001i'd like to call the prince william county uh school board meeting order this meeting of the prince william county school board is being conducted electronically under the virginia code 2.2 3708.2 and the authority granted by the general assembly on april 22nd 2020 through amendment 28 to house bill 29 which permits the school board to meet electronically during the dependency of the current state of emergency for the purpose of transacting such business as is statutory required or necessary to continue operation the prince william county public schools in discharge of its lawful purposes duties and responsibilities emotions in order for the approval of the closed session agenda argo mr chairman i move that the prince william county school board approved the closed session agenda as recommended do you have a second mr chairman miss williams second any
002discussion please vote miss ralston how do you vote yes miss ralston votes yes moving on a motion enter closed session emotions in order mr chairman i move that pursuant to virginia code sections 2.2-3711 and 2.2-3712 that prince william county school board enter closed session for the following reasons one to discuss with division council and staff the contracts performance evaluation appointment transfer release assignment and promotion of specific officers employees and appointees under virginia code sections 2.2-3711a 1 and 8. and to dispense with the attendance of the superintendent as necessary as provided under virginia code section 22.1-69 two to receive information and discuss with division council and staff actual or probable litigation and specific legal matters involving specific staff and students under virginia code sections 2.2-3711a 1 2 7 and 8. do you have a second mr
003chairman miss wall i second any discussion please vote miss ralston how do you vote yes mr also mochi yes the and um i'm sorry the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed okay at this time the prince william county school board will now enter closed section and will return in approximately one hour thank you [Music] the prince william county school board will now return and reconvene to open session the um we're moving on to closed session certification emotions in order to miss zargoport chairman i move that pursuant to virginia code section 2.2-3712 the closed session of the prince william county school board meeting of may 19 2021 be certified by adopting the following resolution now therefore be it resolve that the prince william county school board hereby con certifies that to the best of each
004measure members 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 were as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard and discussed or considered by the school board another second mr chairman mrs williams a second any discussion please vote miss ralston how do you vote yes jason can i see um okay all right thank you the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed moving on to the closed session action items a motion in order mr porter mr chairman i move that the prince william county school board approved the appointments and releases of specific employees as presented in closed session do you have a second mrs j yes miss jesse seconds
005of motion okay any discussion okay at this point please vote miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes eight yes unanimous motion passed at this point i'd like to call the meeting of the prince william county school board order the purpose of the meeting is being the meeting of the prince william county school is being conducted electronically into virginia code 2.237808.2 and the authority granted by the general assembly on april 22 2020 through amendment 28 to house bill 29 which permits the school board to meet electronically during dependency the current state emergency for the purpose of transacting such business as is statutory required or necessary to continue operations of the prince william county public schools and discharged with lawful purposes of duties and responsibilities at this point we will stand for the
006pledge of allegiance the flag is over here miss williams would you lead us in the of pledge and to a republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you at this point we're going to move to the approval of the public meeting agenda motions and order ms zargophore mr chairman i move that the prince william county school board approved the public meeting agenda as recommended do have a second mr chairman ms williams second any discussion please vote ms dargaport irma i'm sorry miss ralston how do you vote yes miss ralston votes yes next we'll move on to the adoption of the consent agenda motions in order mr chairman i move that the prince william county school board approved the public meeting consent agenda as recommended do
007you have a second mr chairman mrs williams second any discussion miss jesse i like uh discussion can you speak under the microphone i'm sorry i'd like a discussion on 1108 and 1109. just that i wanted just to verify the actual uh elements of those two items uh and go ahead what is your question i'm sorry i thought who's who's can can someone tell me about the kobe one time supplemental grant for free schools mrs goss and the head start because i'm on that policy council dr waltz miss goss do you have a brief answer yes i just need an explanation that's all i'm on the policy council and i just need to get something good evening mrs i understand 1109 which is carryover mrs jesse which item again are you asking about okay i'm sorry
008i couldn't hear you it's and 1109. 1109. so i'll lead off while rita miscos is looking for that so the cost of living anytime we have a federal entitlement program and we make a cost adjustment that cost adjustment is then also passed along through the grant to those employees ms goss is there anything i left out of that no that cost of living um is is the adjustment that's passed along and so we have to do that through the grant because the grants are based on actual salaries and not average salaries okay what about 1107 this one time supplemental grant for preschools could you give me more information on that so 1107 is actually um this is our our grant application and this is for the covid the one time supplemental grant so they offered
009additional money for preschool programs um because of covid and so this is our application for that additional money so that we can utilize that going into next year how many additional programs are we getting this year do you know off the top of your yet we are adding um let's see i've heard the number seven but i'm not we are adding uh seven new classes but they're not all related to they're not head start classes but it doesn't relate to this particular supplemental that's correct this is around the head start grant specifically okay thank you that's all please vote miss ralston how do you vote on the uh adoption of the consent agenda mr austin yes mr also votes yes the vote is eight yes unanimous motion passed okay moving on to citizen comment time
010due to the cobit 19 state of emergency and the legal restrictions the school board's authority to conduct its meetings through electronic means unlike other public bodies meeting electronically under more expansive illegal authority all discussions at this meeting by board member staff citizens must be limited to agenda items citizens may speak on an agenda item for two minutes when the board is able to resume regular meetings without the virtual participation permitted during the state of the emergency expanded citizen comment will be resumed as provided by policy 134 in the interim citizen comment time has been reinstated on limited basis to order to in order to allow public comments both in person and through electronic means during the state of emergency citizens are encouraged to submit their comments by email to the clerk who will share them
011with the school board the those citizens who signed up today in advance with the school board clerk who had signed up no later than 4 p.m today may 19th may address the school board in person virtually electronically about matters relating to may 19th 2021 agenda items only there are 10 people speaking in person and four speaking virtually citizens are reminded if they're not speaking on a specific agenda item for this evening's meeting they will be asked to step down please use proper decorum and manners while at the podium and speaking virtually if you do not do so you'll be asked to step aside please state your name and address address for the record we will start with paul georgia and then after him will be jennifer ashman and then i have carol without a last
012name but paul paul georgia next jennifer ashman there'll be a timer up there just okay just tell me when to begin welcome go for it okay uh my name is jennifer ashman i'm a haymarket resident my address is on file and the first bullet point of your equity statement discusses resources and opportunities being provided to all staff and students this sounds like equality not equity and that is a very good thing this should be an equality statement because what you have written is classic verbage of equity of outcome and is not good for prince william county students right equality means everybody gets the same opportunities what they do with those opportunities is up to them equity is crossing the finish line at the same time by slowing down the fastest kid there is no excellence
013with the latter and i'd love to get into who gets to decide what's culturally relevant but i don't have time for that here tonight this statement is basically garbage you're destroying the school system our superintendent who's spent over 15 years improving it and now you're destroying it you are attempting to reprogram the american psyche and its cultural terrorism how are you going to eliminate learning disparities without removing advanced classes for the children who achieve it there will always be learning disparities because children are different learn differently at different speeds and have different work ethics now about eliminating institutional beliefs that perpetuate systemic racism and discrimination show me one systemically racist policy one because in order for it to be systemic it has to be written in your policies already show us one and if there
014are any why wasn't it addressed well before now i'll tell you why because there aren't any stop pandering to the emotionally charged rhetoric because that's all this is it is not your job to push what you believe is systemically racist instead teach our children math science history social studies if your students know what your political beliefs are you have already failed you are supposed to teach them how to think not what to think which brings me to bullet point number one thank you miss ashman i appreciate it um i have i have a carol i don't have a last name here carol foxx hey hey hey you took a second off god i'm just walking up here put it back at 59 please my name is carol fox i live in gainesville 69 6905 sunday
015science squad gainesville virginia okay i was noted i was very interested in reading your statement that you published about uh the commitment to the education of prince william county students and several words stuck out to me in that particular statement and the main one that stuck out to me was the word equity uh those the word equity means to achieve the same thing equity in the student means that if you have a student who is learning rapidly you hold that student back and if you have a student who's leaning slowly you slow the whole class down until that student catches up so that both can achieve the same outcome well now if you have the same outcome we have to get rid of cygnet programs we have to get rid of advanced math programs we
016have to get rid of advanced english programs we have to get rid of advanced diplomas we have to get rid of ib programs we have to get rid of cambridge programs because you don't have the same outcome when students are in those different kinds of classes students always will achieve faster just like the lady before said because of different ethics as far as studying and work that they put out the other thing that i have a problem with is your seventh bullet point where it says staff will reflect the rich diversity of our community does that mean that you're going to take a look at the classroom that i last taught in and you're going to hire only people that look like the kids that were in that classroom if it does that means that
017you have a problem with racism because you're choosing which races of teachers you're going to hire and not hire i think you should hire teachers that are the highest quality that will create the best outcome for all students just like your statement says a world-class education you cannot have a world-class education with having without having rigorous standards having students meet those rigorous standards and some going beyond those regular standards and some just basic barely even meeting them so therefore in order to continue your world-class education you're going to have to stop using the word equity in this this uh statement and put in the word equality thank you very much and have a good evening miss melanie miss melanie de chato and then after her will be kristen gladhill and melanie uh one um ann
018arden avenue woodbridge virginia equality is providing the same resources to the group understanding that outcomes may be different while equity is to allocate the specific resources needed to reach an equal outcome your choice of words is not lost on us we see what you are doing is the goal for students to demonstrate equal outcomes what does that even mean what does that look like does everyone get the same grade are we just going to do away with grades altogether how does this prepare them for life bullet2 states giving students what they need not necessarily equally to meet their learning health and safety requirements so we'll no longer be providing students equal resources to meet these requirements who decides what each student needs individually who decides what my child needs if i think she's behind will
019she get resources to help her if she's not being challenged enough will advance courses be available to her that is equality or will someone else make these determinations based on where her classmates are in order to keep everyone the same because that is equity bullet three eliminating learning disparities there will always be disparities among students and to eliminate them doesn't mean to raise the students up who are behind but rather to bring down more advanced students to level the playing field this is a socialist approach to education rather than some students excelling no students excel bullet seven mentions hiring staff who reflect the rich diversity of our community so does this mean staff will be hired based on their skin color if you consider the legal implications of such hiring practices qualifications will no longer
020matter only skin color bullet 6 and 8 referencing teaching culturally relevant curricula who decides what is culturally relevant because it seems to me that politics and the loudest voices on social media are the deciding factors here this has nothing to do with preparing our children for society but has everything to do with laying the framework for critical race theory which has no place in our community this school board needs to reverse course now and never forget that you serve us the community this is not an entitlement this is a privilege thank you very much chris kristen kristen gladhill kristin gladhill amanda ballard can i take my mask off up here okay i am amanda ballard and i live in haymarket and i agree with the proposal stating that prince william county is committed to inclusive
021practices to promote excellence for all i'd like to clarify a couple of the points before it is voted on primarily i'm concerned that it is a nice way of saying or a nice segue in to having critical race theory taught to our children one of my concerns with this term is that we will use terms like white privilege and systemic racism my concern with these terms is that i've worked hard to teach my young children that the privileges they have are built off hard work and um sorry that are built off hard work and character we teach our kids that they aren't going to make it in life or that they will be held back because the color of their skin is detrimental i don't want my kids to go through life with pre-made assumptions
022based off of what somebody in school taught them about what other people might think about them i don't want them to go through life with an artificial weight dragging them down and that they feel that they feel has been placed on their heads by default because of the color of their skin teaching other kids that their better position in life because of that kid's skin or their kid's skin will perpetuate stereotypes that highlight our differences and minimize what we have in common i fear it causes exactly what we are trying to prevent i fear that it will make kids either view themselves as being disadvantaged or underprivileged because of the color of their skin i also fear that other people view them through the same filter instead of feeling included they will feel different i
023don't want people to look at me or my kids differently because of the color of our skin i personally felt much more comfortable in my skin before we started emphasizing that i was right that i was different as a mixed race african-american i've had many more negative interactions with people from both sides of the color spectrum since last summer when we started emphasizing it there are issues that need to be addressed and i think that we need to be careful that the way that we address them does not create more divide than it does healing as you vote realize each one of those statements open up many other doors to what is being taught to our children i'm asking that the statement be revised before approved to remove politically and societal divisive terms specifically systemic
024racism which has already proven to be a flash point to ensure the tone and complete inclusion the statement reflect the statement should reflect inclusive practices equality and promote excellence for all martha cutsinger martha cutsinger good evening martha cutsinger games against gainesville district uh captain john smith arrived in jamestown in 1607. he already had experience with slaves he had been one in 1602 he was captured in crimea as a mercenary soldier and was sold to a turkish nobleman in 1604 he escaped and made his way back to england how many pwcs students have been taught that the founder of jamestown of virginia was a former slave as you vote tonight on your equity statement know that parents teachers taxpayers and students are getting up to speed on this critical theory definition of equity and that they
025know you are about to codify discrimination into pwcs policy you do not use the term equality for a reason equity requires discrimination it is entirely about equal outcomes that is marxism they also know critical theory now marks him as foundational to the concept of equity and that this statement lays the foundation for introducing critical race theory into the curriculum and that the new name cultural responsive training is simply a name change they're catching on to the goal of equity dismantling the system including the constitution through divide and conquer just like in loudoun and in faircat fairfax and at tjhs they reject this dogma and understand that it destroys education some of you and many administrators have not studied the ideology here you are taking cues from richmond and one virginia and you're rubber stamping these
026divisive tenants and opening the gates to disaster ebram candy is a product of college indoctrinated critical race theory and the leading proponent of equity his book how to be an anti-racist was read by your advisory board on equity in it candy writes quote the definition is whether the discrimination is creating equity or inequity if the discrimination is creating equity then it's anti-racist if the discrimination is creating inequity then it's racist he also writes quote capitalism is essentially racism racism is essentially capitalist and quote the only remedy to racist discrimination is anti-racist discrimination the only remedy to pass discrimination is present discrimination the only remedy to present discrimination is future discrimination that is equity that is critical theory and that is neuromarxism please change everything to equality thank you jason buchanan jason buchanan jason buchanan alan
027blocker so what's in the statement most of it we can't argue with right it sounds great we want inclusion we want equity one of these things but what's really in that statement are the foundations of what everybody's already said it is critical theory straight from 1930 that came here and has been trying to take over and subvert this country from that time what's laid in there are all of the phrases and all of the words that say equality or equity that say inclusion that say we're looking out for people but they drive wedges and they're discriminatory and it establishes a racist ideology and so what you need to do is re-look at that and take these fundamental tenets of what is a cultural marxist and critical theory out of that and actually go after what
028you want which is equality and trying to improve people's lives telling them that from the get go because of things about them that cannot change they are victims or because of things about them they cannot change they are oppressors is divisive at the beginning it cannot end well so i'm asking you to rethink this don't go down this road don't follow the counties nearby right stop this now and we need a reverse course kevin murphy kevin murphy i don't really have a prepared statement but um i'd like to know it seems uh all of us in this room here are really seem to be against this critical race theory i want to tell you guys it's already here i called my daughter's seventh my seventh grade daughter's principal earlier this year and i asked her
029a question the very first question i ever asked her i never met her before i couldn't meet with her in person due to covid my question was when you were in seventh grade how many books did you read about rape can you any raise the hands if any of you nobody okay there were three books on a reading list that were about rape and one of them was white boys raping black girls why is this in seventh grade one of the books was called this is my america it was had a black girl on the cover as if my daughter's america who happens to be white like me like that they're different no we are one america and what this is all doing is divisive and destructive and it's going to lead ultimately to war
030and death unless we stop it our kids are not your social experiment [Applause] paul georgia he didn't hear his name thank you um i want to focus on one specific bullet point in the in the in the statement which says assuring all pwcs staff members examine and interpret beliefs implicit and explicit biases policies into practices that perpetuate systemic racism and discrimination this statement raises a lot of red flags why do you believe this examination of beliefs and biases among the staff is necessary do you have evidence of widespread racism and biases among the staff do you have any evidence of such beliefs or and biases have there been incidences of racism systemic or otherwise among the staff if so how many has any due diligence whatsoever been done before putting forth this vague open-ended and
031frankly nonsensical statement i suspect is just parodying the the un founded fashionable assumptions of last of leftist ideol ideologues in academia it all sounds alarmingly like an unwarranted assumption of guilt my second question is can any of you define systemic race and racism what do you mean by systemic racism the state of virginia is thick with anti-discrimination laws at every level of government and those laws reach into every public and private institution in the state including the schools isn't that the opposite of systemic racism i fail to understand how the system is racist my third question is how are you going to assure this examination of beliefs and biases take place among the staff staff can any of you explain the manner in which this examination will be assured will this entail bringing in and
032paying diversity trainers steeped in critical race theory to do indoctrination workshops with the staff in one school system in springfield missouri teachers were forced to locate themselves on an oppression matrix which defined white heterosexual males as the privileged social group and women minorities transgender and lbgt people as oppressed social groups thank you mr georgia time's up they also conflated opposition to mundane government policies such as raising property taxes which have no racial component whatsoever to the true evils of nazism and slavery thank you sir please reject this statement we'll move to uh mr stevens we have four uh folks virtually you want to take over yes sir thank you um i will be sticking to the two-minute clock as well so after we get to two minutes i'll be disabling the microphone so please try
033to make your statement within that two minutes our first speaker will be jeff fuller you can unmute yourself and you have the floor am i on video are you just uh listening to me we can just hear your voice sir okay i'm jeff fuller i live in haymarket and i was startled to read your statement i would like to just say that the people sitting in that room who've already talked should be sitting on the school board i've never heard such gardens in one short statement is this the i have lots of problems with it you don't have time to hear them uh whoever thinks this is a good idea i wish you'd raise your hand and count so we can see who thinks this is a good idea and where did it come from
034who sat down and wrote this it's poorly constructed it's ill-defined uh i have problems with every bullet but the thing that jumped out at me is a discussion about um that basically assumes that we are systemically racism several people have already raised this point but uh we're not a systemically racist country uh even joe biden and kamala harris had to had to say that recently um but of course with lots of caveats but uh this is a this is a step into uh mayoistic thinking it comes right out of the critical race theory uh playbook uh i'm grateful for the lady that read uh the specifics of that that was very informative and not surprising you cannot you cannot there's no science available that would tell you that you guys or somebody you hire is
035capable of figuring out what people's implicit biases are let alone explicit biases there's no no research on that that's uh acceptable and i think you should start off by finding one and explaining to um your constituents and and your parents what that science is so please throw this thing away start over have a group of parents come together and help you come up with something that makes sense thank you thank you our next speaker is melissa ridge you can unmute yourself thank you good evening my name is melissa ridge and i live in lake ridge i'm a parent and an educator with more than 30 years experience as a as a public school teacher a paraprofessional and a homeschooler i have taught special education i've taught in title one schools and i've taught english in
036the upper bound program at the university of mary washington i chose to homeschool my own children because of the systemic racism and inequity i saw in princeton county schools 20 years ago my younger children chose to attend high school in the county a few years ago and both decided to withdraw in their sophomore year due to systemic racism in the school and inequity in the curriculum my children are now adults and i'm working in the school system again i want to thank the members of the board as well as any staff in the school system who has listened and responded to those in the community with concerns regarding equity this is the first time i've seen those concerns met with anything other than a band-aid there is traction and movement and a new energy and
037commitment many of us thought would never happen and as a result of that movement forward there is going to be a push back from those who don't understand equity and who think that they're going to lose something i'm asking you to please continue this push forward understanding that change is hard and painful but necessary for growth equity benefits everyone including those arguing against it we don't live in a mono ethnic country or county we have a rich history and a diverse culture and our current curriculum only gives us a narrow view of the whole our current curriculum is only one example of the systemic racism that exists in prince william county decentering whiteness choosing changing our default is hard but necessary in order to educate all students equity allows us to invest resources where they
038are most needed not where they're redundant it gives opportunities to those who didn't have them before and it doesn't actually take any opportunities away from anyone i've heard a lot of people speaking out of fear and describing an accurate narrative i'm asking you to instead listen to those whose voices have been historically silenced in order to claim we provide a world-class education we must take the actions needed to provide that for all children thank you thank you our next speaker is natalie hurtado you can unmute yourself good evening good evening members of the board megalitharo and myados is declare come in the occupant district much has been said about what equity means and as it is common with everything new there may be fear and resistance for those who are not truly familiar about it
039um i just want to add to bring a small example of how our system excludes parents because of a language barrier spanish is my first language being bilingual has allowed me the privilege of translating for monolingual members of our community when a parent who wants to address this board needs a language interpreter they get the same time equal time as everyone else that means that automatically their time is cut in half because they must make sure there is time for the language interpreter that is an example of systemic if not racism at least exclusion everybody gets the same time that doesn't mean this is an equitable situation if this board allowed for an increase in time for everyone else who needs a language interpreter those of us addressing you in english would still have our
040two minutes and i'm confident the meeting's length would not increase significantly i know achieving equity in education is far more complex than that than that but i hope this small example illustrate that equity benefits our entire community i fully support the proposed statement i hope it is adopted and followed by actions an equity focus the school system will not remove a program from a school like woodbridge to assign it to a new school and not replace it for many years it has nothing to do with critical race theory or cultural terrorism i think having so much opposition to an equity statement voiced by residents of one specific district if i'm not mistaken the most affluence in prince william county seems to highlight exactly why we need one thank you you the last speaker i have
041is justin kane you can then meet yourself good evening everyone um thank you chairman latif and ladies and gentlemen of the board i appreciate this opportunity to speak with you today i agree with most of what has been said this evening and i don't think i can articulate it any more eloquently than some of the speakers who've addressed some of these concerns previously but i do want to con i do want to express you know my sadness for some of the comments that have been made with regards to you know individual cases of bullying as well as the lack of opportunity that's being presented i think we often conflate the differences between equity and opportunity i agree with mrs ashman i think that we have we really need to take a look at the curricula
042from an equality perspective making sure that each student is supported the same opportunities across the board and i really think that's the answer to the question and rather than focusing on you know equity or providing those additional proprietary tools to promote this system of equity what we should be doing is focusing on developing the science technologies engineering mathematics and artistic skills of our students and giving them that equality and those those opportunities across the board i do also want to address one more thing social development of my children i have three in the school system is not the responsibility of the school district the state or the government social norms and behaviors start with the cultural nuance of each family and home this statement implies that the district will be responsible for aggregating the ideals
043and thoughts of other parents to influence my children's social development i think you should leave that responsibility to the families each of whom have their own cultures traditions beliefs and perspectives on social norms the major assumption that the school system has a responsibility to influence social development you're essentially marginalizing or discriminating against portions of the population the district should stick to the facts and ensure that our children have the academic knowledge and skills that will enable them to be successful in life thank you very much thank you that's all i have mr chairman thank you mr stevens um next we will move on to the student representative caroline silvera is joining us this evening caroline will be graduating from hilton high school on june 3rd tonight is her last meeting with us and then she'll
044be heading to remind us carolina where are you going to next year the university of virginia university of virginia outstanding okay miss silvera take it away okay thank you so much so this is a pretty bittersweet moment for me because like dr latif mentioned this is my last school board meeting sitting on the dyess and i'm finishing up a couple weeks until graduation i'm so grateful to have received this opportunity i mean truly i have grown so much and met so many new great people some of these new great people i'd like to thank such as the school board members dr waltz and uh the superintendent staff mrs b simpson and told all of the central office staff that has supported me and supported the student representative position it has honestly been really great to
045work with you guys and thank you so much i would also like to thank the other student representatives and the student senate for their commitment to furthering student voice being a student representative under normal circumstances is stressful and challenging at times but being a student representative in a pandemic has made this whole situation a little bit different i've had a lot of opportunities to advocate for student boys because eyes really are on the school board and their decisions more than ever i was able to meet with senator mark warner this summer to discuss the impacts of covet on education i was able to estab establish a county-wide cultural clubs coalition with members of cultural clubs with over 40 members across the division this has really brought increased unity and given students an opportunity to share
046resources with each other i advocated for more in-person testing of ap examinations due to graduation conflicts and internet issues and that resulted in change which i was really proud of i was able to provide my input and student perspective into final exams graduation and prom for this year students truly do have a power and voice and this position helped me realize that i'm excited to see this position grow as the new representatives in student senate will be joining us soon i have two younger sisters so i'm sure they'll keep me filled in and what's happening in the county i encourage students to keep using their voice this is our school system this is our education and if anybody wants to contact me my post graduation contact information will be available on our senate website pwcstudentsenate.com
047thank you guys so much thank you miss silvera we will miss you and we are grateful for all the efforts you and your colleagues have given us and then the students here have been well represented across the division throughout this extraordinarily difficult year thank you very much next we'll move on to dr stephen walt's superintendent's time dr waltz thank you dr latif chairman of the board and board members caroline congratulations to you best wishes into your future it was great meeting you this year and i remember one of our first contacts was that meeting with senator warner and you spoke right up so i was really proud that you talked and i think it was really helpful so best wishes to you and your service is appreciated also wanted to mention tonight is board member
048justin wilkes birthday it's actually tonight and he is here can you wave so everybody knows who you are i have actually shortened my comments slightly so that he might be able to get home a few minutes early but i still have quite a bit to cover all right so even during a pandemic our school division continues to earn accolades the quick shift to virtual learning has created many new challenges for teachers across the county but our educators continue to rise to the top the national association of music merchants foundation has recognized prince william county public schools as one of the best communities for music education in the nation this is the second year in a row pwcs earned this recognition for demonstrating an exceptionally high commitment and access to music education congratulations to dr ed
049stevenson supervisor of the arts and all pwcs educators contributing to music education in our division and speaking of the arts i've enjoyed multiple dance concerts and the philharmonic orchestra last night at the colgan center for the fine and performing arts recently also we have profiled a number of groups in our recent division-wide ceremony recognizing principal and teacher of the year and our retirement ceremony during teacher appreciation week which is even more important recognition during a pandemic i had the opportunity to visit kyle wilson elementary to participate in many fun games and activities honoring teachers during that week i also got even a small treat from the ice cream truck i also attended the 2021 henderson elementary school cultural night which was held virtually due to the pandemic it was a great experience and to see
050henderson's recognition and celebration of the diverse cultures within their community last friday i had the chance to visit ripon middle school to talk with our students and staff members about their work and dedication during the pandemic the facility improvements made there have been significant and have made a huge difference from the moment you drive up to the building the facade or we call that a fenestration project has completely changed the way that school looks and this is the second one that we've done second middle school woodbridge middle school has been completed as well and it literally looks like a new school i have completed my service on the nova manassas woodbridge advisory council for northern virginia community college i recently attended my last meeting held virtually due to the pandemic with the council and i
051would like to recognize the enormous growth in the programs offered to our students by nova over the past 16 years i would also like to give a shout out to dr sam hill campus provost for the woodbridge campus for his support of prince william county schools students it has very much been appreciated last week i attended the forest park high school school family career and community leaders of america second annual police appreciation dinner the dinner recognizes the school's security team and local police officials many of whom were there i enjoyed seeing and talking to our students and local law enforcement and had the chance to meet our new chief of police peter newsham during the pandemic i am grateful that our students were able to participate together in an in-person event in support of our
052law enforcement and all the attendees were young women high school women over at forest park and they use the opportunity to also try to recruit them into considering law enforcement as a potential career i also enjoyed a trip down memory lane as the superintendent's advisory support council held a virtual and socially distanced tribute they shared many stories about my tenure as superintendent and i truly appreciated all their kind remarks last weekend i was invited to attend the production of the little mermaid junior at cedar point elementary school and that took me down memory lane too because as our daughter graduates from high school when we first moved here the little mermaid was a kind of a recent movie and i remember she and all of her friends loved that movie so it was great to
053once again enjoy the talents of our students on stage in person congratulations to director amy lefleur and the talented students on this amazing production effective may 28th and thereafter the governor's most recent executive order removes all requirements and constraints related to school graduations fine arts performances recreational sports and social gatherings such as proms other rewards ceremonies school picnics and so forth specific information about these events will come directly from each school the centers for disease control and prevention recommend schools continue to use the covit 19 prevention strategies outlined in the current version of the cdc's operational strategy for k-12 schools for at least the remainder of this school year the cdc will update its guidance for schools in the coming weeks which will help inform school planning for next year the governor's office executive order
054frequently asked questions clarifies in executive order 79 that the requirement to wear masks on school property is specific to indoor settings it states that school policy regarding mass remains unchanged this is consistent with cdc guidelines which state that schools should continue with all current mitigation strategies through the end of the year despite updated guidance for fully vaccinated people as has been the case while outside of school property and on school property students teachers staff and visitors who are fully vaccinated can remove their masks if individuals are not fully vaccinated they must wear a mask unless they can maintain at least six feet distance while inside on school property students teachers staff and visitors must wear a mask regardless of vaccination status as elementary students are not eligible for vaccines and cannot consistently maintain six feet
055of distance while on playgrounds face coverings remain required for recess if they cannot maintain the six foot distance in closing i would like to recognize that this year has been exceptionally challenging for our students their families and our employees since august our employees have overcome an ever-changing environment for learning while implementing new tools for teaching in a matter of weeks in what would normally take months or even years at the beginning of the pandemic we eliminated the cost of living adjustment for employees due to economic uncertainty this school board and i made a commitment to revisit this cut as the economic picture has improved and to make up for the loss of the cost of living adjustment for the current school year and to thank all employees for the extra work this year both in
056person hybrid and virtual i will be bringing a plan for a one-time pandemic pay adjustment i will bring the details to the next school board meeting with the intent for final approval at the subsequent meeting thank you and stay safe and healthy thank you dr waltz very good a lot of good news there um next we're going to move to board matters 1501 the approval of the may 11 2021 board poll miss wall mr chairman ms i move that the prince william county school board approve and authorize the board chairman at large to send a letter to the honorable ralph northam to requesting a waiver or modification of the current social distancing requirement applicable to outdoor graduation ceremonies for the reasons stated they're in so yeah there's a little bit of uh grammar mistake in
057there but uh we'll let me have a second on that mr chairman yeah i second miss zarpour seconds of motion miss wall can you explain this motion what the board poll was yes mr chairman so we um in working with um the division uh were attempting to make graduation a a powerful in-person experience for our graduates and as it became apparent we have large graduating classes in many of our high schools um the school and my district battlefield high school has the largest graduating class and it became apparent that with the strict social distancing requirements of six feet distance outside as opposed to three feet distance inside that we were going to have a very limited number of attendees and this became very difficult and unworkable for families especially in an outdoor setting and so
058the letter um was drafted to go to the honorable ralph north and requesting a waiver of the social distance requirements or at least a modification to the current indoor restriction which was three feet of course with the cdc's guidelines and the revamped executive order this is relatively moot but it does show that um we here in prince william canyon on the school board we were looking out for our graduates and looking to make available the in-person experience the honoring of our graduates this final walk across the stage so to speak of of an otherwise very difficult year for the class of 2021. okay thank you miss wall um so this uh um just as she she pointed out um we sent a letter requesting the governor waive all social distancing requirements that letter along with
059the cdc's effort i think is what um encouraged the governor to change the order from june 15 to may 28th which allows us to have no i don't want to say no no restrictions or at least we'll you'll get final notice this week on how many students will be coming to commencement more it will certainly be more guests than we we had previously and so and then the board of county supervisors also sent a similar letter to the governor asking for this miss williams should we not point of order be voting on the authenticity of the poll not the action from yeah because this this motion and this vote is um what we're talking about is the result of the poll right but we should be authorizing the validity of the poll and we're getting
060away from that which is not understood but it's you know as far as it being on the agenda right but we're voting on what the actual giving the public sort of an inaccurate picture of the protocol of what we're supposed to be doing sure so i just want to make sure that the public is aware that what we should be talking about is validating the poll that was taken because when we cannot meet in public sometimes we have to take polls and when you're at a meeting then we're at a formal board meeting then we come together to approve the ability of the poll um because this discussion is on the letter and it's approval and it's um you know i mean i know i'm in the minority because i voted no but that's not
061why i'm bringing it up the point of what i'm bringing up is what we should be talking about and it's i i would like for us to vote correctly on it if possible right so this to our explanation was to discuss what the letter was requesting so the public is aware of what we voted on when we did not meet in public and so it's just to clarify that so i will ask the board members to please vote as they voted in the board poll which was done not in the public setting and that is why we're doing that this evening so please vote ms ralston how do you vote miss ralston how do you vote yes ms ralston votes yes the vote is seven yes one no williams motion passed moving on to the
062uh proposed equity statement uh this item is on for action emotions in order ms zargapoor i move i move that the prince william county school board approved the proposed equity statement from the superintendent's advisory council on equity do i have a second mr chairman mrs williams miss williams seconds any discussion at this point we did have a discussion on this last week i'll ask the board members to um we'll go around any comments that you might have to add or any questions that you might have at this point would be appropriate i do i'm going to start out just by sort of trying to clarify a couple things um from my standpoint and and i think it's important and i and then i won't speak again on this i will i will vote but it
063is really important to know that this school board has worked extremely hard over the course of at least the three years i've been on this board in in prior and along with dr waltz to do exactly the kinds of things that we all want for our children so you know this school board has committed to making this school division much better it has always been that way it's about continuous improvement um you know i heard things um not just tonight we've received emails and letters on on this topic and and i understand how emotionally charged this topic is and this board has not been uh immune to emotionally charged topics for the course of these last 15 months and i mean it's been a tough year but just to point out a few things that
064i think everyone should know um the dr wallace the school board has worked on things like the governor's school we created 20 more spots and expanded it this year it is bigger it's going to be better it has an engineering program the thomas jefferson school for science and technology and if there's anyone in the county who does not know and i'm not saying this to um certainly not brag but i have a son that attends thomas jefferson i have a son who'll be attending the governor's school in the fall i have children in the signet program i am the biggest defender desirous of expanding these programs for many more of our children this year's thomas jefferson admissions will hopefully accept more prince william county students i believe we've been getting i'll say it nicely shortchanged
065on the admissions to that school which happens to be the number one high school in the united states of america and this this board has fought for getting more of our students in those positions if more of our students get into those positions we get more students into our ib programs our cambridge programs our governor's school programs and all of our top programs it expands opportunities for everyone this board has been committed to doing that over and over again and if you heard from dr waltz tonight expanding our efforts with dual enrollment the community college effort this is a board that has been committed every single one person on this board has been committed some history on this equity statement is an equity committee that was put together to advise the superintendent and the school
066board on issues in the school's system much of the discussion in their committees has been around expanding these types of opportunities this committee was a committee of community members parents administrators teachers um who've come together with this statement the board is here to approve that statement this evening and um and ask questions regarding it and um and those are those are just my comments this evening on that but if there i i want no doubt to be left in the mind of anybody watching this that there is nobody on this board who does not believe we need to make this school system committed to improving it for everybody and committing to improve and have more opportunities for everyone and making sure our students all get to the best that they can i'll leave you with
067one last thing our science fair has been expanded year over year since i've been on this board that's an interest of mine dr waltz knows that our science faculties know that we have more students winning the science fair at the state levels in the international level than we ever have before this is not a board that is not committed to doing that and this is a board that i believe and and i do take some um you know privilege in speaking on behalf of the board in this matter and if anyone thinks i'm wrong on this feel free to say i'm wrong but we are strongly committed to making sure we are the most competitive best school division on the planet and um and i'll leave it at that i will start um i think
068it was someone have their hand up anybody want to go first or if we're good with what we spoke about last week any thoughts miss miss jessie good evening uh okay am i close to it sorry about that um i wanted to just share a couple of thoughts that it's not because of the audience here tonight but because of my own experience uh when i think of my personal experience it had nothing to do with whether or not my parents whether we were hard workers was because i needed someone to support me and therefore i dropped into northwestern university from an all black school and i had to work my way through that and i had to have support and i had some friends and those friends were mort and more gentlemen and his wife
069who took me in and helped me and i think when you look at equity you're looking at kids like me at that time and in our schools that need support and i think also i will speak for miss roston because ms rossen asked the question what does equity mean and does everybody understand it and listening to the audience tonight and uh listening to other people who have spoken i would ask this committee to at least come up with a statement of what equity really means because i think there's a misinterpretation of it as a principal at vaughan elementary for 20 years i had a low income school and i had this thing called catch the wave and dr waltz knows that that everybody in that school had to move at a fast pace when white
070kids black kids kids who were low incomes kids who had no parents to help them when they saw everybody moving everybody moved so when i look at equity i look at it as something for i look when i look at equity i look at accelerate don't remediate you move fast you move quickly and when you look at equity you're looking at access to dual enrollment access to advanced placement access especially programs and career readiness and so tonight i brought because i thought there would be some concerns about it i brought this navigating the equity if you can go to vdoe and it's called navigating the equity and you can see the the data because equity has to be data driven when we look at disparities when we look at disproportionalities we need to close those
071gaps and so for me it's about closing the gaps one of the things that i would ask the committee also if it's possible when i looked at resources i don't and i looked at a lot of other equity statements for tonight i don't see facilities and there has been a lack of equity in facilities woodridge high school for example 45 years i worked hard to get a gym there to get a feel there and there is some inequities that we need to look at in terms of race i don't know if you call it systematic racism i'm not sure that's what the whole equity is about but it's about bringing people together and uh access opportunity access to the same opportunities do all kids have the same opportunities some of them do some of them
072do not is it systematic no it's not but it's something that we really need to work on and it's about academic rigor under representation and i think that in educating the community maybe we should do more to educate the community because i think that when people look at just a statement then they don't understand that we're not talking about lowering the standards you never lower the standards you move faster and you move higher so that's what i want to say on that and my question is how do we operationalize this and maybe somebody from that committee could address that what's the next step in this process and perhaps this is not tonight to discuss it because uh we're here just to talk about the statement but i understand why some parents are concerned because it's
073like all of a sudden you saw a statement and you didn't understand where it was coming from or whether or not your kids were going to be rolled back okay i'm sorry ma'am but ma'am ma'am i can't um yes uh we need order because right now it is miss jesse's turn to i'm not just talking to you guys in this audience i'm talking to i i unders so it is [Music] so we need a point of order miss jesse is talking it is her matter ma'am i am god please every kid i've ever had and most of the principals that i know have always wanted every child to move but there are some things that we can do better to increase remember fine equity what is it what are we arguing about please you said
074you have a definition yeah can we have a point of order this is miss jessie's turn to talk we have had public comments i'm asking well see equity means when you look through the lens it means different things to different people i'm sorry that i'm addressing you because i'm not supposed to but i will ask the committee to define equity and put that for you i think you deserve that does that make sense thank you and with that i think i'm in it but uh there are some um i think we've got some some gaps in our communication and i think if the committee could who are the people on the committee are they here they're not here tonight ms jesse okay i thought some people would be here but i do think i would
075like to chat with them about a statement more information for parents so they understand that we're talking about acceleration not just remediation and not holding kids back thank you thank you miss jesse um miss wall did you want to speak all right thank you mr roper um i have a question um i want to raise some of the concerns that we heard from citizens tonight regarding training and curriculum and how that will relate to transparency and accountability so my question and i don't know who exactly wants to answer it but is this um what kind sorry what kinds of changes in curriculum and teaching practices are we going to be making um this goes along with what ms jesse was asking about you know parents will want to know like what are we going to
076do with this what is our next step so can you tell us what kinds of materials will be used in our training to examine beliefs and biases what methods will be used for instance are we going to be using critical race theory that has been mentioned tonight to accomplish that training um are we going to be using the book white fragility by d'angelo or how to be anti-racist by candy um i'll should i just ask my questions and then you can kind of answer them all in a lump well or should we stop right there good evening first to dr latif and mrs agrapore and members of the board dr waltz as was stated at the last meeting when the statement was introduced this is the first step the actualization of it the operational piece
077of it is not on the agenda tonight and will be looked at as you have a new superintendent coming into the school division this is the starting point and dr mcdade was a part of the discussion on moving this forward prior to her arrival so it's the questions you're asking are not the questions that are prepared to be answered at this point understood um will the pub just so you know folks we have a school board meeting and we don't typically have audience participation outside of citizen comment time i would ask the audience to please refrain from comments hooting hollering and if there is any further i'll ask our security desk or you out of the building it's just the property quorum for the meeting thank you can i ask it okay so my i
078guess my follow-up question then would be i understand maybe that we don't we don't know the specific answers to that but i'll be looking forward to knowing them when we do will the public have the opportunity to view training materials and or the training itself so they can see what teachers are being trained to teach and so that and i suppose at some point when curriculum is revised or changed will the public be able to know what changes are coming to the curriculum and um have a chance to review that so what i'm looking for is you know what kind of transparency are we going to have what kind of accountability are we going to have um and if we have an outside contractor do we have an outside contractor that will be doing this
079training for our teachers and if so who is that and can we review their training materials can parents have access to that so that they can see what's being taught mr emon hello again yep i i don't uh want to sound like a broken record but that again is a discussion that really is the next step with the new superintendent when the new superintendent arrives but we have transparency in all our curriculum we've always had that we'll continue to have transparency we do follow virginia department of education guidelines and we will continue to do the same um but that's the next steps are to be defined going forward thank you mr iman one second agenda i i'm checking um why don't you wrap him up i'm gonna let her wrap up and then we'll go
080to miss williams all right thank you mr chairman so one of the other concerns that i have heard and and i'm i'm sensitive to is the concern about lower standards um in point four i think it's bullet four we talk about um systemic racism and over discrimination and i do want to know i've always thought really highly of prince william county schools i think we do a really great job actually at least from my perspective as a long-time consumer principal education so could we be more specific about what we're talking about um we're assuming that we have racist um or systemic discrimination and racism in our schools and our institutions um not just in you know maybe teachers or students on student or teacher on student or vice versa but what are we what are
081we looking at when we talk about um instructional beliefs and systems that we are going to be undoing are we talking about like doing away with grades are we talking about testing are we talking about course offerings are we talking about security personnel and not having security personnel in the schools discipline are we talking about discipline um i think that you know i have i think parents are concerned when we talk about what are we doing away with what are we dismantling we should probably be a lot more transparent about that can anybody speak to that mr eemon i'll continue with my comments from earlier in that much of this discussion while good needs to take place once the statement is in place and the discussions are taken with the new superintendent and the administrative
082direction that's coming understood as well all right so i also have heard concerns from the community about the effect on our professional working environment that might come about because of the the training that we are going to be doing and perhaps changes in our hiring practices so my question is first of all what does it look like in practice to assure that staff members examine beliefs explicit and implicit biases do we mandate self-evaluation are we going to sit employees down with their colleagues in a professional development setting and ask them to expose their beliefs and biases in a public setting are we going to allow them to be quiet or else opt out of that kind of expression what will happen to those who share less popular viewpoints will they be retaliated against will they
083um be in jeopardy of losing their their um their standing in their school a more or would we create a hostile work environment i'm concerned about this kind of practice how are we going to wish how are we going to do that um and still protect our teachers from a hostile work environment dr uh wall street mremont yes the questions are all operational in nature be it regardless of of instruction professional development human resources they're all operational questions and again with all due respect the board is presented with a statement to guide those discussions going forward that the the discussion on the operationalizing of these is not the topic that that is presented this evening for the board for action i have one more one more one more question all right so parents are concerned
084um about where this is going and maybe i understand i try to frame this as a policy question but they worry that changes in our curriculum are going to lead to controversial ideas or politics entering our schools and so um the question is if our students i guess this is an operational question i'm sorry but if our students object to what they're being taught or if they feel uncomfortable or um if they feel like they their freedom of thought or conscience or speech is being threatened what are we going to do about that how are we going to ensure that our students don't feel threatened because of maybe the difficult conversations that some of this might bring up as you know the we we do not put our students in situations like that as a
085matter of practice now and that's not going to change going forward what i would say any more specific response that you need again is going to have to come as a follow-up okay miss williams thank you mr chairman um i am unabashedly probably the most uh in favor of this equity statement what it's doing is codifying things that are already in existence and adding to them we now train our teachers with culturally responsive training not new we now try to do our best to provide all the resources necessary for students right now the majority of this statement is now being written becoming a policy for things that are already occurring in our school division this is enhancing and putting it down on paper and making it real this is not about critical race theory this
086is not just about being black or being white this is not about that this is about all of those isms these are about the students who are high performing and don't get their meet needs met because we don't offer those classes to help them once they've advanced out of our system this is about the students who are at the bottom of this of that same spectrum and aren't getting the resources that they need there's no promise to them other than what's legally binding at federal and state levels we can do better than that we should be doing better than that for every single student equality does not do that equity does do that you don't have to agree we don't have to believe in the same set of things that's what makes everything great what
087we do agree on is making sure that every single student has the opportunity to succeed when you don't share the same set of beliefs that impacts your student outcome absolutely impacts your student outcome can't guarantee that everyone is going to there's no guarantee that everyone is going to have the same outcome it's not how it works anywhere what you can do is give them the opportunity so they have the opportunity to do that that doesn't happen i i i'm perfectly fine with people who don't believe in systemic racism who don't believe in white privilege that's fine you don't have to this is not a forced issue not forcing you to change your personal belief what we are is a public school system it is our obligation students now across the board don't have the same
088opportunities period and if you don't think the system is racist if you don't think that teachers believes or counselors beliefs or individual beliefs get in the way of providing opportunities i am more than happy to spend a lot of time giving you a lot of examples about how that actually happens when you talk about culturally relevant curricula we have a very narrow view on what we teach students it should be a wider view because everybody has a right to know about their history everybody has a right to know how they played a part in this country the things that were positive and the things that were negative on all sides i've heard a lot of people talking about critical race theory about how it teaches students this or it teaches students that nowhere in this
089statement do you see the words critical race theory you don't because they're not there and that's okay if you don't believe it what i know is i'm of mixed race i don't support teaching my children hate i don't support teaching any other children hate that's why i'm on this board it's because of the experiences i went through as a prince william county student the experiences my son went through as a prince william county student so that nobody has to go through those same things ever again from the time that i got here as a student till as a parent dr waltz came on board the changes have been in this direction and this is the way that we should be continuing to move to benefit everybody because kids are left out kids are left behind
090that should not be the goal we're not talking about lowering standards there's no research that says you lower standards and people do better there's only research that says you raise the bar and kids meet the need that's what we're doing we should be inclusive of everybody everyone should be able to have conversations uncomfortable ones and comfortable ones and feel safe to do that that is what this statement is putting down in writing that's this first step many of the questions that you have are exactly operational operations belongs to the superintendent period we have approval of certain things but that is not as by state code the equity movement is here to stay it's at the federal level it is at the state level and it is now coming down to our local levels we didn't
091make this up we're doing what we need to do for our children and that means all children what we should be doing is educating each other having these difficult conversations with each other and not fighting each other it's good to have disagreements it's good to have discourse so you can learn when you take a position you stake it in the ground and you have no intention of moving there's no learning that occurs the conversations aren't meant to change belief it's for understanding what we should be doing is having conversations so we can understand each other's positions learn how to grow from them and having these conversations with our children because when you talk about equity it is the younger children who are moving this ball way faster than any of the adults i know this
092because i've watched our student representatives speak on it develop the seat continue to grow it fight and advocate for their needs one of the most things one of the things i'm most proud of being on the board is getting student representatives on the board who have carried this torch we are behind them in this movement we should be supporting the future and that's what it's about making sure that everyone learns making sure that everyone is included everyone feels safe everyone learns about their history and everyone is able to contribute that is not equality so i would hope that as this time moves forward that we can have these conversations i know that the new superintendent was involved in this this has her input as well and that when she comes on board we have the
093operational conversations this is step one it's not the end and this was not done in a silo either i can't say enough that this came from our community average citizens just like you all who participated on an advisory council as well as administrators as well as staff as well as other professionals and students this wasn't done in a vacuum what i would like to see is more participation and more discussion for the benefit of everybody and less arguing because it's not very helpful to anyone especially our young people who are watching us so i hope as this discussion moves forward we do more equity work we understand the current systems that we have in place because we are already doing a lot of this what we aren't doing is writing it down and making it
094real and permanent as it should be so i hope that um i i didn't i did not that's okay i know it was the technical thing um but i do hope that you know this board approves a statement that as we move forward in the summer and in months to come we have this discussions not only with the public but the new superintendent and as we enter into the new administration i will continue to advocate for better communication better understanding and more communication between this board and the public at all points um and to be more proactive so we don't run into situations like this moving forward thank you miss williams mister i'm going to go to mr wilker miss jesse i'm going to go through everyone first mr welcome uh thank you mr chairman
095um i'm going to go through this kind of bit by bit on the agreement i do also want to say one comment was made about howard dismantling something that the superintendent has done although the superintendent and i have not agreed on everything dr walt's legacy is a legacy of extremely progressive great educational things for this school system this is a man who had a time when people weren't willing to fund full day kindergarten pushed that at the very start of his term as superintendent this is also the same man who led the charge to rename a building named after a seditionist confederate general with one of the highest minority populations in the county so again where credit is due i do want to thank you dr waltz uh for some of the great things you
096brought to the school division i haven't even touched on pre-k and the expansion of that in early childhood education and stuff like that and making equal opportunities for students so i just wanted to highlight that um going through some of the bullets uh and kind of breaking them down and and a couple things were not said miss williams said i'm going to kind of try to give anecdotal evidence of this of things we're already doing in this county none of this to me is absolutely new um and i'll give some examples of this um and you know when we were talking about the political ramifications i wish we had some anecdote i'll give you an anecdotal um this year i had a parent contact me saying that their child felt targeted because they were trump
097supporters in a class relatively filled with kids abiding supporters now although i did not support president trump i do believe our kids deserve to be in a classroom where politics are not forced on our children from an educational standpoint when i was a government teacher in this county in gainesville one of the more conservative areas i was able to keep my views so private and most of the kids at the end were so confused when they voted on what party i was a lot of them said by and large republican so my point is we're doing the right things if you have the right advocate for you on the board who's not putting partisan politics at the forefront of their decision making all kids are protected i can give other anecdotals of kids whose fathers
098or fathers or mothers or police officers and as a rise of what is happening in this country their students felt targeted again it went to bad for those kids doesn't matter what my political beliefs are that our goal is in schools to keep politics out of the classroom so in which we had some anecdotals there but i just wanted to give some there so if i look at bullet number one i just want to break this down providing students and staff with access and resources opportunity supports interventions to ensure they maximize their abilities yeah i agree our number one priority should be maximizing the educational resources and benefits to all children providing all pwf students and staff with resources and opportunities that align to their unique levels of need to meet their learning health and
099safety agreed again our goal should be aligning staff and resources to help maximize all students potentials and abilities although all students may not achieve the maximum levels set by state and county academic standards all students should have equal opportunity to succeed both academically and social and emotionally high expectations and standards should apply across the school division and should be consistent with every school building program within prince william county give an example anecdotally we have middle schools where there's geometry teachers right in the building for the advanced math kids but we have three middle schools off the route one corridor where the kids have to be bused to a high school taking valuable time out of instruction for those kids to get that same course that's how i view that statement raising the achievement of all
100students while working to eliminate learning disappearance disparities again agreed we need to raise achievements of all students however we should continue and guarantee that programs implemented will be accessible for all students as a county we need to continue celebrating our successes and do everything in our ability to help those students who are struggling without eliminating advanced courses in higher learning classes for those who take those courses hence the school board has made concerted effort to hire more school counselors psychologists and additional aids and support also this board created a funding distribution plan to support schools with higher socioeconomically disadvantaged students to better aid principals with their building programs this has already happened this statement is not a change from our current practices and policies just a statement of affirmation to continue the great work that
101is done assuring all pwcs staff members to examine and interrupt beliefs implicit explicit biases policies and our practices that perpetuate systematic racism and discrimination so looking at this like most companies where i'm employed i believe our employees should continue taking courses as we have offered regard regarding cultural sensitivity when i say that this board the previous board not even this current members but the last makeup of the previous board voted to implement cultural sensitivity training for our teachers and staff that is public so feel free contact the office of student learning those courses are from my understanding run by university of virginia modules that our teachers take in professional development now i can tell you my four years since the implementation of this i've only received one teacher complaint in my district again that's my
102district that's anecdotal to me but not representative of the entire county so again these courses are there currently right now i would encourage you all to look into those and see what those are what our teachers are learning right now engaging guardians parents guardians community divisions school programs to build connections provide support foster relationships again agree these are programs that our schools currently offer and will continue offering moving forward parent engagement is critical to a child's success given the advent of virtual platforms and instruction our division should do everything possible to offer opportunities for parents to also join these events virtually that's how i view that examining and revising our curricular and teaching practices to ensure that they are culturally relevant and representative of achievements of our diverse community to meet social academic needs and
103expectations of each student agreed as a division we work with teachers to better understand the student populations in which we serve our office of professional development does an outstanding job providing teachers with courses to expand their knowledge and cultural competency per the encouragement of the virginia department of education our schools will provide offerings like african american history and other additional courses based on student demand cultural awareness is not politics our division recognizes these differences and we as a division updated things like our school calendar and to incorporate courses that support cultural awareness and other topics again this statement despite rumors does not adopt a critical race theory of curriculum which i do not support i do not support adopting critical race theory instruction for our students recruiting and retaining staff members who reflect rich diversity
104of our community again these practices are all in place we have already been doing things like this with our human resources offices this statement is not bringing a chain to our current practices in a minority majority community we need to do our best to recruit and retain staff that reflects the cultural diversity of our students we are already making conservat concerted efforts to send recruiters to hbcs and their teacher fairs to recruit more diverse students we are sending our team of administrators to teacher affairs all over the country to recruit diverse learners not just based by race but by their were their growth where they were born and raised and the different educational beliefs that they can bring to the school system i was brought from michigan completely different philosophy and change of what i
105saw as educational instruction i'm happy to be down here i'm happy to be brought here and work with my colleagues many of them who are born and raised in virginia like my wife preparing all students to succeed in a multicultural global society by teaching contributions and viewpoints of all people and culturally relevant curricula agreed studies show that employers feel that many students are not prepared for the workforce up upon completing high school informs forbes article titled students think they're ready for real world employers not so much the article highlights how education needs to adjust and adapt to real world curriculum for our students the reality is we are a multicultural and global society that needs to be incorporated into students education in another article from insight into diversity cultural competency is highlighted as a key
106competency for future job recruiters the article includes information on how companies are looking now more than ever to hire candidates with strong cultural competence we need to continue preparing students for the real world that awaits them and show them the value of all races there is no inherently evil race and there is no curriculum in this country that validates any conspiracy that we will be educating our students to believe other races are better better than others again i will not be supporting any type of critical race theory that's brought before this board if that is part of the operational plan i do support the equity statement as a beginning of a process of looking at other programs and resources for the school division thank you miss jackson thank you dr latif i just um want
107to piggyback on what mr wilkes was talking about just to discuss my mindset as i evaluated the equity statement and my years in the classroom we are doing much of this already discussing equity in the classroom is imperative to ensure that all students have access to a quality education for example when a child is identified as gifted they receive gifted services then the county reviews the data for gifted services to ensure all demographics have access to screening or testing the goal is to raise the level of achievement for all students discussing equity requires frequent sometimes difficult conversations that should be modeled top down there's always room for improvement nobody and nothing is perfect all school systems should be constantly reviewing data and the public can access our data through the equity scorecard online and they
108can see our strengths and our needs like i think back in my years in the classroom and i think about like when i was teaching like one step equations many of my kids might understand what a variable is let's just say 75 of my class understood the definition of a variable but 25 did not i can't move on until everybody understands the definition of a variable understanding the definition of a variable is vital to one step equations which is connected to high school mathematics and i as an instructor would need to identify and determine what roadblocks there were for all students in my class to understand the definition so i might go back and maybe teach the root word vary or link the word to a home language or maybe talk to a mentor teacher
109at the same time i would differentiate in structuring to make sure that those who understood the definition of a variable could access to reach a higher level maybe apply it outside to real-world instruction whatever you are doing in teaching you are constantly assessing adjusting instructing and repeating with purpose we need our school leaders to do the same thing to ensure all students receive a world-class education in an environment where they feel safe that is what this equity statement says that is what this equity statement asks of us thank you mr arghapour thank you dr latif um i might actually be the only person on this diocese who has to take these trainings that you um have referenced before oh i'm sorry miss jackson has two um i have never had to report a bias or
110or say things anything to publicly to another employee or or a colleague in my building all of my training is to help me understand how i am viewing my students and what is it maybe i need to do to meet their needs a little bit better i'll give you a really simple example i am a music teacher every year i do a lesson on lunar new year i used to call it chinese new year but the school i teach in has a very large population of students who come from different asian countries my first year i called it chinese new year i picked a chinese song we did some things it was great and one of my kids raised her hand and said we do a similar thing in korea so the next year i
111added korea but before i added korea i made sure i talked to my students first and said lunar new year is coming up i would like to know how your families celebrate it and now i am able to more reflect those students in that lesson and it changes every year and i have learned more now that's a simple example but that is one example as someone who has to who has been taking these trainings for several years now i know that the state is going to start mandating these things prince william county is ahead of the curve they are already training teachers they are already making changes and providing the experiences and setting the tone for the things that the state is already coming behind us and saying you have to do so we're in
112a good position we're in a great position we're leaders in it so uh all of this i know these words also they bring up a lot for us and that is also part of the conversation as miss williams said earlier we it is it's okay to be uncomfortable we do have to have these conversations i know i have made a huge journey myself i i will admit that there's things that i had my own thoughts before and it's changed so i i think this is worthy of conversation it is just a start remember we have asked some operational questions those are to come later we also have things that we have to work on for the future and these things should not be set in stone but working documents including this this should be a
113working document because if we find that we need to adjust for the betterment of our students well we should and we should invite everybody in on that conversation i will also add i spoke to the person who sits on the committee who represents the kohl's district and she did mention that it might be helpful to have a really good conversation about what some of these terms mean in the context of our education system so i will leave you with that i am grateful for the work that they have done i am welcomed the conversation so we should be having these conversations and continue this discussion thank you miss jesse you had a final comment yes and then i'll go to miss ralston afterwards miss jesse uh i'm going to disagree with a little bit of
114what's been said here because everyone says that dr waltz does a wonderful job but dr waltz would also agree that there's more work to do and that there are disparities if you want to know about access to dual enrollment specialty programs for college readiness access to gifted education and specialty programs read the strategic plan look at where and this is out if you go to page 17 and i and i shouldn't be talking to the audience but i am because you're here and i think you deserve to be just talking i'm sensitive to the citizens comments but go to page 17 in this and you'll see that there are disparities throughout the state now disparities in prince william county and several times tonight dr mcdade has been mentioned one of the reasons that i was
115one of the people who in this whole board selected her because she is a community input person so in reviewing all of the equity statements i also went to chicago and i thought what did they do for equity so they heard from over 3 000 voices in the city because that's who she is they heard from students hundreds of students they didn't just meet with parent advisory councils they met with groups of parents thousands of them it's a five-year plan she is going to be the person that's going to implement it i want to reassure you that she is not the kind of person that's going to do something without input she's a town hall kind of person she's going to seek the input of all parents yes there are problems in this county and
116they have problems in the school system that's problems throughout the nation and so when mrs when i was listening as william she said i am the most whatever equity i've done this for 40 years 40 years i've seen kids learn that should not learn not only did they learn but they learn at high levels and when you've seen that you cannot look away and so whatever we need to do to get all of these kids every one of them i would like my goal personal goal is that every child in the system graduates and be either ready for college or ready for a career that's what we need to do every one of them black white i don't care what color it's all of our kids and what i like about the equity statement is
117that it's all but i do have to ask mr iman if the if it's okay to add facilities in that statement can we get that and i think the parents really do deserve to know our definition of equity can we provide that statement for parents not just a framework but how do we define equity because equity versus most people really don't know which it's a scary kind of thing you come and say you're going to do equity and the other thing i noticed is that dr mcdavid and her and and what they were doing they talked about the why the how and what and i think that maybe what's happening is that somehow we're leading giving parents the impression that we we didn't they don't understand why we're doing it and somehow that needs to
118be explained to them and then what in the authorization are the actual actualizing of this is going to be where the rubber is going to meet the road and i assure you i know this lady not that well but i from what she impressed all of us because she is a hands-on person and she wants to hear from every single one of you so i thank all of you for coming and sharing your input and i will vote for this but only if we agree that we would put and the other thing that i didn't mention because we didn't talk about the groups one of the lowest performing groups are in special ed access access to in in our county and we're about we're above the state but we still have a lot of work
119to do and i don't say this to me that i didn't think you did a good job but we do have work to do and i think that's why you supported the equity committee because you know that there's still work to do so with that i'm i'm voting but only with those conditions is that okay mister you know understood miss miss um i had miss ralston did you have any comments yeah just a just a one or two but i agree with all the people who believe that if you are fair and equal then it's much better than not being unfair and equal when you live in that kind of in that kind of spirit you have to be real careful uh as a african-american woman i've had a lot of trouble and talking with
120people and getting people to understand of who we are which is no difference with who there are just color thank you miss wall thank you mr chairman um you know everybody supports equal access and equal opportunity for our students we can all get behind you know some of the statements that are in here that say you know we need to provide resources opportunities supports and interventions to ensure that students maximize their abilities and their potential there's nothing wrong with that statement it's a very appropriate statement that we will provide students and staff with resources and opportunities that align to their unique levels of need from the special ed student the refugee the gifted student the student that the student that's experienced trauma and students who need acceleration students are very bright but very disengaged there
121we can do all all kinds of things and we do things like that in prince william county we have great schools and great programs we have diversity across our programs in our schools we have wonderful specialty programs we have amazing teachers and counselors and guidance counselors who really work hard to help children to give them the opportunities that they need to succeed and even raising you know achievement of students and working to eliminate disparities yes do kids come to school equally prepared no can we help them yes we can do everything possible to help them where i have issues with this statement is where we say things like we're going to assure people examine implicit and by explicit bias we assume that they have biases that are getting in the way of their education of
122their teaching we assume that we have policies and practices that are perpetuating systemic racism we assume that we have these problems i'm sorry but i do not see a review a study evidence that we have systemic racism now we may have inequalities yes because we have a limited pot of resources and we seek to allocate those resources to the best of our ability do we have the exact same programs at every school in every classroom no are we doing our very best to provide as many opportunities as possible yes do we provide math instruction reading instruction support and science and art and pe and everything else yes it's not always going to be exactly the same but we do an excellent job and so i have an issue with saying or assuming facts not in
123evidence if we can prove it okay but we can't just assume that we have um you know that we have perpetuated systemic racism without doing due diligence i love that we are engaging parents and guardians in the community and our programs and building connections and providing support because parents are essential we cannot shut parents out of this dialogue we can't put upon our students and put upon our parents doctrines and ideologies that they have not had a say in and we can't i don't think it's enough to say just trust us we're gonna we're gonna do it right if we if we're gonna pass something we need to have give parents away at least if we can't say what it is that we're going to be doing we need to at least provide a way
124that they can be a part of the dialogue and not have something put upon them without their input i think it's really important that we recognize we need the consent of the governed we represent we are not knowledgeable in everything but we represent we represent the people you put us here and we listen to you and as we examine and revise our curricular and teaching practices if we're going to improve our teaching practices great that's wonderful but if we're going to um start in down a path of indoctrination or we're going to start down a path of methodology that seeks to pit children against one another because of their race no that's not okay and i think most parents would say i don't want that i don't want that in my home i don't want
125my child being taught that now diversity is is great we have at some of our schools we have students from you know 35 different countries one of my schools is like that kids from all over the world and we can celebrate celebrate that in appropriate ways but when we get down to basic instruction of math science language arts reading we need to be providing a very solid equal type of instruction and giving them the basics so that they can accomplish their academic goals and we can have those high expectations for every student we shouldn't be holding anybody back we should be accelerating everybody to the maximum amount possible i have some issues with the idea that we would retain and recruit based on race it looks to me like that bullet point is talking about
126that do we want diversity in our teaching force absolutely but it should not be we should not run afoul of our civil rights laws we have those civil rights laws for a reason the civil rights act of 1964 says you cannot base you cannot hire based on discriminatory practices such as sex or origin national origin or race or ethnic origin or any any anything else you can't do that we already have those laws so i'm not really sure what we're saying here are we going to be looking to hire people based on race i think we might have a problem if we're you know doing that only um if that's one of our like main criteria we need to look for the best teachers possible i agree with that we need to look for great
127teachers and we have great teachers and if we have teachers that are struggling we need to have training that helps them be more successful teachers and i agree we do live in a multicultural global society where we teach the contributions and viewpoints of of all people obviously we can't teach the viewpoints of every single person or every single culture we would never get through it i took many uh i'm i have a degree in humanities and i took many history classes world history classes um asian history humanities classes etc islamic history his classes you it would take you a lifetime to study all the contributions of everybody what our students need are the basics to help them succeed in an ever-changing workforce they need more stem education they need mathematics that is at a very
128high level we need science education that's a very high level we need technology education those kinds of things those are the things are going to make a difference for our graduates as they go out and they seek higher education and they seek high levels of employment they become productive citizens and contribute and give back that's the kind of thing that we're doing i don't know i don't know if this equity statement will accomplish that or not but what i fear is some of the concerns that were raised today that parents are concerned about fairness equity merit they're concerned about civil rights they're concerned about freedom of speech they're concerned about in the introduction of destructive political ideology and accompanying methodology because that friends that's happening there are there are that's happening in other places in
129our neighboring jurisdictions in places like california there's evidence of what is happening in that along those lines i hope we don't go down that road in prince william county i will fight that if we do i agree with mr wilk i will fight the introduction of critical race theory methodology and ideology into our schools because i think it's harmful i think it's divisive i think it pits children against each other and it puts an inordinate um emphasis on race and i think we should get away from that instead we should look at achievement and learning and equity equality of opportunity um i i just think we have a lot of work to do i don't think this is quite ready yet um i think we have a lot of questions i think the public has
130raised a lot of questions i would like to have continue having dialogues on this i believe that public has has a right to answers and i hope that we can find answers for them to their mr satisfaction thank you all mr chairman miss williams i just like my second that's not a debate though no no no um so i'm not here to debate i just want to start by saying um i i respect everybody's right to have their own opinion and to stand firm in their position because that's part of what it's all about um what i do want to say is you know equity equity means that things are fair equality means that things are the same that's actually the definition um you can look it up that's what's stated there um i'm not
131going to debate it because i didn't write the definition it's there for everyone to see when you talk about discrimination and you talk about racism they aren't interchangeable it's not the same thing you can discriminate on a bunch of things racism is different and when you talk about as ms wahl was saying about studying humanities and history do you know what it's like to grow up in an american education system and not learn about your people's contribution to this country because that's what we're talking about adding not talking about taking away you're talking about adding when you're a person of color children do what they see so when you grow up in a world and you don't have people around you who are successful that look like you you're less likely and inclined to believe
132that you can do it too that's there's studies about that i'm not making this up you're free to look it up for yourself when you talk about you're not sure if they're systemic racism and racism there's plenty of documented data and evidence happy to discuss with anyone afterwards what i'm not going to sit here and do is not stand up for my position and not speak my truth and what i know and what research has shown for me and just let one side continue to push rhetoric that i disagree with i think that you should speak it but every time it's spoken i'm gonna speak up for the other side because that's what we're supposed to be doing that is fair it's not equal but it's fair which is equality and that is the point
133we don't have to believe the same things but i'm not gonna not speak my truth i'm not gonna not speak and show the data that says that these things are real because they are it's not about for me it's why i agree it's not from the research that i know from the studies that i've been in that says that these things don't exist part of systemic racism is the policies and things that are in writing that have existed since time it's we're not talking about individual racism although that plays a factor we're not talking about individual discrimination although that pays a factor when you talk about these things we're talking about as a system and it is that way if it wasn't then we wouldn't have had brown versus border education if it isn't we
134wouldn't have disparities now between certain ends of the county or certain schools having more resources than others because of outside influences or whatever the case may be those are real things when my son went to compete in a culinary competition there were 50 other schools in the nation that went to compete his school was more concerned about beating another prince william county school because that school came with nice book bags and t-shirts and matching shirts and all of these things in his school they had to work during lunch breakfast dinner after school to be able to afford to go they didn't come with matching anything what's fair is that they all had the chance to go equality would be if they all had the appropriate resources to go which they didn't that's important it does
135make a difference when you look out and you see people who look like you talk like you doesn't mean that they get the job just because you also have to have the credentials to match we didn't change the name of a middle school because it didn't make a difference we changed it because it made a difference because it is important you have to have things in writing when you don't things can go any which way you want them to go there's nothing that unifies there's nothing to hold you accountable there's nothing to acknowledge what is or what isn't what we are doing part of what we are doing is changing the what was into what our kids are asking us which is for everyone to be represented everyone's voice to be heard and to be
136able to do the things to allow them to excel beliefs are debatable positions are debatable data that we have that says these things are in existence because it's been recorded for decades is real there are more students of color all colors who encounter disciplinary actions in this state that's why there's a thing called the school-to-prison pipeline it's not just black kids in certain schools it's asian children in certain schools it's white children in certain schools it's black children what it should be is children who need discipline not just because of people's beliefs or the way the system is designed when you talk about implicit biases and biases if you deal with a child whose family it's more likely that their family yells and that's how they communicate and they come into school and in your
137mind you think yelling is a negative thing what are you going to think when you interact with that child if you don't understand that other people interact differently in their homes how are you going to interact you won't know you're not prepared so these are the kinds of things that we're talking about hold on sorry i don't mean to be rude um just passionate i just think that what we should be doing is conversating and learning not just from the data and the research that's real but from talking to each other and understanding that these differences are big they impact how we interact with each other and we should be more knowledgeable but absolutely we can't solve these problems or even go down this road if we don't have a starting point and we need
138to have a starting point across the division and that's what we're doing and when we talk about operational things i hope that we have more conversations it would be nice to have town halls and not screaming matches but actual conversations because our kids are always watching and they absolutely deserve to see us model behavior that we ask of them which is to be respectful and mindful of others so thank you miss caroline silvera our student rep has something to say caroline okay uh so i'd like to just start by saying that i'm not a voting member of the board the power that i hold is in my voice so i'm just going to give a student experience of how equity has helped students this past november october so the county gave a free s.a.t day
139for all seniors and while this was offered to all seniors it was developed with an equity mindset so equity is not necessarily just a tangible thing or things that you give to somebody it's also a way of thinking so not only did we get free sats which sats are about 70 dollars but they also made sure that we had transportation if we needed it bus transportation and food so me personally i have my own car and i have food to eat at home so i didn't have to worry about any of that but the county also recognized that there are kids who may not eat breakfast some days because they don't have food in their house or their parents are working they don't have a car and they need to get to this sat so
140i just wanted to give an example because equity is not necessarily always oh only low-income kids can go to this free sat day it's everybody can come but we understand that some people have different backgrounds and they might not be able to make it if we don't give them buses and i think that personally that day helped a lot of students and that's all i wanted to say thank you ms silvera please vote miss ralston how do you vote yes miss ralston votes yes the vote is seven yes one no mrs wall motion passed moving on next to what is that is that it board matters um we'll start with mr wilk's side thank you mr chairman uh i'll be brief do you want to recognize i did have the pleasure of attending uh just
141with dr waltz as well to the henderson multicultural event uh virtual event it was a great event and thank you for attending uh the events there yeah keep going mister so the um um so the other thing was the way good evening everyone please um uh i got the chance to attend a happy birthday um yes um my mind is kind of uh so yeah i got to attend the potomac senior event uh at potomac high school uh that was a great event and uh i appreciate the invitation and i really value what our principals are doing at the high school level to make the senior year as memorable as possible during these times i do want to recognize it is graduation season so i do want to recognize from each of my school ask
142my principals to give me kind of highlights of a couple students they want to recognize tonight forest park is one of my high schools thomas byrne and muhammad musa were recipients of the amazon award it provides each of them forty thousand dollars over four years and a guaranteed internship with amazon it was awarded to a hundred seniors in the nation so it is quite the honor that the two students from our county were students from forest park high school thomas will be attending rena's lear while muhammad will attend stanford it's pretty cool uh at potomac one of our students kayleigh grebin kayleigh has earned a 4.8 4.082 gpa and completed several ace and igcse level cambridge courses with corresponding exams that allows him to earn college credits he has earned all a's each quarter of
143this year while participating in virtual kalei assists with our potomac yearbook and is a member of potomac leadership course kalei is also a wonderful potomac baseball player and has accepted an athletic scholarship to continue his academic and athletic journey at norfolk state university clay is especially recognized for his work this year in organizing our potomac drive in movie night the movie night gave our juniors and seniors an opportunity to safely spend time with one another while enjoying a movie in concessions on an 80-foot screen on-site at potomac and so again those will be the remainder of my time thank you thank you miss jackson would you like all right thank you um ms zakaport uh tonight we talked about equity in education and i've already stated my mindset and my point of view on it
144but i just wanted to talk just really quickly on a personal note i don't talk much about my own kids like their mom one has a hearing loss and as some people say hearing impaired or hard of hearing and i know both as a mother and a special education teacher and a former student with an iep the importance of this equity statement we must watch data to ensure that students are provided opportunities and high expectations you must continue to provide opportunities for achievement and acceptance i know this again as a mother as a student who had an iep and as a special educator this month is asian heritage month we cannot make resolutions right now but i want to take a moment to recognize the importance of recognizing contributions and influences for asian americans and
145pacific islander americans i also had the privilege of attending a little mermaid at cedar point this week or last weekend and it was amazing it was just awesome it was the highlight of my week and congratulations to the performers and staff thank you mr for your dedication to our county and for all your hard work lastly congratulations to the upcoming graduations of two graduates of 2021 i'm impressed daily by the dedication grace and bravery of the students of prince william county thank you ms wall i'm going to try to be brief tonight um i just want to cry congratulate all of the graduates of 2021 and all of the children who will be progressing in our advancement ceremonies at the elementary and middle and high school levels i don't know if we do it at
146high school but definitely elementary and middle levels this in the coming weeks i know this is a hard time of year because everybody kind of starts to long for summer but i would just encourage everybody to still put in their best effort long time ago i watched a cross-country race where the runners it was a hot day and the runners struggled across the finish line they they stumbled and fell and crawled got up stumbled and fell to get across the finish line and i always feel like that's a little bit how the end of may is but i would just encourage everybody teachers administrators students parents to just you know just be diligent and really hold the course to the very end um i'm excited about graduation i'm so excited about graduation i'm excited um
147that we will have some in-person celebrations although um you know the the crazy stuff we did last year was pretty exciting and different and fun but i'm excited for the tradition the topic of masks come up quite comes up quite frequently in my inbox um i i know everybody stay tuned it's a fast shifting area of public policy and public health right now please please uh be patient and thank you for your patience i want to thank our student representative caroline and ben kim if he's listening and all the student senators for their hard work it's been really wonderful to see student leadership in action i wish you all the best for your academic endeavors for the next year and beyond i hope that you come back and say hi to us from time to
148time and keep us keep us in touch keep in touch and with that i say good night miss william thank you mr chairman um i just want to say that i am very thankful to this board for passing this equity statement i wish it could have been an 8-0 vote but i completely understand why it was not and i want to take the opportunity to to say to ms wall that i think sometimes being in the minority and standing your ground and respecting your constituents is a hard thing to do but i think you always do it with so much dignity and um while we don't agree and i think some of the things that that we give off in the public is when we don't agree that this board doesn't get along and i
149want to make sure that it's very clear that we don't always agree but we do very much respect each other's role as board members and i don't want to have another unnecessary discussion with the public when it's not the case so um i wanted to start by saying that i am also excited about graduation season um it's all of the promotion ceremonies and graduations and everything that goes on but i would like to take one moment out to ask students especially those seniors that you know those kids in your class who aren't graduating because that's very real especially this year take a minute and talk to them i talked to two students this week who aren't graduating and had felt like they've just given up and they're almost they're seniors a couple credits short or
150whatever may be but are willing to give up i'm sure that they could use a little bit of an encouraging word because it's really hard when all of your friends are moving on and you are not you're staying stagnant so if you could take a moment from your celebrations and encourage them to take a summer school class to let them know that they're not a failure that it's it is okay it happens nobody there's there's society tells you there's a timeline but as long as you don't give up that's the most important thing um and i just wanted to mention that because i did have a conversation with two students this past week who felt like they're they were lost and the people had given up on them and a little bit of encouragement went
151a long way and both of them hopefully will be enrolled in summer school and be able to get their degree under the promise so let's be mindful of those who aren't making those achievements as well because it's really hard for them other than that it's always an honor to serve on this board with student representatives i always say i hope you come back but i really mean it um ms silva and it's since you're here tonight i will speak directly to you it's been an honor to serve you have definitely keep kept me on my toes invited me to many classes and act i felt like every time i was turning around in a school activity miss silva was there um that's how it was mr kim last year i cannot thank you enough for
152your service for all of the value add you have brought to this position and i do hope you continue to come back and and keep us abreast of how your life is moving and what you see when you look behind as a graduate and how we can continue to improve and thank you to all of our student senates members excuse me good evening i just want to first of all thank the board for passing the equity statement i do think that um we didn't we i think there should have been a little bit more of why beforehand but when i looked at the audience tonight i realized that this was there we've got to bring more diversity into our input sessions on this so i would recommend that everyone all the associates to read the
153virginia landscape the the numbers are real if you look at your own strategic plan the numbers are very real access and we need to do a better job of that and i hope we're not putting dr wade dr mcdade on the situation by saying well she had input i don't want to pre pre-forecast what she's going to do in terms of what's happened with my uh first of all i was here last week congratulating um amy schultz for being this principal of the year and that same night of course i learned that she was leaving and that she is now going to be the principal at henderson so i want to congratulate her on the graduation i will be attending many i will try to attend hilton high school's graduation my daughter works with primarily
154african-american with these african-american women helping them navigate the college uh landscape and i want to give a shout out to chloe presley from hilton high school i think she has a 5.10 and it's going to yale and many of these kids when you give them the opportunity and you give them a little push they can do it the last thing i wanted to say to everyone is that when it comes to discipline you know i don't have any research to show this i have this thing that i call research and reality what i see on the ground and what i see in the research when i came to vaughan elementary i had 600 discipline referrals when we hit 90 percent and all those kids were learning this disproportionality you see in these reports it's about
155kids learning and it's not just black kids it's white kids it's everybody when you create an atmosphere where we catch the wave so i hope that this does not become a political football and i hope we can avoid that as dr mcdave come to the school system i really do but we have to do what we know to be the right thing to do and i agree with miss williams i don't apologize for anything in terms of teachers uh miss walls we talk about discrimination with teachers i i have 55 minority teachers with the highest scores in on the eastern end it's not about hiring teachers because they're white or black but i did hire teachers african-american teachers who were not selected the thing is we have to deal with our current reality we do
156have a problem but we're not the only school system with this problem it's a national problem joe biden sees it as a problem and i'm glad that we didn't just get cave in tonight and say well because we have a group of parents who are upset that we're going to change who we are thank you miss ralston you know i sit here and i've been listening and with my number of years of living on this earth the only one thing in my life that i remember real well and that was when this white man threw a little bitty uh glass ball at me and knocked me out because he didn't believe that black kids should not go to our church we were catholic but what i'm the purpose of me telling you that story is
157to understand that everybody has different thoughts of how they really want to do something and and it's not always good we've got to make people understand we are not trying to to harm people we're not trying to do things that they wouldn't do themselves but they would so my race in my opinion has stood the test and can you stand the test of becoming equal within our society thank you thank you miss ralston mrs arghapur thank you dr latif um i love that we are starting to get out and about a little bit more um had a few things that i attended one happened to be online but it was the civil air patrol uh here in prince william county these are students who um participate it's an extracurricular activity and i was invited to
158just sort of see what it was all about and i believe i was told that some kids could even earn a pilot's license eventually in in high school and the the person who invited me was talking about how this starts in middle school so i thought it was an amazing opportunity to watch a student-led activity i got a little exercise in got to do some some oh i didn't do the extemporaneous speaking but the kids did and it was really fun to watch them lead and and encourage each other through it so i'm hoping that we will be able to get people to see that opportunity and especially as early as middle school i was also invited to see the vex world competition on monday at fred lynn we had three middle schools participating it
159was fred lynn parkside and benton and the kids were amazing one of my favorite things about robotics is that the kids cheer each other on uh and and they just they're so encouraging but the most remarkable thing about this year is that these kids had to work online through zoom through most of the most of the season so this competition this was the world competition um was one of the first times uh the parents had actually gotten to to see it as well um i wanted to also say i don't know how the how they ranked but uh those would be coming out eventually um i also got a chance to uh watch eagle troop or eagle awards from troop 1195 aidan call matthew bonifera joey stern luke clements and jacob ogden all earned their
160eagle awards it was they're very impressive young men they're going to do amazing things in this world last thing i want to oh no not the last thing i also got a word from colgan high school that the virginia junior academy of science has a new co-president and that is armand latif and so it's the first student from prince william county congratulations there dr watts i also want to thank you for um you know this year has been four steps forward three steps back so thank you uh for working and the and division staff are working on how we can maybe make up some difference with that cola and and what uh our employees um you know they lost a little bit last year and they worked extra extra extra hard this year so thank
161you for for looking into that and i'll look forward to hearing uh next time what that's going to look like thank you everybody i know usually guys say wear your mask wash your hands keep your distance get the vaccine we're doing really really great with this so we're going to still follow the rules in school you do you boo i don't know what that means all right outstanding well thank you all very much another wonderful meeting and and a couple notes i had the great opportunity of visiting miss adele jackson's district in the brentsville district high school's annual plant sale they have a fabulous new greenhouse plants were fantastic i did buy a bunch of them they're all planted and i i certainly believe they will survive and be the best part of my garden
162this year so very excited and thank mr uh miller miss amy beard out there wyatt dye one of the students that helped me get that stuff sorted out and picked out so i really appreciate it for everyone out there and and for the great um horticultural program you have out there it may be i i believe actually dr waltz would you agree it's the best one in the nation yes yeah that's right it is it is the best one in the nation and and i believe um dr waltz and and his staff have done even more to make it even better every single minute and every single year and so it was a great opportunity so great time again congratulations to our seniors commencements we will be having at jiffy lube and there will be
163information coming out this friday to parents about numbers of guests but it will certainly be more than what we were going to have before so we're very excited about that we want to thank jiffy lube live we want to thank chair wheeler and the board of county supervisors for supporting our efforts i want to thank governor northam for lifting the restrictions and we are excited to start seeing our nation go back to normal and sharing that with our our our children and our seniors again um for all of our students out there get your uh work done you have ap exams sol stuff's coming up we're almost at the end of this year and hopefully we'll never have to relive this year again so thank you all very much have a wonderful evening and have
164a good night you