001Okay, thank you, Susan. This is the virtual special called meeting for May 15 2020. And we're going to do the roll call when I call your name, please indicate that you are present. I am Cindy Anderson. Megan Alderton. Are you present? Sorry. Yeah. You're right in front of me. Okay, Rami Gentry. Present. Jacinta Green. Present. Margaret Lorber. Present. Michelle Reeve. Here. Present. Oh, Christopher. I didn't hear you. Sorry. Christopher Suarez. Present. Heather Thornton. Present. Veronica Nolan. She'll be joining us, I'm sure, shortly. So I call the meeting to order today at 12.03. I may have a motion to adopt the agenda. Madam Chair, I move we adopt the agenda for 5-15-2020. Second. I have a second from Ms. Lorber for Ms. Green's motion. And so now I will call for the vote. Please indicate your
002vote as I call your name. Cindy Anderson, yes. Megan Alderton, yes. Amy Jantry, yes. Jacinta Green, yes. Margaret Lorber, yes. Michelle Reeve, yes. Christopher Suarez, yes. Heather Thornton. So that's eight. Sorry, I don't know if you heard me. Yeah, I did. Yeah, thanks. But the ninth person is Veronica who hasn't joined us yet. So, okay, so now what I'd like to talk about is public comments. We, since we're doing this virtually, I wanted to let the public know that we are having a way of having public comments that would be posted with the meeting. So that's not to be confused with the letters that we get from you because we are still getting those as we always have. But if you would like to have your comments actually posted with the meeting agenda on Fridays,
003then if you can go to the contact the school board page. And look for that and you need to have them in by noon on Thursday in order to be posted for the next day's meeting. Is that I'm going to consult with our clerk is that have I covered it. Okay, so good. Look forward to that. Now we're on to the consent calendar may have a motion to adopt the consent calendar. Madam Chair, I move we adopt the consent calendar. Second. I have Ms. Alderton seconding Ms. Gentry's motion to adopt the consent calendar. So is there anything to be pulled from the calendar? Okay, if not, then I will call for the vote by calling your name. Cindy Anderson, yes. Megan Alderton? Yes. Ramey Gentry? Yes. Jacinta Green? Yes. Margaret Lorber? Oh. For the consent
004calendar. You're muted somehow, Margaret. Sorry. Okay. Okay. Yeah. Sorry. No, that's fine. Michelle Reeve? Yes. Christopher Suarez? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Okay. That's 8-0. I'm on Cindy. Sorry. Oh, there you are. Okay. I was just, I knocked my phone on the floor and I was just, I thought, I know that must be Veronica texting me, but I can't see it because it's upside down. So I would call Veronica Nolan too. Present. Thank you. Oh yeah. You're present and you vote yes on the consent calendar. Is that right? Yes. Thank you. Okay. So nine zero. Super. Now we are on to. to the new business. And the first thing up is the academic calendar. So I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Hutchings. Thank you, Madam Chair. So I am going to actually turn things
005over to Dr. Wilkins as well as Dr. Mann because they were co-facilitating our calendar committee. And as you all know, as they're getting prepared to make some comments or take any questions, it's important for us to keep in mind that with... you know, everything that's happening with this pandemic, we could be in a situation where calendars for next year and calendars for the following year could look different in how we do or deliver our instruction. So I just want us to always keep that in mind, even though I know we're making. a vote on this for now and hoping that by 2020, 2022, we have just a little more concrete of what our world will look like. But I think it is important for us to just have a caveat to all of this, knowing
006that we don't know what the future holds. And there's so many uncertainties that this could change or there could be a recommendation for things to change within this calendar in the future. But with that said, I'm going to turn things over to Dr. Wilkins. Okay, thank you, Dr. Hutchings. Good afternoon, board members. So I think the major question, or two questions really, is with respect to the pre-Labor Day calendar, is just that, will we start, we request to start before Labor Day in calendar year 2021-2022. And another question was raised with regards to conference days. So I want to address conference days, allow Dr. Mann to make any comment, and then turn it back over. to the board for its deliberations. With respect to... Conference days, the calendar committee with specific feedback from Dr. Mann
007and the principals reviewed how to make the scheduling of the parent conferences more efficient and effective for our teachers and students. And the recommendation was to change the use of a half-day format to a full-day format followed by early release on Friday. And we believe that this format will make it much easier to schedule these conferences and certainly much easier. for both families and staff to arrange these particular conferences. So in the 2020-21 calendar, you'll notice that there are several half days allocated for middle school, high school, and elementary. And what you'll see that's different in the pre-Labor Day calendar for 2021-2022 is you'll just see one full day for conferences, followed by an early release the following day, which is typically a Friday, again, which streamlines the days and makes, again, an entire day
008available for the scheduling of conferences. So we believe that this makes it much clearer. and cleaner, simpler for faculty and for families. And we again would ask for your support for this calendar in 2021-2022. I'll stop there and ask if Dr. Mann would have any additional comments. No, Dr. Wilkins, I don't have any additional comments. Thank you. Okay, with that, Dr. Hutchings, I turn it back over to you. All right, sorry about that. My screen went away for a minute. I'm going to turn things over to Madam Chair to see if there are any questions. Yes, thank you. Mine also went away for a second. So I was a little bit concerned given that I had to like orchestrate questions. I have first up, Ms. Nolan. Yes, thank you, Dr. Wilkins, for that overview. I
009was the one that had asked and inquired about the conferences. I know something that we brought up every year is the concern that the middle school families don't feel there's been enough time allotted for conferences. I understand about the schedule will be easier, but do you think this will allow enough time for families to see the majority of the teachers? Because it's my understanding that the teacher, I mean, I just, I wonder how would teachers. see the majority of their family if they were only allotted one full day and perhaps a half day after that. So do you mind addressing the concern about, you know, every year we bring up as a board that the parents don't feel like they're being given enough time to see the majority of their teachers? Sure. And Dr. Mann
010may want to comment as well. But again, it's roughly the same amount of time. Instead of having two half days, we have one full day. So we have accounted on a time basis to approximate what we have done in the past. Another part of this discussion with the committee and the principals is that while we were cognizant of the need to have, you know, to hold these conferences and be available for parents and so on and so forth, that it's very school specific and there's an ebb and a flow to getting these conferences completed. Sometimes there's a lot to do in the mornings versus the afternoon versus the later part of the evenings. And sometimes these conferences take place throughout that week that conferences are scheduled. So we wanted to provide a date that seemed
011to be a best fit given some of the variety out there in the field. And that's what the committee has recommended. Got it. If I may add, I think that's my concern is that it is the same amount of time and the feedback we've been given every year is that is not enough time for parents to meet the teachers. And on the flip side, teachers are saying it's not enough time for them to meet all the families. So just to pose my question a different way, I guess that is my number one concern is that it's the same amount of time allotted. It's two half days into one full day versus additional time. And if I'm not mistaken, I thought. at the last discussion of the calendar that we had discussed as a team, both
012the board and the staff, that we would look for the next calendar with the expectation that there would be something different in terms of like more time allotted for those conferences, given that it's the same exact feedback that's being provided every year. Yeah, I think I would qualify it by saying that the amount of time is different in the sense that we're providing time all day, right? As opposed to having, let's just say the afternoon, right? We're allowing time all day. So you could say 8 a.m. until 8.30 p.m. at night, for example. So the accessibility for parents to have these conferences. has been increased in that regard. And again, we're also recognizing that the schools have the ability to host conferences prior to that specific day or even a little bit after that day
013to accommodate the needs of the families. So again, we think that we have made a recommendation that provides, again, a best fit to allow for flexibility for the schools to schedule these meetings with the families. Got it. Thank you. Much appreciated. If I can just ask one more follow-up. I know there was some concern from teachers last year that they felt like they were being asked to be in school and that it was mandated, even though it was not part of their typical allotment of time during a week. Has that been addressed as well? Because is the expectation that teachers will absolutely be there till 8.30 p.m. at night? And if so, how is that being addressed from a staffing perspective? So that is the expectation that and we haven't set the exact time, but
014we're using it like eight, seven thirty, eight o'clock at night. And that's the reason why on that on that Friday or the day after you'll see the squiggly kind of lines and not complete halftime because teachers will also go home that day, too. So it's a half day for teachers as well. One thing that we are, and this is something that Dr. Mann could probably elaborate on a little bit, is trying to work with our schools and shifting, you know, how we interact with our parents and how we provide updates. So, for example, instead of waiting until we have a conference time. allocated, that we're being a little more proactive and reaching out to students on a need basis when there are conflicts and also encouraging teachers, I'm sorry, parents to do the same so
015that everybody's not waiting until that special day to ask all their questions or to meet with their parents. And that's just a cultural shift, you know, that we're going to have to really work on and be very intentional about. But I know that was a discussion. that the principals have had recently while we were doing this process. But Dr. Mann, I don't know if you want to elaborate a little bit on that. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. Ms. Nolan, as you are aware, we are trying to provide additional time, but as Dr. Hutchings just said, it's also change what we're doing. And by having this calendar be approved essentially two years ahead of time that we could make sure that teachers understand the expectation. Dr. Hutchings said they'd have that Friday off, but we try to
016blend the best of both worlds. Knowing that parents can schedule a team meeting or any time that they would like with their teachers or counselor. But this gives us time to get prepared for a full day and into the evening. And as we then start to work in some different expectations, because as you're well aware, we hear the concerns that my son or daughter didn't give me the sheet until the last day. But this helps us get the word out and people know that they could have a parent conference before they go to work or come by during lunch or do the traditional do it after work or after dinner. Got it. Thank you. Okay, next up I have Miss Lorber. Thank you, Madam Chair and everybody else. I'm chomping at the bit here. First,
017I totally agree with Ms. Nolan. And based on my years of experience, both as a parent and then as an employee in the system, I mean, I really like what Dr. Hutchings said. I think we really have to think outside the box on this, totally. And as far as approving the calendar, I think maybe you want to call it conference week and tell people they can mix it up any way they want and make that really clear to everybody. But I think on the other hand, there's never, the conferences themselves are just too short. And particularly when a family doesn't speak English, okay? So they get nothing done. And, you know, one often wonders, how is it possible that a student gets a bunch of Fs and it never gets? We don't figure that out.
018And that's because we're not doing what Dr. Hutchings suggests, which is let's do these outreaches early. So I think somehow we do have to have a culture change on how we reach out and notify families and work with the kids themselves much, much sooner. We don't wait for the conference. So I guess my two points would be we do need to think outside the box. I think. We are sending, there's a danger of sending the wrong message to teachers by saying, oh, well, you've got more time. You get to work 12 hours today and do your, and these are these short conferences that really are frustrating. So I advocate for something like a conference week, either or implementing a new plan about how we use. conferencing with parents in a more flexible manner. I'm not
019sure how we do it, but I think Veronica's on to something. I mean, there's definitely a problem here, and we've been told by teachers. I think our team is going to be able to do that and kind of just really have a paradigm shift in how we meet with our parents. You know, one thing that I heard from several parents is that sometimes they feel that they don't get information about their child's academics until it's parent-teacher conference time and their child has a certain grade on their report card. And we just have to make sure that we're just being a little more proactive so that a parent will feel as if I've had my moment, I've had my opportunity to engage and talk about, you know, my child's particular situation prior to, you know, the
020time that you're telling me what my child's grade is. So then they don't, parents won't feel the need to have to, you know, do a parent-teacher conference unless they're still having some concerns throughout that particular period of time. So I think on our end, we just are going to have to be more proactive and not you know, just looking for that special day. And one thing that I think is important to say, and I know Dr. Wilkins mentioned this, but the full day schedule was not necessarily to accommodate the teachers. It was really to accommodate the parents because some parents felt like our conferences before had to be after 12 o'clock and some parents preferred to be in the morning. So this is kind of like a way to combine the two so that. it's
021not still the same time period. It might still be the same time frame, but it's not the same time of day. And that was the win-win kind of for parents and teachers is what Dr. Wilkins was explaining earlier. Okay, next up I see Ms. Gentry with a question. Hi, thanks. Just to add to what has been already said, I mean, I do think that this question of, you know, the parents feeling like they have the information that they need, you know. is something that is only going to be partially sort of solved by what we vote on for the calendar here. So, you know, I think, I do think the full day is great. We know, you know, for example, the success of the principal morning coffees, you know, it's like kind of a whole
022different set of parents that maybe couldn't come to evening things. So having that flexibility is great. But as, you know, others previous to me have said, it's, it's, it. it's not all going to be solved just through the conference window, whether it was the old way or this new schedule. It's going to be more of an ongoing relationship thing that's happening throughout the year. My question was actually about, at various points when we've talked about the calendar, we've talked about thinking about days versus hours. And as I look at this, and this is really kind of a clarification for me, I'm still seeing it referred to as days. So I just need a confirmation that are we still thinking about things in terms of days rather than hours? And it certainly sounded like there was
023some interest and some maybe possibly good things about thinking about it in terms of hours. And so if it is days, I'd just like to hear the staff's thoughts on why we didn't go with that approach. You're talking about days versus hours for just the academic year, right? Correct. The whole thing, not just the, I'm not talking about the conferences now. I'm just talking about how we account for the time. Yeah, I think Ms. Abruzzese can also chime in on this. When we were doing some of our research on that, our policy is already in place to be days or hours. I believe. So it's not a change that has to really occur. But I remember us having this discussion a few months ago. Internally, I don't think we had this with the board. That's
024why I'm asking for Ms. Abbruzzese. If you can recall. Is she on this call? I can't see everybody. I'm here. I'm here. Yes, Dr. Hutchings. You are correct. The current policy discusses both days and hours. No change will be needed at the moment. So it gives us the flexibility is the point I'm trying to make from this gentry is that we have to make it simply now. We have not necessarily used it to say, hey, we're going to fulfill the hours versus the days. And now, right now, with some of the uncertainties that we have as we move forward, we've been using 180 days or 990 hours. It's kind of like been our approach right now. And as we get through what. you know, our new normal or new way of doing business is going
025to be, I think we're going to have to dig a little deeper with that and be a little more definitive and not like and or. So I think that we'll have more information probably in the future once we start working through. Thank you. But if I'm understanding, we can vote now or when we do the vote and we wouldn't have to go back if there was a shift. Yes, we would not have to go back because it's already in policy that we can do 180 days or 990 hours or something like that case. And I don't have the full information for Jennifer. Ms. Abruzzese will be able to share it with us. Thank you, Dr. Hutchings. I would also just like to point out that the relevant policy is IC slash ID. It's called school
026year school day. It does also contain a sentence that says the first day of school shall be after Labor Day, but it does also say unless the Virginia Board of Education waives this requirement, which of course has happened. Great. Thank you very much. Great. Thank you. I have Ms. Nolan with a question. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Chair Anderson. My question was, I wanted to give Dr. Hutchings or whoever you think is the appropriate person to give an opportunity to share publicly, like, what was the rationale and the thinking behind moving the start date? And then my second follow-up question to that is, given the uncertainty over the next few years and given that there will be significant times, potentially continued significant time out of the classroom, I'm curious if there's been any thought as
027to why is there a need to move up? I understand moving the start date before Labor Day, but I'm just curious if there's been any appetite to consider leaving the end date till late June. I know there's financial implications to that and other costs, but I'm just curious if there was any conversation about that given the loss of learning that's going to be occurring this year and the need for making that up and in-person instruction and the fact that this could be a continued unfortunate situation over the next school year. So again, the two questions are, number one, would love the opportunity to share publicly the rationale about what the thought was about moving the start date to when it was. And then the second thought, is there any... consideration or thought about in the
028future moving the date back so that we continue to have more in-class instruction time particularly given the amount of instruction loss that will be occurring over the next year potentially too. So I'll have Dr. Mann respond to the first part of the question. For the second part of the question absolutely we're looking at you know potentially having a lot of different options for this upcoming year. So it's really hard for us to definitively tell you exactly what right now. But we are having some discussions around the fact that, you know, this upcoming year, fortunately, we are not starting before Labor Day. And I think a lot of school divisions probably won't be starting for Labor Day if they were planning to. And I think once we get through this fall in this, you know, we
029how we start off this year and kind of like what some of the new guidelines will be moving forward, we may be revisiting the 2021-22 calendar again, and it may look completely different than, you know, what we have presented and have a whole different purpose at that point because of the information that we receive. But for the first part of the question, I'm going to ask for Dr. Mann to just talk through how we got to recommending prior to Labor Day. Thank you. Dr. O'Jane, did you mean Dr. Mann or Dr. Wilkins? I just want to make sure we're on the same page. Dr. Mann. I mean, it's either one. Both of you say the same thing for the most part, I think. But Dr. Mann, you were there. So you can, if you feel
030comfortable talking through the process. On the Labor Day start, I think it would be Dr. Wilkins. I was more on the parent conferences schedule. Sorry. Okay, that's all right. Dr. Wilkins. I'll chime in just briefly and say that we reviewed the calendars for our region. And as we all know, many, many jurisdictions have a pre-Labor Day start. And our concern was to align our calendar with our regional partners, if you will, or neighbors in order to be. more efficient and effective with respect to the time available for our students from a testing perspective. And so our students received the same amount of time as a student in a neighboring jurisdiction was one of the primary factors to make this assessment. So we wanted to align ourselves with, again, where the region is going with respect
031to a pre-Labor-Day start. Back to Dr. Hutchings' point about big picture. We're asking for the board's approval on just this point to approve a pre-Labor-Day start, knowing that probably later we'll have to adjust the calendar, not only for the 2021-22 year, but possibly this year as well. But we can't do that at the moment. We still obviously are still working out a lot of issues. But big picture wise, we do recommend approval of the pre-Labor-Day start now for operational reasons. both from an academic perspective, which affected testing, but also remember that we have to align those other actions, our relations with the city or the city programs, so on and so forth, also need to know well in advance about this change in calendar so that we can coordinate those respective activities. Dr. Hutchings? I
032have no further comments. I think you handled it. Thanks. Okay. I have a question from Dr. Reeve. Yeah, I just, I appreciate just reviewing the reasons that you just went through Dr. Wilkins about the why we are looking at making this shift because I know we received an email from a constituent recently who I don't think has been a part of understanding that around the king's dominion law and how things have changed and so I just want to kind of put a plug in for as future communications go out to just any background information that can be provided because there may be families who are getting these communications who have not been a part of previous discussions. I think that's really helpful. I wanted to ask about how a pre-Labor Day start will affect the
033modified calendar at Tucker, if at all, if it has any impact on the modified calendar and certainly understanding that. you know, the future is kind of uncertain with regards to calendars generally, but if you could, if you could speak about that, I would appreciate hearing that. What I can say with respect to the modified calendar and particularly Samuel Tucker Elementary School is that the modified calendar, you know, essentially follows what we have done in the past with respect to how the school operates. So really no big change there. I think from an immediate sense and with regards to does Samuel Tucker open? you know, in August, let's say. I think that's still a question that's to be determined. And I guess back to Dr. Hutchings' point about we have to see how this COVID situation
034plays out in the weeks ahead to kind of make that decision. Because if, you know, Tucker could either be a model for us as far as how do you do this. or Tucker could open with the rest of the division, but it's a decision that we just can't make at this particular time. Okay. I don't see anybody else with their hand raised. If you are... If you have a question and are having trouble raising your hand, you could either text me or wave in your frame, but I don't see that. So I think this will be coming back to us, but not next week. I think the week after. So there is some time to ask follow-up questions, you know, if they come up through email, but, you know, before that time. Our next item
035is the locally awarded verified credit policy changes that are proposed. And so I'm going to turn it over to our policy person, Ms. Abouzeizi. Thank you, Chair Anderson. We have a policy change to bring to you today for information, which will be up for approval at a future meeting. This is in response to the cancellation of SOLs, or maybe the more correct way to say it is the waiver of the SOL requirement for this year. And because those... are such an integral part of awarding verified credits. The process for awarding verified credits needs to change for this year. At this point, I'm going to pass it over to Dr. Mann to go into detail, and I'm going to share my screen and scroll through some of these documents. And the first one I'm going to
036bring up is just a quick refresher of the usual way that verified credits are awarded. All right. Thank you, Ms. Eberzazi. And again, good afternoon, everyone. As Ms. Eberzazy just stated, we're bringing forward this adjustment to our policy and regulation in response to the pandemic and the action by the Virginia Board of Education and the governor. Just as a refresher for the board, this is a committee that usually happens at the division level on a case-by-case, and I usually sit on that with some people from T.C. Williams, their director of school counseling. And we then go through the process to award normally students who need these credits to graduate. They've met specific criteria. Usually they've taken SOL several times and they have a score between 375, but they haven't passed. Because of the waiver and
037suspension of SLO testing, we are coming back to the board at the recommendation of the Virginia Board of Education to expand our division level panel to then start to create school level panels. And the school level panels will go through the same process, but they will do this by course. And keep in mind that we're referring to our schools that offer high school credit bearing courses with an end of course SOL. So that's our four middle schools and obviously TC Williams. TC, as I've stated previously, is used to this process, but our middle schools, this will be new. And the new panel will consist of an administrator, either principal designee, the director of school counseling, or an assistant principal for Patrick Henry at Jefferson Houston. And then a representative, their student testing coordinator or someone
038from the Department of Accountability, a counselor, a lead teacher, department chair for specialized instruction, or a department chair for English language learners. And then at least three content teachers. And they will be doing this by course. And we went over our grading policy, I think that was in April. We will be basing this off of the student's final grade. And if a student has a passing grade, they can be awarded a locally awarded verified credit. The panels will review the grades and any information. They will have Four actions that they can take. They will award a verified credit, deny verified credit. They can suggest participation in remedial program or retesting. Or they can make academic assignments as deemed appropriate prior to determine whether to award this credit. And trying, just as Ms. Abruzzese opened us
039up with, this is important for our students because they need verified credits. to graduate from high school. And so again, the major change here is that we will be expanding to school level panels. And we've reviewed this information with our middle school principals and Mr. Ballas and his team. And again, I'd just like to thank Ms. Runkle, Daryl Sampson, Ms. Averzay Zee. and all the principals for their feedback and input into developing these adjustments to our policy. And also this will only be in effect through this year. And if the state of emergency continues during our traditional summer school period, we would then also come back to the board and expand this to be able to capture students who are taking credit recovery courses during the summer. And I will turn it back over to
040Ms. Albrezzi if I've missed anything and then back to Dr. Hutchins. Thank you, Dr. Mann. I think we're now ready for any questions from the board. Okay, I see Mr. Suarez has his hand up. Yes, thanks, Chair Anderson, and thank you for the revisions to the policy. It all makes sense. I always think about corner cases, so I'm trying to sort of understand how this policy would operate for a student who perhaps, you know, scored less than a 375 on an SOL or maybe didn't take an SOL because this would have been the first time they could have taken it, perhaps. and how this policy is going to account for it. Because I think for the locally awarded verified credit, you have to have taken an SOL and hit 375. And for a special permission
041locally awarded verified credit, you had to have taken the test, been below 375, and be a student with disabilities. So I'm just wondering if... There are going to be any situations where a student maybe was taking a course this year, was on track, but didn't take an SOL and therefore is because our policy doesn't cover for that scenario, isn't going to graduate. So I just want to make sure our policy is accounting for all. possibilities. And since there's still some of the rigid SOL-related requirements in this policy, I'm a little worried about that. So I'm just kind of curious what your thoughts are. Sure. Thank you. Thank you for the question. I'm going to pass to Mr. Sampson, our Director of Counseling, to answer that for you in detail. Sure. A couple of things. So
042for our current seniors, basically our class of 2020, they have different emergency guidelines from the Virginia Department of Education, which basically waives any outstanding verified credit requirements for them. So those students, if they still have any verified credit requirements, industry credentialing requirements, they are waived if they're graduating. This policy, so the LAVC policy for high school credit bearing courses is applicable at this point for our underclassmen who are currently sitting in high school credit bearing SOL courses. And because they don't have an opportunity to test this year, none of these students will have been able to test. And so what the state has said is that because they cannot test, we have to take away the requirement that they have sat for an exam or two at this point. And therefore, we are going to
043make decisions or the local divisions have the opportunity to make decisions based upon. how the content that was taught and then the grades that those students earned in those classes and then we locally can determine course by course if a student has met the requirements to get a locally awarded verified credit which will then count towards their verified credit requirements for graduation. Mr. Sampson, you may want to elaborate a little bit on the fact that with the new grading policy that we adopted, that helps a lot of our students. That was the purpose in us having that either. passing or no grade policy, because if they get a passing grade, meaning they do 60% or more of their work, that is an A for the fourth quarter, which everyone could, you know, potentially then get
044credit. Even if you got Fs the first three quarters. Sure. So with the grading policy, students are able to then have a pretty fair chance of earning a passing grade. And then we as a school division can look at the content taught in those passing grades and determine if we feel those students. should get a locally where you verify credit. You had also asked about mentioned some things with students with disabilities. So under these current emergency guidelines, it's for any student that's currently in the course, regardless of whether they're a general education student or a student with disability. So all of our students will have that same opportunity who are currently sitting in these SOL courses without having to look at the special permission locally awarded verified credit accommodations. Okay, I have a question from...
045I'm sorry, Chair Anderson, I don't mean to break in. I'm sorry, you wanted to finish. I'm sorry. I'm sorry to cut you off there. No, I'm sorry. I just noticed that I think Ms. Terry Werner would like to add to Mr. Sampson's response. I didn't see that. No, I actually was just going to be ready if anybody had a follow-up. He covered everything exactly as I would have said it. Thank you. Oh, my apologies. No, I'm fine. All righty, so we'll move on to Dr. Reif has a question. Thank you for your explanation of this change in policy. I had two questions. One, I noticed in your memo that accompanied the documents, you said that the proposal is continuing to be shared with staff and administrators for feedback. And I was really interested in hearing
046what kind of feedback you've received from teachers, because one thing that's interesting about this policy is that you are awarding it on a class basis versus an individual basis. So if you could talk about that. And then my second question was I believe that last year there was a new policy that students, you know, would only take in high school an SOL one time in the subject area. And if they passed it, they were not going to have to take the SOL in future years. And this, you know, this factors into the accountability system. And so I was just wondering, will these locally awarded verified credits? will those substitute then? And so therefore students might not have to take SOLs in the future in those subject areas. So if you could speak to those two
047questions. Absolutely. And I am going to pass to Mr. Sampson again, because I know he's been at the forefront of the outreach with staff. Sure. So we've spent quite a bit of time working with our principals and our directors of counseling specifically to get their input on this. We are working very closely within the guidelines provided by the Virginia Department of Education. And we're trying to, I think, as Dr. Hutchings says, says pretty regularly, like we're in unprecedented times. And I think we're challenged by the fact that none of our students. have an opportunity right now to demonstrate whether or not they could pass an SOL. We may have students who are struggling grade-wise, but who could easily pass the SOL. And we need to be able to make sure that when we look at
048these on a course by course basis, we're really thinking about, you know, if a student has earned a passing grade and they've been provided instruction in all of the content standards, is that for our purposes at this point, given that they can't test and we're in a pretty unique situation, you know. We need to look at that and think about whether or not, you know, we feel that they've mastered enough of the standards to earn that LAVC. In terms of, and I'm sorry, remember your second question? Yeah, it was regarding... You know, there was like a new policy that went into effect last year, I believe. Yes, the updated SOA. Sure. So what the state has said is that these locally awarded verified credits will count for students as meeting that verified credit requirements. They
049won't. They won't. Some of them will also meet federal accountability requirements. That's also there. So if for some reason a student then earns a math verified credit this year at the middle school or high school level, then that will count as their one math SOL that they need. moving forward and they won't have to then go back and take another one next year. And it won't count against, there's some total counts that you're allowed to have based on the regulations in terms of the number of LAVCs. This won't count against those. You'll be able to use it for an advanced studies or a standard diploma. Like the state is trying to be very flexible with kids given the current circumstances. Okay, I don't see anything else. Anybody else raising their hand for a question on
050that? So that will come back to us again later, as Ms. Abruzzese said. And we will move on now to the Dr. Hutchings report and then question and answer. And I just want to say today's questions. We're going to have next week is going to be our budget work session. So today's questions, because we're running, going to be running short on time, would be good to have non-budget related questions. Dr. Hutchings? Thank you, Madam Chair. Well, first, I do have a couple of updates. And one is we had an article just recently in EdTrust that was about our distance learning during COVID-19. It was published on Wednesday and it showcased GW and Alexandria City Public Schools as a whole. So I think it's important. I'll forward that on to you all today. So just you
051can take a look at that if you haven't seen it. already because it's a really good article that captures some of the innovation that our team is doing during this pandemic. So great thing, great acknowledgement. It seems like we're in the Washington Post every other week or so, some one of our staff members. So that's a really good thing that we're getting some very positive feedback and highlights out there. Another thing that I wanted to just talk about, and this is kind of a preface to our budget work session for next week, because as you all get emails, I receive emails as well. And this week, we were trying to make sure that we're communicating out with our staff just so they're clear around what the revised budget. um reductions are as well as you
052know some of the reasoning behind the reduction items that we have put into the um the revised budget and you'll see that on monday we provided information in the insider on tuesday we had a special edition um on i'm sorry on wednesday we had a special edition for the budget and then tuesdays and third tuesday and thursday uh during the video chats we were able to provide just some information and I specifically actually answered all the questions from the board members as well as similar questions that staff members had on the video yesterday to our community. But one thing I just want to just to resurface and just to put on the record for us as a whole. And one thing is that as you all know, we're in this pandemic, it is unprecedented. It
053is, you know, impacting everybody's life, you know, at this moment. And everybody is dealing with this in a lot of different ways. And I just hope that this revised budget process, that people are aware that this is not intended to cause any type of discord within our community. You know, the only way we're going to be able to get through this pandemic is by us working together as a team. and us having unity. You know, we're all being forced to make some very tough decisions and it's not just in Alexandria City Public Schools. Every superintendent across this country right now is having challenges with revising their budgets and in some cases people are having more or having to make more decisions and tougher decisions than we are being faced with. I just think that it's
054important for us to not allow this process to be more of an us and them type deal. You know, I think that this needs to be a situation where we're doing what's best for Alexandria City Public Schools as a whole, that we're not pinpointing specific employee groups and saying, well, this group gets this and this group, you know, like I think if we go down that path. it is really going to be a path of destruction. I really do believe that. And the work that we have been working so hard to do and to try to move forward and make decisions on the best interest or in the best interest of our students, I think it could be in vain if we go down that path. So not that we can't have discussions and not
055that we can't have disagreements. I mean, when you're dealing with a budget, unfortunately, it's... a no-win situation. You're never going to have 100% of anybody excited about any budget, whether it's during a pandemic or not. And that's why that's the toughest decisions that you as a board have to make. I also just want to make it very clear that with our revised budget, you know, we are not recommending for anybody's salary to be cut or anybody's salary to be reduced. Take home pay, salary, two different things, right? We got to make it very clear. Nobody's salary is being cut. Nobody is, you know, being forced to. to reduce their salary from it was this year this amount and next year is going to be another amount. What we do know is that some of our
056staff members take home pay may be impacted and it may be impacted in a lot of different ways and for different reasons. And every situation that an employee has is going to be on a case by case basis and it's going to be difficult for us to make one decision that's going to be good for all. So everybody has a different situation. And I think that what we're going to have to do on our end is make sure. We are providing the necessary supports for our employees to talk through their financial planning. We do have employee assistance programs that actually provides free planning for all of our staff members, talking through the health benefit options that we do have, you know, for our staff members, you know, helping them understand, you know, our health benefits
057and that 80-20 split that we currently have that, you know, that's a platinum plus, you know, health benefit that we offer, even with the health premiums rising right now. That is significant, you know, for us, but just helping them to understand that and just helping us all to realize, you know, yesterday when I sent my update to you, I said, thank you for my paycheck, right, to be able to do what we want to do in our household for our kids. You know, at the times like this, when I know that there are 20 and a half million jobs that have been eliminated over the past two months, and our unemployment rate is at 14.7%, I am just thankful. grateful to be able to be employed. And not to say that I can't have a
058voice and I can't speak up because we can, but we have throughout this process made sure, and this is something I'm very intentional about and very adamant about, is making sure that we are not Making sure that we encourage them to do self-care, making sure that we ask them to have some work-life balance. Some people aren't following the rules. I just talked to the principals and directors today. I said, if you all are working over the weekend, you need to stop because there's enough time in a day for you to get some of this work done. Take two days off. You can't keep working throughout the day and out the night and over weekends because this pandemic is bringing additional stressors that a typical workday seems like 80 hours a week now. Because you have
059all the other stressors, kids, your wife. I told you all last night, I'm tired of cooking, right? I haven't cooked this much in a long, long time. And I'm going to stop cooking once these restaurants open back up. I really am. But another thing I just wanted to point out, I know I'm long-winded today, but I just had to get all this off my chest because this is what happens when I have my Monday mornings. I'm sorry, my mornings to do like my devotion and my reflections that I, you know, I wrote all this stuff. Another thing is I think even with all these modified schedules that we're still providing full salaries and full benefits to our staff. And I think that has been lost to everyone. That is huge. People are still receiving their
060checks. They are still receiving health benefits for themselves and their families. And we're adamant about making sure that that continues to happen. And through all this, I just don't want us to lose the fact that we've served over 200,000 meals to our students over the past two months. We've delivered Chromebooks to homes, learning packets, learning kits, Kajeets, so that people can have online services. Our central office is literally working around the clock and you all are going to stop working on these weekends. I'm keep saying it. You all hear me say it to the board to stop working over weekends. But they're working around the clock to make sure that the vision remains afloat. That's why we're not in the news in a negative way, because people are having to do that work. That's everybody
061in central office and essential staff to ensure that that continues to happen. Our principals are supporting our staff and they're supporting our families to ensure that they're still connected to our schools even though our school doors are closed. Our transportation workers are delivering meals to sites and delivering resources so that our food distribution stations can continue to function as normal. Our security staff, they're taking temperatures of individuals so we can make sure our buildings are healthy and safe. Our custodians are continuing to clean our buildings to make sure that they're disinfected and that they're going to be prepared whenever these doors open back up again for our kids. Our SST and our FACE staff, they're reaching out to families and students to ensure that their social and emotional needs are being met on a daily
062basis. And that's every day from 8 to 3 o'clock. Our SST is available Monday through Friday for our students as well as our faculty members and our families. Our technology team is remedying all of the technology issues and making sure people have their technology. Our accountability office, they have developed a progress monitoring tool during this pandemic so we can monitor our progress and make revisions as we go along so we can get it right on behalf of our kids and still keeping the momentum of the strategic plan that's going on around here. Our communications team, tirelessly working. every single day, every single hour, right, to make sure ACPS at home is updated, Insider is given, the Express is given, my videos are posted, that we're responding to all the feedback that parents are giving us.
063HR is still doing interviews, interview panels through Zoom. Going through applications, making sure that we are answering our staff as they ask questions about HR. Our C&I team, they're literally churning these learning packets every week and sending them to all of our youngest learners at home, as well as working to make sure that everything that goes home is aligned with our Virginia standards of learning. Our facilities and capital programs team, that they're making sure our CIP projects are staying on schedule. Some of them are actually ahead of schedule because of their hard work and then being innovative about what we need to do. Our finance team is making sure everybody who's getting a full paid check, in spite of what your modified work schedule is, that you're getting paid on time. Everybody got paid today.
064We are also proud of the fact that We have an all hands on deck approach and I don't want to lose all of that. And if I didn't get this off my chest and allow this to be on the record for the whole world to hear, right, I would be doing a disservice to the hard work that our team is doing, because sometimes we don't realize that, you know, when we get off track and we get focused on one specific thing. One item in a million things that we have to look at. We, in some ways, forget about the people who are tirelessly working each and every day. And, you know, every moment I get, I try to say thank you to our staff. Every moment I get for you all, I genuinely mean when
065I say thank you for your support. Because, and that's in every update that I receive, it's on purpose. I know it sounds redundant, but it's on purpose. Because this wouldn't be possible if the board wasn't supporting us. This wouldn't be possible if you all didn't believe in us. And I just want to make sure that our team, that they get the same acknowledgement and respect. throughout this process and for everyone to know that we are not trying to provide any inequities to anybody. And it's not about equal. Nothing is about equal. Equality days are over. Equity means you got to service certain things at different times for different reasons. Equal means you just do everything the same for everything in every situation. We can't function as a school division being equal for everything. So let's
066look through the equity lens. And I'm going to stop there, get off my soapbox. But I do want to just say, once again, thank you to the board. Thank you to our senior leaders. Thank you to all of our staff, our principals, and everyone who is making this school division shine, shine so bright. You know, people are calling us every day to get information on what we're doing. And that's because of our hard team and our work that we are putting forth. So just thank you, everyone. And I'm going to stop to answer any questions that board members may have, Madam Chair. Thank you. Okay, great. We are running close to the end of our time, but I see two people with their hands already up. So we're going to go, we have Ms. Alterton,
067followed by Ms. Green. All right. So good afternoon, everyone. I think the first thing I want to do is, you know, thank Dr. Hutchings for sharing what was on his mind and on his heart. And what I really appreciate. is the call for everyone to take care of themselves. I think that, you know, we've received emails, you know, of people saying they're working over weekends and they're, you know, working countless and tireless hours. And I have never perceived from the staff in ACPS that that's what senior leadership does not want teachers doing that. Not at this time. You know, I'm a big believer that teachers shouldn't do that during regular times because burnout is real. And, you know, I don't think we want any martyrs in this. Self-care is so important. If I can say
068that to any educator out there, we are some of the worst when it comes to, you know, cutting ourselves off. And it has to be done and it has to be done, especially now. So, you know, I appreciate sort of that reminder to people that, you know, we don't nobody wants you working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. And, you know, set the boundaries. It's really important. I think, you know, nobody's going to be good to anybody's child if you are burnt out, worn out. and beat down. Nobody's going to be good for anybody. So I think heed that advice from Dr. Hutchings. It's very important. And I think, like I said, your leadership teams do not want you, you know, sort of, what do we call it, burning the midnight. Candle or
069coals or whatever. So thank you for that. I do have a question that I wanted to just have, you know, some public awareness on that is in regard to how we're looking at extended school year services. And so I thought it would be beneficial if you all could share how we are going to deal with ESY given our very unprecedented and newly developed situation, what's that going to look like? You know, is it going to be ESY as normal, or is there going to be a different approach to how we serve kids with disabilities at this time? Ms. Warner can answer to that. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Alderton. I appreciate the opportunity to share this information. I think we alluded to it at a previous board meeting as well. So just to remind everyone
070that extended school year or ESY services for students with disabilities are those services that are provided outside the parameters of the regular school year calendar. and school year service cycle in order to address the unique needs that a student with a disability might bring that would require extended services. There are a set of criteria that have been established in order to review a student need every year and we do that through the individual IEP process. This year, though, we are doing summer school for all. So the entire school district will be involved in summer. So students with disabilities will have that same access to education that every student in Alexandria City Public Schools will be afforded through the 3.0 process. To that end, we're not extending the school year for students with disabilities. They will
071have access as it is part of our regular school year offering. Students with disabilities will also access those educational programming services. In conjunction with the EL students, there's been a lot of work done with CNI and planning team with special ed and EL to ensure that we are providing access to all of our students. So there will be a continuum of special education services available for students with disabilities throughout the summer program. We will really be looking at our ESY or extending school year once we come back in 4.0 and looking at where students are and what they need on an individual basis. And those services will be very tailored and individualized to student needs. and could very well look like an extended school day, additional services, things of that nature. But for the summer,
072we will be part of the integrated summer school for all. Okay, next we have Ms. Green. Thank you, Chair Anderson. Dr. Hutchings, I was just wondering if you could give a brief rundown on the board briefs that we'll receive today. And I'm particularly interested in hearing if we will receive the facilities maintenance update that I believe was told to us a couple weeks ago that was supposed to drop on May 15th today. Yes. So we did. We changed that date to May 22nd because we had the team. They couldn't get it done by this week. We had some people who were out and we didn't want to have them rush to get it completed this week. So we gave them an additional week. So we're going to have the maintenance one posted next Friday. But
073facilities will be posted today. And I do not have that in front of me. Does anybody have the list in front of them right now? Because I. It may take me a minute to find it. Of ones that are due today? Yes, the ones that are going to be. Yeah, we have the superintendent evaluation update, MacArthur project and relocation plan, the project update and relocation plan, custodial and maintenance services update, I believe, and enrollment projections from middle school. That is accurate. And I apologize, I haven't sent out the one from this week, so I'll send that out this afternoon. I think there are no changes from the one I have. Yeah, so the only change is just the maintenance one will be next Friday versus this Friday. That's the only change that you will see.
074Everything else is still as is. Okay, thank you. Yeah, and I think that's actually... I have to make sure that I have the right one before I send it out to you because mine actually has that on it. So I think I've either pulled the wrong one or I, but I'll get it out to you too. Also, I apologize. I see Ms. Nolan has her hand raised. Thank you so much Sharon just not no need to belabor the conversation or answer this right now But just wanted to given the maintenance board brief that just put a thought in my head that I imagine dr Hutchings that when we start shifting to the conversation of what the expectations are in the fall that as you can imagine one of the big conversation, one of the big
075question marks that's going to start stirring in the community is like what is the plan to ensure the cleanliness of the buildings given the importance and of that moving forward and that quite frankly was never a strong suit of ours at ACPS and it's going to be absolutely a beyond a health measure moving forward. So again, we don't have to discuss it now, but when we were talking about the maintenance, it'd be great to that be included when we start pivoting to what the expectations are in the fall of how are we going to ensure that the maintenance of the buildings is a part of the plan. I imagine it's already out there, but I just wanted to just put that out there as a food for thought for future discussion. Yes, and it'll be
076a part of the board memo. So you all, when you see it, the board brief, it'll include that information. So, and then we'll be able to talk through it when it's the following week. Okay, so it is. So sorry, I just wanted to say thank you so much, Dr. Hutchings, because I know that it will be worth a public discussion in addition to the board brief. So I appreciate you sharing that. Okay, yeah. And just a reminder that when we have board briefs, you know, then we can ask questions, you know, if there's still some after, you know, emails that we can ask them at follow up meetings. But I actually had one, but I think I'm going to save it because and ask it next week. hopefully, because we are now at 107. And
077I know that some of you have to get on other work calls and the staff needs to get back to work. And so if I could get a motion to adjourn, that would be greatly appreciated. Madam Chair, I move that we adjourn. Second. I heard Mr. Suarez first for the second of Ms. Gentry's motion to adjourn this meeting. And so I'm going to indicate, please indicate your vote as I call your name. Cindy Anderson, yes. Veronica Nolan. Yes. Megan Alderton. Yes. Rami Gentry. Yes. Jacinta Green. Yes. Margaret Lorber. Yes. Michelle Reeve. Yes. Christopher Suarez? Yes. Heather Thornton? Yes. Okay, the vote's 9-0, and now the meeting is adjourned at 1-0-8. Everyone have a great weekend. It's beautiful outside, so spend some time outside. Bye. Bye, everybody.