FCPS School Board Meeting - 6/30/22

001this all right school board members please take your seats the june 30th 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 our national anthem will actually be performed in about 15 minutes as we are still waiting for our student performers who are running a little bit behind today agenda item 2.02 certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712-d of the code of virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that simsa fairfax county school board convened a closed meeting on june 30th 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 as were identified in the motion

002convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do i have a motion move my mister first seconded by ms cohen all those in favor okay that is unanimous agenda item 2.03 if you'd like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or on the website at fcps.edu school board slash board docs tonight's meeting is being broadcast on channel 99 and live streamed on the website at fcps.edu tv ch99 miss mclaughlin is absent this evening due to a personal conflict and dr anderson has submitted a written request to virtually attend this meetings uh this evening's meeting all those in favor of approving that request that is unanimous agenda item

0032.04 resolution honoring assistant superintendent jeff plattenberg and i call on ms tolen for this resolution mr plantenberg i would like to invite you to the podium please [Applause] whereas jeffrey k plattenberg has served fairfax county public schools as assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services since january 8 2013 for a tenure of over nine years as a at the department's home and as a member of the fcps leadership team and whereas his prior experience included over 20 years as assistant or deputy superintendent in five public school divisions and recognizing that during this time he worked with school boards governing bodies and diverse constituencies to effectively support the needs of students educators and communities and whereas mr plattenberg expertly led the ft fts offices of facilities planning services designing construction facilities management safety and security transportation

004services and administrative services spearheading advancements that consistently centered an improvement of learning environments for students and educators and whereas he assembled a stellar leadership team within fts whose members he empowered with the knowledge and determination necessary to navigate the uncharted challenges of the coven 19 pandemic and whose collaborative efforts were a major force in development of solutions that enabled return to in-person learning and whereas mr plattenberg saved over 61 million dollars through sustainable energy initiatives reducing carbon emissions of more than 250 000 equivalent metric tons of carbon dioxide he's continuing the joint environmental task force goals through expansion of the electric bus fleet as well as the goals of zero waste workforce development and the expansion of solar installations across the school division and whereas he created a blue ribbon commission to assist in gaining

005passage of the largest school bond referendum in history in the history of the division at that time with reliance on transparency and collaboration further leading to passage of consecutive bond referenda and whereas he founded solutions to numerous long-standing challenges including adjustment of bell schedules for later start times at the secondary level contract negotiation with telecommunications vendors resulting in expanded network capacity across the division and reconfiguration of commercial office space into a state-of-the-art urban elementary school to address overcrowding in a densely developed neighborhood and whereas assistant superintendent plattenburg is an innovative and transformational leader whose vision resulted in the expansion of achievement opportunities for all learners and whose accomplishments have garnered recognition at the local state and national levels now thereby be it resolved that the fairfax county school board extends its highest commendation and deepest

006appreciation to jeffrey k plattenberg for his visionary leadership and tireless commitment to fairfax county students families employees and community members and wishes all the best for mr plattenberg as he moves on to the next chapter in his distinguished career iso move is there a second second seconded by dr anderson miss tolin i know you'd like to speak to this yes if you're not tired of hearing me read [Laughter] and i will address my remarks really to mr plattenberg shortly after your start with fcps i met with you to explain our get to green program and the possible collaborations with facilities that could enhance the program for our schools and improve our overall fcps sustainability work after giving me a really hard time about coming from isd into facilities to talk to you about facilities and

007by the way i didn't let you get away with that did i after giving me a hard time though we've struck up a strong partnership and working relationship and i cannot thank you enough for your forward thinking and support for what we are trying to accomplish for a student-driven school-based green teams you instituted a mini-grant program for schools paid for an assistant position that is now a full-time position in facilities and tests your coordinators and directors to work with me on a strategic plan for sustainability and student environmental stewardship we accomplished a lot and we have many national regional recognitions to show for it and i thank you when i was elected to the school board you patiently walked me through the cap and our capital funding mechanisms and have continued to be a source

008of support and information on many topics covered boundary changes all things facilities and all things have cps you will be missed but i have a feeling we will find a way at some point to work together again on one or more of the top parts we both feel so passionately about best of luck to you my friend dr anderson oh thank you can i be heard okay yes we can hear you oh wonderful um jeff i'll also uh give my remarks to you i i've known mr plattenberg now for nearly 15 years and it feels like deja vu a little bit saying goodbye to you again from another division i am so thrilled for you as you are embarking in this next step of your career but the loss to um fcps is going to

009be significant as you are leaving huge footprints um to fill first of all thank you for all of your work and your service mr plattenberg clatty uh i wish i could be there in person in order to honor you but please know that i'm there with you in spirit i want to share that as miss tulin just shared jeff is professional and he maintains a wealth of knowledge and we have seen evidence of this encyclopedic knowledge on display time and time again when uh board members are making inquiries of him sometimes uh it can be overwhelming i remember one moment in particular when miss cohen during the um right during the the covid conversations that we've had so many of she requested some information about hvac and i think the course that mr plattenberg unleashed

010upon all of us in his response was way more than we were expecting now i've had the opportunity to work with you in two different places and two different roles i always say that as a former principal jeff gave me my first portable my first trailer that i've ever had a chance to have in one of the schools that i have led and so i will always remember you one of the things that i think jeff is going to be remembered for in addition to the knowledge that he brings um and has brought to fcps is the way that he connects with people you can tell by house staff speaks about him you can tell by what ms tolin just talked about um so i want to be sure to highlight that because it's important

011to highlight the relationships that he has built with staff and fcps he's got a wonderful sense of humor in an easy style and it's so easy to connect with him jeff my friend you will be missed good luck so much in your next adventure thank you all thank you dr anderson uh ms darnack kofax thank you jeff it has been a pleasure working with you we have weathered uh snowstorms and tweet storms we have fixed dugouts and fields we built the first vertical school urban school there have been countless conversations over community meetings and over renovations and about administrative boundary chains we've provided high schools with later start times and have worked hard to implement sustainable energy initiatives i truly appreciate your responsiveness and honesty when dealing with challenging situations and when we have taught

012the needed talks about the issues in my area i thank you for your professionalism and dedication to our school system for the nearly 10 years you have been here and i hope that just down the road you will be living the dream where you the best is yet to come for you congratulations on your new role i wish you the very best mr fresh followed by miss cohen thank you it's like we're not supposed to say where you're going [Laughter] you're going to fairfax city schools and that's an exciting opportunity for all of us to continue collaborating with you um and you don't get that often in a you know a departure so very much looking forward to that um providence families have a lot to be thankful for and grateful for in the service

013that you've given to fairfax county public schools early in my tenure on the board we had to talk about blake lane and we had to talk about uh you know what we could do in terms of building a new elementary school to relieve overcrowding in providence and we thought creatively you were a champion for you know converting dunloring adam admin center into a new elementary school to help with overcrowding in the tysons periphery and we saw it through to the end and that would not have happened without your hard work and without the work of your team whether it's that or working with dr anderson and i to resolve issues around false church high schools remodeling or the work you've already done with city schools around providence elementary school overcrowding there's something i'm sure we'll

014be working on together in the future you have always put students first and student experiences first but i think the biggest legacy that you're leaving behind at fairfax county public schools is your commitment to energy efficiency and environmental protection and sustainability we talk a lot about it and if you go on social media you'll have people talking about how those tree huggers on the school board you know whatever to me it's been about the money and i say this every opportunity we have the work that you've done to begin implementing the jet goals and the work that came before that with the energy efficiency it saves us eight million dollars a year and that's just with what's already been done um and that's eight million dollars that goes into student success that used to go

015into energy and that's something that you played a major role in making happen um and then fast forward we're talking about you know more energy efficient schools electric buses the kids call them this the tesla buses we have you know we're gonna have 28 of those before we know it um and i hope every time you see one on the road you can say like i had a part in that because you did and so long after students leave fairfax county public schools the world they live in will be a little cleaner because of something that you had to do with it so thank you very much sorry the love fest will continue um i i just like elaine said you were my first call when i won this position because i wanted to be

016able to live and breed the cip and the amount of time and care and concern where you went through i know with each of us making sure that we knew the ins and outs of every inch of our district and every bit of our schools was an amazing way to start it turned out as dr anderson referenced that we also needed to know about the hvac in every school and and air quality control and a lot of things that maybe we didn't anticipate um but always you pick up the phone a few times you do say lj you're killing me but um i hope you'll continue saying that but it is one of our greatest joys i think collectively as a board to make you laugh and um we just always feel prepared i think

017about uh mr meisha and i walking in to the joint cip meetings and you know how terrifying it was to go in knowing that we were coming in with our hands out to try to make the case for this county for our public schools and how we needed more of the pie to the county and you were there every step meeting pre-meeting um you know making sure that we knew exactly how to get um what we needed for the school system and that would not have happened without you an additional 50 million a year another 25 on top of that [Music] i mean what you've done is gonna allow us to hopefully make a real dent in the renovation cue and cycle the way that you have taught all of us about how to rate

018our buildings how to look at what needs to come next you are really have been indispensable and so we will miss everything about you and i will miss our graveyard talks but hopefully with you just down the road um i really look forward to continuing the relationship so congratulations miss corbett sanders followed by miso mesh yes thank you madam chair it is a great pleasure to be able to um send you off with warm greetings um jeff we have been so blessed with all that you have done in your quiet but thoughtful leadership the honesty that you bring to the work that you do and that you're effective listening to not only board members but to members of the board of supervisors the planning commissioners and most importantly the parents of students in our community

019and you take it all in and then you come up with some very innovative solutions that result in cost savings result in shorter bus line times and also in being able to ensure that our students attend world-class buildings i had the opportunity to work closely with you before i was on the board and then working with you on the planning commission schools committee and then when i had the crazy idea of the jet you're like yeah good idea let's do it um so that's always been your approach of we can make things happen if we all work together and i know that um you would be what we call a strategic hire by the fairfax city school board because they know that you are going to be such an important collaborator with the superintendent here

020in fairfax county and that you understand the real facilities needs of the students of fairfax city and so i am forever grateful for your kindnesses but more importantly i'm grateful for what you have done for each and every one of the kids who ride a bus to school every day or attend one of our buildings so thank you all right uh mr plattenberg always professional so shake it out with a smile i know you're receiving a lot right now but really uh congratulations first of all and thank you for your service for as much as you've done for our system everybody's talked about cost savings energy efficiency you know environmental contributions you've won awards for our system uh despite the challenges it takes to move uh you know buildings that have their overdue renovations for

021so many years because of the realities of our county and no doubt i i the joint cip work as laura jane mentioned that i want to highlight specifically you know something that stuck with me from from our conversations of saying how you always want to frame things in a way that brings people in and you always want to make people feel good about the work we're doing and those are things that stuck with me um formally informally but but truly uh speak to how you've been able to get this far in your work and and how professional and impressive it's been um and i just want to shout out two things that stuck to my mind as i've been reflecting as one of my earliest friends by the way on leadership team uh here when

022i started my term but one really that you moved the needle on inclusive spaces in our schools across the country you know you made sure that we are serious committed and documented uh our efforts to provide lactation spaces for our working moms uh sensory spaces for kids with uh you know disabilities and others who need that break space a single stall restrooms you know whether it's for gender expansive students or others who need that and prayer spaces in our in our schools and those that's a step you took uh to move our system forward and it reflected itself in the cip and beyond professional i think one of the moments i was most impressed with you was actually when you were able to straddle faith and family and the profession uh in a work session

023one in being able to go through really tough personal circumstances but show up and be there for the work um november 4th 2020 when you sat there and and nobody really even knew what was going on in your life but you sat there through a tough conversation about membership trends about how they've adjusted postcovid um meanwhile uh uh you were demonstrating tremendous character and and i'll never forget that really um so i have so much respect for you thank you jeff for everything you've offered our system thank you for being uh my friend when i was still a little bit lonely in the system as a professional in it um and congratulations once again i have no doubt you're going to do incredible work i think you can do that job in your sleep but

024congrats ms marin followed by me squeeze-gemara well mr plattenberg i was reflecting on uh the tenure that i've had with you and i was thinking about how i met with you and supervisor walter alcorn when we first got on in about january 2020 and i happened to bring my little son with me who was six and a half at the time and i said this guy this guy is the guy who decides whether schools are closed for snow and he just thought you were the coolest guy and uh and i learned then that you get a call every day when all the students are gone from the building when the last students had left and i really just thought wow what a responsibility and a weight that is of the hundreds of thousands of kids

025we have you or the person who knows when that last child has left to go to that child's home where that family is waiting for them that takes such personality and leadership and knowledge and so the job that you've held i've come to learn it's just it's boundless basically and it connects with student success in so many ways because everything that you've helped to lead results in this amazing student experience and certainly my colleagues have rattled them off but you know i've learned how the ability of school facilities to host all the different education programs and the membership and how you know to plan for changes in our population and the space needs and the maintenance and construction not only for students and staff but for community use ensuring physical accessibility for all children and

026students and adults on foot and on vehicle transporting thousands and thousands of children pretty much on time days on end safe routes to schools building playgrounds and what has been paramount during much of our tenure together which has been safe and healthy buildings and uh just the amount of time and expertise you've you've put forward to this community is incredible so i'm i will always remember the motto that you taught me which is what gets funded gets done and it has been a guidepost and together and with the board you know we've made some strides as we said in environmental ed and you really taught me how to make sure we're looking at how it's going to get funded and work with people together towards that common goal i'm excited to see the breadth of

027your leadership expand and as you take on the role of superintendent at fairfax city schools and i am so relieved that you aren't going far away and that will continue to certainly cross paths in the fairfax community so i just want to say thank you um everybody has listed almost everything i know of that you have done but i came in and um we had the pleasure of having to deal with boundaries right away and um you you were never shaken um and i just appreciate your comprehensive knowledge and the excellence that you exude and your sunny disposition every day i'd say how you're doing how are you doing and you say i'm living a dream and so i my prayer for you is that you continue to live that dream and have much joy

028in your journey thank you mrs eisenheiser thank you there isn't a lot i can add but i just wanted to ask you a question and you don't need to answer but do you remember when the most controversial facilities issue you dealt with was whether to call a snow day january 13th right 2013. i just wanted to say in the last two years your professionalism and your depth of knowledge have been incredibly appreciated and and noticed um as we've dealt with some incredibly difficult issues and facilities from air flow to hvacs to space right to distancing um you're you're calm you're the amount of knowledge you have at your fingertips and your willingness to spend the time it take to make sure that we all had a common understanding of what the issues were i mean

029every time i sent you an email with a question i think i got a four-page answer which was just incredibly detailed and in-depth and very appreciated and so i just you will very much be missed for your professionalism for the way you you respectfully engage with us and help us to learn what we need to learn and for the way you take all of these things in stride and the responsibility that i know you feel for the system and our buildings and our students and their safety it is very very appreciated and i'm glad that you'll just be down the road i'm going to come heckle you at one of your school board meetings just for fun no in all seriousness i'm going to miss you i'm glad you'll be here and thank you for

030um helping us um keep our students safe and thank you for the the um responsibility and weight that i know you take very seriously in the work you've done and the knowledge that you had that will be missed greatly thank you mr plattenberg i know you're a bit uncomfortable um and that is because you are you are quite humble and that is going to serve you very very well as you go forth in your next professional adventure you know you've heard all of the many accomplishments and the the impact that you've had on this system that will live on and impact students and families for for many many years um i would just say thank you for being a professional really of the highest regard for your kindness your collaboration um your humor and your

031patience and just always being present and being here to answer our many many questions and still making us feel like we knew what we were talking about half of the time um and you know this isn't a goodbye of course it's and we know where to find you and we will and i just wish you the best of luck and i am very excited for you but we will miss you so with that i will take the vote all those in favor of the resolution please raise your hands and that is unanimous with dr anderson virtually would you like to speak well after that you know i always say i could use a little more loving during those snow calls but i think i got you know at least over nine years worth and having

032had my mother been a teacher when we first moved here to fairfax county and being a product from elementary school on it's such an honor to serve the communities that provided the opportunities you know and there are many of us that can share these stories and and have about how they prepare us for the future and how they give us the opportunities that we have but i'm deeply humbled and honored to have served you i can't thank you um for challenging me and my team as much as as we have because we don't get better unless we are challenged i call it healthy stress and we've had some challenging times that we need to continue to give each other grace and care because nobody was prepared for the pandemic nobody had ever gone to school

033nobody had ever gone to superintendent training leadership cabinet training on how to deal with that and neither the communities so what we've been through has been traumatic so let's all keep working together to share that love the love you shared this evening to be considerate with each other and caring because after all our students deserve it i want to thank the community for being equally as involved in what we do and thank the students for allowing me to serve them to represent them in terms of facilities and transportation but what i'd like to do is i'd like to recognize this leadership team and the cabinet you'll find no better group of professionals that are no more committed than this group here and i can tell you during the pandemic under dr burban and i know

034he's going to cover a lot more than i will but during that time the fact that everybody pulled together day and night and weekends too to try to establish and figure out something in the many many multiple years of careers in public education and as you mentioned i've done a number of different states and even across the globe but this team to pull together to do what we could do best in the service for our students is nothing short of miraculous but most importantly my team that happens to be joining me could you all please stand up please sorry tom i know you're working security but i'm gonna ask you to stand up anyway this team of individuals you know they say a leader without followership is just a person out taking a walk and

035i feel so confident in this team here uh with jessica gillis heather dietz kathy vasipoli brian schuster tom beccarello francine furby who i know she's going to be around here somewhere or she was going to be here director of transportation just an amazing talent of folks justin moss um and paul hatcher just an amazing group that i really feel blessed to have been able to work with all the accolades that you mentioned yeah i might be the one representing the top of that heap but the reality is that these individuals are the ones that really execute so together by working together by collaborating we're able to be more innovative than any one of us individually and jessica has taken on the challenge of the interim assistant superintendent and i can tell you and i've said

036this before to our group that not only do i feel very comfortable that as a leader i can now just go take a walk because she is much more talented than i so not only is the community in better hands and i firmly believe this would be true but her approach is what's needed now for our communities so with that i would just like to say thank you so much to that team for giving me the opportunity i'm truly humbled to have served with you um and the best thing i can do is be quiet now because i know you've got a long evening ahead of you and thank you community members for allowing me to indulge for just a moment but stay active stay involved it's what fairfax county expects and it's why we're

037so great so thank you very much [Applause] i don't know i gotta go back i would like to recognize two former school board members that have joined us tonight ms pat hines and mr ryan mcelveen thank you for being here [Applause] we are giving our students just a second to get ready and then we will be hearing the national anthem the performance will be by the blue orchestra under the direction of devin wilcox and they are joining us from oh franklin orchestra camp oh exciting my son one thing all right please stand [Music] wow [Applause] incredibly talented and a wonderful summer camp thank you for being with us okay agenda item 2.05 the resolution honoring superintendent dr scott brabrand um i will give the gavel to ms seismore heiser here i call on ms pikarski

038for the resolution dr brabrand please join us at the podium if you would please [Applause] he decided not to or is he okay all right let's get started resolution honoring superintendent dr scott brakebrim whereas dr scott brabrand was appointed superintendent of fairfax county public schools on june 7 2017 and has served the school system with distinction for 23 years as a teacher an assistant principal an associate principal a principal a cluster superintendent and finally superintendent and whereas dr brabrand was a career switcher who sought to bring joy and a love for learning into every single classroom that he entered as a teacher and administrator and superintendent and whereas dr brabrand built a relationship with the fairfax county executive which resulted in greater collaboration between the two agencies in key areas such as health care budgeting

039workforce development and safety and security and whereas dr brabrand has championed instructional innovation as evidenced by the selection of fcps as a member of the virginia learning innovation network and as a recognized school division of innovation at the state level and whereas dr brabrand has been a champion for access and equity for all students dr brabrand's leadership and commitment to providing equitable access to resources so that all students can achieve the ultimate goal of graduation led to an increase in on-time graduation rates and a decrease in dropout rates across all subgroups including especially notable gains among english language learners and economically disadvantaged students and whereas dr brabrand has been a consistent champion for fcps staff he worked to ensure fcps was able to continue to recruit and retain the absolute best workforce actively listens to

040his staff and collaborates to ensure staff needs are met at every level and whereas dr brabrand has served as an educational leader locally regionally and nationally providing counseling and support for other superintendents and business and community partners including the northern virginia technology council go virginia and the aasa american rescue plan committee and now therefore be it resolved that the bear fairfax county school board extends its highest commendation and deepest appreciation to dr brabrand for his visionary leadership and tireless commitment to fairfax county students families employees and community members and wishes all the best to dr bray brand and his family as they move into the next chapter of their lives i so move i will second this recognition miss makarsky would like to speak to your resolution yes yes i would let me just grab

041my comments please um i do want to welcome uh dr brabrand's wife debbie who is in the audience with us thank you for being here tonight um dr brabrand scott i am i am grateful for your time the energy and the passion you have dedicated to all of your work here in fairfax county public schools you are truly the biggest fairfax county public school cheerleader i have ever seen and i appreciate that you have been a constructive collaborator this year as i've served in board chairmanship as we work to create some sense of normalcy while working within a completely changed educational landscape for all of our students and our staff you have played an important role in our school district and helped to provide a high quality educational experience for every one of our students

042your strength your patients and your can do spirit has helped push us past some of the most difficult years in public education without your commitment and your deep passion for the students and staff here our community would not be here today through all the spikes in covid cases the transitions from virtual to in-person the approval of vaccines and the evolving cdc guidance surrounding the spread and mitigation of covet 19 you did your best to work with the direction of this board to pivot and adapt to the twists and turns you provided a mobilizing force for helping our students staff families and community at large to navigate the numerous challenges posed by by the pandemic without losing hope that we would get back to better times you are the forever optimist and that has served you

043well your experience with many of the major roles in fairfax county schools as a teacher a school-based administrator principal and leadership team member provided the hands-on experience you needed to help you lead the school division's achievements among them successfully returning 99.5 percent of the division students to in-person instruction this year increasing the graduation rate from 91 to 94 during your tenure and leading systemic changes in the school to division to realize success for our most challenged students your deep knowledge of fcps coupled with your personable leadership abilities has ensured fcps is poised to continue serving our students our schools and our community with excellence for all at the forefront i wish you and your family the very best for the future i look forward to working with you in your new role at fast to

044help shape an environment for educators and students to continue to thrive in this post-pandemic world and i have no doubt that your passion for this work and your many bray brand nuggets that you will be sharing with others will help shape the future of public education during this defining moment in our nation's history i see dr braidman is grabbing his nugget [Laughter] that stress nugget that is really really important after two years of the pandemic um i would like to speak to my second as well dr brabrand um i want to thank you for your deep loyalty and your love for fcps in these 23 years that has been so evident from your every word and your every emotion and your every way you bound into a room you love this system and you show

045it and that and our students see it and our staff see it and we see it and that is wonderful i appreciate our partnership our very deep and authentic conversations we've had especially this year as i've served as vice chair to help support our students and staff as we enter the second year of the pandemic this time with our students back in the building through all of the challenges that you've seen especially the last two years your big heart and your love for fcps have always shown through it is clear you have given your all and then some in service to our school system and that is deeply deeply appreciated i also want to highlight your grace especially in the way you welcome dr reed especially in the way you interact and especially in no

046matter what happens the way you love the system the story how you became an educator is really inspiring the fact that you worked with a telecommunications company and began when you began teaching english to english language learners and decided you wanted to be a teacher that shows from the beginning that you were here to serve our students because you truly truly wanted to do help our students become the best that they could be i hope your story motivates others to follow your path and find the satisfaction and meaning in the public education service that you have found your collaboration with the board of supervisors has helped us with our funding with our our health especially the last couple years in a way that has served our students and our community the best your nuggets of

047wisdom will forever live with us have an enlightening helpful and at times serve to lighten some very heavy tension during some very difficult discussions i will never see that word again in the same way i will say dr bray brand the joy you have even in the darkest of times and the optimism you show even in the darkest of moments has been inspiring and has helped our system weather many storms especially in the last two and i hope i never say this again unprecedented years thank you for always listening to my viewpoints whether we agree or disagree thank you for considering um input and feedback from everybody and thank you from the bottom of my heart for serving public education with joy commitment and tireless energy for the last 23 years i wish you the

048best of luck in your new role as executive director of the virginia association of school superintendents i'm glad we'll get to keep collaborating with you in this role thank you dr bray brandt and i see that we have so my colleagues who wish to speak so dr anderson followed by miss marin oh thank you so much i did not realize i would be first um dr bray brand again i i'm sorry for not being able to be in person to honor you but i am so glad to be able to um say a few words this evening um i don't want to be repetitive um one of the things that i had in my original version was that you are fcps's biggest cheerleader you walk into each room with optimism with an open heart with

049an open mind and you welcome everyone i i've shared with a few people that i don't think you've ever met a stranger you are able to engage with anyone at any time and that has served you well in this division we all have watched you face and engage in some very difficult discussions with the board with the community but you've always done it from a place of love because of your deep commitment to fcps one of the most striking uh pieces of evidence that i was able to witness to really submit for me how you will be remembered by fcps was during your retirement party just a few weeks ago when you were celebrated by community by leadership team members principals teachers etc were in the room for you i i wish in hindsight and

050i think i mentioned this to mr mesh i wish we had had the opportunity to see that earlier on because it was clear that not only are you inspired by the community you inspire the community the the folks who work with you day in day out your leadership team your teachers and your principals they were there to really applaud all of the hard work that you have done you have led fcps during unprecedented time you have done things that no other fcps superintendent have had to do or to face and you've always you've done it with grace i'm grateful to have had the opportunity to work with you and during my year as chair to have been more closely aligned with how you see fcps good luck in your work just like mr plattenburg it

051is not going to be a good buy because you will continue in your directorship of vast and i'm looking forward um to continuing to hear from you and to get some more of the brand bray brand nuggets thank you and good luck yes i was there with dr anderson at your retirement celebration just recently and also was really blown away at the um the emotion in the room and the commitment towards you and it reminded me of the heartache the worry the completely abnormal circumstances under which you have had to lead as we all have and i'm glad i got to see a glimpse of it but i also felt a little bit cheated too because i didn't get to experience that but i marvel at your dedication your connection with and respect for people

052your humility your willingness to learn to hear to listen and engage also your moral compass you you put kids first your heart was here it wasn't on the next job or the one after that this is the first time as you've noted that this there has been a transition between superintendents you stayed to finish the job and you left this system on the best possible footing you could have as major life transitions go be it professional or personal more and more i believe that it's best to conclude things on a high note by leaving a situation in good standing with smiles on faces and warm regards in mind thank you for giving that to this board dr bray brand and to the fcps staff and the community it is yet again a testament to your

053respect to our public school system and the people who make it so thank you miss keys tomorrow followed by ms darren at colfax dr bray brand i am um we've had many conversations i had a a private talk with you before now so i won't have to speak in code um you know i met you in 2017. i came right after you and i think you quickly learned that i tend to be frank and to the point but i really appreciated the fact that that was okay with you that you took the time to understand what i was about and what was driving um i thought it saved us both time so you've approached this this job with much joy and love and tender care for everyone that you have encountered and for the system

054your experience has enhanced that process and we appreciate that your desire to serve every student by name and by need i got that phrase from you and it's mine now but your focus ended up challenging us as we entered became more focused on equity dr bray brand you gracefully uh dealt with some pretty strong personalities i'm not excluding myself and you sought to create an atmosphere of respect and teamwork um i really admire the way you tried to care for your staff members i i've seen you stand up for them and i want them to know that we saw you as being a wall and a spokesperson for for their work and i um i have to thank you dr brabrand for standing up when in the middle of a pandemic when it seemed less

055the least likely time or best time to say it um the idea of establishing a leadership academy at john lewis along with the name change was something that pricked your heart because you saw opportunity and i will always be grateful to you for helping to see that through i know that you are a man of faith i believe that you are kind and you care for others and most of all you lead with courage and so i thank you for your time here uh dr brabrand scott what you have experienced has indeed been an interesting demanding and unexpected journey through five years and a worldwide pandemic you've had many successes as well as many challenges i knew you tried your very best to serve this system well and there never was a doubt that you

056truly love fcps i've always appreciated our direct and candid conversations we may not have always seen things through the same lens but even in the most challenging discussions we powered our way through and almost always ended our talks finding a positive path forward it has been a pleasure getting to know you and your wife deb and through our conversations i know how very proud you are of your twin boys who during your tenure here have grown from children to graduates and are now young men in college i know new ventures had wait for you but perhaps most exciting for you is that you most likely will never experience the joy of having 12 uniquely passionate individuals as your bosses ever again you'll miss us scott i wish you all the best as you begin your

057new chapter advance stay in touch we'll miss you as well miss tollin followed by ms cohen we've heard so much about your accomplishments i can't add any more detail to that so i will just give you a personal message um thank you so much for welcoming me to the school board so warmly and for always being willing to talk through any topic of importance to me or the drainsville district the past few years have been tough ones for public education and you have continued to move fcps and in virginia forward look forward to working with you in your new role as you work with superintendents on boards across the state thank you for your bi-weekly calls you are you've always stuck to that schedule and i really appreciate it and for always being willing to

058catch up anytime in between more than once you have been a helpful springboard for ideas and a wonderful counselor and just someone to talk to you have been the epitome of graciousness and professionalism in so many situations over the past years and for that i will always be grateful i wish you only the best for you and your family thank you and good luck dr ray ran um i know that i shared the story with you when after we'd been on zoom and you'd been flooded into my kitchen for so many hours that my oldest child and i were at home depot and they saw pine bark nuggets and they said oh we should call that bray brand mulch [Laughter] um your energy and enthusiasm uh which maybe is mostly fueled by mountain dew some

059of it is natural probably but definitely always fills a room we've been tough on you i have been tough on you and in return you have always shown grace one thing that has been repeated among all of us and we are forever grateful there is no one i'd rather caught up with over a bag of chips or some poor person's misspoken phrase than when you give me side eye from all the way over there there's not a person on this board who does not know of and truly believe in your love your deep deep love for all things of cps you navigated when there was no blueprint and when monday morning quarterbacking became um on twitter became a profession for some eternal optimism drives me nuts but it is truly a lovely quality and i

060know it will serve you so well as you go around the commonwealth trying to make um public education become the main thing again in the commonwealth of virginia and we're really grateful that you're going to be at the head of that because we know you have no greater love maybe the only greater love than debbie and the boys and um and fcps is truly public education and the difference that we can make in each kid's lives so thank you thank you for our um nuggets and we're all going to keep you on speed dial mr frisch paul by ms corbett sanders when we got to our seats and these golden nuggets were here i can't tell you how much i appreciated the fact that dipsticking something did not become uh the standard line months ago

061it was like you were trying to replace nuggets of information with dipsticking a situation to figure something out and so i appreciate this and i also appreciate that dipsticking didn't make the cut but i will say after i was elected and uh invited to gatehouse for our first meeting you asked me what my favorite book uh about politics was and i said it was what it takes and you had a copy of it on your bookshelf and it was one of your favorite books as well and i've been thinking a little bit as we've been preparing for this meeting about what it takes to be a superintendent and i think when i think of you the word that comes to mind is perseverance and as chair picarsky said uh about your academic accomplishments within the

062system whether it's graduation rates or increased access to advanced academics or increasing educational equity you you never even hinted at giving up you tackled these and other challenges with boundless energy and ms keith gamara mentioned by name and by need when i joined this board lgbtq students in particular were struggling to be seen by name and by need and despite the sometimes heated conversations around these issues about whether they deserve the same access and opportunities as any other student you never wavered in our time with you on this board and you're leaving behind a system with the strongest protections for them of any system in the commonwealth and i hope you know how much that's appreciated um and i hope you will keep that in mind as you begin advocating around education issues in richmond

063uh and shaping policy for years to come i think the other skill that you picked up or maybe you already had it mastered which is a for us is diplomacy if we didn't have a role in that i'd be surprised but i know it will serve you well in richmond as you move on to your next chapter and i'm sure we will be reaching out to you to help us advocate on our behalf uh in the years ahead so thank you miss corbett sanders yes thank you dr brabrand scott i know that when you returned to fairfax five years ago none of us ever expected to face the face a global pandemic together it was a difficult time and throughout that time you face the challenge with a focus on keeping the main thing the

064main thing something you learned early in your career and you've kept it all about the main thing throughout your whole career so we appreciate that we also appreciate that you've always put students first in how you approach problem solving and that you have a joy that you bring to every classroom that you enter and into your leadership team so we are very appreciative for all that you have done but i also want to spend a little bit of time talking to both you and debbie because it does take a true commitment of the two of you to allow you to have such a focus on doing the job you do and so debbie thank you thank you for the time that you have spent with us but also reassuring and keeping every keeping the trains

065running at home so that scott could focus on what he was doing i don't know of any professional more uh focused on the family than scott is scott constantly talks about how important you are and about those visits to his mom on weekends and how many times you'll be scheduled to talk to him and he will be like i'm driving down to uh visit mom and that says a lot about where your focus is scott and then the joy in seeing your boys grow up so we appreciate that you together have shared in supporting fcps for seeing fcps continue to grow and meet the needs of an ever-changing community thank you and i wish you well mr chaudhary dr brabrand i cannot thank you enough for your fervor in this role for your unkindred spirit

066and for your many many dad jokes that we've gotten to enjoy throughout your time you've overseen the implementation of one fairfax and you have truly driven educational equity as an economic academic and moral imperative for our school system and you have really laid the groundwork i think for us to truly advance equal access to opportunity for all students and have been super cognizant and open about the fact that yes this is the second wealthiest county in america but yes 30 of our kids are on pre-introduced meals and we witness really wide gaps and in addition to that your heart has always been with the students i will never forget that first work session when you asked are the kids happy at the end of the day beyond everything else do kids come into school feeling

067cared for and loved and you have fought to get the student body what it needed even when it wasn't popular whether it was student stress the homework policy the 50 policy no matter how much blowback there was you knew it was right for students and you have touched the lives of so many thank you dr bray brand mr mesh i apologize i didn't see your life no not at all thank you um i think everybody's spoken to your incredible character and positivity your inspiring nature the way you were able to move our system um and instill trust in the in our stakeholders i think for me there's a lot i can talk about with your character but in limited time i will i will highlight what to me really was um and speaking to being

068a man of faith and your commitment but the prophetic character of rising above and always choosing to rise above and rising above when you're hurt and rising above when you're wronged and rising above when everyone around you is not understanding what's going on uh and and you continued to do that until the end and that's something i admire and i've learned from observing you do that so thank you so much for that but i also would be remiss not to celebrate your professional accomplishments and the things that you've done that have demonstrated your incredible talent as a leader of an academic system a system that nurtures and raises our children and that being your your steadfastness and in tough conversations like boundaries and advanced academics and believing in the importance of expanding access and opportunity

069your stewardship through the pandemic the craziest time in education history but still leading us through in a way that other systems looked to us and we had to navigate a health situation that was never thrown onto educators before your leadership in tj and remaining steadfast and coming back to your moral core and wanting to do something historic at a crazy time but doing what boards before you superintendents before you systems have not been able to do or have had so much backlash that they weren't able to accomplish and i i think that that's historic and needs to be said and not to mention of course groundbreaking advancements uh in special education whether that's through the ombudsman and supporting our families whether that's through positions like the trauma-informed specialist whether that's through the expansion of telemental

070health another incredible opportunity that you listen to students and made happen esol expansion translation services i can go on separating the chief equity officer from the academic officer to give that the emphasis it needs but i i really i know that's my time but i i don't i think we'd be remiss tonight in celebrating your character and the incredible man we know you are uh not to mention the incredible professional accomplishments you've been able to deliver so thank you so much and congratulations on your promotion to doing incredible work in public education with that i will call for the vote all those in favor that is unanimous with ms mclaughlin away doc would you like to make a few remarks sure thank you first of all this isn't a farewell this is a see you

071later my personality and my faith don't say that there are farewells it's just we'll meet again um i want to thank you stella and rachel as chair and vice chair we saved the best for last this year i think everybody thought might be the year out of the pandemic when it was still really very much a year in the pandemic we were all back in person but the challenges of this year maybe were the most challenging of all i want to thank this entire board for the opportunity and gifts you gave me to to lead the system and to work with each of you you have so many talents and skills and passions that you bring and you know tonight while i have a few moments i am going to say you all are responsible

072for over 180 000 kids and 3 billion dollars you are underpaid you are overworked and one of the equity things that needs to happen in this school system and in this community is to pay you all similar to the board of supervisors for the responsibilities that you have and i hope that dr reed and this board will find the courage to do that moving forward it's the right thing to do you can applaud for that because it's true [Applause] i do think better times are here the pandemic era is over and we are about to return to the main thing in public education here in fairfax in the commonwealth and in the country and i believe the renaissance in public education is going to start here with dr reed taking the oath of office tonight

073and i'm confident she will collaborate with you all and the nation's eyes will turn to fairfax to see the renaissance and public education right happen right here in this community as we recommit to our strategic plan recommit to excellence recommit to equity and recommit to bringing our community together in new ways um and bring them together for true collaboration i know what can happen and i think the board members for for all that you've done i do want to also thank pat hines for being here and ryan mcelveen i know i really appreciate you both coming tonight and giving me the opportunity five years ago and uh really i should name all the board members but if i miss the board member's name right now i know that would passport remember that'll be a problem

074so i'm not going to do that i do want you to know before i move on there are gifts so everyone said nugget so i had to leave you with the final nugget this is not actual gold i just want the community to know um but i did want you to have a nugget and it says when you are stressed just look for the nuggets so you can squeeze this it's a bit of a stress relief but the truth is in public discourse today we're spending too much time with rage and hate and lies and we have to figure out people feel they're speaking the truth and we have to respect that but we have to find what the nuggets are out of what everyone is saying find some piece of truth some piece of

075understanding and bring people together so i do hope you'll continue to maybe you won't want to show it at every work session you can keep it in a purse or you know in a jacket but the nugget matters because we're talking past each other in public conversations in school boards and counties and states and we've got to find common ground and find the nugget and the nugget is somewhere you got to dig sometimes a lot of ground to find the gold nugget the other you all mentioned ironically tonight and i've gotten for you is a book called the five graces of life and leadership i have a quote in it that i don't know if it's in this book but i remember what it is because i said the quote um thanks for your grace

076and grace to you always and i hope this book look at these five graces as you work with dr reed and then to the upcoming year and i think they will serve you well i've not been paid to endorse this book i don't know the author but the five graces of life and leadership i want to thank the board of supervisors chairman jeff mckay county executive brian hill we did have a collaborative relationship we did have fully funded budgets and at the pandemic we paused and worked together to figure out solutions in very very difficult and extraordinary times we can continue to have a strong relationship with the county and work together to meet both county and school needs i want to thank community partners educate fairfax all of our business community that remains committed

077to investing in public education company after company is relocating to fairfax county and it's because of the quality of our school system and i know we will commit and you all are committed to continue to to maintain it i have to thank this leadership team this has been the most significant event this pandemic with the exception of the integration of public schools in the 150 year history of public education and there's no greater team let's ask them to stand and be recognized and let's give them a round of applause please you guys stand up i want to thank the principals i've had the honor in five years to hire 60 percent 120 principals and the other 40 percent i worked with over the last 23 years and that feels good i always believed this was

078a family because i grew up with these people and we are a family i want to thank the incredible teachers the best teachers the best support staff the best paraprofessionals the best families and the best parents i did work i shared in a couple of exit interviews over the last couple days could i have done better to communicate to all parents what the rationale was for the decisions i was making i tried i did about 20 town halls was it enough one of the things i've learned is we have to continue to find ways to reach families where they are sometimes it's going to be language sometimes it's going to be ideology but we've got to find a way we're not going to solve the problems of public education in two or three-minute sound segments

079up before a board we've got to find a new way to bring our public together in the town square and find the collaboration and cooperation needed to move public education and to frankly move this country forward and i know we can do it i want to thank our students our students in fairfax county are the main thing they're amazing amazing kids and it's been an honor to watch students become teachers in the system students that i had become administrators become principals i don't know if there's a student yet on the leadership team but probably very soon there is nothing finer than that i want to thank my family you mentioned about being a man of faith and i did i've used this line now at two gatherings but the truth is one of the reasons

080i'm a man that believes in heaven is i didn't have to wait to get there to meet and marry an angel right here on earth and that's my wife debbie i'd like you to stand please come on in the public arena today as the school board knows all too well the personal attacks have crossed the line and we have to reset out of this pandemic the new line for what is acceptable public discourse and public conduct and it's not just poor little old scott it's every superintendent every school board member every member of congress everybody comes at this with the passion that must be respected but we have to tone down the hate because hate will not make this country great we must find love and cooperation and collaboration i also i got to marry

081an angel but i have to begin to close my remarks to say i did have three additional angels on the leadership team one who was not here tonight is tracy rittenhauer she was my personal executive assistant you all talked about many positive things but i know one of the things that perhaps was still a grow was my organization skills still working on project management skills but we've come a long way on that too and tracy was the consummate organizer she thought of things before i could even think of them she served six superintendents and travels a hour and a half commute to come in in the middle of this pandemic and said i want to come and work with you and i owe her a lot and i want to thank her publicly here tonight

082there are two other angels i do want to mention one is someone who i got to meet when i was a principal and uh i've said this many a time i've never met anybody with a higher combined iq and eq than this person who can solve any problem who can relate to any person and who without her presence in the superintendent's office we would not have made it through the pandemic and that's marcy neal so marcy i'd like you to stand to be recognized [Applause] the final angel i want to mention is someone who called me four years ago who i'd known for over 20 years and while everyone had told me she was retiring her time is up she said i'm feeling newly inspired and i'd like to stay and i'd like to have

083the opportunity to partner with you it was like 11 o'clock at night and i'm like is this a prank call but it wasn't a prank call and i can't tell you how grateful i am and i can't tell this community how grateful we all should be because she has been the most significant deputy superintendent in the history of fairfax county public schools she was here every day with me we were never virtual at home we were here every single day from sunrise to sunset and some nights i don't think we slept at all she was my partner she told me when to speed up she definitely told me when to slow down and she was a consummate listener listener and lifter her husband too is here they celebrated 44 years of marriage on the night

084that they were celebrating me and instead of going out for anniversary dinner during it she postponed it to after the ceremony so she could be the emcee i know of no one of higher personal and professional skills and i just want to thank the fairfax county public schools deputy superintendent dr francis ivey please stand [Applause] a final shout out to my boys bennett and william my mom agnes brabrand who taught 30 years in virginia schools my late father jim who was a pta president a role model for leadership and never met a stranger and i know he's watching and he's proud and i'm proud to be a son and i think i just want to wrap up to say this issue about staying in love and rising above that ms omesh said the public arena

085today must continue to champion and prize those who can forgive so i leave you and this community with the need to truly follow the commandment of love thy neighbor forgive and forget whatever your faith or no faith at all faith in this country requires us to collaborate to hear others and to find ways to move forward and i believe absolutely that public education remains the only way that we will be able to preserve protect and defend our american democracy i thank you for the opportunity to serve i'll be in touch and just around at vass so i'll see you at the fall vsba conference but my phone and email were sent to you four hours ago but day-to-day operational questions may now be referred at 8 pm to dr michelle reed thank you again for

086letting me serve and godspeed god bless and have a great evening dr brabrand will you join us at the board for a photo please one more point of personal privilege i know you're all going back to your diocese we sit here meeting after meeting part of the gift of leadership is to pay attention to those that sometimes are behind the scenes but they're the ones that make the scenes possible so i have a gift for the board clerk and the deputy board clerk bev and laura for outstanding work to this school board and this school system thank you ladies for your amazing amazing job nuggets and flowers i mean who can get that in a job in america today a gold nugget and flowers thank you agenda item 3.01 community participation speakers must limit their

087remarks to no more than two minutes in length at the conclusion of the 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 a capital improvement plan budget and boundaries commercial comments targeting criticizing and attacking individual students are not permitted during board meetings complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school officials speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school-based employee additionally speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in their statements avoiding profanity and appropriate gestures shouting in comments that run counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's

088non-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 during their remarks shouting an outburst from the audience will not be tolerated we are grateful for those who have come to speak to us today and we thank you for your cooperation our first speaker is samantha irvin followed by robert rigby hello you may remember me my name is samantha and i just finished 8th grade in fcps i lost my father in september and missed more than 35 days of school this year teachers themselves may have tried to help me but the county didn't make them do anything and not everyone is as lucky as

089me there is no current procedure or standard for bereaved students in the county which means discretion is up to teachers and without any procedures for specific scenarios kids who are already tired angry and sad are often put in pretty difficult situations for example grieving kids often know that the longer they take off to heal the further their grades will drop in today's world which is more competitive than ever that's something students just can't always afford in pursuing this system scps is incentivizing trauma-stricken children to put away their emotional damage and get back to work teaching kids a mindset like this is dangerous as it sets them up for failure at school at home and in the workplace moreover because so many kids spend more hours in their day at schools than with their families it's

090the system's job to teach them beyond just academics to teach them that there can be things more important than working with the kovid 19 pandemic significantly more children are losing or have lost someone for the first time i'm begging fcps to create procedures accommodations and policies for these kids because losing someone will always hurt but schools shouldn't make it worse thank you our next speaker is robert rigby followed by maria sherwell my name is robert rigby jr i'm here tonight to speak of the one fairfax policy the proposed controversial issues regulation bias and privilege i address the board but i speak to the whole fairfax community an enslaved roman playwright named terence said of himself i am human and everything human relates to me a certain amount of bias is inherent in all humans and

091like tarrant we all have some buy-ins but my life has not been without challenges but i myself came into this world with privilege and i recognize that i still have it we cannot escape our biases but we can counteract them with the with privilege comes the obligation to counteract those biases the proposed controversial issues regulation enables teachers to admit that they are humans and to tell students where their own background and experience may bias their approach to a topic the teacher's background i mean it reduces the impact of instructor bias on student learning this is beautiful the one fairfax policy allows leaders in the bos and the school board to address systemic biases in our laws policies and regulations it too is beautiful both are aspirational and practical at the same time we aspire to

092working together to increase equity and fairness they both give us specific steps and guidelines to addressing our bias i challenge the community let those of us with privilege turn inward to ask about our own bias and turn outward to listen to others it is the only thing we can do to find peace and healing in fairfax county scott from me thank you our next speaker is maria sherwell followed by christine holdmann good evening i wanted to say that i appreciate the time that you've taken to limit the comment and recognitions and acknowledgments to some of the regulations or just acknowledgements of people who come up i heard the buzzer go off i would like to propose that comments are regulated to two minutes in solidarity with the community and their participation time um but now

093on to my comment uh the the last passing of the srnr regulation allowing punishment for children who misgender peers is very concerning to me in fact it reeks of a virtue signal and i worry that instead of taking the brave steps that you're acting in fear multiple parents spoke out about this but we weren't heard if you want to work with the community then maybe listen to parents in that meeting only one person spoke out when they were voting because we were watching that maybe you should consider working with parents one person of all the accolades the appreciations the uplifting of the multiple groups you do there's never just a covering of academics like the decline that's going on in the math and the english scores currently failing attendance erasure of history and science in

094classrooms kids are confused about what pronouns are in english class today test scores are abysmal kids are leaving fcps they are and you guys are still oblivious you're you're hell-bent on attaining this agenda that you have and i can see that you're very proud of it but there are parents who are telling you we're coming here time and time again and i appreciate those of you who have taken the time to look at me in kindness in loving kindness that there are things that are wrong in this approach last meeting a mother asked a question who are you representing i ask that again thank you our next speaker is christine holdman followed by nancy warner hello my name is christine holdeman and i've been a fairfax county resident for about five or six years i

095want to start with a very quick thank you for taking care of the our children their health and their education over the last two years it has not been easy i was watching in the background and i do know that you did the best that could be done under the circumstances but i'd like to open up a new subject which is that i've heard recently this is not what i planned on talking about but that there was about 100 million dollars is now being available statewide to create better lab schools and charter schools and i do know that i hear that that money won't go to the public schools but i am sure that the public school boards and school boards like yours know what would be the best use of 100 million or 10

096million dollars i'm sure that you have things that are minus one and two and three on your budget i.e they didn't make the budget they didn't have the funds to do them i'm sure you know of of programs like that that our schools our students need i also know because i've heard many school school board members talk about it that you have extensive and good connections with universities and colleges and other people in the in the advanced education okay i would really suggest that you use those contacts to drop hands and let those contacts know what would be some good use for those funds um i know that your input would be respected and i just want to remind everybody that as somebody here said the main thing is educating our children all of our

097children are advanced advanced children and our not so advanced children because all of these children are the future thank you thank you our next speaker is nancy warner followed by missy pratt good evening i want to speak in favor of strengthening bilingual education in our schools my daughter has taught sixth grade math and science in spanish and english for two years at washington mill elementary in mount vernon district she came with 20 years experience in honduras in a bilingual school where i also taught music many of our students rece there receives scholarships to study in the us and other countries where they succeed even though they graduate high school in honduras at grade 11 not 12. they are fully bilingual in spanish and english some learning a third other language my daughter's training language training

098is dual language immersion where english language learners can participate on an equal footing their home language is valued as a skill they can share with pride bringing them self-confidence i would suggest that bilingual being bilingual is an important skill an essential investment in the workforce of tomorrow and that the program should be expanded beyond elementary into an academy at the high school level living in the dmv we are in a unique situation for our students to use their bilingual skills in well-paid jobs in tourism and as translators for the many international guests in the business community and government offices my daughter's own spanish language acquisition began in daycare with the california farm worker movement led by cesar chavez whom she considered her personal friend at age three she once blew out the candles on his

099birthday cake cesar came out of a barrio in san jose called salty puedes escape if you can the farmworkers movement turned that around into an affirmation that we should instill in all our thank you our next speaker is missy pratt followed by catherine velkoff good evening discriminatory policies like the recent arbitrary srnr misgendering decision continued sexual and gender liberation indoctrination and the outright lies of critical race theory these policies and curricula poison young minds instead of honoring character or merit they exalt gender sexuality race and skin color every february you talk about honoring dr martin luther king but the reality is your policies fly in the face of everything dr king stood for and are directly derived from socialist communist ideologies how did we get here if you look back in history the genesis of

100societal change can often be found rooted in the education system there has been a hundred year plan to turn america communist how do you change a society from the inside out through the children and what's the vehicle public education little by little public education curricula in america has been overtaken by one socialist communist policy after another and for 70 years parents have blindly trusted you educators school board members and education directors parents are drowning in the details every time we turn around you're doing something else that usurps morality parents rights and meritocracy there's little new about what i'm saying but i'll keep saying it so we don't get used to this corruption that's shaping our children's minds your socialist ideological decisions have had devastating implications and impact on our children families and on our county

101we're not going away we will continue coming to every school board meeting as a reminder that you serve us and we will continue to hold you accountable morality character integrity are at stake these are the values america was founded on and what we will return to thank you our next speaker is catherine valkov followed by suzanne le menstrual hello this is not what i'm going to talk about but i really appreciate that this board has strongly supported the queer students of the county what you are doing is suicide prevention good evening um uh i also in light of everything with dr brabrand i just want to say that i actually understand how difficult this job is for all of you and your families and i appreciate that time even if we don't agree on every

102issue that being said my name is catherine belkoff i'm a graduate of fcps and i'm just going to be speaking about fire drill protocol tonight you may know that the number of students in the united states that have died in a fire at school is zero this is thanks to our excellent practicing of fire drills in this country unfortunately the death toll in school shootings is much higher there have been multiple instances such as parkland jonesboro and west side where shooters have pulled the fire alarms to get kids in the hallway in order to increase the deadliness of their attack because of this i propose that any time a fire alarm goes off in a fairfax county public school the students should stay put in their classrooms meanwhile the head of security or the school's

103administrators should check all the doors leading outside and the security cameras which should take no longer than one minute once they have determined that there is no threat inside or outside the building an announcement can be made over the pa system announcing that everyone should exit the building we all think it could never happen here but the reality is it could happen anywhere and if 60 seconds can save even just one life it would be worth it thank you and i just want to say that this speech is in memory of my friend rima samaha who is also a graduate of fairfax county public schools and she was killed in the virginia tech shooting thank you our next speaker is suzanne lemenstro followed by melanie smith good evening my name is dr suzanne lemenistral i'm

104a developmental scientist a public school graduate and the daughter sister and niece of public school teachers and the parent of two fcps graduates one child attends the uva's college of engineering and the second earned two degrees from the college of william and mary and plans to be a public school elementary teacher in our area this fall fcps's amazing teachers helped to fully prepare my children to be critical thinkers bilingual engaged learners and kind and empathetic global citizens i'd like to thank the school board for their tireless support of teachers staff and students and families during what's been i'm sure a very difficult past two years i'm here to advocate for even more support for our public school teachers an estimate from the economic policy institute ranks virginia 27th in the county and its cost of

105living adjusted starting salary for teachers in our area one of my daughter's favorite teachers couldn't afford to live where she worked paying teachers so that they can afford to live where they work must be a top priority to recruit and retain high quality candidates i'd also like to thank trying shock fast i'd also like to thank the school board for taking a stand against governor younkin's divisive politically motivated tip line to intimidate teachers my daughter had two friends drop out of her master of education program midway through the program in january she called us hysterically crying saying everyone hates teachers yonkin in his administration are working very hard to deter students from pursuing careers in public education finally i want to thank you all the school board the superintendents and staff for everything that you're

106doing including your pride month resolution that you passed to build a culture of equity and inclusivity for all teachers students staff and families thank you our next speaker is melanie smith followed by alison baldassari good evening i'm here tonight as the grandmother of a rising fourth grader and also as a former fcps student myself in grade four we learned virginia history i'm so so thankful that fcps has not bowed to the fake crt fears or eliminated uncomfortable parts of our virginia history while totally ignoring facts and my gratitude is based on my own fourth grade experience in fcps the 1950s in fair school integration virginia leaders established a commission to rewrite the public school history curriculum the local school boards the educators were removed from the process the message was lost cause revisionist history also

107known as fiction our textbooks i learned this that enslaved people were beloved servants and were mostly treated kindly robert e lee was good and kind and the traveler was ever so proud to carry this great man well in truth slavery was brutal and tragic lee was a cruel slave master and traveler was just a horse we learned that the south had fought valiantly and gloriously but we never really learned that the confederacy had lost this is what virginia students learned for decades thus it's disheartening and frightening to see the growing national trend to once again censor or rewrite how history is taught in our schools misinformation has no place in our educational system and teaching truth does not diminish or disparage others teaching the truth invites respectful healthy debate dialogue and questions and ensures that

108we do not go backwards and make the same mistakes or as ronald reagan's daughter patty davis recently wrote how will we raise children to push back against the cruelty of anti-semitism and racism if they don't know where in history those cruelties were rooted thank you for your service your commitment to education stay strong stay positive let teachers teach thank you thank you our next speaker is allison baldassari followed by mark spooner hi i'm ali baldaceri septa board member in fcps elementary enhanced autism supports that for six years i wholeheartedly thank fcps and the school board for the eal plan i'm on the steering committee and support the plan in its current stage septa advocates for continued efforts to explicitly address self-contained classrooms most of the planning has been for resources support and structure inside gen

109ed classrooms to follow the science of reading for years self-contained classrooms have struggled to deliver quality science-based literacy instruction due to competing goals staff vacancies and shortages of fully licensed trained teachers each student is supposed to receive appropriate individualized literacy instruction either aligned with the gen ed curriculum or follow an approved adapted curriculum but in my experience they usually don't when teachers leverage trusted trained support staff to deliver appropriate curricula to varied reading groups students can learn to read in understaffed under trained classrooms children instead flounder fcps must leverage its central office resources to remove barriers and fully coach classrooms until it can document all self-contained students receiving approved adapted curriculum or having unimpeded access to gen ed literacy curriculum septa also wants wider use of compassionate trauma-informed crisis prevention crisis management and self-contained classrooms

110currently ukaru training and equipment is only available in public day and select few other fcps site settings it's appropriate for many eac id ids and secondary self-contained students septa wholeheartedly supports dr ross green's cps methods for all settings in all ages septa does not support fcp uses fcps's use of gregory hainley's potentially traumatizing methods finally i note that with fcps increased focus on social emotional learning many septa parents feel frustrated that their kids social emotional needs are still often overlooked students whose depression anxiety and feelings of isolation started long before covid self-contained classrooms shouldn't shouldn't be self-contained for all needs thank you our next speaker is mark spooner followed by diane cooper gold at your june 16 meeting after eight speakers had noted that you've been ignoring parents and setting policies a number of you

111said that you could and should do a better job dr bray band you started out by saying and i quote we need to find a way to bring people together and sort through all these values these ideas and try to find common ground i believe we still can and several of you echoed those comments and i really appreciated your comments tonight where you said the same thing but i think if you are all serious about that there's a long way to go people who speak against your policies the great majority of them aren't speaking from hate they get angry sometimes because they feel ignored and you don't achieve common ground by pursuing policies that regularly get you in the national news you only get there by balance by moderation by truly listening to all of

112your constituents and focusing on quality education rather than social causes i could give you 10 minutes of examples but i'll just give you a couple you have a list of stakeholders that you regularly consult behind the scenes on sensitive issues its members are racial minorities lgbt groups teacher unions and county employees people who represent the majority of your constituents aren't on these stakeholder groups and you formal formulate policy without regularly consulting with them um uh you invite controversial speakers to come in and pay them twenty thousand dollars for a one hour zoom session you could invite somebody else at a fraction of that cost to give a contrary view and maybe hear something new and reach common ground thank you thank you our next speaker is diane cooper gold followed by amanda campbell good evening

113i'm diane cooper gould speaking as fairfax county septa advocacy co-chair it is well known that while fcps is aggressive and pilotly new programs we're not always strong in our strategic implementation and monitoring of those programs this approach results in flashy press but does not do much to support staff on the ground nor improve student outcomes septa was thrilled with the new restraint exclusion policy passed in december 2020 and yet it is a year and a half later and a robust multi-year plan for training and monitoring to be rolled out district-wide at all levels and in all settings has failed to manifest it is not enough to have good intentions without an explicit plan to assist teachers on helping struggling students we doom those students to terrible outcomes and harsh discipline policy change is the beginning

114of the work not the end of it additionally septa strongly supports the shift and basal literacy instruction to the science of reading however we are deeply concerned about the continued siloed approach when it comes to primary literacy instruction for students with disabilities who are placed in self-contained classrooms or pulled out for literacy instruction these students do not get access to fcps core literacy instruction instead they receive a hodgepodge of approaches sefta believes that our special educa educators also deserve to be given the tools to teach literacy based in the science of reading school board policy dictates that the basal resource adoption process must include public review and commentary and yet when it comes to the special education rfp process there's a complete lack of transparency it is critical to understand that these specialized programs function

115as basal resources for thousands of fcps students who do not get access to the general education setting for this reason we request that the fcps school board revise its rfp and program adoption process for special education programs to be in alignment with the general education bazel resource process and to include community feedback and review we also ask that any specialized reading intervention program purchased are is based in the science of reading thank you thank you our next speaker is amanda campbell good evening as the new president of fairfax county special education bta i would like to extend a warm welcome to our new superintendent dr reed it was a pleasure to meet you last month i appreciate your time and early outreach to septa and i look forward to continuing to build a collaborative and

116proactive relationship with you dr brabrand i would also like to thank you for your partnership over the last few years having a seat at the table is a critical building block in fulfilling fairfax septa's mission to empower and connect our families students and staff to ensure that students with disabilities develop to their full potential as individuals and community members and we appreciate your efforts and collaboration it occurred to me that while i was writing this that while i've appeared before this board frequently i have typically focused on the work of septa and so there may be members of this board and leadership team who don't know much about me passion for education runs in my blood my father was a school board member my brother a special education teacher and my degree is in k-12

117music education i taught elementary school music in virginia until a military move took us across the country to a place where there were no teaching jobs so i found a way to keep education in my life as i worked with the performing arts ensemble on their education outreach programs we returned to virginia a few years later our daughter entered early intervention services at 10 months old and progressed through child fine preschool and is now a rising fifth grader time has flown she is sweet determined and feisty and she doesn't need verbal words to show you that she uses an ipad to speak along with mouth words and works with pt ot and speech therapists to learn the motor skills she needs to access the world her resilience inspires me daily i'm eternally grateful for the

118knowledge that i have of the education system and yet even with that privilege we have struggled mightily at times i'm acutely aware that many special education families do not have that resource that is why septa's mission resonates so strongly with me it channels my passion into ensuring that our families and staff have the knowledge and resources they need to serve all of our students thank you we also have one video testimony submitted by stacey langton welcome to smut story time for the end of pride month i chose a book from my child's school library called seeing gender by ira scott lee quote sex work is not a bad word sex work is a term used to describe exchanges of sexual activity for money including pornography or exotic dancing sex work is work it's a job

119like being a clerk or an architect and it exists everywhere it's important not to complete sex work and sex trafficking sex work is a consensual exchange between adults it is important to suspend judgment for those in this line of work end quote but that's a lie it isn't consensual because every prostitute has a pimp they're slaves since fairfax county also enjoys hosting drag queen story hours at our public libraries let's look into the history of drag in dc the first drag queen was a freed black slave named william dorsey swann he hosted drag balls where men from the underground gay community walked a runway to dance vogue and pose these male prostitutes dressed in hyper hyper-feminine attire to attract customers in the 90s drag queen rupaul became an icon with this hit song you better

120work and by 2015 boston drag queen kacha was quoted as saying i'm literally out there peddling my bleep for dollar bills and last week in dallas children were taken to a gay bar where they stuffed dollar bills in adult men's jock straps and finally our board member carl frisch follows about a dozen drag queens on his official campaign page such as jinx monsoon and pandora's box i wonder if any of them are registered sex offenders the public schools have books which are teaching our kids to be prostitutes thanks to all of you our schools have become a cesspool and our children are being groomed for pedophiles and sex trafficking um and with that the next order of business is student representative matters that i'll call mr chowdhury good evening madam chair ford members earlier this

121month i got to have a great conversation at gate house with dr reed surrounding the entry pads of our advanced academics programs and the demographics of those programs compared to the county as whole as a whole as well as the barriers faced by low-income and minority students so the issue with some of the things like the aarts and the local level 4 expansion is that they don't address the process until we create an additional pathway for kids to be screened beyond the 70 getting parent recommended and the 30 testing in through local norms we are not going to reflect fairfax's diversity as it stands we've got those two paths standardized testing is not representative of our county's demographics but parent recommendation the 70 is really really really not representative of our county's demographics and so

122as i leave you all i implore you to look at the screening process and really explore the barriers to entry in the first place our barriers should not be rigid students should be evaluated in a holistic way from the get go we have a holistic screening process but the ability to be put into that screening process and to be considered in the first place is where we see a lot of barriers that skew along racial and economic lines we should be screening all of our young scholars and allow direct teacher recommendation into that holistic screening process your ability to even get considered for those programs should not depend on your parents having to know the process in and out that is a privilege we should be proactive in targeted programs to expand that access and

123we must be the ones to lift the barriers to accessing an outstanding education before we can move into that educational renaissance and be the innovators that we want to be and with that i want to thank you all for an amazing year for your mentorship and your partnership and i wish you all a wonderful summer thank you mr chowdhury and i as this is your last meeting i know we celebrated you last time but we're going to miss you and we wish you the best and do not be a stranger agenda item 4 consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure roberts rules provide for consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by single motion many of these items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all

124board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda the request of any board member prior to the meeting these consent agenda items are on the screen is there any objection to approving these items seeing and hearing no objection the consent agenda is approved agenda item five new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote on these items this evening but action is scheduled at a future meeting new business items are on the screen and with that we will be taking a five minute break before swearing in ceremony thank you school board members please take your seats yeah that's fast board members please return to your seats okay agenda item seven administration of the oath of office good evening to all who have joined

125us this tonight on behalf of the fairfax county school board i would like to officially welcome dr michelle reed to the fairfax county public schools i'd also like to recognize some special guests that have joined us tonight supervisor walter alcorn fairfax city board member toby sorensen fairfax city mayor david meyer and former school board member phil nadski eichner thank you for being here with us tonight miss julie strandley who is on a planning commissioner and mr najelsky eisker eichner is also a current planning commissioner thank you for being here we appreciate your attendance and i would also especially like to extend a warm welcome to mr reed for being with us tonight we are delighted to welcome dr reed to fairfax county public schools this evening dr reed's work in closing student achievement and opportunity

126gaps improving math and science proficiency developing strong leaders literacy skills and her effective parent and community engagement earned her the highest recognition for a superintendent the aasa national superintendent of the year for 2021. in preparation for her work here she has already hosted multiple town halls with the fcps community to hear as many voices and perspectives as possible to clearly understand where fairfax county schools have been where we are currently and what we want to aspire to in the future together dr reed is also incredibly focused on boosting student voice and agency as evidenced by the student listening tours she has already led at fcps during the past two months and her previous work with student panels and annual summits to obtain critical student feedback she holds in the highest regard the integral role that

127healthy and trustworthy relationships play in the work of a school division to facilitate facilitate success for all students within our public school system we are excited and we are inspired to begin our work together with you for the students staff families and communities of of fcps at this time i would also like to introduce and thank the honorable stephen shannon who will be administering the oath of office tonight and i invite you both to come forward dr rito you ready to take the oath i am all right please raise your right hand and repeat after me i do solemnly swear i do solemnly swear that i will support the constitution of the united states that i will support the constitution of the united states and the constitution of the commonwealth of virginia and the constitution

128of the commonwealth of virginia and that i will faithfully and impartially discharge and that i will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all duties incumbent upon me and perform all duties incumbent upon me as the superintendent of fairfax county public schools as the superintendent of fairfax county public schools according to the best of my ability according to the best of my ability so help me god so help me god congratulations you're in thank you thanks thank you yeah thanks thanks thank you thanks thank you thanks for now thanks thank you think so um thank you all for staying late this evening although maybe not so late i appreciate all of you who came to be part of this special event i want to especially thank the school board fairfax county employees families and students and

129scott to scott there you are scott and your wife your lovely wife you've been so gracious and i'm counting on you moving forward to continue to provide a level of support that i know i will need so thank you so much i want to thank my husband for being here and our family who are watching um and friends um this is an opportunity um that is humbling and a great honor for me personally and professionally so i thank you for trusting me with our most important resources our young people who will form the future for not just our community but our country so every profession passes through pre-k-12 education and therefore i think it's the most important profession in the world in whatever role we play and i've always considered it to be my honor

130and excitement and what makes my heart beat strongest to help ensure that each and every student that comes through our public school division has when they leave the opportunity to achieve whatever their hopes and dreams are which are unique to them and enrich us as a country in the past few years we've had many challenges i think scott and i all of the staff here each of you here on our board we can enumerate challenges all evening i think and we also i think can recognize we're at a crossroads as we come out of this pandemic and we have an opportunity to rebuild reframe and reimagine public education it's time to deepen our investment together in the work of making sure each and every student is seen heard and affirmed as they work to achieve

131their life's hopes and dreams and their families hopes and dreams for them as we move forward together i want to encourage us to resolutely and relentlessly maintain high expectations for each and every student and for ourselves what we can never equivocate on our high expectations even as we provide high levels of support to match our dreams as we continue to get to know one another better you will come to understand that it's important to me to remember that learning happens best in community and this is an amazing community it's a community that drew me because of the strength of the partnerships the spirit the passion the resources of time and talent and the deep and i think unusual care this community has for its young people and for the importance that this community places on

132education i know that it's my role to build on those traditions um they how do i say the reputation of excellence that fairfax county has drawn families from all over the world to attend schools here i look forward to learning about the history of this amazing division i look backwards a look at where we are today and together moving forward as one community so keep in mind i want to manage expectations this is not a sprint this work if we're going to do it deep and well requires each and every one of us our world-class educators and our amazingly passionate students and families are going to need all of us coming together and i think all of us have said it in different ways this evening but it is important that we recognize that together

133all things are possible so i know each of us has a story of our own which shaped our learning our leadership our being and how we operate in this world together and as we recognize and value one another's diverse stories and our diverse backgrounds it is a strength that we have many perspectives and i look forward to meeting each of you and getting to know your perspectives more deeply and having an opportunity to support the work that each of you are doing in whatever role you come to this space this evening in lastly i want to thank judge shannon also for being here this evening it's the type of sacrifice i think this community makes we show up and sometimes just showing up is a profound message so it's when we have a community and

134a culture built on trust that we're able to develop strong relationships and do amazing work together transparency deep and authentic conversations will only deepen and enrich the experience for our young people it enables us to model what we would like our young people to become and quite frankly often i find our young people wait for us to become so because in many ways they have achieved the model ahead of us so i am thrilled to be here i'm energized even though i arrived last evening after driving six days across the country with our three dogs so i have no dog fur on me i don't think but it's been a profound experience also to drive across this great country and see so many different states and perspectives it's something i had not done and i

135think it's given me a lot to think about so i'm thrilled i'm energized and i can't wait to hit the ground running tomorrow morning so thank you again for your faith in me and god willing we will continue to do great work here in fairfax county so thank you [Applause] thank you dr reed we are excited for the next chapter for fcps the board would like to invite all of those who are here this evening to please join us from for some light refreshments um we would also like to take a photo with um dr reed and then this meeting is adjourned you