001This is just a reminder to silence all of your cell phone and this audience is being audio recorded. Moroc Dr. Shante Jones here. >> Miss Ellen Spodnik >> here. >> Mr. Zack Graham >> here. >> Miss Jen Moyers >> here. >> Vice Chair Mr. Paul Alexander is >> Thank you very much. Modnik, could you lead us in a moment of silence and pledge of allegiance? >> Absolutely. Please stand for the moment of silence to be followed by the pledge of allegiance. Pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Saunders, are there any additions or corrections to the agenda tonight? >> No, vice chair. >> All right. Thank
002you very much. So, can I get a motion to approve the agenda? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> All right. Motion approves. Agenda is approved. Moving on to the consent agenda. Um, I think everyone has had time to review the consent agenda. And seeing as there are no questions, can I please get a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> Motion to approve the consent agenda. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor? I I consent agenda is approved. Uh moving on to schoolboard member committee report. Uh the academic committee, Miss Moyers, you have a report for us. >> I do. I do. Um so last Monday uh we attended um Miss Miss Labodnik and I attended the
003academic committee meeting um where there was um some student achievement trends that were presented um for the past few years in testing scores and absenteeism all as it relates to the strategic plan. Um there has been some great improvements across the board but specifics will come at a later date. They also presented potential proposed changes from the state as it relates to quality scores and accreditation. In addition to changes in so testing structure um that's being facilitated again by the state. There have been updates to the quality profiles online for all schools um in Manasses Park. The data is being updated um and we are waiting accreditation for all schools and the groups that all four schools fall into. Um there's also discussion with the state on the implementation for higher cut scores um for
004SOS and what that means for current students and moving forward. >> And there's ongoing discussion about implementation plans throughout the state. Nothing has been um has been set in stone at that um at this time. Again, more detailed information to come as it um as it comes out. >> All right, questions. >> All right, thank you very much, Miss Moyers. Uh moving on to the superintendent spotlight and announcements. Dr. >> Yes. I'd like for Dr. Rates to come forward and share some uh superintendent spotlights for this evening. All right. Good evening, Vice Chair Jones and members of the board. Uh, tonight our first two spotlights revolve around um tell you first a little bit about uh Dream and Nova. So Dream and Nova is a nonprofit that works on identifying gaps in the community and
005finding ways to fill those needs. The organization focuses on three key pillars: community, education, and workforce. Dream and Nova is dedicated to fostering inclusivity, empowerment, and equity throughout the Northern Virginia region. Through strategic initiatives, collaborative partnerships, and tailored services, they strive to break down barriers and build a future where everyone can thrive. Dream and Nova is driven by the belief that by nurturing dreams, they can contribute to the collective prosperity of our diverse community. Um, so the first spotlight is, and you actually may have seen this, we're going to spotlight a very impressive young man in some work he's done, and he actually has already been featured by some local media outlets. Um, so you may have seen this pop up here um on Facebook and some other social media, but I thought it would
006be great to get him in front of you so you all could meet him tonight. And I am talking about Gabriel Gonzalez, a senior at Manasses Park High School. He's been working with the local nonprofit Dream and Nova to facilitate coding camps in the area. Gonzalez first started coding last summer when he started thinking about what he wanted to do with his future. He started learning about coding. He started making websites. He taught himself how to use code by researching online. And he eventually made a jobs board website for a competition at school. He found Dream and Nova when he was pursuing LinkedIn for different job opportunities and he started volunteering for the organization through its bilingual volunteer course. Then he brought the idea for STEM camps to the founder of Dream and Nova. Gonzalez
007told Inside Nova in the article that he as he reflected on his volunteer work and desire to help guide younger students said that he comes from a family that prioritizes character and the impact of those on the community. In addition to all this, he's also participated in an internship with the organization and he ran coding camps in two locations, planned events, led meetings, and volunteered as a translator. U that is incredibly impressive work. So we want to spotlight tonight Gabriel Gonzalez. is here if you want to come up and be recognized. Um, Dr. Jones, [Applause] you're gonna go Okay. And next up, we're going to continue the spotlight on our partnership with Dream and Nova. This time on the cosmetology program. This is an after-school cosmetology program that's run by industry volunteers. They're back for
008a second year at the high school with a more robust program. Each semester is different with a focus. So, I believe semester one will be uh the focus will be makeup and semester two the focus will be hair. The students have received hands-on training and the opportunity to collaborate with industry experts. Um, what Dream and Nova posted when they were sharing out about this was, "Thank you to Manasses Park City Schools and Miss Hammad for welcoming our after-school cosmetology program back. We saw so many new faces and some returning ones at our interest meeting. This academic year, the program will be two semesters with each semester focused on one topic opposed to last academic year where our guinea pig program and both makeup and hair styling segments in one semester. Thank you to our volunteer
009program manager and all of those involved with the program for allowing the continue to the program to continue to thrive. The passion this group has for young girls and their creative journeys is truly inspiring. And so tonight we do have Miss Hammad is with us. And Miss, will you come up and introduce who you brought in with you? Because I wasn't able to get their names right before. >> We are really excited for this partnership because this is our second year. I wanted you guys to meet one of our young ladies who did the entire program last year and is continuing this year. So, um, this is Isabella and she's gonna kind of you can tell them a little bit about kind of what the program did for you and what your plans are. >>
010Um, so last year was my freshman year. Um, it was a good thing that they brought to you. Um, since I was young, I've always enjoyed hair and makeup. So when I learned like when I heard that the high school was bringing a program into the school, I was very excited and I signed up. Um and I really enjoyed what they did. So I continue to do it my sophomore year and I hope the program will be just as good. Sorry. >> What was your what was your favorite area though? What did your favorite >> I liked how they taught us about hair and makeup. um they said us the steps and about the different things that you can do um especially um learning even if it's just something I'll won't as a career it's
011just uh sorry there is >> thank you um even if it's something I won't be doing as a career it's always something that I'm have a passion with um so yeah sorry >> thank you so much Dr. [Applause] That's pretty great experience for our students at the high school both in coding and in cosmetology. All right. And finally in the spotlight tonight, uh Maness uh Park City Schools recently participated in the rally uh for the rail under the lights, a spirited competition that brought together special education students from three local school divisions, Osborne High School and Manassus City Public Schools, Manasses Park High School from here, and Forest Park High School from Prince William County Public Schools. The students showcase their skills in a variety of track and field events, including the 40-yard dash, the
012soccer kick, the javelin throw, standing long jump, frisbee discus toss, and an obstacle course. This is always a very well attended and well-loved event for our students and our staff members. And this year was certainly no exception. So, we wanted to uh just have a shout out for that uh special day. And that concludes our spotlight this evening. Thank you. I just want to say uh thank you to Manasses Park staff and the Dream Nova for providing um our students with these amazing opportunities. It's great to hear uh what you're doing and we can't wait to see what you do with your with your future. So, thank you so much for participating in that. Um and thank you for coming out to share this with us. That's that's what we signed up here to do.
013So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you very much. U moving on now to public comments. I'm going to read a couple guidelines. So, uh for public comments, when called to the podium, please provide your name and Manasses Park City address or if you're staff, your job title, and work location. Each person is allotted three timed minutes to make comments. Mrs. Deloreier will let you know when you have reached three minutes. The board will not give feedback to your comments or questions during public comment time. Should your comments warrant a response, Dr. Saunders will work with staff to address the concerns or questions raised and will provide a response in a timely fashion. Mrs. Deloreier, do we have anyone signed up for public comments this evening? >> Yes, thank you. Y So I thought
014we would I thought so we need to have a separate meeting. Um court in part here was hoping my kids move. Uh there's a couple issues we have both inside and outside the school. The first is the changes that were made to the drop off at the middle school, which I've been told by three different people that three different people are responsible for it. First it was the principal was responsible for it. Then I was told the school board had nothing to do with it. Then I was told the school board actually changed it. So in my meeting with principal Huntley, right? Is it Huntley? Her logic behind it was that one day she came to the school, I guess, and saw a child in the morning almost hit by a car that was speeding,
015which in five years of dropping kids off, I'd never seen anybody walking across the parking lot. So, her logic was now to close the drop off lane with cones and make us drop our kids off in the parking lot at the uh what would be the exit to the dropoff lane, which has actually made matters even worse. Um, my kids have almost been hit. It's backing up traffic onto Uklid. It's making it harder for parents to get in and out because as soon as the buses start to leave, everything gets blocked off. And then I was told the school board or the superintendent or whoever made the change for traffic reasons, which doesn't make sense either because again, everything's getting worse. Um, it's probably better with a visual, but I assume you all know what
016it looks like. Um, inside the school, as I've been told by my kids, time between classes have been cut down from four minutes to three minutes. And more often than not, they're late to classes that are on the other side of the building because two of the hallways have been closed for some reason. And then of course there's backpack issues, but I think you guys have all covered that already. Um those are the two main things. So I don't know if that's something that would be we would need to actually have a meeting where we could discuss them later. But uh yeah, those are the two main things. >> Thank you very much. Right, Mr. Lori, is there anyone else signed up? >> No, thank you very much. All right, moving on to new business.
017Um, we are looking at the MPCS bullying prevention month proclamation. I'm going to read that. All right. So, MPCS bullying prevention month proclamation. Whereas school bullying has become an increasingly significant problem in the United States and Virginia. And whereas over 20% of the youth in the United States are estimated to be involved in bullying each year either as a bully or as a victim. And whereas an estimated 10% of elementary schools, 15% of high schools, and 28% of middle schools reported the occurrence of bullying at school at least once a week. And whereas bullying can take many forms including verbal, physical, and electronic and can happen in many places on and off school grounds. Whereas it is important for Virginia parents, students, teachers, and school administrators to be aware of bullying and to encourage discussion
018of the problem as a school community. And whereas MPCS has developed a model policy on anti-bullying to encourage positive behaviors and to eliminate bullying behaviors. Now therefore, Manasses Park City Schools recognizes the month of October 2025 as MPCS bullying prevention month with the intention that the issue of bullying and its prevention be discussed in schools and classrooms during that time. And this is going to be adopted by the Manasses Park City School Board on this 13th day of October 2025. All right. Now moving on to student services to talk about bullying prevention awareness month. >> Thank you, vice chair. Uh we have members of our student services team uh coming up to present uh this information and so I'd like to welcome um welcome them to the to the podium to share. Do you need
019to you good? Hi, I'm Julia Buyers. Excuse me. Um, I'm one of the counselors at Masses Park Elementary School. >> Hi, I'm Kelly Brookie. I'm the lead school counselor at the middle school. >> And my name is Kelly Brown. I serve as the supervisor of student services. Um, good evening, Vice Chair Jones, and members of the school board, school staff, and community members. We did just want to thank you for this opportunity to come before you to share about bullying prevention month and the efforts that our schools are taking to prevent bullying. Um, so as our school division remains committed to achieving what's here in our strategic plan and meeting the goals of these three pillars, we know that bullying prevention um continues to be imperative and it's something that we need to continue focusing
020on in our schools. We know coming from the most recent information out of the CDC that uh students that are experiencing bullying behavior have um an increased risk of chronic absenteeism. There's an increased risk of um low academic performance, low test scores, and even some links to school violence. So, we know that we need to continue um adopting curriculum, teaching the curriculum to address these concerns. I wanted to briefly highlight uh Manasses Park's bullying reporting information versus our investigations. Um so you'll see here through through the last few years um we have been tracking this information and I'll note that with the implementation of Rethink Ed in the 2022 2023 school year, we start to see an increase in those reports. It's not necessarily to say that there was more bullying behavior taking place during
021that year, but with the implementation of the curriculum, our school staff, our students, our families, our community stakeholders started to understand more what bullying behavior was. Um, kind of those indicators for bullying. So, we saw the reports increasing, which is really great. We wanted to know that information. Um, additionally, just with with students coming in and families coming in and reporting this information, we were also getting reports um named and anonymous through our safe schools alerting system that's on our website that families can use. Um, anyone can really use the safe schools alerting um button there on the website. So with the implementation of rethink ed um the social emotional learning curriculum K8 and with some of these other pieces in place we did see reports going up but although not all reports met the
022threshold to lead a bullying investigation within our schools. Um those those reports gave opportunity for teachable moments. We were able to teach those that were reporting was it bullying or was it a mean moment? Was it teasing or joking around? Was it a peer conflict? Still still discipline that or behaviors that need to be addressed but just didn't meet the necessarily um threshold for for investigating for bullying. Um this year I'll note that we are implementing a new social emotional curriculum at the middle school and high school. We went through an adoption process last year um and that is called Second Step and the the um Kelly will share a little more about that. So now I'm going to turn it over to Julia to hear about what the schools are doing to address this
023behavior and continue teaching our students and staff members. >> So at the elementary campus, we do a few different things for bullying prevention. Um like Miss Kelly Brown mentioned, we have Rethink Ed, which is our social emotional learning curriculum. Students receive this every Monday. Every week is a different topic. Um, it goes over various topics such as self-control, um, responsibility, conflict resolution, things like that. We also have our campuswide positive behavior system. This is called the three Rs. And the three Rs being be respectful, responsible, and ready to learn. So, we have three different ways we highlight um, students showing their three R behavior at the school. With our positive paw tickets, students have the chance to earn prizes every other Friday for filling out their positive paw ticket when staff members notice the student
024showing three behavior. Um, positive office referrals are given by staff members to students that are going above and beyond with three behavior. Um, they get called to the front office for a positive reason. They get a positive phone call home to parents. They get their picture taken to display on a bulletin board in the school for everyone to see. Um, and lastly, we have our Cougars of the Month, which home room teachers and specialists can nominate a student that they believe showed through our behavior all month long, and they get recognized at a pancake breakfast. Closed gap is an online emotional check-in tool for students. This is an optional resource for teachers where students can fill out a series of questions about how they're feeling that morning, um, what their energy levels are, and if
025they would like to talk to the teacher or counselor about a problem. Our bullying quadrant graphic is pictured on this slide. So this, like Miss Kelly Brown mentioned, is used in teachable moments by our teachers, our counselors, and our administration to go over what is and is not bullying. And with our young students, the word bullying can get thrown around often. So this is very helpful to distinguish is it a peer moment or a peer conflict, a mean moment, or is it truly bullying? And of course, if it is bullying, um we do report these to our harassment, intimidation, and bullying reports where all of the reports are documented and investigated by counselors and administrators. And then finally, um we do cultural celebrations every month. So counselors will have morning announcements and send out uh
026optional activities for teachers to help build that sense of community and belonging in our school. Um, so this this month from September 15th through October 15th is Hispanic Heritage Month. So the counselors created a Hispanic Heritage Month display in the school. Um, and sent an email to teachers to invite their students to participate through a slip of paper to write about where their families from and what cultural traditions they practice in their Hispanic heritage. And then just a final quick story I want to share. Um, this past week I had two fourth graders come to my office due to a series of mean moments. And one of the students wrote the other student apology letter and the other well after she gave the apology letter, she quickly asked, "Do you forgive me?" And the other
027student hesitated and she looked at me and didn't say anything and I said, "It's okay if you need time. Sometimes we need time to forgive after we've been hurt a few times." Um, and the student asked for a piece of paper. And so she brought the piece of paper over to that student that had been unkind to her. And she folded a part of the paper up and said, well, she said, "This is my heart. And when you're mean to me, this happens." And she folded up a piece of the paper and crumbled it. And she said, "When you're mean to me again, this happens." She folded up another part of the paper. And then she said, "When you're mean to me again, this happens." And she crumbled the whole paper up. And then she
028said, "When you apologize, I can try to smooth it out." And then she held up the piece of paper that was still crinkled but more flat and said, "But look at my heart now." Um, that was really neat to see because that was actually a counseling lesson we gave last year to our third graders. Um, and the issue she was having was with one of our new students to Manasses Park. So just to see a fourth grader um retain, you know, something they learned from a counseling lesson and apply it to a real scenario she had with a student. That's that's our aim. That's our goal. So, at the secondary campus, we really try to reiterate what they have already put in place at the middle um at the elementary campus, and we have been
029able to do that over the last several years under the guidance of Kelly Brown. So, we appreciate you for that. Um, a lot of the things that we are implementing are very similar to what the elementary school is doing. So, this year we did move from Rethink Ed to second step for our programs. Um, Second Step was designed for secondary campuses, so it it works well for our students. Um, and the one thing that our students keep telling us is they're liking this program because they get to be active and engaged. It is a screens free program, so they are interacting with their peers. Um, we do it every first day of the week. So, if we are not at school on a Monday, it will be on a Tuesday, but they have these lessons
030once a week at the middle school. Um at the high school they are doing their lessons once a month. We also like the elementary campus have our bullying quadrant. It is in every office in the main office and every classroom has it. Um we do have it in both English and Spanish. So it's accessible for our students to refer at any time not just whenever they are in the office but in their um classrooms as well to work with their teachers. Um, we also utilize the HIV reports and we work with Dr. Charmaine Everett who is our student assistant program specialist and she leads our investigations when it does call for an investigation and then whatever the outcome is, we work with those children to make sure that they feel safe and comfortable in school
031moving forward. Um we implement cougar pride at the middle school which is positive, responsible, inspirational, determined and engaged behaviors. Um through this we are looking every day for these um characters. Our teachers point them out. We use them in our daily announcements and each grade level nominates five students for cougar of the month. At the end of the year, every grade level students vote for the cougar of the year. So, they are nominating students that they have seen these behaviors from, which is a neat way to celebrate um all the good that they are doing. And then we also do heritage celebrations as well. Across the district, we always do a spirit week. So, this was our flyers that went out to families this uh this year. Um we did a team up for kindness
032day, a dream big um unity and diversity and together we shine and we always end on Fridays with our one team, one dream, one Manasses Park. So, this is something that the whole family can get involved in from preK all the way to our seniors and it's just a way to unite all the schools um in our goal of bullying prevention. >> Thank you very much again for giving us the time to share with you this evening. Um that's it. questions. >> I just wanted to say thank you for so much for sharing, especially the data. It's great to see that we've seen um um a dip that in the bullying because that means that our students are feeling uh safe at the school. So, thank you so much for your hard work in in
033contributing to that. >> Just uh similar remarks, just a quick question. uh if you could talk a little bit more about reports versus investigations, kind of what determines that next step and if you can give us some examples of kind of things that are reported but not necessarily investigated. >> Sure. Yeah, that's a great question. Um so anyone can report anyone can report and if someone uses uh bullying then it gets entered into the spreadsheet. So, let's say for example, um a parent emails, "My student is being bullied on the school bus." We would enter that into that spreadsheet that the ladies mentioned, and if it um it has to meet a couple criteria to be investigated as a bullying report. So, if it's uh the the investigator meets with the student, has a conversation
034with the student or the the parent who made this um this claim that their student is being bullied, um the they have to see evidence that it's repeated over time. Um that it has the intention to harm or humiliate um and that there is some perceived power imbalance. So if those indicators are not present, it still certainly will be addressed by the school administrator or school staff that it's reported to, but may not be investigated as a as a bullying investigation. Um, if it does appear like, yes, this is happening on a weekly basis or on a daily basis, yes, we have a power imbalance, there's a a fifth grade kid who's um who's allegedly bullying a second grade student, yes, that's a power imbalance. then we would move forward with the investigation. So, um
035I think like like both counselors mentioned with the education on bullying and with the the increased curriculum with Rethink Ed and now Second Step, we are happy that our students and our teachers, our families are reporting these behaviors because even if it doesn't rise to the level of a bullying investigation, it still needs to be addressed, right? A mean moment um just like Julia's story still needs to be addressed, but it just might not be addressed in an investigation. Does that answer your question? >> Thank you. >> I want to echo Miss Labodnik's um sentiment. So, thank you all so much. Um and it's good to see the numbers, but it was also great, Miss Buyers, to hear that anecdote. So, I really hope you're like documenting these so that can be part of the
036that qualitative data point that we get as well. So, thank you all so much. And I just um I didn't know if our school board uh student member would like to comment on um second step or anything that you're seeing in the secondary. We'd love to hear from you. >> Um personally in the high school, I haven't seen much of bullying going on, but I have seen a lot of students speaking with our counselors and knowing that they have someone that will be able to listen to them and be able to support them when they need someone to speak to. I've also noticed a few students trust teachers as their trusted adult and I'm glad to see that teachers are also there for students when they need help. >> Thank you all so much. >>
037Thank you. >> All right. Next, moving on to finance. our proposed FY26 budget amendment >> ask come up but I think this for us Good evening, Vice Chair Jones and members of the board. I'm pleased to present to you the FY26 budget amendment tonight. Um, due to the financial impact and all things we do with Manassus Park City Schools, it's important uh to align with the strategic plan. Um, all of the budget amendment items tonight align with each of these pillars. Specifically, the last pillar, creating safe spaces, as you'll see with a capital improvement plan. This is the projected FY25 year end summary. Um, it's projected as of this point, um, due to the data incident, we're almost done rebuilding. Um, and there's a few final items, um, that are pending due to the financial
038audit, um, that will be upcoming. Uh, so the final uh 205 general operating fund unexpended current balance is sitting uh just over $2.5 million. Uh we have a projected unexpended amount for the ESL uh state refund um return to VDOE um about a million dollars. Um and this is mostly due to unfilled vacancies from the state funding that they had provided to us. The total projected unexpended local fund to submit back to the governing body stabilization line line is projected to be $1.4 million this year. This is the projected FY25 year end uh capital improvement plan fund balance. Uh so you'll take a look at the top box is essentially where we started. You have the local beginning fund balance of the CIP at the $553,000. We had a FY25 school construction grant uh beginning
039fund balance of 804,000 and we had a capital fund beginning balance of 1.3 carry forward. Um and then you add the FY25 city transfers that they allowed for us last year of 2.5 million totaling the beginning um fund balance for the CIP uh just under$4 million dollars. Throughout the year um is the the middle part there you'll see the expenditures the city uh expenditures we spent uh 2 million of that. the school construction grant expenditures. We spent uh the remaining 804 on the projects that were due to be that were completed that carried forward. So you'll see that our city um fund balance currently for the FY25 year end is 1,89,385. You'll see here um that for the FY uh 25 CIP projects carried over as well as the um new projects identified in FY26
040that I'll get into in just a moment um equal the total of the carry forward or the fund balance in the prior year. So, we're requesting that the total fund balance from prior year be carried forward to use in this year. Uh, it would be made up of 693,000 in carryover projects. So, the carpet replacement projects throughout the division, the PA system that was newly installed at the middle school in MPE, as well as the vestibial project that the high school started in FY25 either over spring breaks um or in June after school, but unfortunately couldn't be completed until this current year. In addition to the carry forward um projects, we did identify um significant safety and compliance items throughout the year that was identified after the CIP was developed. Um as you can see,
041um and I know that we've discussed some about the high school generator needing to be replaced, not just fixed. Um as well as intrusion alarms and asbestous testing. All of them are compliance and safety for our students. Those items total 315,729. This is a snapshot of the budget amendment detail for FY26. Again, you'll see the CIP um the carryover projects as well as the additional safety and compliance. Um, in addition, we have a grant, the comprehensive literacy state development, um, also known as the Yale network for a total of 30,000 that was awarded after the budget had been created. Um, and as well as our insurance claim, um, for the data incident, which is currently um, expended at 152. These are preliminary numbers. Uh, we may see some additional increases. You'll see that the total
042here is 1.1914044 in expenditures. On this next slide, the revenue um is going to be covering or the sources is going to be covering everything additional. Uh we're getting the $30,000 um in the grant funding, our total CIP carry forward um and our insurance claim as well. So, we're not asking for additional money. We're we're just asking that um we be included in the amendment to be able to spend that. This is a a snapshot of our amendment summary. So our FY26 original approved budget was 64,874855. Uh the total proposed FY26 amendment is 1,191,44. So our total proposed for FY26 budget would equal 66,66,259. It's a little hard to tell in these slides here, but all of it in circled equals out for each of the funds we've highlighted here. The um the funds that
043did change was just the 205 and the 208 for capital improvement. And that concludes my presentation for the budget amendment FY26. >> Thank you very much. Any questions from the board? >> No, we went over this in the finance committee. So, I'm glad that you all were able to see it. >> Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Okay. So, we are moving on to an action item. Um, we have our student achievement. Um, and that is Park City School strategic plan update. >> Thank you, sharing the executive team is going to present uh some overview of the strategic plan as well as um a few updates and ask for action. uh you know uh probably three years ago we started on this journey um and engaged our community, our staff um even our students
044in developing the vision, the mission, the pillars and the actions for our strategic plan. And as we have continued to work through that over the last few years, um we are at a point now to not only look at it and make a few adjustments um but to uh really take it to the next level. and the the staff this evening is going to share with you our key performance indicators and some uh some public facing dashboards and some other pieces um to really revise it and um make it functional for us as we continue to move on into the future. And so with that, I'm going to um ask our amazing executive team uh to get started on this presentation. You have the majority of it will be Miss Kelso and Mr. Lion. And
045I know uh Dr. rates is here to uh to provide any additional information as as necessary. >> Good evening, Jones and members of the school board. We're here this evening to provide a strategic plan update. Just a reminder that Virginia Co. does require a school division to provide um an update on the comprehensive plan every oddnumbered year prior to November 1st. And also we know that this was one of the main topics that you discussed and wanted um a presentation on at your annual administrative retreat at the end of August. So as Dr. Saunders said a lot of work went into um the strategic plan especially during school year 22 23 as we worked with Ed elements as our consultant group. um through their work and support there were interviews, focus groups, surveys, planning committees,
046design committees. All of that um information was put together and a mission, vision, and core values were identified. So, just a reminder about the mission, engaging students through powerful learning experiences. Our vision as an innovative school community, we empower students to become lifelong learners. And of course, our core values, empower and excel, create and connect, and innovate and invest. From there, there were three anchoring pillars. Pillar number one, reimagining the school experience. Pillar number two, building community and connection. And pillar number three, creating safe spaces. So, where have we been? Um I was reminded of this timeline um that Ed elements provided at the conclusion of the plan and we are at year three. You can see that it it really lines up um to all the work that's happened over the last couple of
047years. We're experiencing some success in all focus areas and have ideas for how to make shifts. So that alignment that was provided two years ago rings true today as we are in year number um three. The planet was adopted, if you remember, on September 18th, 2023 by the school board. So, where are we now? This spring, we really took a look at the pillars, the initiatives and strategies that were under the pillars and there were a lot that crossed each of the pillars that were common. There were lot many similarities. So we decided to affinity group and identify focus areas and focus committees that could really latch on to the work um to initiate that progress in each of those areas that would cover the pillars and meet those initiatives and strategies that were under
048them. So leads were identified. I I've placed their names up here. I want to thank them for their efforts. the the work that they're doing in the committee certainly aligns with their day-to-day jobs, but it is a little bit extra. It's pulling together groups and really keeping the main thing the main thing as they work towards their actions. So those focus committees are student and staff connection, student and learning mastery, academic rigor, parent and family engagement, student engagement, student social emotional support and operations. So we um interviewed we asked the division leadership team prior to the administrative retreat to identify areas that they felt like they wanted to be a part of. So we were able to place them in different groups as well and we had our first meetings at the um leadership retreat
049back in June. So in June when they met the first time they talked a lot about goal development and starting to think about what the action plans might look like. Since then, um we've had summer meetings and then they've met with their at least one meeting with their particular committee during um quarter one and we've asked that at minimum they have a meeting each quarter with their group to make sure that the work is continues to move um forward and then I meet with the leads um at least once a quarter just to check in and provide support for them and I will also start taking their information and aligning it with our KPIs and what you're going to see in a little bit from Mr. Lion regarding the public facing dashboard. I do want
050to note that student learning and mastery, we recently contracted with handover research group. Um they've done a lot of work at Prince William County Schools with grading and new policies with grading. This that was a major part of the original strategic plan. So you might see um soon in December and into the early winter surveys. We'll be serving a lot of stakeholders including students in grades 4 through 12, families and parents and and staff members to get their input as we start to really take a hard look at aligning our grading practices across the school division. So current metrics, they're all listed there. You can see that there's some crossover across the pillars. Um chronic absenteeism being one of those. So we took a look this fall at the current metrics and said do these
051really do these align with what's coming from the Virginia Department of Education the school performance and support framework we wanted to make sure that there was some alignment in the current metrics and in addition to adding that um fourth pillar which Mr. Lion will talk about in terms of operations and what that might look like. So where are we going? We have some proposed revisions for you this evening that includes renaming metrics to key performance indicators or KPIs and revising the KPIs for each pillar. We will ask for the addition of pillar number four for operations and also to adjust the performance period of the strategic plan from 2023 through 2028 to 2025 through 2030. That's really to um make sure we're aligned with with what's coming from Virginia Department of Ed and adding that
052additional fourth pillar. We feel like we have the focus committees in place that we can really start moving this work forward. We'd also like to introduce the public facing dashboard. So we've actually started to track progress and it's live. Um, we've all made the executive team has made updates in the dashboard and will continue to do so on a quarterly basis and then a redesign of the strategic plan posters and booklets. posters that you see around the school division as well as the booklets that are each school and its central office for for the public. Proposed revisions to the KPIs really um and I've highlighted them here came in pillar one reimagining the school experience and again that's really that alignment with the school um performance and support framework and some of those requirements that
053are coming from that what we do should align with that. So additions include increase in graduation rate, increase in standards of learning performance, increase in number of pathways and certifications offered an increase in 3e the employment enlistment enrollment indicator score. And then in pillar three adding the rate of completion of academic goal setting. So those would be the additions to um proposed revisions to the KPIs. And now I'm going to turn over to Mr. Lion who's gonna talk about pillar number four. >> Thank you, Miss Castle. Good evening, vice chair, Dr. Jones, members of the board. My team, the operations team, which consists of transportation, food services, facilities and maintenance, technology. Um, we sat down together u and realized we needed to add a pillar to the plan, pillar four. So the operational team uh
054can have a piece of this plan because we do a lot of the important work behind the scenes with the physical plan. So we sat down on on June 12th and worked up a pillar 4 providing excellence in operational services. Uh we define this as we will empower learning through safe, efficient and trusted support. And this will impact uh operations by providing safe, well-maintained environments, empowering teachers, support learning and build community trust through uh operational excellence. The KPIs that we've identified uh today u would be employee tens retention rate. You know in my departments that is you know it's in every department that's a challenge but in my department it's it's an increased challenge. Uh our employees can come and go as other opportunities arise in the world. So we we work hard to keep
055them happy and keep them here. A percentage of operation uh support employees earning certifications. Every one of our departments uh under my per purview have some type of certification uh in their areas. serve safe in the food services, CDLs and transportation and then you know in the facilities and maintenance can be electrical plumbing etc. So, we're working to increase our employee certifications, employee satisfaction rate, bus routing efficiency rate, safety incident, work order completion rate, uh preventive preventative maintenance efficiency, uh facility in uh energy performance, budget utilization rate, network uptime, and fishing email success rate. So, that's it for pillar four. Those are the the highlights of pillar four. The next thing I'm going to show you is the public facing dashboard. Now, we have not I have not published this yet. I'm waiting for the
056board to take action on the proposed pillar 4. Uh if that action goes well tonight, then we will I will publish this uh dashboard on the public side this week. I'll show you a quick snapshot of it if I called Clear Gov is a platform we use. So this is what the public will see. On the left hand side is the outline of the plan. 6.0 is where the pillars are. Oops, I clicked too fast. So I'll just click on 6.1. But the public will see immediately as they see they'll see the overall progress. You know, they can see our notes, they can see the KPIs, and they can see is on track, future strategies, and forth so forth so forth. down toward the bottom you'll see KPIs. That's the chronic absenteeism uh KPI federal
057graduation indicator reading standards as well performance data. Then the initiatives are down below and again you can drill into these initiatives and see the notes that people have uh the teams uh that Miss Council just shared with you. they go in there and track the progress toward each initiative into each pillar. And this is repeated for each of the pillars in the plan. And again, once uh the action is taken tonight, we I'll be making this um dashboard public uh to the to the community. Gotcha. Because I left it. I thought it I thought it opened a new tab. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Lions. So, we're asking for action this evening to rename metrics to KPIs and revise KPIs and pillars one through three, add fourth pillar and associated KPIs, and adjust the
058performance period of the plan from 2023 through 2028 to 2025 through 2030. So, here are the proposed revisions for your consideration and action this evening. >> Thank you very much. Um, this is an action item board. Um, are there any questions for Miss CO or Mr. Lion before we take action? >> I have a question. Um, the rate of sorry, one of the slides I think is one of what we're going to add to pillar three. Um, I didn't know what it was. Rate of completion of academic goal setting. >> So, students are required to complete academic and career plans in grades 7 through 12. So really focusing on the rate of completion and action in those plans is is what we will be looking at. >> And then I just wanted to comment um
059I really appreciate that we're building this public dashboard for transparency for for the public. So thank you so much um just to kind of see what we have done, what we still need to do. Um it looks really great. So thank you for all the hard work in that. >> Questions. >> I just want to echo those sentiments as well. is I think um throughout the community it's really nice to see where we have been and where we're going and have everybody be engaged and kind of you know helping to get us to where we are looking to go. So great job on the dashboard looks looks really nice. >> Thank you. I also had a question. Um so will there be since I know we're changing the dates um from 2025 to 2030. Will
060there be some addendum or something to say like why or what happened between 2023 and It's something we certainly can discuss. It probably won't be in the public facing documents, but there could be um you know something that we could discuss moving forward with them. >> Thank you. Then my second question, I think I saw it, but um with the KPIs, are there going to be like numeric or metrics to measure those things by? I think I saw it. >> Yes. Okay. So, when you go in the dashboard, um like the charts that Mr. Lion just pulled up. They'll those will be the metrics that are tied into the KPIs which will update we'll definitely go in every quarter and update things. So as we meet with the committees and I did forget to add
061that we have started to add teachers and other staff members to the committees and you know that could be parents and community members as well. be folding all of that in and then after we have um the quarterly meetings with them, we can kind of take a look at their actions, go in and update um in the in the dashboard and then take a look at the overall metrics um in terms of you know some of those things might only be once a year but some of those might happen more on a quarterly or semester basis. >> Thank you. And then I have one last question. So once this gets approved, how will it be communicated to staff in the community? >> That's something we'll work on as next steps to make sure that everybody's
062included with that so everybody knows what um that the dashboard is out there, that we're getting a new plan and a new um performance period timeline so that um you know we can stick to that and continue the work that we're doing. >> All right. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> All right, board. This is action items. So, can I get a motion to approve the update to the strategic plan? >> Motion to approve. >> Second. >> Got a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. >> Eyes have it. The motion passes. >> Thank you. Moving on to our upcoming meetings. We have a regular school board meeting on Monday, November 10th, 2025 at 6 pm, city hall, boardroom chambers, second floor. And then the VSBA annual convention November 19th through
06321st, 2025, Williamsburg, Virginia. Do we have a student representative report? >> Thank you very much. Great to have you here with us tonight. Any comments. >> I just wanted to take the opportunity to welcome our new uh student representative. We're so happy to have you here. Um and then I wanted to give a shout out. I had the pleasure of attending the uh the open house at the at the the fire station today where they pushed in the new engine and I got to see um some of our students part of the EMT program. Um that's part of our CI CTE and uh workbased learning. So I just wanted to give a shout out to the amazing work that they're doing. they were doing um a blood pressure station to get your blood pressure checked.
064It was very helpful. Um so it's just great to see all of the hard work of our students and our staff again um supporting the public. >> Thank you. Any other comments? All right. With that, can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Have a motion and a second. All in favor? >> I. Right. This meeting is adjourned.