FCPS School Board Meeting 7-23-20

001Good afternoon. Okay. Thank you. Good afternoon. This July 23rd, 2020 electronic regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. I will now take roll. Ms. Cohen. Here. Ms. Corbett-Standers. Present. Okay. Folks, I apologize. I've just lost my documents. Okay. Please give me one minute because my documents just disappeared from my screen at this point. Thank you. Ms. Darinat Koufax. Mr. Frisch. Here. Ms. Kees-Gamara. Here. Ms. McLaughlin. Here. Ms. Marin. Hello. Ms. Omish. Here. Ms. Okarski. Good afternoon. I'm here. Ms. Seismohiser? Hello, I'm here. Ms. Tolan? Good afternoon. Mr. Onibudo? I'm here. Wonderful, and I am here as well. At this time, I will invite everyone to please rise as student representative Nathan Onibudo leads us in reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. Mr. Onibudo? All right, everybody, I'm sorry. I

002pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, the republic for which it stands, for which it stands, for which it stands, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under

003God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God, under God One announcement, item 5.03, approval of the 2021-22 standard school year calendar has been postponed until September. At this time, I would like to certify our closed session. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D of the Code of Virginia, it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed session on July 23rd, 2020, 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 in the motion convene convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do i have someone to make the motion motion made by miss corbett sanders second seconded

004by do i have a second seconded by miss cohen and now i call for the vote Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Marin, Ms. Seismol-Heiser, Ms. Deranat-Kofax, Ms. Pokarsky, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Tolan, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Omej, and Dr. Anderson. That motion carries. Okay, in order to comply with section 2.2-37, oh, I'm so sorry. Our forum was canceled for today. The board had a closed meeting earlier today and I apologize. My documents here are not how they should be for me. And okay, forum was canceled for the day. So in order to comply with section 2.23712D of the code of Virginia, it's necessary for the board to certify. Okay, I'm sorry, I already said this. Forum was canceled for the day. We'll be moving to citizens participation while I get my documents in order here.

005Ms. Mohlberg will be calling our citizen speakers. So Ms. Mohlberg. While you get that up, I will share the document. Speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes. The school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings, such as capital improvement program, budget and boundaries. Complaints regarding individual students or 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 included. Speakers are expected to deliver their comments with the decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the public's business. Thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come to speak to us today. Today 15 citizens have signed up to address the board. Ms. Malberg.

006Our first speaker is Julia Zhao followed by Susan Danowitz. Ms. Zhao, it's very difficult for us to hear you. You're breaking up. and the desires to help them whether that's college or not. I personally decided to go to Penn State because I had interest in it and I didn't feel like I would have all the students serve regardless of whether or not they were going to be there or if they had to. When I got to Penn, it was underrepresented and of those students, our demographics were not as fun as it was. The original mission was to give students that interest in the faculty lesson at school. Learning should not be contested and it shouldn't um I'm sorry, your time is up. Thank you. Our next speaker is Susan Danowitz. Hi, everyone. My name is

007Malaika Adai, and I'd like to thank Susan for ceding her time to me. I'm a former Fairfax County resident and a TJ alum from the class of 2007. As a former TJ student, I can easily say that I'm grateful for the experiences that TJ offered and generally love my time at the school. However, as one of the few black people who have attended TJ over the past several years, I must say that I continue to be appalled and disappointed by the lack of representation for incoming TJ classes year after year. The lack of diversity and inclusion at T-Day puts undue pressure on underrepresented students in what's already a high pressure environment. As one of the four black students in my class of over 400, I encountered many situations that made me feel like I stood

008out and was invisible at the same time due to the color of my skin and my background. From my classmates asking me if I spoke African to other students openly showing disgust and bewilderment when they first on the bus ride home, it quickly became clear how many of my classmates' lack of exposure to diverse backgrounds fostered a more intolerant and closed-minded atmosphere. If the mission of TJ and Fairfax County were limited to boosting test scores in high school rankings, then none of this would be an issue. But in a school system that emphasizes diversity and educated citizenry as core elements of its mission statement, we can and must do better when it comes to creating a more diverse TJ community, which starts with providing... equal educational opportunities to students of all backgrounds. A more inclusive

009TJ starts with creating a more holistic admissions policy that addresses how systemic racism and socioeconomic disparities put many students at an unfair disadvantage when applying to elite programs. Relying on a broken process that identifies too few black students to report as qualified to attend TJ can no longer be the norm. The school board is already working incredibly hard to solve the many issues schools are facing throughout this pandemic. And one issue that the pandemic has highlighted across our country is a lack of equal access among races to the services provided by our public institutions. With regards to TJ, this includes limited access to test prep and admissions background for many of the county's prospective students. As we fundamentally reconsider how our public schools operate in the face of today's challenges, now is a perfect opportunity

010to consider redesigning the TJ admissions process so that the student body is more representative of the real world. Doing so won't just benefit minority students. Increasing diversity and inclusion will teach all students how to become more socially aware and informed citizens, which is a powerful educational lesson that will resonate long after these students leave high school. Thank you for your time. Our next speaker is Kimberly, followed by Vanessa Ho. Good afternoon. Good afternoon Chairman Anderson, school board members, Dr. Brabrand and leadership team. My name is Kimberly Adams and I'm representing the thousands of employees of the Fairfax Education Association. As you know the FEA has been advocating for a virtual start since May. We appreciate that the superintendent has been given direction by a consensus vote of this board to move forward with fully planning

011a virtual start for the school year. This decision affords us all the necessary focus to make day one and every day thereafter a successful time for our staff, families, and students. We will make this a very positive and strong return to learning. There is work ahead designing the curriculum, ensuring technology equipment is ready, and planning for the potential return to school. However, the best hope for our students and families may come from our thoughtful redesign and redeployment of the skill sets of your support employees. Most were never given the chance to make their choice known on a staff survey that was not sent to them for their opinion. Many are relieved that their health will be protected the same as that of our teachers and families. Now is the time to work together to ensure

012that all voices are in the virtual room where decisions are being made. The associations will work together, as Dr. Brabrand requested, to prepare our best thinking on this. But then it's up to you to actually engage those real-life stakeholders, the office staff, custodial, transportation, food service, maintenance, technology support, and so many others. Our support employees must have their voices heard. Many have extensive career experience, technical savvy and skill sets which can be of great use if given the opportunity. These essential employees serve our students in their work every day and we still need them. Our students need them to assist with virtual learning tasks, preparing engagement opportunities and performing low-risk community-facing duties. And when we return to in-person learning, we will certainly need them. We are working to be one Fairfax. We must make that

013caring culture evident now more than ever. We are all influential in our students' lives. Many students only come to school because the bus driver encourages them to keep up their good work or the custodian says hello to them by name every day. These relationships can be maintained if we have work outside the box to keep our students' mental and physical health at the forefront, providing high quality instruction but educating the whole child and supporting our entire Fairfax family. Summer has not been much of a time to relax and recharge for many, as the pandemic continues to devastate people in our community and interfere with our plans for the fall. The FEA continues to push for community action to test and trace this virus down to its last molecule. We believe this can be done by

014strict adherence to CDC guidance, our entire community working together. Stay home whenever possible. Wear a mask when you can't. Stop using our recreation facilities in large, unmasked groupings. Report symptoms and cases to your health district because we will overcome this enemy together. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ms. Vanessa Hall followed by Ms. Joanne Sears. Vanessa Hall. Okay, we'll move on to Joanne Sears. Joanne Sears. We'll move on to George Bessette. Good afternoon. My wife is unable to attend due to a meeting. I'd like to read a statement that she has to address the board. Thank you for the opportunity to address the board today. We are deeply concerned with the school systems neglecting the poorest of the poor in our county and ironically in the name of so-called equity. We have adversely and possibly

015irreversibly have hurt our children by keeping our children or the schools closed indefinitely for in-person learning. We're asking for two things. One, an immediate audit of all virtual learning check-ins from this past spring's online debacle. Every teacher was expected to take attendance and those attendance numbers were sent to the central office. Where are those numbers? How many children were no-shows? And if there were no-shows, what did the school system do about them? Teachers are mandatory reporters. Many children do not live in safe homes in this county. In South Carolina, for example, the state has over 16,000 missing children after the schools closed this past spring. Where are their children and have they been accounted for? We don't know, but we at least have a responsibility to take care of our own. Second, we're asking for

016an audit on all families with children who are federally authorized to have special services due to their IEP status. What has the county done in the spring and what do they plan to do in the fall to support those IEP plans? We have two sets of friends. One was a child with nonverbal autism and has received no assistance from this county school system. Another child is deaf and her parents were told by the teacher's aide that they should just homeschool their child. These are unacceptable. The school system has broken the trust with the families in this county. We feel that you have pulled the rug out from underneath us by not listening to the parents and the children's needs and instead of listening to the multiple unions that the teachers' employees belong to. As the

017saying goes, fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. These audits need to be done to protect our children. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Mr. Sears. Our next speaker is George Becerra, followed by Maya White. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Good afternoon, Chairman Anderson and school board members. Happy new fiscal year and congratulations to Ms. Anderson and Ms. McCarcy on being elected chair and vice chair. I'm here today to talk about the advisory committee charges and the board liaison and committee assignments for next year. As you're aware, four of your advisory committee charges for next year have the word equity in them. how times have changed. I would like to applaud the members of these committees for submitting these charges and for the school board and following

018through with the implementation of the One Fairfax policy, which I don't think I need to remind folks is specifically a social and racial equity policy as Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Darinette Koufax know as we work together on it in the skip with Chairman McKay and former Supervisor Hudgens. At the same time, though, I'd like to address a phrase I've been hearing a lot of during this past year from the superintendent and the school board. It's keeping the main thing the main thing. This has been attributed to the late FCPS superintendent, Robert Bud Spillane. In its original intent, I have to assume it means let's stay focused and keep our eyes on the prize. In some parts of our majority minority school system, it is not a phrase of direction or high value. Most people in

019this county do not know that Superintendent Spillane eliminated the Office of Minority Student Achievement. This office reported directly to the superintendent. His own separate Minority Student Achievement Committee that he created advised him not to do this. After he made this decision, this committee chose to disband and lobby the school board to form a school board advisory committee called the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, also known as MSAOC nowadays, which the school board granted. The reason why Superintendent Saline eliminated the office of MSA is because the principals in this county pressured him to get rid of it. The office of MSA had roughly 10 staff personnel and had money allocated to them directly under the total schools approached money, in which they distributed to schools that applied for grant money. Principals wanted the money, but did

020not want the accountability of how the programs were formed or asked if word as intended purpose went to. Therefore, the principals thought this office had too much power. Please keep these facts in mind when determining if this is the best phrase to use during these times of when our nation is questioning the names of professional teams, looking at the history of school names, and more importantly, confronting systematic racism. As you look forward into next year and all the good work to come out of your board and liaison committee assignments, let me remind you that your joint Board of Supervisors and school board meeting in September will set the tone if your work will come to fruition, especially if money resources are needed. Both boards need to hash out their concerns and differences. It's not time

021for half smiles and photo ops. More importantly, both boards need to repair the relationship between the superintendent and the county executive if possible. This is made worse with Dr. Gloria being put in the middle of the school board's decision on Tuesday. This board could have waited for today to get a consensus direction. I've seen this play out for years, the battle of CEOs, and the schools never win. If distrust is not there, then I expect losses for the schools for years to come. We just want to give a few words for you this budget year. Thank you all, and stay safe. Our next speaker is Maya White, followed by Insof Muhammad. Maya White? Yes, can you hear me? Yes. Okay, I'm trying to share my video here. My name is Maya White-Britton. I begin with

022a quote, Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. Words from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I come before you today humbly asking that you change the name from Lee High School to John Robert Lewis High School. Thank you to Sandy Evans and Karen Keyes-Camara, who also led the fight to change the name of a Confederate General Stewart to Justice High School. The recent killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and Rashad Brooks have reignited an old debate about the significance of Confederate monuments. As a proud African American, we have a rich history. We have ancestors who fought to give us the right and freedom to go to any school that we choose. But we can't just stop there. We have to rewrite the wrongs of the past, because if we don't, we will

023continue making the wrong choices and choosing the wrong leaders. There is nothing that should glorify the Confederacy. The Confederacy is a terrible reminder of all that African Americans lost. We lost our children. We lost our husbands to hangings. We lost so many lives. Now is the time for you to do the right thing and change the name of the school. I know that some of you are thinking, what's the big deal? The big deal is that by keeping the name of Lee or changing it to Legacy, you continue to honor the Confederate generals who are on the wrong side of history. The world is changing. but change is coming too slow. We are fighting for the soul of America. We are fighting hate, racial injustice, and extremism. At least 1,500 Confederate symbols still stand in

024the United States today. The statues were built to reaffirm and glorify white supremacy after the Civil War. And while names and statues still stand, they glorify white supremacy. We must come to terms with the racist past. Confederate names are modern inventions meant to distort history and celebrate a racist past. The symbols serve one primary purpose, to honor figures of the past who upheld an undemocratic vision of America. They function for white supremacists who long to return to a period when Americans regarded black people as property. During the Jim Crow era, as African Americans asserted their political authority and demanded an expansion of citizenship rights, white supremacists responded with acts of violence and intimidation. The creation of Confederate flags worked in tandem with the growth of the KKK to send a clear message that black people

025would never be accepted as full citizens of the United States. Don't uphold a racist version of history. Honoring a revisionist history of the Confederacy undercuts the argument of those who now claim they only want to preserve history. Please change the name. Thank you. Our next speaker is Insa Mahama. Hello, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Go ahead. Hi, my name is Insa. I'm a resident of Fairfax County and an alum of FCPS and sister to current FCPS student going to 10th grade. Representing Freedom Fairfax. and resources that are most marginalized impact communities here in the county. I have three main points I'd like to share with the school board today, and the first is virtual schooling. Considering everything that's going on in the country at large, it's appalling, if not downright unthinkable, how the

026school board could even previously be divided on making schooling virtual for the first two quarters. The science and facts are all there. The best possible choice for the safety of students, faculty, staff, and the greater community is to keep people at home. Any death or sickness... due to school reopening, lies with the FCPS administration and school board, any single death or sickness. I hope that all members of the school board continue to fully embrace the virtual start, which leads me to my second point about equity. Along with the virtual start, the school board should be focused foremost on how to make education as equitable as possible for students with disabilities, for students of color, who we know that evidence is most likely to be impacted by virtual schooling. You can distribute laptops and just think,

027job well done. Equity issues should be a top of mind. It should be an ongoing priority. What happened in the last couple months that could be improved upon? How are we empowering students and parents during this time? How can we continue to include students in this conversation? And what data can we look to to track trends and patterns? It's troubling to see that there are no meetings being scheduled for all of it. So we're wondering what you all are going to do about it. Lastly, the conversation about SROs in schools still needs to occur. FCPS should immediately end their contract with Fairfax County Police Department, adopt a new memorandum of understanding, and completely overhaul the students' rights and responsibilities to make sure language in the handbook is compliant with ending all zero-talents policies and vague

028language that can be used to disproportionately punish black and brown students. For black and brown students, having cops in schools does not equal safety. As more and more school systems rid their schools of SRS, we need conversation and we need immediate action. for a school system as robust and resourceful as Fairfax County, this should be a no-brainer. Our list of policies will be emailed and can also be found on our Twitter and Facebook page, Freedom Fairfax. I urge you all to continue to listen to the community and to listen to public health practitioners as well as evidence-based research as we call for a safer and more equitable Fairfax. Thank you so much. Thank you. I'd like to go back to speaker number four, Vanessa Hall. I see that you're connected. Okay, we'll move on then

029to James Green. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Oh, Ms. Hall? Yes, we can. Go ahead. I am Kelly Hebron. I am... Can you hear me? Yes, we can. Okay, awesome. I am Kelly Hebron, and I am speaking in lieu of Vanessa Hall. She has ceded her time slot for me to use as her substitute. It is my pleasure to speak and support a renaming Robert E. Lee High School after Congressman John Robert Lewis. I am a 20-year resident of Lee District. I am the organizer of the Kingstown Solidarity March and Call for Action. Over 200 people came out and marched and rallied on a hot June day to rally for change. This community, Lee District, is ready for change. I hope the school board hears them. I'm also the proud organizer of

030the petition to rename Robert E. Lee High School to Congressman John Robert Lewis High School. I am pleased to share that at the time of this hearing, the petition has garnered 571 signatures. Of those 500, 300 signatures were collected in the first 24 hours. I hope the school respects their wishes. The school board respects their wishes. Like the man, the signature and comments on this petition transcend race, gender, age, and geography. If we want to change and inspire hope for the future and not build walls, then we begin with a change in name, a name that inspires. A legacy is what we leave behind. Congressman Lewis leaves behind an amazing legacy. Renaming the high school after him would be a fantastic tribute. Students in the community will have the opportunity to learn about and be

031inspired by Congressman Lewis's lifetime of dedication to justice. It will be a tribute to his legacy, an example for others to follow in this country and in this county. I want to share a few comments from the community that they left on the petition. Gene Crowley, a former Lee High School teacher. I taught at Lee High School. I think that the community and school would be honored. Ben Bedard, also of Alexandria. I am an FCPS teacher and parent. This is how you re-educate. Kate Zimmerman. John Lewis was an American hero whose legacy exists as a deacon for a better future and a better America. Let's do the change we need. There's a lot in the name, and there's a lot for us to do. Betty Schmidt. John Lewis was a civil rights hero while Robert

032Lee was against abolishing slavery. Margaret, sorry, Margaret Towers. I want my grandson to know this hero, to know one fair fact, and we're here to cherish such lives. Thank you, Michael. Your time is up. Our next speaker is Mr. James Green. Can I be heard? Yes, you can be heard. Thank you. Okay. My name is James Green. I am a Robinson Secondary School alum. I am a Fairfax County resident, and I am also here as a part of the Freedom Fairfax team. Our efforts focus on providing relief and fighting for the dignity and equity of the most marginalized groups within Fairfax County. What concerns me most right now as a Fairfax County resident is that the most recent school board meeting I've watched, which was the one on July 21st, seem to indicate that there's

033still a lot of debate over whether or not opening schools is safe. If we're judging safety by our ability to prevent the spread of COVID-19, then we know it isn't safe. We're dealing with an airborne virus that often doesn't show symptoms in young people. There's truly no safe and effective way to stop the spread of this virus indoors, in classrooms, over the course of a school day. And it's alarming to me that people, including some school board members, appear willing to risk the lives of teachers, students, custodial staff, administrators, and all of their families, rather than all of us focusing our collective time and energy and funding on figuring out how to make virtual learning accessible to everyone. If the goal is to reduce infections and contain the virus, Undeniably, the smartest and most effective

034solution is to keep people in their houses. If we want to keep people in their houses, not only must schools go virtual, but we must also be able to provide materials like computers to families who do not have enough computers for everyone who needs them to work from home or attend school from home. Additionally, we must be able to safely and reliably provide food and childcare services to those who need them and rely on the school systems for that assistance as well. Fairfax County is an incredible place and we must have the funding and the brainpower to solve these problems. I feel that if we put our resources towards an expectation that schools might open on September 8th, we will not be sufficiently prepared to help the people who need assistance to attend virtual schooling

035or a specialized in-school option for children with disabilities. Also, for what it's worth, I had a fever on the weekend of July 11th and 12th. I got tested that Monday on the 13th, and I have not yet received my COVID test results. Luckily, I can quarantine myself in my bedroom, and my family is sequestered off the bathroom for me. But many families don't have this luxury, not to mention I have no idea when I'm going to get those results back. So how can we plan to open schools when it takes someone like me more than a week to get test results back? Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is number 10, Nicole Sabatini. Nicole Sabatini. Okay, speaker number 11, Hemang Nathkar. Sorry, can you hear me? Yes, we can. Nicole Sabatini.

036Hi, good afternoon all. My name is Nicole Spatani and I'm a TJ alumna from the class of 2010. I wanted to speak to you today about why all Fairfax County students would benefit from serious reforms. If I could go back in time and decide whether to attend TJ, I would do it all over again. I met my husband there and made lifelong friends. I benefited from top quality instruction in STEM and the humanities that served me well in college, graduate school, and my career. I participated in groundbreaking research that I wouldn't have had access to anywhere else. And yet, 10 years later, I realized that in some ways the TJ environment also harmed all of us, especially women, people of color, and other minorities. My freshman year, a white male student harassed me, including licking

037me during class. I felt like the teacher saw but did nothing to protect me, and instead we would both get in trouble for goofing off. Another teacher told my white male friends they should easily get a five on the same AP test where he said he expected me to get a three at best. For what it's worth, we all got fives. I remember another white male classmate teasing me for not being good at STEM, and as a result, I didn't take the most advanced math and science classes. Later, I took AB calculus, taught myself C, and got a five on the BC calculus AP exam. I remember when I saw that score, I thought maybe I could have gone for the harder STEM classes after all. I also watched as one of the most beloved

038and impactful teachers at TJ was dismissed suddenly and unjustly by the current TJ administration and not informed of an opportunity to reapply to teach, all because she chose to go part-time following maternity leave. What a message these examples send to young women. Even as part of the Asian American majority at TJ, I saw that racism was also a major problem. I remember our entire friend group calling our one Hispanic peer a nickname, mocking his heritage, and ranking the Asian students we knew in terms of fobbiness, in other words, how fresh they were off the immigration boat. I continued to make racist jokes like this well into college after seeing how accepted they were in high school. I also recall being told by adults, including staff at TJ and parents in the TJ community, that the

039reason I didn't get into a better college was because Black, Hispanic, and Native American students stole spots in prestigious programs from me and others who looked like me. I held and shared that inaccurate and harmful belief for years afterward. I carried real resentment towards marginalized people for a good portion of my adult life because of the messages I internalized in Fairfax County schools. With regards to TJ, I have three requests. One, create a committee of stakeholders to provide recommendations on how to improve diversity in TJ admissions by a set date. Two, require a more inclusive anti-racist curriculum. And three, change the Colonials mascot. I also want to add my voice to the chorus of those supporting the renaming of Lee to John Lewis High School, an act that would send a clear signal to members

040of the Fairfax County community and the world that FCPS is acting on its self-described commitment to inclusion and equity. Through these measures, we can create a healthier environment where current and future students can thrive without facing the same harm that I and other alumni still carry today. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Speaker number 11, Hemang Nagar. Okay, speaker number 12, Hugh McElhoun. Pardon the pronunciation. No, you got it right on. Chairperson Anderson, Ms. Darinak-Cowfax, and other esteemed board members, thanks for taking the time to hold these meetings. We're going through unusual times right now, which are providing unprecedented pressures on y'all, and I appreciate that you're taking the time to not only address something as mundane as a school's name change, I'm here for the Lee name change, but that you didn't use the

041pandemic as an excuse to exclude public input. I am a Springfield resident and a graduate of Lee High School, class of 1986. Some of you may look at me and see the face of old Springfield. I may be in my 50s, but my relationship to Springfield is similar to most, if not all, of Lee's current students and probably this meeting's attendees. My family, too, moved here from somewhere else. We came from Southern California and were surprised to find the local high school named for a Confederate general. But as time passed, we got used to it. It was just the way things were. Well, they're not that way anymore. When this school was named, the vast majority of students were white. Today, the largest ethnic group is Hispanic at 46% of the student body, followed by

042Asians at 24%, whites at 15%, and African Americans at 13%, with the remaining 2% from various ethnic backgrounds. It's definitely time to put a new name on this school. I think that most of the suggestions are excellent. A wide array of truly accomplished people have been proposed. Most of them, however, run afoul of Fairfax County Regulation 8170.8, which stipulates that replacement names have a local geographical or historical association. Even the proposed geographic name isn't a tight fit. A significant portion of Lee students come from South County, closer to Lorton than Springfield, to South County and Hayfield High Schools than Lee High School. unless the board's planning to change the school districts. There is a name, however, that fits, Melissa Belote. Who's she? An Olympic medalist who went to this school. You've probably heard of Mark

043Spitz, Ryan Lochte, Greg Louganis, or Michael Phelps, but Melissa has become largely forgotten, even in her hometown. Right, Melissa's a swimmer. She grew up at the Springfield Swim and Racquet Club near Lake Akatink. She competed in local swim meets and was good enough to make the U.S. Olympic team. In the summer of 1972, at the age of 15, while she was attending Lee, Melissa went to Munich, Germany, where she won three gold medals, breaking three women's world records while doing so. She walked the same halls and sat at what are probably the same desks as today's students. I think that's a connection that can inspire students to achieve. but she doesn't meet the current moment's zeitgeist. We've said for decades that sports transcend race, so let's truly put race aside in the renaming. Let's remind

044our young adults that a commitment to excellence, backed by dedication and hard work, aren't just words on a poster. They've paid off before at this school. Let's remind them daily. Let's rename this school for Melissa Belote. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is number 13, Alex Levine. Alex Levine. Okay speaker number 14 Reece S.B. Glassman. Hello can you hear me? Yes. Oh yes sorry thank you. Go ahead please. I'm a concerned parent of two Fairfax County public school kids. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate it. I wanted to request that going forward, the board and superintendent commit to providing the community with accountability, transparency, and a balanced consideration of the risks. With respect to accountability, I wanted to note that back in June, survey results showed that 42% of

045parents wanted to do virtual and that the teachers were evenly split. This is almost the exact percentage that actually occurred after the enrollment period. Given that, I and many parents do not understand why the superintendent did not anticipate or why he closely underestimated very teacher matching problems now being cited as one of the main reasons we cannot start the year with any in-person learning. The school board, in my view, has an obligation to the community to ask these questions to provide accountability. This is the only way to ensure that similar errors do not keep happening. With respect to transparency, the superintendent must work with the health department in responding to the board's resolution asking for him to set reopening metrics. Dr. Schwartz has already recommended two metrics to use, county hospitalization rates and the trend

046in the number of cases in the county. I was disappointed at the last meeting when the superintendent decided to ignore the county health data and did not consult with the health department immediately prior to making his decision. His concerns regarding testing, for example, were completely addressed by Dr. Schwartz's promise to use the public lab to test teachers and staff within one to two days. Superintendent's concerns with respect to tracing were addressed by the fact that the county has hired 144 tracers and will shortly hire 260 more. And his reliance on other counties' health departments going virtual was rebutted by my late singly mom, who always used to tell me, if all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump too? It's important also to have this transparency because otherwise there's no reason to have

047any confidence that the superintendent can bring back in-person school after the first quarter. the teacher matching problems aren't going away. And as Dr. Braybrandt himself noted in June in arguing against a virtual start, that approach would open right at the beginning of flu season. Last, I wanted to ask that in the future, the board and the superintendent adopt a balancing the harms approach. Harms to children from not having in-person school are considerable and are not being balanced here because the board and the supervisor have adopted a safety from COVID risks as our first priority approach. A reasonable and prudent public policy requires we adopt a different framework and consider those risks, but also balance them against the harms to children. That is the only way to ensure that the ultimate policy does not do the

048least amount of harm to teachers, staff, and kids. Otherwise, we risk closing schools indefinitely until there is no risk from COVID, no matter what the harm to children from that approach. And it would substantially harm them. State child abuse reporting was down 94% in the state. Thank you. Speaker number 14, Reese S.B. Glassman. And our final speaker this afternoon, Diane Cooper-Gould. Can you hear me? Yes, go ahead. Super. Thank you. Good afternoon Fairfax County School Board and staff. Today I'm here to introduce myself as the new 2021 advocacy chair for Fairfax County Special Education PTA. I'm so excited to continue working with this school board in my new position with SEPTA. I also want to give my deep appreciation to former school board chair Karen Corbett Sanders and vice chair Tammy Darnot-Kofax for their years

049of leadership service to this board and the residents of Fairfax County. To the new chair, Riccardi Anderson, and the new vice chair, Stella Pekarski, I look forward to your leadership moving forward. I'm sure with all that has been going on over the past months, you all already feel like wizened veterans. This board has been a strong ally to the disability community in FCPS and you have welcomed our input through SEPTA. You have been working diligently to address the needs of students with disability in FCPS and we thank you. With all of the challenges of a global pandemic on top of the weighty duties of the school board in regular times, we are aware that you have been working around the clock and doing your absolute best for our community of students and educators. The integrity

050and devotion of all of you that you have demonstrated during this time are truly commendable. As ever, SEPTA sees many issues on the horizon that will deeply affect our students and staff. Distance learning supports and services for students with IEPs and 504s. The need for 29,000 IEPs to be updated for distance learning before the start of the school year. Competing priorities and additional workload for our staff paired with too little planning time. A desperate need for in-person family and student support for our special education students. the upcoming special education audit, and the hiring of a new assistant superintendent of DSS and a new chief equity and academic officer. All of these issues exist alongside recurring problems that consistently plague our subset of students. Achievement gaps, disproportionate discipline practices, a lack of transition services, inconsistency of

051access and programming, and a lack of accountability. Please know that the SEPTA Board and I welcome your outreach directly to me on these issues and any others beyond. I will do my best to work with you in a cooperative and productive manner. I will be forthright and direct, but I will also listen and be fair. I understand the complexities that face the public school system, and I trust that we will all want to do our best for the students. I look forward to partnering with you in the coming year, and I thank you again for your service. Thank you. Thank you. That was our final speaker. Thank you very much, Ms. Moberg, and thank you to all of our speakers. At this time, I call on Mr. Anibudo for Student Representative Matters. Mr. Anibudo? Hi

052Dr. Anderson. How are you Nathan? I am good, how are you? Good. Sorry, give me a second. Can everyone hear me? We're able to hear you, yes please go ahead Nathan, we're able to hear you. Perfect. Good afternoon everyone. I hope everyone is doing well and doing their best to stay happy, safe and healthy in all of its meanings during these very unique times. I have a few thoughts that I want to get off my chest, so please bear with me. First, I want to thank the school board, FCPS leadership, the county's teachers, principals and staff for their dedication to trying to ensure that we find a way to properly educate students this coming fall. There's no script for setting up a modern school system in the middle of a global pandemic. So I applaud

053and marvel at the tireless work that everyone is doing. I think, to switch gears a little bit, I think I first really started about running to become the student rep to the school board in early January. As we can all remember, at that point, the virus was hardly even a talking point. If at all. I even remember that I got to attend my second concert ever with my best friend without a second thought about public health and safety. In many ways, as a kid of immense privilege like myself, I rarely ever put any thought into public health and safety. My actions were my own, and their consequences were mine to bear alone. This is no longer the reality we live in. In many ways, that's stressful. But the safety of those around me and the

054people in my community aren't the only things I have to stress about. I stress about online school and what that will look like. Six and a half hours on my laptop, three to four hours of homework after that, if it's anything like regular school homework, likely still on my laptop. What will that look like? Do I even have the willpower to accomplish that? Should I take up an easier course load? What will colleges think? These are some of my mental spirals. I mean, you have lots of time to think when you're trying to stay socially distant. My primary concern, though, isn't for myself. There are students that are far less fortunate than I am who are also stressing about various things. I want to be a better advocate for them. There's also no script for

055that, though. I'm trying to write one as best as I can. Every day I get emails from concerned parents, teachers, staff. They voice what they are stressing about. I do my best to read every single one. I actually value every single one of those emails so, so much because they're a window into the thoughts and minds of my community members. I also want to window into the thoughts and minds of the students, though, the primary stakeholders in which I'm supposed to represent. I rarely ever get any of those. Students, if you're watching, please write to me. How can I voice your concerns? I know I've gotten a couple of SAT questions, and trust me, I'm working on an answer to them, but I want more. Parents, if you're watching and you have students at home,

056tell them to email me. It's on the FCPS website and I tell it to you now, it's njonibudo at fcps.edu. I may not be able to respond to everyone, but I need a window into the thoughts and minds of all my peers. I want to write the script on how, I want them to write the script on how I can advocate for them. In these uncertain times, our school system is setting up almost a brand new way of teaching. I'm sure, like me, students have a million and one concerns. Just like the parents, teachers, and staff email me, I want the students to do the same. We are an invaluable stakeholder in this whole process, and I am proud to say that we live in a community that rarely forgets how important we are. But

057I can't voice any of your concerns if I don't know what they are. Don't stress in silence. Talk to someone, a friend, family member, et cetera. Know that the people, I know that there are people who care about your success and happiness and are working around the clock to make that possible, even in a virtual setting. And know that if you have a question, I'm here to try to work to get an answer for it. That's all I have, Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Thank you so much, Mr. Onobuto. We appreciate your statements. I am sure that you will have many of our students in our community reach out to you. You are a great voice for them. At this time, this is the portion of our meeting where the board will confirm any action regarding

058issues that were discussed in the closed meeting. Board members have discussed each individual item and at this time we'll make motions to confirm the recommended items. I call on Ms. Pekarski for a motion. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I move that the chairman of the school board be authorized to execute on behalf of the board the contract for the assistant superintendent for the Department of Special Services as discussed in closed meeting. Is there a second? Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, thank you for seconding. Ms. Pekarski, would you like to speak to your motion? I think this is very straightforward and I look forward to meeting this new person. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, thank you. As the community knows, this is one of the most important roles

059in our leadership team. And I know that the superintendent has done an extensive search that was both that was a national search and which attracted some great candidates. And after that exhaustive search, he has decided on a recommended and excellent candidate whom I understand he will be introducing soon. I also want to take this opportunity because it is going to be the last time that this candidate, the current DSS, is at one of our board meetings. And so I want to extend my great appreciation to Ms. Teresa Johnson, who has done an excellent job in this role and I know has set the department up for even greater success with new leadership. Thank you. Would any other board members like to speak to this motion? Ms. McLaughlin? I just wanted to check in and make

060sure that when Dr. Brabrand submits his recommendation, is that when the board will speak to the new appointment? I just want to give honor to the person who's being recommended, but without the name being presented. I don't want to speak to the person's qualifications. I am not sure of that point. Ms. Mulberg? Yes. So you can give the microphone to the superintendent and he can make the announcement and then you can discuss the motion. Thank you very much. Dr. Brand would you like to speak to this motion? Thank you, Chairman Anderson. It really is my honor and privilege to introduce to the community and to Fairfax County Public Schools, Dr. Michelle Boyd. Dr. Boyd is an ideal match in Fairfax County Public Schools for the position of Assistant Superintendent, Department of Special Services. Dr. Boyd

061brings 18 years of experience in education, including 13 in special education leadership roles in pre-K through 12 public education. She's done an amazing job in a variety of roles as executive director of Piedmont Regional Education Program, assistant superintendent of exceptional education and student services. and she has also been a special education teacher. She has a clear passion for all kids and the kind of equity lens that Fairfax County Public Schools needs for our students, our staff, and our community. Her deep knowledge, extensive experience is going to benefit our school system and community greatly. I am excited to introduce to you Dr. Michelle Boyd as my recommended candidate for Assistant Superintendent of Department of Special Services. Thank you, Dr. Brabrand. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to this motion? Yes, thank you. I do want

062to absolutely welcome and congratulate Dr. Boyd. I also want to express my appreciation to Dr. Brabrand for bringing such an exceptional candidate to this very important role within the division. The breadth of work that Dr. Boyd has is chronicled by Dr. Brabrand will be... absolutely vital to our Department of Special Services. Without question, Ms. Theresa Johnson and her predecessors have worked so hard in one of the most complex departments within the entire division of Fairfax County. And so much of our families rely on the exceptional services that come out of special services. So the opportunity here to bring someone of Dr. Boyd's breadth of experience and knowledge of so many different facets of special services. has me extremely excited about her candidacy and what she will bring to all of us. I look forward to

063getting a chance to meet Dr. Boyd and again want to thank our superintendent for everyone involved in running a robust search and I believe our community will be very excited to know Dr. Boyd as well as all of the employees who will report to her. So congratulations and Dr. Bragram well done. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Just one point of clarification. This motion is for the contract of the assistant superintendent for the Department of Special Services. That's the piece under discussion at this point. I see another school board member who would like to speak to this motion. Ms. Seismorheiser? Thank you. I just wanted to speak first to thank Teresa Johnson for all her hard work over these past few years and really we're very grateful. I am very excited about Dr. Boyd and

064I am very excited about her position here with our schools, mostly because of something that I believe she will bring to our system is being a change agent. And I think as a special education advocate for many years and one of my passions in special education, I'm really excited to see the great changes and ways she will move our special education system forward. So we're focusing on not just helping our special education students in remediation, but also on focusing on their strengths. And so I'm very, very excited to see the creative ideas that she will bring, and I'm excited to collaborate with her. going forward. So welcome, Dr. Boyd. I'm looking forward to working with you and thank you for stepping into some very big shoes. Thank you very much, Ms. Sassmorheiser. Are there any

065other speakers to this motion? Seeing none, we will now take our vote. All in favor of appointing Dr. Boyd to the position, I'm sorry, all in favor of moving that the chairman of the school board be authorized to execute on behalf of the board the contract for the assistant superintendent for the Department of Special Services as discussed in closed meeting. Please raise your hands. We have Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Pekarsky, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Marin, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Darinak-Kofax, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Kees-Gamara, and Dr. Anderson. I believe that is 12. All opposed? Any opposed? I don't think we... I think we have everyone. All right, at this point, we would like to welcome Dr. Boyd. Well, I would like to offer Dr. Brabrand to present Dr. Boyd to us formally for a few

066remarks. Yes, great. Well, listen, we're here virtually, and I know Dr. Boyd actually came up to Fairfax yesterday to be with our HR team and meet Dr. Ivey and myself personally, albeit socially distanced. but she's here with us today and Dr. Boyd I welcome you to Fairfax County Public Schools as the new assistant superintendent for the Department of Special Services and I'd love for you to make a few remarks to our school board and community this evening. Dr. Boyd. Good evening. Welcome. Good evening. Welcome. So great to have you. Thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you so much, first and foremost, for your kind words. And thank you for the opportunity to serve the students, staff, and families of Fairfax County Public Schools. I'm extremely excited to join the FCPS team, and I

067look forward to collaborating with our staff, our families, and our larger Fairfax community. One thing I want you to share with you is I believe dearly in Helen Keller's statement. Alone we do so little, together we can do so much. And because of that belief, I am confident that we will be able to have targeted collaboration and to ensure the success of all students by removing and eliminating opportunity and achievement gaps, implementing positive behavioral interventions and supports with fidelity, and last but certainly not least, fostering positive relationships with our families. So again, thank you for this opportunity to serve and I look forward to working closely with all of you. Dr. Boyd, thank you so much. And I did fail to say that the motion carried, but thank you so much for joining us. We

068look forward to working with you very closely. Thank you. At this time, I would like to call on Ms. McLaughlin for a motion. uh yes um it is uh my uh great privilege uh to move forward uh the recommendation uh that the superintendent has for our new assistant superintendent for i believe the new title is instructional supports um but i will uh leave that for our correction if need be and should i speak i believe i don't speak to the motion yet i just motioned not yet um do we have a second for the motion second Thank you, Ms. Darinat Koufax. At this time, you are welcome to speak to your motion, Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you. Because I would like to speak directly to the candidate, as I noted in the prior recommendation, I'm going

069to defer my comments right now and send it over to Dr. Brabrand for the formal introduction. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you, Chairman Anderson, members of the school board, and members of the Fairfax County Public Schools community. It is my honor to announce to you Mark Greenfelder as the Assistant Superintendent for the Department of School Improvement and Supports. Mr. Greenfelder has demonstrated proven leadership and has a track record of success in his work as Executive Director of the Office of School Support. and his prior work as executive principal for school improvement in Region 3, and his school experience in Fairfax County Public Schools as an elementary, middle, and high school edu- serving as principal, assistant principal, and teacher. Mr. Greenfelder has led the creation and continued success and refinement of Project Momentum. which resulted in

070an overall decrease of 18 schools that were accredited with warning in 2015 to only one school in 2019. He's created a culture of mutual accountability and respect between the OSS teams of teachers and staff working shoulder to shoulder with principals and school-based staff for the mutual success of all students. Mark is the kind of collaborative leader that we will have here in Fairfax County Public Schools who will help us move the needle as we continue to put equity at the center of all that we do. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to bring to the board Mr. Mark Greenfelder as the new assistant superintendent for this new department. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. McLaughlin. Do you have any additional comments? Yes, I would like to specifically speak to Dr. Brady-Brand's recommendation of

071Mark Greenfelder. As an eight-year member of the board, I have had the opportunity to work closely with Mark for the entirety that I've been here, first when he was principal at West Springfield High School. And one of the things that I have most admired about Mark is his incredible commitment to data-driven decision-making. He and I would talk often. about how do we use data to drive measuring student achievement and when he embarked on project momentum i frequently spoke to the data-driven work that he was doing with that for helping to close gaps and how we could actually model his metrics and work to many other operational aspects within fcps including teacher turnover rates, basically using methods to better understand where our problems lie and then how to use metrics to measure your efforts to fix

072those issues. So I do believe that not only will Mr. Greenfelder do an outstanding job in his new role as assistant superintendent. for this particular work, but I also believe he will be a tremendous asset to the leadership team that serves alongside Dr. Brabrand. And so, as I said earlier, it's always nice to receive glows. So Dr. Brabrand, my glow to you again is an exceptional choice. And I do want to personally tell Mark that When I joined the board eight years ago, I was known as a passionate advocate in the community. Some people in the administrations, principals, central office weren't sure what to think of me. But from the very beginning, you presumed positive intentions. You understood my passion. You understood my drive for decisions based on data and research. And for that alone,

073we have been kindred spirits. personally to you mark i'm so excited that you are accepting this role thank you for your incredible decades of service to our school system and i look forward to working with you and dr gray brand the board and the administration in your future success congratulations thank you miss mclaughlin miss dana kofax would you like to speak to your second Yes, thank you. I too have known Mr. Greenfelder for the eight years that I have served on the board, and I am happy to support him in his new position. Mr. Greenfelder was one of the co-creators, as Dr. Brabrand spoke to, of Project Momentum, which was a division-wide strategic initiative. And this initiative was providing supports to the most underperforming schools in the region. many of which were in Region 3.

074It was to help to increase student achievement in schools with high poverty and in some of our most diverse populations. As Dr. Brabrand talked about, in the year when it started, there had been over 18 schools accredited with warning and 22 schools that had accreditation challenges. That was 40 schools in total. They were serviced and targeted through this. program through these initiatives and we only ended up with one school that was not out of accredited with warning. The success of this program that Mr. Greenfelder was one of the co-founders of had such a high impact, its positive impact on high poverty schools and minority students that the Virginia Department of Education is looking at it and many of the elements as they look for ways to improve schools across the entire state. So that in

075itself is such an amazing accomplishment. As Ms. McLaughlin talked about the data-driven approach, that's what Mark always strives to do and he does it in a humble way. as he sees lots of success and he also is always willing to, he knows that we can never rest on our laurels and we always need to work at continuous improvement. So I look forward to this division under his leadership and I'm happy to support his change in position. Thank you so much, Ms. Darinat-Kofax. I see we have other school board members who would like to speak to this motion. Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Yes, thank you so much. I am pleased to support this motion. It is, as Ms. Darinat-Kofax mentioned, in 2015. There were 40 schools in Fairfax County, 40 out of 200 that were either accredited with

076warning or at risk of losing accreditation. We are now down to one school which only has one grade, and it is the highest mobility grade in Fairfax County that is accredited with conditions. That is greatly attributable to two things, excellent building leadership. with an excellent partner and coach. And that is really what Mark's team under Project Momentum does, is that they act as effective instructional leaders, as coaches, using data-driven pedagogy to work with the local school principals and teachers. to affect changes in their approach to educating our most vulnerable students. This work has been extended to include originally it was just elementary schools. Mark has effectively scaffolded that work to include our middle and high schools. We've broadened that work to include not only the general education population, but also working in partnership with the

077DSS group to provide special supports to our exceptional students with disabilities. I think it is appropriate tonight that both Mark's... position as well as our new assistant superintendent for special services to our student services to be approved at the same time tonight because they will work. together very effectively as a team. And so I'm happy to support this. I just really appreciate all that Mark has already done for the system and know that there are even greater things coming forward. And I know that he has the ability to be nimble, to be able to adapt his team to meet the ever-changing needs, especially in the online or virtual environment. Thank you very much, Ms. Court-Sanders. Seeing that there are no other speakers to this motion, I will now call for the vote. All in favor

078of the motion to move the chairman of the school board to be authorized to execute on behalf of the board the contract for the assistant superintendent school improvement and support as discussed in closed meeting, please raise your hands. We have Ms. Marin, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Dernot-Kofax, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Makarski, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Toland, Ms. Cohen. Those opposed, please clear your hands. Those opposed, seeing none. Those abstaining. That will be Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Somesh, and Dr. Anderson. At this time, the motion carries. Ms. Dr. Brabrand, please introduce us to Mr. Greenfelder. Thank you very much, Chairman Anderson. Again, it's my pleasure to introduce to the board and to the Fairfax County Public Schools community, Mr. Mark Greenfelder, our new assistant superintendent. Mr. Greenfelder. Mark, are you there? You are invited to go ahead and

079make some comments to the board and to our community. Mark? Can you hear me now? Yes, sir. Sorry. Well done, Mr. Greenfelder. Thank you. I'm super excited. I wanted to start out the evening by talking to Nathan and saying, Nathan. We're losing you a little bit. Mr. Greenfelder, we haven't any sound. Of course. There we go. Okay. I think I got it now. Technology never fails when you need it most. I wanted to start out the evening by talking to Nathan and just saying how impressed I am with him as a young man, as a leader, how articulate he is. I've been around high school kids, a big part of my life being a high school principal, and he is one of the most captivating young men I've ever been around. And to Dr. Boyd,

080welcome to the Fairfax family. You're going to love it. It's a great place to be, and I look forward to working with you. to chairman anderson honorable members of the school board dr brabrandt i'm grateful for the opportunity to lead the new department of school improvement I know there's a lot of work ahead, but bringing the offices that make that department up together to tackle the many challenges of equity that our system faces, these departments, this department and these offices are really going to be able to help make a difference in the lives of our most underprivileged children. And you have my commitment that we will strive to do that each and every day. I think my past experience shows my commitment to those students, and that will not waver going forward. you know i've

081spent my whole life in fairfax so this is a really special evening for me both personally and professionally i'm matriculated through our system from the age of six years old all the way through high school culminating and serving as the principal of West Springfield High School where I was a student. And now at 29 years of service, I'm the old man around the table. Once Teresa moves on, I think I'm going to have most years on the leadership team, which is kind of scary, but I want to use that in a way that helps our system and moves us forward. COVID-19 presents us with challenges that I never even dreamed of in my career. I couldn't even envision this if I wanted to. And I look at it as an opportunity, an opportunity for us

082to get better, an opportunity for us to problem solve for all our students, especially those that are most at risk. How do we close gaps in this environment? Those are the things that keep me up at night that I'm trying to help solve with the collaboration of a lot of smart people in the school system. And I have told Dr. Brabrandt this and many others. If there's one school system in the country that can do it, we can do it. And I truly believe that. I look forward to the challenges ahead and know that you have my utmost support and commitment to make this the best school system possible. And I thank you all for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Greenfelder. Let's give him a hand. Thank you so much. Congratulations to you.

083And now we'll be moving to item 5.01, I'm sorry, 5.02, which is the recommendation for Robert E. Lee High School renaming. I now call on Ms. Derenette Koufax. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Good afternoon, everyone. In a process that started over a year and a half ago, one filled with policy and regulation changes, multiple community conversations, town halls, and public forums, today I am proud to recommend that we change the name of Robert E. Lee High School to John R. Lewis High School. The timing of this recommendation is, of course, bittersweet. As we all know, Congressman Lewis passed away last Friday. He was 80 years old. But Congressman Lewis's name had rightly been under consideration prior to his passing. The significance of his life's work beautifully connects with where we find ourselves today as a nation.

084While most of us are aware of the path leading to Congressman Lewis's indelible footprint in our nation's history, it would be a disservice of me not to take a moment to share some of the highlights of his work. Born in 1940 in Troy, Alabama, John Lewis was an iconic civil rights activist, a respected congressman, and acclaimed author. Along with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Congressman Lewis was known as one of the big six leaders of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. His contributions to the movement are numerous and significant. As an example, he participated in sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville, Tennessee, and was one of the original Freedom Riders in 1961. At 23 years old, Congressman Lewis helped organize the March on Washington in 1963 and was the youngest speaker at this

085historic event. He served as chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and took part in other efforts that ultimately led to the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. His dedication to ensuring that respect, dignity, justice, and basic human rights are available to all came at a price. Having endured more than 40 arrests, multiple physical attacks, and injuries, he still stayed the course, advocating for nonviolence. Congressman Woods received numerous honors for his work, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the NAACP's Sping Iron Medal, and the John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award for Lifetime Achievement. Until his passing, the Congressman had served as the U.S. Representative of Georgia's 5th Congressional District since 1986. I am in firm belief that the name John R. Lewis High School will

086serve as a constant symbol of strength, conviction, and commitment to improving the lives of others, and that our students, and for our students, it will also represent the importance of believing in oneself and not giving up. Interestingly, in the fall of 2019, Congressman Lewis's civil rights memoir, March, was given to each student and staff at the current Lee High School. This was part of a school ride reading initiative. It was embedded into the curriculum and it was part of the advisory period. It was a program designed to build a sense of community and provide students with opportunities to consider how they as global citizens, as creative and critical thinkers might also become change agents. The previous school board adopted a policy that allowed any student one day each year to be part of a day

087of civic engagement, to be part of peaceful protest, and to do what Congressman Lewis had advocated for, never be afraid to make some noise and get in good trouble. As I have stated so many times during this name-changing process, Confederate values are ones that do not align with our community. I have seen the pain and hurt that these names have inflicted on friends, colleagues, and community members. Our schools must be places where all students, staff, and members of the community feel safe and supported. I believe that John Lewis's extraordinary life and advocacy for racial justice will serve as an inspiration to our students and community for generations to come. I will end with some words that the late Congressman shared in a video just last month. He simply said, I am very hopeful about the

088future. My colleagues, let's give that promise of hope to this high school community by renaming their high school John R. Lewis High School. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Devinakopofax. Ms. Keys-Gamara, would you like to speak to your second? Absolutely. Thank you. Let me get my camera on. Yes. I am beyond honored to second this motion to rename Lee High School after John R. Lewis. Even saying his name, this courageous giant, I find myself in a type of awe and deep respect. I wasn't able to participate in the civil rights movement, but John Lewis was there for me. He was there for my sons and for all of our sons, for all of our daughters and our sons and daughters who hoped that one day the Constitution of the United States would not just

089be words, but action and that that Constitution would represent them. He was there representing the hope that our Constitution would represent all of those who followed him, irrespective of race, religion, creed, sexual orientation, or any other division that this nation has once laid claim to. John Lewis was there when African Americans didn't have the right to opportunity to ride a bus without suffering the indignities of Jim Crow. And he looked at the various forms of injustice and he said there was something deep inside him that said he could no longer go along with an evil system. He was just a student at that time. And so time after time, as a young person, he deliberately put himself in harm's way to make a difference for others. He was beaten and arrested repeatedly until change came.

090But he didn't stop there. He took that fire in his belly to Congress 27 times, where he continued to fight for each and every one who dared to come to this land in hopes that democracy would reveal her promise for them. I have also admired the students of Lehigh School and our community in their noble request that we honor inclusiveness in this renaming process. They wanted the name of this school to bring the community together. Today, I believe we are honoring that request. In all of my research, I could not find one negative word written about John Lewis. from either side of the political aisle. He is revered around the world. He was a bridge builder and he stands for positive change no matter your creed. He was then much like our students today, one

091who stood with integrity for what is right and he never changed. He was steadfast. He stood up for all for the marginalized and demanded human dignity. I can think of no greater way to correct the wrong that occurred when Robert E. Lee's name, a Confederate general, was placed on that school years ago when our school system knew that it could not possibly be a welcoming name for the people in the community or the people to come. The way that we correct that is by replacing the name with John R. Lewis. He so valiantly helped those others to bring change that we now enjoy. In John's day, African Americans who tried to register to vote could be asked to count the bubbles on a bar of soap or prove that they could read. Today, the Voting

092Rights Act has been gutted and states have raced to place restrictions on that right. John was still fighting to improve that law when he passed away, and we must take up the torch. And so that's why I am so glad to second this motion and to really challenge my colleagues to think about not only putting a name on the school, but how can we put his spirit into action. I'd like to talk to my colleagues about really studying government, public policy, leadership, and human rights at this school. I know that's just an idea. It felt like a light bulb went off in my head today. There is no better way than to put that name on there and to also bring about action. I mentioned it to Dr. Brabrand. He thought it was a great

093idea, but I'm not asking him to speak to it. I will end with this statement that I recently heard on a documentary. He said, you must be a headlight and not a taillight. you must find a way to get in the way. This is the kind of what would John do moment. I thank the board for listening to these comments and I'm ready to get to work to put the spirit of John R. Lewis into practice. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Keyes-Gamara. Would any other board members like to speak to the motion? I see there are a few. We will start with Ms. McLaughlin, followed by Ms. Laura Jane Cohen. Yes, thank you, Dr. Anderson. It's an honor to follow my two very eloquent colleagues for their phenomenal words in support of John

094R. Lewis. I must admit, over the past weekend, when I read story after story about his remarkable life, I did share with my colleagues my incredible excitement and enthusiasm that we could consider. such an amazing man and really help not only honor his incredible life legacy, but to truly bring to our students and our community a recognition of where we are both in Fairfax County Schools, where we are as a society in Fairfax County as a whole. I can't think of anything better than bringing Congressman John Lewis's name to Lee High School. And I just want to add one other thing. Ms. Koufax, you and I and Ms. Corbett-Sanders were the three board members who served during the Justice High School renaming, along with Ms. Kees-Gomar. I believe you joined us when we were making

095the final decision. But prior to that, we spent two years going through that journey. It was very painful because it tore apart our community in the way in which we engaged in the conversation. So much of it was more around what would the community want? How would we take what the community want and take action? Ultimately, two years later, we arrived at it wasn't so much of waiting for the community to take us there. but it was a board saying that this was a moral obligation to change the name, to remove a Confederate officer's name off a building. And during that time, I spoke numerous times in all those workshops and saying that if we wanted to dispense of the community-driven approach and go to our moral convictions. then I absolutely agreed with that. I

096simply felt we owed it to the community to let them know what clearly our process was and how we would make these decisions so we could earn public trust. I also said at that time, numerous times, that to change Justice High School's name, but to leave Robert E. Lee's name in place. seemed hypocritical. And so this one's an easy one for me in that I've always believed that on moral conviction alone, we should not be having Robert E. Lee's name on this building. When we made that decision with Justice High School, this next one was more about the board leading the public on why we felt it was time to right a wrong. And so again, I want to thank most... Ms. Darinette Koufax because in leading this effort your desire all along was to

097help and inspire the community, bring the community along and understanding that this was in fact the morally important action that we should be taking as a board and as a school system, as a community. And Ms. Kees-Gamara, I will always remember your eloquence on the Justice High School renaming. I appreciate that you brought it again here today. And I just want to again thank the Lee community and... the NAACP and all stakeholders who allowed for this process to be one of partnership and coming together. This is how we continue to bring our community into an environment where we can support one another and lead with light. and start a long, long effort towards healing. So thank you, Dr. Anderson, for letting me speak to this. And I look forward to raising my virtual hand in

098support. Thank you so much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Cohen. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. When I worked for the Lieutenant Governor of Georgia, every few weeks, this unassuming man with the kindest eyes I've ever seen would pop in to see our executive assistant. I knew who he was immediately and I could feel my hands shaking every time we made small talk. But he had such an easy way about him that was incredibly disarming and a twinkle in his eye that was beyond charming. He was funny and kind and every time we talked, I couldn't imagine how anyone could be filled with so much light when they had seen so much darkness. And yet, there he was. As a native Georgian, I would be thrilled to represent a school named to honor such an incredible human being as

099John Robert Lewis. The karmic symmetry of replacing a general in the Confederacy with a giant in the civil rights movement seems just about right to me. To the current and future students of John R. Lewis High School, I hope you will make good trouble. by doing your part to create an even more fair, more just society to honor the new legacy that you have been given. And I will be, as a former sixth district of Georgia resident, beyond proud to raise my hand for my fifth district friend. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. Mr. Frisch, followed by Ms. Tolan. Thank you very much. First, I want to thank Tammy Darinick-Kofax and Karen Keyes-Gamara for making and seconding this motion and their eloquent comments in support of this action. I was proud to vote in favor

100of changing the name of Robert E. Lee High School last month. And to me, it's simple. A school system that honors the Confederacy and fails to address systemic racism and generations of inequity cannot honor Black lives. It's hard to imagine a more fitting replacement for a disgraced Confederate general than a civil rights icon like John Robert Lewis. During my time working on the Rules Committee in the House of Representatives in my 20s, which is not that long ago, I would often linger near the House floor whenever Congressman Lewis was expected to take the microphone. He was always first and foremost, the champion of the least among us. His life epitomized the essence of our one Fairfax policy. And I am thrilled to support renaming Lee in his honor. I'm incredibly grateful for the many students

101who have raised their voices about Lee High School and pushed the school board to act. I listened to each and every word you shared during our public hearing. And I heard you loud and clear. School names and symbols are low hanging fruit. I couldn't agree more. The school board must also tackle discipline disparities, access to advanced academics, lack of diversity in our curriculum, staff, the TGA admissions, and so much more. We owe it to our students and staff and our communities to take decisive action and demonstrate the sense of urgency that these issues deserve. As a school board, we have a responsibility to push harder for more timely action. We can always do better, and I hope our students and other Fairfax County residents will never let us forget that. Before I conclude, I do

102want to note that I filed a forum topic that would direct the superintendent to establish a process for issuing new diplomas and other records upon student and alumni request that would reflect the new names of schools or students who have undergone name changes. I'm sure many alumni Lancers would love to have their diplomas reissued under the banner of John Robert Lewis High School. So I look forward to discussing this proposal with my colleagues in the near future. Thank you very much and again, I am grateful for the leadership that Tammy Darinat-Kofax and Karen Kees-Gomara have demonstrated during this long conversation. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Ms. Tolan? Yes, I wanted to thank Ms. Darinat-Kofax and Karen Kees-Gomara for their very eloquent remarks and for bringing this forward. for all the work they have done

103to bring us here to this day. I also want to thank Mr. Frisch for just running through the long list of things that we still need to do moving forward around this topic. But as Karen Keyes-Guevara was talking and mentioned that she was not fortunate enough, she's too young to march in the civil rights movement. I was really little, of course, but I was fortunate enough to march with my mother in the civil rights movement. And so I could not be more proud today to name our high school after an icon in the civil rights movement, John R. Lewis. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms. Tolan. Ms. McCarskey. Thank you. Thank you. I want to thank both of my colleagues for bringing this forth for consideration. And of course, the very many community members

104that have come forth and spoken and told us what type of school name, county, and ideals they want us to espouse. John Lewis was a man of honor, a public servant, and a brave civil rights leader. who dedicated his life to equal justice for all. From his march on Washington to the halls of Congress, he risked his life and worked to fight racism and uphold the ideal that every human being should be valued. That fight we know is ongoing today. We have seen this country continue to grapple with this racial upheaval in our communities. And I want our students to feel proud and inspired when they walk into their school. I want them to know the legacy that John Lewis leaves behind and to know that they too can fight hard for what they believe

105in and work to make their communities a better place for all. I also want our students to know that this school board member cast her vote tonight with the intentionality of sending a clear message and writing a past wrong. FCPS is a place where all are welcomed, all are valued, and all will be served fully. This board will continue to do the work to live up to this promise. I look forward to casting my vote. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Thank you, Ms. Karis Gate. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Yes, it is a pleasure to support the name change from Robert E. Lee High School to John R. Lewis High School. John Lewis is the appropriate name for the school. And this evening, a speaker questioned the linkage to our community and to the state of Virginia. I want

106you all to know that there is a strong linkage. That linkage extends from when Congressman Lewis would visit with our students either in his office on Capitol Hill or in their classrooms here in Fairfax County. He was committed to educational excellence for all students in creating a positive environment, and he was an inspirational leader. I want to share with you a story. about one of those visits. When the very first combating intolerance class was being formed and the curriculum being written, the instructional leader for that class went and visited with Congressman Lewis, and he brought with him a number of students. Congressman Lewis spent over an hour with these young people and talked about the importance of a curriculum such as combating intolerance. And so I know that he cared about the students of Fairfax

107County Public Schools. Fast forward 10 years later, he visited the combating intolerance class right at West West Potomac High School. once again, sharing his story, but more importantly, sharing his dream and vision for the students to be able to have the opportunities that he fought so hard for. And so I do want to dissuade any sort of concept that there were no linkages to Fairfax County Public Schools. There is a strong linkage and it does. It is consistent with our regulation. I also think it's important because Congressman Lewis was somebody who actually not only walked across the Freedom Bridge, but more importantly, or as importantly, he built bridges as a civil rights leader and a social justice warrior. And that type of leadership and that type of inspirational life is something that is a life

108well lived and one that is a perfect name for our students to have to walk underneath every day as they go into a high school and when they receive their diplomas to have that name on their diplomas. I just leave you with this. A few weeks ago, there were a series of videos that circulated and it had Congressman Lewis dancing to be happy. And I know that what he wants for these students who will be attending the John Lewis High School is for them to be happy, to make good trouble, and to continue his legacy by forever striving for a more perfect. society in the United States where all are welcomed, valued, and are able to succeed. And so I am happy to support this name change. Thank you so much, Ms. Corbett-Sanders and Sizemore

109Heiser, followed by Ms. Omage. Thank you very much. I'm also... I'm also incredibly proud and thankful to my colleagues, Tammy Dern at COPAX and Karen Keyes-Gamarro for bringing this forward. I am so incredibly proud to speak to this today. As one of our speakers earlier, I've mentioned he was from California and so am I. So I was equally surprised moving out here, coming from Berkeley to here. And I just wanted to say that I am thrilled that a school that was opened in 1958 Four years after Brown v. Board of Education desegregated our schools, a school that was opened in 1958 during some of the height of the fight against that Supreme Court ruling for desegregating our schools that was named for Robert E. Lee in the middle of that resistance to the right side

110of history. in the middle of that resistance, that school will now be named for John R. Lewis, one of the original freedom fighters in 1961, one of the big six that organized the 1963 March on Washington. That is such, that gives me chills to even realize that, the importance and the message. that sends. And so I am thrilled to support the name John R. Lewis. And even more so, I think it's so appropriate to name the school John R. Lewis, because he was a youth leader in the civil rights movement. He was 21 during the freedom rides. 21 during the freedom rides. 23 during the March on Washington. What a wonderful message to our high school students to name their school after a youth leader of the civil rights movement. I hope our students, all

111of them who walk into these doors, into the doors of John R. Lewis High School, will take that spirit and become a youth leader themselves. I hope they'll be the kind of youth leader who will always lead the rest of us. to be on the right side of history. There is nothing more powerful, I think, in sending a message to our youth that today Fairfax County has taken another step to be inclusive and to value the voice of our youth in showing us, as they so have these last few months and last few years, on how to be on the right side of history. So I am proud to be able to hold up my hand in support. from John R. Lewis High School. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Seismohiser. Ms. Omish? Thank

112you. And sharing the sentiments and the comments of my colleagues, no doubt, and especially Seismohiser, your comment about youth. I wanted to take this as an opportunity to really for us to reflect and just realize that John Lewis now is honored and we look to him for the many accomplishments that certainly speak to a long legacy and I won't belabor what my colleagues have already shared. But at the time when he did these things, it was not easy. It was not popular. It was not the mainstream and it certainly did not bring any pleasure to those in power. You know, I mean, one of the things, I had the privilege of being a student of his for a short amount of time in a civic program I had done as a high school student. One

113of the things that was brought to our attention was the scar that he had on his head that remained from a time when he was beat up by the police. And this was a time when we thought... As a nation, people were okay with the notion that black and white or white and colored shouldn't be treated the same, should exist in separate facilities, that that was a controversial point. And this man stood on Bloody Sunday on the bridge and confronted the police. I mean, it was all peaceful protests, right? But despite that, that was a controversial notion, and he had to take the hit that lasted a scar on his head for the rest of his life. That was not an easy move. And I challenge us to think of what does that look like

114today? I mean, the march on Washington, that was, you know, we remember that as a major civil rights move, but... The protesters were attacked with dogs, were maimed and beat up and harmed in so many different ways because that wasn't considered mainstream. That wasn't considered peaceful. So I really want to internalize the reflection because it's one thing to say we're pro-social justice. It's one thing to believe in these ideals. And I'm glad to see us progressing in that direction. But I think it's critically important for us to really internalize this man was arrested 40 times. He is a civil rights icon. who had to take hits to himself, to his reputation, to his health, to his well-being, and no doubt, I'm sure, to his reputation against those who didn't realize the wisdom of what he

115was doing at the time. So I hope for us as a board, we can really think about the ways that we might have to take steps that are not easy, that are not going to be always where the public opinion is or where even the law is on our side necessarily. But to have that vision like he did. where he was in his 20s and knew what the right thing was. And it took this country how many years? 60 years? Until now, we realize it too. And I hope that in being intentional about that, we identify these places and try to be proactive in thinking about that and in how we respond to the actions of those around us who are calling for change or bringing things to our attention that are a source of

116great grief and pain. And that brings me to the Lewis Lancers who have made their voice heard and who I'm so proud to see our board and our system now finally hear the cries of and who will now wear that proudly. and representing this legacy. You know, John Lewis was a leader who was intersectional, who had the courage to do what's right, who believed in uplifting the voices of all, and was one who advocated, you know, things that are not even easy today. Healthcare, low-income housing, student debt, the DREAM Act even, and talking about missed opportunity for us, right? That we're not all in a place that we should be proud of unless every single one of us can be. So that's his legacy and I hope we internalize it, that it's not just platitudes

117and that we recognize how difficult it was and it was not the mainstream when he did it and that's precisely why he was so honorable for it. So thank you for listening and I look forward to supporting this and I'm incredibly honored to be part of this movement. Thank you, Ms. Omesh. Ms. Marin? This is how we dismantle racism, step by step. So let's keep going, let's vote and keep going. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Marin. That was very succinct. I believe that all of our school board members have spoken and I will briefly take my turn. I may not be as succinct as Ms. Marin, but I will certainly try. First of all, thank you to Ms. Dara-Nak Koufax and to Ms. Keese-Gamara for bringing this issue forward, particularly in this time. I am

118so pleased to support all of the sentiments that have been expressed by my colleagues. All of you were so eloquent to share about the life of John R. Lewis, the work that he has done in our community, and all those connections why this is an appropriate name for our school moving forward. I believe that when this goes forward, because fully we have full support from the comments of my colleagues, that we may have the distinction of being the first school, the first jurisdiction to name a school after Representative Lewis. And so I am pretty proud of that a little bit at this point. I want to also talk about something that Mr. Frisch shared, which is... While this is important work, we do know that this is, in some instances, low-hanging fruit. We have a

119lot of work to do in order to be sure that all of our students and families are working through our school buildings where they're feeling welcomed and valued and have the opportunity to thrive. While that is still the case, I do want to lean into this moment. I want to lean into this opportunity to rename Lee for us to really reflect and... and be encouraged by and celebrate the fact that views of oppression will now be replaced by regard for social justice, that white supremacist ideology will now be supplanted by humanity, that has heartened me and encouraged me in a way that it's immeasurable in this moment. I want to share that. I am so pleased. to support the renaming of Lee High School to John R. Lewis High School, freedom writer, activist, anti-racist, legend,

120and most importantly, good troublemaker. So with that said, I would like to call for the vote. All in favor of renaming Lee High School, John R. Lewis High School, please raise your hands. We have Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Ms. Pekarsky, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Darinat Koufax, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Corbett Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Omage, and Dr. Anderson. And that is unanimous. That motion carries. Let's celebrate this one a little bit. This is just fantastic. I could hear the Twitter right now just going abuzz. And I know hopefully somebody's sending that out quickly that it has happened. The work of so many for so many months and years for a lot of people who've been involved with this is now closed. I'm excited. Okay, I will now find some way to move

121towards the rest of our business. Item 5.03, the 2021-22 standard school year calendar. This action has been postponed until September. And now we will move into 5.04, which is to rename Columbus Day's Indigenous Peoples Day for school year 2021 and 21-22 calendars. Before we call on the makers of this motion, I would like to remind everyone that we will, we have a lot of business to do for this evening. We will be adhering to our three-minute rule of speaking moving forward. We did not want to limit that during the renaming of Lee High School, but we are going to reimpose that limitation at this point. I call on Ms. Marin. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I move that the school board rename the Columbus Day holiday to be Indigenous Peoples Day for the school year 2021

122calendar that has already been adopted and for the school year 21-22 calendar that is yet to be approved. And I second that motion. Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you, and thank you for the second. As a community that values diversity, equity, inclusion, and history, Fairfax County Public Schools should pivot from acknowledging Columbus Day and instead celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day. The mythology about Columbus and the discovery, quote, of the Americas continues to be many students' first classroom lesson about encountering different cultures, ethnicities, and people. However, teaching more accurate and complete narratives and differing perspectives is key to our society's rethinking its history. I personally have studied this history as well as current research and commentary about the importance of examining and reframing traditions that we are keeping in light

123of respect and inclusivity for many cultures that exist in Fairfax and the world. For some of the public, this may be the first time you're hearing about why it's meaningful and necessary to change the Columbus Day holiday theme. So I'd like to just briefly share some further information. Columbus' arrival in the Caribbean in 1492 opened the door for the European colonialism that brought about the destruction of communities and people of indigenous peoples in the Americas, which includes 50,000 indigenous people of Virginia. Honoring Columbus perpetuates the Euro-American narrative that reinstitutes the marginalization of indigenous cultures and knowledge. Indigenous peoples are left in the shadows of Euro-America's destiny. Our students and community deserve a more honest observant on this day, accompanied with teaching that reframes explorers like Christopher Columbus, not only as brave adventurers, but as the

124face of efforts to obtain land and people through any means they deem necessary. Instead of celebrating this legacy of genocide, our community should celebrate the many contributions made by indigenous peoples with activities that raise awareness of their rich history, culture, and traditions. They will do so in thanks to native people, their supporters, and others who have gathered for decades and continue to gather now at prayer vigils, powwows, symposiums, and more to help America rethink American history. Furthermore, there was research that actually examined US history standards from all 50 states in DC and found that 87% of references to Native Americans in US curricula in the context of American history happened, it was before 1900, of history before 1900. So this in the US history standards analyzed with a critical eye direct students to see indigenous

125peoples as long since forgotten in the country's development. So providing acknowledgement of their existence in the current day, as well as treatment in the name of colonialism, is the right thing to do. This change also aligns with shifts towards more accurate and inclusive history and students' learning experience in FCPS, such as moving away from the fourth grade colonial day tradition that too often had idealized white Eurocentric colonialism and imperialism. It mirrors the significant curriculum revisions and professional development work that our social studies department has been doing in earnest over the last 18 months to address the over-representation of white and Eurocentric history and the lack of diverse perspectives in social studies courses. Therefore, making this change to the Columbus Day observance is a natural step to update references to white supremacy and racism everywhere we

126can in our school division. Making this adjustment will allow Fairfax to follow in the footsteps and likes of public schools in Alexandria, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and Richmond, Virginia, who have already acted as such. This motion does ask that the change occur for this upcoming school year for the calendar has already been approved prior and then be used for future calendars, including the one that we will vote on in September. Thank you to my colleagues for consideration and I hope this motion earns your support. Thank you very much, Ms. Marin. At this time, I'd like to speak to my second. This motion for me very much dovetails with the conversation we just had regarding the renaming of Robert E. Lee. It's a continuous call to action for us as a collective to examine our beliefs and

127traditions and commitment to engaging in the work. to end the denigration and oppression of underrepresented populations. I am so glad to second this motion. As my colleague presented, as a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion in history, Fairfax County Public Schools should pivot from acknowledging Columbus Day and instead celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. I very firmly support that information that Ms. Marin shared. Indigenous Peoples Day is an opportunity for us as a school division to celebrate and honor Native American peoples and commemorate their histories and cultures. We've said this for probably half hour now when we talked about the renaming of Lehigh School. There is power in a name and those whom we choose to honor and how we choose to honor them. I urge us as a school division to join the other jurisdictions

128and states that have already made this change. Thank you so much for allowing me to second this motion, Ms. Marin. At this time, I'd like to invite any other school board members who'd like to speak to this motion. We have Ms. Cohen followed by Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. I'll just say that, you know, when I was growing up, my papa used to tell me, when you have the opportunity to do good, you ought to. And so I'm proud to vote for this, and I appreciate Ms. Marin's hard work in making sure that we not only got this for next year on the calendar that will come, but also this year. So thank you to both of you for the motion, and I look forward to supporting it. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Eisemohiser? Just briefly, I'll try

129to be as brief as Miss Marin. I was in college my senior year at Berkeley, University of California, Berkeley, when the town council renamed Columbus Day to Indigenous Peoples Day. This was in 1992. So all I have to say is this is long overdue, and I'm thrilled that we're finally doing it. I've been calling it Indigenous Peoples Day since I was a senior in college. Thank you very much. Well said, Ms. Seis-Mohyser. Ms. Keyes-Gamara. Yes, thank you. I want to thank both of our presenters today for bringing this forward, everything that we can do to make our schools more inclusive. for our children to feel as though they're talking about me instead of talking about someone else, that our curriculum can reflect the contributions of who we all are, that we enrich the educational experience.

130And I'm so grateful that we have begun this journey together. It's not my first time bringing this up, but I'm certainly glad to see that we're moving this along. And I hope that this also means that we're not celebrating colonial day at our schools. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Keyes-Gamara. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Yes, thank you. And thank you to Ms. Marin and you, Dr. Anderson, for bringing this forward. I just want to... let everybody know that this is a perfect complement to the action taken by the state legislature where the state has also recognized indigenous peoples day it's celebrated a little bit later in the calendar year but it is one that recognizes the important role that the native american indians have had the indigenous people of the americas have had in IN OUR COUNTRY. SO

131I THINK THIS IS APPROPRIATE. THANK YOU. MS. OMEYES. Yeah, thank you. Firstly, thank you so much, Ms. Marin, for your passion and your proactiveness in bringing this forward. I am thrilled, really. And in agreement, of course, with other comments about it being overdue. I connect this to curriculum. You know, I remember as an FCPS product, being in school and on Columbus Day, learning about the man who discovered America and who brought, you know, an expedition of, you know, explorers with the best technology of the time. um to get here of course now we know that he landed in the wrong place to begin with but but that aside um i i think it's it's crazy to contrast that with what i later discovered in college only until college really when i took a native american

132history course which i highly encourage folks to you know educate themselves at least on a surface level to the millions of Native Americans who were killed in genocide, essentially, with that arrival. And to claim discovering America when there was an entire people here, a nation, folks with a culture and familial ties and networks and systems of governance that were highly respectable and who had all kinds of... you know, traditions and achievements here, the contrast I think is stark. And I hope that as we move forward in our curriculum conversations as well, it'll trickle down into that. But I'm confident that now calling it Indigenous Peoples Day will allow for those conversations to start in our schools, will allow us to be honest, and we'll have a much richer narrative as to what we know about

133the diversity within our communities and within this country beyond teepees and longhouses. but really humanizing experiences and seeing how they contribute to us and our story in America. And the intersectionality exists for all of us. So I thank you again, Ms. Marin and Dr. Anderson for seconding. Thank you. At this time, seeing that there are no other speakers. I'm sorry, Ms. Marin, did you have? I had another. I'm sorry, Ms. McLaughlin, please go ahead. I apologize. Thank you. So in terms of my turn to speak, I really appreciate the hard work that many of our colleagues who have had this conversation, I believe through the Public Engagement Committee, is that correct, Ms. Marin? That this was discussed in public engagement? It actually was different and that's what I wanted to add to the conversation. I'll

134speak to it after you. Oh, actually our protocol is since I posed a question to you, you can answer it during my turn. Yeah, I wanted to just mention that this, I'd be completely remiss if I did not thank some amazing FCPS educators and community advocates, Corey Haynes, Daphne Bolotus, and Kweli Zakari, who first informed me about this and immediately after I got elected. And then I learned the process of how the calendar committee that's made up of staff and community members goes about creating the annual calendar, learned much more about the efforts to be more anti-racist and maneuvered with staff to the point of bringing it to motion. So that is a path. Thank you. Great. Thank you. So here's my question, my next question. I absolutely appreciate the eloquence and the substantive... explanations

135that everyone who has spoken before me has said and I am in complete agreement as a former college history major that we want to treat we want to ensure that we teach our children accurate history not glossed over history and not history that's just flat-out inaccurate I guess my question would be that, Ms. Corbett-Standers, you're citing that our own Virginia General Assembly has created a day of celebration for indigenous people, but it is not displacing Columbus Day at this point, which is a federal holiday, but that it is being its own standing. uh holiday and recognition so i would pose to my colleagues that while i very much support the intent behind this proposal here i would ask for perhaps consideration that we are a public school system and i believe in the power of

136us collaborating with both our fairfax county government the board of supervisors and the General Assembly, which represents it at the state level, that if there are ways in which to handle the name of a federal holiday, that we do that with a more comprehensive conversation. In other words, I just... feel like right now today, while this is so incredibly important and the rationale that's been provided, I am uncomfortable that our own General Assembly chose to handle this differently. And I would like for anyone who can speak to this perhaps more, why the General Assembly didn't decide to rename Columbus Day as Indigenous Peoples Day, but instead are leaving Columbus Day in its name currently in place? And what do we know about the Board of Supervisors who also have a county calendar that their employees

137do observe and that our public also recognizes? So those are questions that I have. If we can answer those today, that's great. If not, I would respectfully ask that in order for the, I think the public in general to know that we had a comprehensive conversation and that we come out with what I think will best reflect Fairfax County in this role, then I would like that to be considered. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. We will be sure to list those as next steps because I don't believe that we have people who are prepared to speak to those inquiries at this time. Ms. Smarin, did you, okay, all hands were down. So being that there are no additional speakers, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, did you want to speak? I wanted to let people know that the

138decision by the state legislature occurred in October of 2019 and the title, hold on a second, and that is recognized by different jurisdictions across the state. The announcement was done during a gathering of many of the Virginia tribes. And so I just wanted people to know that that's where that came from. Thank you very much, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. At this time, seeing that there are no other speakers, we will move forward on the vote. The motion before us is that the school board will rename the Columbus Day holiday to be Indigenous Peoples Day for the school year 2021 calendar that has already been adopted and for the school year 21-22 calendar that is yet to be approved. All those in favor? We have Ms. Omesh, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Pekarski. Ms. Cohen, Ms.

139Kies-Gamara, Ms. Seismolheiser, Ms. Darinat-Kolfax, Ms. Tolan, and Dr. Anderson. All opposed? Ms. Seismolheiser, thank you. Abstain? We have one abstention. At this point, the motion carries. At this point, I call on Ms. I'm sorry, we are at 5.05, school board liaison and committee assignments. I call on Ms. Pekarski for the motion. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I move that the school board confirm committee liaisons and assignments as detailed in the agenda item. I will second the motion. Ms. Pekarsky, would you like to speak to your motion? No, I will not. Thank you. I will very quickly share that this is a task that falls to the chair to work on assigning school board members to various committees and liaisons to advisory committees and citizen advisory committees. This task has been completed and we would like to

140have the approval of the board to move it forward. Will any of the school board members like to speak to this motion? Ms. McLaughlin? Yes, thank you. This is now going to be, I believe, my ninth time serving on the board where we do this annual reorganization. And I first want to convey my deep appreciation to Dr. Anderson and Ms. Pokarsky for all the hard work you did in trying to, almost like a Rubik's Cube, figure out how best to place... uh 12 school board members into all of these different roles and responsibilities and so uh i i did share this um directly with dr anderson that i am so appreciative of every effort she put forward to make this not just a balanced community assignment not just to take into account all of our

141interests and our strengths and our backgrounds um but really to figure out how best the board can get this work done unfortunately because we have had so much on the board plate the timing for which dr anderson could bring this to the board was only last night and there are some things that while i'm extremely grateful for all of the assignments that i've been given i did have some questions about just overall responsibilities how they overlap how they might impact board members being able to just get the work done from just a timing perspective, I had wanted to have more conversation. And so in the spirit of wanting to again be very supportive of Dr. Anderson, I have the greatest faith in her leadership. I wanted to make sure that my colleagues and anyone who's

142watching would understand that my abstention is not out of any concern for Dr. Anderson's judgment. I think it's just we didn't have time as board members to maybe talk with one another on some things, just a few things that I think maybe could have enhanced. the organization that we'll be going forward with. I still have every confidence in all 11 of my colleagues that are highly capable, highly talented, and no doubt that the work will still get done well. I just would have liked to have had some more conversations. So thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Cohen? I have to say, I know that this is an incredibly daunting responsibility with all of the different committees and all of our different personalities and strengths and needs and wants. I was so appreciative

143of the way that this was handled this year. We were given the opportunity to rank order what... what committees we were interested in, where we felt like we best could position ourselves, and also things that were a no-go for all kinds of reasons for us. So I just wanted to say I recognize how hard of a job this is and the fact that you were allowed us to do first choice, second choice, no-goes or no preference really allowed us to feel like we had a voice in the process. And I'm beyond grateful for that. So thank you again and appreciate both you and Ms. McCarskey's jumping in this and getting all this done within a week of becoming our chair and vice chair. So thank you again. Thank you so much, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Corbett-Sanders.

144Thank you, and I'm glad to follow Ms. Cohen because I think that she raises a very important point, and it was a very helpful concept to have a Google poll in which people could provide input. Unfortunately, I did not understand that a no vote on an individual or no interest on an individual committee did not actually... actually have the same weight as a no way vote, which I would have appreciated if there had been a little bit more instruction before these Google polls were sent to the board members. I also think that I recognize it during this very difficult time where we have so much on our plate. that there is a pensions or a it's sometimes hard to make phone calls to people but i will urge my board fellow colleagues that when we

145are making important decisions as far as board putting amendments on the table or having new committee assignments that that we actually spend a little bit more time making those phone calls and I know that is very difficult. So I understand the pressure in which you, Dr. Anderson, are under during a very packed schedule. I probably understand it more than most, but I am, and as I mentioned to you when I saw the committee assignments that two of the committees I was surprised to even be put on and I would I will not be supporting this amendment, but I understand and appreciate the hard work you've put into this. Thank you very much, Mr. Frisch. Thank you. I too appreciate the hard work that went into this and the organized approach to soliciting the feedback of

146our colleagues. In addition to making my preferences known, I know I reached out to explain my preferences as well. I did not get everything I wanted, but I did get some of the things I wanted and I think that's how this works. And I appreciate the collaborative nature and look forward to it continuing as we go forward. Thank you very much Mr. Frisch, Ms. Deismohiser. Thank you very much. I will also echo what Mr. Frisch said, that I really appreciated the organized collaborative fashion of how this was done. And I know I had questions, and I appreciate being able to contact with Ms. McCarskey and Ms. Anderson when I had questions. They get almost immediate responses clarifying my questions before I did the Google form. So that was very helpful, and I appreciated that, as

147well as the chance to send an email explaining my thoughts and all that stuff. So I'm very happy with where I'm at. I think... As Mr. Frisch said, I didn't get everything I wanted, but I am very, very happy and very happy to support this. I just want to say I did appreciate not just the chance to sort of express my thoughts and also have, I think it was fairly late when I even reached out to you all. I had almost immediate responses of clarifying my questions. And so I think that it was a wonderful process for me, especially in this time. I appreciate it. And I'm really excited to get to work. Thank you very much. I don't see any other speakers to this motion, but I do want to take some privilege to

148share that Ms. Pekarsky and I were very diligent in ensuring that we had an approach that was balanced and one that... we had opportunity for collaboration and I'm glad that that landed with many of our colleagues who've just spoken. Obviously it's really difficult with trying to handle 12 folks with 12 different areas of 12 different perspectives and areas of interest. We're not going to hit every mark but I'd like to think we hit them more often than not. At this point, I want to be sure that it is clear that every effort was made to ensure there was clarity in the process. And I do apologize, Ms. Corbett-Standers, if there was not clarity regarding the no preference versus the not interested options of the survey. I wish that I had an opportunity to respond to

149that for you had I known that there were some confusion. So having said that, at this point, I am going to go ahead and move us to the vote. I will read the main motion again, which is that the school board will confirm committee liaisons and assignments as detailed in the agenda item. All those in favor? We have Ms. Darinat Koufax, Ms. Pokarsky, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Smirin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Seismohizer, Ms. Tolan. And Dr. Anderson. So that is eight. Do we have any, I'm sorry, who opposed? We have, okay, Ms. Merritt, I think you already voted. Ms. Corbett-Standers is in opposition and abstaining. We have Ms. Keyes-Gamara, Ms. McLaughlin, and Ms. Omej. The motion carries. Moving on to item 5.06, which is the FY21 risk assessment and audit plan. I will call on Ms. Keyes-Gomara

150for the motion. Madam Chair, I don't, I think I know how to do it. I don't think I have the language in front of me though. I am sorry, I think it's a very short one. It's just moving to approve the FY21 OAG audit plan. You got lucky on this one. I move to approve the fiscal year 2021 OAG plan. Do we have a second? Ms. Tolan is the second. Ms. Quisimara, would you like to speak to your motion? Just briefly, I just want to extend my thanks to our Auditor General, Ms. Esther Ko, who always does such an excellent professional job in helping our board to have an independent voice and a way to gather information that is critical to our fiduciary role of oversight. for the school system. I want the community to

151know that we have discussed this extensively in work sessions. It has been presented to us as well in a board meeting, and I urge my colleagues to support this. Thank you. Ms. Stone, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, thank you. I would also like to thank Esther Ko and her team for all the hard work and for our audit committee and our public members of our audit committee for helping us put this together and work on this. I'm happy to move forward with this. This is an important time moving forward with FCPS with an audit on coming up on our special education program, for example, and with a new brand new assistant superintendent just announced tonight for that program. It will be some, you know. heavy lifting but very important work that

152our oag will be doing um over the next a couple of years with that audit um i'm also very excited and that our plan includes looking into the existence and strength of a business continuity plan for fcps i think we really need to be doing this As we look forward to hearing more from the law firm that's tired about our distance learning plan review and look at our recommendations from our technology council. I think all of this work goes hand in hand in analyzing how we as a school district move forward to ensure that reputational and financial risks are mitigated with thorough planning and project management. So looking forward to that. part of the plan and we have um also a lot of regular um annual work that is outlined in the plan as well

153so i would definitely like to second this motion thank you very much other board members who may wish other board members who may wish to speak i see two hands miss mclaughlin please go ahead oh my apologies that was from the prior vote okay miss pakarski Thank you. Just as an audit committee member, I really just wanted to thank Ms. Cohen, her staff for all their hard work. I've enjoyed working with all of you. Thank you for this. That's it. Thank you very much. Seeing that there are no other speakers, all those in favor. Ms. Pekarsky, Ms. Kies-Gamara, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Omish, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Derinat-Kofax, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, and Dr. Anderson. That motion carries. I believe that is unanimous. Now we are coming to the section of

154our students' rights and responsibilities. Before I call on Ms. Marin for the motion, I do realize that we have been at our seats for a number of hours, and we have a lot of very important work for discussion that I am sure no one wants to walk away from and miss any parts of this. I would love to get the pulse of the board in having a five-minute break. so that we can come back a little bit more refreshed with water, coffee, whatever we need to to tackle this second half of our conversation. I see that I have Ms. Toland, Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Solmesh, Ms. Corbett-Standers, Ms. Derinat Kolfax, Ms. Kees-Namara, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, who are all in favor of this break. It is now 627. Let's just

155say six. And we will see you back. Thank you to the folks who are waiting. We just have a few minutes until we can come right back to this very important work. 6.35, folks. See you then. Hello, everyone. We have now returned. Before we go ahead and proceed, I will take roll call to ensure we have all of our board members back with us. Ms. Cohen? Yeah, I was running. I'm here. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Present. Ms. Darinat Koufax? Here. Mr. Frisch? Ms. Kees Gamara? Here. Ms. McLaughlin? Here. Ms. Marin? Here. Ms. Omage? Here. Ms. Fikarski? Here. Ms. Seismolheiser? Here. Ms. Tolan? Here. Mr. Adebudo? I'm here. Wonderful. Thank you again to the public for bearing with us. We have been in meetings since 1.30, and so we all needed a little bit of an

156opportunity to take care of some personal business and to just stretch our legs a little bit. So we appreciate your flexibility with us. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, do you have a question? Oh, thank you so much. At this point, we will be working on item 5.07, students' rights and responsibilities. I call on Ms. Marin for the motion. Thank you. I move that the school board adopt regulation 2601.34P, student rights and responsibilities, as detailed in the agenda item. Is there a second? Seconded by Mr. Fritz. Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, just briefly for the public's benefit, the Student Rights and Responsibilities Regulation or the SR&R is the regulation stating students' rights and expected behavior and the discipline tools and processes that FCPS uses when needed. The SR&R must be reviewed annually and

157updated annually before the start of school so that it can be provided to all families at the start of the year. If you're a parent or family member, you may have received that paper booklet each year and your child has to sign that. That's what this content is. We have been working on this since the April 27th work session where staff provided us with updates and we have gone through a very detailed way to look at it again with an eye towards anti-racism and looking at the way our discipline policies might be. negatively impacting some students, especially our students of color or students in poverty. But also it's an effort to be more clear about a number of things. So we're gonna have a big discussion on this and I'm very eager to hear my

158colleagues further input on this. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Marin. Mr. Frisch, would you like to speak to your second? Just briefly, I look forward to voting for these revisions to the SR&R, especially after we consider the many amendments that my thoughtful colleagues have offered us to this language, which will make it even better. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Frisch. At this time, I'd like to call on Ms. Keyes-Gamar for an amendment. Thank you. I move to amend. let me make sure i'm looking at the right way i move to amend the main motion by deleting the words tube halter tops on page seven section c dress code as follows to read examples of prohibited clothing include but are not limited to clothing that exposes undergarments is there a second i

159will second that motion if there is not besides more heister thank you Ms. Kees-Demare, would you like to speak to your amendment? Absolutely. It is so critical that the language that we describe as prohibited conduct, that it does not single out individuals and that that language is gender neutral. I have heard from some of our young ladies who feel that this is demeaning to them. And I think that it is appropriate that we can find language to describe what is appropriate dress without referencing clothing that only applies to girls. Thank you, Ms. Kees-Gamara. Ms. Sizemore-Hyzer, would you like to speak to your second? Just briefly that I agree with everything Ms. Keiskemara said and I appreciate that she brought this forward, but we need to strive to be inclusive of everybody and we need to

160strive to not make one person in our school feel less than or different due to their gender, to their race, to their religion, to their ability, all of these things and taking out references. that are gendered or references that appear to be towards one group versus another is a good thing. We can keep our schools respectful and safe without having to, without looking as if or appearing to body shame anybody or clothing shame anybody. And I appreciate Ms. Keats-Gamara for bringing forward language to keep our regulations as inclusive. and respectful for everybody. So thank you. Thank you very much. Would other members like to speak to this motion? Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Yes, thank you very much. And thank you, Ms. Quis-Gomara, for making this motion. I was actually a little surprised that it needed to be

161made this year because last year Mr. McElveen offered a amendment. and amendment to the sr r that was targeted at just this type of language and i thought we had stripped it all out but we obviously didn't get everything uh done that year and that's part of the sr r it seems like every year we are making it a more perfect document so i am very happy to support this thank you seeing that that there are no other speakers to this motion yes there are mr not cofax I just want to express the same sentiments. For some reason, I thought this was taken out, but it's not. Thank you for catching this, Ms. Kiesma. I absolutely will support this. Thank you. Seeing now that there are no other speakers. The amendment before us is I

162move to amend the main motion by deleting the words tube or halter tops on page seven, section C, dress code as follows. Examples of prohibited clothing include but not limited to clothing that exposes undergarments. All those in favor? Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Kies-Gamara, Ms. Marin, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. Bukarski, Ms. Somesh, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Tolan, Ms. Sarah Koufax, Mr. Frisch, and Dr. Anderson. That is unanimous. Now I call on Ms. Cohen for an amendment. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I move to amend the main motion by revising page 6, section C, as follows. Clothing with language or images that are vulgar, discriminatory, racist, slash culturally divisive, or obscene, or clothing that promotes illegal, or violent conduct such as gang symbols, the unlawful use of weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or drug paraphernalia, or clothing that contains threats

163is prohibited. See chapter 2.a.2.b, parenthesis 7, for additional information regarding gang-related clothing. This would include Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, or any other images that are inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. Is there a second? Ms. McLaughlin, you are seconding this motion. Ms. Cohen, would you like? No, that was my bad for not having my hand down. I have no problem with the motion. I just don't think I can speak as eloquently because I haven't worked with Ms. Cohen on it. That is okay. Do we have a second for Ms. Cohen's amendment? Yes, Dr. Anderson. I had my hand up. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak to your motion? I would. I just think in the spirit of much of what we've said today, that this is having clothing with Confederate

164symbols, KKK references or swastikas is not in keeping with our Karen culture. And so the language was proposed for this year. My addition to it is racist slash culturally divisive. And I hope that my colleagues will support me in that. Thank you very much, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, I was very happy to work with Ms. Cohen on this amendment over the weekend, and I fully supported. The one thing that I would suggest for people to understand is that the... Adding the racist language at the top of this paragraph is so important, but the explanatory language at the bottom will give guidance to our principals at the local level about how important it is and how to understand certain... graphic displays or written displays on a shirt

165or any other piece of clothing and how that is non-consistent or inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. And it's important for a warm, welcoming, and caring environment to have this adopted. Thank you very much, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Are there any other speakers? I would, okay, seeing none, I would like to offer a friendly amendment, Ms. Cohen, if you wouldn't mind, with the last part of the language that speaks to include Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, or any other images that are inconsistent. I have a small concern with the any other images. primarily because I would not want for this to be misunderstood. I worry a little bit in terms of that interpretation of this may lead to less of a caring culture than you are intending to have with this amendment. And I think I need a

166second for that as well. Ms. Seismohizer, you will second that? Thank you. Since I've already spoken to my amendment, I hear someone in the background. Thank you. If we could have somebody please turn off their microphone. Thank you. Ms. Seismohizer, would you like to speak to the friendly amendment that I'm proposing? Yes, just briefly, I wanted to speak to this because I agree with you that as someone who taught constitutional law at George Mason in the government and relations department, I always find it a tough balance between free speech and... being free from harassment. I'm a huge fan of free speech, respectful, thoughtful discourse is vital to our democracy, but I'm also a huge opponent of harassment. And so sometimes that's a tough balance. So while I believe that discourse needs to be thoughtful and

167respectful and students have the right to be able to engage in discourse and have the right to be able to have free speech as much as possible within our schools, we also need to have a caring culture and respectful environment. So having said that, I believe that having too much discretion in policing speech, such as I believe this awards any other images that are inconsistent, that leaves a lot of room for discretion that I think would, as you said so eloquently, Dr. Anderson, go against the intent of Ms. Cohen's amendment here. So having said that, I think... it would be wise to remove the phrase that you're asking to remove so then we could be clear as to what we are trying to do with this amendment in terms of creating a caring and inclusive

168culture. Thank you very much, Ms. Eisenmohiser. Ms. Cohen, would you please respond to the proposal? I... respectfully take the input of folks who are better constitutional scholars than myself. So I'm happy to accept the friendly amendment. Thank you very much. Ms. Kees-Gamara, did you want to speak to this as well? I guess I have a question. And it's not showing on my screen what the changes would be. So, okay, thank you. So you're deleting, well, thank you, Miss, or any other images that are inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. I guess I'm kind of torn in this actually because in the school system, I believe we have larger latitude than we would in other situations. And Mr. Foster can possibly speak to the concern is that there can be some creative ways to harass other students.

169And I think the intent of the which was to create. some clear language that would allow our administrators to identify something that is unnecessarily disruptive and harassing of other students. I believe that's the intent. And so I am not uncomfortable with the level of discretion that administrators would be given with the language as it is written. And Mr. Foster would like to speak to how the environment of the school system is a little different than other places that might be helpful. Thank you so very much. Mr. Foster, would you like to chime in? Yes, I want to make sure that I'm understanding the proposed. change and so is these the friendly amendment to delete the last sentence of Ms. Cohen's amendment such that the sentence this would include confederate flags that whole that whole sentence

170would be deleted or is there a different no so what is what is the friendly amendment that would be helpful to me to understand and respond to the question The section for deletion would be or any other images because we want, I am hoping that we have a tight enough indicator here so that students are not unintentionally penalized for other images based on individual administrative interpretation. Right. And so I agree. Yeah, I think that the deletion of or any other images would be a good change to the point that was raised earlier in the discussion by Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. I do worry with that phrase staying in that there could be a challenge regarding vagueness. And I think taking it out and leaving the specifics examples there addresses that concern. And I hope I've responded to

171the question. I'm happy to answer any others that come up. May I just ask for one other clarification? Madam Chair. Yes, Ms. Keyes-Gamar, please go ahead. Okay. Is the phrase inconsistent with our non-discriminatory policy? Does that address your concern regarding vagueness if that language remained? So please read what would remain at this point. This would include, I'm sorry, please go ahead and read. that which is inconsistent with our non-discriminatory, non-discrimination policy. I think that would address my question. Yeah. Is that a question for me, Ms. Keese-Gomara, or a question for Dr. Anderson? I'll take anyone. I just, I, my only concern is, I guess, I'm thinking that policy itself has language that is guiding, right? So I'm thinking the vagueness is any other images. So perhaps reference to the nondiscrimination policy would give the latitude

172that would be, I think, go more toward the intent. Yes, I think we, I'm sorry to interrupt, but I think that leading in the reference to the non-discrimination policy would be helpful and that reference should stay. Okay. So, I will yield to whoever it would handle, but that would be my suggestion. Ms. Cohen, are you... I know you've accepted the Freddie Amendment and removing any other images I think will address my concern. Ms. Seismorheiser, are you still in? Excuse me, Madam Chair. Yeah, that would address my concern as well. I still worry a little bit about the discretion that that leaves, but I do feel better taking out the or any other images that which are inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. So that would be fine. Thank you. Ms. Cohen, are you still in acceptance

173of this friendly amendment? Of the friendlier amendment? It could get friendlier by the minute. Yes. Are we leaving the or out, or is it saying KKK references or that, which are my, I'm sorry, my teacher self is having trouble with the grammar here, but I don't want to work with it to death. I just want the intent to be there. I'm happy to accept the friendlier amendment. Okay, thank you. And I think we'll wordsmith that a little bit because there are some grammatical things there to be addressed. So thank you for that acceptance. Having said that, are there any other discussions on this amendment? Dr. Anderson, as the seconder of the amendment, could I please say something? Yes, please go ahead. As the seconder of the amendment, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Yes, thank you. Somebody deleted the

174word that, which is what I was going to suggest. By doing that, it satisfies some of my concern. Because with the or any other images, that would cover other images such as anti-LGBTQ or... other offensive images that people may wear. My concern, and I just need to, if Mr. Foster could answer this, the beginning of that sentence should, it reads, this would include Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, which are inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. What I don't want is that sentence to be limiting. to only be swastikas, confederates, flags, and KKK references. So are we better off using the term examples include? Yeah, the phrasing could be examples include confederate flags, swastikas, etc. Or another way to phrase it would be this includes but is not limited to confederate flags, swastikas, etc. I leave it

175up to the maker of the motion, Ms. Cohen, whichever way she thinks it meets it best. I just don't want us to be limited to only those three instances. Ms. Cohen, would you like to respond? I saw that Mr. Onabuto had his hand up and is the only one of us in here who is subject to the SR&R. I'd love to hear his thoughts before I speak to it, if that works for you, Dr. Anderson. Absolutely, it does. Mr. Onabuto? Please go ahead. Hi, thank you for that Mrs. Cohen and Dr. Anderson. I really appreciate this conversation and actually one of my friends who was also watching just texted me and he had this wonderful idea and I was wondering if you guys would consider maybe the wording should be or any other images deemed

176to be deliberately harmful. Maybe that would give some more leeway in the way of, you know. other images so we're not only limited to those three instances while also giving some discretionary authority. I don't know, just a suggestion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Onobutu. Ms. Cohen? My friend, this is your friendlier amendment, so that is, that's up to you unless somebody wants to make an even friendlier amendment. I believe I am fine with the friendlier amendment proposal here. My only concern is I wanted to be sure that we weren't putting our students in a position where the interpretation of what was being offered in their clothing would be that this would be too broad for administrators to interpret. So, but I'm fine with being deliberately harmful because I think that puts a little bit more,

177a little bit more of... stronger parameters. So thank you very much Nathan and your friend. Dr. Anderson may I speak to that as well? Absolutely. If you guys can help me, if you could please lower your hands so that I can see whether or not we have new speakers because I think sometimes people forget to lower their hands. That would be helpful. Please go ahead Ms. Seismohiser. um mr anabuta i very much appreciate the thought and i i understand i can very much appreciate um the idea of trying to make sure that it's clear and we're not harming our students i would respectfully and and i hope you take this because i i very much respect your ideas that please keep them coming i would certainly say i had the same concern with deliberately harmful

178in terms of vagueness because what is it it's I always think about who's in charge and what their mind might be and what might be deliberately harmful in your mind as somebody who may have to, you know, eventually become a principal, have to enforce that, and deliberately harmful in my mind may be two very different things. And I just, I think, you know, the discrimination policy can be a policy that can be looked at, that talks specifically about, but deliberately harmful, I... I just I have concerns, but I please I take I say that to you is done and we live by saying I love the way you think and please keep your thoughts coming because they're very valuable. But I do have some vagueness concerns on that one. Thank you, Dr Braybrand. Yeah, you

179know, this is just a great discussion. We have our principles here. If you want, many of our principles are here who really helped and were a part of working with Miss Johnson on SRNR issues. And if you'd like to hear their point of view, I will say, so let me offer that first. If there are any principals here that want to share anything on this particular piece about this deliberately intent. The issue that Ms. Sizemore-Heiser is bringing up, I know is something that maybe some of our administrators may want to raise. The clarity of what is and isn't is very important to school administrators. And I'll see if any of them to speak to it specifically. If we have any of the principals, please raise your hand to be recognized. Until we have some of

180those folks raise their hands, I'm just going to move on to Ms. McLaughlin for her comments, and then we'll return to any other administrators who are on the call today. Ms. McLaughlin? Yes, Dr. Anderson, I was just going to ask that our division counsel certainly can just either opine on whether deliberately harmful or with intent to harm or discriminate. I mean, I totally respect our principles on this one, but I think we first have to rule out, not from Ms. Seismar-Heiser, who is a lawyer, but for the division counsel to say to us, what can we do here given the discussions occurred already, but to kind of quickly move this forward from a legal concern first, then to hear from our principals if that provides for them the ability to understand what it is. But

181I think the legal position needs to be clarified first and I would ask Mr. Foster to weigh in. Dr. Anderson, may I speak to the issue? Yes, Mr. Foster, I apologize. I was trying to glean to see if any principals raised their hands. Please go ahead, Mr. Foster. Yes, so I share the concerns that were identified by Ms. Sizemore-Heiser about vagueness on the harmful standard. And the other concern I have is that under the Fourth Circuit case law, what it talks about is quote unquote disruptive to the educational environment or to have a substantial likelihood of disruption. The case law does not talk about a harmful standard. And so I worry about adopting a standard that really isn't employed by the federal circuit that, you know, if this were challenged to court would be reviewing

182it. And so for those reasons, and I absolutely agree that Nathan's suggestion is, you know, is really. well intended. My recommendation would be not to include it given the realities of the case law that we have. Thank you very much Mr. Foster. Dr. Brabrand, have you been able to identify any principals who would like to speak to this matter? Yes. Now we have Mr. Litz. Good evening. I'm Jeff Litz. I'm the principal of Marshall High School. When I look at this and I think about that you're describing here. I think I agree with Mr. Foster that the phrase causes a disruption to the educational environment is something that speaks to principals when they're evaluating the impact of some of these incidences, either on an individual student or on a group of students or adults in

183the building. So I would, encourage you to incorporate that particular phrase into this because it is a phrase that is used quite a bit with administrators and it's something that for us would be very clear. Have we been able to get that? I'm sorry, can you please repeat that phrase again so that I'm sure that it's listed? So this would include but is not limited to Confederate flag swastikas, KKK references. or any other images that cause a disruption to the educational environment. That would be my suggestion. I know we're trying to get away from images, but I think that's really what we're talking about. Thank you very much. And now we have Mr. Milko. Hi, this is Liz. I don't know principal in high school. I'm so sorry. I cannot see very well. I apologize.

184That's okay. So I want to echo what Jeff said. Jeff Lipp said, because I was getting a little hung up on this. It didn't really occur to me when I read it earlier, but then I'm thinking, you know, if a student comes to school with Redskins gear on, you know, is someone going to make a connection that this is not in line? with our non-discrimination policy and then are we in a weird situation that we just would really rather not be in but i like that that option because i really think that you know intent and or disruption is is key um for this and i do think that those items that are listed are certainly disruptive to the to the instructional environment Thank you very much, Ms. Noto. And I'm so sorry I skipped

185over you, Dr. Brabrand. Yes, Chairman Anderson. I had to momentarily step away, and I did not hear that last question, for which I apologize. Could you repeat that? No, there was no question to you. Your hand was raised, and I just didn't want to skip you. So you're fine at this point. My apologies. Ms. Cohen? Dr. Anderson? Yes, Ms. Cohen, go ahead. My concern to be candid is that disruption is, I'm afraid, in the eye of the beholder. And so, you know, I think in the same way that if a kid walks in with a corona t-shirt, they're asked to either change their shirt or turn it inside out. I think that we have to be actively anti-racist. And part of that is that What that means is that if a kid walks in with

186a Confederate flag, it shouldn't be the task of an administrator to decide if that's disruptive or not, in my humble opinion, never having been an administrator. So please take that for what it is worth. So that's my concern with it. Again, in fairness, this is a piece of your friendly amendment. So I imagine that it ultimately is up to you about what you put forward. um to my amendment um but that's a concern that i have to to be candid thank you very much um we'll have miss um seismohizer thank you very much i will say that first of all a question for mr foster our division council when you talk about the standard in our case law and the fourth circuit case law being the disruption standard is that the standard for um sort

187of images and speech or is that the standard can you give a little more description as to what that standard is related to. Yeah, so that standard is related to speech including images. Images are considered speech under that case law and so it covers them both. So is there a pretty subtle case law on what the definition of disrupting is or is that really left up to the discretion of the principals or the school systems to define that? Right. So it, you know, it's obviously a fact based inquiry. You know, I can tell you there are cases in the Fourth Circuit involving the Confederate flag. And what they have focused on is in those cases, is there a history of of racial tension or fighting, quite frankly, in the school? And in the case of

188Hard Work versus Hayward, for example, that was a case, I believe, out of South Carolina involving the Confederate flag. And they focused on that history to determine whether the use or display of the Confederate flag was substantially disruptive or likely to be substantially disruptive. Thank you. That answered my question. I was worried it was a sort of fact-based standard. And your explanation of cases that focus on the history, I have the same concern as Ms. Cohen does about that. I understand what our principles are, and I respect our principles. And this, again, someone who's not a principal, so I take that, again, for what it's worth. But I do very much worry using that language in this takes away from the intent that Ms. Cohen had. So I do not, I think the amendment as

189written, which is, this would include, but is not limited to Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, and any other images or anything or others that are inconsistent with our discrimination policy. Something along those lines would be fine. We have language on discrimination policy to help guide our principles, disruption standard is concerning to me. However, I am also want to say on the flip side, there should be room in this may not belong in here at all to make sure that if somebody does come to school with one of these or something else that's inconsistent with non-discrimination policy, that we would have a chance to use it as a teaching moment instead of a punishing moment. But I believe that would be the case. So I guess I'm long way to saying that I'm not comfortable adding

190the disruption standard into this. Thank you, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Ms. Kies-Gamara, I do apologize. I wasn't sure that your hand was up the entire time. So I apologize for skipping you. Please go ahead. No worries. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser actually was going where I wanted to go. And I wanted to make sure I said this while our principals were here. I understand the word disruption in a case. But I have been worried reading over the SRNR and seeing that word creates a disruption because I think she nailed it on the head when she said, or someone said, I'm not quite sure who it was, but that is something that is in the eye of the beholder. And we are really trying to move away from those. areas of subjectivity, which is why I was emphasizing the non-discrimination clause.

191So I would support the language that I think we said before and Rachna, I'm sorry, besides Morheiser, repeat it. Thank you very much. We have, and others, do we have, okay, Dr. Brabrand and then Ms. Noto. Yeah, I... I is what is up and printed now what's before the board. I just want to be clear and make sure everybody else is clear. This would include but is not limited to Confederate flags, swastikas, KK references that are consistent with our non-discrimination policy. Is that the current language? It's been revised slightly. I wanted to make a friendly amendment to Ms. Cohen's language, and I think we're working on whatever that friendly amendment is. She was open to it, but it's evolved a little bit. I'm really hoping to hear from the rest of the speakers before I

192go back to represent my friendly amendment for her consideration. And I know we have more amendments to go. I guess, let me just say it this way. And I know you'll hear from other principals. As a building principal, clarity for kids and for faculty and for administrators is key. There are other districts that have specifically mentioned Confederate flags in their SR&R. So I am supportive of the three specifics. I do think the broader language creates opportunities, frankly, for our administrators and students to... to get into areas that may not be as beneficial by leaving too much room as Ms. Sizemore-Heiser and Mr. Foster talked about. I think being specific to the examples is the clarity our school folks will need. And I know you'll hear from other principals as well, but that's my reaction, that

193this narrower version is better and it lets you know what is clearly not acceptable to have in school. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Snowdoe, followed by Ms. McLaughlin. So I agree with that, Dr. Brabrand. I think when you put those examples in, it's very clear that those are not allowed. And I don't think that, I think that language is specific and very helpful for communication about expectations for behavior. I think when you add a piece about disruption, it gives us some room as well to address other things that might not specifically be listed in here, but they come up with. the culture, the news, other things that we maybe just didn't think of at the time that really are creating a disruptive environment. And while that is, I know you're trying to move away from

194that language, it gives us an opportunity to correct behavior by putting that extra phrase in the SR&R. Thank you, Ms. Noto. Ms. McLaughlin? I guess my question again, is my microphone working? It is, you're fine. Yeah, my question would simply be, are there other areas in the SR&R where we use this state language that keeps being referenced or considered otherwise disruptive? Because if that's a consistency piece, then I would say to date. it's not come to the board's attention or the superintendent that principals are misusing that when it comes to clothing. And if it's in other parts of the SRNR, then it's already there and that discretion is already being used in other ways. In the end, our principals know that. the superintendent has a regional superintendents working with them. There's accountability for principals every

195day having to use good judgment in their interactions with our students. So I guess Mr. Foster, if anyone can, or Ms. Johnson, do we have that recommended language in other parts of the SRNR and that's just putting it into this section as well? Yes, Foster. I believe it's in various parts of the SRNR and Carrie Williams may even give specific locations, but yes, I believe it's in multiple locations. So Dr. Ernst and I would just say then, while everyone knows I have been a massive advocate for refining our SR&R and reducing student discipline involvement, I would only suggest that if the language just simply gives those principals the opportunity for consistency. in ensuring that anything that's considered disruptive to the school community they have the srnr to help students and families understand where something might

196be deeming disruptive it doesn't necessarily mean the students going to have their rights trampled on would be one thought because there would be dialogue This will be the last round of go-backs before I act upon on my friendly amendment to Ms. Cohen's amendment. Ms. Seismohiser, followed by Mr. Onobuto, and then Ms. Cohen, and then I will speak, and then we will move on with the rest of this part. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. And I thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. That was great commentary on that. I don't want to belabor the point, but I guess I would just ask all of us if, according to Ms. Johnson, if there are parts of our SRNR that deal with, you know, harassing clothing, vulgar discrimination, those types of clothing, and we're trying to be deliberately anti-racist here, although we

197do talk about weapons and drug and alcohol paraphernalia. I'm just trying to figure out what we're trying to get at with this that isn't covered in the SRNR, because I think that would very much help inform whether we are trying to really get at illegal... such as drug paraphernalia, unlawful use, or anti-racism, or if we're trying to get to a broader sense of harassment is the first piece I'd put out. And the second thing I would say in terms of the last sentence, any other images, is that we do have at the top clothing with language or images that are vulgar and discriminatory. So it almost seems like the phrase that our friendly amendment, I'm sorry, Dr. Anderson's friendly amendment that I seconded of taking out the any other images that are inconsistent with our

198non-discrimination policy. It seems like that's already at the top, right? It says clothing with language or images that are vulgar or discriminatory. So I'm not sure why we need at the bottom any other images that are inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy. So it seems like... you know, after whatever half an hour of discussion, we may go back to our original friendly amendment, which was to take out the phrase or any other images that are inconsistent, since it's kind of already there. Mr. Foster or, you know, Ms. Johnson, if anyone in the audience wants to comment on whether that sentiment at the bottom that we're trying to take out is already encapsulated up top. So there's additional language in the SRNR. I can't remember if it's above or below this particular language. I think it's right

199above. And it does reference various other language like appropriate for school setting, in good taste, in decency. That type of language is above that. Thank you very much. I believe our next speaker is Nathan Onobudo. Yeah, just briefly, I just wanted to point out as a student at South County who a few years before I was there and before Confederate flags were expressly listed in the SRNR as something that could not be worn to school, a student wore a Confederate flag morph suit and it caused a grave disruption to the learning environment at South County. There were fights, et cetera. And the only way our principals got to address the issue was because there was clause in the SRNR that allowed for him to address it based on the fact that it did cause a

200substantial disruption to the classroom learning environment. So if that's helpful to anyone in deciding how to how to word things, I thought I'd put that up there. Ms. Cohen, then Ms. Kees-Gamara. Sure. I would just say after my work with the equity stakeholders group for the last couple of years, one of my biggest concerns is that what we have seen, unfortunately, is that disruptive behavior has tended to be used with disparate impact. So my concern is that when we are working so hard to get at what our disparities in discipline really are. I have concern about putting the language disruptive back in as it refers to clothing. I just think it's one more place where even very well-intentioned enforcement. sometimes tends to have an unintended consequence. And so my preference, again, it is your friendly

201amendment, but my preference would be that where we have it, that it stands right now, this would include, but it's not limited to Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, and KKK references, period, is... is plenty because we have in the body, we know that our non-discrimination policy is our overarching umbrella of everything that we do in this county. So I think it's duplicative and I think it is potentially problematic. And so my... thought would be to go back to how it's written now, but not have the inconsistent with our non-discrimination policy and also not include disruptive behavior. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. I will take a go back myself before we go to the next round. We'll start with Ms. Keyes-Gamara. Not to belabor this point, but one of the other things that I've noticed in reviewing

202the language at the top again, I wonder if it makes sense that after the language that says, or clothing that promotes illegal or violent conduct, such as gang symbols, Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references. I wonder if it could live there instead. So we'll have the embedded examples, but without the need for the remainder of the language. So it would read, let me just share that again, just for your consideration, Ms. Cohen. It would read, or obscene or clothing that promotes illegal or violent conduct, such as gang symbols. Confederate flags, swastikas, KKK references, and then the unlawful use of weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, because the gang symbols is just one example as well. So we're just adding more of the examples that you provided below. I know that changes the whole scope of the conversation, but

203I've amended my friendly amendment to this point, and I'm not sure if Ms. Seismohiser is still willing to second that piece of it. Yes, I'm still willing to second that piece of it. As embedded now. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. We're going to have, hopefully, what will be our last round of go-backs before we take action. Ms. Cohen, are you still willing to accept the new friendly amendment? I am. No, I just wanted to give for Ms. Mejeda, who is trying to keep up with us. I believe what Dr. Anderson is saying is that that entire underlined last sentence would be removed. Right. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. So we're just listing all of the things that you had below as examples. So we can still keep it tight without. broad interpretation,

204but without the, without too much broad interpretation, but without the worry that I shared along with Ms. Seismor-Heiser. Our last round of go-backs on this issue, Ms. Keyes-Gamara, followed by Ms. Foster, Ms. McLaughlin, and Ms. Corbett-Sanders, and Ms. Omej. Okay, so I don't have an objection. I don't think to what our chair just suggested. My only thing I want to raise for consideration is that in the beginning of this, it does not reference a nondiscrimination clause policy. And that policy identifies groups that can easily be targeted. And that was the reason that I was trying to fight to include that because while we have Confederate flags, swastikas, et cetera, the things that we can think of, I think that our LGBTQ community may have other ways to be targeted that are not listed. And so...

205I will defer to the makers of the various friendly friendlier motions. I'm not sure which ones we're on right now, but my concern was just to try to, although we might not be able to anticipate how some of these groups might be targeted, I wanted to that policy to be emphasized. So I just offer that as a consideration. Thank you very much, Ms. Kees-Gomara. Mr. Foster. Thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to note that what Ms. Sizemore-Heiser had picked up on a minute ago, I do agree with, which is the first part of the paragraph picks up the word discriminatory. And so in light of that, you know, I... comfortable deleting that last phrase after KKK references. I also do think, Madam Chair, that your more recent suggested change with basically dropping the language

206after the phrase illegal or violent conduct would also accomplish the same thing. And so also that your proposed change also addresses my legal concerns. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. McLaughlin. Yes, thank you. The reason I wanted to go back is I know I have heard from principals that there's going to be instances where clothing is going to create a highly reactive situation. It could even be political in nature and a fight could ensue or even a student melee over it. And so I guess I would ask Mr. Foster and Ms. Johnson. We have tightened this up so much that I am just concerned that either we lay everything else in it, but otherwise I don't know where we have, unless it's just in another section, that gives principals the opportunity to explain to

207students their rights and their responsibilities that if they wear clothing, that does create a major disruption, including fights. Where have we given them? and the students that clarity of understanding that there could be consequences for it and for them to hold the students accountable if it's not listed. That's my first question. The second one I would say is... I do believe to Ms. Kees-Kamara's concern, because we have specifically stated that we do not accept clothing that's discriminatory in nature, we then have a discrimination policy that outlines what we mean by discrimination. So that would include all of our various protected populations. So I don't think we have to necessarily name the policy because the policy serves as our definition of what would be discriminatory, which is listed here. again i would just ask um either

208dr brabrand ms johnson or mr foster what do we do about now that if this is so tightly defined what is in the principal's um ability to hold students accountable for something that falls outside of what's just been listed here when to be clear other parts of the SNR already give the principals that caveat of anything that's disruptive. And I thank our student rep for talking about disruptive clothing that created a major disruption allowed principals to hold that accountability. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Dr. Anderson, I'm sorry. I actually asked for three different people to weigh in. Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, I weighed in on from a principal standpoint and from a legal standpoint, what do we do now that we strip out the or anything that creates a massive disruption? How do

209principals deal with that? I think we have a principal in the queue. We have a principal, I think, Mr. Vesteskis, who's in the queue. So I'm sure he will respond to that. But I know you had a part to Ms. Johnson or Mr. Foster. Yes, is there anything in the SRNR that speaks to disruptive clothing that is even political in nature? So, Ms. McLaughlin, I'm going to weigh in here. I do think that the language that's in the total paragraph, and you take it in the totality, would support what you're saying. And I appreciate what you're saying, because it does talk about, you know, as we see here, anything that does interfere or disrupts the educational environment is unacceptable. So that's already in the paragraph. I will say, and the principals can probably weigh in

210here, that I think that that covers the majority of what they may encounter in the schools. Thank you very much, Ms. Johnson. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Yes, I'm wondering if... Since we have stripped out the reference to our nondiscriminatory policy at the end, because there is this reliance of the word discriminatory at the top, if we could at least cite the policy number for our nondiscrimination policy. And the only reason I say this is because I am concerned that we have racist and culturally divisive added to it. But if it is anti-LGBTQ or if it's anti-religious group, is that word culturally broad enough to make sure that we are able to address those concerns? So what I'm, you know... I was glad Nathan mentioned the South County incident that happened right as I came on the board,

211and it wasn't just that one incident, but there have been subsequent incidences in other schools which are not the Confederate flag or a swastika, but are equally offensive and hurtful to other groups, including our LGBTQ. And so that is my only concern here, that we provide some sort of reference back so that people know that if you're wearing something that is blatantly against our inclusive policy, that it's not accepted. Ms. Barbara Sanders, may I ask a question regarding the word discriminatory that is right before the racist and culturally divisive? Do you find that that supports your point in any way? Or it's insufficient? It's insufficient because of, you know, what's the discriminatory. So that's why I think that pointing to the values we have in our nondiscrimination policy, if you don't want to actually say

212inconsistent with our nondiscriminatory policy, you know, just having per and put the policy number. Thank you very much, Ms. Garbutt-Sanas. Ms. Omish? Folks, if you've already spoken to this issue, I will ask for you to lower your hands. We will not have any additional go-backs on this matter. Ms. Omish? Yeah, thank you. A couple of big picture thoughts, and then I'll go into some more detail. And this is not a go-back for me. I'm struggling with whether some of these elements should be restorative justice pieces versus prohibition. I'm trying to balance where that sits in my mind. I don't know if that's worth any thought in our conversation. The second thing is, this is specifically regarding clothing and what it allows principals to do, right? So the point of this is for principals to have

213the leeway, the room to tell children not to wear a certain thing, right? I mean, they're not going to go tell a kid to wear something, and it's not governing much more than just that. I think we have to just keep that in mind in our conversations because the whole point is to give them that policy to fall back on. So when I ask myself, all right, how would something like a MAGA hat apply? Okay, I guess hats are not allowed. So let's say a shirt, right? I'm not sure where this would fit based on what we're doing and based on the language I'm seeing or the friendly amendments that are put forward. Or let's say a kid wears a pride flag. and they're fully entitled to do that, and that's an expression of their

214identity, but then that causes a disruption. Does that become something that can be eliminated? I mean, I don't know. I'm worrying about the flip side of some of this. So I almost want to... end up at a common denominator here. I'm looking at Ms. Cohen's original motion and it seems more straightforward. I like the non-discrimination policy piece because it refers to the intention and the intention matters in how this ultimately is implemented. So I wonder if we've overcomplicated this to our own detriment. And I think I support the original language. But I just asked my colleagues to consider some of the points I was raising because I don't know that we have a solution based on what's before us right now. So maybe it's worth a follow-on motion. I don't know. I don't want to

215take away what's important to put this in here, but I worry about the unintended consequences of what we're doing in a bit of a rushed way here. Thank you very much. Mr. Bastikis, I'm so sorry. Bastikis? That's okay. Bastikis, yeah. I just wanted to comment on the question that was asked before, just how do principals handle it? We usually rely on Regulation 2612 on freedom of expression, and just wanted to comment on that. It's where we do look at the interference of others with the way people, you know, are. are able to exhibit their freedom of expression. And we look in terms of does it incite any kind of violence or is it provocative? Will the wearing of such clothing lead to the disruption of school activities or endanger the health and safety of other

216students? So that's just sort of the regulation that we rely on, I don't want to say often, but quite often whenever this stuff comes up, Regulation 2612. I don't know if that helps at all. I'm still sort of getting the feel new to the school board sessions and I'm not sure exactly how they relate and maybe they're need to clarify, but I don't want to belabor the point either. Thank you so much. And now we have Ms. Cohen. Certainly never intended trying to make sure kids weren't wearing Confederate flags in our buildings to wind up hijacking an hour of our school board meetings. My apologies to my colleagues certainly for that. I would say to Ms. Omasha's point that I just want to be mindful of any violation of the SRNR leads to that really

217beautiful box that DSS has done that shows what level of consequence can come with it. So the level of consequence could simply be a principal asking a child to turn their shirt around. If it's a repeated infraction, it could be that there's something that's written up. um there could be restorative justice there could be a cultural sensitivity training the the beauty of the new way that the srnr is structured is there's an awful lot of if this then this so to speak to your concerns miss omesh um i i feel very comfortable that this fits nestled in with our non-discriminatory policy which over is overarching of everything that we do here um but also speaks carefully um to our principal's ability to understand what things are intentional and not intentional and the different nuances of

218how you handle that since they know their students a whole lot better than we do. So I just, I wanted to speak to that and be sure that we addressed it. And again, the intention here is that these things it is important to name these things it's important to give our principals cover to be able to make these decisions not in a vacuum but with great specificity about what things are welcome in our buildings and what things are not acceptable so that you know, as is, I would certainly support it. Again, I leave it to Dr. Anderson and Ms. Sizemore-Heiser about how they want to phrase their friendly amendment, but I'd be willing to accept it as is. Thank you very much. Dr. Brabrand? Yes, listen, I know we have a lot more to do

219tonight as a board, and I would just simply say I support the language that's put up here. Narrower is better. Something Ms. Omesh said, political speech is protected speech by the U.S. Constitution. Tinker v. Des Moines was black armbands and political speech. Even the word unlawful use of weapons came as a result of us trying to enforce the dress code, and I believe there was a court case, Mr. Foster, around violating a student's Second Amendment right in Virginia. Confederate flags, swastikas, and KK references have had clear disruptive effects in schools across the country. The Fourth Circuit has used those to say that schools can ban them and be explicit. I think being specific to those three is good, and I think broader is going to cause, as we watch now, a set of unintended consequences.

220So I support the language that you have in here, and it will be helpful. to principals for these three areas to be absolutely clear to kids what is not acceptable to bring to school so i i'm supportive of the language as presented in this amendment as it stands Thank you very much, Dr. Brabrand. I also am supportive of this language as it stands currently, and I believe that Ms. Seismol-Heiser is as well. Yes, I am. Ms. Cohen is receptive of the amendment to her amendment. So given that, I will now read the motion that will be up for vote to the school board. I move to amend the main motion by revising page six, section C, as follows. clothing with language or images that are vulgar, discriminatory, racist, slash culturally divisive or obscene, or clothing

221that promotes illegal or violent conduct such as gang symbols, confederate flags, swastikas, and KKK references, the unlawful use of weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, or drug paraphernalia, or clothing that contains threats is prohibited. See Chapter 2A. that a.2b7 for additional information regarding gang related clothing okay um do we have i'm sorry all in favor of this motion at this point dr rayburn if you would lower your hand please we have miss corbett sanders miss heiser seismor heiser miss marin mr frisch miss mclaughlin miss omage miss tolan miss cohen miss pokarski mr narcofax Ms. Kees-Gamara and Dr. Anderson. That is unanimous. Thank you. Dr. Anderson, just a point of order. Just a point of order. Did we need to vote to first accept your friendly amendment, or is it sufficient to just incorporate it without a vote?

222I thought your acceptance of it was sufficient, unless I'm mistaken. Mr. Frisch? The friendly amendment is no different than a normal amendment. So we just voted on the amendment was my understanding. And now we have to vote on the full motion. Yeah, when the motion is made and seconded, it belongs to the body. It's not Ms. Cohen's amendment. And then when you suggested a change, that's an alternate amendment. What you just voted on was to accept. the second amendment. Now you have to vote on the original one. Okay, so because we're... So the original one, we're looking for that to then, I guess, fail. Okay. No. No. You're voting on it as amended. We voted on this one as amended. No, you voted on your friendly amendment. You voted on taking out the final sentence.

223Now you can vote on it as amended. Got it. Okay. Let's clear your hands, lower your hands. We will now vote on this amendment as amended. And I will read it all again. I move to amend the main motion by revising page six, section six, as follows. Clothing with language or images that are vulgar, discriminatory, racist, culturally divisive, or obscene, or clothing that promotes legal or violent conduct, such as gang symbols, Confederate flags, swastikas, KDK references. the unlawful use of weapons drugs alcohol tobacco or drug paraphernalia or clothing that contains threats is prohibited see chapter 2 a 2 b 7 for additional information regarding gang related clothing all those who are in favor of this um amendment please raise your hand miss mclaughlin mr frisch miss smaron miss cohen miss seismohiser miss dana kofax miss

224corbett standards missile mesh Ms. Tolan, Ms. Kies-Gamara, Ms. Pekarsky, and Dr. Anderson. That is unanimous. Now we have completed number two. Thank you all. Now I now call on Ms. Kies-Gamara for an amendment. Thank you. My video up. To amend the main motion by deleting the word school resource officers are active members of their assigned school communities on page 41, section 4. as deleted on the screen. Is there a second? We have Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Kees-Demark. Yes, I'd love to speak to this. There are several reasons why I wanted to bring this forth. We have all witnessed in the last several months really a clash of cultures. And I've had several conversations with young people, including my sons, about how people feel about the police. This is not a negative statement about them so much

225as a recognition that we probably shouldn't assume that everybody has the same view. I cannot... I don't believe there's another place in the SRNR where we single out a group to say bus drivers, IAs, et cetera, are an integral part of our community. But they are. And so I had to kind of ask myself, why are we singling out SROs in this particular matter? I also want to emphasize that this is not a removal of SROs from our schools. This is simply an acknowledgement that not everybody may feel the same way. And I want us to be sensitive to how our students could be feeling. I've certainly read a number of reports of young people who are become very afraid in an encounter with the police. So I want to make sure that this is

226simply a removal of a sentence that we have not treated other groups similarly. And it also allows us to go forward and have discussions regarding our MOU later. That is a different discussion. But with respect to this particular language, I do not understand why it is necessary to include it in our R&R. Thank you very much, Ms. Kies-Gamara. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, I would. I'm very happy to second this motion from Ms. Kees-Kamara and I really appreciate how she captured this. My brother-in-law is a university professor and international scholar on policing and he has taught me much about how when we have strong, effective policing, it is an integral part of our community and culture. don't want this amendment to be misconstrued as something different. And I do

227agree with Ms. Kieskemeyer wholeheartedly that the question is simply this. We also are fortunate that the Board of Supervisors fund our public health nurses and place them in our schools. And they are absolutely active members of the assigned schools of which they are at. And in fact, many know that I have advocated for years that it's concerning to me that we have so much public funding for police officers in our schools, but not nurses in our schools. And so we're at a real critical juncture as a society faced with a pandemic to really talk about where we also invest in our school communities, and that includes our school nurses. So I guess... I would welcome hearing from our other colleagues. I do want to first express my appreciation to the high school principal association, the

228middle school high school principal associations for their letters to the board that we just received during today's meeting. And I did read it and both letters appreciate the eloquence and your concerns. I want to reassure you and the community that this board will certainly be very thoughtful as we continue to review our memorandum of understanding the importance and value and purpose of when and if we have officers in our schools and in what capacity but i do not understand why we delineate that particular position in our schools um i i think principals can certainly communicate this out to their families it doesn't need to be in the sr and r and without brick calling out any other posit positions including our school nurses i don't understand why it's here so i hope our colleagues will

229support this removal and i hope our principals and others who know the value of sros are not going to construe it in any other negative way thank you thank you very much miss mclaughlin um at this time we will invite miss um CORBETT SANDERS TO SPEAK. YES, I JUST WANTED YOU TO KNOW THAT I FULLY SUPPORT THIS. I THINK THE WAY THAT MS. KEYS-GAMARA FRAMED IT AND THE WAY THAT MS. MCLACHLAN SECONDED IT, WHICH IS THAT WE HAVE SO MANY VALUED EMPLOYEES IN OUR, NOT ONLY EMPLOYEES, BUT PEOPLE IN AND OUT OF OUR BUILDING. people that come in and out of our buildings that are valued members of our community and so this is just to make it consistent with how we treat every other valued member of our community and not holding one group

230out over another thank you very much Ms. Corbett-Sanders Ms. Pokarski Thank you. I don't disagree with many of the sentiments already said, but I would like to ask staff to answer that question as to why is this here and what is the intention behind it? If somebody could comment on that. Ms. Johnson? Ms. Piekarski, it's been in the SRNR quite some time, so I can't explain or I don't know why it was in there in the first place. Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Toland? I think Dr. Brabrand may want to speak to it. Just briefly, the agreement with SROs probably came in over 20 years ago. They were not employees of the school system. And so that sentence, that language was to share intent that they would be an impart and inclusive

231part of the school community. I understand times change, language changes, and board members may want to do this. I would share, and many of you have referenced principals, have shared with you their feelings about the role that SROs have as valued members of their community. So whatever decision this board makes, It is very important to be clear about what you're wanting to signal or not signal about the presence of SROs in our schools. This is just about a sentence whether to mention or reference them, but I think it'll be very important for the board to consider. what your messaging in deciding to keep it or eliminate it. And I just had that for you to reflect on as you're making your comments and deciding your vote, the context of it, about naming one group versus

232another. I can see that. But in our current times, I would be less than transparent with you if I didn't say that maybe many of our SROs and perhaps some others would interpret that as something different. So very clear clarity on what it means and doesn't mean for this amendment, I think will be important for how it is perceived by those SROs in our schools and those who work with them. Thank you. Thank you very much. Ms. Tolan. I'm so sorry, Ms. McCarskey, were you complete in your statement? For right now, yes. Ms. Tolan? Given what Dr. Brabrand was just talking about, I think it might be worthwhile to hear from the principals that are in attendance as to... I completely understand the whole idea of just one sentence to take out and we don't

233have it for other people. And reading it, that paragraph does go on to really explain the role of the SRO, which I know is then a discussion that we will be having in a work session later in September. That's not the purpose of our discussion here today. But I would like to give our principals an opportunity maybe to speak to how they feel about this. Thank you very much, Ms. Tolan. I believe we have Ms. Conley who would like to speak to this matter. Good evening. Thank you very much for giving us the opportunity to speak with you today about this. I did ask my colleagues to share their thoughts of this potentially being removed from the statement, being removed from the SRNR, and just kind of shared just a few of the comments about

234overwhelmingly our principals shared that our SROs really are a beloved part of our community in our school. and most of the stories and the information we shared talks more about the relationships that are being built with our students and our staff and our families and the ways in which the SROs do step in not in the law enforcement side but on a supportive side on helping students find ways to navigate emotions, calm down. My own SRO, I have seen him take students around the building on walks to just find ways to redirect and that way they're more available for learning later. I think it would be hard for us to say by having that removed, I think it would take away some of the... for lack of a better description, pride of our school resource

235officers being a part of our community and being problem solvers, making the connections with kids. And so I just don't want to negate that part because I personally have worked with my SRO for over 12 years, and I just, I could not imagine him not being considered as a part of our Irving family. I know we're going to continue to talk about their role of the SRO, and we do have some ideas that I think would help in some of the discussion that was previously mentioned. But I think it would be difficult for us to remove that line because they are such an integral role of our community, and they aren't necessarily assigned by FCPS. Thank you very much, Ms. Conley. I think we have another principal who would like to speak. Mr. Elliott. Hello,

236this is Tangi Millard. I'm the principal. You are fine. It's not a problem. Let me share my video. I'm the principal at West Potomac and I really appreciate Ms. Kees-Gomar's explanation and framing of the reasoning behind it because what Dr. Brabrand said was really important because it signaled to many of us something a little different. And it did signal that we were saying that our SROs are no longer integral parts of our community when in fact they are. And I know this is not the time nor the place to get into all the details about how they are, examples of how they are, but we were concerned that removing that language had something to do with signaling that we don't feel SROs are integral parts of our community and affect our students. in extremely positive

237ways and support administration around making sure that students are valued within the school. So I'll leave it there unless you would like for further information about or examples about how they are integral. But I do understand Ms. Kees-Gomara's framing and it is different than what I thought. But that signaling that Dr. Brabrand spoke of is extremely important as a result. Thank you very much. Ms. Millard, we have Mr. Copeland. Good evening and thank you. I am not married to the phrase, but I do want to state this. I think that there is a, I don't want to, I don't think any of us want to appear to be deaf to the fact that, you know, we're going through a very significant time right now in our society, particularly for our young adults and their interactions

238with school resource officers or any officer. I was involved in the writing of the document that HSPA did. And for me, It speaks volumes that, you know, we need to have these opportunities along with whatever police reforms we do as a society, that we provide opportunities for our students to have some positive interactions. I can't tell you that my SRO who came to me from a middle school came with a first name recognition, and he has been able to sustain that. And I'm not able to speak to what others have done, but I can tell you that they are parts of our staff. They are, in some schools, considered part of the administrative team. And it's important that not just our kids know this, but that our parents know this, because there's a lot of

239work that goes on with the SROs in schools that don't quite make it to, they may be involved with law enforcement outside of school, but in terms of what that SRO does, that's something in-house for them that is really helpful. to not just the larger community but to the smaller school community and again we're not involved in that anyway it's totally separate so again not married to the phrase but i don't want to appear tone deaf in this to say hey i'm i don't really care what kids say or i don't respect what they may be going through because i will attest that is real there is fear but i do also want to say that they're really part an important part of our staff thank you thank you very much and i do apologize

240dr copeland Ms. Tolan, I know you invited the principals to share. Did you have any additional questions? So the only question that I had, and I guess this would be for Keys Gamara, is, you know, would you be more comfortable with something like school resource officers support our school administrators? And then in SRO's primary role in schools, it says a law enforcement officer. Did you want me to answer that? Please, Ms. Gavarra, go ahead. Actually, no, I'm not. I think we can, I don't want this to be a repeat of the last 30-minute conversation. I really, I think the best way is to treat them the way that we treat other folks that come into our schools. I don't think nurses are FCPS employees. I was going to wait until everybody else commented before I

241gave my additional comments, but I think the short answer is I would prefer, yes, no, I would not be comfortable with that. All right, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Dan Rocklefax? Thank you. Ms. Tolan asked the principals what I was going to ask them. And I guess, but maybe I might go a little bit further because hearing from them, while they're three people, three little bit different opinions, but they did say, they all did say that they consider them members of their staff and their community. So, I guess what I would ask them, and we keep using the nurses as part of it, but I think the nurses serve a different role. This is the students' rights and responsibilities document. Nurses don't fall kind of into that category. So I guess I'm just kind of

242thinking out loud here. I guess I'll ask the principals this. If we amended the language as is defined here, do you think, would that send a negative signal or a neutral signal? Or would it be, I guess, how would that make you feel? I guess I don't feel that question was answered. I feel like you touched on it, but. I guess what this document is designed to do is help principals in the school make decisions. And when you're dealing with an issue with children and things, does this language help you in any way? Or if it's gone, does it not? I guess that's my question. Sorry, it took a while to get there. Thank you very much, Ms. Denirak-Kofax. In light of time, I'm going to ask that only three of our principals speak to

243this issue, because we do have a lot more to handle this evening. I will start with Mr. Litz, Mr. Herring, and... I think those are the two hands that are up from our principals. So we'll have two principal responses to your question, Mr. Denirak Kofatz. Mr. Litz, please go ahead. Thank you. I guess I think of the SR&R document obviously as something that not only administrators use, but it's also something that goes home to all of our families. I think it's important that we keep that in there, in my opinion, because it signals to our community that our SROs are a valuable part of our community and, in my case, a valuable part of our administrative team. They're special Olympics coaches. They do other things in the building. And I think that it would have,

244to be honest, a negative impact on our SROs and perhaps even extending to members, other members of our school community if that were to be removed. Thank you very much, Mr. Litz. Mr. Herring? Yes, thank you. I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Litz. I think at this time and given some of the things that are happening in the world, it would send a signal not only to our community and our parents and our students, but I think I'd get questions from my staff. My admin team is debriefed on the updates to SR&R every year. in August before school begins. And I think they would say, well, wow, why are we removing this? Has something changed? So I do think it's a signal. I think the wording might be adjusted, but I think it will have an

245impact. Thank you very much, Mr. Herring. We will now return to the school board member comments. And we have two members that have not spoken yet, Ms. Omish and then Ms. Cohen. Yeah, thank you. And just hearing the principals right now might shift a little bit of my thinking, but I wanted to just say, I mean, I'll start by saying my own SRO growing up at Frost, I still remember her, was a positive impact on me in middle school. Of course, my reality was very different when I got older, and I recognize now there's much more awareness as to the problems. I recognize some of the caution folks have been using and the arguments they've put out, but I'd like to just kind of name it as it is too. To me, this is one

246of those moments where the John Lewis stuff we said earlier comes to light. We've seen the national data, we've seen the academic literature, which consistently suggests that one of the biggest impacts they have is disparity, right, and discipline. I'm not saying that's what we have locally, and that's why this is something we want to talk about, and that's the broader SRO conversation. My concern that remains, though, is whether it's the mental impact, the sense of safety for certain families in our community. We have not only minorities who may have interfaced differently with the cops, and honestly, it's unfortunate. It's just the reality we exist in, that this is just a fact at this point. uh that you know certain kids have an understanding of what these people are some kids are raised and told that

247you know they're who you go to to seek safety and others are told this is how you avoid them or this is how you deal so you don't you know confront a dangerous situation when you interact with them and it's it's still you know no doubt that that officers want to be a source of safety and a lot of them go into this profession, especially our SROs, to be positive influences. It's not taking away from that, but it's a recognition of the perception on the ground and whether that matches up with reality or not is something I'm sure the school board is going to explore. I think when we say an active role and when we include this, aside from, let's say, social workers or administrators, APs, right, in a statement, it is an endorsement

248ultimately. there are other professionals you know that that can play certain roles in these discipline situations that we're not outlining and that we're not including i certainly want to make sure our families are aware that they may end up being a part of the process uh and so you know i believe they're mentioned um elsewhere but to say that they're an active piece i think now that this is even being debated it is an important message to send that we hear you community and we understand that there are different experiences and how people interact with our leadership um And we're going to look at the data to ultimately make our decisions, but we have to be on the right side of, I think, what is in the interest of our families. And when we have

249parents who are afraid to go to school buildings because they know there's an officer, because they're undocumented, or minorities who have traumatic experiences, or even just with the social understanding of what these figures represent, whether or not that's attached to reality. I'd rather err on the side of students and families on this one, but respecting, of course, everything that principals shared and understanding that their role on the administrative team, there's no doubt that they play some function that way. Thank you very much, Ms. Omesh. Ms. Mulwain? Yes, I'd just like to say that I think that conversation is particularly why it's important to have this language. If we as a school board are going to work together, and I understand there's going to be conversations in the fall about what's the role of the SROs

250in our building, I'm happy for us to have those conversations. But right now, this line is in the context of a broader paragraph, which says school resource officers, SROs, are active members of their assigned school communities. An SRO's primary role in schools is as a law enforcement officers. SROs shall not become involved in routine school matters such as administrative actions or actions not directly related to the safety of the students and the staff. And it goes on from there. And so I think to Ms. Omisha's point, I think it is really important for us to explain to all of our communities. the context of who that person who they see in a police uniform is in their school. It is not because the police have been called to the school. It's not because there's an

251emergency inside the school. It's because right now, as a school system, we have placed these folks in our schools in this broader context. So in my opinion, until we are ready to come together as a board as a community to have the conversations about whether or not we we think that sros should still be in our schools or if they are if they serve different functions that's a conversation for another day Today, I think that this is important to give all of our families a context within the student rights and responsibilities document of why, when they walk in a school, why a police officer might be there. So I will not be voting in favor of this amendment. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. We will have some go-backs, but I do see that Ms. Seismohiser has

252not spoken yet, so we will go to her first. Ms. Seismohiser? Thank you. And I know I spoke a lot in the last one, so I will try to be brief on this one. I appreciate that. I just wanted to, to the point of, I apologize. The principal spoke last and I didn't catch your name and I'm so sorry about having to take this message back and it will have an effect. I have been speaking to some law enforcement officers. I was on the commission a few years ago that revised the MOU. So I'm very familiar with the MOU. I'm very familiar with the SRO program. And I think I would just like to emphasize Ms. Kees-Gamara's point that we don't, and I think Ms. McLaughlin spoke to, that we don't speak, we don't actively

253say this phrase. about our other school personnel. And I understand that perhaps when we first started the SRO program, it was an important thing to actively state to help our school leaders understand the role of SROs in their school communities. I don't know if that's necessary anymore to continue to say. And I do think that this national conversation that is long overdue. I do think our school leaders and our school staff and our SROs are not doing their job in a vacuum. They are also doing their job hopefully with cognizance, and I believe so because I think we have great staff, of what is going on in our country. And I think if it's explained in a way to say that we don't want to say something for SROs that we wouldn't say for any

254other staff. I think it would be understood in this context as to why we are doing this. And I also think that saying this to our students in a way that other things aren't said to our students also sends kind of a interesting message. I wouldn't even mind if it said something like SROs are active community builders. Something along the lines to show more of a community-focused role, I could see. But I feel like this... It doesn't need to be said and it can be interpreted as saying something that perhaps we don't mean. So just my two cents. Thank you very much, Ms. Seismohiser. Before we go to go-backs, I would like to have an opportunity to express my thinking around this. I think in this moment, I am very much in alignment with what

255Ms. Seismohiser has shared along with Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Keyes-Gamara. We are not identifying other employee groups specifically in our SRNR. And while this may have been a a statement that was needed at the onset of the SROs coming into our schools, we're in a different moment and we're certainly in a different climate where that very language may have, has, not may, has the unintended consequences that we are still dealing today with right now. So I will be in support of this motion. Folks, we will be having go backs, but I want to be clear, we're going to have one minute go backs. It is 8.15 and we have a lot more to go. So Ms. Malbert, we will time the go backs at one minute and then we'll have the last word by the

256maker of the motion, which is Ms. Keys-Gamara. Ms. Corbin-Sanders, go ahead. Yes, all I was going to say is that we have a very effective communications department and support to them, and I am very confident that if this motion passes, that we can make the communications very clear as to the purpose of this. Thank you very much. Ms. McLaughlin? Thank you. Ms. Corbin-Sanders captured a key sentiment I wanted in my go-back, which is everything is about how it is communicated, respectfully to some of the principal's concerns, taking out one sentence, but continuing to keep all the rest that is in there certainly does not signal that this board is removing SROs from the schools. My second point is the word active member. could actually be a negative because we've tried to reduce the roles so

257that they are not actively involved in anything that's not considered a criminal offense and allow discipline to be done by administrators. So I actually think the sentence is antiquated. And third, I guess I would just say that I really hope our principal associations will take my humble request that this amount of passion and support for SROs and the wealth of benefits they bring that you will consider adding school nurses to your advocacy in the future because without question our students need nurses as much as they need police officers in schools thank you thank you thank you miss mcloughlin we have miss pokarski Just very quickly, I want to thank the principals for their input. I will not be supporting this right now, and much for the same reasons that Ms. Cohen brought up, but I

258do want to have this conversation. I'm looking forward to this conversation. I just don't want to get ahead of ourselves before we have the robust conversation amongst the board. That is it. Thank you. Thank you. And the final word with Ms. Keys-Gamara. Thank you. I really do appreciate the conversation and I understand everyone's viewpoint, but one person, I'm sorry, I don't remember who said it, and he was arguing to keep the language. Others were sensitive to where we are in our community. He said, has something changed? And indeed it has. When this language was written, it was not clear how we were separating the role of the SRO and the administrator, which we did in our last revision in the MOU. Not only that, the views of, various views in our community, we are at

259a state of awareness right now that we simply didn't have when this language was added 20 years ago. This is called the SR&R, Students Rights and Responsibilities. I heard- Just go ahead and finish your sentence and we'll move to the vote, Ms. Guizgamara. Okay, I have two sentences I want to make. This is about students understanding their roles and what their rights and responsibilities are. There was a lot of reference about how other people would feel. I don't think that's what this is about. And this is also about consistency. And I've already made that argument. And I appreciate, the last thing I want to say is I brought this forward as a result of community concern expressed to me. And so while I, you know, I hear some folks saying we want to delay the

260conversation, I think that that is harmful right now. So I'll stop there. Thank you, Ms. Kies-Demara. At this point, I will be calling for the vote. The amendment before us is I move to amend the main motion by deleting the words school resource officers, SROs, are active members of their assigned school communities on page 41, section 4, as follows. Slashing out, school resource officers, SROs, are active members of their assigned school communities. All those in favor, please raise your hands at this point. We have Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. McLaughlin, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Marin, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. Bear with me. I have to pull my screen down a little bit. And Dr. Anderson. That is eight. Opposed? Ms. Cohen, Ms. Pekarski, Ms. Darinat-Kofax. Abstain? Ms. Toland. The motion passes. I now call on Ms.

261Corbett-Sanders for an amendment. Yes, bear with me. This is going to be quite a few rolling amendments. I apologize in advance the length of time. So my first amendment is to amend the SR&R by adding or by replacing on under Chapter 1, Item D on page 8, replacing the term social media with digital citizenship and adding the following. Students have the right to safe, trusting, and positive physical and virtual learning environments. In accordance with Appendix A of the SR&R, these rights include the right to be treated with respect in online learning environments, the right to express beliefs and opinions respectfully in online environments without being interrupted or punished. The right to access support and opportunities to use the provided technology tools and resources that support learning. The right to use technology to interact with other

262students, teachers, and class. content to support their learning in both the physical and virtual environment. Students may exercise these rights and privileges as long as they do so in a manner that does not interfere with the rights of others or the school's ability to provide a safe learning environment. Continuing on with what is in the current SR&R under Social media. FCPS expects students to be responsible members of society and to display good digital citizenship at all times. Students are able to respect the rights of others and to refrain from the use of profanity, hurtful or hateful messaging, and cyberbullying in accordance with FCPS's non-discrimination policy and the Code of Virginia 18.2 through 152. point seven through one students are not to reveal personal information last name home address phone number and of course funds with

263unknown parties students may utilize real-time messaging and online chats only online chat only with the approval within approved instructional apps or with the or with the permission of the teacher or principal. Students may not post information if it violates the privacy of others, jeopardizes the health and or safety of students, is obscene or libelous, causes disruption of school activities, plagiarizes the work of others, is a commercial advertisement, or is not approved by the principal. It is the responsibility of the student to use only his or her account or password it is a violation to share passwords or to otherwise give access to an account to any other user it continues on with a more detailed outline of specific rights and responsibilities for students using fcps electronic devices and the fcps network can be found in

264the current version of regulation 64 to 6410 appropriate use of fairfax county public schools network and internet resources thank you miss corbett sanders do we have a second Ms. Marin is seconding this motion. Ms. Puppet-Sanders, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, I will. So as we've spoken earlier tonight and as the public knows over the past couple of years we've made significant changes to the SR&R. Much of this was done last year after the discipline study was completed and I continue to work towards improving this regulation to best support our students by setting expectations focusing on positive behaviors in the online and in the in-person environment, as well as ensuring that we have parental rights and recognizing the new reality of being more explicit. And that is why we need to be

265more explicit in our digital citizenship. So in pulling together some of the resources that we have in disparate places across our system on digital citizenship, I pulled these together so that they're... are included in this year's students rights and responsibilities. I did this thinking that our students would be split between a virtual and a bricks and mortar environment, but knowing that as of September 8th they will all be operating virtually, this is more important than ever. Thank you very much. I just want to give a heads up to everyone. I do have some storms in our area. So if I get kicked off, I apologize. Things are really shaky here. Miss Merritt, would you like to speak to your second? Yeah, just briefly, I too had started being overly concerned or overtly concerned about this

266once we closed school. And even when I was serving on the governance committee, wondered, you know, what our digital citizenship regulations were here in the SRN and elsewhere. So I think it's really critical that we have this more fleshed out as Ms. Corbett-Sieners has proposed. Thank you very much. We do have some school board members who would like to speak to this issue. We will begin with Ms. McLaughlin. Sorry, it's all about getting the camera and the volume back on. I just want to thank Ms. Corbett-Sanders and Ms. Marin for your proposal on this. As a long-serving board member, digital citizenship is something that many of us have talked about for years, so much that is needed to help. students and families really understand all the things that come with technology and it very much

267affects the social emotional student relationships and overall behavior so anything more that we can be comprehensive in educating the whole child and being more explicit in our commitment and helping them understand their roles and responsibilities very much supportive of this language thank you Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Omage? Yeah, no, of course supportive. I did want to just ask a question to Dr. Brebrand maybe. If there were plans to have any guidance or something as we move into virtual or continue, I guess, in virtual that were meant to be robust, because I see this as our step to do this, but I wonder if that was either in the works or... you know, if there are plans otherwise, just so that it's not moot and that we're not overlooking anything. But thank you to Ms.

268Corbett-Sanders for catching this. Dr. Brabrand, would you like to respond? Dr. Brabrand, are you still with us? Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. I stepped away when you said storm. I honestly went to the window to see how bad it was in full transparency. I'm so sorry. No problem. The question that was posed to you was from Ms. Omej regarding whether or not there were robust work in place as we are continuing into virtual learning to address digital citizenship for our students. Absolutely. You know, I know Dr. Presidio is not with us today. He is away. Actually, Noel Klamenko is here, though. And Noel, do you want to talk a little bit about all the work we've done to really beef up digital citizenship and to have that in play for our return to school in the

269fall? Absolutely. Thank you. And good evening, everyone. Digital citizenship has been something we've been working on for several years very closely with the school board. And we recognize how it's incredibly important for our students during all times, but especially moving forward into the fall, we know that this is going to be an opportunity really for authenticity in the digital citizenship instruction that we do. So we already have many lessons that are are kind of aligned to our grade levels and ready to go. And we see those being incorporated into a lot of the social emotional learning work and the different time periods, whether it be advisories or morning meetings that we're building into the virtual schedule. So we recognize that this will be a time for explicit instruction as well as a time for kind

270of in the moment authentic instruction. Thank you very much. Ms. Omage, did you have any other inquiries? Yeah, thanks. I mean, I think that I was addressing more specifically the digital safety piece in whether or not we were offering any more guidance than this, but I guess this could operate as the guidance. To me, I'm just questioning, you know, it came from Ms. Corbett Sanders in the amendment. Similar to the mask policy, I know that as things change with COVID, we've considered developing certain guidance for principals as to how to handle certain things. I imagine this amendment isn't gonna cover everything and there's probably some conversation with principals that needs to happen and all of that regarding what online discipline, if any, will look like. So that's really the reasoning for my question, which I

271don't feel is entirely answered yet. But yeah, I mean, if anyone wants to comment further. Again, I thank Ms. Corbett-Sanders and Ms. Merrin for bringing it up because otherwise it's an oversight. I think we have Ms. Williams. Are you going to be speaking to Ms. Omeche's question? Yes, if I may. Thank you. Appendix A, which we do include in the SR&R, is the acceptable use policy. So there is additional guidance and expectations for the students in that particular part of the appendix that we include. And we've also adapted our investigation processes and given, put forth a guidance document for administrators to help them with how they are adapting their investigations and support for students in the virtual setting. But the SRNR still applies in the same way, but we've just had to tweak. how we

272are supporting our principals and how they're handling individual situations. And some of them have been on a case-by-case basis as we adapt to our new setting. Thank you very much, Ms. Williams. Ms. Omage? Yeah, that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Tolan? I just had a question. I really like this amendment and I think it's super important especially given all that you know are moving to more virtual learning. The question that I have though and maybe this kind of goes with what and Soyuz was talking about is of course we want our students to be digital citizens you know 24 7 right but as FCPSSR like do we you know, what are we responsible for? What are administrators responsible for? I can think of a number of situations where, you know, people have been contacted

273at the school when students have used social media inappropriately on the weekend or, you know, during the summer, you know, outside of school activities. So, and I might invite, if there's a principal that wants to speak to this. Should we make this a little bit more specific that we're really talking about digital citizenship in the school environment or as related to school activities? Or is that outlined in more detail somewhere else? Thank you very much for that question, Ms. Toland. Ms. Nodal has raised her hand to respond. Please go ahead. So, I mean, I can speak to, we've received concerns from our community and I know of other principals who've also received concerns from the community because a student will say something that's vulgar or there'll be concerns about a student in the community or

274they're saying something that's just raising eyebrows or something and they want help. And, you know, we, it's complicated because it's not something that's happening at school. or the only connection is that that student attends our school. So typically what we'll do, I mean, we try to intervene the best that we can, reach out to the parents or something like that. But with this language, I wonder if it just would be helpful to put something in there to specify that this is about attending classes or something school related so that there's a clear nexus to the work that we're doing. Thank you very much, Ms. Notto. Ms. Tolan? So I guess given that, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, I took very briefly before the meeting about the possibility of, I don't know if you want to put something in

275the title that just maybe says digital citizenship for school-related activities. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, unless you have another idea. So, Ms. Tolan, I see that Mr. Herring, who is the middle school principal, is actually the head of the MSPA. Maybe, Dr. Anderson, would it be possible for him to be called upon? Absolutely. Mr. Herring, please go ahead. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. I really like this amendment, and I think that it speaks to the shift that we've had in how we're using digital tools. Most of my experience around the SRNR in the last several years has been around how students are misusing social media and how that impacts this instructional day. But suddenly with this shift, it has been a big... shift in that they're using actual instructional time, instructional tools to disrupt the instructional environment. So this

276sets that expectation that students need to remember that it is part of their responsibility to be. digital citizens, not just in social media on the weekends, but also during school hours and how to use it appropriately. I think highlighting this as Ms. Noto said in some way could even elevate it more to what's going on. I really wholeheartedly endorse this, and I know that my colleagues, when we polled them about this amendment, also thought this was really timely and a great amendment. Thank you very much, Mr. Herring. I also see Ms. Johnson's hand up. She may be speaking in response to your question. Ms. Toland, Ms. Johnson, please go ahead. Yes. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I just want to comment on one thing related to what our responsibilities are within the school and then within

277the school community. And I think Mr. Foster could weigh in here. I do believe that if it's a digital issue related to a Title IX violation, that we still have the responsibility to follow up on that, whether that's through the SRNR or not. So I'm a little bit hesitant to... identify that this would only be, well, the majority of what we deal with is within the school setting. I do have some concerns about the language use. So maybe Mr. Foster can follow up and let me know if I'm correct in that. Thank you very much. Mr. Foster, would you like to confirm? Yes, I can't confirm what Ms. Johnson had outlined. There does need to be a nexus to the school environment, and that particularly comes into play with Title IX issues. And so I

278do worry about the added language that's been discussed. Thank you very much. Ms. Toland, were you complete in your inquiries? So I guess what I'm gathering then is that we would stick with what we have here and you know there is a phrase down below where it says you know that this is an issue causing substantial disruption of school activities so perhaps we're covered and it sounds like we don't want to add additional language from a legal perspective if I'm understanding. Foster will you confirm that? Yes, I think as Ms. Tolan said, I think we're covered under the current amendment language that does protect us. Great. Thank you very much, everyone. And now we, I believe we have go-backs. This will be a one-minute go-back for anybody who wants to speak. Ms. Marin? Oh, apologies.

279That was up from earlier. Okay. Seeing that there are no other speakers, I will move us to the vote. The motion before us is on the screen. I will save us the labor of me rereading it. Ms. Corbett-Sanders did a great job of that. At this point, I will ask for you all to raise your hands in favor. We have Ms. Tolan, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Marin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omish, Ms. McCarsky, Ms. Ismael-Heiser, Ms. McLaughlin, and excuse me. My screen here is loading. Ms. Derenach-Kofax and Dr. Anderson. That is unanimous. Thank you very much. Motion passes. Now I call on Ms. Sanders for another amendment. Ms. Sanders, Ms. Corbin-Sanders, I'm sorry. It's not a problem. I go by all sorts of names. My mother used to go through all six of

280us before she got to the right one. I appreciate it. Thank you. I move to amend the main motion by revising Chapter 2, Item A on page 28 in the third paragraph to insert the words of violence towards others after the phrase when a student makes a threat of. Thank you very much. Is there a second? Ms. Corbett-Sand, I'm sorry, Ms. Kies-Namara is going to second this motion. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you very much, Dr. Anderson. This motion is really just clarifying language to make the SR&R consistent with the state code of when a threat assessment is done, and it just clarifies that it's when it's a threat of violence towards others. Thank you very much. Ms. Keyes-Gamara, would you like to speak to your second? No,

281I think Ms. Corbett-Sanders did a good job. Would any other school board members like to speak to this motion? Ms. Denorack-Kofax? No, sorry. Forgot to take my hand down. All righty. Seeing that there are no speakers to this motion, I will now place it to the vote. The amendment before us is, I move to amend the main motion by revising Chapter 2, Item A, page 28, third paragraph to insert the words of violence towards others right after when a student makes a threat of. All those in favor? Ms. Corbett Sanders, Ms. Kees Gamara, Mr. Frisch, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Marin, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Omeish, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Danak-Kofax, Ms. Pekarsky, and Dr. Anderson. It is unanimous. The motion passes. Now I call on Ms. Corbett Sanders for an amendment. Yes, thank you. I move

282to amend the main motion by deleting the proposed item B2 on page 40. That deletion reads, discretionary report. In addition, a principal may, in his or her discretion, report to the police department any misdemeanor involving any of the above and or B, any assault or assault on battery without bodily injury and or C, the arrest of any student for an incident occurring on a school bus, on school property or at... a school sponsored activity including the charge therefore any student who commits a reportable violation whether mandatory or in or discretionary shall be required to participate in such prevention and intervention activities as may prescribed by school officials in addition to any disciplinary action that may be taken thank you is there a second miss keys gamara miss corbett sanders would you like to speak to

283your amendment Yes, thank you very much. This amendment is a deletion of new language which was put into the SR&R as a result of a change in state legislation. And in looking at the SR&R language compared to the state to the state changes in the state code, there's some inconsistencies. And so in speaking with Mr. Foster and with Ms. Johnson, we agreed that deleting this would be appropriate and instead making a minor amendment to the earlier language in. paragraph b1 and so this is a very important uh piece to come out of the srnr because as written i have great great concern that it would lead to disproportionality in how it would be enforced and it would also just feed the school to prison pipeline so i am very happy and to offer this amendment

284and ask all of my colleagues to support it. Thank you very much, Ms. Corbin-Sanders. Ms. Gilles-Guevara, would you like to speak to your second? Just briefly, Ms. Corbin-Sanders always does such a great job, but I just want to point out that we are seeing a trend here, and that is to remove... subjective language that can lead to disparities. It is extremely important. And I know that a number of our board members have been concerned previously when we get to hear appeals and things of that nature. And so I just appreciate Ms. Corbett-Sanders in taking the time to go through this with a fine tooth comb. uh so that we can assure our parents and our students that we are keeping in a watchful eye over this and we want to do everything we can to

285remove unnecessary uh subjectivity so thank you thank you very much would any other school members like to speak to this motion i see miss mclaughlin please go ahead Yes, briefly, again, as someone who's been a champion of the SRNR discipline reform, who has attended the state's conference on classrooms, courtrooms, and how do we... bring discipline back to helping students learn better behaviors accountability does matter i want our principals to feel that they have the tools they need to keep a safe school environment i do not see what's compelling in keeping this discretionary reporting and very much appreciate both ms kisamara and miss corbett sanders in their words of support for this amendment Thank you very much. Ms. Mary. Thank you. Yeah, I think the crux of my comment is going to go to that. You

286know, we as a school board, as Ms. Kiskomar said, need to keep a very watchful eye on how these things impact us in Fairfax. And we are a unique division in the state. And I think that our relations, our legislative relations and advocacy has to be really tight because You know, this was something that I heard described at the state level as something that really wouldn't impact Fairfax very much. It was more to allow other areas of the state to have some kind of flexibility. But as Ms. Keis-Kamara said, this subjectivity can be, you know, to an end that isn't, you know, the best for our students. I had actually remembered when we had our joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors pre-COVID. So I guess it was February, maybe. and heard the end of

287General Assembly legislative update. And I asked specifically about this because I said, this does not sound like something that we would like. And that's when I was told that, no, no, it's really, you know, it's more for states. So, you know, I think it's important to make these changes. I think, well, and to that end, I will be introducing a follow-on motion later on to amend our legislative agenda to include. actively advocating for this in the upcoming august general assembly session and if we don't get it then then continuing on into the fall but it just underscores how we really need our state elected officials to be with us here on this and i'd rather work with them on things and have to go back and advocate for things to be changed on it so

288i do support this motion and i hope that i'll get support for my follow-on motion for the legislative changes thank you thank you very much miss marin mr frisch Thank you. I think removing this language from the R&R will continue moving our school division towards increased equity, especially as we seek to address discipline disparities. We've, you know, as a school division, spent significant time trying to very closely confine and refine the involvement of law enforcement with our students in our schools. And my dog is loving what I'm saying. And now is not the time to introduce additional ambiguity on the subject, especially as we begin to consider these conversations we will be having in the future. And so to me, this issue is very clear. We should not be encouraging administrators to involve law enforcement

289in student discipline matters. So I'll be voting in favor of this amendment. And I appreciate Corbett Sanders and Karen Kiskamara for bringing this motion and seconding it. this amendment in second year thank you very much miss eisman heiser Thank you. I won't take a long time, which is always my famous last words. But I wanted to say that I just wanted to sort of harken back to our discussion, it feels like seven hours ago, but it was probably about an hour ago, on Ms. Cohen's motion that she brought. And I heard from our principal saying that, you know, clarity and really clear on knowing what they are to do and not to do in some of these situations is very helpful. And I think... adding discretion in something as important as reporting to the police

290takes away from that exact thing that our principals were asking for. So, you know, I think we have great administrators and leaders, but the school-to-prison pipeline is real, and I've worked on criminal justice reform issues for years as well, and I think if we want to give our principals clarity, we need to give them clarity in all things, and so I'm fully in support of this. Thank you very much. At this time, seeing that there are no other speakers, we will move to the vote. The amendment before us is I move to amend the motion by deleting the proposed item B2 on page 40, which Ms. Corbett-Sanders did read, and that is still posted, so I will not belabor the point. All those in favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Seismore-Heiser, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Pokarsky,

291Ms. Omage, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Kizgamara, Ms. Tolan. And Dr. Anderson? Okay, that is 10. All those opposed? Please clear the board, thank you. All those opposed? None. All those abstaining? Ms. Derenat-Kofax? Motion carries, thank you. I call on Ms. Carpet-Sanders for an amendment. I'm so sorry, folks. It's a very long document. So I move to amend the main motion by revising Section D, Guidance for Parents of Students with Disabilities, regarding Virginia Department of Education VDOE regulations related to discipline on pages 53 through 56 to read as follows. FCPS looks at every student and his or her unique needs and wants to work collaboratively with each family to support their child's needs. For students with special education services, the IEP team, to include parents, requires that each child's unique needs are reviewed and considered during the

292IEP process. For a student with a disability under 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, refer to Chapter 2D.8, protections for students covered by Section 504 plans. One, prevention of disciplinary incidents. When a student's behavior impedes his or her learning or that of others, or if there appears to be a pattern of misconduct leading to suspension, the IEP team, which includes the parents, shall. Prioritize the use of positive behavioral intervention strategies and supports and take one or both of the following actions. Develop IEP goals and service specific to the child's behavioral needs. Conduct an FBA and develop a VIP to address the child's behavioral needs. Two, no revisions. Three, no revisions. Four, under parent notification, when a disciplinary incident involving a student with an intellectual or developmental disability may result in a suspension of any

293kind, school staff shall not request a verbal or written statement from the student until a parent has been provided notice. School administrators shall make reasonable efforts to contact the student's parent or guardian and document those efforts. Five, no revisions. Six, no revisions. Seven, no revisions. The parent expressed concern in writing to supervisory administrative personnel or the student's teacher that the student is in need of special education and related services. And B, the parent has requested an evaluation of the student to be determined eligible for special education and related services. C, the teacher of the student or other school personnel expressed specific concerns about a pattern of behavior demonstrated by the student directly. to the special education department chair or his or her supervisor within FCPS protections for students with disabilities covered by section 504 plans.

294A. When a principal recommends a suspension of more than 10 school days, initiates a suspension that would accumulate to more than 10 school days in a school year, or refers to the division superintendent, a student with a disability who has been determined to be a student with a disability under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act 1973, the school shall ensure that a knowledgeable committee convenes as soon as possible, but no later than 10 days after the decision to suspend or recommend reassignment or expulsion. parent may request additional staff or persons to attend the meeting other than those identified by the school staff. B, the knowledgeable committee shall convene a causality hearing to determine whether or not the misconduct has a causal relationship to the student's disability. A committee is not required to convene in those

295situations pertaining to the use or possession of illegal drugs or alcohol where the student currently is engaging in the use of illegal drugs or alcohol. If it is determined that the misconduct was caused directly by the disability, the student may not be expelled or suspended for more than 10 days. If it is determined that the misconduct was not caused directly by the disability, the student may be disciplined in the same manner as non-disabled peers. B, if the student has been suspended repeatedly for similar violations demonstrating a pattern of behavior, the principal shall convene the knowledgeable committee to review the 504 plan to determine whether additional accommodations or other supports are needed to address the student's behavior and where necessary, conduct a functional behavioral assessment or develop a behavioral plan. F, the student should not be

296entitled to receive continuing educational services during any period of suspension or expulsion. Ms. Dallin? Ms. Sanders, I'm sorry to interrupt. The underlying text is proposed to be added. You don't need to read the rest of it because- Oh, thank God. It changes the numbering. Thank you. Thank you very much, Ms. Mulberg. I should have said thank you, Ms. Mulberg. I apologize. Well, you could thank God too, I guess. Is there a second to this motion? Ms. Osborheiser? Ms. Corbett-Tanders, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you. I'm very pleased to speak to this motion. This motion is all about ensuring additional protections and supports for... our exceptional students with disabilities. And so it adds clarity to ensure that those protections are extended to our students with 504 plans and also strengthens the

297language on parental notification. Thank you very much. Ms. Eisenmohiser, would you like to speak to your second? Ms. Corbett-Sanders said. Thank you. Thank you so much. I think it's important to protect all of our students with disabilities. You know I had to say something. I know, and I'm so happy you're keeping it brief. What Ms. Corbett-Sanders said, I'm thrilled to be able to second that. Thank you. Thank you. Much appreciated. Ms. McLaughlin, let's keep this momentum going. You've got it very quickly. I just want to say that sadly, 14% of our students have are identified with a disability but oftentimes they are disproportionately represented in our discipline as much as 40%. So I really appreciate this effort by Ms. Corbett Sanders, supported by Ms. Seismer-Heiser. Anything we can do to better manage discipline challenges by

298our special education students so they're not disproportionately represented is critically important. And I would just ask Dr. Brabrand, would you or Ms. Johnson please speak to any concerns you have about this motion? Let's start with Ms. Johnson and then Dr. Brabrand can wrap it up. Thank you. I do not have any concerns about the amendments being proposed. Dr. Brabrand? Same as Ms. Johnson, Chairman Anderson. I'm going to do the Ms. Seismor-Heiser approach. Same as Ms. Johnson. I appreciate it. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin, did you have any additional comments? No. Thank you so much. Thank you. Seeing that there are no other speakers, that's a hint. Let's go ahead and move for the vote. I will not read the entirety of the document. And I think Ms. Corbett-Sanders, again, did a fine job of that. All

299those in favor of this amendment, that is before us on the screen. We have Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Giesdemara, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Fresh, Ms. Barrett, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Tolan, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Derenat-Kofax, and Ms. Pekarsky and Dr. Anderson. That is, I believe that is unanimous. Do we have any, let's please clear the screen. Do we have any opposed? Ms. Tolan, are you opposed? Thank you. The motion passes. I think we have another amendment that I'm going to invite Ms. Corbett-Sanders to speak to. Yes, hold on. We're at number eight. And just a reminder of the new language under review. The new language is what's underlined. Yes, and this is actually a continuation of our earlier discussion about discretionary reporting. So let me read it and then I'll explain. You've done this. I moved to

300a minute. I don't want to read the entire thing, just the language that you want to add. Yes, thank you. I move to amend the main motion by revising item B on page 40 by adding the text below to the end of item B1 and deleting, and we've already deleted the item B2. So in addition, a principal may, in his or her discretion, report to the police department any incident involving A, any of the above, and or B, any assault and battery without bodily injury and or the arrest of any student for an incident occurring on a school bus on a school property or at a school sponsored activity including the charge there are therefore no discretionary report to the police department or law enforcement shall be made without the approval of the superintendent or

301his designee pursuant to section 22.1.279 um paragraphs 3 1 d of the code of virginia is there a second to this motion Mr. Frisch, Ms. Carvitz-Sanders, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, thank you very much. This motion is now verbatim out of the state code. When it was originally proposed, there was language in this motion that included any misdemeanor incident involving students in a school setting. And so that has now been deleted, and it only refers to what is in the state code. And I want to make it very clear, this is in there because the state... legislature adopted it and it's and i have been told by our legal counsel that due to the dylan rule we cannot not provide this uh this reporting capability but it does limit it to

302just what is laid out in the state code and does not include any misdemeanors thank you very much miss corbett sanders mr frisch would you like to speak to your second Sure, I'll make this quick. I think we did the right thing in the previous amendment by removing the language, and I believe that inserting this language—I'm seconding this so that we can have a discussion that will lead to a vote—I believe that inserting this language will continue to leave an air of ambiguity in the SR&R, so I will be voting against it. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Are there any other speakers to this motion? Okay, seeing none, Ms. McLaughlin? Sorry, I couldn't get my computer to cooperate. Yes, just briefly, given that the motion has been made, but the seconder actually gave a counterpoint to

303it, so I feel that this has created a little bit of confusion. We're expected to hear maybe... A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT WHAT THE ISSUES ARE. SO I GUESS I WOULD INVITE MS. JOHNSON OR SUPERINTENDENT BRABRAND TO SPEAK TO THE MERITS OR THE CONCERNS RELATED TO THIS MOTION, ESPECIALLY SINCE MS. CORBETT-SANDERS HAS NOTED STATE CODE. AND OBVIOUSLY WE HAVE TO BE IN COMPLIANCE WITH THE STATE CODE. SO I JUST WANT TO UNDERSTAND AND AFTER THEY SPEAK, I MIGHT ASK MR. FRISH TO ALLABORATE A LITTLE BIT MORE ABOUT exactly the challenges or the downside of passing this. Thank you very much. Please go ahead, Dr. Brabrand and then Mr. Foster. Yeah, I'm going to let Ms. Johnson and then Mr. Foster comment. Sure. You know, the intent of this law when it was passed, and I

304believe we had support from some of our community organizations in Fairfax County, was really to reduce the number of reports to the police. So this was an attempt to give principals more flexibility so that they weren't required to report certain offenses to the police. I do support this. I think there will be some challenges with principals with the last sentence there about having to report to the superintendent or his designee, but I certainly can support what has been proposed here. And I will add if Ms. Williams or Mr. Anderson wants to, JD Anderson wants to jump in, they're welcome to share some information. Ms. Williams or Mr. Anderson? Please go ahead, Mr. Anderson. That just surprised me. I guess what I don't, having been a school-based administrator and teacher before, just trying to make sure

305that, you know, Mr. Foster, correct me if I'm wrong, if the collection of amendments is restricting the ability of a principal to contact a school resource officer or the police when certain misdemeanors might occur. And misdemeanors could mean a lot of things to include somebody threatening to kill a teacher. That's a misdemeanor. So you couldn't. the school principal couldn't report that, I would believe under this to the school resource officer, only maybe the victim of it would be, or if somebody is out smashing windows on cars of kids, those aren't delineated as the mandatory reports. And I would think that maybe this language would keep them from doing so, but this language is a little bit new to me. So I'm just presenting it as there might be some unintended consequences. Thank you very much.

306Ms. Williams. Thank you. I'm concerned about the timeliness and... maybe limiting our principal's ability to make a decision if they believe there is a safety concern and with the check and balance, the timeliness of that and how long it might take to get that approval for them to contact law enforcement. I also worry about the ability for them to have contraband removed from the property and just adding that additional layer could impede some of their abilities to make decisions on the file. I don't know if any of our principals have additional comments on that. So just thinking that through and what that would look like in practice. And I do really believe that the legislation was intended to reduce our reports to the police and especially at the elementary level where they have to call

307the non-emergency. I believe our elementary principals will be very relieved that for potentially a five-year-old that there are certain infractions that they don't need to call the non-emergency line for. But I want to make sure that we have clearly outlined. parameters for our principals at the middle and high school level so they know when they can reach out to their SROs, but they don't have a timeframe that they have to wait to make decisions that could impact school safety. Thank you very much. Ms. McLaughlin, I believe you had another part of your question to Mr. Foster. I did. I was hoping Mr. Foster could maybe help us understand if there's been a change to state code, then Mr. Foster, does this proposal from Ms. Corbett Sanders put us in compliance? If we don't pass it,

308are we still in compliance? And what would you say as our division counsel is the benefit of adding this language? Right. So the language that has been proposed by Ms. Corbett Sanders mirrors what is in the Virginia Code. And therefore, I do think that in the interest of mirroring the Virginia Code, that it would be helpful to include and improve the proposed amendment. The, as has been discussed, this amendment is directed towards providing discretion to the school-based principal to report things that are not felonies. They're described as incidents in the Virginia Code, and that's why we've changed misdemeanor to incident in the proposed amendment. and to further ensure that that discretion is exercised appropriately. There is just additional language that talks about the approval of the superintendent for his designee. So I hope I've answered

309your question, Ms. McLaughlin. If you have any follow-ons, I'm happy to try and answer them. Thank you very much, Mr. Foster. Ms. McLaughlin? Yeah, this is helpful, and especially the context of misdemeanor was changed to incident just again by state code. So I guess I would just ask some of my other colleagues before we move to a vote. I MEAN, AGAIN, SOMEONE WHO BELIEVES IN REFORMING SR&R, REDUCING REFERRALS TO THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, PERHAPS MAYBE MS. KEITH GUIMARA OR MR. FRISH, HE CAN ELABORATE A LITTLE MORE. I'M IN A LOSS OF UNDERSTANDING WHERE BOARD MEMBER CONCERNS ARE WITH THE LANGUAGE AS IT MIRRORS STATE CODE. AND WHEN I READ THIS LIST HERE WHERE IT'S TALKING ABOUT ASSAULT ON PEOPLE, ARREST, of people. I guess I just want to be mindful before I vote. Thank you

310very much, Ms. McLaughlin. We have several board members who will be speaking to this, so I'm sure we'll have that discussion. At this point, I'd like to invite Ms. Darinette Koufax to speak. Thank you. Yes. I had the same concerns as Megan, because I didn't get to talk to the speaker of the maker of this motion. And I guess if, oops, you moving it on me. I guess if it mirrors state code, are... Legal counsel says it's helpful. We took out that other paragraph that I, that's why I, that legal paragraph, that one that I abstain from, and this seems to be a substitute. Am I correct, Mr. Foster? Yes, I mean, as you noted earlier, the paragraph, it was B2, was deleted. Yes. And this, yes, and this current amendment basically amends B1 to,

311as we've discussed. add language that is provided in the Virginia Code regarding giving school-based principals the discretion to report incidents that are not felonies, but nonetheless, you know, in the principal's conclusion after working with the superintendent's office, concludes that it would be best to be reported. Okay. Okay. Thank you for that clarity. I will be supporting this. Thank you, Ms. Darinat Koufax. At this point, I invite Ms. Laura Jane Cohen to speak. Ms. Cohen, are you with us? Okay, not sure if we have Ms. Cohen. While we wait for her to come back with us, Ms. Williams, did you have something else you wanted to add? No, sorry. Thank you very much. Ms. Cohen, I know we have some weather. We will come back to Ms. Cohen. At this point, I invite Ms. Tolan to

312speak. just a quick question so if we deleted this what would a principal not be able to do like what would we be preventing them from doing i don't know if maybe miss johnson or miss williams could answer that mr foster as well So I'll weigh in here and then I'll ask JD. JD shared a couple examples of what someone wouldn't be able to do if they smashed the window of a car, a significant fight maybe that didn't result in injury. I think some of the challenges I can speak for the principals are really... on that last line and they're concerned just about the timeliness of being able to report so i think those are some of the examples and jd may have a couple other examples anderson Yes, I'm happy to speak to that.

313I'm a hearing officer, by the way, just to make sure everybody knows who I am. So this is outside of my lane to some degree. I guess part of my question, and this would go back to Mr. Foster also, is the idea of when, and Ms. Cohen, I think you spoke to that, is when can't you elicit support from your school resource officer or from the police? because if they're not enumerated above and the discretionary reports have gone out except for the ones that are enumerated right now. You know, if somebody steals a bunch of computers from the school and runs, that's a felony, but I don't believe it's any of the things that are in here. So you can't tell the school resource officer. Or if something is happening in real time, I don't

314know if a principal, and this maybe is where the principal should speak to it, they couldn't say to the SRO, because that's a report to the police. A report to the police isn't filing a police report. it would just be informing the police that we have this thing going on right now. So we need to keep the school safe or we need to protect, you know, belongings of the school or belongings of other students. If somebody stole an iPhone and run away, maybe it's only that we could have the student whose iPhone has been stolen reported to the police, but school officials couldn't. So that's part of my concern as I read it from the outside. but thank you very much for letting me uh to share thank you very much mr fawcett did you

315want to add anything else to this question i think just in a nutshell um you know what this uh amendment does is it gives the discretion and authority to principals to report serious um conduct that is not expressly listed as a felony in the earlier provision and mr um Anderson walks through some examples of that. And so I don't want to belabor the point, but it does, it gives principals the authority to report serious things that are not itemized in the earlier in the Virginia code and in the earlier SNR, R and R amendment. Go ahead, Ms. Tolan. Ms. Sullivan, did you have any additional inquiries? So if we don't put this in, then the only thing a principal could report is a felony, and then the other victim or something would need to report

316it directly to the police, correct? That's correct. Can I ask a clarifying question on that? I apologize, because this is all new language. Nothing above this restricts all calls to the police. Is that correct? Ms. Carpet-Standers, would you hold on one second? I want to be sure I go through the queue and we will get to your clarifying question. I promise. I think it's being sent. It's being directed to Mr. Foster. So if you wouldn't mind holding on, I will get back to you to make sure that you have that question responded to. Thank you. I believe now we have Ms. Cohen that is on the phone because she must have connectivity issues. Ms. Cohen, please go ahead. I've got Ms. Cohen on the phone here, so I'm going to let her speak. Thank you

317so much, and thank you, Ms. Tysmore-Heisner, for being my interpreter today. I have a couple of concerns. I mean, first, from a legal perspective, my understanding is if we at a locality don't have language in here, that the language of the state is going to trump whatever we do. And so I will hold that for John. But if Mr. Foster doesn't mind holding two seconds, my big concern is this is behavior that happens outside of school hours. And so what we're... saying is that instead of whoever is involved in the incident being able to call the police, we're saying that the principal should get involved in something that either may have happened on the bus or may have happened at an after-school club or just somewhere on the school property. And I really have concern

318about where, again, we're asking our principals to know the difference between a felony and a misdemeanor. And I just, it seems wholly appropriate to me for people who are involved in these incidents to contact the police. That tends to be, you know, what we do. And I don't like, I think we wind into a real slippery slope when we ask our principals to be maybe or maybe not. contacting the police when something happens outside of school hours. So I really have some heartburn about this one. Thank you very much. Mr. Foster, would you like to respond to Ms. Cohen's questions? Yeah, I want to make sure I understood the question that Ms. Cohen raised. And if I heard it correctly, it is that if we don't include the discretionary reporting language principles could still exercise

319their discretion because that's what the Virginia Code says. Is that the question? Yes, sir. Yeah. And so the problem with that is, you know, I put my hat on as an attorney who's representing a student. And what I worry about is, is the argument's going to be made if we don't have the discretionary reporting language in the SRNR. that the argument's gonna be made that because we did not include it in our SRNR that in FCPS, principals do not have that authority. And so I think that it is important if we wanna give our principals that discretion that we include it in the SRNR and not rely solely on the Virginia code. So Mr. Foster, is that the case then that anything that's in Virginia code that applies to discipline we've included in our SRNR?

320I have not done a top-to-bottom review of the SRNR, and so I can't answer that question and say absolutely yes. Okay, thanks so much. I really do appreciate your clarifying that. I guess my other question is if we – I just – I don't know. This one just hits me in the wrong way about things that happen after school, and if Virginia wants to litigate this, then – that's fine but i i really do have some concerns we're trying so hard to get away from this discretionary language for all the reasons that we've already talked about tonight um and so i i i'm i'm not in a good place with this one thanks thank you miss cohen miss osmohiser i have some i'm not going to repeat some of my colleagues questions i just have

321a question about the phrasing of this it says if i'm reading this correctly And I'm looking at the side where I have it on my other screen. In addition, a principal may, in his or her discretion, report to the police any incident involving, and if you go to see, the arrest of a student. Why would a principal have to report to the police an arrest? Who did the arrest, if not the police? I'm really, I'm just confused by that, that little part right there. Mr. Foster, would you like to respond to this piece, please? Maybe I'm misreading it, but. Yeah, I'm not sure why that's included in there. I can try and pull up the Virginia Code provision to see if it mirrors that. I don't know if Ms. Johnson knows the answer to that

322question as to why C is in there, perhaps Ms. Williams. Ms. Johnson, would you like to comment? I don't have an answer why the state lists that in their particular language, but I do have, I would need Carrie to clarify, I believe this isn't just for reporting outside of school hours. It's reporting any time during school or after school hours that are school activities. So, but we, it's not clear as to why we would, because the way I read C is, you know, if you read the code, a principal may report to the police any incident involving the arrest of a student. It makes no sense. The other question I have is that any principal may, if you go before that, any principal may report to the police department any incident and or be any

323assault. or assault and battery without bodily injury. Is there something, you know, above in the language that clarifies that B is on school property or during a school event or school sponsored event or just any assault or assault and battery without bodily injury? Because when you're talking about, I just am confused. Like if a student commits an assault at 7-Eleven or somewhere else, is the principal supposed to report that? Or is this clarifying something above that is not on here and I should go? Ms. Johnson, Mr. Foster, would anybody like to address that part of her question? Carrie Williams has her hand up. I'd like her to respond. I'm very sorry. I did not see that. Ms. Williams, please go ahead. Yes, if I could outline what the paragraph above it says, and then I

324will continue with the language. I think that might help. Thank you. I hope we're fine in the conversation. So it would say the principal shall, in addition to taking appropriate disciplinary action, immediately report to the police department incidents that may constitute a felony as specified in subsections two through seven of subsection 22.1 of the Virginia Code. And subsection two begins with the assault and battery that results in bodily injury, sexual assault, death, shooting, stabbing, cutting, or wounding of any person, abduction of any person as described, stalking of a person as described in the code on a school bus, on school property, or at a school-sponsored activity. So yes, that is clarified there. Any conduct involving alcohol, marijuana, a controlled substance, imitation, controlled substance, or an antibiotic steroid on a school bus, on school property, or

325at a school-sponsored activity. including the theft or attempted theft of a student prescription medication. I apologize for interrupting. I am actually very visual. If you could point me to the exact page you're reading from, I can follow along as you speak, and I apologize. Oh, no problem. I am on the red line. Copy page 40. Okay, thank you. So we're talking about prescription medications. Number four is any threats against school personnel while on a school bus or on school property or at a school sponsored activity. Number five, the illegal carrying of a firearm as defined by code on a school property. Number six, any illegal conduct involving firebombs, explosive materials, or hoax explosive devices as defined in the code or incendiary devices. chemical bombs as described in the code on a school bus on school

326property or at a school sponsored activity any threats or false threats to bomb as described in the code made against school personnel or involved in school property or school buses assault or assault of battery without bodily injury that may be reported to the police at the discretion of the principal Then it would say in addition a principal may in his or her discretion report to the police department any incident involving any of the above and or any assault or assault and battery without bodily injury and or the arrest of any student or incident occurring on a school bus, a school property, or at a school sponsored activity including the charge therefore. And then it goes into no discretionary report to the police department or law enforcement shall be made without the approval of the superintendent

327or his or her or his or his designee pursuant to the section of the code that we state. Okay. Thank you. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you. As I'm looking at this, I'm also further confused by this section because at the bottom of one, the mandatory report that you just read, the last sentence says assault or assault and battery without bodily injury may be reported to the police at the discretion of the principal, which is then repeated. in number two. So 2A seems to be the exact same sentence as the last sentence in one, if I'm looking at the correct document. 2B is the exact same sentence as number one, and C is the principle to report an arrest, which logically, to me, I don't understand. And A is any of the above.

328So this seems completely either illogical or repetitive. and tell me if I'm wrong. You're not. If we can go back, I'm so sorry. Ms. Corbett, I'm sorry. Ms. Heismanheiser, I think you're asking a question that many people are asking. If we can just go back in terms of Mr. Foster really laying out again, why is this necessary? What would happen if we do not do this? Do we have to have this in our SRNR? So this is Mr. Foster. I think that we do need to have this language about the giving principles of the discretion. I do agree that this language... Point of clarification. Yeah, I'm sorry. Does the law require us to have this language? Mr. Frisch, hold on one second, please. Will you turn? Yeah, I've got multiple questions. So let me answer

329the question that was originally raised, and then I'll circle back to Mr. Frisch's question. I agree that the language could be simplified. And after tonight's session, I am going to try and circle back to find out why we got this redundant language. between paragraph B1 and B2. I agree that it's redundant. I think it could be simplified to simply mirror what's in the Virginia Code, which says that the principals have discretion to report to local law enforcement any incident described above in subsection A. And that's the subsection that lists what's in the Virginia Code. I think we could say simply that and be done with it. to the point or question that Mr. Frisch raised, as I noted earlier, I think in response to a question from Ms. Cohen. It is my recommendation that we

330do have this language that gives these principles of discretion because that's what's provided in the Virginia Code. And I worry that if we don't have it, it's going to prevent giving our principles the authority to make those referrals in the situations that are outlined, providing with respect to incidents. So anyway, I don't want to belabor the point. All right, thank you. I didn't, I appreciate your explanation, Mr. Foster, but I still don't understand. My question was the same as Mr. Frisch. Does the law require us to have this exact language, the state law, or are we just putting this, does this exact, two questions. Does the law require us to have this exact language? Because part of this language is in number one. Part of it just says any of the above. So A says

331any of the above. B says the exact same sentence that is in the above. And C is illogical. So what in our law or the state requires us to have this here if it seems to be already here other than an illogical piece? I just want to know why do we have this? So by this, what I'm interpreting this to be is this provision providing for discretion and principles to report incidents that are not felonies. Is that this in your question? I apologize. Let me clarify. So the discretion piece of it, I see discretion here on three parts. Discretion on any of the above. So it's so but the above is all mandated. So I don't know why discretion would matter when the above is mandated. Discretion on any assault and assault and battery without

332bodily injury. But literally in the above, it says assault and assault and battery without bodily injury may be reported at the discretion. So that's already there. Or the principal has a discretion to report the arrest of a student. And one would hope the police would know about that. So I'm puzzled as to why we need to give a principal discretion to report what's already mandated for them to report. I'm puzzled. That's A. I'm puzzled. Sorry, that's 2A. 2B, I'm puzzled why we're giving principals discretion to report something that's already listed in 1. And 2C, I'm puzzled why we're giving principals discretion to report an arrest to the police that supposedly would be doing that arrest. So that's why I'm just completely clabbergasted by this. Mr. Foster, please go ahead. Yeah, I mean, as I noted

333a minute ago, I agree that, and I assume that Ms. Sizemore-Heiser was reading from the SRNR red line. Is that correct? Yes, sir. Sorry, page, bottom of page 40, drop of 41. Right. So I agree that this language, it's still not clear to me why it was drafted the way that it was. I think it could be type. As I mentioned a minute ago, I think that it could be as simple as, in addition, a principal may, in his or her discretion, report to the police department any incident involving any of the above. Now, the reason we need to have it in there is the above are felonies. And as I've outlined and as other staff have outlined in this meeting, we think it's important to give our principals the ability to report things that

334may not be felonies, but are nonetheless serious. And this language, as I've amended it just now, would give our principals the discretion and the ability to do that. I do understand what you're saying. However, the part that I'm also puzzled by is that in one, on page again, page 40 of the red line, number one, but if I hear you correctly, Mr. Foster, you're saying that we need to give our principals discretion to report what's mandated. Because what we're giving, if you read two, what we're giving them discretion to report, may I finish? Please finish your sentence and then we'll put you down for a go back. Thank you. So in two, what we're giving them the discretion to report is what's already mandated in number one. We're giving them the discretion to report any

335result in battery or bodily injury, which is already listed as a discretionary reporting ability of the principal as in number one. So that's repetitive. and we're giving them the discretion to report an arrest, which I don't understand why they need the discretion to report an arrest. So everything that we're giving them the discretion to do in number two is either mandated in number one, already there as discretionary reporting in number one, or reporting to the police something that they should already know. So I don't know why we need to- That's not, Iser. We are going to have to put you down for a go back. I'm so sorry. No, no, I'm sorry. Thank you. I appreciate it. I mean my point. Mr. Frisch, please go ahead. Sorry about that. Yeah, I would just reiterate that

336in doing this, we're introducing ambiguity into a situation that we have been aiming to avoid ambiguity in. I think that there's, you know, the fact that this is state law. tells us what folks are able to do. I thought Ms. Cohen's question about whether every piece of the code is included in our SR&R as it pertains to discipline, I think we know the answer to that question is no. Otherwise, it would almost be entirely code. I agree with Ms. Sizemore-Heiser that it's confusing. And I think as we continue these conversations around discipline disparities in our schools, we should be looking for ways that we guide our involvement with law enforcement as opposed to increasing ambiguity. Increased discretion leads to the problems that we are trying to address currently and that's a problem i do not

337want to see us continuing to go down that path and i don't think it's necessary to list everything that the state code has thank you thank you very much mr fisch miss corbett sanders Yes, thank you very much. And thank you, Mr. Frisch. You and I spoke about this prior to the meeting. And as I said to you at the time that I had put this on the table because I was told that it was required and this language was not drafted by me, but it was drafted by. Mr. Foster, and he did make one modification when I sent him the language of the code and said there's inconsistencies here. Given what you have said so far, Mr. Foster, and the conversation around the table, I don't think, and it's... it shouldn't be new to

338you Mr. Foster but you and I spoke earlier I didn't understand why we needed this language because of many of the questions that my colleagues have have suggested about the redundancy above so my suggestion is that we go ahead and table this amendment and And if there is something that is required by state code, then how we could handle that, which would also address the concerns of Ms. Cohen, is that we could actually introduce an amendment that says that, you know, that Fairfax County Public Schools and all of their administrators adhere to the state code. Would that achieve the same thing? Mr. Foster, please go ahead. No, I don't think that it would. And to come back to why I do think it's important to include this language is the General Assembly, when it approved

339the Virginia Code section upon which this is based, expressly placed discretion on school-based principals to report incidents that did not rise to felonies. And as we've talked about in this meeting tonight, I do worry about taking that discretionary authority away from our principles when it's been expressly provided by the General Assembly. And so that, when you and I talked earlier today, Ms. Corbin-Sanders, you're absolutely right. I did. And I continue to recommend that we do retain in our SRNR this discretionary reporting of incidents that do not rise to felonies. But my question, Mr. Foster, is somewhat different than that. If the state code allows for discretionary reporting, then as Ms. Cohen says, we don't repeat everything from the state code. And the state code, and I know it's going to exceed the amount of time

340allocated today or for my three minutes, but I can read Section D of the state code so that people are aware of it if that helps. If it's okay for you to email that to us in lieu of reading it, is that possible? Can you send that to the clerk, Ms. Corbett-Sanders? I can do that. But I also want to address something that Mr. Anderson said about, you know, things happening in school, or I don't know if it was Mr. Anderson or Ms. Williams. and them not being able to call the police for help if there's contraband or weapons. But that is already covered here, and it's covered later in the SRNR about contraband and weapons. And assaults are covered in Title IX. And so a lot of this is already covered in our SRNR.

341And so I think, as we said earlier, brevity is important. I was trying to accommodate the state code language, but not provide a vehicle which would exasperate or... or cause challenges. And that's why when I read the state code, I was very surprised that there was no language on misdemeanors, yet the earlier language that was sent and the language that we deleted talked about misdemeanors. So I'd really like to understand how we can pare this back or if we need it at all. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. I believe we have a number of go-backs, but before we go to those go-backs, I would like to have my turn and to ask my questions as well. I am similarly to many of my colleagues. This is very confusing to me in terms of why this is

342present. I realize the state code is has this litigation, but I'm really questioning why we need to have it. Mr. Foster, here's my question to you. You mentioned that it's important for us to be sure that we give our principals this discretion to call the police when these acts occur. What is happening currently when these acts occur? What are our principals doing now? So I would defer to the principals we have on the call as well as Ms. Johnson to speak to that. Okay. If you'd like to speak, please raise your hand to be recognized. Mr. Anderson, would you like to speak to that question? I see your hand is raised. Well, my hand is raised, but I'm not a principal. And so I would defer to any principals that would want to speak. I

343have two quick comments. One is the last thing about that has been brought up a couple of times where it was. The principals need to report to the police when the police have arrested the student. That is not mandated in the code. It delineates subsection two through seven. Eight is when a student has been arrested. So in my view, that could probably come out. There are, I do have concerns having been a school-based administrator again. A student with drugs at school, that's a misdemeanor most times. So I would think that this language would preclude me from having the SRO come and retrieve the illegal drugs because I'd have to report to the SRO that the illegal drugs were in school so that that person could take these off. off the premises. And my understanding of

344the Virginia Code is the delineation of what is mandatory and everything else is discretionary. And if you take the discretionary parts out and then delineate them only by what's in these, like the other examples I've made, but also can you please take this knife with a three-inch blade, which would be a misdemeanor. from the setting because I'm having to report to you that a student had a knife with a three-inch blade in our school. And that was part of my concern just in the operational standpoint of it. But I think that's where a principal should talk. I haven't been in the schools for more than a decade as an assistant principal and would have had to give that contraband or to someone else to take it away. And then I continue to interview the student.

345So I apologize if I'm out of order. I appreciate your asking me the question, but I think a principal could probably speak to that better than I could. No, that's definitely fine. I wanted to recognize you because your hand was up. And also, I also want to share that I was a school principal not as long ago as you, definitely much more recently, which is why I'm really struggling with this. I have faced the issues that you have described, certainly, and have had opportunity to address them differently. But I would love to hear from what our principals and FCPS are doing. So I'm going to go to Dr. Copeland at this time. to respond and then i believe that we have i think dr copeland is the only principal with his hand raised thank you

346please go ahead and then dr bray brand matt mccherry could you please ask the question i want to make sure i get it right because i've heard some responses what what is your actual question about the handling of whatever Thank you. I appreciate that, Dr. Copeland. My question is this. Mr. Foster shared that our principals are needing this discretion when these behaviors occur so that they can get the support. Without this, in the absence of this language, what are our principals doing currently? What do you do when you're faced with these misdemeanors at this point? Are you calling the police? What is the typical course of action from our administrators at this time? Okay, I understand. The presence of an SRO normally precludes that. If it's a situation, let me give you a scenario. If

347it's a situation in which my SRO is not in the building, which sometimes happens because he has to go to court, then he will leave instructions for us to call another SRO. If it's a situation in which I might need some legal advice, I'm fortunate that I have good relations with my local precinct that I could ask for support. It is not uncommon for the SRO to make sure that we have either another SRO or he will say call the precinct and they'll send someone to handle certain types of situations like that. That's basically the way they're handled. So how does this language help you? What discretion does it not provide you since you already have a course of action that you've utilized clearly to your satisfaction? I'm going to say I'm gonna say minus

348anything else that I might do that it's, I'm not sure, ma'am, to be honest with you, I'm not sure. This is John Foster. If I could just speak to this. An important change in the Virginia Code that was just adopted at the 2020 session earlier this year, for the first time, the General Assembly used the word felony. And before, it did not have that distinction between felonies and incidents. And so this is the first year where they've drawn that distinction between felonies and incidents. And that's why in this SRNR in B1 of the red line, we're calling out felonies because that's what the Virginia Code does. AND THEN IN B2 WE'RE TALKING ABOUT INCIDENTS OTHER THAN FELONIES. AND SO, YOU KNOW, TO CIRCLE BACK TO THE QUESTION ABOUT WHAT WERE PRINCIPLES DOING BEFORE THIS LANGUAGE,

349WELL, BEFORE THE 2020 GENERAL ASSEMBLY SESSION, THE LANGUAGE JUST SPOKE TO A VIOLATION OF LAW, PERIOD, AND DIDN'T DRAW A DISTINCTION BETWEEN FELONIES AND INCIDENTS. AND SO, YOU KNOW, MY TAKEAWAY IS THAT... before the 2020 session because just talked generally about violations of law that addressed both felonies and misdemeanors and now with this change and calling out felonies expressly that's why we need to have this language regarding incidents that don't rise to the level of felonies Thank you for that. I have another question that I would love to hear from one of the other principals about maybe Mr. I thought I saw someone else raise their hand. Mr. Litz, I'm so sorry. So Dr. Copeland, I guess I'm going to, no, Mr. Litz is there. Mr. Litz, if you wouldn't mind answering the same questions

350that were posed to Dr. Copeland in terms of how is this helpful to you? And a secondary question is, Since this is at the discretion of the school principals, which means you may or may not involve the police, right now we have that going on where you may or may not involve the police. Again, I would love to hear how this would be helpful to you as a school administrator in terms of conducting the business of the school. Mr. Litz, please go ahead. I guess I would answer that by saying that now that the Virginia Assembly has laid out the difference between mandatory reporting and discretionary reporting, having this in the SR&R validates the fact that we have the authority to do so. And as you said, it doesn't necessarily mean that we always will,

351but it's there when we feel that it's called for. Not having it in there for... offenses that are not not felonies, I think actually muddies the water for us more in terms of particular violations that may occur and me not knowing. Well, that's that's wrong. Me me questioning whether or not I have the authority to do so. I think as Mr. Anderson pointed out earlier, having this in here when I get marijuana or knives or a student breaks a window or what have you, gives me the authority to speak with my SRO about those things and just, I think, lays it out more clearly. I'll leave it at that. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'll make this last statement. I'm not sure where I am with my time, Ms. Mulberg, but I'll make this final

352statement. Again, as a former school administrator, all of the things that you've described are things that I've experienced, the students breaking windows, having a knife of three inches, having small amounts of marijuana. And I have had the opportunity to handle these things differently because of what the implications are for our students once they are in the system. I am gravely... I am gravely concerned with this discretion that we are attempting to include here because I think it is to the detriment of our students. So I will not, I cannot in all consciousness be supportive of this measure. If there's something in the code that we need to abide by, then that's one thing. But as Ms. Cohen shared, there are a lot of things in the Virginia code that do not make it into our

353documents. So thank you for that. Now I'm going to go back to my chair mode. I'd like to call the question, please. Ms. Corbett-Standers, everyone has had a chance to speak except for one person. I just noticed Ms. Kees-Gamara. After Ms. Kees-Gamara gets her turn to speak, then we will call the question because everyone has had that opportunity who seems to want to. Madam Chair, I need for Ms. Kees-Gamara to have her turn because she has not had a turn yet to speak. Ms. Quis-Gamara, please go ahead. Ms. Chairman, point of order. I think what Ms. Darren Koufax and Ms. Corbett-Sanders are just saying is after Ms. Quis-Gamara speaks, we then vote on Ms. Omisha's request to call the question. If people agree to that, then we actually vote. If people vote down her call

354to question, the conversation continues. Absolutely. Thank you. I'm happy to vote. Okay. As the maker of the motion, can I withdraw the motion? I think you're absolutely able to do this. Precisely. Actually, I remember, Madam Clerk, if I recall, once a motion's been made and seconded, it now belongs to the body, and so the maker and the seconder cannot withdraw it. Is that correct? That is correct. So regrettably, I'm sorry, Ms. Corbin-Sanders, we're not able to do that. Having said that, let's go ahead and address Ms. Omesh's motion to call the question. Please clear your hands. I think we have two more. If you'd like to support Ms. Omesh's motion to call the question, please show your hands at this point. We have Ms. Omesh, Ms. Corbin-Sanders, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Marin, Ms. Pekarski,

355Ms. Cohen, Ms. Kiznamara, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Nernach-Hofax, Ms. McLaughlin, and Dr. Anderson. So that will carry. So at this point, we are going to call the question on the following. I move to amend the main motion by revising item B on page 40 by adding the text below to the end of item B1 and deleting proposed B2. If you are in support of- Point of clarification. Yes, Mr. Frisch. Just to be clear, if we're voting on this, then a vote in favor would be to add this as an amendment to the SR&R, and a vote against would be to not add it as an amendment. That would be correct. Correct. And B2 is already deleted. Correct. We already addressed that earlier. So the motion is just to... Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Thank you. The motion

356is just to address number one. That is, can we please have that be posted again? Are we at that page? Thank you. The motion will be for number one, the in addition, and then a principal, et cetera, et cetera. At this point, for those of you who are- I'm sorry. I'm quite privileged to ask a clarifying question, Madam Chair. Yes, ma'am. Please go ahead. Yeah, the way it reads is it says that we would amend the motion by revising this text and then deleting the items in B2. And so B2 is everything's deleted. If this fails, then the language below in B2 still stays. That's why... No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

357no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, So we have to just take that second portion out. Ms. Mulberg, for the motion to now read, I move to amend the main motion by revising item B on page 40 by adding the text below to the end of B1. That's pretty much all that we're acting upon at this point. Is that correct? That

358is correct. So that is the motion on the table. So if you are voting for- Can you clarify that one more time? Say that one more time. Absolutely. That's fine. There's a lot happening here. What we are going to be voting on at this point is to amend the main motion by revising item B on page 40 by adding the text below to the end of B1. And the text below is, in addition, a principal may, in his or her discretion, report to the police department any misdemeanor involving A, any of the above, and or B. any assault or assault and battery without bodily injury and or see the arrest of any student for an incident occurring on the school bus school property or at a school sponsored activity including the child i'm sorry the

359charge therefore no discretionary report to the police department or law enforcement shall be made without the approval of the superintendent or his destiny pursuant to section 22.1 0.279.31d of the code of virginia so the vote is to add this text to the srnr if you are in favor of adding this text to the srnr please raise your hand at this point we have zero votes to add this text if you are opposed to adding this text please raise your hands at this point Mr. Frisch, Ms. Omish, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Marin, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Pekarski, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Seismol-Heiser, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Darinak-Kolfax, and Dr. Anderson. It is unanimous this motion fails and will not be added to the SRNR. I now call on Ms. Omish for an amendment. Okay, I'm gonna try to

360be succinct here. I move to amend the main motion by adding the following language and interventions in disciplinary procedures on pages 17 to 18 or in a more appropriate section. Should confirmation of parent notification not exist in advance of disciplinary decision, students shall have the right to appeal discipline decisions to the board. Is there a second to Ms. Omech's motion? Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Thank you. Ms. Omech, would you like to speak to your motion? Yeah, try to keep it simple for everyone. The goal with this really is it's a check on our system. I know we have a number of incredible administrators out there. We've heard a lot of their voices and they weigh heavily in our thinking. At the same time, I have heard the many stories of families who are surprised, shocked, confused, especially

361those who have language barriers about decisions that come from the principals. This will be an incentive to ensure that families are contacted. Right now, there is leeway such that a decision can be made without necessarily making contact, although contact will be attempted. This doesn't take away that ability, but it does disincentivize that because it empowers families to then appeal, of course, which nobody really wants to deal with, and I'm sure principals would not like to see happen. I think that's short and sweet. That's the point. Thank you so much. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your second? I think Ms. Omage spoke very well to this. The importance of this clause is that for many years we've been frustrated when we see students who come through the appeals process and the... the parent

362uh outreach wasn't done what the parent notification wasn't done properly so what this does is um encapsulates in air sr and r the importance of that parent notification and we have a couple of board members would like to speak to this motion we will begin with miss me Hi, thanks, Ms. Omish. Yeah, I understand the intent of this. I just am concerned about the wording, and I don't know that I have it in me at this hour of the day to wordsmith. But, I mean, students already have the right to appeal. And it's really, is it the parents that appeal? It's not really the student that appeals. I don't feel like this is really the hammer that you're looking for. I understand the intent is that if parents are not provided advance notice, you want

363to have some kind of consequence, but the language isn't correct to me. So I'm just, that's. Thank you very much, Ms. Mary. Ms. Mary, I'm sorry, were you finished or did you get cut off? I was finished, thank you. Thank you. Ms. Omesh, did you want to offer any response or feedback? Yeah, I'd love if staff can comment. My understanding is that appeals only come to the board if it's a 10-day plus suspension or under other circumstances, recommendation for expulsion, it has to be a certain threshold. So this would still address a number of cases that families cannot appeal to the board for. Okay, I didn't recall that, so thanks. But is it the student's right to appeal or is it the family's right? Mr. Foster, would you speak to that, please? If the student

364is under 18, it's the family's right. I'd also like to hear from Ms. Johnson and others from her shop on this issue, but that's my understanding. That's my understanding as well. I have a couple questions about this particular motion. I'm not sure where on page 17 and 18 that you're thinking that this will fit in. I guess I need to know which red line you're looking at. I think we were all a little confused in my office about where this belongs, and I certainly think that Mr. Litz needs to weigh in on this particular one. Mr. Litz, please go ahead. Thank you. I guess You know thinking as a principal and and when I when I read this Immediately when I see students have the right to appeal a disciplined decision. I concur with mr

365Foster that in most cases it's going to be a minor So it's still going to be the parents doing it not the students. I also worry About students having the maturity and the knowledge to appeal a decision to the board And I'm concerned that this language will bring a lot of, for lack of a better term, frivolous appeals that do not have merit. I've experienced appeals to suspensions where the student, you know, I guess disingenuously appealed and then admitted that their consequence and their suspension was warranted. They simply wanted to quite frankly take up time. But when I read this, it's really what we're really saying is unless the student's 18, it's the parents that are going to decide, not the student. Thank you very much. Ms. Marin, did you have another question? No, not

366at this time. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. McLaughlin. Yeah, as someone who's been a champion of parent notification, I truly appreciate where Ms. Omisha is coming from. But this language is so de minimis in description that I would really have a tough time supporting it. Everything from that our process is that it's not typically students who make appeals. It is families and or parents because of. the juvenile status. Number two, decision delivery. I'm not sure whose decision delivery that is. Is it a principal's decision delivery? I realize that it's referencing to a certain section here, but to what Ms. Johnson said, the problem is that we don't know exactly right now. Staff isn't sure where this is actually going. So then as board members, I can't even logically follow its placement. And I also appreciate

367the principal's input about trying to balance between things that are not significant suspensions. It could be a one-day suspension and we're gonna have it come to the school board. That's just not even tenable. I would actually recommend to my colleagues that Ms. Omish has a very... well-intended desire to improve what happens for our families and students, especially where English is a second language, or just when principals and staff have not mastered the parent notification process. But I think this needs more work. I'm not comfortable supporting it for today's vote, certainly not at 10 o'clock p.m. But I do want to thank Ms. Omish, and I'm happy to partner with her on this work because I care deeply about it. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Pekarsky? Yeah, actually, thank you to Ms. McLaughlin and

368to Mr. Litz. Those were my concerns as well. And while I do support this in general, I don't understand what this would look like practically. And I don't think it's fleshed out enough right now for us to be able to, you know, at least for me, to support it in this manner. love for this to be something that we work on and and kind of build around thank you thank you very much mr karski dr brad brown your hand was up yes thank you chair and anderson uh i just want to at 10 10 just share that i think one of the things here this board is committed to doing major changes and improvements and reviews and thoughtful reflection The reality is a lot of these amendments and changes have come just over the last,

369some of these have come just hours ago. Some came a few days ago. And I'll be honest and transparent with you as superintendent, I have not had hours with my staff or days or meetings to go over these in the detail that I think you would ask of me as superintendent for a system with this complexity. TO BE SURE AND TO HAVE THE CONFIDENCE THAT I WOULD LIKE TO HAVE TO COMMENT ON THESE AS MUCH AS I'VE BEEN ABLE TO COMMENT. AND IN SOME CASES, I'VE HAD TO DEFER TO OTHERS, WHICH IS PART OF RUNNING A LARGE SYSTEM. BUT THE SR&R IS SO IMPORTANT. I HOPE WE CAN WORK TOGETHER MOVING FORWARD TO REALLY, AND WE BROUGHT AN ADDITIONAL WORK SESSION TO FIGURE OUT HOW AFTER WE HAVE THESE THAT ADDITIONAL AMENDMENTS AND CHANGES DON'T

370COME SO LATE THAT STAFF DOESN'T GIVE YOU ALL WHAT YOU NEED TO HELP EFFECTIVELY MAKE A DECISION. ALL OF YOU ARE THOUGHTFUL. ALL OF THESE ARE WORTHY OF REVIEW AND STAFF REFLECTION. BUT I THINK ONE OF THE THINGS TONIGHT, AND I'M GUILTY OF BRINGING YOU ALL STUFF LATE. SO I TAKE THIS FOR MYSELF. BUT COLLECTIVELY, I THINK WE'VE GOT TO DO MORE ON DOCUMENTS LIKE THIS. to try to get as much work of this done as we rebuild the entire document versus trying to do it after we have developed our final draft and it's just a process improvement for the future i'd like a little more time to work with miss o'mesh and miss mclaughlin on both of these we have strengthened parent notification in the last couple of years It is on the hearings

371office checklist now as to whether we've done it or not so that we can see patterns of principals are not getting it done. And then we have the regional assistant superintendents follow back up with those schools. So I thank you for letting me offer those comments. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Brabrand. Ms. Cohen. Thank you. I just wanted to say I really do support my colleague, Ms. Omesh, the thinking behind this. And I understand, you know, some of what we see is that there was an attempt made and that that is done to check the box. Now, in fairness, there are many of our principals who, when we see it, have called 15 times and left 15 messages. um so i i also am super sympathetic to things happen in real time and sometimes we

372can't speak to parents i think there does have to be a real balance there i appreciate what you said dr brabrand that we've now added that um to our hearings checklist and i think that's super important i wonder if there's a way um and again probably not tonight at 10 10. but maybe there's a way to go back and finesse the piece in the SRNR that talks about parent notification and maybe there's a way to tease out what that notification looks like so that there is a happy medium between having to actually make contact with a parent versus just trying one time a cell phone and leaving a message and that's considered checked off. So I would think there's probably some room here where we can get behind the idea that is here and still

373work within kind of the framework we have. Again, I understand the point from Dr. Braeburn that 10-11 is probably not the time to do that, but I would be supportive of helping to maybe finesse that language working with DSS to get that, get a happy medium here. Thank you very much, Ms. Cohen. Seeing that there are no other speakers, I will take my turn on this matter. Oh, Mr. Frisch, go ahead. In under the buzzer. Barely. That was a sports metaphor, everyone. Give me a pat on the back. I think it was sports. Look, I think this is an important issue, and I'm glad Ms. Amesh brought it to us. We have all seen examples of students who would have benefited from having their parents involved in the situation before disciplinary decisions are made. And

374I think that we should be doing more to make that happen. So I don't see this amendment as detrimental to the process. I see it as helpful. And if it begins that conversation, I think that's healthy. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. And seeing no other hands, I will take my turn and then return this to the maker of the motion. As a former school principal, as I shared earlier, one of the things that I've always harped on is how many issues we can avoid when we have that parent notification. Having said that, I am so very happy to support the spirit of this amendment. But I'm not going to be able to support it as it is written right now, because I do think there are some things that are lacking in order to

375make this not just tenable, but also a little bit more robust and pointed. The spirit is great. We should have that contact. But I think Ms. McLaughlin spoke eloquently regarding the concerns that I have with this. In addition to which... appeals will come to the board. Is it a one-day appeal? Is it a lunch suspension? So there are some other things there that I think we need to be able to work out a little bit more before I can be in support of this as it is presented to us. In addition, I do want to stress, folks, we all know this has been busy. We had a marathon night a couple of days ago, a marathon night tonight. We have got to have opportunity for each other minimally in addition to staff. We must have

376the time to see these amendments ahead of time so we could wrestle with them and ask questions and build understanding. It does not serve us to do that on the fly here. So I really hope that we can be better at this, even though we are all stressed for time. It's just much more helpful when we've had that opportunity. So having said that, I will give the last word to Ms. Omesh, and then we will move this to a vote. Yeah, thank you. I want to just point out two things that were raised. One, the students piece, I'm happy to change the families. I mean, the implication obviously is they're minors, so they would require their families. And I also included or in a more appropriate section to give that room for staff to choose

377where they thought stating this about parent notification would be more appropriate in case my choice of that was not the best. I'm sorry to see folks giving up on this. I think parent notification for the coming year is so important. And this is our last meeting of the year to really have this chance. I know we tried to present friendly amendments and really work through the ones previous to this one. I'd love to see, you know. I would have loved to see a conversation to try to maintain the really important measure here that we all know is an issue in our system. So like I said, I'm happy to change those two elements. I mentioned the clarification about the placement of this, and I'm happy to change students to families. And if it ultimately fails,

378I'd love to see this as a follow-on or a recommendation. That can be... SHAPED IN WHATEVER, YOU KNOW, WORDSMITHED IN WHATEVER WAY STAFF FIND APPROPRIATE, BUT THAT THE SPIRIT OF IT AND THE PURPOSE FOR IT REMAINS UPHELD FOR THIS YEAR. I THINK THAT'S REALLY IMPORTANT. SO IF I MAY RESPECTFULLY, DR. ANDERSON, YOU KNOW, AFTER THIS VOTE, PERHAPS MOVE THIS TO BE A FOLLOW-ON MOTION SHOULD IT NOT, YOU KNOW, SURVIVE. BUT I BELIEVE IN THE IMPORTANCE OF IT AND I'M WILLING TO HEAR FROM ANYONE WHO WANTS TO FIX IT TO MAKE IT WHAT THEY WANT. And I think you did get that. I think you received a number of support. I understand that Ms. Cohen offered support, Ms. McLaughlin offered support, to really be sure that we are taking care of the spirit that you are

379intending to propose here. I am going to go ahead and move to the vote at this point. The amendment before us is I move to amend the main motion by adding the following language and interventions and disciplinary procedures on pages 17, 18 or in a more appropriate section. Should confirmation of peer notification not exist in advance of the decision delivery, students will have the right to appeal discipline decisions to the board. All in favor? We have Ms. Corbett-Standers, we have Mr. Frisch and Ms. Omesh and Ms. Quisgamara. All opposed? Ms. Anna Koufax, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Merritt, Ms. McCarsky, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. Cohen, and Dr. Anderson. Those abstaining? Ms. McLaughlin. The motion fails, and we will have consideration for this as a follow-on as requested. I now call on Ms. Omesh for an amendment. Okay. I

380move to amend the main motion by adding the following language in interventions and disciplinary procedures or in a more appropriate section. Parental acknowledgement of any right to appeal shall be indicated through a signature on a separate page attached to the decision letter explicitly stating the acknowledgement of this right and to be in the preferred language of the parent. Is there a second? Ms. McLaughlin, thank you. Ms. Omesh, would you like to speak to your amendment? Yeah, short and sweet. We've seen this time and time again where we are unsure whether families actually know about their appeals right. They're generally given a long, you know. set of paragraphs and legalese that are difficult to understand or that families might not even read or receive. And I want to make sure that especially when things are consequential

381on students, when they're on their records, when they're missing school time, that we guarantee families are aware of their appeals rights. I mean, it's, you know, I can elaborate on why that's important, but I think it's pretty straightforward. Thank you very much. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to your second? Just briefly, I am very appreciative that Ms. Omish brought this forward. I welcome either Dr. Brabrand or Mr. Foster to explain any concerns they may have with this, but my goal is to see this passed. I have personally experienced as a veteran board member cases where families were not aware of their right. commitment that we have so deeply to equity for all students i think this is paramount to put this type of direction and protection in place thank you are there other

382board members would like to speak to this motion miss cohen I was hopeful that maybe Teresa Johnson, Ms. Johnson, if you feel it's appropriate, could speak to, I'm a little concerned about the language where it just says in this section or in a more appropriate section. I feel like when we amend, we have to be super specific about what we're amending instead of just adding. So if we're adding, totally cool. if we're amending i think we need to be real specific about where where what section we're amending so if ms johnson doesn't mind um speaking to that if you're able i sure would appreciate it sure you know again we were a little confused about where this would belong where uh and where it would go in the sr r i think that the idea

383of this is uh certainly appealing i think the challenge logistically of this is is Rather, for school, it is hard to get any papers back from school. And at the high school level, it's not unusual for a parent not to come in when there's a discipline incident. It often is taken care of over the phone. So I think logistically, certainly the principals and the high school principals still on this call would probably agree with that. But again, I don't know where this is going. I don't understand. Thank you, Dr. Johnson. Thank you. I'm sorry, Ms. Cohen, was that the entirety of your question? Yeah, I'm, yeah, I'm just, I'm a bit confused about how this. this works if we're trying to amend a section that's been written. So I just, I wanna make sure we're

384precise when we do things. And that's my concern. Certainly not the spirit. Again, I definitely get the spirit. I just, I want us to be real intentional when we do this kind of thing. Thank you very much. Ms. Pokarski? I think Ms. Cohen, I guess, I'm so sorry, Ms. Bukowski, you broke up. Can you please repeat your statement? I'm sorry. I've got a bad connection tonight with these folks. I just wanted, I guess, the same thing as Ms. Cohen, to see what this would look like practically if it was a requirement in the SRNR. What would this look like for principals? How could we get this done? Would you like for one of our principals on the call to respond? If they were comfortable to do so, of course. If they are comfortable, yes. Ms.

385Conley, please go ahead. Thank you. I think I completely understand the spirit of this amendment. I do wonder, though, as Ms. Johnson said, oftentimes, even in middle school, parents do not come in when we have discipline concerns. And so often they ask for the documents to just be emailed. And so, again, trying to get things back would be difficult. I think the giving of those two documents and then the follow-up documentation of the call or the meeting or the email may suffice in meeting this. Documentation of giving that information might be another way of meeting this need, but it would be difficult to get this information back in a manageable way for middle school. Thank you very much. Ms. Noto? I'll just echo what Cindy said. I don't know how we could make that work

386at the high school level. It would be very difficult to be able to get a signature for every parent to prove that we've notified them of the appeal process. Thank you very much, Ms. Noto. Ms. Silitz? I think the other part of it, in addition to being able to get the signature and the acknowledgement back, and for the record, we always explain on the phone whether or not, and oftentimes in another language, but even when we send a child for... for a drug class or another intervention, oftentimes we don't get those parental knowledge, acknowledgement forms back as well. The other thing is, for example, in my school, I have families who speak 75 different languages, as I'm sure a lot of other folks do. And just from a logistical standpoint, I don't know how we

387get. I'm sorry, a notice of an appeal translated into that many written languages. Thank you very much, Mr. List. I believe that's all of the principals who have asked to respond. We will go back to Ms. Pekarsky. Was that the entirety of your inquiry? Thank you. That was helpful, Dr. Anderson. Thank you, the principal. Thank you. Ms. Darinat Koufax? I just want to thank the principals. That was also my question. In practicality, how does this work? I understand the spirit of this. And I also want to echo Dr. Brabrand's comments. It is, you know, it's 1024 right now, and we've been going at this for a long time. A lot of these amendments have come in late. The process has to be... This is not the best way to do our work, period. I will

388not be supporting this particular amendment because specifically of what the principals have just said. Thank you very much, Ms. Darinat Koufax. Ms. McLaughlin? Yes, just briefly. I do appreciate the principal input. I do find it troubling that maybe we need some more clarity about what, if anything, related to discipline offenses, where there is a right to appeal, if it's not in a language that either the child or the family can at least understand. then we essentially are saying we are handing a document to families of which they don't even know they have certain rights. So I'm really respectful to the principal who said there's 75 languages, but that actually, Dr. Braebrand, at a macro level, I hope you will take note that we better get really... better clarity than when it comes to discipline issues,

389especially anyone, any discipline issues that involve out-of-school suspensions for five or more days, and certainly to referrals to the hearings office. I think this might be the next step that we're going to have to have an understanding of what does this process look like. I wasn't expecting that this right to appeal had to deal with. minor suspensions i thought this was more about when they're being suspended for 10 days or more sent to the hearings office so ms amisha i think that um you are correct we spent hours tonight um truly wordsmithing some of our other colleagues' amendments. And I feel in terms of fairness and equity, you coming at the end and it's 1030, there's a fatigue factor here. But I also want to compliment you that because both of your amendments are so

390important but need to be done well, I appreciate that my colleagues are trying to say these matter. And thank you for that. but they matter so much we've got to do them well. And so it's heartbreaking, but I just don't see how we can necessarily get this one fixed this evening at this hour where there needs to be more clarity. So I can't support this time, but I'm going to abstain because my abstention speaks to that. I believe in the... concept, but we need more information. And when you don't have enough information, you abstain. So thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Onabudo. Okay, thank you Dr. Anderson. I just want to first thank Ms. Omash for bringing this forward. And as a student FCPS who comes from a household where both my parents speak

391two separate languages, I'm lucky enough that they both speak English as well. But I do have family members, friends, et cetera, who don't have parents that speak English. And I personally want to say that this is something that... I know is an extremely, extremely important topic and I thank the board for recognizing that. But there are things that need to be discussed in this and this is extremely important. And the main thing is that people know their rights. And I get that there are technical and implementation issues with that. But the board needs to do its work to make sure that we find a way to do that because at the end of the day, that's A, extremely important. B, for example, we could ask for virtual signatures, especially now, but I think that that's

392for one thing that we just need to hammer. This is one thing that I think if we spent hours wordsmithing, like you guys said, other amendments, one that even failed, this is something as key as our FCPS families knowing their rights. That really needs to be, this needs to be talked about. This needs to be discussed. I urge the board to consider more seriously trying to find ways to make sure that this gets done and this gets passed. Thank you very much, Mr. Onobudo. Ms. Kies-Gamara? Yes, thank you. I'm happy to follow our student representative. I really do appreciate these motions and I think... I want to make a couple points. A lot of the discussion I've heard tonight, I would have liked to have seen in a work session. So, you know, we need

393to allot that time if we can do that. I also don't think it's quite as complicated as it kind of is coming across, but I realize it doesn't sound like. we have enough support. I know in a number of instances when I have called the schools, when my boys were trying to go to different houses or do whatever and ride a different bus or, you know, it was a simple email. It was a simple text, you know, that someone could receive as long as they had something in writing. So going forward, you know, I would just ask that we be cognizant of how people communicate these days. um it's not always a physical piece of paper that somebody signs and has to physically return um and so i you know i i really really do

394appreciate um these things i i and what is being offered and i and i don't think it's quite as complicated as we are making it tonight but i realize we're all um i'm not even sure what hour we're on right now but i did want to make those comments so thank you thank you so much mrs gizemara ms corbett sanders Sorry, guys, I had to turn on my mic. I'm glad to follow Ms. Keyes-Gamara, and I'm going to offer a friendly amendment or a suggestion to Ms. Omish that you modify this amendment to include parental acknowledgement of any right of appeal shall be indicated through a signature on a separate page attached to the decision letter. explicitly a signature through a signature on a separate page or an electronic notification of return yeah i accept

395that if that's a friendly amendment i think that's that's fine or we can say in a separate letter and just make it all broad the point is it shouldn't be included in the chunks of paragraphs right where it's like one sentence amongst many And I urge my colleagues to support this, especially the need to be doing this in multiple languages. As the wife of somebody who speaks a different language, we were lucky that our children were bilingual. However, that is not the case in every family and every household. And so our student representatives spoke eloquently about this. This is imperative that we recognize the multicultural community. in which we live. Thank you Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Mr. Frisch and then followed by Ms. Eisenhoheiser. I would concur with Ms. Corbett-Sanders. I think this is an important thing

396that many of us have talked about for a while now and you know Mr. Onabuto made a very good point that the days are gone. I can't think of the last time I signed a contract with a pen. I'll just put it that way. So, you know, where there's a will, there's a way. We can get this done. Thank you so much, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Kaiser? I have a question for our principals. When you have a school with 75 languages or whatever, how is this initial information, I mean, how do you communicate important information to them in terms of discipline or medical, I mean, I'm assuming you got a translator, correct? And so would we not be able to do some piece like that again? I really could use Mr. Onigudo's about a text or

397a email. I will say if COVID has taught us anything as a special education parent, having to give consent for... speech language services online and all sorts of other things that were done in a variety of ways to make accommodations for the COVID realities of social distancing. Certainly, if we could do that, we can learn from that and try to find more creative ways to get consent and understanding from our parents who speak many, many languages. Again, also saying as a daughter of immigrants who spoke English fluently, but I do understand what Mr. Onabudo is saying. So I just am curious. how regular communication on important things happen with our parents who speak all these different languages. Thank you so much. I see some principals have raised their hands to respond. Dr. Copeland, please go

398ahead. Sure. I just want to advocate for or let you know, every school has a parent liaison, some more than others. And that's one person who has relationships with families and is easily able to communicate those concerns. And they work with the administrators to do that. We also have, at least in my case, a systems of support advisor that speaks two languages. And that's another person that we have that's able to communicate. the intricacies of the appeal process and making sure that parents understand. And we invest in and go through translation services to have letters translated. I mean, I just wanna say, we go above and beyond to make sure that parents understand, be it something as significant as a hearing or something as minor as an out of school, not minor, but less consequential

399in terms of the numbers of days out in terms of a, less than five days suspension or less. We go above and beyond to make sure that message is clearly communicated. I just want to make sure that that's understood. Thank you, Dr. Kopp. Thank you very much. Sorry, I just wanted to say I do appreciate that. And what I'm asking about is to imply that you all don't go above and beyond in many, many ways. I just wanted to kind of hear what normally happens, regularly happens, and how that might be able to be used to support some of the things being asked in this amendment. So thank you very much. Thank you. Ms. Cohen and then Dr. Brabrand. I think Mr. Litz was trying to speak. Excuse me, Dr. Anderson. Oh, I'm so sorry.

400My eyes are going, clearly. Mr. Litz, please go ahead. And then Mr. Herring. I see both of you are there. No problem at all. It's very late. In addition to what Dr. Copeland say, I would also add that we do have available to us an outside translation service that will translate to families in a lot of languages. And we've used them a couple times here, and they're very good. When I was referring to 75 language, I was referring to the challenges that it would be to translate a written letter. into 150 languages. That is, I think, difficult. But in terms of verbally communicating through a translation service, I don't see that as an issue. Thank you very much, Mr. List. Mr. Goering? I was only going to add that one of the things that I

401know my colleagues do and I do as well is get to know my community. My community has a very large population whose home language is Twi. And so we have actively hired. staff members that speak that language. And so, you know, we have, we recognize those challenges and we really do our best to make sure we're meeting those needs. That's all I can add at this point. Thanks guys. Thank you very much. Ms. Seismohizer, did you have any other inquiries? I would, no, I think I really do support the idea behind this and then the emotion, the concept of it. I just think that again at this late hour it is difficult to figure out exactly how this should look in a way that's implementable, that's true to the nature of this while also not,

402that's just implementable I think. So I don't know if there should be a fall in motion. I'm very torn because I think this is very important. So that's where I'm at. Thank you very much. Dr. Brabrand, go ahead and then I will take my turn before I go to Govax. I think this would be better as a follow-on motion to look at how we can better as staff reach out to our parents so they know their rights. I think that's exactly what Nathan's point was. And I'm just going to reiterate that what we're doing now is we're having a work session. ON THE SRNR AND WHEN IT WAS A NIGHT THAT AFTER WE DID AN ADDITIONAL WORK SESSION THAT WE WERE HERE TO VOTE. AND AGAIN, WE'RE GOING TO GROW TOGETHER, BUT THERE'S A BETTER

403WAY TO DO THIS WORK. We've got principals here. It's almost 11 o'clock. They're that committed. They've been on nine hours. But we've just got to find a better way to partner to get the policies that you guys want. We need to have time to respond and have appropriate implementation responses. And there's just a better way to do that. I would support a follow-on with the spirit. I don't think it means necessarily a separate letter. I don't know whether it means a letter in the language. It may just be, again, I don't know what it is because my mind is not sharp enough at 11 o'clock to know. But the spirit of reaching out to parents is something that we believe in, certainly when it comes to discipline. And we would be glad to partner with

404Ms. Omesh and the entire board and bring back strategies or ideas that don't have to be in the SRNR per se. and I'm not precluding it, but we've got to pass an SR&R to get it ready for implementation for next year. This is your last meeting and the school year is beginning and we've got to get that ready. So I'd love this as a follow-on with additional work that we could bring back in a future work session. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Fabran. Before I take my turn, I want to be sure that I have the right number of go-backs. So if you're not intending to speak again, please lower your hand. And just as a reminder, the go-backs will be one minute. So if your hand is up, your go-back will be

405one minute. I am very much in favor of this motion because I think that parental... Notification is important. And again, as I think very eloquently stated by not just Nathan, but also someone else who I can't remember at this point, if we're just handing people paper that is in a language that they cannot understand, we might as well not do it at all. So I would really want to see that we could find a way to make this work. Having said that, it doesn't have to live in this motion per se, but we have to make the work happen. I very much appreciate a separate document that is not buried, as Ms. Omesh said, into all of the other things that people don't understand. But we can be creative in terms of virtual signatures. I

406mean, we live in a very virtual world at this point, hence this meeting. So I would love to see that we can get that to work, because this is a constant question for us when we have appeals that come to us as a board. Was there appropriate notification? And this is a very, very creative way in ensuring that that has taken place and that there's confirmation to it. Okay. So now I will go to go backs and you will have one minute. Ms. Kees-Gamara. Thank you. Ms. Cohen. I would support this as a follow on motion. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders. I just want to clarify some misinformation or misunderstanding regarding the timeliness in which this board addressed the issues in the SR&R. We had our work session on the SR&R last week. Substantial changes were

407made in the SR&R between when we had our first meeting and when we had our second meeting or second work session on it because of things that happened at the federal level. the time to have had those discussions was last week during a work session. I would suggest that we did not have much time beforehand before the document was posted, and we did have a truncated work session because of other pressing needs. So I regret that this is a late night, but this is important, and it's really important for the families of those languages that do not get these letters in their native language. And so I urge my colleagues with the modification that was made here to please support Mr. Meech's amendment. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. Ms. McLaughlin? I just want to echo what

408Ms. Corbett-Sanders said. I don't know that many people in the public are still listening at this late hour, but they will go back and revisit the work session, perhaps electronically. And to our principals who've been so dedicated here tonight, I don't want you to think differently or lesser of this board as well. Ms. Corbett-Sanders is correct. These amendments have come forward because of... very recent changes. The only thing I can say is that Dr. Brabren in the future, if these kinds of changes happen and given we all recognize we're dealing with COVID, perhaps what we should have just done is said that the board was going to have to have a special meeting next week or maybe early in August where we already know we're going to do some more. I just don't want this

409all falling on the misperception that board members didn't do their homework, were untimely in their proposals. A lot of this was we didn't have a chance to talk. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Lomash, you have the last word on this matter. I appreciate what both my colleagues said right before me. I just want to bring us back, guys. All this is saying is that families should be notified in a separate letter with acknowledgement through their signature, virtual or not, it's fine. We said, we clarified that, that they have the right to appeal. This is incredibly important. We all know, first of all, follow-on motions are very difficult to follow up on. I have yet to see follow-up on some of them, right? We know that. So putting it that way, I think, is a cop-out.

410The reason we review this regulation every year and the reason why it's so important is because it's a document about student rights. If we're not able to achieve what we shouldn't be doing because we don't have the resources, that's precisely why we should be implementing something like this. I recognize the implementation challenges. I know it's not going to be the easiest thing, but it's also the wrong, it's absolutely unjust to give people documents they don't understand, to impose discipline, a disciplinary action on students that don't even know what's going on. and say that we're in compliance now. I want us to move away from a compliance mindset. We have to do right by these families, and this is a very basic way to do that. I understand, you know, the technicality of it. Thank you,

411Ms. Omesh. Thank you, Ms. Omesh. We're now going to move to the vote. I move to a member. Madam Chair, it's Megan McLaughlin. Thank you. Just a quick process question, and maybe Ms. Mulder can explain this. Let's say that most of the intent of this language board members are comfortable with. There might need some clarifying language just to make sure the public can easily understand it. Do we have the ability to say to the superintendent, this is what we passed, and if the division council um were to look at this or miss johnson and say we need to tweak the language for clarity that that would be fine and it stands as still the record and the intent of the board wanted to do tonight then i can support this and i just wanted to

412check on that okay let's have miss mulberg give a response if she is able to i i'm not sure i understand the question the motion is uh as presented that's we've been discussing so that's what you'd have to vote on if you're yes i agree miss mulberg yeah miss milberg i'll just clarify my request and maybe it's to mr foster's division council instead my only point is we pass this and then if the division looks at and says you forgot a comma you this word here needed to be changed just for clarity i mean isn't there a way that the the superintendent could even just say to the board this is we looked at this over we understand your intent we needed to clean up this sentence so without objection that will go in i'm

413just i'm trying to understand like mr foster will you speak to that please Sure. So there is provision in Virginia case law allowing for correction of what are typically referred to as clerical or ministerial errors or adjustments. But those cannot be substantive changes. And so, you know, your point, Ms. McLaughlin, if it's an assertion of a comma or, you know, something that's clerical like that, that's OK. But. we would have to look very closely at what the changes are to make sure we're not getting into a substantive change that would require board approval. Correct, Mr. Foster. And so my question was, it would be under you and Dr. Brabrand to ascertain if any recommendations coming from Ms. Johnson's shop would just say, oh, that's a minor change that's not substantive and doesn't require a new

414board vote. Right. I could look at that. Sure. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. Thank you, Mr. Foster. I have another point of clarification. Go ahead. Just to clarify what Mr. Foster just said, though, it's not finessing language. It's a period. It's a comma. It's a parentheses out of order. I'm so confused about an amendment means you're making a change to a document. This is not a follow on. This is amending, but we don't even know what language it is amending. I definitely understand the principle, but this is important. This document. The way this document works is that there are references to every piece of this and then how the discipline process goes. So I'm very confused and obviously. at the point of frustration of understanding what we don't vote on an idea here. We vote on

415specific language that has specific process and procedures, and none of those have been identified. So I don't understand. I love the spirit. I really do. But the language and the specificity is what matters here. It's why we spent an hour deciding we couldn't have Confederate flags in our building. The words matter. And I'm just, I'm so sorry. I'm just frustrated. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. We are going to go ahead and move on to the vote. Thank you so much. At this point, I move to a matter of... Sorry, a point of order, Madam Chair. Yes, go ahead, Ms. Omage. Yeah, there were, I believe, two friendly amendments or suggestions to language that were added to revise the language of this. So I just wanted to point that out. Can we go ahead and have those

416be posted? Ms. Corbett-Standers, will you be able to send those to our clerk? I think she had the friendly amendment. No, I don't. I think that was something else. I think it's been incorporated. It says parent acknowledgement of any right to appeal shall be indicated through a signature on a separate page or an electronic notification attached to the decision letter. I'm so sorry. I'm not. Okay. Here it is. So that is number 10. I'm going to go ahead and read that again to be sure that that is now what has been agreed that we will be voting on. I move to amend the main motion by adding the following language and interventions and disciplinary procedures in a more appropriate section. Something is missing. I think we had some pages missing there. It should be adding

417the following language to the interventions and disciplinary procedures. I think we had on pages 17 and 18 or in a more appropriate section. I guess that's probably the piece that we would need to remove or complete. Right. Go ahead, Abrah. I'm sorry. We can just indicate the section in that case without specifying the pages since that was brought up as a potential concern in the interventions and disciplinary procedures section. Okay. If it's appropriate to say in a more appropriate section, I'm fine with that. Okay. So let's do that and then let's remove on pages 17, 18 or in a more appropriate section. So it will read now, I move to amend the main motion by adding the following language and interventions and disciplinary procedures section. Parental acknowledgement of any right to appeal shall be indicated

418through a signature on a separate page or an electronic notification attached to the, not attached to the decision letter. Well, I guess it would be electronically attached to the decision letter explicitly stating the acknowledgement of this right. and in the preferred language of the parent. I'm so sorry, Ms. Smallberg, it's late and I'm losing it. Are we voting on this new language before we vote on it officially as an amendment to the SRNR? I have to tell you, there was no vote on any kind of amendment. It's sort of just, I don't know. You're both kind of saying there's a friendly amendment, but there was no vote to do it. to make the changes that Bev is now making that you're telling her to make? I believe we need to change the law on this.

419Point of Parliament. Go ahead Mr. Fresh. Please. A friendly amendment. There is no such thing as a friendly amendment. It does not mean that we just accept somebody who wants to change something. An amendment is considered friendly unless it's hostile, and a hostile amendment is designed to change the purpose of whatever it is that it's amending. If something is made to make it better, it must be made, seconded, debated, voted on, and then it's changed. A sponsor of a motion or an amendment cannot just accept an amendment. The entire body does because Once they make the motion, once they offer an amendment, it is no longer theirs. It is now the purview of the board at that point. Okay. So at this point, I would like to ask, is there someone who would like to

420motion this new language that is provided, who would like to make that motion for this new language to be considered? Ms. Karen Corbett Sanders, who would like to second this? Ms. Kees Gamara. Discussion regarding this new language. Can I suggest we table the discussion? We've had extensive discussion of this language. I agree. I agree and I'm not against that. Now, let's vote on this as it stands, this new language. We'd be voting on approving the amendment. Approving the amendment. All in favor. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. All in favor of approving this amendment. Approving the amendment. Thank you. The amendment to the amendment. The changes to the changes. Got it. All in favor, we have Ms. Corbett Sanders, we have Ms. Keyes-Gamara, we have Mr. Frisch, we have Ms. Omesh, Ms. Tolan, Ms. McLaughlin, and Dr.

421Anderson. And that is seven. So the amendment to the amendment passes. It carries. Now we're going to move to... Oh, sorry, who opposed? Who opposes? Please clear. We have Ms. Cohen, Ms. Marin, Ms. Darinak-Kofax. Any abstentions? Ms. Eisenhower. Thank you. At this point, we will be voting on the... Oh, Ms. Bukarski abstained. I apologize. I thought she was against. Okay. I'm so sorry, y'all. At this time, we're going to vote on the amendment. I move to amend the main motion by adding the following language, an interventions and disciplinary procedures section, parental acknowledgement of any right. to appeal shall be indicated through a signature on a separate page or an electronic notification attached to the decision letter explicitly stating the acknowledgement of this right and to be in the preferred language of the parent. All in

422favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Omish, Ms. Quisdemara, Mr. Frisch, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Toland, Dr. Anderson. All opposed? I'm sorry, no, we have more. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser. All opposed? Ms. Romesh, do you oppose? Thank you. Ms. Marin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Bukarski. Any abstentions? I was an abstention. I was just waiting for the rest to clear. Ms. Darinat-Kofax is an abstention. I think that's it. Thank you all. The motion carries. Okay. Now I will read the main motion before us. I move that the school board adopt regulation 2601.34 P, student rights and responsibilities as detailed in the agenda item and as amended. Please clear the board at this point. All those in favor. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Marin, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. Omish, Ms. Bukarski, and Dr. Anderson. And please clear.

423Opposed? Ms. Marin. And that is all. No abstentions. I wasn't opposed. I was just taking my hand down from the vote. oh okay i'm so sorry then you were later on i'm an abstention and we have one abstention from is there not cofax dr anderson i'm sorry i was booted off i wanted to be an abstention as well i do apologize okay madam clark were you able to get all of that or do we need to redo this again yes ma'am no i haven't thank you thank you thank you Now I call on Ms. Keyes-Gomero for a follow-on motion. Thank you. I'm sorry. I move the Board direct the superintendent to review Regulation 2601.3P with input from the Governance Committee to address concerns regarding subjective language that may not clearly provide guidance to administrators when

424administering the SR&R. Review and suggested changes should address the following concerns. Number 1, an SRO's primary role in schools as a law enforcement shall be revised to recognize that students from marginalized communities or those who have experienced trauma may not readily accept this characterization and the regulation should reflect this discrepancy. The language in that same paragraph that states at any time the SRO may become involved when a school administrator has a safety concern that cannot be addressed by the school's safety and security staff shall be revised to provide further clarification for SRO involvement. Page 41 and 42, Section C1 shall be clarified to identify the role of an SRO when determining facts of a discipline case. Page 45, Section 3, uh-oh. She moved it. Okay. Suspended students and get grades K through three shall be

425revised to clarify paragraph five, which allows a K through three student to be suspended for aggravating circumstances as a subjective term, which could easily lead to disparate impact. Page 45, section 4A, which allows the principal to suspend a K through three. Create student having after giving the student oral or written notice of the charges against him or her an explanation of the facts is known to school personnel. If student denies the charges and an opportunity to present his or her version of what occurred shall be revised to provide language to allow parental notification and the need to address the child's ability to understand such explanations. Additionally, the review shall address subjective standards such as the disruption. of the education process disobedience insubordination or defiance and misconduct which are subjective terms that could result in disparate

426impact is there a second i believe that's miss o'mish so much thank you i i didn't see it and i don't have it anywhere uh miss keys gamara would you like to speak to your motion Just briefly, I think we've had extensive discussion tonight and we've clearly pointed out our concern to clarify language in order to avoid disparate impact and remove subjectivity. This is a way of, I didn't want to substitute language for these areas, but I did want to bring it for the attention of the board and give our governance committee an opportunity to work on this so that we can do good work, but also be very, very aware of specific areas of concern. Ms. Omash, would you like to speak to your second? I think she captured it. The only thing I

427would add is I think it's just a great addition that we can think about along the lines of what the special services department is already working on with data and having RASs and principal review school-based data and all that when it comes to discipline. So I think this will complement that really well. And as we know, these are the areas where bias and disproportionality creep in. So in trying to be more intentional about weeding that out, I think this is a great opportunity. Thank you. Are there board members wishing to speak to this motion? Ms. Darren Apco-Fax? Yes, I would. I'm sorry. This has been a crazy week. And Miss Keys Gamara, when did you submit this information? Because I feel like the depth of this is very worthy of a conversation, but this should

428have been something in a work session. And I really am not prepared at this point in time to have a greater, to have an understanding of what I need to be voting on. So I, but I do ask. when did you start asking that question um we when we had our work session i raised these questions i wrote an email immediately after that to all of my colleagues and then i followed up with this language on monday thank you thank you miss mclaughlin yes thank you i i appreciate mr nekofax as concerns about the breadth and depth of this follow-on. But, Ms. Kiskemar, if I'm following this correctly, the whole point is that you have just done a wonderful primer in saying here are the sections in particular that you want to have the governance

429committee spend time deliberatively looking at more carefully. and then obviously this will come back to a work session out of governance for the full board to have an in-depth discussion before any changes and direction given to the superintendent would come with respect to the the srnr is that correct That is correct, Ms. McLaughlin. Okay. To my colleagues, I do want to share with you that eight years ago when I joined the board, I begged that initial board to consider the... current structure of our school board subcommittees. I did not feel that they reflected our ability to give accountability and oversight to some of the most important things that touch our students and families and employees. And in fact, I helped push for the human resources committee to look at hr matters that took years and

430years we now have a facilities committee that took years and years i would garner at this point in discussing the follow-on motion I would far prefer that we actually have a student discipline subcommittee that looks at not just SR&R but our quarterly data and it could certainly include other things. So I'm just putting in that extra plug right now because I know having served on governance committee for six years it gets bogged down with a lot of things. It is such a broad committee that almost it's hard to get anything through there timely and so I just want to offer that as an idea that I can bring as a forum topic. But since we're here tonight, it's a good example of where we could be more intentional with our time. Thank you so much,

431Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Tolan? Yes. So, Ms. McLaughlin's first question, I think, was my biggest concern because I certainly appreciate this motion and all of the conversations that need to happen around both of these topics, the SRO-related topics, and then the discipline issues with our K-3 students. I know we've got more sessions coming up in the fall around this. So this is not a follow-on motion. I just want to clarify, they're not going to be included in. the SRS that's gonna show up in October in October and students this year, this is something that we're acknowledging that we need to work on very carefully over the next month. Is that correct? I'm sorry, was it for me? I'm not sure the timing, but I did not want, let me say two things. I did submit this

432to Dr. Brabrand immediately and asked him if he wanted to convert it to an amendment. He preferred it to be in a follow-on motion, but I could not read the SRNR and go through our truncated work session last week without bringing this to the attention of my colleagues. We have worked far too hard to try to rectify imbalances and deal with disparities. And so, you know, my vote for this as an R and R was contingent upon, you know, recognizing that we have some very significant work to do. I did not believe that we could get it done. In this particular go round, but this was my way of earmarking for this board. How to that that we needed to make these corrections. So, with respect to the timing, I did not. I did not

433have that discussion as telling I'm sorry I think that's what you asked. No, I think you answered my question. Okay, you know that this is something that we need to have. you know, full blown serious discussion on in the future. Right? And you're just kind of putting a put that's what the most these following motions are. It's like a police holder that we know these discussions need to happen. That's my understanding at 11. Oh, no. Yeah, correct. Well, your understanding be different at 12 o'clock. Miss, um, we are going to find out for sure thank you so much miss toland miss corbett sanders please go ahead Yes, I fully support this follow on motion. This is a very, it sets the tone of future work that needs to be done going forward in the context

434of our student rights and responsibilities. And it puts it in the right location of a partnership working between governance and the superintendent. This is a very traditional process that we have used in the past to ensure that we continuously improve improve and work with intentionality when we're dealing with discipline issues. And so thank you very much, Ms. Keyes-Gamara and Ms. Omish for bringing this important work forward. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Mr. Frisch, I'm not sure if you're muted. I did my little I'm muted and I'm still talking thing. So as chair of governance committee, I will make this a priority. I think it's an important issue. So I realize that governance has a reputation for getting bogged down, but it's a choice of what goes where on the agenda. So we will make sure that

435this is a priority. I also think that. um governance can help give the conversation that we're having in the future focus and that this follow-on motion does a very good job of bringing attention to the areas where our attention is most needed so i appreciate the work of of miss kiscomara on this and i look forward to hopefully beginning to tackle these issues after the board gives the guidance thank you Thank you very much. Ms. Seismohiser? Thank you very much. I just wanted to follow on with Ms. McLaughlin's excellent point about our committees and a student discipline committee. Just to start by saying that I suggested in February, and Ms. Marin did also, that we review our board committees as well as our advisory committees. Ms. Marin and I have had a forum topic pending

436on this since February. I completely understand all the important work we had to do, so this is not to be negative on anybody. But we've had forum topics come up after that that have been heard before that. And this is one of the things that I feel I very much respect the work of our governance committee, and they did good work. But the research that I had done in preparation for that initial forum topic showed other school boards have a variety of committees. So maybe there isn't quite so much work going to governance, right? And it's just something to look at that I think you'd be... worthwhile looking at to say is there a way to streamline this work and it starts with looking at our committee structure um and or i should say streamline

437but but better distribute the work so things don't get held up here while other committees may not have as much to do so um i would just look forward to bringing the forum topic up when we have time and again i we have all been crazy so this is not a negative on anybody but um it would be helpful i think to maybe have the conversations about when we have things like this we want to study to have um an update to where this may land so i just wanted to bring that up to miss mclaughlin i think it's an excellent point and i look forward to having the opportunity at some point maybe when we get out of crisis to be able to review our own structures to make sure we are as efficient

438and um as nimble as possible um so that's on that thank you thank you miss paparsky Thank you. It is so late. We just need to be done. Staff needs to be done. I'm just trying. I support this. I want to be part of this conversation, but I'm trying to understand why this is the appropriate place for this and not in a work session for the full board. I know people have said they brought up four topics about this. So I just I just question the placement of where this is right now without us having the conversation. That's it. Thank you very much. I see we have some folks for go backs, which we will limit to one minute. Is there enough cofax? Yes, I wanted to follow up on what Rachna said. Yes, we

439had in public engagement committee had talked about the committee structure. I don't know where governance is right now. I really haven't talked to the chair, but I know when I was chair of governance, things got bogged down there. I, at this point, I think this is a work session topic to decide where it needs to go, what needs to happen. It is an... absolute necessary topic to talk about. But at this point, again, I have been frustrated with the amendments, the amount, the time. So I will be abstaining from this in hopes that we can look at our committee structure, look at places and see where this particular issue can fall, because I'm not sure governance can handle all of the meaty topics that are going to befall at at that committee thank you very

440much at this time i will call for the vote all in favor madam chair can i have a closing comment as the maker of the motion oh i'm so sorry i i i'm so sorry we didn't have all these hands that were up please go ahead Yes, at the time, as I said, I did have a conversation with Dr. Brabrand as to working this out. The governance committee can get us started and certainly it can come to a work session from the governance committee. I'm not suggesting that it would go straight from the governance committee to the board table. As I advocated earlier, work sessions definitely have their place. However, I do not think it's appropriate to approve the SRNR knowing, at least I could not in good conscience, knowing that there was substantial work

441that needed to be done without identifying the vehicle by which it would be addressed. And so thus this following motion. And so I urge my colleagues to at least take up my good my good colleagues offering the governance committee thank you mr frisch uh to get this rolling and then certainly we can go through those additional steps but i do think the community needs to know that this is being addressed immediately thank you thank you and we have uh another comment by miss um omesh i was raising my hand sorry oh okay thank you i appreciate that all right all in favor of this follow-on Please raise your hands at this time. We have Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. DeFrisch, Ms. Omage, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Smarin, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Seismore-Heiser, and Dr. Anderson. That is

442nine. All opposed? No one is opposing. Who is abstaining? Ms. Bokarski, Ms. Darinak-Kofax, and Ms. Cohen. the motion carries i now call on miss mehren for a follow-on motion miss mehren yes thank you um okay um i moved the school board direct the superintendent review regulations 2601.3 from the governance committee to address concerns regarding the organization of information in the regulation in an effort to clarify the content to students families and staff review and suggested changes should address the following concerns in chapter one clearly state the students rights and responsibilities I guess I'd remove that duplicate in Chapter 1, to establish student rights and school division expectations for student behavior before stating consequences that may occur as a result of that student behavior. And in Chapter 2, clarify student conduct that will necessitate intervention and

443disciplinary procedures by the school division. Sorry, I lost my microphone. Thank you so very much. Is there a second? Ms. Eisner-Heiser? Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your motion, to your follow-on motion? Yes, so I had thoroughly reviewed the latest version of the SRNR and wrote very, very detailed comments. And basically, the big gist of it for me, I was looking at it with kind of like a copy editing eye and also a parent. And just the organizational structure of the document goes back a lot and forth between the students' rights, their responsibilities, the consequences. So in Chapter 1, which is supposed to be about students' rights and responsibilities, We've got stuff in there that talks about consequences and the disciplinary actions. So in some cases, we haven't even established what the expectations

444are for behavior before we're already telling students, like, this is what's going to happen if you don't behave a certain way. And then in chapter two, which is supposed to detail the discipline actions, again, there's some... pieces in there that say a student, you know, if a student, you know, said to the principal, hey, someone has a gun in school or someone has a gun, but someone has medicine in school, you know, that's good behavior. Well, that should be in the first chapter. So basically, I'm actually following what Ms. Kees-Gamar just did in the previous follow-on, which is to say, I have a lot of copy edits, and I believe also Ms. Seismorheiser has some too that are very, very detailed. that I trust our governance committee and staff to work through to make a

445more cohesive document. So it's very clear what we expect of students, what their rights are, what their responsibilities are. And then chapter two, what happens if they don't meet those responsibilities and find themselves in a place where we need to be clear what their rights are because they're having consequences. Thank you. Ms. Heisman-Heiser, would you like to speak to your second? Given the hour, I will just say that Ms. Marin spoke very, very well to this, but I do think our documents need to be very clear for our parents to be able to read and understand. So this is why I think it's important to really review the way this is laid out. Other board members who wish to speak? Seeing Ms. Darinot-Kofax? Yes, I just have a question, Ms. Marin, regarding you're saying you

446have extensive copy edits. Like, have you worked with staff on that? When, Dr. Brabrand, is this due? I'm forgetting at this late hour. And do you think, I need to understand, is this a realistic expectation? If you have extensive copy edits, will this be able to be, will staff be able to work with you or have you talked to staff about how this will get accomplished before the deadline for printing? Yeah, sure. But you know what I'm saying. Yeah, no, sure. I have talked with Ms. Johnson about it. And I underscored with her that the intention is not that I'm looking for a line-by-line response. There are extensive caveats because I pulled up many examples where what I'm talking about happens, where I'm saying, look, this is inconsistent. This is an example where it's inconsistent,

447and here and here and here. So it's all that same gist of, hey, we've got information in all different places. So I'll leave it at that. I also do want to speak. I know someone had asked me about putting a date on this. Again, I'm going to trust the government's committee and staff's professionalism to do this. It's in the best interest of the document. So and I honestly didn't want to change the motion language again and have to. and have to do that i'm okay with that so i i i know and i appreciate what you're saying and i think the way you described it seems like a a a solid change i'm worried about the change coming this year dr braybrand do we have that kind of time i guess when does this have

448to be done uh theresa do you know was this intended to be changed now or simply uh for for the future theresa I was under the school. It can't happen now. How's that? Thank you. I'll say that's fair. I mean, we didn't even have a governance committee meeting before the start of school. So that's fair. Okay. That just wasn't clear in your language. No, thank you for asking. It needs to be done for the next version, sure. Thank you for asking. Ms. McLaughlin? Yes, just really quickly. I know we have this push-pull with the SR&R, what goes to print, what gets done electronically. I'm going to support Ms. Marron's... extensive work on this and express my appreciation for her efforts. I would just say, Dr. Brabrand, I know Ms. Johnson's going to pass on the

449baton to Dr. Boyd quite soon. I don't think that necessarily what Ms. Marin is talking about here is absolutely mission critical. That said... I would hope for the electronic version of the SRNR that if there are any suggested changes and edits that Ms. Marin has brought forward, that you and your team look at it. And if you think that anything is timely and important that should be put into effect for the electronic version this year, that you don't necessarily sit on it for literally another. 12 months till we get to the next school calendar. That would be my only advocacy on that. And Ms. Marin, thank you again for your work. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? Yes. I am happy to support this with the understanding that this is the work that

450will be done in advance of the next SRNR being adopted, that this is really what Ms. Marin has suggested is some significant restructuring of the SRNR to make it more family-friendly or user-friendly. And so I don't have any problem supporting it, just understanding that this is not going to be done in advance of this. SRNR that we just adopted because frankly if there were substantive changes made then it would have to come back to this full board for approval so I'm happy to support this knowing that it will make next year's document even better. Thank you, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. There are no other speakers, but I do have a question, and this is to Ms. Foster. Ms. McLaughlin shared whether or not we would be able to have any of these changes be added to the

451electronic version. Are we able to have the electronic version be updated and yet the written version is not? Will that cause a conflict? It absolutely will. And I think that Ms. Johnson or a member of her team can speak to, if you need them to, the timing on getting this to the printer. But from a legal standpoint, we cannot have a discrepancy between the electronic version and the printer. Thank you. Ms. Johnson, did you want to add anything to this? Yes, this language will be changed in the next day. Probably carry all work on making all the changes tomorrow. It has to go out immediately. We are so far behind. Thank you. I just wanted to get some clarity about that. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to go back? We have one minute for go-backs.

452Please go ahead. Oh, yeah, I just wanted clarity what Ms. Johnson and Mr. Foster said. I was doing this for eight years. I absolutely understand what they both just said. That was not my advocacy. My advocacy is that I understood Ms. Marin identified things where it's just about consistency of logic and how things flow. And so, frankly, I don't know why the division would want to have a document, even if we can't fix it in print. but we would want to have it be logical if it's not that it's substance it's just placement um i i just simply thought why not make sure that the electronic version at least is more logical but i would expect staff to make that judgment call that's all i was suggesting thank you so much we're going to go

453ahead and go to the vote at this point I moved that the school board direct the superintendent's review regulation 2601.3P with input from the governance committee to address concerns regarding the organization of information and the regulation in an effort to clarify the content to students, families, and staff. Review and requested changes should address the following concerns. Chapter 1, clearly state students' rights and responsibilities. And Chapter 1, to establish students' rights and school division expectations for student behavior before stating consequences that may occur as a result of student behavior. And Chapter 2, clarify student conduct that will necessitate the intervention and disciplinary procedures by the school division. All those in favor? Ms. Marin, Ms. Somesh, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Bakarsky, Mr. Frisch, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Diana Koufax, Ms. Toland, Ms. Seismohiser, and Dr.

454Anderson. Those opposed? None. Any abstentions? None as well. Motion carries. I now call on Ms. Corbett-Sanders for a follow-on motion. Yes, thank you very much, Dr. Anderson. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to provide to the board on a semi-annual basis the number of incidences reported to the police department broken out by school, age, ethnicity, and violation. This report will allow for greater oversight and transparency. Thank you. Is there a second? Ms. Keyes-Gamara? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. You know, this board is so committed to a number of things, including addressing concerns about disproportionality. and the importance of transparency and accountability. And what this follow-on motion does is support all of those objectives by ensuring that we have transparency, oversight of when things are being reported

455to the police and making sure that there's not disproportionality, and if there is, that we address those instances. And so I hope that my colleagues will support me in this effort. Ms. Kees-Demar, would you like to speak to your second? What she said is very clear. Thank you. Thank you very much. Any other board members would wish to speak? Ms. Osmohiser? Thank you. I appreciate this motion quite a bit. I believe in transparency. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you be willing to take a friendly amendment to add IEP or 504 status to that list so we know students with disabilities as well in terms of police referrals? As I'm sure my colleagues know that our discipline disparities are actually greatest for students with disabilities, and so it would be good to have that data included in your

456list. So I was wondering if you'd be willing to take that. So I would be happy to, as you know Ms. Seismerheiser, the motion is now on the table for the whole board and so we can discuss your amendment to the follow-on motion but obviously I would support that. Thank you. Do we have a second to Ms. Seismerheiser's motion? May I ask point of order, Madam Chair? Sorry. May I ask if we have additional things to add to it, do we wait for an additional opportunity or may we add them to Ms. Sizemore-Heiser's amendment? That is a good question. Do these need to be taken in part? Yes. Unless you can talk to somebody before they offer their amendment to combine them. Every amendment has to be taken one at a time. That doesn't mean

457we have to discuss every amendment if we don't raise our hands. Thank you, parliamentarian Frisch. So we will take them one at a time. So let's go ahead and ask for a second to Ms. Chajmaha. I'm sorry, who's the I? Abrar. Thank you. Ms. Omish will second. Any discussion on that? If you do not want to discuss this part, please lower your hand. Okay. So let us go ahead and vote on the amendment that Ms. Sizemore-Heiser is proposing, which is going to have this read. I moved that the school board direct the superintendent to provide the board on a semi-annual basis the number of incidences reported to the police department broken out by school. age, ethnicity, IEP, and 504 status and violation. This report will allow for greater oversight and transparency. All in favor? Ms.

458Somesh, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Kizgamara, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Seismorheiser, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Merritt, Ms. Danak-Kofax, Ms. Bukarski, and Dr. Anderson. I believe that is unanimous. So at this point, it will read age, ethnicity, IEP, and 504 status in violation. We're going to continue with the rest of our speakers. And I believe we're up to, is it Ms. Marin? Okay, yep. Actually, is it Ms. Omish? Did that get it? I might be using an older document. Okay, if it's me, I got it, sorry. I think you're right, Ms. Marin. That it's me? No. We'll get everybody re-lined up. Go ahead, Ms. Marin. Okay, thank you. I move for the school board to update its legislative package to the Virginia General Assembly for this August. Oh, no, no, no. I'm so sorry, Ms. Marin.

459Did you want to speak to Ms. Corbett-Sanders' motion? We're still working on number three. Okay. And then we will come back to you. Ms. Tolan? So I was thinking it would be good to add that to get a report on the number of incidences reported to the police department broken out by what we just stated. I would also like to know which of those actually resulted in charges. Okay. So you're offering that amendment. Do we have a second? i'll second that as larging thank you laura jane any discussion i have taken down the list the current list so if you're not willing if you're not wanting to discuss you can go ahead and lower your hands thank you no discussion let's uh at this point i would like to ask us to vote on this

460current amendment Oh, I apologize. McLaughlin and the discussion on missed Poland's. Amendment yes. Go ahead, please. Thank you. Just that as we're doing this violation, it's supposed to be by violation. What resulted in charges? We should also then ask for disposition. Yeah, whatever. What in are happening with these? Were they? Karen Keyes-Camara probably knows how to say it better, but I thought we would want to know the disposition, if there were convictions or dismissed. Are you amending what Ms. Tolan has proposed? Before we vote on it, I was suggesting that be part of hers. She's asking for, it says violations, she's asking for charges, and I'm just suggesting we might as well get the rest of the data, which is convictions or dismissals. I was hoping we would vote on her and then vote on

461yours, but are we combining these two at this point? We can't combine them because the motion was already made and seconded. Right. So we just need to go ahead and vote on Ms. Toland's and then we will include yours, Ms. McLaughlin, shortly. Madam Chair, were you allowing discussion on the recent addition? This is what is happening right now. There's discussion on Ms. Toland's move to add whether or not these resulted in charges. And I wanted to ask for some clarification regarding that because I think that may be complicated, but I needed clarification from Mr. Foster if he's still with us. At this point, folks, I want to be sure that the hands that are raised are to respond to Ms. Toland's amendment. to add whether or not these resulted in charges. So Ms. Kees-Gamar, you

462posed a question. Ms. Foster, are you still with us? Yeah, I have concerns because we, IEP, what's reported to the police, 504, are all things in our control. When you start talking about charges, disposition, and what happens once it's in the control of the police, that's a different matter. And so it's a timing issue. I'm not quite sure how that, you know, we've had a number of issues when we handle discipline matters where we're delayed because we don't have that information. And so I think I'm concerned that. us getting this information could well be impacted by requiring information from a third party that we don't have any control over. Thank you very much for that information, Ms. Gammara. Mr. Foster, would you like to add to Ms. Gammara's comment? Yes, and I am still here.

463I will say, like all of them, getting a bit tired, like we all are, but I want to make sure I understand the question. And is this referring to the amendment that has been made by Ms. Corbett Sanders about reports and incidents of the police department or is it, yes? There's an amendment to the amendment at this point asking that we expand Ms. Corbett Sanders' amendment to include whether or not the violations reported to the police resulted in charges. So adding another data point to which Ms. Kees-Gamara shared some concerns regarding the timeliness or even the availability of that data to us as it is coming from a third party for the purposes of this work. Yeah, so I share the concerns. The police would want to share charges with us down to that level

464of granularity. And so I'm not saying no, but I do have the same question that Ms. Keese-Gamara does about that. And then I also share a concern. Once we have that information, does that then place an independent obligation on the school system? if we have information regarding specific students. So I'm not saying no, but I would want some time to work through those issues. Thank you very much. I see that Ms. Johnson's hand is up. Yes, thank you, Dr. Anderson. We can only report on those that are reported to the police and those that result in charges. That is the only information that we have in our system, and that's reported to BDOE. I'm sorry, did you say you have the information about those that have resulted in charges? Correct. Charges, reports, and charges. That's

465it. We don't have any disposition or any results. Thank you. So it sounds as if we would be able to meet Ms. Toland's request for the resulting charges, but not what is yet to be proposed by Ms. McLaughlin at this point. Ms. Keyes-Gamara, do you have any additional comments? That was my concern. I didn't understand. I don't know Ms. Johnson's world to the extent that she does. And so thank you for that clarification. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders? I just, from a grammatical point of view, I don't think this reads correctly now. So if we could say IEP and 504 status comma. violation comma, and any resulting charges. I'm so sorry, I didn't even see it posted. Would you please repeat that? I'm trying to enlarge my screen. I believe Ms. Mulberg has done that correctly.

466Ms. Medea is typing it. Oh, I apologize. No, that's okay. I just want to give her credit. It's on screen. Thank you. Ms. Tolan? I'm good. I had the exact same comment. Thank you. And now we are going to end our discussion on Ms. Toland's amendment and vote on Ms. Toland's amendment, which is now in front of us. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to provide to the board on a semi-annual basis the number of incidences reported to the police broken out by school. age, ethnicity, IEP, and 504 status violation, and any resulting charges. All in favor? Ms. Sanders, Ms. Omesh, Ms. Kizgamara, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Cohen, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Ismore-Heiser, Ms. Darinat-Kofax, and Dr. Anderson. All opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, we are now moving to the next

467piece of this amendment. Ms. McLaughlin, you had a question. Yeah, I actually just do have a question. Maybe this is for Ms. Kieskemar or Mr. Foster. So again, I thought it might be helpful to understand that it wasn't just if there were resulting charges, but also any convictions, because sometimes we've wondered about it's one thing for things to get filed all the time, but whether there was merit to the charges. And so the convictions piece can be helpful to know. Since this is a semiannual report, to miss keith's gamara's concern we certainly can just staff could say pending in that column but it would allow us for any cases where there were charges made what if there was a conviction or a dismissal so i still think the category matters and anything when the report

468comes they can always say as i said pending not available yet so that would be my advocacy to say any resulting charges, convictions, or dismissals. Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Cohen. I think if we're doing the wording, we've got to vote again. We didn't vote on that, on dismissals. Ms. Cohen, you're absolutely correct. You're absolutely correct. That was my understanding that my language, I'd have to have somebody second it to add that in. Yes, ma'am. Ms. McLaughlin's right. Will somebody second Ms. McLaughlin's language to add dismissal? I'm happy to. Happy to. Thank you. Discussion? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, please go ahead, and then Ms. Johnson. I'm really dense tonight, so I apologize. I thought that we just heard that we couldn't get the convictions or dismissals information, that there was something connected with the separation

469of roles and responsibilities. But perhaps Ms. Johnson can clarify. You are correct, Ms. Corbett-Sanders. We do not have information about convictions and dismissals. Ms. McLaughlin, this does not appear to be information that we can procure. Okay, I appreciate what Ms. Johnson just said, but I know we have been in, as a board, having information brought to us. where we are knowledgeable about the outcome. Mr. Foster, I'm pretty sure we've asked these questions before when there were charges in the community and we ended up getting told whether or not, what was the disposition on those cases. So can you help clarify how we ended up knowing that? So one scenario is if the charges are dismissed and there's a related SR on our case, of course the parents or the attorney for the student for understandable

470reasons, promptly inform us of the dismissal of the... of the criminal case. So that's one scenario. But Ms. Johnson is correct. As a general matter, the juvenile court is, there are very clear restrictions on releasing that information outside the court system to third parties, including FCPS. I know that Ms. Scanlon, also has spoken to this issue in other contexts i don't know if mr anderson is still on the call could also speak to him that's okay it's such a late hour i don't want to belabor this at this point we can pull that and as we get the report we can always decide whether other things can be added in the future it doesn't need beside tonight so i'll withdraw the request Thank you very much, Ms. McLaughlin. Ms. Cohen, did you have some comments?

471Dr. Anderson, once the motion's been made and seconded, it can't be withdrawn. We got to vote. Sorry. Thank you. Let's go ahead and vote on that motion, please. All those in favor of adding the dismissals and convictions with knowing this is not information that could be procured, if you are in favor of this, please. Raise your hand. All opposed? Ms. Toland, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Quis-Gamara, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Somesh, Ms. Danak-Kofatz, Ms. Pekarsky, Ms. Marin, Ms. Osmohyzer, Ms. McLaughlin, and Dr. Anderson. That motion fails. Going back to the order of speakers, Ms. Cohen, you are next. I'm sorry the risk of my colleagues wanted to murder me I just wanted to ask the maker of the motion if why we didn't add race in there and also FRM and ELL information Ms. Corbett-Sanders would

472you like to respond Sure, I was trying to capture race by ethnicity, but if you would like to add those other factors, I think that would be an excellent amendment. Yes, I would like to make that motion if someone would be kind enough to second me. I will second it if it's allowed. We're layering this on this evening. So the motion at this point, Ms. Cohen, is to add ELL and FRM because we have ethnicity already provided. Was that sufficient? We typically do race or ethnicity, and that's typically how we've seen our data broken down, but we can just do ethnicity if Ms. Johnson thinks that covers it. Ms. Johnson, would you confirm, please? I will confirm, but I will need to double check how our CIS tracks FRM. I'm not sure we get that

473through CIS, but I need to, I just emailed, hopefully somebody can answer. Okay. So at this point, just for the sake of this conversation, Ms. Cohen, we're just going to go ahead and add race, ELL status, and FRM. You do have a second, and Ms. Corbett-Sanders, is there any discussion? I see three hands for discussion. Ms. McLaughlin? I see one hand. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser? Well, at this point, maybe we should also consider gender. We can't. We already made the motion. Then it has to be another motion. That's another motion. So this is a discussion on Ms. Cohen's motion. Any discussion? Okay, let's vote on this at this point. All in favor of adding race, ELL status, and FRM? We have Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Robert Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Marin, Ms. Seismorheiser, Mr. Frisch, Ms.

474McLaughlin, Ms. Omage, Ms. Zernach-Kofax, Ms. Pekarsky, and Dr. Anderson. So that is added. Ms. Seismorheiser? Do you have an amendment to the amendment? I would like to propose adding gender to the categories as well. I can't help but laugh at you at this point. Laugh? Yes, ma'am. Yes, I would like to add gender. Do we have a second? We can expedite this part. Do we have a second? I see Ms. Johnson is back on the phone. She'd like to speak. Ms. Johnson, go ahead. Yes, we don't have that far and insist so that would be challenging to add this list. All right, we'll make it. I'll make it another motion after we're done with this motion, but I'm happy to seconded rationales motion. Can we combine to add gender and remove that? I will be

475fine with that. Yeah, we have a second that motion to add gender and remove. Laura Jane, thank you. Discussions. Please lower your hands if you're not wanting to discuss gender and removal of FRM. Ms. McLaughlin. Yeah, I'm sorry. I am shocked by what Ms. Johnson just said, that we do not have FRM in CIS. I mean, almost every report this school division provides us breaks it out by subgroups that include FRM. If we can't capture FRM on our student discipline cases, then I would like Dr. Brabrand or Ms. Johnson to explain how that's the case and how do we fix that. Ms. Johnson? I'm going to have to check with Ms. Burden, but I believe that some of that has to do with privacy issues. I do know that a lot of that information is

476provided in a different report through a different system, and I see Dr. Anderson nodding her head. So how that's done, it could be done by hand. I'm not exactly sure, Ms. McLaughlin, which reports you're referring to, but I do know it's not in our system. And Ms. Johnson, I was nodding my head because, again, as a former school administrator, this was not data that was always embedded in some of our systems that I've been accustomed to. Because of those privacy issues, it's tightly guarded. So I have had that experience. That's why I was shaking my head. Okay. Let me just ask my clarifying question. So when we run this report... In the end, the information is coming from the division. So it's not down to the principal level and what the principal can see and

477not see about a student's FRM. We have them in our records and database. And again, this idea that you're not sure where our FRM comes from, almost every subgroup report we get is broken out by FRM. So I know it's extremely late. I guess I don't know why we don't just put this in there and the superintendent can come back to the board and say what he can access and not access. But I find it really hard. I know it's almost midnight that this school division can't provide FRM information related to student discipline. Thank you, Ms. McLaughlin. We have now no other speakers on this matter. Let's go ahead and take a vote for the addition of gender and the removal of FRM. All in favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Marin, Ms. Tolan, Ms.

478Quis-Gomara, Ms. Omesh, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Seismohiser, and Dr. Anderson. All opposed? Any abstentions? Ms. McLaughlin? Okay, the amendment motion carries. At this point, we exhausted our list of speakers to the original list. So the current amendment to be read and voted upon as a follow-on motion is... posted here. So I'm going to go ahead and review that really quickly as soon as I readjust my eyes. I moved at the school board direct the superintendent to provide to the board on a semi-annual basis the number of incidences reported to the police department broken out by school, age, gender, ethnicity, race, ELL status, IEP, and 504 status violation and any resulting charges. This report will allow for greater oversight and transparency. All in favor? Ms. Kies-Gamara, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Omage, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Marin, Ms.

479McLaughlin, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Danak-Kofax, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Pokarsky, and Dr. Anderson. The following motion carries. Now I call on Ms. Marin for a motion. Okay, thank you. Okay, I move that the school board update its legislative package to the Virginia General Assembly for this August as needed the next full session. Include changing state code that allows that a principal may, at their discretion, report to the police incidents that are not felonies that occur in our schools. I'm so sorry, Ms. Merritt. I apologize. I think I'm out of order with my documents here. I was supposed to call... Dr. Anderson, if you want to go ahead, we can continue. Okay, thank you. I'm trying to find where hers is located in my documents. Oh, this is, it's a new one based on my earlier... amendments. I

480don't have that in my script just for the sake of this right now I'm just gonna go back to number four to Mitchell Mesch's motion which that's why I should have called on the first place so I apologize for my error. Ms. Madeja did post it in our electronic script just so people know. Thank you. I'm just going to again leave you to be number five. I'm just going to go to number four, which is Ms. Omesh. Ms. Omesh, I will call on you for a follow-on motion. Okay. I move to direct the superintendent to conduct the 2021-2022 SR&R Board Modification Review Process, number one, section by section, and number two, in the fall throughout the 2020-21 year. This is to enable careful review for more detailed discussion of all its included regulations and to

481better... the alignment of this process with the staff work cycle. We have a second. Ms. Eisenmohiser? I'm so sorry. Ms. Pekarsky, do you have a question or a second? Sorry. Thank you. Ms. Omej, would you like to speak to your motion? Yeah, thank you. I think, I mean, today is a testament to this. The SRNR, you know, over 50-page document, and there are really consequential pieces in there. I don't know that as a new board, we've had the opportunity to really delve deeper and hear what our colleagues are thinking about various aspects. I prefer for us rather than having the three minutes to speak in a work session on the 50 plus pages to really take it section by section as we review it. That doesn't have to mean that each section that work sessions

482that each section, but that our process is facilitated that way so that we can. end of the year in a place where we have a strong sense of where everyone is and we have a really solid document. My understanding in working with staff over the past, I don't know, several weeks on this is that they start actually looking at this as early as the fall. I think that'll prevent circumstances like we found ourselves in today and allow us to really collaborate with them, allow ourselves to have ears to the ground as principals are able to contribute in that longer process. at least for one year. So I'm not necessarily suggesting that this be a regular change, but for the first year of us being together as a board, I think it's an opportunity for us

483to really delve deep and bring forth the corrections we're hoping for. Ms. Dazmohaj, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, just... briefly as brief as i get um i would just like to say that i think tonight's discussion and the midnight hour speaks to the fact that i think our sr and our work as dr brad rand said is very near and dear to our hearts as this board from what the way i see it and i think we could use a more time throughout the year to be collaborative partners on this process. My goal and second in this was really to start the process in the fall, at least in a work session or in some ways to be able to work on this a little bit more in depth. So we're

484not here next year. So yes, that's my reasoning for a little more work on the SR&R than we may have done before or at least had done this year. Thank you. Any other board members wishing to speak? Excuse the Mara just really briefly. We need a lot of work on. Yes, aren't aren't as my colleagues know I have a pending forum topic addressing some of this. I don't think this is all of it. So it sounds like at some point we're going to have to have. A session of how we're going to fit all of the work together and in a way that staff can help us. So, I agree with the principle of this, but I'm not sure how it fits. with some of the things that I know are already pending. Thank you

485very much. Any other school board members wishing to speak? Seeing none, we're going to go ahead and take this to the vote. I move to direct the superintendent to present the new SR&R to the board, section by section and work session to come for review and modification throughout the 2020-21 school year. This is to enable careful review and a more detailed discussion of all of its included regulations in a manner better aligned with staff work in producing the SR&R for 2021-22. All in favor? Ms. Omash, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Cohen, Mr. Frisch, and Ms. Pokarsky. Thank you. All opposed? Ms. Omash, you'll have to take your hand down, please. Ms. Danrock-Kofax, Ms. McLaughlin. Okay, we only have one person opposing. I'm so sorry. I need to have that again. All opposed? Ms. McLaughlin and

486Ms. Danrock-Kofax. And also Dr. Anderson, opposing. Abstentions? Ms. Gheis-Ghomara, Ms. Marin, and Ms. Corbett-Sanders are abstaining. So we have six. The motion carries. The motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Now we're going to go to Ms. Marin. I apologize. Now I see it on my screen. Ms. Marin, please go ahead. Great. Three turns of charm. So I move that the school board update its legislative package to the Virginia General Assembly for this August and if needed, the next full session to include changing state code that allows that a principal may at their discretion report to the police incidents that are not felonies that occur in our schools. Point of order, Madam Chair. Who is speaking? I'm sorry. Ms. Danak-Kovacs, yes. Ms. Danak-Kovacs, when it's 6-6, the motion fails. It doesn't carry. it was six four and

487three against and three abstained so it was not the majority of the board it was just the majority of the votes and miss mulberry can you please the motion fails then thank you thank you mr not cofax that's accurate Do we have a second for Ms. Marin's motion? Ms. Corbett-Sanders has seconded. Ms. Marin, would you like to speak to your motion? Sure. So this one I just added per our discussion earlier this evening about the need to adjust state language. So this is a new motion, but it's been up for like five hours, actually. So I hope you will support it. Thank you. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to speak to your second? Yes, I'm very happy to speak to my second on this. This is something that when I made calls about my concerns

488over the language on discretionary reporting, I said that we needed to get the legislation changed. So I'm very happy that Ms. Marin put forward the motion to get the legislation changed because it is one that obviously we have concerns about. Thank you very much. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to this motion? Yes, just quickly for clarity. So is the point of this, Ms. Marin, that we want to remove the state code that allows for the discretion? Because the way it reads is to include changing state code that allows. I just think we want to make sure they understand that what we're saying is to include changes to state code to remove a principal's discretion to report. So just as when we did this a few weeks ago with the motion we were seeking

489to change our ability to meet virtually more than twice a year personally, we passed a similar motion, actually went and checked the language, and then Ms. Corbett-Sanders followed up with Michael Malloy, and then they crafted what would be the specific ask. So again, as a following motion, what I'm seeking is to put forth the work that will go into... making the specific legislation. No, no, I totally get it. Oh, yeah, no, I totally get that this, I just want to make sure we all understand, and I don't want the public to misunderstand, because what we're seeing is changing state code that currently allows, because I just want to make sure they're not thinking we're actually proposing the discretion. I think it can go either way, and I think the public can agree on that. I

490just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention, but you're clarifying that it's that we want to remove the discretion. and i can support that thank you miss cohen may i make an amendment that just inserts the word v to changing the state code that allows instead of vote on this part we do sorry does that not count as a grammatical clerical kind of grammatical yeah you could you could do it that way Yes, let's count it as a grammatical correction. Thank you. And since no one seconded, I withdraw my amendment. Thank you. Seeing that there are no other speakers, I will call for the vote. I move that the school board update the legislative package to the Virginia General Assembly for this August, and if needed, the next fall session to include changing the state

491code. That allows that a principal may at their discretion report to the police incidents that are not felonies that occur in our schools. All in favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Marin, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Omage, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Tolan, and Dr. Anderson. All opposed? I'm sorry, I was too quick. Ms. Pekarsky and Ms. Danrock-Kofax. All opposed? i don't you madam chair you missed my boat i'm sorry i apologize miss keys gamara there you are we have no one who's opposed and nor any abstentions thank you the motion carries i now call on miss mclaughlin for the motion regarding the fy20 final budget review Dr. Anderson, if you have... Yes, ma'am. Yes. As budget vice chair, if you have the script in front of you, I would ask your indulgences to go ahead and

492read it. Absolutely. I heard a voice for a point of order, and I did not recognize that voice at this late hour. It's Brar. I was raising the point that was voted down earlier when I was suggesting it be considered for a follow-on motion. I'm sorry, at which point was that, Mr. Brar? I mean, Ms. Omage? You're fine. The amendment about parents' notification. Thank you. I believe that was number nine? Yes. Okay, so you'd like for that to be considered as a follow-on? Yeah. Okay, so we will go ahead and have you go ahead, present your follow-on motion, Ms. Omage. Okay. So in this case, I say I move to direct the superintendent. to review for the appropriate section that confirmation of parent notification, okay, I'm sorry, that should confirmation of parent notification not exist

493in advance of a disciplinary decision, students shall have the right to appeal discipline decisions to the board. Obviously, that particular language was not upheld, but that the superintendent review the possibility of a disincentive. to not having parent notification. And that can be the language we use since folks express their concurrents. I think one of the questions that we had before, Ms. Omej, that needed to be fleshed out a little bit further was what is it that we are appealing? Is it a 10-day suspension or was it a one-day suspension? Can you clarify in this moment, please? My understanding was that staff wanted to look into the feasibility and whether these were possibilities given how frequent these things are and that they wanted to study it further. So I don't know that specifying it would necessarily

494be beneficial since that was part of the issue with it. Ms. Omish, could you repeat the motion that you're making? We're having trouble capturing it. You'll see on the screen we don't have it completely. All right, so it's amendment number nine, but it's being turned into a follow-on motion. So rather than saying I amend or I move to amend, it's I move to direct the superintendent to review the possibility of confirmation of appeals in the case of parent notification not being confirmed in advance of disciplinary decision. Thank you. I see Dr. Brabrand's hand is up. Dr. Brabrand, would you like to speak? I'm just simply going to say this, whether this passes or not, I'll work with Ms. Omesh in the spirit of what she's trying to do. I know people are interested in follow-on

495motions and amendments. I'll certainly work with her whether this passes or not. And I do want to just note, it is 12-12. We're almost at 12 hours. I'm going to need to really work with my staff and let them go and prepare for the workday tomorrow. I know we have the budget, but we're near the end of being able to be an effective support for the board to do the work that I know this board wants to do. And I would be less than honest if I didn't share that. So thank you. And we'll- I appreciate that. Regardless of whether this passes or not. Thank you, Dr. Brabrand. Do we have a second for this motion? Mr. Frisch, are you seconding this motion? Mr. Fresh, is that a yes? Yes. Thank you. Discussion about this

496motion. I'm sorry, Ms. Omesh, would you like to speak to it? I think what we spoke to was sufficient. It's incredibly important for us to examine this. I understand, you know, people found technicalities and reasons why we want to look at this more carefully. But ultimately, we have an issue with parent notification and making sure that they actually hear from us, especially when they're families who may not feel as comfortable in the school, who have language barriers. So I really think we need to show that we take this seriously. and this hopefully will be a step in that direction thank you Ms. Garvin-Sanders would I'm sorry Mr. Frisch would you like to speak to your second Mr. Frisch would you like to speak to your second yes I apologize I think many members of the

497board indicated in opposing the amendment that they would support a follow-on motion in this direction I think that gives suitable flexibility for exploring the situation and I continue to believe that it's an important issue worthwhile for our consideration. Thank you. We have a school board members wanting to speak to this. Ms. Carpet-Sanders. Yes, I would like to amend this if possible to say I move to direct the superintendent to provide recommendations, recommendations to ensure recommendations for appeals and then take out review the possibility of appeals in the case of, and then it would read in the case of parents notification not being confirmed. Recommendations to the board for appeals, for an appeal process or something like that. Do we have a second to Ms. Corbett-Sanders' motion? Sure, Laura Jane. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, would you like to

498speak to your motion? I was just trying to make a positive outcome instead of, and just clarifying what I think Ms. Omish was trying to accomplish with her excellent follow-on motion. Thank you. Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak to your second? Oh, God, no. Let's vote on this, please. We'll vote on the language that Ms. Corbett-Sanders just shared. All in favor? Dr. Rabin, if you wouldn't mind lowering in your hand. We have Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Omash, Ms. Marin, Ms. Tolan, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. McLaughlin. All opposed? Ms. McLaughlin and Ms. Bukarski and Dr. Anderson. Any abstentions? I'm sorry, I'm losing it tonight. Wait, you have Ms. McLaughlin as a pro and a yes and a no. Okay, thank you. Ms. Anna Koufax. Okay, Ms. Corbett Sanders' motion carries. Now

499let's go back to the primary discussion. There were no other speakers, so now I would like to vote on this motion. which is I move to direct the superintendent to provide recommendations to the board for appeals in the case of parent notification not being confirmed in advance of the disciplinary decision. All in favor of this motion, please raise your hands at this point. Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Kies-Gamara, Ms. Smarin, Ms. Somage, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Cohen. Ms. Fikarski, Ms. Seismohiser, Ms. McLaughlin, and Dr. Anderson. Please put your hands down. All opposed? Seeing none. Any abstaining? Ms. Danak-Kofax. The follow-on motion carries. Now we will go back to the final budget review. Ms. McLaughlin, I will go ahead and provide the motion as you requested. I move that the school board approve the revenue and expenditure

500adjustments as detailed in the agenda item. I'm also seconding that motion that is being made by Ms. McLaughlin that I've just read for her. Ms. McLaughlin, would you like to speak to your motion? At this late hour, I just want to document for the public that I really appreciate and hope all of my colleagues will agree on the superintendent's recommendation to take the $9 million in year-end carryover funds and put that into the COVID reserve fund for which the superintendent will then bring future spending from that fund to the board for consideration and support. As the seconder of the motion, I will say that Ms. McLaughlin has captured the entirety of this motion at this point. So well said. Are there any board members who would like to speak to this motion? Seeing none, I

501will put this to a vote. I move that the school board approve the revenue and expenditure adjustments as detailed in the agenda item. All those in favor? Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Omej, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Pokarski, Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Smarin, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Danak-Kovacs, Ms. Cohen, and Dr. Anderson. Opposed? We have no one who's opposed, and we don't have any abstentions. Thank you. Motion carries. Okay. Now we're at 5.09, the advisory committee charges. Do we have any advisory committee charges? Who am I calling? Ms. Mulberg? I don't have a name to call for the motion for this. Ms. Bukarski, would you like to make the motion? I unfortunately do not have the motion in front of me on the script. Would we post that please, Ms. Mulberg? Yes. Thank you. Thank you so

502much. Ms. Bukarski, whenever you're ready. If somebody else can see it, please go ahead and make the motion. This is not coming up on my screen. Is this the Advisory Committee of Surgeons? I'm happy to do it. I've got it up on the screen. Ms. Seismohiser, please go ahead. All right. I do have an amendment to this. I don't know where exactly to put that, but I'm happy to read it first. Ms. Seismohiser, please go ahead and read the motion for us. Okay. I move that the school board approve the charges for the 2020-2021 for the following school board citizen advisory committees, adult and community education, advanced academic programs, career and technical education, facilities planning advisory council, human resources, minority student achievement oversight, school health, students with disabilities, and Title I parent advisory council as

503detailed in the agenda item. Is there a second? Ms. Darinak-Kofax, thank you for seconding. Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, I believe Ms. Bukarski has an amendment to this motion. I'm happy to yield the floor to her to speak to her amendment. Okay, we'll hold on just one second. Ms. Darinak-Kofax, would you like to speak to your second? No. Thank you. Discussions? Ms. Bukarski? I apologize. I would like to make a mention to this to pull the ACSB charge off for some further discussion with staff and the ACSB chair because of some issues that were brought up by a board member this morning. Thank you. Do we have a second for that amendment to the motion? I'll second that, Laura Jane. Thank you, Ms. Cohen. Let's have a discussion regarding

504that amendment to the motion. Ms. Bukarski, would you like to speak to... Just what I said, there were some questions surrounding the charge for next year. I've spoken with the chair and with staff and they have both asked for some time to work on this a little further. So they just needed a deferral for the time being. So I would appreciate the support for that. Thank you very much. Ms. Cohen, would you like to speak to your second? Thank you. Are there any school board members with questions or inquiries or comments? I do have one question for the clerk. Will you be able to share with us if we are not able to approve the charge for the ACSD today, whether it will be an issue for it to be approved in September at our

505next meeting? Ms. Mulberg? Shouldn't be an issue. It would be better if we can have it resolved by a meeting that we have in August if we have an August meeting. Otherwise we can do it. I have a regular meeting in August, so we'll plan for that for September. Okay, Mr. Not Kofax. I'm sorry. Did I see your hand? I you did, but I just kind of wanted to know the timeline for this. That's all. Thank you. Let's go ahead and vote on the amendment to pull the ACSD, SCD charge off of this list. All those in favor? Ms. Kees-Gamara, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. Seismohiser, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Pekarski, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Marin, Ms. Omage, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Darinak-Kofax, and Dr. Anderson. Please clear your hands. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Seeing none, we are

506going to return to the main motion. which is to move the school board to approve the charges for 2020-2021 for the following school board citizen advisory committees. Adult and community education, advanced academic programs, career and technical education, facilities planning, advisory council, human resources, minority student achievement oversight, school health, and Title I, and Title I parent advisory council as detailed in the agenda item. All those in favor? Ms. Pokarsky, Ms. Osmohiser, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Toland, Ms. Marin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Darinat-Kofax, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Omish, Ms. Kees-Gamara. I'm sorry, Ms. Omish? I apologize. I called you by accident. I apologize. And then Dr. Anderson. Please clear your hands. I'm sorry, Ms. McLaughlin. Those opposed? None are opposed. Those abstaining? Ms. Omish? Motion carries. Okay. Now we are on at the consent agenda. I am so sorry. I

507have to pull up my computer, which died a little bit. I have some language here to read regarding an item that was pulled from the consent agenda. I apologize, folks, but my computer died in all of this fun. Dr. Anderson, do you have to read it, or can one of us read it? I think I have to read it and I just need to find it. I apologize. Give me a minute. Dr. Anderson, I can read it if you prefer. Thank you, Ms. Hulberg. Please do so. At the request of a board member. Items number 6.03, Stenwood Elementary School, conveyance of easements and acceptance of property in connection with VDOT improvements to Interstate 66 is removed from the consent agenda and will be considered as part of the action agenda this evening. Thank you. And

508then the rest of the consent agenda, as per 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 member prior to the meeting. 6.01, accept the Virginia Department of Education designation of Fairfax County Public Schools as the Governor's Regional School for Science and Technology in Northern Virginia for 2020-2021. 6.02, award the contract for the tennis court replacement at the Sandburg Middle School to ATC Court, formerly American Tennis Court's... incorporated in the amount of $256,711 and authorized the division superintendent or assistant superintendent of facilities and

509transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board. 6.04, confirm the appointments and separations for the period beginning April 1, 2020 and ending June 30, 2020. 6.05 confirm the separations for the period beginning june 1 2020 and ending june 30 2020. 6.06 appoint individuals to serve on committees as detailed in the agenda item is there any objections for approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing none the consent agenda is approved new business did you want to go back and have this denwood item that was pulled from consent considered Are we ready to consider that at this point? Yes. Okay. Mr. Frisch, please go ahead. I move that the Board approve the granting of easements, accept cash payment of $103,348 in conveyance. of the 14,996 square feet of land for granting

510the easements and authorize the division superintendent and the assistant superintendent, Department of Facilities and Transportation Services, either of whom may act without the other to take all actions necessary and appropriate in consultation with legal counsel for the school division to accomplish such conveyances, including signing the appropriate deed and related documents. We have a second to Mr. Fish's motion. Thank you, Ms. Tolan. Mr. Fish, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, briefly. Thank you. I apologize. I did not realize we'd be here 12 hours. So I apologize for removing a single item from the consent agenda, but I feel compelled to speak to this specific item because I want to provide my colleagues with some context about what's happening in the Stenwood Elementary School community. As the result of the 66 widening project, Stenwood

511Elementary School will lose its protective tree line because the project has taken more land than was originally approved. The land is used for outdoor recess, physical education, and includes parts of the school's outdoor track, which will be relocated. I would be remiss if I failed to note that all of the parties agree that the land exchange given to FCPS for this conveyance along I-66 is unusable for instruction. And not that there are other options, but I would caution us from viewing this trade of land as equitable. Finally, FCPS is receiving more than $100,000 for this transaction. This money could go a long way towards making sure the Stenwood Elementary School community is at least partially made whole. It could be used to replant and otherwise beautify the property after the 66 widening project is complete.

512And I hope this possibility will receive thoughtful consideration in the future. The Stenwood Elementary School community is being significantly impacted by this project and the resulting conveyance. I appreciate everyone allowing me to address this issue before we all vote to approve this item. Thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Toland, would you like to speak to your second? I don't have any additional information. Thank you. Any discussions on the part of the board? Seeing none, I move to approve Mr. Frisch's motion. I'm so sorry. People are just voting. I apologize. Seeing that there are no discussions, I move to approve Mr. Frisch's motion as he presented it. All those in favor? Sorry, Dr. Anderson, I was actually raising my hand to ask a question. I'm so sorry. I did not realize that I

513noticed people started voting. Please go ahead, Ms. Omage. No, you're fine. I'm just a little bit concerned with the information. I'd love to hear from staff. I mean, their thinking or, you know, whether they can support this, where they're at with this, given that they recommended an alternate path forward. No, this is their plan. Mr. Planberg is here with us. Mr. Planberg, would you like to respond? Yes, I'd be happy to. Good morning. Oh, no. Yeah, well, you know, Mr. Frisch is absolutely correct. Anytime that you lose trees, et cetera, and have any kind of impediment, any kind of encouragement, it's truly not, you know, good for our school sites. But we did well above the estimate. The dollar amount, the remuneration, we negotiated extremely well in this case. But none of that, and in

514fact, we actually gained a little FAR. uh floor area ratio which is good for us in the long run and um they're also um providing a fence in the value of about 50 000 on top of it all of those are good things but i think mr first's comments are spot on um you know it may look like a good deal on paper but when you remove trees and have that kind of encroachment it's certainly just just a challenging situation. And we all know about the expansion of 66 and so forth. So that's all I'd add. Thank you very much, Ms. Omej. Did you have any additional inquiries? That's fine. Thank you. Thank you. And now we will move for the vote. As presented by Mr. Frisch, I will not believe the point at 1236.

515All those in favor? Ms. Toland, Ms. Marin, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Pekarski, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Omage, Ms. Darinat-Kofax, Ms. Kees-Demara, and Dr. Anderson. Any opposed? Sorry, I took a break. I approve it also. So you're not opposing. Okay. I'm sorry, Ms. McLaughlin, are you opposed? Okay. Any opposed? Seeing none. Any abstentions? Ms. Cohen? I'm so sorry. I had to go to the bathroom, so I don't feel like I can vote on it. Okay. Thank you. That's fair enough. Ms. Malberg, I believe you have all the votes recorded. Thank you all. Next on the agenda, I'm sorry, the following are new business items. There will not be a vote tonight on these items, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. 7.01, appoint members to the Family Life Education Curriculum Advisory Committee as detailed on

516the agenda item. Number eight, Superintendent Matters. Dr. Brabrand, I call on you for your thoughts on Superintendent Matters. I have no thoughts on Superintendent Matters tonight. Thank you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is board reports, and I call on Ms. Pekarski for an update on the forum held earlier today, but being that it was not held, there will be no report by Ms. Pekarski. Board Matters, I now call... Ms. Pekarsky, did you want to share anything? No, no, you were correct. Board Matters, I call on Ms. Cohen. Oh my gosh, can't we just not do Board Matters? It's like one o'clock in the morning. Feel free to skip and we'll keep moving. All right, save my time. Make a motion. Thank you. Oh wait, I make a motion. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.

517Sorry, sorry, Dr. Anderson. I make a motion that we skip Board Matters because it's literally tomorrow. It is literally tomorrow. We have a second. Second. Okay. We have a second by Mr. Frisch or Ms. Marin. We have a second. Do you want to speak to your motion, Ms. Cohen? That would be ironic. No comment. I don't have words anymore. We have all the words. We always have the words. At this point, I will ask us to vote on skipping board matters as proposed by Ms. Cohen and seconded by essentially everybody. Ms. Marin, Ms. Vekarsky, Ms. Omish, Ms. McLaughlin, Ms. Cohen, Ms. Corbett-Sanders, Mr. Frisch, Ms. Tolan, Ms. Zerna-Kofax, Ms. Gizgamara, Ms. Seismohiser, and Dr. Anderson. That is unanimous that we skip board matters. It is now 1239. Our meeting today has lasted many, many, many,

518many hours, half of the day. We are now adjourned.