures work independently and collaboratively for the betterment of our community um I also would encourage the division to possibly reintroduce parents to information on what to do during emergency procedures um because I think that's something that
152we can always highlight for our parents um do because anything can happen during the day and I think it's good for all of us to know what we should and should not do and I just want to spend um my last two seconds of overtime thaning Dr McDade again for the Prince William heels program and aligning it not only to what's going on in our our society and schools division but to VOE standards um because I think often parents think that sometimes we just do things here in Prince William will andilly but everything we do is aligned to our strategic plan and to the state standard so thank you Miss wall thank you Miss Jackson um I to start out I thoroughly enjoyed Gainesville High School's first ever home of far City football game on
153September 9th um it was against Battlefield um and it was a ton of fun um there was an awesome crowd there that night from both the home team and the visiting team and I have to say it's just so great to see this school take flight um I've attended back to school nights at bu Run Middle and Reagan Middle so far as well as Battlefield which I spoke about before um due to a scheduling conflict I was not able to make it to Unity Braxton but I am looking for an opportunity to come out to the school and visit with the folks there I really value the opportunity to visit with family students and teachers and so these back to school nights are a great opportunity for me to accomplish my goals of student achievement
154um parent involvement safe and welcoming schools and opportunities for all so I appreciate um the opportunity to visit with families I'm looking forward to getting out to the elementary schools coming up um this week starting we next week starting with Alvi and Gravely and then Mountain View the following week and Sudley Tyler Sinclair and Mullen in the weeks to come after that um next week I will be attending professional development to better understand tidle 9 um I feel that it's important that I gain a greater understanding of our division's policies and their enforcement and it's my belief that prevention and thorough investigations are the best way to manage risk and Foster a safe and healthy school environment for all of our students this past weekend um I held office hours on Saturday with Miss Jackson
155of the brunville district and we had a productive conversation with a number of parents and I appreciate hearing their concerns and comments and in particular I feel like it is important to encourage dialogue especially on sensitive issues so thank you to those who came out to meet with us I am looking forward to the colan classic which is a marching band event because I am a former band parent I guess once you're a band parent you're always a band parent um I love to cheer the students who spend so much time and effort on putting together a great show and I know sometimes you know during halftime they're performing and the crowd is not paying attention so I would encourage everybody to pause and and give these um these these student performers their due and
156give them the respect that they need as they put on an amazing show for you at halftime um some of you may know um I serve on safe schools advisory Council we meet monthly we had our first meeting of the year um Safety and Security is one of my top priorities and I know it's a top priority of the superintendent as well um I take very seriously um the comments that were shared tonight from the community um about their concerns for the safety of their students I appreciate the difficulty it is to get in here and speak um honestly and authentically about concerns like that and I just want you to know that you know I'm listening we're listening we are trying to do everything that we can with the resources that we have and
157it's very very important to us um of note to the larger Community um the the County's comp plan is under review and up for a vote on October 11th and um I want to mention that I'm collaborating with brunville District to schedule a listening session at brunville high school for next Tuesday evening the 27th regarding the comp plan 20 40 I encourage the public to become informed about this because um what is in the comp plan will impact our schools and our neighborhoods the capacity of our schools and um all kinds of aspects of our schools and so um you know there has been um uh some interest but I still feel like people are underinsured policies um for transgender students with 20 22 Model policies that support positive and safe learning environments for all
158students while respecting the rights and values of parents and I applaud the effort to protect and encourage respect for all students and I agree we have responsibility to address the treatment of transgender students with necessary compassion and respect um uh there is a public comment on those draft model policies people might not be aware of that but the comment period opens on September 26th and more information can be found on the VOE website um specifically the Virginia regul Town Hall website so the public can and can enroll um can sign up and make comments on on those policies um to close I will leave you with a few thoughts for the American from the American essayist Ralph wallo Emerson um and these are these appertain to the beginning of the school year enthusiasm is one
159of the most powerful engines of success when you do a thing do it with all your might put your whole soul into it stamp it with your own personality be active be energetic be enthusiastic and faithful and you will com accomplish your object nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm so I would say to all at the start of this year let's keep going let's lean into learning let's be enthusiastic and let's celebrate our strengths and work hard to accomplish our goals and with that to all a good night Miss araport thank you Dr Latif I I miss our little eye of SAR and time keeping thing so give me the evil eye please all right it's yes but it's not the eye so so um so uh I want to reiterate again uh to
160Cole's Elementary School congratulations on your Blue Ribbon award um my quote won't be as nearly as poetic as um Miss walls but if you go to the National Blue Ribbon schools. ed.gov site there is a quote and I think this is something very important for everyone to know quote the award is both a high aspiration and a potent resource of practitioner knowledge um want everyone to understand how um how much goes into uh preparing your kids for everything they do from the parents in the community to the teachers to the principals and and all the people who are working with our children they are part of earning this award uh families and Educators work together educational leaders hold high standards for both teaching and learning so congratulations again um my back to school nights have
161been primarily in the middle schools I had an opportunity to go out to um Saunders and I was thrilled to hear about how many of our students are coming back into our instrumental programs but I do understand and I've already addressed this with in an email to the superintendent's office that we are experiencing so many kids interested in in these programs that um they're having trouble finding instruments so I hope we can solve that problem um Benton Middle School had their sixth grade night and one of the things that thrilled me that night was in speaking with some of the students their favorite class was drum roll please math no math I know right I I was thrilled it was great to hear that um Parkside middle school I went earlier this week they have
162the Cambridge and the world languages program and I think it's really um nice to hear about how uh these students can earn up to four high school credits before they leave Middle School uh Cambridge is a is more a um an approach to teaching I think approach to teaching and learning more than a system of particular classes and I know their staff is getting some professional development on that so I'm excited to hear what they learned from it I had an opportunity to go to Afghan day my husband is from Afghan originally so I got to uh hang out with all my Afghan friends as Salam all right um and I got to go to the Bennett P Community PTO event last Friday which was fantastic there were so I I think everybody came it
163looked like everybody came but I want to uh recognize Mr Oliver who drives one of the buses all of the kids absolutely love you the parents love you great job keep it up um last thing I want to mention is I'm looking forward to the other back to school nights that will will be coming um unfortunately so many of the elementary schools are all on one night so I hope to get out to other events at the elementary schools and with 12 seconds left I give it over to Mr Mr wi Mr will uh thank you uh first Dr ltif two good meetings you've run I don't give a lot of compliments to you always but I think these have been very good meetings um over the past two weeks um I made Miss Jesse's
164mention this school visits to Independence non traditional the County juvenile Attention Center and then I went to Montclair Elementary School uh last Friday uh ran into our Deputy superintendent um tended back to school nights and all three of our middle schools my middle schools pic middle patomic Shores and grah park I also attended another Forest Park varsity football game last Friday and last night at girls varsity volleyball game at bomic high school prior to the pandemic I used to host monthly office hours at the Panera off of 234 on Fortuna plaz and dumre this weekend I will be hosting my first hours in Southbridge for the families of Eagle Point Southbridge bomic Shores Mary Williams and Swans Creek families as of 9:00 p.m. all sessions are booked um but I will be doing sessions and
165scheduling for October and November a couple things briefly want to talk and reemphasize with safety and rigor I continually have expressed my support for school resource officers unfortunately our police department does not have the number of officers to provide sro's in every building as a result I want to reemphasize this again we as the division and school board have added additional security specialist to our secondary buildings and are in the process of bringing 60 new Specialists to our elementary schools last year uh when I petitioned about having more opportunities for parents uh to become more engaged in their schools at the high school um and the elementary level um I was told that there'd be opportunities for them to be more involved when it came to things like monitoring calls or expansion of uh Watchdog
166programs in our elementary schools I look forward to hearing about how those are going in my pic schools um I remain committed to the enforcement of code of behavior and I support our Administration uh in removing those who bring weapons and do harm to other students and staff in our buildings uh and finally I support the exploration of other methods of preventing weapons from entering our schools finally uh in the past under previous administration there was an emphasis at schools of not assigning homework as a parent of two elementary students in our County I would like to see a re-emphasized focus I'm speaking for myself here on helping students develop and acquire fundamental skills our teachers are doing phenomenal work but we need to support them and look to update our current homework policies to
167reinforce key Concepts and rigor with core skills like spelling Reading Writing and grammar all across our schools uh with that good night thank you Miss Jackson thank you um I'm going to start by um thanking and recognizing my two nominees one from from the superintendent advisory Council on sustainability and the other one from Equity the first uh nominee for sustainability is hura tanoli um Miss tanoli is the president of the Eco and the 12th grade A patriot she's committed to science and sustainability as evidence bio advocacy and enrollment and um AP classes uh she wanted me to make sure that I um emphasiz that her family is from Pakistan and they've been struck um with horrific flooding and that has left 33 million people dis place that scientists have found the root of these floods
168were due to climate change that she's always been passionate about the environmental issues in this crisis has hit home she wants to make a difference she wants to have the power to make sure that she's doing something so that her home is now safe and sustainable by being part of this Council and she knows she's having her voice heard and taking action for a better environment I'd also like to thank um Miss Natalie go godo um who is both a parent and apparently a on in the brenfield district at Alice Elementary she had worked many jobs in the school system and is very familiar um with our schools as a parent she's committed to ensuring that students and families can access our school system to apply her knowledge and experience to the council and I'm
169grateful for both of their services I received positive feedback on the board newsletter so thank you both um the intent of the the newsletter is to keep um the community updated with local magisterial updates and what board members are doing um so I would advise if people continue to monitor the website for um agenda to topics because we have to tone in the Articles early collective bargaining FAQs have been updated and um I appreciate that whoever updated it um Miss wall and I will continue to hold the office hours that she talked about and um we are planning to arrange a listening session in collaboration with the planning commissioner to bring awareness the up upcoming changes to the comp plan I encourage all to do research and remember that land use is not within the
170purview of the school board but we um do want to talk about the impact on the schools so I would check our social media for more details uh today I'm wearing a green ribbon um in support of mitochondrial disease Awareness Week um and for a child who is important to me it is a global event that brings awareness to this long-term genetic disorder where M condriac fails to produce enough energy for the body every 30 minutes a child is born who would develop mitochondrial disease by the age of 10 and much like every many other child diseases like U pediatric cancer it is understudied and underfunded I also enjoyed the Gainesville High School first varsity football game and it's amazing school spirit go Cardinals I continue to appreciate the resolutions that are listed under the
171conent agenda where we embrace all students including their backgrounds including this month which is Hispanic Heritage Month um do everybody have a great evening love and respect to all you all and have a good night thank you Miss Jackson um well that nears the conclusion of our um second meeting of the year right second outstanding all right thank you Mr wil for the comments on the the meeting I will not assign you any homework this evening um we will um couple things we have a college fair happening September 24th at Garfield High School it's the Mid-Atlantic IB World schools but it's open to um the public and they got special topics on financial aid scholarship search process applying to schools outside the US Community College benefits and opportunities and HBCU experience and opportunities so that
172is this Saturday Garfield High School 12:30 to 3 um I think in their new gymnasium so please attend that and to our seniors make sure you're um meeting with your counselors and families meeting with your counselors transcript should be available to go out soon um to your colleges um apply early many universities have rolling admissions that means your chances of getting in are better the sooner your application gets in um many universities don't have them but there are few that do have them um and I think VCU is one of them and and we have uh maybe Mason here as well um exciting uh beginning of the school year I congratulate superintendent all the staff um so far it's been a terrific beginning of the school year you know students are excited to be back
173uh we're back to the most normal we've been in many years um we got football games going on homecomings are coming up this week you know make sure parents you're going to back to school nights please stay engaged remember the proverb I said earlier by the ancient Chinese proverb said teachers open doors and God knows our teachers are opening doors every day all across this great School Division um but it takes a student to walk through those doors and everyone to help him walk through those doors him or her and it's really critical that we we do everything we can every day to help those kids get through those doors um and and so engaging with your teacher back to school nights um College fairs you know checking your emails making sure we're we're you
174know we we're we're trying to offer as much as we can here at the school division for for parents to stay involved and be involved it is absolutely critical you know studies continue to show you know parental involvement um you know students who participate in extracurricular activities all of these things increase Student Success um and and and if you're asking the most important question every day and that's what really matters most what really matters most is what we do for the children here in the school Division and that's the work that I really feel like we we've done a good job on over the last couple years and I'm really committed to doing our strategic plan is committed to doing that Dr McDade is committed to doing that all the staff you have here in
175this building all of our parents we're really committed so every day you know I wake up thinking about what really matters most and it's the kids it's the kids and the effort we do what we can do for them to make them succeed and achieve all that they want to achieve thank you all have a wonderful evening and enjoy the rest of the week [Music]