2/12/2026 - FCPS School Board Meeting

001The time is 7 o'lock p.m. and this February 12th, 2026 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence of silence and a performances and performances of the national anthem and lift every voice and sing by the Daniel's run singers under the direction of Michelle McCarten. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Oh, say can you see by the dawn early light so proudly we held at the twilight last gleaming whose brush stripes and bright stars through the perilous Fight for the red we were so gallently streaming and the rock is red in it through

002the night that our flag was still there. Oh say the stars may go better and away for the land of the free and the home of the brave. Lift every voice and sing till earth and heaven. Heaven ring with the harmony of liberty. Let our rejoicing Christing. Let us return light in the rolling sea. Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us. Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us. Let the rising sun be. Let us push on till victory is one. Can everybody give another round of applause to my our amazing students? Mr. Dunn has submitted a a request to attend tonight's meeting remotely due to a medical conflict and is located in Mount Vernon, Virginia. I have performed an initial review of

003Mr. Dunn's request and have found it to be in compliance with school board's remote resolution. I have approved the request. Mr. Dunn, please check your audio and video. We see you. Can we? >> Yes, thank you. >> Wonderful. We can hear you as well. Uh we now ask the board members who are physically present to vote on the following. All those in favor of confirming the chair's approval of Mr. Dunn's request, that is Mr. Fr, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed, Dr. Anderson. Will the clerk please read the vote? >> 7 to one. The motion carries. >> Thank you. On behalf of the school board, I would like to welcome Carolyn Pitches, chair of the city of Fairfax School Board and Emit Hickman or

004from the who is a school board member in the city of Fairfax as well. So, thank you guys both for coming tonight. If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda agenda, please see the back of the auditorium. To obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight, please refer to the QR code on the agenda and or visit f www.fcps.edu/boards. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 999 and livereamed on YouTube and our website at www.fcps.edu backlivestream. Tonight's meeting is also being broadcast in Spanish on YouTube at you YouTube.com backfcps and espanol. Agenda item 3.01 Black History Month proclamation. I call on Miss Dixit for a proclamation. Whereas in nearly a century, the month of February has been recognized nationally as a Black History Month, providing a time to

005honor, celebrate, and reflect upon the historic and ongoing contribution of black Americans to the social, cultural, educational, economic, and political life of the United States. And whereas BHM originated as a league negro history week founded by historian and scholar Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who selected February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglas. The 2026 theme, a century of black history commemorations, recognizes the centennial of this observance. 100 years of scholarship, advocacy, and commitment to ensuring that black history is honored, taught, and valued as essential part of the American history. And whereas the first African arrived in Virginia more than four centuries ago, and despite enslavement, segregation, and systemic racism, black Virginiaians have profoundly shaped the Commonwealth's economy, culture, governance, and educational institution. And whereas Virginia stands at the center of the

006nation's civic right history, serving as a monument of black resistance and leadership, where enslaved and free black Virginiaians used faith communities, journalisms, and grassroot organizing to challenge slavery and advance freedom. And whereas this legacy includes history such as the student led protest at Moten High School by Barbara John's helping lead the Supreme Court decision in the Brown versus Board of Education, Loving versus Virginia, the 1977 1967 Supreme Court case that struck down laws banning interracial marriage, and the movement to dismantle massive resistance in public education. And whereas black Virginiaians contributed to every aspect of American life and include trailblazers such as Glattis West, whose pioneering work in mathematics and satellite technology helped make GPS possible. Maggie Al Walker, the first black woman to charter and serve as president of a bank in the United States.

007Marjgerie Joiner, a chemist and inventor who developed the permanent wave machine. Henry at Alex, whose cells became essential to medical research, and Corin Mitchell, a painter and educator who became the first black artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Museum of Women in the Arts. And whereas Fairfax County was strengthened by black leaders who worked to expand opportunity, equity, and representation in education, including Edwin Henderson, a pioneering civil rights leader and educator whose advocacy laid critical groundwork for educational equity in Fairfax County. Mary Alan Henderson, an educator whose leadership and service advanced equitable access within the public school system. Robert Bob Fry, a longtime community servant and visionary, served on the Fairfax County School Board and as the first black school board chairman in 1999 through 2000. Mr. Fry implemented increased resources for

008underserved populations and championed replacing the Lee Jackson holiday with a holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. prior to federal recognition. Ernestine Hesty became the first black woman member of the Fairfax County School Board elected in 2007, marking a historic milestone in educational government governance and turning and turning point in an inclusive leadership and representation. Katherine Hudins became the first black member elected to the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors in 2000, serving with distinction until 2019, leaving a legacy of public service, equity, and community leadership. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims February 2026 as Black History Month, honoring a century of black history, commemorations, and celebrating the enduring contributions, leadership, and resilience of Black Americans. We encourage all students, staff, and community members to engage in meaningful educational

009opportunities that reflect the full and accurate history of black Americans and reaffirm a shared commitment to equity, inclusion, and excellence for all. Is there a second? I second. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Mr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members present. Congratulations. Agenda item 3.04, School Counseling Appreciation Week Proclamation. I call on Mr. Dunn for a proclamation. Uh whereas Fairfax County Public Schools employs nearly 700 school counseling professionals, including school counselors, directors of student services, and college and career specialists who are committed to preparing students to become lifelong learners, and productive members of a global society with a focus on social emotional wellness, academic

010success, and college and career readiness. And whereas National School Counseling Week is observed each year during the first full week in February to focus public attention on the unique and essential contribution of professional school counselors within our nation's educational system. And whereas professional school counselors are certified trained educators who collaborate with students, families, teachers, administrators, and community partners to support the whole child. And whereas the theme for National School Counseling Week 2026 is school counselors amplify student success recognizing the tremendous impact school counselors have and helping students achieve academic success, plan for their future careers, and thrive emotionally and socially. And whereas the counseling profession addresses a wide range of student needs, including academic planning, personal and social development, mental health support, career exploration, college readiness, crisis intervention, and the development of problem solving and

011decision-making skills that are essential for life beyond the classroom. And whereas FCPS's comprehensive school counseling programs are grounded in national professional standards and work with students individually and in groups through classroom lessons, interventions, and consultation to remove barriers to learning and promote equitable opportunities for all students. And whereas FCPS school counselors also support families and educators by providing resources, collaboration, and guidance that strengthen student engagement, resilience, and well-being, contributing to a positive and inclusive school climate that honors diversity, equity, and student voice. And whereas the excellence of FCPS's counseling services is demonstrated by achievements such as multiple schools receiving the recognized AC ASCA model program ramp designation, affirming that their counseling programs meet the highest standards for comprehensive datadriven practices that support student achievement and school success. And whereas Fairfax County Public Schools recognizes the

012dedication, professionalism, compassion, and leadership demonstrated daily by school counselors who work tirelessly to empower students. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims February 2nd through 6, 2026 as school counseling week in honor of the invaluable contributions of school counselors and expresses its highest commendation and deep gratitude for school counselor's commitment to amplifying student success. Is there second moon? I call for the vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself, that is unanimous for all board members present. Agenda item 3.05, 05 Career and Technical Education, Disability Employment, and Adult Community Education Appreciation Month Proclamation. I call on Mr. FR for a proclamation. Thank you. Whereas the celebration of career and technical education, CTE,

013Disability Employment, and Adult Community Education, ACE, Appreciation Month, recognizes these exemplary Fairfax County Public School programs. And whereas FCPS offers a vast selection of CTE programs that give our students invaluable opportunities to explore and learn about a career they may wish to pursue in the future. During school year 202526, FCPS offered 160 CTE courses in business education and information technology, family and consumer science, health and medical, JRE, marketing, technology and engineering education, as well as trade and industry. And these classes equipped over 65,000 students with the knowledge and skills needed to prepare for the workforce, military, continuing education and or success in a competitive global economy. And whereas our division celebrates the many contributions of people with disabilities to America's work places and economy and recognizes the value of people with disabilities bring to the

014workplace as evidenced by the recent study that showed that disability friendly organizations are 25% more likely to outperform their organizational peers on productivity. And whereas the Davis and Pulley Center career centers and other FCPS programs help students with disabilities transition to life after high school through work experiences provided by the local Northern Virginia business community and by providing workplace readiness and independent living training, fostering self- advocacy and self-determination and increasing the soft skills needed to succeed in the workplace. And whereas each year thousands of adults have learned essential skills through the ACE program. In addition, the Fairfax County Adult High School has given students the opportunity given adults the opportunity to earn a high school diploma, certification of high school equivalency through the GED program, and the chance to enroll in individual courses and certificate

015programs, including adult ESOL, business information technology, health and medical, trade and industrial culinary arts, and world languages. FCPS's ACE programs complement the Virginia apprenticeship program by offering apprenticeship classes in electricity, HVAC, and plumbing, and provide clear career exploration in the trades uh or cross trainining with related tasks. And whereas FCPS honors our students, staff, and program achievements this year, including Sean Applebee, Marshall Academy culinary instructor, recognized by uh Virginia ACT, new teacher of the year, and VAT FACS outstanding new teacher of the year. We've had the food that his students prepare. It's very good. Well done. Langston Hughes Middle School and Paul Davis recognized as VTEA middle school program of the year. Susan Chidovven. Oh, >> Susan Chidovven recognized as VTEA high school teacher of the year. Kellen Scott recognized as the wise financial literacy

016outstanding leadership administrator award. Rebecca Fenton won the 2025 Harbor Freight Tools and Schools Prize for Teaching Excellence. Matthew Becttel was selected as a member of the 2026 ACT National Leadership Fellowship Program. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims February 2026 as Career and Technical Education, Disability Employment, and Adult and Continuing Education Appreciation Month, and commends these programs pivotal roles in providing our students, young and adult, the opportunities to acquire job skills, transition to new careers, have equitable access to societal resources, and grow as responsible and ethical workers. and citizens. >> Is there a second? I second. Thank you, Miss Marin. I will call for the vote. Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous

017for all board members present. I invite our career and technical education, disability, employment and adult and community education staff, students and those here to support the career and technical education the support the proclamation. Um join us in front of the board or in front of the um Yes. We now invite our school counselors and school counseling staff and all those here in support of the school counseling appreciation week proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. We now invite the Fairfax Alliance of Black School Educators, the Fairfax County NAACP, and all those here in support of the Black History Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. Madame Chair, that was our last proclamation picture. Agenda item 4.01, Virginia High

018School League and academic team recognitions. The school board is very pleased to recognize the recipients of fall 2025 FCPS VHSL state and regional championships tonight. Please stand when your team is recognized. After all recognitions are completed, individual teams will have a photo with the board. The board would like to recognize the Shentley High School Esports League of Legends team for winning the VHSL fall esport tournament champ Championship. The board would like to recognize principal Amy Goodllo, director of student activities Brandon Shapiro, and coach James Cachula for their contribution to the team. The board would like to recognize the Chantelli High School Chamber Orchestra for their performance at the Virginia Musical Educators Association conference. The board would also like to recognize principal Amy Goodllo and orchestra director Aaron Mines for their contributions to the group. Too

019busy celebrating. The board would like to recognize the Cooper Middle School Symphonic Band for their performance at the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. The board would also like to recognize principal Moren McLaclin, band director Matthew Baker, and assistant band director Alex Singer for their contributions to the group. The board would like The board would like to recognize Cooper Middle School Symphonic Band for their performance at the Virginia Music Educators Association conference. The board would also like to recognize principal Moren Mclofflin, band director Matthew Baker, and assistant band director director Alex Singer for their contributions to the group. The board would like to recognize the Frost Middle School girls cross country team for winning the Fairfax County Public Schools Middle School Girls Cross Country Championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Anthony

020Harris, after school specialist Deborah Mezer, and coaches Greg Davis, Lisa Warden, Meredith Marque, Caitlyn Loft for their contributions to the team. The board would like to recognize the Justice High School Win Ensemble for their performance at the Virginia Music Educators Association Conference. The board would also like to recognize the principal, principal Shawn Rolan and band director Brian Thomas for their contributions to the group. The board would like to recognize the Langley High School field hockey team for winning the VHSL class 6 field hockey state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Larry Stra, director of student activities Jeff Notto, and head coach Morgan Philly for their contributions to the team. The board would like to recognize the Oakton High School girls flag football team for winning the very first Fairfax County Public Schools

021Flag Football Championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Jamie Lane, director of student activities Patrick Fo, and coaches Jeff Lewis and Bob Barker for their contributions to the team. The ball would like to recognize the Robinson Secondary School Girls Cross Country team for winning the VHSL class 6 girls cross country state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Tracy Phillips, director of student activities and digimo and coaches Nick Reed and Phil Vargas for their contributions to the team. The board would like to recognize the Robinson Secondary School boys cross country team for winning the Fairfest County Public Schools Middle School Boys Cross Country Championship. The board would also like to recognize the principal Tracy Phillips, after school specialist Colton A. Mole and coaches Kelly Kavanagh, Anthony Portier, and Talita Lopez and

022Adrianne Beldri for their contributions to the team. The board would like to recognize the West PTOAC High School Symphonic Band for their performance at the Music for All National Concert Band Festival. The board would also like to recognize principal Jessica Stats and band director Joe Anducci for their contributions to the group. The board would like to recognize the West Springfield High School girls volleyball team for winning the VHSL class 6 girls volleyball state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Shannon Matany, director of student services Jenny Sobata and coach Stephanie Noriega for their contributions to the team. The board would like to invite the members of the Chantelli High School Chamber Orchestra, staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. I ask my colleagues to remain at the front of

023the dis for upcoming photos. The board would like to invite the members of the Chantelli High School Esports League of Legends team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the members of the Cooper Middle School Symphonic Band, school staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the Frost Middle School girls cross country team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the Justice High School Wind Ensemble school staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the Langley High School field hockey team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would

024like to invite the Oakton High School girls flag football team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the Robinson Secondary School girls cross country team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. board members. We're going to combine this one. So, we're going to do both of the So, this is also including our Robinson Secondary School Middle School boys cross country team as well. The board would like to invite the West Battoic High School Symphonic Band School staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. The board would like to invite the West Springfield High School girls volleyball team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. All right, Madam Chair, that was our

025final photo. On behalf of the board, we would like I would like to thank all of our students, coaches, principals, and parents who came out this evening for the recognition of these amazing achievements. We are also proud of our FCPS students. Agenda item 5.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who sign up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at the school board's regular business meetings and public hearings may be found on the school board's website at www.fcps.edu edu back/board schoolboard. During the sign up process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the board's the school board's expectations for respect and prop proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with

026the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain in their seats, including when recording video or taking photos. We are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation. Schoolboard members will be listening but not responding. Madame clerk, please call the first speaker, >> Tyler Clark. Hello. Firstly, I would like to thank you for your ears and your dedication to managing our public schools. Today, I'm going to be talking about something that is very important for the sake of public health. It is tourniquets. You

027may be familiar with tourniquets as the mechanism by which appendages are kept secure when grave bodily trauma occurs. The Virginia state legislature passed a very important piece of legislation last year with regards to providing public schools with tourniquets, bleeding control kits more specifically, which include tourniquets, compression bandages, and scissors among other things which are enumerated in the legislature section 22.1-274.8. The importance of these mechanisms in schools is incredibly important as they reduce the mortality of extremity trauma. The main thing that I've seen lacking in my school is the existence of them. And another part of the legislation is that they are presented in all drills and emergencies. And I firmly hold that with the familiarization of tourniquets and bleeding control mechanisms to students, they can be more apt and more equipped to deal with these

028grave emergencies which can happen unexpectedly quite frankly. So with the action and proper execution of this legislation which was passed last year, I hold that the schoolboard has the power to save lives and make life savers. Thank you very much. Dexter Ye. Aisha Golzar. >> Bring it down. Okay. Thank you. >> Um, hello FCPS school board and Fairfax County community. Uh, as you may know, FCPS has begun implementing metal detector security screenings at many schools this year. Um, at my school, uh, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, the addition of the metal detectors to the school routine has caused various changes with one of the most notable being a decreased availability of counselors in the morning. Very often, students used to try to meet with their counselors before school, during lunch, or after

029school to minimize the amount of missed instruction time. However, because counselors are helping maintain the metal detectors in the mornings, there is a decreased time frame within which students can meet with their counselors. This not only causes frustration within our student body, but makes it so that we are violating the code of Virginia's law 22.1-291.1 uh that states that school counselors can only do noun counseling for 20% of their staff time. After a discussion with students from other FCPS high schools, we've come to a conclusion that this is not just an issue at TJ, but across schools that use metal detectors. This proposal is not to suggest that metal detectors should be taken away. I recognize that they have helped catch potentially dangerous items entering buildings and overall make our schools safer. Instead, I am

030asking that a more standard procedure is implemented in FCPS in which adults who aren't counselors or first period teachers are scheduled to monitor metal detectors so that students have access to the mental health counseling services that they are entitled to by the state of Virginia. Thank you for your time and please let me know if you have questions. Ellen Zamansky. >> Good evening. My name is Ellen Samansky and I'm here today with my son Lewis McNamera and we wanted to speak about expanding solar power within FCPS. I'll talk about the opportunities and the benefits and he will talk about the urgency and the ask. I lead the Fairfax County chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby and with a number of other environmental groups, we've started this campaign. Across the country, school districts are using solar. Meridian

031High has gone solar. Old Elk Elementary became our first solar school, and the division now has contracts in place for 34 schools. That's an important start. But with 199 schools and centers across FCPS, we have an opportunity and a responsibility to do more. Here's why. First, solar power reduces long-term energy costs. FCPS is using power purchase agreements, which means there's no upfront capital costs. Let me repeat that. There's no upfront capital costs. A private partner installs and maintains the solar panels and the district purchases the electricity at a stable, predictable rate. Rowan Oak City Public Schools, for example, expects to save $46 million over 35 years. That money belongs in classrooms instead of paying rising utility costs. Second, solar increases resilience. When paired with battery storage, solar systems can provide electricity during grid outages. Schools

032can avoid disruptions and even serve as emergency shelters for the community. Third, solar provides powerful learning opportunities. There are they're more than just infrastructure. They're teaching tools of energy systems, engineering, and environmental science. and solar panels show students tangible and visible solutions to the climate challenge. Thank you. >> Lewis McNamer. >> Good evening board members. My name is Lewis McNamera and I'd like to speak about why expanding solar in FCPS is not only beneficial, it's urgent. F CPS has made a strong has made strong climate commitments, carbon neutrality by 2040, a 50% emissions reduction by 2030, an all electric bus fleet by 2035, and net zero new buildings. These goals demonstrate leadership. But to meet them, we must significantly scale up renewable energy across the district. And solar is one of the fastest, most practical

033tools available. The science is clear. Burning fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide which accumulates and in the atmosphere and heats the planet. Here in Fairfax County, we are already seeing the impacts. Stronger storms, flooding, and extreme heat. These disruptions affect our schools, our students, and our budgets. Every solar installation reduces reliance on fossil fuels. Every roof every rooftop system is a step toward a safer, more stable future for the students sitting in our classrooms today. There is also a time-sensitive financial reason to act now. Federal tax incentives that make solar projects more affordable are scheduled to phase out. To qualify, projects must begin by July 2026 and be completed within four years or be fully completed by the end of 2027. If we move quickly, FCPS can maximize federal funding and lock in long-term savings. This

034is a window of opportunity. We respectfully urge the school board and Dr. agreed to accelerate the expansion of solar installations across all feasible FCPS schools and to ensure that the district fully leverages available federal incentives before they expire. Our students will live with the consequences of today's decisions. Let's demonstrate leadership. This is fiscally responsible, environmentally sound, and forward thinking. Thank you for your time and for your commitment. Godspeed. Jim Hardle, Liz Depri, Jamie Maltise, Anna Smith, Jordan Morad, >> please play the video submitted by Kelly Osttolus. Good evening, chair, board members, Dr. Reid, and members of the FCPS community. I want to begin by acknowledging Dr. Reid's November 19th letter and the intention behind it. I agree with the core truth in that message. Artificial intelligence will shape the economic the economic reality our children

035will reality our children will live in. The live in. The letter describes this letter describes this moment as our moment as our generation Sputnik moment. generation Sputnik moment. It's powerful It's powerful language and it deserves language and it deserves careful careful consideration. Historically, the consideration. Historically, the response to Sputnik was not rushed experimentation inside public institutions. It was investment in teachers, curriculum and research done transparently and with public buyin and ownership of outcomes. This is one big concern I have with the announcement by Dr. Artificial intelligence will shape Dr. to read the AI tools would be provided for our teachers. When these tools are offered to schools as free trials, it can sound like a good deal. But in reality, nothing here is free. The currency is not money. It's data. Our children's data. Teacher

036workflows, instructional decisions, refinements, and feedback are extraordinarily valuable. Once used to improve AI systems, that value is permanent and can't be rescended. The billion-dollar valuations of AI companies aren't driven by hardware or buildings. They're driven by inputs, hours, highquality, real world people and interaction. Educational data, especially from a district like FCPS, is among the most valuable data there is. So, when we participate in a free AI program, we need to be honest about what's happening. Public intellectual capital is being exchanged for temporary access that we'll come to rely on. Our children's educations are running parallel to non-conented tests. Education requires carefully crafted studies and all the tests and data that are part of this to move knowledge forward. I don't see any of this. As one of the largest school districts in the country, FCPS

037has an opportunity to lead not by adopting technology early, but by setting standards for fairness, transparency, child safety, and public benefit. Please play the video submitted by Kez Axhatus. Good evening. I would like to build on what my wife Kelly just shared. I'm a board-certified pediatrician and allergist immunologist. And in my clinical work, I use AI tools regularly. I'm also seeing in healthcare how AI companies drive adoption through free use periods in order to extract data. data that permanently increases private company value. What concerns me is how closely that model mirrors what is now happening in our schools, including FCPS. In medicine, when people are involved in an experiment, even indirectly, their ethical requirements, informed consent, clearly defined outcomes, independent oversight, and transparency about risks and benefits. While our children will not be typing directly

038into AI tools, they are still part of the experiment. Their learning environments, their questions, and their teachers instructional responses are being captured and used to improve commercial AI systems developed by companies like OpenAI that makes students indirect study subjects. Yet, families have not been fully informed of what data is being generated, how long it is being retained, how it is used to train models, or how that value is monetized. Teachers likewise are contributing professional expertise without clarity on whether their work is being used to train systems that will later be sold back to schools or sold elsewhere entirely. So I want to ask a few basic questions. Who is overseeing the efficacy of this program? What outcomes are being measured? Are we evaluating learning gains, cognitive impact, teacher workload, or unintended consequences? And ultimately, who

039benefits the most from these outcomes? Are the benefits occurring primarily to increased private company valuation, refinement of proprietary AI models, or to our children, teachers, and this district? Right now, that answer is unclear, and that uncertainty matters. AI will absolutely shape the world of our children, will reshape the world our children will inherit. But if FCPS participates in shaping these systems, and families deserve transparency, teachers deserve agency, and the public deserves assurance that this is being done for students, not at their expense. Thank you for your time. >> Please play the video submitted by Laura Chapman. >> I'm Laura Chapman, a parent of two FCPS elementary school students, and I'd like to talk about AI in schools. I appreciate we're all struggling with how to best leverage AI for good. As parents and professionals, I've

040led digital transformation teams and can say with expertise that diving in without clarity on where you're going and what success looks like in at least the short and medium term is a good way to drown. AI is no different. The reward needs to be clear because the risks are our children. Not only their learning journey, but also their health and well-being. Every parent in FCPS wants you to succeed in giving teachers the tools to do more with less. So, I'd like your answers to my top five questions. Number one, where is your parent feedback loop on AI implementation in schools? How can we help and how can our input be integrated into the AI plan? Two, what does success look like in the short and midterm for teachers using AI? Be specific. Craft teacher journeys

041and use cases. Ensure proper training. Teachers are uniquely qualified to get real value from AI if you set them up to succeed. And that's why AI platforms want teachers on their platforms. Number three, how are you gathering learnings? What are your plans to incorporate those learnings into your road map? Four, what are your guardrails? When and how do you guide teachers out of trouble? Be that furpa violations over a reliance on AI or simply support and prompt writing. Five, and most importantly, what does failure look like? What are the boundaries you will not cross? Define it now. Change it thoughtfully over time, but don't change it as a reaction to a bad event. define failure and an exit plan and then let's all work to make sure it never needs to be implemented. Thank you

042for your time and leadership. I look forward to your response. >> Chair Anderson, that was our last public speaker. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Agenda item 6.01, student representative matters. I call on Miss McConen. >> Good evening, members of the board. I wanted to speak tonight about responsibility and transparency especially as it relates to our policies on student personal data on IT and data privacy. Policy 62203 makes it clear that the assistant super superintendent for information technology is responsible for establishing plans and procedures to ensure the security and recovery of information and data processing services and that the department must maintain a data security operating plan so that all student personnel financial and or other vital data on FCPS systems is protected from unauthorized use access or dis distribution. Policy 271 reinforces that student personal

043data must be safeguarded. These are not small commitments, but our data privacy policy has not been updated since 2015. The last review was 11 years ago. Since then, FCPS has entered into numerous digital partnerships. Technologies have rapidly advance advanced and artificial intelligence has become a part of instructional conversations. Yet, the policy framework governing how we protect student data has remained unchanged. We should not be doing damage control after something happens. with his increased interest in technology, especially AI. We should have an updated data privacy policy to accompany it before expanding new partnerships. On that note, the Chat GBT education partnership for teachers is not necessarily a bad thing. Innovation is not the issue. Innovation without guidance is. As far as I know, no one on the board has seen this contract. There has been no

044for formal parent notification and no student notification. The reason I became aware of this partnership was because my fcps.edu email. That is not how major instructional technology decisions should be communicated. If teachers are using this platform, student data will become subject to it. We can advise staff on best practices, but we cannot directly control what teachers input into the system. Human error, human error exists. We have not seen the outputs of the system at this scale, and we do not fully understand how we'll operate across classrooms in practice. At the same time, the partnership is free until June 2027, and we do not know what the costs will be after that. Financially, that is not responsible planning, especially in a time of budget need. We are discussing funding gaps and unmet needs. Yet, we are

045taking on additional projects without knowing their long-term cost. There are many other priorities this money could go towards. Things funding has been cut from and issues we have had not had the money to address. We cannot properly budget for something when we do not know what it will cost once our free trial is up. There needs to be a clear implementation plan, not just announcement with the obligation that people will follow. We need more than a promise from a company that owes us nothing that our data will be protected before a countywide roll out is enforced. I advise as the superintendent rolls backs or pauses the THC partnership for the time being until the contract is reviewed by the board. Parents and students are formally notified and there is community input. The data privacy policy

046which has not been updated since 2015 is revised and modernized. SRNR policies are properly updated and referenced AI and a long-term financial impact statement is presented. There's also the issue of accessibility and transparency around the student AI guide. I have personally tried to access the student AI guide through my school's website and through the main FCPS website. It is not available, but the website directs me to look at the student rights and responsibilities document. The SRNR, however, is not as detailed on the acceptable uses of AI as it should be. If students are expected to navigate AI responsibility, there should be a clear, accessible, and centralized guide outlining expectations, boundaries, and protections. Right now, that guidance is not publicly available or not clearly linked in a way that students and families can easily find and

047understand. We cannot make major decision decisions about implementing AI tools and then allow policy and transparency to lag behind those decisions. I also want to address the gradebook as I have done many times before. Implementing this gradebook without the proper training and the tools needed for teachers will lead what to happen will lead what to what happened at her high school last year. When changes are abrupt, when guidance is unclear and when people do not feel prepared, we will be confused. I for one do not think the conversation about this gradebook is completed. We should be looking at our other options, including a quarter system, and explaining how skills-based assessment works in practice. Looking at the schools that have implemented this model and how it works spectacularly is significant. But these schools did not achieve

048success overnight. They put in deliberate work over the years to build trust among students, teachers, and parents. They invested in professional development. They aligned curriculum and they clarified expectations and they communicated consistently. We cannot achieve the same results with loose guidance from the board and rushed implementation timelines. Either we double down on the research, training, and instructional methods required for this gradebook to succeed or we explore other options more fully. What we can't do is move forward halfway. A gradebook should be something that works well at should not be something that works well at other some schools and does not work at others. A grading system should be universally understandable and transparent across the division. It should not depend on which building a student attends or how comfortable a teacher happens to be with the

049framework. Students should not have to decode a grading philosophy that shifts from year to year. Parents should not feel confused about how achievement is measured. If it is going to be implemented divisionwide, then it must be supported division wide with the necessary time needed. I strongly advise the board to consider this carefully during the upcoming goal three discussion and to refrain from approving further implementation until a clear outline of the gradebook parameters, expectations, and reasoning is presented. Before moving forward, we need transparent justification for why this model is being chosen, how it will be applied consistently across schools, when what training and tools will provide to teachers, and how student and parent concerns will be addressed. Without this clarity, we risk repeating past confusion and undermining trust. The major shift requires deliberate planning, clear communication,

050and defined guardrails, and those must be in place before we approve it, not after. Otherwise, the board will end up right back here next year with a disapproval of the gradebook. Finally, I want to address student voice. I've heard accounts of students being public punished for organizing walkouts in response to what is happening in the country. I understand that FCPS policy dictates when and where students can demonstrate, and I understand the need for safety, but protesting peacefully is a part of a democratic society. There should be a structured way for students to demonstrate safely without fear of disproportionate punishment. The current walkout policy restricts when students can demonstrate while not providing alternatives. This unclear guidance has led students to defy this policy and act of civil disobedience. And I would like to highlight the word

051civil. These students are not malicious or motiv motivate motivated by the all-consuming desire to skip their fifth period. They are students who have been directly impacted by the state of our nation and want a safe and peaceful outlet to demonstrate their feelings. I have heard reports of students being threatened with not walking at graduation or losing prom privileges because they plan to walk out. This is outrageous and does not align with the values FCPS claims to uphold. We can create safety parameters to ensure students are not leaving class simply to leave while also protecting their right to civic engagement. For example, walkouts can be allowed on school grounds like the football field without students leaving to nearby areas in order to prevent unknown people from joining and risking student safety. FCPS creates inform engaged citizens.

052This education is what has led them to process the world around them the way they do. They should not be punished for peacefully demonstrating their outrage at this event. Thank you for your time and your consideration. Thank you. Agenda item 7.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the Code of Virginia. It is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on February 12th, 2026, to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements. And only such public business matters as were discussed in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion? >> Moved, >> Mr.

053Moon. A second. Thank you, Mr. Fresh. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members present. Agenda item 7.02, action item, confirmation of action taken in closed meeting. I call on Mr. Fresh for a motion. >> Thank you. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who is charged with an unlawful act in the community. Two counts robbery by using physical force and one count causing bodily injury and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. >> Is there a second? Thank you, Miss Marin. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn and myself. That

054is unanimous for all board members. I call on Mr. Moon for a motion. >> I move that the school would authorize legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in the close session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Miss Lady. All those in favor? Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. Agenda item 7.03, New Western High School naming. I call on Miss Dixit for a motion. I move that the school board name sit property at 2949 2950 and 2954 Education Drive, H Hearnen, Virginia as Sky View High School. >> Second. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Miss Dixon, would you like to speak to your motion?

055>> Yes. Uh briefly, uh this is an exciting time for us to be able to bring uh a new school in their division, but uh also a a great time uh because the the naming of the school was itself is an incredibly interesting process and this was my first time as a new board member to go through this uh as well. So I I I do appreciate all the the the the names very creative ones had come but I think we at the end we had two names which stood out and uh and the board is uh I'm proposing it to be Sky View High School and I hope my colleagues will support that but I really um you know admire and uh you know trust this pro process that it was a really good

056naming of uh the process of naming a high school. So thank you so much Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? >> You know, I was happy to second this motion and and didn't even want to wait for a madame to uh ask for my second because I was happy to do it. Uh that this is a very futuristic name uh uh top vote getter amongst all the names hugely supported by students. We are student centered and want to support student choice. Mr. Fresh, >> I was going to speak on this, but I was thinking of opposing the motion because my favorite name that was submitted was Schoolie Mc School face. >> Um, and I suppose Sky View is a really great name. So, I will vote for the motion. Um, and

057very much appreciate the student advocacy around the name. Uh, it was the most popular name submitted uh or voted on by students. Uh, and I think that speaks um I think the name speaks well to uh our hopes for the school. >> Miss Lady. >> Yeah, I'm very pleased with uh all of the community involvement around naming of the school and especially the students advocacy um with with the name of the school and as someone who lives in H. Hearnden, not far from the school, I assure you it's not just about potential of what's going to happen as our students reach for the stars. Uh, but it is a gorgeous view of sunsets. It is a sky view when you're over there on that campus. So, I think it's a twofold name, but I'm very

058excited about what's going to take place, the innovation. Um, it's just an exciting time to open a new school, and I'm excited for Sky View to get moving. >> Miss Marin, I'm eager to support Sky View. I appreciate the students um offering it up. I too think it has very high aspirations and it is closer to the western, you know, side of our county of course and the mountains. I'm glad it's not named western because already it's confusing with Westfield and West Springfield and West PTOAC. So that's definitely not a good choice. Um I also am eager to turn to the next part of opening this brand new school, talking about transportation and ensuring our students have transportation to this school and learning from the boundary design process that we just completed. Um, I'd certainly

059like the board to be engaged in that process and to be sure the community who is eagerly awaiting decisions about this high school beyond this name. They are eagerly awaiting to know if their children, especially those eighth graders right now, what they're doing next year specifically. So, very exciting times uh now and to come. >> Mr. Dunn, >> uh, thank you. Um I think this is an amazing um opportunity to provide uh break a little bit of of the precedent that we have mostly focused on um you know local geographic names or names of individuals. I think Sky View implies we're we're looking to the future and we certainly are in the programming that we're developing for this high school. And I think we're also uh looking to the future in in the method of

060acquisition, acquiring a private high school uh saving $280 million plus uh for taxpayers which can be reinvested in accelerating the renovation of other schools in the county. Um I think it also speaks to the location um near the um air and space museum at Dallasos airport and Dallas airport itself um and looking to the aviation uh and aerospace sector uh which is a very exciting uh sector right now with technological developments that uh people could never have dreamed of even even 20 years ago. And I think for all those reasons, it's an it's an appropriate uh marker uh not just uh for uh the name of a high school, but also uh encompassing the vision that the school board, FCPS, and the community have uh for this amazing new high school on a beautiful campus.

061>> Thank you. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and call for a vote on the motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. I would now like to invite the Sky View High School leadership team to please join join the board for a photo. Agenda item 7.04, action item, proposed fiscal year 2027 through 31 capital improvement program. I call on Mr. Dunn for a motion. I move that the school board adopt the proposed FCPS FY2027 through 2031 capital improvement program as detailed in the agenda item. >> Is there a second? >> It's me, Melanie. Miss Marin. Uh Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak

062to your motion? >> Uh only briefly. Um I I believe that uh we've seen a lot of uh positive improvement under uh the superintendent's leadership uh to address the uh enormous gap between available resources and uh and and the needs uh of our schools in terms of construction, renovation, and maintenance. Um there's still many challenges ahead but I think just in the past year the school board uh made admirable admirable progress um uh changing its uh policy to enable uh new construction uh management methodologies specifically design build and construction management at risk. I believe there's uh more options that we're exploring uh in a variety of domains to see what we can do to be um uh to en enable approaches to good government in terms of the management of our facilities. And I look

063forward to uh working with my colleagues to ensure that we um are able to reduce the 42-year renovation cycle. And I look forward also to the completion of the facilities condition assessment which will inform the development of the next renovation queue. Thank you. >> Yes. Would you like to speak your second? >> This capital improvement program. So this is such a beast of a an approach and um you know over the years we've tried to give us a little time between the budget and the capital improvement program but they always seem to collide just given other commitments that it has to flow with the county. So look this is a document we have to pass and it basically includes you know our best attempts at looking into the future and every year we update it.

064You know I said before we don't really have a plan for how we're going to remedy the lack of funds that are needed for our facilities. Um, you know, while we are stewards of these public facility assets, major maintenance, renovations, and building new facilities, including grounds and fields, it's ultimately where the responsibility of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to fund and the executive to manage. So, we really need to do more if to actually tackle and reduce that 45-year renovation cycle back to the best practice of 25 years. So, um, again, we have transportation in here, boundaries is included. you know, this relates to policy 8130 about phasing and phasing in the top two grades into high school. So, there's a lot in this document. Um, and what we were just sort of talking

065about on on another note is my husband works in G GPS and I'm wondering how quickly we can get Sky View to show up on the maps. So, I'm going to text him and see if that could be done. So, it's very exciting. Yes. So, um, but I will support this document because we have to, but I do wish that we could spend a lot more time intentionally figuring out how to improve the funding status of our public facility assets. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. >> Um, thank you. after the initial presentation of the CIP at a work session several weeks ago. Now, I did raise um a couple of questions to um staff regarding some of the data that was presented for way oak. I understood that would be updated and I would love

066to hear um what that new reflection is in the new CIP. >> Yes, ma'am. So, Mr. Gordon, do we have those numbers updated yet? >> So, uh, thank you, Dr. Anderson. So, we are as we've been working over the last week and a half or so on, uh, looking at Wayne Oak and capacity concerns there that you brought up. So, we are working through that and we will make adjustments and we can demonstrate what those adjustments are moving forward. Thank you. >> So, is it my understanding what I'm voting on this right now does not reflect those adjustments? So the current document can be adjusted to to to reflect those adjustments. So yes, ma'am. >> So the the adjustments that we worked on over the last week and a half, we can make those adjustments

067to the document for the >> but those are but they're not currently in the document. So I would be voting on the first version. >> That's correct. >> Okay. So unfortunately I will not be able to do that because I think some of the things we discussed that shows weanoke which was a school that was at 105% and now shows up at 79% with nothing that has changed in terms of the nine trailers and portables, the three classrooms outside. Um, I I would have expected that the changes that you came up with after staff went out to take a look at the building would be reflected in what I'm asking to approve. So, I will not be voting in support because I needed for it to actually be reflective of accurate information and I thought

068that was going to happen here. Um the second piece that I had asked for or about um is the continuing conversation um in the questions that I received time and time again in the community regarding how are the um utilization how is the utilization capacity or the capacity utilization calculated I understand there's some kind of pieces here pieces there I had asked would it be possible for the CIP to be reflected of how staff reviews that. Was that change also a consideration for the CIP? Mr. Gordon. So, um I'd like to go back to the first question. So, we we are um we did for way we did review the capacity for the facility and we believe it's to be 95%. So, that's that's where we are currently with the way design >> and that's

069upgraded in the document. >> Yes. >> Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. That's what I was asking a little bit earlier. Thank you. I appreciate that. Um now the second piece regarding the calculation um criteria for capacity utilization. >> So we can um we feel like we can still update document. We we are willing to update uh and add a page to to give that explanation going forward. I think that would be really important because up until I had a conversation with your team and by the way tremendous I I thank you. I thank Jessica Gillis and Brian Schustster for really taking the time to allow me to build understanding around that topic because it's a little bit complex. Um and I I think just making sure that everyone knows that capacity um is calculated because the

070criteria of obviously inside space obviously the number of trailers and quads that are outside and when classrooms are in them and teachers who don't have spaces but another criteria that I don't think I know and I'm not sure how many of you know but efficiencies that are um perhaps calculated or presented by facilities but not necessarily part of the buildings program. Those are also parts of the calculation and that's a little bit less clear. So what I think I'm hearing from you is these things will be made clear in the CIP. >> That's correct. Yes ma'am. >> Very good. Thank you. >> Thank you Dr. Anderson. I'm going to take a quick turn. Um, one of the questions that I had originally when we started talking about boundaries and how the CIP process was going

071to overlap with boundaries is how we were I I utilize the information related to capacity and and things like that all the time. And so one of the questions that I had is as we have now changed boundaries, how are we going to be able is there an ability to be able to possibly go through and maybe update some of that information for us even if it was just a quick addendum or something like that that was provided to the board just so we would have accurate. I know some of it lives online but it would be it would be lovely if we could get those charts updated. So I didn't know if that was possible. Dr. Reid. >> Yes ma'am. I think it is. >> Okay. Yeah, >> thank you. It would be particularly

072helpful after we get some of the information about which um kiddos are going to be taking advantage of phasing. So, it would help us understand better of of where all the kids are. >> Dr. Anderson, did you want to go back? >> No, I didn't. But I'm trying to find the page where the update has been made. If you could just flag that for me, please. So ma'am we will add so from our position we will add that page before it goes live >> and the way a no information that already exists. What page is that? >> Um let me get back to you. >> Okay. Okay. Seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and vote for the motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St.

073John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, and myself. All those opposed. All those abstaining. Dr. Anderson, how would you like to vote? >> So, would you like to abstain because you don't have all the information? >> Yes. Okay. Thank you. Dr. Anderson is abstaining. Can you please go ahead and read the vote, Madam Clerk? >> 801. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Agenda item 7.05 action item new soul source contract Virginia Association of Driver Education and Traffic Online Drivers Education and Traffic Safety. I call on Miss Lady for a motion. I move that the school board approve the contract for online drivers education and traffic safety and authorize the division superintendent or the director of the office of procurement services to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the school

074board. Is there a second? >> I second. >> Thank you, Miss St. John. Um, Miss Lady, would you like to speak to your motion? >> I'll just speak briefly. Um, you know, we have a increasing number of students who opt to take uh healthy PE online um at the high school level to make room for additional academic courses or elective courses. Um, and this is the only option the state provides for our students to access the driver education portion online. And I believe it does require an additional fee of $55 when parents uh or students pay for the online uh summer course. Um or also the online course I would guess during the year through online campus. So um you know while I believe in competition uh I'm not sure why the state has chosen

075just one option but it is our only option. I want to make sure that our kids have access to doing the online version. Thanks. >> Miss Jen Cunning would you like to speak to your second? I really agree on providing this online option for our students because it allows them to have flexibility and a lot of our students are pretty amazing and want to take a lot of extra courses that require them to be there physically. They're overachievers and the fact that they can take this online I think gives them an opportunity to pursue some other courses that are either academic or extracurricular like arts and not not extracurricular but arts and they can thrive in different capacities and still get their driver's um education. Thank you Miss Mary. So this contract was on consent.

076It's a pretty standard contract, but I pulled it off so we could have a discussion because my daughter took this over the summer and there is lots of room for improvement. So, this is the health education PE that students choose to take in the summer, which includes some health programming and online driver's ed. She did that because our schedules really limit how many electives you can take and she wanted to take more electives this year. This was a hard choice because um it's a lot of self-directed learning. So, look, I'm all for the online option totally and it's a good value and just $55. Here's the things that need to be addressed and maybe our friends in the legislature can help us. The videts that that curriculum does not align with the content in the

077Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles driver manual. There's discrepancies. So, you have kiddos and parents trying to figure out what's the rule and like, yeah, I got my license quite a bit ago in a different state, so I don't remember all the rules. Um, the exam is a 100 question multiplechoice test and we know that that is not a great way to test for content and you have to get 85. So, um, and you could retake it, but the way that the county does it is that you have to sit through an hour and a half presentation before with your parent or person before you take that test. Now, some of that might be FCPS's approach and that that presentation is required by law and it's great. It's about safe student driving, but like my daughter

078missed a question. It was blood alcohol content versus blood alcohol concentration and she got a point wrong and she did struggle and she had to retake it more than once. So or question she was asked what's the best time of year to buy a car. So it's dated the videos are from like the 80s. So look I get it. We're we're strapped. We got to go with them. But what recourse do we have to make this more meaningful to the the parents and the students? So um that's my request. I've sent feedback. I have an email already to go to Miss Helen Riley. I sent it in the summer, but if we have to advocate legislatively, happy to do so. It's just it's a tough thing to go through in the summer. Um, so thank

079you colleagues for allowing me to expand. >> Thank you, Miss Maron. I will say that I do know that one of our former colleagues or one of your former colleagues um on the board actually brought legislation um this year towards expanding some drivers education to help keep our kiddos safer on the road. um and to particularly dealing with some speed issues. So, I think that um I know some people that might be very interested to to help us make this um more robust considering the number of our kids that are that are using this option. >> Excuse me, Madam Chair. May be recognized. >> The best time of the year to buy a car apparently is the end of the year when the sales happen. >> December. >> Thank you for all you barian shoppers.

080Okay. So, we're going to go ahead and call for a vote on the motion that's on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself, that's unanimous. Agenda item 7.01, 01 performance review financial administration EL6 monitoring report. Each year the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress towards achieving the 2023 2030 strategic plan goals and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on pages 14 through 31 of the board's strategic governance manual. The superintendent provides annual monitoring reports to the board for each executive limitation. The board then votes on whether or not the provided report is in compliance or if corrective action is needed. I call on

081Dr. Reid for a monitoring report on executive limitation six financial administration. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and public. And tonight I'll be presenting executive limitation six as the chair indicated on uh financial administration. I want to begin by thanking our finance, business and finance team uh for the tremendous work they did in putting this together and again responded at the time of this report to the best of my knowledge, information and belief. We have gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic. This evening I'm going to be sharing some highlights in the presentation but the full report for those watching or listening can be found attached to our board ducks uh software platform. There are 12 areas of EL6.

082On the screen you'll see the first seven areas and uh on the next slide are the remaining items in EL6 the last five areas. It's actually got a more significant number in terms of 12 areas than some executive limitations. Because we're in the middle of a budget cycle, this year's report contains some evidence from last year's documents as well as some evidence from this year's proposed documents because we're in the middle. So, it's probably got some of uh both years. Before sharing new evidence related to this executive limitation, I'd like to note that within this E, we do not anticipate large updates year-over-year because we generally manage our finances similarly year-over-year. So, as we think about that, we don't want to get creative in the administration of our finances. We have structures and systems in

083place that in general we repeat year-over-year in a predictable manner. Our business processes and internal controls for financial management therefore do not change frequently and they are governed by the generally accepted accounting procedures or GAP and these procedures are set externally and they're um important for us to follow. Further financial management is cyclical and having stable business processes and practices is considered a strength in terms of new or newly added information. Just want to note that uh Fairfax County Public Schools continues to be recognized for its outstanding financial reporting and you can see some of the financial services awards and accomplishments on this screen. These awards and accomplishments highlight that FCPS consistently follows general accounting principles, assures accuracy and transparency of financial information, and is recognized for conformance with the highest standards for preparation of

084state and local government popular reports. Some of these recognitions indeed have been awarded to FCPS for over 30 consecutive years and generally those criteria for those awards are not changing much. So in terms of new or newly added information, do want to note that procurement services reinforces the importance of early procurement involvement and legal review of contractual terms through updates to regulation 5012 targeting staff training and guidance that's embedded in our new internal system atlas. The procurement manual has undergone updates but not limited to appropriate use of purchase orders. Informal RFPs and competitive bids as well as prom procurement guidance has been updated over the last year. Procurement services monitors aggregate vendor spend to ensure systemwide contracts are established for competitive um are established for small recurring purchases that exceed competitive thresholds um like theater

085licensing, referees, umpires, etc. And we actually spent quite a little time, I believe a year ago, um discussing theater licensing. And I really want to thank our community for coming forward with concerns and our finance department for finding solutions. Um that's what collaborative work does. Uh grant reimbursements are receiving additional monitoring for FY26 with a review of accounts receivable. Um and these reports and prompt follow-up in response to any questions to asssure we have timely payments uh is continuing. Uh the grants development team is proactively working as well with assisting with writing grant proposals, managing application processes, um and ensuring that deadlines and requirements are met. This year we've continued our efforts to use technology to streamline and strengthen internal controls. And these are new efforts. We implemented uh the inventory management systems and accounting

086protocol with all CTE auto tech and auto body programs. About 65 to 70% now of all client sales are done through credit card. Previously cash and checks were used. These changes have resulted in greater uniformity on sales and inventory management for the auto program at all FCPS schools. We've also enabled the electronic funds transfer known as AC payment method and the local school activity funds great planes system. This allows payments to be made to vendors electronically, eliminating check payments and improving internal controls. Again, an update this year. These changes provide better security, lower transaction costs, and they create efficiencies in payment clearing by FCPS to vendors by reducing fraud, streamlining payments, and when fully implemented will also reduce paper consumption. Finally, we've implemented positive pay on the LSAF, which um the main benefit here is

087the ability to compare checks cashed when the bank can actually compare the checks cashed um further reducing fraud. Madame Chair, this concludes tonight's presentation on executive limitation six, and the finance team and I are happy to answer questions. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. I now call on my exit for a motion. >> I move that the school board finds that the superintendent is in compliance with executive limitation number six, financial administration. I further move that the school board approves the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive limitation number six, financial administration, as outlined in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Moon. U Miss Dixet, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, briefly I'd like to just say u thank you Dr. Reed

088for the presentation and we uh we have seen how fiscally responsible um our our division is and your leadership and Miss Burden uh Miss U Azraat you all of you have done very well with the um being fiscally responsible for our our division and the numbers are accurate. Um I was also on uh uh you know um audit committee once and have gone through several uh details how our APS uh working and how how the financial system is actually done at school and there were very few infractions things looking at the size of district um getting awards after awards that shows a sign of obviously uh a you know a great counting practices and uh you know uh I I overall I just So I I think we're doing everything right. So thank you so

089much. >> Thank you. >> Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? >> I I agree with the Mr. Dixit that uh superintendent is in compliance and I will support the motion. With that said, I have a few questions that I submitted in advance for public and also there is one area that I would like to request for your consideration for in the future. You know, perhaps you might want to provide us uh a little more information regarding one particular area and I'll let you know what that is but with the questions first uh that I appreciate the written responses that I have gotten from this burden earlier. I appreciate that I didn't really give you a lot of you know much of advanced notices but you were able to provide me a

090a satisfactory responses. So with that my questions, one of the questions had to do with Fairfick City tuition which seems to have gone up by large percentage and if either you or Miss Bon could tell us why it is seen that way. >> Yes sir. I think um that's a great question and I know Miss Burton and I have talked about it, but I think for the public um I'm going to ask Miss Burton to go ahead and respond please because it does connect budget year over budget year. >> Um thank you. Um each year we you know use the formula that's identified in the school services agreement with Fairfax City which calculates the actual costs of Fairfax City students and what their payment will be to us. Um for the last year the um

091payment was um greater than it had been in than what was budgeted and as a result we are catching up in the next year as far as you know there being an increase because it it builds from year to year. Uh in addition to that, the enrollment in Fairfax City is increasing. Um whereas, you know, most of the divisions across the nation are are having reductions in enrollment. And those things also contribute to their bill being higher in a subsequent year. And you know, we presented all of this information to the Fairfax City School Board in September. And we've met a couple of times with their new superintendent to go over the bill with him. And in fact, we have a couple of hour meeting with him on Monday to do a deep dive into

092the formula and the different components that make up the tuition bill. >> Okay. Thank you. So, uh you know, Fairfax city residents uh don't have to feel that we are unfairly unfairly charging them by 25% increase in tuition rate. Uh the next question that I had is with out of town travel expenditures. At one point I think Bold expressed our concerns or request about trying to reduce contained amount of expenditure for out of town travelers. How are we handling that? >> Yes sir. We did cut um out of area travel as part of our budget cut last year was part of our 3% cut across departments. And I think we looked at the question that you raised a couple different ways. First of all, we did cut back on uh out of area travel. And

093second of all, we're still able to provide professional development with remaining funds. So I don't think we're suffering from a lack of um ability for professional development at this point. And Miss Burton, I don't know if you'd like to add anything else to that. Yeah, most of the program managers um you know even though the non-local travel was reduced um they um they are repurposing existing funds if needed uh from other areas to mitigate the budget cut and to make certain that all critical training and certifications are completed. >> Okay. Thank you. One area that I would like to make a request for superintendent to consider providing more information going forward is uh this is number eight out of 12 that's on page four of the slide where we are supposed to superintendent or school

094system is supposed to mitigate risks to acceptable levels and I was looking for rubric how definition of acceptable risks somewhere in the report and I was not able to find that. >> All right, we can certainly elaborate on that. Yes, sir. >> Okay. Thank you, Madam Chair. That's all I have. >> Thank you so much. Uh Dr. Anderson, um thank you. Uh no doubt I think um the finance team does a really great job with ensuring that all of the things that are supposed to happen are occurring. I'm particularly grateful for some of the work. I know part of that is um HR, but I think the budget folks have a hand um with teacher compensation. And I know that has been a huge issue um with leave with having it up front or >>

095I'm not even explaining it very well, but I know you know what I mean. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Because we've talked about this ad nauseium. So, great kudos all across the ways, but there are two points that you're not going to be surprised that I raised because I've been raising this since we've been doing this activity. one which is the continued um continued feedback from the community that they cannot access our budget. It's not transparent enough. It has to be a little bit more user friendly. Um I know that's one of the things that those of us who were on the board when we first started had asked about and then we got the big 500 page book a binder that I still own but obviously it's no longer um dated. it's no longer current,

096but our community because the dollars are what we are responsible to them for. They want to know how every single scent is spent. And I continue to get the feedback that they cannot find the information in our budget book in a manner that does not require a meeting with Miss Burton or a member of her team. So, I I still I'm asking you all to figure out a way to simplify it for community access. If if they want to know how much are we spending on this, I I don't know how to get there because I'm not winning the awards. You all are, but I want to raise this as a point that I continue to get lots of questions about in my community. Um, just the accessibility. The other piece that I wanted to

097raise is just greater transparency. I I think the the documents are as they are, but our community, at least folks who are talking to me, are not seeing uh transparency in terms of expenditures. They'd like to see more of that. And I'm not disagreeing. And the last piece is how do we highlight better the the efficiencies that we are achieving in our budget administration, our financial administration. Everybody wants to know that we're doing as much as we can with the dollars that we have, that we are abandoning programs that may not serve us, that we are reallocating funds. We have to be a lot more explicit about that to really bolster that community confidence that we are being responsible, that we are good fiscal stewards of their tax dollars. So, I'd love to hear your

098thoughts on that. Well, I know that we are working and continue to work on um transparency with the budget. I know it's um on our website. I think we've come up with a variety of ways of explaining uh different aspects of the budget. I miss Burden, do you have any other uh insights on how we might make that more sort of it is a large complex budget with multiple buckets. I don't know. I think, you know, it's something we can take back and look at to to work on. I don't know if you have anything to add, Miss Burton, or maybe it's just something again a future focused task. >> Yeah, I mean, we'll certainly, you know, look at our budget and see, you know, where we could make some changes that would be um

099more understandable to people who don't work with finance every day. Um although we are somewhat hampered because if we want to continue to receive the awards, the organizations that provide those awards um largely dictate the format that our budget document is. But we we still could add additional language uh to make it more clear to people who don't work with finance every day. One of the other things that we're investigating is the potential use of AI to be able to jump into the budget and find something very specific um that a community member might want to know um without having to call their schoolboard member or call one of us to find out what that answer is. >> Although we are taking a measured um approach to that topic. >> I will not have any

100comments on that end and um because I'm just going to leave that there. But what I do want to say, I appreciate that and I do realize our budget is complex. Four billion dollars. It's really hard to It can't be one spreadsheet. It it has multiple layers, but we just owe that kind of um accountability to our public because they're the ones who fund us. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Uh Miss McConen, >> this executive limitation says that you're obligated to prevent the district from obligations farther than we can safely project our revenue. So with that, can you accurately project what the open AI contract will cost the district after June 2027? And has anything been provided to you that gives us an idea of what portion of the budget will go towards this contract?

101>> So, thank you for the question. And we have not because we're not uh we haven't currently planned to extend it post uh June 2027. So that's out another whole fiscal year. Um so as we get closer to that time we might be um projecting that but at this time we're not uh planning or projected to go beyond the current uh agreement we have. >> Thank you. Uh seeing no others we're going to go ahead and call for a vote which is >> Mr. D. >> Oh I'm sorry Mr. Dunn. >> Oh uh no no no problem. Um thank you. Um I wanted to ask um when you go into a small business or a large enterprise um in the private sector in um every state in the union um there's usually a bulletin board

102and uh that's uh you know full of information that's required to be posted by state law federal law and uh especially in in uh the federal government space with contractors with federal agencies one of the large signs is always um how to report fraud. waste and abuse. And uh it I I'm not saying I'm aware of particular fraud, waste, and abuse in FCPS. Um but um in any $4 billion uh organization, there's inevitably going to be um improper use of money. Uh I once worked in a corporation where they received a clean audit every year and yet there was a massive misappropriation of of funding um improper um procurement vehicles uh corruption and uh that was very very easy to document. So uh a clean audit doesn't necessarily mean there's actually a clean slate uh

103or or free uh or that the organization is free from fraud, waste and abuse. So, I was wondering, I understand that there's the office of audien right places um for FCPS employees who um want to do the right thing and are aware of fraud, waste, and abuse at any level to uh to report that either um uh to FCPS leadership um on a confidential anonymous basis so so that they don't suffer uh any whistleblower retaliation. Um to ensure that you know as you know as as much as we use AI and everything this is $4 billion it's very complex as we've been discussing but to ensure that if there is fraud, waste and abuse that it is able to be reported and we're able to leverage um the dedication of of our great employees to

104to mission um and to uh prevent uh taxpayer dollars being uh misspent. So thank you Mr. Dunn. We do have um uh tip lines. We have an office of the ombbuds. We have the auditor general. Uh we have simple email. We have snail mail where we receive information. So I think there are a variety of channels that staff could uh share concerns if they have them. >> And are those well publicized in every school building? >> I believe they are publicized and they're okay. Yeah. On our website. I believe staff are well aware of them. And I think the numbers um recently from our auditor general and definitely uh indicates that uh there's awareness. >> Wonderful. Thank you, >> Mr. Fresh. >> 571-4231333. And I only know that because I have these cards that I

105take to school events that have information on the fraud, waste, and abuse uh tip line and other things. Um, and you know, one of the great things about um, the Auditor General's annual report is that for the last several years, there's been a real push in her office to make sure that staff and families and others are aware of uh, the ability to submit reports and um, which creates a challenge because the the teams are only so large um, and the more people know about it, the more they might want to report something. It may not always qualify as something that is fraud, waste, or abuse, but they track things down. They look into things. And so they've had a big increase in reports as people have become more aware of um the ability to

106report things. Um so I'm grateful for for that and and others. Um, and I think we as schoolboard members who have newsletters that are delivered to tens of thousands of families and staff uh across Fairfax County, we could probably all do a better job of letting people know in our newsletters. Um, uh, and I will certainly I appreciate Mr. Dunn's reminder and I will be putting it in my newsletter next week. >> Thank you, Mr. Fresh. It's in mine. Um, seeing no others, we're going to go ahead and call for a vote on the motion that is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Miss Marin, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That is unanimous with Dr. Anderson away from the table. Annually, the board

107will review each executive limitation at the time of the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed. Board members may offer amendments to executive limitation at regular meetings provided that they send the final amendment lang language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting to be at which it's to be considered. At this time, as no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting, executive limitation six, financial administration, was placed on the consent agenda for the approval later in tonight's meeting to maintain the current language for the year ahead. At this time, we are going to take a brief fivem minute recess um and give individual board members a chance to go ahead and provide their feedback. Board members, please take your seats. The link is

108now up with Okay, coming back. Agenda item 9.01, academic matters. I call on Dr. Reid for academic matters. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. This evening, we are thrilled to be able to present academic matters entitled back to Fairfax, not unlike Back to the Future. So, what is Back to Fairfax? It is really about a grow your own initiative and program. Um, this work-based learning experience in our career and technical education program is really a highlight for many of our students. Current back to Fairfax experiences include opportunities with food and nutrition services, the department of information technology and human resources. We also have the teachers for tomorrow educator preparation program and trades for tomorrow partnership with the office of facilities management. The back to Fairfax program enables us to educate and prepare students for the workforce

109while also helping to grow our growing need for teachers, educators, and operational employees in FCPS. The teachers for tomorrow program is the Virginia Department of Education approved pathway which is offered to high school juniors and seniors in our school division who are interested in pursuing a future career in education. This is part of our grow your own strategy which builds a pipeline of future educators by giving students early exposure to teaching through coursework and practical experience in high school. During the level one course, students explore the teaching profession and participate in classroom observations to build their understanding of learning styles, teaching strategies, and classroom management. During the level two course, students take on the role of a teacher by designing and delivering lessons in FCPS classrooms. To encourage our students to return to FCPS after

110receiving their degree in education, we've developed recruitment incentives for our teachers for tomorrow's students. Participation in this program can lead to early recruitment benefits such as a letter of intent guaranteeing an interview with FCPS. And students who complete both years of the program and meet all requirements are able to receive a recruitment contract to guarantee a future teaching position within FCPS. This program helps us to grow our own educator pipeline by offering structured career exposure, supporting students into college and the teaching profession, and addressing our teacher shortage with homegrown talent pathways. Our trades for tomorrow program proactively addresses critical FCPS workforce shortages in essential skilled trades. The program seamlessly connects students and with the classroom and learning in real world hands-on experience. These are developed through registered youth apprenticeships with our office of facility management.

111The Trades for Tomorrow program prepares students for high wage, high demand careers and builds a skilled local workforce for both FCPS and the wider community. This initiative provides a structured career pipeline offering support through apprenticeships, technical training, and direct employment opportunities within FCPS. By empowering students with these practical skills and clear pathways, trades for tomorrow strategically strengthens our future operational workforce. Interestingly, recently we've added technology for tomorrow. This DIT or Department of Instructional Technology high school internship program provides students with IT experience and on the job training. It operates in close partnership with the CTE office to provide FCPS students with internship experiences where they gain real world exposure to work in the cyber security and IT operations departments. There is a paid one-year commitment starting in summer or early fall. Participants receive upskilling opportunities

112including free access to the Corsera Career Academy in order to earn industry recognized certifications. The food and nutrition job shadow program is a full day food and nutrition program is a full-day work-based learning experience where students explore careers in nutrition services. Participating students gain hands-on experience including recipe and menu development. The program offers insights into nutrition planning, logistics, and culinary career paths. Future plans include developing the current program into formal student internships. And finally, we have our HR summer interns for which last year was our uh first uh summer of this program. It launched as a pilot in the summer of 2025 and was supported by key funding partners like Apple Federal Credit Union and our Educate Fairfax Foundation. It offered a six-week paid um internship for FCPS students and recent graduates where our students

113and participants gained hands-on professional work experience by interning across multiple departments. As you can see, opportunities for work-based learning. On the next slide, please. As you can see, opportunities for workplace learning experiences are found throughout our career and technical education program and efforts continue to increase student opportunities. Providing these experiences within our own organization not only helps to prepare our students for their future careers, but also helps us to recruit future talent for all of our departments across the division. We're really excited for what the future holds, but we're going to let you see what students say about it themselves. Please play the video. >> As a senior, I received a letter of intent once I graduate JMU. It's a guaranteed interview within Fairfax County, which I think is a super awesome program to do

114at a high school level because it gives like the students that are graduating college a little bit less stress going into the workforce after we graduate. I think just being in the classroom like I absolutely love just like being in there and working with the kids and like when you're teaching a lesson like seeing them like understand what you're teaching is like so exciting like the little light bulb gopher head. >> I thought it would be a great opportunity to get real real life work experience in it and also seeing the school district that I grew up in how like their inner workings work. The number one thing from what I've learned is that their students are their number one priority in terms of keeping them happy, keeping them safe, and making sure that every

115single kid, no matter how old they are, they're in high school, middle school, elementary school, has a great experience with FCPS. >> The program is a job shadow program where you spend a day with Chef Tim, see what he does in a day, and like how FCPS curates their menu and food and stuff. You could work in a school or at like a business. I wouldn't mind being a nutritionist for a nursing home. That seems really interesting. >> Something that motivated me to take a trade class was definitely doing something with my hands and being able like to push myself like not just with like mentally, but like also like physically like for me to be able to do this in the future as a job opportunity and as a career. It motivates me to

116like get up every day and keep doing this because this is like how the future's going to look like for me. So, it's definitely going to be interesting to get in it now than to get adjusted to it later. >> When I entered this internship program uh when I was a junior at MLAN, I had no idea what ride I would have been gone through. I mean, I get to be a part of something that brings a community together, which is amazing that I can be a part of. I've later realized that it's such a powerful tool to have a huge network and you know Fairfax County is great to grow your network with people outside your normal realm of people. It just gives me such a great purpose to be a part of this

117program and continue to be working at FCPS. >> I learned what it means to be professional and how to make connections with people and how to maintain connections with people. I learned how to operate in a professional setting. I learned a lot of skills in communication and leadership. I learned the importance of just standing up for yourself and asking questions. Fairfax County has given me so much as a student and is why I am the student that I am today. And I just wanted to be able to give back to them in any way that I can. >> And that's academic matters. >> Thank you. We're gonna go to Mr. Dunn first. >> Thank you. Um I was wondering uh Dr. Eid for the trades for tomorrow program how many students are uh enrolled in

118that or participate on an annual basis? >> You know I think I've been to their uh program annually I want to say about a dozen but um Mr. Gordon do you have the or Mr. Solomon I think my sense is 12 to 15 but I'll double check here. >> Sorry I was slightly distracted. What was the question again sir? It was the number of students that participate in the trades for tomorrow program. >> I do not know. I'll have to take that as a due out. >> Mr. Solomon, I >> I apologize. I don't either, but I'll work with Mr. Gordon and we'll get that back. >> We will get the accurate number to you, but I don't think it's certainly not more than 20. >> Well, it it would be uh amazing if we

119could um expand the number of students who are able to participate in a program like that because we have 200 uh school buildings. We obviously have uh a lot of deferred maintenance. And you know, you could you could convert that deferred maintenance into a training opportunity for an apprenticeship program that is, you know, systemwide and and really provide more opportunities for students who um sometimes we have, you know, limited class sizes for some of our trade programs at themies and and other high schools. and and you know enlisting you know the very real operations of our of our physical infrastructure would help to train the next generation whether they continue to work for FCPS after graduation or uh are able to secure other employment in the DC area. I mean every study that's been published

120in in recent years shows that there's a massive gap between demand for electricians, HVAC, plumbers, uh and other skilled trades and and available opportunities. Um it would also be good to um you know work with um unions um who often have very impressive training facilities u whether in Virginia or the DMV area and benefit from some of those opportunities. So um I'd love to see FCPS do more um uh in in this respect. Thank you. >> Yes sir. I think we agree. I think for sure it's a strong program. >> Thank you Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. I typically don't do this, but I'd like to share a little story. Um, back in 2021, I was at Glasgow Middle School getting together the spelling bee and or it was some sort of meeting, but I

121think it was a spelling bee and there was this young man there who was helping put up the tech um the microphones, etc. And it was Arman and he was still in high school at the time. And it was just so amazing that just a couple of years later, he became part of the FCPS family. So I it's it's been lovely to watch him grow up a little bit from my vantage point. So I appreciated the video quite a bit. Um my question one of my questions is kind of very similar to what Mr. Dunn asked which is some of these programs we've had for a while. Um and some are new because I don't think I've yet heard of the tech for tomorrow or the food and nutrition which is great. I'd love to

122get a sense of how many students have we had with the particularly the teachers for tomorrow. um former teacher myself, so I'm pretty um partial to to that program. How many kids have we hired back into FCPS through that program? What has been kind of the trajectory? And I do know that sometimes demand um will um outpace what we are able to do, but where are kids coming from who are participating in these programs? Do we have particular groups of kids from specific schools in or from others? I I just like to little um to learn a little bit more. >> So, our teacher for tomorrow programs are not in all of our high schools. Uh but they are, I think, part of our academy courses and they're in some high schools. In terms of

123the number that we've actually hired um back that have gone through the program, they would have gone through the program through the university and then come back. Mr. Solomon, do we keep that data? >> Uh I will have to research. We will be >> I didn't expect that you would know that tonight. >> Oh, good. >> I thought this would be something else that you can provide. Um, >> and I do want to echo what Mr. Dunn shared regarding the trades for tomorrow because as I've been on the board, some of the carpenter unions and other um trade associations, they have been really knocking on our door in terms of how can they engage with our students to provide those internships. Um, I I do also want to say kudos for the summer interns. Um,

124I think this is a great way of offering our kids um, opportunities. We are a big system. They don't necessarily have to go outside of FCPS to get some of those internships that we know would really drive their future um, endeavors. So, thank you for this and I look forward to the data. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Uh, Mr. Moon, >> thank you, Madam Chair. My questions have been already asked, but uh, you know, if Mr. Solomon could get back to us with total number of students participating in these various different programs. Uh he you know my my gut feeling is that it's a small percentage of our entire high school population and we probably have close to 60,000 high school students in FCPS. Correct? You know out of the how many students? I mean we

125are I think this is something Dr. Anderson alluded to. We are we are the largest probably employer in Fairfax County. Uh when we talk about internships, of course, we can go to go outside FCPS, but we are as the largest employer, we can perhaps provide the more internships, not just during summer, but especially for many of our our high school seniors after they're all done with the college applications, uh give them a more opportunities to a little more handson, uh you know, your work experience what it's like whether it's not just a trades uh but it could be in in in superintendent's office or it could be in finance office or communications or a a we have a lot of offices where you know perhaps perhaps you know could benefit you know seeing what he

126do. >> Yes sir. >> Thank you Mr. Moon. Miss Marin. >> Yes. I certainly want to know how much we've expanded this program because I know it's been smaller than we'd like. Um I wanted to mention two things. One is job fairs. So I know some schools do job fairs. I think some don't. Uh I have Langston Hughes Middle School is hosting their job fair that the current principal started uh three years ago. I think I I participate myself. It's on Friday, March 6 in the morning. And last time I think we did have someone from the facilities office come. But there's got to be FCPS, you know, staff representing this program or just representing the jobs at every job um fair we have. But also I'm wondering how do high school students get to

127experience this? Could there be like a traveling road show something that every single high school gets to understand like this is a huge organization that they could be employed with. So I just we got to like pick it up. We we gotta do something more because it's really seems like it's stalled. Um so so that's really it. I just want to see the numbers grow. I really am it's a bummer year over year to see them not growing especially with all these trades. I mean you know we had burst pipes this week like we need plumbers like we need all these things. So >> right >> you know what can we really do here to match the needs and the and these students. So that's my comment. Thanks. >> Yep. Yes ma'am. We, you know,

128will continue to look at the budget too for some of the programs to increase. Um, but, uh, I think are you talking about career fairs like at the schools? >> It could be career fairs, but I don't know that every school does that. Um, when I was on the career tech advisory committee for the school board, I know the uh the CTE office would do a big fair. >> Okay. >> But it also seemed like it just didn't seem as consistent across all of the pyramids. And again like should it be just like you know you've instituted uh museum field trips and musical field trips. Should it be that you know in 10th grade or ninth grade every student gets a visit to see the the span of all of the job opportunities in FCPS?

129Um I don't know maybe it's part of advisory just I know you can make it happen. So >> I'll pass that along to Dr. Prescidio and the Miss Glazer. Okay. >> Yeah. Thank you. Miss Tix, >> thank you Dr. Reed. Uh this is really interesting program. Back to Fairfax. I like u how it sounds. We have amazing uh companies in Fairfax, right? A lot of tech companies, government contractors. Um I feel like we are not utilizing them for our um programs like our internship program. I think a real partnership with them. Uh I know like every TJ kid has a internship right summer internship they they do that. Uh but it's not the same case in other schools. Um my own sons who are you were part of FCPS did not get any internship like

130they were looking for. They could go do a you know job in in a restaurant or something like that but something gearing to their future like career it wasn't there. So, uh I know every school does their own thing and they have career and uh you know specialist but it's not the same. It's not centralized. And I was just wondering if we could just come up with a plan to make it a central uh you know policy or just a plan for across the schools that they students can use the internships and I I think we have the potential to get every student internship if they want to. Um but just partnering with the right organization. >> Yes, ma'am. That's a that's a good point. I know those are really the students find those valuable

131>> because we don't we don't think we can take all our students in our high school in our off FCS office. I mean even we try we can you know perhaps take a quarter of them or tw you know some percentage but all of them. So I think this is a great start and uh really uh love that whole concept of giving teachers tomorrow everything else but I I just feel like we have a lot we can do in this space. >> Yeah. Yes ma'am. >> Thanks Miss St. John Cunning. >> So I can go on and on about the great programing programming that we have in Fairfax County with our CTE programs. Um and we all want more. Uh but we recognize our funding limitations. >> Uh so I think that as a board

132we should explore how we can try to work that out. >> Um really the one question I have for Mr. Solomon is with this summer internship program, can we have some interns for the board? >> We absolutely can take a look at that. >> Have to advocate for us. Thank you. I think they would be fascinated to see how we work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Reid. >> You bet. >> Agenda item 9.02, strategic plan update. I call on Dr. Reid for a strategic plan update. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. It's um we're excited to share our strategic plan update this evening, and we're going to be featuring um our pillar B, which is our vibrant home, school, and community partnerships. and we're going to be focusing on our um FCPS information technology

133office and um I'm going to be talking this evening about um our goals really for technology which is to make it work basically for our students, staff and families. Uh the vision for our technology department is a fully connected FCPS community um where technology is accessible when and where it is needed. Our teams uh provide reliable tools and support and secure systems that we can so um that operational staff can stay focused on their operations and instructional staff can stay focused on teaching and learning. As you can see on the slide, the work of the team is organized around four big areas. The management, connectivity, protection, and support. Tonight, we're going to take a look at some of the recent work of the team and how this work continues to improve the experience of our

134families, students, and staff. So, Madame Clerk, please play the video. In Fairfax County Public Schools, technology is embedded seamlessly throughout our work, supporting student success, enhancing teaching and learning, and strengthening connection with families. My role is to ensure that student devices, teacher devices, um, accounts and access are set up and ready to go before school even starts. And then as there are issues that come up during the day or overnight, they can come in and they can get tech support. We usually come to Miss Mossberg with any technical problems we have on our school laptops, whether that's like a system error or something where we can't figure out what's wrong with the um, the browser. She's always on hand to help us with any of those issues. >> Some of the applications that we deploy

135are light speeded products. One of them being internet content filtering software and that's really designed to keep kids safe away from harmful and inappropriate content. In that product, we also give parents the ability to stay connected by receiving a weekly parent report uh update and that gives a summary of their students weekly activity online. Fore information. We launched an FCPS mobile app. The mobile app gives parents and community members access and stay connected to uh their favorite FCPS schools or the district in general. >> I love the app. I can literally just go on my phone and get all the announcements that I need. My second thing that I love most about it is the language feature. Being able to just click the settings and click it in whatever language that I need to access.

136I hit it and everything changes to that language. >> And I really like the events calendar. or I can look for the division or I can look for my my Centerville High School and immediately know that oh the football team is at Chantelli tonight. I can get meals information in the menu. >> Parent digital consent is our application that our team built. So imagine instead of getting that stack of papers at the beginning of the school year, uh a parent can easily go online, log in, and they'll see all their forms that may be assigned to their child. And with a click of a button, they can give consent. FCPS actually just launched the fourth year of online registration. It provides a portal for parents to upload information and documentation and then it lets registars

137do a preview before they schedule that in-person final application just to make sure that all the information is there and you don't have to have multiple meetings. Registering for school in Fairfax County as a military spouse in the middle of a move from California to Virginia was extremely easy. I was able to pull up the website on my phone and easily started the process for my three children. It was the most seamless transition of any of our moves. >> The FCPS Department of Information Technology helps protect instructional time, support student learning, and strengthen the connection between school and home. excellence, equity, and opportunity. >> So, I uh just really want to commend our IT department. I think that the uh incredible work in terms of accessibility, engaging families, parents, students, educators. Um it takes people

138in such a multitude of roles in this division uh to do our missiondriven work. in our entire department uh from our T-Specs and espits in the schools to our techs um our web designers our um network people just I mean it's incredible and BJ Dakota is here this evening uh from representing it and I appreciate you being here tonight BJ so if there any questions that I can't answer uh Mr. if will, but I do want to provide just a little data this evening. The light speeded parent reports um again a a safety piece that provides consistent and transparent insight into student digital activity. Our mobile app uh provides information in over a hundred languages, which really has improved and increased accessibility for families. The online registration was something that our military connected families were

139very excited about and really um you know we're just a couple years into that now but we're very proud of how far we've come. Also appreciate our SAS um in all of our schools that have had to make some real transitions in how they do their work. that it's so important that families are able to enroll online because then they can access programs um before timelines end or classes fill uh by the time they actually arrive here physically. Uh the expansion of the digital consent system has really also helped with our form collection and help families um so they're not finding papers in backpacks weeks after they um were supposed to be turned in. Um I know that's not any of you here and not any of you listening, but there are um circumstances where

140that had occurred. Um but anyhow, so really we're trying to use technology as a tool and really support um our students, staff, and families. So for our community members, the upcoming dates for our goal two and three reports are listed on the slide. And madam chair, that concludes our strategic planning update uh pillar B as we work to continue to support our five goals uh and their attainment. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. We're going to kick things off with Miss Marin. >> Yeah, there's certainly been a lot of nice upgrades and you know, I always say like I don't know what I don't know and when you arrived you did things like create online registration, which was a huge deal for our families who especially are abroad, submitting forms online. I remember sending in forms

141for impact aid and emergency contact and medical. So that's wonderful. Even just uh consolidating all of the afterchool activities for secondary grades now that is a huge um improvement. Parent view with attendance and able to see like report daily attendance and also check attendance records, grades. So um yeah and the app. So really some wonderful things. Um, one of one of the just a few little ideas. You know, Tandem was I I wonder where that's at. That was meant to be like a whole system capturing calendar, but I'm not sure everyone's on it yet. What's the status with Tandem? >> So, the Tandem Cal is what creates that calendar feed in the app. It's integrated into the app and it's on the website. I think that um different I know the buildings are still importing

142their data um and I don't know that I BJ I don't know if you're able to speak to that probably not so I will have to get back to you in terms of the percentage I know all buildings have been trained and I don't know the degree to which all buildings have all events in but that's what's creating the calendar feed right now in the app. Well, if it could be prioritized to look at pyramids because sometimes there'll be an instance where there'll be an academic night like at the high school and then maybe the middle school has their PTA meeting at that exact time or you know there's some big concert and then there's something else happening like thinking about the pyramid structure especially when it comes to academic events. Um that would be

143really helpful and also divisionwide stuff all the you know district-wide concerts and robotics and sign fairs. I think you know the SR&R student rights and responsibility I remember I clicked it once thinking it would be more and it was gone. So more time spent you know however that is to really make sure parents are absorbing the SRNR. Um but also just to take it broadly to some thinking to the comments earlier this evening about technology and education. You know the way I'm kind of seeing things is like the technology all of the things that we saw tonight and making sure the computers and the hardware and software work. I mean it's really come so far there's no doubt but when it comes to technology and education and how it's really going you know I'd love

144to see that more reported out you know how is StMath helping us how is it with the laptops one to one like because again with the AI work that we're doing I'm reading a lot of things that are saying it's inconclusive that having devices is really all that helpful so um I really think we need to explore that if we want to be the leaders that I know you want us to So um and I still wonder about the conversation from Tuesday about whether our AI policy should be more higher level about education technology of which AI is a portion but some of those same attributes you know go forward. So if anybody wants to continue to you know um think about that and share I'd certainly be happy to hear your thoughts on that.

145Thank you. >> Yes ma'am. Thanks Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. One of the things that I wanted to highlight it I mean clearly we see a lot of videos. I've seen a lot of videos since sitting on this board, but I cannot recall one that was multilingual from the parental perspective and I did very much appreciate that because it is reflective of our community and it is um I think in a way validating who we are and allowing people to see themselves and the things that we, you know, consider to be professional that we're putting out to the public. So I think we had two multilingual parents there and that really struck me as a very good thing to do. Um because I know some of the schools that I serve where the PTAs are

146the most successful some of them have their entire meetings in different language and do the translating to English rather than the other way around. So I just really wanted to elevate that. Um, another um, just a quick question that I had regarding the um, the online consent of forms, which again super efficient. I would imagine that would offer some savings in terms of not being not having to print all of those copies, you know, across 200 schools. That's a lot of copies of the of the health form. But can you please confirm for families that are still wanting an a paper copy that that is still available? A paper copy for which topic? >> For the forms that they need to provide for consent if they were not able for some whatever reason to do

147it digitally. >> I do believe we do have paper copies available >> and that would just probably be upon request or something of that sort but it's still available. >> I believe so. Yes ma'am. Uh Mr. Dakota. >> Oh we even allowed the families to come into the schools and the system has a feature where the administrator at the school could enter the data on behalf of the parent. >> They could speak different language. We have the translation feature to allow that also. So, we've made it very easy for the parents. They could walk in, they could do it on their phone, laptop, PC, or they could fill out the forms. Hopefully, the last one is the last option. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you for that. That's very helpful. Um, and the last thing

148that I wanted to share was the SRNR. I actually had this conversation with the team during my 2 by two earlier. Um, well, last week. Um, and one of the things that I think we could do a little bit better job of is making that document a little bit more accessible. Um, even down to the page or to the place where parents are providing their digital signature. It's very easy to just scroll all the way down and provide that signature and you would have missed all of the information. But I think there will be some power to really highlighting the sections that are particularly concerned or are new and asking for an initial next to each of these sections because it kind of brings your attention to it in a way that um it doesn't

149if you're just scrolling all the way down and we've all done this for various agreements. You scroll all the way down, you press X, but sometimes some of them ask us to really insert something at each component because it just raises your awareness a little bit more. So, I would love to see that be part of the um tech usability for our families. >> Yes, ma'am. And you provided that feedback to Dr. King and her team. So, >> two years in a row, >> Mr. Fresh, >> thank you. Um, first, my partner is a teacher and he was talking the other day about uh using talking points to communicate with families. don't speak English and how much of an improvement that is and and how that wasn't even possible just a few years ago in

150our school system. So, uh I want to commend all of the amazing staff that work in it um for all the work they've done. One of the first things that I did on the board before I even understood what a follow-on motion was um we were talking about uh going onetoone with devices and I remember having this conversation about surely there must be a way for us to monitor what kids are using on the computers and there was it was called light speeded um and so we passed the follow- on motion committing the school division to making sure that light speeded was available to everybody and like a year later we got a report on it was like several thous 000 people are using Lightseed and it was so disappointing because people just hadn't adopted

151it yet. And to see the new numbers with more than 300,000 families um or 300,000 uh folks accessing uh Lightseed is incredible. Um is it a perfect tool? I think even it would acknowledge it is not a perfect tool. Um but it is so much further along than it was when we first adopted it. It's getting new features all the time. It's an amazing resource for families and I would love to see us put the same commitment as schoolboard members u as staff and schools into letting people know about the app >> because I've begun using the app. I think it's fantastic. I think all the work that went into it to make it really powerful. There were a lot of skeptical people out there uh about us having an app and it's phenomenal. Um,

152so I would love to, you know, have maybe you could refresh us with the toolkit that you provided the board for helping to promote it, um, every other month in your, uh, Friday letter just so that we're reminded to keep reminding people. Um, and I will certainly commit to making it a part of my regular newsletter communications. And we should probably make it part of the announcements that are made at every public event that we have. Get out your phones, go to the app store, download the app. um because it really connects um much more closely to what's happening in our schools. I do agree with Miss Marin. We've put a lot of effort into uh tandem and the effort to finally have a very useful way of looking at activities and events in schools.

153Um and it is way better than it was, but really taking advantage of that technology will really make it a gamecher. Uh and that's going to require institutionalizing within every school's culture the importance of putting every event into the calendar from the arts to the athletics to the PTA to the every conceivable thing you know the principles morning coffee with parents all the things that we hear about and we get in desperate ways from newsletters and Facebook posts and everything else will make it extremely powerful. Um there are still some schools here and there more than there should be where it's hard to find out what's happening in the school and with good re I mean people are very very busy in our schools and so it's hard to do but it just needs to

154be part of the culture that we put into it. >> Yes sir. I'll make sure we pass that along. >> Thank you Mr. Fresh. Uh Miss Dixit >> Dr. Reed, I'm very impressed overall with the IT DIT team. Um, just from last few years when my children were in high school and you know middle school, we were doing paper forms and I remember the impact aid form was always the last minute because my boys will forget it and then they will be like mom do this and run to the school. So uh I think the life of uh it's become easy for parents now and especially if you are like a busy parent like we all are it it's it's made the it's a game changers. Um again the bus app uh where I used

155to be like always calling transportation office and saying hey where's the bus and now it's all you know you can really look at the app. So I think it's making our communities parents life easier not just students. So overall I think it's it's impacting a lot of our families and uh I just numbered the of the uh email tickets 245,000 email tickets the IT help desk is answering it's it's uh it's like a you know like a I would say it's running a city almost right so so it is uh great and I I would just say one one thing about uh when we're talking about it is again our students can participate more into these programs and can do leerial on the job training in these different sectors and it'll be very useful for

156them for their future. So um I think IT department has lot of potential to offer to our students and I think there's an appetite for that too. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. I'm going to take a very fast turn. And when I was a parent leader at um my son's elementary school, I often would teach people how to use the RSS feed off of the calendar in order to populate my own calendar so that I always knew when school events. And you're 100% right that it only works if you're feeding it, right? Um and so I love the idea of the app. And I guess what I'm wondering what I'm wondering is can we can we work out something where the information that they're feeding into one system is actually going to feed the website

157too because that is something and I don't even know if this is possible. It's just in my brain. Um so I'm just wondering whether or not we could have something where if they're feeding tandem is it called? If they're feeding tandem is there any way that it could automatically just feed the websites too so that way we don't have people duplicating effort to get things into the system. And so I just know that that that main page of the website is oftentimes someplace that people can go look for things, but it isn't necessarily where things always are. And so I just think that that would be a really awesome um connection point to kind of ease up work for for our staff members, too. So um but thank you so much. We appreciate it. >>

158Yes, ma'am. Thank you. >> Um agenda item 10, consent agenda. Before we move on to the consent agenda, I call on Dr. Anderson. Um, thank you. Um, I want to say thank you to uh, Mr. Gordon because I have received the information that I requested during the CIP vote. So therefore, I will ask for unanimous consent to um, change my vote from an abstension to the affirmative. >> Without objection, Dr. And Anderson's vote on the CIP has been changed to affirmative. Can the clerk please announce the clerk please announce the updated vote? >> That changes the vote to 90. The motion still carries. Thank you. Moving on to the consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion.

159Many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. I do want to note that item 10.06 policy for 4411 support employee obligations and rights has been withdrawn from the agenda and will be considered by the board at the February 26 20 26 20 That one's hard to do. February 26, 2026 regular meeting. The the consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objection. The consent agenda is approved. Agenda item 10, new business. The following new business items. Um there will be there won't be a vote on these items this evening, but

160action is scheduled at a future meeting. Agenda item 11, board committee reports. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a report of this um successful youth and children policy team. So, we met this uh past Wednesday and uh we had a presentation by the executive director of Fairfax Futures and the youth innovation manager of NCS. The theme was powering pathways, igniting potential, and a collective commitment for uh Fairfax County youth. We went out into uh breakout sessions which were very uh passionate and uh the overall summary is that there was a there was a very strong call for a greater systemic alignment of early intervention inclusive youth voice clearer metrics and a stronger connectivity across programs to better support opportunity youth and workforce readiness. Uh the focus is shifting from isolated efforts or silos

161to a coord coordinated youth centered ecos. We determined that there's a lot of programming out there. It's just not all uh connected and I think if we connected, we can better serve all of our youth in our county and we're working towards that. >> Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. Agenda item 12, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reed for Superintendent Matters. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I really want to uh first of all express my grateful thanks to the over 1,000 winter weather warriors on our FCPS uh team, including our office of facilities management, our equipment operators, supervisors, support staff, our custodial personnel, transportation staff, and so many other division staff that rose to the challenge over these last several weeks. Um, it's really been an unprecedented storm. I don't have a long history

162in Virginia, but the amount of snow, the sleet, the ice really created circumstances well beyond uh our normal winter storm status. I want to share that over 1,400 of our custodians removed snow and ice by shovel, by hand across 200 campuses. And I just really um really appreciate their work. Um, and that's why our schools and facilities and campuses were ready. Uh, when we were able to get students safely to school with extended operations, additional treatment cycles, and ongoing monitoring, all of the, um, winter weather warriors um were able to maintain safe conditions across our schools. Our bus drivers and transport transportation staff cleared buses, roofs of ice. Uh buses that were packed in with snow and ice up to the uh wheel wells and beyond and staff worked tirelessly to get our school parking

163lots open, our sidewalks and buildings ready. It's really an incredible task over 400 square miles um to do the work that our staff did. And I also want to thank our chief um administrative officers uh who spent many many hours on the phone and out driving the um school division. And finally, I want to thank our families for their patience and their grace and flexibility as we had to adjust our hours. Um and all of our educators as well because it's not easy to have interrupted learning. Uh and I appreciate our students excitement to be back in the building. Although when I met with middle school students on the first day back, while they claimed not to be quite as excited, they said their parents were thrilled that they were back. Um, and I will

164also say that we did build in 10 days for snow this year and we have now used four uh days for snow and we've had obviously some late starts, but just a deep thank you to our staff and community. um we're through it and it's supposed to get to be 60 degrees here shortly. So um time to put on our Hawaiian wear and uh celebrate spring coming. So anyhow, thank you, Madam Chair. >> Agenda item 14, board matters. Next on the agenda is board matters, and I'll call on each board member to speak. We're going to kick things off with Mr. Dunn. >> Well, thank you. Um, I just wanted to uh reiterate uh my thanks uh to all the FCPS employees who did an amazing job uh supporting our our schools uh uh in

165the face of uh what a new word I learned snowrete uh concrete like snow and witnessing um in uh Alexandria and DC and other jurisdictions the use of actual full-on construction equipment to remove uh the the snow. Um what I also saw in in my community, the Mount Vernon district, is um parents uh gathered together with school employees to uh ensure that sidewalks were cleared, including at Bucknell Elementary and other other places. I also saw facilities uh staff perform above and beyond when uh I submitted reports that I received from the community. For example, for uh Linton Lane uh for Forton Elementary uh for sidewalks to be uh plowed when there was uh a lack of clarity uh on the maps available to us uh whether uh that sidewalk was owned by the county, by

166VOTE, by FCPS, etc. So, uh, I think we do have some, uh, things that need to be cleared up in terms of who owns what sidewalks, who owns what roads, um, so that going forward, if we ever get into a situation like this or just with regular snow, we know what to address when and where. Um, but I do think this was an opportunity for us to come together as a community and that's always heartening to see. Thank you, >> Mr. Fresh. >> We haven't done board matters in quite a while. Congratulations, everybody. Um uh first um Miss Lady and I attended an interfaith vigil uh for the senseless loss of life in Minnesota and elsewhere at the hands of ICE hosted by Congressman Walenshaw honoring compassion, human dignity, and our community's shared commitment to

167human rights. So that was very touching and it was great to see the outpouring of support um there. Um I'm also incredibly proud of 2023 Marshall High School graduate Elia Milan uh for helping to lead the US uh figure skating team to gold. Quite impressive. If you've not yet watched it, it's on YouTube and I've watched it like six times. It's amazing. Um and uh you know I I skated a bit when I was a kid. Nothing even remotely close was possible. um uh for me um clearly um I also want to congratulate the 77 Providence uh district students who were named National Merit Commended Scholars. Very excited for that and uh continuing to see that academic achievement grow within FCPS. Uh Provident District resident Katherine Russell is a member of uh TJ's winning team

168in this year's NASA Tech Rise Student Challenge. The team received a grant to build their project Galactic, the gravitational acoustic loading and analysis of uh catheter and tubing in circulation. Uh NASA will launch it into low orbit in May. Pretty incredible. Um and two Providence District students were named national finalists in the 202526 Music Teachers National Association competitions. Justin Lee, an eighth grader at Luther Jackson right here uh for cello, and uh Brandon Sangzhen uh for a piano duet, and he's a 10th grader at TJ. Um I am looking forward to Oakton High School's production of Clue. I will try to refrain from quoting lines from the movie throughout the production. Uh it's one of my favorites uh in uh a little bit later this month. Um, and I'm also looking forward to being back

169here at Luther Jackson uh this weekend for the Asian Community Service C Center's annual Chinese uh New Year festival. It's always a very special event and it is packed with wonderful people from the community. So, I appreciate everybody's time tonight and I appreciate staff sticking with us. Um, and thank you very much, >> Dr. Anderson. Okay, I was not ready. Um, first of all, I do want to say thank you to everyone who worked on the snow. And I have to say, Dr. Reid, I continued to hear more and more from the two-hour delay from our middle school students about how ready they were for instruction that they had more sleep. So, it's another argument for the middle school start times. Granted, not, you know, 10:00, but they were very happy with the time that

170was provided. And I do want to say thank you as well. I think we forgot one um group of people um the city of Fairfax because I know you had some conversations with them regarding the use of perhaps their personnel and equipment because as they cleared their streets and their schools, they were um able to lend us a hand. So, thank you to our counterparts there. Um I want to also highlight the AP um elementary center at North Springfield. Those two meetings were held last week, Tuesday and Thursday, and there was a lot of enthusiasm in the community for it and the the the questions and the challenges that were being raised were really good ones. It was which schools should we include because they want all of the schools to be included. It's not

171whether or not we should have the AAP center. There was lots of enthusiasm for it. There was not a person in the room who thought this should not happen. And that question was actually posed, by the way. And so I'm really looking forward to see that um develop in the next few weeks with the board. Um lastly, I I do want to raise um the voices that I know I've heard throughout this week. Our student board member talked about that um and and others. Even the um minority student achievement um student member reached out, our students are hurting. There are things that are happening in the country and they want to find some way to express their concerns to elevate their opposition and the way that they have to do that, the way that they've

172chosen to do that um as of right now is through those walkouts. And it was quite difficult and challenging to see the vast um number of responses that were shared with me from across our schools from you know students were concerns parents reached out to me about their students being told that they could not walk in graduation. There were so many things that I don't think were at least those reports were not reflective of the safe and inclusive environment where FCPS where we uplift student voice. It was not reflective of that. Again, I'm a former um principal. I I want my schools to be safe. I want the days to be boring um and without a lot of um unplanned activities. And I'm really hoping, Dr. we find that sweet spot where we are still

173allowing students to have their voices be elevated for them to engage in that civic engagement while balancing safety because I do know that's a real concern as well. But I I think the um disperate um treatments that occurred this week, at least what was reported is not where we want to be as a community. >> Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madame Chair. uh with snow and ice on my driveway almost gone naturally uh that I'll be busy visiting many schools tomorrow madame share and some of the schools I'll be visiting I'm not supposed to disclose where I'm going so I'm not going to say but I'm going to a couple of schools in Sley district and couple of schools in basin district and I don't know where when are you going to go to Hton

174High School, Mr. Fish, because I plan to be there tomorrow. If you are going to be there tomorrow, I see you there. Okay. And and and for many families of East Asian background, we are celebrating Lunar New Year's Day on coming Tuesday, February 17th. uh Koreans generally eat on that particular day a rice cake soup. If any of my colleagues is interested in joining me, it will be my treat. Just let me know. Thank you. >> Miss Dixit. >> First of all, I will I'm very proud of our team to finish early today. So I'll keep it very brief comments. Um I would like to say that our my highlight was actually the graduation of Mountain View uh winter graduation ceremony. I was with uh Miss Anderson and Dr. Reed there. Um and uh the

175student stories have always amazed me at Mountain View High School. it is the the most inspiring ones and the students who have uh you know come over so many hurdles for graduation and some of them are like their first time graduates in their whole family. So it is it's just incredible uh to hear those stories and um I'm really proud of the students of of Mountain View View House High School also Sky View High School my future students there I would say I the website is live of fcps.edu edu of skyview and it is an amazing site and when I read the top 10 reason sky view source on the main the homepage I want to enroll there Dr. Reed if possible as a 10th grader and I will like love to stay in the

176auditorium and this and you know do all the fun stuff at the school. So I am very excited uh about uh the sky view and uh lastly I'll say that uh you know the snow had stopped us made us a little slow uh over over the last two weeks but I'm back going to visit lot of schools and any my at large colleagues and Dr. Reed if you like to join me any school please please uh do that in Sully district. Thank you so much >> Miss St. John Cunning. So, it has been a while since we've done board matters. And so, I kind of went back to uh take snippets from the ones I prepared that I never got to say anything about, but first I'd like to thank our custodians and everyone that

177was on board to clear our snow at our schools. And while some of us were rejoicing and having days off, they did not. They were there and they were working very hard uh in freezing temperatures, I might say, and they got the work done. Uh, I was also honored to welcome the new principal of Hayfield, Tony Dari, and to honor principal Matthew Mauo, as the region 3 outstanding principal of the year. Uh, we did start the new year with proclamations expressing gratitude and recognizing the importance of service and volunteering. We welcomed past school board members and honored their dedicated service and leadership. Their commitment has left a legacy characterized by compassion, accountability, and a profound understanding that the strength of our schools is reflected in how we care for and support all of our students.

178They laid a strong foundation for us to continue to build on. However, a stronger foundation was set for me by by a very strong role model for me, and that was my father whom I lost last month. He always expressed the value of education. Aside from building a strong family and a successful business, he served on the Texas Region 19 Education Service Board for 35 years, making him the longest serving service board member in the state of Texas. During his tenure, he successfully advocated for funding and programming to serve the poorest school districts in the state of Texas. As a result, the Education Service Board Meeting Room was named in his honor. So now, every time the board is in session, they meet in the Marshall St. John Boardroom. The boardroom carries his name, but

179his legacy lives in the countless lives of the students, staff, and families he stood up for in El Paso, Texas. As his daughter, I will consider myself successful if I can manage to accomplish half of what he did. I try to model what I do on this board with the passion, integrity, and kindness that were his trademarks. Finally, as we celebrate Black History Month, I want to mention that Lewis High School will be hosting a week-long birthday celebration of John R. Lewis the week of February 23rd through the 27 and will be hosting a contemporary friend of John Lewis, labor leader, feminist, and social justice advocate Dolores Werta on February 24th. I look forward to reporting to you at our next board meeting about her visit with the students. I am confident that she will

180combine the message of John Lewis left us to get in good trouble along with her message of yes we can or more commonly known as cis. With that good night and buenas no thank you Miss John Cunning Miss Marin there's lots of staff that we recognize today and uh I want to add a few more names to the list. I want to congratulate the newly named principal of Louise Archer Elementary School, Miss Liz Noto, after the retirement of longtime principal Michelle Macker Georgees. Congratulations to Jamie Lane, principal of Oakton High School as the executive principal of Region One. And yes to Tony Dari, who's departing Westfield and moving over still in Fairfax thankfully into Hayfield. Then we had Miss Hen Hope, principal of Cunningham Park Elementary as one of FCPS's new principal of the year

181awardees. Dr. Herman Meiselle, who was here tonight, uh, region one principal of the year, and he was here to help honor Paul Davis of Langston Hughes Middle School, also my son's engineering teacher, uh, for his work. And then, as well as, uh, the new staff, the, um, new teacher of the year over at Marshall Academy, Sean Applebee. And I actually did get to see Davis Center up the Marshall County for um culinary arts. And I did get to visit Davis Center last week uh with my team of uh of two from the Hunter Mill District and we made cookies with way too much frosting and watched a student make a whole chicken pot pie from scratch and it was delicious. Um it was just the best place to be. I was over at the Lunar

182New Year festival at the government center which was phenomenal and I got to wear a Hanbach Korean uh dress in the fashion show and spent several hours there and then I also was at a swim meet at Oak Oakmont Rec Center with many of the schools in FCPS and it was the warmest I had been in like weeks. Um so this Sunday I'm actually attending a a Saturday I'm attending a new um event really propelled by my daughter's exploration in the IB program. So the IB and the second year in 10th grade they do the mid the midyear program or middle years program and she gets to pick a topic and do whatever she wants. So after I finally stopped asking her about it she is doing it but she wanted to research parolympic athletes

183and understand what athletes with amputations or other um paralysis you know do. So this Saturday open to the public I'm sure it's ticketed the Fairfax Falcons parolympic sports youth team wheelchair basketball tournament. It's at the James Lee Community Center in Anandale. I'm aiming to be at the 12:30 match. I've never seen a live wheelchair basketball game, but I am excited to go. Uh, and you know, I held a town hall earlier this week to share what I'm aware of about AI and hear thoughts from parents and families as well as talk about the budget and facilities and legislation. And I'm happy to announce as ahead of time as I can on March 10th at Louise Archer. I'm going to have my second community summit to talk about those topics and expand more and just practice

184being an engaged community. So I wish a happy Lunar New Year to all of those celebrating and a meaningful start to Ramadan which is also next week. Thank you, Miss Lady. Yes. Happy hundth day of school and the first of two Friday the 13th >> uh tomorrow. Well, February, March. Um, also I want to wish good fortune to those in our community who celebrate Lunar New Year. I did uh along with Miss Marin enjoy the festivities at the uh government center this past weekend. Um although I was not dressed for the fashion show, you looked fabulous, Miss Marin. Um also, uh Ramadan ma uda Mubarak. Is that how you say that? To those in our community who observe Ramadan. Thank you. Mistakes it. That was a perfect pronunciation. I continue to learn. Uh also happy

185um Black History Month. I'm very grateful that uh we in addition to the national anthem are going to hear um Lift Every Voice and Sing. It was beautiful tonight by Daniel's run. Um, this has already been shared, but I also want to just state that I'm excited for Jamie Lane, uh, to be the next region one executive principal. We've also had some movement in Drainsville, as mentioned. Um, we are sad to see Mr. Dari leave us to go to Hayfield. Um, did fantastic work there, and I offer congratulations to Mr. Scott Sedter, who's the interim principal. I had the pleasure of working with Mr. Setter at Jantilly. It was a great choice for an interim. Uh, also congratulations to Miss Nto, principal notto who was at um Hearnen and is now off to Louise Archer.

186Um, and I'm thankful to Dr. Ferish for who's going to be interim principal at Hearnen High School. Um, and there will be, I believe this next Thursday and the following Thursday, I'm not sure which is first, the high school or the middle school, um, meetings uh, to learn about the process to select the new principal. So, please look for those emails and opportunities for you to tune in and or serve on the panel to make that selection. Um, so despite the weather, I was able to visit lots of places. Um, enjoyed the Mountain View High School winter graduation with Miss Dixit a couple nights ago. Uh, and last night I went to the Dallas Art Walk, which was fantastic at Dallas airport. Uh I mean what a partnership between MLAN's uh arts and also Fairfax

187County uh and the Scholastics Awards which now we're going to be doing our own art artifacts. I'm not sure what it's going to be called moving forward but the artwork was really uh phenomenal and there were over 200 people who RSVPd only a few years in when the original one that they did they had about 50 to 70 people. Uh I think almost all the children were there to receive their certificates and take great pride in their artwork. So it was fantastic. Um and then I want to thank the drainsville PTA PTO's PTSAs uh who joined my round table. I think we had a great discussion on a variety of topics. Um and as always I thank everyone our community who parent community who steps up um to volunteer in our schools. Um it's takes

188time uh effort and I know the succession planning is not always easy because sometimes there aren't enough folks stepping up. So I just want to know I see you. I appreciate you. I think it's fantastic. And then finally, uh, thank you to, you know, all of the people, uh, the thousands, uh, people who work with snow removal, VOTE, etc. I could go on and on and on, um, for this very rare storm in our area. So hopefully we'll never have another one like it. Um, and at that, I heard the timer go off, and I don't know if I should go on for another minute or two because I'm not sure how close we are and who's going to win the prediction to end the meeting, but I'll stop right there. Thanks. So, I'm going

189to take a very fast turn because I know I'm the person standing in in in the way of us leaving this evening. Um, it has been a heavy couple of weeks and not just because we've had lots and lots of heavy snow. Um, there's lots going on around the country and in our area. Um, but I would like to say that as I listen to my colleagues, it's very clear that we have a ton to celebrate, too. We have we have holidays going on and we have staff members that are doing amazing things. Um before I came to the meeting tonight, I was able to run over at and walk through the artifacts uh to to look at all the and I kept saying to the wonderful woman who was helping me um navigate everything.

190I kept saying, "Oh my gosh, our students are so talented." I mean, and and being someone who um grew up in the county and did a lot of art within different different worlds, um it was just so awesome to see kids shine in in those ways. And so I love the fact that we have so many opportunities to give kids the opportunity to shine in our district and um I look forward to continuing those in as many ways possible. So with that, at 10:12, we are adjourned. Wow.