001[Music] for okay board members it is 7:30 please take your seats thank you this December 4th 2023 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Spring Hill Elementary School's select band under the direction of Dan Freeman I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands na indivisible andice [Music] there [Music] l [Applause] [Music] la [Music] w agenda item 2.02 certification of a closed meeting compliance in order to comply with Section 2.2 3712 D of the Cod of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened and Clos meeting on December 4th 2023 to the
002best of each member's knowledge only 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 M daret cofex and seconded Miss Cobra Sanders all those in favor okay um Mr Riser Miss Cohen Miss om Miss Marin Mr KX Miss Tolen Stella parari Miss mclin Dr Anderson and Karen Corbett Sanders all those opposed all those abstaining Karen Keys gamara mam clerk please announce the vote that would be 10 yes no uh zero Nos and one ab exstension and Mr frish is not present thank you confirmation of action taken in Clos session I call in Miss corber Sanders for a motion thank you madam chair I
003move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who threatens students and staff members at school and damage school property and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent is there a second second all those in favor Miss cor Sanders Dr Anderson U Miss bski Miss Tolen Mr J kofax Miss Marin and Miss Cohen all those opposed all those abstaining Miss seiser Miss am miss Karen keys gamara and Miss mclin thank you miss setlo that would be seven yeses zero NOS for abstentions and Mr fresh not present thank you 2 4 announcements Mr frish has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a medical conflict all those in favor of approving Mr Fisher's request okay that is unanimous for those at the table and um a huge thank
004you to stat kofax who will step in as Vice chair as needed this evening if you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that has being discussed tonight that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at fcps.edu Schoolboard boards tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu TV channel99 as a reminder to all board members in accordance with our vote on September 28th All sponsors of proclamations will have two minutes to provide comments while all other board members will have one minute each after tonight's proclamations the board would like to invite those in support of the proclamation to join us for a photo at this point I would like to um recognize Mr Stu
005Gibson who is in our audience he is a former Schoolboard [Music] member thank you for being here okay our first Proclamation 2.05 National inclusive schools week Proclamation I call in Miss Cowen for a proclamation whereas since its Inception in 2001 National inclusive schools week has celebrated the progress that schools have made in providing a welcoming supporting and quality education to an increasingly diverse student population including students who are marginalized due to disability gender socioeconomic status cultural heritage Lang language preference and other factors whereas inclusive schools week is an annual event sponsored by the inclusive schools Network and is held during the first week of December whereas to ensure that our students belong Thrive and feel supported by their teachers peers family members and neighbors we must continue to learn more about the work of other
006organizations and groups in our community and share ideas resources and support whereas we must must teach our students by our actions how to treat others how to communicate and build relationships and how to work in harmony to address our common needs and whereas this year's theme draw me in provides an opportunity to strengthen our commitment to inclusive education extend previous successes and redirect our talent time and energy to improve outcomes for students and their families participating in art provides a pathway to self-discovery and sharing art opens doors to understanding and respecting different ways of thinking now there therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board proclaims the week of December 4th through 8th 2023 as inclusive schools week and REM remain reminds the entire Fairfax County Public Schools community that education takes on
007a beautiful shape when all children are included is there a second second thank you Dr Anderson Miss Cohen would you like to speak to your Proclamation I'd be happy to um I with the Help from My Friends um really wanted to highlight what this means in our family and I think the opportunity that draw me in brings us um is really having us ask the question do we see the faces of all the children and youth drawn into the canvas of our schools and Society every day the need to belong is a basic need of all students and an integral component of effective inclusive schools to be inclusive implies a fundamental commitment to building relationships among students families Educators and the community to support safe and positive learning environments inclusive schools week also provides an
008important opportunity for educators students and parents to discuss what else needs to be done in order to ensure that our schools continue to improve their ability to successfully educate all of our students in Fairfax County Schools I would like to especially thank all of our Educators families and most importantly our students during inclusive schools week and take a moment to applaud the progress we've made toward building more inclusive School communities while pledging to continue our work toward becoming a more inclusive society and as my friend ratna who probably will speak here will always say inclusive schools week cannot just be a week it has to be every school day every non-school day we as a county and a community have an obligation and an opportunity to make sure that we're seeing every everybody for what
009they show up with and that we are affirming their identity whatever that looks like and making sure that they know that they belong here uh in our community and in our schools thank you Dr Anderson would you like to speak to your second yes briefly thank you um to miss Cohen for bringing this forward this week serves as a reminder of our commitment to fostering environments in which every student regardless of their backgrounds abilities or differences not only feel welcomed but embraced to be inclusive implies a fundamental commitment to building relationships among students families Educators in the community to support safe and positive learning environments being inclusive also commits to elevating compassion understanding Grace when we recognize the inherent value of every individual we not only enrich the lives of our students but also we
010Empower them to become compassionate open-minded citizens of the world following this year's theme of draw me in let us strive to ensure that we see the faces of all children in youth drawn into the canvas of our schools I also want to wrap up my comments by returning to the theme and asking us to reflect on how we could draw in those who feel othered engage in conversations with our children and students and others so that we can so we need to see beyond the differences and ex and offer greater acceptance um this is a call to action for all of us to identify this opportunity to see how can we draw in others in our actions moving forward today tomorrow throughout the year and as Miss Cohen said this should not be just a
011onetime opportunity where we acknowledge that there are differences in our community this is as my colleague just said next to me it is a mindset one one in which um will benefit all of us so thank you thank you Mr cor Sanders you speak I apologize I didn't put it up but I am glad that Dr Anderson uh referenced my uh motto on inclusive schools which is that it has to be a mindset it is a cultural imperative that we uh make sure that every child is feel made to feel welcome included and seen in our schools thank you Miss seiser Heiser thank you um I'm glad we're talking about inclusive schools week but I will be honest the word weak has always bothered me inclusive schools week started uh many years ago focusing on
012disability and I'm glad to see it's expanded to focusing on um you know seeing all of our students but it sometimes when you hear the word weak we focus on it for the week and then we forget about it the rest of the year and so I i' really I'm glad it gives a space for us to intentionally think about it but I just wish we could say inclusive School and drop the week um in my humble opinion um so I'm going to focus on the disability part of ital inclusion and I'm going to um talk about a recently released HHS Ed policy statement about um Inclusive Preschool and their justification for inclusion was about disability is a natural part of The Human Experience almost 45 million adults have a disability um nearly one out
013of six children are estimated to have a developmental disability and what I've always said is segregation in school leads to segregation in life with autism the unemployment rate hovers around 70% the college completion rate is 37% it is not often due to lack of skills it is due to lack of understanding the risk in the criminal justice system for people with Autism is incredibly high is incredibly High because what we have currently trained our law enforcement on to be wary of and we're doing much better are off on the Hallmarks of autism and all Hallmarks of anxiety if we have inclusive settings in our schools if students are educated together where they learn about each other they learn about different ways of being different ways of thinking different ways of Behaving those are the future
014co-workers those are the future public business owners those are the future employers future law enforcement and First Responders that is the only way we can make sure that every single person has the chance to fulfill their dream and become a productive fulfilled member of society which actually benefits all of us because none of us want to spend our tax dollars supporting somebody who could actually support themselves and that person deserves the Dignity of friendships of work and a fulfilled life and if we talk about inclusive schools week then are we going to talk about inclusive Society week or inclusive Society because it benefits all of us and I leave you with one story that my son as many know has autism and when he first started a music program and he was in a band
015at um an after school music program and um one of the students was very perturbed that he was there because he was touching instruments and this is when he was young and talking out of turn and this and that and I know this because he told me so just before the show he came up to me and he said when Jake first joined our band I was very upset he was touching my instruments he was doing this he was doing that but now I have to tell you I was totally wrong not only is he a great musician but when we're having a tough day he makes us laugh when we're struggling he's the one who says come on we can do one more we can get this song we can do it and he
016said not only is he a great musician but he's actually a great human being and if he hadn't been in this inclusive band after school with me I would have never known that our future co-workers employers First Responders policy makers leaders will never know that if we don't have inclusive schools period thank you thank thank you Miss am yeah thank you and I'm so grateful that we continue to bring this forward and to miss asmer heiser's points you know having started as uh a point of advocacy for the disability Community uh it's important to emphasize and I know Dr Reed we've repeatedly made this ask and I really hope that in the next few years we see it as a reality to desegregate our schools and make sure that there is real inclusion um of
017all abilities within the school building uh that we commit the resources to make sure that's possible um um I I you know I think to miss seah heiser's point the peers in the classroom who will be engaging with one another are that future police officer and are that future politician who will be making those decisions and it's part of the educational experience uh that they intermingle and understand the differences uh that come with the the beautiful diversity that is our community um and I I guess in in leaning into this uh theme uh draw me in right it's one thing for us to say we want inclusive spaces it's one thing for us to Aspire and put forward the efforts to do it but I think even as adults uh we find discomfort in sitting
018and holding space in in having um purposeful pauses and understanding and reflecting uh when we do confront differences and when those differences potentially Clash uh but to have the courageous conversations that are so essential uh with the respect for one another that we can understand despite the difficulty the tension the frustration the emotions involved we can and end up in a better place right just like a sibling or an aunt that you don't like or whatever will quibble and have that you know friendly fight over the Thanksgiving or or you know holiday dinner that at the end that's still family and I I hope that we can Inspire an education for our kids that doesn't shy away from doesn't silence doesn't suppress the other perspective or the difference or the minori view but allows for
019that space uh so that we can learn from one another and develop uh through that compassion uh so I hope we can all draw me in right and bringing everyone here also lean into uh being intentional about that thank you miss m seeing no other board members that would like to speak I would like to call for the vote all those in favor okay that is um unanimous for those at the table and Mr frish thank you agenda item 2.06 celebrating our local Native American tribes and acknowledging our historic Origins Proclamation I call in Miss om thank you whereas from the first settlement of Jamestown Native American tribes are the original story of the state of Virginia and the Commonwealth has a deep diverse and tragic history with its then over 50,000 native people people
020brought to life today through 11 officially recognized tribes who are indigenous to the modern state of Virginia the Chom Tri Indian tribe the chomi Indian tribe Eastern Division the upper mataponi tribe the rapan tribe the monin Indian Nation the nasand Indian tribe the nway Indian tribe of Virginia the Chaka n uh the Chaka the P the Panki Indian tribe the pamic Indian tribe and the mataponi Indian tribe and I really did try to keep those uh proper and whereas many of these tribes are indigenous not only to the state of Virginia but also to Fairfax County such that this land now known as Fairfax has a rich history that predates the establishment of the United States and was originally inhabited by thousands of indigenous people including the manah hoic the Panki the dog nations among
021whom spoke languages like suan and algonkian the original language is of Fairfax County from which names of landmarks like akatin Lake originated as well as many names we read on maps and road signs today without tribute to their origins of 10 million indigenous people in this nation and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is recognizing and honoring our unique history contributions and cultures found in the Commonwealth of Virginia including the tragic history of genocide Colonial settlements dispossession of land and Erasure of native cultures all of which displaced na Native American tribes in the area and recognize that the truths of this painful history contribute to a comprehensive education for all students which align with Fairfax County Public Schools commitment to fostering an inclusive and culturally responsive educational environment that prepares youth for the future and whereas
022Fairfax County Public Schools is home to hundreds of American Indian or Alaskan native students and employs Native and Indigenous staff members including teachers administrators and support staff all a part of Fairfax County's native and indigenous population which is one of the largest in the state of Virginia and the state of Virginia is where quote American Indian week was first recognized in 1988 to commemorate the history of native people and the tragedies they faced in the harvest season declaring that it is imperative to honor the culture and Heritage of these native people by acknowledging our shared history centering their voices and fostering spaces of learning and growth and whereas the school board recognizes the importance of collaboration with local native American communities Educators and historians to develop and Implement educational initiatives that accurately tell our story
023and reflect the rich Native American history of Virginia as well as take intentional actions to empower native Youth and support their culture in our system now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board hereby recognizes and celebrates our local native population and notes sensitivities of this season through the promotion of November's Native American heritage month and the teaching of history of Virginia's tribes in all Fairfax County Public Schools as well as acknowledges and pays respect to the indigenous communities both those who originally owned this land but were historically displaced and those remaining community members who live here and continue to carry forth their culture in Fairfax County Today is there a second second thank you Dr Anderson Miss am would you like to speak to your Proclamation yeah thank you um this resolution
024was originally scheduled for the meeting before Thanksgiving that our board had to postpone uh to lend voice to what we can't ignore as we shared in the resolution native history in Heritage remind us of important realities in our past creating space for reflection around the experiences of our native neighbors keep our consciences awake and remind us of the importance of learning about the injustices of yesterday and speaking against the injustices of today the genocide of over 10 million natives in our nation unfolded over 400 years as we see the genocide of Palestinians unfold today learning about the native genocide helps us understand how it is possible that such tragedies still unfold before our eyes it was not lost on me that our local native neighbors have been a loud voice demanding statehood here in our
025own state of Virginia drawing Parallels for us to wake up when saying in the words of a chamany tribesmen quote we are the Palestinians of Virginia a people in their Homeland without legal recognition and it has been heartening to see some of our regional Chiefs from the United Native Americans and others leading the rally of over 300 ,000 people for indigenous rights in the March on Washington for Palestine just weeks ago and while they know this pain all too well it is also true that our native neighbors today are thriving and have triumphed and we're so blessed to celebrate them today I want to start by thanking and recognize our FCPS native Community our our staff member Rick Rufus Kelly who serves as a councilman in the nway tribe and the chairman of the annual
026poow committee Rick has been instrumental for helping invite members of the community to collaborate and partner on this Proclamation I also want to thank the Fairfax County History commission for their endorsement their strong endorsement of this resolution in particular my friend and chair ly Garvey Hodge whose land dedication and recent County History conference inspired me to speak truth and take this as a historic moment to offer for the first time an official language from the Das a land dedication for our school properties and I also want to recognize and thank Rose potin who is a Native American Artist author and cultural activist she descended from both the pom Moni and the tux Senate tribal Nations and was instrumental in helping with this resolution as well as Miss Angel CTS and her Mr kurts member of
027the nway tribe and her family for being in attendance her family are uh she has five grandchildren she's proud are part of our FCPS family at mosaic and waple Mills Elementary as well as many other family members Miss Dio as well as Olivia Dio and their three children Sunny Gina and Ernie uh so if if you heard your name or if you're here representing this Proclamation please and with to be recognized we'll certainly be taking a picture after this as well are our guests here yeah please give them a round of [Applause] applause we are so so blessed that you are a part of our community and remind us of the realities of our past in in in in painful but beautiful ways to be deed displaced from your Homeland to be violently occupied by
028an outside force is a great tragedy of modern history and it's important to learn from that history of the holidays we celebrate even while enjoying the time spent with our loved ones and our seasonal festivities thank you for modeling how we can do that today we are so enriched by your membership in our community and your original uh uh of course uh part of this uh Nation Dr Anderson would you like to speak yes briefly I think Miss om did a very good job of speaking to the proclamation first of all thank you for to our guest for being here I just wanted to elevate um some of the things that we talked about in the first Proclamation is the opportunity to be seen while there are some painful histories here um that have happened
029both in um the Commonwealth in Virginia and throughout this country regarding the treatment of Native American PE native people um I appreciate the fact that we are elevating the opportunity to learn and to be educated no matter how painful that history we should not brush it aside so thank you to miss omes for bringing this um to the Forefront and also in the concept of that we just talked about with inclusive of schools we are looking for an opportunity for all of our constituents for all of our community to be seen to be heard to be included and that includes acknowledging what has happened in our past so thank you and I'm very grateful to be able to um support this Proclamation Miss Kei cero thank you um I'm grateful for this opportunity and I
030was already looking in the audience and um seeing perhaps I thought folks that were connected um I spent a lot of time in the seat talking about understanding history irrespective of who our Americans have been um I appreciate comments from uh our colleagues that we shouldn't be talking about a week or a month we should be talking about education and so I certainly support including the history of all peoples who have help to make us who we are today and certainly that is the case for Native Americans certainly it is the case for many and certainly we have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are not only seeing but knowledgeable um with how we have been enriched by so many around us um it's almost as if we eat a
031recipe but we don't know the ingredients and so I look forward to learning more and I hope and I know that this school system is moving more toward that inclusiveness and the The Thirst for understanding and I think we will all be enriched by it thank you Miss Cohen thank you so much and thank you so much for being here uh we appreciate it and we're so grateful we hope that you're going to come back every year um but certainly on more than just um a Schoolboard Proclamation reading I want to make sure that you're in our schools and teaching our kids the true and honest history of this nation of this Commonwealth and we so appreciate you being here um I think it's so important not to in any way try to co-opt or
032compare what anything else is happening in the world with your experience I can't begin to imagine and I think as student certainly growing up in uh in Georgia I'm the birthplace of the beginning of the Trail of Tears the end of the Trail of Tears um when I look at what our students learn about about the history about what our students learn about the path from Georgia to Oklahoma and points further west um I realized that's all that I knew of the vast majority of the native peoples of the place that I grew up and so I hope that we will in Virginia continue to tell the whole story tell the story of the beginning and tell the story of what is not to be the end what is only the beginning of further exploration
033uh further commitment to making sure that the Legacy in the history is not lost and so thank you so much for being here we really really appreciate it thank you Miss cobt Sanders yes thank you madam chair um I would hope that when we offer proclamations from this table that we have the selfis discipline to focus on our conversation about that Proclamation and the importance of this Proclamation tonight is to recognize the history here in the state of Virginia and the impact of that history on our ability to be inclusive and to be able to tell the accurate history here in the state of Virginia I feel very up uh frustrated tonight that had the discussion about this Proclamation which got the full support in advance of members of this board because of the spirit
034of the words of that Proclamation were taken and then used to talk about a global conflict which we all can agree is a tragic situation but I would urge going forward that when you solicit the support for a proclamation of about this important subject that we stay focused on that Proclamation and so I am really conflicted tonight because I truly believe in the words of the co of that Proclamation I am frustrated that it got spun into another topic and there is very rare instances when I speak like this from the dis thank you Miss mclin um I want to first thank you Miss Corbett Sanders uh it's been a privilege serving with you all these years and I know this is highly unusual for you to speak um with such deep concern and passion
035and uh I I share your concerns in that um this is a a significantly important proclamation in front of us and as someone who studied American history in college it's a passion of mine um I continue to want to be a board member and a member of our society that talks about the complexity of History um whether it it has to do with um our tragic history as we're honoring here tonight about indigenous people and I am so proud to be part of a board and be part of a nation that is trying to raise this National and hopefully Global understanding that we cannot oversimplify history um and we have to help our students understand the depth and the complexity of talking about such difficult topics and so um I I do see the merits
036of this Proclamation and I am so deeply appreciative of everyone here in the audience tonight watching at home those of you who are connected and representative of our indigenous communities that you are here and I want to support this proclamation in honor of all of you um but I will say again that uh we will not be a better Society if um we those of us in elected positions those of us in decision-making positions continue to speak in ways that divide our society um we we have such an important um responsibility to talk about the complexities of history and help our students to understand that because otherwise they can't even uh learn and therefore formulate and speak from um well-informed positions and to recognize again um history can often be quite messy but what we
037learn from history we hopefully never bear to repeat and uh I look forward to continuing to be be one citizen here in the United States that continues to talk about how do we learn from our history and become a better people from it and uh so to my colleagues I I really do appreciate um what we do each and every day trying to um ensure we have inclusive history um and certainly as as a woman who didn't get to learn many stories about the incredible women who built this nation as well I understand the importance of making sure we get better at it every day so thank you at at this point in time I would just like to interject um for members um to please as far as thinking about the proclamation the proclamation
038stands and falls on its own not on comments made for or against the proclamation which reflect individual member um takes of the Proclamation voting to adopt this motion does not mean one adops the reasons why other members voted or did not vote for it but please think about the um Proclamation itself Mr frish oh I'm sorry Mr kofax I'm sitting at Mr fr's seat right now um I want to thank you all who came out tonight um for uh the the proclamation as it was intended um FCPS attempts to teach complete history that allows for students to understand multiple perspectives apply a critical lens and develop disciplinary thinking as it comes to our Native American culture uh we prioritize rigorous and relevant learning experiences that affirm diverse identities and Foster critical thinking and support meaningful
039relationships I I am going to just take a moment here at the risk of not making this sound like light but um when my daughter was learning about Native American culture she came home and she was so distraught she's like this is this is terrible what happened um that Native American tribes no longer exist and how how could we repair this and we went on a summer vacation that year that led us through the Trail of Tears um Oklahoma City was particularly profound with the with the Statue there and at this at that time we and our family just have always felt a wanting to to ensure that while we were proud of being American we're also respectful of what help happened to the Native American culture and I will stand on um in support
040because of Miss uh what Miss Tolen has said but I do want to say um we thank you and we acknowledge the the harm that has come and we want to uplift the contributions of our contemporary um Native and and contributions of our contemporary native people so thank you for those who came out tonight and to those who spoke on and who used this Proclamation um to divide rather than bring people together um I I think that was done in poor taste and I'm sorry that the we're at this point where we had to deal with that okay at this point um I would like to just take a moment to um celebrate our local tribes and thank you for um attending the meeting this evening um I would like to acknowledge the spirit of
041the Proclamation and support that um I guess as usual I um you know feel such an importance to um our you know local Virginia history and teaching that history and supporting um students that we have working in this area so I wanted to tell you about um Payton Walcott um he's actually been in front of us talking about boys volleyball um very eloquently but pton is a student at Langley High School and a member of the nund Indian Nation last school year after Payton met with um principal Greer and contacted my office we connected him with our ke through 12 cordinator of social studies and um for him to discuss his vision for lifting contemporary Native American voices in FCPS curriculum through the development of video interviews during the meeting the team brainstormed needs and
042actions for Payton's Vision to become a reality Payton was equipped with the the necessary gear and equipment needed to take his journey into IND indigenous connections around the county and Beyond Payton started with traveling to speak with tribal Nations down the Eastern portion of the state and he has also um almost completed a science video um so cross-curricular a science video on indigenous people and the and oyster reefs and oystering he has also completed um working on a video about indigenous identity and the Jim Crow era and is being supported with historical context by Dr isra we from social studies well he states that his progress has been a little slower than he would have liked he is now finished with his college applications and is resuming his focus on um this important area of
043study Payton we cannot wait to see your finished product I've seen some in between videos and they are um fantastic so um even you know our own um students are hard at work making sure that um FCPS um teaches the history um the true history of Virginia thank you okay with that I would like to take the vote all those in favor of this Proclamation Miss Tolen my light was on oh I'm sorry M um I think that we all have had an opportunity to speak to the proclamation so I think we'll go ahead with the votes I understand I think we've all had the chance to have Gob backs in the past we haven't on proclamations actually I've done that in the past but that's your discretion so I understand you're telling me I
044can't speak yes I'd like to take the vote thank you okay those in favor of the Proclamation okay that is unanimous at the table and Mr frish thank you okay our next Proclamation 2.07 National hunger and homelessness Awareness Week Miss whereas while we believe every child deserves a safe stable and supportive environment to call home housing and food insecurity remain pressing in our community worsened by Rising food costs interest rates and rents where the rate of a has doubled as hunger has surged and the rate of unhoused families with children has increased by 33% in 3 years with a quarter of those who are unhoused in Fairfax County being children we know that housing and food insecurity affect the social and emotional well-being of students and have numerous cascading effects that impact education and Student
045Success and whereas the expiration of covid-19 supports such as the expanded child tax credit Universal School meals as well as reductions to the supplemental nutritional assistance program program snap have caused hunger to increase such that one in every eight children in this country experience food in security and more than one-third of students in Fairfax County qualify for free or reduced lunches student hunger negatively affects the ability to learn and focus leading to lower academic achievement and a higher likelihood of school absenteeism student hunger and homelessness result from historical and structural injustices that disproportionately affect communities of color and whereas students who are unhoused or homeless face challenges that pose unique traumas resulting from a lack of stability in basic necessities such as food and shelter teachers administrators and support staff should use trauma-informed practices to
046gain a better understanding of the ways in which these 2,300 students are affected by their circumstances and the ways in which these adverse childhood experiences Aces affect their learning and whereas FCPS Educators support staff and Community organizations and volunteers play a critical role in supporting students who are unhoused homeless or hungry helping them navigate the challenges they face whereby dedicated special services staff have a long history of service through Partnerships with programs like the weekend food backpack program coats for kids back to school Basics and more which address the difficulties faced by economically disenfranchised children and whereas given our mission of Excellence equity and opportunity for every child addressing the challenges of housing in food and security requires a comprehensive and compassionate approach that includes collaboration among government agencies affordable housing developments nonprofit organizations Community
047leaders and concerned citizens to create a society where no family is left without a home or food for their family now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board recognizes the opening of County shelters on December 1st through hyp hypm hypothermia prevention program which provides shelter to over 1,000 vulnerable residents St each year during the winter months this is a time to build solidarity and greater understanding around these needs and to develop Sustainable Solutions through coordinated efforts that combat hunger and homelessness in our community once and for all second thank you Mr M would you like to speak to your Proclamation yes thank you so much uh board members every year have the chance to bring two proclamations this is the second that I'm very proud to bring and it took inspiration from
048a national campaign of hunger and homelessness awareness week which takes place November 11th to 18th where people come together across the country to draw attention to the problems of hunger and homelessness like we're doing here tonight I'm proud to be the liaison to our system uh the to the affordable housing advisory Council ahac uh and and I want to recognize their tireless effort to build affordable housing for all in our community I want to particularly thank Jerry POI for his leadership um on the council and his guidance over the years thank you for being here tonight and for Building Bridges between our school system and our County for many years I also want to thank John boan who is officially representing ah haack's executive committee and was the past president as well as the Dallas
049Regional Chamber of Commerce for being here tonight and Thomas Fleetwood the director of Housing and Community Development for our County as well as other ahak members who send their regards I'm sure I there may be some others um but accordingly I would like to thank the affordable housing advisory Council ahck for endorsing this historic Proclamation the first of its kind for FCPS and I also want to thank Kathy Shuffle as well as the entire special services team uh Kathy Shuffle is our FCPS homelessness liaison and her team of social workers have helped us craft the language for this Proclamation and their tireless work of course that the team does over the years is so essential to supporting some of our most vulnerable students I want to plug that uh there is actually uh a drive
050right now for gift cards to their office for for kids in need uh more information on that can be found on their on the website uh but I encourage all to partake uh in our in the spirit of giving this season I can vividly recall during the Great Recession of the late 2000s family friends and fellow students losing homes and so much more during that tough Financial time and of course now living through a global pandemic we've seen our government suspend mortgage payments provide rental assistance expand snap uh and and attempt many efforts given the challenge families are facing not just in the global pandemic but always and now even more so in the aftermath I do want to end by touching uh of course on the fact that these hypothermia centers are are opening
051now part of the timing while we wanted to coincide it with a hunger and homelessness awareness week uh it was timely that uh the shelters are opening today or this week um and flyers about this can be found at the back of the auditorium uh where you we hope that you'll help us raise awareness um you know students who face hunger and homelessness as the resolution outlines uh do come show up to school with unique challenges and we all know masa's hierarchy right you can't show up when you're hungry and you're you're worried about what's going on at home or where you're going to go uh after school is finished uh and these are realities that our kids face every day in the thousands we think you know Fairfax County we're so privileged to be
052in such a wealthy uh County and it certainly ranks up their uh national rankings but we forget that there are large pockets in our neighborhoods our neighbors uh who are struggling and who now in the winter season will be facing particularly uh difficult struggles that many of us can sleep warm and at home without thinking about so I hope that you'll help us raise awareness about these shelters by grabbing a flyer I do hear that's my time um but I hope that this is a step forward in in ensuring our educators are responsive to those students needs Miss Kei gamero would you like to speak to your second yes briefly thank you thank you uh and thank you for this uh very thorough report on the state of um homeless children and hunger in our
053community um some of you may know that um in my professional life I've done a great deal of work as a guardian at lightam working with various populations and what I realize and what is abundantly clear in working um with various families is simply that hungry children can't learn and so we need to work at as a community to not only make sure that they have safe roofs over their heads that families are supported but that when they come to school they eat I know that in the past we have done some things to try to make sure that children have breakfast that they can have lunch but I at par this is very difficult especially during the holidays when kids are seeing their peers not having the same struggles and there is a stigma
054that is attached to having these experiences so I'm grateful to be able to have this conversation I consider every child in our community our child and so I'm really looking forward to working and collaborating not only on the local level but the state and Fe Federal and in every way that we can I know that there are Advocates out here who really care and I hope that our families as and especially our students uh take this moment and take uh receive our hope for our community and our support thank you very much Miss cor Sanders yes thank you madam chair and thank you Miss H for this Proclamation this is something that um as you know I'm I've raised concerns about for quite a long time what people fail to realize is that we have
055unhoused or homeless people that fall into multiple categories and Fairfax County does have the hypothermia um shelters they have homeless shelters uh however the way it works is we have shelters for families we have shelters for adults what we don't have is Sheltering for unaccompanied Youth and we have a very large population which um is in flux and many of them are homeless because of um tensions with their families or other reasons and we have as many um and many identify as lgbtqia Youth and so I am urging as we look at this very important issue that as a county and as a society that we have shelter for those children and that those shelters not only provide a roof over someone's head a warm bed and food but also the wraparound support s necessary
056for our students and it is particularly important to look at this when we talk about inclusion and the importance of dressing the very um real needs of this population and so I encourage you that when we look at this that we also include advocacy for um Sheltering those students thank you um I would like to call for the vote all those in favor of this Proclamation okay that is unanimous for those in attendance and Mr frish thank you oh I'm sorry Dr Anderson is way from the table thank you oh my goodness okay Madam clerk do you have that Miss Marin and Dr Anderson are away from the table yes and I also have Miss Marin away for the earlier Proclamation that was right before this thank you okay agenda item 2.08 Robinson Secondary Schools
057Student Activities office naming Proclamation I call in Miss mclocklin thank you madam chair whereas Mrs Edna Clark served as an administrative assistant at Robinson Secondary School from 199 94 through 2020 where she has helped teachers community members and coaches whereas Mrs Clark worked tirelessly to ensure that athletes and coaches were supported and had everything necessary for a successful season whereas Miss Clark created a welcoming and nurturing environment where our athletes and students enjoyed competing and attending our athletic events whereas Mrs Clark served as a role model where it came when it came to to work ethic and professionalism she went out of her way to provide assistance mentorship and resources for new colleagues and whereas Mrs Clark was a proud member of the Robinson Secondary School Community one of the school's best supporters spending countless
058hours attending events supporting Robinson's students and athletes now therefore be it resolved that the Student Activities office at Robinson Secondary School be named the Edna Clark activities office in honor of this EX exemplary employee colleague friend mentor and citizen is there a second second thank you Miss Cowen Miss mclin would you like to speak to your Proclamation I would I am absolutely honored and thrilled to be um um presenting to you the Robinson Secondary School Activities office naming um in honor of Mrs Clark um having represented the Robinson Community for uh these 12 years um and being a parent of a rival High School Woodson um I know uh that uh all the years that we would compete against Robinson I frankly knew of no other school in the county that uh the Robinson Rams
059have the most remarkable uh school spirit and uh athletic prowess and so it's uh something that I personally can appreciate uh for Mrs Clark to be bestowed with this honor means she has given so much for more than a quarter Century uh to her community and often it is uh the the people behind the scenes working so hard for so long uh in support of our schools I I I just look at this as such a a wonderful way for us to finally uh Elevate and bring forward uh for the future and going um that the Robinson Rams will always know how special Edna Clark has been um to the Rams community and uh before I seed to my wonderful colleague who I share Robinson with um at the magisterial level um I do want
060to also thank our principal um Tracy Phillips and her administrative team for coming here this evening as well and our regional area superintendent Penny gross uh for also joining us for um tonight's honor and uh thank you for your patience we will be asking everyone to come up for the photos with the proclamation so please don't leave after we vote in this Proclamation uh but to my colleagues I do hope to see unanimous support Miss Cohen would you like to speak thank you I wondered if the folks from Robinson who are here to support this resolution do you mind standing up so we can all give you a big hand I think we've had such an honor actually I think the last couple of meetings we've had the opportunity to get to name a few
061things after folks and it is absolutely one of the best parts of this job getting to read letter after letter of people whose lives were really transformed by somebody who just kind of felt like they were doing their everyday job just uh being the best that they could be and I will say from to I hope it's okay to speak for you breu parents thanks a lot um for making the team so wonderful um we we really though have seen firsthand when we talk about people um who may not necessarily think that they're the person who makes somebody's day I hope so much um that that this just reminds all of us that whatever role you play in school uh whatever role you play for kids it's a big one it means a lot to
062all of us here so thank you so much really pleased to have the honor to get to bring this with Megan thank you Mr M do you want to speak to this Proclamation yeah I want to thank the folks from Robinson who came forward uh as you all know Robinson is the institution that uh made me who I am and and uh who you see me to be today um I I wanted to certainly mention I mean Miss Clark was there when I was there uh and while I I I had the you know bad luck of not having the chance to have worked too closely with her I did poke around because I know a lot of my peers uh uh did uh given that she was there for 26 years helping students being
063friend a friendly face someone students and uh uh parents could depend on and who could trust um I did receive an outpouring of letters of support for this Proclamation and that just goes to speak to the love that Miss Clark inspired and all those around her uh and so I wanted to just share one of those quotes that that does speak to her spirit um Edna was seen as a leader within the administrative staff both at Robinson on all the other high school student activity offices more more importantly Mama Clark often would go beyond job descriptions and get to know the people on a personal level listening encouraging and handholding many through difficult personal challenges she knew her job but more importantly she took the time to get to know the people and cared what
064an example she set and I hope that that's one we can we can follow to humanize one another and show that kind of Care thank you at this point in time I would like to call for the vote all those in favor of this renaming Miss CT Sanders Miss mclin of course Miss mcari Miss Tolen Mr kof Miss ke gamara Miss om Miss Cowen and Miss R seis with Miss Marin and Dr Anderson away from the table and Mr fr is in favor as well all right so that is through that is passed honor 2.09 honoring the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School I call on Miss daret kofax for a proclamation thank you Madame share whereas Cameron Elementary School located in Alexandria Virginia first opened its doors on September 8th 1953 during the post
065World War II period the school was originally going to be named Happy Valley Elementary School but the school board renamed the new building Cameron Elementary School on January 6 1953 eight months before opening and whereas Cameron Elementary School went through oops sorry my computer went through several phases of adding classrooms in the spring of 1953 and may of 1954 to accommodate the growing number of children moving to the area and served children in grades 1 through 7 until 1960 when Cameron's seventh grade class was moved to the new Mark Twain Intermediate School the first kindergarten class at Cameron began in September 1968 and Cameron Elementary School was rededicated on Saturday June 12th 1972 after construction was completed on the nor northeast side of the building which included moving the front entrance of the building and
066adding a resource Area Music Room School lab gymnasium Central Courtyard and several new office buildings and whereas the earlier motos for Cameron Elementary School started by former principal George to regarding the quality of Education starts here and that is still true today that the Cameron Co cobras to Cameron cheetah Cameron Elementary School has has seen much growth and change throughout the years from an animal Courtyard in the back where students learn to care for rabbits goats small birds guinea pigs and baby chicks to Cameron was also one of the first schools to try voluntary school uniforms in the mid90s which included a shirt that said character counts at Cameron and whereas Cameron Elementary School had visits by first ladies Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush in the early 1980s and when future lady Barbara Bush donated
067books as part of the reading his fundamental program in 1987 and first lady CA first lady Nancy ran came to promote the just say no substance abuse campaign and whereas today Cameron Elementary continues to educate a diverse student body with a very dedicated group of teachers administrators and staff who are committed to supporting Cameron's mission to embrace and celebrate its diversity while promoting children's academic social and emotional growth through real world experiences to ensure that they become responsible citizens working to to their full potential to en reach enrich their lives and and live in this world now for their there oh my goodness tonight I'm sorry now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board honors Cameron Elementary on the occasion of its 70th anniversary of providing educational excellence and enrich opportunities to
068students in their Community is there a second second thank you m corpet Sanders Mr jna kux would you like to speak to your proclamation' yes ma'am and I will try to speak slower this time I am honored to bring this motion forward this evening it has been wonderful to share the vast history of Cameron Elementary with all of you when uh FCPS was established in 1870 there was a one one room Schoolhouse called Cameron school and in 1892 a new Cameron school opened near the intersection of telegraph in frankonia Road very close to where the school currently sits today through the first few decades the schools saw the establishment of intermediate schools the desegregation of public schools and the introduction of kindergarten classes including one of the first Early Childhood learning and demonstration centers which
069was established in 1971 principal George towry LED Cameron Elementary School for 30 years from 1980 to 2010 and I had the privilege of meeting principal to just prior to his retirement in 2010 he once said I get a glimpse of 27 countries each day when I walk into Cameron Elementary School it's like a little Global Village I think kids who go to school here have a real picture of the world the way it really is and in my opinion they are far far richer because of it today Cameron continues to educate a diverse student body where over 22 languages are spoken since 2020 principal Eric Johnson assumed principal ship and he has shared with me that Cameron's steam lab and classroom teachers help Cameron students develop the skills they need to be successful communicators learn
070to collaborate become responsible ethical and Global Citizens and problem solve by learning to be creative and critical thinkers and learn to establish goals and become resilient individuals all attributes of FCPS is Portrait of a graduate he also shared that cameraon focuses on the whole child and emotional learning as is just as critical as academic learning and I want to close by giving you just a few lines of Cameron's school song written by teacher Jennifer Dawson at at Cameron we are all a very special family we come from different places from all around the world from Vietnam to Pakistan Mexico and Colombia too from India Bolivia and Africa to name a few everyone let's join hands and spread peace through all these lands for this is our hope the world to unite and for all people
071to love and not fight please help us make this world a better place so thank you and I want to thank principal Eric Johnson assistant principal Amanda Snyder Gayla bomart social worker Tiffany Reid the advanced um academics teacher and antoanet dewat the speech language and pathologist who joined us here tonight and we'll take a picture with us later so thank you all for being here miss Cory Sanders yes thank you madam chair um much of what I wanted to say was already presented by my colleague Miss darak Kofa for many of you uh you probably don't know that a lot of the schools in the Mount Vernon in Franconia area uh Miss Daren Co kofax will have 50% or like 54% and I'll have 46 and vice versa and uh that's why uh we often
072do these things together um I just want to share a little bit about Cameron Elementary as is being a microcosm that truly reflects the spirit and the evolution of Fairfax County Public Schools many people may not realize that the reason Cameron Elementary School was built was partially because a portion of Fairfax County was moved into Alexandria City and so we had an area of the county that needed a school um and the area is where where Cameron Elementary is and originally it was going to be named the burgundy school because there were 350 houses being built in the burgundy uh Community what happened though was that the burgundy Farm School uh president came and said you know there might be a little confusion here so perhaps we shouldn't name it burgundy and that's where we
073got Happy Valley and before it was actually opened they decided to name it Cameron after and in recognition of the school which used to be right at uh Telegraph Road and that was the Cameron Valley School the Cameron Valley School actually opened up in 19 in 1883 1893 so there's actually we're celebrating 70 years of Cameron Elementary but it's almost like we're celebrating 140 years of Cameron Elementary it's just grown from that two room Schoolhouse to the complex that it is today and that kind of reflects what has happened here in Fairfax County but most importantly what happened at Cameron Elementary was a recognition that Fairfax County was changing rapidly so we not only needed facilities but under uh principal Towery they actually had a focused intentional hiring approach to ensure that the uh the
074people teaching in the school reflected the diversity of the students attending the school and so um what we saw was really a uh an evolution and a very uh early understanding of the importance for our children to have somebody in the building who they can um connect with and that they share those cultural connections with um so in general or in summary Cameron Elementary has always been a community centered school and um a recognition of that Community centered school is not only about Cameron Elementary but about Mr Towery who spent 30 years in the school and I'm happy to support it I would also uh just bring your attention to not only the diversity of the people he hired but he actually hired the very first Spanish family liaison in Fairfax County that shows the
075wisdom and the forth uh foresight that he had in that capacity thank you very much thank you at this point I would like to call for the vote all those in favor of this Proclamation Miss corbert Sanders Dr Anderson m mclin m mcari Miss Tolen Mr nofex M Gara Miss am Miss Cowen with um Miss mirin Mr frish also positive with Miss mirin and Miss Roch Eiser away from the table I call on Miss Tolen for a proclamation the proclamation honoring our 2023 citizen Bond committee and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce um Proclamation where is the 2023 citizen Bond committee and mount Veron Springfield Chamber of Commerce play a crucial role in supporting our schools and contribute to high quality education and life in Fairfax County and whereas collaboration among local public schools
076Community organizations and businesses provides a well-trained and highly educated Workforce and whereas first inclass instructional facilities are required to provide spaces for students to practice and hone the skills needed for success in the workforce and their communities and whereas an excellent Public School System must have school facilities that are educationally Best in Class safe and more environmentally sustainable to reserve finite natural and financial resources and whereas public school facilities serve not only the students and adults who learn and work there but also provide essential space for Community Athletics indoors and outside Community meetings and distribution of Public Health services including emergency shelter and more and whereas members of the 2023 citizen Bond committee led by chairman Len forus and co-chair Katherine Hosk and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce led by President H dhy
077have dedicated their time energy and resources in support of passage of the $435 million school bond referendum with 68% of the County's voters voting yes now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board extends its highest common Commendation and deepest appreciation to the chamber and committee for their leadership and outstanding service to Fairfax County Public Schools in Fairfax County through their unwavering dedication to the children and overall success of this community your work has resulted in securing sound public Investments to provide the best public schools possible for every FCPS student is there a second second thank you Miss Corbett Sanders uh Miss Tolen would you like to speak to your Proclamation yes thank you so as mentioned um our recent fond passed with 68% support of Fairfax County voters with the showing A
078Renewed Community investment in Fairfax County Public Schools I want to give a huge thank you to our bonds committee for helping to spread the the word on the Bo on the bond and why it is important to all Fairfax County residents I'd like to do a similar thing to what we've done before can all those people who are members of the bond committee the Chamber of Commerce Etc please stand um so that we can recognize [Applause] you thank you so we um as voters F effect County voters approved the sale of 44 $35 million in bonds to fund the building and renovation of schools bonds spread the cost of Capital Improvements over a number of years and are expected to fund future constructions and Renovations and Renovations and enhancements and planning for 16 schools across
079the division I'm excited to say that they include um Renovations for drainville elementary school hearnen elementary school and Armstrong Elementary School um in the uh drainville District and also Franklin Middle School Le Corner Elementary School Brookfield Elementary School Cub Run Elementary School wles Mill Elementary School popler Tree Elementary School Virginia Run Elementary School Willow Springs Center Ridge Union Mill brenmar Park sster and Saratoga Elementary Schools it's a long list our facilities folks are going to be busy um Renovations across FCPS provide enhanced Safety and Security features improved technology access and environmentally responsible features including Outdoor Classroom spaces school facilities are a huge Community Asset valued at nearly $6.5 billion we estimate millions of visits by students and community members as they attend classes camps and other programs run by Fairfax County government agencies and FCPS
080facilities as well as many many community events at our schools so a huge thank you again to the members of the um the bonds committee that are here with us tonight and we will look forward to having a photo with you thank you thank you Miss Corbett Sanders would you like to speak to your second yes thank you I thought I'd spend a couple of minutes explaining our bond process because many people don't realize the importance of our bonds our bonds are a form of long-term borrowing used by most local governments to finance public facilities and infrastructure Bond financing makes it possible to build facilities and infrastructure based on future population estimates and needs and to spread the cost equitably over the useful life of the facilities Although our facilities are currently on a 37-year
081renovation cycle we'd like to shorten it Fairfax County has a long history of being fiscally conservative when it comes to utilizing it bonding Authority because of this history the county has navigated turbulent times uh affecting our economy and maintained its triaa rating with the finance rating agencies in fiscal year 21 it was noted that Fairfax county is one of only 13 states 49 counties and 33 cities across the United States to hold a AAA Bond rating from all three rating agencies for this this reason Fairfax County's bonds sell at a relatively low interest rate compared to the other tax exempt bonds this kind of financing allows the cost of a facility to be spread over a number of years so that each generation of taxpayers contributes a proportionate share for the use of these long-term
082Investments bonds limit the use of property taxes to only paying Debt Service and under the county Bond program the County's net long-term debt is not to exceed 3% of the total market value of taxable real and personal property in the county it also provides that annual Debt Service the cost of the principal and interest payments be kept below 10% of the annual combined general fund dispersements and that Bond sales shall not exceed an average principal amount of 300 million per year or 1.5 billion over five years this demon demonstrates the very intentional and Professional Management of our um funding both at the county level and at the schools level and so I want to personally thank Len forus Kathy hosek and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce for their Timeless efforts in getting this
083year's Bond passed I especially appreciate that uh much of the bonding Authority this year was not concentrated in the Mount Vernon region but the Mount Vernon region uh stepped up and was very supportive of making this happen so thank you very much see no other board members who would like to speak I'll check one more time all right I will call for the vote all those in favor of the Proclamation that is unanimous with everyone at the table with Miss m with Miss mlock what yes with Miss McLaughlin and Miss seore Heiser away from the table Madam clerk will you call for the vote that's uh 90 and Mr I don't have Mr fr's vote I'm I'm sorry say that again H okay Mr fr 10 count Mr fr FR yes all right um I
084would like to invite those who are here um in support of the 2023 citizen Bond committee and the Mount Vernon Springfield Chamber of Commerce proclamation to join us um at the dasas for a photo and then miss setlo will call up the other groups after that photo is taken thank you and thank you all for being here tonight e I would like to invite those here in support of the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School proclamation to please join the board for a photo I'd like to invite those here in support of the 70th anniversary of Cameron Elementary School proclamation to please join the board for a photo I would like to invite those in support of the Robinson Secondary School Student Activities office naming proclamation to please join the board for a photo e
085I would now like to invite those in support of the national hunger and homelessness Awareness Week proclamation to please join the board for a photo I would like to invite those here in support of the national hunger and homelessness Awareness Week proclamation to please join the board for a photo right I would like to invite those here in support of this celebrating our local Native American tribes and acknowledging our historic Origins proclamation to please join the board for a photo e I would now like to invite those in support of the inclusive schools week uh proclamation to join the board for a photo e all right on to 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
086speak this evening community members can sign up to provide comments at Schoolboard regular business meetings and public hearings on the school board's website at regular business meetings speakers May address any school related issue except those that have been scheduled for public hearings such as the capital Improvement program budget and boundaries comments targeting criticizing or attacking individual students are not permitted during public meetings complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate School principal or other school officials speakers should not use personally identifiable information and connection with an individual student or school-based employee additionally speakers should be respectful and observe proper deorum in their statements avoiding profanity inappropriate gestures shouting and comments that en counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy which protects students and staff from discrimination based on
087age race color sex sexual orientation gender identity religion national origin marital status or disability speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes direct their comments to the school board and should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks additional Al only the speaker May stand at the podium they may not be joined by others speaker substitutions are not permitted a speaker may not yield their time to another individual at the conclusion of two minutes the microphone or video will be turned off school board members will be listening but not responding we ask audience members to be respectful of one another shouting and Outburst will not be tolerated audience members should hold their Applause until the conclusion of a speaker's remarks and remain at their seats including when video recording or taking photos
088we are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation Madame clerk please call the first Speaker Samir Ali good evening my name is Samir Ali and I'm a student at anido high school I want to First say that I appreciate the administrative staff at my school they're extremely helpful with school events in spirit however since one of the change uh policies that they have implemented has not seen any change despite many of my classmates and teachers disagreeing with it I found it necessary to come here and discuss it here at anadil our grading policy is that 90% of our grade will come from tests while only 10% will come from classwork and quizzes this policy was implemented last school year and the outrage was big people's
089grad started dropping five 10 sometimes 20 points because of failing one test despite participating in class and getting hundreds on all the classwork and quizzes my friend recently told me about his experience in physics last year he came and excited to learn and excelled in class before getting a 90 on his first test while annoyed he studied retook the test and improved however this happened again on the next test and the next test it became an endless cycle and by the end of the year he stopped caring about the class only studying to minimize his potential grade drop therein lies the problem with our grading policy if we're only graded on our tests why do we need to try for the 10% that is our school classwork why do we need to turn in our
090classwork if we're trying to evolve a past standardized testing why are our grades so dependent on it of course we've advocated for this change in the past year meetings with our principal assistant superintendent petitions and yet nothing it always has to do with statistics the percentage of Fs in our school has gone down the average of grades has not changed but these statistics do not account for the nights my classmates and I have spent stressing over the grade we get that we will get on the next exam and until this grade policy changes we will not stop fighting for a more Equitable grading policy thank you steuart Gibson good evening I'm Stuart Gibson and for 16 years I served the people of Fairfax County as a member of this board at every meeting and public
091event I wore this button no hate to remind us to treat each other with respect I come before you today to condemn the actions of M om as a member of this board for expressing Jew hatred and anti-Semitism following the terrorist attacks by Hamas against innocent civilians in Israel on October 7 she has posted anti-semitic and anti-israel memes on social media that based basically brand thousands of our Jewish students teachers and families as well as thousands of supporters of Israel and its right to exist as mass murderers akin to Adolf Hitler and the Nazis let's set the record straight Hitler set out to murder all 9 million Jews in Europe by another by among other things building camps whose sole purpose was to gas Jews to death and then burn their bodies he was able
092to murder 6 million Jews before the Allies defeated him in 1945 Israel is not Nazi Germany it does not seek to kill all Palestinians it is not committing genocide to the contrary Israel is defending its residents against the terrorist organization bent on finishing what Hitler started killing the Jews comparing Israel to Hitler is anti-Semitism pure Jew hatred it is a direct threat to our safety and it has no place on this board I'm not the only person who says this in 2016 the international Holocaust remembrance Alliance developed a working definition of anti-semitism that has been adopted by 40 three countries including the US just this year Virginia adopted it too Miss om you should read it because what you have posted is spelled out exactly in this law comparing Israeli policy to that of the
093Nazis I call upon you to cease these jew-hating attacks against members of our community and to apologize for your hateful anti-semitic posts and I'm going to uh give to the U to the clerk a copy of the post so that the the Schoolboard members who may not have seen it can see what's involved D and what's so hateful to the members of this community thank you Jennifer Gorski Jennifer Gorski to Jess Tessa good evening my my name is sigas f a parent of a senior student at West Springfield High School you all know that 13 years of abuse my daughter and my family went through in Fairfax County which I completely believe that you have been silence silenced and actually some pay an active role in it this year the abuse of power start which
094started in elementary revived again with the assistant principal admin The English Department head at West West Spring West Springfield High School blocking me from communicating with my daughter AP teacher and counselor where they are not allowed to speak to me return my call and I'm not allowed to have a meeting with them without the without the presence of the administrators when I asked the reason it changed every time this week the reason was you had questioned about the English curriculum I have the right to ask about the curriculum and second this time I have said that I meet I'm I'm I want to meet about my child and not not the curriculum however we know the reason last year the school removed an amazing L teacher who was also The English Department director for many
095years with a humilating Manor so we all know how this is all related now what happens this year they came up with a curriculum not only that cuts at least half of the teaching but also removed the textbook all kinds of cumulative assessments quarter exam final exam came up with a complete different grading system for epit that and hiding giving us a letter grade and hiding the rose course from us which I completely believ that the previous teacher who was removed from this school did not cooperate with this crazy proposed uh plots and plans the you have been quiet when my daughter was bullied out from many opportunities from forming a girl sub Club humilating her at interest meeting that she called bullied out from a science fair that she tried to participate fake National
096owner societies not providing a letter of recommendation that supports her Gerald POI good evening uh my name is Jerry POI on behalf of my faith community Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Fairfax I strongly support your findings and resolution on ending hunger and homelessness in our largely wealthy community I also serve on the affordable housing advisory Council your Proclamation is cogent and compelling please work to ensure that every school child parent Guardian teacher administrators staff understand and embrace its message help recruit our boards of supervisors into parallel collaborative action make this year's effort perennial for atrisk Neighbors from birth to senior status until we achieve affordable accessible homes for all sadly more than 2300 FCPS children are homeless some lack parental and guardian support some have parents who themselves remain homeless some await homelessness upon High School
097graduation ation um president an crest of Northern Virginia Community College states that 15% of her 990,000 young college aspirants are homeless and security expels them every night at 9900 p.m. when they would rather sleep in their cars in the parking lot um in February my faith community partnering with four others and the nonprofit facets embarks upon our third third decade of Hosting week-long hypothermia Sheltering providing breakfast lunch and dinner and a warm sleeping space for unsheltered Neighbors many more younger partners are needed to ensure permanent homes ahak is grateful for the inaugural leadership of atlarge member Abra for organizing your Proclamation and I hope that uh she will help us grow our capacity to bring young people Melissa Morrison Rose pottin win Capo I just gave you greetings in Al gonin which is the original
098language of Fairfax County's indigenous people the dog the toxin it and the pum mon although some people have written that we have been annihilated you're not speaking to a ghost the talks nut and dog uh were members of the powerful power tan paraman which stretched all the way from the borders of today's North Carolina to today's Washington DC and I think it's very important that Fairfax County school children know their local indigenous people first before they learn about others who may be hundreds of miles away from them I'm descended from people who Stone used to build iconic buildings in our nation's capital such as the monument and US capital building TOs and dog leaders attended caucus meetings on today's Capitol Hill caucus meant a gathering of leaders indigenous leaders at that time and I just
099find it sad that people continue the practice of document genocide in writing us out of the history books in preferring to uh no it over native people from other parts of the country instead of giving respect to those of us who are here at home so please let's start at home first Christopher topoleski good evening I'm Chris topoleski director of government relations for rest and strong we support the proclamation on housing and hunger I'd like to take a few minutes to give you a sense of who we are and the rest and strong is doing in our community rest and strong was formed in March of 2020 to make a difference when our worlds came to a screeching halt with covid our founding members came together to create an organization that would step up and
100fill a void rest and strong as a 100% volunteer powered 501c3 nonprofit founded to celebrate Community by creating Avenues to inspire Advocate and fund raise we are a bipoc Le organization with 50 plus volunteers and Leadership roles our purpose is not to replicate services but to support and fill gaps wherever possible our only limitation is our service area we are truly local and operate solely within rest in Virginia our diverse network of over 30 3,000 followers and volunteers include senior leadership Executives business owners federal employees past and current neighbors intents and service industry workers just this year alone rest in strong has provided over 100,000 pounds of food through our food rescue and diversion efforts to our neighbors in tents Embry Rucker shelter Cornerstone spoon pantry and others in the area we also provided 160
101low and no income and unhost house families with fully cooked Thanksgiving meals through a partnership with our local elementary schools housing for all is not a luxury but a basic need as well while we are focused exclusively within Reston homelessness is a countywide issue as evidenced by this meeting tonight as stated earlier there are a number of children in our communities who are Runaways or unhoused as a result of failures in our foster care system without diligent and rigorous Outreach efforts there truly are unhoused and unseen youth when we leave today and go home into our heated cars walk into our safe and cozy homes sit at the table with our kids to help them check their homework I urge you to remember the children sleeping in the shelters on couches in cars and lastly
102in back alleys thank you for your time this [Applause] evening John boand good evening I'm John boand from the Sully District I'm a member of the affordable housing advisory Council in Fairfax County I'm also a past president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce and served on the superintendent's strategic alignment team it's my honor to speak tonight and support of the Proclamation on hunger and homelessness Journeys begin with a statement of intent a proclamation this is a good first start of the journey to prevent and hunger and homelessness the hard work and the hard decisions will follow this is not a journey for the school board alone it must be a community effort including the County government and businesses the first meeting of the alignment team it was review of scps data the results were wonderful
103programs for gifted students and it was quite evident unfortunately the cliff dropped off at the end and that was clear it was the uh children in foster care and homeless in fact tonight there are students looking for a fourth or fifth blanket to cover them in the back of Mom's minivan they aren't worried about math or homework the foster child in the second or third home this year will not have someone to read to them or check their spelling homework I was reading a new book in fact just came out several weeks ago about solutions for homelessness when we walked by by Kevin Adler and it points out that 36% 36% of the homeless children will experience homelessness as an adult we need to address and fix the problems now with the children no child
104should be hungry or homeless and I stand tonight to let them know that there are adults who care I'm proud of the work ahak has done to support building more affordable housing this Proclamation will build awareness and support for children experiencing hunger and homelessness let's fix this problem together thank you ly Garvey Hajj good evening this is one of the first times I've ever had a chance to speak to you I am chair of the Fairfax County History commission and uh was aware of the Native American Proclamation this evening and I'm I'm very happy to see that we're honoring really quite frankly all of our citizens uh I want to speak in a in a couple of different uh ways I have lived in this County for 38 years and it has been a pleasure
105and an honor to serve on the commission for 23 of those years um and one of the things I believe very strongly is our theme of One Fairfax in this County and with that theme in mind for the last three years and now into year four our annual history conferences have included for year one Native Americans and African-American Heritage our second conference included our Irish our German our Italian our Jewish and our Quaker Heritage and this last year our conference which was just a few weeks ago was our Muslim Asian and Latino Heritage as Citizens we really as a commission try to embrace and care for all I'd like to take a moment to sort of take off my hat as chair of the history commission and also share with you I've been a member
106of Burke Presbyterian Church for as many years as I've been a citizen we are a very inclusive family of faith and one of our very favorite congregations that we have Interfaith Services is congregation ad do RM and I'm as a treasured friend former Rabbi uh Bruce aft is is on my list of special people this last year we celebrated just a few weeks ago an Interfaith service of 11 Faith communities and I hope in this room that all the words that we say and the way that we look at each other and the way that we interpret each other can be taken with respect and dignity even in the face of strong disagreement and hurt our country in this world is hurting right now it's up to us to Madam chair that was our last
107public speaker thank you madam clerk I now call on Dr Reed to share academic matters good evening Madam chair and uh this evening we thought we would take a few moments and share a very highlevel view of our Fairfax County youth survey 2223 results so um one of the things that we thought would be very helpful is to do just a quick review about what the youth survey is thank you um we want to remind our community that it is comprehensive it is anonymous and it's voluntary and students each year in grades 6 8 10 and 12 um partic participate in the survey which examines behaviors experiences and other factors that influence the health and well-being of our Fairfax County Youth uh the results honestly um are uh taken into consideration as we do planning
108and a variety of areas as we work to Foster healthy choices in our young people the Fairfax County Youth survey asks questions about risky Behavior mental and physical health safety and so forth um students are also asked about positive aspects of their lives uh concerning health and safety one of the reasons we administer this is because we know the results serve as a barometer of our Effectiveness as a community in fostering healthy choices it's important in other words that our community-based organizations and our County continue to look at these results to look at Trends develop uh programs look at our youth's needs and strengths and measure countywide outcomes that result from our Collective policies and practices most importantly the survey we feel give parents Youth and community members a sense of our challenges and of
109our strengths and how to build upon those strengths in thinking about our survey during the last Academic School year there were a total of 27,878 10 and 12 who participated which represented 64.7% of all 8th 10th and 12th 12 graders simultaneously a total of 11,384 students in the sixth grade participated in the survey representing 84.9% of all sixth graders enrolled in the county so it was a grand total of uh good news moments again nearly all uh mental health indicators including levels of stress feelings of sadness or hopelessness for a long prolonged period of time and suicidal ideation as well as attempts have actually improved from 2021 and this was across all grades all genders and racial ethnic groups nearly onethird of our eth tth and 12th grade students reported feeling sad or hopeless almost
110every day for two weeks or more in a row but it is a decrease from 38% in 2021 I know it goes without saying that we're not going to stop our work till that percentage is uh zero U but it does appear that we're at least on the right track um so I think I would also like to add that one in nine students in grades 8 10 and 12 reported that they had considered uh attempting suicide in the past year whereas 4% of the students reported attempting um within the past year these rates are not only lower than the high levels reported in 2021 but are actually the lowest reported since 2015 so I think that the uh real focus on our youth mental health is uh garnering uh at least data points that
111are moving in the right directions uh female students non-binary students lgbtq students and students from food insecure homes reported higher rate rates of depressive symptoms suici suicidal ideation and suicide attempts compared to their peers so I think that um the proclamations this evening around inclusive schools food insecurities and homelessness certainly are pieces of um our students mental health also want to share that there is some good you or good news around substance use uh within our County the reported rates of alcohol and substance use among FCPS youth are in fact the lowest since 2015 which would be the lowest in eight years and this is for all substances including alcohol marijuana synthetic marijuana uh cigarettes smokeless tobacco vaping non-medical use of uh painkillers and so forth also our Fairfax County Youth reported lower rates of
112use than those reported nationally for most substances assessed on the survey um rates of use for uh FCPS students were less than half the national rates for the past month use of alcohol marijuana vaping inhalent use and so forth um so I think that there again is some excellent news in terms of uh the general decline in substance use in the county one of the things that uh we've talked about a little bit this evening with the um proclamations is that we can say that nearly 7% of 8th 10th and 12th grade students reported going hungry in the past month due to a lack of food in the home this percentage varied by race and ethnicity ranging from 3% of our white students to 12% of our Hispanic students so one of the things that
113our um instructional services department has worked hard in our um counseling and social workers are a strategy around three to succeed and this is that we know that uh children and teens with three or more protective factors are are more likely to manage stress well make better choices and develop healthier habits so these assets uh refer to the supports opportunities and relationships that our youth need across all aspects of their lives and in particular those relationships with other students that feeling of inclusion and that feeling of teamwork and collaboration um with adults and other students so this graph I think really highlights the importance of these protective factors on uh youth mental health and you can see that the more assets that young people have uh the percent um with experiencing mental health concerns goes
114down significantly so lastly just want to share that there are website uh resources uh for families and community members and staff who would like to see this uh youth survey website in more detail and Madame chair that is uh academic matters for this evening thank you Dr re all right well it's great news so I mean you know like we anyhow so I'm I'm really proud of our staff and our students and our Community Partners and families okay board members you have to excuse me I was so enthralled with the good news I did not um keep you in order here so um I will start with Miss keys gamara and work my way thank you uh Dr Reed um I want to um say I guess I had a little bit of a cheat
115moment I uh was at a uh seminar a few weeks ago on best practices for uh representing children and um there was a professional there who much to my shagrin announced and for some reason Fairfax County decided uh a few years ago to start doing these youth surveys and he went off um the good news is an FCPS uh employee psychologist followed that and provided answers to his inquiring mind so um I'm I having trouble here miss bicar you stop um so perhaps you'd like to um cover how we got here why this is important particularly U parents ability to allow this to happen do they have any input and we can start there now thank you Miss keys gamar I think the Fairfax County Healthy youth survey is a survey honestly we gave a
116similar survey in Seattle I think the survey is provided in many many counties all across this country and it's really to assess the trends around the health and well-being of our young people so that we can really be thoughtful about what resources programs plans are the most beneficial so that our young people are able able to attend to teaching and learning because we know that um feeling centered and mentally healthy is going to increase their ability to concentrate and focus on teaching and learning so I think it's it's also had significant time uh where we've uh provided this survey parents are able to opt out we do provide uh notice of the survey each year and if families choose to opt their student out that's certainly a choice families have okay um she also so
117our our excellent employee I have to say I was very very proud of her um did also explain that we had been following some Trends within our schools at the time um and thought that it was important that we monitor these um the the emotional well-being of our students to to basically not only help their emotional well-being but also to help them uh access education in a more meaningful way um do you have any idea where the questions come from from I think I will uh phone a friend here for a moment I know there's a national bank and it's generally our health department that provides those but Dr precidio do you have more specifics unique to Fairfax County yeah that that's correct um it's a partnership uh between FCPS and the county but the
118uh survey items are based on two national surveys uh as Dr Reed mentioned that are widely given across the country um one developed by the CDC and the other uh developed by the National Institutes of Health um so they're evidence-based research-based widely used um and we've been giving the youth survey in Fairfax County since I think 2001 so it's uh been quite some time oh thank you um I I do appreciate this and I think it's been very important uh to to do this sort of thing and I you know I wonder if you know of course people say things but I wonder if perhaps we could do a better job of making parents aware maybe on our website or something perhaps take a look at um how that information is conveyed so that they
119understand what their rights are um understand that their children why we're doing it Etc um so that would be my only um suggestion but I'm glad to see the good news here um I do know and firmly believe that um those that are emotionally well uh have a better opportunity to learn and so um this is really critical work in order to make sure all children can access education so thank you thank you thank you Miss mclin uh great uh I know it's late but Dr Reed I just wanted to um provide a a few thoughts first of all um as someone with a mental health specialty um in this field I'm thrilled that Fairfax County government does choose to participate in this um National effort um we cannot know how our nation is doing
120and we cannot know how our localities are doing if we don't have a Universal Survey and that's why it's done in this manner um and to miss Kei gara's question on you know so how are those survey questions done it is in keeping with that National survey and then um we can customize but anytime we do customize then we pull away from being able to do an Apples to Apples comparison so I appreciate that Fairfax County Public Schools continues to partner with our County government that is engaged in this work so I do think as Miss Kei Gara said helping our families all understand the why and why it's important is is good I also restate that um we want to make sure that when we issue the survey in schools that we ask our
121teachers and Educators to really help students understand the value and the Merit and the importance of this um to take it seriously and uh to try to answer as honestly um as they can as uh maturity um is a part of taking this survey and I we want to make sure students know why it's valuable to hear their honest answers um and then finally with the presentation my only request going forward um slides and the slides aren't numbered on what got printed out I'm not sure why but I think starting with maybe Slide Five if we can get to five during my remarks um it would be really helpful anytime we give percentages that we have the N number so when we're I know it's out of the 39,000 but 29% when the slide doesn't
122have you know nobody's doing the math but I think it'd be very impactful for people to still understand because we're such a large District 29% is good to see the decrease but it's still a lot of kids and so that's what I I would hope to see going forward in that next slide six um same thing where it's the 90% And 92% that's good but also keeping in mind that depending on the age level I don't want us to lose how many seniors we have how many Juniors we have and and that sort of thing and so we just really sort of have a little bit better um frame of reference on it but otherwise uh it's a very dense um report and I appreciate that you chose to spot light this and the slides
123that you did give us and uh you know the only other thing I'll say is it is encouraging news I'm not sure I'll go with good news in just the sense that um I think we can all agree looking at Slide Five it's still um quite concerning but anytime we can see why this is a national conversation and how Fairfax county is doing that helping everyone in the community understand that this isn't in isolation we know this is a uh a a uh a community that Prides itself on high achievement and um and that we also have A Tale of Two Cities with the poverty and um trauma and so there's a there's a lot that's here and um the different factors uh so well done and thank you to your team right thank you
124thank you Dr Anderson thank you I think Miss Kei gamar may have been um looking at my notes thank you for this I I had the um so sorry hold on one second I'm so sorry missing thank you board members can board members please return to the dis we do not have Quorum so I believe according to Mr Foster we can continue without Quorum since you are not taking a vote okay so we can continue with the discussion that is what I was just told okay Dr Anderson okay just getting back to it um I wanted to share that uh Miss mclin and I had the opportunity to review the entirety of this report due to our participation in skipped and most of of the inquiries that I have have been already addressed but I
125wanted to raise one point um the food in security um as we were talking about homelessness this evening food insecurity for our students I wanted to raise that there is a section and my print out doesn't have any numbers either um where food and security really impacts um the resiliency of our students and as we would note um so that's one the other piece that I really wanted to speak to I know this is not our willhouse but I was hoping you would know um this survey as we've determined is not FCPS um written it is something that we um bring we administer to our students and as a parent I know I receive many notices to um ask for my children's participation from the beginning of the year to when the administration of the
126survey um is about to occur so there's a lot of opportunity for me to withdraw my students if the my personal children if that's my way wish um as we're taking a look at this number the 39,000 um that participated those are only FCPS students correct those do not include private school students homeschool students Etc as far as you understand yes ma'am that's correct okay I just um thank you for that the only other piece that I wanted to ask particularly because we do so much work um in this area some of the good news that you shared regarding some some of the risky behaviors decreasing um the mental health impacts um feeling hopeless stressed out Etc can you speak a little bit more in Greater detail to some of the activities that FCPS engages
127in that could have impacted this data well I think that um again this is from 2021 which I think was coming right out of the pandemic so I'm thinking part of this is just time collapsing since uh the more extreme isolation that occurred for many young people during the 20 and 21 school years excuse me I do know we've also made a concerted effort to add Staffing um in areas that would support students mental health um we've added the telemental health uh since 2021 which was a last year I think uh Endeavor which we also know had translatability so students were able to access mental health at least our high school students at um in ways they weren't previously able to access and I don't know Dr Presidio would you add any other uh program
128interventions I mean I think those are the major ones I mean I would say to Dr Reed's comment about coming out of the pandemic we knew that you know there was a great need for social emotional support and behavior support for our students and that was an very intentional focus in all of our schools and um teachers and administrators worked really really hard at this and you know we developed lessons and supports for students um and you know I think we're seeing uh some positive Trends and results from that work and as well as the other programs that Dr Reed mentioned thank you for that um one of the things that you mentioned during your presentation is that this is the best data since 2015 and I'm very curious to see did we unpeel the
129onion on this to determine what occurred from 2016 17 18 19 I get it for 20 um that resulted in the data just going in the wrong direction for our students here in FCPS um I don't know Dr Presidio you've been here throughout that time I I have been here I mean I think you know one of the things that um that we tried to mention in the report is that you know both the county and FCPS look at the results and then we try to respond accordingly you know so during that period of time for example we saw Rising uh issues around vaping with students and that was something that you know we partnered with the county to develop anti-vaping um programs for our students and really talked about that in our schools and
130talked about that in the communities with families and as a result we've seen that you know Trend come down a little bit but you know again I mean I think obviously as Dr Reed mentioned the data shows there's still a lot of work to do but that's how the county staff um and that's how FCPS staff really respond to the results is really thinking about what are those issues of greatest need um and how can we be more supportive of students and families in those areas no I appreciate that I didn't want to put you on the spot but I'm very curious as to what some of the um impacts the causes may have been thank you both yeah I also think um when we talk to students just to amplify that response we made
131a lot of um we made Cuts I think in the 20078 realm to programs activities after school clubs I think bringing back uh ways for young people to connect uh and reestablishing those opportunities is really important uh for student mental health and that feeling of connectedness which I think is critical um I will say you also mentioned food insecurity early on in your comments and there's um more data emerging uh around absentee M and food insecurity and um that students who experience food insecurity are more likely to be absent from school and as we look at our burgeoning absentee rates in the Commonwealth I think it's also a call to action around uh food insecurity topics and what we can do as a commonwealth to provide food uh for our children thank you m cor
132Sanders yes thank you and uh thank you very much Dr Reed for presenting this tonight I am one of those people that actually read the whole report as soon as it comes out every year uh because of the importance for all of our children uh the activities around this survey really exemplify the One Fairfax model of working together to identify what the issues are and then working together to solve the issues and so I appreciated Dr Anderson's question about what Fairfax County Public Schools are doing but I would say that what we're doing is actually working very closely with the county with the csb with uh the the various Health Providers and not for-profits in the um northern Virginia and in Fairfax County to together solve these issues so um I want to thank everybody
133who's part of that team that makes that happen I also um was glad that my colleagues really um focused on the national norms and the Genesis of this survey because we actually look at National Norms in academic areas but this is an area where we're actually looking at National norms for Behavioral Health and I think that what would be very helpful in the uh future is if we could more um succinctly profiled that this is really about National norms and looking at where Fairfax County uh is positioned within them and how we are responding we're not perfect we're not you know we have a ways to go but putting it in context I think is going to be really important um and I was particularly interested in the data really changing since 2015 and I
134think some of the areas that uh were're not mentioned tonight were were getting the cell phones out of our schools because we knew that that was adding stress points for our kids we also know that uh we've been more intentional in teaching about um social media and cyber security and giving and our students um the tools to be able to uh to reflect and to be able to address what some of the tension and the anxiety that they're they're dealing with and so I think that when we look at this we have to look at it as there was no one Silver Bullet but the combination of all these different pieces and early on uh the school system focused on the three to succeed and um it's kind of buried in this report now but
135I do think that when we talk about One Fairfax we need to talk about three to succeed because the three to succeed is having a caring adult in the classroom and in the community and at home and so um to do that we have to have a one Fairfax approach with a very intentional uh message that says that all of us have a role in uh ensuring the success of our children and that doesn't mean children that live in our own home but any child who is in Fairfax County and in our schools and so so tonight's presentation of this I think is uh quite timely because when you take it in the uh in the context of some of the proclamations we did and so I very much appreciate it thank you thank you
136thank you miss m yeah thank you uh and thank you for this presentation Dr Reed and spotlighting a really important issue um happy to follow Dr Anderson's comments actually I was really on a similar vein in multiple areas no surprise there I was going to ask just extending the conversation on the tah Health piece uh since you mentioned it what data we've observed if we have any of that preliminarily on you know success rates or even participation rates or where we are with that and I know we even had the conversation about expanding to middle school so I don't know if we've gone that far yet but would love an update so we have not expanded to Middle Schools we're still only at high school I don't know that we have success rate data but
137we would have participation rate data Dr precidio do you have a ballpark on participation if not I can prevent or present that in the upcoming Friday letter we can have that for you I I don't have it off the top of my head the participation but um it was certainly being utilized last spring and I know it's continued to be this fall but we can get you that in the Friday letter this week okay I appreciate that um and then building off of the other bucket uh of discussion was really just kind of the explanatory like our take ways from this right so I I approach the data with a little bit of skepticism not so much with what it presents as numbers but uh in questioning like the reason for the decreases um I
138mean for one obviously in a system of you know nearly 180 170 whatever give and take thousand kids uh 18157 sorry yeah 181 what you said 181 571 all right love that you know it to the student it's by name and by need so that is the commitment absolutely um so you know 39 some uh doesn't capture the entirety so I'm just curious how many have students participated in past surveys do we know do we have that data we probably do I don't have that off the top of my head Dr Presidio are we in the ballpark I I think the participation rate has been pretty steady over the years but yeah we'd have to pull up the specific uh participation rates if you were interested in that historical data yeah I mean I'm mindful
139that it's certain grades so it's naturally going to be a subset but I am curious about how that's changed over time um and and what else explains you know I mean these are Stark decreases right and in the aftermath of covid I'm even more skeptical because it's like you know we all know qualitatively at least kids are still struggling mental health challenges tripled at the time of Co I don't expect expect them to be better than it was before at this rate so do we have any ideas or explanations as to what led us here and it could be successes on our part but it also must be other things especially given how large these percentages are doesn't seem normal well I mean I think that we can make a lot of conjectures I don't
140know that I can give you a for sure uh reason but I think some of the things we've mentioned this evening um more server uh more opportunities to develop those authentic connections um I think uh you know time will tell whether we're able to sustain that level of progress uh because I agree with Miss mckin even though it's certainly moving in the right direction it's not you know what we're not exactly where we want to be until you know every student feels centered uh and able to learn so I don't know that I um could come up with a A list uh exactly but we can only conjecture at this point um I don't know is there any particular event I think we've kind of covered a number of them so I think uh that's
141kind of where I'd leave that at this point yeah I guess in thinking of next steps from a presentation like this or even data you know from the youth survey um I'm mindful it's Anonymous so one I'm concerned about the kids reporting these things and what we're doing to support them and connect them with resources um so I don't know what our follow-up and response can look like uh in a way that's you know meaningful and impactful for the students who are suffering and then the second piece is um regarding uh sorry one second oh yeah deriving it's late deriving explanations right so this data is only as useful as what we do with it and what we come up with from it so to me I'm like okay how do what does this mean
142and therefore how is it informing what we do moving forward and if we don't even know why it's what it is then we can't you know make decisions about how to move forward so I think and this is a general challenge I think with how we do data and and our work in general maybe working with ory to come up with some you know ideas of what this is about so we can actually take those next steps and slide seven is particularly poignant I do hear it's my time but it's timely and I hope that we can be responsive to that too in our next steps thank you and I I I will say that schools look at their data as a school so where there are anomalies I think they're able the action the
143data is more actionable at the specific site um and then we're looking really this evening at a very high level macro division data points okay thank you thank you Dr Reed um can our technical folks double check Mr frish seems to have lost his Zoom feed okay let's move on to our next agenda item um the Strategic plan I do want to just remind board members that we have a double agenda um since we um did not have a meeting on November 20th so we still have a long way to go so um if if there are some questions that you might have that could be um asked during your time your weekly time with Dr Reed or in the Friday letter maybe just keep that in mind um Dr Reed um I we understand
144you have an update on the Strategic plan I do thank you madam chair um Kevin are you able to work with us or Christina we lost internet yes so we've lost Wi-Fi and we uh Mr fris just let me know that we are not available on zoom and because we've just lost Wi-Fi we're having trouble presenting right now okay so um are you recommending that we take a short break while that is repaired yes please okay thank you we will do that okay I think tell it's time to go home good night somebody in spe the e for e [Music] so Madame clerk are we able to start Madam chair my understanding is that the internet has been restored so we can proceed okay board members please take your seats we're here okay Dr Reed
145thank you madam chair superintendent matters I mean strategic plan I'm trying to skip a few things that's all right right um well thank you for the opportunity to share our update this evening um we're going to highlight or profile goal three um which is around academic growth and Excellence I want to um remind um I'm on the uh goal three slot oh dear that's cool um so it's on our goal three um uh academic growth and excellence and this evening we're going to share some of the division excellent thank you some of our division-wide work doing that we're doing to align our school Improvement and Innovation plans across the division uh this is a critical step because we are choosing to move together as a school system rather than a system of schools and this
146evening's presentation is going to highlight the work of drainville elementary school and our um Department of school Improvement and support and I want to recognize that our drainville elementary principal Jamie gadley is here spending her birthday with us this evening so perhaps we could uh wish our principal gadley a very happy birthday we will spare you our singing and because this work is so important uh principal gadley um and profiling the work done at drainville Elementary I'm thrilled to be able to highlight that work this evening I want to remind uh the board and the community that for this current Academic Year um each of our school plans are focused on goal three measures from the Strategic plan and those are highlighted on the screen for you um and then we're looking at uh ways
147that we're going to be sharing our report on that as I will later this evening so a reminder that uh the work to ensure this division-wide alignment actually began last spring and we know that prior planning prevents poor performance so we definitely want to begin each spring for the coming year our uh series of Summer workshops we had 199 schools and 950 participants working on school plans school and Innovation plans uh this is exciting work that we were also able to create a data tool so that all schools could analyze um the same data points uh during the summer workshops schools went through a consistent needs assessment process where they analyzed their data chose areas for improvement determined contributing factors set measurable outcomes and then selected from a set of high leverage strategies that were
148consistent across the division and crafted action plans to achieve those outcomes so the following video shows the impact of this work that's been taking place during the last several months and again features the work of drainville Elementary School madam clerk if you would please play the [Music] video so what's exciting about the school Implement planning for this year is that we're directly aligned to the Strategic plan with that we know that every school may look different every group of students within a school may look different teachers may use unique and different ideas within their class classrooms about the way they're helping students meet those goals and the school meet their goals but that we know that what we're focused on our research based best practices for students and that with this Focus all students in
149Fairfax County will be successful poly does not mean a size necessarily it means a quantity that it means how much of something here at drainville 33% of our our student population are English learners if y'all are good with this draft pacing so when we developed our school Improvement and Innovation plan we had a selection of I think it was 12 strategies for reading and 10 for math so what we did here at drainville we visited with every grade level team and we looked at all of our data are controlled vowels are another syllable type we can recognize we were looking at um unlocking English Learners potential we wanted to create more opportunities for students to engage in discussions because we know that has um benefits for academic growth and that's one of our strategies that
150we're using to achieve that and it's really cool to see the impact that's now having on students it was really powerful to hear the alignment between our teachers goals and our division's goals we're all working towards the same direction it takes at least four to seven years for eles to develop that academic English and that academic language so looking at ways to scaffold our instruction to be explicit about teaching vocabulary and to really Elevate opportunities for students to engage in discourse is specific to our drainville community um not only supporting our English learners but all of our students regardless of where they are in the Continuum of learning um and it may look slightly different at another school by having all schools focusing on the same goals it creates several new opportunities for us one
151we can look at the strategies that different schools are using and identify which ones work best for maybe which schools with which students with different needs and then be able to adapt over time to make sure that we are meeting the needs of each and every student and so we know that this is just our first year in trying to implement these changes in our school Improvement plans and also implementing our strategic plan and then over time we will get better and better Excellence equity and [Music] opportunity so thank you again to principal gadley her team uh of Educators our students and families that support um our Young Learners at drainville elementary do want to remind uh our board and community that this school improvement work is an ongoing process throughout the year schools receive
152feedback throughout the year from region leaders and those of you on the board who have region presentations as well um I really actually appreciate the engagement of our elected board of directors that are very um very well-versed in the work that's going on at the school level uh the feedback is calibrated they're quarterly reflection cycles and we're engaging in school and central office leader discussions about how these plans are working um and division leadership will continue to analyze the data along with other division data points to make sure we know how we're doing as a division so for those who want to stay informed about our strategic plan work a reminder that uh December 12th our work session will be on goal one which is a strong start PK through 12 and we're really uh
153thrilled to have the opportunity to review goal one this evening as you know we're going to be taking a high level look uh review of our goal three report that was done at a recent work session but um the alignment right now is very tight we're getting those arrows moving in the same direction and uh with that level of alignment I know we're going to see some focused outcomes that show dramatic Improvement in the next several years so thank you madam chair thank you Dr Reed Dr Anderson thank you thank you for this and I very much appreciate the alignment I I think having it be in the Strategic plan be part of the Sip will only provide um a focus on the work so to that end my question is is there an expectation
154that that thread will continue from the Strategic plan to the SIP plan to the principal evaluation and to the teacher evaluation so um I think that the it's very clear that it will go from superintendent evaluation to the um evaluation of the Strategic plan which is the School plan um I do not believe we've had conversations around connecting evaluations for principles and teachers necessarily to the Strategic plan outcomes uh but I do know that um as teacher teams and principles at each School uh select their High leverage strategies to attack their contextual data points that they're going to work on uh that the alignment is an expectation that the alignment from the classroom up to the boardroom is going to stay tight okay um and another thing that I wanted to raise was um I'm
155very excited that next week I'll have the opportunity to dive into my data um conversation with my two regions um and I know the Sip plans were just completed probably early November and it was reviewed I know there's a lot of opportunity a lot of work from the region office um to that end it seems as if we have lost quite a bit of the first quarter and part of the second quarter in order to actually begin to to work on those items and I'm sure there's some peripheral work that is going on but in terms of using all of the data that you've compiled with all the dashboards I wonder if you are thinking about maybe changing the timeline um if all the data is available by the end of July would there be
156any possibility for sip plans to be concluded by the end of July or early August so that we have more time to work on them I think that for sure the timeline will be moved back I don't want to get out ahead of the team making the plans but I am more familiar with the system that sets those goals in the spring because that's how we then choose professional development options for summer so we come back ready to go as you know we didn't have our strategic plan approved until the end of June so I think everything's sort of backed up to that but this year there's no question coming around the corner to the coming year those will be in place much sooner because you're right I mean it feels a little bit like
157we keep planning to plan even though there is significant work occurring right now um because of the summer conversations I highlighted on the slides um our schools really spent quite a bit of time this past summer um but you're right the final evaluation and review of sit plans uh was last month right and I think there's some opportunity you like to say to do that a little bit better and the other very minor thing that I would want to present as I have the opportunity to review some of the Sip plan goals there seems to be some inconsistency in terms of how they're presented and again as a parent who may have children in multiple schools I think there might be some um it might be helpful to have some uniformity and presentation I'm not
158saying the goals have to be the same just the how they're um presented you know these kids will do these things by this date and they will move from this number to this other number right now it tends to be a little bit all over the place and there's some discrepancies with percentage increases versus Point increases or percentage points increase so I I just wanted to toss that out for your consideration but thank you yeah thank you and I think this is our first uh year with the new plan and I think as we uh share and share best practices across the division I think we're going to see more alignment and how that's presented so it's fair point Miss car Sanders okay thank you Dr Reed thank you all right 3.04 student representative matters
159thank you thank you last month I had the opportunity to attend our first annual food show the food and nutrition department they brought together over 30 vendors and 200 students from 24 different schools giving them the chance to taste test breakfast and lunch recipes the response was overwhelming with more than 2500 responses on the feedback form and this valuable data will be crucial for the Department in deciding what food services to offer in school lunches and breakfast come spring 2024 it was fantastic to see the support from Miss Marin Dr Anderson Dr Reed Dr Pon and Miss Tolan at the event students have been advocating for more nutritious and fulfilling food meals so I know I can speak on behalf of many students when I say this is promising and exciting I'd like to link
160this experience with the recent Virginia School Board Association conference I attended there I connected with student Representatives superintendents board me members and various vendors across Virginia contributing to our public education system what truly caught my attention were organization organizations focused on school infrastructure these groups revamp schools from the last century introducing flexible seating better lighting and other elements that attract students the renovations have shown tangible results with improved attendance Rate rates something our strategic plan focuses on in a more welcoming School environment I'm actively reaching out to these organizations to explore the possibility of learning more about their innovative ideas and sharing it with Fairfax County something students would likely find intriguing and beneficial as for Community participation Samir aen a senior at anandale high school also our sa president has highlighted a critical concern
161regarding the school's grading policy which heavily prioritizes tests over classworks resulting in a split of 90% summative and 10% formative this approach has caused widespread frustration among students and has negatively impacted their educational experiences to uphold our commitment to fostering growth and performance as outlined in the Strategic the Strategic plan section 3A it's imperative to take students feedback seriously and reassess the grading policy not just at anandale but across all schools these policies take a toll on students mental health and it's imperative that we prioritize that this isn't this issue isn't just confined to in Andale High School alone Edison High School is also operating with a grading split of 95% summative and 5% formative notably in IB schools where the curriculum is already de demanding this problem extends Beyond these specific schools to Encompass
162others including those with ap programs but with good news looking forward I'm eager I'm eager to collaborate with Dr Presidio students and the grading committee um from instructural services our commitment is to eliminate any inequitable grading practices and develop strategies to ensure fairness and equity and Grading across all our schools lastly today December 4th marks the start of Computer Science Education week a time to emphasize the importance of computer science and education recently the Department of Defense Education activity granted 2 million to FCPS this funding aims to introduce Steam and computer science to 13 FCPS schools schs in regions three and four over the next 5 years additionally it will expand work-based learning integrating mathematics and advancing Steam and computer science education this strategic move prepares students for the evolving job market where many roles
163will revolve around Cs aai and stem in general I'm enthusiastic about this direction as it equips our students for the future considering that many jobs of today might become obsolete in upcoming years due to techn technological Advance advancement CS education week serves as an annual initiative to inspire K through2 students to explore CS achieve equity and acknowledge the contributions of students teachers and partners in this field in the upcoming days on board docs resources will be posted for parents teachers and students to utilize it's promising to witness the alignment of our curriculum with the demands and opportunities of the future what is also fulfilling is the initiatives our students here in FCPS are taking Ty a nonprofit founded by the seals is focused F on expanding stem and CS education in elementary middle schools their
164contributions to our schools is profound as they have established eight teams over of over 10 volunteers throughout the county and have reached over 500 kids thank you Dr Reed 3.05 superintendent matters thank you madam chair I'm going to defer this evening due to the length of the meeting thank you thank you appreciate that okay uh so we are on on to agenda item 3.06 the Strategic plan goal three report presentation thank you madam chair this evening I'll be presenting the Baseline goal three report summary presentation so this is an Abridged version version of the work session PowerPoint and uh for those watching from home the full goal three report is actually attached um to the board agenda so this is a high Lev look it is also the first of five goal report presentations uh
165that I'll be making uh this Academic Year so um just a reminder that uh we have five goals and four pillars this evening goal three is the report which is academic growth and Excellence which I've previously shared is what um each of our school plan School uh Improvement and Innovation plans have have been responsive to again our strategic plan year one priorities uh We've selected those measures uh we know that we can't address every measure every year but we can develop um Implement and monitor in gradations so the three we're going to look at this evening at a high level are reading by third grade algebra 1 by 8th grade and advanced coursework in high school these are then the year one priorities as we think about charting our uh course to 2030 which is
166our uh strategic plan seven-year journey I want to remind the board this is a journey of many steps this isn't uh an overnight event uh the planning and preparation is critical and as you can see uh we've kind of tried to create a graphic that describes the development of strategies implementation of those strategies and then the monitoring of those strategies so it's really important to know that we can't develop everything in the same year nor can we Implement all things in the same year um because we only have uh limited resources either financially or TimeWise to be quite honest so this phased approach allows us to focus intentionally on uh key strategies so the Baseline reporting approach we're going to be using cumulative averages uh to identify the starting point for this work and wherever
167possible we have three years worth of data the report also establishes the final targets which is what we would plan to achieve no later than 2030 for our student goals the final Target is to have all students and all student groups at or above 90% on each of the metrics discussed so we'll take a look at the highlights uh and share Baseline data starting with third grade reading the first priority so the importance of third grade literacy really is a key milestone for students success we know that um this represents a transition where students move from learning to read to reading to learn we also know that students who are not on grade level by third grade have difficulty comprehending the content that will be taught in subsequent grades and can fall quickly behind not
168just in their language arts but in other content areas as well in fact there is re research to indicate that third graders who lack Prof Proficiency in Reading are indeed four times more likely to become High School dropouts so we know that's connected um we also know that uh third graders who are reading at standard graduate and attend college at higher rates than their uh peers who are not these key accountability metrics then are uh clarified under Pass rates for the grade 3 So reading exam and the percent of schools that increase the percentage of students reading on grade level it's important to note that the um vast majority of our students are taking the so but we also have a small percentage of our students take an alternative assessment in lie of the third
169third grade reading so known as the VAP which is the Virginia alternative assessment program both of these assessments are not equivalent and the data pres is presented separately in the full report to show student achievement on the VAP as well um while we do still have sign ific reading gaps among student subgroups the data there is data to show that we are making progress for example last year's I ready data um showed a 12% increase in students making grade level reading growth and our Lexia data showed the percentage of third graders performing significantly below grade level U decreased to only 18% so we are starting to make some data and I apologize my page turning some of these have the second page of notes from that slide so if we can stay on this slide
170for a minute NOP one more thanks um and then I'm on the people slide Kevin so it would be slide 12 I'm trying to move through this fairly quickly yeah um so third grade reading see that's your 12 but it looks different than my 12 so can we go to the slide back one there perfect we stay there thanks Kevin um this slide shows the current performance um by of FCPS and then also all of the subgroups and we've also taken a look at intersectionality data which is something the board has asked for so we can go to the next slide thank you Kevin this is our um intersectionality data and many of us have looked in particular at the economically disadvantaged data and how that connects across all subgroups so um we looking at
171the state Pass rates um as well as the disaggregated data and um our current data shows that 69% of all FCPS students who took the reading so in third grade received a passing score which is above the state um but not as far above as we would like to be next slide please Kevin um oh as a board you have have some data that is available to you that isn't necessarily on the uh slide deck that again shows the intersectionality so some of the examples of division-wide work to improve um the reading performance uh again is about the alignment and the ongoing Equitable access to literacy plan uh that our ISD is developing we also have new kindergarten through sixth grade curriculum guides and the phonic scores with uh a lot of the new training
172we've been able to provide have risen 14% with even greater gains for student subgroups we also want to make sure that our community knows that uh we have not adopted a core basil resource for elementary language arts in over 20 years this has led to some inconsistent practices across the division uh but we're very excited that after 20 years we're going to be adopting a new basil resource to serve as our tier one curriculum for all kindergarten through sixth grade classrooms across the division this resource will be chosen from the vdoe approved core materials aligned to the science-based reading research uh the intent is to have high quality instructional materials and students receive evidence-based literacy instruction so we're very excited about all of that work going on uh we're also providing letters training for staff
173this year approximately 1,500 teachers have engaged in letters training which is language Essentials for teachers of reading and spelling and Orton Gillingham training uh we've had approximately 2,000 teachers that have been trained in Orton Gillingham in that approach so that's our highlight uh for reading by third grade the second year one focus in goal three is successful completion of algebra by 8th grade algebra 1 we know that's another key milestone for Student Success we know that student enrollment in advanced math in 9th grade increased by 30 percentage points and increased in 11th grade by 16 percentage points it's a significant gatekeeper course and a data point that the office of civil rights uh monitors the key accountability metrics for Algebra 1 um Kevin run thank you uh the key accountability metrics uh we want to
174make sure that board knows that we have two accountability metrics first is the percent of students who receive a verified Credit in Algebra 1 by 8th grade and the second is the percent of schools making expected progress toward increased student enrollment in Algebra 1 by 8th grade our current data shows that 51% of our students are successfully completing Algebra 1 by eth grade um and this is currently above the national average of 24% reported by the Department of Education while we're ahead of National Data there is still much work to do so as we look at um our performance measures by um demographic we're now in the multiple yeah thank you Kevin uh similar to the third grade reading measure the slide shows overall as well as um student performance by intersectionality data as you
175can see um the 51% you have a varied very varied honestly access and opportunity uh for students by demographic for Algebra 1 and like to continue thinking about the work we're doing to improve Algebra 1 uh by 8th grade and again the algebra Access Network Improvement Community uh you might recall that on October 26th we discussed the work of this algebra Access Network um and had our math lead for the division here it's a group of about 15 middle schools that are partnering with our central office to increase student enrollment and success in Algebra 1 by 8th grade um we know that focusing on academic advising is a subset that's occurring in these middle schools and that the divisions overall enrollment in Algebra 1 are higher by e8th grade increased to 64% this school year
176so we're up from 51% year-over-year um and that is headed in the correct direction um so we have open enrollment PD professional development and are looking at um ways to improve student and family advising practices as well as professional development sessions with Elementary and Middle School staff to share best practices so we're very excited about that work the third data point I want to share with you this evening is advanced cours work and the successful completion of advanced cours work is one of the measurements for goal three we know this is important from National research that students who have experience with college level or Advanced coursework while in high school are more likely to roll in persist and complete college and be better prepared for technical Reading Writing and Mathematics skills if they're moving right
177into the job market the top three factors in college admissions as uh research will share are the grades and College Prep courses total high school GPA and the strength of the high school curriculum the quality of the task and the robust rigor in a course is critical for future success uh research also points to numerous additional benefits of taking Advanced coursework um which often is improving self-esteem higher engagement fewer absences and suspensions and post-secondary cost savings so let's also take a look at uh Advanced or CTE coursework in high school which is the next slide uh thank you Kevin so we know that there's some data points here that are fairly critical um and the two accountability metrics that we're using to measure this particular goal are the percent of students in the senior cohort
178who earned a c minus or higher and at least one apib or dual enrollment um or other 1.0 weighted course Andor CTE finisher status before graduating and the percent of schools that increased the percentage of students succeeding in advanced or CTE coursework uh by graduation by five percentage points so those data points our Baseline data at this time shows that 85% of our students in the senior cohort in fact met the first criteria of a c minus or higher um so while we've we're starting out I think pretty solid in some aspects we certainly have work to do um Kevin we're at the thank you so so this slide shows the current performance and we are thrilled to share that many of our student groups are already very near or at the 90% uh but
179we do need to say that when we look at our intersectionality data again um we struggle a little bit with percentages we're at um our English Learners um are at 39% uh which is not where we want them to be when so many of our other uh students are at or above the 90% range so um the examples of division-wide work to Improvement to improve performance in advanced coursework uh we've talked a lot about Avid and its success it was a prior academic matters it's currently in 28 middle and high schools as we want to reach the metrics we've talked about we're going to need to increase the number of schools that are participating in Avid we also know the Avid research says that 85% of free and reduced students uh free and reduced lunch
180students participate and Avid are successful in these dual enrollment and college level courses expanding Avid into all of our Title One schools will support more students enrolling and being successful in these courses and I'm really pleased with uh Dr presidio's team we've added quite a number of schools to our Avid plan this year um with our title one uh dollar so lot of excitement about that uh we also know that our middle and high schools Implement advisory or learning seminar many of them actually all of them as part of the their school schedules which allows a focus on academic and career planning and we're going to be utilizing that time and model to make sure that we have a focus on this topic uh finally we have an focus on Elementary access to steam and
181computer science which continues to expand in fact I saw a survey that went out today in the action gram uh surveying Steam and computer science at elementary so our conclusions at this point point I want to make sure we conclude with some important resources for our community and the implications for the work moving forward first of all tonight's presentation provides just a highlevel snapshot of the conversation we had at the work session earlier this fall and the full report with additional details is available in board docks within tonight's presentation we've also provided links to the full goal 3 report so one of the things that's important to remember is Fairfax County has a long tradition of success and we want to build on that and while we do like many divisions across the country have
182patterns of inequities that exists even as students begin kindergarten and I would argue as they do or do not uh participate in prek which I think the board and the county recognize as critical uh we do have work to do to make sure that we don't have barriers for some children uh to achieve the results that we are hoping for each and every student this work will continue to take place over several years and will require us to do uh much of the um work in an aligned strategic and focused fashion finally as a division we have to continue to assess our resources and direct them towards the most effective strategies for meeting our goals and while tonight's presentation is a starting point and not a complete and comprehensive plan plan I do look forward
183to continuing to provide updates to the board and the community on this work and I want to thank the board and community supported the development of the plan and set our Northstar uh that will support each and every student receiving that Mountaintop experience so that is the overview this evening relatively quickly thank you Dr Reed for that report um I do want to um remind the public that we did have a work session on this um a couple of weeks ago and so that would be another opportunity to get even more in-depth information would be to watch that work session um so I do have a couple of board members with um comments or questions so we'll move forward with that Miss mclin hi do just briefly I know you referenced the intersectional data but
184the chart that was up there above didn't show the intersectional data it just still intersectional data it just showed still the subgroups so is that something staff is going to provide the board the intersectional data yes I believed that we did but it's hidden in the presentation so is it somewhere in bardocks where they can y Dr re the um full intersectionality data is in the report that's posted on board docs this evening okay it is posted this evening it's just not highlighted um so I can hand it to to you it's uh so I I'll just be a broken record for this and one last board meeting before I depart the system um every time we show our data in singular subgroups we do a disservice um particularly to our communities of color because
185uh that population is particularly um disproportionately um grappling with um poverty and so when we disaggregate the data or show the intersectionality between our communities of color and those who are also struggling with poverty but versus those who are not in our communities of color we will see very different performance rates and it's so important to number one I think be reflective of our students of color who are achieving extremely well in this school division we should be celebrating that and inspiring all students about that and uh for our students who might be grappling with poverty but want to see themselves they will see that um as we do better in our partnership with families and our County government services where it takes a village to raise a child all students can hopefully feel hopeful
186but it's I I can't understate how harmful it is when we keep doing the same thing year after year after year showing singular subgroups um I really hope we'll stop doing that and I wasn't even I mean I was just giving one example but we have intersectional in terms of poverty race and also elll and um special education I mean all of that's there and I think um when we talk about closing gaps we need to help both the board the division and the community understand where kind of like the inverse of three to succeed when students have a multitude of different challenges then we can understand why um the the the Gap efforts are going to be complex and we need complex solutions for that so um I do appreciate everything you and your
187team are doing from a leadership standpoint on that um and I I know how committed you are to this incredibly important work so not to take away from the substance and truly appreciate everything you're continuing to do using these key metrics which I also believe passionately the research has shown we focus in these areas and we will move the needle so that was my glow in my grow okay thank you and I the economically disadvantaged table is on it's table 43 on page 90 of the uh report for those following along at home on the larger report thank you m seiser Heiser hi just one quick question when you talked about Advanced coursework you mentioned Advanced coursework and CT I just wanted to confirm that advanced coursework includes Advanced Arts like is it academic coursework
188absolutely I just wanted to yeah yes that was that was my only question fine and Performing Arts yes correct and completers for CTE thank you yeah thank you I think I'm zipping through this so quickly that uh but yes it came up at the I I just want to make sure we're recognizing all all the ways our students are sh advancement that's all thank you Miss am thank you and thank you for the presentation Dr Reed um I just wanted to ask since we did have a robust work session around a lot of this uh what if anything was adjusted or if there were you know takeaways I know we had 17 next steps um session yeah well I don't know that they got seven board members like I'm not sure that that's gotten back
189to me on that I think there were a couple items that had um there were two items I think in specific that did and I'm going to defer to interim assistant superintendent Marcy Neil do you want to respond to those that's right there were two that got seven um but anyways yeah if you can go ahead sure so Mr mes there were two um next steps that the board um office sent to us the first one was separating at the VAP data and the so data which is in the updated report and the second one was um directing us to look at different ways as we're comparing schools um moving forward in this work to look at different um sort of intersections of how schools are performing on these different measures so looking at our
190Title One schools for example or schools with um different populations different um types of service programs to see how schools are performing against one another with these um different metrics yeah I mean I guess maybe that leads to a broader question to me of obviously every one of us at the work session shared what what it would take if you will for us to feel like we can get behind this and um yeah there's definitely the next steps process which some of us disagree with but whatever ends up with only the majority items come to you um but I think some of us lent voice to other pieces I know know you know for one there was conversation around Avid and how to leverage potentially what are the next steps from here like what are
191we doing differently um with this data in mind and then I know I for one mentioned individualized learning plans considering that what would the costing be around something like that um not to mention of course intersectional data even things like you know for E for English Learners we know that the data is particularly bad um but then the question is while they're being tested in a language that's not their language so or in a language they're still learning so how are we um assessing them why are we not developing an internal way of measuring their success that's there but is masked by state requirements to test them in English and on and on and on of things that came up but I mean I guess I'm a bit of a at a loss here where
192I'm like okay we talked we had a robust conversation at the work session I'm asking what has changed I guess or what what has been responsive to that that M to bring us to a place where we can come around consensus here today so the two items that received the next steps vote process that we were notified from the board office we addressed um and that's my understanding of the process okay so then what I guess what are the next steps from here in terms of what you envision to be the action items I know that was something I was asking about too individualized learning plans was a possibility in my mind mind but these gaps have existed they continue to exist they will continue to exist if we continue doing the same thing so
193correct well I think we each school has picked High leverage strategies unique to their context as you saw in the video earlier um from drainville elementary the data every school has to focus on goal three and each school and Elementary has to focus on the reading by third grade but each school contextually we have 141 elementary schools that each have different student groups that are performing in different ways so they're choosing from high leverage strategies that may look different schoolto school region to region across the division so there are action plans that have developed but as a global macro goal three report we were responsive to the two items that had a majority of votes by the board to adjust and that's what we did so all the other dialogue I think is part of
194a context that this work Works within but there was not enough consensus to force a change in Direction because we didn't have the um seven votes on anything other than those two items so then I guess where does the discussion from the work session to go because next steps are one piece right where that's an actionable followup but you know obviously there's board discussion right well I think it's part of the broader discussion it's part of the discussion that begins to complement what happens at the senior leadership table what happens at your uh meetings with your Regional or magisterial uh Regional assistant superintendents um so there are a lot of conversations as we continue to monitor the strategies that schools have embarked on it's really early um it's early December to think about um impact
195of what schools have already you know committed to begin working on in terms of the Avid we've already I think we shared at the work session that we are increasing the number of schools in particular Title One schools that will have access to Avid in terms of developing tests in um other languages I don't know that that work is work we've started yet um and again that would require an allocation of time and resources to do that um I would want a little more uh conversation with the board in terms of the commitment of that type of resource when we didn't necessarily see that um as part of The Next Step piece yeah I mean I guess costing is a starting point for that to even have a sense but I mean I'm getting the
196feeling here that this is actually somewhat of a dysfunctional process I think the stated intention originally with how we were going to do some of this was that you the superintendent would be aware of and responsive to all the board concern unless she saw something to be you know in contradiction and then she would be accountable for what the majority came around but I think you know Miss K gamaro and Dr Anderson early on were the ones especially point out this frustration that then what is this tyranny of the majority or does it end up being like if someone raises something and some you know some people don't do their homework and put in their votes for the next steps or whatever it is that it's not something to be responded to because I certainly
197feel as a board member a blocker where I articulated I don't know that I can get behind this unless there's more clarity around certain things they're not here and so it's the same presentation to me right like why what has changed nothing and why did I spend hours at the work session in informing that work right and I'm not calling you out as much as I am naming the problem here that seems to be a little bit of an insult to my intelligence at least but so I I mean I don't know that I can support this one I already said that I wouldn't without certain changes but I am grateful that and I recognize that you have to be responsive to those pieces from the majority um but maybe the clerk's office I think
198in the future it would be useful to share what did achieve the seven perhaps and the rest of what was asked for so that Dr Reed can have that for consideration whether she chooses to move forward with it or not it could trigger ideas for you I think the board office sent it didn't they Marcy or did they just send the two I think the board office sent everything to our office that's not but my understanding was I'm only going to be responsive to those things that received seven votes or more it was my understanding of the next steps process okay I think as a board we might want to be more clear since that was what was promised I think to the denters of this process but anyway I appreciate that you bet M
199cor Sanders thank you I had not intended to speak to this but I wanted to address the question that just came up prior boards actually did the next step process at the day of the work session and so there was a discussion people while they were at the table put in their next steps and people were able to vote I would urge that this next board coming on uh in their Retreat process revisits that approach because the current process obv as Miss UMES mentioned uh people go in early or they go in late but they don't necessarily go in multiple times to find out if there have been new items added and so that's how things get um Left Behind um secondly you mentioned the issue of being able to give test in multiple languages
200or in um especially in the math area that we're going to to hear from Mr Malloy soon and it's my understanding that in reading the legislative plan that we have included that as a priority in our legislative plan so I do think that issue was addressed even though it did not get nine votes in the um and and it let's be clear these are not votes we do not take votes via electronic means but um it's a consensus building tool and I would just suggest there are other ways that um the board can um more effectively reach those consensus so um maybe taking a look at how things worked in the past that's how we can inform the future thank you thank you Dr Reed okay we'll move on to the next item 3.07 F
201schal year 2024 mid year budget presentations Dr Reed do you want to do an introduction to the budget presentation so thank you madam chair uh this is an important uh budget presentation and our chief finance officer Lee Burton is going to present uh the midyear uh presentation that we have reviewed so miss Burton good evening uh chairman uh to and Schoolboard members and Dr Reed uh the mid review offers an opportunity to revise the fiscal 24 budget based on Revenue that's been received or expenditures that ended up slightly different um than expected since the yearend budget review that was approved in late August on page one for the school operating fund there are a couple of changes um the beginning balance changes due to increased actual receipts for sales tax that were identified after fiscal
20223 year end in August the remaining change are Grant adjustments uh it's increased idea funds the idea Grant supports the school operating fund so the total revenue changes are 6.1 million also on page one section two are the recommended expenditure changes which align with the revenue changes revenue is going up 6.11 million and recommended expenditures are also at 6.1 million leaving no additional funds available the grand expenditure changes on the expenditure side align with the revenue changes of 1.1 million again this is just an increase in the idea Grant funds that we were notified about after the year end was completed on page two are other recommended adjustments um the first one is the elementary school security cameras um at 8 million for nine elementary schools um and you should know that prioritization is determined
203by the building age the number of existing cameras uh the number of incidents at a school location as well as access to uninterrupted power the item C is background checks .4 million is being set aside to expedite background checks for current employees so this work is completed sooner um originally we were going to do half of this work in fiscal 24 and fiscal 25 um but we'd like to complete that this year item D is the client communications platform replacement .3 million is being earmarked to replace the Cent current client communication platform with another that provides much greater uh functionality item e is the Woodson High School renaming .1 million is proposed as a placeholder to be allocated for costs of renaming the Woodson High School his historically renaming costs have typically been uh about
204300,000 but many items at Woodson just say Woodson so those items will not be have to be replaced item f is funding for uh restorative justice and they have asked for 88,000 to provide training coaching and training materials um for restorative J ice interventions and then the final item in the school operating fund is the facilities testing room enhancement uh .1 million is recommended for testing room enhancements at four schools chantilli South County TJ and West pomac because they need power source upgrades to their testing rooms to successfully administer AP digital testing um this spring so that the expenditure adjustments total 3 million including the grant um and the last item on page three recommends that the remaining funds of 3.1 million be allocated to the fiscal 25 beginning balance so that is level with
205the fiscal 24 beginning balance also at 28.1 million the remaining Pages detail changes to the other funds and other supplemental information the other funds are not typically reviewed uh at midye because they represent mult they all represent multi-year programs who funds flow uh from year to year with fund balances stabilization reserves as required the changes to these funds also reflect audit adjustments to to reconcile estimated acral to actuals and recognize new funding some examples of course are Grant increases allocation of bond funds um acknowledging investment Revenue those kinds of items um year in fund statements for each fund are displayed in the appendix they're the financial statements that reflect Revenue expenditures transfers in transfers out changes in fund balance for each of the nine Schoolboard funds that I've basically just gone over with you as
206far as the school operating goes also in the appendix on page 17 is a grants development summary which provides an update on uh current year or FY 24 grants as well as a final update for fiscal 23 action for mid year is scheduled for the regular school board meeting on December 14th that's it thank you I have a few board members that have clarifying questions Miss corber Sanders no Miss seiser Miss mlet Yes actually I do um Dr Reed I have a couple questions that either you or Miss Burton could answer um first of all I noticed that um there is some carryover funds that would go into um I think you said fiscal year 25 budget to carry over yeah the beginning balance um we generally like to try to keep the beginning balance
207around the same level as it is in the previous year because otherwise any if it's less than that then that just increases the local request to the county so we'd like to try to keep that level and so typically at mid year is when we allocate additional funds if we got any to be able to bring that beginning balance up to the same level as the current year yeah so Dr Reed I I know that you and the board have listened um through public speakers as well as through countless emails for um even preceding you a number of years now that um and I'm only going to speak for the schools I've been hearing from um but in particular Woodson High School and Miss samansky who oversees facilities as well aware of this also um
208when we're talking about several hundred, in facilities um maintenance repairs that uh our school communities have brought back brought forward year after year after year and uh our School Division tells them that it's finally going to happen and then it doesn't happen I'm I'm struggling that um perhaps before we vote on this on the 14th that um perhaps Miss samansky and her team can um confer with you on how we can uh look to address some of these backlog maintenance issues they're one-time funds but um and and Miss burden certainly as the CFO um you would be important part of this conversation but we just keep telling our our our communities in particular our athletic boosters that work hard tirelessly year after year to bring minded the table and then to get told well we're
209sorry we promised you that repair project but there's no money dedicated to it and at a $3.5 billion budget as you can appreciate $770,000 here or there is it's a very tiny drop but I think we're losing faith and support and Confidence from our families when we make promises and then we don't deliver so um that one in particular I think is going to be something and my colleagues I know it's super late so we can talk later on it but I really felt the need to Spotlight that Dr re because when we just automatically just presume nothing that's on your radar just goes into the end of the year pot we're not we're not necessarily addressing all the needs that each of your departments need the second question I have um is how are
210we doing on the food nutritional food and nutritional Services Grant fund because I know that again the question was was that they were carrying a surplus and even though that's not our operating fund it is still a grant fund that I think the board should be knowledgeable about and Dr Reed I know i' had asked the question on how much it cost for us to um do that that special event at the I guess it was the Westfield Marriott where we brought 200 students out um for food tastings but the question was raised why did we do it at hotel tell why do we have to transport kids all the way out there how much did that event cost um because every dollar that doesn't go into buying quality food or paying for competitive um
211living wages for our food service workers matters and optically that didn't sit well with some people in my community who couldn't understand what we did so I know we'd had that that we're you know looking at uh how we're doing with with that fund so is there just a quick update on that fund and do we know how much that event cost I I do not know how much that event cost um the fund balance in Food Services um according to the the state and the FEDS is supposed to equal about three months operating um we are in excess of that currently and they typically what happens is vooe this um next year will ask us for a spin down plan on that we have been you know using some of those funds to replace
212aging equipment uh in our cafeterias also the move towards um other food opportunities like Hala food um different kinds of food and food from you know from scratch cooking required different equipment than we have currently in our cafeterias and so a lot of those uh that fund balance will be spent um in pursuit of those initiatives um I I appreciate that Miss Burton and and Dr Reed I'll just put a fine point on it then I know this outgoing board has been extraordinarily dedicated to improving the quality of food we serve our students and uh recognizing again that we had done the $10 million lend of our operating funds and I know you worked out a a possible solution for that um and that I do understand also miss Burton that like other school divisions
213we do still need to be carrying um a reserve and so to your point we have that three-month Reserve which is is good but uh you know Dr Reed I think that's going to continue to be an interest of the incoming board as well um so I think uh updates on that are good and I certainly have been impressed with the new director and uh but the the the hotel event had has uh I think we need a little more PR and understanding what that was so and the cost would be helpful so miss Burton is that something that he would just provide the board directly or is that okay I mean we'll we'll help if needed but yeah Mr s could provide that great thank you very much Miss Cohen I was just going
214to respond that I think the the need I can appreciate the concern I think getting 200 students to any location during the day um um that would enable uh I don't there were quite a large number of vendors that were providing uh that needed electrical to provide uh cooking to support the idea of checking food options uh most of our well all of our schools were in session that day so the ability to set that up at a school was limited but I will get you the cost uh for that and we'll make sure that um I'll make sure that I communicate more effectively on that in the future so thank you and my question about the facilities maintenance and you know our especially our our school fields and and the backlog there how might
215we look into that well I will I will meet with staff between now and um the 14th great thank you so much and I'm very happy to help answer uh any questions uh that staff have on those that backlog thank you thank you again so much always uh for the great detail that you go into for us um I just wanted to ask with reference to what Miss McLaughlin um spoke about some of the backlog of the maintenance um at some of our schools I know like the Woodson Press Box and has been an issue for a long time um when we did The Joint CIP committee the county committed that they would give us a portion of their end of thee Capital syncing fund and um I wondered what had happened with that specifically
216and if maybe there were and I know that's a more of a long-term project for Miss zamansky but um you know like a rated projects list that I know we can't count on that money but that we have kind of okay hey here's our list which you may well already do um and so I just wondered where we were with that but yeah they they gave us the funds that they said they would it was 9.9 million it's included in the construction Fund in the midy year that you see tonight and that was a 25% of what they had available but their uh year end Falls after air year end their final approval so we couldn't include it in air year end which is why we have it in midy year but yeah it was
2179.9 million so I don't I don't know what the plans for those funds are yet but miss samanski yeah so I'll thank you U Miss Burton I'll meet with staff and make sure that we have an update for the Friday letter and then a conversation with anyone who on my one-on-one conversations any feedback you'd like I think what we likely have is a list of projects but not necessarily a rank order of those projects so that's the question I'm going to sit down and ask staff about right there must be some uh at some point we probably ought to have a rank order list that's always available when any kind of funds happen to pop loose because I certainly know the interest is high for sure thank you awesome well I'm glad that worked out
218thanks M Burton okay I have a question um first of all I just wanted to thank you and I'm very excited about the um money in this document related to elementary school cameras um and so and I know that at this point in time I think we've got three different ways that we're trying to fund um you know that Safety and Security equipment so um one question that I had was if there was any way we could get any kind of transparency as to how we rank the schools or choose which schools um that will be funding yeah my understanding is you know we recently got the um vdoe stronger connections Grant and VOE security equipment Grant which funds funded security cameras or will fund security cameras at eight elementary schools and the criteria for
219the grant usually prioritizes based on building age the number of existing cameras that are already there the number of incidents at a school location where a camera might have been helpful um as well as access to uninterrupted power but we do have um Mr Vell on virtually if you wanted more information than that Tom did you wanna add anything here I'd be glad to uh good evening everybody can you hear me okay yes we can so in addition to what Miss Burton just commented on uh there are categories like free and reduced lunch uh demographics that are similar and the eight or nine schools that are added to this list were also schools that were prioritized as part of the cops Federal grant that we were denied this year but all those categories rank those
220schools on on those particular subsets uh and in addition to those eight being ranked to submit to the cops Grant we also distributed those equally with the vdoe grants per region as well if that makes sense that does thank you thank you for the information thank you m buron we'll look forward to um talking about this at our next meeting thank you okay before we move on to the next action item I just want to um note that the Strategic plan goal three academic growth and Excellence um has been moved to action item 5.04 so when we get to that and we'll deal with that one and um The Crush will be made in board dos after the meeting okay with that we're at action item 5.01 all right I call and Miss Tolen for
221a motion okay I move to adopt the FCPS recommendation of scenario b as presented to the community and posted in the attachment scenario B adjusts the boundaries of Chesterbrook Churchill Road Franklin Sherman hok and Kent Gardens Elementary schools and the Churchill Road and hok AAP centers the adjustment will not change the middle and high SCH School boundaries in addition the following phasing plan will implement the boundary change Rising kindergarten and first grade students will be reassigned to attend the newly assigned school for the 20242 school year Rising 2 third fourth fifth and sixth grade students have the option to attend the newly assigned school or remain at their prior assigned school for the 20242 school year anding matal circulate to Middle School well is there a second second Miss Tolen would you like to speak
222to your motion and thank you Miss keys gamar for seconding that yes thank you um I want to extend a huge thank you to our mlan elementary school principals and PTA leaders the ptas have been involved with this process from the beginning feeding us questions from the community and answering lots and lots of parent inquiries our principles have put up maps in their buildings and fielded and passed along many questions over the past months we have had a large team of experts working on this project since over one year ago facilities in planning Communications World languages and transportation all put their heads together to implement our community input process and to come up with a solution to a longstanding and complex problem in a school with French immersion and local level four my Region 2
223colleagues have been involved from the beginning we worked with facilities and planning to brainstorm scenarios that would have less impact on Franklin Sherman but the realities of the geography prevented us from moving off of scenario B after the public hearing we worked to think about ways to alleviate most of the concerns raised by families Region 2 stands ready to work with our principles to make sure our children are managing this transition and making new friends our principles are already jointly planning open houses for January 25th to receive any new students and families with open arms information on continuing efforts will be on our web page given Community input and continued analysis by facilities planning and FPS Transportation even through conversations last Friday post public hearing we are still left with scenario B making the most
224sense overall as mentioned the impact of the scenario is significant to Franklin Sherman Elementary School with the location of Kent Gardens to the east of its attendance area it was hard to move students from the Eastern side of the attendance area to Chesterbrook since most of those students are Walkers Transportation specifically requested we not move any Walkers due to the shortage of bus drivers in order to be sure we did not overload Franklin Sherman as we move students from the Northwestern side of the Kent Gardens attendance area we needed to move Franklin Sherman students to Chester Brook Elementary School in addition this scenario cleans up a split feeder at Franklin Sherman that many families are excited about those students will move to Churchill Road Elementary School the recommended phasing is the same phasing that was
225used for the Glenn Forest Area boundary adjustments done last year this works well in this situation too since the French immersion program begins at first grade and those students will not be moved most of the comments we have received about this entire process were questions around the treatment of siblings our world languages staff have worked with facility staff and Region 2 to answer most of the questions posed by families with older siblings in French immersion that information is on the web page designed for this project and our Region 2 staff I have had many conversations with them are standing ready to work with any families with extenuating circumstances as we move through this phasing process I ask my colleagues to support the recommended solution of scenario B and the phasing plan as suggested by our
226facility staff thank you Miss Tolen Miss Keys gamar would you like to speak to your second yes I um first of all would like to commend my colleague for working so diligently o for an extended period of time more than a year ago I started attending many meetings with you to discuss this with uh parents with staff members within our schools with staff members within our central office um I know that you um held a number of meetings I attended some of them um and I know that you also saw guidance from the comprehensive Planning and Development Committee which was an opportunity to come together with other board members with um community members who participated in our fpac committee and satra and as a result of those conversations you um Pro helped us to develop
227a process by which we tried to bring Fidelity to the communication process so I am supporting you today because I know how much work you have done and I know how hard you have worked to try to get the community and bring about a consensus to the best of your ability and we all know that that is very difficult with this type of topic so um congratulations um that we have reached this point I think with a solid process um that I um I commend you for and I hope that I I heard from some of your community members who also recognize that I understand that there are those who um have a different opinion but even in our public hearing there was no one opinion and so we often times have to balance and
228we have to communicate and you have done that and so for that reason I believe that you have done everything you can to reach a fair solution for your community and um you have uh provided excellent work not just to your community but on behalf of this board thank you uh misses yeah thank you um I echoed Miss karo's remarks uh thank you Miss Tolen for being diligent um I know you do your best in these situations and uh it obviously shows uh the only thing I wanted to add was to just address I know that we heard some remarks from the community and so to offer a little bit of context um you know this whole conversation started when we were OB we were even talking about the renovation queue and how we're going
229to address overcrowding and a previous CIP process and Miss Tolen you would write to courageously identify Kent Gardens as an area where a potential boundary adjustment is needed um which is never easy to do and lead in the community um and it was an obvious one and I'm I tend to be a Critic of the you know moving things out of line and whatnot when it comes to the queue but this one was one that made sense um and so I was grateful to second that at the time and now finding ourselves where all this work has been done to arrive at a potential solution and so to those voices who did come out for that public hearing I hope that you see the ways that your concerns were absorbed and taken in to be
230a little creative and find ways to problem solve to make sure that the various concerns are heard and particularly those who were interested in in grandfathering wanting to make sure make sure siblings aren't separated grandfathering wasn't even a practice of you know prior boundary changes that's an adjustment made to be accommodating and to make sure amilies are not uh or are minimally disrupted um so I wanted to highlight that I also wanted to touch on of course Kent Gardens has the French emersion program which is a unique complication to a boundary process uh but that there will still be a prioritization of folks who have siblings so Rising um first graders uh who have siblings in the school and want to partake in that immersion program to be able to operate as though they were
231in boundary um so that they have the same shake that they would have had they stayed in Kent Gardens and that's an additional accommodation uh and really just a responsive measure to be sensitive to the needs of the community um and finally for those who may still be concerned about Rising kindergarteners that's yet to be determined so there's not a decision on that either way because there are so so many complex considerations actually you would be surprised to realize just how much intentionality goes into planning for that cohort and making sure that everyone is considered who would like to be a part of the program so that's just to be fully honest and transparent with the community but I'm just grateful that really you know I know coming from a place of you know in
232a board it's easy in the shuffle of things and such uh busy schedules to move forward and decide on a decide on a plan and and and roll with it but I think there was um sincerity in trying to be responsive to the community and I'm grateful that Miss Tolen took the time and uh effort to do that and hope that the community will be sure to look for those pupil place and applica and and Lottery application uh opportunities that are uh yet to come and I know um Miss clco will be leading that uh very carefully so thank you for your work Dr Anderson um thank you I do want to express my thanks to miss Tolen because we know these are never easy there's never going to be that perfect solution that creates
233happiness with all parts of the community but I think as shared by both Miss keys gamara and Miss om that you have done certainly your part to ensure that everybody is heard it's very thoughtful of you the way that you go through this process it seems as if we keep following each other in this process because we will have the Glasgow conversation coming up I hope sooner rather than later um because we do know that community's been waiting for quite a while um and I I'm hoping Dr Reed that's something we can continue to expedite because that community is waiting for some sort of feedback from um staff um in order to move forward um I I think I was not I think I am a little bit dismayed by the um timetable that uh
234Miss sensy did share because that brings us right back to where we started therefore negating the work that I did earlier this year to add this into the process so that we didn't lose that year I think the current process that she's outlined has this board voting next fall which creates an issue but I wanted to raise that however I know this is the Kent Gardens boundary um and I wanted to make sure that I recognize all of the work that Miss um toand put forth but more importantly I really am hoping that we can move away from the practice of these boundary adjustments being um Schoolboard member LED it is an undue burden to folks who are not subject matter experts we have got to find a way to move the pro ice to
235one that is prioritized by the experts that we have on your staff in a very um neutral objective criteria so that we can prioritize our work at this point the continuing efforts by all of us we want to be cordial to each other but we are still elbowing for a seat at the table of action when it comes to this work and it should not be that way and I would love to hear your thoughts in terms of how can we be move how quickly can we move forward into a different process I I think that um we certainly can look at a different process I think we we already have a rank order list of schools by um overc capacity percentages and those schools I think we could um take a look at by
236uh most over uh populated percentage wise to least um I think there's also a question about so I think that's a process we could engage in which would uh separate what we might say are large schools versus overcrowded schools right those are not necessarily the same uh definition but I'm happy to put together several scenarios that we could utilize moving forward um and also want to clarify that uh Miss sensky is simply utilizing a process that's been here for a period of time uh with regard to the Glasgow situation and um we initially when that vote happened last year we did indicate that at such time we would do as much prelim work as we could but at such time when Kent Gardens was completed then we wouldn't require further board action we would just
237move right into the Glasgow process but I don't know that that can happen um any quicker than it's laid out but I'm happy to take a look at that and um um I know you and I have talked about that and make sure that I get back to you with the timeline that we believe is realistic thoughtful and comprehensive I would definitely appreciate a second look um I just think we have an opportunity in front of us as we will move into a different constitution of this board that we don't begin on the way that this board um this current board started which is jockeying at the CIP table I I would love to see a process in place so that we just do this work a little bit better better and more thoughtful because
238at this point absent advocacy of Schoolboard members we don't get things that we don't get action bubbling up to the to to the top and I I just don't think that's necessarily the most um important work it's just where can we get the support for it we just need some neutrality and some objectivity around that process yes ma'am Miss eisar Heiser um with that late hour I'll be very very quick I just wanted to say I appreciate all the hard work that you've done Miss Tolen for the last year um having been involved as an atlarge member I've seen the work and um I've had several families from Franklin shman reach out in addition to the um comments given and and I appreciate our staff being willing to work with extraordinary circumstances and extenda circumstances
239for our families I know it's a difficult um challenge for the Franklin triman families and I know you spend many many times staring at those Maps trying to figure out other Solutions as well as our staff has spent so I just wanted to reassure the families I know there's a large turnover happening on the board I know um that you'll be in close contact with your um with miss lady who's going be you know in the drainville seat as you come in but I'm also happy as one of the ones staying on the board to help make sure that um you know the families are taken care of and I know our staff will be that but even I'm happy to you know to help with that as you step off the board um so
240I just want to say I appreciate the hard work that you've done and I'm looking forward to um helping bring Robin up to speed and having her take over um from you I know she'll do a good job with that um and I would just want to say really quickly I do think to Dr Anderson's point that there's a lot of space with a lot of new facility staff to look at how we do capacity work and program work um I know Miss Tolen and I started a program review a couple years ago to start some of those conversations so I think there is space to do it so it isn't as as board member Leed um with of course a lot of board member involvement so thank you for your hard work I appreciate
241it Miss mclin um so Dr Reed I don't know if your you and your team can answer um what the cost is for each grade level that we end up grandfathering in so typically we don't grandfather all the way down to Rising second graders I mean that is really I mean I think um Miss Tolen to add to the praise I know you've worked tirelessly on this and that's like a whole different added conversation to what Dr Anderson said I I don't think that board members should be um drawn into that level of operations but you were heroic and I appreciate that very much but Dr Reed I do worry about precedent we are a very large School Division and every every time we do grandfathering in a way that just keeps going further and
242further and further down um that just comes at an operational impact not just cost but our bus drivers and our buses and so I just wondered if your team when this proposal was brought forward did they do that cost estimate that for each year that we grandfather one more grade lower than usual cuz I mean Rising second graders is highly unique for my 12 years on the board and um having personally experienced a boundary School change when I was a rising fifth grader and there was no generosity here I mean I I it was it was very difficult so I'm not making light of these things but we always have to find you know the cut Mark of when we are going to grandfather and where we don't so the do we know and if
243I've asked a question people don't know then don't worry but I think then it's for future operations we need to know those numbers so I think there are a variety of ways to do that phase in and I've been in divisions where the phase in provided their own transportation so it wasn't a an operational cost so it was an option for families to make that choice to continue or not um and then in divisions where um only the schoolto school transition is supported financially so we again we could look at several scenarios that way um and with the recognition that it's an option but it's not an option necessarily that all parents might choose either right so I'm happy to get you something uh by Friday I don't believe we would have costed that at
244this time uh but I'm happy to get that cost out for you and again again take a second look at did we say phasing with Transportation or phasing not right because some of the uh students I know were Walkers so there may not be an inherent operational cost but I'm happy to take a look at that um secondarily yeah at at the um I will just say this again having gone through these the last thing I want to do for any families watching this right now who are going into panic mode I am not suggesting I mean we vote on this then whatever we put in the language it is what it is and I support Miss Tolen at this late hour and she again has done great Outreach I think if anything else Dr
245Reed as you continue to learn the division and you have new members coming on your team with you I urge you and your team to have a a very consistent and specific plan on these things going forward Ward because I think we have to be extraordinarily intentional on what our PL you know we gave six scenarios and I would have hoped that as a result of those scenarios we would have costed them out and before we offer them out to the public and for the board's consideration we should know what those are and um again I don't put this at at Miss tolan's feet at all um I know the Bell is telling me my time is up um so we can talk some more offline Dr Reed because I do think there are some
246ways and Dr Anderson just said I may just do a followon motion um again just for for guidance from the board on expectations going forward yes ma'am and I I think that um adding those operational costs um is something that I certainly can provide and appreciate that that can be part of our calculus moving forward yeah and and to lower the um uh the uh blood pressure on my colleagues I'm not doing a followon motion at this late hour either I'm just going to vote Yes okay thank you Miss McLaughlin uh Miss Corbett Sanders I I yes M to thank you I just wanted to make a point of clarification um it is my understanding that we generally provide transportation during phasing so I think the calculations will need to include the transportation costs yes
247ma'am I'm happy to do that uh we'll pull that the number of students and where the directions are headed absolutely seeing no other board members um I will just say boundary changes are never easy but this one was necessary I think there was a lot of due diligence and a lot of community input so miss toen I will be supporting this all right now it is time for the vote um I will call for a vote on the motion which is on the screen in front of us colleagues all those in favor on sorry Mr fres has his hand up oh I'm so sorry thank you um no I'm voting okay voting okay all right all those in favor that vote is unanimous with all members at the table and Mr fr with Mr fr
248remote and Miss Marin um has left all right and um Miss Co Miss Cohen I call on you for a motion I move at the school board I move that the school board adopt the 2024 Fairfax County School Board state and federal legislative program is there a second second thank you Miss am Miss Cohen would you like to speak to your motion yeah just to say I think um we've all had a good amount of input on this I appreciate very much um our our legislative uh lobbyist Mr Malloy who takes good care of us in Richmond um working for the last few months with all of us to get these priorities in good shape and um I think it's not an accident that we have pretty good alignment with the um County this time
249and really the primary emphasis while we have a lot of other meat in there um the biggest is really looking at the jar study and pulling pieces out of that and I know in speaking with Mr Malloy um there is a plan going forward enrichment to have bills that address each of those pieces and I know there's a few people um on this diet so will be extra excited to be um a part of that so um without further Ado I I'm excited to um to go ahead and pass this and to um get closer to ending the night Miss would you like to speak to your second yeah um so I guess I just wanted to highlight a couple of the federal priorities we have um I wanton to speak to the state piece
250that's Miss Cohen's role but I did I would just reiterate the conversation earlier um in emphasizing the importance of ensuring assessments for English Learners are available in an uh for courses that are not language based in a language that's not English it just doesn't make sense that we consider them failing on on things that they can't understand uh to even take but on the federal side there are a number of uh really important funding packages that our schools rely on that are on the chopping block uh in Congress um the most significant of those is the title one money which of course is the largest Federal package that goes to um schools based on lower income number numbers of low-income students uh specifically um we are normally re scheduled to receive 38.5 million in Title
251One funding uh the projected Cuts could um lead to Cuts within the 267 positions we rely on which include Early Childhood teachers resource teachers counselors social workers intervention teachers the homeless Liaisons we celebrated earlier today instructional coaches uh and on and on and on of the critical supports we provide to kids who struggle with math language arts and other subjects and that's not even starting the list of supplemental resources and after school programs and and family engagement Specialists and parent liaison family Liaisons uh in addition to information sessions and parent coffees and events that uh students benefit from including field trips you stop that right there uh no but really seriously important things that are on the chopping block um and so it's just critical for us to make sure those of you who are
252listening if anyone is at this hour to to contact our Congress folks to not only vote in the right way on this but to be uh vocal uh and highlight just what's at stake and that's of course in addition to idea which is the individuals with uh disabilities Education Act which continues to be largely unfunded um and then the final one I'll I'll highlight is the federal meals reimbursement which we all know you know with covid we received a lot of um wonderful support to provide meals to kids who deeply depend on it we saw that just in the presentation in academic matters today the the racial disparity significant racial disparity within who uh experiences hunger um and as well as what we talked about earlier with the proclamation so this is something that's exacerbated
253the problem and uh we need the support to be able to continue supporting our kids the rest of it is posted on board Doss um I know my colleagues are antsy and they're making it very clear so I'll stop there but uh join us on Wednesday 8: a.m. at the gate House Cafe if you're interested in learning more you can observe we're going to be speaking to our legislators about uh what we hope they'll be Advocates on thank you um we did have a work session on this so I have no board members um wishing to speak at this point in time so I will call for the vote on the motion the motion is on the screen all those in favor Miss caret Sanders Dr Anderson with Miss mclin are you going to vote
254on this miss mclin miss mcari miss Tolen Mr kofax ke gamara Miss Miss Cohen and Miss rajer Heiser and Mr fresh with Miss Marin away from the table okay that motion passes all right we're down up to action item 53 reports on employee separation I call on Dr Anderson for a motion I move to direct I move to direct the superintendent to revise a monthly report on employee separation in the associated attachment to present disaggregated data and context to include subgroup percentages additionally on a quarterly basis the superintendent will provide operational impacts impacts by FCPS schools and regions Trends analyses and potential strategies to address findings if applicable is there a second yes thank you Miss Tolan Dr Anderson would you like to speak to your motion I think I spoke to it when I
255brought this up in September and in my conversations with you over the last couple of weeks and in the email that I sent we just want this to be uh more useful thank you Dr Anderson Miss Tolen would you like to speak to your second thank you I don't want to add a lot um we are just really trying to have a report that shows up regularly um at board meetings to be something that is useful um but uh you know Dr Anderson has requested a number of different types of data here and we're really looking for those on a quarterly basis not on a monthly basis so um looking for staff to take a look at that thank you uh other board me misses just a quick thank you this is one of those
256things that long agendas long meetings easy to miss uh and Dr Anderson was the sole Advocate several meetings to make sure we we brought it forward it's it's an important piece that was caught and I'm grateful for that all right seeing no other board members who would like to speak I will call for the vote on the motion which is on the screen in front of us all those in favor um that is unanimous um with Mr frit at everyone from the table Miss Marin absent and um Mr frish virtually thank you thank you 5.04 strategic plan goal three report academic growth and Excellence I call msis gamara for a motion I move that the school board approve the goal three Baseline report as the division's Baseline data that will serve as a starting point
257for the work toward achieving the goals in our strategic plan 2023 through 2030 is there a second second thank you Mr CA Miss Kei Kamar would you like to speak to your motion uh in a very limited fashion uh we have had a work session on this um this is a starting point um this is how we will measure our progress and we we certainly need those baselines so I am in full support Miss daret kofx would you like to speak to your second just what Miss Keys gamara said uh this is this is uh approving Baseline data toward achieving the goals which we talked about tonight in goal three reading by third grade algebra one by e8th grade and advanced coursework in high school so we have had lots of discussion on this and
258I look forward to uh having my colleagues approve this thank you Dr Anderson would you like speak just a quick point of clarification This was um posted under performance review will that vote not be happening I I just want to get clarity in terms of are we just voting to accept the report part of the performance review correct we're voting to accept this as our Baseline goal three report okay so we'll need to make adjustments to um board do yeah thank you okay with that um this size Heiser I know it's late so I won't belabor the point but I'm a little confused why we're accepting this as Baseline data when there's a lot of data in that's not just Baseline data so it it just seems a little odd to just call it Baseline
259data because the report has data that does have some growth showing in there as well so growth data is not the same as Baseline data and there is growth data in the report so I'm a little uncomfortable calling this Baseline data because I don't think it's reflective of everything that's in the report so I'm going kind of curious when we vote on gold reports in my four years on the board I don't I don't think we ever called it Baseline data I know this is a new strategic plan so that might be why however the report itself doesn't have just Baseline data in it so I'm not sure it's a accurate reflection of the report and we didn't I guess during the work sessions it was never brought up that this was just Baseline data
260so I'm a little confused so I understand what you're saying I think the title of the report was the Baseline goal three report so even though it does show some growth with the 5% I think that we're just talking about the title of the report I guess to me this is a baseline of going for but it's not just Baseline data right and there's to me a difference between Baseline data and this is our starting point going forward we're already seeing some growth so we're already seeing even in this year some movement towards this right because it's been you know six months almost since our strategic plan so we are showing some growth from the time we passed it but this is our Baseline for where we're starting going forward for report to report so
261I'm not going to Bel the point it's late I just think we need to be careful with the words we use thank you are there any other board members that would like to speak okay I would like to call for the vote on the motion the motion is on the screen all those in favor Miss car Sanders Dr Anderson miss mclin miss mski miss Tolen mRNA kofax M gamara Miss Cohen Miss Eiser Heiser Mr fresh all those opposed all those abstaining Mr M are you opposed or abstaining I'm I'll oppose it opposed and with Miss Merin away from the table okay that motion passes okay we are on to the 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
262single motion many items listed have gone through Board review and the documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved item number seven new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting the new business items are on the screen number eight board committee reports I call on Miss keys gamar for a report of the cpdc committee I'll try to do this as quickly as I can um we
263had a work session discussing the process of working on the commun the communications process related to the CIP and Facilities processes um I the purpose of that was to establish consistency in communication and engagement for all capital projects improve communication and Outreach encourage public participation in the process and building Community understanding and awareness of the capital improvement process the the uh form that has been developed by staff is on the slide behind us Dr Reed I think I would just like to close out this discussion by making sure that the community will have access I understand that this is a work in progress and that this is a living document but I am concerned about those who are participating in the facilities process excuse me process um having access to the as much understanding as
264possible as to how staff will be handling the process so um I don't I didn't get to ask this question of Staff I'm sorry I was trying to figure out a way to summarize this um but I would just like to make sure that this information will be made available to the community until such time at as additional revisions are um made so just so I'm clear you want the current engagement process transparently available for example on the website yeah however you you know you can make that decision but at this point um I know I have uh worked with a number of board members to try to um help them to navigate and to um give them access to the resources available through the comprehensive Planning and Development Committee um I think that when
265people are notified that they're up next they should be able to access uh what that process will look like yes ma'am that makes sense thank you and I'm done thank you everybody thank you Miss kisara and thank you for all your hard work on that um plan appreciate it as agreed upon prior to the meeting we will be skipping board matters tonight given our lengthy agenda thank you to all of you for joining us this meeting is adjurned this