FCPS School Board Meeting - 1/13/2022

001school board members if you can come take your seats okay good evening this january 13 2022 regular meeting of the fairfax county school board will now come to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence in a performance of the national anthem by the kilmer middle school bella voce under the direction of kevin sapp that was beautiful thank you Agenda item 2.02, certification of closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia, it's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting, On January 13th, 2022, and to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified by the motion

002convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Is there a motion? Moved by Ms. Corbett-Sanders, seconded by Ms. Tolan. All those in favor? Okay, that motion passes. Agenda item 2.03, announcements. Ms. Cohen, Ms. Kies-Gamara, and Mr. Frisch have submitted remote participation request forms due to medical conflicts. I will now take a vote approving the request from Ms. Cohen, Ms. Kies-Gamara, and Mr. Frisch to virtually attend tonight's meeting. Please raise your hand if you are in favor of approving. That motion that passes. If you'd like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight, then information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at FCPS.edu slash school board slash board docs. Tonight's meeting is being

003broadcast on channel 99 and live stream on the website at FCPS.edu slash TV slash CH99. A reminder. A mask that covers the nose and mouth must be worn at all times by everyone in attendance. If you have a mask exemption or if you need a mask break, please take advantage of the overflow room set up in the gymnasium. I now call on Ms. Sizemore-Heiser for an announcement. National Mentoring Month highlights mentoring and the positive impact it can have on young lives. This month-long outreach campaign focuses national attention on the need for mentors, as well as how each of us, individuals, businesses, government agencies, schools, faith communities, and nonprofits can work together to increase the number of mentors and assure brighter futures for our young people. Positive relationships between mentors and their mentees have been shown

004to encourage young people to stay in school, achieve personal growth, believe in themselves, and live up to their potential. We have a tremendous need for mentors at all levels in FCPS. If you'd like to learn more about how you can be a mentor to a student, please visit FCPS.edu and search, quote, become a mentor, quote, and make a difference in a child's life today. Thank you, Ms. Eisenborheiser. Agenda item 3.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. Speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes in length. At the conclusion of two minutes, the microphone or video will be turned off. School board members will be listening but not responding to individual speakers. The school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings, such

005as capital improvement. program, budget, and boundaries. Comments targeting, criticizing, or attacking individual students are not permitted during public meetings. Complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school official. Speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school-based employee. Additionally, speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in their statements, avoiding profanity, inappropriate gestures, shouting, and comments that run counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy. All statements should be directed to the school board and speakers should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks. In-person speakers should wear a mask when addressing the board. We are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and we thank you for your cooperation. Our first speaker is

006Rayon Afif. Hi, I'm Rayana Thief, and I'm a student in FCPS, and my goal today is to express my concerns regarding COVID. The principal of Marshall High School forwarded an email sent to parents saying Marshall High School's reported COVID numbers were low during break. Nearly every person I know from Marshall received COVID. However, only a few reported it, each doing so in different ways. My brother tested positive for COVID on the Friday before break. We were unsure how to report it, but I received an email from Kathleen Hogan a few days prior saying I was exposed. To report my brother's positive test, my mom emailed Ms. Hogan. I have a friend whose mother called the attendance office to report their positive test. I have another friend who attempted to use an FCPS form to report

007their COVID test, but wasn't able to because the test was closed during the break. Some people believe they didn't need to report it because it was during break, but most people didn't report it because they simply didn't know how. Reporting COVID is inaccessible and hard to get to. How can we trust the reported COVID numbers if we A, don't know how to report it, and B, that there are people who didn't report it? Additionally, with the increase of COVID cases in Fairfax and the school system, the current system regarding COVID exposure notifications is unrealistic. More people are being sent COVID exposure emails, which means more people are missing important days of school. In a prestigious school such as Marshall, missing even one class from school can create a huge dent in our ability to succeed.

008We are missing large amounts of work and content due to an exposure that can easily be prevented. Furthermore, we are expected to return back to school if we are vaccinated, even if we don't test. Vaccinated people are not immune to COVID, it just means our symptoms are less severe. We can still pass it to others, especially to those who are not vaccinated. As students, especially part of the IB program, and especially towards the end of the quarter, our stress levels are at an excruciating high. Missing days due to testing positive for COVID or receiving a COVID exposure notification can negatively impact our ability to succeed. The stress levels that come from anxiety surrounding testing positive for COVID is also a big distraction. The federal government has claimed virtual school is detrimental to students' well-being, but

009so is an unsafe in-person learning environment. The only way we're going to be able to attend in-person school for the majority of the year is by using virtual school at times where it is most needed, such as now. It is not ideal, but it is a safe. Thank you. Our next speaker is Agnese Lesmain. My purpose of attending this meeting today is to bring attention to FCPS for the need to incorporate climate change in the FCPS curriculum. 2021 has been the fifth hottest year the planet has had, and carbon dioxide and methane emissions continue to hit record highs. This year, 2022, and the rest of our lives must be a time of climate action. As students, this time is meant for reflection for the future. We reflect on our futures, asking ourselves, what or who

010do I want to be when I'm older? Where do I want to live? Do I want to have a family? Unfortunately, if no action is taken in attempts to reduce emissions into the Earth's atmosphere, we will not have the futures the way we expect them to be. Too often, I see people promising climate action and emphasizing the severity of climate action when they really don't make an effort, or maybe they don't know how to help. If we all want a planet to live on, we must not waste any more time promising. We must start taking action. And to achieve this, we all must know and understand how to take action on climate change. My hope is that FCPS can begin incorporating the topics of climate change into all classes and possibly include an individual elected

011on this climate crisis. Because there are many students who are unaware of the impacts of climate change. And if our planet starts dying before we are educated on knowing how to help, we will regret it. Tying climate change into all school subjects is possible and many resources are available to teach this topic. If we truly want ourselves to engage, inspire, and thrive, we must do everything it takes to create a healthy world and this starts with talking and educating. Students are ready to learn and take action on climate change, but we're waiting for FCPS to become a leader for this new generation. We're ready to make a difference and we hope you are too. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tina Williams. Good evening. I'm Tina Williams, president of the Fairfax County Federation

012of Teachers. Our union has heard from many members in recent weeks who stand committed to student success, but are concerned with how to keep schools safe during this surge. We need clear guidance from the Fairfax County Health Department and FCPS on current transmission levels and metrics for each school. As we all know, our students do their best learning in person. The best environment to learn and work in person during the latest variant and surge is a safe school building that stays as safe as possible. A safe school building is one where everyone who is eligible gets vaccinated and boosted and everyone consistently wears well-fitting quality masks such as KN95 or N95. There's access to regular testing and quality ventilation in the buildings. The FCFT is seeking support from state and local elected officials to work

013with FCPS to provide quality and appropriate masks and access to testing to keep schools safe and in-person. We're also working with the AFT, our national affiliate, to supply quality masks and tests to our members. We encourage FCPS to partner with businesses, elected officials, and distributors to get these items into the hands of every student and employee. Keeping schools open and running safely is an investment in our children, the future, and this incredible community. It will take all of us, not only those who work in the education field. Bringing concerns, yes, but also bring your very best thinking, problem-solving skills, and solutions. That will keep our kids safe as possible as they learn. We stand committed to work together to keep all students and staff safe. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Asra Namani.

014In 1954, a school board... in Southern Virginia went down in history as racist. You, the school board of Fairfax County, Virginia, are going to go down as purveyors of the new woke racism that has permeated our society today. How do we know this? Because brave parents, mostly Asian, mostly immigrant parents of color, have dared to stand up to you and your racism. They have presented the TJ papers, papers that document your racism. What's front and center? Your text message, Abrarro Mej, where you admit that the process to change admissions to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology was anti-Asian. LOL. Laughing out loud. For months, parents stood before you if they could have, but they couldn't because it was COVID. They spoke to you, they begged you to hear them, but you didn't. What

015did you do instead, Stella Pekarski? You said yes, indeed. We are going to bring whiteness to TJ. We're going to kick out the Asians. You knew what was going to happen. And you, Scott Brabrand, what did you do? You reverse engineered the numbers. You said, what can we do to make this a game changer? And every single one of you is complicit in this racism. This will go down in history as board versus... This Brown versus Board of Education in the 21st century. We are standing up to you because racism is not acceptable. It's not acceptable from any one of you. It's not acceptable in society. Megan McLaughlin, you knew this process was embarrassing. And yet every single one of you voted to destroy TJ. Well, we're standing up and we're going to win. We

016are going to win. Shake your heads. Deny things. Thank you. Our next speaker is Shauna Yashar. I'M HERE TO ASK FOR TRANSPARENCY IN HOW FCPS IS USING ITS ESSER III FUNDS. PRINCIPALS FROM EACH SCHOOL SUBMITTED PLANS FOR THESE FUNDS AT THE END OF OCTOBER. I REVIEWED THE PLANS FOR THE SCHOOLS THAT AFFECT MY CHILDREN. THEY WERE INCREDIBLE. THE PRINCIPALS SPENT A GREAT DEAL OF TIME BALANCING THE EDUCATIONAL NEEDS OF STUDENTS WITH THE MENTAL HEALTH CONCERNS BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE PANDEMIC IN THEIR PROPOSALS. IS FCPS FOLLOWING THOSE PLANS? WHY NOT PUT THEM ON EACH SCHOOL'S WEBSITE? Show the detail how the money is being spent to address learning loss. This type of transparency would help garner trust from your community and would show a strong commitment by the administration to focus on learning loss and mental

017health. Have the SR3 funds been used for COVID testing? During the October 19th work session, Dr. Boyd said that the SR3 funds would be used to pay for COVID tests, not covered by insurance or other federal grants. Ms. Corrin? Cohen and Ms. Corbett-Sanders expressed great concerns about the ESSER III funds being used for COVID testing. The school had big plans for those funds and that didn't involve COVID testing, which would rapidly deplete the money. The primary role of the public schools is education, not providing public healthcare services. The school should get out of the testing business as quickly as possible. Finally, I'm renewing my request for you to create masking off ramps. Shortly before Thanksgiving, I addressed this board and requested that you start working on a plan for mask off ramps. Have you? We

018can't mask our children and teachers forever. These are not harmless mitigation measures. Speech therapists are seeing a 300 to 400% increase in patient referrals. Masks disinhibit people, leading to more violent behaviors and less healthy social interaction when worn. We can't keep pretending like the masks aren't having a negative effect on education. Ask the teachers if the masks are making a difference and making it harder for them to connect with students. You know the answer, but check if you need the data to support the obvious. Start working on a plan that your community can get behind. Lead on this issue. Don't be the last to the table. Don't be the last to figure out a realistic way to unmask our kids and let them live normal. Thank you. Our next speaker is Tom McGee. The Fairfax

019County Public Schools states, our mission is to inspire and empower students to meet high academic standards, lead ethical lives, and be responsible and innovative global citizens. Is the school board meeting this standard? I think not. 23 years ago, I went before the Board of Supervisors to request the removal of a book, Baby Bebop, from the public library. They moved this pornographic book from the children's section to the adult teen section. I realized quickly this was a losing battle. Here I am again. Time has passed. The problem is worse. The system and the unions have built a bulletproof shield around themselves. The focus is not on high academic standards. Instead, it's based on social engineering and a power grabbed by people like you. The teachers' union indoctrinates new teachers with sincere goals of educating by replacing

020those ideas with a system with low expectations. Excellence in education is buried. I came here to talk about pornography in the book Lawn Boy, another shiny object slash smoke screen to distract from the education problem. The only solution to this is to remove the people from office that have created the issues we're discussing today. They must not be allowed to continue to ruin our children. History, math, science... The focus must be on excellent education, history, math, science, and social decency, thereby creating an environment where learning is the top priority. We must demand the school system respect wishes of the parents and work with them, not against them. Vote every one of these people out of office. Eliminate useless politicians such as Warner, Kane, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors and find people that can

021do the job. If we do not vote them out, we will live with this cancer forever and our children will never thrive. The door is now open with the election of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General. We must fully support them and demand that real education remain the top priority for all. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Adrian Hensel. Adrian Hensel. Our next speaker is David Walrod. Our next speaker is Vanessa Hall. Hi, I'm an FCPS parent and active volunteer who interacts with students on a regular basis, even during the pandemic. Students are really putting on a brave face and working excessively hard, but what they really need is support from the FCPS community and for outside groups to stop using them as political pawns. Students spend up to one half of

022their day in school but have no control. The winds of change are constant and are taking a toll. They have expressed exhaustion from unrelenting change and excessive schoolwork and expectations. They share fears about catching COVID in school and accidentally transmitting it to friends or vulnerable family members. time they are expected to eat in overcrowded lunch rooms and walk shoulder to shoulder through tight hallways. Students are in a no-win situation yet they persist and are bravely going to school during a pandemic. They're not asking for much just continued COVID mitigation measures like masking, vaccination and testing. Of course they want to return to normal because we all do. But most of us understand that we cannot return to pre-COVID activities and behaviors right now. Most students want less outsider interference. They don't want to be filmed

023or attacked on social media. They don't want outsiders telling them they don't belong because of how they look, where they live, who they are, or who they love. They've asked adults to stop attacking their librarians and screaming that beloved books are pornography. They don't want outside groups interfering with their teachers, social emotional supports, history classes, sex ed curriculum. and student-run organizations. They want caring adults who support them so that they can pursue an education and some semblance of a social life. Caring adults in this community, please support them and protect them from COVID or at least get out of their way so that they can advocate for themselves and their community. Thank you. And thanks to all the brave students who are, they just, I'm in awe of them every day. And thanks to all

024of you guys. Good night. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mark Spooner. Good evening. I became very interested in what's going on in our schools last year. And since then, I've spent hundreds of hours researching the issues on my own through Freedom of Information Act requests and otherwise. And what I have discovered has confirmed my worst fears. Early on, I... learned that you all had hired a critical race theory guru to lecture you and other school leaders. What I then found, though, was that after he spoke, about 3,000 copies of his books were distributed to our elementary schools, middle schools, and high schools. And these books... are ones that say that all white people are racist, that capitalism must be abolished, and they're filled with all sorts of other divisive ideas that our children's minds

025are now being filled with. More recently, I've been looking into the new social studies curriculum, and this is where I've been shocked the most. Almost every lesson... in every course stresses bias, identity, and powerful interest. For example, in teaching early American history, teachers are now instructed to, quote, focus on the influence of power, position, and privilege in the development of the 13 colonies. In teaching... about the Constitution. They are told that this should be a study in power and privilege. Is this really what we want our children to take away from their education in Fairfax County? I've been so concerned that I've set up a website called FairfaxSchoolsMonitor.com and I ask everybody who's concerned to pay attention. because what's going on behind the backs of most of the parents is truly shocking. Thank you. Thank

026you. Our next speaker is Alden Mackey. Hi, I'm a FCPS parent. Peachy County went virtual after a 2.2 positive rate in one of their schools. Fairfax County has a 31% 14-day average positive rate right now. FCPS COVID dashboard is neither timely nor accurate. Parents have shared positive case information that's not reflected and information provided to the community is wildly delayed at best. Since the 2021 school year went concurrent, loopholes have been carved out from close contact and contact tracing requirements, insinuating that mask use eliminated close contact concern, that maskless lunchroom environments were non-issues. Particularly with Omicron, cloth masks without additional filters are not nearly as effective as N95 and KN95 masks, but FCPS is not taking this into consideration when identifying potential exposures. For kids who forget their masks, school-offered masks are surgical grade. They're

027designed to block large droplets and are not nearly as effective against airborne viruses like the Omicron variant. FCPS clearly recognizes that rates have shot up in the community based on their three-phase plan to combine classes and move admin staff into monitor roles while teachers are out. These only accomplish keeping kids in the building. It'll provide greater protection measures and they don't retain quality of learning. Reinstating the pre-COVID absence policy while simultaneously planning to combine multiple classrooms for the sake of asynchronous learning with a monitor serves one purpose. It's providing child care. At a bare minimum, if any class will be put on asynchronous work for the day, schools should notify parents and the flexibility should be given for children to stay home, stay safe, and do their work there. When my partner reached out to

028the superintendent's office about concerns with their minimal mitigation effort, the response was a canned repeat of FCPS mass emailings and a statement that FCPS is in compliance with the law. While we have a new governor coming in who has already stated an intent to dismantle the already weak statewide community protection measures, Thank you. Our next speaker is Harry Jackson. Good evening. I'm here to speak that we saw in the Wall Street Journal an article that was published, and we clearly have a woke systemic racist problem, a woke racist problem in our county. Now, as a school board, you love your CRT. I mean, you love shaming white people and calling them racist and evil, but yet all your policies only benefit the white community. It's really a shame to see that we actually now have

029evidence that the admission change to TJ was racially motivated. that you knew, and it's not taking out of context the text and the tweets, you knew that these families weren't rich. You knew that it was a cultural issue, that these were families that were simply working hard. And you hated them so much, and you knew that you had enough of the pipeline in the black and Hispanic communities to fill an entire cohort of TJ, but you didn't want those advanced learners in. You wanted to go into poor, underprepared neighborhoods whose kids are now struggling at TJ. Not only that, but let's also highlight the fact that the biggest beneficiary of TJ admissions was the white community. Now, I will also point out that you also are no allies of the black and Hispanic community, certainly

030not the low-income ones. Because if you were, you wouldn't have funded an expansion at Westfield High School instead of redistricting the boundaries and putting more funds into Mount Vernon. If you were for the low-income black and Hispanic community, you wouldn't pause. when it comes to expansion of Justice High School, mostly black and brown high school, instead of siding with a white wealthy homeowners association from across the street from a park whose land was created through a racially motivated eminent domain seizure and named after a Confederate general, which is nothing more than a white amenity, I've been to this park. It's only accessible to that nearby neighborhood. that has oh by the way a private lake five private beaches no public parking are you kidding me we need somebody who's based not woke in this county

031thank you very much thank you our next speaker is daniel bethel daniel bethel our next speaker is matthew chapelle good evening thank you for having me I'm gonna keep this very short and sweet. The parents and supporters of the parents, they've already said everything that needs to be said. There is an issue in this county, especially with the school board. I'm a veteran, former police officer, the father of three young children that are going to these schools. They want change. The kids are unhappy. They're not getting the education they need. They need to be in person. The woke racism does need to stop. You have several minorities coming up and speaking. I know you hear it. We all hear it. But sadly, I don't believe any of you care. And if you do care, you're

032doing nothing to show that you do. We need people that care. And that is why I'm here tonight. I'm running for Congress in the 11th District against Jerry Connolly as a Republican. I hear the parents. I am one of the parents. I will do everything to bring change in this county and in the state of Virginia. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mary Beth Stile. Mary Beth Stile. Our next speaker. You all knowingly allowed obscene material into FCPS libraries. I sat here the night that a mother read passages from these books and watched your unprecedented authoritarian actions as you shut off her mic and ran off the dais. You all knew the material was obscene. A Washington Post reporter called for my reaction. She apologized to me before reading the excerpt from the

033obscene material. Everyone knows it's obscene and you put it back in. The claim is there is no pedophilia in these books. The books contain explicit graphic descriptions of children under age of consent having sex. The first step in pedophilia is to normalize aberrant behavior or what we call grooming. pedophiles and sex traffickers look for vulnerable children and provide them with pornography to manipulate them into sexual relationships. These books do that and you are all complicit. The rationale for approving books in FPS libraries is to, quote, reach marginalized youth who may struggle to find relatable literary characters that reflect their personal journeys. Sexual activity is harmful to children. Why would you encourage students to read about others engaging in the same harmful activities? Why do you think they would or should find solace in these obscene

034books? We watch children praising these books confirming that these goals have been accomplished. We hear their conflicts and our hearts ache for them. Adolescence is a tough time. Few are comfortable with their own bodies, but that doesn't mean they're in the wrong bodies. Your policies and your practices tell them that they are. You have elevated a serious mental disorder to a club, and you are lying to students by affirming their worst irrational fears, that they are freaks of nature. Thank you. Our final speaker is Kimberly Adams. Krakarski School Board members, Dr. Brabrand and leadership team. My name is Kimberly Adams and I'm speaking as the president of the Fairfax Education Association, a union representing thousands of your employees. The FAA remains concerned with the lack of protections for both staff and students in our schools

035and on our buses during this COVID surge. One recommendation by the FAA was to increase available PPE to staff to access KN 95 or N 95 masks for all those who desire it. Our proposal allows for up to three masks to be supplied for each staff member. This is particularly necessary for our staff working in high transmission areas of the county, those who work with students with mass exemptions, and those who are responsible for cafeteria duty. We are also concerned that the safety teams are not expressly highlighting and correcting issues as they occur in a school setting, but only reporting to admin after the fact. This doesn't protect anyone in our school settings. We've also heard that safety rounds omit bus safety mitigation factors. We remain highly concerned with the reduction in both quarantine and

036isolation periods, as well as the absence of the health department guidance and the support of return to schools after exposure or positive symptomatic staff and students. We appreciate that all the system is doing to test those who are symptomatic or exposed. Currently, staff who have a family member sick at home or exposed must use their sick leave if they need to provide care to that individual. This must change. Recently, two educators, a husband and wife, took turns with child care so that they would not utilize all the leave of one spouse in the family. Finally, as you know, we've encouraged all staff and eligible students to get vaccinated. If vaccine booster doses for staff are going to be required, staff must be given adequate time to obtain an appointment and recover if necessary. There is

037a shortage of appointments right now as COVID testing has increased. We expect a timeline to be shared with employee organizations. We do appreciate all that this board has done to advocate for staff and student safety throughout the pandemic. Finding our way through this surge is... We also have two video testimonies. The first is Sue Zoldak. When I stood before you last May, the day you recognized Asian American Heritage Month, I had a small modicum of hope. Hope that you might listen to my journey and a small history lesson about the 1965 Immigration Act. You see, the Immigration Act gave preferences to those from immigrant countries in Asia to have fulfilled certain qualifications, namely in math, engineering, science. This led to a much higher proportion of Asian descendants, especially in a tech field like ours, to

038have STEM fields in our blood. But somehow that didn't get it through to your preset minds. Not only does it literally not make sense to make Thomas Jefferson match the 20% of Asians in Fairfax County, any attempt to balance a race-based admissions process is systematic racism. Let me use your own words to describe what you call the merit lottery affair system, which is really systematic racism in disguise. I really know that any human intervention has the potential for bias, but the lottery seems to leave too much. The Merit Lottery proposal is intended to make TJ more representative of our county demographics. The admissions data for TJ is unacceptable with less than 2% being black. And then referring to the admissions process, can we go back and look at the points? Would 200 points be a

039game changer? And then referring to each other as potentially being racist, talking about pay to play, crap, that sounds racist. And then, I mean, there isn't really an anti-Asian feel underlying some of this, is there? Hate to say it, LOL. Well, LOL indeed. I think you guys need to first apologize and then reach out to all of the applicants and tell them that you're going to restart the TJ process. And then I think you should all resign. Our next video is Robert Rigby. Good evening. My name is Robert Rigby. I am co-president of an organization called FCPS Pride and a Fairfax teacher. Our work is aimed to our vision of a public school system in Fairfax County in which all stakeholders are welcome, safe, and respected, including LGBTQIA plus people. As powerfully said this Sunday

040by Chair Stella Pekarski, our system, our leaders, our school board, the very existence and function of public schools here are under assault. The trauma of the pandemic and its effects on schools have been weaponized for policy and electoral purposes. We as a community need to acknowledge one another, look at our different perspectives, and come together to support our children and our schools. Alas, there is a great deal of outside, mysterious political money and connected media invested in this degradation of the conversation around our schools. This week we saw revelations that seem to me to be a concatenation of misquotes, partial quotes, and scary graphics from documents that are seven weeks old. One wonders if these revelations now about months-old documents are intended to discredit Mrs. Pekarsky after her powerful speech this weekend. I say let's

041let go of the outrage and stand with our leadership, stand with our school board, stand with parents, teachers, and families. Too many people care about our schools for us to be misled by these phantom problems. Thank you for listening. okay agenda item 3.03 superintendent matters dr brayburn thank you chairman uh pikarski and members of the school board and community a couple of things i want to just share with you first i want to thank all of our folks for coming out tonight and sharing their comments with us and we hope that our folks continue to stay engaged and involved We're grateful to be part of a community that is so committed to supporting Fairfax County Public Schools and providing the very best education for our children is our goal as well. And so thank you

042for being here tonight in your remarks. I also want to thank our principals. This week is the Virginia School Principals Appreciation Week. all of our staff over these last two years. And this week we're highlighting our principals have gone above and beyond. So I'm privileged to work with such a consummate group of professionals. We do want to thank our principals for their commitment to students, families, and staff. Thank you, principals. Yeah, we can do a round of applause for that. I also want you to know, look, we had a gift of Mother Nature that allowed us to have three weeks of winter break, and Mother Nature may be making a return appearance over this long holiday weekend. I do want you to know that we have used our five traditional snow days that were built

043into this year's school calendar, and moving forward in Clement weather days will be designated as virtual learning days, unless we have a major event where there's a massive loss of power. So as we prepare to observe Martin Luther King's holiday weekend, we're also monitoring the forecast and we'll send out, and we sent out earlier today, a community message with additional details for families on our plan for synchronous virtual learning if we have inclement weather and are not able to come to school. I hope you'll take a few minutes to read that material that we sent home. And we are reminding our students tomorrow on Friday to take home their devices. And we've been working with them this week to prepare for a weather related virtual learning day if needed. Again, just a reminder, any inclement

044weather virtual learning day announcements will be posted to our website, FCPS.edu, sent in texts and email, posted on social media, read Apple 21 and carried in the local media. I also want to just share with you how proud I am as we return to school from winter break that all of our teachers, staff, students have stepped forward out of winter break to be back in school. I know that over winter break, there were many concerns going on around our country about returning kids to school. We have returned strong from winter break, and we continue, and I pledge as superintendent to continue to follow the guidance from our national, state, and local health authorities as we make decisions about instruction in our schools. And I want you to know that national, state, and local health authorities,

045who I have met with as recently as last night, continue to tell me and recommend that in-person instruction is the form of education that we need to be providing across this community and across the country. I also want you all to know that we have many opportunities for students and staff to receive COVID testing at several locations free of charge and all that information is on our website and I want to thank many of our staff who worked over 400 hours at our testing sites over the winter break, over New Year's Day weekend. so that over 780 of our staff members and over 985 of our students could have access to COVID testing. I know the lines were long over winter break, but the lines now are much, much more manageable, and I'm thankful to

046our staff. I also just want to make a mention of the calendar. We do have on tonight's agenda for new business, it's not discussed tonight, but it's on for new business, a draft calendar for next year, 22-23, that's been posted. There'll be a work session on this topic next week, and the calendar will be presented then for discussion, and then we are asking the school board for a vote at the end of the month. So I look forward to our discussions on that next week. I also just want to take a minute to remind the board that tonight I will be talking about our budget, very excited about that, and I will be mentioning the use of our ESSER funds in the FY22 budget that we had adopted this year. I want you to know,

047as superintendent, I take transparency and communication around ESSER and our ESSER plans very seriously, and I asked every single one of our 200 principals to post those on our website. As of today, there are three schools that have not posted, three out of 200, because we are continuing to work to refine those ESSER plans. They will be posted very, very soon. But we continue and will continue to commit to communicating to the community and to this board. In fact, next month, we'll have a full work session in February around ESSER and our work in that. So we really appreciate the comments around ESSER. And I also want to let you know that we're going to have a job fair for our substitute teachers. We continue to need substitute teachers, but I want folks to know

048as we've done in-person instruction this week, we have covered every single one of our classes. with a member of the FCPS personnel. So we continue to cover all of our classes. We continue to need subs, not just this year, but even next year looking ahead. And we hope folks will come out to our virtual job fair on Tuesday, January 18th from 9 to 11. Finally, I just want to make a comment briefly to say I'm going to continue as I have through the remaining part of my tenure as I have all five years to continue to advocate equity for this community to this community. And that includes equity of access and opportunity for all of our programs, including TJ. We will continue to remove barriers for students so that all students with the aptitude and

049passion. can pursue their passions and they're not locked out from the opportunity to be successful at TJ or any of our programs, be advanced academics, special education programs, or academies. We will continue to move forward and provide equity of access and opportunity for all of our students because it's the right thing to do. I appreciate everything that you all are doing as our community as we come out of this winter break. I know that we're still in a moment where lots of folks remain nervous. And I would just say we need to continue to come together and remain calm. Know that we are going to continue to partner with all of our national, state, and local authorities to continue to support strong in-person instruction in our schools. And I'm very excited in just a few

050minutes to share with you my proposed budget for next year so that you all can see very clearly that hope and help is clearly on the way here in Fairfax County Public Schools. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Brabrand. We next go to agenda item 3.03, student representative matters. And I now call on Mr. Chattery. Good evening, Madam Chair, board members. I hope everyone has had a wonderful winter break and a very happy new year. However, over the last three weeks, I have gotten, I think, what just may be the largest influx ever of students who are scared and concerned about COVID at school. And I really, really appreciate the work that's been done to ensure that we can continue in-person learning and that we are able to take part in that because that

051is what's best for student learning outcomes and for our ability to stay on top of content. But I think the piece where we've seen a little bit of room for improvement is in terms of making sure that students are informed about what's being done and also about some of the options that they have when it comes to. personal preference during the school day. And when I speak on personal preference, I'm really talking about lunchtime because I know that is something where I think a lot of kids have felt, oh, okay, well, I have to eat lunch. I have to be in this cafeteria and there's not a room. the room to distance in that setting. And so I think with that in particular, there might be a way to slightly better advocate that, hey, when

052it's cold outside and when we have to be indoors, there are other places in the building where you can be and where you can try to kind of do what's most comfortable for you, even if we're not able to do what we did last year, which was six feet apart for absolutely everybody. Excuse me, my mask is falling down. And then in addition, we as a school system have a platform to share that information, right? When you talk about all of the newsletters and PTA, what are they called? Tuesday folders that go out to everybody. I think that would really allow everybody to better gauge how they're being served and also things like reporting when they have COVID. because there has been a lot of transmission. Fortunately, Omicron is much less severe and in general,

053COVID is much less severe in children. But I know I want to say. at least 50 people in my school who have gotten COVID. I got COVID the week before winter break. And so really making sure that we stay on top of that info is huge. And there's also an opportunity to take notes from neighboring school districts. For example, Prince William County was able to pull together the resources to provide N95s for all of their students. It was just one mask for everyone, but that was still a huge step, especially in a school system similar to ours where not everyone might be able to afford to go out and buy one or have the means to find one. And so I think really taking a look at what resources are at our disposal, not just

054the school divisions, but also potentially how we might be able to reach out to our Board of Supervisors and see if they're able to help out with that, that could be major. And in fact, Prince William was actually also able to get at-home testing to all of its students who had requested it, which I think was another huge, huge feat. And on that note, I think that we've seen amazing steps with our COVID testing sites. And I, just like Dr. Braveran, want to thank all of the teachers and actually leadership team members who were out there braving the cold, staffing those sites, and helping our community stay safe. The other thing that I would like to mention is the upcoming superintendent search very briefly. So while the student representative is not able to take part

055in that process, I would like to stress the importance of really making sure that student input is able to help drive that decision because it is without a doubt the most important decision that the school board makes at all. I know Dr. Brabrand has done incredible work and having 12 very passionate bosses overseeing you and being held under a microscope may just be one of the hardest jobs out there. And so because of that, it's really, really important that we get this right. And I really appreciated the surveys that went out to students, but I think there's even more opportunity to kind of see how students feel and what is needed. And so I actually reread the government governance manual today and it noted that the student rep is the liaison between the school board

056and the superintendent's advisory council. So I would like to formally invite each of our board members to small group meetings with students from our SAC and SEALS programs that can kind of allow students to discuss what they are looking for in that process. In addition, I would just say much more generally with this process, I personally think it's really important to look at individuals who have a track record of closing opportunity gaps because we have seen the major impact they have here in Fairfax County, and also individuals who have really strengthened communication and accessibility, as well as things like advanced academics, project-based learning, and making sure that those types of things aren't just available for a select few students, but that they are available to the masses and that they are accessible. Thank you. Thank

057you. Agenda item 3.04, fiscal year 2023 proposed budget. And I'll now call on Dr. Brabrand for that presentation. Thank you, Ms. Bukarski. Well, good. I'm good. I'm good. Members of the school board, members of the community. It's really an honor tonight to present to you the FY23 proposed budget for Fairfax County Public Schools. It is time for good news, and tonight I am delivering you a good news budget that will lead Fairfax County Public Schools out of this pandemic and signal that we remain committed to our vision and mission of every child by name and by need. And this will be a budget that meets the needs of students, staff, family members, and community members. We know that this budget will prioritize investments to ensure students continue to receive the rigorous instruction they need and

058the comprehensive supports they also need to thrive here in Fairfax County Public Schools. FCPS continues the journey of ensuring that every student by name and by need receives an equitable education in an inclusive and respectful environment where access, opportunity, and achievement are afforded to all. This FY23 budget that I am proposing is focused on our commitment to minimize student achievement gaps and continue to move forward on focusing on our FCPS vision and mission. It's truly a needs-based budget. The proposed budget is focused on the division's urgent needs as we continue to emerge from nearly two years of the COVID-19 pandemic. I strongly believe that a post-pandemic era is firmly within view. Yet I know that many family, staff, and community members continue to struggle to regain their physical, emotional, and financial footing. This budget continues

059to address the ongoing needs resulting from the pandemic. and yet provides important key investments to strengthen further the instructional and comprehensive supports our students need to learn and grow and flourish in this time. This year's budget also includes investments for employee compensation, which we know is critical to retaining FCPS's outstanding educators and operational staff. All of our employees have stood up strong during this pandemic and have gone above and beyond delivering innovative, high-quality instruction and operational services. And we know that in this budget, we are going to continue our mission of a premier workforce to recruit the best teachers and staff in this very extremely competitive job market. This budget signals that we will continue to aggressively pursue strong compensation for all of our FCPS family so that we can continue to meet our vision

060and mission. I do want to remind all of you in the community, we share this each year at the beginning of the year now, our FCPS facts. We remain among the largest school division. We are the largest school division in Virginia and among the largest in the country. All of our schools are accredited. We have over 24,000 employees and we have a truly diverse student staff and we continue with our goal of a premier workforce to continue to recruit, retain a diverse staff to meet the needs of our diverse students. If you go to the next slide, our FY23 budget, it totals about $3.3 billion and is a decrease of $78.5 million from the FY22 approved budget. Now, although the budget is decreasing, the reduction is mainly due to a technical adjustment to remove the

061one-time federal stimulus funding of over $272 million that was included in this year's base budget. The school board approved a multi-year funding plan for ESSER III in August, and unspent federal funding will be carried over as part of the FY22 year-end budget review. My FY23 proposed budget focuses on three key areas, compensation, investments and opportunity and access, and critical operational needs. To support these investments, I will be requesting an additional $112 million dollars or about 5.2% additional county transfer to help sustain FCPS as one of the nation's premier school divisions. I know the strong partnership that this school board has done in collaboration with the Board of Supervisors and the strong partnership that I have worked hard to create with the County Executive Brian Hill. That partnership has allowed us to have two years of

062fully funded budgets in consecutive years just before this pandemic occurred. And I am confident that that continued commitment to collaboration will allow us to have a third fully funded budget here in Fairfax County Public Schools. I want to, before I go to my full FY23 operating budget, to just show to you briefly a quick summary of our ESSER II and ESSER III spending that was in our FY22 budget this year. As you may remember, we received one-time ESSER II funding totaling $84 million, and that funding was allocated to support summer school, which we did two to three times larger than we'd ever done before. Funding to support our FCPS on-lease obligations. money for our HVAC replacement and air quality upgrades, and funding for indirect cost recovery as we provided support to administer all of this

063additional federal grant funding. This was part of the budget resolution that the board passed asking that we invested in ESSER II with the focus on mitigating and remediating the impact of COVID on academic achievement and achievement gaps and learning loss. It also in the budget resolution talked about the focus for a healthy learning environment. And we did that following the direction of the board and our ESSER II spending. I also want to show to you our ESSER III summary. We did receive one-time ESSER III funding this year of over $188 million one-time funding to safely reopen our schools. and safely reopening schools we did. We returned strong 99.5% of our students this year, and we've sustained the safe operation of our schools with extremely low transmission rates of COVID among our students and staff. We

064also used our ESSER III funds to address the impacts of the pandemic on students' academic, social, emotional, and mental needs. This was part of the budget resolution as well, as we talked about, to deal with achievement and achievement gaps. And it also, as you'll see in a moment in your resolution, you asked to look for additional particular support for our family liaisons, translators, and after-school supports. In our ESSER III spending, we did things like extending the special education teacher contracts for two years, providing more time for them in their contract day, additional school-level allocations for academic interventions and after-school programming, additional family liaison funding, mitigation measure teams, cybersecurity, translators, bus driver compensation, classroom and outdoor dining and health monitors, and additional ESOL staff. The multi-year spending plan that we have in ESSER, we know, as

065I said, that unspent federal funding will be carried over as part of our FY22 year-end budget review. Now let me turn my attention to the FY23 budget and our first key priority, or my first key priority, that reflects input from leadership team, the school board, and our community. This budget focuses strongly on compensation. It includes investments for employee compensation, which are critical if we are going to retain and attract outstanding educators and support personnel to Fairfax County Public Schools. This was part of your budget resolution as well to ensure that our education building and transportation staff receive competitive compensation to include a step increase. Compensation adjustments in this budget represent a net increase of over $150 million and include almost $100 million for a 4% market scale adjustment for all employees. Go ahead and applaud

066for that. Yes. Over $55 million to provide an average step increase of 2.68% for eligible employees. This is significant compensation. But we can all look at today's headlines and know that we need to be aggressive in compensation, as we just saw data that said year to year from December that inflation was up at the rate of 7%. We must have aggressive compensation so that our employees don't fall behind, and everyone knows across this commonwealth and country that we will continue. to attract and retain the very best employees. I have $8 million in here for health benefits, over $4 million for subs, and over $3 million for bus driver salaries. And all of our transportation folks who received a 2.5% increase at the beginning of the year, things that this board did with one-time money that

067I am now making ongoing for a permanent commitment to revised higher pay for our subs and our bus drivers. I also note on here a small amount of savings for a decrease in the county's basic life insurance premium rates. And annually, we do show our base savings as a result of position turnover. I also want to share with you before I move on to my other two key priorities in the budget, some required adjustments that we made here in FY23 that are important to note. These required adjustments represent a net decrease of over 300 million and 768 positions. First, these adjustments include savings of over 88 million and over 9, 917 positions for enrollment adjustments, which reflect the impact of the pandemic on public education across the country. We did see reduced enrollment from the

068pandemic. We went over that earlier this week in our CIP presentation, just like school districts across the Commonwealth and across the country. And this budget clearly reflects those revised enrollment numbers in alignment with our local and state staffing formulas. I do want to remind the board in your resolution that you wanted recommendations for savings and reallocation of funds, and we have used a zero-based... budget approach for our school-based staffing. And so these new projected numbers are being used to calculate our staffing as we prepare for next year. I do want to let the board and community know that we will have additional dollars to put restoring 33 positions to our staffing reserve, and I have dollars in here to add an additional 50 positions to our staffing reserve so that we continue to meet really

069every school by name and by need in terms of their unique staffing positions and their needs. I also want to share with you on this slide that we have reoccurring funding of over $17 million previously funded with ESSER I and, excuse me, ESSER II and ESSER III grants that include a host of things that we did on a one-time basis that we're making permanent. Things like FCPS-ON and T-SPECs, family liaisons. 10 additional ESOL teacher positions, and the list goes on. Things that we knew were so important in one-time funding that we needed to make permanent. There's also some money in here around $6 million for contractual services, primarily electricity rate increases and some maintenance costs increases, and a small amount of transfer to other funds. Again, we are removing in FY23 technically one-time ESSER II

070and III funding of over $272 million that was included in this year's adopted budget. Now I want to move on to our third and final focus area for the budget, excuse me, the second main area for the budget around opportunity and access. Funding for opportunity and access represents an increase of over $68 million and 233 positions. And these are some of the themes that we heard directly from the school board and our leadership team and our community as we gathered priorities last fall. First of all, a learning organization must continue to put a focus on learning for every employee. Therefore, I have funding in this budget of over $30 million to provide three additional professional development days for every instructional and every support employee in this county. We must continue to give the very best

071and latest training and best practices for all of our employees. There is also the need for opportunity and access to reduce the administrative burdens that our schools have faced in this pandemic so that our school leadership can get back to providing instructional leadership for our kids and our classrooms and our schools. Therefore, in this budget, I have almost $15 million to put. a special education lead teacher full-time in every single elementary school. It is long overdue. This will provide and free up the ability for our school leadership to be the instructional leaders they have always wanted to do and allow our special education lead teacher to lead best practices in special education instruction and provide timely and tailored monitoring of special education law in all of our elementary schools. We've had this in our middle

072and high schools for years, and it's high time to provide that same staffing support for our elementary. There's also funding of $10 million for unanticipated requirements in the new General Assembly. As we speak, over 1,100 bills have been filed. I don't have all the analysis on them all now, but I can tell you that we need to monitor carefully those bills, and we particularly need to monitor unfunded mandates from the General Assembly. To be as prudent and fiscally responsible as possible, I have a placeholder of $10 million so that if any of these things happen in state law this spring, we are prepared with funding to address them. Many of you know the county last year as part of General Assembly changes for staffing added additional nurses and with the county and Board of Supervisors

073support and Brian Hill, we received over 80 new nurses this year to support our health services for students. This budget also provides almost three million dollars and 26 positions to implement the second year of our third year plan to enhance the advanced academic program here in Fairfax County Public Schools based on an external review this board called for and asked for. We have been busy implementing those recommendations. This will include a full-time twice exceptional specialist, It will include 20 additional school-based positions so that 40 more elementary schools can have local level four advanced academic programs. When this is done in one more year, every elementary school will have local level four. Every elementary school will have access to higher level learning in their school. And that is part of our equity commitment to all of

074our students. We'll also have five AART positions to provide a .5 position at 10 middle schools and continue to build out our advanced academic programs at our middle schools. This was part of the budget resolution from the school board to implement recommendations from our advanced academic study, and we have done that. I also have funding of $2 million for our special education program review that is ongoing. This board got briefed on it in the fall in a work session, and we look forward to using that placeholder money on the special education recommendations that come forward. There's almost $1 million on our equitable access literacy plan that we shared with the board earlier this year for additional literacy resource teachers, a middle school literacy intervention resource teacher, and four ESOL instructional coaches. to support the new

075ESOL teachers that we've been putting in year by year into our schools, particularly at elementary school. There's also $400,000 for the development of the specialized program at Lewis High School that you received a briefing in earlier this year. And this school board is not only committed to change and did change the name of the school, you've committed to honoring the legacy of John Lewis by infusing his character and his life's work through programming at that school that will begin to be realized as early as this coming fall. There's also some additional dollars, small amounts but important amounts, for accessibility specialists for our pre-K-12 digital learning materials to make sure that they meet federal and state standards, an educational specialist position for behavior intervention that continue to have the need to work on our behavior supports

076for our schools, and in our hearings office for the first time in the history of FCPS through this support of the board. and feedback, a social worker to provide in a moment of crisis for some of our students and families as they go to a hearing office that wraparound support that is needed and long overdue. We also have a brief amount of funding to provide support, administrative support, to our equity director. Finally, I want to go to our third area around critical operational support, which totals of over $13 million in 87 positions. I talked to you a little bit before about needing to continue to reduce the administrative burden of this pandemic so that we can focus back on instructional leadership in our schools for our students and staff. I have over $8 million in

077this budget to accommodate changes in the staffing formula for assistant principals, a formula modified to have a needs-based factor for elementary, middle, and high school so that our neediest schools get the most administrative support. This budget will also ensure at our high schools that we have a minimum of four APs at every school so that every grade level of kids has an assistant principal who is responsible for seeing them through that high school journey. Over $900,000 to extend high school assistant principals. to 12-month contracts. This was the norm when I started 30 years ago because our high schools are not only learning centers, they're community centers that operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. And our high school administration needs the summer to prep, plan, and maintain the continuous

078operation of those high schools. We provided a little bit over $700,000. for some administrative relief for our middle schools in the front office with a 0.5 flexible position. And we have 1.4 million. Let me just stop on that for the middle school to say there with middle school and high school and the staffing formula across all of our schools, supporting our schools so we can redirect our school-based leadership. to focusing on instruction and instructional leadership and the implementation of those ESSER plans. We also have funding in here of about $1.4 million to enhance our HR department to respond to the increased demands of this pandemic. We must continue to attract, recruit, and retain the very best and brightest, and this funding does that. I have funding of $400,000 to support the beginning of a process

079to replace our legacy HR system, over 25 years old, that is not in a place to give us the strategic data that this board often asks for, or if we do can provide it, it's done manually at extensive amounts of hours for our staff to do. You'll be hearing more about future investments in this multi-year plan in the months ahead. There's also funding of almost, and by the way, I can't leave talking about HR to say publicly, during this process of the pandemic that our acting interim HR assistant superintendent, Sean McDonald, has done superior work under some of the most challenging difficulties. And please, Mr. McDonald, a round of applause. As we search for a permanent HR, we need to signal here in our community and across the country that we are dedicated to having

080a strong HR organization that can meet the needs of our students and staff. We also know that we have, and I have funding of almost a million dollars and five positions to provide critical cybersecurity upgrades. Our CIO also arrived during this pandemic and Gotham Sethi has helped modernize our IT infrastructure and create a vision for the future for Fairfax County Public Schools in terms of information technology. We know that cybersecurity issues, as you look across the country, continue to dominate the landscape, and we need to continue to fortify our infrastructure against those threats. We also have about a half million dollars to continue to provide support for our FOIA offices. I know this school board, as I am, is committed to transparency in all that we do and accountability. FOIA, we need that additional support

081so that we can respond to the tremendous increase that we've had in FOIA in a timely and appropriate manner. Finally, and I want to thank Jeff Plattenberg, as you all got to hear him this week talk about the wonderful CIP process and his tremendous work. And we talked about moving along and speeding up the CIP process. I have funding in here for $300,000 for two additional planner positions to help us with data analysis so that we can come up with plans. even more rapidly around how to better utilize classroom space and alleviate overcrowding in our schools. This is part of our, your budget focus too around as we talked about healthy learning environments. There's also a small amount of funding for a budget analyst in finance to support labor relations costing. As you see in

082our revenue overview, again, this budget is totaling $3.3 billion and is a county transfer, request a county transfer increase of $112 million or 5.2%. Mostly focused on funding that step increase for all eligible employees and a 4.0% market scale adjustment. You can also see that state revenue, Governor Northam, as he is exiting, has provided a strong state budget and a necessary strong state budget as we know that we continue to underfund state support for our schools. But this was still a good news budget even from the state with some additional dollars from sales tax, some additional dollars for our SOQ. And money for a 5% compensation supplement, I can report to this board if this budget is approved, we'll be able to utilize all of that state money to support our STEP plus 4% MSA.

083There's also funding from the state budget to hold harmless the elimination of the 1.5% state grocery tax that we know will be effective next year. The governor's budget also has, not noted here tonight, about $32 million for the school construction grants program, and that will give Jeff some additional dollars to support him around infrastructure, renovations, and other expenditures for modernizing classroom equipment. You can see here again, as we noted earlier in this presentation, federal aid is decreasing by $272 million because we're eliminating those ESSER II and III grants from the FY23 budget. Those grant monies, again, will be looked at year-end for FY22. And I put on here a brief reduction or a small reduction in our beginning balance. As we look ahead, we do have, as wonderful as this budget news is, continuing challenges.

084One, a labor market that remains dynamic. And we must continue to do everything we can, as I said, to recruit and retain our teachers and all of our key personnel, our subs, our bus drivers, our counselors. We are in a moment where we must stand strong with our staff and say they are valued, they are respected, and we need them here in FCPS. We also will be monitoring the Virginia Board of Education around their standards of quality. As I told you, I have a $10 million placeholder. Last year it was nurses. This year it could be school psychologists, school nurses, social workers, counselors. We just don't know. But we have the money there to be able to work if that comes through. Again, what we really need is for the General Assembly not to pass

085any law unless it's fully funded for our schools. And I hope that the General Assembly and the governor-elect will listen to that guidance. We also have on our JLARC periodic review of the special education statewide. And as you know, I have $2 million in a placeholder for reviewing our special ed programs. We'll continue to look at the JLARC study for any additional guidance as we look at our funding for that special ed program review. I hope that everybody will be involved in the budget process. Please come out and attend school board meetings or watch them streamed. Come to speak at a school board meeting as folks did tonight. We do value and I value your feedback on this budget. We also encourage folks to go to public hearings at the Board of Supervisors as they

086have heavy decisions to make for both county government and for Fairfax County Public Schools, and we encourage you to go there. And all the latest budget information will be on the website at www.fcps.edu slash budget. We also have our budget calendar. As you know, today is just the beginning of the conversation. But I hope it is the beginning of a moment, a moment that we decisively exit from this pandemic and embrace our vision and mission of every child by name and by need, that we embrace our strategic plan objectives of student success, caring culture. premier workforce, and resource stewardship. I believe this budget is a very good news budget that lets everyone know here in FCPS that hope and help are truly on the way. The last two budget years were tough. This pandemic has

087been tough, but FCPS is tougher, and we will survive and thrive as we continue this year and prepare a budget. for the 22-23 school year. Thank you all for your time, and I look forward to going over this in great detail in our budget work session later this month. Thank you very much. Thank you. In fact, the next steps, we have the work session next week. We'll have a public hearing, and there'll be additional discussions all the way through the spring. And again, it's an honor to bring you... My final budget that I believe is good news for Fairfax County Public Schools students, staff, parents, and community members. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Brabrand. We're going to open it up for brief questions or discussion, and I would like to give an opportunity

088to our budget chair, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, and then our vice chair, Ms. Toland, if they'd like to make some comments. Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Thank you, Madam Chair. I want to begin by thanking the superintendent. Ms. Burden and Ms. Wigington for the amazing amount of work that you have put into developing the superintendent's proposed budget presented this evening. I also want to thank my colleague, Elaine Tolan, who has been an incredible partner in this work. When we met with the Board of Supervisors and subsequently at this board table, we talked about the importance of looking at our budget priorities in the context of the need to ensure that Fairfax County continues to be a great place to live, work, and raise a family and a community in which our staff are able to afford to live in Fairfax

089County. The superintendent's proposed budget request from the county is a decrease from the budget included in the fiscal forecast and is largely attainable because of funding by the federal government and expected increases from the state. It reflects the decrease in student enrollment while investing in our staff to ensure that we are able to attract and retain the best and the brightest. It also recognizes that COVID has had an impact on student achievement and invests in programs to address learning delays, behavioral supports, special education, leads for our elementary schools, ESOL teachers, advanced academic resource teachers, and twice exceptional lead, and a staff to support the literacy plan. school health professionals, family engagement professionals, and the technology infrastructure, including technology specialists in our schools that are necessary for 21st century learning. This budget also recognizes that we

090need to invest in our operations and includes investments in cybersecurity and a social worker in our hearings office, as well as the administrative staffing at our high school. This is a good news budget that reflects the needs of our system as is required by state code. I look forward to having a more robust discussion with all of you, my colleagues, next week during our work session, hearing from the public at our public hearing scheduled for January 24th, and then again at the board table in February. So once again, I want to personally thank the budget staff, as well as our Chief Operating Officer, Marty Smith, and Dr. Brabrand for your excellent work. in putting forth a proposed budget that reflects the real needs of this school system. Thank you. Ms. Tolan? Yes, thank you. I

091also want to thank our staff and Dr. Brubehrn for the hard work to put this budget together. This is the first step in many before we have our final budget toward the end of the year. So we do have months of work ahead of us, but this is a great start. And a thank you to our budget chair for being so eloquent in her remarks. I will keep mine, the rest of them short. The budget is comprehensive and hits on... If not all of the board priorities that were outlined in our follow-on motions over the past year and in the budget resolution we just passed in December, we get really close. And I want to assure people on the board that Ms. Corbett-Sanders and I went line by line through all of those follow-on motions

092and the resolution with Dr. Brabant and staff to ensure that that happened in this budget. I'm very excited about the positive message that I hope this budget will give to our hardworking teachers and staff and that we know an increase in salary is important. But even more importantly in some cases, we are trying to give you the key support staff you need in our schools and in our central offices. Also, having advocated for two years for more staff in our planning office to help us have a solid plan to deal with overcrowding and school capacity and infrastructure issues. I'm really hoping that after our discussion last week in the CIP, you know, that that will stick in our budget. um thank you for your efforts i'm really looking forward to having further discussion with everyone

093on the board next week at our work session and when we can really dive into some of the details and get everyone's questions and concerns taken care of thank you thank you miss tollan miss omesh followed by dr anderson thank you and thank you dr bradbrand for an inspiring presentation i especially appreciate you know that hope is coming to Fairfax and that's really a way to move forward with the new year. So thank you so much for your hard work, Ms. Burden, Ms. Wigginton, Mr. Smith for your hard work putting this together as well as a team for success hopefully that will be collective for everybody. I did want to just ask for some clarification on slide nine. I know there was quite a large chunk of money that wasn't renewed, I guess, after the

094one time ESSER funding. If you can just flesh out a little bit more of what some of those pieces were that we're not moving forward with just so that we have some clarity. I know, you know, for me, the two areas of tutoring and mental health support are of particular concern as always. And I imagine I know that we're covering those with ESSER funds, but just curious as to how you know what that looks like moving forward. Hello, Ms. Amish. So what slide nine was is that we did have one-time money in the first year of ESSER II and the first year of ESSER III. Those baseline adjustments, we're actually picking those up in FY23 so that we can continue funding them. So nothing has been left out in terms of what we started and

095what we plan to continue. We're just bringing those into the base so that we can continue funding them from this point forward. So some of them, for example, were the 10 ESOL positions that we added to ESSER III. It was only in the first year of that multi-year plan, so we want to continue to fund that, so we're bringing that into the base. Similarly, for our family liaisons, that was also in the first year of that multi-year plan, so we're bringing those into the base. So it's not that we're not funding them, it's just we're showing the adjustment that we have to in the base. Okay, so it's just carrying over the same programming. That's correct. At the same level, that is correct. Thank you. And did that include the school-based funds that we have

096put forward for tutoring and mental health hours specifically? So the reason you don't see that adjustment specifically in here is because the tutoring and programming was also provided in year two and year three of the ESSER plan. So that will automatically carry over into next year as part of our year end budget review. So that funding is still intact as well. Okay, presumably to be absorbed in the future. As we get to beyond FY24, that's exactly the conversations we'll be having, absolutely. Excellent. Thank you so much for that clarification. I'd be remiss if I didn't obviously celebrate the MSA step increase, the health care portion in a very tough year for staff. So I hope that that's loud and clear. And maybe down the line one day we'll talk about restoring that for retirees too,

097that the step deficit that's happened across the years previous to even Dr. Brabren being here. I also am really grateful to see the ESOL piece, the language and literacy investments, and just wanted to, I assume this is covered under what we were just discussing, but kind of some of those translation language support services, just to clarify that, were those included then also from the ESSER money? That is correct, Ms. Emelich. Okay, which is why they're not reflected. Okay, I... You know, I'm eager to look for you know to look at our work session in further discussing this but I think being able to see that things were transferred over is a huge step forward for our division and I think is a huge success for the community, truly, in how we're trying to really invest

098those resources at the school level, in student academics, in student mental health, and supporting our staff to attract the most competent folks to support our schools. So thank you so much, Dr. Brabrand. I find it odd that I don't have more to critique as I tend to do, but I'm encouraged. our next work session thank you well well if i could just say real quickly i know there's many other board members miss corbett sanders and miss tolan did an outstanding job as being budget co-chairs they walked us through that resolution we spent time over winter break alice and lee and i and i want to thank them for really around the clock while everybody else was on holiday they were working 24 hours a day on the weekends meeting going over this with the fine

099tooth comb I also want to thank our COO, Marty Smith, who each year tells me almost on July 2nd, Scott, it's time to sit down and talk about the budget for next year as we begun. And it is his leadership that helps us get each year, I think, a better and better budget process. And I think one of the strongest collaborative relationships we've ever been able to form with the county. And I thank him for his leadership in that. So thank you, Mr. Smith. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I do want to take a moment. I'm not usually this effusive, but I do want to say thank you to the entire. I usually just get right to my questions. I do. So, but I do want to take a moment to really say thank

100you to all of the staff and all their work. Ms. Burden, who I know has literally been burdened with this for quite a while. Ms. Widgerton, thank you. And also Mr. Smith and all of the folks who work in your shop to put this together. And of course, Dr. Brabrand. I'm excited by many things in this. in this budget. I have to tell you, when I was serving as budget vice chair to Ms. McLaughlin, and we were so excited, actually, I was sitting somewhere around this neighborhood too. I was just so excited about some of the things that were in that budget before we had to redo it. One of them particularly being the proposal to include the elementary support. the support to elementary schools to handle the special education work in the SPED lead.

101And as a former elementary school principal, I know how important that is. And it really was something that broke my heart to watch that go away as we engage in the pandemic and many things had to be cut. So I'm very excited to see that. I also want to share how excited that I am to see the compensation increases that we were not able to do. In my work as chair last year with Chairman McKay of the Board of Supervisors, we went to Richmond to plead to the governor to please untether the 5% so that we could provide that to our staff. And the fact that this year we are able to take full advantage of it, it's a very, very, very good news piece. So thank you for that. Unlike Ms. Omesh, I do

102have some things that I do want to kind of nitpick about. Not in great detail because I know we'll be doing this in just five days. I'm excited to see also the placeholder that you've placed there for family liaisons and bus drivers. But I do have significant questions regarding the assistant principal formula enhancement. I'm excited about it. because this is something that my schools need. And you've heard me talk about this, the turnover, just the fact that schools in need just have greater responsibilities. And so this and the budget, it's a wonderful effort. But I want to dig into a little bit in terms of how that formula was determined. And I'd like to have you speak to that a little bit, because I think the 20% that's embedded in the formula that I'm not

103sure that I fully grasps. I would love a little tutorial. So let's actually start there. Well, you know, I don't know whether Lee or Alice want to go there tonight. I have to be honest. I have not said and been fully debriefed on that formula. I know it was worked on. It may end up, I'll let them make some comments if they like to, but we may be able to dive into that a bit deeper at the work session next week. Well, then let me just put it on the table then rather than go into something we may not be ready to discuss. That would be better, to be honest. What I think I read very quickly was that the FRM level that would be reviewed would be 20%. there is significant difference between schools

104of FRM of 20 percent and schools of FRM of 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 percent which is many of the schools in Mason District so I would like for some discussion and consideration in terms of how we can be a little bit more equitable because I think that is really important to really impact the needs of those schools. We'll be glad to talk about it at the work session. We'll be prepared. I'll be prepared to discuss that in more detail. Thank you. Thank you. The other item that I want to just put a bug in your ear about is the flexible office position. Again, great. I know the middle schools are struggling with that, but I also would like to advocate a little bit for our our larger elementary schools, which may be even larger

105than some of our middle schools. They have some of the same issues. And so I think there's some space there to include them in that as well. And again, I'll keep the rest of my questions. I only have three pages worth for next week. Thank you. Okay. We'll see you then. Thank you. Okay. Ms. Cohen. Thanks so much. Thanks to everybody who was involved with this. I know this is always a Herculean effort. And those of us who have begged to never be on the budget committee really appreciate all of your work. I had a lot of questions. I know we're going to get more specific on the 18th, but a few things. Just to drill down actually a little bit about what Dr. Anderson just brought up. When we call them SPED lead teachers,

106when the budget that we had to trash with COVID a few years ago, we had designated them as chair department heads. And the idea was to make sure that they didn't have caseload. um so that they could fully focus on all the rest of things of being um the head of a sped department so i wondered if you had a vision for for that or if anyone could speak to that go ahead dr berger yeah miss cohen i must admit if i'm going to be completely honest i can can you just rephrase that question i was looking at something in the budget book instead of giving you my full attention so my apologies Sure, no problem. I was just saying that this time in this budget, we're calling them SPED lead teachers when the budget

107that we put out before COVID happened, they had been called SPED department chairs with the idea that they would not have caseloads so that they could focus on all the rest of the administrative tasks that SPED teachers have. And so I wondered if you had a vision for this time calling them SPED lead teachers. I just wanted to be sure. if to see if we had some specificity about what what that looks like as i recall it's not our intention for them to have caseloads correct alice um you're correct dr bray brown thank you Right. No, we want these folks to be, without those caseloads, to be able to support our teachers, to be able to provide instructional leadership, to be able to provide monitoring. So that is the vision, and that is the vision.

108I have to tell you, today, as you may know, I know this board knows, but our community, I share an embargoed presentation with our associations. When the elementary principals saw that line, the yells and screams of joy began because it has been something for such a long time that they have asked for for support, and it is a real game changer in the elementary world. So look forward to talking to you more about it at the work session. And yes, no caseloads for those positions. Excellent. No, I'm thrilled about that. The other thing I just wanted to drill down on, I see there's a placeholder. to talk about bus driver steps and salaries, the market analysis. And I thought that I remembered maybe there was a follow-on. I thought we were getting that information in

109December. So could you give us some more information about that? Mr. Smith? So, yes, we'll be bringing that information to the board in February. We have been working with the chair and vice chair for scheduling and are just finalizing and have just recently finalized the report, and we'll be bringing that to the board in February. Okay. Also, just a reminder that when we were on the support employees meeting, we had said that we were going to share it with those groups that it impacted beforehand instead of after so that we could get their feedback and input. My worry is if we keep pushing it down, then we do wind up, and we know this point, too, as a placeholder is not going to cut it. And so my fear is we're pushing this down to

110my colleagues. We're punching this down the road. to yet another year um i have to apologize we are bringing that actually to the next work section next week so uh the board will be updated next week i apologize i've got topics uh multiple topics in my head that we've been talking about in chairs meetings but this is coming next week with the budget work session Great. We will look forward to it. And my other piece, I'm thrilled, obviously, about the step increase and the MSA long overdue. We all agree there's not a person who doesn't agree with that. But I am still concerned when we look at a few years ago, I know previous boards worked hard on the IA salary. And we are just getting further and further with that starting salary from an

111actual living wage. And so I would like to see us be able to come together with this budget, making a commitment to get to that living wage. So I just want to flag that for my colleagues. It's something I think that we really need to work on since the percentage, when you make such a small amount, doesn't translate to very much coming home in your paycheck. So I'm hopeful we'll be able to work together on that. But this is a great start. So thank you so much. Ms. Kies-Gamar. Thank you. Dr. Bradbrand and staff, I really do appreciate this opportunity to review a good news budget. I agree with you, but I really want to kind of frame the conversation so that we continue to focus on what I know is our purpose and what

112you have clearly put in this budget. I see a very clear focus on student achievement and student success. and the investment goes along with that. I think that's really important as we are doing our lobbying in Richmond and having conversations in the community because as you stated, there are numerous proposals for legislation to try to address how we do things locally. And I think it's really important that we stress that we are investing in student achievement. We are investing in student success. We are looking at the expansion of this budget allows us to expand the level four offerings of advanced academics. You've invested in the literacy, which is so very, very important. And I know that our communications person will. be taking this information and making it very available. I also want to highlight and

113appreciate the budget item regarding John Lewis High School, where we are really looking at additional offerings for our high school students by focusing on civic education, something that I hope will not only benefit John Lewis High School, but also allow and benefit a number of other high schools as we move along. And I think there is a excellent balance by making sure that we recognize the emotional needs of our students. We have to support them as well as learning loss. So going forward, I think my primary questions at the work session will be about what measures of success and metrics we can put in place to monitor these investments. The second thing that I would like, because I think there are a lot of people in the community. of trying to tell our story for

114us. If at all possible, Dr. Brabrand, I would like to make our history curriculum available. Perhaps, you know, if we can provide an easily found link on our website so that people can see what we are teaching going forward, I think it's going to be really important that we take some steps to make sure that our community is not confused about what we are doing. And so I just want... Those are a couple of things that I will follow up on, but for now, I just want to say thank you. Thank you. Dr. Brabrand, can you speak to possibly posting our curriculum on our website? I'll certainly review that with our chief academic officer and see what we already have up, and I'll be able to speak to that next week at our work session.

115All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Kies-Gamara. We will now go to Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. Certainly over the years, starting with the time that Ms. Koufax and I joined the board and we were deep in the recession, there was definitely no good news at all. And our employees... felt the brunt of it so this is very good news to find out that in a budget that 90 or more goes to employee compensation it's a significant amount of funding to get there dr brabrand could you share with us just in general terms how the county is looking at what they're projecting we can have in our funds for employee compensation and how that is going to be reflective on their side as well. Because I know that since we're not the funding body,

116everything comes down to the revenue that comes in through the Board of Supervisors and then over to us. Yeah, I'll do the best I can. Obviously, I don't want to get too far ahead of the county executive in their budget. I certainly communicated about the 4% of our MSA. I have some understanding that there's a formula they have that's a 4.01, so one-tenth of a percent difference, which I don't think is a lot. Again, I'm not the one making that budget, but as I understand, a tenth of a percent, you know, and then we all have our own steps and merit increases, which are slightly different. County Executive Hill and I had extensive conversation prior to me presenting this budget. And in the pandemic, we had to make tough choices. So this wasn't about the

117relationship that we have had. It's been very collaborative. We had two fully funded budgets before the pandemic. And I am very, very helpful. The model of collaboration that you and your colleagues have done with the Board of Supervisors to have budget success, again, taking away the pandemic, I think we can be in a place to repeat that kind of collaboration and that kind of success this year. We obviously have months to go and things have to be discussed and deliberated, but I have a strong confidence that this is a budget that we can deliver for our FCPS stakeholders. Great. Thank you so much. The other thing that I want to just bring to my colleagues' attention that it's wonderful that our elementary schools, the principals are excited about the SPED leads and that support that's

118there. But there's the intent and there's the execution. So the intent is we want to bring relief. The execution is our elementary schools are vastly different in size. And so I just would ask that you and your team reflect on that. And so, you know, in my district alone, I've got one elementary school that's, you know, just barely 300 kids. And then I've got several others that are 900 kids. And so a one to one ratio to a school, I'm not sure that we would necessarily give the relief that we needed or large elementary schools in the same. you know sort of equitable staffing that we would find in a smaller school so i would just like to maybe understand a little bit more when we're at the work session absolutely we'll certainly reflect on

119that you know we do have variability in our elementary school size i will say every elementary school principal to a person has talked about the additional challenges of doing special ed. But we'll certainly look at that and there may be things as we begin to implement this proposal that may be tweaks that we can look at. But I do want you to know that this is one of the things that we really have heard school after school that is a key issue that is preventing our school principals from being in classrooms for providing that instructional leadership. because they are tied up in meeting after meeting after meeting important meetings but all of it falls on that principle or the assistant principal so we'll definitely look at it and uh be prepared to speak to it

120now i'm i'm very very supportive again of the goal here without question um it's just about making sure we think through the execution um you know i it was years ago that a family invited me in early on in my tenure to observe an iep meeting and the meeting was just crammed with people in it so i don't know if we've refined things over time but uh i think also just efficiency of staff we need to let me say this to you this is our budget plan and what you're really speaking about so so just accurately is the implementation plan and we'll have to work very carefully with dr boyd on that implementation so that it is done and done well. Obviously, it's a great thing in concept, but it needs to be well executed

121at the school level, and we can provide some additional follow-up on that. Thank you. And finally, this is one that, again, at the work session, I'd love for your team to kind of figure out how to speak to it, but for many years, many of us have talked about bringing our school clinics and the use of school nurses up to a best-in-class model. and so i it's my understanding that the public health department did have a consultant working on that interviewing our principals our schools so if you could bring us a status update on where that stands because um you know i i this is one of those unique partnerships where how we staff and run our school clinics is not just done entirely on the FCPS side of operations. It is very much involved

122with the public health department. So I think it would be helpful to know that. Absolutely. I'll follow up. I haven't had a chance to talk to Dr. Boyd on that feedback before this meeting tonight, but we can follow up for next week. and finally with regard to the hearings office and staffing a social worker with that um i'm sure you knew that would make me very happy to hear whose idea was that miss mclaughlin do you remember so you champion this And I do say this is something I had to evolve and lead and be changed by your passion and your thinking and your advocacy to look at the hearings office in a different way from the very first year I came back here. You asked for a more restorative approach for the hearing office.

123And I think as I'm leaving, we are putting in really all the full vision of something that you articulated several years ago. And I hope that you see in this budget. that we are making a change in direction of how we lead in the hearing office and how we support students and families. I appreciate that, Dr. Brabrand. I know you came with a great record from Lynchburg in doing restorative work, and it was one of the things that made me very excited about you joining us here at Fairfax County. So appreciate all your hard work with that. And I do hope that this new social worker who's staffed there will really take a proactive effort, that it's not just if families call upon the social worker, but the social worker is really checking in because

124as we've heard from our families, nothing is really more difficult. And every time I walk by and see a family waiting in the hearings office waiting room, my heart goes out to them because they are kids. and I'm sure their families are feeling the weight of it all too. So that's it for now, but do appreciate everybody's hard work in this, and it's really great to have a good news budget, most especially for our hardworking employees who have felt it throughout the pandemic. Ms. Darnot-Kofax, followed by Ms. Marin. Thank you. And since we will have many months to talk about this, I will just start by saying I, too, am pleased at what this first initial blush. Congratulations, Scott, and your team, Lee and Alice and your whole team for putting this together, as well

125as our budget chair and vice chair. As Ms. McLaughlin referenced, there were my first six years on this board were nothing but. No, we can't do that. No, we can't do that. No, we don't have the money. So, you know, the situation that's before us, I think we're all grateful for. I think our employees need to hear this. Our families need to hear this. And we have hit on a lot of the right buttons that we need to move forward for student success. as well as to try to ensure to retain our employees who are going above and beyond. in these difficult times that we continue to find ourselves in. So thank you for your hard work in making this happen to this point. So we'll see where we are in May, but I appreciate

126that. I do have a question and we can go through this more in the work session, but can you again go over the advanced academic program phase two, specifically what that $2.9 million holds like? break that out between the advanced academic resource teachers how many will be there one twice exceptional specialist they're going to work as a liaison between special education and aap teams 20 school-based positions for 40 elementary schools to create full-time because they're at 0.5 now so 20 makes that 0.5 go to a full-time dr presidio or Miss Kulinko, am I correct? Okay, just making sure. And then Advanced Academic Arts. AARTs. AARTs. Okay, thank you. Which you, as you know, led actually a couple of years ago to really have us take that deeper dive that we needed to expand to have

127full-time AARTs, I think, first. at our Title I schools, and now we are only one more budget away for completing the full vision that you talked about just a few years ago. And then a .5 position. at 10 middle schools again beefing up our middle school advanced academics programs which was part of the consultant recommendations as well yes all right thank you for that further clarification i appreciate that and my last one is a little more clarification as well and i don't need this tonight but if you can talk about what schools will get the additional esol teachers for the second year of the I may need to bring that to you can I bring that next week absolutely that's what I said right absolutely okay thank you Yes thank you. Good evening. I think

128this is a really exciting budget. I'm really impressed at how much is in there and I'm eager to read it super closely and have more conversations about it. I do have just a few clarifying questions and comments. One of them is well and I also want to say you know I can really picture these things in in being implemented like when I think of my children's school and the schools the kids that I represent like I could picture how these things will be helping them. So it's really exciting. One question I had was about the literacy plan, the Equal Access to Literacy Plan, which was on slide 10. Just to share a little bit more about what that almost $1 million would fund. because I'm wondering how that is different than the 32 million in

129professional development because we have talked a lot about how that literacy plan will need the professional development. So what exactly is that that point nine million looking to do? I'm going to have Ms. Klamenko, our instructional services assistant superintendent, share some feedback there. Thanks. So those particular, that money is for some resource teachers that will work at a central office. Are you talking about the literacy and learning positions? Yes, and also some ESOL coaches that will support the transformation within the schools. The equitable access to literacy work is vitally important. It's a main priority in instructional services. So we'll be putting other funds towards the actual plan, looking for other grant monies and things. But these are really intentional positions that we think will help really move the work forward in the school buildings. Okay,

130fantastic. And as many of us know, there are three bills already in the hopper in the General Assembly addressing the literacy. laws in Virginia, so lots of movement and exciting times for that. The second two things I wanted to ask about and speak to is, you know, again, this this reality that our mission is to educate children and yet we are forced to attend with circumstances way out of our control. Healthcare costs. So slide eight. I just wanted to clarify about under health benefits, the employer share of healthcare and employee share is going up. It looks like 2.3%. Can you please explain, you know, are the employees, is that cost going to be? passed on to employees are we gonna you know swallow that and just what is the rising cost of health care these

131days miss burton or alice miss willington So that 2.3% is both the employer and employee share. So open enrollment for this calendar year. So rate increases for health go calendar year January to December. So that would have been advertised as part of our open enrollment in the October-November time frame. And so employees will pay that portion of that increase as we move into the new year. So, but it's on both. It's equally shared by both the employee and employer. Okay, thank you. Yeah, so this is just, I mean, last year, I remember quoting the amount as well. It was a number of millions of dollars. And, you know, this is a big problem that we can't resolve. But just so the public is aware, this is straining our abilities to provide instruction for students. And

132then just similarly, on slide 11, with the increase of half a million dollars, for supporting FOIA work. I know we need this. I think we have staff that does a tremendous job at this and they are being inundated. And I think, you know, just to appeal to the public is we need accountability on our elected bodies and our governments, but at what cost? Because for less than that, we could fund the Lewis Innovation Program. point four million for less than that we could fund better classroom use and figure out overcrowding for point three million. So the school division has to invest in you know invest these critical resources to address this growing body of of ways to interact with the system when there are other ways to get information to make your voice heard and

133to advocate. So I think we're doing the responsible thing but it is also unfortunate that we have to use those kinds of resources when we could be educating students. And I'll just say finally, I was glad to hear Dr. Braver in your remarks about where the Board of Supervisors is and the county executive. I know that they are huge supporters of our public schools as not only instructional places, but places of employment, places of community use. It's an economic engine. So I hope that we can also advocate to the state to continue to ask for our fair share here in Fairfax for revenue that funds our public schools so that our localities don't have to bear the high burden that we do here in Fairfax to serve our population. Thank you. Mr. Frisch. Thank you.

134Just one second. I appreciate all the work that Ms. Corbett-Sanders and Ms. Toland put into this, as well as Ms. Burden and the rest of her team. It is really great to have a good news budget after two years. I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic because this is very similar to how I felt my first month on the board when um we were looking at all the different ways that we can invest in student success and doing right by our teachers and staff um so i hope we will keep an eye on richmond i know we will uh to make sure that uh these priorities are not uh impeded in any way but i do want to lend my voice of support to some of the bigger ticket items from the um especially, you know,

135I look at the increased staffing in the facilities planning office. This is something we were talking about just the other day in our work session a couple of days ago about all of the different needs we have from our facilities team, whether it's dealing with future planning or estimating how many students we're going to project in a school over a given amount of time, all of these different needs we have from them. This will help take some of that burden off so that they can be responsive. So I appreciate that. I'm particularly excited about the increase in pay and step increases and adjustments in health benefits for our staff. Whenever we talk about staff pay, I talk about changing the sales pitch around the profession of teaching. You know, we tell people how rewarding the

136occupation is, how they occasionally get the respect they deserve, but then we can't pay them what they deserve. And this is a down payment on where we need to be going. And hopefully year over year, we can get there. But this is a huge down payment on that initiative. So I appreciate the superintendent. uh and and the team for for including this information in there um i want to echo uh miss cohen's concerns about our instructional assistants um this is something we've been talking about the need for um not pegging their worth based off an arbitrary number of half of a teacher's salary but instead paying them by their need in the system. We need them and they play an important role in our system, varied important roles in our system. And at the very

137least, we should be paying them a wage that they can survive off of in Fairfax County. Finally, at the meeting, at our work session next week, I look forward to talking about some of these investments in more detail, particularly around increased access to level four. AP classes and Ms. Marin was getting into this a little bit but more information about how this investment in the science of reading will help some of the other work that we've been talking about over the last six months with our literacy program so thank you Ms. Seismohizer Thank you. I'll try to keep this brief because I know we have a work session on this as well. And I'd be remiss if I didn't echo the thanks everyone has given to our hardworking budget team, Ms. Byrd, Ms. Whittington, and

138our budget chair and vice chair. Thank you very much for all the hard work you've done. But I very much appreciate what Dr. Brabrand shared, which is the time you two spent to walk staff through the board resolutions. Because in your roles as budget chair and vice chair, you're here. to represent the board and what the board talked about. And so that really meant a lot to me that you were there to do the board's work. So thank you for that. Both of you. Dr. Braben, I'm thrilled about this budget. And like Carl, I have flashbacks to my first month on the board when I was thrilled about the budget and then, you know, a little thing called COVID hit. So I'm really hopeful and I'm grateful for the partnership that this budget. continues as

139we work with our county partners on that. I'm really thrilled at the fact that this budget reflects the board priorities. And also many of the things that I think we've heard from our frontline staff, as I call them, our teachers, our A's, our bus drivers, our principals, I mean, things around the 12 month admin contracts, the special ed lead teachers, thank you. I think that's a really reflective budget. And I find it interesting that we're still in the way be, and one of the slides talked about where we are in the way be in terms of per pupil spending, and we're still much lower than many of our surrounding jurisdictions. So it's a fiscally responsible budget in some ways as well. And I know we'll dig more into that. I did want to... So I

140have a couple things. You know, I'm thrilled about a 2E coordinator. It has been long needed. But I do want to just, not for this budget, but to put out an implementation purposes. If we're going to make the recommendations and the work of a 2E coordinator really work, we have to look at our staffing formulas, especially for secondary and especially for supporting general education settings for students with disabilities. And that is a long overdue need. probably 30 years overdue. But if we don't staff for inclusion, it's gonna be hard to support our two E students in those high academic classes. So just going to put that out there. And I wanted to say with the JLARC study that you reference, I think the General Assembly also passed a law, I think last summer to implement

141the recommendations of that JLARC special education study. So I think it is really important to make sure that we do receive funding. you know, for whatever the state wants to recommend as that implementation of that JLARC study. And I'm hopeful that our new governor will support that because he, I know, has mentioned many times his support for special education. So I'm hopeful he'll support that as well. But one last question I had for you, Dr. Brabrand, and it falls a little bit with Mr. Nat Koufax was saying and sort of digging into the support for AAP and the recommendations of AAP study. I didn't see much in here about young scholars. And I didn't know if there was additional funding. I know it was one of the recommendations from the AAP study. And I know

142many of us have talked about the importance of sort of spotting talent early and developing talent and spotting our students so we can give them that extra support. So I'm just curious if that's in this budget. I probably, unless Ms. Klamenko is ready tonight, I think we'd be better to address that at the work session. But Ms. Klamenko, if you have anything on it for now, you can certainly share. I'm happy to wait to the work session. It's a little preview of a question. Yeah, maybe we'll do a little work on that and come back to you. Yeah, absolutely. And then the other question, you don't need to answer tonight, but just a preview for the work session is the education specialist position that it talks about to reduce practices that are exclusionary in terms

143of behavior intervention. I'd just like to dig into more of what that position is going to do. Again, you don't need to answer tonight before the session. Sure. And I'll have Dr. Boyd available on Tuesday for that. Perfect. Thank you. Okay. Well, Dr. Brabrand, staff, colleagues, I'll echo the thanks that everybody has offered. You know, this is great and it obviously obviously shows that you've been really listening, I think, to the board and the priorities and the needs of the system and of our students and staff. So I'm thankful for that. And I'm hoping for a positive budget process. And, you know, I will wait to hear the the details as you know, the devil's always in the details about how all of this goes for. budget on the paper to actual implementation so that

144it's helping kids. I will say one thing and I don't need this answered tonight and I just want to put it out there as a point of you know, consideration, thought, is that for the last two years now, we've gotten federal grants to feed our children. And a lot of our families have come to depend on that. It looks like you have an update, so. I took a call from the senior advisor to Secretary Cardona today. asking what do we need and I specifically and sent in documentation because I asked the leadership team to provide me what do you need to tell the Secretary of Education we need the USDA to continue to fully fund that breakfast and lunch program that has started in the pandemic it's been a silver lining we have 50,000 more

145kids that participate in our breakfast and lunch program as a result of that. Kids that maybe didn't qualify, but families were just on the edge, or families that for cultural reasons were scared to come forward to do some of the documentation associated with it. This has been a game changer. Our food services folks have risen to the occasion, but we made it clear. that one of the biggest things that could happen right now is to see that continue and i'm hopeful i don't have news yet but it's nice to be getting a call from secretary cardona's office how can we help you and i think that is what this current administration is trying to do to help how can we help you keep schools open how can we help you continue to serve students we

146shared a variety of recommendations but the usda program continuance was one of the big ones Well, that's great news. So you are ahead of me and I hope they hear you. But it is critical and it's crucial. And if not, I'd like to just have some, you know, conversations around anything that we could do to help our families because of inflation, because of the, you know, the things you talk to, cultural, you know, aspects to the forms, and then also just, There are just many people who... don't necessarily qualify that low low bar but we know the need is is high and it's crucial for our students learning and their wellness so i look forward to next to our work session and i will just say to my colleagues to help with our conversation and

147ensure that we have a robust discussion that you send your questions or requests for clarifications to staff staff and with a courtesy copy to our budget chair and vice chair before our work session and they will come prepared I know to address all of the questions that and clarifications that we require and we'll have a great discussion so thank you to everyone agenda item 5.01 one second consent agenda i'll call on miss eismorheiser thank you our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion Many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board

148member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item six, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. The new business items are on the screen. I will turn it over to Ms. Bukarski. Okay, we have now come to agenda item 7.01 and that is board matters. And I will start with Dr. Anderson. Thank you so much. I do want to say Happy New Year to all. Even with the snowy start of the year, I was still able to hold my virtual office hours last week. And I want to thank the

149Mason residents who signed up to speak with me. I look forward to more of these important conversations. And please know my office hours are not the only times to reach me. I'm only a phone call or an email away. I want to say quickly congratulations to the Justice High School forensics team for clinching the regional championship title for the fourth year in a row. I had a wonderful visit just this week to Mantua Elementary. While Mantua is in the Providence district, 20% of those students reside in Mason. So thank you so much to Principal Shannon and her staff for sharing the wonderful work that is taking place in their building. I had a great opportunity to learn more about the zones of the ocean from some of the students. And it was just very exciting

150to watch how our kindergartners are learning so many wonderful things. So thank you. As Martin Luther King Day approaches, this weekend is full of tributes and celebrations across the region. So I do want to take the opportunity to engage with everyone and to remind you that this federal holiday is important for honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and highlighting the use of nonviolence to promote change, especially for civil rights. The day is also a call for public service and volunteerism, and there'll be many opportunities, including the volunteer Fairfax, who is promoting the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Weekend Day of Service with many opportunities for all ages around the district, the division, I'm sorry, the county. So please be sure to participate. Very quickly, I want to remind our parents to please

151review the Snow Day Virtual Learning, which was communicated earlier today. Please check your spam folders to be sure you have the information that our superintendent sent out. And I will not keep us hostage and I will leave it here. Good night. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Next, I'll call on Ms. Kees-Gamara, followed by Ms. Cohn. Thank you. I just really want to thank everybody and wish everybody a happy new year. I do want to just kind of refer to, we will be celebrating Martin Luther King holiday. I'll be participating in some of those celebrations. But I know that sometimes we hear some comments from parents and people who speak in our meetings and not necessarily accurate information. As we go forward, I look forward to talking to people in our community. I look forward to being

152able to provide what we are actually teaching. And I just look forward to interacting with our community in the coming year. Thank you. Good night. Ms. Cohen? Sorry. Thanks so much. I will keep it brief. I really appreciate all of the outreach and the kind words as half our house came down with COVID over the holidays. And I'm still definitely struggling to find my footing. So thank you to all my colleagues who have been beyond patient and really kind to reach out and check in on me. And I would just say, in addition to all of the meaningful things that will happen on Monday in our community. This Saturday, my favorite trumpet player will turn 15. And so unfortunately with COVID, this is not going to be the birthday party that I know he had

153hoped for, but I know all of us are just experiencing that and it's lingering with us so much longer. And so I just wanted to remind folks, it's okay to feel so frustrated. and and truly sad about kind of where we are but don't give up hope because i think that we with this budget um and with the path forward i really feel like we are going to be in a good place and a better place as we go forward and finish out the school year so thanks so much to everybody thank you um miss corbett sanders yes thank you madam vice chair I want to wish everybody a very happy new year. I know that 2021 was a challenging year, but I am optimistic that 2022 will be a great year. It'll be a

154great year for our families, for our students and the successes that they will demonstrate. in the classrooms, on the sports fields, and in the music halls, and on stages. I also want to, in this Principal Appreciation Week, give a shout out to our principals who have gone above and beyond the call of duty over the past two years. They have shown true resilience, grit, and leadership, and I am forever grateful for what they do. And finally, I want to give a shout out of appreciation to our central office staff. Many of you know that with the Omicron virus surging, what we have found is that we have increased numbers of teachers out because of the illness. And we have had staff from every office throughout central office, every building, lean in and volunteer to be

155in our classrooms. And I am forever grateful that they are always putting students first. And so I do want to do a shout out to them. I know that we are optimistic that the next that this surge is almost over and we will return to business as usual soon. But once again, just thank you. This is you are all inspiring. Miss Barron. So this week I had a dream. that I was volunteering in a school and it was very vivid and there was a lot of hustle and bustle and I was very glad to be there. And tomorrow my dream comes true because I'm going to be spending the morning at Marshall Road Elementary School helping with Kiss and Ride and other duties as assigned. So this week I also hosted a town hall and

156it was great to share an update on. operations during COVID and the work around the science of reading for teaching literacy and using outdoor spaces for instruction. And then a half hour later, I jumped onto the rising seventh grader orientation hosted by Hughes Middle School, which was especially exciting to me because I actually have a rising seventh grader. And so just learning about that transition and it also touched on, you know, helping I think we need to do more to help families understand the transition between buildings and those grade levels. And so I've been talking with communications staff, and I'm eager to see in the future what we can do to make that information more available and consistent. Yeah, indeed, I'm looking forward to the various Martin Luther King Junior Day activities on Monday. I'll

157be at Reston Community Center. I'll be at First Baptist Church in Vienna. And, you know, I'm just... focus on student success and you know there are challenges to overcome and there are innovations to make but that's the work and I am pumped to do this work in 2022. Thanks. Ms. Omesh. Thank you. Happy to follow some of my colleagues who were sharing that this is really an opportunity to turn the page with this new year given that even though we know there's difficulty with Omicron and new challenges and questions to be had there is some encouraging research suggesting that this actually may be the beginning of being able to finally get back to normal. And so we're hopeful, but of course, continuing to monitor the science to make sure everyone is safe and healthy. And

158hopefully with this exciting budget that is encouraging and supported by so many after today's conversation. we'll be moving forward accordingly. I was very excited to meet once again starting up this year with the mental health working group, the student group that has been advocating an audience member as a participant of that. But really to take a look again at the steps that have been moving forward on tele-mental health and introducing that into our schools. And I've been very grateful to have Dr. Brabrand's partnership in seeing how we might make that a reality. I also want to just remind everyone about my virtual office hours. You're welcome to sign up. The link is shared out in every means of communication that I have to continue hearing your concerns and being available to anyone who wants to

159share some thoughts. I also would be remiss not to mention that I know a number of our community members and families have observed Three Kings Day, Epiphany, and then also Orthodox Epiphany, which is coming up. So just being mindful that our friends and neighbors will be observing certain holidays, well, in the next week for Orthodox brothers and sisters, and then in the past week, those who have already been celebrating. So wishing families a peaceful and blessed celebration. And then, of course, finally, looking forward to participating, as my colleagues have shared, in many of the Day of Service events on Martin Luther King Day. Amongst my favorite quotes of Martin Luther King that I often say, actually, even in my remarks here, because I've internalized it and made it habit, is... Eyes on the prize. So

160hopefully all of us with this new year continue looking forward. Eyes on the prize of how we can come together to ensure a successful year. Eyes on the prize of student success and student wellness and staff wellness as well. So hopefully we can be inspired by that after a full day of service and his legacy. Thank you. Okay, Ms. Tolan followed by Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. My remarks will be a little shorter than usual due to the breaks, no and Omicron. I have not been out to schools as much as usual since our last meeting. I know that I just want to acknowledge that this really, you know, Happy New Year, but on top of it, it is a time of anxiety. I know for many of our families as the cases of Omicron increase

161across the U.S. and in our community. I just want everyone to be assured that we are looking at data and information every day and talking to the Fairfax County Health Department to determine the best course forward for our Fairfax County Public Schools. And we are trying to keep everyone as safe as possible and in-person learning. A huge thank you to our Drainsville and all FCPS principals as we celebrate the Virginia School Principal Appreciation Week. Your work is surely appreciated. I was happy to attend the virtual McLean High School PTSA meeting yesterday where we spent nearly an hour with questions and concerns relating to COVID, hence my earlier remarks. We talked snow days, student mental health, and of course with McLean being one of our crowded high schools capacity and infrastructure issues. I really want to

162compliment the PTSA on the amazing work that they are doing to support our staff and students at McLean High School. A huge congratulations to the Cooper Band Program. They were selected by the John Philip Souza Foundation to receive the 2021 Settler Cup. The band will be presented with the Settler Cup by the John Philip Sousa Foundation at the band's spring concert. This international award recognizes junior high and middle school concert bands of outstanding musical excellence. The Settler Cup is widely known as the most prestigious award a middle school band program can receive. And only 60 high middle schools across the United States have ever received the award. So way to go Cooper Middle School. Thank you everyone. Following Ms. Tolan, happy 2022 everybody. Here's hoping that this is the best year yet over the last

163two years as we've. through the pandemic. I do want to first reinforce again to our families that now through Tuesday, January 18th, we will be having the superintendent search survey. Truly hope that as many of you will participate as possible so that we can have your feedback and help guide the board's efforts. There will also be one final day of virtual. meetings as well for those of you who would like to attend a town hall and I know a number of us have been sending information out to all of you for that. I also want to reassure our families and our employees that this board with Dr. Brabrand and his team we will continue every single day to try and do what we can to learn more and examine how we are handling whether it's

164close contact, whether it's the quarantine, whether it's the isolation, there is so much that changes on a daily basis. And while we also are doing everything we can to utilize outdoor space, we're also sensitive that we Virginians are not used to the cold that you might see in the Northeast and the upper portions of the Midwest. being a native Californian I can definitely attest to that so again we're here in partnership simply communicate with your teachers your principals and certainly all of us here if you have concerns but know that again the goal is for us to maximize students safely coming to school I do appreciate Dr. Brabrand that you and your team continue to do your best and I again welcome as much information as we can get on how we're finding things on

165the front lines from our 200 schools. Where is it going well? Where are we having challenges? And how can we be nimble and pivot as needed? So other than that, I appreciate hearing from my colleagues how you're getting into schools and look forward to. hearing what your experiences are. And I guess I would also say, Dr. Brabren, that I appreciate how much your team is, again, engaging directly with the principals. I know I'm hearing from mine that they really do feel supported, and that's most important during this difficult time. Thank you. Ms. Starnak-Kofax, followed by Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. So yes, Happy New Year to everybody and we got the fun snow week to add to our winter break to make it official winter break. So I was I was happy to have that and I think

166many of you were as well. as miss mclaughlin just spoke to i think we need to hear from you we are we know our staff and their team it is an all hands on deck moment right now to ensure that we can keep our students safely in school and we want to do that for we want to do that continually but we need to monitor where we are as far as this omicron variant and to ensure that we have adequate bus drivers, teachers, subs, and everybody to make sure our children are getting the best experience out there. I was happy yesterday to attend the Forestdale PTA meeting virtually and answered their questions about COVID, the superintendent search that so many of you talked about. And for those of you who have not filled out the

167online survey, please go to our website and do that. And there is one more town hall, and that will be on the 18th, I believe. but that's on our website as well. Thank you to all of our principals, again, who are going above and beyond. This is Appreciation Week here in Virginia for our principals. You have taken on so many roles. You're amazing to begin with, but you've taken on so many extra roles during this pandemic that we want you to know how much we appreciate you. And thank you. When I talk to you all, you're always... happy and willing to go the extra mile and say, you know, I do this because I love it and we really appreciate your attitude. And thank you for all that. And have a good evening. Great. Thank

168you. And I said to my colleagues, I want to wish everybody a happy 2022. And I hope you enjoyed your snow week or as my son, who really loves school, called it, quote, a 23 day weekend. So, you know, I'm glad. I held a virtual town hall with Laura Jane Cohen on Monday and we received over 100 questions in advance and had about 120 people join us and two interpreters. I want to thank our interpreters for joining us as well, a Spanish interpreter and a Hindi interpreter. It was very cool because I actually heard Hindi for the first time in a while and understood what she was saying, which surprised me. I just want to thank everyone who joined us and asked many, many questions about... Omicron and schooling in the face of a new

169variant, as well as superintendent search and many, many other questions. So I won't share the information about the superintendent search, but I did want to sort of address Pranav. I wanted to let you know that indeed student voice is very important in the superintendent search. So you actually will be interviewed as well. And there will be a the recruiting firm that we hired should be also meeting with the SAC and the SEALs. So, you know, the students are the center of what we do. And so it's of course very important to have their voice. So I just wanted to share that with you. And so it's really, really important to have their voice in this process in selecting a new superintendent. Thank you so much. Yeah, of course. And then I would be remiss also

170not to say happy Principal Appreciation Week. And I really appreciate what Ms. Darinette Koufax said. I am amazed every time I talk to a principal with everything they have to do and the ever-changing world that they live in, how calm and happy. They are and positive and energetic and enthusiastic. I don't know where they get that principal aura, but I want to bottle it because they really are just amazing. So thank you to our principals for not just going above and beyond, but doing it with such grace and joy, really, in all this. And same with our central office staff, who I know have stepped up quite a bit to go sub in schools so that way we can keep our kids in school. So thank you to everybody. Happy Martin Luther King Day. you

171know, hang in there guys. It's two years of a crazy pandemic that goes up and down and up and down again. But our kids are in school and they are happy and that's great news. Thank you. I will say my own kids love the extra week off and the opportunity to be kids and to play in the snow that they had almost forgotten what it looks like. And I think it was great. It gave us a little extra boost to really get ready. And I know our staff has just done amazing work to do that and to keep our schools going. And I know people don't realize what that means, but it is. It is incredible work day in and day out. And I think it's important that we constantly lift that up. I just

172want to do a quick congratulations to Christina Alvarez, who's a senior at Chantilly High School for her Girl Scout Gold Award. She worked to promote autism awareness. And in this effort, she made a series of 12 videos. providing advice on planning and creating activities for schools to use so that they could recognized this a month in their schools and they were wonderful. I watched almost all of them actually. So juniors in five of my high schools have the opportunity for paid internships at Sully Historic Site. It is sponsored by the Sully Foundation and this is juniors at Centerville, Chantilly, Herndon, Southlakes and Westfield High School. who have good standing, academic standing and an interest in history are encouraged to apply for this paid internship. I had the opportunity to advocate on behalf of this board

173to our NOVA legislators this past weekend on the priorities that we have as a board and that partnership continues. in addition to our legislative chairs who will be keeping us up to date. I had the opportunity to meet with MSAOC and talk about our superintendent search and process at their invitation. So I thank them for that. I think it was a good discussion. Of course, our principals much appreciation to everything they've done. They've been asked to do in the past two years from educator, education leaders to COVID, you know, public health experts to cheerleaders for our teachers and their staff and, you know. therapists and anything and everything in between. They do it all and they do it because they have the heart in what they do. And I for one am extremely appreciative for

174that. And I will end on this note while. everyone wants, I think the littles want to see some more snow. I am looking forward to this Sunday hearing my son who has a solo performance with a local youth orchestra for a competition he won two years ago and COVID has postponed and it is this Sunday so we are kind of praying at our house that the snow will hold off just a little bit so we have the opportunity to do that and he can go. back to college where he needs to be so thank you everyone have a good night and we will see you next week meeting is adjourned