FCPS School Board Meeting - December 1, 2016

001e this December 1st 2016 regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence and the performance of the national anthem by the Luther Jackson Middle School concert choir under the direction of Patricia little of the United States of America to the for it stands godice can you see [Music] the the rock [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] thank you so much Luther Jackson choir that was wonderful right here on your own home turf and thank you so much for hosting us every other every other Thursday thank you oh and uh I I believe the principal Chad Layman is here is that right we you oh thank you so much good job Mr lman now going to certify the closed meeting that

002we had in order to comply with Section 2.2 3712 D of the code of Virginia it's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a close meeting on December 1st 2016 to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do I have motion moved by uh Mrs Schulz seconded by Mr Moon all those in favor um is that that's unanimous thank you uh with uh Miss darnette copac away from the table and uh Miss Hines uh just uh as an announcement our forum for tonight is um cancelled um and we will um set

003the U Forum topic for our our next meeting a few announcements before we begin tonight's meeting if you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that's being discussed tonight that information is on the table at the auditorium entrance tonight's agenda is available by going to school board on the FCPS homepage and selecting board docks under upcoming Schoolboard meetings the meeting is also being streamed live online select School Board uh from full menu then click on the watch live button on the Schoolboard meetings web page please turn off or silence your cell phone I call on Miss Chu for announcements thank you Madame chair in honor of disability history Awareness Month in October students with disabilities have developed a resource called the guidebook to planning and inclusion project to help

004School communities raise awareness of disabilities and the importance of building inclusive School communities the guide book was created by students with the Virginia board for people with disabilities youth leadership Forum in collaboration with the Virginia Department of education's I'm determined project the guide book includes sample activities and resources for use by all grade levels to promote disability awareness and inclusiveness it also provides resources and templates schools can use to plan and carry out their own inclusion project events the sample activities in the guide were successfully piloted during the 2015 to 2016 school year by schools in North umland County and Radford the guide to planning and inclusion project is now available on the Virginia Department of Education website at doe. virginia.gov that is all thank you thank you Miss Chu item 2.04 student recognition I

005call on Mrs Strauss for the recognition thank you this is really very exciting uh tonight we recognize the winner of the 2016 US bands Virginia state championship the mlan high school Highlander marching band represented here this evening by their chamber Ensemble and I believe they are going to play first as they are coming in let me read what we are recognizing them for on October 29th 2016 the mlan Highlander marching band brought home the grand champion of Award with the highest score of the day at the US bands Virginia state championship in Virginia Beach for their show title story of my life not only did they win the grand champion award but they also won best color guard best music best overall effect best percussion and best visual they cleaned up story of my life

006is an uplifting performance about what's most important in our lives love and includes beautifully played Tunes smartly woven with exciting formations by the 160 person marching band and color guard who dance jump and are hoisted into the air in the end they all fall into a perfect heart the award-winning mlan Highlander marching band is under the direction of Chris Weiss and dearra densen and I believe they will perform for us right now thank you for [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] for [Music] [Applause] thank you that was beautiful if you would all like to now come down the stairs and we will have a picture in front of the T that's okay come down and the school board will do the scrunch I think we saw uh principal Ellen Riley here of mlan high school if

007you'd like to join us for the picture that'd be great thank you e well that was certainly a special treat and for the record that was our very first student recognition under a new program that we have so our very first recognition and performance so thank you um another announcement uh Miss darnette kof and Miss Hines uh will not be able to make tonight's meeting we now move to uh item 3.01 citizen participation speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as capital Improvement program budget and boundaries complaints regarding individual students or school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate school principal or other school official speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable

008information and connection with an individual student speakers are expected to deliver their comments with the decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the Public's business thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come out to speak to us tonight tonight we have uh 10 citizens signed up to address the board and the first is Lindsay McCully with students from glasow Middle School Miss McCully welcome to um our glasow students thank you get in than all right well good evening school board members and thank you for having us my name is Lindsay M this is my fifth year teaching at Glasgow and we've been working very hard the past few years to develop our on-time graduation program and we were excited this year to start a new elective we call success prep

009and it is helping students develop the skills they'll need to be successful in middle school high school and Beyond so we have some seventh grade success Prep students here who are very motivated and wanted to talk to you about uh Middle School start times for the 2017 2018 uh school year because they feel that's something that's been impacting them lately so I will not talk any further and I'll let them share their testimonies with you that they hope to uh will shed some light on how start times impact them hi my name is Enrique Gonzalez um yesterday I woke up late and almost missed the bus but because of that I got I'm TIY to school and get in trouble but for me to be successful I need more sleep hi my name is lizy

010soero my alarm rings at 600 but I wake up at 6:30 and never have time to eat breakfast in the morning sometimes it's difficult to focus in class because I fall asleep and don't remember the lesson I need more sleep in order to get better grades in school thank you hi my name is Esa I wake up at 6:30 and my bus passes by 6:50 I don't have time to eat or change I get in trouble because I can't focus I need more sleep so I can get better grades hello my name is Austin Diaz one morning I woke up late and I almost missed the bus and there was a test that day and I did not get the grade I wanted because I did not get enough sleep I need a later start

011time to get good grades in school thank you hi my name is rera Mone and one day I missed the bus because it was hard to get up at school that day it was hard to concentrate because it I was tired my teacher kept warning me if my teacher kept warning me she would call my mom if I didn't get up I need more sleep so I can succeed hi my name is Jessica and I'll be sharing my opinions and thoughts on what they should change school start time so I wake up at 6:30 a.m. and my bus arrives at 6:55 the problem with this is that I rush to catch the bus and I don't eat breakfast and missing and I missed the bus and when I miss the bus I miss an important

012lesson or a CL or a class a later start time would be would improve better grades and better understanding in class thank you hi my name is sahill one morning I woke up in a bad mood my mom said there is not enough time for breakfast and your bus is coming when I went outside I missed my bus which made my dad have to wake up and drop me off that day I couldn't learn anything cuz I was tired I won a later start time in 20 17 and 2018 year go ahead you can you can finish my name is Britney Nogales and on Monday I woke up late and I only had six minutes to get ready so I rushed and when I got on the bus I was so tired then when I

013got to school I was sleepy and hungry cuz I didn't have time to eat breakfast in the morning and I couldn't focus and pay attention in class I want want more sleep and I need later start time thank you thank you very much we appreciate you joining us tonight next on our agenda is uh Bethany kosma to be followed by Laura Miller John and John koska Miss uh kosma welcome thank you I'm here tonight to read remarks from a Fairfax County uh resident and mother of young children who unfortunately is unable to address the school board in person what follows are her remarks thank you school board members for the opportunity to address the agenda topic legislative programs and to provide recommendations on policy changes for the coming year I strongly recommend that policy 1450

014be repealed of the controversial Provisions hastily approved last year without parental notification or participation in the decision-making process my opposition to this policy does not not reflect a lack of concern for children wrestling with gender with questions of gender I do care for these children I have a family member in the LGBT community however I will not at the same time abandon care for the remaining 98% of the student population who do not identify as transgender I am deeply troubled by policy 1450 in light of the fact that Nationwide distinguished members of our medical community have not yet to reach consensus on transgenderism consider Dr Paul McHugh former psychiatrist and psychiatrist and chief at John Hopkins University he States emphatically that transgenderism is a mental disorder further studies from jander vanderbelt University reveal that for

015children who Express transgender feelings 70 to 80% of them spontaneously lost those feelings over time to question one's Natural Born sex is no light matter let us not mistake that reality beyond the medical issues it presents families facing transgenderism often require years of counseling and yet in approving policy 1450 you have required children as young as 5 years old to unnecessarily face this complex question children whose days consist of hideand-seek folk song County to 10 and exploring their backyards you have demanded without parental notification that accept a political answer to an inconclusive medical question that causes confusion in their own lives this course of action not only does does a disservice to our own children the most innocent segment of our population but it disrespects their personhood since the beginning of time Elders have protected

016children from complex matters we do it in the name of innocence in the matter of policy 1450 why have you abandoned this agal practice in schools as in homes it is our duty our privilege to provide children the protective barriers that not only Ensure their physical safety but will also secure their emotional and mental innocence to that end I ask that you repeal policy 14 50 and include this as a priority in the legislative programs for this coming year thank you thank you um Laura Miller to be followed by John kochka to be followed by Kathy Roose good evening hi I'm I am a mother of three children in elementary school here at Fairfax County Public Schools and I am here tonight to talk about the legislative programs I wish for you to advocate for

017right now as a mom I'm very concerned that uh you're not achieving one of the goals that we agree with I want my children to be the healthiest and wealthiest and wisest as you state and to become successful graduates and successful members of society however when I I learn that coming soon they're going to be reading in English literature classes um materials they have Pro priscu promiscuity throughout it profanities um demonstrating violence um having fear of daddies it just it just goes on and on I almost want to pull my kids out of the schools um it scares me uh and then I learned that in your your fle you're you're going to teach them anal sex in eth grade it just it baffles my mind you're going to be teaching them homosexuality when they

018don't my kids don't even know the difference between Santa Claus and not I'm a stay-at-home mom I don't have money to go to private school okay now the CDC the news reports say that if you really want to achieve the healthiest and wisest of your children you teach them to abstain from sex well they're children they're children through 18 we have them as children until 18 they're not adults yet they haven't even fully created the rationality in their brains yet you need to let them reach that level and then the CDC shows over and over that those that abstain as teenagers from sex have successful marriages and those that have successful marriages have successful fam and they are the ones that have the wealthiest Lifestyles and the most love and that's because they learn self-control

019if we don't teach our children self-control how are they going to have self-control as adults they will not and marriage has a lot of self-control and a lot of sacrifice and they must learn it when they're young but Meanwhile your programs counter all of this um and I know maybe you're saying your hands are tied and you're just following what the state wants you to follow well here's your chance tell our state government to change things let's get rid of this 1450 stuff because it is not teaching them correct behaviors it's not teaching them self-control not even the homosexuals have to have self-control too everybody does it's life um and then also you need to advocate for independent parental reviews so that we know what's in our literature and to say no stop this stuff

020um and we also ought to have a law that doesn't allow transgenders under 18 to start taking hormones and and and um surgeries it's just bad I've over overdone it I'm sorry that's all right thank you John kochka to be followed by Kathy Roose to be followed by Kimberly big Virginia state legislature should cut State funding to any Virginia school teaching the Fairfax County Family Life education curriculum or any similar curriculum this is an excerpt from grade seven emotional and social health lesson one for most people their gender identity is the same as their sex assigned at Birth for some people it is not the same the term transgender gender is used to describe an individual whose gender identity how they think of themselves as male or female is different the individual sex assigned at

021Birth in teaching this lesson consider this a student who Faith reaches back Millennia brings home a test question how many genders are there if she answers two it's marked wrong this is a clear violation of the First Amendment right of that student another student brings home a test to the question true or false our gender can change from male to female and back again over the course of the lifetime he answered false wrong again a student begins an essay there are two genders male and female wrong once again when fle distinguishes biological gender from gender identity the two terms will inevitably merge into the way kids understand gender it's the way people talk we hear tolerance preached but tolerance does not extend to those who disagree the concept of multiple genders according to the bigots

022on the Fairfax County School Board the Fairfax County Public School administration and the Obama Administration it does not whether seen Through The Eyes of Faith science or Reason there are only two genders the idea of multiple genders is wrong on religious grounds Genesis 52 he created them male and female and blessed them and he named them mankind was the Fai of Mother Teresa in Kolkata based on hate was the fate of mar Luther King a faith that acknowledged male and female based on invidious discrimination was the science of NY Stevens who discovered the XX and XY chromosome determining biological gender a science based on gender animus one social media site allows a person to self- desate from a list of 50 genders 50 genders how many of these genders will Fairfax County School Board add

023in 2017 if they don't if you don't add another 46 will the school board itself be accused of hate teaching our students there are multiple genders violates religious rights defies science and doesn't make any Common Sense thank you Kathy Roose to be followed by Kimberly beg to be followed by Melissa Bodin good evening I'm a resident of Fairfax County I'm a lawyer I'm a mother of young children my remarks address the search for a new superintendent I recently watched a video of the board meeting of May 7th 2015 that's when this board voted to make transgenderism an official part of school law and policy there were hundreds of parents in this room standing shouting trying to be heard I saw this board gavel them down and threaten to kick them out I saw you Mr

024mine tell them they were on the wrong side of History scold them I watched the entire board vote Yes and one member vote no thank you Miss Schultz for being that no V vote now it's important for the public to understand that this board had no authority to create a new transgender category Virginia law is clear localities may not enact identity categories that are inconsistent with state law there are even some lawyers on the board that should know better state law does not include transgenderism and so this board a mere County school board has no legal right to impose it on families in your jurisdiction you have shown contempt for the law because you did it anyway and the public should know you're being sued for it you've showed contempt for the law and you've

025shown contempt for the people who pay your salaries parents recently you heard from an American Muslim father he moved his family to Fairfax County because of the good reputation for schools in this area but he has had to take his daughters out and put them in private school at a cost well beyond his family's means as you may recall he was close to tears when he told you he can't afford to pull his young son out of public schools a school that shows contempt for his religious beliefs you may recall he said Public Schools should be for everyone but you have made them not for him and the other Muslims the 10,000 Muslim children in this County your schools are filled with Muslim families cath uh Catholic families even angelical Christian families and you are

026forcing all these families to choose between following their deeply held religious beliefs or following your controversial policies no family no child should be put in this position and yet you have done that let me State as plainly as I can for these families your policy is trying to force their children to deny a truth about the human person that is an tantamount to denying God it is that serious for these families you don't care we have tremendous compassion for any person suffering with the idea that they have been born in the wrong body this condition affects very few and thankfully 80% to 90% of the children grow out of it I will 80 to 90% of the children grow out of this there are compassionate ways to respond to these children without forcing all children

027and all teachers and all families to Champion in an unscientific highly controversial highly politicized agenda these policies must be repealed thank you Kimberly beg thank you for allowing me to speak on the agenda topic legislative programs for the upcoming year you know because you hear from citizens at every board meeting that many Fairfax County residents felt marginalized by your lack of transparency and herried passage of policy 1450 I met one of those residents just last night I was at a dress rehearsal for my seven-year-old daughter's Nutcracker performance a mom of three children ages 6 4 and one struck up a conversation with me after chatting for a few minutes she shared that she and her husband chose to live in Fairfax County when they were first married because of the excellent reputation of our schools

028this woman was excited to enroll her daughter in kindergarten last year but she soon became alarmed when her daughter told her what her teacher taught about sexual behavior grossly inappropriate for kindergarten discussion then this board passed 1450 and that's when this woman withdrew her daughter from our schools the policies of this board your obsession with sex your celebration of sexual activity that violates the faith and religious liberty of Christians Jews and Muslims leaves parents no choice but to opt out of our schools the woman I met last night is now homeschooling and looking for a job so she and her husband can afford private school tuition for their two oldest children and in nanny for her baby I have heard the same story from many parents and so have you a Muslim man stood before

029you a few weeks ago in anguish over your violation of his religious liberty as he told his story I saw the reactions of members of this board you listen to him when he told you his wife had to find a job for the first time so they could afford private school tuition and the cost of uniforms I saw your faces you listened I have come before this board before and shared my family's situation my husband and I have five children we are forced to support the schools through our tax payments but we will not send our children to these schools in their current state my husband and I both work demanding jobs outside our home to cover the extra cost of school while we work during the day our three oldest children attend private school

030our four-year-old attends a halfday preschool and our precious 2-year-old spends long days with our sitter I beg you please consider what you are doing and why you are doing it you have been entrusted with the oversight of the education of our country's children please teach our children math teach them to love to read teach them literature I beg you please stop this social engineering in a school district in Minnesota girls no longer have the right to undress in locker rooms without biological males a group of girls there will never unsee what they have been forced to see a biological male with a penis asserting his right to access their once private space twerking grinding and lifting up his skirt to reveal his underwear in front of the girls even allowing two of them even following

031two of them to a secondary locker room to undress in front of them when they sought privacy it is not too late to protect the children of Fairfax County thank you Melissa bod good evening honorable school board members my name is Melissa Bodwin I hold a doctor in political science and currently I Ser this Community as a professor at NOVA community college I live in the Mason District and more specifically St albin's Precinct it is an honor to address you all this evening the following are my thoughts and recommendations for the legislative programs and the upcoming policies for the coming year first of all because it is the role of the legislative branch of government to write and pass policy through legislation it is recommended that the school board reject President Obama's illegal and harmful

032mandate to Force transgender mandates on public schools besides having no lawful basis Obama's Federal mandates actually violate Title 9 and discriminates against females by forcing males access to female bathrooms showers and locker rooms it also discriminates against females by disregarding their right to privacy and safety moreover on August 21 2016 United States District Federal uh judge of Texas Reed ' Conor ruled in the case the state of Texas V the United States of America that the Obama administration's transgender directives in the enforcing federal agencies have exceeded the authority given them by the 1972 Title 9 education amendments he ordered a nationwide injunction against the directives in his injunction he wrote and I quote it cannot be disputed disputed that the plain meaning of the term sex in that law meant the biological and anatomical differences

033between male and female students as a detriment or as determined by their birth without question permitting educational institutions to provide separate housing to male and female students and separate educational instruction concerning human sexuality was to protect students personal privacy or discuss their personal privacy of matters of sexual orientation while in the presence of members of the opposite biological sex however the Fairfax County school board has not retracted their policy in fact members of the school board School Board assert that you have been working on and under the following Direction and I quote of the courts and the the federal government I received this quote in response of of an email that I sent to Sandy Evans on July 12th if you are indeed working under the guidance of the courts then why have you not

034abandon these illegal mandates issued by the executive branch in violation of their Authority but choose to ignore ruling from the Judiciary which is acting within its constitutional parameters in closing I ask you to repeal act 450 thank you Robert Rigby I apologize I've left my notes at home so I have to use this Infernal Device um good evening my name is Robert Rigby I've been a teacher in FCPS for nearly 18 years and am the current president of a certified employees group called FCPS Pride we are a gather of those who hold the interests of LGBT staff members LGBT students and their families and LGBT parents close to our hearts I noted in looking at the proposed 2017 legislative program that section J includes advocating for the passage and ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment

035although that Amendment doesn't necessarily affect FCPS policies directly I would think that it is there for a number of other reasons first to make writing Equitable policies for FCPS easier and second to protect students parents and families in the larger community in which they live especially in the workforce Healthy Families mean healthy and thriving students and I can see how the board would take an interest in ensuring that our students family members and the older students who are seeking employment are treated fairly for several years several delegates including Mark Lavine our own sural Adam eban Alonso Lopez and Marcus Simon have proposed to the general assembly that they add sexual orientation and gender identity to the Virginia Human Rights Act um uh let me see LGBT people within the walls of our FX County public

036school buildings are well served by the current board policies but outside of schools our students families who may be LGBT or who come under Fire for standing up for an LGBT child remain vulnerable if families lose ground in housing employment and prary education this directly impacts our students thus it makes sense to me for the scps school board to advocate for an update to the Virginia Human Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity to defend the families of our students we are already so Advocate with the Equal Rights Amendment I assume for similar reasons while I do not think that human rights should be decided on a majority vote it is worth noting that all five Statewide elected officials in Virginia support such an addition as do most of the members of Fairfax

037County's delegation to the general assembly I would also speculate in it's just speculation from the recent election results that a majority of Voters in all magisterial districts do likewise all members of the scps school board have a reputation I'm almost out of time um youall are known for voting in the students interest you really are all of you are um I think adding this to the Virginia Human Rights Act would be in our students interest because it's in the interest of their families my time is up thank you Debbie Munoz to be followed by Mike kn hi my name is Debbie Munoz it's my anniversary and instead of spending it the normal way I'm here to talk about money but it's not just any money it's my livelihood tonight you are reviewing the 2017 budget

038and letting new construction contracts and my question to all of you is how can you even think of asking for more money for the budget when you don't care about what happens to the existing money you have how can you think of letting new contracts for construction when you don't enforce the contracts in place now how do I know this because I've been personally affected by the fact that there is no transparency or accountability with the FCPS system I imagine nobody in this room can afford to lose $212,000 but that's what's happened to me it's happening to me now at the hands of the board I'm a subcontractor on the Cherry Run Elementary school project the board has approved and paid the general contractor for my work but I haven't received a dime of the

039money owed to me since July 1st and all of you have known about it for a month you've all been informed none of you care if a subcontractor gets stiffed or if it looks like the GC is engaging in a prima fascia intent to fraud to defraud read Virginia code section 43-13 and you'll see what I mean as long as you're getting your school built it appears you're washing your hands of this and I'm being told it's my problem by your contract the GC has to pay subs within seven days of receiving payment from you but that didn't happen and here are the ways that FCPS and the board has dodged accountability we asked in writing that the payment Provisions be enforced denied the payments be stopped to the GC until all subcontractors are paid

040up to date denied to be paid directly by C FCPS denied that FCPS clawback of amounts already paid to the GC denied that the gc's project manager who seems to be a major source of the problems on the Cherry Run project be removed denied and finally we asked in writing that a complete investigation and audit of the project occur and it was denied all these measures are available to the board in the contract for construction and speaking of my audit request where is the auditor general are you all aware that the auditor general of the FCPS has been on paid administrative leave since July there's no comp there's no transparency and there's no accountability here one more point about transparency when excuses were made by a FCPS rep about payment to me excuses disparaging my

041work I filed a foyer to get evidence of our performance and the foyer request for all intents and purposes was obstructed no transparencies there no accountability and I ask you tonight to please look for accountability look for transparency find it within yourself to review this matter thank you Mike kn school board members as a CPA with 20 years experience I'm talking about 2017 midyear budget the mission of the school board is to provide high quality education so the budget has to be student centered budget when you work in a glassy sexy building my child study in the trailer room with no water no bathroom access that spinning is a spin that's not student centered budget when the students are forced to spend 36 hours per year on sex education based on the ill conceived 1450

042that is not a student centered budget the money the resource and materials could well be spent on reading math science and technology by looking at this chart in the past five years the school budget increased 100% the student enrollment only increased 20% budget spent five times more than students the money is not spent on the students it's on something else that is not a student center budget as a CPA I urge you to do two things one is rehire back the general auditor to conduct a comprehensive investigation and audit to identify the waste and abuses any report shows that $470 million spent on special education that is 22% of school budget higher than Middle School spending 472 million students spending on single day students truly need special education there must be some waste out there

043there must be some savings you can achieve to do something about it second thing conduct a study of the undocumented illegal immigrants with this sending thousands of thousands students into our County system enjoy free benefits of Health Care and free education who is going to pay for that in my view the people let me in they should be responsible for that because it's not fair to put financial burden on our state government it's not fair to put a burden on you the county officials and it's not fair to put the burden on me and us the working classes law banding taxpaying at hardworking citizens as a CPA I strongly urge you to reestablish a well balanced and reasonable responsible school budget for 2017 thank you so much thank you we go to uh 3.02 student

044representative matters and I call call on Miss Chu thank you madam chair first I would just like to welcome the Boy Scouts in the audience if you could please stand to be recognized they're here working on their citizenship in the community [Applause] badge thank you for coming today I also have um a few other things I would like to give first I would like to thank Robinson Secondary School for hosting our recent superintendent student advisory council meeting it was a very emotional meeting as our students had a final chance to say farewell to Dr Garza so I just like to say thank you again to the school for hosting a wonderful meeting I would also like to thank Leah skursky and Jennifer Spears from the school health advisory committee as well as their student representative

045Jenna Kaufman who came to our superintendent student advisory council meeting to present on Mental Health and Wellness the sa voted on three aspects of mental health and wellness to focus on for the remainder of the year and concluded with one one Health in a safe School environment two family and Community involvement and three health education in addition the students discussed an initiative called sa and shac in collaboration with the school health advisory committee to Showcase School wellness and discuss those three aspects of mental Wellness throughout our schools I would also like to thank Lauren Anderson from the Josh Anderson foundation for presenting about our minds matter a student L movement to change School culture cult about mental health so thank you so much for all of you for coming out to our meeting I'm looking

046forward this upcoming Monday to further discuss these issues and I hope that any students who would like to participate with the Anderson foundation and or the community initiatives we're taking could reach out finally real food for kids and their student representative a good friend of my Susie Bay I would just like to thank is in the process of putting together a youth student health advocacy board the board will be responsible for meeting with our director of food and nutrition services as well as nutritionist and Food Services team to provide feedback on scps food as well as Advocate on the student level through real food for kids if there are any students interested in joining this board please let me know and I will be happy to connect you to the organization that is all thank

047you Miss Chu 4.01 confirmation of action taken and Clos meeting this is the portion of the meeting where the board will confirm any action regarding issues that were discussed in the closed meeting these issues may include action taken regarding student disciplinary matters board members have discussed each individual case and at this time will'll make several motions to confirm the recommendation recommended action and I call on Miss Schultz for the uh first motion yes um I move to Grant the school oh I'm sorry we're out of order this is uh m one the uh yeah we have them on both sides um I move to excuse from attendance at school certain students identified in a closed meeting pursuant to Virginia code section 22.1 d254 B1 do I have a second seconded by Mr Moon all those

048in favor raise your hand uh it uh palic Huff Schultz Strauss Evans Moon all those opposed McLaughlin all those abstaining Corbett Sanders Wilson and mine that motion passes I now call on Miss uh St uh Strauss for a motion thank you madam chairman I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who threatened another student and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent do I have a second second seconded by U Mrs Schultz all those in favor raise your hand Huff Schultz Strauss Evans Moon and movine all those opposed palic all those abstaining Corbett Sanders uh mlin and Wilson and that motion passes I call on Miss pal for a motion I Madam chair I move that the school board permit an individual to enter onto school property in limited circumstances

049and according to the terms and conditions discussed in Clos session do I have a second second seconded by Mrs Strauss all those in favor raise your hand pal Corbett Sanders Strauss Evans Moon and uh mine all those opposed Schultz all those abstaining Huff McLaughlin and Wilson that motion passes we turn to item 4.02 the 201728 school year calendar and I call on Mr moon for a motion thank you Madame chair I move that the school Bo to approve the recommend recommended 2017 2018 school year calendar do I have a second seconded by Miss palek Mr Moon would you like to speak to your motion uh trust for Madame chair uh as we all remember the scoreboard made a decision last year from fy18 we would school year 18 would start the school year prior to

050the Labor Day and as a directed by the school board staff developed the calendar with that prebel day start and uh step came up with a two different proposals and we had work sessions to have a discussion on those two different proposals and then also survey the community parents and teachers and even non FCPS in a pap and overwhelmingly in all those three different categories they will just support for draft number seven and some of the things you might want to know under draft number seven is that the first day of school for the students will be August 28th that is a year from now almost a year from now and then school year will end for the students on June 15 2018 that calendar which we'll be voting on which I support has a

051two full weeks of a winter break plus January 1 and also provides one full week of spring break plus Monday after spring break thank you madam chair Miss palic would you like to speak to your second yes thank you also briefly um first of all I wanted to Echo Mr Moon's um comments that we did have uh extend of feedback through the online survey I also want to thank um the community members who emailed or who met with me to discuss the calendar uh I I will be in a future form topic um asking that we have a calendar committee that can work with our staff in the future it's very loud today uh staff in the future um to ensure that we have consistent um Community input from our stakeholders as we create the

052calendar process uh that being said I want to thank Mr Smith um for all your work on this this and your staff uh I know it's a uh a long process we seem usually the end um and I Know It Takes uh quite a bit of input from stakeholders and the community um I also do look forward to working on guidance um to help ensure that our schools are Mindful and and understanding of um religious observances um for families and and what that means and the impact on that so with that being said happy to Second this and I hope our colleagues will join us in supporting this calendar that starts a week before Labor Day thank you Mrs uh Miss Schultz so um I I typically vote for the calendar because at this point

053we've arrived at a a fair degree of public engagement um and the board has had a lot of work with staff um but I'm going to um descent on this calendar not because of the pre- Labor Day start because I actually I think that's a good idea I think our colleagues in um Montgomery County are playing like opposite land or opposite day um to us um and they're being pushed for the same reasons uh that I think we're um extracting ourselves from a start date that bows um for decades to an industry of um uh Whatchamacallit industry uh Hospitality yeah a tourism a hospitality industry instead of what's right for children so in that aspect I think the calendar is um is good um what I'm starting to have a problem with is and what

054I heard a lot from my constituents was that by the time there was an opportunity for the public to have input it was draft seven or draft eight it was it was a binary choice and that really I think the board um is going to be responsible going forward and and I'm kind of sad that the public engagement committee didn't take up a greater engagement with the public over tightening the school year and the fact that we've heard from a lot of families that say look you have us getting out the second or the third week of June and remember if we move back a week you get out a week early you know you're not going to school longer you're going to school the same amount of time the question is when and that's

055in relation to the standardized tests that happen and are normed nationally and if you have students um across the United States that are going to school frankly at the be beginning of August in many cases they have that much more of a jump on um classroom time to standardize tests and that's why we're moving it but it's all the other days it's all the other staff development days all the other breaks that happen um that lengthen the school year and the question about whether or not we really need to be discussing um padding either the front end of the calendar before kids come to school with um enough professional development for staff and or at the back end um and have a consistent calendar that is tightened up that allows um students to uh work

056more over uh the summer holidays um if they need to be employed or um to frankly just be consistently in school and that all of the um three and a half 4 day weeks over and over and over throughout the calendar um wreak havoc not only on students um but on families as well and I don't know that we've had that full um part of the conversation the board ourselves we sort of just start wherever we landed off La last year um I'm not going to do my my annual speech on um Veterans Day because because we're blessed that next year Veterans Day happens to be on a weekend but I am going to use it as a precursor to the fact that um boy if you haven't ever seen me fight for Veterans Day

057as the only federal holiday not recognized on Fairfax County's calendar before you're going to see it in next year because even though Veterans Day is on Saturday this coming school year I will bet you know we're going to find a way to have Veterans Day celebrations in all of our schools on a not Veterans Day day which is exactly the point that I always make on why we absolutely can honor veterans and the Deep military commitment we have um throughout our community uh but we can have Veterans Day and still have where where the schools do hold them wonderful Veterans Day observances so I know that's um you know probably was not expected by some of my colleagues but I am going to be um refraining from supporting this calendar um not because it wasn't

058good work by staff but frankly I think it's I'm trying to foreshadow I think some of the work that needs to come by the board uh for for future calendars and and represent the voices that certainly have been heard that are unhappy with this calendar Mrs hu uh so I I think I'll have to ask Miss pal if I can jump in on her Forum topic because that was exactly what I was going to say uh I am going to support the calendar given the survey results uh the majority of the community did speak on the two draft calendar options and that was the one so I will be supporting that but I absolutely agree with um my two previous colleagues that just spoke to the fact that I was I was a little shocked

059at the um at how little Community input from a board and a public standpoint there was done I I know that Mr Smith and staff have done an excellent job personally going out to the um certain group stakeholders and getting input as they build the calendar but I do think it's appropriate for us to have it in a little bit more of a public forum so that we can bounce ideas off of each other hear each other's thinking and um have a wider variety of options when we do survey the community so thank you Mr mine thank you madam chair I actually just have um one question and um it pertains to the G um which is in on the calendar in um June 2018 some a designation I've never seen before um on our

060calendars and I know um Mr Curran isn't here tonight but hopefully someone will be able to answer this question so um you know we always have a practice of not wanting students to have to wait around for graduation ceremonies after school ends and it looks like we're accomplishing that by starting graduations on the 7th of June um but I'm wondering how that pertains to our contracts with um with Eagle Bank Arena and and um um D Constitution Hall um are we are we committed to ending graduations by the last day of school on the 15th how does that look can anyone provide more information on that so with regard to the graduation dates uh the process we've used this in the past uh for graduations it's basically seven days from the last day of school

061uh it's been that way since we've been doing graduations and developing calendars uh we're uh told by Mr Curran that uh the state will work for our calendar for next year uh and we will be okay moving forward with it okay great um if I could I I might ask for more information at a later date but thank you for that Mrs stra I will vote for the calendar I was very pleased that the community did weigh in with the electronic survey um we did get thousands of responses and uh consequently um what is being proposed tonight is uh what was voted on by the community um so thank you for those of you who responded to our question as to what you would prefer and um uh it was interesting the two weeks for

062the winter break uh is as it turns out is what was the preferred um calendar situation by the community so that's that's what is on the table um in putting the calendar together there's always a challenge of uh uh balancing quarters balancing semesters keeping in mind um those holidays that are traditional in our community and most importantly or I should say as importantly is providing um uh professional days for our teachers to do their work uh whether it is planning for the next quarter uh getting the grades and the grade books Etc so those days where the while the students may have a holiday the teachers are working very hard it is those days are very very important to our staff so I will be supporting this calendar and again thank you to the community

063for weighing in on this it helped Mrs Corbin Sanders thank you um I too will be supporting the calendar as it's been recommended tonight but I will also be supporting M Pal's uh recommendation that we have a community um group come together with the school system to um help develop the calendar because as I um sent the draft calendars out to my um constituents I got a lot of feedback as to um request for additional or other um dates that might have been more um supportive of family interest but I am going to be supporting this calendar tonight because uh we have a commitment to all of our community to allow community members to provide feedback to be part of the decision-making process but also to have reliability and by adopting the calendar tonight we

064send a message to our community members that when they go home for the holidays at the winter break they can make plans for their holidays this summer and they can make plans for their holidays next year and so um kicking this down the road really doesn't make sense uh for us tonight but I will encourage that going forward um that we uh perhaps put together a um task force with community members I will and I want to remind people that we actually went through two separate Community engagement processes on this we engaged the community last spring as to whether or not we should be um starting school taking advantage of a waiver that we could take advantage of with the state of Virginia um and then once that engagement process was over we instructed the

065school um staff to put together draft calendars and it was the second initiative that we went back to the community to talk about what was the preferred calendar M mlin uh I will support the calendar based on the committee input we received but I did want to speak to a couple things first of all we had some in the community who were still trying to understand um how does Fairfax County handle its snow days um you for years and years um when we had a certain number of snow days uh then the the question became um Beyond you know the three that we put into the end of the school year did it mean um now students would have to go extra days L um lose vacation days uh you know how was that being

066handled and um what I wanted to make sure everybody understood was that once Fairfax County Schools was able to convert to full day Mondays uh we no longer found ourselves in the Dilemma of how do we fulfill the requirements of either 180 days of instruction or then if you have some snow days can you then um convert to the 990 hours of instruction and um the combination of the full day Mondays which enabled our elementary schools to then better align with our middle and high school hours of instruction along with the fact that we've had some heavy snow years which meant Fairfax County qualified for the waiver um essentially what it meant is that we no longer had to build in snow days and wonder if they got used or unused um and so that

067was I think for some families trying to understand why are we still then ending um really later in June than we would hope and Miss Schultz kind of touched upon um the added dilemma that I think going into next year's calendar development you've heard many of our colleagues tonight expressing support of having a stakeholder working group um because I think it would be helpful to our our staff and our school system to kind of have some additional perspectives coming to the table uh because I do think that um while we want to balance out the professional development days uh for our employees what that has meant is we sprinkle in a lot of student holidays in there or teacher work days which equates to then a student holiday um throughout the school year and for

068uh dual Working Families um where Child Care is an issue uh I think that does present a problem for families at times and so uh I think there needs to be some broader discussion on that uh because as of now we are starting a week earlier but we're not necessarily seeing a big translation in terms of a much earlier end date in June um I I also um have I guess a little bit of angst about the fact that uh we are starting a week before Labor Day and that was a real feel-good moment for a lot of people who felt that we needed to start earlier and help our students get that extra week of preparation um for uh tests at the state level and the national level that we can't control um but

069I I struggled with it personally because in terms of the high school level um high schools are on a block schedule so we start a week early it doesn't mean five extra days of instruction that the students are going to necessarily cover I mean they're going to meet with those classes maybe two more extra days and so for some of us who were raised on the beauty of Summer began in June and you didn't go back until the day after Labor day uh I think there's uh some of us and and the survey even showed it it was pretty close um where people stood on a hole in terms of our family on pre-labor Day post Labor Day start so um I again U recognize that anytime you're trying to make a calendar for not

070just 187,000 students in their families um but 27 28,000 employees in the school system it's a lot of uh personal schedules that we're trying to accommodate and work towards um so uh I appreciate that Miss Paul is you know for put forward something that many of us have been hearing from the community and agree with and believe it's the right thing to do um and it's just going to be a matter of how we uh work with staff and then finally for those of um who know I have joined Miss Schultz each year in advocating for Veterans Day to be recognized and uh because it falls on a Saturday uh this was the year she and I weren't going to have to get up and Lobby for this but it just means this year was

071a reprieve it doesn't excuse the fact that I do still strongly believe that this school system um can and should be recognizing Veterans Day and I look forward to um that future um advocacy a year from now thank you and I'll uh make just a few brief comments myself I uh will be supporting this calendar I very much welcome the pre-labor day start even though um I know there's a bit of nostalgia to starting after Labor Day in um my community we have a prototype of starting before Labor Day we did have a period of time when Stuart High School FSE Church High School in Glasgow started two weeks earlier uh two weeks before Labor Day and then ended two weeks uh before the rest of the school system did and I I think after

072um a a bit of getting used to that uh which was actually very quick getting used to it that the community accepted that and I think overall welcomed it and um I uh certainly appreciate Miss Pal's idea of having a a calendar committee I do believe we got significant input in a in a number of ways from our employee groups from a survey that we did on the pre-labor day start and um and then on uh on a survey about um that essentially was asking whether you wanted a shorter winter break and get out um earlier in June um and I I believe that was fairly overwhelming that uh both employees and parents welcomed having a full two weeks of winter break so that that is reflected in the calendar that we're um about to

073vote on tonight um I continue to have um concerns about our U major religious holidays um and I would hope that one of the things that the and know Miss pal is uh feels strongly about this as well so I would hope that that would be uh something that uh Miss F you look like you wanted to yes I would want input from um the Fairfax County clergy and Leadership Council at the very least so make sure that there are members there's already a council working with the county as part of the the group that you're going to suggest so I think we'll all look forward to seeing your Forum topic on that and I you know I I do think that while we do try very hard to make sure that all the schools

074all the principles administrators teachers are aware ahead of time of religious holidays so that they don't tests and and field trips and anything important on days where they might have a number of students out uh for religious observations um I do think that uh there's probably more we can do at at the very least in communication so I I'll welcome uh that being part of the committee as well so with oh I see Mr Moon's hand Miss just one quick note that for this school year the last day of the school for the students is June 23rd M now the calendar will be adopt we will be voting on and it will be adopted I you know sounding like there a majority support for that the last day will be June 15 so we will

075be starting about a week earlier and ending about a week earlier as we as I was looking at this proposal this proposal calendar I did not certainly expect to be able to end much earlier than one week compared to this week because we would be starting only one week older than this year thank you and seeing no more uh comments uh I will take the vote all those in favor of the motion oh actually I'm sorry I need to ReRe the motion um the motion is uh that the school board approved the recommended 2017 to 18 school year calendar all those in favor please raise your hand pal Huff Corbett Sanders Strauss Evans Moon mclin Wilson m all those opposed Schultz and that motion passes item 4.03 Fairfax County School Board 2017 state and federal

076legislative program I call in Mr mine for the motion thank you madam chair I move that the school board adopt and approve the recommended 201718 school year or sorry that's the wrong thing we just did that I moveed that the board adopt the 2017 state and federal legis lative program there a second seconded by Miss Mrs Corbett Sanders Mr mine would you like to speak to your motion thank you madam chair and I would just add that this is the perfect seg segue going from a conversation about the King's Dominion law um and I would just remind everyone that we are in this legislative program still advocating for um School boards to have local control um as it pertains to their school calendars um under the King's Dominion law um because remember that for this

077coming year in the coming forthcoming couple of years uh we have received a a waiver from the state um on that provision so um it's still something that we confront at the state level uh so regarding the um legislative program as a whole uh for those of you who don't know this is our um annual legislative program adoption uh there are minimal uh changes from past years uh but I would um highlight that the most important change um in our advocacy in this program uh regards the vrs the Virginia retirement system and particularly um our advocacy uh is uh pertains to returning vrs payments to the original uh timeline uh of reaching 100% of the full Actuarial rate um in 2019 as opposed to 2018 um and as my colleagues know very well we have

078sent advocacy letters uh from the chair on behalf of the board uh to our state delegation and to our uh State officials and um this will remain our top priority this year um I would also um just note very briefly uh that our legislative priorities list has been reconfigured um slightly since the work session we had uh based on board member feedback um that it was a bit unwieldy at at um six or seven items so um what our um our talented uh um legislative uh lays on to the state um Mr Malloy has done is reconstructed this under two uh uh broad umbrella priorities the first of which is providing adequate State support for public education and the second is preserving local Schoolboard Authority and flexibility um I think we will all agree that

079those are our um our overwhelming two top priorities uh so with that I would just um tell the public that this board uh remains um even more committed to engaging with Richmond this year particularly on the vrs issue uh and I would like to um thank Mr Malloy for his help and once again crafting um this program thank you Mrs Corvett Sanders yes thank you and uh thank you to Mr mine for his excellent work in uh leading the effort especially at the um state level working with Mr malloy's organizations Mr Malloy um for those of you who don't know is our um legislative person in the um County but he's also an expert that's relied upon by uh not only our school system but the uh but many other smaller school systems across the

080state um it is an area where Fairfax County does take leadership in putting crafting a legislative program uh that reflects the priorities of public schools across the state in particular this year there is a priority in the legislative program to um ensure that we have adequate funding for our schools and that is why you will see the language on the um slowing down the repayment or the uh adjustments to the vrs to uh to the original plan it's also why um in a few moments I'll be putting forth a an amendment that will uh require or request the assistance of our um third primary funding body because we have the bulk of our funding for our schools comes from Fairfax County government and therefore the Fairfax County taxpayer our secondary fun is the state uh

081government in this uh Richmond legislature and our third is the federal government and so you will see a um priority in the legislative package to ensure that we get the adequate funds thank you now I'm going to call on Mrs Corbett Sanders for an amendment uh what we can go back to uh discussion on the main motion but now um Miss Corbett Sanders you have an amendment yes thank you I move to amend the 2017 state and federal legislative program by inserting impact Aid as a new subheader after the title one subheader with the position language included below and by deleting the phrase to offset the local impact of federally connected students and impacts associated with the federal base realignment enclosure commission's Brack relocation decisions impact aid from uh position fed do10 the fcsb supports

082full funding for the federal impact aid program which is intended to offset the local impact of federally connected students as well as those associated with Federal military base relocation decisions the fcsb supports additional impact Aid funding support to address the impacts of particular concentrations of military connected families within localities the fcsb supports additional impact Aid funding support for students with disabilities who receive special needs exemptions to attend military connected schools the fcsb supports revisions to the impact Aid eligibility identification process which would automatically optt in any student with a military student identifier do I have a second SEC yes oh seconded by Miss mclin um uh Mrs Corvett Sanders would you like to speak to your motion yes um since the the impact aid program was designed by the federal government as a mechanism to

083uh assist local governments in the funding of public schools in the United States to compensate for um students that attend the public schools um where they don't necessarily have um contributions to the tax base because the majority of the uh funding for our Public School comes from the local tax pays this program has been in effect since the late 60s and has been chronically underfunded here in Fairfax County we are absolutely passionate about making sure that each of our students uh that attend our schools gets a um excellent education but we are constantly or we have lately faced um underfunding at both the state and Federal level and so this is a way of prioritizing to ensure that we get the funding that is committed to by the federal government under federal law M mlin

084would you like to speak to your second just that uh I very much appreciate the work um Miss Corbett Sanders has done on this it's something she and I have talked about um when we uh look at the challenges um that Fairfax County uh not only the school system system but our our County residents as a whole uh trying to ensure um adequate funding for all students and when the federal government um has indicated that it is going to provide um the financial supports needed um when we have our military families stationed here and attending Fairfax County Schools it's important that they honor that commitment um it's important for our military families and it's important for all students um here in our school system and so I really appreciate uh Karen's initiative on this uh

085because it is something that this board has discussed for years uh you know recently when we talked about the impact of unaccompanied Miners and uh they're coming into our school system having been placed um in the the county um by the federal government we felt just as important then that the federal government impacting our enrollment needed to um also provide the supports as as needed and uh I believe that Miss Corbett Sanders has crafted language that really helps um uh shine a very important light on um what uh this area that has such a very high um proportion of military students and yet the federal government hasn't been um paying um appropriately to support their education and the impact that it has on all our students so I very much hope that all of our

086colleagues will join um Miss Corbett Sanders and and I in supporting this amendment to the legislative package Mrs St thank you I will support the amendment um we are very proud of our military families and their children and we are very grateful for the service that they provide to all of us um and it is it is a blessing that so many military families are here and uh and it is not unusual for families to ask to be stationed here so their children can attend Fairfax County Public Schools um it is important that the funding come that is part of uh the impact Aid agreement so it is important that we get the share that we are supposed to get but at the same time it's not just a monetary situation but I think it

087also should is pride in the military service to our families um we owe their children the very best education that we can provide for them and I think the federal government needs to support us in the way in which we support our military families thanks I'm not seeing any other hands in or oh um Mrs Schultz so um I feel like I'm the salmon swimming Upstream but that's nothing new um I'm not going to be supporting uh the legislative um package um although I am going to where's Mr Malloy I am so grateful that at long last we have um an order Ed and numbered set of priorities here um and down to two at the beginning um so just a question Mrs Schult to are you to speaking to the amendment um I'm not

088speaking to the amendment we're still on the amendment we're still on the amendment you know what then I'll I'll hold so if you just hold that thought and I'll because that we were going to first vote on the amendment and then that was called a precursor okay you foreshadowed some comments uh with that if we could have uh a show of hands all those um the amendment under consideration is the one just recently read by Mrs Corbett Sanders all those in favor and that is unanimous with um Mrs Hines Miss Hines and Miss daret copex away from the table um and now we go back to the uh main motion and now I will call on Mrs Schultz da da to pick up where I left off um I was I was Mr Malloy somewhat

089shrined to find that 26 of the alphabet weren't enough um that we had to go into a second layer of the alphabet in order to even get all of the sub um uh bullets and I think we're probably fewer than 280 but it we're still way up there um my main objections um remain what they have been um in the past and um I don't see Mr Rigby he's not here anymore um never have supported uh us as a School Board as a local school board as a local school board including in our legislative package pushing for a federal constitutional amendment for the equal rights of women I do not understand why that I mean you want to talk about um way off the beaten path we have no business as a local school board

090talking about Federal amendments to the US Constitution number one so by the way I you know that works across the board so I'm a woman and I still don't support it um uh second of all um we still have a lot of extraneous um bullet points in here and considering what we've seen happen um in Columbus this week um the fact that we're proclaiming somehow we're going to keep children safer by advocating as a school board a zoning issue of where gun stores are located and that that somehow keeps students safe um that's a political agenda that doesn't belong in our um in our school legislative agenda and I think that we could help our state legislators both um our state house and our state senators if we chose if we had a legislative package

091just one year that was maybe two pages long that had a couple of bullets on the first page that said this is what we want our our uh senators and this is what we want our state house of delegates to concentrate on nothing nothing else leave all of it aside resend all of the political activism resend all of the positions that don't have anything to do with moving the dial let's pick one or two things and say this is what will make the difference in a classroom this is what will make the difference for a teacher this is what will make the difference for a family and this is what will make the difference for a taxpayer and if we can get down to um instead of producing more as more makes it look like

092we're doing more um do less and achieve more and um I know that that's like an somehow like an odd notion that if Government concentrated on just a couple of things that maybe we would do everything we do a lot better um but if fully funding um the S soqs would make a difference for Fairfax County then our legislative package should say we want to fully you to fully fund the S soqs we don't want any un funded mandates done get us all in a a Fairfax County school bus drag the entire School Board down spent an entire day um sitting in front of our legislators and explaining to them what will make a difference and I think it's very very difficult when you have you know double sets of alphabets with many many many

093bullets underneath and so um for for those reasons um I i l where we've gone it's a huge Improvement um from when I started on the board five years ago almost six years ago at this point um but we're not there yet miss mlin so first of all I have a question um for Mr Malloy um I'm looking on page 13 uh where we talk about standards of accreditation and standards of learning and during the board's work session uh one of the things that I found most compelling in the dialogue was the dis the the emphasis on the fact that the federal government only requires 17 of these um standardized tests to ensure uh student accountability and yet um the Comm wealth of Virginia requires 29 um so's and so one of the things we

094talked about was as a school school system that's not only the largest in the Commonwealth but 10th largest in the United States we've wanted to be a leader in this sort of standardized testing um reform um effort and I I'm just wondering where in this legislative package did any of this get highlighted because that to me was such a key data point that we really by federal standards only need 17 we've got the general assembly that's shoving 29 and parents and students and teachers are frustrated by it and it's at and it's I'm sure comes at a cost as well when we're administering 29 ex um exams versus 17 so I would I truly appreciate that when you have 12 Schoolboard voices in a work session it's a lot to keep track of um but

095if it can't be added in here I I would like to understand how we did get that captured because I do think it's one of the most compelling things that our state legislators some who are following this topic know the importance but when I mention it to people in the public their eyes get so wide realizing that we're essentially giving 12 more sols than even the federal government's you know requiring we do well the actually two things one is if you look at the priority positions if you go to back to pay P four and under preserving local school board authority and flexibility um the second bullet the first part of that second bullet actually does say continuing to reduce the number of mandated assessments so there's so that spec that that captures that idea

096the program over the last number of years Miss Schultz has has uh mentioned the kind of the evolution of the program what we've been trying to do with the program is we've been trying to eliminate specific data points and specific numbers because those change from year to year um so we we in terms of what's in the program the program tends to be the general statement of position and then when we do our advocacy when we reach out to legislators when we write letters when we respond to bills um when we ask for legislation those types of things that what what you're mentioning the the disparity between the federal requirement and the state requirement um those are that's the kind of data point that we would use to bolster our argument that yes indeed the

097number of Assessments can be reduced but that that's the reason why that specific those specific numbers don't show up in there because Midway through the year the federal government you know you've got a new Congress coming in you've got a new president coming in they could very well go and and revisit and change the number of Assessments um so the the data point itself doesn't get added but the concept and the concept as I said is is reflected not not only in the program but also among the priority positions well I I'm I'm looking at this and again um wh which page do we think this language is captured on on page four which is the actual Fairfax County School Board 2017 priority positions yeah but what which under preserving local Schoolboard Authority and flexibility

098so it's the second header and then it's the second bullet under that second header right so I would just humbly suggest that because I understand you're saying it could shift but why wouldn't we at a minimum help our state legislators understand that why aren't we at at least adhering to the the federal government's requirements versus that we're so far above it because I I I know what you're saying but our legislators when I've talked to them honestly some of they think this is really pretty language but it doesn't tell them what to work on and so I guess I don't feel like this really when it says continue to reduce why aren't we wanting to say not just reduce but to move toward you know the minimum that's required by the federal government and a

099cost savings and an improvement to education for students because I just I don't feel like that really I mean that that's sort of uh every year we talk about we want to reduce it but that becomes kind of old tired cliche and tells you nothing I mean I would rather see have something that would be a little more um specific about the and providing the context and it I do think it's compelling when people suddenly realize we have so many more standards of learning you know so tests than we're having to technically do by federal government standards and and everybody's always blaming No Child Left Behind and and and the effects of No Child Left Behind and yet yet Virginia itself is to blame right now because the federal government has eased back so much

100and we're still as a commonwealth really having a negative effect on children's learning and I personally as a parent have watched um for you know well over the last decade what it did for instruction for for my children's educational experience coming through and and the volume of SOS so um I appreciate you being at least helping me see where that was the rationale for why the language is the way it is um I did come away from the work session feeling that the board had a A Little Bit Stronger position on this than what I feel is here um and that just means I'm going to have to do some more work uh with my colleagues um and and certainly with you I'd be happy to be helpful during the legislative session if it means

101having some of us come down and and really press hard for this um and I will just say to my colleagues we had this conversation the legislative package is something that provides a framework for the general assembly but in the end this is the 12 of us doing our very best to communicate with our state delegates and state senators and saying what specifically we would hope to see come out of the general assembly um this next cycle and and to me the so reform along with the vrs um you know uh Shifting the C the repayment structure as we have in here um definitely want to say kudos to you Mr Malloy and the language you used uh it's really important that we look at that that vrs adjustment because it's going to have a

102Major Impact not just on the Commonwealth but certainly our our budget here in Fairfax um but overall uh I also want to express my appreciation to Ryan mine um I know this is a a a major responsibility for you too and uh the work you've done here coordinating on the board's behalf is appreciated thank you uh Dr lockart did you uh want to make a comment I just want to clarify and um I was I appreciate your comments M MLF and I was looking on page 13 and at uh numbers seven eight n um believe we we did speak to um supporting a balanced State Assessment program aligned with Federal accountability provision so there I I kind of took now I know you're looking more for specific numbers um and then as well as the

103concerns and number eight the concerns about the frequency of standardized testing and then some supporting of reforms to the assessment system and there are some specifics there I hear what you're saying um in terms of the of additional uh information in a a more defined stance um but I know that we did try to address some of those things as well Mrs Strauss thank you I will be supporting the package and uh thank you for the reorganization of it I think it makes it much stronger um and I believe Mr mine did mention earlier but I wanted to say it again our our push for uh returning the original schedule for the vrs it is a $25 million change um uh as we have begun our development of the uh FY 2018 budget and have

104already had two meetings with the Board of Supervisors um we are looking again at a difficult budget year so the VR the change in the vrs is worth a great deal of money $25 million that is a lot so um uh the Board of Supervisors are um uh have joined with us in this effort and are trying to reach out to um other division visions and localities in the Commonwealth of Virginia because this has an impact not just on Fairfax County but all the schools and all the jurisdictions in Virginia thanks Miss pal yes thank you um my comments Echo a lot of what Miss Strauss said I will support this I also um I appreciate the work that has gone into it I think this package is important but not sufficient um and I

105do hope um that we can work with the county staff as well uh to have a strategy for how we advocate so I know this is a document this has really important guidance you know for your work as well um Mr mooy but I I do hope that any way that we as a board or as a community can really have a strategy especially in our tough budget of how to return the vrs to the original schedule um I hope we can we can have that this year um to to support your work one person's not enough so thank you Mrs Corvett Sanders thank you um collaboration that's really what this legislative package is about it's a package that um really has as uh Mrs Schultz just pointed out 185 bullets in it and um

106that's because of the breadth of activities that our state legislature gets engaged in and so this is kind of a a cheaters guide to hey what does Fairfax County think on specific issues that impact our schools and um it's it as a guide doesn't necessarily go into the level of depth that each of us would like on a particular issue um be it s Sol's be it funding be it you know a whole range of things but it is that top level um discussion of it and then I just wanted to let people know that the next step what they are we've been working collaboratively with the Board of Supervisors and so you see parallel activity of some of the things in this legislative program in the Board of Supervisors legislative program and then and

107the next week this board will be meeting with our colleagues who actually go down to Richmond as members of the House of delegates in the Senate to um work on bills and so some of the activity some of the items listed in the legislative package will be picked up as bills by our local um policy makers that go down to Richmond and others will be as they see items that come before them they will know um that Fairfax County Public Schools cares about an item and will know to either get in contact with Mr Malloy or one of us to talk about it but I would also encourage all of my colleagues to um join Mrs Schultz on the bus and be willing to go down to Richmond and advocate for these very important issues

108um and also to be willing to work with us as we go across the uh Bridge into Washington DC to talk about um these important issues to the federal government thank you uh and I will uh just State very quick quickly since um my colleagues have addressed this U about the vrs I I I absolutely agree that we need to work very hard to um uh hope that our legislators will go back to the previous schedule this is a position that was supported recently at vsba it was um supported the school board the Virginia School Board Association as well as the Virginia uh superintendent Association and the um uh the Virginia counties Association as well so I think we need to work with our colleagues throughout Virginia because um uh going to the uh the

109old schedule would help every jurisdiction in Virginia as well as uh uh do give a little bit of help to the state government as well so uh with that uh I will call for the vote the U motion is that the board adopt the 2017 state and federal legislative program as amended all those in favor raise your hand palek Corbett Sanders Strauss Evans Moon McLaughlin and mine all those opposed Schultz all those of abstaining huff and Wilson that motion passes we go to the consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through Board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be

110removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting 5.01 approve the minutes of the November 3rd and November 14th regular school board meetings 5.02 appoint individuals to serve on committees as detailed in the agenda item 5.03 award contract for the Luther Jackson Middle School roof replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Interstate Corporation in the amount of $850,000 and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 5.04 award a contract for the Robinson Secondary School roof replace replacement project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Rd Bean Inc in the amount of $895,000 and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to

111execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board 5.05 award the contract for the automatic temperature control system replacement at Bailey's Elementary School to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Seaman uh industry Inc in the amount of$ 9,150 uh dollar and authorize the division superintendent and the assistant uh or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there any objection to approving the consent agenda seeing and hearing no objection the consent agenda is approved now we go to new business and I call on Dr lockart to introduce the midyear budget review presentation thank you madam chair I'm pleased to welcome um assistant superintendent for financial services Kristen Michael to the podium has presentation and information regarding the midyear budget

112review Miss Michael thank you so much this is the fy17 midye budget review which includes the final year-end audit adjustments from fy16 after tonight's presentation we have a work session scheduled for next Monday December 5th first I'll review the school operating fund and then I'll discuss the other funds and the school operating fund begins at the top of page one first the beginning balance for fy17 is decreasing by 1.3 million which is primarily due to increases in expenditure of 2.1 million offset by the final sales tax receipts for fy16 which were 0.7 million higher than we projected the second Item B is state aid our state aid projection for fy17 is being decreased by 4.4 million as you're all very aware as a result of the state's budget for fy16 being more than 1% below

113their projection the state will not be funding the state share of employee salary increases for fy17 bdoe has notified us that when the governor's budget comes out on December um we will see this reduction of 4.4 million in our state aid for this current school year the next item item C which we do each year tuition from Fairfax city will increase by 0.5 million and fy17 and this is based on their final tuition bill for fy16 so each year in the fall we calculate the final bill for tuition after the fiscal year is ended then according to our shared School Services agreement the payment for the prior year is always adjusted in the first quarter of the current year on the top of page two we have grants adjustments um these include the revenue impact

114here and I'll also mention the expenditure adjustments and this year our adjustments are for idea preschool and Carl Perkins which is Career and Technical education these grants are always received after the budget is adopted in May and for these Revenue adjustments you'll see a corresponding expenditure adjustment so as a result of all the revenue adjustments I just went over our revenue for fy17 will decrease by 5.1 million moving to the expenditure adjustments they begin on the top of Page Three so on this agenda all of these items are shown as non-recurring but any potential expenditure impact for fy18 will be factored into our proposed budget because the amounts will vary slightly from what's included here they're shown as non-recurring the first item item a is a decrease in expenditures of 1.3 million as a result

115of expenditures that were reported after the fy16 final budget review our encumbered obligations are decreasing Item B is the corresponding expenditure adjustment for the grant awards that I went over on the revenue section item C is an increase in compensation base Savings of 6.8 million due to higher savings that we experience from turnover beyond what we projected base savings are going to increase from 19.1 million to 25.9 million in fy17 then lastly I'm very happy to report that item D is an decrease in our health insurance costs of 2.5 million for fy17 our actual Health Plan rates for calendar year 17 were lower than projected due to savings we were able to obtain primarily in our Pharmacy benefit contract so that's producing savings for the second half of fy17 which is a very positive note

116finally on the top of page four we're recommending setting aside funding to provide early hiring incentives for teachers as part of the compensation work session on Mond Monday Dr Remy will be presenting information about these incentives so the combined impact of all of our expenditure adjustments is a savings of 9.9 million when we move to page five you can see in the summary that the net impact of our Revenue reduction and our expenditure decrease results in funding of 4.8 million being available it's recommended that this funding be set aside to help us with our fy18 beginning balance as you know funding of 22.2 million was set aside as our at our fy16 final budget review so adding this additional 4.8 million in funding would bring our total beginning balance funding for fy18 to 27 million

117this will help reduce our projected gap for f fy18 by 4.1 million when we get to page six you'll see an update in our enrollment for fy17 official enrollment for general education is as of September 30th as shown on the chart the variance between the projected and actual enrollment for general education was 933 students that's only for general education you can see that the remaining category of students will be reported when we reach their official enrollment measurement date and we'll provide updates on those enrollment categories at Future quarterly budget reviews also of note as of October 26th we had 11 positions remaining in our staff staing Reserve we'll continue to have Staffing meetings through late January and we'll provide our final update on the Staffing Reserve as part of our third quarter budget review so

118lastly our other funds begin on page seven each of the funds includes the final year-end audit adjustments for fy16 and I'm just going to go over the significant variances in the construction fund we're recognizing 0.8 million due to expenditure adjustments that were reported after fy16 and in addition we're recognizing funding of 0.1 million from the county for Synthetic Turf replacement finally in the construction fund you'll see that our authorized but unissued bonds are increasing by $100 million this is due to additional projects that we're loading in our financial system from the fy15 bond referendum the major project there is Hearn in high schools renovation in the grants and self-supporting programs fund we're recognizing new and revised Grant awards that total a net increase of 6.1 million and a chart showing the detailed Grant adjustments is

119reflected on page eight next in our health insurance fund we have an increase in revenues which results from our yearend adjustments this is offset by a decrease in both revenue and expenditures due to those changes in health insurance rates for calendar year 2017 when we look at our health insurance fund overall our premium stabilization Reserve is increasing to 39.9 million which is still below our Target of 3 months of claims paid finally erfc includes interest adjustments which result in an increase in their ending balance of 29.4 million so we have a work session scheduled for Monday to discuss any questions that the board may have and I thank you for the opportunity for me to present the fy17 midyear budget review thank you very much um appreciate the uh that excellent in succinct review of

120our midyear budget review I have several um people wanting to ask questions um I'll start with Mr Moon thank you for the presentation uh just want to remind the both members again that we have another opportunity to talk about this at the work session on Monday and if uh and also as a CO manager of the particular work session with Mr coax I want I would like to know if uh board members are intending to bring any for the bul consideration any amendment I mean you obviously we don't have to have an amendment until couple of days before I that's not but if you are thinking about do you know proposing amendment I would love to see also have an opportunity to discuss that at the work session on Monday with that said uh your

121the step's recommendation to set aside the 4.8 toward the you know beginning balance for fi8 so that fi beginning balance would become $27 million what or less is that how is that compared to the beginning balance that was put into budget for fy17 I want to see the data between correct our beginning balance in FY 17 is $33 million 33 so after we add this 4.8 million we'll still have a gap of 6.1 million when we compare the funding we have set aside for fy18 to our fy17 budget okay thank you Mrs St uh thank you at the work session on Monday I will be asking questions about the fact that there are only 11 positions left in the teacher Reserve um I'm concerned about that sure that's uh very low for the beginning of

122December I know that we well for special education we staff 12 months of the year and for everybody else we generally will staff till about March so I will be asking some more questions about that thanks Mr M thank you madam chair um just very briefly um I do want to say I'm I I never would have thought that uh we would have seen um such good news in the health insurance category um particularly this year and and what's going on nationally but um congratulations on that I think all of us received um the mailing that um the c CVS will now be doing our um our our far Pharmacy benefits uh so can you explain what that means just very briefly sure um this is through the great work that the department of human

123resources did our previous um Pharmacy benefit manager or company was Express Scripts and when we sent that contract out for procurement to rebid it we were able to negotiate some substantial savings um that helps the employer costs come down in terms of our health insurance so it was a really great um great effort from our department of human resources okay that's excellent and congratulations to De Holly and and and Friends Mrs uh I just want to clarify something before we're patting ourselves on the back too much the um we we the the savings aren't totally from a negotiation of reduced contract rates that's also from passing on cost to employees is it not so when we look at the savings that we're we're reflecting here this really is primarily due to the changes in our

124Pharmacy benefit script um we'd be happy on Monday to provide you with a summary of the things changed in terms of our plans but we're still paying the same percentage of the employer cost as compared to previously and had very few plan changes for calendar year 17 yeah I i' I'd be interested in the discussion of the increased Levy from last year to this year for employees um and and particularly um for employees we're both uh um spouses or hous household members are employees of FCPS I know that that's a particularly difficult um position for many okay all right thank you very much thank you the following are new business agenda items there won't be a vote on these items tonight but action is scheduled for a future meeting 6.01 approve revenue and expenditure changes

125reflected in the FY 2017 midyear budget review as detailed in the agenda item and on which we just received a presentation 6.02 award the contract for the chiller replacement at w wles Mill Elementary School to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute administer the contract on behalf of the school board 6.03 award a contract for the waynewood elementary school renovation and additions project to the lowest and responsive and responsible bidder and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board next on the agenda is superintendent matters and I call on Dr Lockard thank you madam chair um um have a few uh pieces

126of information to share tonight first um nearly 37,000 FCPS students reive school supplies or backpacks as part of the 2016 collect for kids campaign the number of FCPS students served by the program has increased by 128% since since 2011 of the more than 50,000 FCPS students who are eligible for free or rce uh School meals 73% of them benefited from this year's campaign the 2016 campaign served 10% more students from the previous year however more than 13,000 FCPS students still need help for the current school year FCPS staff members work throughout the year on efforts supporting the collect for kids campaign to include pyramid resource fairs backpack collection drives at the gate house and Willow Oaks administrative buildings and FCPS Warehouse spased is used to directly Support over 9,000 students additionally school-based employees distribute the

127donated school supplies and back packs from collect for kids Partners directly to the students the foundation for Fairfax County Public Schools directly supports the collect for kids campaign by collecting mon collecting monetary donations from the community to support the resource fairs and to purchase additional supplies for distribution so it's a big a big effort we'd like to thank all of our great volunteers who make this necessary program a success for our students in other news we'd like to congratulate Michael flugrath on being named the 2 17 outstanding Secondary School assistant principal of Virginia Michael's one of the assistant principles at South County High School we're very proud of Michael and that's quite an accomplishment parents Guardians and their middle and high school children are invited and encouraged to attend together an upcoming protect against substance

128abuse program sponsored by the unified prevention Coalition of Fairfax County or UPC The Forum is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Monday December 5th at Fairfax County Public Schools gate house administration Center in the first floor Cafe the program is part of U upc's efforts to reach the community with information about the signs and symptoms of teenage drug abuse what actions parents can take and where to find supportive resources and that concludes my comments thank you thank you Dr lockart um next on the agenda is uh board committee reports but we um have no committee reports because the Forum was canceled tonight um next is uh board matters and I call on Mr mine nothing from me I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving thank you Mr Wilson uh thank you madam chair um I'd like

129to reiterate what Mr mine has said I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving and as you um wind up the Year I hope everyone has a uh helpful and happy December enjoy your time off at the end of the month thank you Miss MCA I just want to say that it's um wonderful to see our interim superintendent um Dr lockheart uh stepping in uh and joining uh this Mary group of 12 and uh we look forward to partnering with you uh in some very very busy months ahead in all the work that we have and uh as we uh shared with your predecessor uh while the passion to do this job can um consume you um we do hope that you know we fully support the fact that work life balance is important not just

130for our students and our teachers and our administrators um but most especially for our our superintendent who's leading um this great school system so welcome to you and also to one of my very favorites um Mr Dan Paris it's also wonderful to see you stepping in as our deputy and uh I know so many of us are very grateful um with your institutional knowledge your expertise and as you taught me many years ago the importance of common sense it's great to have your leadership here with us as well and uh and then just to my colleagues uh I I want you all to know that a passion of mine since I joined the board um has been about uh student stress and and uh homework loads and uh uh this is something that um I'm

131really working on getting some more data to bring to all of you and to bring with our leadership team because I do think that in talking to our students and our families um it's become evident that um we seem to have this cycle of more and more tests and quizzes and assignments and our our students are simply drowning and um it's really impacting their passion and joy for Learning and so so um I'll let you enjoy the the holiday season but I'll uh definitely be bringing some things to you on this topic and and we'll do it through the Forum itself but I wanted to let you know that it's uh really something I'm just continuing to hear and I I look forward to some of our intentional work on it Mr Mo I'm GNA

132pass Mrs St thank you as now there are many fun activities for families uh in December as we uh begin the official holiday season after finishing all of our turkey on Saturday we have the rain dog parade in mlan if you have a puppy dog you want to bring a little dog food and join the parade um hearen will have their holiday tree lighting and sing along and on Sunday we have the mlan Winterfest parade and I'll be riding in a car called butter cup should be fun this is Corpus serson yes along those lines um I want to encourage community members to uh join in the fun holiday activities that many of our schools are sponsoring be it um holiday concerts at the elementary middle and high school or purchasing your Greenery for your

133um holiday decorations at our local high schools because uh much of the funds that go that uh are generated from those sales actually go back into to um the booster organizations to support our Sports and our um music organizations I also want to take the opportunity to um congratulate this incredible Trio of individuals in the West bomic Community that have spearheaded the efforts to get the Wolverine green learning uh Cottage or learning community established and they have uh Broken Ground this week on an outdoor learning space uh which will be in front of the school and so thank you very much for the excellent work of Sue Bernstein Steve Larson and Rick jio for that and then finally I would uh encourage community members to come out to one of my three town halls that

134I will be having to discuss the U budget and other um issues before our school system my first one will be on December 7th held at Mount Vernon High School at 7 p.m. second one will be on January 9th at Saratoga Elementary School and on January 17th at the South County high school so thank you very much yes so um I have a couple of things um first of all Mr Paris glad to have you back to help us noodle through some stuff it's a little inside joke um there was a meeting here and um I know uh Miss Hines isn't here but there was a meeting in the community on the Milestone Communications and uh monopole issue that had concerned so many in the community and um I am glad to know that um

135decisions were made outside this board um in uh other County committees um that look like that's been put on hold at least uh temporarily nothing to do with this board but um reporting that out um holiday wise I am looking forward very much uh this weekend on Saturday to see the Robinson Secondary singers um who will be in the town of the stor Town of Clifton for the horse parade and the Candlelight Tour of Homes um and that uh that information is available on the uh Clifton Virginia um website um I have announced and it has gone out uh this afternoon that I'm forming a bipartisan uh budget Advisory Group um in the Springfield District um if you have not received um information on that you can contact the Schoolboard office and um we have

136just three very simple questions for you on why you want to serve I'm really in particular looking for people who have subject matter expertise um either in um the financial the accounting Fields um whether you do it in Private Industry um as a individual um for a company or um in some kind of government capacity um this is outside of uh the reconstitution of the superintendent uh budget advisory committee um formed of citizens appointed by members of the board and others um this will be to advise me in a very uh complicated um budget um session but I've been approached by a number of very competent individuals who are looking and willing to serve um on a voluntary basis and um I would uh very much appreciate um a group being formed so if you

137have interest in that please let me know um and lastly uh it's um always difficult um particularly this time a year um but my condolences go to my Spartan Community um at West Springfield High School and the loss of another student um please we we have resources in the form of Crisis text crisis link um to get families uh families the resources that you you may need if you have a student who is struggling or if you know a student who is struggling um if you are a peer student and know somebody who's struggling tell somebody um it's very very important um this is um pardon me this is a very difficult time of year um for families to lose a child and um whether it's a faith leader um in your community that you

138can turn to um or somebody a trusted uh administrator or teacher in a building um or just talking to their parents and quite often it's a peer of a student that saves um their friend and we can't help those who do not reach out for help um but the resources are there and I I pray going into this that um what Miss McLaughlin was um indicating and and she and I have been compatriots in in um relentlessly seeking um relief for not only students but but the teachers over the coming break do not assign homework that is due the day after or two days after or you know the next uh class session after these students return um you know the statistics show that having a break actually means that students will perform better and

139the teachers need the break too and so um this this is a time that look a bad grade is not going to ruin a child's life um either as a parent and believe me I have four boys we've had bad grades um they don't change the trajectory of your life but um making making the bad decision um to do something in a self Haring way does permanently affect not only the student but the friends and the family they leave behind so um I ask the administrators to work with your staff in your building um to set expectations certainly Dr Lockard um and uh his leers ship team are going to support that and um and we as a board know um the consequences of student stress mental health and wellness uh if that is not

140supported so thank you Mrs H thank you to those who came to my office hours yesterday I really enjoyed the conversation that ranged anywhere from grading policy and student stress ironically um as well as budget and our superintendent search so I look forward to continuing to hear from the county constituents as we go forward on those topics thank you Miss pck thank you um first of all I want to welcome Dr Lockard good to have you here at the Das um thank you for all your work I um really enjoyed uh participating in my second advisory Council this week at Kilmer Middle School um with our wonderful officer Alan there who is here supporting us this evening as well thank you for for all you do um this Friday Kilmer we'll have the haha holiday

141um improv uh theater improv competition at 7M it was one of my favorite activities in middle school so I'm going to do my best to join them um Luther Jackson last night this was a packed house you could not get in for their winter orchestra concert so I want to congratulate the students the families um and especially their wonderful conductor Miss O'Hara lab for everything she does and her passion um as we enter the holidays uh some of you may have received the many requests for uh for give Tuesday donations um I want to make sure people know that the foundation for FCPS works very hard to support our schools um and there are many Community organizations that are supporting our kids and our families um especially during the holiday season we do have almost

142one and three of our students in Fairfax County living in poverty so I hope that as you celebrate with your families you will also think about um helping other families in our community celebrate as well and with that uh I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and happy holidays if we don't see you at our next meeting and I would like to join my colleagues in welcoming Dr lockart to um your first official meeting with us as interim superintendent and uh you know Dr lockart has certainly been a key part of the team for quite some time but um thank you for join joining us on the the de and U Mr Paris welcome as our Deputy um interim interim Deputy superintendent is that what we're saying no and um it's great to have an

143old friend back and um welcome and uh we look forward to working with you I wanted to um mention the students and the teacher uh Miss mahe who spoke this uh just uh earlier this evening about later start times for Middle School uh this is a subject near and dear to my heart and of course when we got our later start times for high schools something had to give we made our middle schools go a little bit earlier for some it's had um an an impact that um we hope we can moderate in the future we did say at the time when we adopted the later High School start times that we would continue to work on the Middle School times uh we know they're not ideal for our middle school students they are also

144so adolescence and so I did just want to let the uh the teacher Miss U Mahi and her students and others out there watching that I certainly am dedicated to uh continuing to look for ways to get those Middle School times at a more reasonable time as well uh with that this meeting is adjourned e