001I'm just not allowed to start until seven on the dot. So, legally 7 o'clock. All right. This June 26, 2025 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by Jocelyn Mooney, a South Lakes High School student. I pledge allegiance to the flag. [Music] By the dawn early so proud we held at the twilight last stripes and bright stars through The ramparts we were so gallentareve [Music] say That star spangle [Music] yet. For the land of the free and the home of the brave. Can we have another round of applause for Miss Looney? Agenda item 2.02, announcements. If you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda, please see
002the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight. Please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit fcps.edu/boards. Tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and livereamed on YouTube and our website at fcps.edulivestream. Without objection, I'd like to go to uh agenda item 2.04 with Mr. Dun away from the table. Agenda item 2.04, 04 proclamation honoring the FCPS participants in the regarine excuse me REnaron International Science and Engineering Fair. I call in Mr. Mavine for a proclamation. Thank you. Whereas the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair, ISF, a program of the Society for Science for over 70 years, is the world's largest global science competition for high school students. Through a global network of local, regional, and national science fairs, millions of students are encouraged
003to explore their passion for scientific inquiry. And whereas each spring, a group of these students is selected as finalists and offered the opportunity to compete for approximately $9 million in awards and scholarships. Over 1,700 students represented 67 countries, regions, and territories across the world at ISF 2025 hosted in Columbus, Ohio. And whereas the following Fairfax County Public School students have been chosen as finalists to attend the 2025 Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair. Alina Albec Marshall Herman Bele Woodson Anush Devkar TJ Khloe Gileio Mlan Bennett Hang Langley Nikquille Krishna TJ Ethan Lee TJ Isaac Leiton TJ An Malhotra TJ Ned Nandukumar TJ Pan Langley Sarah Park TJ Adia Pilai Langley, Danielle Proof, TJ, Thomas Barling, Oakton, Samani Tumala Chantelli, Oliver Wong, TJ, and Lang Shong uh Langley. And whereas participating in the ISF requires dedication,
004passion, and hard work from students who spend countless hours conducting experiments, analyzing data, and preparing presentations. The students who compete in ISF represent the future of scientific inquiry, embodying the spirit of curiosity, creativity, and perseverance. And whereas ISF fosters collaboration and exchange of ideas among students from diverse backgrounds, promoting cross-cultural understanding and cooperation. And whereas the achievements of students in the ISF serve to inspire future generations, demonstrating the power of science and technology to address global challenges and improve lives. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby recognize and commend the following students who qualify to attend the 2025 Regeneron ISF celebrating their ingenuity, determination, and contributions to the advancement of science and engineering. Is there a second for the Regeneron Proclamation? Second, Miss Lady. All those in favor? Miss Marin,
005Miss Dixit, Mr. Mavine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss Cunning, and myself with Mr. Dun away from the table. The proclamation passes. Congratulations. [Applause] Agenda item 2.05 International Women in Engineering Day proclamation. I call on Miss Dixit for a proclamation. Whereas International Women in Engineering Day observed annually on June 23rd celebrates the achievement of women engineers worldwide and highlight the ongoing need for gender equity in engineering and steam fields. And whereas women engineers have contributed to groundbreaking innovations across sector from infrastructure and aerospace to healthcare and computing and continue to shape the future of science and technology in Fairfax County and the greater northern Virginia region. Women engineer play vital role in federal agencies, tech firms and research institutions contributing to our region's competitiveness and res resilience.
006And whereas we honor the legacies of trailbrazing women such as Dr. Ayanna Howard, pioneering roboticist and the first black women to lead a top ranked US engineering school. Gita Raalo, a NASA system engineer and a proud Fairfax County Public School graduate. and Katherine Johnson whose NASA calculations helped make US space flight possible and who is commemorated locally through the naming of Katherine Johnson Middle School. We also recognize Mary Goldaros, the first known Native American female engineer and the who contributor to the science US space program. Edit Clark, the first professionally employed female electrical engineer in the US and the first woman in to teach engineering in the University of Texas. Ada Loveless, the world's first computer programmer. Sunnita William, NASA astronaut and former Navy officer and Mary W. Jackson, women NASA's first black female engineer.
007And whereas despite these achievements, women, especially women of color, remain under reppresented in engineering, making up only 16% of engineers in the United States. Bridging this gap requires ongoing efforts to promote inclusive education, mentorship, and early exposure to steam opportunities. and leak. Whereas the success of future women engineers depends on the dedication of FCPS educators who spark curiosity, nurture talent, and create pathways into steam fields for students of all backgrounds. Teachers and program leaders through career and technical education, advanced academics, science olympiad, and other enrichment opportunities play a vital role in expanding equitable access to engineering experiences. And whereas FCPS is committed to cultivating an inclusive environment that empowers all students to explore and pursue steam careers through in through initiatives like girls in engineering, math and science, robotics programs, career and technical education pathways
008and partnerships with organizations like girls who code for inspiration and recognition of science and technology first and the society of women engineers. FCPS is building a strong foundation for the next generation of engineers and innovators. And now, therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board proclaims June 23rd, 2025, as International Women in Engineering Day in Fairfax County Public Schools. We encourage all members of our community to recognize and celebrate the contributions of women engineers past and present and future and to support inclusive equitable access to engineering and steam opportunities for all students. Is there a second? I will second. Mr. McDaniel. All those in favor? Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. McVine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Missheiser, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning and myself with Mr. Dona away from
009the table. That is unanimous. Otherwise, congratulations. The proclamation carries. Agenda item 2.06, proclamation honoring FCPS National Merit Scholarship Winners. I call in Mr. Mavine for a proclamation. Thank you. And bear with me, there are a lot of names in this one. Whereas the National Merit Scholarship Corporation was established in 1955 at a time when there was concern that the United States was lagging behind in the Cold War scientific race to identify and honor schol scholastically talented American youth and to encourage them to develop their abilities to the fullest. And whereas each scholarship winner is eval is evaluated on his or her academic record, including difficulty level of subjects studied and grades earned, scores from two standardized tests, contributions and leadership in school and community activities, a personal essay, and a recommendation from a high school
010official. And whereas in 2025, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation has offered a total of 6,870 scholarships worth nearly $26 million. And whereas each national merit scholarship comes in the amount of 2500, each corporate sponsored scholarship is renewable for up to four years and ranges from 1,000 to 10,000 per year. And each college sponsored scholarship provides between 500 and $2,000 annually for up to four years of undergraduate study at the institution financing the scholarship. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby recognizes and commends the following students who have received scholarships this year. For the National Merit Scholarships sponsored by corporations, we have Samarth Begav TJ. Claire Chen TJ Jaden Lee Langley Riley Katherine Seir Langley Eileen Woo Mlan. For the scholarship sponsored by higher education institutions, we have Nicholas Argueta Vasquez
011Edison. Dean Nory, TJ, Hudson, John Keeler, TJ. Arnav Gupta, TJ, Blake Powell, Mlan. Seth Parcell, Oakton. John Shinkman, TJ. Asha Das, TJ, Andrew Wood, South Lakes. Sedarth Kumar, TJ. And finally, for the scholarships from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, these include Logan Bradley, TJ, Eloise Minig, TJ, Anvy Gar, TJ. Samit Ralph, TJ. Rohan Katla, TJ. Himanga, uh, El Pulu, Chantelli. Ray Jang, TJ. Grace M. TJ. DV Chan, TJ. Khloe Choy, Woodson, Shouba, Adupi, Adep Udipi, Fairfax. Joshua Wong, Oakton, Jonah Esscali, Lake Bradic. Sophia Jonglin, TJ, Amy Key, Langley. Vishua Rakasi, Langley. John Wu, Langley, Sanchali, Banerjee, TJ, Arnav, Bala, TJ. Jackson Micah Oakton. Aravan SA Westfield, Sophia Hang TJ. Rachel No. Mlan, Phoebe Pan, TJ, Patrick Lee, TJ, Jason How TJ, Ania Riy, Langley, and Cayenne Yang Madison. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Moon.
012All those in favor? Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. Mackov, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. Junk Hunting, and myself, Mr. Dunaway from the table. The motion carries. Congratulations. Before the next proclamation is read, I would like to recognize uh uh Judge Quander uh who is the dean representative of the Quander family. He's a retired senior administrator. Uh administrative judge for the District of Columbia. Can you stand? He's not here. Okay. Um Dr. Anderson, I call on you for a proclamation. Thank you. Whereas the Quander family stands as one of the oldest African-American families with documented history in the United States and their name dating back to the 1600s. And whereas the Quander family's history is deeply intertwined with the history of the Mount Vernon Estate Fairfax, I'm
013sorry, Mount Vernon estate Fairfax County and includes significant contributions and sacrifices made to benefit Fairfax County Public Schools. And whereas the Quander family has demonstrated a steadfast commitment to preserving their rich heritage, notably through the establishment of the Quander family reunion structure in 1926, which legacy is being preserved through the Quander Historical and Educational Society Incorporated and the continuation of family reunions in the Mount Vernon area. And I would like to yield to Mr. Dunn to continue. Go ahead, Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Uh whereas the descendants of Henrywondo and Margaret Plug Pugwando have persevered through many hardships to become military, religious and civic leaders, business owners, teachers, principles, medical professionals, news anchors, judges, and authors exemplifying resilience and the pursuit of excellence. Now therefore, be it finally resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does
014hereby recognize and honor the Quander family on the occasion of their 100th anniversary of the Quander family reunion August 8th through 10th, 2025, noting the family's historical significance and celebrating their invaluable contributions and lasting impact on Fairfax County Schools and the community. Is there a second? Second. You can't make second. Mr. Dunn. All those in favor? Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. Mackov, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore Heisner, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John, and myself. That is unanimous. Congratulations. The proclamation passes. [Applause] I believe Judge Quander is now with us. You want to wave? There he is. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the proclamation honoring FCPS National Merit Scholarship winners to please join the board for a photo at the front of the
015deis. Check the regener. says That's your generous. [Applause] for the national merit. If you could follow Miss Park and Miss Fliss, they will hand you your certificates. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the international women and engineering day proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the international women and engineering day proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the Yes. I would like to welcome all those here in support of the proclamation honoring the FCPS participants and the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dis. I would like to welcome all those here in
016support of the honoring the Quander family proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dise Chair Fish, that completes our pictures. Board members, please return to your seats. I will say that statement is a lot more effective at quieting the audience than it is in getting board members to return to their seats. Agenda item 2.07, Virginia High School League and Academic Team Recognitions. The school board is very pleased to recognize the recipients of the spring 2025 VHSL Championships tonight. These championships occurred after our June 12th regular meeting. So we are recognizing these teams this evening. Please stand when your team is recognized. After all recognitions are completed, individual teams will be invited to have a photo with the board at the deis. Dr. Anderson. The board would like to
017recognize the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Girls Tennis Team for being awarded the VHSL class 6 girls tennis state championship. [Applause] Nice job. The board would also like to recognize principal Michael Mai, director of student activities David Arthur, and coach Brandon Ward for their contribution to the team. [Applause] The board next would like to recognize the Langley High School boys tennis team for winning the VHSL class 6 boys tennis state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Lawrence Straoud, director of student activities Jeffrey Notto, and coach Jack Porter for their contributions to the team. [Applause] The board would like to recognize the West PTOAC High School boys lacrosse team for winning the VHSL class 6 boys lacrosse state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Jessica Stats, director
018of student activities Matthew McDonald, and coach John Stamos for their contributions to the team. [Applause] The board would like to recognize the Hearnen High School boys soccer team for winning the class 6 boys soccer state championship. The board would also like to recognize principal Elizabeth Notto, director of student activities Zizel Barkcus, and coach Jordan Stephy Stef. Yes, Stephy for their contributions to the team. Where's Hearnen? Let's go Hearnen. The board would like to recognize the Robinson Secondary School Film Team for winning the VHSL film festival, best animation film, and best public service announcement. The board would also like to recognize principal Tracy Phillips, director of student activities Andy Jimmo, and team sponsor Jodie Hull for their contributions to the team. Congratulations, Rams. [Applause] The board would now like to invite members of the Robinson secondary
019school film team, school staff and supporters to please join the board at the deis for a photo. And we ask my colleagues to please remain at the uh front of the deis for the remaining photos. I would like to invite the H Hearnden High School boys soccer team, school staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. And West PTOAC, you're on deck. The board would like to invite the West PTOIC High School boys lacrosse team, school staff, and supporters to please join the board for a photo. Langley, you're on deck. I would like to invite the Langley High School boys tennis team school staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. TJ, you're on deck. I would like to invite the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology
020girls tennis team school staff and supporters to please join the board for a photo. Chair fresh. That was our last photo. Board members, please return to your seats. Agenda item 3.01, community participation. The next order of business is community participation. We welcome all community members who are here and those who signed up to speak this evening. Additional information about signing up to provide comments at schoolboard regular meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website at fcps.edu/schoolboard. During the sign up process, community members acknowledged they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and outbursts will
021not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks. Audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats, including when recording video or taking photos. We're grateful that you are here to speak with us uh today and thank you for your cooperation. Schoolboard members will be listening but not responding. Madame clerk, please call the first speaker. Student speaker number one. Good evening, Dr. Reid and school board members. My name is Mia and I am a rising 10th grader at Centerville High School. I'm here tonight to throw out suggestions on student input. First, the renaming of the school board student representative to be the superintendent's student advisory council's representative to the school board. As I have learned, SAC is the only body that is allowed to
022vote for who that person will be. Even a candidate who makes the final cut and is not a SAC member is not allowed to vote in the election. How democratic is that? From my understanding of the composition of SAC, there is no clear, fixed, or consistent way FCPS chooses their SAC representatives. It allows each high school sponsor to do what they want. Maybe the group who should choose the student rep should be all the students in SGA at each high school instead of 100 out of the 50,000 plus high school students. I do realize that most of SGA classes are not representative of their school community in terms of race and gender and most sponsors are not as diverse as our student body, but we must start somewhere for change to occur. Second, there should
023be three student representatives to the school board just like the board's three at large members. Third, for the student rep to have an official vote. Time for the school board to mention this to Richmond in an official letter every year until it happens. Fourth, for there to be student input and potential boundary changes. You all included us in the strategic plan, so why not here? Fifth, why does Langley, Madison, Mlan, and Marshall have their con have their graduation ceremonies at Constitution Hall? Is this a privilege or entitlement for these schools? Has FCPS ever asked a student like myself if I would like to have my ceremony there? This opportunity should be given to all high school students and on a rotational basis. finally for FCPS to create a yearly student congress conference where student leaders
024from the county student human rights ambassadors, academic clubs, youth groups, SGA sack, and more gather to network and tackle issues together. Thank you, Laura Jackie. Good evening, Dr. Reed and schoolboard members. My name is Laura Jackal. I'm a parent of three children, all of whom who who are have been or are being educated in FCPS. I've been a parent in FCPS for approximately 14 years, and I still have approximately 13 to go. As most parents say, my three children are completely different. But in my case, this is extremely true. I have someone who's twice exceptional, someone who's exceptional, someone who has Down syndrome. They're all different. For my middle child, we recently applied for advanced academics and she was declined on the first round despite extremely high nagleary and coagad scores. We appealed this decision
025and pursued additional testing as recommended. Um, and it is what I wanted to speak about today was about the level four appeals process in the county that we experienced. Thankfully, our school is extremely supportive and recognizes our child's intelligence and need for academic rigor and plans to place her in the level four classroom anyway where there is actually room. Of course, I was disappointed by a negative decision um by the FCPSAP program, but not entirely surprised since a lot of my experience with appeals in the county has had to do with supporting families with special special education needs. I did however appeal that I owed it to my daughter to appeal on her behalf. I was frustrated by the results of this overall and especially in light of us being um recommended to pursue additional
026testing. I do understand after googling that there are parents out there who are actually teaching their kids the cogniary tests and for that reason high scores on these tests can no longer be relied upon when determining placement for children. That's incredibly annoying but again not surprising given the parents that I have met throughout my 19 years of parenting in the county. However, when part of the appeals process involves the option to submit additional testing from statelicicensed and nationally board-certified neurosychologists who would obviously be at risk of license loss if testing was not completed and reported in a standardized manner. We have to consider what we should be what kind of weight we should be giving to this testing. As a healthcare leader, I am familiar with the discomfort of reviewing processes that don't seem to
027make sense. Um, however, I would encourage FCPS to continue to review these processes to make sure that we are actually giving um appropriate weight. Eileen Mavidy Hoffman. Great. Thank you all for having me here this evening. Uh my name is Eileen Mavity Hoffman and I'm currently a fourth grade teacher at Spring Hill Elementary School about to start my 13th year in public education. The vast majority of our curriculum occurs within the walls of our school, the exception being field trips. We largely select our own field trips and do so with an intentional alignment with our grade level curriculum. However, in fourth grade, one such field trip is not up to teacher discretion, but is instead mandated as part of our board approved curriculum. That trip requires that we attend a National Symphony Orchestra performance at
028the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. And while that field trip historically aligned with our curriculum and our district priorities, I argue that that's no longer the case. With the current administration exercising unprecedented influence over the Kennedy Center, the values once espoused by that institution are no longer in play and no longer align with FCPS's m mission to educate all students equitably. This partnership with the Kennedy Center has long existed and it was begun with the intention of exposing all of our students to highquality arts performances. It was a space that celebrated the inclusion of everyone in the arts and the ability of everyone to make a contribution to the worldwide art scene. However, the tone of the center has changed over the last few months with programs being cancelled by the center and by
029artists who no longer find the space supportive. It seems as if the Kennedy Center itself is cancelling programs with specific identities in mind, namely those of individuals who belong to the LGBTQ plus community. These performances include Finn, a children's musical created by well-known gay artist Chris Knee, and the NSO's performance with the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC as part of World Pride. Because of that, I think it is time that we reconsider and perhaps pause our district-wide partnership with the Kennedy Center. The space no longer aligns with our strategic plan, namely goal 4, which prioritizes equitable access and opportunity for all students. We cannot require our students and staff to attend a performance in a space that would deny some the ability to see their own stories and their own communities celebrated. As a
030district, we should George uh sorry, Todd Usher, Todd Usher, George Bera. Good evening, Dr. Reid and school board members. I'm here tonight on behalf of the Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee to get to give recognition to two people. First, condolences to the Hunter Mill District community on the loss of Supervisor Kathy Hudgens. Supervisor Hudins took it upon herself to read our annual reports and set up a meeting with our leadership to go over our reports for years. This was started because of the close relationship Supervisor Hudins had with Dr. Busy. I remember the first time Dr. Dr. Busy told me he was going to set up up the meeting with her and I I told him what I was scared to present her and answer the her tough questions. Dr. Busy said, "Don't worry, I
031will be there to assist you." I first met the supervisor when then chairman Bulliva stood up skipped and I was on it with Miss Hudgins. I was a by her passion and righteous truthtelling. As the skip created the one Fairfax policy, the discussion was turning to looking at people's social economic status. First, she interjected, "I'm not opposed to looking at economic status, but this country and county have never answered the question of race, but we are quick to jump to other variables first because uncomfortable conversations." Chairman Bolo said at Supervisor Hudins's last board of supervisors meeting, she was the soul of the board of supervisors. I personally missed her advocacy and presence. I miss her speeches from the DAS where she could literally drop the mic times. As the years went by, I learned from
032her staff that for some reason she made real time to me and liked to hear my opinions on different matters from education to social justice. That meant a lot to me. The second recognition goes to Miss Noel Clemenco, FCPS assistant superintendent of instructional services and the good honest work she has done in that role. She had a hard act of following Dr. Presidio and at that time MSAOC leadership was starting to trust FCPS FCPS again after years of tension. I personally did not give her much of a wiggle room because I did not know her. I was wrong in that approach. As the last few years have gone by since her hire, we learn that she was an ally and we could turn to her for for help and truthful conversations. I think I thank
033her for meeting with me this week and bridging hopefully a smooth transition to Dr. Riley. We wish her the best in her next chapter in her life and not to be a stranger. Thank you, Kathleen Mard. Good evening everybody and wow congratulations to all those amazing students, the National Merit Scholars, um the VHSL winners and the Rejgeran participants. I'm talking to you tonight about again about student safety um especially female student safety and the violation of their privacy and safety both in sports as well as bathrooms and locker rooms. In the past, I've spoken on the issue of human sex trafficking incidents in every Fairfax County public high school, some middle and some elementary schools. This is extremely worrisome when we see that the FLLE, socioeotional learning and human growth and development curriculum seem to
034some extent at times to be grooming students. I see where in December 2024, America First Legal won a major victory in its lawsuit against Fairfax County Public Schools. The Fairfax County Circuit Court ruled that FCPS's pronoun and bathroom policies violate students constitutional rights. The lawsuit filed on behalf of several students challenged policies that punished students for misgendering and allowed students to use bathrooms based on their gender identity rather than their biological gender. AFL argued these policies compelled speech and violated students. This case is still being litigated and I think has been forwarded to until September. Um, you know, yesterday, I don't know if y'all noticed, but uh this this America First Legal won a big lawsuit against Montgomery County Public Schools and uh a major financial um settlement. So, I'm really worried if this happens
035in September. I mean, the money you all are already short in your budget. Please don't use your money to fight an endless series of lawsuits. Maybe you're not going to. Maybe it will be settled, but uh I do hope that's the case. Um thank you very much, Doug Taylor. Uh good evening. I kind of had to rush here from another meeting, so I don't have any prepared comments. It's going to be a little off the cuff. Um, but I just want to talk briefly about uh facilities uh broadly. Um, uh, as you probably all know, we have a renovation queue that is very long and getting longer, well beyond the, uh, sort of standard practice of what the expected renovation cycle should be. Um, and then very recently, we have the King Abdullah uh, school,
036which is now going to have to shift to the left on the budget. Right? It was in the future projects. Now, it's going to have to be sooner. We're going have to find money for that. I don't know. We haven't said publicly how that's being funded if that's going to affect the renovation queue or not. Um we have done luring which I noticed on the consent agenda tonight is going to take a little bit more money to get just through that first planning phase. Um and costs are going up. It's net zero. It's you know COVID inflation. It's all these different things. The budget obviously with the county this year got tighter. um we have less and less money available and I'm concerned that we are prioritizing a little bit um without getting to the
037merits of Dunluring and KAA specifically but that we're prioritizing building capacity over taking care of our existing uh schools and I would like to see more emphasis put on that renovation queue because it's a little bit invisible that the school that would have been funded three years from now for renovation instead it's going to be four or five. we don't really see that, but stuff is getting pushed out because we have to prioritize uh the funding right now for for those construction projects. Um and given the CIP data, um I want to make sure that we're grounding those decisions to prioritize construction um on that data. And in the CIP currently, I'm just not quite kind of seeing as much of that severe demand as I am seeing the severe demand for renovation from schools
038that have backed up toilets and falling ceiling tiles and no heat in the band room um and and things like that. So, um yeah, that's my my my general comment is Chair Fish, that was our last public speaker. Agenda item 4.01, student representative matters. The board would like to thank Miss Sant for her service and dedication through her term this past year. And for the last time, let's give a round of applause for Miss Sant, our student school board member. Thank you. That I'm not going to cry. I'm going to make it through. Um, thank you so much. Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I am so so grateful to have been in FCPS since kindergarten, to have seen the site of FCPS this past year. Um, when I ran for student representative, of the
039many goals that I had, my biggest one was that I wanted to bring student voice to the table. And what I meant by that was let students see how the decisions are made on the other side of the table, how they can get involved in those decisions and how they can contribute to meaningful change that we make on this board. Um, and hearing from students across so many different schools with different opportunities and backgrounds, from varsity athletes to those who were really involved in student government to English language learners, I learned about what works and what doesn't, what things students see and what they don't or things that they wish they had that they saw at other schools. What makes one school different than another school. Our students are counting on us to make access
040to opportunities equitable. to make sure that the work being done on this board and the policy we approve, the excellence that we have in this county is not just in the strategic plan, but felt in every school, every classroom, no matter where in FCPS you are. There is so much that goes into what this division does, more than I could have imagined, and so much that I discovered this year. And I am so proud of all of the incredible things that I just got to be a small part of this year. um from pulling through with our budget on a very difficult year, collective bargaining for our teachers and payraises, our capital improvement plan, the boundary review, um healthy and diverse meals for all students, adding more courses and expanding opportunity to the CTE courses
041we have, the support for our military families, the excellence that we have in all our students. We had a room filled with students and all of the incredible things they've done. That's what makes us FCPS. But yet, there is always more to do. That's what makes this work so important, but also daunting. Issues that will continue to affect students far beyond my term are safety in schools and access to security and mental health resources when conflicts do arise. Moving into the rise of technology and AI and how that's going to impact learning and what classroom and homework look like, access to opportunities and afterchool programs as we continue to grow, as well as new courses. And lastly, something that I've really realized this past year is knowing how to engage in meaningful and respectful dialogue
042in a world that so desperately needs it right now. Knowing how to have those difficult conversations with each other, knowing how to respect each other, and teaching our students to do the same is going to be so important because no matter what change will affect us in the coming years, we have to continue to maintain that united united front that we are together in this. My hope for FCPS beyond me is that every student walks into their school knowing who their person is. Um, it could be a teacher, it could be a peer, it could be a board member, it could be someone on staff. Knowing that they have a voice, knowing that they are heard, knowing that they can ask for help and give feedback because that belonging is how we're able to make
043these changes on the board and progress FCPS into the years beyond that. Student voice is what builds that community. And so I just like to thank this board for having so much patience and grace with me this year. To the incredible students that I was able to hear from and work with on the superintendent advisory council and the secondary voices advisory committee. Um the leadership team, the instructional services team. Um to my parents and my mom who comes to every single meeting and stays for the entire time. um to my friends, to every teacher who has helped me along the way. To the teachers that have come to my schoolboard meetings, and my amazing amazing counselor, I could not have done the last four years without her. Um to the clerk's office and everyone who
044supported me with my onboarding. And I know there are so many other people that I haven't mentioned, but I could not have asked for a better year. And I'm just so grateful for how much I learned on this board and how many like cool experiences I got to go to. Um and I'm not very good at goodbyes. So, to close, I'm going to quote Winnie the Pooh. Um, that's what you guys all have, which is, "How lucky am I to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard?" Uh, this is not goodbye. I'm so excited to see what this board does in coming years. Um, I will keep in touch. I will follow. Um, so thank you so much. Yours always, Megan Sant. Thank you, Miss Sant. After a year on this board, Harvard is
045really going to be a letdown. Thank you. Agenda item 5.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D 2-3712D of the Code of Virginia. It's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on June 26, 2025, to the best of each board member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements, and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the board during the closed meeting. Do I have a motion? I move. Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, second. All those in favor, Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. Mclavine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Eismore Heiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning,
046and myself. That is unanimous. The motion carries. Agenda item 5.02, confirmation of action taken and closed. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who was responsible for a title 9 sexual harassment in violation of FCPS regulation 2118 and confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. Is there a second? I second. All those in favor? Miss Marin, Miss Dix, Mr. Mclavine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Eismore, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss St. John Cunning, and myself opposed. Abstensions. Miss Lady, the motion carries. I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion. I move to expel the student who committed a serious offense in violation of schoolboard policy by assaulting another student at school, specifically by strangulation causing injury. Is there
047a second? I'll second. Mr. McDaniel. All those in favor? Miss Marin, Miss Mr. McVine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Missheiser, Mr. Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning, and myself. That is unanimous. The motion carries. Agenda item 5.03, revisions to policy 8258, building evaluation, uh, building renovations, and infrastructure maintenance. I call on Miss Anderson for a motion. I move that the school board amend policy 8258, building evaluation, building renovation, and infrastructure maintenance, as amended and detailed in the agenda item attachment. Is there a second? I second. Mr. McDaniel. Miss Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, I would. Um, so that we have in in our past in Fairfax County, there have been moments that we have determined that buildings were no longer useful for us in in
048different ways. And many of those times, we've repurposed the building into something else. And unfortunately, we have one building that has been vacant for 15 years, and it is no longer able to be used for a number of different reasons. And this just gives the school board the the path forward to ensure that this doesn't happen in our county again. This doesn't happen within our school district again. So that if we are going to decide that a building is no longer inhabitable or no longer useful for the school district, then we will decide to dispose of the building at the same time that we make that determination. So the simple thing that happens here is that we're just adjusting this policy to include demolition as part of part of one of the actions. Mr. McDaniel,
049would you like to speak to your second? I I would just say that I I agree with what my colleague said. I mean what this policy amendment does is it effectively creates a roadmap in policy. Um in my view it creates clarity, certainty uh and really guidance for future boards. Um it it closes what you know um could be a a an area of limbo where buildings could be stuck in uh in in perpetuity or for a long time. And we we have an example of that and I'll bring you a follow- on motion to that effect. Um but really, you know, this policy amendment is something that I that I and I know my colleague here that's bringing it forward. Uh we view as a a a critical path forward uh for this division,
050especially as as infrastructure is on everybody's minds as we keep hearing over and over and over again. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. The Oh, Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Thank you for bringing this forward. I know that we do have to make sure that our policies are broad enough to be able to cover all of the different um scenarios. Um my think I think my biggest question about this is the timetable. How did we land on 36 months? Because it seems as if every Would you like to some time for an answer? What's that? Would you like to I would not I'd like for staff to then answer that. This is not a staff motion. And this is a motion by board members. So, how do I get it answered with our yield time to people you'd
051like to answer it? Okay, then I'm not going to do that. Okay. Um, so that's one of my questions regarding the 36 months. And I think the other um question that I had on this is would this require a CIP amendment of what is there CIP impact? I guess that's a staff question. I will defer to Mr. Foster. There's no CIP impact. Would you mind turning your mic on? It's not working. Oh, now it is. There we go. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Miss Marin. Yes. Thank you. And thank you, Miss Anderson and Mr. McDaniel, for all of your work on this. And um as I've shared with uh with you and with Dr. Reed, I think this really speaks to how the school board really needs to plan for time to focus on
052our facilities, this $ 8.7 billion. There is no universe in which this building should have been vacant for 15 years and we have to own that responsibility and also our board of supervisors because it's that public bond money. So, I am very supportive of actions that ensure that our buildings are not sitting vacant um and causing hazards. That said, I want to be sure I'm understanding a few things. So, and I had said to um the motion makers that I support this effort. I'm just re-checking the language though, and I think the language is different than what was shared on Monday in the email that I agreed to. Um it was saying something about when renovation costs would exceed 75% of a replacement value, but that doesn't seem to be what's posted in the red
053line. Um and I do have questions that Dr. Anderson actually was raising like I'm glad to see that in the red line in the updates it's saying that when a building evaluation determines that it's uninhabitable. Um, but maybe the best option is to sell the property and have somebody else deal with it or, you know, I think just immediately saying it has to be demolished. I would like more data and like I don't know how much that costs and so I I am okay with speaking to the need to be able to do some kind of action on a decrepit, uninhabitable building, but I'm not sure. Well, first of all, I'm not sure if it's the same language I agreed to. So, I would like that clarification, please. I don't know if it's just a
054clerical error. Um but some of these other things about um you know do we want to have other options? Is it immediately go to demolition when maybe you know we also have a park service that maybe they want land that can't withhold a big heavy building like is currently. Um so I uh I'd like to know more please if the motion makers and perhaps Dr. Reid could speak to that. Thank you Miss Mayor and Mr. Mr. Moon. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will be supporting this motion. However, uh you know, sometime soon I would like to have a some guidance from uh Mr. Foster as to what the school board's obligations are related to a surplus properties. You know, in the past when they were surplus property or properties declared a surplus by the
055Fairfax County School Board, I was under understanding that that had to be turned over to a governing body. Uh and and I want to have some clarification on those points. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Mr. Dixit, I'll be supporting this motion. Uh definitely 15 years uh sitting building not doing any purpose not so serving the county and our community that doesn't make any sense. Um I'm not in the favor of selling it to the third party or disposing it to anyone because the space and county is very limited now and it's just not possible to find the land anymore in the most area of the uh county especially that's we saw in the western high school situation. So, I would like to see what options we do have um when it when the time comes, but
056at this moment, I'd like to support this motion. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Dixon. Mr. Dunn, I I wanted to ask um the building evaluation, does the building evaluation uh who who commences that and um under what circumstances? Dr. Reid, sorry. Building evaluation, who commences that and under what circumstances? Uh, Mr. Dunn, this is a motion by uh board members. So, are you asking how Dr. Reid would implement the policy? Well, the beginning of the motion refers to a building evaluation. That is a motion by board members. Dr. Reid didn't write this. I I understand that, but she would operationalize it. That's what I just asked. Yes, Dr. Reid. Thank you. Uh, Mr. done. I think that um we would obviously have to do a building evaluation um to determine um whether or not this would
057be a building that is uninhabitable. And again in the red I think the red lines there are a number of reasons why it might uh be noted as uninhabitable. um and that building evaluation um likely would be done uh by a third party. I have the several I have a feasibility study um that's been done um and I it would likely be a third party. Thank you. I I guess I just um in in my district uh we have the original Manford in high school which um I I I don't I was not involved in the uh formal determination, but I believe it was considered uninhabitable whether it was a formal determination. I don't know. But now it's been repurposed into a multi-purpose facility um through um economic development authority bonds and uh historic renovation
058grants. And um I I just would I I support this motion. I think it makes sense. Um but I I hope that as you develop regulations to implement this, the building evaluation can include not just, you know, uninhabitable, not uninhabitable, but um are there potential alternate uses that are built into the front end so that demolition is not the automatic outcome? Because uh building something from scratch is very expensive as we all know in the modern economy. and and the building evaluation on the front end should I I believe encompass some assessment of whether you know third parties might be able to use it county might be able to use it or whether it might be able to benefit our community in a different way even if it's no longer able to serve the original
059function of a school uh just like the original Mount Vernon high school if it had been demolished as I believe was under discussion some years ago uh that would have been a tragedy both from a historic preservation standpoint but also an amazing amazing facility uh that is now able to serve the community. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Miss Anderson. Okay. So, we've had some good questions and I wanted to give some answers. First of all, this would only be the demolition would only be attached if a building has been determined to be uninhabitable. In the case that you're Mr. Dun, you're talking about, you're specifically talking about a time that we didn't own the building. We just determined that we weren't going to take it back from the county. So that wasn't our determination necessarily in
060terms of owning the building. It was about whether or not it was going to be of use of for us. And so in this case particularly um the 36 months is two bond cycles. That was the reason that we picked it. However, the funding does not have to be tied to a particular bond. If that's the case, that's why it wasn't so that's why it was recommended that the superintendent bring us back a plan related to how a building would be demolished. In this particular case, the building was determined to be uninhabitable. The school was shut down and then it's been left to sit. And so this intends to have it have us have an opportunity that if we ever say a building is uninhabitable again that we come with a plan. So it's the
061same because the the the report that was done that miss that my colleague is going to speak about in just a second um was 11 years after. So it was not it was not a and it was board directed to happen. So, this removes all of that in the middle part where it basically says that the superintendent can't bring us a recommendation that a building needs to be shut down because it's uninhabitable without a plan to remove the building. So, that's the idea. And then the other aspect that I wanted to say is if the 36 months doesn't work, that is why we've given the superintendent time to be able to come back and talk to us again. We understand that we're in a tight budget time. We don't know whether or not this is
062ever going to be able to be put in a bond or anything like that. And so we want the ability to for the superintendent to be able to come back to the school board and ask for an extension if she needs it. So those were all the the things that we did just to make sure that this was feasible in terms of how we're going to move forward with buildings. But we don't and um to my colleagueu's point that there was a section that was removed and it was actually specifically I know it was actually specifically removed because of a recommendation related to historic properties that I would hate to have historic properties fall into this doop. So that was why it was removed before it was posted. Thank you, Miss Anderson. Mr. McDaniel. So
063re real quick to boil it all down, what this amendment does not do is it does not deem things uninhabitable. What it does is it says if a building is deemed uninhabitable and in paragraph my Roman numerals I think four the bottom red line infrastructure assessment shall also identify buildings approaching end of life status to inform potential renovation or demolition planning and budget allocation. So if through the regular course of building evaluation we come to the conclusion that there is a building that is in fact uninhabitable and the board says yes we agree and we deem it to be such. This policy effectively closes a loophole where we could have a building like we have now sit for 11 years before an engineering report is commissioned to determine that it's inhabitable. So the policy doesn't
064force a building arbitrarily to be determined uninhabitable, but it does say that if this board or any future board decides to make that declaration, then you have to do something about it in a judicious and expeditious and reasonable manner. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Can we have the motion on the screen, please? Oh, sorry, Dr. Anderson. Go ahead. Thank you. I I very much appreciate Can I see that? The report that had deemed the building uninhabitable. So, thank you for that. Uh my other question um and thank you Miss um Anderson for speaking to the 36 months because I didn't know where that was arrived. So, this would be part of future bonds potentially. Okay, that's true because that's not part of the of the motion of the um adjustment here. My other question is to
065Dr. Re just kind of looking back when we have had buildings well I don't know if we've had any buildings that we have leased to other um entities do we have any such in fair in that Fairfax County owns that we have leased out that Fairfax County Public Schools has owned that we're leasing to somebody else? I would have to We don't have any. I would have to check. Do we? I think we do and I don't know which one it is but I think Mr. Fris does. Go ahead. Make it quick. Don't use yield a few seconds for me to answer. Graham Road. Okay. So, Graham Road, we've leased to whom? Fairfax County. I think we've leased space within it. I don't believe we've leased the entire building. I could be wrong though. But
066we'll I'll find out for sure. I know there's space leased. Sure. Sure. And this is kind of immaterial to this in a way but it's tangentially related. It just makes me wonder if we have space and I fully agree we should never sell any space because you cannot get that back ever. That doesn't mean we cannot lease such spaces because if we were to lease let's say this space would that could that be a condition of that vendor who is leasing the space to demolish it so it doesn't have to be at a cost to us. Just a wondering are you looking for a response? All right. Um I think that in this particular I mean the answer generally would be yes. In this particular site right now my understanding is that water is a
067concern. Um and that would very much so limit our options. Okay. Um I'll have more questions during the followup. I mean during the follow on but thank you. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Miss Marin. Okay, this is so interesting. I love this stuff. Um, so this policy change is asking for two things. One is that it will require, okay, that the school board shall direct the superintendent to initiate the process to demolish the structure. That gives me some pause. What if it's I know the whole issue is we want to at least put demolish on the table as a menu option, right? So could it say instead of it well shall direct we'll say you know demolition is now you know an option or the the school board can opt to direct or something that's not
068like that's the only path. So that's one thing. This the second thing is I agree with the second change that um you know required to do the infrastructure assessments and we are on that path of doing the regular building um assessments. The other piece though I wonder is does the board of supervisors have any role in this? Because this stuff is going to be used with CIP money from the EDA. And again, I just wonder and I'm also curious like do they have a policy? What do they do? Is it relevant to what we do? Um I guess ultimately I would love to see and if people what people think of rather than requiring the school the superintendent to initiate the process to demolish can it be you know the school board can initiate options
069including that of demolition so that it's in here it it has it as an option. Um I'll leave it at that. I I don't know that I would say no to the policy change on that front, but I do um I realize it's super timely also, but I also think this is why the governance committee needs to dig into all those CIP related policies and make some really great updates. Thank you, Miss Marin. The motion is on the screen. All those in favor, Miss Dixit, Mr. Meline, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Missheiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. I'm cutting in myself. Opposed abstensions. Miss Marin, how do you cast your vote? Oh, Miss Marin as well. Your hand was not up when I started at that end of the table. That
070is unanimous. The motion carries. I call on Mr. McDaniel for a follow-on motion. Okay. I move that the building at 7010 Clifton Road, formerly the Clifton Elementary School, is hereby declared uninhabitable. and I direct the superintendent to proceed with demolition and associated site cleanup as required by schoolboard policy 8258.3. I further move that the superintendent shall return to the school board with a plan for funding and general site layout for schoolboard approval within a reasonable time frame so as to meet the required timeline as prescribed in policy 8258.3. Should the superintendent for any reason be unable to meet the timeline, she must seek an extension from the board as outlined in policy 8258.3. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel, is there a second? I second. Miss Anderson. Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your motion?
071I would. Um on Saturday, it will be 15 years ago to the date that a public hearing was held and there was 150 people um in this auditorium and it was about the building that we're discussing this evening. Um but there was someone else in that auditorium who did not speak or have a vote or staff and that was me. Um I was here as a private citizen observer. um the vote to close at the time about a week or so later, it came with a promise to come back with a path forward on on the building. Um however, in the meantime, obviously, we know it didn't happen. Uh and in the meantime, there's been so much change. There has been so much debate, constrnation, political arguing and posturing on this building. Um, and there's
072even been a a once in a century pandemic and just life in general kind of got in the way. Um, but what hasn't changed is the unwavering commitment of that community to the memories that were in that building. And that commitment seeks them to strive for closure. Uh, it's no one's fault that that the building it just got lost in time, but it wasn't lost to Clifton. it wasn't lost to the town. So, I'm happy to bring this forward because it's time that we close this chapter and it's time that we bring closure to this. Um, I want to thank delegate Laura Jane Cohen, former member of this board who was able finally um to bring some progress to this when she had this architecture report done by Samah back in I think 2021. um
073which on page four says and I quote removal of the existing facility and retention of the property as a land asset is the recommended option primarily because the other two options which is renovation and demolition and reconstruction are less desirable by comparison. We've got it right here. That's the answer. I also want to thank Mayor Peterson and the town of Clifton who, if my colleagues did not happen to see, unanimously passed a resolution supporting tear down of this building and cleanup of the site. And lastly, I want to thank my colleague to my left, uh, Miss Anderson from the Springfield district where the facility sits for her unwavering support, counsel, and guidance. I think when I got on this board, I just wanted to barrel through a motion, say, "We'll tear the thing down and
074be done with it." Um, but you live, you learn, you work with your colleagues, you figure out the right path forward, and we got to a better spot because of that. We we we may have uh had some shouting matches at times on the phone, but that's okay. Uh because we're here now doing the right thing. So, I'm happy to move this forward. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Miss Anderson, would you like to speak to your second? I don't need to say much here. Um the the town of Clifton itself is a fairly small town. It's it's a small town in the middle of our our big county. Um however, the land area of Clifton is not small and lot many many of the people in Clifton feel a huge affiliation with the town itself. And
075so this being um the abandoned school on the hill has been has been a reminder for them for a very long time of what happened in their community. And I think that this is the appropriate step forward. It's a step in the it's on the right path. We don't know exactly what it's going to look like for this particular piece of land. That's not what this is about. This is about moving forward with a recommendation that the school board received in 2021 as to a path forward. And so we we firmly believe that this is this is the appropriate path and that it's a step for this community towards a resolution. So thank you Miss Anderson, Dr. Anderson. Um thank you. I I do remember Miss Lauren Cohen talking about this site when we were
076on the board together. So I know it's a long-standing issue. Um couple of things. One of the things that I I very much appreciated because I don't know if I saw this when I read this initially was whom would be declaring the sites uninhabitable. Um I I think for some reason maybe was a different language. I didn't take a screenshot. It was being declared by the board which made me very very worried because as essentially lay people who are not facilities I would not want to have this board declare any space uninhabitable. And I'm glad that we have a report and I would love for that report to have been posted as well. since it's kind of part of the record just to really show that this is not u an arbitrary decision on the
077part of the board but people who do this work have created it and that gives me a great level of confidence um the other question that I have is um for Dr. read on this as you are working through this um in terms of funding infrastructure pretty much all the plans the plans for if this passes the plans for demolition and the plans for what is to come at the site um I my wonder is the the funding piece I know we had the conversation just a little while ago regarding um the bond cycles could there be potentially other funds that are utilized to demolish this um building other than bonds because I know that tends to give people a little bit of a scare because we want those to be um reserved for um
078construction and renovations. Well, I think that um we'd have to do a full exploration of uh financial sources uh funding sources and I don't know this evening that I'm uh prepared to answer that directly and I but that would be part of your report back to us, your plan back to us. Yes, ma'am. Okay. Well, I I hope that there can be some others that are um explored um because I think that will give our community some comfort trying to have our cake and eat it too on this because we know what it means for a lot of communities waiting for their place in the queue. We just heard tonight from the gentleman who came. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Without objection, I'd like to direct the clerk to post the September 2021 Samaha
079report to the agenda item. Seeing none, if the clerk could do that at some point during the meeting, that'd be great. Thank you. Um, Miss Dixit, I'm going to support this motion as well, the follow on. And um one of the things I've done is um all my years living in central is pass through that school and seeing it sitting there and um and always uh that question why is it there when there's nobody going in the school and the building um inaction in my uh personal opinion is uh is uh worse than taking a making a bad action taking a bad action. So I I think we are doing the right thing here moving forward with all our plans and um policy changes. So I'll support this and I am excited to see what
080Dr. uh Reed brings back to us about uh the next next phase. Thanks Miss St. John Cunning. So first of all I want to thank Mr. McDaniel and Miss Anderson for all the work they've done on this and I will be supporting this motion. I will note that they are the only ones on this board that dawned on hazmat outfits to go look at the school. And the fact that they had to put on hazmat outfits should tell you something about the condition of that property. I will not ask for unanimous consent to post photos to the board agenda item. Uh, Miss Marin. Okay. So, I will admit when I don't know something and I don't know if I missed the motion that is being brought because I read what the motion maker sent me.
081Okay. The act of closing a school is a big deal and merits some conversations and even if it was sent on Monday, I I don't have the report. I mean, if Laura Jane did it, it was in the throws of COVID and I certainly don't remember it. I I cannot in any way right now tonight say that we are going to declare it uninhabitable when the superintendent hasn't even prepared a report to show us that and like what happens next? So it's uninhabitable and now what does the 36month clock start ticking? I mean we literally just approved it. She doesn't even have a second to even I I think it's really unwise. I don't think that waiting on this is a bad thing. Um I I know the urgency, but we also have a school
082board meeting in like two weeks and I think it's very reasonable to ask that all of the board members are, you know, prior board members may not have known about that. I was on the last board and I can't recall it. So, um and how much is it going to cost? I mean, to bring a motion like this forward, there should be a price tag on it. Um, well, it's not on on the motion. And again, you know, where am I supposed to look if it's not in vorox and it's not communicated to me? It's not up there. How could we possibly be voting on a motion when we do not know how much it will cost? That we cannot do that. So, I' I'd love more information. Otherwise, I would move to um the
083correct Robert's rules term would it be to not laid on the table but to for the next meeting and let's get that information and let's all come having read it. What would be the motion Mr. That would be a motion to postpone. So I I meeting if I can make that motion at this time. I would make a motion to postpone to the next meeting. Will the parliamentarian remind me if that needs a second and what vote threshold it has? Yes, that does need a second. It requires a majority vote. It is debatable, but only to the merits of whether to postpone. Okay. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Mave, would you like to speak? State your point of order. I already did. It's one moment. State your point of order. It's unclear the time
084frame that we're postponing for until the next meeting is what she said. Miss Marin, I have nothing further. I move to postpone it to the next meeting. Got it. Uh Mr. Mclavine to your second. Yes. No, uh this is a very historic decision um that we have to make here and it span the course of five plus school boards. Um so I agree that one two more weeks would not hurt us. Um and I too would like to see the Laura Jane Cohen report. Um so I'm appreciative of Miss Marin raising that. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Macke. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Foster, if the motion gets postponed and give us is that two weeks, Mr. Sherman, is it two weeks? We got two weeks. Yeah. July 10th. Two weeks. Uh, does that
085give you enough time, Mr. Foster, for you to provide us a legal guidance on surplus properties? I'm sorry, I couldn't hear the last part. legal documents on legal guidance. Uhhuh. Or legal points on surplus property. Yes, it does. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Miss Anderson. Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. McDaniel. So, on since I'm restricted to the motion to postpone, I will not be supporting. Um, this has been postponed for 15 years. This motion was sent in a timely manner. Miss Anderson and I made calls. We texted. We emailed in a timely manner. This was not brought last minute. This was not pulled last minute. Um so I will not be supporting the motion to postpone. I I appreciate the logic behind it, but uh this does not appropriate funds. This does not
086uh say that we're going to, you know, build swimming pools and a hotel on the site. What this does, it starts a clock, a threeyear clock, and it basically says, "Superintendent, using your expert staff within a reasonable time, come back to us with a recommendation for our approval for funding and for a general site layout. That is it. So, we're not approving funds. At some point, a board will have to do that." Mr. McDaniel, please confine your your points to the motion. I'm not supporting it. There you go. I'm done. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. As a reminder, the only conversation is on whether this should be delayed or not, Miss Dixit. So I'm reading about Clifton Elementary and FCPS website and it says here in and it's why I'm want to support this motion that
087in 2011 it was b vote closed by the school board 9 to2 and the reason of this one of the reasons of water quality problem bacteria maganesees lead copper uranium arsenic so forth in that in the in the at that time there was a problem so um 2011 11 and we are in 2025. And I'm just saying that this is where this bureaucracy takes its old toll that things don't get done. And I'm I'm definitely not in support of pushing it down further because at we need to take decisive actions and I'm taking one today. I'll be supporting this. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Dixit. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I just want to be clear. We all know this is a very long-standing issue. Um, what I believe I'm hearing from Miss Marin is that
088we just want to get a sense of the cost and we just want to take two weeks just to get that broad range. I don't think that's a very hard ask, especially if it's going to result in all of us being in support of this motion. It's two weeks. It's not as if the building is going to be demolished between now and July the 10th. So, I I would like to walk into every decision that I make with eyes wide open. And so knowing what something costs before I vote on it is paramount for me and I would like if we can get that kind of information in two weeks. I I'd like to have it because it's just one more component just to help with our decision-m. So I I hope it can be
089considered that this is just two weeks. This is not kicking the can down the line at all. This is not going to be another 10y year um issue. It's just two weeks just to gather a little bit more information. So I I will support your motion, Mr. done. I strongly support the motion to demolish this structure. Uh I defer to my colleagues who are responsible for the geographic area and my at large colleagues who are supporting it. Um but I do think given the recent months of discussions about constrained budgets that we do understand whether the estimated cost that was provided I believe a couple years ago is accurate in the current market environment. Um and if possible if those costs might be shared uh with the county or with the town of Clifton etc.
090um going forward. Thank you Mr. Dunn. Miss St. Cunning. Okay. So, as I read this motion, what I see is I further move that the superintendent shall return to the school board with a plan for funding. So, that's what she's going to bring to us. So, if we p pass it now, we're not spending any money. We're asking for the plan. So, it it doesn't make sense to me. So, um, I appreciate the spirit of the motion that was brought up by Miss Marin, but I think this is written within the previous motion. So, this is the motion I will support. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Seismore. Just so just to clarify when I read this follow on and I'll yield my time to the makers of the followon to answer the questions
091but just when I read it it's read to say we're directing the superintendent to move forward the demolition but move for the demolition to come back to us with a plan for funding within 36 months but if there's an extenduating circumstance we to seek an extension. So, it's not saying go demolish this regardless of what it costs. Oh, and by the way, come back because it's it is I will say a little confusing because it's written as two different. So, it's it's a little confusing. It's language. So, I want to clarify that's what you it's saying is that we're going to move forward with a plan to demolish it, but come back with a plan for funding first within 36 months. Is that correct? I'll yield my time to the maker of the motion. Sure.
092So the motion says that we declare it uninhabitable and it says that in accordance with our newly uh updated policy at H58.3, we initiate the process. Um that process is that it's basically operationalized at that point. It's out of this board's hands. Once we declare it uninhabitable, which this motion would do, the superintendent and her staff would have a clock started and they would have to come back within a reasonable amount of time to accomplish what the policy requires by the end of that clock, which is 36 months. If for any reason the superintendent cannot accomplish that, that's fine. She just has to come back and seek an extension. And that could be there's a random tenant that wants to spend $40 million to renovate a building and then lease it, which in this market,
093good luck with that. Um, that could be that, you know, the bottom falls out of the real estate market and there's just no money. That could be a host of issues. Uh, but what this motion does effectively is start the clock that fits within our newly adopted policy, if that makes sense. Thank you. I will pause my time for now and come back if I go back if I need it. Uh I'll take a turn. Um I think it's a long time coming here and uh you know when I voted for the policy change I knew that in part that policy would be followed right and so what this is doing is showing that the policy is going to be followed and it directs the superintendent to return with a plan and the funding um
094for the board to consider um and it gives it a timeline. I'm okay with those things. We're not committing funds. We're not committing action. We're committing to a plan, which I think is what people want to postpone for is what the superintendent would be required to bring back. So, I would be in favor of the follow-on motion. Miss Merritt. So, just to be clear, the reason why I'm asking to postpone it's now it's really more procedural. So, I don't know when you communicated this motion. I I just sent an email that I got from early June. I'm not sure if that's the one that says $7.5 million. That's what it would cost. I don't know. But I honestly have not seen this motion until I got to this day as tonight. So when there's talk
095about it's been 15 years, I literally saw it tonight. As far as process, the motion has three asks. The original motion action one, we declare it uninhabitable right now. Number two, we direct the superintendent to proceed with demolition and associated cleanup. And action number three is that the superintendent shall return to the board with a plan for funding and general site layout. I don't understand how the board can make all those actions when I know for me I haven't seen the report and I don't understand why we would want that and again it is two weeks and when I gave my full support to the original motion makers I did it with integrity and I feel like well I shouldn't say integrity I did it with full support but I didn't receive all the information
096either I said I support the policy change I did not know that what was being brought forth was to go ahead and demolish a school building without knowing the lost. So for those reasons, I think we should delay for two weeks at least. Ideally, I'd love to have a little more time, but at least two weeks. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mayor and Mr. Dunn. Miss Lady, thank you. Um, I appreciate the healthy conversation. Um, as I listen to my colleagues, I learn um questions I didn't ask. Um, things that I didn't address. Um, and I while I did tell the motion makers I was in full support, I similar to my colleague didn't fully understand um what the ask was going to be. So, I personally am comfortable with two weeks to
097learn more. Um, so I would support Miss Maron's motion. Thank you, Miss Lady. Mr. McDaniel, you don't have another opportunity to speak. Thank you, Miss Seismarhiser. Miss Seismarheiser. Yes, we'll take a fiveminute recess. A real five minute recess. [Music] Yeah, I just [Music] All right. Will board members please return to their seats. We have a motion on the floor to postpone until the next meeting. Um, Miss Anderson, I just um would like to say that I do not think that this requires that we postpone this vote. And the reason that I don't think that we need to do that is we direct the superintendent to go find us information all the time. That's the mechanism that we have as the board. Um, we know that the building is uninhabitable. We have we understand that other
098board members the even the ones that had received this report in 2021 when it was created for the school board didn't necessarily um remember this portion of it and I can understand because this is not in their district. So I I get that part. However, two weeks is not going to change anything for the for the condition of this particular building and we have the information that that we need in order to determine that the building is uninhabitable. So, I'm not going to vote to push this back any further. this community has been waiting 15 years for resol for a um resolution of this particular is issue and so but I do believe that one of our colleagues has an amendment to the motion um that would make things a little clearer for everyone. Thank
099you Miss Anderson. The motion is on the screen. All those point of order state your point of order. My motion mine and Mr. Malcolmy's motion to lay on the table for next time is still active. Correct. We're about to vote on it. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, I saw the language above it. No problem. All those in favor, Mr. Mavine, Dr. Anderson, the motion that's on the screen in front of you. We were motion to compose, Miss Marin, Mr. Mavine, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon. All those opposed, Miss Dixit, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore Heiser, uh, Miss St. John Cunning, and myself. Abstensions. Miss Lady, the motion fails if I'm not mistaken. That's 561. It's 561. The motion fails. All right. I call on Miss Seismoreheiser. Thank you. I would like to propose an
100amendment to the motion. State your amendment. I would like to strike the language that states I further move that and I would like to add the language after the first sentence to read before any funds are encumbered for demolition associated site cleanup before the phrase the superintendent shall return to the school board so that the new language would read I move that the building at 7010 Clifton Road formerly Clifton Elementary School is hereby declared uninhabitable and direct the superintendent to proceed with demolition associated site cleanup as required by school board policy 85 82 258.3. Before any funds are encumbered for demolition and associated site cleanup, the superintendent shall return to the school board with a plan for funding and general site layout for board approval within a reasonable time frame so as to meet the
101required timeline as prescribed in policy 8258.3. Should the superintendent for any reason be unable to meet the timeline, she must seek an extension from the board as outlined in policy 8258.3. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Moon. All right. Um would you like to speak to your motion Missheiser? Yeah, just briefly first I wanted just to clarify that the reason we can declare this school uninhabitable from my understanding from the makers of the original motion is because we have this 2021 site report from I think Samra and associates de Samur thank you declaring it uninhabitable. So it is not something the board is just declaring on its own. It is based on a report from an expert and I think that would be the path going forward under this new policy we just approved. Second
102of all, I think this makes it clear that we are not encumbering funds at this moment for this demolition. We are just following the policy that we just voted on for the demolition. But before we can encumber any funds for that demolition, the superintendent has to come back to us with a plan. And if she can't meet that time frame that's in the policy, then then she can come back to the board to ask for an extension. Um, I think this gets to the the spirit of the original motion, which is to um direct for the demolition without yet encumbering funds because we also recognize we are in a tight budget frame and as one of our speakers spoke very um eloquently earlier, we have major issues with our renovation cycle and the timeline for
103renovations and other maintenance and facility needs. So, I think this gets to what our motions were trying to do, makes it a little bit clearer and hopefully gives us a path forward. Mr. Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? Uh, without repeating what's been already said, I also want to wait until I want I also want to have an opportunity to uh be able to a read a memo, legal memo from Mr. Foster on surplus property as well because on the surplus property concept, there is a certain obligation on the part of governing body as opposed to us. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Miss Marin. Okay, I'm going to say this with as much respect intended as possible. The motion maker literally just said based on a report from an expert, we're going
104to do this. And just a few weeks ago, the board voted to disregard reports from experts about cell phone use in schools. My frustration is is that there's no consistency in process. Okay. When are we going to accept the report? When are we not? I don't have it. Why would the board want to want to post something and do something when not all the members are informed and we want to be informed? Secondly, to that point, it doesn't set us up for a win. I want to support this. I do. And I'm asking for the professional courtesy to have more time because honestly, the work was not done to appropriately inform me. So instead of supporting this now, I'm being put in a position to vote no or abstain. Why? I want to support the
105Clifton community. I want to support my colleagues. You know, this is supposed to be a united effort and it's this kind of stuff that makes it really hard to do the work. We've spent so much time on this tonight. I wish we would have spent this much time discussing it prior. So, I'm either going to have to decide I don't like to abstain. I try to hold that for when I really don't have the information and I don't want to vote no because I don't want the Clifton community to feel unheard. So, now I'm in this position and it just is not a great way to do the board work. Miss Seismore, do you want to wait till others speak since I speak to the motion? I'm the only one. Sorry. Um, I just forgot
106to say when I made the motion that one, I recognize the urgency of this given that the the community has been waiting 15 years. And I also wanted to thank the flexibility of the original makers of the motions for working with me on on a compromise that I think um might make some folks better understand what the motion is. So, thanks. Thank you, Miss Miss Anderson. I would like to say thank you to the folks who brought the amendment here. I think that it does clarify the language and I appreciate that. There was absolutely zero intention of us trying to hide anything or this was posted on board docs on Monday afternoon and an email was sent from the clerk that the information was all up. I'm sorry that there was confusion in in we
107and I believe in the in the original email that was sent related to this. There w we told we said that there was going to be a follow-on motion specific to the school site. So I am sorry for the confusion here. that was not the intention here at all. Um, as you guys will see, we also have a a supporting letter from the community that also says the same thing. And so the intention here is not at all um to cause any concern. And so I really appreciate the the makers of the amendment that will help make this possible. Thank you, Miss Anderson. Mr. Moon, just just a point of order. Uh, Mr. Chairman, this is on the amendment to the followup motion. Correct. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. McDaniel. I agree
108with what Mr. Anderson said and and thank you to Miss Seismarheiser for taking uh taking some body parts and go making it into Frankenstein. So, I giving it life. So, thank you. Uh because it it is a better way of reading it. It's a smoother way and it it certainly is the exact intent of the original motion that uh that I brought. So, thank you. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Just a couple of things. Um first, I do want to thank Miss Marin because I think absent some of her advocacy, we would not have landed at this place where we've had this follow-on motion because I think essentially most people were walking in here ready to just go ahead with it. So, that has to be recognized. So, thank you for pushing
109our thinking. Um, secondly, one of the things, and this is small, but I just want to raise it, and I will be supporting this, by the way, because I think it gets us to where we need to be. We need to go into this with eyes wide open, which means we're not going to encumber any funds until we know how much it's going to cost. We should not be saying open check, just go. There has to be some sort of parameters because we don't have just we don't have a money tree out back. So, we I know as much as everybody would love that, we have to know what our parameters are because if this comes back at $50 million, I bet you some of us will think about this differently because that's a school
110renovation. I'm not saying it is, but it's a per in um for instance. Just my only kind of thing here just to kind of nitpick a little bit is we are not declaring the building uninhabitable uninhabitable. I want to be sure because it's been declared by that report by people who are in place to do this kind of job. So I just want to be sure that there's no communication that it is the board that is declaring the building uninhabit uninhabitable that it is already declared uninhabitable. We're just supporting that designation. I I I really want to be clear about that because I think this a slippery slope when it comes across as the board is making this decision. But thank you Miss Marin as well. Thank you Dr. Anderson. I'll take a go back.
111Um and to confirm my thinking is that we are confirming the results of the uh Samaha study uh from 2021. Uh if I could yield a moment of my time to the sponsor. Is that correct, Mr. McDaniel? That's correct. Thank you. All right. The amendment is on the screen. All those in favor of the amendment on the screen from Miss Seismarheiser, Mr. Moon, Miss Dixit, Mr. Mackin, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismarhiser, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning, and myself. All those opposed abstensions. Miss Marin with Mr. Dunaway from the table. The motion, the amendment carries. All right. Can we now have the amended language on the screen, please? for the language as amended. Thank you. You need to go to the amended language. Thank you. There you go. In the
112quotes. All right. All those in favor of the amended main motion, follow-on motion, Miss Dixit, Mr. Macke, Dr. Anderson, Mr. McDaniel, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. Junk Hunting, and myself against abstensions. Miss Marin with Mr. Dunaway from the table. The motion carries. All right. Agenda item 5.0. We'll go with four. Yes. 5.04. Proposed revisions to governance manual regarding proclamations. I call in Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the board approves the edits to the board's strategic governance manual regarding proclamations as detailed in the documents attached on board docs. Is there a second? A second. Miss Anderson, Miss St. John Coney, would you like to speak to your motion? Um, I would just like to say that there's been a lot of conversation and work that has
113gone into this so that we honor the intent of proclamations in a way that's effective and that is efficient and that is fair for everyone. Um, I really want to thank all the members on the board for some very uh robust discussion on how this came about. Um, and some great suggestions. I also want to thank um Miss Anderson for making it all font font uh font fantastic I guess because that's her thing that she likes to do. Um so it's just a way to stream streamline and get our proclamation language to be effective and efficient. So, I really want to thank everyone uh on the committee that helped make this possible and I really want to thank them all for amazing input. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning, the fontastic Miss Anderson. It's not
114just fonts. Um the idea here is to the the changes that were made and we we had several iterations where we brought this to PEC specifically is that we wanted to make sure that we were codifying what we were actually doing. And so it does things like it it puts in language related to our recognition ceremonies and talks about how we do recognitions. It creates a calendar for the board so that they can see where everything is. So if you want to bring a particular member brought proclamation that you'll know when it would slide into the calendar effectively. June is not a great month for that just so you know. Um, but otherwise this and it also puts into language things that I that when we had done a previous change to the proclamation process
115earlier this year, it was with the that intention that we were going to come back and make sure that this was all coming coming through. So, I am grateful that we did this work to to kind of make this clear. Our board has done quite a bit of work related to proclamations um as the last did as well. So, I'm hopeful that we're on a good path here. Thank you, Miss Anderson. I call on Mr. Mavine for an amendment. So, I move to amend the schoolboard proclamations and other acknowledgement section of the strategic governance manual to add advisory committee members to the annual list of proclamations under the category seven staff and volunteer recognitions. so that this proclamation is considered an annual proclamation and not required to be brought every year as a school board
116members member-driven proclamation. Thank you, Mr. Makave. Is there a second? Second. Mr. Moon, I'm going to try this. Without objection, can we adopt the amendment? Seeing none, the amendment is adopted. Thank you very much. We're back to the amended main motion. So, it now includes the language for Mr. Mine and Mr. Moon. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Um yesterday I think I had the opportunity to ask the clerk some of these questions but I don't think I was around she as she was doing the research. Um the chart that is on the last page which by the way is a great chart very appreciative of it. Just lays everything out really nicely. Uh my wondering is regarding the move of national principles month from October which is a national recognition to January. Um, I would love
117to hear why that move was made. I don't know if Miss Settllo if you were able to find some research because we have a lot of national recognitions here and I would love to keep that consistent. Miss Setlo if you'd like to respond. So when we did the research we found that there are different principal weeks, days, months all throughout the year. Um, Virginia recognizes it in January. there is the um the one in October. So there are different places that we could do it. Um I think it just depends on what the board would like to do. Thank you for that information given that we are focusing on the national um recognitions and this is the space where we've done it for the past forever and personally as a principal that has as somebody
118who was a principal for 17 years it was always October. I would very much like it to go back to October to be in alignment with the national recognition spa um timetable. We're not opposed to that. We were following what Virginia has done, which Virginia is doing it in January. And so that's why when I asked the deputy clerks to work on the timetable for things, we had put it into January, but we're obviously not opposed to moving it back to fall in line with what the national um where the national recognition is. will obviously do the will of the board. Um, Mr. Chair, may I ask if there are any objections to this to moving it back to October as the National Principles uh appreciation month? Are you asking? I'm asking you to ask
119if there are any objections cuz I can't ask. Is there any objection to moving this to October? Seeing none, if we can adjust the copy. Thank you. Um, and my second question was, um, how we do the proclamations. I'm hoping for a little bit of clarity because I think something, but I'm not 100% sure. It was definitely my advocacy when I worked on this back in September to try to move some of the um, school recognitions off of the schoolboard members um, to allocations for the year. And I did say a good next step will be to kind of do it the way that we do the VHSLs, which is everybody comes and we kind of have a big party. But the question that I have is will there still be a proclamation or will
120we just read a sentence? Because the pro go ahead. What it would most likely be is that it would be similar to what we do at the VHSL where there's a small paragraph, but we're not necessarily writing a 500word proclamation for every single school. Um, given what goes into these proclamations, typically we rely on schoolboard member staffers to help with the school anniversary proclamations because the clerk's office doesn't know your school community the way you and your staffers know the school community. So, we require assistance for that. Um, it would take it's it's quite a bit to write those proclamations. I know the staffers it does take up their time. Um, and we don't necessarily have consistency right now with the proclamations for school anniversaries. So, some schools are getting really good proclamations. Some schools
121don't necessarily have their school anniversaries being recognized. So, we would try to uh do it in a more uniform manner, which would be more similar to what we do with VHSL, where we would have a small paragraph that each schoolboard member would read. Yeah. I I thank you. Thank you for that. I also I almost think that that um diminishes what we're trying to do, which is to uplift all the wonderful things that are happening in that school by just saying, you know, Sleepy Hollow 70 years. Thank you. The proclamations really speak to the very special things that are occurring in these spaces. So, I I'd like to find a path for us to not be limiting to that paragraph because the other thing that happens, especially in my community, the delegates and state senators,
122they come out with these huge proclamations. And so I want to match that energy and not have you know the one sentence here again when we provide it in terms of coming as a collection I think is definitely the right way to go. what we provide I believe needs to be expanded beyond that paragraph and it doesn't have to be a five paragraph but it has to be more than what we do for the VHSL recognitions because otherwise if schools don't have something to take back to put up on a plaque on their walls it just I think diminishes the entire um recognition so I would love to figure out what is that space for us to create more of a proclamation but still in the collective space where we're not peppering these throughout board
123meetings So we would do a certificate similar to what we do with BHSL. So they would still have something that they could hang up on their wall. Um so that's still something that they would have. We have a certificate that we do for VHSL. So we could do that for the school anniversaries for the quarter uh quarter uh year celebrations. We do note those to be different in the writeouts. And part of that is is because that would allow for those bigger anniversaries for us to do something that is a little bit more involved if that's the will of the board. So that's a 255075. Correct. So then school board members would still be responsible for writing that given what you've just talked about in terms of us knowing our community with our staffers. We
124would still be responsible for providing the language. We would work with your staffers to make sure that we have accurate language. Yes. Similar to what we do now. So if we wanted to provide language for those that will be in that big setting but were not at the quarter mark, why would we not be able to do that? It's not that you couldn't do it. I think my concern is is whether we are having equity amongst our schools if we have some school board members doing it for the for the um years where it's not the quarter. If we have some school board members doing it and other school board members not doing it, then you have some school communities who may feel like they are not getting the same type of acknowledgement, especially if
125you're doing it all in one ceremony where we're reading a much larger proclamation or language for one school, but then we're not doing it for another. And I don't want that's why we had singled out more donut for the quarter mark so that they are getting the acknowledgement because those are bigger anniversaries and so that we are creating more uniformity amongst our schools. I thought I heard my time but I have more things to say. You did. All right. Thank you Dr. Anderson. Um Mr. Mine thank you so much. So um this has been great work by Pek and I want to thank Miss Anderson and Miss St. John Cunning for shephering it. Uh we ha have had um some good conversations um and uh this has been made better by my amendment being adopted.
126Thank you everyone. Um I will say there's some pieces of it that um you know just having come from a different era on this board uh that still give me pause and make me reflect. Um so I do um I I am a bit disappointed that we are doing away with um staff recognition proclamations. Um I thought that was a nice way to um acknowledge departing folks. I understand that people can still bring them as part of their individual um proclamations, but um anyway, I I will I will miss having that opportunity to recognize uh folks. Um and there are other things. I will not dwell on them, but uh I do think this is overall uh good work. So, thanks to everyone. Thank you, Mr. McVine. Uh Miss St. John Cunning. So in terms
127of the school um proclamations and we did have a robust discussion about that and it doesn't preclude us from going to those schools and as board members you know celebrating them. uh we do know our schools better and though our delegates and state senators can give a huge proclamation I think that we can walk in to that school and have a letter or something that we write because we actually know the people. So because if we have you know a huge wonderful proclamation does not mean as much as the words that we as schoolboard members speak when we come to that specific building and we can actually acknowledge and and talk about the people that we know there, the parents, the work. And I think that what the idea is is to acknowledge and honor
128the anniversaries and the birthdays, but to honor them like knowing them like we're giving the meaningful gift, not the gift that is the most showy and fancy that is not as meaningful. And so I know that I have gone to individual schools and I don't have a proclamation, but I do speak to them. when I do speak to their staff in their staff meetings and can just speak to them and talk to them about I know you're doing this in this classroom. I know you're doing this here and and and sometimes even when they invite the community and I guarantee you that is more meaningful than a huge proclamation from someone that really doesn't know the people in the building. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. Miss Lady, yeah, this might not be the right
129place for this, but this is something that bothered me as an employee and bothers me as a schoolboard member, and that is the, hear me out, the uh schoolboard character award, because it really is a community service award. And I don't know if it's the application that needs to be changed. It's very much a community service award and not a character award. And even when you read the proclamation, the first because I pulled it up from last meeting, you know, strong in and I knew Chris Jarelli, he was a he was a Marshall student when I was there. It says continuous record of high high morals, strong integrity, and good character exhibits such characteristics such as respect, responsibility, honesty, compassion, justice, and generosity. And I've followed it for years as we put people forward from
130Chantilly who had fantastic character and realized it's just the application asks a lot about community service. So, I don't know where we I don't know who's responsible for the application, but I'm elevating that here to whoever's listening who might know where that is that we could take a look at it and make sure it's a truly a character award, which does encompass community service, but not community service isolation. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady. I'll take a turn. Um, so one of my favorite ceremonies that we do every year is the retirement ceremony. And uh as they work their way through the retirees, there is a short paragraph um written with the loving help of the people who know those employees best um that is read as they receive their recognition um in their retirement.
131And so, uh, while you can certainly pack a lot into 500 words, that doesn't mean that you can't do something extremely special for a school with a short paragraph read by the board member and collaborated in the, you know, drafting between the board member and the clerk's office. Um, you know, and I can I can envision the clerk's office putting together a process of uh deadlines for submitting drafts and, you know, collaborating and whatnot, providing samples so that people have an idea of maybe different ways to construct them if they're having trouble, etc. So, I think this does a good job of balancing between uh the extensive proclamations that uh we've been doing uh reserving those for very special anniversaries. um you know and um uh and something that respects the time of the people
132who are in the room um and uh the people waiting to participate in our meeting at community participation uh people who are waiting for staff presentations uh etc and it brings uniformity to something that was only board member driven really um which um you know I thank Dr. Anderson for elevating these as an idea and us coming to this point. So now we'll be recognizing every school uh on these anniversaries and I think that's a great thing. We have some gobacks. Dr. Anderson. Yes. Thank you. Um just very quickly I wanted to just kind of respond to what Miss Lady was just talking about. So the schoolboard character award, is it your advocacy that that be renamed the schoolboard community service award? No. Okay. I want it to remain your time. No, be quick. I
133want it to remain the character word. I want to look at the application because I feel like it pulls community service heavily. Okay. So, it's the application that is not aligned. It's not the title. Okay. Thank you. Um because I was going to offer something else. Um I I probably will offer something at some point down the line. It doesn't need to be done today. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. All right. Right, we have a motion on the screen. All those in favor of the motion on the screen, Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. Mavine, Dr. Anderson, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismheiser, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss St. John Cunning, and myself. That is unanimous for board members at the DEIS. Congratulations. The motion carries. All right. Agenda item 5.05, new intergovernmental contract, George Mason University early, EIP.
134May I call in Dr. Anderson for a motion? Thank you. I move that the school board approve the contract for early identification program and to authorize the division superintendent or the director of the office of procurement services to execute, deliver, and administer the contract on behalf of the school board. Is there a second? Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, would you like to speak to your motion? Thank you. I wanted to take this opportunity to pull this off of consent because I I think it's a great time to really highlight what this will actually do for our students. It is very little. This is very unknown even to board members. I'm sorry. Oh, this is not very well known even to board members in terms of what is the EIP program, what does it do for our
135students, what is the application timeline. So, I I would love for Dr. Prescidio, I'm so sorry I didn't give you advanced warning on this, but I would love for you to speak a little bit to what this really does to our students. It is a tremendous opportunity for our first generation students. So, I'd like to use this as your little infomercial. Well, thank you for that opportunity. We appreciate it. This is a great program. It actually dates back to uh the 1980s, the relationship that we've had with George Mason University. Um, and George Mason University provides uh academic support, tutoring, mentoring services to students that would be first generation collegegoing students. um not only do they provide that support to the individual students, but they also provide support to the families of those students to
136really help them understand what the college uh selection process looks like, opportunities for financial aid. Um and it really is a very comprehensive program where those students that are selected for the program uh while in middle school get support all the way through high school through the college admissions process. The students that complete the program successfully are guaranteed admission to George Mason. Uh but many of those say that once more. Yes, absolutely. The students the students that complete the program are guaranteed admission to George Mason. Um students though do have obviously other options and many do pursue other universities uh that they enroll in, but 98% of the students that complete this program graduate from college successfully. So, it's an incredible return on an investment. Um and it's really life-changing, not just for the students,
137but for many of their families as well. So, I appreciate you giving me a minute to speak to it. Thank you. There's just one more question. What is the application process? When should families be looking out for um information on this to have their students apply? Because this is a five-year support from grade 8 to grade 12. Yeah. So optimally students in seventh grade would be on the lookout for this so that they can start working on their application uh be admitted into the program in eighth grade and then transition and get those support services really beginning in ninth grade. So um it doesn't mean that you can't apply uh later but that would be the optimal time to do it. Thank you for that. I I think that's one of the spaces where we
138can do a little bit better as a school division because so few families are aware of this um opportunity. And I know that the new director of this program at GMU is looking to grow this program because she mentioned that at the graduation just a few weeks ago. And not only and I'm glad that you mentioned this Dr. Presidio. Not only are the students supported, the families are supported. Even when the new classes are being inducted, there's a pledge that the students have to recite in that induction. And there's a pledge that their parents have to recite in that induction. It just really brings it as a full circle community wraparound service for our students whose path through post whose paths to post-secary opportunities may have been limited if they did not have access to
139this. I could not speak highly enough of this and I do want to say that Arlington had way more graduations than we did than Fairfax County. I I still have the program at home and they are way tinier than we are. Thank you, Dr. Prescidio. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Mr. Moon, would you like to speak to your second? Thank you, Mr. Shim. I just wanted to support a Dr. Anderson's desire to have this discussion and and ask questions. But having said that, I remember the days when we have more students going through this program than other jurisdictions. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Mr. Dixit, so I have a question on this. Um I understand this is for first generation families. Um is there um a reason that GMU or has kind of kept it to just
140that and not addressing the economically disadvantaged families or other um socioeconomic groups which are at disad disadvantage. Yeah. Again, you know, this is a program that dates back to the 1980s. Um, so I don't know kind of the guidelines um that this program was developed under. Um, but I do think it's important to point out that George Mason offers similar programs for other student populations. So they do have direct admissions opportunities for students that maintain a certain GPA and take a certain course load uh while in high school and provide additional support to those students through the application process as well. So they have other programs, but this this one is really targeted at at first generation families um to really provide that additional boost and support for folks that u might not have the
141background to really understand the application process. Okay. So thank you so much. Um I definitely would like to explore other programs uh like you said um for our students which less economic means and if they're able to get into these um this type of program. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Dixit. The motion is on the screen. All those in favor, Miss Marin, Miss Dixit, Mr. Macke, Dr. Anderson, Miss Anderson, Miss Seismore, Heiser, Mr. Moon, Miss Lady, Miss A. John Cunning, and myself with Mr. Duna away from the table. That is unanimous for board members present. Mr. McDaniel's also away, correct? And Mr. McDaniel's away as well. Thank you. Agenda item 5.06, 06 approval of the 520 2025 budget committee minutes. I call on Miss St. John Cunning for a motion. I move that the
142school board approve the minutes of the May 2020 2025. Can you hang on one second, Miss St. Cunning? I call on Miss Marin for a motion. I apologize. Okay. Thank you. Sorry, just one minute. Um, okay. Um, I move that the school board approve the minutes of the May 20, 2025 budget committee meeting with leave for the clerk to make grammatical and formatting edits. Is there a second? Second. Miss Seismore. Miss Marin, would you like to speak to the motion? Oh, yes. And I actually thought we were going to do it with uh without any objections, but this is the the motion is on the amendment and now we have to excuse me. The motion is on the minutes and that'll be followed by the motion on the amendment. Okay. This was on consent. I
143pulled it because it had an error. The minute said that schools could carry over 25% of their budget into the next year. in the conversation about funding for arts as special ed chairs and I corrected myself in public that day to say no it's not 25% of the whole budget it is 25% of the remaining budget of the school that's what they could use and because that that topic was so critical I didn't want it it to go in that mistake so it didn't get caught in time and I want it to be correct I hope you can support it thank you misshiser no I'm good thank you thank you Sanderson. Can I ask Miss Burton to clarify whether or not that is the correct language? Because I believe that it was only 25% of
144the logistics money that was left over. Is that correct? It's 25% of a selected listing of accounts budget, but only if though they have 25% of those accounts available. Thank you, Miss Anderson. I'll speak to this as well. Um, we are not voting on the context a school division is applying uh to the subject. we are clarifying the context that a board member said at a meeting. So whether I could have said in a meeting the sky is purple and if the minute said the sky is green, just because the sky is actually blue doesn't mean regardless of the minutia in between um it doesn't mean that the minutes can't be corrected to reflect something that another colleague may not see as precise. All right. Um, I call on Miss Marin for an amendment. So,
145the that the May 20th, 2025 budget committee minutes revised be amended by striking the language quote to carry over 25% of their budgets quote and inserting the language quote to carry over 25% of the remaining balance of the school's annual budget quote in its place. Is there a second? Second. Miss Lady, Miss Marin, do you need to speak to your amendment? No. All right. Without objection, can we adopt this amendment? Thank you. The motion carries. Agenda item 6.01, academic matters. I call on Dr. Reid. Good evening, Chairman FR. members of the board and uh the community this evening it's my pleasure to talk about academic matters um and this evening the team put together uh a deck related to the portrait of a graduate and so in um which means that in 2025 we've celebrated
146our 11th anniversary of the inception of the division's portrait of a graduate and um I think it's clear that the durable skills uh I think this is where we are Janet. Thanks. Um as with any complex ability to reach profic proficiency in the portrait of a graduate, it was it requires a student to understand a number of different We're on the next slide, I'm sorry. Um a number of different skills. Uh for example, the com the uh communicator attribute includes skills related to reading, listening, speaking, writing, and understanding the nuances of doing these in a digital and in-person setting. Um each attribute contains a set of specific skills that the 2014 school board crafted and adopted. So these are all on the screen and uh for many of you these are uh quite familiar. So
147one of the things that we think about uh we've codified the value we place on the student development of these uh skills in two measures of our strategic plan both uh goal three and goal five and the commonwealth now requires all students that to acquire and demonstrate foundational skills in Virginia's five C's. Um these are articulated in the Virginia profile of a graduate. question that commonly asked is how do we know and how do we measure these skills? So we ask the same questions here in Fairfax County which is why we have the um portrait of learning. Um I think that's what POG pole stands for. Uh so the implementation progress of uh the presentation of learning. Um so all students at all levels learn about these skills and the um presentations of learning are
148an articulated assessment experience for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. um students add evidence to their learning and skill growth to a portfolio over time that they use in this culminating presentation of learning and it's really I think an opportunity for students to show um essentially show what they know and what they've learned in a unique way. So some examples uh are on the screen here. There are different uh pictures and at this point if you could play the video please Miss Brown. So when I look back on my elementary school experience, I really remember the PBLS and the things that felt different because it wasn't just about learning the material, then doing practice, but it was about students getting to work together, build things, innovate new ideas, and then share that learning with others.
149And that was Portrait of a Graduate. The skills that Portrait of a Graduate has, those skills are used everywhere. But what's so important about the presentations of learning is having students reflect on that and make that connection because that's truly how they grow. I'd say that I've seen these skills in other parts of my life outside of school as well, especially being a graduating senior this year. I've seen it when I apply for job interviews, um, when I filled out my college applications. And colleges ask the same questions. They ask you to reflect on yourself. What are your greatest strengths? What are your greatest weaknesses? My role this year let me see so many different student experiences and school experiences from elementary to middle and how they were using portrait of a graduate presentations of
150learning. Yeah, two um things I love um vivid and works and um handsome training but that's like not really much compared to this. A foundational part of POG practices is students learning how to purposefully reflect on their learning throughout the year so that at the end of the year they can celebrate and share their personal story of growth, building that confidence and pride. Many elementary schools have done this with schoolwide reflection times. Some are making this happen through elementary specialists like art, music, PE, and some are even bringing families in as part of schoolwide celebrations that are amazing for everyone involved. Sometimes if I'm sick or school is out, I spend the day making books uh with my imaginations or asking endless questions to my parents. You ask endless questions to your parents. Do they
151always have the answers to these endless questions? No. So, where do you find the answers if you can't get them from your parents? I use my imaginations, think of what the answers are, and use different things like textbooks to help me figure out if that's actually right. I am a communicator at home when I maybe write something about myself or I talk to my mom about how I'm feeling when I get upset. I think just watching these kids grow from quarter 1 to quarter 4 is incredible. I think when you get all these papers coming home every day, you've kind of looked through them and you're in the shuffle and the hustle of getting your kids home from school and getting snacks, but being able to sit down with them and take the time to
152really look at how they've grown throughout the year and have them explain it in their own words is priceless. Um, it was really exciting when I like finished my portfolio and I looked back and like saw everything I had done. I was like, "Oh my gosh, wow. I can't even I can't believe I did that." that I just felt really really proud of myself and proud of the work that I had accomplished. So, we've been using our advisory period to give students an opportunity to learn about different skills throughout the year. And then periodically, we've had students reflect on how they've been using those skills both in their classes and outside of school. They've put together a portfolio so at the end of the year they can look back and see not only how they've
153used those skills in a variety of different ways, but also how they've grown and developed those skills over the course of the year. We really felt like this was a natural addition to our advisory content because that time is really dedicated for students to have some support with academics and work on school work, but also to build skills that they will need once they leave our school um and get ready for their career, college, whatever their post-secary plans might be, and just to help them grow as better people as well. Yesterday I got to go back to my elementary school and talk with some fourth graders about my experience with portrait of graduate and also learn about some of their presentations of learning that they were doing. And it was just so incredible to see
154the connections that they were able to make to the skills that I was not able to do when I was in fourth grade. It was very full circle to see my elementary school still implementing portrait for of a graduate not the same way but better than it was for me. And I hope that that just continues because it planted a seed in me. And now graduating high school, having all these skills, knowing how to use it in college, I know has set me up really well. And I hope that that can be the same for every FCPS elementary schooler, especially as they move through the program. All right. Thank you, Miss Sant. Um, it's kind of deja vu to go back, isn't it? You're never really back. So anyhow, we just heard Megan share her
155portrait of graduate skills and how they're going to she's going to take those with her um into her next chapters and we're really excited for that. Um as we move forward this coming year, uh the practices we saw in the video and those that led to the culminating presentations are reflected within our division focus on inclusive practices. And we seek to prepare all our students to truly develop agency which means they'll be purposeful, reflective, resourceful, authentic, strategic and actionoriented. So that is academic matters this evening. Mr. Chair, thank you Dr. Reid, Miss Seismarheiser. Thank you. And Dr. Reed, you know, um I first I want to thank the previous board for putting a portrait of a graduate in place. I think it was pretty groundbreaking work at the time or a couple boards ago. Um
156so I want to thank you for that presentation. A couple things I would really love to talk to you about. When we um worked on the grading policy and governance, we had quite a robust and I think good conversation about what is the purpose of K12 education. Is it to teach the education the knowledge that students need or is it to teach them the knowledge and the skills they need to be successful? And um I would argue that our purpose here is to teach students the knowledge and the skills. and especially in a world which is gonna be for their world much more dominated by AI right and in a world that they've grown up with with smart devices in their hands there's a lot of information at their fingertips but having the knowledge to
157know what is right or wrong and the skills to critically analyze it to think through it to be creative in how they connect with it those are the skills and everything I read about what employers are looking for what an AI world is looking for and what colleges are looking for. Those are the skills. How do you think critically? How do you communicate effectively? And how do you collaborate with a variety of people? How do you have the resilience? How do you have the grit? How do you plan? How do you organize? Without those skills, the knowledge is not all that helpful, right? Because you don't know what knowledge is true and what knowledge is false. So, I'm really glad to see this. I would love to see this really expanded and and embedded in
158all of our teaching and in teaching our kids and especially again people are afraid of AI. There's some people want to you know don't want to talk about an education. In my opinion AI is like the calculator moment or the steam engine or electricity or the internet. It brings good things, it brings bad things, but it's here and we've got to prepare our students for a world of AI, right? And how do they distinguish themselves? There's already new careers in AI, right? Prompt engineering is a whole new career. AI ethicist is a new career. There's going to be more. And our children need the skills to be successful in that world. And in an AI world, it's not just the coding skills or the machine learning skills, right? It's the creativity to take what AI
159spits out and know what to do something with it, right? It's the collaboration and working with others to create innovation to be entrepreneurs to use AI as a tool and not let AI use them. And that is what we need to do in K12 education. And these portrait of graduate skills are the foundational skills. That's why I think the board that put this in place was so groundbreaking in the work that they did because these are the skills that in this world where we're flooded with information where people question what's true and what's false, knowing how to think critically through that, knowing how to understand what information is reliable and how it's reliable and why it's reliable and especially how to work and collaborate with others is so important. So I really hope we can
160focus on that going forward. And I have one more thing so I'll take it go back. Thank you, Miss Seismore. Mr. Mavine. So, certainly one of the proudest things I have done on this board was uh work with Mr. Moon and our colleagues at the 2012 board to create this uh portrait of a graduate and obviously um Karen Garza deserves a lot of credit for that. Um and the fact that we brought together more than 70 community members in a committee to come up with this uh made it all the more powerful. Um, and I still remember tustling with Elizabeth Schultz over global citizen, but we got it in there. Um, and I that is certainly the thing of of which I am most proud. Um, and I do believe this work has really transformed
161our system. Uh, and it's incredible to see what has happened over the past 13 years and just how every school, every classroom has adopted it is is uh, incredible. Um and many people forget that the work we did in Fairfax actually um was taken at the state level and became the state's portrait of a graduate, right? Um and as um my colleague sitting next to me, Dr. Anderson said, Lowden County took it after us too. So um this is an example of where we have been not only a state but but national leader. Um and I know we have um Jeff and Nishi here as well from the office. Grateful to them for for all the work they do. Um the the one thing I would say is that um as great as POG is
162um I don't think we should treat it as a catch-all and I think in our org chart um in many ways we are treating it as a catch-all in that um as you know we have the global classroom project um it currently falls under POG and I don't think that's where it should go. I think global classroom is probably better situated somewhere else. So that's something we need to um think about but um thank you to everyone for all your continued work on this. Um it's always such a joy to go to schools and uh see how they're embracing POG. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Macke. Miss Marin. Yeah. So, I remember like when the language used to be metacognition like when like 20 years ago when I was working in early childhood programs and it
163was like we really want to get kids to be able to explain what they know and how they know it. So, portrait of a graduate sounds like really more cool. Um, I love that Miss Sant was in it and my wolf trap students I saw in there. And I've been to the PogPole at Crossfield Elementary and also at Thorough Middle School for in the French class. Thank goodness it actually wasn't in French, but um, it is really cool how the students can talk about what they know. And um, you know, Miss Langghorn and Mr. Pearson are here and I got to give a shout out to Mr. Pearson's wonderful graphics that were shown almost like three years to the day when Dr. Reedu arrived. Um, I would love to see them reintroduced. They're really funky
164and cool, but showing all the different aspects of the portrait of a graduate. And I just do want to mention, you know, the governance committee, you might recall, we discussed the portrait of a graduate skills when reviewing policies this year, particularly the grading policy. That was a big, you know, um, important point for us. So, my only request is that this video be made available to the board. I actually would love anytime we have an academic matters video for it to be either in board docs or maybe it's the Friday letter, but I want to share this everywhere. So, um, so I hope we can do that soon. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Mayor and Miss Dixit. So, Dr. Reed, I have been always advocating for POGs um since I got on board and I've
165also mentioned that last uh I've I've heard less of POGs before last few years. So, it's good to see it's come back again. Uh in the last year or so, I'm seeing in more in the classrooms. I've seen in uh kids giving presentation even multilingual learners they are really giving their uh language skills and they're talking about different like how they're communicating and collaborating. I've seen that into special needs class where students are communicating in different mode digital or verbal or uh so I think we're doing it really great in middle school and elementary school. I I wonder how if it's getting lost a little bit in high school level because the students have more competing class classes like APs and uh very like you know I think more difficult course work sometimes and I
166I just wanted to know like what the staff thinks about how PS is being implemented in high school levels. So I'll defer to Dr. Prescidio if you want to share the high school. Absolutely. And if I could just for a moment I just I do want to thank uh Jeff Lynette and Nishi Langghorn who are here uh who are leading so much of this work and appreciate Jeff's videography work on the video. So thank you both for being here and for your for your great leadership. Um actually at the high school level and the middle school level we have embedded um lessons in advisory so that all students are getting that opportunity even if they're um you know general classroom teachers aren't providing those opportunities. So we're embedding reflection opportunities, goal setting opportunities um as
167well as uh culminating activities as part of the advisory curriculum so that every student at secondary can have these experiences. I think thank you for the answer and also I'm seeing it more in the AAP class uh schools which are the the centers they're really good with pogs and can you see in the school even middle school like I want to see how much are we doing emphasizing them on on the uh title one schools and um I think that's where we need them because kids have um like parents may not be able to you know contribute to their all these skill set and they are definitely counting in the school to learn. This is absolutely important for next generation. So if we don't do this to with our students, we are not setting them
168up for success. So I would like to hear a bit about title one. Are they doing differently there or is it uh because I think it's different in different schools. Yes, ma'am. I I think the expectations the same across the board. It's not different title one or non-title one. Ele there's an elementary expectation, a middle school, and then a high school. So, I'd like to see some of those park polls and so maybe some title one schools in next school year then. Yes, ma'am. We'll schedule it. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Dixon, Miss Seismore. Thank you. So, that was my praise. Here's my the rest of it, Dr. Reid. Um, a wrong pog pole and portrait for graduate, which I still love and I think is wonderful. I just think it's inconsistently done in FCPS. And
169when we got the data, I believe in one of the goal reports, and Miss Neil, correct me if I'm wrong, the number of POG polls that were done by special education students were tiny. Tiny. I It's great that we've embedded this in advisory, but just like executive functioning skills, you cannot teach teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, communication in isolation. I think we're embedding this really well in some of our classrooms and I think we're not embedding it in other of our classrooms. So like many other things, we are having a two-tiered education system. And as I just discussed these skills and I I teach at the college level, I see it at the college level. I talk to employers in the world that we're in the these skills are going to become ever more important. And
170we are inconsistent in teaching them and we cannot do them in isolation. You you just can't reflect. It just doesn't work. Just like executive like planning and organization and flexibility and thinking have to be done in real world environments during lessons during and it's just not happening. I can tell you, you know, and my son is still in college and in my school tours now, I I see a really big disconnect, but I can tell you that my daughter, who did 13 AAP AP classes and was on Miss Sant's path, had the exact same statement that you had, which is, I'm seeing this on my college visits. I'm using all these skills. And she did also in a similar school. And my son, we spent a year, his first year of college, remediating all the
171things he didn't get. and he's still in college. It's not that long ago. And in talking to families, that is still the same experience. So, this is great. The video is great, but it belongs to everybody. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Miss Seismarheiser. And thank you, Dr. Reid. All right. Thank you. Agenda item seven, consent agenda. Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure. Robert's rules, excuse me, provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. Many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. Items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda is being displayed on the screen. The consent agenda
172items are now scrolling on the screen like the Star Wars credits. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. Agenda item eight, new business. The following are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but action is scheduled for a future meeting. All right. Agenda item nine, board committee reports. I call on Mr. Mackeine for a report from the audit committee. Well, thank you. So, we have closed out our year with audit committee. Uh it's been a a fantastic year led by Auditor General Co along with our committee. Uh and at our last meeting, uh we discussed the audit plan and plans for the coming year uh for audit. Uh, I don't know if we'll we'll be together
173again as a committee, but um, thank you to everyone who's contributed. Thank you, Mr. Macke. Miss Lady, I call on you for a report on the governance committee. Thank you. Um the last meeting was on June 16th um and was um we reviewed several policies. Policy 2670 uh program for students with disabilities uh policy 2720 student list and policy 2745 commencement activities uh which the full board will vote on soon. Um and I think that kind of sums it up. I do want to thank Miss Marin because I was uh dealing with the family issue and uh she led that meeting for me and did a fabulous job. Um so I appreciate your help. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Lady. I call in Miss St. John Cunning for a report from the public engagement committee.
174Thank you. Um our last meeting was also last week. Um we had a productive year and uh great members were on the board. Some of the things that uh we are going to be finishing up is a toolkit with videos for members that are on our advisory committees. And that's going to be extremely valuable for someone that comes in as a new member to try to understand the kind of work that they would do at at an advisory committee. And so there will be a toolkit and um you know little videos where they can understand what the role entails. Uh we also discussed and didn't finish discussing what one of our speakers, public speakers talked about today is expanding the number of student representatives on this board. Uh it is a large board and for
175one student representative to cover everything might be a little bit difficult. So um I look forward for that discussion being continued in PC. um as you know when we have new members or whoever's going to be working on PEC. Um we um also, you know, one of the things we also did this year uh and helped with was that student leadership uh program, the schoolboard student leadership program again that um you know, I want to thank um all the work that um Okay. And I'm drawing a blank again on our deputy clerk's name when I'm up here for what why am I drawing a blank on uh Mr. Jackson? Mr. Jackson. Thank you. It's like I was like I should have written it down so I would all the work that he did. Uh and
176also uh tonight, you know, the work that we did on proclamations and that was uh passed by the board tonight. Thank you for that. Um so that that's it and until next year. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning. I call on Dr. Reid for superintendent matters. Thank you, Mr. Fish. I think uh at this point I just want to note that just want to thank all our students who are involved in ESY extended school year which began will begin this coming Monday followed by soore algebra power up and credit recovery starting on the 7th. Um, I'm looking forward to getting out to visit some of these uh sites over the next couple of weeks and uh I know our students and staff are excited uh to be back in the classroom learning this summer and
177I can't wait to get out to the learning habitat and visit with you in the coming weeks. Um, also just want to note that um we've got uh food and nutrition services that are also serving meals across the county at different schools. So, please make sure to look out for the communication on sites. And this is um no cost breakfast and lunch available for children 18 years and younger. Finally, yesterday I had the opportunity uh to attend the Northern Virginia Tech Council um board meeting as I'm on their board and we had a really interesting keynote speaker yesterday which if you haven't uh heard of Chris Miller, he's a professor at Tus University and the author of Chip War, the fight for the world's most critical technology. And it was really interesting to learn a
178little bit more about the little chips that are in all of our um electronic equipment and in particularly uh driving AI. So I um look forward to sharing more information with our um staff, students and board on that topic. Uh and uh lots of excitement in the coming days and want to note that it will be the 249th uh July 4th next week. So, hope everybody has a safe holiday. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Reid. And here, I thought chip war was the fight over the Davis Center cookies. All right. Agenda item 11, board matters. I call in Miss St. John Cunning. Buenas Duchess. Last week, I had the privilege of attending the open house for the 13th home to be built by FCPS students in partnership with the Foundation for Technical Education. High school
179students in the residential construction program and other CTE programs constructed the home by learning the latest building techniques and practices through a curriculum developed by the National Association of Homebuilders and are held to the same rigid standards required by Fairfax County Building Codes for all home builders. The home located at Spring Village Estates in the Franconia District has all the bells and whistles without the add-on costs. It's still expensive though. It incorporates elements of universal design which make the home livable through all stages of life. If you have an opportunity to visit the home, you will be amazed by the design elements and the quality of work accomplished by our FCPS staff, teachers, and students. The home will be listed on July 1st. And in anticipation, I would like to welcome the new owners as
180a Franconia District constituent. I don't have enough time to read the names of all the nominations for the Frank from the Franconia district that were nominated for this year's outstanding honor employees awards. That is how many of you were nominated in my book. You are all winners. The fact that you were all peer nominated is an honor as it shows the respect and admiration of your fellow employees. I would like to congratulate the three Franconia recipients of the following awards. Dr. Deborah Marsh, this year's winner for the outstanding non-school-based professional employee who is recognized for her incredible dedication to the students in the John Lewis Leadership Program. Daniel Mthamei, this year's winner for outstanding school-based operational employee, is recognized for his deep commitment to the safety of the FCPS staff, teachers, and families at Edison
181High School and throughout the division. and Raquel A. Joiner, this year's winner for outstanding school-based professional employee, who is recognized at the Quander School for her dedication that extends beyond the school's boundaries as she cultivates strong relationships with families, offering support that transcend the classroom. Finally, as we enter the summer months, I would like to highlight for our community that many of our schools serve free breakfast and lunch to any child through the summer food service program. If you require this service, please check the FCPS website for the schedule so that you can have your nice meals that are served in our schools. Buenas nozzles and happy 4th of July. Thank you, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady. Thank you. Blanca Carbajal, a Clear View Elementary School parent of a rising fifth grader, won the
1822025 Dr. Busy Memorial Equity Award. The Minority Student Achievement Oversight Committee, MSAOC, determines the awardee for any individual staff, student, or community member who has demonstrated significant and impactful efforts to improve the educational experiences and outcomes of students from groups who are marginalized or underserved. Miss Carboural works as a neighborhood ambassador with Opportunity Neighborhood in H. Hearnden. She is recognized for her tireless efforts to remove barriers to school and community engagement by uplifting immigrant families navigating language and system challenges, creating safe, inclusive spaces for children and parents, advocating locally and at the state level for equitable access to child care, housing, and education. Blanca shared during her acceptance, "True equity is not just an ideal. It's a daily constant action. I don't lead from an office, but from where the community needs it most." Thank
183you to Opportunity, Opportunity Neighborhood, Cornerstones, Clear View Elementary, and everyone who has believed in me, for opening doors, and making me feel like I belong. This woman is a force to be reckoned with. Uh, and this is a great honor for a member of of my community, and I'm very grateful for all the work she's done that she continues to do. And then finally, as we uh move into uh the Fourth of July is around the corner, let us all be appreciative of those who h are founding fathers um and people who have served and continue to serve in our military to make us safe and keep us free. Um there will be lots of fun and festivities throughout the Drainsville district. Uh starting as early as June 28th, which the Mlean Community Center's celebration
184at Langley High School through the 4th of July at the Great Falls and Hearnden celebrations. So with that, everybody have a wonderful summer. Be safe. Make good decisions. Read, read, read things besides your cell phone. Read read books. Practice math. Come back ready. Thanks. Thank you, Miss Lady, Mr. Moon. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Uh, you know, Dr. Re mentioning of 2049, a July 4th, Independence Day. Dr. I don't know whether you're listening. So, it reminded me of my first visit to Kennedy Center in 1976. That was two years after I arrived in the US. Uh, I was very happy to participate in a bicentennial celebration of Independence Day. uh 49 years ago. But Mr. Chairman, yesterday, June 25, it marked the 75th anniversary of the Korean War. I want to take a moment to honor
185and thank American troops and allied forces whose sacrifice have made it possible for the Korean people to live in freedom and democracy today. My family is one of those millions of families that was saved by those sacrifices. My father fled North Korea during the war to come to South to the freedom of the south all by himself at the age of 17. As we look around the world and see so many regions in turmoil, I hope each of you takes a moment to truly appreciate and reflect on the privilege of independence and peace. With that, I wish all of you a meaningful and joyful fourth of July with your families and friends. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Moon. Besides Mhheiser, thank you. And I just wanted to speak very briefly to give a shout out
186to the Robinson film crew again for the the students. Talk about a great evidence of portrait of graduate work when we have our um students from creating animation films and a public service announcement. talk about creativity, collaboration, and um things that they can do in the future using videos and technology to share a message and to communicate to the world. Um I just wanted to take a minute to really say goodbye to Miss Sant as well. She like you can see the portrait of graduate skills in you and your education and how thoughtful you are and how well you speak and every time you speak I learn something from you and I it makes me reflect and be thoughtful about something. So, I just wanted to say you'll be very missed and I am so
187glad that you feel that FCPS has given you such a solid foundation for you to go fly now and hopefully we'll have meet for coffee in Boston um when if I happen to be up there. So, but if not, we'll see you when you come back to visit. Um I also did want to just really briefly uh wish everybody a great Fourth of July. It is a holiday that is actually personally very meaningful to me. Um I was the first in my family to vote. My parents came here with nothing as students, as immigrants to have a better life for their for their children. And it was interesting because my um well, it was public education that taught me how to be a citizen and taught me my duty as a citizen and what it
188meant to be an informed citizen to vote. It was my dad who actually taught me to love this country. He was the most enthusiastic American I've ever met. Even though he didn't become a citizen until 30 years after he got here, he loved everything American. He taught himself the rules of football and baseball and adopted the 49ers and the Giants and rooted for them relentlessly and did not like it when I became an Oakland A's fan. His favorite holiday, I think, was Fourth of July. He just loved he would tell me, "Look at this country. I can say what I want and you can't stop me and I can think what I want and I can watch fireworks every fourth of July knowing that I came here to be free and to make sure that
189you were free and I came here to this great country and even though he passed away 20 years ago, every fourth of July when I see those fireworks I think of my dad and I think of what he sacrificed so we could have a better life and I think about how much he taught me to love this amazing country we're in. So happy 4th of July. I hope everybody gets to celebrate and remember that even when times are tough, even when things seem dark. There are people who come here and make their lives so much better for themselves and love every minute of it. So, happy 4th of July. Thank you, Miss Seismore. Dr. Anderson, thank you, Megan. is always bittersweet to just look over and to say goodbye to our student member. But I
190do want to say that you have definitely made huge impacts here. So the very very best of luck to you and it was a pleasure to get to know you over the course of this past year. I wish you the best of luck. Um, I do want to turn into some other kudos that I didn't I did not get a chance to share last time because I think we skipped board matters, which is to offer a most rousing congratulations to the class of 2025. It was absolutely a pleasure to be at your graduations and to see the pride on your faces and on the faces of your parents as they cheered for you as you crossed the stage. And with so many of our students just really dedicating themselves to the armed forces, that was
191wonderful to see many of our schools um recognizing those students in a separate way. Um as we've talked about it, as we've talked about before, Dr. Reed, I would love for our students who may be heading into educational paths or who participated in um Teach for Tomorrow to also be highlighted. Again, another infomercial for us here with a captive audience. Um, I do want to say congratulations to all three of the Mason District high schools who received nominations for Cappies and we had several winners with Colt Armstrong from False Search High School. He won for a lead actor in a male role in a musical for his role in the Adams family. Woohoo. Congratulations to Sophie Hemans from Justice High School. She won a Cappy for supporting actor in a female role in a play.
192It's a very, very specific niche here. um for her role in Almost Maine. That was awesome. And I also do want to say congratulations to the many uh Mason District staff members who were honored at the FCPS honors ceremony. We have three employees who were um named winners in recognition of their outstanding work. Um for outstanding secondary teacher, we have Emilyn Andrea Maya, multilingual teacher at Justice High School. And we also have a outstanding school-based operational employee, Liliana Alaro, the building supervisor at Falls Church High School, and outstanding secondary teacher, Andrew Sherik, band director at Glasgow Middle School. Yay. Um and lastly, um the 2024-25 Fairfax County SEPTA Excellence Awards Ceremony, which occurred recently, also honored, um many teachers from across um Fairfax County. But I also want to honor um well recognize Jared Wallace,
193social worker at Justice High School, who was named the outstanding related service provider. And with that, I will say have a great summer to our students. And I want to echo what Miss Lady said because this is what I say in my home every day. Please read something that is not on your cell phone. Um so please listen to her advice and do that. And happy 4th of July to all. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Mr. Mcine. So I know we were talking about chip wars and I just want to say that Dr. Anderson is over here. We're engaged in our own chip war here. Uh she always wins that one. But um um I do want to also recognize um Miss Sant for her um service over the past year. You know, there was discussion
194earlier tonight about potentially adding an additional uh student school board member. Um but uh Megan has been able to cover the whole county with precision. Um and you did it all with grace, maturity, and um just immense intelligence. And so we we really will uh miss you. And on that point, I was asked to convey something to you before we all leave. I forgot. So, our schoolboard office and um Kevin Jackson in particular helped with this. So, as we have have been uh joking over here, this is something that uh you can take with you and put on your dorm wall uh next year and we when we visit, we hope to see it there. Um but uh anyway, thanks again, Megan, for everything. We will certainly miss you. Um and uh just on a
195personal note, I will be departing um in a few days for China for a month with uh 30 of our students, some of whom are from the um global leaders of Fairfax County program. Uh we will be traveling from Beijing and spending most of our time in uh Eunan Province um where the students will undertake uh apprenticeships with local crafts people ranging from silver smithing to pottery making to wood carving. Uh, and um, I know those will be life skills that they will keep with them. Um, and uh, hopefully we will all come back in one piece and I will see you in the new school year. Good night. Thank you, Mr. Makave. And I guess if that does end up on your dorm wall, the most commonly asked question at Harvard next year will
196be, "Who are those old people on Megan's wall?" All right, mystics. and then she'll take it down. So, um I just start to say about thank you Megan for spending this time with us and serving on this uh school board uh as student member. Uh this is a lot of work and despite having us full coursework load and applying for colleges you are here I think most of the meetings and you stay till the end. Um that's dedication that dedication will take you so far in your life. Um I see a lot of potential in you and I hope one day you you'll be that FCPS graduate we'll all talk about. So I wanted to congratulate the entire class of 2025. This was a great uh graduation season and I attended many schools graduation ceremony
197in Solid District, Centerville, Westfield, Chanteli, Thomas Jefferson High School, TJ for um for and I really appreciate all the students for their hard work, work and and wish the bright future in the future for all of them. Uh we send letters to 48 Sully students to recognize their exceptional achievement. Those are like nine were the first place winner in the 2025 regional science and engineering fair. Two of them were grand prize winners. We sent letter for nine piece award recipients. 25 gold key winners in the scholastic art competition and five gold key winners in scholastic writing. And this awards honors creativity, academic excellence and leadership and we are very proud of the our students. Um we also congratulate cadet Estan Burllo of Shentley Academy AF force Jr. OTC named one of the fewer than 30
198candidates of the year awardee worldwide from 90,000 participants on June 10 and many of my colleagues said that uh the cappies gala at Kennedy Sunday was amazing and where Sully students also shined their work into the awards. Oakton High School Savannah Day won the comic actress in the musical Caroline Kokran and Eva Cler received the award for props. Mera Ayar was named best actress at the Brandon Victor Dixon Awards in Washington DC for her per performance at the as a witch. Thank you for all for this uh support and and we're doing a great really great job at FCPS. So happy 4th of July to all of us and one thing I will just add is that as an immigrant I will say 4th of July for all immigrants is the biggest festival. We enjoyed
199the fireworks and I first year I landed here till now it's been the most favorite holiday for us for the entire year and we celebrate the spirit of America as Americans. Thank you. Thank you Miss Dixit. Miss Marin. Well hello. Uh I've had a really interesting few weeks interviewing candidates to be appointed to our board committees that I have the privilege of appointing and it's been nice to have some time to have some conversations with people on all matter of things and there are just so many great people in our community who are interested in serving and have so much experience to bring. So I'm I'm feel it's nice to have uh that and uh I do want to acknowledge our governance committee. I know Miss Lady mentioned that we were doing some things, but
200we worked through over a dozen policies this year and worked on how we review things more regularly so it's more updated and um consistent. And so that was hard work. It was not easy work. So I am right now experiencing my rising 10th grader taking online PE and learning driver's ed. This is day four and it's been a big learning experience for all of us as Mr. Sethy and Dr. Prescidio and Dr. Pon have heard because I might be giving a little bit of feedback. But it's uh it's interesting. It's very interesting to see our children become adults and her asking me how to change the mirrors in the car. So there's always a new opportunity when you're a parent. I am going to be heading on a really interesting uh professional development that I
201had wanted to share with all of you. Uh it's a group called the schoolboard partners and I had heard about them when we were at South by Southwest earlier uh when I went to a session about schoolboard governance because it was like the only session about it and you know I was there. So uh this there were other board members there who had been to this other organization's training the schoolboard partners. So, it's in Arizona, so I'll be headed there in July because, you know, who wouldn't want to be there? But I'm excited and so I'll bring back what I learned and um just excited to, you know, see what other people are doing around the country. Um and I do have books reserved from the library to go pick up for my plane ride.
202So, about our student rep, I'm actually going to do a flashback to our student rep who was here when we when myself and our three other um colleagues on that first board got here, and that was with Miss Kimberly Batten. And I don't know if you've seen my LinkedIn post following hers, but she has just graduated from Columbia University. Um, she was a Lewis High School graduate. She's now finished her bachelor of arts in sustainable development, finishing with a 3.6 GPA. And she is going on to earn her mers of public health at Colombia's um, Mailman School of Public Health with a focus on environmental health sciences and she's seeking to work in environmental justice. This is a student who is a first generation college student. she's got a GoFundMe up to get help cover
203these costs of going to Columbia University. So, if you're so inclined, this is what our student reps can do. Um, I hope that you could check out my LinkedIn or, you know, let me know. But if we all chip in, I even see some students chipping in, some former students, you know, giving five bucks or whatever. So, I feel like if our students can do it, like certainly we adults can chip in a little something. But to that, I will end on one last note of praise for Megan Sant. Thank you for serving in this role with such curiosity and integrity. I've learned much from you and our conversations led to meaningful changes like especially when it comes to helping students go through the grade levels and from the schools. So, I will miss working
204with you so regularly and will continue cheering you on in all that you endeavor. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Marin. I hope you enjoy your break from the heat in Arizona this summer. All right. Uh this is my last full meeting as chair. Um, and I'll have more to say about that next week. Um, but I do want to start by saying thank you to Miss Sant. Um, and you will be missed and not just because you're always on time and always prepared, which is a real model for members of this board. Uh, so thank you for that. Um, I cannot wait to see what you do with your life. Uh, because I've been so impressed by what you've already done and you're not even well, I guess you're technically out of high school now.
205You're just not done with us. and um uh I can't wait to see what you do. So, congratulations on all you've accomplished and I look forward to watching. Um since our last board meeting, I've had an opportunity to attend the public school leaders network legislative breakfast of Tyson's uh where I got to watch Miss Anderson do a great presentation about Title One Schools. Um I attended the historical marker unveiling dedication at Colen Pal Elementary School with members of his family. Um, this is something that Supervisor Palic and I brought to our respective boards. Both boards passed it and now we've installed markers all over the county, many of them at FCPS schools, uh, elevating the experiences of the black and African-American American community here in Fairfax County. Um, I also was able to attend Mosaic
206Prides celebration, the largest pride parade in all of Fairfax County. And not just because it's the only one. Um, but it gets bigger and bigger every year. Um, and I will tell you the number of people I saw with their FCPS pride shirts on the parade route, uh, the number of students who came up during the performances and speeches, uh, it was really inspiring and I hope other people will join me there next year. This was, I think, the fourth one. Uh, and it's getting bigger and bigger every year. So, very grateful to be there in the heart of Providence district. Um, also had an opportunity to uh attend the summer equity symposium in FCPS honors. Um, and a tribute to Jerry Connelly also at Mosaic District where we uh unveiled a plaque uh and
207tree in his honor since he was a central force behind the creation of MOS Mosaic District as it is today. Um, and the also attended the Philippines Independence Day celebration. Uh, the cappies were absolutely amazing. It was great to see, you know, it's been great seeing the performances not only at the high schools but at the actual Cappies on the Kennedy Center stage. Um, just so impressive and I think Washington could really learn something from our students. Um, the empathy, the compassion, the artistic free expression that they had on display is really something and I'm continually impressed by our student performers and journalists. Um, and some quick shoutouts to all of the Providence District students who won the Regeneron uh, International Science Fair. I said that twice correctly tonight and only once incorrectly. Um, as
208well as, um, our National Merit Scholarship winners. Um, and a special kudos to the four recipients of the Fairfax County NAAC's uh CP's uh Michelle Le memorial scholarship which went to Sean Crawford Cranford, excuse me, of Woodson High School, a prominent district resident and just an all-around great kid who's going to do great things. Uh I think he's going to Syracuse. Um and uh that was my time. And so since I am the only person between um the rest of this room and being done at 10:25 PM, this meeting is adjourned. Who won? [Music]