001e [Music] for and board members please take your seats this November 14th 2024 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please stand for the presentation of Colors by the chanelli academy Air Force Junior Roc Color Guard the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Sherman Elementary School sixth gate choir under the direction of Diana Nelis I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the curtain [Music] so proud We at the Twilight and bright stars through [Applause] the the RS [Music] we [Music] rock in through the night that our flag was still there oh say do that our [Music] and the home of the bra [Applause] W they can still hear us can
002we hear another round of applause for those amazingly talented students agenda item 2.02 announcements if you would like to review a copy of the meeting agenda please see the back of the auditorium to obtain copies of any items or supporting materials being presented tonight please reference the QR code on the agenda or visit www.fcps.edu board dos tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on YouTube and our website at www.fcps.edu livestream agenda item 2.03 remarks by Dr patio Virginia school boards Association president I call on Miss Marin our Virginia school boards Association representative and vice chair of the vba's nor Eastern region for an introduction thank you chair frish I did just want to check if you did want to welcome Mr McDaniel in virtually no sorry my bad thank you um
003good evening tonight the Fairfax County School Board is delighted to welcome our colleague from the Portsmouth City School Board Dr Cardell patio who serves as the president of the Virginia school boards Association Dr btio is visiting FCPS on his 25th fi and final stop of his vba's president's Road show over the past year across Virginia earlier this evening Dr patio attended our purple star school's reception and celebrated our division's commitment to military connected students and their families Dr to thank you for your service and advocacy for public education our school board is looking forward to the vsba convention next week and we appreciate vsba support for school boards in Virginia I now invite Dr patio to address the board from the [Applause] podium I know that you all have a packed agenda on tonight so
004I won't uh be before you too long but I promise to have you home in town for the 11 o'clock news but know you have great recognitions that are happening on tonight so as a great Elizabeth Taylor once told her fifth husband Mike Todd I won't keep you long to the members of the Fairfax County Public School Board chair Mr frish Vice chair Dr Anderson superintendent Dr Reed thank you for welcoming me to your board meeting tonight I'm Dr Cardel patillo president of the Virginia school boards Association and chair of the PO City School Board it's a genuine honor to be here with all of you leaders who give so much of yourselves to ensure the best for all of our students as stated this is my 25th and final stop across the Commonwealth in
005the president's Road Show on behalf of the vsba board of directors I want to take a moment to sincerely thank you for being a valued member of our association your commitment to the students here in Fairfax County and throughout the com wealth is deeply appreciated the work you do is not easy but is incredibly important and we are grateful for your dedication and your leadership I'm especially thankful to be present for tonight's special recognition your commitment to supporting military connected students and their families is inspiring and a reminder of the lasting impact that our schools have on our children and families at the vsba we're founded on the principle of local control believing that decisions about education are best made by those who know their communities and students the best you the local school board
006please know that we are here for you standing beside you as partners in this essential work we are proud to support you and to continue advocating for the success of public education alongside such committed and passionate board members your tiess efforts to provide the resources opportunities and environments our our students need to thrive are making a real difference I want you to know that your hard work does not go un notice and we at theba appreciate everything that you do here in Fairfax every day for the future of public education thank you again for your service your membership and your commitment to our shared Mission we are here for you and we deeply appreciate your ongoing dedication thank you so much thank you Dr Pao for your remarks and emphasizing the importance of public education
007across the Commonwealth I'd like to welcome Dr ptio to join the board for a photo in front of the deis e e e agenda item 2.04 I call on Mr M for a proclamation Veterans Day Proclamation whereas Veterans Day observed annually on November 11th in the United States is a time to honor and recognize the selfless service and sacrifices of all those past and present who served with the US Armed Forces forces to defend the freedoms and rights that are so important to our nation's democracy and whereas Veterans Day formerly known as Armistice Day is the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice by the allies and Germans in 1918 ending World War I Armistice Day officially received its name in the United States in 1926 and became an official national holiday in 1938 through
008Congressional resolutions in 1954 President Eisenhower signed a congressional bill that changed the holidays name to Veterans Day and whereas Americans owe a great debt to the soldiers Sailors Airmen and Marines who serve and defend our fre freedom in War and Peace and their families and communities that support them and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools has strong ties to our veterans as our division proudly employs many veterans who now serve as teachers administrators and support staff in our schools and division departments also FCPS serves over 14,000 military connected students and their families and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools acknowledges the profound impa that military service has not only on those who serve but also on their families particularly the children of service members who often face unique challenges due to the demands placed on military families
009including frequent relocations and deployments and whereas FCPS is committed to providing military connected students with the best possible education and an inclusive and supportive educational environment that Fosters stability and Community FCPS seeks to earn the purple star school designation for every one of of our schools as a symbol of that commitment now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board does hereby Proclaim November 11th 2024 as Veterans Day we urge all students employees and community members to join in appropriate activities to pay tribute to the members of our military and stress the importance of service to our country as a core value in our democracy therefore be it resolved be it further resolved the Fairfax County school board reaffirms our commitment that military connected students and their families are welcomed supported and valued
010in our schools thank you Mr mavan is there a second I second Miss Anderson I'll call for the vote all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss eisar Heiser Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning and myself that is unanimous for board members present the motion passes you can applaud [Applause] can we take a brief moment to have anybody who is a veteran or serving in the armed forces to please rise for [Applause] appreciation thank you for your service agenda item 2.05 counselors social workers nurses and psychologists I call on Miss Marin for a proclamation whereas the celebration of school counselors social workers nurses and psychologist month honors the dedicated Professional Services staff in elementary middle and high schools who ensure the physical mental and emotional health
011needs of our students are met both in and out of school and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools employs nearly 700 School counseling professions including school counselors directors of student services and College and Career Specialists who are committed to Preparing students to become lifelong Learners and productive members of a global Society with a focus on social emotional Wellness academic success and College and Career Readiness and whereas School social workers maintain expertise in many areas such as mental health human development Behavior trauma and family systems FCPS social workers use their training experience and skills to provide vital services to Children families and School staff helping to remove personal and environmental barriers to support student academic achievement and whereas School nurses create safe and supportive learning environments as the First Responders in schools promoting wellness and improving Health
012outcomes for students they collaborate with school staff families communities and healthc care providers to ensure the safety and well-being of students and whereas School psychologists are key members of the school team who assess individual strengths against students and school barriers to learning and apply their their expertise and training in mental health learning and behavior and research-driven prevention and intervention strategies to help students develop and nurture the social emotional and life skills necessary to achieve personal growth build resilience and Foster a sense of belonging and whereas these school counselors social workers nurses and psychologists are highly skilled professionals who are committed to helping every child succeed by ensuring Equitable access to Opportunities building relationships that strengthen student and family engagement and supporting mental Wellness to help students Thrive academically socially and emotionally now therefore be it
013resolved that the Fairfax County School Board recognizes November 2024 as school counselors School social workers School nurses and school psychologist month and expresses its highest Commendation and deep gratitude for the critical role these professionals play in supporting our students emotional social and physical well-being helping them to thrive in school at home and in life thank you Miss Marin is there a second hi second thank you Miss Dixit I'll call for the vote all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss is Mor Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss s joh cunning and myself that is unanimous for all board members present the proclamation carries [Applause] congratulations section 2.06 Jackson Middle School 70th Anniversary I call on Mr fr for a proclamation thank you Luther whereas Luther Jackson
014Middle School originally opened in September 1954 as Luther Jackson High School serving as the first high school for black students in Fairfax County Virginia was named after Dr Luther Porter Jackson a distinguished historian educator and civil rights leader and a significant contributor to the understanding of black history and the advancement of voting rights in Virginia and whereas before the opening of Luther Jackson High School a newly uh designated uh County Historical Site black students in Fairfax County were forced to travel to Manasses Virginia or Washington DC and pay tuition for secondary education and whereas in September 1965 Luther Jackson high school was converted into an integrated Intermediate School when Fairfax County finally initiated desegregation efforts after a decade of resistance from local leaders who fought to maintain segregation following Brown versus the Board of Education
015decision in 1954 which declared racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional and whereas Luther Jackson Middle School one of the most racially and ethnically diverse schools in Fairfax County uplift students and the community Through initiatives like the family literacy program and on-site food pantry sustained in part by an Innovative student-led vertical farming operation and robust Afterschool programming which offers opportunities to develop stem literacy and whereas Luther Jackson Middle School has been recognized for its many achievements including the National School of Excellence award in 1997 the 2024 Virginia music educators Association Blue Ribbon award for outstanding performance in music education 2024 Battle of the books County Champions demonstrating exceptional skills in the 2024 technology Student Association technosphere state competition and its current principal named the Fairfax County Public Schools 2024 outstanding new principal and whereas Luther Jackson
016Middle School has become an integral part of Fairfax County Community hosting a televised educational Innovation and Community engagement Forum chaired by former first lady Hillary rodom Clinton in 1996 and serving as the venue uh for Fairfax County school board meetings since February 1981 and whereas through its dedicated faculty staff and administrators Luther Jackson Middle School recognizes that diversity is its strength and continues to uphold the legacy of its namesake by inspiring students to become engaged Ed citizens and leaders equipped with the knowledge empathy and critical thinking skills needed to succeed in a dynamic world now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board honors Luther Jackson Middle School on its 70th Anniversary for its remarkable history its contributions to promoting educational opportunity and Community engagement and its unwavering dedication to fostering a vibrant
017and inclusing inclusive learning environment for future Generations is there a second second thank you Dr Anderson I will call for a vote all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Mr fres Miss seis Mor Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady and miss a John cunning and myself and that's unanimous for all at the table [Applause] agenda item 2.07 Patrick Bane recognition I call on Miss Marin for a proclamation whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to accessibility in all aspects of programs and facilities for students while learning for employees while working and for community members engaging in school related matters or while visiting FCPS facilities for a range of community and athletic activities and whereas specifically FCPS is committed to full compliance with the Americans with Disability Act the ad
018a and whereas accessibility to FCPS facilities programs and services largely begins upon arrival at FCPS parking lots and whereas the Reston accessibility committee the RAC which was established by the Reston citizens association in 2008 promotes barrier-free access for people with Mobility disability throughout Reston whereby volunteers use information from the Ada to work with property managers and owners to remove external barriers particularly those found in parking lots and whereas since 2017 our RAC has provided to FCPS input and assessments on the accessibility of parking lots at FCPS facilities in Reston which has allowed FCPS to more swiftly and effectively remedy accessibility barriers and whereas Patrick Bane the FCPS manager of ADA infrastructure projects has welcomed these findings and upholds the commitment to provide accessible and disability friendly environments at school buildings who is reliable for swiftly
019addressing needs not only with a can do attitude but with a will do attitude and whereas the Fairfax County School Board values Community Partners like the Reston accessibility committee that in addition to supporting FCPS further recognize the hard work of FCPS staff to fulfill the mission of our Public Schools as Community Investments now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board recognized FCPS employee Patrick Bane as the recipient of the rent accessibility committies Community partner Award of 2024 thank you Miss Marin is there a second second Mr mine I'll call for the vote all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss seis Mor Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning and myself that is unanimous the proclamation passes [Applause] congratulations agenda item
0202.08 purple star schools recognition I call on Mr Dunn for the recognition Virginia is home to over 75,000 military connected school age students more than any other state in the nation all our FCPS schools proudly welcome and support the over 13,500 military connected Youth and their families who are part of our school communities tonight we are honoring 38 of our schools who have been awarded the purple star designation for the 2024 2025 school year at this time I would like to recognize the fort belir Garrison Commander Colonel David J [Applause] Stewart in 2018 the Virginia Department of Education established the purple star designation to be awarded to military friendly schools that have demonstrated a major commitment to students and families connected to our nation's military criteria established for the award were designed to increase educator
021awareness of military connected Youth and help School structure their support two and four military connected Youth and their families in the inaugural year 14 Fairfax County Public Schools received the purple star recognition FCPS now boasts 96 purple star schools schools that earned this prestigious designation received a special per purple star recognition to display at their school the purple Star Award serves to set each of these schools apart for the hard work of the faculty students parents and community Community Partners who stand together to ensure that our military connected students are supported academically behaviorally and emotionally during their transitions we thank the FCPS School staff and students from these 38 schools earning the recognition this year for the warm welcome to their military connected students and we thank our military families for keeping our nation strong
022and safe families students and community members in the audience are invited to stand in support of their school as their school is announced brenmar Park [Applause] Elementary Bryant high [Applause] school bushill elementary Cameron Elementary shant Tilly High School Cherry Run Elementary Claremont Elementary Columbia Elementary Cooper Middle School Deer Park Elementary drainville elementary Fairfax High School Fair viiew Elementary Flint Hill Elementary Forest Dale Elementary Fort belir Primary School Fort belar Upper School Great Falls Elementary hcock Elementary Holland Meadows Elementary Hunt Valley Elementary Island Creek Elementary John R Lewis High School [Applause] Keen Mill Elementary little Run Elementary Mount Eagle Elementary Newington Forest Elementary Oak View [Applause] Elementary Oakton High School Old Creek Elementary pin spring elementary ravensworth elementary [Applause] Riverside Elementary sster elementary Union Mill [Applause] Elementary Waples Mill [Applause] elementary waynewood elementary White Oaks Elementary
023among the FCPS schools recognized this year Cameron Elementary School Island Creek Elementary School and ravensworth Elementary School have the unique distinction of being designated for a second time further Claremont Elementary School Fairview Elementary School Flint Hill Elementary School Fort belir Primary School Fort belar upper school Hunt Valley Elementary School Sangster Elementary School and waynewood Elementary School have the unique distinction of being designated for a third time these consecutive designations are in recognition of these schools impressive ongoing commitment to welcoming military connected students and families I would like to invite Colonel David J Stewart Fort belar Garrison Commander to the podium to say a few words to our purple star schools [Applause] all right good evening I'm Colonel Dave Stewart for belore Gars Commander I'm joined with me tonight with the command Star major Dan Hopkins
024he's uh the Garson command sergeant major I'd just like to thank uh the Fairfax County school board members for this opportunity tonight so I'm so thrilled to be here and still more schools have choosen chosen to participate in a purple stars uh School initiative this year which is which is absolutely outstanding so what started in Virginia in 2018 has now grown into a major initiative and it is exciting to see Fairfax County Public Schools tonight is recognizing 38 new or renewing schools which brings the total to 96 district schools so the purple star schools program is more than just a set of policy and practices though it's a commitment to Excellence inclusivity support that aligns perfectly with our army values and the educational mission of Fairfax County by embracing this program we not only stand
025by our military families but also enrich the overall educational Community let's let us continue to put people first and strive to help every student be all they can be as military connected family families regularly move to a new Duty station the students face stresses and challenges in New Towns a new school a new crowd of faces that can make it hard to fit in but even before arriving military families can set expectations of inclusion as every participating purple star school has a web page for military families this page helps the family prepare for the move and highlights academic planning for military family and military family resources when a military connected student arrives in Fairfax County they are immediately connected with one of the school student ambassadors as part of the program whether it's an AR
026Army youth sponsorship anchored for life or student to student this immediately helps connect them with their peers and G gain a fresh sense of belonging the ambassadors invest their own time to give them a tour of the school introduce them to other students and also help them connect with student clubs and associations of interest each school being recognized tonight has its own ambassadors and I'd like to ask the student Representatives here tonight to stand up and be recognized and let's give them a round of [Applause] applause okay thank you for being that friendly face that greets our new and arriving military connected students your first impressions help incoming students increase resilience reduce stress and boost academic achievement you are doing a greater service for your community than you may may know and it may not
027feel like it but you are all serving your nation so thank you for your unwavering support to military families and for continuing to expand the reach of purple star schools within the district together we can make a difference in the lives of those who serve their families so thank you for letting me address the board tonight and uh thank you for um everything you do for our young ones uh thank you Colonel Stewart uh we would also like to recognize members of the FCPS military connected youth process action team this team's charge is to identify unique academic behavioral and social emotional needs of military connected Youth and their families and ensure faculty and staff are informed and prepared to meet the identified needs partnering with stakeholders as appropriate at this time I would also like
028to ask my colleagues Colonel Stewart our superintendent Dr Reed our chief of schools Dr Pon members of the military connected youth process action team and Fort belar School liaison officers Marie Bailey and Aisha maafi to make their way to the de to recognize these schools and be part of the group photos Mr Deputy clerk uh please call up each school by region to join us at the deas with their region leadership staff to receive their recognition and to take a group photo once we do the purple photos we will do the proclamation photos region one region one Cooper Middle School drainville elementary school Flint Hill Elementary School Great Falls Elementary School Oakton High School and wles Mill Elementary for do [Applause] region two hok Elementary School and pin Spring Elementary School I [Applause] since Region
0293 has 10 schools we'll call up five schools at a time so we can fit everyone in the photo for the first Region Three group photo with the following schools please come up to the Das to be recognized and take a group photo Bryant high school bushill elementary school Cameron Elementary School cormont elementary school in Holland's Meadows Elementary [Applause] for the second Region Three group photo with the following schools please come up to the DI to be recognized and take a group photo Fort Bellar Primary School Fort Bellar Upper School Eagle Elementary School Riverside Elementary School and waynewood Elementary School since Region 4 has 10 schools we'll also call up five schools at a time uh for the first Region 4 group photo with the following schools please come up to the Das to be
030recognized and take a group photo Cherry Run Elementary School Fair viiew Elementary School Hunt Valley Elementary School Keen Mill Elementary School and Newington Forest Elementary School for for the second Region 4 group photo with the following schools please come up to the dis Oakview Elementary School ravensworth elementary school sster elementary school Union Mill Elementary School and White Oaks Elementary School e [Applause] region five photos will also be taken in two groups uh at this time we'd like to invite the following to the dis city of Fairfax School Superintendent Mr plattenburg and the staff of Fairfax High School oh he's coming yeah he was all way back for the second region five group photo with staff from chant chanelli High School Deer Park Elementary School little Run Elementary School and Old Creek Elementary School please come
031to the Das was for region six brenmar Park Elementary School Columbia Elementary School forestale elementary school Island Creek Elementary School and John R Lewis High School to Mr chair that was the last of our purple star schools recognition all right so we'll Now call those up for our Proclamation photos I would like to welcome all those here in support of the Veterans Day proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the Das e e I would like to welcome Patrick Bane and those here in support of the Patrick Bane recognition proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the dasas e I would like to welcome all those here in support of the Jackson Middle School 70th Anniversary proclamation to please join the board for
032a photo at the front of the dis this is the Jackson 70th Anniversary Proclamation e I would like to welcome all those here in support of the school counselors social workers nurses and psychologist month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front of the Das e e e that was our last photo e board members please take 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 business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board's website at www.fcps.edu Schoolboard during the signup process community members acknowledged they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper
033decorum when providing comments these expectations are also available online and with the printed agenda and meeting materials in the back of the room we ask audience members to be respectful of one another shouting and outbursts will not be tolerated please hold your applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats including when recording video or taking photos we are grateful to have you come and speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not responding Madame Deputy uh Madam clerk are we doing Mr Deputy clerk Miss Deputy cler I didn't see you back there hello I didn't see you there uh Madame Deputy clerk please call the first Speaker subba Shri nasar ragavan
034subba Shri nasar ragavan Victor Hall Victor Hall jeffr that was our last speaker thank you very much agenda item 4.01 student representative matters I call on Miss San hello thank you Mr chair good evening everyone I'd like to take a minute to thank the teachers staff and parents in our FCPS Community who have served our country defending the rights and freedoms that are fundamental to our democracy Veterans Day honors the selfless service of these men and women and I'd first like to thank all of our purple star schools for supporting military connected students and their families thank you to the FCPS students who we saw earli who are in JROTC or others who are aspiring to pursue serve service and continue that on in our country next I also want to express student gratitude as
035I've heard from our student uh SAC and student advisory committees to our school counselors social workers nurses and psychologists every High School in FCPS has a school psychologist who supports the individual student needs thank you to our counselors for being someone that students can rely on someone that students can go to with anything they need moving to updates recently I met with the Fairfax city student representative to discuss how College and Career resources are communicated across schools we're fortunate to have an excellent team of College and Career Specialists who work hard to provide us with a wealth of opportunities and an array of resources available in the northern Virginia region however it looks different at each school students from different schools receive varying updates and frequencies of emails from some that can be every few
036days to others that receive them weekly one senior from Region 5 shared that it can be difficult to sort out the general resources from those that are specific to seniors like scholarships or College opportuni ities newsletters are extremely helpful but students wonder if there's a way to centralize this information even further adding more information to the FCPS scholarships website which I be I will be linking on for students on bardocks which currently houses scholarships for seniors could be valuables things like opportunities for the government school student representative roles Nova dual enrollment courses volunteer and research opportunities could not only be offered through newsletters and navian but a site that every student can access easily for important updates between platforms like Naviance and a Consolidated web presence we can ensure that every student has Equitable access
037to the opportunities that they need to succeed and has different ways in which they can access those resources lastly I'd like to touch on the recent work session regarding how portrait of a graduate should be addressed in the grading policy from some of the initial feedback that I've received portrait of a graduate is about equipping skills with the essential life skills that they need Communicator ethical and Global citizen creative and critical thinker skills that are important in our strategic plan are important for students to carry out Beyond High School of course the county as a whole is currently addressing several academic priorities including literacy making sure that every eighth grader is prepared for algebra and addressing pandemic learning gaps all are important along with portrait of a graduate the question now is how do we
038expand portrait of a graduate across all schools and fully implement it into the curriculum while also focusing on the other priorities that we've have as I've mentioned before there are already models like the Lewis leaders and Madison Wings program which show how it can be done in other formats through initiatives That Vary at each school if we further in integrate POG competencies with existing advisory lessons that talk about durable skills or the global classroom project or a universal design for learning strategies we can create a phased approach to implementation one that allows all students to benefit from these skills without overloading teachers or placing specific wording in The Advisory policy just yet for students who want to have a voice in shaping these policies and giving feedback on portrait of a graduate as always I
039encourage you to join the secondary advisory committee and discuss these important issues with us you can apply at tinyurl.com FCPS poog Poole and I'll have this linked on the social media and boarddocs as well thank you for your time and I wish all students a successful start to second quarter this one goes by really really quick and I'd also like to acknowledge my physics teacher from last year who was here in the audience so hi Miss ly thank you Miss Swant agenda item 5.01 action item certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with Section 22- 3712 D of the code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a close meeting on November 14th 2024 to the best of each board member's knowledge
040only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements and only such 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 Dr Anderson do I have a second Mr Moon all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr movan Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss seism Mor Heiser Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning and myself that is unanimous for board members at the table agenda item 5.02 action item confirmation of action taken and closed meeting there were no actions taken in closed meeting tonight agenda item 5.03 action item consideration of extension to the division superintendent contract I call on Miss seis Mar Heiser for a motion I move that the school board renews its
041contract with Dr Michelle C Reed as division superintendent and to authorize the chair to execute the amended contract as detailed in the agenda item is there a second second miss lady Miss seiser would you like to speak to your motion yes thank you first um very honored to move this motion to offer you an amended contract to extend your contract Dr Reed I had the honor of being the vice chair of the school board during our superintendent search when we hired you and I remember thinking then your vision for the future your um Keen intelligence and your warmth and your healing Spirit was what we needed at the time here in Fairfax County coming out of covid and I had the honor of being chair of the school board during your first year when we
042were figuring out sort of the new Norm and processes and I think what we have been able to accomplish and the goals you have set for the future I remember when you started our first chairs meeting and you said we should get a strategic plan done by this year and I said you want to do a brand new strategic plan in your first year while you're still figuring out everything and you said yes and we did it and now we have a new guiding document to take us to 2030 and I'm watching you implement very systematically very thoughtfully very intelligently and sometimes having to tell me hold hold on we're going to get there but we have to keep ourselves aligned and you've done so much work to have staff and principles and teachers and
043students and families aligned that it's been incredible you came in during a very tumultuous time and one of the things that I I really was hoping you would bring was that healing power to help bring our community together and when you came in we had hundreds of people to sign up for Community for Community participation we had a lot of people who were full of a lot of angst and slowly between your presid in the community and the work you've done behind the scenes to meet with people from all different walks of life and um viewpoints tonight was a testament to that hard work of what you've done to heal our community that we had no public comment I don't think in my five years on the board I've ever seen that and I welcome
044the public to come and speak to us but I think it's a really strong Testament to the work you've done and in addition to that we see the work on the academic side we see the English Proficiency in our multilingual Learners 11% increase which is just you know amazing Inclusive Preschool and I know I've pushed you on a lot of these things but just starting that the executive functioning pilot and so much more algebra algebra for everybody by eth grade not just accessing it but being successful in it and pushing advanced math and literacy and the list could go on and on the mental Wellness of our students in the survey you can see is improving it's it's very hard to come in to lead a a large school system right after covid and you've
045done it with Grace you've done it where we're already seeing result results you've taken on everything we've thrown at you with a couldn't not be better which sometimes I really wonder and and you've I cannot wait to see what you accomplish and so I'm really grateful that you're willing to stay I'm grateful that I got to be part of bringing you here and and working with you that first Year and thank you for moving our system forward and thank you for all the work you will do with us thank you Miss seore Heiser miss lady would you like to speak to your second yes I would I don't want to repeat my colleague think uh but I certainly Echo everything that she has just shared uh I would just say on a personal note as
046someone who worked in the system as long as I did um I actually watched observe when you came in to uh be our superintendent um I was often my wife shared with me things that were shared by you and uh the first thing I noticed was the interest in transparency um the interest in being team FCPS um your commitment to understanding and supporting public education um to addressing um issues where we had fallen short as a system um and that we needed to improve uh I will say that uh upon being elected and being able to share space with you I think you are among the the most uh uh talented Educators I've ever shared space with and um also one of the most caring and compassionate um your your temperament your disposition your ability
047to see the good and everything uh and recognize that we we will be that beacon on the hill we will be the fairf County public schools that we were at one point um we will be the model for the nation um and just every uh every everywhere uh that you're abil you're able to give your detailed attention everything matters whether it's infrastructure um whether it's you know Inclusive Preschool whether it's course taking patterns uh whether it's ensuring um you know we expand our Academy offerings but at the end of the day you're about you're about reading and writing and teaching and and making sure that all of our kids are reading by third grade I'm so excited in all my years of working in Fairfax never did we have the same goal two years in
048a row at every elementary school every middle school and every High School um we have a strategic plan in place because of your vision um and I couldn't be more uh proud to be part of this team that gets to work with you and gets to renew this contract thank you for all you do every single day um and for being present and just really recognizing the potential in each and every student that walks into our building and also recognizing and uplifting all the staff who do the work from bus drivers to custodial staff to Food Service to your your L team and everyone in between we just thank you it's an honor to work with you thank you Miss Lady Miss Marin Fairfax will be forever better because Michelle Reed is the superintendent of
049Fairfax County Public Schools which she has built to date and continues to build through amassing a team of Professionals in every sector who expand and strengthen a collective vision is a Marvel and a gift I'm grateful every day for Michelle Reed she brings educational expertise organizational and moral leadership humil and integrity to everything she does I continuously learned from Dr Reed about education about Rising above divers adversity and about putting the adult drama aside for the best interest of kids she is achieving great gains for our students and she is making us see a grander vision than we could possibly have seen before so I thoroughly endorse the extension of her contract before we continue Mr McDaniel has joined us so I will recognize uh Miss Anderson for a motion Mr McDaniel has submitted a
050written request to attend oh I move to lay the pending motion on the table so that we can vote to allow Kyle McDaniel to attend the meeting virtually because you can't have two motions at the same time so we're putting this aside for a second to allow Mr McDaniel to come in is there a second is there a second Mr Dunn it has been moved and seconded to lay the pending motion on the table without objection the motion has been laid on the table seeing no objection I move to take up the motion that was previously hang on one second one second I need to get the other part back up yep all right Mr McDaniel has submitted a written request to attend tonight's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict and is located in
051Teterboro New Jersey all those in favor of Mr McDaniel's request Miss Marin Miss Dixon Mr movine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss seore Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St J cunning myself that is unanimous for board members present Mr McDaniel will you check your microphone I'm here thank you thank you very much I move to take up the motion that was previously laid on the table is there a second Miss M Heiser it has been moved and seconded to take the motion that had been previously laid on the table without objection we will do that the motion is taken back up all right Miss Dixit I uh wholeheartedly support this motion and um as a new board member when I walked in first time in Dr Reed's office and I saw all the
052very nicely organized office and pictures of kids all over her wall and we were talking and Dr Reed asked me uh what are your you know what is your passion what do you want goals for school board and we started talking and one thing that stood out from the first minute that she's here for the kids she's here for all our 182,000 or plus school students uh or for the staff and I admired the passion because I'm a very passionate person the causes I believe in and I feel like you are doing is for the kids there is no I think a bigger joy for giving a gift of best education and also your comments about Innovations and taking the school system to the next level uh to be prepared for the tomorrow you know
053the with all the changes happening in the world and uh I I think you are the right fit and the best fit we could ever have so thank you so much Dr Reed thank you Miss Dixit Miss Anderson so when I first met Dr Reed I told her that my number one goal in Fairfax County was teacher retention and I told her that she was at the top of my list that I wanted to retain um so I could not be happier to support this um I believe that she is part of The Guiding Light that is and I appreciate the fact that she encourages us to always stay in the light as we're doing things that are hard so I have I have often said I have a sign over my front door that
054says effort not Perfection and what I love and what I tell people all the time is that every single time we find a problem we figure out how to fix it and it's not perfect and we weren't perfect to start with and we're going to keep going and actually do the best we can for the kids and the staff and so I cannot say enough how grateful I am that we have you and how happy I am that we're going to keep you so thank you Miss Anderson Mr Moon Mr chairman I'm happy to support this motion that without repeating what has been already said by my colleagues I just want to add one note that over the course of last three decades from mid 1990s or 180 today I have worked with I guess
055seven different superintendent plus interim superintendent uh you know I don't want dispar other superintendent but but you know Dr Reed Dr Reed you know compared to other superintendent you are the one who has been willing to spend most amount of time with individual school board members uh to willing to work with each and every school board member uh uh you are the one who never wants to cancel any meeting with me at least if there's any cancellation it has to come from me rather than you so thank you so much working for S hard I look forward to continuing to work with you for the next four years thank you Mr Moon Miss St John cunning so also not to repeat uh what a lot of people said um a a lot of my colleagues
056have heard me say the bench for superintendence is not deep and the bench is even shallower for excellent superintendent and I feel that we have the most excellent superintendent on that that bench and I use that sports manare for you and all I want to say is that I appreciate all your work and I think all of us take to heart your parting words and every message together all things are possible thank you Miss St John cunning Mr Dunn I just without adding too many words um what I admire most about uh Dr Reed is the fact that she is tireless she um clearly derives much joy and energy from the work she does because I don't know of many human beings who can put in the hours she puts in um not just during
057the workday but every evening every weekend driving herself all over the county um pushing herself constantly while keeping the system moving forward taking on the challenges that uh have been left unaddressed sometimes for many years or decades and doing it all at once and somehow it's working and it's working smoothly and uh and I have great admiration for do as a leader um both of our school and of our community and uh appreciate the fact that she has dedicated her time and talent to uh improving outcomes not only for um Fairfax County but for all students because this is a a critical time in the history of public education we Face great challenges uh to date and going forward and I have full confidence that we will navigate them successfully under her leadership thank you
058Mr dun Miss Swan I'll speak really briefly to this but the first time that I met Dr she doesn't know about this was through a YouTube video where she was talking with other students at the table in the midst of the pandemic just as we were coming out of it about what they valued in their schools and what they wanted to see and that's when I was really excited about our new superintendent and getting to work with students and now like getting to work with her on this di is just so exciting and you know in my conversations with her it's always the questions turned around into like what do the students want to see or how do you think a student would address this and I really appreciate the student voice that you bring
059to this table and I know the previous student Representatives can agree with me as well so thank you thank you Miss Swant Mr McDaniel thank you and um I I just wanted to say Well Mr dun kind of stole my funder I was going to say that the superintendent puts the Energizer Bunny to shame and and she really does um but I've also come to appreciate her noons uh approach and the way that she incorporates business rules and business processes into trying to run a large organization more efficiently so we can focus every spare penny that we have where it matters the most which is in the classroom on our teachers and kids so thank you for that and I look forward to continuing to work with you thank you Mr McDaniel I'll take a
060turn um I will be supporting this contract extension which includes Dr R Dr Reed's current rate of pay uh with enhanced deferred compensation because I am incredibly thankful for the dynamic focused and thoughtful leadership that superintendent Reed has demonstrated since joining Fairfax County Public Schools her work has elevated FCPS to new heights by forging stronger relationships with families students staff and our community there's not a day that goes by that don't hear from somebody who has met Dr Reed out in the community her laser-like Focus finding and implementing innovative ways to enhance academic expectations and achievement is having a meaningful impact on the lives of our students you can see it here on display every time we have a school board meeting I look forward to our continued collaboration as our board continues to work
061with her to accomplish the student centered goals of our 2023 to 2030 strategic plan many people may not know this but the year before Dr Reed joined FCPS she was named National superintendent of the Year having watched her up close these last two years the exceptional work she does the great care that she takes in everything that she does to get it right or to get it better I have zero doubt that they made that right decision and only question how they couldn't be making it over and over again year after year so thank you Dr Reed for agreeing to stay on with us and to continue working together um everything is not perfect we've got our work cut out for us uh and I know you're up for it so thank you seeing no
062others we will go to the vote all those in favor of the motion on the screen please raise your hand Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss seore Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning Mr McDaniel and myself that is [Applause] unanimous moving right along I'm just kidding all right agenda item 5.04 action item comprehensive facilities condition assessment I call on Mr Dunn for a motion I move that the school board authorized $3 million in funding from the school board flexibility Reserve to be combined with the $2 million previously allocated and fiscal year 2023 to complete the initial phases of a comprehensive facility condition assessment of all FCPS owned school buildings facilities to include athletic facilities and infrastructure to include tracked and untracked any unspent funds at
063the conclusion of the facility condition assessment shall shall be transferred back to the Schoolboard flexibility Reserve is there a second I second Mr Dunn would you like to speak to your motion yes I would thank you uh this is a motion that um I am pleased to have uh Mr frish uh seconding and I thank him for his support um it is based on motions that I have brought on two previous occasions um as the chair of the comprehensive planning uh and development committee and the liaison to the facilities plan in uh advisory Council um I am keenly aware of the many challenges that FCPS faces and trying to ensure that every child every child has a safe modern and functional learning environment and that all schools have modern updated athletic and other facilities and
064infrastructure uh the the data that we have available to today is is incomplete but It generally shows that many of our school buildings um are long overdue for renovations and that is uh clear to our to our staff clear to our students um the industry standard for school Renovations is 20 to 25 years we are nearly um double that um at 42 years uh we have an uh deferred maintenance backlog of $530 million and an infrastructure backlog of 370 million we need to um be more focused um we need to have the data to enable us to prioritize how we spend our dollars we have $230 million a year from school bonds but we have Capital assets of7 billion and 28 million square feet of uh School building space we have 199 schools and 224
065school buildings we just have a great need uh to modernize our school buildings and campuses and so the question is how do we do that do we have data to differentiate between the needs of different schools to enable an apple estables comparison and today we don't um and the best practice from uh private sector and public sector is to conduct what's called a facilities condition assessment where you go out and you evaluate the physical condition of all your school buildings using consistent criteria um so you know down to you know the systems electrical mechanical um and all the way down to playgrounds roofs Etc what is the condition of the buildings and how how can you improve them and then you can make Apple apples comparisons and prioritize your dollars to fix that which needs
066to be fixed um and and establish a a new renovation queue which historically has governed uh when schools are scheduled for renovations um this is a very important step this motion to establish additional funding on top of the $2 million previously funded by the prior board so that uh our facilities Department led by Janice samansky has the resources needed to collect that data which then can inform the development of a new renovation queue thank you Mr fr would you like to speak to your second yes thank you uh while I always was supportive of the intent of the effort uh in previous iterations I didn't want this work funded at the expense of another item in the superintendent's budget so now I am supportive because it is being funded from the Schoolboard flexibility Reserve which
067does not impact the operational budget and in my opinion and we'll talk about this a little bit later this evening um that's these are the exact types of projects that the flexibility Reserve should be used for things that impact the entire division um and are not uh commitments over many you know commitments for you know annual renewal Etc um and this is an exceptional case this is something we've not done before and um we've got important work around the development of the queue coming up so this assessment will provide us with invaluable data that can transform how we plan and prioritize Renovations and construction projects in FCPS by anchoring our approach with a comprehensive facilities condition assessment we're not just planning for immediate needs but building on a solid foundation for the future where every
068School receives the attention it deserves um with the completion date expected in mid uh 2026 the facility condition assessment will provide accurate consistent and objective data enabling the school division to prioritize investments in school construction and renovation projects consistent with uh the recommendations we've received from experts considering budget constraints FCPS is pursu doing this work in a phased manner the current renovation queue which we talk a lot about on this board um is nearing its completion by 2030 the last school in the current renovation queue and the first school in the future renovation queue will be in design the useful life of school facilities and building assets requires renovation on a 25e cycle when I joined the board I think we were at 37 years or 36 years because of the pandemic and the way
069that costs increase we're now in the 42-year range um which you know has only been exacerbated by those increasing costs so the work we do here will enable us to be more thoughtful and more prescriptive about the queue that is ultimately established because we'll know more about the buildings that we're prioritizing thank you Dr Anderson thank you I'm glad to support this motion I think I did in your previous attempts Mr dun um and I won't belabor the point I think both you and Mr fresh um really articulated many of the um reasons why this is a necessary um piece of work but I also want to highlight the following um when we started on the board I was always perplexed by how schools were identified for renovation or um or additional construction it was
070always up to to the school board member to push so we're at the table jockeying for why the schools that we represent should be the ones added to the queue that is not a good way of doing business that's not even an equitable way of doing business it certainly it's not an informed way of doing business what I'm really looking forward to is the fact that this kind of data collection will allow us to have an objective set of criteria that will really bring an equitable lens to the work of renovation and to the work of expansion of our schools um we always strive to be a datadriven School Division and this will exactly do that in the area of facilities so for those Reasons I'm very happy to support Miss Marin yes I'm happy
071to support this motion and thank you Mr Dunn for your um persistence and Mr fresh for joining um we need to talk about and work more on the upkeep of our long-term plans for our school facilities we need the details about what the needs are you know the renovation weight has gotten way out of touch with reality and with the the needs of our students our staff and our community and we need to keep reminding the community that our buildings really are used pretty much seven days a week I mean I've been in schools I represent at 900 PM picking up my kid from basketball I voted on Election Day we've got churches you know and houses of worship that hold their services in our schools these are not like other County buildings that may
072have a 9 to-5 workflow and we're using our facilities hard we've got kids we've got Athletics I mean we've got Sports fields that we want to be environmentally friendly and accessible there's just so many things but we've heard a lot of things uh tangental and if we have a thorough report then we can really start to understand what the costs are and then we have to go and get that money and on that note um you know we also tonight are approving by consent the bond program and I I think that not enough of our public is yet a Ware that the enormous amount of the $4 billion dollar it takes to run our schools annually there's nothing in there for renovation and construction that's a whole other pot of money but it's not enough
073and so I would like to have our board discuss with our partners the County Board of Supervisors who manage the public bond process you know what are some options with the bond program can we have high impact public bonds that are dedicated to school facilities including for modernization for environmental sustainability and for safety we currently do not have a dedicated stream for safety upgrades in our schools we know that our parents and staff and children want this I'd like to understand how the County's Capital Improvement program the CIP accounts for our schools in that because we are also trying to meet goals of environmental sustainability so are those together or are they separate um you know as the board hosts public meetings and public hearings about facilities through the annual work on our Capital Improvement
074program so that's early this year January February what questions can our board ask in those sessions of our of ourselves like what's the information that we need to get from the superintendent to share with the Board of Supervisors so we can show the financial need and the impact on residents it's not just students it's not just our kids in our schools it is our whole community so thank you again for bringing this and I'm eager to vote for it Dr Anderson for a go back yes thank you I had forgotten a couple of things that I wanted to make sure we clarify ifed for the listening public U Mr mitki um these evaluations will also not include just the school buildings themselves but the athletic fields and the facilities surrounding that is that correct that's
075correct okay thank you and what we're expecting to receive in ter well what we're hoping I know there's still a process left to come if this is successful but the information we're expected to receive will that be some sort of rating of the schools if you could speak to that just a little bit that would be helpful sure and we're still developing what that scope is looking like but what we would like to do is have some sort of report out where components of each building are ranked and again we're going to look at what makes sense and also relying on the vendor that we choose to kind of advise on what that looks like and then that will then inform and feed into a framework that we develop for that new Ren ation queue
076thank you will that also include information regarding renovation type for example you could have your renovation light where maybe it's just a few cosmetic changes or is it a complete gut job or is it just an an extension or an addition will that be part of this work will we Prov will we be will we be provided with those um recommendations and guidance I definitely think that's something we're going to want to work out with that vendor that develops the framework of the queue and it's actually our intent to hire one company to do both because they're going to be learning about the facility assessing it and that information is going to feed you know our our plan our pipeline that Quee and that could definitely be part of that conversation for that piece because
077I also think that would be very useful data thank you seeing no other lights I will call for the vote on the motion which is on the screen all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Mr fres M Miss Russ seis moiser sorry Mr dun Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning and myself hold on hold on any Nays extensions Mr M Mr McDaniel can the clerk please read the vote sorry did you announce Mr fresh yes all right then we are at um 1101 with Mr McDaniel abstaining the motion passes all right you'd be surprised how hard it is to read a list of names every even though you do it over and over and over again yeah all right sorry Miss Anderson we need to clarify from Mr
078Daniel if that was a yes or an abstention AB it's an abstention okay thank you all right agenda item 5.04 nope we just did that I yes thank you this is what happens when you skip an entire section uh I I call on Miss Anderson for a followon motion I move that the school board direct the current budget chair and vice chair to develop a process and criteria for encumbering the Schoolboard Reserve fund to be brought for board discussion at a board work session in the spring of 2025 is there a second I second Miss St John cunning Miss Anderson would you like to speak to your motion follow on motion as we move into a more tenuous budget situation I think it's really important for the school board to set intention behind how we're
079going to use the Schoolboard Reserve fund um I think that the model that was used this evening was appropriate in terms of the fact that it is identified for um something that's going to impact a large number of schools but I think that it's worth a conversation from the board to get the opportunity to actually discuss how those funds should be utilized particularly since it's the it's the pot of money that we have direct control over every year thank you Miss Anderson Miss St John cunning would you like to speak to your second I concur um and I think it's definitely worth the conversation um because I think I still have to understand how some of it works and I think I'd like to do a deeper dive thank you Miss St John cunning Miss
080eore Heiser thank you and I and I really appreciate the um makers of this motion the maker and the second of this motion because I think to your point of a a a tighter budget situation now the last couple years and going in the future um having that greater transparency and Clarity for our public in terms of how we use our Schoolboard Reserve fund what's the criteria IA by which we encumber it what's the process by which we encumber it I really do believe in having greater transparency we are entrusted with public funds and public dollars and so having this process helps clarify to our public what that um you know what we're doing with it and why and what the purpose of these funds are for so I think I'm really excited about this
081because I and it's all the motion is doing right now is just sending this to develop a processing criteria to bring it back to the board for further discussion there's nothing actually being voted on that's going to change any action right now but I think creating a process for greater Clarity and transparency is always good so thank you thank you Miss seore Heiser Miss Marin yes um first may I just ask that the motion language be displayed please thank you um so I agree with the spirit of this followon and you know I'm all for processes and being clear on what we're doing especially when it comes to our money I just think that it's um I'd like to discuss it further I would prefer to wait until our budget work starts which is really
082just a matter of weeks we just had our first meeting uh this week so I'd like it to be more tied to that and not necessarily tied to this particular action I think that sends some kind of a message that I'm just not I just would like it to be more tied to a budget it's a budgetary aspect and there might even be other things that the budget chair and vice chair might want to work on that will come up in the budget session so um um I I'm not going to be able to support it today but I would love to revisit this even you know as soon as January and talk about other ways that our board can really focus on on budget work and do it in a more um fome way
083than just one-offs right now thank you thank you Miss Marin I'll take a turn uh you know as the seconder of the previous motion I you know one of the things that I think gets lost on a lot of people is how we have to do our work as board members with individual phone calls you know to try and knew of anything on this board and as Mr Dunn and I have been having conversation with colleagues about uh the motion we just passed one of the things that became clear is that there's a lot of thoughts about this aspect of the work uh and a lot of interest in it and um uh I think that a you know it perfectly aligns with the timing of our budget conversations to say a work session in
084the spring um Miss Anderson and I haven't talked about it but it would likely be at one of our budget work sessions based on that timing so I'm supportive of the motion because I think that kind of uh detail is helpful um and can help with those conversations Mr McDaniel so just to kind of address that point of timeline i i i as the budget chair I did speak with our finance staff uh yesterday or the day before about the potential of this motion passing uh the specific questions that I asked uh were about timing uh and we we I'm confident that we have enough uh latitude between now and budget adoption um to put something in place and align it with our budget deliberations and I I would anticipate that a motion if any
085to put in place a process would more than likely be in the form of a follow on to the to the actual budget adoption itself so from a timing and workload perspective we can get this done thank you Mr McDaniel Miss Mar miss seiser you have a go back all right Miss Marin for a go back yeah thank you you know as I as I read it again and you know again this is why I would like to have more time to reflect on it because it's it's really meaty topic you know I don't see why the budget chair and vice chair can't just do this I mean if they think that the Board needs to they can I know you know when I was vice chair we worked on things we're like oh the
086board could really use this let's talk to people and figure out do they agree because I also am concerned conc ered that we're now okay we've got another assignment for a committee and they're going to have to do this work but it's also budget season and we've got a lot of work to do so like in just the totality of things you know and I just mentioned Capital Improvements like this is a super busy time of year for us so I'm happy if the chair and the vice chair want to go about the process of getting input from each of us in that 2 by two you know format um you know developing a draft I'm putting it out I don't need to direct to do that that could just be part part of what
087it is to be the board chair and vice chair um I mean I'm encouraged to hear that the board uh excuse me the budget chair thinks this is an okay thing but having gone through a full budget process myself one or one or two times or more it gets busy and we have a very tumultuous uh time period coming up so I'd rather not have us um overpromise and underd deliver on this thank you Miss Marin Dr Anderson yes um I'm glad to support this I just have a few questions and I'm not sure if the budget chair and vice chair have um responses to it at this time but how do you anticipate Gathering input from the rest of us to help inform um what you bring forward is it going to be part
088of the 2 by two that's the typical part of the budget process or a separate conversation Mr McDaniel would you like to respond from Dr Anderson's time sure that I I can certainly do that the short answer is I think all channels of outreach are on the table I don't have a plan in place this motion language is came 48 hours ago um but whether it's a 2 by two or a survey or it could be a topic of conversation at a work session that then leads into further conversations um you know I would have to work with the vice chair the budget Vice chair to come up with a working plan on it that would be my only ask if we could just get that I know it's been limited time as you mentioned
089this was only before us two days ago um but I would be very much interested in terms of how the input will be gathered thank you Dr Anderson all right seeing no others we'll take a vote all those in favor of the follow on motion on the screen Miss Dixit Mr mine Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss seore Heiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning Mr McDaniel and myself opposed abstentions Miss maritt will the clerk read the vote 1101 the motion carries thank you agenda item 5.05 action item secondary course offerings I call on Miss St John cunning for a motion I move that the school board approve changes to the list of middle and high school course offerings for the 2025 2026 school year as recommended by the Course Review Committee
090and detailed in the agenda item is there a second I second Miss Marin uh Miss St John cunning would you like to speak to your motion no thank you Miss Marin would you like to speak to your second yes thank you um I know this was intended to go through on consent initially but I did think it was an opportunity for us to talk about course offerings because that is such an often a topic that we hear and it really impacts just you know a large part part of our population in the middle school and secondary grades so you know I've talked since with the superintendent and staff and colleagues and I understand there's a lot of um differences in different schools but what I'm trying to understand is how can we ensure the most
091access to what students are interested in and need in a time when we know there's a teacher shortage our funding is not what it should be um we know that moving children from school to school to get programming has its challenges so I I have a few questions that I wanted to ask the super intendent um if she could share a bit more about how we make these decisions about what gets offered so one of them was Dr Reed what are the barriers in providing the selection of courses that the instructional Services Department believes is needed and also desired by students and employees so thank you Miss Mar and I think that what I think the list before you this evening are courses that um the staff uh or students have uh shared an interest
092in somewhere in the division in other words it's put into what we might characterize as a comprehensive division wide course catalog most of these are High School courses that you see in front of you and what happens is those become courses that can now be placed on registration uh form for students to sign up for and what occurs is if there's not an adequate sign up for courses at a particular school it won't be able to be offered at that school I think there are also possibilities um for example the data science dual enrollment we know our dual enrollment classes have very strict uh guidelines around teacher certification and we've uh had some real challenges finding staff that have the certification to be uh dual enrollment staff so that's been certainly the um you know
093a pinch point for offering those courses but uh essentially these the courses in front of you are to add to that course catalog we would not and I know we had this conversation we would not anticipate all of these courses being offered at every High School in the coming year they would simply be options for staff to um put on registration forms to see what student interest is well thank you and I mean to the point about not or the dual enrollment having some hoops to jump through I mean if the board understands where that is legisl atively we can then go to our general assembly and say this right here in the code is what prevents us so I would ask that we have that information um you know but I wonder about something
094that we used to call the Fairfax promise like what is the absolute basic you know level that every student is guaranteed for Access and as things change like is it now coding and computer science is it music I mean you know is it World Language like you know so these courses are being added but I think that sometime I hear in the community that they feel like it's kind of a false advertisement because yeah it's kind of available but not if you have the Staffing and people don't understand the whole Staffing and all of that so you know how can we get more clear about what's really available to students in their school so thank you for that question Miss Mar and I think that uh predominantly the courses in front of you this evening
095are we we characterize as elective courses they wouldn't be courses that are core that we would expect to offer at every High School um um to uh perhaps Dr Presidio do you want to take a moment and elaborate yeah I think between uh Miss clco and I we can probably try to help with some of this I I think Miss May I appreciate all your questions about this because having the the courses that our students need and want is one of the most important things that we can do to promote student engagement and the learning experience I think what we try to do and this is not just in FCPS but in in most School divisions to have student interest really drive the elective choices that are going to be provided in the school so
096having that longer list of standard course offerings and then allowing students to make decisions about which courses they're most interested in and maximizing the enrollment in those courses is really the approach that we're taking here if we were to start to standardize required elective courses you could create more consistency from school to school but students in one school might not be able to get that course that they wanted to because they were were required in a sense the school was required in a sense to offer another course so really through the electives we want students to have the opportunities to pursue their interests their passions possible uh future career interests um and we really really Tred to let students you know selection um drive that process there are other factors of course that are limiting
097sometimes certifications we already talked about um certainly you know sometimes facilities issues is a challenge you can think about things like that uh but as much as possible but we really want student interest to drive the elective offerings in our schools well thanks and you know I I think that's fair and I don't want to standardize you know for the point of it but sometimes students don't know what they don't know I mean I don't know what I don't know sometimes so how can a student know that they're interested if they've never been exposed to it and I know I don't have a single student the last time I checked that goes down to the Edison um location for their wonderful career programs and electrical and HVAC and there's not one student in all the
098schools I represent because it's too far it's on the other side of the county so what is the plan to expand that access um so these are just kind of the questions that I've had and been talking with colleagues you know as we talk about coursework and access and Equity how are these decisions being made so I appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about it tonight and I'm I'm sure we'll continue it thank you Miss Marin Miss Lady thank you um I'm going to make a few comments just because this is sort of my wheelhouse um you know I I certainly as someone who built Master schedules and and responded to student asks just to help maybe my colleagues understand that um optional course offerings anyone in the county can uh can offer
099um if their instructional Council agrees to do it and we did often add additional optionals to our course catalog because students heard about it being taught at a different School and came to us and showed the interest so we put it on the menu of selections and then if you had enough people select it we taught it um most of what's being approved here is not uh than the de um is not an instructional license barrier um for us to teach in any of our schools so I want to uplift that as well um my question is in regard to uh guitar moving from optional to standard um who's going to pay for guitar um and I'm going to give my example that when I was at chanelli my choir te I mean my Orchestra
100teacher was paid as an you know as an iterate paid from Central um we he had enough students in his program to be full-time but he wanted his to have four ensemble instead of five because he wanted to also have room to teach guitar and we had to pay the guitar section every year so I did get a request from a direct actually a principal who wanted to know who's going to pay for guitar they expected to staff it them themselves or is that going to come centrally so thank you miss lady I think that um we need to be clear that the courses offered at the schools and in particular some of the courses that are still rebounding from the pandemic uh we definitely want to be funding um centrally so I I will
101have to talk to Dr precidio and Miss Burton and Miss Burton's not here tonight so um but I do want to say that uh we want some of our programs we've really provided support uh to have the student uh student enrollment return since the pandemic and also where we're starting programs that may be new to the county and I want to call out ballet as an example when we think about Equitable moves and Megan was there as we were talking with our student advisory Council the cost for students to participate in dance in our community is really expensive and in many cases we haven't uh paid stiens for our dance advisors either so we need to recognize that our fine and Performing Arts are a Cornerstone of an education and um something we value significantly
102here in Fairfax County uh there's tremendous research that uh talks about the value of our fine and Performing Arts so in this case ballet I've talked to High School principles and said this is a first fora into this and we're going to support that and fund that because we know that there are young people there are careers in the ballet that are available and we want to make sure that as we seed programs that we fund those centrally the guitar program is a program that's rebounding from the pandemic and again an important part of our fine and performing arts program but I appreciate the question and uh you know it's always a t uh between funding sources but we want to make sure that U staff feels supported uh for these student opportunities uh thank
103you for that I also want to Al mention teachers for tomorrow um that's another one that I have talked to a number of principles given the teacher shortage that we have in our country certainly in our in our state and in our County um that that those are also funded by the school and too many of them were cut at least from the perspective of folks I talk to um you know meanwhile they've got to maybe teach the third level of a language that might be enrolled at 17 students but they've got 17 and teacher for tomorrow and they cut it so I would like to figure out if we can support that from Central uh funding as well no need to comment I just I'm sort of making that ass because I think our
104schools need to be teaching that um and then the last thing is a little bit a tougher topic for me um and and you know the bottom line is we're adding these uh weights to a lot of courses um I know before I left the I was part of a committee that was looking at weights and I argued for the Arts I said you're waiting all these CTE courses you're waiting all these other courses they're cannibalizing the Arts so either stop waiting all these things or play fair right so now we're we're playing fair and we're waiting more things in the Arts but my concern is we can't be handing undergraduate medals to more than 50% of the people that walk across the stage and right now that regulation says a 4.0 are higher GPA
105you're an honor grad um I know that the year I finished at chantilli I think we were 232 kids and I believe last year they were up from that if you continue to add these it's it's just going to continue I mean the cost of those Metals is is is is astronomical to begin with and so I just asked that you maybe revisit that regulation and so that is truly an honrad um and not you know at some of our buildings yes I'm sure that's a smaller number in in some than others um but it's a little hard to manage um in some of our buildings but uh I'm excited about the new course offerings I I think that it's great that we listen to our students um we build master schedules based on what
106they pick so just the last thing I'll say folks is just because something's on the menu if a lot of people don't want that then it doesn't make fiscal sense to offer it so um there are some tough decisions we make every year we build a master schedule um but I do believe that our directors of student services do an excellent job of building student centered Masters thank you thank you Miss Lady Mr Dunn well I I appreciate my colleague's uh emphasis on the importance of the Performing Arts I Believe Miss Baron and I led a campaign back in fy7 to make sure that the Performing Arts programs were not eliminated um under a previous superintendent so um I I I do want to differ though I I really value foreign language uh classes although
107they can get small sometimes oh no I so um I one thing in looking at this uh being a new school board member um I I I heard uh a statement that you know it's driven by student interest and um I I know that there's been previous discussions at Schoolboard meetings about trying to standardize the curriculum across high schools because there is a vast disparity in the availability and accessibility of programs as Miss Marin said um you know there are concentrations in certain areas and other parts of the county they're almost deserts um of you know Career and Technical education or other course offerings um but I I I do want to urge you know to the well I let me ask I don't get a sense that this course catalog that any strategic decisions
108are being made in this course catalog now maybe I'm wrong but it seems if it's being driven by student interest and we have this inequity then and and and given you know finite budget resources um all these special electives and things cost money and and it's hard to do a million electives well so I was wondering is there any strategic effort or planning or thinking about going through this set of you know electives and printing it down to a more manageable number where we can be excellent at a smaller number and then ensure Equitable access across across the full geography of our County I think that thank you Mr Dunn I think the um with 25 comprehensive high schools and a variety of um other High School programming we we have a lot of students
109with very unique hopes and dreams right and I think that our Core Curriculum is uh quite I think um equitably distributed across the county our Core math English writing science um and so forth I think uh we're you know with the exceptions of IB versus AP versus um dual enrollment and so forth I do think that there has to be a space for students to do that exploration uh to connect that passion with their purpose uh because that's going to become the stepping stone into life after Fairfax County Public Schools so I think that we can provide supports that are still fiscally uh responsible and meet the needs of a very diverse set of interests among our students and that's uh requiring us to be strategic I think uh some of the uh topics before
110you this evening are around granting extra credit and then also looking at AP Human Geography for example or AP seminar I think looking at the dual enrollment options in front of us this evening uh there's been a high interest in data science as being a course that's more accessible across the county and that's one that wouldn't require a lot of financial setup because your to your point currently we're not able to provide for example auto mechanics or welding everywhere because of the startup equipment costs right but for a data science course and a lot of our cyber security our drone and Aviation uh startups those don't require quite as much Financial startup so I think we're going to always have a tension between the financial efficiency and nurturing uh the unique hopes and dreams of
111each and every one of our students and hopefully we'll strike that balance um better than we currently are I guess and thank you for for your comments um I I guess I'm not just thinking about the additions that are proposed in this motion but the course catalog RIT large um because uh the course catalog and the locations of all these different programs reflects Decades of kind of one-offs right we have three grades six through eight middle schools and M district and none elsewhere and that reflects an initiative that was started and then stopped I'd like to focus the conversation on the mission at hand as opposed to things that we might pick up in a work session this specific catalog yes so that was an analogy um so in in the same sense if if
112we're adding things then maybe we should also be subtracting things um and and looking at because you know someone who's enthusiastic about Aviation might have access and chantily or somewhere else but not the rest of the county so is it worth investing in that one course for those local kids when we're not doing it universally so I I would just ask some some thought be given going forward to what can we remove so that we can do all you do a smaller number of things better so Mr Dunn I think that is an absolutely I mean that's the classic uh registration strategy right I think our directors of student services and our counseling and academic advising staff know that if students are moving to take for example a data science course then they're not in
113somebody else's course right so there's sort of a natural attrition that occurs school by school because we we don't keep adding courses unless we're adding students right so it's a redistribution of students into different electives so to your point we would not continue to support or fund courses that students are not going to continue to be interested in and um and those are such hard decisions right because uh particularly in languages we want to keep the ability to progress through AP or IB or a fourth year to to you know to have an opportunity to access the biliteracy uh certificate as well um but uh you make a really good point and I think we every year I think there are students and families disappointed that we don't offer a particular course at a particular
114school because perhaps students have moved into a a different space um I think we have some thinking to do about how we deliver content as we move into our 2030 plan and I wonder about other modalities to deliver some content that enables it to be accessed across the county in different ways and I know our team is exploring a number of options thank you yes sir thank you Mr dun Mr Moon uh thank you Mr chairman uh I want to start out by saying that I support a school system offering courses to meet the students needs and students needs may be different from one school to another uh and you know individual schools will be in a best best position to make those determinations for their students uh having said that let me also ask
115a clarifying questions the amount of resources amount of Staffing you provide to each school is determined by number of students and demographic of the student body as opposed to number of courses they offer number of different elective stay over for am I not correct the um the the resources provided to schools are directly related to the number of students enrolled there are also uh many of our campuses that have special programs at their site which also have differentiated resource allocation models uh for example a comprehensive Services site that would be at a school would have a different resource allocation the number of Career and Technical education courses may also have a different resource allocation but in general the overarching resource decision- making is around the enrollment or projected enrollment for that School site okay thank
116you I think I sent this question Aller today uh for you to be prepared uh I was looking at a regulation 3202 12 uh which generally governs the process of this a course off the decision making on the course offerings and in school boards Road of the Schoolboard seems to be coming at the very very end it's basically either you approve or you don't approve is there a way for the school board to be able to participate in an all year phase and waiting until the very end of the process so and I appreciated you providing that question earlier I even in the state I came from there were finite like Global responsibilities of the board but setting the course of studies was one of them right as it is in Virginia and so I
117think that approval is critically important because you set the Northstar are really curriculum wise course of studies wise for every student in the county I hear what you're saying and when I reviewed the regulation it's not clear to me uh where that could happen by policy I guess but certainly I think if a board member um had ideas about a course they would like to see offered it it would seem appropriate to share that with me uh or with Dr Presidio or you know having a discussion about that because I know that we have a September uh there's a timeline for uh program uh review and implementation because I was really excited about ballet last spring and then I was told it was too late for this year so I had to come back around
118this year in September but I think we could contemplate what that could look like and um I didn't have time today but I would uh with your Indulgence perhaps sit down with Dr Presidio and Dr Pon and Dr King and the team and think about what a flow chart could look like so that if as a board member you would know this is where we could enter that conversation or how to provide um you know those ideas so I think that's a it's a fair question and I don't think it's clear today how that happens but we could get we could make that clear uh Dr welcome the effort you'll be making with the Dr Padia and and share with the rest of the board whole board what the timeline would like you know would
119look like and the we a board members or board could participate in providing you know a more input from all your staged and waiting until the last minute yes sir thank you Mr Moon Dr Anderson um thank you firstly I do want to thank um whomever was responsible for U moving this off of consent I wasn't sure if it's was Miss um St John cunning thank you for that so that we can engage in this very help I'm sorry I don't I don't know who moved it whoever or Miss Marin whoever pulled it thank you because I think this conversation is very worth is very much worthwhile um because this is something that's also not as explicitly understandable by the public so I think we're doing some education here which is very helpful uh but
120for my own um edification I wanted to follow up on something that miss lady had mentioned because it's one of my questions which is how do these courses become come offered to the schools what I thought I heard you say is that the DSs um decide which ones are offered in the menu or once it's here and the board has approved it will every high school then place it on their menu and it doesn't have to be you to answer it but I know you have the expertise which is why I'm looking at you so as a point of clarification is I don't think this is Miss lady would you like to accept yes I would like to accept that you may use Dr aders this time wait nope don't use my time time staff
121can answer that staff can answer because they don't use my time so thank you Dr Anderson uh Dr precidio do you have I because I I heard the term instructional councel and I'm I'm not entirely sure so do you have a yes I I'll jump in here if you don't mind that's okay good evening everyone yes um miss lady talked about the instructional Council so um often what happens is schools go to their instructional Council and they look at what's new to the offerings um and they vote and then they put forward um a form to instructional Services saying we'd like to offer these additional um offerings and for the most part we just approve but it just kind of lets us know which schools are are adding these new courses and it could be
122one of the courses you're approving tonight or something else from the catalog that they want to add um so they aren't required to add everything but they have to take into consideration like who would staff it if student interest is there um all the different things so no it is not a guarantee that all of these courses would be on in every catalog um uh this coming year and who comprises the instructional Council so I you know I don't uh don't think that's in regulation um but typically it would be Department leads um it would be um Administration I would guess there is likely students I'm looking for head shakes um students students that also would participate in that process um because it's really looking you can look at things in you know isolation but
123they really have to look at the totality of the catalog to see what kind of offerings they have and how they could support uh future growth if it happens to be something that has multiple years to it sure and I could certainly the folks that you've named that comprise this decision-making body I certainly know they would have great input um great Insight in terms of what they can support from an instructional perspective Etc but I do worry about the student interest piece how is that gathered without actually some conversations with the students which brings us to the space where in the schools that I represent there is often the perception whether it be real or perceived it exists that there are better things going on elsewhere that are not offered at those schools that would
124be an a a a space that I would like to I'd like to remove that that narrative at least that perception which is why I'm leaning very much into some of the comments that uh Mr Dunn had made how do we ensure that that student voice is available and again if you have a few students on the panel how are they representing potentially 2500 students to really bring something that could be of interest yeah and I can't speak to what each school does of course but I think it's I think that's a valid question what we're when we start to move into goal four of the Strategic plan access and opportunity is a is a main component of that and part of that is the elected coursework so I think it's going to bring up
125a lot of these questions as we look across the schools and how these decisions are being made and what this looks like from a student perspective not only from the adult perspective so I think there's a lot more to come on this as some of this work is not as structured I I invite you to maybe have those conversations how can we structure this kind of opportunity so that the student voice is not lost because that's where we have the um that's where we have the per C start to be built with the students and then their parents how do we invite them into these kinds of conversations um because access is a real um issue speaking of Access One of the things you talked about when miss lady had discussed guitar is that if
126we offer it then we have to find a way to to service it so it doesn't become a burden to our students I also invite you to perhaps do an audit on this measure because we have schools where you know I have a school where there's three trombones between them and I talk to you about that and they're passing around the little mouthpiece because they don't have enough equipment um I know guitar here at Luther Jackson is also a problem and I don't think what you are what you've articulated here is necessarily what is taking place and before I leap into any other areas I would like to first of all find out what does exist rather than relying on anecdotal um information thank you Dr Anderson may I be added to a go back
127because I have one more question sure miss Dixit so I'm very pleased to see the data science te course um this was I know it's a high in demand in fact in the job market uh data is uh science is really in demand so hopefully that's going to be so my question was actually in the same line that how many schools in FCPS high schools will be offered this course the data science course specifically uh Dr presidia I'll jump in again at this point we don't know tonight you have to approve it and then schools will go through the process and they will submit forms to us to let them know let us know that they're going to be adding it to their course catalog so they they have not um disclosed that information to
128us at this point okay uh so so the first we have to find out if School select then find a teacher for that right and then students will sign up so yeah yes um the data science um class yes they will go through a consideration right they'll look at their whole all of their course offerings in mathematics and they'll determine if they're going to add it if they don't add it this year because perhaps they're not prepared it will be there for them to add into the future it's not a a one-time opportunity so one the reason I'm asking is if this added to the academies it becomes harder than for Access and reach but if they go to the base school it's becomes easier for students to you know sign up so for my
129own son's experience I've seen the academies Dees they really kind of um have that you know sometimes offered not offered the class gets cancelled so um anything offered in high school there base schools uh I think that' be really very welcome um offering I also wanted to comment an AP Human Geography uh which is now as students can take in 9th and 10th grade ERS can take that as a AP course I think that's a huge uh for our higher achiever achieving students taking uh AP in ninth grade I think will be very welcoming I I know there are a lot of students are already for it uh I'm not saying all but there's lot and they would benefit by getting getting started to the AP their Journey a little bit earlier so um yeah
130there's some really good good courses here so I think it was a very thoughtful uh analysis and decision thank you thank you Miss Dixit and for those of you who are like I wonder if we'll get a lesson in parliamentary procedure tonight I've got one for you so I was incorrect I apologize Dr Anderson you are able to ask another board member a question but when The Other Board member responds they're not using your time they're using their own time so they would be taken off the queue and have to come back as a Gob back so I was mistaken in the order in which I was uh doing it so they're not taking um your time they're taking their own time I did and I apologize to miss lady as well um but uh
131Miss Dixit just spoke Miss seiser Heiser I wasn't finished it's just a deliberately slow way of talking tonight there we go we knew what you were trying to say say Mr fr um very mindful so Dr re thank you for this and and um I really appreciate and you know I I really appreciate what you've done here tonight um and I really appreciate what you talked about with the Arts I know I keep sending you articles about the cognitive benefits the social emotional benefits the teamwork collaboration benefits I mean it it's I think I even sent you an article about Arts versus math from MIT and right so I'm really support especially with and I think I've talked to you also about um the inequities it creates for students and how much it costs to
132access Arts outside of schools so I appreciate that I also really appreciate the focus on data science Miss Dixon and I have talked about that and I actually met with the um Professor from George Mason several years ago about this so um as we see data science and being embedded in more and more of our uh careers across a variety of disciplines having that based knowledge it's become more of a core knowledge honestly but one of the questions I wanted to ask of you and in terms of hearing some of my colleagues talk about how can we give you input on this in a you know earlier way or in a way that's not at a work session which I I appreciate I wanted to remember I remember that a few years ago Dr P
133I'm sure you remember Miss Tolen and I who was on the board previously brought a program review Forum topic that was a four-part program review that had started with reviewing sort of what we have and where it's offered and we' had a couple work sessions on it and then we paused that work because we were in the process of hiring you Dr Reed and the Strategic plan and thought it seemed silly to continue the work of looking at um how to have more consistency in programming until we had finished that work so I'm wondering if this is a good time to sort of restart that Forum topic or um embed this in perhaps some of the work you talk about in our goal report or on your strategic plan reports it feels like there's a
134place in a work session this could be embedded somewhere that we could sort of just hear I imagine as part of the work on course taking patterns and on some of the work in in achieving some of the goals of the Strategic plan because I know there's equital access to programming as part of our strategic plan goals that this is something you'd be looking at so I guess the question I'd have is do you think this is at this point a worthwhile to meet a bug our chair and vice chair about restarting that program review work a forum topic and tying it to sort of what you're thinking around the Strategic plan is as a way to sort of get to some my colleagues are asking for for more robust conversation about programming in general
135so thank you Miss eore Heiser and actually we have started working with our high school principls on this exact topic uh we began uh the conversation really last spring and then in Earnest in actually in August uh we began the conversation at the senior level in the spring and then with our high school principal Association in August and our High School principles have actually had a presentation uh in terms of doing what we're referring to as looking at the academic intensity of our high school course taking patterns and my direction to the high school principls is that all schools need to be involved in that within two years so schools could choose to start this year or start next year but by next year all 25 schools need to be involved in the project and
136I believe we have 21 of the 25 involved in this year so I'm very excited about that work and I think we um I would welcome the opportunity I know Dr Presidio Dr Pon and Dr King are leading that work as a uh group of uh Chiefs with um Marcy Neil's uh department and I think it would be a great work session topic I know our high school principals have another um session coming up here before the winter break uh but we're really hoping to impact registration in the schools in year one um for this upcoming registration season so I think it's timely uh and I'm certainly willing to you know meet with the chair and vice chair to talk about when we might schedule that okay well thank you and I'll also talk to
137our chair and vice chair about whether we need to redo the Forum topic or just pick up where we left off because the board had voted to pause it while we waited to on board you and all all the all the things so it may just be something that we could look at restarting and that would be a great venue and vehicle to have that conversation so thank you for that I appreciate it thank you for this and I really appreciate it more than you know thank you Miss seore Heiser Miss Swant so I got a little excited and I got ahead of myself um last board meeting but I really do appreciate the weights that we're adding to courses as well because the reality for students when they will be picking courses in just
138a couple months is okay I have to take all of these core classes I have to take these graduation requirements and I'm really interested in that class but does it really fit in my schedule if I could fit in another AP or another honors course as compared to something they're interested in so I appreciate especially for teachers for tomorrow because they do this whole presentation throughout the entire year of having that weightage of you know that matters as well as pre-professional theater ballet things I've mentioned before I also appreciate that it's added to some of like the Cyber and the IT courses as well you know when we Pro promote the course era it courses and the extracurricular activities and everything else having classes with extra honored wages on top of apcs and other things
139is important as well I guess one question that I had was for the two things that are going to be additions to the graduation requirement AP human geography and AP seminar I know that teachers at least for the new courses Will adding will or like schools will get to choose whether they add that course to the specific um courses that they'll be adding for the students that year but for the graduation requirements is that each school will get to pick if they offer that course as a graduation requirement or it'll just become a requirement for like a standard diploma or an IB diploma or like what would the process be for that if the board were to approve it no great question Miss Swant and um I'm going to lean on my ISD phone a
140friend here and I'm not going to name which one so no happy to address that one actually I'm glad you brought that up um because this is a kind of a unique situation right um it's two different courses one we're adding um one we're adding as a ninth grade as was as was pointed I think by Miss Dixit is is a kind of new situation offering nth grade and then one um replacing English 10 potentially they're substituting right so these are very significant changes to our course catalog we have expressed to our AP schools that it is expected for these to go into their catalog it is expected that now it doesn't mean they'll have enough class and and we said if they had any issues because these are we can't make these standard course
141offerings because of IB schools we get it it's very challenging in that way so they are optional but what we have expressed to um to the school leaders is that that we expect them so that we' give the students all the students a chance to um to voice their um their interest through that registration process so we are expecting them to go into the cataloges unless there's some unique circumstances and we'll work with those schools individually does that help yeah thank you Miss clco I'm gonna also add Miss Swant that another um AP course that I think is very um appropriate for ninth grade is AP environmental science and I'll continue to advocate for that it's a it's a science course that I think is extraordinarily timely and also doesn't have a any type of
142a math uh prerequisite requirement and is really uh taken in the ninth grade in many high schools around the country so um I know our instructional Services Department that's a topic that'll be coming up next year uh but I think that the opportunity to uh try these courses um in that ninth grade year uh which again occurs in many places around the country um and around the world and uh schools will I think really enhance choices for our students yeah I agree I think it's really exciting to see these courses as well but as um several board members have mentioned I think it'll be interesting to see like if we pass all these courses which schools will accept these courses and then how much interest students will Express in that to offer those courses thank
143you Miss Swant miss lady for goack thank you um I just wanted to inform my colleagues because I don't think it's been explicitly said that we have a a large large number of standard course offerings that must be offered in every school we have electives that are standard course offerings art one art two digital art dig there's a lot of what are electives that are standard that must be offered and then there are optional electives the optional electives are the ones that school by school they could submit a request to add to their catalog and for example most of us who are director student services have a student advisory Council Stu an advisory Council to student services with students on them um that's often the place where we would say hey these are new optional
144courses that have just been approved by the school board um what do you think the interest is of your student body and we might run a past leadership so there is student engagement around what we might add as optional but I just want people to understand that the majority of what we offer is standard which is what we're doing with guitar we're moving it from optional to standard every school must offer guitar next year it's a standard course offering it's not a choice it's standard uh I just want to make that and then I fully support AP environmental science for our ninth graders so I hope that does come to permission a year from now and the only other question I have is the fact that um I get the AP seminar thing but as
145somebody who came from a school with ap seminar um when it was an English 10 honors um I I it was not an English course so I'm just my question is if student takes AP seminar as a 10th grader are they prepared for AP research I think that's a great question miss lady um ISD friends so I'm not sure are they app prepared for what I'm sorry to do the research to do the research portion because they normally spend all of AP research AP seminar learning how to primary article it's it's very different than English 10 honors so that's where I'm confused right so there's a couple things um we are required to ensure that we are teaching all of the the grade 10 uh standards of learning so that needs to be clear that
146um and we're working with three schools right now who are piloting so we can ensure what that looks like um we do believe that the the course is accessible by 10th graders and that we can you know create I I'll say that marriage between the seminar course and the um 10th grade SOS English SOS uh and we're working with schools to um finalize that this year yeah I I totally agree 10 gr can do it I just want to make sure that those who want to go on to research will be prepared for that understand you want to ensure that year two is a success thanks thank you Miss Lady Dr Anderson yes thank you my last question was regarding the waiting where can I find criteria that gives us the information in terms of
147how is it decided that certain courses will have the additional five so there was an original process when grade waiting came in and since that time in regulation 3202 um which was referred to earlier States the process that we go through um so like schools or central office or perhaps in the future school board members could put forward courses um and put forward a case for why it deserves a 0.5 or 1.0 weight which then comes through a process that comes through instructional services and if if it feels valid then it goes to the committee that reviews all the new courses as well so it's part of that same process that we use um and we have some rubrics that could certainly be shared I can't remember if they're Linked In the rag I don't
148think they are but we have some rubrics that the committee uses to see if um if they would qualify for example uh for a 1.0 weight a lot of times we're looking for an external exam um so that we kind of keep it in with parody with ap and IB with honors you're looking for things that are above a standard level um so we have a a rubric I'd be happy to share with you okay thank you I would appreciate that thank you Dr Anderson seeing new others we will go to a vote if we could put the motion on the screen please all those in favor of the motion on the screen green Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mavan Dr Anderson Miss Anderson Miss Eiser Mr Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John
149cunning Mr McDaniel and myself that is unanimous the motion carries all right agenda item 6.01 learning environment and relationships with students el10 monitoring report each year the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress towards achieving the 2023 2030 strategic plans goals and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on pages 14 through 31 of the board's strategic governance manual the superintendent provides an annual monitoring report to the board for each executive limitation the board then votes on whether the provided report is in compliance or if corrective action is needed I call on Dr Reid for a monitoring report on Executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students good evening chairman FR members of the board and the public and tonight I'll be presenting
150executive limitation number 10 the learning environment and relationships with students so this uh executive limitation I want to remind the board and those watching is really around um a learning environment that's safe respectful non-discriminatory and conducive to High student achievement and well-being for each student um at the time of this report again I want to note that to the best of my knowledge information and belief we've gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the board's executive limitation associated with this topic and so I'd like to share some of the highlights there are nine areas of executive limitation 10 and they're all shown uh on the slide here uh during tonight's presentation I'll be focusing on any new work updates or items newly added to this executive limitation since last we presented it
151also want to remind those watching from home that the full report um is also posted to Bor dos so the first area of this executive limitation is focused on maintaining a climate that's characterized by support and encouragement for High student achievement across all demographic uh groups and to identify barriers and solutions to inclusion and participation and I want to highlight in this slide our work around the Design for Learning which we began last spring the spring of 2024 during uh last spring we had sessions that focused uh in specifically on our August staff development day as well as our leadership kickoff had multiple sessions it was designed around Universal Design for Learning and the breakout sessions uh were in large part uh Universal Design for Learning sessions we also held our first annual or not
152our first but I think it's actually the second notra king annual our second annual Equity Symposium last summer and the majority of this year's participants reported that the content from this summer Equity Symposium was relevant to their work and their role in FCPS and likely again to attend next year so a lot of excitement um and I think those are really high data points anytime you have over 90% of Staff who are coming to um voluntarily attending a summer professional development program seeing uh those relevance I think that's um very solid data and appreciate Dr King and her team next I'd like to talk a little bit about um the least restrictive environment um adjustments we've made to the IEP process I want to say that uh honestly we've started out and continue to refine
153this process as we've rolled it out due to feedback from uh fam and staff during the second semester of last year our LR tool was launched IEP teams used this tool as they consider the appropriate setting for students to receive their services to date over 4,800 staff members have been trained on the use of this tool additionally we've uh put together an LR dashboard uh which is being developed to monitor this data as we look at State indicators this is going to provide important data to allow our central office and school based leaders to understand data and make actionable change as we work to reach our vdoe targets next I want to mention uh closing out this particular area two items first during this school year and we've planned this for a number of years
154uh but during the school year we have Pilots at all levels in K12 to expand the development of executive fun functioning skills for our students by that I mean elementary middle and high finally we're working with a consultant to support our inclusion efforts this year and throughout this work we're planning a three-year we're in the process of developing a three-year plan to improve our inclusive practices we are creating a professional development plan that will continue for Universal Design for Learning and inclusive practices and the work with our consultant Julie C Is providing guidance on revision to existing instructional framework our existing instructional framework that aligns with more inclusive practices the second area of um this uh eel focuses on implementing policies and procedures that promote a safe welcoming inclusive accessible and Equitable learning environment uh
155for all students that promotes a respectful sense of belonging and well-being again our chief Equity off office uh provides division-wide professional development uh that enhances knowledge and practices related to our educational Equity policy and one of the things that we really have uh spent a significant amount of time again under Dr King's leadership is ensuring that each and every school has two certified restorative justice facilitators that work is ongoing and that training enables us to provide that program division wide and I think to Mr dun Point earlier in the evening can we I think the point was can we identify some practices that are research based that all students across the county can benefit from and I really applaud Dr King and the team uh and Dr Pon for working with our principles to make
156sure that this is uh an expectation in all of our schools and again as I mentioned last year one of the realities was when we had so few trained facilitators we occasionally would have a student that needed to wait six weeks um by that time some of our elementary students didn't remember what they did you know last week much less six weeks ago so the practice really wasn't able to be as effective so it's really we're I hope this year going to see some uh strong data benefit to that work being rolled out next in this area of executive limitation 10 our social emotional learning team has developed a Year's worth of content for responsive advisory meetings that were included in the advisory overview scope and sequence provided to all middle and high schools be
157curious Miss Swant what you think about those because I'm not sure I've had a chance to be in classes where those are discussed also our Title 9 office has established a procedure for working with school-based administrators to report sex-based misconduct cases into a collective and division-wide database called Guardian previously those reports went to the office but weren't necessarily archived for allow to allow us to um look at data patterns and now with our new system the guardian system we're able to look at patterns and intervene uh I think in uh real time for indicator three um of this executive limitation uh again in summer of 2024 our chief Equity office implemented mandatory training for school-based administrators and introduced our new tool which was the let's talk discrimination and harassment reporting tool and for those of
158you who were on the prior board this was an initiative uh Miss BR mesh was very um persistent about and uh really credit her for uh supporting this work and I know that again Dr King and her team we spent a lot of time making this a tool that would be easily accessible for our students and to make sure that we were able to track these incidents where they occur across across the county and again to be able to provide resources and support in areas where those patterns might be greater than others also in the summer of 2024 all school-based administrators were required to attend training to ensure consistency and Fidelity of implementation and enforcement of the srnr hearings office procedures and the new tridal 9 Federal Regulation a Makeup Session for new administrators and
159those who could not attend in the summer was held just last month and I do need to say this was kind of a first uh we haven't required principles to do this in the past or actually required school-based administrators which be assistant principles as well but we really believe that one of the key roles of our central office team is to engineer success for school-based staff and one way to do that is to make sure everyone has the requisite training uh so that we can best support each and every one of our students finally we have additional training to support positive behavior interventions and create inclusive classrooms uh throughout 2425 school year including again courses for school-based administrators and teachers I'll also say that this power of inclusion is really important uh I had a
160chance to meet with administrators for our CSS programs and our focus on twice exceptional students and just making sure that we are cognizant that we have students that need to be able to access advanced programming um at their at the school in which they're attending we're also going to be of course um looking at um other options on a Continuum of services for our students the fourth area of this executive limitation um is promoting structures to engage students in providing input into their learning experiences so again this year I want to highlight our our uh student experience survey which we're launching I know we've sent out a pilot uh survey with questions and we're going to be reviewing that I believe that's uh Marcy Neil's office and our chief Equity office has conducted a number
161of focus groups with students regarding the srnr and our new cell phone policy so we're getting quite a lot of feedback uh from students uh additionally there are focus groups with staff students and families uh around this pilot and oh my goodness uh this uh 30 of our middle and high schools um have already been part of this uh these focus groups and we'll be sharing that information with the board as well as the community um we could have done a focus group of middle school students at the Middle School cross country meet because they uh had a lot to share about their cell phone experiences so next um is about ensuring that each and every student and their family receive regular feedback on their progress um and that this is this feedback is appropriate
162and effective communication uh as part of the Virginia literacy act beginning this year actually School uh students in grades kindergarten through three who are identified as high risk on the Virginia assessment of language and literacy skills screener or the vows have to have a student reading plan and this is going to be I think really interesting as we roll that out and support our young readers um um we've also made changes in secondary grading practices and as the board knows uh certainly we're looking at some uh consistency across all schools on that topic the next topic is engaging with teachers administrators students and families um in the development of administrative student discipline regulations that are clear consistent fair and developmentally appropriate uh we had a team that worked intentionally last year I think we're on
163the next slide thank you we had a team that worked intentionally last year to reduce discipline disproportionality there were data sets walkthroughs uh consults and um I think this is a topic we're still working on our next goal report you'll see data where there's some mixed honestly mixed review on this but the work um is going to continue because discipline disproportionality is something um that's important for us to address schools receive guidance and resources um and again we're looking at evidence-based strategies to reduce these discipline disparities I will say when we do look at our next goal report the sheer number of suspensions are quite minimal for a division R size so I do want to say overall our students are uh I think very engaged in what they're doing with us each and every
164day we're now looking at ways that we can ensure all discipline policies and procedures are clearly communicated I think we're on the next slide thank you um we've included updates to language and regulations 2601 and 2602 which impact the srnr and we continue our work to ensure that discipline policies are clearly communicated and enforced um we've broadened our training materials offered ongoing office hours and made modifications to our student Information Systems next I just want to take a moment and talk a little bit about our multi-tiered systems of support work uh we had our very first summit on this topic uh this past summer and hosted close to a thousand employees over 890 uh it included an attendance panel to Champion positive attendance practices um we also looked at in-person flexible instruction time um and
165a new early warning system uh to allow schools to identify students in need of intervention so we've really created a number of different data dashboards in fact our school's uh Gotham Seth team has done a fabulous job of creating School principal bites um so once a week they uh receive data that they have asked for and maybe a little data that I um think might be helpful for them to look at uh that they receive weekly and it's based on their school uh context and I think that that's really exciting to have that at their fingertips the lastly I want to share that uh this is the first year uh where division-wide common assessments and Mathematics reading and science will be used in all Elementary grades at the unit level at middle and high school
166levels the division-wide common assessments are going to be used in select courses in reading math science at designated schools uh again Dr Pon Dr King and Dr prido and consult with Marcy's team are working on that and the data sets from that will enable us to intervene in real time to make those academic gains that we're committed to making in the final area of this executive limitation we have some evidence of how we ensure that all confidential student information is properly used and protected and as of November 6th we've had 96.7% of our full-time employees complete our cyber security awareness training which is new this year we haven't required cyber security training previous ly so at this time Mr chairman this concludes the summary of the monitoring report for executive limitation 10 learning environment and
167relationship with students thank you thank you Dr Reid at this time I now invite board members to ask any clarifying questions or provide their comments we'll get started with Dr Anderson thank you I'd like to start with the first indicator with some of the information regarding the um the equity the um the equity Symposium um it's really good to see that the interest continues to increase and attendance continues to increase across the years um and I think this is a very valuable tool can you speak a little bit more definitively what is it that we're looking to have happen from participation in that work in the equity Symposium work I think what we really want um our staff students and families to understand that Equitable access and opportunity is critical for each and every one
168of our students and there are many ways that barriers manifest themselves to students and their ability to learn one of the barriers that we've not spent as much time on in the last several years here in Fairfax county is the barrier of program definition which is to say there in some ways students who are receiving special Services have not we haven't had as free a flow from self-contained classrooms into non- self-contained classrooms and that work to support success for students in general education classes is really important and for many of our students it is an inequity to not have access to courses um that they can be successful in and want that experience in that course so I think that uh as we recognize that as a significant Equity issue and having it be front
169and center in the equity Symposium is to say that just as there are barriers for students perhaps who are still learning English um as a language and as an academic language so too there are barriers um for students who have required special programming and I think when you think about um um Equity we haven't always thought about all of the students and all of the possible barriers so I think the work is really powerful um and we're excited that um you know that staff are leaning into that at this time sure so how are you evaluating the impact of this powerful work where are we seeing changes and activity changes in student access that you can speak to for this indicator so goal two that's coming up and I'll pull up the report here goal
170two has where we are a graph on our um I think we link to it Marcy but we had a we have a graph in gold too that looks at the state targets for least restrictive environment the percentage of students or the percentage of time students are I'm trying to think here it's the target the percentage of time students are able to be in general education courses and there are I think four categories of a breakdown in that and we've yet to meet that Target quite honestly um we're closer this year you'll see in the go two target than we were previously so we're making progress but we're not there yet uh I think with more staff um being confident and comfortable with Universal Design for Learning because that's really a general education initiative it's
171not a special education initiative uh that I think we're going to see uh more students uh able to access the General Ed setting and there therefore we'll be able to hit those State targets for least restrictive environment that we have yet to hit quite honestly okay thank you another question that I have in this area where you started talking about the LR tool which began in the last school year um the number of Staff who've completed the training went up to 4643 um as of July 2024 and again my question is since we've had such a high number of staff that have concluded it this work concluded the training of work that started last school year what are we seeing with the usage are we seeing increased access to not just the tool but also
172increase access to our students where is that information where can that information be found absolutely we've seen an increase I believe again it's connected in goal two where we have the charts uh for the increase in the LR the least restrictive environment and I think um if I pull up this particular uh report I'm trying to see where we might have linked to it uh Miss Neil do you have a notion of which page we might have linked to that on um Dr go 2 report hasn't been posted yet publicly oh of course not so um so we didn't link to it so we did not link to that data so and that's kind of my struggle throughout the document because we have lots of activities that are out that are laid out lots of
173professional development and all of those are necessary activities right but PD is a means to an end it's not the end itself and I don't have that information here in order to evaluate the impact of those activities on students because that's our bread and butter we could do a thousand things but what we're interested in is changing and moving the needle on the student outcome and that seems to be largely missing here so well on page three of the actual report again we talk about uh data regarding the percent of students included in the general education setting for 80% or more of the school day will be monitored do you have the data from go 2 that I could share this evening I do I can pull that up if you'd like okay let's go
174a and pull that up right now so I can share that and again these are the there are four indicators 5 a 5B 6A and 6B on the state reporting tool but we'll get those numbers here in a second sure but that that's just like one example of kind of what I find happening in this document it's not it's not inclusive of the data that we need to evaluate the progress and I know one of the things that was approved not too long ago by Mr mline and Miss Marin is that we would have the data embedded in these reports because the purpose of these reports as I understand it and perhaps I need to clarify my own expectations is that one we would be informed of the activities of the division I think that's
175a splendid way to know what's going on but secondly and to me most importantly is to determine the progress of our student outcomes because that serves as the evaluation for you correct and not having that information really leaves me at a place where I'm not able to make determinations as to whether or not not you're making that progress right fair point we right here for now all right what is it Miss Neil sure so what I'm going to share is um the vdoe data is the last time they made this report public for the indicator data is with the school year 2223 and so we've applied the VOE process to um to give an estimate of what our indicator data looks like for 23 24 so for indicator 5A that's looking at the extent to
176which our students in grades kindergarten through age 21 are included for 80% or more of the instructional day and a general education classroom and we are estimating that we'll be at 58.91 per which is an increase from 2223 from 56.94 um again that the state Target for the school year would be 73.1 so we're making progress for indicator 5B we've remained relatively flat this is a indicator that's looking at the extent to which students um with an IEP in grades kindergarten through age 21 um are included for less than 40% of the instructional day in a general education setting and so uh we are estimating to be at about 12% it was um just under 12% the year prior so we're pretty flat for 5B for our 6C data this or sorry 6A data this
177is looking at inclusive prek um last year that was or sorry 2223 school year the state reported we were just over 20% and we have gone up to 23.99% so we're just below um the state indicator there we've made significant progress and for 6B this is um again we've sort of stayed flat we're trying to get down below 38% we're at 57.92 but that was an improvement from the prior year I appreciate it but I can't keep up with the rattling of all that data and I I just I I can't keep up with that um I I I will continue to use the rest of my time because I did have another question this is on page five of the report where we were talking about the TR facilitators um that are available at
178the schools and again I appreciate that work can you speak to um what you're seeing at the school you talked a little bit earlier regarding um the lag time for students to have access to RJ what is it now so I will defer to Dr King um on the time I know we've certainly increased ined um the number of trainers that we have so Dr King yes thank you Dr Reed so prior to this effort we had five facilitators that um took care of RJ for the entire County now that we have at least one with the goal with having to at all of our schools um it's in real time so when there's conflict uh those facilitators can intervene with families who wish to participate in RJ in real time so we're seeing an
179increase in number of students students and that will be part of you know our report that we give to the board each year to um show you the data but um anecdotally and speaking with my team there's been an increase in families choosing to use the RJ path when there's conflict in school I think I heard the buzzer yeah I think so it's safe to say we went from perhaps months to real time absolutely so we went from five facilitators to about so we have 200 schools so we have at least 200 facilitators and with the goal of having 400 and our um central office facil facilitators take care of um the larger grievances ones that need you know more expertise I've run out of time thank you Dr King and Dr Anderson um Mr
180mine thank you um I wanted to um briefly discuss uh the cell phone policy which was um extoled in this as a um example of engaging students um in my humble opinion it's an example of actually not including student feedback and I think that's both the fault of this board um and the fault of of Staff um this board will remember that we be began a pilot uh which was supposed to just be for a few schools in our budget process last year with really no Community input whatso ever it came at the last minute um we move forward with it I voted for it um and then uh later on that pilot was um expanded pretty greatly um again without any student input um and I'd also add that it was expanded without any
181board member input uh and as as one board member um it's hard to contain my um incredible frustration with um the roll out of this policy um so I just have one question question is that and that is when is the board going to um actually have any input on on this policy well I think for sure when the new students rights and responsibility process begins and I can't recall when that's calendered but it would be this spring or um I would assume there could be a request to have a have the topic be on a work session and have more input um on the policy at that point okay well there's one board member I raised up the um the request uh right now and I will continue to raise it up that this
182board be actively involved in um the implementation of this policy um and I think just uh again speaking with students this is one of their their greatest frustrations um so I don't think it should really be reflected in this as an example of of positive student engagement thanks thank you Mr movine Miss eore Heiser thank you and I appreciate the um report and I appreciate um the additions to some of the information that's in there about um udl and about the LR tool I wanted to ask um on the indicator five and six data that I I think I appreciate Miss Neil you reading out loud kind of the changes but are is that data the same um are we collecting the same data report to the state in each year because I didn't know
183how the impact of the l tool is are we are we is the LR tool in terms of it's a tool for I AP teams right to discuss L but is that data being used instead of what we used to report for indicator 5 or is it still the same IEP data that was report for so it's the same Apples to Apples is what I'm trying to get to okay thank you I appreciate that I'm just looking at the nodding head so well and let me also clarify because I appreciate you asking that I think the tool there's a reporting tool we have to report you know to vooe the actual L document that now is required as part of the IEP process I don't believe we began that till last spring so I don't
184know that we're gonna we haven't really seen the full impact of that uh so I don't think and I don't think it'll be I don't think our current data that Miss Neil shared is reflective of the impact of that what we wanted to share in the report is that's a new development that we began and we refined it right because we had feedback that it was owner and that it really wasn't uh maybe hitting the mark and we wanted to have that be a conversation in each and every IEP but I don't think we're going to see that impact but we the tool that we have to report is the same tool but we're also assuming that we're following the state protocol because the state uh so we gave that our effort Dr Presidio is
185there anything you want to add to that I see you're nodding no I mean you've got it 100% correct and and I would just say we're we're still looking to even refine the tool to be totally honest with you I mean we're working with the Consultants that we mentioned in this report and that's one of the things that we're looking on but I think Dr Reed's point that the data don't reflect the use of the tool because we're looking a year behind with the the data that we get from the state it's always a year behind so that's one of the reasons that we're trying to create our own dashboard so that we've got a better system to see the impact in real time of the changes that we're making that makes sense I appre
186and I just wanted to bring this as a cautionary tale because I was on the committee about 10 years ago that revised IEPs maybe was I might be of the date wrong and it changed what we used to report and so I want to make sure if we're going to be and I didn't realize that part that happened after my input on the I so I wanted to make sure we continue an apples apples comparison because the tool from my understanding is just a tool for IEP teams to use to make it's almost like a checklist to make sure they're considering the least restrictive environment so it's almost like a reminder to say yes I've considered these it's not a reporting tool we're talking about two different tools the l tool yeah the l tool
187that you're talking about the IEPs is more I mean and I can just read it from what it's it's it says here on the report um the IP teams use as they consider the appropriate setting for students so it's more like a checklist kind of tool which is appreciated but I'm just going to lift my one point back up is that until we look at the settings that are available right and the way that programs are and I know you're working on that with our consultant but like it's I don't anticipate you're going to see a ton of impact from this because they're only considering the settings that have been in place for 30s something years so I just wanted to write it's great and I'm glad we have a checklist something I asked for
18810 years ago for I teams so it's great we have it but just just keep in mind that it's may not be the Panacea you consider it until we really look that program delery model well for sure and I agree because I mean the checklist is only as good as is the environment environmental possibilities for a child's placement right because if the checklist is there but there aren't options then it's right yeah yes ma'am I understand so I just wanted to you know I appreciate you including in it and it's a good development and I really appreciate um working on the inclusion that was what I was going to ask you about in slide six you mentioned working with Dr C and Dr Fredy fanack and I'm butchering her last name are they looking at
189that program delivery models and they're looking at the inclusion work is that part of that inclusion work the program models certainly are and the allocation of resources including Staffing um are very much so uh part of that work and the other thing that we want to make sure we're tying together is the enhancement plan so they're reviewing the enhancement plan as well as our LR goals to make sure that um all of that is brought together and that they're not separate projects because really it's all one project so the reason I I asked that is because the enhancement plan came out of the a report and the a report was looking at how we could better do what we're already doing right so the enhancement plan is a response to how can we do better
190what we're already doing important to address right right and I looked at the bullets here about the inclusive work there was nothing here about actually looking at program delivery it talks about inclusive practices professional development and instructional framework and resource is but so I that's why I wanted to I don't maybe that's embedded in there but it wasn't listed in the bullets and again if we don't change what the options are we're only able to fix what we're already doing and and I know people are working real hard teachers are working real hard but we've got to give them better environments to teach in yes ma'am and I I think that your point is one is a compliance exercise and another is a vision exercise right so I think that's not lost on us and
191um I I think the ability to flesh out that Vision it's not unlike we talked about in the Strategic plan right we're going to if we just go at that as a problem solving exercise we'll never run out of problems and it's exhausting and if we come at it as a future preferred State uh I believe we're going to be able to hit the mark So point taken I'll take a go back thank you thank you Miss eisar Heiser Mr dun um I have a few questions um so there was a lot of um effort given to training a thousand people Plus on udl um but uh I it isn't clear how that's aligned with the Strategic plan I was looking at strategic plan it does mention Universal Design for Learning and then you know
192you train a thousand people but that's a process right and I'm just wondering is there an outcome like like some measurable efficacy that we've achieved through that training because one day for a thousand plus employees there a lot of staff time and there's a cost involved in that so if you could just provide additional information sure I think uh the Universal Design for Learning is a general education program that's a best practice that's used at many in many many places probably almost all places um and let me just sort of summarize it for also for folks at home who may not be familiar with what that means and as we move into winter and think about if we think about a building that's had a massive snowstorm I'm not suggesting we're going to have snow
193this winter but let's say there is snow um there's a difference between whether we choose to shovel the steps going into the building first or the ramp going into the building first you've got to shovel one or the other anyhow and Universal Design for Learning says you shovel the ramp and then everyone can get in often we start shoveling the steps and then anyone who's not ambulatory in terms of the ability to use the steps has to wait until we get to shovel the ramp right so it's really important that we think about what are our teaching practices that enable students um rather they have an IEP a 504 plan a language uh challenge how do we make sure that our practices enable and nurture success for each and every student in a classroom it
194could be questioning strategies it could be how we scaffold the work um it's really important to think about uh how we seat children how I mean there's some really practical strategies exit tickets entrance tickets right that are not uh significantly more work but they're how we do the work and so there's huge research that talks about when you utilize a Universal Design which has accessibility for all students that indeed student achievement Rises for all students it's also really important and I think m Miss clco could share when we look at rolling out our literacy curriculum we've you know we've drawn a line in the sand that says every child deserves instruction at grade level then there's time for intervention or enrichment but we often have pulled children out for self-contained support at the very time
195that grade level content's being delivered and what we potentially create then is a curriculum disability right because students haven't had access to conversations or material or that experience that would be at grade level so I think that as we come around these topics as a School Division we're going to see more and more um support for our students and an understanding a deeper understanding of their each and every one of their capacity and so I'm excited about that I don't think it happens overnight since we just started it last spring and summer but as that culture builds I think we're going to see um you know student achievement rise because there are fewer barriers for many of our students are there any other major school systems if we the ninth largest any any of our
196peer large school systems that have successfully implemented udl at scale I can't think of one off the top of my head but I think that um I can get that information for you it's such a standard best practice that it's hard to imagine someone not um but but I I will make sure I get that data for you is is is there a plan to successfully Implement beyond the one day of training that was done is there a plan to I mean we have 40,000 employees right 30 40,000 employees I mean to successfully deploy it to our entire teacher Workforce I believe that is the plan I I think um I apologize if I only acknowledged one day for a thousand people our entire leadership kickoff which had more than a thousand people was focused
197on Universal Design for Learning every new staff member to the school division every new educator uh had Universal Design for Learning so it's has to be more than a thousand people we've trained by now in fact I think the August day was for all teaching staff had Universal Design so I apologize that the data Maybe I uh wasn't as accurate as I should have had it but Dr Presidio I think every teacher has had the opportunity already and instructional assistant so forth that's correct and we're going to continue to build on that one of the things that we tried to mention um in this presentation is that we're working with our Consultants around our um inclusive practices work and udl is just really the foundation of that work and that work that we're doing is
198really going to be mapped over a three-year period of time so we're going to continue to embed udl principles and as we work towards inclusion over the next three years so what we did with all staff in August on that staff development day was really just the first step in that process once they get trained are they then left to figure it out on their own or are there continuing resources or is it is embedded within instructional coaches for example that they can offer udl training you know on a kind of a one-on-one basis or a small group basis yeah there there will be support from coaches in in ongoing professional development as I mentioned but I think Miss seore heis more was mentioning earlier like we need to really reimagine and redesign our service
199delivery model for how we're supporting not just with are students with disabilities but are multilingual Learners as well so all the work that we're doing around udl is setting the foundation for that so we're going to continue to change our service delivery models and as we do that then teachers in the classroom obviously are going to be using these practices and they're going to need ongoing coaching and support to you know increase their efficacy in the use of those practices um thank you um I also noted that the the expansion of restorative justice uh the folks who are trained to deliver that but is is there any data available because it's not in this report about the efficacy of restorative justice practices as as deployed within FCPS I mean does FCPS track whether students are
200happier with outcomes when you have restorative justice employed or whether it's more successful at VI avoiding future fights or uh incidents so um what I would say is part of the reason we really doubled down on the expansion of restorative justice was due to really I I can think of two seminal moments uh one we had several Elementary assistant principles come and visit and say we love this we see such powerful outcomes for our young children right our elementary children but it the Gap in time is too long so that was one conversation that led Dr King and I to sit down and say look if our administrative staff who are imposing discipline consequences and working with our young children see this huge of value that they're willing to say let's make sure that we
201have someone at every school we want to really pay attention to that we want to listen to our staff when they're telling us something works um and secondly the second seminal moment was Miss Swant I had several students come from TJ and say that this was something very important to them that they actually had a club that did restorative justice almost students um to student and they felt like this was such a powerful way to build culture and climate and understand empathy even not for all situations but for many situations and they really encouraged us to make this a broader structure for secondary students so again we talked went with Dr King's office of student conduct and visited with the students and tried to design something that would better support um discipline outcom so I
202think we those are examples of both student voice and staff voice that um again perhaps anecdotal uh but I think we've seen um I hope we've seen some benefit Dr King do you feel like you have any kind of anything to add to that the restorative justice uh Department sends a report to the board um and it will have data that shows um what's been happening in our school schols and I expect that we're going to see an increase in numbers based on last year and this year because of the number of facilitators that we have in schools but anecdotally again we're hearing positive feedback from the facilitators um that they've been able to intervene in many instan particularly at the elementary school level um to change student behavior and how they disagree with one
203another I think you know with students coming back from Co and now we're back a few years right I think some of those early conflict resolution skills uh the self-regulation skills how to talk about things that are upsetting uh all of those we hope will build those Rich a rich Foundation uh in the Elementry before our students get to secondary thank you um I I want to emphasize the seventh uh Criterion uh says that ensure all disciplined policies and procedures are clearly communicated and enforced fairly consist consistently and so on and and it seems the report focuses on disproportionality but I mean the the words are enforced consistently and I can only speak from what my constituents bring to me which is that they still feel like there's too many fights too much um bad
204stuff happening in the hallways um and too much violence and so people are concerned especially at the middle and high school levels and so um we we do want to reduce disproportionality but we also need to make sure that there's consist and enforcement of of the rules um and so I I just ask that there there be quantitative data developed so that you know we can share with our constituents showing you know a decline in incidents of violence or bullying or other other things because anecdotal is not as persuasive as you know Quant we have great Quant quantive dat in so many respects I would love to have that as well so Mr Dunn I I appreciate that because we have to have discipline right there's no morale without disci IPL you can't teach a
205child whose attention you don't have guaranteed if you recall our um healthy youth survey we actually had a decrease in a number of those risky behaviors with the exception as you recall of the sixth grade right but other the bullying and the other behaviors we saw a decrease in year-over-year with that one grade exception so um perhaps that would be something I'll what I'll do is I'll put that back in the Friday letter this week to redraw us back to to that secondly part of this report is we've worked very hard with our remember I said it's the first year we've required school-based administrators to attend a training around consistent enforcement of the srnr across the School Division as well as hearing office protocols and knock on wood but we have not had student discipline
206hearing to the board in a while right so I think that's both anecdotal and um I think quantitative uh because I feel like our staff across the board are providing a much more uh consistent enforcement and understanding of um our policy Direction so I really um I really believe that staff are working hard for that consistency in ways we haven't previously I'll take a go back thank you Mr dun Miss diit I forgot about my turn I was like it's not coming all right so my uh only Point here is I was going to say is uh one of the number five point is the criteria I guess it's ensure all the family gets their regular feedback on student progress through appropriate effective communication that really happens in elementary school level and with my own
207experience with two children um in FCPS at Middle School it starts to kind of slow down and then High School school like they're pretty much on their own yes we have access to Sis uh we can get scores but that's pretty much it so um and and I feel like we become an outsider in some capacity even though I was on a PTA board and and both middle school and high school just to stay involved I was like how do I get to school and you know be do my part so PTA was a good option um but I really feel there is a room of improvement there so your thoughts yes ma'am I agree I feel like um you know I some of that is I know children that come home at seventh and
208eighth grade seem to be less communicative sometimes about how their grades are coming um and high school students uh it just depends you know where their interests are but I know parent view is used heavily uh but that's different right than seeing uh student work work um so you know I I think that we can take a look at what that might what that might look like to have a more U transparent feedback at middle and high school um I think it's easier at elementary because often there's one teacher right who generally is able to and you're bringing home snail mail packets yeah uh Friday packets and maybe we need to Institute that at middle and high school but um once you have multiple teachers with um different content and expectations I think it is
209difficult if a student isn't bringing something home to say look you know here's what we did um so it's that's it's something to think about I will make a note and see what we can do so uh one of the some teachers give had there's a note section in the grade book and they would write uh student participating in the classroom or they will say um supporting them peers and helping with their uh you know in in the in some kind of notes are there I think that's one section where it's not extra whole process to set up but then some teachers do it and and seriously I would look forward to seeing those remarks in my uh son's grade book because those were like little personal touches I would say somehow the teacher is
210giving me that feedback uh it would feel uh much better than just getting the the scores are you talking about in parent view or in CIS or iess it's the same in theis the same thing so it's in sis after the grade book there's a comment section there too okay um the other thing I wanted to say about number three point uh lot of this harassment bullying um unsafe condition is happening in our hallways like my colleagues also suggested and one of the requests from an elementary school principal was like we are seeing that especially with our six graders um discipline issues are happening more um I think really need need to think about putting cameras in hallways and Elementary School level um and you use our onetime funding for that or any way we
211could do that I think that's going to support a lot of those concern because that last time you made the presentation there was uptick in the bullying harassment in the sixth graders that's correct so I just I'm just correlating that and that's request coming from elementary schol School principal it kind of kind of makes sense so yes ma'am we'll add I know we' had that conversation so I'll uh add that to our planning list and ask Mr Lambert and the team to um think about adding that to our safety queue thank you Dr thank you Miss Dixit Miss Maron yes I think that some of these items um about what you're not failing to do are really timely especially number five which is about access to feedback on student progress through appropriate and effective communication
212which would be our reporting and our grading policy so I look forward to looking at that one uh with that with the following Year's work underway by that point next year um but just you know reiterating that it is so important to get that right to get the technology piece right and I know we've been talking about that the uh number four promoting structures to engage students in and providing input into their learning experience so last night I was at our Advanced academic programs advisory committee and one of the topics was how do we collect feedback from students about why they choose the courses they do and do we have some kind of feedback mechanism so that is something um important I think and would also blend into the conversation about High School courses and
213and the selection so regarding um number two implementing policies and procedures that promote a safe welcoming inclusive accessible and Equitable learning environment for all students that promotes respect belonging and well-being so we are going to have uh what many of us expect to be a turbulent time in our country I mean this has been widely talked about and I know that we have talked about how we're going to go forward and I think we do need to talk publicly about the temperature in our country we have a trust policy that says that we will keep the confidence and safety of our students who are documented or and help them I've already been asked by constituents what happens if a student's family is deported do staff know what to do what are the steps and I
214do ask that we get really clear about what happens if a child is in crisis because their family has been you know taken away due to immigration issues um What do teachers know how to do how do we talk to students about this and we're going to need to talk about the tensions here that um it's Uncharted Territory in some ways but um we at least know when regarding this policy we have a responsibility and we're going to need some tactical um work here to make sure we can do everything we can for our students and their families yes ma'am thank you Miss Marin Mr Moon thank you Mr chairman given the hour and or so many of my questions have been already asked by my colleagues I'm going to limit to just a couple
215of questions uh this is this is something actually miss Maron has has already asked but I'm gonna add my voice to that about grading practices I know this is work in progress and since a I see from one of the slides P slide number 11 that changes in the practices were adopted to increase the consistency is that the only purpose behind changing grading policies to provide the consistencies no okay is that is that is there a academic increase Improvement in academic achievement behind grading policy changes as well and if so I want to see how that's going to be measured whether it's whether it's just consistency alone or he has more than consistency I want to see when do you think we could be provided with the ultimate outcome whether we are achieving that we
216want to achieve through these policies and also a along the way whether we are going to be instituting any mechanism to collect the feedback from not only just the teachers but also families and students so I to think about grading practices I think the fundamental purpose of grading is to accurately reflect what students know and are able to do right I think the grading changes uh for this year that are one year only that were provided to staff and again a year I would say two years ago it was the Mandate Well I this was a year ago last year the mandate to have one grading scale right so that is to make it uh consistent and that was important because we had concerns about multiple grading scales across the county I think the other
217uh clear Direction that I provided was that if a student did no work they need to there is a zero that is posted right that we it is okay to give a zero when there is nothing done I think it's um I don't think it makes sense to give a 50% when a student has made no effort on an assignment so we were very clear about that that assignment could be made up and continue to work to improve um the zero if if they so chose I would say that we would hope that that many staff I think and also students said that that goes to motivation right like if you don't have to do anything to get a 50% it's not as motivating and therefore uh less work was being done theoretically right I
218think based on student and staff feedback so I think that's not about consistency but about providing the motivation to actually do the work I think as we look at the distinction between formative and summative um it's been very inconsistent so this year for one year it's 70% summative 30% formative and um which I think is more of a balance than the 9010 or 8020 or uh the different modalities out there um I also think that in my opinion and I don't know where the committee will end up I happen to believe homework's important and I happen to believe that if it's important we have to provide some percentage of a grade connected to homework uh Carol D talks about um a growth mindset which is persistence and resilient we want to develop study skills in
219our students because you have to have those skills in post-secondary or honestly any position you take after um you know your educational experience so I think that there are pieces of uh consistency that are important and then there's just fundamentally how do we reinforce course uh study skills learning behaviors critical thinking problem solving collaboration and so forth so hopefully we'll strike the right balance and I also hear you very clearly about how do we gather that feedback from staff and students and families and I think uh Dr Presidio and his team have some have done some of that work and obviously the board is going to be establishing a new policy which then we'll take back to the committee to flesh out by May one I don't want to labored on this issue too long
220but however uh this seems to be the issue that concerns probably at this point in time the largest in number of people out there we are serving both students and teachers and parents with that in mind uh I want to find the way I want to I want to to make sure I I want to reassure public that we are doing our best to to collect the data and also a provide the mechanism through which they can provide their input so that I do not know whether we can ever achieve a perfect grading policy but as we try the perfect our policy that's go with that in mind uh uh that we are not going to a cause this turmoil to a continue to forever so it's going to uh we because at right now
221again again everybody everyone seems to be in somewh of in turmoil they are feeling that way and for students rightfully or wrongfully you know grades are very especially for high school kids high school students and families a they take grades very sensitively and and we need to find the way to be fair to our all parties concerned with this process so I know your report is about the past but I am trying to address in your next report will bring all those information to us yes sir no that makes sense I I do think there's an undue I mean there is turmoil because um it creates a record right and in particular credit bearing courses they form a transcript which then becomes a significant document thank you Dr I want to clarify to homework for
222all those watching or listening homework effectively done is practice of previously taught material it's not new material for homework work it's practice um so and often collaborative teams right like study teams and so forth so you know Dr just one comment is if Mr chairman if I still up a time that you know when I was growing up homework was included preview it's not just a review but also preview and our teachers used to tell us to read in advance that's your time yeah no and that to your I would agree with that the reading in advance but it was necessarily A an assignment per se on material you hadn't had an opportunity to be instructed on thank you Mr Moon I'll take a turn um so I'll be voting in compliance I think there's
223a lot of good in here I do have one uh concern that I want to address and then work in the months ahead to to help resolve on page six of the monitoring report uh regulation 2603 is cited as an an example of evidence supporting compliance with the second provision of el10 which states the superintendent shall not fail to implement policies and procedures that promote a safe welcoming inclusive accessible and Equitable learning environment for all students that promotes respect belonging and wellbeing as you mentioned in your response to another board member at last week's meeting we heard about the 20232 24 Fairfax County Youth survey though there were many examples of clear successes there were few troubling findings 20% of lesbian gay students have experienced bullying that's more than double their heterosexual peers in fact
224this number has sadly increased the past two years after going down every year at least going back to 2015 52% of lesbian gay students have experienced two weeks or more of feeling sad or hopeless in a row compared to 20% of their heterosexual peers meanwhile 26% of trans students have experienced bullying again more than double compared to non-tr students 63% of trans students have experienced two or more weeks of feeling sad or hopeless in a row compared to 23% of non-trans students in the cited regulation 2603 we have among the strongest protections and supports for transgender and gender non-conforming students in the country and yet what I hear time and again when I speak to trans students and their families is that they don't know about this regulation or the supports that we offer as
225a superintendent in Washington state you helped lead the state's work to address bullying in schools I want to use this El monitoring report to ask that you use the same creativity and focus you displayed there to work your help on behalf of the lgbtq students who attend Fairfax County Public Schools because we have great policies and great regulations but what are we going to do to make them work for the students they are intended to help it was kind of a rhetorical question but I'm interested in your thoughts no it's it's critical and I I think um you know I've met with our our pride group and just um it's heartbreaking when our students are not able to feel safe in learning spaces because it's going to impact learning as well as the mental health
226and the overall sense of well-being and that's not who we are here in Fairfax County so there is definitely work to be done and uh I'm committing to make sure we do that work I um and the data in those specific data points that you mentioned that the data is not going in the correct direction for sure um so I think that as we think about that just being clear with our students staff and families about our commitment to that work is going to be uh vital in the coming weeks and months and I think key among that is ensuring that all students know about these protections and the supports that we have for them and their families know as well um because many simply do not no matter what the conversation is outside of
227these buildings many people don't know they exist so I look forward to working with you to make that happen and I hope you'll take some time in your school visits to meet with gsas and talk to students directly about what they're experiencing in schools because frighteningly a lot of it when I talk to them sounds a lot like what I experienced in high school only a few years ago so right um the laugh okay that was a bit much but I appreciate it all right we'll take some go actually we'll go to miss saan thank you uh I just wanted to Circle back to slide eight about um The Advisory lessons and kind of give the student feedback that I've gotten from kind of more of the regional groups overall it looks different in classrooms
228because of what teachers pull from the sequence and what they teach but kind of the main lessons that we get is like setting smart goals habitats for Success student student advocacy srnr and then for seniors and juniors specific Pat prep and then College Prep but I guess my question is what is different about like this year's advisory meetings or changes that we've made as compared to what we've had in previous years because these kind of General Trends students have seen for a couple years I wanted to know like what was new or different this year so great question so Dr Presidio do you want to clarify um the new uh years worth of content for responsive meetings yeah I think I think that's a a great question um I think the biggest difference is that
229we created a curriculum um that we expect to be delivered consistently in all of the advisory classes across the School Division um when we started uh The Advisory program a number of years ago schools were creating a lot of their own curriculum and it would look different from school to school or even from classroom to classroom within the schools so we've really tried to provide a viable curriculum that touches on the social emotional learning components as well as the academic preparedness components that you mentioned and the college uh and career planning components that that you mentioned as well so those are like the three big buckets of what we want to see happening in The Advisory program and I'd be happy to share more information with you about it and certainly would uh enjoy getting
230more student feedback about what that experience looks like because this is our first year of kind of having that uh expectation that the curriculum would be used consistently from from school to school yeah that makes sense I'd love to talk more about that because I think when we all talk about these goals it's probably that the curriculums that the schools are setting are similar in that we have all of these different goals but I'd love to look at some more of the specific things that FCPS is pushing and then kind of how that looks down the chain thank you Miss Swant we'll go to goack Dr Anderson um thank you I do have one question and then I'll just make some comments on page nine where you talked about the disciplinary um this is number
231six of the the indicators we talked about the discipline disproportionality the cohort training um with the intention of reducing um the discipline disproportionality um this work started last year what can you give us regarding the progress of this work on that measure and I apologize are you on page page nine of the full report it's at the bottom there number six got it so um we'll be providing some evidence but I I think that uh Dr King do you have any kind of early data on um our disproportionality work I believe we've actually structured teams around that work in the last year so um do we have any data to report on that we don't have any data to report tonight but we can get some data and you know we have new leadership in
232that office we're restructuring the support that we're giving based on feedback that we received from principles so our team is working uh currently to um provide new strategies for the support that we're giving schools okay thank you um I I know I'm a broken record on this I have been a broken record on this and today is no different I I struggle to evaluate the progress because we don't have the information again there's lots of activity that's been identified but what would be so helpful for me is for those activities to be connected to the desired outcome and then for that to be supported by where are we now where were we last year I've seen glimpses of this throughout these reports but they are not here consistently enough for me to be able to
233Support Compliance and progress and and I struggle with that because I know it has to exist but if it's not provided here I believe that I am at a disadvantage to evaluate your work um the last thing that I do want to share is with um indicator one that talks about maintaining the a climate for high achievement across all demographics that's also a space where I know there's a lot of work to be done even in the assessment documents that um were shared that was shared earlier this year our um achievement gaps across our groups have not closed at all so we're not seeing I think that climate as meaningfully as I I would like to see and the other thing that I also wanted to raise uh regarding the youth survey data um what
234I appreciate whatever what it has to offer I also want to couch it to the fact that we are administering it to students in grades 6 8 10 and 12 right so it's not necessarily indicative of the entirety of our student voice similarly to the um the comment that you made regarding the um us not seeing um any appeal appeals come to us but that's just the appeal I think a better data point a better indicator would be how many kids are at the hearings office because the appeal we know takes a certain resource in order for parents to even access it let alone do it um that's your time Dr Anderson yep thank you Mr dun uh thank you um so I wanted to just mention the Varsity Tutors program the data in the
235report shows it's not being utilized as much as as it probably could be so I was wondering if um the assistant superintendents could be directed to reach out to principles to make an aggressive marketing push of this program because there are students who need it we have it we just need to get kids to use it and a lot of it is probably just publicizing it right marketing and um and and that's just something that could be done um without too much effort um I'm interested in learning more there's there's discussion in the report about tring informed uh schools but there's not data on like how many schools have trauma-informed staff I think it tends you know there are certain communities that really need that um and if in a Friday letter you could provide
236more data on which schools have you know most or all of their staff train in in traum informed uh education and and if if it's being expanded or just kind of like you know there's discussion of it but not like data about it so I'd like to to get that data um and finally I just wanted to to offer um Kudos because the srnr I think is on the website is so much better than the handbook that we saw last year it looks really good so I just want to compliment you on doing a really good job working must be the new website designers and but the content is just amazing it's like night and day different and so thank you very much for your hard work on that I really appreciate it thank you
237Mr Dunn thank you Mr Dunn I now call on Miss Dix at for a motion I move that the school board finds that the superintendent is in compliance with executive limitation number 10 learning environment and relationship with students I further move that the school board approves the monitoring report based on the superintendent's reasonable interpretation of executive Li limitation number 10 learning environment and relationship with student as outlined in the Strategic governance manual is there a second Mr movine Miss Dixit would you like to speak to your motion no Mr mine would you like to speak to your second uh no thanks thank you all right seeing no others we will take a vote the motion is on the screen all those in favor Miss Marin Miss Dixit Mr mine Miss Anderson Miss eore Heiser Mr
238Dunn Mr Moon miss lady Miss St John cunning and myself with Mr McDaniel away from the table all those opposed Dr Anderson extensions will the clerk read the vote 101 uh the motion carries thank you the motion carries all right at this time the board will take a few moments to document their individual feedback on the monitoring report school board members May complete the hard copy found at the deis or the online form Linked In the meeting script if you have any issues accessing the form please contact the clerks we will take about five to seven minutes [Music] come board members please return to your seats board members please return to your seats e e e board members please return to your seats agen item 7.01 policy review learning environment and relationships with students el10
239the next order business is the policy review for executive limitation 10 learning environment in relationships with students el10 annually the board will review each executive limitation at the time the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed board members may offer amendments to Executive limitations at any regular meeting provided they send final Amendment language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it is to be considered at this time no Amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting but board members May provide comments on on Executive limitation 10 learning environment and relationships with students before we vote on maintaining the current language for the year ahead if there are no further comments or questions or discussion I will call on Miss Dixit for the
240motion I move that the school board maintain executive limitation 10 learning environment in relationship with student as it is currently detailed in the strategic government manual is there a second second Mr mine Miss Dixit would you like to speak to your motion no Mr mine would you like to speak to your motion no all right seeing no others with their lights on we will move to a vote all those in favor of the motion on the screen Miss Marin Miss Dixit Dr Anderson Mr movine Miss Anderson uh Mr Dunn Mr Moon Miss St John cunning and myself with Miss seore Heiser and Mr McDaniel and miss lady away from the table the motion carries agenda item number 8.01 academic matters I call on Dr Reid for academic matters thank you chairman frish and it's so
241exciting this evening to present academic matters um we're going to talk a little bit about attendance tonight and just how important that is and the progress that we're making and our strategies that we're utilizing here in Fairfax County and there on the slide um the first slide that uh you'll see I think there's some really compelling data points um several of these data points I think are most critical uh for example when um only 177% of students who are chronically absent in both kindergarten and first grade uh were reading proficiently by grade three compared to 64% of those with good attendance and when you think about that's something um that's not an instructional strategy it's not a program delivery model it's just attending school and I think that as it's one of the most significant
242ways we can partner with our families um because the difference between 177% and 64% of our students um that are reading proficiently is significant so again uh this uh the importance of attendance cannot be overstated as something that matters with academics another data point that I think is most compelling is that students who fail to read at grade level by the end of third grade are four times more likely than students who achieve proficiency to drop out of high school and I think that's another compelling data point so as we think about attendance and The Importance of Being a reader in third grade it's not just really about that third grade performance it's about the trajectory of their educational Journey um and often uh economic uh earning capacity in later life so attendance is again
243just so very critical I want to uh remind those at home in the board um about what is chronic absenteeism and as we look at the definitions for chronic absenteeism uh want to say that it's defined as missing 10% or more of the school year for any reason and interestingly this includes excused absences so that's really just two days a month and so when you think of chronic absenteeism you don't often think of just two days a month but that actually is what it could end up being and so I think that one of the things that we look at is um we've had actually a lot of excused absences as well and I want to make sure that our families watching who have children who are medically fragile understand that we want to make
244sure that families make choices about their children 's health and their health care and we recognize that some children do uh require absences because of um chronic medical conditions or concerns so we understand that um although there's not really um we do understand that and the data that you're able to look at at this point really talks about from uh school years prior to the pandemic and then of course school years after the pandemic so our Peak um absenteeism data uh really was occurring right as we came back from covid in the 2122 school year although I am proud to say that in each year Fairfax County Public Schools which is the dark blue uh bar graph um is continuing to be lower than uh the Commonwealth and we finally are back down to 12.8%
245and we're hopeful in the coming year to even go lower but we've made significant PR progress and are again uh significantly below Commonwealth data so we're very proud of the work that our staff and students and families um were engaged in over the last year in thinking about we talked about in um the last executive limitation this multi-tiered system of support for academics and this also exists for attendance so what we want to think about is this pyramid where tier one which is where most most of our students sit often it's referred to almost 80% of our students um those are strategies that encourage good attendance and then when you have tier two which often is uh determined at roughly 15% uh those students may need more help and more support and then tier three
246which is often 5% um would be those students who require really intensive uh supports maybe um that uh have inter agency case management plans learning and success plans and so forth so the definitions for where those sit um between 10 and 19 and 20% or more of absences um really are ways to Define and identify where and how we're supporting students ideally we want all students in tier one if it's at all possible as we think about our in-person flexible instruction time uh this brings to mind our program last year that was so successful our spring Sprouts program and as we think about what's possible we don't want to wait till spring break this year so we're looking at a variety of models um that we hope will generate um makeup time and be able
247to recover lost instructional time I will say that last year we had a significant impact from Spring Sprouts um I know the number of schools hi Valley London toown Mount Vernon Woods Washington Mill wood law all saw significant Improvement as a result of the program and had a lot of positive feedback from uh staff and famili so we've got a lot of work to do and we want to make sure we utilize um this option um at all grade levels so in thinking about academic matters and attendance we wanted to share some strategies that families could participate in um with regard to student student attendance we know that our families are critical Partners to promote good attendance and it's really important that children learn these habits as they're young um and in particular our very
248young children are quite dependent on parents U to get them to school so our parent partnership here is very important but these are some ideas that are research based and Trauma informed um as well as best practice for family support around student attendance so um chairman frish that is academic matters for this evening and we want to just promote strong attendance um because of the solid impact on academic achievement thank you thank you Dr Reed Mr Dunn thank you um for slide number two uh that displays the um data on how we're doing versus Virginia um I I I would love in a Friday letter uh to to get a sense of what the data is for maybe the surrounding jurisdictions the wayy jurisdictions and kind of our peer school systems that are in the
249maybe the top 10 of the country if that data is available because just to get a sense of you know FCPS is normally ahead of the rest of Virginia and I'm glad to see it still is here um but how we're doing to our you know DMV uh compatriots and and nationally with peer school systems uh would be useful to see um I assume that the data that shows the reduction from 17.1% in 2223 to 2324 is is the result of the efforts that you're leading and the you know positive measures you're putting in place is that is that correct yes sir the staff has worked tremendously hard and we've allocated resources to go from 17.1 to 12.8 and do uh it I mean we're a good way into the school year now do you
250do you think that that Trend will continue downward we expect that Trend to continue downward uh the slide that I referenced around the uh makeup time the inperson flexible instruction is going to be more uh utilized earlier in the year uh but it is our expectation because we believe the board expects us to continue doing everything we can to lower that we'd like to get below 10% um great uh I I I wanted to mention that slide five in in that first bullet in the Box IP fit in action um it may just be the way it's written but I really hate it um the fact that it says important opportunity for schools to recover lost time due to student absences it implies that the benefit is to the to the schools but not necessarily
251to the student um and maybe that again that's just the way it was phrased and it wasn't meant that way but you know for the public watching um or reading at a later Point uh you know I I would ask if you could address is there data showing that this program spring sprouts and similar programs actually benefits the students like this recovers for schools and schools are being held accountable by the state for chronic absenteeism but are the students actually catching up if they're only getting you know two hours of instruction does that equal one full school day for those students and if that is true I wonder how come our school days aren't shorter right I mean there's a little bit of a uh confusing element to to this slide yes sir I understand
252that and I I don't think we can equate a day of instruction with two hours of instruction um I think that the Commonwealth has placed a significant focus on attendance uh particularly in recent years for obvious reasons RAR attendance is not where it should be um but your Point's taken and I'll see what we can do to identify the impact on our children thank you yeah I mean I I guess just more broadly if we do have children who are chronically absent um are we catching them up to grade level and literacy I mean do we do we have data on that are we Gathering data or is that something that needs to to commence I would I would say that since um I would say that we need to collect data on the impact
253academically of spring Sprouts I think we collected data behaviorally because students didn't have that weak uh some students who had significant chronic absenteeism once we can get them in that pattern um they seem to continue that behavior right so I think to answer your question about the academic benefits of this program uh let me go back to the team and see what we can come up with with for a Friday letter okay that'd be helpful thank you yes sir thank you Mr dun Dr Anderson um thank you I I did too have a question regarding some of the efforts I think it's worth noting what some of those activities have been outside of the um recovery just to really show the impact that well the work that's going on in the division to ensure that
254kids are coming to school so can you give us a few more examples of what has taken place to impact The Chronic absenteeism over the past year yes ma'am I I would say two of our chief officers that have done the most work on that would be Miss Hall and Dr Pon um and Miss Hall do you want to share a couple of the strategies that we've employed to improve attendance and Dr Pon if you could elaborate on that thank you yes um our community relations team uh is working directly um with the with Dr presidio's team to uh communicate with our families um about the importance of of attendance and the benefits of attendance uh in addition they are using targeted uh Communications to through Intercultural engagement um to our multilingual families uh in
255addition there is uh the work on the website uh leading and and through Family Academy which we've Ted talked about before um educating families on the importance of um of attendance and the benefits of attendance and I mentioned before there will be work going out into the community at every turn um sharing that information at every Community engagement that Dr Reed goes to there's information on uh on uh attendance in addition to that uh we are monitoring and we uh have a list of the students that are chronic absent and talking with the principles and at the same time we are assigning them to uh after school tutorials or hours that they can serve uh and I agree it's not that we are going to say hey you can be two hours or three hours
256but uh this is the solution that we have for now thank you um the other thing that I wanted to talk regarding St ing the uh the you know I fit time the spring sprouts and I agree with Mr Dunn it's not ideal right we all know it's not ideal otherwise we would just shorten school and call it a day but it is an opportunity to have something rather than nothing but it has to be clear to parents it is a very distant second to being at the schools each and every day it's like the lottery you can't win it if you don't play you have to be at school in order to engage in the learning that you need another piece that I know has been a little bit of a uh a change
257and habit particularly for our elementary parents is how to treat the symptoms of of sickness I know during covid it was if there's anything happening you do not come to school and you stay home and we've since relaxed some of those mandates but I think we need to have continuing education regarding you know when to really keep your child at home and when can they come to school even though they're not at their you know at 100% like my colleague here no that's correct and I do think we have tried to put out guidance you know not having a fever and so forth but um the degree to which students are not contagious um perhaps a sniffle is okay whereas previously sniffling was not as right you know um okay right and just kind of
258the last piece I know very often we have families who are on um vacation and visits to other countries for extended periods of time I would also love to hear how are we continuing that dialogue with families who who have those kinds of commitments and how it can be so harmful to their own um children's education yes ma'am we I think that's important um also will just mention here I know Mr fris raised this as a concern but our lgbtqia plus Community um given the disproportion feeling of uh Sadness the bullying the anxiety uh that also affects attendance and um the American Pediatric Society is often talked about bullying as a public health concern so those non-specific symptoms that families sometimes hear about my stomach hurts I don't feel good are School avoidance because of
259um those feelings of a lack of safety in the school learning space so I think to your point again Mr frish it's a topic we have to um absolutely be addressing sure and I actually one more thing just came to mind when you shared when you shared this how much of our disciplinary um how much of the chronic absenteeism is impacted by our own disciplinary measures for example if a student is suspended for 10 days that does go into this calculus correct so what is the impact of that well I would who would like to tag that Miss yeah we are pulling some of that data for our go to work session thank you thank you Dr Anderson Miss St John cunning um so really I just want to compliment the work that's been done
260on this um I was working in the schools during Co and right after Co and doing some of this work of trying to get families back in um particularly in some areas is where there was loss of life um the fear of sickness and keeping kids home I know has an impact or even kids not wanting to be in school because their parent was sick and they were scared something was going to happen to their to their parent so I think that that we still see remnants of that and that's contributing to that um in terms of spring Sprouts I have spoken to parents they loved it the kids loved it they got a lot out of it it and I know the equation of 2 hours and person flexible or 3 hours and person
261flexible doesn't look like if it equates but we have to remember that in a school day the the kids are also going to PE they're going to music they're going to Art so when they're in there for those two hours they're not doing any of that they're doing they're doing numeracy or they're doing literacy so um I I think that that slide doesn't kind of really give the full picture of what that time commitment is because a full day is not just you know pure literacy en numeracy there's other things going on so um I have every confidence that things are going to improve um but I really want to lift the work that I know people have done from going to people's homes uh the late school buses um just extraordinary extraordinary efforts from
262everyone in those school buildings and not just counselors not just principes not just assistant principls like everyone yeah thank you Miss St John conning and I I also think the number of excused absences we also still have a number of uh family members uh parents and caregivers who are still working remotely right and so I think that's a phenomena that didn't exist in the numbers prior to covid and does exist today and I think it makes families more Mobile in terms of being able to pick up and perhaps go somewhere for a week or two and take the family and as Educators we're all in school right like we're uh we're in the classroom we're in the schoolhouse or you know so I I think there's some interesting adult dynamics that are connected to this
263attendance work because I know we all uh lamented the significant number of excused absences it's not that children are more truant than they were before it's that in many cases uh parents are taking children somewhere so anyhow if you're listening parents it's important they're in school so uh very important thank you missan cutting hopefully they're asleep all right Mr Dunn for a GoBack um I was just wondering if in a Friday letter you could provide um chronic absenteeism data by High School pyramid for those of us who so we can understand for our districts um you know where there might be Peaks and valleys thank you thank you yes we'll do that thank you Mr Dunn seeing no others we will move along agenda item excuse me agenda item 8.02 superintendent matters I will slowly
264call on Dr Michelle Reed for superintendent matters Dr Reed thank you chairman frish I think in the interest of time I will just limit my remarks to a heartfelt thank you to the board to each of you and your confidence in my leadership and the leadership of our team and the work of our Educators in this division so I thank you for your vision um your support your guidance um and just appreciate it so thank you thank you Dr Reed agenda item nine consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Roberts rules 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
265from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item number 10 new business the following are new business items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting board committee reports I call on agenda item 11 board committee reports I call on Mr mavan for a report from the audit committee uh audit committee continues to work through its um annual audit plan we will be meeting again this this coming week and we'll have another update for you at the next meeting thank you I call on H we're off to agenda item
26612 this is our last meeting before Thanksgiving uh and uh as a demonstration of our gratitude to the incredible staff and our superintendent who have stayed with us all night without objection I would like to skip agenda item 12 board matters seeing and hearing none at 11:26 PM this meeting is adjourned Happy Thanksgiving [Music]