001Are you ready? make sure >> we have to stand here. >> Which is why I said we can't do that again because she said it doesn't pick up. So I said my ADHD is not work. >> Did we check the clicker? I didn't even check. >> It does. It works. >> I checked it. It works. >> It was working earlier. So, let's just hope it continues to work. Hey, how are you doing? >> Have you been a good girl? >> Yes, I have. Mhm. All right, we are going to get started. So, welcome. Thank you for being here tonight. My name is Daniel Smith and I have the honor of serving as superintendent of schools here in Stafford County. I'm excited that you're here tonight. Um, especially as we're tonight as we kick off 2026
002with our first board meeting tonight. Um, you are here because you are being recommended for uh one or more of our advisory committees. And, you know, just wanted to say start off by saying thank you. Um, thank you for lending your voice, your expertise, your experiences, your perspectives, uh, to the work that happens in our schools. The advisory committees are so critical in the work that we do because we get to hear from so many different perspectives that helps to inform our work to say, "Hey, have you thought about this? Have you thought about that?" So many of you come um as experts in different fields, which which is great that we can tap into some of that expertise to hear what you have to say to make sure we are doing the absolute best
003job that we can for our kids, for our staff, and for our community. And so our board, I know um many members of our board are here tonight um and you will you will get to meet them throughout. But I just want to I want to see if members of our school board I see I know some of them took a seat. I see Miss Blackwell, Miss Finger Holtz, I know Miss Healey is I saw her here. I saw Dr. Warner here. Um so they are here with you as well. They are serve they serve on the advisories. Um and there we have representatives there on the advisories as well. So they'll you'll get to meet them, get to interact with them um on some of those advisory groups. And so um again, just thank
004you. It makes us better by working together and understanding uh your perspective, your needs, the needs of your children, uh your neighbors children, your our our entire community. So, I really appreciate you being here tonight. You are here for a couple of things we're going to do tonight. First and for first for first and foremost is around FOYA training. And um after tonight and you're appointed as a part of the advisory committee, you will be a part of a a public body which uh means you are subject to FOYA. And so, uh, Miss Boatright is our division council and she's going to guide you through what it means around FOYA. What does that really mean for you, um, so that we can tell you that upfront, you can have the training and know what that
005what that entails. Um, Dr. Amanda Schutz is our chief of staff and she is going to also share with you some information around our strategic plan. Our strategic plan guides the work of um, our staff and our schools each and every day in terms of where we are headed as as a school system. And so she's going to do a brief overview of some of that work. We are now in year four of our five-year strategic plan. And then she's also going to talk to you. I think it's important to know about our board's legislative priorities. And so our board has adopted legislative priorities as we come AC come upon another general assembly session, what we will be advocating for, what we feel like we could really use in terms of state and federal advocacy
006and support um as we can continue to do this work. So uh that will be all in just a very short amount of time. Uh, and so I'm not going to take more time, but I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to uh, Miss Boatright that's going to lead us through for you. >> Okay. Good evening everybody and welcome. Thank you for being here. Really do appreciate it. So, like Dr. Smith said, "As members of advisory committees appointed by the school board, you are um as such a public body as well. So tonight, the purpose of this training is to talk about the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, otherwise shortened down to FOYA, and it's going to be very high level um and very applicable to you. Um, and I'm going to try
007to assist you with some potential issues that could come up and give you some tips to avoid those issues. So, in that way, we're going to give a definition of FOYA and talk about what it is. What is a public record? What is a public meeting? We're going to talk about email communications, all virtual meetings when they're allowed, remote attendance for you, and what's the foyer process in case there's a foyer request. Okay. And the disclaimer, this is not specific legal advice. So, what's FOYA? See that big old sun up there? FOYA is about open access to two things in Virginia. That's public records and meetings. Public records are produced when a member of a public body produces something that's in writing or some type of physical or electronic format and it's used for the
008transaction of public business. You're going to see that definition later, but it's about operating in the open. That's what the Freedom of Information Act is. So under the law, all meetings and public records are presumed to be open unless there is an exemption that applies. So we have to have free entry into meetings. We have to post whenever there is a meeting um so that the public can attend. So how does FOYA apply to you all? FOYA applies to all public bodies. So for instance that would be like the school board, board of supervisors, any legislative um body but more importantly for you guys is any appointed committees of a public body. So tonight the board will appoint you to those advisory committees and that's what brings you under the category of a public body.
009What's a public meeting? Whenever a public body advisory committee meets to discuss or conduct public business, that's a public meeting. So you have to have at least three members. Caveat unless you have a committee that only has three members and it's two, but the quorum but the quorum provided is really three members. when you have those three members who were sitting around talking and if you're talking about public business that's a meeting regardless of what you call it. There may be sometimes when there isn't a quorum that's present but you got three members and if you guys are talking about advisory committee business it is a meeting. Even if you're not voting or taking minutes or doing something like that it still counts as a public meeting. Okay, there is a notice requirement under FOYA
010for any type of public meeting in the state of Virginia and it's three working days prior. Okay, so that's why it's important not to have meetings that we haven't noticed. Can you have a public meeting via email or social media? Look at that picture. What are those people doing? They have their phones out. They could be texting each other. You can have meetings within meetings. So, they could be texting each other if it's simultaneous contemporaneous type of communication and it's about public meeting. Your your text message thread could possibly constitute a public meeting if it's three or more of you doing it and it's like in real time. So just that's just something to avoid and to be mindful about. If you want further information about this, there is the foyer council in Virginia. They
011do have a guide that addresses all of this. So how can we avoid some of this stuff? If it's an email, use your staff liaison. Every single advisory committee has a member of our staff who will serve as your liaison. That's a great way of disseminating information. And for those of you who have served before, you're um used to going through your staff liaison. But when you're replying all and communicating in real time, you could end up having one of those email public meetings and it will not have been noticed. So that will be an illegal meeting that we don't want to have all virtual meetings. So there are two instances in which this is allowed. So remember, we don't want to talk about it, but back in COVID, um we had a governor declared
012state of emergency. All of our meetings all over the Commonwealth, all over the nation really were virtual. So those were all virtual meetings. The law in the state of Virginia was changed a couple of years ago to allow, for instance, schoolboard committees to have all virtual meetings. But there are some exceptions and there are some special rules that do apply. You can only have two or 50% per year, whichever is greater. So it's 50% of the total number of meetings that you have. You can't hold them consecutively. Two committee members can be together remotely, but if you have more than two together, then that remote location, wherever it is, has to be open to the public. Um, and there are some other requirements like we still have to notice it. If it's going to be
013all virtual, we have to make sure there's at least audio so that the public who wants to participate and to hear it can can hear it. We have to have contact information, agendas. So, there are a whole lot of rules again go through the staff liaison to um coordinate that with our board clerk. Remote participation. Sometimes life happens and there are times when you may not be able to physically make a meeting. There are some provisions in our state law that will allow you individually to participate electronically in that meeting. Again, we do have some rules. First, everything is outlined in the schoolboard policy. That's a great place to find all the rules that are in one place as opposed to going to the state code where they're in multiple provisions all over the place.
014There has to be a quorum physically assembled in one location. So, we're talking about if there going to make this up 10 members of your committee, the quorum has to be there. Um but this is about allowing you to participate individually. So there are some very specific reasons under which this is allowed. Temporary or permanent disability of either you or you're doing some caregiving responsibilities for a family member. You can participate remotely. It is unlimited. If you have a personal matter or a personal issue, you do have to identify what that is, but you're limited to two meetings or 25% of your scheduled meetings, whichever is greater. This is in a calendar year, and that's the length of your appointment. If your principal residence is 60 miles away, that's for a pretty big county. Um,
015it's unlimited. um your remote participation if you're um participating due to disability or because you have caregiver responsibilities it does count towards the physical quum. So this was a change that was made in the state law a couple of years ago. I think it's really good especially for advisory committees because it's good to have a cross-section of people participating but real life does happen and there are times when you will need to participate remotely. So this is a great way so that we can ensure that we're able to have a legally constituted meeting with a quorum but also to get that widespread participation of our community. So that's public meetings. The other thing that FOYA does as I explained earlier is it it governs public records. What is a public record? Almost any and anything.
016Almost every and anything. Um, if it can be handwritten, it can be on paper, it can be in some electronic format, audio format, anything that's prepared or owned by the public body, you um, and it's used for the purpose of transacting public business. That's the business of the advisory committee. That's a public record. If it's not being used um for the transaction of public business, it's not a public record. Okay. Emails and text messages question mark may be a public record but not necessarily. It depends upon the purpose. It has to be in the conducting of the public business by a public member. Um, so advisory committee emails that we send back and forth, those are public records. Text messages, again, if it's conducting public business, you're texting back and forth like those people who
017were in that meeting, that could be a public record. So, you want to write each and every one of those as if though you're just going to have it broadcast to everybody. Foyer requests are real. Um, we have a foyer officer who spends a lot of time responding to um, foyer requests and it's a lot of digging through emails a lot of the times. So, you just want to be careful what you write. I've seen some that have been a little questionable, but we have to give it to the individual who requested it. So in the state of Virginia, any citizen or um media or newspaper of general circulation, they have the right to request anything under FOYA. So they're going to get it. Um, one thing that I would advise as members of a
018public body, um, for the advisory committees, you can either, if it's too much trouble setting up a separate email, at least set up a separate folder because that's an easy way of being able to find things. So, for us, there is no such thing as really delete, and delete is gone. It can get that stuff out of the trash can. that stuff is never gone. It's always there. So, just um know that. I'll tell you what isn't foilable. I always advise people, hey, you know what? We all want to vent sometimes. It happens. We're all human. So, if you want to do that, pick up the phone because when you pick up the phone and call somebody, it's not for anymore. So, sometimes you just want to phone a friend, okay? And say what you
019have to say. Don't put it in the email. Okay? Because those people who you trust, especially if a text message, they have screenshotted that thing. You know, before you can take it away under iPhone, now you can do that. But sometimes people are a little quick with the little screenshot. And then guess what? Your message is now preserved forever and ever. So retention of emails and text messages. So in Virginia as public bodies, we are subject to the Library of Virginia record retention schedule. So unfortunately there is no magic number that I can give you in terms of years that records have to be retained. The length of time depends upon the content of the public record. So if it's an email or a text message, it depends upon the content. So there is no
020magic three years, four years, five years, depends upon what you write. So if you click on that, you'll pull up the schedule and it's pretty long. So, you have to go through it and then it's broken down by category, you know, like the different types of records and then it'll say this many years or this many months. Sometimes it's zero, but that's pretty rare. Who can request a public record? I've already kind of talked about this. Any Virginia citizen, newspaper, radio, magazine of general circulation. The important the really important point here is it can be for any reason and motive is irrelevant. Sometimes the motive is a little questionable. Um sometimes people even put out there the reason why they're um doing it. Um but we can't question it. We still have to respond to
021it if they are a Virginia citizen or a newspaper general circulation in Virginia. What if you get a foyer request? Sometimes you just might go real fast. Email, pick up the phone, call our foyer officer. Her name is Sandra Osborne. She is the She's waving back there with the fuchsia top on. She is your person. So, she's our chief communications officer, but she's also our foyer officer for Stafford County Public Schools. There's her email address and her phone number. But it's really important that we timely know about these things because there is a deadline. So there are some time restrictions by which a foyer has to be responded to. There are some opportunities to extend but we wouldn't want that to be because we didn't get it for some reason. So, and there also could
022be some fees. And a lot of the times, um, Miss Osborne has to clarify exactly what it is that the individual wants, um, by time periods and just by sometimes emailing them or talking to them just to be sure that we're getting them what they actually have requested. So, you may be asking, what's the big deal about all of all of this? Well, it's a pretty big um deal because the school board is responsible for making sure that we comply with FOYA and the burden of proof is on the school board to prove compliance. So, there are some uh penalties for failure to follow foyer procedures and the foyer law. Um, and there's a presumption there, which is pretty important. So, there could be attorney's fees, there are civil penalties, there are penalties for repeat
023offenders. Um, and if somebody destroys or alters a record, it could be up to $100 per record. The judge gets to decide that. There are some resources out there. Um, if you want additional information, there's a FOYA advisory council. They are required under Virginia law and if you have any questions I'm also available to um answer any questions that you may have. A lot of the times people do go through their staff liaison for the questions and the questions will come to me that way. So I want to thank you for your service on or willing to be on a school board advisory committee. And now we'll have Dr. Schutz. First, I would just like to echo Dr. Smith's and and um Miss Boat writes, "Thanks as both a parent and a staff member. Truly
024appreciative that you're giving of your time. Um sometimes it's going to be cold, sometimes it's going to be dark, sometimes it's going to be uncomfortable, but you're doing it anyway." And I know that I um just am summarizing the gratitude that all of us feel for your giving of your time to serve on these committees. So I get the pleasure of going over our strategic plan and then introducing the school board's legislative priorities to you tonight. So four components in a strategic plan. The acronym is ghost. Don't know how you feel about it. If you like a ghost, yay. If you don't, okay, this is how we remember it. It has four components. Goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics. and they're all interrelated. I like to kind of think of it as a funnel. So the
025goals are the big broad statements of what we're looking to accomplish. We then begin to operationalize those through objectives. That's how we define how the goals are going to get accomplished. That's how we're hoping to accomplish those goals. We further refine those by identifying strategies. Those are specific approaches. So when we look at our strategies, you're going to see that they're very specific and measurable. And then finally, we have tactics. And there are a lot of them throughout our plan. 164 of them to be exact. And those are the specific activities that we've identified to execute ultimately the strategies, objectives, and then the goals. It'll make a little bit more sense as we get into this particulars of our plan. So, in our strategic plan, as Dr. Smith mentioned, we're actually in year four. So,
026the school year that we're currently in is year four of our five-year plan. So, we're actually beginning the the beginning stages of putting together what we're going to be putting forth as our next strategic plan while we are still working hard to accomplish the goals and the objectives and the strategies and the tactics that we've outlined in our current plan. So, our current plan, we've identified four primary goals. The first is ensuring meaningful post-secary opportunities for all students. The second is ensuring high expectations and academic performance for all of our learners learners prek all the way up through 12 grade 12. The third is in uh making sure that we have a safe, engaging and welcoming environment in all of our schools and all of our buildings. And the fourth goal is supporting and investing
027in all of our staff. As we know, investing in our people is how we're going to hopefully produce the results for our students. So as part of our continuous improvement, we need to have a way to measure our progress. Our strategic planning approach is a responsive strategic plan. So some organizations put a lot of time into writing a plan and then it gets shelved and not really looked at again until someone says, "Hey, I think that plan's about to expire." We take a responsive strategic planning approach. And what that means is that we are continuously looking at our progress and looking for ways that we might to need to adjust as the course. You can imagine we write a plan and then as we execute throughout the years some things might change the environment might
028change external pressures might change. So we need to make sure that we're continuing to make progress towards our ultimately those big goals. And we have formed a strategic plan steering committee that's new this year with um Dr. Smith's um coming on board. He introduced the concept of a strategic plan steering committee which is much broader. So we have identified goal chairs through our senior leadership and then we also have goal chairs from our building level principles. So we're working in this work together broad committees. Really quickly we've identified a methodology for tracking progress. As you know it's important to start to quantify and to wrap our heads around the progress that we're making. So what we've done is evaluated each tactic. I mentioned there's so many of them. So, we have our broad goal chair
029teams um and their broader committees to look into the progress on each of those tactics, beginning to think about how we're going to quantify and measure those. We introduced a four-point scale, a zero, one, two, and a three. The zero on one end of the continuum indicating that we're just in the initial planning stages. And a three would be that's where we feel that we have either accomplished that tactic or it would be progress would be ongoing something that we would expect to continue to accomplish but without a lot of refinement on our end. So as you can imagine we started year one somewhere in the low you know what 08.7 but as we're currently in our fourth year and we just reported out our year three progress we've moved considerably along the continuum and
030made some adjustments along the way. So here in summary this is year three. So we just completed last school year would be school our our year three of our strategic plan. And you can see on this slide I know there are a lot of numbers but that third column where we talk about the year three mean that an M means mean or an average a mathematical average for all of those tactics. So as you might recall I just mentioned we started on a scale that began as an anchor point of a zero all the way to a three. So you can see this is an average for all of them. We're making considerable progress along all of those four goals. Getting a little bit of specifics here for you for goal one. Again, reminder, this
031is ensuring meaningful post-secondary outcomes for all of our students. You can see some specific here specifics here. So, these are all of the objectives, five objectives that we have related to goal one. We have again we have those three columns of progress. We can see that we've made considerable progress um along the objectives related to goal one. Moving here into goal two, supporting high expectations for academic performance and expanding opportunities for each of our students. Again, looking at our littlest learners in preschool all the way up through grade 12, considering that continuum, we have five objectives related to this goal. And just like we saw in goal one, we've made some progress along the way from year one all the way till year three. Our third goal is to ensure that every student, staff, and
032family member receives a safe, engaging, engaging, and welcoming environment in all of our schools and all of our buildings. We have six objectives that are associated with this goal. Just as we had in the prior goals, we've made progress. We do, you might note here that we have two specific objectives that were under the 2.0 mark. So, we're paying particular object uh attention to those as we're currently in year four. knowing that we still have that last year to complete um and move towards a three. What we're looking at there in particular the tactics that we have assoc and strategies associated with those objectives are are there some that we need to adjust and change? Have we had some in um unanticipated pressures either from the environment or legislative changes? We know that we've had
033some that maybe we need to adjust our approach to how we're going to accomplish those strategies, those tactics, ultimately those goals. And finally, our fourth goal is supporting and investing in all of our staff. We have five objectives associated with this goal. Just as we had in the prior three goals, we've made demonstrable progress from year one to year three. And again, we see that there is one objective that fell below that 2.0 mark. So, we're paying particular attention to th the strategies and tactics associated with that objective so that we can continue to make progress on our strategic plan through the second half of our fourth our fourth year of the plan and then certainly moving into our fifth and final year next school year. Okay. So, quick turning of attention in the last
034few moments that I have with you um towards our school board's identified legislative priorities. So, tomorrow kicks off the general assembly session um in Richmond. So, what a timely time for us to discuss the school board's priorities then tonight. So, we've identified nine distinct priorities. I know there's a lot of words up here, so I'm going to read them to you. Uh the first is addressing the joint legislative audit and review committee. Um that would be JARK if you're familiar with that acronym. The recommendations regarding the standards of quality funding formula. What we've identified is some several areas where we have um Jark has identified and we of course agree have felt um inadequate frankly to the needs that we have. So what the school board is proposing and supporting is addressing the recommendations that
035were put forth by that JARK study in 2023 and to make progress um in addressing those gaps. The second legislative priority is addressing the impact of the cost of competing adjustment or KOKA. you might have heard of that acronym and the disabled veterans tax relief that we experience here in Stafford County. We are disproportionately affected by both um in an adverse way in terms of the revenue that we as a county are able to collect and then of course what um we get shared through the schools. Third priority supporting an accountability system and a standards of learning assessment process reform. You might have heard that there have been some accountability changes coming through the state. And so what our school board is supporting in terms of a priority is introducing an accountability system and an
036so assessment process that makes sense, that's fair, that's reasonable, not just for our school division, but for our families and our students. Fourth goal is supporting funding for federal mandates. These would include 504 plans, IDA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, um ESSA, and others for which um the federal we have federal mandates, but we don't have the funding to support all of the activities associated with those. Title one would be another. Uh fifth priority is addressing the true needs for mental health supports. uh recognizing that some of the funding formulas were created during a time when um mental health was not quite as uh the mental health needs were not quite as prevalent um or as the the experience doesn't match the funding that we have in that area. Um, sixth goal, excuse me,
037priority is to allow the ability for Stafford County by referendum, if decided, to impose a local sales and use tax up to 1% to assist in school construction and renovation costs. Seventh priority is to support the funding for technology infrastructure. Again, recognizing that this uh formula that or the the funding that's provided is just simply not adequate to cover the needs that we have. um since that funding formula was introduced. Priority number eight is to enhance the standards of quality in key areas particularly related to staffing. We know that we are um just simply inadequately funded um particularly related to um English language learners and again those mental health support positions among others. And then our final ninth priority identified by the school board for 2026 is to address the privacy implications of the law
038that requires a school notification of the administration of NARCAM or a suspected overdose. Just making sure that we are adequately balancing the need to protect the privacy of the student affected with the desire to notify the community so that there can be some protections put in place for the broader school community. So we have nine identified goals and priorities and um that will conclude my portion of tonight. Um as Miss Boatright mentioned uh available for questions. You can reach me uh via email or set up a phone call. I'm happy to talk with any of you. Um just echo again the thanks that we all share for you giving of your time to serve on the committee. So the slides I I was just made aware that slides and recording will be made available to
039all committee members. So if they weren't able to attend tonight, they will receive the same information. And so next up on tonight's agenda is for you to collect and convene in within your advisory committee. A little bit of a meet and greet, get to know each other for the work that you'll be doing throughout the year. If you go out through those doors, wrap around to the side, you'll see tables set up with a little table tent that has the name of your committee on it. Thank you so much. Appreciate your attention.