001board members if I can ask you to come to the Dyess this March 5 2020 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence and the performance of the national anthem by Chantilly High School Chamber chorale under the direction of Evan irons Ayers you see [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you again to the Chantilly High School Chamber chorale and the director Evan Ayers who is also the partner of our very own mr. Carl fresh the school board member from Providence the board held a closed meeting earlier this evening in certified compliance immediately upon convening in public the forum work session which preceded tonight's regular meeting a few other announcements before we begin tonight's meeting if you would like
002to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight that information is on the table by the auditorium entrance tonight's agenda is available by going to the school board on the FCPS homepage and selecting board Docs under upcoming school board meetings the meeting is also being streamed live online select school board from the full menu then click on the watch live button on the school board meetings web page please turn off or silence your cell phone and I now call on Miss Bois tang for an announcement hi guys so we have a lot of announcements so please bear with me so theater in our school month March 2020 the American Alliance for theater and Education has designated March as theater in our schools month to celebrate and increase public
003awareness of the benefits of theater education for youth development the theme is fostering a culture of creativity theater education has the power to raise academic achievement and to stimulate innovation and creativity among students the Alliance encourages citizens to celebrate the positive impact of theatre in the classroom and to remember that all students should have access to quality theater education in their lives music and our schools month March has officially has been officially designated by the National Association for music as the Cape Education for the observance of music and our schools month the time of year when music education becomes the focus of schools across the nation this year's theme is all music all people and designed to raise awareness of the importance of music education for all children to remind citizens that school is where
004all children should have access to music it also is an opportunity for music teachers to bring their music programs to the attention of the school and the community and to display the benefits school music brings to students of all ages youth our youth art month our education contributes powerful educational benefits to all elementary and secondary students our education develops students create creative problem-solving and critical thinking abilities teacher teaches sensitivity to beauty order and other expressive qualities gives students a deeper understanding of multicultural values and beliefs and brings to life what students learn in other subjects the theme for youth art month 2020 is your art to your story the Fairfax County School Board believes that support should be given to art teachers as they strengthen art education in schools and communities and all citizens are
005urged to take interest in and give full support to quality school art programs for children and youth and before I hand this back to miss Cory Sanders I'd like to recognize a couple Boy Scouts and our miss we have Zach Smith from Troop 1100 and Nowell uzuki from true 577 if you can stand to be recognized [Applause] thank you I now call on Miss Cohen for a recognition of the West Springfield boys cross country team champions on behalf of the Fairfax County School Board is my honor to congratulate the West Springfield Spartans for winning the virginia-class six boys cross country championship on November 16th the championship meet was held at Great Meadow in the plains with three senior Spartan runners earning top five finishes the team clinched its first team championship since 1995 coach Chris
006Pellegrini credits four years build-up that helped these seniors run an amazing race and achieved the team title together congratulations to all the players and coaches for this accomplishment and victory the state title is a great source of pride for West Springfield athletics and the entire FCPS community especially the Springfield district we wish all of the runners continued athletic and academic success at this time I'd like to invite the coaches and athletes to join us at the dais for a photo with the board [Applause] Oh I now call on Miss Marron for a recognition of the vsba equity and education month recognition whereas obtaining a quality education and having more opportunities for success beyond what was available to their own generation our shared aspirations parents have for their own children and where as a reality sadly
007is that opportunity gaps still remain for traditionally underserved children in the United States Virginia and Fairfax County and that by shortchanging students and their efforts to achieve their goals we've impacted not only the individual students their parents and families but also society as a whole by limiting the lifetime benefits you would have all otherwise received from students fully developed skills talents and ideas and whereas we recognize that factors including but not limited to race color ethnicity disability gender gender identity sexual orientation religion national origin and socioeconomic status have a demonstrated history of impacting the access of quality of educational opportunities provided to a student and whereas we understand that despite past efforts disparities continue in schools that present substantial obstacles or detours in career and life success for students who are not offered equitable access
008to challenging courses for their abilities or school counselors strong teachers a safe educational environment and building supplies or technologies that are conducive for learning and whereas the promise of a public education is for every child in our diverse County to receive the resources and supports they need to be successful in school college career and life and whereas it is important that Fairfax family students teachers and school administrators to be aware of the diverse needs of learners and to encourage discussion of the challenges as a school community and to highlight the need for continued focus on educational equity so that all students can be all that they can be and whereas the Virginia School Boards Association has established a task force on students and schools and challenging environments to make recommendations and to stay at the
009forefront of discussions on equity in Virginia schools now therefore be it resolved that Fairfax County Public Schools recognizes the Munch of Mars March 2020 as vsba equity education month with the intention that educational equity best practices and programming be discussed and promoted in FCPS schools communities and classroom during this time and for always I so move thank you miss Marin is there a second second did by miss mhm miss Marin would you like to speak to your motion this resolution comes at a really timely point because we have already been doing the work to increase the equity that we have in our schools but we need to keep reminded that we have so much to do and I'm heartened at the the reteaching the new reinterpretation of things like our Virginian history and the impact
010it's had on african-american communities Native communities and all sorts of other populations that we know that today don't get the the resources that they need so I'm very heartened that we're doing the work that needs to be done but let's always remember that we face these challenges each and every day thank you Miss Marron miss suma should you like to speak to your second absolutely thank you so much and I'm proud to be amongst colleagues who also believe in the importance of this work as most of you know this is particularly the issue that brought my attention to the position on the school board to begin with and as a student who's got a former student who's gone through the system it's a particular importance to me I mean when we think of education it's
011it's not just an equity conversation internally in our schools but it's how we bring about and raise equitable communities and education is really the starting point when a child walks into that kindergarten classroom hopefully pre-k soon what we choose to do for them and how we elevate them and empower them really you know reflects itself generations later and when the child is older and what they're able to accomplish on whether we do in fact believe in and and enact the meritocracy that we're all proud of right there to make sure that the idea the American dream is accessible to everyone because it really starts at within the classrooms that we're all responsible for so I'm very proud to second this and look forward to continuing the good work to fill in many gaps and hopefully
012to also be trendsetter in many ways in the coming years thank you miss Oh miss miss Keyes Kamara thank you i I just wanted to note that the governor will be holding strategic plans or inclusion sorry the office of diversity equity and inclusion for the Commonwealth of Virginia is hosting five community forums around the state where Virginians can provide input on Virginia's first-ever strategic plan for diversity inclusive and inclusive excellence the Northern Virginia meeting will be on Wednesday March 25th at the James Lee Community Center in Annandale Virginia on Annandale Road in Falls Church Virginia Thank You mr. Keys Kumar miss mcLaughlin thank you I just want to say that I'm very pleased we have this recognition and to those who may not know some of the historical context when Ms Kovacs and I joined
013the board eight years ago Fairfax County Schools did not have an office of equity it was something that the I'm minority student achievement Oversight Committee had been recommending for years it's something that Fairfax County did have prior to budget cuts that happened before we had joined the system and we then brought forward to then superintendent Karen Garza to say that given Montgomery County had a very robust office of equity it was long overdue that fairfax county join in this effort and recognize the importance of this work and so it's really to me a very special recognition because i know that through our community of advocates through board members during my tenure with ms cofax that understood how important this was I'm so pleased that Fairfax County through the leadership of dr. durán has really enabled
014us to do very important work in this area and we'll continue to grow in this important work thank you miss McLaughlin I will now call for the vote all those in favor of the recognition the vsba equity and education month recognition and that is unanimous the motion carries please join me in welcoming dr. Duran and the equity and cultural responsiveness team to the dais for a photo with the board so ladies and gentlemen we have a very special birthday in the house I want to wish the amazing miss karyn bolt a very happy birthday [Applause] miss ball [Applause] [Music] so the next order of business is citizen participation tonight two citizens have signed up to address the board speakers are requested to limit their remarks to no more than three minutes the school board will
015not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as capital improvement program budget and boundaries complaints regarding individual students or school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school official speakers should not refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student speakers are expected to deliver their comments with the decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the public's business please be mindful that there are often young children in attendance at these meetings or watching at home so language should be appropriate for all age levels thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come to speak to us tonight our first speaker is Steve Childress followed by Kathleen Maillard mr. child dress okay miss Maillard hi good evening happy birthday anyway
016about two years ago oh good evening superintendent Bray brand and school board about two years ago I spoke with you about this issue the synthetic turf fields and I'm looking at the fact that Luther Jackson middle school in Centerville High School are going to have their synthetic turf fields replaced and so I guess this bears repeating because it means there's a growing number of schools that are going to install synthetic fields I think they're approximately twenty five already the belief that artificial turf fields are safer and less expensive over time is actually mistaken based on data and studies the dollar well the cost to maintain replace artificial fields after the warranty expires is exorbitant one of the synthetic turf industry selling points is that an artificial turf field will last eight to ten years however
017they will never warranty at more than eight years another selling point is the initial high cost of installation will be recouped at no time from the savings of tens of thousands of dollars required to maintain a natural grass field this is also false math and the reality is that natural grass fields are a bargain by comparison but my concern is not with the dollar cost it's with the health and environmental cost in 2014 Washington State soccer coach Amy Griffin identified 50 young 55 young soccer players who played on artificial turf and they had been diagnosed with blood cancers including leukemia non-hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphoma more than 60% of the players were goalkeepers that means they were diving down to get that ball and as a result they were inhaling the little rubber particles as well
018as the little rubber crumb rubbers what they're called which is used as infill if they also cut that come from recycled tires and there are toxic chemicals including benzo thighs Hill skin and eye irritation harmful if swallowed butylated Hydra señal recognized carcinogen hexa decane severe irritant based on human and animal studies octave phenyl erosive destructive to mucous membranes in fact when I walk around McLean High School I see those little rubber things all over the the track now spit the country of Spain banned synthetic turf but they developed something else which I think Wow would Fairfax County not really be doing a service to our country to look at something other than the the artificial turf we're currently using Spain developed a hybrid with an artificial base over which grass grows in a natural way
019I have more in my statement I think you all do you all have the statement about the research that's you don't your statement will be shared with all the board members okay please be assured of that okay yeah well that's great I just wanted because I because there is some really documented information it's not just me randomly picking out some facts and figures okay thank you very much and you know maybe think maybe Fairfax County can lead the way on healthy and safe synthetic turf fields thank you I now call on Miss Bois tang for Student Representative matters okay good evening everyone so I think it's safe for me to say at least that school has been running circles around all of us it is third quarter and Super Tuesday was on Tuesday of course
020and I'm not sure if this wasn't the same for everyone else but it kind of felt like me I had to Mondays so getting readjusted was interesting so that being said let me just let you guys know where I've been since we've last seen each other so last week I visited on Thomas Jefferson High School and yesterday I visited West Springfield so what every time when I visit a school I like to have these groups like when I show up I have them move into small groups and I kind of asked them to talk with each other about certain things like say like I want to say issues would say like conflicts that are going on in their school that they feel as if are unique to their school and after that we have like
021a sharing out session and then I answer questions and then I put out some information the information I've been putting out is of course the student rep applications so and I also went to an si si meeting and you know a little sad our it's our second-to-last meeting coming up there's a little you can't see it but there's like a frowny face on my notes and they're gonna hear the whole spiel about how much I love the program how much it was a great experience but not honesty has been a truly fulfilling experience being able to go to every single meeting and meet all these people and also have these very important top topics talked about that and it's really a wonderful experience seeing all these people who are really engaged and passionate about what's
022going on our County on a more serious note it's always hard for me personally to bring up sensitive topics but I feel as if personally there's been many people have come to me and I feel as if it's kind of I owe them something to talk about it so lately the whole world has been being been feeling very fearful and I think we all know what I'm talking about in terms of fear about certain illnesses I'm just gonna say that so I want to emphasize in preface that is completely normal to feel worried to feel unsure to feel scared that is a natural feeling and even I feel that too I'm like a human too so it's not like I'm like a robot I feel I feel fear - what is it normal and what
023frankly isn't acceptable is xenophobia and the mockery of peers community members and frankly anyone Fairfax County has four I believe correct me if I'm wrong strategic plans for quality school system one of which being a caring culture so that being said I say this all the time be kind to each other but I think I want to emphasize it and especially towards our Asian students please treat with respect and this happened like few years back when we had that Ebola virus I'm West African I felt the brunt of jokes of ridicule and I see the same things happening to my Asian friends and I think I want to say that fear is understandable and normal but we must not let fear consume us and reshape our values and also that wasn't a official statement from
024Fairfax County I'd like to make sure that everyone knows that thank you thank you Miss watching we now call on dr. Bray brand for the introduction of the third quarter budget review Thank You chairman Corbett Sanders we have our third quarter budget review and I believe our director of the budget Alice with Wigington it's gonna come and Alice is right there and we have there there you are and we have our CEO Omari Smith who will support Alice and you all have do you have any questions we have a short third quarter review but we look forward to sharing with you at this time thank you dr. Bray bran and good evening members of the school board I'm here to present the FY 2013 review the purpose of the quarterly budget review is to provide
025the school board with information about school board funds the third quarter review offers an opportunity to review the current FY 20 but and to make revisions as necessary based on current year trends and/or new requirements the third quarter review reports on activity and recommendations that have been made since the mid-year budget review that was approved by the school board on December 19 2019 the agenda is organized with descriptions of the recommended changes followed by updated fund statements for each of the nine school board funds once the third quarter budget review is approved by the school board it is forwarded to the county for inclusion in their third quarter budget review package for any necessary supplemental appropriation changes for FCPS as funds the county is scheduled to present their third quarter budget review on Tuesday March
02624th which follows the action of the school boards better review beginning on page one there are no recommendations for adjustments for the school operating fund or the school construction fund in the food and nutrition services fund revenue reflects an increase of five thousand and one dollars to support the share our strengths and Virginia no hungry grant with a corresponding increase in expenditures of five thousand and one dollars this funding is used to purchase refrigeration storage equipment to support the transportation of cold supper meals for the after-school program in the adult and community education fund revenue reflects a net increase of sixty thousand eighty one dollars and this is due to the reallocation of grant funding for the adult education and Family Literacy grant as well as the integrated English literacy and civics education grant this
027too has a corresponding expenditure increase of sixty thousand eighty one dollars in expenditures the afla programs are designed to help adults improve their skills in reading writing math language acquisition and other basic skills and then finally beginning on page two the last adjustments are reflected in the grants and self-supporting fund this includes the net impact of new and revised grants resulting in an increase of 1.4 million as displayed in the chart below I thank you for the opportunity to present the FY twenty-third quarter budget review we have a work session to discuss this in detail which is scheduled for Monday March the ninth we are planning to provide an overview of each one of the funds and spend a lot more time going in detail for each fun describing its purpose and going over each
028individual fun particularly considering that we have eight new school board members so trying to get you familiar with the package as well as each fund thank you thank you so much I have miss McLaughlin with a question or comment yes it's budget chair I just wanted to prepare board members that for our work session on Monday because there isn't any proposed changes to the general fund which is where we tend to spend our focused time and decision making but there are so many other these grant funds so we had talked with CFO Lee burden that she would use that time to really help all of 12 of us because even the four other core members it's been a long time since we've walked through all these other grant funds so I just want to make
029sure you all knew that we would use this as an opportunity to actually hopefully just learn more about the various funds that affect the operations in Fairfax County Schools thank you miss McLaughlin that sounds like an excellent use of our time so I appreciate it we now come to this section of our agenda where we confirm actions taken in closed meeting but since we're going back into our closed session we will delay that section until after we finish our closed session so our consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for the approval of the board by a single motion many items have listed have gone through were a board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance
030items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting 6.01 award contract for the Centreville high school synthetic turf field replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder gt-r turf Inc in the amount of seven hundred and fifty five thousand dollars and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board item 6.0 to award a contract for the Luther Jackson Middle School synthetic turf field replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder sprint turf LLC in amount of six hundred ninety nine thousand three hundred and forty dollars and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the
031contract on behalf of the school board is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved new business following new business items are the following our new business agenda items there will not be a vote tonight on these items but action is scheduled at a future meeting 7.01 approve the titles listed for the high school science as they recommended by the high school science basal instruction resource review committee and the selection Advisory Committee seven point zero to approve the titles listed for the middle school language arts as recommended by the language arts basal instruction resources review committee and the selection Advisory Committee item seven point zero three approve revenue and expenditure adjustments as reflected in fiscal year 2020 third quarter budget review as detailed in the
032agenda item item seven point zero four name the campus at the Northwest elementary school site McNair upper elementary school items seven point zero five approved the contract with Dominion in energy where by whereby FCPS will operate eight electric school buses for the contract term in conjunction with the charging infrastructure installed on FCPS property pursuant to an agreed-upon temporary easement for the benefit of Dominion and to authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services with the advice of legal counsel to negotiate execute and administer this contract and all related documents on behalf of the school board we now come to superintendent Mathers dr. Braverman dr. Barron Thank You chairman Corbett Sanders I'd like to take a moment for the board and for the community to share an update on the coronavirus
033as I know this is an important topic in our country in the Commonwealth of Virginia and here and facts County and in our school communities first of all I want to assure all of you our community members board members parents students staff that we have a team working directly with the Health Department to monitor and plan for any necessary response to Cova 19 as the corona virus is now being called by the Center for Disease Control this is not the first time that Fairfax County has had to prepare for potential health threats and we have already existing plans and protocols that are being updated and that are in place to handle any situation that may come our way the Health Department and CDC continued to reinforce a key message good health hygiene in all of
034our schools and offices and in our homes is key to preventing the spread of any illness and it certainly is true as well for Cova 19 we are encouraging and today distributed over 1,000 posters to all of our schools with the instructions to wash your hands cover your cough and stay home if you were sick again wash your hands with soap and water cover York off and stay home if you're sick we've also instructed principals to encourage students and staff to follow that guidance and to make sure that we do use instructional time as necessary to allow students to wash their hands throughout the day and reiterate the importance of students and staff staying at home if they are not feeling well there are no hard and fast rules on what the Health Department from
035Fairfax County will recommend if we start to see cases of Cova 19 in our area it is situational and we will be focused on strategies that prevent the spread of disease what the Health Department calls containment we have a team working on a tiered plan to address instructional issues if there are school closures we recognize the complex equity issues that involve student access the range of academic supports necessary to help our students receive support in the classroom if we do have a school closure and the implication particularly for our high school students Kimberly for high school courses and for graduation we are going to weigh all of this carefully and prudently and with the best interest of our students staff and our entire community in mind we will continue to provide I am committed to
036providing a weekly update at minimum and more if necessary to our community and we will continue to update our FAQ document that's on our FCPS website fcps.org we recognize I recognize as a parent and as superintendent with your children in schools that this uncertainty creates anxiety for all of us and I am sharing with you as superintendent and I share with our school leaders today we know it as our responsibility to maintain our calm to provide reassurance and to continue to do everything we can to communicate our plans and communicate them often and continue to work collaboratively with the County Health Department and CDC as we monitor this situation finally not in some of the notes I've prepared for tonight but Kimberly your words were so powerful there is no time anytime in Fairfax County
037Public Schools for hate against a person of the race religion sexual orientation and this situation this health situation with Cova 19 is certainly no excuse for any student or staff member or any adult to make any comments about others based on who they are where they're from we will continue to work to make sure that that clarity is clear in every school in every office in Fairfax County and I appreciate you bringing it up because I know I am hearing some of this and even one instance in any school is one instance too many so we need to speak with a clear voice and I'm speaking with that tonight to say it is not acceptable and please if you and your colleagues are hearing that to tell a responsible adult in the school and we
038will follow up appropriately with that student staff member or that adult so thank you very much finally to switch gears for a moment I want to share with you that I was fortunate to join a couple of board members today and an amazing event at Lake Braddock secondary school where one of our middle school students Alex Mathur was recognized as the winner of a NASA contest to name the Mars 2020 Rover that we'll be launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida in July and arriving on Mars next February there were over 28,000 entries and the winning entry was from Alex right here in Fairfax County Public Schools the name for the new Mars rover by the way is perseverance NASA is having Alex and his family traveled to Florida to watch the launch so part of
039Fairfax our Fairfax County students and this system is really going to be launching in the sky headed to Mars I couldn't be prouder and there is no better example a portrait of a graduate than what we saw today at Lake Braddock and I want to thank NASA I want to thank Amazon Web Services for providing some additional financial support and I want to thank our IT team Marybeth and her team on very very short notice put together this surprise announcement and we were really really proud thank you dr. Bray brand that is an exciting bit of news I now call on mr. Knapp Koufax for a report from the forum held earlier this month this evening thank you madam chair dr. Anderson brought forth a forum topic to look at our IB curriculum through the
040primary years and through the middle years program she had there was extensive conversation and extensive support on this and we talked about moving it to a work session to allow new board members who are new to the board to understand about the full depth of the IB curriculum that is available to our schools but also to talk about where schools need where where some pyramids do not have programming for our for middle years or for elementary schools even though they have the IB curriculum available at the high school so we are going to talk about that have a comprehensive look and there was another thing what was it was there was another part to this about the get to green initiative I apologize miss Darrin echo effects it is to build when the staff come
041to us with the presentation on on IB that they will also look at how their they can build upon the existing programs being get to green and the global classroom and other enrichment opportunities and how the IB complements it or diverges and bring that as part of the plan right and we also talked about how IB curriculum is so in line with our portrait of a graduate so I look forward to that I looked forward to dr. Presidio and his team bringing that to us in a work session shortly thank you thank you Miss Darren a Koufax next on the agenda is board matters and I call on miss mcLaughlin thank you I want to just echo dr. Baran's excitement about Lake Braddock's special announcement the energy in the auditorium of the entire seventh grade
042class that joined principal daniel smith and his team it was not only that the students were all there in the audience for this massive unveiling and to have the the NASA engineers there doing a panel with this seventh grade young man Alex was so articulate and so well-spoken but also the fact that it was live streaming in California where all the NASA engineers were and so being able to see their reaction and it was just incredible to think that twenty eight thousand young people submitted for that and right here in our own backyard Alex just shined and the other thing I wanted to just celebrate was that there were at least three or four Fairfax County alumni who were they're part of the NASA team and one of them was a West Springfield High School
043graduate and has spent 34 years with NASA working in design and she offered that if we would like to have some of their engineers come in the future and speak to our children about just the endless opportunities to work for NASA in so many different areas beyond even just the engineers so I thought that was really great and then I did want to just share with my colleagues that this past week I did meet with the association of Fairfax professional educators one of our teacher associations and the conversation went for over two hours where they were just talking about how we really do need to work with our teachers about the concerns they have of workload that they so appreciate the improvements we've made on salary compensation and competitiveness but the workload continues to be
044extremely challenging and the concerns about burnout and losing good teachers so I know we'll have more conversations on that but I wanted you all to know I found that was very helpful conversation to have with them thank you miss mcLaughlin dr. Anderson thank you just a few activities of the past few weeks had the opportunity to read a Glen Forest earlier this week and it was a wonderful chance to interact with our students to see all of the schools administrators and adults dressed up as book characters I really appreciate that opportunity to read to a kindergarten class in a 2nd grade class and I know all of us had different invitations and so I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows we were out there reading to our young ones I also wanted to
045say very quickly that I think over the last couple of weeks we received a ton of letters from folks who are in Fairfax a few outside of Fairfax that are really supporting the school board members decisions to work on the Lee high school name change I was very encouraged by all of those letters that came to us and the reasons why those individuals felt it was really important for us to address this issue so thank you all for sending us that communication and lastly I want to say a big shout out and big thank you to justice high school we attended on Friday the Black History celebration which was fantastic mr. Tolin was there as well as miss Keith Gomorrah as well as dr. brand it was one of the most wonderfully created and developed
046student-led assemblies that I have ever attended they sang they recited poetry they danced they made us dance which was not awesome not okay with that but outside of that piece it was a fabulous celebration of Black History Month miss Marron so to pick up where our student representative miss Bois ting left off about needing to promote more peace and acceptance I was really glad to attend the Peace Awards of Fairfax County and it's a program that's hosted annually and it honors the work of high school students who are working to promote peace in many different ways it's put on by a group of organizations from the community some faith-based organizations and I guess there were about 30 different students and the work that they had done had ranged from helping classmates regularly through a program
047to organizing programs that empower girls abroad so I was it was a particular pleasure because I got to give the award to a friend of mine from Madison who's been a family friend so that was really exciting about her work with Amnesty International and also working to bring communities from african-american communities and Jewish communities together so it was just really inspiring so that was a good thing and we know that that good work is out there and these young people are putting it out there whether or not the adults are you know want them to or not so it was very inspiring and I also got to get to attend my first advisory community meeting for the adult and community education work the ACE committee and that was really exciting too because there's a lot
048of energy around aligning the efforts to get workforce preparedness with not only our strategic plan but also the new fairfax county strategic plan so talking about apprenticeships and internships and trainings and english as a second language classes just a real array of offering so the committee talked about ways to raise revenue ways to further align with what we're doing here in our district so just very inspiring stuff that's a great week thank you thank you miss Marin miss Sizemore hi sir thank you very much and I wanted to sort of echo what dr. Baron said about the NASA event at Lake Braddock I want to say full disclosure my kids school so go Bruins it was really exciting to see someone from my own children's school being celebrated but really it was an amazing event
049to know that the create creativity and creative minds we have here in Fairfax County and to see NASA come down and celebrate that was just amazing I wanted to say I've had now well supposedly for hours but it turns into 6 hours of office hours than the last in January in February I've had people show up 45 minutes before it started and state an hour later and I just want to say thank you to everybody for coming out and talking to me about your concerns I love getting out in the community and speaking of that I have to share one quick thing we've been reading across Fairfax County this week and it's been wonderful to read with the students but in addition this morning I went to Glasgow middle school for their Lobby Day and
050I just wanted to pinpoint this because it's such an amazing example of portrait of a graduate skills at work the students in the civics classes they're picked an issue they cared about either school-based or community-based and researched it count for the presentation around it even did collect a raw data which in terms of polls made video games and invited elected officials to come in and they lobbied us and it was amazing to hear of the concerns of the students not just their concerns but their thoughtful solutions they had put in place and the one that got to my heart was a twice exceptional student who put together a incredible PowerPoint including a poll on team-taught AP and honors classes so I would just say kudos to those students and the way they respectfully and thoughtfully
051reasoned for their ideas so alright well there's many many other things i went to the fairfax city school board meeting but i just wanted a really pinpoint i love seeing our kids thinking and being creative about it and the portrait graduate at work so thank you thank you mrs. Toland thank you uh-huh I want to follow up on the description of the Black History Month event and I'm just give a big shout out to the Herndon high school step team they were special guests at that event at justice High School and they were amazing thank you so much for being there we have some exciting work we're moving forward on the human resources Advisory Committee pleased to work with dr. Nixon on that and our team we're looking at putting together something like an employee
052Bill of Rights or a maybe portrait of a workplace so more information to come on that could be really interesting our joint environmental task force met again yesterday we're on track with meeting the first Wednesday of each month here at gate house and again have groups working on energy transportation waste and workforce green workforce issues I was thrilled to be at Churchill Road and lemon road elementary schools earlier this week to read to kids part of Read Across America and my hashtag a day in the life program is continuing my first newsletter just went out a week or so ago and you can read that online I have my description of my day at Langley high school and since then I have spent the day with students at Herndon high school and McLean high school
053and I'm getting lots of review in my algebra and a chemistry empirical formula um calculations I had attempted a fantastic exercise on a voter suppression in the United States a review of the suffrage movement I learned how to wrap wrist in sports medicine so I mean it's just been incredible just to see the amazing array of coursework that our students are involved in I've seen creative teaching techniques a very appropriate use of technology in their classrooms I might add welcoming environments and very positive relationships between students and staff so I was excited about that I already have plans to be at Cooper Longfellow and Herndon Middle School's during the month of March and then I'm going to move on to the elementary schools and investigate students and various jobs throughout our elementary schools as part
054of this program so watch for my newsletters we'll have a little description of each of those experiences I'll be at the Great Falls Farmers Market on March 14th for office hours that morning so please stop by and visit me there and I'm also thrilled to say as part of youth art month the McLean project for the Arts just opened last night I am a clean pyramid art show and that will be at their facility and will clean for a couple of weeks and then they'll have a Langley pyramid art show as well so thank you Janesville mr. Oneko effects thank you I want to thank all the people from the Greater Wilton woods Community Association who invited me to speak about school issues in the community i briefed them about our budget our equity initiatives
055and the current school construction projects in region three that have passed hat have happened over the past five years I also attended the foundation for applied technical education their open house and for my colleagues who may not realize this we have a a partnership where students learn construction engineering electrical and they build a house and not just a house a $900,000 beautiful house and we have that's in my district in lis district and students from all over the community come and help put those homes together and I really encourage you to next year because you missed this year's event but I encourage you next year to come oftentimes there are students there who will take the tour and they'll show you the drywall and they'll point out the electrical outlets that they did and I
056always say it's the best example of hands-on experiential learning that there possibly can be and there are nine more houses to be built they continue to look for sites to continue this project beyond that timeframe and so they're already starting to look so if anybody has any connections that would be great and but again I in current and this house is sold so there'll be people there'll be people moving in in the next few months they said and in the next few weeks tomorrow night I look forward to seeing the Rose Hill elementary school players they each and every year put on a spectacular performance where they defy their belief when you watch it that they are elementary school kids and tomorrow night they are putting on AHS at Edison High School and they also
057have performances on Saturday March 7th this Saturday at 1 in 6 so if you have the opportunity to do that I also look forward next week to speaking to Springfield Estates elementary school about the same things budget equity and school construction and also that's the place where my kids went to school so it's always good to come back and visit and I look forward to that next Mart next Wednesday March 11th at 7 p.m. will be the meet a meeting at Lee high school to hear from the community regarding the change of the name and next week I'll also be meeting with representatives from our one of our teachers associations FCF T and I will also be touring Edison High School with the newly District Supervisor Rodney Lusk so I hope to see some of
058you all out there in the community thanks Thank You mr. and equifax miss Keys Gemara yes I will be brief I know we have to go and him back into clothes but I was very happy to have an opportunity to see the house that our students built in the lead district and I have pictures if people would like to look at them they were beautiful and I took some decorating tips so that my husband knows what will be happening next I also attended the pts a meeting at the Mount Vernon High School with my colleague mr. Caren Korver Sanders and had the opportunity to read it to schools Glen Forest and Armstrong I also participated in the student Peace Awards which has already been mentioned I'd like to follow up on our comments from our
059students in Hope she's around here somewhere but we are have them very much aware of some of these comments and parents have written me I'm sure they've written my colleagues and I just want the community to know that we are very aware and are putting together a plan in conjunction with our staff to make sure that our students feel supported when children are bullied in any form can create trauma and I for one have spent a great deal of my life fighting against that and so we will do everything we can to support our students and to help children learn from their mistakes thank you thank you miss Keyes Gemara miss Piekarski thank you I also had a busy last couple of weeks I was able to attend I'm super transition Saturday which was an
060amazing event and I learned so much and I'm always amazed at how many resources we have for our students that I did not even know about and I think I know a lot about the system and that was an event for learning about post-secondary support for students who have IE peas I also enjoyed my visits reading to students were read across America week that was lots of fun and I had a budget haul last night I want to thank everybody who attended we had some good comments and I appreciate that I will also be having office hours on March 23rd a roundtable discussion format at Jo a cafe and that information can be found in my newsletter thank you thank you Miss Piekarski miss summation a number of events as folks mentioned this week you
061know Read Across America day the peace Awards and whatnot which I was very happy to participate in to keep this brief I did want to mention I had the pleasure of going to a number of Girl Scout thinking days over the past couple of weeks which are always a great opportunity to think globally to bring about projects where we can act locally and finally I'm happy to announce that my colleague Miss Sizemore hyzer and I visited Lee High School actually and I'm very encouraged that we're gonna see some changes made to make the school environment a little more inclusive so in any case you all know how to find me I have my weekly office hours and I'm accessible on social media and whatnot and I'm digging through all your many emails thank you for
062being in touch and for your patient mr. Cowan I just want to echo that I was so excited to get to watch Alex Mathur be this space star that he will certainly be one day at Lake Braddock today it was truly one of the coolest things that I've gotten to be a part of and I can't wait to get to follow perseverance as we follow the Mars 2020 project this week I had the opportunity to visit Hunt Valley elementary school rocky run middle school Chantilly high school Eagle View Elementary School Willow Springs Elementary School and Union Mill and then had the opportunity this morning to read to the amazing second-grade class of mrs. Dickerson at Braddock Road Elementary hi guys it has been an awesome week to get to be part of Fairfax County Public
063Schools I have my first office hours on March 11th 10:00 to noon Pohang library and then 7 to 9 p.m. at Burke Center library you don't have to come with a specific topic but I hope that you'll come with the good and the bad and maybe the in-between and I look forward to seeing everybody thanks so much mr. Frisch thank you it's been a busy couple weeks since our last meeting I too attended a Black History Month celebration of Falls Church although it was the week before the one that was previously mentioned I attended a digital citizenship Expo for the Oakton pyramid which was fantastic and very well attended it was great seeing high school students answer questions about social media from parents like what is a tik-tok that was fun I too have taken
064part and Read Across America this week reading to kindergarteners at Flint Hill and Shrieve wood and Mosby it's been great cracking back open the dr. Seuss I met what the Oakton High School gay-straight Alliance which was a wonderful conversation that I'll be filling my colleagues on talked to the Boy Scouts from the arrow of light then from club Cub Scout Pack 1537 had my office hours in Oakton we'll be having my office hours next month in Falls Church in the month after in Tyson's and I want to remind people that we've got alley community meeting on March 11th to discuss the name change and on the 18th we'll have our public hearing I'm very much looking forward to having that conversation about the proper place for things in our history and Elaine and I had
065another jet meeting where we talked about environmental issues that we're working on with the county and with stakeholders around transportation and employees and energy and waste and recycling so we're making a lot of progress there as well and before I close I want to thank our friends at the National Education Association for always pushing really hard on Read Across America to make sure that as many students have an opportunity to participate and hear from what they call celebrity readers I really think the kids are the celebrities thanks Thank You mr. Frisch and because we are going back into closed session I'm going to limit my remarks to two one is to thank the communities of trust Innova Red Cross State Farm Fox News and FCPS as well as all of the first responders for putting
066together the eyes up hands down campaign which created the opportunity for students in the western side of the county to participate in or to learn about the impact of being distracted drivers and their kids were able to put on goggles and drive an obstacle course play basketball do a number of different games or tasks and realize what the impact is of either drinking and driving or being distracted by using your cell phone it was a great learning experience then they had some panel discussions and I think they were most intrigued by the Lamborghini that was parked out front secondly I know that miss Cohen and I share the enthusiasm and the warm wishes for the South County boys basketball team which will be competing for the state championship against Washington Liberty on Friday night and
067so let's see those stallions bring home yet another state championship this year and with that I'm going to make the motion to go into closed meeting the board will now make a motion to go into closed meeting to discuss and consider disciplinary and other matters concerning one or more students pursuant to section 2.2 37 1182 of the Code of Virginia do I have a motion motion made by Miss tollens seconded by Miss Sizemore hyzer all those in favor that's unanimous we are now in closed session