FCPS School Board Public Hearing - May 16, 2017

001hello 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3 testing hello 1 2 3 1 2 hello 1 2 3 yes [Music] all right if everyone board members can get in their seats we'll be starting in about two minutes thank you good evening everyone I'm Tammy Darren at Koufax and I'm serving as this year's budget chair so I'll be running tonight's public hearing welcome to this public hearing and because of the school board members I want to thank you for taking time out of your evening to come and talk to us about our approved budget at this time I would ask you to please turn off or silence your cellphone's tonight we have 50 registered speakers six of which are students and they will be speaking first our students each speaker is a lot of

002three minutes and to be respectful of everyone I ask that you please stay within those three minutes time that three minute time limit the clerk will start the timer excuse me and my phone that I could not tear it off see turn off your cell phone mr. Arnett Koufax here we go all right as I said the clerk will start a timer when you begin to speak and you will be able to see the time remaining on the clock at the lectern the buzzer will sound at the conclusion of your three minutes three names will be announced at a time and when you hear your name please move closer to the front of the auditorium so you'll be ready when it is your turn to speak if you plan to yield your slot to someone

003else and you did not call in advance please come up to the podium when your name is called and give your time to another speaker for the record if speakers are not here when their name is called I will call those names at a later time there will be an opportunity for individuals to speak if there are no show speaker slots remaining at the end of the entirety of the hearing after all the registered speakers have addressed the board I will announce whether or not there are no smoke no show slots available and for this we ask that you state your full name at the time you speak after you have spoken please see one of the clerk's over here to my right and they will collect your contact information for the record throughout the

004evening you may notice that board members leave the table at times but we do have access in the back to television that is broadcasting this public hearing and so we will be watching at all times and with that I will begin calling our first student speakers and we will begin with James Robinson followed by Anaya correct and Naomi burr hey good evening my name is James Robinson and I'm a fourth grader at Wolfe Jeff Elementary I'm here to ask you to not allow the class size increases in our schools next year because all children deserve to sit in quality class sizes I have a question would you ever invite 28 or more fourth graders and to your home for a playdate I know how crazy it makes my mom when if we get to ready

005when I was just one friend over for a playdate I don't think she would ever invite 28 fourth graders over for a playdate yet I've been in classes of 28 or more in all my years at Wolf Trap I spoke about my large classes with you two years ago when I began my second grade year at Wolf Trap with 29 students per class and this year I have classes of 28 in our first grade classes are at 29 it is so crowded in our school I often sit in the hallway for our small group work because it is the quiet please consciously yeah the larger class makes it difficult to line up for recess lunch in other classrooms in fact one day we were over five minutes late from recess because kids wouldn't line up

006there was just too many talking and being receptive I hate having to waste time waiting in line every day rather than having more time for recess my favorite class this year we studied colonial life in America we were given the assignment to write a convincing argument for why would be a great president and choose one of her favorite colonial leaders to be our running mate actual James Madison because of the his leading role in writing our Constitution I just three minutes to present and receive a few comments from my classmates there was so little time for discussion because we had to get through 28 presentations our class size is so large we don't get called on much to answer questions I think hold on maybe one if I'm lucky two times a day and it's

007difficult to get much of my teachers time on my classwork I don't I can only hope to see to some day see how I feel should be called on more to have more teacher comments on the homework papers and tests I don't blame my awesome teachers for this and I know they stay really late at school just to keep up with the workload in my large class I'm afraid to think how clouded my classes will be if you allow the class size increases I'm also afraid of how much less I'll get called on by my teachers or get comments on my homework please do not approve the increase of our class size next year thank you thank you [Applause] Norma hire parkerich hello my name is Ania Herrick I am a sophomore at McLean high

008school and I've come to express my concern for the catastrophic effects of the freeze on teachers paycheck teachers are the rock that the future of America is depending on they dedicate themselves towards providing students with the proper skills necessary to thrive in today's economy they're the mentors that encourage and motivate students to try something new the purpose of this public school system is to provide the opportunity for all students from any background to succeed with the best possible education that will allow them to fulfill their dreams the idea of being able to make your dreams come true through hard work as one of the pillars that this nation was built upon and makes this country unique it is our responsibility to uphold this idea by allowing our teachers to carry on inspiring our youth by

009underpaying teachers we are forcing them to seek other sources of income that take away their time from the classroom the budget has to prioritize relationships between students and teachers the world today is in desperate need of innovators to solve widespread environmental social health and political issues the school system has the potential to produce the future problem solvers that will tackle epidemics world hunger unemployment refugee crises etc let's create more opportunities for the future by enabling teachers to continue to inspire curiosity I know that like many other parents my parents have sacrificed a lot to give me the opportunity to go to a Fairfax County Public Schools so that I can fulfill my dreams that I can work hard and reach where I want to be in life and I know that other parents feel the

010same way in the school system and I think that is only fair that we give them the opportunity to do this thank you for your time thank you next is Naomi burr Hey followed by Randall Weidman and Laura Sizemore Naomi all right Randall widening good evening to the board and two fellow concerned community members my name is Randy Whiteman and I am the proud product of FCPS from kindergarten at least Corner elementary through my graduation from Chantilly high school next month I have attended Fairfax County Public Schools for almost 13 years I believe education is the best and most effective way to social climb but when we decrease the quality of kids education we tarnish the very ability they have to social climb and pursue the American dream because of the opportunities afforded to me

011through the excellent programs of FCPS and through my motivations I have been able to take advantage of a wide array of academic and extracurricular opportunities and will be attending a Tier one research university next year on an academic scholarship to their Honors Program my mom was the first person in her family to go to college she too graduated from Chantilly and I hope to be the first person in my family to graduate from med school I truly believe that the school system I grew up and had a distinct and direct impact on the trajectory of my life however when class size increases are proposed there are many rippling aftershocks teachers are expected to teach to more students there are often hiring limits and sometimes existing teachers are cut there's an added strain on student growth

012it takes longer to get feedback and it's tougher for students and their families to analyze and strategically increase our academic progress across middle in high school I've taken eight laboratory science courses the impact of increased class sizes has been well felt in the laboratory setting as due to the material limits and safety concerns given the size of the class we have had to observe demonstrations instead of experiencing the experiments for ourselves during other laboratory activities we often take turns performing the experiment the traditional lab partners of two has exploded to a lab group of five and six this encroaches Student Success and subsequent learning in laboratory science research an APA teacher of mine was so hard pressed to return papers from our diagnostic tests before the AP exam he graded papers during the previews when

013he went to the movies with his family and while sitting in the back of his daughter's Saturday performance teachers are leaving and despite having one of the most academically competitive school systems in our area we are the least competitive and how we treat and compensate our teachers there is an inequitable distribution of class sizes and scps chooses to conceal their individual middle and high school class size averages instead providing county averages hiding data and obstructing information from students and their families taxpayers and concern community members it is not uncommon at my school for a 35 person course to run next door to a 15 person class or from multiple sections of the same class to run on a range of 17 to 34 students this inequitable discrepancy puts strains on teachers and hurt students an

014increase like this doesn't seem at the surface to be quite so harmful but it's not the limit that we're raising rather the target and sometimes classes are overfilled as a student I've seen this firsthand a few extra kids goes beyond the number we're trying to swallow here tonight a class that once was 30 becomes 32 and in the case of my freshman language graduation requirement French force 34 seats are jammed into a room like a maze 34 kids I respectfully ask that you not allow the point 5 across-the-board increase in all FCPS elementary middle and high school classes to occur thank you very much for your time [Applause] Thank You Lora Sizemore followed by Parker Brown hello my name is Laura Sizemore and I am a senior at Lake Braddock secondary school I'm here to

015ask you to please not cut funding for special education my brother and I have been educated in Fairfax County Schools our entire school life and we have both benefited from its special education services my brother Jake was diagnosed with low functioning autism when he was 2 everyone wrote him off they said he wouldn't speak that he wouldn't understand anything that we should just put him in an institution instead thanks to both home ABA therapy in the special education services he was offered to Fairfax County he improved he started talking he no longer has meltdowns he's independent and has friends most importantly because of special education he discovered his strengths you see my brother is a brilliant musician what special education gave my brother were the skills language attention and more to discover his love and

016talent for music because of special education he can sit through music lessons he can work with other kids and bands he's learned music now in eighth grade he's one of the two middle schoolers in the advanced guitar ensemble he's auditioned on Broadway he's in played in front of thousands on the national ball and he can play you a three-hour set at the drop of a hat it may not seem like a big deal to you but to him special education opened the doors to his future career a musician he will someday be a productive citizen thanks to the skills special-education gave him without it he would most likely be a burden on society with it he has a life a career in something he loves and is incredibly good at special education also gave me

017my life back when I was 8 I watched my dad die suddenly of a brain aneurysm causing me to develop PTSD and anxiety by sixth grade my anxiety was out of control I'm afraid what might have happened it's amazing school counselor hadn't recognized my need for help despite being in the a AP program I need a special education to help me learn to deal with the trauma in my life thanks to therapy in the supportive school to my 504 I learned to deal with my anxiety each year Maya 5:04 grew smaller as I learned to cope I didn't mean much for what I needed was critical for mental health and success at school I feel like sometimes when people think of special education they don't think of someone like me someone who will graduate a

018few weeks in will attend Cornell University next fall they don't think of someone like my brother whose autism means he can't maintain the conversation but can play four musical instruments has played 19 gigs across this county just this year he may not end up in an Ivy League like me but he's already a successful musician and I prayed today you will someday see him at the Grammys special education kids have amazing potential please don't take away the services they need they're human beings who as much of a right to be as part of our society due to circumstances beyond our control require additional educational support take their place in society don't take away what they need to live with dignity thank you for listening Parker Brown Thank You members of the FCPS school board my

019name is Parker Brown and I'm a sophomore at West sprinkle of high school I'm here to discuss the 2018 FCPS budget currently FCPS faces a budget shortfall of approximately 47 million dollars numerous changes to the budget have been suggested to counteract the shortfall one of which is increasing the student staffing ratio formula by point five students per teacher at all school levels this change will save the school system nearly fifteen million dollars but I urge all of you to consider the negative effects of such action at my local elementary school every single kindergarten classroom already has 27 students and in third grade every single classroom has 30 students or more at my high school class size varies from 28 to 31 students and from a student's perspective classes are already oversized the best way we

020can improve our county's education system it to not make classes larger but to make them smaller as much as teachers try to ensure that every student feels like a part of the class when we have over 30 students per classroom sometimes students are simply lost in the shuffle at this time the county is currently emphasizing its dedication to the preservation of students mental health when I feel these class size increases will only create new barriers between students and their teachers causing students to feel neglected and sometimes even invisible the staff currently uses technology to connect us with our learning but students have to feel that their teachers connect with them there's nothing better than hands-on or verbal instruction from a teacher that knows his or her students even if the change suggested is only point

021five students larger class on average the still means that class sizes will increase by several students per classroom students as performance and classes could very well precipitate class management will be harder for individual teachers and many teachers may even leave the county simply because they do not wish to have a class with 34 or more students balancing FCPS budget is very important and I as many other community members however feel that increasing class size is not the salut to this dorm thank you for considering the students perspective thank you before I believe the student section has an I am Ibrahim ya know so Clark's if she comes please alert me so now we're going to go on to the citizen since we finish the student group we have Joe nuber followed by delegate Jim Lamar

022LeMond yin and then David Edelman can you hear me yeah sorry look sorry there okay that's better hi good evening my name is Joan uber I'm the proud parent of James Robinson the 4th grader you first heard speak tonight I'm also co-chair of class size counts a group with reached to over 5,000 people who support reasonable class sizes for all our students and teachers over the past five years class size counts has worked with state and local legislators teachers associations and others to reduce the number of excessively large class sizes joining us tonight is one of our class heroes delegate Joomla Munya who worked with us on bipartisan class size legislation this year including a bill that passed which now requires middle and high school class size reporting however much work remains the F CPS

023staff recommendation to increase class size by 0.5 students across the board will have a negative impact on the dozens of schools that do not receive the extra teachers to reduce class size our FCPS standard pupil-teacher ratios are already unacceptably high 26.8 elementary school students per teacher 27.4 in middle 30.5 in high school 30.5 this means we are still seeing many actual classes well north of that into the 30s as you heard our students so eloquently tell you to some maybe this does not seem like a real problem much less a priority but opposing the point 5 increase is a priority to the many voices who signed our current class size counts petition which I urge you to read and to consider large classes create problems they burn out our teachers and increased teacher attrition according

024to a national survey large classes are one of the top three reasons teachers leave the profession are in our EFTPS 2014 teacher's survey also said classified at the top concern large classes result in greater difficulty with classroom management more focus on discipline and less time for differentiated instruction large classes also result in less teacher feedback on assignments greater safety hazards and fewer critical learning activities I mean there's simply not enough time for 3d students or more to participate in a quality project-based learning assignment without attached our numerous possible ways to address the budget gap I'll cite a few examples of ways you can address the budget graph without increasing class size first clawback of student enrollment that may not materialize this fall is projected and then allocate those positions back to classes with 30 or

025more students seconds more equitable pay holidays for FCPS employees because our teachers are not paid for at least a dozen holidays during the school year that our central staff and administrators are paid imagine if you even cut five of those paid days you would save about three million dollars FCPS central department budgets exceed 300 million and you've only identified three million in cuts these are just a few examples of things you might look at rather than balancing the budget on the backs of our students and teachers FCPS has an opportunity to be a leader in VA by resisting the efforts underway to increase class sizes please consider this petition and thank you for your time thank you [Applause] good evening my name is jim l'm onion i'm the father of three fairfax county public school

026graduates husband of a regular substitute teacher who's been doing that for 20 years and I also serve at the Virginia House of Delegates representing 85,000 the finest people in Fairfax and Loudoun counties and the Chantilly area and surrounding areas I'm here tonight just to associate myself with the remarks that several people have already made related to class sizes and it would be my hope that you would not adopt the proposal to increase by 0.5 in addition to that though I hope you would examine what might be and I just underscore might be an opportunity as was mentioned I had a bill that would have placed statewide a cap on class sizes at 29 in grades K through 6 and we scored that as the state does in terms of budget impact I was surprised that

027it was only five point five million dollars statewide we didn't have five point five million dollars to earmark out of the budget because we wanted to keep that education budget as big as it could be so that counties like Fairfax could get the six hundred and fifty three million dollar check that we're going to get next year I understand that but in doing the math it seemed and I just say seems because it was state numbers and perhaps not exact that a county like Fairfax might be able to achieve that for less than a million dollars and I would just encourage you if you haven't run the numbers on that or the people who run those numbers haven't done that for you I would encourage you to do that because I think you all know

028better than I what err wherever you come out on this budget there's going to be some disappointment I think it would be really powerful to say if you could say it that in spite of some of the disappointments Fairfax County elementary schools will never have a class bigger than 29 see if you can accomplish that I'm not here to promise you that you can but there was some indication that maybe that's within the realm of the possible if you can't please let me know that too because if the voter want me back next year that bills probably coming back next year and I do want to get the numbers right related to a broader issue in looking at your budget documents and again you know these better than I it appeared that expenses are rising

029faster than enrollment maybe five percent a year versus one to two percent for enrollment if there is any way more at the county the school division can leverage the state's purchasing power in any way that it might be done if there's some obstacle in the way please let us know and in particular please let me know I happen to chair the Subcommittee on procurement and a lot of what we look at is ways that local governments can leverage the state's purchasing power to save money so that in this case more money can make it to the classroom for student learning and student achievement thank you for your service to the people and the students at Fairfax County thank you David Edelman followed by precious Crabtree and Kevin Dickerson good evening school board members I'm glad

030to be back again I'm David Edelman I'm the chair of invest in Fairfax which is a coalition of groups and individuals interested in keeping Fairfax County a great place to live and I want to acknowledge that the continuing financial difficulties at the school board sees themself and FY 2016 and we are facing some competing budget priorities as usual and I want to highlight what I believe is a disparate thing that impacts our schools and that is teacher salaries are no longer competitive with surrounding jurisdictions as in the way we guide my experience anecdotally as I talked to school school administrators teachers parents and students is that some of our best teachers are being lost to counties like Arlington and Loudoun because they're paying more money and we need to increase salaries to keep us competitive

031with our surrounding jurisdictions this revenue streams to the county have remained in a sluggish environment with low growth and we have not been able to secure any new sources of revenue investment Fairfax is now exploring some cost-saving measures I'd like to share with you to this end a small group of us in invest in Fairfax have looked at infrastructure and created a memo where we think that maybe tens of millions and maybe more of dollars can be saved and I would say this would be safe not only on this school side but also on the county side I have provided a memo that's much more longer for you to take a look at on these issues we also believe that the principals of one Fairfax if the counties put forward in quarters in terms of

032in terms of coordinating services in terms of coordinating cost savings have some opportunity here I will outline for the audience and for you a couple of the things that we think could be costs say in facilities things like roofing lighting solar HVAC for our energy efficiency energy costs come out of the operating budget co-locating county and school facilities one idea I heard was possibly a library when the school different types of colocation might save the county some money cost savings and transportation hybrid and plug-in buses with a different with the fossil fuels are no longer something that is cutting-edge but something that's fairly common I mean we have the largest bus fleet in America we could definitely reduce our size so to this end we are recommending a one Fairfax committee to look at these

033energy savings and ideas in cost savings and facilities and transportation and the committee would be stakeholders that were that would report but back to the superintendent and the executive director I hope you take a look at the memo and think would follow thanks thank you [Applause] I was supposed to be secret number two and can I speak sure please hate ringing my name is Mary Beth hey um unfair treatment of teachers least to decline education my name is Mary Beth hey I'm a sophomore McLean high school and I worked on this presentation with Anaya her my education and the education 200,000 other students as an F CPS hasn't cause memorized because teachers salaries has been frozen because of this many good teachers have left the county to go to Laden Arlington over a 30-year career

034an F CPS teacher earns around three hundred thousand dollars less than a teacher Arlington also many of the teachers who do stay not only have a second job but a third job as well just to support the cost of living while inflation Rises the payment of teachers stay the same this takes a major toll on the teachers and the suffering trickles down so students because teachers are no longer able to teach to their best of their abilities instead of giving their full undivided attention to teaching the future of America they have to worry about their second and third jobs their payment is inadequate and even that is an understatement my question is why is adequate payment of teachers our problem when FCPS one of the richest schools which richest school districts in America why are

035teachers being under under in event invested in and lastly why is my education along with many others has to suffer thank you thank you we have precious Crabtree's followed by kevin Hickerson and in key lila rent a good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is precious Crabtree and many of you know me well because I speak up when I feel the need to voice concerns shared by my colleagues but also when I feel something positive in our county should be celebrated today I'm going to start with something positive last month two Peruvian artists visited my school for a week to work with my students and staff it was an incredible experience a students not only learned new clay hand building techniques and how to be freer in their artwork but they witnessed how artists around

036the world influence in our influenced by the cultures and environments which they work having Pablo Marylou teaching helped us to see how people who are different from us can relate to us in what they see differently once students shared another said being a global artist means you can connect with more people from different places in the world and you're able to tell stories through your artwork that others are able to connect with this awesome opportunity got me thinking about how important it is to proactively engage our students with learning experiences that capture their imaginations and that's not easy and it becomes harder and harder as our class sizes increase this is especially important among younger students who require more individualized attention so I ask tonight that you hold our k2 kids harmless in the class

037size increase I have 21 years of experience and I like to think that I'm a good teacher with strong classroom management skills yet this year I feel me dressing more behavioral issues than ever in my lower grades at times I feel that I'm constantly in reactive mode putting one fire out after another I'm trying to stop my IDI students from melting down help my students who are learning English to understand keep my energetic students focus my anxiety filled students calm and my insanity intact my heart breaks a little bit each day knowing that my kids in the middle might be getting left behind because there are so many who demand more of my time currently I have classes with 27 and 28 students in grades 1 & 2 further the demands placed on our profession

038continue to stack up teachers are now being made to sit through hour-long CLT meetings one for math and one for language art every week this leaves them a day with no plan at all and no breaks and then the other day it's a very short time so it's very hard to get things done during that time so while we have a budget deficit and we do need to make cuts we can't afford to balance the budget on the backs of students and teachers and expect a positive outcome I am grateful for your commitment to improving our salaries and compensation since I've divorced I've worked two to three extra jobs but please don't increase class sizes for k2 and please eliminate workload that stifles our creativity and leaves little time to actually plan and implement lessons

039that support this data give us the breathing room and support we need to provide our students with meaningful educational experiences each and every day thank [Applause] good evening I'm Kevin Hickerson president of Fairfax Education Association and tonight I come to talk to you about what we can do in addition to the pay increases that you are considering for the 2017-2018 school year I was taught years ago that there are three important resources organizations have that they must spend wisely they are people money and time from the experiences that I've had in FS over the last 13 years I would also add respect as part of the equation respect for employees does not just come from pay increases alone but in conjunction with acknowledging the difficulties of their respective jobs our employees are overwhelmed from the

040stress of their responsibilities with mandates that are both in and out of their control Elementary specialists teach the enrollment of the entire building making grades and comments for each of those students on a tight deadline special education teachers manage multiple students on a caseload and adhere to laws for I EPS while teaching their students our teachers are differentiating instruction to make sure that their children they educate are getting the individual instruction they deserve custodians are pushing extra hours of work into already stretched schedules bus drivers are picking up extra routes to make sure our students are safely brought to and from school instructional assistants are covering classrooms when a substitute is unavailable generally our employees do not bother mentioning the extras they are doing because they are prideful professionals who want to get the job

041done that's why employee organizations like FBA exist we give a voice of the voiceless and help them find and use it here are some suggestions from our members that should not cost any money that would have the direct impact on employee morale allow you to retain more employees one consider possible changes the way the collaborative learning teams are being implemented seal T's are working well in a few buildings but implementation varies widely across the district and is problematic when teachers do not run the teams our CLT groups are experiencing a micromanaging from administrators on CLT meeting times dates duration and agenda and minutes administration must allow for teachers to be the professionals and guide their education practice and easily there needs to be a regulation that limits the amount of CLT meetings required by administration

042and make sure that they are held during normal contract hours to an elementary school master schedule task force must be implemented to create master calendars that make program offerings equitable throughout FCPS in an effort to enhance a portrait of a graduate over the last couple weeks I have been to multiple elementary schools across different regions and pyramids they all said the same thing the master calendar is a mess we need to look now at how the regulations on these are actually serving our students teachers and administration finally we can and must eliminate bullying in the workplace while Fairfax County Public Schools is a great place to work there is still bullying within all classifications of employees we do not tolerate bullying of our students and we shall not shall not tolerate it for our employees

043other school districts from around the country have anti-bullying regulations it is time for us to have them as well taking action on these three items can have a huge impact on retention and overall employee satisfaction increasing pay and maintaining our benefits is commendable and should be continued but we would like to have a seat at the table for the rest of those issues thank you we have Kiwi Lorenzi followed by Sarah spear and Kimberly Adams hello my name is Keeley Loretta and I'm a parent of two elementary age students for the past five years I've worked to help raise education funding at the state and local level as well as reduced class size I am here today again mainly to advocate against increasing class sizes this year in November 2012 the Washington Examiner ran an

044article citing lost rep elementary violated state elementary class caps because the certain fourth-grade class was has 37 and 38 students in the math class my family is in first grade at the time in a class of 20 and then 29 I realized then that class size affected all classes and grades and was an issue the following year my child was placed in a second-grade class of 32 students which was also above the state camp parents complained and we didn't have a reading specialist so it's a second grade teacher was given but no extra funding and yet the staffing reserve was in excess and the school board voted to fund turf fields instead the following year and third grade my child was in a class of 31 the year after that a class of 30 finally

045with the regulation 13 Oh 2.1 coming into effect my fifth grader hat is in a class under 25 and my first grader is in a class of 29 with an aide it is the first year that class size has not been a major concern so I studied why this was happening and FCPS and 2015 as part of their save FCPS campaign put a list of budget savings since the recession on the chart a list approximately 48 million was saved by increasing class size over all those years another 13 million for reducing staffing reserves so class size ratios have been increased three times since 2009 that is an increase in a ratio of 1.5 students per grade which for a school of about 600 students means a reduction of two teachers now our ratios are the

046highest in the state and the DC metro area and after five years of advocacy and maybe ten million dollars coming back into the budget we're now looking at a potential 15 million dollars in cuts again it also became clear to me that teachers are being affected by these class sizes teachers not only had to worry about the workload with increased class sizes but they also had to worry about whether they have to leave for another school or lose their job when caring Garza started in 2013 she put out a questionnaire asking FCPS how FCPS could be improved and a number one request was to reduce class size that school that spring the school board decided to raise class sizes for the third time and I think this led many parents of residents to become disillusioned

047with CPS budget and request for additional money since that last class price increase many people have involved in classified advocacy at the local and state level the governor McAuliffe has also increased spending for education and this Kathy Hudgens has also supported the meals tax and and raises each year I also ask that FCPS look at project-based learning and how that affects class size because I think it means that students have less time with teachers with that type of learning I ask that you consider we consider raising class sizes thank you [Applause] hello my name is Sarah spear and I have a third grader at Flint Hill Elementary please consider other ways to balance the budget and recent class sizes again more importantly please ensure that the funds that is an earmark to alleviate overly large

048class sizes stays in the budget our students are not statistics when class size formulas change they can have dramatic effects on individual class sizes and individual students in first grade my son was in a class with 29 students in one teacher with no aid since then his classes have had 24 students I volunteer in the classroom and I can see a huge difference in the classroom management between 24 and 29 students however if the earmarked funds for large class sizes disappears class sizes could balloon again due to the very high Virginia state caps of 35 students the noise produced in large classrooms makes it difficult to hear and concentrate particularly for students with special needs or ADHD how do teachers have meaningful interactions in classrooms with 30-plus students how do they find time to recognize

049and address issues such as speech problems sadly I found out that they don't I witness classrooms so crowded that the kids are tripping over each other the kids in the back of the room can't see and don't participate some can't read the directions for the work they are supposed to do how do they get started on most days when there are no volunteers in classes are this large their work doesn't get checked students give up and resort to copying their neighbors work because they aren't getting the help they need the so many kids in the class it becomes almost impossible for teachers to differentiate some students struggle with the basics and just as many aren't being challenged and cause disruptions only 37% of Flint Hills teachers agree to this statement class sizes are reasonable such

050that teachers have time to meet educational needs of all students please find other ways to cut costs or raise money first can we look at how the needs-based funding formulas are being applied I don't recommend cutting classroom funds that high needs schools however do these schools really need to have more custodial and administrative staff compared to low need schools at the same size for example Annandale Terrace is budgeted to spend $200,000 or 50% more on administrative expenses than Flint Hill nice schools have almost identical enrollment have we looked at out-of-the-box ways of raising funds such as advertising on all those buses or naming rights for stadiums and auditoriums the Smithsonian is a very successful public-private partnership for raising funds that could provide us with ideas I close by asking you to please keep the funding

051to alleviate overly large class sizes that could result in the proposed cuts thank you thank you Kimberly Adams followed by melanie maron and Lindsay Latham good evening dr. Lockard chairman Evans and school board members my name is Kimberly Adams and I speak to you today is the president of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs this will be my last speech to you as the president of the County Council as I resign my piss position effective this evening to seek elected office I thank you for all the support you've given me but most especially our County Council and the PTA leaders and members across Fairfax County Public Schools and I know that you will continue to work with the president who follows me as you continue your deliberations on the budget items at hand I hope

052you will consider several things the constraints you have faced in this current budget cycle with reduced revenues and a smaller transfer from the county have hindered your ability to to fund our programs fully we understand that this is not your fault but that a confluence of circumstances has led to a shortfall the work that you have undertaken through community outreach hearing such as this community meetings and other community outreach has allowed for a voice from all community stakeholders and we thank you for that interaction we expect that cuts will be made to Fairfax County Public Schools and that several of those cuts will likely impact a school systems future and possibly the county's first and foremost you must know that parents stand beside your educators and those who work in our schools asking that you

053continue to compensate them and value their work quality teachers will remain your strongest assets we know that this board is facing challenges in hiring adequate numbers of teachers each year and we also hope that you will take a very close look at hiring practices as recently noted in the media our parent community also understands that increases in fees and possible changes to programmatic offerings may be considered in the coming weeks we hope that you will balance any of your actions so that not one single sector of our schools are affected but a balanced approach leads to cuts that will be felt system-wide and provide a smaller impact in each area of the budget we also support class size issues across our County and we know that so many schools across our nation face similar similar

054effects lower class size is shown to help our students be successful the Fairfax County Council of PTAs understands that class size has been an issue for many many years we have seen years where student class increases were more than one and a half to two students we heard that in the budget discussions of 0.5 class student' increase may be necessary but that you are looking at all possible options we are aware that several thousand students in our schools have seen class sizes at or near 30 in every year of their career we believe very strongly that the quality of our schools has been driving our County success we know that you believe this as well and we understand the challenges that lie ahead in your tough decisions continue to keep an open mind regarding questions

055and concerns from the parents and others who speak out at these hearings should you have any need to engage the council further we welcome a dialogue especially around future budgets thank you for your time and the talents that you have and the work that you do every year on behalf of all students and families in fairfax county thank you hello board members I am melanie maron and my oldest child is in first grade and my youngest is in preschool I hope by now that I am familiar to you as a critical friend of FCPS someone who cares deeply about our school system and seeks to be an ally and also someone who's critical about how to make it better or be analytical about how to make it better while offering to help to do so

056since I began leading IMF CPS in November 2015 to date I have learned so much about how this district functions and the countless hours of hard work thought and service that contribute to the rich resources and opportunities available to our children I have talked with and listened to families educators administrators county board members and yourselves as I reflect back on the gains and losses during this year and a half one conclusion is clear as ever our district needs a stronger systems approach to meet our needs now and our plans needs in the future our system now looks like a Frankenstein well where well-meaning band-aids have been applied for years two disconnected parts our budget process reinforces these disconnects and brings us to the crossroads we are at now so here are four ideas on how

057to streamline and evolve our system that are all related to budgeting and planning first to find the programs and services that create a world-class system for the most children and trim the ones that don't meet those criteria we must be honest about which programs can leverage economies of scale we simply cannot keep all the programs we have in their current form keep the excellence but streamline it so that more benefits are realized particularly the benefits of smaller class sizes redesign programs to evolve as our community does for instance I often hear how design many years ago aap is now something that hinders enrollment in neighborhood schools while promoting overcrowding and others or the program skims much of the top-performing portion of the student body to the detriment of the remaining students we're not the same

058district we used to be and our programs must evolve third plan and budget to appropriately staff our school and district offices we need to better prepare for the vacancies so our children and adults are less than alert when people leave clearly we need to offer competitive to our educators and at the district level it's critical to ensure that no one person holds all the responsibilities in any one area we need to prepare for seamless transitions and longevity of work and finally implementing innovative and successful programs district-wide we need central oversight to ensure that new successful programs are consistently replicated and supported district-wide too much is dependent on the knowledge and desire of the principal the educators are the parents and that does not make for equity across the school district just one example that touches

059on all of these systemic needs is our get to green program which promotes school districts sustainability and engaging students in environmental action this is an in a way innovative way for students to learn and is truly the hallmark of a world-class education it just received two national claims in the last few weeks yet we have just one full-time staff person leading the initiative and now she is departing July 1 so the work has evolved but we need to maintain this district-wide view I hope that that does not happen to that program in particular I hope these ideas are helpful and thank you so much for your service thank you good evening members of the school board dr. Lockhart and support staff my name is Lindsay Latham and I'm the secretary for the newly founded special

060education PTA a proud mom of a special-needs little boy and I'm his advocate we understand the enormous pressure put on this board in these difficult times as a special needs parent I understand having to squeeze a budget to make ends meet and I truly understand what sacrifice means I would happily pay a fee for my son to be able to participate in extracurricular activities I would pay that fee for ten children but that is a far away dream for my family and families like ours when my son was diagnosed with brain malformation everyone told us don't leave Fairfax County he's going to get a great education so I am shocked and heartbroken to hear that they're members of the board that would like to take deeper dive into the special education budget all of us

061understand that a CPS is obligation to provide students with disabilities at free of public education necessarily requires it to provide services that drive up the per pupil cost for those students according to the school board's budget documents since 2006 there has been an overall increase of eight point seven percent for special education services in FCPS and a dramatic increase of twenty eight point seven percent in level two services there are no signs that this trend will not continue and as FCPS noted in its response to a question from a school board member simply maintaining the a special education budget level with FY 17 cost per pupil would impact FCPS s ability to serve an increase in the student population or number of services required cuts are never easy and balancing a budget with a major

062funding gap is understandably stressful but making that funding gap with cutting special education service not only hurts our children it hurts our amazing teachers and support staff the fairfax county septa will not shy away from keeping our membership families and educators informed about the budget and the possible impact that might have as expressed by our president diana cooper gold at last week's school board budget meetings our organization is grateful for the support already shown by members of the board we thank the individuals who worked hard on projecting the increases in special education enrollment and necessary services for the upcoming school year we thank the board for proposing to fund those increases the fairfax county septa encourages each of you to adopt a previously approved level of funding on may 25th I ask you as a

063mom as a kid in human do not balance the budget on the backs of one of the most vulnerable populations that the county services our children with special needs thank you I have chubby Latham's followed by Diane Cooper gold and Mart Marsha Donovan members of the school board dr. la Kirk good evening my name is Toby Latham on behalf of the Fairfax County special education PTA I thank the school board for this opportunity to comment on the FY 18 budget septa understands and appreciates that FCPS is staffing projections for special education services already takes into account the growth in services that typically occurs during the school year we believe however that these projections will be tested if the school board failed to account for the change resulting from the United States Supreme Court's recent decision

064in a case called endru F before Indra FCPS could satisfy its obligation to provide students with disabilities a free appropriate public education or faith by offering some educational benefit through individualized education program or IEP s in OS versus Fairfax County school board a decision that issued in 2015 the Fourth Circuit explained that the standard requires FCPS to provide students in special education a benefit that is more than minimal or trivial but the Court did not indicate how far above minimal or trivial FCPS must go to provide a faith significantly the Fourth Circuit rejected the contention that the IEA required FCPS to apply a heightened meaningful benefit education abenader in determining which services with it would provide students with disabilities so this was the state of affairs when the fiscal year 2018 special education budget was

065drafted FCPS had to provide students with disabilities some educational benefit but not necessarily a meaningful one septa believes that the standard applicable in this jurisdiction changed on March 22nd when the Supreme Court unanimously rejected in Andrew F the contention that the I D da only requires the state to provide access to instructions efficient to confer some minimal level of educational benefit and we urge the school board to determine its obligation if any to provide additional services under that standard before it looks to the special education department for funding cuts with respect to the fiscal year 2018 budget the septa request is simple on May 25th adopt that previously approved funding for special education I strayed a bit from my prepared remarks because I want to make a personal note with my remaining time as a

066veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom I know all too well the tragedy that will occur whenever a community fails to work toward eliminating the stigma of disabilities and decides to react to crisis's instead of trying to prevent them that the school board would acknowledge in a document issued just yesterday that a particular cut could affect students at risk of crisis and thereby increased referrals for private school placement in my opinion is heartbreaking I know we can't promise our children perfection and I don't expect that of any of you but we must strive to do better and to do better and to do better and to do better until we get as close to perfection as we possibly can we owe that to each child in the school district including those children's disabilities and I simply ask

067that in fiscal year 2019 budget process that you not balance the budget on the backs of students with disabilities as they already belong to an underappreciated population thank you thank you [Applause] Dyanne Cooper gold good evening I'm Diane super-bold president of Fairfax County septa and it's good to see you all again education funding is an emotional topic I believe we all in this room want the best outcomes for our kids we know that you are laboring under very difficult conditions and we want to thank you for the careful consideration that each of one of you confronts sometimes talking about budget numbers can become abstract and that the reality of what the students parents and teachers experience at home and at school is lost a little bit in the thinking of numbers budget decisions must be

068made with the understanding that current trends show that disability and special education rates are rising as of 2014 the CDC announced that autism rates have increased thirty percent in two years autism increases are the fastest growing special education category and FCPS by preserving the special education budget you help to mitigate the effects that these increases in need have on our students across all educational settings in Monday's budget work session it was announced that the department of special services funded funding would need to be reduced by three hundred thousand dollars the impact of those cuts even as service Rises demands rise service demands rise will be felt acutely in the classroom to achieve that reduction the following cuts among others will be made reduction of materials and supplies impacting the ability to support schools with unanticipated

069special education program needs decreased hourly support and other expenditures impacting the ability to provide short-term substitutes to schools experiencing students in crisis thereby risking an increase in referrals for private school placements which in turn negatively impacts inclusion efforts and faith reduced consultation and support to new special education teachers which helps them with assessments planning adapting instruction behavior management this loss is particularly tragic in our opinion as we currently have a critical staffing need for special education teachers in Fairfax County previous Fairfax County public school cuts over the past several years have already eliminated four new teacher mentor coaches from ten down the six now due to these current cuts that DSS will be used losing yet another next year we will have only five mentor coaches to assist special ed teachers how will we continue

070to recruit and retain special ed teachers when we remove their support system general ed and special ed children are negatively a PAC impacted what inclusion is implemented without the staffing support training and mentoring needed for their success on behalf except that I'd like to extend the offer to work hand-in-hand with the school board budget task force and SCPs as we finalized this bus giving cycle and move forward the future ones thank you very much Thank You Marcia Donovan followed by Alisha Sutherland and Jeffrey Longo citizen doctor Locker and members of the board I wanted to thank all of you who had he recommended to our active superintendent to wrinkle repair years as benefits in 2018 budget for many years if people told us how important parent isms were for the schools how a school could

071function without barriers and a many many other things but we never got anything heff CPS lost excellence and experience parent liaisons all those years to another organizations because they didn't get benefits in last year as a superintendent doctor they recognized how important parallelisms were in help and have CPS to achieve this core mission to increase the student achievements to increase graduation numbers to increase number of the students who continue their education after high school dr. day you include all parent liaisons and the board was going to approve when we returned from winter vacation we got the news that we were going to receive only health benefits for me or was a surprise and huge to the point so I start investigating what happened I discovered that somebody told dr. Daley and the school board members

072that we didn't want a benefits which one of course wasn't true as you all know I have a participate in many board meetings and I got a the idea that people don't know what parent liaisons do our first mission is to bridge between school system and parents to help both sides to understand each other many parents don't know the FCPS how FCPS system work they don't know about such a difficult subject like a special ed what is the special ed what that you does need for graduation what he saw is what Sol is what their kids need to be except in college and etc we also are helping mentor the students parallelisms not only help academically but also connect the families to resource in the community that help whole family if the environment at home

073is not good if students cannot come to school in focus and be able to learn last year the students had a little altercation and he broke his nose very bad he had surgery but he didn't have insurance he was able to find out I was able to find a place in DC to do all his treatment in the surgery for free but so but it was far and the mother could not have a car for him so I made sure to have a transportation to help parallel zones where many have had and help families to be able in the students to come to school and learn speaking another language is not important but experience is the most important as experience family ism I said yeah I'm not Emma concluded have two lines that I have

074I have a helper many students regardless the race language culture religion country of origin please approve their liaisons benefits for 2018 because FCPS need to retain experienced liaisons to help the school system and the students thank you Alysha sutherland followed by Geoffrey Longo and Sidney Benavides okay good evening my name is Alesia Sutherland I bring to your attention tonight the budget issue that relates to schools in ability to hire certified teachers to backfill teachers who take a leave of absence and attract experienced qualified long-term substitutes due to the significant reduction in pay for long term and retired teacher substitutes I've learned that when a teacher takes a leave of absence the school cannot advertise to require certified teachers the school can only advertise for a long-term substitute I've also learned that pay for long-term substitutes

075was cut recently to where it's not worthwhile for certified teachers who may be retired or otherwise looking for a long term sub position to step in my daughter is in fourth grade adhering after starting the school year in September her teacher went out on maternity leave in November after a series of day-to-day substitutes a long-term substitute was hired who was not a certified teacher but a parent who loved education and wanted to help out it soon became evident that she had difficulties managing the class misbehaving and bullying occurred in the classroom on a regular basis some children began performing poorly academically and at least a third of the class began to receive outside tutoring students formed negative attitudes towards school famous last words we parents told ourselves were things aren't going great right now but

076it'll all be okay because our teachers coming back the week before we understood our teacher would return we're told she decided not to come back for the rest of the year again the school could not post an ad requiring a certified teacher to take her place because she's entitled to hold or contract for the rest of the year only a long-term substitute could be requested his requirements include something like a background check and a few college courses we're now in our third long term substitute if you count another parent who used to teach fifth grade in Texas jumping in to save us for more day to day substitutes while a new long-term sub could be identified all this at the great school of Haycock known in our region for its standards of excellence if teachers

077continue to have the right to take a leave of absence for up to an entire year the least that should be done is to allow the school to advertise and pay for a certified teacher to teach the class during that leave of absence the current reduced pay makes it extremely difficult to attract long term substitutes who are certified teachers even in my case we ended up having two parents take over the class we should not have to rely on otherwise unemployed parents to fill this void I recognize FCPS has many pressing priorities the April town-hall meeting I attended enlightened us about serious budget issues facing FCPS I told my story then too but I wasn't the first person to raise these concerns other shared similarly negative experiences when their teacher took a leave of absence

078there come times when teachers like other professionals need to take a leave of absence however please restore the pay for a long-term and retired teacher substitute so that schools can attract and pay for qualified teachers to take their place thank you for your time and attention [Applause] in 2016 this board joined with the Board of Supervisors in the one Fairfax resolution one Fairfax called for an intentional racial and social equity policy that would provide the direction and means to eliminate disparities this year you joined with the Board of Supervisors again in another resolution to affirm that Fairfax County is a welcoming community an apparent response to current u.s. immigration enforcement policy with all this talk about racial and social equity and being welcoming you would think that the proposed budget would be as equitable as

079possible yet the proposed raise to the elementary school class size floor is regressive it's it's inequitable and it's wholly unacceptable it balances the budget on the backs of the poor the immigrants and Hispanic children in this county and those who are their neighbors all eight elementary schools that would have been affected or would be affected have common themes to have an over 60% free and reduced lunch student population and it doesn't stop at 60% it goes up to 87% this is this staffing ratios only go up to 40% so we're talking about sixty to eighty seven percent free and reduced student lunch populations in these schools the majority of the students are minorities in these schools typically from immigrant families where English is not the primary language spoken at home and all of these schools

080are in the bottom 25% of Fairfax County's elementary school test scores and that's important we need to when we talk about class sizes we need to keep an eye on the metrics here and you know the metrics are our test scores right so these are high need schools they have extra resources now because it would be inequitable not to provide the extra resources and allow the achievement gap to explode even more than it is now at Sleepy Hollow elementary my child's elementary school and one of those affected by the cut the staff are overwhelmed by the need it took the first half of the year just to get all the students in my son's kindergarten class speaking basic English the school counselor is canceling appointments because of the workload 504 mitigation plans that were discussed

081with staff and teachers several months ago are just now being implemented and next month is the end of the school year these are the schools that you want that you're targeting with cuts if you pass a budget resolution because you guys obviously don't care about equity in Fairfax County Public Schools if we have to make cuts we need to make them in a way that affects the entire county equally my name is Jeff Longo I'm the president of Sleepy Hollow Manor citizens Association in Mason District and a poll of my neighbors so they overwhelmingly approved this message [Applause] I remind speakers to be respectful Sydnee Benavides followed by Christian Barbosa and Carolyn Kenny dear Fairfax County school board members my name is Cindy Benavides and I'm here today to talk about including benefits for parenting

082a Thon's my story starts more than 33 years ago when my parents immigrated from Honduras to Southeast Oh a boy riding a public bus my mom heard two tourists talk about Fairfax County Public Schools and since she had already moved from Honduras to LA she thought why not move to seraphic County she thought about our education for my older brother and I we arrived in Springfield and attended in Brook Elementary School in fifth grade we moved to the city of Alexandria I excelled in academia and yet I will never forget that my high school counselor told me that I should consider joining the military or taking up a trade although these are excellent choices and in fact my brother joined the US Marine I'd always dreamed of going to college it was that parent liaison

083who when she saw the tears in my eyes and my dream shattered took the time to encourage me Tommy si puedes yes you can do to this one single human being I went on to comply to more than three colleges and was as I said into all of them with partial or full scholarships the apparently info went beyond her job descriptions to ensure that I did not fall through the cracks it was due to the parent liaison miss grouping that I can stand here before you today I can also say that I have had the blessing and privilege to serve an appointed positions in state government government serve as a national level volunteer in various sports and activities and now serve as the National Director of civic engagement and community mobilization for one of the

084oldest and largest national Latino civil rights organizations in our country LULAC one parent liaison set in motion a series of events that have allowed me to contribute back at the local state and national level one parent liaison the role appearing needs of plan or school system is one that it's not fully integrated as it does not include four benefits including retirement accrue time leave and pay increases I want the school board to consider for a member for a minute impasse what we use you if you are only in a position and we're allowed to work a set number of hours so that you could not receive healthcare retirement and other benefits such as sick leave parent liaisons positions are disenfranchised employees in comparison to other positions that do not work forty hours per week yet

085received the full slate of benefits parent liaisons play a critical role and not only being the bridge builder between parents who may not be fluent in English but also help to increase graduation rates and provide guidance on how to navigate the school system I will conclude my remarks with this as a school system that seeks to improve upon its current standards it's important to compensate currently funds and not relegate them to have standards this is especially important as Fairfax County continues to grow as a student majority minority body we live in 2017 and we're here in our own beloved Fairfax County creating a second class public school worker parent liaison should be compensated for their hard work time labor and sacrifices for the parent liaisons in the room thank you for your dictation and encouragement

086thank you for your sacrifices for you the school board member who have to make so many hard choices thank you for your service thank you thank you kristan Barbosa followed by Carolyn Kenny and then Ruby NIC NIC Joe good evening my name is Christian Barbosa I'm speaking tonight to raise an objection to budgeting any money for the renaming of Jeffster high school is going to cost an estimated 1 million dollars do not spend unused year-end fiscal year 17 money to not include renaming Jeffster high school and your FY 18 budget declarations do not divert bond or budget money to change the name of my high school there are pressing needs Deb sword as well as many other schools have you seen tonight this is not a penny there's not a penny of discretionary money that

087we can afford to spend on this purely political action that offers no tangible improvement of the student body or to the school's community the job of fairfax county school board is to educate not to several personal political scores polls taken of my neighborhood the students of Jeffster high finally the movement that changed the school's name is supremely in popular yet a shrouded and dishonest process to force the name change in the school has been a play through an ad hoc committee that has been carefully and unsteadily stacked against the interests of the community the folks and want to change me in my school I've been lobbying for two years the result as increased tensions in the atmosphere of academic intimidation and disruption that frankly did not exist in those halls at any time before I'm

088wondering how much money school staff time and expense has already been spent on this ad hoc committee for that matter how much money has been spent in the past two years by the school board on the name change related activities including the dollars spent behind the scenes please I ask you do not spend any more money in the limited school funds on this unwanted and unnecessary exercise I've become aware of misleading testimonies and twisted misrepresentations of facts have been used to advance the name of the school change agenda of the two years I'm also aware the small number of students have tried to represent themselves to the voice of the student body as a whole but your very own research shows that jep's toward students do not want to name change how much money was

089spent on your research why is there even more money being considered to pursue a name change that was vastly rejected by the students and the local community just yesterday May 15th and event was announced on FCPS website for an alleged community meeting about the name change is to be held this Thursday May 18th at Jeffster High School yesterday the folks created a petition to further the goal of changing the name change changing the name back in 2015 Senate notice the 35,000 plus signatories from all over the country and buying them to attend our low community meeting by regulating by regulation the name change is to be determined by the affected Stuart pyramid community but now people traveling from anywhere were asked to and encouraged to cross state lines shelf what will not amount to a

090one sided name change demonstration in Jeffster high school this is back handed this is unjust this is unsafe is that the expense of my neighborhood I'm extremely concerned advancing this local event to those far outside the community would be prone to who would be prone to letting their passions get the best of them will create an unmanageable and negligent negligently unsafe and then I'm asking you to cancel what should have been a community meeting at chipster high school on May 18th do not bankroll it might be a contentious and unsafe situation do not endanger my community in my neighborhood object special interest groups have been and will be given access to true to my community in our decision process object to any money whatsoever being spent on the name change for jettster High School please

091focus on educating students focused on giving students the tools needed for success and not squander taxpayer money on the name change to achieve neither everyone else in this room tonight has been begging you not begging telling you that they need money I'm asking you please not just spend any money sounds like a slam dunk [Applause] good evening my name is Carolyn Kenney I am the special education lead teacher at Timberline Elementary and a member of the newly chartered serve X County Special Education PTA receptor I love my students I love my colleagues and I love my families I do not however always love my job in September we began the school year short to special education teachers one for self-contained enhanced autism and one for category a general curriculum support we finally got a category

092a teacher in October just in time for her to take over for teachers maternity leave as no long term sub could be secured in January we thought we had enough category a teachers this was in time for the flood of newly identified students I had a meeting this morning with the special education team less than six weeks before the end of the year to look at schedules and determine how we will serve our newly eligible students we were unable to come to a suitable solution we've been told that staffing will probably be even tighter next year we will likely each have caseloads over at least two grade levels which means two curriculums to manage multiple teachers with whom to plan possibly five or six Sol assessments for which to prepare every year that I have

093been a special education teacher my responsibilities have grown beyond increased caseloads it has been increased IEP requirements and paperwork more time-consuming educational testing taking over for eligibility taking over for transportation the list sometimes seems endless it is well known that there is a special education teacher shortage across this country I think the assumption is that it's because students with special needs are difficult to teach I'm here to tell you that it is not the kids it is never the kids that drive special educators out of teaching special education teachers leave when they no longer have the resources and support to do their job they leave when they no longer have the time to plan and meet with general education teachers no longer have time to talk to a parent no longer have time to have

094that inspiring conversation with a student we leave when we no longer believe that we are helping our children I am proud to be a product of Fairfax County Schools and even prouder to be a teacher I hope that FCPS will continue to be a national role model for education of all students especially our most vulnerable population Thank You Anton I have really Nicky Dale followed by Ernie Wells and Sara Mattingly okay let's save not only money but parental rights and children's lives how you ask by no longer funding sex education otherwise known as family life education SLE let's flee from Fla for the following five reasons number one parents no longer have control even when students have been opted out of ethylene teachers are finding creative ways to circumvent this by teaching students abnormal and

095aberrant sexual behavior to students in nan FLE classes as pointed out here recently by one student who spoke out at a board meeting she was mentally assaulted with a class promoting homosexuality during her math class of all things number two it subverts parental authority as you have heard from the parents at a recent school board meeting even when told by this board that 14-foot 14:50 policy would not be implemented the mother was surprised and angered to learn that a gender confused boy was now using the girls to protect her daughter's privacy she was forced to take her daughter out of school number three Peverley teaches perverse aberrant behavior as pointed out during many previous meetings by parents and by a G mu student who proclaimed he was homosexual he was thankful that he was taught

096anal sex and encouraged this board that this type of sex should be taught to students at an earlier age number four sex education is harmful to children as I pointed out in the beginning of this year dr. angels psychoanalytic study of sex education has shown much harm to children it exploits and abuses them they break down it breaks down to children's mental barriers of shame disgust and morality that are natural environmental dams the control based sexual urges leaving themselves open to pregnancies abortions perversions suicides and psychological as well as physical veneral diseases that are epidemic in today's youth number 5 sex education stunts student's ability to be educated dr. antril pointed out in the same study that scholastic tests done on today sexually educated 6 to 12 year olds indeed show that these students have

097accomplished less classically than pre sex education students he said prior to the establishment of sex education program educators acted as though they seemed to realize that involving the child in sexual matters made the child uh Nicole and they make every effort to avoid concerning the childhood sexual matters he continues the Scholastic problems in today's schools cannot be corrected by spending more money for buildings equipment and teachers they can only be corrected by removing the sex education interferences which makes students uneducable for the vs above 5 reasons we should not fund sex education we need to flee from Thank You Ernie well followed by Sara Mattingly and Michael Lyon all right so earn is not here Sara Mattingly Michael Lyon and Marcia st. John kind Marcia you're next paella okay [Applause] that's nice when someone knows

098me good evening dr. law card members of the school board and FCPS staff first and foremost I want to thank the school board and everyone that has supported them throughout this extremely challenging budget year I particularly want to thank the school board for approving an amendment to finally begin investing in parent liaisons by putting them on a unified pay scale and providing the same benefits to those who work 30-plus hours a week as an office assistant a custodian and other contracted employees my name is Maria st. John Cooney I am the proud mother of three FCPS graduates I have been apparent liaison for 17 years and many of you know that I am standing here on behalf of all the families and students that cannot be with us tonight they are either working their second

099or third job don't have access to transportation can't afford to have someone watch their children or quite simply are too afraid to come to a public gathering on their behalf I ask you to keep one central idea in mind as you move forward in your final budget consideration equity not only in it common definition of fairness but also in its meaning to hold equity in a common stock in this case our collective common stock is in the Fairfax County public school system and every student and employee deserves to be an equitable stakeholder when you are prioritizing where budget dollars will go please look at our neediest most vulnerable student population they are the 28% receiving free and reduced lunch the 17% receiving ESL services and the 13% receiving special education services in the front lines

10057% of our principals are making an investment by providing supplemental funding out of their own school budgets to ensure these stakeholders receive the parent liaison support they need and believe me the return they receive on their investment is priceless as evidenced by some of the testimony you have heard and will hear tonight however increasing hours is not enough Fairfax County Schools have have have to treat the parent liaison position as a professional position that it is I doubt that there is a position within the FCPS workforce that is so critical and still remains classified as a temporary hourly position without benefits or pay scale adjustments think about it the majority of parent liaisons are highly educated and/or experienced dual or multi Laing light immigrant minorities themselves that is what makes them so effective at working

101with all segments of the population every educator knows the most powerful way to teach is to lead by example please have the courage to lead by example and bring equity to the parent liaison position by keeping the amendment in place in the budget I urge you to hear the voices of those that can't be here tonight to lead by example and ensure all students and employees truly hold an equitable stake in our common stock our school system thank you we have Elena Rodriguez followed by Dave Swan and Catherine stark and will it you came late so I'm sorry did how I skipped over your name I'm in my apology please would you mind questions that way was ahead of you thank you either either way all right Thank You mr. Lyon my apology thank you

102for allowing me to speak tonight my name is Elena Rodriguez I work at Mount Vernon Woods Elementary School a school very much like the gentleman before I think his name was mr. Longo described I think we have more of an 80% minority of which over 60% is spanish-speaking families in my rule as a parent liaison as an hourly employee working for Fairfax County I wear many hats not only do I work with every family I work with every team of the school striving to promote advocate and bridge the gap between the school and hold on the front lines every day as the eyes and ears of the school and administration some of the hats that I wear are on my little attachment I work in the front office I'm a bilingual attendance secretary I'm a

103bilang vil office assistant I work as a bilingual clinical aide and assistant to the new season be assistant to the nurse I work with registration with head start with F PCP kindergarten registration transfers I work with a sped staff I work with aap I work with the behavioral specialists the counselors the school psychologist a social worker I work at we're a community school I work with a capital Food Bank we have the first Wednesday of the month family market we have Saturday Academy we just completed that we had for about four and a half months to try to raise our Sol course I work with the cafeteria people because I I call on Deficit accounts on school lunch of student lunches I work with the teachers of parent-teacher conferences translating flyers I put them in

104GovDelivery I'm an administrator on the account um in all my dealings I have a multi advocate role I'm at a school advocate a teacher advocate a student advocate a family parent advocate I advocate them for the administration the staff to school in all my work and my dealings with families I do Kate on the part of the students ensuring they're supported and needed I'm the one that when a new student starts I take them to their class or introduce them to their teacher I make sure they're sitting to another student that's big Spanish up until about a month ago I've had between one to three students per week coming from Central America where I have three file cabinet drawers with backpacks and a full office of donated supplies and I give them everything that they

105need I advocate on the Florida the parents encouraging them as a CO educators for their student success to attend some sort of functions I attend all the school functions of the parent liaison as an interpreter my question to you to the board is how is it after 30 years that you're going to have these people's hourly positions normally when you start working for a company sure for short term maybe you know is to see if you're going to work out to see if it's going to be a good fit are we a good fit after 30 years I mean are we doing a good job I mean honestly this is determination [Applause] hello my name is Mike Lyon I'm from basin district I lived there 27 years and had a 6th grader at Glasgow I'm

106here because Glasgow is simply getting too big and it's facing too many challenges and we need your help to address those problems I'm concerned because the problems of the Mason schools are pushing us to a tipping point my middle-class neighbors are moving out and kiten families with kids are not moving in and without us the school district and Mason is going to go down further so we need to have solutions Glasgow is already the largest Middle School in the state of Virginia and has grown 20 percent in the last five years probably will reach 2000 before the end of this decade and we're having a whole set of trailers coming this summer so I'm here to ask you to find solutions now because if you delay the problems will get harder and more expensive the

107cells I have a few practical solutions I like to suggest first we need to have more incentive pay to keep the best teachers at the most challenging schools so I my suggestion is any school that's rated 5 or lower you implement a system of incentives for maybe a 10 to 15% bonus for those teachers so we can attract the best teachers to the most challenging environments second Glasgow in schools like it need better tools that handle disciplinary problems you have overcrowding that exacerbates disciplinary problems so we need to give students in their parents due process but at some point we need to be able to move kids of the most challenging out of these overcrowded schools so that the other students can learn third we just need to recognize that Glasgow is too big and

108it's just going to get bigger we see what's going on the middle schools that's all flowing up to Glasgow is getting too big we need I know you don't have the money but we meet another middle school and in Mason district you just have to plan for that and recognize that forth you don't you need to look at your own one Fairfax resolution which one of my neighbors and Sleepy Hollow alluded to earlier which talks about promoting equity driven approach to diversity I agree with that if we're going to do that there's really only one way to do it it's not a good one word the word is the busing I grew up in Evanston Illinois where Northwestern University is and and we had busing when I was a kid it wasn't perfect but it

109did address the problem of inequity within within our school system as the Supreme Court ruled in Brown separate is not equal but that's what's happening in our county right now because finally I just want to talk briefly about the work plan that was was approved or voted on in February there's a lot of good elements and network plan about better school planning especially for new development but what it really doesn't address is legacy problems in our area we have a lot of legacy properties that have been misappropriated by landlords to waken the cash by overcrowding them and leaving the the taxpayers with the bill that's what's happened I think that we need to add to that work plan another element that looks at practical issues like occupancy level zoning safety issues in these legacy properties

110so that we can align population growth with the resources that we have in an area thank you very much for your consideration thank you [Applause] Dave Swan followed by Catherine Stark members of school board dr. Lockhart the FTPS leadership and most importantly the support employees of this outstanding school board I am Dave Swan the chairman of the support services employees Advisory Council the efforts of over 8,000 professionals represented by the SSB AC work hand-in-hand with some of the finest teaching staff to produce remarkable results from our students our Council recognizes the need to hire and retain the finest educators possible in fact we insist on it we also believe strongly in the School Board's ignite initiative that seeks to ensure equity among all employee groups further we recognize how difficult your job is it's not

111easy meet all the goals and balance the budget I've been on both of the budget task force programs I know how much fun that can be it is with these things in mind that we have proposed an adjustment to dr. la cartes last proposed effort to close the budget gap we propose that all employees receive an MSA this year not just the teachers we suggest that all employees step increase be delayed by two months we've done it before our finance department has calculated that this would save eight point eight million dollars on this next budget year this would be enough to offset the proposed elimination of the MSA for non teachers and provide funds to recognize an MSA for those who reach the top of their scale who are these nine teachers every employee that

112works for dr. Ramey Jeff platenburg Mary Beth love glass and Kristin Mike this school board constantly praises the employee teams from these leaders for outstanding and every word that is vital to the success of this school system our proposal would leave in place the new teacher step program to be initiated on July 1st so that our principals can confidently recruit the finest for our schools using the new pay scale this proposal would establish equity among all employee groups and confirm this school board's desire to strengthen the Ignite initiative to paraphrase dr. Lockhart together the school board teacher non teacher it's possible I want to thank you on behalf of the SS DAC for your service your consideration and your support thank you hello my name is Catherine Stark when I began working for 50 X

113County Public Schools in 2006 the county had a wonderful reputation and a reasonable teacher salary health covered in a retirement plan the following year when the recession hit the state and subsequently fairfax county significantly reduced education funding you speak of a tough budget year however I have suffered a tough budget decade this year fairfax county is proposing a teacher step increase in cost of living adjustment of 1% however this comes to the teachers at the cost of reduced staffing from increased class size increased health costs and the restructuring of our retirement compensation resulting in a loss of earnings on contributions to the ER FC this is not just for new hires as shown in your presentation but a 1% reduction in earnings for vested teachers hired after 2001 and a 2% reduction for teachers with

114five or less years of experience if you look long term the money you are taking will result in teachers actually making less money over the span of our careers in 2015 school board member Cathy Smith said and I quote in recent years teacher pay has lagged in Fairfax County compared to neighboring school districts as a result waves staff members have left a school system for better paying jobs in Alexandria and Arlington and Montgomery this year at Fairfax County Public Schools has started with 200 teacher vacancies that's 200 classrooms without teachers FCPS is now as Jane Strauss says trekking the globe to find qualified teachers low ranked school systems result in sizeable decreases to property value without veteran teachers you will notice a steep decline in the quality of education in Fairfax County as your veteran

115teachers leave of CPS behind to work in surrounding counties your families will follow despite your presentation of funds the factory name that Fairfax County has the second highest per capita income in the state with the highest paid school board in the state and one of the lowest teacher compensations in the surrounding area which still Falls painfully below the rate of inflation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the rate of inflation has risen 21.3% a teacher would have to be earning sixty thousand three hundred and forty-four dollars to match inflation and for the cost of living in Fairfax County at the conclusion of 11 years a teacher in FCPA MPs earns sixty thousand two hundred and twenty-eight dollars this means the salary I earned today is equivalent to what I earned year one when I

116became a teacher I never expected to be wealthy but I did expect that I would be able to purchase a home and raise a family I'm now 35 years old I've served Fairfax County Public Schools full time for 11 years and I still cannot afford to buy a family to buy a home and I still not cannot afford to start a family thank you think up Rasta Heiser followed by Williams Farnsworth and Judith Harvick hello my name is Rachna Heiser and earlier you heard my daughter Laura sighs won't speak as one of the students this is her brother she spoke of he's not here so I brought his picture I want to address specifically the suggestions to reduce special education spending to pay for AP exams and extracurricular activities I say this as a parent

117of a child who has taken 15 AP exams I know what that would have cost me I would pay as happily happily when you look at AP exams versus special education funding there's no debate to be had the high for emphasis at FCPS puts on 80 exams is unfounded the scores of the exams are not even a factor in college admissions and my daughter's going to Cornell I know all right it begs the question why do serve X County taxpayers fully fund the cost of each and every AP exam we have teachers for crying because they can't start families and we're funding every student's AP exam what about a sliding scale these are low-hanging fruit why are we not going back to these low-hanging fruit I understand we're a world-class institution and organization but AP

118exams aren't what make us that it is the teachers that's what makes us a world-class institution there's not my remarks I feel really bad this is really to me about special education and the views we have a society on people with disabilities that we don't think of as quite normal but they are and they are deserving of opportunities I can tell you firsthand that people with disabilities have amazing abilities but even more so people with disabilities have the same right as you and I to be part of our society the primary mission of schools that help gain students gain the skills necessary to be a productive part of our society special education services are crucial to help the most vulnerable of students gain these skills but yet somehow the debate has become about whether a

119child's disability with a disability to access a free and appropriate education is less worthy than the child's right to earn college credit for free while in high school special education services crucial for a child with a disability to have a shot and living a full productive life but somehow charging a fee for extracurricular activity is more important than that the need for special education is growing rapidly in ten years as a thirteen 1397 percent increase of students with autism and FCPS if anything FCPS needs to increase funding for these students not decrease funding the consequences of not increasing funding is dire students like my son like my daughter like this one but can one in 53 students with autism need to have their place in society and special education services are crucial for them to

120even have a job and a productive place in our society DSS has already cut staff DSS has great greater training needs and many other departments there is really no money in special education to be spent if we're going to meet the law requirements if we can include our students if our students are going to have a productive life we need to take care of the most vulnerable first I'm a big believe in AP exams I'm a big believer in all that but not at the expense of the students who need the education the most to live a productive life so please let's have conversations that take care of the needs of all thank you William Fogg lures followed by Jesus Harvick and Rodrigo Velazquez I'd like to speak about the importance of teacher retention in

121Fairfax County I grew up in Fairfax County I'm a graduate of Fairfax County Public Schools I had two older sisters that were really good students my oldest sister graduated with a 4.0 GPA with honors and it was from the many college recruiters that visited her that I learned of the stellar reputation of Fairfax County its teachers in its graduates I was not a good student at the time my educational plan was to lay low and fly under the radar but most of the teachers at the schools I attended because of my older sisters already knew my parents they were having none of that because of that I got the push that got me through school through high school into college and into a successful first career as a result of that I was able to

122purchase a home and settle my family here in Fairfax County and my four children attend Fairfax County Public Schools the cycle has begun again their teachers that each of my children's schools year after year I know them they know my children my children aren't getting away with anything those teachers that we have in Fairfax County the exceptional teachers have made critical differences in success of my children both educationally and socially I mentioned that I had a successful first career I recently became a teacher in Fairfax County Public Schools I brought to my teaching content area decades of professional real world experience I'm well qualified but I'm a more effective teacher because of the training and mentoring I've received from experienced teachers here in Fairfax County who have given countless hours of personal time before school

123after school during lunch to help me better apply those decades of professional experience to reaching the students that I have here in Fairfax County now when I talked to my sister's about our childhood in our education when I talked to my own children about their education teachers are at the heart of every one of those conversations our success educationally goes straight to the teachers I cannot emphasize enough the importance of those teachers so as a teacher myself as a graduate of Fairfax County Public Schools and most importantly as a parent of students in Fairfax County I ask you I beg you to cultivate this important resource these experienced exceptional teachers protect this investment that we've already made in creating the premier workforce that we want and please do it quickly too many of these exceptional

124teachers are looking for jobs in other counties and in other professions and if they leave the effect will be profound and we will wake up one morning soon and discover that the real portrait of a fairfax county public school graduate is not a pretty picture thank you for that [Applause] good evening I'm Judy Harvick I'm the chair of the Education Committee of the Mount Vernon Council of citizens associations we have a resolution that I think you already have but there's a few things I wanted to highlight there and one of them is listening to everyone here the Mount Vernon council is acutely aware of the funding problems that are faced by the school board here and of its sources and what and what can be done about it perhaps in the future and I'm kind

125of hoping everyone here who is talking is going to show up before the board of supervisors next year and also talk to their their state representatives about it but anyway but there were a few things that we did want to talk about on the budget because I think they fall disproportionately on schools with high levels of poverty children and those are the test fees with all due respect and the athletic fees you have to remember that the test fees are not just to get college credit there for preparation and they're typically the highest level course AP and IV or the highest level courses you can take into school so by putting a fee on them you are making it difficult for children to take the courses now I know free and reduced lunch get to

126do it free and the suggestion is to have a you know a couple of courses paid for but we kind of forget in this county that we have free and reduced lunch and we have affluent people you know many of us right here who would be more than happy to pay for 5 or 10 AP exams potentially for other kids or for their own kids but there's a big segment too and it's mostly at disadvantage schools with high FRMS that also find it difficulty and don't have disposable income to pay for their children's exams to pay for athletics so what that means is you are reducing the ability of these children to participate in the high level courses at your school especially for example IV diploma where there's a lot more than 3 exams per

127you and that affects participation in sports as well one of the saddest things in my history was I saw my you know parents waiting outside till halftime because they couldn't afford to come in and watch their children play sports those parents don't have $300 so there could could play in the first place so I would ask you to reconsider attaching fees to those the other minor point is the parking parking fees now this seems like a stupid thing but as parents and as citizens we want those kids in the parking lots because if they're not in the parking lot they're parked everywhere with no supervision and no security and when you Berdoo when you increase the fee the kids stop parking in the laxman for example only has at 25 percent of their lap filled

128and the minute the fees went up to 200 it went down from there so I think we might even not see the savings you think that kids will just abandon the parking lot the only other minor thing that I just wanted to mention is there were a few things as you see in the resolution that we feel could have been examined more carefully for some savings and one of those was the management fees for the retirement funds and possibly linking those to the county funds which could save a number several million dollars a year potentially and also provide a better return so we'd like you to consider that for this year and for the next finally thank you I wouldn't have your job but I appreciate your efforts thank you thank you Rodrigo Velazquez Jeb

129Stewart and John DeLong entonces esto de Maxima nasedo's dia sister brand Okayama sounds to the trend OD Adela Madras vamos serrano poco de me to kasi on memos which okay cuando aromatic n yo quiero mucho más difícil para que entiendo las personas que estaba hablando con las escuelas NSO dijo que interesante for carita web con las personas que hacen esto decision s but kennel habla espanol primero para que ellos tienen un poquito como a a Cynthia linear e starts at two days ago I was celebrating Mother's Day with my mom I was telling we were talking about my my education it's the first year that were celebrating Mother's Day with meeting a college graduate it was a really big deal for her because that was her wish when she came to this country over 17

130years ago as an undocumented mom raising four children by herself she said raising four children and making sure that she demanded perfection in their education was no easy feat because she didn't speak English and I told her that's really ironic because I signed up this to speak at a school board meeting why don't they feel even if it's just for a few seconds how she felt for most of her life in this country just a few seconds where half of y'all looked at me with a lot of confusion and you know for so many many immigrant women single moms new moms incoming moms who don't speak English the pathway for their children's education is through a parent liaison can we pause I thought of three sorry I don't want to be a nun for so

131look my mom demanded perfection and she didn't even have papers to live in this country with authorization I didn't have papers to live in this country with authorization but somehow through some miracle through the support that my mom's down through parent liaisons not only was I able to be a competitive student when applying to schools and going for the IB Diploma and everything else but I graduated college note that I mean I can't take out loans nope no papers semantics paying out-of-state tuition with multiple scholarships and being able to argue in front of the state capitol for many contentious bills on immigration health care services and various other things that are important to our community today my mom demanded perfection and that's what I strive to give and while I know for an undocumented mom

132that might be a little difficult but for many of us particularly those women speaking to perfection isn't too much to ask for it we're striving towards it we're not attaining it I'm here representing mates and dreamers one of the most expensive and documented student organizations in the state of India asking for more well compensated parent liaison so that our students can access the resources support and pathway to education that they want while applier vido creates access and opportunity it doesn't necessarily mean that they get the resources that are available and parent liaisons are crucial in being able to access those resources as you all are planning for an increased population you and I both know that increased population will most likely not speak English will be first-generation and we need a plan for the resources

133and support so that these families create and add on to the beauty that arts diversity within our school division within our school within our school County I'm dedicated as much as you are to advocate on multiple levels I know I'm bothering you here I'm bothering people in the enrichment on modern people at the federal level let's do this together let's make equity a reality and Fairfax County Public Schools thank you Jeff Stewart John DeLong Yong Yong Shin that's a tough act to follow I don't have second language capabilities of my friends work good evening my name is John DeLong thanks to the opportunity to address the board this evening first on a bit of a personal note I'd like to take a this opportunity to apologize to miss Darren at Colfax and Ms McLaughlin for

134misrepresenting their comments and positions taken on issues discussed at the April 27th regular board meeting in a letter to the Board of Supervisors I referenced miss McLaughlin's vote on the caring culture presentation inaccurately and attributed comments on mr. Bell coughs letter to the board members to miss Darren at Colfax which were actually made by Miss McLaughlin's Maricopa I was pleased with the board's vote at that meeting to work with the Board of Supervisors on pension issues I commend you on your significant efforts to address the pension issues I share your sincere hope that productive cooperation can be achieved between the two boards many of you have noted that the ERC plan provides relatively rich benefits to have CPS retirees many have also noted that there is a direct trade off between salary and benefits and

135the cost of these benefits is increasing unsustainably over the past several months I have provided lots of information and analysis concerning arsc I expect your work with the Board of Supervisors will focus on amending plan benefits but this will take time I don't take a position on the Cori RC benefits but while these are being negotiated I suggest again that you direct the ers c4 to restart your investment managers to achieve fee savings as you know from my extensive advocacy and numerous slides ers CPAs fees that are higher than peers and almost double those of SC ers I have I have noted that up to six million dollars in fee reductions would result from shifting to the same strategies employed by MC ers six million dollars is enough money to fund sixty teachers and these

136savings can be realized without impacting teachers students or the funds existing allocation you have heard moving testimony from many students parents and teachers concerned with the impact of spending reductions my proposal can be implemented with a will and I urge you to make this work thank you for your attention to what I'm sure feels like intensive advocacy I appreciate the kind consideration from many of you and and also from FCPS staff particularly miss Michael it is a strong indication of the underlying strengths of this institution that is so important to the quality of life here in Fairfax County someone mentioned a moment ago that they wouldn't have your job but it must be satisfying to engage in meaningful work that certainly positively affects so many people so thank you thank you mission followed by James

137rueland and Rebecca golden good evening my name is young-shin please know that I am limited with English so 3 minute is not enough but I will try first of all I would like to state and my daughter and I would not be here today if it was not for her school parent legion miss King I know that Miss King's continued Karen Karen saved my daughter's life before meeting her my daughter had almost give up hope in life I felt as if she was a time bomb ticking further away from life due to my limited English I was so happy to find there was a Korean American parents region out of my desperation I asked her to watch out for my daughter and I have told her about my daughter's mental health condition along with family

138issues miss Kang immediately connected me and my daughter to her school counselor and the school she also chose our work while they were trying to help my daughter it didn't work we're due to lack of English but miss Kang was there to speak with my daughter in Korea my daughter was in his all students when she was a freshman so she was not able to express our feeling and emotion in English I often visited school to see Miss can because she spoke Korean and helped me with many resources that I needed beside my daughter's education it was such a relief to know that I was able to talk about my daughter's metal in Korean daughter who has no friends no hope and suffers from depression that led to suicidal thoughts but the only reason she's

139reliable today is because there was a one person in school who was in school paying attention to her in her native tongue that person was the parent leader miss Kane who can understand her culture and language I wonder what would have happened if there was no pure parent Lee Jeong in school for this reason I also want to thank you and express honestly when I first met miss Kang I was not sure about how much help she can provide me and my daughter as I witnessed many parents and students visiting her tiny office constantly it was not until many months have passed when my daughter told me that miss Kane has checked up on her to see how she was doing in school I was grateful when my daughter told me that she often took

140her launch to miss Kang's office and it brought me to tears I felt like Miss King was my daughter's second mom to her and her own mentor she gave us peace in knowing someone cared for us at the school and that our lives metal and the community my daughter and I would not be standing here did it if it was not for Miss King at one point miss Kang and school social worker found a shelter for us and miss Kang came to the shelter with me and my daughter to register us after school I remember looking at my watch and it was 1:40 a.m. don este miss Kang left shelter that is not all because okay Alania again I would be would not be standing here today especially my daughter if it was not for

141Miss Kang the parent region who are there for us and most importantly I am pleading to pass the poor benefit to the children region they work hard working toward transforming students and their parents who are marginalized people like us thank you for your listening and differently thank you James Leland followed by Rebecca golden and Marilla Saldana good evening my name is Jim Rowland and I'm a resident of Fairfax County I'm here to provide citizen feedback on the fiscal 2018 budget for Fairfax County Public Schools more specifically I protest any public money allocated or spent on implementing the illegal gender identity language added to policy 1450 due to violating the Billiam rule prohibiting local jurisdictions overriding laws the state of Virginia although it was announced there was a pause in inflammation implementation of this policy previous

142testimony given to this board has indicated that the policy has been implemented being implemented on a case-by-case basis within various schools within Fairfax County although Virginia Supreme Court recently dismissed the case for plaintiffs liking standing virginia falls the dillon rule acquiring local non-discrimination laws do not be more stringent than the state law the state law does not include sexual orientation gender identity or gender expression this issue will be ripe for lawsuit once the school boards policy and edit ibly results in an injury and where can this injury occur how about the estimated ten thousand young female rape and sexual assault survivors and FCPS especially those that carry trauma can be easily triggered by unwanted exposure to the opposite sex and intimate settings like the female bathrooms locker rooms and showers are not these many young

143girls worthy of respect dignity inquiry and careful consideration and attention are these thousands of students to be suspended and expelled for not wanting to strip for the opposite sex or watch them undress and although the focus rightfully so has been on the girls what about the boys what happens if a pre-op girl shows up in the boys locker room in the showers what if they have an involuntary reaction or the boys can be subject to a charge of harassment are they going to be subject to criminal prosecution and a possible criminal record why does the school when school board seek to create sites cause chaos and drama there are tens of thousands of religious adherence and ethnic diversity and children who believe in sexual modesty these thousands of students be suspended for using the wrong

144pronouns are simply non embracing radical sexual beliefs of others which is the most part never existed in all of human history and is by and large a radical experiment using innocent children without parents consent what about them and what up students parents and teachers who object based on science and medicine yes men have X Y chromosomes women have X X chromosomes it's in every cell of our body what about science are we to ignore that or we're going to say that one day I could be a frog or a dog or in living in a bog always going to make things up as we go what about science we hear that we should be teaching science science has been settled on this matter frankly have songs that were even having this discussion it not only

145represents intolerance bigotry and a complete disrespect by insulting hundred thousand students parents and citizens you're supposed to represent but also significant financial liabilities as a last remark so I plead you to repeal the controversial modifications not waste any money on the controversy subject to this public school whereas part by law provide a publication education for all students not just activist groups that you work behind the scenes to destroy public trust that concludes my remarks Thank You Rebecca Golden Corral Marilla Saldana and Palma Clemmons thank you for allowing you to provide testimony tonight I'm the mother to four children who attend Fairfax County Public Schools to an elementary school and two in high school I'm a past president of the Fairfax County Association for the gifted a community volunteer organization that believes all children deserve to

146learn in school and lastly I'm a professor at George Mason University where I teach mathematics to many students including pre-service teachers I'm here tonight because of the published recommendations for the 2018 budget first I want to thank you nf CPF staff for diligently preserving programs we are happy to see the FCPS will continue to fund language immersion schools strings and bands program in fourth and fifth grades and that students will continue to have access to buses to level four centers if they choose to attend them I am concerned however about the proposal to increase the class size by 0.5 students per class at George Mason we also have budget constraints and we also solve them by increasing class size most professional teachers know how to handle large classrooms we learn these tricks by necessity let

147me share a few of them with you to see if they strike you as both familiar and a source of complaint number one multiple-choice test there's no time to review a student's work so you just throw them a multiple-choice test limited feedback on written assignments whether tome work or essays teachers can grade just a bit of what was turned in or right nice job about thoroughly reading the work there isn't time to grade when your classes are large teach to the common denominator we don't have the flexibility to differentiate instruction when they're more than about 25 students in a classroom arranged classroom activities to minimize the multiplier effect more people means more interactions it means less control for the teacher kids start to fight play distract each other get off-topic joke around whatever you can

148also lecture at the students instead of providing gauging activities most activities require physical space if you don't have it just sit them in their chairs and lecture at them cancel elective or advanced coursework especially at the high school level if there aren't enough students to supply a large classroom filled with photography - or Latin for students principals won't run the class so these are the kinds of impacts that will have by continuing to increase classroom size no one welcomes these compromises and teachers with integrity invariably look for how they can have an impact our most talented teachers can and will leave FCPS to teach in neighboring districts or in private schools that makes increase class size Pennywise and pound-foolish our students will miss out on those of our teachers who leave system while the teachers

149who remain invariably resort to time-saving techniques that cost our community with compromised constructional techniques your decisions interact with others I recently met with a high school teacher who is leaving at CPS because she's so overwhelmed by the grading she this has to do with the new retake policy and how it interacts with the large classroom size she simply can't do her job any longer so there are plenty of other ways to save money including some unpaid holidays for 12 months salaried employees for example I believe our kids will pay if we don't find a different place to cut thank you very much mirela saldaña good evening everyone my name is Maria lasagna yes Maria lasagna not many people can pronounce that but later on I'll let you know someone who could and made a difference

150in my life exactly 15 years ago I actually stood here on behalf of the easel program one year after I arrived from Peru my home country now I stand here as an MCPS alumna Deb Stuart high school bilingual IB Diploma recipient Fairfax County constituents and future school counselor thank you the titles I mentioned today are only possible because of the people that I particularly mention as angels as I motivate students first-generation students who attend George Mason University I tell them my angels helped me out who was that angel one of them is actually sitting here Marsha Donovan my parent liaison at Jeb Stewart high school you see as a 12th grade student being here first-generation immigrant sister or you can call it second mom to then a four year old and a two week old

151brother I had to make the decision if I wanted to go to college I wanted to go to college but I had to make make up my mind if I could unfortunately I had a school representative who told me I could not because of my immigration status I became depressed every time the lights shut in my classroom I cried the only person who would notice would be my mom was she in the classroom no she was none but she could feel my heavy breathing as I became depressed and became so low about myself I mentioned my two week old brother well my mom had my brother and I was still depressed she was not the doors of Deb Stuart high school and the one person that could speak her language was Marcia Donovan thankfully because

152of her I was able to advocate for myself because she could speak in my language say my name and speak in our culture I stand to you as a sister of a college access program kid who is 13 years old at Glasgow middle school now thanks to the experience that my mother had with Marshall Donovan as a parent liaison I also speak to you as a sister of an aap student at Belvedere elementary school because my mom feels comfortable speaking to someone at the school system I also speak to you as a motivator of first-generation students because of this parent liaison so I thank you as you consider the benefits for someone as a catalyst and how essential this person is in Fairfax County Public Schools thank you thank you Paul McLellan followed by Wang

153Suk Hutchinson and Cecilia Goldstein good evening dr. Lockhart chairman Evans and the steam school board members my name is Paul McClellan's president of the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers I represent employs young and experienced and soon I will be returning to the classroom as an experienced art teacher Fairfax County taxpayer and proud union member thank you for your considered thought and support in teacher compensation in the salary scales we do appreciate any compensation we can get I'm here tonight to speak on behalf of the teachers who have a bachelor's degree in education but lacks adequate salary and compensation to gain a master's degree in the county as an art teacher with 12 years of teaching experience I have spent the time taking masters level courses in education and masters level studio art courses for credit

154Souter knew my teaching certificate every five years since the county no longer paid a stipend for college coursework I can only afford to take one class per five years and that only covers recertification at this rate I wouldn't be able to get a masters degree before I retired luckily I came into FCPS with six master's credits that were paid in full by the school system I previously worked for while I have been a teacher here in FCPS I was able to take advantage of the stipend that was given the teachers years ago that we're looking to move forward in their careers in the first 10 years here in FCPS I took to technology for the art room courses and a precious metal clay jewelry course for all vco Master credit I've earned my bachelor's was

15515 and proud of it I've maintained a 4.0 GPA something I wasn't able to do well in undergraduate classes I'm working my way towards my master's degree but as a slow road with little compensation throughout the journey the Commonwealth of Virginia only requires a teacher with a bachelor's degree to take one master's class every five years in order to renew their teaching certificate for that reasoning and the loss of the stipend from MCPS I'm in no hurry to get to take graduate courses and gain a master's degree it is my understanding of the school board we'll be looking at teacher scales in the future and proposing to eliminate the next achievement in my journey the bachelors plus 30 teacher scale I understand the budgetary reasoning behind the skill I have seen the change in salary

156when a person moves from bachelors to 15 to master's on the new proposed salary scale it's a significant change in salary will benefit those who are already on the current scale but it eliminates the excitement and gratitude and an employee feels when they achieve one more goal closer to another degree and are compensated for it it also give an employee who is between bachelors was 15 and bachelors was 30 a goal to achieve please consider the teachers who take these courses bring them out back into the FCPS classroom to share with students and colleagues and who deserve to keep this salary scale intact if you have any questions about the proposed salary scales and its impact on employees like myself please reach out to me and ask questions thank you Thank You mr. Jensen and

157Cecilia Goldstein good evening my name is Cecilia Goldstein I have been applying assuming the tracks ranking for the past 15 years the lady next to me is my records and she's one of my parents at Franklin middle school I am I come here today to demonstrate to you that family song plays very important role in our students well-being and education success every day and for that I'm going to tell you the story a wonderful story my I am sorry I'm very nervous so well being a yellin person who started in september in seventh grade and spoke very little English when unmounting to school in February and look very distraught trying to get help for him to get eyeglasses because his were broken she tried to speak English away with the office staff were unable to

158fully understand how they could help I was called to solve and I assured ma'am we do our best to meet his needs on my way home I saw mrs. Casares shelvings mom walking along the side what she was looking down and was working very slowly I offered to take her home on the way to her home she confided in me and told me her story she's a single mom who fled to the US for spousal abuse and grand threats to her family she had been working very hard to give her son a good education however she was about to be in this place from the place she was living in and had no place to live in addition the person who she was working with had had pastor hours and didn't let her cook in

159the house as soon as I got home that evening I contacted my Franklin middle school parents and found and to see anybody if they knew anybody that could rent a room to them thankfully one of our families came through and that could rent a room to them as my other school I knew a parent that has her own business and was looking to hire someone so I was able to put the two of them in contact so at the end mrs. cancer is not only found a place to live that it's a good-paying job as well and now the most wonderful news today salving has been accepted to become a member of the National Junior Honor Society he has a 3.5 GPA and has a magnificent job after all the adversities adversities he had in

160view not only this year but all that he has been due coming to this country saying saying that and behalf of all the other parent liaisons we do a very hard work and we would like to be treated as the same as everybody else the word for Fairfax County Public Schools we are very deserving to receive benefits just like everybody else thank you so much thank you so I'm going to call the names out of the people that did not show the first time if you're here please come up to the podium Ernie well Sara Mattingly jeb stuart once a Hodgins all right so what that is is that leaves us with four no-show spots anyone here who would like to address the board we have fourth who has not addressed the board if you

161can come up here and if you state your name and then after you are done I only have four slots so if you learn so those are the four people right now if you will just sit up here in the front row and you can you can then just give us your first name when you come up here and then please check in with a clerks table afterwards at the end okay my name is Kathy Adams I am a board member of pack Nova which stands for parents of autistic children of Northern Virginia when we first moved here in the fall of 2010 my biggest concern was in finding a good school for my children the oldest was an advanced coursework and my youngest was in special education I called Scott Campbell Scott informed me

162that Fairfax County would be the best fit for my family and he explained how we would want to live where there wasn't an ABA site school for my daughter as they offered evidence-based practice teachings catered towards students with autism although my husband was being stationed at Quantico and the surrounding areas in Stafford and Prince William were more affordable we decided to live in Fairfax County poeta Nova has an active listserv of around 500 members every week we get multiple inquiries about where to live and unanimous reply is Fairfax County we are proud of our schools prior to the meals tax vote I shared with our listserv members Fairfax County's budgetary issues particularly with retaining special education teachers when neighboring counties offer higher pay I was very disappointed when the vote no crowd had the majority

163as I understand we wouldn't be facing these tough budgetary decisions if it had passed that being said I feel that cutting special education is not the answer it certainly is something I would consider if the numbers of the special ed students were decreasing but we know that is not the case let me share some data compiled by Virginia's Department of Education related to students with autism in the state of Virginia for the school year 2016 to 2017 19,000 566 which is an increase from the previous year of 18,000 256 over 19 years from 97 to 2016 FCPS has had an increase of one thousand three hundred ninety seven percent of students with only autism FCPS students total one hundred and eighty-eight thousand there is a prevalence of one in 53 students with only the primary

164diagnosis of autism in Northern Virginia which comes for teen counties FCPS supports 42% of the total student population of students with autism out of the whole state of Virginia FCPS supported almost 18% of students with autism in fiscal year 2016 I thank you for your time thank you as you think over the question good for your information thank you good evening my name is Sonya Owen I am a parent of two children in the French immersion program at Kent Gardens in McLean Virginia and a rising kindergartner in Bonnie Brae which is our home based school in Burke Center it is my understanding that cuts to special education funding are being considered in part in order to avoid complaints about increased fees though in certain that is not the only consideration now I am a litigator

165but I do settle most of my cases and as such I am no stranger to compromise as a parent of children in both the general education and the special education setting I am asking you to err on the side of disappointing the general education students and compromising away a little bit of the funding that might be needed for some of the interests that they have as opposed to the special education students in other words if the increased fees of the trade-offs it says are compromised if there's something else you're considering and that's the compromise I was like you to compromise in favor of my dyslexic son which is what I would do as opposed to giving my girls maybe a little tiny bit more that he doesn't need that they don't need that he does

166need rather now I know the board annually has to struggle with a budget question item by item by item how much is enough I'm here to share with you a little bit about our story in my family about what's enough just to help put a face on it for the two years prior to my son's diagnosis with dyslexia he and I sat every single night I was literally sweating trying to help him decode and decipher words as simple as cat we spent 20 to 30 minutes night after night working through one paragraph and every time a word popped up that we've just gone through before it was as if we had never seen it before I was sweating and it wasn't enough his second grade teachers who as far as I'm concerned deserved medals for

167their interactions with ham last year worked with him above and beyond the scope of what they needed to give him now this was the general education setting he hasn't yet been assessed they still went out of their way to give him small group instruction they created a little program to try to help him they did their level best and it wasn't enough we finally had him assessed he was diagnosed with dyslexia and in March of 2016 he began his special education classes and orton-gillingham methods his teacher meets with his general education teachers he has special meetings with them to try to make sure that they understand that he can not only keep up with his AAP classes in French education but he can also do the work required of him and I will tell you

168I'm so proud of him and so happy with his teacher who opened deserves the medal that in less than a year with these special education classes he has come from being basically at a first grade level to almost being on target for third grade and we've done that in one year special education classes when you're looking at your line items that's enough thank you thank you [Applause] good evening my name is Karolina Dotel and I'm gonna represent in mrs. Burtis Santos she one of her son's goes to Foster's high school she did not get permission from her supervisors or she does cleaning to come to speak in families so the letter is miss plan examiner translated for you good evening members of the school board my name is Berta Santos Hispanic legal resident mother of

169three students a surfer I do not speak English I come to tell you that mrs. Karolina hotel has helped me a lot in folks your high school she tells me how to speak with when I have a situation with my kids she helps me as an interpreter she helps me to understand the papers that I received from a school to fill them up to check if my kids are attending the school as they told me and to tell me where can I find help in the community she also helped me with calls to other community um institutions she has coordinated rights when I have needed to go to the court programs of the school and others for important appointments she invites me to parenting classes seminars about gangs drugs and other important topics that we

170should know to raise our children in the medicine way in a safe way without losing the family values that we have as Hispanics the presentation the Carolina do at school are important and they help us to protect our children Karolina works tirelessly helping the parents of foster high school even though she is always busy she receivers with a smile and she makes her feel welcome I feel trusts to speak with her and I know she will be there to support me whenever I need it I'm very grateful for Fairfax County to have her innocence I believe that they should receive benefits and for all of them in Suffolk County Public Schools since early birth defects thank you good evening my name is Amanda Campbell and I am here as the parent of a current four

171and a half year old who is in the non cat preschool program at cherry run elementary and she has arrived in kinder never going to the ID program that rolling Valley in the fall I am here obviously because of my concerns with the cuts to special education I am a member of the new special ed PTA and as a teacher in this county as well I am substitute teacher for the county I am very emotional as you can tell I apologize and honestly angry about the cuts that I am hearings being proposed for special education and the reason why I will share a little bit with you my story coming into into sir facts County my daughter began receiving services from early intervention when she was 10 months old we didn't have a cause we

172just knew she had global developmental delays and ITC helped us tremendously and when we began the transitioning process into the preschool program through Fairfax County I went to eat or at one of the preschool sites just to see what it what it was what what services were offered and just get an idea of the program my child at the time was is was nonverbal not walking she's still nonverbal she's now currently walking um but at the time one of the teachers does it who were leading the um be sorry leading the tour specifically told every parent in the room this was two years ago specifically told every parent in the room your child will not receive each services will not and I'm sitting here as a parent of a nonverbal three-year-old at the time no

173that doesn't apply to us they're possibly tell me my child doesn't need speech therapy she's already receiving it from my PC it's very clear that she needs it so I was I was confident that we wouldn't have a problem with it fast forward about three weeks later to our first IEP meeting and during that meeting we had to fight and when I say fight I mean fight to get a consult a speech-language consult just a consult we were granted we were it was written into the IEP that she would have evaluation at the moment school started for PT n ot speech was withheld we had to fight when that speech consult came back we had to be initial evaluation for a nonverbal three-year-old was one hour of speech a month 15 minutes a week to

174bring my child from not speaking to speaking we didn't sign the IEP I didn't accept it I knew that there was more offered because I am a teacher in this county and I know what services are available so I fought and thankfully we are now at four hours of service a month that is still willful e inadequate for her apraxia diagnosis and far below what is received across the country where students receive three hours a week I'm sorry so it is already very difficult to get the services that are necessary in this county for children with special needs to succeed I thank you please do not cut them further the people who do not know that those services are available and don't fight are the ones who are being hurt the most these children are

175already the most vulnerable population that we have please do not cut the budget on their backs thank you for your time thank you and thank you all for coming to tonight's public hearing and sharing your comments and concern our approved budget will be discussed at a work session on this coming Thursday in the 18th beginning at 7 p.m. here at Luther Jackson middle school and the board is scheduled to take action on the FY 18 budget on May 25th again thank you for your comments and this hearing is adjourned