FCPS School Board Meeting - 11/3/22

001[Music] board members please take your seats happy to think I thought yeah sorry I didn't one two three four five six seven board members please take your seats singers foreign 2022 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a moment of silence and a performance of the national anthem by the Poe Middle School Bella votes under the direction of perev arceland stands one under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all say can you see by the dawn's early life [Music] who's my stripes and bright stars [Applause] [Music] came through the night [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] as the board indicated in its statement to the community on October 21st at our last meeting at large board member Karen Keith Kamara used

002an ableist slur for which she has apologized the comment was offensive to not only the disability Community but to our entire community and especially our students use of the word is unacceptable under any circumstances and does not align with our values as a board or school system the school board governance manual establishes expectations of school board members to act with respect to all community members earlier this week the board met to discuss this matter board member Karen Keys Kamara has proactively taken steps towards restorative justice steps the board strongly supports and encourages she has offered to address the issue here tonight miss kieskamara thank you I've asked for this opportunity to speak directly to our students staff specialist special education community and all FCPS families I want to take this opportunity to apologize for using

003a vile slur that harms so many I have not taken this moment lightly rather I am actively working to learn take restorative actions and help improve outcomes for all students this will never be a quick fix as the hurt runs too deep and our special education Community is a marginalized group of people who also experiences inequities in discipline access to program and a lack of inclusion in our community at Large that's why I'm actively working to continue to bring healing to this community and this board I would like to thank those who were willing to meet with me and help this unfortunate experience to become a teachable moment that hopefully can benefit our entire Community I have spent much of my time listening to many parents caregivers and special education advocates concerned parents and community

004members have urged me to find ways to reconnect with students who are often harmed by hurtful language Advocates challenge me to learn more and do more to promote a culture of inclusiveness where students with and without disabilities learn and grow together during one conversation a mom of a seventh grade student with disabilities asked me to go beyond rhetoric to make sure that my actions speak louder than my words I hear hear you loud and clear and here's what I'm doing to repair the harm I'm working to expand inclusive program opportunities for students and schools I am honored to accept an invitation from Special Olympics Virginia to support and expand its unified Champion schools programs in Fairfax County through programs like unified Champion schools and best buddies FCPS students are leading the way in changing the

005culture of the language we use and building bridges that connect students with and without disabilities I look forward to following their lead and becoming a better Ally in these efforts as I work to expand the reach of such programs I will volunteer and visit special education classrooms in the coming weeks I am scheduled to observe a special education program for students in self-contained and in general education inclusive settings and to deepen my understanding of the responsibilities of special education teachers and leaders working in our schools I'm working to enhance and work on the I'm sorry the conduct special education comprehensive review listening session as the division begins to determine how it will respond to the reports findings and reconnect recommendations I want to hear from parents caregivers and community members in early October I began

006to make plans to host a virtual listening session to get feedback from parents families and Community Advocates on the findings and recommendations of the three-year audit that was just completed I will also sponsor a virtual Roundtable discussion which is scheduled to where I'm scheduled to join representatives from the Special Olympics and FCPS students and staff to provide information about spread the word inclusion day formally known as spread the word spread the word to end the word this virtual discussion will feature a Frank conversation about the power of words we use regarding students and families the conversation will also Spotlight opportunities for students and others to get involved in county-wide efforts to promote a caring and inclusive School community and I am continuing my work to improve the culture in our schools last weekend I had

007the pleasure to speak with our superintendent Dr Reed and asked her to consider developing the caring cultures teams program that targets improving the culture of our schools this will allow our staff to develop metrics on whether our school cultures are healthy respectful and inclusive for all students My Hope Is that such teams will provide accountability for our schools that includes input from our parents and provided continuous Improvement mechanism that focuses on how we ensure we are recognizing whether our students feel respected irrespective of their ability Dr Reed has already taken action on this and I look forward to this continued work since my first day in office my priority has been progressing education for all in FCPS in light of the recent events I want everyone to know that the children of Fairfax County thank

008you are still my number one priority I look forward to working with my colleagues on these important items in the days and weeks ahead thank you agenda item 3.02 announcements 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 the website at fcps.edu backslash TV backslash Channel 99. the solar power purchase agreement for Annandale high school and the secondary course offerings agenda items have been moved from the consent agenda to action at the request of school board members I call on Ms togby for the announcement the theme for Veterans Day 2022 is

009honor honor reflects the military value and tradition of answering the call to duty there is distinct honor in serving to protect the way of life and the Constitution of the United States of America Veterans Day formerly Armistice Day is the anniversary of armistice which was signed on November 11 1918 at 5 15 a.m in the forest of campaign by the allies and the Germans ending World War One all over the globe there were so many demonstrations no doubt the world had never seen before witnessed such rejoicing Veterans Day is observed annually in the United States in honor of all the those living and dead who served honorably in the United States armed forces the school board directs School Personnel to provide students with instructional activities that honor veterans and recognize the role of the military

010in American democracy many schools have special events to which they invite veterans and active due to active duty military members of the school Community to join them Native American his Heritage Month started in 1915 as American Indian Day by the Boy Scouts of America over the years individual states recognized Native American days but it wasn't until 1990 that President George H.W bush designated November as National American Indian Heritage Month every president since 1994 has issued annual proclamations designating the month of November as a time to celebrate rich and diverse cultures tradition and histories and to acknowledge the important contributions of the Native Americans agenda item 3.03 school psychology Awareness Week recognition the board will invite each recognition recipient to the dies per photo after the reading of all recognitions our call on Ms darnak Colfax

011for recognition thank you madam chair I'm honored to present this recognition on school psychology Awareness Week School psychologists are uniquely qualified members of school teams serving students staff and families so School psychologists receive specialized Advanced graduate preparation that includes coursework and practical experiences relevant to both psychology and education they apply expert teeth in mental health learning and behavior to change lives by taking actions to help children and youth succeed academically socially behaviorally and emotionally in alignment with the FCPS strategic plan and portrait of a graduate school psychologists help individuals realize their own abilities develop the skills they need to cope with the normal stresses of Life work productively and fruitfully and be valuable contributors in the community School psychologists keep students help students develop the social emotional and life skills necessary to realize Personal Achievement

012and growth and to build resilience and a sense of belonging through the delivery of Direct Services using evidence-based practices School psychologists help students build social and emotional competence and the skills required to actively engage in learning School psychologists collaborate with many school teams to develop Universal prevention and intervention practices across a multi-tiered system of supports these practices Foster resilience increase Educators understanding of Social and emotional development reduce barriers to learning and enhance students protective factors school psychologist bring knowledge of data collection and Analysis to team discussions which inform the development of interventions when monitoring Student Success School psychologists intervene when students experience mental health issues which may require A thorough risk assessment and this intervention is through individual or group counseling and helping to connect families to Community Resources they are members of crisis response

013team and risk assessment teams they assess and assist students at harm at risk of harming themselves and they teach and Implement trauma-enforced practices all children and youth can face problems from time to time related to learning social relationships making difficult decisions or managing emotions such as feeling depressed anxious worried or isolated School psychologists help students families Educators and members of the community to understand and resolve both long-term chronic problems and short-term issues that students May face they are highly skilled professionals working to ensure that all children and youth Thrive at school at home and in life thank you before I call on board members you wish to address the recognition Miss Marin has had her hand up so I will call on Miss Marin all right Miss Marin's hand is down so I will call

014him Ms Darren at Koufax to speak first and other board members who wish to speak can raise their hands thank you I want to thank all of our school psychologists each of you play a major role in helping our students manage and navigate through many types of challenges Your Role to improving our students academic success you help create safe and positive spaces within our schools and you have been the bridge to strengthen our family and school Partnerships all children as the resolution states can face problems whether they're in the classroom learning social relationships or making difficult decisions but you're always there ready to step in and find a solution that can and will work and most definitely will leave a lasting positive impact I thank you for going above and beyond for our schools and

015our children each and every day thank you are there other board members who wish to speak seeing no other boardmans wish to speak I will go to agenda item 3.04 National Career Development month recognition I call on Miss Tolland for recognition thank you in FCPS students in grades pre-k through engage in meaningful learning experiences related to Career Development including goal setting exploring interests and skills project-based learning and career connected learning across content areas students have the opportunity to learn about potential careers and gain relevant experience through work-based learning activities these experiences range from career speakers starting at the earliest grade levels to internships and apprenticeships in high school work based learning in the high school years provides students with opportunities to make meaningful connections to what is learned in the classroom and to apply the

016acquired Knowledge and Skills to the workplace additionally many High School courses prepare students for industry certification opportunities students who desire this professional credential must pass an industry developed and Industry evaluated exam at the end of the course earning an industry credential demonstrates that the student has achieved the professional skill level providing industry recognized proof that the student is prepared for career-related responsibilities are post-secondary Education and Training FCPS is fortunate to have a variety of personnel who serve a strategic role in our Career Development efforts throughout the school year including College and Career Specialists school counselors career experience specialists directors of student services employment and transition Representatives Career and Technical educators career and transition teachers Academy program administrators and business partners providing work experiences and of course the Career and Technical education advisory committee with a

017focus on Readiness for post-secondary education and careers these Educators and community members are employed to help students explore and develop their abilities interests strengths and talents as they relate to further education and entry into the workforce these Educators collaborate with families to enhance academic and career planning for students while focusing on the individual individual student skills qualities and academic opportunities that relate to their chosen career fields additionally our schools academies and central office teams collaborates to establish business Partnerships that will enhance opportunities for students to work with and learn from industry professionals while also staying abreast of the most current Workforce Trends and necessary skills in the field Career Development and FCPS enhances our students portrait of a graduate attributes and makes a positive impact on preparing students for their post-secondary endeavors on behalf of

018the FCPS school board I would like to thank and celebrate all of our dedicated Career Development professionals and partners for your leadership and collaboration and career development thank you would any other my board members wish to speak Miss Toby yeah I just wanted to kind of emphasize that thank you as somebody who's taken marketing courses from my freshman year and I've gotten close with teachers such as Hank house Miss Scott and you've gotten to know some teachers over at Oakton Mr Barrow it's truly changed my life programs such as Deca has taught me how to be a leader but also taught me how to harness the skills that I already had public speaking understanding the different levels of leadership and things like that so I'm really grateful for the program I'm thankful for all my

019Educators that I've had within the program and yeah just really wanted to say thank you that was lovely Miss togby seeing as no other uh my um colleagues would wish to speak I would like to invite all those here in support of national Career Development month recognition to please join the board for a photo and ask my colleagues to please remain from the dies for the next photo foreign if you're here this evening in support of school psychology awareness week please join the board at the dies for a photo agenda item 4.01 Community participation the next order of business is community participation speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes in length at the conclusion of two minutes the microphone or video will be turned off school board members will be listening

020but 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 identifiable 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 and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy 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

021may not yield their time to another individual before or during their remarks shouting and outbursts in the audience will not be tolerated we are grateful for all of those who came to speak to us today and we thank you for your cooperation our first speaker is student number one um my name is netra prashotman and I am an 8th grader from Carson Middle School today I will speak about adding climate change to the FCPS curriculum in 2018 the Virginia Department of Education updated their science curriculum climate change was added as a science standard of learning but in my experience and by speaking to others climate change was rarely mentioned in elementary school even in middle school for most of my friends climate change wasn't taught at all and if it was not in depth let

022alone as the most pressing issue of our time the vdoe states that students need foundational knowledge gained in elementary schools to have an initial understanding of climate change data and skills there is plenty of teaching material for climate change and it can be tied into other units such as watersheds energy Recycling and even in social studies units about democracy and rights but climate change is rarely a topic of discussion and most are uninformed about climate change they are unaware of the rapidly declining carbon budget or how it's tied in with many other injustices like human rights Universal equality and moral values they are unaware of the initiatives that have been started to take action on this crisis and all the youth-led organizations that exist today and the FCPS climate goals I urge you to make

023climate change a mandatory curriculum and at least at least grades 5 through High School and to strongly encourage elementary schools to incorporate environmental issues in their learning because this isn't just another problem this will affect the very way we live school is for teaching children in Fairfax County as a prominent school system can have a significant impact in educating today's kids about this crisis what is the school for if not to educate students on the biggest problem of Our Lives thank you our next speaker is student number two [Applause] thank you for allowing me to speak today my name is Arya Lee and I'm an 8th grader from Rachel Carson Middle School today I will speak about moving forward with the scps solar program three years ago Fairfax County awarded three power purchase agreement PPA

024contracts for schools for solar on schools in March of 2021 the FCPS School Board voted to move forward with the solar contracts but as of now no solar has been installed in FCPS schools through this program some schools like ours have funded their own small-scale solar projects through grants and fundraising however if we are to offset our carbon footprint it will require full-scale solar on Schools starting with Annandale High School Fairfax County has a goal to combat climate change according to the Joint environmental task force Fairfax County and FCPS should have a 50 emissions reduction by 2030 and be carbon neutral by 2040. in addition FCP has committed to generate 25 of its own renewable energy by 2030. to meet these goals we have to start now and through the inflation reduction act getting solar

025gives taxes in places like schools their 30 federal tax credit during this meeting you will be voting to approve Ibsen solar's PPA contract for Annandale High School the first and best school for solar listed on the FCPS solar program this is your chance to push on sustainability proceed with solar and get solar panels on the other FCPS schools every day that passes we lose time to take climate action you can change that this is a chance to move forward so I urge you to get solar on all FCPS schools in the time ahead I urge you to vote Yes to solar panels on Annandale high school and I urge you to make renewable energy part of our future thank you our next speaker is student number three student number three our next speaker is Yee

026Wu h all right uh thank you for this opportunity to speak and my name is Yi Wu and I live in Herndon today I'm urging the board to implement strong measures to protect the right of collective bargaining for our Educators in Fairfax County I'm a very proud resident of Fairfax and one thing I'm really proud of is the wonderful staff in our education system the teachers is maintenance and psychologists we just recognized today and many others we know that good Educators during our early years have made a huge impact on our lives and we're very grateful to them the least we can do to thank them is to correct this Injustice of denial of a human right to organize your co-workers and demand better conditions this Injustice system deny upright has gone unchecked in Virginia

027for 44 years which is longer than I've been alive I'm not 44 yet and during which our neighbors DC Montgomery County and many others districts have respected this right their schools are excellent and their staff has a higher standard of living and we know things are expensive here in Fairfax and I live here so I know that and it's uh inflation is happening so not the cheapest place to live and our dedicated Educators deserve to earn enough to live in this community unions build a middle class and it's going to take units to save it a new member of the sport can do a ton of good here for not only the Educators but also students and the future of Fairfax County we see places with collective bargaining consistently output from new ones without in

028test scores and other measurements of Education quality it attracts and keeps hard-working high quality Educators here who are focused on ensuring kids learn well instead of worrying about food rent or having to have outside jobs outside of FCPS to make ends meet that that would not be good there's a crucial need for our collective bargaining ordinance to be implemented here and passed and not only that the board should make sure the resolution that does get passed up thank you our next speaker is our next speaker is Aaron St Germain Aaron St Germain hello the proposed language in the fle curriculum assigned mail at Birth and assigned female at Birth should not be used for children in fourth grade and up and referring to biology we're not talking about gender we're talking biological sex which is

029not assigned at Birth it is documented it is recorded a sign implies a power differential between the one who assigns the one who is assigned this language follows an oppressor or press narrative and no way shape or forms we imply to our children there's an oppressor or press narrative in biology there is a time and a place for the term assigned male or assigned female but it is not in Elementary classrooms nor in with adolescents who are already struggling to accept their bodies and development developmentally appropriate ways transgender students should be respected loved included and given relevant and appropriate information and terminology and fle that can be accomplished without adding confusing language to flea that conflates gender and sex additionally as a firm believer in equity of opportunity I have concerns that the equity grading

030system is not working as intended this isn't surprising because an equitable intervention or system should be designed so resources or benefits flow in the direction of those in need applying the same Equity framework to all children is not Equity one outcome of this policy is great inflation grades no longer reflect Mastery of content under the new grading system student grades are higher but students have actually learned more good grades are an illusion that match the real problem because when everyone's grades are increased by the same measure the same students coming in last are still in last when grades are inflamed students can enroll in courses whereas they're not prepared according to teachers the only option is adjust or water down the curriculum this is a massive disservice to all students not only does it deprive

031students of a rigorous education it sends a message that in order for students certain students to succeed the bar must be lowered that is not the case FCPS must actively work to boost these children up to increase educational opportunities so they can fulfill their maximum potential FCPS should not lower the bar they should lift students up to it I urge you to re-examine the equity grading framework and to include teachers from all disciplines in the discussion to ensure it will not perpetuate social injustices by masking the problem rather than addressing them thank you our next speaker is Robert Rigby good evening I am Robert Rigby vice president for advocacy of the Fairfax County Council PTA honor King the president of the national PTA has some Sage words about the drop in Tesco's National she says

032research shows that when families are engaged and families in schools work together students have better outcomes across all measures Family School Partnerships also help schools towns Guardians and other caregivers must be key Partners in their children's educational success now more than ever National PTA urges parents to get a better understanding of what their child is expected to learn at their grade level and where their child is academically they should talk to the teacher about what the teacher notice is regarding the child's learning um and they should provide their jobs teacher in school with information about how their child is doing and the stressors in the jobs watch PGA urges teachers to provide families with information on how their children are doing at school the learning goals for the year and what the grade level expectations

033are schools should also engage families and transparent and productive ways and ensure their horses are at the table for policy and funding decisions locally SEC PTA sees that our school system is doing more and more our family and community outreach and we are proud applauded family school Partnerships can be our North Star I also want to note the prioritization of hiring more mental wellness and health professionals in the legislative program I also urge increased accessibility to such health and emotional Wellness for disabled uh black PSE thank you our next speaker is Sean Kurth Sean Kurth our next speaker is Jennifer Linton tid we've been begging people for 25 years not to use the r slur using disability hate speech is a choice so is this board's decision to do nothing so I'm here to talk

034to Children most impacted by this cruel choice not to act to every neurodivergent child in FCPS we see you and justify your pain the arsler with which too many of you are smeared daily at school is not acceptable ever I'm sorry truth tellers who think you matter are being maligned I'm sorry that your pain isn't worthy of action I'm sorry to those of you who've been subjected to restraint and seclusion that you continue being dehumanized by behaviorism that you are suspended and expelled at far higher rates I'm sorry that you have been routinely denied services and supports that deny you your right to access education that you're criminalized that sis reports for discipline look like rap sheets for kids I'm sorry for SB 36 for the school-to-prison pipeline I'm sorry the majority of non-speakers receive

035negligible communication supports and that too many of you you can't read or struggle to read I'm dyslexic I know how much that hurts I'm sorry the discussions on Equity don't include you that talks of diversity exclude you and that far too many of you are denied an inclusion education the choice to not act on this was a choice to further marginalize every intellectually and developmentally disabled child in FCPS and to embolden their bullies all of you are beautiful and worthy of dignity and protection I'm sorry we have failed you when you deserve better so spread the word to end the word thank you our next speaker is Boris Brown good evening School Board my name is Forrest Brown and I'm here to speak in favor of collective bargaining I had the great privilege of attending

036FCPS schools from kindergarten all the way through my graduation from high school I attended four FCPS schools and worked in a fifth during the 2021 and 2022 school years as a monitor and as a coveted case manager while working in FCPS in the midst of the pandemic and the transition back to in-person learning it became clear that our schools are losing Educators at an unsustainable rate exacerbating the difficulties in helping students recover from the well-documented learning loss they have suffered during the last two and a half years collective bargaining is critical because it is the only way to stem this loss of critical Personnel from our schools and community the failure to maintain adequate Staffing levels in all relevant educator positions compromises the quality of Education that FCPS is able to provide its students the

037covid-19 pandemic has precipitated a profound multi-faceted crisis in American Education the only way to prevent this crisis from spiraling into a generational catastrophe is to empower Fairfax County educators without a seat at the table and a voice in the discussion we will continue to experience a debilitating Exodus of faculty and support staff from our schools to the detriment of students their families remaining Educators and the broader community Fairfax County Public Schools must have collective bargaining thank you our next speaker is Angie tretola good evening Dr Reed and members of the school board my name is Angie chiritola and I'm here tonight to speak in favor of collective bargaining for your employees who are my neighbors and friends I teach in a neighboring District so I know the fear of retaliation all too well I speak

038to you tonight as a parent a taxpayer and voter of the Springfield District I'm here to ask my elected officials and the staff they hired what is their plan to give my son and his friends the best education possible this means giving your staff a seat at the table some are afraid of what collective bargaining could cost FCPS but instead we need to talk about the Unseen costs of delaying a collective bargaining resolution the incalculable loss of Highly qualified educators are human capital to other districts and professions effective Educators and esps require training no training is more effective than the power of on-the-job experience there is no training that Pearson or any other Corporation can package and deliver that will instantly provide 5 10 15 20 years of experience to a new employee the reality

039is veteran Educators silently carry the burden of training supporting and mentoring new employees outside of contract hours what causes the instructional and operational staff to leave the largest county in Virginia they're tired of not making enough to afford to be able to live in Fairfax County because the cost of living has increased faster than the wages have they're tired of being asked to do more for less you have a very simple solution pass a meaningful collective bargaining resolution that is transparent bring everyone to the table make these negotiations public so all stakeholders are aware of what collective bargaining can and can't do for our Educators stop discussing it behind closed doors if you do not do this you will have more vacancies next year we are asking this County to give their Educators a voice

040if it's the legislators let's work together to make these changes possible or they will leave you to the district that gave it to them last week thank you our next speaker [Music] [Applause] our next speaker is David walrod good evening Sheriff Sizemore Heisler Dr Reed and members of the board thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak today the remainder of my time will be spent reading direct quotes from the February 20th 2020 school board meeting where all 12 of these stood up in favor of staff my time will probably run out after about seven quotes so I will email this full document to the board tomorrow chair Sizemore Heiser use that and I see the difference between that and the other teaching job that I have which is not unionized and so I

041firmly believe that we have a quality of teachers because of our Union where I teach and I think that will be reflected here in what we are able to do in Fairfax County Mr fresh at a time when so many teachers are leaving the profession we need to have a competitive advantage in the marketplace and allowing teachers to come to collectively bargain together we'll give them a sense of responsibility over their own destiny as well as the voice and the process that decides the reason that people become teachers in the first place Miss keys gumara I understand the importance of workers feeling that they not only have a voice but that they are respected and valued and that's what this language does Dr Anderson it is time to ensure that our teachers are feeling as

042valued as we say they are every single day we say that Miss Marin if collective bargaining is what teachers need then that's what we're delivering we just can't expect our teachers and staff to carry some of the burdens we ask them to without least meeting their some of their needs Miss McLaughlin I hope the general assembly is successful in that I also hope everyone in the public understands that it should be welcomed when we signal that employees having a shared voice mean that the community of the whole benefits and most importantly it's going to be the students Miss Cohen we are great because we have built this Commonwealth on the backs of people who are willing to work to do whatever it takes to put food on the table to take care of their kids

043and it's time we take care of them so I stand in solidarity today with my colleagues in solidarity with everybody who makes this commonwealthy amazing place it is and I'm about out of time thank you thank you our next speaker is Jake warrenfelts Jake warnfelts hi I'm uh I'm Jake warnfeltz I'm here to speak to Advocate towards collective bargaining I'm new to for to Fairfax County moved in the last year made a lot of new friends a lot of other parents and it seems like a lot of transplant parents that moved to this County move here because the school system is one of the best in the country and that their kids regardless of where they grew up in the past here in Fairfax County they know that their kids have a real shot at

044a future they have a real they have a real future you know to look forward to and the education system here is Top Notch and I don't understand how we could keep a balance of having a great community and a great school system without the student or the teachers having a voice through collective bargaining to help ensure that everybody has everything they need um I'm not much for public speaking so I'm going to cut this very short uh thank you very much for your time and um for doing what you do thank you our next speaker is Daniel Hong Daniel Hong good evening School Board I am Daniel Hong and I am in support of collective bargaining as a former student of FCPS and resident of Providence District I believe in Educators and their power

045to change students I had the privilege of having so many awesome Educators in this district and I'm glad that I met them would they experiences be the same for students that come after me if all my experienced Educators leave I want them to have autonomy so that they can make the best decisions for students I still remember fondly in the fifth grade being able to use and eat food for science experiments educators are the backbone of Our Generation and they deserve all the praise in the world unions protect their rights and allowed them to drive so that they can provide the best education possible our belief in Educators and the right to organize a beseech the board to pass a resolution approving of collective bargaining for the sake of our educators [Music] thank you our

046next speaker is Stephanie Lundquist Aurora thanks for the opportunity to share My Views with you today with each meeting we the parents your constituents are left wondering if you're listening to us just this week I emailed three of you to find out why the open meeting on Tuesday was canceled no response yet I thought it was especially honest of you when you didn't even pretend to care about our views during the last meeting you pitched the critical race jury resolution ironically called something like the truth and education resolution before Community participation I guess you didn't really feel the need to pretend you cared what we thought in that meeting it was obviously controversial given that the resolution was gutted and the rhetoric was replaced but you didn't want to listen to us beforehand not very

047inclusive of you today as you discuss spending I'm guessing you will continue to ignore parental pleas for more focus on academic excellence in fact that topic doesn't even seem to come up in your meetings if you would at least try to think about and prioritize learning loss implementing test scores in spite of equity grading we'd appreciate it also since it's open period for comments now on the proposed changes to the Family Life education curriculum I would like to say are you kidding me co-ed sex education in a gender transitioning unit in elementary school are not appropriate putting boys and girls together in a class to learn about sensitive topics shows that you don't really care about the comfort of the vast majority of FCPS students and pushing a gender transitioning unit beginning in fourth grade

048it's just one example of FCPS dysfunction that makes national news fourth graders should be learning long division not how to medically transition please use common sense and vote no on these proposed changes for those of you watching now if you'd like more in-depth coverage of these topics in simultaneous live stream please tune in to the shadow board at usanow.tv thank you very much please thank you keep your voice down thank you our next speaker is Kim Putin's I wish Karen was here um but if Karen was here I would address her and say I actually am probably in the minority here that doesn't believe that she should after calls for resigning and being censored because frankly if we're going to set that standard then we should have asked you to resign or be Centered for

049your anti-semitic remarks we should ask Melanie to resign and be Centered for her remarks about Asian Heritage because she went to Benihana's but I can definitely give you a reason why you should probably all resign and you all need to resign because of the deplorable decline in education we have a nation's report card that just came out and Virginia lost 10 points in math and 10 and 11 points in math and reading where's the apology for any of that where's the apology that what you have done to kids because you decided to keep schools closed and you gaslit all of us all of us parents who tried to raise the alarm Bells about what was happening during virtual learning where's the apology for any of that where is it taking ownership for that at least

050Karen took ownership and responsibility for her remarks at least she owned up to it none of you have owned up to it and let me also just point out I am the one that did this I am the one that sat through 50 out 53 hours of these school board meetings and you never once talk about academic learning you never once talk about learning laws you never once tried to address it but and your solution is tutor.com which is a disaster because only 1.6 percent of the students are even using it but let's also talk about one thing you do talk about on here school safety which you talk about in terms of gun violence because we've got a virtue signal about gun violence right but let's talk about what's happened over in school safety

051we have a stabbing at Mount Vernon High School last year at West Potomac we had a kid die in our school of drug overdose we had a kid died because they committed suicide what about violence like that why aren't we dressing that kind of those issues stop with the virtue signaling get to work on academics and real school safety thank you we also have three videos submissions our first is from Harry Jackson hello citizens of Fairfax thank you for having me joining tonight and talk about the cons the topic of criticism or the lack thereof that the school board is willing to tolerate we saw that on October 6 that they were willing to have the cameras prominently display the faces of those speakers that were before the board speaking in favor of a policy

052yet in the next meeting on the 20th of October they were they reverted the cameras right back to the to the back of the heads of speakers that were critical of their of some of their positions and other positions yet on the 18th of October they mentioned well we need to engage the community well here's a platform as I'm speaking to you now I'm actually actually streaming the school board meeting live and you can join us on the shadow board and you can sign in and you can have your voice heard you have you are not limited to Simply two minutes to speak on any topic please keep your voice assistant this will help the school board engage with its own with its participant community in fact we invite our members of the school board

053to join us thank you our next videos submitted by Leslie Houston good evening I am Leslie Houston president of Fairfax Education Association a union representing thousands of your employees in May of 2020 after the senseless murder of George Floyd this board was enthusiastic and eager about areas of equity there are so many controversial issues that are impacting teachers and FCPS continues to send the message that they are backing away from this important and necessary work what happened to the board who was committed to anti-racism an anti-bias education that imparts the knowledge skills and dispositions that lead to Prejudice reduction and Collective action for a more just world Educators were optimistic and thought we together would move the needle when it came to the promises of anti-bias and anti-racism instead we are witnessing a board who

054are not focused on the main things the kids the Educators and the staff on Thursday October 21st the spirit of Educators was broken when you watered down the teach truth and education resolution however you will have an opportunity to redeem yourselves when it is time to pass a strong collective bargaining resolution when that resolution comes to this board I encourage you to remember the Educators and staff who supported you during the pandemic who stood by you when your constituents called for your resignations who helped to elect you because they believed you would make a difference bring the strong resolution to the public and pass collective bargaining this is a crucial time in Fairfax County Public Schools and your leadership is needed now more than ever the ball is in your court thank you our final

055videos submitted by Shelly arnoldiers hello my name is Shelly arnoldi and this is the fifth time I've spoken at a school board meeting since January of this year and I hope this will be the one that earns a response I'm going to start with a true story from a parent of a third grade grader attending waynewood Elementary School in the first few weeks of this year my my friend reported that a boy had been harassing her daughter calling her names using profanity kicking her multiple times in the stomach and legs tripping her and even stabbing her in the arm with a pencil which drew blood the school's response was to separate the children pull the victim out of line if she found herself near the boy and offer her counseling the mother asked if the

056boy would be punished for bullying and she was told no because there was no imbalance of power these are eight-year-olds your policy is a disgrace today I am speaking on behalf of a newly formed chapter of moms for Liberty moms for Liberty is a non-profit organization that welcomes anyone with the desire to stand up for parental rights the founders are former school board members who are committed to unifying educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights the primary goal is to engage our communities and elected leaders on key issues impacting our families and one of our founding missions is to hold elected officials accountable at all levels of government we believe it's important to hire Educators who will teach our children core subjects such as Maps history we value School sports that provide students

057fair and safe competition we also believe the best path forward is one built on meaningful in-person communication which is sorely lacking in Fairfax County last week I attended one of the superintendent's Community conversations and there were less than 25 parents in attendance which besides the school and teachers and staff we badly need actual Community forums and town halls where parents are properly notified and community members understand what's happening our group hopes to engage parents and facilitate participation so you can receive critical feedback we look forward to working with all of you to ensure we're raising one of the best educated generations of children in the nation that's a win for everyone involved especially especially Fair Fairfax County agenda item 4.02 strategic Plan update I call on Dr Reed for an update on the Strategic plan

058and on academic matters thank you madam chair and thank you Bev are you queuing oh thank you Laura all right so I'm excited this evening to have an opportunity to share our strategic planning update uh Laura let's go ahead uh one of the things I want to share with you is that we are um Opening Our student survey window and a special thanks to our student School Board member Michelle togby and her younger sister I believe uh for doing the voice over for our elementary students and Michelle did a fabulous job of just doing a video clip to let our secondary students know the importance of their voice being included in our strategic planning work the survey is intended to measure student perceptions and elicit student voice and a number of topics related to engagement

059School climate student teacher relationships and the quality of their educational experience thus far all student responses are intended to be anonymous and the aggregate information are going to be it's going to be included in an overall student voice report that a number of our committees will be looking at the core planning team and Alignment committee as I shared at our last board meeting so one of the things that we the board provided us a number of recommendations related to the survey I want to remind you that we incorporated those which include the creation of instructional resources to help students actually understand what a strategic plan is as they prepare to take the survey an adapted survey to support participation of students who have disabilities or special needs for support and student voice in soliciting student

060voice so Laura we're also um I would want to call out Marcy Neal who's here this evening and uh Francis Ivey who have worked tirelessly with Mutu fabayi to focus on our principal uh professional development as well and between between now and December 2nd each principal at all 200 schools will be leading a focus group with a representative sample of 15 to 20 students in their building we had a fabulous day of principal training and all division principal meeting to address the topic of strategic planning and our excitement and having that North Star direction to guide us as we think about the educational experience for each and every one of our students moving forward families of students who've been identified for these focus groups will need to provide consent for their student to participate in

061the process and students have to provide their consent as well to participate in the process essentially there are four basic questions that we're planning to ask students in the focus groups what is going well what is not going well what matters most to you and what is the one promise you would like the adults in your life to commit to regarding your education all of the student responses again are Anonymous and they will be entered into a Google form that will be incorporated as another piece of open-ended student voice we heard the board feedback about providing students with opportunities to lead similar discussions and we're looking forward to having some student-led student voice discussions in the coming days Laura all right the instructional Focus team is also seeking nominations we'll be sending out a form

062or perhaps we have I can't recall which but we have thank you Dr Presidio uh so this team is going to be made up of Educators teachers instructional assistants principals those who work closest to educational the task right in the classroom and the schools we're in the process of finalizing the composition of these teams the core team the alignment team the family team and the instructional Focus team and I want to again thank you the board for continuing to share ways that we can tap our community as we engage in this work we anticipate about 100 to 125 Educators who are going to serve on this instructional Focus team the majority will be teachers and other school-based instructional staff instructional coaches resource teachers and instructional assistants for example counselors dsas as well this team is

063going to be charged with identifying professional practices that are intended to enhance instructional Effectiveness in other words what are those High leverage instructional practices that are going to make a difference and continue to enable us to maintain the Premier Division status you may have seen in yesterday's employee news that we put out a nomination for these forms the deadline for nominations is November 11th so for all of our teachers and instructional staff that are tuned in tonight uh hello and we encourage you to consider this opportunity again thank you to Dr Sloan Presidio and Megan Borman who are co-champeting this team we're really excited about this work and lastly Laura on strategic planning as we think about looking ahead our champions for the family team are also working to identify a similar process of nomination

064for parents families and caregivers to self-nominate or be nominated by a member of our school Community I appreciated one of our speakers this evening Robert Rigby talking about the importance of Partnerships with our parents and ptsas and we really want to Advantage our strategic planning process of these Partnerships I encourage those listening this evening to check out our website for ongoing updates and ways to get involved and tune in to the November 14th and November 29th well the 14th board meeting in November 29th work session where we will continue to share more information on the Strategic plan so I'd be happy to answer any question on our strategic planning update Madam chair thank you Miss pokarski yeah thank you Dr Reed this is very exciting just a quick question with the survey and so many

065of our students who are English language Learners or who may not be able to interact um what are we going to do to make sure that we're you know capturing that student voice could you share please yes we are working very hard with our os office of communications and community relations department as well as our chief experience and engagement officer departments to make sure we have interpreters family liaison support and translations of surveys and in our focus groups thank you miss Corbin Sanders thank you madam chair and thank you Dr Reed uh this is a very exciting process the last time that we undertook a major revision of our strategic plan actually the very first real strategic plan in the county was uh two boards ago and so this is absolutely the right time to

066be looking at how we ensure we have a school system that meets the needs of all of our students in this Century versus previous centuries so I think this is really important work when we spoke last about this we talked a lot about centering the student voice but also ensuring that we had real and meaningful input from all members of the community about what the aspirations are for each of our students academically and you and I have talked many times about a the fact that children will probably change their career years four or five times during the course of their lifetime and so how do you see the strategic planning process developing a plan that takes into account the ever-changing needs and builds into our curriculum the academics as well as those skills that are

067important for resiliency and adaptability going forward that's my first question and the second question is one of the most successful parts of being in Fairfax county is the unique Partnerships not only with our not-for-profits but with our business community and so if you could talk a little bit about how we're going to ensure that we take advantage of the existing business Partnerships as well as future Partnerships or widening the net of Partnerships thank you Miss Corbett Sanders I think uh the two questions are interrelated right um the idea of being adaptable as a school division is so important the world is changing more rapidly today than it's ever changed in our history we know that 65 percent I know our staff could quote that now right 65 percent of our K-12 students across the country

068are preparing today for a career that does not exist and we know the skills our students are going to need to thrive in this world yet to Be Imagined are skills that are important to our staff and to our business community and our community at large right critical thinking problem solving collaborative skills communication skills all of those are critical what we're hoping to surface in terms of hearing from students and parents business Community non-profits electeds all of our different sectors we have a variety obviously in Fairfax County we're I'm so blessed to have so many Community Partners that we expect what will surface between now and the first of June will be many ideas that we will synthesize into what we believe our North Star for our work here in Fairfax county is going to

069be I think Nimble and adaptive have to be characteristics that are going to describe an education here for sure and I very much appreciate that you have integrated into all of our business meetings the opportunity to update not only this board but the community on the journey that we're all on together so thank you yeah you're welcome Miss Cohen thank you so much we always appreciate getting to hear from you and and those of you who have more questions I hope that you will get involved um and come to our town halls and we would certainly love to have more than 25 of you in a room um one question that I had well first I just want to say to miss togby thank you for all your work in trying to get students on

070board if you all don't know Miss togby's now a movie star and um has made a series of shorts to get our students engaged and let them know why this is important so we're gonna put her to work in making shorts on everything from voting and all right we're you're in for it okay um um I also just want to make sure to piggyback a little bit on what Stella was saying um that we make sure that we include case managers our cat B Teams ATS folks to make sure that our kids who use AAC can answer some of those questions not all of our kids may be able to answer all of them but I guarantee you they probably have some pretty um exceptional thoughts around what they would like to see and what

071they would like their teachers to know about them so thank you so much for really trying to make this whole process as inclusive as possible for everybody in our community to have an opportunity to participate and we're counting on you to participate so thanks so much thanks Miss Cohen Mr fresh thank you um I want to zero in on the instructional Focus team um I think this is you know the critical piece of the puzzle here um because these folks are going to be you know designing instructional practices that inform everything we do and the whole point of the Strategic plan is how do we align our resources and our focuses and everything else on this right so when I see that the way that we are soliciting um self-dominations for this is through newsletters

072that get nervous because what ends up happening I'll tell you from my personal experience we appoint various people to our advisory committees and when I have an opening I always send emails out when I include a a blurb in a newsletter I might get one person to apply when I send a standalone email about it I might get a dozen people to apply from Providence District so I would just encourage if we want to have a cross-section of our faculty and our staff represented we should be doing some direct contact about this issue specifically otherwise I think what we end up with are the folks who take the time to read a newsletter and those who are identified by staff and encouraged to apply and if we want it to be self-nominating that implies that

073we want you know a full breadth of people from different facets of our system involved so I think we should focus on that um yes sir I I think that's absolutely correct we want as many perspectives as possible at the table I think the strength of this plan is going to be the diversity of thought that Engineers it so appreciate that feedback mrnado Colfax thank you Dr Reed and I too am excited about this update but I do want to follow a little bit on Mr Frisch's comments about promoting it I looked here on the main web page and while once I Googled strategic plan it came up but it is not on the very front and I would think that's extremely important as far as marketing and promoting it it's quite robust when you

074get to it but you have to know to look for it so may I make that suggestion thank you mrnet Kovacs point taken will be on it thank you Miss Amish thank you happy to follow my colleagues uh you know it's it's often difficult when we communicate to the public we use big big terms legalese and systemes and whatever uh so I kind of just wanted to give you the opportunity to break it down a little bit in simple language what is the Strategic plan we're we're here to shape a vision right for FCPS and how we're going to use our resources but then more specifically you shared with us the phase that we're in right now right so you described for us a particular stage in a longer process that's already been start ongoing

075uh so if you could just contextualize that a little bit for us I think it'll help the public follow where we are thank you Miss Amish we are in the launch phase we're sort of in that it's a bit of an overlap between planning and launch so um we have a team that is working with Mutu fabayi to plan our journey from now until the first of June as we've intended the board in our first business meeting in June we're hopeful that we will be able to affirm and commit to our division-wide strategic plan so at this point we're starting with student voice and surveys as we solicit input for the various teams the instructional Focus team the core planning team the alignment team and all of those that you recall from our last meeting

076or if you're watching this evening it's posted on board docs from our last meeting but putting these teams together the core planning team will be meeting for two full days prior to our winter break they'll be looking at the data from our surveys as the survey data begins to come in we're beginning with our students we're also planning to survey our staff and our families and our community so we're going to be able to take that data the core planning team and the other teams will have an opportunity to look at that as will the board so as we March into January and February the student Focus well the student Focus teams will have been completed by then as well so we'll be doing more community-wide conversations within each of your magisterial districts as well

077as at large meetings both in person and virtual so there are many opportunities for our community to participate in this process even if they're not on one of the core teams so lots of opportunity for input synthesis and then sending data back out to community meetings and then back into the Committees remember the core planning team is the Hub and all the information will continue to go from them out to meetings and back and then you'll continue to get reports and I'll continue each meeting to provide updates of where we are but I appreciate the opportunity to just say we're planning launching and we're going to be moving January February March synthesis April May and decision June thank you thank you Dr Reed and this is part of a division-wide process to again rethink how

078we want to prioritize sources and things moving forward for the division so great the only other thing I think in piggybacking off of a couple of things you know Ms Cohen mentioned special-led instructional staff specifically um and a few others mentioned other pieces I'm wondering if you know the targeted Universal is a model that we talked about right and thinking of how we develop policy that serves everybody and anticipate the ways it may have you know shortcomings from an equity standpoint if we can employ that in how we do our Outreach too so I know folks are mentioning different examples of how we do that Outreach but you know if we have a team of instructional folks that that be proportional to perhaps the populations we serve so if you know a third of our

079population is served by X program a third of this committee perhaps should be represented uh by folks like that and then wrapping around by making sure that those who are most vulnerable are also not overlooked and have a voice in some way so I just want us to be thoughtful about how we're even setting that up and as we get community interest in in folks who want to have a voice finding a way to share No Doubt to include all of that somehow but then in terms of who ends up being a part of that core team that it be representative uh yeah our processes be just as representative as we hope our outcomes to be right so that's all from me but thank you so much I'm excited about where this is headed thanks

080Ms submission I think that's wise counsel Miss Talon thank you Dr Reed for the presentation um just a couple of quick questions maybe you can tell us I I was recently going over the list of organizations businesses Community groups Etc that um you know we're hoping to get input from um can you just talk a little bit about how that will happen like our in specific invitations going to those groups to participate in larger meetings or how do you envision that happening because we have so many people we would like to hear from so we are sending and thank you Miss Tolland we are sending invitations out to a variety of community groups um several hundred actually um and so the invitations are going out nomination forms are going out after this evening we'll reevaluate

081email newsletters social media all the types of channels we might provide that information but we really want as broad a base and capacity for uh voice as we humanly can get and we anticipate you know clearly tens of thousands of people involved in either survey virtual in-person committee or public comment to be informing this plan awesome and um one of the things I mentioned in our work session on this too is of course I support all of the instructional staff and our school-based staff being involved um so that we can really look at the Student Success portion of this but we also have so many employees in on the facilities and transportation side and I just really feel strongly we want to make sure we have forums to hear from those people absolutely and our

082staff will be surveyed as well as well as focus groups so every single member of our of our Fairfax County staff team is important and their voice is important and I just want to take a minute to do props to our human resources department Marty Smith Sherry Wilson and the team this is the first time our staff engagement survey is going to be taken by every staff member including our substitutes hourly and every staff member in the division and I'm just really proud of our HR department and their inclusive approach to the staff engagement survey this year we're really excited to have an opportunity to look at that data awesome thank you look forward to seeing this unfold great so you know the board members who wish to speak I have a couple questions myself

083Dr Reed um I really appreciate all the information I'm super excited about the student voice and and our community voice and I really encourage everybody to get involved because we are a community and we need to set our vision together as a community um and I appreciate that there's an Adaptive um survey for our students but I wanted to encourage you to think about the tweeners often when we look at adaptive in our system we've often talked about sort of our self-contained cat B kiddos but there's a whole set of special education students who are neurodivergent who are in our genetic classes or nr2 or 2E students and I look at these questions here on slide three and they're very open-ended inferential questions and I'm a little concerned that some of our neurodiversion students who

084some and I'm generalizing of course are very literal and have more difficulty with these open-ended questions how are we adapting this to be inclusive of the lived norms and communication styles of neurodivergent students because I think there's some room for Universal Design of learning in these questions and perhaps thinking about the tweeners right I think we're very often adaptive for this group and this for this group and there's a whole Spectrum in between so thank you madam chair I think to miss omish's point I think we need to make sure that our process for developing our plan reflects our values in our ultimate plan right so I think um I spent quite a little bit of time this morning uh in a conference with a family discussing Communications uh challenge honestly and we have it's

085not just translation materials that enable our students or families to access surveys or access the ability to provide input we also understand there are a variety of communication challenges a Continuum if you will that we're going to need to really be thoughtful about and I don't know as I stand here this evening that I have an answer for that but we will find an answer and make sure that our student voice solicitation is inclusive just as we expect our final plan to be well I would encourage you we have a neurodiversity specialist that I champion on the board and I would wonder what was the role in The neurodiversity Specialist in being involved in this core team in developing this work and and I wonder there may be a role there for that person to

086be involved in developing this work I think there's room for a whole team under a diversity specialist but right now we have one but I would I would encourage you to perhaps consider involving them in the core team if they aren't already it suddenly come to me that that would be a good idea to involve our yeah neurodiversity specialist I I just think that we have to think differently about not just what we do but how we do it so I'm excited to to have that I think it's a great idea well I'll look forward to following up with you on that after we look into that and also I mean we're talking about developing caring teams at schools I think really The neurodiversity Specialist is a great person to make sure those caring teams

087are understanding of neurodivergent students so thank you but just when we consider those questions I worry I can think of how my own kid would answer those questions and it may not be as what he's really thinking right so thank you Fair Point all right thank you um seeing no other questions on this part Dr Reed I'll have you turn to the second part of your presentation on academic matters thank you thank you madam chair um one of the things about this topic I think is really important is that I mean you as a board we spent uh we spent a great deal of time in work sessions uh discussing academic matters we've spent a great deal of time I know out in schools visiting with teachers and Educators Liaisons principals assistant principals division staff

088and what I would what I'm going to try to do is be responsive to real-time academic issues just in sort of a brief moments at the board table and offer you also an opportunity to be thoughtful about some of these topics and I welcome the board also defining sort of topics as we move through each meeting about something that we think might have interest across the division academically and or data that might be helpful as we think about our strategic planning process because it's important that we have accurate data from which to contemplate and have discourse around the educational purpose that we have I mean we're here primarily to support strong educational outcomes for each and every one of our students that's our fundamental Mission and I know with all the time that you all

089put into that in a variety of work sessions my purpose this evening is just to identify a couple data points and be thoughtful about those with you first of all I want to share that our regional assistant superintendents today had a retreat where I set in briefly Dr Ivey was with our regional assistant superintendents and folks from our instructional services and our executive principals to look at school by school data on early literacy this fall and what I really appreciate about the conversation today was the real-time data this was data from this fall to the beginning of the year to the end of first quarter so I need you to know and to understand in our community to know and understand that our principles that each of you with your regions as you've met to

090review data with each of the region assistant superintendents that we were drilling down even deeper than the data that you've spent time countless hours at Gatehouse with staff looking at data but today we were drilling down on early literacy data in other words how specifically is our reading with our youngest Learners our kindergarten through sixth grade and it's fascinating as we look at school by school where do we need to be strategic about resources and support and I'm just inspired by the work that I saw today so that's the first point the second Point Laura are you working with me again I just wanted to share a perspective about data regarding our nape scores and I want to be clear because one of the things that I realized I was in a meeting this morning

091which mirrored a meeting I had last week I last week I was with several community members who thought that the nape scores represented all of our students in Fairfax County testing and I wanted to be clear with you as a board in our community that we actually had 476 students out of our 180 109 are actually 181 000 now 181 109 students we had 476 tested Which is less than two percent of our student body in fact I would say across the entire state of Virginia we had about 3 500 students tested of which that is still less than two percent of the population of students across the state or the Commonwealth of Virginia so what I've been told as I met with our data staff here in Fairfax county is less than 2 percent

092is not even statistically significant in making an inference or drawing conclusions about our instructional work as a Division I also want to share that it's very difficult to use nape data as actionable data because we don't receive it as a division it comes back by state or by certain large urban districts around the country who've asked for it by District we certainly are one of those that can do that in the future but again with 476 students and only 23 of our 200 schools participating it's not what we would consider the most credible data point for us to plan instructionally forward I will say on the other hand that we did have about close to 27 000 of our students tested which is about 14 percent of all Virginia testers which a total was 187

093000 and you can see on the slide what the Virginia pass rate at Fourth and eighth grade for reading and Mathematics and where fcps's Pass rates were for reading and Mathematics having said that we know that almost 80 percent for fourth and eighth graders in reading and between 70 and 80 percent and math is still not where we want to be as a division as a Premier Division we have work to do as we come out of the pandemic but I want to remind us that the 30 percent or 32 percent that the Nate provided for the Commonwealth not for our division is based on less than two percent of the students who tested in the Commonwealth so I just want to make sure we keep a perspective as we think about that in the

094second slide is when we think about Fairfax County and sort of other assessments I just want to thank our instructional services department for reminding us that the Pisa scores for example which are an international assessment the Pisa scores actually look at 90 countries and economies and evaluate over 3 million students globally that our students still exceed the Pisa rates for the United States and the global average which is pretty impressive and again it measures 15 year olds ability to use reading mathematics science and the Knowledge and Skills to meet real life challenges exactly the skills we know our students are going to need to thrive in a world yet to Be Imagined I want to remind our board and celebrate with you that last spring in 2022 both our s.a.t and ACT scores exceeded the

095Virginia United States and in the s.a.t global averages so I feel like while we have work to do and our staff stands ready to do that work our Educators here in Fairfax County are garnering amazing results educationally and we look forward to continuing and building on those traditions of Excellence so be happy to take any questions from the board Mr I'm sorry Ms Cornell can you put the slides back up first please thank you Mr Frisch followed by Dr Anderson thank you um so one of the focuses of our board has been on the science of reading uh you know with a focus on literacy phonemic awareness phonics um one of the things I've heard while visiting elementary schools is that one of the things that's holding back the Fidelity of implementation of all the

096work that we've been doing is the lack of approved instructional materials and I know several months ago we weren't you know we were ready to buy new instructional materials as a system and then the Virginia Department of Education kind of stepped in and said they're going to work on a approved list correct it's been months do we have any update on where they are with that approved list I'm told that they they are back to visions that have um other states I guess that have approved list Colorado came out very early with an approved list we did I was at a conference earlier this week where the governor and our secretary of education as well as our superintendent of Public Instruction in Virginia spoke and I know that's a priority for our Commonwealth in the

097meantime our instructional services department is creating lessons and materials that and many of our educators are getting the letters training to really support our science of reading initiative we know there's Great Value in that work so as soon as the Commonwealth I don't have to be I guess blunt Mr Frisch I don't have a like a deadline timeline for the state but I know they have committed to picking that conversation back up perhaps we as a board can send them a letter to encourage them along because it's critical to our work here and it's one of the things that was bipartisan uh coming out of the last session uh was the work around science of reading and literacy so it's been a focus of this board and perhaps we can encourage them along because Tick

098Tock right no and I could more I know I've been Bentley and we have watched Educators use some of the new materials and I I agree we just need to get those last pieces in place thank you Dr Anderson thank you just a couple of things you um referred to the early literacy data that the region superintendents reviewed today during their Retreat can you drill down into a little bit more details in terms of what assessments did they review and what were the findings you didn't really give us those that level of specificity I just want to learn a little bit more thank you Dr Anderson they were looking at i-Ready data in this case and the assessment data they were looking at growth data which is different than necessarily achievement data in the moment

099so they were we were looking at a quadrant honestly four quadrants where it was low performance low growth low performance high growth high performance high growth and low performance high growth right four different quadrants and all of our elementary schools and regions were there so we could look at where our students performing less well and more well and where are we seeing the most growth across the division do I have any of those documents with me tonight no I do not that as you work with your regions or the your magisterial districts I know they would be happy to share that with you and again this is preliminary data but what I really am so inspired by is it's early we're not waiting until the end of the year to come to you and Report

100we're looking at this data in real time and looking at where students are and what are we doing what are the resources and interventions and instruction that we're providing that where is that making a difference and where do we need to allocate more supports so that level of strategic focus is really critical it always is but particularly now it is thank you the growth that you're referring to are you sharing that staff was um staff reviewed comparison data meaning i-Ready scores from the last school year into this year I I'm not following the growth that they reviewed there's data and I apologize for not having the charts tonight I sort of popped in today for a short period of time meeting to meeting but they were reviewing iready itself as an assessment and I may

101not say this right so I may have to phone a friend but the data where students were there's a calculation to get them to grade level and there's an amount of growth that must happen in increments to get students back to grade level and so we were looking I believe at that grade level data in other words what was the growth that a student had to make and then they extrapolated that across grade levels so we looked at k123456 right all of the grade levels and then all of the schools so we looked at it in a couple different ways cut the data in a couple different ways okay I I have a follow-up but something you just said just intrigued me this was provided from K to six that would be correct um is

102there a friend I can phone um I would um it was likely between grades one through six um was I ready data yes then that's what it must have been one yes it was because there were one two and is it our younger children I think um yeah we're just looking at our grade levels as well so thank you Miss Clinton okay and thank you for that explanation I'm somewhat familiar with iready because I review my children's very very closely but I was kind of honing in on grade six because you also provided this to the sixth graders that are in the middle school at um homes poor in Glasgow okay all right thank you the other piece that I want to speak to this is this wonderful chart Dr Presidio if you recall our

103email exchange back in early September was requesting this exact information so thank you so much for for sharing it because I think it's really good to set the contacts because I think we had a lot of fervor around the nap and providing kind of a sense of how many of our kids are impacted by this assessment and what does it mean and what does it mean in comparison to other assessments I think it's a real um key point that you've done this evening the only thing that I would add and I know everybody can can do the math a little bit but we have the percentage of students that were tested uh in the nap I think we need to have the similar percentage in FCPS not just in Virginia so for which oh on

104the other side um maybe I do in my notes and didn't read it let me look by the way Dr Presidio and his team put the slides together and I was thrilled they were able to do that um but you're right if I do have it I can't find it so but I will make sure we have the percentage of those on the other side yep Yep this is really very good stuff thank you to all of you for providing it thank you Miss Corbett Sanders yes thank you madam chair and thank you Dr Reed um this is fantastic you know me and my data um and I I we've gone through the data for each of the schools in the Mount Vernon magisterial district and overall Region Three comparing that data to the county

105level data as well as to the state level data and had significant conversations I think the one piece that I'm I would add to this chart is that when the naep is administered there are no accommodations provided and so it's something for people to recognize and understand that that does also have an impact even though this is a very small subset of our population that is a different approach than how sols are but one of the things I'd like to talk a little bit about is we know there was significant learning loss there was significant learning loss in places where schools were closed there was significant learning loss even in places where schools were open however looking forward which is really what our students need us to do because it's how do we react to

106or respond to the triple trauma that our children experienced is how what do we see in our growth in the growth of our students you know if the data is correct we know that kids across the country have lost more than a Year's worth of Education some longer some shorter um how do we see Fairfax County students the pace of growth because of the intentionality of the instruction by our staffs and I know you're going to go into more detail on this when we talk about Esser and I do have some questions on that as well thank you Miss Corbett Sanders and you're correct I think the SR report is going to share some of those strategies and details I will say that I continue to be impressed with the dedication of our Educators both

107at the school-based Educators and the central office based Educators the intensity in the room I was in today there was a laser focus on what are we doing to not just encourage but accelerate the academic growth particularly in reading today that was the focus for elementary yeah yeah great thank you Miss bakarski yeah thank you um thank you Dr Reed and thank you to your staff for spending countless hours with us individually going over this state um data for each and every school I appreciate this I think it's important for our community um to understand the differences you know the devil is always in the details generalization really gets us into trouble um what I would like to ask you know parents see this you know looks great but they're thinking about their kid and

108how is my kid impacted I need to understand my kid now I've heard from some parents that that means in their schools they have gotten very in-depth detailed scores of i-Ready and some other assessments that are being done in other schools they have not um and I've brought this up before there doesn't seem to be kind of a uniform approach to this um and and also just not a very clear understanding when we do provide these to parents what exactly are they saying about their student um I I've just I've it it was timely that you brought this because I've heard from several people that they were worried because they were not sure what this meant so I've I've said it a couple of times and I wanted to make sure that I say it

109tonight that it would be wonderful to you know I would like to get some of this data for my kids I know many other parents would like to and to then have a clear understanding of what does at what does that look like what does that mean for my child how do you use this so I think there is space for us to do a better job of that you know taking it from this and and and making it really impactful for the family and the child thank you Miss picarski and um I agree with you and that's on me as we navigate this year to determine what's tight and what's loose and definitely it's going to be critical that now more than ever that our parents families caregivers and students know exactly where they

110stand and what are their next steps to take their game up right so I know the staff is in agreement and so we're on that and particularly parent conferences right now at the end of the quarter that was one of the reasons to make sure we have growth data right to share with families so and with students right it works best when our students know here's where I am and here's where I want to be and here are the things I can do to get there so um we're on it yeah great thank you Miss toland then miss Marin yes um I want to thank uh Mr greenfelder and Dr Presidio for spending time with me recently to talk about the data and these different types of Assessments and what does the data really mean

111and uh you know how should we be looking at this with our school district so thank you and thanks for putting these charts together this is super helpful um I just couldn't help with thinking especially with our Esser presentation this evening um I'm imagining our res is in this meeting you know talking about all the schools and what's happening at each particular school a school by school and you may already be doing this is cross-referencing that that school data and how we're spending our Ester dollars or how we're spending other parts of our budget you know the rsr funding is super important but it's a small percentage of our overall budget so the combination of how do we really be smart as for we're watching our SS funding and moving into our budget process how

112do we take you know what happened today in that really close look at what's working at some schools and what are they doing and how what are they spending money on and how do we think about you know compared to what other schools are doing how do we I guess share the share what's working so great question Miss Tolan and we I like to talk about the ROI our return on investment and I think that's exactly what you're addressing what is our Roi for the strategies we're using at school X we do have 141 elementary schools right yes a few more than that I think right 141. so and look at the graph of all of them um it's really provided a rich conversation for sure um I also think to go back to this

113original slide I think it's very important to look at the specific data because I actually have met people who thought that all our students were being tested and that's that name you know assess everybody and it's really that would be a misnomer so Roi is critical in looking at individual test scores and I think Dr Presidio and his team will have some data for you this evening around the impact of different strategies right but I think the data we're looking at tonight is from last year correct and so I'm just excited these conversations are happening right now for this quarter and we talked earlier about being Nimble and you know being able to move quickly to adjust to meet our students needs so I'm sure you guys are all working on that well Nimble and

114adaptive and Mr greenfelter was in the meeting so there was a lot of uh a lot of data work going on for sure excellent thank you thank you Miss Marin yes hi can you hear me okay yes ma'am we can hear you yes great thank you so you know I think that standardized data will give us standardized results but the work that we're trying to do in Fairfax County Public Schools is is not merely standard so you know I'm thrilled to hear this presentation Dr Reed and I'm eager to share it widely you know our families do want to know how their children are performing and they want to know using measures that are accurate and meaningful and so I think it's really critical to explain to families the public and even our own staff

115what these data are really showing you know staff has also also a voice to me a question about the value of this data in terms of weighing it by the burden of implementing this test you know it's just one more test that our staff has to carry and students have to do instead of you know more meaningful and valuable learning time so you know I think the board has a role to play in continuing to investigate the use you know the value of standardized tests and the role of the test and I remember what you said you know um when you first arrived Dr Reed about 20 years of producing standardized education under No Child Left Behind and we need to break that that mold you know relatedly I just want to share that you

116know the data that we looked at about the accreditation just prior to to this round of um you know more higher level data coming out is you know the stories about what works they can't always be distilled to a percentage and a number but there are amazing Stories and as we look to Esser you know and analyze how to you know continue using those funds and when it's producing the funds are producing gains but it's up to us to better tell the story that's our responsibility so I am eager like I said to share your explanation and these slides out as widely as possible thank you Miss Marin thank you Mr Naco Fox yes the doctor read I just wanted to thank you for this new addition this was your idea to bring this forward

117to us right now in this fashion at our meetings and while this isn't a work session this gives us the opportunity to to address issues and speak the truth to perhaps rumors or innuendos that are out there and what's happening so I look forward to this are you planning on making it a regular part of each week or are you going to do it monthly or if you thought that far out yet our staff is actually pretty excited about the opportunity to share our real-time academic work particularly now this year as we are engaged in our strategic planning because we know these data points are key in defining where we are and what our community expects from us moving forward so I believe we're planning short Snippets of critically important and obsessively interesting academic data

118in each meeting well now I appreciate that and as we talked about this in the chair with the chairs and vice chair meeting um you know I was unaware that only 476 FCPS students were that was not a data point that I was aware of so thank you because that that is that is a huge difference about interpreting what right what you know what success or or not we we have with our students so thank you and I just look forward to continuing this work together you bet thanks thank you and um this is not a work session here we'll have more chance to ask questions on data when we get to the SR presentation an agenda item 4.06 so I will just briefly say thank you for this I think this is a great

119addition to our meeting and from that I will go to agenda item 4.04 student representative Matt oh I'm sorry Miss I'm sorry Mr Mitch I thought you I've sorry okay no worries I didn't see it no no it's fine um okay so thank you for this and I think that this is always you know reviewing the data basing our work off of that as always critically important to give us the right perspective uh or adjust our perspective but just a couple of things I mean my colleague spoke to the importance of nuance with looking at the data all of that test scores not being reflective I think these are themes we're aware of and how we view it um but you know one I remember one of the things I really appreciated about your vision

120when you came on was that uh you know it's we shouldn't just be kind of measuring who who made it and and you know how how uh we're able to just overcome that threshold to stay accredited and stay above water but really uh how are we getting everyone to a higher level of success right so that's just something to think about um to me I don't necessarily celebrate this though I um I'm reassured by this right so it's telling me that we're in a place where we're above average which is the bar I'd expect for us right um but I'd like to see that number be higher and then I also want to disaggregate that data to think about one of the things in the in the region meetings that uh I had um with

121our various staff on the data was that we sometimes we look at adjusted sometimes we look at unadjusted data right and then we also data is hidden for certain groups so maybe the data is actually telling us that we're not doing so great in how we support certain academic programs right or certain categories of folks namely sped ell lower income kids uh and actually Black and Hispanic students as well in terms of what the data has shown us so how can we kind of Target efforts and be intentional about addressing those pieces because maybe if we were to break that 77 or whatever it is down we see that we're doing a good job for the average kid but where are we um when it comes to certain gaps and why right trying to diagnose

122to be able to address so that's just something I wanted to name because it was a point of some frustration and in our you know my colleague and I's meetings in the regions um and then finally putting this in context because absenteeism was also up in a number of the schools and impacted some of this I know in just conversations with our region assistant superintendents so something to think about just in in honing in on where the problem areas are to see those numbers go up but I know that's uh the lens you're bringing in anyway so I'm grateful for your work yeah thanks Miss Amish and you're right that we need to be really strategic in our approach yeah thank you now actually not seeing any more lights so for uh first comments I

123will go on to agenda item 4.04 student representative matters and we'll have an Esser presentation where we can ask more questions so I will call now on Miss togbe for student rep matters thank you madam chair good evening everyone and happy Thursday it's week 11 and also the first week of the second quarter and I'm so proud of all the students because we made it first quarter down um last week I got to film a video explaining strategic planning and the importance of it and I have to say it turned out really amazing um I haven't gotten my oscar yet in the mail so I'm waiting for that um I got to recruit some students in region four to be in the video um I have to say I'm glad we were able to put

124our Sports rivalries aside um special shout out to miss Peck the leadership teacher over at South County she certainly was able to help me out with getting students there and she also in my opinion carried the video and if you haven't seen it go check out fcps's insta and YouTube um I know they already left but I have to highlight and thank the students that were here earlier today you guys were absolutely amazing um and I'm super thrilled at how involved you guys already are they're both in middle school and I thought that was pretty cool um and just keep up the amazing work um I want to talk a little bit about the relationship between student groups and the board and the leadership team as someone who's worked with our student our Equity ambassadors

125and our Sac Reps for the past few years I'm really familiar with the dynamic I say that both these student groups like they put in a lot of time and effort researching topics and Gathering data and only one student group gets to present their findings that's sac and even when they do there's kind of a bridge in communication in the sense where we they don't know a couple months after that presentation was any of that information considered would they like to do further research should we be more involved in the planning stages of even maybe like adapting some of those policies that were proposed um so I'm really hoping that the structure of Sac and seals are reviewed to make sure that their work is taken to another level I also got to briefly talk

126with Dr Reed about our current hiring process and Recruitment and I was able to gain more of an understanding which really helped me with my perspective but I was able to meet with our Equity ambassadors and discuss where we can kind of be better together we looked into the use of satellite campuses which I had no idea anything about it originally and when we were doing our research it was interesting to see what could be done pretty much and as always thank you all so much for your time thank you as always it's wonderful thank you very much agenda item 4.05 superintendent matters I call on Dr Reed thank you madam chair and lots of excitement uh since last we've met uh since our last meeting I want to share that I visited Glen Forest

127Elementary wayanoak elementary Westfield High School Bull Run Elementary in Virginia Run Elementary and had a fabulous time at each School actually found out one of our schools had woodchucks as their mascot and since Groundhog Day is one of my personal favorite holidays I'm just really excited now I have a place to go to celebrate Groundhog Day I know it's how much would yeah anyhow just so excited and the only um sort of traumatic classroom experience one of our choral groups at the elementary was practicing a song about snow and I had to be reminded that the weather could be changing um and I may have to make snow decision soon I also want to share how excited I am to have an extra hour this weekend I know staff will utilize that to spend a

128little extra time on assessment and other strategies but just a reminder that daylight savings time I think is adjusting and so remember to keep track of our clocks this weekend I was very excited to spend uh lunch out at Lake Braddock Secondary School with our since it is our we honored our Career and Technical education programs this evening our FCCLA family and consumer science programs and Skyler Kim our Nash or our state Virginia Commonwealth representative was there miss Cohen joined me for that event and it was quite an exciting event excellent food and we learned a lot about the leadership program also had a chance to attend the Mount Vernon and Hayfield football game last Friday where we had a halftime parade with a Jedi dinosaur I thought that was somewhat metaphoric and did have

129a chance to spend time also at Annandale high school at the Special Olympics soccer tournament Saturday morning and got a chance to get out on the field and kick the ball around with some of our athletes and they were well attended it was a fabulous morning and a beautiful fall day most recently Community conversations have taken place at West Springfield Langley and West Potomac we still have several Community conversations left as we complete those I want to remind the board that we are receiving Narcan within our schools I noted that in my division wide weekly Reflections note and I want to share with the community that the division is hosting a webinar on November 10th from 10 to 11 30 entitled everything you need to know about opioids and we really encourage families parents and

130caregivers to attend the webinar it's free but we do ask you to register and it's designed to inform and raise awareness about the dangers to children in adolescents on this topic and I think it's very important not just here in Fairfax County but across our region and Country as this is an epidemic right now and we need to as a community come around our young people to keep them informed and safe it's a devastating epidemic at this time I want to make sure that our Veterans Day um is next week and want to make sure that folks understand it's a district-wide student holiday and our schools will be honoring our veterans the week of November 7th please check with your child's school to see exactly what they have planned this is an important day and

131I hope that many of you are able to take advantage of being so close to DC by visiting different monuments that have been erected in honor of those who've given their all for us and then I did also with a number of board members have the opportunity to attend the John R Lewis leadership program event Lewis High School principal Alfonso Smith hosted board members community members and members of the late congressman's family I think for a really inspiring event that showcase students and staff and the work they're doing to develop that leadership program and lastly I just want to share that Catherine Johnson Middle School was again recognized by the Virginia naturally School recognition program by the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources for the ninth year in a row other schools that have been recognized

132are Daniels Run and Providence and this is really an exciting time for our schools I finally want to share that tomorrow I will be attending an event in Washington DC honoring Mosaic Elementary as being named a blue ribbon school and it's honestly a big event I think they're one of nine schools nice this year so again just big props to our Educators across this division that continue to be highlighted at the national level for excellence and that is my report Madam chair thank you Dr Reed quite the busy schedule agenda item 4.06 Esther update presentation and I will call again on Dr Reed for the introduction thank you madam chair of the Esther 3 update I have been looking forward to honestly uh for quite a while it's um and so I'd like to turn

133it over to Dr Presidio who will introduce the team and the presentation Dr Presidio all right well thank you Dr Reed and good evening everybody we're going to do the presentation up here from the gallery this evening if that's okay because we've got quite a few folks that are going to be helping co-present and hopefully the audio is okay it seems like I'm getting a little bit of an echo so I'll try to get a little bit farther away but I'm kind of going from my right on down the row here I'm joined by Noelle colenko the assistant superintendent for instructional Services Esther Co our auditor General Lee haruda our director of research and strategic Improvement Dr Evangeline petrich our executive principal and Esser Project Director Rich polio our director of Esau services and Michelle

134Ferreira from our office of research and strategic improvements so this obviously is a team effort and we're very happy to be able to have this opportunity to present to the board in the community tonight on the work that we're doing around Esser I'm sure as you'll recall this is not our first Esser report this is actually the second formal report that we've provided to the board the first was back in February of 2022 so we're definitely committed to ongoing updates about this work throughout the entire funding period of Esser but probably even more importantly than those updates to the board in the community is the opportunity for Community to have input and provide feedback on what we're doing and we did have a public hearing earlier this evening on sr3 we had a number of

135folks who came out to speak to us and I just wanted to say thank you to all of them for taking the time to share their thoughts and ideas that will definitely inform our our work moving forward in this project so what we wanted to try to cover tonight is just a couple different things we of course want to give you some updates on the programs and services that are happening as a result of Esser funding we also are going to look at a detailed spending report we know there have been questions about the current level of Esser spending and where our budget is currently at and then Esther is going to provide some information on the auditing process that her office is doing to track Esser spending and then Leedy and Michelle are going

136to share a detailed report we only have a few slides in the presentation for this evening but they did a comprehensive detailed report looking at the impact of the Esser funded activities on student academic and wellness outcomes and then we'll of course try to provide some information about how we're using that orsi report to improve our programs and services for this school year so I just wanted to start out by providing a little additional context around Esser funding I do think it's important to note that Esser funding is separate from the funding that we have in the FCPS operating budget the Esser funds are supplemental funds that we've received from the federal government provided to school districts to do two things safely reopen schools and then sustain the safe operation of schools as a result

137of the covet pandemic the other thing that's really important to point out is that these funds were intended to be used over a multi-year period of time so a multi-year investment the federal government understood that the impacts of the pandemic were significant on students and that schools are going to need funding for several years to be able to address students academic and wellness needs so our spending plan is in alignment with that multi-year strategy we have until September of 2024 to expend all of our Esser funds and we've developed both our programming plan and our spending plan to meet that timeline the Esser Grant itself has some specific funding requirements and and largely what we're allowed to spend on is related to academic and wellness supports for students as well as covid mitigation and prevention

138efforts so we've developed our spending plan with those requirements in mind but I just want to remind everybody there was a lot of community involvement when we developed our initial plan we had public hearings we had lots of opportunities for folks to provide written feedback into the plan as we developed it and the initial plan was approved by the board in August of 2021 it was then approved by the state in September of 2021 and then December was the of 2021 was the first time the schools actually started to receive any of this sr3 funding to support those school-based needs so I think even though schools didn't receive their funding essentially until almost halfway through the school year last year we have seen some positive impacts so we're excited to share just a few examples

139of the impact of essers funding spending last year and the first thing we wanted to share was this chart that shows our Sol results from the last three years of testing you'll notice that school year 2020 is missing and that's because there was no State Testing in school year 2020 because schools were closed and we certainly recognize that sols are just one way to look at our pandemic recovery efforts and certainly as we talked about with the data that Dr Reed shared during academic matters we understand there's a lot of work that we still need to do these results are not where we want them to be or where we would expect them to be but I do think you can see from looking at the data that our schools have shown a lot of

140growth on sols during the last school year uh you can see here that we're continuing to significantly outperform State averages and we've also made greater gains in closing pandemic learning gaps than the state has as a whole so specifically if you look at reading and math outcomes that are largely the focus of what schools are using their Sr dollars to address our reading performance is almost back to pre-pandemic levels in our math performance has eliminated half of the pandemic learning Gap in just a single year so there is a lot of good news here and we certainly recognize that there's a lot more work that we need to do I wanted to just share a little bit about of course how schools are spending their Esser dollars and essentially overall you can see from the

141slide here that the majority of funding over 70 percent is targeted to academic and wellness supports uh directly to students in our schools so those Esser funds are used to provide additional Staffing for small group instruction or individualized instruction one-on-one tutoring that this with the students that have the most significant learning needs those Esser funds are used to extend those learning opportunities beyond the regular school day so there's a lot of things that are happening during the regular school day to get targeted supports to students that are demonstrating need but we're also extending those supports before school after school or in some cases even during the weekend on Saturdays so the image that you see here is actually an embedded video we won't take a look at it tonight but it's from WUSA channel 9.

142that did a report on the Saturday Academy at Glasgow Middle School and it's just one example of the types of things that are happening outside of regular school hours to support student learning needs students are getting wellness and SEL supports as well it's not just academic support So students are getting things like mentoring and workshop opportunities to develop resilience and help them with developing skills to manage stress and emotions so there's a lot of really positive things that these Esser dollars have been able to provide in terms of supports to our students the other thing that's a major spending category for us is really building that long-term staff capacity to to better support student achievement and Mr fresh spoke a little bit about the significant changes that we're undergoing as we work to align our

143literacy programming to the science of reading that's a significant shift in practice that requires sustained professional development so we've used our Esser funds to Target professional development in those areas and last year Esser funds helped us provide that intensive literacy training and letters in Orton Gillingham training to over 1200 teachers across the school division similarly in math it's important that our teachers are equipped with strategies that are going to promote their efficacy in supporting students mathematical understanding and in learning so we were able to use Esser funds to train over 900 teachers in evidence-based programs like avmr training in math last year Wellness of course is another area that is something that we're asking our Educators to address with our students so we've been able to support them with training and professional development in things

144like responsive classroom and how to effectively run advisory programs and create those classrooms and in cultures and climates that are really focused on being responsive to students needs and to being inclusive so I want to provide just a little information then as we think about the multi-year nature of this Grant on some of the things that we're doing this year and you know we're we're making strong gains but we of course have a lot of work that we need to do and one of the things that I've really appreciated this year about in particular about working with orsi and Leedy and Michelle in particular is they've been able to really collaborate with us to get us information in a timely manner so miss Tolan mentioned that this Essa report is you know it's it's a

145look back it's it's you know how did our students do last year and it's coming to you now but that's largely due to scheduling purposes a lot of the underlying data that's in this report actually was provided to staff from orsi in the late spring early summer to really help us think about our planning efforts for this school year and that's incredibly important to help us maximize the effectiveness in of in use of these dollars so some of the things that we saw in that orcy analysis really led us to continuing to Target and prioritize our funding in four key areas these division instructional priorities continuing to dig into language arts and math recovery efforts focusing on those SEL Wellness needs but also trying to get back to portrait of a graduate outcomes just as

146Dr Reed was talking about those skills that we know that our students need to have to help them prepare for those jobs that don't even exist yet today and we want to make sure that we're focused on engagement enrichment and Equitable access and opportunity to those types of learning experiences not just to recovery efforts so we're really trying to balance all of those things and use our Esser dollars to support all of that but of course I think one of the big things that we realize from the orsi report which is a growth area for us is the Fidelity of implementation to some of our programs and practices that are part of the Esser project so for example we really need to make sure that we have strong implementation the same evidence-based programs and practices

147consistently in all of our schools and classrooms so one of the big things that we focused on to support that Fidelity of implementation is the school improvement process the school Improvement plan itself is a big lever for us this year so I want to share just a little information about what that process looks like with you this evening as well so one of the big changes for us this year is we've taken a much more coordinated approach to school Improvement planning it's a collaborative effort across our academic departments as well as the regions collaborating with the schools to enhance the process itself one of the big enhancements or changes is we've moved the school improvement process to a quarterly process so instead of setting yearly goals and targets at the beginning of the year and

148then checking to see how we did on those at the end of the year we're actually doing quarterly checks every nine weeks and part of what Dr Reed was looking at in that region meeting today was looking at some of that data that's part of that quarterly check to make sure that we're on track and on target and a good understanding of the growth that our students are making or where we're still seeing gaps that need to be addressed so we've formed division collaboration teams that are working with all of our schools to support these quarterly data reviews as part of the school improvement process where schools will look at their data reflect on what's working and adjust and revise their strategies and activities as necessary based on what their data is telling them in

149our central office teams are providing that targeted coaching and support by going into the schools and supporting them in their areas of need it could be one school has particular challenges at a particular grade level in reading that they really need some additional support on obviously that same scenario could be true for other content areas like math as well so that's a big enhancement and a big change for this year the next part of the presentation tonight really is focused on our spending updates so we want to provide a little information about what our spending plan looks like unfortunately Lee Burton was not able to be here tonight she's representing the district at a chief financial officers event a national event so she's representing us at that I'm going to do my best to walk

150you through the spending plan so bear with me but the chart that you're seeing here really represents our current three-year spending plan for our sr3 funds and you can see that there's 29 different initiatives that are in the approved spending plan the majority of that spending about 77 percent is targeted at school-based initiatives so again those academic and wellness supports that schools are providing after school programs a large chunk of money for summer school to extend the school year for students who need additional learning opportunities and teacher contracts for special education teachers to do additional work to help special education students recover so when you look at FY 22 kind of looking backwards that First Column of the chart there you can see for example at the bottom that we had a total of 53

151million dollars in expenditures for fy22 those expenditures are actually a little bit less than the amount of funds that we had originally budgeted for FY 22 but when we built our spending plan back in the summer and submitted it finally and finally got it approved in September and then we didn't get the actual funds until December a lot of time had gone by in that course of that fiscal year that caused us not to be able to expend some of those funds so we did have a significant amount of carryover for FY 22 and like any multi-year Grant when you have carryover those funds just roll over into the next fiscal year and you reallocate those based on the needs that you have so we did go through a process and the board approved our

152FY 23 spending plan a few of those adjustments from carryover funds that we were able to make a significant investment in summer learning programs so 18 million dollars we budgeted for our summer school program that took place last summer that allowed us to dramatically increase the amount of students who attended summer school and to provide summer programming at most of our school locations additionally we had six million dollars in FY 22 carryover that we were able to apply to additional funding and support for schools academic and wellness allocations and allowed us to continue with classroom monitor funding for this year so when you look at kind of the bottom line of what's our budget look like for FY 23 you see at the bottom that we've got 123 million dollars budgeted for FY 23. at

153the end of September of 2022 um just less than a quarter into the year we had spent 22 million dollars of that budget so we do think that we're on track to probably expend most of those funds during FY 23 if we don't then we'll have funding available that will roll into fy24 and we'll work with the superintendent and the superintendent will work with the board to identify the funding priorities for fy24 so before we leave this section um Lee did ask me to take just a minute and talk a little bit about some of the statements that we saw in the media recently about the spending pace and the spending down of our Esser budget so we want to be really really clear that for folks in the community that saw any of those

154reports the numbers that were reported were the reimbursements back from the state not our actual spending so we expend funds and then we submit to the state to get those reimbursement dollars back there's always a delay so from an accounting perspective when we're looking at reimbursements it's reflecting less than what we actually had spent so when you look at our overall Esser 3 budget in terms of what we've spent we've spent down 40 percent of our Esser budget over a three year period of time we had anticipated that we would expend about a third of those funds each year so we're a little bit ahead of schedule or essentially right on track to spend down all of our funds by the grant expiration period in September of 29 for so hopefully that helps a little

155bit on the spending side and next I'm going to turn it over to Esther to talk a little bit about the auditing process good evening everyone so the office of Auto General we are an independent audit party that reports directly to the school board and we have conducted continuous monitoring on the sr3 expenditures so this is a continuous monitoring reviews were approved by the school board for the auto plans in fiscal year 22 and 23. and here are some of the key testing attributes areas that we focus on and the first one is time and effort so in order to trace it back to the previous chart about the spending time and effort considered the major components which consider like the contracts the salaries and the stipends ETC that we looked at we also looked

156at the procurement requirements as well and then we also looked at the financial reconciliation reports for example as long mentioned there's a process where we reconcile the financial statements together with the reimbursements received from the states so we looked at those reconciliations as well we also want to make sure that the spending is in compliance with the approved Plans by the board so with that here is the first Esser continuous audit result and again similar to some of the reporting tonight it is a little bit looking back that the result that we have here is for fiscal year 22 through January 31st of this year only we have using a stratified a random sampling meaning that we looked at different categories of expenditures and selected accordingly so as a result of this review We it

157appears that the internal controls meaning the checks and balances to making sure that the Azure spending is accurate we it seems to be like the transactions appear to be allowable and oag did Identify some opportunities for the management to consider they are related to the pay bands related to the accuracy of some of the supporting documents and also we encourage the management to have a central repository of all the documents this report has already been presented to the audit committee earlier this year in June and then I want to foreshadow a little bit about what we are doing now about the current year continuous monitoring so definitely we are looking at more transaction testing and the audit is going on right now we are also looking at the work that completed by the external Financial

158Auditors because as part of their audit plan they are also looking at the sr3 expenditures so we want to um collaborate with them and looking at what they do to strengthen our continuous monitoring practice and then we are also working checking with the management and see if some of the enhancement that we stated here have been improved or not so that's what we are working on now and I would like to have the time to lady so thank you Esther so the highlights of Orsi's report are here I wanted to point out that this is a 50-page report that provides a lot more details and we're able to go through tonight but we'll go through some highlights of it there's a link in here if you do want to see the rest of the report

159and there's also page numbers that we've tried to add so it's easier to kind of track down which of these slides go with which parts of the report the report itself covers four main questions one of them is around how is the Esser funding used to support student progress also looking at what kind of participation there were in the Esther funded activities the progress that was made by our students both in terms of growing as well as hitting some of our proficiency benchmarks and then looking at the infrastructure or the supports that FCPS put in place in terms of processes to make sure that things were supporting or how it was supporting or constraining the efforts of the School Division I also want to point out that Sloan mentioned there were 29 different projects this

160report focuses on three of those projects but those three cover roughly two-thirds of the funding for Esther that was intended to be spent over the course of the grant period and many of the findings as slow mentioned were shared back in July to make sure that staff had time to try to incorporate any kind of improvements or changes for this year and at the end of this we'll go back to Sloan where he can talk a little bit more about what some of those changes were when we move on to the next slide it shows some of the data sources that were specifically used to look at the school allocation information that's the information we'll be going through today there's also an appendix that covers more information about the special ed teacher contracts so here's

161the different sources that were used I want to point out in particular we try to get a lot of school-based staff to help inform what we were doing we got community input and that we used a lot of the existing data that we had in terms of Assessments of academics and Wellness this first slide gets into how schools actually use those allocations both on the academic side as well as on the wellness side here again in the upper right if you want to look at the report and get more details on it there's the pages that match that report so one of the important things as Sloane mentioned were the allocations were actually provided mid-year and so the supports and interventions were already being provided but this was this these were additional things that were

162happening and supported by the Esser funds themselves some of that in some of that funding supported things that were happening in the classroom sometimes with all of our students sometimes with some students who needed supports and interventions and some of the things were supporting things outside of the classroom where students were getting additional supports and interventions outside of the classroom when we look at the budgets funding here the academic side of it there was a focus on trying to provide funding for those external supports outside of the classroom and you'll see that the plurality here of 42 percent of the funds were used to provide small group interventions and supports and that would have been outside the classroom there's also the adult-led one-to-one supporting computer-led one-to-one supports that also would have been outside the classroom

163but some of the money was also being used to support what's listed here as indirect student support around the notion that for the most part teachers were getting professional development from these funds that were used to support students primarily inside the classroom as well to support the special needs that happened due to the pandemic on the wellness side you can see that 40 percent was actually used for what's listed as tier one instruction and that's because on the wellness side of it there was a there was a focus in trying to make sure that all of our students were supported by the Esser funds and trying to get Wellness supports into that area so 40 percent was used for those tier one instruction on the wellness side and then another 29 percent was again primarily

164used for professional development to support teachers ability to support students on with Wellness so this next slide gets into how did our students perform and I know we were just looking at some data in terms of other slices of it so this is trying to look at when we look at our students what percentage of them made at least one year's worth of growth and I think Dr Reed when she was describing the i-Ready assessment talked about that's one of the ways that you can look at it so this was looking at a lot of the assessments to make a determination of how what percentage of our students made that one year of growth and you can see that majorities of our students who are identified and those are the ones that are in included

165in the dark teal on this slide that they majorities made the one year's progress it was roughly two-thirds of our students made Reading progress and roughly 80 percent a little above 80 percent made mathematics progress and you'll see two different teal bars one of them is focused on Central identification of students many of those students may have gotten support in the classroom that was supported by the Esser funds the school documented very specifically got supports outside of the classroom but you can see that it's roughly comparable information in terms of our students who needed additional academic support in reading and math the lighter blue are the students who were not identified and you can see that close to 100 percent of those students made progress so while we had majorities making progress who were identified

166and that's a good thing it they weren't performing quite as well on the progress side as the students who hadn't been identified so moving on to the next slide this shows our students who were left still identified at the end of last year and again the report covers more information about kind the fact that we had removed a lot of students from that group of our students who were identified but this is really focusing in on what kinds of students and what kinds of needs remained amongst the students who were identified the tier 2 students are those who needed targeted supports and interventions and the tier three students that are listed here needed are most extensive they had the most needs and needed our most extensive or intensive supports in order to be successful and

167you can see that roughly half of our students in that tier two group are our English Learners and our economically disadvantaged students which is a much greater proportion or concentration of those groups than we have in our overall membership we also have a larger proportion of our special ed students there at about 25 percent and then when you move to the group that had needed the most intensive supports those concentrations increase and so many of our students that fell into these groups are the students that hadn't been able to get the supports that they needed in this first year and again remember we're talking about a multi-year initiative to try to get them back on track and at grade level but many of these students still needed supports at the end of this first year

168then moving on to Wellness just have one slide about outcomes for wellness and the wellness supports again that were funded by Esser we're often something that was supporting everybody in the school and you can see that overall in our schools many of the schools decreased their overall proportion we went from having 77 percent of our schools have 30 percent of more of their students who needed Wellness supports and that decreased to 55 at the end of the year so we sh we saw some progress on the wellness side as well this next slide talks about the key findings for structures and processes and this information um was the large chunk of what we had shared back in early summer to help with setting up the school system to make the improvements that might be helpful

169for this year in particular so you can see that the multi-year multi-tiered systems of support are mtss uh is listed as not consistently understood by all of our staff and schools and it really pointed to need for FCPS to simplify and make Universal what all schools should be doing when it came comes to mtss and the focus of that work was really around trying to make sure everybody understood how to do the data-driven work with students and have it be student focused and systematic and some of the information in the report Echoes what you had heard earlier when the Consultant Group that was hired to review our special ed services had spoken to that issue as well the second thing on here is really central office had developed a lot of important resources and helpful

170resources but they were not necessarily well known by everybody in the school Division and there were some issues around communicating knowledge of what existed this isn't especially important to develop additional Specific Instructions to meet the needs of those student groups that we know are still in our two or two and three needs where they still need intensive or targeted support and so making sure as we move forward and have those resources that not only do we have the resources but schools are very aware of what's there and the need to provide professional development to make sure that our instructional staff know it's there and then also know how to use it we also found that majority of schools had more than 30 percent of students needing intervention and continuing to need intervention in reading math

171and Wellness and that this should have had an impact on what kind of instruction took place in the classroom during last year many of the schools were handling that independently and so there's a recommendation that this be done more centrally to reduce that need at each individual school and to provide more Central guidance on what how to deal with that in the classroom when you have such large volumes of students needing that kind of support and then lastly schools reported challenges standing up a lot of the academic interventions if you recall last year with the Delta variant and the Omicron variant there were a lot of absences in staff and students that really made it difficult to consistently provide some of these interventions and supports and so that is something that was not something we

172can change but it's something that we need to be aware of and potentially be able to have a way to adjust to that should it can something like that continue to happen and with that I'm going to turn it back to Sloan who's going to speak to some of the recommendations but more specifically the response that staff made to them no it's late and there's a lot of other things on the agenda so I'm just going to very quickly go through the management response because I hopefully there'll be another opportunity to to answer questions that board members might have but a couple big things that we did updating those curriculum resources as Levy mentioned to make sure that we have differentiated targeted resources ready to go so teachers can focus more on instructional delivery and

173less time on instructional planning a lot of work to really enhance what we're doing around social emotional learning with new supports we are contemplating possibly even looking at purchasing an SEL curriculum for school year 2324 if we're able to find the funding to be able to do that so that was one of the areas that we had looked at and then with respect to mtss I think lady covered that really well we've really enhanced and tightened the supports that we provide around mtss with additional coaching again using Esser funds to be able to do that making sure that parents are notified about the intervention that their students are receiving so that they understand what's happening and how they can help them at home as well so a lot of work around mtss and then two

174other recommendations really around making sure that we have support for the folks that are leading this work in the buildings remember we did provide a little stipend for folks that were the Esser lead positions so we're supporting them with more professional development and coaching and then a recommendation around increased collaboration so I think I've already talked about that quite a bit with respect to the work that we're doing around the school improvement process so with that we'll go ahead and wrap it up and turn it back over to massage moreheiser thank you and and I really appreciate the report and the time just as a reminder we do have a work session rescheduled from Tuesday to November 21st on this and we'll have really a chance to really dig into the presentation and the materials

175so and we do have still the legislative package coming up so I do have three board members who want to ask questions we will just do one round and if it can wait till the work session that would be appreciated with that I will call on Dr Anderson followed by Miss Corbett sander thank you I will save some of my questions since we have an upcoming I did not know that but I did want to go back a little bit as we were talking about the prior report when you were presenting Dr Reed and this may be a doctor Presidio question um as we were offering some um I guess kudos for the contacts of the naaep reports versus the Sol reports can you speak to whether or not we're comparing Apples to Apples in

176terms of the content that is being evaluated in those two assessments so I could maybe take a first shot at that and say that there really isn't an equivalency um and I'm not aware of any alignment study that's been done on that you know Virginia has its own unique set of state standards that we're required to make sure are part of our instructional program and that's how we design our curriculum that's what our teachers deliver instruction around that's what we assess towards so we don't do planning and preparation for other external assessments like nape at all so it really is a very different comparison when you're looking at those two tests in terms of what's tested thank you I just wanted for us to be transparent so as we have families reviewing bad data they

177could also have this contacts the only thing that I want to ask here and I will save the rest of my inquiries for the work session tutor.com I don't know if I saw it on the budget Pages where does that fall so tutor.com is not part of this sr3 report it's part of a state set-aside grant that we applied for that we were able to get funding additional funding outside of this Esser Grant to be able to provide for that service so it's not actually in the sr3 spending report here it's a it's a separate grant that we received okay okay and so I will just raise the question not looking for an answer this evening since it's not part of this I'm just wondering based on the percentage of students who are utilizing that

178resource what tweaks and revisions do we have in the future regarding tutor.com so I will let you sit with that well I would just say very briefly and we can talk about it more later but um you know that that data was from April to the end of the school year we didn't get it till the end of April so that that data is a very short period of time at the end of the school year students were not as widely aware and parents were not as widely aware of that service so we're really working to to push out communication about the service because clearly um you know the feedback that we have from students who've used it and from teachers whose students have used it is all very very positive so we really need

179to get the message out that that's a service available to any of our students and make sure that it's more widely used so that's what we're working on right now would we've been be able to get an update in terms of usage absolutely thank you Miss Corbett Sanders thank you Dr Presidio and to the whole team this is a great presentation and I really appreciate it I did share with you earlier in the day that I would have a few questions about it and so I'm hoping you have uh you can answer some of them my questions pertain to the PowerPoint presentation and the information on pages or slide 7 21-22 and slide 24. in particular the information on slide 21 about those identified for support showed academic growth but not as significantly as those

180for those that have been identified but not as significantly as those that were not identified for services and on slide 22 it is stated that the majority of those that were identified for intervention were English language Learners students on free and reduced meals and students with disabilities on page 24 it stated that there is not consistency in the implementation of the multiple tiers of support much of these findings are consistent with what we've seen in our Sol results as well it seems that the data is showing that these groups of students are growing academically but at a slower rate than those that are of the non-identified students so I'm a little worried that we are accelerating the achievement Gap my question is if we identified the students do we have individualized support plans for the

181students with Scout scaffolding of the mtss and how did we or should we increase support if an individual is not growing academically have you looked at absenteeism Mobility rates in the mtss and did the mtss include targeted tutor.com rather than a push out an identification of a student needing the service and then helping that student take full advantage of the service and if not can we look at doing that now what what additional items can we address to ensure that we reverse the findings which seem to be accelerating that Gap and what is the role of central office in this process well thank you for those comments and questions I think they're all exactly the the conversations that we're having inside our leadership team in terms of our discussions um you know I guess I

182would say a couple things to start you know those three groups represented on slide 22 are English Learners our economically disadvantaged and our students with disabilities as you pointed out you know we've historically seen that those student groups have additional learning needs and we need to do more there and every data point that we've looked at since we've been in the pandemic has shown us that those groups had suffered the most significant impacts of the pandemic so that is the process that we're using at our schools is to identify those students by name and by need and really make sure that they're getting as much targeted support as they can obviously those results that we're seeing are concerning to us just as they're concerning to you we know that we need to do more and

183we're doing everything that we can I do want to make one point and I don't want to say this by any means is an excuse but I think it is import important just to put the amount of Esser funding that we're receiving in a little bit of perspective when we look at the profound needs that students in the system and across the country have the amount of Sr funding that we have on an annualized basis is less than one percent of our overall budget so you know if you did that on a per student basis it's like around 300 a student on an annualized basis it's not really the level of support that many of those students need so we can't rely just on what we're doing with Esser we have to think about what

184are we doing with tier one instruction and that's where we've completely Rewritten our curriculum to provide you know more actionable differentiated resources to really utilize that classroom instructional time as part of tier one and we're targeting those dollars for those tier two and tier three supports to those students who need it the most but there's a lot of learning and acceleration that has to happen there you know we do have tutor.com we are trying to use that in a targeted way we have other personalized learning software for language arts and reading in fact we're even looking at perhaps adapt or adopting some additional personalized learning software so that students can get that additional support at home the esol piece is huge you know we see the result there's a lot of intersection across those three

185groups right so there's a lot of intersectionality there our English language Learners didn't have those opportunities to practice their oral language during the pandemic in a virtual learning environment and we see the impact of that rich is leading some tremendous work I think working with schools he's meeting with every single one of our schools to look at their weed of progress data and talk about the best practices that should be happening in the schools we're doing similar work for special education the office of special education instruction so there's a lot that's happening we'd be happy to go into that in a little bit more detail in the work session thank you and if you could address the issues of absenteeism and Mobility rates um if not tonight be ready to do it at the work

186site and those are data points that we're tracking as well absolutely thank you um and again we do have a three hour work session schedule on this so we can really dig into a lot of the questions and answers then miss Tolan yes thank you um and given that we do have a work session I I really have more of a comment um that I'd like to make um Miss mccarski and I are the meeting managers for this so we had a sneak peek at the presentation last week and I I just wanted to just kind of throw out some thoughts that I had after seeing that um there's a lot of information in there and I was really happy to see the volume of reporting that was generated around this past as they're spending

187and the and the recommendations for future spending importantly the office of research and strategic Improvement has looked at how we spent money in the past school year and then they made that set of recommendations as to the utility of that spending like did it really help kids what do we need to do to improve and I was so happy to hear that they had given our instructional staff in school as a preliminary look before we are seeing this they had given them a preliminary look at the recommendations so that we could make adjustments to better serve our students when they arrived at school in August and you know so just trying to turn this around and make sure we're doing the best for our students we also have to remember that the federal government gave

188us three years to spend this money so we knew that and they knew that we are not going to solve these issues of learning related to the pandemic in one year we have seen some improvements but we have a ways to go so being as we said earlier being nimble and spending this money effectively over the next two years is key I was really happy to hear about the inter-departmental teams that have been set up to make sure that this happens and the quarterly sip reviews and I'm excited we've got Dr petrich in charge of all of that our department of school Improvement and supports team is at the table with instructional services and others to best work with and serve our schools believe me these teams are formidable and I'm looking forward to hearing

189more about their work as we move forward and I'm also of course super thankful for the um to staff for the work they're doing to monitor the expenditures our project management team and our office of the otter General are you know working on all of this and and making sure we're staying on track um you know and I of course our budget and Grant offices are also monitoring expenditures so we've got lots of people working on this and I think the you know 50 page reports and the the volume of the presentation you know really speaks to that so um thank you and I look forward to our work session thank you agenda item oh miss miss lamesh I'd say your light just went on a bit ago but yeah um thank you to staff

190for this presentation I won't the point just in advance of our work session um I I'd like to hear a little bit more about how you know that early on when we talked about involving the audit team and then orsi it was the idea that this would be an iterative process right and that the findings we we identify would improve the way that we further utilize the funds um and I know you know Esther or misco you mentioned things about the accuracy of reported documents other concerns that arose even after only reviewing um something like what was it 53 50 or so right uh items in a system where it was far more than that right um that you said you did it stratified sampling or something so I'm curious if you were able to

191find that in a small sample what might actually be out there if we expanded that search or but more importantly how that was then adopted you know has that has that been have any recommendations that came as a result of those findings been adopted to such a degree where we're no longer concerned about that right that's kind of one of my thoughts and then the other is the orsi piece you know some of the stuff that stuck out stuck out to me specifically the intervention was less useful for students who were identified that's a big deal I mean we're what is missing in in how we supported those kids that were identified for these supports I think that's something I would have really wanted us to delve a lot deeper into so that it can

192inform how we continued using those funds every day is still an opportunity especially as we look ahead for a future budget even if it's not Esser money so I'd like for some thought to go into that an investigation into kind of root causes etc for us to begin thinking about how we might do things differently or to hear about how things have been done differently I did appreciate the management responses as an attempt to explain that but these are pieces that I didn't entirely see outlined and then the communication piece too right the problems with communicating resources do we know the percentage of tutor.com that's been utilized like how many students utilize that I know something was alleged earlier in public comment but we do I can I can get the board and update what

193we were discussing earlier was the usage between April and June which we provided a report to the board on so I can get you the updated numbers though and we are tracking that yeah no I I really appreciate um all that's been done this is obviously robust in trying to be thoughtful and evaluative I would just say perhaps in the work session if we could think about you know I'd love to see kind of a a more specified I don't know if it's a timeline however you guys want to present it of you know this finding came this was the feedback and recommendation this is how it was adopted and this is what we discovered the next time we reevaluated we tried this new thing and this is what we found I think that shows

194the responsive nature of of the iterative process that we said we wanted to engage in so I think that would be helpful to me uh and I'm sure my colleagues at the work session thank you thank you Miss Amish I will move on to agenda item 5.01 confirmation of action taken and closed this is a portion of the meeting where the board will confirm any action regarding issues that were discussed in the closed meeting these issues may include action taken regarding student disciplinary matters board members have discussed each individual case and at this time we'll make one or several motions to confirm the recommended action I call in Miss Corbett Sanders for the motion thank you madam chair I moved to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who is charged with crimes related

195to a community-based incident and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent is there a second I'll second miss picarski all those in favor please raise your hand Ms bakarski Miss Cohen Mr Frisch Dr Anderson Mr Arnett Koufax Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan Miss omish Miss keys gamara and myself with Miss Marin away from the table Miss McLaughlin absent oh and Miss Marin voted in favor to some of the Bismol Golfland absent that motion passes agenda item actually excuse me chair I was going to abstain once you've called oh I apologize I thought you were voting in favor so all those opposing all those abstaining right now thank you thank you agenda item 5.02 secondary course offerings I call on Miss keys gamara for a motion thank you I moved to postponed secondary course

196offerings until the November 14th regular school board meeting is there a second I'll second up okay Dr Anderson second Miss keys tomorrow would you like to speak to your motion yes um the reason I asked to pull this uh off of the consent agenda is because I became aware um from our community that languages were not easily accessible with respect to particular to any of the classes when you actually you enter initially you have languages you can choose from so that families can understand what's going on but when you get to the actual course offerings those languages are not available um my concern is that students who have families for whom English is not the primary language are placed at a significant disadvantage if we don't have this tool available and their families are not

197fully equipped to understand their academic options or plan and map out their academic future um this is um also in line with Federal guidance that says camera the motion is just to postpone so the conversation should be about the reasons to postpone so I just want to make sure it's tied to the reasons to postpone Pro or parliamentarian who's recommended that so this is the reason to postpone okay I just wanted to make sure that was the question thank you okay um uh our classes have to address concerns of I'm sorry our catalog has to address um concerns of linguistic uh diversity so as a result I have contacted Dr Reed because it may as according to my conversation with her it's not a difficult thing to change but she did need some time to

198make sure that this uh was available it's my understanding when I discussed it with her that she proposed to move this to the 11-14 meeting to address the problem um I also wanted to make sure I brought this forward up before the board as a what I hope is a simple matter because there were significant numbers of people in the community who have been concerned about this and so this conversation with our board today signals that we're addressing the problem so if at all possible I'd like for Dr Reed to be able to provide additional information as to uh how she plans to move forward but I've simply wanted to allow her the time to correct this concern thank you I'll let Dr end of the speech for a second and let Dr Reed speak

199so there's something okay the light is not working can you hear me my light is not working it doesn't come on um I just really wanted to have more information I have a question and I would be happy for Dr Reed to go first before I speak uh before I pose my question because I would be very helpful for me to Dr Reedy for you Dr Reed go ahead thank you madam chair um Dr Edison at Miss Keys gamara the um I have spoken with staff about some workarounds in terms of linking the document to spot or a place on our website which would enable an easier translation for families and students that would require that and I just wasn't able to turn that around this afternoon prior to the meeting but the plan would

200be to provide some link linkages to a site on our website to enable the Translating as we have for other documents all right Dr Sim Fiona continue your second and then I'll miss Co and I have you on the list all kinds of mic issues um I think I'm a little bit confused is the question Miss Keys gamara the fact that the document is not available in a manner that people can comprehend or is it that the course offerings are the problem no the course offerings are not the problem it's just that I want to make sure that that's not and it doesn't become it isn't an continuing Equity problem so that students can have full access be able to talk to their parents as they choose their classes and um I just believe those

201Partnerships are so important um the and in any way I I agree with Dr uh Reed's solution but I I had two purposes for pulling this off one is I wanted the community to understand we're working on it and uh and to give Dr Reed the time that she needed to address thank you for that I'm happy to support this motion because it's really in line with the conversation we had earlier regarding that accessibility factor for some of our families so thank you Miss Cohen uh no I'm super grateful um for this to be highlighted but I wondered if we could do a modification potentially so I know everybody loves sausage at the table um but my question was right now our students are starting to meet in high school with their guidance counselors to

202already sort of just get the range of what's going to be available at their school so that our dsses can gauge interest level to see what they will be offering so I wondered about potentially Dr Reed work with me here a modification that we would still incur with the boards approval that we would still approve the body of what is happening here that these course offerings which include amazing things by the way if you haven't taken a look at them please please do because one of the things they do is encourage our kids have had to make choices between some advanced classes to get the extra boost and grade point instead of advanced band theater technical theater Orchestra so this is amazing because it gives them the extra 0.5 it also does things like forensics

203which has been offered as an academy program would be brought back to base level schools which is incredible because then kids don't have to give up three class periods to be able to do it so I just want to say to my colleagues I'm so excited about these different courses so I wondered if a compromise could be that we go ahead and give the nod to schools that the counselors do um you know offer that as they begin these conversations this next week with their students but the document is what has to get fixed so of course we want to support that so is there a happy medium living in there anywhere are you proposing a follow-on motion instead of pulling it as an option could be we passed it with a follow-on motion to

204have the document translated for Miss case gemara's request um well I think I thought what we would do is just keep the I guess Miss Keys gamara too I want to be deferential to that we would keep the approving the changes but add the caveat so I guess it is an amendment add the caveat that the course catalog must be updated to be reflective of any different language choices what do you think about that Miss Keys Gamora so what I would like to do I I'm not sure if Dr Presidio is still there I can't see very well on this lobe so if I made this Keys come around the problem to answer Ms Cohen's question really quickly then we can because I I hadn't well I'm trying to figure out because if I may

205let me this Miss Cohen's turn to speak so after she's done I'm happy to call on you well she asked me a question Madam chair I know I'm trying to get the parliamentarian to weigh in on the options so that way you can answer how you'd like to handle this but if you want to go ahead and speak first that would be fine I can wait I could probably been tearing away in afterwards thank you so here's the order of how this happened this came to my attention I took it to Dr Reed Dr Reed asked for it to be on the agenda I believe on November 14th that's how we got where we are so my question now of staff is whether there is an impediment of time um as Miss Cohen is suggesting

206because of course we want we don't want to hinder our students however I still have that Equity concern when we can communicate with some students and not others but I did want to ask our staff whether that's a concern Miss Khan I know it was your turn did you win I just want to say this is just the part where our guidance counselors they meet with all of our high school students and our advisory sessions and whatever to start pulling conversations so this is not about I understand what you're saying about a general course catalog but but of course our counselors are are meeting with kids and speaking in the language that they're best able to okay that's part of the problem Dr Reed yes so miss keysmart Gamora is correct in the conversation we

207had because I think you know the accessibility for students and families is critical so my apologies for bringing it forward without that um to miss Cohen's Point timing is everything and I believe that staff can remedy this tomorrow if this is a need so I'm happy to accelerate our work schedule to meet this need because I I appreciate it being raised and I will make sure it gets done tomorrow if the board would choose to approve it tonight so my understanding from parliamentarian is that we need to vote on the motion to postpone first and then we can this almost propose a follow-on motion from the table that can be done point of parliamentary procedure could a substitute commission Beyond fish sorry good could a substitute motion be offered rather than doing I wouldn't recommend

208doing a substitute motion here I would recommend if you're going to try and vote I would recommend if you're going to try to vote on the main motion or actually it's not even pending it it well if you want to vote on it tonight I would just vote down the pending motion to postpone and then take up the motion itself and then you can add whatever follow emotions are desired point of clarification as well for the parliamentarian Dr Anderson would it be possible would it be possible to just make an adjustment to the language here without objection so Dr Anderson this would be a motion to postpone and so we would postpone which means that the staff my understanding doctor would not be able to move forward on these course offerings until we can meet

209next time I my question is would we be able to make an adjustment to this language to not say postpone but to add what Dr Reed has um shared with the caveat that staff will have this ready tomorrow can we do that without objection so we're not voting a bunch of times if there is Good Sense oh go ahead Mr Morgan if there are no objections you you can someone can just ask to not to withdraw this motion without objections and then move forward and so can we ask for the objectives that would draw this motion then you if you want you can bring a follow-on motion to address the concerns that you brought to Dr Reed would that be okay so let me make this clear my discussion with Dr Reed had to do

210with fixing it in two weeks if she can fix it tomorrow by all means I want it fixed tomorrow because I want every student to be able to have those meaningful conversations that's what this is about so I have no problem with making sure that we are in agreement this will be addressed uh with you know fourth width within 24 hours or before Monday so that those conversations can take place and every student can have a meaningful discussion regarding their classes and involve their parents so I absolutely have no problem with that because this was about the issue not about passing emotion wonderful so without objection I will ask for this motion to postpone to be withdrawn see no objection this motion will be withdrawn Miss kieskamar would you like to bring a motion a

211follow-on motion well actually next excuse me I need to then take vote I don't have um make a clarification hold on a second just give me one second Miss Keys Kamara so I will wait go ahead Mesquite what would you like to say well if the motion is withdrawn then we need to vote on the motion to adopt and then you can make a follow-on motion so we need to adopt the secondary course offerings is I'll ask I'll ask a parliamentarian to weigh and what was the procedure Mr Morgan for handling this that's my understanding of where you are procedurally that the motion for 5.02 that came up um the Ms Keys gamara was recognized to make the motion to postpone that's been withdrawn through analyst consent and now you're on the 5.02 and that's

212okay so I'll read the language on the screen I believe is what you're telling me to do yes ma'am and then you can bring a follow-on motion as well regarding um the change that you and Dr Reed suggested so if um I'll call him as kis gamara for a motion okay I move that the school board approved changes to the list of middle and high school course offerings for the 2023-24 school year as recommended by the Course Review Committee and as detailed in the agenda item yeah we'll vote on this and then we'll be a follow-on motion that you can bring to address the conversation with Dr Reed so we need to first pass this and then we'll do the follow-on motion so is there a second Dr Anderson umara do you want to speak

213to your motion are we are we good no I'm good I I think we understand Dr Anderson you want to speak your second all right well I will call for a vote all those in favor if that is unanimous with Miss with Miss McLaughlin away um I will call on this keys gamara for follow-on motion and if someone can help mosquitoes come out with the language that would be helpful I I would suggest I move to direct the superintendent to Dr Reed if you can maybe help with the language of what you and Miss Camaro spoke about two I think go ahead um I think that uh I would make ensure that this document is accessible to all students and families so if I if I may suggest Camaro the language as I moved to

214direct the superintendent to ensure the secondary school course offerings um are accessible to all students and Families well I think by end of day by the end of the Friday November 4th Friday November 4th oh somebody's writing it okay um if that language is okay for you miss Keith Martin we can use that as a follow-on motion to address the concerns you brought all Dr Presidio so I really apologize for interrupting but I'm a little concerned about by the end of the day Friday November and I can stay out of it I just wanted to potentially raise there might be more time needed to do that so um solution yep so I would like to um I'd like to ask the phrase to achieve linguistic diversity because that's the standard um but I moved to

215direct the superintendent to ensure the secondary school course offerings are available to students by end of day Friday November 4th 2022. I think it's it's available accessible to all students I think is the word right not available yeah because the concern was accessibility in order to be accessible to all students not available because the concern is accessibility accessible correct okay Miss Keith tomorrow if you if this language is okay for you I think well I would say I'm that I removed to direct the superintendent to ensure the secondary course offerings are revised to be accessible to all students by end of day Friday November 4th 2022. translated and made accessible in other formats because it's got I don't know if they're being revised Dr Reed we're the plan that we're exploring that we believe we

216can pull off is linking them to the website where uh um students and family members and caregivers can identify the language they want a document translated in on our website so however we want to characterize that but we're not going to be able to actually verbatim translate these catalogs by end of the day tomorrow for sure so what we're looking at is being able to place them on the website and having our ability to translate them be live at that on that location okay so may I suggest we just say um accessible to all students but on the website by the end of the day well or just can we say just accessible because it's would that be all right I understand the intent I I think I may have a simpler way I'll just

217say it once so people can hear it okay go ahead I moved to director superintendent to address concerns of accessibility online to offer the secondary school course offerings to all students accessibility of secondary school course offerings Maybe I think I would suggest if we have a common understanding with this language that perhaps we can vote on it Miss kieskumar are you okay with the language as it reads um there's some redundancy but and I hate to do that when we are as educational institution however um I think we have a general understanding actually actually I think what I might prefer as language would be how about rather than having by end of day Friday we say prior to its usage with students in other words before we utilize it it will be fully accessible because

218it may take us just a bit more time but the commitment would be we're not rolling it out till it is fully accessible all right does that work Miss keys tomorrow it does and IT addresses the concern that I had which was trying to make sure I didn't want it to be accessible to some students and not others so thank you Dr Reed right because I'm seeing staff are starting to if you like to read the motion and we can get a second and then we can uh okay thank you I moved to direct the superintendent to address concerns of online accessibility of secondary school course offerings to all students prior to its usage with students is there a second Miss Corbett Sanders um Miss kiesgamara do you wish to speak to your motion thank

219you is Corbett Sanders I think everybody has a common understanding now so with that I will call for the vote all those in favor that is unanimous at the table Miss Marin Miss Keith Camaro with Miss McLaughlin away that motion passes thank you very much for all your work um and bringing that forward Ms kiskamara um agenda item 5.03 2023 FCPS state and federal legislative program I call Miss Corbett Sanders for the motion issue thank you madam chair and thank you everybody for your patience I move that the board adopt the 2023 Fairfax County School Board state and federal legislative program and priorities is there a second second Miss Corbett Sanders don't you speak to your motion yes Madam chair thank you so much it's a great pleasure to make this motion tonight on behalf

220of this whole board as you know it's important for the board to review its legislative package annually to ensure that we are proactively addressing legislation which may be introduced in Richmond or in D.C over the next few months or year Mr Malloy is one of the most respected voices in Richmond and we appreciate the time that he took with each one of the board members to discuss their priorities these were brought to our work session and amended based on that discussion as well as you can see the legislative package is quite extensive the reason for this is because of the fast-moving pace of deliberations in Richmond we need to both advocate for changes that provide better supports for our students success and employee Recruitment and Retention and proactively provide our position on items that may

221come up in the course of deliberations this year we continue to focus on Student Success to include early childhood education increase Staffing for English language Learners graduation requirements for out-of-state students transferring into Virginia and supporting post-secondary Bridge options Safety and Security to include Road Safety in front of our schools drivers education and cyber security initiatives and as in previous years we all also took we also asked State funding to support these initiatives including support for the rap back program which is being implemented in Virginia by the state police while shifting the per employee subscription costs and administrative costs for background checks and ongoing monitoring to the localities funding the con the funding those measures to combat opioid threats impacting schools across the Commonwealth in the country the State Legislative program is aligned with the County's

222legislative program and our federal program which my colleague Mr fresh will speak about as well as funding for federal programs such as individuals with the disabilities and Education Act and impact Aid as you know Madam chair that our colleague and I know Madam chair that our colleague Laura Jane Cohen will be making a motion to amend the package with your seconding to reinforce the important role of parents in the IEP process rather than speaking to that amendment I will just say here that I unequivocally support the language as drafted and believe it strengthens the package by adding Clarity to the language in the document you have before you after that Amendment passes I hope that the whole board will fully support the amended package for adoption Mr Frisch would I have to speak to your

223second yes thank you madam chair I am happy to Second this motion uh I think Miss Corbett Sanders provided some great context for our overall legislative agenda as this year's Federal liaison I'd like to take a moment to zero in on our 2023 Federal priority positions broadly speaking our federal agenda prioritizes support for full and adequate funding to implement Federal mandates such as those found in every student succeeds Act and the individuals with disabilities Education Act as well as broad flexibility to empower States and localities to fulfill mandated program requirements specifically the board supports mandatory funding for chronically underfunded special education programs to meet the federal commitment to fund 40 percent of the excess costs of special education as promised but never realized since the 1975 adoption of federal special education laws we also support

224increased funding for the federal Title 1 part a grant within the elementary and secondary Education Act that serves schools with the highest percentage of children from low-income families increased Federal resources dedicated to cyber and data security for school and School Division technology infrastructure restoration of enhanced USDA Federal reimbursement rates to resume the provision of high quality and nutritious free meals to all students full funding for the federal impact aid program which is intended to offset the local impact of fairfax's more than 19 000 federally connected students as well as those associated with Federal military base relocation decisions continued Federal funding to help School Divisions address the ongoing effects of covid-19 pandemic including funding dedication dedicated to remediation and learning recovery special education services technology and Broadband provision social emotional supports and services for English Learners

225and repealing the U.S department of education's final rule under Title IX of the education Amendments of 1972 released in May of 2020 and in the interim returning to the pre-may of 2020 rule I look forward to working with my school board colleagues and our Congressional Delegation in the months ahead to advance these critical Federal priorities and like my colleague Miss Corbett Sanders I won't speak to the amendment but I do support it and I think it will make it a strong legislative package thank you Mr fresh I will call on Ms Cohen for an amendment oh sorry excuse me other board members wish to speak to the legislative agenda I see none so I will call Miss Cohen for an amendment thank you madam chair I moved to amend the main motion by adding while

226preserving current requirements for parent Guardian involvement partnership and consent to IEPs to section s special education number four to read the fcsb supports adherence to language and idea asking states to minimize the number of additional rules regulations and policies imposed upon local school divisions above and beyond the requirements already imposed by idea while preserving current requirements for parent Guardian involvement partnership and consent to IEPs I will second this amendment Ms Cohen would like to speak to your Amendment just briefly there has been some whisperings at the state level that there will be um a push to try to remove parents from the IEP process and so we just wanted to make sure that everyone understood that our priorities are right where we think they should be in ensuring that our schools can effectively support our

227students and their families but also making sure that we do not support any legislation that would cut out parents and Guardians involvement and partnership and consent to the IEP process thank you I will speak briefly to my second um parents are a vital part of the IEP process and parental consent ensures that schools make sure parents are vital and Guardians are a vital part of the IAP process I've often said that the outside of the student the only IEP team member who is consistent from year to year is the parent or the guardian they know what conversations happen in the IEP meetings where the IEP was developed even though it's being implemented by a different team because it's often developed in the spring to be implemented in the fall by a different team and they

228were the only consistent one outside of the student when the student is part of it generally who is who knows the conversations they're the ones who live with the student they're the first caregiver the first teacher of the student and it is vital that we have that we protect in our iep's parent involvement and parent participation and parent consent and without that parent consent and participation piece being spelled out it is sometimes all too easy to to sort of people are busy and to sort of move past that but the consent part of it makes sure that parents have the power in that imbalance of power sometimes when you go to an IEP team meeting and there's seven experts at the table and you on the other side it helps to make sure that you

229are a true partner in that and and I've been in that situation many times and and that consent piece is vital so I think it's really important that this board stand up explicitly for parent participation consent in the IEP so thank you um I see no other board members wishing to speak so with that I will call for the vote the amendment is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand I just miss Amish Miss Tolan Miss Corbett Sanders mrnado Koufax Dr Anderson Mr Frisch Miss Cohen Miss uh picarski Miss mayor and Miss Keys gamara all those with this McMuffin away from the table There Are No No's or no absentions so [Music] um that Amendment passes I will go back to the main motion now which is on the screen all

230those in favor please raise your hand Miss bakarski Miss Cohen Mr Frisch Dr Anderson Mr ernakovax Miss uh Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan Miss omish Miss Keith Kamara Miss Marin got passes with Miss McLaughlin away from the table congratulations to our two Liaisons and Mr Malloy thank you very much for all your hard work agenda item 5.04 solar power purchase agreement for Annandale High School I call on Dr Anderson for the motion I moved that the school board approved the implementation of a rooftop solar power purchase program at Annandale high school and authorize a division superintendent in the interim assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services either of whom may act without the other to execute the solar PPA and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there a second second Mr Frisch

231Dr Anderson would you like to speak to your motion extensively thank you this is an exciting time at FCPS um this is while we are celebrating it it is still a preliminary step in the Enviro environmental efforts nfcps this PPA power purchase agreement is to install a roof mounted photovoltaic array at Annandale High School Annandale High School is expected to be the first of many schools to receive roof-mounted solar installations and will serve as the pilot project for FCPS to develop a working knowledge of these installations schools are selected school I'm sorry and schools were selected by the vendors by the vendors based on a number of categories that contribute to the campuses overall solar viability these categories included the roof type the roof age and solar generation capacity the selection of Annandale high school

232as the pilot school was proposed by two separate vendors based on their own review and agreed to by FCPS because of its high solar generation potential in addition to Annandale High School FCPS staff are working with these vendors to develop project proposals at several other schools before the contract period expires on December 21 2022. once the contract period ends annual renewal options are available for up to four years FCPS and County staff have tentatively agreed to a contract renewal in 2023 to allow more time for solar project proposals after the PPA contract for another high school is awarded the vendor will conduct a physical inspection of the school including the review of engineering Technical and structural documents again if this motion is approved this evening occr will engage the community for feedback on each solar

233panel project once the PPA contract is awarded there will be local engagement by of all community members to ensure that they understand the process for the site selection and installation occi will also seek to enhance community support for each project prior to final prior to its final installation and also occr will ensure that this project is encapsulated into the capital project engagement process that has recently been updated annandale's PPA represents the initial stage of a community engagement plan The Proposal will provide energy cost savings projected over the course of the 25 year of the 25-year term in a significant portion of Annadale High School's annual electricity requirements during that period the proposal has since been reviewed and verified by the Energy Solution division of cmta Dr Anderson a third part I'm almost done a third-party

234engineering firm that has evaluated time I'm almost done would you like some extra time doctor yes I would like how much how much time would you like to have that is I have three more sentences so 30 more seconds 30 more seconds is fine a third party engineering firm that has evaluated and advised FCPS regarding projected Energy savings and other aspects of The Proposal installation will for the most part be scheduled during breaks summer winter and spring to minimize learning disruptions staff will also be able to properly assess the vendor performance and the project supervision after this pilot program is begun thank you Mr Frisch would like to speak to your second yes thank you in 2015 three Madison High School students Casey Grange Sam resin and Joyce Chang approached Susan Stillman a tireless local

235Advocate from the Sierra Club to talk about bringing solar power to our schools that conversation resulted in the creation of a student-led group solar on the schools in January 2016 they began testifying at school board meetings these and other students told the board about the educational opportunities and saved taxpayer dollars that solar panels represented equally important the eloquently addressed the moral imperative of combating the climate crisis in the years since those first advocacy steps dozens of students from solar on the schools have testified at school board meetings carrying a consistent message of necessary action they also began testifying in the Virginia General Assembly successfully encouraging State Legislative State lawmakers to remove caps so local governments and school divisions could move forward with solar and other clean energy initiatives in 2018 the school board passed a

236resolution praising our Board of Supervisors for their work to bring solar to the community pushing federal and state lawmakers to make the process more smooth and for our facilities and transportation department to aggressively pursue new conservation opportunities like solar last year the school board unanimously committed the school division to participate in Fairfax County's solar program and to take all necessary actions to nail down a contract since then division staff has worked very hard to bring us to this point I'd like to thank super attendant read assistant superintendent fanshaw and the entire facilities team for their work in recent months that brings us here today I know I speak for many of my colleagues when I say I am excited to be voting for The Solar pilot program at Annandale high school and look forward to

237its expansion across our school system including the next set of schools Chantilly High School Hayfield and Robinson Secondary throw middle and tereset and Mason Crest elementaries all slated after Annandale moving this pilot forward and committing to its expansion across the entire School Division is an essential part of meeting the board's goal of carbon neutrality by 2040. it is also our fiduciary responsibility to move forward as I note whenever we talk about these green initiatives conservation efforts to date help Fairfax County Public Schools save annually eight million dollars a year that's money that goes right back into the classroom and Student Success to adjust the to address the climate crisis every level of government must act tonight's vote is further proof that our board is committed to doing its part thank you Mr Frisch Miss tollen

238thank you I was happy to work with Mr Frisch and Dr Anderson to get be able to speak to this this evening they have told you the technical reasons for doing um for voting positively for this and I wanted to just focus on recognizing some that have been so influential to get us to this point today where we finally have a contract we can sign to begin putting solar panels on our schools um years ago Susan Stillman who's already been mentioned and she's here this evening I began working with our Madison High School team to promote this idea since then she has worked with many many students over the years and is still working with our students with our current work on student wellness we are hearing from students that one thing they need is

239a long time Mentor that will work with them and nurture them over the long term this is what Susan has done and I know for certain that many of the students she worked with ended up in college pursuing stem careers just what we might hope for also early on in my career with get to Green we started hearing from the Faith Alliance for climate Solutions about our energy management and transparency and energy expenses they are one reason why we have an energy dashboard for every building and they have kept us working on our promise to utilize renewable energy in our electricity portfolio our County counterparts counterparts Dan stork and Penny gross help Carl first and I keep FCPS moving toward renewable installations as well I also want to thank our energy management team under the

240direction of John Lord and Justin Moss for their continued efforts to move this forward I also want to thank Chuck Fanshawe and Dr Reed for giving staff the green lights in a way that Mr Frisch and I could not to finally dig in and make this happen with our new vendor Ibsen I cannot wait to see how this progresses it's been a long time coming we have heard from so many students that want this and I thank every one of you most recently we had three McLean high school students at our conversation with Dr Reed that expressed interest for this and of course we had our two students from Rachel Carson tonight they are working with our colleague Kirk treacle who runs the Carson Green Team he has worked with this team for many years

241so also a huge thank you to our school-based staff that work endless hours to inspire our students to be better stewards of the environment thank you it's an exciting evening Miss Corbett Sanders yes thank you madam chair and I am so glad to see you here tonight miss Stillman I remember the very first organizational meeting of the jet in which we were really talking about this and how this would come about um and I just am so excited that after we had set the initial goal of 159 schools to have solar on their roofs and that goal was set back in I believe 2017 I know that we've had some fits and starts since then but I am very happy to support this initiative tonight but I did want to I spoke with Mr fan

242Shaw earlier today about the number because there was some discussion that there were only seven schools past Annandale that we were talking about and so you assured me that the 159 had not gone away it was the initial phasing where it was these seven schools and so I wanted to assure the community that this was not um pulling away from that and it also is important we talk about the important voice of our students in getting solar on schools but there's a secondary component of this and that is the curriculum the Workforce Development curriculum in not only uh sustainable Technologies but also that there is a very large Workforce opportunity for the installation of solar not only on our schools but across the Commonwealth and so I am optimistic that we will be looking at

243adding this into our Workforce curriculum as well thank you thank you Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Marin maybe the hand is up from before Miss keys gamara yes um I'm oh sorry go go ahead Miss Marin Miss Mary Miss Mary we're having trouble hearing you Miss Marin we're having trouble hearing you Miss Marin I don't think she can hear us Miss Marin yeah Miss Keys come on do you want to go ahead while we try to get Miss Marin's mic adjusted can you oh hang on Miss key Square apology we can hear some sound now Mr Dick can you maybe text Miss Keith Miss uh Marin or caller thank you Miss Marin we can't hear you oh can you hear me okay if you maybe come a little closer than Mike or turn your volume up

244it's kind of cool okay are you there yes we can hear you now go ahead okay I was saying such wonderful thing so I guess I'll just come around there's been a long time coming our email has been advocating students who were on solar on the schools and have long since graduated and probably have college degrees uh by now but I'm excited to keep moving with this and I hope we can keep working with our County to do even more faster and bring renewable energy resources to our school division it's the right thing to do and it's the financially Savvy thing to do thank you great miss Keys Kamara sure just really quickly of course us support this fully I just wanted to ask Dr Anderson the maker of the motion whether she was also

245given a Communications plan um for the community Dr Anderson thank you for the question Miss keys gamara there is a preliminary communication plan which also occr has developed and that will need to be fleshed out further and to share with and be shared with the entire board so that it is specific to the site so annandale's plan will be different from Chantilly High School's plan and so that is going to be coming in the um near weeks I guess they get started if we pass this this evening okay I look forward to that report I know uh some of the concerning the community members have had in the past is that there is variance from one project to the next and I'm not sure that there should be um so I'll just look for that

246update with respect to um how that is planned and we're we probably will also discuss it in cpdc thank you and seeing no other hands up I will call for the vote the motion is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands Miss Amish Miss kiesgamara Miss Marin Miss Tolland Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Jana Koufax Dr Anderson Mr Frisch Miss Cohen Ms bakarski and myself that motion passes with Miss McLaughlin away from the table agenda item 6 consent agenda the adopt our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items have listed have gone through Board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed

247from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item 7 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 do you have a question oh agenda item eight board committee reports the next agenda item is board committee reports and I call on Ms Tolland for an update from the skip committee um skipped committee executive team met yesterday to prepare for our December December 7th full meeting of the committee that will be held in person at

248the new Sully Community Center um FCPS and County staff have been looking at developing a program called opportunity youth the purpose of this is to assist the over 9 000 young people in our County that are not in school but are unemployed and need assistance for training to successfully get into the workforce we will this is at the beginning but I do want to thank Dr Presidio and Karen Williams on our FCPS staff for coordinating with the county to work on this project and we will have a briefing on this with more full information on December 7th and then the reports more fully fleshed out in the winter of in addition I want to give everyone a heads up we were told by the skip staff the county staff that they will be giving a

249presentation regularly to the Board of Supervisors Health and Human Resources committee and we are hoping to develop a more regular way for skipped info to get to the school board so um Miss McLaughlin and I will be working with the county staff and Dr Francis Ivey to consider options that we can bring to the board for making sure everyone is fully informed of skipped activities thanks sorry thank you Miss Poland I'm done agenda item nine board matters next on the agenda is board matters and I call on Miss bakarski okay thank you it is quite late people do need to go home um I will say for anybody who'd like to know all the wonderful things I've done these last two weeks please sign up for my newsletter and you will also learn about the

250wonderful things happening in my district happy Veterans Day and thank you to those who have served good night Miss Cohen ditto Mr Frisch my staff aide is going to kill me because she worked on such wonderful remarks but uh we will use them in a newsletter this coming week we've had a lot of great uh experiences and a lot of great school visits but we'll hold it Mr Nick oh sorry MS omish all right that's no no I'm not talking don't worry oh I what I did want to do yeah happy Veterans Day uh to those who serve of course military families experience specific challenges in their kids but really just want to remind everyone daylight savings on Sunday don't forget and then also election day next week definitely definitely make sure you go out

251there make your voice heard early voting is through uh Saturday so you still have an opportunity also at the various Community government centers across the county but otherwise I'll leave my commentary for the night yes thank you um same as Mr first my staff Aid prepared lots and lots of very exciting Awards etc for Angel students but um I will stick to a happy Veterans Day to our military families um please participate in the activities that your schools have available and I'm looking forward to that um tomorrow morning I'm attending the Long Fellow Middle School Shark Tank event can't wait to see what the entrepreneurs at Longfellow have in store and tomorrow night is the Langley High School McLean High School football game the Highlanders are hosting their Crosstown Rivals the Saxons hope everyone has

252a fun and safe time at the game good night Sanders thank you madam chair and I too will be brief I do wish all of our community members a very happy Veterans Day I look forward to being at Fort Belvoir next week both for the Garrison commanders uh celebration as well as the celebration with our students at both the primary and upper schools I do have a question for Miss darinak kofax since I participated in or enjoyed last week's football game between Mount Vernon and Hayfield this week you have Hayfield and Edison both schools where we have students from Mount Vernon it will be fun to see which Jersey you'll be wearing and also we have a nice little competition with Lake Braddock in South County so it's going to be a fun Friday night

253Miss darinette Colfax so that's interesting that you asked that I was at Hayfield today with delegate Mark sickles and I toured many classes with the principal and including 8th grade civics and math and AP government and cosmetology and when I was it was very fun because they're so they were at the computer looking at my profile and asking me questions and they're like oh you had somebody that graduated for medicine oh you're the vice chair you know those are they're this like the questions they were asking me and so you know as the mom of Two Eagles I have to say I love my Hawks but I'm going with the Eagles but I can't I'm my kids graduating from there I did wear orange on Tuesday I wear and orange a lot and I love

254them you know but Battle of the birds is always a big one and you gotta go so you can really change like each each quarter each quarter I could thank you happy Veterans Day thank you to all who served have a good evening so on the last one and I'm a little sad that uh quite a few my colleagues are not here and I'm pretty sad that a quite a few staff aren't here at the end of this meeting because I felt I had something very important to share but I'm going to share it anyway in the last few weeks I've had many conversations and very few of those conversations have centered the students and so I was sent this by FCPS grad of 2022 who's also my son and he asked me to read

255this and share it so I'm going to and I am sure there are people who will not be happy that I'm sharing this but I owe it to my son a student with autism to share his words he speaks through music and so this is a song he wrote two years ago in this world I matter for all I'm not a boy with words locked the boy with autism something to be fixed I'm a limited view not a boy with gifts words I say are secondary can't you see past the ordinary words don't Define my sanity Joy is the role in my family I matter for all of my Humanity tears and fires strengths and desires I have it all can you see tears and fires strengths and desires it's all in you and it's

256all in me I should matter to you because I matter to me I should matter to you because I matter to me the beat the groove that's my mold Can You Feel The Music In My Soul autism doesn't mean I'm off key and it's not all that matters about me in music I find my Harmony in music you hear my Humanity hold a mirror on you it's me you see tears and fires strengths and desires all that's in you is in me too tears and fires strengths and desires I have it all can you see tears and fires strengths and desires it's all in you and it's all in me I should matter to you because I matter to me I should matter to you because I matter to me the world you see is

257where I also breathe I matter for all of my Humanity I matter to me I matter for me I matter for you