FCPS School Board Meeting - April 12, 2018

001good evening this April 12 2018 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 Spring Hill elementary school band under the direction of Dan Freeman [Music] thank you very much Spring Hill students that was excellent we want to thank the Spring Hill parents for sharing your children with us tonight and is mr. ole Kira our principal thank you all very much Spring Hill outstanding in order to comply with section 2.2 - 3 7 1/2 D in the Code of Virginia it is necessary for the board to certify that since the fairfax county school board convened a closed meeting on April 12 2018 to the best of each members knowledge only public

002business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as we're identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting is there a motion move by mr. moon seconded by miss Hines all those in favor ah that motion is unanimous thank you very much a few announcements before we begin tonight's meeting miss Paul Jack will be absent this evening if you would like to review a copy of the agenda in 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

003from 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 will now call on Miss veticon de for announcements thank you madam chair April 15 to 21st is National Volunteer Week established in 1974 National Volunteer Week has grown exponentially in scope each year since drawing the support and endorsement of all subsequent US presidents governor's mayors and other respected elected officials National Volunteer Week is about inspiring recognizing and encouraging people to seek out imaginative ways to engage in their communities it's about demonstrating to the nation that by working together in unison we have the fortitude to meet our challenges and accomplish our goals National Volunteer Week is about taking action encouraging individuals and their respective communities to be at the

004center of social change discovering and actively demonstrating their collective power to foster positive transformation during the 2016-2017 school year a hundred and eighty three schools centers and alternative high schools reported that 68,000 seventy-six volunteers donated six hundred and fifty thousand two hundred and seventy one hours of volunteer service - FCPS schools thank you thank you and thank you to all the wonderful volunteers who helped us every day we couldn't do it without them this month is the military child recognition month very important here in Fairfax County and I will call on mrs. Schultz to read a recognition we are so honored to have with us this evening several very special guests FCPS and the Fort Belvoir military installation have had a long-standing relationship founded on behalf of students families the Fairfax and Fort Belvoir communities

005representing lieutenant colonel Christopher Tomlinson the Fort Belvoir garrison commander is Lieutenant Colonel James Matheson Fort Belvoir headquarters battalion commander also from Fort Belvoir we have school liaison officers Jamie Albers Andy Wendy O'Sullivan April is the month of Military Child which I'm one it is a time to recognize our military and veteran connected students for their service and sacrifice here in Fairfax County we are extremely fortunate to have 8000 and 66 students who are part of military families as well as part of our Fairfax County Public Schools family being part of a military family brings rich life experiences and opportunities not afforded piers our military-connected youth are engaged in their school and community rapport healthy pure relationships and are resilient and patriotic being military-connected also brings frequent moves often every 1 to 3 years multiple parental

006deployments resulting in family separation and other challenging life transitions some of our FCPS students shared their stories of military being military connected hoping to increase educator and community awareness of the life of a military connected youth tonight we welcome three of the students from our video library just Justin Greinke which and his parents general and mrs. Grecco itch Meredith Martinez and her family parents Master Sergeant and mrs. Martinez and sister Kaylee also a student in FCPS also here tonight is Stephen King and his father gunnery sergeant King Stephen will be featured in a video we will share with everyone shortly additionally we welcome members of the military connected youth process action team who work on behalf of our military connected youth celebrating the month of the military child provides a powerful opportunity to raise awareness

007and build support to help these children meet the unique challenges they face it is an opportunity to recognize and thank military children and youth for their heroism character courage sacrifices and continued resilience part of the celebration of military youth is wearing the color purple if you blend all together of the military branches they combined to the color purple tomorrow April 13th is purple up for military kids day and we invite everyone to wear purple to show your support and to thank military youth for their strength and sacrifices with the students and families please stand and be recognized our special guests are here this evening to join with the board and recognize the month of the military child and to thank these special students and their families for their service to our great nation we have

008a short video featuring Stephen King one of our many military students I'd like to invite to play the video but I have to say I watched every single video it was very difficult picking which one we would display tonight but of all of them I thought this would most best share the experience of a child in a military family April is the month of the military child hello my name is Steven my dad is a master sergeant in the Marine Corps the benefits of having a parent in the military is having someone who is loving and caring and is also willing to put their lives on the line to protect me we've moved about eight or nine times my dad moved by himself two of those times so we moved through gone around been 29

009palms in Florida majority of the time he was stationed in New Orleans but we've also been in Beaufort South Carolina and Jacksonville Florida and now up here in DC when I when I leave my current school to go to a new school I'm not really too much worried about the school situation it's leaving the friends is what really hurts it's when you when you have to leave your friends behind that's what it's really sad about and that's what makes it so harder so much harder than if you were just staying in one spot when you do move though they feel as long as you stay in contact you it does make you feel like you have friends all over the world my dad he's he's a big loving guy he's kind of like that those

010giant teddy bears that you get he's tall I mean he's big and you can't miss him um any and he's really athletic so he loves to do stuff that we all do the hardest part about my father being deployed is he's not there to see what I can do or what I am doing the longest time my dad has been away from us that I remember at least his was three years and that was during my middle school years just miss some events tiny mist-like my football games everything it was sad knowing that he wasn't there but my mom would take video and so we would talk by phone or camera or FaceTime or whatever and so we would talk about it and he would say good job and whatnot so it was pretty rough

011not having him there but being able to communicate with him through phone call home and FaceTime is helpful in my household when my dad deploys I have to take on more responsibilities to take care of my little sister and when we were in New Orleans my mom would have to work more because she was a police officer so she would have to do overtime or whatnot so yeah taking on the responsibilities of having a younger sibling is what really changed so it changed your mentality about being around food around people that you know and stuff there's a rush of happiness you can't contain yourself when you finally see em again you kind of just sometimes you'll even I sometimes I even break down and cry so it's eternal rush when he comes back even though

012you knew he was coming back being in the military and what I would like other students and teachers and people to know is that during some point in time especially if you know that our family member just got deployed or whatnot they take it easy on us a little bit I mean it's kind of hard not having someone around that you used to having around benefits of being in the military you may be moving away from friends but as you move away you also move to somewhere to where you can make more friends and so you know people all over or whatever country you're in or wherever so you get to know people if you move out of the country you get to know people in a different country now so if you're ever in

013there I mean you have a place to stay maybe if you get that close with them I mean there's all kinds of benefits to being in the military but that's one of the main things the military has made me a better person in treating others who normally people might not want to hang out with just because of how they look because I've been in that place a time or two so because I know what they might be going through it's helped me to deal with other people that may not look like someone cool but are actually pretty cool people and it's helped maybe a more responsible person [Music] I'm military and I'm FCPS I just want to say as a daughter the oldest daughter of a career Naval Surface Warfare Officer when I was 21

014I had 21 moves and that included house to house in cross country I moved my mother across the country twice when my father was deployed when she was 8 months pregnant both times and so I really do understand and have walked in the shoes of our military and our military-connected youth and and we're very proud to have you here and we're proud to start you so if we can have all of you come up this evening all of our special invited guests we'd like to take a picture with you at the Dyess with the board so come on up I also like to mention that Jamie Meyer who is the acting principal at Fort Belvoir Elementary School is also here thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music] okay looking right here [Music] [Applause] [Music] last night there's

015a ft to go to chairman Shasta this one also recognized that Carol Padgett principal Fort Belvoir Opera was here along with Jamie Meyer or the acting principal of Fort Belvoir primary and we think of principals for coming and FCPS really is indebted to the military and their sacrifice and service and I'm personally touched that's one of the most powerful videos I have ever seen a Fairfax County young man do or woman do and it's just a tremendous tribute to this school system in this country so there's a lot of good going on in our young people and we should be really proud of every one of our military children so thank you thank you dr. Bray bran next I will call on mr. Arnett Koufax this is National Library Week in school library month recognition

016thank you madam chair and as we observe National Library Week and school library month I am thrilled to have heard about an honor that was bestowed to one of our high schools and I want to congratulate Lee high school for me yes Lee high school was named the 2018 national skooled library program of the Year by the American Association of School Librarians and this is the highest national honor for any school library program so I think that's another round this award honors library programs that empower their students and staff to be effective users of ideas and information in a constantly changing school and library environment Lee high school has demonstrated commitment to the associations learning standards and program guidelines and have successfully implemented their program fully into the school's curriculum through strong leadership and community

017engagement one outstanding example is the recent school wide hour of code event offered in multiple languages providing open access to the computer science introduction students and staff also came together recently to read Congressman John Lewis's civil rights memoir March the librarians LED book discussions help teachers develop lessons and created supporting video and art to enhance participation this award committee award committee described lease program best in one word engaging literacy efforts are infused into every corner of the school so congratulations to Lee high school and coli brer Ian's Mimi Marquette and Lisa Koch for creating for creating effective thinkers readers and researchers with their innovative ideas and programs Lee high school will receive $10,000 toward its school library program and will be honored in June at the American Library Association annual conference in New Orleans so

018congratulations and now on to our recognition of National School Library Week it is the national observance sponsored by the American Library Association and libraries across the country each April it is a time to celebrate the contributions of our FCPS librarians and libraries this year National Library Week will be observed April 8th through the 14th with the theme libraries lead FCPS librarians design library programs that lead the way in leveling the playing field for all students who seek information and access to technologies FCPS librarians are leaders in their schools in their communities and in the nation school library month is the American Association of School Librarians celebration of school librarians and their programs strong school library programs play an essential role in the students educational career and FCPS school librarians are dedicated to meeting the needs

019of every student through literacy development and relevant inquiry based instruction that fosters curiosity innovation and ensure students meet the portrait of a graduate outcomes the school board welcomes this opportunity to commend fairfax county public schools librarian and to express our gratitude for the energy knowledge and vision they provide the school system so thank you so much and I would like to invite all of the librarians who are here today to join me and my colleagues for a photo [Applause] [Music] I'm working [Music] [Applause] [Music] this is autism awareness month recognition and I call on mrs. Schultz for another recognition so Autism Awareness Month is celebrated every year in April to provide an opportunity for families friends and local communities to raise awareness and acceptance of autism and the unique aspects and talents of all people

020autism is a complex developmental disability that affects an individual social interaction and communication skills it is known as a spectrum disorder because each child is different and is affected in unique ways with many strengths and challenges students with autism attend many of our schools in Fairfax County and grow up to make meaningful contributions to the community before I invite you all up I just want to say that to the teachers to the administrators the counselors the school psychologists who spend all the time with these families and your IEP meetings and your IEP addendums and all of the supports that happen in school and in the community as a parent of children with special education needs well not with autism I know how much you dedicate and try to help incorporate these children to have meaningful

021successful academic and social/emotional experiences in our in our schools and I'm very very grateful I'm at this time I would like to invite staff from the office of special education instruction to join me and my colleagues at the Dyess for a photo thank you very much [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] when fifty-fifty dibs the next order of business is citizen participation tonight ten citizens have signed up to address the board speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as 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

022an individual student speakers are expected to deliver their remarks comments with a decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the public's business please be mindful that there are often young children in attendance at these meetings or watching at home so language should be appropriate for all age levels thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come to speak to us tonight our first speaker is a Catarina forkin good evening my name is Ekaterina forkin and I'm a senior Oakton high school last year for my capstone project I decided to research the effectiveness of using standardized tests as measurements of student success I'm speaking here today to provide some insight on the benefits of some slight changes in the county and testing culture that we currently have to start FCPS students deal

023with two distinct types of standardized tests those mandated by the schools or the state and those required for college applications a student who earns top marks in school may struggle to earn an average score on a standardized test whether it falls under either of the two categories pressures on school administration have created a widespread widespread technique of teaching third to the test that is not unique to FCPS in which teachers instruct students how to perform well on tests rather than working on critical skills state programs such as the SOL tend to hold back teachers and students accountable for obtaining satisfactory scores moreover a trend observed in past several years has shown that test scores rise while true learning Falls when schools Joe students to excel at standardized tests factors such as socioeconomic status and previous

024educational background are often not considered when evaluating videos on their scores and this inevitably creates unfair advantages for some students and disputes the effectiveness of using these tests as measures of Education sanitize tests are still used today because they were created with the goal of being objective and comprehensive in nature in a world where grades and GPA inflation is rife these tests can offer a level playing field in the admissions process it is common consensus that grading systems and course rigor vary substantially across schools so standardized tests can act as regulated factors in ranking student performance whether at the elementary level or in college applications yet there are many individuals students parents and educators who believe standardized tests are in an inherently unfair gauge of student performance because widespread testing penalized this diversity and ignores

025the apparent opportunity gap among students sanitize tests cannot predict how well a student will flourish in a collaborative environment participate in seminars or present or a project which are all key components of Education and college courses but as soon as GPA can because these types of assessments are included in a student's grade in multiple classes grades are not determined by singular tests they are a reflection of daily dedication to academia in fact 92% of surveyed public high school teachers believe that grades are the best indicator of student engagement and accomplishment even when standardized test scores present only a fraction of academic success they are viewed as a full scope of a student's achievement so I understand that you're not the College Board but I believe something we can work on in the tub is the

026testing culture we have in FCPS I believe one thing that would bring about immense change is putting a cap on the number of high of AP courses a high schooler may take there's no reason for someone to take 5 or 6 AP courses I did it last year I did it this year I know many friends who have done it it's an insane amount of work and stress and yet counselors are repeatedly allowed to approve such such schedules a cap would decrease the amount of fours and fives that a student has the shots over because as this is ultimate ultimately the marker of a student's knowledge of a particular course I also suggest creating a standard grading systems that all schools in the county will use this is one reason that standardized tests are so

027popular I hope that I have provided some insight on the downfalls of using these tests as measurements of student success and I know that it will take some time to implement some tape some change but I believe the shift will be 100% worth it for our students teachers and school administration thank you thank you we so enjoy having students come and speak to us thank you very much next speaker is Keith Fox it's a good evening my name is Keith Fox from a 20-year resident of Springfield residing in the Terre Grande neighborhood I have one recent graduate and have another child graduating this June from Lee High School which was recently recognized as having the national school library program of the year thank you for mentioning that surprisingly out in here I didn't see anybody

028tweet that yet so I'm looking for the tweet yeah thank you I'm here tonight to raise concerns regarding student goals in Fairfax County Public Schools which student goals are we interested in I understand in the next few weeks the superintendent will decide whether to make another administrative boundary adjustment that moves more wealthiest student inside of Lee High School into West Springfield High School this will be the second time that this has happened in three years that this demographic has occurred is this segregation is this becoming a civil rights issue is this gerrymandering well some families wealth increase by this change why mine decreases let me explain more about my pain we have school goals also I served on a lead PTSA for two years then volunteered another two years I mentor I tutor I collaborate

029with the principal this is one action will work against all of my efforts to rebuild and rebrand our Lee community there are many parents working purposefully to maintain the high standards that leave when you remove communities like Roland Valley Daventry from our pyramid it's a snowball effect on all of our goals it affects parent volunteers our PTSA it affects our fundraisers our offering of language courses our AP courses our IB courses it changes our demographics it affects sports programs average SAT scores I can go on and on and on but you already know this I'm sure you've already seen the stats of the transfers out of lis and schools likely I don't need to bore you with that the data is all there through for your requests and other means there have been some passionate

030committed parents I mean I know they're here who have delivered the facts to you I've seen some of you some are giving up the fight right now though they feel like the school board doesn't care they feel like Fairfax County watch this happen it doesn't care some are losing hope well you as the school board be a part of the decline of one school while another benefits where you support our schools goals for resurgence are you with me or against me do you care fight with the underdog not against him i'ma leave you with this this one action will work against all of my efforts to rebuild and rebrand the Lee community I yield the remainder of my time thank you very much thank you the next speaker is Robert Ridley [Applause] good evening my

031name is Robert Rigby I'm a 19 year veteran teacher in FCPS student success means success for all students including transgender students I went to a conference at the Department of Education in DC last week were there honored people with the Martin Luther King jr. drum major award for faith-based initiatives it made sense to me that they called it faith-based rather than church centered the language was inclusive of religious minorities without excluding the majority we need to use similar language when talk about transgender people we don't want to erase anyone a truth about many transgender people is that they have transitioned genders at some point how do we talk about this we certainly don't refer to their real sex their real sex is the sex with which they identify and neurological science genetic science and people's

032lived experiences say that the sex or gender that transgender people Express is their real sex unfortunately the phrase phrases biological sex physiological sex an anatomical sex are used as stand-ins for real sex and go just as far to deny the truth of gender identity that is the language that the Gloucester County School Board has used to separate Gavin Grimm from other boys in that famous case and it is the language that the Trump administration uses to deny the possibility of military service in our armed forces to transgender soldiers it also denies the existence of intersex people so what language do we use to include the minority without excluding the majority the medical and legal experts have come up with what I would call best practices in this discussion the phrase sex assigned at birth that

033takes a little explanation but anything worth talking about can withstand explanation so here goes when the child is born the doctor makes a visual inspection of their external anatomy and says that there are male female or intersex then the doctor puts that on the birth certificate thus we get the phrase sex assigned at birth for most people this matches their gender identity in other words their gender matches their external and anatomical or physical appearances at birth but for some people their sex assigned at birth does not match their gender identity so we can use words such as sex assigned at birth to refer to people and explain it in terms of external or an anatomical appearance at birth we can avoid words such as biological sex physiological sex and anatomical sex thus we include the

034minority without erasing the middle yes include the minority without erasing the majority thank you thank you the next speaker is Liz Murphy good evening I - dr. Bray brand and school Boyd I am a parent of two recently high school graduates and I direct my questions to the school board tonight regarding the second in three years proposed adjustment to boundaries of lis high school what visible and concrete steps will you as a full board take to assure that Lea high school if this action is taken will and I quote from policy 81 30.7 maintain or improve instructional effectiveness of oddly high school note that Daventry when the four year boundary faizan is complete we'll send approximately a hundred and ten students to West Springfield this is about 6.2 percent of Lea's current enrollment exceeding the

035five percent projected and used percentage to justify the move in 2015 breaking the Daventry and rolling Valley Valley administrative boundary requests into two separate decisions only three years apart has hijacked you as as school board's role in making this decision these two decisions will result in a net loss of 10 percent loss to the Lea high school community well this school board consider that a reasonable thing to do the FCPS capital improvement plan projects that West Springfield will be at 105 capacity by 2023 moving rolling Valley students to West Springfield will push that number to approximately 108 percent while Lea may go as low as 82 percent where is the equity in the quality of education for Lea high school Lee high school has an active group of parents who've been trying hard to strengthen

036Lea high school these efforts have not been visible to lea high school and to its neighborhoods moving these higher socioeconomic neighborhoods Hunt Valley in 2005 Daventry in 2015 and then potentially rolling valley just three years later in 2018 we'll make Lee Highschool much weaker and of course will strengthen West Springfield by allowing it to have more electives and different classes how can the school board justify these decisions which have a very significant impact on the overall academic health of lis high school I remind you also that all of the feeder schools of Li high school are titled one where there is not one elementary school feeding into West Springfield that is designated as Title one regulation eighty one thirty point nine states the division superintendent may reconsider an adjustment that previously did not meet the

037above criteria if it evaluates by staff indicates that there has been a significant change in the adjustments impact or determining factors will the School Board ask superintendent Rea brand to reconsider and reverse the Daventry boundary decision and will also the school board complete the boundary study that was not done in 2005 which should have studied the lis Lake Braddock and West Springfield pyramids we thank you for your time and your attention to this and we await your decisions thank you thank you the next speaker is Norman Hall good evening chairman strauss members of the school board dr. Bray brand my name is norm Hall I'm here tonight to speak about the student success element of the FCPS strategic plan I want to begin by mentioning that the Fairfax County special education PTA and wait for

038whom I serve as advocacy chair has already voiced concerns about student success in multiple voices in multiple formats I among others have testified in favor of full FCPS funding before the County Board of Supervisors in anticipation of a cooperative approach to our concerns and solutions last night accepted listened along with dr. Bray brand and members of the Advisory Committee on students with disabilities as parents of F CPS students drew upon their experiences as to the varying degrees to which our students needs Mette we have confidence in our system to do well as we anticipate the successful growth and development of our students into maturity so do we hope to see FCPS become the premier school system for consistency and accountability in educating students with disabilities to that end septa is ready to extend whatever assistance

039we can on October 12th Sept the president diane cooper gould testified at the embedded public hearing about the comprehensive plan pointing out its limitations with respect to a lack of specific planning to address the needs of students with disabilities on November 20th i spoke during citizen time in support of the 1 fairfax policy and similarly pointed out the gap between the reality and the promise which appears in the accountability framework section of the policy I quote through facts county government in fairfax county public schools will incorporate data and publish performance measures that can be analyzed quantified and disaggregated to evaluate the extent to which our systems are achieving goals identified through the racial and social equity action plan between our appearances to this school board septa published a position statement regarding the FCPS strategic plan

040and strategic plan update ideally almost six months later consideration of the Student Success element of the strategic plan tonight should show in a clear and meaningful way how students with disabilities will fit in to present work plans in light of SEPTA's official positions I'm going to quote from them for the rest of my time septa believes that the development of specific and measurable plans to improve outcomes for students with disabilities is necessary due to the inequity of performance and the individualized nature of special education and we stand ready to support FCPS in this effort to that end we recommend that the strategic plan be updated to offer detailed activities and initiatives specifically designed septa has a growing concern for the special education teachers and staff supporting our students in special education the reality of a

041high turnover rate and increasing caseloads is a soon issue and with regard to turnover rate a drastic discrepancy from the tenure of general education teachers finally septa believes that metrics beyond graduation rates and Sol pass rates are needed to accurately measure successful performance for students in special education septa believes that all children in FCPS would benefit from the notion of success measured in a more holistic approach to include data collection of social emotional growth life skills positive behavior changes and other academic criteria beyond Sol pass rates without a clear understanding of what it means to be a successful special education student MCPS cannot accurately evaluate and make decisions regarding the efficacy of special education programs thank you thank you the next speaker is Amanda brewer [Applause] hello I'm Amanda Brewer and I have a child

042I have children and a couple of schools in FCPS Student Success means success for children and military families who are being recognized tonight in the resolution of the month of the military child as a military family I would love for all children to succeed in FCPS for my family this means protections for LGBT kids we wanted to come to this area and we felt blessed to have our children and one of the best districts in the nation we knew there would also be wonderful medical care here too and that was a big priority for us as one of our children has a heart condition what we didn't know at the time was we needed LGBT protections I started off as many families not knowing what I didn't know and then my child came out and

043that's when we noticed the inconsistencies between schools a year later and a very late meeting you guys changed that you created an non-discrimination policy that included gender identity and sexual orientation the issue is you left out the guidance on how to move forward with the policy each school has the ability to decide on their own way to implement this this means one military family at one school can have a vastly different experience than a family a few miles over our own elementary school has had six principals in seven years this means the school could change a lot with the decisions of the upcoming principal in the next few weeks military alert military children are moving into the area right now as it's known as PCs season these families may get very lucky at their school

044or not there are still children who don't have access to bathrooms or only one bathroom in the whole school that they can use different or separate arrangements unfortunately points out LGBT students this can be is easily fixed by issuing guidance this means the district and schools are on the same page and all families know exactly where the district stands military families coming into the area will know what to expect all around they won't have to rely on social media or hearsay to pick a good place to live each school will do the same thing and all kids not just most will be protected we haven't had an easy seven years here but we don't deny that we haven't been blessed to live in this area we believe you can and will do what's best for

045the children please consider it sooner rather than later thank you the next speaker is Rahman Heiser hello and thank you for the opportunity to speak I am the parent of two children who are products of Fairfax County Public Schools a class of 2017 graduate and a freshman with autism at Lake Braddock secondary school I am here to speak to you about your student success and your overarching goals at FCPS will present to you tonight to implement strategic goal number one I understand there are four overarching strategies I'd like to address two of them first all is overarching strategy number one I recommend that you look at more holistic outcomes and metrics than those that are currently reflected in the materials I found online portrait of a graduate described the young adult with academic work social

046and life skills be productive citizen of our diverse world yet all the current metrics are based on limited academic outcomes AP ib test scores sol score rates graduation rates this leaves out a significant number of children disabilities who don't even take any of those tests where are their metrics right this is in direct contrast to the holistic education required by portrait of a graduate a high school diploma used to mean that a student was ready to be a productive member of society now we have so many academic requirements and academic only measures that a high school diploma means college readiness and nothing else which is in direct contrast to portrait of a graduate left behind are the students from whom multiple choice tests are not the best way to measure comprehension left behind are the

047electrician the auto mechanics the artists the musicians like my son come by the special ed confidence will be playing left behind there him let me give you an example he was one of only two 7th graders and one of the six only ever in years to perform seventh graders in the advanced guitar ensemble to perform an unplugged at Lake Braddock by a musician standard he's excelling he's yet to pass an Sol by your standards he's failing that's wrong this focus on academic testing also discourages inclusive opportunities and forces students with disabilities to give up general education electives which I had to fight very hard for my son for remedial academic and organizational skills and segregated class settings in order to improve test scores only conversely children's behavioral issues are not receiving appropriate support in general

048education settings and are removed to the detriment of their abilities to access higher level academics studies show that education inclusive settings improves academic behavioral social and post-secondary outcomes for children disabilities and improves outcomes for those without and how are we supposed to educate portraits of a graduate to work and live in a diverse world if they're never exposed to children with disabilities including the one in 68 children who have autism if they're not included from a young age in school trust me they will not get included in society 80% of kids with autism adults with autism are unemployed nationwide the average salary is eight dollars and ten cents an hour it is not lack of job skills it is lack of acceptance and this academic only focus is student success focus that we have is

049the biggest impediment to post-secondary outcomes so I ask when you're looking at outcomes for kids with disabilities please don't just look at test scores look at actual outcomes are they productive citizens of our society and are our other children actually productive citizens of our society in a 21st century diverse world please take a look at that thank you appreciate your time thank you the next speaker is Barbara J Hart [Applause] good evening school board members and dr. brave an I'm here tonight representing my children who attended international schools as well as rolling Valley elementary school key middle school and now Lea high school currently I also volunteer at the Lea high school college and career center I'm here to raise concerns regarding the possible boundary change directly affecting the Rolling Valley families within the Lehi

050school pyramid lifelong learning is critical and the staff at robert e lee regularly teach mentor coach tudor and supports students to highlight this value they are directly attributed with Springfield's future success we use our education as a foundation to understand today's culturally diverse world Lee high school has a diverse population and it acts as a launchpad for my children to reach success at the University of Virginia and in another year another post-secondary institution however the impact that these adults make decreases with lower enrollment causing great concern if the boundary change moves forward Lee high school is currently under enrolled even with the current renovations complete when it is completed West Springfield high school is projected to be over enrollment capacity creating greater issues how will the overcrowded classes be dealt with will the order will

051you order more trailers making West Springfield High School again an even softer security target removing more students from they already under enrolled Lea high school directly causes a drop in academic course selection and performance in its athletic arenas after listening to many college representatives who visit our school I've learned that college admission depends highly on which courses students take based on those offered and the grades earned in each class I've also learned that athletic scholarships depend upon the competitiveness of the school's programs how do you propose keeping Lee High School competitive on all sides while promising its students equal opportunity at post-secondary institutions I argue that maintaining or even increasing enrollment at Lee high school will improve its already challenging IB curriculum and the existing athletic programs while my husband and I have prioritized offering

052our children opportunities to grow in resilience I'm concerned about how current Rolling Valley elementary school families will emphasize this characteristic if it is no longer a split feeder school college professors and Representatives are publishing the need for high school graduates to have regularly taken age-appropriate risks made mistakes be held accountable and of course appreciate that resilience requires all three of these experiences continuing to expect middle schoolers to explore connecting with others grows resilience and their vote thereby preparing them for life after high school many parents and staff are working very hard to ensure Lee high school students and graduates successfully navigate today's society in their chosen careers let's appreciate their efforts by improving the opportunities for all of the student body thank you for your time and attention to this crucial matter our children's future

053and that of the larger Springfield community lie with you thank you the next speaker is George Becerra [Applause] Keynesian dr. Ravin chairman Strauss and school board members I'm here to also talk about old number one under strategic plan for student success I like to thank dr. Presidio for his lengthy summary presentation and he will somebody present tonight at on Mondays work session to go more detail a couple points I wanted to point out about about the plan about the report that's done every year before you should be presented in December now it's in April first is I appreciate the report but again it does not mention performance targets when will they be eliminated the gaps but I think that's going to be an issue you guys will be tackling next but I want to say

054it again it's great to have this but if you really mean what you want to do you're going to say by a certain timeframe if you're talking about achievement gaps let's say 2021 22 in different areas but the constituents know that this is what the goal for the board will be and I just lip service second is on the presentation side slide number 28 talks about student access to technology at home from my understand I've heard over the years I've always heard not a plus percentage of access well when you look at this it looks like 21% of the folks are not responding or decline the survey so I think that needs to be reworded it if not really 90 percent of the people are students receiving home internet at home you just need to

055improve that a second is or the third my fault is the cosa dici baguette metrics will these be aligned to the new state accreditation markers I think we need align everything instead of going in silos and when I'm also talking about that when you guys were present every two years your district plan to the state those goals should rely on to your superintendent valuation to your regional assistant superinten evaluations to your principal evaluation then to your school improvements all those metrics have to align if not we're broken in certain areas so let's make sure we're doing work and we're not breaking up things we don't need to be well the last thing is the most probably important thing I came here to talk about again I appreciate dr. brick dr. Barry Braddock Presidio and dr.

056durán for the for this record on Monday but I would love to have the information by district I know you guys do it by region but I think in terms of accountability for your constituents they would like to know the data by district how is their school board member doing every four years eight years how many years you've been here they would like to know because all you do is aggregate subgroups yes that's an improvement over the years we didn't have subgroups so I appreciate that but now year by year you have 13 through 17 percentage we need to know about districts and then an educated parent can go to the board of supervisor they can say this is why we need money this is how it's affecting leave district hunter Mel Braddock Mason this

057is where our kids are maybe not performing as well I also like to suggest for a future budget meetings I know you guys love to have them with your constituents but related to the individual person in that district break out ideas that affects their district County Executive Hill said he is going to try to do that next year so when they come to their budget meetings for the county for the board of supervisors those constituents will relate instead of billions of dollars or this and that so I'd like to thank again dr. Presidio dr. Braverman dr. durán for the presentation they have Monday and also an opening conversation about closing these achievement gaps by a certain timeframe thank you thank you our last speaker this evening is an Brooks Kinney hi my name is Annie

058not Ana sorry it's uh so I of my daughter and he's she's on the autism spectrum and I thought it would be a good idea to come in April I don't know if you guys are familiar with my friend Charlotte who's been here a couple of times talking about school security that's a really big concern for me my daughter's school has had one lockdown drill this whole year and that's it and besides that she's in a non category classroom and a lot of her classmates have auditory stem issues they can't control it so in a lockdown situation what's her classrooms supposed to do because silence isn't an option someone's going to make a sound so there needs to be more done and I keep hearing you guys are working on it and working on it

059and working on it it's been almost 20 years that we've had since the first school shooting it took six months for my school which was a private school after 9/11 and the DC sniper to have double door entry so the only way you could get into that school would be to show your identification or you can access the students my I've seen schools where you can just walk in you get buzzed in you don't have to go in the office and that's a problem for me because not only in the extreme situation of a school shooter but just people wandering into my kids school I don't have all the solutions but I would really like to here sooner rather than later what you guys think or what you're willing to do and second and that

060I'm just really concerned that you guys don't pay enough of attention there's a lot of UIC listening and it's been frustrating for me because I see people looking down at their phones or computers and I understand there's a difference between notes and all that but people come up here to talk to you guys with their issues and I think it would be really helpful if you had a town hall aspect so we don't just feel like we're talking into blank space because that's kind of what it seems like a lot of people go through and I think you guys are public servants and your job is to listen to us and I honestly didn't come up with much because I didn't know if I was gonna have that anyone's attention and I feel like I

061do now so I just really like to close with I just found out about the special education a group love to join them see what they're gonna do because I'd like most parents have had a lot of problems dealing with the IEP system I didn't go to public school it's all brand new to me so um that's pretty much it I guess I have 30 seconds left so yeah thanks grateful deceptive people are here you can join up thank you next to student representative Mathers I call on Miss fen akanda thank you madam chair so I'd first like to start out with recognizing our Boy Scout Troop in the audience troop 702 who is working on their citizenship in the community badge if all of you could stand to be recognized I'm very glad they

062all have the opportunity to come in and see our town halls and engage with our speakers so that's an incredible opportunity that you guys are all working on uh so what we had this Monday was our election of the next student representative elect I'm actually kind of surprised that the year is almost at an end but the Student Advisory Council elected Benjamin taking her from South Lakes High School as a student representative elect for next year I'm really looking forward with working with Benny so that he's ready to assume the role in July both of us have a shared interest in making sure that we are making access to academic and extracurricular opportunities more equitable from the moment students enter kindergarten to when seniors are deciding their postgraduate plans and among many other issues including

063school safety student workload project-based learning and expanding students abilities to provide feedback on their education and really work with their school administrations so for the next few months I'm really excited to work with Benjamin to ensure that the transition is as smooth as possible so that our students continue to have a two-way flow of information between the student body and the school board thank you thank you we're very excited about the prospect of an new student mr. Heinz where is Ben oh there he is well congratulations and welcome and you know go Seahawks I think this is the first time all right wonderful so it's always nice because there will be an overlap and some is feta Conda can can help Benjamin get acclimated and understand the workload thank you and congratulations now we have

064come to the presentation that our strategic plan goal one student success and I call on dr. Brad Brown for the introduction Thank You chairman Strauss as you know goal wants to in success is the culmination this report is a combination of our number one priority and Fairfax County Public Schools this reports full of very valuable information and we're going to summarize the report here tonight and we will go in to it and more depth at our work session as we have been doing with other presentations to the board this report is a cross departmental collaboration it required a lot of work and a lot of work is required because student success is the foundation the first block of our strategic plan ignite I want to thank the team our team your team my team our

065team together for all the hard work on preparing this report in particular I want to thank our chief academic and equity officer dr. durán for his leadership and I'd also like to thank the assistant superintendent for instructional services dr. Presidio who's going to do the presentation tonight and he's very excited to be here and take the lead in sharing now Francisco's out here and I'm out here we might add in a word or two but I'm just really proud of the work that they've been doing we got to talk about this in leadership team and see it and I think you're going to be very excited and proud of the work we've got a lot of glows we've still got some areas that we acknowledge your groves things that we can still do better and

066we look forward to the presentation tonight the conversation and work session to continue to drive and improve our strategic plan and ultimately outcomes for kids so that every student has success in Fairfax County Public Schools so dr. Presidio I'm sorry I just want to say something really quick to the audience I'm dr. Byron was getting to acknowledge slum presidio and I'd skipped quite slow slow and slow and so I made him laugh so the only reason he laughed is because he was already doing something that I was prompting him to do I like the informal tone we're setting already so that's very good very thank you dr. Bray bran think well chairman Strauss and all the school board members it's a pleasure to be here this evening had the opportunity to present this year's report

067on goal one of the strategic plan student success I do need to apologize to you in advance though as we start to take a look at this report for the length of the report it is a hundred and fifty pages long the narrative report we've got 45 slides that we're gonna review at the work session on Monday you know but as Mark Twain famously said if I had more time I would have written less so we're really trying to streamline as much as we can and in it really I think on that point is is really important the work that the board is doing right now to streamline the strategic plan and I just want to thank you for your leadership on that the work that you're doing is I think really going to bring

068strategic focus to the divisions continuous improvement efforts and I think it's really gonna show an impact in our student performance in the years to come so thank you for that work that you're doing in that same vein I'm not going to try to provide information on all hundred and fifty pages tonight what I'm gonna do instead is give a high-level summary of some of the major successes and some of the major challenges facing the school system with regard to student achievement and I I want to also though recognize that we have put together a new format in the report this year so we've organized the report around the four associated strategies in goal one in the report there's a chapter for each strategy that provides an introduction in some context to that particular strategy and

069then it provides information associated with The Associated desired outcomes and the information on the Associated performance metrics and the reason that I mesh the report format is that we would never expect anybody in the community to actually read 150 page report we wouldn't really even expect board members to be able to read 150 page report but the way that we've organized the information we think it's going to be more helpful for board members and community members to locate the information that you're most interested in might be early childhood might be reading achievement whatever the case may be so I think the report is going to help in that regard and I would also thank the board for really kind of pushing us in the direction to provide more context and put the data in the

070analysis in context and certainly Ms McLaughlin and miss Schultz had really been big advocates of that last year so hopefully in the new report format will be helpful and we've also produced a video to kind of kick off the report this evening that highlights some of the successes that we see across the school system in relation to all of the desired outcome areas in the strategic plan so we're going to go ahead and take a look at a brief video and then we'll come back and I'll have more information on this year's report [Music] I feel like learning together you can use that in life you know anywhere I just love being in the classroom because because if we're researching about about a certain place that some people in the Volk classroom are from it

071can confirm they can just revise and help you out with their information since they know a lot about what you're researching talking to someone across the country another school for us the custody that's pretty big by talking to someone in a different country that's huge you're communicating with people in Costa Rica and that's something that's new and exciting [Music] we get to basically take control of our own learning by doing projects like capstone for juniors and stuff like that pío Wells basically that's all looking into yourself and how you learn and you're basically trying to find out ways of helping you retain your own information and creating something and producing something you care about you're passionate about it's like my dream I get I feel like I'm really passionate about the cello and stuff so

072it's just the MIP thing like it's really like kind of like change my life in using the universal screening tool this year we have gathered some helpful assessment information that in part has given us more time back for teachers with instruction and help them to plan targeted intervention for our students who need some help what do you want to be when you grow up a teacher just like me we are here to support students from the time they first enter our buildings to the time that they walk across the stage at graduation our twins are 4 years old when they entered the headstart program at Fairfax County and when the girls started they had two phenomenal teachers that came out to the house to evaluate them early on and see how they were doing and

073really get to know them a little bit more before they started school over the course of the year the twins did really well they came home really excited about their teachers and making new friends at the end of the program they came out to house reevaluated them and said that they were ready for kindergarten they were well prepared with their education as well as socialization their kind of the mice rat snakes will keep those all together will keep birds in there fairfax county had these awesome opportunity as opposed to to further their education and you know the transition services and employability skills it's a great learning experience I think he's a light today shows her what she can do as a career in the future she loves to work with animals always been her goal

074but we didn't know what that would look like long term so you know the idea that there are jobs out there that she could do or thing the most wonderful it just really lends itself to preparing our students to be career ready if I know why I'm doing the math it's a lot easier for me to like say okay I'm gonna need this in the real world so it's it's like easier for me like pay attention taking this class made me realize that you can take your passion and turn it into a career [Music] all right well thank you I hopefully see from that video there's a lot of great things that are happening in our schools related to the division strategic plan everything that was highlighted is related to a desired outcome and goal

075one so our schools are really doing a lot of great work so next what I'd like to do is call your attention to the summary that's posted on board Docs and we're just going to give really a high-level overview of some of the major successes and challenges in the school system and I'd like to start with this infographic that really highlights some of the great things that are happening in our system and you can see that overall our data really indicate that we've had growth trends on most of our performance measures over the last several years and you can see also from this infographic that we continue to outperform the nation and we really continue to outperform even a lot of countries on international assessments so we're doing quite well when you look at measures

076like the SAT a CT and Pisa we've got a 91% on-time graduation rate and one of the things that we're really proud about is the growth that our English language learners are making you can see from the infographic the really dramatic increase in the number of credits that our high school English language learners are have been able to accumulate over the last several years and I think we've got a lot to really be proud about when we look at our school system as a whole but of course we also have a lot of challenges that we need to address as well so when we talk about the challenges facing the system we're talking about one of the major challenges there are some of the gaps that we see an opportunity and access and achievement across

077our system and I'd like to talk first about opportunity gaps briefly so when we talk about opportunity gaps we're really talking about disparities and the available resources or opportunities to students so you might think about considering whether a certain opportunity exists for all students for example is a particular program available in all schools for students to be able to access equitably and really one of the biggest opportunity gaps that we have in fairfax county is in relationship to access to high quality preschool education so this particular chart which we have a lot more detail in the full report and more analysis but this particular charter heat map really shows the percentages of students that are entering kindergarten in FCPS that did not participate in preschool so you can see from the chart where in the

078county the specific locations where we have the largest percentages of students that are entering kindergarten without a preschool experience so in many areas many places in the county more than a third of our students are entering kindergarten without having access to high quality preschool education now we've made a significant amount of progress over the last several years we've added an additional 750 seat spaces for students to attend preschool but obviously we have a long ways to go in terms of closing this particular opportunity gap the next gap that I'd like to talk about is related to access and when we talk about access gaps in Fairfax we're really talking about access where we have disparities in terms of who's utilizing an available resource so you might think about is you know is every student in

079a school able to access a program that is in a particular school so for example are all students able to access advanced math coursework or AP and IB courses and equitable rates in ways but the access gap that I'd like to highlight here as we're scrolling down is the access to technology and one of our speakers this evening spoke to this a little bit and when you look at the chart that you see here you see that in the fall of 2017 many of our families indicated that they don't have adequate computer access or adequate internet access at home and really we believe very strongly in 2018 that access to learning technology technology as a learning tool is fundamental if we're going to produce equitable student learning outcomes so we'll dig into this data and

080talk about it in a little bit more detail during Monday's work session as well but FCPS on a course is one of the divisions initiatives where we're really trying to address this particular access gap and make sure that all of our students have access to technology to learn regardless of the time or the place or the pace of student learning the last gap that you're very familiar with I think we've continued to talk about our achievement gaps in this year's report and when you look at our overall achievement our trends look really positive you see positive trends in all of our subgroups and if we scroll down just a little bit more we might be able to get both of these infographics on the same page at the same time but you see positive trends

081over this five-year period of time on all of our subgroup performance in this particular chart is looking at our reading performance overall so the divisions average reading performance but when you look a little bit more closely you notice that we continue to have large achievement gaps across some of our subgroups so when you look at the difference between our white and and Asian student performance and our black and Hispanic student performance you do notice that we have about 20 percentage point gaps in that area when you look at economically disadvantaged English language learners and students with disabilities we also have large gaps that we need to overcome so some of the things that we're doing to address some of those gaps one of the things was the Universal screener that was highlighted in the video

082and you heard one of our principals talking about how that tool has been able to help us identify students earlier that might have reading gaps particularly early indicators of dyslexia and how we've been able to target additional instructional time and supports and services for those students so we're in just year 2 of our implementation of the Universal screener and we're seeing very positive results and trends we're also working very closely with our school-based leaders our principals our assistant principals and the instructional leaders in our schools to make sure that we can fully implement and all of our schools are updated and enhanced reading curriculum which has undergone significant revisions really a complete rewrite over the last two years and we worked very closely with some consultants to make sure that we had research-based evidence based

083best practices materials resources and training opportunities for all of our teachers to be able to implement those materials with fidelity and we continue to work on that additionally we've created new program standards for English language development we have about thirty percent of our students in Fairfax County our English language learners and our students after they develop English proficiency actually do very well and our standardized assessments we've talked about that in the past oftentimes former English language learners actually outperform native English speakers on our standardized tests but we need to get them to that point of proficiency and our new English learner program standards are really about how to accelerate students English proficiency with direct support around their language development needs in another big area where we're working very collaboratively with the Department of student services

084is to make sure that all of our teachers and our schools understand how to support and improve instruction for students with disabilities so the final area of achievement data that I'd like to share with you this evening is in regards to math so when we look at this infographic again these are our aggregate math scores across the division and similar to our English in our reading scores you see that the trends are positive for all of our subgroups over this five-year period of time and again in the report and in the appendix of the report we break down year by year performance and we analyze the trends from year to year and you're gonna see slight increases in slight dips in summit in some subgroups and some measures in some years but overall that the

085trends are positive in all of our subgroups in mathematics as well but again like we saw in reading we continue to have persistent achievement gaps for some of our student subgroups so some of the focus areas that we're working on you know that we're in the process of adopting new resources and new materials for mathematics and elementary middle and some of our high school classes this year we're working very hard to strengthen our participation for historically underrepresented student populations both an advanced math coursework at the elementary school level and an algebra one in middle school and we're continuing to support our content teachers in terms of their their work with students with disabilities so that really does conclude my high-level presentation for this evening we're gonna have a lot of time to dig in during

086Monday school board work session I want to thank our two meeting managers mr. Wilson and mr. McLaughlin for their help in preparing not just for this evening but for Monday's work session and I think we'll have a great discussion but I would be happy at this time if there any questions to entertain a few questions this evening as well thank you very much dr. Presidio and again we won't have an extended period of time on money to discuss this so there are clarifying questions and we're happy to ask those mrs. Schultz ooh hi dr. Presidio how are you very good thank you I'm not gonna comment on the video okay we did reuse footage that we had shot before so I'm not gonna come in on the video so I will however comment on that

087heat map I think I have been asked for that heat map for five and a half years I am so excited about that heat map great that is and I went to a breakout session specifically on content and data visualization at the National School Boards Association conference that we just went to and that is precisely what the staff was presenting about the difference between a data table and a visual graphic and how presenting information in a meaningful way helps board members make better policy so thank you thank you thank you for that the very last thing you said was talking about an advanced math and underrepresented populations how were boys doing in advanced math enrollment do you know so I don't I don't want to misquote any data on that that's information that I could

088bring to Monday's work session if you'd like to dig into that a little bit more I'll be happy to do that I will be interested because I'm some pretty disturbing statistics are starting to come out about you know we talk about advancing girls and stem all the time and the reality is it's actually the boys that are falling behind and so I will be interested in the work session and talking about how boys are represented in some of the advanced academics and math categories and whether or not we've done a wonderful job also with this visual graphic of disaggregating data in a much more meaningful way but disaggregating it by by girls and how and how they're performing will be helpful and going forward it may not be ready for the work session but I'll

089be interested in that going forward yeah we'd be happy to do that one of the things that we discussed in our meeting manager conversation the other day too is there might be some things that the board is interested in really going in depth on and again we'd be happy to prepare more information meet with individual board members do additional work sessions to do some deep dives on some topics like that thank you dr. precision and also add as we roll out our equity dashboard that we talked about we are including gender so that we can begin to disaggregate boys and girls and and male and female and that was a request we got from our previous equity conversation so you'll begin to see that as well in the equity dashboard miss mcLaughlin yes as one

090of the two meeting managers I did want to just let the board know I'm gonna send an email because I think sometimes it's easier to see it in writing than to talk about it right now but just some kind of prep work for you all to think about because it is 150 pages but I think if you can look at the PowerPoint slide first that might then help you then go to the report but one things we discovered is last year we did this goal one report in two work sessions now we're cramming this back into one work session so one of the things we were going to bring to you as meeting managers is that we do have a second follow-up work session but it would be where the board has some consensus about

091the areas we'd like a little deeper discussion because it is a very comprehensive report but I I do believe it's important that we don't shortchange this and given last year we gave more time to the global and report I'd like to make sure we as a board at least talk about that and maybe get a chance to kind of hone in on there and then the second thing is I won't want to that I really appreciated doctor Presidio has some additional data points to bring on Monday and it has to do with looking at our poverty rates among our subgroups because it's really remarkable when you look at the poverty rates among our subgroups you start to almost see some more clarity about why we're seeing achievement gaps as well because we do know that

092poverty plays an important role and the poverty rates are really dramatic among the different subgroups and so it's just it's another piece that we have to be kind of helping putting some data in context so you know I really do appreciate dr. Presutti the other thing is as you're reading this report and preparing for money's work session please do make some notes to yourself about where you're gonna want to find the board spending a little more time on it and then also be prepared that we decide the only way we'll get through this is he's gonna go through the whole presentation so if you need to make lots and lots of notes on the questions you're gonna want to ask we are not taking any questions till he's done Thank You mr. mood thank you

093for the presentation and I'm gonna be emailing to you some of the specific questions but thank you for mentioning about the poverty rate among different subgroups because there was going to be one of my requests and question to you but in addition to poverty rate if we could also bring in a percentage of English language learners among different subgroups as well as a special education because all those things have tremendous impact on student achievement because you will be and hopefully we'll be spending some time and looking at your human gap how to address those but at the same time I mean we need to know the data first and and it's be able to really understand what is resulting in those achievement gap and what to do with ours so I'll be sending you again

094my specific questions including your definition of our FCPS definition with English language learners versus Easter students there may be a differences because I see different personality and different numbers I'm a Latino thank you yeah thank you mister McElveen thank you son for the presentation and thank you for the the graphics which I and I will agree with my colleagues that these are very powerful and the heat map on pre-k I'm gonna frame it and put it on my wall because that's something that I need to look at every day I think all of us need to look at every day just to remind ourselves where the real work needs to be done the the one statistic that didn't really come out in your presentation tonight but I do want to have more conversation about on

095Monday is that by literacy graduation seal the fact that it's only 25% of our students is troubling my colleagues we'll know that back in 2006 this board adopted student achievement goals and one of those one of the things subsumed under that at the time was the goal of ensuring that all of our students graduate fluent or at least proficient in at least two languages and the fact that we are still at 25% is a major issue now and on slide 45 you do present the trends showing up going upward in that area but I will tell you that over the past decade or so the school district has really flatlined in this area and when we talk about equity which your presentation rightly focuses on this is an area where there is not equitable access

096to programs and there has not been for for a long long time and so I'm hopeful that dr. brave ran superintendency will not ignore this issue as it has been ignored in the past and that we will make progress thank you thank you miss Hines yeah thank you so I'm gonna ask kind of a big-picture question that came up tonight some of our speakers and it comes up from time to time and it's probably not something we can answer tonight but the question of whether particularly for our students with disabilities you know i we don't want to ever lose the focus on academic achievement in this community I don't think anyone was suggesting that we should but to broaden what we look for in a more holistic way I think that's the that's the suggestion

097if we can find other ways to measure other kinds of success and it's a conversation we as a board and everyone has had over the years how you know the accountability measures are not necessarily always the things we actually want to teach and measure so not looking for any specifics but how would you respond to that and what do you think the board should be asking for in that area yeah I think that's a great question we definitely can spend more time on that on Monday right now I would say we have in our strategic plan desired outcomes related to creating a balanced approach to assessment or a balanced assessment framework and we've actually been making growth in progress in FCPS in that regard and I think we're even pushing kind of state policy in

098the state of Virginia in that regard one of the things that we've been doing is we've been leading what's referred to as a networked improvement community which is essentially just a group of eleven school systems in the state of Virginia that are working on trying to get more performance based tasks into the assessment landscape not just for internal purposes but for external accountability as well and as a result of that work we saw the state give us policy flexibility to remove a number of Sol s in terms of assessing that content and those standards with multiple-choice assessments and allowed us to use performance-based tasks the work that this board did and this community did around portrait of a graduate we've seen the state adopt a profile of a graduate so now our work is just

099to continue to kind of push that agenda and push the envelope and to be able to demonstrate that we can reliably and validly measure the same content skills and you can measure on a standardized multiple choice assessment and we've got a lot of folks in this division that are already doing that and doing that well one of the slides that I'll present on Monday talks about that work in the work that we're doing in our capstone experiences a few of those things were highlighted in the video tonight with some of the students talking about their capstone experiences so we'd be happy to talk to about that a lot more detail Miss Korbut Sanders dr. Presidio thank you I think this is an excellent presentation and I really look forward to Monday's discussion one of the

100things that when I was a kid we used to have these great books where and I think it was mostly for girls where you would have like a picture of a kid of a child or a woman and then you would overlay clothing on and you'd overlay first the dress and then a hat and things like that and so your hot map is really important when I see the heat map for pre-k and as you know this is an area that I have been very concerned about in my community for a long time and we have increased we've had some success and we know that we'll be getting even more slots in the future but I think what would be helpful in the same way that you have this heat map and you have the

101various types of pre-k experiences laid out on here I also think we should be laying over that same heat map our title 1 schools and our poverty numbers because and then we should be laying over that heat map our diversity numbers and so that will allow us to and our number of children that are esal or new English language learners and you know you don't have to put it all on one map at the same time because that makes it impossible to actually do the analysis but I think it would be helpful to be able to pull up one and put down another so that we can really drill down on solutions that can address some of these concerns so if yeah absolutely and we'd be happy to dig into that on Monday we have

102some charts I think already that we could show and then maybe some additional ones that we would need to produce okay thank you very much dr. presidio so seeing no further questions we will look forward to a long discussion on Monday all right thank you all thank you very much colleagues I think we will not do our confirmation of action taking a close me until we finish our work at the end because we will go back into our closed session after this meeting okay so we do it all at once the next agenda item is a consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by single motion many items listed have gone through board review and documentation has been provided

103to 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 March 22nd 2018 regular school board meeting 6.0 to award the contract for the running track replacement at Falls Church High School truth fieldturf USA Inc in the amount of three hundred and eighty two thousand one hundred and forty seven dollars and fifty cents when authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 6.03 award a contract for the Oakland High School renovation project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Hanley construction Company Inc in the amount of eighty nine million seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars

104and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board six point zero four award a contract for the Marshall High School synthetic turf field replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder gt-r turf Inc in the amount of seven hundred and thirty six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars and forty two cents in authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board six point zero five award a contract for the Hutchison Elementary School synthetic turf field replacement project to the lowest responsive a responsible bidder gt-r turf Inc in the amount of four hundred and twenty three thousand nine hundred and

105eighty seven dollars and ninety three cents and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute delivery and administer the contract on behalf of the school board six point zero six award the contract for the chiller replacement at Mount Vernon High School to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder stingray welding LLC and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board six point zero seven award the contract for the chiller replacement at Franklin middle school to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Edward Cocker carrion & Company Inc and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board

106six point zero eight award the contract for the boiler replacement at Brien alternative high school to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder capital boiler works Inc in the amount of four hundred and ninety five thousand and forty three dollars and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board six point zero nine 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 objection the consent agenda is approved next is new business the following are new business agenda items there will not be a vote tonight on these items but action is scheduled at a future meeting 7.01 award the contract for the boiler replacement at

107Luther Jackson middle school to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 7.02 approved the 2018-2019 local special education annual plan section six one one Part B grant funding application and sections 619 Part B preschool grant funding application as detailed in the agenda item 7.03 award a contract for the Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School renovation project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and authorized the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 7.04 award a contract for the bryan alternative high school synthetic turf field replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and

108authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 7.05 approved the strategic plan goal one student success report as detailed in the agenda item next is superintendent matters dr. Bray brand Thank You chairman Strauss I want to share some kudos for some of our team here in FCPS we have received a certificate of achievement for excellence in financial reporting for a comprehensive annual financial report from the government finance Officers Association GFO a the award is the highest form of recognition in the area of governmental accounting and financial reporting and it's conferred to school systems that demonstrate a constructive spirit of full disclosure to clearly communicate their financial stories you know transparency is one of the things that's very

109important to me in leadership and I'm really proud of our finance folks for getting this award I think it's something that they've received miss Burton for several years and I am really just proud of having a consistent legacy of excellence around this kind of financial reporting here in Fairfax County Public Schools it's very important so Thank You Lee and thank your team for all their work I also want you to know for the second consecutive year FCPS has been named a 2008 tene Energy Star Partner of the year and this energy management award winner award goes for our efforts to improve energy efficiency in our buildings and facilities the district's accomplishments will actually be recognized by the EPA and the US Department of Energy at a ceremony in Washington DC on April 20th we earned

110the EPA's Energy Star certification 2015 and we have the most schools meeting those standards of any school division in the country the district has a long-standing partnership with the EPA that combines principal engagement energy-saving practices and the use of Energy Star equipment certified equipment to save energy and protect the environment and this year we were recognized for finding even new ways to save energy and promote success we save more than $5,000,000 $5,000,000 in energy costs in 2017 through such a comprehensive energy program finally I want you to know the third quarter ends tomorrow so next week is the beginning of the final stretch fourth quarter I've been talking to all of our principal associations this week and we have reminded them that we want everybody our students and faculty and all of our employees to

111finish up strong the school year this is in some ways one of the most important parts of the year we want to create a climate for good instruction we want to create a climate for good assessment whether it's a capstone project or problem-based learning or some of the more traditional standardized assessments or the national assessments that our kids do at the end of the year I told folks at the very beginning of the year to love kids to love teaching and learning and be professional and I expected each and every day but it's even more so here in fourth quarter where our kids have some of the best highs of the entire school year happened in fourth quarter for some of our children it's some of the biggest frustrations so we're really gonna try to

112be focused on being there and meeting our kids needs each and every day through the fourth quarter and looking forward to finishing out the school year so thank you very much thank you dr. berry bran next we have committee reports Nicole and mr. Arnett Koufax for an update on governance committee our Governance Committee met last week and we talked about changes in the MS o AC committee structure and we also are trying to nail down a date for the we thought we had one and then there's been some changes for a follow-up to our retreats we were hoping to do July we may not be able to do with them so it may be either late June or September but we will keep you updated and we'll give you another fuller report on these issues

113next Thursday's work session great thank you now we have board members and I will start with mrs. Keith Kamara thank you madam chair I'm really happy that we were first of all honoring the military families and the military child and I for one want to thank our families and just really proud that we were able to do that today and I also want to congratulate our student representative Miss Matakana never received an acceptance to Duke University today you would think you would think UNC UNC and Duke I'm sorry I got it wrong fully pay fully pay so I think she deserves to be recognized so congratulations with respect to our week we've had a busy week we were obviously all together at the National School Board Association my first so I enjoy that very much

114with my colleagues and also had an opportunity to attend the Fairfax County Council of PTAs discussion on safety where our colleague Karen Corbin Sanders was one of the panelists and also were had an opportunity to go to Mount Vernon High School where they opened up their new Career Center quite impressive some of the things that are happening in our schools so I'm looking forward to doing more visits and again congratulations to our youngest colleague mr. Nicole facts yes congratulations static on it was how wonderful for you we're so excited for you I too thoroughly enjoy my time with my colleagues at the National School Boards Association conference for those of you who don't know what that is it's an annual event where school board members from around the country can meet share ideas and learn

115about best practices in school board governance since that we were over there over the a long weekend thank you all - who came out to the lead district budget town hall I held with jeff mckay thank you - to lea burden and her staff for their assistance with this event I'd really appreciate you being there I had the pleasure of attending rescheduled Read Across America events that were snowed out or winded out I can't remember which one but I was able to read with students at Hydra Valley and Forrest Dale and that is one of the favored most favorite things that I do on this board so it was a wonderful opportunity to do that last week I also want to thank the Fairfax County Council of PTAs for organizing a panel discussion where participants

116discuss safety at home safety at school and what parents can do to curb gun violence I we held front heard from many participants and there was lots of discussion back and forth so thank you for organizing that that was an evening well spent earlier this week and next week I look forward to meeting with the Edison High School PTA and I will be there with dr. Bray Graham so thank you mitchell's I first want to give them a heads up shout out to Theresa Johnson and all the special education staff today as a parent I rarely comment on my you know my own children but I went through the IEP process update for the first time with the benefit of the universal screener and saw very significant salient details that benefitted and and actually I

117think it's sped up the IEP process so I was also I'm also grateful that there were there weren't 22 people in the room so if you found a way to streamline it and save our staff and our buildings time or at least in my own specific building just as a parent you know I experienced the benefits of the policy that we've implemented and and I'm grateful for that I want to congratulate I don't know if you go by Ben Benny Benjamin but I'm sad I was thrilled to be at the National School Board Association conference but it was the first time in years I've missed the essay C election I usually stay for the whole thing so we'll look forward to getting to know you and we'll welcome you as the student member of the

118board I do want to comment for people who are hearing us talk about the National School Board Association just briefly it sounds like it's a boondoggle and I will say that I was an early naysayer I like why are these people flying around the country going to a conference and it is a very valuable endeavor to do professional development as a public policy and education policy governor of a school system especially a large one we get to take ourselves out of ourselves and I sat with superintendents State School Board Association executives school board members school board chairs from school districts literally around the country in many different venues and it really is very beneficial to give us some perspective there is a Fairfax way of doing things and it's not that it's wrong or right

119but to learn and and glean information from other subject matter experts on many different topics is very very helpful I do want to acknowledge my high schools I've done two more student town halls still rises to the top of the very best thing that I do and I look forward to potentially dr. Bray brand staff finding a way to do something similar we make policy at children and for children but not often with children the opportunity to sit unfettered and have discussions with students and hear their perspective is extremely beneficial particularly we had a video tonight that presented more FCPS on and technology listening to students from a student's perspective about what they think about technology and the use in the classroom is very revealing just as revealing as it is to go and do

120professional development with colleagues from across the country so I look forward to continuing that discussion I think there is much more discussion to be had and but I'm glad for us to get back to the business of the board now that we're back miss Hines yeah thank you so I attended the Washington area Boards of Education meeting last night about three times a year that group gets together and it's basically what it sounds like it's the Washington DC area Boards of Education everybody sends one representative from their board about three times a year to sit in here from some from staff at one of the school systems talk about something innovative that they're doing so that everyone representatives from other boards can hear that last night we were in Prince George's County at oxen Hill

121High School which is right near National Harbor and all those great restaurants there and they have this amazing culinary arts program I know some of our schools do as well but they did feed us last night which was some was worth driving oxen Hill for that but actually I have been I don't know if my colleagues know this but I have been the chair of way B for the last two plus years and last night the representative from PG County took over as chair so I'm grateful to him for that um and just for people who don't know the probably the greatest value of the Washington area Boards of Education is actually that FCPS is finance office every year collects data from all the school systems in the area and publishes the wavy guide which

122basically allows us to do apples to apples comparisons between our school systems in the region in all kinds of data you know so it's a really useful service that actually FCPS provides with data from all the school systems coming up on Saturday rest and Founders Day has come around again seems like it said can't be a year already I think we're up to rest in his uptime 53 years old or maybe older than that I've lost track it's just in every year on lake in the original lake Ian's right there at Reston we celebrate those visionary people who stood at that spot all those years ago and imagined a community like Weston and that you know we have this vibrant wonderful community now so I'll be representing the school board there I want to thank

123the principal's in my district 100 mill district for taking some time and phone calls with me I decided to reach out to them and just ask for their thoughts and reflections on safety school safety because that is an issue right now is that I know that our wonderful safety and security folks are doing a lot of research and they are updating policy and practice and they're gonna get back to the board on that it's it's an area of concern in the community although it sounds like from talking to our principals people are calmly going about the day-to-day and having faith and there are not major concerns but it was it was nice to hear that it was nice to hear that the principals have a do have a lot of faith in our safety and

124security people and so I just kind of wanted to get their perspective on it as the board may be looking at some changes and new ideas finally I hope to see lots of people at the 13th annual Special Education conference on April 21st that is Saturday after this at Hayfield secondary school it is always well attended and well-run and definitely worth the morning mr. moon I'm gonna pass madam chair mr. Corbin Sanders I hope everybody had a great spring break it's hard to believe that we are now finishing up our third quarter and about to start off on our fourth quarter so I wish all of our students and families a great weekend where they can re-energized before they are back in the classroom next week I also wanted to urge families and community members

125to get out and visit our middle and high schools and attend our plays and musicals that are widely available in the community and it's a wonderful opportunity to see the great talents of all of our kids wanted to thank Northern Virginia Community College in the Bank of America for their generous support in establishing the new college and career center at Mount Vernon High School that mrs. Keys Gemara mentioned we were lucky to have both miss Keith Kamara and mr. moon there yesterday and it was a great event to celebrate this new facility I also want to thank the folks that put together the student Environmental Action showcase at George Mason yesterday that was a wonderful event to showcase so many of our students as they did recycling and environmental projects students as young as of

126kindergarten and first grade and all the way through high school and thank you to the Fairfax County Council of PTAs for their organizing the meeting on safety and security earlier this week look forward to seeing you all next week mr. McIlwain thank you madam chair earlier tonight I was informed that our esteemed superintendent will be coming to down to Dupont Circle to the greatest think tank in the world to speak on April 25th at 1:30 he will be sharing the stage with former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin among others so anyone who wants to come down that day happy to go out to lunch before that and I know Scott won't eat but he can watch us eat before his panel so congratulations superintendent on that important invitation miss mcLaughlin I just wanted to again congratulate

127Benny from South Lakes on his election to next year's school board representative as I shared with him a little bit earlier this evening my son serves as chair of the Woodson delegation and was sending me text message updates at every round of the votes that started with 30 amazing candidates who wanted to serve in this position and the fact that the students then had to go through multiple rounds to get to just the one and only it's really quite an achievement Benny and we're very excited to see someone from hunter mill and one of the high schools we have not seen in a very long time being able to bring your voice to this board to our superintendent to our community it's really going to be an exciting coming year for all of us to

128get to work with you and as we've told miss manaconda and and the students before we are very mindful that school comes first so you do what you can but make sure you always take care of your health and the things that are most important especially if you'll be heading into your senior year correct yeah so and many of us have had our children going through college admissions in the last four years so any advice you want to glean from any of us we will gladly share that as well with you in the fall so welcome and we're looking forward to working with you I just want to also say to my colleagues that it was really nice to spend time with so many of you at the national school board conference this past weekend

129in San Antonio and as as Miss Schultz said it's really incredible when we get to go to these sessions and learn what's going on at a national level and to learn about important things like how can we be better with our data or how can we be better in engaging with our communities and how we can look at student who come from adverse childhood experiences and what does that mean for the work that we do in meeting the needs of a whole child and so there really was such a wealth of information great public speakers but again also appreciated the time it gave all of us to spend some time together so miss Evans thank you madam chair I want to thank everybody who came out for my Mason district town hall meeting on the

130budget and those who came for the tour ahead of time of Baileys upper elementary school it was great to see so many people come out both for the tour and for the town-hall meeting so I appreciate people taking the time and having the conversation I was very pleased a week ago to attend the groundbreaking for the Bailey's Crossroads community shelter and supportive housing as we continue to try to get as close to zero as we can on homelessness in Fairfax County this is a great effort forward by our County and I was pleased that congressman Connolly was there Congressman buyer chairman Bulova a supervisor gross of course representing Mason district and supervisor Jeff McKay so as well as many business leaders nonprofits and community volunteers and supporters so thanks to everyone who worked tirelessly to

131to get that to where it is now and I this is shine on week at Stewart High School a unique event and unique week in honor of Casey Shulman who is an alum of Stewart High School and it is focused on spreading kindness positivity and Cheer which is the way Casey was very much and tomorrow there will be a spring fest there which I'm going to head over to to help them celebrate the the end of shine on and I will see people there tomorrow and would that I wish everyone good night thank you I congratulate again our facilities and school system for the Energy Star Award that is quite outstandingly I believe our the leading energy star School in the int school system in the country so you do good work and I know

132we have a lot of interest in continuing down that road and becoming as efficient as possible so I'm proud of the work that we do at the NSBA conference I spend a lot of time on technology information legal information and as some of my colleagues have mentioned it's a wonderful opportunity to get a sense of public school needs and trends across the nation because we are we educated public schools educate over 90% of the children in the country so we are the foundation for our democracy and economy I feel strongly you know it was interesting I met a very dedicated school remember from Alaska who represents the schools in the Bering Strait and as part of her agenda is to move a village and a school so but she's very dedicated to her children and

133had had many interesting things to comment about our children in her family so as a nation we are very much committed to quality education for every single student with that we have to return to our close meaning so I will read the motion the school board will now make a motion to go into closed meeting - okay hold on because we've finished some of this to consider but I have to find the legal piece I'm not gonna read it all oh here it is and to discuss and consider disciplinary matters concerning three students pursuant to section 2.2 - 3 7 1 1 a2 of the Code of Virginia that is what remains is there a motion move by mr. moon seconded by miss Hines all those in favor that motion is unanimous thank you very

134much so we are in closed