001i would like to call this meeting of the prince william county school board to order due to the state of emergency called by governor northam in response to the hurricane ida related storms anticipated this evening this meeting is being partially conducted through electronic means is authorized by virginia code 2.23708.283 board members presenters and those members of the public who were signed up to speak during the 30-minute citizen comment period who cannot present be present due to storms will participate electronically a motion is in order for the approval of the closed session agenda mr reporter uh i move that the prince william county school board approved the close-ended closed session agenda as recommended do you have a second mr chairman mrs williams second any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse
002votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes um yeah sorry let me join the meeting here yes okay moving on to the motion to enter closed session emotions in order mr chairman mrs argaport i move that pursuant to the virginia code sections 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 the prince william county school board enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss and consult with legal counsel regarding requests for religious exemptions pertaining to specific students in virginia code section 2.2-3711a 2 and 8 2. to receive information from the ombudsman relating to the performance of specific employees under virginia code section 2.2-3711a one three to to discuss with division council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students under virginia code section 2.2-3711 7 and 8
003and 4 to consult with legal counsel and staff regarding the acquisition of real property for school sites where discussion in an open meeting would adversely affect the bargaining position or negotiating strategy of the school board under virginia code section 2.2-3711a 3 and 8. do i have a second mr chairman miss williams a second any discussion okay please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes miss rossenvocias the prince william county school board will now enter closed session and return to open session in approximately one hour the prince william county school board is now returning to open session from closed session moving on to the closed session certification a motion is in order mrs argopour mr chairman i move that pursuant to the virginia code
004section 2.2-3712 the closed session of the prince william county school board meeting of september 1st 2021 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be it resolved at the prince william county school board here by certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge one only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements were discussed in the closed meeting to which this 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 by the school board do you have a second a second mr chairman mrs williams any discussion please vote um mr stevens folks can i see the members on the screen at home miss jesse how do you vote yes i think she's on they said she's
005on miss jesse how do you vote yes thumbs up yes i can't hear you my my mic is on okay thank you jason she's having some issues with her sound she looks like she's unmuted miss ralston how do you vote yes miss ralston thumbs up vote yes yes oh good we can hear miss ralston i still don't hear miss jesse what's the count so the vote is seven yes one not president vote williams motion passed okay um moving on to closed session action items a motion is in order mr chairman mr reporter i move that the prince william county school board exempt the students in cases re21-1 through re21-9 from compulsory school attendance under section 20 22.1-254-b 1 of the code of virginia in 1950 as amended with the provision that the school board retains
006its right to again review the request at a time when the children are of sufficient age to consider their beliefs separate from and in conjunction with the beliefs of their parents do i have a second second second miss miss jesse seconds of motion any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed moving on to 9.02 emotions in order mr chairman i move that the prince william county school board authorized legal counsel and staff to initiate quick take condemnation proceedings for the acquisition of one for one four eight six acre point one four eight six acres owned by niramay virginia llc located at one three nine seven zero jefferson davis highway
007two 2.794 acres owned by morumsko neighborhoods llc located at 13956 jefferson davis highway three 1.84 acres owned by morumsco neighborhoods llc located at the 13960 jefferson davis highway and 4.21 acres owned by morumsko neighborhoods llc located at 13950 jefferson davis highway for the quote woodbridge area elementary school including providing the required 30 to 45 days notice to the owners of the school board's intent to file a certificate of take filing said certificate of take and filing a notice and petition and condemnation within the time the time required by law do i have a second mr chairman mrs williams second any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes ms williams can you vote the vote is eight yes
008unanimous motion passed next we'll be moving on to 9.03 acquisition of properties necessary for 14th high school chairman just note miss simpson um that i will be abstaining from this vote for due to conflict uh motions in order before i move that the prince william county school board authorized legal counsel and staff to initiate quick take combination proceedings for acquisition of one 32.8306 acres owned by the billy yolanda twyford substitute trustee of the gordon armstrong revocable living trust mamie e armstrong revocable living trust located at one two eight four seven minnieville road two point five four one six acres owned by gordon m twyford and billy yolanda twyford located at one two nine zero one miniville road and three eight point three zero one six acres owned by gordon m twyford and billy yolanda twyford
009located at one one three zero one one telegraph road and four point four three eight two acres owned by danico incorporated at one two nine two zero summit school road for the 14th high school including providing the required 30 to 45 days notice to the owners of the school board's intent to file a certificate of take filing said certificate of take and filing a notice and petition and condemnation within the time required by law do i have a second second miss jesse seconds of motion any discussion okay no discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes ms jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes mr ralston votes yes and the vote is seven yes one abstain chairman latif motion passed okay wonderful we are now moving on to um i
010would like to call the meeting the to the official meeting to call the meeting the prince william county school board to order we have the pledge of allegiance first and if you all stand and the flag is over here over my right shoulder i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states [Applause] outstanding let's move on to the approval of the public meeting agenda emotions in order mr chairman reporter i move that the prince william county school board approved the public meeting agenda as recommended you have a second mr chairman miss miss williams second any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes mr also votes yes the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed moving on to the adoption of
011the consent agenda emotions in order mr chairman mrs zargapur i move that the prince william county school board approved the public meeting consent agenda as recommended do you have a second mr chairman ms williams second any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes miss ralston votes yes the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed excellent so before we move on to the next part of meeting i'll just take a chairman's privilege here to um welcome everyone to the first school board meeting of the new academic 21 22 school year this meeting is historical for a number of reasons it is a first meeting in 16 years without superintendent dr stephen waltz who retired this summer after a wonderful 16 years of service
012improvement and growth the likes of which have never been seen before we are grateful for his service and time spent leading our tremendous school system it is historic because we are ushering in our new superintendent dr latonya d mcdade dr mcdade comes to us from chicago public schools where she was a chief academic officer for the entire division she was responsible for over 600 schools and has a strong national reputation for educational leadership we are pleased to have her lead our schools as she has the full support of our board staff and students she has not wasted a single moment in getting to know our schools and our community we look forward to working towards a shared vision of success for all of our students this meeting is historical because schools are starting while our
013world continues to fight a pandemic we are facing challenges of educational losses isolation and safety that have kept our teachers staff and administration working around the clock with both anxiety and excitement 50 years ago this country faced social unrest civil rights movement women's rights movement the ending of an unpopular war continued demographic changes energy crisis all with the constant threat of a nuclear holocaust today similarly we are faced with a pandemic ending a war social and civil unrest economic challenges climate change and a world struggling to fully grasp new technology and interconnectivity the generations brought up in the 60s and 70s have arguably been the leaders in incredible medical advances and incredible technological advances such as our vaccine and the internet the internet was created by folks from these generations not only were they able
014to connect country to country but person to person at any moment in time our children sitting in our classrooms today will be responsible for solving this world's problems as we move into the next 50 years by becoming the leaders inventors and innovators of the next generation so i ask all of our students to join the superintendent their teachers and staff as we begin a school year that will involve recovery acceleration and re-engagement it is critical that our students work very hard to participate in this effort it is important that our parents and families work with their students to help them as we move through this process we are going to do our very best to help with this and we believe we will be able to succeed we will embark on this year knowing that
015there will be bumps in the road and struggles there will be quarantining there will be inconveniences and there will be disappointments but this year will be better than last year and we will do this all together so best wishes to all of our students and families on a wonderful academic 21 22 school year thank you very much next we'll be moving on to the citizen comment time these citizens who signed up in advance with the clerk may address the school board this evening when they're called into the podium we are operating under a state of emergency each speaker will have two minutes to speak tonight we have 16 speakers who signed up to speak in person and nine who will participate virtually please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium or speaking virtually
016if you do not do so you'll be asked to step aside please state your name and address for the record and we will start let me go ahead and i'll call mr chairman this is jesse i have a point of order was it two minutes or three minutes two minutes during the state of emergency miss jessie [Music] we we notified everyone today that it will be two minutes [Music] [Applause] so so i will ask that we will we we have notified everyone this is a state of emergency meeting the meeting will be two minutes [Applause] [Music] so we'll go we'll go okay so what we'll do is we'll do three minutes then if you haven't been notified and we'll start with jesse graham is that the in person yeah okay um next palmer denny next
017leah [Applause] my name is palmer denny and my address is on file how many of you are against crt let me tell you something there's proper decorum in this room and at this point at this point i so we we proper decorum in this room will allow him to speak we will not have cheering and screaming [Applause] we will have a proper decorum so everyone can speak and everyone at home can hear and everyone here can hear this is the business of the school system we'll expect full proper decorum it's listed you know we've asked everyone to do that and so i'm asking all of you just like we have our normal meetings where we discuss serious business everyone shows up with proper decorum i expect everyone to be civilly in to act in a
018civil manner towards this board to our students and to our to our public and if you continue to speak out of turn we'll have you escorted out of the room thank you mr palmer denny good evening my name is palmer denny and i'm a junior at colgan high school i wanted to voice my concern about the proposal to limit citizen comment time i would like to start by giving a friendly reminder to the board that it is the right of the citizens of prince william county to voice their concerns on policies related to our schools many citizens in this community care deeply about what happens to our schools but with the hectic schedules that go along with this area they might not be able to sign up in a short window of time that's established
019i would also like to know why dr latif said he wasn't going to push critical race theory in a recent foia request it was revealed that he said quote i have always said that i i have always said that and i have maintained crt is what we are doing here furthermore you also admitted that you do not believe in transparency or public discussion this leads me to believe that you haven't been honest about crt all along i realize this may have been taken out of context but if this is true then it would seem that you are putting your own personal agenda before the needs of over 90 000 students in prince william county crt teaches that white people are oppressors and other races are oppressed crt teaches that the united states is unforgivably racist
020crt teaches that students need to be anti-racist which according to your definition means there is systemic racism in all our institutions and therefore they need to fight those institutions this racist curriculum will turn back the clock on all progress that has been made over the last several decades i implore this board to instill a curriculum that teaches us of the grave mistakes that have sorry the great mistakes that have occurred in this country but also teaches us all the tremendous strides that have been made to correct those mistakes and help in healing those wounds crt in its truest form is not the answer thank you lee bravo [Applause] hi i'm from gainesville i'm here tonight to voice my opinion about the change in public speaking rules as well the fact that this decision is being
021based on what happened in loudoun county is unjust and unfair we as parents and taxpayers of prince william county should have the right to speak our minds about what is taught to our children and your actions should revolve around what happens in our county not louden it has become clear to me that the lack of transparency and communication about everything this board does is purposeful holding this meeting during a hurricane the bullying and discrimination shown by school board members to citizens of this county is purposeful and meant to shut us down due to a legal foia request it's become clear that chairman at large latif has admitted crt is in fact being taught in our schools and he is against transparency and public opinion his texts clearly show in his discussion with katie olson flynn
022a member of prince william county school board advisory council on equity that he knows they're teaching crt and he does not want to hear public opinion or does he believe in transparency the formation of the equity statement was essentially done behind closed doors and they're still keeping us in the dark is how you arrived at that statement our problem is not systemic racism it's systemic corruption shame on any of you that vote to shut down the voices of the very parents and students you're supposed to represent if you vote to change the public comment rules all of you then it's obvious that you each support latif and his obvious disdain for the students parents and citizens of prince william county the rule of law decency and honesty we won't forget it thank you john jack
023capps [Applause] john jack capp k-a-p-p hello good evening mr chairman members of the board my name is john capp most people know me by jack i live in kohl's district on six towers road i believe you stated that prince william connie does not care about critical race theory i think tonight you will be proved a thousand percent wrong i've given you two handouts the second is a proposed announcement by a high school principal that i emailed to all high school principals in prince william county the first is about critical race theory which lists seven hard truths about critical race theory i encourage you to study it briefly they are one america is about individual equality not group equality two equal opportunity is not equal outcome three critical race surgery theory is racist it pits one
024race against another critical race theory denies upward mobility it denies the idea that hard work and equal protection succeed critical race therapy theory immorally pushes intergenerational guilt it openly teaches resentment by blaming the past on the present nobody living today owned slaves and no one living the day was a slave six crt empowers the elite to persecute every marxist country that has picked a racial ethnic religious or economic group to blame for society's ills has done so by empowering elitists to push mass persecutions that is not america but where crt leads seven crt ignores data the biggest lie in crt is that america is racist no country in the world attracts more minorities in the end crt is marxism pushing resentment blame guilt fear silence and compliance americans cleave by values not skin color martin
025luther king stated i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character your job is to teach not indoctrinate unity not division trust not hate patriotism not socialism the country i grew up in the country i love the country i served 28 years in the u.s air force is going to hell in a hand basket and you mr chairman and your democratic puppets are carrying that basket thank you you are the ones that are racist we go to kelly kelly newcomb i'm kelly newcomb my address is on file the members of the school board are sitting before you today because we the people elected them to serve our school system
026we pay their salaries they work for us the school board's job is not to protect the health of the citizens the school board's job is to provide a quality education for our children you cannot provide a quality education when students cannot get enough oxygen to support their growing bodies and brains or when students are being quarantined for 10 days at a time for being exposed to symptoms of a virus with a 99.9 percent survival rate you cannot provide a quality education when students cannot see smiles and facial expressions that are so important for learning you cannot provide a quality education when students cannot hear or understand teachers behind masks or when students cannot be near one another and connect with one another school board you are failing at your job and our children are paying
027the price do you have any idea the impact of this mentally physically emotionally and developmentally on these children in 2020 many mental health related emergency room visits among kids aged 12 to 17 increased by 31 percent depression and anxiety have doubled during the pandemic yet children have a 0.01 risk of dying from covin we are sacrificing mental health for physical health i don't think that is a trade we can afford physical health is much easier to fix parents let me ask you a question how many times are you going to allow your students education to be disrupted because they were sent home for quarantine for 10 days for being exposed to symptoms of covid despite the fact that both parties were wearing masks don't masks work entire classes are being quarantined do you think do
028you not think this is a disruption of their education parents how much longer are you going to allow this to happen it needs to stop now our children deserve better than this every time we comply with these mandates we establish a future where our children will not have that option let me leave you with one last question for all the adults in this room how in the world did you make it to adulthood without ever wearing a mask [Music] josephine gilbert is the video on i was told that i should make sure that the video's on okay good evening chair board members and community my name is josephine gilbert and i live in warrington i'm here because i was asked to speak on their behalf people in your community are afraid to voice their opinion
029the big issue tonight is the limitation on citizens participation however i want to start with legislative priorities i found them very interesting as i got ready to come to this meeting tonight one way to see what a board would like to accomplish is by looking at their legislative priorities listen up folks listen up folks okay so this is what i noticed the first item soq and accreditation flexibility allowing flexibilities for school divisions to meet those standards based upon individual student needs excuse me what set standards by individual students in needs college and career readiness schools will still be required to meet certain accreditation requirements but the focus should be on student achievement no matter how much student achievement remove attendance requirements for accreditation i find that astonishing modify advanced studies diplomas requirements to encourage more
030rigorous coursework what that basically means is a lower requirement version of the ib program computer coding to satisfy world language graduation requirement coding is not a world language mathematics probably is a better fit and the last one support legislation to establish a state school health advisory committee the purpose of this committee shall be to advise the virginia board of education the governor the general assembly on matters relating to the role of employees in public elementary and secondary schools in providing health care services at schools training association with the delivery associated with the delivery of health care services and the visibility of requiring school divisions visibility of requiring school divisions to provide any additional proposed health care services you want to add you want to add health care services stay in your lane stick to teaching
031our kids citizens i'll make the last comments citizens participations your changes are pitiful under the guise of safety and adding more time g you're adding 30 minutes by shortening an individual's time you are a board of i heard 90 000 children but you only allow public testimony to two hours a month you don't have to follow the lemmings of arlington fairfax and loudoun we don't trust you anymore we want cameras in the classroom thank you christopher clark clark clark cooper city clark cooper chidi say it again he's coming good evening my name is clark chitty my address is on file we'll start off chair latif you're a liar i did not receive an email saying there was only going to be two minutes of comment time tonight nor did the person call that called me
032this afternoon asking me if i'd rather speak virtually because of a little rain you're a liar a couple items i'd like to talk about first is the proposed change comment time no logical conclusion can be drawn other than this board wants to limit the time it actually has to sit and listen to their constituents does anybody believe that this board is actually going to sit and watch every video submission half the time you can't even get a response to an email from some members of this board the fact that this board is entertaining these changes tells me that the board is planning on some extremely controversial policy changes and doesn't want to have to hear for the people that they actually work for we the people second item has to do with prince william county
033schools athletic waiver process apparently there is a one-year prohibition on playing sports for a student who misses the specialty program transfer request date of february first this is a vhsl rule designed to keep coaches from poaching players for their programs but school systems are allowed to have a waiver process given the rough year that students were forced to endure this last school year combined with the fact that poor didn't have a clear picture of what the 21-22 school year was going to look like until may holding a student to this february first deadline in order to be able to have a chance of playing sports in their new school is ridiculous to keep a child from playing sports after they've transferred schools for academic or mental well-being reasons is just cruel prince william county schools
034and their supervisor of student athletic activities kelly gardner are hiding behind a rule and not truly looking at the individual cases his lack of concern was on full display with his abysmal response time to emails and phone calls in my daughter's case there was no good reason to prohibit for her from playing sport that she loves she was never contacted by any coaching staff at brentsville before transferring she made the decision to transfer to a smaller school once it looked like the county was actually going to go in person five days a week as a parent it was heart-wrenching to see tears streaming down my daughter's face as she was watching the women's volleyball team in the olympics because she wasn't going to be able to represent her new school on the court her junior
035year of high school for athletic kids playing sports is a huge part of their overall mental well-being prince william county schools this board the new superintendent talk a really good game about being concerned about students well-being but sadly our family's experience says that this school system from the top down doesn't give a damn [Applause] ciarcia good evening my name is gina ciarcia my address is on file and i am the republican candidate for the virginia house of delegates in district 2. this month you will be celebrating hispanic heritage month where you celebrate the influence and contributions of hispanics to america and it's right that we should do this because from america's earliest days it has been a land of immigrants even from its colonial days it has been a land of immigrants in fact in
036the late 1800s to early 1900s there was a great wave of immigration 16 million approximately immigrated to this country many of them were from eastern and southern europe as opposed to the previous immigrants who had come from northern and western europe and this greatly altered the ethnic makeup of the united states in response schools were charged with the americanization of these new immigrants and their children it was the schools who defined what it meant to be an american it was the schools who defined for these children what an american was and what an american was not this was done through multiple avenues textbooks imagery story and specifically classroom instruction my own family immigrated during this time from southern italy and they retained much of their cultural heritage but they also became americans they loved this
037country and they adopted american ways and thoughts and fought in her wars during this time emma lazarus wrote the poem the new colossus and in this poem she gives words to lady liberty who stands in new york harbor give me your tired your poor your huddled masses yearning to breathe free so we can oppress them so we convict and i victimize them so we can disenfranchise them absolutely not that is not what emma lazarus says in her poem that is not what lady liberty says she says send these the homeless tempest toss to me i lift my lamp beside the golden door i am an educator and one of the things that strikes me most is that my students believe what i tell them and it is sobering and the gravity of my place as
038a teacher weighs heavily on me getting it right telling the truth weighs heavily on me it is your responsibility as educators to inculcate a love of country and american ideals this is a national security issue and i take i want you to take this charge seriously [Music] mike labman then after mike will be david's uncle and then jeffrey fuller so if you want to move to the front here you can start moving to the front hi good evening my name is mike labman i'm from gainesville my address is on file i'm a parent of three school-aged children so the reason we are all here is to ensure the absolute best future for our children these kids need to breathe interact and see faces these poor kids are so confused with the flip-flopping requirements and everything
039going on trust the science they say well there's plenty of science there's an extensive research that shows developmental damage psychological harm headaches anxiety depression lowered oxygen levels increased carbon dioxide levels and so on masks collect and colonize bacteria and even increase viral load given all this some may still say the risk of covid outweighs the risk of masks but children are not in danger a hopkins doctor followed 48 000 coveted cases into healthy kids under 18 and zero died the cdc reports 33 335 kids under 18 have died with covid many more die from flu rsv and other seasonal illness every year and we have never considered masking them before because masks do not block viruses there are countless studies conducted in the past 20 years i can provide them to you i will email
040them to you and i have a printed copy i can send to you too there are countless there are countless studies conducted in the past 20 years that all agree there's no significant reduction for mask wearing there's clearly something else going on here and it's not about health it's about control [Applause] we the people are the first branch of government and the creators of government which is there to serve us and protect our rights we elect people to represent us and to make the best decisions for our future and for the future of our children so if the person giving you orders tells you to do something that has been proven to be harmful how can you just follow orders thank you mr jeffrey fuller oh i'm sorry david's uncle sorry sorry david's uncle apologies
041good evening i live in bristol virginia uh this is a follow up on an email from july first to miss adele jackson good evening ms jackson and uh this email forwarded some fact a lot of factual information about uh what the gentleman right before me just spoke of and my understanding was that that email and its information was forwarded to all the board members is that correct and did all the board members go through that information and take a good in-depth look at it i'm going to assume there's miss wall are you nodding you did or mr sun this is not a two-way program go ahead and use your three minutes oh well it's all about it's all about it not during this session we don't it's not a um give and take so please
042go ahead and continue well that that's that's not a very honest approach um so i'm going to repeat what i said in the email and i do want a response to this mr latif and what i asked is herewith i am asking the school board to either to immediately either make masked mandates mandates and social distancing mandates for children and adults in prince william county schools null and void the preferable approach or officially declare that the pwc board opts to not enforce such mandates recommended or handed down to it by other virginia or federal governmental authorities which would be an acceptable second solution now i've been given the reason that the board has done what it's done is because it's following the via the virginia department of health recommendation which bases its information on the
043cdc you need to read robert kennedy robert f kennedy junior's new book that's coming emma it's called the truth about fouchy and how we got to where we are today and you need to look at the work of a man called dr david martin who has done extensive patent research he has clearly shown the money trail about this whole thing the republican candidate mentioned truth a moment ago that's what it's all about this is not a pandemic this is a plan dimmick he was born out of wuhan our nih funded this research the facts are ubiquitous you all need to protect our children and i'm going to suggest to every parent listening to me and every citizen of prince william county two ten more seconds that if you don't like what you're seeing it's time
044to pull these people out of position and replace them with people who will do the right thing in accordance with facts mr fuller next jeffrey fuller hello board can you hear me my name is jeff fuller i live in haymarket you have my address i brought a couple job aids for those of you in the audience you can look at the left and right and see how this board stacks up in terms of whether they're into constitutional government or critical race theory now if you'll notice board the constitutional education prefers the individual over the collective it prefers character over skin color it prefers opportunity over outcomes now you guys are all on the collective skincare skin color and outcome side right it prefers competence over characteristics it prefers transparency over obscurity and lies by the
045way you guys get that one in spades it prefers citizens over anti-usa activities by that i mean instead of teaching kids to be good citizens you're teaching them how to be good social justice warriors and we prefer our kids and they're our kids over the state's kids and we prefer parent values over state values dr latif i know you can't respond to my question but i did the foia request that resulted in the text between you and dr kate olson flynn where you said in response to her well i have always said that i that and i have maintained crt is what we are doing here then you go on to say you're not into transparency which i gather we can understand from your proposals to limit our speech so why am i concerned about
046critical race theory you ask why would anybody because you guys don't do it you don't do critical race theory here so why am i fired up in fact dr latif can just say well we don't do crt so you guys can't talk about it because it's not part of policy or operations you could say that that's why you shouldn't change the way the language is in your policy so there's a number of things about critical race theory that concerns me one is dr mccabe knows that no one teaches critical race theory in k-12 there's no class mr fuller thank you for your time and your consideration thank you very much take kia wilson larry robinson and jessica newton can come up hi my name is kia wilson my address is on file i'm here as
047a minority to speak on behalf of parents who do have children who are immune compromised my daughter is a first grader and has been hospitalized and placed on ventilators for most respiratory illnesses that children recover from from home as a result when i found out that we cannot she may change our mind in reference to the kids being in school or virtual i began to set up mitigating factors for my daughter and my second grader to help mitigate the risk since i wanted them to of course be back in school those plans were have not been followed to a t and as a result my second grader found herself at a lunch table when she was supposed to be separated with the child who actively had coveted no one informed me that this had occurred
048my child had to come and tell me two days later that she was one of four children left in the classroom out of over 20 kids and i was told by the nurse when i called up there that they used the measuring tool to see if my daughter was in close contact however no one took into consideration the fact that these are second graders they interactively learn they have recess lunch together and a lot of other things and when i met with the associate superintendent mr provencio i'm told well 15 minutes is a long time you know as speaking of the cdc protocol however it's 15 minutes and 24 hours span time not 15 minutes consecutively so in speaking with that i then went and i put my homebound application in for my first grader
049and then was told that it would only be for my first grader and not her sister when i asked about why the siblings were not able to be grouped together if it was a issue of keeping immunocompromised kids safe i was told well if children have cancer and other serious illnesses then that's what homebound is for however i beg of you to understand that asthma is one of the leading causing deaths of children under a certain age especially in the midst of a global pandemic that affects the respiratory system as a result i began to continue to advocate for my children i've contacted the associate superintendent's office the superintendent's office and has been have been given the runaround emails not answered phone calls not responded to or when i call i am spoken to curtly
050saying that dr mcdade has my information what i find interesting is is that on the video that was released by pwcs my daughters are pictured with dr midday mcdade and whereas to you all they may be a media ploy or some children to take pictures with to show everybody it's okay to me they are everything so they may be two out of ninety thousand kids but they are my entire world so i come here to represent the parents who feel like we're caught between a rock and a hard place i wish i had the luxury to only care about crt and no mask and all of that i'm fighting for my daughter's life and if i can't fight for her life then at least allow policy to be put in place that will group siblings
051together and not allow one sibling to go out to the school and bring something back to her sister the same way if it was cancer or anything else thank you larry robinson [Applause] good afternoon my name is larry robinson and my address is on foul i've been sitting back listening to all the comments and whatnot and it's one common goal here that i'm hearing a lot this is my first time going before the school board is the lack of communication open communication it doesn't matter what situation or what people feel strongly about it always come back to their not being communicated to nor are they are being listened to now when i was involved in trying to get response back from the superintendent office and also trying to get response back from from to come
052and speak before the school board to this day i only gotten one phone call and the phone call was to tell me how busy the superintendent is let me tell you something i'm a 30-year vet serving the military and i and i have been on every comeback field since just calls to iraq to afghanistan i am fortunate to work have worked as a senior leader for under secretaries and secretaries and you cannot get any busier than the secretary of defense i don't think that this school board has the magnitude or this school district has the magnitude of that i'm not saying that that's the issue i applaud you all i applaud the teachers however it's a protocol that the highest person should you know adhere to and that is you get back to with people
053you are serving the public public service is a price we pay for living and if you choose to get in a job that is in public service you owe it to your customers to respond even if it's just that's one thing i can say about the under secretaries and the secretaries i have worked for what they have always brought home to us i don't care we service the public you will respond if it's not the same day or two days as a as a match that even if the only thing it takes just send an email i heard you i will get back with you or so i'm getting a response that the superintendent is busy by sabrina and she has the first week of school and we have so much to do i'm sorry
054she shouldn't have took the job and the last thing and the last thing is i welcome you i spent a lot of time in cook county working with people in county i welcome you to the school board and to the school system jessica newton i'm jessica newton and i live in gainesville mr latifah and some members of the board i understand it is your intention to limit comment time from parents in future meetings and i find that awfully suspicious especially after reading texts between you and a member of the prince william county school board equity committee as a tax paying property owning resident of prince william county i have to ask myself why the reason is because you have no intention to get our input as stated yourself i don't need to repeat your texts
055if you don't want these meetings to light up like neighboring counties perhaps don't lie to the parents about how we are not going to do critical race theory in one meeting then say this off the record when that is quite literally your exact intention now let's talk about masks i just found out today apparently this was left up to the new superintendent to decide which is unlawful as she is not an elected member of this board but rather an appointed official but nevertheless when you decided not to give parents the choice whether or not to mask their kids you put our young vulnerable children in a very unpredictable situation my teenage daughters hate wearing masks but would prefer not to fight or have to defend their beliefs to teachers and staff on a daily basis
056to be honest i think it's the lesser of two evils for them putting my children in a situation where they will be constantly bullied and segregated more publicly shamed because of our religious beliefs as a family is totally unacceptable our girls are 17 and 15. they have the ability to make that choice on their own but my three-year-old son is a different story the only thing he wants to do and yes it's a prince william county school is go to school he asks me every day to force my son who's learning how to communicate with teachers and children of his age to put on masks on his face is not gonna happen nobody has the authority over my son's body over my son's face but you mean to tell me that against the virginia code
057of some some code i don't know that they aren't allowed to help my son put on his clothes or help him in the bathroom but they can try to wrangle a mask on his face i think not you're putting teachers in a terrible situation to have to combat parents back and forth with paperwork stating my religious specific religious beliefs that are not required by the state of virginia you're creating a hostile work hostile environment for my poor son because his teachers are so frustrated with me because i will not stop i know my rights i know my son's rights i know my daughter's rights and i will always stand up for them regardless of how small you make us feel because of how polarized polarized you have let this situation become yes you making us
058jump through endless hoops i'm seriously considering putting a listening device in my son's backpack just to make sure he's not treated like a different person at the age of three for not wearing a mask aka bullying or zero tolerance in this county yes this situation is that scary for me and i should never have to worry like that as a parent many of you on this border who are supporting this insanity should be ashamed of yourselves you owe it to the public you to be honest and open don't lie and state things behind our back as if this is some kind of joke you work for us whether you like it or not start acting like it before you're relieved of your duties erica tradinig erica tradenek [Applause] erica tradinik okay at this point we'll
059move to the oh she's coming home hi i'm erica my address is on file first off i want to say like i've always said i love this county and while i won't always agree with everything that's taught or everything that is happening currently i want to start out by saying that i do support our teachers and i love our schools i have three kids elementary middle and high currently enrolled the response to this pandemic has by far been my least favorite experience of the last 10 years recently i've done quite a bit of communicating with our schools staff members and the superintendent's office for the most part i've been treated with respect kindness and been able to voice my concerns and have had a professional response sadly that isn't the case across the board for
060all parents or students many parents are continuing to be treated like we're difficult bad or unruly because we don't believe what you believe we don't believe in masking our children we don't believe that we need to live in fear of a virus that hasn't affected children negatively we believe that our children thrive off of interpersonal connection smiles and the need to feel normal we want them active in sports in school and in life as they have been all summer long and throughout the pandemic on fields across this county as parents who truly care about our children's safety and well-being but we have different perspectives on what the well-being of our children looks like we should be treated with the same respect as other parents who are concerned about their children's safety we should not be
061discriminated against because of our strongly held beliefs and lived experiences and in my opinion our children shouldn't be put in corners behind plexiglass because of their choice to receive an exemption our children are choosing to wear masks that make them sick and lightheaded because they would rather be uncomfortable wearing a mask than isolated from their peers the same peers that they see at target in restaurants at practice on the weekends without being muzzled after school at sports another major issue is the inconsistency in the way the rules are implemented in each school one of my children's schools feels it's necessary to have the kids six feet apart in the lunchroom wrapped in plexiglass enclosures much like zoo animals but then the classrooms don't have the same protection how does that make any sense if i
062would if i wasn't willing to continue to call and question why the rules you put out aren't being followed my children would still be having to listen to rules that are incorrectly being placed on them such as pe indoors exercising with a mask on required no it's recommended outdoors put your mask on it's required no it's 98 degrees it's not required it's not part of that please be cohesive in what's occurring it's harmful it's upsetting and i will continue to speak up against it because it's wrong as we watch neighboring counties make the choices to take away our right as parents to decide what's injected in our children's bodies my hope is that you choose not to do that to these kids or your staff members my prayer is that you can get back to
063providing a world-class education and living life mask-free like many of you have the last few months before school started or possibly we can at least let them take their masks off while sitting down since we are able to do that at restaurants around the county i will continue to speak up in hopes that my kids don't have to and can go back to being kids who enjoy the freedom to breathe thank you very much thank you jason we'll go to the uh virtual virtual speakers next mr stevens mr chairman the first speaker is sandra kern miss kern you can unmute the floor is yours thank you jason good evening dr mcdade chairman latest and honorable board members i am sandra curran my address is on file and i am a proud parent in potomac district
064tonight on your agenda is the topic of citizens comment fun 19.04 i first hand have been afforded the opportunities to come before this board to place my concerns at your diocese to be a concerned parent and stakeholder and try to make the greater good for the community as a perfectly painted picture however the picture we paint is not always on the same canvas and rarely do we have the same paints or pencils the beauty of it is that i get to use my voice to advocate yes to advocate for something that means a lot to me and my students who is struggling with his journey in education the presentation tonight to make changes to the policy i clearly get a picture it's an order of operations maybe it's simple math i do expect to be
065fully capable to bring my good trouble to the board and make light of some of the barriers that block a clear view i'm one of the public voices and this board is elected to serve a citizen has the right to address this board with a choir of concerns this should be for this board to embrace with grace and support as expected of our community our children need to be heard your stakeholders holders need to be heard i understand this is not to silence the many opinions that come forward but to make each delicate decision with due diligence and the education of our children their future must be brighter older and clearer limits for the public ideas should not be excluding the citizens who elected you i appreciate the dedication to the policy the change i
066would like to see additional town halls set up for questions and answers as many have actually done this evening for wanting answers the personal dedication is to walk the walk and would that would be your best observation transparency should be the request or i'm sorry the requirement that's right transparency should be a requirement i would also like to include reading as a life skill as i advocate in many for many students with dyslexia and i will not appreciate that being silenced as it is my mission and or to be limited in citizens comment time i welcome this dr nick dave for the first school year in prince william county i look forward to your innovative ideas to propel our students into the future for education to the board i look forward to remediation and progress
067that will catapult our students to a level of learning that exceeds the dreams for them together everyone can advocate to build a future for each and every student to learn in their own way thank you all right thank you the next speaker is sarah hanker you can unmute the floor is yours sarah hornaker good evening my name is sarah hunnicure my address is on file um i'm here because i am trying to gain understanding as to why we are in week two and my son has been late to school and he's been brought home late every single day five o'clock when he gets out of school at three o'clock is unacceptable he has missed his first period class every day and i had to deal with attendance because of the lack of bus drivers that
068we had but we were ready to start school this year schedules weren't ready and yet you want our children to be put back into classrooms that were not ready for them to go to not only that there are no partitions the kids are not six feet apart and are we checking for vaccines for those that can be vaccinated clearly that's not the case because my child can't be vaccinated because it's not of age so we're not taking into consideration of the safety comes first not only that it is under the discretion of the school to tell us whether or not our child is was in contact with someone that has coveted and that is does not sound safety to me my son has asthma so if he runs into that case just wear a mask
069because safety is our first priority the plan a that you all did at the umpteenth hour is not working so what is your plan b c or d to rectify the situations that are happening i have written letters i have called individuals and i've received no response which is unacceptable i work for the federal government and they have made no plan for us to come back to work you know why because safety is a priority all i hear is a much apology please be patient with us we're working this out you've had a year and a half almost two years to try to work it out and if it's not worked out then maybe we need to go back to a virtual learning because it was working they didn't have to deal with these issues
070not being able to get to school on time not being able to be brought home on time and watching first graders second graders get off the bus at 5 30 6 o'clock how was that safe and now you're asking us to just deal with it and now you're throwing us along with the teachers and administration to the lions then to figure it out because you all don't even have the answers to help us through this process but please be patient and understand what we're going through i'm done speaking all right the next speaker is richard jesse you can unmute g'day my name is richard jesse my address is on file and my wife is lily jesse a member of his school board i'm very upset this evening because i remember at the end of the
071last school year at all the board meetings that we were not allowed to speak to anything unless it was on the agenda i don't know when this rule changed but uh nobody informed me that we could speak on any topic tonight and so i'm going to ramble a little bit because of that the other thing as most of you know i'm probably not on the side of most of the speakers tonight but i do agree with those speakers that i was not told that you know the me the speaking time was only two minutes in writing on the website the special notice clearly stated it was three minutes so i don't know where that happened but let me talk a little bit about my position on crt first of all i you know crt to
072me you can define it all you want and most people will only use the way they want to define it i want to say that the history in this country needs to be taught for example i served two tours as enlisted the person before i got commissioned in vietnam and came back in 66 1966 from vietnam if my parents lived in virginia they would have been arrested because they got married in the 1940s and my mother was white and my father was black it wasn't until 1967 that virginia made it legal for interracial marriages i will say to most of you that what you are concerned about is that you don't want your kids to understand and realize what your forefathers not all of you but a lot of you have done and a lot
073of you've set style from 1909 to 1949 52 black men were hung or electrocuted for rape in the same time period 1909 to 1950 not one white person was executed for work if that's not a disparity i don't know what is both crimes are wrong you know most of you will agree that bill cosby was a good guy for a while mr stevens jesse time is up i'll please have order in the room please thank you mr stevens please keep to the time all right the next speaker is kimberly stewart hello my name is kimberly stewart my address is on file with the clerk i am a mother of two students in prince william county and a veteran educator of 16 years i first want to take a moment and publicly thank dr jarcelyn hart
074ms denise hubner and mr scott baldwin from haymarket elementary for their recent assistance and attention to my concern regarding the ridiculous coba 19 protocols this county is implementing on our elementary schools it is overwhelming the system and our parents and our students for the record i did not hear back from one of the elected members on this board regarding my concerns and all were emailed this board has a duty and responsibility to this community i'd like to remind you that those powers roles and responsibilities are given to you as an elected official by the people you work for the people all the people and all people who have a voice should be heard by this board under the u.s constitution amendment one all individuals are guaranteed the right to free speech petition assemble and freedom
075of religion i think many of you on this board have forgotten this guaranteed right and freedom to all americans all citizens and residents of this county the u.s constitution is the supreme law of the land amendment one of the constitution is guaranteed to be upheld at the state and local level the newest recommendations by this board for public comment regulations and rules will inevitably hinder the ability of every constituent in this county to be heard while emails phone calls and videos are all cute and can be a starting point there's absolutely no greater impact or availability to our elected officials than standing right in front of you to be hurt our voices matter all of our voices matter whether you agree or disagree with them they matter they have a right to be heard here
076in this setting as you are the elected official that was given the power of your position by those voices public comment on mask mandates proven 19 protocols mandatory vaccinations on our employees and on our student athletes and other important policies and regulations demand your attention and they demand that you allow all constituents you represent to have their voices heard i'll end with this if this board makes the decision to mandate vaccinations on employees and student athletes like surrounding counties you will lose good teachers you will lose more students to homeschool and private schooling and you release the talent of so many athletes that bring recognition and funding to this district you if just one employee or student athlete has any type of negative reaction to that vaccine you are held accountable because of your overreaching
077and arbitrary policies all people have the right to medical freedom when it comes to their health care and i hope you consider the long-term implications of that choice finally to parents now is the time to find your god and get a good doctor because you have the right under virginia law to medical freedom freedom of religion and against overreach by our public system it's time to stand up to the increase in tyranny of this board i demand this board stop harming our children psychologically physically mentally and emotionally and respect the mothers and fathers [Applause] did i do it can you hear me yes you have the floor okay my name is cynthia snyder and i live at 9990 marion drive good evening board members i'm a retired teacher mother and grandmother and decided to do
078my homework and see what critical race theory was all about and how it would affect our children's parents and teachers here's just a fraction what i found instead of solving a problem regarding race crt creates problems and is in itself racist how so you say critical race theory is an anti-american ideology founded in the 1990s based on a marxist view that paints one group all white people as oppressors and the other groups wax and minorities as the oppressed it reduces everyone's identity to the color of their skin or ethnic group crt stereotypes scapegoats and demeans people based on their race our constitution guarantees equal opportunity to all but crt substitutes their word equity which is not the equality of opportunity but the equality of result and outcome our schools should be places of positivity an
079environment that promotes academic success learning kindness sharing caring which bring about healthy relationships but crt is divisive and promotes fear disunity and negativity it is toxic to students and teachers alike currently crt has been injected into almost every government agency public forum and now in schools and on the web this is a system used in communist countries by their tyrannical governments and it doesn't belong in our america crt is spawned and perpetuated by the erroneous views of the 1619 project that claims our nation's founding was racist and built on slavery and oppression instead of the facts that america's founding fathers were people who escaped oppression to forge a nation with the ideals of liberty freedom and justice for all as expressed in our declaration of independence and constitution the false 1619 narrative has been fact
080checked and debunked but it's still being peddled in our colleges and schools and the public square when i substitute taught in pw schools one of the programs for every student was character counts and the speech that dr martin luther king gave that i have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character crt is instead a nightmare that pits one race against another and fosters hate and suspicion the true definition of crt should mean creating racial tension and this anti-american destructive false theory has no place in our schools k through 12 and colleges and if you could see my all right thank i have you annie if you can unmute do
081you have the floor we are annie and albert paguero and our address is on file we're here to present facts that show that obscene stickers on a high school student's vehicle are not protected under the first amendment and request specific verbiage added to the school vehicle policy and code of behavior to prohibit obscene materials on student vehicles on school property recently a vehicle in a high school parking lot had obscene stickers in the back window which all cars passing through the parking lot for drop off and pickup could see this includes students from the adjacent k-8 school the obscene material was sexual in nature and mocked the black lives matter civil rights movement the words on the stickers are inappropriate for this forum so i won't say them at this time the school security officer
082that i spoke with claimed the student is protected under the freedom of speech amendment and the school would not require the student to remove the stickers we disagree and want to see a policy against obscene materials because of a landmark decision of the united states supreme court which ruled obscene material is not protected by the first amendment miller v california 413 united states 15 in 1973 was a landmark decision of the united states supreme court modifying its definition of obscenity for something to be considered obscene and not protected by the first amendment there's a three-pronged standard called the miller test prong one states whether the average person would find material would find the material appeals to lustful interest or sexual stimulation or gratification the average person here is any child that can read my six
083and eight-year-old daughters high school aged girls and boys the words this student chose to represent blm without a doubt appeals to lustful interest and sexual stimulation prong 2 whether the material describes sexual conduct in an offensive way it does prong 3 whether the material lacks artistic political or scientific value these materials actually mocked the global black lives matter civil rights movement obscene material such as this does not pass the miller test and is not protected under the freedom of speech or expression the student removed the sexual and nature of blm stickers from the vehicle but we asked that instead of analyzing vehicle stickers on a case-by-case basis like the security offer stated verbiage be included in the school vehicle policy and code of behavior moving forward thank you all right mr chairman that's the last
084speaker i have okay so next we'll move to excuse me we we put our name on the zoom but she never contacted us so we came from sorry we [Applause] [Music] there are there are many folks that signed that could not at this point we had a barbara dodge and a george dodge that were on the um so well we called we called are you barbara dodge yes uh-huh so you're on the virtual list we'll go ahead and do you then well yeah and my husband george also but george george as well thank you mr stevens we were never given the material though for the zoom so that's why we physically came yeah good evening chair and board members my name is barbara dodge kohl's district i can't believe that i'm here tonight to speak
085against teaching school children hate racism and division as critical racist theory does whether you disguise critical race theory and call it teaching tolerance justice equity or inclusiveness it is teaching intolerance injustice and exclusion derek bell developed critical race theory mr bell was a marxist he started with a false premise that race is hidden in everything and all whites are racist which a student of belle's robin d'angelo wrote about in her book white fragility however you don't correct racism by shaming someone else for the color of their skin this itself is racist the goal of crt is to oppress the perceived perceived oppressors take power away from the powerful the goal is to simply invert the social structural structure and swapping the roles of oppressed and oppressors a far better approach is to teach the golden
086rule do unto others as you would have them do unto you if we all did that we could achieve dr martin luther king's dream of one day living in a nation where people would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character crt wants to remove god from our lives because god is the greatest oppressor and marxism hates god critical race theory holds that society is structurally racist and that only its wholesale restructuring can fix the problem yet crt is inherently racist in its world view it is a paranoid worldview where everyone outside the group is oppressing the group it is divisive not unifying it is only the peace of christ a priest a peace the world cannot give that we can conquer the world and its violence
087and have true unity many schools and workplaces have embraced the ideas of critical race theory by forcing training programs employees are brown beaten into accepting the concept and then forced to engage in perpetuating a racist society those courageous enough to resist this heavy-handed attempt at mind control are scorned and rebuked in front of their colleagues critical race theory should be called radical race theory it is an attempt of radical ideologues to destroy the prince william county school system and a system of government that they hate don't corrupt the minds of our children and grandchildren with hate we can do better god bless the united states of america and prince william county thank you george lord god good evening members of the board my name is george dodge and my address is on file i live
088i have lived in virginia for 33 years i have taught in middle school and high school outside of virginia and here in virginia i've taught at bridgewater college james madison university was where i was a member of the faculty senate and one of my five degrees is in history as shakespeare said a rose by any other name is still a rose likewise critical race theory or crt by any other name is still crt for example the goal of teaching from a diverse perspective to create anti-racist and culturally responsive curriculum to the lens of equity sounds good but in reality is nothing more than crt by another name critical race theory pushes the distorted concept that the most important thing about a person is their race separating it from the person as an individual it divides
089people by those who are minoritized and by those who are privileged and oppresses advancing marxist theology that by default all interactions are derived from racism our nation and history is built on racism and all inequities are ascribed to racism crt believes racism is present in every aspect of life every relationship and every interaction crt rejects all potential alternatives as forms of racism making itself only allowable game in town where crt is implemented no matter by what euphemism it is called indoctrination and censorship of opposing views is taking place the underlying themes that are driving people to be consumed about race over individual contact promoting race-shaming students welcoming dangerous marxist ideology and working to divide an educational system by teaching young children to see and judge people by race or ethnic group rather than by character
090or merit to that end the whole effort is itself racist even minority parents are decrying the actual racism recently a colorado father who was black and a descendant of slaves spoke before a school board and denounced crt saying that racism in america would be dead today if it were not for certain people and institutions keeping it on life support including public education crt only treats race as socially constructed groups so there are no individuals in crt crt perpetuates the idea that all white people are racist including the 360 thousand union soldiers who died that the slaves might be free parents want authentic conversations about unite what unites virginians and americans not what divides us the current direction the school is taking is directly opposite to martin luther king's dream it takes us back a hundred
091years in racial relationships we should be guiding students to understand that everyone is an individual and should be treated as such we should be teaching the golden rule rather than teaching them to treat everyone by the color of the skin thank you mr dodge and your name is melissa reedy i was signed up you had one person not show up so you have time to listen to one extra person i was saying oh i don't have time even though one person didn't show up have you sign up i was signed up i can show you my email that i got a response from we we've turned a number of folks away and to be fair to all of them you haven't turned anybody away but somebody else didn't show up somebody else didn't show up
092i should be able to have that three minutes folks away [Applause] at this point the school board will uh take a recess and we'll be back after our recess and that is the end of citizen comment time thank you everyone even though somebody else didn't okay um the school board is returning to open session we'll move on to um no we're on 15 communications technology this item is on for information mr guilfoyle good evening this evening i come before you to discuss briefly our legislative priorities for the 22 general assembly session mr jim council our lobbyist is joining us virtually from richmond this evening i believe he'll be joining us here in a minute coming on screen so just uh ins to summarize uh the items that are before you in the board agenda item
093this year's priorities are consistent with our board's past year's priorities the priorities are focused on advocating for additional funding resources for our students teachers and schools additionally at board member request the statement of support for funding the governor's school at innovation park was expanded to advocate for additional resources to support our increased attendance at the thomas jefferson high school for science and technology the priorities also continue to advocate against unfunded mandates that unnecessarily burden our teachers administrators and others without any additional resource following the approval of the priorities at the next school board meeting the communications office will build out our supporting materials to communicate with our local delegation additionally we will work with the chairman to determine a time and place to hold our briefing our annual briefing between the school board and our
094local delegates and local senators as well in december mr gem council will also brief school board members on the latest developments and legislation that are being considered for the january session and we will support school board member advocacy in the january time frame i'll now ask mr jim council to provide us a brief outlook on the january session mr council ahead and unmute mr council he seems to be there he goes you hear me now yes go ahead sir all right mr chairman members of school board good evening let me first say that uh it's probably been a year and a half since i've met with you in person and i planned on doing it tonight but thanks to matt uh with the weather forecast i appreciate you letting me do it by zoom and
095secondly i really want all of you to know that i really appreciate the opportunity to represent the prince william schools at the upcoming general assembly session matt asked me to touch on some particular issues that i thought might arise early next year but let me preface all that by a couple comments or observations first of all as all of you know this is an election year and we know we will be getting a new governor so we will be starting with governor norm's budget but certainly a new governor sworn in in january will have an impact on that and i'll also say i'm not in the forecast business but if you read the papers it looks like uh the polls are within margin of error so at this point i'm not sure if uh we
096will have a dem or republican governor but that will certainly have an impact on the next session and even so some other local polls suggest that there's some key swing house seats primarily in the richmond area that could actually impact who controls the house of delegates now if that occurs then it would be a real game changer but given that as a background let me just address a couple issues uh that come to mind that that i think will will be in the forefront this session but not necessarily in any particular order uh school discipline uh if you recall from two years ago just children was very effective in addressing issues regarding sros and school discipline they were fairly dormant last year but in conversations i've had i'm really expecting them to come back this
097year and be pushing hard on more limitations on school suspensions and expulsions uh secondly another big topic coming up i think will be school construction as some of you may know in the uh special session earlier this month when the general assembly convened to spend about 3.2 billion dollars in federal money they did appropriate about 259 million for school modernization but that's not really the end of that story there also is a study commission spearheaded by senator mcclellan that is really taking a look at school construction and funding at a higher level and i would not be surprised if we don't try and get some proposed mandates in this session that really dictates what should be included in new school construction and also may impose limitations on what school divisions may be able to put
098in new construction another topic i think will be of great interest is student meals uh as we all know one of the prince william delias has taken a keen interest in that and i i think while she's made some great and admirable headway on i would say deficiencies in the school meal program uh probably the ultimate goal there would be free school meals for all students and interestingly enough although i have not been able to actually find the specific language it's my understanding that in the uh three plus trillion federal proposal that has recently passed the house it's my understanding that in there is federal subsidy to provide free student meals for everyone so that will be something else to watch both at the state and federal level in addition to that we probably are
099going to see some movement at the general assembly to put more limitations on what school divisions can do with the ad-risk funding if you recall there was a equity funding proposal last year that did not get through i think that will come back and i think the end result of that will be that the more limitations placed at the state level on how school divisions can spend that at risk money and then finally um well next to finally i should say if you remember senate bill 1303 uh senators donovan and peterson uh were effective in getting the bill through that put us all back in school in person if covet is still a real threat in january i think we may see something at the general assembly legislative level about what schools are required to
100do in relation to covet and then finally i would say that if we do end up with a republican governor i think there will be a rule and and i should say maybe not only republican governor but republican house i think there'll be a real push to do something with charter schools and my big fear there is that i think the the effort would be made to move the governance of charter schools and formation of charter schools from the local school division to the state board of education so i'd be glad to ask answer any questions but they are some of the the big issues i see coming at us in uh the next session thank you mr council that those are our questions any questions from the board ms williams thank you mr chairman
101thank you mr council it's always nice to see you and i appreciate the service that you provide for us in richmond and continuing to keep us informed and updated on current events um so that we can conduct our business appropriately mr gelford i was just wondering um if you for the sake we're at a public meeting have we had any changes to our legislative agenda in the past year or so so the the primary additions as i mentioned was one was the expansion uh to advocate for additional funding local funding to support our increased enrollment at the thomas jefferson high school for science and technology as well as we have a legislative priority around increased flexibility for school divisions and handling the covet 19 response as well as relief funding for covid19 those have been
102really the two big newest additions to the legislative priorities the remainders remain consistent with our previous years which again are are really primarily focused around advocating for additional resources for our schools the standard of quality and mr council touched on it but there will be this is a biennium budget year so that really will be the number one biggest item that will be focused on in january and could you explain what it means to be in a biennial budget year sure so essentially this is the the year virginia has a two-year process to set their budget so this is when we when the budget is set at the state level for what kind of funding the schools will receive in the next two years thank you very much i appreciate it sure matt if i
103may add just one thing generally speaking virginia is very conservative and careful about how it forecasts revenue in the first special session which goes back to spring at that point in time our revenues were running about 500 million above what they had forecasted i think while i haven't seen a more current figure i think that continues to be the trend so i don't think having money to spend in the next session will be the big issue thank you mr council ms wall thank you mr council um i appreciate the overview about a few the few key issues to watch my question is with those key issues like school discipline construction meals does do we then make a statement or a position on how we would like the legislature to vote on those key priorities because
104um i think that would be interesting to know so most of what mr council discussed are already found in our legislative priority package there are there are items that address each one of those items okay great thank you hi lily jesse hi how are you i just i'm maybe it's the clarification i read somewhere in our agenda items that are in the legislative agenda item covet relief for in person only and something are they are they looking at cultural relief for in person but not not go for relief for virtual learning or is that maybe i'm confused on that jim so miss jesse i can speak to that so the legislative priority um discusses relief to the statutorily required in-person learning requirements and essentially what we were talking about there was specifically to allow us
105the flexibility to meet students needs that may be virtual okay thank you okay seeing any uh no other questions thank you mr council and and mr guilfoyle we really appreciate all the work you all do down for us in richmond and as you point out mr council if money is not the issue then the priorities that we set are going to be critical in navigating our priorities through the general assembly going to be absolutely critical so thank you very much for all the work you do thank you thank you have a great night moving on next to um 1602 proposed sale of vpsa bonds uh fall mr wallingford our favorite time of the year yes it is dr latif good evening dr latif and members of the board this is an item that you see
106on an annual basis it's our annual vpsa bond sale this year it was our intention to sell just a little bit more than 124 million dollars for a variety of projects because of savings in projects and because of savings and operations from prior years we're going to be able to reduce that amount from 124 to about 64. just a little bit over 64 million dollars which is really very good news that'll save us a great deal in debt service over the 20-year period and that's what i have thank you great mr wallingford can you just speak to the fact that you know over the last couple years we've we've sold our bonds at incredible rates that's added to the savings we're sort of realizing as well in debt servicing and then do you anticipate getting
107good rates this year again so a very good question dr latif over the past three or four years we have seen historically low rates less than three percent in every case and in some cases in the lower threes two point three two point four percent those are astonishingly low rates uh our expectation is to see rates that are below three percent again this year but you know the markets will dictate that when we go to sale in september okay miss williams thank you mr chairman um mr wellingford when i hear you speaking i've been here for a while so i understand what you say when you refer to our savings but i think there's a public maybe misconception that we saved a lot of money because schools were not necessarily open throughout the entire pandemic
108to everyone and functioning at full capacity even though we obviously had students in on day one but i don't think that that's a commonly understood fact of when you say savings that we're not talking about the fact that we saved a lot of money because we didn't have full capacity and that you're talking about our operational budget and that maybe um you could expand on that and let the pope know because to my knowledge we've never been fully funded um as we've requested so i just don't want um the public to be to misinterpret what you're saying if you don't mind understand no and again a very good question the first thing i'd say with regard to operations we were fully operational all of last year that doesn't mean we had school students in every
109building all of our students in every building but all of our staffing was working every single employee who's employed now except for the turnover obviously those folks were working last year salaries about 85 to 90 percent of our total budget so our expenditures in fiscal 21 the last year were somewhat reduced but not substantially reduced when i say savings from prior years operations i'm not referring only to fiscal 21 again a very good question what i'm talking about is savings that have accrued over the years allowing us a little bit of latitude to put more cash to capital which is over the past five six years something we haven't been able you know haven't had the ability to do and so this is a this is a really this is good news from a variety
110of perspectives but again just because we were you know was just because we accrued some savings last year and in prior years that people should not be confused by the fact that we were fully operational for all ninety thousand of our students thank you mr wildford i appreciate that ms wall i just want to say thank you for the good work um this is great news it's always nice to get some great news on the financial front i appreciate your department and all their hard work and i just want to say thank you thank you so much next we'll move to uh we'll we'll be skipping 1701 our students uh will not be here this evening they'll be at our next board meeting because of the um the weather this evening moved to 1801 superintendent's
111time dr mcdade thank you good evening i'm excited to share division updates during my first regular school board meeting as a new superintendent last week we successfully opened the new school year on monday august 23rd welcoming more than 90 thousand students back to school for in-person and virtual instruction i'm excited to report that our preliminary total enrollment has exceeded our projections by about 60 students overall putting us at approximately ninety thousand sixty we expect this number may fluctuate over the coming weeks is something we will be watching closely and we will be providing regular enrollment updates to that end i believe that meaningful engagement is requisite for success and during the first two weeks of school i had the pleasure of visiting 16 schools bringing the total number of school visits to 45 since my
112arrival to the school division in addition to these school visits i've also hosted 18 parent listening sessions at schools throughout the division and held 12 listening sessions for staff engaging with a total of more than 300 different members of the of the pwcs team throughout that process during my time listening and learning throughout the school division i have acquired a wealth of information about strengths as well as opportunities for continuous improvement i appreciate everyone who has participated thus far in these valuable listening sessions because as we move forward with the development and implementation of our strategic plan which is currently underway feedback and buy-in is important we have four working groups to address each of our four key commitments those four commitments are learning and achievement for all family and community engagement positive culture and
113climate and organizational coherence to date 4 100 stakeholders have provided input and feedback on the strategic plan development and we expect to release our comprehensive strategic plan later this fall in terms of learning in the weeks and months ahead currently 97 of our students are experiencing learning through an in-person educational model last week the state released spring virginia standards of learning scores and the data makes it clear that the pandemic has seriously impacted student learning we will always strive for academic progress for every student so that all students reach their full potential i believe the academic stakes this year are very high that is why we have posted our plan to address unfinished learning the pwcs plan for recovery acceleration and re-engagement provides comprehensive academic social emotional and mental health support in our schools the
114american rescue plan act of 2021 will help fund the implementation of this plan i encourage anyone interested in reviewing the plan to go to our website at www.pwcs.edu a presentation of the full unfinished learning plan will be shared at the next school board meeting scheduled for september 15th while we have many successes to celebrate i also recognized some of our challenges that we've experienced within the first two weeks one of the largest has been transportation and traffic while most of our more than 600 buses arrived on time we know that this was not true for everyone i sincerely appreciate the patience of our students and families who have been who have experienced delays to address this issue we will continue to maximize our bus routes and work to improve traffic flow which should help minimize
115delays we are also working to address the shortage of bus drivers which is an issue that school divisions nationwide are experiencing our teams are working to make real-time adjustments based on data including delay times we are committed to continuous improvement and in the past week our overall afternoon dropout drop-off time has improved by 45 minutes additionally 30 new drivers are currently in the training process as we work to close the vacancies that exist put simply we're committed to continuing to improve in this area i also share our community's concern regarding the recent incident that occurred at the conclusion of a sporting event at freedom high school last friday as a school division we have been in contact with all school communities that have been impacted to ensure adequate supports have been provided to both students
116and staff our safety and security team will be collaborating with freedom high school staff to provide support to bolster safety and security practices and supports the students and staff we'll also be taking this time to review all safety and security practices for large events throughout the division but i also want to take a moment to just acknowledge the freedom high school administrative team and entire staff in their response to a situation that was out of their control and the way that they jumped and sprung into action to support and protect our students during a very challenging time no one knows you know how to respond sometimes in a crisis but to see the way that our educators and our leaders protected our students just shows the dedication and commitment that we have in this school
117division so i do want to acknowledge and show support for the freedom high school school staff and administration as for some other broad takeaways during my short time as superintendent i have witnessed the true resiliency of our staff students and their families in overcoming the difficulties of the ongoing pandemic i am impressed with our division's employees including administrators teachers and support staff as we work collaboratively to reconnect and re-engage our students and i want to thank our entire pwcs community for your diligence in preparing for this school year and i know that together we can and will make it a success finally safety continues to be a top priority as we work to prevent the spread of covet 19. pwcs works collaboratively with the prince william health department district to support covet 19 contact tracing
118protocols at this moment public health and public education are truly intertwined and we're remaining extremely diligent we will continue to follow the science examine the data and listen to the experts when it comes to covet 19 communication to families to staff and to the entire community matters as a reminder of processes only close contacts will receive direct communication if there is a need for student or staff quarantine this is in accordance with the health data protections pwcs does not identify individuals who may be treated as having cobit 19. therefore general school communications are provided to those who are not close contacts in addition the school division has an anonymous tip line for reporting any safety concerns including those related to health protocols so that members of the school community have a way to come forward
119if they have concerns that number is 703-791-2821 and can also be found on our website at this time i would like to invite denise hebner our associate superintendent for special education and student services to provide an update on the covet 19 protocols for schools kadenian chairman latif vice chairs eric report members of the school board and superintendent mcdade next slide please so this evening i'm pleased to be speaking with you and sharing our how we will be implementing the um interim guidance for covet 19 prevention in virginia pre-k 12 schools if you'll notice on the slide above that it looks very similar to the previous guidance at least the cover does it's important to note that the updated guidance has a date in the bottom right corner and so when you're looking at guidance and
120reviewing protocols it'd be important to make sure that you have the most updated copy this is available on the vdoe website and we have many links to it as well on our website next slide please so the guiding principles do remain the same students benefit from in-person learning we are putting education first and we're focusing on prevention considering the needs of our community and we have been very flexible and innovative and we continue to look for innovative and challenging ways ways to overcome challenges rather than seeing the problems we are focusing on the solutions because our students safety and our staff safety and well-being is our number one priority next slide please in order to help our stakeholders and our staff members be informed we have comprehensive information available on our website so i do
121encourage everyone to take a look at the information available next slide please under the interim guidance our mitigation strategies or the prevention strategies that are focused is promoting vaccination consistent incorrect use of masks physical distancing which we do implement to the greatest extent possible being that we do have 97 of our students back in our buildings screening testing is recommended but it's not something that we are utilizing at this time ventilation hand washing respiratory etiquette cleaning and maintaining healthy health facilities excuse me staying home so creating a culture of acceptable absenteeism when you are not feeling well and making sure that you are getting treated by a healthcare professional as well as contact tracing and collaboration with our health district next slide please so on this slide you'll see some information about vaccination in virginia
122i'll give you a moment to review next slide please there is the overall view of the state of virginia as well with prince william county highlighted next slide please in the state of virginia you can see a breakdown by age as of today in prince william county adults ages 65 and over 81 percent vaccinated over 18 were about 67 vaccinated and 12 and over is about 65 percent so we will continue to look at strategies including promotion of vaccination in order to keep our students and staff safe next slide please as always we encourage you to work with your building administrator when you have a concern they are the people on the ground floor there and have the most information available to help resolve concerns however if you are not comfortable speaking with the school
123staff member or administrator we do have our anonymous tip line that dr mcdade outlined for you and the number is there on the slide 703-791-2821 next slide please so the cdc has highlighted the importance of consistent and correct use of masks this is one of the mitigation strategies that we are currently using next slide please so you may have heard me say before that our staff and student safety is our number one priority therefore for our staff members who do perform high-risk tasks we will be providing high-risk and 95 masks as required for those who come in direct contact with covid positive or potentially coded positive individuals as well as providing to all staff members who so desire a kn-95 mask at no charge until our supplies run out next slide please so you see
124just a definition of what the cdc does consider to be a mask we do have this outlined as well in our emergency rate fast amazing face mask regulation 275-2 we do ask that individuals when they enter our building utilize a face mask next slide please so our overall mask guidance is available on the website and it is also outlined all of our policies and procedures in regulation 275-2 next slide please so i would just like to make some clarification or emphasize that on our chart you will see that in certain situations we have recommended recommended does mean it is not required but it is encouraged should the student choose that option but students are not required and should be allowed to make their choice in certain situations such as when they are outdoor for pe
125outdoor for recess and other areas that are indicated on the chart next slide please so what you're viewing is the bottom of our mask chart there you can see that's highlighted in red just like to make a note that our guidance does make accommodations for a variety of circumstances such as disability or medical need as well as for specific instructional needs next slide please so our public health order does outline the patients with conditions or disabilities that prohibit them from wearing a mat masks shall be allowed this accommodation any person who declines to wear a mask because of a sincerely held religious objection may also request a reasonable accommodation next slide please and again just to emphasize that we are consistent with the public health order we have implemented processes for families to document request
126religious and medical concern exemptions staff members may contact human resources for accommodations and students may and staff may refer to regulation 275-2 for our processes next slide please so you'll note the difference physical distancing is outlined previously last year you remembered me standing here saying it all the time we're going to stay three feet apart it's required we have to our guidance has changed now the guidance does tell us that our we are prioritizing education even if we are not able to maintain that distance that we will be having in person learning with that being said we do strive to keep three feet of distance in our classrooms or as much distance as possible at all times next slide please so you'll notice in our cafeteria we are taking steps including seating charts potting providing
127additional spaces when possible in order to minimize the number of students that would be impacted as a close contact next slide please so one of the questions that we frequently get is how is this ventilation in our schools our facilities team has done an excellent job site evaluations are conducted and we are working to ensure that our equipment is functioning and is providing the highest level of proper ventilation facility services monitors the systems closely and they have proper operation and optimal ventilation in our buildings you can see that there are other strategies that we do implement we do make available hand hygiene supplies hand sanitizer hand soap and opportunities for students to utilize hand washing as well as keeping our facilities high touch areas cleaned frequently next slide please we encourage all of our staff
128and students to monitor their health stay home when you don't feel well and we do ask that you daily evaluate your health we have this daily health questionnaire available for parents on our website on the office of student services for a reminder next slide please to help ensure that everyone has accurate information about when quarantine is possible or needed or isolation we have provided you with some links to the information on the virginia department of health i am going to again emphasize it is important to use the links rather than containing a pdf because the materials do update frequently and you'll want to make sure that you have the most recent guidance one of the key things that i think i'd like to review is close context so i'll ask to move to the next
129slide please so there has recently been an update on the 26th we did receive a revision to what the close contact exception in k12 settings is so virginia department of health and vdoe recognizes that we want to keep our children in person and learning and therefore we do have the close contact that takes into consideration that children in classrooms that are within three feet or greater are not considered a close contact as long as masks are properly being used next slide please okay so what does it mean it basically means that when we're identifying close contact for students student to student contact less than three feet in all situations where both students are masked or whether they're inside the building or outside building will be implemented so we are not following the typical six foot
130rule in k-12 buildings inside and out it is properly masked student to student is three feet adult to student remains the trip the traditional close contact definition of six feet for cumulatively 15 minutes or more over 24 hour period a moment to look at that on the slide okay next slide please it is important to note that this close contact exemption does not apply in the preschool setting just in our k-12 classrooms next slide please and again there are a variety of sources that we use when we implement our prevention strategies and in order to guide our daily operations at our schools and those are resources for you to utilize and that concludes our presentation thank you that concludes superintendent's time thank you dr mcdade appreciate that moving on next to um the annual report
131of the ombudsman 19.01 we have sarah espinosa joining us the ombudsman virtually this evening miss espinosa please thank you dr latif members of the school board and dr mcdade i appreciate the opportunity to share the office of the ombudsman's second annual report this report is for fiscal year 2021 and so that is july 1st 2020 through june 30th 2021 next slide please as the board knows pwcs is really in the forefront in establishing a pre-k to 12 organizational ombuds office and providing those services for parents students community members and employees the school board established this resource for these constituents to voluntarily seek confidential assistance in resolving school-related concerns conflicts and issues for policy 180 this office operates in accordance with the international ambassador association code of ethics and core values of confidentiality impartiality informality and
132independence next slide please the office has two primary and equally important responsibilities and the first is to assist confidentially assist individuals seeking help with any school related concern by listening identifying options helping visitors to analyze those options so that the visitor can make the decision that makes the most sense for them and where applicable facilitating informal discussions and resolutions the second and equally important responsibility that this office has is to collect data and to identify trends and patterns while safeguarding the anonymity of those visitors who are seeking assistance and then utilize this data to make quarterly and annual reports next slide please so when a visitor comes to see the ombuds i we listen and categorize the issues that we're hearing and the concerns that we're hearing using the international ombuds association's uniform reporting categories
133there are nine reporting categories and then there are several subcategories that fall under each category next slide please so in fiscal year 2021 there were 171 unique visitors to the office of the ombudsman some of these visitors came several times with different issues but there were 171 unique visitors the concerns expressed by these visitors were going to go through categories of concerns expressed but 88 of the visitors in this fiscal year were division employees so next slide please so of those employee visitors 64 percent uh expressed a concern about the employee supervisor relationship now when we say evaluative relationships that's an international ombuds term for this category but it really has to do with the supervisor employee relationship the second most in in 64 of those concerns expressed by employees related to that category is
134consistent with what we saw in the first annual report when 61 of the concerns from employees had to do with these types of relationships and that's not unusual for an organization that sees employees the second most prevalent concern this past fiscal year had to do with safety health in the physical work environment and they are 37 percent of the employee visitors were expressing concerns related to that category and this is entirely driven by the global pandemic so in the first annual report you didn't see this category appearing primarily because the physical workplace was closed in march but this category this was the second most prevalent category um for this past year and then finally the third category um which was our second category uh in the first annual report had to do with legal regulatory
135financial and compliance issues next slide please so in terms of the employee supervisor relationships here when we look at the subcategories the most prevalent subcategory had to do with retaliation or fear of retaliation and that's defined by the ioa as punitive behaviors for previous actions or comments the second most prevalent subcategory had to do with respect and treatment demonstrations of an appropriate regard for people not listening rudeness and the third subcategory had to do with communication the quality or quantity of communication next slide please in terms of safety health and physical environment here the two most prevalent subcategories uh the first had to do was safety so those were questions concerns about safety and health and the next had to do with remote or virtual work options the ability to work from home or other
136locations because of business health or personal need next slide please the most frequent subcategories of our third uh most prevalent category had to do with a reasonable accommodation in the reasonable accommodation process and also concerns related to discrimination next slide please so now i'd like to share with you um some division-wide observations and a recommendation and and what you see before you is the recommendation that was made in the first annual report and during i just want to preface this by saying that as you know the the ombuds office has an unusual vantage point from which to view the organization so by design these programs are impartial and confidential and serve a small percentage of the employee and constituent populations as visitors but the issues encountered in ombuds offices often provide the ombuds with the
137ability to make observations and alert the organization to issues in need of further examination the purpose of offering these observations is to assist the division in removing obstacles that may serve as barriers in achieving the mission of a world-class education for pwcs students and to promote continuous improvement equity and transparency so during this year and similar to last year i observed and heard and identified a theme related to workplace climate and culture specifically employee visitors most often shared concerns that included the fear of retaliation and a theme developed around employee perceptions of how those who raised concerns were subsequently treated by division management and namely employees express their concerns and perception that if an employee raised a concern the employee themselves came under scrutiny rather than an authentic attempt to understand and address the concern
138itself with that in mind and in the spirit of continuous improvement and having reflected upon the data of the past two years next slide please this year i offer the following recommendation that the office of human resources the office of equity and employee relations the office of accountability and the office of professional learning work collaboratively to identify and compile data that's available to each of these available to for each office and school so for example turnover information transfer requests number of complaints grievances filed survey data related to employee engagement and to do so in order to develop a dashboard or an annual report to inform division leadership of examples of successes where there are practices going on that that are leading to [Music] workplace climates that we'd like to duplicate or replicate as well as
139we'll identify opportunities for growth within schools and offices i'd like to also just take one moment to say thank you to the board for the opportunity to serve as the founding ombuds and i to assure you that i'll do whatever i can to support the next ombuds once they're identified to continue this important work and i'm happy to answer any questions mr stevens can i have a question miss jesse hi um i just wanted for the public record um what concerned me was that uh last year and that evaluated relationships and then this year's at 61. so there has not been a substantial decrease in that and uh that's a concern or is should that be a concern so in organizations where employees are seen by ombuds offices often employees may come to discuss that
140supervisor employee relationship what is flagged is even more of a concern i think is that the most prevalent issue in this year has to do with retaliation or fear of retaliation for raising issues and that's a little bit different and and could use further scrutiny okay the other uh item is that in your last report you made a recommendation for a uh you made a recommendation now you and for an independent study to be done and you're making another recommendation a different recommendation this year i wanted to follow up in the public in this public arena was the independent study done and what were those findings so the independent study was not done for a variety of reasons the primary one being because of the global pandemic and the other issues that were going on
141within the school division at that time i guess my question do you feel that this recommendation still needs to be done in conjunction and the additional your new recommendation do you think both or one or the other that's what i wanted to know because as we make this transition to the new superintendent i just wanted to know what your thoughts were because the employees are listening to the school board meeting and i really want them to know that their voices are being heard certainly and thank you um when i was looking at the recommendations the reason that i made the the second recommendation is because a lot of that data is already available to the school division it needs to all be pulled together um but what i would say and what i don't think
142should be lost is that there are um i think that there are very real concerns um by employees who have come to see the ombuds related to workplace climate and employee engagement and that does include employee experiences specific to equity and inclusion and i and i don't think that part of the recommendation should be lost so where we aren't able to um gather data or don't have the data available it may be helpful to look at where there are gaps and then and then study those areas my final question was that i know you did some outreach and met with various people did you meet with the naacp or was there a reason why you did not meet with them i actually the naacp was the first group i met with the first year um
143that i was here as ombuds okay thank you those are all my questions thank you by the way you did an excellent job i love how comprehensive your reports were and you have such a calming voice i i just feel that employees have been here for a while and it's great that employees have someone to come to but i don't want it just to be a place where they come to invent and then nothing actually happened i think we talked earlier about the follow-up with the superintendent and documentation thank you thank you miss jesse miss wall and then miss williams thank you ms espinoza um the office of the muds is fairly new to pwcs and i think you provide a very valuable service to us and your data is very helpful i wanted to
144thank you i do actually have a question is it is it to be expected that many more individuals within the school division employees etc as opposed to outside individuals parents citizens maybe even students would utilize the services of an ombuds um is that is that pretty normal in your experience or in your profession if you can speak to that yeah so i think that the pandemic in part impacted the use of the ombuds office and in our ability to do outreach to the parents and community and my hope would be that the next ombuds will continue to do and do even more outreach and that the office will be utilized by both employees and by members of the community and parents in higher numbers and i can tell you just from this first quarter where
145i continue to provide limited ombud services while the new ombuds is recruited uh there have been a lot more um parents and community members who have reached out to the office thank you and i just want to say best wishes we're going to miss you we're going to miss you a lot but best wishes to you ms williams thank you mr chairman i just um i know that you mentioned it already but i think it's worth mentioning again um just so that our staff knows and anyone in the public who is watching that you will continue to provide service to which we are actually very grateful for until our new obudsman ombudsman arrives and i also want to take the opportunity to thank you for your foundational work in setting up this office you have
146truly done an outstanding job especially during the pandemic i know from speaking to members of the community and the general public who have visited your office that they were very pleased and very thankful that prince william county schools has an office of ombudsman for them to communicate with but if you just don't mind for the sake of the listening let public to let them know that you will still be there and your staff is your office is still staffed i think it's really important because whenever there's a transition that that does make people really nervous as to whether or not they will still provide be provided with the same level of service and i know you will but if you don't mind ma'am thank you thank you thank you miss williams and yes rosa maria
147manzinis remains in the in the office of the ombudsman and uh we set up appointments as quickly as we can when visitors reach out and contact us so the one of the best ways to get a hold of the office is at ombuds pwcs.edu thank you okay miss espinosa thank you very much and i'd like to echo the statements from the other board members for our gratitude and for everything you've done and thank you for helping us set up that office and helping us carry forward with uh what we need to do have a wonderful evening there in maryland okay next we'll move on to um revisions of policy 132 the regular special enclosed meeting so in um we have a series of uh rev oh yeah yeah sorry thank you um clerk uh simpson
148uh approval i'm sorry 92.02 emotions in order miss zargapur uh thank you dr latif i move that the prince william county school board confirmed their votes in the august 16 2021 board poll approving the award of a sole source contract for cengage learning incorporated to provide student services with the gale resource library cameron's collection and camp cameron's online social emotional resource library for all students k-12 in the total amount of four hundred and sixty thousand dollars do you have a second a second miss jesse seconds of motion any discussion please vote miss jesse how do you vote yes miss jesse votes yes miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes the vote is six yes one no wilk one abstain williams motion passed okay moving on to now 1903 my apologies this
149is um we have a series of policy revisions which we typically coming out of summer and late in the year we always take a look at the way we do things and so on 1903 all of these are up for first reading they've already been posted for citizen comments and will continue to be posted until we vote on them in the next meeting or so uh this policy 132 just states that we'll review the proposed revisions updating um to reflect our current practices during cover 19 and pandemic which improve the efficiency of the school board meetings school board members are encouraged to continue to reach out to staff division council regarding their concerns regarding any policy and revision changes and we'll be bringing these up for about the next meeting 1904 is the revisions to
150policy 134 regarding citizen participation this prince william county school board wanted to review the proposed revisions intended to improve our efficiency and safety of board meetings increase avenues of communications with the public particularly on agenda items and corporate recent legislative changes to provisions of virginia foia as they relate to the confidentiality the personal contact information citizens again this has been posted for comment will continue to be posted and school board members will continue to receive comment on this and again we'll move forward to the next meeting where this will be then vote on again continue to encourage board members to reach out to staff and division council regarding concerns and questions here revisions policy 139 the school board participation meetings by electronic communication we continue to make changes to reflect new legislative policy virginia foia
151changes covet 19 state of emergency again these are mostly legal legal changes to our current policies to allow these things to happen and revision of policy 724 student absences this recommendation the prince william county school will receive information a proposed revision of policy 724 student absences excuses tardy summary the office student service is proposing a division of 724 regarding this and i encourage school board members any questions currents they have for staff on this one will be to denise hebner denise hebner's office and the superintendent's office regarding concerns here and then we'll move forward with that and at this point there is no further business for the school board this evening and in light of the weather and the desire for us to relieve staff of their duties and get home we will adjourn the
152meeting for this evening have a wonderful evening and have a safe new academic new year thank you [Music]