FCPS School Board Budget Public Hearing 05-11-2021

001um so i will begin by taking role of our school board members uh dr anderson good afternoon good afternoon cohen hi good afternoon hi miss corbett sanders good evening everybody good evening thank you for being here um mr frisch thank you we are in listening though but i still wanted to be able to hear you uh miss keys gamora good evening good evening miss mclaughlin miss mary hello good evening good evening miss omesh and miss picarski good evening hi everyone good evening i i am not yes i have two more i've said yes but miss seismore yes i'm here thank you i'm here thank you thank you thank you and thank you everyone for coming to our public hearing on the fiscal fy 22 budget um i thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts

002with us this hearing is being broadcast on channel 99 and is being live streamed at fcps.edu backslash tv backslash channel 99. tonight we have 39 registered speakers who will address the board at this public hearing speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes and should address the fy 22 budget the timer will start when you begin to speak and will sound at the conclusion of your three minutes and i kindly ask that you adhere to the end of your comments when that timer ranks when your name is called please unmute your microphone and begin speaking please mute your microphone at the end of your three minutes i will begin by calling on our first speaker and i will try my very best to pronounce your name correctly um please know

003that i am truly trying my best but you may correct me um once you um get on board our first speaker is teddy geiss that was correct thank you um good evening everyone i am happy to see that the budget is finally being passed and as many of you saw on thursday night from my video testimony i'm still very dismayed that some portions of the budget were not able to be included i'm happy that the neurodiversity and trauma pressures were allowed to be included in the budget to better students mental health and well-being but just having one of each is not enough there needs to be more money for that also paying for 18 more psychologists and social workers that's a step in the right direction but it's still not enough there the ratio from

004social worker to psychologist to student at school is beyond what it should be and we should find more resources to pay for these specialists to help with students mental health i saw in that there are companies like the icoma project that would be free to your budget they do free elements of health services for students it would be something that fcps does not even have to pay for it just has to be something that they're what that you're willing to partner with and this is really sad to hear but there's not much more more scl money left in the budget and that's very saddening to hear because at some schools they don't have many seo lessons and there has to be funds to teach kids about the importance of mental health and well-being and to

005also what the referral service is fcps should be spending more for these referral services yes they cost money but they will help benefit the students mental health and well-being i am just very dismayed that this was not able to be included in the budget but i am very happy that teachers were able to get raises and that there was at least one neurodiversity and trauma informs scl specialist that is very important but i urge you in future budgets and in the future please look to partnerships that are free for fcps and also to have more money in the bank and i know that is not your fault board of supervisors fault but to have more money for seo lessons because some schools don't have it and it's not enough and it's just very disheartening to

006see and hear that so i urge you to please take future steps in the next budget but i am willing to support this budget but i'm dismayed that some of it was not able to be included for students i want to thank you for your time and hope that you can take this advice in the next future year thank you mister guys our second speaker is kira akaja yeah so think of it as kira but the k and h so hira haida tyra thank you yes all right good evening all my name is freya bakarja and i'm a senior at edison high school now more than ever it's imperative that we collectively prioritize the importance of mental health by implementing proactive measures rather than being reactive for the past few months students across the county

007have come together to express concern that this mindset must be altered immediately in hopes of ensuring overall positive well-being currently fcps's approach is streamlining the mental health issues arising reactively through counselor intervention performative and unengaging sel curriculum teaching or grief sessions number one we are pleading for a higher allocation of mental health funds towards the fy 22 budget number two we want to see mental health curriculum develop that empowers students with help seeking pro-social skills self-care healthy habits in elementary and middle schools this can be done so by increasing collaborations with outside organizations such as our minds matter sources of strength the akuma project and so on ensuring that these respective mental health awareness initiatives are implemented in the early years of school is a vehicle in mitigating mental health issues arising from childhood think

008about it our brains are the most malleable when we're young therefore eliciting this to be the most prime stage in life to equip the young individuals with positive coping skills mental health education and overall empowerment increasing the mental health budget and allowing more funding for proactive mental health education to be implemented in the lower grades will set the students up for success as they are the present and the future of fairfax county to my knowledge currently only two middle schools frost and poe have an our minds matter club present in addition ensuring that these executions are carried out equitably to reinforce the one fairfax policy presented in 2017 is crucial as the policy defines expectations for consideration of racial and social equity it's crucial to incorporate more funds to ensure equitable mental health as the

009school board you must recognize that not all the mental health resources available are being diversified fairly and highlighted enough i said this last time but remember that diversity is inviting people to the party and inclusion is asking them to dance one can only do so much so i am asking you the elected school board committee to allocate more funds for mental health have an open mind and fully listen and create effective policy based on your diverse constituents together let's start being upstream and catching it early because our minds matter thank you thank you thank you uh our third speaker is samir chadhari good evening if you don't remember me from my testimony at past school board meetings my name is samir chodry i'm a senior at mclean high school and an incoming freshman at stanford

010university although i'm a representative of the mental health working group that i co-founded here tonight i want to speak on a topic a little more personal to me given what i've spoken on before and what my peers will be speaking on today the climate crisis i'm a proud bengali american and the country that my family originates from bangladesh has been at the forefront of the climate crisis for years at its worst the country has been 33 submerged due to the flooding crisis and cyclones that kill hundreds of thousands smothering air pollution is the norm in my homeland that is currently being swallowed by the seat and after control effing the entire 217 page fy 2022 proposed budget i was beyond disappointed to see no mention of climate change nor sustainability in fact beyond complying with

011mandatory federal and state mandates fcs is doing little to actively implement sustainability initiatives however something i did see time and time again was especially oh so strong commitment to environmental stewardship when in reality this commitment was not reflected at all in the budget fcp's performative commitment to environmental preservation is further evident when highlighting that the 2022 budget for oil and natural gas to foster fuel energy sources is 5.3 million dollars and remains unchanged from the 2021 budget if fcps truly did have a commitment to environmental stewardship wouldn't we see this value decrease with a transparent reinvestment in clean energy alternatives but these issues are more than just my personal anecdote they impact each and every one of you virginia's coastal ecosystems and infrastructure are heavily affected by climate change and our sea levels are rising

012two inches every decade beachable erode as the sea levels rise disrupting tourism in virginia and in the coming years virginia temperatures are expected to be above 95 degrees fahrenheit for 40 degrees 40 days of the year the chesapeake bay one of the most vulnerable regions of the us to climate change and an ecosystem vital to the well-being of our community will continue to suffer the effects of rising water temperatures and levels from founding a global climate movement engaging thousands of youth across nearly 20 countries spending nearly a year risk redesigning sps's current curriculum to include comprehensive climate education i put blood sweat and tears into doing my part against the climate crisis i've been invited to advise epa administrator michael rayden on u.s climate policy and asked to speak at the harvard institute of politics

013and i'm simply asking you all to listen to my words and do your part in singing our planet so i'll conclude my speech this evening with a question why are we investing zero percent into an issue that impacts 100 of our future our planet is on fire thank you for your comments our fourth speaker is safa kohan good evening my name is stefan chohan and i'm a junior in fcps i'm here to call out for more diverse thoughtful inclusive and equitable budget for all students being a student in this county since kindergarten disparities and budget allocation has been more and more apparent the top priority should be mental health students are struggling teachers are struggling everyone is struggling today i urge you all the school board members to take action on this invest in mental

014health resources such as online platforms community organization programs such as mines matter and more than one school psychologist per school because it's impossible to account for everyone without giving the opportunity to do so looking at the proposed budget earlier i see that only 0.1 million dollars is up to allocated to address the reoccurring cost of 1.0 equity and cultural responsiveness specialist positions well more money is going to sros the money going to these officers should be re-allocated to equity programs to make minorities feel more welcome esteros as you probably have heard do more harm than good students have experienced gun violence sexual violence and students that experience policing in and out of schools will appreciate the removal of a school officer that make them unsafe in the place that should be there for them i

015want to tell you a story about a close friend in middle school she was sexually harassed in school setting her principal and the school staff brushed it off even more so the counselors didn't have the training for this problem that needs to be addressed if counselors got more funding or even more responsible specialists than my friends and many other students mental health could have have been saved keeping at least two percent of more of the budget to mental health resources will set way for more equitable and positive student body looking from a teacher's perspective they should get compensated fairly my mom is a kindergarten teacher and hearing hers and co-workers stories they do more work than they are granted for because of the lack of mental health resources given to students a lot of students

016go to their teachers for help while there are changing lives they are paying for supplies while on the limited budget they have but they still don't get compensated fairly i asked today to keep these stories in consideration when you vote on budget allocations it shouldn't be our job to worry about this the youth here today are having a say what we need that why we need a commitment to something as essential as equity you guys should see that too we need your power and your resources to make tangible change that we need please listen to our voices and set your direction and prioritization towards lgbtq plus students female identifying students students of colors and teachers and many more students thank you for the opportunity to speak today and once again invest in something such as

017imperative as such as equity and follow up with your promises thank you thank you uh miss jocelyn mcauliffe speaker number five hi sorry i'm just trying to turn my video it's okay we can hear you oh good we're good okay should good evening school board my name is jocelyn mccullough i'm a proud graduating senior of justice high school i will be attending the number one hbcu in the country spelman college i'm also a member of the prison project which is a newly formed student initiative in fcps to combat the lgbtqi mental health crisis that's impacting our communities i signed up to speak today talk about how disrespected marginalized students feel regarding the budget that includes when the kind decides to not recognize many of my peers religious holidays and rescinded a powerful equity statement it

018is time for us to make the budget reflect the needs of students who need the most resources we need to feel recognized and have our learning be valued this will happen when our counselors and psychiatrists are increased and have more resources funding is increased for cultural competence in affirming programs like courageous conversations reducing microaggressions and teaching and learning in anti-bias grading practices if the county cares about the future this needs to be mandatory for all staff caring would be their caring would mean there will be no more police or student resource officers in our schools that only work to serve white supremacist structure and continues to question the humanity of others we will feel more nurtured when we have sports in our middle schools we will feel more protected when the county recognizes the racist

019stigmas that perpetuate underfunded schools in fairfax county school that schools that have a more diverse demographic should not suffer in extracurriculars athletics and academics because the lack of effort by the county to change the narrative and nurture the minds of kids of color instead of tracking them through throughout k-12 perpetuating the idea that they cannot succeed listening to a system that does not believe in you is the biggest mistake of students and families our minds and genuine concern for the world is seen as a weakness we need it to be seen as an asset we need change to be normalized in this county so that my little brother will be encouraged to go to an hbcu instead of being told otherwise so that i as an executive president of my school will not have to

020be a guidance counselor to many of my first generation friends my experience of being a beacon of help my community shows how much fear is within our county fear of kids of color being as successful as white students to change this funds should go into dismantling of tracking and the promotion of esau students and students with special needs taking higher level classes it does not always have to be a parent's job to push a student a school and a teacher and a counselor can also push a student to do better we are undermined and looked down upon in a daily basis in this county bypoc and lgbtqia students and student special needs deserve better we deserve to have we deserve to be allowed to have mental health the mental health crisis is not only for

021white upper class kids we deserve more than a white paper and pencil checklist after watching a video but an actual dialogue that does not result in the student being home anyway if you're going to have racist teachers racist principals and cops in the school the bare minimum is that you invest and create a system that will protect us you cannot claim to empower the most marginalized in this county if you can continue to generate budgets allow for sros to terrorize my commute i encourage everyone here to support changes in the budget that will protect the students of color and not limit success thank you for listening thank you for your comments speaker number six is aureon speaker number six good evening school board members my name is aryan robel i am a lifelong fcps student

022and a current high school junior i'm also a member of the prism project which is a newly formed student initiative in fcps to combat the lgbtqia plus mental health crisis that's impacting my community i'm here today to talk about how the budget needs to reflect the needs of every single fcps student in particular it has to be intentionally designed to include and uplift marginalized communities especially the queer community in fall 2019 fcps's own data through its youth survey showed that lgbq students were disproportionately impacted by the mental health crisis one in two queer students reported experiencing depressive symptoms and one in three seriously considered suicide in the past year and those statistics are severe under count since they don't include transgender students given these statistics it is imperative that this budget intentionally invest resources in

023eliminating the root causes of the mental health crisis unfortunately the current proposed budget does not do that take housing security lgbtqia plus students are 120 percent more likely to experience homelessness as someone who experienced secondary homelessness for a short amount of time in middle school i know from first-hand experience how immensely damaging it was for my mental health during that time i was privileged enough to receive some support but it wasn't nearly enough for an eighth grader and most students in positions like mine don't even get that limited amount of support this budget doesn't change that damaging and prejudice status quo it doesn't allocate a single additional dollar for safe and inclusive housing options that could ensure every fcps student is in an affirming home and it isn't just housing and security either across the

024board this budget does not address the root causes that drive the mental health crisis in the queer and other marginalized communities it doesn't include teletherapy options drug counselors violence interrupter programs and school safety coaches all solutions that can empower every single student in fcps what fairfax county does spend is over 8 million dollars on armed sros very little research suggests that this program keeps our schools safe and minimizes gun violence what it does show is that sros disproportionately impact black and brown students criminalize trivial activities like vandalism and trespassing and foster an ignored culture of fear for bypoc and queer students like me many of you claim to be allies of my community and i truly appreciate the work you have done but that isn't enough this budget cannot continue to neglect the root causes

025of the queer mental health crisis we need to divest away from resources that criminalize poverty and depression and instead invest in social programs that empower every single student in fcps thank you thank you for your comment we are now up to speaker number seven and that is frankie sellers good evening school board members my name is frankie sellers and i am a junior in fairfax county i am an out and proud queer and transgender student as well as a member of the prison project which is a recently formed lgbtqia plus student-led coalition working to combat the mental health crisis impacting our communities i am speaking at this meeting to tell you that the school budget does not reflect the needs of marginalized students in fcps the pandemic has magnified the fact that students mental health

026is largely ignored and that schools are not currently equipped to help manage this issue because of the pandemic another issue has been pushed to the side one that is critical to marginalize students mental health and safety instead of using funds to bring more mental health tools support to support these marginalized students funds are spent on unnecessary and harmful installations like school resource officers sros have repeatedly proven to be damaging to students of color and lgbtqia plus students and have greatly contributed to the school to prison pipeline which disproportionately affects these students the school board cannot continue to overlook these issues and pretend that sros keep students safe by spending eight million dollars on keeping these officers in schools you are actively ignoring the mental health crisis that significantly damages more than 50 percent of fcps

027students in the queer community and instead you are choosing to invest in an institution that has done more damage than good it is time we invest these resources in better training for counselors more resources for low-income students homeless students and students who are struggling with mental health the school board must focus on training all teachers and staff to respect every single queer student transgender students are often othered and their struggles are forgotten the fcps youth survey does not even include transgender and non-binary students and their mental health is completely overlooked my own mental health has been extremely damaged due to misgendering dead naming and a lack of informed teachers on this issue it has significantly affected my participation and success in numerous classes more than 50 percent of transgender and gender non-conforming youth have considered

028suicide but those who have their pronouns and chosen names respected are half as likely to consider suicide so without properly trained teachers transgender student success is hindered i urge you to take a look at how you can truly and fully supports support your students of color as well as your queer students like me ignoring these issues is the opposite of how you can respect us be an ally and make your students feel heard thank you for your time and thank you for your comments uh we are now speaker number eight sarah cortez de la cruz good evening school board members my name is sarah cortez de la cruz i'm currently a junior at an fcps high school i am also a member of the prison project which is a newly formed student initiative in fcps

029to combat the lgbtqia plus mental health crisis that's impacting our communities as a county we have a very pressing issue on our hands score resource officers or sros or sworn police officers placed into fcps schools to help keep us students safe but they've done quite the opposite sros have created a culture of fear especially for lgbtq and bipoc students when students from marginalized communities are involved with the criminal justice system it is often for crimes that are non-violence because of the higher rates of abuse rejection depression harassment and homelessness queer youth may feel the need to turn to criminalized behaviors to cope this is out of survival but easily preventable with the right aid and yet somehow it's gone unsupported by the county's budget and resources these behaviors are especially criminalized by sros in our

030schools data collected from the fcpsu survey in show that half of queer students experience depressive symptoms a quarter have been sexually harassed and a third have seriously considered suicide in a room of 25 percent eight have seriously thought about taking their life let that sink in we need help not prison i'm going in person four days a week now and i'm really really excited about it but that's four days of a seven day week now that i have to be worried about my safety am i going to be next will i be targeted by an sro or a fellow student just because of my sexuality just because of my backgrounds when police officers patrol the school entrance and walk the hallways disadvantaged students frequently internalize the impression that they are not welcome here and that

031the building where they study assumes they're going to partake in violent and illegal behavior children are experiencing anxiety and hyper vigilance as a result of this as well as a lack of confidence in the educational institution that is supposed to help them develop this blatantly contradicts the welcoming healthy learning atmosphere in which students can succeed that fcps constantly preaches much more considering that traumatic interactions queer and bypass students may have with law enforcement in their neighborhoods police activity re-traumatizes many of them school is supposed to be a place of safety and by keeping sros that close to children who are commonly discriminated against you guys are the problem the allocation of funds to sros while lacking investment and addressing the root causes of mental health crises in the school budget is willingly oppressing its marginalized

032students and now i'm not making the claim that you don't care about your students i know that you do or else you wouldn't be here listening to me and so many others tonight but to be a bystander in the midst of so much emotional and psychological turmoil for adolescents is to be complacent that is neglect and while i can stand before you again and again each time with my heart broken because of the pain i feel for and with my friends we need change and you can provide that for us by diverting resources away from sros and budgeting for violence prevention programs teletherapy options and safe housing options you can alter the course of so many kids lives thank you for your time and thank you for your comments we up to speaker number nine

033and that's kimberly adams good evening chair darren at cofax and school board members my name is kimberly adams the fairfax education association has always been committed to working on behalf of employees to make this school system the best it can be for our students we have spent years engaged in conversations around the budget this exercise takes up months from october through may and we work hard to bring our voice to the conversation through the fcps departments the superintendent the school board and at the same time the county executive the chairman of the board of full board of supervisors and their departments about the very real fiscal constraints we face in fairfax county especially this year by may every year it falls on the school board to take what is given and use it as wisely

034as possible and we know that that is not an easy task again this year but we need you to be as creative as possible with the dollars you are given now in this budget as well as the funds you have been given from the federal government to prepare us for and prevent and help us to recover from kovid your employees deserve a raise whether that is driving a bus fixing an hvac unit enrolling a student in school or teaching a class and everything else that we all do for our school system you know this your employees deserve a raise but what you may not know or realize is how critical these dollars truly will be to keeping your workforce for the coming school year already we have seen just the vacancy list for special educators

035larger than ever before at this time of the year the number of qualified substitutes continues to dwindle and not even cover current needs the lack of quality equipment and buses and safety procedures losing us transportation maintenance and custodial as well as food service staff we will face a continued critical shortage in school employees as this pandemic has deterred many from going into the teaching profession it's simply highlighted by the lack of respect for this profession ranking fifth in the area doesn't help us keep pace not offering compensation for the past year of work under extreme circumstances is also hurting the perception that people have of fcps and whether or not to choose to work here or come here to work our steps have been frozen and not just the dollars but the actual step numbers

036themselves this compounds the feeling of being devalued other districts nearby have offered raises under the state's recommendation to increase school employee salaries by other localities including even the county side of fairfax have given bonuses to those who served in person during covid before vaccinated and even now others have offered bonuses to those teaching concurrently others still offered to continue to pay hours for those whose livelihood was cut short by a lack of service offered now and in the summer others found dollars to compensate food service i.t and office staff who've been heavily utilized to keep this system running throughout the pandemic many others added additional compensation when jobs exceeded expectations such as those placed on special educators and administrators creativity and understanding is necessary to spark and generate a positive reaction from your employees we

037ask you to get creative thank you our next speaker is speaker number 10 carla okuchi aloha good evening budget chair kofax and school board members i'm carla okuchi vice president of the fairfax education association and parent of two virtual only students let me begin with a clear message the pandemic is not over parents who feel it is still not safe for their children to return to our buildings with asymptomatic kobit 19 carriers must be given the choice to keep their children in a virtual learning setting budget dollars have already been appropriated for this use as a parent i have grave concerns about placing unnecessary labels upon our children with medical notes a free and appropriate virtual public school education should be included in this budget for all families who request to remain virtual it is

038absolutely unacceptable that during a pandemic the largest employer in fairfax is not making safety a bigger priority by budgeting for on-campus surveillance testing of all staff and students studies have consistently shown that approximately 60 percent of all covid19 cases are spread by asymptomatic individuals that is one of those insidious aspects that we have not seen in other viral infections you could be a carrier with a heavy viral load and not even know it thereby spreading it to others unintentionally when you let your guard down because you feel fine this means that fcps is only been identifying less than 40 percent of all covid19 cases in our schools even the cdc and bdh recommended that in areas of high community spread of this virus that all staff and students be tested weekly testing is the only

039way to find those asymptomatic carriers and break the chain of infection in our community as soon as possible by isolating them why is fcps ignoring the recommendations from top public health experts in our country and our state please direct dr bray brown to implement an on-campus covit 19 surveillance testing program for next year in order to make our classroom safer this will be of utmost importance when so many individual children will return to campuses next year which will unfortunately prevent fcps from being able to follow any recommended physical distancing protocols when you can no longer follow one mitigating measure you must add another one in its place like on campus covid 19 screen testing programs this item must be included in our budget covid dollars should be used to compensate all employees who went into

040the buildings this past year you really want to show your appreciation for our efforts this can be achieved by providing bonuses to those who were in person this past year and those who were in person before vaccination was available providing a two percent raise with neighboring districts able to provide the full state support raise of five percent is unacceptable it's embarrassing that fcps could not do a better job with this budget in terms of pay for all employees and finally the fcps human resources advisory committee has developed an employee bill of rights which fea recommends be approved and put in place immediately our union also looks forward to working with you on resolution language to bring worker voices to the table for collective bargaining when we join together educators families and community leaders we continue

041to learn human flourish collective bargaining now thank you for your comments speaker number 11 is cheryl finkley hello um um thank you um darren at kofax and the board for your work this hard year we appreciate your work um there was a time when fairfax county public schools were the jewel in the crown of northern virginia people who worked for this county schools were justifiably proud to be the best of the best who taught and worked to further the learning of the next generation of well-educated leaders in their fields and by virtue of their education here people who would also become great people this year the educators and staffs of fairfax county still aspire to those goals but they end this year feeling beaten down taken advantage of unappreciated and yes abused we as a

042community made the mistake of hiring professional leadership that views our staffs and faculties as cogs in a wheel human capital to be expended and job trainers to be paid and treated in keeping with their meager roles though the state and federal systems have allocated funds for schools to offset losses from the pandemic sadly the local leaders of fairfax have said we will not match or use those funds to adequately compensate our workers a two percent market adjustment with no step increase is all that's offered to attract and retain what's hoped to be a premier workforce that's two percent against a cpi increase in the area already at 2.6 without counting food and fuel food has risen 3.7 percent fuel 10.2 percent and medical cost 6.9 clearly 2 percent puts working people well below even the

043current cost of living under compensation is one expression of devaluing your staffs an equally serious one that causes major erosion of staff morale is a management style throughout the system that does not assure a safe environment fair and equal treatment of all supervisory settings freedom from harassment and discrimination or a voice without fear of retaliation this sports human resources advisory committee has developed a guiding document called portrait of a workplace an employee bill of rights the 12 items outlined in this document would provide a baseline for recreating fcps as the jewel it once was where people would once again want to work be proud to work and feel their professional work i urge you to adopt the employee bill of rights to refuse review the fcps regulations for allowing for alignment to it and a

044budget based on the requirements of it our employees deserve no less if we expect them to create the best we must at least manage our schools using basic standards that assure them dignity and fairness in the workplace thank you for your comments uh speaker number 12 is robert hartley hartley sorry i'm sorry and i don't see speaker number 12 here so we're going to come back to an individual and we're going to proceed to speaker number 13 who i do see online jeanette yes thank you good evening matt here darenette cofacts and school board members my name is jeanette corcelius and i'm a music educator and a member of the board of the fairfax education association my union i want to uplift the students i heard tonight speaking on mental health supports racial justice 2s

045lgbtqia plus pride police free schools environmental stewardship and more this will be my third time this year that i will speak on the budget among other concerns today a week after teacher appreciation week in spite of last week's celebrations your employees are not feeling the love appreciation or respect from this body in regards to salaries we are dismayed to learn that we are not we are only receiving an msa of two percent opposed to five percent which was promised by the virginia general assembly our steps are frozen for the second year in a row and we are not getting our last step how could this be possible every educator i've spoken to this year poured their heart and soul into their work whether they were virtual in person or concurrent according to the national education

046association in virginia the average starting teacher's salary is forty two thousand sixty nine dollars and we are 17th in the nation on average our teachers salary in virginia is 57 665 dollars making us 26th in the nation our educator pay gap is 67 cents on the dollar we are making 20 uh 32.7 less than other college educated professionals in virginia according to the economic policy institute while the average teacher's salary in fairfax county is 78 ninety eight dollars we are in fifth place according to the washington area boards of education 2021 guide dc and pg county were not included in this data on top of all of this inflation is above two percent our politicians in richmond recognized all this and allowed and encouraged locals to make the match for the 5 increase what is

047the disconnect with our local government though despite this we are in the top 10 in the country for business many businesses such as amazon who are notoriously anti-union and exploitative are coming specifically to the northern virginia area we have the money to fully fund our schools our students education and pay our staff a living wage and that includes esps we ask that you raise our salary by five percent unfreeze our next step and recover our last step for all fcps staff for those who are in person teaching concurrently this past year we ask that you provide a stipend as well in regards to staff respect your human resource advisor advisory committee has been working on an employee bill of rights for over a year and a half this employee bill of rights is a common

048sense document that should be posted in every staff lounge and emailed out by every administrator to the staff members it is also an agreement between the superintendent school board gate house administrators and employees our unions are hoping this body of work uh this body here will work with us on resolution language that will push for wide scope broad-based collective bargaining i look forward to working together on ensuring that we have the best school system in our area or even in the country for our families community and staff thank you so much for your time and thank you for your comments uh speaker number 14 is justin hagan and i do not see numbers speaker 14 here right now so we will come back and speaker 15 is tina williams good evening school board and community

049members my name is tina williams and i'm president of the fairfax county federation of teachers aft local 2401 we represent all non-supervisory fcps employees from teachers and specialists to ias custodians office staff and many others thank you to the speakers advocating for environmental stewardship more mental health support for our students virtual options equity and an employee bill of rights and our lgbtqia students and staff we stand in solidarity with you i am here today to acknowledge and thank the school board for your work on advocating for race for all fcps employees this school year has been incomparable our members have had to be exceptionally flexible understanding and patient during this global pandemic they have gone gone above and beyond to support their students and families since we have began talking about our the budget over

050the past several months i have been urging both the school board and the board of supervisors to include a pay increase for all fcps employees in the fy 2020 22 budget this would have marked the second consecutive year that our employees would not have seen an increase in pay i am extremely happy that the school board and board of supervisors were able to work together to make this two percent possible while also funding an elementary principal paid parity we urge the school board to consider quarterly budget reviews to find funding to offer its employees a bonus and or step increase during the next school year i'm committed to working with the school board to make sure that we can look into adjustments in the budget as we move forward this is necessary if we are

051to to be competitive with surrounding school districts many that have included pay increases in their fy 2022 budgets although i was thrilled to share the news about two percent with our fcft members other districts such as loudoun county are offering their employees a 5.9 percent increase we urge our school board to provide a step increase as soon as possible and to keep fcps salaries a priority in the budget because it it affects every employee's quality of life and lets each of your wonderful and dedicated staff members know that they are all valued and appreciated thank you for this opportunity to speak and i look forward to our continued partnership and thank you for your comments our speaker number 16 is leslie houston [Music] good evening budget chair colfax school board members dr brabrand and the

052leadership team my name is leslie houston i am a special education teacher while this school year has been challenging for all of us i do not think you really understand the toll it has taken on your special educators i can confidently say we have reached our breaking point and we want to be compensated for the work we already do and the extra hours required when last minute mandatory policy adjustments are initiated a two percent increase in our salary doesn't begin to cover it as spag teachers we have been overlooked and taken for granted during this pandemic sped teachers juggled their caseloads while testing students writing addendums at a moment's notice managing student behavior attending meetings and communicating with parents we have been mom dad advocate and family counselor all the while dealing with increased paperwork

053and changing course multiple times during the school year there is very little time for student learning and engagement this administration has not valued its special educators and thus its special education community has lost faith in this administration fairfax county has the best of the best in its special education teachers but in case you haven't noticed they are leaving in droves i do not believe you know what you are up against in the coming year with the number of special education vacancies we now have what will happen when we turn when we return to school in the fall with no qualified teachers to teach the most vulnerable students in our district to add insult to injury teachers teaching concurrently will receive a stipend spare teachers spend time writing and rewriting addendums ieps and preparing legal documents

054each time this system pivoted we have been asking for additional compensation for years we have lost money because we have not been compensated for the additional hours we have worked to ensure our students were supported while neighboring counties are receiving a five percent adjustment in pay we are having to debate why a two percent adjustment in pay is not sufficient this system does not value our does not know our value this evening i implore you to feast on the words of esteemed journalist charles carot when we become a really mature grown-up why society we will put teachers at the center of the community where they belong we don't honor them enough we don't pay them enough tonight i ask that you honor us by paying us our worth thank you so much for giving me

055the opportunity to speak to all of you tonight and thank you for your comments speaker number 17 is sue zoldak hi can you hear me yes thank you miss koufax um my name is sue zoldak as you know the founder of do better fcps i'd like to start with the fact that teachers in unionized areas make the same real dollar salary as those in non-unionized areas why is that because unions drive up the cost of living for everyone in that area but i'd like to talk about the budget as you're about to release the personal contact information of all fcps staff and teachers to every would be union i'd like to talk about the 500 000 you've put aside for collective bargaining you may think i'm here to complain about that amount because of course

056i'm the one that complained about the four million dollars you spent on paper packets but actually i'm here to ask you is that enough is five hundred thousand dollars enough to protect the staff from predatory unions as board members it's your job to protect the school the teachers and our children in a way that ensures a quality first class education it is not your job to see that one union has the easiest way to certification because they happen to be your friends or because you happen to believe unions are good since we're being we're new to being a so-called collective bargaining state maybe you don't know that most states establish a state-level commission to monitor the unions virginia did not do this they left that up to you so let's go through what is needed

057to protect teachers who will oversee union elections will there be someone at every single school to monitor union communications what happens if a teacher feels bullied by their union who do they go to what happens when a teacher is punished by a union for speaking to a principal without a union representative present what if a teacher wants to sue their union what is the process to just certify and choose a different union what if just principals wanted to certify and choose a different union who will be the neutral party who answers these questions it's certainly not the members of this board who'd rather hurt emoji a union president tweet than respond to a parent online and just like miranda writes who will read the teachers their janus writes which says that you do not you

058do not have to pay union fees in order to be part of their bargaining unit this language was put in place by the 2018 supreme court affirming public sector first amendment rights this by the way has not been reflected on the fcps great beginnings website where you explain to your staff how they can join a union but not how they can not pay a union when will this new teacher training be more reflective of the 2018 rights that teachers have with collective bargaining comes responsibility also will you be adding the three non-union options that provide teachers the same exact benefits insurance and discounts as a union but at up to one-seventh of the cost without the danger of their hard-earned money going to causes they don't believe in for the record those options are from

059virginiaeducator.org the christian educators association which can be found at ceai.org and the association of american educators which can be found at aae teachers.org all three of those organizations should be part of your great beginnings website if you are actually looking out for your staff so my point is who is watching out for the teachers and is 500 000 really enough to protect them thank you for your comments um i see that speaker number 12 has um entered so um robert hartley um we have um if you are available please log in right now and you can make your comments as we are past you but i would like to give you your opportunity to speak speaker number 12 can you hear me hear me all right i'm going to move on right now um we

060are up to speaker 18 morgan sykes and i don't see mr sykes right now either so we are going to go to speaker number 19. which is emily vanderhoff thank you good evening chairman anderson dr brabrand and members of the board my name is emily vanderhoff i'm a first grade teacher at hunt valley elementary school and a proud member of my union fcft i want to share my gratitude for the advocacy of this board to ensure that staff receive a compensation increase in the fy 22 budget when dr brabrand presented a proposed budget that would free staff pay for the second consecutive year i saw every member of this board speak up on behalf of staff thank you for your advocacy at the local and state level to secure the funding for a 2 msa

061for all employees i'm also glad to see that the funding for elementary principal pay period has also been restored this budget cycle many fcft members participated in advocacy to the board of supervisors to support your requested 3 msa we've been grateful to have the members of our school board joining us in this advocacy going forward fcft members will continue ongoing efforts to improve the budget climate for fcps so that this board can have more than two fully funded budgets in a generation fully funded budgets will move scps toward our priorities including compensation that draws the best educators in the region i think critical support positions that address the social emotional needs for students continuing to improve the pay scale for support staff so that they can sustain their families and afford to live in the

062in the county and ensuring access to high quality instruction for all students we are ready to support the board of supervisors and exercising their new taxing authority to implement a meals tax with a percentage earmarked for schools so that we can rely less on real estate taxes for school funding we are also reaching out to members of the general assembly to advocate for waiving the requirement for a full match before receiving state allocated funding for salaries while the msa this year is much appreciated we want to note the impact of another step freeze on staff every year frozen pay frozen pay steps delays employees from reaching their maximum potential on the pay scale and impacts our retirement fcft hopes to work with the school board on long-term solutions to address the many lost pay steps

063that staff have experienced through the years finally in the interest of resource stewardship i want to share a few points about how funding will be used to move to a structured literacy approach in the primary grades i've been personally studying structured literacy for over a year and i've been adjusting my reading instruction to align my practice with methods supported by the 40 years of research known as the science of reading or sor changing our approach is more than just adding phonics on top of existing ineffective strategies and so i caution this board against investing in balanced literacy programs that have an added phonics component rather than the programs that are aligned with the science of reading i also urge the board to choose a consultant in june whose practice is aligned with sor to ensure

064that our investment goes towards resources and training that will best equip teachers to close the literacy gap that's been created under balanced literacy practices i'm glad to see that reading specialists will be will be trained in or in gillingham this summer which is a highly regarded which is highly regarded in the sor community but this method cannot be turnaround trained and to see real change in student outcomes we must train classroom teachers as soon as possible thank you for your time and thank you for advocacy for teachers thank you for your comments tonight we are up to speaker 20 and that is ashley dillard and i don't see miss dillard logged in um so we are going to go to speaker number 21 and that is erez rotem and i don't see speaker 21 logged

065in either what i will do is i will continue going on and all of the speakers that did not show up in their turn i will then um call on you at the end of our session so we are now up to speaker 22 and that is lauren mcgee hi thank you for having me tonight my name is lauren mcgee and i'm a parent to children in fairfax county schools i'm also the hunter mill representative on fpac but tonight i'm speaking to you from my capacity as a practicing architect i specialize in the design of schools and classrooms including trauma-informed spaces and my work focuses on the social and emotional connection between learning environments and their occupants the term learning environments might initially make you think of classrooms which up until this past year would

066have been highly accurate schools and physical classrooms make up the majority of spaces available to children and teaching professionals as dedicated places to learn but as we've seen quite clearly over the past 14 months learning environments by necessity or by design extend beyond the classroom and into many different types of spaces and experiences where learning can occur we've all had to be flexible during this time and as children and teaching staff acclimate to a full return to in-person learning adaptability inclusivity and resiliency in our learning environments will be essential to ensure that these spaces are socially and emotionally supportive for the occupants i encourage the board and administration to consider this in future budget decision making because of health and safety concerns however school interiors will likely continue to be some of the most restrictive

067spaces for learning with preset spacing forward-facing desks masks and partitions this is a given spending time outdoors is an opportunity to offset this the outdoors is a place to allow kids to act and interact like kids and affords children some autonomy which is especially important after an extended time of limitations and the solitude of distance learning without walls defining the limits of how children are distributed outdoor seating and gathering can be more flexible more organic and more relaxed it's designed intentionally with social and emotional health in mind there will absolutely be a necessary emphasis on addressing the learning loss that occurred over the past year but it would be a real shame if that equates only to heightened time in closed classrooms seated at desks that are socially distant without the opportunity to freely move

068talk socialize and engage there's a true social and emotional cost to this type of learning environment there's a large body of research that demonstrates the positive and restorative effects of nature including bringing about improvement health replenishing depleted resources like concentration and attention and reducing stress nature has also been shown to have a therapeutic effect when used as an intervention in a recovery from stress-related conditions like depression and anxiety the outdoor classrooms being piloted throughout fcps are a great start to providing dedicated spaces for learning beyond the built walls of our schools and i commend facilities the board and the administration for this the terrific and inspiring work that has already been accomplished by get to green on outdoor classrooms and other environmental stewardship programming will only increase in the coming months and years so they

069should be taken into budgetary competition i'll stop now i have one more paragraph but i'll email it thank you thank you yes please email that to us um we are now up to speaker number 23 megan crowley hi yes good evening um members of the school board and dr brabrand my name is megan crowley i'm an fcps school social worker and a member of the fairfax association of school social workers in light of virginia senate bill 1257 which requires three specialized student support positions for every one thousand students i am here today to ask for equal social work positions with our school psychology colleagues the current proposed fy 22 budget adds 10 school psychologists and zero social workers with a net result of eight fewer social work positions in comparison with psychology school social workers

070support the fcps strategic plan in the areas of student success and caring culture we are the most versatile profession in fcps and we are deployed in many capacities from meeting basic needs to mental health support for example school social workers provide evidence-based attendance and engagement interventions to support on-time graduation and reduce chronic absenteeism school social workers address the socio-emotional needs of students and families through evidence-based programs for individuals groups and classrooms as well as through iep counseling school social workers support students experiencing homelessness or in foster care by ensuring school stability and coordinating transportation in addition to our work in a typical school year school social workers have also responded to urgent needs of the covid 19 pandemic to address these myriad needs school social workers connect families to critical intensive wraparound services through state

071csa funding we are the only profession in fcps able to access this level of care for families during the past year social workers have addressed community needs by creating food banks delivering food to homes coordinating clothing drives and helping families access virtual learning our organization strongly supports the school board's recognition of student mental health needs in the fy 22 budget over two-thirds of our department are licensed clinical social workers meaning they have over two years of post-masters training in mental health we serve alongside our school psychology colleagues on clinical mental health and mts teens and are concerned by how the national shortage of school psychologists might affect this important work in summary we want to reiterate that school social workers support student wellness with a holistic lens next fall school social workers will serve a

072critical role in re-engaging students and families reluctant to return to any culture thank you for your time and we ask for equity and staffing with our school psychology peers thank you thank you for your comments uh we are up to speaker number 24 and that's lindsay [Music] hi good evening school board members and leadership team members my name is lindsay galizio i'm a 20-year veteran of fcps a school-based technology specialist at south county middle school and a proud board member of the fairfax county federation of teachers first i'd like to thank the school board members and dr bray brand for their continued support over the over the past very difficult year for all school-based personnel including teachers instructional support staff librarians counselors psychologists social workers office staff custodians cafeteria workers teaspacks and of course espits

073we are all a team and if we did not all work together to support each other to educate students i don't believe you would have had such a successful year second i'd also like to thank the board for finding the funding for the two percent pay increase for all employees as you know fairfax is very expensive county to live in and this pay increase will help with retaining many of our highly skilled educators as well as helping attract new ones over the summer however i do urge you to continue to look for other funding sources as the budget process continues many long time fcps staff members have lost more than a few steps in the past few years and finding any way to put one back in our budget sometime soon one or more would

074go a long way to show that our employees are valued just as an example i've been here in this county 20 years and i'm still on step 12. lastly i'd like to advocate for my esbit community continuing the strong push for the integration of instructional technology within classroom instruction at all levels should not lose its momentum now that virtual learning is mostly coming to an end last summer the fcps superintendent's technology advisory council concluded its work and submitted its report to you with several recommendations with timelines attached a few of those findings and recommendations focused on the s bit position the findings just a quick summary for the s bit that our role and evaluation needs to be consistent that our training needs to be formalized and externally validated and that our our work should

075be aligned with instructional coaches and the recommendation was that our position and our program should be reset with a singular goal of realizing district technology vision and the timeline was that it should be completed during this school year and i don't believe any of this work so far has been started so i just wanted to bring that to your attention and i would love to talk to any any school board member who would be willing to talk to about this i'd like to thank you all for your time and everything you do for our students and thank you for being here tonight we are up to speaker number 25 and that is kathleen mallard speaker number 25 i see you are logged in last call miss mallard all right we will come back to you

076uh we have speaker number 26 that is marnie matt yak and i don't see speaker number 26 logged in now speaker number 27 nancy trainer also i do not see nancy trainer on board we will come back um that leads us up to speaker number 28. joanne walton speaker number 28. thank you um good evening dr bray brand and members of the board my name is joanne walton and i usually speak to you in the capacity as a parent of students here in fcps but this evening i am speaking to you as a teacher a special ed teacher and a proud fea member and um i really felt compelled even though i didn't have the chance to get prepared remarks because things have been a little bit busy as you can imagine um essentially i

077just really felt it was important that i expressed my um concern and frustration with this funding budget situation essentially my word those people who know me now my word for this year unfortunately has been gutted okay every time you turn around i turn around my friends my colleagues turn around it's just another um another we're just gutted so essentially you know i think i feel like people know so many things but i i feel like we need to be way more transparent we've been talking for you know over a decade about this teacher shortage it's here right it's here so i just feel like we need to be more transparent i don't think parents realize i don't think taxpayers realize how few people we have sub lack of subs look at the list of teachers

078that are it's a mile long and a lot of that is related to the lack of pay increases the lack of steps one of my colleagues is leaving she just got an offer in loudon she's gonna make ten thousand dollars more they're giving her two steps that she missed out on last year um and it's just really really hard um i just don't understand why we started from zero and i just really would hope that you would find it you know find it and find the ability to fund this raise and i'm just thankful honestly that collective bargaining is now in play and that we have it back and that hopefully we won't have to keep doing this um and so i thank you for your time but i just um that's it we're just

079very very i can't even find the words anymore but um thank you very much thank you for coming tonight uh we next have speaker number 29 uh that is betta smith but i do not see miss smith here so we will come back um speaker number 30 brian dequitner yes ma'am uh good evening madam chairman school board members and dr bray brand i'm here tonight as the president of the fairfax support professionals association to represent fcps support employees historically within fcps support employees have been left out of the most important conversations there has however always been one voice championing support employees that is the voice of my friend and colleague dave swann this despite a teacher-led group that is happy to take support employees money and then turn their back on them when the interests

080of teachers and support employees clash i'm here to add the voice of the fspa in the interest of support employees one needs look no further than this past year's calendar situation the teachers association claiming to represent support employees stood up in front of this body and lobbied for the two most inequitable calendars for support employees potentially costing support employees hundreds even thousands of dollars in this coming school year if it weren't for the hard work of the fspa the sea and the courage of this board support employees would have taken it on the chin once again how does this happen you ask it's simple really in this situation the calendar committee is stacked with education factions of fcps last year there were several educational groups on the calendar committee and only one support group i

081ask you please not to leave support employees out of the budget process as well please hear me on this point i'm not anti-teacher i am however 100 pro support employees teachers are not the most important stakeholder group within fcps as some would suggest that would be the students students that would not arrive safely to school every day students that would not receive a nutritional meal or sometimes two students that would not be studying and learning in safe and clean buildings all these tasks and hundreds more are profound performed by support employees each and every day thank you very much thank you for your comments uh speaker number 31 is dave swann good evening chairman durn at cofax i am dave swann chairman of the support employees association representing the interest of 40 percent of your

082workforce we're grateful for your last minute negotiations with the state and county to produce a two percent nsa for employees this year some speakers tonight will tell you that our costs exceed the rate of inflation and our taxes are too high yet our system does not operate in a vacuum surrounding school systems at our playbook and now have greater pay increases than ours and several have overtaken us in total pay support employees particularly feel this pain as we are often thought of last in 2015 support employees did not receive an nsa so teachers would receive pay scale adjustments with an msa further that year transportation food service and ota contracts were cut by three full days to pay for three new teacher work days in years since custodial and central office positions have been cut

083causing backlogs and response time and the inability to meet more than 30 percent of our preventative maintenance needs last march when the governor shut down our system support employees returned the next business day to prepare and deliver meals to our most vulnerable in the community now the county will pay their front line workers two thousand dollar hazard bonuses while we watch from the sidelines just like we did in 2015 and again in 2018 when teachers receive their pay scale adjustments with an msa that we never received hundred fcps employees were were plot who applied and received no support from fcps when the vec denied their summer unemployment claims were scared and distressed fcps gave no reasonable assurance of their re-employment and fall until the evening of august 17th a caring culture demanded better it is

084time for fcps to uphold support employee equity and act on their behalf let's begin by returning and committing the three contract days eliminated in 2015 as professional development days in the calendar this will cost between one and a half and two million dollars instead of adding one million for six employees for collective bargaining let's put these dollars to work to develop the talent of our premier workforce we are so we are losing so many bus drivers next year from all of the above that ots has conservatively projected a drop in positions that will not be filled this fall using the vacancy payroll savings alone from this can provide the funds to put these three days back there is nothing else in our budget to stop this bleeding unlike some associations the sca does not serve

085two masters only the interest of the support employs at no cost to them we're primed to collaborate and act with you on much needed solutions at all times i want to thank you all for the work that you do and i appreciate the collaboration we've had in the past and look forward to it in the future thank you for your service and consideration and thank you for your comments uh we are up to speaker number 32 and that is arthur purvis can you see me and can you hear me yes i can see and hear you thank you please go ahead dr brabrand members of the board my name is arthur purvis i address you as president of the fairfax county taxpayers alliance we're concerned not only about how much you spend but how you

086spend it for example we asked for the contents of dr ibrahim kennedy's twenty thousand dollar one hour presentation on critical race theory your fire office told us that there is a video but it is confidential then we asked the foia office to see all the crt materials taught in fcps the foia response was that we were too vague then we asked if fcps teaches crt we still don't have an answer to that question then we asked if fcps bought any of dr kennedy's books the response we got was that the foil office needs an expan and extension i asked my school board representative if she felt that staff training should be transparent to taxpayers no answer yet we did get slides to a march 19 social emotional lesson taught at thomas jefferson it's centered on

087a movie 13th about the disproportionate incarceration of blacks and that imprisonment is a modern form of slavery but who's responsible for the incarceration of blacks it's the school the prison pipeline which begins in the third grade when black and hispanic students should have mastered reading and math facts but haven't being unable to read in the information age does indeed make one a slave to the government and why haven't they learned reading and math because you use whole word for reading instead of phonics and because you reject arithmetic drill presenting a child with a big picture in a few sentences and expecting them to guess at the meaning of the words doesn't work the children who do learn reading and math are the affluent predominantly white and asian who get supplementary help at home or in

088private school private after-school programs sending low-income children to successful schools won't help because the successful children didn't learn at school they learned it at home so what you've done is you've persuaded the low-income children that they can't learn reading and math and you've persuaded the community that it's the fault of the children in truth they didn't learn because they weren't taught because of their flawed curriculum public schools are the leading cause of poverty and racial inequality in the united states public schools have devastated the lives of millions of children but the good news is that you can fix it first put all the curriculum specialists back in the classroom so they have to teach what they preach second replace curriculum specialists with summer working groups of front line teachers next replace whole word with phonics

089and reintroduce arithmetic drill now is not the time for recriminations you have it in the power in your power to bind up the nation's wounds and restore hope for millions the taxpayer alliance believes all students of all races can master reading and math and for three billion dollars we expect nothing less thank you thank you for your comments uh we are up to speaker number 33 maria sherwell hello good evening i'm happy to be able to speak tonight i'm thankful to god to be able to speak if this is very uncomfortable for me but i hope that this encourages other parents to stand up and speak out for their children and their communities i have a few areas of concern that i want to address for the board and to the community um my first

090is already mentioned the equity program that was paid for to the tune of seven hundred thousand dollars for four plus years of indoctrination of our children the school system is promulgating group think ideology pitting races and religions against each other at this rate segregation is next in our schools how about take that money and give it to the special ed teachers like joanne walton how about take that money and give it to the fairfax support employees who are asking for it every time they get a chance i found a quote that i was going to read from thomas sowell but i don't know that anyone cares to hear it i also heard about the money that went to the new york city leadership academy this is affiliated with the chan zuckerberg initiative yes that would

091be mark zuckerberg the billionaire why are our taxpayer dollars going to a billionaire when we can take that money i'd rather you pay your teachers double then give it to someone who's a billionaire it does nothing to repair the hole that has happened in the school this past year the special ed students are suffering the teachers need more these special ed teachers are working so hard to take care of students the survey that you sent out recently was a complete waste of money the questions were strategically written to benefit whoever the assessor is of this survey the emailed quote from superintendent brett brabant said we believe in hearing from all stakeholders and collecting input that will support more inclusive and equitable curriculum policies it was beautifully worded and to me that read no matter what

092input is we're going to use it in a way to support the curriculum policy that we see fit for me this inclusivity this equity this virtue signaling framework talk is a radicalized indoctrination of our children and i will not stand for this it's muting the voices of the parents whose job it is to teach values to their children this is not who we are in fairfax this is not who we are in virginia this is not who we are in the united states and we will not sit idle and watch this happen to our children we are watching and we are moving thank you thank you for your comments uh number 34 is norman hall good evening let me start by thanking each member of the school board for serving during this toughest of years

093i want to contribute to improved decision making relating to tonight next year's budget and use of esser funds every key decision made by fcps has an impact on budgets let's talk about how decisions are framed first the county government and its budget process i was stem struck by the county budget office response to separate questions from supervisors heritage and alcorn in a way that obfuscates human resource planning how when they responded about county staff turnover for this past year and the resulting number of vacancies they explicitly left out non-merit staff positions why does this matter because for years sac has had at least one non-married staff person working at each after-school child care center sac substitutes and rovers are non-merit positions as well effectively this framed non-response shut down the ability of the county board

094of supervisors to evaluate whether sac will have enough county funding to hire and train day care providers for fcps children when the next school year starts and there needs to be an unprecedented expansion from 47 srs sites which now make up use of other ncs staff to 144 sac centers this is more than a math problem this requires careful management i have been vocal about this all year at the april 20th work session the superintendent responded to a question from ms marin about making sac better in terms of chronic wait list by saying quote we're meeting with a county i know this week around sac we can share that feedback and partner with them we know there are some ideas even about more creative use of facility space for sac than along the wait list

095and how it's done news flash there's nothing different about zach and today's employee newsletter unless you school board members have heard privately from about this from dr brain brand i would say that this issue has been dealt with in a way that hides concerns about sac as well it's not unique i have extensive history working in fcps's tin workforce where staff skills have been ignored during this year of problem solving avid tutor non-contract homebound teacher substitute teacher it's no secret that there will be increased funding opportunities for child care from the federal government and that affordable high quality child care separates many women from employment opportunities that will lead to a recovery from our current economic woes how do the county and fcps get away from with framing issues so they don't get publicly discussed

096openly with marginalized employees it's as simple as not acknowledging the existence of school-based employees who provide essential services in the case of the county's department of community and neighborhood services the organizational chart doesn't even show sap regions whereas ncs regions are depicted does fcps even have an organizational chart showing homebound and avid snap spots good luck finding it it's part of an inequitable pattern of masking marginalized workers who are primarily women and people of color i don't think these structural biases are intentional and i know that our county's elected officials i'm bombarded by voices making appeals and issues large and small what is the path okay thank you very much for your time missing thank you and you can please send us the remainder of your comments as can anyone else who has wasn't able

097to finish tonight so thank you we are up to speaker number 35 that is joseph miller i do not see joseph miller logged in so we will go to speaker number 36 and that is asra nomani hi there can you hear me okay i can thank you great great thank you thank you for your civility also these were the last words that i heard when i spoke before our school board on thursday night your time has expired yes you are and has yes it's very germane miss marin i was told to go to my seat and what i wanted to do at that hearing at that public address and i find it really inappropriate for miss marin to try to shut me down again is speak to the wasteful spending that fairfax county public school

098system and the school board has been pushing forward over these last months we received this disturbing survey on thursday from superintendent bray brandt and he told us that he was going to change the controversial issues policy and that he was going to bring in a new anti-racism policy well i did some digging and what i found was that the consulting group that did the survey along with fairfax county just received a contract a four year contract on march 11th two months before the survey i sat there at the school board meeting and i added up what would happen if you all just signed up for the basic cable plan of this four-year contract and it added up to more than seven hundred thousand dollars retreats focus groups all of this immersion in a philosophy a

099critical race theory that is divisive and counterproductive to all that these citizens these brave citizens that have come before you today they've asked teachers have asked for pay raises students have asked for more services support staff have asked for more support and what are you all doing for months you have been working slowly and quietly in the governance committee headed by school board member carl frisch and you have been working on this new philosophy for fairfax county behind the scenes and what does it include these contracts with consultants to come into our school system and tell us that we are racist it's uncalled for and it's a complete waste of money when you have the well-being of students and the futures of teachers and staff to consider this monday i sent questions to every single

100school board member and not a single one of them answered my questions about the contract that the leadership academy received already two contracts summing almost fifty thousand dollars and then this contract what's it worth how much is it valued at what services have you bought what services are you gonna buy and what the listeners need to know what the citizens of fairfax county need to know is that we are in a collision course right now with our school board because they put in their timeline changing all this by the end of the school year pay attention everyone please thank you for your comments um we now have up to speaker number 37 and that is um hamang nagar and i do not see um that individual logged in um speaker number 38 alvaro ugasse i

101am a parent of a thomas jefferson high school student in the last few months i've noticed a great deal of focus on diversity and anti-racism initiatives fcts and tj however everything that i have seen that has been produced by this initiative has been poor quality so that's made me wonder how much have we spent on this initiative and who are the recipients but i can't seem to find any of the published budget documents directly identifying funding for diversity and anti-racism initiatives so how do i determine how much money is going into this initiative and who are these recipients that are receiving the spending that's the question that i want the school board to answer thank you for your time you um we are uh our last speaker and then we will go back to any

102of the people who missed their turn and are currently logged in our last speaker is number 39 elizabeth schultz hello mitchell i can't hear you can you hear me now yes okay i'm i'm disappointed to have been compelled to address this board on a budget in may 2021 when the children in fairfax county are still not in school five days per week many are still extending attending an astonishing two days per week and some haven't seen the inside of a classroom in well over a year your main focus which you've dedicated yourself scrupulously since your very first board meeting in january 2020 as a newly adopted board is to focus on embedding critical race theory into the curriculum into the professional development of employees and everything in between the school board members have dedicated forum

103discussions committee meetings work sessions regular meetings individual time and staff time to the highest levels of this organization for the singular purpose of embedding a racial tinge to every aspect of a child and teacher's educational time none of your time has paralleled this effort capped off by the remarkable anti-bias anti-racist survey just fired off by dr haribrand a sham of a survey which has no scientific basis as an instrument the contract for which was issued months ago an effort which is loaded itself in bias and predetermined outcome and for which the curated responses will only generate more income for the new york based consultants you school board members have squandered more than the last year of our children's lives and education you have squandered the public's money in pursuit of your collaborative agenda and you

104have squandered the trust of parents by doing everything in your power to cut us off of the most important decisions having to do with our own children's curriculum you are leading but it is off a cliff where is the plan to comprehensively recover all students this summer from the academic ground lost while you dithered rewriting the curriculum and vetting the 1619 project renaming schools setting up new york consultants with contract for an untold amount of money and for a contract term so much longer than the legally allowed contract length that you can even issue to any superintendent in virginia there has been an effort to address grades by erasing them administrators have scrambled to ensure that they are aware of an opt-out of getting a grade students can take a p for pass or an

105nm for no mark you have made certain that the failures will get covered up rather than focusing on an agenda of lifting children up in urgent need of academic support to be prepared for next year or the next step in their life you have ensured a watering down of the applications project a process for thomas jefferson high school for science and technology again your efforts to embed critical ways theory and quash any notion of meritorious attainment is an embarrassment and a failure to their futures and to our needs as a nation your agenda is not the needs of students your goal is not the pathway of success for all students your focus has not been to return students to in-person learning which best supports their academic success and health and wellness of every student in

106dire need of your efforts you have marginalized the parents of fcps students who you continue to end run around at every possible turn to accomplish your personal and political narratives which has only further divided our community and set a terrible standard for example of other school districts across the country you need to do better fcps school board and dr bray brand our children are worth fighting for and parents have had enough we're going to do it thank you for your comments uh we are now going to go back and i see we have speaker number 12 robert hartley where where are you thank you can you hear me yes i can yeah no no well everybody wants to put the mail in there but that's all right he did pretty well um all right well

107good evening and so i'm i'm here addressing the the school board as a taxpayer and i am just going to you know follow up on some of the earlier comments i am very concerned with the trend towards critical race theory in the public schools and that the school board acts as if the schools are their private sandbox to do as they please review of the budget shows terms such as equity inclusion and welcoming mentioned far more than academic rigor which is not mentioned at all or academic excellence which is mentioned exactly one time also an organizational chart in a budget shows a chief equity officer on par with the chief academic officer what is not in the budget is any mention of the contracts with the new york leadership academy which has been mentioned is

108also aligned with the far left san francisco bay area chan zuckerberg initiative for an anti-racist anti-bias curriculum survey not also to mention the undisclosed amount which i now know is around 700 for a contract with the leadership academy to develop a critical race theory program equity simulations and culturally responsive curriculum so why the secrecy what is the true purpose of that survey it was simply to yield quite frankly to yield results that can be manipulated to yield the desired outcome certainly that survey was not put out to obtain any meaningful feedback or to engage with the larger community in any substantive way so what is crt it's an identity based marxist ideology euphemistically referred to by words and phrases such as equity which is not equality diversity and inclusion social justice etc it is a

109morally bankrupt philosophy holy at odds with the natural law philosophy that is the foundation of our country's birth and founding documents it seeks to divide and categorize along racial and or ethnic characteristics not unify it seeks to recast america as systemically racist rather than a land of opportunity as attested to by the election of president obama the elevation to the supreme court of clarence thomas thurgood marshall u.s senators such as tim scott cory booker and rafael warnock and the successful integration of legal immigrants from many african and caribbean island nations not to mention luminaries such as thomas soule the late walter williams and even a celebrity like oprah winfrey parents not the school board are the primary educators of their children so why is the school board wasting money engaging with left-wing organizations such as

110the leadership academy that is aligned with megalomaniacs such as chan zuck providing biased surveys seeking to impose electoral agenda thank you for your time and thank you for your comments um i am looking now through my list and it looks like we have speaker number kathleen mallard yes hello good evening and thank you for allowing me to get on board here um can you hear me hear me yes ma'am we can you don't have your camera on i don't know if you want that on or not um yeah i'll have it on i mean you know okay can you hear it can you see me and hear me now yes um you know several speakers before me uh including robert just right ahead of me have addressed the very serious concerns so many of us

111have um my name is kathy mallard and i'm addressing the 2022 budget fcps and how fcps plans to [Music] help our students re-enter into the school setting there's a lot of challenges for our students and as schools reopen and students return full-time i think there's going to be that some will have great difficulty and once again preparing for the many social academic needs that they will confront instead as osro namani and elizabeth schultz mentioned and robert um you all been focusing on uh these anti-racist anti-bias programs um we you know we understand okay you want to be sure that all of the students um under uh accept one another but this is this these programs are not the way to do it fcps should be focusing on how the lack of social connection and peer

112connection has traumatized students i mean how are they going to address that that is so much more important um many students have just been numbed by online learning and they're going to have to re-learn some things on how to how to sit in a classroom how to be in a real classroom with their peers and also once again become engaged in sports and clubs and have human contact with teachers and peers some students will have suffered dramatically um you know in a lot of households you know this uh they they cannot the parents were not able to home school and they weren't uh they couldn't put their kids in private schools and they had to leave their kids all day in front of a computer screen so this this amount of this has been traumatic

113instead you all are looking at this uh 700 000 four and a half year contract with um the leadership academy which is based in new york i mean at least find a con contracting company that's based in fairfax county if you're going to spend that kind of money um earlier we all know about ibram kendy the author of how to be anti-racist so that was august of 2020 and that was a 20 000 price tag for a one hour um talk by candy that's more than 300 a minute now we've heard from teachers who need raises that kind of money is um okay thank you thank you that's all i have to say everybody else said it said it better than i did anyway thank you well thank you for your comments and um i

114see no other of our speakers our earlier no-show speakers i see no one else is online at this time so feel free those who weren't able to come tonight please give us you send us your comments electronically i thank all those who came out tonight and um for sharing your comments and concerns we will hold a final budget session on a budget work session on may 18th and we will take action on our fiscal year 2022 budget on may 20th with that school board meeting at 7 pm as usual so thank you again and this public work session is adjourned you