001and now I am very pleased to call on mrs. Keys Gemara for a recognition of Juneteenth thank you madam chair whereas the month of June is a time that many in our nation recognize Juneteenth as the holiday that celebrates Emancipation Day the day in history when the last state ratified ratified the Emancipation Proclamation and where is this date marked the time period where African Americans of Texas received notice from President Lincoln that slavery had been abolished a declaration that was codified in the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States and whereas June 19 also marked the day that African Americans in the southern states exercised independence from those benefitted from their labors and the founding of this nation and whereas the journey of African Americans represents both great achievements and great hardships and
002whereas our nation is currently witnessing the injustice is of the African American journey that have existed for far too long this June 19th celebration weighs heavily on our hearts and our minds in the aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and others who have not been treated equally under the law and whereas the pain and anguish displayed on our national stage developed from generations of systemic racism that impacts our students families staff and communities where is the educational institution of this nation including FCPS has a particular responsibility to recognize the painful realities of our history and make sure that our curriculum reflects these realities and whereas working with the community as one Fairfax this board is committed to identifying actionable items proof policies and procedures ok give greater access to opportunities to ensure that students
003families and staff do not experience inequities in Fairfax County Public Schools and whereas we value diversity and are united in our opposition to racism and hate we stand in solidarity with our african-american students educators staff and their families now therefore be it resolved at the Fairfax County Public Schools hereby officially commemorates Juneteenth as a day to celebrate and emphasize a collective call to action against injustice of any kind I so move I so move is there a second to this dr. Anderson second miss Keys Gemara would you like to speak to your recognition I do and I will ask for your patience ahead of time I get so passionate about these issues indeed today we do recognize the significance of the date mark duty for African Americans and for all Americans and with that I
004am going to share a personal story that ties in not only the significance of this announcement back in Texas which incidents and coincidentally came more than two years after the actual signing of the Emancipation Proclamation it was a delay symbolic of what we are experiencing in this nation so yesterday my personal story is this I got a call from my son who just recently graduated from college and he had witnessed a domestic violence incident you didn't quite know what to do but he was very aware of the things going on in our nation so he took cover called the police make sure the young lady got help and they asked him to stay there and wait for the police and his statement is truly a statement on where we are at this nation because as
005he talked to the police and gave a description of himself he had to say I'm a black man please don't shoot me I want you to let that sink in my son's response to this interaction is the result of our failure as a nation to truly deal with the inequities in our nation and our unwillingness to really accept what happened as we accepted slave 400 years ago african-americans came from nations from a continent of cultures and families and kings and queens they were humanity but all of that was ignored in the slave trade and we didn't we never really stopped to say that it was wrong yes we had opportunities we had the Dred Scott case they went to the United States Supreme Court and that was well the United I'm sorry go ahead and
006just keep Keynes Gemara okay we had an opportunity to turn away from those things and we have so an opportunity so many times before whether it was that case or lynchings or the KKK or a number of other opportunities but in looking at what has happened to George Floyd we now know that our shortcomings are far too great so we must recognize the unacceptable numbers of such things as the unacceptable numbers of people who have been African Americans that have been accepted to teach a we have to recognize that that is a manifestation of problems within our system that we have to have greater access and opportunity to advanced academics to affordable housing to Economic Opportunity and so we have to clean our own house yes we have to get rid of Confederate names and
007a number of other things and so I've simply want to say we have begun to tear down these things we have begun to address the problems but celebrating this day will mean nothing if we don't do anything and so I challenge all of us and I know that my board members will stand with us as we remove the barriers that have created these inequities and impact our students unjustly thank you thank you very much miss Keys Gemara dr. Anderson I'm just so very glad to suck in this resolution and a lot of the things that I've written to my comments have been stated by Misty's tomorrow even though we did not work on this together at all so I'm just gonna go ahead and jump in Juneteenth is a holiday that was before to commemorate
008the emancipation of enslaved people in the u.s. emancipation the fact or process of being set free from legal social or political restriction liberation I highlight this definition because since the first Juneteenth celebration in 1865 legal social and political restrictions on African Americans remain a fixture all of our institutions today I joined the voices to focus this year's recognition of Juneteenth not only a celebratory but as a call to action I seek for us as a school board and school division to reflect on what it means to liberate our students of color and staff from legal social and political restrictions in our schools restrictions that impede limit or restrict educational opportunities I strongly urge the FCPS community to commit to the work of moving the needle on the issues presented to our students and families the
009symbolic observation of Juneteenth does little for students and families who are consistently on the receiving end of systemic inequities such as but certainly not limited to access to rigorous academic instruction including but not limited to teach admissions special education over-representation disciplinary disproportionality schools named in honor of those who sought to oppress or those who sympathize their causes and mascot names that are derogatory in nature to various groups daily laptop accountability to behaviors and action that support a culture of low expectations for some of our students or disregard for basic humanity these are a few of the immediate issues that we can address and honor of Juneteenth that I will be holding myself accountable to and I urge our colleagues to join me in this call to action as we shared previously and the forum rhetoric
010without action might as well not take place thank you thank you dr. Anderson do any of my other colleagues want to speak to this so dr. Anderson and Miss Keys Gemara I am so pleased that you all brought this resolution forward it is something that I feel very passionately about and it actually builds on the letter that this board sent to the community just a couple of weeks ago and it is a call to action and so I very much appreciate what you you've brought here I believe that we need to include Juneteenth in all future recognitions going forward on the school board meeting closest to the 19th of June I also think it will be a wonderful period of time every year that we do self-reflection to say what have we done to honor
011what we are signing on to today what how are we making systemic changes to positively impact our black students families and staff and so thank you so much for what you've done here it is greatly appreciated I now see that miss McLaughlin would like to say something miss McLaughlin I guess I just want to quickly say that not only do I appreciate the eloquent words of both of my colleagues who brought forward this resolution on recognizing Juneteenth but I also want to express my appreciation to dr. Bray brand and our County Executive Brian Hill who worked collaboratively to ensure that now county and school employees will have this as a formal holiday to also honor the day and have an opportunity for reflection and as dr. Anderson and both miss Keith Mara said actions without
012words do not bring a the change that we want to see in our communities and so I am so thrilled that you've both identified where we need much change and growth in opportunities for all students in Fairfax County and really appreciate the way that you've kept it here today on what is clearly a historic and long overdue recognition of a solemn day in our nation's history but one that brings a lot of hope q miss McLachlan mr. Arnett Koufax yes and I too I want to share I want to thank my colleagues for bringing us forward and I missed keys tomorrow I know you brought this up last year and I understand your passion as dr. Anderson and I've heard from many people just it just today about because we are recognizing this in Fairfax
013as as tomorrow as a holiday and it's a day of reflection and I you have a pledge from me as a fellow board member that this will be something that we will work on together these will not just be words without action and as we move forward we move forward in on this road we will work together to make sure the inequities that you're speaking of and that we see that we've seen will continue will not continue and will be addressed so thank you all thank you mr. Knapp Koufax miss omission that you and thank you Karen and Rikki for McCarty for reading the recognition with the encouragement of Kimberly and to give voice to Kimberly Nathan and all the students in our schools who now have the opportunity to reflect on this to celebrate
014this and the emancipation of many people and to think that this is a start to teaching our history that this is why narratives are so important and this is why when we live in a County of its diverse it is critical for us to reflect on the histories of all kinds of people in particular those who when when our nation was had declared its independence in 76 and had yet to find that for all people and for african-americans in particular in 1865 and it took that long for our country to decide that something like slavery was unjust and that you know for whether it was African Americans or even Native Americans who were enslaved and the combinations in between that the struggle for emancipation was something real in this country I want us to just
015reflect on that that it was actually acceptable once upon a time and that leaders across this country propagated that's so now in celebration of the opposite to think about liberty and freedom being something that is not just physical now that we've moved past that right don't stall it I know but it's mental and having the canary the burdens of discrimination or things like that certainly speak to the need to continue pushing forth freedom and I don't want to kind of water down you know the holiday so in being positive without that and looking forward to further achievements I'm happy to celebrate this I'm happy to see now that it is gonna be a holiday across the board for all of us and hope that we can be proactive to meet the state next time to
016doing this and and certainly connect having known that a third of the slaves that came here shared my faith there's much intersectionality with that so I think it's the happy Jew to thought those and which is tomorrow June 19th and here's to many more celebrations of the freedom in the future thank you miss oh me I will say that this was put on the calendar a couple of weeks ago so I think technically we did beat the state but we're glad to join the state in this celebration miss Sizemore hyzer great thank you very much and I also want to echo a great appreciation and thanks to my colleagues miss Keith Kamara and dr. Anderson for bringing forth this recognition and for their very heartfelt and wise and and much-needed words of and so I
017don't want a sort of center of my own words too much in this I wanted to speak up to say that when I participated in the swearing-in back in the seven burr the book I carried with me was a people's history of the United States and it was my copy that I got in college and is because this mission of centering voices that haven't been heard and making sure that our history reflects all of the people and all of our rich histories is it's so important to me that that's why what I the the message I want to destroy myself in on so I'm just here to say I'm pledging do you also not have words without actions and to be an ally moving forward to make sure that everybody our schools is are equally
018respected included valued and everybody's histories and cultures are studied and understood and valued from varied perspectives and from a lens of the deep and rich history of which we all have so thank you and I appreciate it and I'm looking forward to standing alongside you all as we move this work forward thank you miss Sizemore hyzer miss Cohen I really appreciate my colleagues bringing up this resolution as well and I in the spirit of making sure that these are not words that their actions I really challenge all of us to look at what are the systemic issues and FCPS that leave many of our black African American students to feel other to feel like they are not supportive and sometimes that they're actively in a system that feels like it's working against them so as
019miss Keith Kamara said in the forum topic today regarding the name change for Mosby Woods we have low hanging fruit work that needs to happen systemically we need to work on our hiring practices we need to work on our professional development we need to work on our SR and our we need to work on AP and TJ we need school specific interventions around anti racism we need anti-racist curriculum we need to have conversations about the roles of SROs in our schools and we need to tackle truancy and make sure that we are not inadvertently participating in the school to Prison Pipeline those are just the very beginning of conversations that we need to have as a board and as a community and I hope that if there's any good to come from all of the
020bad that we have seen in and all that has been exposed in the last few weeks I hope it will be real action more than just a resolution of a recognition of an incredibly important day thank you thank you McCowen miss Marion I'm very pleased to support this resolution and pleased that the super 10 days are granted as a cave observance for our staff who's Cohen outlined the task before us and I'd like to mount our board here see if we can save time before the end of this 5:30 to go back and hear the forum topic that she presented to address that very list of things that she put forth I work for staff to start doing this so I will certainly aspire you've any other comments short and reserved time I'm happy to
021make a motion to that effect with that say miss Erin this is I appreciate your advocacy this is why there's not a motion for that we're going to talk about this first and then we can continue on okay I appreciate it thank you miss tolling yes patty thank you very much for bringing this resolution forward I think my colleagues for that I'm some of my earliest memories in life are volunteering at the Steve Boniface parish in Milwaukee and peacefully marching with other Dame's krabi to promote civil rights for African Americans my mother was a quiet activist and then in her strong and persistent way instilled in me the knowledge that all people are created as well no matter rate affiliation the country of origin sexual orientation and professional profession disability etcetera no person's abilities are
022to be underestimated and equitable treatment of all individuals is unquestionable and all people need to be treated with compassion and respect I wanted to mention I was fortunate to be on the phone earlier today with one of our administrators and I want to commend them for moving some of this work forward already by moving forward with discussions with our your parent communities our student communities and ours and as this administrator eloquent might put it earlier today there is no period at the end of this sentence we have lots of work ahead of us and it's something that needs to continue answering the board for years and years and I look forward to working with my colleagues and our administrators and staff across FCPS to continue this work thank you very much thank you mrs. Toland
023mr. Frisch thank you yeah very quickly I appreciate the comments of Barron he's Gemara and Riccardi Anderson in their eloquent discussion of Juneteenth and I would underscore Melanie's call that we keep ourselves as quick and brief as possible today and it would be fantastic if we could return to the forum coffee that was next on our agenda which would move the school division forward on a number of these issues formerly so that staff can get to work I appreciate that thank you Thank You mr. Frisch is Piekarski thank you just briefly I also want to thank miss Keith Kamara and dr. Anderson I'm so eloquently talked about this topic and I too just want to say I am ready for action and I'm ready to do the hard work and I think we are the
024board are there and I think the community is ready to have these difficult discussions I see them happening in my schools and the only way to to really move us forward is to have the card conversations and do the real work where it matters so I am also committed to this and I think you both for bringing this to us today thank you Miss Piekarski miss blotching did you want to speak to this well not quite right now I think I'll speak more to it during like more to everything turn during I'm student matters but thank you thank you very much so with that I will call for the vote all those in favor of the recognition put forth by Miss Keys Gemara and seconded by dr. Anderson please show your hands and I will
025call you out miss Mehra and Miss Piekarski miss Darren at Koufax MS Cohen miss Keys Gemara Miss omae's dr. Anderson miss mcLaughlin miss toll and miss Sizemore Heiser mr. fresh and Miss Korbut Sanders that motion is unanimous it does carry now we will go on to the portion of our