001do so do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so do so [Music] do so [Music] studio will be starting in one minute [Music] oh thank you the may 2021 regular meeting of the fairfax county school board will now come to order i will now take roll miss cohen here miss corbett sanders good evening everybody mr frish here miss keys gamora miss mclaughlin miss marin miss o'mage here miss mccarskey good evening miss seismohizer miss tolland i'm here thank you good evening mr anubudo hi everyone miss keisgamara good evening good evening and miss seismoheiser i'm here good evening to you please rise our student representative nathan anabudo lead us in the reciting of the pledge of allegiance followed by a moment of silence i pledge allegiance to the
002flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you please be seated item 2.02 certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with section 2.2-3712-d of the code of virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the fairfax county school board convened a closed meeting on may 20th 2021 and to the best of each member's knowledge on the public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting motion made by miss tolin seconded by ms marin all in favor mr frisch miss cohen miss corbett sanders miss tollen
003miss picarsky miss mclaughlin miss marin miss keith scamara and myself all opposed those abstaining miss miss seismor heiser and miss omesh thank you announcements if you'd like to review a copy of the agenda in any agenda item that is being discussed tonight that information may be found at the back of the auditorium or at 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 slash c899 ms nernat kofax regrets that she cannot be here for tonight's important meeting but she is attending her daughter's college graduation congratulations to ms dennis kofax and her family fcvs is committed to providing a safe welcoming and inclusive environment for all students families and staff the school board understands that the increased violence in
004the middle east over the past weeks causes a range of emotions including grief anger and fear these traumatic events are complex in nature and impact our community the fairfax county school board does not have a role in resolving geopolitical conflicts however we recognize that our students and families are hurting and are fearful of what is happening abroad and locally with increased acts of aggression against our jewish and muslim communities fairfax county public school is committed to ensuring that our students and staff are treated with respect and dignity and provided a safe and nurturing environment in which to learn and thrive in this and every moment it is important that we reject islamophobia anti-semitism and xenophobia engaging our students and families and discussing these issues will support our students growth and development as critical thinkers and
005global citizens the success and well-being of a school division depends upon us standing united against any acts of violence and hatred committed against any person or group within our community it is our responsibility to ensure that all people are treated with dignity empathy and humanity in our schools the next order of business is citizen participation speakers are requested to limit to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as the capital improvement program budget and boundaries speakers should only address new business action items or resolutions as listed in the open meeting agenda complaints regarding individual students or school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school official speakers should refrain from using personally
006identifiable information in connection with an individual student and are expected to deliver their comments with the decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the public's business in-person speakers should wear a mask stand behind the black line on the floor and speak into the microphone thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come to speak to us today tonight 10 speaker 10 citizens have signed up to address the board we will also have three video testimonies i will not ask the clerk to call the first speaker our first speaker is hira bakaja all right greetings peace and salutations to us all this evening my name is and i'm a senior at edison high school as a student from the mental health working group i had initially planned to talk to you today
007about the budget but rather i am here to talk to you about how our prejudice has taken a toll on our humanity and sadly fairfax county it's been a struggle to witness the current events in our world and county this past week was a true testament to how our differences can bring the best out of us the more we unite and come together as a whole we can truly radiate the community within with respect compassion and willingness to see all perspectives we can intentionally work together and create the change we want we mustn't forget that without unity our division and polarization within will only continue to pervade i want to make it clear that promoting justice equity diversity and inc and inclusion in our schools is there to help uplift students and should not be
008controversial to each story there are different perspectives therefore it's imperative we foster safe spaces for people to share openly without criticism currently our school curriculum is strongly one-sided thousands of people in our county aren't heard or seen because they're afraid to speak up on their perspectives we feel scared to speak up because when we do we are deemed to be hateful or biased tomorrow may 21st is my last day of great school as it's the end of a chapter for many we will continue to advocate and speak for the people of our county until we are one never did i envision to see someone who looked like me a muslim-covered female on the school board i'm proud to stand up for justice and i'm inspired by the leaders who show me that we can we've
009made so much progress as a community yet there's a lot of work to be done i and many others are willing to connect mobilize and organize with other groups present here today so please reach out as a student i stand in solidarity with fellow board member abroad as she is a representative for all students in fairfax county she is progressive courageous and a champion for us all her factual statement did not alienate any religious group but rather it was a starting point in us having more courageous conversations let's not be afraid to listen converse and act more there is truth to power our political cultural and religious backgrounds are what makes fcps unique so therefore i am praying for peace today and may justice prevail for us all thank you thank you our next speaker
010is dawn smith good evening my name is dawn y smith and i'm the mother of four fairfax county public school children both current and alum i come here tonight to speak about free speech the peculiar thing about free speech is while it affords us the right to speak without prosecution it does not give us a pass for consequence as private citizens we're entitled to speak openly about our views and beliefs but here's the part that seems to be a sticking point board members are not acting as private citizens when they use their fcps platform to air their grievances views beliefs and any such personal and political commentary but that's what happened here miss omega you have a responsibility to represent the interests of all students equally regardless of their race ethnicity religion gender or sexual
011orientation that means in the public form of being an fcps school board member you cannot expound upon your political opinion if that view disenfranchises any of your constituents by using your fcps affiliated platform to attack the ethnicity of a significant group of students you've shown that you cannot be trusted to ethically perform your official duties on the school board ms omega agreed to the vsba code of conduct which includes a prohibition against using her board position for personal or partisan gain and to avoid conflict of interest or impropriety i think we can all agree that highly inflammatory and political language directed at a specific group by an elected official sworn to represent all people is a direct violation and should be met with swift condemnation from the board ms omega allowed the hate speech to
012simmer for several days without diffusing or even removing dangerous hostile vicious responses from her constituents her divisive post did nothing but invigorate the beast of anti-semitism while she inappropriately cloaks herself under the right of free speech i'm a loudoun county social worker i protect defend and advocate for every single child and i've never once used my position or my platform disseminate my personal views that would be unethical are any of you all of you not held to that same standard miss omega using diversity and inclusion on your page while propagating division and hate makes you a fraud and the antithesis of equality my ninth grade daughter wanted you to know quote as a jewish girl in this county it made me sick to my stomach to see you posting your personal feelings about israel you're
013supposed to represent me and i now feel attacked scared and unsafe everyone could read those ugly things and they're still there six days later i implore the board to uphold your established code of conduct your commitment to diversity and inclusion and formally retract and condemn that post then establish a clear policy against members using social media for personal gain do not be complicit through science and do not continue to blur the lines between personal and professional duty to protect and represent all children of this county thank you thank you our next speaker our next speaker is jennifer katz jennifer katz [Applause] good evening my name is jennifer katz and i'm speaking to you today as a resident and taxpayer of fairfax county abroad must resign or be censured as a member of the fairfax county
014school board based on her social media posting in a public forum on may 13 2021 this posting violates regulations established by this board as well as violating established rules of conduct applicable to school board members she clearly showed her strong bias and contempt toward a country who many fcp students and their parents have dual citizenship in and strongly identify with abrar omega failed to meet the expectations of her fiduciary duty as a school board member which requires quote a degree of loyalty and care of the highest standard end quote any posting on social media which could be reasonably interpreted as a microaggression against any student due to their religious or ethnic sensitivities violates that duty and requires her resignation document b4 of the fairfax school board standard states quote a conflict of interest exists when
015a member is confronted with an issue which the member has a personal interest that could render the member unable to devote complete loyalty to the public interest by injecting herself into an issue in which she has a personal interest she has violated her complete loyalty to the public interest which is to quote improve and enhance the teaching and learning experience of all fcps students in fcps identify with are citizens of or have a domicile in the country that she states in her post quote kills palestinians practices apartheid and desecrates holy places those students will unquestionably be shamed as well as personally affected by such a social posting this is a classic example of a microaggression compounding her egregious conduct as her violation of the board member code of conduct b3 section 9 where quote a
016board member will refrain from using the board position for personal or partisan gain and avoid any conflict of interest any claim that the posting was personal and not endorsed by this board does not exonerate the member nor provide this board of the defense social postings have been the impetus for cancelling removing and punishing every conceivable microaggressive thought that has been reduced to digital form for distribution there can be no misinterpretation of her posting and the position that our barometer holds which has an influence on the educational policies and decisions affecting all fcps students the board has repeatedly expressed its concern with public expressions of microaggression and therefore you must fulfill your responsibility and at the very least censure this board member it's not open season on some groups while coming to the defense and support
017of other groups her aggressive and divisive post has unquestionably shamed some students in fairfax county as a board you cannot cherry pick which groups of children can be marginalized and which cannot this county is pushing for equity and tolerance curriculum this post is anything but equitable or tolerant our next speaker is sandra davis sandra davis hi i'm sandra davis i'm the parent of three sons i'm a biden voter and a never trumper i put that out there in hopes that you'll actually listen to me tonight we're all democrats you've triggered a bipartisan title wave of parental pushback in the momentum is building i've helped collect signatures for several of your recalls for months way before it was a thing for the protesters outside in fact about this many what would prompt someone like me to
018do this i think your leadership is detrimental to our children with the exception of ms mclaughlin who's often heard ending meetings with what about the children you lost me last fall when parents were surveyed about virtual or in person then the results from half of us were promptly ignored you ignored the health department recommendations the science and did what you wanted to anyway and that's the day that you divided this county in half a lot of your survey results are dismissed or asking for permission after the fact skewed and interpreted to support end games how do parents trust that you will follow through with five days a week in the fall i personally think it's a sham so you don't lose more kids aka money we have lost 10 to 13 000 students to get
019a quality education military members scrambling to change their orders can parents get their tax dollars back for services not rendered and if they do get five days back in the fall what are you planning on teaching them why are you trying to get rid of or alter the controversial issues policy that's a serious red flag you are the opposite of transparent i do not want my children exposed to a radical progressive agenda any more than i would support an equal and opposite alt-right agenda can you focus on the basics my son's algebra teacher admitted that he has been taught only 40 percent of the algebra curriculum this year 40 percent i can see why you encouraged an opt out for sols but don't try and imply it's because parents refuse to take the test always
020a slippery language here coveted rates are low there are easing of restrictions why are there schools in this county that have not invited children back to four days personally i know parents with children who are depressed committed have suicide attempts admitted to mental facilities engaged in life-changing behavior even the secretary of education said that getting kids back even for two weeks this spring would make a big difference in their mental and social health honestly you were all elected it's a backlash against trump d d d several of you are not qualified it's a parent plants backed by unions and money that's not local climbing a political ladder on the backs of our children you work for our children please put them first our next speaker is sue zoldak [Applause] sue zoldak you're proud of yourselves
021by the way when a parent writes to two of you asked about the survey about anti-bias and lisa williams writes back and says don't worry we are weeding out the troublesome responses that invalidates the survey you just wasted 49 thousand dollars all right well where should i begin um from your social media guidance it says well posts may intend no harm the contents of your post should not impair your capacity to maintain the respect of students and parents any action that brings the school system into disrepute may be just cause for dismissal we can see that from a lot of the actions that teachers have taken and people on the school board have taken are we putting you to sleep that that's not followed does anyone here actually think about what that means to maintain
022the respect of students and parents i've spoken to many many many parents as the founder of do better fcps over the past year i spoke to a teacher who taught for the last 23 years she called me and she cried i've had enough she spent a quarter century here she said she remembers when teachers and administrators did not bring politics to the building she said now her principle allows teachers to openly mock anyone from one side of the political aisle and we all know which side that is she says she can't open her mouth at school she says that in order to feel safe she has to lie about who she voted for that's the environment that trickles down from the very people on the school board whether you tweet anything political support a candidate
023tweet an election result you're condoning an unsafe environment for someone in our schools who does not feel safe i don't think i have to explain i think you can hear what that does to people maybe that's your goal maybe you go home and sit on your couch and you laugh about this perhaps you're all proud of yourself because when you sit there and you have the audacity to talk about equality inclusion and safety but then you act in such a way that creates the exact opposite environment many of us ask ourselves what kind of person does this and who should that person be an elected official the point is who's in charge here that's our most frequently asked question at do better fcps who is in charge it doesn't seem very difficult to have a
024personal and a professional social media presence what happened to the independent auditor's office you know the one that was fired for discovering the synergetics scandal that re resulted in the removal of the last superintendent is that person out to lunch out to lunch with the chief information security officer that should have been hired to protect our students so in the meantime since our teachers and our students have no one to go to they have no one to go to to talk to when they feel afraid at school my tick box is open my door is open and those people are coming to me when they should be coming to you but i'll keep standing here and i will keep listening to them until you guys fix thank you our next speaker is diane cooper gould
025diane cooper gould diane cooper gold advocacy chair of fairfax county septa tonight we say thank you to the scored fcps leadership central office staff our tireless staff instructors we thank our parents first miss cooper gold i'm sorry to interrupt you we can't hear you you're breaking up okay um can you hear me now seems a little better okay um if you could start over we'll start your time over thank you um can you well before we start can you hear me i'm sorry it's a bit did you want to just log back in i i can try or hang on does it work for now can you hear me better now you're garbled and coming in and out why don't you try to log back in we'll go to the next speaker and it will
026come back to you okay thank you our next speaker is nurvik para julie good evening my name is nervik para julie and i'm a senior in fcps and a sully district constituent i am also a queer student and a member of the pride liberation project formerly known as the prison project we are a coalition of queer students organizing around the mental health crisis in the queer community in fcps i'm here today to talk to you about the queerphobic culture in fcps schools i specifically want to discuss two aspects that have created a damaging environment for lgbtqia plus students the presence of sros and a lack of sexual justice we know that sros aren't keeping our schools safe in the aftermath of the parkland shooting for example a federal judge ruled that police officers have no
027duty to protect individual persons from harm even when they know the harm will occur moreover a washington post analysis from 2018 found that school resource officers prevented just one school shooting for context firearm malfunctions stop seven the justice policy institute summed up in when they noted that sros do not prevent crime and instead only criminalized marginalized communities not only are sros not keeping our schools safe but they are also taking valuable resources away from more urgent student needs for every two queer students in this county one of them has experienced depressive symptoms in the last year yet we continue to have a lack of counselors social workers and psychologists in our schools essentially we are spending more than one more than eight million dollars on a program that has little to no evidence to suggest
028it works instead of actual resources that would uplift students it's not just mental health resources either the more than 800 8 million dollars spent on sros can be spent on a wide variety of better responses for example there are high rates of unprotected sex in the lgbtqia community right here in fcps in fact more than 50 percent of lgbq males have had unprotected sex in fcps it isn't just protected and unprotected sex either the one in four queer students in fcps have been vic the victims of sexual harassment given this it is imperative that fcps invest in resources that can promote safe and consensual sex behaviors in all communities including the lgbtqia community yet we continue to spend eight million dollars on the institution of policing an institution that has proven to be ineffective in
029fostering sexual justice in fact policing has directly worsened the crisis in 2015 for example the urban institute found that 15 of lgbtqia youth simply carrying a condom was enough for police to detain and even arrest them rather than continuing to spend over 8 million dollars on an institution that doesn't foster safe and concept consensual sex we should be investing a portion of that money into resources that encourage safe sexual behavior including the distribution of condoms at our schools hiv testing and more trained professionals who are specifically tasked with responding to sexual harassment the speaker's time is now up thank you miss diane cooper all gould hopefully it is working better please go ahead yes okay good evening i'm cooper gould advocacy chair of fairfax county septa and tonight we want to say thank you to
030the sword fcps leadership central office staff retired school-based staff and instructors we thank our parents and our neighbors we thank our health care workers community volunteers and our students the past 14 months have been beyond difficult our community is exhausted and bruised various hardships have read anger discontent and some bitter battles too often solutions have come from difficult unsatisfactory choices but we have all done our best even if our best did not turn out as we hoped thank you to everyone for your resilience and your persistence and please remember we are one community and we must give each other compassion and kindness we're doing the best with complex problems may 3rd through 7th with teacher and staff appreciation week septa offers our heartfelt gratitude to all of our fcps teachers and staff we see you
031working tirelessly with smiles on your faces for the betterment of your students even while your world is fraught with stress anxiety and seemingly endless changes often you felt unsupported by our own by our community the school system at times you bore the brunt of the anger and fear of our community septa wants to remind you that you are our heroes we entrust our children to you for hours every day to guide them nurture them protect them and educate them therefore we are excited to announce that on may 22nd we will stream our fourth annual septa awards ceremony to honor outstanding staff who support special education students in fcps this year we have teachers going to amazing lengths to support students during this pandemic we've witnessed teachers raising money to help pay emergency bills for student
032families teachers calling struggling students at home to create personal connections during virtual learning showing up at students homes to drop off learning materials or drive by and graduate parades here after teacher chose to sacrifice time with their families so that they could be there for our fcps students in myriad ways but we have also seen teachers and staff weep from exhaustion and fear many are leaving the profession entirely because they do not feel supported it is our job as a community to hold up our teachers and staff to support them and to help them succeed we must advocate for those who advocate for our children we must find ways to retain them year after year these professionals literally shape the future of our community and our children's lives we must ensure that they have administrative
033support planning and lunch break time reasonable caseloads limited groupings and our community support a wise school recently stated our world is struggling our community is struggling his are struggling no matter where your beliefs lie the impact on kids is real please throw your kindness around like confetti all of us could use a little extra right now thank you thank you our next speaker is amanda campbell good evening my name is amanda campbell and i'm speaking tonight as the vice president of fairfax county septa from early in the pandemic virginia pta has supported the following prioritizing the health and welfare of students staff and families school districts seeking direct and regular feedback from all caregivers via surveys of parents teachers and staff students receiving distance learning instruction from the same teachers that support them for in-person
034instruction septa has heard from numerous families concerned that the virtual option is only available to medically fragile students and not to their siblings or to the children of medically fragile adults who are unable to be vaccinated the lack of acknowledgement from fcps that requiring a medically fragile person's sibling or child to attend school in person puts the medically fragile person at risk is reckless while we know and agree that there is no such thing as risk-free education as was mentioned at last night's town hall with members picarsky and seismor heiser the fact remains that we are still in the middle of a global pandemic where no one under the age of 12 has access to a vaccine yet the families we are talking about are in ongoing conversations with their private providers they are following
035medical advice the continued disregard for the very real and vulnerable position these families are in is ableist and puts families members in the position of having to potentially choose the education of one child over the lives and health of another family member we ask that fcps publicly answered the following questions spsb 1303 indicates that offering a virtual option is contingent upon the governor's state of emergency being in effect there are indications that the governor will remove the state of emergency on june 30th if that happens will the virtual option still be available details for special education instruction regarding specific placements and related service providers for those who need virtual instruction until they are vaccinated are non-existent by what date will you provide this information for families we respectfully request a transparent release of this information
036before the end of the school year why has fcps stated that concurrent instruction will be available when a student has positive for coveted needs to quarantine but not for medically fragile students who need to stay virtual just until they have a vaccine in the school board town hall last night it was stated that approximately 850 students have filed the request for virtual program given the very small number of students would you consider a short-term concurrent option for them with additional supports as we mentioned in our letter rather than setting up an entirely new and separate virtual program this would allow a very small group of students to more quickly and seamlessly transition back to in-person schooling also more quickly alleviating the negative impact of virtual instruction on teachers and staff if that is not possible
037we ask that fcps consider a commitment to virtual until the end of the first quarter given that pfizer continues to indicate that vaccines are likely for students under 12 in september either option would be more in line with the american academy of pediatrics recommendations then requiring students remain virtual until january septa and fccpta sent a joint letter on may 7th to the school board and fcps leadership to address these questions and more yet it has gone largely unanswered by fcps leadership saved for a few clarifications from dss families need thank you our next speaker is amy canava hello can you hear me yes go ahead okay good thank you when i envision eco-friendly schools i picture schools which are sustainable and benefit the environment but i also envisioned young people learning to take care of
038the environment preserve resources and leave the world a better place than they found it it is imperative that we take steps to preserve our environment for our children's future i do not discount the need to take care of plants and trees in the air but the same effort time and concern we take in caring for and preserving the life of nature should absolutely be taken when it comes to humanity beginning by the start of the 21-22 school year every public school division in the commonwealth must have transgender inclusive policies and practices gone are the days of having guidance that doesn't have to be followed i want today's students to live long enough so that they can see good air quality in sustainable buildings and as a nationally certified school psychologist and nationally recognized expert in
039lgbtqia youth i know that a policy is just a piece of paper that provides retroactive protection rather than security safety and validation at the moment what is fcps going to do to ensure that the policy is enacted equitably across all schools and online platforms how will certified and classified staff learn about inclusion and affirmation what changes will occur in the curriculum so that every fcps student can relate to what they are learning about what changes will occur within personnel so that students can see someone who resembles them when they walk down the hall this spring the superintendent received a guidance document provided by the virginia department of education with suggestions for implementing trans and inclusive policies which are now required by state law last summer preceding the department of education's guidance he received guidance provided
040by myself equality of virginia and side by side fcps has had a year to get ready for these changes but in reality best practices says that all schools should have already been ready fairfax the time is now to ensure that each school across the district is welcoming affirming inclusive equitable proactive and responsive welcoming affirming inclusive equitable proactive and responsive put simply vapor schools save lives to echo the words of the young people i work with today i say if you're not wait for what are you doing with your life thank you thank you our final speaker is bethany heim hello um my name is bethany heim i am a parent of a kindergartner and first grader i noticed that abc abc 7 news posted information on facebook summarizing the mask policies for various school districts
041in our area unfortunately fairfax county was missing anyway according to their list manassas faulkner loudon and are not requiring students to wear masks outdoors while on the school while on school property i hope fairfax county will also remove the outdoor mask requirement for our children considering how low the transmission rate is outdoors and then to switch gears i want to say that i appreciate the perspective critical race theory brings however i have concerns and i want to participate in the process to develop the anti-racist and anti-bias curriculum i also have questions that i want to share with you today and i will email these same questions to you and dr gray brand my first question is is there a project page for this initiative and a public engagement plan so parents can follow along and
042get involved number two how were the how was how were the governance committee members selected and how can parents participate moving forward number three is there a recording of the april 27th governance committee meeting for us to review number four and finally will there be a second anti-bias anti-racism survey for parents to fill out since the original survey was poorly crafted next i want to say that the controversial issues policy should not be revised i find it troubling that an anti-biased anti-racism curriculum cannot coexist with this policy as is i do not want my kid's school to become a hotbed of activists campaigning and endless debates i do not want kids to feel pressured into taking sides in complex adult conflicts during the school day i do not want children to feel like they must
043demonstrate they are woke enough or anti-racist enough to appease the adults in their school what i do want is for my kids to learn tolerance patience and how to achieve their goals i want my children to learn about and embrace the world's diverse cultures i want them to have difficult conversations and learn the true history of our country however i do not want them to be accused of a cultural appropriation if they happen to discover a love for salsa dancing i hope the new anti-racist anti-bias curriculum is developed from a place of love and does not assume the worst of intentions from our children and finally i do not want to see hard work and achievement attacked to address disparities within the school system this was done repeatedly when the school board discussed the thomas
044jefferson student population and the admissions process instead i want you to cheer on high achieving students and at the same time i want you to develop to develop strategies and assemble resources for students who need assistance thank you thank you we now have video testimony from kareem shawbaji hello fcps board my name is karim shor bhaji and i'm a proud alum of chanchalee high school member at large abbar amesh tweeted and i quote mubarak congrats on 30 days of worship hurts my heart to celebrate while israel kills palestinians and desecrates the holy land right now apartheid and colonization were wrong yesterday and will be today here and there may justice and truth prevail whatever your view is on the occupation of palestine a tweet wishing muslims a happy aid and addressing innocent civilian casualties is
045not grounds for making accusations of bigotry and anti-semitism her tweet did not contain hate speech or discriminatory language nor did it call for violence as someone who has close palestinian-american friends it has been heartbreaking to see them throughout the past two weeks drained mentally and physically as a result of what's been happening in their homelands abraham bravely addressed the struggle of palestinians and palestinian americans allowing them for once to feel welcomed and hurt in our school system i know that fcps cares about free speech and wants its students to be advocates for causes they feel strongly about i know this because in 2019 fcps began excusing one absence a year for students to attend protests and engage with other kinds of political activism i'm sure we all want fcps students to be great citizens and
046exercise their first amendment rights of assembly and speech it is troubling to me that the school board rather than protecting avar omega as she stands up against injustices is ridiculing her what message does this send to your arab middle eastern and muslim students in your classroom fcps teaches about injustices grants students an excused absence to participate in demonstration and preaches about diversity and inclusion in every community space i ask that you have some consistency in your messaging to the community make it clear that fcps supports the right to free speech and protects every member of the community thank you [Applause] we have a video testimony from a beer album for eight years now thank you for watching my video i know that the board is scheduled to discuss anti-racism today's meeting and i would like
047to take this opportunity to bring to your attention a topic that is related in a way to anti-racism back in november when we had our elections the environment was highly emotionally charged all professionals in the county like everyone else shared their political views on their personal social media accounts we also knew that as professionals were not to share our political views with our students or use any account related to the county to express our political views i'm sure that you are aware of the surfacing of the long-term israeli-palestinian conflict this is a sensitive topic that has many students and professionals in the county feeling strongly about i also noticed that some professionals got intimidated to share their views on the conflict on their personal social media accounts the of the israeli-palestinian conflict is a political
048conflict and is separate from religion for example if somebody is pro-palestinian that doesn't make them automatically anti-semitic and if a person is supporting the views of the state of israel doesn't make them automatically an islamophobe i think that it's only fair and sensible that the county to commit to that the county commits to the same standards that we had back in november dealing with the israeli-palestinian conflict limiting the freedom of one group and not the other represents a limitation on personal freedom and is considered taking sides thank you so much for considering this topic and thank you for your time and video from farhan khan [Applause] good afternoon to the fairfax county public school board my name is farhan khan i am a 23 year long resident here in fairfax county i'm also a parent
049and a voter i'm making this video to express my support for representative abraro mesh specifically she recently posted a social media message uh wishing people married similar to saying merry christmas she coupled her message with disapproval of recent israeli military activities in the middle east now this is an ongoing situation and it is her right as an american to express her views interestingly her views are echoed and supported by 11 sitting members of the house of representatives and this is an ongoing situation she has the right to express her views however she was met recently with an online campaign of intimidation and bullying this campaign against her is inappropriate divisive it creates a chilling effect where people are un unwilling or afraid to express their rights and it also is something that we as residents
050of fairfax county should not stand for these are not the values that i personally learned uh when i was a student in navy elementary school franklin middle school and oakton high school where i graduated um you know this would not be really as much of a problem if these were random people however amongst the commentators that i saw was representative uh uh milani marin who also chimed in and expressed her disapproval of uh representative abrara mesh at an official capacity now this is something we cannot allow in fairfax county for one representative to criticize not the specifics of one's freedom of speech but rather to say you are not allowed to make such comments uh and you have to be silenced this is you know this is wrong and that is wrong that is divisive
051and i found that extremely inappropriate and extremely divisive and extremely troubling as a resident here in fairfax county i can say that i'm a this made myself and my wife feel unsafe and unwelcome here in fairfax county we are the proud parents of a little girl who will be attending fcps and we do not want her to experience uh this sort of intimidation and this sort of bullying uh that that is that happened to representative abraro mesh therefore i call upon the board to do two things number one to publicly censor uh and censor as in uh condemn this campaign of online bullying and harassment against a elected representative a female and a minority representative here in fairfax county also i call upon the board to affirm the rights of arabs and muslims to express
052their first amendment here in fairfax county that includes students parents and leadership and i want to close by saying that from personal experience i was a senior at oakton high school during 9 11 and i personally experienced intimidation and mistrust and questioning and this created a chilling effect in myself where for many years i was afraid to express rights rights that were guaranteed in the first amendment of the united states constitution i hope we are past those dark days and i look forward to hearing your comments thank you very much agenda item 3.01 confirmation of action taken in closed meeting i call on ms corbett sanders for the motion i moved to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who assaulted another student at school and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division
053superintendent is there a second second thank you miss keys gamara all of those in favor of the motion as read by miss corbett sanders please raise your hands miss corbett sanders miss omaesh mclaughlin miss nope not miss mary miss corbett i'm sorry miss keys gemara and myself all of those opposed mr frisch miss cohen i love those abstaining miss marin and we have two board members away from this vote thank you and ms sizemore heiser oh i'm so sorry she has returned miss seismo heiser is abstaining thank you miss keys gemara item 3.02 the fy 22 approved budget and i'll call them miss marin for the motion thank you i move that the school board adopt the fiscal year 2022 approved budget as detailed in the fy 2022 advertised budget with the adjustments included in
054the agenda item as follows a eliminating the technology support fee of 4.3 million dollars because online learning is now an integral part of the instructional program and increasing the beginning balance by 4.3 million using fiscal year 21 system-wide year-end savings as offered by mrs picarski eliminating 0.2 million dollars included in the budget to expand after school or summer opportunities for young scholar students increasing the young scholar student allocations by 0.2 million and distribute to schools on appropriable basis and consider use of the sr3 grant funds to replace the eliminated after-school or summer opportunities for young scholar students for ms corbett sanders thank you i will second that motion miss marin would you like to speak to the motion yes thank you i'll read these prepared remarks working on and approving the budget is one of
055the most important responsibilities of the school board a budget is a statement of values about the investments we as a school system want to make in our children our community and our economy and fairfax there are constant crossroads where seemingly impossible decisions need to be made about how to spend finite public dollars in the most efficient and effective way possible work on this budget began during the pandemic last summer and continued on through this spring as this board and school division were also grappling with providing instruction and support to students during this epic time the result could have been very bleak for our students with an unknown economic situation at the time of how our county would pull through this public health crisis however it was very romantic it's very momentous to be able to
056say today that this is a good news budget this budget reflects investments from our county board of supervisors particularly to increase compensation for our staff who have done so much this year in addition to what they do every year to bring a world-class experience to our children with the county's investment the school division is able to obtain the required matching funds from the state general assembly to provide a two percent compensation increase for staff this compensation increase is vital to remain a competitive employer in the washington dc metro area the budget also includes many board priorities that reflect community needs this includes funding instructional support for advanced academic programming instructional support for students who are learning english as a second language and a first step towards gaining pay parity among our elementary school principals and
057our secondary school principals and for initiating specialist positions to meet the needs of our many neurodiverse students and to help bring trauma-informed learning approaches so that students can achieve their academic success i along with vice chair vice chair tammy daryn at kofax want to thank fcps staff for their professional work and expertise throughout this process in particular assistant superintendent of financial services ms lee burton budget services director alice wiggington and assistant director dorian maraz as well as our chief operating officer marty smith upon taking this vote our work on the fiscal year 22 school board approved budget is balanced and complete thank you very much miss marin very quickly i will speak to the budget i also want to thank the entire budget team including the chair and vice chair miss mary and mr not
058cofax for their work on this this was a budget that is responsible and reflective of our needs as a system and we're very happy to be able to identify many items that were very much needed and have been for a number of years we've been able to reconcile it in this budget even given the difficult budget climate that we are under at this time thank you additional board members wishing to speak miss corbett sanders yes thank you dr anderson cherry anderson i want to first start by thanking uh miss marin and miss naranakovax for the excellent work that they have done in navigating not only the challenges of this budget year but also recognizing that there were challenges created here in fairfax county because of the perennial underfunding by the state and i wanted to
059take the time to thank the board of supervisors for working with us so that we could take advantage of the um the modest salary increase that will be provided to our staff it is something that we know was important to our staff it is certainly not as much as we would like to have offered to our staff but in a challenging budget year we did not want to leave at least two percent on the table so uh with that i do want to thank the board of supervisors air um chair and vice chair of budget as well as the incredible work of miss burden and her staff and it has just been it is as good a news budget as we could expect and there's more good news coming as we discuss the use of
060esser funds and the importance of the june 7th public hearing to hear from the community so unlike previous budget chairs miss marin you get a second bite at the apple by working through the budgeting of the s or three funds so we look forward to working with you on that thank you thank you miss club at sanders miss omeg thank you so much and happy to follow miss corbett sanders likewise want to thank staff for what's been really stressful back and forth on something that's really challenging and especially miss maren and ms darina kofax who really have set up our budget process in a way that's been efficient and effective and has saved a lot of turmoil that didn't have to happen especially in a tough time when when a lot of changes were rapidly
061occurring and we've had to update things um and i also want to just acknowledge that we continue in fairfax county in virginia and in this country struggling with prioritizing education within our funding you know this year we were lucky to have worked with the board of supervisors as ms corbett sanders mentioned to be able to offer moderate raises but really as a as a society as a community we have to continue to think about the what we value and how we reflect that in our budgeting so hopefully on the state level and as a as a country we can begin to invest and have those conversations to uh to really recognize uh where we are we're a little bit behind we're on the lower end of of countries and states thank you mr meish ms
062mclaughlin thank you uh i do want to emphasize uh the amount of appreciation that our colleagues have said so far in particular for our employees to understand that while the school board and our superintendent have been really strong champions for the hard work that they've done this past year and years prior it wouldn't be without the partnership of our county executive and our board of supervisors who understand that while we cannot control what is happening at the state level and the local composite index that greatly impacts the revenue that the other surrounding school systems from loudoun to prince william have the ability to give larger raises in this coming year and so i want to really reinforce for our employees when we say we care we genuinely mean it we went to the mat on
063this one truly to get as much as we could it's not what we wanted it to be but i hope that you understand that this is a board and a superintendent who are very much dedicated to doing everything we can within the forces that we face um and secondly i want to also thank my colleague ms stella prakarsky who i'm sitting next to um for bringing to our board just the other day the importance of removing the technology fee on our families as someone who is now voting on my 10th budget in my 10th year on the school board one of the things i have been very concerned about is the impact that these fees have on our families and so whether it's athletic fees activities fees now the technology i'm pleased to see it
064disappearing and dr brabrand i want to thank you as well because i know as superintendent you and your team were very supportive of this and that means a lot to me as as a member of this board um and then finally i just feel that this is important to keep championing um this in this pandemic when we look about all of the needs that we have and how we help students succeed uh i hope that we will continue to elevate the value and the need for school nurses especially in our title one and schools with high needs students our school nurses are going to be a vital partner with our social workers and psychologists our parent liaisons and everyone who's dedicated to helping students but we know in this country that we have challenges with
065health care and we know that health care goes beyond just physical health but also mental health and well-being and trained nurses bring that expertise to recognize it as well so i do hope that dr brabrand as we continue starting tomorrow talking about fiscal year 23 budget uh that we will really uh work hard with our board of supervisors our county health department and our state elected officials to truly move the needle on on school nurses so very proud to be voting for this budget and ms maron again i know having been budget chair it is a tireless role and thank you so much for your service this year on it thank you miss mclaughlin mr fresh thank you um i also want to thank miss marin and mrs dearne at kofax for their work on
066the budget this year as well as the board of supervisors and chairman mckay for working with us to find a way to show that we value the folks who have helped us through this pandemic before the pandemic when we were first starting our budgeting process and you know two thirds of this board was new and i was looking including me i was looking at the the budget and we all had tons of amendments on different priorities that we all wanted to achieve right and i didn't know how those things would shake out and then the pandemic came and i want to thank my colleagues because any wondering about what priorities would be pursued in this budgeting process there was no curiosity as to what was going to be sought we focused on social emotional health
067we focused on our students and we focused on our staff and if we're looking to change the sales pitch we're making for our staff we've got to do it year after year after year because right now the sales pitch is you want to be a teacher you want to work in our schools well you'll get tons of work sometimes respect and we won't pay you nearly what you're worth and that's not a great sales pitch for the profession so it's things like this working with our counterparts in the board of supervisors working with our state colleagues to get more money into our schools especially here in fairfax county where we see fewer and fewer dollars coming home but i am tremendously grateful for my colleagues for working together to make this happen this year um
068especially under these very extreme circumstances thank you thank you mr fresh massage mohaser thank you can you guys hear me okay yes ma'am great thank you i won't take much time i'm very grateful also to our budget chair and vice chair for the hard work they've done in putting this together and to our board of supervisors for supporting us but i just wanted to add on to what my colleagues are saying and just thank the board um and for supporting really the notion of a neurodiversity specialist it was um it's something that will allow us to be a leader in um providing support to our neurodiverse students and you know it will set us apart so i really just want to say thank you to my colleagues for that support and thank you ms mccarskey
069for um working with me on bringing a trauma informed specialist to our school system which i think will be very very timely and important given um returning our students five days a week after being in school through covid so i just want to say thank you to all of you for your support and thank you to the board of supervisors um and really to our budget and vice chair for getting us to this point so seamlessly and so um this is the fastest budget i think i've ever seen the board do so thank you all thank you very much miss eisenheiser i will now call for the vote since there are no other speakers please go ahead and place the motion on the screen all those in favor mr frisch miss cohen miss corbett sanders
070miss omeg miss tolin miss picarsky ms mclaughlin miss marin miss keys gamara miss seismoheiser and myself that is unanimous well with one missing thank you budget passes great job thank you [Applause] the work is not yet done i call on miss marin for a motion on some follow-on information thank you i will now read four follow-on items as one follow-on motion action i move that the board direct the superintendent to provide a comparative analysis of parent liaison salaries benefits staffing levels and job descriptions among wavy school districts the analysis and any possible recommendations for adjustments should be brought to the school board by the end of 2021 from dr anderson the board direct the superintendent to provide a comparative analysis of bus driver and bus attendant salaries and benefits among waybee school districts the analysis
071and any possible recommendations for adjustments should be brought to the school board by the end of 2021 for miss picarski the board direct the superintendent to explore staffing schools with large preschool programs high levels of students with individualized education plans and large numbers of students with 504 plans with an additional assistant principal to support these programs for ms corbett sanders the board directs the superintendent to prepare a road map for changing middle school start times a cost estimate including a timeline for gathering community input around possible solutions and best practices will be provided to the board prior to the year-end budget review from ms picarski and ms cohen thank you very much is there a second thank you miss corbett sanders miss marin would you like to speak to your motion yes these uh motions
072provide important directives that don't necessarily have uh costs to them but are things that the board has expressed much interest in and i am glad for my colleagues for presenting them so thank you thank you miss corbett sanders would you like to speak to your second yes thank you as we just discussed our budget is a document that espouses our values and this board has shown its focus on social emotional health student success and competitive compensation so that we can attract and retain the best cl best in class professionals these follow-on motions are actually a continuation of much of what we have just discussed in the adoption of the budget because what the follow-on motions do is they provide an opportunity for this board to give direction to the superintendent on where we want to
073go next with the year-end budgeting process as well as with the development of the new budget for next year and so these follow-on motions really focus on the importance of the ability to attract and retain the best and the brightest through our um our parent liaisons our bus drivers and bus attendants as well as our assistant principles in very challenging elementary school environments but it also realizes the importance of a social emotional health piece in that we have asked the superintendent to come back to us with a plan that realizes a priority of this board for having for addressing middle school start times but doing so in a manner which also uh embraces a very important criteria for this board which is community engagement and so i was very happy to second this follow-on the
074combination of all the follow-on motions because it really does give great direction for future work thank you miss corbett sanders other board members wishing to speak miss keys gamora uh i didn't have my hand up but i'm happy to support this i uh our our follow emotions are very important and i'm grateful to our colleagues for bringing this forward thank you i think your hand is still up you may just want to click that sign once more to lower it ms tollin yes thank you i appreciate these following motions that have been brought forward just a quick comment on the previous budget i'm very excited that it's not quite enough but that we are able to do something to help our staff and show our appreciation for the work that they've done our overall staff
075and our principals we have relied on them so heavily during this time of the pandemic if not before in addition i'm excited about the following emotions because we are appreciating some of our unsung heroes in these um motions every time someone asked me about how did we during the pandemic reach out to all of our students and all of our families and give them the support that they needed whether it was technology support or just figuring out you know when school was starting again when they were eligible for different services it all went came down to our parent liaisons they have just done amazing amazing work every time i go into the schools and i speak with them i just hear about hours and hours and hours of work that they have put in to
076reach out to our families and i can't appreciate that enough so i'm very excited to support this following motion to really look at those positions figure out what those people are doing what their job description is it has expanded so greatly over the years that i've been involved with the school district and we need to acknowledge that and find out what that is in addition of course our bus drivers have done amazing work delivering meals delivering children all over the county being flexible at a time when perhaps they weren't driving they were in our classrooms running breakout groups you know doing different things in order to just in all hands on deck type of situation help us out during the pandemic and so i'm excited to see us acknowledging that and doing a little research
077on that as well and of course the other um the two felon motions they also support thank you thank you very much miss tillman mr meish thank you this one is especially a pleasure for me to support uh i you know when we do our equity work our parent liaisons have been essential links between the community and families it's difficult to appreciate sometimes when we don't rely on them ourselves on a personal level uh to the the extent to which they are the source of trust in communities for us and they represent our fcps brand and and really are able to be the connectors for families and their school communities so i just want to really emphasize the heroes that they are and the leaders that they are in communities that we may not be
078able to access with the same level of of trust and depth that we might uh otherwise and of course the the conversation about parent liaisons is so much broader today i'm happy to support this i hope in the future we can certainly uh speak to further ways of supporting them i know that's happened and come before the board in the past but not necessarily succeeded and finally along the lines of what everyone has said i think when it comes to our employee ratios broadly in supporting student academics and mental health there's so much more we can do to be really intentional in giving some more attention to each of our students so i hope that as a division we can think and have a vision moving forward as to long-term plans that we can and
079uh you know imagine and then work towards over the years as we continue to see these uh challenges build so thank you dr anderson for bringing this thank you miss omega seeing that there are no other speakers i will quickly oh miss mclaughlin please go ahead thank you yeah i i do appreciate uh these follow-on omnibus motions and uh in particular want to point out to the public that the board might not be going into detail tonight because we really did invest a lot of time just two days ago two short days ago in our work session where our colleagues did a great job of bringing this forward so we could talk about it i would rather say we look like the board of supervisors this evening in our speed and agility for getting through
080agenda items and uh but i really do want to put a fine point on something here because uh my former colleague um from the mason district uh sandy evans and phyllis payne are the matriarchs of our healthy start times for our schools and as someone who spent the last uh almost decade now alongside of them talking about not just healthy start times for our high schools but for our middle schools as someone who proudly voted along with both karen corbin sanders karen keith gamara and tammy koufax that we would really address middle school start times the prior board set that as one of the last votes we made in december of 2019 so dr brabrand i know that you have been a partner on this i know that this board took great care when you
081and your team first brought it to us we are in the midst of the pandemic and we understandably recognized that we really needed to put first and foremost how to educate kids in a pandemic but um bringing this forward i want to thank both miss cohen and miss pakorsky to really put this at the center of what we can do coming back into the school year i want all of our families to know whose children are impacted by our middle school start times that we do recognize children who are well rested are able to to learn and we we really need to find those solutions rather sooner rather than later and then dr braven i'm going to put a fine point because you know we did a recent audit on this i really hope that
082even the other following motions we have done and identified that we're still waiting on and yes two of them relate to school nurses that uh that you and your team will really help us to make sure that um that in partnership we can really find ways to to move forward on these these thoughtful motions that are here and the ones that preceded them because uh i i know we're all dedicated to trying to improve the lives of our kids and our employees and there is not enough hours in the day to do it uh so i welcome the opportunity finding out how we triage that work um but thank you thank you miss um mclaughlin i would be remiss if i didn't say it wouldn't be a budget season if i didn't hear you speak
083about nurses and and thank you for the compliment to all of us regarding the um ease at which we are going through this budget process it is definitely a testament to the work that was done previously not just two days ago but also two weeks ago and then all the months and weeks before which ms merritt and miss um darnach kofax put together very quickly i definitely want to lend my support to all of these items because i think they're all very important but there's a couple that i want to highlight um certainly the work for our parent liaisons and our bus drivers i think it's really important because these folks are the backbone of the engine of fairfax county public schools and i will be speaking to how i have seen the impact of
084the parent liaisons really specifically regarding the glenn forest boundary adjustment which will be coming up a little bit later on with the bus drivers i'm really excited about having this opportunity to explore how we can be more competitive to not only retain our bus drivers but to provide them with a wage that they can afford to live in fairfax county and i would be remiss if i didn't take this opportunity to acknowledge that our bus drivers are undergoing a very difficult time right now with unemployment benefits and i know that i'm looking to support them in that effort so that with the virginia surplus that this is not a hardship that we are burdening them with at this time it doesn't need to be what we do to the people who really move fairfax county
085public schools so with that i will call for the vote please put the motion on to the screen all those in favor mr frisch miss cohen miss corbett sanders miss omeg miss tolin miss picarski miss mclaughlin miss marin i lost my screen miss seismo heiser miss keys gamara and myself that is 11. thank you and i'll call a miss marin for a housekeeping motion hello again uh so a next critical funding related item that is before the school board is to present opportunities for community input on the forthcoming federal funding through the elementary and secondary school emergency relief fund or sr3 the purpose of sr3 is to help safely reopen and sustain the safe operation of schools and address the impact of covet 19 on the nation's students by addressing students academic social emotional and
086mental health needs this includes through academic instruction safe facilities access to technology and more this grant in the amount of 188.7 million dollars provides schools with funding to address the impact that covet 19 has had on services to students during school building closures it also provides funding to develop and implement plans for the return of normal school operations fcps must make available a plan for the safe return to in-person instruction and continuity of services fcps is communicating this plan in emails to staff parents and families and the wider community in e-newsletters and on the return to school web pages the direct website for information about this funding and how to advocate for its use is www www.fcps.edu sr3 that's e-s-s-e-r and the number three in developing the sr3 plan fcps must conduct consultation with the
087public at large and with specifically identified stakeholder groups fcps offers the following opportunities for the public to provide input by a public hearing of the board on june 7th at 6 pm for which registration is now up to sign up or by and or by filling out an online feedback form which will be open from may 25th through june 11th so again check online as on the fcps website for sr3 for more and updated information this month and in june and now for the housekeeping motion for the board's vote 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 fiscal year 2022 approved budget and that all policies and regulations inconsistent with the budgetary motions passed tonight are hereby
088modified and 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 thank you miss marin is there a second thank you mr frisch miss maron would you like to speak to the motion i'd like to speak to the esser portion as i've mentioned other times my first job in my career was at the us department of education where i thought the biggest change could be made in education and years later i can attest that it's here at the local level where change really happens dramatically i've never seen federal education funding at this scale it is really needed it's it's it's it's pretty amazing
089so this in addition to the other fundings that we've received under this pandemic will hopefully infuse our school system not only to overcome the pandemic but to make the investments that we know are needed to really make sure that our students move through school and graduate with the skills they need to be successful in life not just this year and in coming years but for their lives so very excited to hear the community's input on that and move forward with that funding thank you miss marin mr frisch would you like to speak to your second i'll keep it quick echo miss marin about the gratitude for this investment in our schools from our federal government and you know i hope that our legislative program and uh our lobbyists are able to continue uh getting this
090level of support from washington because they think it would be a game changer going forward and finally i encourage everybody watching at home who would like to share their views with us it's very important to share your opinions with us about how the esser funds should be used and where we should invest to join us by registering online for the hearing on june 7th it's in the evening so we'd love to hear your feedback and as ms maron noted you can share your feedback online as well at fcps.edu sr3 thank you very much mr frisch any other speakers ms corbett sanders yes i just wanted to echo uh mr frisch's comment about the continuity of funding by the federal government we have uh in our federal legislation two pieces of legislation that is supposed to
091provide the bulk of the funding for fairfax for education across the county and the country and those are impact aid in idea which is the funding vehicle for educating students with disabilities neither one of those line items in the federal government have ever been fully funded they have been funded here in fairfax county we receive about 2 percent of our total budget from the federal government we should be receiving over 10 percent even with this infusion of funds through the carers act and the sr-3 the they don't get us to where we need to be but we should be advocating going forward that this stream of money needs to continue when you talk about funding for impact aid being about 159 dollars per student who is military connected that is not acceptable we love our
092military students we love our military let's fund them when we talk about idea and we get less than 10 percent of what we should be getting from the federal government under existing statute that is not acceptable and so i would encourage this board and our community to advocate for a continued funding stream from the federal government thank you thank you miss corbett sanders are there any other speakers seeing none i will now call for the vote all those in favor mr frisch miss cohen ms corbett sanders mr meish tolin miss picarsky miss mclaughlin miss marin miss seismo heiser ms keis gemara and myself that is 11. thank you the budget process has now been concluded for this year thank you all for all of that wonderful work item 4.01 student representative matters and announcements um
093we will call on mr anabuto for his statements mr onobudo good evening everyone hello there it's interesting seeing you this late in the agenda i was gonna get comment about that it's definitely a little different um but nonetheless as always it's nice to um get to speak um for everyone this evening hope everyone is doing well first um i just want to start my remarks because i realized that i haven't i haven't gotten a chance this year to thank the sac um the student advisory council left you guys has finished their work for this school year um it's kind of bittersweet because i've been you know involved with the ssc for about two years now and you know we're done um at least i am in my time with that sac and i just want
094to give a quick shout out to miss eddie and mr perrier um as well as miss um gordon for all the work they do to support student voice through the sac and all the wonderful student delegates from all the high schools in fcps who come monthly to represent students um in their high schools so uh diligently um so effectively and i'm so thankful for the work they did putting together a presentation to the leadership team and all the things that they advocated for and i just wanted to give that shout out quickly i also wanted to mention um a meeting i had i wanted to thank miss tolin for setting up a meeting with another meeting with the drainsville student leaders um and i look forward to keeping conversations um in the short time i
095have left on the board about how we can continue to streamline and empower student voice and sdps to make sure that you know students voices are being heard as effectively as efficiently as possible and finally i had a couple comments um to guess about everything my thoughts over the past few several days because they've really been heavy i mean listening to citizen participation was heavy a lot of things feel really heavy lately and as i was you know i was going to say this anyway but it kind of was perfect because it kind of came up with some citizen participation and i think it's worth noting that politics pervades the lives of every single fcps student and we have many many marginalized students here right here in fairfax county public schools who can afford to
096listen to conversations about checking politics at the door or not bringing politics in the classroom because politics for them is the right to exist or the right to food or their right to live in this country and i think that that needs to be a more regular part of the discourse that we have as a school system because only as only a privileged few can afford to talk about checking politics at the door and once we acknowledge that as a community and as a school system we then must have the discussion about how we approach and engage in difficult conversations in a way that is fair and honest um and in good faith within our school system as a bit of a side note i in my time on the school board um and you
097know just as a as a teen in the 21st century anytime i open my phone or have conversations with someone who disagrees with me i often find myself i often find myself asking why is it that i wanted to run for the school this position on the school board in the first place test or you know why is it that i want to study government and politics in college like i i find myself confused about that a lot just given everything that goes on and the amount of stress sometimes that comes with thinking and dealing with these topics regularly and engaging with other people on them luckily though i always come back to this idea that you know i love people i love humanity and i think that that's the work that we must all
098do as a community as fcps to recognize the humanity in one another in each of the discourse in each of the conversations and each of the challenges that we face and if we do that if we're able to do that every single time we look at another human being and we engage in discourse and conversations with them we'll be able to approach difficult conversations as adults whether it's at the school board at school board meetings or whether it's young people in classrooms as long as it comes from a place of love and good faith there's the sky's the limit with those conversations that we can have and lastly i just wanted to say to the students in fcps who i know are witnessing um and watching and listening and hearing and living through the tumult
099that has been the past few days and really the past year i want you to know that your feelings are valid um your voice is valid um and if you're struggling if you need help use the resources available to you because here in fairfax county they are available to you um and i want you to know that you know whether you're in person you have the resource in the building or whether you're virtual um you can send an email to your counselor to your school um to your school support staff and they're going to be ready willing able to engage with you and help you process a lot of the things that have been happening over the past few days because i'm sure many many many of you have strong feelings and thoughts and opinions
100about them and not all of us have outlets to help us process what's going on and i want you to know that you know you have those outlets as a student fcps um that's the right that you have and i want you to be able to take it into those resources um and my email is always open if you need help kind of connecting you to those resources but your counselors and support staff and your school buildings are there too know your feelings are valid you're valid and you matter as a student fcps and with that um it's getting a little late for me to be making comments dr anderson so i think i'm gonna have to turn it back over to you thank you very much mr anubudo but i am going to turn
101it back over to you for the announcement on national safety month that is right i i actually almost forgot um thank you though um because june is national safety month each june the national safety council sponsors national safety month this this year the weekly topics include prevent incidents before they start address ongoing copenhagen safety concerns and it's vital to feel safe on the job and advance your safety journey over 188 000 fcps students depend on school employees to provide a safe environment in schools prevention identification and abatement of hazards are integral parts of every employee's job the fcps office of safety and security has established emergency plans and provided appropriate training for employees to cultivate safety throughout the school district and we're thankful to them for all the work that they do and with that
102dr anderson i hand it back over to you thank you mr anibuto agenda item 4.02 boundary adjustment for elementary schools in the justice high school pyramid and i'll call on dr brabrand for the introduction thank you so much chairman anderson members of the school board uh it's my pleasure to share with you uh our update around a boundary adjustment for elementary schools that are in the justice high school pyramid this is something that the prior board actually authorized to begin that process and we're excited to have worked uh with our staff and with the board to finish that boundary process this year even during the pandemic and be able to have it in place for next year as students return in person to school five days a week i want to call on our assistant
103superintendent for facilities and transportation services mr jeff planenberg who will share the information and just a reminder there will be a public hearing in action that i know you'll be referencing dr anderson after the presentation but we are sharing it with you tonight there will be more feedback and then i know the board will be taking uh uh making a final decision in just a few weeks so mr planetberg if the show was yours thank you so much dr bray brand and members of the board i'd like to go ahead and as of pulling up the presentation i'd like to go ahead and thank dr zulaga and really just all of the board members who have come out to the public meetings that we've had um virtually and when this began back in in 19
104and just continuing this conversation um it's been a very inclusive and transparent process and and what i'll do is i'm just going to go through a lot of what we've been doing the first slide that i'd like to talk about really just says that the the next slide after this one it shows that the purpose of the battery study really is to address over capacity uh in the elementary schools in the justice high school pyramid the next slide represents an overview of the existing school capacity and the projected membership as of school year 2019 in 2020 elementary schools within the justice high school pyramid are shown they're shown both with and without modulars where applicable these elementary schools were included in the scope of the boundary study approved by the school board and used to
105collect feedback from the community and to develop the options for a potential boundary change the next slide talks about the boundary adjustment process which starts with the boundary scoping meetings a boundary scoping community meeting was held in june of 2019 the school board modified the scope of the boundary study to include all elementary schools within the justice high school pyramid boundary scoping meetings were held based on the expanded scope on march 9th and march 10th of 2021 the second step in the process is to hold boundary study community meetings which were held on april 19th and april 21st of 2021 at that meeting staff presented four options and collected feedback from the community tonight we are presenting a recommendation to the school board as new business a public hearing as dr braven mentioned will be
106held by the school board on tuesday june 8th and the school board will have the opportunity to vote on any boundary change on june 17th the next slide speaks to the staff and staff evaluation staff evaluated the feedback from the june 2019 and march 2021 boundary scoping meetings to develop potential options for consideration with the community the feedback from the boundary scoping meetings has been posted on the boundaries study web page feedback from the june 2019 community meeting recommended that additional schools be included in the study as i mentioned the school board amended that scope at a work session in february of 2020 to include all the elementary schools in the justice high school pyramid additional scoping meetings were held after the scope amendment in march of the next slide speaks to the four options
107that were presented at the boundary study community meeting that was held virtually on april 19th and april 21st 2021 the four options presented were an option a which considers reassigning 449 students at seven schools option b considers reassigning 263 students at five schools option c considers reassigning 514 students at eight schools including the mason crest elementary school split feeder a no change option which would not change any existing elementary school boundaries was also presented the community reviewed the options in the virtual breakout rooms and i can't thank enough all of the volunteers that helped with the translators with the multiple language translators with also the parent liaisons the other volunteers the community office of community relations and all the other staff volunteer in their time to help facilitate garnering feedback from the community this feedback
108was documented by these facilitators feedback was also collected via email after the community meetings all feedback is posted on the boundary study web page for the public to review major feedback themes from the community included that too many students and families were impacted by the options there were concerns over shifting too many students to other schools and impacts on schools losing students and socioeconomic diversity of schools involved the presentation and the feedback from the brownie study community meetings has also been posted to the boundary study web page for review using the feedback collected the recommendation is a modified option with parts of options a and c that were presented at the april 2021 community meetings a hybrid option if you would this option reassigns an estimated 378 students using the school year 2019 school year
1092020 data and involves seven schools the recommendation would adjust the school boundaries by reassigning students from belvedere to bailey's and bailey's upper from parklawn to belvedere from glen forest to parkland and from sleeping hollow to beach tree the next slide speaks to how this option was developed based upon that community feedback and it lowers the numbers of students reassigned as part of the boundary change the option also considers the capacity impact to other schools staff conducted a detailed review of the opportunities to increase the program capacity at parklawn elementary school this option also lowers the projected membership of elementary schools in the justice pyramid to blow a thousand students and eliminates one of the two beech tree elementary school attendance islands which is part of the school work policy and desire to do the next
110slide really shows more detail about the recommendation the data in the bottom half of the table which may be difficult for those to see on the screen but also is in providing the board docs uh document that people can see online includes the net student adjustment to each school along with the estimates for adjusted membership and capacity utilization that are highlighted in various colors the top of the table shows the school year 2019 2020 conditions which are from last year's cip the capital improvement program with projections as mentioned it reassigns an estimated 378 students using the school year 2019 2020 data it should be noted that an increase of the program capacity at parklawn elementary school after a detailed review is reflected in the capacity in the bottom half of the table now this next
111slide may be also difficult to see on the screen but it shows the recommendation with the current boundaries the areas that would be reassigned are indicated by the areas that are marked in black the next slide speaks to the phasing of adjustment additional information for the school board to note is that policy 8130 which governs local school assignments and changes includes a section on phasing of boundary adjustment the policy states when possible adjustments under this policy shall be implemented through attrition and phasing the school board may approve a grade by grade phase-in of adjustments for students beginning with the incoming class at the middle or high school levels when feasible the school board may adopt other phasing plans as appropriate to the individual boundary study parents of rising sixth or fifth graders eighth graders and
112twelfth graders affected by boundary change may at the discretion of the school board be provided the option of having their students remain at the school they attended prior to the change we want to include this language to assist the board in determining the phasing of the adjustments as they consider this boundary adjustment and also the public hearing that is coming up the last slide that i have really speaks to the next steps for the school board the next steps for the school board in this boundary study include a public hearing on june 8th as was mentioned by dr bourbon and by myself in this presentation followed by the action of the school board in june of 17. this concludes the presentation for the boundary study of the elementary schools and the justin high school pyramid
113i want to thank you very much and again thank dr zulaga and all of the principles within his region who have been amazing in their reaching out to the communities and also all of the support people in office of community relations and all of the volunteers and the language and translators and again the parent liaisons for each of the individual schools for all of their assistance in this endeavor thank you very much thank you very much mr plattenberg before we get to school board member questions i would like to as the magisterial member to take a few minutes to offer some additional contacts regarding this work i do want to begin again by saying thank you very much the facilities team mr plattenberg miss gillis and of course the region ii office dr zuluaga because
114without their really hard work during this time where they were juggling multiple um responsibilities um with the pandemic they were still able to make this a reality one of the pieces that i really want to underscore is when we are intentional regarding engaging our community we are able to get those results and when i talked earlier regarding parent liaisons i want to ensure everyone they were so critical in ensuring that we had the participation that we had in these community meetings and i do want to share some of that information and i also want to say dr zuluwaga was critic was also intentional by meeting with the parent liaison in addition to meeting with principals of course i had the opportunity to meet with every single principal of the pyramid to talk about the challenges
115that don't necessarily show up on paper because as a former principal i know that paper says one thing but then how the building is run is definitely another so i wanted to hear directly from all of those principles and so we had the opportunity to hear not just from the parents but also from the principles as well in this process going back to being intentional regarding participation there were numerous meetings that were held over the course of five different days and i do want to take the moment to thank some of our board colleagues who did attend miss um miss tolin came to several of the meetings even though she's so far um located from us so thank you for that mr mesh also attended several of the meetings as well as nissai's mohizer and
116mr frisch um so thank you for that support of our community um in all i do want to share that when one of the first set of meetings we had 229 i'm sorry we had 725 parents who signed up to participate with 225 of those requesting spanish and um six arabic 229 requested spanish and this is just the first communication that is just a wonderful turnout and again it's that intentionality and utilizing our resources and being really creative um i want to thank mr plattenberg and dr zuluaga for giving up a saturday night to come to a community meeting and do this presentation with one in one of our houses of worship in mason district that yielded 30 40 50 people who we not we would not have otherwise captured and i think that's important
117to know because this was important to me that we were able to get all groups of our community to be part of this process for the second set of meetings we had 319 total registrants and then 406 again with many of our participants asking for spanish and arabic translations so i'm very proud of that work and i again want to thank the community i'm sorry i want to thank dr zuluaga and team and occr to help in that support speaking a little bit more specifically regarding the plans um i i've been a school principal which many of you know and i've never been part of an uneventful boundary process it's painful it's hard and because people are attached to their communities in their schools and i certainly understand that and this is no different but
118this was a challenge that we needed to address because when we have a school with almost 1100 students actually i think they hit 1101 during this process 1100 students and an opportunity where there's no parking for the staff they're routinely getting tickets in the street because there's just no space to accommodate that when you have half of the school outside and modulars that is that's a situation that needs to be addressed so i'm glad that we were able to do that i do want to thank miss sandy evans my predecessor who did begin this process and who brought me along when during the first community meeting which was in person in june of 2019 and i also want to thank this board for allowing us to expand the boundary study to encompass more schools because
119we needed to have that flexibility one of the things i also want to share is my my support of i think it's slide uh this the last next the last slide on page 12 which mr plattenberg discussed regarding the phasing again because the boundary work is hard and we know we're doing we're are in a difficult time so we want to transition into this as best as we can to help support our families so i do want to share that i'm in very high support of that so thank you and i will take any questions from school board members miss tolin i don't necessarily have a question i i would certainly appreciate the presentation and the hard work that went into this i know having recently done a boundary change within drainsville how much work
120staff puts into this and the analysis and dr zugulaga is lucky to have worked also with me on my boundary change so he's been a busy man the last several months um i just really want to put a plea out to the public you've seen this presentation tonight you've seen the recommendation you've given lots of input to date keep on giving input give input to this recommendation give input to the other options at the hearing that we have next week give us input on options perhaps we still haven't even thought about um because we're listening we're listening closely and we want you to be part of the process so i encourage you to do that and thank you to the public already for what you have done in your participation in this process thank you
121miss tolin any other school board members wishing to speak sorry i need to toggle back to online mr plattenberg your hand is up please go ahead i really apologize dr anderson i i really was remiss and not thanking brian schuster uh pernita robbie and jose and and jessica gillis their team and marty smith for his leadership envisioning on all this it's just just an amazing group of folks that have worked tirelessly to help bring this forward and i i do apologize for not mentioning that earlier so thank you for giving me a moment to say that absolutely seeing that there are no other speakers i do want to say thank you to mr flattenberg for this presentation and we look forward to hearing from the public during the public hearing on june 8th and to
122the board's final vote on june 17th thank you item 4.03 gun violence awareness day i call on miss 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 high school students in chicago to memorialize the 2013 death of their friend and gun violence victim 15 year old hadiya pendleton after her death they asked us to stand up speak out and wear orange to raise awareness about gun violence that simple call to action has grown into a national movement in the u.s 3062 children and teens die by guns every year firearms is the leading cause of death among children and teens in the united states one tragic example comes from our own community in november 2015 edison high school graduate
123joe bose was a victim of a senseless and random act of gun violence in north virginia where he attended hampton university and just a month ago fcps suffered yet another senseless tragedy when we lost two south county high school students to gun violence and unfortunately we lost another young student this week every student deserves to learn and grow in an environment that is safe sadly the threat of violence for students including gun violence has grown across the country national gun violence awareness day is used to raise awareness of the issue and the importance of preventing and eliminating gun violence in our schools and communities millions are coming together to fight for an end to gun violence in america the school board recognizes the effort to bring more awareness and remembrance to the victims of gun
124violence by wearing orange on june 4th for national gun violence awareness day and joining the virginia and d.c statewide wear orange evening of hope virtual event on june 5th as part of wear orange weekend at wearorange.org and i would just like to add that in this time where we continue to talk about the heaviness that our students are feeling i want to make sure that our students know that they can always always speak to any trusted adults in our schools when they are concerned about guns in their home and when they are feeling like they are in a place where they are not in control of decisions that they are making i really appreciate the board supporting this and it's clearly an issue near and dear to my heart thank you thank you very much
125miss cohen item 4.04 equals schools resolution i call him mr fresh thank you whereas the fairfax county public schools get to green program began in 2009 to support student-led and school-based environmental stewardship in our schools and has grown to have support from most departments across fairfax county public schools including instructional services food and nutrition facilities and maintenance and design and construction and whereas much of this work is carried out through get to green's ignite partnership with the national wildlife federation and whereas students at 139 eco schools in fairfax county have conducted audits and developed action plans to improve the sustainability of their schools on such environmental pathways as consumption and waste energy schoolyard habitat and sustainable food and whereas teachers staff and students in 52 fairfax county public schools have earned awards from eco schools
126by taking action to improve the sustainability of their schools and communities while developing portrait of a graduate skills and whereas there is a tremendous opportunity to reach children about ecological sustainability environmental health and nutrition meet math science and social studies standards integrate environmental education into curricula and support students to become leaders in making their own school a healthier and more ecologically friendly place now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school board recognizes the contributions and excellent work by students teachers administrators custodians staff and parents in pursuit of the get to green goals to provide healthier more environmentally sustainable schools and develop students as ethical and global citizens iso move is there a second thank you mrs tollen mr fresh would you like to speak to your resolution sure um i i really can't
127say enough to thank the students and parents who have been at this board side through all of the work around uh our environmental work whether it be solar panels on the schools whether it be electric buses whether it be the push to net zero uh facilities their voices have been a critical part in our advancement as a school system i also want to thank our get to green team ali culhane our coordinator and donna volkman the education specialist who have done an amazing job with this program even during this pandemic and how important our outside spaces have been during this time and finally on june 22nd the school board work session will concern the joint environmental task force's recommendations and we'll be having staff reports on how to move forward on that front and for
128anybody who's interested in these types of issues you won't want to miss that meeting because we're going to be getting into the meat and potatoes of the important work that's to be done if we're going to achieve zero waste and carbon neutrality so thank you thank you miss tolen would you like to speak to your second yes thank you i really want to applaud our schools that continue to work on their eco schools projects and teams throughout the pandemic this program is student driven so we rely very heavily on the students to be in school you know identifying issues and projects to work on these teams have been creative in having students work on community and home energy conservation projects home wildlife habitat gardening etc and i applaud them for that i mentioned in a
129board matters a couple of weeks ago that we will actually be celebrating some of the work that franklin sherman elementary school was able to continue doing with their eagle schools on projects kathleen murphy had a resolution during the last uh general assembly to honor them so we're very proud of that our latest eco school is riverside elementary school and so we're super proud of them i'm continuing on the award process i know many of our students have already started work on their eco teams now that they're back in school which is super exciting and there's lots and lots of activity going on i've been fortunate to have been out to some of the schools and talked to some of the students and seen some of the work that they've been doing again the work is
130student driven i'm so proud of all of our student teams and a huge thank you to our gitzer green staff they are in the process of serving every single one of our schools to figure out how we can really work on getting kids outside you know as we fully return to school in the fall and try to take advantage of our outdoor spaces thank you very much thank you very much miss tolin any other board members wishing to speak to this matter seeing none i will now call for the vote all in favor of the resolution as read by mr frisch please raise your hand mr frisch miss cohen miss corbett sanders miss omeg miss tollen miss pikarsky miss mclaughlin miss uh marin miss keys gemara and myself all of those opposed none all of
131those who are abstaining seeing none and miss seismo heiser and mr nakofax are away at this time agenda item number five the consent agenda which we will turn over to our vice chair our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure robert's rules provide for consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting these agenda items are now on the screen is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote
132on these items tonight but action is scheduled at a future meeting new business items are now on the screen thank you miss picarski item 7.01 superintendent matters i call on dr brabrand thank you chairman anderson members of the board couple things i just wanted to share first of all wow miss marin and i know miss daryn at kofax is uh not here but with her child tonight for graduation if mr moon and miss strauss were here tonight still on the diocese former board members this i believe really is a record passing budget i clocked it in at less than 10 minutes and i think it is a record in over 25 years and it's your leadership and that of miss darren at kofax and this whole board so just congratulations we're really really really excited
133to continue to partner with you as many other board members shared and really coming together out of this pandemic uh that was really a lot of bad news during the pandemic especially at the beginning and we fear the worst in so many ways including financially and for our budget and to come out of it with a good news budget not a great news budget we can all admit that but a good news budget that lays the foundation for the future in fairfax county public schools in this community so thank you all and i also want to thank the county executive brian hill we worked together through the entire budget process and i know he worked with chairman jeff mckay and our board of supervisors to really stretch and work to give us the opportunity to
134get some additional dollars that we didn't have even when i presented this budget in january almost 30 million additional dollars that got us to be able to provide additional compensation for our employees so so grateful for that one of the other things and many board members talked about tonight we are also now as we're closing this chapter and our operating budget we are going to begin community engagement around the esser money this is the american rescue plan act and we have funds coming from the federal government to help us safely reopen our schools for five days a week and to sustain the safe operation of schools going forward and it really is going to ask us to come together and hear our community address what they believe the needs are as we look to support
135our students and staff helping make sure that our kids are getting the academic social emotional and mental health needs that they will need coming out of the pandemic and returning to normal or near normal in the fall so we look forward to the public hearing on the sr3 grant on june 7. there's also an online feedback form that will be available and we will have more information on all that for parents and staff soon other things on good news tonight good news about the work we are doing with vaccinations i want you to know dr boyd has informed me over 50 percent of our 18 year olds have been vaccinated and we are at 42 percent as of a week ago 42 percent of our 16 and 17 year olds vaccinated and we're not stopping
136fcps is partnering with the fairfax county health department not just to talk up vaccination in our community but also to partner directly with our schools for school vaccination clinics that will be starting next week and will continue into early june so that students before they walk out of that school building can at least get their first shot for the covet 19 virus the vaccination for combating the virus so that is so so exciting and i do want to thank dr boyd and her entire health team to make that happen we will have those set up from may 25th to june 10th at nine schools we may be able to provide more and transportation will be provided from kids at their base schools over to these designated schools during the school day parents will not need
137to be there they will need to give a permission form but kids can at school jump on a bus go get a vaccine shot come back we'll make the necessary adjustments if the kid has an sol test but this is a huge huge step forward in reaching out to our communities especially those that have been underserved with medical access to make sure that they get the vaccination that is a game changer for our community so super thrilled we have several thousand students already registered and i'll have a full update for you when we have our return to school work session uh in june i also want to share with you that we are going to pilot um covid 19 testing both diagnostic and screening testing we have a brief pilot for the remainder of the
138year at at four schools to look at that overall strategy of diagnostic testing as we look uh at that as a strategy is another layer of potential mitigation so we are doing a pilot to look at all the pros and cons and that's happening at cameron elementary school hybla valley elementary school rocky run middle school and franklin middle school and then wrapping up i just want to acknowledge tonight we have an amazing fcps family and tonight i know that we have one of our most talented staff people in fcps who will be retiring soon and one of them is pam martin she's our content design manager she's retiring at the end of june and pam is here in the back all right hope pam is still here in the back pam she's been a member
139of our multimedia design team for over 22 years and when you see some of the magnificent graphics in our presentations in our information out on the web in our letters to the community pam has designed them from scratch i know you've seen her work not only is she just an amazing talented person she's a great human being and during this pandemic in ways small and large she's been there for me personally to help me dr ivey and our entire leadership team put our best foot forward as we communicate with our public and pam we're going to miss you godspeed and i wish you the best in your retirement thank you all very much thank you very much dr brabrand item 8.01 on our agenda board committee board committee reports i will now call on mr
140frisch for a governance committee report thank you i will keep this short the governance committee met on march 11th we discussed the policy governing religious accommodations we will continue working on that we also discussed the family engagement policy and made various changes and forwarded that policy onto the board the full board for a work session in the future that's it for now thank you that was very short thank you mr frisch i will now call on ms tollin for a jet committee report yes another quick one um mr first already mentioned that we will be looking at the um the jet goals as a board in a work session with staff on june 22nd and mr firschneider will be working with staff next week to begin preparation for that we're excited to tell you that
141we're working on it a little bit early because we submitted a proposal to the virginia school board association to give a little maybe 10 minute presentation on our jet work during their july conference and when we put our proposal in they were so excited about it they asked us to do a one hour webinar in on june so on june 8th we'll be participating with um mr plattenberg in this webinar just to talk to school boards across the state on the types of work that we're doing collaborating with the board of supervisors so we're very excited about that thank you thank you very much miss cohen and now we are up to agenda item 9.01 board matters i will now call on miss gamara followed by miss mclaughlin thank you i wanted to begin by
142thanking uh people of some of our military families participating in additional office hours um i really appreciated hearing their honest and i will be sharing that information with our board members to see how we can better serve our military families i also want to acknowledge is a time to recognize the office of our auditor general i am the liaison to that and i wanted our community to know um while we didn't have an opportunity to do the resolution this year um our school board really depends on this department and their expertise to be able to exercise our independent oversight over the school system they help us to assess controls evaluate risk provide information to us regarding review of processes and procedures and our auditor general ms keys gemara i think you're frozen on boarding processes
143we're conducting a business continuity uh plan audit and we also received concerns from the community the goal is to assure the community that the board is paying attention to their concerns and that we are extra getting information independently from our excellent staff so i wanted to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of our staff members in the auditor general's office i also hate to bring this particular thing up but at the last meeting i noted that we've had a number of people who you know perhaps are not as pleased with us as we would like and i think as public officials we understand that but i am very concerned when people stand at the podium and state that any board member has spoken negatively about our students that simply is not true
144and i wanted all of our students to understand that this board will continue to advocate for everyone and i'm proud of the statement that we were able to make today and so i just also wanted our students to know that the statement that was made a few weeks ago was untrue i want to thank everyone and i hope you have a great evening well i know we're certainly going to enjoy an evening that ends sooner than expected so i'll try to be as brief as i can i first want to thank um my colleague melanie maron who unfortunately isn't sitting next to me at this very moment she shared something last night and her words that she took from another organization were we may not agree on all issues but i'm committed to engaging with
145empathy discretion and sensitivity and i have received a number of emails in the last week or so from members of my community and just fairfax county in general and so i did want to echo those words and really reinforce my commitment to that for quite some time now our country has continued to struggle understanding that what makes us strong and what makes this such a beautiful country that so many people strive to come here including my my father's parents as immigrants to this country is that it's a it's a country that welcomes people it's a country that recognizes that we have a shared goal that every individual is valued that every child has an opportunity to succeed and public education is probably the most incredible powerful transformative opportunity that this nation offers and so i
146recognize that then as a member of this board i want to continue to create that sense of unity and connection respect and a sense that we really are united in that effort so i wanted to share those words this evening i continue to deeply appreciate the honor that the voters have given me to serve in this role and i am human and i will make mistakes but i do want you to know that i care and i will continue to try um in my representation of you secondly i'll share with my colleagues that you've seen a couple of emails from me since late last night and i just feel the need to really emphasize this here throughout the pandemic we have needed very much to follow the science and to really be nimble when the
147science tells us what we can do in the best interest of children and so when i learned that virginia beach public schools is looking at their outdoor mask policies i've brought that information to our superintendent and his team and i continue to hope and pray that we are doing everything we can knowing that it is about safety but if the virginia beach public schools and the virginia beach public health department have looked to refine their outdoor mask policies for children as we are approaching warmer climate in the next several weeks and every day in a school building and on a school playground matter i i take that to heart very much and i don't question that the superintendent's team is dedicated to this but i felt it really important to put another fine point on
148this tonight that i want our families to have trust and confidence in this great school system including every decision we make and the ones that we continue to try to get better at every day and so i encourage my colleagues to really engage on this issue it's going to matter for kids in these next few weeks and i want to be able to stand tall and still i'm proud of what we're doing for our kids and i welcome the debate if there's more that we need to be talking about but with that to my colleagues i just want to say that the public doesn't know sometimes how hard we're working to handle some of the most complex and challenging issues facing our our school system our our county and our country and um i'm just
149very grateful that all 11 of you provide a space where we can try and hear and listen to one another even when it's hard so thank you um very much for your service and the ability to serve alongside of you thank you miss mclaughlin our next speaker is miss tolin followed by miss ho meish so heat has no home in my house in my family or in my work i grew up in a household of tolerance i was participating in interfaith student groups and projects before many of you were even born i marched in the civil rights movement my mother engaged me in this work long before it was woke or the pc thing to do i may not know the perfect vocabulary to use or the best way to go about this but in
150my heart i know we are in a place where many in our community are hurt and afraid just look at what was happening outside this building tonight i have watched in shock and sadness as hateful speech and actions have been directed at many of our fcps families and students in person on social media and in the press as we strive to move forward post-pandemic to give our students the best education possible we cannot do it as a divided community we must move forward from today in a constructive not destructive and divisive manner it is time for us as adults to exhibit the behavior i am seeing among the student leaders i am working with as they continually come forward with sound solutions and act with civility toward each other i am already reaching out to
151community leaders and ask our staff to work with me and the rest of the board to figure out the best way to move forward to develop the community engagement we need around the hard work we need to do as a division on so many hard topics in my work in drainsville i continued to speak with community leaders on many topics student mental health outdoor learning summer opportunities anti-bias and anti-racism work i met with the churchill road pta last night this morning i met with herndon high school counselors around work that they accomplished this year amazing work supporting their students as nathan mentioned we held a herndon high school langley high school and mclean high school joint student leaders group meeting earlier this week nathan anabudu joined us and we were also joined by prana of
152chowdhury our new school board rep who is currently a junior at langley high school we are looking at more ways in dreams built to hear student voice we are very excited to hear about the raising student voices group at mclean high school and the huge successes that they've had this year and listening to the students and i appreciate kyle holly the president of that club for the the information that he gave us we're looking to build similar programs at herndon and langley high schools and possibly beyond and i look forward to continuing this work next year i recently visited chesterbrook churchill road coats kent gardens lemon road i have to say i met with the parent liaison at coates elementary miss mcpherson she's doing amazing work there and tomorrow i'll be at herndon elementary school
153and again i'm monitoring lunch at herndon middle super excited to see the mclean high school senior car parade and celebrating oh my gosh it's my shirt i heard it it's not fall senior night for the ladies softball team at uh haran done very exciting um several schools next week and in june visiting even more schools a special and huge congratulations to a abdul rasheed rashad as he completed his eagle scout project at herndon elementary school this past weekend drainsville has a tj student presidential scholar jason wang special congratulations to him long fellow middle school won second place at the national quiz bowl and that was super exciting and a group of virginia high school students will be the first to launch a liquid fueled rocket to space the team of more than 50 students from
154thomas jefferson high school have spent years building the rocket with the non-profit organization project calis they'll be testing kalisto one next month and plan to launch an additional rocket 5000 feet by june of 2022 i think that's a pretty amazing feat our seat we have several cte students that have won awards congratulations to them and congratulations to our haycock um students in sixth grade who will be progressing from the state competition of national history day to the national competition congratulations thank you very much thank you very much mr broad would like a missile makes you like a little bit more time so we'll come back to her after the next two speakers we will go to miss corbett sanders and miss seismoheiser yes thank you and thank you for the very eloquent words of both
155miss mclaughlin and miss and i share them this has been a very difficult time for our community which has followed a very difficult period of time for our community over the past year dealing with covid but what had what has happened over the past year and now most recently is a recognition that we can either be divisive or we can cherish the differences that we see in each other and actually realize that our differences are our strengths and that we have the ability and we want to have strong inclusive schools where every child is nurtured and they can achieve great things in fairfax county and as long as we remember that and we remember to keep the main thing being our students success and success for each and every child then i know that this
156school system will be and continue to is and will continue to be the world-class system that it is the past couple of weeks there's been lots of stuff going on in our schools but i want to actually look forward tonight and looking forward i'm looking forward to the graduations that all of us will begin to participate in beginning next week and for the next two weeks and i'm very excited to actually return to the same field in which i graduated to see kids graduate from west potomac and we'll also be visiting the graduations of all of the schools in region 3 as well as i will make the trek out to the jiffy lube center for south county with my colleague miss cohen i'm looking forward to that i want to particularly thank the superintendent
157and his leadership team and all of the local principals for the incredible amount of work that they have put in to making sure that our graduation graduating seniors are celebrated and that they will have the ability to walk across the stage hear their name called and hear the cheers of more than just a couple of family members so i'm very excited about that we'll also be cheering on our students who are transitioning from fifth grade to sixth sixth seventh and eighth in dr anderson's district but primarily our sixth graders moving on to middle school and although those celebrations will be virtual across the county i know that at each one of our elementary schools we will have the opportunity for our students to return to those those buildings and celebrate with their friends and families
158i also wanted to thank edu tutorial they are doing great things in providing mentoring and tutors to our students at a number of schools including walt whitman in my district and a number of schools throughout the county and they're now expanding to both alexandria arlington and i believe loudon in the future it's a great opportunity for students that are participating at the college level in education programs to get experience in tutoring our students and they're paid to do so this is what building the pipeline for educators is all about so i thank both george mason university for partnering with edututorial as well as northern virginia community college we're also having an environmental expo in the mount vernon region it's going to be held on june 26 at fort hunt park and i invite my colleagues
159to come and join us i know that it will be a great opportunity to see all things in the environmental area in one of the gems of mount vernon being fort hunt park we'll also be having an international fair that same day so thank you and oh one last congratulations to the girls on the run which took place last week across the county and at holland meadows elementary school this was a different approach than it's been done in the past they usually have one big girls on the run race in typically in prince william county this time they did it at each of our elementary schools that have a program and i think that's actually very exciting and i hope they continue to do it that way thank you very much miss corbett standards massimo
160heiser thank you very much and i'm very happy to follow my colleagues as well um you know i won't lie it's been a very difficult week um in a very difficult year and i've said from the beginning that covet is a global trauma and we are all traumatized and so when we have weeks and months weeks like this where there is so much trauma and hurt amongst our families amongst our students amongst the world it is it is difficult to be able to respond in a way that i think we're trying to teach our students which is through having thoughtful nuanced conversations with respect and with the hope of building bridges and building understanding and that is always my goal and i believe the goal of our school board and the goal of our system
161is to teach our students to to discourse on things that may be difficult to teach our students to talk about things that may be personal maybe meaningful maybe maybe deep but to do it in a way that fosters respect and fosters understanding and fosters an environment that is welcome and inclusive even in disagreement even in passionate disagreement we can do it in a way and we should do it in a way and we should um mirror that that shows that we are human we are diverse we are different but we are all as as our student representative said it so incredibly well we are all human and seeking to learn and find the humanity first is i think the best way to start so i i can't fit any better than nathan did today to
162be perfectly honest you know my goal here isn't to resolve the world's conflicts but my goal is to help our students gain the skills to resolve our world's conflicts in a peaceful way in a respectful way and i know that this week our students are hurting our families are hurting and our especially our jewish and muslim communities are hurting and i want to ensure that we have an atmosphere where everybody is treated with respect and welcomed so i thank my colleagues for their awards tonight i thank our superintendent for helping foster that atmosphere i'm i want to say that i hope as you come out of covid that that we also learn to deal with the trauma that we're all under and and unite in healing so having said that i will say that the
163one place i've seen a lot of unity is is in the class of 2021 um as a parent of the class of 2021 this is our last school board meeting before our graduation starts so i just want to give a special shout out to this really special class as you're heading off to college in the workforce or wherever you military wherever you may be heading that um everything i've seen you do this year and every word i've heard from from people in the class of 21 from your fellow young adults has been phenomenal and what you have shown to our system is a grace and a resiliency and a strength and a maturity that i think our system um can learn from so congratulations to the class of 2021. i can't wait to see you
164at your in-person graduations i'm grateful and thankful to how hard our staff has worked to make those in-person graduations happen um and i for one will be standing proudly with probably a few tears in my eyes because i know what you guys have gone through this year and i am so very proud of you i'm also grateful this last few weeks to be able to have my office hours and speak to many people one-on-one and help address their issues and concerns i held my region five round table that was my fifth out of all regions to talk to the pta pto ptsa leaders to really hear about their communities and learn about their communities i had a great visit to freedom hill elementary school and really talked a lot about our id program and our
165idis program and the needs of our special education classes in particular so i'm really grateful to be able to do that and um i had a great town hall with stella picarski just um on monday night or feels like tuesday night um and it was really nice to be able to hear in may even wednesday night at this point it's been a long week it was really nice to hear from our community and to be able to answer your questions so i'm grateful to ms picarski for partnering with me on that and um last but not least i wanted to make a shout out to madison and fairfax academy for some of their senior legacy projects and um capstone projects because those are really amazing things that our seniors have been doing and very creative
166ideas on how to help their community and to do good work going forward so i thank you all for your time um and um i thank you all to our families and communities teachers and staff for your patience your dedication your hard work and especially to our students i cannot wait to see you all back five days a week next year and congratulations class of 2021. thank you massaismahai sir miss omeg and then miss cohen dr anderson i had asked for more time thank you miss cohen and mr fresh our students staff and families are hurting in israel and palestine there's violence and death and here at home islamophobia and anti-semitism are running rampant as events unfolded both abroad and in our community i've observed that many of us have fallen back into age-old patterns
167suddenly groups that were once working as allies in fcps are now pitted against one another many of you have reached out to me to express your pain anger and sadness please know that i'm committed to turning that pain into action i'm hopeful we will remember that the only way marginalized communities are ever heard is by working together engaging allies and not allowing ourselves to be split apart let us work together to bring our communities together to serve all of our students staff and families in fcps they need us more than ever simply put islamophobia and anti-semitism can have no home here this has been a tough week i know for everybody i will definitely say the bright spots have been being back in our schools and getting to see our kids together and interacting and
168behaving in a way that brings sunshine into every part of all of our lives and when we think about the work of this board i hope that we will continue to remember that all the kids sitting in all those classrooms have got to be our priority i'm really grateful to keene mill elementary school centerville high school woodson high school robinson secondary and south county middle school who all let me come hang out with them these last two weeks and learn a little bit more about their schools and all the amazing things that are happening there i also was really grateful to participate in the lake braddock secondary school advisory council and participate in the fairfax academy capstone student panel i am blown away the students at fairfax academy i i can't get over the kinds
169of things that our kids are doing once they are as they are leaving our schools students who are walking the catwalk during fashion week students who re-choreographed all that jazz students who developed marketing plans students who created incredible media projects students who composed new songs students who wrote their own one-act plays it was inspiring and it reminds me of all the good things that are happening and all of the good that our kids are going to do once they go out into the world that said i'm incredibly excited to get to go to graduation these will be my first unlike my colleague next to me my first fairfax county graduations so i'm really excited to get to be there and get to share that with with all of you here um last just closing because
170even though it's not quite we're orange week this is our school board meeting the only school board meeting we're having before it occurs um i just wanted to mention um my why and i just wanted to say steve walden we love you and we miss you it's okay sorry i'm all set okay all set okay thank you miss cohen mr fresh thank you um first let me say that i stand with the sentiment shared at the opening of this meeting tonight that we have an obligation to lift up all students to protect them and make sure they know that they're welcome here and that we hear their voices i also want my colleagues all of my colleagues to know that i will work with them to continue advancing the cause of dignity and equity because
171our students deserve nothing less than a united front when it comes to their success safety and opportunities i think we have two years in one mouth for a reason which is probably a weird thing for an elected official to say so i will continue to listen to our students and families as this important conversation moves forward and rather than talk about all of the visits since our last school board meeting i want to talk about two special visits last weekend i was joined by my colleagues miss karen gizmara and miss rashna sizemore heister at graham road community building with supervisor dalia palcik and delegate marcus simon my colleagues may remember the investment we made in the soccer field there for a new turf field with help from the county about a hundred thousand dollars and
172we were able to cut the ribbon and open that park uh that soccer field um this past weekend we had a soccer player and one of our girls on the run from the local group there on hand to cut the ribbon and it was a great morning the kids beat us to the soccer field by many hours and we were there at eight and they were ready to go so looking forward to seeing that used and then finally um last week i was able to visit mantua elementary school after school let out to join the custodial crew in cleaning the school i want to thank miss fuentes for showing me the ropes and allowing me to use the electric floor buffer which was really fun after we swept and wet you know and mopped and
173cleaned desks and other surfaces you know it was inspiring to be there um and you know i think anybody who's been in our schools know how hard our custodians work and how integral they are uh to the success of our students and how especially critical they've been throughout the pandemic so to miss fuentes and all of her colleagues i you know spending three or four hours doing work beside you um gave me a view into how important our custodians are into our schools and i'm very grateful for that and i want to make sure that as the board moves forward when we're talking about uh where we make investments that we make investments in the people that make our school system work um so we'll look forward to that and then finally i too am
174looking forward to celebrating our graduates at several graduation ceremonies with various combinations of my colleagues so i'm looking forward to that very much thank you thank you mr fresh miss marin followed by miss omaesh thank you on reflecting on this week i wanted to share these thoughts you know every one of us wants the same basic things in life for ourselves and our family to be safe to be happy to be accepted to be successful and this is what guides me in my work and i want to promote understanding that moves us beyond divisiveness into living well together the best way that i can do that in my role here to vote is to promote school board policies and school division work that equips and empowers fcps staff to facilitate experiences where children and their
175families can learn about differences that exist in the world and how to accept some differences and to resolve others that present conflict with civility and respect there is much hurt now for many reasons and this has existed well before my tenure on this board exposing that hurt whether through social media or protests or emails reinforces that such pain exists i see this human pain and i am trying to work within my role in the school board to alleviate the pain in our community but stating my belief about this doesn't create change doing the work is what will create change so as such this past week i sent input from myself and constituents to the state department of education about how to update social studies standards to better reflect the realities of our community today and
176what students need to know including to guide learning about populations who have had significant experiences and impact in america i met with staff to discuss bringing scientifically based reading instruction more widely to our schools especially to k2 as a way to close gaps in literacy among students and i provided analysis for how the discipline and hearings office could better recognize where students are coming from especially students with disabilities where behavior is communication there are avenues i choose these are the avenues i choose to fulfill my duty to constituents who have entrusted me to represent their interests i'm eager to work with my board colleagues to serve fairfax county children i also this week was able to join at madison high school virtually to see their senior legacy projects be presented where it was a sort
177of etsy meets fcps of ideas of how students could take some ideas and and pass them on to future students for to seed and grow so that was very fun to be on a panel to provide some input and see their innovation i also was again at madison over the weekend to donate some bicycles to an initiative called wheels to africa that's run by a sophomore at madison as part of a girl scout project where they're collecting bicycles in any condition and taking them to tanzania they're going to be shipped by a tanker in june but she is going to go to tanzania herself to help build a library on top of that so there's also book donations so i'm eager to support that as well and then yeah attending high school graduations something that
178i certainly did last year in a different way i'm very looking forward to seeing all the hard work it's amazing that we host 25 graduations and uh i won't be going to all of them but i'm very excited to see several of them both in our schools and out at jiffy lube take care thank you mr meish followed by ms mccarski thank you i'm happy to follow my colleagues and the sentiments that have been shared as many of you know it's just a few weeks ago i spoke here about pluralism i said that we're a nation that honors freedom of religion not not freedom of religion not from religion i said that i take pride in the community as a place where we all come to the table where we can have dialogue and i
179celebrated interfaith respect and engagement that i had worked to build over the course of months together where folks don't feel afraid this is a place where we can confront courageously the differences that we come with to that table and that diversity is something we welcome for that purpose i hear those students who feel afraid i have heard your emails to the community to my constituents who feel targeted i hear those who feel silenced and who want to take a stance i understand on a deeply human level the pain and the anguish people are feeling abroad and the helplessness that people feel here today who have family in the region who have ties or just have a personal connection i know it's difficult to discuss what's so personal and it's important to acknowledge in the last
18011 days 12 israelis have been killed and 213 palestinians have lost their lives and according to the un reports nearly 2 000 people have been injured and 90 000 have been displaced we teach our kids about this conflict and we have to model how to have these conversations i understand that for many jewish families my constituents that they share a deep and sacred relationship with israel and especially in the context of a difficult history and marginalization it presents a safe haven to prevent what so many are afraid of happening again that's something i can empathize with and is my duty to the concept is existential and anything that diminishes that feels no less than a threat i hear the community's pain in that and i've been grateful to hear from many constituents and neighbors who
181have reached out and whom i've been able to listen and dialogue with and i want to continue to listen the loudest thing i want to be heard today is that i want to listen i want us to have dialogue and conversation and to be able to empathize with one another because that is how we move forward and that is how we grow and that it's okay for us to disagree and to come with different perspectives and to feel strongly about those perspectives but that we have to leave those places open in our hearts to discuss it and to see the humanity in those before us we must not forget that we can fight both anti-semitism and oppression against the palestinians and against all those experiencing it together at the same time no doubt i strong
182i stand strongly against anti-semitism i take that very seriously and personally because i know what it's like to experience marginalization and that parallel experience for me makes that experience personal and i will not stand for that so long as i am on this board so long as i am alive demanding justice for the palestinians and condemning state violence it's not anti-semitism and we can have those conversations and i know that there are folks who feel differently and we can talk about that and understand one another anti-semitism is a real and growing threat that must be addressed in our schools our county in our world and conflating the criticism with that only harms those of us seeking to to to advance justice and diverts our focus from the real issues at hand we must choose to
183step up and to ensure that we don't allow those seeking to sow hate and division to capitalize on our disagreement and our and our differences and points of view we can and must fight these things together anti-semitism racism islamophobia and especially that which is couched as a response oppression of all kinds together and in fact our common humanity demands it if i'm to be an honest representative of the people and someone who speaks out against injustice i must acknowledge the voices and experiences of all of my constituents while also uplifting the voices of those who have not been heard i must speak the truth and ensure we educate our children in a way that prevents us from perpetuating oppression in the future that we may learn from what's happening and do better here at home
184equity racial economic social faith equity isn't and shouldn't ever be a political issue and social justice can be separated for those who are impacted by its effects it requires our full humanity and calls on each of us to learn and grow individually and collectively while i can have challenging conversations with community members with colleagues at the end of the day they are my sisters and they are my brothers and i say by name that melanie and laura jane are my sisters and so are megan and stella and ricardi and and elaine and karen and karen and tammy and rashna and carl are my are my siblings and we have to strive together to lead and show the community how we can have these conversations we teach our kids about these things we continue to model
185for them what it looks like to have radical empathy while also speaking truth to power and standing up for justice i continue to work on these things i i i want to be able to have these conversations and i and i do want to have the humility as well to be able to empathize properly and i understand that i in my own understanding i'm growing and we all are constantly developing in how we relate to one another and we're negotiating space in the conversation i continue to work to ensure that we have a more inclusive learning environment for each of our students i had shared with many of you the beginnings of my vision to set in place accountability mechanisms to be very loud and clear for those who have misunderstood and in the cloud
186and and and confusion of everything that has happened that i take my representation of you and every single one of you including my jewish students and families and staff very seriously and i understand that words are words but the months of my efforts i hope will speak to that and and the future efforts will continue to i'm currently focusing my efforts to work collaboratively on improving the division's religious accommodations policy it actually so happened to be coincidental that i i look forward to my roundtable with faith leaders this weekend i am looking forward to continuing my work on inclusive curriculum where we can teach our children to have these courageous conversations and as always i invite our entire community's engagement and partnership rest assured that i do i fight for your child i look forward
187to continued meaningful conversations and work to better our school system and our world by upholding truth and having empathy and i also want to recognize that just this past week was the anniversary of brown vs board of education and plessy versus ferguson which were stains in our own country's past and which call upon us to take bold social justice positions when plessy versus ferguson maintained segregation in this country until brown versus bored when that was reversed of course and now we live with that legacy that once upon a time in our nation we had segregated schools and we have moved past that and that was only possible through courageous conversations and through confronting what we had experienced and and welcoming varied points of view and uplifting those voices who have not been heard i want
188to congratulate our graduating seniors it's very exciting um to be joining for graduations in the coming weeks and i hope that they'll go on to be leaders who can learn from what's going on in their community abroad and the conversations it's particularly interesting to me that just a today's was announced and i hope that that can also be an opportunity for us now to say we will do better we will lead forward in a way that is different it's a coincidental that i also am speaking to a combating intolerance class tomorrow and i'm looking forward to hearing from students and having them engage and i i hope that we always remember that what brings us together is far deeper and far more powerful than anything that will set us apart and these are not just
189words our shared experiences our experiences of grief of joy are our appreciation for family and friendship these are deep human experiences that nothing can take away the the bonds that develop from that and our ability to come together and have those disagreements and and learn from one another so i look forward to learning to listening and and i hope that folks will engage in the same good faith uh and i i hope that our students will will listen and learn and and lead forward differently uh and i i hope that um you know we continue we continue we continue learning together by giving each other the benefit of doubt by having open hearts and minds by empathizing with one another and by continuing the dialogue thank you mr mage miss mccarskey okay great um thank
190you dr brabrand i wanted to thank you and your staff i'm sorry that they actually left the budget staff i waited until the end but i really wanna you know wanted to extend my thank you for the where we landed was was a good place it was a good place today was a i think a good night for students and and for staff and really for centering them um so please extend that uh thank you to your staff as well and really i want to thank my colleagues too for your um i mean just your willingness to work so well together i think we've come such a long way in working as a total body and i'm so happy that we can model that for our students as we center them always so thank you
191thank you to our budget chair our vice chair and to everyone who worked so hard i did have some great visits this week to stone middle school bull run kubron those principals spent a very long time with me during a very busy time of the school year and i am grateful i saw wonderful learning going on i saw happy kids kids who wanted to talk to me tell me about their experience and you know we hear so much here in these meetings and through social media and it's i think sometimes a shame that many of us can't uh respond and share the wonderful things that happen in our schools every day that are happening um so i i really enjoyed those i've had many calls with principals and i know everyone is gearing up and
192i'm looking forward to the fall thank you to ms seismore heiser for her willingness to work with me in our town hall and to everybody who attended of course congrats to ms darina koufax and her family for the graduation of her daughter and i know everyone is ready to to go home but i will just say you know my piece um i i heard the many people who sent me emails i heard your pain and i acknowledge that and i will continue um to do whatever i can do working with the people on this board through the mechanisms that we have to ensure that everybody knows that fairfax county is a welcoming place for you and we want you here and i do hope that um you know people who are so angry tonight are
193able to find uh a place where they can dialogue and really find those common things that tie him together because we have to that is that is the way the world goes and it is truly the only path forward so thank you okay thank you and again standing between clothes and going home is never a great place but i do want to echo many of the sentiments that have been outlined by my colleagues and i stand by the statements that i had the opportunity to read on behalf of the entire board earlier we must engage with each other with dignity empathy and understanding other than that we are going to continue to be in this space of hurt and our job is to be protective of our students so that they can access learning and
194i know each and every one of us is committed to that speaking of learning i had the wonderful opportunity to see that at play at glasgow last week and also at justice where i had a chance to visit an avid classroom where the students are doing spectacular work thank you mrs haynes for all of your work with the students there justice looking forward like everyone else for graduations as a newer board member last year i felt as if we didn't have a chance to celebrate with our students the way that we would have wanted to so i'm very excited that this year we get to celebrate together in person starting next week with kilmer kilmer's graduation and then moving on to annandale foster tj and justice high school in my district i do want to
195say i had the chance to along with several of my colleagues to attend the nova district pta awards recognition meeting last saturday sunday where several educators staff and volunteers were honored including rebecca stebbins who is from camelot elementary school who was named the volunteer of the year rebecca single-handedly started and staffed a very successful food pantry serving camelot families in need with weekly food baskets thank you so much rebecca for all of your work because the need in our community is great i'm looking forward to the final final round table of the school year with the pta pto ptsa president from the mason district next week let's wrap up the year strong i'm very excited to help and to participate in the justice and the upcoming justice high school ptsa board elections i know the
196students there are fervently wanting to engage in some real transformative work through that organization and i'm glad to be able to participate um just a final reminder of the public hearings taking place on june 7th we have the essa fund public hearings at 6 00 pm that many of my colleagues referred to earlier so we're really looking forward to hearing from the community so that we can find a way that is going to be reflective of your needs and the expenditures of those funds and also on june 8th we have the justice pyramid boundary public hearing again at 6. um dr brabrand very excited to hear the news of the vaccines i'm looking forward to seeing that information trickle down to our sixth grade students because they do meet the threshold of 12. i know
197i had one that just met that threshold two weeks ago so i'm looking forward to engaging in all of the resources that fairfax county is providing to help vaccinate our students and it is now 10 31 and so our meeting is adjourned you