001apologies for the delay for those who have been watching we were having audio issues Miss St John cunning we ready to proceed okay thank you um Sandy Anderson has requested to be virtual today due to medical reasons she is located in the Springfield District today all in favor of her being virtual um opposed abstain okay it's unanimous with all members here that she should be virtual um so I call this meeting to order now um I want to thank everybody for being here and apologize for the late changes there were some issues but we wanted to make sure we met today instead of rescheduling the meeting um so I want to start off by just doing an overview of what we've done in the last 6 months um oh okay sorry what we've done in
002the last six months um we did an overview of the operating manual to try to bring more consistency to all of the advisory committees um and went through that we spent a lot of time doing that and the things that have been left undone which I'd like to discuss today are um having the things that we wanted to do was to um create training for the staff Liaisons because there had been confusion on how the staff Leons would participate their roles um and so we've got to create that training we want to build and roll roll out um a toolkit because a lot of people that come in you to our advisory committee don't know what to do don't know how to participate so we want to provide that um and then also uh look
003at um all of the Committees with an eye to the Future and how um their role fits into the Strategic plan um so I think um I'm going to ask um Miss Anderson who was really instrumental in working on the advisory advisory committee operating Daniel to just elaborate a little bit more for us yeah we had identified the pieces of the manual that needed more information and needed to be built out um so that would need to be determined who was going to do each portion of that and how the committee was going to be able to work together to get that portion done um we also had put in a forum topic late in the year last year um to go ahead and look at all of the different committees specifically there were a
004few that needed as we were working through the manual we determined there were a few that probably needed um more board discussion in some way and it could stem from PC to start and then um but yeah that those are the two biggest thing but I do think that it's an excellent idea to also make sure that we identify the pieces in the manual that identif or go specifically to staff reais on so that we can make sure that those folks have the information that they need to be successful to um so I think the important thing that we have to try to determine here and his work back backwards is how uh to build a timeline on developing the toolkit and the the training and the people that have the competency to do it
005and how to divide that uh I am obviously new to this and so I'm learning and I take advice and you know support from anyone and ideas of how we can move forward and also just if you all had a chance to when we approved this at the Schoolboard meeting if you guys had any um questions or concerns which you would have had a chance to bring up at that point but after looking at it now if there's anything that you want to bring bring up Madame chair yes okay I was looking at the manual again last night uh that one of the things that came to my mind was I mean these are school boards advisory committees Community advisory committees not to the STA School Board you know ultimately it's going to be the
006school board that has to respond to the Comm uh advisory committee's recommendations uh please correct me because I was going through the manual pretty quickly last night that uh I in in the manual I failed to see you know ultimately after the STA provides your response at the End by the end of first quarter uh how the school board is ultimately going to react to a a step's responses in conjunction with advisory committee's recommendations sta may have a one one response but the board may have a different reaction so because since they are again School boards Community advisory communities I believe that we owe it to the members serving on those committees to show what the board's decision on the advisory committee is recommendations will be uh that's something that I didn't see in the
007manual if I missed it please correct me but you know in the past I mean even in the past School boards struggled over the years because of a workload issues and timeline issues sometimes you know schoolb try to buy too much and and and and just become you know not having enough sufficient time to do that but I think we do need to uh spend a little more time on their recommendations and let them know that you know your recommendations are accepted or I mean this is what we believe that we can do and will accept Etc so I believe in school board providing the advisory committees our former responses to their recommendations miss m hi good morning um I do agree with Mr Moon's sentiment and I I'll share some more thoughts on that
008I just wanted to understand um where further on the priorities I did look back at the agenda from the last public engagement committee meeting and that was in June June 18th and so yes the the first item was the timeline and implementation and training of the new Community advisory committee operating manual so that's great but the other thing was the discussion of the form topic on the alternative student representative so that was something our previous student rep had brought forth so I do want to make sure that that stays on the agenda um from June 18th and I would also love to have the minutes from that PEC meeting um posted so perhaps the chair can work to be sure that any past committee meetings um because that was helpful for today so um yes
009I agree to do the the toolkit for the operating manual so our advisory committee members know best how to engage that seems um pretty uh important and straightforward in some ways although I think we should sus out where we would like staff's help with that in terms of creating that toolkit and what best practices have worked in their experience with committees regarding the staff Liaisons I'm challenged to see how that specifically relates to the public engagement Committee of the board I mean I get that our staff Le aison are our representative to the community but we are the first facing as well so I don't really feel like that's well placed here on this committee I think you know the board has discussed about its own internal human resources priorities and I think that it's
010better place there so I would rather not spend PC's time on that um or if we do then have be very very specifically with the forward- facing Community engagement pieces whether whether that's how to engage with the committees or staff the board member of a committee but um not very much wider than that regarding the review of the standing and committee advisory committees this was actually something I have been interested in since before I was on the board when I was nominated by Pat Hines to be on an advisory committee like back in 2017 2018 so I think um looking at the Committees and are they meeting our current purpose um we've Ted talked in the past about things like should we have a technology advisory committee should we have a student discipline you know
011committee you know thinking about and this really gets to Mr Moon's point What's the value ad that we're seeking from these people that we ask them to donate their time and expertise to us so I'm very much interested in that and then um but I agree again with Mr Moon that I think we should spend some time figuring out how do we ensure that the recommendations and the work informs our work and we could talk about whether we continue with a yearend you know presentation but that always seems very rushed so could we have you know monthly or quarterly meetings with people like I'd love to get creative because I think people really are thirsty for that on our committees and they have a lot to offer so I'll leave it at that for now
012I know that some of the points you brought up were things that were discussed about how we get that committee report at the end and how we can um where we can put it to where we could use it more as a school you know as a school board to react to that um in terms of the staff the aison we um we did do and um Miss Anderson can speak more to this she did send out surveys to people that were on the advisory committees about what was important I know we had some um several members tell us that they felt that if they had a good staff leaz on it was really helpful to expedite their work um because that that was the way that they could get information to move forward um
013and I think um Miss Anderson can speak a little bit more to some of that discussion that she had with the advisory committee members from all the I mean she did some surveys to get feedback on that can I ask I'm sorry I I may have misunderstood were you saying staff AIDS like our own staff are you talking about the staff liaison of the department that okay well then that and then I amend my comment because staff Le aison right so the staff and FCPS of that particular office that serves as the leader of you know the coordinator of the work between the board and the committee correct okay I M my comment and I do think it's worth talking about that I thought we were talking about our staff AIDS so my apologies I'm
014sorry okay you know Madame Cher on that on that point could I ask you know staff members where you're uh you know when the STA are appointed to these committees is that is that superintend does superintendent get herself involved in picking the best person to do it or how does it is does that come from uh depart you know a assistant superintendent for departments or chiefs or So currently right now it's being done by the Chiefs but from my understanding a with the changes to the um advisory committee handbook starting next school year I believe Dr Reid is going to be involved in helping the Chiefs to pick the staff Leons for each committee so we um the board chose to hold on how staff Liaisons are picked for this school year because by the
015time the board passed the advisory committee handbook there was two it the staff Liaisons for the school year had already been assigned so for next school year Dr Reid is going to be involved good good if a Dr Reed is going to be appointing you know picking stons should be the best person to pick the best person to be the and and you know so much closer it's close to what you know miss you know Mar has stated earlier that I wouldn't be qualified to train anyone I don't know whether other Schoolboard members are qualified to train but I think it has to come from someone from Administration to uh take that responsibility to the right person to act as a stabil because pretty much stabil asan's rule is to support the work of the
016advisory committees and I would know how to train that person um Miss Anderson okay I just wanted to speak to a few things related to what we've been talking about the first is the idea behind the training for the staff Le resons is not necessarily training them how to be staff RIS on it's training them on what the information is in the governance manual or in the um operating manual that is the requirement for that position so it's not a formal tring it's more of a here's a quick a quick sheet that explains everything that's in here that is your responsibility so there are things like they are technically responsible for taking the minutes but they can identify a person on the committee that will take the minutes for them it's things like that that
017we are going to hold as expectations for those folks so because these are our committees that I think that it's reasonable for us to make sure that they know what our expectations are and so that was the only purpose behind creating some sort of opportunity to share information with them um a path forward on the student rep has been provided to the chair um we are going to talk about that further um as a as a group I believe we didn't at the end just so to give you a brief update we didn't feel comfortable as a committee making that determination at the end of the last year because it was so close to the time that and it had they had already been chosen so this committee does need to talk about whether or
018not there should be two student reps and how that would factor in in that whole process that was moved to this um we identified the fact that um L had and Miss K had done so much work related to getting that set up but we did come up with an idea of a way to keep her involved that was really related to helping create the manual ongoing for new staff for new student reps going into the future it would still keep her involved this year we have a unique opportunity with her because of the fact that she was a junior when she was on the board with us and so moving forward it would give her the opportunity to stay involved with what's going on with the board but it wouldn't have overstepped what Authority
019we had at the moment to go ahead and just appoint her without following some sort of other process so it was kind of the the Midway point between those two things um I also agree that we need to talk about how the school board should be responding to the reports themselves that is likely a change that would need be needed to the governance me not necessarily just the operating manual so we should keep that in mind and be talking to our colleagues that are on governance as well since there seems to be silence in the room the Madame chair I on the point about you know having heard I Vice chair Sandy Anderson statement about training if it is about you know going through our manual Rel related to the roles and duties of stab
020Isam the best person to give that training is perhaps either current pack chair or former pack chair who had intimately iMed in in crafting uh the manual I'm happy to help create that document that would be a way that we could be it could be former and current you know chers working together right yes and and we we we will create that together I will definitely um um that's something that we can do and again I'm thank you Miss Anderson for explaining that a little bit better than I was able to um I think what we really need to look at is the toolkit and building out the toolkit for our advisory committee members and how that might look and who might be able to to help do that I mean I'm happy to start
021researching it I've never built a toolkit before and and I'm happy to learn and try to start learning how we could do that and the pieces that could be there and turn to people that might help support that um I I think I know the pieces that I can do but I I also think that there are pieces I may not be able to do and I don't know what the qualifications are of people on this board that would be willing to help with that so I think the toolkit you know that's a very tangible thing that you know we we are committed to doing I do think though having time for the this committee here to have a discussion about the what do we really want the advisories committees to do and do we
022want to engage them differently than just a year-end report I think we need to figure that out before we create a toolkit about how to do that work you know I've seen a variety of members over the years some meet with all of their appointees quarterly so the whole gamut of you know a dozen people so what are the benefit and drawbacks of that I know I've tried to do quarterly meetings one by one um some committee members have said can we come to a board meeting and Report out mid year and help you know so these are like things I think before we start describing how to do it like can we talk here perhaps at the next committee meeting come with those thoughts and say you know what have we heard what do
023we think is useful um and then I do think also talking about are these standing committees the best ones to have at this time there's some that of course of course are legally mandated but even so for the ones that aren't is the membership sufficient you know we talked about for our advisory committee for students with disabilities which is required by law there's only one teacher seat on there so do we want to add more seats so I think perhaps going through the committee membership and thinking about you know we know maybe we add another student rep to things maybe that's a you know extrapolation of that form topic of having a student board rep in addition but what about an alternative on these committees you know we have so many students how do we
024get them more engaged so for me if I were to you know what your you know charge um M St John cunning was you know with the timeline I'd love to have a conversation just kind of let's brainstorm come with ideas and then figure out what sounds good we could even ask our other colleagues not on the committee you know um and thinking about what do we ultimately want to come with and how does that dovetail with the works the committee is already doing like so are they just on their way to do another year of give us a report at the end and then get one hour or are we going to try and adjust that this year to something that reflects their feedback which is they want more meaningful engagement so for your
025consideration colleague okay Miss Anderson um I agree we did up the student reps to on each committee to two um as a response from the the committee members that were interested in having more engagement and also the student rep who re recognized the fact that she did have a lot of people that were interested um we need to be very careful particularly when we're talking about the weally mandated um committees acsd is not allowed to have more than one by law more than one teacher so we have to keep that as one teacher and make sure that we have those folks in there um that doesn't necessarily mean that they can't invite more teachers in if they need more information it just means that it can only be one Committee Member that is a teacher
026um and then also there no Shack is the same way is that they're specifically mandated to have a certain number of people on the committee so we can look at that um I think that it might be a good idea to start by looking at specific committees and I'll just share that the reason that I brought that Forum topic is both because um I believe that due to our engagement or our new practice of um collective bargaining I do believe that H um we need to figure out how we're going to move forward that spefic committee and also um when I was doing all the work on the operating manual it became very clear to me that fleak is is not a committee of the board it is a committee of the superintendent and so
027I what I I would suggest my path forward would be would be to move that to a superintendent committee and leave board engagement on the committee so we would still have members that we would Rec we would um nominate to the committee but it's not our committee because it's the only one that's treated completely differently than all of the other committees and so that is the reason that I brought that Forum toic forward in addition to the fact that Miss Marin and Miss um seis moiser had mentioned several times the interest in looking at other committees that were available but those are the two that immediately stuck out as ones that we probably need to figure out how we going what the path forward is I Mr Mo did you have something to say yes
028yes you know I was going to Second uh uh Miss Marin suggestions about perhaps staggering the report presentational reports uh when they come you know all of them at the end of the year I it's really become difficult difficult for a a b to uh give them a meaningful attention and time and have a really have a you know discussion of their recommendations on which they have spent a lot of time and efforts so perhaps uh you know starting from you know committee's work this year for the presentation next year we can perhaps adjust uh rather than having everybody do in Zoom maybe some of the committies do in Zoom maybe you know some others do it in September time frame and and December you know take take we could have give them a longer
029time frame to do their work and report back to us again I think that's something that we discussed and I think we can look it into it and maybe we can be intentional about which committees we feel we need that mid year or quarterly feedback um and which ones require more time but I know that it is not only frustrating for the board but I think it's also frustrating for the advisory committees members when they bring those report to us and then want to see some action and we're already at the end of the year um so I think that's something that we could look at and consider um and look at how we could maybe stagger that um I think new ideas and the institutional memory will help us come up with with a
030solution to that I mean some of the communes if you ask for a longer time frame for for them to work on the chart the school board you has given them so it makes sense you know not to rush everybody to finish their work by May time frame for presentation in June right no I I agree I think um I think the six months and I I really have to applaud um Miss Anderson because she really uh took the bull by the horns on this and did a real deep dive uh and helped all of the rest of the committee memb members the new ones particularly understand this and I really appreciate that um but again with that deep dive we realize that there was a lot of things that we still had to look
031at um and continuing that work I think is important but I think that deep dive gave us a really strong basis to move forward um so I think the idea of in conjunction with maybe starting to look at a timeline like I don't think we have to do one before the other I think maybe we can start working at it I mean working on how we can start doing some basic toolkit um items again never having done a toolkit myself but how we can do some things that are basic but at the same time as Miss Marin has suggested looking at how we start defining some other things because we do want our advisory committee members to know some basics of how they should proceed like does that make sense like there's an overall basic
032and then F fill in the specifics go ahead well perhaps something that we could do between now and the next Comm committee meeting and knowing that our advisory committees are going to start meeting is preparing something that says hey you have a new operating manual we really want to hear how you think it's going you know and maybe even preparing some kind of script for are or or with our staff liaison and our board Liaisons to introduce it because perhaps committee members weren't aware that all this work happened in spring or they're new so preparing to roll that out that's you know to me that's like an immediate need and then we can get to the nitty-gritty or maybe just having them have their eyes open to it and giving us feedback will help us
033develop the toolkit um rather than trying to frame it out now you know before it's been it it's been used so that's that's one response to that the other one the other thing I'm thinking is the the operating manual speaks to The Advisory committees but we also have additional committees and appointees that we make for curriculum review such as we have the social studies curriculum that's going to be coming up I think we're supposed to approve our committee members like in the next meeting or two and so especially for new members of the board I don't know if they've done that and then there's new committee there's um every other year there's a Pointes to whether it's challenged books or other things that come up uh so there's a whole set of things for that
034that could be clarified and established you know not maybe it can dovetail with the operating manual but even just having the collection of here are all the ad hoc things and this is how they work over the year and the timeline so you know that could be its own little discret little project that is is needed too thank you um Miss Anderson I think that's a really good idea I don't necessarily think that information should live in the operating manual but it does need to at least live somewhere where it's identified as as something that needs to be considered um the other immediate needs is there are tasks that the Committees are going to have to do this year um one is for everybody who doesn't currently have bylaws they're going to need to create
035bylaws and we did give them a deadline within the manual itself if they have bylaws then they will be need to be approved by the board this year and we're kind of setting this as a starting point for everything and then every two years they would need to be updated um I think that it's an interesting idea to stagger the reports um we did talk about that quite a bit I do think that we could try it out first with somebody like fpac where the the commitment is longer and so I'm wondering if that is part of it is that if it's the commitment would have to change from being one year to two years because the only reason that we had an issue with that from the last section or the when the last
036time we discussed it was because it's because it's the end of July to the to the beginning of you know the beginning of August to the next end of July there was no way to create continuity within the reporting process with one one discret group so that was part of the problem is that we couldn't come up with a a way to figure out how to stagger the dates without having different staggered start and end times related to the Committees and so that was one of the reasons that we we had to pause with that um I know that we only have about 10 minutes or so left I was wondering whether or not we wanted to to discuss specifically how to move forward with those two committees that I brought up um and then
037have that be the opportunity and then maybe on the next at the next meeting we could actually discuss what other committees we wanted to bring forward after we talked to our colleagues um do any of you have any ideas about the two committees that Miss Anderson brought up particularly are um particularly in light of collective bargaining and our human resources committee I'm the lean to H uh that I think I think there are certain things outside uh the issues items they will be subject to a collective bargaining hiac can still play a certain role in certain other issues I think that a requires uh honest discussion with the members who have raised your hand and devoted their time for many years serving on the committee that that you know starting with starting with perhaps a
038close session with with the legal councel uh with the community advisor committee members uh so that they can have a better understanding of why you know their work may have to shift may have to be altered uh that's that's the suggestion I have as as a as a scr agent start with a conversation with the legal council is a close session for advisory committee members and then go from there I think that's a good suggestion I know that people that serve on this committee are very passionate um when we had our close session on collective bargaining and the issues it was hard for me to see what other places that committee could help in because now it be now it does become a legal issue so we do need that legal advice um um so
039that's something that I think that I I believe that's the best way for us to handle it is to get our the legal advice and see if it is something that can continue and if so what the scope could be or if it's not then we can explain that to our members um so I I do agree with that okay yeah to make it clear that legal advice is something that the members of the advisory committee need to hear from the legal council close session and have a Q okay yeah okay um in terms of um is there any more discussion on that so just to understand so you're saying you want to have a closed meeting of the human resources advisory committee with all of those members yes okay perhaps okay so that seems
040like that is something to go to the chair and vice chair for a consideration for scheduling is that a next step I don't know whether whether H itself can ask for close session meeting with the legal counsel what he has come from scw with children Vice but but but you know if a scw with children Vice could discuss this and then and then and then suggest to H directly or through me you know I either way I think HC members got to know the legal implications having that discussion in out in open okay I I think that's something that I will defer to the chair and vice chair because I'm not sure how that works um so I will defer to them and get some research and find out how that does work Miss Anderson
041can you okay go ahead Miss Anderson I will absolutely take that back to the chair and and we'll figure out how to make that possible I know that up to this point I believe only cpdc has been in closed session related to resumees related to people that were going to come on to fpac so I'm not 100% sure how that works for a commit a committee we'd have to we'd have to see that was that was the board standing committee that went into closed it wasn't necessarily the advisory committee so I just need to check with um Mr Foster to see how that would work I think it can be done I think it should be done because they need to hear again the legal reasons why yes and I understand the implication of what
042you're discussing I do want to reiterate it at some point that again because this is our committee we need to make sure that we have a consensus of how we want to move forward as a board to make sure that that we we address that correctly um and the question I have is I I would love to see how other um divisions across the country are utilizing this type of committee when they're under corrective bargaining so I think that it would be very helpful I do think that this would be an opportunity that we would need to revise the charge pretty significantly to make sure that we were very careful in how the charge was created um I also think that it may be a possibility that if we did were able to move forward
043with this committee it would be the responsibility of the board to create the charge for rather than the committee itself so that we could keep um the Lan very clean um as to what is being discussed and what wasn't so just to make sure that we didn't have any any issues I I think those are all excellent suggestions from everyone um Miss Anderson I would like for you to explain a little bit more about your reasoning for which I agree with but I find you're more eloquent in the subject for EAC um so fleak is the only one that when we looked into it is the only one that has a regulation standing behind it it's the only one that's treated a very particular way um it has it has more student engagement than any
044other committee that we've got um and I have often been concerned about the privacy of the students when we're dealing with sensitive topics um and so if if the board is is is simply appointing members to the superintendence committee and I had not discussed this with her um I am wondering whether or not it makes the most sense for us to be able to give those opportunities for students to participate in committees um that particularly of the sensitive nature of Sak whether or not it makes the most sense so there's two two reasons that I brought this up is because first of all I'm concerned just to make sure that we keep our students safe but the second thing is that this is really not we don't provide the charge we don't we know manage
045a lot of the different components of this it really serves as a superintendence committee and so I would hate to have somebody um Mis misunderstand what the goal was there so that's the reason that I brought it Forward because again it doesn't act like any other committee that we've got um there was a m there was a mistake in the operating menual or in the governance manual for a long time the committee itself is not legally required the commit it's allowed but the the actual teaching of fle is what's what's required by law um this is always going to the difference is is this recommendation is different than every every other recommendation as well is that it requires a board vote because we are not teaching strictly to the standards provided by the state of
046Virginia we have to always vote as a board anyways so any recommendation that comes out of fleak is a board vote so again that's why it's a little different than every advisory committee that we have and so I just wanted to have us have an opportunity to discuss whether or not we thought that it was in the right place thank you for providing that background we discussed this a lot with our previous PEC uh at the previous PC committee and we kind of all came to the conclusion that that made sense um I don't know what your feelings are on that I'd like if you have any feedback if you AG agree with that and then we can move on the process to to go ahead and change that but I'm sure I'm sorry could
047you restate your question again so I I wanted you know to the previous pet committee kind of came to a consensus that this made sense and so I since you are new um members I wanted to get your feedback on what your feeling was and if that's what you felt then we could start the process of making it a superintendent committee with us still being able to appoint uh members but making it a superintendent committee versus a Schoolboard committee we still have to vote on whatever that comes out I am I am going to reserve my judgment on that at this point because now that's new to me right so uh I don't know I don't know how to react to that at this point I have to give some thought right and that's why
048I wanted to review like I thought this meeting was important for us to kind of go over all the work that had been done beforehand and you know I know when I came into peek I didn't know a lot of things and I'm still learning things so that's why I wanted this first meeting to kind of review the work that was done in the past six months Miss Marin yeah just and recognizing the time uh that we're at today so I could see as a Next Step that work of reviewing the topic areas of the committee and the membership of the committees and that fleak question being part of that work and then we could again have that conversation or hear you know more fully the laying out of the reasons why we should move
049it and then bringing to the board you know a whole roster however big or small it might be with okay we recommend you know these are the changes of the committee you know memberships and topics we recommend you know what do you think and we could have a discussion about that so I'd rather do it all at once to get like a whole View and then um then do one at a time especially at the first meeting so I see that as a Next Step okay I mean I I think again that makes sense I just wanted to bring everybody up to speed and give you time to look at it and think about it um and just give you the background of where we had come to in 6 months and again for the
050new members on the committee we didn't have that full year we had six months um and in six months I again just compliment Miss Anderson for the work she did do I think we have some ideas laid out here I'll I'll make sure that we get minutes into a place where everyone can access that and then I will go through and look at what it is that we all want to consider and I'll we'll reach out and I'll do some research in terms of some of the things that have been suggested and how we can move forward if anyone if there's nothing else then we can end this meeting on time I love them Madame Sher thank you all for your flexibility today I promise to be healthier for the next one okay well thank
051you all for coming I really do appre and again to come here the day after a long weekend and the little curfuffle with time I really appreciate everyone's flexibility and Grace um and I'm looking forward to the next year and what we can come up with I love your gentle leadership Madame Sher so the meeting is adjourned correct oh the meeting is adjourned thank you e