FCPS School Board Meeting 9/12/19

001patience we over ran a bit during our forum discussion until we we will be starting in just a couple of moments [Laughter] the September 12th 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 the Sandburg middle school shakoora let's under the direction of Sarah Martin Oh [Music] [Applause] thank you to the Sandberg Cora let's Carl Sandberg his principal Barker in the audience okay Bravo well done the board held a closed meeting earlier this evening in certified compliance immediately upon reconvening the public in public at the forum work session which preceded tonight's regular meeting a few other announcements before we begin tonight's meeting item 7.0 to award of contract the agenda board meeting

002management software has been removed from tonight's agenda if you would like to 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 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 I call on Miss Boateng for an announcement and welcome tonight okay wonderful US Constitution Day and citizenship day September 17 2019 Constitution day and citizenship day are observed each year on September 17th to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on September

00317 1787 and recognize all who by coming of age and by nationalization have become citizens recent legislation has renamed the day as Constitution day and citizenship day and urges proper observance of the day this year the official observers day is Tuesday September 17th and is the 230 second anniversary of the nation's founding document all schools and FCPS will absorb the observed this day with activities that recognize the adoption of the United States Constitution and those who have become citizens under the Constitution schools will use a variety of curriculum resources to teach students about the importance of the Constitution and responsible citizenship throughout the school year high school students will have an opportunity to participate in service-learning projects related to responsible citizenship which can lead to a civics seal on their diploma thank you madam chair

004I now call on dr. Barron for the presentation of the governor's performance and exemplar performance school Awards Thank You chairman Corbett Sanders good evening everybody we have a wonderful opportunity tonight to showcase outstanding achievement in our schools we are honored tonight to recognize schools that have received special recognition from governor Ralph Northam and the Virginia Board of Education for their student achievement this year the governor and the Virginia Board of Education have issued two awards the first is familiar to the school board and to our schools it's the Virginia index of performance or VIP awards for advanced learning and achievement it recognizes schools and divisions that exceed state and federal accountability standards and achievement excellence goals that have been established by the government and the Board of Education the second award new this year is

005called the 2019 exemplar performance school Awards this new award is aligned to the revised state accreditation standards and recognizes schools that are exceeding state accreditation standards and also schools that are making continuous improvement in improving outcomes for students and in narrowing achievement gaps we're very happy to honor both award programs and schools this evening for both of those award categories and future years the exemplars recognition program will replace the VIP recognition program at this time I would like to invite our deputy superintendent dr. ivy and the region assistant superintendents who will begin our presentation of our award-winning schools doctor IV so good evening at this time I'm going to ask the school board members and dr. Bray brand to come forward to the risers and prepare to greet our award recipients we will pause after

006each award category to take a group photo so if you'll please remain on the risers until all award categories and schools have been named principals and staff when you hear your school's name please come forward and remain until all schools in your category are named we will then pause and take a group photo at the end of each category I would like to invite region two assistant superintendent doctor fabiola Waga to begin our recognition good evening we will first recognize the schools who receive VIP awards this year 54 of our schools were recognized for one of the three categories the Governor's Award for educational excellence the Board of Education Excellence Award and the Board of Education distinguished achievement award the criteria for the VIP awards are designed to recognize excellence and to provide any incentives

007for school divisions and schools to expand academic opportunities for all students and to adopt best practices that result in engaging safe and healthy learning environments for all of our students four of our schools Chester Brook elementary Carson middle school administrators and teachers please come forward Cooper middle school and Longfellow middle school were among the five schools in the state of Virginia that received the Governor's Award for educational excellence which is the highest VIP award presented I would like to invite the following schools to the front of the auditorium Chester Brook elementary school Stacy Kilpatrick principal Madeleine Kane classroom teacher Dana Civic classroom teacher Amy valid classroom teacher we also like to invite carson middle school Gordon Stoke principal Cooper middle school our Arlene Randall principal and Longfellow middle school Carol Kim principal when the Eaton

008assistant principal Marissa Brooks director of student services come right on then perfect [Music] I would like to invite our region 5 assistant superintendent mrs. Becky Bane to continue with the 2019 Board of Education excellence award recognition 28 of our Fairfax County Public Schools received the 2019 Board of Education Excellence Award a recognition of schools that have met all state and federal accountability benchmarks and made significant progress toward goals for increased student achievement and expanded educational opportunities set by the board I'd like to invite the following schools to the front of the auditorium Chantilly high school Scott Poole principal Churchill Road Elementary School Judy Smith fifth grade teacher Colvin run Elementary School Ken Yong GE principal and Tricia Abernathy 1st grade teacher and PTO representative Flores Elementary Gayle Porter principal forestville elementary Mari arbok acting principal

009Greenbriar West elementary school Patti Granada principal Haycock elementary Scott Blum principal and Xian son PTA president Keene mill elementary school Renee Miller principal and Ellen Coulter assistant principal Lake Braddock secondary school daniel smith principal tony debarry assistant principal Kim Hammond math teacher high school math department chair Mayan ardougne math teacher middle school math department co-chair christy Carvalho math department co-chair math teacher and Shelly you PTSA president Langley high school Kim Greer principal Madison High School Greg hood principal Mantua Elementary School Jan Murray Fernandez principal McClain high school Ellen Riley principal Mosby Woods Elementary School Mari Asti principal Oak Hill Elementary School Hallie Devore principal cliff cradle assistant principal Oakton high school Jaime Lane principal poplar tree elementary school sue Andujar principal Holly Walker assistant principal Robinson's secondary school Tracy Phillips principal rocky run middle school

010Amy goodloe principal sangster elementary Jennifer Redford gifted education teacher spring hill elementary school Sarah Aiello principal and Denise King PTO past president Springfield Estates elementary school Eleanor Contreras principal April Martin assistant principal and Matt hub assault teacher Thomas Jefferson High for science and technology dr. Anne bonnet Annabeth's West Springfield High School Mike Mukai principal and Shannon Matheny assistant principal West briar elementary school Mary tan principal and Trish Vance story PTA president Willow Springs Elementary School Dylan Taylor principal Wolftrap elementary school Teresa Colucci principal Woodson high school Carlin Floyd principal and once everybody gets up here we will pause and take a photo of the 2019 Board of Education Excellence Award recipients let's give them all a big round of applause [Applause] I would like to invite region 3 assistant superintendent dr. Nerdist King to read

011the 2019 Board of Education distinguished achievement award recognitions 22 Fairfax County Public Schools received the 2019 Board of Education distinguished achievement award a recognition of schools that have met all state and federal benchmarks and made progress towards the goals of the governor and the board I'd like to invite the following schools to the front of the auditorium Belvedere elementary schools Cecelia van der Heide principal Camelot elementary school Eileen flattery principal Canterbury Woods Elementary School Mindy Miller on assistant principal Centerville High School Chad Leaman principal Crossfield elementary school mark Ranieri principal Fairfax High School Erin Linhart principal Flint Hill Elementary School Jen Hertzberg principal Foxx mill elementary school Bryan moose principal Franklin Sherman Elementary School Cathy quickly principal frost mill elemental school Anthony Harris principal Melanie Porter assistant principal Linda Shannon assistant principal Daniel horn Becker

012director of student services Great Falls Elementary School excuse me Jackie Madison moto LD teacher Laura Houghteling grades four through six teacher Heather is a Horry public health training assistant kilmer middle school Michelle Lydell assistant principal Lee's Corner elementary school Veronica Sloan principal Laura tapper assistant principal Louise Archer elementary school Michelle Macri gorgeous principal Marshall High School jeff'll its principal Carolyn keihan PTA president navy elementary school John Koch principal Oakton elementary school Keith Eck assistant principal Terrace Center elementary school Rebecca Jew Donnie principal Thoreau middle school Josefa see me principal Wake Forest elementary school Sharon Prindle principal waynwood elementary school Katie cusine principal and West Springfield Elementary School Kelli shears principal we will now pause and take a photo of the 2019 Board of Education distinguished achievement recipients let's give them a big round of applause

013[Applause] [Music] assistant superintendent for Region four J Pearson will read the names of school who received the new 2019 exemplar performance school award from the Virginia Board of Education the 2019 exemple our performance school award recognizes schools that are exceeding state accreditation standards and schools that are making continuous improvement and improving outcomes for students and in narrowing achievement gaps to earn the highest achievement award in this category school must earn a state accreditation rating of accredited and meet the following benchmarks seventy percent pass rate on state assessments in science and mathematics seventy-five percent rate on state assessment in English reading and writing no more than a five percent gap for schools with two groups or a ten percent gap for schools with three or more student groups in English reading and writing between the lowest

014performing group and all other students in the school and no more than a five percent gap for schools with two student groups or a ten percent gap for schools for three or more student groups in mathematics between the lowest performing group and all other students in the school there are three schools that are in the Board of Education highest achievement award they are Forestville Elementary Mauri arbok acting principal Thomas Jefferson High School for science and technology dr. Ann bonnet a de bez principal Wolftrap elementary Teressa Colucci principal those schools would come forward now take a photo [Applause] assistant superintendent for region 1 Douglas Tyson will call the names of schools who received the new 2019 exemplar Award for continuous improvement this is our last award category for this evening to earn the new exemplar our

015Award for continuous improvement a school must earn a state accreditation rating of accredited or accredited with conditions and meet at least one of the following benchmarks for improved performance on Accreditation related school quality indicators a cumulative 10-point increase over three years and the combined rates for reading and mathematics and in the pass rate for science with improvement each year on each indicator a cumulative 10-point increase over three years in the combined rates for reading and mathematics for two or more student groups with improvement each year for each group on both indicators a cumulative 15% decrease in the chronic absenteeism rate over three years with a decrease each year or for schools with a graduating class a cumulative four point increase in the graduation and completion index over three years with an increase each year and

016a cumulative fifteen percent decrease in the dropout rate with a decrease each year hope you remember that okay sixteen schools received the new 2019 exemplar award for continuous improvement for meeting those conditions above and decreasing the federal budget for a 10% over the past three years you're supposed to laugh that's right Junior Bailey's upper elementary school for the Arts and Sciences marine lemon principal Elizabeth convey assistant principal carry Lawrence a structural coach and guillermo mendoza classroom teacher bryant high school dr. chris lyric principal karen hotel assistant principal maryland more assistant principal and amy marta the director of student services center vale high school Chad Leaman principal Edison High School tim boyd assistant principal fairfax county adult hi brad rickle administrator frost middle anthony principal Melanie Porter assistant principal Linda Shannon assistant principal Danielle horn Becker

017Director of Student Services Herndon high school Liz Noto principal Hutchison elementary rain Linette principal justice high school katie van de walker assistant principal kilmer center dr. jane quinn oval principal jennifer pasenadi fuller instructional coach Kings Park Elementary da deal in principle and Scott Hawk assistant principal Lake Braddock secondary daniel smith principal tony d'bari assistant principal can Kim Hammond math teacher in high school math department chair Maya nardole math teacher and middle school math department co-chair Christy Carvalho math teacher and math department co-chair and Shelly you two PTSA president Londontown elementary we ought to pad more principal Jordan cook assistant principal Jordan more assistant principal Madison high school Greg hood principal Mountain View High School Joe Thompson principal Stan Woods Elementary Erica Riley principal Meredith Mitchell assistant principal we're now going to take a photo come

018on down [Applause] this concludes our awards recognition this evening we congratulate the principals administrators teachers and support staff students and parents of all of these schools for their academic successes and hard work and for coming out tonight we are especially pleased to see schools recognized for their high student achievement and for their consistent gains in academic achievement and their efforts to reduce absenteeism and dropout rates our new categories thank you all for your hard work and congratulations to all of these deserving schools thank you I now call on mr. mcavee for recognition of the TJ high school science for school for science and technology 2019 FIRST Tech Challenge world champions on behalf of the fairfax county school board is it's my honor to recognize the outstanding achievements of the robot uprising team based at Thomas

019Jefferson High School for science and technology for receiving the judges award at the 2019 FIRST Tech Challenge world championship robot uprising was the only American team to be awarded this honor which recognizes a team whose unique efforts performance or dynamics merit recognition outside of the existing award categories robot uprising was awarded the judges award for their regional state national and international outreach efforts on behalf of STEM cross-trainers the robot uprising team has received multiple national awards served as the robotics captain of the runner-up state team and has ranked one hundred and fiftieth overall in the world in terms of robot performance during the 2019 season the team dedicated over 500 hours of service to advocating for national stem funding demoing their robot at 30 stem fairs and outreach events and promoting opportunities for title one

020students through growing up with robots GU our last year team members Cathy and Charlie presented at the FCPS title one principals conference to expand their program to communities that might not otherwise have access to stem programming exemplifying their commitment to the pursuit of one fairfax beyond their accolades robot uprising has advocated on a national level for stem funding on capitol hill as part of the every student succeeds act essa and the perkins bill and on the international level the team has mentored the only FTC team in indonesia working with them to develop their business and documentation practices congratulations again to all the members of this team for their success and victories we wish you all the best and competitions this year and in all of your future endeavors at this time I would like to

021invite principal and vanity DuBose PTA president Shasta Keating and the FC T team along with their families and supporters to the dais for a photo with the [Applause] mr. Arnett Koufax I am going to hand you the gavel for this portion of the agenda thank you madam chair I call on Miss Korbut Sanders for the resolution whereas Wayne wood elementary school proudly celebrated its 60th anniversary on September 1 2019 for its service to our community since opening on September 1 1959 and whereas the mission of Wayne wood elementary school staff and community is to promote academic success and excellence for all students Wayne woods instructional program focuses on differentiation and builds a strong academic foundation using critical thinking skills problem-solving character education in technology applications and whereas Wayne wood Elementary School's staff parents and community

022work together to foster an interest in lifelong learning and to provide the best possible education for Wayne wood students while focusing on high standards for students and teachers and a dedication to the character development of every student and whereas Wayne wood elementary school values a well-rounded education that goes beyond the core curriculum Wayne wood elementary provides all students the opportunity to stretch their capabilities and measures academic progress to ensure that all students regardless of race socioeconomic status language or disability will acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for continued academic success and whereas Wayne wood elementary school acknowledges that the students staff and community contribute to the well-being of the entire community and promotes community partnerships with civic associations faith-based organizations mentors merchants parents and volunteers this community support helps to enrich the quality of the

023educational opportunities and experiences of all students attending Wayne Wood elementary school now therefore be it resolved that the Fairfax County School Board honors Wayne Wood elementary school on the occasion of its 60th anniversary commends the school on its history of providing education excellence and enrichment opportunities to its students and the community and conveys its most heartfelt best wishes for the continued success in the years to come I so move is there a second second seconded by mr. Keyes tomorrow miss Corbett Sanders would you like to speak to your resolution yes thank you Miss Darren at Koufax Wayne wood is a special community it's one of those rare schools where the majority of its students walk to school every single day and it is truly a small-town feel in the midst of the Greater Mount Vernon

024district the community puts on an annual annual parade for the 4th of July it brings people together on all sorts of occasions throughout the year and it's just so wonderful to be able to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the school which coincidentally is close to the same age as the neighborhood and as a child I remember fondly being able to visit friends in Wayne woods so it's it's wonderful to be able to celebrate your 60th anniversary excuse Kamara I think miss Corbett Sanders spoke it well but we certainly appreciate Wayne wood elementary I've had the opportunity to visit and it's a wonderful school community are there any other board members all right I'll call for the vote then all of those in favor and that is unanimous at this time I would like to invite

025principal Katie cusine teachers staff and members of the Wayne wood Elementary School PTA board to the Dyess for a photo with the board [Applause] returning the gavel to his Corbett Sanders I now call on mrs. Evans for the recognition of childhood cancer awareness thank you madam chair I'm very honored to be reading this recognition the American childhood cancer organization RAC Co has designated September as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month to spotlight the types of cancers that largely affect children and to help raise funds for research and family support according to a CCO fifteen thousand seven hundred and eighty children under the age of 21 are diagnosed with cancer every year in the United States approximately 1/4 of them will not survive the disease a diagnosis turns the lives of the entire family upside down a CCO

026offers support information and advocacy through their community of families survivors and Friends affected by childhood and adolescent cancer they are dedicated to improving the lives of children and families living with childhood cancer and engaged in this life-altering struggle FCPS students being treated for childhood cancer participate in homebound instruction while they are undergoing treatment or recuperating we are joined tonight by longtime teacher Jake Oakley retired from FCPS after 30 years of teaching physical education Jay returned to FCPS is a part-time elementary physical education teacher at Woodburn elementary it was it would burn where Jay met a little girl named Ellie who had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in the spring of 2013 by the time she entered kindergarten that fall Ellie had lost most of her hair and was wearing hats to school every day

027Jay noticed her affinity for fun and cheery hats and organized a hat drive to provide Ellie with a broader selection of hats and Ellie's hats was born now thanks to the hard work of the individuals who like Jay took an interest in Ellie and her hats thousands of kids across the country who are battling cancer have received new hats and so much more Ellie's hats does much more than send has to children with cancer they have helped to provide financial assistance to local families who have children with cancer we are delighted to have Ellie and her mother Jenica here with us tonight Ellie is now in sixth grade and is into Marvel Harry Potter and Drama great things to be into on behalf of the board I would like to encourage everyone to visit the

028website for Ellie's hats at Ellie's hats org and the American childhood cancer organization at ACC org to learn how you can help at this time I would like to invite invite Jake Oakley Ellie and her mother Jenica to join all of us at the Dyess for a photo with the board [Applause] at this time I call on Miss pouch ik for the his Stan Hispanic Heritage Month recognition thank you thank you for all who've been waiting so patiently we are honoring so many wonderful groups and causes tonight each year Americans observed National Hispanic Heritage Month by celebrating the histories cultures and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain Mexico the Caribbean and Central and South America this observation started in 1968 as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon Johnson in 1988 President Ronald Reagan

029expanded the observation period to 30 days starting on September 15th and ending on October 15th it was an enacted into law August 17 1988 National Hispanic Heritage Month is a wonderful opportunity for schools and community to celebrate various cultures and traditions a tangible reinforcement of the school board's belief that our diversity is a strength that creates resilience open and innovative global citizens an FCPS one and four of our students is of Hispanic heritage we both ancestry from a variety of cultures and countries these cultures in turn emerged our own school community I encourage you to participate in the various programs and events taking place during this time in your schools FCPS values its diversity and the knowledge is that all people contribute to the well-being FCPS is fortunate to have many groups whose members work

030with our Latin ex and immigrant students and their families and empowering them to be the next generation of leaders and professionals I was lucky enough to be one of those students these include but are not limited to our parent liaisons our school leaders and staff the Hispanic educators association a doufu todo and the minority student achievement Oversight Committee I'm very pleased to see many of these groups here including our leaders our parents who are here from Falls Church High School and Luther Jackson to celebrate and to show their pride and to share delicious treats out in the lobby with us now quick in Spanish todos los llanos Estados Unidos celebra Alma's national de la herencia spanha está con la historia cultura a contribution SL o estado any dances cujo's antepasados vinieron d'espagne Mexico El Caribe

031Centro sued America estas celebración Hispanidad empezó Minu a veces en th o con el nombre semana de la herencia hispana durante el gobierno de el presidente lyndon johnson amino Sen ptosis ntog o el presidente reagan al our goal período de celebration a train tadeas del Quinta de septiembre alkene say dr. Bray Alma's National Agency Spanish un excelente oportunidad para que nuestra escuelas in a coma NIDA celebrimbor as culturas tradiciones es un rêve also tan he bled like ten sia de la junta escolar que de nuestra Diversey de es una Fortaleza que for Monsieur Dada knows del mundo resilient s Alberto's in Ovid or s in Fairfax County una de cuatro alumnos s d'origine spa no se siente orgulloso de sus raíces su cultura de diferentes cultura sinestro's alumnos a suivez and ricca-san nuestra comunidad escolar

032the sanema a key participant and of programas euros eventos KJ Veronica Bo in a stem s en sus escuelas in su comunidad en las escuelas de fares facts Val Ramos anniversa da reckon ASIMO que toda personas contribution al bienestar de la comunidad la psychologie Fairfax tienen la suerte de contar canoe Moroso screwpost cujo's miembros raba han con nuestros alumnos NEX in westeros alumnus amir antes m po dorando los para que c'est à la próxima generación de literacy profesionales estos grupos inclusion pero no se limit an investor's parent liaisons a loss leader s lo que trabaja en las escuelas a la asociación de Duke odorous hispanos yell kumite de Lancie Adela's empanadas alumnos menorah Terios me comply severa Vario grupos in crescendo esta leader s the Lancer Cola the fosters a Luther Jackson Gaston akiko nosotros

033I now ask those of you are here to help us celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month whether your employee or a member of our community to please come forward to the dice for a photo por favor vengan para una foto miss Boateng I understand you have an announcement and a welcome to some distinguished guests in the audience yes we'd like to recognize troop number 158 for being with us today with the troop leader being pardon me for my pronunciation Gary Kawashima and with the students being Joseph Kawashima Shawn Salas and ISA and many thank you so much I now call on Miss Darrin I Koufax for a resolution thank you madam chair I am honored to read this resolution whereas September is national voter registration month a nonpartisan effort to increase awareness of registration requirements and participation

034in voting which is one of the most important Civic opportunity of the United States citizens and is a cornerstone of our democracy and whereas the ethical and global citizen attribute of the FCPS portrait of our graduate is an expectation for all students and schools are committed to developing students who exercise their rights and responsibilities as citizens and whereas providing fair and equal access to voting is an ongoing effort in our country civic education contributes to the development of engaged citizens and increases the likelihood of future participation in voting and whereas young people who are registered to vote participate in numbers close to the same participation rates of older voters and whereas when young people exercise their voting rights they are likely to become lifelong voters now therefore be it resolved that the fairfax county school

035board recognizes the efforts of the League of Women Voters the Fairfax County Board of Elections Fairfax County Council of PTAs and the FCPS social studies team and teachers to provide voter registration opportunities and nonpartisan information about voting procedures to elevate to eligible students therefore be it further resolved that the Fairfax County School Board recognizes schools that meet the high school voter registration challenge sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Fairfax area and the Fairfax County Council of PTAs which identify schools that register at least 50 percent of eligible seniors I so move is there a second circle seconded by mr. moon mr. knack Koufax would you like to speak to your resolution yes ma'am I would our board is really proud to recognize natural national voter registration month voting is truly a cornerstone

036of our democracy and the more we can do to encourage everyone to vote to register to vote the more our voices are heard I want to again express our appreciation for the work of the League of Women Voters and the Fairfax County Council of PTAs for bringing the FCPS high school voter registration challenge to our schools I believe that our there were about 10 of our high schools who participated in the registration challenge who registered at least 50% of the eligible voters in their senior class and that's simply amazing and I have to go on and say you know hey field high school in my district won the challenge this year go Hawks with more than 85 percent with registering more than 85% of the eligible members of their senior class glad to share that

037school with you yes yes Miss Korbut Sanders you do and I encourage all residents 18 euros or older to vote if they haven't done so already it's never too late there's only 53 more days till the next election mr. moon would you like to say just briefly I am very happy to support this resolution and hate-filled by the way mr. Koufax is not just in your district we are all happy even though even though there may be only ten scores ten scores with more than fifty percent of eligible seniors registered to vote I hope that he by the deadline of October 15 all of our high schoolers not just 50% 100% everyone who is elevated about registered to vote and actually vote on the November the fifth mr. mcavee I just want to say a

038few words and enjoy my colleagues and recognizing the League of Voters for leading the way on this effort and as we have heard bringing ten schools to above fifty percent of their students being registered but I would argue that there is still a lot more work to do and that it also should not be the work of the League of Women Voters alone that bears this burden FCPS must do more institutionally to help and support the League of Women Voters in their efforts but also make sure that these efforts are expanded to every social studies classrooms in which seniors are students and I would like to make a special recognition not just of Hayfield but of a very special person Doug's Sahiwal who is the chair of the social studies department there who has actually

039led the efforts for two straight years and making Hayfield the the district champion and I have it on good authority that it is under consideration that the award be renamed the zywall cup in his honor we'll see if that comes to fruition but again thank you all and congratulations for all the work that you do miss mcLaughlin very briefly only because dr. Bray brand I really do want to echo what mr. McElveen just said I think I speak for all of my colleagues when I say that while it's wonderful what the League of Women Voters have been doing for us I have also heard that our schools are maybe not as comfortable all of them across the board with this process in this effort so I look forward to your tremendous leadership in bringing this

040standards of excellence that Hayfield has set the bar for and I would love to see all 25 of our high schools emulate what Hayfield is doing and again I want to express my appreciation to the League of Women Voters for really helping us do exactly what all of our colleagues have said which is allow every voice to be heard thanks to and with that and at this time I would I call on the vote I'm sorry with that I call for a vote all those in favor that is unanimous the motion carries miss Darrin echo facts I would like to invite the League of Women Voters the Fairfax County Council with PTA s the Fairfax County Board of Elections and anyone else who is here and the staff from instructional services for a photo with

041our board thank you including members of the Hayfield Hawks team the next order of business is citizen participation tonight ten citizens have signed up to address the board and we also have two video testimonies speakers are requested to limit their remarks to no more than three minutes the school board will not 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 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

042or 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 Atticus core followed by Jane Miscavige good evening my name is Atticus Kaur and I am a sophomore at McLean High School thank you so much for giving me a chance to speak and discuss this dire issue with you I'm assuming you're aware of the massive overcrowding at McLean to be exact 117 percent occupancy I'm not gonna stand here and throw numbers at you numbers you have already heard I'm gonna give you a viewpoint from someone who gets slammed into doors walls and people day after day I'm gonna give you a view from a student who's in classes where there's not enough

043space for all of the students a class where our talented teachers cannot do their jobs because their class sizes are just too big if I were sitting at my desk and the numbers from a claim and Langley were put in front of me I would look at and say how unfortunate shrug my shoulders and wait to cross the bridge when the occupancy hot when the occupancy reaches a higher threshold however I assure you this is an issue that needs to be dealt with immediately passing through the hallways to get anywhere is a disaster being enough closest quarter being in a in as close of quarters as we are and going down any flight of stairs is a flat-out safety hazard any emergency drill at McLean is unable to safely be completed because no one can

044be accounted for tornado drills involve crossing our fingers because we can't fit our whole entire student body into the secure zone of our school you can't know how bad it is at our school until you try to walk through during passing periods we are running out of time the school is more crowded with class sizes being a hundred students larger than the class that has graduated before them walking to one of our 18 trailers is dangerous and completely unacceptable I urge you to come to our school and try to walk through our hallway maybe then you will do something to help the students you're here to serve we the students of McLean High School are running out of time and space and you Fairfax County Public Schools are running out of room to put trailers

045we are ready to work with you to ensure that future Highlanders have a quality learning space and a building that can handle the student population thank you so much and I look forward to making change with you in the future Jane makes cabbage followed by Rebecca Mason good evening thank you for passing tonight's resolution on voter registration month since the league and the council launched the high school voter registration challenge we've registered 10,000 young people to become voters so on behalf of the PTA thank you to the scores of social studies and government teachers and the league volunteers our partners for preparing our newest voters to be active educated citizens the PTA was founded 120 years ago to teach parents about issues concerning the health safety and education of children this year our number one

046issue is vaping thank you for the changes in the SR NR we're working with Stefan maskel and his staff of substance abuse prevention specialists to help educate parents but we can already see that these staff members will be stretched too thin we really need a specialist at every pyramid because vaping is insidious and invisible most parents are unaware of the scope of the problem or that their children may be involved new the new fairfax county youth survey shows that one in five eighth tenth and twelfth graders self-report vaping in the past 30 days one in five kids remember the surveys for older kids but we also know that elementary students have access to addictive ecig arrests in fact when asked if she knew about vaping one elementary student told her mom all about it including

047which vape shops sold to kids on Sunday before opening hours the incredulous mom next Sunday went and parked in that parking lot and watched young customers ride up to the vape shop on their bikes and scooters when it comes to vaping we are all in this together parents have a key role to play in partnership with schools to help their children make healthy choices about vaping the PTA stands ready to work with you and with FCPS leadership to help end this epidemic in Fairfax County one additional concern of ours is the mental health impact of lockdown drills these necessary and life's a drills have turned school into a scary place for far too many children we hear from a growing number of parents who have trouble sending their anxious anxious kids back to school in

048the days following these drills last spring we met with Tom vaccarella and Laura teaming to discuss solutions they had some really good ideas about how to help children debrief and process after the drills and we've asked for conversation starters that parents can use at home we want to equip parents with information that is consistent with what our children learn at school we anticipate positive changes at FCPS it's going to be a great year and a bittersweet one with the changeover and the board so to those of you who serve and to your families we say thank you goodnight Rebecca Mason followed by tina williams good evening I was born in Fairfax County I attended FCPS from kindergarten till I graduated my father was an F CPS teacher I love this county but tonight I want

049to talk to you about and remind you that we need space specifically when planning for the future we need space to include safety and wellness in these schools when I was a junior at FCPS my mother collapsed in front of me she spent the next month in intensive care unable to remember who I was FCPS took care of us they took care of me they took care of my father they were support and understanding my counselor even gave me a pass to see him whenever I wanted no questions asked you need a break you get a break there just wasn't space I went to him one time he was fantastic understanding always supportive but the only place for me to be was in his office what I needed and what many students need is a

050quiet safe room to decompress to deal with what's happening to them now as a teacher I know that students are in need of this space students who've experienced trauma have anxiety has special education needs under a great deal of stress or experienced harassment or intolerance due to gender race or sexuality they need for space for wellness and safety is real we do all that we can counselors just like mine open their offices open their own spaces teachers social workers administrators open their open these spaces to the kids as much as they can but what we need is a space for these students to go so please consider when you're planning for the future and you're planning these these wonderful ideas that we need some space for these students to be for their wellness for their

051mental health and for their safety please give them space thank you Tina Williams followed by Joseph Haskell good evening school board members dr. Bray bran the leadership team in this community I'm Tina Williams president of Fairfax County Federation of Teachers we represent over 4,000 employees across this county that work hard to make our schools and children successful on behalf of our members I'd like to say thank you to this board for voting to improve educator pay we were encouraged that the FY 2007 motion a three year plan to return instructional support salaries to 50% of the ba salaries for teachers you also gave an MSA vs. a bonus and increased funding for behavior intervention staff and much more these actions will help support students and employee success in our community however this is just beginning

052moving forward we want to work with the school district to improve public education including educator work and working conditions training and professional development policies and resources that enhance student learning and prepare them for their futures our members stood before this body during the public hearings in May and shared their personal stories and what changes are needed in MCPS and why they are continuing to meet and discussing ways that we can partner with our school board as well as the broader community to form partnerships that foster collaboration and solve the complex problems our educators students in this community is facing we believe that working together and including your employees first-hand knowledge and perspective of what best practices practices in education can yield the results needed to overcome many of the challenges that we face as we

053start a new school year we urge you to remember that our FCF team members are also your employees they know their students by name and I need it is critical that your employees voice is recognized their input is respected and included in the problem-solving process we urge you to work with us to achieve fair and confidential practices that protect and encourage honest and real reports on school climate and any unethical employee treatment in order to combat bullying and retaliation in our County we must implement clear policies and regulations and an ER and our employee rights and responsibilities handbook that supports education professionals of every job title not just a select few this culture shift would also validate that a caring culture and an employee concerned culture exists within MCPS Thank You Joseph Haskell followed by

054Michelle Cades good evening ladies and gentlemen of the school board especially miss Darren at Koufax who represents Lee District where my family lives thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on policy 8170 I have a particular interest in the facility's naming policy my name is Joe Haskell I have two sons Sean who was in eighth grade at Twain middle school and Sam who was a sophomore at Edison High School in June I retired after a long career after an executive responsible for 600 plus employees across the country and very familiar with the challenges of adopting and enforcing policies and procedures every day I was asked not only to work within the existing framework but also to apply my best judgment when exceptions were warranted this is summed up in a phrase heard by all

055who worked for me always do the right thing I understand policy 8170 and the proposed changes my focus is on section 6 which concerns dedicating areas of school grounds I would like for you to consider changing or an exception to the that restricts current employees of Fairfax County Public Schools from having facilities named for them Michael Wells has served Fairfax County Schools as a teacher and multiple sports coach for over forty seven years he has worked at Rose Hill Lake Braddock and most of his career at Edison High School where he still teaches an advisory class he is fiction he is affectionately referred to as the old man his son Adam wells is the varsity baseball coach at Edison and also a special education teacher many of the Edison baseball coaching staff including the prep

056team coach has played for Michael wells in the 80s and the 90s the old man still attends as many games and practices as he can and his insight is valuable to both coaches and players Michael wells can most accurately be described as revered by his former players current Edison players and also future players such as my son Sean who views him as the definitive source of baseball knowledge the wells family is three generations deep at Edison I have described Michael wells and the son Adam the third generation is Adam Jr who is currently a senior in the leader of the Edison baseball team all three are credit to themselves Edison and all of the Fairfax County Public Schools Adam jr. demonstrated this to me when he took my son Sam under his wing before Sam

057was even an Edison student this brings me to my specific request our community would like to name would like Fairfax County Public Schools to dedicate the Edison high school baseball field to Michael Wells he has dedicated his career to Fairfax County and its students he has coached and mentored countless young people and his legacy continues on in his son and his grandson in honor of this man's contribution to that in high school and community we would like to dedicate the field during his grandson senior night in the spring of 2020 this would not only serve as a moving tribute to the old man and his family but more importantly it is the right thing to do I will make the following promises to you I will follow the procedures laid out in policy 8170 I

058will provide you with dozens of lizards in support of this plan I will personally cover the costs associated with field dedications including any signage or or anything else needed I'm only asking that you consider the package as is submitted and not dismiss it due to a policy you have the power to set aside Thank You mr. Haskell after all it is the right thing to do thank you for your time and consideration Michell Kade's followed by aaron Lobato good evening my name is michelle Cades and i'm amazed to introduce myself to you as the new president of septa why amazed I'll explain once upon a time I earned a master's degree in learning disabilities taught a resource room in a nearby school system and cried more days than not over the lives of my students

059and the lack of information and support that was given to their parents it was a quick road to burnout which I resolved by going back to school to earn a degree in a different low paying high stress field social work the universe then served me a big dose of karma as all three of my children were eventually diagnosed as twice exceptional they're all receiving advanced academic education while also having disabilities for years I struggled alone to advocate for my children's needs with their alphabet soup of disability and medical acronyms private therapists doctors and I EPS I've seen tremendous growth in FCPS along the way when my oldest was in elementary school I easily recognized his tewi profile but was told he could get gifted services or special ed services but not both things were easier

060the second time around and when it came to my youngest the very same professionals at the table immediately identified her as tui now we celebrate the new tui handbook that originated through partnership between FCPS and septa parents I was also honored to help write the new parent special ed handbook that's headed toward publication that is amazing growth I'd always been a PTA member at my kids schools but attending meetings just wasn't my thing but when I came upon septa by chance two years ago I found my people and from the first charter meeting I was hooked I was not alone I connected with other parents who spoke my language who understood my struggles who could advise me and listen to me without judgment for once I could get back in addition to my usual giving

061back last September you appointed me as the first septa liaison to the a CSD I stepped down this year to follow the remarkable footsteps of Dianne Cooper Gould how ironic though because the ACS D charge for this year is all about parent communication it's an area that absolutely needs more attention and awareness thank you I'm looking forward to continuing our partnership and collaboration so thank you in advance for that in a recent meeting with Scott brave Rand and Teresa Johnson the septa board was challenged to create a top ten wishes for a portrait of a savvy administrator well we have to narrow it down because we have over 20 ideas we're also narrowing and prioritizing our goals such as improving equity access and standardization for all students with disabilities from curriculum availability to participation in

062honors ap Academy classes after-school programs and all electives not just strategies for success and personal development and the issue of restraint and seclusion in schools transition planning not just for the post high school careers but for all transitions along the way from preschool through the college search adequate staffing for support services and equitable determination of staffing ratios for all related services and finally increased administrator and teacher support and continuing education on special ed and mental health topics I hope to see you at the mental health and wellness conference next month I find all of this amazing Thank You Aaron Lovato followed by George Becerra thank you I though I am the mother of a Langley junior and a Cooper student I'm not here tonight to advocate for the Langley pyramid I am here tonight to

063write to advocate for our crosstown rival McClane high school I urge this board to do something right now to provide relief for this overcrowded school superintendent rate rounds with this board support you stopped all administrative boundary changes almost 18 months ago 18 months ago you've refused to address critical hot spots like McClane because you all were busy looking at our boundary policy through an equity lens miss Strauss I was shocked to find that McClane had not had a boundary review since 1994 yet has never yet has a growing complex of trailers for more than a decade I was dumbfounded to find that a high school with more than five hundred teenagers stuck in trailers would have just one school resource officer one your inaction puts these students safety at risk even more appalling is that

064this is not unique in our county I implore this board to enact a solution that would solve these issues quickly and at very little cost mr. rouse last Friday you and I spoke I asked you to champion a discussion of open enrollment but you refused you refused to even bring it up for discussion you were also unable to recount a single time that this board had discussed open enrollment over 20 years not once even discussed how can that be well I'm here to ask each of you to consider this implement an open enrollment from a clean Langley for other areas of fairfax county with similar issues research it talk about it discuss it stop throwing trailers at this problem and look at alternatives open enrollment has many variations across the country it's currently leveraged in

065hundreds of school districts fairfax county's own staff identified many of these in their common practices research yet it was not mentioned in the powerpoint presentation and it was not mentioned in the boundary policy proposal that was done earlier this year I suggest a model used in Maricopa County Arizona it's very simple really you're guaranteed a space at your home school if you want to apply to another school where there's room you can a lottery determines who gets those spaces you provide your own transportation and that spots yours until graduation it's flexible inexpensive way to deal with the inevitable herbs and flows of school enrollment it respects family choice and it opens up opportunities for all students we already have a student transfer policy why not add zone to overcrowded schools as a reason to transfer

066give families a choice to have their child sit in the safety of a secured building rather than a trailer thank you George Becerra followed by Diane Cooper gold good evening chairman Corbett Sanders and board members I wanted to talk really quickly about three things and make it short first one is a comment on I guess congratulations to mr. McElveen for I think it's things on the agenda you're gonna be the new public engagement chair and that's correct so my comments either she or dr. Barry Mann but at the same time to miss Rockland and mr. Wilson in terms of back-to-school night back-to-school night and Braddock 75 percent to the back-to-school nights where before school started in Sully district 60% I do as a parent I don't see the value added to head back to school

067night before the school year starts when I ask other parents of different districts what do they say oh we have PTAs there they signed up and other functions other gym other things to get the school year started that's great that as a parent whereas my academic type of Rights also try to get involved in my child's education word does back-to-school night before the school year starts helps my child or any parent okay I don't know who's in charge of back-to-school night this is a very simple subject trust me there's a lot more equity lens and boundaries but who's in charge of it you know I'm going to now five different Elementary's the last three have been very different some open house and back-to-school night before so I'm having the same day sum it up separate

068days sometimes open house more before school starts back to school afterwards there's you know uniformity teachers don't even know from what I've talked to their surprise that a change from the previous years I just want some uniformity and why is back-to-school night before him so what I did I think mr. McLaughlin mr. Wilson I think is a was a great idea so what I did is I had my daughter that night I didn't need to go to back-to-school night was if I want to learn what they checked absorber the year I don't need to teach you tell me that because the county does a great job in posting that every year with objectives per grade and a story so I went to watch Lake Braddock it gets bad a fit former graduate in miss McLaughlin

069and they represent slave bread trust me it had a lot better discussions with parents that night then I did what if I wanted back-to-school night but I'm very appreciative back to school I still has to exist how about after the school year starts second topic mr. moon I know you're the head of MSA OC at the same time we have a school in this district for understanding from educational magazine that does no homework great I'm for new policies new you know research but what I would like is when these kids go to their pyramid middle school how are they acclimating how they do and where is the accountability where can we learn from those students last year human through it where can we improve for the kids are going through that and if it goes

070countywide how can we improve it all over and it's just one school I don't want problems with 50 schools of them in trees let's start there simple and that's in Sully district mr. Wilson the only school from this educational magazine don't know if that's true or not Baldwin elementary but at the end a it's a praise for that system it's a praise for that school I believe in outside thinking the last one in terms of boundaries what I would like is better messaging and that you guys are looking at this two or three years down the road but more importantly the messaging that what the censuses are coming out the Magisterial districts of the supervisors looking at that in terms of districts and I was and I wrap it up to meet with the Board

071of Supervisors and has a discussion in four years Thank You Diane Cooper Gold followed by a lane tolling good evening and welcome to a new school year tonight I'm here to thank the school board and FCPS leadership for all the support that septa has received in the past two and a half years since our inception I'm also here to reintroduce myself in my new capacities with septa so you've all just met our new scepter president Michelle Cades and I want to let you know that I could not be more excited to pass the reins to her Michelle is an amazing insightful and even tempered leader she has experience both as a parent and on the professional side of the table she is kind and she is generous and I support her term as president 100%

072for my part I'm here to reintroduce myself as the new co-chair of septa Advocacy Committee and as the septa to liaison to the superintendent special education restraint and seclusion task force I look forward to continued work with the school board FCPS leadership and our community of differently-abled students families teachers and staff as we work to make education and outcomes better for students with disabilities despite constant needling from us regarding fidelity consistency access and equity for more staff support and better ratios and for support of related service providers and concerns about discipline and the use of restraint and seclusion when we inventory just how far we've come as an organization in partnership with FCPS the school board staff and Families I could not be more proud this is largely because of you the school board and

073us CPS leadership have recognized the pressing need and been willing to partner with us and the disability community of course I will keep pestering but please know that I also recognize the many gains we have made and that we know that working with you is a partnership we are excited to learn that the communication with special education families will be the a CSD charge for this year we are excited for SEPTA's continued support of the a CSD and for more opportunities to advocate jointly with the a CSD welcome again to Elizabeth Schultz School Board appointee to the eighth CSD I personally look forward to more years of partnership and growth thank you Alaine tolling good evening my name is Alain Tolan as many of you are aware there is no plan in the current CIP

074short or long term to alleviate the overcrowded conditions at McLean High School we have heard from speakers at previous meetings and earlier tonight about the safety health and educational concerns that this overcrowding creates for students as a teacher myself I would like to point out that these conditions negatively affect our staff as well teachers are sharing classrooms they are forced to move through crowded hallways with carts and work in cramped office spaces this is not the way to treat the professionals that we rely on to provide quality education for our students to address the overcrowding at McLean High School in the short term the board needs to act now based on my conversations with rental parents it is clear that there is concern and a variety of viewpoints over the potential scope and methods to

075begin to alleviate McLean's overcrowding by moving students to langley high school please plan to maximize community input throughout this decision-making process the move of any McLean students to the Langley pyramid needs to be based on sound data and careful consideration of any future development and population expansion that may occur within the area's currently designated for Langley High School in the simplest terms Langley high school is currently under enrolled and all neighboring high schools are at or above capacity so Langley's capacity numbers must be monitored so that all neighborhoods currently in Langley high school can stay there all short-term options to alleviate McLean's overcrowding need to be explored and all decisions should be made in an open transparent and evidence-based way any move of students between Langley and McLean would be just the first step towards

076solving the McLean overcrowding problem I asked the board to begin looking into the initial planning for an addition to McLean high school if there's discussion of putting a modular at the school well that may increase capacity in the short term a modular cannot be viewed as a permanent solution in my view the implementation of the one Fairfax policy means that all students across our County deserve to be an efficient well-run school facilities without capacity issues all of our students deserve the safest most efficient and healthiest environment possible for learning and we need to take first steps from Oakland High School thank you for your consideration we now have two video testimonies the first one is with Robert Rigby good evening school board members dr. Brenda's and senior staff my name is Robert Whitby jr. I'm

077in my 21st year teaching in Fairfax County and then the current president of FCPS pride FCPS pride is a social welfare organization for LGBTQ employees family members of LGBTQ students and LGBTQ family members in preference County Public Schools on your agenda this evening as new businesses the proposed policy about name changes I'm glad that you have undertaken the task of embracing oppressive names from places of honor and our schools I want to suggest a set of names that you may want to hold in your back pocket for future naming of buildings or parts of buildings Montgomery County Public Schools this Frank renamed one of its schools for an openly gay man Bayard Rustin becoming one of a growing number of school systems to honor their LGBTQ community in such a way fired Ruston himself was

078a Quaker who worked closely with dr. Martin Luther King jr. in the civil rights movement he was the organizing force of the march on Washington in 1963 Montgomery County honors all the LGBTQ people in naming your school after him other LGBTQ people you can name schools that for our Sylvia Rivera and Marshall P Johnson who were transgender women of color who led the Stonewall riots in 1969 there are many other people note who stand down in our history who are LGBTQ it could be argued that we'd already have two schools named for algae bt q people walt whitman impossibly Langston Hughes yet our students were little about their contributions to the LGBTQ community I know there are many pressures on you about naming schools I just think it would be nice to have a school

079named for an openly LGBTQ person it would help to emphasize our inclusion and welcome of all people in Fairfax County Public Schools thank you for listening our second video is Colin Berbick ha hi everyone my name is Colin verba car I've worked at Frost middle school for the past 12 years I couldn't be happier to work at Frost and an F CPS I'm here tonight to show how a simple pay band adjustment could fix an apparent gap in the system and improve the lives of teachers instructional assistants and most importantly students fingers crossed on or before September 23rd my husband and I will finally see the birth of our first child once her son is born I will use sick days I've built up to spend the first month at home with him during this

080time I want to ensure there is a single strong sub to fill in for me given the importance of continuity for my cat B LD and CSS students at the moment however there is an apparent gap in FCPS policy that leaves those students at the whim of a random new sub each day if any sub was available to support them that is a stream with special ed students can be supported by a long term teaching sub but they can not be supported by a long term IA sub the way current sub codes are written means long term is subs cannot exist after spending nine years as an English teacher at Frost and the past three years in anticipation of our child as a special ed ia I have seen the immense value in both positions

081what I cannot see is a reason staff should have to choose between caring from their newborn or their students considering how committed and professional my administrators teachers and I a czar I have no doubt they will do the best they can they will likely do what they can by pulling existing staff from existing assignments which could leave students vulnerable fortunately there seems to be a simple solution a tap a band for long term ia subs this would provide sufficient motivation for someone looking for a long term sub position to consider a long term ia one the current hourly sub rate is approximately $13 for one day ia $14 for a one day teacher and $20 for a long term teacher thus $18.00 would seem to make sense for a long term a on the other

082hand I could see seventeen instead since long term teacher subs have extra planning and assessments to do at home on the other hand teachers generally have two planning periods whereas IES are on every period so maybe not regardless a long term ia pay band could help I'll close with these two points one this change would not seem to add much financial burden to the county since all their staff members I've seen who have been new parents have been teachers not is too this change would not affect my finances and probably not occur in time to apply for my leave it would definitely have a positive effect on students and staff across the county however so it seemed like a case worth making thank you for the opportunity to share and I look forward to your

083response [Applause] and now call on Miss wu-tang for student matters good evening everyone my name is Kimberly Watson and I'm the new student rep to the FCPS School Board I like to sort of formally introduce myself my name is Kimberly Watson like I said before I go to robert e lee high school in Springfield Virginia I'm in the 11th grade and just for a little fun fact I've attended seven schools in my lifetime six of which have been within MCPS so I'm just gonna start off by mentioning a bit of my nerves because I think it's worth mentioning it's nice to know that I have such a supportive group of people around here to make me feel more welcome and I have a few things that I just like to talk about for my first

084meeting not gonna dive in too deep but just give you a little premise of what I want to achieve in my term of office it sounds really fancy but yes so first first and foremost I want to sort of introduce and kind of reiterate what the last student rep Benjamin Ticknor sort of started he started it FCB sr which stands for the fairfax county board of student reps so what we are is there are student reps to multiple different advisory committees for the school board for example the advisory committee for students with disabilities or the family life education one and they have student representatives to these school boards to these committees so what that kind of makes is we're a group of a bunch of student reps from different committees so we thought since we're

085a student rep of a bunch of different things we could come together to achieve sort of a greater goal so that if one if we could achieve one thing and put our minds together we could somewhat get something through so what Benjamin sort of started off with he wanted to focus on mental health so previously we had a couple meetings like about two meetings before today and we talked about what we want our things to be last year Benjamin wanted to sort of focus on mental health and after having that I mean those meetings we wanted to continue Benjamin work and kind of like take the double tine and move on with this so he wants to work and talk about certain surveys some of us that when I was on before I was officially

086the student when we talked about I personally did not even know about certain surveys there was kind of like certain people's like heard of it some people didn't so I thought that that was a bit of an issue and with that I just wanted to like introduce I introduced who we are and what we were talking about and as you're progressing you'll be hearing more from us and what we do and I want to talk about my personal focus for the year so I will have a wide range of things but as I explain them you'll understand that they are all kind of tied in with each other so my focus for the years is equity at risk students discipline reform and implicit bias awareness so as you can see that sounds like a lot

087but you can see that with different things they all kind of tie and within each other so growing up I've attended like I said seven different schools and a lot of them have been title one schools and what I've experienced is I've noticed I what we need and what I've heard from other some of the speakers tonight is we want more equity and what I've also notice growing up is everyone has a different definition of the word equity when we talk about equity every time I talk to a different person they have a different interpretation of the word equity so I what I want to go into is I want to see what is a more holistic approach to what people think the word equity is and how we can approach it to see how

088what we want as a county and what we're looking for and without risks to dihn's so first I attend like I said robert e lee high school and a lot of the students there are minority lower income all those things and what I noticed is sometimes those students don't really get the same care as I wish they would and with that I want to talk about like different things how we can approach these students and with I wanted to talk about the poverty cycle and the school Prison Pipeline and for those who don't know I kind of talk like discuss it as a self-fulfilling prophecy say if you grow up in a certain place and someone already sees you to already be a person and how you're gonna end up this way somehow like when

089you grow up that's how you end up happening to you and I want to make sure that that doesn't happen to students within our County and so like Ganassi of like analysis of where these average students are and how we can help them what resources we can give them and when I think when I was campaigning for this committee this position I talked a lot about district peeling reform because personally I am a strong advocate against the first-hand use of expulsion and suspension I don't believe it works and what I said often is that as the school system I believe what we're supposed to do is to shape and form a child to be the best functioning citizen society and the worst thing a school system can do is give up on a child and

090what that I would talked about what different approaches that we can take to discipline and I was actually pleased to took like notice within our srr with different changes were already step taking steps forward and say restorative justice and that's type of stuff over the summer I was sent I paid like 60 page document of the SR in our book it was wonderful to read but I say that but I really did enjoy reading it cuz it was very eye-opening and I was able I was honored to be able to take notes on it like give some suggestions and we're taking steps forward for like restorative justice and I'm pleased to know that that's happening and I believe that we can continue to make steps towards discipline reform and more restorative justice and lastly I

091want to talk about well for my focus of the year in places my soreness so what implicit bias is is we all Harbor certain biases within ourselves whether we are aware of it or not so there's difference between explicit bias and implicit bias explicit bias meaning that we know that we personally have this bias toward something and that's how we show it like this is the actions I don't like this person because of this implicit bias is kind of ingrained in us as a society for and I like to talk about myself first because I feel as if sometimes when I talk about implicit bias sometimes people feel as if they're being accused of something and that's never it because when you talk about implicit bias it's something that we all have and something that

092if as soon as we start to acknowledge we can take steps to sort of dismantle it as a group and I when I talk about implicit bias I kind of talked about majority like racial groups when you look at somebody especially when you look at me there's one thing that you see when you first see me I'm african-american individual so regardless of what some people have explicit vices which is unfortunate but what can we talk about with like say our workforce making sure like we're not treating a certain students by a certain way just because that's how you're kind of grain with media and stuff like that cuz they're certain microaggressions that we may not be like aware of so with that I want to bring up like like awareness of it and throughout the

093school year I want to talk about it see how we can do it like how we can forgive me I'm losing my words yeah eradicated and of course like a within only one year I can't change the whole universe but of course I'm gonna try so and for my main focus like those are my focus topics for the year but as a whole there's one thing that I want to get done if I can get done anything it's kind of like a big goal not sure if I can get there but go see I want to make sure that every student in our County feels the ability to speak up so I learned the word efficacy in AP government class last year and I have not been able to stop using it and I want

094to feel it because it kind of breaks my heart out sometimes I'll hear around the school some kids were talked about like this is an issue this is an issue and I'm like why don't you say something about that like doesn't matter no one's gonna listen to me it's a waste of time and that really bothers me it really bothers me how some people feel as if their opinions are less valid and that whatever they say does not matter what and that's why I'm really like honored to be in this position because me being in this position I note that my what I'm saying does matter and I want to make sure that every student no matter what position they have whatever office they hold they have the same amount of feeling that I can

095say something and it will be heard so I also one of those schools when I went to I went to South County High School for my ninth grade year and they had distinctly the student council thing and I really liked that I talked to miss Evans about it before about how they had one person from every homeroom that came together once a month and had a certain meeting with the administration president like administration president and they had organized meeting about issues that are plaguing the students and I thought that was very valuable and when I moose cause I noticed not every school has that and I really think that's super helpful I think it's an effective way that we can get hear from the student voice because not every student is as vocal or as

096like extroverted as me not every student is going to feel as comfortable talking to administrators teachers as I am but there will be somebody in their class who is so I feel as if by having someone like hey this is like really bothering me can you like maybe take this to the board like something like that that's wonderful and that's what I wanted like kind of get going if anything I want to have every student feel and have feel like they have an opportunity and have kind of access to talk to somebody so with that I just wanted to thank everybody for listening to me in my first meeting [Applause] well done this is the portion of the meeting where the board will confirm any action regarding issues that were discussed in the closed meeting

097these issues may include action taken regarding student disciplinary matters board members have discussed each individual case and at this time we'll make several motions to confirm the recommended action at this time I call on Miss Evans for a motion I moved to excused from attendance at school certain students identified and closed meeting pursuant to Virginia Code section twenty two point one dash two five four b1 seconded by mr. moon all those in favor so we have miss Strauss miss Schultz miss palchik mr. McElveen miss Terra not Koufax mr. moon miss Keyes Gemara mr. Wilson miss Evans those appartments Anders those opposed those abstaining miss mcLaughlin that motion carries I now call on Miss McLaughlin for a motion I moved to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who possessed illegal drugs at school and

098to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent second seconded by Ms Schultz all those in favor mr. Ausmus Schultz miss palchik mr. McElveen miss Darin AK Koufax oh it's unanimous that motion carries yes miss Hines is away from the table and says dr. Baron okay now I call on Miss Strauss for a motion thank you I move that the school board accept the recommendation of the hearing officer and the superintendent the employee discussed in closed session be dismissed effective immediately and that a recommendation to revoke the Virginia teaching license be forwarded to the State Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education second seconded by Ms Schultz all those in favor mr. ozma Schultz miss palchik mr. mcelveen mr. anakov mr. moon miss mcLaughlin mr. Wilson Miss Korbut Sanders those opposed miss

099Evans those abstaining miss Keyes Gamora and that motion carries I now call on Miss Powell check for a motion yes I moved to amend the school board liaison and committee assignments by changing the chairman of the Public Engagement committee from Dalia Patrick to ryan McElveen second seconded by mr. moon mr. Patrick would you like to speak to your motion sure very briefly um we we like to share and and trade roles and leadership in committees from year to year and mr. McElveen and I made the decision I appreciate his collaboration after the committee assignments were decided that he would take on the the leadership role of our committee through the end of our term this year so look forward to continuing to serve this year as a committee member and with mr. McElveen as our

100chair mr. moon would you like to speak to your second nothing to add anybody else like to speak to this mr. McElveen there is no greater honor than I that I could fathom than being chairman of PEC and I am grateful for miss pal Jaques nomination of me for this position thank you Thank You mr. McElveen I would like to clarify we normally don't change committee chairs after they've been appointed with the reorganization it was my understanding miss Patrick that your other work commitments was the reason why we made some changes and mr. McElveen had more time to take on this is that correct yes I think there may have been a Mis miscommunication as well beforehand so I'm glad were able to clarify it and thank you for working with us on that necessary

101thank you so with that all those in favor of the motion before us so that is miss Evans mr. well the Wilson miss McLaughlin miss Keyes Gemara mr. mr. Anna Koufax mister McElveen Miss palchik miss Strauss Miss Korbut Sanders those opposed those abstaining miss Schultz that motion carries our adopted rules of parliamentary procedures Robert's Rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting 6.01 approved the minutes of July 11 2019 regular school board meeting 6.02 approved the a CSD charge for 2019 2020 for the school

102board citizen advisory committee as detailed in the agenda item 6.03 adopt the policies on the no change memo as detailed in the agenda item 6.04 approved the school year 2019 2020 feminine-hygiene pilot program as detailed in the agenda item 6.05 appoint individuals to serve on committees as detailed in the agenda item is there any objection to approving the consent agenda hearing and seeing no objected no objection the consent agenda is approved item 7 new business 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 alternative accreditation plans for submission to the Virginia Board of Education as detailed in the agenda item item 7.02 this item has been removed from the agenda item 7.03 approved the revisions to

103policy 8170 naming school facilities and dedicating areas of school facilities or grounds 7.04 appoint individuals to serve a one-year term on the challenge materials interdepartmental review committee as detailed in the agenda item items 7.05 consider whether this amendment should included in the fiscal year 2020 2024 CIP item 7.06 adopt the newly revised 2019 fairfax county purchasing resolution previously adopted by the Board of Supervisors subject to the conditions detailed in the agenda item item 7.07 award the contract to George Mason University for the elementary professional development school internship program beginning with 2019 2020 school year and authorized the director of the office of procurement services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board items 7.08 award a contract for the Edison high school stem lab phase 1 renovation to the lowest

104responsible and responsive and responsible bidder and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer of the contract on behalf of the school board I now call on superintendent Ray Brown for superintendent matters yes Schultz yeah so I had a light on I know that we don't typically we don't necessarily discuss new business but because new business has been put on the calendar I do express a concern and some of the frustration that was exhibited by some of the speaker's earlier tonight about how we're putting on as new business boundary changes and I know it was removed I understand it I understand it was removed but there were people who came to this meeting who were expecting to see it on the agenda and then it

105suddenly disappeared now I what our Miss Schultz so excuse me we're conducting business here I'm trying to ask Miss Schultz what her is she objecting to an individual item on the new business so so 7.02 was removed correct 7.02 has to do with contracting so what happened to previously we had on as new business the adjustments to we still have it 7.05 is an amendment okay to the fiscal year 2020 to 2024 CIP right and so what was listed was a little bit more detailed in our agenda item and I and what I have as a concern is that in May we said we weren't going to do any more amendments to the CIP and in July the Schultz are you asking us to are you objecting to a new business item or you I

106am commenting on the fact that a new business item is in place that we're supposed to vote on in two weeks and I have the ability to comment on something even though it's new business well we typically have that discussion when the amendment is made selection I don't want to wait two weeks until it's on the table to vote what I would like to do is comment on even materialized as new business tonight and the frustration that exists within multiple communities over a AK of an approach and that we have a mid-year CIP amendment appear here instead of what was resultant from the July discussion which was the superintendent was supposed to bring forward a list of the hot spots and a resolution discussion was supposed to happen with this board about what was shown

107that if you would like to you have two choices here you can make an objection to an agenda item or you can use your time have the ability to talk to any item on the agenda according to Robert's Rules I have the ability to talk to this new business item I don't I don't know why suddenly suddenly were not permitted to speak to an agenda item this is new that's never been allowed but not never been done before that we refuse to allow a board member to speak to something that's on an agenda and I think I have every right to say that this appeared on the agenda in a way that does not comport with what was agreed to at the end of our July work session and it doesn't address the underlying problem

108miss Shultz actually this is a point of order if you are asking about whether or not we should be considering this item then we can have a discussion about considering the item but I believe that's exactly what I'm doing okay miss Schultz as you know at the May meeting and then the subsequent July meeting we had extensive conversations about what type of articles or what type of items could be discussed in the context of the CIP and those were hot spots and so there was a request okay bring I'm not I'm not understanding the Robert's Rules of right now is that this was my time and I haven't yielded my time back to the chair I am speaking to a new business agenda item and how the process that was promised at the end of

109the July work session that was laid out specifically by the superintendent and by which we agreed in those next steps is not what's happening here and we're not getting to a solution all we're doing is saying oh we're gonna discuss whether or not a CIP SH amendment should occur we're supposed to vote on this in two weeks I don't even have any data from what was supposed to be at the end of the list provided in July there was supposed to be a list provided back to us and in a process by which we could have a discussion that has not transpired and it leaves everybody in a quandary about what is actually supposed to happen materializing something as new business and voting on it in two weeks without ever having the follow-up discussion about

110how these problems are going to be solved is a fundamental disregard for the process that we agreed to in July miss Schultz I think there is a misunderstanding as to what the process we agreed to in July was because what we asked mister dr. Brandt to do was first we asked people to provide hot spots to dr. Brandt he would prioritize them hot spots that were brought to him and it is my understanding that the only board member who presented a hot spot was miss Strauss who presented the hot spot of McLean High School overcrowded with with all due deference I'm gonna quote to you exactly what superintendent Bray Brown said to us but but and unfortunately I had to go and transcribe this today we will review all of these and come back at

111an earlier hour I do not have a problem I understand the spirit of number 33 and we will have the staff review that that was my question about whether or not we were going to proceed with the boundary policy change or go straight into boundary policies then with respect to the list of hot spots I will let you review it and you will let me know what one's want you want to come forward you all can decide which ones we want to wrap into the normal CIP annual process this fall and boundary adjustments that is not materializing something as new business without ever having a discussion that followed up from from July and we're not we're not talking about solutions you put something on our agenda in Chairman's meeting which is not a joint discussion

112with any of us that is a closed session that only two of you attend with staff accurate and you know it what miss Schultz that's how new business that's how the new business agenda items appear and we don't have a say to how this materialized and now we don't we don't have a solution that we're supposed to be voting on in two weeks we're never even going to discuss it miss Schultz if you would like to have a history lesson which we're happy to provide to you we will be doing that but the history lesson was that in May there was a discussion about critical capacity needs and following May there was another discussion in July and at that point there was a request by the board to have dr. Brian look at hotspots I

113have a number of other people who would like to speak to that but I am going to suggest that dr. Brian provide us a brief overview of what happened subsequent to that meeting and whether or not any other board members presented hotspots my understanding from that work session was that if the board had hot stops hot spots they would provide them to me and I I received one I brought that one to a chairs meeting and it's here before the board now for your for your review and ultimate action so I mean I if there's if there was miscommunication I certainly take responsibility but I was pretty clear when I left that work session that board members were gonna reach out to me if they had a hot spot that they wanted me to prioritize

114I only got one so there's no prioritization of one this is the one and it's now for the board to review and act as the board so Dean's so that's that was my understanding of what took place and dr. Bray brand did you communicate that hotspot to the whole ward I don't know whether I send a specific email after that work session I left the work session with the understanding that board members were going to be communicating with me that was my understanding that was my senior staffs some of us communicated during that meeting what our hot spots were okay so I'm going to continue on with miss Strauss followed by miss Hines thank you is my understanding and a review of the July work session that we were asked to identify any hot spots

115and first I will from May 13th meeting in the minutes it says limit immediate boundary adjustments to those priority with critical capacity needs in at the end and it was next step item 35 from July 22nd superintendent to provide a list of hot spots and prioritize those hot spots I send an email to the superintendent and included that with all of my colleagues on the school board to say that McLane's overcrowding needs a solution and that it I designate that as a hot spot for us to consider thank you miss yeah I'm sorry I missed the first part of this I guess I have a question ordinarily we don't debate new business when we put it out on the table I don't think there's a rule that we can't so I guess it's okay that

116we're talking about it and so I guess I'm a little bit I'm not sure what we're looking for here other than just to have an understanding of why this is now on for new business and I you know my recollection pretty clearly I know that I talked about McLane at the July work session I know that mr. Straus talked about it I think a couple other people did I don't think it should come as any surprise that was the only high school that we discussed specifically at that meeting we discussed specifically it's significant over enrollment and the fact that we had not addressed it yet and that that was clearly a problem and that we were behind the ball on that and I can't imagine anyone wanting us to not address that as quickly as

117we can we should already have addressed it and I think we've had plenty of information about it we have all kinds of data we have all kinds of input from the community we know it's something we need to talk about and so I'm not quite sure why anyone would argue that we should not have it on our agenda to discuss and to vote on in a couple of weeks so maybe I'm missing what the debate is here we've just put it on for I we just put it on for new business and we're gonna vote on it in two weeks and this that's I think what we agreed that we would do that is correct miss Hines mr. Wilson thank you madam chair I guess might just as an initial matter when I read items

1187.05 it is almost meaningless consider whether this amendment should be included but there is no amendment at least attached to my copy of the agenda and I don't know how the public could possibly figure out what we're talking about as new business so but assuming that it was here is this the regular process that we use for amending mid-year and actually late in the year I think the C apip process is annual we get a new CIP proposal in December that's two and a half months away why can't this this conversation happen in the context of our normal process and if we do a mid-year CIP a change of a boundary what is the process I mean I the references to the main meeting in July meeting but from my perspective there was no process

119that was set up at those meetings and in fact I would think we would go back to the CIP to look for hotspots the number one school on the list is it's open the number one overcapacity is open number two is Centreville we need to have a fuller conversation about about whether we're gonna make boundary changes through this process is this going to be the new boundary policy that you know if if enough letter writers come in and then the board member mid-year brings it we can have a boundary change that are that is that the approach we're gonna take that doesn't seem appropriate we have a CIP process that's annual and annually we have a conversation we're almost there that's the sign so mr. Wilson this is not about making a specific boundary change

120but rather a scoping process and this is not something that is new to this board this discussion has been going on since May when the discussion of critical capacity needs was raised and then subsequent to that at the July meeting there was a discussion about critical hotspot spots with overcrowding and there was a request of the board to provide input to dr. Bray bran dr. Braverman it's my understanding that you only received a single hot spot from a single board member and that there was consensus at the board table in July to allow or allow board members to provide input into your thinking for hot spots okay well is that correct there's clearly a misunderstanding madam chair and I think we need to we we need to give deference to board members to participate in

121a meaningful way and it's been and this process obviously was not understood by all twelve of us as how we should be going about this and I don't think that's fair to the public and I certainly don't think it's fair to schools in other parts of the county you know that are listed already for scoping and we're not going to do that we're gonna put them behind now another school that's not listed so I on page 46 of our CIP so I think that from a process standpoint we we may be hitting a low point here in terms of process because we've all said over and over how important the boundary discussion is and how much it impacts the county frankly our conversation has already agitated a numb of people within the county because the

122discussion that we've been talking about includes very very unique and new concepts about how we're going to look at all boundaries in the county so why are we why are we doing this school immediately like in two weeks I'm not sure I understand well mr. Wilson first off the discussion has never been about how we are going to change all boundaries in the county it's a conversation about the boundary policy but now somehow July 22nd has become a conversation retro actively about putting forward an amendment we don't have any order right now I think if I could madam chair I think if we have people waiting to speak they should speak and maybe you should not respond to everyone who speaks because I think that setting up a back-and-forth is that okay I agree with

123you miss Hines thank so we mr. Wilson are you finished speaking well I think I would just sum up to say that there's statements as to what the interpretation of July 22nd meeting was but that interpretation wasn't mine I mean the conversation the first time hotspot is mentioned in July 22nd meaning is at the hour mark before that it's all a conversation about you know the you know criteria 1 and criteria 2 and quite criteria 3 I don't know how some how that morphed into let's put together an amendment for a mid-year amendment to the CIP which as far as I know we don't do that we don't we that's the purpose of the annual evaluation in the CIP is to have facilities come to us and work with us and develop the list and

124we have that list but maybe the list is meaningless now miss mcLaughlin so I first want to say to the mclean langley community who might be listening obviously from the Braddock district this is not my my area of expertise but I do want you all to know that I believe all 12 of us on the board care very much about the fact that throughout our County wherever we have students and trailers wherever we can find solutions and as quickly as possible to alleviate students and trailers that should be our goal so I just wanted to start with that comment one of the things dr. Bray bran that I think I shared with you and it's my colleagues know I was traveling overseas when this discussion on July 22nd happened but as I've been listening to

125what was the outcome from that meeting and board members making recommendations of any hotspots I guess I would first like to say dr. Bray bran that I think both you and mr. platenburg can be very crucial to this conversation because while individual board members can advocate for their Magisterial districts where we certainly recognize need and there is need across all nine Magisterial districts and our at largest can bring additional voice what is helpful when you have what I would describe as 12 children who are coming with and asked the deciders who are gonna have to make some operational decisions really might be able to help be the arbiters in this because you don't necessarily have the skin in the game the way we might feel to our own individual districts there needs to be a

126little bit more of that level of objectivity to help us as a body so one of the things that I was looking for is a board member because I do not have a hot spot that's been brought forward is helping both the board and the public understand that even if individual board members brought forward a project it would be my hope and expectation that it's for the superintendent and the assistant superintendent scan iteration but that in the end you all are looking at this and saying what is most mission-critical for us to address secondly it's my understanding that while process has always been very important to me and my colleagues have heard me talk about it for many years now I also recognize that part of process is that when we have an opportunity to

127be nimble and when we have an opportunity to perhaps take some action where the opportunity exists I don't want to get so stuck in processed that children will sit in trailers for six months longer than they need to so I think because first of all madam chair we will have a need to be able to talk as a board and ideally what we typically do with a new business where the board is gonna have to make an important decision and I think an amendment to the CIP is still an important decision we generally will see it in a work session so that there's we can build greater understanding for us in the public and then it comes to an action vote so so my one proposal would be that while it's up for new business

128tonight we do have a work session on Monday if we can't fit it in there are we able to have as we know other evening work sessions I think that's just a way to make sure that we have a thorough conversation about this it allows the superintendent and the assistant superintendent facilities to speak to what is their best thinking operationally and finally mr. Platon Berg tonight because we have a very interested audience and a very interested board not putting you on the spot but we talked a little bit about it if you could just talk about the benefit that would come to the students and the division through your department's ability to take on an amended project right now versus if we waited and didn't do anything right now until the next CIP is approved

129what time is lost and are we missing an opportunity to put something into begin work now in the next month versus when would work begin if we wait all the way till the next approved CIP is my question clear enough I don't want it to be too confusing no mrs. McLaughlin actually your question and your statements were quite accurate the first one I can't comment on about the sandbox but but what I will say is when you take a look at page 64 it identifies the high school capacity utilization of the schools that have utilization when 15 percent or more in the school years 23 to 24 McLean high school is listed as the number one and if you look at in this current school year it's not at the highest percent of overcrowding but

130the way we rate these on this page is in the out years it's rated as highest as 126 percent in school year 23 24 following that is Centerville High School which we did have a discussion about in the work session we do have a renovation and addition plan for Centreville high school Falls Church High School was listed next it is 106 percent and then in the out-years 121 percent Falls Church High School as many know is currently in planning and then we're gonna be having construction with the renovation and the addition to accommodate any of the seats as a part of that Chantilly High School is the next one on the list and that current currently says 111 percent going up to 118 percent on this same page what what does that mean what that

131means is Chantilly does not have something planned McClain does not have something planned what we have done is exactly what you alluded to we've put temporary buildings on the side of McLean high school to accommodate that overcrowding those other schools do need to be addressed but we have plans for them Chantilly high school and all of the schools in our CIP document every single one in this really thick document talk about different elements of a through H and in those elements they include program changes in Chantilly High School we've taken a look at and we'll be looking at next year possible program changes we work with our colleagues both in instructional services dr. Sloan presidio and we also work with the student services in dr. Theresa Johnson so in working through that we work to

132identify opportunities to go ahead and alleviate the overcrowding what's unique about McLane and to get to your point about the timing of it what's unique about McLane is the limited site size and space we have encroached by putting the additional temporary buildings on the back side of the school much like we have done at Centerville because that's a very tight high school site in fact it was originally planned to be a middle school site that's why it's so small but anyway we've encroached on the side of the field and the students in the egress patterns and in talking with Ellen Riley the principal she's looking for additional parking also for students because it is just very compact and very comprehensive we've also had to remove the lockers in the hallway so that circulation in the

133hallways to administer the students in passing times have a ease of access from coming out from the trailers into the school it is certainly not a desirable process I do recognize that this board has struggled with gaining improvements on the CIP to include additional funding from the Board of Supervisors and has made significant inroads to get our cap up to 180 million a year because if people will recall we had an average renovation cycle program 37 years which is well beyond best practice of 20 to 25 years and in fact school board policy if you take a look at the hundred eighty million that we've gained and also the difference of thirteen point two million into the operating fund for maintenance funds it's a significant increase and has gotten us to an average of 37

134years and then less we are working on our high schools and we continue to work down the queue on our elementary schools but recognition of the fact that we haven't had the funding appropriate to do the renovations and additions in addition to boundary adjustments has been an issue what will be gained by having this item included in here and should there any be any subsequent amendments that come up as a part of the process that has happened in the past between two weeks of new business and then the actual approval of such a new business it will gain us the time that we can get started in community getting with the public about what the scoping might look at and what we do in our first phase is we go out to the public in

135the MacLean communities and we ask them we basically identify what the problem is what I've said what's included really in the CIP document and what we do is we ask for their feedback because they live in that community and many of you represent that they had large members and also the district representative and the feedback we get from the community informs the next steps we bring that back to the school board for their authorization as a collective body on the process that we will be taking we would be starting that in the November time frame in the October November time frame so it would gain us a little bit of time we do have limited capacity in my staff but taking a look at our process and our program and how we anticipate moving forward

136I do believe that we can accommodate this request meet the community's needs and get the information back to the school board that staffs perspective I do believe we have a lot of competing issues that you've heard and a lot of concerns that are reflective in the CIP process I think next year will be again as mr. Wilson referred to I think that conversation for next year's CIP when we get the enrollment figures vetted and verified and we go through our analysis it will be just a spirited conversation that is this evening so I look forward to that I hope I've answered your questions just a real quick follow-up so you'd mentioned that because my final question had been about what would be the time gain or the benefit so you mentioned that by allowing this

137amendment should it go through to the CIP you could begin scoping as early as October or November if we're not put in as an amendment now and we waited until it gets out of to the next approved CIP how many months well what would be then the scoping that it would begin so the timing of that when we take a look at when it would be okay so November December is when we began we get our September 30th date in the middle of October we have two weeks to actually verify and vet the day that was provided and do the analysis keep in mind that over 20 some thousand students transfer throughout our school division so it's rather cumbersome for our staff to go ahead and do the analysis in such a short period of

138time to come back to the school board and identify exactly where we see the trends we come back yeah I guess I'm sorry mr. platenburg cuz I know my colleagues are probably gonna get restless I guess the easier question I would say is next year's approved CIP when you start to take on those projects when would that that list of schools start to begin at scoping because the board approves it usually in mid-january and then based on your work you would maybe start scoping like immediately after we pass it or is it usually a month or two after that it would probably be a few months after that because immediately after that and during that timeframe we have elements on page 46 that we're going to be going ahead and doing in other communities okay

139so the so what I'm hearing is by the consideration of this amendment it could essentially give an extra five to six months advantage time to get this this ball rolling for one of as you noted several schools but one in which there isn't a planned renovation and there isn't an immediate plan in sight but it it would actually be something that you could start addressing sooner rather than five to six months from now it would and there's clearly seats available at Langley Thank You mr. Patton Berg so miss Keys Gemara thank you thank you mr. Platon Berg and I I I know that we've it's clearly an election year lots of statements have been made but I just pulled up my notes from the July meet meeting and it says the board has agreed to

140discuss areas of severe overcrowding in future meetings and board members will submit their concerns to the superintendent for discussion at a future public meeting it's my understanding this is in line with at least my notes in that we will be having a work session we will be receiving public comment we're having this opportunity and thank you mr. Patton Berg for going through that and I certainly would love to hear I see signs out here for open enrollment I mean certainly those things can be discussed at the work session and this in the terms of what how they possibly could fit in or not I think that mr. pan Berg is addressing that there may be a misunderstanding as to how what the proposal is and I think that perhaps some of the concerns that are

141being expressed by some of our speakers are actually going to be addressed I believe but certainly we would have an opportunity to discuss that miss Strauss sent around a draft amendment what I understand it's on the agenda it has been it has been posted okay and I would like to say part of and it'd be great if we have time to to cover this again on Monday and part of the the challenge at McLain there are other overcrowded schools in the county and that it's been in the CIP but there are plans for addressing them Oakton is under renovation Centreville is slated for a renovation there are other needs in the county the difficulty of McLean is that it is a very constrained campus and cannot accommodate accelerated growth in trailers and that is a

142concern for those who have driven through the community and the way the the campus is set up it's not only overcrowded inside the building outside the building it is not a campus that can accommodate a lot more trailers we need to we need to come up with a solution and there are numerous solutions over time likely this high school this will be discussed next week so it takes nothing off the table but it is a hot spot and they cannot accommodate a lot more trailers and while we are taking a great deal of time to come up with any solutions so that is why it is indicated as a hot spot it is a constrained campus and cannot physically handle a lot of temporary situations and what is unusual in this situation is that there

143there is capacity close by but these are things that the community needs to discuss and by beginning the scoping now it opens up the entire conversation with the community in an open and transparent manner and that is critically needed in this case because the community needs to be at the table it will be difficult to discuss this and this enables the community to come to the table to discuss thank you Miss Strauss miss Keith Kamara indicated she was not done well I just wanted to say and I appreciate your explanation and miss Strauss but I just wanted to say based on my notes in my recollection from that meeting this is consistent and certainly I know that this this was repeatedly discussed so I look forward to the process because I know that at least

144my intent and it was my understanding from our board that we were trying to lay out a process one where these types of situations could be brought to the attention of the superintendent I believe that that has been Miss Strauss did that and that we'd have an opportunity to discuss that staff would be you have an opportunity to bring information and do their scoping process and so I just wanted for the record to say that my note from that time period are consistent with what is happening tonight thank you miss Keyes Gemara I have miss palchik followed by mr. moon thank you just listening to miss Keyes Kamara reminded me of why I think we got to this point and it was kind of needing to clarify the process right so I appreciate that we

145are actually bringing this forward I mean this is since a Miss Strauss has made the the amendment I have several schools on page 46 on our current hot list and that happened because of a conversation in question of asking how they are put on there I think there was different understanding from different board members on how that process actually works and unfortunately I think in the desire to to look at our larger boundary conversation which was perhaps meant to be a little bit quicker than it is because of community input we are giving it more time for input I think miss Strauss brought it back to us that there was not any more time to wait and there really is no more time to wait to look at the specific one my understanding is that

146can be added to the scoping of the other projects that roll them our minds are all in other districts that need to be looked at and because it is a thoughtful process that takes time for input and and review and scoping I fully support that we take this time to add it I think perhaps I guess future boards will have to look at the CIP process and how page 46 works so you know in the future hopefully there's a there's a more clear system of how to do that and how to bring those hotspots forward but at this time I think we don't want process to get in the way of our students who are in an overcrowded school so I would support this and I do think we can discuss the process and definitely

147improve it but in the meantime we have a little bit of an emergency in one of our high schools so happy to support that and thank you thank you Miss Powell check mr. moon thank you madam chair mrs. Rausch thanks for bringing this motion for oppose oppose conservation in two weeks as far as the tonights as far as tonight is concerned this isn't just advanced knowledge to board members and public that we will have a further discussion and under our governance manual the school board the chair has authority to set the meeting agendas in consultation with the superintendent and that's what exactly they did if anybody has an any board member has an objection to that next week they can they can they can they can in a vote against you they can a have

148an amendment to postponed take any voltage to a committee or work session but that's not for today and you know I'm gonna honor I'm gonna respect the a Chairman's authority to set the agendas and she is not just doing it in vacuum because we talked about this before and this is coming in again in consultation with our superintendent as a board member who believe that to believe that maclean high schools overcrowding situation had to be addressed had to be addressed and when business rooms initially brought that up I think a number of months ago I was i supported I supported doing this earlier than later on I'm glad it's better late than never that you bring this as part of the further discussion you are simply at this point in time you're you ever consume

149mr. Chau seems to be just adding lania McClane on the list that on page 46 or CIAP have all their high schools as well such has Oakton Woodson Robinson Woodson Woodson justice and murder you just want to air Lamia McClane to be considered by this board rather than rather than just continue to delay because again I believe that we have to address overcrowding situation McClane and we have to do it soon Thank You mr. moon I have mr. McElveen just very briefly I do want to thank mr. roffe's for bringing forward the effort is we've heard Louden loudly and clearly from the community we have to address this issue at McClane now it cannot wait and I look forward to second thing your amendment or your motion at the next meeting Thank You mr. McElveen

150miss Schultz I find it incredible how much everybody is thinking my colleague from Janesville for her rapid response to the July 22nd work session we wouldn't be in this situation if it had been handled previously and put on an earlier CIP and addressed in a more rapid fashion so the whole reason that we're in this boat to begin with is because the problem was ignored not for a year not for two years but for year after year after year so the problem I have is that that and and I brought this up at the may work session when I spoke passionately about the lack of innovation I'm sorry and mr. Platon Berg you know I'm a fan of yours but this is not the solution is stick a bunch of trailers on a piece of

151property and languish until eventually it gets around to being on a CIP and I will say Centerville High School last year and last year CIP was projected for 2023 to be a hundred and twenty eight percent miraculously it dropped two percent and so it's behind McClane all of a sudden in this CIP but the lack of innovation in approaching and just saying well we're gonna wait until one community gets hot enough then all of a sudden we can decide to not let process get in the way of students being in an overcrowded school well that's all we've done here after year that's exactly the reason why the administrative boundary process should have been continuing for the last 18 months it's the reason the previous board to this instituted it was so that the trains would

152keep moving so that we would have an ability to be responsive and nimble to communities that found themselves getting overcrowded not waiting until the pressure cooker blows and then all of a sudden somebody appears to come to the rescue with a last-minute amendment to a CIP mid-cycle out of cycle which this whole board admonished tremendously at the may work session about how upset they were that there was a mid-cycle CIP amendment which in the eight years that I've been on we've never done one and now we're doing two so I'm trying to understand why we're not being more nimble and innovative with things like open enrollment like immediate responsiveness now instead of now we're talking about a scope of a boundary study that is going to involve two high schools I don't know why it

153doesn't involve more and now you're not even gonna get to speak in solving the problem until five months down the road for Centreville they don't even appear on a CIP on a bond not this year not in two years but two years after that is when they even appear on the bond which means at the earliest they'll start building the year after that which means it's ten years until I get a solution for a high school that is equally overcrowded at a hundred and twenty twenty percent now and that they're right now taking work rooms and emptying out work rooms at Somerville High School and converting it into academic space because there's no place to put children so I feel the pain of another community that has nothing to do with me you don't vote

154for me there's no reason for me to advocate for you other than from to say that I feel your pain because my constituents are going through the same thing and we are lacking innovation and solving problems now and and slipping in a CIP amendment 3/4 of the way when when in less than ninety days we're gonna open the CIP and the promise was on number 32 and with all due deference to my colleague at large who says she's referring to her notes go to the videotape the videotape says that we are going to address this and our current CIP coming up and we're beginning to start those discussions this fall we need solutions that are innovated on top of the CIP not just languishing and waiting for CIP solutions but to open up and solve

155an overcrowding now and and and and I feel the pain for the people who believe that they have to come and wrangle attention from this school board in order for us to get to good governance this is not it we've done it once again is that we're doing out of cycle stuff instead of coming up with solutions to solve problems before they become explosive like McLean and like Somerville and Chantilly miss Hines thank you well mr. Berg I just wanted to give you a chance now I don't know that innovation would solve our problems I think we actually are pretty innovative I think what we're missing is a lot of funding right I mean we would not have to throw trailers out and back of a building if we had sufficient funding every year to

156do the things we want we've got I think you said it 180 million dollars a year in funding but we believe that we need how much to keep up with our renovation and addition needs what do you what would you estimate yeah it was it was close to well over 220 million annually I think mr. Macklin was about to pipe in because he was 73 to 73 that's why we need innovation it's my turn to 73 Wow so we are almost a hundred million dollars a year short and what we would need to actually implement the innovation that we are capable of right the truth is that we are that the fact is that we are as me let the board members speak please the the fact is actually that mrs. Strauss has been talking

157to Sir but to the board about this for a while I know I know that the conversation did come up really over the last couple years but the reality is MacLaine has been McLean High School has it's been rapidly increasing the problem so we find this year we have 18 trailers last year it was how many who 14 and the next year we look for it to continue to increase and we don't have another solution for it and right next door is a school that has a lot of space so there's just a lot of reasons why you know this just makes sense it just makes common sense to look at this and I'm trying to understand why anyone would want to slow this down and it make it any later than it already is

158to slow down the beginning of the opportunity to have community engagement on this question out in the community we should start as soon as we can and the idea of open enrollment that is something that we do in pieces at times as part of a boundary change do you want to expand on that a little bit mr. puttan yeah absolutely I mean the whole process of the scoping identifies when we go to the community the community members provide the feedback if there's a desire for such things as open enrollment it's not new we've had that conversation in addition that's when grandfathering comes up and about the impact on students at what grade level for the board to consider and we've had those when we've come back and informed the board about the feedback it's a

159void transparent process it's posted on our website and then the summaries reported to the board many board members do attend those meetings and that feedback is provided to the board so that they can then make an informed decision that if open enrollment is desired that they'll vote on it to support it or not and the same thing with grandfathering at different grade levels the innovations that we do the best practices that we do we look nationwide as to how we perform what we do to meet the capacity needs the reference that was made to modification of interior workroom is part of our solution where those work rooms exist and where they exist we can provide additional learning spaces we do that not only at the high school level but at the elementary school level as

160well we also have capacity architects that we use that we apply and deploy to the school to assist principals in their management of their program and their scheduling of the courses Lane elementary school recently give us a compliment for how they improved the efficiency of the use of the space that they have within their facility so we deploy a number of the best practices out there the important process that you refer to absolutely is a part of the scoping where open enrollment and clearly you've heard some people articulate that base evening that would definitely be a part of the conversation as a part of that process all right so we definitely want to get this before the community as quickly as we can to make sure that all of the ideas that people have are

161being talked about so that we can move forward as quickly as we can and one more question mr. Patton Berg the idea that an administrative boundary change might have fixed this problem for McClane I'm trying to member the administrative boundary change is what percent of change in student population it's less than 5% and 5% that would not have worked for McClane situation right right okay thank you thank you miss Hines mr. Knight Koufax thank you and this conversation has has definitely been interesting and I appreciate those of you who are here who have solutions and potential solutions and and new ideas I I do want to say and I do want to not defend our staff but in a way yes because I feel in some ways you're being called you're not innovative but these

162are the scenarios that are put before you and us all the time you know we have had an administrative boundary process that blindsided some board members blindsided communities and had no transparency that happened in my district so that these are reasons why the administrative boundary process wasn't working it may have been a good idea at one point but it wasn't working we have as you all know this open enrollment idea but we equally have people that we hear from every day is and the reason we have so many trailers for so long is people have demand it that don't move me I bought here I want to live here and I have a right to go to that school we have made a commitment to community schools but by doing that we have had put

163trailer upon trailer upon trailer on our properties and be and we can't build out the building which is a normal which would be the most ideal solution but you're hearing that we have a 37 year cycle we are what did you just say a hundred million a hundred million dollars underfunded a year so we have all of these multiple demanding constituencies on us what we're trying to do is the best that we can sometimes we get stuck in process sometimes we are at a point where everyone is so frustrated I mean we are considering a comprehensive boundary policy for the first time in 33 years and there are people out there who are calling us names when all we want to do is review a policy that has not been holistically looked at in 33

164years we are not lying we're being as transparent as possible we want to hear from you I you know it's it's a new concept to to me but as I said there's equally I'm sure there'll be other people opposed to that so mr. platenburg you and your team I feel are doing the best possible I think we are completely restricted as ms hynes said by this the lack of funding per year and you you have something to say mr. Plattsburgh known just to compliment the board I mean that is the reason why the board undertook reviewing the boundary policy these are the exact reasons why this board is undertaking that and that process is underway and these will also help inform whatever the next policy is I'm sure so that everybody will be as satisfied

165as they possibly can be but it's important to note that that that action that's been taken by this board is to alleviate and eliminate situations where people may feel somewhat less enfranchised thank you so this was brought to us tonight as part of new business and we normally do not have a robust discussion about new business we will continue this discussion when we discuss the amendment in two weeks if the will of the board is to have a brief discussion on what you are requesting miss Strauss on Monday we can certainly make arrangements on our calendar Monday to have a brief discussion at that at that work session and so I would be happy to do that with that I'm going to continue on with our agenda and we are going to go to superintendent

166matters but we will have a discussion on this matter Monday miss Horvath Sanders I just have a process question for public notice purposes wouldn't our clerk need to post that on to our work session agenda this evening she will be doing that okay Thank You chairman Corbett Sanders I wanted to say thank you we've had a wonderful opening of schools we got to see many of our schools here tonight and celebrate their wonderful success last year but we're off to a great start this year and I want to thank all of our principals and teachers and our support staff and all of our departments to help get ready for the beginning of school we've had a really really seamless positive opening I know many of our board members were out the very first day of

167school and have been out and about since then going to back-to-school nights and football games and welcome walks so we really really appreciate the board's support for that I want the public to know when the board to know the opening of schools report the state of the schools for this year will be shared at the next board meeting September 26th and so I'm working with my team now to finish that up and really have some new designs and new ways to share information with you that will be I think even more transparent and more clear to the community about what's going on in our schools I also want to acknowledge Food for Thought Award this summer the SBA had a summer meeting in Richmond and I was honored to go down there on y'all's behalf

168and get a food for thought award on behalf of the Virginia School Board Association for wellness and physical activity for a district of more than 10,000 kids and of course 190,000 we have more than 10,000 kids that award is in my car I didn't bring it in tonight but I will make sure that I have it for you at the work session on Monday and then finally I just want to share with you many of you know that we had a group of kids I thought Kimberly's comments tonight were inspiring about listening to students and student voice students came here late in the school year I think it was May or maybe even June and talked about their concern with the environment our stewardship of it and asked us to look at straws so we've

169made some procedural changes that we just announced last week and at middle and high school are serving lines we have removed plastic straws they are now available upon request to those that still need them but we have really worked with the kids to hear that voice and start to do everything we can to reduce waste in our schools so I was really really glad to hear that student voice I know Ryan McElveen was working with many of those kids to Sipsey I think was the group and so what was amazing to get to work with them were beginning to investigate biodegradable straws there are three times the costs of plastic straws but we're watching that market as more demand for environmentally-friendly products we're already seeing that market costs come down so again I'm really proud

170of the kids and we will continue to do everything we can to listen to all of our stakeholders around all the topics in Fairfax that bring people concern when we are we're committed to continuous improvement in every discussion that we have including the ones that have been discussed tonight thank you thank you dr. Barron I now call on mrs. Evans for an update from the Governance Committee thank you madam chair this actually will be a fairly robust report because I'll be reporting on two meetings of the Governance Committee we had a rare August meeting at which we finished our recommendations on their strategic governance manual and I've sent the board the copy of our recommendations we have a work session scheduled already for November 14th for the strategic governance manual for the board to discuss

171it we need to get it put on the agenda for new business and as an action item in the November December time period and so hopefully we can approve those recommendations before the end of the year at that same meeting we approved our recommendations on the renaming policy as we were asked to do that has been posted as new business tonight we'll be discussing that at our Monday work session along with the regulations that the proposed regulations that dr. brave ran has put forth we'll have that discussion and then hopefully move forward with the policy changes at the board table soon we still have pending the our recommendations on how to change our forum topics to embed them in our regular our regular meetings we also met on September 4th and we discussed mr. Mackall

172beans forum topic of for allowing one day of for civic engagement without it being considered in absence Governance Committee members had several questions particularly around how it might affect chronic absenteeism and we did ask the superintendent to come back with some more information for our for us and we're going to read think about that some more in October and hopefully have a recommendation for the board fairly soon we are doing a routine as you know we do routine reviews of every policy every five years and so we did over the summer received a new batch of policies we received 23 policies for us to review some of them are just very routine and they're on the consent agenda a few we've pulled off and we need to do more with them we also have asked

173the for the superintendent to provide us with some ideas on reviewing these policies in a more systematic way right now we tend to get a batch of them with with no particular rhyme or reason to them so we've asked him to to put forth a long a longer term system for us and that's my report thank you miss Evans since you've already started speaking why don't you continue on with board matters all right well well I've enjoyed going too many back to school days night's events it's been great to see everybody and the enthusiasm at the schools I was pleased to join the Justice High School PTSA last night to do a presentation on our changes to the SR NR I very much appreciate Carrie Williams coordinator for equity and student conduct as well as

174Stephane mask coordinator of student safety and wellness going to the that PTSA meeting and doing an excellent presentation there I'm looking forward to going back to justice High School on September 17th for Constitution Day where Judge Douglas Ginsberg will be a featured speaker and other than that I'm just happy to be back back at school mr. Wilson thank you madam chair and I too would like to just say thanks to all of the schools that welcome the kids back and welcome to me into their their schools to say hello teachers assistant principals and principals it seems schools are off to a great start this year and there's just a tremendous amount of excitement and a clear community that's being developed in our in our schools and that's a credit to dr. Bray brand and the

175staff and of course all the administrators that are in our schools and the willingness of our teachers to be as dedicated and committed to their classrooms as they are and through their schools so that's a really wonderful thing to report to the board is the is the school year kickoff is going so well I do think that tonight's unfortunately tonight's board meeting reflects you know sort of a troubling aspect of how sometimes the process that we have as a board can be corrupted and and then suddenly we find ourselves in a no-man's land of whether this is gonna be our new new practice or not I think that that we really do need to just take a moment and pause as we think about that we've spent almost a year talking about our boundary policy

176we also every year do our CIP and I think we should take a deep breath and and finish these tasks do it the right way it's what our community expects thank you miss mcLaughlin yes I'm just welcome back to all of the students and families who reside in the Braddock district and I very much enjoyed the opportunity to visit not only at some of the back-to-school night events but also several of our PTA s who have begun the school year and I also want to just share with my colleagues how incredibly inspiring it was to listen to our new student representative to the school board her eloquence and talking most importantly about her number one goal is that she hopes that students will learn the opportunity and the skills for efficacy and certainly it's something

177that I believe is not only important for our young students to learn but for us as lected board to continue to encourage all of our parents families and stakeholders that it it is through this community voice that we will partner together and and find the best solutions to strengthen the school system just one other thing I wanted to point out I had the pleasure of company mr. Wilson along with Miss Korbut Sanders to a special launching of tech pathways that is started with the partnership with the governor's office of the Commonwealth of Virginia and Fairfax County Schools is part of that and it's it's really focusing on introducing our young people at the particularly the high school level the ability to understand that technology and so it touches so many different careers and so it

178was a really exciting unveiling and it's also a partnership with Northern Virginia Community College's so it was just really a great event that was hosted by Chantilly high school so we really appreciated principal pools hosting that event as well I look forward to providing you all with a summary of some of the things we learned from it but it was it was really just a great and I would be remiss without saying that we also had dr. Bray brand Marybeth love class Sloane presidio and Beth Downey so it was just just a super event and now I will let everybody hopefully get ready to leave and go home and get some much-needed sleep miss Keys Kamara I too want to welcome everybody back to the school year I've had a lot of fun going around

179to his many back-to-school night events and a first day of school with a lot of my colleagues and so welcome back and I'm truly excited about what this year will hold I'm excited about our new student representative and the perspective that she brings to this board to have her perspective on issues that are near and dear to my heart I'm sure and to many others I also was excited to be able to participate in the visit of the Inspectorate general of Indonesia Ministry of Education to a meeting with our audit general and they we had a robust discussion about what the audit what our Auditor General's office does and at the end they were kind enough to give us this lovely gift that I want it to bring and they said that this symbol up

180here is for people who provide education and off work as a an example to the community and so I got to take the photo but it's for everyone I wanted to show it to you guys tonight it's quite lovely and it is consistent with all of our guidelines for gifts but it will be in the it will be in the school board office so that was quite a treat to talk to them and many of them spoke English and we a interpreter so it was it was a very very good discussion and it also made me very proud of our of our audit office of audit auditor general because they do an excellent job with not as many auditors as the folks who came who are not dealing with as many for many students as

181we are and they had an office of 100 auditors so swallow that but I think we do a great job it was a great time and it was their situation is a little bit different so don't look at me like that dr. Brandt I will say and we just wanted to welcome everybody back this is going to be a wild ride as we know this is an election year and so we will sure have lots of fun things to say to one another but my hope is that we remember why we're here and keep the main thing the main thing thank you well sadness kiss Kamara madam chair I just want you to know that I am so excited to be back to import business after after the August recess you have my full support

182to support you as you lead despoiled enterin many of us retired at the end of december this year with that I also want to remind not necessarily mind but for those families and students who are celebrating their autumn moon festival tomorrow tomorrow I wish you to have Happy Thanksgiving Thank You mr. moon mr. Nye Kovacs I too had pleasure of going to many back-to-school nights I am energized by the excitement I see by the teachers who and last night I went to Claremont Elementary School and Lee High School and the energy was palpable there at those two events with the parents and the excitement from the teachers who by the time I got to Claremont it was like 9 p.m. and these teachers were still out there excited they were the group of specials when

183you walked in the school and just a you know I think sometimes even if you do it time and time again when you're so impressed at the enthusiasm and level of excitement and level of dedication this is why we all do these things I do want to say you know the conversation that we had earlier I don't think it was about a corrupted process I think we're trying to be innovative I think we're being trying to be responsive and I think we're trying to be transparent boundaries are one of the hardest things that we will take on as a board and we want to do it the right way and it's probably going to be messy but I think if we if we keep saying innovation responsiveness and transparency in the process I think we're

184all going to be on a good road forward mr. McElveen echoing mr. moon this is my favorite time of year because it means mooncakes I want to thank dr. Bray bran and his team's work on the straw removal at the middle and high school level I will tell you that the the the students are actually very very very excited about this and in fact they've offered to help us with the communications efforts around it so they are working to design posters that can be hung in schools that can explain you know why we as a system and as a nation and hopefully as a world are moving away from single-use plastics and what kind of effect they can have on the environment so I do think that's a step in the right direction they've talked

185about piloting things at upper levels in elementary school so it's a continuing effort and I'm grateful for the quick adoption of it thank you Miss palchik thank you I want to share three different points the first one like many of my colleagues was very happy to go back to first days of schools stem well and Luther Jackson here to several of new principals in my region and they're doing excellent work and and thank you dr. bran and dr. around for supporting them as they come to their first days of school I also I know my colleague Pat Hines had to head home because she's teaching very early in the morning but she and I had the opportunity to participate in the first of this fall short environmental taskforce and I know we had several our

186chair and superintendents and others who were there and there will be two more meetings this fall in October and December so some of the issues that were discussed range from the Dominion announcement around the school bus initiative and I know our schools will be coming to the next meeting to share some of the work that's been done in FCPS the county partners did share their work and from solar rooftops to actually recycling which I think was an issue that being able to streamline just within our system the way we do recycling is something that our students asked for so they really are leading in many of our initiatives I had an immense student who came a couple years ago and wanted to start a campaign called the last straw so that's one to share with

187those high schoolers as they come up with their posters I thought that was a clever clever title and then finally I want to thank all who came out and have helped us honor and celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month to me it is part of my my heritage that I hold very dearly and I also wanted to share in that light that I will well unfortunately not be able to join you for our next meeting in September but it is because I've received a scholarship to participate in a national policy institute on school governance with Natalija which is the National Association of Latino no elected and appointed officials so I'm looking forward to having two days of learning with my colleagues it will be in Chicago and hope to come back in October with some new ideas

188and to share some of what we discussed with each other so that being said a good night to all and very excited for a brand new year miss Schultz so I too want to commend Kimberly for her new meeting first meeting speaking you know it's hard to speak at your first one but certainly she spoke with eloquence I had the pleasure of meeting with her this summer and having some very earnest discussions with her and her goals and and Bennie and the focus on the mental health and wellness of our students and the concerns that she and Ben each share are real and tangible and I think we have a lot to learn if we talk to our students more and with our students more which is why I do my student town halls every

189year still the best thing I've ever done on the school board is hearing from the students directly I want to commend the Centerville High School elementary schools in the pyramid they are initiating at the in the spirit of many of our other schools who participate in Special Olympics the elementary schools and the pyramid are doing a Special Olympics event where they are combining buddies and I have one of my own who's going to be a buddy with special-needs athletes and they're going to culminate on Saturday September 28th in the morning at center of a high school a special track and running event and they go every Friday morning early to school to practice and so for the educators in the Senate Ville pyramid who saw this as an opportunity and pulled this together I am

190profoundly grateful it's wonderful initiatives like this that improve the inclusivity of special education students I look forward to Friday at 5:30 West Springfield and is going to have the ribbon-cutting for the presentation of the new school and the completion always gone they come the completion of the the renovation which is simply beautiful and I know the school year started out terrific with more parking and everything for students and I look forward to that too all of the principals and assistant principals and staff members who welcome mean in the back to school process I am so grateful I have met thousands of our families at the door and then had an opportunity to walk through many of our schools look at on ongoing renovations look at many needed renovations crowding trailers trailers without bathrooms parking problems

191so I'm aware of many of those that exist within the Springfield district and continue not to be addressed I think effectively on CIP but I will relentlessly continue to advocate for those and I would like to close with the fact that we all of a sudden said that we're going to be discussing the McLean amendment next week if I had not brought it up and been persistent in the need to discuss it this evening despite attempts to foil that we wouldn't be having the discussion next week and it's a much-needed discussion I'm glad we're having it next week I'm glad that I brought it to the table tonight and I'm glad that the community feels like we're trying to get this out into the open I think this board needs to be more transparent about

192how decisions are made how things get on agendas and be more inclusive to the greatest extent of including our families our employees our students and our taxpayers in our decision-making process because after all these are public schools with public money for public benefit they are not our schools they're your schools and the more we continue to respect the constituents in the process the better off all of our decision-making will be miss Strauss I'm pleased that we've had such a smooth opening of school and dr. braver and I do look forward to the complete report because we get a lot more data and how many kids and all the rest of that so I look forward to that usually this is the time of year when we won't have many questions from parents about buses and

193bus stops and I have to say I've had none so far which means that I'm assuming that that bus routes and bus stops and we've worked very very hard to be responsive to parents concerned the new app is out there to keep track of the progress of a student's bus about making sure that our bus stops are safe making sure that our student students on the buses who helped direct children and make sure that they're safe and that our littlest kids our kindergarteners and our first graders get on the right buses those are all challenging pieces so it's certainly at least at my end of the county if there are problems they are getting solved and I am very grateful for that because we are one of the few businesses in the world where we

194shut down and open up again and we have new customers new families and your children's new bus routes all of that so most businesses don't shut down and open again but we do that in schools so I am very pleased for the smoothness of the opening and tonight I was pleased to see so many schools recognized and particularly schools that are recognized for the progress that's being made many of us have talked for years that evaluating schools or students by a single data point at a single day it is useful in some ways but it is does it only gives us a very small picture a child's success in schools occurs over thirteen years of success of working succeeding not succeeding building on what you've learned the year before so I am much more interested

195in progress and some of the descriptions tonight we're a little bit complicated as to how schools were identified but we are definitely headed and I think a much better direction as a school board we want to make sure that all of our students have the resources each student needs in their own neighborhood community school every student by name and by need that's what we mean by being equitable in making sure that opportunities are there for every child and then we track it and make sure the kids are improving each year so thank you dr. Bray brand and leadership and everybody else on the leadership team who are looking at our schools and our students with that lens because I think that is much more useful and understand we're gonna do more of that so we're

196gonna go beyond what the state does and we will do our own recognitions for growth so thank you very much thank you miss Strauss before I go to some of the activities I've been very involved in the opening of schools and I will echo your compliments it has been a remarkably smooth opening of schools this year and so Bravo to all of your team dr. brand who made it a very successful period of time I've only had one bus stop issue that came to my attention and staff has resolved it so I'm very appreciative but actually it's a good example because it's an example of staff staying student focused and it's an example of the importance of dialoguing and constantly being willing to relook at the way we do things and so in this case

197it was a situation where a bus stop had been moved because there had been a safety and security incident and the knee-jerk reaction was well we've always done it this way we just moved the bus stop and taking a second look and being innovative and being willing to not always do things the exact same way we've always done things but being nimble enough to being focused on students and students safety and security this was an excellent example and I very much appreciate it and that kind of brings us to the discussion of tonight about being student focused and the discussion tonight is about student focused when we had our conversations over the summer and prior to that it was about ensuring that we addressed the critical capacity needs and it wasn't about whether or not

198we would change our process of community engagement because we haven't suggested that at all what we've suggested is the beginning of a process of engaging the MacLean community thoroughly in understanding what they would like to see as a solution to overcrowding in their school and so I welcome the discussion continuing which we've had over the past several months now back to some of the exciting things happening in our schools I do want to thank dr. Bray brand and dr. R mrs. Johnson for the excellent work that they've done in making a reality a handbook which I have been advocating for for over five years on on August 26 we released the TUI handbook for parents and staff so that we can better serve the needs of our exceptional students with disabilities who are participating in

199our advanced academic programs or who should be participating in our advanced academic programs Bravo it's a wonderful new handbook and I understand next week we will be releasing the new parent handbook for advocacy and that will also provide another tool for us to more effectively serve our families and engage our parents I appreciate that and we have talked a lot about the importance of partnering and I want to bring my board fellow board members attention to Grand involve yet again this year Grand involve is an excellent organization that has retirees partnering with us and working in our individual title one schools they are in a recruitment effort and so I encourage people who have time and can dedicate a day a week to get involved in Grand involved we've had a number of open sessions

200for people to learn about it and so watch that space I also want to thank miss mcLaughlin and mr. Wilson for joining dr. Bray brand and his staff at the tech pathways event it was an incredible event which was the launch of a of initiative Northern Virginia Community College Go Virginia JPMorgan Chase Amazon and others to really focus on opening student's eyes to the potential of multiple pathways to success in the technology sector and students will be hearing about this new pathways opportunity through their middle school and high school counselors and so watch that space and lastly I'm glad that mr. McElveen raised this Sipsey straws because not only is that an wonderful environmental effort and the work that you're doing dr. Brennan removing the straws from cafeterias not removing them but not automatically giving

201them away is something that this wonderful group of students advocated for but they initially got involved in it because of Junior Achievement and it was an entrepreneurial effort to market those straws the metal straws and so I would suggest that as our students in middle and high school are kicking off the year and they're looking at great extracurricular activities look at Junior Achievement it is a wonderful way of exploring entrepreneur entrepreneurship so please do that and last I participated in the Hollin Meadows PTA the other night and I encouraged the PTA members and I encourage parents across the county to volunteer seven and a half hours throughout the year seven and a half hours is the average amount of time our students spend in school and so when I was the PTA president I encouraged

202people to spend that many hours and volunteering as their kids spend in one single day I my heart was warmed when I asked for commitment in the room for the Hollin Meadows PTA parents and every parent in the room raised their hand and said they will donate seven hours of their time and so I encourage people to spread the word and partner with our schools and donate and with that this meeting is over adjourned