001body. The September 9th work session is called to order at 1:10 p.m. Mr. Fr has submitted a written request to attend this morning's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict as he has a work-related commitment. He's located in the Providence District in Fairfax. Mr. Fish, can you please check your audio and video? We can see you. Just check your audio, please. >> Hello. Sorry, there was all those in favor of approving Mr. Fish's request. That is unanimous with all those at the table. Mr. Fish, please check your audio and video. >> Hello again. >> If you're We can't hear you. >> That's on your end. >> I'm talking. Can you hear me? >> Can't hear you, Mr. Fresh. We have Lson on working on it. So, it'll be a second. >> If the clerk could
002let us know when it's ready to test, we'll test then. Mr. Fish, we'll just put you on it later on. >> All right. Before we begin, we need to certify a closed meeting. 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 9th, 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 convened the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the meeting. Do I have a motion? Miss Lady, do I have a second? Mr. Mleavine, all those in favor? Mr. Mr. Mcave, Miss Lady, Dr. Anderson,
003Mr. Mc McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Dixit, Miss St. John Cunning, Mr. Moon, and myself. All those opposed abstaining. Miss Marin, did you >> Oh, Miss Marin also approved. So, >> I approved. Well, >> thank you. >> And Mr. FR, thank you. And Mr. Fr. So, I will now call on Dr. to read if you'd like to present on a budget communications plan. We do have a quick uh slideshow that I would like to do first if that's okay then we'll turn to you just to kind of set the stage for the board. It's a three slides so it won't take long but I just wanted to set the stage a little bit for our board as to what the expectations are today. So if we could pull the presentation up. Thank you. So today is
004our first budget committee work session of the year. We're starting early as per board request from the last work session before our um recess. The purpose of today's meeting, staff have been working very very hard on a draft communications plan and um plan for greater collaboration with our stakeholders and our board of supervisors. And so that is what we are looking at today for to give feedback. Next slide please Janet. Next slide please. Thank you. Um just for an FYI, this is the current budget calendar for this year. It is it's been shared previously but just it's here on the slides in case you need it. We can always add to this if we need to, but this is the current budget calendar. Next slide, please. Thank you. So, just to frame the conversation, today's
005discussion points. There is no decision for today. We're going to get feedback from the board on the budget communications plan for staff so they can make any tweaks or changes as needed. We'll talk about ideas for collaboration with the board of supervisors and we can also talk about budget advocacy at state and federal levels and that will include conversations around the uncertainty at the federal level. So that is all I have. I just wanted to set the stage for today. Dr. Reed, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you, Jan. You can remove the slideshow. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Seismoreheiser. And I appreciate that uh we're going to work very hard this year on a a process uh to come in with a budget to continue to support the worldclass education that we
006provide here in Fairfax County Public Schools. uh the team along with uh Miss Dixit, Miss Seismore Heheiser have been working on ways to improve our collaboration and perhaps better tell our success stories uh to partner with our community, our PTAs, our educators, our staff, uh our board of supervisors, and our state delegation. So, I'm going to turn the presentation over to our chief finance officer, Lee Burton, and our chief engagement and experience officer, uh, Lisa Hall, and they can introduce other staff with them. And, um, we can review the communications plan, and then really what we're hoping is to have a board discussion and include board comments and feedback as we refine the plan moving forward. So, appreciate this opportunity. So, Miss Hall and Miss Burton, please. Yeah. Again, I'm Lee Burton, CFO, and I
007have with me Alice Wigington, um, budget director. >> Good afternoon. I'm Lisa Young Blood Hall, chief experience and engagement officer, and beside me, I have executive director of communications, Beth Vizioli. Um, her team did a great deal of uh, work and research with Lee's team, uh, working on the communications plan. Again, I, you know, and echoing Dr. to read this early start allows us to um educate our community uh even earlier to uh make sure that our community understands the budget, understands um so much of of what we do to build the budget. So, um, this communications plan will talk about, um, how the budget is built, how FCPS prepare, uh, compares to other large organizations, um, and how all of the FCPS community can benefit whether families have children in the district or not,
008just how um, the work that we do in FCPS can benefit the community. So, um, I'm going to turn it over to Beth Vizioli now to talk a little bit about the communications plan. Thank you very much. I'm happy to be here today and I appreciate um the collaboration with our budget chair and vice chair on the communications plan. I'm also really excited this year that we are starting this work a little bit sooner. I think it gives us a better opportunity to ground the conversation um to build up to the point when we're going to have to make some decisions about the budget. Right now is the time where we spend building that strong foundation and I think at the beginning of the plan you'll see that arc of the storytelling because I think
009we really need to be grounded in an understanding of who we are as an organization, what our budget looks like, how we spend our budget dollars, what are the implications of that and as we get closer to the budget season and decisions around the budget then we have a strong foundation with our community um and understanding around FCPS's budget And then, you know, once we get more information about what the budget's going to look like, then we can have those conversations with our community about choices that we may or may not have to make about the budget. So, with that, I will turn it back over. >> Thank you. Um, so board members, the budget communication plan was emailed out last Thursday to the board and it's also posted on board docs as of last
010Thursday. So, um, unless Dr. Unless you would like us to walk through section by section from staff. I was thinking we could open up to board conversation to have as much time for board conversation as possible. So if you want to sort of talk, we'll start with rounds of three minutes and then go to two minutes for go back. So um we'll start with Mr. Moon. >> Uh thank you Madam Chair. Uh just a couple of questions to begin with. Uh Dr. Reid looking at the current budget calendar. The very first line I see from June to December 2025, FCPS conducts internal program internal program reviews and gather community and employee feedback. When you say community feedback, what are you referring to? >> So, I think I'll turn that over to our team. Um and
011I think essentially as we have more information uh one of the examples uh tomorrow night is our first family vision quad meeting. We had our kickoff um last week and we have budget on the first round of the family quad vision meetings uh which are two parents from every school in the school division. So that will be one group for example that'll provide feedback on budget initiatives. I know our PTA uh has asked for um a budget presentation and to be able to provide feedback. Um I think uh whatever the board sort of comes to here also we may end up have more having more feedback. So I think it's a number of different channels. So are you expecting a board or board members also provide you with avenues of collecting community feedback or is
012that going to be just your own for your needs going out and collecting the community feedback? Just wanted to see where where our roles might be and this community feedback. >> Yes sir. I think that's what we're talking about firming up as part of the conversation today. This is something we've put in the plan as really we need to have the feedback by those dates to have input into the budget uh because at some point I actually have to prepare the budget that's sure um is the needsbased budget required by the statute in Virginia. So um I think that part of today's discussion can inform uh how we want to do that and how we um are connected to that. We had a number of budget sort of town hall meetings that happened later in
013the spring. I think our feeling was we need to do those earlier >> and that was I know part of our conversation last spring. So I think that that's you know how we partner to do that I think is still open and I would be very interested in hearing your thoughts and your colleagues thoughts about that. >> Okay. Uh next next one has to do with I guess this is our draft plan on page number eight. Sorry about my voice. Uh even softer than usual. This one is one two three four five fifth bullet point. FCPS schools implement general based budgets. Would you explain to us for public how our schools implement general based budgets? >> I think that I'll turn to Miss Burton in terms of our history here in Fairfax, but obviously it's
014looking at priorities and budgeting from the ground up would be a general term for zerobased budgeting. But Miss Burton, uh perhaps you have the history here in Fairfax County. >> Yeah, it's um it's all about the enrollment projections because we don't just roll over all of the staffing at each school location into the next year as their base budget. We recalculate based on all of the projected on the projected enrollment as to how many teachers they need, how many counselors, um all of the staffing standard items. So we build that from a zero base every single year when the enrollment projections are completed um for the next year's upcoming budget proposal. >> Okay. I think uh I think there may be a members in the community who may define Hobbased budgeting in different way. You
015know for example they may use SOQ as the baseline and whatever more we do provide for any programs whether whether we when we do general based budget implementation or program review we ever look at it that way. >> So I think we could probably use the term in multiple ways. Sorry. Um, but I do think you could take it from the very narrow SOQ because I know Fairfax County Public Schools and other divisions honestly in the Commonwealth fund more positions than the SOQs, but that certainly is a place we could start and say if we only did the minimum, right? We only funded the positions allocated, here's what it would cost, right? And then because um over time our collective bargaining agreements, our regulations, our policies, our community expectations expect these things that adds these
016costs. So I think that's certainly >> my question is whether whether you feel it's a worth doing that exercise show to public that why and how we are going above and beyond SOQ and that is why we are questioning this much of budget trans you know funding transfer from county and state and etc. I think that there that would probably um be an instructive exercise because we actually have class sizes that generally are better than what the SOQ staffing sizes are. In fact, we have positions the SOQ doesn't even recognize. Um so I think that could be an instructive practice. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Merritt. >> Yeah, this is fantastic. Thank you to my colleagues and the superintendent and her team. Um, I love seeing the different offices here together at
017the table because everything we're doing is connected. And so, um, yes, we need this. We need this tactical plan. And I think it's awesome that our board is looking to do this because we can do a lot of things, but we have to do the highest leverage things. I think for sure we need to continue to tell the story and build the knowledge and understanding of where we're at and those opportunities, you know, and as I said, what aren't we doing and continuing to highlight what other places are doing and say, well, we want the best in Fairfax as well. I'd like to say that I believe our audience, our number one audience are is the taxpayers. Those are the people who we are asking time and again to pay taxes and fund this incredible
018public investment. Um they also happen to be voters uh who keep us accountable. And I think that you know at any given time since we have only a third of our families with children in the school division, we really do have to be sure that the public understands the great value that they're getting. I mean, just for instance, Western High School, we saved over $200 million of projected cost on that. And we need to show that we are savvy and we are frugal and we are very careful about how we invest um every single dollar. I'd say the next biggest audience are businesses. We've long said that businesses move here for our public schools. Now, we know that capital um real estate has not been as high in occupancy as we'd like. the federal uh
019industry is under a big um under lots of challenges right now. So how do we really are we sure that businesses are looking to FCPS as the reason to locate their businesses here? We say that but is it true? I think we need to understand that and um and I think the board of supervisors could be our partners in that. I actually think the board of supervisors and our state elected officials are the next most important audience. Um we I you know we've we've worked to reopen dialogue and um you know we've even gotten a little change in the calendar to have our joint budget meeting in December and not two days before Thanksgiving. I'd actually in another term when I come back I'd really like to look at this calendar as a way to
020how can we build in just like with this communications plan more time for very specific work. um you know, looking at when the county executive prevents presents the advertised budget, a week later, we're scheduled to adopt ours. And that does not set us up for real working together, especially when we have two new joint committees, one on facility review and one on technology that aren't going to do their deliverables until March. So, there's a lot of stuff coming together and we also know we have the legislative work. So, I would love if we could talk more about how we're going to put this work forward. I think a lot of the what is here. I think some and and the how as well is but let's expand it out and really communicate more with the
021board of supervisors how to make this work. >> I'll take a go back you on the list. Um Miss Anderson followed by Dr. Anderson. >> I just wanted to start off by saying thank you to staff and to our budget team. Um, this is what I love about this is this is the start towards a blueprint of telling the story of what actually happens in our division. And so I think that it's extremely important that we that we show the things that we're doing and how amazing they are. So I am extremely um excited about about those breadcrumbs throughout. Um I do think that this is a very robust plan which I think is important but I would be remiss to not focus on JARK. I think that we are in a pivotal moment right
022now that we could potentially capitalize particularly as things change at the state level potentially that we need to make sure that we're working hard to identify those those things um that have already been tried related to JARK and not successful under the current governor. Um but I do think that we are we are in a moment that we must focus on that pretty strongly right now um as we move forward. So I just wanted to say thank you for all the work and then I did want to point out the same thing that my colleague pointed out on page 18 that our joint meeting with the board of supervisors has been moved back a week. So I am grateful for their willingness to work with us on our schedule. So thank you. >> Thank you
023Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I I want to echo what Miss Marin shared regarding our audience. Our audience who are taxpayers are not necessarily parents. So they don't have the regular communication or the regular experience of what takes place in our schools. And all throughout this document, there are pieces that include the community. And this is not necessarily a question at you, Dr. to read, but I'd love to hear your thinking as well as others. And I'm also thinking, how do we bring in the community into um I can't remember the page right now. I think page nine into our budget priorities. What could that potentially look like? How do we operationalize this? Because up until this point, just to be truthful, the community has shared that they don't understand our budget because it's a big
024budget and it it may not be as transparent to them as we would like it to be. And this is something that I've articulated at the financial planning e for at least two years. How do we find a place where we can distill down all of these things into chunks that can be accessed by individuals who are looking to be informed. I I think last year the addition of um I guess the the hot link feature that is now available with the budget for people to search for different things will be helpful. But um I just want to also set the um expectation what are we looking how are we going to operationalize getting some input from the community regarding budget priorities and how will we treat that input? I don't know if that's yet
025been a discussion of the budget team and staff. I will say that one of the things we've discussed is making sure that we're clear with community members who don't have children currently in the schools. And many community members uh have children who've graduated from Fairfax. Um some community members have children yet to go uh to Fairfax, some have grandchildren, some have nieces, nephews, some have no children. Right. So, one of the things we are doing is I'm speaking um I've spoken to a Rotary Club and a chamber of commerce in the last two weeks. Uh really about a number of things with regard to Fairfax County Public Schools, but also our budget and JARK and the funding challenges we've had. And in many of these types of meetings, we have folks who are not uh
026parents, right? They're community members or business owners. So, I think that we're going to continue our um attendance at uh chamber and Rotary um and other community meetings. I think there are other uh ways in which we're engaging the community that are being contemplated and that's part of today's conversation, right? Also to get feedback from you as a board. um what uh channels what avenues um are you feeling would be most effective and that way that will channel our energy um as a team. >> Sure. And just in response to that I think initially all of us as board members we have easy access to the PTAs and the PTO's again that speaks to individuals with kids in our schools. Um but we also have some access in the board of supervisors to the civic
027associations to the homeowners associations. Um could we package some sort of presentation so that we can each go out and do this in the different corners of our districts and of course with the at large members because there are hundreds of such associations in the division in Fairfax County. um that could be a way of getting out the information because for individuals who are on fixed incomes, which a lot of Fairfax County is, or have um suffered the impact of what's happening with the federal government, whenever they're hearing that the schools are requiring more dollars, they don't want to hear it because it could be for a number of reasons. I won't even go into that, but building kind of some education with that group, I think, would be helpful. So, let me just kind
028of wrap this up in a thought. Could we have some whatever it is that we land on? It could it could it be a readymade packet of presentation materials that we can then I can just turn around and give to the five associations that that um invite me to their meetings on a very regular basis and maybe be more intentful in terms of seeking out others. >> Yes, ma'am. I think we can do that. U Miss Vizoli, would you I mean I think we could create what's effectively a toolkit for budget presentations. Do you want to comment on that, please? >> Yeah. Um that's definitely part of the strategy is to take into account the people that aren't actively engaged day-to-day with the division um and reaching out to the HOAs and other groups. One
029of the things that we talked about when we met with the budget chair and vice chair was training the trainer, if you will, making sure that we present to the people who would be bringing that message forward so they understand the materials that we create for them. Um, versus just putting a a toolkit out and saying go out there and and talk about this. We need to help them understand so that they're going out. Same thing with the PTAs, although I know they're, you know, parent groups, but the intent is to create some tools, but really engage with them and how they would use those. Other school divisions have created um budget builder tools that you can engage with the community and it helps them, which we did um back in 2015, we had an
030online tool, but there are other ways that you can engage the community in understanding how a budget is built by participating in it themselves. So we can create these types of materials for the different organizations within the community to help them. Yeah. >> You want to go back next. We do we have anybody Oh, Miss Lady, >> thank you. Um just in light of and thank you for these documents. Thank you to the to staff and uh our budget chairs. Um this is an excellent uh phase one budget planning strategic communication plan. Um but what I want to touch base on is on page four uh because there's a reference back to the cuts we had to make last year. Um and I just want to remind people that what's named again in here is
031ARTS and special ed department chairs. What is not named is the other people who lost their jobs. They let me rephrase that. They didn't lose their jobs. Okay? Nobody lost a job because we had enough need in the system that people were employed. But different elementary schools because we as a board voted to make sure that the art and the special ed department chairs were were 1.0. That funding had to come from somebody.5 plus.5 is a one. So people lost an additional counselor who was helping triage you know um truency. I wouldn't say truency but but uh chronic absenteeism. We may have lost an e an emert. We may have lost a steam classroom. Uh I I bring this up because that particular timing >> was too late for those folks to advocate. So what
032we heard was about 7 hours of testimony from our community members who loved their AR or their special department chair. And meanwhile, these folks, they're not even named anywhere only to find out within 10 days, oh, we can't support an EMERT because the school board voted to make sure you had a 1.0 ART insp department chair. I bring that up because, you know, we're going to be in difficult fiscal times. We are. We're going to have to make tough decisions. Um, but part of the reason I believe that Dr. Reed brought that to us in the first place was because we have some elementary schools with 400 students in them and then we have some with,00 students and those are very different and and even the demographics are very different. So I personally, you know,
033honestly don't believe we need a 1.0 of both at every school. I think schools need to evaluate what they're doing. Um but we're going to make difficult decisions. But just because it's noted in here and we didn't name the other positions that were impacted, I just felt the need to uplift that because, you know, at the end of the day, um I think you know some of our bigger high schools like Chantilly lost like close to 20 sections. Okay, that's four full-time teachers, but it doesn't tease out that way because you got to lose a section of a push and a section of, you know, business law and a section of health and PE, right? So, it's hard to absor absorb those things and it's being felt in the classroom, you know, and I would
034say to parents, this last thing I'd say is you might be in a situation where hypothetically your kindergartenner only has 17 people in their classroom. Well, that's bad math, friends. You can't have, you know, let's say 17* 3. If I do some quick math here, is that like 51? I don't know. Can I do math? Is that right? Um, but but you know, there's not easy dividers, right? So sometimes you're going to have kindergarten classes that are much much larger because you wouldn't add a third one because then you they'd be 12 in a class, right? So people need to understand how this math it doesn't often work in our in in the favor of all of our schools. Thanks. >> Thank you. Would you like to go back? Would you like to go back,
035Miss Lady? >> Thank you. Um Mr. Fr, do we know if we have the volume working for Mr. FR? >> We can find out. >> Oh, we do. We could hear you. >> Good. Uh, I will keep this uh as quick as the answer to the question allows. I appreciate the work that's gone into this. Um, some of this is already done each year, which I think it's nice to see it all in one place kind of gathered together. Uh but I'm curious um beyond carrying the message to the various stakeholder groups in like a macro sense, what can we be doing better and what thinking can be given to uh improving communication uh between board members and board of supervisors, their counterparts, between the superintendent and uh her counterparts at the county. uh between
036the superintendent and lawmakers, between board members and lawmakers. I think um many people in the community are quite aware of our need and so uh I think a big chunk of the work to be done is um in those dynamics between the leaders who will be deciding these things. Any thoughts on that? >> Are you a friend of staff, Mr. Fisher? >> Yes, >> Dr. agreed. >> So, um, Mr. Fish and I had this conversation actually um, and I I have been meeting with members of our delegation individually um, and also with our board of supervisors individually. And I think that one of the things I shared with Mr. Fresh is um, likely I need to make a trip to Richmond during the session and meet uh, with uh, some of our lawmakers there, join
037Mr. Malloy in that. Um, I do think all of us, uh, I think it's a time to be connected, right? We have a delegation that's strongly supportive of our mission. We have a board of supervisors that's supportive of our mission. And, um, we have to be, I think, in closer relationship as we uh, work forward on this topic. >> Thanks. And, you know, I think maybe there's room for each of us as individual board members to think more about what our individual approach is. Obviously, there should be some overlap in what we're doing, but like what are the best practices that board members can employ um in their communications throughout the year. So, that's something that'll be front of mind for me. Appreciate the work that went into this. I know that it was uh
038an undertaking to to bring it all together and thank the budget team and uh the superintendent's budget, our budget chair and vice chair and the superintendent's budget team as well. >> Thank you, Mr. FR. Miss St. John Cunning. Um, I'd also like to thank all the work that has gone into this and I really don't, you know, have a question, but I do want to just talk about how, as as everyone has said, how important it is to tell the story. And as much as we want to tell the story about our audience, I think we have to it's critical that we also tell the the story about who we serve, which is our students, and who is serving to support our students. Uh, and we can't lose sight of how important that is. Uh,
039we can't lose sight of how important it is and how these decisions translate down in in the trenches when this 1.1 position is created and what that really looks like. Um, I think that, you know, we've got to tell the story of how Fairfax County Public Schools serves kids from 2 to 22. uh including you know all the programs that we have that are our our standard general ed programs but we have our technical programs our dual enrollment uh programs our language immersion programs our sports which are fantastic our uh performing arts and visual arts programming all of that takes not only money it takes talented teachers that we have to support um so I think that that's very important that we look at that And the story that we also have to remember is
040we see many of our students coming back to be teachers in our system. We see them as our principles or as our assist assistant principles. Uh I'm really proud to see a lot of our students come back to be community leaders uh to be the health workers in our hospitals to be the ones that are building our new hospitals. So for those people that don't have students in the school, they are serving our community. So um I just really think that we have to tell the story and once we tell the story, the investment that we put into this is a no-brainer. Um I know that a we're a big system. There's a lot of programs. I know I shared with the superintendent about our early lit literacy program where we're working with the youngest
041kids that speak different languages but I know that what ends up happening with that is the parents end up also learning and some of them are now working in our schools. This would have never happened with early lit without early lit. So these are the stories we have to communicate to our public uh because the fundamental foundation of how we're going to move forward as a society is the strength of how educated our students are. >> Thank you. Um seeing no other first-time speakers, I'll call on Miss Dixit and then I'll take a turn. We'll go to go backs. >> So first of all, I want to thank you the bud team and the communications office. Uh this is a really well thought plan. uh and I was uh privileged to be part of it
042uh with the the budget chair. Um I had the this whole idea of storytelling really resonates with me and and people you know say uh they listen more. So I was wanted to ask you if there is a plan to create a kind of a booklet with this different chapters or uh virtually probably or on on a website. We I think we we talked about having a landing page or uh maybe modify the earlier website to do that. So just wanted to know your thoughts on that. So the the chapters within the plan are really metaphorical um not per se chapters of a book, but they are the way that we would parse out the information. Um, again with that foundation of talking about the success of FCPS and absolutely that would be a way
043that we would want to convey that on the website. A lot of our budget content currently on the web is a lot of facts and figures and there isn't a story there. So definitely part of the the work within here is a strategy to develop um a section of our website that would convey more of the story and those different six chapters that you see um the kind of buildup to when we get to the point of you know having to make those decisions around the budget. So definitely >> yeah and I agree with you but I also think this really goes as a chapter well to the story with different topics we're discussing and I would like to add a topic about our sh stakeholders our students and the different programs we offer to
044them as as one of the uh chapters I guess too um uh what's the plan of using uh social media uh more because you know everybody has access to phone uh people who Our students in FCPS are not in FCPS but we are all residents mostly have a smartphone. So what's our strategy to use more of our Facebook, Instagram and other social media platforms? >> I think it will continue um in the ways that we use it right now where we do tell those stories. It resonated to me when you were talking about our um parents and different family members. We did two amazing stories of current special ed teachers who were parents who saw the experience and that their children had with FCPS and both uh decided to become special education teachers. So we
045use the storytelling side of it on social media, but there's also the intent to um chunk out different sections of the way that we build these chapters of the story on social media as well. making it more again of telling the story of FCPS versus maybe just putting a fact up there and there's no context to what that means to the big picture. So we'll definitely be incorporating that aspect of it on social media as well. We use Instagram and Facebook mainly. We don't really use X um for social media. It's just a different space. Um but for sure using those spaces to tell different stories and again continuing to share the really good news about FCPS. We get great feedback from our teacher Tuesdays and other things that we do um consistently when we're
046telling those stories of our students, our families and our staff. Thank you for the answer. Um and my next question actually is uh more to uh Dr. to read actually that uh were uh we had some shortfalls last year and then last minute we were able to come up with some solutions and um uh right now we're going into a deficit already and with the more federal money impact could could have or could not have I don't know yet but can we go to our uh students I mean parents and community earlier with that messaging of these programs or shouldn't say program But there could be short funding shortfall of funds here and they should be the voice for us because you know those are the people directly get impacted is our our our parents
047and and the students. So just wanted to know your thoughts on that. >> Yes ma'am. I think that um it's important as I mentioned to go to the parents in our uh family vision group, our PTAs, our community meetings. I have open community conversations coming up this fall. Um, all of those are venues to talk about the budget and I think the sooner the better. Um, because I think that a strong public education system is central to the strength of our community. >> So, thank you so so much and that's my question. So, for now, thanks. >> Thank you. Seeing no other placards up for a first town, I will go ahead and take my turn and then we'll go to go backs. Um we and we have the list of gobacks so far, but
048if you want to speak, please just put your placard up. So, first I just want to thank the team and my budget vice chair, Miss Dixit, for all your hard work. I know we had several meetings and I really appreciate what you've put together. Um I think this goes very well with what we talked about with the in the spring where we wanted a stronger collaboration partnership with our board of supervisors, right? because we really are serving the community and the county together. I know our court of supervisor are strong supporters of the schools as well. So the earlier that we can work with them, we can talk with them as well as our stakeholders in the community and help folks understand the realities of our school system and the needs of our school system
049and what we need not just to maintain but also maintain our excellence. I think knowledge is power. So this is a big whiff of that knowledge of power. um as we enter these tough budget times, we want to make sure we're continuing to not just to do our good work around closing gaps and providing enrichment, but talk about our good work. Right? So often when I go to PTA meetings or community meetings and I start talking about the budget, which I've been doing as my role as budget chair, people are very interested and they didn't realize sort of I talk about the size of our 40,000 employees and the size of our bus fleet and what it takes to manage all that. They're very very interested in that. So, I think making sure that we
050continue to talk about that. I think as we listen and partner with the board of supervisors, I I the toolkit idea and I think we've talked about that in the train the trainer, right? Having targeted toolkits. Here's one you can take to the community. Here's one that as you're meeting with the board of supervisors versus and other delegation members, right, that we can use to sort of help say, "Hey, here's what's going on with our schools." And really listening to what they're saying, too, and answering their questions early on about what concerns or questions do they have? you know, we all have the same common goal. We know we all want excellent schools. We know our excellent schools support a strong economy, bring businesses here, bring people here. Um, and it helps us present a
051united front to the state officials if we have a common basis of knowledge as to what is going on in our school, right? And I know that um providing them information early on also helps them to understand what's going on in our schools and helps us to understand where their challenges are too. We're serving the county together. So, I think that is a really and I and they all want to serve the county together. So, I'm really grateful for you putting this together. Um, I think as we do this work, I had a couple of questions around the train the trainer and the parent vision groups that you're going to as you go to these groups to to are you leaving them with anything yet? Do we have takeaways we can leave folks? So, I
052think these one pages so as they're going maybe to talk to their community members, they have something they can refer to, I think would be really important. Thank you. So, uh, the community relations team actually builds out the agenda in collaboration with Dr. Reid on all of the family vision group meetings. Um, and we always have um takeaways for them. And part of that takeaway, in fact, you know, our very first meetings um will be a budget 101 meeting. Um, and we will either have a takeaway because, you know, we're just getting through discussing this plan right now. We'll have a takeaway then or at our next meetings where they can walk away with with a toolkit. >> I think that would be great because I think as as we've partnered with the board, right,
053and we know we need to go and really help our delegation understand the importance of JARK and and asking for the funding from the chronic underfunding from the state. It's helpful for our community members that we serve to have an understanding of what our school system is, our challenges, and our needs, right? I think that can just help the entire community reduce their angst. So, having that takeaway as well would be helpful. I mean, I think it's I'll take a go back on this piece, but just the facts and figures alone, I think open a lot of people's eyes. Thank you. Um, to go backs, I will start with Miss Marin, followed by Dr. Anderson. Would you mind skipping me? Um, Mr. Chair, I'll Would you mind delaying me just for one round? >> Oh,
054sure. Yeah, we can skip. We'll talk to Dr. Anderson, but mine's not going to be that long. Um, couple of things as we're talking about all of these efforts to really educate our population and making sure that there's understanding again, not just for the individuals who have access and experiences with our programming, but others as well. I I wonder if we could also rethink how we collect information from them. And looking through the document here, I see the typical cadence of our um public hearings. Um but we also know especially from last year where those public hearings were very very well attended. Not everyone has the capability to come and sit and be number 294 out of 500 people. We have not. And correct me if I'm wrong, Miss um Burden, but I don't think
055we have an electronic manner of collecting public hear not necessar public hearing testimony, but feedback, which is essentially what they are able to give to us in those two minutes electronically. Do we have that anywhere? >> No. But we have done that before like with the ESSER funding, you know, we were required to go out to the community. We had an online survey that the community members could access and answer questions, but not very many people did, >> right? But again, we're in a space where people are interested in in knowing what is it that we're doing with our budget, what are our concerns, how is it going to impact them, whether they be parent, employee, or just a citizen who wants their grandchild to have the best possible education here. Um, I see a
056space where we could perhaps develop an electronic means for that feedback in addition to the public hearings because some folks want to come and speak and some folks are not able to come and speak or even if they show up, they end up leaving because we go into the we hours. So that's a wondering that I'd like to throw out into the space when we do collect that feedback and at those two points during our budget process for us to have an electronic component that would make it easier for some folks to participate. And the other one is more of a question um Dr. breed as we again if we're going to engage folks they're going to learn they're going to want to speak back to us and we're going to need to do something
057with that information but we do have certain limitations um in that especially when it's things that are connected I'll just finish if that's okay and I won't need any more gobacks go ahead >> um things that are connected to to teachers and perhaps collective bargaining it makes me wonder in all of the education that we're doing we need to also highlight What are some of those implications that would require a different avenue rather than a public advocacy um lane for us to actually change something in our practices and budget? >> Any comments from staff before I move on to the next one? >> It was not necessarily a question but something that we need to include because I I wouldn't want us to go out into the community and say, "Hey, give us feedback on
058all of these things." and then they do and then we turn around and say, "Well, these are collective bargaining things, so you can't get feedback on it. We need to be in advance. We need to um make sure that we're going out with those um boundaries." >> Yes, ma'am. I would agree. We wouldn't want to go out and ask about amending the collective bargaining agreement, for example. That's not appropriate, right? Yes, ma'am. >> Thank you. Um, Miss Lady. >> Oh god. The only thing I was going to say, and I don't know if it's this is the place to do it or not, but I do think there's possibly potentially budgetary implications. Um, I know some of our elementary schools are doing departmentalization in upper primary grades. So when I think per my previous remarks
059about um bad numbers um but also you know my understanding um of appropriately sort of scaffolding education we definitely have students in elementary school who are very gifted perhaps in humanities but not necessarily as strong in math and science and vice versa. Um and they're not accessing AAP centers. And so I think the departmentalization allows you to differentiate instruction. So, if I've got a high math learner who's not quite reading or grade level, hypothetically, we can meet those needs. So, I guess I don't I don't know if that potentially can impact uh costs, but I just want to put out in the ethos that I do think um from an educational perspective, it makes sense. Um I think the research indicates that uh kids um do well um in that sort of environment. Uh and
060also it allows teachers to loop. you know, I might have fifth and sixth grade humanities and loop with the same kids. Um, which helps build that rapport over two years and and and helps them learn better. So, that's all. >> Thank you, Miss Marin. >> I think we're the ones we've been waiting for. We there are only 22 people in this county of 1.16 million human beings who have the ability, access, and authority to realize the high quality of public services in Fairfax County. That makes people live in Fairfax, this place we call home. We need to be experts in how the money is being used now. And we need to be able to seek solutions with our partners. We can't do that in only three joint meetings with the board of supervisors on December
0612nd, February 24th, and April 14th. We have got to work into our our agenda this as a priority. For me, it's all budget all the time. And dovetailing that is the joint facility review committee work and the technology work. Those two committees are charged with saving money. But if we can't sit down with the people who fund us, we can do all this great work in a bubble and we're going to be right back where we were. So, I think we need to be even bolder. And I think we do need this communications plan for sure, but we are the ones that have to do the work to partner with the people so they understand that we are doing everything possible to invest every dollar. I think we also need to get really specific about
062what it means to be the largest employer in Fairfax. How does that shake out? How many of our employees actually don't live in Fairfax? So, how much money are they actually spending here? What does it mean to employ so many people? I mean, we say these very general things, but if we can prove the financial impact of this school division, and whether it's how many soccer, you know, clothes and sports things our kids have to buy or how many field trips we take, you know, we need to get real hard numbers and we're getting there. And you all did a great um, you know, handout for the start of school with some amazing data. But, um, I am going to commit to this. I am not going I I'm not going to I'm going to
063work so that we do not have to amend the collective bargaining agreement. That cannot happen. And I want us to work so that the supervisors support us keeping our collective bargaining agreement intact because they see the value of it. I just would like to quote my predecessor Pat Hines just came to mind. She said, "I did not work to be on this school board to serve the school division and take on the challenges of of dismantling the school system. Let's not dismantle our school system. Let's go get the money." >> Thank you, Miss Marin. Um, seeing no other placards, I'll take a quick go back in terms of what do you just asking staff, you know, I think we've heard some feedback on the plan to date about adding in the sort of the the
064realities and nuances of collective bargaining as we educate our community on where, you know, we have room for um changing to the budget and where we don't have room for changing to the budget. Um I think we've heard some feedback on clarifying a little bit more, you know, making toolkits, clarifying a little bit more some of the things about zerobased budgeting and um and coming up with the timeline of when we're going to to roll this out. So I I was going to ask you are there is there other feedback that you are seeking on this plan? Um otherwise I'd like to sort of ask we have we still have an hour left. We don't need to take the whole hour, but I'd love to ask my colleagues to if they have additional remarks on
065additional ways to collaborate with our board of supervisors and work closely together with them as we launch into our budget season, as well as um whether there's anything that we want to add to this that talks more about our challenges from state and local funding, especially with the uncertainty in the federal funding. So, those are two questions I'd have for my colleagues if you'd want to comment on those going forward. But, I think this is excellent. I know you'll still continue to refine it. I would love to see how it's going to roll out in terms of toolkits in terms of community meetings um and and takeaways in terms of train the trainer as well as the um digital assets right the social media as well as the website. So if you want to just
066comment on the next steps for what this plan will go to we can move on to the next couple questions. Yeah, I think I would just um end with saying that for us, our communications plans are everchanging. They're always being reviewed and evolved based on whether or not a strategy works if something changes in the environment. So, it'll always be evolving in terms of um what strategies and tactics that we have in there. Um to Miss Marin's point, um one of the things that we just started looking at that isn't incorporated in here is some of the Baldrich work. There's a team member of mine, Zoo Hail, who's on the Baldridge work team and has been looking at how other school divisions um use the Baldridge process to look at how they can show the
067value of their budgets. um also incorporating um Steven Fuller's study for those who were a part of the board back in 2016 who did a study about FCPS's impact on the community um and had a lot of information about how much of the spending in the county comes from our employees and comes from the partnerships that we have with the businesses that we do business with. and it was very interesting to go back and look at that and I would love to see if that's something that we could potentially update for 2025 in terms of more information. But um you know certainly now that we have the feedback we're going to go back make these changes and I'm going to sit down with my digital and visual design team and start building the products and
068working uh with the budget team to make sure that you know everything is appropriate and working with you and Mystix um to approve everything and we're going to start uh getting this stuff together. So we're excited. >> Great. Well, thank you. And I think having that plan of roll out too and and how we're going to engage the community and point stakeholders who aren't as engaged with our schools or may not have direct ties to our schools I think is important. And I think we on the board as well as I know Dr. Reed can also commit to once we have the toolkits of really working handinhand with our partners on the board of supervisors as we work through this process together. So, and because at the end of the day, we all want to
069keep our schools excellent, our economy strong, and we want to um do this in partnership together because we face the same challenges and we face the same opportunities. Having said that, I'd like to sort of switch focus for anyone who wants to comment on what they'd like to see in greater collaboration or meetings with the board of supervisors, as well as um if there's other things specifically related to the federal government uncertainty that we'd like to have added into these conversations. So, um that's sort of the next talking points on these. Um, we'll go back to three minutes for those and if people don't have as much to say that's okay. That maybe says it's a great job on staff's part. So with that I will turn I think I see Miss Marin's plaque so
070we'll start with Miss Marin. >> Okay. So Miss Burton can you refresh us. What are the absolute deadlines in this budget timeline that we have to meet like you know when when does the county have to in set its tax rate? When do we have to adopt our budget? like the absolute cannot move them dates. Well, generally we can't move any of the county dates. Sure. I just want to get an understanding even ours like in the past like we used to have the budget being presented very early in January. Now it's a little bit later. So I'm just wondering again what are we by code? What do we have to do? And I guess well I don't want to use up all my time rephrasing my question but just >> I mean we take
071their that we ask them for their calendar they give it to us and then we do ours around their calendar just based on what what what they're doing. Okay. I see they have March 17th the advertising the tax rate. You know what's not on here though and it might not be known are the supervisors town halls which are really a big deal and we usually get invited to those. um often they're during spring break which is unfortunate. So I think that's an opportunity. When I look at the public hearing dates February 10th, April 14th, and May 14th, we know by April 14th the budget is pretty much done. We know that and there's not going to be wiggle room. So can we get really honest about a schedule that's going to if we need to
072course correct or make changes, we can do that. Um so my question is how can we take this time we have this whole hour and really think about how could this budget be um made more urgent and more open. So um with the board of supervisors, what do others think about planning time for joint budget committee meetings like monthly with the board of supervisors starting now? Um, and I would love to hear uh conf confirmation if we are going to have one of our work sessions on in a week from tonight. I know that's a held date of September 16th. So perhaps if the chair or vice chair could inform us about that decision that was something um because we also anticipated that the next topic legislation would need a follow-up. So this is just
073you know keeping keeping it going. I also do want to get clarity and I would appreciate board conversation about the roles because although I greatly appreciate Dr. Reed's outreach to other elected officials. That is our job. Those are our counterparts. And so either Dr. Reid, we've got to work very closely on that or we have got to really take that on and be doing that work. So when I pull up the board's work agenda for, you know, the months ahead, what can wait? What is more important than making sure we do not get more cuts? So is it a strategic goal report? Is it um you know, I I don't know. Is it whatever it's going to be? But how do we get more lean so we could focus and can we actually right here
074today colleagues do some of this calendaring? So, you know, can we confirm the Tuesday work meeting next week? Can we get, you know, input on if we want to ask for a joint budget committees? Can we even commit to having the budget on our agenda every single month um on the work session to preserve that time and and figure out what we're doing? I'd love to hear your feedback. Thank you. I see no other placards up so I will take a turn. I think um Oh, Dr. Anderson, go ahead. >> Um just to one of the components that was just asked by Miss Marin. One of the things that we've leaned into quite a bit over the last year or so is the Baldidge work which kind of came up as you were speaking. Um,
075I think we could afford a little bit more transparency on that because we're leaning into that as our opportunity to show our frugality to show that we are being as strategic as possible with every dollar. I wonder if there's some spaces for updates to be provided. Um, maybe it's an academic matters, maybe it's in lie of academic matters or in lie of the strategic plan update because it is strategic. It's a strategy that we're utilizing but it's so behind the scenes. we haven't elevated enough to the public discussion so that we could have that collective community narrative that oh my goodness they are squeezing blood out of a turnip over there. So I I'd like for that to be elevated as part of whatever the regular budget cycle um that Miss Marin has uh has
076shared. Having said that, I do want to say we have a lot of things that are pressing. We've got facilities that we want regular updates on. We have budget that we want and should have regular budget um updates on because it drives all of our work. How do we prioritize because we're not going to create more time and right now when I look at the work plan, we have academic matters just about every time. We have strategic plan updates some of the times and we have eelss and sometimes we have all three of them. what has to fall off the plate in order for us to reintroduce some of these other things that we continue we continue to outline as essential to our work. Um I I can't see a space where we're adding more.
077I see a space where we're substituting for what's a greater priority at current. Thank you. And I think in terms of looking at the calendar, I don't know if there's going to be enough for budget-wise between now and next week to add that to the work session, but I'll leave it to the chair and vice chair in terms of scheduling the agenda for next week's work session. I think in terms of working more closely with the board of supervisors, we would have to reach out to them on their calendar to see what opportunities they would have before the December meeting or between the November fiscal forecast meeting for additional um you know collaborative meetings with the entire board. I would recommend until then perhaps individually we can reach out to our counterparts or the atlarges
078can reach out to chairman Mccay or anyone else you wish to reach out to maybe your own supervisor in your district where you live um which is whichever you prefer and just start having these maybe conversations monthly weekly as we start building towards that November meeting. There isn't a ton of time between now and November so that may be a good way to go but we're happy to take a look and see if there's something on their calendar in between then as well. Um the other I think in terms of the Baldridge work I think anything that we can also maybe add to our plan to show what we're doing to increase our efficiencies or to review our budget to ensure that we are being effective and efficient with it. Um, I don't know. I
079think having an update to the board where they are in their process of it as well would be helpful, but maybe if we can talk a little more about what they are doing and what we anticipate, you know, receiving from them in terms of deliverables and timelines that might be helpful to add to this. We have a little more information about Baldridge or other things that we are doing to look at our efficiencies and and effectiveness. And that can even include some of the things that that we asked our principles to do after our budget last year because I know our schools and our central offices were asked to reduce staff but also look at different ways of budgeting and we talked about our rouses working with our principles. So maybe that's some things that
080we can share as well in this report. So um as far as the scheduling for the work session, I'll leave that to the chair and vice chair. But I appreciate this robust conversation. I you know with my little bit of time left I do want to say that we recognize that with the uncertainty with the federal government there are some u some grants most of our federal government funding comes in in the way of grants that are at risk including grants that we use to help provide meals to students who qualify for free and reduced price meals um grants for special education grants for teachers of multilingual students and many many more so I would ask that we um maybe start putting out somewhere to the public some of the specific grants that are at
081risk in our federal funding and um you know I know I can speak for myself but I think all my colleagues and our staff here share a commitment to those students to ensure that our we continue to serve those students in the way that we need to serve them but it is going to be a challenge moving forward and so maybe having some information how we plan to what the challenge looks like for our community would be helpful as well I know I get asked that a lot so having said that I um I don't see any other placards up for oh sorry Miss Mar for go back so I will stop my turn here and I'll go back to Miss Mar for go back >> yeah Thank you. Um, and I was just looking
082at our work session, our Tuesday work session time. So, and again, this blends so much with the legislative work and um, again, we're going to hear about that today, but even on October 7th, so we have our legislative breakfast in the morning and then that day we're scheduled only to talk about preK uh, 12. It was one of the strategic plan goals. So, how about we already, you know, just like let's get our rhythm. And of course, we have our boundaries, but we know that that's going to incur budget conversations. We have our facilities going on. We know that's going to incur budget conversations. I think, you know, the more we can weave in all of these critical topics. It it's going to be better for us and better for the public. And as more
083data comes out, then we can arm people with that data. But I think until we're having more discussions, that's going to be tough. One of the things I'm wondering is would anyone like to attend a board of supervisors meeting with me uh when they're meeting about the budget whether it's the committee or on their agenda? Um I'm thinking we can inform them, you know, let them know we're coming to observe and learn and um maybe that also will show that we are trying every which way to understand where they're coming from and then we can reciprocate. And I know this plan has some really good um points about that and especially when we think about November is take your legislator to school month. Um I could say legislator/county supervisor because certainly we want to show
084them all the amazing things and all the challenges. So you know for me as I've been working on the legislative work thinking about our county board of supervisors are essentially our legislators because they are our funders. So thinking about you know um collaborating with them in the way that I know we like to do with our state folks. So again would love to hear you know feedback and even from the chair can we get clarification are we meeting in one week and um can anything about the budget be put on there and then just also how do we get you know input from the board to you know put on the agenda whether it's October 7th a November 6th is the fiscal forecast and Miss Burton is usually hardpressed I think to you know give
085us her magic ball uh outlook so again does that date serve us at this time I'd love to hear your thoughts Thank you. Um, Dr. Reed, do you want to address that question or Miss Burden? I think Miss Burton do >> well November early November is not ideal because you know we just there's so many question marks that are still out there that it's you know a really early preliminary um estimate as to what our needs might be um in the upcoming year. So, it's not ideal, but you know, we've been doing that for decades. So, we make it work and we, you know, we fasttracked enrollment um because those projections usually we didn't have them in time for the fiscal forecast. Um, and that drives a lot of what we we do in the
086budget, you know, aside from compensation. Um, but the facilities department has worked with us and so they fasttrack that projection process so that we do have those numbers earlier so that we're not, you know, guessing with that very first early fiscal forecast meeting. Um, we make it work. Great. Thank you. Um well with that I see no other plaqueards up so I will call this part of the work session to a close and we'll take a 10-minut break. So we'll come back at I have 2:15 on my computer so I'll say 2:25. Thank you very much for the robust conversation and thank you so much to this great team for all your hard work on putting this together and I look forward to continuing our good work as we go through the budget season. Thank
087you Dr. Reid. a good segue in from the previous conversation where we talked about what our work should entail. How do we get things done when we're not the decision makers of those activities? Um, so Dr. Reid, um, oh no, you don't need to introduce yet. Are we just jumping into the first two? So if we could go ahead and put the PowerPoint up, clerks, that would be appreciated. the first couple of slides Miss Baron and I will talk about and then we'll turn it over to actually do you want to do an introduction first before we do the first two slides if you have one. >> Sure. >> You don't have >> I I I heard myself. >> That's all right. Uh thank you Dr. Anderson and this is really a great opportunity this
088afternoon to talk about um the government relations uh agenda. My only introduction is introducing Michael Mallaloy who's going to represent division staff and we look forward to a robust conversation. So thank you. >> All right. Super. If we could just go to the first slide. We just really want to be clear in terms of what we want to accomplish today. It's up there so I don't need to read to you but it's really it's really important as we talked about in the previous conversation. What is our space? What is our role? What are the things that we can impact? and most importantly, what are some of the activities that we could connect to and commit to doing to help advance um the plans for this division? Um and Mr. Fr actually took those words right
089out of my mouth with his previous statements. Um the objectives that are going to be part of this session are as follows and I will take a little bit of time to go through some of those objectives. Obviously, there's some information that we need to be given. Um there's been lots of work that has taken place in the general assembly last year. There's some work that continued um throughout this summer. So we need to all be up to speed in terms of what does that entail. So Michael's going to provide us with that and all of those activities including what he's going to share with is kind of the background setting and education piece as well as the future look in terms of what the general assembly may be taking up um this fall next
090um January, February will help us to better understand our role not only our points of advocacy but how to have greater visibility with those decision makers. Um, and then three, we're hoping to really outline what are some of those things that we are going to do because we know we have a menu of different things that are available to us as elected officials with one of those things being the legislative program, but it is not the only thing. Um I we are going to spend some time at the end of this conversation really honing into what are some of those other activities that we can use to leverage the visibility that we need with the decision makers. Um and of course we're going to spend some time looking at the positions because at the end
091of the day that's where we have all of our documents um all of our positions u live kind of in its entirety that the board has committed to. Um, so those are the four outcomes for the meeting today. And then at this point, Miss Marin, would you like to say anything? >> Well, I think similarly to the discussion this morning on budget, we were trying to be reflective of what the board has asked for, which is to really think about the bigger picture and we all um know that the state legislation is a huge part of this, but there are other aspects as well. So, in that vein, again, just trying to go a little bit broader and encourage your discussion and input about what we want to do this year. >> And you know
092what I failed to do? I failed to introduce the positions that you and I have um when it comes to the legislative work. You know, you talked about the team just a little while ago. Um similarly to last year, Miss Marin is the state liaison and I am the federal liaison and it just kind of falls to those positions um to lead the work a little bit. And Mr. Meline is the alternate state liaison. That correct? >> Yes. >> All right. So, Mr. Mallaloy, please take her away. >> All right. Good afternoon, everybody. Um, I do apologize. Obviously, it's a it's a little bit late in the afternoon and you've got a relatively sizable slide deck in front of you, but I'll try and get through it as quickly as I can. Um, but thought
093it was important to level set uh in terms of kind of what's happened, what happened during the last general assembly session and what the lay of the land looks like as we go into the next general assembly session. This promises to be one of the more complicated um general assembly sessions that we've had in a while. Uh just given everything that's happening in the the political policy environment at all the various different levels of government. Um, one thing I wanted to kind of start the conversation with is kind of this idea of I'm sure you've heard that the Virginia General Assembly is referred to as a part-time legislature. Um, and that's technically true. They only meet for uh this upcoming year they'll meet for 60 days and then in the the next year, which is
094the second year of a of a budget bianium, they only meet for 45 days. That's kind of a misnomer though as you'll see as we go through this this uh this conversation and you see with this slide there are things that are happening all throughout the year um in terms of policym in terms of what the general assembly is doing in terms of what the state is doing uh in terms of of you know decisions are being made at the federal level uh decisions being made at the local level all that have a bearing on um FCPS operations. Uh so this this slide just kind of gives you an idea of in addition to all the things that we do during session, we're working off session uh with our delegation, we're working with other organizations,
095we're working with other school divisions, um we're developing, and you talked a little bit about this at your budget work session here just a little bit ago, um developing issue briefs just to make, you know, make sure people are aware of of of different issues and and being able to get that information out. Um and then we do work in collaboration um with the with the county board of supervisors. Uh they also have a legislative staff and we work very closely together. Um so just wanted to kind of set that as the background that we focus a lot on the general assembly because there's a lot of things going on during session but there's an awful lot of things that are happening all throughout the year. It's not just a a two months or a
096two and a half months endeavor. So, the first thing I wanted to walk through, and I promise this will be short, is just a review of the 2025 session. You've already received some information um right at the end of of session and also uh right around July when most legislation from the last session went into effect um about about the session. But just to give you some context, this was a 45day session, short session. During those 45 days, the General Assembly looked at 3,100 different bills. Now, that's I I don't even want to attempt to do the math, but that's that's, you know, several hundred bills a day in terms of what they're, you know, what they're considering. And obviously, the 3100 bills that covers everything. Um, it doesn't just cover education bills. It covers,
097you know, bills across multiple subjects. So just to give you an idea for education, our house education committee um 150 bills were referred there. Senate Education Bill and Health Committee, they also had 150 bills. Of the 3,100, we probably paid attention to about 400 plus bills. So we're looking at issues that go beyond what the education committees look at. We look at things that have to do with transportation. We look at things that have to do with public safety, um, with the employment law. So, there's an awful lot of other areas that we pay attention to in addition to just the the education committees. Um, and of all of those bills, 130 of them passed. So, there are 130 new laws that came onto the books, most of which went into effect on July 1
098of 2025. uh to give you an idea of some of the successes uh from this past general assembly session of those among those 130 and most of these are budget issues. Um these are some things which dovetailed very nicely with priorities that you all had as a board. Um so these are things that that passed during the general assembly that were funded during the general assembly session um that really were were things that were either on your priority list or were part of your uh your uh your budget asks list. So uh it's a a fairly fairly robust uh set of suggestes. The biggest one that's related to the JARK report obviously is this uh the the the full funding of the support cap at uh at current staffing practices which is something that's been
099being worked on since 2009. So that was a fairly uh a fair fairly sizable achievement to get that uh to get that taken care of. A couple of areas I wanted to highlight. These are areas where there was legislation. The legislation itself didn't pass, but the subject of the le leg legislation is is has started a conversation that's continuing to be ongoing. Uh the first is the the concept of native language assessments as part of the pro the so program. Uh there was legislation to try and mandate the use of native language assessments as part of the so program. It didn't go forward, but as part of the board, as part of the state's work as they are moving towards a new assessment system for the 2728 school year, um, for the first time they
100included getting some pricing options from vendors who might come in and bid on the contract for how to incorporate native language assessment as part of the system. So, it's not truly a success because the bill didn't pass, but the conversation continues. Similar story with solar interconnectivity so cost sharings. We have talked about that um for several years here in in Fairfax. How uh the the the cost of uh of small-cale solar projects has become relatively prohibitive uh because of interconnectivity costs of of the project linking into the uh the the state's power grid. Um, again, legislation didn't pass, but it was passed on to the state corporation commission, and they're going to come up with some hopefully some some rules and and some new uh new guidelines and how interconnectivity costs are shared um by
1012026. And then one one other thing to just highlight and uh you've as I said you've gotten reports on these but this is just a a couple of examples of bills that passed during the general assembly session that had some degree of impact on FCPS. U so there were limits on the timing and the frequency of non-instructional training. You've had you know extensive discussions about what they did with cell phone uh student cell phone use. Uh there were some tweaks to the overdose notification requirements. Um most notably is that they're now codified as opposed to simply be part of part of a a governor's executive order. Um inspection requirements related to air quality and then a couple of other areas. But these are just some highlights of areas where legislation passed that had some sort
102of an impact on FCPS and and and our operations. This slide highlights four bills in particular that passed during the general assembly session but didn't go into effect immediately. So most legislation goes into effect uh July 1 of the year of the general assembly session. These bills all had delayed enactments um which means that they're they passed and in the absence of any other activity will go into effect in the years that are specified here. Um but what the delayed enactment does at least in a couple of these cases is it does provide an opportunity to come back and have further discussion about some of these uh some of these bills and some of the policy positions that they staked out um prior to them actually going into effect. So during this upcoming general assembly
103session, you're going to have an opportunity to revisit some of the the the changes and some of the the policies where would be enacted under these bills. uh most significantly I think you've you've had some discussions about this are changes to the so assessment system uh also changes in terms of of instructional materials and instructional material procurement and how things are considered to be high quality um and then uh local policy is going to be required for accelerating for students to be enrolled in accelerated math. This is going to get tied up in some other conversations which I will uh get to here in a minute. uh but having to do with the uh changes that are being discussed by the state board in terms of the number of of uh questions that need to
104be answered correctly or the the the cut score um for so assessments um and then the technology accessibility that's a requirement that's being placed on vendors to ensure that technology that we're procuring has accessibility uh features to it. So that's the look back. That's the 2025 session. The next few slides focus in on things that are happening literally right now. So as I said, it's a misnomer to think of the general assembly as a part-time legislature because every single one of these committees that I'm going to talk about here are they have ongoing meetings. Um so they're meeting in fact the uh the uh Jerk meets monthly. The Commission on Youth meets a few times uh few times a year, but all of these conversations are happening and all of these conversations will lead to
105usually in November sets of recommendations for the next general assembly session. So, it's important to be aware that they're going on. The first one, um we followed this one very closely last year. Uh it hasn't met yet, but this is the uh the joint subcommittee to study elementary and secondary education funding. and it's the committee that's tasked with looking at how best to implement JARK recommendations. Um JARK the the committee itself um they're going to put out an a a report in December on K12 accountability. They looked at accountability systems across the country and they may have some recommendations for potential adjustments to Virginia's accountability system or how Virginia's accountability system uh matches up with with other with other areas. Um, the Virginia Commission on Youth just recently released uh kind of an initial draft
106of recommendations for changes uh to Virginia's special education dispute resolution process. Um, so they'll come back in October uh with a public hearing and then make some final recommendations in in November. uh the Virginia Foye Commission, the School Health Services Commission, the Joint Commission on Technology and Science, they're all looking at issues that could lead to legislation uh coming up in the uh the upcoming general assembly session. And then uh these last three, these are more ad hoc committees. They're not the normal standing committees. Um the first two are focused in on some of the changes that are happening at the federal government and how that might impact um how it might impact Virginia, Virginia policy, Virginia budget. Uh as I was saying, these things are happening literally right now. The House Emergency Committee meets
107this Thursday and may have its first set of recommendations or at least its first set of findings from the meetings that they've been holding on the impact of federal actions on the state. And then before I move on, I also wanted to remind you that it's not just the general assembly that's meeting and that's taking actions in Richmond. Um you also have there are executive a education policy agencies. Um Virginia Department of Education, uh Virginia Board of Education and the Secretary of Education. They're also um they do work year round. They meet year round. Um, I don't necessarily want to go through the slide, but I wanted to provide it as context for you just so you understand uh, you know, the kind of what each one of these boards do, who their members are.
108For the most part, they're all appointed by the governor. For the most part, they're all confirmed by the general assembly. Um, so there's a nexus between the executive branch and what these agencies do. Um and you know their actions obviously have a very very direct impact on what um what happens in FCPS and here are two examples of that. Um and you have you have received lots and lots of information about the first which is the new school performance and support framework which is the the the the significant changes that are being made in our school accountability system. um that data uh then those first school accountability ratings should be coming out in the next month or two. Uh so so that will that will accelerate that conversation because right now everything about the school
109performance framework has been hypothetical that will actually give you the results of your schools are ranked this way. Um and that that I think will will lead to some further discussion about that that framework. Um, and then other work that the state board is doing is they're adjusting the cut scores for all of the state's so assessments. And uh, that's important because the cut score is the determination of how much a student has to know in order to be considered a pass proficient or pass advanced on an SL assessment. Um, all indications that those cut scores are are going to be elevated. Um, which could have a very direct impact on our students, on our schools, on student graduation rates. Um, so definitely things that we're paying attention to. Um, but just wanted to provide
110that as as background of of of topics that are being talked about. And then two others, we've actually already covered these as part of past legislation that had delayed enactments, both highquality materials and the so assessment contract. They created workg groups. Um these are not uh to be frank as public as some of the other work groups because these are run by VDOE. Um but there are conversations going on about the implementation of those uh those two pieces of legislation in these two different forums. All right. So we're past the look back and now we're at a look ahead. Um, notwithstanding today's election, which is a federal election, which as a reminder, polls are open till 7:00 if you live in the 11th district. Uh, it's a federal federal election. Um, just to, you know,
111as a public service. Um, you do have the governor's election and you also have the election of all 100 members of the Virginia House of Delegates this year. That election happens on November 4th. No Senate elections. Senate runs on four-year terms and the House is on two-year terms. Um but that that will have an impact obviously on the policy conversation going forward. Um the general assembly session is scheduled to convene on January 4th, 2026. It's a long session. Um long session lasts 60 days and it's 60 consecutive days. So it goes from January 14th to March 14th. Um, but it's the first year of the bienium and that's important because the 2026 session discussion will set the state's budget for a fiscal year 2027 and fiscal year 2028. In terms of kind of crystal ball
112and and trying to determine what's going to be talked about during the general assembly session, as I said, the 2728 budget will be front and center. that will be the one of the biggest topics of conversation that that is is is undertaken down during the general assembly session. Um rebenchmarking, I have a slide on that later, but rebenchmarking is a process by which the state updates all of its education funding formulas to reflect more current costs and that has an impact on how much money gets sent back to localities. That will be kind of front and center because that's always front and center in the first year of a bianium. And then we mentioned a little bit about JARK. Some JARK recommendations have been adopted over the last couple years, but there are still several
113that haven't. Um, so that there are still some topics that that I think are are open for discussion uh as as part of that budget conversation related to some of the JARK recommendations, accountability system. As I said, things will become more real here, you know, late September, October possibly. Um there could be some discussion about uh adjustments in that system. Um you know we we've just recently implemented the the state's wrapback uh wrapback system uh so which is the continuous monitoring of background uh background information on our employees. Um but that cost is entirely borne by the school division that the state is not is not funding that. So there could be a discussion about the state picking up some of that funding. Um and then for the for the last two uh bullets, we
114talked a little bit about the possibility of bills rel, you know, resulting from either delayed enactment legislation, probably most likely on assessment and on advanced math. Um and there could also be bills that are resulting from all of that ongoing off session work that the general assembly is doing and that the board of education is doing. Um so those those will likely generate legislation for uh for the next session and then obviously every member of the general assembly will have their own priorities. They will bring the new governor will bring have uh will will uh bring their priorities. Um so the the likelihood of there being 3100 or more bills I think is is is fairly high. I mentioned I was going to explain rebenchmarking in a little bit more detail, but not too much
115more detail. Rebenchmarking is the process that the state uses to update all of its input figures. So, you've got this SOQ formulas that determine how much money the state contributes to public education. All these factors that are listed here, enrollment, sales tax, support costs, inflation, they're all embedded in those in in that cost calculation. But the state every two years updates their data. So you get kind of a stairstep effect every two years. Um nothing in rebenchmarking changes policy. It's all the cost of doing business exactly the way as we've been doing it. So nothing about rebenchmarking changes policy in the least bit. Jark is about changing policy. This isn't about changing policy. This is just about updating funding. Um and as I said it's a stairst step. Historically, it has resulted in a relatively
116decent amount of new funding for public education in the first year of the bienium because of all of those input factors have increased over the last two years. And then this this slide could take hours and hours and hours. Uh but just wanted to kind of tee it up for you. Um the current state outlook in terms of the budget. In August, the governor came out with his year-end review. there was some discussion of having a surplus. Um there's a discussion of having a surplus most years. Uh surpluses at the state, there's a bunch of different ways to look at them. Most of the surplus as they define it um is already kind of statutoily allocated or there are very specific rules um about how to access those rainy day funds or those surplus funds.
117Um, so it's not you can't think of it conceptually as it just being a piggy bank sitting out there for the state to be able to go able to tap into. Um, there's more there's more to it than that. I'm happy to go into more detail if necessary, but um, it's just surpluses are always a little tricky conversation because it seems like there's funding just sitting there and in some ways there is and but in other ways there isn't. Um and then what's true at both the state level and the local level is federal actions are very likely to have an impact on both revenue. So the revenue available to state and local governments um but also particularly at the state level spending pressures. So if potential cuts at the federal level could lead to
118spending pressure at the state level um which would have an impact on the amount of funding that's available for other uh for other uses outside of those areas that are cut. So now turning to kind of future looking uh your discussion and and getting us a little bit closer to the legislative program. Um, this is again just to reinforce things that go on in public education with with regard to the budget and with regard to policy happen year round. Um, there's there's activity happening all the time. There's activity that we're involved in all the time with other organizations, with other school divisions. Um, and I think Dr. Dr. Anderson may have teed it up that one component of that program is your actual state and federal legislative program. Next couple of slides I think are
119going to I'll walk through kind of the the program and its background and then we'll talk a little bit about some recommendations. So you're all familiar with with the program. It's it's the board's position statements that you you adopt in in in an open session on state and federal legislation, policy, and regulations. It's critical guidance. Um it it helps because there's so much that goes on and there's so many topics that are discussed during the general assembly session and outside of the general assembly session. It's a really important resource to be able to to see where the board uh has taken positions on on various topics um without having to come constantly come back and and ask for for board positions on topics. Um one important component of the or at least one important feature
120of the way the legislative program has been handled in the past and I think is continue to be handled is that positions carry over from year to year. So it's it's you think of it as a perpetual document. So unless you all as a board take some degree of action to change languages in the posi the program positions they carry over from 2025 to 2026 in this in this case. Um and then in terms of the components of the program uh you hold a joint position with the county. Uh you take federal and state priority positions. to identify a subset of positions that you consider to be the most important for the upcoming year and and set those aside as your priorities. But then the bulk of the program is your standing positions and both
121state and federal level. And that's everything from you know where you are on assessments to where you are on the state budget to where you are on uh student discipline or student transportation. Um so those are the components of the program document itself. Um, as I said, county board of supervisors, you do have a joint, you do hold a joint position with them. Uh, it's almost entirely about education funding. Uh, the joint work that you all have done. Um, you know, very heavily Jark focused in the last couple years, of course. Uh, it's included in both of your legislative programs. So, it's included in yours, it's included in the counties. Um, just as reference and just in terms of calendaring, the county is not going to finalize their program until all the way in in
122December, December 9th. So if you take action on your own program earlier than that, um it will come with a bit of a hole in it where the legislative where where the federal or where the the joint position will go and you can come back at a future meeting and amend the program to add the the the joint position with the with the county in at that time. So to tee off your discussion because you as a board set both your standing positions, but you also you have your priorities. And I'm not going to walk through all these. I'm just going to put them up here for you to to take a look at. These are your current priorities. Um it's a kind of a truncated list, but these are the current topics that are
123included in your 2025 state board priorities. Um so these are areas where it would be appropriate for your discussion to determine should these continue to be our priorities are the things that we want to add or the things that we want to subtract. Uh similarly same issue on the federal side. Uh these are your current board priorities. Whether they continue to be appropriate is is part of the discussion that you'll have about them. Um, now the last couple of slides that I have for you are, and there are two documents that are posted as part of your agenda item as well. Um, and they're a strikethrough version of the 2025 program. So, it's your current language with a set of recommendations that uh that have been generated from from staff in terms of how you
124what staff sees as you know important or or necessary changes in the program going forward. Um there are edits for clarity throughout. So there's a lot of places where you know you as best as as best as you try language you read language one year and you wonder why a previous board or why you as director of government relations uh may have uh suggested that particular language. So there's some area are areas where language is is clar clarified. Um there are two places where you're able to drop positions that are no longer kind of issues at the state level anymore. Um one has to do with uh actually there's two uh components of early childhood program eligibility. Um one has to do with when we could uh we could enroll students into VPI programs. the
125state has provided additional flexibility for enrollments after the beginning of the school year. Um, and then there's some additional flexibility for localities to determine the appropriate income thresholds where parents and families are eligible to participate in those early childhood programs. Um, those both have been achieved in terms of the way the legislative program was written. So, those can fall out. And then the other one that can fall out has to do with a position on chronic absenteeism. Um, one of the components of the new accountability system actually addressed uh a primary concern about chron how chronic absenteeism was being handled in the current under the current accountability system which was essentially setting it as a threshold and that if a school was below it, it was virtually impossible for them to be at the highest
126level of of school the school accountability ratings. Um the new system treats account chronic absenteeism as a component of a bunch of different factors. So it doesn't have that same threshold effect. U so for all intents and purposes your concern about the chronic absenteeism has been addressed. Um in terms of new positions there really it may seem like there are a lot but there really aren't all that many. Um there are several relating to multilingual English and English learners. Uh just as a reminder, we continue to use the term English learners within the legislative program because that's the term that the state uses. Um but it obviously is coincident with our the language that we use here in Fairfax, which is multilingual learners. Um position on expanding the ability for uh for local credit verification
127uh as an alternative to having to pass an SOL assessment. Um flexibility for the time frame for including English learners under the accountability system. expanded work-based learning opportunities specifically for for multilingual learners and then resources for interpretation services are some of the the four uh that are being uh recommended for addition. Uh a few other positions uh that are just kind of standalones. One is that the state provides fully funded VPI early childhood slots including for students that are enrolled after uh after the beginning of school. um there's a fairly steep drop off in terms of how much funding we receive from the state if we enroll after uh the very beginning of school and we're looking for more flexibility with that. Uh the issue of solar interconnectivity, your program actually already covers it generically,
128but thought it was important given how much it's being talked about at the state level that you have a very specific uh mention of addressing the cost issues with solar connectivity. um asking for some resources for FOYA compliance. As you're very well aware, FOYA has continued to be a an administrative burden on the school division. Um and then as part of our safety and security positions, uh asking the state to provide some resources for weapons detection technologies, um which we have in place in a lot of our schools, but that's entirely being funded at the local level. And then um this slide because so much has happened with accountability at the state level and because a lot has happened with l with bills that have passed about assessments. Uh there are several areas where wanted
129to be a little bit more explicit within your program u about some of the changes at the state level and some of the changes you might want to see going forward as you know we we move on to um implementation of the system. Um, one thing that's important is that right now this position is referred to as standards of accreditation and standards of learning. We want to rename it so that the accredit or so that the accreditation or um uh so the accountability piece of it is uh is reflected because under the new system you will continue to have the term standards of accreditation but it will not mean school accountability. Um, so it's just important to have that uh that distinction uh in the position just to make it clear what we're talking about.
130Um, I don't know if you want me to go through each one of these. They're they're in your document. Um, I will highlight a couple uh advocating for the elimination of the Virginia Growth Assessment. If you remember a couple years ago, the general assembly adopted a change in the so that there is a an early year kind of a beginning of the year so test, a mid-year so test and a endofear so test. We in Fairfax don't actually do that. We have a waiver which allows us to use a different tool to determine student growth. Um that waiver is expiring this year. So, uh, the conversation at the general assembly level will need to be either an extension of that waiver so that we can do continue to do what we're doing, um, with a
131a different growth measure or an elimination of the Virginia Growth Assessment itself. And the reason to advocate for an elimination of the system is it was put in place intending to be a measure of growth. when the state presented it to the federal government as a measure of growth, the federal government said, "No, this actually doesn't measure student growth. You can't use it for that purpose." So, from our perspective, we're already we're already measuring growth with a different tool, but there are a lot of school divisions that are measuring the Virginia Growth Assessment, but not getting any really kind of useful information from that system. um would probably be better if the state went back to the drawing board as part of their new assessment accountability system, but because the Virginia Growth Assessment is is
132specifically delineated in code, you'd have to go in and and change code in order for that to uh in order for that to to go by the wayside. Um, and then I think the last uh the the last two that I'll highlight have to do with the changes that were made in the delayed enactment bill uh dealing with assessments and just asking for additional uh flexibility uh both in assessment administration and in timing and also flexibility because there is a provision in those that legislation that u so tests are going to inform classroom grades. Um so that's that is the sum of the staff recommendations for your legislative program on the state side. Um there are a few changes that we're recommending on the federal side. Uh one is there are some positions that can
133drop out because of the new accountability system more closely aligned state and federal accountability systems. So some of the asks in your legislative program were that there be closer alignment. those have been achieved. Um, and then the final positions just deal primarily with some funding issues. Um, and some programs that I think you want to be explicit about uh supporting uh supporting the funding for those. Having said all that, that that document that what's posted, those are staff recommendations. At the end of the day, it's the board's legislative program. So, um you can accept or reject any of those recommendations. Um and then obviously you have the ability as board members um to discuss other things and other issues that may not have been covered or other issues that that need to go by the
134wayside. Um I think that's the intent of some of the discussion today is to do that. Um I have had the chance to meet with some of you. I have not had the chance to meet with all of you uh to talk about a few things. Um, but just to to remind you that at the end of the day, staff recommendations are staff recommendations. It's the it's the board's legislative program and uh you all are the the final arbiters of what what goes into the what goes into the program. With that, I think I am turning the microphone back to my uh my meeting managers to walk through the last couple slides we have here. >> All righty. Thank you. Um if we can just go to the next slide, please. Um these are the
135areas for discussion for today and I'm hoping that we can chunk it a little bit just so we can organize our work a little bit more um efficiently. Um we want to start with any kind of questions or clarifications or some general comments that you may have to the documents that um rather to the content that Mr. Mallaloy has just presented and then after that we're going to take some time to really speak to what are some new positions that the board has. As Mr. Mallaloy shared this is the board's program. This is the board's agenda and staff has um provided some recommendations. It would be ve very helpful if you could speak to those recommendations in that second round of comments or start to talk about some of other positions that you may have
136or revision that you've been thinking about. And today's not going to be the last time. It's just going to be the introduction just so we could be thinking about what is um emerging as important to the board. And then we will also take some time to talk about how do we now move into the priority positions because those one pagers, you know, in the past have been lauded as super important because when they go in front of um lawmakers, they know that these are high priority to Fairfax County. Obviously, everything in the book is important, but those priority positions have been elevated as the most crucial. Um, and lastly, speaking to what we talked about earlier in the conversation regarding budget and in the discussion before that, how are we going to actualize the work
137that only the people in this room can actually do and what do you need to help you to um support you in doing that? Um so madame clerk we will start with three minutes for number one and we are asking for your um for your grace and just kind of helping us walk through this um setup a little bit. So right now we'll take any questions, clarifications or comments on what Michael talked about um maybe some of the positions he did not raise. So we will start there and I think the first speaker to that is Mr. Fresh, >> just to clarify before time begins, we're talking about each of these ones that are numbered number one. >> We're just talking about number one right now. We just want to >> They're all numbered number
138one. >> They're all labeled number one. >> Number one. Why are they all numbered number one? >> They're all important. >> Typographical error. >> Oh, okay. My copy does not have all of them as number one. We're talking >> So, we're going to have four rounds of comments. We're talking about the first section, questions and clarifications and comments on the presented materials. Any areas in which you need more information from what Michael just talked about. So the real number one, >> but to clarify, we're then having an individual conversation about each of the other number ones. >> We may we may cluster the others, but we're going to separate those discussions a little bit. right now is just to make sure we have full understanding of what was presented or any thoughts that we have
139about what was presented before we get into the what are the new things you want to introduce as a board member what are the things that we think should be elevated as priorities what are the resources and activities that you will engage in we're going to chunk this a little bit so I hope that helps right now we're only going to talk about the first number one >> all right well I don't want this to count as my time. I needed a clarification. >> Sure. Sure. It is not your time. We haven't started it. >> Well, I'm not speaking to the first one. Okay. I'm speaking to another number one. >> Why are they all number? >> Mine are not like that here. >> So, this is curious. Um, at any rate, any board member
140seeking to speak to number one, I think is that Miss um is that who's that? That's Thank you. I can't tell whether it's yours or Mr. Meline's. Thank you. That helps. Um, Miss Heismoreheiser, >> thank you. Um, I have most of my comments are to the fourth number one. So, I will probably I don't I'm so I are we going to do three minutes on each one of these? I'm probably run out of time. So, that's why I'm confused as to what you want us to talk about. >> Are you pausing my time during >> Okay. We weren't trying to confuse anyone. If anyone has any clarifying questions, please let's just get them out of the way first because it will help your discussion and then please go ahead with everything you'd ever want to
141say about this topic. Is that okay? And we'll do three minutes each time. So, Miss Heismer, does that clarify? Are we going to continue? >> That's fine. Yeah, that's fine. I um Yeah, I guess the thing I guess clarifying in terms of the priorities, you know, we're looking down at slide 27 28. Um, I guess that's 2025 priorities and then 2026 I guess more 30 and 31 priorities. Um, I'm kind of my my clarification question is that it would be helpful if we had some prioritization within these priorities, right? Like the 2026 session is starting in January. it it's probably too late for us to really do a lot of advocacy on any of these priorities at this point, right? Because really to do that, we have to work with our legislators during the summer,
142give them impact statements on how why we want to do this and then give them potentially suggested language. So I think it would have been helpful perhaps to have. So I my question is are there priorities within these priorities that you think we should be focusing on? And you know I'm a little confused. Some of the ones from 2025 seem to carry over into 2026 potentially. So it would have been helpful on the 2025 at this summary to say this is what was still left over or not because it's just kind of a lot of different stuff listed in here. >> So So to be clear, the two slides that so slide 28 and 29 are the board's current priorities. There are not a parallel set of 2026 priorities >> discussed here. the positions that
143are being discussed, those are changes to your standing positions, not to your priorities. It's the board's discussion to determine whether or not the 2025 priorities continue forward to 2026 and then whether or not the content of them should change. I think >> I get that. Maybe I wasn't clear in my question. What I was trying to get at is it would be I see that you have staff recommendations, right, of 2026 priorities, >> but they're not priorities. That that I think that's that's where position. Those are just standing positions. Some of them may end up being your priorities, but they're that >> those recommendations were not intended as sorry >> priorities >> on the Okay, I will make sure I make it clear priorities versus positions. But maybe definitions would have been helpful on that
144section too, to so that we knew what you were thinking of when you meant priorities versus positions because when they're in that slide together. But I guess what I'm trying to get at is what's listed in 2025 priorities. It would be helpful if we knew what of those were already addressed or started to be addressed or perhaps had bills had bills that may have been put out but failed. So we kind of knew where in the process addressing those priorities are because it's hard to know what priorities to focus on if we for next year or positions to focus on. Right. I'm guessing what you're trying to say is take our positions that your staff is recommending and create priorities out of them for the board. But it's hard to know what new priorities to
145create out of staff recommended positions without knowing what the previous priorities have been addressed and to what extent and what's left. And so that's where I'm finding it difficult to give feedback on that piece without knowing really a tie. And I know you've sent reports in the spring of different bills, but having it laid out of these were the board's priorities in 2025. This is what was addressed and what wasn't addressed. Here's what's still outstanding. out of those these are our recommended positions would just kind of help. So that's the clarification I'm asking. So my question is in the 2025 priorities that are listed which of those are then mapped into the staff recommending positions which of those had bills that perhaps addressed those priorities or didn't address those priorities or partially addressed those priorities.
146Which of those bills created additional problems? And what of those do you recommend that we have as positions andor priorities? Those are my questions. >> So part of the answer actually is on slide seven. >> Okay. which I think was not >> slide seven identified some of the changes that were were adopted during the general assembly session this past general assembly session which spoke to some of the priorities and and also some of your your standing positions as well right so in terms of you know the slide that's up on on the screen right now with the increased state funding for JARK support cap is one that's been for the most part addressed um there's some nuance to it but you know the support cap was was funded So, um, that may or may not
147continue to be a priority. There's a reason for it to continue to be a priority is to ensure that the funding stays. Um, but for the most part, the bulk of the funding that you would expect to get out of the support cap recommendation from JARK, um, that's been achieved. Um, so that's that's included on that. I think some of the accountability pieces uh tie into, you know, your fair school accountability system. Um, but that slide seven is the most direct reflection of what you're asking for, but it's not >> as explicit as what you're asking. >> I guess I would just ask for a mapping, right? So then it's easy for us to look at and say, okay, these were addressed, these were partially addressed, and these were not addressed, or these had bills
148that tried to address them, but those bills failed. Like that mapping would be helpful. I know my time is up. I'll take a go another round, but >> absolutely. And I think since we do have another work session on this before we collate everything, I think this is going to be one of those things that perhaps uh Mr. Mallaloy can bring back because it will be helpful to know how do we rep prioritize >> exactly. >> Uh Mr. McDaniel McDaniel, >> I do have clarification and technical questions. Um, so I'm in the actual legislative package, the long document on page six under their VRS uh section. Item five has been marked through and edited. Um, and it now says the school board supports state resources for local school divisions, too, and the rest remains unchanged.
149Was that just a technical edit to to kind of clean up the clunky wording or was there a legislative Okay, that was it? Yeah, that that was just intended um to to clarify what the ask was. >> Okay. And then I have two similar areas uh on page up on page two the item four under early childhood same I'm sorry on page two uh bullet point three under early childhood that kind of spills over into page three. um the early that early childhood with the strike through specifically the school board supports allowing Fairfax County to increase VPI. Again, just a technical edit there to clarify. >> So, actually no, those so those two changes were the ones that were identified on the slide about staff recommendations of issues that have been addressed. >> Okay. >>
150Um so those two are are changes. A document that will help is um in addition to the to the large document, there's a second document that's been posted that is actually a table of all the changes. Okay. And it it walks through and it describes is it just a is it just a wording change? It is a substantive change. So we try and mapped out >> I got you right here. >> Between Yeah. So we we map out between So you can you can kind of translate what the striketh through on the document means by looking at that table. >> Gotcha. Perfect. And last one was on page 14. Um under safety item 11. >> Yeah, that is >> specifically calling outures. That's clarification. >> That's a clarifying of of unclear language I think is
151>> okay. All right, that's fine. >> Best way to conceptualize that. >> Thank you. call doesn't have any clarification questions, but I know Miss um Seismoheiser did want to go back. Are there any other clarification questions? Okay. Now, we're going to move and we'll have Miss Seismheiser have a turn when she returns. Um now we have numbers two, three and four where we want to talk about what is of interest to the board in terms of how there's the legislative agenda piece folks and there's also our work and one of the major goals of this component and I will invite Miss Marin to also share is how do we see our role in terms of impacting legislation. It's not just handing over the um handing over the program and then calling it a day. So,
152what else could we do? You know, we talked a little bit earlier about the budget, about that communication plan, about expanding into spaces that we may have may not have been thinking about before or activities that each of you may have done individually. We would love for you to raise that here so we can duplicate some of those um some of that work. So, not only do we want to speak about these are the positions, we want we also want to talk about how do we achieve visibility on these positions through our work with um lawmakers. Um, and I'll turn it over to Miss Marin. >> Yeah, just to say so, you know, actively proposing bill language is something the board has not done a lot of. Perhaps individually some of us have advocated and
153been involved but having the board ask Michael and you know guide us through that is something um that we can do. There's also the whole budget amendment pro approach which is a whole another opportunity to impact legislation. So to kick off talking about what kind of specific legislation you know people are interested in Mr. um Fr why don't you go ahead please thank you for waiting. My pleasure and thank you for the work that's gone into this and for constantly trying to think of ways to to get at this because I know it's timeconuming. Um so I have three areas, two federal, one state that I will likely bring for an amendment or what have you. Um the first concerns um federal supports for our neediest students. Uh specifically support for uh restoring funding to
154Medicaid, SNAP benefits, McKenna Vento, um and opposing the the removal of Title 3, which is currently under consideration in Washington. Additionally, um I want to include something about rolling back the changes that have happened at FAFSA that limit income based repayment plans, public service loan forgiveness, and uh largely eliminate grad plus loans. These limit we set our our students up for great success here in FCPS and these changes to FAFSA greatly limit their ability to succeed in the future. Um, and then on the state level, I know that some lawmakers are talking about um, uh, finding a way to bring greater stability to the membership of the Virginia Board of Education and the boards of visitors for various universities in the Commonwealth uh, so that it doesn't have such dramatic swings from administration to administration
155and that we can constantly center the needs of our students um, in that conversation. So, I would like some broad language in there that allows us to be supportive of efforts that would bring stability and um uh a student- centered approach to those changes uh that maintain the uh constitutional independence of local school boards um and the role the legislature has uh in you know properly approving uh of appointees. So, I look forward to talking to colleagues about these three specific areas that I'd like to see us flesh out a little bit, but keeping it broad so that we can be responsive. Um, and in terms of other ways that we can engage in the work, I think being in Richmond matters a great deal, but also taking advantage of opportunities to meet with legislators
156when they are in district to not only take your legislator to to school month, but also going to their town halls when they are having um, uh, town halls in their communities, uh, bringing them to other school events. I think those are all ways to continue to build those relationships. And I think the superintendent is a tremendous asset there as well. And while we may have a unique um role here, I think the superintendent also has a unique role uh as an ambassador for our system. So I think we need to deploy all of us in that work. That's it for me. I appreciate the work that's been done thus far. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Fresh. >> That misleading. >> Yeah. I just want to say 100% spot on to my colleague. Um,
157every one of those things is um, incredibly important and um, I just would echo everything he just shared in terms of um, priorities. So that's all I had right now. >> Mr. McDaniel. >> Um, an area that I I do think we need to flesh out more and maybe it's a standalone section. Um, but it's going to be the rise of artificial intelligence and our K12 system, both, you know, how the students use it, how we use it internally, how teachers use it, how that's going to be injected into SOQ's going forward. There's just not been a lot of work done at the DOE, at the state, federal levels. Um, and I feel like we're getting behind, not just in Fairfax, but across school divisions. Um, and that needs legislative attention. I don't know whether
158that's laws or jark studies, but I'll share some documents I've kind of pulled together on that. But I do think focusing and getting more attention on the rise of artificial intelligence um is really important going forward. >> Mr. Mr. Misser. All right. So in terms of going into some of the questions, the thing I really wanted to talk a little bit about was timing because I I feel that um well two things. One, I was surprised to see in the recommended positions that we have that there wasn't a recommendation. There's a recommendation additional so assessment administration and timing flexibility. >> I'm sorry. Sorry. Well, slide 31. But I don't I guess what I'm me I'm trying to my thoughts here. I think what I'm trying to get at is I think the timing of this
159is difficult because from what I talked when I meet with my state delegation folks and when I talk to them what they say they find most helpful is if we can present to them our position or our priority suggested language. Right? So it's not just here we believe in this or we we support this but here's suggested language either to change current you know law or to have a new bill and then an impact statement of or a why right why do we suggest this and some of these positions when when I look at the 2026 recommended strikethrough document some of them have a little bit of a why and some just say we support this and there's so many of them that I think it it's so detailed and that's great But even when
160we pick our priorities, we need to have a easy document. They have 60 days in session and that 60 days does not give them a lot of time to read this. Think about what our position is. Think about how what building might change and what they might bring. So if we could, my recommendation would be in the spring maybe a month after the session is done, we have a due out report. Here's what your priorities were for this year. Here's what the mapping to. Here's the bills that came through. Here's what priorities were addressed. Here's were not addressed. Here's some changes that happened that you might want to address next year. For example, the so bill or some of these other things that came through. Here are potential impact statements of the changes. And we
161at that point in the spring say, okay, and here are some suggested priorities or positions for next year. And in spring, we say, these are our priorities. So then we have over the summer to draft a mapping of board priority suggested language or suggested bill lang you know whatever it may be impact statement. So then our legislators can take that and say, "Oh, okay. Here's what they want. Here's how I can draft it. And here's why it's important." And then we in the fall that document is presented to us in September, you know, or in the summer. And that is because by this time they're already in the process of drafting their legislation. If we're adopting this in the next month without any impact statements or suggested language, it's it's difficult for them just this
162is just just how they function, right? we got to fit into the way how they function. It's difficult for them to make any of these changes. And then in the later of the fall, if I could just finish my sentence or into the session, we can start flagging the bills that they're filing for us to advocate on either for or against or we maybe just neutral. But this needs I think this whole process needs to be rejiggered if we're going to actually have the time to put in legislation of things that we are our positions or priorities. My two cents. >> Well, thank you. And you know this was one reason why we had sought to have even a work session just next week on that held space because um the timeline is not ideal
163but we're getting there earlier. And also remember we have the October 7th legislative breakfast and last year it was very successful and wellreceived by our um state- elected colleagues because they liked that we did not just run through our usual here's all our priorities but we were like hey it's JARK this is you know how it's impacting us this is where we want to go and that was really helpful for them. So like digging down like you know drilling down like Missheiser said is really valuable. So one of the things we're wondering about is what do we want to prepare for October 7th? Do we want to, you know, try to set that up, but knowing that we still have the election in November, right? So that's going to change things, you know, or can
164we say like, here's the ideas of legislation that we're interested in. Can you tell us how can, you know, is this helpful? Does it align with what you want, right? Like maybe this year's uh breakfast is, you know, also about how can we help you do what you're trying to do for us, right? Um just given where we're at and everything happening. So, we need to flesh that out more. And I do like the idea though of the state priorities piece being more than just the list, but the rationale. And I do like what Mr. Fr suggested for the content in the uh program. I would support those things. >> Just one more thing. Oops. Just one more thing that I want to add. Some of the activities that we have not done before, which
165is the submission of a budget amendment. Um, which frankly I did not know that we could do. I certainly knew that we could submit bills. We could submit bills. We have never done this before as a board. It would be fantastic for us to get to that space because it's all-encompassing. It has all of the data around the things that we are that we find the most important and it cannot be on everything. It just has to be on the top few things. So, we did ask uh Michael to also get together a one-pager for us in terms of what is that protocol to submit a bill? What is that protocol to submit a budget amendment? Because these are tools that are in our arsenal that we have yet. And these are things that we
166will dig a little bit deeper in during the next work session. And hopefully those one pagers will be available for us to go through those priorities and maybe even enumerate within that group what are the ones that are most important to take to those two next steps. So, thank you for teeing that up a little bit. Um, Miss um, Seismore Heiser, before we go to the next round, I do want to, well, there's the housekeeping that staff asked us to talk about the clerks. Um, just to note that the next steps email and link has been sent to you all for this portion and the budget comm's plan and those will be due on Friday by 5:00 p.m. for you to enter the next steps and for you to show support by the 17th which
167is the following Wednesday. Um, but if we could go back to um the slides and perhaps go to the next workstep slide. if we can move to the next one. Um again talking about our future work session, the timeline and the timing which is also important. Um board member recommendations, we will also gather that language so we can all have it um with whatever else may come to you all after you leave this room and have a little bit more time to digest what's been offered here. Um, and then any board activity that we may be interested in. These will be the next parts of the conversation for the 16th once you've had a chance to talk about this a little bit more. Um, we do want to go through the next slide, the on
168the horizon slide as well, which outlays some of the timeline for filing. And again, if we're finding that it's important for us to have bills that are submitted, we will need to make sure that we are equipping our um legislators with this information in a timely manner. Um as well as the next slide which are the key policy and budget dates. Um the and then there's two slides of that um starting with October and ending through May. and we will take under consideration, Michael, what's been shared here regarding the setting up the calendar for next time. Um, Miss Marin, we would like to talk about the timeline at this point of the legislative agenda. As you we re as we've just talked about, we have the breakfast on the 7th. We have a joint position
169that is typically surrounding the education issues which we put forth with the board of supervisors. the board of supervisors typically do not complete their um their pos their program until December. This year you mentioned it is the 9th. So, what we are proposing is that we get ourselves prepared and we could talk about what we would like to see a little bit more um specifically during the October 7th um legislative breakfast, but we are proposing moving the adoption of the program a little bit later to be uh better in alignment with what the board of supervisors have. So, we don't need to have an additional addendum. Um it doesn't mean that internally we can't come to some planning around some of these positions. Um and I think the dates that were being floated are November
170um 13th and to vote on December 4th, kind of five days away from the board of supervisors. Um would love to hear if there are any objections to that move or any feedback here. Doc uh Miss Mary, would you like to add anything? >> Well, I just um am wondering, you know, we talked today about budget timeline. We're talking now about legislative timeline. We all have the boundary review timeline on our minds at the Western High School. You know, I'm just wondering if we should have, you know, at our meeting something that's showing all the things that are in our queue, um, with deadlines, uh, you know, the dates because we've got a lot of stuff moving here and if people want to be involved, you know, we have to know what's happening. So, you
171know, that's something for people to consider. Um I actually have created one on a spreadsheet because you know I love spreadsheets. So uh if people want to take a look at that let me know. But yeah so thoughts on October 7th? What shall we you know share with our few dozens of state- elected representatives who will be here? Thoughts Miss Eisarheiser? So I think you know our positions and pri I think our priorities need to be shared but I think we need as a board before then whether it's today or or next time decide what those priorities are but and also figure out what from the previous session might be more urgent to be addressed or what of our priorities are more urgent to be addressed. Um I'm going to just I talked to Mr.
172Malloy about this at length is our so the so bill that was passed that so bill has some significant impact on our ability to hold graduations. It has an impact on our military connected students. It has an impact on students who need retakes to gra or graduating seniors who might need retakes to graduate. It has significant impact on our school system. And I would say that's a priority to be addressed because we we can't I mean our graduating seniors can't graduate. If you have a graduation two weeks before the um if you have graduation two weeks before the end of the school year, you can't take and you need an so to graduate, you can't take that so that means you can't walk. I don't So I was hoping we'd have a little more of
173that. And I don't this is not for you. I mean this is I think it would be helpful from our government relations staff to have a little more guidance on things that are important. I mean a list is great of positions but which of those are urgent and which of those are nice to haves and which of those are whatever it may be right but if we're going to have the legislative breakfast on October 7th I think it's vital to at least lift up the ones that are problematic for our school system that have to be fixed this year at minimum and that is one I'd probably put at the top of the list you know um like one for example one of the things that so bill says is that if a class is
174given an so or if a student in a class is given an so every student in that class must take that so if you have a military connected student who moves here and doesn't take let's say the biology so for their science credit and instead is going to take us the um chemistry one because that's the year that they came in here now that entire class has to take the chemistry so even if they didn't need to because this one student needs it who's a military connected student that is one example what this bill does I I know It's all well-intentioned, I understand, to try to, you know, decrease the timeline. It was a well-intentioned bill, but there are major implications for many of our students, our multilingual students or special education students, and those
175that might need more um retakes. What are we going to do to that? So, I would put for our next session leading up to October 7th, what are the priorities that must be addressed? What is the imp? And each of those are mapped to what was done last year or if anything an impact statement, suggested language for a fix or suggested language for a bill because that's our opportunity to talk to all of them at once and in enough potential time to do some legislation. >> Thank you, Miss Seismore. U Miss Anderson and then Miss St. John Cunning. I apologize. I think I had it backward. I just want to confirm since I'm trying to ensure that we have the correct calendar. What is the date that you're proposing for the because I expected to
176receive these over email. So, >> um November 13th for new business and December 4th for a vote, but as Miss Heismaner suggested, the opportunity is October 7th to speak with our delegation, which is why we asked for the work session next Tuesday. >> I'm aware of it's all in flux. There was no final dates until this conversation or suggested dates. >> Well, but we did come to this with the expectation that we were going to push off the legislative package. So, that is the the So, dates would have been helpful to understand. >> She just announced them a tiny bit ago. >> Thank you. I was I didn't hear it in the conversation. So, um, the other question that I had is that again, I'm going to hit hard that we would be remiss to
177not talk about Jark and talk about what we're actually asking for the legislators to do related to Jark this year. I agree completely with moving the package until after the discussion. I actually would advocate for us having another work session on this or a portion of a work session after the election so that we have an indicator of what direction the administration is going to go because I think our package looks extremely different depending on who's in office. And so right now I would advocate for us having another portion of a work session on um the 6th of November because that would be enough time that we could we could have the conversation that we would need to have. that does not leave a a significant amount of turnaround to have something done by the
17813th, but I don't think that our advocacy is going to change. I just think it may strengthen what we're actually requesting. So, it could be that as we moved forward towards the 13th that we would need a path that would be here's here's what it's going to look like if we go one way, here's what it's going to look like if we go another. So, as we're moving forward with this, I would guess that the path that's currently existing in our package is probably close to where we would stay if things stay status quo. However, if we move forward and actually have a change in the administration, then it could be that we strengthen some of our statements to to be firmer about what we're it is that we're looking for. So, that's one thing
179that I would advocate for. I also think that we should go back and look at what the bills were that happened after JARK was originally put forward in in 2023 and determine what didn't pass that should have and how we can actually look at that to move forward if we have a different climate. So I think that these are the opportunities that would be helpful. >> Thank you. And just kind of just to share what we looked up, those next dates, if we were to adopt at the end of December, which would be after the board of supervisors completes their program on the 9th, it would be the date of the 18th. And I I I think that makes a lot of sense. Um, but before we get too far out and I know more
180people want to speak, I want to reiterate I want to be sure that we can come to a conclusion here regarding that date before we leave this meeting because it will set us up for the next two. Um, Miss um, St. John Cunning. Um, so I just wanted to echo about looking at the bills that are problematic because although well-intentioned and even with us that work within the school board, it's in the operationalizing of some of this that really has an impact. And so I think that's something we really need to focus on on October 7th. And again, uh, piggybacking on the Jark, I think what we have to also, and it's sad that it's sad that several times the statements have been made here depending on who's going to be elected because it should
181not depend on who's going to be elected, how our schools are funded, and how our students are supported. And it's sad that that's even a consideration that we have to take, but that is the reality we live in today. And so because that is a reality that we live in today, I think we also have to talk to our state partners and say we've got to look at the federal funding and the shortfalls that may or may not exist. And I think that we also, you know, does that is that does that coincide with JARK? Does it not? Is it something different? Because the reality is that those federal impacts will those federal dollars if we don't get them will negatively impact our students and our families. And so we're going to have to readjust
182how we get funding from the state and from our other funders from our county funders. Um and I think that's an important consideration. >> Thank you Miss St. John Cunning. Uh, Miss Marin. >> Yes. So, I wanted to share, you know, that I do I appreciate Mismheiser you helping us figure out what is going to be most effective for the legislative breakfast. You know, for me, I definitely want us to uh advocate for this so we got to fix that. And um, you know, that was one of our own delegation members who who proposed that. So, definitely, you know, for Dr. team to come in and say like why it's a problem, what it looks like, you know, to arm us with that information, give them a real world example and like you said what
183the legislation should look like. You know, it's interesting about JARK, you know, I'm always ready to go on Jark, but there hasn't been much chatter yet. So, I've been talking to other school board members um and uh there's some ideas, but we were so surprised that last year it was even addressed that, you know, it's hard to shoot for the moon again, but I'm all for it. But so that could be and also we could ask them what are you hearing because that's our chance to understand from them and get our arrows in a row. I would also like to go back to Delegate Helmler and Senator Saravel's indoor air quality bill because we have um a bit of current information that could inform why we need funding um to update to maintain our facilities.
184And so these unfunded mandates that they love to give us, well, let's say, you know, can you put a price tag on that? And maybe that's a budget amendment. Um, and then finally, I do agree about elevating the federal advocacy, the kinds of legislation that Mr. Frated. So, um, I mean, so those are four things that, you know, my my ideas, I've captured some others. That could be a good starting point. You know, perhaps for next week, what can we ask the superintendent and her team to return with to flesh out? Because then that's it. We're not meeting again until October 7th. So, we're really going to have to do that work separately and and in pairs to be uh ready for that. So, um that's it. Yep. >> Thank you, Miss Marin. I do
185not see any other placards up. So, I want to take a stab at um summarizing what was shared in the room just to give us some better opportunities to be prepared for the next work session which is coming up next week on the 16th. Um, one, Mr. Mallaloya, you heard the ask for a mapping of the priorities in terms of what occurred before and where are those now because that will give us some information in terms of how to continue on that prioritization list. Two will also be information regarding JARK since introduced in 2023. Um, what has happened? What has, and I know we've had a couple of successes, but where are the other areas? Are they still dur so to speak or is it Pay because we know very often? Well, I'll just leave
186it there. Um, so that's two. Um, three, what we will do, and I do hear that Mr. Fr will be shopping around some of his thoughts. Um, but we'd like to start to gather whatever the priorities are that we have. And um so I'll be reaching out to each of you just to do similarly that we did last year. What are the revisions once you've had a chance to absorb this a little bit more and what are some of the new positions that you would like to um you'd like to prior that you would like to present? Um I also had very similar thoughts with Mr. Malloy during my individual meeting regarding the so and the timing not having been as um educa informed about how it impacts our military connected students but definitely with
187our seniors and graduation. So I also had had some language that I will be shopping with you all about that. Um so those are the tasks I think Mr. Malloy that you will need to come back to us on the 16th. And at that time, we will also take a little bit more time to flesh out the October 7th breakfast, which is going to be super high level on the things that are the most important to us. Um, and also on the 16th, we will go over the protocols for submitting bills and budget amendments just so we have that tool available to us because it has not been one that we've utilized in the past. Um and then subsequently after the 7th, I have some um information here that I think we do need to
188engage our legislators on, which is what is most helpful to them because I know individually we each have these conversations, but what if the legislator that I work with wants something very different than the legislator that um that Marcia works with? we need to kind of have a collective conversation is how can we be the most helpful, the most efficient to that group and so we can make sure that we are equipping them with that information. Um and then I did not hear any objections actually some advocacy for even pushing back the um the adoption of the legislative agenda. So I did not hear any objections from anyone going once. Okay, done. Um and what's that? Nope. You got once. Um, and so I think I think I have my marching orders as a partner
189to Melanie in this work and to Mr. Mallaloy. And I do want to say before I wrap up, just my last comments is thank you Mr. Mallaloy for your work on this and thank you to Alex. I think he's back there. Um, we spent quite a bit of time trying to make sure that we have the most impactful and helpful product for you in into this in this session. And of course, we don't want to let go of some of those other activities which is a take your legislators to work month and making sure we can have those conversations. So I do want to put in the room what other resources would be helpful for you all for us to do our work. This is the opportunity to raise those needs. Is it communication? Is
190it particular documents? Whatever those are. Let's collect that data now so that we can be preparing them for all of those menu of options that we have listed on one of these slides for us to do our best work on this effort. And so just so a few things one of them so next step or future steps are so we are going to have part of this on the work session that's held and I just checked the calendar. So that's at 5:00 a week from tonight. So I'm gonna I guess we'll get that finalized and if there's anything else going on that agenda I don't know. But uh and then the November 6 work session, there was a request to put the legislative program and government relations work on that meeting. And then I also
191wanted to mention so for take your legislator to school month those activities and this again blends into the budget work. Um you Michael, we Mr. Malloy, we'd like to ask your office to coordinate that because you know who the, you know, invites to the magisterial district, you know, do certain ones of us want to partner with others and you knowing where all the magisterial lines would be helpful. Um, so that kind of coordination. So I did just want to confirm that um as much as we can. So um yeah, Miss Lady, >> I'm sorry. Are you asking Michael to coordinate all of our legis take your legislator to school days? I >> that seems like a heavy lift. >> Well, it depends. Um if we coordinate together and team up, it doesn't have to be.
192>> I'm just going with what I did last year was that's what I did. Like I reached out to another board member and I reached out to legislators and we picked specific schools. >> Okay. I mean, I mean, it's just really I'm just saying it's very difficult even for, you know, Jacob and Wendy hypothetically and and the two of us to coordinate a calendar with legislators. >> What what I found was that then if you have a legislator who has multiple like let's take Senator Salem who's got like half the board, then he's got six people trying to organize with him and then what if we're not in sync, right? So, we want to be as coordinated as we can. So, that just requires us talking more. I didn't see that happening as much last
193year, which is why I'm suggesting it this year. >> So, I think we talked about this in the 2 by two was potentially at the ledge breakfast putting something out and allowing the legislators to indicate what school they'd like to see or schools and then we would use that information. I think, am I remembering this correctly? >> I I don't know. Um what I can say is again and I see you Mr. Fris you know if we are going to also look to the advice of that budget comm's plan we can certainly accommodate their request but there might be things that we want them to see right that they're not aware of. So again like how do maybe the better question is how do we be strategic about this and whether individuals want to do
194it on their own or Michael wants to do it again how are we working as one board to put forth that story of what's happening. So um yeah Mr. fresh. >> Um my experience is that if I don't start doing this planning in August or even earlier that I don't get the take your legislators scheduled in a way that gets them to attend with me. So I started many many weeks ago on scheduling my um take your legislators to to school uh sessions. Um, I also think that, you know, um, I don't know that having two or I guess it wouldn't be more board members because of the stupid law that we should have in the legislative program, um, that that is a better use of our time with a legislator um, when they could
195have the message compounded in in subsequent meetings. Um uh so I admire the attempt to streamline. I just don't know that it um in terms of the things that we want out of Michael. Um this is not something that would be on my list of things that I need from Michael. Um but if the board wants to do it that way, that's the prerogative of the board. Um I've just proceeded as I've always proceeded. >> Misser. Yeah, Mr. Fish's comments made me think I do think we need to add the the sunshine the rules around the fact that we can only talk to one other board member because you know and perhaps because in other boards that are five member boards and I know Miss Marin you've done a lot of work on this in
196the past five member boards it's two people 12 member boards it's two people and it makes our work and then even how it applies to our electronic work which is all subject to FOYA anyway so I think this is maybe something to talk about I it in having conversations with some of our legislators. I think there's a renewed interest in this as some of the legislators have been trying to set up community meetings with us and realizing that they have to set up six community meetings to have one of their constituents be able to speak to the entire board. And the statement was well that's insane. Why can't we just do it's not a policym meeting, right? But they have to do six community six separate meetings for their constituent to meet with us. So
197I just think that maybe we should keep that on our legislative positions priorities. I don't know which one right now, but one of those somewhere in there. We should we should put that in there. And again, that's where the impact statement would be really helpful because when I talk to legislators, they're not they're unaware of how that implies to email, which again is subject to FOYA anyway. So, it's it's available. They're unaware of how it applies to Google Doc. They're unaware we can't reply all to colleagues. So, I think that impact statement would be really helpful because otherwise it's hard to understand why this matters. But when you understand the way the level to which it's dyes our work in an era we where um the public rightfully expects us to be able to work
198nimly and and quickly and I don't think some of these rules have been at least if they could give us more clarity around electronic communications which I know there's been some effort to do that would be helpful. So I think putting this in again position priority don't know where but somewhere in there with an impact statement in general those impact I can't say more about these impact statements our legislators are understandably busy with a lot of different things we're juggling so as easy as we can make it for them to understand the impact of all the things we're asking for the better it is. I want all of our um to be transparent, but I also want don't want to make our community not be able to meet with us or have to do six
199hours of meetings in order to get their message to all of us. So, there's got to be a balance in there. Thank you. >> So, gosh, out of all the things I've said today, I didn't expect that suggesting that Michael schedule all of our meetings would be the one to get the most attention. So, that's fine. I was just going off the experience last year where I did ask people to be communicative about scheduling meetings and that didn't happen. And then you know it's kind of embarrassing when you reach out to someone and someone else is already meeting and you know so it it gets back to again this communications idea that are we going to be you know united in our efforts or are we each going to do our own thing and leave
200everyone you know to flail. So that's what I'm getting at. But what I hear Miss Seismarhiser saying is adding in the sunshine law. I was aware one member had brought it up. I know I have data about it. Kathleen Murthy presented it as a bill years ago. So, um, I've captured notes. Dr. Anders has captured notes. I'm happy to share them, but we will have something for September 16th. >> Um, but before we wrap up, if we can go to the last slide, we do have one more, and this is just to ensure that we know who all the players are on the key committees. You know, these are the things that matter to us the most, the education committee members and the money committee members. And so knowing who those players are and how
201many of them we have access to already and the ones that we need to cultivate access to um because they're not necessarily Fairfax County representatives, but it doesn't mean we can't strike up a conversation upon visiting Richmond um because they're on the committee. Their voices matter. They need to hear how whatever it is that they're working on is impacting us even though it may not be something even though they may not be the ones who represent us but they are a vote. So I wanted to really elevate um this slide as well and unless there are any other questions or comments which we will do at two minutes at this point. Oh, she's putting it down. And Mr. Fr's hand is not up. Oh, is it up? Oh, he his literal hand is up. Mr.
202Fr, please go ahead. Two minutes. >> Uh, this committee slide is is a great reminder. And one thing that we may also want to put on our radar, um, you know, the staffing for our delegates and senators, many of them have the same, uh, senior person with them consistently year-over-year. Some of them have uh, a new person every couple years, but they all tend to have young people who move through their office just for session, right? Their session aids. So, um I think it's important that when we encounter one of these new people that we share their contact information with Michael um and with our uh liaison to ensure that we're keeping track of those things. We can't assume that um the session aid that's been hired in the last week that everybody's already aware
203of who those people are. And the more entry points we have for each office, the more dexterity we have when we need to reach a member on the floor or when we need to make sure that they're getting the message about a bill that we've just found out about. So just food for thought. >> Very good. Very much appreciated. And that's that's actually a list that we should probably call as soon as possible so that we all have access to it because they're easily more easily reached when we're in sess when they're in session than the legislators. Okay. Any final thoughts or words, Mr. Mallaloy? >> No, I just appreciate the discussion and look forward to the work as we go forward. >> And with and with that said, 407, we're adjourned.