3/17/2026 - FCPS School Board Governance Committee Meeting

001Okay, it's 4:00. Let's uh get this governance meeting of March 17th uh begun. I now call it to order uh 4:00 March 17th. So, we have our agenda posted, lots of things to do today. The first thing is the approval of the minutes. Oh, excuse me, the first thing is to um invite in our colleague Mr. Frisch, who is joining us virtually today. Um I know you sent me the notes, Ms. Brown. I seems like uh it seems that I do. I know you sent it. I saw it. Thank you. Okay, thank you. Okay, Mr. Frisch had submitted a request to attend today's meeting remotely due to personal reasons as he has a work conflict and is located in Washington, D.C. I have performed an initial review of Mr. Frisch's request and having found it

002to be in compliance with the school board's remote participation resolution, I have approved the request. Mr. Frisch, please check your audio and video. Hello. Hello. Uh we now ask board members who are physically present to vote on the following. All those in favor of confirming the chair's approval of Mr. Frisch's request. It's myself and Ms. Lady. All those opposed? Dr. Anderson. Uh that vote passes 2 to 1. All right, now we will vote to approve the minutes of last meeting February 17th. Um I move that the governance committee approve the minutes from the February 17th, 2026 meeting with leave for the clerk to make grammatical, technical, and formatting edits. So moved. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. A second? Was that you, Dr. Anderson? Seconded. Any further comments? Mr. Frisch? No. I'll take that as a no,

003and Dr. Anderson, no. All those in favor of approving the minutes? That is unanimous. Three in the room and one on screen. All right, we have uh agenda item 1.03, the artificial intelligence policy discussion. So, I wanted to um just regroup um on where we ended last time on February 17th. So, on February 17th meeting, we had reviewed the version that the superintendent provided. Uh the document name was version seven. Uh we would review the version shared. We we talked about it at the last meeting. We would further review it. And per the minutes, the committee members committed to discussing the policy with their fellow school board members and bringing back their feedback to a future governance committee meeting. Um I also had asked if there were any additional thoughts about reviewing adjacent policies. I

004haven't really heard that. We're going to talk about one today in the 6000 series, but it seems that um that's not a primary interest. So, with that, I would like to go ahead and do what we committed to last time, help facilitate that, which was discussing the policy, um sharing what we heard from our fellow school board members, and then share feedback. So, uh that's a lot, you know, a good chunk of time. I had planned till uh 4:50, 450, to give ourselves a good, you know, almost hour. So, um let's kick it off. Who would like to begin our discussion? Dr. Anderson. I will start. Thank you so much. I had the um for good fortune to attend many um AI sessions during the CASBO conference that I attended um Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

005And it was nice to have kind of all that new learning and to be able to um tie it to some of the work that we have here. And I have to say uh much of what well, not much, a lot of the things that were raised in those sessions, and I probably went to probably about five different AI sessions from different folks around the country. Um I I'm pleased to see that some of them are reflected in the policy, but I want to kind of step back a little bit. One of the presenters that I thought was particularly impactful talked about "What is it that you all want before you step out into, you know, this world? Develop your philosophy around what this what this means, and how is it already embedded in your

006work and your strategic goals?" So, I I thought that was a good way of really centering how I wanted to view this. Um and some of the terms, and I even went through our proposal here to check off some of these um some of the things that were raised that I see uh reflected here, such as ensuring that it is a human-centered operation. Um people have to be at the center. It has to be monitored by people. It has to be driven by people. It has to be um checked by people. So, I see that that's embedded in our philosophy. Um another point where um that was raised, and I even have the quote from that speaker, was it is to enhance and not to replace. It is to make what we do, you know,

007better, faster, stronger, not to replace the teacher, not to replace the human element, not to replace traditional practices, which we know are they work for kids. You know, we've sat here, we've talked about it, whether it be Montessori or elsewhere, tactile modes of learning work for our kids. Those should not be um abandoned. Um let's see, what else do I want to share? I'm going to share a little bit more of my learning a little bit later, um but I did want to jump into some of the things here just to kind of get this conversation going instead of just me giving you a soliloquy of what I have learned. Um I appreciate the definitions that have been provided. I think one piece where I would like to see some greater clarity as we talk

008about generative AI, um there's not a definition of non-generative AI because we do have tools that have non-generative AI applications, and so it would make sense for us to include that in these definitions because our public also needs to be clear in terms of what those tools are, and um well, what the term means and the tools in which they are located. So, I will pause here for now. You said what the term means and where the tools are located? In the tools in which they can be the applications in which they can be found. If I recall properly, and I don't think I am, perhaps Dr. Reed, you know a little bit better than I. I I thought that Dr. Presidio had shared that ST Math has non-generative AI components to it. Is that

009accurate? Um I'm going to try and guess on his behalf, but I believe there are some um tutoring support or question answer support in there. And the definition of non-generative, we can think through that. I haven't come up >> And that that's exactly why, because it already exists in our system. Let's ensure that we're elevating it to offer full clarity. And I'll take a go back, please. Thank you. Mr. Frisch. First time doing virtual in a minute, so I appreciate it. Um let me start by saying that I uh appreciated my conversation with chairm- uh Marin about the draft policy. Uh I agree with Dr. Anderson on including an uh a definition for and I don't necessarily think it's called non-generative AI, but whatever it is that is not generative AI, um even if it's

010just articulating that in the definition of of AI, just for clarity's sake. We can't assume that people will know what all of these things mean even in abstract. Um one area of feedback I had was on the policy's philosophy. This is about 800 million times longer than any philosophy for any policy we've done to date, most of which have been one sentence. And I think we're trying to accomplish in the the philosophy some of what would be tackled in other areas of the policy. So, where where the un- Perhaps even before, but definitely where the underlining begins, AI shall be used, la la la la la, through the end of that paragraph, I feel like that is better placed. Obviously, it needs to be augmented either in purpose um or embedded in the responsibilities, right?

011So, I I understand the intent of that section is to put meat on the bones of what the board's philosophy for this policy is. But, I would rather put the meat on the bones as it relates to the responsibilities of executing that philosophy. So, that's my first piece of feedback. My second piece of feedback is that um I still think that even with this basis like as a starting point, that we would benefit from having um a you know, a technology policy that applies to all technology that we bring in the classroom including AI. And this is certainly has a lot of the starting points that I think we would probably all expect for any of this, right? That you know, um just as AI, we don't want it replacing the the uh human-centered nature

012of teaching. We don't want PowerPoints doing that either. That kind of thing. So, um that's my initial thinking. I think the definition section is good. I think the responsibility section is good. And um I think the policy is currently broad enough that it that it can be One thing that I raised when I was talking to Ms. Meron was that the idea that we would revisit the policy every other year, I think it's fine. But um if the concern is that we want to do that because technology moves so quickly, um uh I think we need to you know, leave some bandwidth for the superintendent to respond accordingly uh and staff to respond accordingly. So, having a broad policy that puts like a stake in the ground around generally how we feel about AI and

013technology as a whole, I think does that. Especially if it's coupled with a an every other year review of of this policy. That's my first line of thinking. I heard the buzzer. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Okay, any other members in the room for in the room for a first turn? I've got Ms. Lady. Go ahead. Yeah. Um you know, I like uh my colleague Dr. Anderson um had an amazing experience at South by Southwest conference. Um I mean, I think that you know, we've talked about this several times, but you know, I think the things that we have to keep in mind are the safety uh and privacy like protect student data or anything identifying. Um we have to make sure equity's at the center in terms of access for all students and and

014staff. Um integrity of of our learning environments and what our students are doing. So, if they you know, like I think we need some um I think our students need some clarity around when they can use AI as part of an assignment and how to properly cite, but that's part of our teaching. Um I think the AI accountability is the human center, you know, we will never replace. Um you know, here's the thing, right? Like the you know, the teachers are the magic. The technologies are the tools. That will never change. You can never teach with fidelity, integrity, um without a human in front of the room who is teaching um within guardrails we need to create. And then we need to understand the flexibility within AI, which is why I want this to be

015a technology policy and not an AI policy because of the pace uh which with these things are moving and the changing tools. Um so, if we get too narrow in the policy, that's why I want the policy I quite frankly to be a little more narrow than the than what's in regulation. Um because like I think we can in an ideal world, you could say that the board would revisit this every year, but it's time consuming um to do these things. And I think that uh you know, I think that staff needs to be in regulation, certainly reviewing the regulation every year as as these things evolve. You know, and then the other thing I'll say is, you know, it's interesting if you think back to sort of you know, Plato's time when he said

016when we learn how to write, it would ruin our memories. You know, and then when the computer came into play, it was sort of like, well, we're going to forget how to you know, actually do penmanship or whatever. I mean, there was always fears. I think that the fear of atrophy is real. And I think that's what we need to make sure we understand is that whatever tools we're using to help students access learning, to help enhance the learning, um that that we don't want that we don't want atrophy in terms of critical thinking skills, problem-solving, um you know, physically writing, um reading, etc. So, um I mean, you know, that's so I'll leave it at that for now. I mean, I I this is important policy. I hope we can get to a place

017where we're we're all in agreement cuz I think we're we're all in more agreement than we're not. Um but I think it's going to come down to what we want in regulation versus policy, I think when it comes to some of the details. Thank you. Uh Ms. St. John Cutting. I have my my name plate here, so I'll raise it my um So, I think again, I really intentionally went to a lot of AI um sessions when we were at South by Southwest and was just blown away by what people are doing. Uh and I think one of the things that a couple of things bubbled up. And I think one of them is fear, which is justifiable, but we can't let fear paralyze us. Um I mean, I used this analogy last time when

018we were having this discussion, which was it's it's a tool like fire. And you know, we fear fire, then we can't control it for all the good things that it can do. And try to understand it. And we need to teach our you know, the kids are going to be playing with matches. We need to teach them what's appropriate, what isn't. So, we can't let fears prevent us from moving forward. I do think it should be an overall technology policy, um which does guarantee the safety and privacy um of our kids that you know, we maintain all of those guardrails with fidelity. I think one of the quotes that I left with and I believe my colleague was with me at South by Southwest that one of the presenter said was that Mark Cuban had

019said AI is going to be here. It's going it's here to stay. And it's a tool that for some will open their learning and make them learn so much. And for some, they won't learn anything. Because they're just going to use it to get the information and not learn. And I think that's where that human-centered approach comes in that part of our job from time immemorial is to teach children to love learning. And um I just love that quote. I'm not you know, I'm I don't have it exactly, but that was just a huge aha moment for me. Um but I do like the idea of it being a technology policy because we don't even know what else is going to be coming down the line. There might be something else other than AI. Um

020but it is important and it is it's here and it's here to stay. It's how we manage it and how we ensure the safety of our children, ensure the privacy of our children, ensure that they know that it's a tool that is best used when they use it as critical thinkers. I believe the exact quote was that one group will use AI to learn as much as possible. And then there'll be others who will use AI to learn nothing. Okay, uh I will go ahead and take a turn and then Mr. Fresh, you're you're back on. So, the way I made sense of this was to eventually write everything down because I have learn I've talked with many people, listened to people, principals, parents, students. I had a wonderful conversation with our student rep Rida

021Karim uh who is now a UVA studying data science and helped create the Brookings report. So, think listening to her um expertise. And I do want to get a hold of the work that launched her into that about peer-to-peer um AI uh prompts mentoring. I've been reading books, podcasts, um just kind of listening to anyone who wants to give me an opinion. So, what I did is I put together and I sent it electronically to uh board members just now. And if you wouldn't mind helping me pass this out, please. Um and one to Mr. Sethi if there's one. Thank you so much uh Dr. Anderson. And this Well, okay, this is for that side. Okay, thank you. I I just like to walk through the sections of the policy as it seems are needed

022by all of these different inputs, okay? So, I also wanted to title it something innovative because I I've heard about 80% caution, 20% excitement. But I know we want to be inspirational, aspirational. I my conversation with Mr. Moon was, you know, be aspirational. I'm like, I get it, but the things I hear people, parents especially, telling me is concern. So, um but um that's uh you got it? We good? So, um right. So, calling it something like innovation in instructional technology, so it's broader than AI. Uh the purpose, you know, I kept the one that the superintendent proposed. The definitions, I kept what was proposed, but I did add more about AI literacy. I also added about chatbot because when I was at a recent meeting, uh Mr. Sethi defined a chatbot and it was

023different than what I thought. So, um surely there are other people who need to know what the definition of a chatbot is. One-to-one device use that we're saying what this is. Uh presumed use, that's come up a lot, just presuming that kids will be on devices. The philosophy section I kept intact from the previous version. And then under responsibilities, I really put the meat of things in here. So, again, safety, we've said this is a big priority. I put together the list of all the policies. I know it's not very exciting looking, but these are the places where we're considering student safety. So, even if it's just for the purpose of this review and creation, um it's there. Presumed use, I think the board having a statement on that is is necessary. One-to-one device use,

024do we want to say yes, we approve this? Many people and parents and and teachers and staff have said, you know, we were never told how to use these one-to-one devices. And there's great variation. So, having an intentional conversation, again, not saying whether it is or is not, but putting in the policy that there is to be an intentional decision around one-to-one use. And I will go a little bit longer since we have time and um I want to finish this, please. Um identifying technology tools for instruction. This is what parents want to know. They want to know what technology their kids are on. Currently, the uh thing to sign for digital resources is 700 applications listed. How does a parent know which applications their kids are on? So, putting in here, how are we

025going to identify those? Another component is evaluating the use of technology on instructional progress. Disseminating innovative and promising practices, that's that innovative part. Like how are we making sure, like I saw at um Saratoga Elementary, we've got this amazing staff member. How do we extract that learning and spread it? Uh protecting academic integrity, planning time, public reporting. I I'll stop here cuz I do want to deep delve deeper into the school board's governance matters, but for that point, that's really the gist of what I've heard from a wide swath of our community. Uh Mr. Frisch. And then Dr. Anderson. And and hold on a second. I did not submit my policy for um public posting cuz it's just mine. So, I don't know if that's it up there. That's not it up there. Okay. Okay,

026and yeah, we'd love to see our colleague. Yeah, thank you. It looks kind of like mine, I think. Okay, Mr. Frisch and then Dr. Anderson. Well, uh I was going to ask what the desired timeline was for the other version. I don't have a lot to offer yet on your suggested edits because I the first I'm seeing them. Some of it we've talked about. Um so I'm going to need time to digest that and probably not during a meeting. Um but I am curious about what you think the timeline is um generally speaking, obviously not to hold you to it. I'm sorry, Mr. Frisch. I was just clarifying that I just sent my version around this morning and this afternoon. Um because I was working on it. Right. >> I'm just saying like >> Repeat

027what you said. I'm I apologize. Oh, sure. Yeah, no worries. Um generally speaking, not to hold you to a timeline, but when are you hoping that the committee will be sending something on to the full board? Well, yeah, the timeline has been, you know, to do it by our last governance meeting, which is in May, to send it forward to the regular meeting. I have it written down somewhere, but whatever our last governance committee meeting is. Got you. All right, I was just trying to map out in my head how much time I have to Yeah, so right, so we have one meeting in April and one meeting in May. Right. Um well, I'll be interested in digging into what you've brought in more detail. I see some good stuff in there. Um but I

028want to delve a little deeper um and see how like on first blush, having only like read the first page while we were sitting here, um I think it's good that we're framing the I like the framing of it, innovation and instructional technology. Um and it's very AI-centric currently. Um but I think that's because that's the topic at hand. Um I I'd be interested in looking at it more closely to see how we can broaden it to be intentionally more inclusive of other technology. So, that's just an initial reaction having only read and skimmed today. So, um I'll be interested in having more conversations with you about it. Thank you. Mr. Frisch. Uh Dr. Anderson. Thank you. [clears throat] Um I I want to just continue with my notes and I think some of it

029aligns with what I'm skimming right now as well. Um and I've said this before, so not a surprise, the regulation I believe does two I'm sorry, a policy does two things. It conveys to the public what is it that we're intending to do and it gives direction to the superintendent. I Not everything should be in the policy, but there has to be enough there to drive and I think there's some things here that have not yet made it into this policy and I see some of that on here, but I I can't speak to this because I I don't feel like like I've looked at it sufficiently. But two things um that will also lend to a broader policy, which is our opt-out um opportunities because I know every year, and now that it's all

030digital, thank you so much for that, I'm sitting in front of the long list of things that I'm going to allow my kids to participate in that are available in Fairfax County. That has to be embedded in our policy, that that is available and allowed because it will, I think, calm some folks who some parents We already have that available in our practice, so I think it has to show up someplace in our policy. The other piece that I I'm I'd be very curious to see embedded in our policy, and I don't think I see it right now, is that there's a continuum of appropriateness. What would be available for a high schooler will not be what is available for a kindergartner. And I think just noting that we are looking at age appropriateness and

031developmental appropriateness, whether it lives in the philosophy or in some other place structurally, I think just having that information would be helpful. Um and I do want to kind of highlight what was said by Miss Lady just a little while ago regarding um the critical thinking. I Some of these things we have to name because if we don't name them, people are thinking that they're not included. So, ensuring that we have very strong language that speaks to the fact that this tool is not going to uh we're not going to not have high expectations of critical thinking and other um more traditional educational pedagogy, I think would be really helpful. Because one, it puts a stakes it's it puts a stake in the ground and it fills a vacuum because if it's not said, people

032are wondering, well, where do you stand on this? And it must be the most it could be the most unreasonable place, but if we articulate it, I think it just lowers the temperature over certain things. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Um any one for a second round? I would take one, but I would go last if others want to. Ms. Lady or Ms. Leitch and Cutting? No? Okay, great. I will go ahead and take a second round. Um I was just looking up, so I had um asked everyone on the board to meet with me the first week of March and I was able to meet with some people and then the next week I had my community engagement summit, which included about AI, and that was on Tuesday, the 10th, and on Wednesday, the 11th,

033I started writing. So, um you know, I've gotten a mix of interest, you know, I'm thrilled that someone wants to see it ahead of time, others I've heard nothing from. So, you know, please treat this with some grace here. I'm I'm throwing something out to as a discussion point. And um you know, anyone could do this. I'm just trying to synthesize us so we could keep moving forward. I'll go through the rest of this draft that I put together. So, you know, regarding the money, public reporting on budget and expenditures, I believe that there needs to be something but like I don't know that we see the technology line items the way they need to be. Also, I am really really I feel very strongly that the board must review legal contractual agreements regarding use

034of technology for instruction. Technically, we review contracts when there is a cost exchange of half a million dollars or more. So, we did not review the contracts that brought in OpenAI and Play Lab. However, we know that they are worth more than half a million dollars and things were signed in our name that we never reviewed or received until very recently. That cannot happen. Um I've included in the draft policy for my colleagues um perusal something that Google Gemini generated, which was for-profit risks. And it's three subsections of how to ensure that your district's foray into AI is both safe and successful. Here are vetting questions during board meetings to challenge proposals from for-profit vendors. Um and the next section is integration of in this draft policy, it's from the original from the superintendent, integration

035of AI into instruction, and I added some subsections. It's become very apparent to me that the only way this is going to move forward with equity and quality is through professional development. I have seen a wide range of how things are happening in the schools. Um differences of expertise, of time, of ability. And I know with our commitment to equity, Dr. Reed, that you would want to ensure that all of our teachers know how to use the tools, even if it's just on the back end for their own operational work, and certainly if and when it comes time to use it straight up with it with uh children. So, I've put in here some parameters on what that could look like because professional development is the key to making this all work. We're already talking

036to parents about what's happening. We're not talking consistently to our staff. The AI literacy plan, again, it's just one sentence that says the superintendent will provide an AI literacy plan, or two sentences, okay? And it will be communicated. I don't think that that is so robust as to be limiting. I think that it sets up those guardrails we keep hearing about. Um I'll just finish up the last two. Segmented use of generative AI by grade levels. Another huge theme I'm hearing. The elementary school kids are different than the upper grades. How is it going to be different? And then family and community engagement. And I actually looked at our boundary policy as a model for that. And again, put things in there that I know exist and parents are talking about. So, I welcome further

037feedback on including some of these or adding more. Okay, I see. Yeah. Yeah, Ms. Nguyen Cutting. I appreciate that you put this together. Um like my other colleagues said, I mean, we're looking at this, we're perusing it. We will I I don't feel that I'm comfortable discussing some of these things right now because I just got this. And, you know, definitely see some things that I that resonate that are positive based on some of the sessions I went to, but definitely things that I have to dig into. Um you know, AI in schools for profit risks, I mean, I think that I understand I think where you're getting at this, but every vendor we deal with is a for-profit vendor. So, are we going to distinguish that for just technology versus other vendors? I mean,

038that that's just one of those things that I just find that wording a little bit awkward just from just immediately when I saw that, that hit me as like every vendor we deal with is for profit. I wish they weren't cuz we wouldn't have so many budget issues, but >> [laughter] >> but um I just think we have to be consistent with how we're going to vet all vendors. And they're all for profit. That's just the reality. That's just something that jumped out at me immediately that made me raise a question in my head. Okay, I see uh Mr. Frisch has his hand up and then Dr. Anderson, do you want to respond or did you Okay, I'm Okay, so Mr. and then the next lady, yeah. Okay, I just couldn't tell. Okay. All right.

039Um what the reason I asked about timeline was because I wanted to know how long I have, basically, to ponder things before our next conversation. You know, if if the goal was to get something out of committee today, that'd be a different conversation than whether we want to be in a position to um you know, make more progress next meeting. So, I appreciated the conversation that we had that led to some of this. Um and I will come ready at the next meeting to engage and maybe have some other ideas about things that could be included or removed or replaced or refined um based on this and and the other version as well. Um I'm not you know, my feedback about broadening things a bit to being more inclusive about other technologies was not feedback

040to Ms. Marin to go redraft her version uh because I want X included or Y included. It's it's like a note to myself that that's something I'm interested in pursuing. So, um my intention is to have uh notes uh around to colleagues um roughly a week before our next governance meeting so that people can digest it and we can have a conversation um about that kind of stuff and we'll see where we are at the end of that meeting, too. Okay, uh Ms. Lady and then Dr. Anderson. Yeah, I'm just curious um to know from um Mr. Sethi or Dr. Reed, uh this particular page related to the risks. I mean, I know the data privacy and legal compliance that it's I've been told and I trust that the vendor is not using student data

041or prompts to gain their global AI. Um as my colleague just mentioned, all vendors are for profit. And then in terms of the educational efficacy piece of this, um you know, obviously I wasn't in the conversations that led to the relationships with um OpenAI and PlayLab, but can you speak to this particular page, I guess, that's I'm I'm just seeing for the first time? What page is that? I'm not sure which page you're referring to. >> the very last page of what what Ms. Marin has handed out today. I just received it as well, so I'm not I don't know that I can comment on this at the moment, but what I can say is that all contracts are reviewed by division counsel. So, um I would probably expect the division counsel would want to

042review that page as well. But data privacy agreements, as you know, are uh sacrosanct here, they're critical. Um and division counsel reviews those uh for all vendors, not just, you know, tech vendors, but um all vendors that do business with the school division. I believe that's an integral part of the procurement process. Uh thank you for that, Mr. Sethi. Do you have anything to add to that? No, Dr. Reed mentioned we have DPA agreements, which are standard and are signed by vendors. Um the other clauses in these would certainly be also FERPA and COPPA, right? Those are also pretty standard clauses, which is already baked into our procurement policies. I believe we used Mr. Sethi with regard to OpenAI, we used the Virginia Commonwealth DPA agreement. So, we used the state Commonwealth um agreement for

043DPA. Uh thank you for that. Um and uh and I will say um you know, I'm just um my ADD and my reading disability are having make this a struggle for me, but I do I see a lot of great things uh potentially within what's within this draft. So, I do appreciate the time that was put into this. Um I guess the one thing is and I just don't know and I I cuz I just need more time to sit with it and ask more questions. I just don't know I mean, I think about you know, professional development. And you know, we sat here and we debated Schoology during grading policy and staff development for grading policy, right? So, I mean, for Schoology. So, we came back this year and there were edicts that were

044sent out that, you know, and there was a lot of time at the beginning of this year for teachers to be held accountable to a higher standard of the use of Schoology. And that was a result of our work and our conversations. But that left little room for some other things. So, I while I 100% agree professional development is incredibly important. I mean, it's the only way that we learn, especially with something where there's our early adopters who dive in and and know all the LLMs and the, you know, notebook LLMs and the chat all the definitions just with without even having to get use a, you know, reference. Um I just you know, I I and I the one thing I did learn also at South by Southwest, which I'm proud to say we're

045doing in Fairfax, which is you start small with pilots. I heard that in every session. Like you you you especially with a system of our size, that you start small with pilots as opposed to rolling everything out to everybody because then you then you're pulling it back and redoing it. And and so, I 100% agree. I just don't know the timing of this. Are we ready? You know, I assume that when we pass a policy that we will get a playbook, if you will, or roll out, you know, um plan of action, Dr. Reed? Like once we pass a policy, it gives you a framework, we would get then like a like a scaffolded roll out of how this would be rolled out over time with fidelity, including training? I yes and no, right? We

046currently are limited by our budget as well. So, I think it's important that we have a policy for sure, and I appreciate the board's attention to that because we want to have a measured disciplined approach to um this topic as we do with all topics, right? Um but what we'll actually roll out after getting the policy, I think it gives us a direction, clear direction from the board on what would be within our, you know, our guardrails, I think is how we framed it. But whether or not we actually have a budget to roll anything out is a very different conversation at this point. And that, as you know, um and as we discussed several times, that's uh a large part of our partnership with Open AI was the ability to provide uh, professional development

047for our staff at no cost to us because we don't have a budget to provide um, the tools or honestly at this point the time. So, we've we have provided professional development for all of our school based technology specialists and our um, I'm not sure what T spec stands for. Got to my mind to be able to specialists technology specialists in the schools and it's one of the first times that we've brought both those groups of employees together um, to actually have a conversation about how they can work together in addressing um, the learning for staff on this important tool. So, um, I think rolling something out equitably requires often cost and I I just don't know where we're going to land this year, but it could certainly be a blueprint for future years if

048budgets improve in coming years. Yeah, cuz the last thing I'll say is I mean you read through this it's it's if I I find it to be very aspirational and maybe my fear is and it's budgetary fears is is it needs to be narrowed so it's actually doable. Thanks. Okay, Dr. Anderson, you're next. Yes, thank you. One of the things that I should have said this at the beginning, I I remember when we had the boundary policy that was being done and I was not on the committee, but I attended the meetings and I remember uh, Ms. Isom Heiser had literally her own draft for us to review um, but she did take some time to go through that a little bit because it I again, it was just handed to me in the room,

049but I don't know I wasn't on the committee. So, I guess what I'm asking for is a little bit of orientation from you um, not with the purpose, the definitions and the philosophy. I think those are a little bit easier. So, I would love if you could take a few minutes to kind of dissect and discuss responsibility section a little bit more if you wouldn't mind because that seems to be at least I know where I want to go in terms of being specific about certain things particularly around community engagement um, opting out um, and again, I'm just looking at these quickly in between people speaking. So, would you mind giving an orientation for that section a little bit more detailed than you did before? Sure. Um, you said which sections again, please? responsibilities Um,

050right. So, I added in there things that I have heard being expressed as priorities and tried very hard not to make them in the weeds. Um, so, that's you know, what we've talked about on our committee having the same format of policies and indeed it's continues to be something that snags our work. So, on that note I will be asking us to put forward the style guide to the full board to approve so, there's absolutely no question that this is the format that we want because for months now our deputy clerk has been using her time to create edits to things that we've discussed a million times. So, um, again, I put it in responsibilities um, I have other questions. I mean you know, I I will just say it every board member has a

051different style when it comes to trying to obtain their time and attention on anything. So, I did my best and I'm rather surprised at the amount of input about you know, that I brought something and how I delivered it was not you know, the way to go. So, I just I would like to pivot to something this was your question I was answering. So, I will ask my own questions, but that's the best I can do for now. So, Yeah, yeah. Mhm. No, that's very helpful. Um, one of the things that I know we've said here quite a bit and I heard that reiterated over and over again in my notes from the conference is the AI literacy piece. We must be able to teach our teachers how to use these tools so that they

052can better bring them into their classrooms and when and if we get to that place where students are using them. That has to come with professional development. I'm I cannot imagine a world in which budgets aside where we are going to say here's a tool and we're not going to teach you how to do this so go forth and conquer. So, the and I raise this because the professional development expectation is not unreasonable because we will never say here go get loose. If we're going to provide something, they're going to be coupled together. It's an accompaniment. So, I that makes me comfortable to bring in the professional development component because it has to happen you know, by hook or by crook it's going to happen. You know, think about the language arts um, the language

053arts adoption. State says you have to provide professional development by hook or by crook that happened. So, I I'm not as hesitant to include it here as a component of expectation because again, this document, these policies are the board's expectations of the division and communication to the public. Um, I've I'm I really look forward to having an opportunity to kind of make my own notes on some of these components just to see how they could be you know, better worded, but a lot of these things are resonating quite a bit with many of the notes that I had on the side here which is how do we bring in the parents into this conversation of all things technology, not just AI, but especially AI because I I I haven't received all these letters around one-on-one

054computers or ST Math as I am regarding AI. So, we have to make sure that we're meeting the moment and being responsive to our community to that end. So, I I'm really looking forward to trying to merge these two documents, but not in this moment. Sure. Well, I have some questions I want to ask Dr. Reed, but first I just want to point out pilots are great, but we did roll out chat GPT to all staff. I mean like which line are we going to tow? Are we going to do professional development? Are we going to do pilots? Because we just rolled out a brand new tool and I could tell you from the conversations I've heard it's being used in a lot of different ways and I know one teacher who said that in

055her school she was told to use a different platform. So, I don't want to base the policy on anecdotes. I want to base it on directives and the directive is that the superintendent has to provide a roadmap and we have to fund that. Um, so I do have some questions for Dr. Reed. So, um, um, Dr. Reed, I've heard you know, phrases like we are behind like FCPS is behind. I can't recall if you said that or others, but can you talk about who is leading this work? Who would be a model that we could look to? as a school division, not a state, but a school division. I don't believe I've said we're behind so I'm not sure I would um, have a school division in mind. I think generally I look a little

056more globally in terms of um, the state policies because I think that our size and our position nationally gives us a little different level of gravitas and I think that's why looking at state policies for me and I think Gotham as well was really where we were headed. Um, by public school enrollment we're larger than 11 states. So, uh, we really wanted to try to scale our thinking around sort of that larger model, but I don't believe I've said we're behind. I'm not sure others may have, but I have not. Thank you for clarifying. You know, I did appreciate the roundup of state policies, but I started reading them and I realized while we might be bigger than many states, we are not a state and we do not have the authorities that states have

057and while I'm all for influencing state policy, I found it more helpful to look up districts. So, my staffer looked up school divisions which I shared with everyone because that's that those are our peers. It's not a state level thing. Um, Dr. Reed, how will you include this policy into the strategic plan? Will there be a goal or a measure? Um, how does this or how does it crosswalk? What report would this be a report out on when it comes to you the impact of of technology on instruction? I would have to review that and get back to you to be thoughtful with an answer. I think that uh, the strategic plan talks about innovation. Um, so I think it would likely be in that area, but I'd want to be thoughtful about a response

058for you. Thank you. Um, I Dr. Reed, I was wondering if there was um, there any lessons learned about your work with the Northern Virginia Technology Council? You know, speakers we should hear or ideas you recommend that we look to in considering this policy. So, I am on the board of the Northern Virginia Tech Council. One of the um, key drivers [clears throat] for that group is to have Fairfax County be the center for technology in the nation um, and to be able to recruit businesses, have a workforce prepared to uh, take jobs in the tech field. Um, there've been a variety of speakers. I could uh, certainly share a list of those folks. Um, but uh, you know, I think that partnering with our community workforce development ideas I think is important, but we

059have to I think we're at this point we're going to uh, we want to make sure we are in alignment with the policy the board puts in place um, and make sure that we operate within the guidelines the board puts forward uh, as we move forward on this work. Did any of the members of that council have do they have policies that would be helpful for us to review. I'm sure they have policies. I the AI and education policies that we again looked at from the state we felt were more relevant, but I'm happy to see if there are policies that the tech council would have that govern business which might be different than education, but we can certainly ask for copies if the committee would like to look at those. I'm just looking for

060some more guidance about what you think we should be looking at because again I'm just trying to read and look at whatever I can get my hands on, but you know, having a more guided tour so to speak. I also just have to say I'm just get confused when you say that you'll do what the board will do in policy because you're already doing stuff. So you know, chat GPT is out there, trainings are happening, no money and you we've been committed knowing also that chat GPT is going to start charging in June of 27. So I just that's a hard thing for me to reconcile. I'll leave it at that for now, but we're already out there. So I I want to circle back to some of my colleagues had some really neat ideas

061and I'm wondering how we put it into policy. Okay, so like safety privacy, giving students clarity of how they can use AI as part of their assignment. So how do we put that into a policy? Is it crosswalk to the SRNR? Like what could we put in policy that says that hey, we want to make sure students use AI and I'm asking my colleagues and happy to have a dialogue here, but like Yeah, and Robin you had raised this good point. Yeah, and I don't think to be honest, I don't think you can put it in policy cuz it's ever evolving, right? Like I think I think that policy might state that teachers need within their syllabus or within an assignment to have some clarity around the use of AI and you know, and it

062and or we can say that in within certain POSs that in within syllabi that they need to articulate when you know, AI is you know, appropriate to be used. Like I I think they're doing that now, but I don't know that again, I think that that requires when we talk about training, I mean I don't mistake my comments earlier. I 100% believe in professional development. It's the only way we learn. The the problem is time and money is as has been mentioned. Um but you know, again, I I think that I know that my my friends who are instructors in the system have run into some major issues with integrity and AI and being supported around when they believe that that the student has not has has sort of like not been um honest in

063in terms of their academic integrity around assignments and being able to consequence that. So I don't I don't know what it looks like. I'm just like what I listed earlier is kind of like guidelines to AI, you know, and I don't necessarily know that every one of them lives in policy rigidly, but philosophically and then regulation could tease it out more. You know, that's that's my thinking on that. That's helpful. Yeah, definitely and I I guess I'm a little confused because I don't know. I'm confused. So let me try to unconfuse myself right now by asking these questions as simply as I can. What are teachers able to do regarding AI as it relates to students? Like today. And if you can couch it with pilot teachers and non-pilot teachers. Yeah, I may request a

064clarification when you think related to students as in using AI tools with students or teachers using AI tools? With students. Are teachers right now I I know they have access to a couple of tools. I've asked that before and I know that Dr. Presidio has said many times kids are not utilizing those tools per se in classrooms. It's teachers learning how to potentially in the future. So right now if a teacher is pilot or no pilot, are they able to say, "Hey student A, go use AI to complete this assignment."? Like what are teachers able to do that would enable students themselves to use the tool? So I can speak to the tools that we provide centrally. There are a couple of pilots and I'm not sure if I see Sloan or anybody from the

065ISD team that can speak to the pilots. For the central tools, which is both Google and open AI chat GPT those tools are restricted for staff use only and students they don't have access to those tools. So nothing in the guidance should ask students to use those tools, but then there are those tools such as I think Adobe Express has an image generation opportunity or you can think of Canva. These are tools that are used for image generation and multiple other things in terms of classroom use. So potentially a teacher in a school could say, "Hey, use Canva for working on an assignment and generate an image." And I'm guessing this. I do not have that data or facts to share. Sure, because I'm trying to figure out what's you know, which is first here.

066Has is the horse is the cart before the horse because if we're supposed to outline things in the policy and which will be detailed out in the regulation but but if these things are already happening, then are we behind on the regulation? I'm sorry, on the policy itself. That's not my question to you. I'm sorry, I'm just still looking at you. Um and again, I just want to be responsive to what are teachers able to do or not able to do right now. I'm not hearing that teachers are able to have outside of Canva and Adobe Express which are not generative AI tools. >> Well, so this is if you go semantics, right? They're generating an image, but it's not writing text for the student, right? It's not writing their essay or writing their assignment.

067It's generating image on based on some So the academic integrity component is not as present with these tools as it would be with >> My intuition would say that, but I would defer to the ISD team to be in the absolute sort of judge of that. Yeah, I think I would just want to still wrap my mind around like who's leading what? You said Dr. Reed that the policy will lead what we're doing, but I I think I'm correct in saying right now the policy does not rather practice does not have any real student facing activities that we will still be in a good place to articulate these in the policy which will then be reiterated in a more detailed way in the regulation to come. So I think we currently have instructional technology policies

068which govern the use of technology in classrooms, right? And that's what any kind of current pilot would have been done under those auspices. We also have um >> [clears throat] >> responsibility use agreements. Um so I think you know, to uh um Gotham's point, I think that there are um you know, the Canva I think in the Adobe might be tools, but I would want to um I think when Dr. Presidio was here, he shared I think he shared an answer to that without getting into specifics. So if you want more specifics, I can have a a list of um maybe what teachers are or are not able to do with that, but currently anything that's done with technology and students in the classroom would be governed by educational instructional technology in classes. Exactly. The

069um Lexia, those kinds of things. Which I think he did raise as Well, and we have little bots, right? Like bee bots in kindergarten that the kids practice coding bee bots in steam classrooms. You could argue is that AI? No, I don't know. Probably not, right? Like but it so the but it is technology in the classroom. So I think that um that's again under the more general umbrella of instructional technology under in the classroom. I'll stop here. Okay, and I see Ms. Lady has her placard. I just want to do a time check. We're a little over from an estimated time, but where do we want to be at the end of this conversation, right? What do we want to come back with? It's fine if we want to go a little longer. I

070do want us to have time to go to calendar policy. Ironically, the 5000s include the procurement policies. But can we shift a little bit towards what do we want to do between now and next time? And that's what I was trying to do with these questions was say, is this what we want or not? Or so Robin, I'll turn it over to you next and then Ms. St. John Canning and then Mr. Frisch. Well, that question kind of shifts where I was going, but if I can just take the liberty for a second um and I'm not necessarily endorsing, but I'm just sharing cuz I think we have two things going on here. We have what are teachers using the tools for and then how are students being invited to be part of the tool

071usage if you will or how are the kids using it. So I think we just got an answer on the one, but I just wanted to share with folks that like so Magic School 7.5 million teachers using the product, the free version, 170 countries. It's the number one AI platform for teachers. Okay? Um and I'll say this about Magic School. The goal was to be resourceful to help, right? Um It's designed around how schools work and not how tech wishes they worked. And I think we need to understand that. There are tech companies out there. The vendor halls at these places are like vast and it's about making it's for profit. And a lot of the people creating tools in tech don't know how schools work. So that's that's a huge plus, but I think

072the main thing is education is a profession that of course feeds all others and the use of AI correctly is thought partnership and resource creation. And I'll just give one example because they talked about the editing tool for essays that once submitted that the students got pretty immediate feedback. And they was a study done of this teacher in Colorado or other places. It's it's been replicated where they in it handed in essays this way three times. And and this is not on the free tool, but I'm just giving you example what can happen. It's the 28% increase in writing scores for the kids who turn who utilize that tool three times in one year. Because what they're getting is feedback on their writing that's timely. That's the biggest problem when you're an English teacher or

073history teacher and you're the time it takes you to grade a paper and give written feedback. But this guy was using the AI, but then also editing and writing his own notes. Like he would create a PDF and he'd hand it back with his own hit and hand written notes for kids and it grew there. So I'll say that. In terms of where we need to be you know, I think that I mean I need you know, we I think this is you know, this is a tremendous amount of work. Um Ms. Marin, and I think we you know, I need time to read it and think about it. Um but I also think we need to take this and partner with staff because there's certain things that you know, we don't know that there's

074a deeper understanding. So I it's got to be a partnership, you know, sort of a you know, you know, we're kind of collaborating on a on a on a policy that can work for staff, but can work with us in terms of what our priorities are. So um I don't know what that means between now and the next meeting, but I just I will I'm very anxious to get have have staff have time to like sit with this and then share with us with how they would edit this um as a next step. Can I just can I just clarify my understanding? So you're suggesting that the version I put out there be reviewed and like responded to by staff? Um yeah. I mean like I said, I think it's very aspirational, but I also

075need the people who do the work um to provide input. I and I think we've been very clear about guardrails and student data protection and human centered. I think there's certain things that are keep recurring themes, but um there's a lot in here and I would I just wouldn't want to see learn from staff their perspective on what's been created. Okay. No, thank you for articulating a specific action. So it would be great if other people agree um if that should be one of our next action steps. Okay. Did I say Ms. St. John Cunning or Mr. Fresh? Okay. Ms. St. John Cunning then Mr. Fresh. Um so I do agree with what Ms. Lady has said that I think staff I mean we need to rely on our subject matter experts here because they

076this is what they've studied. This is what they've done. And I I think we've articulated the guardrails. Going back to Magic School and the presentation we were both at, they are collaborating with a school in Texas where they actually have started a train a training program with a school exactly what we were talking about. So I agree that you know, in order for we need to train our teachers in order so that they can train the students. But the piece I wanted to get to that might help unconfuse you when you were saying about what what what we were talking about when Ms. Lady mentioned that you know, the integrity of students. Fact is that students are using this outside of school. Like we got applications for our student leaders and I could tell and

077I don't know if you could tell when you were reading them the ones that were written by AI versus the ones that weren't. So the students weren't using AI in the school. They were using it outside of the school. So that's where the integrity piece comes in and that's where we have to teach them. So they're using this anyway. Um our job is to teach them again like the fire. Our job is to teach them how to use it responsibly. So I just I I I cuz I know when when she said that you were talking about the integrity piece. I go, I think that's where maybe some of the confusion might it may not have been, but that's what's happening right now. I do think that it's important if if money is an issue

078that we do have to train students so we can we train teachers and these pilots and early adopters. And I would love for us to I I know that we have great early adopters in our system that are doing this really well. I think it would help all of us to have a to see and watch what they're doing for us to understand it better. At least that's the way I learn. To see how a teacher is using this, to see how it's helping her, to see how it's working. Um I would be open for that kind of presentation cuz I think that would be very helpful to see how they're using it and how it's helping them. And I do know some Personally, I know some people that are doing this work with great

079success. Not with students, but within and how it's helping them to help the students. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. In terms [clears throat] of where we go from here um for me, I need to take this and the other changes and think about them and have that inform questions that I have for colleagues, but also for staff. Um so you know, my my guess is that I'd like to be at a point by the next meeting where my my thinking is fully formed on or more close to fully formed on where we want to end up. Um and then that will result in some like conversation like depending on where the draft is at in that meeting. Um and it may not look all that different from where it looks right now but maybe the do

080out of the May meeting or excuse me, of the April meeting is a desire to see X, Y, and Z incorporated by staff in a draft uh based on our conversations and the feedback um that we get from staff uh about drafted policy. So um on my end, I need to review it more closely uh while not in the meeting um and then in a week or a week and a half um consider what my questions are or or what I'm 100% uh committed to versus things that I need more convincing on or just need to kind of kick the tires on with somebody to let me know why they're thinking X. So that's kind of where I am right now in terms of next steps. I don't think we need to have a uh

081the you know, the governance committee direct staff to do X coming out of this meeting because um I'd like to see where my thinking actually lands on what what's been provided. Uh so Mr. Fresh, uh just so I clarify. So you're you want to absorb and think and um and then you also want to reflect on what the staff give us or do you want to do those like in an order or it's okay if they have at the same time? I think they can happen at the same time. Um look, we I think we all where we all agree I hope is that we want a good policy when this is all over, right? And so I'm malleable on what it takes to get there, but I think the two important parts are uh

082the free flow of information and ideas from staff and and board members. So um you know, I'm sure I'll have questions for staff. I'm sure I'll have questions for you based on your draft. So um yeah. That's kind of where I am right now. Okay. So just to review, it sounds like there's agreement that we would like the superintendent and her teams input on the draft that I provided as well as anyone else's other questions. Yeah, well in the conversation, right? Um so there's agreement on that. Um Ms. St. John Cunning mentioned seeing it in you know, working. [music] I mean we could ask to be taken on a visit. It's just that we have to make ourselves available to go. Like I went all the way to Springfield and visited a classroom because I

083knew it was happening there. Like I'm just making it happen. And um you know, do we want to go on a field trip somewhere or have someone come in and show us or have the superintendent put up on a screen and maybe we need an extra meeting. Um I I also would think that we'd have to have the staff's input definitely within 2 weeks. Um and it's been a challenge to get things, you know, in a timely manner, but if we want to do this, I mean people were not pleased that I gave it to them today. We're not getting things much earlier than that generally. So you know I think people have been far more polite about the timeliness of documents provided in this setting than they have in other settings. Well, I will

084just say I spend a decent amount of time trying to understand when documents are going to get to the clerks with red lines and edits. So um I would like a commitment. I'm sorry, what? I said we all spend significant time working to prepare ourselves for the meetings and Well, I do it for the whole committee, Mr. Fresh. I'm talking about for the whole committee. Yeah. I I just need a point of clarification. I feel like staff has gotten us red line copies of all the policies that were in this book in a timely fashion. So did I miss something? Yes. What? Um that You know what? I'm happy to talk with you offline. I really want to stay stay on agenda topic. Well, I think that's fair, but I I just I I just

085need to understand cuz I I Sure. Um I think the last time I spoke with our deputy clerk was it Wednesday when we were here for a work session? Was it the day before on the 3rd? And she was expecting the red lines any day now and those came to us uh a full week later. Um is it still Mr. Fresh? But I don't know. So you know, again, I'm trying to do my best and I have a member at this table who I reached out to haven't spoken with. So do I could pick it apart, too. >> No, I don't want to I'd like to reclaim my time. May I just say this? This part is not working. >> want to go to calendar? Can I Let Mr. Fresh Let's let Mr. Fresh finish.

086I thought he was done. I think the point is that we are all doing our best and that grace should be provided to everybody. Oh, I agree. Very much so. >> Great. Are you finished, Mr. Frisch? Yes, I am. Thanks. Wonderful. So, it sounds like well, would anyone like to propose the timeline then by which we would expect the superintendent to provide um before our next meeting, which is April 14th? Someone please go ahead. Ms. Lady. Well, I I guess I felt what I heard from Mr. Frisch, and I am altering what I initially thought is some time to sit with this, some time to talk with colleagues, and then some questions for staff. So, versus just giving this to staff and asking them to give feedback. Is that correct, Mr. Frisch? Did I hear

087you correctly? I have a feeling that doing both would probably save us time. So, have staff review while we're also sitting with it and then see what we what and then come together? >> may come up they may have things that we uh thought of ourselves or vice versa to inform thinking. So. >> So, then to that end, I would propose that perhaps 2 weeks from today, that we will have done our I mean, again, we're not doing our part as a group, we're doing it as an individual. Um but it is that a fair ask for staff um Mr. Sethi and Dr. Reed to look at this particular policy that Ms. Marin has provided as a draft and get staff to redline it in I don't think that is reasonable. Spring break is a

088week, and I also this combines I mean, again, I haven't had a long time to look at it, but it combines a lot of other policies, which is going to take time. I mean, I think it would be more helpful for me to give clear direction to staff, what specific questions do you as a board have about this, rather than us going in and redlining it. I don't know that that's productive for staff to go and re-redline um Ms. Marin's draft. I mean, I if there are questions about the draft Yeah, I guess my I mean, everybody else please take a turn, but my thinking is is this viable? Um is it um too aspirational in places? Um is it too tight or too loose in places? Um you know, this is a first go

089around at this, and it can be revisited as Ms. Marin has shared, so um I just My ask would be, you know, those questions. I don't know if those are fair, but that's my question. Is this too narrow, too broad, too aspirational? Is there a clarity? Is it like for example, when we talk about the all the different technologies you sign off on? Like, I don't know if it's viable that all 70 or whatever 700 of them can be teased out and I'm not sure what Ms. Marin's asking for. So, like that's a question I would have about whether that's viable. Um but again, I I I need to sit with it myself to better understand it, so. Yeah, I almost wonder if there needs to be another cycle of board review before the staff

090takes it on again, because I'm uncomfortable with that. Staff are I mean, I think that way we have a better understanding of what you as a board have in mind, and then we could take a you know, a look at it if there were still questions, but I don't know, Janet, did you catch the questions Ms. Lady asked? Okay, then we can certainly come back and answer those questions. I just don't know that it's fruitful for us to redline or blueline or whatever colorline um this draft at this point. I think staff did provide the original version um version seven, and I think there was a version five or six that included procedural language, so I think that's um more so what staff, you know, have already provided, but we're happy to review it. I

091just I wonder if another round of board conversation would be helpful first. We're we'll do whatever you decide, but just a wonder. Okay, Ms. Lady. Yeah. Uh Dr. Anderson and then Mr. Frisch. Yes, um being that spring break is coming up very shortly, I would propose that we do go and sit with this and come back at the next meeting and perhaps add an additional meeting if we need to to wrap this up. Um we've done that every single time I've been on governance, that has happened. >> [laughter] >> Every single time, without any doubt. But I I do wonder a little bit. I don't want us to kind of go off on a path that is not going to be reasonable. I kind of want my cake and to eat it, too, >> [laughter]

092>> if that makes sense, because we could go forth and, you know, think and have all of these great ideas, only to be met with, well, these are the roadblocks. So, I wonder, how can we keep the conversation going without necessarily adding a whole lot of more work to staff, but for us to not go down a path which may not even be feasible? Does that make sense? I feel Does that make sense? I feel like staff provided their input on the policy, and um not on the new draft, but I think we would be taking what we provided and try to fit it into the new draft is um more likely what staff will do. I know that Janet captured Ms. Lady's questions, and if there are other questions, I'm happy to um have

093provide answers to that. >> Okay. But I think if we're redlining and you all are redlining, I don't know that that's a productive um path forward, to be honest. >> this I let me just kind of let you know how I was thinking of taking this. I was going to take the draft that staff provided and embedding some of the things from Melanie's draft into it, because I think this is similarly what we what ended up happening with the boundary policy, and I know Mr. Frisch remembers this, the trust policy that was done eons ago. Um because so many of the pieces are already there and are not new. So, I'm going to take this opportunity for Janet to capture my thinking. The purpose and definitions, I think we are fairly satisfied with that. Philosophy

094just seems to be structural rather than content. The piece for me that is a greater component is the responsibilities component. Is a respons- responsibility section. What I didn't see and that I raised earlier, I want to make sure that I bring back for your notes, is developmental appropriateness, is the parental component, um that has to show up in some way, and I do think at first glance here, I am very interested in having some language regarding um where is it? I didn't see it, but regarding budgetary and and legal components. Just making sure that it's highlighted. Again, it might be stating the obvious in some ways, but that will communicate to our public that we didn't forget that piece. So, I'm going to take this and embed it into version seven for myself, just so

095it makes sense, but I I I don't know if I could land into that place where um I kind of hear your thinking before I veer down a road which may be a dead end. Um so. But given the timetable, I think we should just go ahead and plan on coming back at next meeting and maybe take the same approach of having conversations with other colleagues with both of these things in front of us. And so when by the time we come back, we'll all be in a better place because I myself want to take a look at some of the things that we talked about here. Um and if we need to, we'll just add another meeting to make this happen. All right, so that is on the table. Mr. Frisch. Yeah, I had

096raised my hand to to say a piece of what Dr. Anderson said. I think it would probably behoove us after this meeting for the clerks to work with everybody to schedule an extra April and an extra May meeting, and then we can cancel what we don't need, right? Like, let's get it scheduled just in case and then cancel what if we don't need it. Um because I do think, you know, as I'm where the conversation kind of just went about like, well, in what cadence does this happen and how long do we have to do X, Y, or Z, was all trying to fit it into the arbitrary deadline of the end of this committee's work at the end of the school year, right? I don't think good policy happens that way if we're if

097we're not um but we have the luxury of being able to add meetings to make that possible, right? So, let's do that, and then I agree that we take the next uh the time between now and the next meeting, uh the the first meeting in April to prepare that work individually. Um we can get input from other colleagues, we can talk to staff, etc. Um and then we can see where we end up But I would advocate for adding an extra two meetings that we can cancel if they're not needed. Okay. So, just to regroup, it sounds like uh number one, we want to provide a full month until the next meeting for the superintendent to return with uh feedback, and at the same time, board members will do the work and gather their feedback,

098right? I just want to um both do feedback gathering. Um Ms. Marin, Yes. clarify what type of feedback. It's the response to that Ms. Lady's questions that Janet has captured. Is that correct? Like, we're not going to redline this. Because I heard Dr. Anderson say she's integrating things. Like, I don't want all of us working on different documents. I think that's going to be problematic. So, I'm assuming the feedback is the response to the questions that have been raised. And I want to make sure we hit the target. I'm sorry. I'm thinking that that's probably cleaner for you if we were to provide those very specific questions >> Sure. which is why I reiterated mine. >> Janet's probably caught them. I just Okay. So can we do this? Um how about um we've done this

099other times. I will work to gather anyone else's extra questions. I'll work with the clerk and then we will send us a specific list of what feedback would be helpful. Uh what's today? Tuesday? By the end of Well, definitely by the end of the week if not within the next Oh, it's a regular meeting week. Maybe somebody else could lead that effort on our committee of gathering the making sure the questions and everything is in the right order for the superintendent. >> I can do that. Yeah, okay. That would be helpful. Um you know, it is sort of arbitrary that that date is May 19th, but honestly, I feel like very pressured to get something out there because as I said before, it's already happening in our classrooms. We've already rolled out the teacher. I'm

100sorry, what? I I apologize. I was saying it's only arbitrary if we didn't have the ability to add more time. But I feel strained because usually what happens as happened with the boundary policy was we got to get it done early enough in the spring so the superintendent can operationalize it. So I'm all for adding extra meetings, but you know, there comes a point where it becomes difficult if not impossible for it to go into effect and especially since it's already happening. So I'm happy to have more meetings. Um you know, this has been the established timeline. I'm thrilled >> we're going to have more conversations. So all right, so there'll be the feedback gathering. Dr. Anderson's going to gather questions um working with the clerks to identify two other um to identify two other

101um other dates and then those were the um that's what I heard. Okay, so the board members during their feedback uh getting our questions to staff to to the superintendent working with the clerks and I also want to add instructional services department must be represented at these meetings. There was clear prior. I actually in the version I put forward, it's it is an instructional services. We're talking about instruction. So absolutely someone has to be here. Ms. Marin, it would just be helpful for us to know in terms of scheduling. We usually avoid spring break. Are we avoiding spring break? Yes or no? >> Yes, we're avoiding spring break. >> Okay, that's helpful. Thank you. Yeah, Dr. Reed. What is the date by which you want this uh the questions answered by? I need to have

102that. >> In order to post it for the April 14th meeting. So what date do you want them? >> Five business days before that would be the absolute limit. Okay. Would be the absolute max and I don't know that we're necessarily posting them, but that is, you know, the standard deadline by which we can receive materials to um So um let's see super So is that April 7th? That's That's seven days in advance. It's business days is our is our thing. Um so it's April 20 What was it? The 7th, April 7th. April 7th to the board and it doesn't have to be published, but it will come to the committee so we can review it in advance. So April 7th, just we're going to have to have a team work over spring break. Got

103them to do that. This Is the school division closed on spring break? Many of the staff take spring break as a vacation as we balance workload and mental health. >> Okay. Well, I just wasn't aware that it was a total central office, you know, closure. I don't know if Everyone Lots of anecdotal stuff. I don't know what to tell you. I mean Well, can we just put that on the back burner? Sure. Sure, [snorts] so we will come back to that. Can we move on to um the calendar policy? It seems like we'll be able to discuss that and then if we could just leave like five minutes for Mr. Fresh to go through the governance manual updates he's provided which are very um just surface level copy edit. So Are you good, Mr. Fresh

104up there? Okay. So the calendar policy this policy is being considered because of the tremendous amount of input we've received from families about um the current calendar. Um let me just put this up. Um you know, the loss of children's instructional momentum and routine. So this policy that was posted is a culmination of again input from board members um Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Moon, Ms. Lady uh and trying to work together the many different calendar policies into one and being clear about who has authority. So this has been posted in advance. Um a short uh not not yet, I think until we need to please so we could see our colleague. Okay. So if there are specific questions that we that we have, you know, on this version, we'd love to capture them. See

105if we can get them answered if not now than in the future. So um why don't we go ahead with Dr. Anderson to start and then Mr. Fresh. Oh, and Mr. Fresh's input, too. Okay, thank you. First of all, you know, I provided some feedback and such, but I think the lines work of this um background pages were done by others and I do appreciate that tremendously. Um couple of things. I know we've been in a space where not wanting for the calendar to be what it had been in the past, which is for lack of better words, essentially a bloodbath when it came to the review the voting of the policy. I do think that the data show that we are an outlier in terms of not being one of the boards that um

106approves a calendar. But I also think that bloodbath was because there were there were unclear um structures. There were unclear directions. So it came across as more arbitrary and capricious than just something that is routine because it's meeting what the policy says it should meet. So I I think if we have a very robust and clear policy the vote is not going to be what it's been in the past. I would like to return to that practice because we are an outlier in that. So having said that, looking at the uh policy that we have in front of us, um I see that that has been included. My other really big stake in the ground when it comes to the calendar policy is we must and I've said this at the dais back in December,

107we must have a component in which we get community feedback and I'm pretty particular about who that community is. It it's not every single person who lives in who who lives in Fairfax County. It is my it's primarily our parents of students who are impacted and our staff. That feedback must be included because we have not collected that in a number of years. I do appreciate the fact that we have calendars that are two to three years out because that's not something we've had before. We don't need to have parents who are asking in January, well, what is it going to look like in the fall? That is tight and that is not the best opportunity for planning. But we must build in a way to to take um feedback and have that inform the

108next set of calendars. Um So I think I'm going to stop here. But by far and large No, I'm not going to stop here. I'm just going to finish the rest of my little time. By far by far and large the data shows that our calendar really reflects what our parents and teachers have shared which is our school year has swung to be much wider. Um we have now 39 days as opposed to 22 days just 20 years ago of days off for students. The length of the school day has now gone from 286 days to 303 days. I see lots of opportunity for us to tighten that up to be more reflective of some of the concerns that have been raised to us. So I'll pause here. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Yeah, um so

109when we last voted on a calendar, I opposed it because while I supported certain elements, I wanted more five-day instructional weeks and the calendar was adopted and I was happy. Even though I wasn't entirely thrilled with uh the version I don't remember what color it was, to be honest, but whatever color was adopted was not what I had voted for, although it I was excited about the prospect of a three-year um calendar cycle. Um and um so I'm supportive of of efforts to have a policy that says that that is one of our goals. Um I do not support the board voting on a calendar and I think that uh it is something that we should designate to the superintendent as we did with our past guidance. Um And that we can judge whether the

110calendar policy, wherever it ends up um is um in alignment with whatever executive limitation um we have for it um once the policy is put in place. >> [clears throat] >> Um I support asking uh for feedback. I will say I I went back and looked at a lot of the survey data that we've been presented with in the past. And I think the difficulty is, and I don't know how and this is something that maybe PEC can kick around or something. Um, frequently the feedback we get from families conflicts with the feedback from the same families. So, they want you know, the longer summer break, they want the two-week winter break, they want the full week for spring break. Um, uh, and um, our board wants tons of different things that require professional development.

111Um, and so, we can't be everything to all people. I don't know how we can articulate that in a survey, right? And I think part of what happens if you end up on a like a rolling cycle of surveying the community is an expectation that something's going to change if they talk about it every single year. Some things just aren't possible, right? So, this is like a wondering I have about when we seek input from the community, how are we level-setting expectations around what's possible in the scheme of things? Um, cuz I've heard some advocate that, you know, summer break has gotten so short for many staff. Um, what are the things that we compromise to bring it back to how it was years ago? Uh, are those things we're willing to give up? And

112if they're not the things, what else could we do? Um, so I'm interested in, you know, the beginning of this conversation or the beginnings of this conversation. Um, you know, I've received uh, a smattering of communications from families every time there's a snow day or um, uh, you know, at the beginning of of the school year about this subject. Um, certainly not more than other subjects, but certainly enough to to think about it. Um, so I'm interested in hearing where other board members are. My advocacy would be that we judge the calendar based on the executive limitations of the superintendent. Um, and delegate that responsibility just like we do many of the responsibilities in the school division. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Uh, Ms. Marcia St. John Cunning. Yes, so my wondering is, um, actually two

113statements that were made by two different colleagues, one which I've, you know, receiving a tremendous amount of feedback. Um, and what that's based on versus we haven't done a survey for parents, we have to have family engagement. So, I'm a little bit confused about, you know, I know that personally in my office, I mean, I have had some some letters and some concerns, but not anything that's I would say is outstanding as opposed to other issues. Um, so that's one of my wonderings. Um, getting the right voices in the surveys is critical and I think that's sometimes we miss the point on that with our surveys and who answers. Um, but I do think surveying families is important. Um, I do agree with Mr. Frisch, um, that, um, parents want everything. They want the two-week

114winter break, they want the one week one week spring break and they want the long summer and then we want the professional development days and uh, we also want to recognize I know some um, people that have advocated for years, like 20 years to have certain certain religious holidays recognized. And are we going to take those away? And we heard a board member at the dais say, I don't want this taken away because this is the only holiday for my community. Um, so I think it does pose a lot of, um, challenges. I agree with Mr. Frisch. I think this is strictly operational and that's where it should stay. Um, >> [sighs] >> I think the data we should look at is, and if we can collect the data of how many kids are absent

115on those religious days. I think that's the data that will be more informative to us. Um, than what someone says. Like someone says, oh, this is very important, but is it that important? Did you send your kid to school that day or not? And I know from working in the schools there were certain days that we had a large amount of absences because kids weren't in school that day because it was being observed. And some weren't. So, I think that's the kind of data we should look at. You know, and that's the data I think that would give us more accurate uh, information of how we should look at this. Um, actually I was just at a school visit this morning and, you know, we talk about this day off and, you know, that they

116were telling me because of the the weather yesterday, they had 30 13% absenteeism because parents kept their kids home because they were scared of the storm. You know, so that's the kind of data we got to look at, you know, so so yay, that was a good decision. That was and then early release also that, you know, and it ended up being 20% of the student population was gone by either kids staying at home or being released earlier than the early release because of parents' concern. That was one school. I would be interested to see how that played out throughout the division. And those are the kind of that's the kind of data I'd like to see when we're looking at the calendar and what days we say are important or aren't important. Because that's

117where the rubber meets the road. Okay, I think that leaves me as a turn. Oh, Robin, sorry, my bad. Uh, Ms. Lady. I can answer Ms. St. John Cunning. Please go ahead. Um, Marty was just mentioning the data we had before that got us to where we are here with the guidance the board in 2023 provided me in terms of holidays and school starts and that type of thing. Um, we have no new data because we, once we implemented the calendar with the holidays, we don't have absence data. So, we can resurface the data that got us to the direction from the board in the fall of '23. Um, but we would we'd have to actually have school on those days to collect new attendance data on those days. Does that make sense? So, I

118think we have the data and would be happy to share it with you. Okay, uh, Ms. Lady. Thank you. Um, and thank you for the work on this. I think the memo that was generated earlier and then this, um, you know, draft policy, um, was great. Um, I've comments, uh, maybe more than directives, but, um, I think when we talk about input, um, I think a rank ordering would be effective, a priority rank ordering because there end up with competing interests. Like, what is the most important one for you? And then it could be a rank ordering like they do in some elections. Um, I also think when it comes to school planning, you know, I know that because of the CBA, things are a lot more rigid and tight because, you know, faculty meetings

119can't run over, um, the percentage of time that's for school and and and elsewhere. I also know that I can't stand now nor could I stand them when I worked in the system, work days after the end of the school year. I am cooked, put a fork in me. I'm going to hand my stuff in and I need to go. And the fact that that we've got two days at the end of this year, to me, there they nothing productive will happen. And I want to front-load them. I mean, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm not saying taking them away. I want teachers to come back. Sorry, teachers. But you're going to have the you're still going to get your two days. I just want you coming back on a Thursday, but not

120on a Monday. And I think that Thursday it could be that back to school day, all the things with the PTSA breakfast in the faculty meetings and then the next day you can work in your classroom. Like that's what they they need more of. And then the next week, Monday through Thursday, it's we've we probably owe you a lot of that time because of staff development, PD, whatever, but then the that Friday you can work in your classroom. So, you get full two full days to work in your classroom because right now that Friday is a self-directed day and they're supposed to be doing all their MyPDE. And I don't know the percentage of them that do all their MyPDE on that day, but I think it's very low. I think they see it as

121a as a day that they don't have to return yet and they figure they'll get to their MyPDE things. So, that's one thought. Also, when I'm looking, I we build in two 10 snow days each year? Yes, ma'am, we do. >> Cuz cuz when I was looking at the actual VDOE policy, um, it's kind of a fascinating thing. It's somewhere in my records here, but the bottom line is that if the state, if we get to a to a point where we've missed five days, we have to make up five and then every other as we get to seven, we make up one, as we get to nine, we make up one. So, I find it fascinating we build in 10 when the state's going to give us a little bit of leeway if we

122have a tip difficult winter. I'd rather only do five cuz it would shorten us again, um, if we only build in five instead of 10. And then in terms of the, um, early like today you were talking about yesterday. Yes, my wife reported the same thing. A lot of people stayed home, a lot of people checked out early and then the buses were actually gone. So, people are very comfortable with that early release. That but when you talk about, um, the number of kids that before we had all the holidays off, the number of kids who actually stayed home, I think it has to be looked at by level because I can tell you at Chantilly on those observance days, those kids came to school. And, you know, but I think at elementary a lot

123more of them stayed home. So, I think it's that differs by level and then I'll take a go back. Thanks, you know, I think my overall thoughts are we need to just be way more clear. There's so much ambiguity ambiguity over who makes the decisions, the superintendent or the board or no one. I think sure the cultural observance days present a challenge sometimes, but the bulk of what's happening, the the annoyance I hear from parents are the early release days, especially as they fall after already scheduled days. It's the days in the fall when people are trying to get to the instructional momentum and then they're off for Veterans Day, which our policy says we're supposed to be in for. Indigenous Peoples Day, you know, that's one that we could change. Um you know, we

124are not using the right wording, guidelines, regulation, policy. This is as operational as it gets. And for the board to have done this, I think is an example of just how bad it gets when you don't review a policy for 12 years. This is 2014. And the one of the other ones is 2013. So, just like grading and boundaries, it is hard. And I I'm hesitant to rely on what happened 6 years ago and the data from 6 years ago cuz the whole world has changed. You know, what works now? What are the other school divisions doing? We have that data. It's in the briefing memo. We can share that publicly as well. I just resent it around to everyone. It's been shared several times. But we see that by and large, I mean I'm

125looking at other school divisions. We have 39 days off for cultural um and federal holidays. At a low, I see What is it? We have 39 days off. I see 29 for Virginia Beach, for Prince George's. You know, 28 um over in Roanoke. We need to be clear to the superintendent that the superintendent needs to make these hard decisions. And for me, the first priority and rank order choice is 5-day school weeks. So, if that means we don't go to school on Indigenous Peoples Day and Veterans Day to keep that fall as a strong start, you know, we need to direct that, fine. But when we have kids that haven't been in school for 2 and 1/2 days on a 5-day week, something is very wrong. So, um I'm eager to hear other questions. I

126know there were some questions about elections. I mean, we really got put through it this year with elections. Um how we vote on this Having a 3-year calendar was wonderful. I remember when Dr. Reed started that. But now it's gotten away from us where we never look at it. So, let's find like a happy balance. What does it mean? If we approve a 3-year calendar, does that mean the next year we're approving the third out year, the new out year, or maybe tweaking the other two? I would love to say and I want to bring a motion soon that says we're going to have school this coming Veterans Day on November 11th, 2026. And I would also love to ask for us to do it on Indigenous Peoples Day on October 12th, 2026, but that's

127a little bit soon. It's still 6 months. People might have plans. But we can tweak next year's calendar a little bit and provide some relief and then really re-examine 2 years out. So, All right, I'll leave it at that. Um who is next? Dr. Anderson and then Mr. Fresh. The elections are definitely not under our control. Um we are just asked to shut down schools and we had this conversation just like What's that? >> told No. Okay, yes. We are told to shut schools down and we had this conversation not too long ago. What is a reasonable path forward to reduce that reliance onto our schools and perhaps shift them into some other public spaces. I mean, I remembered when schools used to be open on election days. I know I was a principal just

128next door in Loudoun County. Schools happened while elections occurred. But there was a very clear mark in our society where it was not safe in order to continue with those elections and having school happen at the same time. Do I think all the elections are um fall into that category? No. But I I do know that some did because I was in that group of principals that were begging our leadership, "Please, we cannot just put up signs that says you can't bring a gun in here and still have a thousand kids in this school and go as business as usual." So, I know that that those safety concerns exist. But who do we need to engage in order to shift some of those responsibilities to more libraries, to more community centers, to other spaces? And

129I I don't know who to ask, so I guess I'm asking you. Well, I think at this point it's the Elections Board. I know I spoke with Mr. Spicer, I think Eric Spicer, about the um recent elections um actually on March 3rd because we had a weather morning. Um and I initially called the county, but was told it wasn't a county um activity. It was the uh Elections Board. So, I think if uh there's an opportunity to meet with the Elections Board or the board wants to send a letter or maybe all boards in the region want to send a letter. Um I think that it's I think the days of being able to secure campuses and secure children and staff during an election when we have no um way of uh um determining who

130can and can't be on campus um and while electioneering is going on, make it difficult, [clears throat] right? So, I think we'd have to talk to the Board of Elections, but maybe there's um I think it would be a a great topic to to collaborate with other school boards on because I think it's a shared concern. I know I've connected with other superintendents that are having to make a decision about April 21st as well. Sure. Let's sign me up for writing the letters and trying to find a different path because I also think that when we also have smaller elections, not the general elections in which every precinct is involved, it also is hard for our community to understand that yes, all the way in Sully, we're going to shut down school because we have

131elections in the Mason District. Um but again, we're one system. But there has to be a different way for that to be addressed rather than a lost day of instruction. And this is on top of what we have going on here. This is an addition to what we have predicted will be happening on the calendar. So, it gets that it gets to be that much harder for us to guarantee that consistent instruction for students. Again, when I was a teacher, I didn't write lesson plans for 2 days. I wrote 5-day lesson plan because one, that's how the book came. But two, that is. But that that was a plan. You were expected to be in school 5 days. And I know our teachers, cuz I've heard this quite a lot from our teachers, they're struggling

132with not being able to get through all of the content, which are now even more than ever before with students. So, if we're going to do a letter, I guess it's that's a state activity. I don't know. Let's just put it on hold for a sec. Thank you. Uh Mr. Fresh. Yeah, um or like at least where I live, our libraries and community centers are centers are already polling places. Um I think the reason that they're in our schools, frankly, are because they are public facilities that um are all over the place, frankly, right? Uh you know, I think it's 160 or 170 of our schools are used as polling places uh helping to power our local democracy. So, I think one of my notes about the draft here was that we need a section

133in here that maybe clearly identifies what our practice will be so that there's not questions from the Election Board about what we're doing or what we have planned. Um and I don't know what the right answer to that necessarily is, whether we say only when it's 100% of our of the county is involved in the election or whether it's when more than half the county is involved in the election or what the answer is necessarily. I don't know if if there's a question about like how to provide security to schools when there's a limited like Dr. Anderson just mentioned like a special election where there's only like, you know, 20 or 30 schools that are impacted. What's the question about security? I I do know that Obviously, it's a bigger issue when there's more turnout.

134Is that they have to provide certain parking for voters. And that is very difficult when for some schools that have limited parking when um we have teachers in the building or staff in the building on an election day. So, maybe this is something that doesn't go in the policy yet, but it's something that we have to revisit. It could be a letter, could be something else. I honestly I'm not sure I know what the solution is. Where I grew up in California, it wasn't just public buildings that facilitated voting. People did it in their garages as well. Um that's probably against state code in Virginia. But you know, my first election I voted in a garage. So, um uh you know, as far as Veterans Day and Indigenous Peoples Day, uh I know the superintendent

135has indicated those would be two easy fixes potentially for next year's calendar. Obviously, the sooner that can be announced, the better for the purposes of expanding the number of 5-day weeks. Um uh I'm not even sure if a motion is necessary for the superintendent to to do that if if she believes that it's possible. I do think it would probably have to be done sooner rather than later. So, uh I'm not going to put the superintendent on the spot about it right now to get her thinking cuz I didn't tell her I was going to ask her about it and I want her to be able to be thoughtful about it. But um it's certainly something that uh I think would be open as a possibility whether or not the board weighs in. And that

136I think would be a way to buy the time buy the board time to have thoughtful consideration of this policy cuz one thing I was thinking about as we talked a little bit more about what it means to gather community input is what does that input actually result in? Like I I'm while it's informative to get a survey result back that tells me, you know, 6,000 families said the following, it is not instructive of anything. It's simply informative. It doesn't tell me what percentage of families feel a certain way or what demographic groups of certain families feel a different way or what types of school levels feel a certain way. It only shows me what the people who responded to that survey within those groups feel. And the highly motivated people who are inclined to

137vote in those or participate in those surveys are not necessarily scientifically representative. So, whatever we do in terms of surveying people, it needs to be, you know, have some scientific weight to it or else it's almost pointless. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Ms. Young Cunningham. Yeah, I just wanted to weigh in on the election question. Like Mr. Frisch, I don't know what the solution is, but I do know that in the day and time that we're living in, I certainly don't want to be in a position where I'm eliminating sites where people can have access to voting. And I think one of the reasons that we do use schools is because they are within our neighborhoods and they are accessible to a lot of people. Um there are not as many libraries as there are schools

138or rec centers. And I know like in my area with they we do use some rec centers and we do use some libraries, but it's also the place where people feel safe. It's a community space that people feel safe. Um and barring, you know, Virginia code changing to where we can use garages or places of worship or something like that, um I certainly do not want to do anything at least during this day and age to do anything that's going to hinder or prevent people from or prevent people or create barriers from voting. Okay, I believe I haven't had a turn yet and we are getting closer to the end. So, did you have a turn? I'm sorry. Did I? Okay. Go ahead, miss lady. You had a turn. No, I just want to re-emphasize

139the fact that I think that at the end of the day what's the priority is 5-day weeks and maintaining the momentum of instruction. I think that's absolutely we have to do that. I'm fine with eliminating with attending school on Veterans Day and Indigenous Peoples Day. I think there's a lot of consternation about the 3-hour and 2-hour delays. I think that they need to be be consistent. I think it's hard on elementary parents that they don't know when's the two, when's the three. Um I would need teacher input to understand better um what's happening on those early releases at the end of the quarter uh because they are all followed, if I recollect the calendar, by a teacher work day. So, I don't know if they think if they're actually using that um because I know

140at middle schools, especially at the end of the second quarter cuz they're doing flipping their master to semester classes that it's a hard that that takes time. So, maybe we can just have the end of quarter semester day and eliminate first and third quarter as early releases. I don't know, that's teacher input. And then the other thing is in terms of the early releases for for elementary, I mean that's a planning issue. I don't know how much is it's related to the CBA, but I absolutely want them moved to Friday because Wednesday is disruptive and I want them done in advance and not on a day when on a week when we have an another early release or we have a day off. I think we can be more strategic when we look at the

141calendar to to to tease that out. Um but yeah, I mean absolutely um 5-day weeks is a dream. Okay, um let me share a a final thought and then let's figure out our next step for this policy. So, look, the policy can make it clear that the superintendent is to find the options that create the most momentum for instruction and a stable routine for children and their families. The superintendent has brought back many versions of operational things, how to create later middle school start times, boundary changes, middle school AAP centers. This is not out of the capabilities of our superintendent. And it's not lost on me that this is incredibly operational. And yet we're we're not going to solve about why is it on us to ask about the use of our buildings with other

142local agencies. I've been raising this with the facilities committee, with the county. That is an opera that is a county executive to superintendent thing. It is what why there are so many things here that we don't need to be in the weeds on. Um regarding the surveys, we've never evaluated how it's going with early release. The superintendent sent us a memo on Friday from the early release review committee that I thought was really um helpful in understanding what teachers are looking for. Um but again, I'm not their boss directly, right? I'm not the director of instruction. The superintendent is over that. So, what does she think? Should we have early release days? Should we make end of quarter a full day? You know, I don't know, but what I do know is the road map

143is in the policy. Considering the impact of the collective bargaining. So, I I guess for me how do we want to proceed with this? Um there are some questions that need to be answered. Some of them are in here, some of them were raised. Um again, I'm going to personally bring a motion to see about the fall days in '26. I mean, Dr. Reed and I spoke just before this meeting. It seems like Veterans Day could be a go for a school day, Indigenous Peoples Day maybe not. I said, "Okay, is this an operational thing you want to do?" And the answer was no, bring it as a motion. So, I'm bringing it as a motion. Again, operational, but that's what I'm going to have to do and I hope you all support me. Um

144I don't know yet about Indigenous Peoples Day. I don't want to ruin people's vacations, but we you know, anyway. So, I guess for next steps, do we want to do what we did with the AI policy, which is gather up remaining questions and send them back so that we can have a continued discussion in a month and see how much closer we can get? So, I see Mr. Frisch's hand and then Dr. Anderson. Yeah, I I was going to I forgot to mention this at the end of my comments, so I apologize. I was going to suggest that um yes, but I also think there's probably a do out that we want to add to this when we do move it forward, which is yes, everybody should come ready for the next meeting with thoughts,

145ideas, amendments, et cetera. Talk to colleagues, whatever. When we send [clears throat] it to the board, um maybe this is one of those things where we ask that they schedule a work session with it. And here's why I say that. Um if certain accommodations can be made for next year's calendar, um the this is not on the same kind of like a tight trajectory as the previous policy we were discussing. So, I think that we could be more methodical with our board colleagues in terms of, you know, maybe even having a full work session that either results in a policy coming to the full board or gives us food for thought for the committee to do one more thing on the draft before sending it to the full board. It doesn't have to be, you

146know, we've had numerous policies that have had a work session in between governance considerations that have resulted in better work. So, um you know, we're not there yet. We'll see where we are when people are comfortable with passing it out of out of governance, but that would be my advocacy. So, I would use the time between now and then to get ready for um whatever final changes we want to make to the the draft. Okay, so Mr. Frisch, just to confirm my understanding, you're suggesting that we the committee members review it and then consider seeking it to go on to a work session. Is that right? Yeah, when we when we come back at the the meeting next month, like my my advocacy, depending on on where we end up, but my advocacy would be

147that when we finish, if we're sending it on to the board at the end of that meeting, that we would do so with a with a request that the chair and vice chair consider finding space for a work session. That may not be possible in this school year, which would mean that next fall we're kicking off with something on that or something like that, but I that would be my my preference. Yeah, no, I okay, so that's up for consideration. I mean, I just want to be sure that the superintendent then comes with some you know, again, responses to this like is it feasible or can we get to agreement? I mean, I don't want to bring a policy to the board that's going to fail, right? We got to figure out what people Yeah.

148Well, and I I don't think I'm the only one, but I use part of my my weekly time with the superintendent to talk about this kind of stuff. So, I'm hopeful to get her feedback in in those conversations too. And obviously it's not the same as sending stuff over for like formal consideration of staff or whatever, but um if we have this committee meeting on it and there's a work session and there's more committee time potentially, we are far more likely to end up with a better end product. Okay, so just to confirm though when we are going to come back to this next. Okay, as much as I want to go as fast as possible, I recognize we also sent forward the AI policy and that's a lot for staff as well. So, maybe

149we could look to have the calendar input um after the March the April 19th governance committee or maybe we could just get back to the superintendent, but what I guess what I'm trying to say is to not overburden staff over the spring break. The priority be the AI policy, and then we can work out with the superintendent when the follow-up to the calendar would be. I think that makes sense. Trying to be reasonable here, so Okay. So, clerk team, do you have that written down? So, we'll have to come back to the superintendent and figure out when to next have the discussion. So, it might not be at the next governance meeting. It might be at the to be scheduled one later in April or early May, right? I see lots of confused faces. I

150Dr. Anderson. Um I do agree. I don't think we need to add anything else else right now because we want them to focus on the AI policy, so I think we should take that as a pause. Um if the superintendent feels that it is more expedient to have a motion around those two dates, I I don't think that ruins the work. Let's just go ahead and have that motion be made so at least they have the um direction to move into for next year's calendar. Um and the last thing next to last thing, I did share with you all the data that Marty had pro- Mr. Smith provided us many years ago that showed all of the things that you were asking for. Please discount the first set. I For some reason, I had one

151PDF document. You need the Excel document that has all of the tabs with all of the different um disaggregated data. Um and I had a question because I saw it on the policy before, and of course, it continued with the new draft. There was a clear demarcation of semesters. Can someone help me better understand that? Is that because of the half year? Because we've had this conversation regarding semesters and what they mean here. I don't know if that's a you question, Mr. Smith or Dr. Reed. Um there may have been a demarcation of semesters, but it doesn't affect the length of the calendar or the 5-day weeks. I mean, it's unrelated to that. >> Okay, cuz it showed up in the policy. Just made me wonder was there something we were missing in terms of

152when semesters needed to to end. >> Are you talking about the draft policy from 2023? >> in the original, too, I believe. Okay. I just thought maybe I There was something I didn't know. >> for the calendar. I believe that was posted and still is available publicly on the under the governance committee from the fall of 2023 in November, and I don't know if the semester showed up in that or if it was pre that, Marty, or Because that one from governance from 2023 cuz I do have that here, too. We That never went anywhere in terms of >> as a and it ended up being direction because it was tabled. It didn't get moved forward as policy. It was tabled with the direction. >> And I do want to say I I'm still questioning

153that direction because our direction is as a body, and I don't recall a vote on that to give that direction, and I know we had that conversation, but >> We did, and division counsel answered that that it was indeed done. Yeah, in the previous discussion, good afternoon, everyone. >> [clears throat] >> Excuse me. Uh with the semester discussion, at some point, there was a discussion around trimesters and other ways to delineate the year, and so many boards ago, there was a discussion around maintaining a semester approach versus a trimester or or other way of uh again breaking up the school year. >> But that explains the fact that it was kind of up in center front and center. >> Yeah, I don't think that would affect the length or the days, but that um There

154are It's true. There are some divisions around the country that split the year by three or So, I think it's a great question. Okay. Um it's 6:00. Um Mr. Frisch, what do you think about sharing I can get this done with you guys in 7 minutes. Seven? Okay. I mean, I'm okay for it. It would be a big thing to do if we could do it. It's and it's not Go for it, Mr. Frisch. Go for it. All right. Can we pull up the the Google Doc, please? My goal here is to walk you through as I've talked to Chair Maren, I think we all agree that there are things that are are incorrect in the governance manual, either because we've already voted to change it or because it's just from a previous era where

155we don't call this strategic plan something anymore. Then there are things that we all do in practice or think that should be adjusted in the strategic in the governance manual. And then there are things that are probably highly debatable between board members or whatever. This is the first thing. This is just like a fact check of the strategic governance manual so that what we're using currently reflects prac- reflects board direction, and they're all linked, as well as removes things like the old Ignite strategic plan and things like that that we no longer refer to anymore. So, I'm going to go page by page and show you all the work. On the first page, you'll notice that the board gave direction to uh address the edits to the strategic plan in December of 2025. Those are

156not yet in the current version online, so they need to be added. We We don't have to worry about that. The board's already voted to do that, so it just needs to be updated. If you scroll keep scrolling until you get to the table of contents, uh again, there's an item here adding the admin committee. The board did that quite a while ago. It just hasn't been added into the governance manual, so you'll see the link there, the board action that resulted in that. Same thing with the conversation about FPAC there in the table of contents. Um same thing about these additions around CPDC in the appendices. These So, thus far, everything that I've noted are things that the board has already voted to do. They're just not there yet. We're about to enter into

157a section where there are things that are updated based on an inaccuracy. So, when we get to page 10, it has strategic plan overview. And here you'll notice that it used to talk about the Ignite strategic plan, and it listed what the the goals of the Ignite strategic plan are. This now uses language from our strategic plan website to talk about the current strategic plan. Um and the pillars, the goals, and the equity commitments. Um So, that language is all from that site, just repurposed into the governance manual. Uh so, that is the first factual correction to the governance manual that I'm putting forward here. Again, all language from the strategic plan. It's quoting verbatim the goals, uh the equity uh commitments, etc. Continuing on in on page 12, um this just changes it to

158correct it from three goals to five goals, which is the current strategic plan. Continuing on uh to page Just a moment. And the reason this doesn't look like the normal um strategic uh governance manual is because I removed all the formatting. If you go to page 35, you'll see that there's a correction to remove the reference to Ignite, which is no longer the name of our strategic plan. And then I I fixed typo there as well. And then you continue scrolling. On page 43, again, a correction for a a typo related to the strategic plan having five goals. On page 44, these are more uh pointing out that we've already made these changes, and they just are not currently reflected in the strategic governance manual. Uh so, I've linked the board's action that that made

159these changes. It also updates the the name of our uh foundation. So again, I'm just pointing out that these are either things that we've already done or things that are just incorrect. Scrolling again to page 46, uh it pick it uh fixes a few typos. And at the bottom of the page, it adds the admin committee again, just like we did previously, to reflect the board's vote to do to create the committee. Um The next page, 47, is the addition of the admin committee, which again was approved by the board previously. It's just not in the governance manual yet, uh even though we voted to do so. So, that's the language that was approved by the board previously. On the next page, 48, this is the language around CPDC that was approved by the board

160um a couple months ago. It's just not reflected in the current governance manual yet, even though we've already approved the language. Uh scrolling on to uh there's a typo at the bottom of page 49 that is fixed, uh and two typos on page 50. And another set of typos on 51 and 52. And then on page 53, um again, in there's a couple typos, but also the striking of of FPAC per the board's votes. Um and the renumbering of some Roman numerals. And on page 55, uh more uh a few more typos fixed, small like one-character typos. We keep scrolling on page 58. Um it There's a correction for the current strategic plan instead of Ignite. And then I think we're near the end. Oh, another typo at the bottom of page 65. And then,

161on 70 on page 70, there's a couple typos and the fixing of a URL. At the bottom of page 70, um this is a reflection of the board's past vote on that we just had on the timing of of public comment. Mr. Frisch, is that email address correct? Citizen Participation at fcps.edu. I believe so. Okay. Um if you keep scrolling, >> Citizen at Oh, it's not? What is it? Community Participation. Ah, good catch. Thank you. It's just right at my eye level in like 55, so I saw it. >> [laughter] >> All right, let me just um fix that. All right, Mr. Frisch, you're doing great, but you're at like 7 minutes, so All right. >> Keep plugging along. >> that might be That very well might be Uh There, on page 91, um the

162state has a new in um rubric that we used in our last evaluation. We just need to insert that here. It's almost identical. They just added a new section. Um and I didn't want [clears throat] to copy and paste the whole thing. Um and then, on page um this is reflective of the board's conscious uh on the appointments. And then, uh page 93 94, again, this is related to the CPDC FPEC changes that were approved by the board. Um a revision to the Roman numerals at the bottom of page 95. Um and we are now in the appendices and I believe at the very bottom, on the last page, we add 70 and 71 to reflect the most recent changes to the governance manual. And that's it. So, none of these are things that the

163board hasn't either already approved um and they're just not reflected yet or that are just factually inaccurate cuz we call it something else now or we do something else now. And then, Mr. >> that Sorry. Would there be a 72 that captures all these changes then? After the board votes on it. >> Mhm. Okay. All right, are there any questions or can I make a motion? Um can I make a motion as chair? No. Does someone want to move that the Governance Committee send the edits to the Governance Manual as reviewed? Mr. Frisch is moving that the government Ms. St. John Cunningham is seconding that the Governance Committee send the edits to the Governance Manual as reviewed to the full board for consideration. Any further comment? On the consent agenda, please. If For for consideration

164on the consent agenda. Yeah. And I can send the clerk my written motion language. Okay, any further comment from the motion makers? No, this is tremendous work. Okay, all those in favor of sending it to the full board for consideration on the consent agenda, that is unanimous. Well done. >> Thanks, all. And at 6:12, this Governance Committee meeting is adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Frisch. Bye.