4/9/2026 - FCPS School Board Meeting

001Heat. Heat. It's an invitation to The time is 7:05 p.m. in this 20 thou or April 9th, 2026 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Whitman Middle School Symphonic Or orchestra under the direction of Elizabeth Fogle. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nationy for all. One, two, three. Glory. Hallelujah. Can we have one more round of applause for our amazing kiddos? Miss Lady has submitted a request to attend tonight's meeting remotely due to a personal conflict as she as she has a professional commitment and is located in Winter Park, Florida. I have performed an initial review of

002Miss Lady's request and have found it to be in compliance with the school board's remote participation resolution. And I have approved the request. Miss Lady, she's not on yet. Okay. And we will circle back when she joins us. On behalf of the school board, I would like to welcome City of Fairfax School Board member Sarah Kelsey. Thank you for joining us tonight. If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda, please see the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight. Please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu/boards. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on Cox channel 999, verizon fiios channel 11, and is livereamed on YouTube and at our website at www.fcps.edulivestream. Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on

003YouTube at YouTube.com FCPS and Espanol. And I understand that Miss Lady is has joined us. So I will ask that you please we see you. Can you please check your audio? >> Check. >> Chuck. >> Yep, I hear you. Uh I now ask board members who are physically present to vote on the following. All those in favor of confirming the chair's approval of Miss Lady's request, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed, Dr. Anderson. Will the clerks please read the vote? >> The vote is 101. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Agenda item 3.03. 03 Arab American Heritage Month Proclamation. I call on Dr. Anderson for a proclamation. Whereas, April is a time to celebrate ArabAmerican heritage

004and culture and pay tribute to the contributions of ArabAmericans and Arabic speaking Americans. This year's theme, many voices, one community, underscores the idea that diversity is not a weakness, but a strength. One that enriches American society, deepens our collective story, and honors our differences while affirming our while affirming our unity. And whereas nearly four million Americans trace their roots to an Arab country, ArabAmericans hail from 22 Arab nations and and are diverse ethic um ethnically, religiously, politically, and artistically. And whereas for centuries ArabAmericans have made valuable contributions to every aspect of American society and medicine, law, business, education, technology, government, military service, culture, and invented many groundbreaking innovations to include television transmission and LCD screens, the waffle cone, emotion recognition technology, the iPod, and the iPhone, surgical developments, including the concept behind coronary bypass surgery

005and internet security advances such as the digital signature standard. And whereas since migrating to America, people of Arab descent have shared their rich culture and traditions with neighbors and friends while also setting fine examples as model citizens and public servants. and ArabAmericans have also enriched our society by sharing in the entrepreneurial American spirit that make us that make our nation free and prosperous. And whereas the celebration of ArabAmerican ancestry and cultural heritage educates our fellow Americans and counters bias, misconception, harmful stereotyping, and shared abuses by other ethnic groups. And ArabAmerican Heritage Month is an opportunity to celebrate the great pride and vibrancy of the over 100,000 Arab Americans in Virginia whose abilities and contributions strengthen Virginia's economy, diverse culture, and communities. And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools believes in fostering an inclusive community that empowers

006all students and families, ArabAmerican Heritage Month prot presents an opportunity to explore and appreciate the diversity that strengthens our community through classroom activities and educational programs. We aim to enrich our students understanding and appreciation of ArabAmerican heritage. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims April as ArabAmerican Heritage Month and officially recognizes the contributions ArabAmericans have made to our society. We encourage the celebration of this collective ingenuity, creativity, cultures, and traditions of Arabameans and encourage participation participation in educational events honoring their contributions. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Is there a second? Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Miss Mr. Mackin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss

007Lady, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. Congratulations. Agenda item 3.04, school librarian appreciation month proclamation. I call on Mr. Dannon for a proclamation. >> Whereas April is recognized nationally as school library month, a time to celebrate the essential role that school librarians and library services staff play in supporting student achievement and fostering a love of reading and learning. And whereas school librarians in Fairfax County Public Schools are highly trained instructional partners who design and deliver engaging learning experiences that strengthen literacy, research, and critical thinking skills for all students. And whereas FCPS librarians and library services staff lead and support innovative programs that promote equitable access to diverse resources, digital tools, and emerging technologies, ensuring that all students can locate, evaluate, and use information effectively in an increasingly complex world. And whereas school

008libraries provide welcoming, inclusive environments that encourage curiosity, creativity, and student voice, providing access to materials that reflect the diversity of our community, and broaden students understanding of different perspectives and cultures. And whereas FCPS library services staff curate highquality collections, support instructional initiatives, advance digital citizenship, and ensure that library programs remain responsive to the evolving needs of students and educators. And whereas school librarians foster a lifelong love of reading by guiding students to discover books that inspire, challenge, and engage them while supporting both academic success and personal growth. And whereas the contributions of FCPS librarians and library services staff strengthen our schools and communities by promoting literacy, innovation, and equitable access to knowledge for every student. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims April 2026 as school librarian appreciation month

009and expresses its highest commendation for the dedication, expertise, and impact of school librarians and library services staff. We encourage the Fairfax County community to recognize and celebrate the vital contributions of school librarians and to engage with their school libraries throughout the year. >> Thank you, Mr. Dannon. Is there a second? Miss Dixit. Thank you. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fr, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. Congratulations. That's unanimous. Agenda item 3.05, the month of the military child proclamation. Whereas April is the month of the military child. This designation was established by former US Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger in 1986 to acknowledge and honor our youngest military heroes and the significant

010role they play in our communities. And whereas in the 2026 theme for the month of the military child is military children and youth strength in every story and shines a light on the everyday courage of military children. Their stories filled with resilience, adapt adaptility, and quiet strength demonstrates the powerful character they build while growing up in a world defined by service and sacrifice. And whereas Virginia is home to over 77,000 military connected school age students, more than any other state in the nation, Fairfax County Public Schools proudly supports around 13,500 military connected youth and families. And whereas our military connected students bring a wealth of life experiences to our schools, military families relocate frequently, leading their children to change schools and support networks with each move. These students know firsthand what it feels like to

011be the new kid and know how welcoming how a welcoming attitude can help every new student. And whereas military connected children overcome many challenges and have unique experiences as a result of their parents' assignments at duty stations around the world. And whereas FCPS is honored to participate in the purple star designation program. The 96 FCPS Purple Star Schools are recognized by the Virginia Department of Education and Virginia Council on Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children for supporting military connected students and their families. And we remain dedicated to ensuring all schools earn the Purple Star designation by the 2026 2027 school year. And whereas on April 15th, FCPS will celebrate Purple Update. Purple symbolizes all branches of the military as a combination of Army Green, Marine Corps Red, and Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force,

012and Space Force Blue. We encourage everyone to wear purple to celebrate our military connected students next Wednesday. Therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board celebrates April as the month of the military child in recognition of military connected students for their heroism, character, sacrifices, and continued resilience. This month provides a powerful opportunity to raise awareness and build support for these children. And therefore, be it further resolved that the Fairfax County School Board extends our appreciation for the service of all children from military families and encourages everyone to wear purple throughout the month to celebrate our military connected students and families. Is there a second? >> Go Army Green. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fris, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Miss St.

013John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and Miss Lady, and myself. And that's unanimous. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the month of Military Child Proclamation to please join the board for a photo in front of the DAS. I would like to welcome our school librarians and all those here in support of the school librarian appreciation month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the ArabAmerican Heritage Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. Chair Anderson, that's our last picture. Agenda item 3.06 annual recognition of national board certified teachers. Good evening and welcome honores and guests. We are

014pleased to recognize that recognize those Fairfax County Public School educators who have have earned or renewed national board certification for the 2627 school year. It is my great honor on behalf of the Fairfax County School Board to recognize our nationals board certified teachers for their dedication and contributions to the education of our students. And now I would like to introduce our division superintendent, Dr. Michelle Reid. >> Thank you, Chair Anderson, and good evening. I would like to congratulate each of you on achieving or renewing your National Board Certification. National Board Certification is a rigorous and prestigious achievement and we are proud to be here to honor your commitment to excellence as educators. To you, our 2026 honores, you are a part of an elite group of education professionals who can say they have achieved national

015board certification. Over the last 24 years, over 500 teachers in Fairfax County have earned a national board certification. As educators, you are 10 of the 215 currently teaching in classrooms and serving in leadership positions across Fairfax County Public Schools. National Board Certification embodies everything we hope to see in our teachers. This group of educators has demonstrated their commitment to highquality instruction, equitable practices, family engagement, collaboration, and self-reflection on a national level. Thank you for sharing your gifts with the students, staff, and families of FCPS. And now I would like to welcome two of our instructors from the National Board Certification Course, Faizu Alam and Sabra Dvers to read the names of our honores. Good evening. At this time, we will recognize teachers who have achieved their initial national board certification. We invite you to use

016the QR code that's up there uh to access the digital program for more information about each of our honories. Honories, when your name is called, please stand. Wumiga Saxa from Twain Middle School. Additionally, we would like to honor Stacy Perkurik from Wakefield Forest Elementary School who is recognized for achieving National Board Certification but was unable to join us today. Thank you. Please join me in recognizing the accomplishment of all of our new National Board Certified Teachers. Congratulations to all of them and you can please be seated and then I'll hand it over to Sabra. Now the following National Board teachers have renewed their certificates. Honores, when your name is called, please stand to be recognized and remain standing until all honores are called. Carrie Clearary, Saratoga Elementary School. Kathleen Ganon, Cardinal Forest Elementary School. Additionally,

017we would like to honor the following individuals who are being recognized for renewing their National Board certification but were unable to attend this evening. Jennifer Codddle, Hok Elementary School. Christa Gallagher, Lake Bradic Secondary School. Allison Popsoy, Stone Middle School. Christopher Roseller, Bucknell Elementary School. Suzanne Roiger, Providence Elementary School. Katherine Williams, Fairfax High School. Congratulations to our renewed National Board Certified teachers and staff. At this time we would like to invite the school board and leadership team to come to the dis for a photo with the new and renewed national board certified teachers. We will take two photos. The first with all honores and the second with all newly certified honores. And now if we could do a photo with just our newly honored uh honore. On behalf of the Fairfax County School Board, I want

018to congratulate this year's National Board Certified Teachers. They are to be commended for their dedication to the excellent instruction and helping students achieve success. Let's give them one more round of applause, please. Agenda item 4.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at schoolboard regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the schoolboard's website at www.fcps.edu. edu back/board schoolboard, sorry. Um, during the sign up process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the schoolboard's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members

019to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain in their seats, including when recording video or taking pictures. We are grateful to those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation. Schoolboard members will be listening but not responding. Madame chair or I'm sorry, Madame Clerk, please call the first speaker. >> Did I get a promotion? No. Um, Anthony Lampin. All right. Well, thank you so much for having me. Um, I'm here representing my two children uh at Wolf Trap Elementary and my very hardworking wife who takes uh care of them most of the time. Uh, and I'm here to to discuss the

020school calendar. Um, I'm not going to reiterate the problem statement. And I think everyone probably in the room knows what that is, but I will reference a Reddit post uh from a couple of weeks ago titled, "No, you aren't crazy. FCPS has the worst school calendar." And I think that sums up my remarks uh mostly on the problem statement. Why I'm here though is uh to support uh Mr. Dun's uh uh latest newsletter in um uh aiming for a very data-driven approach on how to solve the problem. I know that there are measures later tonight that folks will be voting on in terms of trying to tweak some days here and there to improve the school calendar next year. Uh it's a very important step, but it's nowhere near enough. Uh we need a very

021common sense calendar and we needed an objective uh by which we can all collectively work together to get there. Right now, I believe we're at about 50% of the uh the school calendar has a full five day uh school calendar week. Um and if we all agree on an objective higher than that, whether that be 70% 75%, I believe we have the collective wisdom, experience, talents in this room as well as maybe some pragmatic review of best practice that will allow us uh to get there. And certainly from my standpoint and uh and and friends uh as well at the school, you have some very supportive parents who would love to work with you on this to make sure that we have a very common sense and data driven approach to improving uh the current

022fragmented school calendar. So, thank you very much for having me and listening and uh here to support as needed. Thank you, >> Julie Corell. Hello, my name is Julie Carrill. Before we get started, I would like you to know that I'm a graduate. I am a teacher. I am a parent of a rising kindergartener. And when I teach my class, I ask that my students put their laptops down when I speak. I would like you to do the same, everybody. Please. This is exactly the type of problem that classroom teachers have with onetoone devices. We ask and we ask and some of you don't comply and we become the police of the devices in the classroom. It takes up our time. It takes up our energy. I'm still asking for some of you to put

023your laptops down and you're not doing it. Imagine you're 12. Imagine you're eight. This is a real problem. We're all a part of it. we all need to be the solution for it. I'm here on behalf of an advocacy group for parents and teachers called FCPS parents for instru um intentional use of technology. I am the canary in the coal mine here telling you we have a major problem when it comes to our one-on-one devices. We do. If nobody has told you that before from the teacher standpoint, it's because they fear retribution. I do not. I'm here because I have a kindergarten student who is starting next year. We have kindergarten orientation tomorrow. I'm so nervous about it because I have worked very hard to keep an iPad out of his hands because I know

024the damage that this type of device can cause and he will be issued one next year by Fairfax County Public Schools. I'm asking you for an opt out option for families who do not want this technology in their children's hands. Myself, I've gone to a mostly screen-free classroom because you see the difficulty that I've had in just asking board members to put their device away. It's almost impossible for teachers to do so. Please form a committee to study this issue and in the meantime offer an opt out for families. We are desperate for it. Thank you. Andy Trey Roola Andy Trey. Emily Vanderhoff. Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Angie. >> Good evening, Dr. Reid and members of the school wart. My name is Angie Trerollola, and I'm here to talk tonight about the current calendar. So,

025our current calendar is drifting toward a year-round model without the strategic breaks necessary to make it work. It's time to return to a post Labor Day start and this time end by May 31st. First, Virginia law mandates 990 hours, not 180 days. Let's harness the extra hours to instead maximize a calendar that prioritizes a longer summer that can be utilized in ways that support our students. First, the longer summer is an economic engine. It supports Virginia's tourism and allows our high schoolers and educators who need extra income to work seasonal jobs to support their families. Second, we need regional coordination across NOVA. When educators work in one district and live in another, the chances that their student is off when they have school is high. This causes instructional disruption across the districts. Please consider coming

026together with districts to coordinate future calendars together. Fragmented weeks are a financial burden for families and hurt our most vulnerable. Children need consistency to thrive. When we break the routine, we break the learning. Extending the school year does not increase test scores enough to justify it. We continue to retest students who failed SOS for their entire academic career but rarely teach them systemic strategies for how to take tests. When we begin and CTE testing in April, then release them six to eight weeks later, it's hard to convince students to actually hone in on their learning. Instead, consolidate testing in May as much as possible. This year, some FCPS students are going to graduate on June 1st. So, their finals begin once AP and IB tests are done. Give the underassman their finals with them. If

027students pass everything for the year, they're done for the summer. If not, bring them back and use those next two weeks to remediate them so they have smaller um class sizes with staff that no longer have to worry about seniors or students who have passed so they can focus more attention to the students that need it most. For families who opt in, you could host enrichment camps like SAT prep, college application seminars. Staff who are not remediating could partner with other educators and outside groups to promote other enrichment opportunities. A similar scenario could play out in K8. Pass your so, summer is on, fail the so remediate for up to two weeks and retest. We don't need a longer year. We need a smarter one. Thank you for your time. Emily Vanderhoff. Good evening, Dr.

028Reid and members of the board. My name is Emily Vanderhoff and I'm the president of FCFT. I'm here to speak to the three calendar motions before the board tonight. I believe that families and FC FCPS staff share common goals to both providing consistency and structure for students and also providing the highest quality of education possible. While these three motions seek to provide that consistency, our concern is that it comes at the cost of giving staff the time they need to do the critical planning and collaboration that allows us to provide a world-class education to students. Both families and staff have pointed out that converting Indigenous People's Day and Veterans Day to instructional days does not address the child care need that families have raised given that many parents already have a holiday on these days.

029Staff have also raised concern that it would convey a lack of respect for military connected families and indigenous people. Staff also raised concern about how removing elementary early releases would roll back efforts to provide planning parody across school levels. If these early releases are taken away will comparable planning time for elementary teachers be provided. Elementary staff have their own criticisms of how the early releases are currently structured. But this is due to the logistical and staffing challenges related to the child care component and the limited time for deep planning and collaboration due to the number of meetings and other responsibilities during this time. FCFT would love to engage in a broader discussion with FCPS on how to find solutions that address the valid concerns raised by families about the desire for consistency while also ensuring

030staff have the time they need to provide high quality instruction. Thank you. >> Christina Kish. Hello, I'm Christina Kish, president of the Justice High School rowing boosters, mom to my rower and snack lady to the rest of the team. Uh, thank you for this opportunity to speak really, really quickly. I'm here to ask FCPS to please provide transportation for our rowing team to the Aquaan River. As a club sport, the rowing teams are abide by the FCPS and VHSL rules, but we don't have the resources from the county. This lack of resources especially widens the equity gap for justice. We're the only title one high school in the county and approximately 75% of our students are economically disadvantaged with free and reduced lunch program support. Boosters pays $690 a day to rent a really not

031great bus. That's almost $28,000 for the season just to get the kids to practice. We have to charge $990 in dues, which is very common for the schools and really prohibitive for a lot of our families. Our equipment is old and failing. That means fewer rowers on the water, fewer coaches on the water. Just as families do not have the ability with the cars or their work schedules to carpool, even though we know that some of the other schools and teams do. We're further away from the river than a lot of other teams. It's 45 minutes down on a good day and back as well. A rowing parent from a more fluent school and it much closer to their practice river told me, "Rowing is a sport for those with means. We want to change

032this reality for our Justice students." We really do. And we want our rowing team to reflect this incredibly rich and diverse community that we have. We want every student at Justice that wants to row to be able to row. I look forward to working with you on a solution for this. And I get time to thank everybody, the principal, Dr. Garvey, the entire athletic staff, Mace and Supervisor de are generous donors and other Alyssa Coleman. Hi, my name is Alyssa Coleman and I am the parent of twin girls at Oakton Elementary. First of all, I want to thank the board for listening to families and for looking into solutions to the calendar year that's proposed for next school year. However, many parents and I feel that the current recommendations are missing the root of the

033problem, which is the widening gap between the school calendar and the reality of working families. October 12th and November 11th are federal holidays when many parents are already off and able to care for their children. Replacing these with school days while leaving other days when parents are working off causes families to juggle. The upcoming school year spans roughly 42 weeks and a statistical analysis shows that 43% of those weeks are interrupted by holidays, teacher work days or early dismissals. That number will go up because I haven't been able to factor in the eight or the proposed early release Wednesdays for elementary schools which haven't been scheduled yet. When I ran those numbers for this year, it saw 65% of weeks interrupted for elementary schoolers. This poorest schedule causes a constant struggle struggle for both families

034and students. For nearly half the years, children are not in school for a five-day week. For working parents, this means expensive child care or stressful juggling most weeks of the year. Finally, we must consider the long-term impact on our students. I've heard from neighbors and friends that their children find college exhausting because they aren't used to a fiveday academic week. While Fairfax excels academically, this fragmented schedule pair prepare fails to prepare students for the stamina and the work ethic required in the professional world. In a region defined by two working parent households, we need a schedule that reflects our community's needs. I think the board superintendent and the community need to have a hard conversation about reducing the number of teacher work days, early dismissals, or non-federal holidays. Thank you for creating a schedule that

035prepares our Telesa Riggs Ta Riggs, please play the video submitted by Stephanie Lenquist. Aurora, good evening. Since you love proclamations so much, try this one. Whereas about 50% of students from lowincome households are failing their SOS, we are resolved to improve their academic outcomes, there are about 74,000 students labeled economically disadvantaged in FCPS. According to the Virginia Department of Education data last academic year, 42% failed their English reading SOS, 95% failed English writing, 41% failed math, 46% failed science, and 70% failed history. More favorable studenttoteer ratios would improve academic outcomes, but you cut $275 teaching positions. Meanwhile, you've spent over $12 million on lawyers this year. That's equivalent to 120 teachers and counting. In some of your contracts, you've selected the most expensive law firms in the country, such as Maguire Woods and King and

036Spalding, offering to pay their lawyers up to $1,850 per hour. On the other hand, including benefits, teachers make about $65 per hour. Dr. Reed told the public that FCPS hired Meguire Woods to conduct an independent investigation regarding the alleged sexual assaults at Fairfax High School, but the contract states, and I quote, "The investigation has been undertaken for the purpose of providing legal advice to FCPS." And that doesn't sound very independent. In addition to shifting legal fees to teachers, FCPS should have a less erratic calendar to improve academic outcomes. Half of our school weeks aren't five-day weeks, like this one. A three-day school week for no apparent reason directly after spring break. Aside from the learning disruption forcing low-income families to pay for more child care is regressive and inequitable. You claim to believe in the

037concept of equity, but what about the children from lowincome households? Where's their proclamation? What are you doing for them? Thank you. While Nicole Woodward signed up to provide a pre-recorded video, she did not submit one. Please play the video testimony submitted by Kimberly Adams. >> Good evening, Dr. Reid, Chair Anderson, and members of the board. I am Kimberly Adams speaking tonight as an individual to ensure our school calendar reflects the needs of our community. As an FCPS staff member, a previous participant in numerous calendar committee meetings, and a parent, I urge you to consider six priorities. Reestablish a true calendar committee. We need a collaborative group, including staff, students, religious leaders, and union partners to align our schedule with surrounding divisions and include everyone's priorities. Maintain religious holiday observances, including major religious holidays, protects students

038and staff from academic conflicts and the stigma of requesting time off. This was built on community consensus and must remain. Honor federal holidays. We should keep Veterans Day as a holiday and consider restoring Indigenous People's Day to a full day off for everyone rather than just a staff development day. Prioritize well-being over 5day weeks. While consistency is valuable, the occasional 4-day week provides staff and students the essential mental and physical breaks needed for a healthy school life balance. Starting one week before Labor Day, the current two week early start was only a temporary fix for a specific year. It was never intended to be the permanent standard and should be adjusted. Re-evaluate inclement weather days. Building in over 10 snow days is often unnecessary. We should label the final days of the year as makeup

039days and remove them once our hourly requirements are met to allow for an earlier summer break. Finally, I would encourage you to listen closely to the community and offer room for public discussion at least one full year in advance of any proposed changes. Thank you for your time. >> Chair Anderson, that was our last public speaker. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Madame Clerk, it's going to be a night. Um, agenda item 5.01, student representative matters. I call on Miss McConen. >> Good afternoon, members of the board. I want to begin by addressing the growing number of non-instructional days in our calendar and the impact they are having on students, teachers, and families. As a senior, I definitely appreciate the days off. Talking to my peers elicited the same response. In fact, I was made into

040a devil's advocate for even starting a conversation about maybe decreasing our current amount of 40 days off in order for increased instructional time and longer summers. The increasing frequency of early learn early release days and schedule interruptions is beginning to affect the consistency of instruction in a meaningful way. At the elementary level alone, there are 13 early release days and across all levels. The disrup these disruptions make it more difficult for teachers to maintain pacing and continuity in their curriculum. Beyond academics, this also creates a real challenge for families. Many parents cannot easily adjust their schedules or find child care during these early release days, which adds an additional layer of stress outside the classroom. The compromise that we had last year was also an instructional issue. On these days, students and teachers are present,

041but instructional instruction is intentionally limited so that students observing the holiday do not fall behind. While this approach is rooted in inclusivity and respect, it often resulted in a full day where little to no learning took place. Over time, these lost instructional opportunities added up. At the same time, removing these holiday holidays entirely is not a simple or necessarily fair solution. Fairfax County Public Schools serves an incredibly diverse population, and our calendar should continue to reflect and honor that diversity. Eliminating these accommodations could create the perception that some relig religions or cultural practices are being prioritized over others, which would go against the values of diversity and equity inclusion that the division strives to uphold. This presents a complex challenge. However, it is also an opportunity. I believe that the board can work towards a

042more balanced approach, one that pri prioritizes instructional time while still respecting the diversity of our student body. This could mean rethinking how these days are structured rather than simply adding or removing them so that we are not unintentionally sacrificing meaningful meaningful learning time. I also want to bring back attention to an issue that is increasingly relevant in our schools. The lack of clear framework for student operated accounts, particularly those that represent school communities. Without these without clear guidance, students are left to navigate comp complex situations such as handling controversy, responding to crit criticism or maintain managing sensitive information on their own. This not only creates risk for the students involved, but also for the broader community in the division's public image. I believe there is strong need for a pro proactive divisionwide framework that clearly

043outlines expectations in a way that is understandable and accessible to students. This framework should also provide guidance on how to respond to conflicts or crisises in an online setting as well as establish transparency around who's responsible for these accounts and how they are managed. Right now, the system is largely reactive. Action is often only taken after an issue arrives. By putting clear structures in place ahead of the time ahead of time in the SRNR, we can prevent many of these situations from happening in the first place. Ultimately, this is about both accountability and support. Student leaders want to represent their school well, but they need the tools and clarity to do so effectively. By establishing clear expectations and safeguards, we can empower students while also protecting the integrity of our schools and division as a

044whole. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss McCon. Agenda item 6.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the Code of Virginia. It's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on April 9th, 2026, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion? Mr. Mr. Mackeine. Do I have a second? Mr. Fresh. All those in favor? Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mleine, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and

045myself. All those opposed. All those abstaining. Miss Dixit. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 111. The motion carries. Thank you. Agenda item 6.02, action item, confirmation of action taken and closed. I call on Mr. FR for a motion. >> I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who is charged with a crime in the community and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. All those opposed, all those abstaining, Miss Marin, and Miss Dixit. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 102. The motion carries. >> I call on

046Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who brought nicotine and drugs onto the school property with the intent to distribute sell them at school and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you Mr. McDaniel. All those in favor Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. All those opposed, all those abstaining. Miss Dixit. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> It's 1101. The motion carries. >> Thank you. I call on Miss or Dr. Anderson for a motion. >> I move to remand to the um the school reassignment appeal of a student who assaulted another student on

047school grounds resulting in serious bodily injury to the division superintendent for further consideration based on the discussion in the closed meeting. >> Thank you, Mr. Moon. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, uh, Mr. Meline, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. All those opposed, all those abstaining, Miss Dixit. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 1101. The motion carries. >> Thank you. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. I move to expel the student who committed a serious offense in violation of schoolboard policy by being convicted of one count of possession or transportation of a firearm by persons under the age of 18 and one count of an unlawfully handling a firearm so as to endangering so as to endanger

048the life limb or property of another. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you Mr. Dannon. All those in favor Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. All those opposed, all those abstaining, Miss Dixit. One more time, will the clerk please read the vote? >> 1101. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Uh, action item 6.03, motion to amend school calendar regarding Indigenous People's Day. I call on Miss Marin for a motion. I move that the Fairfax County School Board direct the superintendent to designate Indigenous People's Day as a standard instructional day for students and staff for the 202627 school year and all subsequent years and to create and implement a district-wide Indigenous People's Day observance curriculum focused

049on the history, sovereignty, and contributions past and present of local indigenous peoples and especially First Americans. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Mavine. Uh, Miss Marin, would you like to speak to your motion? >> In response to overwhelming input from parents seeking improvements to the fragmented student school year calendar, I am taking actions toward initial relief in the next school year to reduce calendar disruptions. Students need more five-day school weeks. This is not the ideal approach, but it is where we all find ourselves. The ideal approach is that the school board has policies that clearly direct the superintendent to operate the schools, providing ample time for planning by all. At the same time, the superintendent also can approach the board with solutions when there are challenges to be addressed in

050real time outside of the policy review of five years. Neither of the above have happened to to satisfaction at this time. As the next school year draws ever nearer, my goal is to offer solutions with the least disruption possible for students, families, and educators starting this fall. If this and Veterans Day changes are adopted, there will be two more full 5-day school weeks in the first quarter of the next school year. This will help children regulate to the instructional schedule at the start of the year, setting them up for success. Then the board and the superintendent must finish the needed work to remedy the situation, adopt a clear policy, the board, and revisit the outyear calendars beginning with school year 2728. The superintendent, my goal as governance committee chair is to have the calendar fi

051policy finalized as soon as possible next month in May so the superintendent can return to the board with revised calendars for approval soon after. Regarding Indigenous People's Day in particular, I will be transparent and say that I debated and discussed this option much before bringing it forward. I realize that some families may have plans already for this date as this is customarily a three-day weekend. As a soccer mom myself, I am aware that sports tournaments can occur on this fall 3-day weekend. However, this is a way to add another fiveday school week at the outset of the year without massively rearranging the calendar. Also, I consider the 66,000 students we have who can receive free or reduced meals and another day in school will help their minds and their tummies. Ultimately, I decided to propose

052it to have the conversation with the board publicly this evening, which happens to be the last day of this 3-day school week. >> Mr. Mavin, would you like to speak to your motion or your second? >> Thank you. So, um I think it's important to contextualize what we're doing tonight uh in history. So, pre2022 I would say um this system had a si had a way to um involve the community in building the calendar and it was called our calendar committee. Um we heard from a speaker tonight who was a a longtime member of the calendar committee. Um, and for many years that worked because there was a way to funnel the opinions and views of the community uh into the work of this board which was to annually adopt a calendar. But by the

053time I returned to this day in 2024 um the calendar committee was nowhere to be seen. In fact, I remember with Dr. Anderson. Um we were in a cab uh at a national conference. Um and we were talking about this and uh you know I turned to her and I said, "Oh, well we can just refer that to the calendar committee." Uh and staff that was with us in that vehicle said, "Well, there is no calendar committee anymore." Um there is a calendar committee. It's a staff committee. Um but it does not reflect our community um and our values. Uh and so um what has happened in intervening years um is that this board has delegated to the superintendent and staff the ability to determine a three-year calendar. And um I do not know the

054intentions of the prior board. Um but I don't think that their intentions were to in perpetuity um remove the board from uh the calendar process. So, um, tonight I think we are doing what we can with what we have and, uh, frankly, we are working to correct the hot mess that is now scalding our community that was left to this current board. The solutions before us are not perfect. Um, in a perfect world, I would not be supporting this motion before us, but we're doing what we can with what we have right now. So um with that uh we are having to turn to federal holidays and in this case uh to u indigenous people's day. Um so I am seconding this. I am supporting this. In a perfect world I would not be supporting

055this. I think there are many as the community has made very clear many other solutions that would make this calendar better. So this isn't perfect. This is a bad solution to a bad problem. We need to do more. Um, and I look to this board to provide leadership in the coming years uh to do more uh to address this uh calendar calamity. And I know that um with some later motions tonight, we'll have the opportunity um to once again, as we have in the past, survey the community, get community voices uh in this process that has been um just so calamitous. Thank you, >> Mr. Dunn. >> Uh thank you. I appreciate the efforts of my colleagues to bring forward uh multiple motions this evening to uh address uh the calendar for next year. Um

056I think it's important to start with uh the calendar did not deteriorate because any one individual or any one school board. Um this is a trend over 20 years as my newsletter showed. Um, so it's a confluence of multiple decisions, multiple policies that all together work um against the interests of families and students and academic outcomes. Um, just today I received an email uh from a mother explaining that her child with special needs because of the fragmented school calendar, at least in part uh now receives homebound instruction because the calendar was too disruptive to enable her child to maintain uh an educational environment in a school setting, depriving that child of access to friends and all the benefits from being around your peers. I've also received hundreds of emails from my constituents and county residents

057explaining that they are facing financial burdens, logistical difficulties and to the point where people are considering giving up their jobs and their careers solely because of the school calendar. Now, when I was growing up, when any of us in this room are growing up, the school calendar was not something you thought about. It was not something that tormented and traumatized our parents. Um, but it's gotten to the point where families have expressed in explicit terms that the school calendar is the most important issue in their famil family's lives. And that is unacceptable. It's unconscionable. Um, at a time when so many families are facing economic difficulties, anxiety about the job market with the advent of AI, federal layoffs, and so forth, we need to be able to support the quality of life in this county.

058We already have an affordability crisis. We need to make sure that we're designing government services to be convenient and easy for people to live and thrive in this county. Um, so that is the context within which I view this school calendar discussion. We do have the longest school year in the DMV region and nationally with comparable school districts. We have the shortest summer. We have the lowest percentage of five day weeks. And this is important to understand. It's structural. It's not it's not because of snow days or extreme weather events. It's not because of the incredibly large number of special elections um that brought our colleague to the board. Um it's it's because this is a long-term trend and we need to fix it. And I know that together we can. Uh, tonight is the

059beginning, but it's not the end. Um, I will be working with my colleagues in the coming weeks uh to bring additional motions that will seek to address the calendar through a holistic and comprehensive fix because our job is to set broad policy parameters and then to delegate to the superintendent in her operational focus to develop calendars to present to us for approval. >> Mr. Moon. Thank you madam chair. Thanks for a all these calendar motions this evening because as Mr. Don stated that this gives us good first opportunity to discuss in public about what you should do with ever deteriorating school calendars for our families and students and staff members. Uh with that said uh what I'm about to say uh goes to both first motion and the third motion. Third motion being vet state

060is I am going to stick with our current policy and regulations unless the board changes policy superintendence changes regulations those are those should govern our decisions that's how I view it regulation 1344.13 13 list holidays. Indigenous people's day is a holiday listed in our regulation. So in as much as in as much as we need to provide five full instructional day weeks. I support that and I am willing to work with my colleague Mr. done going forward to to figure out how best best to provide more five full instructional days for our students and family members. But for this particular motion particular motion I am looking at 2026 2027 school calendar for the month of October month of October that is the only day that will cause one that particular week not to be five

061full instructional day week. So that month is much better than other months. Other months that goes into the third motion, Veterans Day is going to make a things much worse for the month for the month of November. So with that said, once again, I'm going to stick with current policy and regulations until and unless our board after full discussion with the community feedback decides to change the policy and regulations. But thank you for bringing up this motion because this sets in motion of our important conversation we should have had from two years ago. >> Miss Dixit, >> thank you to my colleagues to bring this motion and also highlighting the issue. Uh we have heard from the community about needing a five days work week, a school week. Why should we have far book works

062work week? So anyways, I wanted to say that I um I like this idea in the spirit and of course it's going to help a lot of our students and the community and the families. But I am very hesitant to take federal holidays away from uh people who have who are either working in federal government or working in any state government uh local government because lot of these holidays are federal federal law holidays follow and uh there are a lot of families in Fairfax County which are uh connected with federal government in some ways and they're off that day. So um I would like to find other days and then and I think there is possibility of having other days to be open where they're closed right now or uh obviously this board this board

063did not vote for calendar right so I'm open to discussing with this with the community um and uh I agree that should be discussed with the with the all the stakeholders it cannot be um just the board making decision for uh you know for the for the students and the families So I'm open to it. I know that uh some middle school and high school students like that break in between because of their ext workload and sports and other things but there are a lot of kindergarteners or younger students or elementary grade which obviously the families don't like that they want those kids in the school. So um I like to you know support overall this calendar uh situation and help in in as a parent. I was a parent before I got on the

064board and as a I can see and feel as as as a parent still right. So I will work with my colleagues and will definitely support something else but not taking federal holidays away. So I'll not be supporting this motion. Thank you >> Mr. FR. >> Thank you. Um, I appreciate the contextualization uh of this as kind of like a stop gap measure. Um, and I think the fact that it is front-loaded in the school year makes it more palatable despite the drawbacks on the federal holidays front. Um, and perhaps the work of the board uh on the outyear calendar, the policy and the outyear's calendar can remediate that issue in the outyear calendars. Um, so, uh, while, you know, I would never choose to, uh, start with federal holidays, I think this is a,

065a, uh, a bridge to this process for us. Um, and you know, the last time the board voted on a calendar, uh, I voted against it. And my argument at the time was that the alternative had that that ended up passing had fewer five-day school weeks than the the approach that I preferred. Um, people who remember that that time will remember there was like yellow calendars and purple calendars and blue calendars and green calendars and red calendars. It was very difficult to keep it all straight. Um and so as we begin this conversation um around the process going forward, I think what interests me the most is like what is my responsibility as a board member. So in addition to working on the policy with my colleagues, I have to understand that the calendar discussion

066is not divorced from the rest of the work of the board. when we ask for new programs, when we ask for a new approach to literacy instruction or math instruction or as as I've been watching a lot of BBC, maths instruction, um those things require professional development and training. And so we have to be, you know, thoughtful as we pick this work up and and look to the calendars and the outy years about what impact we have on the calendar through the votes that we have throughout the year that are are not at least on their face anything to do with the calendar. Because then what we're doing is if we're removing opportunities for professional development um or early release days or planning time, we are squeezing educators from both ends, right? we are putting

067more on them while at the same time taking away the space they need to thrive in the things that we're challenging them to step up to. Um, you know, the the first round of uh early release days was instigated by the governor's legislation or the the general assembly's legislation on literacy instruction. We were a year ahead of them, but it was put on us and it opened an opportunity for us to have um planning time for elementary school educators who did not have that time. And it didn't cost us money to provide time outside of the school day will cost a school system already struggling financially a significant amount of money. So, we have to be thoughtful about the levers that we pull in this conversation in the months ahead as we talk about the

068next three school years that, you know, if we want uh I'm just going to finish my thought and then I'm probably not going to speak to this for any of the other motions, but if we want let's say a later start date, but we also want an earlier end date, but we don't want to sacrifice the long winter and we also want that week off for spring break, we can't have it all, right? Um, so we have to be conscious of that fact that um, this is really about priorities that we set as we have this conversation. So I appreciate the effort to get us to a point where we can at least make some modest improvements. There will be other improvements. Some of the holidays we typically have will be off next year because

069they're in the weekend. So more fiveday weeks that way, but this is just a starting point to to get us into the conversation with some modest improvements. So I'll be voting for uh this motion and the Veterans Day motion as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Kush. Uh, Mr. Danny, >> thank you very much. Um, I I I recognize that this is one of those difficult, thorny issues that there's no perfect solution that exists. Um, and it's something that, you know, it's a it's a complex logic puzzle and my worry and full transparency, I've not fully resolved how I want to vote. I know I've talked to my colleagues, but I've not fully resolved how I want to vote because I wanted to hear the discussion tonight, the input and so forth. Um I did have

070a few questions for the superintendent if if I'm able to ask but um you know there's a range of factors that we need to consider right we're talking about student learning whether it's learning loss over having a longer summer um whether it's impact of having those shorten weeks that we've all seen of a parent of two kids um in different periods at different early release schedules um you know child care costs uh student meals uh absentee rates um respect for the diverse communities um in our in Fairfax that you know have for the first time in years but had their ities recognized um adequate planning and development times for our teachers, coordination with neighboring counties, um teacher and community input on all the above, plus the collective bargaining implications, right? And so again, I really

071appreciate the suggestions and the proposals. Um I I wish I could just repeat everything that my colleague Mr. Moon said about wanting to look at this holistically from a policy perspective. Um am I am I able to ask questions? Correct. Dr. Um, can you speak how many how many planned planned five day weeks were there last year? I mean the current year, I'm sorry, the current year. >> In the current year, >> yes. >> Um, in the current year we had 23 um planned five school day weeks. >> Is that including the two or the 23 minus the two special elections? >> We had 25 originally planned. That should have been 25 five day weeks, but the special elections brought us down to 23. >> Okay. Okay. And then looking ahead to next year, how

072many five day weeks do we have? >> We have 24 fiveday weeks scheduled next year. >> Okay. Um I know the state law states that the school year uh we need to have at least 180 instructional days or 990 instructional hours. Where are we as far as that goes for next year? >> Well, for next year, let me clarify. We've had 180 days every year at least. And we also build in an additional buffer of days uh for weather or inclement um circumstances. So even with the if you will challenging year we've had this year with weather and elections and so forth, we still have the equivalent of a day and a half um above the minimum 180 uh remaining this year. Uh so next year we have the 180 plus the 10 that we

073build in as a buffer. >> Okay. Um and then and I asked this as a as a child who used to receive free and reduced price meals. Um for students who rely on school meals, what options are there when school is not in session, whether it's a fed federal holiday or or our own? >> So one of the things that happened this year is we had several inclement days, inclement weather days in a row. We actually did provide meals um at different locations. Uh for the one-day federal holiday or one day school closures, there are no meals. For the early release planning, we do send uh meals home with children on those days. >> Okay. I'm going to probably talk more later, but um again, I really appreciate the comments tonight about wanting to work

074towards a solution on this and looking forward and I I I'm looking forward to having further discussion. >> Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. I do want to thank um my colleague Miss Marin and Miss Dur Mackle for bringing this up and to really spur the conversation that started really to germinate last fall. Last fall we had a family um we had a um community member that came to this um meeting to talk about the calendar and that was the first time where it really started to bubble and then it just continued to increase and and there's a lot of discussion around this. We're at a place where we're just trying to salvage something for next year. And I've said this before and I'll say it again. I I was a teacher for several years. Back

075in the day when lesson plans were in a book. That book came for fiveday planning. And that's what we planned for as teachers. We planned for five-day instructions. You know, you had your things on Monday and on Friday you would have your small quiz. And that is still largely where instruction is in terms of planning out your week. And it it's hard to have this conversation this week given that our students and by the way my children love this. They will hate everything that I'm about to say. They had spring break last week. They came back yes. They came back this week. Monday was off. Tomorrow is off. I have to think we must be able to do better than this. And again, this is me realizing as a teacher and as a former principal,

076and I said this during our town hall, we need the professional development days for a lot of reasons that I'll speak about a little bit um later. We need to or and we need to be able to have our kids to have consistency. This cannot be our best effort. This is just cannot I refuse to believe that these motions tonight it is an effort to do something for next year just so we could salvage a little bit more because going from 23 weeks to 24 weeks of five full day instruction it's not enough. And so I will be supporting this motion and I will be speaking a little bit more to some of my other rationale um with the other motions to come. So thank you um both of you for bringing this to us.

077Thank you Dr. Anderson. I'm going to take a quick turn. Um, I remember watching the the discussion in February of 2023 and I had just announced that I was going to run for school board and I definitely um was questioning my life decisions at that moment um just based on the discussion at the time. But what clearly came through that discussion was the purpose of the three-year calendar is that absolutely we did not want to find ourselves in this doop every year where we were constantly dealing with all of the nitty-gritty issues every year. So, I am all in favor of us figuring out a cyclical way that we can have the calendar discussions that we need to have and still maintain the three-year cycle. So, my concern with Indigenous People's Day specifically is that

078I believe that the federal holidays are the times that we likely already have support for parents where if the day is off, then the kiddos are already at home with parents. And I understand fully that that is not every parent. I get it. I totally understand. Um as someone who very rarely gets a day off, I totally get it. Um but what I will say is right now that is a school planning day, which means that is a training opportunity for teachers. So we have taken advantage of a federal holiday where most parents, not all, but most parents potentially have the day off and we're using that day as the school planning time. And my concern with taking that away is where does that school planning go? So where does where do the training opportunities

079go? In addition to also being a heavy sports parent, I fully understand that we will have a significant number of students absent that Monday because of the already planned tournaments that people have already bought into for next year. So for that reason I agree with my colleague that I will be following the policy on this and on the third motion um just to make sure that we can go ahead and then I am open to having those discussions with my colleagues about how we can shape the policy for the future. So I see Mr. Dunn for a go back. >> Thank you. Um I think uh of the three motions this this is the most difficult for me because historically and I have done the research as you might expect uh FCPS has never recognized

080um Columbus Day with at least within the past 20 years as a uh as a school day. And so this would be a change from um with kids being in school. And so for that reason, um I I think we do want to get to more five day weeks. Um but we do have to take account of the some of the factors that my uh colleagues have mentioned. But one of the things I wanted to to to draw on is that the superintendent said um we're at 23 or 24 weeks. That's only if you're disregarding early release days. If you actually consider an early release day as not making a five day week, so you have five days of school, but one of the days is an early release day, we're actually at at a

081much lower percentage. Um we're at 15 out of 44 weeks or 34% just onethird of the um weeks in elementary school and many of our uh pyramids including uh Mount Vernon, South County, West PTOAC, Centerville, Chantelli, Fairfax, Justice, Oakton, Robinson, Westfield, that's a lot of high school pyramids where elementary schools only have onethird of weeks being fiveday school weeks if you include um uh early release days and others. it's um 43% or 19 out of 44 weeks. I think that's very concerning and I'll talk about this some more when we uh have the next uh motion up. But I just want to put that data out there because I think it's an important point that we need to know the impacts this is having on our families. Um my wife works at a preschool and

082one of her teachers didn't show up one day and kept her kids home. Why? because uh our calendar is a rainbow hue of colors and it's impossible for anyone looking at it intuitively to decipher which is the day off, which is a student planning day. We need to make it easy and not make it so you need a degree in hieroglyphics to figure out when to send your kid to school. >> Miss McConen, >> um just a just a top. I really hope my friends and peers are not listening to this when I say that I want more fiveday instructional weeks. I like this motion, but I think right now it's being used as a broader representation of the excessive days of this year when it's a little bit different because it is a federal

083holiday. I think we have to look at each of the holidays and early releases individually so we can make the decision. And I know it's hard to not just to not just take a win where we can get it with this day. But I don't think making a federal holiday a standard instructional day would be beneficial for staff or students since the inconvenience is already solved for the parents. If I could vote, I would not support this motion as much as it kills me to say this. And I'm happy we're starting a conversation about the calendar committee. And this is a question for Dr. Reed, anybody who could answer it. Since there wasn't a calendar committee since 2022, if I'm correct, how were the decisions about these religious holidays being added being made? What was

084the process? >> The process um was provided as a board directive in November of 23 that enumerated um a number of facets of the calendar, including the holiday list. Thank you, Miss McConen. Uh, Miss Marin for a go back and chair. Is that three minutes or two minutes? I could plan accordingly. Two. Thank you. So, you know, I started my career in the federal government. Um, and these are my thoughts about federal observances at this point in time. Okay. Our federal related workforce has been dismantled. So anecdotally, I'm unsure of how many people are beholden to the federal calendar. I have one friend who's now a substitute teacher in preschool. I have another friend who took a job at a law firm. I have a couple of friends who are probably moving out of the

085area because they both got laid off from state. So I don't think again at this time that we could just say, well, we're all federally connected. Um, and by the way, I was the board member who changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People's Day. That is how much I care about the intention of that day and keeping it as a day on for learning. My husband works for a private business. He is not off on Columbus Day nor nor Veterans Day or Indigenous People's Day. Um, you know, I just want to say that there's times to change and um, again, this is at the start of the school year. Now, again, I said this was the one I was most tentative about, but I think saying, well, this is a federal holiday, that meant something different

086a year and a half ago. Um, and also, would it be the worst thing if a parent had a date to themselves? I mean, you know, with their child in school, like I'm just saying things change and we know that parents are stressed. Um, but I do respect that our staff are scheduled for that professional development. So, um, I will advocate much more hardly for the Veterans Day motion a little bit later. Thank you. >> Okay, seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote for the motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Dr. Anderson and I can't see Miss Lady. All those opposed Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Moon and myself and Miss Lady. >> Yeah,

087I'm opposed. >> And Miss Lady, all those abstaining, Mr. Dunn. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 471. The motion fails. >> Thank you. Agenda item 6.04, action item, motion to amend school calendar regarding early release days. I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion. I move to direct the superintendent to schedule no more than four early release days per school year. >> Is there a second? >> A second. >> Thank you, Miss Marin. Uh, Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your motion? >> Yes. For many years, Fairfax County Public Schools had what was known as early release Mondays, and there were 30 of them per year. And in the 2004 2006 time frame, there was a study done by uh the Fairfax County government and it found that Fairfax County had

088the largest number of latch key kids in the entire country, 30,000. That means children who every day because of early release days went home and there was no adult present to care for them. It found that there were children in second grade, third grade, fourth grade, and so forth, and there was no one to care for them. That was a major impetus to get rid of early release Mondays to make sure that children were cared for and were in the constant presence of adults. This year, we have 12 12 early release days at the elementary school level. We essentially have reverted to almost 50% of the early release Mondays that were abolished several years ago and we have provided this year and last year childcare on-site ated schools and what we've seen from the data

089is that low-income children are particularly affected with large numbers up to a third of students at particular schools especially those that are majority low-income staying on site. Now that has resulted in delitrious effects for training objectives that are the whole purpose of early release uh days. Next year it's been proposed or stated that there will be no childcare on site. We're going to send the kids home. From a moral perspective, from a public safety perspective, from a child care perspective, I cannot support early release days when we're reverting to sending tens of thousands of kids home with no adult to care for them at a time when there's a lot of scary stuff happening in our society. I also think that we have to take cognizance of the fact that the early release days that

090are not even listed really on the calendar have never been considered or approved by the school board. We've talked often about the three-year calendar. This is the last of the three years. It was approved back in 2023. It didn't have these early release days either last year or this year. And there's been no motion, no effort brought to the schoolboard at any time in the last three years to add early release days to the school calendar. So from my perspective as a lawyer, these are unapproved. They're unapproved and they should not be allowed. Moreover, the stories I have heard from parents, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of parents, almost a thousand, is heartbreaking. The impact that these days, the chaos that is bringing into their lives is unacceptable. This is costing them thousands of dollars

091in child care. Logistics are mind-numbing and for single parents and those in the military, the burdens are extraordinary. We have to listen to their stories and I will be sharing those emails with my colleagues. Thank you, >> Miss Mary. >> If the elementary school early release days are capped at four by the board tonight, this will already create a less fractured calendar for the whole of the next year and future years. So, my action steps are informed by continuous parent input that elementary school early release days and otherwise fragmented instructional schedule are difficult on kids and families, outdated and misaligned schoolboard policies about students instructional schedule and the lack of action by the superintendent and board as a whole to address parent requests. I fully support educators, especially elementary grade educators, having the time needed

092and deserved for instructional planning and professional development. I have championed this since I first arrived into office in 2020 and sadly had to lay it aside as we dealt with COVID. I recognize the longtime disparity for this time as compared to secondary grade levels. The early release days instituted in 2425 were in response to new statemandated professional development for educators to implement the science of reading to ensure students are reading and literate on grade level because if kids aren't literate by third grade, it is much harder for them to be successful in school and life. I supported that plan and from what I heard from the community then they supported it too because they want to support their teachers. But that good grace extended by the community has been taken advantage of. I believe that

093the superintendent can find solutions to provide educators with this time just not as early release days to students that burden families and disorient students. I join many parents even favoring more time for elementary educators if the scheduling reduces interrupting five full day instructional weeks and does not rely on early release as the method. Suggestives include adding a whole day to an already existing student holiday rather than several early release days. And further, although current guidelines used by the superintendent from board discussion in 2023, not a directive, we did not vote on that. There shall be no more than four early release days annually. This has not been followed. So, this is actually our policy in it's not really policy, but that is what the superintendent is using as the go-to. As to what type of

094early release days, that is not important for me for this decision. The point is to codify as a board policy and a directive to not have more than four early release days because it's clear that the situation has gone untenable. However, it is the superintendent's job to operate the school division and the school board's job to hold her accountable for doing so. Thank you, Miss Marin. Uh, Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Oops. In addition to what was shared, I I want to offer some context. Um, I wanted to understand better what the Mason District community felt about early release days. uh because it's great to hear anecdotal stories, but it's really better to have a collective voice just to understand where critical mass um lie. And so I did a I sent a survey only about

095early release um days and within days there were hundreds and hundreds of people who completed it and we ended up in the neighborhood of 225 people before it closed. Um and these were the findings. Um 81% said the early release days were burdensome. 81% said they were too frequent. Um 59% said if we were to have if we needed if we must have early release days, could there be on Fridays? The reason why I raised this is because this dovetales with what I hear from our principles. If these days were on Fridays, it's just going to be a long weekend. That's going to be a lost day of instruction. That means my chronic absenteeism rate that I am working so hard to get down is going to increase because it is now considered a three-day

096weekend. I've always taken issue because I don't think it's clear to parents that early release days for all types are not on the calendar such as the elementary Wednesdays, the PSAT days for high schoolers, plus so many other days for high schoolers because of testing, etc. I am a big believer that our teachers need to have regular opportunities for professional development. I've said this yesterday. I said it last year. I said I'm saying it today and I will say it tomorrow. When we have um let's take the commanders, they don't do all their coaching in July and then are hands off for the rest of the year. It has to be continuous. And I believe the same thing needs to happen with our teachers. It just has to be more strategically placed. As it is

097right now, it is untenable. I also had a question and for some reason I can't find that data piece that asked parents what is it that your kids are doing and how engaging it is. Lots of them are refer are reporting that it is that they're in the cafeteria for three hours in front of a screen. This is not the ideal position. And I think we have some really good smart people on this staff who could help us think of something better. So I will be supporting this plan. Even teachers are saying this is not working because colleagues take this time as maybe to have an appointment. Principles say this is not working because they're trying to manage the kids that remain because I do believe we have to provide opportunity for those kids to

098stay at schools because their parents are not able to pick them up or to receive them at home. So I will stop there but I will be supporting this motion and I hope we all can. Mr. Dannon, >> thank you very much. Um I want to I appreciate my colleague Dr. Anderson talking about um the timing for this training, right? because I've um I want folks to recognize like it's it's not a matter of just putting all these training in professional development at the beginning of the year. Um and uh your comment about um strategic placement I thought was very fascinating because again I have more questions for Dr. Reid here again as a parent of two kids in different pyramids with different early release schedules. Um, what is the best alternative in your mind

099to the current situation where we have these three-hour early release days, putting aside the quarter end days, early release, um, the the the two and three-hour early release periods, right? What's the best option alternative in your mind? Um, or some other alternatives we could consider, >> you know, I think I would have to take that back to the team. I know one of the reasons, well, there were several reasons that led us to the um current early release. Um several of those clearly were around the required literacy uh training that the Commonwealth uh expected. Um and we really we didn't intend for it to be a forever strategy. We were hoping um as we roll out a new math basil at some point that that would be sort of the last um time because we

100want to make sure that our staff really I think have that opportunity on a regular cadence to meet um as groups and review new materials. We haven't had a math basil curriculum in several decades. So um or particularly the literacy one as well. Um, the other thing is, uh, from a budget standpoint, we didn't have a budget to provide training outside the school day because we have to logically compensate staff for that. And in a really difficult budget time, we we didn't have those funds to do that. Um, additionally, we had a long discussion around if you take teachers out of the classroom during the day, then we have substitutes in the classroom. And we weren't sure that that was our best next move either instructionally, although we appreciate all our substitutes. So, if you're

101a substitute out there, we do appreciate your efforts, but we know it's not the same as the classroom teacher in the classroom. So to answer that question, I think you know I would need to go back to the team and really have a conversation about where you would place professional development once the school year gets started. Obviously before the school year and at the end. Um but there aren't a lot of options honestly in the middle of the school year that aren't going to require time either out of the classroom or outside the classroom, right? I mean, it's a fairly finite set of options, but I think, you know, we would take it back and obviously have that conversation. >> As a as a former substitute teacher, I won't take offense to your comments, but

102um if we do vote tonight to to to enact this constraint, and again, I want to preface that I recognize this is a very difficult logic puzzle um with no perfect solution. And I'm very wary of adding new constraints without having that broader discussion encompassing everything else. recognizing on balance the acute issue of of the challenge of the of the current calendar. But um if we do what would things look like next year as far as that? Are you gonna have teachers especially at the elementary level that don't have enough time for planning and development? Um are you able to make with the current authority we've given you, are you able to make additional changes such as you know consolidating those and some of those early release days into a single day? Well, I mean,

103I think if the um motion passes, obviously we go back um even pre the early release. Uh we were able to uh standardize the what I would call um bargain uh planning time for elementary staff. I think when we were looking at rolling out, for example, the new literacy materials, we felt like a bit more than that standard amount of planning time was necessary. um in particular for the required training. So I think that uh we would have to make sure that we had the um agreed upon contractual elementary planning time occurring within the day. However, I don't want to confuse planning time with professional development, right? Our elementary educators, all our educators work really hard and they need that individual planning time too that's not structured or directed and that's separate from, if you

104will, a school planning day where a principal uh has professional development perhaps they want to be providing or the um I think very few uh hours during the year that the division has an opportunity to provide professional development on certain topics. Uh but the actual independent planning time we would of course need to make sure uh was provided. >> I appreciate that. Um I'll wrap this. I want to thank um my colleagues again for bringing this up. Um Miss Mayor has sent me a range of very helpful information. We've had long conversations. Um Mr. Don, I appreciate all the work that you and your staff have done looking back at at the current year and previous years. Um I appreciate the work that my staff done has done and Mr. McDaniel's staff have done looking

105at future years. Um and again I appreciate the the discussion tonight. So thank you >> Miss Dixit. I'd like to thanks again my colleagues too who brought this motion um and put a lot of hard work into this um uh even though I did not uh get an opportunity to discuss this one-on-one but I like to share there here this uh this motion is little restrictive uh because it's con considers all schools uh not just elementary school and there's a you know there is like a end of the year high schools usually have like early release days and putting I think such a um strict motion I think is going to restrict our uh schools to function and and uh it's I think it's going to impact more than what we are seeing right now.

106Um our teachers work very hard in our schools. Uh and with the the salaries they get and not the affordability issues. This is some if the if I would start support the staff here and say if they want some additional time we'll make for them. So I I haven't done that discussions. I have not engaged with the uh with the Dr. Reed and um all this like FCPS staff to have that conversation. I think it's more in-depth in uh information we need at this point. Uh I hesitate putting a motion right like this is going to restrict uh the school year for next year and maybe we should have this more uh deepen conversation while we're talking about calendar. this is there's no no band-aid approach. Um so I I like to go comprehensive deep

107into it and and resolve uh anything all these issues we are having but I do agree that early release um may cause some issues with lot of families and maybe we can find another way to resolve that. So uh but do but I will at the end I will say I'm I'm supportive of our teachers who who may need this time and um and we really have to look out for them. Thank you so much, >> Mr. Mackie. >> Uh, so back in 2014, uh, Mr. Moon and I were sitting at this deis when we made the decision to move away from halfday Mondays and that was a generational lifetime changing decision, right? Something that had never been done in this system and we said we would never go back, right? We were also promised

108that same night that we would have world language in every elementary school. We would expand TTT time on on Mondays so that teachers would have planning time. We would send our students to world language class to their other TTT time activities. And that never happened. So there's there's a pattern here and I'll get to that in a minute. There's a lot of things we were promised that that did not happen, right? Um, but fast forward to two years ago when we were sold early releases, it was something the principles wanted, so we did it as a temporary solution at their request. Um, but as we have seen, uh, it has not been a temporary solution. We were also, as has been stated, promised that we would have planned activities. On those days, we would partner

109with the Boys and Girls Club. We would partner with the YMCA. We'd partner with all these groups to get folks in our elementary schools to work with the students and have enrichment activities. That that did not happen. So, when I speak to elementary school parents today, and I am one, and we have others at this day, the biggest complaint that I hear is these early release days. And let me be clear, I want our staff to have their planning time. I think everyone at this table wants them to. But we have to do that in a way that we have over many years, which is not putting the onus on our parents to find care on random days of the week. And I disagree with Dr. Anderson on this. I think we should be looking

110at Fridays. I've told the superintendent for several years, we should be looking at Fridays for these days because that's uh when it's most convenient to folks. So, uh, my question for the makers of this motion is, and I'm supportive of this motion, but when we say four days, how does that apply across the system? How does it apply at elementary, middle, and high school? >> Mr. D. >> Uh, thank you. Um what we see over the last 20 years is that the average number of days at all levels after the um average all levels sorry average for high school and middle school level is 3.55. So 3.55 is less than four in general middle and high school doesn't need many early release days. How they're used is up to the operational discretion of the superintendent.

111Um there have been uh generally no more than six at the elementary school level since the abolition of uh early release Mondays until they were brought back 18 months ago for this year and the year before. So four is a reasonable number within the parameters of the last two years, sorry, of the last 10 years um and is a reasonable compromise to provide enough early release days that can be used for end of quarter other purposes, planning time, um but not so many that it is burdening and causing inconveniences to our families. I I didn't get an answer there. Mr. Dun, >> can you repeat the question then? >> Can you be more specific? Elementary, middle, high, what does it look like >> uh for this year? >> For the what we're saying in this

112motion, which is the no more than four days. >> Four early release days at the elementary level, four early release days at the middle school level, four early release days at the high school level. >> All levels of school would be four under this motion as currently constructed. Then can I ask the superintendent how how would you operationalize that? >> Thank you. I I would enact four early release days of elementary, four at middle and four at high school to be honest. >> I Well, it is, but I mean that's how I would operationalize it. Mr. currently I think believe we have three that cover quarter grading and then the fourth um I don't know that you know we would probably try to find that but I would obviously work within those guidelines. >> Okay

113thank you >> Mr. M or Mr. Daniel, sorry. >> I had another technical question for the whoever whoever wants to answer the question, perhaps the maker of the motion. Um, I presume that if the motion passes, the intention will be to be implemented in the fall of 2627. >> A written, uh, the motion would apply to next school year, 2627. >> Yeah. And I've gone back and forth on this one. Um, you know, I think the dis I I think the discussion tonight has solidified that I'm going to abstain on this. Um, I just don't have enough information. I don't know that four is right. I don't know that four is wrong. You know, the data shows middle school and high school is, you know, four is kind of seems to be the sweet spot.

114I have significant concerns um at the elementary level um that right now are not clear enough for me to be able to vote up and down. So, I'll be abstaining on this motion. Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm going to support this motion. Uh I am not going to repeat what Mr. Bein has already stated. You know, going back to 2014, why the bold made that decision which has been really a a the bold former boards had not been able to make the decision for decades very difficult one. We work very closely with then superintendent Dr. Garza was able to make that happen and was also able to provide a staff planning time for our teachers who are concerned about losing Monday afternoon. Now again that has been gradually being taken away because

115with increase in number of early releases sudden jump now we are losing what we tried to accomplish back in 2014 that's very unfortunate and also for the during the pandemic years I was not on the board so I do not know exactly what happened back in 2023 Three on the last time the board prior board publicly voted on on the calendar motions and adopted the three-year calendar which ends with this academic year. They also passed the follow motion at the time to bring back bring back a policy and revise regulation with a community input. All that before this board board approves a new calendar going forward why we have on our website for the next two years as a next two years calendar have never been approved by this board. That's a contrary to the

116motion passed by 2023. I was not on the board at the time. So I didn't remember this until very recently trying to find the record. How has this happened? That has to be rectified. And I'm glad that we are having this discussion even though we are two years behind in doing this 12 days of all the releases. That's way too many. That's way too many. and and I am willing to support four days even though some of my my some of my colleagues may feel that they may be too restrictive. However, we used to be able to do this with the four days. Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Moon, I don't think anybody will fault you for not remembering when you weren't here. Um so um thank you for asking the question about if this

117applies to all school all um grade grade levels elementary um high school and um middle school because that that really has solidified my decision. Uh Dr. read. Um, what would the impact be for professional development for our teachers if we restrict early release days at all levels, but particularly elementary this evening? I'm not sure I'm able to answer that directly. I think that obviously the professional development would occur for elementary staff in a different way than it has this year and last. Um I don't know that it would affect or impact the middle and high school um because they're not traditionally using early release for professional development. They're using the uh staff planning days. >> Do you foresee that there will be a financial impact? >> There can't be because we don't have a we

118haven't budgeted for that for next year and we're even with what we have budgeted for still looking at a $44 million gap. So, I don't think we'll be adding budget dollars uh to buy planning time outside the day or subtime during the day for that. Okay. Um, as someone that did work in in elementary schools and did see the struggle in terms of planning time for teachers and the juggling and um did see the promise of um some extra courses being added so that teachers could get that and that not happening. Um, a promise that was made by a superintendent that didn't stay her full term. Um, I understand what a burden it is for teachers. I understand how hard it is. Um, I know that we had a collective bargaining agreement and teachers are

119supposed to work to their contract. And I'm here to tell you that we're really lucky that they don't. I mean, probably I'm not saying the right thing here and probably will get in trouble because they go above and beyond and work way past those contract hours even without early release days. I can't imagine the stress that our teachers will feel and the stress that will cause to our students. I also can't imagine the impact it will have if they don't have the adequate professional development that they need and the impact that that will have on our students and we're saying limiting it to four days all across the board. And if the state or the federal government comes down with something else that we have to do the way we did when we initiated this

120this year um I feel this and because I do know the work that goes on and look I worked in schools for 26 years. I was not an educator. I could never do what they do. They are amazing. They go above and beyond and they are there all the time. I happened to be there a lot and I happened to be there in evenings a lot because as a family leaison that's when families could meet me. I cannot tell you how full that building was beyond contract hours. Early release gives them at least some breathing room to get some of the work done that they have. I can't support this motion. I have to support our teachers. >> Miss Lady you. Um, so I have a lot of points to make. One, um, I certainly

121understand the decision made under Dr. Garza to get rid of early release days, but I will also tell you we were getting a higher percentage of the budget from the board of supervisors at that time and planning time was not the issue that it is today. Um, also we are facing staffing issues upcoming. One of the things in the budget is to reinstate the ARTS and the special ed department chairs at the elementary level to a 1.0 from a.5. And as Dr. Reed just stated, we're $44 million short of what we need. Um, and I'm not going to vote for what the board did last year, which was to require teachers to give up a 1.0, not teachers, elementary principles to give up a 1.0 to make those people full-time because we lost a lot

122of steam teachers in that. We lost some behavior specialists. We lost some emers in that. We lost some counselors in that. We really crippled some of our people. So I I can't do that. Um and because if we have more specials, we have more plenty time for elementary teachers. We don't need anything uh in terms of early release. Also, when it comes to early release, I think we need to pay attention like at the end of the year for high school of exam days. Once I take my exam in first period, why would you make me go to first period for three for three more days? Okay. So, there's early release days because they do two exams a day. I think we have to pay attention when grades are due. I've never been in elementary,

123but I understand elementary grades are due like two weeks before the last day of school. I'm not saying they're not doing things that are enriching, but we're having a dialogue about a lot of different things. And I'll tell you, as an employee who had to live with what the board voted on, the first time that the calendar became all the O days and we had all these days off, nobody talked to the employees. I feel like nobody took the employees into account. We watched our summer disappear and then we watched the ability to present new instruction um or provide assessments disappear because we had so many uh observation days. Having said that, we're a diverse school system. We have diverse beliefs, cultures and religions and no one is above the other and I think we

124have to remain sensitive to that. Um you know in in talking about how teacher use these days I think it's first of all let me ask this question Dr. Reid. Um it's my memory that we as a board did vote to approve for you to do early release days. Is that correct? Did we vote to say yes? We didn't necessarily say a number but didn't we vote to say yes you could do early release days? >> I I don't know that we did miss lady. I know we discussed it um but I I can't recall if we actually voted or not voted. >> All right. I felt like we did. Also, I think that someone earlier today said that next year, if we had early release days, there would be no child care. Has there

125been discussion that if we did early release next year, there would be no childare? No, that was the committee recommendation, but I think that what I shared with the committee is that I wouldn't be comfortable moving forward with a recommendation that did not include uh child care as we have done. >> Thank you. I I just sometimes I just hear things come uh from people in the discussions that we have and I'm like it doesn't it's not the same as my memory. So um that's an important thing. Um, you know, the other thing is I will say this that the early release days at the end of the quarter are a different amount of time than the early release days for elementary. Whatever we do, they have to be the same amount of hours. Um,

126I also would say that I don't think we need an early release day at the end of the first quarter or the third quarter. However, the second quarter because of middle schools and the number of semester courses and the need for them to create new seating charts for, you know, 150 kids, it's time consuming in addition to doing grades. So, I would advocate that that stay an early release day. Um, and I guess the most important thing I want to say is that like I'm I'm sort of >> that was your time. I'm happy to put you on a go back. >> Okay. I haven't spoken the whole meeting. Can I just finish? >> We're going to go ahead and we have several people on the list, but I'll absolutely put you on a go

127back. It'll give you more time. Um, I am going to take a very quick turn myself. Um, I've been really conflicted about this one because I don't I definitely hear the community input in terms of wanting um, but really I'm only hearing from elementary parents and so I am concerned because when we started opening of the conversation into the PSAT days and the SAT days and things like that that are going on, um, I have I have some questions. So the first question is how many days are we talking about at the end of the year for high school for exams and how many days are is it an early release for SAT? I believe it's just one day for SAT and and PSAT but >> so currently um I believe middle and high school

128have three early release days for grading and then have several I'm going to phone a friend here. Um, does somebody know the number of days for finals? I'll ask Miss Neil to help us out here on high school finals and PSAT day. >> I'm going to uh PSAT is an early release. So, there's one day for PSAT. There is one early release at the end end of the year for all schools. And I think I'm going to ask Dr. Presidio if he can weigh in on uh finals at the high school level and SAT day. And that's the last week of uh the calendar for high schools finals. >> I I'd have to I'd have to triple check. >> We'll get back to you on that. But it's the total days currently for high school

129is more than four. So we would be pairing back somewhere in that. >> So it could potentially mean that that kids well and for middle school really too. It could potentially mean that kids that would normally have the ability to come home and work on studying for a next the next exam or something like that wouldn't actually have the time to do that. Um or they would be doing it in school with teachers that are trying to actively grade the exams that were taken that morning. Um the other concern that I have is right now we only have four early release days at the elementary level without daycare like without child care provided. So without the ability and could you speak a little bit about what else is being done on those days with some

130of our kiddos? >> Well, you know, I understand there are different elementary schools. We have 141 and they all have a different percentage or number of students that are choosing to stay on those days. And in some schools, I mean, we've done clubs, there's tutoring in some schools, uh there are large group activities. depends on the weather as well, whether they're indoor, outdoor. Uh we have partnered with different groups. Uh so it's really just a wide variety. There's a continuum of opportunities right now that's um occurring during those times. >> And some students are receiving instruction. Is that correct? >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Um, so in addition, at the same time that this all came on, there was the budget crunch that actually we lost classroom monitors, which some schools were effectively using to

131take the place of one of the CLTs that was happening during the school day, which increased planning time. So, we've got all of these factors coming in at the same moment. and I am I I just don't have enough information to be able to make the decision because I definitely hear from my constituents and I definitely hear from you know teachers and just looking at it but I also because I haven't heard any of the high school or middle school student or parents weigh in because no one talked about the fact that this would include their early release days that are traditionally I mean ever since I was a kid 30 years ago in high school Um certainly we we had the same things happen. So because those were not explicitly explained, I did not

132realize that this would all be inclusive. So um this one's going to be a tough one to to figure out where to land. Um we're going to go to gobacks and we're going to start with Mr. Dunn. >> Thank you. I just wanted to start uh to the extent my colleagues have perceived that the scope of the motion uh needs to be adjusted. That's what budget that's what the amendment process is for and I welcome their amendments. If you have amendments to the number, if you have amendments to the level of school, elementary, middle, high school, uh I welcome that and uh would welcome the opportunity to collaborate. Um first, uh I have found in my two and a half years that um that FCPS is too self-referential uh and insular in its practices. It

133doesn't compare to other schools necessarily outside the wavy guide. certainly doesn't compare to national peers. Um, early release days. I went to schools in five different states. I never had a single early release day to my knowledge. And I've gone back and looked. Um, Dr. Reid, uh, you've been superintendent in other school districts, uh, across the country. You know, of many superintendents across the country. Are early release days the predominant form of providing planning time to uh, elementary school teachers? >> Thank you for the question, Mr. Dunn. I think that um I don't know if I could say it's the predominant form. Um I do know there are a number of divisions um that I've served in and many colleagues. Honestly, ours were more often a late start. Um we did the equivalent hours but

134before the school day. So there was usually one day a week where school started later um for a particular grade band that was working on a particular special project. Um but I don't I've also seen early release. I don't think they're uncommon. Um, but you know, I think we have to do what we think is best for the for our context and our families for sure. >> And when when there isn't late start or early release, what is the what are some of the options that you've seen in other school districts because you do you're a national expert on public education. >> Well, thank you, Mr. Dunn. I think the options are full days, right? Um, that people have in the calendar. Uh this week we had a school planning day was one of the

135reasons why uh we're not in school. Um so I think the school planning days are marked throughout the year. Teacher work days are marked throughout the year. Uh grading time is marked throughout the year. Those are really common characteristics of a school calendar. Um I think that many school calendars, you know, are just very they're varied across the nation. Honestly, we were having a discussion recently. There are a number of school divisions that have moved to four day weeks uh because of either budget or in some uh more remote areas for staff retention purposes. Um there are other divisions that go year round uh and take you know days off around different quarters. So I think the calendar has become an interesting um a flex tool if if that makes any sense. They're also because

136of building circumstances um am and pm um types of uh work. Uh and then there's the option to pay staff uh for outside the school day uh type course work um or weekends, but again that requires uh better funding and as you know with our JARK uh funding reports here in Virginia that those funds aren't necessarily as available here as they are in other states. But it's not uncommon in other states to provide funding um outside the school day for staff to engage in professional development. We just at this point really don't have that option. >> I I I believe that uh Alexandria there's a modified school calendar and a couple other places in Virginia where you know they'll have you know for each quarter and each quarter is equally equal length. Then uh between

137quarters you'll have a little break vacation for families and students but built into those breaks is time for for student planning. And so that's another option that we heard during the virtual town hall that Mr. Moon uh Dr. Anderson and I held on Tuesday night and I think there's a lot of examples out there, best practices, lessons learned that we shouldn't be laser focused on early releases as a binary. This is the only tool in the toolbox. There are many tools in the toolbox and I think if we adopt a restriction on the number of early release days, there are other things that we can look to to achieve our goal of providing sufficient planning time. Thank you. Miss Baron, >> if what I just realized while listening is correct, then I am embarrassed, not

138only for myself, but for the board. In the guidelines, which I don't know if they're publicly available, but is what the superintendent is using for a 2023 discussion with the board, it says, quote, "There shall be no more than four early release days per school year, parenthesis, now designated for all quarter ends." Well, that is exactly what is printed on the published calendar. I won't say adopted calendar, I say published calendar. All this stuff that's happening is happening without any policy, without any regulation. So, I'm left to wonder if we vote tonight to say no more than four early release days, isn't that already what is happening? What's the problem that we're trying to decide? It's how to get the superintendent to not schedule more early release days. And although I don't want to brainstorm

139because the nugget of this is the policy has to exist, I will say if we want to brainstorm solutions, um, how about it's no more than four early release days divisionwide. And if a school like a high school needs to release early, as they already do without any regulation or policy governing it, they do. And if a pyramid needs to do something, they do. or whatever else it is that the superintendent puts into regulation. And I've heard from plenty of high school parents with students who have disregulation and uh their schedule they're at their wit's end. So I can send you my spreadsheet with over a hundred different comments that I've received if not more that my staff has categorized and themed. I have all the themes. I have the themes from the comments. I

140have the themes from um discussion about this 2023 attendance data that is defunct. The goal here is to make it clear that we want something different, but I honestly don't know what that move is now because we already have a calendar with four early release days on it. So perhaps the amendment amendment gets made to say, you know, these are divisionwide and anything else. I mean, guys, this is I'm really stumped right now. >> Dr. Anderson, thank you. I apologize. There's something going on with my ears. So, if you already said this, my apologies, but I'm not hearing very well at all right now. Um, something that Mr. Dunn mentioned earlier regarding your proposals for next year's early release elementary days that they would be without um child care supports at the schools. I have

141not brought that to the board or for a public discussion. I shared with you in a Friday letter that the committee, we have an early release committee made up of parents and staff recommended that that be the case and I shared with the committee that I could not bring that forward that we would need to continue to provide um care for students during that time. >> Thank you. Can you also share just kind of looking ahead in the next couple of years, what is your thinking regarding these early release dates for elementary? >> So, as I shared earlier, I think we began these really limited monthly um early planning days for elementary because of the required literacy professional development, the hours of which far exceeded the hours our staff had to complete. And I appreciated

142the board's consideration at that time that our staff needed that extra time and our elementary educators and elementary principles strongly supported that need. This year is year two of benchmark and we continued that work because staff found it very valuable that time and our intent was to run it through the math basil adoption as well because that's going to be a brand new math basil curriculum uh with math textbooks and workbooks for the first time in a long time. That being said, that was my initial thinking was getting us through those two really significant curricular um moves for elementary staff and it would provide that extra time for um individual teachers and also grade levels of staff to be able to familiarize themselves with a very different type of curriculum than we've used in quite

143a while. >> Thank you. I I remember attending the parent meetings that you held um uh before we started this. There were two. One was at Gate House and I was there with Mr. Meline and what was shared with parents at the time is that this is for a year for us to meet the literacy requirements and um that they would be limited. At that point there were seven. How many do we have this year and how many are proposed for next year? We added we added a couple this year. Um they were intended to be monthly this year, although I don't think we did one in December and I would have to go back and I'm sure someone behind me is adding it up >> uh for me, but it was intended to be

144monthly without December. So um that was what we had. >> That would have been nine then >> I Well, I think so. Well, >> it could have it could have been nine >> for just these early release days. And I think they're in the problem. >> Actually, I'm not sure if we did. >> We We did not vote on this um at all. So, I want to confirm that for Miss Lady. We did not vote on this. It was not a board is a board decision, but it was a board recognition that we needed to do something because the state had the literacy work that needed to be done. The hours were too many than we could we could afford. So, it was a place where we were resigned to make this happen and it

145seemed reasonable at the time. My concern right now is we're leaving it in place for math. I see a space where we're going to leave it in place for social studies as we adopt other curriculum. So, it will continue to stretch and it has grown from seven to 9 to something else moving it from Wednesdays to Fridays which will I've already shared this earlier. It will impact absenteeism rates at our schools in a way that I don't think we would like. I am really worried about that creep without public discussion, public feedback and public votes by the board because it is based on the calendar for which we are responsible. I do want to clarify it was actually eight this year because I did cancel April because we ended up with the April 21st election

146and our principles and educators were fabulous and compromising on making that a half day for planning. Um so we were able to um not have it scheduled in April so that I believe we had eight then finally. >> Was that my timer? Miss Lady for a go back. >> Thank you. Um, you know what I was beginning to say was in despite all the conversation and thank you for the clarity around I knew we had a conversation about the early release days and the need for them, but I didn't realize we didn't formally vote. So, thank you for that clarification. And you know, in an ideal world, you know, I don't want extra early release days for elementary. Um, you know, for the reasons that we know and have stated, um, but what I don't

147know is, um, what's going to happen with our budget, what's going to happen with specials, what's going to happen with planning time, and I just don't feel like I have enough information to support the motion as written. Um, I think we keep using the word planning, and I think we have to realize that these are this is also PD time. This is not just planning time for teachers. This is learning new curriculum. This is collaborating in within teams to determine how they're going to execute and implement the curriculum. Um the other thing I want to say is the the SAT and PSAT day that is an unbelievable gift to our community. Um we provide the SAT at no charge at no charge to our seniors in October who it's a school day. They have public

148they have transportation from us to get to school. We pay for it. It's it's access. If we were to eliminate that doing that activity, that would take us backward in time. Um and I believe the only students that are not encumbered and I'm not sure if we still bring them in and do something is is our ninth graders. And perhaps communication could be better around that, but the PSAT in 10th and 11th and then the SAT for 12th graders. Um, that's a gift to our community because it's it's it's college access. So, I would never want to want to touch that. You know, interesting that you mentioned, Dr. Reid, that uh other places you worked where they they did the PD work on the early end instead of an early release. They had a late

149start. And I remember for years we did a late start on Fridays for CLTs. Um, the whole system shifted. Now, I was at high school level. I didn't really pay attention to what was going on in elementary and middle. So, I'm not sure if it was just a high school thing, but that was an extra hour of planning, if you will, or PD or collaborative teamwork time that we got every Friday. Um, and I don't know, maybe that's the maybe that's a different path forward in the future because people might have more time to make accommodations in the morning. I don't know, but I agree that we have to be nimble and think outside the box around the best approach to what we're trying to accomplish. Um, the other thing that was your time, >>

150Miss Dan or Mr. Dannon? >> Um, let me really throw a loop here. Uh, based on your expertise, um, I'm reading this as saying early release days. Um, is there something better to having a late start day versus an early release day? Is there a reason that we do early release days here versus late starts? I think here the transportation um might be really challenging to do late start for a particular grade level that's >> in the middle of um I don't know, you know, I haven't looked at it because different communities have different appetites for different uh possibilities. So, I would have to go back and take a look at that. Mr. Dannon, >> makes sense. Um, just to be clear, how many early release days are we looking at for next school year?

151>> Well, and I apologize, we actually scheduled eight this year. So, we didn't we had two months that we didn't have. And because of the cancellation in April, we actually were seven uh actually this year. So, I think we would plan eight again next year. Um, and uh so that was the thinking. >> Sure. Does that include the quarterly end dates? So, it's four plus. >> No, sir. I don't believe it does those the quarter the four for the year were really intended is my understanding to be at quarter end >> um which is what how they were designated and that was for K12 to be end of quarter grading they weren't for any kind of professional development or collaborative planning those were really about um you know working on uh grading >> okay and

152again my my hesitation again when I'm wrestling with this is is what I shared at the beginning that um I recognize this is a very difficult logic puzzle and I'm very hesitant to follow this kind of quick process where we're going to try and rush a few constraints onto that um decision-m right so I love the idea that my colleagues have talked about having a reinstituting the community involvement and the calendar committee looking at that data holistically I'm really hesitant to to impose this constraint um especially after talking to elementary teachers uh in the last couple days. Um, and and the value of this. Um, and I'm I'm I'm curious if if we were just to change from say four to to eight early release days for the it wouldn't have to be the four

153quarterly end or four throughout the year throughout the year, but uh how difficult would that be for you to impose versus a the you've got the 12 now. We're discussing four. Is eight a happy medium or or where would you do you have a recommendation on that? Again, I'm putting you on the spot here. Well, the four are uniquely I don't think we want to um I one of the fundamental responsibilities of our staff are the communication of progress to parents and that process of grading and you know reviewing assessments is really I think sacrosanked at those quarter moments. So I don't think we want to repurpose those four. So I think that if we look at other ways I don't know that I have an optimal number. I think any number would probably be

154helpful. >> Uh but um you know I think we had planned eight. >> Okay. Um and and that's again what when I first read this I thought good we we've had seven this year going down to four would be good and then realizing oh there's also the quarterly end dates and so that's where I'm kind of struggling here and considering amending this but I'm going to listen a little bit further and go from there. >> Yeah. I want to be really clear because maybe the the four are completely separate from the early planning the elementary planning days. Yeah. >> Okay. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote. >> Mr. Moon, chair, >> can I make can I make an amendment, please? >> State your amendment. Uh, can we amend four

155to eight and retaining everything else? >> Is there a second? >> I second that. >> Mr. Moon, >> I'm I'm sorry. >> Would you like to speak to your motion? >> Again, I'm thinking through this and and I I I'm wary of making these additional constraints. I would I would as a as a parent having listened to a lot of individuals I recognize that we do need to to uh and to my colleague Dr. Anderson's point um I'm wary of of this prolonging without official guidance. At the same time I'm wary of providing these additional constraints. My hope is that by splitting the difference here with eight it gives us a little bit more balance. Um, it could still be four early release days, but I think the language up to or no more than

156no more than helps um give us a little bit of flexibility. >> Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? >> Thank you. Thank you. Uh, thank you, Mr. Dannon, for your willingness to make an amendment at the DAS. That that is great for a a brand new schoolboard member uh that we have all heard from many many parents there outcry right over there. We will be if we do not do anything with number of early releases for the next year will be perceived as turning a deaf ear the parents concern I get lack of clarity I get teacher leading planning time I get that but we also should get parents concerns problems we have with unapproved calendar for the next year. So, thank you. Thank you. If the motion was not going

157to pass, I was going to not support the next year's calendar. With a compromise, I would be able to do I would be able to support next year's Thank you, >> Miss Mary. So, I visited Arlington Public Schools earlier this week to see their superintendent host a panel on AI and I got to catch up with a colleague on that board. And I said, "Hey, tell me how do you do your policy?" She says, "Well, we have a staffer that the superintendent employs who is part legislative, you know, uh, manager and part policy director." And it works. It's a welloiled machine with the terms she used. And there's a calendar for policy development. And once there are changes, the superintendent sends it to the board. The board puts it out for a month of public

158comment. The board adjusts as needed and it's published. This is why this experience is the epitome of what happens when the board doesn't do its most critical function aside from keep the superintendent accountable. It's to manage policies. I have been researching, reaching out to members of this board since I first raised this at least March 17th at the governance committee meeting and I am surprised. Well, I'm not surprised. I'm hearing for the first time in weeks what people think despite emails and texts. I'm hearing people change their minds. This is not respectful of the community. We should not be creating policy and decisions about people's schedules on a whim. The superintendent has provided us with zero data tonight. No budgetary implications. This it takes courage to do this kind of thing. And I am just

159Fairfax County kids deserve better and their parents deserve better. And I I'm not even sure what it is that I'm proposing now because the superintendent has so poorly executed whatever it is that she is running her school division by that I'm not even sure what it is I'm trying to do. What I'm trying to do is help parents and help kids. And this motion does not help kids. You cannot change the school division on a whim. I do not support this motion. I do not support the way this board approaches its work. I was going to talk about that more in the Veterans Day motion and I will save it for that. Miss Dixit. So my thank you for the amendment. Uh Mr. Dan, Mr. Moon, I actually have a question about the high schoolers

160who actually come home early for AP exam days and also for uh any finals. Would that restrict them if we just put 4 to 8? Uh because you know if there is exam day then you know they they're really just come home at 12 or something. I think that if we had eight days for high school, we would have to look at the current four for quarter grading, the PSAT, the We would have to go back, Miss Mystix, and find out how many early release days are occurring now for finals or AP exams. Um, and get back to you on that. I'm not sure if eight would cover all the current half-day releases at high school at this time. >> Okay. uh having a son just graduated just 2024 from high school. I I remember

161a lot of days when you know he would come home early because the the exam days or AP exam especially um and some student take seven or eight APs my my son did that. So I'm not like I don't want him to like sit through the school and you know all day long if he's done with his exam just because school board put a policy there. Um uh I I I think giving any number um to high schoolers right now I I am not very comfortable with that. Maybe if it would have been better if we talked about is more length with the community just doing a little outreach just like my colleagues are saying we're not listening to our community. We are I haven't heard this from my community. I have not heard much

162from my community saying they're having a problem with this. So, uh I wonder maybe we need to outreach uh do a better outreach to them and I can you know maybe have more informed decisions uh based on that but um at the moment I'm not comfortable uh knowing high schoolers have much more early releases. Do we just use the word early releases? >> Dr. Anderson, >> thank you. I was just hoping for some clarification um from Mr. Dannon. Is it the eight days? Is that for elementary to be inclusive of the four and of quarter early releases and then an additional four for instructional purposes? >> Um I I wouldn't want to specify what those days would be used for. I heard mention about um earlier about uh the quarterly end dates maybe not as

163useful in certain quarters as in others. So, um, I'm more comfortable with the this language, which I think is a little bit broader and gives the superintendent the discretion or a little bit more discretion to be able to apply this as needed. Does that answer the question? >> I I think it does, but it also raises another question. I I can't think of the number of early release days, let's say, middle schoolers have currently um outside of the four um the four end of quarters. I know high school it it happens because of the assessments but the the crux of the issue that I know has been raised to me has been around the elementary schools. So I was hoping that this motion would be limited to the elementary schools because it would be the

164four regular >> and then the four more just to provide some flexibility. So I would love that to be an amendment because that seems to be where the crux of the issue is. So, would you be open to me amending your amendment? >> Oh, well, I guess I can because it's on the floor. >> Can I add elementary? >> She could do a second degree amendment because it's an original >> it's an original amendment. >> I'm sorry. I >> She says you can bring an amendment. So, >> okay. >> I would just state just in response to that. My my one hesitation was I've heard from other colleagues about the importance at the high school level of some of those early releases and again >> point of order. Madam Chair, >> state your point. >>

165All speakers have to be recognized by the chair. >> I recognize that. Thank you. >> Dr. Anderson, would you like Mr. Dannon to finish what he was saying? >> Yes. >> Barely here. So this is I'm struggling here. So yes, please. >> Mr. Shannon, >> I will read my Robert's rules of order when I get home tonight. Um, my hesitation is again goes back to not providing undue constraints on this room pretending to do what what she believes is best. Right. So, I I I specifically did not mention limiting to elementary schools and partially because of the logistics. We've got secondary schools, we've got um six through eight middle schools and so forth. Um, nothing here would preclude the superintendent from releasing a calendar that would have just four early release days at a high

166school and making other changes as needed. But, um, that's why I I kept it broad. >> I guess what I was what I was trying to convey is I don't think there's a middle school problem to be resolved here. They may not even need eight days and I can't even think of my own kid coming home early at eight days. I think the issue >> has been at elementary. Yeah. So that's why I thought let's hone in at the elementary level because they have 12 this year. That's an issue. So that's why I was going with that. >> I would like to make that amendment. >> Hold up. Sorry, I I misspoke. The parliamentarian did clarify for me that the issue that we would have with you adding elementary school to the issue is that

167the amend current amendment on the screen is reserved to the days. Adding elementary school would would affect it because that is speaking to something that isn't related to the days. What you could do is vote on this amendment and then do a second amendment that would add elementary school to the overall motion. >> Point of order. Hear me out. >> State your point. >> Perhaps the parliamentarian can clarify. If the secondary amendment is to change the language from 8 days early release to 8 days early release for elementary school and 4 days early uh or early release for middle and high school, that's still a secondary amendment. If the language was inserting, >> if the current amendment is to change it from four early release days for elementary school and eight early release days for

168middle and high schools, I believe that would be in order, but it has just >> the other way around is what I think Dr. Anderson is getting at. >> It is the other way around. >> Because I want to >> Okay, guys. I think we're going to take a brief break. everybody can figure out what the path forward here is and then we will come back to that. >> This is the work of the board is to deliberate not to adjourn when it gets tough. >> Thank you, Miss Marin. Board members, please take your seats. >> Chair Anderson, can I get two more minutes? >> Yes. Board members, please take your seats. Okay, coming back. I call on Dr. Anderson for a secondary amendment. I move to strike the amendment as its entirety and replace

169it to read as follows. That the school board direct the superintendent to schedule no more than four early release. Okay, it's moving. Oh, I have to read by striking. I move to strike the amendment in its entirety and replace it to read as follows. By striking out four early release days and inserting the phrase eight early release days for elementary school students in its place. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Dannon, uh Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your secondary amendment? Yes, briefly because I think a lot of this has been said. Um the focus and a lot of the advocacy that I have received has been focused at the elementary level because right now we have the four divisionwide early release days and then we have the seven eight

170nine additional days for elementary. That is the burden that I'm hoping we could find some way to reduce. If we have a total of eight at the elementary level, it will still include the four divisionwide days and four additional days for instructional and professional development purposes. It is a reduction. Um it may not be where we want to be, but is definitely better than where we are currently. And it will also publicly give superintendent the board's okay to continue with these dates because as of today, we have not voted upon them at all. Mr. Dannon, would you like to speak to your second? >> Uh, yes, briefly. Um, I I just want to stress with this that again, I've heard from a range of elementary school teachers who've spoken in different sides of this, right?

171Um, but the one thing that comes out is is the inequity between their planning time and the high school planning time. And my hope with this amendment is to uh guarantee them uh, as we talked about earlier, a little more strategically placed time for development. And um, Dr. agreed to. I stand ready to help with whatever we can to make sure that my teachers get the planning time and that they need and the development time that they need. So, thank you. >> Okay. I'm going to ask everyone to turn off their lights and only put your lights back on if you would like to speak to the secondary amendment. Mr. Dunn. >> Uh thank you. Uh two things. I'd like to just clarify um that this year, this school year 202526, there is an elementary

172school level 12 early release days. Um there's eight that have been referenced by the superintendent, but that is on top of four that applies to all schools. So, it's 12 in total. So, this amendment is positive in achieving a one-third reduction in early release days. Long-term I believe uh the number of early release days should be further reduced because this provides essentially a transition year to achieving a new normal in the year after uh 2728 and subsequent years. Um I also wanted to clarify because there's been much discussion of early release days at the high school uh level and socalled SAT days, PSAT days, finals and such. Uh all of the motions that have been brought tonight are about the published school calendar that is in rainbow hues for different kinds of days, staff development

173days, days off, early release days on the high school calendar, which I've gone back to verify. There are four there are four early release days that are noted on the school calendar for this year for the high school level. And you can go to any high school in the county and verify it for yourself because every high school publishes the calendar um for SCPS. Any of these other days that are so-called for final exams for SATs, those are not denoted on the school calendar. So they are outside the scope of these motions because the only thing these motions are doing is at uh d uh focused on the school calendar. It's similar to if you have at the elementary school level a schoolwide field trip. They go to the Air and Space Museum as Bucknell

174Elementary just did. You come back, you probably have parents pick up the kids early, right? That's not an early release day on the school calendar. That's one school, a particular circumstance. Similar, a particular school may have final exams on different days than other high schools or middle schools. There's a lot of variation across FCPS. Should there be? Probably not, but there is. So, um, we have been focusing the people bringing motions tonight on the published school calendar, the one that as of now, but maybe in an hour or so, uh, has not been presented to the school board for approval, has not been approved by the school board, even though the next two years are published. I consider those drafts because the school board under state law sets the school calendar. Thank you, >> Mr.

175McDaniel. I can add. I know 8 plus 4 is 12. I just want to make sure I know exactly what this amendment accomplishes. We're sticking with four early release at secondary, middle, and high school. No. >> Are you requesting? >> I am I am looking for an answer. >> Hold on. Stop, please. Are you >> are you requesting a a response from any particular board member? >> I would just like to know if that is in fact true and whoever can answer the question can answer the question. >> I would be glad to answer the question. Hold on, Dr. Anderson. Go ahead. Thank you. This motion is only speaking to elementary. It is not talking about what happens at the high school or what happens at the middle school. It is only to address the

176elementary experience. >> Thank you. So, we're going to authorize up to eight. Is that in addition to the published four? So, it's eight total. >> I'm waiting to be recognized to be able to answer. >> Go ahead, Dr. Anderson. >> Eight total. It is not going to be eight plus one more. It's going to be eight inclusive of the four that are divisionwide and four more. >> Okay. So, at the elementary school level, they will get the divisionwide four plus up to four extra. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm abstaining. >> Mr. Moon. >> Thank you. Uh, I'm glad that Bold seems to be coming closer to a compromise. I could be wrong because we haven't voted on this one yet. I've been doing this work, bold work for 23 years. We don't always

177get everything you want. We got to learn to make a compromise listening different perspectives of our colleagues. At the same time, we are hearing from perspectives of various different parts of the community. I think this is good faith effort to let community know that we have heard loud and clearly that we have we have to do something about number of releases for elementary school and we'll have a further opportunities because I am willing to support a Mr. McDaniel's follow motions asking about not only for the next year's calendar but directing superintendent to come back with a recommendations for board's consideration for future years calendar and I'm also hoping that governor's committee will finish its work in time for us to look at what they are recommending. Miss Maron, Mr. Meline, >> uh, I would like

178like to thank Mr. Dannon and, uh, Miss, uh, or Dr. Anderson for their work on this. Um, it was looking a bit like a a clown show earlier, but I'm glad that we had the break and had an opportunity to, to um, work through this. Uh, and um, given that this is an improvement, I will be supporting it. It's not the degree to which I had hoped, but to Mr. Moon's point, um, we have to compromise sometime, and I think we'll have an opportunity later this year to to make further progress. Um, I think our community wants no less from us. >> I'm gonna take or Miss Lady, >> thanks. Um I'm I'm struggling here because um I find it fascinating that we're honing in just on elementary and you know I'm listening to my

179colleague say that he's that that we're only looking at the exact calendar which designate does not mention exam day early releases or SAT but currently if you look at the calendar it doesn't designate the elementary early releases either. And so I'm just struggling because it's I get that this amendment is going to say those are limited to eight, but I'm just not sure what it means for I mean middle school's correct. I think they need an early release at the end of the first semester because the number of semester courses and the teachers need to be doing um seating charts. They need more time than just one workday because they have to do grades and they have to do seating charts. Um and there might be a little bit of that at the high school

180level. Um, I never understood the early release at the end of the first or third quarters. So, you know, what I'm toying with this is my question is to the maker of the motion or to Dr. Reid, if the uh no more than eight at elementary were in place, that doesn't mean that four of them would have to have to do anything with early releases at other levels. Correct. I think that we're going to have to ask the makers of the motion for that clarification. Dr. Anderson, >> I'm so sorry. Can the question be repeated? The question is if you're going to say no more than eight early release days at elementary, but the superintendent determines that to operationalize that and none of those days have anything to do at the end of the quarter

181where there might be an early release in high school or middle school. I I read that that that's fine. She could operationalize the eight days anyway she sees fit. >> It is my assumption. >> Go ahead, Dr. you're interested. >> It is my assumption that four of those eight days would be for early for early release as we have it divisionwide because all three levels have those early release days. >> Okay. For that, if that's the case, then I'm not going to be able to I'm going to have to abstain because I don't read it that way and I don't see elementary needs at the end of the quarter um as being the same. And I definitely do and empathetic to parents and I want to work across the aisle, but I don't I think

182that as stated repeatedly this evening, the needs at elementary are different than the needs at middle and are different than needs at high school. And to fit them all in the same box for early release is maybe not the best nimble way of of accomplishing what needs to be accomplished. The one thing I would want to put in an amendment is that early release days will all be three hours. There won't be some that are two. There won't be some that are three. So no matter what level your child has an early release, it's the same amount of hours. But basically, I'm not sure that we can do what we need to do with new math um you know, curriculum in limiting the early release days um to four and four. Um I just would

183want all eight to be something that superintendent can designate. So thank you. May I say one more thing? You may. I put I can put you on a go back. >> Yes. >> I'm going to take a brief turn here. Um while I understand the intention of the second degree amendment, unfortunately, I'm not going to be able to support it. Um because I pulled up Chantell's final exam schedule from 2025 and unfortunately the way this reads the senior exam schedule would not be able to happen in the same way that the upperassman exam schedule happened because there are four different days um for everybody just because of the way seniors happen. The other thing is that we can't get into determining how many hours because exams often get out at noon and so that's far

184earlier than than everything. And so I think that we need to have a level of trust related to the educational professionals that have done this work for years that have created a schedule that works for our individual age groups. I understand that there's constrnation related to what's going on at the elementary level, but I would really have appreciated a motion from the beginning that actually went to the heart of the issue and actually gave the superintendent the direction necessary because I think that's why we're here. I am imploring my colleagues to be cautious of the way we are speaking about the executives that work for us partially because it's our responsibility to create the policies that are in front of us and from my understanding this was brought to governance in November of 2023 and

185it the can was kicked. So here we are. Um, so I just want to make sure that we continue forward in a in a in a manner that's going to be the most beneficial to everyone. And unfortunately, I I'm not going to be able to support this. Um, I still believe in abstaining on the main motion. I I'm far happier with it with eight early release days as just if we're going to set an arbitrary guideline here, then are we talking about individual kids? Are we talking about the entire school? I mean, we just don't have enough information to be able to make this decision and I really just don't think it's beneficial for us to get into the weeds on this. Um, this is a extremely operational issue. If we want to address the

186issue related to early release days for elementary school, then we should do that. But otherwise, I don't want to undo the work that the division's already done. So, we're going to go ahead and go to Miss McConen, and then we have two gobacks. I just want to ask a few clarifying questions. I also support what Miss Lady was saying about when we have the early release days, keeping them consistent of either two or three hours, picking one and sticking with it to make it the most simple for parents. Uh what I'm understanding from this amendment is that it moved from four early release days and this is talking about across the division to a more specific amendment for just elementary school. So this would not impact final exams. So it would not impact SAT PSAT

187days. Okay, that was my question. Thank you, >> Mr. Dunn. >> Thank you. Um, unfortunately on the screen we can only see amendment and then followed by amendment. So I just want to read if the secondary amendment is approved and the amendment is approved, it would read as follows. I move to direct the superintendent to schedule no more than eight early release days for elementary school students per school year. That would be the language in its entirety. So there would be no impact on middle schools, no impact on high schools. So the concerns that have been raised about middle schools PSAT days and high schools final exams and SAT days are moot because the secondary amendment and amendment cure that. Um, as has been noted by almost everyone, the concerns that have been raised have

188been primarily focused at the elementary school level. So perhaps the original motion, and I will gladly take the blame, should have focused exclusively at the elementary school level. I appreciate the amendments um for fixing that. Um, but I I don't think that the school calendar is an operational issue. Respectfully, it is by state law. It reads, "The school board shall set the school calendar." that is the opening of the legislation that has been binding for many years. So, it's a schoolboard uh policy matter and we have not approved the calendar for next year or the year after. I know there's a follow-on motion to accomplish that. This addresses one of the most dire issues that's been raised by families and to disregard the many concerns financial, logistical, and otherwise requiring students with special needs to

189be educated at home because the school calendar disrupts their learning. uh that imposes undue burdens on families causing people to abandon their careers and all of the income all of the career advancement opportunities. It's unthinkable to not take some measure at least on a trans transition basis to um to respond to those concerns that have been raised. It's causing torment. It's causing trauma. We need to make this county a great place to live and keep it a great place to live for all of our families and all of our students. Thank you. Dr. Anderson, did you want to go back? Just I wanted >> Madam Chair, I've not spoken on this motion at all. >> I'm sorry, Mr. FR. I did not see your light all the way down at the end. I'll try to

190shine. We'll go to Mr. Fr, and then we will go back for a go back for Dr. Anderson. >> Two quick points. Um, I'm likely to abstain on the uh motion itself when we get there, regardless of if it's amended or not. I'll probably support uh the amendment because I think it's an improvement. Um secondarily, I will say uh the question of whether something is operational is always a balance, right? The calendar state code language does say that. It also says that we hire the teachers and I'm not sitting here sitting in for interviews with teachers to hire them. So when we do get to the policy work that we're all looking forward to in the weeks ahead, um we'll have to talk about what that balance is, right? Um uh so um uh you

191know there are benefits and disadvantages to everything that we decide as a board and there's you know for every operational uh thing that we take on um uh you know that takes some autonomy away from uh superintendent and u how we manage a superintendent has a great deal to do with the types of people we can attract um etc. So, uh, state coats has a lot of things the board is responsible for and many of those things we delegate to the superintendent. So, I think we're more than capable as a board to de to develop a policy that speaks to our role in approving calendars um and whatnot um and the work that we will require of the superintendent to help inform that decision- making. >> Dr. Anderson, >> thank you. Just hoping to reiterate

192some points and to clarify the eight total days. I shared in my answer to Miss Lady that I assume it will comprise of the year end because that has to happen because it typically has happened. We've spent quite a bit of time talking about their purpose grading report cards etc. I would not imagine that was those would go away. I assume I'm not directing the totality. The focus is to reduce the number of days that elementary students have early release whether they're on this calendar or not on the calendar. That is the focus. It is not to touch what's happening at middle schools at this time. It is not to touch what's happening at high schools at this time. Those are not part of the conversation for this amendment. It is just what is happening

193at elementary school and it is an assumption that the year end the quarter end early release days would be included but it is not a direction that they be included. Perhaps the superintendent says you know what we don't need those at all but given the conversation that I heard earlier regarding their purpose and objectives I would not imagine that would be the case. Thank you. Okay. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and vote on the secondary amendment which is on the screen or will be shortly. All those in favor of the secondary amendment, Mr. FR, Mr. Meline, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and Miss Lady. All those opposed, Miss Marin. All those abstaining, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, and myself. Will the clerk please read the vote?

194>> 714. The motion carries. The amend amendment is amended. >> Okay. So, now we have to go back and vote on the amendment. Correct. Okay. Seeing no no lights, thank goodness. We're going to go ahead and vote on the now amended amendment. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. Meline, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson. I can't see Miss Lady. >> My hands down. >> Okay, thank you. All those opposed, Miss Marin, all those abstaining, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, and myself. Miss Lady, how do you vote? >> I'm abstaining. >> Okay. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 615. The motion carries. Okay, now we are back to the main motion. So, we are going to vote on the amended main motion that is now on the screen.

195All those in favor, Mr. Mavine, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson. All those ab all those opposed Miss Marin all those abstaining Mr. FR Mr. McDaniel Miss St. John Cunning Miss Dixit and myself Miss Lady How do you How do you vote? >> Stating. >> Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 516. The motion carries. >> Okay. So abstensions don't count as a negative vote. Abstensions count as if there was no vote. So it's technically it would be like a 5-1 vote. So that's why the motion carries even though there was six abstensions. >> Thank you. Okay. Agenda item 6.05 action item motion to amend school calendar regarding Veterans Day. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. I move that the Fairfax County School Board direct the superintendent to designate Veterans

196Day as a standard instructional day for students and staff for the 2627 school year and all subsequent years and to create and implement a district-wide Veterans Day observance curriculum designed to appropriately instruct students and engage community members in observing the meaning of this day. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Thank you, Miss Marin. Uh Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? >> Yes. I would like to think this is going to be easy. That's what I would like to think because we have a policy that says exactly that. I implore you all to pull up policy 3380, section 4A, Veterans Day observance. Although a federal holiday, Fairfax County Public School does not include Veterans Day as a school holiday. School personnel shall follow the calendar of religious and cultural

197observances regarding Veterans Day and shall provide students with instructional activities that honor veterans and recognize the role of the military America in American democracy. This is essentially correcting a policy that we have not been observing and are not in compliance with. That's what this is point blank. However, I will also say this. These following um jurisdictions have school on Veterans Day. Lowden County right next door, Montgomery County, across the water, Richmond, Roenoke, Houston, which we compare ourselves to them because they're large. All of these jurisdictions have school on Veterans Day. Third point, I'm a veteran. When I worked in Laden County for 10 years, we had school on Veterans Day with the expectation of an activity as described here as already described in the policy. And because I'm a veteran, we kind of put a

198special oomph in our act in our activities. It was such a proud day for these kids to walk down whatever space we were using, whether it was a multi-purpose room or the gym with their veteran parents to be highlighted and in service and and honored and recognized. And of course, afterwards there was cake, so that was always great. This is not this is a thing that we have not been doing. It's in our policy. We need to do it. and it gets us an additional 5-day week. What I heard the other day in terms of um in our town hall that some families said, well, it's a day that veterans can travel, etc. It doesn't always fall on the weekend. Sometimes it's in the middle of the week. It's been all over the place because

199I pulled it for the last 10 years. It's been every day of the week. But most importantly, our policy says it should have school. This is just going back and honoring our policy. >> Miss Marin, would you like to speak your second? >> Being in school for Veterans Day will be a day on for learning and observing this um holiday which is already part of the FCPS culture. My own kids have done events at their schools on this day on well not the Veterans Day but another day that week in the past. Um, veterans have told me they already see the commitment to honoring this observance in our community and I thank my colleague Dr. Anderson for bringing this motion and for her service as a veteran um to this nation. So, as I said

200earlier, it's common for businesses and offices to be open for this federal holiday, leaving parents seeking child care while they work. This midweek day off on Wednesday, November 11th, 2026 this year is unlikely to hinder families travel plans, as would be more likely for those Monday or Friday holidays. Um, again, our current policy 3380 directs that students should be in school on Veterans Day. Uh, this is an oversight by the superintendent that is ready for remedy and it's a major cause for concern. A superintendent who is not implementing school board. I believe I had a little bit more time. Is that correct? Thank you. Um, yeah, I do think it's a major cause for concern um to have a superintendent who is not implementing schoolboard policy. I um will take this opportunity to share um

201from the governance committee side since I know there was a question of me um having time on the agenda later this evening for a committee update. So I'll just go ahead and say as governance committee chair, you know, we have an updated draft of the calendar policy. It was posted on uh March 17th for that meeting and the committee agreed to further work. So I was dismayed to hear today from the superintendent that her staff has done no work on the calendar policy at all. And um while the expectation wasn't to bring back content for the next governance meeting which is this Tuesday, I certainly would think that for the importance of this topic and the level of input we've received that certainly some work would be done by the best staff to have something

202ready as soon as possible for the governance committee. So uh we do have that draft policy that combines six policies together. all except for one is out of compliance uh goes back to 2011 uh that we have our policies that haven't been reviewed. So again I said before I am eager to get this policy done in May and um also to see how what was passed by the board tonight will be woven into that policy and able to be kept and perhaps we can even get some more data on the decisions the board has made tonight and how that impacts our budget and uh staff time. So again, I am committed to getting the calendar policy updated in May for board approval because this is what the superintendent needs to then do any further work

203on updating the policy. Thank you, >> Mr. Dunn. >> Uh thank you. Just to build on the comments of my colleagues, uh, under regulation 1344.13, uh, which was approved in 2021 by the school board, um, it states that the Friday after Thanksgiving is given as a holiday in lie of Veterans Day. So the reason we have a Friday after Thanksgiving as a school holiday is in honor of Veterans Day. next year um is uh Veterans Day is on a Wednesday in the middle of the week and for that reason I strongly support this motion. Um existing policy is to have school on Veterans Day. It's a day when my children were in school, all three of them uh when veterans would come in and talk about uh share their stories, talk about um you know

204the sacrifices made by brave soldiers and uh that influenced all three of my children to uh pursue military careers. So, uh, I strongly support making sure that we have one more full week that we act consistent with school policy and that we maintain as a school holiday the Friday after Thanksgiving to maximize family time and uh, vacations which are long centered around that important national holiday. Thank you, >> Mr. Mcabine. >> Um, so I have a question for the um, superintendent and Mr. Smith. Can you identify what happened here? Because um Veterans Day has always been a perennial debate when it's come to the calendar conversation and I find it hard to believe that it would just kind of fall off without discussion. So was there a year was there a decision by the prior

205board to um observe it or what happened? >> Yes, sir. So that was part of the November 2023 guidance provided by the prior board was that Veterans Day would become a a holiday. >> Okay. And so what happened is we just failed to update the regulation. Is that right? >> Well, the policy draft is actually sitting on the um governance committee agenda on board docks. Now even for November 23, the red line updates, they just weren't acted on. >> Got it. Okay. Well, that's very helpful. Well, I mean, I I will join the chorus who is saying that Veterans Day has always been one of the most meaningful days of of the school year, having attended events and in numerous schools. Not every school has always done it, and that's an issue that we have

206to correct. And over the years, we've tried to make sure that every school observes Veterans Day in some form. Um whether it's through an assembly or um just in in the curriculum in general, but um we've mandated that in the past. So I I assume that's on the books somewhere and I hope that um as this um uh amendment here uh or this motion here says that we will have a curriculum designed appropriately for this. So uh grateful to those for bringing this forward um and look forward to returning to press past FCPS practice. >> Mr. McDaniel >> question. There's language in the motion that talks about development of a curriculum to be implemented districtwide. So I guess question for staff is is there already a curriculum or is this going to be a new

207initiative and a new endeavor that staff has to take on to implement? >> Yeah, thank you Mr. McDaniel. It's my understanding we did a little bit of research on this. Um, and every year, um, our K12 social studies team provides resources to support schools in recognizing veterans contributions and the role of the military in our American democracy. This is in alignment with our policy 3380.3. And schools have the flexibility in how they organize these materials. But the Veterans Day 180 doc does offer planning ideas and resources. Um, and since Veterans Day is also included in the Virginia History and Social Science SOS, uh, for grades K2, um, we add additional supports in those guides because we actually don't start SOS till grade three. Um but all schools share documentation over their activities uh ranging from

208classroom lessons to schoolwide events uh through communications with assistant principles and department chairs already. >> Okay. And do I guess the question is does that satisfy the request of this motion or are we going to have to go back and redevelop something? >> I hope that it would satisfy the this motion but um I would expect that it would satisfy this motion. >> Okay. All right. Thank you. Miss Tix it. >> So I like the spirit of this motion again trying to get more five days uh you know school days five weeks uh five days a week but u I I do not want to take veteran days off uh which has already been introduced now. We got this right. Um I would say uh we have to align oursel with federal holidays moving forward.

209And that's u our that's what I'm hearing from my community and uh and definitely this is an honor by federal government to our veterans and and and other governments too. Um I I I believe so I would love to um find other opportunities to get to that goal which we are all trying to do as a board but I want to engage the community more. I want to engage the staff staff more. So in in that that reason I'm not going to support this motion. And the prior board who actually we have three members here and at least I don't know who voted. I I didn't follow that but they gave this Veteran Day holiday. So I'm I'm thankful to those people who voted for this last time. >> Mr. Dannon. >> Uh just briefly

210again with everything else that was brought up tonight. I I appreciate everything uh the consideration and the brainstorming and so forth. Um my my one concern with supporting this is just I don't want to jump ahead of the the good work that the governance committee is doing looking at this holistically and and for the third or fourth time tonight. I I'm not against this change but uh not in in in this way. I would I would much rather see a broader discussion the work of the the governance committee work of um potentially going down the road um the calendar committee. So, um, again, I appreciate that the sentiment here, not opposed to it in the future, um, as part of a broader discussion. >> Miss St. John Cunning. >> Um, thanks. So, I do want

211to acknowledge and thank my colleagues for bringing all of this up. Uh, I think it is important conversation. I think that um thoughtful consideration should be given to increase our fiveday school weeks to celebrate our diverse community and respect their religious beliefs and to honor the need of professional development and planning time for our teachers that comply with our collective bargaining commitment. I I'm going to say that I struggled with these motions for a variety of reasons and I just happened to be out a lot in the community this week and I reached out to such a wide variety of parents, students, teachers, principles, and community members. Um, and got incredible feedback that was one-on-one, you know, just, you know, face to face. um some of the concerns and reasons that uh are were articulate

212that articulated today by speakers too, especially this federal holiday. I agree with one of my colleagues that said that this is like a puzzle. I think it's a Rubik's cube that has many nuances and I have never been able to figure out a Rubik's cube. Uh and so all of this should be considered and not fixed with a bad solution for a bad problem. I just don't think that's the way we should work. Um, as for this final motion, I did struggle with this for a lot of reasons. Um, I happen to be a proud um person of of a military family. My father and husband both served in the Navy. My grandfather received the equivalent of a Purple Heart when he was wounded in action during World War I. And his grandfather was a

213Union soldier during the Civil War, not to mention all my cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews. Um, the Coast Guard installation sits in my district and even though Fort Belvoir doesn't sit in my district, two entrances to Fort Belvar do sit in my district. So, uh, I am also currently proudly representing 68% of what Purple Star Schools support our military students and families. Tonight, I read the celebration for the military child and most of us are wearing purple today to show support. The irony of us eliminating the holiday today is not lost on me. However, I do realize our current policy conflicts with our current practice and for that reason, I will abstain tonight in hopes that we can move forward and take the time to receive community feedback and thoroughly and creatively, as one of

214my board members said, come up with workable solutions to balance all of these competing priorities. And I'm telling you, these are all good competing priorities. We have to balance them. I'm looking forward to coming up with some creative solutions. Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, as I said about Indigenous People's Day, I'm going to stick to what our policies and regulations dictate us to do. Unless we change that, until and unless those policies and regulations are changed, we need to abide by what you have on our table. Guidelines, they have never been given to superintendent in public meeting. I have not been able to find them anywhere. The board actually voted to give that to superintendent to develop the calendar. I was not on that board. So I don't know exactly what the

215board did. But from January 1, 2024 after I returned to the board, there has not been a public discussion or vote on any guidelines to be given to superintendent. And I could not find even for the pandemic years there was no no final vote by any even the governance committee there was nothing. We don't do public business in not public setting, nonpublic setting. That will be illegal. If you look at 2627 calendar November, you look at the November first two days in November, days off for students. Second week if a veteran's day remains as a holiday it's a full day it's only one week one week third week of November we have a five full days because then following week we only have two days of school going into thanksgiving over my 23 years 20

216years on the prior board we debated the day issue almost yearly basis. Most of the times, most of it came down to what kind of a calendar do you want to give to our students for instruction for the month. It's not that we want to disrespect veterans. No, we go to schools, students of many, many schools have programs to celebrate, honor veterans. And I enjoyed along with my my colleague Mr. Melvin to go there, visit there and celebrate with the students and staff members. But bottom line for my vote is to comply with existing policies and regulations. >> I'm going to take a quick turn here. Um, this one's particularly hard for me. My husband retired from the military in 2019. My oldest was nine and my youngest was five. Um, and I have been

217with him since the day he commissioned. So, it is not lost on me the irony that tonight is the night that we would do this. However, I agree that we need to fix it in the policy. I also agree that our community is split on this. We have veterans that want nothing more than to have their kids in school so that they can come in and show what it means to be a veteran. And then we have other veterans that 100% want to have the opportunity to be able to take their children to their units to be able to show them what it is to be a military member. And I think that we have a solution here that we could fix in the policy or the regulation is that this could be an O

218day. This is a cultural observance and we 100% could have this be an O day that would just allow for no new in no new or no assessments to happen. Um I do think that we need to talk about Odays in terms of the overall art the overarching policy um related to how they're utilized. Um, I have listened to my colleague um from Chantelli or from from Chantilly um from Drainsville that has talked quite a bit about the concerns related to instruction that is limited on those days. Um so I do think that it's something else that we can we can look at. Um but I think that that's the solution here. So I will be in favor of this only because um I do understand that it is in the policy and I would

219like to make sure that we look at that moving forward. I do absolutely think that whatever survey we end up doing related to calendar needs to include this so that we can get the broader picture of what's going on. Um, okay. So, we're going to go to Miss McConen. I'm going to join the chorus of saying that I think our main priority should be honoring our policy. I think aligning ourselves with federal holidays off is important, but our written policy currently contradicts that. If we were to change the policy to reflect this alignment with federal holidays, I would support this motion. Right now, this motion is to affirm that we are standing by our word in our policy and if I could vote, I would support this motion. I do think that this policy policy

220should be looked at again as as governance is still working on it. And I really like Miss Anderson's idea of an O day. So, if I could vote, I'd vote yes. >> Okay. Dr. Anderson for a go back. Just very briefly, I I know we had this conversation um really really quickly in um governance the last time with Dr. Reid and you and I had a conversation I think even before that meeting or maybe it was after regarding your thinking about this. This was not at least in our conversation I don't want to say words uh I don't want to put words in your mouth but this was not one of these um ideas that gave you consternation. This was one that you said you could bring that forward, but you wanted to let us

221figure it out. Is that accurate? I'm sorry you're asking me. Yes. So, um, obviously this is a complex topic. So, if the board approves that we're going to have Veterans Day be a school day, of course we're going to make Veterans Day a school day. Yes, that's correct. >> Okay, that wasn't exactly what I asked, but it's fine. Um, the other thing that I wanted to add is essentially what Miss Anderson said, if we have families who want to have their children participate in other things to go out into their place of work, they should be allowed to do that. They should have the opportunity to do so. But I will tell you from having done this for so many years, these kids are so proud to have their families come to the school in

222uniform and be introduced by them. My mom, my dad, my aunt, my grandfather. Multiple generations come when you have the opportunities for them to come and be celebrated. It is so It can be so amazing. I don't know what it's been like in Fairfax, but I know what it's been like in the schools that I have worked. It has been amazing. Staff members wear their uniforms at the school that day if they so choose. It's such a moment and we can get that. It is not a dis it's not a diminishing um idea to the service of those individuals. It is an honor and recognition to their service. And kids, they love it when other kids see how great their parents are. And that's what they get when we have them in in schools on

223that day and to participate in something. Again, I've always done a little bit a lot because I'm particularly partial to this, but it can be really, really awesome for a lot of our kids. >> Mr. done. >> Um, so our existing regulations uh require Veterans Day to be a school day, a student instructional day. Um, and uh, currently on the published calendars, which have not been approved by the school board to date, um, it's not a student instructional day. So, this motion is simply intended to ensure conformity with existing regulations. The only other way to achieve conformity is to bring a non-compliance report to an EL which I don't think is necessary because this where was informal guidelines but they're in red line those guidelines were never approved by the school board and those guidelines

224because they're in draft as has been stated by multiple speakers including the superintendent do not take precedence over a published officially adopted regulation following a published adopt ed and officially approved policy. So just as a legal matter we have to follow existing policy to do otherwise is ultravirus outside the law. Um if we want to change policy we can but that would have to be for a future school year. Um unless you want to tinker with next year and I think generally there's been reluctance to do that. So that's that's where I stand and besides as I mentioned it's in the middle of the week. It's a Wednesday. If it were a Monday, Friday, it might be a different conversation, but in the middle of the week, it's maximally disruptive. Thank you. Okay, I'm going

225to take a two second go back and just request that we actually put a designator in CIS that actually identifies retired families because I will tell you that my children are often excluded from military events because of the fact that their that their father is retired instead of actually being an active duty service member. So, that is just something that I'm going to put out there that it is a common problem that I've heard from from different parents is that they don't always that those kiddos don't always get included. So, just putting it out there. Um, so seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote for the motion that's on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss Mr. Mine, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself.

226All those opposed. Miss Dixit. All those >> I'm in favor. >> Okay. Miss Lady is in favor. And all those abstaining, Mr. M or I'm sorry, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, and Mr. Dannon. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 813. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Okay, everybody, please turn their lights off. I call on Mr. McDaniel for a follow-on motion. >> I move I move the school board approve the school year 2026 2027 calendar as amended by the outcomes of motions 6.03, 6.04, and 6.05. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Thank you, Miss Dixit. Mr. Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your follow on >> uh briefly? This is a housekeeping move more than anything. There's been some commentary tonight about the need for the board

227to vote on a calendar. So, in order to button up the conversation on that and my next follow-on motion will handle the next two years, I'm moving approval of of the calendar as has been amended. >> Miss Dixit, would you like to speak to your second? >> Thank you. Uh Miss Marin, >> can we please receive a copy of the calendar we're being asked to approve? Miss Mayor and I believe that we are that the Well, Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to the intention? >> It's pretty simple to me. We just amended the 2627 calendar with those three motions, and this motion will approve the calendar as amended with those three motions. Well, in the past when the board has voted on a calendar, we voted on the calendar in front of us.

228Given all of the confusion that's ensued, I want to vote on the calendar that I expect it to be. Um, I only saw this motion yesterday, so I don't know what the the plan is, but I want to see the calendar I'm going to vote on. >> Point of order. That's not a point of order. >> So, I'll continue my turn and say currently >> the look, we've had votes taken without presentations. We've had motions voted on without being read. I will not vote on a calendar until I see it. So, when it is presented, I will vote on it. That is part of this process. So whenever the superintendent can get that to the board, we can go ahead and vote on it in my opinion. >> Dr. Anderson. >> Um, thank you. I

229think uh Mr. McDonald kind of answered my question because I wanted to be sure that the calendar that we are voting upon was um inclusive of the changes that were just made tonight. There were a couple um and I too am having some um hesitation about voting on a calendar that has that is not clean. And so my wondering is could we just delay this until the next meeting so we can have a clean calendar with the changes that are that were made tonight. >> Are you making >> we can still accomplish the same thing but just a little bit later. Would that be would that not be amanable at all? I I don't see a reason to be candid. >> Would you like to be recognized? >> Can I be recognized? >> Absolutely. Mr.

230McDaniel. >> No, I'm not amanable. I don't see the point. We need to get this done tonight because we've had conversations about the community has consternation and another twoe delay is more consternation. We need to get this done tonight. >> Mr. Dunn. Uh the school board is responsible for setting the schoolboard calendar. Uh it's been mentioned by uh my colleagues that early releases are not denoted on the published schoolboard calendar. I believe that was one of my colleagues comments. Um so without knowing the dates of the up to eight early release days at the elementary school level, I'm not sure that we even know what the calendar is we're voting on. So, I would submit that the motion as phrased is um you're it's improper because we don't know what the calendar is. We have

231to know a budget to vote on a budget. We have to know a calendar to vote on the calendar. Um at this point, uh Dr. Reid, do you know which uh eight days of the school year the early release days will be for elementary schools? >> No, sir. I couldn't tell you which eight days. I could tell you four of them. They would be the end of the quarter days. So the middle and high school four I can give you and the elementary four for end of quarter. But where we would slot the remaining four um I I don't know that this evening that you know is part of a a larger conversation with HR and our associations >> and and Dr. How long will it take you to determine when those additional four uh

232early release days at the elementary school level uh what what dates that you would recommend to the school board? >> We wouldn't likely recommend those till after we actually had an approved calendar because those would be part of the staff planning day, teacher workday conversation. That's a much broader conversation because the elementary early release don't occur within a vacuum. Does if that makes sense. they're um braided together with uh school planning days and teacher work days. Um so that would usually that's a conversation that happens after the calendar is set. So generally I'm going to defer to Mr. Solomon about when that group has met. Of course we're tending to do it multiple years out. So if we're talking this coming year u Mr. Solomon you would normally we wait till we have the calendar

233and then we would kind of put all those pieces together and you have roughly I think a 16 member group that does that. >> That's exactly right with representatives across our professional learning department, our equity office, etc. to review all of the relevant factors and to make sure that when we're placing those early release days, those professional learning days um and the staff development and planning days um that they're placed appropriately and that they dovetail well with each other. So all of our elementary, middle, and high ones are working well. Um, so now that we have this additional information about um, uh, the direction that uh, the board would like to go as it relates to, as an example, in this motion, Veterans Day, um, this will give us an opportunity to go back, look

234at all of our work calendars, readjust, uh, and then make that determination in terms of where the uh, early release day should fall. >> But Dr. read all all of the early release days, the official calendar early release days are published on the uh high school calendar uh and the middle school calendar um and could be published certainly on the elementary school calendar, couldn't they? >> Well, I mentioned that the four quarter days could be for sure. The other four that um only the elementary will be having would be the four I can't give you tonight. >> Right. But but once you determine those, those can be included on the published calendar. Correct. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. So, I would just submit to my colleagues that until we know what those days are, I

235don't know how we can vote to approve something unless the motion is rephrased to remove the reference to the early release motion and uh to specify that essentially we're delegating to the superintendent to come up with a calendar that we will perhaps ratify by some further act at a later date. Mr. Fr, >> two quick things. One, when we were discussing the other two amendments that I supported, um, I looked at the calendar to make assessments of what those days were going to do. Um, secondarily, I have no problem approving this calendar tonight and when the superintendent comes back with the insertion of the four days, which by the way, during that conversation, my assumption based on the conversation was that we knew what the four days were going to be and that the superintendent

236had some discretion about figuring out the optimal place to place those four days. And while I didn't support the motion, I supported the amendment because of that flexibility. Um, so I have no problem voting for uh the calendar here because I already assumed based on the motions we passed what this would look like on the calendar that I've been looking at for planning next year. Um, and I would have no problem uh with us approving uh additional days down the road if that's something that the board wants to move forward with. >> Mr. Amen. >> I want to give a certainty to community and that should be tonight with the 26 27 school year calendar. Many families relying upon unapproved calendar have already made plans. I don't want to further delay that further delay that

237I have a confidence in superintendent having heard our discussion debate tonight will in a timely manner bring back to us what our recommendations will be as to how additional for all the release days should be used at elementary schools. But as far as what is up there with amended motions regarding Veterans Day, I felt comfortable, you know, offering approving the approving the calendar for the next year. Okay, I'm going to take a quick turn. >> My hands up. >> Oh, I'm sorry. Go ahead, Miss Le. >> Yeah, thank you. Um the comment I want to make or question to Dr. Reid is in the past um the early release days for elementary were done by pyramid or by region perhaps. So I know my colleague mentioned earlier in this discussion of the current amendment that

238those could be denoted on this calendar that actually was on the screen a second ago. Um, but if they're going to be different by pyramid, then they wouldn't be denoted because they haven't been in the past because they're different from region to region. Is that correct? I mean, is it plausible we could do them all at the same time? >> You're correct, Miss Lady. And it really isn't possible to do them all on the exact same date because of transportation and keeping within our budget. So we do half of the divisions elementarymentaries on one day and half on the next week. So um I think that that is very likely why we haven't put it on the fullon uh division calendar that's posted but rather it's sent out by pyramid. That's correct. >> All right.

239So for that reason I I agree with my colleagues. I think we could vote on this because we understand the amendments in terms of Veterans Day. We understand it's no more than eight um early release days. Um there's been discussion about whether those early release days should move from a Wednesday. I mean, I think that those are discussions that can still take place. I don't think the impact actually the calendar that was posted and the changes that we've talked about tonight. So, um for that reason, I I am able to support this tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Lady. I'm gonna go ahead and take a quick um uh turn. Does the board approve all of the early release days for high schoolers related to their exam schedules? >> No, ma'am. >> Okay. So,

240I don't see that this is any different. We're not we are not approving every early release that's going on across the county because things are happening at different different times. Um, and oftentimes it's important to to do what works for that particular school. So I am fine with leaving the superintendent leave or giving the superintendent leave to go ahead and figure out which four days work for in which portions of the division. Um, and I have full faith that she will come up with a solution to the problem that we have provided her. Um, the other thing that I feel strongly about getting this is because Miss St. John Cunning and I were um audience members in the webinar that happened the other night and one of the things that was repeatedly said is that

241further changes were likely going to happen related to the results of the c of the policy and I would be loathed to actually change the 26 27 calendar again after the policy is set later this year. So, I think it is essential for us to go ahead and lock this in now and understand that anything that happens in the policy will move forward with calendars that haven't been approved yet. So, I am in full favor of this. Um, so we're going to Dr. Anderson for a go back. Thank you. I I appreciate the discussion that has taken place regarding approving this and I appreciate what Mr. Moon has said um about parents um needing to know as soon as possible and I know that was a point um when we discussed this back in 2122

24223. Um and while I appreciate the spirit of this I'm not going to be able to support this motion at this time because I do think we need to have a clean calendar for our community to have clarity in terms of what is it that's going to be happening. >> Mr. Dunn, >> Mr. Moon. Okay. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote for the follow-on motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Danon, Mr. Dunn, I'm sorry, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, and myself. All those opposed, Miss Marin, Mr. Mr. Mavine, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson. I believe that's all of us. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 84. The motion carries. >> Thank you. I call

243on Mr. McDaniel for a follow-on motion. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to bring her recommended calendars for SY20272028 and SY2028 2029 to the July 9th 2026 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board for action. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Miss St. John Cunning. Uh Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your motion? Uh just quickly again another housekeeping item to lock in some certainty of when the next two school year calendars are going to be brought to by the superintendent um for board action which is July 9th of 2026. >> Miss St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your second? >> Um yes, in a lot of my conversations that I had this week, um there was a really interesting conversation that was

244brought up by someone that said, you know, before I really kind of didn't care about the calendar. Um and unfortunately um my wife and I split and so the fact that we had that threeyear calendar was really helpful when we went to the judge and I had a calendar and we were discussing custody and it was there. So that was an implication I would have never even imagined. And so there are so many reasons that having that calendar um that three-year calendar is important for our families some of which we don't even fathom. So, um, that is one of the reasons that I think that we should do that. >> Mr. Fresh, >> Miss Mayor, >> I actually have a question for the motion maker. So, if you could come back to me, please, when

245he returns. Thank you, >> Dr. Anderson. Um, I'd like to amend the follow the follow-on motion in its entirety by replacing it with I move that the school board direct the division superintendent to bring her recommended calendars for SY 2728 and SY 2829 to incorporate comprehensive community engagement that includes but not limited to inperson feedback and electron electronic surveys and electronic surveys um to the July 9th, 2026 regular meeting to the Fairfax County School Board for action. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Mine. Uh Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your amendment? >> Yes, I would. Um there are a couple of things here that I really appreciated that were brought forward, which is one, the board is going to fulfill its duties of approving the calendar. So,

246I'm very much in support of that. Doing it in batches. Um again that the community has really um been appreciative of knowing what their plan was going to be for more than one year at a time. The only thing that I'm asking for is to incorporate community engagement because we've all have done different things to hear from folks. We need to do it a little bit more structured. I I'm happy to do another survey for my community on the calendar, but I'd rather not do that. I'd rather it be divisionwide rather than just Mason district um specific. And I purposefully use some words like incorporate comprehensive community engagement because I realize the timetable. This is two months away, three months away. But we are still Fairfax County, a very large division with lots of resources,

247but it is still three months away. We are not I am not expecting, as I talked to you earlier, Dr. Reid, I do not believe this is a space where we're going to do a pyramid meeting to talk about the calendar. No, I believe that this makes sense to incorporate in whatever inperson meetings you have that are coming up, whether it be community conversations, staff communicate um conversations, um family groups and other groups. I think that's a great way to get some in feedback discussion as well as what most people can have access to which is an electronic opportunity to give feedback through a survey which I know we have plenty and I'm hoping we could tweak them a little bit to get that out and really supporting our um family liaison and others to

248support our families to give their feedback. We should not have calendars that are just turned out year in year out without having community feedback or input to it. We need that because right now what we're receiving, at least what I'm receiving are all of these anecdotes that need to be compiled in a way for me to be representative of my community. We all need that information. And I'm hoping that you all can be supportive of collecting feedback from our community. what I shared back here I think in December that I'll raise here again I think every couple of years as we are moving towards a structured um calendar policy it's one going to be one of my advocacy points for the policy that we stop we pause we take stock we hear from the community

249that is living and experiencing this calendar how is it going and we use that to inform the decisions that we are making. So, this is an ask for information. Not in a way that I'm hoping is not going to be crippling because I do realize everybody's plate is full. It is not going to be additional meetings, but it is going to be a digital um ask. That's going to be the new thing. And then whatever meetings that um Dr. Reid and her staff already have that are on the books. >> Mr. Uh, Meline, would you like to speak to your second? >> I see this as a way of getting back to normal, right? Uh, reinccorporating community voice in this process, which has been missing for the past four years or so. So, although this

250this falls short of what I would have liked to see, which is um adding community voice back to our calendar committee, um it does get us to the point of regularly s surveying our community just as we we have in the past. So this is a a positive step forward and I look forward to seeing the results soon. >> Mr. FR, >> thank you. Um, two things. One, on the subject of engagement, I have had for my entire time on the board heartburn over the idea that we call it community engagement and that it is anything other than informative and it's certainly not instructive. Right? you could get 10,000 families representing the entire school division with no scientific waiting to based on, you know, demographics or what proportion of the school division might share their

251views, what have you. And so what you end up with is, you know, we used to get these um and our, by the way, staff works incredibly hard to get these responses, right? And so, but we would get these these surveys that said like 80% of students feel safe. Okay, those responsive students and they are a subset of which groups and which schools and which areas and which regions. And so people tend to weaponize the data in the engagement surveys. Um, and it's not necessarily scientifically sound, right? It is informative, not instructive. And so my hope is that as we continue to do engagement that we will do more to make the engagement reporting instructive more than informative. I want to know when we get and by the way 15,000 families is a huge sample

252size to work with for something that could be scientifically instructive. Um most people would dream of having that kind of a sample size to work with. So that's one thing. Um, otherwise it's all anecdotes. Some anecdotes are heavier in one area than another. Second is a question for Dr. Reid. My big fear in engagement on this subject in particular, let alone doing it every single year, and I'm not saying opposed to it, but this is the fear if we don't do this properly, is that we will continue to ask people what they feel about X, Y, or Z, and may not be able to deliver on elements of that in conjunction with other elements of that. And so we will continually disappoint people who think that well I keep telling you that I want this

253but maybe that's not possible. How do we make sure that when we are engaging the community that we are also setting realistic expectations about what's possible based on choices people make. Right? Everything is a choice that they weigh one thing against another. Right? A longer summer means you know less time here. um you know, how do we make sure that in the messaging around the engagement that people are walking in cleareyed about what is possible? >> Yeah, I think that's going to be tricky and we're going to have to look at the survey tool um and we're going to have a pretty quick turnaround um to look at the data. So, we're not going to be able to have much that will be open-ended. But you're right. I mean, there are finite number of days

254and finite number of hours within the day. So, um it's uh it'll be tricky, I think, to draft a survey that's going to provide um if you will, that instructive feedback. So, I appreciate the sentiment. >> Well, and you know, a lot of stuff can be conflicting. And so I'm supportive of the motion uh to have engagement because I think it's important um you know and perhaps I'll make a goal of the of the year ahead working with colleagues to find a way to better support staff so that the re the research we get back on the engagement can be looked at in a scientific way that tells us x% of families feel a certain way and that we're not just saying x% of families who responded feel a certain way. um you know, you

255can apply strong rigor to that kind of assessment and and and feel reasonably certain that what you're getting is accurate. >> Mr. McDaniel, >> I just want to say I thank Dr. Anderson for bringing this. Um you know, based on the conversation of of the level of community engagement, you know, one of my biggest concerns with these motions tonight was that there was not time to do that community engagement. So this fixes that and we can put it in place as a regular cadence um ideally going forward. So >> Miss St. John >> um yes I also want to thank uh Dr. Anderson for bringing this. I mean I was a family engagement region rep so engagement is really important. Um, my issue was with the word comprehensive because that looks different in different ways

256and there's a two-month uh period, but you you express that you recognize that and appreciate that, you know, and are willing to look at what we get in our surveys, which we all know are problematic in terms of who responds to them or not. Um, and this is something that I think we could start looking at further down the road as we're developing policy and and thinking about how we maybe look at a a calendar committee or something so that we codify this in a better way. Um, but I think that listening to our families is important. Um, and this is this is one of those issues where there are so many competing priorities and um we are not going to be able to please everyone, but I think we're going to try to come

257to the best solution for our students and our families and our staff. So, thank you for bringing this motion. Um, Dr. Anderson, >> Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm inclined to support this motion but I have a couple of questions to make out of the motion and also governance committee chair as governor's committee is currently >> Mr. Moon are you speaking to the amendment or are you speaking to the main motion >> amendment >> then it's Dr. Anderson, >> but I'm going to ask them. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Okay. Why don't I Why don't I continue? Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is this. >> A communist committee is working on calendar policy. I haven't seen it yet. Uh but I'm sure that they will finish this one up quickly in time

258if that includes any newly developed guidelines for the superintendent incorporate in coming up with recommendations to the full board for consideration and approval. And if you look at our current policy any change changes in guidelines should I am let me let me see I'm going to give you lang exact language it says the guidelines shall be revised appropriately if there are changes in requirement or legal holidays okay school board shall solicit comments and suggestion from the school community when modification of The school calendar year are under consideration and standard school year calendar is based on set of guidelines add year to every year in a consistent manner. All right. So what I'm trying to say is if we are directing the superintendent to get community input engage the community I hope that we do not

259duplicate that from the guidelines. So consolidate what the a development of new guidelines should include for community engagement along with what superintendent we are directing superintendent to engage the community to bring us a recommendations for board consideration on July 9th. Both of them should go together hand in hand. >> Thank you Mr. R. Okay. Seeing no others. >> Nope. Nope. >> Oh, Miss Lady, sorry. >> Thank Thank you. Um, so I'm, you know, I uh thank uh Dr. Anderson um and Mr. um Mavine for bringing this and I believe 100% in community engagement. But here's my question. We've done things a lot since I've been on this board that involve community engagement. And it's been my experience sometimes that when people's individuals communities are not all in agreement that what follows is abstensions on votes.

260And I'm raising this because my sense is we're going to find out, which is what's been happening in my email, is that everyone is advocating for their religious holiday or their cultural observance days and I completely understand and support that. So, I guess I'm not I'm not really making a question. I'm trying to sort of hopefully create an expectation that when we do all this work and we hear back and hopefully it's instructive that everyone on the board will do what's right in the end in terms of voting for a calendar. Um, I I just um I I might not be articulating myself, but I just have seen situations where like I know in Drainsville like I can't on every vote I can't make every single one of my constituents happy, but there are situations

261where I'm at the DAS where I have to make a choice and I make choices based on what I think is best for students and for learning and for our kids and for the majority of our of of the people I represent. So, I hope that what we get back is instructive and I hope my colleagues will um you know sit with that, evaluate it and then come prepared to cast a vote um understanding they can't please everybody. Thank you. >> Dr. Anderson, did you want to go back? >> Yeah, just very quickly. I I think I got a little bit confused regarding um the comments. Um abstaining from a vote is a choice. It's not a mandatory activity. It's a choice that a member makes um for whatever the reason. You know, I could

262have abstained from the boundary vote because my community was not happy. But I looked at it holistically and saw that there were more that benefited Fairfax County and voted to support it because of that. It is always a choice as to whether or not you're going to abstain. I I I rarely abstain. I vote no because that's my position. I don't see the abstension as a fall back. It's I use it really when I don't have enough information to really make a decision and that's been I can only point to one time when we were doing the CIP when Mr. um Gordon was looking for some information for me. So that's just how I approach it. So, I I'm not sure if the community engagement results will push anyone into an abstension category. I I

263don't think it should. If you I don't think it should, but um I'm hoping that we are still not going to shy away from the community engagement because the results may not be what we are hoping for. Um because we need to include our people. We talk about voice being a part of what we do in Fairfax County and we have not had that voice in the calendar for the past several years. So hopefully we can return to that as a practice. Again, do I think it needs to happen every year? I do not. But it needs to we need to pause at least a couple of every couple of years and take stock and ask people how is this thing working for you so we can make the right moves in a comprehensive structured

264way rather than me polling the Mason district or you polling whatever district you represent in order to bring forward their concerns. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Uh, seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and vote on the amendment that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. Miss Lady, can you verbalize your vote? >> Yes, I'm voting for the motion. That is unanimous. Okay. So, now we are back to the main follow-on motion as amended. Miss Marin, thank you. I had uh two questions for the maker of the motion. Is the point to have the 2728 and 2829 calendars approved before the next school year begins? So, approved before the school

265year begins. That's my question for the motion maker. >> From the language of the motion, it says July 9th of 2026 and I believe the next school year begins after that. >> Okay. Thank you. And um so if so, is the plan to approve them at the following week at the July 16th meeting? The language of the motion says the superintendent will bring her recommended calendars to the July 9th meeting. So that means that's the first time the public's seeing them and we're going to deliberate on them. >> I would defer to the chair on the scheduling of the mechanics, but the way the motion language reads, it has to come back by the July 9th meeting. >> So walking through the timeline, this is how I see it. Uh the board has to act

266swiftly to give clear direction to the superintendent and the policy. So that's got to happen immediately as soon as we can. Governor is discussing this on Tuesday, April 14th. I did just send another email about it and it was posted on the March 17th meeting as well. Uh it now has the November of 2023 version posted as well. So those are both on the March uh excuse me, the April 14th agenda. So governance had planned to discuss it not only on April 14th but also April 20 21st and that would be the earliest if we wanted any feedback from the superintendent that would be the earliest. The upcoming regular meetings after April 21st are May 7th, May 21st, June 11th, and then June 25th, July 9th is the meeting in the motion. So when would

267we post this publicly to hear the superintendent present it? Then we need to deliberate, give our community time to comment and get that feedback and then act. So I don't think July 9th that would only leave us one week for having a discussion publicly about the calendar before we turn around and vote for it. So I just want to understand that that's my >> is is that >> I'm expressing this because I don't think the motion the dates is accurate and I'm trying to clarify the motion says the superintendent will bring her recommended calendars. It does not say the board will act on them and are where does Oh, for action. Oh, I have an older older. Okay. Well, then that is not usually how we do things. Usually the superintendent presents something. Then we

268have a space for it and then we return to vote on it. So, if that's going to happen here, that leaves one week for us to gather input from the community in the middle of July. And I don't think that's a good plan. So, I would advocate that it comes to us sooner so that we have time to listen to the community and give ourselves that time. >> Mr. fresh. >> When I read the language of the motion, I pictured it as going backwards from that day that the like other things, the chair and vice chair would work in chairs with the superintendent to cadence the work leading up to that day, including when Dr. Anderson brought the motion on the community feedback. All of those things would have to be staged in such a

269way. I think we added two additional uh governance committee meetings to speed the process along for this and the technology policy. Um and so in my head it worked. Um I'm not chair so I'm not making that call thankfully. Um, but I have every confidence that uh in chairs with the superintendent, they can figure out going backwards from that day what the cadence is and that the superintendent I imagine would be happy to bring that to us in a Friday letter that lays out what that uh backtrack is. >> I'm going to take a turn really fast and then we'll go to Mr. Moon. Um the intention here was as the board direction has been quite clearly is that it would be brought for new business on June 25th and it would likely be a

270presentation that evening which would give plenty of time for community input and both of these calendars are already published or at le I believe that one of them is already published um but I believe that there's a draft of the of the second year out. I will speak to why I am in wholehearted support of this is that my hope would be moving forward in order to maintain that three-year cadence on the calendar is that it would become part of our organizational meeting that happens in the first meeting in July every year. And so that way we can determine within the policy however we would like to state community engagement needs to occur. But this gives a clear direction and part of the board's organizational package when we also are presenting our own calendar for

271the year that it makes sense to just have that be part of the cadence that we're we are approving the third year out. And so I do believe a lion share of the work has already been done here by the calendar committee. Um and so I I don't think that this is impossible. I think that the that I agree that the concern here is that um governance does need to move quickly in order to move that. Um I believe that the clerk is uh about to add to the annual calendar and we were updating the board that we are planning hoping to have a work session on the calendar policy on May 5th which would give us plenty of time to then schedule it for action. And so that's the intention understanding that it was

272coming to the governance committee um shortly. So hopefully we will be able to keep that cadence and move quickly um and also continue to to take community input as we go. So I think that a line share of the community input has already been done over many many years to collect what's happened and we do need to continue to engage the community but um much of that work has already been done. So uh Mr. afternoon. >> Thank you. Uh thank you, Miss Maron. That that I have not had a chance to look at what's been posted in the governance committee's their meeting. Uh but I will do take a look at those. I do not know whether those documents include you know something that I have I mentioned earlier set of guidelines whether it's going

273to be different from be before and and you know in the past in the past I don't know what happened I don't know how this was done in 2023 the last time the last board you know voted on the calendars but in the years past because you know this discussion could take hours just It's like a tonight. Just like tonight. And a lot of times we scheduled work sessions to discuss every little detail about the calendar at the work session rather than at the board regular board meeting like this. We have you preliminary discussion work session and then when the act when the action is needed to be taken then it gets brought to the board. When the board feels ready to actually vote on the talent that it was brought to the full board

274actual regular meeting but you know as you know Madame SH stated that you feel comfortable as far as timeline is concerned with a governance committee and work almost done in time for the full consideration on the policy change or a new set of guidelines for superintendent to lose. I'm fine with that. >> Okay, seeing no lights, we're going to vote on the amended follow-on motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Miss Dixit, Mr. Mine, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Miss Lady, and myself. That is unanimous. Okay. Agenda item 6.06, approval of human resources related policies. Policy 4425, lactation support programming. Policy 4520, employee organiza organization recognition and policy 40 or 4950 sexual harassment. I call on Mr. Moon

275for a motion. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the school board would approve the following HR related policies as revised and detailed in the attachments on bulldogs with leave for clerk to make a technical grammar and formatting changes. That's policy 4425. Lactation support programming policy employee organization recognition and polic and employee organization recognition and policy 4950 sexual harassment. >> Is there a second? >> I second. Mr. Marin u Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your motion? >> Oh uh madam chair, first of all I thank thank you for removing this from the consent agenda. I only you know wanted to have somebody explain to the board and the community as to what you are trying to accomplish uh from this policy 4520 related to employee organization recognition. >> Mr. Solomon. >>

276Yes sir. So, policy 4520 relates to um our employee organization recognition procedures. Um as part of the collective bargaining process, um as was presented at a previous board meeting, uh many of the topics that used to be uh discussed with um our associations are now governed by collective bargaining agreements uh that um have exclusive representatives outside of those covered topics, compensation, benefits, working conditions, hours, etc. uh employee organizations uh do have the ability to exist in FCPS and there's a certification or recognition process that they go through with my office. Uh I think this you know they were looking at this particular pilot 4520 it makes reference to these are small letters I'm going to make it larger affinity groups you know we do have numberable number of affinity group organ organizations groups and are

277they remaining as opinionary groups or do they have to go through another round of formal recognition by this board? >> There would not be a need for them to be re-recognized. Um that is the philosophy section of that policy basically saying that the board as a school board and as a school division we value the input that we get from affinity groups. Um we value making sure that we have that representation across our employee workforce and across our school division. Um so anybody who or any um affinity group that is already existing would not have to go through that re-recognition process. >> So those organization already involved in doing a different activities including inviting schoolboard members to participate in their activities and those can continue on. Correct. >> Correct. >> All right. Thank you. That's

278those are the questions I want you to have. >> Miss Maron, would you like to speak your second? >> No. Thank you. >> Okay. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote for the motion that's on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Danon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon and myself and Miss Lady with Dr. Anderson away from the table. Agenda item 6.07 action item strategic governance manual factual errors and typo corrections. I call on Mr. FR for a motion. I move that the school board approve the correction of factual errors and typos to the strategic governance manual as detailed in the agenda item on board docs. >> Is there a second Mr. Moon? >> Second. >> Thank

279you. Would you like to speak to your motion, Mr. F? >> Sure. Um, now the world gets to know my hobbies, so I apologize. But when I was chair, uh, I had this dream that I would talk to Miss Anderson about of a governance manual free of errors, free of typos, uh, with the same pageionation and hierarchal enumeration throughout instead of using Roman numerals in one page and letters and numbers on another. seemingly no rhyme or reason as to which version was chosen using different voices on different pages and different sections. One day these can all be fixed, but this is just the first step in that process. And so, uh, about eight weeks ago, I was talking to Miss Marin on the phone and she said, "My staffer's been working on some corrections to

280the issues in the governance manual." I said, "Funny you should say that. I have a hobby. Um I have a uh in my head I kind of picture it in three steps and it's like descending order of controversy right the the first step is not controversial as far as I'm concerned it is typos and factual errors the second step is also not controversial right it is uh the hierarchal enumeration uh so that it's all consistent throughout and then the third step is the stuff that we all talk to each other about one-on-one it's like I wish the governance manual did this I wish it did that this doesn't keep with current practice blah blah blah. So what we have in this first round which the governance committee passed on to the board one or two

281meetings ago is the typos and corrections. And so if you scroll through it you'll find typos and corrections that are fixed. There are two big buckets of red text that you'll find in the document. The first one and this is the biggest uh offender of errors in the governance manual currently. It refers to the ignite strategic plan which was the previous strategic plan. So the first big bucket of red uh text in the amendments is replacing the first reference to what was in the strategic plan back in the day with what is in the strategic plan today. And then much later in uh the governance manual, there's another red section towards the end about the superintendent's evaluation. We use uh as a board and that's on like page 90. We use the VBOE's guidelines for

282uniform performance standards for the superintendent and until 2023 there were seven standards and those were included in the governance manual. When that changed, we started using the eight standards that are currently used since 2023. But the governance manual was not updated to have all eight standards. So the next big bucket of red text that you find in the governance manual is the replacement of the seven standards with the eight standards. Um so that covers what we're voting on here. Uh there's, you know, some commas removed. There's some double spaces after periods that are removed. Um there are typos. Uh there are words that should have had a space between them but didn't for some reason. probably the victim of being copied from a PDF at some point in time. So, uh, help me move one

283step forward on this dream of having a clean governance manual. Thank you. >> Mr. Moon, would you like to speak your second? >> Not really, except except to say that, you know, we could use artificial intelligence to help us. The only thing I will say is that my habit or my desire is to in the next phase along with correct numeration throughout um I would also like to make it match our the rest of our documents. So I will be working with Mr. Fresh to to see if we can clean it up and make it look more like us just a little bit. So, um, seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and take a vote for the motion that is almost on the screen. Okay. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel,

284Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, and myself with Miss with Dr. Anderson away from the table. Okay, moving right along. Agenda item 7.01 performance review asset protection EL7 monitoring report. Each year the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school board or school divisions reasonable progress towards achieving the 20 23-30 strategic plan goals and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on page 14 through 31 of the board strategic governance manual. This the superintendent provides annual monitoring reports to the board for each executive limitation. The board then votes on whether or not the provided report is in compliance or if corrective action is needing needed. I call on Dr. Reid for a monitoring report on executive

285limitation 7. >> Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and public. This evening, I'll be presenting Executive Limitation 7, which discusses asset protection. So um the school board's executive limitation 7 is listed here um in text on this screen and at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge information and belief we have gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with this board's executive limitation associated with this topic. So this evening I'll be sharing some highlights and just a reminder that the full report is linked online to board docs. There are nine areas of executive limitation 7. Indicators one through four are on the slide here and indicators five through nine can be seen on this slide. While I'll be sharing selected indicators this evening, the entire monitoring report

286again is publicly available on boards. So, under the new or newly added information, I want to share that in the fall of 2025, the board did approve awarding a contract to proceed with a comprehensive facilities condition assessment and the development of a framework for the renovation queue. This will provide accurate data for capital renewal funding projections, validate our maintenance backlog, inform the next renovation queue, and future planned capital infrastructure improvements. Further, our risk management group upgraded its software system which enhances the review processing and accessibility to information and further strengthens communications and streamlines responses to claims that are submitted to FCPS. Also, um, a new riskmanagement website portal was added to the FCPS website for claim submissions, which improves the receipt of claims and customer service. As part of evaluating the division efficiency and effectiveness,

287our chief of staff has done an excellent job of leading a review of operations using our Baldridge framework to identify areas for improvement. We submitted our final application in December of 2025 and we had our team of examiners review the application as well as engage in a site visit last month. We anticipating we anticipate receiving the official feedback report next month or June. It'll be May or June of this year. In November of 2025, our safety and security department established and facilitated the inaugural meeting of the continuity working group to support the development of office specific continuity of operations plans. Individual departments have begun preparing their continuity of operations plans using a standard template that detail which critical functions and equipment must be considered during an emergency. Atlas was launched in May 2025 as a

288new intranet solution for FCPS staff. It serves as a centralized hub that consolidates departments and topic information and shares essential updates to reduce information silos. There were 14,000 active users during the last week of February 2026 and we surpassed 29,000 total you users for the month. We've been we've also strengthened our memorandum of understanding practices across the division including the creation and ongoing tracking and monitoring ofus. These actions include but are not limited to a completed inventory of all of our FCPSUs. We've developed a central library and content on Atlas where staff can access templates, flowcharts, and guidance documents on how to draft anou. The chief of staff established a cross departmental data governance team. This team is tasked with prioritizing, developing, and approving the standards and practices necessary to ensure secure, accurate, and effective

289data use across the organization. And this team will focus on knowledge management and communication to ensure that approved governance procedures are clearly communicated, easily accessible, and fully integrated into routine practice. Within the data governance framework, we also established a responsible data use team. This team exists to ensure that FCPS data practices are aligned with legal and ethical standards, reinforcing our commit to student privacy and responsible stewardship of information. I'm running a cough drop. Finally, we continue to collaborate closely with the Virginia Department of Education and school divisions across the Commonwealth to advance common approaches to student data privacy. Shine a light on success is a new video series. On the next slide, please. Thank you. Um that showcases unique stories highlighting the work of our schools and departments. These videos are shared in various settings

290um and they've been I think really powerful uh communication tools. Our office of communications has also developed a story tracker to provide a data dashboard of storytelling that reinforce the strength of our FCPS brand. Madame Chair, this concludes the presentation for executive limitation 7 asset protection and I'm happy to take any questions along with our team um who are here. I know there are a number of members that have stayed this evening to uh be supportive of answering these questions. So, I want to thank the team, the asset team. You want to stand up, please, so we can just recognize you and thank you for being here this evening. Thank you. U Miss Burton, do you want to introduce them? >> Sure. These are three of my top performers. uh director of procurement Michelle Pratt,

291the FCPS comproller Sema Azawat, and our risk manager Nancy Peach. >> Thank you all for being here. Appreciate it. >> I call on Miss Dixit for a motion. Sorry, I just pulled it uh too out. I move that the school board finds the superintendent in compliance with executive limitation number seven, asset protection. I further move that the school board approves the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation number seven, asset protection, as outlined in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Dannon. Uh, Mixet, would you like to speak to your motion? I just want to thanks all of the your uh Dr. Reed, Mr. Burden, and uh and the three uh ladies here. Thank you for your work and support. And uh in the

292interest of time, I'll I will talk later another day. >> Mr. Dannon, would you like to speak to your second? Well, I now I can't say much. Um, I I I wanted to just extend my appreciation for all the work that you all do. I I know it's 11:48 on a Thursday night. Um, and uh on top of what's been a busy week and a busy year doing this sort of thing. Um, I also recognize that this work, you know, people sometimes get frustrated with, you know, uh, headquarters and so forth, but this kind of work can save us a lot of money. This work can make us operate better. Um, and I recognize that you put in a lot of hours on behalf of our teachers and our staff and our kids to do

293this. So, I just I thank you all for for your work here. >> Mr. Dunn, >> um, thank you. Uh, for some reason whenever we talk about the facilities assessment, it's usually uh near midnight. Um, something not good about that. Um, can you just provide a brief update on where we are? I see we approved it fall of 2025. Um, I I would just like to know whether we exercised option one and option two because options were built in. If that's been implemented, if a vendor's been selected, when the vendor will start work, when the vendor will finish work. so that then we can get on to the development of a new renovation queue and also have better data to compare apples to apples all the schools in the county including their athletic fields and

294other associated facilities. >> So I do know that a vendor was selected and that work is underway already. In terms of options one and two, I don't believe we've exercised them yet. We've locked in the costs but we haven't moved forward with the exercising of them yet. Is that correct, Miss Burton? And Mr. Gordon? Yes. So, but the um actually, Mr. Gordon, you want to give just an update on the work that's been done so far? >> Yes, ma'am. Um, so starting over spring break, so last week, we actually the team actually got out there. Ae is the vendor selected and started looking through assessments that we've been we've contracted for them to do. We expect them to be complete in the December January time frame coming forward. So, it's a process working forward and

295um no no issues at this point going forward >> and and uh the FCA is leveraging all of the historical data that we had gathered from recently renovated schools or or Miss Amansky before your appointment had gathered with her team. Is that correct? >> Yes. So the the purpose of the FCA is to go through and do a facility assessment, look at all the key systems within the facility, follow the uh general uh guidelines or industry standards. So it's a visual inspection, non-intrusive, non-destructive. So it's a visual inspection. It takes in consideration age of assets. Then it also looks at uh work order history. So the answer is yes. We go back in time and look at uh status of our facilities and equipment >> and and so uh option one and option two have

296been costed. But is there an intention to execute those options? >> I think one of the things we were reviewing is we were trying to recall what would the whole conversation was. So we were going back to looking at notes for that. Um but there is absolutely consideration for that. Uh because I know there had been money allocated like in 2023 and then the school board allocated more money in 2025 and I think if I recall a previous discussion from a year ago like the ACOM bid came in under what we thought it would be. >> Yes sir. And so I mean we have costed it and we've locked in the cost. There was a benefit to doing that. I think we're just wanting to make sure we review the notes and um follow the

297direction that we believe we have. >> Okay. and and if there's obviously any confusion or anything, you'll come back to the board or for consensus or something. >> Yes, sir. >> All right. Thank you, >> Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. But considering the our some of my questions in writing, but I still got to ask you this question. Uh do you consider schoolboard members an asset to the division? are most >> if so if so if if so how do you protect mental and physical health of schoolboard members >> trying to make sure you get plenty of rest >> and not to have a board meeting from 4:30 to go all the way to midnight I think thank you >> yes sir >> miss Marin >> yeah so uh the biggest thing for

298me uh well there's two big things for me in this report one is that number nine about annually reviewing existing leasing agreements contracts andus I know for a fact this isn't being done um because of the part you know the joint facility review committee work that I embarked on in July 2025 uh the team tried to findus there they weren't all you know recovered but um there's ones created by FCPS created and held by other agencies such as the county government the park authority athletic boosters club and private sports club and to your team's credit they tried to obtain the information and I see that now there is a path going forward but we do not have a clear accounting of ourus um how much money we spend I would say give away um the

299range of out- of-dateus the most egregious is 1987 theou for school age child care or sack and um I recognize that this is not all on the school division to fix but I have not seen enough movement towards getting this rectified. Um you know theou can be a tool to direct these other partners to find other solutions and the more we just stay at an impass with these partners the worse it gets for our kids. I mean, at this point, we're now using instructional dollars to pay for facilities and we have a community use program that's run a muck really. So, um, continuing to let this fester, it's not an acceptable option. And, um, no one in elected office in this county or paid to be a leader should be fine with the status of

300how the $9 million in public facility assets are being stewarded in this county. And, um, but I can't change it alone. I also think the policy work is is incomplete. Uh not included in this is 5028 the system of inventory management. That's pretty essential to risk management. The uh data security policy 6220 data security data processing recovery and contingency planning. That policy under it has not been updated in 11 years. It's from 2015 even though we are actively creating an AI policy. and the 5,000 policies dealing with finance were brought to our attention by our deputy clerk uh for us to review which we'll be doing at the next week's uh governance committee meeting. So I just you know overall this report is um it's pretty circular. I don't see the data the reports the

301footnotes that would reference what is actually happening. How manyus are out of compliance? How much money are we losing because we have anou that only accounts for a million dollars in for all of our community use? The audits, we have an audit around I think it was I I started to dig and then I said, you know, this is too much. The facility is a maintenance audit report from 24. Um but overall it's just it's very hard to understand what's happening because it's not in order of the executive limitation content. So um but number nine for sure is completely not compliant. Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, thank you. Okay, seeing no others, we will go ahead and take a vote for the motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel,

302Mr. Mackle, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Dixit, Mr. Dannon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed, Miss Marin. >> Hey, that was four. >> Okay, Miss Lady is affirmative with uh Dr. Anderson away from the table. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 101. The motion carries. Okay. Annually, the board will review each executive limitation at the time of the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed. Board members may offer amendments to executive limitations at regular meetings, provided they send the final amendment language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting to which it's be at which it's to be considered. Um, at this time, no amendments have been submitted in advance of the meeting. Executive limitation asset protection was placed on the

303consent agenda for approval. Later in tonight's meeting to maintain the current language for the year ahead um with the consensus of the board and with the understanding that we do not have staff in the room, we are going to ask that we move um academic matters to next next time. But we would like to go we know we have staff here. So we would like to go ahead with agenda item 8.02 which is the strategic plan update. So I call on Dr. read for a strategic plan update. >> Thank you uh madame chair and thanks for moving academic matters to I think it's given the hour and the extremely important asset that our board is um for their rest. I think that it's I appreciate it. This evening I'm really excited to share our strategic

304plan update for April. And as a reminder to our public, each month we share an update of this work um to highlight the efforts in FCPS as we pursue our strategic plan goals. This evening uh we have our director of multilingual learner services. Uh Rich Polio is here. Um also Dr. Darina Walsh, a senior manager, and Karen Klyber, another senior manager in the division. So we're really grateful you're here this evening um to be part of our conversation tonight. Um this is part of goal one and the selected measure we're looking at this evening is that multilingual learners uh meet expected growth and reclassification criteria. So as we look at the next slide providing um EL services is something that's important under federal law. Um the ELD or English language development is a vehicle that

305provides multilingual learners with access to the curriculum ensuring that language is not a barrier to students right to learn. research um that is provided by our division staff has said that uh to become fully proficient generally takes five to seven years for students as they work to develop the complex academic um English of textbooks and high stakes testing um experiences. Uh the data is clear in terms of looking at the metrics that once our students do reach this proficiency uh they often are not just catching up they're often outperforming their non multilingual peers. At the elementary level we've been very recently utilizing an evidence-based English development curriculum which we're calling benchmark express which is a companion piece uh to our core language arts materials. This ensures that language literacy and content understandings are developing um

306in tandem rather than separately. In our middle and high schools, there are couple different approaches. One is a designated EL course and one is a co-eing support um curriculum where multilingual learners work alongside content area teachers. in looking at basil development curriculum resources that those are used to ensure consistent access to highquality rigorous instruction for all multilingual learners. Uh and it really they're designed to eliminate variability across schools and ensure that every student receives the same level of rigorous instruction. Just as we've realigned literacy instruction through the science of reading, we're now applying that same rigor to how our multilingual learners are mastering academic English. Our new resources support teachers by shifting the teachers role from curriculum design to implementing highquality instruction. In other words, instead of focusing on what to teach, teachers can focus

307their expertise on how they're teaching and adapting, personalizing, and internalizing lessons that meet the specific and unique needs of students in their classrooms. to provide um on the next slide to provide a guaranteed and viable curriculum for the first time. We did adopt these materials that are on the slide both for elementary, middle and high. And the benchmark express as I mentioned earlier is designed to pair with the core language arts curriculum benchmark advance. The English 3D, which is used at the middle school, focuses on academic discourse. And the high school Lyft curriculum uses authentic content to engage students in purposeful language tasks with crosscurricular texts, equipping our students for critical thinking across various content areas. The pathway series for our most proficient multilingual learners is also specifically designed to prepare students for rigorous and

308more advanced coursework. So from foundational language and literacy to developing precise academic discourse, these three programs uh from a K12 uh form a K12 continuum that really moves from access to agency by empowering our learners, our multilingual learners to thrive. So to see the impact of the basil curricul curriculum, let's see it in action and hear from our teachers and staff on the ground. Madame Clerk, if you'd please play the video. Our multilingual learner students are students who come to Fairfax County Public Schools with a language other than or in addition to English and have been identified for services in learning English. Having a basil English language development curriculum really ensures equity that we're covering all of the pieces that teachers need to be effective in instructing multilingual learners. >> So we're supporting reading, writing,

309speaking, and listening through a very rigorous curricula that provides students that opportunity to develop their English language proficiency. I have learned new words with this material, I can already understand a little both with my teacher talking about in the class and and also when two people talking about I can understand the words a little. Overall, this curriculum is beneficial for the students because it is something that it is a continued consistent practice. It has a specific routine that they follow from unit to unit. But also I think it's beneficial for us teachers too because we have all the materials available in one place. Since I have students at different levels and different needs, my time and effort can just go in to adapt some of the materials to that specific needs or add scaffolds or

310modify certain materials, certain portions of the of the lesson just to meet the students specific needs. >> The orientation of the curriculum toward the explicit teaching of academic language is helpful. This is language that the students need. They need to be able to understand it to be able to use it effectively in communication. They need it for success in school and in the professional world. >> I like the workbooks because they provide like the definitions of words that I haven't heard yet. And it does help me in other classes on how to construct a sentence and make academic words in the sentences. At elementary, they have their language arts block for benchmark advance and then 30 minutes of that is small group time where the multilingual learner teacher comes in and provides the lesson on

311benchmark express. Benchmark Express matches benchmark advance. It just pulls out specific language features, pre-teaches vocabulary, provides support for writing to really supplement the standard curriculum of benchmark advance. I teach kindergarten through sixth grade. So I see that progression of skills. The supports that we see in express in advance do help the students with their confidence in their reading and writing speaking. I do see overall speaking in longer sentences, more complex sentences. It's more intentional. I've seen improvements academically but also in their self-confidence. When I got here, I didn't even know like the basic and now I am going up and up and up. >> How does it make you feel? >> Oh, like I like a genius. >> It makes me feel happy because I know and I'm getting to that point that I can

312speak fluently. >> Excellence, equity, and opportunity. >> Well, then um I just uh I don't know. I hope you're proud when you have a chance to see the work on the screen that uh is happening every day um in classrooms all across this amazing school division. Uh the power and promise of public education is alive and well here in Fairfax. Uh for our community members, the upcoming date for the goal four report is listed on the slide, April 23rd. And madam chair, that concludes this month's strategic plan update. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. Uh Mr. since you're here so late, I just want to thank you all. Um, for being here, but also for the impact that we just saw on the screen here. Um, I remember when we first embarked on the work around

313the science of reading and I would visit elementary schools and um hear about how resources were being deployed to train staff in a new way of uh educating students. Um and you know it took a while but as we got resources in to support the work and uh trained people up uh and to learn when we were initially looking at the basil materials that um they would be multilingual um and that the support behind it would be there as well. um you know as difficult as the state has made it uh on school divisions uh in the last year year and a half uh as it relates to our multilingual learners uh the work that we're doing here in FCPS uh is a tremendous accomplishment and um uh you know I hope everyone that you

314work with knows how much it's appreciated. So no question just praise. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. Mr. Moon. >> Thank you. I don't want to dis disappoint Mr. Poly by not asking him any question. >> So why you are here? Thank you. Thank you for staying with us. >> I mean your your mental and physical health is also important. You are an ask. >> Oh yeah. >> To this division. >> Doing fine. Uh so with that said with that said uh I think this is something that I had you know mentioned to you at least a couple of times before but it is worth to repeating it uh as a former ESL student but to linger learner myself one aspect of the ESL program I was in that I found to be most beneficial I

315mean this is one person's case grant debt granite debt was flexibility of the program, ESL program for ESL teacher to be able to send me to regular classes and regular classroom teachers being prepared to accept me to stay there as long as I want. I could always go back to ESL class and do that. And also at the time at the school I was at the ESL program, the ESL class was instead of having a one fixed period, it would Monday could be first periods, Tuesday could be second period so that I could go and visit regular classes. I mean I think I got the most that was the most beneficial aspect of that program at least. This is one person's case. I don't know whether we have ever tried that ever thinking about trying

316it. >> Well, I think it's a I think it's a both and doc uh Mr. Moon and actually I was at Justice High School today speaking of that's our school with the largest number of multilingual learners and we we talked we had a great discussion about ensuring that our multilingual learners have access to work throughout the day with their uh English native English speaking peers and former multilingual learners. So that is an emphasis of this program. It's not that students are with this curriculum all day. This curriculum grounds students in real rigorous instruction specifically at the high school level as you've discussed. I think it re it works with the content area that students are doing in social studies and science and we do give students that flexibility to ensure that we want students our

317multilingual learners. We know that they only make growth when they have rich discussions with their uh I guess English proficient peers. So that is a large focus of our program uh particularly at the high school level. >> Thank you >> Miss Dixit. >> I just wanted to say thank you for the work you're doing. It's amazing. It it you can see that in the school and anytime I go to school and see the M ML work students working with the workbooks and um and the small groups they work with the teacher um I was mind blown actually when I saw the ML whole class doing a portrait of the graduate presentation and the whole class is so supportive of each other like it is like they like cheer each other on like it's a very

318supportive environment um so it just feels um like a place you can belong to and I've seen that in several schools. So that program itself is like I think um bringing the students together, bringing those um you know making like a something they can belong to and I see that in the video here too. So I just wanted to thank you for the work you do and and it's really helping a lot of students. Thank you >> Miss John Cunning. I'll keep it short um because of the hour, but I really do want to thank you and all of our e uh multilingual learner teachers that are down on the ground because I've seen the work that they do. They're amazing. And any program and any teacher and any district that can have a student

319say, "I feel like a genius." I don't care what kind of so score you have. I don't care what kind of grade you have. That feeling is what's going to make that kid be successful. And that's what we're really all about. So, thank you, Dr. Reed. I know it's late. However, this morning we had an awesome meeting with other board chairs and other superintendents from around the Northern Virginia with our new secretary of education and our new state superintendent for education and you shared a story about um what SACE is doing. I do >> and I would very much like because I think that the board needs to hear it with along with everybody else just to understand how amazing these students actually are and how hard what they're doing and I am going to

320set a challenge to the board to do the same thing. So >> well thank you madam chair. Um, I was sharing this morning that our superintendent advisory council, one of the, uh, groups that was doing a study, um, chose to really work on supporting their multilingual peers because they really wanted them in more of their classes. Uh, so they wanted them to be able to exit the WEDA assessment categories more quickly. So they felt intuitively that the WEDA assessment was seeming like a barrier. So they Englishspeaking students took the WEDA assessment and they had a hard time passing it because it's a really difficult test to take even if you're an English native speaker. So they came to me in the SAC group and said, "Dr. Reed, why did they make the test so difficult

321for our non-English-speaking students?" because just even the test itself, the way it's structured and um how it poses the questions, it's uh extraordinarily difficult even if you're a native English speaker. So, I'm going to be providing that for our senior leadership. We're going to have an opportunity to experience taking that WEDA assessment shortly. I wasn't going to tell them ahead of time, so I don't know if they're going to be studying up, but I actually was really proud of our students for um taking that on. And I think there's something to that. I think that there's um I I really we're going to take a much closer look at that because if our native English-sp speakaking students are struggling to pass a language assessment that strikes me as a bit of a problem. >> And

322I I I'm sorry that I let the cat out of the bag. However, I do think that it's it would be they may not remember. >> Yeah, they may not remember. Um I do think that it would be a cool thing for the board to do as well, just to see. Um but I think that the There are two points here, right? There's advocacy in terms of making sure that the test actually is representative of what it needs to test. But it's also um interesting because it could be looked at the other way is that maybe kids that we think are proficient in a certain way. We know that kiddos that go through ESOL classes and go through the different levels are more successful in all of their other education after they exit the program.

323And so it would just be very interesting to me whether or not there are lessons learned that could that could strengthen the rest of our our instruction. So I just wanted to make sure the board had an opportunity to hear the story as well. >> Yes, ma'am. We're on it. >> Okay. Agenda item nine, consent agenda. Are Robert's or adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board in a single motion. Many items listed have gone through board approval and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen or will be however they

324are also on board docs and so we are going to we will make sure that they are posted on the screen momentarily. However, we can look at them in board docs. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? that is on the screen. Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. New business or agenda item 10, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. Agenda item 11, board committee reports. I call on Miss Marin for a report of the governance committee. So, I did share a bunch of updates, but just the highlights. April 14th and April 21st are going to be the next two governance committee meetings. We'll talk about AI policy

325and calendar policy at both. The agenda for April 14th is posted and uh April 21st will likely continue what was discussed on April 14th. and just an asterric that there are several policies being discussed by our um facilities planning committee CPDC and that is on Monday. So lots of policy next week. Agenda item 12 superintendent matters >> in light of the hour I'll pass this evening. >> Agenda item 13 board matters in accordance with the board consensus. Due to the late hour we will be skipping board matters this evening. So, we are adjourned at 12:18 a.m.