001Superintendent and staff, before we get started on the work session portion of our meeting, we will go ahead and certify the closed meeting that we just had as per law. So, in order to comply with section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the code of Virginia. It is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on September 16, 2025 to the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion? Mr. Mavine and seconded by Dr. Ricardi Anderson. All in favor? That is unanimous for the board members at the table. Oh,
002Miss Miss Moorheiser away from the table. Thank you. Uh, and there was no action taken and closed tonight. All right. So, first of all, way to turn around in a week because last week we were talking about legislative advocacy and here one week later. So, thank you to Mr. Mallaloy and his team and staff. Um we really appreciate that so we could all uh convene again on this topic. So we will um again be and we could I think go ahead uh madame clerk if you could please scroll to the second slide. I'll review the first and second and then great. So again, we want to get some collective agreement and be able to advise the superintendent on the budget and legislative priorities that we want to seek and most immediately articulate that on October
0037th when we have our legislative briefing. So today, we want to be really prepared for that October 7th briefing. And we will have another meeting in the future after October 7th to solidify our legislative program. Is that right, Chair Anderson? We're gonna have Right. So we can dabble in that but we do not need to decide on that today. So our objectives on the next slide again we'll have a status update on the board's current policies and the JARK recommendations. We're going to reach consensus hopefully yes on future board budget and policy priorities to help guide the government relations work. Again thinking about what we want to share with our colleagues on October 7th. Decide on the focus and the content which we did talk about last time. So you'll see that fleshed out here
004and then share details. We'll hear from Mr. Mallaloy about how to go about making a budget amendment doing the bill submission process. So with that we will hand it over to Mr. Mallaloy uh to continue. >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um I understand we have a little bit less time than we originally had planned. So I will go through a few of these slides relatively quickly. We'll get you uh we'll get you to your discussion as quickly as we can. Um, so at your last at your last board work session on legislative matters, um, I think a request was made to get a little bit of an update on, uh, where where things were relative to your existing priorities and to uh, the progress that's been made towards the JARK report and the the
005recommendations of the Jark report. Um there are two attachments that are actually included with as part of the agenda item um that has a lot more detail than this. But just from a very high level um perspective, I just wanted to point out that incremental progress has been made in several areas um in terms of your legislative priorities. I think there were there was only one area where there was nothing either passed or um or even introduced that was related to your legislative priorities. everything else had at least something introduced um that was related to your priorities. Um broader issues that are contemplated by your current priorities, they're they're still there. Um there's nothing that you can look at that list and say, well, that problem has been or that that issue has been completely
006solved. Um so those those priorities I think are still uh are still appropriate. Uh state cost in most cases remains the most significant barrier towards progress. Um, a lot of the a lot of your priorities have uh price tags obviously attached to them, whether it's additional state funding or additional resources. Um, and that tends to be uh the sticking point for a lot of them. A lot of the priorities you'll see when you watch the legislative process will make it through a policy committee. The policy committee will agree with the idea, but then it'll get to the appropriations or the finance committee and the it's not uh it's not in the state budget. um so it doesn't uh it doesn't move forward. So that remains a significant barrier. Although in in on the good news
007side of the the funding ledger, there have been uh progress made on some of the JRC recommendations. Um we talked about this at the last meeting. Uh they fully funded the support cap at uh 2026 prevailing uh uh staffing and they did add a per pupil funding increment for special education students. So I don't know I don't want to spend too much more time on this. Okay. So now with that as prologue uh the next few slides uh talk about some of your initial considerations for priorities that you may w wish to um emphasize when you come to your October 7th work session and also continue to emphasize even even beyond that. Um but I think the first area really this is this is kind of a budget is is consider this a budget bucket.
008Um the idea is to focus you on on unmet needs and unprecedented uncertainty that's faced by school divisions. You'd be hardressed to find a time where um you know funding issues are are under more uncertainty than than we have right now. Um a couple of areas where you may want to place focus. One would be fully funding the bannual standards of quality rebenchmark. We talked about that um at the last meeting how important that is that every two years the state updates its data and that usually generates additional funding for schools. Um and then there are several JARK recommendations that remain um either either unfinished uh in the case of the the support cap. It's almost there, but it's not completely finished. And there are some other recommendations that you could pursue um that would
009again benefit all school divisions in Virginia, bring additional funding back to them. Um the impact of this and and I think that one of the reasons why this is being uh being lifted up is obviously a lack of resources could affect um the school division's ability to provide uh the highest quality programming for our students. Uh next consideration and actually there are two slides that are focused on this is to focus on continued excellence and the need to measure student and school performance appropriately. Um this this suggestion here uh focuses on so assessment system revisions. Uh we've talked about the bill that passed during the last general assembly session, House Bill 1957, made some fairly significant changes in how SOS are to be administered, who they can be administered to, the timing of them, the
010flexibility in terms of of how those tests are are provided. A couple of examples of of items that may need to be adjusted. Um, native language assessment is something that you've had on your priority list for several years. It continues to be an issue, continues to be a point of discussion. And then the the broader piece, I think, in in relation to 1957 is some timing and administration flexibility. Um, the impact there really is about those revisions could have what I I I'm hoping are unintended consequences in terms of students ability to verify credits that they need for graduation, limiting access to AP and IB assessments and and the the changes because they're, you know, so focused in on um standardized assessments could have a disproportionate impact on our special education and multilingual student populations.
011Yeah, I just thank you. You know, I think we want to make sure we have that time to discuss and get to some consensus. So, um, if we could just keep going, Mr. Mallaloy. Thank you. >> Yeah, absolutely. Uh, so this this slide, same same issue focusing on continued excellence. This is about accountability system. Here in the next few weeks, we're going to get the first results of the state's new accountability system, how they're measuring school performance. Uh we've talked and you've you've had work sessions on this that the the new accountability system is relatively narrow in terms of its focus. It's focused very heavily on uh on uh uh standardized assessments and that could end up mislabeling schools as underperforming. And then uh this slide really just focuses on federal resources and the idea
012here is to focus in on the preservation of existing federal resources. Every day you read the newspaper, there were new new threats to sources of federal funding. Um, and those federal funds typically are targeted towards our uh most vulnerable populations. Um, so cuts to those resources could have a disproportionate impact on student services. Uh now for the October 7th legislative briefing, um I I think really what you want to try and do is you want to you want to emphasize your identified priorities and additional initiatives as part of part of your agenda. Um part of the part of the evening or morning, I'm sorry, it's a it's a breakfast. um should really be focused on seeking input from legislators, including identifying specific areas where you might be able to work together um on either budget
013amendments or on or on uh on bills. Um the goal for I think from a staff perspective is to provide uh some key impact data and some actionable uh recommendations including some uh handouts that we can provide to our legislators um as just uh takeaways on on various issues and obviously those issues will be set by you all. A couple more one or two more slides. Um, I was asked to provide kind of a an in the weeds perspective on how bills and budget amendments are submitted through legislators. Um, you've got a handout that details that process and a little bit uh with with more specificity, but the basic idea is identify a bill or amendment patron. Obviously, the any any recommendation has to go through a sitting member of the general assembly. Um, and
014then from your perspective, you need to clearly define the issue that you're trying to accomplish and provide as much information as possible, data, projected fiscal impact, uh, even bill or or amendment language if if possible. Um, but that's not always necessary because any bill recommendation that comes into a legislator automatically goes to the Division of Legislative Services and their attorneys will turn it into an actual bill. um the process for submitting budget amendments more formal than it is for bill submission. Bill submission is really run by individual offices whereas the budget amendment process there are specific forms for Senate finance and for house appropriations um that that you fill out. But again, same exact idea. You identify the issue and you provide as much specificity as possible about why you're pursuing that or you you're
015asking to pursue that particular amendment. And there we go. >> Thank you, Michael. I know we'll have lots of questions. Dr. Ana, did you want to kick us off? And I don't see any placards. Mr. Meline will be first. Do you want to Okay, sure. Mr. Mine. >> Great. Um, and thank you for this expanded um discussion. Uh, we've been doing the priorities document for about 10 years now, I think. Uh, and I think it's been a very effective way to communicate to our legislators what we really want them to focus on. Um, I remember sitting at this table probably in 2012, 2013 and Mark Sickls asked us, you know, what is your priority as a system? And no one at the table could answer. So, this really does um lay it out very well.
016Um, I uh I didn't see it up there, but um one of the priorities that we had last year um as a new priority was on um uh meals for for students. So, I'd like to see that um in our program again this year. And I think it's uh it's no surprise to anyone that that's even more important this year with the threat of that funding being cut um by the the federal government. So um I would like to see that restored in the uh priorities listing. Thanks. All righty. I'll go ahead and take my turn. First of all, thank you. It was very helpful that you went over some of the updates, but I want to kind of get a little bit more granular granular in your feedback to us in terms of where
017we are on the state priorities. Um, last time, page 26, or is this 26? Nope, 28. Um, from the previous, um, presentation you had for us, you listed our priorities from 2025. Can you just kind of walk me through the ones that were not touched in any way? You mentioned that some are in progress. Which ones were completely still kind of out in the ether? >> So, the the only the only priority that you had that did not either get something uh introduced or passed was uh state funding for the wrapback program for the uh the continuous uh background check monitoring. Um everything else at least had something introduced. Uh pedestrian safety had a few things about expanding the um uh the the the the school walking zones. Uh you know obviously there were several
018several pieces on assessment on accountability on uh school funding. um workforce shortages and I think workforce shortages probably had the most things that passed um that were addressed in terms of expanding expanding the pool of of qualified applicants and and everything else. Um but yeah, I think everything everything on that list at least had something introduced um if not with the exception of the wrapback as I said. >> Can you speak to what was introduced in the area of expansion of early childhood opportunities? Uh so actually what was introduced one one thing that was introduced was a proposal to go to universal prek. Um obviously the price tag on that was relatively uh relatively sizable. Um so that didn't get a great deal of uh of discussion. Um but uh that was I mean obviously
019that's the that's the big that that's the big thing. Um others were we're were dealing with the funding formulas in terms of uh trying to provide additional resources for additional um additional pre-k slots um for school divisions because there's still waiting lists in in most school divisions in terms of their ability to provide prek and the state share of that is a key component to places being able to provide those services. So I think those are some examples of what was >> that's very helpful and now I'd like for the same um application to the federal priorities and I I say this with injust um did anything happen there? Did we have any movement in the past year with the priorities that we listed? >> So for the most part most of your federal priorities
020were focused on funding. Um the federal government for the last actually I think we're going on two years now has worked on a continuing resolution which has kept funding at a level at at at at uh level over time. Um so there's not been any positive movement there's not been any negative movement at least you know in terms of actual budgeting. Now there are proposals that are out there that are being discussed right now. Um the House the House and the President uh proposed some fairly sizable cuts in the next budget which would begin on October 1st. Um the Senate has already passed a bill that would uh essentially level continue to level fund um those positions. So that's that's very much in flux in terms of how the appropriations process is going to work.
021But um yeah, in in terms of progress, no real forward movement, but also um not much in the way of backwards movement because of the way the the the funding has been structured. >> Thank you for that clarification. And now I'll move into my comments in terms of the priorities. As you've indicated, there is a big bucket of funding priorities that impact the bianual, the SOQ's and Jarks. I I think the JARK work and all of what that entails, I think that's a good bucket to be a priority for us to continue. Um I also I'm a very big big big supporter of the assessment bucket of priorities that speaks to not only the administration whether it is to be in native language also to the timing as well as the impact um and I
022want to weave in in terms of impact the new cut scores. I think that needs to be part of the overall assessment um discussion and these are two big significant issues for the state where I I think we'll be a little bit more um we could put more eggs in that basket because it's a little of a friendlier environment. Um so I would want to when we get to that space when we're providing consensus on these priorities that need to be developed for um the meeting in two three weeks um those are the two that I would be very in in high support of. Um, regarding the federal priorities, as I shared with you on my one-on-one, I think this is going to be a little bit more difficult. And frankly, I'm not sure if
023it's even worth a lot of time in this to change the fact that we're still not getting these being, you know, to be funded at the level that they need to be. So, I would be in favor of keeping it as is um on the federal side, but definitely rebucketing the priorities for the state side. That's it for now. >> Thank you. Okay, we have u Mr. Fr is next >> and and might we please clerk team put up the uh slide that has the objectives for our session which is slide number three. >> Thank you. >> All right. Um, on the legislative priorities for the federal, um, I think I agree with Dr. Anderson. They're all important, but I think it's more than keeping the same because they're not just underfunded at this point,
024right? Like they're in danger of disappearing. So, uh, you know, I think most of the language is fine for that in our program. We may want to adjust the way that we talk about it in our priorities. the program itself speaks to the need for this that and the other which implies that they exist. So um uh and I'll be bringing a couple of amendments to the program that speak to other issues on the federal level in terms of the structure in terms of the state legislative program. I've been thinking a lot about um in addition to the funding question and performance question etc. what are the things that dog us at the state level routinely? And I think it's a lack of meaningful collaboration uh on the part of the Virginia Board of Education
025with local school divisions. And so, um, I would like us to consider a plank in there, um, about strengthening that collaboration and the stability of that relationship between, uh, the board of education and local school divisions. I know that um, various legislators are in conversations about legislation to do that. And so it's not clear yet how that's going to take shape, but language worded broadly enough that we can engage in the dialogue uh I think would be beneficial. Um and um I think it's a needed reset um uh come January. It's also one of the amendments that I have for the program that I'm happy to talk to colleagues about as I make my calls. >> Okay, great. And just to Dr. Anderson, just check me. We are getting just general feedback and then as
026if you have feedback about the October 7th. So um great. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh Miss uh St. John Cunning and Miss Seismariser. >> So um what kind of movement have you seen? uh because this is something that for me and I know I'm not new to the board but what styies a lot is our restriction in terms of how many of us can be in the room at the same time to discuss things and I know that this has been on the agenda uh our work could be significantly more efficient if there was a percentage of the requirement of you know this basically the sunshine laws um what kind of movement have we seen on that and how How long has this been in our legislative agenda? I see it under the you know
027the the Freedom of Information Act. I I think it's what uh eight you know adjusting the threshold to open meeting requirement based on governing board size rather than the current standard that applies regardless of the numbers of members on the board. Um and that that doesn't cost money. That's not a money issue. That is a simple legislative issue that's not going to cost anything. but really for larger boards is going to allow them to be a lot more effective and efficient. >> So, I can't give you an exact date. That language has been the program for a while. Um, and that that I mean obviously the issue has been there for several several years. Um, it's a more contentious issue than you might imagine. um because there uh there is a viewpoint uh among open
028government advocates that uh having any conversations behind closed doors is inappropriate and every every aspect of the public's business should be conducted in the public. Uh there shouldn't be uh behind the behind the doors um conversations. Um there was legislation introduced uh Kathleen Murphy and probably five or six years ago at this point put in a bill. It didn't go anywhere in the general assembly. It was ref it was referred to the uh Virginia Foye Council. Um the Foye Council declined to take any action on it. And that was exactly the debate that was that that they had was how do you balance government efficiency and the ability for a government to work well and do things in an efficient manner versus the public's right to know what that government is doing and what how
029those decisions are being made. Um, that's not to say it's not something that you can pursue. Um, and I think it's obviously it's it's remained in the program for a reason. Um, but I think it is a little bit more contentious than than you might you might otherwise you might otherwise think in terms of the way the the the general assembly and and the state uh perceives it. >> These restrictions do not apply to our state legislators, do they? >> I don't believe so. >> Yes. Okay. Yeah. Um, and I just want to publicly say this because a lot of times it's as simple as receiving briefings and someone that's going to come and just give us information. It has to be done two at a time versus, you know, a percentage- wise. And there's
030not like I wouldn't say any discussion. It's just a presentation of materials which I think could easily be up on board docs. I mean, so I I don't know. I just the fact that this is a restriction for school boards and not for other entities in the state is something that concerns me. >> So I think that just to clarify only the state is or I think only legislators are exempt. I believe that the same the same rules apply to local government. So the board of supervisors and everything have the same restrictions on them. >> Okay. Miss Seismarheiser followed by Miss Anderson. Thank you. So, a couple things in terms of I think a status update for if we're talking about October, the October 7th meeting, I think giving our colleagues what our priorities were
031last year in the status update would be good. Um, sorry, I'm not talking about these colleagues. I'm talking about the October 7th meeting. So, I think that would be a good idea so they knew what we asked for last year and where the status at least on our priorities, if not on all of it. Um, I think that's important. I do think that, um, we h we've got to figure out what our top priorities are, sketch those out very quickly, and specifically target certain legislatores that we think would be friendly or open to carrying those. I think if we just give this whole packet like this, even if we give a set of priorities, if we don't then build the relationships or outreach to certain people to then um carry that for us, I don't
032know what's going to happen with it. So, I think that's what we need to figure out what our top priorities are and then who's going to carry it. Um, and then we need to give them specific language. I cannot emphasize this enough. When I talk to people at the state level, they don't want to know what we want to do. They want to know how we want to do it. And as easy as we can make for people, we can say, "All right, we want this bill on facilities and we know these legislators often carry bills on facilities or have in or we want this bill on CTE." I'm making this up. And we know these legislators have a passion for CTE. That's the the planning we have to do. But I think between now
033and October 7th, there can be some when we narrow our priorities down to the top view, we need to target that. The other thing I think we really need to say on October 7th is we've got to help provide information to our state and federal colleagues who are going to attend as to what this current atmosphere, what the impact of that is on us now. People want to know what's going on at the federal level. What is at risk at the schools? What have we heard? I mean, there's things that we can't share, I understand, but things that we can. I think we should um I think we should come up with some ideas. All right. This is what we're challenged with at the federal level. Department of Ed, what's happened to that? you know,
034all of these things. By the way, colleagues, here's what you can do at the state level to help protect us from that or help protect the students who are losing their protections. So, I think we can't do this legislative program in a vacuum of the environment that we find ourselves in. And I think that's a piece that's really important to add. These are the protections that the department we've lost at the department of ed because of lack of implementation staff and here state is what we want you to do because at the end of the day it's about our students and their education and having the protections that they're federally guaranteed to be able to be implemented and watched. So I think and it's to make sure we have the resources and support we need
035to be able to provide that education for the students and that our teachers don't feel afraid because of the atmosphere we're in and the funding that we're losing that we have other places we can get it so we can make sure we can abide by the law and our policies. That's a big chunk that I think is not in here. >> Thank you, Miss Anderson. Um I wanted to pick up on something really fast. I I know that we it was one of the first things that I noted when we came on the board that these conversations are particularly hard on a board our size when we have you know the the telephone game that we play with 12 people and then we go back to the beginning because something has changed. Um and it
036is a significant aspect of our work just to have those phone calls ahead of time. And so I I don't think anybody on the board wants a lack of transparency in terms of the work that we're doing. But putting three people in a room sometimes is far more effective to to just for accountability and understanding, you know, having that work, it would just ease up. So even if we could go to a percentage of the board, which wouldn't necessarily mean that we were over the voting amount or anything else. But to that end, I also want to point out that there are other um guidelines and stipulations that actually cost our schoolboard office a fair amount of money every year. And one of those is that we right now we are required to advertise public
037hearings in newspapers um in physical newspapers. And so being able to change to a newspaper or an online notification would be extremely helpful um for us. Madame Clerk, could you share how much the schoolboard office spent on this last year? >> So, we spend about 300, it could be upwards of 500 depending on how often we have to know per hearing. So, every time we do a hearing, it also raises issues because the newspaper takes significantly more time. So, last year an issue got raised about whether or not we could do an additional hearing for something. It takes an additional week or two for our deputy clerks. She's saying too for our deputy clerk. So really ends up being three to four weeks out that we would know we need an additional hearing. So it's
038money and it's time which hinders our ability. Um so it would be helpful. We already notice on bulletin boards outside of our office which we're required to. We also notice online which we seem to get a lot more feedback. We don't know that anybody ever seems to notice it in the newspaper because if you see it in the newspaper then you would be calling us to sign up for hearings and that very rarely happens. So we think we would be more effective with the online and save our schoolboard office actually thousands of dollars by taking that route. >> So it's just it's a small thing but it's the things that add up that add to the workload required to our office in just the the general way we do business. So, it would be something
039I think that creating and I need to dig through to find out where the exact location it could be. But I do think um and I know we've done work on this in the past, but bucketing these items together to to tell the story of what we're trying to accomplish, I think is where we're going. And I think I always believe strongly that creating a an attractive document means that people are going to be less likely to ignore it. So, anything we can do to that end, I think, is also really important. Thank you. Um before I take my turn, Dr. Anders and I were just talking because we're trying to just make sure that we're capturing what everyone's saying and getting to consensus and facility facilitation. So Dr. is going to going to kind
040of just summarize for a moment where we're at >> and then I'm going to have a turn. So >> yes. Okay. Speaking to the state priorities, um obviously what was recommended on the agenda. I know I spoke to that just the funding bucket and then the assessment bucket. also heard advocacy for a collaboration and I'm just going to say bucket because it might include a couple of different things in there as well as meals. Those were the four major points that arose in the conversation for state priorities in terms of the federal pri priorities. The only thing that I heard was to repackage some of the priorities that already exist to really be more focused on kind of current state um because what we've always wanted those funding sources to be provided you know and
041to be provided in their entirety now we're speaking to the elimination of the little bit that we do get. So I hope that has captured the priority positions that were just discussed. We I did hear other things about other positions that I think we'll be seeing pop up in the um when we get to the next work session when we're adding more things to the program. But that's my um summary of the priorities piece. >> Thank you. I really appreciate that because I'm trying to make meaning. So and again and that does outline those the the first three topics the funding SOQ and JARK the standards of learning the native language and timing and the accountability systems revisions that was in the presentation we heard school meals and by the way so last night I
042went to delegate Irene Shinn's build a bill workshop her fourth year in a row because I just wanted to see how she engages the community and support that effort and it was really great and so she shared materials that actually delegate Sam Rasul has also shared shared and um there were probably about 20 people there and so one of them was actually interested in school meals and he just emailed me and I said oh my gosh we're talking about it right now so um Mr. at Mavine, I'd love to connect you because there was a real discussion. People want there to be access to food and I tried to explain the barriers that we're in. Um but so that's exciting and um and I also shared with her the handout that's on the board docs
043page of like how to submit a bill. She had some different content that delegate Russul also uses, but we do have that. Um also kind of a related segue. So this Friday, some of us, I'm not sure who exactly, are going to go to Richmond for the VSBA legislative conference. And so I'm going to bring some of these handouts and we'll have an opportunity to network there. And then again in November when we go to the conference down in Williamsburg. So um additional to the sunshine, so I do would love to go for the sunshine law, um updates. Um, I also wanted to related to facilities funding and this relates to the bill that was passed last year about HVAC and I'm not sure if that fits into funding when we talk about SOQ's and
044JARK. So maybe that's an additional standalone piece when it comes to facilities um, and the general umbrella of unfunded mandates. But that would be something that I'd like to work on. And I think those are all of my um yeah, the facilities. However, and I even last night in the build a bill workshop, I was talking with there there was a group of uh constituents who were interested in energy and sustainability and I said well you know uh if we could have more funds to make our buildings more energy efficient like like again trying to connect the dots of it's not just about kids which is enough I know for all of us a reason to do this work but it's actually a cost savings and I do think the more we can pair the
045data to show the savings and the benefit and just like Jark I mean that really changed things. So, um, and maybe we even want to ask them to do a Jark report on facilities. I mean, if that's what it takes to give us that data. Um, but I also think that no matter how much great data Fairfax provides, we still need to make sure we're partnering with the other parts of the Commonwealth, um, who also carry a large part of the delegation and Senate. So okay, you want to take >> So now just kind of the next step again, we wanted to do a couple of things which is landing on the priorities and I think we're really circling about getting there. The second piece that I did not summarize was um was about the
046content of October 7th. Before we get to that piece of the conversation, um I want to make sure that we don't have any other speakers to priorities. I see lots of placards up. So are there any other speakers to priorities? So seeing okay um two minutes please for the second round >> just really quickly I didn't have a chance my first round to comment on the foya comments of my colleagues um I think there is a little bit more interest this year I've seen some of the state delegation who have felt surprised when they have constituents they wanted us to meet with and realize that they could not meet with us except the their constituent had to do six separate meetings in order to do that. Um and they also you know I think the
047other piece on the foyer that perhaps would be helpful is you know five or six years ago the foyer council discussed it but the reliance on electronic communication which all of which is foyable anyway so it's not like we're meeting in a room that no one knows what's happening because those electronic communications themselves can be foyed. Um, I think that changes the conversation a little bit about even if we still have the same 2 by 2 requirements, perhaps there can be some more clarity and guidance around the use of email about replying all. Some of the folks I've talked to are like, "What do you mean you can't reply all?" I'm like, "No, it's considered a meeting to reply all." and you know when maybe some more guidance around what is real time communication that
048looks like a meeting versus email which may not be real-time communication or working on a Google doc which again is also foyable. So if the public wanted to find out what we're doing on any of this, it's it's voyable. We could post things on board docs if we need to. But I think maybe instead of saying let's get, you know, reduce the 2 by two requirement or nothing else, maybe we can find some common ground in community and constituent meetings where we're not making any policy decisions, we're getting information can be larger. Maybe we can get some clarity and guidance around and around emails and and use of electronic. That would also help us a little bit more. So I just think that there's maybe more space in this conversation that we should have. >>
049Thank you. Miss Seismoheiser, just one clarification question. Was um is your statement to lift the foyer conversation into board priorities or just to re revise how we currently capture it in the regular position program? >> Both. Okay. So that's what I thought. So I'm Thank you for that clarification. So as if as of right now we have six different priority areas. To make this easy instead of going one by one I'm just going to ask are there any objections to these six areas? I had named five previously and I'm adding the foyer as the six. Read them one more time. Okay. We have the funding bucket and this is a state priorities that I'm speaking to. We have the funding bucket and all of the money therein. The assessment bucket. We have the collaboration bucket,
050>> the meals, the facilities, and the foyer. >> Dr. Anderson, um, the accountability system revisions. >> All of that is under the assessment bucket. >> Okay. I had that as separate. I because Aren't there two different bills speaking to it? So, that's why I thought >> it would functionally be you would need separate legislation because they're separate sections of the code. >> Need to separate it. >> Yeah. I I think it's it's probably better if you keep them as as two separate issues. >> So then we'll separate that and then we'll have seven priority areas >> plus federal though. So I had seven >> state piece right now that I'm going over. >> Yes. And then I'd love to share a comment Dr. Anderson. >> So are there any objections to these seven areas to
051and we'll worry about the word smithing at another time but these are going to be our priorities to be presented on October 7th. Okay. There are no objections. >> Go board. >> So, why don't you go ahead and take it over and then we'll need to very very very quickly talk about the October 7th schedule because I've been capturing the notes as well. >> Right. And just to be clear, um, Superintendent Reed and Mr. Mallaloy for these priorities, we want to say what the status is and why we need it to change. And this really speaks to what Missiser was saying, like why is it so detrimental? And I think it would help too to remind us about the bills that are attached to each of those, right? like the so bill and the HVAC,
052you know, bill, right? Or some something. So, we could talk about that. I want to mention, um, I did ask Delegate Shin last night about sometime, and I saw this with FOYA, it started in the 80s and things just get added on and added on and it's like super hard to just untangle. So, do we are we like proposing new legislation or are we trying to edit previous legislation? And she said both. And so that's something when we really think about the nitty-gritty and maybe we just talk about that with with you Michael like how do we go about giving them that exact language for sure. Um but it seems like we could do that after October 7th. So um so great. >> Okay. >> So now at the second piece of what we wanted
053to um arrive to today regard in our objectives. What does October 7th look like? Obviously, I think um um weaving our priorities into a wholesome story of our current state is really important. So, that's one, just the communication piece, the education piece. Secondly, um I think it's also important to articulate to folks in the room and to to ask I I I don't necessarily want to put them on the spot, but I think we do need to put them on the spot like who wants to partner with us on which of these components. Um so, I think that's going to be the ask. we have to ask for something. Um, and so I see that leading into the bill submission and the amendments work that Michael just outlined. Um, and of course the presentation of
054the priorities is going to include all of the discussion that we've just had, you know, atmosphere impact on certain students and also where we have some conflict regarding what is being done at the state level as it relates to what federally are that students are allowed to do. So, we will weave that in. Um, and I failed to talk about the I failed to ask for consensus on the federal priorities. So, I'm going to go back a little bit as we talked about the federal priorities. Again, just recapping that in the language that I described earlier. Are there any objections? Seeing none, that is settled. Final feedback on the October 7th agenda. What did I miss in my recap? Okay, seeing none. Thank you. Uh do you have anything else? >> No, >> Mr. Mallaloy,
055have you anything else? >> No, I mean I think uh you you've set forward uh an actionable plan. We can put together information on all of those various priorities. We can have handouts that uh that legislators can take away. And we can also start to work on the the real specifics as as Miss Seismarhiser mentioned, you know, the trying to get to the point where you're actually talking about amending certain sections of code or or you know, the very specific language that's necessary for some of this work. >> Okay. Thank you. So, as we did last year, Miss Marin and I will work with you to develop the presentation. We'll be sure that the board sees it in advance and not at the meeting so that we can gather feedback as quickly as possible because
056it's just a couple of weeks away. Um and then we are hoping for a very productive um briefing. So with that said, Miss Marin, >> I was just wondering if we had gotten, you know, the responses and if we need to follow up with any colleagues. Um you know, just want to make sure we have as many of our representatives there as possible >> because the invitations have been sent. >> They have been sent. Yes. So >> we we have we just to let you know, we have a handful of RSVPs. Um not probably five or six at this point, but uh >> and you know what? I want to ask this. I remember one year when we had a virtual or rather it was a hybrid meeting. We did have a greater level of
057participation when we had that as an opportunity for those who are not able to make it on per in person. I know the impact is different but it's better to have some rather than none. I wonder if that's a consideration that we should be talking about as well. >> I I think if that's the if I can I can work with the clerk's office if that's the board's wishes to do something like that. We can we can see what we can make happen. So, board members, are there any objections to pursuing that call? I'm sorry, Mr. Fr., >> how dare you use my first name. Um, not generally. I think what's more likely is that more staff attend the meetings, which is not necessarily a bad thing, but I think it also dissuades members from
058showing up in person. And if we want to do it a little differently, and I quite like the idea of trying to pin people down on what they might be interested in partnering on specifically, I like that a lot depending on how we approach it. Um, >> write the bill now. You're not getting out until uh don't worry, we got plenty of eggs. Um, I I if we want to have that kind of a sign up commitment, I think we need them in person. And maybe we say and if you know of colleagues who would be a good fit, please let us know. So maybe we'll find that out too. >> Miss Seismoiser, then Miss Anderson, and then Mr. Mackin. >> I think if we really want to impress upon them what we want them
059to do and the specific asks, I think hybrid makes it easier for people to not come in person. And so I think we we we could offer to record it or we could offer to, you know, send out a summary afterwards for those who couldn't come, but I'm not sure I would offer a hybrid option because I think then it's just easier to say, I'll do it from home and not come. >> I think logistically sometimes the hybrid option doesn't come across as solidly. And so I would love for us I love the idea of us sending out some sort of um followup for the folks that maybe couldn't be there in person, but I do think that h I mean I was impressed with how many people we had out last year and um
060that was more than we had the year before. So I'm hopeful that maybe as we gain momentum particularly this year. I also know that this year being an election year is going to be busy for a lot of people. So um but that's another benefit of having this be earlier in in the morning. So hopefully we'll feed them before their busy day. Um, and I'm making cinnamon rolls. So, we'll bribe them. Not really. But I just want to put out there that I I want to make sure that that we get as many people there so that they can hear what we have to say. >> Mr. M. Um, Miss St. John Cunning or is that says Mis Mahiser? Yep. That's still hers. Okay. Uh, Mr. >> Yeah. I just want to know my concurrence
061with my collection not wanting to have hybrid. Miss St. Junk honey. >> So I just want to say publicly that it's worth it just for the cinnamon rolls. >> So maybe that will incite some of our some of our state there. >> I'm tell make the um invitation. Um I also like the idea of a followup if they were not there for us to talk about what instead of just sharing the summary, but for us to really put a personal touch on it. not necessarily just from Michael's office. I think we should assign ourselves individuals to follow up with that we're not in the room. So I I want to mark that as an after um action. But having said that, I think we are done with this part of the presentation. It is 7:04.
062We will take a 5m minute break and we will start at 7:10. Well, he didn't unconvene, but we're going to meet up. Come to the table, please. And we're going to turn to a very important topic, our facilities. And um this particular discussion is going to talk about the environmental approaches and ways that the school division is trying to sustain sustain our you know our buildings um and also be very efficient so that we can get the best bang for our buck. We know there's so much technology out there. We have said many times though that we are very limited in the funding and the way we are funded. Um but so and just a reminder that the annual budget that the school board approves is the operational budget of the year that does not
063pay for the capital uh programming and uh excuse me the capital facilities funding. That is what is on the bond very soon. Early voting starts this Friday uh on the um by our citizens of Fairfax. So, we are going to talk, we're going to hear about a new program called Green Globes and um thank you to facility staff. Um Dr. Reed, do you want to mention a little something? >> Yeah, I'd like to if you're when you're ready, I'll introduce staff in the program. >> We are ready. >> Okay. Thank you, Miss Marin. So this evening uh we haven't talked about uh green globes uh in a work session with this board, but we think it's important as we think about our um jet goals and the work that we've been doing as a school
064division to be environmentally thoughtful and good stewards of um good building here when we are able to do that in Fairfax County Public Schools. So I asked staff staff this evening to bring us up to date and also our community who may be watching that uh we are committed to um the green globes process and there also statutory uh requirements currently uh in line with this work. So the building certification uh will be something that's described and then we'd like to make sure we're able to answer questions from the board and have a discussion about this commitment. So, I'm going to turn it over to staff to present a slide deck that is posted both um online and in uh board docs for board members. >> And Dr. May, just clarify. I mentioned it's a
065new program. Is it new in the way it's being implemented in Virginia? I thought that there was legislation that maybe or maybe I'm just misremembering this exists. It's part of the um well, we'll hear about more about, but it's not new in Virginia. >> It's not necessarily new in Virginia or new to us quite honestly. It's uh but it's something we haven't spoken about or talked about publicly. I think uh there we've and I think staff will review that but there's lead certification and then green globe certification both of which are intended to talk about uh green building and economically or environmentally sound uh building practices. And I think we've had a lot of discussion both related to our CIP and our board priorities and just want to make sure our board knows that this
066is a commitment that uh we are working toward and that there's statutory uh basis for it. >> Thank you. Go ahead. Thank you. >> Thank you. Jessica Gillis, um executive director of uh capital improvements and planning. And I'd like to also introduce our director of design construction uh Scott Eshbach. getting started. Good evening. Um, we appreciate the opportunity to discuss the strategies that facilities services and capital programs employ to continue the commitment towards environmental sustainability. Through this presentation, we hope to share what our approaches to reaching these goals are both past and present, as these strategies have been affected by the updated legislation. We will provide a brief overview of the certification programs available and the process undertaken by facility services and capital programs to evaluate those programs. FCPS maintains a strong commitment to the
067design and construction of high performance school projects in a manner which is environmentally sustainable and responsible from both an energy efficiency standpoint while also enhancing the comfort levels of those learning environments. This commitment aligns with the core principles of the joint environmental task force to achieve net zero energy for all county buildings and major renovation projects in the future. Following our commitment to those uh goals and through the direction of the school board, the facility services and capital programs staff moved to develop all new construction or major renovation and addition projects whose planning and design begin in 2021 or later achieve net zero energy readiness or um move towards net zero energy. Recent legislative changes at the state level have prompted a transition in our high performance certification strategy. Okay. Past and current approach CHIPS.
068So what is CHIPS? The collaborative for high performance schools uh is a building rating system that promotes healthy high performance learning environments. Historically our projects were designed, documented and constructed seeking certification through chips. Um this rating system focused on the developing the healthy and high performing environments for students and FCPS currently has 42 projects registered with chips and that are either in design or are being constructed or completed and six of those projects have received their final certification with many others on track to achieve that certification. Bless you upon construction completion in 2021. and the Virginia state legislature passed House Bill 2001 uh the Virginia High Performance Buildings Act. While the initial passage of this legislation did not impact the manner in which sustainable buildings were developed in our system, an update to House Bill
0692001 in July of 2024 or the Virginia High Performance Building Act rather required greater efficiency and resilience in Virginia's public buildings. This update also added language clarifying that the word locality is to be inclusive of school systems. And as such, the legislation is now a major driver of how FCPS designs, constructs, and verifies our school's sustainability design and energy performance. The paths available to track and verify this performance and achieve certification of our projects is limited to two rating systems. Green Globes as overseen by the green building initiative and lead which is the leadership in in energy and environmental design as overseen by the United States green building council. Under this legislation, CHIPS is no longer rec recognized as an acceptable certification pathway. Staff from the offices of design and construction and facilities management conducted
070a comprehensive review to evaluate the lead and green globe certification pathways. The evaluation process considered a variety of factors to ensure a well-informed decision. Uh we did some research on best practices and the team conducted extensive um online and inerson research and reviewed industry best practices to understand the current landscape of sustainability certification professional expertise and project feasibility. The evaluation incorporated the professional experience and insights of the staff focusing on the feasibility of implementing such program in real world projects and expert consultation. They held discussions with the sustainability experts from a school system in the region with comparable experience Montgomery County and we also consulted directly with the representatives from green globes uh to gain a deeper understanding of the process and benefits. Our staff currently has experience with lead and of course chips. So
071it wasn't necessarily to have conversations with um the uh US green building council. Following this evaluation, we recommended adopting the green globe certification track for future projects to comply with the legislation and green globes. One of the biggest reasons is green globes provides a flexible approach that allows projects team project teams to collaborate with the green building initiative. We get to prioritize keys to sustainability aspects such as energy efficiency, water conservation, sustainable site development, and indoor environmental quality. This certification also requires an independent on-site inspection to ensure compliance throughout the construction process, resulting in the official Green Globe certification. Additionally, Green Globes is expected to be more cost-effective while still meeting our high standards. McGomery County Public Schools, which has a similar portfolio to FCPS, has successfully implemented green globes for over a decade. Many
072architect and engineering firms in the region are already familiar with green globe system, further supporting a smooth transition for FCPS projects. Based on these considerations, we decided to go forward with the green globe certification as a replacement to chips. So this is a table of the staff findings just mentioned in the categories of certification costs and process flexibility. Green globes is evaluated more flavor favorably for the needs of FCPS. Historically, LEAD was often viewed as the primary rating system used regionally by school systems, but as I mentioned, McGomery County Public Schools and FCPS share many of the same architect and engineering firms. and we did not anticipate concerns with familiarity of green globes. What is green globes? It's a science-based building rating system that assesses a project's environmental impact across multiple areas including energy, water,
073materials, and indoor air quality. The biggest thing, and I'm going to keep um harping on this one, is the flexible approach that Green Globes allows for each of our project teams to collaborate with the green building initiative and prioritize key sustainability aspects. So following the progression of the previous slides, green globes will give our system the most flexibility in the achievement of certifications as the path is not prescriptive and development of the pathway is collaboratively done with the green building initiative staff throughout both the design and construction phases and the final phase entails a walkthrough of the completed project with those green building initiative representatives to discuss the project and move towards that final Green Globe certification. alignment with net zero goals. The use of Green Globes rating system for certification not only keeps us
074in compliance with Virginia's high performance building act, it also is consistent with our commitments to the net the net the jet NZE initiatives as green globes criteria have a strong focus on energy usage and overall energy efficiency getting our projects as close as possible to being energy neutral. By adopting green globes, FCPS ensures that all future projects will contribute to a more sustainable and environmentally responsible future for the county. To summarize, our past method for cert of certifying our school sustainability performance was through the CHIPS rating system and due to recent changes enacted by that state legislature, we are looking to transition from CHIPS to green globes rating and certification program. While this transition will keep us in compliance with the high performance building act, it also keeps us aligned with those net zero energy
075commitments all while using that flexible approach to meet the standards. The move to green globe certification is a proactive step that positions FCPS to meet both state legislative mandates and its own ambitious sustainability goals. The new approach will allow us to create healthier, more efficient, and more resilient school buildings for our community. >> Thank you. >> I think that's really exciting. I remember if if our previous board member Elen Tolen were here, you know, I think, you know, she was always talking about chips and here we are nextgen. Dr. Reed, did you want to >> I did. I just want to also mention to the board that we did and thank you to staff for creating a one-pager which you have at your site. It's also posted and it's a bit of a summary statement
076also for the public watching um about the green globes building certification just in a very brief um summary. So just want to make sure we have that. >> Wonderful. Uh Mr. Dunn, >> I've got too many microphones now. Um I want to ask uh is this was this uh topic uh originate with the superintendent or with a member-driven request? >> Uh this was um my request to bring forward um if you will an explanation of how we are providing um compliance with the JET goals. >> Okay. Um is there any effect on our we we had discussed in a previous work session and uh previous uh board meetings a desire to shift from design bid build to uh construction management at risk and design build. Um does the adoption of green globes have any impact
077in terms of slowing our or hindering our ability to do that or just no impact? We don't anticipate any impact to that. >> Um, is is there a reason we didn't use green globes previously if Montgomery County has successfully used it for 10 years? >> So, we started with chips in 2008 and we actually were um a huge part in creating the Virginia specific um chip standards. So I think that we were pretty committed to that from for some quite some time past the weed chips because it aligned with what we were looking for at the time and I think that Montgomery County just took a different path. So it was only this passing of this legislation that said that we were no longer allowed to use chips that we started looking at other options.
078Uh c can you explain what was the legislative path that um uh Fairfax County being the largest school division in the state somehow had its green building approach uh outlawed by the state legislature? That seems like there was a failure of consultation between the county and and the state or state legislators just deemed what we were doing insufficient. I'm just trying to figure out h how did we end up in that situation? I'm not sure exactly. I do believe that the CHIPS group approached the state to see if they could be considered as one of the certification pathways and it was not approved. >> We know why it wasn't approved. >> I don't know that. I do know that CHIPS just announced at the end of July that they are um now merging with lead
079under the US green building council. And and sorry, is the Green Building Initiative that sponsors Green Globes different than the Green Building Council? Because it sounds very >> two separate things. >> Okay. Um and what's the difference in the organizational makeup if any? >> I'm not sure. >> Um are there limitations uh in green globes in terms of the materials you can use? for example, requiring sustainable materials like timber and not allowing, you know, concrete, rebar, things like that. >> No, there's no restrictions per se in the materials as far as I understand. It's essentially we've got a thousand points. You get to the number of points you want to get to any way you want to get there and they work with you in that regard. So, I don't believe there's any material restrictions.
080>> Um, can you take like one of our ongoing design projects that we have underway like Lee's Corner Elementary School that was approved in January or any other that you choose and just explain how shifting to green globes might require changes to the design process in terms of the decisions, materials, etc. that get made. I think that there's a lot of overlap between chips and green globes. U I don't I'm not prepared to give you a an exact like overlap, but I think that we're still on the same sust sustainability track regardless of the certification process that we use. >> So do you think any of our existing designs will have to be modified in any way to meet the green globes criteria and the state legislative mandate? perhaps and that is a question that
081we're looking into because we have several that have been registered with under CHIPS chips will no longer for chips is July 2027. So there will be a few projects that have either started design under the chips registration or in construction that will no longer receive a chip certification because it will not it will not exist. So there's a transition that we're looking into like what will that look like? >> It's a good question. >> When when does green when does this state legislative mandate go into effect for projects beginning design? What month and year? >> Believe it was January 18th uh 2025. >> So any projects we had in design before then can be grandfathered in perhaps with with chips. I think it's any project that was already permitted, >> not just >> permitted prior
082to January 2025. So, if we were currently in design and we're still in design after January of 2025, it's no longer under chips or anything else. We would have to transition, which is one of the big question marks. We did not realize there would be a horizon year on chips that that would be dissolved until the end of July, which you know is a pretty busy time for us. >> Um gosh, uh to what extent uh does does Green Globes mandate uh net zero buildings? >> I don't know what net uh the like net zero ready, net zero. >> Yeah, the mandate. I don't think it's a it's not a mandate. So, so that's so whether we design our buildings to be net zero ready or net zero energy buildings is still an option at
083the discretion of the school board. >> Yeah, I don't I don't I think that these are two different things in a way. So, green globes is we we want to have as many as possible schools that are, you know, energy neutral, net zero energy. I think that some of the sites will cause a restriction on becoming truly net zero and so I don't think that it has a negative impact or has an impact on it on our approach towards net zero. I think that it's we are still looking for to comply with the state's requirement that we have high performance buildings and that's net zero is not a certification. So we had to choose between two and that's where we're going with this. >> If I understand correctly, you need to you have a,000 points,
084you need to get 35% of the thousand points. Uh what are the main methods by which FCPS can achieve at the most cost-effective price uh the certification? >> That's kind of the next step of our of our exploration of what is our current design? what would that net us in terms of the number of points that we could achieve? And I think that's our next step. But I I don't think that it requires significant alterations to the way that we do business. I think one of the important things to note is that even with our like under our chips designs, we are still 30 or 40 to 50% energy reduction without focusing simply on energy reduction only. Right? So I think that we're already on a good track to get there. Um, we'll see what
085like how much more effort and energy that it will take for us from the chips sustainability efforts to green globes. >> Thank you, Mr. FR. >> Thanks. Uh, and Miss Marin's right about what Miss Tolen would be saying right now. Um, I had the pleasure of serving on the joint environmental task force with her for basically the entire previous school board. Um, so, uh, I'm in my second reading of abundance, uh, which is something that I think a lot of local elected officials are reading right now. And, um, I I appreciate the work that's been done here, um, and the adjustments that have been made. I know that it's never easy to change systems internally, especially ones that we helped build and, uh, essentially led on for uh, so long. Um I am intrigued that
086it seems that this has a little bit more flexibility than uh the lead systems. Um and you know as we continue to kind of navigate as a board how we get as close to reaching our jet goals as possible and let's be clear like the overall jet goal is like basically carbon neutrality by 2040. That's what all of the individual goals are all leading towards. And so for me, given our budget constraints, the most important thing for me is that everything that we're doing is the most impact we can have with the dollars that we're spending towards getting to that goal. And that may look different than how we began this conversation. Uh I think that uh whether it's CHIPS or uh or this new initiative um you know, those are going to help us
087go in that direction. Um, and so as we have further conversations in the months leading up to the CIP and around the CIP, I'll be looking at how we're making the most best use of every dollar to reach those goals. You know, for many places, it's a bigger hill to climb to achieve these significant um savings and energy usage. um or it's a lesser hill to climb to rece to achieve these energy savings because they've done so little. And here we've done so much to uh conserve energy even if the buildings are not net zero yet uh or not achieving that goal. Um you know, we're saving $10 million a year in energy that would have been spent otherwise in money that would have spent uh been spent otherwise. Um, and that wouldn't have happened
088were it not for all the work that led up to this moment today. So, um, I appreciate the presentation and the work that's gone into it and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the superintendent on how we can maximize the impact we want to have um with the money that we have. >> Thank you, Mr. Fr. Um, Dr. Anderson, followed by Mr. Moon. >> Yes. Um, I'll be brief. Thank you again for sharing this. I I think I need to kind of wrap my mind about what around what we're doing. So, as I understand it, chips is no longer available. So, we have to find a way to um be compliant with all of the things you've listed on the last page. And so, you're offering the two options between lead and
089green globes and we're leaning into green globes because it's more flexible than um leads and it's a lower cost. Is that accurate thus far? >> Yes, ma'am. What I'd like to be get a better understanding of is how will we see the differences? What differences will we see with this new process or with this new structure? >> We're not exactly sure. >> Okay. I don't anticipate huge differences um but with what you see um but we will have to look at what what um investments we need to make to the designs or what changes we need to make to the designs from chips to meet those green globe standards. So part of that flexibility is um which was so enticing to us is that there are other options besides just looking at the uh fixed
090environment. We can look at the site, we can look at, you know, the um other fixtures, etc. >> But this is a move that we have to make. >> It's required. Yes, ma'am. >> And so it's required. And so the recommendation is the green globes. So is that something you're looking for the board to vote upon or it's just you're you're just telling us we're going with green globes? >> I didn't intend for the vote board to vote on it. It seemed like it was an operational decision that facilities has made based on their analysis of the two options. Um if um happy to go back and look at it. We haven't done a great deal of Green Globes work yet. Uh we happy to go back and take a look at it. The um
091comparison that was listed does make the Green Globes more I believe it's more financially efficient if I recall. So I expect that that was part of the calculus for the facilities team to given our budget circumstances to go with uh perhaps a more financially feasible assuming that there are similar um outcomes in terms of environmental um positive uh outcomes. >> No, I I mean I see that and we definitely know the dollars are tight right now. I just want to understand what is the role you want us to play in this. it was more so informational this evening because we really haven't talked about it really that this is something um that's come into uh effect that's not enabling us to use our chips uh strategy previously and honestly I learned quite a bit as
092we were um as I was reviewing the documents as well uh that this is a a journey to net zero in many ways and I think both um lead and green globes provide a pathway but I think the flexibility and economic efficiency of green globes makes it maybe a bit more enticing. >> Sure. Um I would just love to hear once you kind of wrap your minds around this a little bit more because it's still fairly new like what are the impacts like what what should we look to seeing in our buildings based on current practices that are chips focused and as well as some of the questions that Mr. um done asked regarding our building um when we are constructing designing buildings how does that come into play so thank you >> thank you
093Mr. Moon and then Mr. Mavine. >> Uh thank you. Uh just one maybe two quick questions. A you know from chips which you you we used to rely upon that used to be the standard which is no longer available for us to us. Uh from going to chips to green globes and also difference between green globes and lead in terms of cost wise. Would you be able to describe whether from going to chips to green globes cost might go up by this much and the difference between green gloves and lead is this much difference? >> Yeah, I understand the question. I'm not sure that I ran those numbers. Um I'm happy to run them and get back to you on what the cost difference would be. >> Okay. Thank you. just want to have whether
094it's a 5% difference, 10% difference, >> twice the amount of a lead versus something else. Sure. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Mackle. >> Thanks. Uh, and so, you know, back in the day um I had many conversations with Kevin Sneed about um chips and um I always asked Kevin why we were not using lead and using chips instead. And what he how he explained it to me is that um chips is much better suited to school buildings whereas lead is is more industrial commercialbased. Um and so I think it it it makes sense that we would try to find an alternative to chips that suits our facilities better than lead. So it makes sense to me to go forward with um relying on the green green globe certification. That being said um
095I agree with Mr. Moon. I think we do need to see those um the the cost differential between the two and um because I think that would be helpful um and at the same time I also believe it's an operational decision so I don't en envision us being too deeply in the weeds on this. Thanks. >> Thank you. I will go ahead and share some remarks. Um so just to gather where we're at. So, we're moving to align with the certification system that is authorized by Virginia law that makes it very clear what the school division has to do to achieve high standards to be deemed having efficient buildings. So, you know, things change. We have a new system. It's got a snazzy name. So, um that's one takeaway from this meeting. The next thing
096I I want to touch on is of course we know that we need money to do this. We know that we really would need a billion dollars per year for the next decade or more to renovate our buildings. Um, and that is such a big part of our work. You know, this 8.7 billion in public facility assets. And so, we've got to look to our main funders and those are the county government led by the board of supervisors and the state government led by the general assembly and ultimately the governor. you know, especially since we're working to achieve this green globes program that is by law from the state. So, we just had our session about state advocacy and we did talk about facilities needs and um you know, particular there was a a bill
097passed into law about checking you know HVAC's useful life and I think our facility staff is well aware that our HVAC systems are you know where they are in their useful life. We know many have been pushed further. We had funds during COVID through ESSER to try and extend it. But um we know from some recent events too in our schools that you know 20 years well that's the useful life of facilities um especially if they haven't been upgraded over the time the way that we would like and we know our professionals and our staff would like. So, um, you know, I I I So, that's the one piece, the state piece. The board of supervisors, so they run the bond program. And this November, every Fairfax voter can vote on the bond. And this
098year, it is for the school facilities. Um, and every other year it's for the schools, and then it is for county facilities. Think libraries, emergency services, parks. Um, what's interesting about the way that it goes back and forth is that we actually have four times the amount of square footage. and our facilities are used pretty much seven days a week as we know from data shared last year that we had half a million public events um through our community use program in addition to educating children and um being a place of employment for staff. So I'd like to see us get to a real like applesto apples comparison with our county use buildings and I'm very eager to begin the work with the board of supervisors on the joint facility review committee. Uh we were
099told that was going to start in October. I'd love to get that on the calendar because it's already quite busy. But um you know I think ultimately when I think about the joint environmental uh environmental task force jet while accomplished so much I don't yet see the partnership realized to actually make it happen. Um we have to talk about the funding. So just in summary you know we want to maximize how we're spending limited capital funding. We've got the bond. We've got our CIP which is leading to a facility condition assessment and that's in tandem with reviewing our renovation queue. We've got policy updates our board last year we did in in governance and um or maybe just a work session different ways that we could do contract and procurement to save money and maximize
100the costs. Um so I I hope I'm eager to keep talking about this. I hope we can keep reserving time on our agenda for this especially knowing the facilities condition assessment is somewhere in the near future. So I'm happy to have the superintendent or anyone else respond before we go on to Mr. Meline. Are you No. Okay. Well, Dr. Reed, >> I mean I echo the sentiment you shared. I think we have work to do and partnering in that work is going to provide the or yield the best results for the entire county. Seeing as there's no other comments, I would like to share another round of comments. Yes. Okay. Um I'm trying to think tactically about what it how we put into motion the work with the board of supervisors and their staff. And
101we know that our the two entities do talk especially when it comes to um you know the permitting and trying to do the estimating on membership and what that's going to need down the road. How do we take it to the next level? And that's actually the question I asked Donna Vulkman a few years ago about get to green and that's what ended up getting us the outdoor classrooms and the expanded teaching staff. So like if we really want to get next level with our facilities, what's the next step? Because we we've talked about this a lot. We've got a lot of community concern. Um we're clearly trying to be efficient. I mean the Western High School purchase, we saved over $200 million of what was planned. We are savvy and frugal. So, how do
102we elevate that? You know, our schools are not only places for instruction, but they actually are employing tens of thousands of adults and places of polling and elections. Like, what do we do? What's the next step? Um, you know, I feel like I'm waiting for the joint facility committee and I'm I'm getting, you know, that's only one part. So I don't know how do we and and this also even relates I'll just share to the budget meetings and you know questions about how are we really aligning the effort you know our and the budget um in the calendar of budget meetings this year our school board is um or excuse me the county executive is to present his proposed budget and then it's only a week later that our school board is to adopt the
103proposed budget. So hopefully we will be working with the board of supervisors all that time, but then like just a week like how do we really sit down and get our timelines together and really talk about these facilities that are used by so many people, not just kids and not just teachers and staff. I I was just conferring with Dr. Reid, you know, this time of year is again when we uh put forth what is on that bond that we're going to ask voters to invest in. And while the school board does have the authority to um move some of that funding around like when we have an opportunity like a beautiful high school comes to market and we want to you know be savvy there also are things on the bond that our voters
104hopefully you know will see as an investment. So Dr. Reed, thank you for sharing a little bit more about that. >> Sure. Thank you Miss Mayor. I you know we're really excited to be able to bring a bond to our community that will benefit um our students here in Fairfax County. We know um you know facilities play a huge role in the environment for learning. Uh this bond uh primarily um it's going to be uh there will be funds for obviously for the new Western High School purchase. Um there will also um be funding within that for certain other projects. I know uh Jessica you probably have a list in your head. I didn't bring the bond rack card with me this evening, but I know that we are looking at um I want to
105say there are a couple elementary schools that were continuing that are in the construction queue. Uh we're also looking at moving um Twain Middle School, I believe, into essentially we're following the CIP, right, that the board spends time every year to review. Uh but uh we're looking at um a couple elementary schools that move into construction. We're looking at Twain Middle School, which will move into design. Uh we know that we're continuing the work on the Silverline Elementary design process that was on a prior uh bond, but we be moving some funds to complete that design in the next cycle. Uh we're looking at Centerville Elementary School uh which is in the queue to get that moving on this bond. And what were the other couple elementary schools, Miss Gillis? >> Um, so Cub Run
106Elementary School for construction, Center Ridge, um, also for Center Ridge and Union Mill for construction also. Uh, and then Twain for the planning and design. >> I don't know if it's Center Ridge or Centerville Elementary. >> Centerville High School we identified as needing additional funds. >> And Centerville High School will be getting some funds for continuing the uh, phased part of their construction. And so there a variety of projects that are in different parts of the county that are planned. And we'll provide a more detailed list uh of those bond projects um in the rack cards that'll be going out very shortly this week. And again, a big thank you to Len Forkus and the team that is supporting that bond work uh which is really critical work for our community. Um and all of
107the buildings obviously moving into design at this point will be utilizing the green globes um initiative uh checklists and sustainability goals within those design projects before any kind of permitting is going to be done. >> Thank you Dr. Reed. Uh Miss St. John Cunning. So, I just also wanted to elevate how often our school buildings are used. And it's not just the use of the physical building that's important. It really is the center of a community. We see that by how attached our families and students are to their school and how much it means. But I think that sometimes what we fail to recognize is that this these buildings are not used 9 to5 and then closed. And that's a lot of wear and tear buildings. We have those buildings open early in the morning.
108We have a lot of them being used for for community meetings, for after school sports activities, uh our high schools for the games and you know the gyms and all kinds of things. So all of that is wear and tear on a bu and tear on a building. Um and we love to have the community there. That's important. We want to have the community there, but it's not a nto-five use like other buildings. And so all of these considerations have to be taken into account in terms of how we're going to run them efficiently and effectively and getting them to green. And so I just wanted to piggyback and lift that and let our community know that we're invested and doing the best that we can with the resources that we have because we know
109that our schools are not just the centers of education. And let's face it, that's where most of our kids spend the majority of their time. So, it's important that those buildings be a safe, supportive, and welcoming environment physically as well as emotionally. Um, so I just wanted to raise that to, you know, the level of awareness because our buildings are more than just buildings. They're community centers for our families. And it really is important that we have these discussions with our partners so that they understand the meaning of them other than just a physical meaning. I mean, they really are at the heart of our communities. >> Well, I think um we're just about um closing for for this discussion. I I guess I just I want to add that, you know, if we aren't
110updating and upgrading our public school facilities, we are not achieving environmental sustainability and energy efficiency to realize savings and comfort and access to all Fairfax residents. There's a group of wonderful advocates in the Westfield pyramid who are all about solar and yeah, I'm all about solar, too, but if we have places that are not comfortable and have, you know, dying systems, you know, we have to take care of that for comfort and access, you know, as well. like there's so much to achieve. So, um I'm really eager for that joint committee and I suppose uh we're just um we're journed. Thank you.