12/18/2025 - FCPS School Board Meeting

001followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by Allison, a soloist from Hughes Middle School. I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America. Say by the dawn early light. What so proudly we held at the twilight last gleaming? Who's brought stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight. Or the ramp parts we watched were so gallently streaming. And the rockets red glare. The bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Oh, say does that star spangled yet? Or the land of the free [screaming] and the home of the brave. [applause] >> [applause] >> Can we give our fantastic student one more applause, please? [applause] We would like to welcome City of Fairfax board members Carolyn Pitch's chair and

002Christine Cesarie, vice chair to the tonight's meeting. So, thank you guys so much for joining us. If you would like to receive a copy of the meeting agenda, please see the back of the auditorium. To obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight, please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu back/boards. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel on cox channel 999, Verizon FiOS channel 11, and livereamed on YouTube and at our website at www.fcps.edulivestream. edu/livestream. Miss Dixit has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict as she is out of the country and is attending tonight's meeting from Ejan, India. All those in favor of approving Miss Dixit's request, Mr. Fr, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, and myself.

003All those opposed, Miss Marin, Mr. Mclavine, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson. Madam clerk, please read the vote. >> The vote is 55. As I noted during the public hearing, we would normally defer when there is a tie, but since this is related to tonight, the motion fails. >> Thank you so much. I call on Mr. FR for a motion. I'm Excuse [clears throat] me. I move to suspend the rules to allow for a proclamation to honor outgoing board member Rashna Seismoreheiser. The suspension of the rules shall cover only the proclamation for Miss Seismore. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Moon. I will call on call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fr, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Miss um Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady was

004one last time. Um Mr. done. Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself, that's unanimous. I call on and just so everybody understands the way that this is going to go is we are going to have our proclamation. We are also going to have the mover and the seconder speak to the proclamation as was customary at the last board meeting or at when the last board departed and then we will offer an opportunity for Miss Seismarhiser to address the board. So I call on Mr. Fresh for a proclamation. >> Thank you. Whereas Rashna Seismarheiser served her first term 2020 to 2023 on the Fairfax County School Board as an atlarge representative and her second term 2024 to 2027 uh representing the Bradock district where she has resided since 2001. She served with distinction as the school board's

005chair in 2022 and vice chair 202122. And whereas she has served as chair of the budget, governance, and public engagement committees, bringing to the board a breadth of skills, experience, and knowledge as a college professor and lawyer with a degree from the University of California at Berkeley, using her background in employment and contract law to help oversee our complex school division. And whereas Miss Seismarheiser, a child of immigrants, and disability justice advocate, has championed access to advanced academics, strong math education, and mental health services, and actively worked with the superintendent on revamping literacy instruction, developing a new strategic plan, and creating a public accountability reporting system. And whereas she helped coordinate key hires including the 2021 national superintendent of the year, the nation's first K12 neurodiversity specialist, and Virginia's first K12 twice exceptional coordinator, and

006sought to prioritize student safety through the acceleration of enhancements, including secure vestibules, substance abuse prevention, bus stop armed cameras, and weapons detection systems. And whereas Miss Seismarheiser prioritized the needs of staff by helping to recruit and retain the best educators through a historic collective bargaining agreement which resulted in payraises while simultaneously advocating for music, arts, civics, and steam programming to ensure all students can find their path to success. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board extends its highest commendation and deepest appreciation to Rashna Seismore Heiser for her outstanding service and dedication to the Fairfax County School Board and our students, staff, families, and community members. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Moon. I will call for a vote. All those We're gonna We're gonna Mr. FR,

007would you like to speak to your proclamation >> uh briefly? I just want to lift up um uh Miss Seismarheiser for a moment. Um uh serving with Miss Seismarheiser and the other three members who joined in 2023 has been quite an experience. Um I don't think any of us embarked on this um trip thinking that it would take us through a national pandemic and all sorts of other things. Um but when I think about what uh Miss Seismarheiser's service on the school board has resulted in um I smile because there are lots of kids in the system uh who you know we used to say by name by name and by need and um they just weren't feeling that and um today things are quite different with lots of room still for improvement u because

008of Miss Seismoreheiser's uh dogged determination to improve improve um life for all students in our school system. So, uh while we are losing her to the board of supervisors, um uh I hope that we continue to have an advocate for our schools on the board uh with our other advocates uh knowing the incredible work that happens in this school system has reverberations across everything that the board of supervisors and the state legislature touch as well. >> Thank you, Mr. Fresh. Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? >> Thank you, Madam Chair. I only had a couple of years to work with uh now supervisor uh seismariser but she is my district district school board member and also she has become the first Asianamean to serve on the fairest county a board of

009supervisors uh having been the first one on this board three decades ago I know what that means a a [snorts] what sort of responsibility you carry on for the entire community just Asian Asian community. Uh we have a high expectation from you especially having had six years of schoolboard experience. Uh you know sometimes when the schoolboard members leave this board and go on to the other side, the other side uh they tend to argue for a a a economic uncertainty, a modest revenue growth, but to not leave behind scores. uh you saw our numbers that we are looking for minimum $193 million and I do fully expect a supervisor sizeer to bring that to school system. Congratulations and thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Moon. I will call for the vote. All those in favor

010Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. I would like to welcome Miss Seismore Heiser and her family to all of and all those here to support the proclamation honoring Rashna Seismore to please join the board for a photo in front of the dis I would like to say thank you to Miss Seismarheiser and her family for joining us tonight. Since the election for Bradock District Board of Supervisors seat occurred between our December regular meetings, Miss Seismarhiser did not get a chance to provide brief departing remarks as when she before she resigned from the school board. Thus, in keeping with our custom to allow departing schoolboard members to provide brief remarks, I now would

011like to invite Miss Seismarheiser to address the board from the podium. It's kind of weird to be on this side. Thank you for the I know, right? Thank you. It actually reminds you how I got my start. Actually, I got my start on this side lobbying the school board for years and years and years. I'm sure Mr. Moon and Mr. Meline remember talking about students with disabilities. Talking about all the students we've left behind, talking about all the students whose strengths we never saw years. How I met Laura Jane Cohen, who was my colleague and now my delegate, was actually a night I was testifying here about all the strengths we see in people with autism and how our school system has left them behind. And she flagged me down in the parking lot and

012said, "You should run for school board." Actually, she said, "You shouldn't run for school board." But and so it is my honor to have spent the last six years working on many things. And thank you, Mr. Fris, for listing many of the great things we did together. It is my honor to help hire the national superintendent of the year and all the great work she has done. You are the first superintendent since I started lobbying where I actually believed the work of inclusion of seeing students with disabilities as humans first for all their strengths first. You are the first superintendent I've seen actually understand that. But thank you. This is just gonna be an honest and real speech because I feel like I need to do that. Um, thank you to my colleagues who served

013during COVID. None of us anticipated showing up January 2020 and three months later dealing with what the word we all hate now, unprecedented times. And it was hard and more often than not, we were faced with lose-lose situations with very high stakes and very little information. Was not what none of us wanted to do. But I'm glad I was here because at the core of what I care about are our kids. And I would implore you all as you move forward to keep our kids at the center instead of yourselves, instead of each other, but the kids because that is what and together you guys can serve them so much better than apart. So I implore you to keep that in mind. I implore you to keep in mind the students who we don't see.

014When you walk into a classroom, ask yourself, does that child have agency? Does that child have the ability to say no? Does that child have the ability to say, "This is what I like to do." And is there an adult in the room saying, "Let me help you get there." Ask yourself that. Please ask yourself, what are we doing for those who have the worst outcomes who leave us? And how do we make that outcome a little better every minute of every day? Ask yourself that. And then remind yourself with those of you who were at my swearing in and thank you for coming that the child well the adult that you saw play the national anthem on his electric guitar. How many of you noticed that a string broke in the middle of it

015and he finished it anyway? And ask yourself why that child was not allowed to perform in his fourth straight strings concert and why I had to fight for that adult to do music. And then ask yourself, how many more of those students do you have in front of you? And I'm grateful that you're still there to carry on that voice and to ask yourself those questions and to carry on that work because at the core of what you do is for those who most need it. So I'm honored to have served on the board. I will say that this is the greatest work that you can do is to educate our future. And I implore you guys to do it together with a strong voice. I implore you when somebody stands here and I'll be

016back that you really understand what it takes for somebody to come here and implore you and you have the power to make that world better. I am proud. I am proud of the work on inclusion we're doing because at the end of the day, every single child is human and every single child deserves to belong. And I'm proud of all the other work we did, collective bargaining and this new strategic plan and serving as chair and trying to lead this board out of COVID and into a new reality with a new superintendent. But I'm most proud to stand here and tell you that there was people whose doors I knocked who said they would not vote for me for supervisor because they wanted me to stay on the school board to champion our students with

017disabilities. And I ask you take that mantle on. I implore you to take that mantle on. because when you do, if you do, you will find such amazing rock stars in your midst. Thank you for the opportunity to champion those who most need it. Thank you for the opportunity to serve as your leader, to serve as your budget chair, for the hard work that you do. Thank you, Dr. Reid, for being the first superintendent to move the needle forward on this work and on many, many other things. Thank you for the honor of my lifetime and thank you for continuing the work of educating our future. Thank you, Mr. Moon, for already starting to lobby me. I will continue to be a strong public education advocate and a strong advocate for our students. And I'll

018leave you with this. When you walk down those corridors in the schools, when you talk to our teachers and when you make your policy, ask yourself, does this work for everybody? And ask yourself, is this acting for every child by name and by strength? Thank you for all you do. Thank you for the honor of a lifetime. Thank you for serving on the school board and thank you for educating our future and protecting our democracy. [applause] >> Thank you, Miss Seismarheiser. We wish you the best of luck in your new role as the Baratic District Supervisor, and we look forward to working with you in the future. We look forward to harassing you in the future. Um, agenda item 5.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members

019who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at the school board regular meetings and public hearings can be found at the schoolboard the school board's website at www.fcps.eduboard. During the sign up process, community members acknowledged that they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members 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 at their seats, including when recording or taking videos or recording video or taking photos. We

020are grateful to all of those who have come to speak to us. Thank you for your cooperation. School board members will be listening but not responding. Madame clerk, please call the first speaker, Megan Durst. Thank you for this opportunity. My name is Megan Durst and I have a seven and 5-year-old um at the uh Oakton Elementary School. For years now, I've received feedback about my kids great imagination, creativity, and social emotional awareness, which gives me hope for the future of the leaders that we are raising and guiding in our schools. I credit a lot of this to the relationships built between some pretty remarkable teachers and my kids. The intentional intuitive human connection in the classrooms is irreplaceable. Yet I now find myself concerned about the apparent rush to launch the chat GPT for teachers

021pilot. It seems we are prematurely opening the door to the generative AI world with uncertainty pertaining to its potential efficacy and proven risks. What's the rush? What's the result that only this path and pace will provide? We owe to our children, teachers, and families to exercise our due diligence by suspending use of generative AI tools such as chat GBT for teachers in FCPS classrooms until independent evidence yields clear safety, proven efficacy, appropriate developmental application, and transparent public reporting. Neither I nor my fellow parents feel informed or prepared to take this step at this time. In order to be comfortable with a future phased and limited reintroduction of such tools, we are looking for concrete evidence based upon verified and reputable independent research. to ensure our staff and students don't experience preventable negative impacts, including but

022not limited to lack of critical thinking, creativity, imagination, and social emotional development. Let's better prepare before we proceed. Marie Maroon Good evening. My name is Marie Maroon, a concerned parent of an elementary school student. I am here tonight to urge you to pause the chat GPT for teachers program. FCPS joined this program without public hearings, parent notification, or teacher input and without the safeguards that should come before implementation. not after our teachers and children are being turned into beta testers for a corporate product with unknown risks. Let's talk about privacy. Open AI says it is secure and fura compliant, but where are the detailed auditable policies and non-biased studies? What happens to our children's data? We deserve answers before any information is uploaded on their platform, not promises after the fact. Open AI, a for-profit

023company, would gain insight into FCPS curriculum, teaching methods, and student performance for their own opaque use. And it undermines teachers who will lose the chance to develop critical curriculum design methods, making them dependent on a corporation that will charge whatever they want after 2027. And what does free until June 2027 really mean? FCPS will face pressure to pay whatever OpenAI charges, diverting funds from actual classroom needs such as human educators, counselors, and special educators. The latter of which were first on the budget chopping block. AI can't replace the human connection educators make with students or keep confidential information safe from corporate prying eyes. Most troubling, FCPS spent enormous time and energy on naming a new school, but is rushing blindly into a decision affecting every teacher and child in this district. Our teachers and children

024deserve education grounded in human interaction, not data consumption by tech companies pursuing corporate profit. Pause this pilot. Create real safeguards. Let parents and teachers have a voice. Thank you. Benjamin Van Ever. >> Hi, thanks for your attention and patience. I'm grateful for your investment in making our schools some of the best in the country. I'm the CTO of a multinational company and have spent three decades working in tech. My children attend Oakton Elementary School. So why do children attend school? They go to learn foundational knowledge and how to think and learn how to function in society so that they may develop into balanced contributing members and lead meaningful lives which in turn contribute to the evolving and improving of society. So what do computers have to do with this? Technology is an accelerator. It's enabled

025us to achieve what were wisps of dreams mere 40 years ago. However, our unrestrained zeal to accelerate has come with costs. School shootings, teen suicides, social isolation, and radicalism. Despite technological advances available to them, the youth of the past decade have grown up less equipped to thrive. An over reliance on technology has starved them from developing readiness to solve problems from scratch, social fluency, comfort with discomfort, patience, and 2020 vision. So, do we have options? Our kids are in school for less than 34 hours on a good week. More than half of that is spent with computers. They're taught math by a two-dimensional penguin, reading by a disembodied computer voice, but not how to ask questions or think through their own. I propose that we please pause to question if the academic and life skills

026they develop from these apps are greater than those that they would derive from an education more founded on human interaction and instruction and that we do that before we shift even further by rally injecting AI. I've spent my career in tech startups innovating and taking risks. I can confidently tell you that the early adoption of AI by FCPS does not demonstrate innovation. It demonstrates a recklessness with the future of my children. Dale Van Wagner. >> Good evening, chair and members of the school board. My name is Dale Van Wagner and I'm here with FCPS parents for intentional tech and the Oak and Balance project. The year is 2030. The Commanders are defending Super Bowl champions. FCPS has just released an updated budget plan with good news. Significant cost savings, less teachers, more lowcost roles focused

027primarily on managing AI. All right, that's just a hypothetical, but it illustrates something important. When powerful tech enters education without guard rails, transparency, and public oversight, we aren't just updating tools. We are changing the system. And once those changes are made, they are very hard to unwind. Hey, it's already happening. Get with the program. Teachers should have access to any tool that helps them save time. Teachers and students are already using ChatGpt anyways. I hear it. I get it. None of those are reasons to rush. We agree. Teachers deserve tools that help them, but tools that shape instruction, judgment, and learning deserve public review. Any tech implementation worth moving forward with should be able to stand up to public discourse. FCPS moved forward with chat GPT for teachers without a schoolboard vote, without public work

028sessions, without community input, and without a clear plan for training, data privacy, or accountability. We're asking for three simple steps. One, pause the implementation so the board can conduct a thorough review. Two, open public discussion with parents, teachers, and the community. And three, if the decisions made to proceed, release a full implement implementation plan with safeguards, training, and accountability. Slowing it down is not being anti-tech. It's being responsible stewards for our children's education. Please pause, invite the community in, and get this right. Thank you. Naria Nakawari. Hi everybody. My name is Nadia Nashawadi and on beh I'm here on behalf of the Muslim community. This morning I was looking out my kitchen window and noticed six little birds, blue jays, playing together. One of them was keeping watch. Two was searching for food and the

029others were helping protect the group. Blue jays don't usually work like that. They aren't pack animals, but in that moment they were working together so they could all be safe. In a world that feels increasingly divided, schools are where children learn how to live together. And school safety isn't about physical protection. It's about whether adults and systems respond calmly and thoughtfully when situations feel tense. FCPS teacher teaches students about leadership. Real leadership shows up under pressure when clear non-fear non-fearbased protocols guide decision decisions instead of assumptions. Our students come from every background, culture, and faith. that diversity shouldn't complicate decisions. It should strengthen the care and clarity behind it. With relationships and with families and community stakeholders on tonight's agenda, I'll say this plainly. When policies are clear, staff are prepared, and families are treated

030like partners, fear doesn't drive decisions, sound process does, and students feel safe being themselves. What families want isn't a reaction, it's prevention. [snorts] Not isolation, but connection. Not more division, but a sense of belonging. When schools work together like those little birds this morning, each part doing its role and looking out for one another, kids are safer and a connection replaces division. [snorts] That that's the kind of school environment families are hoping for. Thank you. Please play the video testimony submitted by Neil Pash. Hello, my name is Neil Posh. I'm the PTA president of Cunningham Park Elementary School, but I also come to you as a father of two students. I'm concerned that chat GPT for teachers will bring irreparable harm to our students and teachers. I remember when it was considered an accomplishment that

031FCPS was able to issue every student a laptop. I understood it was about equity and access to educational resources. But do we think it is a good idea that students are spending so much of their learning time on computers as opposed to receiving instructions from their teachers? Can the board prove through performance metrics that there are significant upside gains in learning? upsides that outweigh the downside risks of screen fatigue, lack of student teacher interaction and distractions for students who are getting around the firewall to access unauthorized and inappropriate websites. We are having these debates right now and it raises serious questions about the wisdom of a laptop for every student. Now FCPS wants to introduce chat GPT for teachers without evidence-based conclusions that it is in the best interest of both the teachers or the

032students. The most important part of education is the interface between the teacher and the student. Learning and assessments are iterative processes that require participation by the student and the teacher. It is unclear to me how exactly chat GBT will be implemented or what detrimental effects it might have on our country county's education system. My biggest fear would be open AI or any tech company creating a dependency on their tools that our capacity to produce educators. We are requesting an immediate hold on all generative AI tools and FCPS classrooms, including but not limited to the Chat GPT for teachers pilot until independent evidence demonstrates clear safety, proven efficacy, developmentally appropriate use cases, and transparenc transparent accountability structures. Please play the video testimony submitted by Jennifer Hudson. >> Good evening. My name is Dr. Jennifer Hudson and

033I'm an FCPS parent with serious concerns about how AI is being introduced to our schools. Right now, districts across the country are rushing to adopt AI tools in the name of innovation and efficiency. Tools like Chat GBT for teachers are often described as free and low risk. But as parents, we know that nothing that touches our children is ever truly free. If we're not paying with money, we may be paying with something far more valuable. Our children's data, their attention, and their digital footprints. When technology moves faster than governance, risk follows. Risk to children whose data and learning records may be stored or reused without families consent. risk to teachers who are encouraged to rely on AI systems that can produce confident sounding but incorrect answers often without being trained to recognize or challenge those

034errors and risk to districts who are responsible when something goes wrong. Parents are asking a basic question that deserves clear answers. When students information is entered into AI tools, who checks for personally identifiable data, where is it stored and who can access it now or in the future? Without guardrail, small notes can quietly become permanent data trails tied to a child's name. Researchers are already documenting the harms of AI tools. While many schools still lack clear policies, training or response plans add known issues with bias, privacy exposure, and unsafe content. And the risk is no longer hypothetical, it is foreseeable. So here is our request in one sentence. Require governance before large-scale AI use by teachers in our classrooms. This means clear rules for use, transparent data policies, independent review, human oversight and accountability, respect

035for teacher judgment, and ongoing monitoring. This isn't anti-technology, is pro-children, pro- teachers, and pro-responsible leadership. Let us choose stewardship over speed and put do no harm before roll out because if we don't insist on governance first, we risk handing the classroom to software before we fully understand the costs. Thank you. Please play the video testimony submitted by Jennifer Chang. >> Evening. My name is Jennifer Chang and I am an FCPS parent of three. I and other parents were shocked to read about FCPS's agreement to pilot OpenAI's chat GPT for teachers. Our district has over 183,000 students and how teachers follow this policy affects each one of those students. We do not know what the risks are because you have not provided us with any details. I have seen 10 emails from FCPS about naming the

036new Western High School and zero communication on how we will use AI in our schools. How do you plan to manage all the concerns and potential risks associated with OpenAI's chat GPT for teachers product? And why is there a kindergarten to sixth grade AI curriculum already months in development but no communication around this or request for community feedback? My kids love going to school because of their teacher who is phenomenal and always challenging them to think creatively and work on exciting projects. She inspires her students to achieve and push themselves not because of differentiated worksheets, but because of their daily interactions, dialogue, and experiences that they share together. I'm curious how you envision AI improving on this relationship. Supposedly, a AI can reduce teacher workload so they have more time to spend with their students.

037Will teachers be my child's story into chat GPT so it can tell her how to grade it. Will teachers be using chat GBT to come up with worksheets? Explain to us how you're going to do this. Don't just unleash it on the teachers and our students without proper planning, training, and open conversations with the families. For this reason, I am requesting an immediate pause on the chat GPT for teachers pilot and requesting more open communication from FCPS. We outlined other requests in our petition titled responsible AI use in FCPS on change.org. I encourage you to read it as over 200 parents have signed it already. Chair Anderson, that was our last public speaker. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. Um, agenda item 6.01, student representative matters. I call on Miss McConen. >> Thank you. Good afternoon.

038Good night to the board. I would like I want to begin by returning to the conversation about the gradebook and standardsbased grading. Students understand the intent behind the shift for to better m to better reflect mastery reduce inequities and provide more meaningful feedback. However, intent alone does not determine impact implementation does when students and families what students and families are experiencing right now is inconsistency. In some classrooms based grading which is piloted is clear, transparent and aligned to learning objectives. In others, it is confusing with different different interpretations of proficiency, reassessment policies, and weighing of assignments. When the same course can look fundamentally different depending on the teacher, the gradebook stops being a tool for clarity and becomes a source of stress. Training must go beyond how to put input grades into a system. It

039should focus on what proficiency actually looks like in practice, how to communicate progress to students and families, how reassessment, late work, and retakes are handled consistently, how grades align with learning rather than compliance. Without this shared understanding, students are left second guessing what grades mean, and families struggle to support their children effectively. Students also raise concerns about how standardsbased grading interacts with accountability and motivation. When expectations are unclear, students may not understand how to improve or why their grade change. Clear rubrics, consistent feedbacks, and transparent reassessment policies are critical to ensuring grading remains rigorous while still being supportive. Under goal one, students emphasized the need for enhanced communication across pyramid schools, particularly between elementary, middle, and high schools. When communication breaks down, students talked about feeling the impact most during transitions. Students also raised concerns

040about middle school math pathways. There is a clear need for earlier and more transparent communication so students and families understand what pathways exist, what doors they open or close, and how decisions are decisions made in middle school affect future opportunities. Introducing this information earlier empowers students to make informed choices rather than reactive ones. Students discussed how artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence is increasingly being used in ways it was never intended. AI should be a tool for critical thinking, learning, and productivity, not a replacement for emotional support or mental health care. This raises important questions we should be asking. Do students use AI as a mental health resource? Are families aware of the risk associated with that? How can the district better guide students towards appropriate supports? Students suggest students suggested that these questions can be included

041in student parent surveys so the district can better understand current behavior and gaps. Additionally, there is strong interest in family facing education such as YouTube such as YouTube based riskrevention webinars. We should be asking how's has your family taken advantage of the these resources to utilize the parent resource center. Understanding usage helps ensure these supports are not just available but accessible and visible. Under goal four, students emphasize the need for more streamlined and effective internal communication within schools. When communication is unclear, fragmented, it affects everything from academic expectations to student support services. Improving internal systems helps ensure the information reaches students and families consistently and equitably. Finally, under goal 5, students discuss AI in the context of college and career readiness. Many college students are already entering a job market that expects AI fluency, yet

042they feel unprepared. This means middle and high school students should be should begin building AI literacy. AI literacy is not about turning every student into computer scientists. It's about understanding how a how AI works at a basic level, whether an output is reliable or biased, and how to use AI responsibly and effectively. This isn't separate from digital literacy, but a continuation of internet literacy in a rapidly evolving world. In closing, students are not asking the district to move faster than is responsible, but they're asking us to be intentional with clear training, strong communication, family facing resources, and thoughtful AI connection. FCPS can ensure ensure students are prepared to not just graduate, but to navigate the world beyond our classrooms. Will the clerks please play the video from this year's FCPS food show? >> What food

043are you trying? >> I'm trying to pronounce that. >> No, no, it's a joke. It's like nacho average. Like not your average >> spaghetti. Nacho average. Oh, I get this. >> It took me a bit to get the joke. >> A chicken sandwich. I got the chicken enchilada. >> Jalapeno chicken sandwich. >> Is this something you guys would be excited to see in your school lunch next year? >> Yes. >> Ramen noodles. >> Ramen. >> The ramen. >> Which one? Ramen. >> Ramen. Ramen. Of course. Ramen. >> Probably ramen. >> All across the board. Everyone loves the ramen noodles, which is nice. Did you guys grow up watching Chopped? >> Yeah. Same here. When I heard Mystery Basket, I was like, "Oh my goodness." >> Could you guys like walk me through that? Cuz like

044I'm not sure. All I know is that there's winners. So, we got a mystery basket with like maybe seven ingredients and every team had to use two to three of them. So, we chose these crumbled tortilla chips. We did the fake meat that was in there and we put that all together and it was like a super surprise. It kept you on your toes and everyone used like different parts of it. So, it was really cool. >> I thought that like experience of just like having that mystery box and like competing with like cooking like it's just a new experience and it's it was like very interesting to be a part of. Why did you guys create the Fiesta Crunch Chocolate? I really like the name. >> Well, my biggest inspiration was that I've been

045vegetarian for four years now. And so, it was really important to me to get a vegetarian dish on the menu that people could eat, but it still tasted like meat so that it's even better. So, I'm back here fulfilling out yet another response. I tried the Yesa Crunch taco. I really like it. I loved it. Once again, not being biased. It was really flavorful. This is sounds like something that I would like order at a restaurant and like really like finish up the plate, everything. I would love to see this dish at school. Any additional comments? It's really flavorful without being too spicy. So, submitted. What was your main goal when you guys were putting on the food show? >> Whether it's focus groups, whether it's taste testings, whether it's culinary competitions, is just to

046make sure that the students are always in the center of every decisions that we make. And today is just a way for us to elevate that. >> I think there's also about exposure, right? I think exposing students to what school food uh can also look like, right? and being able to show them all these different dishes is an amazing opportunity to be able to provide all these different types of foods and unique foods that they may not have seen before. So to be even to just expand the possibilities of what they think school food is. I think also too just gathering different uh recipe ideas, right? We're always doing innovation and having new menu cycles come out um as well as different concepts and seeing what uh students want to see on the menu is

047really exciting year after year with different students coming in. There was a student who shared about one of our soups that we had and said she said that it reminded her of her grandma's soup and I just think that's so lovely to like see the connection between food and home and how we can really bring that together even in the cafeteria. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you, Fab. >> That concludes student rep matters. Thank you, Miss McConen. Agenda item 7.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance. Since the board needs to return to the closed meeting towards the end of the regular meeting, we will return to this item later today after we concludes conclude the closed meeting. Action item 7.02, confirmation of action taken and close. I call on Dr. Anderson

048for a motion. I move to excuse from attendance at school certain students identified in closed meeting pursuant to Virginia Code section 22.1-254 B1. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Mavine. All those in favor? Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Maron, Mr. Meline, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. All those opposed. All those abstaining. Mr. Dunn. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. I move that the school board authorize legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in close session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. Is there a second? I second. Miss Marin. All those in favor? Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, and myself. That's unanimous for all board members.

049I call on Miss Marin for a motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who was charged with one count of distribution of marijuana and intent to sell and one count of possession of a handgun or rifle by a person under the age of 18 and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the decision division superintendent. >> Is there a second? >> Second, >> Miss Lady. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. McVine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. >> I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who assaulted another student at school and to confirm the disciplinary decision of

050the superintendent. >> Is there a second? >> I second. >> Miss Marin, all those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mclavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. D, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who engaged in bullying behavior and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. >> Is there a second? Second, >> Miss Lady I All those in favor Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. Miss Marin, Missine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. Agenda item 7.03, 03 action item resolution directing division council to file a petition

051with the circuit court of Fairfax County for issuance of a writ of election to authorize a special election. On December 9th, 2025, our colleague, Miss St. Seismheiser was elected to the Bradock District member for on the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. On December 16th, 2025, I received Miss Seismore Heiser's resignation as the Bradock as the Bradock District School Board representative effective 4 PM on December 16, 2025. Thus, the Bradock District seat on the Fairfax County School Board is now vacant. We congratulate our colleague on her election and wish her well in her role as as the Bradock District Supervisor in accordance with law 24.2-226. 2 -226 of the code of Virginia. We now consider a we will now consider action directing the division council to file a petition requesting the circuit court to schedule a

052special election for the now vacant seat for the Bradock district school board representative. Of course, until that seat is filled, Bradock school board member Kyle Mc or school board members Kyle McDaniel, Ryan Meline, and Il Young will continue to represent Bradock district residents in their capacity as their elected atlarge representatives. I call on Mr. Fresh for a resolution. >> Thank you. Whereas [clears throat] effective December 16th, 2025, a vacancy occurred on the school board due to the resignation of a member of the board. And whereas the school board is required by Virginia law to petition the Fairfax County Circuit Court to issue a writ of election to fill the vacancy. And whereas Virginia law provides that the special election for the uh for this purpose shall be held not fewer than 45 days nor more

053than 90 days after the occurrence of the vacancy. And whereas the 90th day is March 16, 2026 based on the rules and of statutory construction uh set forth in the code of Virginia. Uh and whereas Virginia law requires that there be a special election by March 16, 2026. Now therefore, be it resolved, I hereby move that the school board direct legal counsel to file a petition with the circuit court of Fairfax County for issuance of a writ of election to authorize a special election to be held Tuesday, March 3rd, 2026 for the purpose of uh filling the vacancy on the Fairfax County School Board. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Moon, Mr. Fish, would you like to speak to your motion? >> No. straightforward. >> Thank you. Mr. Moon, would you like

054to speak to your second? >> No, ma'am. >> Thank you. I will call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor? Mr. Fish, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. Agenda item 7.04, 04 action item strategic plan goal report leading for tomorrow's innovation. I will call on Dr. Reid for a presentation on the strategic BL plan goal five report leading for tomorrow's innovation. >> All right. Thank you, Madam Chair. It's my pleasure this evening to do um a reprisal really of our conversation we recently had at a board meeting. Uh recall um if you're watching from home that the board has already spent a significant amount of time

055reviewing uh goal five data and this comprehensive work session occurred on December 2nd where we were able to review and discuss data related to the school. Also want to remind those watching that there is a full report posted to box um if you want to follow along or read in more detail. I want to share that goal [clears throat] five is leading for tomorrow's innovation and it focuses on the strong finish we want for all students which is really an opportunity for a new beginning as students uh leave us. We want to prepare our young people uh for this world which is uh yet to be imagined in many ways. I want to begin by talking a little bit about how Fairfax County Public Schools monitors our graduation rates. Uh we did discuss, [clears throat]

056excuse me, two ways that the Virginia Department of Education reports graduation rates. Uh the rate uh includes students who earn any one of the three Virginia board recognized diplomas and provides additional time for students with disabilities and multilingual learners who are legally permitted to extend time to graduation until age 22. However, there is a second rate which is the 4-year federal graduation indicator uh which is now used in the Virginia Department of Education school performance and support framework. Unlike the on-time graduation rate, this particular indicator does not include the applied studies diploma or students who extend time beyond four years to graduate. So when we think about this uh during the worst session, we discussed the impact of state flexibility which has been um provided for students enrolled in high schools during the 201920 and

0572021 school years to meet graduation requirements. This pandemic related flexibility allowed students to earn verified credit without the typical test score requirements. This class of 2025, the most recent graduating class, is the first cohort since the pandemic where the majority of students could not benefit from this flexibility. As you can see, uh during and immediately following the pandemic, uh graduation rates have increased in FCPS. And while in 2025 they have declined slightly, the state flexibility is one key reason as it is no longer in place. Um, however, we're still pleased that the rates are higher than prepandemic rates. In the next slide, I want to make sure we see on-time graduation rates by different student groups and want to note that um all groups have made some progress from the baseline or continue to make

058progress uh from the baseline. as we think about our four-year um what's now called a federal FGI rate, again without flexibility and without the ability for our students with disabilities or a multilingual learners to have um or be recognized for any time after a four-year graduation determination. Um, just as a reminder, this measure does not include students who have exercised their right to extend this time to graduation or those students who have received the applied studies diploma. In Virginia, students can graduate with an advanced studies standard or applied studies. And last year, the majority of our graduates did earn an advanced studies diploma. In the state's recent data release, they also reported that the Northern Virginia region has the highest percent of students graduating with an advanced studies diploma. This slide looks at the percent

059of students who have dropped out of the graduating cohort. This is not just a student outcome, as we know, but also a system signal that points us to areas where we can better identify and respond to student needs. During the work session, we discussed a continued need to focus on supports that address barriers to student graduation. Another key aspect of goal five uh looks at how we prepare our students for college and career readiness. And when we think about this, overall, most of our students feel prepared and confident about their post-secary futures. This table shows the percent of high school students who agreed with statements about college and career readiness on the recently launched student experience survey. The high levels of self-reported readiness likely reflect a positive school experience and a strong culture around college

060and career that manifests itself not just in our schools and classrooms but really across our community. There's some variation by student group, excuse me, particularly when students were asked if they were taking courses needed for college and career, which is a focus of our goal for work. Nearly all of our graduates also have plans for college and career based on their responses to the senior survey. These plans include attending a two-year or four-year college, employment, enlistment, or other training and education. Our overall rates of college going are higher when compared to the state and other Northern Virginia divisions. In fact, for the class of 2024, 87% of our graduates reported that they plan to attend college on the senior survey and 75% enrolled the following fall based on national student clearing house data. And we

061want to focus on closing the gap between intention and outcome for students even as we recognize that for many of our students uh financial aid is also becoming more challenge uh challenging in our current uh economy and affordability uh challenges for each of our three stat strategies. I want to highlight a few of our actions. I know the board has talked a little bit about uh it's you know wanting to get very clear about what the action is that is connected to our strategy. So our first strategy focuses on providing students with multiple options to earn credits toward graduation and monitoring progress. This year we launched a new feature in parent view and student view to help high school students and their families monitor their progress toward completing graduation requirements. We've also standardized the graduation

062plan process for identifying and providing pathways to students at risk of not graduating, including through no cost credit acral and recovery options. Our second strategy recognizes the importance of ongoing school engagement and post-secary momentum. This year, we continue to staff on-time graduation resource teachers at schools with higher rates of dropping out. In addition, we're working with an external consultant with is through our ABL work to shift academic advising and enrollment practices so that all students are completing coursework that best prepares them for post-secary success. Finally, our third strategy is focused on graduation success for students with additional educational needs. Our office of research and program evaluation is conducting an analysis of evidence-based practices to better serve students at greater risk of dropping out. And for our students with disabilities, I want to take some time

063to discuss our career and transition services on the next slides. Transition plans for students with disabilities are included in every individualized education program known as an IEP beginning at age 14 or during 8th grade. These plans serve as the foundation for instruction and coursework in high school. They include information about graduation requirements, diploma types, transition goals, assessment data, programming options, and information about community agency opportunities. Every student with an IEP has dedicated staff to support this planning along with access to work-based learning embedded in coursework, post-secondary planning events, and the 18 to 20 year two-year-old programming. This slide provides a summary of those services. And as you can see uh by a review, there are a number of services. Um and we are continuing to review our program design and contemplating really how we can

064best serve even more students in this program. Um and the career and trans transition supports. Um, as we look at post-secary planning and transition supports, our um, college transition specialists, program staff provide access for FCPS students to explore college and trade, technical school opportunities such as job shadowing, field trips, uh, joint events with the Northern Virginia Community College, and multiple career fairs. as we continue to expand and improve our transition programming. Last year, just wanted to provide a couple uh details as how this work is evolving. Um last year we had all of our ETR and which are our employment transition resource staff and our special education department chairs receive professional development around the use of consistent transition language and guidance for documenting and delivering CTS related services. We provided special education department chairs with

065guidance and resources on meaningful tasks for staff and families to support post-secary activities and planning and school teams implemented enhanced resources for academic and career planning for middle and high school students. This year, what's been added is we're developing a new high school standard course offering for our students with disabilities called Workforce Connections. This course will replace the current optional EF course next year. Finally, we're revisingformational materials from family IEP meetings to include information on our FCPS 18 to 22 year old programming options, adult and community services, higher education applications and accommodations, as well as employment and training. As we think about, excuse [clears throat] me, our innovation and future ready skills, I want to share a couple things that continue to be of critical importance for our students here in Fairfax County. Want to

066remind our community about our portrait of a graduate skills. These skills were developed in 2014 and um these are uh and our students have opportunities to develop these attributes through core instructions as part of our learning model. Students continue to deepen their understanding through extended learning experiences such as the global classroom project, the global awareness technology project, IB Middle years project, academic competitions, student leadership organizations, as well as clubs and activities. Another event that we're bringing on board this year is a student AI innovation challenge which is an example about another way in which our students can gain portrait of a graduate skills while also focusing on innovation. This fall we've partnered with Play Labs to provide students with an opportunity to foster and showcase all of these portrait of a graduate core attributes as

067part of this innovative work. Currently, over 1,100 high schools, or excuse me, over 1,100 high school students from every FCPS high school are competing and participating in a guided self-paced AI curriculum in terms of building an AI powered apps and designing creative solutions in teams for real world problems. This is an elective opportunity for our students and it's an opportunity where the culminating event which is going to be an FCPS AI in innovation night is scheduled for this upcoming Friday or excuse me this upcoming February. Um one of the things that's really exciting is that there many high schools around the country are participating and I believe the uh final rounds will be at the national level here in Washington DC. Is that correct Mr. Seth. Okay. So, wanting to take a look at the

068wide range of opportunities for students to develop portrait of a graduate attributes as they're reflected in our student experience survey data. Overall, around 80% of high school students who responded felt that their school gave them chances to develop creativity and supported them in trying out new ideas to solve problems. We're continuing to explore additional data collection methods to account accurately for the number of students gaining portrait of a graduate and new life innovation skills through completion um of activities that demonstrate um key attributes. So to summarize, last year we saw a small decline in on-time graduation, although with new standards to be responsive to and a corresponding uptick in the dropout rate. We're going to continue to monitor and adjust our strategies to achieve our 2030 goals. And the overwhelming majority of high school students

069are confident they're college and/or career ready when they leave us and feel like they are learning in school what they need to be prepared for the future. And finally, we're going to continue to develop and monitor student innovation, portrait of a graduate skills, and preparation for life after high school. Madame Chair, this concludes the presentation of highlights from the goal five report which is posted in its entirety on the board docs. Thank you, Dr. Reid. I call on Mr. Fresh for a motion. >> So, the school board accepts the goal five strategic plan report for school year 202526. >> Is there a second? Second. >> Mr. Fresh, would you like to speak to your motion? >> No, I spoke plenty at the work session. >> Thank you. M lady, would you like to speak to

070>> I didn't expect that from my colleague. Um, actually, I don't have a lot to say other than um I'm very excited about sort of a lot of things that are centrally have been organized to help students acrew credits. Um, I feel like there's a long time where individual schools trying to figure that out. And so, um, as someone who worked in one of those schools and were triaging kids and trying to be creative to get them to graduation, I'm extremely grateful for, uh, the creative, uh, ways and the thinking that have come from staff and then working with school staff to help those kids acrew the credits they need. And again, the only thing I want to just, you know, it's it's unfortunate that the uh Fed does not allow for what law allows,

071which is that students who have an IEP. Um or are multi- language learners actually can attend until their 23rd birthday. Um but yet they want them to finish in four years. So it's kind of a contradiction that that's their graduation rate where, ironically enough, all the published federal graduation rates in college are six years. um which means you have to pay two extra years. So, it's kind of odd that uh it's done that way, but I just want to make sure the community still understands that. Um we all know and all of our data has throughout the years uh indicates that when our multilanguage learners actually exit our uh programming um their scores, their graduation rates, everything is actually higher than our uh the average student in our system. So, they just need the time.

072Um, most of all though, just appreciate the uh work. Appreciate the work that's happening with Abel. Um, and thank you Dr. Reid and your team for your leadership in this work. >> Thank you, Miss Lady, Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. I won't speak too long because we had a very long and robust um work session, but I just want to take this opportunity to raise a couple of things. Um, we are in this space. We are in this space where uh the new state accountability has definitely knocked us back um a little bit and we see this across the board. Um but I continue to have the concern of how our various subgroups are performing. The achievement gaps are still very very very much persistent and this shows up not only in our graduation rates

073uh but also in our students with advanced diplomas. Um, I'm concerned about again the gaps within subgroups and I'm also concerned about the gaps within schools. So, those are the two big concerns that I I wanted to raise here again uh because there are they're the things that I think we need to work on because Fairfax County is great for a lot of our kids. It just needs to be great for all of our kids. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Seeing no others, I'll call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mclavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed, Dr. Anderson. All those abstaining. Okay. Mr. Dunn would be in favor.

074Will the clerk please read the vote? >> So, Mr. Dun's a yes. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, then the vote is 91. The motion carries. Thank you. Action item 7.05, FY26, midyear budget review. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the school board approve revenue and expenditure charges reflected in the FY2026 midyear budget review as detailed in the agenda item. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your motion? No. >> Miss Lady, would you like to speak to yours? >> No. >> Thank you. Seeing no members wishing to speak, I will call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. uh McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline,

075Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous for all board members. Action item 7.06, boundary change phasing and transportation decision. I call on Miss Lady for a motion. >> I move that the school board approve providing transportation based only on new boundary adjustments. >> Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. Fresh. Miss Lady, would you like to speak to your motion? >> I'll speak briefly on my motion. Um there's been a lot of conversation around the cost. Um, we were provided and it's it's on board docs that uh currently I'll just talk about Kent Gardens which is in Drainsville which is in my district. Uh we're spending close to a million dollars to phase those students who um were rebounded two years ago. Um that's

076a lot of money for one school's phasing. Uh when we look at this broader boundary work that we're doing that we're going to do in perpetuity uh every five years, it's not something we can fund. Um, so I'll leave it at that and because I will also be speaking to a follow on in a bit. Thank you. >> Mr. Fresh, would you like to speak to your second? >> No. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. >> Yes. Thank you. I Oh, she moved. Um, I I will share what I raised last time when we discussed this. I'm really concerned that this will allow only our students with means to be able to access um the phasing. It's becoming an opportunity for the privileged. So, that is one of my concerns. And I do realize

077that Dr. Reid had shared um some data with us last time that this would cost $10 million. And my concern is well rather my position is that I I think that's premature because one, we don't know what the boundaries are yet. two, we don't know which students will elect to not participate in their new boundaries. So, I feel that there's another number out there to be had and I wish we would have an opportunity to make this decision with that number in mind. I I feel like we're in a vacuum and I understand the tensions. Um I I definitely understand the the tensions of a tight budget year, but I do feel like we're a little bit premature in making this decision. We're in a vacuum space where we are not working with real numbers.

078If it's 3,000 kids, is it $10 million? Is it 2,000 kids? Is it still $10 million? Um, so those are the concerns that I wanted to raise regarding this motion. And I I'm just very concerned that we're going to put some kids in the position where they are not going to be be able to take advantage because their families cannot transport them or they cannot transport themselves. And I worry about what that might mean even for our kids who are becoming seniors. Thank you, >> Mr. McDaniel. >> Sorry, lots of buttons up here. Um, I I agree. Dr. Anderson and I had a conversation earlier today at length about this issue and I I I want to echo my previous comments that I I I am concerned that this is an equity issue. Um, the

079parents that can make it happen will make it happen and we'll be able to take advantage of that and those that cannot cannot. Um, I do, you know, estimating cost is always a challenge and I I do thank staff for their efforts to do that. As we continue down this process, we're going to be able to, you know, the cost estimates of lots of things get dialed in eventually when more data becomes uh apparent. Um, I did have a question though for the staff. It's been said in the context of the western high school conversation, which I believe this would also relate to, that if kids have the ability to get to a bus stop where there are seats available on a bus and that bus is already going to the school, they potentially could

080be able to take advantage of that. So, I guess my question is, would that be the case in this situation? >> I think that um if they you're asking if they can get to a bus stop, >> right? So, just looking at some of the boundary proposals on the table. I mean, we're we're most of these are within neighborhoods. We're not talking large geographical distances between the boundary changes. So, if you have a bus that's, you know, a couple of blocks down the road or a mile or so down the road that's already picking up to take a group of kids to, you know, high school A, but the neighborhood in question is going to high school B, but they previously went to high school A and they're still in high school A through the

081phasing. Could they if they can get to the bus going to high school A and that bus going to high school A has seats on it, could they just ride that bus? >> So, there's a process for that and um it's not a guaranteed seat because there may not be room. So, there's a process I believe that begins at the beginning of October. >> Gotcha. >> Um where students uh where the buses finalize their uh capacity per route and that then those um requests would be honored then. But I'll ask Mr. Muick to clarify that because I think you probably better understand the process. Mr. Muick. >> Yes, ma'am. Thanks. And and you did get that uh correct and it's formerly the exception to ride policy which we have today which uh a family can

082choose at any time during the year. But it's exactly what Dr. Reid said. You know, based on those October headcounts, we look at capacity and if the capacity there is there, Mr. McDaniel, yes, they could uh and get their way to that bus stop. They can ride. We'll never let that capacity go unused if somebody needs it. >> Okay. Thank you, >> Miss Mayor. >> Yeah, just first I believe the board should have received a presentation of this um prior to the presentation of the motion and the discussion because the document for tonight in Boardocks is a PowerPoint file with presentation slides dated for tonight. Um this has occurred in the recent past where there was some confusion about whether materials are presented or not at a regular meeting. So I do think we need

083to really nail that down. Um, I think especially voting we should be refreshed on what we're voting on. Um, Dr. Reid, can you share what policies and regulations informed your recommendation? >> I would have to go back and look at those transportation policy and regulation numbers. I don't have those this evening. Um, Mr. Mu, do you happen to have the policy the transportation policy and regulation numbers that your team utilized? Uh the main one that we utilize in this is uh regulation 8617 uh which is student transportation. Put my glasses back on here. Uh eligibility routes and schedules. Uh that and then just the 8130 um boundary instruction regulation that we had right now. >> Thank you. Uh well, regulation 8617 is actually cited in policy 8610 which says that we will provide transportation to

084students. Um we transport students from elementary school and middle school uh according to the distances listed a mile for um elementary and 1.5 for high school. There aren't stated exceptions for phasing or otherwise. Um there's nothing about secondary schools, early childhood programs, and um the only students that will not receive transportation is if um oh actually that's incorrect. Um it actually says that students can re receive transportation if space is available on a bus serving that area, which my colleagues just raised. So, um, additionally, regulation 2230, the transfer process, and regulation 8618, school bus routes and schedules. Those are all applicable, and I do not see them reflected in your recommendation. Um, where is input from the chief equity officer about this recommendation? >> I would have to ask Mr. Muick since it came from

085our transportation department. >> Uh, we did not run it by uh, Dr. King. >> I think that's a major absence and reason on its face to not proceed with this. Uh this $10 million estimate is not clearly defined as to what it's capturing. It's showing what would happen if all nearly 3,000 students opted to stay at their school. However, we know that some people who would be redistricted agree with the decision, such as my current Wolf Chap Elementary School residents who would be boundaried from Kilmer into Thorough and Marshall into Madison. That's hundreds of families. Further, not all students would even be at grade level that would require them to be bus to a new school. For example, the first or third grader who is redistricted would not have a different school from which to

086choose and does not have a different bus assignment. Given some the relatively small number of students, less than 3,000, it seems some simple data sorting could be done to get a more particular count of how many would likely or even be able to choose to remain at their assigned school. Why not do the analysis this way? uh we did a boundary change transportation budget estimate. This was really a budget exercise that the board requested. So what we want to do is we're trying to be fiscally responsible in a very conservative budget year. So, we took the prior phasing examples and costed those prior examples out to have real real time data, if you will, because those were real situations um that we've been funding. and then looked at the uh possible numbers of students that

087could choose phasing and what that would cost to make what we thought was the most conservative uh fiscal recommendation given our extraordinarily tight budget times um this year. Well, indeed, this board is very aware of the financial constraints of our county and commonwealth, and we are not interested in racking up costs. As such, it's an incomplete recommendation to provide the board with the cost, but not the trade-offs of what could be reduced elsewhere in the operating budget to identify the 10 million projected to provide transportation so that I can make an informed decision where specifically would reductions be made to obtain the $10 million. So, we really want to hear from the board what um you would consider uh having us costing it for a 10.4 million gap. It would really be um that uh

088size of a gap is going to involve people. Uh so, it would be which positions we would want to cut or programs we would want to impact. And I would want to have a deeper conversation with our board. Um as you've indicated, wanting more input into that process. Uh what we provided at our last board meeting when we made this presentation was really the budget estimate which is the 10.4 million that it would cost um at this point a conservative estimate that we believe it would cost to uh provide transportation for all of the phasing because there are a large number of schools that are impacted versus just the three in the examples previously provided. What does data show us about how full our school buses are? Is wrership at capacity? Not only assignment, but

089is ridership of our buses at capacity? >> So, Mr. Muick, I know we have probably varying degrees of capacity depending on the routes, time of year, after school activities and those types of things. And we may need to get back to the board with that data, but perhaps you have sort of a ballpark figure this evening. >> Um, ma'am, you you kind of hit it right there with your answer. the, you know, some buses are at max capacity, no room for anything. Others, you know, could hold 58 high schoolers, but they only have 35 on them, but they still need to go those routes. And how do you fill those other seats when the people aren't in that area or in those routes? So, you're going to have some that are some buses maxed out

090100% and some that are at, you know, 60%. >> It seems like a core opportunity for uh family engagement because we know we have issues with kiss and ride and safe routes. Um, what does data show us about the understanding of any delta between bus assignment and bus ridership? Perhaps you already spoke to that. >> I'm sorry. The delta between bus perhaps that was just answered between assigned buses and how we know what mode of transportation students are actually using. >> I think if they're on the bus, we know they're using the bus. I the walkers and kiss and ride probably are less likely for us to be able to distinguish because we wouldn't necessarily always know who's walking versus being, you know, transported by a parent or family member or friend. But the transportation,

091those children riding the buses, we certainly would know. And I think Mr. Mu, do you want to just again um be responsive to that, please? >> Yes, ma'am. So, at the um when we're setting up the routes uh in the summer before the school year starts, right, we look and we can see for elementary school who are all the students for that school that are greater than a mile away. So, we set up the routes and the bus stops to make sure that they all have a way to get to school. And the way our bus transportation works is it's not a uh it's an opt out. So, if you don't go into CIS and say you don't want transportation, we make the assumption you're going to need it and we build the capacity for

092that. in October for per VDOE we have to take two weeks to do the official ridership headcounts and then that's where we get that delta of we plan for a bus to have you know 40 riders on it and when we do the count it consistently comes up at say 33 um where that delta how they're getting to school whether they're kiss and ride whether they're just outside a mile and maybe they decide to walk or they're biking we don't know the answer to that we just know that all the kids that we thought would need a ride. Um, a portion of them are on the bus and the others are getting to school some way on their own. We don't do a a survey to figure that part out. Does that answer your question?

093>> I would like to go back. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, Mr. Dunn. >> Uh, $10 million. Uh, are these buses uh diesel or electric? I believe that was in the presentation but u Mr. Mu if you can probably answer it before I can find it. >> Yes ma'am. Electric >> uh how much would diesel be? >> Uh the if you it would be a difference of uh about 2.75. So it would be about 7.25 million. >> Okay. Um why electric? because my understanding is we had cancelled recently uh federal grants that we were uncertain we would receive to purchase electric buses and I'm not aware of ongoing initiatives to purchase electric buses and there's an issue of charging infrastructure which I know we have uh very limited locations I think only

094two in the entire county including one in the Lorton station area. Well, sir, just the the goal, you know, the jet goal was always to get electric. So, we built this on getting electric buses. Um, we could do diesel and as I said, it would be 7.25, I think, if I'm getting that right, Paul, instead of the 10. >> I I thought it was less than seven, but based on the information I had received. But regardless, um I'm trying to understand, have is there been a policy decision we're not buying diesel buses anymore? because I think we just bought quite a few diesel buses from uh King Abdullah Academy, the owners of that former school. >> So, we did buy the 10 from uh King Abdullah. Uh that was um you know, they wanted them

095to sell them for 450,000 and we were able to get the deal down to 300,000. So, it was a deal that we couldn't pass up. Um and that just goes to help some of our aging fleet. Um and it was something that an opportunity that presented itself. I don't think that was a strategy to say that we're shifting back to buying all diesels. We would definitely get more diesels for our for our money going forward, but I think that's a a decision that Dr. Reed and the board need to make in terms of whether we're going electric fleet per the jet goals or not. >> Understood. I'm just trying to figure out why we're using the higher figure when there hasn't been I I I don't think there's been any decision or discussion of the

096school board or the superintendent to proceed with electric buses going forward from this point. So, it seems more reasonable to use the lower figure because it seems we're going in the direction of diesel. Now, >> I will say that last year, one of the decisions we made to bring our budget into line was not order new budget, not order new buses of any kind, diesel or electric. Um, and to continue to run buses a little longer. Uh, traditionally, we do some type of an annual bus purchase. And just like with our social studies, uh, curriculum materials, we just paused it uh, to come into our budget um and meet our budget last year. So that's um if we're going to add buses to meet the phasing um which is then we're going to need obviously

097to purchase more buses and I think that the team felt like they're still the uh jet goals are still on the books uh both from the county side and the school division side which is why I believe they picked the electric buses certainly costing out diesel buses I think u Mr. Muick shared that that would be in the 7 to8 million range rather than the 10.4 4 million range. >> Do do we have any update on the greater availability of charging infrastructure in other parts of the county that would lead us to think that electric buses might work in more locations than the two current locations? >> Mr. Muick, any update on charging facilities? >> I would have to ask Paul if you have an update on that. the the charging stations that we've been

098getting were complimentary are funded by Dominion in association with those federal grants that we had won. So, if we move forward with our own money to get um electric buses, we would have to figure out where to put that infrastructure. We have uh some infrastructure out at Stonecraft right now out near Westfield. Uh there's some charging stations at um Paul's at uh Sprag Center at Sprag Center and Lorton. So we've got them in the three locations. >> My understanding from previous conversations and again it's been a while since we talked charging infrastructure was that all of those parking spots essentially one per charger at each of those locations was fully occupied by electric buses. Are there empty spots or have new spots been added to enable us to expand our bus fleet? And and if

099not, have we costed out how much it would be to add charging infrastructure to support electric buses? >> Nothing new has been added. And it's uh $40 to $50,000 per charging station. And our charging stations are dual charging stations if I'm not mistaken, Paul, that they go two to one. Are all of the spots for electric buses currently occupied or are there empty spots that we could fill with new purchases? >> Paul, you want to jump in on that one? >> Yes. Um, currently we do have all of our electric buses having have slots for the 17 that we have on order. We do have a arrangement with Dominion to expand our Stonepaw facility. So, we do have the ability for expansion, but that expansion was tied a lot into the EPA grants >> and

100those EPA grants were rescended. Is that correct? >> I'm sorry. Yes. Okay. Um I'd like to understand just in the in the sequencing, Dr. read um the urgency of deciding now on providing transportation versus later because what I see with the elimination of attendance islands and some of the split feeders is that some of our boot bus routes will be shorter or maybe not exist at all anymore and and so there will be some eliminated and then phasing will add some for a temporary period of time. So, is there the option available to the school board to decide on busing once the final schoolboard vote is taken in the end of January? >> I think the timing is really to enable us to order more buses, right? The often I the on-ramp to ordering Mr.

101Muick or Mr. Andrad is generally I think by around January we want to be ordering buses for the coming fall I think. But >> it's about a 10 to 12 month delivery turnaround. >> Yeah. So we're kind of, you know, we're running tight if we're going to need to order a significant number of buses. So I think that was part of uh the timing in terms of wanting to make a decision sooner than later. Um because we if we are going to provide busing, we need to actually be able to do that um and have enough buses to do it. >> Uh there are in the aircraft world, you know, most aircraft are now leased. Are there not leasing options if we're not going to buy brand new buses? >> I believe that's what we

102do, but I'll defer to Mr. Muick. I know um in terms of the cycle for purchase and lease. >> Yeah. Yeah. You're you're purchase to lease to own, but are there not also leasing options where we would not be leasing towards ownership? >> Um I'm sure there are. I don't know that we've costed that. Miss Burton perhaps. Do you have a either between you or Mr. Muick um a response in terms of what that would look like for us? I'm not sure that's been a practice, but what would that look like? >> Yes, ma'am. Uh financially, I don't know what that would look like. I'll let Lee jump in in a second, but uh you know, if you look at uh Montgomery County, they tried to do a leasing option with Highland um with the

103company uh and it didn't go well because they kind of gave up control of their fleet um in terms of maintenance uh replenishment of the fleet um day-to-day stuff just didn't work well because you lose a little bit and I don't I can't explain how, maybe Paul can, but you lose some control of your fleet and the ability ability to manage it properly. Uh Paul, you want to jump in? Because that's one of the big reasons why we don't we would prefer not to lease. The lease to own is definitely uh favored for us. >> And typically that's not the business model that the v vendors have when they sell buses. typically is outright purchases or kind of the lease to own purchases that you see where you do see that that lease to as

104a business service is the through the Highland Electrics or different companies where they're able to utilize the buses for revenue generation which is not the case for the purchases that we're making at this time. >> Thank you. Or we could purchase used school buses as we did with King Abdullah. Isn't that true? rather than manufacture from scratch. >> I know that was a practice on the West Coast. I don't know if uh we've purchased used buses as a matter of course, but I think we could look into that, Mr. Dunn. >> Okay. Well, uh that just reaffirms that I I think there are options available other than purchasing brand new buses for lease to own and um I'll support deferring this until a later point in time. Thank you. Miss St. John Cunning. >> First

105of all, I'd like to thank staff for the presentation they gave us at the last board meeting that answered a lot of these questions and for the subsequent memo that was provided to us with more in-depth questions that was provided to us. Um, I am certainly very aware of the issues concerning equity across our county in every aspect of everything because that's what I've worked in the most. When we took on the issue of boundaries, which was very important for this entire board, we understood that it was going to be difficult. I've lived through boundary changes that were specific to a specific area and there were no bus there was no bus service providing provided and there was no phasing. When you start talking about phasing, then you have to start talking about transportation. And

106these are the issues that we're getting involved in right now. We're trying to be responsive to the community. We're trying to listen to what everybody needs, but we're also strapped financially. And I hate to be that person that says that back in my day when there was a boundary change, there was a boundary change. There was no phasing. There was no bus service. But that's the way it was. Is it optimal? Probably not. But we also don't have the necessary funds that we need for just the regular stuff we need to do to run our school system. I think that we have to be creative and thoughtful about this. This notion says that you get buses if you are in your boundary, which is what we do right now. That's all it's saying. When we

107introduce phasing, then we're introducing some other issues that make it more difficult for us. And I know we're trying to be responsive, and I respect that. But again, as I have said, these decisions are hard. They're not easy. And we are not talking about a boundary change for one area. We're talking about a comprehensive boundary change which is what adds to the expense of this and this is what we have to look at. So if there was if there was a time which I know that there was a time in specific situations where maybe phasing and busing was allowed it was because we may have had more funding available. Um I know that there's a second motion that's coming up that is trying to address this issue. Um but we have to be careful about

108saying if we provide busing for all phasing that means that if one student wants to ride that bus we have to provide bus service to that student. You got to think about that Mr. afternoon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, first of all, thank thanks to Dr. Reed and Mr. Mio for answering. I guess I sent in about 12 questions and along with a what a community member has suggested as a potential options for us to consider. And I appreciate you providing a a responses which I got a couple of days ago. So I have not been able to thoroughly analyze all the responses yet, but I do have a couple of questions. Uh I'm not going to repeat what the Mr. Don has already asked about diesel versus electric, but fiveyear lease with a

109purchase. What is the normer life cycle for a brand new school bus that comes to us? >> Sir, could you repeat that again? What's the normal >> life cycle? >> Oh, uh 15 years is uh the normal lifetime is 15 years, 2,000 200,000 miles. It's a guidance. That's where you But it really depends on if it's still safe and passes inspection. >> Thank you. So, it does not have to be just a fiveyear lease, right? We could consider longerterm lease. >> I'm asking you whether we could consider that. whether we cons I didn't quite get the question that time whether we could consider >> I think you your your numbers are based upon five your lease to purchase >> oh I gotcha um we could go longer >> oh Miss Burton is saying probably not

110because that's set by the lessor so it's not a choice that we have to do a five-year lease alone Um, we could ask, but she doesn't think we would be able to. >> I'm I'm sure that we can. If you're willing to purchase, if you you know, if you you know, put out a purchase order for 57 buses, there will be a lot of willing sellers who could accommodate our needs to have a longer term lease rather than having a fivey year lease with, you know, such a high amount of payment on an annual basis. The second question that I have is uh we have about what 1,600 buses. >> Yes, sir. >> 1,700, 1,600 buses. So, uh I assume that we do regularly and annually purchase or lease new buses. Correct. >> Yes, sir.

111We try to >> How many how many do we do? >> Um how many do we replenish each year? each year on the average. >> Well, we would like usually we have had $10.3 million in the budget to do fleet replenishment where we would look and get and replace the oldest highest maintenance requirement buses that we have. But I don't know that we have done a replenishment. We have not done one since I've been here because the push has been for the achieving the jet goal. >> You know, Mr. It is my recollection that over the period last three decades when I had been serving on this board that number of actual number of buses to lease were purchased all dependent upon the budget which is not decided until second meeting in May. So sometimes

112we are simply unable to acquire sometimes you were able to acquire. So when you say we do need about 10 months of lead time to lease these buses, I find that very difficult to understand because B does not make a final adoption of the budget until May time frame every year. >> And that was the lead time to manufacture a new bus was 10 to 12 months. And also on the bus on the 57 routes with the 57 new drivers with a full-time pay. Do you expect if for each of those new drivers 57 new drivers that one bus route would be the full-time work? >> Yes, sir. one one driver in our driving um team is doing, you know, a route in the morning means they're doing a middle school, a high school, and

113at least one, if not two elementary schools, and then their shift is split during the middle of the day, and then they come back and they do that same route in reverse. So, they're getting a eight hour day in with that split shift in the middle. So when you say 57 bus routes, that is more than just one school route. It could be multiple school routes. >> Yes, sir. >> Per driver. >> Yes, sir. >> So I So I'm trying to understand when you said 57 bus routes. Is that 57 routes with each route for one school or multiple schools? >> Different schools. So, when the routing team puts their uh transportation routing together, that one bus driver and one bus is going to go at 7:30 and get a middle school. They then use

114that same bus driver and bus to go hit a high school or secondary school and then that same bus driver and bus hit one or two elementary schools, break and then redo the whole thing in the afternoon. So when the routing team looked at that boundary adjustment, they looked and said if that universe of people 2,800 was going to choose to go back to their old school or go to the new school, that's how many additional routes that it would create, which led to the 57. >> Okay, I think I have a better understanding of, you know, how those routes work. Thank you. Appreciate that. >> Uh the last one is, you know, very thoughtful suggestions from a community member there. there were like five five options for us to consider and I think your

115response was when I did ask for the feasibility and cost analysis of those options your response was it's not possible for the upcoming schoolboard meeting on December 18 if you had more time would you be able to give us feasibility and the cost analysis of those five options Yes, sir. If we have more time, we would. Um, but there's a lot of unknowns. Um, as Mr. McDaniel was saying, right, as you get closer to the time of the boundary decisions and families making decision, it makes it easier. So, but if we had more time, we could look at some of the do the feasibility and cost on those. >> That's exactly >> Mr. Moon, that was your time. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Miss Lady. Thank you. Um just a question. Um I understand

116and can appreciate the questions around diesel versus electric buses. Um the time it takes to acquire buses is of great concern. Was that estimate either between seven and eight for diesel or 10 to whatever for electric. Was that per year or just the first year of the phasing? >> That is for the first five years in the lease to own period. Per year. >> Okay. So, it it includes the cumulative effect of hiring those new bus drivers and them having to be paid for five years. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Okay. Thank you. Um, the other thing I want to just say is because I didn't say it in my opening remarks for the motion was, you know, and I've said this before it, you know, we we are in a very difficult budget situation. We

117are going to be cutting. Um I I may be the only person that uh when I shared budget priorities with um the superintendent included areas where I would cut if we have to cut. Um I'm not going to talk about that now, but I definitely have been thinking along those lines. I don't want to do it. I also have talked about the fact that if we're going to say we're for healthy start times, we can't be adding buses and bus routes because that work will never get done. And if we're going to do this work every five years, then it's very concerning to me. Um, I also want to mention again that connector buses are free for middle and high school students and so that is an option for connector buses uh would be an

118option for some kids. I also want to say this is Fairfax County Public Schools. We're we're one of the best school systems in the country. So, we're going to bust kids to a fantastic school no matter what happens in this boundary adjustment. Um, and that it's also our fiscal responsibility to be a fidiciary of taxpayer money. Um and these are all reasons why I u you know support this motion. Um having said that and I still live there I certainly can understand the appetite for some more information. So I appreciate the questions on my colleagues um is giving me some more things to think about. Um and appreciate staff for your hard work and and all of the questions that you answered up until now. Um and it sounds like perhaps you know folks have

119some more. So, um, but again, the healthy start time thing for me, all our schools are are fantastic. If we're going to do this every five years, we can't keep adding budgetary, um, layers to it. So, anyways, I'll I'll stop there. Thanks, >> Dr. Anderson. >> Thank you. I have to say that I appreciate the questions that were asked um earlier. I I was particularly surprised that um the costing with the 10 million was made regard um with electric buses and not with diesel buses which is the majority of our busing. The only other thing I really want to underscore is we are a division that prides ourselves on equity. We say this again and again and yet we don't put that at the forefront when it becomes difficult. We can't apply equity when it's

120convenient. And I fully agree with what Miss Marin also had raised, which this is a statement that we're making when we're not transporting our kids outside of all of the um misalignments with um policies, regulations, etc. But we are making a statement and are there other things that we could not do in order to achieve this? This is just talking about getting our kids to school. I do see a scenario where children because of their relationships that they have built in their schools that we've we've been saying you need to have three the counselors put that on our desks not too long ago that they will say I'm going to stay at my school because I have the right to do that as per the boundary but then we're going to increase our chronic absenteeism

121and tardies because they're going to scrge to get the places where they need to be. We need more information Dr. read and I I'm unclear about so many things and I would like for us to take the opportunity um to have that information. It I I don't believe tonight is the night to do that and I know that Mr. Fresh a number of years ago. I'm glad that you raised this uh Mr. Muick because he visited Montgomery in their bus programs. I I think we could get ourselves a little bit more space to get this right. I've heard this be be said earlier. we can take a little bit more time to get this right instead of just making this fast. Um, and we also have to acknowledge and be very clear. Can't believe I'm

122doing this, but in terms of what Miss Eismoiser said earlier, who are we impacting with this decision, >> Mr. McDaniel? So the making sure I'm I'm clear on this the 10.5 as we'll call it 10.5 10 443 to be exact versus the seven and a quarter that is reflect that is the difference between diesel and electric. Is that accurate? >> Yes sir. >> Okay. And the reason that if I'm understanding it correctly the reason you priced that electric is because jet goals. >> Yes sir. >> Which is board policy. >> Correct. Um, that's a good question, sir. I'm uh I'll have to get back to you on the answer of that. I just know that's been the whole focus since I've been here that the we have I don't know if it was a moratorum

123or the guidance from the county with the jet goals, but from day one of me being here was we are only buying electric. And that's probably my fault for not doing more research. Well, I no and and I I don't I don't agree that it's your fault. Um I I would say that if the if the culture if the expectation has been jet goals, you were following the culture and the expectations of the division. So if we want to peel back or clarify those expectations as a board, that's a conversation worth having. But I don't want anybody in the public to think that, you know, staff was just making something up for convenience purposes because that's not the case here. That being said, um I was very torn on this vote coming into it. I'm

124still torn. I I agree with some of the questions that have been raised. So, um I will be abstaining on this vote and um yeah, that's where I am. >> Mr. Dunn, >> um the Jackals were adopted in in 2020, I believe. Is that right, Dr. Reed? >> They were they predate me and I think by but not by a lot. So, I think it was the former board. Um but they are jet goals that certainly were a commitment made by um the Port Angela or the for the for Fairfax school board. Yeah. >> So it was stated it was board policy. So have we purchased any diesel buses since 2020? >> We did the used buses from uh King Abdullah's Academy and we received I believe it was 10 buses for $300,000. So it

125was and the buses are very low mileage. Is that right? 10 for 300,000. >> Yes, ma'am. >> Right. 10. So it was about 30,000 a bus and very low mileage. >> Besides the buses from King Abdullah, have we purchased no new buses since 2020? Since the jet rules were adopted. >> You're talking about no new diesel buses. >> No new diesel buses. >> I would have to go back to the number u Mr. Andrad. We have the number of diesel versus electric buses we've purchased either through grant or otherwise. >> You got the last set of diesel buses that the county purchased was in 2023. Um there was approximately 80 buses and a lot of the guidance that was given from the jet goals were after 2024 weren't purchase any additional diesel buses. Any electric

126buses we purchased since the jet goals were tied in with the EPA grants and those are the buses that were purchases 22 and 23 also. >> But the estimate that was provided did not include any costs for installing charging infrastructure that would be necessary to support these electric buses. Is that true? I thought that some of those were provided by Grant, but I with Dominion, but Mr. Muick or Mr. Andradi perhaps you have a different recollection. >> Yes, ma'am. The if you get the electric buses with the grants, Dominion provides the chargers. If we fund it with our own FCPS funding, we have to come up with the chargers. And you made reference to the to the Highland leasing by Montgomery County. I'm very familiar with that. That was an electric bus contract, right? Not

127diesel. >> Yes, sir. >> Okay. Um I know that we uh last year for budget reasons we delayed the purchase of of some new buses. Uh were the buses that we were planning to purchase last year and delayed for budget reasons diesel or electric? I'm I'm just trying to remember which buses >> the only ones that that I've been that I remember dealing with was the ones related to the grants and when the grants were getting, you know, kind of pulled back by the administration. So, we were waiting for that to get cleared to see if the draw downs would work. I don't know of any bus purchases that we have done and pulled back in the last two years. Paul, is that right? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, sir. >> Miss John Cunning.

128>> So, um I would like to ask Miss Burton in terms of I know we're going to have the budget presentation in a little bit, but Oh, well no, I'm sorry. Excuse me. I didn't mean that. Do you know right now what our projected shortfall might be due to the lack of funding that we're getting right now from the federal government ballpark? I know it's it's a I what I'm trying to figure out is what the $10 million impact would be on our budget if it's if it's doable if it's not doable what you would foresee that it would have to be cut. >> We we would need to provide you a written response to that. >> Okay. Thank you. Um I think that there have been some good points brought up. I think that

129there's we have conflicting goals when we talk about jet goals that we want to fulfill versus diesel um versus what the cost implications would be. Um so, you know, I just think that maybe we might need a little bit more time to try to figure this out. Mr. Mu, how much lead time do you need to purchase a bus and to get it here and running? It doesn't matter whether it's electric or not or diesel. I >> think the good thumb rule is about 10 to 12 months. >> Thank you, Miss Mayor. So, I just want to confirm my understanding. Is it correct that on slide four of this presentation that 57 buses would be required? This is a proposal for 57 electric buses. >> Yes, ma'am. Sorry, Dr. Reed. >> Wow. I would think

130that we would be celebrating that. I mean, we have been talking about electric buses for years. I'm just shocked that we wouldn't be elevating that because that's a major movement forward. Um, you know, our policy though, 8542 was last updated in 2013 and it does speak about transportation. Now, the motion from the 23 CIP vote to revamp our CIP policies. We're so close to reviewing it in governance. Unfortunately, we had to cancel uh last week, but uh that policy 8542, which is 12 years older, uh it should have been reviewed every 5 years, that's where it would say that we have meet the jet goal. So, it certainly wouldn't uh be directed that the superintendent would have to buy electric school buses, but nonetheless, that would be amazing, but I don't support it here. You

131know, I um every January I get contacted by families in the Hearnden Pyramid whose students want to go to South Lakes because their middle schoolers have been at Langston Hughes doing the AAP program, which also happens to be an IB school. And in January, they call and they say, "Why can't my student get the school bus from my um part in her my area in Hearnen Pyramid to South Lakes?" And I said, "Well, we don't do it." Now, again, according to our policies, it doesn't stipulate anything about that why we don't provide transportation. But here's what I did. Two years ago, I contacted um my partner on the board of supervisors to say, "Hey, what can our connector buses do?" And at first, the connector staff didn't think it was possible because it was an

132hour to go from North Rest in Hearnden area to South Lakes. It was an hour with a school bus switch. And I knew my parents were not going to be okay with that at like 7 in the morning. But the connector staff was able to review their routes and carve off three minutes somewhere. Turns out it's only 30 minutes. So, I went ahead and did that just because it was the right thing to do. So, there certainly are some solutions to be found that don't cost $10 million. I'm going to take a really fast turn. Um, I agree that there are lots of options that don't cost 10 mill million dollars. And I appreciate staff that you brought forward what the possible high-end goal or high-end number could be because I think that this board

133particularly has always asked for the highest possible expenditure so that when we're making decisions, we can be informed as to what the possible outcome of those decisions is are. Um, Dr. Reid, can you speak to whether or not you have actually spoken about this with different boundary meetings as we because I have seen you do that. So I just wanted you to speak to what what you had been telling communities. Well, at the boundary meetings, um, often the phasing question comes up and I was able to point back to the policy and also the follow-on motions to indicate where the board has directed the phasing will occur and I've had to follow that each time with since it is um across really all of our schools, right? elementary, fifth, sixth, middle school, and high school

134as well as secondary schools that uh the board will need to approve the uh budget capacity to pay for the transportation. So, while the phasing is guaranteed, the transportation may not be, but that will be determined by a board vote based on budget decisions. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. Um, I am in support of getting our parents the information as quickly as humanly possible so that when they are making we're a in a little bit of a chicken and the egg conversation because our parents need the information in order to make the decision as to whether or not they're going to phase their children and we also need to know which kids are going to phase in order for us to understand how much it's going to cost and one of those things has to

135come first. So, I'm going to privilege the parents being able to make a decision. So um I am not ready to make a decision on this tonight. However, I am supportive of the recommendation that you put forward. So I look forward to to how we can come about to that successful conclusion. Um and look in maybe more time will give us some time to figure out what the other options could be. So, seeing no other lights, we're going to go ahead and call for a motion, which will be on the screen in just a second. All those in favor of the motion on the screen. All those opposed. Miss Maron, Mr. Mleene, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and Dr. Anderson. All those abstaining, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, and myself. >>

136Point of order. Did you say point of order? I said point of order. I believe per Robert's rules, the motion maker has to vote affirmative for the motion. Is that correct? >> That is incorrect. The motion maker can't speak against the motion but is allowed to vote against it or >> Thank you. >> Madame Clerk, can you please read the vote? I just want to confirm that I have them the votes correct. For Mr. Fresh, I have an abstain. For Mr. McDaniel, I have an abstain. For Miss Marin, I have a no. For Mr. Mackin, I have a no. For Miss St. John Cunning, I have an abstain. For Miss Lady, I have an abstain. For Miss Anderson, I have an abstain. For Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and Dr. Anderson, I have nos. Am I

137correct? Okay, then the vote is 055. The motion fails. Thank you. Moving on to agenda item 7.07, action item, Centerville High School lease agreement. We are going to take a brief fivem minute recess. of board members, please take your seats. I call on Miss Anderson for a motion. I move that the school board authorize the superintendent and negotiate and execute a lease agreement to extend the lease on the Fairfax County School Board's property at 4630 Stonecraftoft Boulevard, Chantelli, Virginia 2015 for an additional 5 years in exchange for a lease or purchase of property rights from the Fairfax County Park Authority for an area of land at Bradock Park, 13,000 Bradock Road, Clifton, Virginia 20124, sufficient to enable the school division to satisfy the county's floor a area ratio FAR zoning requirements for Centerville High School,

138including FAR requirements associated with the division's planned renovation and expansion of that facility. This authorization shall include the negotiation of all necessary terms, conditions, and documentation necessary to finalize and execute the above reference transactions, provided they are in the best interest of the Fairfax County School Board and comply with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations as determined by the superintendent with legal advice of council. >> Thank you. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Mr. McDaniel, Vice Chair, Miss Miss Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? >> Absolutely. Um, this is a very simple motion that just officially gets the board moving towards a resolution of an issue that was one of the first things I spoke to anyone about when I first came on the board, which is that we we had

139a lease that expired on the the density requirements for Centerville High School. And so what this does is it just starts the ball rolling with a certain amount of information. Um I fully expect that some of the motion language is not acceptable to some of the parties. I explained that to some of my colleagues who requested additional language be included. Um however, this is where we are. Um Dr. Reed, if it turns out that there is movement towards a lease, but we aren't able to actually secure everything as outlined here, you would bring that back to the board. Correct? >> Yes, ma'am. I would. >> Okay. So, this really just gets the ball rolling. And the most important part of this motion is the second portion of it, which talks about the fact that this

140is in the best interest of the Fairfax County School Board. Right now, what I can say is that I 100% want to ensure that the Fairfax County Park Authority retains their rec center at at the address that is the is the initial property that's owned by the school board. And so I very much would be interested in coming up with some sort of plan that would allow for us to work with both the board of supervisors and the park authority to ensure that everybody can get what they need here. So that's the reason that I brought this forward tonight. >> Thank you. Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to a second? >> Uh with I agree with the chair said, I mean, this is a goof for those of the public who are not

141experts or or or have never had to deal with land use or permitting or or or zoning problems. This is a very wonky, goofy uh unique situation in which we have found ourselves. Um, and it is the the motion language here and and what we're effectively doing is authorizing the superintendent to officially be able to have negotiations with the park authority to try and get this issue put to bed once and for all. So, happy to second and support it. >> Thank you. I call on Mr. Dunn for an amendment. I move to amend the main motion by striking the language in its entirety and inserting the following language in its place. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to seek to achieve a global resolution of floor area ratio issues affecting any

142and all FCPS schools. >> Is there a second? >> Thank you, Mr. Mine. Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your amendment? >> Yes, please. I appreciate uh the time and energy spent by uh the chair and our colleagues and staff as well as a representative of the park authority uh board and uh county staff as well. Um we have a situation where uh several of our schools across the county are uh in located in RC resource conservation zones. Um, Centerville High School is certainly affected by this. Uh, but there are other schools including Bull Run Elementary, Centerville High School, Frost Middle School, Liberty Middle School, South County Middle School, South County High School, Virginia Run Elementary, Westfield High School, Willis Springs Elementary, and Woodson High School. Uh, South County Middle School and South

143County High School are both in the Mount Vernon district. And uh as such I want to make sure that as we approach the Centerville uh high school issue that we uh treat this on a global basis seeking a global resolution because uh we have to be efficient with our time. We have to be making sure that we are looking not just at the present but at the future because uh some of these schools uh will be affected when their renovations come up in the current or future renovation queue. And we should try to work collaboratively with our colleagues on the county um and on the park authority to see if we can work out a deal whether it's monetary payments, lease rights, property property rights. There there many uh methods of compensation consideration that can

144be exchanged and achieving this uh global resolution will help not just resolve the immediate issue in front of us but issues that will confront uh FCPS in the coming years. >> Thank you. Mr. McMan, would you like to speak? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you. All right. Um I'll call on board members who have turned their lights on. Miss Marin. >> Yeah. So, I have certainly been supportive of trying to get the renovation of center rule moved along and it's it's really um terrible that it hasn't been able to move. You know, the work that our board is doing um myself and Mr. McDaniel as the committee members of the joint facility review committee with the board of supervisors, you know, I've said this before, we need all the parties at the table that deal

145with land management. It's us, it's the county, and it's the parks. And as I reflect on this problem we find ourselves in that is wasting taxpayer dollars and denying our residents the new facilities that they voted on and are expecting. Our board has the least amount of fiscal authority. The county board of supervisors set the tax rate and they collect the revenue. I recently on the park authority they are collecting user fees. So, we are really the most junior and so by setting something out here today, we're trying to show that we're solutionoriented, but we don't hold all the cards. So, I really appreciate that this amended motion speaks to uh directing the superintendent to um work on all of the issues and certainly work with all of the parties involved, including the county executive

146and the director of the park authority. Uh, so I do support the amended language and I appreciate that it covers the entire county. I think we get to help Centerville as well as other schools. So, it's a real big win. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Mayor and Dr. Anderson. >> Miss Mayor actually covered what I wanted to share, so I turned off my light. >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. >> My apologies, Mr. Moon. Uh thank you madame vice chair. I you know first of all about a week and a half ago I along with the chairman Anderson and I participate in a meeting with a couple of supervisors to talk about this issue and I want to thank our chair for her advocacy made at the time on behalf of the school board. I

147unfortunately it is my understanding that a Phil County park authority has rejected our request to consider five release. So with that I think I prefer substitute language over the motion. >> Thank you Miss Anderson. I would like to propose a secondary amendment utilizing the the amended language. I would like to add the second paragraph of the original language back in in order to ensure Well, let me just leave it there for now. >> Is there a second? >> Second, >> Mr. McDaniel, >> would you like to speak to your amendment? >> Yes. Um, the original language was created by with legal counsel. So, I I think it's extremely important that we utilize as much of the original language as possible. So, this is a simple ad to ensure that the best interest of the of

148the school board and Fairfax County Public Schools is included in the motion language because I think that that's an important aspect of this. >> Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Would you like to pick your second? >> No. Miss Mayor, >> you know, when I first read this amend, this motion, I believe it was Sunday when I first saw it, I my question immediately was, hold on, are we committing to a lease agreement? Because immediately I want to know what's the potential cost. And so that was a concern of mine. So I do prefer the unmended language um that's just been proposed. I I I prefer um including the original language because I would want to know a dollar amount that's with that. So I and I also don't know that it really applies because the amended

149language directs the superintendent to go get a resolution and that's different than whether it's a lease or it could be anything. And I certainly would want the superintendent to come back to the board and tell us and because we have so many conversations going with facilities, I do think it's important for the board to understand more. I'd love us to have more conversations and presentations to understand it. So I I'm more comfortable with the simpler language that just directs the superintendent to get a global resolution and be a partner with the board on to whether that includes negotiation and terms and agreements and certainly costs because um I just want to know more about the costs. So um I prefer the unmended language. >> Thank you, Mr. Dunn. >> Uh I just wanted to um

150ask Dr. or Mr. Foster. Uh if the uh secondary amendment language that second paragraph, does that uh do you understand that to authorize the superintendent to proceed all the way to execution of any agreements or instead simply to prepare final documentation and the agreements would then come back to the board for a further vote before any documents are actually executed. So I'm clear, Mr. Dunard. Um the second paragraph you're referring to, it starts this authorization shall include the negotiation. >> That's correct. And and the question again is under this second paragraph, do you understand it as our legal counsel to authorize the superintendent to actually execute the agreement without any further vote of the board or would the superintendent have to bring draft agreements back to the board for approval before the agreements can be

151executed? I think that um the uh final agreement would be brought back to the board. I you know having worked with the superintendent now for three and a half years that is her standard practice. She certainly notifies the board as to what is going to be signed before it's signed. >> I I just want to make sure not just as a standard practice that the that the superintendent has as her discretion. My understanding of that language is she would have to bring it back to the board because all it authorized her to do is to prepare the documents for execution. It doesn't actually authorize her to execute the documents. >> And I and I read that the same way that it would have to come back to the board. >> I just wanted to make

152sure that was clarified for the board. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Um Dr. Anderson, thank you. I I'm actually a little bit more confused because typically when we have a motion that says that we seed to superintendent or designate to execute, they go forward and they make it happen without necessarily coming back without coming back to the board. I I I don't think I understand why the part of the language that says and documentation necessary to finalize and execute the above reference transactions which is also not quite fitting. This to me says there will be an execution. So I'm I'm unclear as to why that means come back to the board because that's not what execution typically means. And I also think it's a little bit awkward in terms of the reference above

153transaction when we're not necessarily referencing a specific transaction because it's more broad. It's go forward and find a solution. I I I think I'm not seeing how these two work well together. I I think there needs to be a little bit more massaging of the language um in order for it to merge [clears throat] to merge well. And I would be I I would feel much better if the term execute was removed and um was replaced with, you know, returning information back to the board. Let's be clear about what we're looking for. >> Thank you, >> Mr. Fresh. >> Thank you. Language is funny. Let's look at the replacement motion, which I'm probably inclined to support. I move that the school board direct the superintendent to seek to achieve a global resolution of far issues

154affecting any and all FCPS schools. That doesn't say she's bringing it back to the board. So seek to achieve is the modifier, right? Seek to rather. So she's going to seek to come up with an a way to achieve the goal in the same way that the word prepare, as Mr. Dunn pointed out, the word prepare is the modifier of the other verbs in that sentence. uh she's going to prepare for the execution of. Last I checked, all of our contracts are prepared for the execution of. All of our agreements are prepared for the execution of. So, if we want to look at the language, both of them have modifiers that um attempt to make it clear that this is coming back to the board. Seek to and prepare. >> Mr. Mine. >> Yes. I'd

155like to propose an amendment to the amendment to the amendment. >> I'm sorry, Mr. Mine. We You cannot do tertiary amendments. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yeah. Um, Miss Anderson for a go back. >> I have a question for Dr. Reid. In your time with us as board members, do we generally I'm gonna I'm gonna ask this carefully. Do we generally create language that actually is more specific or less specific in terms of when we're asking you and when we're directing you to do something? >> I think that it depends on the topic. Um there are times it's very specific and times it's less specific. The phasing for example is very specific. Um but there are other topics that perhaps are less specific. The the proposed language that's the original amended language and the reason

156that I added the second portion of it is it's what we wanted to do. You know Mr. McDaniel and I spent a lot of time talking about this and trying to figure out a path forward that would work for a lot of different circumstances because there are a ton of different parties involved with this and we have worked really hard to try to come up with language that the board would accept as we move forward and we made sure that everybody had this language very early um and have been talking about this a great deal. Um, and so it's frustrating to me that all of a sudden now we're going back to very loose language that allows for all the things and it's a motion that doesn't even impact it doesn't even say Centerville High

157School. And so that's fine. Um, I think that I can absolutely lived with the amended the second amended language that I have proposed here and I think that it will get us to where we need to go. So I am going to support all of it. Um because I do desperately think that this community needs to understand that we are working towards getting a solution for them that isn't is about getting their school renovated because they are significantly over capacity which is part of the reason that the Western High School purchase was so important. >> Thank you Miss Mayor and for go back. Do you think this provides an opportunity for the board to consider creating a bank of standard motion language? Because this is another time in recent weeks where we've been in our

158work because there was questions about a motion. I'm there were questions. I'm looking at consent agenda for tonight, item 9.04, a consultant services amendment, and it's mostly similar to what was crafted on the original motion tonight, but just a little bit different. And so I've asked about how our motions are created and we could certainly cut a lot of, you know, back and forth if we know like when we approve a contract, this is going to be the standard language and maybe it changes. But just like we recently did with our report cards where we um, you know, asked that there be certain language that that parents about their portrait of a graduate development, we can do that, too. So, I really I don't know if this is something our administrative committee can do or

159maybe legal can draft some things because on the last board legal did used to review our motions. Um, so I'm heartened that it was in this case, but I really don't know who's making the motions, who's drafting them and and that's not okay. We should know who on our staff is doing this and board is involved in making our motions. So, I'd love to come back to that. Um, maybe it's a governance matter. So I I still support the Mr. Matteo's Dun's proposal. I think it's the clearest. Okay. Seeing no other lights on for a go back, I will call on the vote for the vote on the secondary amendment which is on the screen. >> Do I need to read it? >> Ple please. >> I'm there's lots of things on the screen. I'll

160read it to make sure we're on the same page because I want to make sure that we have So, I adapted uh Miss Anderson's just a little so we're clear. So, the amendment is to include the following language to the amendment. This authorization shall include the negotiation of all necessary terms, comma, conditions, comma, and documentation necessary to finalize and execute the above referenced transactions, comma, provided they are in the best interest of the Fairfax County School Board and comply with all applicable laws, comma, rules, comma, and regulations, comma, all as determined by the superintendent with the advice of legal counsel. Period. >> So, I will call for the vote. All those in favor, Mr. Fr, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed, Miss Marin, Mr.

161Mackle, Dr. Anderson. Any obstensions? I think we everybody voted. Could you please read the vote? >> The vote is 73. The motion carries. So the uh amendment is now amended to that link. >> So I'm not seeing any lights. So now we're calling on uh the vote for the entire motion that's on the screen. >> I'm sorry, Mr. >> Now that we're back to the primary amendment, I want to amend the primary amendment to strike and execute Do we have a second? >> Second, >> Miss Mayor. Second. Thank you. Mr. Mackey, would you like to speak to your motion? >> I think we've spoken a lot about it. Thanks. >> Thank you, Miss Mayor. Would you like to speak to your second? >> Uh, I agree. I would Can the clerk only show the things

162that we're actually um talking about though, please? That would really be helpful. Thank you. While the clerk's preparing that, I see Dr. Anderson give you your turn to speak to this. Um I I'm happy to support that because I think it makes it a little clearer that there this is going to come back to the board without the term execution. It means that we need to have an additional discussion and decision- making. So thank you uh Mr. Meline for that. Not seeing any other lights. I will call for the vote. Do I need to read it? Are we clear with what's on the the motion on the screen? Okay, we're going to call for the vote on the motion on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Miss M, Mr.

163Mackeine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That's unanimous for board members present. Now we'll return since we did a secondary secondary amendment, we'll return back to the primary amendment. All right. At this point, I will call for the vote on the primary amendment as amended, which is on the screen. All those in favor? Oh, Mr. McJan has >> just a quick clarification. So the amended amended amended whatever we're on now says global resolution of F issues affecting any and all FCPS schools. I guess my question is for the maker of the amended motion because you only spoke to RC which I agree with is the intent only for the RC schools or F across 198 schools. Uh for my remarks, I was focused on the uh RC

164schools. Um the ones I listed, a list was provided by Chief of Facilities Eric Gordon. Uh so that's the intended school. >> Then unfortunately, we're going to have to bring an amendment to clarify because that's not what the motion says. I Okay, let me do this. If we can do this without I would like to clarify that instead of saying as is a resolution of F issues affecting any and all FCPS schools, simply saying after all FCPS schools strike adding in after FCPS schools within land zoned RC. >> Thank you. >> There a second without objection. >> Thanks. Without objection. Uh, that's fine. I mean, if we want to spell out RC, which is recreational hyphen conservation, uh, uh, excuse me, residential hyphen conservation. >> It's a residential conservation. >> Residential conservation. Yes. >> And

165you can Yeah, parentheses are hyped at this point. All right. See no lights. I will call for the vote on the primary amendment as amended which is on the screen. All those in favor Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mclavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Anderson, Mr. Moon, Anderson, and myself. That's unanimous for board members at the table. Madame Clerk, please read the vote. >> Okay. Unanimous. Thank you, Madam Chair. Now that has become motion. So, we have to one more time. >> So now this has become the main motion order. Didn't this replace the main motion? And it did. And uh in doing so, we just accepted one final amendment. Uh no objection. And then we just voted on that amended language and passed the motion. The substitute motion is an amendment. >>

166We've already we just voted on the substitute motion. >> Now that has become main motion. >> Yes. The the I believe the point of order was should be well taken that the vote was on whether to make the to adopt the amendment, whether to make it the main motion that passed. Therefore, to finalize it, you would have to actually adopt the main motion as amended. Okay. So now we will adopt the main motion um as as indicated on the screen. All those in favor Mr. Fr, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That's unanimous for board members present. Agenda item 7.0, action item, advanced academics, AAP center, andale pyramid. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. Thank you. I move that

167the school board approve a opening a new full-time AAP center at Pole Middle School to begin with grade 6 in the school year 2627. B a phasing option for impacted students currently attending Canterbury Woods Elementary and grades 3 to six. um base school being Annadel Terrace, Bradock Elementary, and North Springfield to allow them to complete elementary through grade six at Canterbury Woods. C a phasing option for the false church pyramidbased Mason Crest students who are currently attending Belvadier Elementary for AP center services in grades three. This action would allow impacted students to choose to attend either Glasgow Middle School or the current the current AP uh middle school center assign or PO middle school and D to direct staff to begin community engagement on the staff proposal to open a new full-time AAP center at

168North Springfield Elementary to begin with grade three in the school year 2627. Is there a second? Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Moon. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? >> Oh, absolutely. I would love to do that. And I want to start by saying thank you to the principal at PO, um, Dr. Yap, who's here. So, thank you for being here. Um, I I want to say thank you first of all to staff. Um this has been a huge lift and I appreciate all of the um community assessment I'm sorry community engagement um the presentations the the facilities work it it's been a lot of work in a very short period of time for which I'm very grateful particularly the sec the fourth piece I know I've spoken with um just about

169all of you about this at length so I won't be repeating all of that here. But part D, I I really want to lift that up because I think that's been the most um aggressive component of work for staff because we needed to find a solution for those Canterary Woods parents whose kids are caught in the middle because asking them to go to Canterberry Woods and returning back to Po Middle School, um a you know, leaving potentially leaving Canterary Woods in fifth grade to come back to Po go for sixth grade is not a good plan. Asking them to remain at Canterbury Roots through sixth grade and come back at the middle school while their cohorts have already begun is also not a good plan. And so, Dr. Prescidio, Dr. um Reed, and also all

170of the folks from facilities, thank you for all of this work. I think this is a very elegant solution to not only address the issue that has been going on at Pole Middle School in the Anidale pyramid where if we vote in the affirmative here they will be able to have a middle school center. It is the only region without one but we've also stopped the gap of concern for our for our Anendellebased students who attend Canterbury Woods for AAP. Um, so I will pause here, but I'm very excited and looking forward to an affirmative vote and hopefully we can have your support. >> Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? >> Uh, thank thank you, Madam Chair. I don't want to repeat what has been already said, but as someone who

171had worked in Anander area for almost four years, it was something that Ananderia definitely needs to have. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Um, seeing no others, I'm just going to take a brief turn here. I am The only concern I'm going to be supportive of this tonight, but the only concern that I have um that I think is something that we're going to have to address at some point is that the kiddos that are being left at Canterbury Woods right now with the phasing option, those kids are going to have to have the the same decision. That is what the final what the what creating the AAP center at the elementary level is meant to avoid. So I am concerned about whether or not those kids are going to be able to I don't I from

172what I understand they don't necessarily always go to Frost because Frost isn't always open for student transfers. And so you have the same situation with those kids that are in the K that are in a K through six now. and that would be moving back to a six through eight middle school. So, at some point, I think that we're we're talking about a small cohort of kids. I do understand that and there's a significant number of kids at Canterbury Woods that would move on to Frost because that's their base school. And so, I just want to put a marker out there that we do have some kiddos that may be in a in a unique circumstance that we should probably at least consider move forward with this. Seeing no other lights, I'll go ahead and

173call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen. All those in favor, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. That is unanimous. Action item 7.09 of board members present. action items um 7.09, motion to rescend. I call on Mr. Meline for a motion. >> Uh thank you, Madam Chair. Uh I move to rescend the decision taken by the school board at its meeting on December 4th, 2025 to amend the structure of the comprehensive planning and development committee and to sunset the school board's facilities planning advisory committee so CPDC and FPC may continue to perform their essential mission for FCPS. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Mr. Meline, would you like to speak

174to your motion? >> Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. So, I come tonight not just with a motion, but with a plea to reconsider the decision that was made at the last meeting to eliminate our facilities planning advisory council. Think about what we're facing as a system, as we've heard tonight. A countywide boundary study, a new western high school project cost spiraling, years of deferred maintenance. And amid all this, we voted at our last meeting to silence the voices who can help us navigate these waters. From the years I served as EPAC leaison till today, I have been aed by the caliber of the committee members and the seriousness with which they approach their work. For years, I have watched FPAC members give their time, their expertise, their passion, asking nothing in return. They are architects,

175engineers, urban planners, and parents who care deeply about our schools. They have produced insights our overworked staff simply cannot. They have caught what we might have missed. They have been our think tank, our safety net, our partners, and we've had the privilege of their wisdom at no cost. But what breaks my heart is this isn't the first time we've dismantled an advisory committee. Over the past two years, we dismantled the human resources advisory committee, then the family life education advisory committee, now FPAC. One by one, we are closing doors and we are saying to our community that their voice doesn't matter. And then we told Epac members they could join a board committee, but we wouldn't even give them a full vote. When times get tough, leaders don't retreat into isolation. They open doors wider.

176They invite more voices, more perspectives, and more wisdom into the room. Yet, we're doing the opposite. Our FPAC members deserve an apology. Just as I've apologized to HAC members and FlecAC members before them, good people who gave their time and expertise only to be dismissed. I'm sorry and we should be sorry. But tonight, we have a choice. We continue can continue down the path of shutting out our community or we can restore FPback. We can say that we were wrong, that we value the voices of our community. I urge my colleagues to support this motion. Let's show the community that we are listening, that we're humble enough to correct our mistakes, and that we believe democracy is stronger when more voices are heard. >> Mr. Dunn, would you like to speak to your second? >>

177Yes, briefly. Um, I'd like to incorporate by reference all of my remarks at the last board meeting. Um I think on reflection the discussions that I've had with my constituents um reflect grave concern about the future of uh facilities management, the construction and renovation of schools, the facilities condition assessment and other priorities. Um because we will no longer have the exceptional expertise of uh 13 citizens from across the county representing every corner of our county. um contributing their time, their selfless public service, dedicating their world-class expertise and their precious hours away from family, away from job, away from personal leisure um to advise this school division on what we don't know because we don't know what we don't know but I can say it's a lot because there are rapid developments in the industry both

178construction techniques, construction management approaches and a variety of other things that can be used to reduce our costs by tens of millions of dollars. Tens of millions of dollars. But if we foreclose that uh method that's provided reliable common sense industry expertise advice for decades, then we will have to hire consultants who inevitably don't provide the same level of service, same level of commitment and will also lose the chance to achieve those fiscally responsible costs cost savings that can then be used to expedite the renovation of other public schools and achieve other projects at a time when we have a 42year renovation cycle for our public schools. And when we have nearly a half billion dollars in combined infrastructure backlog and deferred maintenance, that's an overwhelming challenge. And we had a presentation just last year

179saying it would cost $14 billion for us to reduce our renovation cycle from 42 years down to the schoolboard policy of 20 to 25. So I I beg my colleagues to please reconsider and support this motion so we have at a minimum more time to consider potential reforms to FPAC if that is desired by the school board and have a wholesome compromise or we can vote unanimously as colleagues as a school board which we've done several times tonight. Thank you. >> I call on Dr. Anderson for an amendment. Thank you. I apologize. I have it now. Um, I move to insert the phrase and to revert back to the previous language in the strategic governance manual policy 1710 and the community advisory committee operating committee operating manual after the phrase council. Is there a second?

180>> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, absolutely. I think Mr. Mavine and Mr. done really said uh much of what I would want to share. Um and this is just such an invaluable committee. I I'm not going to repeat what they've so elegantly shared, but I do want to point out one concern that I have heard um regarding staff time. We can we have the latitude of reconstituted this recon reconstituting this committee in order to be more mindful of staff time. Maybe they go every other month because this is a committee that is very self-driven. They have put up retreats that they have entirely put together outside of just getting the space from us. They don't need us to lead them in every meeting.

181They need for some information to to get their work done. But I do not believe that they require staff time at every single one of their meetings. Maybe it's quarterly, maybe it's every other month. But we have got to find a way to take advantage of the expertise that this group provides and I'm really hoping you all can reconsider this evening. >> Mr. Dun, would you like to speak to your second? >> No, thank you. Miss Marin, >> uh, I remained supportive of my comments made it at the recorded October 30 CPDC meeting of the board that it's time to look at sunsetting FPAC and I said that the conversation should be done with the utmost tone of gratitude and respect. So while the steps that followed helped move the effort forward, um, you know,

182I wasn't aware that it was going on such a fast timeline and I needed to be absent for a meeting and I certainly wanted to be able to thank our FPAC members. So, you know, regarding this particular committee, I want to again draw that I I dare say we're in a capital facilities, I don't want to say crisis, but we have a we have a lot of big problems, okay? And they're not going to get resolved by cutting things here and there. And again, the work of the joint committee, uh, even the Fairfax County Athletic Council, all all of that use of our facilities. I also think we have a facilities office that is doing really strong work and the staff need to, you know, lead it and we're already seeing more data than ever

183this past year that has changed how we're doing the work. So, I do want to ensure that we're empowering the superintendent and her staff to do that important facilities work. I talked to a facilities an FPAC committee member today who you know asked that the committee be reinstituted and even if it's just to get closure and talk about how the committee could be helpful in the waning hours or you know they they want to help but what what I said was um oh gosh I just lost my train of thought I was talking to this committee member and um you know there's so much work to do but really it comes down to educating people about the state of our facilities that we have 8.7 billion dollars and we get about $8 per square foot

184where other divisions are getting 12 up to $40 per square foot. So no matter what amazing recommendations we get from committee members or the public, we can't do it without money. So what if FPAC becomes this amplifier for us to get that communication out? I just want to end by saying, you know, since this board began, we've tried to examine how we can most effectively and respectfully engage residents in committee appoint as our committee appointees and our public engagement committee of the board uh spent much time crafting a manual for committee members and that's the approach we can look to on how to improve the experience of all involved. But we we haven't gotten it right yet and I haven't seen a board really get it right since I served myself on a advisory committee

185as a regular resident in around 2018. So we need to have a clear process to sunset committees. This one didn't go very well. We had a previous one with human resources when we transitioned to collective bargaining that probably could have been smoother. So, I think it's okay to show that we made a mistake and we want to correct it and we want to support involving our our constituents in a way that's meaningful. So, I will support this motion and amendment. Thank you, Miss Marin. Seeing no others, I'll call for a vote on the amendment that is on the screen. All those in favor, Miss Marin, Mr. Meline, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, and Dr. Anderson. All those opposed, Mr. FR, Mr. McDaniel, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, and myself. Madame Clerk, will you read the

186vote? So, the uh vote is 55. That causes the causes a tie under Virginia code 22.1-75. that when there is a tie that means and the full board is not present we defer to the next meeting. Since this is a tie on the amendment the entire thing defers to the next meeting. So this entire thing will come back including the amendment at the next meeting. >> Thank you madam clerk. Agenda item eight academic matters. Thank you, Madam Chair. For this evening's academic matters, we're going to review some highlights from the recent release of the school performance and support framework results. So, as a reminder to our community, the new school performance and support framework uses a point system to measure the performance of schools across each level according to their academic mastery, growth, graduation, and

187readiness outcomes. A school's total points earned is used to assign a performance category of distinguished, on-track, offtrack, or needs intensive support. When a school is federally identified for targeted support and improvement, their initial assigned performance is lowered by one level. For example, if a school earn points that put them in the ontrack range, but the school is identified for targeted support and improvement in even one single student group, then their category is lowered to offtrack. With that context in mind, I want to celebrate some of the many accomplishments of FCPS during this first year of the new accountability system. First and foremost, all Fairfax County Public Schools are fully accredited. And we're very proud of the work of all of our educators, our students, um our families, our support staff, um everybody in this division

188that gives a bit of themselves every single day to make sure that our students have the best teaching and learning environment. whether it's driving our buses, uh our mechanics for our buses, our grounds, our security folks, food and nutrition, as we learned at the last meeting, our warehouse team. Um it's a team effort here in FCPS and to have all schools fully accredited. We're very proud of that. Also want to state that all of our comprehensive high schools and threequarters of our schools overall were identified as distinguished or on track. And all of our schools that were federally identified last year in the federal status for this year based on the hard work of their schools and teams are no longer identified. The Virginia Department of Education's web page also represents a snapshot of excellence

189from within each of the superintendent regions across the Commonwealth. Within our state region, we actually dominated nearly every one of the featured leaderboards. I'm not sure who came up with those or why they were proposed, but they were um circulated recently. And so for overall points in this particular area, we were proud to be home to four of the top five ranked elementary schools, three of the top ranked middle schools, and for science, five of five of the top ranked high schools. I think that uh five of the high schools in read or five of the elementary schools in reading and in math mastery as well were all Fairfax County high or Fairfax County elementary schools. One of the uh notes I just want to call out and then we don't always do a call

190out, but um we're exceedingly proud of Whitman Middle School principal John Flowers and his educator team uh who left behind federal status after three years of being identified for additional targeted support and improvement. And that's a really significant accomplishment. We're very proud of our Whitman Wildcats. Okay. Whitman Wildcats and uh principal John Flowers and his team. That's a phenomenal amount of work and really focused effort on the part of um our Wildcats and their families as well. Um these rec uh graphics recap some of these celebrations for school accreditation as well as the performance framework categories. And you can see we do have schools that were identified as needing additional support and improvement. And let's look at some of the factors that may account for that. More than threequarters of the schools designated for targeted

191support and improvement or 28 out of 36 were identified based on the performance of a single student group. Half of the schools designated for improvement which are two out of four were identified solely based on the four-year federal graduation indicator which as we mentioned earlier is new. Our teams are already taking actions to address the data and potential needs. A number of changes in the accountability framework impacted the outcomes for some of these schools. Um particularly those that had been maybe previously identified uh federally. These factors warrant additional attention and focus. Uh and I'm very proud of our team that continues to look at the data, work with our um schools and especially our educators in the classroom. The work that goes on in Fairfax County Public Schools is amazing each and every day. The

192widest reaching impacts for our schools appear to have come from the change to minimum group size and the inclusion of science in the federal criteria as well as giving zero points when we have test refusal and other non-participation. And that was not the case in prior years. As one example, for the first time this year, our parent refusals and other non uh participations, these zero points were actually included in the school calculations, which obviously um lower the performance scores uh for those students who actually did take the assessment. We also continue to navigate recent tightening of the criteria for students with disabilities to access the Virginia Alternative Assessment Program or VAP. Over the past three years, we've seen a 23% reduction in VAP tests in reading, a 24% reduction in math, and an 18% reduction

193in science. And as our students move to an so track, we're continuing to work on ways to bridge um the performance and support achievement for students who um in some cases very suddenly have been moved from one track to another. Our teams continue to work hard and dig into individual school and student data to better understand these drivers for performance outcomes and the federal identification as we support our schools, our students, and our educators in the uh achievement of a world-class education. I will say also that um just want to have a moment about what's next for state accountability. And as we reflect on the outcomes released this year, we want to keep our focus forward as we want to be proactive in our advocacy and our support for schools. The Virginia Department of Education

194is still expected to post their proposed revisions um shortly and to accept public comment before the state board votes on revisions most likely at their March 26th business meeting. We are working with our region and our building leaders to address any areas with opportunities for improvement within these state accountability results and we know our students and community expect and deserve the very best and that's the same bar we hold for ourselves each and every day. I will say that I must also repeat though with high expectations must come high support. So madam chair that concludes tonight's uh presentation of academic matters. Thank you, Dr. E. Agenda item nine, consent agenda. I adopt our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board by a

195single motion. Many of the items have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. I'm sorry, Dr. Anderson, your light wasn't on when doc when Dr. Reid and when I moved on to the agenda item. >> Go ahead. >> No worries. Um, thank you. U, Dr. Reed, I do want to say a couple of things. First of all, thank you for explaining what this is because I I think the public needs to have some clarity in terms of what this means. And I just wanted to say I am so so very excited to be able to share in some of these celebrations that you've highlighted, particularly all of our schools being fully accredited, especially so many of our schools being distinguished. And I have to

196give a shout out to Anendelle High School as a distinguished high school. So, yay them, as well as so many of the of the other schools, Lewis High School, I believe, and Woodson that I have a small part of. Um we are in a tight spot with this accreditation um circumstance, but I do want to highlight that our schools are coming through and in and in and making it happen. And that's the effort of every single person that works with our kids at the building as well with the support with all of you that are sitting here in the gallery. I could not pass the opportunity to really highlight how I do believe FCPS has risen to the challenge when it comes to this new system. It doesn't have to be this way. It It's

197wonky. It's incomplete. It has a lot of flaws. Given all of that, we are still here. So, I think that's really worth noting. So, thank you for ensuring that we had this report today. >> Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Agenda item nine, consent agenda, our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval by the board of of the board by a single motion. Many items have 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. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any agenda or any objection to approving the consent agenda? >> I object to

198item 9.06, 6 revisions to the strategic governance manual. Update two public hearings. >> Item 9.06 is removed from the consent agenda hearing. And seeing no other objections, the remainder of the consent agenda is approved. I call on Miss Lady for a motion. >> I move that the board approve the revisions to the strategic governance manual as indicated in the attachment on board docs. >> Is there a second? >> Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. Miss Lady, would you like to speak to your motion? Uh, no. Thanks. >> Miss St. John Cunning, would you like to speak to your second? >> No. >> Mr. Dunn. >> Yes. I I removed this item from the uh consent agenda uh because it would require um people who wish to speak at schoolboard meetings to uh register at least

199two business days in advance. And I just want to review um a shared advocacy history with uh my colleague Miss Marin that uh when I began my advocacy 12 years ago now uh we were often able to register the same day to speak both at uh the school board and the board of supervisors. However, over over time in this region, not speaking about FCPS specifically, there have been increasing limitations put on people's ability to uh speak at public hearings. And I think that's concerning. And I think paired with other discussions we've had this evening, um there can be a sense provided to the public that we don't care about their voices, that we don't want to hear from them. And I think we heard just tonight um you know significant concern about one of the

200major initiatives that we've launched recently which is providing chat GPT to all teachers. I think we heard serious and significant concerns and I think that's something that is worth discussing and and debating. Um but when we close off public voices do we we don't just lose cost savings, right? Um, we also lose the opportunity to to hear from the community who elect us. And I think we ought to hear from them more than once every four years. I I really believe that there's no reason if 12 years ago we could register on the same day as a schoolboard meeting to speak. Now 12 years later in a time of AI much more advanced IT tools and countless third-party service vendors who offer various you know public speaking registration systems or similar you can even create

201a Google form yourself without paying anyone a dime. Surely there's an administrative solution that is free or low cost, no cost, and can enable the school board to manage the people who are registering to speak. I just don't believe that this is the solution. There are other solutions that are out there that I'm aware of in my experience professionally. And so I I don't support limiting the ability of people to speak, especially what we saw last year, which is last minute budget cuts announced on a Thursday, telling people on a Friday that they might be losing their jobs and this is late in the school year, past the transfer window. We need to allow people to speak, especially on short notice, because that's when things become people become aware of things, when word spreads in

202the community. So I do not support this motion. And I hope my colleagues will not support this motion. I think this is worthy of further discussion by the school board and we should promote democracy not not limit it. >> Dr. Anderson, >> thank you. Just a couple of clarif clarifying questions that I have. This is only this would only be applicable to public hearings, not our regular community participation. Um, and my second question, at public hearings, do we have the same practice of having a few slots that are open for walkups? Yes, we have five available slots that are mandated mandated by the governance manual that we have to keep open for individuals. That's actually more than what it is for community participation. For community participation, they can sign up um and individuals did tonight.

203However, if at community participation we have filled up all the slots, individuals are not taken off the wait list. With public hearings, if those five individuals sign up, they must be heard. We cannot um and so with public hearings generally, anybody who signs up is able to participate. Um so it is a little bit actually more inclusive with public hearings. >> Thank you. Can you also speak to the timetable for registration because we have these meetings every two weeks. So I know the time is explain that. And for public hearings, what is the time frame that we allow for registration? >> So with public hearings, per the governance manual, we're supposed to open it up at least 10 days, not 10 business days, but 10 just regular days. Given that um we've got some public

204hearings that are coming up that are going to be happening right after we're coming back from winter break, I have instructed my staff to actually open things up starting on 1222 for both the 110 boundary hearing and the 113 CIP/overflow boundary hearing to ensure that individuals have more than 10 days. We don't want to get have them get caught up in the holidays. So, we're actually opening sooner. Um, we're working to get the notice into the newspaper right now that we normally would do to make sure that we have that. In terms of the signups and the registration, what we normally have is when we are doing things for community participation, it does close 48 hours in advance of the regular meeting for public hearings. Right now, it is closing at 4:30 the day before

205the public hearing, but that's causing we've heard complaints from individuals because we can't get notification to them until the day of the hearing that they are actually able to participate. And because the governance manual indicates that individuals have to be allowed to participate either virtually or in person, if they're participating virtually, we have to send them through a tech check to ensure that we're being efficient with our time. um which leads to individuals not necessarily getting the tech check notification on time. Um when we had the budget hearing for instance, we were literally having to beg tech to get on at 11:30 at night. So because we didn't want to preclude any anybody from being able to speak. So our our wonderful tech staff was more than gracious and got on to run tech checks

206at 11:30 at night. But that's rather difficult. it. We are trying to avoid that scenario with such a potentially large hearings coming up. >> All right. Thank you for that very robust answer. Just couple of things for consideration. Not saying I'm offering any amendments. I I wonder um just to kind of soften some of these changes that are being proposed and it it does sound reasonable because we do need a little bit of time to get all the things ready. And I'm glad that this is not going to be impacting our regular community participation just public hearing. But I wonder if we should be considering our public hearing period to be 10 business days rather than 10 regular days because that affords a little bit more time if we have a weekend in there. So

207I' I'd like to propose that and kind of unrelated but related the advertising in the newspaper. I have never once seen any of our public hearings advertised in newspapers. Is that our only outreach? Obviously, we send it out to our community for those with for whom we have um um um contact information, but what newspapers do we advertise in? >> So, we are required by the Virginia code to advertise in the newspaper. So, we have chosen to do the Washington Post and the Washington Times to ensure that we have the most coverage for the region. Um we also advertise online. We ask that board members advertise and uh you know if we have and try to the best of our ability also send out uh a newsletter or notification to individuals who have subscribed to

208a schoolboard um newsletter which we run that's not got the greatest. So that's why we ask board members to help us. Um but by code we actually have to do the newspaper notifications. >> Thank you. I I read lots of papers. I've just never seen any of these public hearings in this six years that I've been on the board. Um, so thank you for that. I I do want to say I I I am concerned and I I'm not um and I appreciate Mr. Dunn's statements because we do not want to send the message that we don't want for folks to speak to us given what we just talked about with FPAC and other things. That's not the optic that we want to um portray, but we do have to have some time for administrative

209work. And again, I'm just wondering if we could split the baby here. Maybe it's not two days, maybe it's one day, just so we have time for staff to do what they need to do. Thank you. >> Mr. Moon. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I've read the agenda item on the Bulldogs. I understand. But for the public, what are you trying to what are you what problems are you trying to solve? Does it be a specific? >> So what we are trying to do so currently the way for public hearings it reads in the governance manual is that it closes at 4:30 the day before a hearing. So what we are asking is for it to close two business days before the hearing um for if the hearing occurs on a weekday. If a

210hearing occurs on a weekend right now what it says is that it'll close 4:30 on a Thursday. A great example is our upcoming boundary hearing on 110. On 110 right now, under the current governance manual, we would have to close the uh list at 4:30 p.m. on January 8th. January 8th is a regular meeting day, which means that most of my staff is going to be over here in either in close meeting with the board or prepping with technology and communications to get ready for the regular meeting. in order for us to stick to what we have. Um, if the there is no change, I'm going to have to ask two of my staff to work overtime and we will have to pay them overtime in order to fulfill to get things out. I've also

211already met with the tech team. They are greatly concerned about the ability to do tech checks the morning of uh the regular meeting or sorry, the morning of the public hearing on January 10th. If the public hearing is starting at 10:00 a.m., that means that we're asking individuals to theoretically get up at 6 or 7 a.m. to run a tech check. In order to avoid that, what we were hoping is that if it can close at 4:30 on Wednesday, then we have Thursday to do excuse me, Thursday to do the notifications and the tech team has graciously agreed to take time out of their Friday. They would assign two individuals in order to run the tech checks all day on um Friday. We would also to avoid individuals just being stuck and waiting for the

212tech team while they're running these tech checks. The tech team would be doing the tech checks in one hour increments. Just giving us that one extra day would allow us to do all of those things. So the changes is to change from 4:30 on a Thursday to 4:30 on a Wednesday for weekend hearings. and it's to ask for two business days which is akin to what we do for regular meeting community participation as opposed to it closing the night before a public hearing. >> So how often have we had a weekend public hearings? >> I've only been with the board for about two and a half years and this is going to be the first time we are doing it which is actually why we didn't catch this issue until uh we started to get

213ready for the upcoming Saturday hearing. you how often do we limit number of speakers? >> We don't limit the number of speakers. >> So with that I'm trying to understand you know notifying the papers who have signed up if they sign up and if there's no limit are they entitled to speak? They are the bigger issue that runs into is the request for virtual speaking because we can't limit and because the governance manual doesn't allow us to tell individuals that they can't virtually speak if that's what they're requesting. The biggest issue we're trying to get at is letting them know um and then making sure that they have appropriate notification to get on. What we don't want to happen is that an individual says, "Well, I didn't get the tech check email, so I didn't

214know that I had to go through a tech check." If you don't have not spoken before the board in the last year in order to make sure that your equipment works, that we can hear you to do all of those things, we put you through a tech check. If you don't come to the tech check, you don't get your link to uh via Zoom to actually speak. And so we want to ensure that nobody is procluded from being able to speak. So that's why we do the tech checks and that's why we want to make sure we have enough time to get everything set up. People, even though people are not procluded, individuals have said, "Well, I wasn't because we do have different rules between community participation at a regular meeting and a public hearing."

215They have said, "I wasn't aware that I just get to." So they're waiting for those emails. We have gotten emails from individuals saying why haven't you notified me sooner. We have to respond back and say well we can't notify you until the uh list closes and they come back and say well I would like earlier notification. >> Okay. I am willing to support the request from clerk's office and then see whether you know we hear complaints from public. Thank you >> Miss Marin. >> Okie dos. So gosh, it's so interesting how we could talk about some of these administrative items, but they really do have meaning behind them. You know, we the prior board, we did a lot of thoughtful thinking, thoughtful thinking about how to ensure people have access, but also how to make

216it a an effective, efficient process, how to ensure that residents and not people outside the system who were here for um different reasons other than supporting our students were getting access. you know, we do a lottery to ensure that on the regular meetings there are people speaking and not people just trying to again jam up the the works when other people don't have a chance. So, I really appreciate the motion makers interest and uh ensuring access to residents. I see this more as an operational thing and I actually think the motion um is appropriate because we don't want people not knowing what their schedule's going to be. We know how we are in this area. We like our schedules. So, if this helps people plan better, I'm all for it. Also, people can still show

217up. I mean, signing up to register is just an early, you know, an advantage, but people can show up. Uh, it happened this evening. So, I think it's fine the way it is. I I did recall a heads up from our chair and clerk, I believe. So, um, again, while I appreciate it, I think the big message for tonight is the board cares about public input and how can we focus more on on elevating that and doing it better and that could be woven into a lot of our practices and approaches. So, I hope we could take that up in at another time. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to take a quick turn, seeing no other lights. Um, when was the U, Madame Clerk, when was the board initially notified that we were

218trying to make this change? I believe we sent out notification on December 11th as part of a weekly update that um myself and the chair and the vice chair due to the board. I believe we included included a note as part of that. >> Um could you also explain why we have scheduled the hearing on a Saturday? It was recommended that we do it on a Saturday to ensure that we have an the ability to hear from residents the most that they have the ability. We don't want it to be the individuals particularly because the topic that is going to be heard is such an important topic for the community. We wanted to make sure that the board had the time um and that and when we were doing the budget hearing, some of the

219complaints we got from individuals is that it was midnight and so that kept some people who had to work the next day from wanting to speak. So the hope is is that we can get a vast majority of individuals who want to be heard on a Saturday when they may not have to work when hopefully it's a 10 o'clock with no end time that we can get in as many individuals with the understanding that if we do not if it gets to the point where we are running too long that we can do an overflow on the CIP um as part of it because we're going to notice to ensure that individuals know that that is an overflow which uh uh past practice of the board. >> Thank you, Madam Clerk. So, I think that

220it's probably pretty clear to everybody at this point that every intention here was made to ensure that we have more public comment, not less. So, I am 100% in support of the work that um the clerk and her team did to ensure that this was correct in the up in the governance manual and I appreciate the fact that it was brought to us in such a time that we could actually make sure that it was correct in the hearing listing so that before it went out we actually caught it to ensure that the public would absolutely know what the rules were so that way that we could ensure maximum participation. So, seeing no others, I'll go ahead and call for a vote on the motion, which will shortly be on the screen. All those in

221favor, Mr. Fresh, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, and myself. All those opposed, Mr. Dunn. Will the m will the clerk please read the vote? >> The vote is 91. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Agenda item 10, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items tonight or this evening, but action is scheduled at a future meeting. Agenda item 11, board committee reports. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a report on the public engagement committee. So, we were able to meet this week um which was a great meeting. Uh we did discuss um proclamations and where they fit into the different months and how some would become annual and not annual. Uh we're

222going to continue that conversation and look into some how they align with the months that are celebrated. Um, we also looked at the strategic governance um um manual and discussed some of what we were discussing today about how the operational um portion of having our public speak is important so that our clerks can make sure that um everyone is notified in a timely manner. um we discussed advisory committees and that uh it I think has identified the platform that can be outward facing for the toolkit we're going to start to um create that was on hold because it was looking into the different platforms that would be workable and then we also discussed and will be looking into consideration for a second student school board representative which is something that we've been exploring and I

223think we want to start getting a little bit firmer on that that was brought by two pre not this but two previous school board representatives that go with uh Dr. Anderson. So we kind of want to get some closure on that. >> Thank you Miss Jun Cunning. I call on Mr. McDaniel for a report from the comprehensive development and planning committee. >> Thank you. We met last week and I I'll be quick because it's getting late. We met last week. Uh Miss Mirren gave an update on the joint facilities task force that she and I serve on with the board of supervisors and the work going on there. We also had a very robust conversation on the integration of the FPAC work onto CPDC. So that's the report. >> Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Agenda item

22412, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reid for Superintendent Matters. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Given the hour and our return to close session, I will pass this evening and just wish everyone an abundantly joyful winter holiday. >> Thank you, Dr. Reid. Agenda item 13, board matters. The next next item on the agenda is board matters. I'll call each board member to on each board member to speak. Um Mr. Mine. >> Oh, sorry. I thought I had voted against this. No, thanks Miss Marin. Um I'll say aloha and share about a once in a-lifetime experience I got to have. I joined constituents from South Lakes High and Marshall High School in their participation in Pearl Harbor Memorial events in Hawaii in Honolulu. I paid for myself to join this epic trip and our students were

225incredible ambassadors. They were just poised and nice and just it was a trip filled with culture and history, American history, world history, music. Uh there was marine biology at some point. Uh just really incredible. We were the largest band in the parade of about 15 different high school bands and we just it was so exceptional. So I really appreciate our teachers uh Mr. For Mr. Vesselin for braving this trip together and combining the two bands and all of the parents who helped and uh we have such fabulous students and I'm just so proud and grateful to have been able to spend the time with them and their families and our staff. So aloha and have a wonderful holiday break. >> Mr. McDaniel, >> I'll pass. Mr. FR, >> thank you. Uh, quickly, uh, it's been

226a busy couple weeks in Providence District. Um, when we last left off on my tour, shadowing FCPS employees, uh, who are keeping our schools running, I previously had the pleasure of volunteering at the library at Manua Elementary School, where I read to students and, uh, checked out books. Um, a week or so later, I got to shadow Mr. Spalding, one of our bus drivers on the Pine Spring bus route, uh, which was great and the kids were mostly well behaved. Um, and then, uh, last week I had an opportunity to work with the custodial team at Shrewood Elementary School, cleaning classrooms, cleaning bathrooms, um, and seeing their hard work, uh, up close and personal. All of these employees deserve our gratitude this holiday season. They are the reasons that our schools continue to operate and

227continue to run, so that our educators can educate. um also was able to attend the Mantoa Citizens Association holiday party last uh weekend uh and supervisor Seismore Heheiser's swearing in earlier this week. Um and present uh to the ACE committee about marketing strategies for our programs uh with Mr. Moon is our uh ACE committee representative liaison on the committee. And finally um I want to give a plug for Supervisor Palic's Providence District winter gear drive. Not everybody is fortunate at this time of year to be able to stay warm. And um they are collecting coats and winter gear, new or lightly used. So please consider dropping it off. Um and please take part in the Fairfax County Department of Transportation community feedback for Route 29 active transportation study. Uh a segment which runs through Providence

228District and directly impacts our community. The study focuses on improving safety and accessibility for everyone whether walking, biking, taking transit or driving. The online survey is open through the close of business day tomorrow. Um, and you can find a link on the supervisor's website. >> Dr. Anderson. >> Um, thank you. First and foremost, I do want to say thank you to all of the parents in the audience who have come to um, not just today, well, not today, but um, in previous days um, and in previous years rather to also advocate for the AP center at PO. it is finally here and uh I thank you for being steadfast in that advocacy. Um on a lighter note, it was really lovely to visit Senator Warner's office for the second year in a row. This time

229with Woodburn Elementary to do a tree trimming tree trimming and being a very tall person, he helped all those younger kids hang the u ornaments on very high branches. So it was very lovely and there was cookies and milk. it was and they sent carols. It it was a wonderful opportunity. Um I also want to say thank you to Miss Neans at Colombia who invited me to speak to her second grade students about local government as well as principal Badia at Anandel Terrace who invited me to speak to second through fifth grade also about local government and where I was joined by other um local government in our area. Um, I do want to say again another congratulations to the false church academy for the $200,000 grant that they just received from the Cloudmore Charitable

230Foundation and uh Mr. Meline as well as Mr. McDaniel were there in order to receive that check. It is going to go a long way and of course Dr. Reed was also there. My apologies. Um and of and of course that donation is going to go a long way to expanding the programming for our students and really providing them with the real world experience that we know will help them get into a career essentially almost right out of high school. Um, I do want to say to the um, Glasgow and Park Lawn um, parents and those who feed into those pyramids, please be sure to review the um, proposals for um, those schools to reduce capacity there. And please join us at the public hearing on January 10th in order to share your feedback. And

231that's it. And I'd like Oh, also happy holidays to everyone and we'll see you in the new year. >> Mr. Amen. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. You know, you know what I'm doing tomorrow. I have seven ambassador teachers visiting me for dinner and and I am happily stressed out. I've done almost all grocery shopping except for garlic bread. I'm only preparing spaghetti, but if any of my colleagues wants to help me out, you're welcome to join me with that. Happy holidays, >> Mr. Dunn. >> I'd like to offer congratulations to West PTOAC High School senior Ysef Abdul Raman, uh, who was selected to represent Sudan at the inaugural 2025 World Taekwondo under21 Championships in Nairobi, Kenya on December 4th. I'd also like to offer congratulations to Bryant High School principal Karen Hurdle, who is retiring

232after 31 years of service at FCPS. Karen, we thank you for your dedication. Enjoy your retirement. I'm also pleased to welcome three new principles to Mount Vernon District Schools. Principal Jessica Peterson of Fort Belvoir Upper School. Uh, Principal Adrien Williams of Quander Road School and Principal Cindy Connley, the incoming principal of Bryant High School. I look forward to working with each of you as we strive to provide a world-class education for all students. Thank you to the Fairfax Federation Education Committee and the Realers Group for inviting me to present at their recent meetings. I appreciate the opportunity to provide an update and to talk about the daily excellence happening in Mount Vernon District Schools and Communities. I also attended two recent community uh boundary meetings at Anendelle High School and Norton Station Elementary. I really

233appreciated everyone who came out to make sure that their voice was heard and I know that the superintendent is actively uh considering your input as she formulates her final recommendation to the school board. Along with Mount Vernon District Supervisor Dan Stor, my office delivered 100 bags of groceries and gift cards to Mount Vernon High School to help food and secure families over winter break. I'd like to thank Educate Fairfax and Girl Scout Troop for their support in this critical effort. I hope everyone uh this holiday season will remember the less fortunate and strive to either provide food, canned goods especially, or money to help out those in need. What a fantastic way to honor the spirit of the season. Happy holidays to everyone. >> Miss St. John County. >> So, it was also a busy

234couple of weeks for me. Uh yesterday I had the opportunity to be at Lindbrook Elementary at the cuts with cop cops event where county police officer Rosa partner with Dream Salon of Springfield to provide free haircuts to 30 students. Uh councelor Vanessa Pollock coordinated this effort and principal Patus led by example by getting his haircut. I'm going to tell you those kids looked fabulous. Supervisor Lusk joined us to support our students. Um I at Lindbrook yesterday also I was able to go to the Lindbrook family literacy winter celebration where parents, students and staff came together for a wonderful afternoon celebrating and it was pot luck with homemade food that was absolutely delicious. Uh I along with board members Moon and Melbine uh were able to go to the HALL roundt meeting. Uh we also had

235some leadership temp team members there. Uh we had very robust discussions on how we can improve the FCPS experience for all Hispanic students and staff members. As a longtime member of HALLA, I am so proud to see how far this organization has come and to see the impact of its continued advocacy. Also, like many of my colleagues, I was at the third annual future FCPS student show, which was also fabulous. Fabulous. Um uh finally this past week we have again seen some census gun violence at Brown University and Bondi Beach in Australia. And my heart goes out to the families impacted. Both of these are very dark moments. But I'd like to reflect that we remember that is not by accident that many religious and non-religious celebrations occur during the winter, the darkest season of

236the year. Many of those celebrations center around light. like to remind us that kindness, love, and peace are what define the best of humanity. Throughout my time on this board and my travels in the Franconia district and this division, I have been fortunate to see the light that our teachers, staff, and our students particularly show us every day. As this board takes its winter break, I hope that all of us remember that each of us can be a light carrier in the darkness. that remember that we remember that one tiny light can be amplified if it is reflected. With that said, I wish all of you a joyous and lightful holiday season. And to my Hispanic um constituents out there, Felis Navidida, Miss Lady, >> thank you. U echo uh Miss St. John Cunning. Um

237it's been a difficult week in terms of gun violence and our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims um and continue to pray for um reform when it comes to guns in this country and and elsewhere. Um uh also want to highlight a few things that took place with me in Drainsville. I uh took to legislators Jimmy Beerman um and Delegate Sullivan to Cooper Middle School to see their afterchool program. Uh it's very robust. Uh Delegate Sullivan was incredibly impressed um with the level of engagement especially related to co-curricular academic endeavors that were taking place after school. Um, and I also attended MLAN High School's students with U services advisory board to their community. Uh, it was great. We had a robust conversation about the programming coming out of their student services department

238with their counselor and brainstormed additional ideas. Um, certainly enjoyed attending the swearing in for my colleague uh, Rutnous Seismore Heiser. I'm very happy for her. I know she will be fantastic on the board of supervisors. Um, very excited tomorrow night to attend the naming of George C. Marshall's Gymnasium after Joe Swarm, my dear friend and colleague um of over 30 years at this point. And that'll be a special event that is also tomorrow evening is the Langley versus MLAN girls and boys basketball rivalry at MLAN High School. Encourage folks who won't be at the Marshall Madison game to check that out. Um, and then I really just want to wish everyone the best holiday season, a happy Hanukkah, happy Quanza. And I also want to say uh to those who celebrate the Christmas season, remember

239that first precious present. Um, all those years ago, and I say, "Oh, come O Emanuel, and wish everyone a merry Christmas." Thank you. >> Since the board has to return to close session, the meeting is recessed at 11:03.