FCPS School Board Meeting - 1/26/23

001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign board members pick your seats this January 26 2023 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Edison High School Innovation choir under the direction of Kevin Lackey thank you oh say can you see by the dawns who's brought stripes and bright stars [Music] where [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Applause] thank you Edison choir under the direction of Kevin Lackey and thank you Miss brumfeld for being back there and any parents who are in the audience we appreciate you and your beautiful children [Applause] thank you Edison choir we have some amazingly talented students and that was

002phenomenal to witness so thank you so much agenda item 2.02 certification of close meeting in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify the sense of Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on January 26 2023 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board in the closed meeting do you have a motion Dr Anderson do you have a second Miss internet Koufax all those in favor Miss picarski Miss Cohen Mr Frisch Ms Dr Anderson Miss McLaughlin Miss internet Koufax Miss Corbett Sanders Ms omesh Miss Marin Miss Keith gamara and myself

003that motion Pat is unanimous thank you very much agenda item 3.02 Miss Tolan has submitted a written request to virtually attend this evening's meeting due to a medical conflict all those in favor of approving this request that is unanimous with Miss Tolan away from the table welcome Miss Tallinn Miss tell if I could just get a mic check to make sure Mike works okay is that can you hear me all right yes we can hear you welcome Miss Tolan thank you thank you if you'd like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at fcps.edu backslash School Board backslash board Docs tonight's meetings being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on

004the website at fcps.edu backslash TV backslash Channel 99. item 5.02 Award of contract University of Wisconsin has been moved from the consenta giant agenda and added to action at the request of a board member I call on Ms togby for an announcement yes I'd like to welcome the Boy Scout Troop with us today if you're if you guys mind standing up for us laughs [Applause] thank you welcome troop 1978 we're so glad you're here tonight good to see you agenda item 2.04 Black History Month resolution I call on Miss lamesh for the resolution whereas the month of February is the time that we as the nation recognize Black History Month the Black History Month 2023 theme black resistance explores How African Americans have resisted historic and ongoing oppression in all forms since the nation's earliest

005days and whereas the first Africans arrived on the shores of Virginia 400 years ago bringing skills knowledge and traditions that have created a lasting culture impacting our communities today and whereas African Americans have contributed to the founding and development of this nation and recognized the importance of teaching this Rich impactful history to all students to create an inclusive and Equitable County for all and whereas by resisting black people have achieved triumphs successes and progress as seen in the end of chattel slavery dismantling of Jim Crow segregation in the South increased political representation of all levels of government desegregation of educational institutions the passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 the opening of the Smithsonian National Museum of African-American history and culture and increased the diverse representation of black experiences in the media and whereas those

006of African descent have lived in and contributed to the development and advancement of Fairfax County since its Inception as evidenced by the many contributions of private citizens businesses and African-American organizations as well as the establishment of various communities and organizations that have enhanced the rich and vibrant culture of Fairfax County now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County Public Schools hereby officially recognizes Black History Month and appreciation for the contributions of great Americans who have worked tires tirelessly and often without recognition for the advancement of both Virginia and the United States ISO move is there a second Mr Frisch Mr mace would you like to speak to your resolution I would thank you uh seeing as that is not particularly my language um but but our our FCPS language Black History Month is American

007History Month it's a time to celebrate the accomplishments of black people as well as remember those who sacrificed their lives to ensure all our children and our children's children can live their wildest dreams last year as a nod to my sisters I chose to defer to my black colleagues during the celebration so that their voices Shine the loudest this year in different times I feel compelled to make it undoubtedly clear that this is a celebration by and for all of us one that has been and will continue to be deeply rooted in this nation's history and one that all of our children can see themselves in black history in this nation inspires us to grow from struggle and find better commonality that binds our Humanity together it helps us see the benefits of being honest

008about our big mistakes and reminds us how important it is not to shove even the ugly under the rug and how in fact by wading through it and the discomfort of it we become stronger Black Culture is American culture black stories are woven into the fabric of our ongoing story of America our faults our struggles progress and aspirations perhaps most inspiration of all black history teaches us how through strength and Faith to turn deep hate suffering and greed how to turn that into a powerful force for good healing and giving not too long ago we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr day where we commemorated the sacrifices of a man who was so wronged to the point where many believe our own government had killed him and we chose to do so through giving serving and

009building better the once uncomfortable truths he had preached have become and come to signify an undeniable and Universal American celebration so let us not denigrate that let us celebrate that other examples like NBA player Chris Wayne Jackson known today as Mahmoud Abdul rauf who had the courage in 1996 to weather suspensions and profit losses in an effort to raise awareness and stay true to history that has not been taught and he refused when he refused to stand for the national anthem and that became better understood through the courage of Colin Kaepernick when he followed in his example in the NFL although that also remains a challenge these more critical moments in our nation's Awakening that perhaps we still have quite a bit to address and perhaps there are suppressed Tales of our of our true

010one America and perhaps in order to have a chance at moving forward we must entirely and truthfully look back perhaps we'd be be able to better understand one another and our ability to come together for one future if we learn about that past that lands us where we are today not culture wars these are cultured doors of opportunity and they exist right here the very school we sit in today Luther Jackson was started by black Educators because colored children were excluded that's a part of our Collective history and it's important to remember that when it was our present at that time it was excused Justified and considered normal power resisted change to correct its wrongs today we see the same discomfort of what is normal in more subtle ways whether it's modern day redlining and

011gentrification policies that prevent what some call white flight or even closer to home rigid boundaries admissions barriers and even inaccurate school rankings that perpetuate the same Dark Side of history in our own neighborhoods we must be alert to the ways that our past is being erased and in an attempt of what it's making us believe today that it's okay and we must keep our eyes wide open because in the next months and years we'll continue to see serious harms done at the hands of people at the highest levels of power in our country but perhaps who don't understand that history and its importance like we did two weeks ago on MLK Day we celebrate African-American history American history by serving and giving forward we celebrate by honoring the likes of Taylor Williams that courageous black

012principle of the 1965 Luther Jackson Middle School then then was not a middle school but through Massive Resistance that he had to encounter when we support our Educators in teaching truth today when we go beyond platitudes and support kids in ways that Inspire them to learn and to engage in the classroom and so I end with this Virginia was the capital of the Confederacy and massively resisted efforts to fix to fix segregation even when segregation was illegal this was once a room filled with black students who were deliberately excluded but also Virginia was the place that raised and was home to the founder of Nigo negro history week himself in 1926 which 50 years later became recognized by the president as black the black history month that we celebrate today the courageous founder of Black

013History Month was raised in a Virginia classroom and today this is a room where we can celebrate it together the path forward of what Virginia will be and whether it will be known and whether it will know its truth is in our own hands yours and mine will we denigrate or will we celebrate happy African-American history month to everyone I am so proud to celebrate with all of you today thank you Mr Frisch would like to speak to your second yes thank you uh Madam chair uh when we look at Fairfax County's past we find many examples of historical figures and events that align with this year's Black History Month theme of black resistance we have Annie Harper who filed a lawsuit against the Virginia Board of Elections under the argument that the state's poll

014tax infringed on 14th Amendment rights that lawsuit made its way to the U.S Supreme Court where they deemed poll taxes to be unconstitutional we also have Lillian Blackwell a civil rights activist whose efforts helped in the desegregation of public accommodations in Fairfax County and the integration of public schools in Fairfax County these were just two examples of black Fairfax County residents who not only resisted but actively fought systemic discrimination and won this year students here in Fairfax County researched figures like Annie Harper Lillian Blackwell and more for project-based learning experiences as part of our first ever historical markers contest a joint effort between FCPS and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors with the support of their teachers and families students embarked on an effort to Showcase previously Untold narratives and highlight the histories of those

015who are underrepresented in school curriculum this year's Focus was on local black and African-American history the inaugural contest officially launched last February in celebration of Black History Month and this year during black history month on February 7th the Fairfax County Board of super supervisors will recognize 14 finalists of the final entries at least 10 were submitted by FCPS students winners will see their work installed as historical markers throughout Fairfax County I'm proud of our students for highlighting these untold stories for making Fairfax County's recognition of our history more inclusive more complete I hope their work sends a message to policy makers in Richmond who are considering potential changes to Virginia's history and social science standards of learning changes that would undermine the equality and depth of instruction throughout the Commonwealth our students deserve an honest

016and accurate accounting of our past I'm proud to honor their work to bring attention to the historical contributions of Fairfax County's black and African-American residents as we celebrate Black History Month together in Fairfax County Public Schools thank you [Applause] I see some my colleagues wish to speak Miss Keys Gamora followed by Ms McLaughlin I really enjoy this is one of the things I enjoy as being a board member because we get to an opportunity not only to enter the new year but to celebrate the diversity of our community I too want to say happy Black History Month what we are actually acknowledging is the beauty of how we have become the United States of America it is only through the emergence of cultures from our Native Americans with that of those who came to these

017Shores that we have become who we are today throughout our history of we have often disagreed about how to tell that story and in recent years here in Virginia those debates have been no less apparent our state has revised our history standards a few times and there are still those who wonder whether we have gotten it right not too long ago we heard about divisive topics that needed to be removed from public school curriculums so as Not to cause students to feel responsible for the wrongs of the past but that's not the focus of education at all what we really celebrate is the opportunity to learn as we teach history all of it it's very much like the legislation that is currently being considered enrichment this is an opportunity to learn about the importance of

018something that was considered invaluable between 1936 and 1966. during the Jim Crow era a time when African Americans who traveled wondered whether it would be safe to stop at a restaurant or a hotel that's when Victor Hugo green a mailman began publishing the green book to identify safe places to avoid discrimination from hotels restaurants and other businesses this was one of the efforts that preceded the civil rights legislation of 1964 that ended legal segregation and also addressed discrimination employment voting and renting and selling homes while segregation had been directed at people of color the effort to end such acts improved our nation assisted women and all people in their quest to enjoy the Bounty of opportunity in this nation that truly is the beauty of recognizing our Collective history as we have learned to recognize

019ways to improve we encourage all to move closer to a true democracy this nation's shared history is one of great courage and mistakes when we learn all of our history we all benefit as we press forward in the quest to continue continuous Improvement I am reminded that it is far too costly to hinder that learning process happy Black History Month thank you thank you Miss McLaughlin thank you I I too want to get to again this year really Elevate such a significant Virginian um Carter Goodwin Woodson um born in December of 1875 Carter G Woodson was born to parents who were former slaves he and his siblings grew up quite poor so they did not have access to primary education and it was even difficult to get a high school education but with his Pursuit

020and desire for an education he ultimately joined his brother in West Virginia he worked in the coal mines he ultimately garnered his high school degree he went on to the University of Chicago to earn his bachelor's degree and then a PhD at Harvard he is the only African-American slave here in the United the only African-American enslaved enslaved parents to have ever earned a PhD he is a story of inspiration he needs to be celebrated because he's also known as the father of black history he act he created what was known as The Negro history week and that was the Genesis for the Black History Month he also then began some the first scholarly work in the history of the African diaspora and ultimately created the Journal of negro history the University of Virginia has the

021center for African-American studies at the University there and he is honored throughout many states named with schools in his honor he went on to be a Dean at Howard University but he continues to be in my mind someone who demonstrates that here in the United States Despite All Odds when he decided that he would be resilient persevere and ultimately become one of the most important Americans that we can continue to celebrate honor and recognize and of course him being a Virginian I think makes it all the more important thank you Miss McLaughlin Dr Anderson thank you happy Black History Month each February National Black History Month serves as a celebration and a powerful reminder that black history is American history as my colleague shared earlier Black Culture is American culture and black stories are essential

022to the ongoing story of America I want to offer a reminder that we should not limit ourselves to celebrating and honoring the history and an impact on American life and the plight of black folks only in February but to reflect on the contributions and burdens of that Community throughout the year I do want to highlight some events that are going to be occurring throughout our area that will be recognizing black history in addition to the school events that our students will participate in this will help us learn some of the history that Miss Keys gamara has highlighted that Mr fresh and Miss McLaughlin have shared and that could be found in our very own Fairfax Public Library System they will be hosting the Nicole Hannah Jones to present the 1619 project a new origin story

023to illuminate the Legacy and slavery in the United States and to also highlight the contributions of black Americans and American society Washington D.C will be offering an event 14's 14 to 18 to celebrate Black History Month featuring about when Washington DC was known as Chocolate City there will also be virtual poetry um that is available for our students 8 to 13 years old so please visit the County website in order to access these wonderful opportunities but again I challenge us to look beyond what is just being shared today this month and to take this information in this sense of understanding and the sense of urgency to take this understanding of historical inequities of worthwhile contributors each day my ask is that we see black individuals as contributors invaluable bringing with them a deep sense of

024history and complicated trauma each and every day we need to see our black history and our curriculum and our daily interactions and in our policies thank you happy Black History Month thank you Dr Anderson Miss Marin so I think our schools have a responsibility to teach the full facets of American History culture law and modern challenges and in Fairfax County we expect our schools to teach about efforts to expand civil rights and this undoubtedly includes teaching about individuals such as Harriet Tubman Rosa Parks and of course Martin Luther King Jr but I think we must be cautious about framing civil rights and movement towards more equal rights in terms of just one person and in one time because the civil rights movement in America the action against oppression began on the Dreadful moment as was

025mentioned when enslaved Africans stepped foot on the ill-named point comfort in our very own Virginia in 1619. in this expanse of time over 400 years that's what our schools might teach students about to provide a comprehensive and truthful education about the Battle for civil rights in America and it's really a battle for human rights every subject throughout K-12 education provides opportunities to learn lessons about Seeking Justice what happens when Justice is denied and how to Grapple with wrongs of the past to make a more Equitable and beautiful future we continue to live in the civil rights movement and movement is still needed when we live in a state where standards for Education have been recently proposed that omitted students learning about Martin Luther King until well into Elementary School among other admissions about content and

026inquiry-based learning about our complex American society and indeed the very history of the place where students live I'm continuously learning about African about the African-American experience in America and I think that's perhaps a better way to frame it it's not history it's the African-American experience it's every um facet of our curriculum and the school year um this is to fill a gap in my own education growing up in New York in the 1980s and 90s that I've been seeking to film my whole life in graduate school at Duke University in early 2000 I took African-American history 101 being the only grad student in this undergrad class and although there was a Duke basketball player in there as well the person I was most intrigued with was the professor and I Devour the information and now

027the level of scholarship is expanding so widely this past Martin Luther King day I was amazed to hear Economist and researcher Heather McGee who wrote the book the sum of us and she asked this question why can't we have nice things and she weaved a story saying that it was because of racism that that people filled in swimming pools public swimming pools rather than have black neighbors use those pools and those are lessons we continue to learn and it affects our economy it affects our job so absolutely this is information that our students must know and must grapple with so that we can all have nice things and and succeed in our lives thank you thank you Miss mayor and Miss Tolan thank you and happy Black History Month um I also wanted to highlight

028um Carter G Woodson thank you um Miss McLaughlin for getting us started to talk about this remarkable person from our geographic area um just to give people a little bit more information so that um you know as my colleagues have been saying we can continue to to celebrate um our black history um Carter G Woodson's home in the shaw neighborhood of DC is a National Historic Site it was a hub of American black intellectual thoughts as he mentioned both men and women including Langston Hughes we have our one of our middle schools named after Langston Hughes and he mentored Zola Neil Hurston and Mary McLeod Bethune he was an author publisher and historian tasks with sharing and preserving black history before him black history was very limited and not very accurate if you want to

029learn more about his work you're in luck you can visit his home after the current renovation is complete this spring it's right here in our backyard in DC please check the National Park Service websites for updates and details and I'm happy Black History Month thank you Miss Tallinn so you know the board members who wish to speak I'd like to call on Miss talk about student representative before saying a few words myself so please miss talk me thank you so yeah on the note of Black History Month I wanted to say that black history and Black Culture black Love Back stories they shouldn't just be all condensed into one month and then kind of split out in history classes English classes this should go on during other months at the beginning of the school year

030at the end of the school year middle of December and I also wanted to say let's continue to acknowledge the amazing Melting Pot of the society that we live in we're in such a diverse County and it's really beautiful to see different ways that that's honored I know a lot of schools have their International night during February so I know I'm going to be heading to a couple of those I also want to say that I was really lucky to sit on the committee that decided the historical markers and a student from South County actually I'm very proud to say one of my peers had a submission that was selected and of course let's not just acknowledge the past let's learn from it let's do better let's not just watch curriculum be changed purposely exclude

031the efforts made by African Americans and it always warms my heart whenever over educator Educators go beyond the textbook go beyond your MLK stories your Rosa Parks and they actually go and do their own research sometimes too because that actually makes me feel seen in classrooms sometimes and of course rather than letting history books tell us who was important we can celebrate special months like Black History Month that gives us an opportunity to learn about other historical figures that have impacted our lives and our world and of course like Dr Anderson highlighted black history should not only be highlighted during black history month but beyond that so happy Black History Month foreign I really appreciate as always your wise words and I will not um take too long as my colleagues I think said it

032the best but I just wanted to say I very much agree I love the theme of this year's Black History Month which is black resistance because unfortunately throughout history so much of the rights that um everyone should have for African-Americans from my learning has come through block resistance and black strength and um I hope we get to the point in our society where we don't need resistance for everyone to have equal rights but we're working on it and in the meantime we won't get there if we can't teach the history to our students all of it so they understand the resistance I took and the work and the effort that it took to get to where we are and where we still need to go so I love the theme black resistance I think it's

033important as my colleagues have said in our textbooks and our classrooms to learn Beyond slavery and civil rights the history of inventions industry Cuisine pop culture and the many firsts and celebrations and um achievements of black history or as my colleagues wisely said American history so with that I will call for the vote all those in favor please raise your hands that is Miss Keys gamara Miss Marin Miss Amish Miss Tolan Miss Corbett Sanders mRNA Koufax Mrs McLaughlin Dr Anderson Mr Frisch Miss Cohen miss bakarski that is unanimous um that motion passes congratulations everybody all those who are here this evening in support of black the Black History Month resolution I invite you we invite you to join us at the front of the dies for photo agenda item 3.01 Community participation the next order

034of business is community participation speakers must limit the remarks to no more than two minutes in length at the conclusion of two minutes the microphone and video will be turned off school board members will be listening but not responding to individual speakers the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as a 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 refrain from using personally identifile information in connection with an individual student or school-based employee additionally speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in their statements avoiding profanity inappropriate gestures shouting and comments that run counter to the spirit

035and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy the school board welcomes community members by comments at its regular business meetings and public hearings on school board deliberations School related issues or particular topics all statements should be directed to the school board and speakers should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks as a reminder speaker substitutions are not permitted a speaker maybe may not yield their time to another individual before or during their remarks shouting and outputs from the audience will not be tolerated we are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation Madam clerk please call the first Speaker our first speaker is Michael Lucas good evening oh in 2023 the using the word is inappropriate in all settings and does not embody inclusive language

036Karen Keys gamara used a derogatory slang to insert to insult her fellow school board members I'm not going to argue over that or how someone chooses to insult their own friends families acquaintances on their own time it's up to them I would like to discuss this being being a public forum and of elective officials in order for a new vocabulary word to make the journey in a brain's long-term memory a person must be exposed to a word in 17 times intervals so there's a lot of words that exist in the dictionary but they're not in people's vocabulary it's especially not their go-to terms when they become frustrated at the outcome because uh one of the school board members chose to do nothing most of the school board members chose to do nothing I'm calling on

037you now to do something and not be complicit um so I'm not really interested in uh don't come out with words on a website explaining your ties to the disability Community now is the time for Action no one in Fairfax would stand for this type of language from a publicly elected official if it referring to any other anything else beside the developmentally disabled Community if you replace any other low-class and hurtful term to a group of people whether it were race gender national origin or sexual orientation it would not be tolerated several of you have indicated to me that you would support indeed Accenture now is a chance to do something especially because many of you seek higher offices there would be no safe haven for publicly elected officials using using the r word I

038am sure that you'll remember this the next time you go backslapping your constituents and saying what a great job you're doing I challenge each of the board members to do the right thing call for a resignation if you don't I'd like to think that the voters in Fairfax will take care of your issues at the polling booths in the next election go on formal record by publicly asking for the thank you our next speaker is Grace levieri good evening thank you for the opportunity to speak and our two key issues we would like to highlight about the calendar is coming from the field that the calendar really has forgotten the most important thing the kids and the welfare first point we would like to make is the stability so the calendar should really keep the

039days off to stable stock status the calendar proposal at the moment really has constantly increased the number 2020 we had 28 days 2021 we had 30 days this year we have 36 Days The Proposal goes up to 37 and in up to 40 in 2025. that's a 42 increase from 2020 to 25. if we continue this way we will have a year-round school at the same time our neighboring counties that celebrate the same holidays managed to keep it to 25 to 29 days off secondly related to that point there is really a lot of disruptions because a lot of incomplete weeks if we look at 2020 Fairfax County had nine incomplete weeks 2021 had 11. now we are getting up to 16. that's a 40 increase sorry 70 percent increase actually in five years in

040your incomplete weeks you can look at the neighboring counties Montgomery has nine Arlington 11 and Loudon 12. so that's extremely disruptive so when you look where the days are located you can just take a look at the blue 2023 calendar and it has January one complete week then kids come back from the spring break in 2025 two and a half days at school two and a half days off again there are many of these kind of examples that really doesn't help kids to build a routine so in some we propose that you will start prioritizing the kids and their welfare you can do it easily by reducing holidays combining holidays with teacher week days or shortening the winter break thank you our next speaker is Tony Sabio all right thank you for this time so

041I went over and looked at the policy 8612 the new revised policy and nothing on here is talking about our elementary schools as far as putting uh security staff or sros at the locations I know uh the last meeting we had FBI agents speak upon this and still nothing's happening so my background I come from the military worked in secret service and the CIA a lot of people here Fairfax County come from government they work installations that have robust security and our precious kids that we all regardless of where you stand on the aisle we all agree need to be cherished and need to be protected even our teachers inadequate Security in our schools is not acceptable it's not acceptable in the government it's not acceptable in any aspect and I implore our school board

042to rebuise this policy to include more robust security until until we get this straight I'm going to come here every single time and talk about this I thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Calvin Dyson good evening I would like to address what seems to be a systemic problem in Virginia with School administration faculty and staff failing our students and more recently filling its own faculty when it comes to bullying and threats falling short of providing adequate and appropriate policies and procedures to keep our children and students safe my son reported issues with another student to faculty three times all when unreported to administrators but the final encounter escalating into a more serious situation the events my son noted by The Substitute Teacher of an issue with another student my son

043notified the class teacher of the issue with the other student and asked to be moved to another class to avoid the students you know on November 30th the student made an obscene gesture to my son in front of a teacher and the teacher simply told the student to go to the bus while waiting for the bus the student attacked my son in a fight between the two occurred on December 1st and 2nd my son served his suspension for fighting and then on December 8th that same student made a threat to murk my son which I found means to defeat overwhelmingly beat up kill or eliminate the school system failed less than at least three times there is still no resolution no contact from District after my request to speak with someone and it has been

044three weeks since I was supposed to hear the district's decision who is accountable as a parent I have taught my sons to let faculty staff know when they're having an issue or problem a district ignored warnings before a teacher was shot in Newport News what warning signs are necessary the plans currently in place are not adequate so where do we go through here so I asked the board who is accountable If This Were Your Child and I think for your time thank you our next speaker is Mark Spooner good evening I have two requests tonight first I'd ask that you look at the monitor up there and what you see is the back of my head from the back of the auditorium so you can't even hardly see who's speaking when the superintendent gets up

045in a short while what usually occurs is you turn on the cameras from from the front you see her smiling face and her engaging personality whether she has a pencil in her mouth or not uh you used to focus uh uh the camera the same way during the citizen participation section but somebody decided to change that and the effect of that is to de-personalize the speakers I think that was a petty decision on becoming a board of a public nature like this one is uh you can change that right now Madam Chair by directing the camera to be uh directed at me and at the other speakers and if you choose not to do so today hopefully you will do so by the next meeting my second point is this what's happened to the um

046uh attempt by transgender Advocates to see how far they can push the envelope in their quest to pretend that boys and girls were all the same there was a proposal that was came before the board a couple of months ago uh to put all of them in the same sex ed classes and since then it seems to have fallen into a black hole uh increase about its status have gone unanswered and people have offered various explanations for why this is so but I think you have an obligation to take it up discuss it on the record and take a vote and that way you'll be transparent The Advocates will know where you stand and the public will know where it stands as well thank you thank you our next speaker is Samantha Phelps howdy I'm

047a teacher here in Fairfax County this is my 11th year teaching in my sixth year here at uh in Fairfax um given that since the start of the school year the county has lost over 350 teachers according to the quarterly Personnel appointments and separations report the proposed budget you spent a great deal of time discussing staff compensation specifically about how to best package and advertise to staff that full that FCPS truly does care about its employees that between compensation and benefits it truly is competitive compared to the surrounding divisions I'm here to kind of help you in the sense of reminding you that there are other ways to tell us that you care besides monetary compensation there's lots of ways to encourage staff specifically teachers to stay in FCPS by such as finding a way

048to hear directly from classroom teachers or looking at your grading expectations of nine grades per quarter but with class sizes at the high school level being five sections that calculates to about 80 hours of grading per quarter or about nine hours of grading per week yet we're only given 6.25 hours of planning time per week within which to grade papers with ample feedback plan engaging in rigorous lessons with providing differentiation for exceptional students design meaningful assessments that are graded on a well-designed and detailed rubric attend curriculum team meetings and department meetings Supply data and narratives or participate in 504 and IEP meetings for exceptional students attend 30 plus hours of mandatory trainings engage in correspondence from students colleagues and pair parents and design and Implement intervention strategies I'm urging you to examine some of the

049other policies such as the 20-day elimination period for the short-term disability that I spoke to you about in December by the way I had my baby um she's adorable or leave without pay I'm going to have to go on leave without pay because the 20-day elimination period killed all of my leave after six weeks [Applause] thank you agenda item 3.02 strategic Plan update I call on Dr Reed for this treaty Plan update good evening Madam chair uh it's a pleasure to be here this evening and uh talk about our strategic plan so I'm going to provide an update Laura if you can go to the next slide please and perhaps the next one as well one of the things I want to really draw your attention to and the community's attention to are the upcoming

050Community forums we have a number of them as you can see nine in particular one in each magisterial district we have also virtual as well as in-person opportunities they do begin this coming Monday so it's coming right up and I really encourage anyone watching our family students staff and all community members to take advantage of the opportunity to participate in these forums where you're going to have time time to review student data and make recommendations on the goals and content of the Strategic plan at these events we plan to have child care and interpretive services and also we'll be able to engage in registration on the website where you can review materials that will be used at the forums prior to your arrival so you'll be familiar with those but if you're not able to

051do that we'll have those materials available at an opportunity to study them when we get together I want to really provide a special thank you to the over 100 Fairfax County Public School staff members and the nearly two dozen students who are going to be supporting these events and a particular thank you as well to Helen Lloyd and Tony Copeland as they are the co-champions of our community Forum work additional engagement opportunities we're excited to announce the launch of our K-12 tool let's talk and it's going to be coming out in the coming days it allows us to collect ongoing feedback from families students staff and all members of the community as our plan is being developed we're going to continue to promote this tool at the community forums and it's a way to keep

052the conversation going and a QR code will be available for board members to share in newsletters and mailings as well all of the data will be synthesized and provided to planning teams who are determining the goals and measures for the Strategic plan and will be provided to you as a board during your upcoming work session slash Retreat around the Strategic plan and by that I mean all of the data collected from all of the community events as well as all the survey work that's going on simultaneously in addition to the let's talk tool a staff and Community survey is going to be launched in March so even though we had a hundred thousand points of contact with our student survey we're going to be checking in with community and staff in the coming months finally

053we're going to be bringing our principals and central office leaders in February and March to provide feedback on the plan development one of the areas we're really excited about is we're not just surveying paper and pencil or email or electronically we're trying to look at every possible communication modality we actually also enjoy the in-person opportunities and principals have nominated students in grades three through six as well as 7 through 12 to participate in focus groups and these email invitations are going to FCPS issued email if they express an interest in these focus groups they're going to be playing taking place in February and March so a lot of activity in the next couple months around collecting information and feedback so far we've had over 194 students in grades 7 through 12 self self nominate themselves

054to participate so we're really excited that's a lot of student voice Miss togby that's probably due to your cheerleading parents can preview consent forms on the strategic planning website and also receive a consent form electron chronically if your student is selected to participate we want to thank our student voice Champions Leona Smith and Kevin Morris for their leadership and lastly we invite you to stay connected with this important strategic planning work and look forward to upcoming dates updates as well as tuning into the board meetings for the community forums so that is the strategic planning update Madam chair thank you Dr Reed and I hope our community will take advantage of all these many opportunities to engage because I know we all value their voices and input so thank you for that and for all

055the time that you and your staff have put to arranging and organizing these Community forums I know it was no small feat so thank you to the staff as well um I will move on to agenda item 3.03 academic matters and I will call on you Dr Reed for an update well thank you madam chair and I want to draw attention to a pamphlet that's at your desk this evening on the diocese and this is hot off the press this is our Equitable access to literacy plan 2022-2027. uh big props to Noelle clomenko who's here this evening and Dr Sloane Presidio for their work and Leadership this is a combined effort based on our instructional Services team and really it's an a fabulous document that's also available on our website and this evening I just

056want to give you a brief update because this work is some of the most important work we're doing right now in the division and I know we've had a number of other topics we've been discussing recently but we have to remember to Center our work in student academic achievement in progress so this evening I'm thrilled to present the work that Miss clamenco has been leading in early literacy so Laura let's go ahead thank you these are the major Milestones of this journey to date and as you remember this work started in 2021 with the board commitment to changing our approach to literacy here in Fairfax County and with that change the instructional team bounded into action ensuring that our pre-k2 students that would be pre-kindergarten through second grade students had access to cumulative explicit daily

057phonological awareness and phonics instruction it is so key to early literacy development and I'm so proud of our instructional team for bounding into uh bounding into the arena here we began critical professional development for our literacy leaders School administrators and leadership team to begin building this understanding of the what why Ai and how of this change we're currently engaged in a basal resource adoption of sorts I think it was paused because we're waiting on the state to come up with their list of basal materials but we did purchase supplemental resources including online software Lexia decodable texts as well which has allowed us to make progress with this change in the spring of 2022 the Virginia literacy Act was passed which again it's just a reminder and this aligns and supports the work we're doing here

058in Fairfax County our full the legislation expects full implementation in the 24 25 Academic School year so we're really excited about these Milestones one of the things that I think is really important is the prioritization of professional development and 98 percent of our elementary literacy leaders are on track to have completed the comprehensive letters training and 98 percent of schools have at least one Orton Gillingham trained teacher that's real progress for a division of this size with over 140 elementary schools so we're really thrilled um to be able to share the progress of this work So the plan is live for those of you watching at home you don't have to wait a minute longer you can just log on and access the uh the new work plan and Laura let's go to the next

059one there's several components of the plan that I want to draw your attention to um are on the screen and really what's so important about this plan is that it provides transparency Clarity and accountability for this work moving forward we really expect that every one of our Young Learners will be a reader and this is a strategy designed to get us there we really we're very excited about this work thank you Laura when you have a chance to dig into the plan and I know many of you are already scrambling to get to your monitors if you're not there already so you can log in and check it out but you'll see that each goal area has a chart that lays out the actions across the ear and shows the progress from developing awareness to

060full implementation and this is sort of a mini project management chart that we have for each goal area so we want to make sure that the community knows we are holding ourselves accountable to this work in a serious way because we know the impact it's going to make for our youngest readers you'll note that there are two actions listed one has an asterisk meaning that it is explicitly named in the Virginia literacy act and this plan was written to ensure that all aspects of the legislation were included the little asterisk I think is next to K2 so that comes right out of the literacy act and we're thrilled about that so next steps um we are thrilled to see Focus area metrics for accountability that will allow us to iterate this plan so that we

061will continue to Monitor and adjust because we want to make sure our impact is high and we're going to be excited to continue to share these outcomes with you as we have continuing data it is our intent for each and every student to be a solid confident capable reader by grade three because we know that's going to enable them to reach their full academic and life potential quite honestly so Madam chair there you have it academics matter academics matter very much thank you Dr Reed I see some of my colleagues who wish to speak so I will call on Miss Cohen thank you very much I just wanted to say I really I I know that when we were in early conversations about this one of my biggest fears was as we were coming back

062in and we knew that the lift for our staff was going to be just beyond um and I I frankly was a little bit worried because I felt like some of our um some of our teachers some of our reading Specialists I felt like maybe had not been brought along in some of the early stages and so there was a little bit of tension doing this even though everybody agreed you know that this is the right thing and so every time I go in a school I ask about it and I cannot get over I mean I know we talk about our staff being miracle workers but the way that this has been so quickly well beyond any expectation that I think any of us on the board had about how quickly it would be

063integrated um by our staff how quickly it was embraced whole teams working together um going to professional development well outside of contract hours trying to get this right and getting to see some of the early results has just been um it's been amazing and there are some principals who are who cannot wait to share what return they are getting from some of our early readers and I had the chance this week to at Kings Park sit next to a kindergartner who is reading to me out of one of the readers and it was the best and so I just want to say a huge thank you to all of our staff everybody I know this has been all hands on deck to do the right thing quickly and it it was a hard and heavy

064lift for people and it changed a lot of the ways that they did things and I know that was not easy so I so appreciate it and you know if the state would spend more time giving us the resources that they are supposed to give us almost more than a year ago we'd be able to have purchased our readers so if you're listening out there we sure would appreciate getting our um our resource guides thank you thank you Miss Cohen thank you Mr fresh thank you it seems like it was 10 years ago that we the board requested its work session on uh the science of reading and how we were going to be shifting our Focus um and I don't think it can be understood about how big how enormous an Institutional shift something

065like this is from top to bottom you know how our Educators learn their craft and adjust that approach the materials they use how it's How it changes the classroom um can you talk a little bit about when we talk about measuring um success or need for improvement how we're going to measure the transition in the classroom beyond the training well thank you Mr fresh I I think right now the literacy leaders in the schools are getting really comprehensive training the letters training is enormously comprehensive I think what we're going to want to look at is the we're not going to know it's effective unless we're looking at student outcome data and I'm going to turn to miss clamenco to get a feel for which data pieces staff will be looking at though I know many

066of you have been meeting with your Regional assistant superintendents and principals to begin looking at some of the reading data but miss clamenco could you provide perhaps a more detailed answer to Mr Frisch's question please absolutely absolutely um there's many data points and we've tried to align metrics to each of the focus areas and the plan and many of the data points you all have heard of before as around i-Ready one of the points that people aren't as used to hearing is really thinking about how many kids when they get to middle school and high school need intervention like reducing that number obviously as we're looking at this data we're also looking at gaps right so where we might have high data in some areas we want to make sure all students are being successful

067so we'll be looking at the i-Ready day at the younger ages we'll be moving into Sol data at the older ages and then also looking at how it impacts course selection so we'll have Apples to Apples comparisons year over year which I think is really great um I'll Echo Miss Cohen's comment you know this year's budget your budget includes a significant amount of money for the materials we're going to need to complete implementation here and any update from our partners in Richmond about when they will be approving those materials which we've been waiting on for a while well thank you Mr Frisch well we have had some news from Richmond I'm not as clear on the news around the reading so miss clomenko so just Friday night they released the phase one of the resource

068adoption so they looked at I'm going to estimate around 14 different resources they chopped off about four of them and there are some remaining that are going to phase two so what that indicates to us is that they're on time and we should expect to get that list as as planned in March April so that's good news very good news on the new timeline I very much appreciate the update and we'll be sharing this report with my constituents thank you thank you Mr Frisch thank you Dr Anderson thank you I just really have one question and I appreciate this report as we are getting all of our staff trained obviously it doesn't happen overnight it's all going to be phased in can you speak a little bit to what is it that we are expecting

069of our Educators until their training what should they be engaging in with our students what should they what is their responsibility until they're trained and they can pivot into the new way of instructing so I think that's a great question and because we have embarked on the use of decodable readers and the literacy leaders within schools have been trained there is a beginning a phase in if you will of this direct explicit instruction and again I'll rely on Miss clamenco to give some more specifics so as his work kicked off we all felt a urgency right and we knew that training would be optimal and stopping and training would be great but there was an urgency so um last year K2 teachers were provided very explicit lessons the cumulative explicit lessons in phonics and phonemic

070awareness so they could start right away even though they wouldn't have been in a place to write their own we created very structured lessons for them and provided training not only to literacy leaders but ongoing training to them to the greatest degree possible this year we have upped that game and we bought the decodables last year and now we're training them on well how do you use a decodable in that small group setting really what does a skills-based small group look like compared to the kinds of small groups we used to do with leveled readers so it is a gradual sort of process as teachers are gaining familiarity with this new way of teaching but it is um you know obviously if everyone had training we could move faster but I think we're moving as

071fast as we can and really leaning on the literacy leaders to to help us with that work and I can't really thank them enough for all that they are doing we also did expand to three six again providing those very um I'm going to say scripted but very specific and explicit lessons to help them with the word work at grades three through six so where we don't have opportunities to build out significant training we supplement with strong resources and that job embedded support from the literacy leaders and that's and that's expected for all of the components that are to come in the out years that you will provide that strong support so that teachers have something to engage with in the meanwhile until they get to that space where they've been trained and are comfortable

072with developing their own resources correct thank you Dr Anderson Ms Corbett Sanders yes thank you madam chair and thank you Dr Reed as you may feel from the or sense from my colleagues comments we are so excited about this work and you know Fairfax was the Leading Edge of it we were the first ones in the state of Virginia to really push forward on the science of reading and the legislature followed us well there's a debate going on and I believe that yet again Fairfax is leading because the leading that we're taking is we don't see this as something that is only for early years of education but that this is an important approach to teaching our children the whole time that they are in school with us and we know that through this proven

073scientific approach that our children who come to us from very diverse starting points will all be given an amazing opportunity to uh to apply reading skills initially with simple text but as they progress through our system more and more complex texts so this is wonderful I actually think that we should make copies of it and take it down to Richmond with us to share with our folks down there on the importance of this work yes ma'am thank you thank you Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan yes thank you and thank you for this report this evening um I also have been out in schools talking to our literacy leaders and our teachers and everyone is so excited about this work and actually I'm really excited to talk about the successes that they're having with students which

074is uh you know we're after anyway um I just had one question I was wondering if you can elaborate a little bit about um you know we know that there's significant professional development that needs to happen for our teachers um in order to implement this you know across all of our schools so um let's go and Co you've already talked a little bit about the types of training that went on this past year I'm just wondering if you could explain a little bit like how this training fits in with the professional work days that we're talking about you know we're in our calendar process right now in our various calendars have different numbers of professional work days how does you know rolling out a program like this across an entire District how does using those

075professional work days fit in with that thank you Mrs tone so it really takes time right it takes time for people to dig into the resources to do the learning to reflect on how it's going to look at data so all of those professional work days allow people to really be prepared and to deepen their own knowledge so that they can implement this effectively so we continue to do there's a little bit of content PD that happens but there's also implementation PD so both of those things can be optimized through that time thank you Miss Tallinn did you have anything else I don't have anything else um you know I might just mention around on these professional work days today as a professional work day um for our teachers and I was able to attend

076I went to the science training and you know as a great example of the first thing that they talked about was um you know how science teachers need to implement some of the new uh laws that were put through in Richmond and then the subsequent you know policies and regulations that we put in place to comply with those new laws so you know that's just another example of where those days are useful and you know as we've mentioned um you know the legislature followed us in uh seeing how important this literacy work is so um you know I applaud the work that our instructional Services folks are doing to get this out to our schools thank you Miss Tolan Miss Marin I wanted to remind or perhaps inform the public or those unaware that this

077plan that FCPS is putting into place that has been elevated and accelerated because of bipartisan legislation that passed last year so bipartisan legislation means different people that thought different ways came together and made something happen and it happened under the signature of Governor Younkin and this is the kind of governance and policy work that our Commonwealth needs and this is where the state's leadership and attention is most effective I wanted to say a moment about Equity what does Equitable access because that word is used a lot and it's misunderstood a lot Equity means that the student gets the instruction in the way that makes the most sense for that student to achieve so for instance a student with dyslexia a challenge that affects 20 of our population that student needs the kind of instruction that's

078in this literacy plan and all students will benefit from that instruction as well yesterday I spoke with the dyslexic fourth grade student who told me about the non-fiction historical excuse me the historical fiction piece he was writing this is a student that still is not yet on grade level but because of these strategies that student has an equitable access to literacy that's what that means I also wanted to share um just some thoughts related to this and some of the topics we heard tonight for instance about security I know all of us are very concerned about student security I have my own kids in the building but our mission at this at the public schools is to do this is to educate our children and this is where we shine and this is our expertise

079and our expertise is not preventing gun violence or preventing break-ins and indeed our funding doesn't cover enough for us to do those things so we have to make these decisions based on funding that is often not enough and with public services that are you know Society has to keep its end of the bargain too and you know teach our children and show up and not allow guns to be accessible and and all of these things about the calendar I heard some comments about the calendar this kind of work doesn't happen without targeted professional development and the number one thing I hear from our staff is they crave professional development where they're being coached how to do this in the classroom it's not going to happen in a webinar once a year or once a quarter

080or in the summer it's going to happen throughout the year with very intense this is a craft and they're teaching children so I just want to underscore and just share you know again how important this is and um I'm just so thrilled and I know I got a note from our decoding dyslexia Advocates who are just so thankful to miss clamenco Dr Presidio the staff and they're saying that around Virginia decoding Excelsior Virginia we are being seen Fairfax is being seen as um as a dream come true the website the background process behind the scenes it's making a difference so Fairfax county is focused on the the very Foundation of children's success and that is being a literate person who is confident in their reading and writing and expressing themselves in in the world so

081this is just wonderful thank you for the for the update thank you Miss Marin thank you Miss Amish yeah thank you and thank you to staff it's exciting to receive this after a lot of conversation around it um and uh I'm certainly excited about the potential I think um I I say that so that I am thrilled that we're moving in this direction but perhaps cautiously skeptical um mostly not not so much of the merits although I know education tends to have Trends and the research suggests something we adopted and then we find the next new thing and so so I'm you know wanting to see this in context but um more about the rollout and and how we really uh uh live up to the Equitable access piece of what we're saying um to

082me you know just a couple things that maybe Stand Out Reflections for us to think about here moving forward I really appreciated seeing you know culturally and linguistically responsive as strategic actions that are uh critical to this work um but maybe I'm I'm wondering a little bit you know as when it comes to that Equitable versus just that equal if you will piece of meeting kids where they're at in raising the bar not just um you know and getting them to a place where they're sufficiently reading but really challenging them to to exceed their potential and and I say that because I uh you know not only recognize the importance of of reading and and writing but um in in advancing in our society and and ultimately and reflecting you know who's able to become

083a part of power and access power and all of that comes down to how well you know good your English is and your ability to um engage uh in reading and writing so I I share that um so so that leads me to two things one is when it comes to bringing in skills from other languages or the level of Parental engagement and seeing you know the fourth uh component here perhaps we can engage families a little bit earlier you know I I um I I saw that it kind of lags a little bit in terms of when we build knowledge versus um Advanced or fine Etc or what the timeline is for our goals on that but um I I worry about the little about that a little bit because I think for families

084who are wanting their children to be better than they could ever imagine who perhaps have literacy struggles themselves or for whom English is not their first language or I think there might be a little bit more engagement there earlier that could be done to to meet our goals more effectively and then the second component of how I see this manifesting is what metrics matter you know I think I ready the Sol reading scores probably all of that but I don't want us to just have more kids passing sols I want us you know helping those kids who are passing that so Wells get the uh uh the high passing scores and and maybe the full scores and and just really challenging uh kids Beyond um I think that that's something um I hope we can

085keep in mind uh in not just reaching our minimums but but challenging our kids uh to go further uh and and Scaffolding yeah and the other piece in the implementation is the scaffolding for how we're detecting and then addressing when kids are falling behind that's more processed than it is you know science of reading but it's a critical component so that's my time but I hope that we can think about these pieces that I think thank you for submission thank you so much thank you I I really see this report as letting our community know the goals not just the plan that we adopted a little over I think about a year ago um but also this is where we are this is a status report this is how we plan to implement it and

086it's certainly there is certainly room to identify those metrics one of the as I look I glanced at this I I was thankful on page 12 where it says align School Improvement goals it's about four or five down under the Strategic action align School Improvement goals with division wide instructional shifts and as I see that language it really is focusing on Fidelity of implementation in each individual school which which just warms my heart so um I'm I'm grateful for that I'm looking forward to those additional account ability measures that we can Implement and continue to notify our community regarding I'd also ask that we provide not just information online about this report but I think some parents are asking how can I participate in supporting my child in alignment with the efforts that are occurring

087within our schools and so I actually have been contacted by another parent who has a plan for that and I'll connect you to him but I think the if we can build those Partnerships it really I just I encourage that process and I always you know when I get a chance to talk to parents I was like I hope you're snuggling and reading because there's no better way to learn so I just want to say thank you I know there's more to come but I also want to look at ways that we can involve parents and make sure that we're building those teams thank you yep thank you Miss Keys Gamora and I I had spent lunch today with our parent resource center staff and I know they're going to be excited about this opportunity

088and others that are moving forward in terms of their work with parents so thank you thank you Miss picarski yeah thank you I just want to say this is um wonderful to see and I actually have a daughter who for whom I had to who's a senior this year for whom I had to pay lots of money to have access to these teaching strategies that are best that all kids will now have it is something that I ran on my campaign for school board because I wanted to see access for all kids and I was not actually the only one others on this board too so to see us see it come to fruition like this I want to thank you Dr Presidio and miss clamenco and your staff because this is such a life-changing

089thing for kids and for all our students and educators are seeing that because I too when I go in I asked about it in every school and I hear even teachers who were like hmm you know I mean we do in education we kind of get set in our thing but this is based on data and research about the brain and about how we learn and they are what they are seeing is is making them True Believers so I'm excited for the full rollout I cannot wait to share this with our community thank you for doing this I hope we will all share this because it really is what we're here to do and it's going to change the lives of students so thank you for everyone for working so hard to make it happen

090um and it has not been the easiest a few years so I just wanted to share my thanks thank you mrkarski thank you and seeing you know the board member who wishes to speak I'll just say a few words I I go everything my colleague said but I just I just have to thank you for this because so often many of us and and many of us on this board have talked about project management and how are we managing how are we showing the steps and and this is that right and I love that it's everything from what are we doing and even a common understanding of terms and a system this big I think having this common understanding is so important and I think sometimes we sort of skip that step right so just

091having a glossary of collective understanding is important and I love I know many of us on this board have talked about Fidelity implementation so that you have this broken up into your plan of what are we teaching what's the PD look like what's the implementation look like what's the implantation checks look like and finally how are we working with families in the community so that what we are trying to do what we are training our teachers to do is what's being reflected in the experiences that as our children and families are receiving because that's so important because we can try to do everything the best we can and if it gets Lost in Translation or if there's room for improvement or tweaks that's that important experience we need to know we need the data but

092we also need the experience that street data that I know many of my colleagues have talked about so I I'm thrilled to see this I'm on like a million copies of this to I'm kidding about a million but you know I think I'm going to send this out in my newsletter I think handing this out to the community I think is really important and it's been a really busy time since you started it's hard to believe you've only been here since July you know July 1st and so it does seem hard to right I think I said earlier it feels like animal years but to see all of this work and the implementation happening and the good stories happening in this amount of time is really wonderful so I want to thank you I want

093to thank Mr climenko and Dr Presidio for their hard work and I just say I was on the acsd the advisory committee for students with disabilities starting in 2011. I think one of the early reports I worked on was on literacy so this is something that for many of us on the board has been a passion for a long time to bring to fruition so I'm very excited to see this um and I think this could be a road map for I'm just going to say the Strategic plan enhancement plan that's coming down the pike this might be a good road map for how that might be implemented out a little suggestion but thank you for this work thank you for all that you've done so I appreciate it thank you Dr Reed all right

094thank you madam chair we have a talented team so yep thank you [Applause] thank you and now I will turn to miss togbe for student representative matters so I will call on Miss togby thank you madam chair good evening everyone and happy Thursday it's an extra happy Thursday because I didn't have school today super important calendar update there are currently four drafted options that are being proposed for the next three years so please pay close attention to the differences and be sure to follow up with your opinions and input by filling out the feedback feedback form that was posted on the website and you have to fill it out by February 9th and I know if I was a student hearing this my first question would be February 9th 8 A.M or February 9th 11

09559 pm and I can confirm that it's February 9th at 11 59 pm this past weekend I was able to join Miss Corbett Sanders and Miss keys gamara at the Mount Vernon legislative session with the first being at Walt Whitman in the second at Hayfield Elementary I absolutely loved hearing about certain education-focused initiatives that our Representatives will be championing during this session as always it was lovely to return to the superintendent's advisory Council group to meet for the first time in 2023 I'm very excited to say that Dr Reed was able to attend and answer any and all questions that the delegates might have and later on in the session they split into committees such as civic education and health and wellness there's so much attention to detail and hard work just across the board

096and I am so so proud of all my peers I asked Noah who is the president or vice president of sac and he's also a senior at Woodson what he would say to essentially summarize the meeting and he said the meeting was filled with and I quote research research research with a side of doctor Aid Miss Pilsen and Miss kliminko were so kind to meet with Dr Anderson and I to discuss the different Avenues and programs in regards to early childhood and education and what we provide specifically in FCPS I learned so much about where we get our specific funds from and how we operate our programs but also the small parts that play into in our essentially large factors in it all at the budget hearing we heard a lot about the importance and

097not just the value of our athletic Trainers for our students I was fortunate enough to receive more information from my own ATMs H and the numbers that she gave me kind of stuck with me for the vdoe standards of quality ratios for a few other positions that I kind of compared to the specific at position so for example the ratio for librarians that are a guideline given out is 1 000 students for every one librarian and it's not just kind of stuck with me it made me think for a little bit and from what I received the second position for ATS was added in 1989 but over the last 10 to 15 years filling the vacancies has become challenging and I know this is being looked at but that's just something I wanted to mention

098again tonight today I was able to meet with supervisor walkenshaw to discuss a bit about road safety and the importance of that education among my student or our students and my peers I was also able to learn a little bit about the responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors and how they function so I can't wait to go back to my school and share a little bit about that and so I'm very grateful for that time I had today lastly I want to say congrats to all of our students out there for finishing the second quarter of the school year and to all my seniors do not let senioritis get to you as always thank you so much and have a great day thank you Miss dogby it's always a pleasure to listen to you and

099all the things that you've been doing I don't know how you have time to go to school too um thank you very much so I will now move to agenda item 3.05 superintendent matters I'll call on Dr Reed thank you madam chair and it was fabulous to spend the time with Miss togby was it only yesterday at the superintendent advisory council meeting so um just a lot of questions and a lot of great collaboration I want to note that Friday January 13th I had an opportunity to listen to the Fairfax High School chorus concert in a cabaret format it was a kind of a less formal setting and just some really talented young vocalists and musicians pretty incredible after that I had an opportunity to attend the Edison Hayfield girls basketball game which was very

100exciting maybe the most exciting part was the energy from their step team just really a lot of precision and passion and just excitement there's so I just really enjoyed both events on that evening on Saturday January 14th had the opportunity to attend the 14th annual Lunar New Year festival at Luther Jackson here in fact in this Auditorium there were some amazing performances and remarks and poetry recited and so forth just really an exciting afternoon I got to finish up the dehi by attending the Lake Braddock chorus children's concert which uh I think I don't know when I shared that with my own children there were so many songs that I knew it was kind of a Disney song afternoon and I I think they were from the genre that my own children thoroughly enjoyed so

101I think I was humming along with the team and then in the evening had an opportunity to visit Franklin Middle School and their musical Newsies oh my goodness these young middle school students that could have been on Broadway the tap dance seeing the vocalists the timing the drama it was a fabulous production just so proud of our fine and Performing Arts here in Fairfax County and just the things that our students learn in those experiences are so critically important to a well-rounded education this past weekend I had a fabulous opportunity to attend the Chantilly Academy Air Force Junior ROTC annual awards ceremony and it was also their changing of their guard and they had an opportunity to sit at a table with Deborah Chung and her parents as well as winter Grimes and her parents

102and several other Cadets and these young Cadets have such an incredible story such incredible academic achievement and really have hopes and dreams that I think we can just be really proud of so I enjoyed the evening and all the work that our young Cadets and our Academy programs connect with it was a fabulous night on a different note I want to remind everyone that tomorrow Friday January 27th is international Holocaust Remembrance Day as designated by the United Nations assembly this internationally recognized date falls on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and birkenau and as the number of our Holocaust Survivors continue to decline it's important to honor and remember all those who were lost to us as a result of the Holocaust we mustn't forget this so that we don't repeat this um in

103terms of several of the issues around the division our word Masters challenge honors is exciting our Cooper Middle School achieved highest honors in the recent word Masters challenge which is a national vocabulary competition that involves nearly 125 000 students and the eighth grade team from Cooper Middle School scored an impressive 173 points out of a possible 200 and the first of three meets this year our Cooper Middle School team placed eighth in the nation so that is one exciting award and we definitely want to congratulate them and their eighth grade English teachers who prepared and coached them for this competition reminder that we have a new text to speech feature on our website I want to thank Helen Lloyd in our occr team this is going to enable more accessibility to our website and we're

104really thrilled with that opportunity um yesterday I had the opportunity to attend the Fairfax County youth leadership program graduation and we had a chance to celebrate the many achievements and the experiences that our division students in County government over the past summer and chairman McKay and chief executive Brian Hill also had an opportunity to speak and it just was again a great reminder of the strength of our community and the care we take to support our young people and lastly I want to share that salad bars are back in elementary schools I had an opportunity to have my picture taken with my new hero Mr broccoli um and there were also very mobile carrots um attending the events but we were very excited I was able to be at londontown elementary school when they relaunched

105their salad bar and I had an opportunity to sit with some of our fourth grade young student athlete mathematicians so they're also mathletes and they were really schooling me on the benefits of carrots to their athletic prowess as well as their ability to factor decimals so I just think that there is a strong connection between Healthy nutrition our mathematical Acumen and our athletic ability so we're thrilled to get our salad bars back and I think that is it for superintendent matters this evening thank you Miss McLaughlin did you want to make a quick statement just a quick clarifying question as you know many of us have been asking about the salad bars and so as I understand it we opened them in about 30 or so of our Title One elementary schools we are planning

106opening the salad bars in our Title One schools first I believe it's [Music] um 36 yeah I believe the first round is 36 and then we have another round coming in February with the intent of having all our elementary schools on board by Spring so to my colleagues I just want to say you know our high schools have our largest population of students and I don't understand how School divisions around the country flip the switch and got their salad bars and healthy food back and we are going I think unfortunately extraordinarily too slow so I wanted to just Spotlight that I hope we find some more urgency to get this done faster yes ma'am we're accelerating as we speak thank you Miss McLaughlin thank you Dr Reed agenda item four action agenda on 4.02 strategic

107plan goals one through four reports I call him Miss bakarski for the motion I moved at the school board approved the goals one through four strategic plan reports for school years 2021-22 is there a second Miss Cohen Miss picarski would you like to speak to your motion um I think it's pretty self-explanatory just say that the full goal reports of Student Success caring culture Premier Workforce and resource stewardship were provided to us we did have one work session and an opportunity to read through those discuss and ask questions and much of what was reported to us we also had the opportunity to weave in through our budget discussions and ask questions of staff so I would like think to thank Steph for providing this use useful information for US based on last year's data that's

108it thank you Miss Cohen hope to speak to your second no just uh just to add that this is one of those opportunities where the public gets to see these reports here and then we get to take them back with us to work sessions to ask uh some deeper dive questions and so um as always I think we get a lot of questions about it it's always interesting to be revisiting last year's information as we're heading into a new strategic plan and I think that's kind of the lens for me that I took this year of like okay good this is why we're working on refocusing what we want to do and what metrics are going to measure those so um I am happy to second thank you Miss kieskamara oh okay no never mind

109Miss McLaughlin yes uh briefly Dr Reed I just wanted to let you know you know um gears I've expressed concern that maybe our goal reports don't have as robust data as I I would hope we can do you have a lot of metrics but then you can have what I think are some of the more meaningful metrics and so on the glow as Dr brabrand used to say the glow I have for uh for the for staff is that I've seen a lot of improvement and strength in the reports the grow is that I still feel that for me as one board member there's metrics that I just haven't received enough for me to uh support the reports for this year but I did want to really acknowledge that they've come a long way and

110the effort's been appreciated I'm hoping with your leadership we will continue to strengthen again the metrics that are in there that I think are most Mission critical and that will hopefully then guide and strengthen the work we're doing in the system thank you Miss McLaughlin Dr Anderson thank you I just also wanted to take the opportunity to thank staff for all their work I know it's a lot but I I do need to Echo some of what Miss McLaughlin has shared because I've shared this as well since my first year on the board that's some of the metrics that I collected do not really represent the metrics we need to collect it's not the right information it's almost a so what I was really looking forward to that work back in March of 2020 which

111we had one meeting about that Miss um Corbett Sanders was leading and then this little thing happened which pivoted the board's um attention covid and so I'm really looking forward to the Strategic plan to lead into a goal report or however it is that we're going to report our work in a manner that is more robust and more um specific and greater and better tied to student achievement because some of the metrics here just don't really do that but this is what we have right now I will support it but I'm looking forward to the change thank you seeing No Other Board member who wishes to speak I will take a brief turn I just want to Echo what Dr Anderson said and I I think I've used this phrase many times for this year

112that this is kind of this hybrid year right I should bring out a new superintendent we're working on a strategic plan that really should guide the rest of our work moving forward in terms of our policy governance our reporting on our goals and so as we're doing this we're continuing some things as we did before while building it's you know it's flying the plane as we build it sort of piece of it so I I will be supporting the goal reports this year for the same reason Dr Anderson mentioned but I just wanted to mention I think um this is a great opportunity as you often say Dr Reed to look at how we have been doing things and perhaps um take the feedback from the board and from our staff and from our community

113and see how do we want to you know do things better going forward or find those ways for continuous Improvement as we like to say but I really really appreciate the hard work of our staff in putting these together I know it's a lot of work and time that went into the reports and the data and I think even in the meeting we had today with some of our leaders on the data from the street plan there's always room for growth and so I'm looking forward to that growth coming out of this treaty plan so having said that I will call for the vote the motion is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands and it's Miss Keys gamara Miss Mara miss lamesh Mr I'm Sorry Miss Corbett Sanders excuse me

114Mr not Koufax Dr Anderson Mr Frisch Ms collinskey and myself all those opposed I'm Miss motolling season is also voting in favor all those opposed all is abstaining Miss McLaughlin that motion passes agenda item 4.03 Award of contract University of Wisconsin I call on I'm Sorry Miss McLaughlin for the motion thank you madam chair I move that the school board won award the contract to the University of Wisconsin for English language proficiency assessments as required by the Virginia Department of Education for the 2022-2023 school year and two authorize the director of the office of procurement services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there a second second Dr Anderson thank you Miss McLaughlin would like to speak to your second as I speak to your motion excuse me

115yes thank you chairman Heiser um so to my colleagues I know this was originally on the consent agenda but I felt it was important to pull it as an action item because as you read it it is the board approving expenses up to 1.1 million dollars for the University of Wisconsin to do some very important work for us related to we do assessments and it is State mandated and this is something that every School Division in the Commonwealth of Virginia has to administer but some of the information listed in the summary and background didn't really sufficiently um elucidate that number one and number two um there really has been a lot of conversation among board members and in the public venue about what contracts do come to the board which ones do we approve why

116do we approve some which ones do not um and so I really felt that it would be beneficial to have just this quick public vote again it's something that we are legally required to do it is something that we all also certainly are deeply committed to doing to helping our students and so I absolutely am happy to put this motion forward and support it but and Dr Reed I want to give a shout out to your Chief Operating Officer Marty Smith he called me and we had a really good conversation as well for me to understand again why this was coming to the board because again we are approving it I I do think it'll be helpful in the future that the board have the contract details um because I think we all take seriously

117our our fiduciary responsibilities for that um and the only other thing that I would add going forward is I think it's very helpful to also emphasize this particular contract is with another government entity and that's why um this this dollar value we are seeing it we are needing to approve it and my colleagues I know we're all very eager to visit our contracts policies especially on Consulting contracts so that there's greater Clarity for the board and the public on our contract oversight and and fiscal stewardship if it's all right I would like to call on Dr Presidio just briefly if you could emphasize how critically important this contract is is to our students Beyond just that it's it's mandated but what this really means for our School Division um absolutely thank you for that opportunity

118I appreciate it so in addition to to meeting the both the federal and state requirements for assessing students when they enter Fairfax and also providing that annual progress monitoring that information is critical for us to make sure that students are making progress and meeting those annual performance targets but it also gives us really actionable information that teachers can use in the classroom with targeting instruction not just for English language development instruction but for you know core academic instruction as well because they have an understanding of the types of skills that students have and the types of skills that they're still developing so there's a lot of really actionable information that we get from this assessment in this particular assessment is used in over 90 percent of the state so I mean this is the the

119big kind of you know most evidence-based assessment to use for supporting English language learners great thank you thank you the one who develops and administers this assessment and again that's why we're Contracting with them for these services great all right my colleagues uh thank you for your indulgences and I look forward to all of us supporting it thank you Dr Anderson would just speak to your second yes briefly I was actually going to invite Dr Presidio to do the same but to really give context in terms of how many of our students that this impacts can you give us kind of a general number about how many of our students participate in Wida assessments each year well that that actually is a great question thank you so we have about 20 percent of our student

120population that are English language Learners and sit for this assessment every year so that's over 35 000 students which you know would be one of the largest school systems in the entire state of Virginia so this is really really important information not just for us as Educators but also for the families to know the progress that their students are making in school right thank you so much for that because this week assessments also has multiple components there's reading there's speaking there's writing there's listening at the lower levels and it's really key for us to use some assessments some research-based proven method to evaluate how our students are progressing so thank you for that information and thank you to miss McLaughlin for allowing us to have this conversation by pulling it off consent thank you Dr

121Anderson seeing no other board members who wish to speak I will call for the vote the motion before us is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands that is Miss mccarski Mr Cohen Mr Frisch Dr Anderson Ms McLaughlin Mr Anna Colfax Miss uh Corbett Sanders Miss omish Miss Marin and uh Miss Keith gamara and myself with Miss um tolling away from the table that motion passes agenda item five consent agenda are adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules provide for a single consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through Board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board

122member prior to the meeting the consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item 6 new business the following a 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 agenda item 7 board committee reports there are no reports this evening so we will go move on to agenda item 8 which is board matters and I will call on Miss Keith Kamara you caught me all right sorry I'm trying to mix up which side I start on oh I appreciate it thank you um again happy Black History Month to everyone just some of the things

123I was able to participate in the past couple of weeks I attended a SRO community meeting at Westfield Springfield police station where they actually explained to the community the role of sros which I found was interesting they they didn't know I was a board member I didn't tell them till they finished but it was very very interesting um and I look forward to further discussions regarding that I also participated in the equity policy focus group meeting and the fea.legislative dialogue I want to say congratulations to the Fairfax City School Board who had many new members who they have delved into school governance and I want to wish them luck and congratulations we also had an msaoc meeting I attended the Asian community service Center's 14th annual Chinese new year ceremony which I absolutely love because

124the cafeteria here is filled with amazing food and I never have trouble getting my husband to meet me here so it was it was awesome we bought dinner here I also attended the First Baptist Church of Vienna Martin Luther King Jr program which was with our superintendent and I believe Ms Sizemore Heiser was there as well it was absolutely inspiring to see the community come together and agree to work together to improve the community I it was just the dose I needed I also went to a teen volunteer service event that very same day where we developed put together created an assembly line um to put together bags to support students who may be experiencing homelessness and we were joined there by the new mayor of Fairfax city and then just last night along with

125a couple of my colleagues or participated in the Hispanic Educators association annual career night so it's been a little it's been busy but enjoyable and it's always wonderful to get out in the community and see folks and I have to say my favorite was on MLK day where we both encouraged one another and joined hands to to support our community thank you thank you Miss Marin yes I also as I mentioned earlier really enjoyed and appreciated being at the wrestling Community Center for the Martin Luther King Jr birthday celebration with author and researcher Heather McKee and um the rest of the community center puts on a really thoughtful program it was the Capstone of a week of a weekend of programming um and I'm eager to read her new book The the some of us

126yes last night the Hispanic leaders um Alliance and Educators Association put on a really great panel for career night of some not only FCPS staff but amazing professionals a judge people in the Arts just showing an array of careers that our students are more than capable of succeeding in this weekend I'm I'm headed to a lot of basketball I've got the South Lakes High School game and then also the Special Olympics games that are happening we have our Madison students in a game as well as our South Lake students in a game so it's a good thing that I have a child who loves basketball because that seems like what it's going to be for the days ahead so I shared remarks earlier tonight so I'll just keep it at that for the evening thank

127you thank you Miss Mary Miss Amish thank you I think all of us are sharing our service stories from MLK day and it's befitting I enjoyed working with a group of young women throughout the day and mentoring them on reflecting on good company and how to surround yourself by folks who will encourage you to do what's right and what's good in Springfield but I also wanted to recognize I know many of our community members were celebrating Lunar New Year and we find ourselves in an interesting place where it's the year of the rabbit but also the Year of the Cat if you weren't aware of that you could read up on it it is actually an interesting cultural distinction and kind of the history and the stories of how we arrived at the new year

128but and obviously with it being African-American history month coming up soon and the Holocaust Remembrance Day tomorrow we certainly reflect on the tragedies of our past and thinking about how we can build a better future I think that's a collective feeling in our community and we wish folks who are observing uh reflective and blessed time I also want to congratulate FCPS on the mental health Grant the 13.5 million dollars that are just the first year really of receiving that money huge really great uh big deal thank you staff for all that you guys have done to to earn that I know you know we've talked for many years uh collectively as colleagues about the unacceptable ratios that the state and and more broadly you know or even our division um has when it comes to

129counselors uh uh social workers School psychologists and even the shortage in the profession but uh to to attract the best talent to come to our division and then to be able to provide uh small enough groups of students for our staff to be supportive and really to understand our kids Beyond just the numbers but their names and their stories uh to be supportive so really a big deal and looking forward to seeing how that's put in place and I know the telemental health work of course is underway though slightly delayed here but I'll be following up on that I'm looking forward to going to Herndon High School with Miss Keys gamara actually next week we're really trying to be a little bit creative about how to meet students where they're at when it comes to

130kids who have been historically underserved perhaps part of the achievement Gap work I know we're allocating funding to that this budget cycle to be very intentional about it but you know if we're consistently seeing certain populations of the community uh not performing perhaps to the metrics that we've designed to determine success how can we rethink the ways that we're providing schooling and the ways that we're assessing success to make sure that everybody is able to be served well and finally as we are in a staffing shortage everywhere in FCPS and wanting to really continue supporting public education I want to shout out to the HR department February 11th there will be a career fair uh so please you know there's a virtual option you can sign up it's going to be at Oakton from nine

131to Two On on the 11th and you can find more information on how to join virtually online as well thank you so much have a good night thank you Miss Corbett Sanders yes thank you madam chair and I too want to wish everybody a very happy and um experienced filled black history month and I invite each one of my colleagues to come to Mount Vernon and visit the Gum Springs Museum it is quite amazing and it is packed to the gills with Incredible uh history so next week's going to be very busy starting with tomorrow evening we're in the Mount Vernon pure midnight will take place and all of the elementary middle and high school students are invited to the football game there then we have on Saturday and I believe Miss Cohen will be

132joining me for the virtual Town Hall that delegate Tran is having on road safety and what we need to do to address the dangerous Hills of Lee Chapel and that will be at seven o'clock on Saturday evening we also have next week a double hitter on Wednesday with the ventures and community meeting in the morning when our own Tom baccarello will be meeting with community members about gun safety and what our schools are doing both in safety measures as well as in our curriculum followed by that evening at the Mount Vernon Council of Civic associations uh Miss burden will be unpacking the budget for the Mount Vernon Community and uh forgot Tuesday we have the West Potomac pyramid leaders meeting on Tuesday evening and then next Saturday the fourth we have District Band at Hayfield

133so we look forward to seeing um all of our wonderful students and families at the many events that we're going to have next week so thank you thank you Miss McLaughlin thank you first I want to recognize our Region 5 outstanding principal of the Year Wakefield Forest Elementary School principal Sharon Prindle I'm very proud of the hard work she has done at Wakefield Forest particularly while she's dealing with a massive renovation and addition over at the elementary school and then I also want to recognize the Region 4 outstanding new principle for Fairview Elementary Samantha Goldstein so uh to two wonderful well-deserving uh recipients of this very special honor and they will as you all know with your own regions and and districts that they will now be considered at the the county-wide level the other

134thing is that uh Dr Reed I just want to make sure our employees and Community know that have been reaching out to us about the Cigna Healthcare contract transition that uh we are listening I really am concerned that that uh it's taken people by surprise we are hearing more and more stories despite the fact that we know Fairfax County has directed Cigna to work with providers that aren't currently in their network but I I really think this is something that we as a board will want to partner with you and make sure we have robust communication out to our employees on where things stand for that um and then uh you know to my colleagues I just wanted you to know that I'm really pleased that uh Dr Reed and her team very quickly um

135were able to create and send out a feedback form on our calendar um you all know I have some angst that uh three year commitment is a long time and with four versions with three versions within the four options you're looking at 12 calendars to examine and so I look forward to talking with you all prior to our scheduled vote on February 9th because I know we all want to do our very best with the calendar and I think there are some things that maybe we can help with some of the analytics to refine the options brought to us so I I wanted to just Spotlight that and otherwise I just want to say Dr Reed that I deeply appreciate how invested you are in being out and about in our community but I also

136want to encourage you again to a really Safeguard your your time for rest and Rejuvenation because as this board is very well aware we have a lot going on and uh you have been at the front and center of that work and so please protect your health Dr Anderson um yes thank you I thought I heard something earlier that made me very excited because I was I've been looking forward to it the text-to-speech feature on our website is live I know Helen is tired of me peppering her when is it happening when is it happening and I did get a chance during the meeting to just jump in and I see that it's working but I also wanted to see is the translation also working I don't I didn't have time to test that and

137I'm super excited though yeah so what I could say is the text-to-speech feature is available for our English Spanish and Korean speaking populations at this time it also helps people who need accessibility such as the visually impaired or those with dyslexia aging populations and those challenged with reading large amounts of online text English-speaking populations are able to hear content in their home languages and we're working on further translations I am excited thank you all so much for that work a nagging voice to all of you so I want to say thank you to miss Lloyd and to Mr um Sethi as well who had I know has been integral in this um I also want to say Happy Belated principles week to all of the Fairfax County principals which was celebrated last week from January

13815th to the 21st thank you for the very difficult jobs that you do each and every single day I just want to offer a few reminders to the Mason District we have our community conversation regarding the Strategic plan it is coming up very quickly on Thursday February 2nd from 6 30 to 8 p.m at the uh at Mason Crest Elementary School there will be child care and interpretation services available so please pre-register and have your voices be heard there is also a virtual Forum that is going to be available to include a Spanish language event on February 8th as well um just a reminder that the Dual language immersion programs for the 23-24 school year opened this week the online applications are available this includes the Spanish program at Bailey's Elementary School the deadline for

139first grade applicants is February 15th in the application deadline for kindergarten is March 1st so please parents do not miss that opportunity I also want to encourage everyone as Miss McLaughlin just mentioned to complete the calendar feedback form which was sent to all of the parents I received mine and will be completing it very soon so please be sure you're doing that as well feedback will be collected only until Tuesday of next week by 1 pm so be sure you complete that this weekend um lastly Falls Church theater is presenting a student directed night of one acts on Friday February 3rd at 7 pm at Falls Church High School and this is a free event um oh I lied I have one more I do want to say thank you to all of our principals

140who've been hosting curriculum nights at Falls Church Glasgow Justice across these last few weeks our parents are eternally grateful for the opportunity to be able to hear about the offerings and to listen to the teachers and to make decisions for their students thank you Mr fresh thank you earlier this week the school board held a work session to discuss the superintendent's budget one of our top priorities is ensuring FCPS attracts and retains the premier Workforce we have many talented professionals who join FCPS because they're passionate about education and they want to make a difference in students Lives Many even take out additional student loan debt to earn Advanced degrees with the hopes of enhancing the skills and knowledge they bring to the classroom as I said during the work session I think it is important

141for our human resources department to help these Educators sign up for and maintain their eligibility in the U.S Department of education's Public service loan forgiveness program which would forgive their federal student loans after 10 years of service working in FCPS at no cost to our school division I look forward to working with my colleagues and staff in the coming months to consider ways that we can make this type of assistance available to our Educators and staff in addition to enhanced pay and benefits this is exactly the type of support we can provide to help put more money in Educators Pockets one more thing as was noted this week I visited Graham Road Elementary School to celebrate the reopening of their salad bar and while I am jealous the superintendent was able to meet Miss broccoli

142my number two favorite vegetable I was fortunate enough to meet miss Karen and Miss p and they went very well together um thank you uh it was a delight uh seeing students uh excited about the fresh fruit and vegetable available for lunch I've never seen second graders so excited to eat spinach um and for some students these salad bars are the only way that they will have access to nutritious fresh food on a consistent basis so with many families relying on us as Miss McLaughlin mentioned it is important that we move this forward as quickly as humanly possible and was also mentioned uh our 36 Title One schools will have their salad bars up and running within a month and I'm told the rest of our elementary schools will be completed uh by May special

143thanks to food nutrition services and real food for kids for working together to make this important work possible thank you Miss Cohen thank you uh first a big thank you to Penny gross our region for assistant superintendent for joining my PTA PTO Roundtable last week it was the first time that I got to have a Razz on board and her first time doing it so we made it work together and it was invaluable I think the information that she got from our PTA PTO presidents and um and then what she had to offer it was awesome so I'm looking forward to Region 5 in March with Miss Becky banig uh this week I visited Kings Glen Elementary School Kings Park Elementary School Fairfax High School and Fairfax and Fairview Elementary School home of our outstanding

144new principal in region four getting to see our students and staff in action reminds me of um it just remains one of my greatest Joys and I know I speak for my colleagues in that thank you so much to the staff and students who included me in their day showed off their work refreshed my memory on how to multiply fractions and took the time to sit with me and talk about not only how this year is going but about also about how our upcoming budget decisions will impact their schools a special thank you to the student leaders at Fairfax High School for talking about what changes have been made this year at Fairfax and what an awesome year it's been at Fairfax High School so big shout out to our new principal there Georgina I

145the Lake Braddock boosters met with Ms Sizemore Heiser and I um I think that was this week could have been last week last week um about the atc2 position and then coming and testifying at our budget hearing on Monday Monday was the second time as a board member that I've gotten to sit up here and watch one of my former preschool students testify in front of the board and I honestly my heart about burst out of my chest just so incredibly proud of not just my former students but all of our students who just are incredibly eloquent and passionate and they sure have a wonderful role model in Miss tugby so thank you so much as Dr Reed mentioned it's yam hashoa that's Holocaust remembrance six million Jews and millions of others including Roma and

146Senti people who were lesbian gay transgender bi or queer and people with disabilities um 11 million people in all were murdered tonight at sundown we Jews light a candle because we're reminded to be the light in the darkness I'm grateful to our survivors who still volunteer to come into our schools I know we have so few left we will have one at West Springfield High School next week and very much looking forward to hearing his story in our family when we light our candle we speak the words of Rabbi John Franken who said you were swept up by the world when yet we will always remember you and tonight we mourn we mourn how you brothers and sisters and the Jewish people were stolen from us and how your lives were stolen from you we

147mourn that you what you were destined to become writers scientists politicians and composers parents teachers agitators Defenders champions of our people as we light this candle tonight we remember you we honor your lives and your good deeds we sanctify your good names we light a candle and we bless your memory thank you Miss Cohen Miss bakarski thank you happy Black History Month everyone I appreciate all the comments today by my um colleagues um and I actually also had the opportunity to go to a salad bar opening at Brookfield Elementary School where I I had the uh I was able to encourage some kids to try some new vegetables and you know and they even ate them so I felt like that was a win unfortunately I did not get to see the um peas and

148the broccoli because we did not have anybody suitable for wearing those costumes so I feel a little bit like I've missed out so I will be going back to another one but I also want to thank real food for kids for their advocacy and their work with you Dr Reed and with our food and nutrition services who have rolled this out really quite fast from when uh you started talking and working with them and I'm excited for it to be available to all kids my own kids are asking when their school is next so I had the opportunity to attend a Rachel Carson PTA meeting and just give some updates on the work of the school board and there were lots of great questions that were asked and some advocacy around the calendar so I

149reminded them as I reminded I think my colleagues that we are not petting World Peace but we have to balance many priorities with the calendar and there really is no perfect one so I'm looking forward to working with everyone to come to some plan so our families can know what is happening and uh I I ask people to really send their feedback because I am looking at all all of that I am attending this weekend a Lunar New Year celebration and an Asian American history event at Chantilly Library I am very much looking forward to kicking off the Strategic plan Community forums at Stone Middle School so I hope folks can come out and join us and share their thoughts and really be part of this new vision for Fairfax County Public Schools and I

150think that is all I have for tonight and I wish everyone a happy weekend I guess I will just say on a personal note we we've been busy too I've had two Milestone birthdays in my family a 16 year old and an 18 year old and one thing is for sure I am definitely getting older is all I could think about um but we had some great celebrations so thank you Mr Knight Colfax good timing congratulations mom those are big birthdays um I want to take a moment to be Begin by congratulating coach Larry choates he's the head varsity coach at John R Lewis High School for being named the commanders Don Shula Coach of the Year nominee this league-wide um award honors High School football coaches who display the Integrity achievement and Leadership qualities

151exemplified by the winningest coach in NFL history Don Shula according to the Commander's press release coach chose has made an immense impact on his team school and Community he has an empathetic and Education First mentality ensuring that his players feel supported in the classroom and in their personal lives his goal is getting his athletes to graduate with honors continue playing football in college and leave high school with real world experience that will influence their lives for the better the Don Shula Award winners will be announced the week prior to the Pro Bowl games and best of luck to coach totes as we as a as a board continue our work on the budget um I want the public to understand that in order to keep our schools strong we must rely on the majority of

152our funds coming from you our constituents via our funding board the board of soap advisors Virginia as a state must do better as we consistently fall in the bottom 10 of States when it comes to funding for K through 12 education this year Virginia sadly ranks 41st out of 50 states to Virginia's leaders we must do better to educate help educate our kids in K-12 I uh thank you um I continue to work with my colleague Miss eismoreheiser on the core planning team meetings and I'm looking forward to them um the uh one in the Edison pyramid is coming up on January 6th so I am excited to February 6 sorry yes February 6 January 6 has passed um I had the pleasure this week of also listening to the choir that held uh their

153con their uh who sang for us the national on the national anthem tonight at the Edison pyramid choral festival with all the elementary schools middle school and high school and it was a beautiful experience I will be at visiting my first salad bar opening in Mount Vernon Woods elementary school next week and I also look forward to attending the Bryant high school February class of 2023 graduation and I also believe next week Dr Reed you and I are finally getting our rescheduled rescheduled rescheduled visits to uh Region 3 schools as we visited Hayfield Secondary in hiva Valley Elementary so I'm looking forward to that thank you all thank you and I'll I'll try to be brief but I probably won't be um I just wanted to say first I really did enjoy the Lunar New

154Year celebration that we had here at Luther Jackson it was really really fun and I love seeing the students reciting poetry in um and I just love seeing the students dancing the karate I mean it's a variety of I can stood here all day if I if I could and just watched um and then I did love sitting next to Dr Reed I will say at the Lake Braddock children's concert and I think I heard every Disney song I know being hummed from the person sitting next to me but I will say my favorite part of these children's concerts and many of our courses do this are the excitement of the young children who go to these concerts and at the Lake Braddock pyramid children's concert there was a little girl maybe three years old

155who got up on stage right in between all the dancers and just danced it a whole time and I'm like that is a future Broadway star and that that is where her interest may have been peaked but it's so it's so cool to see that the children at high school pass on their love of theater to the young students um I also really enjoyed my colleague Miss Keith gamara attending the MLK Junior service at the First Baptist Church of Vienna and hearing there's many many poignant moments but hearing to the students our young adults get up and speak about um how they they want to emulate the life and passion and work of Dr Martin Luther King but also in their own personal experiences of what they've experienced in bias and racism that are happening

156here today in our community how they want to lift those experiences up so we can end those experiences and it was really very poignant to hear them speak I also enjoyed um going to the the meeting with our transportation employees at the state C and also with our state our CAC this morning and hearing the concerns of our support employees especially as we move into budget season and on the calendar I really appreciate both the transportation and our support employees sharing with with me and my colleague Miss McLaughlin at the support employees meeting this morning I just you know what their concerns and thoughts are and I'm looking forward also this weekend to going to the Chantilly Regional Library make us visible bringing Asian American history to K-12 schools event I'm very very excited because

157I think it is important that we reflect our students our diverse population in our history and there's a lot going on we had our third day of our strategic plan core team team meeting a full day meeting and it was really very impactful to hear from the very diverse voices from all aspects and opinions and from our students especially as we work towards building our our future together and that was a um I'm looking forward to that and most of all I'm really looking forward to meeting Miss carrot and Miss p and Mr Miss broccoli and or and I am gonna be looking now for opportunities because apparently there's celebrities in our midst that I have missed so with that I will stop and just say um there's a lot going on I look forward

158to hearing from our community at our community meetings on the street plan on our calendar and many many other things and finally I just want to say what Miss darnak kofak said we should not be 40 41st in the nation in funding for public education it is what is a Bedrock of our economy in our society so thank you for those words Mr nakofax and with that this meeting is adjourned