FCPS School Board Meeting - 10/20/22

001foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] I'm going to start this October 20 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 Longfellow Middle School chamber chorus and the direction of Kimberly Dawson of the United States oh say can you see by the dawn's early Twilight [Music] who's brought stripes and bright stars streaming [Applause] [Music] for the love [Music] of the price [Music] [Applause] that was beautiful thank you agenda item 2.02 certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712d of the code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to

002certify that since Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on October 20th 2022 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters were as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board in the closed meeting do I have a motion Miss Corbett Sanders do you have a second Miss Amish all those in favor that is Miss bakarski Miss Cohen Dr Anderson Miss McLaughlin Ms darinette Koufax Ms Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan missile Mash Miss Marin Miss Keith gamara and myself that motion passes agenda item 2.03 announcements Mr Frisch is absent this evening if you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight

003that 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 meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu backslash TV backslash Channel 99. I call on Miss talk before an announcement National Red Ribbon Week is celebrated each year from October 23rd to 31st it was established in 1985 in memory of Enrique camarna a U.S Drug Enforcement Administration agent who was killed in the line of duty while investigating a major drug cartel in Mexico to honor his battle against illegal drugs friends and neighbors began to wear red badges of satin and some parents began to form coalitions National Red Ribbon Week Grew From these Grassroots efforts to form a national movement against the use of illegal

004drugs its annual campaign encourages students to take a visible stand against substance abuse and make a personal commitment to follow a drug-free Lifestyle the 2022 Red Ribbon theme is Celebrate life live drug free is a reminder that every day Americans across the country make significant daily contributions to their communities by being the best they can be because they live drug free thank you agenda item 2.04 resolution honoring International augmentive and alternative communication Awareness Month the board will invite each recognition recipient to the dies per photo after reading of all the recognitions I call on Ms Cohen for resolution this year Mrs Cohen is going to try to make sure she says augmentative correctly every time resolution honoring International AAC Awareness Month whereas October 2022 is international AAC awareness month and the theme is show your

005voice and whereas the United States Society for augmentative and alternative communication ussaac defines augmentative and alternative communication AAC as including all forms of communication other than oral speech that are used to express thoughts needs wants and ideas whereas Communication in all its forms is a basic human right and is specifically protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act and whereas AAC includes but is not limited to gestures and facial expressions writing drawing spelling words by pointing to letters pointing to photos pictures or written words using an app or an iPad or tablet to communicate or using a computer-based speech generation speech generating device and whereas AAC strategies tools and Technologies enable more than 2 million children and adults in the United States to access their fundamental right to communication and whereas research supports that there are

006no prerequisites required in order for individuals to benefit from AAC access that AAC users are presumed competent and given access to the tools and instruction they need to learn regardless of their speech impediment diagnosis or degree of difference and whereas Fairfax County Public Schools is in the process of implementing A division-wide literacy plan that ensures comprehensive Pre-K research-based reading instruction that is aligned with the science of reading to provide all students including AAC users the foundational skills upon which literacy is built and whereas students Educators and families will benefit from increased awareness about AAC users and technology and the combination of strengths and difficulties that AAC users can have now there therefore be it resolved the Fairfax County School Board recognizes October 2022 as AAC awareness month and encourages all residents and FCPS staff to

007learn more about augmentative and alternative communication including identifying students that can benefit from AAC understanding the core of presuming competence knowing and making available supports for use by Educators and families and highlighting the success that AAC users can have in their careers and life ISO move I will speak to the second Miss Cohen would you like I will second this resolution Excuse Me Miss Cohen would like to speak to your resolution I would thank you I'm so grateful to my constituents the Campbells and the lathams for all they have done to educate me around AAC use and the amazing students and families who utilize augmentative and alternative communication there are approximately 900 identified FCPS students that are AAC users the highest number of AAC users are in grade 12 and preschool of those students 14.5

008percent use 14.5 percent receive no speech services at all 61.8 percent of AAC users receives receiving speech have only three hours or less of speech therapy a month 41 of AAC users primary service is autism 19 primary service is ID 18 and a half percent primary service is IDs learning AAC is like learning a foreign language and requires explicit instruction and support in that language so support services and Fidelity of implementation are critical Stephanie Coogan has written given a child who uses nonverbal communication an AAC system does not provide the child with a tool to form their own voice but it is sorry let me start that over does provide the child with a stool a tool to form their own voice but it is an incomplete response to a complex situation the child needs

009a way to learn the language system use the tool and exert their voice we must give AAC language systems the recognition designation and respect they deserve think about the injustice it's not a child's lack of ability that may prevent AAC Learners from proficiency but rather the lack of exposure instruction and opportunity thank you thank you and I will now speak to the second um everything Ms Cohen said and more but what I wanted to pick up and what she left off is what Miss Cohen is talking about as a social model of disability and the social model of disability says that while it is important to ensure that people with disabilities have the tools and supports they need to enhance their functionality that people with disabilities are often more disabled by the society they live

010in than the actual impairments of their condition and I'll repeat that people with disabilities are often more impaired by the society they live in and the actual impairments of their disabilities and that is what Ms Cohen is talking about giving an AAC user a device without fully understanding how to teach them that is a language for them to use and how to teach their society how to use that language to interact with them does more to disable our students it is really important that we recognize AAC communication as full communication I have a son with a disability and the one I've learned many things from him most of the things in my life I think I've learned from him but one of the most important things I've learned from him is how much we in

011our society equate communication with intelligence and we do that in a variety of ways and if we do not make sure that our AAC users are being able to be taught how to fully use utilize their devices and their society around them understands how to communicate with their devices we are not able to see the full intelligence of our AAC users and that is a loss to all of us so I'm really honored to be able to Second this I'm grateful for miss Colin for bringing this forward and um I just want to say the most important thing we can do to enhance our society is make space for everybody to show their ability and succeed so with that I will call see if any other board members wish to speak I see Miss Tolan

012I just wanted to speak very quickly I had the Good Fortune of meeting with all of my advisory committee members last weekend and and the Very Good Fortune of having my previous acsd or um advisory committee for students with disabilities member and a new person that will be representing drainsville on that committee and they both spoke very highly about the need for more awareness for families teachers and School staff to learn more about these about the AAC communication tools and so I'm really looking forward to working with them on this topic thank you thank you and seeing no other board members who wish to speak I will call Oak Miss Amish thank you um I'll be brief I I think I'd be remiss not to mention that October is also disability History Month uh and

013that's something we haven't formally recognized but certainly is related to um these efforts and hopefully we'll be able to recognize in the future uh but I'll reiterate kind of a point that I mentioned before uh at first in welcoming folks who have joined us uh from this community but to also say that any shortcoming in our ability to absorb uh and meet people where they're at as a system is is on us and it's not up to folks to try to figure out and navigate how how to make their voice heard but it's our role and our job to represent everybody and and that means finding the ways to make those connections and remove blockers and and put in place the accommodations to ensure that all voices are heard literally and always figuratively of course

014um so I I appreciate the patience and apologize on behalf of our own system for the shortcomings we've had in doing that but hopefully as everything is work in progress and continuous Improvement to make sure that we're properly including everybody thank you I will now call for the vote all those in favor please raise your hands that is Miss Keith Kamara Miss Marin Miss Amish Miss Tolland Miss Corbett Sanders Mr Annette Colfax Miss McLaughlin Miss Dr Anderson Miss Cohen Miss McCarthy myself that is unanimous agenda item 2.05 national school bus safety week recognition I call on Miss lamesh for the recognition thank you the week of October 17th to the 21st has been designated as national school bus safety week and the theme this year is one bus plus one driver equals a big impact

015on education throughout the years the school bus and Driver remain a strong symbol for our education Community a profession that is an important that is as important to our education system as it is Honorable the week focuses on student safety when waiting for and boarding a school bus school bus safety is an issue for all citizens of Fairfax County who need to be aware of laws requiring them to stop and wait behind a school bus when it is loading and unloading student Riders motorists are encouraged to practice patience and drive gently around school buses in our neighborhoods and our school communities the major responsibility for school bus safety in Fairfax County rests firmly in the hands of our school drivers and attendance who daily transport more than 129 800 students in 1 625 school buses

016on more than 6 500 separate routes traveling over 18.3 million operational miles each year thank you to all the staff from the Department of facilities and transportation for their continued hard work to keep our children safe and we're really grateful that some of them are able to join us today thank you other board members wishing to speak we'll have two minutes to do so it is a recognition but we've we've allowed formers to speak if they wish to for two minutes so would you like to speak with somebody yeah please go ahead thank you um so I I do want to um before getting a little bit somber but I'd love to have anyone who's here who's joined us stand um and I'd love to express our appreciation even more broadly really whether they're here

017or not um if we could just give them a round of applause for all that they've done to keep our kids safe you know the the earliest reports of a school bus in a little bit of a light-hearted note uh from the 1880s they were called kid hacks and that referred to Hackney carriages where horses actually would push wagons they were specially built carriages to take kids to school there were even setups where benches were pulled by horses to take kids to school until of course the 1920s when school buses were established and became more popular and that started with a company that manufactured steel steel buses with Windows glass windows um that moved us Beyond makeshift kid hacks um but and and all of that actually started with volunteers who were driving kids to

018school driving kids to school and sometimes that included students so I think we've made strides in in safety uh on our roads um but uh in a in a more um on a more serious note you know the the recognition emphasized the importance of safety and I do want to speak to that you know every year uh we have hundreds of school bus accidents um just last year we had uh 430 in Fairfax County and 237 of them were preventable crashes and of course we lose members of our community to accidents like this um you know one of our um community members uh miss Helen okabaski just two days ago who was a bus attendant and of course we're grateful for all all members of our transportation Community uh passed away in an accident in

019an accident was not a bus accident but she was just coming off of the bus so I do want to just take a moment of silence uh and you know offer a prayer I remember her memory but she was a valued member of our community and I hope that we in celebrating our bus drivers remember the importance of safety on the road is Corbett Sanders yes and thank you Miss Amish you uh expressed exactly what I was going to start my remarks with because um as sad as the situation was even though it wasn't uh with our buses per se it impacted our bus drivers and our bus riders because this was a beloved person who touched the lives of many many children every day and so I appreciate your kind words there I also

020want to thank all of our all of our bus drivers and our bus attendants and even the administrators at each of our schools as they help our children get on the bus every day because that's the beginning of a safe ride home but what contributes to a safe ride home is what each and every one of us does when we are on the streets and that is ensuring that we adhere by the speed limits go slow stop when we see a bus stop and uh just remember that the most precious element of our society our children are on those buses and so please be safe and thank you so much for all that you do and I look forward to having more bus cameras long arm cameras so that we can make sure people are

021all safe thank you thank you Miss Tolan thank you um my ride yesterday on the bus this was very timely since it's a national uh Transportation safety week um I had the Good Fortune of getting up quite quite early and meeting I learned lots of new vocabulary yesterday I met a baker which is a bus driver supervisor I met her at 5 30 in the morning at pimmett Hills and I understand they're called Bakers because they are the first people showing up at the shop to get everything going so like you know somebody in a bakery so it was kind of funny to learn some of those terms but I was able to do a we started out with a Longfellow Middle School run and then we did McLean high school and then we did

022Spring Hill Elementary School and then we did West Briar Elementary School all between 5 30 and about 9 30 in the morning I was exhausted at the end of it and I didn't even drive um but one of the things that was extremely striking to me was the incredible collaboration and thoughtfulness of all of our drivers as they work together to make sure that the transportation was happening as efficiently as possible for example some of our buses are overloaded and they are in fact this week Counting um the state requires us to do this and we're doing it with our transportation counting every student getting on and off the bus so we have accurate counts of um who's at every stop and we can adjust stops accordingly as we move forward um so they were

023counting all of the kids at the stops and there were some situations where there was some overloading so the bus drivers would communicate with each other um I can't pick up all these kids at the stop can someone help me and in the case the bus tracker I was with we are very close to that stop we swung by picked up those kids and got them um you know to Mclean High School no problem but it takes collaboration it takes thinking it takes um uh lots and lots of work and I can go on and on about my experience but my two minutes are up but just a huge huge thank you to all of our transportation workers thank you thank you Miss Tallinn agenda item 2.06 truthful education and FCPS support for educators and

024school-based administrators resolution I call on Dr Anderson for the resolution thank you truthful education FCPS support for educators and school-based administrators resolution whereas Fairfax County Public Schools and the community it serves are committed to providing an academically rigorous education that promotes a responsive caring and inclusive culture where all feel valued supported and hopeful whereas essential to that inclusive classroom culture is it education that is academically rigorous position students to be leaders of their own learning reflects all voices and respects the need and desire of our students to know the truth about historic and systemic Injustice whereas FCPS Educators school-based administrators and central office staff a developing curricular resources to meet our students needs and the high expectations of our community around how historic truths representative literature critical thinking and social justice whereas recent events have

025caused many FCPS Educators and school-based administrators to fear that implementing those necessary curricular improvements could lead to personal or professional harm and whereas and the teacher and administrator performance evaluation protocol which is the Virginia Department of Education video requires teachers and administrators to demonstrate a commitment to equity and provide instruction and classroom strategies that are culturally inclusive and Foster responsive learning environments and high academic achievement for all students whereas it is the role of the school board and of the superintendent to support Educators in carrying out the clear and important educational expectations of the vdoe and Fairfax County community that our students are critical thinkers and effective collaborators who acknowledge and understand diverse perspectives and cultures essential goals of the FCPS portrait of a graduate now therefore be it be it resolved the FCPS School

026Board commits commits to protect and support Educators and school-based administrators and FCPS as they develop and implement anti-racist equity and justice-based classroom resources and pedagogy that meet the high aspirations of each and every one of our students and of the Fairfax County community I still move is there a second second Miss Keys gamara Dr Anderson would judge to speak to your resolution yes um briefly I think a lot has been said about this resolution but there are some things that I do want to share this resolution is in direct alignment with the work that is being done in Fairfax County the work of the equity policy that was presented to the board on July 12th at that point Dr King who did that presentation shared that the goal of that Equity policy is to demonstrate

027fcps's commitment to valuing the diversity of our community creating welcoming and inclusive and culturally responsive school and work environments and providing access and opportunity for all students to achieve and thrive this resolution supports that work this resolution also supports the work of the controversial issues policy which is currently under revision by the board this resolution is meant to be a signal to our teachers administrators and staff who are engaging in the work that we recognize their challenges and they have our support our teachers are facing some very difficult conversations and classrooms with their students and they have shared with me both teachers and administrators that this would help them just to know that they have our public backing because these conversations are tough and I don't want to take anything away from our staff Dr

028Presidio and his team they are working very hard to provide guidance to our teachers but still they are asking for us to publicly share that we are here for them and that is the ask of this resolution last week well last school board meeting we read in the principal's recognition that educational leaders face many challenges and supporting and educating our students this resolution helps to support them in knowing that we know and understand those challenges the truthful education FCPS speaks to the same support our principals and teachers are facing what is it not it is not carte blanche for our teacher Ciel fire in a crowded theater it is not an opportunity to be racist what it is asking our teachers to do is to be anti-racist to be Equitable and to be just I

029believe that is what all of us want in our classrooms and we should be able to share that and state that loudly and publicly and proudly thank you Miss Keys Camaro would like to speak to your second yes I I just didn't want to interrupt uh thank you Dr Anderson um I'm I'm pleased to stand to honor and to recognize encourage and support our staff members our community who have been a part of this discussion as I thought about my comments today I I reflected on what we've been experiencing recently and I realized that our belief that many Educators have found themselves in a quandary board members have heard I know I have personally heard from staff members members of the community parents and students all of whom have expressed a clear commitment to addressing

030curriculum deficiencies that were not inclusive of all of our children by name and by need that these people are dedicated and I believe we should be dedicated to Courageous conversations regarding our history and the development of our nature Nation this commitment has been challenged by our political atmosphere there are those who have identified or suggested that divisive topics can be identified but in the process of learning what is more divisive what is divisive can we really talk about how we came to be can we really talk about the history of Native Americans or what our fellow Jewish neighbors have experienced are our fellow fellow Muslim neighbors have experienced or what refugees have experienced isn't that all a part of Education today I want to applaud and offer my support because this is a bridge not

031just from a promise but to a reality to a commitment of continuous Improvement for every student every day that is what we are about and that is the environment that we are fighting for and standing for in the support of one that provides a respectful Fair Equitable and just environment for every student this needs to happen and we shouldn't really quibble about how we say our support or how we say thank you I noticed today that one of our people who helps to develop our curriculum is in the audience Colleen Eddie and to you I have watched you work hard to dig deep to make sure that we tell the whole story so that our students not only understand the good and the Beautiful things about this nation but the difficult things so that we

032can learn from the lessons of history and so I want to take this moment to say not only that I support you and everyone on your staff and all of our teachers and our leadership members who are made we're working with you for that purpose but I want to say thank you for having the courage to do that so today I fully encourage this board to have less conversation and quibbling about how we say our support and to fully stand together and say thank you to every member that makes sure and goes out every day irrespective of the support they receive in the community and they do it with courage they do it with love and they do it with dedication and we support that and I say thank you I call on I call

033on Miss McLaughlin for an amendment excuse me point of order thank you madam chair point of order please we have to speak to the main others get to speak to the main motion no we um if there's an amendment we speak to the amendment first and then we can vote on the amendment and then we can after the amendment's voted on then we can speak to um the motion the main motion I call on Miss McLaughlin for an amendment thank you madam chair I moved to amend the main motion by striking through the following language on the screen and inserting the following resolution of support for teachers and administrators regarding inclusive curriculum and instruction whereas Fairfax County Public Schools are committed to providing an academically rigorous education that promotes a responsive caring and inclusive culture

034where all feel valued supported and hopeful whereas essential to that inclusive classroom culture is an education that reflects all voices and respects the need for robust instruction regarding historic and systemic Injustice whereas FCPS teachers administrators central office staff are developing curriculum and classroom resources along with incorporating more representative literature to strengthen student understanding of our complex National and Global histories where it is the role of the school board and the superintendent to support Educators in carrying out FCPS expectations that all students will become critical thinkers and effective collaborators who respect the diverse perspectives cultures religions ethnicities abilities sexual orientation and gender identity of our community whereas fcps's controversial issues policy and regulation p-3280 r-3280 provide essential guidance and support for teachers administrators the as they engage students in more inclusive curriculum related to racism bias

035intolerance and Injustice now therefore be it resolved the Fairfax County School Board commits to protect and support teachers and administrators as they deliver FCPS approved curriculum and classroom resources that are inclusive and meet the high aspirations of our students families and the Fairfax County Community ISO move is there a second Miss Tolan Miss McLaughlin would you like to speak to your Amendment thank you I too wish to begin by conveying my deep appreciation to Dr Anderson and to all of our community Advocates who first brought this initial resolution and its request to our board without question it is critically important that every single teacher in our school system feels supported and protected as they develop and deliver FCPS approved curriculum as many in the audience have been watching this from two weeks ago our board

036publicly discussed the initial draft resolution with a desire to achieve a strong Collective support for this important message to our employees and to our community after extensive board engagement to find Common Ground I along with Miss Tolan are now presenting this alternative language it is our humble goal that regardless of the vote tonight that our board our employees our families and our community understand how deeply committed we are to ensuring that Fairfax County demonstrates its commitment to inclusive classrooms and instruction without question is someone who has a bachelor's in American history I am painfully aware of my own public education and even my children's education it has not been broad it has not been diverse it is not addressed historic and systemic Injustice it is not brought the diverse narratives and voices to the table

037I know as many of us who care passionately about this that it is not a local issue it's not even a state issue at the national level we are all trying to find a way that we can come together and demonstrate our shared commitment to being a better world and so while I know that this has been unfortunately difficult as we try to find common ground to come to language that we could all say with conviction that this is how we best communicate out to our fan our families and our employees that we are unified in this commitment I do hope that board members will join me in support as we do reassure each and every one of you the importance of this message again of support for educators thank you thank you Miss Tolan

038would you like to speak to your second yes thank you um I of course believe in the power of public education for all students and have dedicated years of my career to support students teachers and other staff to provide the best most academically rich and challenging experience for any student no matter the difficulties they may be experiencing or their need for enrichment I believe my record and current actions out in my schools and in my community convey my support for educators but I understand that our teachers and staff may want a clear statement that we support the work they are doing to implement FCPS approved curriculum and happy to do that in a way that gets the message across but does not alienate any subset of our FCPS community I also want to thank Dr

039Anderson and the constituents she has worked with to bring this to our attention and to start our work on this and prior to tonight I've also had conversations with other community groups and have gotten many emails on this topic I use this additional information to lend some ideas to this latest draft the substitution that we're presenting is I believe more inclusive of our board member views and less divisive for our broad community we tried to be sure that there were no misunderstandings regarding anti-Semitism or any other type of hatred if the purpose of what we're doing tonight is to signal to our Educators that the board supports the work that they are doing to implement FCPS approved curriculum then let's do that let's do that in a clear succinct way that supports all students and

040all educators personally I think we should be doing that with a simple statement but since this started as a resolution we still have a resolution format I believe this simpler version will send the message to our staff that we are behind the work that they are doing even the simpler more straightforward title in this second draft sends this message thank you Miss Marin the truthful education resolution as proposed will be a statement Against Racism and bias for instructional learning conditions at FCPS the proposed resolution is originally proposed will show the school board's unwavering support of our Educators who have asked for this resolution to affirm their curriculum-based instruction of truthful and accurate history that often is complex and uncomfortable and yet we cannot shy away from the responsibility of the school system to educate students

041for a role that is diverse in perspectives religions ethnicities cultures abilities and identities this resolution as proposed promotes the accurate and comprehensive teaching of historic and systemic injustices including slavery the Holocaust and anti-Semitism and other genocides some of which our own current students and families have fled this is not ancient history our children and people in our community are living through Injustice right now and this must be acknowledged and affirmed through a commitment to education finally as an elected public servant I believe that the ends do not justify the means in other words I believe that the way we do the work matters an equal weight with results of the work and so I'll share that I've enjoyed working with the main resolution sponsor Dr Anderson who has approached this work with collaboration transparency fairness

042and principles I've enjoyed hearing from constituents and staff that this resolution is a welcome statement in a politically harsh time where truth is questions and canceled culture dismisses people's Humanity I'm also glad to see this topic receiving attention in the community it's an example of just how much the specific topic must be the focus of the resolution when I consider how this amendment eradicates every word of work publicly published with advanced notice it is clear to me that the ends do not justify the means I cannot in good conscious vote on this amendment given how this has been created and rammed through in less than two days notice the language of this resolution is hollow it does not reflect board collaboration and quite frankly represents a poor way to conduct public work I will not

043be part of it Dr Anderson that I did fail earlier to share a few things I'd like to do that now and then speak to this I do want to say thank you to The Advocates who've been working on this and to all of the other groups who've been very supportive SEPTA FEA fcft FCC PTA the NAACP and msaoc the pride Liberation there's a very long list and I apologize for leaving anyone off um clearly I will not be voting for this amended version for many of the same reasons that Miss Marin just shared I appreciate the efforts that Miss Mary um that Miss McLaughlin and Miss Tolan have brought forth because they feel that this version that they are presented is less divisive they feel like this version is more succinct in speaking to

044the support that our teachers need I I could not say that I disagree anymore I disagree wholeheartedly I think the reality of our staff and what they are facing what we are asking them to do in the work of the controversial issues policy can be divisive and we cannot shy away from that conversation there are some essential components that are missing from the version being provided that I just cannot support not including in this kind of resolution it's missing the terms truth and Thai racist it's missing the terms equity and Justice and those terms show up in so much more of our work we have sat here and we have been accused of so many horrible things we have been told that we've been groomers we have been told that we are encouraging pedophilia and

045our schools we have been told that we also um that we have porn in our libraries yet we stand in the face of that adversity we do not shy away from that conversation and we should not yet using terms like anti-racists supporting our teachers who are concerned about what how they will be received when they engage in these difficult work is divisive it's difficult for me to understand that and so I I do struggle I do struggle quite a bit from that because we are hearing from our teachers this is what will be helpful to them and we are here to represent them so in my perspective I don't think this res this version of the resolution does that so I will not be able to support it Miss Corbett Sanders thank you madam chair

046and thank you to the makers of both this motion and the previous motion all I can say is that this has been a and continues to be a messy process that I have reflected on since the last board meeting there are multiple areas of improvement which include the clarification of the process and the purposes of resolutions recommendations and statements by the board as the governance chair I am committed that we will address this in the course of our deliberations this year there seems to be widespread confusion about the Genesis of this resolution that was added to the agenda at the last meeting and whom is responsible for accepting and rejecting changes to reflect individual board member concerns additionally there is confusion as to the purpose of this resolution is it a vehicle for Signal signaling

047intentions for future policy work or a statement of support for our teachers whom we are asking for whom are asking for guidance and support both have been reported in the news Dr Anderson correctly stated in her joint interview with Miss Marin on WUSA 9 that a resolution is an acknowledgment by the board of an honor or an achievement and is symbolic in nature for our governance manual it is not considered a format usually used as a statement of support for our staff or students now nor is it a mechanism for signaling Our intention for forthcoming policy making as was reported the three mechanisms for doing that either through the introduction of a forum topic on an issue which has been done on many of the points in this resolution is in I'm sorry foreign there

048are three mechanisms for doing that either through the introduction of a forum topic on an issue which has been done on many of the points in this proposed resolution or as a follow-on motion or as an amendment to an action item that is brought to the board table for a vote or in this year especially as part of our strategic planning process however any intentions for forthcoming policy making should be transparent and provide an opportunity for the community to be both notified and engaged let me be very clear that we have spent an inordinate amount of time on a resolution that does not and will not move the dial on what is the most important issues before the school system at this time we need to be focused on ensuring that we are supportive of

049our teachers and administrators whom are engaged in an incredibly challenging work of me meeting each of our students where they are addressing the inherent delays in learning caused by a global pandemic addressing the shortcomings of the special education audit and ensuring that we have qualified teachers in each classroom inspiring all of our students with a curriculum that allows this in our literature would you like some more time yes please understanding our history including The Good the Bad and the others and creating opportunities for Life successes thank you Miss Keith Kamara I'm sorry I'm happy to go so I guess I'm a little baffled at where we are this is a resolution so um it seems more like this is being treated like it's more than I've never seen a resolution um receive and an amendment

050we usually talk about these things ahead of time if it's not ready then perhaps we need to have a discussion at before another meeting but I've never really seen an amendment at this table to a resolution and so I think maybe we're putting a little more weight on this than is due the definition so I went to Google because they know everything the definition of resolution is affirmed decision to do or not do something the quality of being determined or Resolute the action of solving a problem this is simply a statement of how we feel and I understand that there are different ways that each of us think about this and I respect that and I think along the way that you know some people may have felt that their voices weren't heard I know

051I've felt it before but I'd like to put this in perspective it's a resolution it's not a policy we're simply saying we support the people who are working to help our kids grow every day I I see you shaking your heads and I don't understand why I'd love to have a conversation to try to understand because I I really don't okay because that's how I see it I I believe some things have been read into this in my opinion that doesn't exist I see your sign it doesn't exist not in my heart not in the people that I've talked to nobody on this board is trying to demonize anybody in this community so I I I I wanted to have that perspective thank you Miss Keith Kamara Miss Amish thank you so we find ourselves

052it again in in the same place of the having the national debates really uh at our diocese and and struggling through the same challenges and experiencing the same tensions that are happening all over the country and that ultimately will determine the future of our country um and you know we're in a place where you vote one way you're racist and you vote another way and you're in anti-semite or anti-conservative but neither of those are the truth and so I Look to our ultimate goal our Collective goal caring about our kids thinking about the future and thinking about how we're supposed to heal all of this because otherwise we're leaving them with the one one heck of a mess and the solution always is what education something that we're all very familiar with I want to

053identify a couple of things you know I that one of the main differences between the the amendment and the resolution is using this term anti-racist and so the question comes where where does that come from what does it mean what does it signify the term anti-racist is really an offshoot of this bigger idea of anti-bias right that we want to create a place where everyone is included and valued without prejudice or discrimination it's rooted in something bigger an idea that we're trying to build a society that's supposed to be inclusive of everyone and there are things we're going to disagree on we've disagreed on until the beginning of time and we'll continue to till the end from a very deep philosophical level and we have to accept that that's okay but the reality is to

054prepare our kids for the 21st century we need to set up a system that's able to recognize its wrongs but not only that that's able to have conversations around all of these things which requires a teaching of the varied histories which requires a presentation of the various narratives that we can't even agree on as a board and I certainly ran out of time I don't know if we're gonna have go backs but um you know I'd like a go back thank you Miss Amish just as a reminder we're speaking to the amendment at this point we'll have a chance to speak to the motion but right now we're speaking to the amendment Miss Cohen it's hard to follow all of that um I just want to say I am beyond grateful to be able to

055publicly support our amazing teachers and administrators um to be totally candid like I this amendment isn't perfect the resolution wasn't perfect um but clearly neither are we we're 12 very different people who come at this work with different backgrounds and different lived experiences which doesn't ever make anything we do very easy but we all do share one goal to help our students be and feel successful as they navigate FCPS and the world around them to feel seen heard and Affirmed so while this isn't perfect I've always been taught not to lose the good for the perfect it's the role of the board and the superintendent to empower our Educators to carry out the clear educational expectations of our portrait of a graduate that our students become critical thinkers and effective collaborators who acknowledge and understand

056diverse perspectives religions and cultures fundamental to that is an understanding of how we got here and how we move forward together as a country as a community part of that is learning our shared history true Equity work is hard if it was easy we would not be doing it right I trust our administrators to train our teachers to do this work well and I trust our teachers to do this work in a way that supports all of our kids thank you seeing no other speakers hold on a second do you have a question or do you have something to say oh I apologize Miss picarski okay thank you um so as I've shared with my colleagues from the beginning of this conversation I've had issue with the way in which this resolution came to us

057the way in which the board worked um I I take process and transparency I think they go hand in hand very seriously and any statements that have to do with the value or the policy work or what is happening in our school system I really think need to be a collaboration among the 12 people on this board so for that reason and [Music] I believe this amendment was that over seven people weighed in um not everybody agreed not everybody had the same ideas but it was a product of a collaborative process um and uh you know at the end of the day whether or not we understand why the first resolution struck a chord or was hurtful to a swath of our community um you know I think we need to dig deeper with that

058and learn and understand a little more and people that I really keeping high in regard and think a lot of tried to explain that to me and for that I I need to respect that and I will be supporting this and I appreciate the passion of all the Advocates at the end of the day I believe we agree on so much more than we actually disagree and I wish we could find a way to come together which is what I think our community needs to do instead of continue to find ways to divide ourselves so thank you thank you um miss talking did you have your light up to speak well I'm gonna let us take their turn first before we go to go back so everyone who hasn't spoken yet I'm letting speak um

059I want to start off by saying students are seeing this I am what I am witnessing this I saw it last board meeting and I'm here again seeing it again and honestly I I'm truly baffled by the back and forth nature of this and this whole discussion part of me feels like it's even taking a step backwards um this statement or resolution is a step forward and it's supporting teachers and students I am a student first I will always stand by that and as somebody who is still in the classroom who's still experiencing moments where my education doesn't support me or where I don't feel seen in my education I I see this as a plus as as a success and amending it to the weak and Hollow statements and words where originally it was

060strong and clear it doesn't make sense to me and I don't see the progress that can be made by going forward with it I'm I'm always hearing support students not only by by name but by need and this is a need and I I really am urging you guys to to get this right thank you [Applause] Mr Annette Colfax thank you I know how difficult this has been um we've been part of this we are trying as Ms Cohen said to do the very best we can to respect all the needs of all of everyone in our community but I believe that resolutions should unite and do less to divide I believe this amended resolution best captures but what we as a school system are committed to do to ensure that our teachers administrators students

061and family feel respected supported and safe and that they will thrive this board in previous boards have fought with tenacity and dedication to do this to make this happen through policies through regulation through funding and through compensation as Dr Reed has stayed as States eloquently we have seen you we have heard you we have affirmed you and we will continue to do that with our portrait of a graduate we have vowed to empower students to become productive citizens of the global Community some of the curriculum guidance included teaching by respecting Divergent thinking to engage others in thoughtful discussion to analyze and to to be analyzing and constructing arguments and positions that ensure examination of a full range of viewpoints acknowledging and understanding diverse perspectives and cultures while considering local National and World issues demonstrating empathy

062compassion and respect for others in all that we do we know that our teachers are the heart of our system through various policies regulations and initiatives we have acted to ensure that our FCPS teachers and administrators feel safe and professionally respected this resolution supports the inclusive practices that are committed that we are committed to these practices should be discussed broadly as part of our culture of continuous Improvement and best practices in work sessions with instructional leadership with teachers and administrators and as we begin our strategic plan I'm certain more ideas will come I want to unite our community I believe the resolution presented by Miss McLaughlin and Miss tolenbeth does this and that's why I'm supporting it thank you I just wanted to thank you Mr mesh thank you respectfully I guess for the record

063I had asked for a very simple not even consequential revision to this and and I was turned down so I I I questioned the collaborative premise In fairness though I know that was the intent so I do want to acknowledge that um but going back I I want to remind us again that this anti-bias movement came actually from Educators it was Preschool teachers who recognized the importance of setting up a classroom by removing the blockers that have prevented kids from being able to achieve an education what is it that lets LED kids not to be as motivated and not able to access education in the same way as their peers and we came to understand through you know Maslow's hierarchy of needs through our understandings today that there are many blockers to that learning and

064so in the anti-bias movement was born in the late 1900s so that being that the National Education Association across the country last year hashtag teach truth let a movement and we know our Educators uh see this because they're the closest to our kids and understand their needs and so it's an imperative on us to support anti-bias work and therefore anti-racist work as a part of our educational Mission and there's a place for everybody in that even though I understand it's been signaled and misunderstood otherwise and the final piece is you know I know it's not even a part of the current resolution but liberatory was removed from this language and that was a piece I felt very strongly to keep why because through education we actually achieve our own Liberation by understanding our narratives and

065our past and and our World Views and our understandings of others we're able to appreciate how we relate to one another and therefore self-actualize and find Our Place fully and completely in every space that we occupy especially in a society that's this diverse and this pluralistic where we we have to do that to forge a path forward for each other and and and that even originated from from Faith Community where Jewish Liberation theology emerged post Holocaust to find Redemption and renewal where Christian theology stood for the oppressed Hindu and Buddhist ideologies Liberation ideology this amazing found a place for self-actualization your time is up thank you Miss keys gamara so um recently I was reminded of how sometimes being an independent voice is one of the most important things you can do and I realize

066we all have independent voices but I feel I need to address this concept of this is a collaborative effort in this amendment because last week we had quite a bit of discussion about proper procedure and that was the reason that we scheduled this a little bit later and now we have an amendment that appeared this morning at least that's when I saw it and it's my understanding that some people on this board had an opportunity to discuss this but I wasn't wasn't included in that and perhaps some others were not I point this out because I'm hopeful that we can get better I understand that people may not have felt comfortable with the way this came about and the way that this discussions happened I wasn't necessarily a part of all of those discussions but

067I acknowledge that feeling but the answer to the cure to that is not to create another process that excludes people and I know that that wasn't the intent but this dropped this morning and we're voting on it today and I understand that the reason it's here is because the makers of this motion know that you have the votes so when we talk about collaboration and procedure let it be the same across the board and that's how we respect one another I am not accusing anything of any one of anything but I do encourage us to think about how we bring our thoughts forward and how respectful we are of one another thank you Dr Anderson want to say also thank you to um fam I cannot believe I failed to recognize you earlier um and

068I do want to just kind of share a couple of things that I know have been raised as concerns um the title was raised as a concern because the feedback was that it didn't appear as if we are we're saying that we've never done this just like all the other resolutions that we have done at this Deus the title is just to affirm the work that is currently happening and just to support future work that was it and I also heard some feedback about being this not the version that I presented along with Miss Keys gamara was not as tightly coupled with the mission of the Fairfax County School Board and its critical work I I do want to share publicly that I've had not one but two conversations with the superintendent who this boy

069elected to be the top teacher top leader here she found no issues with the language presented and similarly to me she thought it was a wonderful umbrella statement to support the work that is going on in this division particularly the controversial issues policy the equity work it is an umbrella statement just to capture all of that difficult hard work that we are asking our teachers to wrestle with we cannot ask our teachers to wrestle with some of those Concepts and we don't wrestle with them foreign thank you Dr Anderson Miss McLaughlin thank you um I really do appreciate board members speaking to this motion to amend the language um because Ms Marin raised the concern about transparency it's really important that the public and our employees and our leadership team understand um with with accuracy

070what happened so two weeks ago Dr Anderson did ask for this language before that was originally before us to be placed on new business it was then understood that Dr Anderson like myself and like I believe all 12 of us wanted to find the best way to get the strongest consensus of support so board members waited we heard from Dr Anderson last week that she had some additional edits trying to incorporate what she heard from board members and a Google document was created and we all started to give our feedback an input that was a week ago Thursday that I sent what I thought was if we can't get seven or more board members to support the original resolution that was brought to us by our Advocates then we want to make sure we have

071at least a resolution that will get boards support so that we can make sure we assure our employees and our families that we stand behind this work so where did we go from there that was last Thursday I and other board members we were reaching out to Dr Anderson we were trying to get a transparent resolution up for the public to see and Dr Anderson was working on this but it never came back to us as a board so yesterday I spent all day reaching out to every board member I could think of who was still struggling with the original language to have an alternate in the event that when we finally got new language from Dr Anderson we wouldn't find ourselves with nothing tonight Dr Anderson gave us her language last night at around

07210 pm so this notion that this amended language is not transparent is not true we sent it as soon as we could McLaughlin thank you very much Miss Cohen Miss Corbett Sanders I'd like to call the question all right Miss McCarthy seconds would you like to speak to your motion no I we don't so all right we're going to take a vote to call the question all those in favor calling the question that is Miss mccarski Miss Cohen Miss McLaughlin mRNA Colfax Miss Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan Miss Mara and myself all those opposed this Dr Anderson Mr all those abstaining that motion passes we are calling the question so now we vote I will call for the vote the amendment before is on is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hands

073all those in favor please raise your hands that is Miss picarski Miss Cohen Miss McLaughlin Miss dinner Koufax Miss um Corbett Sanders Miss Tolan and myself all those opposed Miss Keith gamara Miss Marin Ms omish and Dr Anderson that motion passes now if board members may wish to speak to the substance of the motion as amended on the screen please let me know quite a bit of conversation about that but before I give the board members a turn because I did not speak to the amendment I'm going to take my turn as chair I want to make it clear the amendment belongs to the board and when the amendment belongs to the board it is wonderful to get feedback from staff including our superintendent but the amendment belongs to the board and so it is

074important to have time for board collaboration I also want to address the concern that um we've never done amendments to resolutions we've also never had a resolution put on new business once it gets put on new business it becomes part of the business of the board so that is one of the reasons why we can always amend resolutions but it has not happened in the past and what I want to say about this amendment is that for two months now there has been great effort to have conversations about I did not take my turn as per Robert's Rules I'm taking my time I'm sorry I just I'm a little lost I thought we just voted on them we did but I did not take my turn no I did not take my turn to speak

075as chair I am not taking my turn to speak as chair that's so it is really important when we speak that words matter and that we're clear with what we say and we're clear with what it means because transparency matters and we talk when we talk about something as important as curriculum and pedagogy it is important that we're clear about it because then we do not leave a vacuum of lack of knowledge that often when you leave a vacuum it's in filled with different interpretations that were not intended so I appreciate this amendment because I believe it clarifies the interpretations type of point of order please now other board members who may wish to speak to the substance of the pending motion as amended may speak so I will call on a board members who

076wish to speak to the what is your point order miss my point of order is how could we speak to the main motion when the main motion has been completely it's the main motion as amended so the motion before us is the amended motion that Miss McLaughlin and Miss Tolan brought that just passed so if it isn't the amendment already essentially the motion we admit we voted to amend the main motion now we may speak to the actual motion as amended okay and another point of order I appreciate the chair trying to stay separate from the discussion but isn't it the process that the chair speaks last before the vote or is it in fact that the chair speaks after the vote my understanding for parliamentarian is that when it's a contentious vote the chair

077can speak after the vote is that correct that's been my recommend that's been my recommendation to the sport that to preserve the impartiality of the chair if the chair really needs to speak it's best to wait until after the vote just so that the chair is impartial while presiding great thank you for clarifying my preference would be to speak before the vote so now I will call on board members who wish to speak to the main motion as amended for Miss McLaughlin and Mrs Holland's motion so I'll ask Miss McLaughlin as the maker of this motion if you wish to speak first all I can say for the public and for our employees I want you all to know that this is reflective of the fact that at a local level at a state level

078at a national level our nation is struggling to come together and the entire goal of this resolution was how we as a board could come together and there were many board members that were supportive of the original language that was brought forward by Dr Anderson but we weren't there to have a strong vote of support and so this alternate language was simply that to make sure that we didn't leave tonight with nothing it it breaks my heart that we are all sitting up here leaving the impression for the community that we have trouble working together because actually that's not true I spent hours talking with Dr Anderson we agreed to disagree on why she felt the original language or even some of the amended language should stay where it was and so all I want

079to do is hopefully model that when individual board members raise questions about our commitment to transparency to one another and transparency to the public I'm just doing my best to make sure that the public understands the hard work we were doing behind the scenes our goal to bring this to you as soon as we could to have it publicly published as soon as we could and the the amended language that Dr Anderson sent us last night I thought we were going to see that publicly this morning published just like mine and so all I can say is that um in the end I hope that we can we can heal and move forward and do what we intend to do which is help educate kids to the best we can Miss Tolland would like to

080speak to your motion your second yes all I would like to say take a deep breath we are all here tonight hoping for a school where all of our students are welcome and all of our students feel safe and inspired and challenged academically and our Educators feel safe and supported to teach the curriculum that those in our instructional Services Department work so hard on that is why I supported the amendment in discussions over the last weeks to try to ensure that we can move this work forward and that we had as much buy-in as we possibly could have thank you Miss kieskamar oh she's not here I guess her light was left on um Miss Marin you know one positive of this might be that we've been able to have a little bit of dialogue

081tonight which is something that I I've asked for that our board be able to talk about the um the places that are difficult to talk about in doing this work that's very personal but I also am just heartbroken that members of this board looked at our student rep in the eye and voted to ignore her and I don't know where to end up with that so we could talk all we want about collaboration and listening to students but um I I just I can't yet reconcile that so I would like to help put us out of this difficulty and call the question is there a second Miss Tolan so I will take the vote to call the question all those in favor raise your hand that is Miss Marin Miss Tallinn Miss Corbett Sanders Mr

082Koufax Miss McLaughlin Miss mccarski and myself all those opposed Dr Anderson that motion passes all right the question is called and Miss Cohen to call the question call the question okay back to the amended main motion I will call for the vote the motion before us is on the screen all those in favor please raise your hand that is Miss Tallinn Miss Corbett Sanders Mater Koufax Miss McLaughlin Miss Cohen miss picarski all those opposed Miss Marin Ms Keith gamara Ms omish and Dr Anderson that motion passes no no I I'm Sorry Miss point of order uh first of all not all of us got to turn to speak I understand the question was called but you misrecorded my vote thanks what is your vote we need to teach truth resolution so I voted in favor

083of that because otherwise we have no resolution okay so I will call I rejected the amendment because we should have Bolder language but the alternative is to have nothing so I'm voting for this all right so I will call for the vote again miss Amish all those in favor please raise your hand of the main motion as the men did call the resolution of support for teachers and administrators regarding inclusive curriculum Mr mesh Miss Tallinn Miss Corbett Sanders mRNA Koufax Miss McLaughlin Miss Cohen Ms bakarski and myself all those opposed it was Keith Kamara Miss Marin Miss Dr Anderson that motion passes I'm not sure anybody's here for this but I would like to invite all those in support of this resolution to please join the board at the days for photo if without objection

084I will ask my colleagues if we can skip this photo thank you hold on I will like to invite all those in support of the national school bus safety week I object actually to not taking a photo and I would like to welcome everybody to come up because that is at least as a commitment to saying that we need to finish that is fine that is fine I urge in favor of this resolution to come up for photo so thank you I don't know thank you I don't believe we have do we have anyone in the audience here in support of national school bus safety week yeah okay um so I would like to invite all those who are here in support of the AAC Awareness Month resolution to please join the the board for

085a photo well that was fun agenda item 3.01 Community participation the next order of business is community participation speakers must limit the remarks to no more than two minutes in length at the conclusion of two minutes the microphone or video will be turned off school board members will be listening but not responding to individual speakers the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as statements involving such as the capital Improvement program budget and boundaries comments targeting criticizing or attacking individual students are not permitted during public meetings complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate School principal or other school officials student speakers should refrain from using personally personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school-based employee additionally speakers should be respectful

086and 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 may not yield their time to another individual before or during their remarks shouting in outbursts from the audience will not be tolerated we are grateful for those who've come to speak to us today and thank you for your cooperation our first speaker is student number one our next speaker is student number two good evening my name is Ollie I'm here to ask you to address the issue regarding staff and FCPS schools and their accommodations for transgender students living

087as a transgender student in FCPS myself I have a lot I realize I have a lot of privileges because the work the board has done but I and many others still face conflicts I'd like to discuss the lack of knowledge some faculty members have displayed getting my name changed in the system was stressful was a stressful process and it shouldn't have been last year I struggled to get my name changed in the system because a counselor had informed me that it wasn't possible to change my name in the school system without legal documentation this forced me to find policy 2603 which states that I can change my name without submitting legal documents I shouldn't have had to do this and the counselor should have known that changing my name in the system was possible while

088I don't blame the counselor for the lack of knowledge in the situation these policies should be addressed more thoroughly in staff training sessions that way they will know the policy if a trans student asked to change their name so like to address the issue of some staff members referring to their students by the incorrect pronouns and prohibiting trans students from accessing their gender desired restrooms and locker rooms a friend of mine who is non-binary experienced gym teachers stopping them from accessing their designated private changing room because teachers claim that they were a girl and that they because of their gender presentation these teachers proceeded to tell my friends that they had to go into the girls locker room gender expression isn't the same as gender identity and the way you express yourself doesn't have to

089align with the way Society strictly views gender that this fact should be highlighted in staff training as well to avoid similar situations I've also had difficulty with a teacher in my middle school who would not stop calling me she her or ma'am despite me informing this teacher I did not want to be addressed as a girl she continued to recommend me books about the Bible and that are related to God staff training should accentuate respect for students identity despite the teacher's different religious views thank you our next speaker is student number three hello I hope everyone is having a good evening my name is Sarah Hoffman and I'm a senior at Lake Braddock Secondary School I'm a part of the Jewish community relations Council student to student program I'm here today to share my experience

090with having the high holidays given off for school I would like to thank the school board for granting these days off in previous years I've always had to miss school for Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah and almost always missed important schoolwork and even tests missing school so early in the year set me back and put lots of stress on me especially as someone who does lots of extracurricular activities outside of school I would have to miss Sports practices and games and girl scout campouts that were scheduled on the high holidays on top of missing schoolwork my brother once had a teacher ask him why are you absent so much it was only his second time being absent and it was for the most important day of the year for Jewish people yet the teacher had

091no clue I never got a perfect attendance award despite only ever missing school for the holidays last year when the high holidays were made a religious observance day I still had tests and work given on those days I had friends who couldn't risk Mrs school and had to go in despite it being the most religious days of the year for us this year by giving students off you have decreased the pressure and stress on students throughout the country the county this year I didn't have to worry about what I was missing out on or stress about having to make up work I was able to spend my day in synagogue observing my faith without any outside distractions for the first time I felt recognized by the county I've grown up in by giving school off

092awareness about the holidays was also able to be spread people asked why do we have Wednesday off this opened up the chance for Jewish students to explain the holiday not having school on those days made other students realize just how important those days are to us again thank you to the school board for giving Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah off as well as Diwali and Eid thank you and have a good evening thank you our next speaker is Tyler Willis Tyler Willis thank you uh I'm here to speak out against this school board you've made it clear that your words and actions with your words and actions that your priority is not the education of our children the teach truth CPA FCPS campaign clearly demonstrates that this board has outsourced its responsibilities to an activist

093group free and anti-racist Minds which is where you got that language uh their own website demands that FCPS curriculum be centered on social justice include critical race Theory and gender ideology ignore State and National standardized assessments and be independently examined for white supremacy zero mention of academic Excellence zero mention of America's education falling behind the rest of the world after years of gaslighting parents have been proven right the truth of the agenda behind the school board is not academics you're using the education system to co-opt our children into your political activism further in this resolution you claim or should I say the activist claim for you to promote the high expectations of our community around our historic truths representative literature and critical thinking does this school board intend to include the works of authors like

094Dr Thomas Soule or Dr Walter Williams in FCPS curriculum these brilliant black Americans provide deep analysis and understanding of the causes of social issues for which you claim to care about unlike hucksters such as ebermex candy who this school board self-fit to pay tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars Dr soul and Dr Williams work stands in strong opposition with the educational curriculum and pedagogy you seek to promote does this scholarship ship count as representative the truth teach truth FCPS campaign State your true motivations to align with far-left political activists to enlist our children in your political activism and to do so over the rights and objections of Fairfax County parents in summary this is not education this is activism and I stand against it thank you our next speaker is Jeff Hoffman [Applause] Dr Reed

095it's good to see you thank you for having conversation and listening to past issues and sharing ideas for the rest of you let me start my statement with a quote from the late Horace man a Pioneer for public schools in America education is our political safety public education is the Cornerstone of our community and our democracy I have one request tonight and it's a voice of a hundred parents across our great County we want an open public forum to discuss the issues that concern us why is this so difficult to understand and organize many don't agree with you on topics like trans kids expansion and the lack of public comment on a resolution you just voted on tonight historic truths and representative literature this is all anybody needs to understand our nation's history the Constitution

096of the United States you all need to reread the school board code of ethics once again you didn't listen and frankly as elected officials it's disrespectful to us as voters parents and taxpayers in Fairfax County in my eyes this is failed leadership you have pushed political agendas ahead of student and school performance parent voices and rights including mine protected by Virginia code and teacher views are unheard coerced and held hostage education is better with choice as an example funds can be used for parent scholarships for private-led programs like Mathnasium while you don't view it as a priority true leaders believe in accountability and transparency we've all had enough to begin early preparations for November 23 as chair we've established the Virginia parents first coalition a movement to support conservative principal candidates to take your seats

097on a dice like Governor young in these new school board candidates believe that parents matter and want to renew and strengthen traditional safe and disciplined Common Sense classroom values in our schools thank you Dr Reed thank you our next speaker is Stacy Rose Harris good evening I grew up in Fairfax County I'm a product of the elementary schools the Washington Irving Middle School and TJ I moved back to the area after law school and I practiced law in Northern Virginia and my children attend a Fairfax County Elementary School my family is Jewish and for all of the 12 years of my education in Fairfax County and my kids schooling until this past year there has been school held on the Jewish holidays particularly during our high holy days Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur this has

098always been a hardship for us having to choose between falling behind in school or our religious observance as the student Sarah I'm just discussed this past winter the board voted to change that and I'm here to thank you all first for the first time I didn't have to email my my children's teachers asking for them to send the work and what my kids missed for the first time I didn't have to remember to call them out of school for the first time I didn't have to explain why other kids were going to school and they weren't that day for the first time we didn't worry about missing something and during these days during these days over the last few weeks I was acutely aware of this difference during the holidays and it made the day

099much more pleasurable and enjoyable for us as a family during this time I also thought of all of you with gratitude for your vote to support the new calendar and not only of course gratitude for those who are in support of this change all along but those who are undecided but kept an open mind and voted in favor of it at the end I attended a town hall meeting shortly before the vote and was fortunate to be able to share My Views with Ms Keys gamara who ultimately voted in favor of the new calendar and I appreciated her willingness to listen um it should not be left unsaid also that the holidays and inclusion of Diwali and Orthodox and Rec thank you our next speaker is Jenna White good evening I'm wearing purple today because

100October is domestic domestic violence awareness month and today is purple out Fairfax this topic is personal to me I'm speaking on behalf of the officers of the Fairfax County Council PTA or fccpta I'm also a parent of two Fairfax County Public School students when I entered for a spot to speak tonight I listed mental health as my topic but we also wanted to speak to our support for Dr Anderson's resolution truthful education and FCPS that left me with three topics in two minutes domestic violence mental health and truth and teaching they are actually inextricably connected earlier this month myself and a team of Advocates and staff met with Dr Reed and FCPS senior leadership to discuss the Statewide program Ace interface this program is a community conversation around adverse childhood experiences and the 30 years

101of Science and data that demonstrate how Aces impact Neuroscience learning and health and behavioral outcomes later in life when a child is exposed to domestic violence in the home that is an ace there are nine other original aces in the groundbreaking study that launched this work since then the CDC has expanded on the original 10 Aces to acknowledge experiences such as racism can be a source of stress so damaging to one's physiology and lifelong Health that is also known as toxic stress we must be anti-racist and teach truth in history otherwise we are adding to the load of toxic stress our students and educators of colors are exposed to we stand for truth and teaching as outlined in Dr Anderson's resolution we urge you to learn more about Aces I have sent you information about

102upcoming webinar we're hosting around ace interface along with Fairfax County Community Partners the public is also welcome to attend and can learn more at fccpta.org under the events section thank you thank you our next speaker is Michael Ginsburg last month the national Center for Education statistics released its Nations report card showing the pandemic school closures wiped out two decades of reading and math test score progress we also know that the school closures exacerbated education gaps among racial and socioeconomic groups this is a generational catastrophe so why are we spending our evening revising and revisiting the controversial issues policy rather than addressing this learning loss crisis the policy already requires us to teach controversial issues impartially objectively and with sensitivity it is perfectly fine and why are we spending so much disproportionate time dealing with issues

103like gender dysphoria which with all due respect affect a small number of the 180 000 students in the Fairfax County School System we have a five alarm educational fire and this board is rearranging the furniture in the burning house every school board meeting should begin and end with the question where do we stand in our efforts to help our children recover from pandemic learning loss this should be the Alpha and Omega of everything this school board does until the crisis is over so I implore you instead of discussing faddish issues that might make us feel like civil rights Champions but instead ignores the biggest problem we face in education in this country today pandemic learning loss hit all students but especially students of color students uh students of color low-income students minority students and special

104needs students so if you really want to look in the mirror and see a civil rights hero focus on that problem and solve it please thank you our next speaker is Samuel Lewis [Applause] in the 1960s DC Comics introduced Bizarro world where everything was the opposite of Earth so the planet was Cube shaped good was bad ugly was pretty stupid was smart wrong was right this ain't no comic book but if you want to understand the real meaning of this teach truth resolution really and indoctrinate youth Manifesto you need to be fluent in the Bizarro language of critical race Theory fortunately I'm bilingual in CRT World anti-racist means judging people by the color of their skin not the content of their character in fact CRT anti-racism has as much to do with the real anti-racism

105as the People's Republic is Republican in CRT the cure for so-called systemic Injustice is more Injustice against the politically unfavored what a wonderful ideal to teach our children your ancestor was oppressor to right that wrong it's your turn to oppress someone in CRT historical truths are crafted with distort history to generate favor treatment for selected identity groups when True Justice while True Justice is colorblind CRT social justice is always color aware and Equity well let's let's use a real live example of Bizarro Equity during the pandemic the superintendent of schools for Evanston Illinois near Chicago proposed that in-person learning would be reserved for black and brown students and other marginalized groups white children could only attend school remotely in the name of equity when parents naturally complain the school board responded with an open letter

106that announced quote when you challenge policies and protocols established to ensure an equitable experience for black and brown students you are part of a Continuum of resistance to equity and desire to maintain white supremacy in CRT World Equity is intentionally inequitable and Savor the irony if you oppose This Racist resolution CRT says you're a white supremacist regardless of your race religion ethnicity or Heritage CRT proponents should be ashamed of themselves and not teaching truth they're brainwashing with leftist propaganda that Fosters bigotry and hatred thank you our next speaker is Brooke Corbett this chart was created by a mom who watched over 3 200 minutes or 53 hours of last year's school board meetings then recorded how much time was spent discussing each topic a digital copy was forwarded for each of you the y-axis shows

107the major topics discussed in each meeting and the x-axis shows how much time out of the 3200 minutes in percent was spent per topic on the bottom at roughly 22 percent the largest chunk of time spent was discussing resolutions and recognitions budget and covid related discussions registered at nine and seven percent respectively changes to srnr including use of cell phones and pronouns took almost five percent the legislative package including lobbying the school year calendar and Sr spending discussions all registered at three percent each the school board discussed Advanced academics learning loss mitigation special education and academic curriculum changes zero to one percent of the time in other words all academic and learning related topics summed together comprise roughly one hour out of 53 total hours of discussion in last year's regular meetings the mom also

108noted a conspicuous absence of discussion relating to teacher supports to assist with learning loss remediation this data suggests that the school board has wasted significant chunks of time and frequently prioritize lucrative powerful outside alliances and non-academic sometimes politically divisive topics over planning and implementing solutions for academic achievement and recovery and over representing the opinions of all constituents and District staff Fairfax County taxpayers should be reminded that these School Board priorities are funded by a 3.4 billion dollar budget thank you our next speaker is Aaron lobato hello and welcome to Virginia superintendent Reed board members at every meeting parents stand here and pour their hearts out do you really listen do you ever think hmm that's a good point do you ever follow up for many of us it feels as if you do not it

109feels as if this board is focused on driving cultural change Progressive activism and social justice ignoring persistent increasing achievement gaps and sidelining parents whenever it's more convenient our student reading and math scores are at concerningly low levels and even more so for our most at-risk kids yet this barely rates a mention from you all you also seem unconceared with unconcerned with plummeting enrollment over the past five years FCPS has lost almost 9 000 students particularly in the younger grades this is the equivalent of four entire high schools just gone do you know why they're leaving your preoccupation with a fight against a parental right to know what is going on with our own transgender child and a parent's right to opt their own child out of wearing a mask to school are clearly priorities it

110is not clear Reading Writing science and arithmetic are and now you're blatant disregard for our long-standing policy to ensure that any classroom discussion of controversial issues respects differing viewpoints is being sneakily sidestepped with the ironically named initiative proposed tonight you all have one year left in your tenure I beg you to use it to refocus on the academic needs of all children and let our schools be a Haven for learning free from the social justice Wars I challenge you to spend less of your meetings handing out Awards accolades and thanking one another and more time addressing real achievement gaps and respecting different viewpoints failure to do so will be a strong thank you our next speaker is Marissa Sally I came to tell you that my community the Jewish Community is being targeted in just

111the last few weeks UC Berkeley law school student organizations excluded Jewish students from their groups GW students screamed into father Revolution outside the Jewish communal and religious building Kanye West has been on anti on an anti-semitic rant for days and here in Fairfax County swastikas and the statement Jews will not replace us was written on a high school wall a title VI complaint was filed against Fairfax County in January of 2022 detailing numerous incidents of anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students worse the complaint documents how Fairfax County administrators have essentially ignored these incidents to this day this school board and superintendent have not responded to the title VI complaint the truthful education resolution sought to indoctrinate students with the ideology of anti-racism which divides Society into two groups oppressors and oppressed Jews due to their perceived

112success and general skin color are seen as oppressors even though according to FBI data Jews make up only two percent of the population but are the targets of 60 percent of religiously motivated hate crimes critical race Theory and so-called anti-racism are themselves racist ideologies that drive the virulent anti-Semitism we see overtaking college campuses and our own high schools FCPS has regulations that require teachers to maintain impartiality and objectivity in teaching controversial issues to prevent indoctrinating students anti-racism point of order could the speaker please say their state their name I am I'm speaking for Marissa I have her power of attorney right here um she had an emergency because substitutions are not allowed ma'am speaker substitutions are not a speaker substitutions are allowed for our rules substitutions speaker substitutions Are You Really Gonna Stop Me speaker

113substitutions point of order I'd like to consult our parliamentarian given that she's an attorney I have a representative attorney here she had an emergency her father had surgery and she asked me to speak no that it's up to the board whether to allow an exception to their rule if they don't want to allow substitutions then they do not have to our current Governor's manual does not allow speaker substitutions Matt Madam chair may I asked he said it's up to the board I believe she's almost finished speaking I hadn't finished if the board was I'm sorry you can ask the board to vote on whether to allow her to continue speaking but it would be the board's decision would be final on the matter would we like to take a vote if are we running to

114well Mr parliament are we going to suspend the rules because right now that is our rule yeah I would say that uh it would be a suspension of the rules a two-thirds vote would be required no debate so I will ask if we'd like to take a vote to suspend the rules hang on one second to suspend the rules to allow the speaker to finish speaking however we will be setting a precedent I'm not going to ask for the vote I'm going to ask for the vote a loss of the vote we would like to suspend the rules to allow the speaker to substitute to speak for the original speaker point of order Madam chair point of order Madam chair I'd like to just raise to our parliamentarian that this may given this Power of

115Attorney question that we have not in fact specified could this be subject to interpretation such that we don't set a precedent by making this decision this summation that is not a point of order that's a that is the point of war is a process question this is the process question is that an appropriate point of order Mr parliamentarian I mean if somebody is the official like designated representative of somebody hang on I'll ask I'm going to take a break and we'll figure this out Mr Foster oh yeah we will take it all right what's the question we were sidebarring if somebody arises having the power of attorney to represent somebody right would that be considered a speaker substitution which is not allowed in our rules right or would that be subject to interpretation no it's

116a speaker substitution um and I think that there's there's a there's a motion excuse me there's a motion depending before the board it's a motion pending before the board with two-thirds vote to allow for speakers to suspend the rules to allow for speaker substitutions all those in favor that is Miss Keys Kamara Miss Tolland Miss Corbett Sanders and Miss McLaughlin all those opposed okay that motion fails our next speaker is Amber Iglesias our next speaker is Tyrone Santos cruelly zuccheri good evening I'm Kweli zuccari Dr Kweli zukeri um here representing Fan Fair or free and anti-racist Minds thank you to those board members who have been um who have supported anti-racism or the work that we want to see done I'm also want to mention I come here in the footsteps of my ancestors my

117grandfather was a pioneering black historian at a time when he was told in the 40s that black there was no significant black history that black history wasn't worth doing and that a black man could not do research on black history objectively experienced racism right I think what's happened here tonight I'm very disappointed that this amendment was passed because I think it was a really underhanded I suspect it was a great way of not having to vote no but also completely undermining the substance of the actual message right and I want to talk about the word anti-racism specifically because it feels like people are very misinformed if you're against anti-racism you're either racist you're misinformed about what anti-racism actually means or and or you're privileged enough not to have experienced American racism so it's not something

118that's on the the Forefront of your mind every time in this country that progress has been made there's been pushback but every time the progress has been made people have continued to press on and that's what I want to see you do right people here have talked about being distracted by ideology and things of that nature that we should focus on academics well guess what I got my PhD in developmental psychology what I studied was what happens to black and brown students as the sister he has mentioned earlier how they feel unheard in the classroom do you think that affects their academic achievement it probably does right so if we don't recognize them through anti-racism and through truth and I don't have time here to teach everyone all about all these things but if we

119don't do this we are taking a step backward and Fairfax county is not setting a good precedent you all are not moving with history right now thank you our next speaker is Kathleen mallard hi good evening Dr Reed school board thank you so much it's been an exciting evening so far um I agree with many of the speakers who have focused on the fact that we do need to rededicate ourselves to academics I know there are so many issues which our students confront and I'm totally empathetic I've been to over 12. before I graduated from high school I attended over 10 schools some of them in foreign countries because my father was a naval officer and we lived abroad so I understand you know the need for kids to feel accepted to be understood anyway

120one of the things though that I I did want to talk to you about tonight is the resolution that you all passed in December the human trafficking awareness resolution and in it you said that um every high school in Fairfax County has experienced human trafficking issues and we can put a slash there and say sex trafficking as well so that is one resolution which I think is Paramount a student can't learn at all if they're being trafficked in some and also I think you all are missing a lot of students not that they've dropped out or gone elsewhere but they are missing 900 700 students are actually missing that have not been accounted for and I think this is a major issue I've talked to the local uh Board of supervisor member and the local

121police anyway also I wanted to talk quickly about the uh and I'll give you a copy of the the sex survey I think the sex survey is inappropriate for our kids and I would uh ask you to please stop asking them how many times they've had thank you that was our final speaker we also have two video testimonies this evening the first one submitted by Jen hands junkin's model policies highlight the fundamental question as to what rights parents have to their own children the Fairfax County School Board would vote to say parents do not have rights that the schools are solely positioned to influence guide teach and control the children enrolled in the schools the Fairfax County School Board would say that parents would unjustly influence their children and that they are too cruel for

122example to deal with their own child so the schools must keep important information concerning their children secret from the parents in superintendent Michelle Reed's seven paragraph email to the community concerning the policies there was not one mention of parents because in her view parents have no place in being informed of major issues in their child's life the parents rightfully believe that it's their job to raise nurture guide and shape the values morals and values of their own children parents love their kids we hugged them when they've had a bad day we encourage them when they're down we listen to them when they're confused and guide them regarding choices that will affect the rest of their lives these are our children they are not the words of the state and they belong to the parents and

123the parents alone so to get back to the original question does the school board have the right to displace parents in the primary Giver role absolutely not no way no way no way we will allow that to happen in Fairfax County this is the line that all parents and voters must stand up for Hold the Line our next video was submitted by Cara Danner my name is Kara Danner and I'm a member of the Executive Board of the Fairfax County Council PTA this year several fccpta speakers have emphasized the overwhelming need to address the mental health needs of our students this is why our PTI Council has endorsed the truth in education or teaching truth resolution that was proposed by Dr Anderson in September the resolution encourages and protects administrators and teachers as they work

124to make our schools inclusive by acknowledging that the FCPS curriculum is and must continue to be a liberatory curriculum at all levels we strive to make our schools places where all children belong anti-racism and anti-exclusion in our schools and classrooms improved the mental health of black and brown students immigrants students with disabilities religious minorities and lgbtq plus students transgender students are particularly vulnerable right now the mental health of our students is at stake their very lives are at stake the school board cannot fail to act and it must not weaken this resolution by removing words such as liberatory and anti-racist teachers and administrators need to know that they are safe when they include and support all students the fccpta has already issued a statement in support of the resolution as presented in September We Stand

125by that agenda item 3.02 strategic Plan update I call on Dr Reed for an update on the Strategic plan Madam Madam chair might we take a brief recess please all right doctor we will take a five minute recess before we have the presentation board members if you could please take your seats we're going to get started board members if you could please take your seats we're going to get started all right we will come back after our break so agenda item 3.02 strategic Plan update I call on Dr Reed for an update on this strategic plan good evening I'm Adam chair and board so what I'm going to share this evening is an abbreviated set of slides from those which we shared at our work session but I want to make sure that our community

126understands the process we're embarking on and the possibilities inherent in this work is we begin to establish our North Star that will connect us this year and Beyond I ideally we're looking at um two questions really when we sum things up and the two questions much has been talking with us a great deal about kind of boil down to how are the children and how is your household and as we progress through the next few months we're going to talk a lot about how we are and how we're able to achieve great outcomes for our students um in the coming months so let's go ahead and move to the next slide thank you one of the things that's really important and we had a chance our leadership team and I had a chance to meet

127with our high school principals and our elementary principals today and there was a lot of discussion around workload issues right now and the challenges of the work returning from the pandemic and one of the things that I believe a strategic plan is going to do is not add work but rather align the work that we're currently doing when our works align we're able to be more efficient and I think feel less overwhelmed at times while getting stronger results for our students so we're really excited about this power of alignment because we know that our initiatives while um well-intentioned and great you know impassioned work at times if they're not aligned they're not going to lead us where we need to be for each and every student so go ahead for the next one please these

128are the phases of our planning process just want to remind our community that right now we're mobilizing and asking for participate our participation and putting together our different groups which I'll describe here in a moment so that's our work for October November and we plan to have formal board approval by May 23rd of our strategic plan so that we're able to launch this over the summer and be ready to roll in the fall of 2023. this is work that our intent is to seek all voices in the community as we proceed over the next several months to define the direction for the future of our division next slide please the process if we want to just simplify it this evening is really a three-step process we're going to look at what data we currently have

129and that's student data from a variety of sources then we're going to analyze in a discovery stage which really answers two questions what does the data say and why does it look the way it looks and then finally the third piece is what are we going to do about it and when we put those three pieces together it's our intent as we work with our students our staff our parents our families our community members our business Community elected leaders and Community stakeholders that we're going to be able to define a solution that we can all put energy behind next slide please essentially we want to remind our community that we have to keep our ends and means in the proper order as we Center equity in our strategic planning in the first circle is really

130around student learning the second Circle which surrounds and supports our student learning is our instructional Effectiveness which sits within the context of an empowering infrastructure next slide please uh one of the things that's really key is that we're talking about a wide net in other words a net that envelops if you will our entire Community across the county while the process for Gathering input feedback and our ultimate direction is going to be a very tight and transparent process next slide please these are the different groups of diverse voices again with the expectation of being able to align in a unified direction we're talking about authentic and meaningful engagement over the course of the next few months with regular reports to the board as well as regular reports to staff students and our community writ large

131I am really excited to begin this process as we think about the different teams and the purposes of each team the core planning team which is the CPT in the middle of this diagram will be a very diverse team of likely 100 to 150 members including students staff families community members board members um and this group will be if you will an iterative group receiving reports and information from all of the other groups in a synergistic fashion in other words work will come back and go out and come back and go out as we begin the analysis of all the data we collect and the synthesis of those results to craft a plan that will guide the entire division next slide please thank you again this is a slide in terms of discussion of the

132levels of the stakeholder engagement which really outlines the relative engagement commitment folks will make for each committee or each forum and again there is a space for every Community member every student family member elected business leader or stakeholder in the community to involve themselves in some way in the Strategic plan there's a spot for every voice in this work at this point that is my update this evening and I'm happy to take any questions thank you if um so I have Miss Corbett Sanders yes I wanted to just thank you Dr Reed uh for the synopsis I think it's important to share with the community what our plans are I know that you and your team have sent out Communications and that you also that this work is going to be building on the community

133conversations you've already embarked on but I think what's so critical here is that chart which talks about that student focused uh data Centric approach and then reimagining what our school system should be to meet the unique needs of each and every child to be able to be successful not even not only while they're in our K-12 system but beyond and so I appreciate you presenting this in this way and I know that we're all committed to working with you to ensure that our that we are all in alignment and that the resources are in alignment as well thank you thank you any of the board members wish to speak Miss Keith Camara thank you um I appreciate having the opportunity to discuss this uh in in this board meeting um and I hope we get

134a opportunity to do more of this um in light of some of the comments that we heard tonight um I'm going to I'm going to put a ball on a t-ball on the T stand and just let you hit it I know the answers but I think the community um does the community needs to hear how this process is focused on academics and Student Success thank you Miss keys gamara I think to your point this plan is this plan is about forming number one the Strategic plans intended to have its goals be in student outcomes we exist as a division to educate students each and every one of our students because we know the power of that education is about the trajectory of the rest of each and every one of our students lives it

135is not just about the time they spend with us what this plan and process will enable us to do as a community is to identify those outcomes we believe as a community and a division our most important for each and every one of our students what is the course progression path that we believe in Fairfax County will set us apart as a world-class division in this country and create that Synergy that all other divisions will look to us for so my expectation is that that deep and Rich educational experience that's going to prepare our kids our students and our young people for that world yet to Be Imagined is what this process is going to yield when we align our purpose and our work there's anything we can accomplish to achieve those High academic achieve

136you know ideals for each and every child thank you um I I realized I was a pretty basic question but I I felt it was necessary just to really state that these kinds of conversations budget conversations are all about Student Success and and improving student achievement um I will ask the question I know you've had several town halls in the community now we're going in this to the this period of Outreach um I you know I look forward to and you may not have an answer to it but I do have some concerns about how many times people are going to be willing to come out how we may need to um adjust how we reach out to people or how we find ourselves in their worlds to be able to have effective communication so

137I'm a little worried about um you know Outreach burnout right uh and people's willingness to respond or is that them delete email um so I know we'll be having ongoing conversations but I I just want the community to know that Outreach is is critical to this process and um that includes I believe you added a I didn't see it up there but you added a category uh specifically for parents um to make sure that we are hearing from them um and I think those were my comments I just really wanted to make sure um in light of all the noise that we kind of heard tonight that we get back to this is what we're about we've never lost Focus I don't believe we have um but even this report tonight is um an example

138of that commitment so thank you thank you Miss Keys Gamora and I I appreciate you addressing the issue of how often will people come out and I want to remind us that one of the um that there will be a variety of ways to provide input indeed we're looking at all students grades 3 through 12 having an opportunity within school to provide their feedback as well as all staff and there haven't as well as all parents and families right so and we'll be sharing more ways to participate but I think that's really well said If ever there's a time to lean in and you know add a voice to this work it's now so thank you for raising that thank you Miss Amish thank you I'm trying to check before I do want to celebrate

139this moment I think that you know I felt strongly my colleagues as well I know that we should uh really uh kick this off and and sharing with our community that we're beginning this process um you know this is a process that is setting the New Vision the new plan for our entire division and I want the community to make sure they're they're paying attention and that they're part of this process you know Dr Reed I've really appreciated uh your efforts to make sure that you're doing robust public engagement those have been conversations that are Contin ongoing still but uh that have certainly been robust uh for us as a team and trying to really figure out how do we reach those people we don't even realize we're not reaching um and make sure that

140everyone's voice is a part of this process so that we can build a vision together that doesn't have holes that that makes everyone feel they're a part of it and that doesn't end up right with the divisions we're constantly trying to to avoid and then we're forced to heal once you know when we make those mistakes so really I just wanted to make sure this moment didn't pass without recognizing that this is a huge opportunity for us and I'm hopeful that as you all begin posting the schedules of when you'll be aware that the community pays close attention and participates in that process to make sure it's it's one that's inclusive of everyone so thank you Dr Reed thank you thank you Dr Anderson sure all right see no other speakers I'd just like to

141say one quick thing on this I apologize doctor he said I almost made it out of here um I just wanted to say you know I really appreciate you uh Israel last minute coming here to share this um and just to remind people who are watching out there that we do do the bulk of our work where we talk about many of these issues in our work sessions as opposed to our regular meetings by the time we come here we're really here to vote on action items that we've discussed and so we did have a pretty robust work session on this just on Tuesday where we had many presentations and chance for board comment about our strategic plan and that is one of our ongoing work sessions on our strategic plan so I just wanted

142to remind folks that if they're looking for where we're digging into issues go watch the Youtube videos of our work sessions it's a great way to enjoy your evening so having said that thank you so much Dr Reed for the presentation thanks Madam chair agenda item 3.03 student representative matters I call him Miss togby thank you madam chair good evening everyone and happy Thursday thank you to the students who came to speak tonight Ali and Sarah you guys were truly the highlights of the meeting um we have made it to week nine and we are close to the end of the first quarter I know I'm secretly celebrating um and honestly I can't believe how quickly time has passed it's been amazing seeing the accomplishments that have been made at every school and all in

143all just witnessing a pretty great school year I got the chance to participate in the strategic planning portion of the meeting on Tuesday and I can't wait to see the final product once information with beneficial feedback is gathered tomorrow I know that I'm going to take part in filming a video to promote award awareness as to what strategic planning is and the importance of the involvement of students and the feedback that they will equip us with um originally I was going to go in a completely different Direction with my remarks but um after the last few hours I believe I I have a few more important things to say um earlier in the strategic planning updates a slide that stood out to me included the words student learning and instructional Effectiveness and I understand the

144commitment that we are trying to make but at this point in time I can say that we're running in circles I can see that I'm sure you all can recognize that within yourselves and my peers can 100 see that themselves I've said it before and I will say it again until everyone here truly understands what it means Equity leadership is everyone's work and what students see informs how we engage and how we engage informs how we Act think about that and recognize the needs of students that are not being met on the FCPS website it says our mission is to inspire and Empower students today we had the perfect opportunity to do just that and look at what happened I don't really have much left to say but I I really do have high hopes

145and I think that once everyone collaborates together wants transparency is 100 effective I think dine will truly be amazing but I think right now this is a moment to reflect and see what could be done better and that is all I have to say thank you agenda item 3.04 superintendent matters I call on Dr Reed thank you madam chair um and thank you Miss togby I uh this evening I just want to indicate that I've attended a number of events and visited a number of schools since last we met and really feel like they're just amazing things going on around the division right now so for all um the um sort of work and efforts of our Educators and our support staff in all roles there's some amazing opportunities and amazing achievements going on really

146each and every day in small ways and large all across this Division and I want to mention that one of the highlights of the experience that I shared with several of the board colleagues was the Fairfax County Public School excellence awards recognition evening and that was such a nice event and such an incredible evening to recognize so many inspiring staff members across our division and just their excitement and enthusiasm to be recognized for so many different um gifts and contributions it really was an inspiring evening and I thank our instructional services and professional development and Human Resources departments who really hosted that under the leadership of Dr Wilson and Marty Smith it was just a tremendous evening and I I don't know I kind of was beaming about it for days so I think it's

147something to really be proud of I have concluded I think 23 pyramid conversations so far most recently I've been to Oakton Fairfax and Centerville and if you haven't had an opportunity to attend one of those in your listening I would encourage you to we're getting close to the end of our community conversations it's hard to believe I don't know what I'll do with my evenings um but also want to mention that in terms of academics and I know that our achievement is obviously very important I want to report that our Fairfax County Public School seniors in the class of 2022 last year performed well above State and Global averages on the s.a.t and I think that's something to be said given the conditions obviously that many students had throughout this pandemic but to be above

148both our State national and Global averages is pretty impressive our mean score of 11.85 perhaps surpass the state average by significant in the global average of 10.50 likewise our evidence-based reading and writing and Mathematics subtest scores posted above the state and Global averages for students overall in an every reporting Group which I think is pretty impressive for us I want to remind our military connected families that beginning October 18th we are going to be asking to have our impact aid forms filled out and I know that Colonel Messina at Fort Belvoir and I put together a short video to talk about the importance in a collaborative way of the impact aid funds and what they support and also want to thank our military connected families for joining us last week and share their experience in

149the opportunities we have to continue to serve and support our military connected students and families I want to to the com you know to the concerns around Innovation I want to share that we do have an opportunity to partner with Nova and George Mason University on a lab school proposal and we're very excited about that opportunity which will provide 200 000 in planning dollars to look at an innovative lab school and Pathways for credit for our students and lastly a reminder for our apparent community that November is National parent engagement month and to really consider joining local ptas and ptsas or ptos as we support our schools with parent engagement in November so that is my report thank you thank you Dr Reed agenda item four action items agenda item 4.01 confirmation of action taken

150enclosed this is the portion of the meeting where board 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 will make several motions to confirm the recommended action I call on Missile mesh for the motion I move that the probation fight in closed session be dismissed and his contract not be renewed for the 2022-2023 school year is there a second Miss Corbett Sanders all those in favor that is Miss keys no this piece Miss Keith Camara Mr mesh Miss Tallinn Miss Corbett Sanders mrnat Koufax Miss McLaughlin Ms Cohen and uh miss pokarski all those opposed all this abstaining Dr Anderson Miss Marin that motion passes agenda item five

151consent agenda 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 listed have gone through Board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board 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 six new business the following our new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting the new business items are on the screen agenda item seven board committee reports

152our call on Ms Corbett Sanders for a governance committee update yes thank you madam chair the governance committee had a very productive meeting yesterday we reviewed policy changes to the eligibility for enrollment policy 2020 2022 to align it with state code and removing the requirement for additional FCPS mandated documentation by parents and guardians of students moving into our school system this has been added to new business for the board we were briefed by assistant superintendent Fanshawe on his suggested approach to revising the environmental stewardship policy 8542 the building evaluation building renovation and infrastructure maintenance policy 8258 the site Planning and Development policy 8310 and reviewed suggested changes to the architectural and Engineering Services 8220 which has been added to new business for the board after review by the committee Mr Fanshawe will be looking with

153his stat will be working with his staff on the following policies to be brought back to governance these include vehicle replacement policy 8611 security of buildings and grounds policy 8612 and school bus transportation walking and bicycling routes policy 8610 we also had a robust discussion about how to address the backlog and policies that are past due for Board review the clerk's tracking system will be modified to include more information on the status of each pen ending item policies have been grouped by department and sent to the superintendent and her team to Prior prioritize the review finally the committee had a brief discussion on the resolutions and recognitions policy and we'll be discussing it in more depth at a future meeting thank you I call on Miss Cohen for a report on the audit committee thank

154you the audit committee met on October 12th and reviewed the oag report on the it technology platform implementation and Hardware acquisition and management audit I'm so appreciative of Ms Co and her team and would like to particularly thank for his work on this we were very grateful to hear our staff response from the Chief Information officer Gotham Sethi and his team the IT team has made or is in the process of making all the recommendations from the audit findings and the entire process has been extremely collaborative thank you so much to both the oag and it teams thank you I call Miss McLaughlin for an update from the public engagement committee thank you uh the public engagement committee met and discussed a number of topics the first one was our standing committees reviewing any recommended

155changes that we might want to bring forward to the full board we also wanted to make sure that the board was aware that the prior PEC did have changes and recommendations for our citizen advisory committee handbooks and that is pending a future work session for all of you to review and then we also discussed surveying school board members and getting more clarification about school board member roles serving as Lee on serving as the Liaisons for non-school board advisory committees whether some of them are still relevant and meaningful we talked about the Strategic plan and the importance of having the robust public engagement process and how PEC could work with Dr Reed and her team on that um we then talked about the to the school year uh 2020 324 calendar public engagement process and uh

156in the past the PEC committee has worked closely with senior staff at reviewing input from the calendar committee reviewing the surveys that are going out to employees and families just to see if there's anything that we as the school board members might want to suggest be added or included and so that will be ongoing we also talked about the sr3 funds Community engagement process and then we finally talked about our school board newsletters and the email distribution lists because there's some Clarity that needs to happen about how are those opt-in are they opt out you know what was the understanding in the past we've got families that come in every month every year and how are those you know we're making sure that given that we know often families will tell us that they may

157miss an FCPS news message but they will see our newsletters open it up and learn so um anyway those were kind of the highlights of of what we're covering in in PEC thank you Miss McLaughlin I'll call on Miss Keith Kamara for cpdc update thank you the cpdc met on Monday October 17th we welcome new board committee members ricardi Anderson and Megan McLaughlin we also had a discussion regarding the roles of cpdc and fpac and we welcomed um their liaison Elaine tolin we are examining the intersectionality of the planning commissioner Board of Supervisors in the school board with respect to development and we look forward to reporting to the board shortly thank you thank you I call him Miss Tolan for a budget report thank you um we did have a board work session on

158October 11th where we um and from that I have compiled comments and am working toward uh a mid-november resolution for the board with um my co-chair Miss bakarski um so that we can give additional direction to Dr Reed for development of the budget this this year just a reminder to the public that um in November well even right now through October 24th at 10 pm we are still seeking online feedback from the community on use of our sr3 funds and if you go to the FCPS Elementary and secondary school emergency relief sr3 portion of our website you can make those comments that is through Monday we will have a work session on our Sr spending on November 1st from two to four and a public hearing on November 3rd at 6 PM if you'd like

159to register for that hearing um the sign up will open tomorrow um 10 21 at 6 a.m on the FCPS School Board webpage in November we're setting up a meeting and with myself and our board chair to meet with the Board of Supervisors chairman Jeffrey McKay and others on our budget planning and on November 22nd from three to five just a reminder to all of my colleagues that we will be having our joint meeting with the Board of Supervisors to begin our joint budget process thank you agenda item eight board matters and um since I always start on that side I'm going to start on this side this time just to be fair so I will start with Miss keys gamara thank you uh this past month has been I'm sorry these past two weeks

160it looks like a month um have been quite busy I had a fun attending the Woodson homecoming with Megan McLaughlin and the Herndon homecoming I also had an opportunity to poke my head into the audit committee meeting which I enjoyed very much and I attended the excellence awards and reception and reseremony with Miss Elaine tolin and um a mess so we had an opportunity to celebrate some of our staff members as they have been they have been recognized for their excellence in the way that they serve our community I also had an opportunity to participate in the military family community conversation virtually with Dr Reed and really appreciated the insights we were able to hear I was there miss Sizemore Heiser was there along with Miss Corbett Sanders and this past weekend I was able

161to attend the dunloring Improvement Association picnic which um probably entitles me to a exercise program or something like that they had great food but it was wonderful and coming up on November 9th educate Fairfax we'll have their leaders and Learners breakfast I hope that everyone will join us as we celebrate the special bond between our schools and the larger Fairfax Community with a number of our business partners and for more information please visit the educate Fairfax website to purchase tickets thank you and everyone have a good night thank you Miss Marin yes I'm going to keep it focused on student related things that I was involved with and working on I guess everything's student related but with students this week um or last week over at Oakton High School we were invited a few of

162us were able to attend the annual Oakton High School candidate and elected leaders panel and it's such a really great opportunity the whole senior class goes there's two panels a local panel and that was with some of us school board members and then the federal panel and um you know just like our school board representative tonight did they held our feet to the fire and asked us really pointed questions and I just hope that students continue to learn about their local government and register to vote and vote and with that I'll actually just go ahead and put a plug in for you know a reminder that there is an election this year because in every year there's an election in Virginia so um hey Dr Reed this could be your first election if you've registered

163to vote in Virginia that's what you could do with your free evening since you're almost done right you could vote till seven o'clock early voting no no reason needed these days so um so I'll leave it at that so I can go home and see my own two kiddos who I've been doing a lot lately with their own educational needs and just constantly learning about our school system through the lens of being a parent with my children whether it's middle school and learning the transition to middle school and how we can better improve things like schoology and direct instruction for students around using that learning tool to my fourth grader and the different technology he could use to access better you know literacy learning so uh it's it's a very the days are very full

164and I just am going to keep working for our kids thanks thank you Miss Amish thanks um since we cut off dialogue earlier I mean I hate to do this but uh if without objection I actually would like to um correct my vote uh and and and oppose the resolution mostly because you know it's difficult when we received it this morning to to be fully thoughtful of the consequences but and being a little bit more reflective I'm actually concerned that it might cause a little bit more harm than we had planned for specifically um in the end it kind of just slipped in there uh where we we suggest that we support our teachers as they teach FCPS approved curriculum uh and that suggests that teachers shouldn't you know Enlighten their their students with additional

165materials things that have not been vetted specifically uh through a process that is limited and it ends up kind of countering the whole Spirit of this resolution to begin with so the idea is we want to be expansive in our thinking um but unfortunately I think with this we inadvertently ended up lending power to reinforcing the very same oppressive structures that have existed so I'm a little bit concerned about that I also am concerned that we mentioned the controversial issues policy without reflecting that we don't necessarily stand by the current version and are looking towards changing that specifically it's stand the the policy stance on this idea that there's some kind of ability to be an impartial conversator on a variety of controversial issues which we all know is is not a real thing impartial

166only seems impartial to those in the majority who agree with the perspective of the majority so um I I think these These are deeply concerning aspects I'm hopeful that my colleagues can be reflective maybe next year when we do this again that we revise these pieces since we didn't really give it the I don't know the reflection required having only seen it this morning and then of course adding the anti-racist piece which was eliminated and ultimately was I mean de facto censorship I think in the sense that again the the whole purpose of this is to say that we recognize systemic Injustice you know systemic racism exists and so we ought to teach beyond that but inherently by removing that concept we are engaging in the very thing we're trying to critique by having this

167resolution altogether so um you know I I know that's not the intent of my colleagues I know my colleagues you know believe in empowering all our students and removing the blockers to their learning um but I I'd like to make sure that's reflected in the vote and really did have to just tap into my conscience on that one because it's it's frustrating to have to continuously wrestle and just try to force a way to see how the more collaborative option or allegedly collaborative you know we talked about the limitations of that is the better option when some things are just clear so um that's that's my take for tonight and I wish everyone a reflective uh and blessed night thank you Miss Holland yes thank you um I would like to extend a huge thank

168you to the Long Fellow choir for coming this evening and singing national anthem I think they did an amazing job um I talked a little bit earlier about my ride with the bus driver supervisor so I won't go into that at this point um since the last meeting we have had some serious discussions at Kent Gardens Elementary School regarding the overcrowding there and we'll you know have filled in a number of my colleagues on the discussions there and we were continuing to compile information and input from the community on a special webpage that was set up by your Communications Department and we'll staff we'll be meeting next week to go over all of those all of that input and I will pass information on to all of my colleagues on and what we're seeing there

169um I also enjoyed the ocps excellence awards and also had the opportunity with Miss Marin to attend a cornerstones community Forum last week I was really proud to see two principals from Herndon Candace HUD stent and um Sarah Aiello attend as well and participate in the education Forum section of that meeting we also had some very serious discussions on health for our community affordable housing and economic development and really looked at some ways that all of the organizations that attended need to collaborate um I was thrilled to attend the Chesterbrook kickball challenge um it was a fun Community evening and just last night thank you to Dr Reed for attending the McLean citizens Association student Forum or um we all got very interesting questions from students on a wide range of topics ranging from where

170are the salad bars to when are those solar panels going to be installed at Annandale High School happy to say that was on the new business um tonight and um you know just lots of other questions we got our email today summary email with like 10 or 12 different areas where those students asked some great questions the Langley pyramid Community conversation with Dr Reed is October 26th so coming up next week from 6 30 to 7 30. so please join us there I just want to point out the Longfellow Middle School quiz Bowl team and their sponsor Mr Huang had an amazing performance and they're a team I won the national championship and the B team in number five and they were honored last week by the Board of Supervisors McLean High School's Highlander news

171magazine and their news broadcasts team have been selected for the national Scholastic press Association broadcast Peacemaker finalist award thank you Miss Corbett Sanders thank you before I go to my board matters I do want to address the issue about the curriculum the language in the board uh that the board adopted this evening talks about FCPS curriculum and then Dr Reed talked about the importance of alignment and that's really what we're talking about is using resources text and uh other correct other enhancements to our program of studies that are aligned with the priorities of Fairfax County Public Schools and that Fairfax County Public Schools has made it very clear that those priorities include our Equity policy our non-discrimination policy our anti-bias anti-hate policies error Forum topics and our curriculum aligned with that and so it is

172really important to not look at the term curriculum FCPS curriculum narrowly but looking at it as how anything that supports and is in alignment with those priorities are accepted and encouraged by all of our teachers to ensure that our students are able to see themselves reflected in the literature that they use in the history that is taught that is both The Good the Bad and the Ugly and ensuring that we honor what those commitments are tonight was about not uh it was really about supporting teachers and reinforcing the importance of teachers and administrators in that area and with that if I could go on to say it's been a busy couple of weeks lots of homecomings PTA meetings Community meetings and more including the ribbon cutting cutting at the Lorton Community Center which is a

173combined Athletic Facility a place where people can learn with all sorts of courses and a library as well as Community Services or County Services there I encourage everybody in South County to go see it I also was able to attend the conflict resolution breakfast yesterday where we focused on restorative justice and alternative accountability models I wish Miss McLaughlin had been with us since we have spent a lot of time in that area and was able to go to the steam Fest at the new high Bliss Center this coming week we have the West Potomac Community conversation on the 27th as well as the 10-year anniversary of South County Middle School where there will be a presentation of our resolution in support of it as well as the Board of Supervisors resolution on that and everybody

174have a wonderful Halloween thank you Dr Anderson thank you very much before I get started on my remarks I too like Miss Amish did not have the opportunity to address an issue that took place earlier and I was really hoping that Miss um McLaughlin would be here to hear it I I really wanted to convey that I am so deeply disappointed in some of the comments that she made she shared that she was trying her best in order to unify but in her comments I was maligned from my timeline so I need to make sure that I address that because the schedule of the resolution that I brought forward began on September the 5th to the full board I sent a version on the fifth I sent a version on September 22nd and I sent

175a third version on October the 2nd and then a fourth version last evening and the reason why that was last evening instead of earlier because edits came in on Thursday Friday and we were on the phone for multiple hours on last Friday more edits came in on Monday Tuesday and then I did this to myself on Tuesday afternoon and I had to be at the doctors on Wednesday morning So Yesterday being Wednesday evening spent two more hours with you on the phone about edits more time with Miss Keys gamara about edits more time with Miss McLaughlin about edits and then it was sent as quickly as humanly possible I do not want to have my Integrity maligned I do not want to have my work ethic questioned and this is what happened this evening and

176I will not let that be the last word on it so thank you Dr Reed for the visits to Glasgow Middle School and Justice high school last week I had the opportunity to attend the fall Inspire conference at Glasgow Middle School last Saturday which was a wonderful opportunity for our parents to come into the building to learn about resources for their students to learn about how they can advocate for their students who engage in the very work that their students participate in so Mr Powell thank you so much for organizing that as well as well with homes and Key Middle Schools last week I also had the opportunity to attend the bell game um this was the bell game between Falls Church and Justice high school and just like last year the guest team took

177home the trophy so excited for you Falls Church this week the Justice homecoming is well actually tomorrow the 21st and that is my time good night all Miss Cohen thank you um I really enjoyed getting to go to the bus driver and attend an advisory committee with Dr Reed a couple weeks ago I just thought they were amazing and and really had um just an unbelievable commitment to our kids which we certainly mentioned during our bus driver safety and even got to see Dr Reed sink a pretty significantly far maybe two pointer three-pointer you feel like it was a three-pointer um I also had the opportunity to go to Sangster Hunt Valley and Union Mill uh this week or this weekend last week Robinson's ptso meeting last night um like Miss Marin I really enjoyed

178getting to be with Miss bakarski and Ms Sizemore Heiser at oakton's candidates day it was just awesome the kids were amazing and um I think we all really get inspired and refreshed every time we get to hang out with you guys miss tugby um and then uh very much enjoyed the Centerville High School Community conversation this week I thought parents asked amaze and staff asked outstanding questions everyone has been different which has been shocking to me there's a couple of themes but generally um just a lot of really interesting feedback so I've enjoyed it next Tuesday I hope folks will join us for the last one in the Springfield District which is at West Springfield High School Tuesday night and uh I wish everybody a good night Miss picarski okay thank you it has been

179a very very busy um two weeks with all good things I had a school visit to the Davis career center where principal Clayton was a very um just just incredible in the amount of time that he spent with me and talking through his his ideas and just the ways he had he has really improved the offerings to our students who are working on those Transitions and being prepared to go out in the workforce and um and what whatever path they take next I it was just very inspiring and he saw that I he looked me up and so I had lots of kids and sent me home with a huge um a tray of cookies that the students have made so my kids were quite happy that night I had a great time at the

180Dig pink volleyball tournament at Oakton benefiting the metastatic breast cancer so thank you for all the volunteers for all the work that you do for that event it was a lot of fun um I very much enjoyed the candidates stay at Oakton High School it was just very inspiring to talk to students and hear their ideas and um really push us to think about why we do the things we do and really talk about how you know our work um and and our value and the things we value um are seeing through our policies and our um investments in our budget um I want to say Happy Diwali to all who are celebrating of course I've got some upcoming visits with Dr Reed in Westfield High School Bull Run Elementary and Virginia Run Elementary that

181I'm looking forward to we had wonderful Community conversations at Oakton and high Centerville High School so thank you for all who came and I had a very very fun event with my colleague Miss Sizemore Heiser when we had the opportunity to participate in the Westfield homecoming parade um so that was that was a lot of fun thank you good night everyone thank you mrnado Koufax thank you just briefly uh to my colleagues if you need a shot of positivity I know you all do this but visit our schools um honestly I want to thank the principal staff and students of the schools that I've recently visited West Springfield High School West Springfield Elementary Mount Vernon High School and Edison High School where I met with students and staff um from the school advisory Council it's

182always eye-opening and it's truly a pleasure to be in our schools to witness the great learning that is going on that will continue to going go on and we will continue to get better each and every day and each and every year so thank you to all of those staff members and students who I were able to meet with you contribute continue to amaze me and inspire me so thank you thank you and I will um take my turn first I want to say Happy Diwali to everybody who's out there um just as a point as the first Indian American on this board I'm really excited that we celebrate the volley and I will say one of the small but important things that I saw was there's actually um I think it was at Walmart

183a bin full of fireworks being sold now and that is a big thing on Diwali yaw it's it's a festival of lights and so you set off fireworks but growing up we always had to remember to buy our fireworks in June or July and save them for October because it was really difficult this is pre-amazon it was really difficult to find fireworks in October and it's a small small thing but the the excitement to see fireworks at Walmart in October and with a big sign saying for Diwali was just a really cool way for someone who grew up with the teacher who refused to say my name and with a real lack of understanding about the Indian culture um to see that was was a real sense of belonging so happy Diwali to everybody um

184having said that I really enjoyed the Westfield homecoming I I was so lame I forgot to bring candy so thank you for uh Region 5 team and Miss mccarski for sharing your candy with me so I could um toss them to the students in the parade it was so much fun and the excitement of the students I enjoy my meeting with voice our Virginians organized for Interfaith Community engagement many of their leaders are current or former principals counselors and Educators and we really enjoy discussing the behavioral health needs of our students and how to partner together so we can all um be a space for you know to become a trusted adult for our students to partner together with our schools to to help the behavioral health needs of our students I really enjoy the

185military families Community conversation that Dr Reed held um and really listening to the concerns of our military families and the I would say one of the things that really heartened me from hearing from our families was how many of them said we want to partner with you we want to bring our unique perspectives and our expertise to help you better serve us and that was that's what I hope everybody takes away is that we really want to partner with people to bring your unique perspectives and experiences and thoughts to help us better serve you um you know I enjoy the Oakton High School candidates days many of my colleagues have mentioned and I it's it's my favorite thing to do is when I get a chance for students to ask me questions and ask us

186questions and really hear their thoughtful thoughts on what it is that we do how we can serve them better and it was just it made me happy to to hear our students ask us questions and um I know I'm standing between you and your bed so I will stop here but I just wanted to say I know tonight was a difficult night and um I I really support our teachers developing our FCPS curriculum and I'm really glad that we have a resolution that supports our teachers in developing our curriculum to be more inclusive um but at the end of the day I'm excited to get into budget season and looking at our strategic plan because that's really where we show our values where do we spend our money and how and what our vision is

187for our school so thank you and with that this meeting is adjourned