001Okay, thank you. All right, so good evening everyone and welcome to our work session. We are starting at 5.08 p.m. And so just to quickly go over the agenda for this work session, we are going to start with our budget discussion. Dr. Hutchings has some additional information for us today. And then secondly, we will take a look at policies this evening. So I will go ahead and turn it over to Dr. Hutchings. And thank you, Madam Chair. So yes, we are going to share some information today, which is nice to be able to share some news with the board in regards to our FY22 budget. Before we get started with the discussion, I want to turn things over to our CFO, Mr. Turner, just to give us some insight to the additional state revenue that
002we have received. So Mr. Turner, I'm going to turn things over to you. Or maybe not. Maybe I'll take it. So, no, there he is. Can you hear me? I can hear you. Okay, sorry, I was talking, I guess I was on mute or something. So yes, as Dr. Hutchins was saying, some good news is our state revenue is projected to increase as a part of the governor's budget. There's four primary items that were increased. State sales tax revenue receipts are projected up. That's the largest category. And then there were three other categories, all new for going into fiscal year 2022. And let me just pull up the document to be able to go over that. So the three new categories are they added a no loss funding to try to assist the school divisions
003with their state revenue, also a community provider add-on. And then lastly, trying to provide additional compensation for school staff, they put in a bonus payment for next year as well. So those are the four primary categories that have gone up. The attachment to the document will show you that there's been movement amongst all of the categories, but not as much as these four. So just wanted to point that out to you all. And I'll turn it over to Dr. Hutchings to be able to go through the superintendent's adjusted expenditure side. And I'm going to start off and thank you. Thank you, Mr. Turner. I wanted to start off and go through some of the recommended adjustments based on this additional revenue that we've received from the state. And then I'm going to ask for Mr.
004Turner to go through our technical adjustments because there are some things that we needed to adjust that did not have an expenditure change that I would like for him to go through. But I wanted to start off with some of the recommended adjustments based on this additional $2.1 million. Specifically, We are, as you all know. procuring so many different contracts for multiple projects that we have in ACPS, from the high school project to Douglas MacArthur, to just our typical facilities projects that we have going, and everything else, right? And one area that we believe that we need to really begin to address now in regards to our procurement department is adding a senior buyer to our facilities services department. And we're planning to do that now. We've already posted the position for this particular position.
005But the goal is that we are including the $125,000 expenditure change to add an additional FTE next year in our FY22 budget so that we can sustain this position that we are incorporating into our FY21 budget right now. And Mr. Turner will be able to provide some more specifics around that. We also are looking at adding a 1% incentive bonus for our staff. As you all know, our staff, they have been working tirelessly like everybody else across this world. But I say that now they're calling educators first responders. All right, well, I'm going to take it. We're first responders. That means that, you know, we really should be trying to provide additional compensation for. for some of our staff members, especially when we are able. And one thing that came out of our discussion last
006month when we introduced the superintendent's proposed budget. was the fact that our health premiums were going to increase in FY22. And yes, we were incorporating a step or recommending a step. However, some staff members just may not really get to enjoy that step increase because of the increase of the health premiums. So what we've included in the proposed or the adjustment that we've made in the FY22 budget is to add a 1% incentive bonus. for our staff to offset those premium increases in the FY22 year. And then finally, and when we introduced the superintendent's budget, we shared our compensation study. And back in January, we just had some of the recommendations and we were not finalized in regards to the... the changes that we were proposing to the board. So we wanted to incorporate that
007into these adjustments. Specifically, we looked at adding support for our market rate adjustments for employee groups that were significantly below the market based on that third-party compensation study. And that totals $202,900. We have chosen to do a five-year kind of plan to address you know, this market rate adjustment versus a three-year because we are going through an economic downturn at this time. We want to be, you know, respectful of that. But we also want to address the need that we know is very clear to us. I'm glad that we're able to do these third-party compensation studies each year so that we can identify some of our deficit areas and have plans and strategies to address them. We did provide this specific employee groups as an attachment to this memo. And Mr. Turner, he can go
008through some of these more specifically. I just wanted to give the board a quick overview as to how we were allocating the additional $2.1 million, what we were recommending, how to allocate these additional $2.1 million. So, Mr. Turner. Yep. So just before I go into technical adjustments, one small edit to what Dr. Hudson said. The senior buyer position will be in the financial services department, not the facilities and operations department. That senior buyer will help all of ACPS. So it'll be located in the procurement office. We do have five technical adjustments, and these adjustments are due to either an omission or an error in the budget book. So we wanted to correct those before we move into the final budget book production that will happen after the adoption in June. So these are zero dollar
009expenditure chains. They're either correction to a position title that was incorrect in the system or adding the reserve positions that were omitted from the budget book. They were discussed. during the presentation and the work sessions, but they were omitted from the budget book. So we wanted to ensure that we were putting those in as well. As far as the MRAs that Dr. Hutchins just discussed, so any of the positions that we saw in the compensation study that were significantly below the market average, we wanted to bring those up to within about three percentage points of that market average. So we took a five-year approach, as Dr. Hutchins said, to be able to do that over the long haul because it would be quite difficult to try to move all of those position groups up to
010that level in one year, especially as we're dealing with coming out of a global pandemic. Susan, I don't know if you can pull up that attachment. So I believe we had about 24 different position groups in the compensation study this year. Many of the positions came back and we saw that they were already competitive. So we did not provide a market rate adjustment to those positions that are already competitive. Some of the position groups, they were competitive at the middle of the range, but not at the top of the range. So for those positions, we added steps to the top. But these are the positions that the whole scale was significantly below the market. So as you'll see in the projected area, this is where we would be at the end of the five years
011if we're able to stay on this track for the five years. And you'll see what the percentages are. One of the lessons learned from the past is in the past, I tried to be very, or we tried to be very specific with the percentages. So you saw the bus drivers had a 4.64, you saw a 2.9 and numbers like this. A lesson learned was we tried to stay with quarter percentages. So you'll see all of these MRAs are to a quarter percent. And with that, I'll turn it over for any questions for the superintendent's adjustments that we have. Okay, so at this time, are there any board members with questions? Okay. Thanks, Cheryl. So actually, I don't want to prolong the conversation. I don't have any questions, but I just wanted to remark on two
012things just to make the statement. So number one, I just wanted to thank the staff, obviously, for their hard work, as well as that I really think it's important that we're not only collecting data, but we're using the data to guide our discussion. So the fact that like the MRA, particularly for staff who... The concern is that the salary range is not going to meet their needs and that we want to make sure we're being competitive with our staff. So my two comments to summarize is number one, thank you for being good to the staff, like, you know, the bonus and, you know, making sure that we're appropriate with them with the health. I just think that that's the. the culture that we want to continue having in ACPS and ensuring our staff feel valued,
013particularly, as you said, Dr. Hutchings, it's an exceptionally challenging time. So to make that move in a budget and do our best, you know, obviously we always wish we could give more. Those are some of the constraints that we're in, but like the fact that we're, you know, trying to send a message, you know, as Rami always says, the budget tells a story. And so I appreciate that the recommendations are that we're trying to value our staff, particularly during a challenging time. So just one, just wanted to say thank you for that. And the second thing, I just wanted to take an opportunity, especially for someone who's been on the board for five years, just to take a moment to share my thoughts about the procurement position and why this is of such value to
014a school division. And candidly, I'm going to own that I didn't. I fully have come to appreciate the importance of that role, especially for three reasons. So again, just want to pass that information on in case it's helpful for those that don't understand the importance is that number one, we've seen with strong procurement labor force in ACPS that number one, it helps us save money in the long run. And that's important. Number two, it builds trust with city council that if you have a procurement officer that is you know, negotiating, ensuring that the estimates we have are accurate, that we don't have to keep coming back to city council and saying, sorry, we misjudged how much it was going to cost. So building trust, saving money, having projects finish on time is only going to
015strengthen our division. And oftentimes that's really in the house of the procurement office. So again, just wanted to sing the praises of some heroes in ACPS and why that position is important. and that wide especially from a board perspective you know having responsible budgets having projects finished on time having strengthened relationships with city council is oftentimes a direct um leading a direct correlation to strong procurement so sorry again i apologize i don't have any questions but i just wanted to note those two items in the budget and just say again thank you for everyone's hard work and just why i'm grateful to support um and the thought that went behind it Megan, I can't raise my hand. Excuse me. I just want to let you know, I do have a question. Okay, sure. So I
016think I'll go to Ms. Gentry first and then we'll add Ms. Lorber. Does that work? Okay. I really just wanted to thank you, Ms. Nolan. I really just want to... enthusiastically agree with everything that Vice Chair Nolan said and just add one more element. She talked about the procurement person, the trust with the city, that we're helping to understand the costs upfront and that we stay to those costs and we stay on time. In addition to that, it's that we're really getting everything that we're getting the highest quality product as well. You know, it's really all of those things. You know, if you, it doesn't help to get something in on time and on budget if, you know, it's deficient in some way. So it is a really crucial position. So I just wanted to.
017just agree with everything that Ms. Nolan said. And a huge thank you to the finance department, the entire team of people that worked on the budget process this year. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ms. Gentry. Ms. Lorber. Thank you. Yeah, I want to thank everybody too. I agree with that. This is, I'm worried. Did we go over the technical adjustments yet or not yet? Did we do both? Okay, because I must, my question is about one of the technical adjustments, but then I was suddenly afraid that maybe we couldn't go over them yet. The number two, the realign school leadership staff and the taking a someone out of talent development and putting them in the school leadership office. Whoops. Thank you. I just, whenever someone does that, my whole thing goes. Yeah, no, I
018just am wondering, is that, that FTE for school leadership, is that the thing we saw in the budget where there was no, is that the person who will supervise the principals? That's my question. Yes. So this is the position that we discussed last year when we did our reorganization for our teaching, learning, and leadership. And what we did at that time was we repurposed the director of professional learning position into the executive director of the school leadership position. That position was a vacancy for this year, but we do plan to fill it as of July 1. And then what's your speak? And then what you'll see is the technical adjustment is just that in the budget book, it was reflected in the wrong office. And now we want to make sure we're reflecting it in
019the correct office. Okay. I'm not sure if this is the place to discuss this, but when this is a question, when did we, this is effectively the position that it's like the executive director of the folks who supervised the superintendents before. And this has been consolidated. Now is this K through 12? Yeah, so this position is K-12. So this was back, this was when I did my reorg about almost two, it's been almost two years now. But this is with the reorg, no, a year, a year ago, sorry. With the reorg from last year, this was a part of the reorg. And as Mr. Turner mentioned, the reason why it's showing up here is that position was just. put in the it was kept in the wrong office we had moved it to the school
020leadership office but it wasn't reflected in the FY22 budget so this adjustment was moving that over but the school leadership position is an executive coaching position for all of our principals of the so that's pre-k through 12 in ACPS and that position we're planning to have filled for the July 1st. for fiscal year 2020 beginning July 1. I figured this is a, forgive me, it's a work session, right? So I can, I just want to pursue this just a teeny bit more because... Is it a coaching position or is it, this has nothing to do with the technical amendment. I understand that. But is it truly a coaching position or will that person supervise the principals? They will supervise principals, but they're also executive coaching for our principals. This was a part of our reorganization
021and our focus from what our principals needed is some executive coaching in addition to having the supervision that we need for evaluation purposes. But we really are trying to get away from that management, like I'm your boss type thing, including how I operate with our staff. We work together as colleagues versus I'm your boss and I tell you what to do. So that is why the executive coaching component, which was a huge emphasis for this role, was included. in this position. Before you were here, I mean, there was some misunderstanding about it was advertised as coaching became supervision. The supervision was heavy handed. And I just wanted to be sure we weren't going to fall back into. that confusion that it really is emphasis. We're trying to get away from heavy handed anything because if
022we don't function as a team, what you end up having is an organization where there is to me, it becomes like having some tyrants at the top. And we're trying to prevent that. That's what I heard coming into this into this position three years ago, that that was kind of how the culture was, you know. we have shifted from that culture to be more collaborative and working together as a team versus a boss and subordinate mentality. Thank you. Great. Okay. Thank you, Ms. Lorber. Ms. Gentry, your hand is still up. Is that just a, okay. And before we move along, I just want to make sure I don't have any other questions from board members. Okay, great. Oh, I see Ms. Gentry. I'm so sorry. I lied. I just, I'm always looking out for you,
023Mr. Turner. Do we need a moment in this where we are officially acknowledging that we are okay? You're on it. Thank you so much, Cheryl. We do. And I may just... pull in Jennifer if need be. However, we do need to, because these are technical adjustments, we do need a moment where we give the okay, that we are, you know, okay with these adjustments. So Dr. Rogers, you have your hand up. Yes, I just wanted to just add on to what Ms. Nolan as well as what Ms. Gentry had mentioned earlier today. This really ties back to our whole theme of our FY22 budget, and I meant to mention this earlier, and I wanted to make sure I got my talking points right because I just talked to Dominic, you said you were going to
024say X, so I'm going to say it now, Mr. Turner, that this does tie back to our theme for our FY22 budget, which was recover, retain, and reignite. And when we talk about it, Ms. Nolan, you literally were speaking exactly like we do in our meetings in regards to just making sure that our decisions are aligned with what we said we were going to do. And we're allowing the data to help us inform our decision making. And this whole adjustment that we have made. is all about the retention component as well as the recovery component. So and I think it can even tie into reignite. So it really can fit with all three. But I just wanted to make the point that these adjustments, they are aligned with what we said. We believed from our
025budget priorities that the board adopted back in the fall to the theme of the FY22 budget. Great. Thank you for that. And so we do need to have one of our thumbs up moments in regard to these adjustments. Jennifer, do I need to read each of the adjustments or can we just give a thumbs up in general to the adjustments? I'm going to rely on you. Sure. I'm sorry. You should do them individually in case there's not agreement on all of them. Gotcha. Okay. Susan, would you mind pulling them up for us, please? Oh, and I just want to clarify, it's the superintendent's adjustments that need the thumbs up, thumbs down pushing. Sure. Thank you. No problem. All right. So, oh, wait a minute. Yeah. Sorry. When I'm sharing, I can't see my browser. So
026hold on one second. Okay. Okay. Here we go. Thank you. Thank you. So the superintendent's recommended adjustments. And so I'm going to start here with the... Operating Fund. And I will just do thumbs up. So I will go across the screen. And I guess, Susan, I can give you a number. I'm going to do it that way. Okay, great. All right. So number one, additional state revenue of $2.1 million. And the proposal is to add one FTE senior buyer position in the financial services department. Okay, I'll just scroll. Mr. Suarez. We might have to do a roll call. Okay, we can do that because I couldn't see Mr. Suarez's thumb. All right, let's do a roll call. So, Ms. Gentry. Yes, sorry, I'm mute. Ms. Alderton, yes. Ms. Lorber. Yes. Ms. Thornton. Yes. Dr. Reif.
027Yes. Mr. Suarez? Yes. Ms. Nolan? Yes. Ms. Green? Yes. And did I miss anyone? Ms. Anderson, yes. Ms. Anderson, yes. Okay. Thank you. All right, so that was nine. Add 1% incentive bonus for staff. Ms. Gentry? Yes. Ms. Alderton, yes. Ms. Lorber? Yes. Dr. Reif? Yes. Ms. Anderson? Yes. Ms. Thornton? Yes. Mr. Suarez? Yes. Ms. Nolan? Yes. Ms. Green? Yes. Thank you. We have nine. All right. Add funding to support MRAs for employee groups significantly below market. Market based on third party compensation study. So this is regarding the phase two. Ms. Gentry, yes. Yes. Alderton, yes. Ms. Lorber. Yes. Dr. Reif. Yes. Ms. Anderson. Yes. Ms. Thornton. Yes. Mr. Suarez. Yes. Ms. Nolan. Yes. And Ms. Green. Yes. Okay. Did I get Ms. Lorber? Did I get Ms. Lorber? Yes, you did. Okay. Thank you.
028So Dominic, is that what you need? Yes, ma'am. Thank you very much. Okay. Awesome. So this was an interesting work session. We didn't have any ad deletes. So I just have to, again, reiterate, very good budget process. We seem to get better and better every time. So this is very exciting. I hope it's exciting for the staff, too. And Dr. Hutchins is giving the roundabout clap. So thank you again, everyone. And just checking in with Jennifer, are we covered with what we need, Jennifer, procedurally? Yes, we are. Yes, we are good to go. Thank you. Awesome. Thank you so much. Okay, so we can move on. Jennifer, you're up because we've got some policies to review. I actually am going to take one step back. I'm sorry from what I just said. There's actually one
029more procedural component that's required as far as the budget. And that is if there is going to be no, not, if there's not going to be a second add delete work session, it requires a unanimous vote of the board right now or indication unanimously by the board. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for that. Okay. So board. And unless you want a second ad delete session, what I will do is I will just go, I guess I'll sort of do a roll call again, given that we did not have any ad deletes and that we have accepted the technical adjustments. It is seemingly indicated to me that we do not need a second add delete session. If you are in approval, I will call your name and you can say yes. So I will start with
030Megan Alderton. Yes. Margaret Lorber. Yes. Dr. Reif. Yes. Veronica Nolan. Yes. Heather Thornton. Yes. Ramey Gentry. Yes. Christopher Suarez. Yes. Cindy Anderson. Yes. Jacinta Green. Yes. And Ms. Nolan, did I get you? Yes, thank you. Yes. Okay. So we have nine there, Susan, just for your records. So we will not have a second add delete session. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, Jennifer. Okay, so we are moving along. Going back to Jennifer now. Thank you. And just to clarify for any members of the public, the work session will still take place next week. It's just the budget agenda item will be removed. Yes. Okay, so this evening, our last item tonight is we have 10 policies to review in our continuing review cycle as we are trying to clean up, especially some of the statutory revisions
031and some of the policies that are up for their five-year review in our review cycle, which is required by Virginia law. We have eight policies this evening from the Financial Services Group. one instructional policy and one student services policy. And I am going to go through these and we'll do the financial services policies first and then we'll take any questions on those before we move on to the final two. So I'm going to just share my screen here and scroll through. And can you see that screen, the first policy? Yes. Okay. All right. Thank you. So our first policy this evening is policy DG, custody and disbursement of school funds. This policy was last reviewed in December 2015. So it is up for its five-year review. It really just has its legal references and its
032cross-references updated. No real changes to content proposed for this policy this evening. Next, we have policy DGB. which is authorization of procurement and credit card use. This was also reviewed five years ago or a little over five years ago in December of 2015. This also has had its references updated, but has no proposed revisions at this time. Well, I should say we've just technically updated one position description, but that's all. Next, we have the attached regulation to this policy. which is DGBR, the procurement card regulations. And the proposal for this regulation is to delete the current content and replace it with our current procurement card manual. The procurement or the content of this regulation, I should say, has also not been reviewed for five years or updated. And as there is a current version of
033the procurement card manual reflecting all of the current rules and procedures, our proposal is to wholly replace the regulation with the procurement current procurement card program regulation the next policy is dgd funds for instructional materials and office supplies This was also last reviewed five years ago. You will see a few changes in the second paragraph. These are really to reflect current ACPS practice. There's one change in the first paragraph. And as you will see, well, as you know from board practice, when there are budget transfers, they are not transferred as percentages of the balance of an account. Exact dollar amounts are transferred, not percentages. And so... the language has been updated to reflect the actual practice. And that is all that is proposed for that policy is essentially just cleaning up the language to reflect
034current practice. Next policy is DIA. This is reporting per pupil costs. Some very minor textual revisions. Again, this one is up for its five-year review. It was last reviewed by the board in December 2015. Next is DJFA, Purchasing Procedures and Public Private Construction Services. No recommended changes here. You will see from the last review date, it is coming up on its five-year review time very shortly, just a couple of months. And the ones that are just about to hit their five-year review cycle within the same category of policies we wanted to include in this group so that all the financial services policy revisions are aligned and they're on the same review cycle. Next, we have DJG. Vendor Relations, again, up for its five-year review. The cross-references have been updated. No other real changes here. Next
035is DK, Payment Procedures. Again, no really proposed changes here, just an update of the cross-references. And this is another policy that's going to hit its five-year mark in just a couple of months. Next is DLC, Expense Reinvestment. There are some minor textual revisions here just to align with ACPS practice. And basically what those refer to are the fact that expenses are not merely reimbursed for trips only. Expenses may be reimbursed for other activities. Language has been updated to reflect that. And then the accompanying regulation, DLCR, which is business meals and travel regulations and procedures. Again, this has not been updated since August of 2013. So the recommendation is wholesale to swap all of this content out with the most updated and current version of the travel regulations and business meals procedures. And I'm sure you
036have all scrolled through this. This is a long document. I won't scroll through every page, but this is the latest, most up-to-date version of the regulation. That concludes the financial services policy. No major changes for this evening, but I'm happy to take questions on that portion of the policy review. Thank you, Jennifer. So we're now opening the floor to questions from the board. And it looks like we don't have any questions. Okay. Okay. Thank you, Jennifer. Sure. I'm going to share my screen again then for our next policy. We're going to move on. We have one instructional policy this evening. Let me just share my screen here. Okay. This is, and actually I misspoke. I shouldn't say policy. It's actually regulation. This is IGBC-R, Parent, Guardian, and Family Engagement Regulation. The policy itself, IGBC, has
037no proposed revisions. However, regarding the regulation, and these, I should point out that the revisions for the regulation really begin on page five, section three, and that is the section related to Title I programs. So I'm going to just scroll there quickly, and then we can address the revisions. And we bring you these revisions this evening because over the past several years, the U.S. Department of Education has placed a growing emphasis on expanding the definition of what used to be called parental involvement, but is really now referred to as parent and family engagement. This is to note that the involvement and engagement are really not the same thing. Engagement is more robust and authentic. And also the Department of Education has expanded the definition of who may be responsible for or also who supports a
038child, noting that there are many important adults in a child's life, not just the parents. And so our terminology is expanding, especially to align with the Every Student Succeeds Act from parent involvement to parent engagement. And so these revisions are proposed this evening really to reflect that change over time, development in the understanding of involvement versus engagement. And particularly as 20 U.S.C. Section 6318 states, A local education agency or a school division may receive funds under this part only if such agency conducts outreach to all parents and family members and implements programs, activities, and procedures for the involvement of parents in programs assisted under this part. So we are legally required to have this policy to spell out how these responsibilities and This engagement looks at the division level and at the school level for
039schools who qualify for Title I funds. And we are bringing our language into alignment with the Every Student Succeeds Act, which require each school division to have a parent and family engagement policy. I'd also like to note that the revisions, as required, have been reviewed by our division Title I Family Advisory Committee. And I'm happy to take questions on the revisions to this regulation. Thank you. Okay, so we have a few questions. I'm going to start with Ms. Thornton. Thank you, Chair Alderton. Thank you, Ms. Abruzzese. I actually just have a small procedural update that I think may need to be added to this regulation. In Section C, I don't know if we can pull that up really quickly. Sure. hold on got the wrong document here here we go awesome I think it might
040be page four thank you here we go section c yes um I might get the section wrong then it's the one on the review and reporting okay yeah I think it might be one page up from that Okay. There we go. Got it here. Yes. So I believe we just need to update a few of the department names and the strategic plan needs to be updated here as well. And so I'm not sure. That's a great catch. Yeah. Yeah. So I'm not sure if we want the new office and I always get these names mixed up, the office of community partnerships and engagement to be the one to provide that update, or if it will still be the overarching new department that we created. But either way, I think that needs to be fleshed out
041a little. Great. Thank you. Thank you so much for noting that relations. Right. Right. Thank you so much for noting that we just missed that. Awesome. No problem. Thanks. Thank you, Ms. Thornton. Dr. Reeve? Thank you. I have a couple questions about this particular policy, but while you're on that page, if you could scroll up a little bit. I just there were two okay stop right there that's good there were two things in here that I just I thought this might be a time to bring up one under sharing responsibility and again this is applying to all the the schools but it said that schools and the division shall make efforts to recruit and support this is number b under five shall make efforts to recruit and support participation by parents, guardians, and families representing
042all student groups on advisory committees and in school organizations that influence school policies, practices, and programs. And I just wanted to highlight that because we, I know some of us attended with Ms. Alderton the meeting of the school board advisory committees. And this was a topic of conversation about how to get more representation and particularly diverse representation on our school board advisory committees. And so, you know, we were talking about how we might do that. And I just wanted to put in a plug for, you know, folks to be thinking about that. If you have ideas, you know, I don't know if we want to be more specific. We talked about perhaps even within like the bylaws of the committees or however it's, however. those committees are called, you know, putting in even maybe more
043specific, tailoring it and describing the types of folks that we're hoping to recruit onto the committee. So that's, so that's one thing. And if anybody wants to add a comment on that, but the other thing I wanted to point out. is number four. This was something that really stood out to me. And I know that this policy is going to be looked at from our equity audit standpoint. So I think that's really good. But this just really stood out to me. Parents and guardians and families shall be empowered to advocate for their children and the children of other families to ensure that all students are treated fairly and have access to learning opportunities that support achievement. And I just bring that up because I I find that's a little abused sometimes within our school division,
044I guess you could say, in the sense that I just think it's interesting that we are empowering families to speak on behalf of other families and their children. And so I just thought that was interesting. And I don't know if anybody, you know, if Dr. Hutchings or anyone wants to speak about, you know, the intent behind that. But I think that. that might need to be fleshed out a little bit because that's a really interesting statement there, in my opinion. Dr. Reap, I think you're very insightful. I really do. And I don't know, are you all hearing the echo? Okay, got it. And I think you bring up a really good point in regards to speaking up for other families. And I agree that we have seen, you know, just some abuse with that language
045of I'm speaking on behalf of X, right? And I'm going to use some examples. People set up speaking on behalf of Black and Brown communities, right? And then when I follow up with questions, they haven't spoken to the Black and Brown community. So they're speaking on their behalf on maybe what they may have read, but not what our community is asking for. So I think you raise a really good point that we should consider. And that was a really good, insightful catch. Yeah, thank you. I mean, I just, in my own experience, like I have seen that happen a lot and I've often just wanted to encourage family sometimes. Could you just advocate for your family and what you need and let other people kind of speak for themselves? I mean, I certainly understand, you
046know, the intent, the positive intent behind this particular aspect of the policy, but I just, you know, I hope when we, when the equity policy committee is looking at it, you know, we can certainly discuss it more, but. If folks have any feedback on that, I'd love for you to share it with me. And then my other question was more about the Title I section. And I noticed that Ms. Mitchell and Mr. Huffman are on the call tonight, so maybe they'd want to speak to this. But I was curious if you could talk a little bit more about, and this would be scrolling down to the Title I section. you know, and it's not really a particular There's not a particular page really that I'm focused on here, but I was wondering if you could
047talk about why the federal government puts this prioritization on engagement with families for Title I schools. Why is that important? And I can see that this would be something that a lot of school divisions would kind of do as a check the box kind of exercise, you know, to meet this grant guideline or something like that. I was just wondering if you could speak about how effective you feel like we are engaging in this work. Why is this work important and how effectively we're doing it? I noticed in the policy that it lists some kind of things that we're supposed to do. And then there's some may-dos. One of my children's teachers talked about must-dos and may-dos. There's must-dos and then there's may-dos in here. So I was curious, how far are we taking this?
048And I noticed... in some of the school newsletters recently, the announcement about the parent meetings for the Title I schools. And I was just wondering if you could speak about how much engagement we're actually, you know, how's the attendance at those meetings? You know, how do you feel we are doing trying to, you know, meet the intentions here of this policy? Sure. Dr. Reeve, thank you so much for that question. As you noted, Ms. Natalie Mitchell is on the call, so I'll pass it to her. She is our Director of Title I Programs and School Improvement. Thank you, Ms. Abbruzzese, and thank you, Dr. Reeve, for the question. I think it's a great question. There are a lot of parts to your question, so if I don't fully answer it, I might ask you to
049remind me of parts of it, but I'll start at the end. Yes. So Title I, in Title I family engagement is really key. And as Ms. Abruzzese noted, over the past several years, it's really become a more focal point for the federal government, even to the extent of considering increasing the amount of funds that is set aside in Title I for this. So there is a set aside of funds that the school division uses specifically for the purposes of parent and family engagement. One thing that I can say is historically, traditionally our family engagement in the Title I schools has really been very, very strong and that's reflected in the family surveys that we send out. A lot of the information that we get back tells us that we do see more families, particularly our
050Black and Brown families, our non-English speaking families, feeling... more comfortable as they report in Title I schools to be an active part of their children's education. In fact, in our last federal audit three years ago for this, we were actually commended for the amount of parent and family engagement that we do in Title I schools. It's been an area that... we've really gotten some high commendations on, we typically see really great turnout when we have these types of events and you know we're in school typically the turnout that we see is usually fabulous. It has been a lot more challenging this year as you can imagine and part of that is really just that folks are really, you know, struggling to come to one more Zoom meeting, right? It's hard to get folks to do
051that. So we've had a lot of conversation with the Title I principals about how we increase that engagement in this year. I've seen some really, really creative ideas, for example, like purchasing a set of books, asking families to come, you know, in a safe manner to the school to pick up these books, and then we'll do a read-aloud together at home where all the children have the same books, and we're all together in a way that we would be able to do it. We're just doing it. over the computer. And so we're looking for ways to make sure that we can keep our family engagement as engaging as possible. But given the circumstances, you know, this year just hasn't looked like typical years, of course. Yeah, I'll echo what Natalie said, Dr. Reif, and that
052is, we all know that this, the reason why we're being successful in this time of virtual type of engagement is we set, we have these strong roots that have already been established. through our parent liaisons, through our division-wide parent liaisons, through FACE, through the work of TIDAL, through Natalie. So we've got these relationships already established with many families. And that's why I think it's been so successful in moving into a virtual environment, to be very honest. I mean, before we went into COVID and virtual, we had our Amharic evening for Nanty Day. There was no room. You couldn't move in that room because there were so many parents that were involved. That's a tribute to obviously FACE and the work that they do. But it's translated into a nice participation and engagement in a virtual
053environment. And so I think, again, the roots that we've set really have paid off in terms of relationships and engaging families. And then I just want to revert back to what you said about. advocating for other families. You had a question about that in that policy. I think there's a commitment also in best practices of finding those advocates in communities that can really help with helping other families understand, even let's say navigating through a school system. you know, I'll go back to our Amharic families. We have an advocate. We have a family there that really does a good job of helping other families understand how they can be engaged. And so you're right. When it's done right. And it's not just, hey, you need to do this, this, this family A, B, and C. That's
054not what it is. I think what the spirit of that is, is I'm here for you as someone who understands, a parent who understands that maybe you don't, you've just come to ACPS. And I want to help you because as an Amharic family too, I can show you the way that I've been successful and I can be engaged. So I think that's the spirit of that in the policy. Thank you. Thank you for those comments. And I thought that was a really important point, Mr. Huffman. I think, you know, I've seen that too with the Mount Vernon Community School and the Neighbors to Friends program and the Activos Padres group too. So thank you for that. And also pointing out that, you know, the relationships that we had built. prior to the pandemic hitting is
055what's really, I think, enabled us to have the successes we have had with reaching out to our families. So that's really great. And just one final follow-up question is, the relationships and this work is kind of harder to maybe measure, but how are we kind of, I'm assuming there's like a grant report for the Title I that has to be done about this stuff, but how are we just measuring and reporting out on these practices. I can see we're both, do you want to jump in first? It's probably the same. We do the same type of reporting probably that Natalie does. I know from a faith standpoint, we're not only doing attendance check-ins, but we're also doing evaluations, surveys afterwards. Hey parents, did you get what you needed out of this engagement opportunity? What can
056we do differently? How can you help? Do you want to volunteer to do some things? We have a series of questions that we ask in multiple languages to parents and families after every session saying, hey, what did you get? What did you think? What do we need to change? And then internally, we come back and look at the attendance lists and everything and make sure that we've got all that information and say, okay, internally, what do we need to do differently? What worked? What didn't? What's best practice? What didn't hit the mark we wanted? We continuously, as Krishna Leyva and Tanika from my team will tell you, we continually do reflection and data analysis on everything that we do in family engagement. Well, thank you so much. And thank you for the important work that
057you all are doing. Sure. Thank you for the question. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Reif. Miss Green. Thank you, Chair Alderton. My question, Ms. Abbruzzese, or whoever wants to answer, I was wondering, do any parents sit on the Division Title I Advisory Committee? And can you talk a little bit about the roles and how you support our Title I schools or how that committee supports the schools? I'm happy to take the question. It's comprised solely of parents, in fact. And so that is the purpose of it. In fact, it's to ensure that parents have an opportunity and a forum to look, for example, at policies like these. So there was a language change that was suggested in here by one of the parents that's on the committee, for example. And so the committee itself exists
058to inform parents really about things like this particular policy, about their rights in Title I schools. about how parents should be engaged and involved in the kinds of decisions that we make about, for example, the funds that I talked about that set aside for parent and family engagement and for them to act as a conduit from schools up to central office. So we, in several of the Title I schools, we have a similar function, a Title I family advisory committee, where they can provide advising on what happens in their individual schools, but this committee functions in that same way at the division. level. But yes, totally comprised of parents. I'm the only person on it who's not an ACPS parent. That is so exciting. Thank you. I would love to come to a meeting sometime.
059We will invite you. Absolutely. Thank you. Ms. Green, I really appreciate your question. And Dr. Reif, you alluded to this earlier. I was thinking Title I would be a great example, as Ms. Mitchell has pointed out to your concern or query around engagement and diversity of engagement. Title I is one of the few programs with federal guidelines that explicitly says this is how you help parents engage in school governance and participation. So they require not one way. communication, but two-way communication, and that they need to sit on governance bodies. And what you need to do to prepare families who traditionally may not have been involved in those roles, the federal guidelines are very explicit. And so that's different for Title I programs than even for general ed programs otherwise. So they're a great look to
060in terms of how you not only build the capacity to do that, but help parents to understand the pathway to getting to that point. Thank you. And on that note, just to put a little plug in for Dr. Reese's first comment, some of you received an email from me requesting if you would be interested in doing some of that work for our advisory committees. So if you did, this is your chance to get this work done. So thank you. That's my plug. All right. And do we have any more questions about this policy before we move on? Okay. Thank you. So, Jennifer, we'll turn it back over to you. Sure. Thank you. We have one final policy to review this evening. I'm going to share my screen again. This is policy JM, management of student
061behaviors in emergency situations. And while this policy is up for its five-year review, it has also undergone a major revision, as I'm sure you've seen when you were preparing for the meeting and looking through your materials. It has undergone a major review to reflect the new Virginia Board of Education seclusion and restraint regulations that became effective just this January 1st of this year. And to discuss it further, I would like to pass it to Ms. Terry Werner, our Executive Director of Specialized Instruction. And I know she's going to also discuss it with the board by also bringing in Dr. Erin Stone, who is our Autism and Behavioral Services Coordinator. Good evening, Dr. Hutchings, members of the board. Thank you all so much for this opportunity. We have before us a very weighty and meaty document.
062As Ms. Abruzzese noted, the Virginia Department of Education two years ago, and maybe just a little bit more than that, I kind of lose track of the last year, undertook a... process by which they revised the state seclusion and restraint policy. That was the result of some actions by the Office of Civil Rights in some of our neighboring jurisdictions. And as a result, we have a new policy in front of you tonight. There was a substantial amount of work that went into this. Ms. Abruzzese, as well as Dr. Stone and myself, in consultation at times with Ms. Alderton, with John Kafriki, and with review of the SEAC, have presented this draft to you. There are, I'm sure, areas where you're going to have lots of questions, and we are prepared to answer those tonight. I
063have with me Dr. Aaron Stone, who is the coordinator of all of our citywide programs. But Aaron was very involved with this process as it worked its way through the state. There were numerous opportunities for public comment as well as. comment during town halls and other hearings. And Aaron was our representative during that process. So to move through this, what I've asked Dr. Stone tonight is to go through, Ms. Abruzzese is going to scroll through for you, and we're going to hit the points that we think are particularly relevant and that we want to bring to your attention tonight. And then we'll be happy to answer your questions. Thank you. Aaron? Thank you, Ms. Werner, and thank you, school board members, for having us here tonight. And as Terry mentioned, this is a very different
064document. If you've reviewed the previous ACPS regulations, that was just over three pages, and this one is, new policy is 17 pages. So it's got a greater amount of specificity, a greater amount of clarity throughout this document, and I'd like to walk you through some of the main points. At the beginning, we start with section one. And that has the definitions. And in those definitions, you'll see clear, very detailed definitions for the different terms. And this prevents ambiguity and really ensures consistent understanding across our division. They have a number of terms that are listed here so that there's understanding throughout the document of what specific terms mean, whether they're ACPS specific, such as the citywide program. or if they are general terms used within the field, such as an FBA. Going further down in section
065two, this is the prohibited actions. And these are the actions that are prohibited within our schools. What I would like to bring your attention to is, and this list has remained very consistent with the school, the VDOEs. list of prohibited actions, but I'd like to draw your attention to letter I under section two. And this is where ACPS has extended beyond the VDOE regulations in the area of seclusion and has restricted its use to just within the citywide program for students with emotional disabilities. And so that's one area that we have gone above and beyond. The next section, section three. discusses the use of physical restraint. This outlines situations in which restraint may be considered. When we do our training for staff that are given the more advanced training for physical interventions, that's a phrase
066that we use quite frequently, that this may be considered. because we want to make sure it's clear to all of those participants that this is not something that we take lightly, nor something that we want to engage in as a primary means of managing an emergency situation. When I read items A through E under this section, I find as the trainer of our CPI training, that the expectations of this policy very closely align with the training that we've had. We've been using CPI training in ACPS for more than the past 10 years. As a matter of fact, the CPI organization created a document. to demonstrate how the Virginia regulations correlate with their training and their modules and content. And that's on their website for anyone to see. So it really does align with the training
067in regards to ensuring that students are only requiring physical intervention for the least amount of time possible. And it's a team approach. And the team approach is there for the student's safety to ensure appropriate implementation of the techniques by staff members, as well as to provide constant visual monitoring of the environment for everyone else's safety. As we scroll down to section four. Under seclusion, again, this is an area, and I'll give Jennifer just a second because I know it gets dizzying to watch things scroll down too fast. These are the sections from our previous regulations. In the section four for seclusion, the language here is very similar to what was under the physical restraint section. Again, this is outlining how seclusion may be considered and always used as a last resort. It reiterates the need
068for continuous monitoring and, of course, releasing as soon as the imminent risk diminishes. If we could go to the next section, which is section five. the standards of seclusion. In this section, we're outlining the expectations for rooms that might be designated for this purpose. So we're talking about sufficient size, lighting, ventilation, and allowing for visual contact at all times. In item C, On the first paragraph, this is really explaining the need that staff examine multiple factors before considering the use of seclusion. And it includes age, health, and background, which really is connected to that any history of trauma or other adverse childhood events. In paragraph two of this same section, this is the section that ACPS includes that goes beyond the VDOE regulations. In this section, we indicate a timeframe within which staff are required
069to complete an assessment of the student and a timeframe within which seclusion must. be ended and determined for next steps or an alternate action to be taken. That is different than what is outlined in the video re-regulations and that we've added here with for ACPS. In paragraph three, This is really discussing the need for staff to further facilitate de-escalation. If dangerous behaviors have reduced, then it's directing staff to join the student and further support de-escalation. And that's really important before returning to their regular classroom schedule. In Section 6, the documentation and reporting really has had a big change. This is specific and detailed timelines for reporting as well as staff actions in regards to debriefing for future supports that might need to be put into place for students that will prevent the need for such
070responses in the future or staff need for physical intervention. It's important to note, and I'd like it to bring the board's attention, that the steps that are discussed in this section of the regulation in regards to a written report is required within a certain number of days and that did need to be provided to the central office. Those are steps that were already in place within ACPS prior to it being codified with the BDOE. It is now clearly written out here in our regulation. Also in items F and G, as Jennifer, as you're on this section here, section D includes all of the items that need to be included in our written report. The written report that was previous to this regulation had almost all of the 16 items. We've only had to add one
071or two additional items to the report that was previously being used in regards to gathering the data required by the VDOE. In sections F and G, In these sections, we're expanding. This is an ACPS expansion that includes that following any instance of restraint or seclusion, that a member of the SST team within that school will meet with the student to provide additional social emotional support. And then under letter G, we're providing parent support by making connections with our PRC, our Parent Resource Center. Below that, items J and K are provisions for quarterly reviews, either at the school level or at the central office level, examining if any incident reports are received and doing an evaluation in regards to, is there a pattern? Typically, those occur much more frequently than quarterly. I receive any of the...
072incident reports that occur within the school division. And so as they come in, I review them. And if there is any pattern, then that is immediately brought to the administrator's attention and we work through that. So this is providing for at least a quarterly report for all schools. In the next section, section seven, which is prevention. This provides guidance on when an IEP team, a 504 team, or when even an MTSS team would meet to review the incidents and outline possible next steps. It really is highlighting that the need for the use of an FBA or a BIP is available for any student in our division. They do not have to have an IEP. They do not have to have a 504 plan. Any child that requires one can. receive an FBA or a VIP
073if that will put the necessary supports in place to ensure greater success. Section 8 is annual reporting. Annual reporting looks at those items that, and information that each school must then provide so that we can provide BDOE the information that they require. It also has a mechanism for the superintendent sharing annually to this board what the pattern of behaviors or incident reports are looking like throughout the division each year. And training is one of the last sections. This is a very detailed and sequential step, step list of steps that training is provided for our staff and ACPS, depending on the person's role in the division. So ACPS requires that all staff. receive an initial introductory training that really goes over the seclusion and restraint guidelines, as well as it has an initial introduction to de-escalation
074strategies. ACPS has created a more extensive de-escalation training that we provide staff, and it's based off of components of the CPI training program. And lastly, there is the advanced training. We use CPI as our advanced training program, and that's provided to a small group of staff who might be involved in emergency situations, as well as the specific staff that are listed here who are required to receive that level of training. We're currently investigating a consultative relationship with a company that has evidence-based practices that is targeted to reduce the frequency. to zero in regards to the use of restraint. Their focus is really on comfort over control. And so we're hoping to bring that training, especially to our citywide programs, where there might be more instances of children that are having behavioral challenges, but as well
075as to specific schools, if there is a team that really requires targeted training in that type of technique, because they might have an individual student they're really working. with and they might need that additional support. The last section is really the expectation that this policy is going to be reviewed at least annually and updated as necessary. Erin, thank you so much. I really appreciate and I'm sure the board does as well that overview. Two of the things that I would like to point out particularly, one is I forgot to acknowledge the input and review also of our colleagues in student services. They also had input and review over. with this policy. But one thing that I would particularly like to bring to everyone's attention is the student focus in this policy. I understand it's seclusion
076and restraint and that sounds Sounds dire in some situations, but this policy is very student focused. If you are able to read it in detail, you will see all of the protections that are in place for students, all of the oversight and review to ensure that student needs are primary in this process. And we have also built in numerous avenues for family and student support. We have put in. places where the parent resource center can meet with families. We are looking to make community connections and other resources that may support the family and the student besides those resources that are just available here in the school. So I particularly wanted you to understand that that's the focus that we came into this process with as we made these revisions. So I think we're both ready
077to answer any questions anybody might have. Thank you. Thank you so much, Ms. Werner and Ms. Stone. I know that, you know, that one's always a heavy lift, but great job. Ms. Gentry. Yes, thank you. This was obviously a lot of work and we really appreciate walking through that. With that in mind, you know, we've had this opportunity to do this and, you know, we had an opportunity to read it. The reality is that some of the families that might be particularly interested or concerned about this kind of thing might not be aware of some of the work that's gone into this policy. And so I guess from a, really my question is more from a communications point of view about like what your all's thoughts are on sort of sharing this with parents. Ideally,
078you would want them to have some familiarity with this. before they get a call from the school saying that you know there was a there was a um a seclusion or a restrained moment that happened so i i was just interested to hear what what you're all's thoughts were along those lines in terms of outreach and communication thank you Sure. Thank you, Ms. Gentry. So I think there are a couple of different avenues that we would consider. So first of all, internally, once this policy is adopted, there are regulations that will go with it. But we also are going to develop guidance documents that we will do very specific training and professional development with our school-based staff. As you look at this, there are aspects of this policy that are very specific to students with
079disabilities, and that's really around the seclusion aspect of things. So those are conversations and meetings and follow-up that we can have with very specific sets of parents. The restraint policy is more global. um it it covers all students in the division you know there may be a particular situation or circumstance where a restraint is appropriate and the student has no relationship to a special ed program in any way shape or form so i think that would be a conversation that i would like to pursue with miss burgos and her team and talk to principals as to the most effective way they think to communicate with their families because it is just it's that part is beyond the world of just special ed. But I definitely think that that is a topic and aspect that we
080need to pursue. Thanks for making that distinction as well. That was helpful, Dr. Warner. Thank you. Dr. Reeve. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. My question was about the section about the annual reporting that the superintendent has to provide to BDOE and then share that with the school board. Is that a new requirement? I just don't recall seeing that report in the past. And when do you expect that we would be seeing that information during the year? So Dr. Reif, you sort of hit on the kernel that started all this. The Office of Civil Rights has reporting requirements and some neighboring jurisdictions never complied with those reporting requirements. And so it became a statewide issue. So we have complied with those reporting requirements every year. Mariah Runkle submits, reviews that report with our offices
081and we submit that report to the Office of Civil Rights every year. And so on the same schedule that that goes into OCR, we will tie it to the report to the board. What that actual reporting date is, I don't know, but I can find out for you and I can meet with Ms. Runkle and get that information. But we would bring it to the board before it then went on to OCR, but we will absolutely do that. And Dr. Reif, I would just actually like to add one thing to what Ms. Werner said, and that is while we were working on this revision. When we were working on the section about the annual reporting and noting that the data is required to be sent to the state superintendent each year, we as an internal
082team felt it was very important for the board to be seeing that information before it is submitted. So above and beyond what the state regulations require, we added in the requirement that it will be presented to the board annually first before the report is submitted. Thank you, Ms. Abbruzzese. forgot about that. But I do want to point out as part of this process, there are multiple areas in which we exceeded the state requirements in a positive way, again, in a student-centered focused way. As Dr. Stone pointed out, we put time restrictions on things. We have added additional oversights. We have added the additional components with parents and the parent resource center. So there are many areas in which we as a school division. exceeded what the state was requiring. Thank you. Do we have any
083more questions? Okay. Well, thank you again. We appreciate the presentation. No, this is a really heavy lift, but a very, very, very important policy. So thanks again, everybody. All right. So Jennifer, I'm pretty sure we are done with policies, correct? That is the last policy for this evening, yes. All right, great. So with that said, that is the end of our work session. And we do need to move into our special called meeting because we have a closed meeting. So thank you everyone for attending the work session. And Ms. Nolan, do you have the... Emotions, I do. Emotion, yes. Ms. Balderton, you do have to take the call. Yeah, I know. I just want to make sure she had it. Thank you. Thank you. All right. All right. So.