FCPS School Board Meeting 5/26/22

001[Music] it doesn't matter [Music] school board members take your seats please okay this may 26 2022 regular meeting of the fairfax county school board will not now come to order um i would like to offer some comments tonight from the board this was an incredibly dark week filled with unbearable tragedy for public education and our country rob elementary school in uvalde texas experienced a horrifying act of gun violence that resulted in the tragic loss of 21 innocent lives 19 children and two educators many more were injured the fairfax county school board strongly condemns these senseless acts of gun violence we share in the collective anger and grief of every parent student teacher and school employee we offer our deepest sympathies to those who have lost loved ones in uvalde texas and our support to those

002for whom this brings painful memories of past gun violence the safety of our schools and the children and staff within them is our highest priority fcps has one of the most advanced school security systems in the nation and we make critical safety upgrades to our buildings each year as you will see later this evening we will continue to assess our protocols to ensure the safest learning and working environment possible your child may have questions and concerns after learning about this tragic event there are resources and information on the fcps website that can help you have these conversations i also encourage students and families to reach out to our amazing school counselors and school psychologists who are here to help you this week the fairfax county board of supervisors voted to declare june 3rd as gun

003violence awareness day in fairfax county we will do the same this evening within fairfax county public schools our nation is reeling from the tragic loss of life to senseless and hate motivated gun violence in recent weeks buffalo milwaukee laguna wound woods houston and now uvalde texas before we proceed this evening let us take a moment of silence to honor everyone who has been affected by these tragic events thank you please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a performance of the national anthem by the poe middle school symphonic band under the direction of zachary gomez and nate sorenson so [Music] so [Applause] right thank you poe middle school 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's necessary for the board to certify

004that since the fairfax county school board convened a closed meeting on may 26 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 convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting is there a motion but moved by ms corbett sanders seconded by um mr kofax all those in favor that is unanimous with um one person away from the table agenda item 2.03 announcements ms keys kamara has submitted a written request to virtually attend this evening's meeting due to a medical con conflict all those in favor of approving her request okay that is unanimous with everyone at the table if you'd like to review a copy of the

005agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight then 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 agenda item 4.02 policy 4750 deferred compensation retirement savings program and item 4.04 regulation 2601 students rights and responsibilities have been rescheduled to the june 16th regular meeting agenda item 2.04 bellevue elementary school 70th anniversary recognition the board will invite each recognition recipient and their supporters to step up for a photo with the board after the reading of all of the recognitions have been heard i'll call on miss corbett sanders for this recognition thank you madam chair it is truly an honor to be able to have

006this recognition tonight because i had two children that just thrived at bellevue elementary school and i had the pleasure of being the pta president there for many years and a number of other jobs so let me begin bellevue elementary school opened its doors on november 19 1952 in response to transformational growth in fairfax county following world war ii rapid population growth in fairfax county led to a steady rise in the school system student population and in 1948 12 students were enrolled in fcps over the next 25 years the school system would add roughly 6 000 new students per year because of overcrowding about one-third of the students or about 7 000 were being taught in temporary facilities such as churches fire departments apartment buildings and kwanzaa huts in may 1950 the voters of the county

007approved a 10 million dollar bond this led to the construction and opening of the bellevue west lawn baileys woodley hills and drew smith elementary schools for the 1952-53 school year and six more the following year 21 schools were built between 1951 and 1957. the introduction of school buses changed the character of the communities that one-room schoolhouses initially served and the lives of children within them students who had once walked to a local often one-room schoolhouse now rode a bus to a larger consolidated school where they were taught in separate grades in specialist taught physical education music and art throughout the 20th century bellevue elementary school has maintained a legacy of excellence even in the face of unprecedented change and growth every student is valued as a capable individual who is willing to learn and is

008excited about learning the diversity of the student population provides an opportunity for teachers and parents to accommodate all learning styles cultural differences and abilities to accomplish this the educational focus continues to be on providing a strong academic program in the core subject areas through the use of technology in the classrooms mobile computer labs and the library the students obtain valuable information that support their instructional goals and all students have the opportunity to benefit from an outstanding instructional program that promotes high standards and advanced levels of academic challenges by recognizing that all students can learn and experience success through excellent instruction staff members and parents ensure that students are provided with a strong foundation in the core subjects which is enhanced by the implementation of relevant practices and technology thank you miss corbin sanders agenda item

0092.05 national gun violence awareness day recognition i'll call on miss cohen the first friday in june is recognized as national gun violence awareness day also known as wear orange day it was first organized by students to memorialize the 2013 death of their friend and gun violence victim 15 year old hadiyah pendleton after her death they asked us to stand up speak out and wear orange to raise awareness firearms are the leading cause of death for our children and teens in the united states i'm just going to pause and say that one more time firearms are the leading cause of death for children and teens in the united states every year 18 000 children and teens are shot and killed or wounded and approximately 3 million are exposed to gun violence exposure to gun violence has

010long lasting impacts on the safety and well-being of our youth in 2021 there were at least 202 incidents of gunfire on school grounds resulting in 49 deaths and 126 injuries nationally every student and staff member deserves a safe educational environment the school board recognizes national gun violence awareness day to raise awareness of the issue and the importance of preventing and eliminating gun violence in schools and communities and encourages all to wear orange on june 3rd 2022 for national gun violence awareness day thank you miss cohen agenda item 2.06 jewish heritage month resolution i again call on ms cohen whereas from our nation's beginning jewish people have been a critical part of the american story many immigrating here fleeing persecution and oppression and whereas we celebrate the rich heritage of our american jewish community we recognize

011that throughout our nation's history american jews have contributed to building strong communities and work to protect religious freedom and civil rights joining people of all faiths backgrounds and identities to reject ignorance and intolerance teach understanding and kindness and to root out hatred wherever it exists and whereas american jews have greatly contributed to every facet of the american experience including in the fields of science music art education business government medicine and numerous others and whereas jewish people have been subjected to ostracism hatred and violent persecution throughout world history we recognize this bigotry still exists today while jewish americans constitute no more than 2 percent of the u.s population the fbi reports that anti-jewish hate crimes constitute approximately 60 percent of all religiously based hate crimes and whereas the anti-defamation league reports that in 2021 virginia had

012the 15th highest number of anti-semitic incidents nationwide reminding us that our jewish neighbors continue to face incidents of hate bigotry and intimidation on our streets and in our schools and that fairfax county public schools has an obligation to combat anti-semitism in all its many forms wherever it exists and whereas fairfax county public schools is enriched by a united and multicultural society where every individual is treated equally and respectfully with safety and inclusion now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board joins jewish americans in celebrating may 2022 as jewish american heritage month in recognition of the many contributions jewish americans have made to our society i so move is there a second i will second seconded by miss maren miss cohen would you like to speak to this i would thank you i'm

013so grateful to be able to bring along with my colleagues the first jewish american heritage month resolution it's not just that i'm very proud to be a jewish american but i'm incredibly proud that this board is one of the few school boards across the country to recognize may as jewish american heritage month jewish americans are people defined by shared ethnicity tradition culture religion history and ties to a shared homeland the dmv has the third largest jewish community in the u.s and within that population the greatest number of jews reside in northern virginia in our schools our jewish students balance academic demands with weekly religious school hebrew school hebrew tutoring our students work to navigate football games athletic competitions and sats on shabbat our students have faced standardized tests theater auditions sports practices band performance and

014back to school nights on our holiest days this year our students have seen swastikas on bathroom walls their fellow students saluting hitler in their classrooms and hurtful and insensitive commentary on israel from their teachers i'm grateful that next year our calendar will better support our community but the calendar is just the beginning of much needed work to fight anti-semitism in our community and here at fcps tonight i'm so pleased that we've been joined by members of the jewish community relations council including gila franklin siegel the associate director of the jcrc of greater washington the jcrc represents over a hundred synagogues schools and other jewish institutions throughout the dmv and leads an interfaith coalition to improve equity for minority faith fcps students employees and families they also serve as a critical liaison between fcps and the

015fairfax jewish community including organizing town halls with dr brabrand and school board members and organizing holocaust education events in our schools i was fortunate enough to get to attend one at west springfield high school on yom hoshoa a couple of weeks ago jcrc has been an incredible partner in helping to respond to and combat anti-semitism in our schools they also continue to support initiatives to further equity for all of our students just this year they help support the creation of john lewis academy and join the naacp and other organizations to support the revisions to our literacy curriculum i'm grateful to have partners like this in our community and so grateful to my colleagues for supporting this resolution ms marin yes i echo gratitude to colleagues and an admiration and for our board that publicly says

016that we are going to use data to inform the work that we do and indeed the data point that while only two percent of the us population is a jewish american fbi saying that anti-hate crimes anti-jewish hate crimes constitute approximately 60 of all religiously based hate crimes so that data it implores that we must educate our children and our staff and our adults and even this evening hearing some more information i think brings to light why we need to elevate this observance of jewish american heritage month it is because of my own fear of anti-semitism that i don't share more about the joyfulness of my own family's practices of which there are many and i hope that one day i can share more of them thank you thank you miss marin i see there are

017a few other folks who would like to speak mr frisch thank you um i appreciate miss cohen and miss marin bringing this resolution tonight and i also appreciate our community partners at the jcrc for the work that they've done with this board especially around the calendar it was a long process that this board went through over almost two years um or just about two years and i think we ended up as a uh as a community in the right place and that's because we talked we had conversations we listened and we ultimately did the right thing for our community and for our staff who serve our schools so i appreciate this resolution and i look forward to voting for it mr mesh followed by miss mclaughlin thank you uh i'm excited to be part of

018this historical moment and want to actually you know when it comes to these cultural recognition recognitions i tend to like to defer to allow my colleagues who share these identities and speak for them to to be the loudest voices so tonight i i just primarily want to thank miss cohen for her leadership on this um for bringing this forward and of course our our board as a team here uh in in making this a historic moment for northern virginia um especially in deep kinship and and shared faith um with my colleagues and then of course especially in light of the importance of solidarity and unity uh and coming together um given what we've seen you know just in the past week past few days of what's happening in our nation and ensuring that we fight

019together against anti-semitism against white supremacy and against all forms of hate um that ultimately put us all in in physical harm's way um and hopefully we can all lead forward uh in the spirit of collective community and and shared humanity mclaughlin the dangers of something important like this is you're going to have probably all 12 of us saying something so i i do want to just be brief and say that as someone who was a community advocate for a very long time i am deeply grateful for the advocates in our community even in my own braddock district who have continued to bring to us at the school board level what can we do beyond things like tonight how do we develop curriculum how do we develop conversation how do we deliver intentful efforts in our

020schools every single day so that all of our children can feel loved appreciated included and represented so i very much appreciate this resolution it's an honor to be a member of the board doing this here tonight and i do hope for everyone in our community that they can always live who they are with no fear thank you ms tolen yes thank you i'm very happy to support this resolution and i just wanted to take a minute to say a huge thank you to um miss franklin segal rabbi jeffrey sachs vicki fishman and the organizations that you represent for working with me to share your guidance in dealing with incidences of anti-semitism in my own community and for your willingness to communicate with our students and families to better understand the jewish faith and heritage and

021to help us appreciate all the incredible contributions that have been made by jewish citizens in our fabulous country thank you so much mr ko fox yes thank you um i want to thank the members of our board for bringing this resolution forward i am part of an interfaith family um my husband is jewish and i am christian and um i just uh there have been times that that has we have seen um different uh situations come before us and they sometimes have not been easy but i think it's important that everyone understand um how the jewish community has had many contributions to our society here in the us and we have contributed and they have contributed a great deal to unite us in our multicultural community that we are so thank you to my colleagues

022for bringing this forward i think it's important ms corbett sanders yes thank you madam chair and i'm pleased to be able to follow miss daranak kofax because i too am part of a interfaith uh marriage and what i've learned in 30 years is the importance of dialogue and the importance of education and celebration of the richness of the jewish faith but also the jewish community as a community into itself and the reason that we do these resolutions is more than just to say oh great we'll say a resolution and move on it's because it is through education and through speaking the words and making changes in our curriculum that we build better understanding and by growing in understanding of each other that is the best way of combating hateful acts and teaching our history and

023every month we do something different you know be american women's history uh african-american history asian history each month by using the platform of this diocese to talk about the important contributions hopefully we will lead our community in growing appreciation and respect for each other so i very much appreciate your bringing this to us ms cohen and miss marin miss eisemer heiser thank you and i will try to be brief i first want to thank my colleagues miss cohen miss marin for bringing this forward i really appreciate it i want to thank um the members of the jewish community who reached out to me over the last couple years and and are really many many conversations that we had about the the experiences of our jewish students in our schools and the very thoughtful conversations we

024had around our calendar around inclusion it helps me do my job better so i really appreciate that and i appreciate anyone who reaches out um you know we are a beautiful multicultural society in fairfax county and i think our board is a pretty good reflection of that multicultural society and i think it's pretty amazing that we're one of the few and surprising and a little sad that we're one of the few that recognizes jewish heritage and i'm glad we are a groundbreaker in that realm because we are a multicultural society not just in fairfax but in the country and it's important to make space authentic space for all of us in that conversation so the fact that uh jewish people are two percent of our population but sixty percent of the religiously based hate crimes

025are aimed at jewish people shows that we have a lot of work to do still and i know this board is committed to doing that work so all of our children and our staff feel included they feel welcomed and they can show up as their authentic selves and be comfortable in that so i'm grateful to be on a board with colleagues that are committed to that value and i'm grateful to my colleagues for bringing this forward and i'm really grateful to be in a multicultural society because that's what makes us stronger thank you um i will also offer just a few words my husband is a jewish refugee from the soviet union who came here in his teenage years he along with his family faced persecution bigotry anti-semitism and the reason we must continue to

026talk about these things the reason we have to work on education equity is because those experiences traumatize our children and shape their entire lives those experiences are not forgotten and when he talks about his time um growing up in the former soviet union that is what he talks about and he is not unique and we know that there are many current americans who face anti-semitic bigotry right here and the more we talk and learn that there is a lot more that we have in common then that sets us apart uh that's how we make that more perfect union so i also want to thank the gcrc for being here tonight and for your work with our school system with our superintendent our board and our community we will continue to work on the education needed

027to ensure that one day we will no longer be talking about anti-semitism long night um in this country so with that i'm going to go ahead and take the vote all those in favor of the motion and that is unanimous with everyone um here tonight all right and now i think we're going to go ahead and invite our guests to come up oh and miss i'm sorry miss keysgamara did you want to speak or were you voting okay voting um if we could please thank you if we can please add that that would be great voting in the affirmative okay picture time sorry um i would like to every every week we do this i would like to invite gila franklin siegel associate director of the jewish community relations council of greater washington staff and

028supporters of jewish heritage month to please join us at the deus for a photo with the board and i asked my colleagues to remain in front of the dais for the next two photos at this time i would like to invite bellevue elementary school principal thomas koontz their staff and anyone here in the audience in support of the bellevue elementary school 70th anniversary to please join the board at the dyess for a photo thank you at this time i would like to invite heather foglio co-leader of the burke fairfax chapter of moms demand action and tristan stutzman co-leader for burke fairfax chapter of moms demand action staff and supporters of the gun violence awareness day recognition to please join the board there's a script right here if you need it oh yeah by the time

029i go in there there you go okay wait i gotta look here agenda item 3.01 community participation speakers must limit their remarks to no more than two minutes in length at the conclusion of two minutes the microphone or video will be turned off school board members will be listening but not responding to the individual speakers the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as a capital improvement program budget and boundaries comments targeting criticizing or attacking individual students are not permitted during public meetings complaints regarding school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school officials speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student or school based employee additionally speakers should be respectful and observe proper decorum in

030their statements avoiding profanity inappropriate gestures shouting and comments that run counter to the spirit and letter of the school division's non-discrimination policy all statements should be directed to the school board and speakers should remain at the podium until concluding their remarks as a reminder speaker substitutions are not permitted a speaker may not yield their time to another individual before or during their comments shouts and outbursts from the audience cannot be tolerated we are very grateful for those who have come to speak to us tonight and we thank you for your cooperation and your patience ms madeja our first speaker is david jerzack madam chair and the board of adv and the members of the school board my name is david jerzag i'm a junior at mclean high school and manage imagine a job in which

031you're working seven hours straight each hour and a half you must change your workspace passing within an hour with a herd of people in grand hallways you must not stop or you will be late to your next shift you have only seven minutes hallways are long during your shifts you are not allowed to talk you must have tunnel vision you are allowed to eat but in tense and anxiety-inducing conditions so much so that some of your co-workers eat lunch in the bathrooms some do not eat at all how do you feel at the end of a day like this i can tell you how some of the students feel tense exhausted frustrated empty and hopeless they deserve breaks recess to talk to each other to socialize to make friends to be human the bell schedule

032makes our schools into a tense untenable and dreaded place the passing periods need to be elongated into breaks we need to have dedicated spaces for breaks and time allocated for socializing and integrating and becoming a adult capable of socializing with other humans without having life stopping barriers in the terms of communicating with other humans and groups of humans effectively thank you thank you our next speaker is tessa sedler hello school board my name is tessa sedlar i am a graduating senior at thomas jefferson high school um i would like to talk today about the tech policies regarding the new fcps on laptops as somebody who does not have a personal laptop myself but rather only a personal desktop i find that the fcps on program has given me many opportunities to participate and use my

033own technology in ways that i had not been able to before either previously in high school or back when i was at lake braddock for middle school however this year i am part of the ap music theory class and part of our curriculum involves composition both for practice on the exam and for projects for the class however there are no allocated programs on the fcps on computers at all and most if not all online browser-based composition applications limit you to a certain on to a certain number of instruments usually nowhere near enough to do the composition which i was trying to do which would have been for a full band environment under this there is a free open source application called musescore that i managed to get on one of my computers via using zip

034files this however got blocked shortly after spring break ended when i had much more time to compose and i was disheartened that i was not able to do it in light of this i would like to request to the school board and tech staff that a we allow more integration of technological applications both for staff and students as well as a way to request applications for review and use for students as well as expanding the already in my opinion well-founded software basis thank you our next speaker is cindy walsh [Applause] fairfax county should not suspend kids for using the wrong pronouns bill clinton used to say don't ask don't tell as a way to judge whether someone in the military can do the job it will cause the kids to fail and create anxiety that

035you are trying to fix kids who don't know their own genders will become upset when just being asked examples are agender gender fluid and gender questioning if you don't know your gender you don't know your pronouns so every time they're asked they may answer in a different way kids also would like to pass their sol and they would fail with bad grammar he him she her are singular he them or she them does not make any sense and if used in an sol it would fail the kids please don't punish kids for figuring out things for themselves and using proper grandeur proper grammar their gender is none of your business thank you our next speaker is bijal sony be jaw sony we're having a little difficulty i'll come back our next speaker is misty lombardo

036when was the last time you reviewed your belief statements in it you claimed to believe in dynamic and supportive partnerships among students parents educators and the community yet you give us only 24 hours to provide feedback on the proposed changes to the srnr you claim to believe effective educators are essential to student success yet you are asking many to compromise their values and beliefs with the proposed changes all while neglecting to provide them with the tools they actually need to teach like a basal language arts curriculum you claim to believe families play a fundamental role in their children's education yet you are pushing us out at every turn and your lawyers argue we have no codified rights over our children's health or education you claim to believe high expectations inspire higher performance yet you continually

037lower the academic bar you claim to believe everyone thrives in a respectful environment yet you plan to trample the first amendment constitutional rights of your students you claim to believe literacy is an essential life skill and reading proficiency by third grade is critical for academic success have you seen the latest scores you are failing your policies are failing our children we send our children to your schools to receive an education not to be indoctrinated by your political beliefs please take some time to review what you say you believe and truly do it partner with parents and host an in-person town hall to discuss the proposed changes to the srnr before you vote allow your teachers to educate without fear of being punished for not aligning with a certain political agenda stop attempting to usurp the

038role of parent in our children's lives raise the educational bar respect the united states constitution and just teach our children how to read write and do arithmetic thank you our next speaker is arthur purvis [Applause] mr superintendent madam chairman members of the board my name is arthur purvis i address you as an individual and not as the spokesman of any organization first i'd like to wish our new superintendent every success in my 40 years as a computer programmer i work with two transgender women one of whom tested my coding for six years both were wonderful conscientious co-workers about one percent of the population have often from age five or earlier feelings attractions and interests that are opposite to their biological gender their true gender is not a trivial question we should be compassionate however please

039begin with persuasion not punishment in the srr transgender policies please do not drop the level one interventions allow students to first be counseled by a teacher before being suspended from student activities make it clear that suspension or expulsion from school would rarely be used and only as a last resort the srnr is over 100 pages it could be a pamphlet if it's simply taught do as you'd be done by regarding coed family life education classes the issue is the discomfort of a few and the many i have served on the fle advisory committee twice family life education is not a preventative program and presenting it to the community as such is dishonest its impact on student behavior for better for for worse has not been studied and may be worse to solve the transgender question

040fle i suggest you drop it years ago i saw an fle teacher notes that a behavior taught in fle was extremely risky when i urge that that warning be taught to students it was instead dropped from the teacher notes resisting the temptation of drugs and promiscuity is more a matter of faith than physiology thank you our next speaker is laura hanford laura hanford our next speaker is marianne burke good evening school board members and dr brabrand thank you for carefully considering the issues of gender integration in in fle in fairfax county the decision to separate students by gender is often made without considering the trade-offs of doing so instructions separated by gender conveys to students that bodies are that are different from their own should remain mysterious the if effect is to make students uncomfortable

041with and to stigmatize bodies that are different if separated by gender students won't have the guidance guided experience of discussing potentially sensitive topics with peers whose bodies and genders differ from their own this is a key skill that they will need to go through life as they enter into relationships including friendships romantic partnerships and parenting with instructions integrated by gender students can hear firsthand about the diversity of experiences individuals have otherwise they can miss out on opportunities to build knowledge and and develop empathy across differences by denying our students these opportunities they may be less prepared for important interactions carry stereotypes into adulthood be limited in honest communication with potential romantic partners which is the critical component of health may come to believe that some topics should not be discussed with people who are different

042and they can miss out on critical information as they get older and are faced with issues such as consent pregnancy prevention and sexually transmitted infections and they may be forced to feel excluded because they have been placed in a space that does not reflect who they are so i ask you board members and dr brabrand to integrate flee classes in fairfax county because any extra effort that it may take to keep all students together is time well spent thank you for giving me this opportunity tonight thank you our next speaker is shelley arnoldy um hello so my name is shelly arnoldi i'm a mother of four teens at west potomac high school um i believe that the progressive agendas that you guys are pushing are actually doing more harm than good um i believe equity

043the restorative justice and gender ideology are not benefiting our kids at all and i want to read a text message because i reached out to some people in our community to get input from actual students my kids give me input i've brought it here before but i'm going to read this directly i'm a junior at westpo and i would love to help you out i just asked for her input on the climate at the school so the ambulance fire trucks and policemen are pretty normal but the story behind them is crazy from what i've heard they're there because students will take pills and od in the bathrooms they'll there because fights too a lot of the students at westbow have zero respect and will do just whatever they want and we'll talk to adults however

044they want i don't see anything because anything done about it because the behavior either not all but some of the teachers couldn't care less they already do because students have just driven them to that point the school does not have a great security at all now that's the way the english is but that's the the thing that the kids are thinking so i don't believe that guns are the biggest danger i believe prescription drug drugs and psych meds are and i think nobody's addressing the issue of our mental health and the drugs the overdoses are rampant and no one ever mentions it i haven't heard of one gun death in fairfax county yet you spent an awful lot of time talking about gun violence our community focus on our community and actually look at the

045stats and one other thing your message that you continue to push out about vaccine up and doing your part if you look at our community our children have not been injured by covid the shot will do more damage than good so stop sending that message our next speaker is bethany heim hello i pulled my daughter from fairfax county public schools during the covet closures because for too long there was no clear plan as to how the school system would reopen no guidance on unmasking our children and no plan to address learning loss now that schools are open and masking is optional i still don't feel comfortable re-enrolling my child given that there isn't a clear path to address learning loss other than online tutoring and lowering standards also i'm not comfortable with combining boys and

046girls as early as fourth grade for the family life education classes my daughter's in second grade i think fourth grade is too early i think this will inhibit children from asking questions and participating in discussions i'm fine with it happening having this happening you know as they're older but fourth grade is too early i do support age-appropriate discussions on people who are transgender however the classroom materials and discussions should be informed by medical professionals who understand the long-term effects of medical treatments that prevent a child from experiencing puberty and how hormones affects a person's ability to to enjoy intimacy with their partners and have children i support books in schools that portray diverse families and the lgbtqia community but i do not support sexually graphic content in classrooms regardless of sexual orientation i don't support

047compelled speech and i don't support keeping information from parents i'm looking for this school board to be more balanced i think many of you are too focused on advocacy and not sufficiently focused on education thank you thank you our next speaker is katerzina jerzac dr brabrand madame chair and members of the school board um my name is katarina yejak i stand before you as a teacher i teach at johns hopkins university but i also teach as a substitute teacher mostly at mclean high school mclean high school has a day that starts at 8 10 a.m and ends at 2 55 p.m there is no recess there are no breaks once a month the students get flex time when they can do whatever they want the polish jewish pedagogue and pediatrician janos kortak believed that children

048have the right to the present they ought not to be treated as tickets to the future recently without any consultations with teachers parents or students mclean high school introduced electronic passes it's a pilot program every time a student needs to leave the classroom and lessons are 19 minutes long to go see another teacher a counselor to use the library or the testing center to go to the bathroom or to the nurse they have to fill out an electronic form that includes a number of things the teacher has to approve the form and often the system will flash a red inscription for instance silver hallway bathroom beyond capacity when the student comes back the teacher has to approve their return electronic passes do not have a go outside to play frisbee option they do not take

049going outside into account at all what is the crime that these kids have committed that they are treated like prisoners why are the teachers put in the role of prison guards so many of them are already on psychotropic medications and suffering from various problems and self-harming do they need more stress thank you [Music] thank you our next speaker is anna stolie persky [Applause] hi first of all i want to thank you for the resolution as a jewish american i want to thank the work of the jcrc to and the adl of which i am a board member and i know that they do a lot of work in the jewish community and also for a lot of marginalized communities i wanted to recognize with love in my heart how hard it was for so many

050of us parents to send our children in to school in the wake of what happened in texas and the trust that we have when we do it and to recognize all of our school employees for even going to work in such a frightening environment secondly i wanted to talk about another kind of safety and that's emotional and social and how important it is for our students to feel as safe as possible and how community helps with that and i've seen that in my kids sports but i wanted to particularly to talk about the arts and uh choir and also theater and um what a special community that is because it um allows for students who maybe don't bit into certain boxes to feel welcome and when students feel safe they learn better and they're going

051to grow into adults who are good citizens and they become compassionate and they look out for others and i want to thank fcps for all the opportunities they offer in that way and also for thinking calmly about all types of bullying and helping our students our marginalized students and especially our lgbtq students to feel as safe as possible in this world thank you thank you our next speaker is steve robinson all right good evening and thank you board for your time i'm concerned about the proposed changes to the student rights and responsibilities regulation and the effects of unintended consequences we should all share in efforts to provide a safe learning environment for our kids one that is free of political divisiveness and safe from efforts to add excessive sexualization in the classroom at young ages

052when children are still learning about themselves while also building shared values in a civil society that we can all grow in as i look for lessons from the school's coveted lockdowns and mask mandates i saw an eighth grade girl's pencil sketch of herself which was excellently done a profile of her but sadly it had tears streaming from her face and instead of a mask on her face during the mask mandates that had two hands smothering her face depicting her mental anguish from the mask rules this surely must have been an undid unintended consequence of what was a well-meaning health and safety policy now today uh proposed gender rules and punishments threaten potentially more unintended consequences along with risks of unconstitutional compelled speech for example would a student be punished for not speaking at all to

053another student because they have problems from their firmly held beliefs contrary to what the rules might present i was raised in a family that was taught to love each other we raised our children that way i come from a multiracial family i have a gay brother that i love and some looking for ways to avoid problems that we can't foresee so we probably have enough disciplinary options today but one might consider a neutral communication option for students to learn together such as they can address others using the term classmate followed by their name if they're not going to use gendered pronouns and this is a term the navy uses like a shipmate i too support increased attention to our drug problem and strongly against thank you our next speaker is saundra davis it's so wonderful

054to see so many parents concerned about their children's education participating today i come here to attempt to disrupt the haze of groupthink if only for two minutes at a time recent studies have conclusively shown students suffer dramatic learning loss with school closures or low income minority and special ed populations have been hit the hardest yet when i look at the school board agenda even tonight we see nothing addressing this issue it's easier to fuss over the language of the sr and r than to address their tractable educational problems in the fcps school system in order to do that this board would have to acknowledge your failures there's also common sense concerns regarding the proposed revisions to the sr and r for starters we really do want to know why it would only take a student

055assertion to garner support and services without a medical diagnosis or screening and parental guardian consent would be optional it is optional actually this is completely contrary to the experience of our special ed students students with dyslexia and other disabilities are waiting for their services and they have more than assertions why you were stuck in your haze of agreement this week the virginia department of education came to town they held a public engagement session on mathematics and standards of learning revisions they invited parents families and community members they didn't lecture they listened they actually wanted feedback and how refreshing was that i'm so sad to not see any of you there before voting on the srnr perhaps all of you could host an in-person town hall to allow public discussion to changes in the language and

056offer transparent reports thank you our next speaker is alice gao alice gao [Applause] our next speaker is david walrod our next speaker is catherine gorka are we still on our list or have we gone okay can i start please do i'm sorry that's okay no child should face discrimination for any reason and we should support every effort to teach children to treat each other with kindness but there is a vast difference between teaching tolerance and promoting gender fluidity when a 12 year old girl decides to remove her breasts is a decision she will live with for the rest of her life when she takes heavy doses of testosterone it causes irreversible damage why are you so keen to promote a very complex ideology on children by forcing children to deny the visible and scientific reality

057of male and female you are trying to mainline gender fluidity you will ruin lives with such policies you will deny children their first amendment rights you will confuse children but worst of all you will contribute to the irreversible mutilation of children's bodies you are putting your own aggressive progressive agenda ahead of the safety of our children we also have one video this evening submitted by sue zoldak [Applause] good evening i'd like to speak today about academic excellence it is one of the four founding pillars of do better fcps accountability transparency excellence and leadership focus on a high caliber education this week the washington post editorial board wrote this piece lamenting how schools were moving away from high standards and accountability but since you were elected in 2019 what have you done to raise that bar

058you hid under the pandemic to lower grading standards allow kids to put off work with no consequence discourage students from showing up for the sol the one thing research has shown to raise minorities up encourage academic rigor and a pride in the pursuit of excellence your own teacher at justice high sent a 4 000 word email to national ed columnist jay matthews the new push to ease grading and teacher practices is the biggest issue facing secondary education in decades he wrote low expectations are demoralizing it's time to raise expectations increase enrollment and expand teaching capability in gifted education increase access to foreign language classes in elementary schools get pre-algebra and algebra access to students who are ready in 5th and 6th grade increase enrollment in ap and ib classes support more advanced technical skills finally

059stop telling kids the lie that grades and test scores don't matter and that everyone should get an equal outcome no matter how much effort they put in that's why today we are starting this counter the day since you've addressed academic rigor counter it's currently set at zero stop riding on the backs of living in one of the richest corridors in america in the shadow of the u.s government government contractors the dallas tech corridor the u.s federal government stop celebrating the successes of these families children ask yourself what you've done to bring the focus of academic excellence back to fairfax where it belongs thank you we are now are up to agenda item 3.02 superintendent matters and i'll call on dr brabrand thank you chairman picarski members of the board community members a couple of things

060i want to go over this evening one just a reminder i want to follow up on some earlier comments that were made by the school board chair picarski on behalf of the entire fcps staff i want to extend sympathies to all those who lost lost loved ones in texas this week and to the entire of all day community we stand with texas and those families and that community there to honor the students teachers and families affected by the events of the past week we all think about our own children our own community our own students and staff and i want everyone to know that fcps is committed to continuing to do everything we can locally working with also our state and federal authorities to ensure the highest level of safety possible at our schools and

061our facilities i also want to encourage families who may feel anxious and students who feel anxious please reach out to our schools to our teachers our counselors and we'll put you in touch with the resources needed to help you or your child we have amazing counselors social workers psychologists and we have many resources available to assist our entire community i also just want to share one of the things that we're continuing to do to reach out to our community is reaching out in a multi-lingual fashion and i am happy to share that fcps uh our multilingual family podcast which we began just over the last year um received a communicator award so so proud of our department of instructional services information technology the office of communications and community relations and the office of professional learning

062and family engagement for doing this podcast and making it happen um the podcast started back in january of 2021 so as i said just a little over a year ago and it's designed for families that speak arabic korean and spanish in the home is a way to keep them up to date on timely important information with over 4 000 entries across the country and world to receive this award in this competitive category was outstanding work and i thank them so much and we'll continue to do everything we can to reach out to our families and we'll be sharing i won't have an opportunity to do it but i know dr reed and our team will be talking about as we go through the summer and start next school year the results of our family engagement

063survey and what additional things we'll be doing to reach out to families in the coming year i also just want to mention it is mental health acceptance month but we know mental health is a real issue and will remain for some time in our schools it was before the pandemic even more so as we go into this post-pandemic phase the month of may is mental health acceptance we're doing a lot on our schools around this including therapy dog visits calming corners some schools have set up knitting and crocheting clubs uh we have a our minds matter club at most of our high schools to reduce stigma around mental health and promote it school-wide we had frost middle school host a gratitude challenge and really we're really continuing to encourage all of our schools every elementary

064school this year had a morning meeting as part of their instructional day and every middle and high school had the opportunity for time to work on life skills and really deal with kids mental health and social emotional skills so we're very proud of that work we're also proud that yes starting actually i guess it has already started a very few have started and it really kicks up next week is graduation uh season so congratulations already to the seniors of quanda road school they have the distinction of being the first graduates of 2022 it was held yesterday and we're really going to start to turn the corner next week running through june 9th and i'm so proud of our seniors uh and i'm so proud of all the work that our staff and faculty and schools

065are doing really to promote them and celebrate them in the weeks ahead so again congratulations class of 2022. speaking of 2022 fcps has earned the 2022 energy star partner of the year award and sustained excellence this continues to be testament to mr plattenberg and his team and facilities in transportation for their incredible work around the environment this is given by the upa and department of education and just proud of their tremendous work there thank you very much thank you dr barry brand we are now up to agenda item 3.03 student representative matters and i'll call him mr chowdhury and i think this is the last time we'll be seeing him as a current fcps student soon to be graduate so um floor is yours oh my goodness thank you for that warm welcome madam chair

066ford members if you tell a kid that they're dumb nine out of ten times they're going to believe it a couple days ago i was telling my friend callie from west potomac about some of the success stories of students who weren't in aap but did amazing in high school and went to very highly ranked colleges cali quickly reminded me that that's the exception and not the norm because of how we set up kids path to success so early and because the kids we don't invest in are the kids who struggle she told me that 1 out of 10 times they go to an elite school that's amazing but 9 out of 10 times it's going to mold the way they think about themselves and their education for the rest of their lives and that really

067speaks to something just because there are kids who make it out of gen ed and do well doesn't mean that the two-track system we set up as it stands is okay i've read off the statistics before but there are humans real people who are affected by the policies set in place and there's no justification for the fact that 70 of students who get screened for aap are considered purely based on parental recommendation there's no justification for the fact that our district is more than 27 latino but less than 12 percent of our level 4 students are latino dr reed always talks about the story of her current district's high capacity learners program her current district did not screen everyone for advanced academics and it led to a consultant telling her that her district had an

068outdated racist system for determining eligibility so she helped her board gather the political courage to make change and minority enrollment in the program increased by 600 percent we find ourselves in a similar state where not every child is considered before a level 4 screening committee and an overwhelming majority of students who are considered for eligibility come from that parent referral pathway the current setup isn't sustainable for our community and i am exhausted the student advocates i've worked with are exhausted because every time we speak with people in power we're told the process is just fine and that we need to let it go i reject the idea that it's just fine to judge kids intelligence based on how involved their parents are and how much support they get at home i reject the idea that

069it's okay to let our minority students fall by the wayside and be treated as dumb or feel as though they're dumb because our programs weren't designed for them because oftentimes we do choose to raise standards for a select few rather than investing in and raising standards for all students we can't just slap the labels of equity and one fairfax onto everything we see we need to start actually doing equity and expanding access for students with a high degree of potential and i believe that high degree of potential lies in all of our students but regardless the students we label as having high potential don't really reflect not just the demographics of our district but the list of students out there who are capable i mean just when you look at the demographics right you see

070level two is a lot more diverse than level three which is a lot more diverse than level four um and i think we need to work to ensure that it's not just young scholars it's not just level two that reflects the talent and the wisdom in our county but that it's present in our level four programs the day-to-day realities faced by our 63 minority 27 percent low income 20 esau 14 disability population are not reflected in the systems our district has in place often because they were created decades upon decades ago and if we don't take decisive action to change that and to expand access to opportunity the future of fairfax county will suffer thank you thank you mr chaudhry you've got some fans in the house all right agenda item 3.04 fiscal year 23

071office of the auditor general risk assessment and audit plan and i'd like to introduce the incredibly talented auditor general miss esther co who will present the fiscal year 23 office of the auditor general risk assessment and audit plan and i would just remind my colleagues that we will have a full work session on this plan in the coming weeks so we will have an opportunity to discuss in detail welcome thank you good evening everyone it is my pleasure tonight to present the fiscal year 23 office of auditor general the oag risk assessment and audit plan time flies this is my sixth year to present the annual audit plan to the school board so to begin i would like to thank the school board for establishing and elevating the office of auditor general that we can

072continue to provide quality independent audit services i also want to take this opportunity to appreciate my oag team members where we are a team of eight i'm pretty sure they are watching the live stream right now for the dedication and professionalism in the work that we conducted last but not the least i would like to appreciate fcps leadership and administration for their continuous collaboration throughout the audit process i'm proud to report that oag has been able to work independently and collaboratively with all our stakeholders on the current year's engagement and we're looking forward to another successful year for fiscal year 23. so with that i would like to just make sure the clicker the first slide of maybe i thank you so um is the contents of tonight that i would like to first talk

073about the objective and then we will drill more down to the outcomes of the result and at the end of the presentation there are some useful links that the school board members and community members can access and review more details about the office of auditor general i would like to point out that there are two documents that are uploaded to bot docs tonight i'm going to focus on the presentation and there's an also an other document which provide deeper dive into the process and the audit topics proposed and now i'm too fast um so here are the why about we're doing the risk assessments so just briefly oag reports directly to the school board our office is charged to independently and objectively evaluate the fcps processes and to promote fcps achievement of strategic goals specifically

074in the area of resource stewardship the fiscal year 23 audit plan has already been presented to the audit committee which consists of four school board members and two citizen members both the citizen members are industry experts in finance and audit areas i would like to take this opportunity to thank them as well for their time and expertise towards the school system today i'm sharing the plan with the school board like our chairman has said that there will be a work session of this topic on june 14th where we will have a more extensive dialogue on the details and the school board approval night will be on june 16th and for this slide we're going to talk more about the process of how we do and the risk assessment and identification of the topics so first

075of all we looked at the entire fcps organization and then looked at the auditable universe we adopted an agile approach looked at what is happening in the world such as the covet 19 pandemic impact we then prioritize the audit topics through a to d on the slides above where we interview select feedback from our employees our school board and all the committee members examine the benchmark data of the other internal audit departments around the nations we also consider the financial reputational and operational risk that are impacting the school system and after that then we identify the fy 23 audit plan so instead of waiting towards the end of the presentation here is the outcome that we have to focus on for the fy 23 audit plan so the four first four topics are topics that

076we have already started in the current year audit and we will continue to to finish them in uh fiscal year 23. and then we also have six more items listed under new engagements which i'm going to go through in a little bit more details and this colorful chart show you all how we are going to achieve this 10 items and also the respective time frame we held already initial conversation with the stakeholders about the best timing of the audit and we also consider our oag internal resources for your awareness our office consists of seven auditors including myself and we also have one at mean support so going through the next few slides here are all the details about the other topics so for tonight purpose i will not go through each one of them in

077details but as you as you can see they are bucket into the boxes of description what is the audit scope who will be our internal stakeholders and also the schedule the first slide is about a very important initiative that undertaken by the school board this is the special education review we have identified the american institutes for research could conduct this review on our behalf my office served as the project liaison we are currently in the year 2 which is also the final year of this review we are planning to present the final result to the school board later this year the second audit is about iot technology platform as well as project management of it projects so this is a audit that we have already started this year and again this has been discussed last

078year in our audit plan so i won't go into the details and we plan to complete this audit as well later this year the third one is legal audit so this audit we have started late in the later part of this fiscal year and is currently in process and we expect it to complete it in the fall of this year as well number four is local school activity funds audit for the current fiscal year this is a statutory required state audit oag is accomplishing this audit through continuous monitoring which i'm going to explain in a little bit as well as the year-end procedures audit number five is employee evaluation process audit this has already been on the approved plan for this current fiscal year and we have postponed it to fiscal year 23 because of

079an other pressing priority and for this slide onwards six through the end of this presentation all these topics are new topics that we added for fiscal year 23 so i may want to spend just a little bit time to get us acquainted with what they are number six is continuous monitoring including the so3 transactions so we will continue to highlight this audit because of the additional federal funding that fcps received because of the pandemic oag will continue to monitor the transactions and check for compliance with grant agreements fcps policy and regulation as well as the fidelity of implementations of how we are using the fund according to the approved school plans and this is another slide to explain more about continuous monitoring that we will also use this model to incorporate the surprise audit objective

080in many of the school and also non-school-based transactions the next one is about it cyber security audit the objective we would like to focus on assessing the sufficiency of the monitoring of the security of our i.t network evaluate compliance determine if our department of technology processes are aligned with leading practices as well as surveying employees understanding towards i.t security the next one is the local school activity fund for the next fiscal year as i have explained it before this is a statutory requirement to do every year and i won't go into the details about it since we have already talked about it nine is the succession planning and leadership development audit and effective succession planning and leadership development is imperative to the continuity of the fcps operations we propose to look at three different things

081number one is to determine whether fcps has developed and executed a succession plan and leadership development strategy leaders number two is to determine if we have analyzed the leader's profile and statistics number three is we're going to research and benchmark best practices and here are all the other oag duties that we accomplished and i would like to highlight that we will continue to manage the fraud waste and abuse hotline and we will continue to publish our audit bus uh which is our periodical to make sure the um the updates about the audit highlights and what's happening about the risk assessment is getting to the community members so thanks to the school board members for helping us to message this audit buzz our subscription right now has been over 1700 so thank you so much we

082also will continue to do outreach and education with providing trainings to our employees and the last session of the slides are some of the other topics that i would like to raise for the school board considerations currently we haven't included them in the proposed oag plan but i would like to bring it to it to the attention of the school board in case if any of this should should be placed or one that i i proposed earlier the first one is about the foyer and the ferpa process freedom of information act and the federation education right and privacy act audit we did not propose to do it in fiscal year 23 even though we have um three school board members and 21 employees to suggest that is mainly because this process is currently under reorganization

083while we know that this is a critical topic to look at we suggest to look it look at it after fiscal year 23. the second one is the telework audit and considering that currently we already have the employee evaluation process audit which is a trial focus already we we suggested that that this audit also not to complete in fy 23. we saw that there's one school board member and 36 employees suggested for this topic and the next one is the division y project management audit this topic we received interest from five school board members and one employee with the new superintendent joining us soon oag recommends that this topic can be brought to her attention so that there is an opportunity to implement the division-wide project management structure before oag audits it you know and

084i just want to mention that also in our current it audit which is in process we have already included the project management component for that audit so we can capture that look at it during fy23 and if we need to do a division-wide project management audit we can consider that in the future year the last one is about curriculum development my office received this topic from a school board member as this topic is not a core competency with oag ohe will not recommend to audit it in fiscal year 23. unless the school board would like to hire an external expert similar to how we handle the special education review where my office can serve as the project liaison and we are also thinking that with the new superintendent joining soon it may be a good

085idea to bring this topic to her attention before we decide to audit it or not so quickly next up we will meet again on june 14th and we talked about the approval night will be june 16th and here are the links that i mentioned earlier on so with that i would like to conclude my presentation and i'm happy to answer any questions that any one of you may have thank you mrs coe i will call on miss mclaughlin followed by miss cohen uh thank you miss coe for the presentation and as you know i'm an enormous uh advocate for the value of your office and the work that you do so i appreciate that we have time this evening at least to kind of put it on all of our radar that this is going

086to come up so if i understand correctly we will have the board work session to discuss this on the 14th yeah and then we're going to vote on it on the 16th uh to my colleagues i mean i i realize that maybe some people will think that this will be an easy no-brainer but i i'm really concerned that uh the for the significance and the importance of the audit plan and the audit work to have 48-hour turnaround time from our work session to then turn around and vote on it do we have any other options here because i i want to be mindful to each other it doesn't give us time to we know in our work sessions we don't even get a chance to talk what we get to do is ask questions and

087so i just i know we don't want to find ourselves then literally writing amendments motions at the table so msco when do you need this adopted so i think it will be best if it can be adopted before june 30th as that's the fiscal year end but we can work with the school board because we already have some of the um audits ongoing the carry forward one so i think it will be best before june 30th that will be my ask but we also understand that if we may need to go to early july i would defer to the school board to let me know you know what timing worked best yeah i i would ask for consideration that i i hear everything you're saying but i don't without looking at the calendar i don't

088know ms midday what's the next business meeting after this the 16th of june june 30. well there you go so we we could technically look at that i i would ask for my colleagues and especially the chair and vice chair to think about that i i think it's not a good idea that we have a work session and two days later we're voting the other thing i will say is if i understood you correctly the foia ferpa audit you mentioned not doing that at this time because it's currently under review and revision by the superintendent and his um administration that's my understanding yeah okay dr brabrand i wasn't familiar with that could you just briefly say what does that actually mean yeah we've we're hiring some additional positions given the workload that's come out of

089that foia and ferpa office and so that's some of the discussion obviously the board will determine it but if you want to see what it means by putting the additional resources in and then how effective it is we know um we know we're understaffed right now and the volume continues to increase especially there's been some state legislator changes in richmond that are actually only now going to make the volume higher so we want to make sure when the board does look at the results of the audit that they're getting an accurate picture of what we have but in the end it's your own decision of whether you want to do it now or wait a little bit longer until the folks are in yeah i know that tonight is not a work session and i'm

090especially looking at my colleagues who are hoping i really appreciate that it is not the work session yet i would just say that ms cody give you a heads up i'll want to probe that a little bit more uh maybe we'll talk offline before that 14th but what's going through my mind is continuous improvement is far more than just if we add more staff i think there's a lot that we can learn about what's been working maybe what's not been working and it's great news dr brabrand that we're going to bring on more staff i quote completely understand with the changing landscape but i'd also don't want to bring on more staff and we still have some things that we need to improve on the actual processes that we have in there and so then

091the only other thing i'll say is you know i am a huge uh advocate on the project management so um i am also aware that our incoming superintendent brings a lot of experience from her existing district so i'll wait to talk thank you for the heads up so we i will be prepared for the june 14th meeting thank you um thank you again miss co we always so appreciate you coming here and your perpetual patience with all of us as we work to navigate and make sure that we're being as helpful to you in these topics as we can two quick questions that i had one just following up on what ms mclaughlin said but i do want to highlight what you said about in the forthcoming audits that you're doing that you are using

092the project management as a piece in assessing um our some of the projects going forward so i wondered if you could just mention that one more time sure thank you so i was mentioning that currently we have an it audit ongoing the hardware and the like implementation audit so there is a piece of project management within that so we are going to look at some selected samples of how our department of technology is managing their projects awesome and i think that's maybe one thing that all of us would love to see going forward as we do that we appreciate that when you take on a department or a big project that you're using that project management as a piece of of the assessment tool so that's awesome thank you for that um and i agree

093with ms mclachlan it'll be exciting to see um what you think going forward the only question that i had at this juncture was you reference the error report special ed and mentioned that you're hoping to get that to us and i wondered if you had any time frame yet i know everybody's kind of chomping at the bit to get that report sure thank you for the question so the timing of the final presentation of the report will be between september and november of timing so i have already reached out to our kind chairs to start looking at the calendar for dates and in the meantime i have been closely working with the american institute for research making sure that they will be delivering the report within that time thank you so much and just a

094reminder to the public one of the reasons that that's pushed out a tiny bit twofold one was of course some of the covet limitations that we had but the other was after the first report was delivered to us we all had some additional um questions and and some a little bit of a deeper dive that we wanted done and so we worked with you and their office to expand the scope a little bit so just a reminder to folks who feel like oh i thought we were getting this at the end of the year um it's also because we work to make it what we hope is going to be a much better and more helpful report thanks to you so thank you again i look forward to the work session appreciate it ms omesh

095followed by dr anderson thank you and thank you miss ko always for your professionalism uh and the great work of your team i actually wanted to follow up just on the time in question if you could help clarify i guess on page 19 i'm trying to make sense of some of the pieces not just for the special ed study but when we're reviewing at the work session are we going to be expecting any of these reports to be complete if you could just speak to which of them might be completed or what else we can be expecting so i think the focus of the only work session missile mesh will be focusing on approving the fiscal year 23 audit plan so um and afterwards i think there will be another opportunity for me to come

096to the full school board for the annual audit report that likely will be in december january time frame to summarize everything that we have completed in that school year but of course that during the audit committee meetings that the audit committee will discuss and looked at all the audit reports that we produced okay yeah i guess it's helpful to have preliminary findings of some sort especially with the srp's which actually leads me to my second category of questions i know you know in some of the earlier work sessions um we had talked about maybe sr2 in forming just kind of like the rollout of that informing how we evaluate sr3 based on our findings etc um i don't know if that ended up being folded in that was our last conversation around uh the esser

097audit but if you just walk me through some of the thinking around you know where we left off and where we are today sure sure um so we have already looked at the i think first few months of the so3 transactions so um we are planning to uh present to the audit committee in may and that meeting was cancelled so we will be presenting in the june meeting for the so3 transaction result and the samples that we looked at is only a couple of months so it's a little bit short of four million dollars of expenditures we did not expand specifically on sr2 is because not too long ago we have looked at the grant management program and which we believe that that so2 likely maybe follow the similar processes and sop standard of operations

098there definitely if we see there are any trends right throughout the so3 review and again mr mesh this will be a ongoing process right it's not just at one point we were continuous looked at it using the surprise audit lens to select some of the transaction that may be happening or may look out of ordinary to identify potential challenges so we'll continue to look at that and i think per one of the work sessions that we discussed before my office will likely come with the programmatic assessment some point in time i'm losing track of time maybe like june july or august time frame so that that the school board members can have one comprehensive pictures not just looking at the program but also financially compliance-wise how we are doing right exactly that was kind of

099or see being one piece right yeah um so i guess for those four months uh right is that what i heard you say or the the amount of time four months a million we looked at four million sorry of um i i i'm sorry i don't have the first time but i can yeah right so for that four million have you been able to already kind of derive recommendations and and feed that into this iterative process of improvement yes exactly so we identify observations um and and it will be reported to the audit committee in june and all the documents are actually available if any community members are interest they are on the may 25th i believe audit committee site so they are there we definitely is continuously to improve the audit attributes for example

100what we are looking at based upon the outcomes of the review right and then i guess do you have any role in tracking kind of the follow-up there so i assume you've presented that to leadership teams somehow right so that they can better yes we work yes exactly we work very closely with financial services team we also work very closely with our um sr3 uh program team uh lead by um evangeline so we work very closely with them and let them know what are the items that we can improve upon so it's a continuous improvement process okay would it be possible to have even just a brief update i think in kind of showing us how beneficial this priority has been as being a priority and what you've found and how that's been in informing

101the work because i think that was the original intention right yes because it's an iterative process we don't want to just come up with a report after all the grants are already spent right it's like how can we improve based on what we're already learning yep so maybe at this point i may not have all the details with me if i may save that for our work session and then to have a piece of that to be included there if that is workable for you suggesting yeah yeah yeah not right now yeah yeah thank you yeah we can do that thanks and then the final thing is just i know in our last audit conversation we also talked about potentially having a priority related to fidelity of implementation of all kinds of programs and being

102a little bit more innovative but specifically as an example we discussed like language access and and things like that in terms of um our commitments and then what is experienced on the ground by the community and whether those match up i don't know if you guys are able to explore that any further or um so so yeah i think we talk about that it's more about the programmatic side of like the results is the um is the return on investment being met or is the outcomes of the reason why we have the programs being met so that i think we may need a little bit more conversation about because our core competency is on you know auditing processes right whether they're effective or efficient but not so much on program evaluation so to speak so

103i think that's definitely a good area but my team right now may not be equipped with those um training right in order to provide those type of services we can explore more it may involve a little bit of reorganization so to speak lack of a better word for the office of auditor general um if it is something that the school board would like to pursue we can look into that further okay so where do we start having that conversation for the work session just so that uh i know what needs to be done sure thank you okay thanks dr anderson sorry about that i was just waiting my turn um thank you ms ko for this presentation i should just have two quick things that i'd like to share um you talked a little bit

104in terms of why some of the topics were not selected but you talked about the level of school board member interest and staff interest you don't have to do it now but definitely this is something i would like at the work session if you could speak a little bit more in greater detail regarding your process to determining which audit topics that you do select obviously some are beyond the scope of the office and i understand that but when you with all things being created equal i'd like to get a better sense of how is it that you're prioritizing in terms of which ones that you will take up is it because of a higher interest by school board members is it a priority of the school division again you don't have to answer now but

105if you'd like to you could feel free but i'd like to have some more information about that yeah thank you dr anderson i think i try to stay at a very high level throughout this conversation about some of the considerations about why not of those other topics but i definitely want to bring it more transparently right it's a discussion i want to make sure what the office does meet and exceed the school board expectation so maybe at the work session we can drill further down into it and discuss and explain further and thank you for giving me that opportunity to do so that would be very much appreciated secondly i do have a number of other questions but i will save that for the work session but i did want to echo what ms mclaughlin

106just shared it's a little bit short timeline to be able to turn around the the session provide feedback have that be provided for digestion and consideration and reflection before the vote so if there's some space to move that further i would be in high support of that thank you ms tolen and then um mr kofax our audit chair thank you very much for the presentation um it's a pleasure to work with you on the audit committee so um i appreciate all the information i just had a quick um comment question i think to kind of follow up on the conversation that you just had with miss omesh um you know one of the things i'm excited about that we're doing around our esser funds is you know the fact that we've brought in you know

107evangeline and her team to do you know some project management around the use of those funds and really look at the programmatic use and i think it must have been region five one of our arrest teams i was talking with recently about the the quarterly reviews that schools are going to be doing to look at is the money that they're spending actually impacting the students and impacting learning loss and you know what we're trying to do with those funds so so i think it would be nice to hear at the work session i think how you do interface with that that programmatic work that's been done and those decisions around that i understand that your work is really looking at the procedures and the the um the interactions and the transactions that they're doing but

108if they're really doing that quarterly review it would be interesting to hear how you are interacting with that quarterly review process that the program side is doing thank you mr olin and i i think you are hats on that our team focus is on the compliance right of the transaction which is our core competency and at the same time we do looked at the purpose of the funds right what has been approved on the school plan does it look reasonable right for the items that they spend on from an independent auditor point of view of course i do not have the educational strong background right to judge the to be the subject matter expert evangeline and her team they are so um one of the thing we can possibly look at is the quarterly review

109right we can treat that as one of the key control right meaning the key checks and balances and see if that is happening if so what is the quality what is the outcome we can look at the paper trail what they have agreed upon doing and in reality have they really done it or not so i think those type of services we can offer because to me it's part of the audit right if that is really happening and if so is that effective but we cannot um evaluate like is that really worth the money or is that really um change improve the quality and bridging the learning gap and for the wellness that will be something that will be the research and strategic improvement office maybe they will be better suited to evaluate that i

110believe right they may make a decision about you know is this piece of software for example that they're they're using to stem learning loss in mathematics looking at student data is it really working or not no we're going to make a change you would follow the how does that decision the decisions made how do they make the change how do they change their expenditures right is that so it might just be interesting to hear more about that at the session okay thank you thank you so much appreciate it thank you missko i just want to thank you um thank you and your team for your hard work ethic for your professionalism i uh this is the first time in all my tenure on this board that i've worked with audit and i so am enjoying

111my opportunity to serve as the chair because i get to work with you and your team uh two things i would like to note madam chair i agree with my colleagues who stated we would like a little more time between the work session and the um you know approval of this plan because i think there may be some changes that you know other board members or or updates that we would like to give and so i just want to state that now for the record and uh hope you and miss seismore heiser good as i read your name because my brain is and you you too can adjust the calendar accordingly i would appreciate that and um i will also at that time um and i will give you a heads up there may be

112a topic that i'm bringing up that we're kind of talking about tonight but will later on in the budget but it may it may be able to involve audit in some way thank you thank you mr thank you it's always a pleasure and um we will look at the calendar we will try to do our best in years past it has been a pretty smooth process to approve this but if there seems to be some thought on the board that we will need more time i'm sure we can we can work that out no problem thank you all right agenda item 4.01 confirmation of action taken in closed meeting i'll call i think somebody had their mic on okay i'll call on dr anderson for a motion i moved that the continuing contract teachers identified

113in closed session be dismissed at the conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year and their contracts not renewed for the 2022-2023 school year is there a second seconded by mr frisch all those in favor that is is okay um all those opposed all those abstaining emotion passes i'll call on miss corbett sanders for a motion i move that the probationary teacher identified in closed session be dismissed at the conclusion of the 2021-2022 school year and their contract not be renewed for the 2022-2023 school year is there a second second seconded by ms darina cofax all those in favor that is unanimous motion passes with um one person away i'll call on miss cohen for a motion i move that a recommend i move that a recommendation to revoke the virginia teaching license of the teacher identified

114enclosed meeting be forwarded to the superintendent of public instruction is there a second seconded by ms corbett sanders all those in favor that is unanimous with one person away i now call on miss corbett sanders for another motion i moved to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who has been charged with a crime in the community and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent is there a second seconded by ms sternakofax all those in favor all those opposed all those abstaining motion passes madam chair if i could be recognized i'd like to just kindly correct the record of my previous vote and support the one i abstained that was meant to be this one okay without objections can we please fix that in the thank you thank you so much okay

115we are miss corbin sanders again for a motion i moved to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who physically assaulted another student on school grounds and to modify the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent is there a second seconded by mr frisch all those in favor is your hands please all those opposed all those abstaining that motion passes with one away from the table and i'll now call on miss cohen for a motion i'm sorry miss tollin for a motion apologize rhymes i move that the contracts for the teachers discussed in closed session not be renewed for the 2022-23 school year is our second seconded by dr anderson all those in favor okay that is unanimous with those of us who are at the table we're finally to the main event of the

116night agenda item 4.03 fiscal year 23 approved budget i'll call on budget chair miss corbett sanders for our motion thank you madam chair i move that the school board adopt the fiscal year 2023 approved budget as detailed in the fiscal year 2023 advertised budget modified by the adjustments included in the agenda item is there a second seconded by budget vice chairman stolen miss corbett sanders would you like to speak to the motion yes thank you madam chair if you can just hold on one moment please this has been another tough year due to the pandemic but as the budget committee chair i am generally pleased with the budget development process for the fiscal year 23 but recognize that we can always improve on our processes and look forward to further feedback from all of my

117colleagues i am thankful for the partnership of the budget committee's vice chair elaine tolland lee burden our assistant superintendent and director of finance alice wiggington it has been a pleasure to work together over the past few months with you ladies last year in october we asked for a compilation of follow-ons from fiscal year 18 through fiscal year 22 to ensure that all had been addressed in our budget a listing of all budget follow-ons was provided with only one the middle school start times unresolved also in october the budget committee sent out a survey to determine the school board priorities and then conducted a work session to discuss it in greater detail the survey asked school board members to share themes the fiscal year 23 budget should be centered around and requested feedback about non-negotiable items

118and solicited ideas on how the budget development process might be smoother based on the survey results a resolution was approved by the november 11 2021 regular meeting a priority for this board was to address the critical needs of the school system as we now navigated out of covet priorities included mitigating and remediating the impact of covet 19 on academics on school and academic achievement learning loss and achievement gaps investments in literacy and the science of reading as well as investments in school counselors nurses psychologists behavioral interventionists assistant principals and special ed leads in elementary schools and the recruitment and retention of world-class educators including compensation professional development and planning time i know that ms tolland will speak to the much needed investments in the environmental sustainability that are also included in this budget at the

119beginning of the year we experienced bus driver and substitute shortages and this board increased pay for both of those categories and continues to work in that area we also did out of uh in those areas having said this there are a number of follow-on motions tonight to this main motion which will also address compensation and i look forward to that discussion inc in conclusion dr brabrand provided recommendations to balance the budget and address school board priorities identified in the follow-on to our advertised budget adoption in february and then we again revise recommendations to include other school board priorities identified at the may 10th work session and i hope that there is an agreement to accept these recommendations dr brabrand's recommendations represent the superintendent and his team's best thinking and will put us on a good

120path forward in fiscal year 23 as we are led by superintendent reed the school board reached consensus on a few select amendments including included in this omnibus motion and follow-on motion for the year-end review which will be discussed later this evening so once again i have i'd like to extend my gratitude and thankfulness to dr brabrand his team and the budget office for all of their hard work this year and i hope my colleagues will support this motion misstolen thank you um just a couple of items i do uh want to thank our staff and my colleague on the budget team um as corporate sanders but i also really want to thank everyone else you know on the board for your time and all of the discussions around priorities and ideas and things that you

121had around our budget priorities as well i am pleased to see that the budget that we are putting forward tonight um has an array of items that gets at these priorities that we've discussed for the last couple of years you know as ms covert sanders mentioned we did a full review of you know previous motions going back several years early in this process i'm very excited about the focus on strat strong academics looking at funding areas of literacy work phase two of putting aarts in every school improving and increasing the numbers of esol teachers etc we're looking at closing learning gaps providing professional development that's needed for our staff and hiring of key personnel to work in these areas there's a great focus on student and staff mental health by increasing staffing and counselors nurses

122psychologists social workers translators parent liaisons and increasing after-school activities and programs we are looking to make our compensation more competitive we have market scale adjustments and step increases included across the board in this budget we have professional development for all employees not just our teachers and new and increased planning time for our elementary staff which will enable them to really be more focused in the classroom working with our students to work on our learning loss issues increase academics and social emotional support for our students i'm very excited that we have some additional staff in this budget for facilities youth planning to better understand our future capacity needs across the district and funding for sustainability to further the joint work that we are doing with fairfax county around the areas of the environment so that's just

123a taste of some of the great things in the budget so i look forward to hearing from my colleagues and hopefully i'm moving forward with this budget thank you miss mclaughlin thank you um i do want to first express my appreciation uh to my colleagues i know that you have had to listen to me through many uh budget work sessions and hammering at some issues that really have been challenging for me to come to terms with and so i want to begin by expressing my appreciation for your patients with that you know dr brabrand i've always said i love your heart and uh being this is your last budget that you are overseeing i do want to give up a friendly nod to your great care and um and dedication to every single one of

124our employees in the system i know that you are so devoted to making sure that we provide them the most competitive pay possible and i share that commitment with you and as you said this is a good news budget and this is now my 11th budget as a board member and i am thrilled with many aspects that are good news here and and for that i wanted to um recognize you for that uh but you know the that's the good news the the the the difficulty for me the not so good news for me as you know and um you and your team have also had to um uh handle my my numerous probing questions that had to do with how we are delivering professional development are we as a division compared to arlington loudon

125prince william able to do it in the most efficient effective way possible and so you know that's been a hang up for me that when each day costs us almost 11 million dollars it concerns me i did want to spotlight again a good news what you you are proposing for elementary school teachers and the professional development what our elementary school principals have said you know i stand behind you and i appreciate that there is the one final day that i just can't i can't get through um at this point um i also am someone as you know who loves to see the homework and the data behind the decision the holistic data so the salary scale enhancement at 4.2 million it continues to remain a concern for me and that is a permanent thing we're

126going to do you guys i mean you once you layer um you know an added step onto a scale it's there you can't just take it away and given that the county government did add on an extra step at the top for public safety for recruitment and retention purposes we're doing it across all of the scales it's a different approach and i would have felt better had we done the analysis before we commit to it and i guess i'll end up needing a go back so i can finish my remarks thank you dr anderson followed by mr frisch thank you i will be brief i i too um like those who've spoken before me i do want to say thank you to the budget team to miss corbett sanders and ms tomlin your work has

127really resulted in a very smooth budget process and i'm very appreciative of all those extra hours i also want to say thank you to ms burton and her team for answering questions and emails at all hours thank you and all of those folks behind you given that it is your last budget and one of our last time sitting next to each other i do want to say thank you to dr bray brandt i i really felt that in this process more than ever before even though i know we had that weird covert year um i felt like we were all heard in this process and there's something in there that really is important to each of our communities and i'd like to highlight some of that here in my remarks ms tolen did share many

128areas um that were of success and this is a good news budget i i don't want to not say that it is but there are some areas that i'm very excited about um the parent liaison which is an area that has been of great concern to me that has shown up here because we know the work that those individuals put in and being properly compensated was important so thank you to mr mcdonald for conducting that compensation study that did find that those individuals were under market and having the appropriate strategies to remedy that in this budget very excited about the elementary planning because we know how difficult it is for those individuals who do the most planning to have the less the least time in our system not just in our system frankly in every

129system and i've worked in five in elementary always gets the shorter end of that stick um i'm very excited about some of the recruitment and retention strategies we talk about valuing diversity we talk about ensuring that our workforce feels valued and i think these efforts that you have listed here will help to support that the call me mr program i'm very excited about having a stream of diverse candidates on a regular basis especially during a time where there's a teacher shortage and it's just great to have another stream where we can access good candidates i know that there's some areas that we need to continue to work on our bus drivers that's been a conversation that i had at this past work session and i'd like for us to continue uh making sure that all

130of our employees um feel that um those efforts that we're putting forward um i have a follow-on motion later on that i'm putting forward with miss miss cohen that's going to speak to really making sure that we're encompassing the other employees which may not have gotten the um focus of this budget you know i do understand we have a large system and sometimes we have to take small chunks and so i'm looking forward to having those conversations and again thank you to everyone and all of their work on this budget mr frisch thank you sorry there we go um thank you very much i want to thank uh miss corbett sanders and miss tolin for working with staff to get us a very smooth budget process and a very collaborative process indeed we've been working

131on this for a very long time with work sessions and early conversations about priorities that help smooth the way so very much appreciated and i too think this is largely a good news budget but we will always have more work to do and some of the follow-on motions tonight point us in that direction of things that we want to tackle further this year and things that we we will be addressing for years to come i'm also excited about the investments we are making in literacy and professional development academics as ms tolland mentioned we're funding aarts in every school it also includes pay and step increases for our incredible educators and staff again it isn't enough they deserve so much more but it's a down payment on our commitment to them as professionals there is also

132money in here for recruitment and retention for staff with an emphasis on attracting and retaining a workforce that looks like the students and families they serve finally i want to point out that we are investing in our electric bus transition we're up to 28 buses not all of them are here yet but that's what we're at um and our joint environmental task force goals uh of achieving carbon neutrality by 2040 and zero waste by 2030 remember conservation and energy efficiency already saves us eight million dollars a year and that's money that gets reinvested in student success every single year so you can imagine how much more we will save as we lean into that success uh thanks a lot miss seismar heiser great thank you and i don't want to add too much what my

133colleagues have said i too i'm really excited about this budget you know it's interesting we hear a lot about from our community about what are you doing to close gaps and what we're doing is a really holistic budget that's focused on the social emotional support our children need so they can be successful in school family liaison so our families can be true partners in their children's education because the research shows that when families are engaged students do better we are focused on providing advanced academics for all of our students through arts in every school we are focused on increasing the counselors to help our students deal with the increasing mental health needs that our doctors and our psychologists tell us because children who have mental health needs are not available for learning we're focusing on

134paying our teachers and step increases for our teachers and professional development for our teachers so we can have fidelity of implementation of our academics and so we can have teachers who feel valued although we have work to do in that area and we are focusing on some of our most um vulnerable students with the greatest gaps we're focusing on esau teachers special education teacher support for novice teachers special ed department chairs and something i know um the two the special ed communities asked for for a while which is a 2e coordinator and i also am very excited about our strategies to recruit and retain diverse a diverse workforce because studies show that students who see themselves reflected in their school leaders do better and i'm really grateful that we're looking for programs we have a

135multicultural society so it's really important to have a multicultural teaching staff so our students see themselves reflected i'm really grateful to our budget chair and budget vice chair for their hard work and to our budget chair today for being really flexible about our retention strategy so we're not just going towards one program of recruitment and retention but we're giving the flexibility to our new superintendent and our new hr superintendent to take that place holder funds and use it for a program that they think would work best so i'm very excited about that as well and um i want to really just thank ms corbett sanders and miss holland seriously for all your hard work in taking 12 voices and 12 priorities and working hard to bring them into one cohesive and strong budget and thank

136you dr bray brand too um and miss burden and miss whittington for answering all the questions i try not to call you late at night that's when i talk to my daughter in seattle but you know i appreciate all of your hard work and dr bray rend and i appreciate all my colleagues because each of us bring a passion and a knowledge in an area but together i think we're really strong in making sure that we have a good budget so thank you we have some go backs and i will oh miss marin yes hi yes thank you i'm very excited that this budget encompasses so many avenues to continue to strengthen our public education for students at fairfax county um you know i have to wonder when we hear comments from the public as

137we did tonight about nothing on our agenda tonight is about academic instruction i mean the budget is the essence of what we do it's our mechanism for how we provide public services so i certainly encourage the public to be part of the budget process to view the many documents that are online for this evening and have been for months this is the core work of our school board and our school division i'm particularly pleased about the professional development and resources that are going to further expand the science of reading which is going to guide further how we instruct children in literacy and i'm also thrilled that we're getting those special education leads in our elementary school who can assist with not only some of that administrative paperwork and take that off the plate of our

138teachers but also have real you know deeper knowledge with children and understanding their cases and their needs to better provide them services i'm thrilled about more staff to provide the social emotional support for students who we must always remember our children for their children finding their way in the world and they're not only learning academics but they're learning the skills of how to survive on their own and get through life which as we know is quite emotional and can be quite frustrating so and i'm especially thrilled to see our get to green budget the staff budget is doubling to a grand total of four but it's still doubling so i'm gonna take that so it's very exciting thank you uh to uh miss um corbin sanders miss holland and of course miss verdin and mrs

139wiggington and our staff mr smith and thank you mr kofax thank you so my colleagues love when i say you know you should have seen the budget before and and how and dr brabrand loves that too because i always tell him how difficult it was um just prior to him i i had a facebook message that i won't even read but it was one of those notifications and it really talked about suing the state and in really hard language about how difficult these budgets were and i will say this was from 2017. so this wasn't from 50 years ago but so you know no budget's perfect um but this one has some really good things with the msa um those of eligible for step with the professional development with the literacy changes in literacy investments

140there with elementary school planning that has been asked for for a long time um the esau teachers and our special ed teachers and also for what i always advocate is to make sure everyone has that opportunity for getting the most robust education and through our advanced academic programs so by the addition of advanced academic teachers in elementary schools and making sure we a very small portion but a big thing to those kids and those schools that don't have the monies to get robotics kits or algebra manipulatives for those young scholars so i thank everyone for their work i too will have an amendment coming up thank you miss corbett sanders and miss tollen for your hard work for to lee and your team for all of your hard work and always being there and picking

141up the phone when we need to talk or we don't um those of us who don't understand every detail you're right there to help us so thank you so much and i look forward to further dialogue with the follow-on motions as well miss cohen this always turns into a bit of a love fest for miss burden and alice and it should because um man you guys take an awful lot and uh including phone call this morning um for me trying to completely upend the portion of our budget so thank you um for talking me off a cliff but also um always explaining things in a way as miss darynette coped said that um really make a lot of sense so thank you and your patience good gracious your patience um i do i just i

142i so much of what um miss darren at kofax said has really been on my on my heart as we've gone through this budget i really appreciate miss corbett sanders and ms tollin and all the work that you did to go back and look at the kinds of things that we talked about before covid hit and we walked into this new board all of us together and had a lot of shared passions and and everything changed in the blink of an eye and so thank you for going back and looking at where we wanted to be and what we saw kind of as the future um before the world turned upside down i especially want to highlight a couple of things um i mentioned getting to go speak to a teachers for tomorrow class and

143the first thing that i asked them was everyone to go around the room and tell me who their most impactful teacher was and one of the students said named a teacher that she had had in high school last year and she's a senior and she said because she was the first black teacher that i've ever had the first person i ever saw that looked like me so when we question why is this important that's why it's important um bus driver family liaison salary increases thank goodness is it enough absolutely not so we will continue to work on that and you have our commitment the tam office our talent and recruitment i just again working on a skeleton crew thank you thank you we're really excited about all the things that sean is going to be

144able to do going back into that role and help us continue to find these amazing teachers who and staff and bus drivers and food service workers and maintenance folks and custodians who make this school system the amazing school system that it is and the only you know i can't end on all positive the only thing i will just encourage is as we bring those sped leads in please please please ensure that they are not getting a caseload which is what we have promised them as part of this so please be mindful of that as you watch those things happen um in our elementary schools but again thank you to everybody for such a collaborative process and i look forward to voting yes that was very good miss going we do have a couple of go

145backs miss mclaughlin thank you i just wanted to wrap up a couple things that i didn't get to touch on um first of all i will continue to reiterate my concern that we have underfunded our office of facilities management for far too long in receiving a chart from mr plattenberg i'm just going to read this out so that it is on everyone's mind in infrastructure replacement it has pretty much been flat um since 2000 fiscal year 2011. um you might have had like a one million bump and that was about it um when you go to major maintenance if you look at it it's pretty much been flat since and with just one year bump last year i say that because anyone who's talking with their principals and their community know that there continue to

146be annual maintenance needs and so um you know i know dr brayburn this isn't the problem you will inherit um and i do know again that i think you um and your team do struggle with being able to prioritize but i i do worry that i think it has um been asked to do a lot with not much infusion of funding and that's been a concern to me i do want to also thank my colleagues on the intensive conversation that you have brought to the to this board's awareness on bus driver pay scales the compression piece really does concern me i know we're going to talk about that in a little bit but i also want to thank dave swann who has been just remarkable in helping me to understand um where the concerns are

147and i wanted them to felt be i wanted to make sure they felt hurt tonight um and then i just had one quick clarifying question again dr brabrand um i i know it was sort of explained so maybe you or ms burton can explain a little bit more again so the 10 million dollar placeholder that we had for the state budget that we weren't sure if there was going to be unfunded mandates that might come they haven't passed their budget yet correct so what's happening is that 10 million staying as a placeholder and then is it going to fall out or what did you all decide to do i'll let miss burning address that thanks no we reduced the 10 million state legislative place holder as part of the adjustments to the budget during this

148adopted stage you know there's to my knowledge there's only one unfunded mandate that is still being considered but there are a couple of revenue items that are being considered as well that we would be able to use those funds to cover any unfunded mandate that comes along with it and then the the line item that we had with the 2 million for the market it's called the market comparative analysis placeholder that's still there correct or did you take that out as well no that has been that has been distributed to be able to implement the family liaison market study recommendation and the bus driver recommendation as well um i think we were a couple hundred thousand dollars less than that two million but that that's included in the list of items that are adjustments to

149the budget but it it will be taking place in the fiscal year 23 those those two analyses yes is july 1 is the effective date we just distribute it to the appropriate accounts yeah no no i understand that part i'm just being mindful that it's going to cost us 2 million dollars to do those two market analysis uh actually i think it's 0.9 for the family liaisons and 1.3 for the bus drivers but we didn't that's not the analysis that's the money distributed to rs get their pay correct yes so it's not it's not for the study that's the money is being distributed to those groups that's the ongoing dollars to make sure that it happened i think we made one-time adjustments and this is the follow-through to honor those adjustments that we had made

150do i got that correct miss burn yes you did yeah it's not money for the study it's not a two million dollar study it's additional salary for those two groups permanently yeah i think that maybe the way we list it out then creates the confusion that we're about to do an analysis and this is the placeholder for it so um so again finally i will just say to my colleagues yes there's a lot of good things in here but i do feel that um for me it fell short of feeling that um you know we've got probably 15 or 20 million dollars that i'm worried we haven't invested where we needed to as i mentioned things like facilities and there was information that i just did not feel that was brought forward to make an

151informed decision so i know it comes as no surprise i spoke to ms corbett sanders i wish i could be joining you i did join you in february to vote in support of the proposed budget but in principle with all the questions i've asked i just am not in a place that i can vote for it tonight but i appreciate the collegiality that has taken place throughout this and uh wanted to make sure you understood where i was coming from so thank you thank you and miss corbett sanders yes um and i'm actually very glad to follow uh miss mclaughlin because there is some question about our commitment to investments and maintenance and um i would like to have a bit more clarity because uh i understand that was it 30 million dollars out of

152esser funds went into maintenance yes it's actually been 33 million i mean we've had you know to the point that as was stated before you know this is such a celebratory budget um when miss cohen spoke of you know do we wish we had more absolutely uh we've had esther money to the amount that i just referred to we've defrayed through the joint board of supervisors and school board for a capital program an increase of historical amounts and offset operating funds that are transferred each year from the general county for major maintenance in addition lee's team has cobbled money together where they can for us but to the point as everyone knows and it's no it's no secret that we have a backlog of over 220 million of items past their useful life and our

153capital program in an average 37 years so yeah we do have challenges before us but we've made great inroads and i look forward to that continuation now i agree and i think we could always have more money if we if we could i would love to have more money but we have chronic been chronically underfunded for many years and we are doing catch-up and this budget does reflect those priorities and i know that we do have priorities that we'll talk about later tonight especially on some security priorities as well as priorities in collaboration with the board of supervisors if i remember correctly didn't the board of supervisors increase the amount of money they transfer every year for maintenance and as well as in our capital program over the past four years that i've been involved

154in it actually seven and the last piece is that part of the end-of-year funding is that we've increased the amount of maintenance so there is a continuous commitment you know would we like to do more absolutely yes but i just wanted to make sure that people understood that we are continuing to invest in maintenance as well as capital improvement thank you one last piece we are going to vote on this budget and i did want to clarify there was a statement made by dr anderson which i very much appreciate regarding the recruitment and there's funding in there for the recruitment of male teachers and the specific program is being there's going to be a continued discussion with the new incoming assistant superintendent to determine the best way which program is the best one and we

155will have that conversation so if you look at the line item on the budget it does say uh investment in and that was a slight modification as a result of um conversations at the board table on tuesday to end in the budget documents it clearly states that there is the option for refining that program using call me mr or other programming but there was some outstanding information that was being waited for but i wanted to make sure that that's why it is focused on the recruitment of diverse male teachers and with that i think we're ready to vote and then i know there's some conversation about the follow-on motion so we may have to just take a quick pause i think we're almost ready to vote i'll speak very quickly i turn on my light

156okay dr anderson thank you miss corbett sanders for that classification because i was not present for that part of the discussion thank you for sharing that there's going to be further discussion on that i was not present for that um for that part of the discussion um can i get some quick well you can perhaps do it can i get a quick um summary as to why we landed there because i know this is a program that dr brabrand had been talking about actually since before the pandemic and i'm kind of concerned about the hold because we've had multiple conversations about it and he has brought some things forward to us in the past when this was brought forward and then it was cut because we were in a pandemic and we had some other

157priorities so i'd like to know how we landed on pulling that specific one for further discussion there was a discussion amongst the board on tuesday and then there were subsequent discussions with uh mr mcdonald as to whether or not what is timing for whether he had to have an rfp out on the street and based on those conversations um it was decided and to ensure that we had the adult recruit the male recruitment for diverse candidates and if you read the budget subsident memo it does allow for that program but there was some concern that we have a brand new assistant superintendent coming in and a brand new superintendent and so to give the opportunity to look at that with the focus on male teachers of diversity that was the reasoning to at least give

158that opportunity for the new superintendent thank you for that i i have to say i am concerned that that piece is being pulled um but before i go there mr mcdonald can you he's not here he's virtual mr mcdonald can you share what the other programs that were that came up as part of the discussion or i think mr mc mcdonald wasn't able to make it for tonight but uh mr drager is here and can i respond so so i'll i'll actually take it so in terms of the conversation um we are hopeful of having this placeholder of 500 000 in the budget so that we can have these discussions with dr wilson and dr reed about programs we know that we've talked about the call me mr program it's important for us to have

159resources so that we can recruit and retain male candidates of color and have a diverse pool and so in order for us to to continue that conversation with dr reed and dr wilson we've agreed to some language to ensure that we have that ability and have those resources in the budget were there any other ideas of other programs that came up during that discussion so no there we haven't had a full discussion about the the options before us but would certainly want to have the options or at least the resources available so that when we engage and have those discussions it could very well continue to be the call me mister program but we wanted to have the the dollars in the budget so that when we had those discussions we'd be ready to go

160thank you i appreciate that and i won't take any more time with my questions because i i was not present for the rest of that discussion but i do have to share my disappointment in kind of this turn of events because this has been a piece that has been discussed for multiple years and there are many things in the budget that i think we could have put a placeholder for discussion with dr reed and dr wilson and yet that did not happen but it happened here but i am looking forward very much so to those continuing conversations about this but i do have to express my my deep disappointment with where we are on this effort mr fresh thank you i did not realize that this had been removed from the budget documents i'm disappointed

161as well that said i like dr anderson look forward to having conversations with dr reed and others about how this is going to be used and how we will further the goals miss corbett sanders would you like to clarify that because i think there is definitely misunderstanding here thank you the money is there in the program the money is there for a finalization and a refinement of the program to ensure that we are able to attract and retain adult or male teachers of color and there were some questions as to whether how the call me mister program or another program but in particular call me mister would ensure that we were able to attract and tailor it to the needs of the state of virginia here in fairfax county working with partners in the state

162of virginia they've identified one school but they to work with longwood college but they haven't identified others and so it's to flesh it out to provide more details so that we can get this program moving to ensure that we attract and retain diverse male teachers and so that was the only reason because there were a lot of questions and so to try and this to get this moving forward we wanted to get this get this budget moving forward and and these were being raised on tuesday so to be able to solidify that the new superintendent assistant superintendent would be able to finalize this part of program miss marin did you have your light on actually just let me just confirm what you're saying miss corporal sanders so you're saying that there is money for an

163initiative to recruit male teachers of color it just might not be the call me mr program that still could be an option but it's not being determined at this time what it allows is that they could offer further refinement to the call me mister program or if dr wilson said with working with dr reed that there was another program that was more refined and more targeted then she would bring that the la they would bring it to this board and say that's a that's what they want to do but the focus is to ensure that we have a program in place for the recruiting and retention of male teachers of color okay i think that's a yes to my question okay thank you all right i think i'm gonna take my turn my first turn

164um i'll just quickly address um that just to clarify uh you know this is this piece is very different because we are going um it's not a year of investment of money it's multi-millions of dollars for years in the future so considering we have two new leaders coming with both focused on this as a priority along with this board it really is a pause to ensure that that is the direction and the program that they want to take and we have also been waiting on data from the colony mr program that has never come our way so thank you miss corbett sanders for clarifying that okay everybody has already talked about all the wonderful priorities and like miss marin i am disappointed that all our speakers today did not want to stay to hear about

165the most important thing that this board does because if they had i think they would have heard that their priorities are our priorities and we have a budget that very much reflects our values um and anybody who questions that needs to take out our budget and see we put our money where our mouth is every single day i'm proud of this budget because i think it hits many many of our priorities i think it's going to move the needle forward i understand we all may not you know we maybe we may have some questions we may have some different ideas but we are 12 people and we try to collaborate and come up with the best possible product at the end of the day and i think we've done that and i really want to

166also say my thank you to my colleagues ms corbett sanders ms stolin and to our wonderful staff who spend many many intense hours the entire year working on a budget it doesn't just show up pretty and put together for us to pick apart it really requires intense work behind the scenes so i want to thank you all for doing that and i think everybody would love to vote on this tonight so if we could get the motion on the screen please i will go ahead and call for the vote all those in favor raise your hands all those opposed okay that motion passes we have a budget congrats uh dr brabrand and staff and colleagues i just want to make one quick comment uh this is my last budget as miss mclaughlin said and uh

167one of the things i'm particularly proud of first i want to thank the entire board for your support this whole year i want to thank miss corbett sanders and miss tollen for being chair and vice chair of the budget process it's a huge it's it's constant it actually starts like in another 24 hours for the next year i want to thank the fantastic four marty lee alice and matt norton i don't think matt is matt here oh my god man is here the fantastic four big round of applause all of the meetings all of the hours all of the phone calls and i do want to do i want to do a tammy dare not colfax replay when i arrived here it was cut list every single year when i asked leadership team about the

168budget in the first year they came to me and said well what are you asking me to cut now we didn't cut anything over my tenure here we had to freeze during the pandemic and that was tough but we move forward around your priorities the community priorities parent priorities principal and teacher priorities and i'm proud of it i'm super proud of it and we did it in a collaborative way that didn't dominate the news that didn't need a hashtag that said collaboration can work and i still believe in it your public hearing this year had 12 people out of a county of over a million come and tonight there are three here as we pass not in years past where hundreds were angry frustrated didn't it feel heard we still have work to do to

169engage our families and community on many things but this budget process is getting more and more refined and this board's leadership in making that happen is something that needs to be acknowledged and i'm proud of having partnered with you these last several years to make this this is a good news budget and this is the shot in the arm that our teachers and staff and community need as we come out of this pandemic and get even more set for an even greater year next year thank you and good luck with the follow-on motions i'm sure you can go through those and and all deliberate speed thanks well if there isn't any objection from anyone i would suggest that we just take a five-minute break and then we finish off the night let's do it we'll

170be back at 10 on the dot i don't know we're starting it's 10. let's go we are moving on with our follow-ons and i'll call on mr fresh okay karen i'll call on miss corbett sanders apologies for a follow-on motion um and she will be ready and there she is i move that the school board direct the superintendent as part of the fiscal year 22 year-end budget review to prioritize funding to address fairfax county public schools cost chair for electric buses the young scholars extracurricular enrichment middle school start time study adult and community education resources school counselors hold harmless reserve replenishment additional maintenance support and stadium bathrooms we will also have a couple other follow-on motions to address additional issues is there a second seconded by ms tolin ms corbett sanders would you like to

171speak yes thank you very much these all the items listed in this follow-on motion are items that can be paid for out of one-time monies they are not monies that go into the operating fund and that's why we look to the year-end to be able to do that there are going to be a couple of other follow-on motions tonight which will address other priorities to be to be discussed and to be brought to us at the year-end prior to adopting a year-end carryover allotment we will have a conversation at the board table and the superintendent will provide us with prioritization similar to what he and his team has done all year long so i would appreciate the support of this board in this follow-on motion because each one of these items have been discussed and

172set aside as a priority in particular the fcps cost share for electric buses allows us to take advantage of very preferential grant funding to achieve or to accelerate our deployment of electric buses in our fleet the young scholars extracurricular enrichment manipulatives are the manipulatives that ms darinath kofax has talked about that are so very important for our students to include algebraic manipulatives and others then we have the middle school start time study which we did have a study done many years ago but given where we are today we thought that that needed to be updated so that we are able to fulfill the longtime commitment of this board in pursuing middle school start times adult and community education resources i know that we've had many conversations and we've had some studies done on the financial

173viability of that program and we typically add some money in but especially this year with covid the return after covid that program may need additional supports there's another piece of that program and we don't have the specific numbers for it which is the impact of when we have salary enhancements that does impact the operating cost of ace and we are still waiting for additional information there the school counselors hold harmless that is in relationship to the we used our staffing reserve to ensure that we did not lose counselors as a result of fluctuating enrollment but that we may have to refill the staffing reserve to to account for what we expect to be continued increase in enrollment additional maintenance support we anticipate to add additional at least three million dollars to that area but you

174know once again we will have additional conversations and on the stadium bathrooms and i perhaps should turn this over to miss mclaughlin but this was an area that had been raised at this table with discussions between the board of supervisors to find a way to ensure that we have actual bathrooms at each of the stadiums throughout fairfax county and the board of supervisors last tuesday passed a uh a resolution to ensure that they would do a cost share with us we don't to ensure that the remaining bathrooms using a kind of a plug and play model uh would be able to be rolled out in a very short period of time i think it's like three years or two and a half years and so uh those are all items that had been discussed and

175um so i'm just hoping that my colleagues can support that because they're all one time thank you miss tolin just briefly miss corporate centers thank you for going through each item and it's kind of re-explaining it um i do want to just reiterate that these are items that at this point would be one-time funding they're that's why they're here and we're looking at year-end funds for them they're not things that are ongoing things like uh salaries for bus drivers or something like that that we'll also be you know having some further discussion on um you know i know that we've got some other uh following emotions coming around items like you know our vestibules security vestibules that would also be a one-time funding item so um miss burden i was wondering if i could put

176you on the spot for a second to just talk a little bit more about that year-end process and and what you think our prospects are i know it's hard to tell but for this you know upcoming year and and when those discussions will happen and and how that will work and then and how this will fold into that yeah we um we typically start looking at what the available balance might be after may closes so next week sometimes when we'll begin looking at that you know we'll have our standard year-end carryover for schools carryover departments critical carryover encumbrances centrally budgeted projects that are you know multiple years grants those kinds of things uh we also fund the beginning balance for um not this coming year fiscal 23 but fiscal 24. it's always the subsequent year

177not the year that we're in and then um you know we typically do have some funding left after that and these items will be the things that will be funded and if there are additional funds then there will need to be more discussion and that item typically comes to you all mid-july at the last meeting before the hiatus and then and that says new business and then when you come back in august there's a work session and then a final approval thank you miss tolin colleagues there were a lot of lights that never went out so if you are not in the queue okay um we will go ahead and start with miso mesh okay uh thank you i didn't comment on the budget earlier so i do want to start off by thanking my

178colleagues ms corbett sanders mrs tolen for their hard work uh getting us here in the budget uh and the many iterations and dr brabrand miss burden and the full team i know there were some mismatched expectations frustrations along the way but i'm happy that we landed somewhere better than where we started i did have some questions here so i know that we're saying the year-end money is a one-time money but i suppose theoretically the next superintendent can fold that into the budget right nothing precludes that if we were to fund something that is recurring no and that does occasionally happen uh well i guess rarely would be a better word uh and when it does happen then we then we do have to build it into the next year's base right so it would be

179possible to to plan for in the following year uh yes but we don't recommend it okay is there a reason we don't recommend it it's because it's one-time funds and should be used for one-time things right and then allocated in the future budget from recurring money but that's an increase to your next year's budget say that again sorry that's an increase to your next year's budget or a reallocation right depending on the priorities of the next superintendent right potentially if if the new superintendent wants to make reductions in the budget then yes you could it could not result in an increase okay no that's helpful i mean i'm trying to get to this idea that the ideal sure is one-time money we're not determining the future but if we have a commitment that rises to

180the level of a priority it is possible that we could use year-end money to consider recurring funds um and then i also had a question about the stadium money is that not supposed to be like cip money i'm going to call a friend yeah yeah jeff well i mean you know a couple things first of all we have capital funding that is uh within the cip that's part of the bond funding program which is outside we also do have capital fund transfers and i'd be remiss if i didn't apologize to miss mclaughlin because i didn't want to in any way shape or form dilute the needs that we have that are out there that's why we have a funding source that comes from the cip the bond fund the voters vote every two years has

181been our pattern um and we have 180 million dollars annual appropriation that has gone up since i've been here from 155 and is going to go up to 225 and then it's going to have another 50 million added over time we also have a transfer from the general county that goes for capital projects that is not a part of the cip it's in what is deemed and i'll let miss burden talk about this more fund 8 which is the construction fund so there are there are a couple pathways if you will for funding capital projects our major maintenance budget which is in an operating budget for supplies and materials are for such things and again miss riley would be really upset with me over mclean because they've been having problems with their elevator maintenance and

182elevated repairs all throughout this year um so there are needs that are out there that are recurring they come in different uh funding venues it's the compilation of all of those that we use to address our needs and i don't know if that answered your question um and in some instances and we're anticipating mr smith just mentioned um we're hopeful that there may even be some state funding that's going to be coming out given what the legislature's been doing but we won't know that for some time right but we're able to use cip money for something like a stadium bathroom right well we we currently are wherever we have a renovation of at a high school we go ahead and provide it for that um but as part of the efforts that ms mclaughlin's been

183a part of just like the turf task force and a lot of the other initiatives it's not getting the job done quick enough so we're it's not what sorry getting the job done quick enough okay and and uh to address the needs of the communities and that's why the partnership that was mentioned by miss corporate sanders with the board of supervisors and the school board are just outstanding opportunities where working together collaborating we're finding additional funds to go ahead and address these needs uh concurrently yeah okay so i can appreciate the elevating this um and the reasons for it i think where i'm struggling here is we did not weigh this perhaps in a way that reflects what was discussed at the work session so this is the last minute edition right the stadium bathrooms

184was not here before helpfully though elevated in the work session we talked about a number of things all of which i believe are reflected except for literally my comment when i said i'm happy to support all this i'm excited about this budget with the exception of the bus driver's piece being added to the follow-on and i don't see that reflected here so can somebody help me understand why that wasn't added here given that we do have the option to include it in recurring money in the future do you want me to answer that for the reason that we worked very closely with staff and with individual board members the issues associated with the bus driver money with salaries for bus drivers is that there there's some compression that needs to be addressed and then there's

185the recruitment and retention of drivers there are almost two different things because the one is with our our current drivers and the other is how do we encourage people to come join our system both of those areas have follow-on motions tonight which will allow for the new superintendent and assistant superintendent of hr to come with their best thinking on this and part of the challenge with the compression piece is that and is that there are multiple job categories that have compression and so if you fix it here then you have to it's the one of the better term the domino effect of you fix it here then you have to fix it here and you have to fix it here so rather than doing a piece part on this especially since we have invested and

186there was a lot of conversation about the level of funding for bus drivers it's to have a concrete plan brought to this board on recommendations on how to address those two pieces and there there was not you know for example we all got a text message earlier today that suggested oh you can fund this by not funding our assistant principles we can delay paying our assistant principals and that would have created its own set of issues obviously because we need our assistant principles to be on be hired and put into the schools so rather than trying to address things on a piece part basis it was to have the new superintendent provide those recommendations and because we didn't have operating funds to address this we had we would have to look to doing cuts elsewhere

187um so my understanding is it could be put for consideration at year end to be folded into a future budget as recurring um and i also i mean in terms of the compression piece i know that we had discussed at the work session the challenge where this has been done in a number of areas i think we also identified that it's disproportionately impacted bus drivers so that's something worth noting but with that aside that's not they're not mutually exclusive we can do both we can continue to look at the compression situation and address this bus driver piece especially because we've left this now dragging for over a year right so it started with okay bus drivers we're going to take a look at the study we're going to do the compensation study compensation study comes

188back we take a look at that okay we're going to set up a working group to look at how we're going to implement these recommendations working group is you know starts meeting there's still an issue we're going to discuss it at mid-year we don't we're going to discuss it at year end we don't then you know the results come back the working group has recommendations they're not adopted fully and now we're here saying let's wait until you're not even year-end let's wait until next time when we do compression study i would like to is there an objection from any of my colleagues to adding bus drivers here for consideration at year end and this next superintendent with the team can look at whether it's worth including or not is there an objection from any of

189my colleagues yes there's an objection so would you like to proceed i'll take a go back okay okay [Music] um go um i wanted to ask about the stadium bathrooms mr plattenberg i wondered do we also if we're including this in year end and then i see additional maintenance support i just wondered if you could also speak to do those stadium bathrooms is the county also going to help us fund like who cleans them and maintains them when they break and all those fun things with bathrooms no i believe that would be wrapped into our operations and support that we already have i mean we've we've got so many partnerships with the county um for example we started out maintaining our turf fields and we found that that was not it wasn't working out as

190well because of the demands on the local school so then the park authority came in in partnership and expanded their maintenance of our turf fields to fluff up the crumb rubber and so on to make sure that it passes the g-force test for concussion protocol so we do have partnerships where they do assist us but my understanding of this is that it would be borne by us as part of the partnership and i i guess i wondered too when i know there's been a conversation that we've had about community use fees and all of that and so if we're gonna have stadium bathrooms is there a conversation that um you all are having with community use of that if in theory community use is costing us a bit more in terms of night custodians or

191extra maintenance or whatever um are we able to absorb that with a higher fee for community use if i could miss cohen it's been a busy week i don't know what mr planetberg has seen or not seen i'm looking through the news clips that we sent today just just yesterday i want to say the fairfax county board of supervisors did approve a board matter that was raised to consider so it's not a done deal it's not a done deal but to consider funding for new bathrooms at 15 schools in the coming fiscal fiscal year which starts july 1. so again i've got this here i think jeff and i need to work with brian hill i know there was some discussion going on we need to get those details but the partnership that we've been

192doing with the county on so many things in the budget if there's the opportunity to do it here and it seems that there is we'll certainly be working with them and that's part of what's in here and your follow-on and what if the county is also looking at it at its year-end i think we can get something done yeah no no misunderstanding as somebody who's every friday night in the fall at a school that has no bathroom outside bathroom i love this idea i'm just saying i just want to make sure that we're also budgeting for the other piece that having something like this costs us and seeking either like a community use kind of solution or do we need to pad an additional money in the budget so i don't mean this as a

193negative against stadium bathrooms at all i'd love to be able to go to the bathroom during a football game so i totally i totally hear it i just want to make sure we're looking again at like what's the whole package of what like this is lovely to get a half buy-in but what does the maintenance and all of that look like on our end and i think we'll need to bring that detail when we get to year-end and i will really work with jeff i know we have only limited time with mr planetberg and we'll try to wrap that up so that no honestly so that before he takes his new job that we have a little more detail on that and that's something i'll have him work on with the county between now and

194the end of june since we have a meeting on june 30th we can maybe really provide some additional detail by then so this board knows and what i could share when we're talking about bringing items forward for a year into review it's that we we do have that year-end review and so we could be looking at other revenue sources for many of the items on the list but because there are items that are coming through the budget the board would have to approve those even with new revenue sources and so year-end review is the process by which we use but it's not necessarily coming out of those urine dollars thank you so much mr mclaughlin i'm hoping i can bring some more ease to people's concerns here first of all i want to be clear

195with everybody that um two days ago in our work session staff brought us a powerpoint slide and said here's our best proposal for consideration of year-end fund and it was a list i didn't approve that list none of us officially approved that list it was what you collectively heard various board members bring up that we were not going to be including necessarily in fy 23 budget but they were some year-end one-time fund items and so not only did we talk about that component that i wasn't going to start picking apart everything on the list and saying well can i support this or that the point of the omnibus follow-on was are there different items on here that we all have an interest in at year end we will take that list and we will look

196at all of it so nothing's being greenlighted nothing's being okay that's automatically now being funded and it's sacrosanct and the board of supervisors board matter which to karen corbett sanders and i who started working on this in january because chairman mckay brought this item dr anderson i really want you to hear this part chairman mckay heard so much from the community that he created a working group with dan stork and karen corbin sanders she pulled me in because i had also been working on this issue separately but this is chairman mckay taking the reins and saying that he's heard throughout from the fairfax county athletic council from our own dsas from our own athletic boosters across the 15 high schools who don't have them look this is a long going problem and like the turf

197fields we need to come together and collectively do something it's it's untenable at this point that you don't have basic bathrooms in one of the wealthiest counties when arlington prince william and loudoun already have them so i realized that this wasn't on the radar of everybody i want you know that karen and i only found out like two days prior that that chairman mckay was planning to present the board matter and said i hope you can now bring it to your board so the timing was rushed i sent you all a detailed email yesterday less than 24 hours after we discussed it i realize you probably all didn't see it but there's no trying to slip anything in there's no trying to get this on the list and not that on the list i basically

198said to ms corbett sanders as budget chair here's your omnibus list some of them got talked about at the prior work session but that doesn't mean that then they get to be on there nothing else does it was raised it was discussed we didn't take a vote on any of those items i i hope people understand this is just for further discussion but it has got massive support around this county this isn't something that a few of us are trying to shove in thank you miss maren followed by dr anderson thank you i um i understand well i hear what miss mclaughlin is saying what this motion is intending to do is to signal to the superintendent what this board's collective priorities are this tuesday we saw that draft motion and we all know that

199motions can change but we try and give each other the courtesy of not posting motions earlier you know later than 48 hours before may 10th we had a work session on the budget this list was not there may 24th two days ago we had a discussion this list has since changed i'm unclear at the process by which this motion has changed between our public meeting tuesday and our meeting now now i'm really excited to hear about the motion on the movement on stadium bathrooms and i only wish miss mclaughlin that i had heard of your work that you've been doing since january sooner than yesterday at 11 50 a.m particularly because i've also been added i did discuss it at the work session don't say it's you only heard it from email i'll give you

200a go back um thank you um especially since i actually talked with mr bill curran our director of athletics and connected the auditor's work on community use fee gave that to mr curran who was already in discussion to talk about community use fee and i've also talked with the park director now i haven't brought this all to you all because i didn't think that this was up for being funded at this time um i think you know i have a follow-on motion happening for security vestibules well that's a one-time fee we all have ideas about what one-time fees are i am thinking and maybe i can when i'm done talking figure out can we craft this motion in a different way that says to us we will how we will do the process of creating

201the year-end use of funds or perhaps we the vote goes that we don't take this motion right now we don't we vote this motion down because there's things on here that i've heard one or two people talk about that are passionate about and there's other things on here that that i've talked about that aren't here so you know i would like to know from the chair of the budget committee please share how this list was compiled and how it changed from tuesday to today so the list was compiled as a result and we have never done a follow-on motion for year-end to give priorities for it just so you know the reason that this was brought the way it was brought initially the initial thinking was that there were a number of items that had

202moved from the may 10th work session off of the budget recommendation including the million dollars for electric buses to move them into a follow-on mode to the year-end because of the one-time nature of the grant funding and instead that million dollars a big portion of it went to translators which were 10 translators to address so so what happened can i just have a point of order please you just asked me the question yeah i just i just want to know what happened to team tuesday and tonight i'm how the list is different i understand how the list came to be for tuesday chair what i don't understand is how the list for tonight came to be since tuesday that's the part i'm interested in knowing i i welcome miss corbett sanders if you'd like to

203answer that um yes i would like to finish my answer thank you so we developed the follow-on motion to include everything that moved from the operating budget into year-end funds and on tuesday there was a conversation at the board table which by the way was a continuation of a earlier conversation at this board table regarding the stadium bathrooms because i briefed this board when we first had we had the first meeting with the board of supervisors and then because there was the monies coming from the board of supervisors the potential money so that's why this was added to the follow-on motion because the board of supervisors had passed their motion and it is also why um why miss mclaughlin raised it at the table on tuesday because we were informed late over the weekend that

204that was coming forward and so the idea was to because there was the compliment to what was happening at the board of supervisors i'm chairman you recognized the answer is there was a board matter by the board of supervisors on may 24th and the chair's prerogative was to change the motion is that right that's well there was no draft motion put on the table there was a list and on tuesday there was miss mclaughlin raised it as this could come to it and so okay that's where it came i'd like to point out that there's several things that the board of supervisors empowers itself and us to do that we are on different timeline on collective bargaining um we are on different timelines on what's the other thing a jet goals uh we are on

205different timelines for gun-free buildings we're scheduled to pass a policy on that next month the county already has gun-free facilities so i understand and i'm excited and really thrilled that the board of supervisors wants to provide this funding but i also know that there are policy issues from the conversations i've had in high schools that there are already accessible bathrooms but an issue is staffing them during games and so what i don't understand is the staffing this is a conversation that is meant for a work session and the problem here is that things have been added and not discussed in a fulsome way the way the other items were so i would like to entertain some kind of an amendment or alternative motion with all due respect miss marin may i need to um go

206ahead so with all due respect each one of these items was not discussed in great detail they had as much discussion as what ms mclaughlin raised so if what you would like to do is have a separate we can if you like we can pull the stadium bathrooms out and make it a separate follow-on motion for consideration and prioritization in the same way that some of the others are if there is a if that's what you want to do then i would hope that my colleagues at this table would still support having this done in the same way as other priorities which is that this is there is funding coming um miss marin's time has expired so we are going to go on to dr anderson and i'll give her go back if she needs

207one thank you too as some of you are aware i i had a serious situation that caused me to miss the may 10th work session so i feel like i'm catching up a little bit in some instances as you can hear from some of my questions tonight between that and um this past tuesday but i was very glad to hear what was shared by miss burden to um mr macias questions i was also very glad to hear the clarification that miss mclaughlin provided which is this is just a list for consideration this is not hard decision making this is just for further conversation between now and year end so to that end i would like to pick up where miss omesh was for us to consider well for us to add to the list the

208bus driver proposal for further conversation i realize it's not year-end and that could be the conversation that we have at that point whether it's iran whether it's picked up based on superintendent priorities etc it makes sense given the um the parameters that are around generating this list i i see i don't see an issue in terms of adding it for more discussion so that's what i would like for consideration if you would like to share with me how that needed to happen i think a doctorate center would be appropriate if you want to make an amendment to the follow-on to add um what you what you voiced i think that would be appropriate so certainly um i would like to make that amendment um to the following i don't want to go into all these

209details again okay but it's on the table great is there a second second okay um it's the amendment has been made it's been seconded if we can get it on the screen um to add that language to the main follow-on motion and then i will call on dr anderson to speak specifically to just that piece yeah absolutely um just adding it again what i heard around this table in this conversation is that we have opportunity to add things for discussion these are not hard decisions these have been extrapolated from previous conversations as mr may shared we had conversations about the bus driver proposal we know we have something in the making but we could have more discussions as i think miss cohen just shared earlier we still have more work to do in this area

210so for me it just seems to be in keeping with the spirit of this motion that that be included as well okay thank you miso mesh she covered it the only thing i will add is this is actually what we did with the subpay as well when last time around we decided to use year-end and then folded it into recurring funds because we believed it was that important so this would be no different thank you did we get that up on the screen please i'm going to pause so we can put that up there before we proceed with conversation and then there are a lot of lights that have just turned on so i believe it would have to say i move to amend the follow-on motion i move to amend the following motion to

211include bus driver um propose um the committee's proposal did that have a specific title mr smith the committee's proposal regarding bus driver pay or is this sufficient i'm so sorry so we had there was the superintendent's recommendation and then there was the recommendation from the work group no i'm trying to get the language is this sufficient or should i refer that proposal for the purposes of this motion okay we'll understand the bus driver pay piece so i move to add bus driver pay thank you mr mesh i already spoke to it okay um i have the original list of people who wanted to speak so if you needed to turn off your light that's fine we'll start with miss corbett sanders followed by mr frisch thank you very much for i i appreciate the spirit

212of this follow-on uh for this amendment however i continue to have major concerns about it my concerns are two-fold one is that we have heard repeatedly that this is not a recommended approach that the the second part of it is that we have two additional additional follow-on motions tonight for consideration that address the concerns of the bus driver pay but it also addresses the concerns of other groups that are also have compressed scales or have concerns about pay and what we should not be doing is tonight making a decision on compensation without a fuller understanding of how the impact of changes in one compensation area impact other areas i also think that it needs to be very clear that we don't want a communication in the community that the bus drivers have not received comp

213increases in their compensation this year and so i would suggest that this is better suited for the two follow-on motions that you've already got on the table tonight as well as continued conversations with the new assistant superintendent of hr and i also think that we need to be aware that this body is expected to make a decision on following up on a change to our legislative package that supported collective bargaining that this body will consider a resolution on collective bargaining which will allow for further discussion on compensation for our bus drivers and other groups so there are multiple areas and that this is a much more complex issue than the one-time issues that are here on the list mr frisch the sausage is delicious this evening um look i'm uncomfortable spending year on funds on

214a recurring budget item but we don't have to continue making sausage at the table if this motion is about furthering the conversation add this keep the stadium bathrooms and let's have those conversations over the next month and a half and let's move on to these other motions so that we're not here until one o'clock in the morning you are not committing yourself to supporting anything on that list right now anything that's it in fact if between now and year end something oh my gosh why didn't we think of this we can do that too so let's take the temperature down a little bit and move on it's going i guess my confusion is that this has been characterized as these things are being presented as just a conversation that's coming but the wording of the

215motion says direct the superintendent to prioritize funding to address so you know i am living in a place of great discomfort which you can probably tell from the fact that i rubbed my eyes raw but i i mean obviously i i feel like there's many of us on the sport who've been talking about bus driver for pay until we're blue in the face but my confusion is that we have our budget person who we all just lauded and everybody sang praises for all the work that's been done who's saying that year in money cannot be used in this way as a recurring cost so i feel like i'm between a rock and a hard place because i 100 percent have i 100 percent support us working to increase and better support our bus drivers and

216by the way a lot of different classes of employees but but if lee is saying this can urine money cannot be used this way i i don't understand how we can put it in here even though i have two follow-on motions to talk about doing this so i i'm sorry i totally hear you carl and i would like very much for this conversation to end so we can move on to the other stuff that i feel pretty passionately about so i totally hear you i'm just struck i'm just struggling i'm struggling miss burton can you explain one more time why this you feel like this is not appropriate for this to be the superintendent prioritizing funding to address this because year in funds are one-time funds that should not be used for recurring costs because

217that that puts an additional burden no pun intended on your future year budget some of you may have been on the board a number of years ago when the beginning balance was somewhere between 50 and 60 million every year and then there's pressure then to continue to have 50 and 60 million as your beginning balance in future years and there was a decision that that was too much of a reliance on on one-time funds for recurring funds and that's now been reduced to about 20 million it is never a good idea to use one-time funds for recurring costs so my fear is that we live in a place where we get here and we do approve this because all of our hearts are in the right place about what we want to do to fix

218this critical need that we have and then we wind up not getting the funding from the state that we think we're going to get next year when we're going to fix this and so this does become a one-time pay increase which winds up further screwing our bus drivers so i i feel like i i i hate this i don't i i don't know what to say because i a hundred percent believe that miss omega and dr riccardi i know why you want to do this i absolutely hear you but i don't understand how we can use year-end money to do something recurring so i i'm sorry carl i know you i i i hear what you're saying but i just i feel like there's a way that we can deal with it this does not

219help anyone if it's just put on here to make us feel better and then we kill it later because we're saying year-end is not appropriate then we haven't done the bus drivers any favors at all um miss mclaughlin followed by ms tolen so it's interesting i'm i'm sort of in between ms cohen and mr frisch because you know on the one hand i i want to again set the record straight this board did not create this draft list we did not create this omnibus list of items for prioritization it got presented to us 48 hours ago and honestly in collegiality my attitude was i don't need to go pick this apart it's going to be as mr first said for a future conversation we have done year end every year it's either now that we

220start to signal to the superintendent some things that many of us not seven plus but many of us are saying hey you know what we want this to be something for to grab your attention start doing work now because there's nothing worse than getting to year end and then we're like this scrambling around coming up with ideas so i wasn't going to spend time picking apart all the items on there that staff created for us we didn't create it we didn't vote on it nobody agreed those items so where we are with this one um i can see it both ways i mean there is nothing sacrosanct in a 3.3 billion dollar budget we can fund it as miso mesh said at year end and then guess what with 3.3 billion dollars we can re-prioritize

221anything anything we want to mr frisch's point we do not need to be here all night a prioritization is not a commitment and you know i'm i'm frankly just disappointed in one of our colleagues where i have text messages and i have emails where i suggested stadium and bathrooms and the security vestibules which came up in our work session 48 hours ago were just as important for consideration and i suggested both of them in in equity and fairness be there too rather than just which one staff created and put in front of us not even 24 hours before that our one of our colleagues wanted to do it differently had my blessings too but i really struggle you guys that nothing underhanded was happening here and i feel like there's been an implication on stating

222bathrooms that it was that's disappointing so at this point if the majority wants to go ahead and just add it to the list let's do it and move on and trust me we will have plenty of conversation with each other with the superintendent and we will be able to sort this out thank you i would just like to remind all of us we are going to be here all night please direct your comments specifically to the addition of bus driver pay to this motion please and then we've got to go back and discuss the whole thing um who was next um miss was told all right but i might break your rule this list came out of the may 10th work session all of these items on the list except the last two items okay

223were things that we had put into the budget from our discussions i take copious notes at all those meetings you are more than welcome to look at them to see how many people talked about what that's where that list came from for tuesday for the work session i may go along the lines of mr frisch but in the total opposite direction perhaps we need to just pull this motion or vote it down in in whole because this is not about the fy 23 budget this is about your end a number of these items are related to the fy 23 budget items which is staff did an incredible job and maybe they did too much of a nice job of trying to incorporate everything that we talked about so these items that they pulled out as

224potential for a year and were things we had talked about was in the fy 23 budget as of may 10 but then it got moved to this list in order to accommodate other things to move into that budget so maybe i think we all understand what's on the list after our discussion here tonight and what the priorities are we have several other additional follow-on motions that relate to the budget maybe we just it's a possibility so but i know it so i know i i didn't do anything there um i hear you uh we still have a few speakers to specifically whether or not we should add bus driver pay to this so please let's specifically address that miss marin i'd like to make a motion to call a question on this amendment or this

225adjustment to this amendment about adding bus driver pay to call the question you said respect yes okay all those in favor of calling the questions yeah he seconded mr frisch all those in favor raise your hands up high one two three four five of us okay so we will continue discussion specifically on the addition of bus driver pay to this miss stairnet gofex specifically on adding bus drivers to this one i think it is better directed by um the amendment the uh the follow-on motion number four and so i would not um like the additions um of that one miss burden talked about you know these follow-on motions indicate priorities and all of them are priorities that can be addressed either with year end or you know just making a plan which will cost monies

226and that's how we most of these are are are written right now so if we pull one we have to pull most of these because right now they are just priorities for us to look at that require a significant amount of funding in some so because the salary position compression skills all the things that we're talking about that affect our bus drivers and that we want to treat fairly but they also include other groups that are outlined in four i will not be supporting adding that but i will be supporting the pay scales and looking at it when we do um agenda uh follow-on motion number four messiah's more heiser i'm really glad to follow that and i'll direct my comments just to the bus driver pay um some of these follow-on motions are specific

227to year-end funds and some of the follow-on motions are just specific to more information or directing the superintendent to bring back plans and not necessarily tied to year-end funds so for example ms cohen i have a follow-on motion to look at um a little dance party so to look at the pay scale compressions for many of our groups which i think makes a little more sense than just specifically look at bus driver pay for year-end funds because again that is one-time funds and the issue isn't just pay what we did for substitutes was a pay increase what we're doing for bus drivers is looking at pay scale compression it's not quite the same thing and we're also looking at pay scale compression for other groups which is the following motion that ms cohen and i

228have and it's not tied to year-end funds so this isn't quite the same and i think tying it to urine funds is just not fiscally prudent when we aren't sure what's going to happen with a state budget we don't know what's going to happen with the economy we don't know we have a great partnership in the board of supervisors but we don't know what's going to happen year after year so i think it's better off just addressed in the follow-on motion where we can look at pay scales holistically and take the action we need to take passing that follow-on motion also sends a message about what our priorities are so i do not support this for that reason all right i think i'm the last speaker on this i for the similar reasons that you

229just said miss seismore heiser um i support discussion of this but look there's a lot of things that we could do that we want that we think are important that would make people you know happy and feel good but we've got budget professionals telling us this is not the way you do sound budgeting we've got a budget that we don't know where it's going to be next year and to do this just on principle makes zero sense for me it doesn't mean that we're not going to have discussions on this matter we've got the other follow-ons that will help address this but this is on principle so i will be voting against this and with that i'd like to take the vote on the amendment of adding bus driver pay to this follow-on all those

230in fact my light is on ms pogarsky what was that miso mesh a go back okay go ahead yeah i just wanted to address some of the concerns of my colleagues um i think outside of context this is not uh we can't really have this conversation you know first and foremost being that this was brought up at the first budget work session and then at every work session since that we've had i i fully respect and actually totally believe miss tulin in in having taken diligent notes and perhaps it wasn't reflected um but then that that was actually the starting point of the problem the reason we start we spent half of the work session or whatever amount of that work session budget portion talking about bus drivers and the pay and all answering all

231these questions is because it was brought up in that first work session uh and and there wasn't a solution proposed it was just a justification for the original position so that and the solution we came to with the work session was a compromise of the two mill rather than the five point something that it was to say hey let's compromise and find a way to make this work and that's what's being potentially added to this year end so i just want to remind people of that and then again with the follow-on pieces of saying okay let's look at this in the future let's study this in the future let's spend months more looking at compression and this and that number one the bus driver issue is broader than just the compression piece and we've understood

232why that is last work session number two folks remember we've already postponed this repeatedly for over a year for the bus driver piece specifically so i just want us to be mindful of that when we say this because this is us saying okay we're gonna hold off again for over a year to our bus drivers which is a specific issue within its own context as opposed to broadly having a compression issue in our division so i i just don't want us to be kind of confusing that and that's very different than the stadium issue which we can bring the whole kitchen sink i agree there's a priority for everything this is very different for some of the reasons i outlined not to mention again how we've done this before and folding things in from year

233end to recurring but i know folks seem to be set in stone at this point but i really do ask us to consider how this has been a different issue that we've been trailing for a while now thank you and i think all the lights are again dr anderson i just want to make sure that i reiterated the spirit of how and why i added this here this was to have a conversation not a um vetting here it was just to signal for an additional conversation that was the intent behind adding this here and again given what the discussion was had whether it's stadium bathrooms or other things staff gave this to us we added to it this is just to signal a discussion and it's i think i'm surprised that we're here evaluating each

234measure when that was not supposed to be the plan it was to have a conversation in the next month or so so i just wanted to be sure that that was articulated all right let's go ahead and vote on this please all those in favor of the amendment to this motion to add bus driver pay raise your hands all those in favor raise your hands all those opposed okay that motion fails and i did make a procedural mistake earlier and i forgot to call for a no vote on that motion to call the question so without objection i i will be allowed to assume that um in this motion which is an order now because the debate has passed and yes yes somebody interrupted that mr morgan go ahead sorry about that madam chair uh

235that motion would be um moot at this point so you would just need to move on okay okay i misunderstand your direction thank you mr morgan you confuse me all right i apologize no worries we're going back to this main follow-on motion um please turn on your lights again if you need to discuss the main motion or don't okay we will go ahead and take a vote all those in favor of this motion before us on the screen raise your hands all those opposed all the okay that motion passes i'll call mr frisch for the next follow-up thank you madam chair i move that the school board approved the reconfiguration and modernization of its offices at gatehouse administration center at a total cost of no more than four hundred thousand dollars to be funded from

236the school board flexibility reserve the one-time cost for this project will maintain and refresh conference rooms again other common areas while fostering productivity and collaboration by expanding the number of workspaces from three to twelve to accommodate all twelve school board members expanding the number of available workspaces from six to twelve to accommodate all 12 staff aides slash executive assistants and providing enough workspaces for all school board clerks and other staff is there a second second in my miss corbett sanders mr frisch yes uh first i'd like to thank ms dairnick kofax and miss corbett sanders their work on this issue with the previous board uh made it much easier to pull all of this together um tonight i was talking about uh blueprints with mr neck cofax and obviously those will be shared and updated

237based on the the motion here um the school board office at gatehouse makes inadequate use of space for the work of our current board and staff beyond the significant space used for filing and other extraneous storage it currently houses one desk for the chair one desk for the vice chair and one desk for the remaining 10 of us it also has six desks for 12 staff aides and eight desks for nine other staff including our clerks administrative assistant and it itsupport we have room up there uh for all of us but we do not have workspaces up there for all of us this motion will reconfigure the space to fix that deficiency in addition to having social and emotional benefits providing adequate workspaces will enhance productivity and teamwork this enhanced capacity can be used for

238day-to-day work holding meetings with constituents staff and stakeholders preparing for board meetings collaborating with each other and more some of us will use our space more than others that is no different than any of the other tools we have at our disposal as school board members but we are temporary custodians of the offices we hold this is about setting up our current and future colleagues for success finally mr plattenberg and the facilities team have studied this issue and indicate they can begin planning to get started this fall with a projected timeline of three to four months thank you miss corbett sanders yes uh thank you madam chair and thank you mr frisch for bringing this to the board it is something that is a continuation of a discussion that we started at the very beginning

239of our tenure together and it really is a in an effort to bring this board to normalize the office offices of this board because each and every one of us are now in a situation where we will be meeting in coffee shops in um you know in our homes we have people who knock on our doors because they we don't have offices um and that's all great except for um it's much more appropriate for people to come to an office and be able to meet with us so i fully support this thank you cohen yeah i will tell you my first reaction to this was i don't like to spend money on things like this so i grumpily did a little bit of research and tried to talk to other colleagues about how they utilize

240the office and actually speak to some of my constituents because as miss karen corbett has miscarried them now i'm doing it as ms corbett sanders said we before the pandemic we're meeting people at panera and people want to have conversations with us about their students by name about teachers and principals by name and it is not appropriate for us to be doing that um at starbucks and so um the more i begrudgingly thought about this the more important it is for us to have a space where we can meet with constituents that is private where they feel like they can come to us with some of the concerns and um and all the things that they that they should be doing so um and also the idea that you know our staff is everybody sitting

241on top of one another and trying to share workspaces and um so i i get it i would say my curmudgeon self um i i don't love spending money on this but i absolutely understand the need for it after speaking to so many of you so i appreciate the the feedback and the input mr not go fox yes uh mr frisch and i were talking blueprints and i was like is it a dash two free and he's like i don't know i don't have it but yes this is a project we started before um and it is something um miss corbett sanders and i were working together chair and vice chair and um we this was something miss cohen i think a lot of people felt that way this is difficult to spend money on

242but we haven't for year after year after year and so it forced me the other day to sit in my car while there was roof maintenance being done because i needed to talk to constituents and i didn't have time on my schedule to go back and forth to gatehouse in order to get to one of the offices which may have been occupied anyway so that is what happened to me on tuesday or monday and so i i say that as you know we are we are elected and we deserve space for our constituents to come and speak to us and we deserve space to be able to work in a manner that is befitting of our office and so i appreciate you mr frisch for bringing this forward for dusting off the blueprints and working

243um and and pulling this out and i think it's most appropriate um again when you talk about the monies one-time use one-time thing and mr plattenberg you and your team you won't be here but you'll be here in spirits as we finally get this done because we've been talking about it for quite a long time so uh thank you and i support this miss mclaughlin thank you i want to tag in behind miss darren at kofax um it's it's at times really painful to think about the history of this elected school board and how it has always put itself way last in comparison to how our board of supervisors have their constituent services and space to do that so for anyone who's not aware our board of supervisors have not one but two official offices

244they have them in their districts and they have them over at the government center they have technically at least four or five full-time staff members and and they get paid three times what we get paid and i'm not asking for us to be paid the same as them i'm asking for us to be staffed the same as them but i think the public would be really surprised that it took 10 years until miss corbin where miss keys go i missed darren echofax and i the longest but for miss you know corbett sanders for five um that we had half of an assistant and when we joined 11 years ago we had a third of an assistant so the office itself to mr frisch's motion that office hasn't changed since there was four aides to serve

24512 school board members so it has been a long time coming i am proud to be part of a board that is not thinking about him themselves we are thinking about the million people that the 12 of us collectively serve the fact that we have got to have space to meet with them to do the work that our staff aides who are doing their work it's just it's a long time coming and and dr brabrand i want to give a shout out to you and also to mr plattenberg you too have always been very supportive of knowing that this board absolutely deserves to have a professional office you've never ever stood in the way of that you've been supportive of it i thank you for that and this is this is just one step in

246the making and i hope to be part of this collective effort that long past when any of us are serving here that this school board can do its job much better when we have the facilities and and frankly the staffing supports that are required to do this well thank you mr frisch for doing this miss marin yeah i'm thrilled that this is being uh proposed this is just part of the work to further professionalize our office that has often been seen as something that people do in their spare time well not in fairfax where this board is responsible for a three billion dollar enterprise you don't do that from your car while you're waiting for your your contractor at your home to do their stuff around your kid's soccer game i want to say without

247this the public is expecting us to continue to pay to do this work not only not get paid but pay so if i need to meet a constituent of coffee that means that i'm asking them to pay to meet me or i have to pay or i'm covering the expenses in my home to do my work in my home whether it's you know the internet fees the the desk fee you know all that stuff i think also you know our school board office there's issues of security you know we have sensitive materials and filing and information that is doesn't have the adequate space set up right now you know i also think that it should be an inspiring space that reflects the amazing successes and people of our school division and right now i really

248cringe when i have to sit in that library with really dated i mean there are cassette tapes in there you know it's it's got to be re-upped and part of that is is the work to create good storage get rid of sensitive information in a responsible way um finally we're talking about 30 people trying to fit in this space now 30 people so um and i actually make a habit of going in at least once a week because i don't have the setup at home that i need and just today i actually brought back my school board printer because it stopped working and i don't have tech support at home mr diansen home met me in the parking lot and i gave him the printer to say can you please help me that's what i'm

249doing to try and do this job so um i think that if we want to do this well and and really use our taxpayer dollars well spending four hundred thousand dollars to help the 12 board members and a total of 30 staff on the school board have a comfortable place to do work to meet constituents is completely appropriate dr anderson thank you it's very nice to hear all your comments i'm sorry i'm going to put a little bit of stop to to the train of support here i am not going to be able to support this motion not because i don't believe in it i just have an issue with the timing and i talked to mr frisch about it and also i believe i talked to ms corbett sanders about it this morning i

250have two reasons and i'm not going to belabor the point too much but one i i definitely agree that this needs to be a professionalized um position because we spend a lot of work but i don't think that necessarily is um in the office space i think it's making this position the full-time position that we're all spend that we all spend the time doing i think that comes first so for me that timing is off secondarily i i you know sometimes it's hard to put yourself first i get that but i'm there now where i feel that there's some other priorities that i would like to handle first before doing this so as we're talking about you know bus drivers we've got a whole list of things that were just up there and um i

251see some space for that to be prioritized for me so unfortunately i can't join in that party thank you folks miss eisenheiser i'll just be brief um i will be supporting this motion and um i just wanted to share for our public out there a story of what happened to me with my first month on the school board where i had to go because i was i'm not large i have to go across the county to meet people because i don't have an office space for them to come to and so i have to carry my electronics in my car and a briefcase with my personal laptop my brand new school board laptop meeting someone for coffee at a coffee shop my car was broken into and all of that was stolen because i didn't

252have an office to meet somebody in and that was in and my purse was stolen so um it is very dif it is like miss cohen said it is difficult for constituents and i often have held office hours at a coffee shop for constituents to come in and share private information about their students so i can help them which is my job in a coffee shop where they can be overheard in addition having us work in coffee shops having to use our cars as our offices for electronic equipment it is not safe for a good way to do business and so having an office where we can hold office hours where constituents can come and talk to us freely and not worry about their child's privacy is i think a vital component to this job

253and right now there are 12 of us and we have three offices and also we're not allowed to be more than three people in a room together more than two people in a room together so it makes it really difficult for 12 of us to have three offices so for all those reasons i think this is really important i think mr fresh for bringing it and i will be supporting this okay great and just quickly i will just also say this was one of those things too where i was like oh money for this really there are so many other things i want to do but it really is not so much about me it's the people that come next and ultimately it's about our constituents they need to be able to come to meet

254their representatives and talk to them in a private space see the space in which we work and what we do on a daily basis it's how you provide constituent services and it's long overdue so with that i will go ahead and take a vote all those in favor of this follow-on all those opposed that motion passes i'll call on miss cohen for a follow-on motion yes miss marin i apologize you all sound the same cohen tolan marin it's very confusing thank you chair i move that the the school board directs the superintendent to prioritize the completion of the security vestibule program utilizing multiple funding sources to include local state and federal funding and other revenue sources to include grant funding and to provide the school board with a plan and proposed schedule to complete the

255initiative as soon as possible is there a second seconded by ms mclaughlin miss marin you know i've been sort of working on this non-stop for 48 hours i actually don't have remarks prepared because i've just been living it look um what what a tragic week it's been um and when the tragedy happened in texas i just wanted to do what we could on the school side gun violence is a public health crisis just like covid was and in some ways it's certainly a public health issue but you know our mission is to educate children but we can't educate kids if they're not safe and our staff so while this is a portion of it i just want to be clear this in no way lessens any more of the advocacy that i know this board

256wants to do to have effective gun violence protection laws but it is what at this day and age we need to do um and i just remembered i did write remarks see and i have them so um and i had a number of you know questions i just want to share some of the things that constituents in the last 48 hours have reached out to me about um you know can there be a security audit which i know some colleagues are already on top of for later um door handles and locks what kind of security expertise you know is on our staff what are their credentials what about playgrounds uh people walking on playgrounds people making playgrounds secure so a gunman couldn't come and shoot kids at playgrounds i can't believe i just said that

257sentence um modulars and access to the modular facilities thinking about school resource officers up until now the most i've heard is um is resistance to school resource officers because of the fear of the the propensity of disciplinary actions against our students of color now i'm hearing please put school resource officers in we want armed police in our schools and certainly the governor's message today reinforces that i'm not saying where i am on that but this has just been a marked shift in these last 48 hours one constituent said we should close schools until legislation has passed just like we did in kovid so that's the range of public input i've heard but what i know is that i'd already done the research and mr plattenberg had helped me way back to cost out what it

258would take to put these security vestibules in place and i would like perhaps after the motion the second motion maker speaks to ask mr plattenberg just to explain further what exactly the security vestibule is a vestibule is what it does um and how it's staffed or managed because those are some of the questions i had so this is one aspect we can use a variety of funding whether it is year-end funds for this one-time you know cost other state local federal funds so that's all to be determined but we must make this commitment to to have this security portion of our buildings upgraded so i'll leave it at that and then i would like to ask mr plattenberg that question in a little bit thank you ms mclaughlin thank you i am so pleased to

259second the motion um you know this is something that after the parkland shooting the prior board absolutely went to superintendent and his team and said you know what can we do and i've already mentioned earlier tonight that facilities is so stretched thin and uh so tuesday was horrifying for all of us that as we sat there in the board meeting and and found out yet another massacre happens nothing is more devastating than to feel like why can't we stop this in our nation why do we have this gun violence that's taking so many innocent lives and the sad reality is we can't change what's happening on capitol hill at this time we cannot change these ridiculous gun laws that allow an 18 year old child to go in and buy assault rifles never mind that

260we have laws in this nation that you can't go buy a beer you can't go buy an alcoholic drink when you're 18. but by god you go ahead and and buy assault rifles no questions asked that's just my little side note the bottom line is that um this this board the prior board we recognize that the thing that is within our control that is ms marin has said and what she put a lot of time and energy over the last 48 hours to do was in our control is to do layered mitigation just like covid we did layered mitigation we can't st we can't prevent the virus we do our best to mitigate it and you can mitigate the loss of human life and innocent life by having that layered prevention of security and so

261i appreciate ms marin teeing this up for mr plattenberg to help explain not simply to the board because i think there's a lot of understanding but for the public to understand why this motion matters why this commitment to funds matters and i do think that ms marin the way you've worded this motion really allows us to draw upon as many funding sources as possible because this is such an urgent urgent matter and so um i yield it now over for mr plattenberg to enlighten us further well thank you both and in fact the entire school board for their commitment and all the conversations we've been having the superintendent mr smith um regarding this really really grave and serious matter we we have been focused a great deal on the attention of emergency procedures we're extremely

262vigilant about protecting the safety of our students and our employees the school division has spent considerable time and a whole lot of effort in planning and practicing our day-to-day safety and security measures as well as addressing the response to major critical incidents and among these measures we talk about our physical security our lock doors intrusion alarms our electronic door access cctv our visitor management system and procedures that are deployed system-wide are emergency planning coordination with fairfax county police department fairfax county fire department emergency management offices both at the state the federal and the local level we have an incredible collaboration we have an incredible amount of staff mostly retired federal local and state law enforcement and department of defense employees that work on behalf of making sure our students are safe we utilize comprehensive division

263y crisis management plans we do have individual school crisis plans that are updated annually we do our lockdown fire and tornado drills because what we say is we practice how we perform in the case of a situation we do our safety training our tabletop exercises at each school every year that does an assessment of what the safety capacity is at each individual school and go through individual scenarios our critical incident teams and awareness and training are locked down and secure the building shelter in place stay put stay tuned the articulation of that that's also on our website with the assistance of the office of communications our threat assessment processes our confidential tip and text and email our uniform security patrol that's 24 7 7x7 our security console our employee training in crisis management and communication

264not only the employees lockdown evacuation and run height fight having sros at each middle and high school all of our secondary schools and the extensive training that we've collaborated on with many of our community groups to ensure that they have the appropriate sensitivity training to match the needs of our students those partnerships with the fairfax county security personnel at each of the middle schools and each of the high schools our mandatory annual safety training for all students and staff in our system-wide emergency alert systems are just some just some of the implemented elements that we have in our robust safety and security program but as you've stated they are not enough what this board is recommending and taking a look at this and looking at it both the comments about either system-wide and also locally

265and looking our secure presence providing vestibules that provide a barrier to come into our facility where we have not only the the the communication and the cctv where people buzz in but what it does is provides a barrier for people that cannot enter into the school that have to enter into and then be allowed entrance into the office first as another barrier as another level of prevention now when i say we perform how we practice it doesn't withstand the need to reiterate and we've done that through the superintendent through the communication unfortunately because of this horrific incident that's occurred yet again one way too many of our children and our communities lost we have to be diligent and vigilant in an environment that is opening open welcome and supportive and nurturing it's one of the

266most challenging things that i've been asked time and time and time again both locally and internationally for the consulting work we do with the office for overseas schools for the united states department of state these challenges are going nowhere but becoming more and more and more of an issue and a concern that we have to address so i want to commend this board for talking about the plan would be over five years maximum but i know the board is pushing for three years and better but with the focus we can go ahead and take a look on improving a schedule to ensure that we have these perimeters these things in place to help round out our already effective and really critically collaborative security presence that we have for the safety of our students and our

267staff and our community as a whole i can't say enough about the partnership that the fairfax county board supervisors and the police department have done and the things that we've collaborated and worked on together and i do want to commend this board again for for bringing this item forward and i'm pressing this issue so i'm sorry i went a little bit longer but like everybody else i'm scarred yet again thank you mr plattenburg we've got a few more people miss there not cofax yes um so i i am in favor of this but i i do have a question and um because on december 19th of 2019 a previous board made the same motion and it was to provide vestibules for enhanced security at all remaining fcps schools that dr brabrand and his designee identify

268a plan to accomplish this initiative over the three years and that vote was 11 to zero so um i do have a question and i'm not sure who to ask uh why did this not get done it would have been done by now why was there no funding allocated we had the pandemic and to be honest our facilities focus came to efforts around mitigating the pandemic pandemic and all the associated issues with that and um you know as we're coming out of this pandemic we've got to return to some of the priorities that we had before that we've actually talked about some of that in the budget today things that were in a sense frozen in time and we're going to get back to it and try to get as much of it done but

269the pandemic is the shortest answer okay i i just you know it's just disappointing and i i look we we we all know how impactful the pandemic was um but um i i hoping that this time around this will get done and i support the initiative so i'm glad um again there's like a pattern here you guys i think it's good like there's there's work that was initiated and kind of fell off it happened with mr frisch most and now it's happening with yours i think there were there was work that was started by previous boards that we unfortunately weren't able to accomplish for various reasons and now we're we're again bringing these forward with uh and we're in a better place monetarily with our budget and that has a big difference to do about

270it so and um you know but also i i will have to say and i'll speak to that um mr plattenberg thank you for your words and uh i talked to you about my follow-on which i will speak to later but this is just what one but one thing we need to do and um i i like i said i will speak to that later but this is this is important and um i i hope we can get it done this time thank you mr frisch followed my miss corbett sanders thank you yesterday i attended a candlelight villa vigil in front of the national rifle association and a parent handed me a sign that read graduations not funerals in my two years on the school board there have been 70 shootings in the united states

271at schools that's a lot of missed graduations and spelling bees and homecomings and field trips and proms and science fairs and team victories and theater choir band and orchestra performances and so many other defining memories say nothing for the joy they would have brought into the world as young adults how each of us chooses to respond to gun violence and this loss of life will determine if these children and educators died in vain every level of government has a role to play this year alone our school board has directed the superintendent to conduct a review of all curriculum professional development and safety protocols related to gun violence and suicide prevention to make sure it aligns with the current best practices we have updated our legislative program the issues we lobby on in washington and richmond

272to include support for gun violence prevention legislation knowing that weapons used in school shootings usually come from the home earlier this year our superintendent agreed to notify parents and guardians annually about their legal obligation to securely store all their guns the notification also includes gun violence prevention resources to help parents and guardians have difficult conversations about guns and identify when their children might be a danger to themselves or others tonight we will request an independent audit of the safety and security practices at every fcps facility and i hope we will pass this motion as well to develop a plan that expedites security vestibule construction in the schools that still do not have them guns have been illegal on school grounds for decades but last year the general assembly gave school boards the power to prohibit

273them on their non-instructional property as well places like gatehouse for example this board will vote on that next at our next meeting i worry that we as a society will eventually grow numb to these shootings this never-ending loss of life and we owe it to the memories of these children and our educators to remain engaged and channel our anger into focused action to stop these tragedies from happening to other families in our communities and i'm confident this board has the resolve to do that thank you thank you and thank you miss marin you i really appreciated working with you as you tried to as you unpacked an approach what i especially like about the approach you've taken is that it doesn't draw on just a single source of funding because if we draw on a

274single source of funding we repeat what occurred when a couple years ago because i was actually part of the original maker of the motion a couple years ago about these vestibules so i feel very passionately about them what this does is allow us to as they used to say leave no stone unturned to find ways to make this happen but i want to also um just briefly talk about what mr frisch just said because there's a an expression do what you can do and what is within our realm of control what is within the realm of control of a school board is physical security of buildings that we own and lands we own it's the curriculum that we use to teach our children about gun safety it's the resources we provide to support our families

275and it's also the investment in the mental health resources that we provide to ensure that we have social workers and counselors so that if there are areas that to identify risk factors and provide the supports to them and so this is one component of it and it's a very important component so thank you miss marin i really appreciate you and miss mclaughlin bringing this to the board and um do believe that we should be able to get something done miss tollett so as part of my earlier work in my career managing large environmental cleanups the security of nuclear and hazardous materials was part of what i worked on so i'm acutely aware that the discussion around sound school security needs to be about a myriad of components some physical like vestibule entries fences lock doors

276etc and some not physical such as trained personnel sound gun laws and policies clear organizational responsibilities mental health supports for students and staff and overall community support we must all be part of the safety at our schools follow the rules about checking in use the doorbell at the schools and don't let unknown people into the building so well i will vote for an expedited process to add one physical measure security vestibules i am also acutely aware of the work we need to do to ensure that our fcps safety and security department has the resources that they need to do the best job possible looking forward to working with our new assistant superintendent of facilities and maintenance to make sure the review of our current procedures and practices informs us as to any changes that need

277to be made so i will support a little bit later asking for that review in addition i'll continue my efforts to understand this work and needs of our staff providing mental health supports for our students and providing school-wide programs to ensure that every one of our students has trusted adults that they can go to at any time it is only through this multi-parent approach that we can be successful thank you um i will of course support this oh okay ms seismore hyzer once to speak i apologize just briefly i i agree with everything my colleagues have said i will support this i'm not going to add on to that obviously i i very much agree with the layered prevention strategies the one thing that i just wanted to flag that i think is also important

278when we're looking at these layered prevention strategies to add to our physical security to our mental health supports is bullying prevention it's really really important we just had a conversation recently about some of our policies that we're looking to enact and my concerns about the unintentional bullying of special education students that may cause and this shooter was was allegedly bullied for a stutter so i think it's really important as we're looking at all of these to look at all of those pieces to ensure that all of our students feel safe have the supports that they need our schools are safe and all of our students are able to access education and survive um so for me i'll just say you know this week's events of course are horrific um and it has parents and people

279in the community wondering you know what else can we do um i don't want to give people false hope um these vestibules are not going to fix the problem of what is happening in our society only gun control laws are going to do that and ensuring that people who should not have guns do not get guns however [Music] those horrific acts are thankfully extremely rare still as horrible and traumatic and any loss of life even one child is horrific there are other security issues that can happen in a school our schools are quite large our front offices are very busy doing the work of serving students and staff and having this vestibule having just another point can stop other things from happening like people walking in from you know the street and getting into the

280school when they shouldn't be there it's a stop gap measure so i look forward to seeing what plans are brought forth so that we can take yet another step to ensure the safety of our students and staff with that we'll take the vote and if we can get that motion on the screen all those in favor okay that motion passes and now i'll call him miss cohen for real this time i move to direct the superintendent to develop a plan for the recruitment and retention of critical shortage positions bus drivers food service workers custodians and special education teachers and special education support professionals ias phas phtas and conduct a review of the job descriptions of the following employee groups finance techs family liaisons and special education support professionals is our second second seconded by dr

281anderson let's go you know i think we've continued to have this conversation about um we see all across the country that so many systems are hemorrhaging critical support positions for all kinds of reasons that i think any number of us have spoken to and i think while the budget is is really really good i want us to drill down on what dr anderson always says about we shouldn't put braces on everybody we need to have an overall system approach to how we best support our employees a hundred percent but we also have got to get in and do some triage for the critical support positions and figure out some creative ways to recruit and then to retain and and also look at what the job descriptions because some of these are quite outdated and these

282folks are doing an awful lot more than that just spending the last couple of weeks at kilmer and key and looking at phas and phtas and what they're doing now as opposed to what they were classified for years ago it just makes no sense so i'm hopeful that my colleagues will be supportive of this i think i know this is a more long-term plan but uh i hope that this gives us some very specific targeted areas where we can better support our professionals dr anderson yes um briefly um happy to join um miss cohen on this and you didn't call me dr ricardi this time because you've done twice this week this is in keeping with what i think we were discussing earlier this really was born out of our want to further engage with

283our bus drivers and their compensation package and making sure we can continue that conversation which is what i attempted to do in a few follow-on motions earlier but they're not the only groups that we they're not the only employee group that really require this additional um investigation and so i'm glad to be able to include the work that we need to do for our food nutrition services we also have um a dirt there with that employee group our custodians we have a lot of work to do in our compensation and i'm hoping that this will provide us the information to determine what our next steps are as well as reviewing some of the job descriptions as ms coen just shared our family liaisons while they are in this year's budget their job description has expanded

284in a way that none of us realized and i don't think it's kept up the job description has not kept up with the actual tasks for which they are engaged on a daily basis so i'm happy to be able to work on this with um miss cohen ms stolin no okay mr nacofax i appreciate sorry as i spoke earlier about the uh adding the other amendment i believe this is the right way to do it so i thank you for bringing this forward and so i intend to support it mr frisch miss mclaughlin given late hour just want to let you all know that i had a really great meeting early this morning with our support employees association and hearing that i believe it was the finance technicians that their job description has not been

285updated since 2003 so we're talking about almost 20 years ago this is very much needed earlier tonight in our budget i believe we now are sending over about 1.4 million to our hr department for more funding and staffing but this this is crucial and so i'm very happy to support it besides my heiser miss corbett sanders yes thank you thank you dr anderson and miss cohen for bringing this forward because this actually we were talking about our um our school system is a continuous work and process progress and um we need to have systems in place that actually almost um systematize the review of our policies so that we aren't constantly feeling like we have to catch up and triage on one area and then another and so this this uh plan for recruitment and

286retention is just so critical uh because it's actually more expensive to keep replacing employees rather than finding a way of making them stay thank you okay i think with that we will go ahead and take the vote all those in favor of the motion on the screen raise your hands that motion passes unanimously thank you got a couple more um i'll call them a staring at cofax for a follow-on i move that the board directs the superintendent to present a plan for board consideration to engage with an external third party to provide a holistic review of our safety and security protocols and procedures in all fcps building using year-end funds i will second the motion mr not cofax yes uh unfortunately with my theme of history of treating itself the tragedy at marjory marjory stoneman

287douglas high school in parkland florida occurred in february of 201 2018 and immediately our board at that time directed the superintendent to do a comprehensive review regarding the safety and security measures deployed in our schools what current practices are in place in elementary middle high school and what best practices need to be implemented then in june of that year there was an all-day work session where an internal report was presented and consequently instituted many enhancements and many of what mr plattenberg referenced to i will not read all of them but they they were quite comprehensive they were recommendations that have since been done enhancing training for lockdown drills re reinforcing proper electronic door access conducting tabletop exercises annually requiring annual safety and security training requiring principles to include a safety and security briefing and enhancing

288school-based mental health supports so we were able to do all of those plus much more our current board has also taken many initiatives to prevent gun violence and to keep students and staff safe including the vestibule issue which we just discussed and work that began last year with a forum talk of from miss cohen and mr frisch to prohibit by policy firearms on fcps division owned or leased property and to review our curriculum safety protocols and professional development related to gun safety and suicide prevention we know that our school security and safety teams are top-notch professionals and consequently fcps has one of the most advanced school security systems in the nation and we make critical safety upgrades to our buildings each year however we cannot be complacent with the disturbing headlines today that cnn noted

289that in the last 46 weeks this year there have been 45 school shootings including this week's tragedy at rob elementary school in texas where 21 innocent lives were lost this cannot continue but because it is happening we need to make certain to assess our protocols and ensure that what we are doing is providing the safest learning and working environment possible that is why i'm bringing this forward and i look forward to my colleagues support thank you mr kofax um of course i am very happy to second this motion um this is the heart of what we do and that's ensured that when those kids work through walk onto our buses and through our school doors every day that they walk out happy healthy and go back to their families and we take that extremely seriously

290and because of that we have we have excellent security and safety staff and this is in the spirit of continuous improvement and to ensure that we are doing everything we can and we will leave no stone unturned to ensure that we keep our employees and our children safe and of course is this is also not other people's children for many of us this is our own children so i take this extremely seriously and i'm happy to second uh and i see there are a couple people who would like to speak miss corbett sanders followed by miss marin thank you so much for bringing this forward you know we review our policies every five years in governance and i look at this as consistent with that approach that we are reviewing our where we are on

291safety and security in about a five-year cycle review cycle and why that's important is because our um our school can schools continue to evolve but also technology continues to evolve so for example you know one of the things that they are recognizing is seeing what's happening in social media can be an indicator as to threats we put in place systems to monitor social media to ensure that we're aware of any potential threats and are able to deal with them but what this does is look at what we're doing and saying okay what else should we be doing in light of new technologies and new approaches and so i just think that this is a sound pile a sound approach that is consistent with what we do in other areas so thank you so much for

292bringing this to us ms maron yes thank you i'm glad to see this motion and it dovetails nicely with the facilities piece that um the board approved this evening i i do hope that this uh audit and review includes uh student behaviors in so far as things like user error like our students you know we're sure they're not opening doors when they shouldn't be do they know how to report when something's broken a lock or something like that and then also includes the different ways that the schools try to share the responsibility with families so that families you know are doing their share to talk to their kids not only about gun safe gun violence prevention and safety against guns but um you know again the bullying component those other pieces so i do hope

293that this review is you know a little bit more holistic to look at all these different aspects thank you miss eisenheiser i'm really glad that my colleagues brought forth this holistic review what happened this week was horrific and i think for all of us it's one of our it is mine i think all of our biggest nightmare for something to happen to our children and um as stewards of the system as our leadership team i know we take all of us very seriously the trust our families place in us when their children walk into our doors and the fact that something like this could happen to teachers and children when their parents have trusted the school system so i'm really grateful for all the work that mr plattenberg has done that the previous board has

294done in our excellent security system and i'm really looking forward to finding out how we can improve this but i just want to be clear we will do everything we can to make sure our schools and our grounds and our buses are safe but we can only do so much because the real issue is not how secure our doors are it's how easy it is for people to buy guns so we will do our best and with that i think we'll go ahead and take the vote all those in favor of the motion in front of us raise your hands and that is unanimous thank you i'll now call on miss cohen for follow-on motion i move to direct the superintendent working with the new superintendent for hr to bring back to the board recommendations

295on how to address compression in our pay scales is there a second second in my miss seismor heiser ms cohen comments sure i won't go at length but i think a lot of the conversations that we had at our work session and that we've had together and with miss burden as well are conversations about pay skills that were compressed for various reasons over time and the angst that that's causing many of our employees in particular this was brought to our attention this time by our bus drivers who are stuck with several years of service into the system and are stuck on a lower step than would reflect the years of service so knowing that that impacts many of our employee groups uh miss seismor heiser and i thought it was best to go ahead and

296let's take a comprehensive look at how we can best make that right by our employees seismic heiser just briefly um you know i know we talked quite at length about bus driver pay is year-end funds and the the one goal that i think all of us have and i know ms cohen and i have is we want to make sure that we're looking holistically not just at our pay skills for bus drivers but for all of our employees the landscape for um education staffing is seems to have changed very very quickly and i know it's been on this trajectory but the shortages of our staff the needs of our staff the work our staff do i think it's it's a good time to really look at that pay scale compression and look at that as

297a recruitment retention tool and see what we can do to make sure that we are um using best practices in our pay scales not just for our bus drivers but for everybody i know dr anderson i appreciate the motion that you brought up earlier and i knew you you weren't able to attend the first work session on the bus you didn't have to leave early at this last one we did have quite a robust conversation about the pay scale so i'm glad that we'll be able to take a look at this in a more robust and holistic way um i just want to end by saying i think all of our number one goal is whatever changes we may or may not need to do we want to make sure we do it in a

298way that that can be sustained year after year so thank you miss baron did you have your light on to speak no thank you miss corbin sanders and with that uh miss mclaughlin yeah i just on it i'm absolutely supportive of this but given our our work session just 48 hours ago where there was a lot of conversation and trying to understand not just among the board but even in the community among our employees there's pay scales and then there's total compensation and as long as fairfax county schools continues to have what we believe is a really great asset which is erfc as a secondary pension that still is funding that ends up being part of a total employee's compensation and if we weren't putting it into the erc we'd be putting it into their

299paycheck and we have a very generous employer contribution to that and so while we will look at pay scales i just wanted to be mindful that ideally our new superintendent and assistant superintendent hr will help the board and help the community have this holistic conversation especially for our employees of what does pay total pay and compensation mean so um i just wanted to make sure that was emphasized there because um dr braban who's still still here with us um is you have shared over time and and i'll give the nod to miss burden and everybody else if the board isn't clear about all that it expects and hopes to see then staff is left at a well we thought you just wanted that and so i'm just kind of putting my little marker on the

300table that i think when we talk about pay scales we also want to make sure that we always bring that contextual information because we we do compensate competitively and i want to make sure our employees aren't seeing one slide one chart and suddenly only seeing a piece of how we honor them and try to remain competitive thank you thank you and with that we'll go ahead and take the vote all those in favor raise your hands and that is unanimous we have one last motion i'll call him as corbett sanders i move that the division superintendent be authorized to take whatever actions are necessary to implement the decisions made by the school board relative to its 2023 approved budget and that all policies and regulations inconsistent with the budgetary motions passed tonight are hereby modified

301and amended accordingly and the division superintendent is to be granted authority to make all necessary minor changes and technical modifications to the budget and to salary scales to comply with the intent of the school board with regard to its budget actions there a second seconded by ms tolin do you need to speak to this no it's just our standard housekeeping uh measure um ms tolen all those in favor okay that motion passes unanimously agenda item congratulations we did that you all did that wow agenda item 5 consent agenda adopted rules of parliamentary procedure robert's rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items

302may be removed from the consent agenda the request of any board member prior to the meeting the consent agenda is on the screen are there any objections to approving these items hearing and seeing none the consent agenda is approved agenda item six new business the following are new business items there will not be a vote tonight but actions scheduled for future meeting these new business items are on the screen agenda item seven board committee reports ms ms cohen has a report from governance committee and ms tollin then has a report from the joint environmental task force update uh super quickly we worked on policy 5011 and 5015 that deal with procurement those policies will be brought to the board either by new business or work session i know that there's a survey out so please

303make sure that you check your email in chairs notes and answer the survey about how you'd like to have those policies discussed we also finally were able to pass our gun ban policy and bring that to the board that is on that was on new business just right this second and it will be up um voted on in our next school board meeting um we also took another look at the social media policy both for school board and for fcps employees and that is continuing to be a work in progress and we look forward to being able to bring that to you all in a work session some fine day and that's it ms tolen yes mr christian i met with the um our staff and county staff for a an update on the jet

304goals we had a two and a half hour discussion but i'll just give you a couple highlights [Laughter] i'll talk about two of our different goal areas and then mr frisch will talk about the remaining two so on the zero waste goal um look for a pilot at the government center cafeteria soon where they're gonna try a three bin pilot you know trash recycling and compost and see how that works and see if we can broaden that use across the the county and the schools it's very exciting they're beginning to work on a dashboard to measure all waste streams and monitor them over time and from the school perspective i'm really excited about we will have some summer curriculum work on zero waste project-based learning units that can be slid into various curricular areas used

305with esol students and special education students etc the county is hiring at least four staff members to work on this project um just to note for us we have one person next year um slotted in our three-year plan so we can look forward to maybe expanding our work there next year our workforce cte staff has been working really hard on resource packages for counselors and career center staff resource packages for employers to increase internship possibilities and green careers for our students they are also they've got some curriculum in progress working with the virginia department of education to define employers needs and develop pathways that will be embedded in the cte curriculum around alternative energy in electrical courses they're using our own energy management department energy dashboards and energy reports and looking at ways to embed

306those in our science and cte courses and that's just the subset of what they're doing there's some very exciting work mr fresh i'll turn it over to you i'll round that up very quickly we also talked quite a bit about energy conservation and our program for solar panels on the schools hopefully we'll have more to report on that suffice it to say we are looking at the communications apparatus around notifying communities when those projects are being installed and i think we've said this before but annandale high school will be the first school in fcps to move forward with that on rooftop solar and in terms of transportation as i said in my previous comments were up to 28 approved uh electric buses and for people keeping track at home we had zero two years ago

307so that's pretty fantastic and we discussed the challenges with that the county's progress on on bringing in electric vehicles to their fleet and how infrastructure becomes very complicated the more buses that we bring in all of a sudden you have to start thinking about okay where are we putting all of the charging infrastructure because they all have to get charged at some point and how do you do we share with neighboring school divisions do we share you know do we install things at schools these are the types of things that have to be thought of as we move forward thank you agenda item eight board matters um and colleagues i'm gonna make a suggestion it is very late and our staff have been up from very early working all day if and us yes and

308some of us will be up in less than six hours again so if there are no objections i would like to skip board matters tonight um and adjourn this day and end on a high note thank you happy memorial day thank you congratulations yes happy graduation yes we can't wait this meeting's thank adjourned