FCPS School Board Meeting - September 8, 2016

001e e e this September 8th regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to AR please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence in the performance of the national anthem by the summer Institute for the Arts and Chantell High School combined Orchestra under the direction of Aon Mines Orchestra director shantell High School One Nation God indice [Music] the [Music] [Applause] thank you very much thank you for joining us this first week back to school that was excellent good evening everyone as you can see we have a slightly different configuration tonight uh we have had some uh improvements and I want to particularly thank Jeff plattenburg and his team for the excellent job that they did um over the over the uh over the summer bringing us these improvements thank

002you very much Jeff if if I'm not ad Madam chairman absolutely um the current the DI before that we had um the laminate was over 30 years old and we were not ADA Compliant so we were required to make some changes so it gave us an opportunity to update uh 30 years of material I think I know many of you had garments that were um ripped or worn or messed up from the laminate so anyway it looks very nice I'm really appreciative um Jeff and his team I think did a fantastic job so we appreciate their work yes and uh we have more uh ADA compliance seating over in in this area that's is that correct uh it used to be uh in the in the back but now we have more in this area

003and um as you can see we have um also some uh lights for the uh school board members to let me know that they want to speak that's an improvement as well so thank you again um we go to item 1.02 announcements 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 t uh table by the auditorium entrance you may access tonight's agenda and related meeting documents by going to the FCPS website select school board and then upcoming meetings and agendas the meeting is also being streamed live at fcps.edu sltv please turn off or silence your cell phone I call on Miss Chu for announcements thank you um first of all I hope

004all the students had a very enjoyable and safe back to school for the first three days um this month is National Hispanic Heritage Month America's cultural diversity has always been a great strength of our nation the Hispanic American Community has a long and important history of commitment to our nation's core values and the contributions of this community have helped make our country great during National Hispanic Heritage Month we celebrate the many achievements of Hispanic American Americans and recognize their contributions to our country this year's theme is honoring Our Heritage building our future in 1968 the Congress authorized President lynon Johnson to Proclaim National Hispanic heritage week and this observance was expanded in 1988 to a month-long celebration to honor our nation's Hispanic heritage during this month America celebrates the Traditions ancestry and unique experiences of

005those who Trace their roots to Spain Mexico the countries of Central and South America and the Caribbean throughout our history Hispanic Americans have enriched the American way of life and we recognize the millions of Hispanic Americans whose love of family hard work and the community have helped unite us as people and sustain us as a nation in addition on September 17th is US Constitution Day and citizenship day Constitution Day and citizenship day are observed each year on September 17th to commemorate the signing of the Constitution on September 17th 19 1787 and recognize all who by coming of age or by naturalization have become citizens recent legislation has renamed the day as Constitution Day and citizenship day and urges proper observance of the day this year the official observance day is Saturday September 17th and is

006the 228th anniversary of the nation's founding document and in observance of Constitution Day and citizenship day all schools in FCPS will be observing this day with activities that recognize the adoption of the US Constitution and those who have become citizens under the Constitution schools will use a variety of curriculum resources to teach students about the importance of the Constitution and responsible citizenship throughout the school year high school students will have an opportunity to participate in service learning projects related to responsible citizenship which can lead to a Civic seal on their diploma and finally this is also Childhood Cancer Awareness Month September has been designated as Childhood Cancer Awareness Month to increase awareness for the types of cancer that strike children focusing on issues affecting survivors and raising funds for research and family support in the

007United States pediatric cancer strikes nearly 16,000 children under the age of 21 every year of those FCPS students being treated for Childhood Cancer many participate in homebound instruction while they are undergoing treatment or recuperating research has helped improve treatments that have decreased mortality rates from many types of Childhood Cancer by more than 50% during the past 30 years FCPS physical education teacher Jay kley a 33-year veteran FCPS employee was so inspired by one of his students with leukemia that he founded Ellie's hats a nonprofit organization that provides warm and colorful hats to children undergoing cancer treatment it strives to raise awareness of Childhood Cancer and provide support to children and their families so the board encourages the community support children and their families who are battling cancer and to remember those whose lives were cut

008short by pediatric cancer thank you thank you Miss CH next item is uh item 2.01 citizen participation speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than 3 minutes the school board will not hear statements involving issues ises that have been scheduled for public hearings such as capital Improvement program budget and boundaries complaints regarding individual students or school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate School principal or other school official speakers should refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student speakers are expected to deliver their comments with the decorum in respect appropriate to the conduct of the Public's business thank you for your cooperation and thanks to those who have come to speak with us tonight tonight we have 10 citizens uh who signed up to address the board as

009you can see we have a slightly different configuration here if uh now we uh ask you to step to the uh podium in the um middle of the room and uh the first Speaker tonight is Christopher Jang and uh following uh Christopher is John Weston and then Meg kilganon Christopher welcome hi um my name is Christoph young and I am a nth grader at Marshall High School I would like to provide input to update the Strategic plan so it may better create a caring culture as outlined in today's agenda let me tell you a story a story that just shows how unreasonable the updates the policy 1450 are Jeb Stewart High School is named in 1959 and recently schoolb members have been questioning if it was offensive or not and they created a problem where

010none existed before in the debate over this non-existent problem a school member even stated that if one student was uncomfortable with the name then every then the school name should be changed well what would happen if we applied that logic to Common scor rules that my fellow students I abide by if someone doesn't like the dress code should we all go to schooling nothing but bare skin if someone doesn't want to take a math test in class should everyone in that class skip the math test many flaws exist to this logic and I do not support changing anything based on this line of thinking another action by the school by the school disturbs me the school board has made a grave error with policy 1450 the American government runs on the Constitution whose first line

011States we the people of the United States this means that the government and subsequently School Board should listen to the the parents and the students before making any decisions fairfx County School Board did not make listen to parents and list use this with policy 1450 and is acting quite authoritative about it and this makes me very uncomfortable and troubled why did the school board need to rush there is an exceptional example of the school making a great policy which is the changing of the O changing the high school opening times FCPS spent 10 years trying to change this policy and only succeeded after gaining enough evidence that the high schoolers are suffering from a lack of sleep even though I lost an hour of precious sleep every day in eth grade because of this policy

012I still felt comfortable with it because I knew the county had enough concrete evidence to back it up this is this is not the case of gender identity it only took a short period of time for this change to take place and no phone calls happen and no emails either gender identity is currently like Uncharted Territory and we should analyze it very carefully and make sure that we do not rush with anything at all please do not pass this policy until you have gained enough concrete evidence by questioning the parents and the students if FCPS doesn't change his policy immediately who knows how many students like me will remain troubled and Confused thank you for your time thank you John Weston to be followed by meganon to be followed by Mike NY I am John

013Weston kachka on May 7th 2015 Fairfax County School Board voted to adopt policy 1450 Miss mlin and I'm quoting you made the statement about transgender student bathrooms and locker rooms this is what you said it's not about any change in practice I have heard how we handle it the misinformation the misinformation about the fear that this will change bathroom practices in locker rooms and the safety of our children is simply not true Mr mine after we pass this policy tonight nothing will change in how we handle cases of transgender and gender non-conforming students and employees Mr Moon as Mr mlane pointed out we will not be changing what we've always been doing the school administration will meet with anyone claiming to be a transgender and ascertain whether such claim is supported by legitimate evidence medical

014legal and otherwise Fairfax County Public Schools adopted the following regulations on July 1st 2016 and this is in reference to restroom and locker room accessibility gender non-conforming and transgender students shall be provided with the option of using a locker room or restroom consistent with the student's gender identity in no case shall a gender non-conforming or transgender student be required to use a locker room or restroom that conflicts with the student's gender identity or be limited to using only a private area or single use facility as described in the section these regulations written by Jeff puyer Direct contradicted the remarks by m mlin Mr mlan and Mr Moon these school three school board members and seven others willfully misled the public did Jeff puyer respond to a a written request for proposal before he consulted was

015there a formal bid process on this consultant work how many biders responded to the request for proposal to consult what the gender trans or what the uh bathroom regulations would be was Jeff poyer's selection voted on by the full board and did Jeff puyer ever have a written contract how many parents did Mr puyer consult in drafting these regulations and please give me all the dates that he met with Fairfax County parents it is time to repeal policy 1450 and codify the common sense policy that existed before May of 2015 all students should use a bathroom or restroom corresponding to their birth gender or single use facility thank you so I do need to note that we we have not voted on any regulation on uh the transgender issue I also need to um remind

016people gently that uh when you sign up to speak on a topic that it's intend it should be that topic that you speak on um are you uh Miss kilganon I am thank you all right and you'll be followed by Mr n to be followed by Mr Wayne good evening Fairfax County Public Schools released a major Family Life education curriculum change August 1st and since then I've been reading it and it's a wonder that at the very first school board meeting of the year Family Life Education is not sadly on this agenda but I'm going to link my remarks to the caring Community portion of the agenda item because I feel that this fle program is not going to contribute to the caring Community here in Fairfax I have significant concerns about the F curriculum

017first and most importantly there's an inexcusable lack of Love in This curriculum there are no lessons on love as a sacrifice for another no lessons on love as a commitment to another love is honest and love is selfless if there's anything we all need more of in this world it is love another troubling aspect of this curriculum is the requirement for students to work in pairs or groups in kindergarten through 12th 12th grade by throwing such a an intimate and vulnerable Topic open to group discussion a natural barrier is weakened and a sort of community standard evolves and the last thing most parents want is their children making decisions about sex based on some sort of confused notion of what everybody else is doing but maybe the most astounding Revelation to me in reading the

018entire curriculum is the pervasive misogyny in the lessons from the fourth grade on male sexual and reproductive function is given more time and attention to detail than women's reproductive function the fourth grade video on puberty for boys is 16 minutes long the fourth grade video for girls is 10 minutes long this anti-woman bias doesn't stop in fourth grade over and over and over again year after year grade after grade it's SPM semen epidemis testosterone and by the way girls you have a uterus and ovaries you have a period good luck with that this curriculum sends the message that men's bodies are more complicated than women's bodies and that their sexual function is more important than women's and you've you've planted this idea starting at the age of 10 in a woman dominated profession like education

019I find it shocking and sad that our girls are demeaned in such a way and it's such a young age maybe the girls lost out on this more because of the more new inclusive fle curriculum aspects because I guess it's true that you cannot teach women how their bodies work and then at the same time teach children that anyone who identifies as a woman and wears a dress and takes hormones is therefore going to be a woman it's the ultimate misogyny masquerading as a human right in our society today and now you're teaching it to every child in Fairfax County so the only charitable assessment I can make is that it's a missed opportunity the program could teach children about the full scientific truth of their bodies it could tell children about the love that

020is so powerful and prolific it can generate another person but what you have here is a sad collection of condoms STDs and meaningless phrases like sex assigned at Birth and a bunch of lies about the Dignity of the human person I'll conclude I am disappointed I expected so much more uh so much much better from a group of public servants whove spent their life's work to educate children I this fle version is not going to be get the kind of caring Community we all deserve thank you Mike NY to be followed by Lee Wang to be followed by Laura Miller who I believe is uh going to yield her time to a different speaker um Mr NY have I pronounced your name correctly knee think of left knee or right knee okay okay respected School

021boorn member my name is Mike Mike NE I'm the father of two students both from County School System today I'm reading a letter from the American College of pediatrician addressed to our board members in June 2016 the letter represent 20,000 Physicians Educators scientists and pediatricians the letter letter expressed strong disapproval of school board's gender proposal is the three main points first of all the claim that gender identity is equivalent to sex as codified by section n has no basis in science on page three of letter human sexuality is object of biological binary trait XX XY representing M male female so the children who identify huh I feel I like the opposite sex does not hold C typically so they are remaining as biological boys and biological girls the second Point gender ideology has no basis

022in science and harms all children because our children are youth are young are unguided sometimes and also they are vulnerable study shows that actively affirming the gender variant students harms themselves because impairs their path to be a healthy child aligned with their gender identity and also it pushed them down to the dangerous path of the medical transition research shows that Med Med medical transition of pubal children resting sterility and lifetime use of toxic hormones and confuse them cause mental and physical risks last point is to eliminate sex segregated private spaces in public school violat all students fundamental rights for privacy security and safety many of you have read about the recent Fox news about the federal court lawsuit against Minnesota high school system the children the girls are exposed to a transgender person twerking and

023grinding in the girls locker room I can see the fears in a girl's face I can see the tears in their eyes and I can hear the silent sing of the innocent girls but this incident of this legal reification could happen in our County as well so in conclusion I strongly recommend our school board to reconsider seriously the dire consequence of this unproven and imprudent policy I urge our County to develop in our strategic plan to cultivate a great culture caring loving and nurturing to help our children because they are our future of our country thank you so much we Wang hi respected board members um I st I'm standing up tonight here I'm normally a not kind of person who likes to stand up in front of the public and you are probably already

024bored by this topic but today tonight I'm still sitting up here because I have heard so many children Express Their Fear and because they have the they have the peer pressure they do not want to stand up to express I am a mother of three children in fairfx County Public Schools two daughters and one son this evening I'd like to share some thoughts on the Recreations regarding policy 1450 and this is in aligned with um the hearing cult culture goal which is to foster a responsive caring and inclusive culture where all feel valued supported and hopeful in my opinion the regulation today as it is written does not protect the safety privacy and dignity of every child in fairfx County Public Schools while I totally support Zero Tolerance of any bullying or harassment toward the

025transgender and gender non-conforming students I firmly believe in certain areas in the education system gender identity is not interchangeable with biological sex locker room and bathroom access is one of these areas our diverse student population has cultural modesty requirements and religious mandates which forbid mixed anatomical Sexes together in these areas the current school facilities do not provide adequate privacy to the students if a transgender student is placed in these areas with opposite sex students it will force force students by religion or NA national origin to be limited to use only a private area or single use facility this would subject these students to the same discrimination that the school board forbids to be done to gender nonconforming or transgender students one could also say it discriminates against all students who identify as their god-given bi

026biological sex because it does not give them the same privileges it gives to the transgender students my children specifically expressed deep concerns and fears and I don't think it's fair for them Athletics is another area of such uh such area for obvious reasons but due to the time Lim time limit I'm not going to go deep in that area um the core of the American dream that I held as a young woman when I came to this country 18 years ago is a government of the people for the people and by the people a country that trusts in God I'm presenting the promises you also heard from the uh from Mr Weston there are promises from the board members before I'm I wanted to stress here again please reconsider for this policy and the implementation

027please do not let your words go in vain thank you for listening to me so um Laura Miller is uh yielding her time to another speaker I believe and uh I'm Laura Miller okay I I understand you're injured so you don't have to stand up if you don't need if you don't want to I I can lean on the podium I think I can do that oh so you're okay I think I I was actually gonna um hand it over to Mike KN but he's gone so I'm going to go oh he's already okay all right go right ahead then thank you thank you for your time um I want to address the topic of strategic Outlook is that that was one of the things your strategies for the year well it's my opinion that

028Fairfax County Public Schools being app parent as well as a graduate of anend high school that we had the opportunity to be the Forefront that we want to be and continue to be the Forefront by confronting when rules are being broken we know through our education that we are a constitutional republic so you have had the opportunity when both President Obama and a Virginia AG went right around the Constitution to say you need to go through congresses to make amendments to our constitutions and to make laws they didn't do it and you had the chance to say hey we are educated here we know that was wrong we're not going to move forward as you suggested or um bribed us to do just about no but you could have had that opportunity as well you

029could have taught your students that what regulations are to be followed follow just like your own policy of citizen participation but you decided not to do that instead in two weeks wo you went from a a policy that was illegally proceeded through a constitutional amendment that didn't exist to being a new policy and then disclosed and hidden for a year and then revealed all these regulations language in your srnr language in your fle language in youth surveys that are being used all that needs to be taken back you have a chance to do that still take that all back back up till about March n uh what was it 2015 start over let's talk to everybody because you can also be the Forefront of science I think we're still looking at sexual revolutionary ideas of

0301970 where everything is freefor all and there are no consequences well that's not true we even now have science revealing that there are consequences to actions the latest science is saying that there are different ways to help the gender confused and I think we should apply that not shut the door on them I'm more optimistic so are they about different methods such as mental health they need some help not to be told that under the bus you go the the old science is saying well if we just ignore society and we say it's normal and to go forward that they'll be okay everything will be fine but science is saying that's not true they're still having 40% suicide rates they're still having tons of medical consequences and I'm very concerned about children you're guessing that

031if we say they're normal that that will help them I and then to give them maybe hormones and transitions do we really want to close the door on other opinions no we're Fairfax County we we listen to wisdom we listen to new evidence and we move forward I would never listen to Just One doctor for my kids I have three in Fairfax County Public Schools and I have a little boy he has two older girls I would never say there's only one doctor that knows everything you need to listen to the New Evidence thank you thank you uh Keith Arthur to be followed by Fred Costello to be followed by Paul mcclemens um hi thank you for the opportunity to speak everyone um I'm here to talk about the Strategic vision and in the Strategic

032vision for FCPS one of the important goals is to create a caring environment for all students one of the strategies in this strategic plan is to support the needs of a diverse student population FCPS is one of the most diverse student populations anywhere caring for all students when there's such a large diversity is difficult um in regards to the general identity regul Rec regulation I I commend the board for taking it off the table and giving it some time to consider some of the issues with that until it can be worked out and as the Strategic plan calls for providing opportunity for Community input um this this is New Territory and it's one that needs to be carefully worked out for all the diversity of all the kids in our schools um in this diversity

033nearly half of the students come from families with religious backgrounds and many of those religious backgrounds have modesty requirements so there's a very large percentage of the student population where modesty is very very important to them personally and if we're going to maintain a caring culture we need to show respect and care for that portion of the student population um Virginia Social Services code has Child Care mandates for bodily privacy from the opposite sex and dressing areas and bathrooms it's not given as an option in Social Services code it's a mandate that these children in foster homes day homes and juvenile detention facilities have private areas for dressing and using the bathroom from the opposite sex schools are not mentioned but there's enough areas of the social services code where the intent of the law

034is that every child should be mandated privacy in these areas um fostering a caring environment where everyone feels cared for means respecting all parts of our diversity including our LGBT kids they should be cared for loved and shown that we do care about them but also those with modesty requirements we need to care for them too um implementing rules and policies which would violate a large part of our student population which would create a huge divide between our students and it would rip apart a caring culture between them if with that divide um in the April 2016 ignite FCPS strategic Plan update to the school board it says that 84 % of middle school students report feeling that they feel treated fairly in regardless of the race or ethnicity as we go forward we need

035to ensure any new policies regulations put forward doesn't create a sense of not being feel feeling like they're being cared for no we need to care for everybody and that includes both the LGBT kids and those who are religious or have cultural cultural modesty requirements thank you thank you Mr Costello Fred Costello to be followed by Paul mcclemens and uh Kevin Hickerson Mr costell all right uh we'll go to uh Paul mcclemens then Dr Garza chairman Evans student representative Miss Chu and esteemed school board members I am Paul mcclemens president of the Fairfax County Federation of teachers I represent FCPS Educators who chose this school system because they love what they do and they love the school system that we work in I'm here tonight to address one of the issues that impacts the FCPS

036strategic plan one of the four ignite goals is a premier Workforce Dr Garza and FCPS has shown last year that they care about its teachers by sticking to its promise to pay our teachers more money and bring those teacher scales up to a level that is more competitive with the other surrounding school districts however if FCPS wants to remain at the top level in our area we must invest in quality substitute teachers the FCPS School Board voted on cutting the pay of our retired School teachers who loved their career and decided to continue to offer those Services after their retirement FCPS is in danger of losing its most qualified substitute teachers to other surrounding school districts because of the lack of money in the budget the same substitute teachers who help create a premier Workforce

037these retired teachers come back into our schools to take long-term teaching positions for teachers who are on a leave of absence sick at a doctor's appointment or whatever other reason they are needed I respect the vote that took place at the last school board meeting to raise the pay to retired FCPS teachers but that is just a few pennies for what they are asked to do once they enter the classroom for those teachers their day doesn't end when the student goes home they often come to school early to talk to parents or other St staff members get the classroom ready for the rest of the day make copies answer emails the same applies to after schools where they grade papers make more copies answer more emails and phone calls plan out lessons attend meetings and

038all the other duties required by a long-term substitute a retired physic Teacher Reach Out to the school board members and myself his name is Tom I'm going to share Tom's story tonight Tom wrote as an example of some of the advantages of using a retired sub for long-term position I'll tell you about my last long long-term sub job for the last couple of years I normally sub two or three days a week within 10 miles of my house this past November a Centerville High School physics teacher uh contacted me about being a long-term sub for him while his son was having open heart surgery one of his fellow teachers had given him my name although it was outside of my normal area I accepted the job the science AP and the science department chair were

039delighted that I could take the job I took over two active physics classes and three regular physics classes he was using the County's curriculum for the active physics I know know that curriculum was very well since I was on I know that curriculum very well since I was on the County's committee that came up with it I've also taught many regular physics classes and still have a lot of my own materials he wanted me to do a unit on waves he set up he set me up with the first couple of classes and I did the rest using a combination of materials and my own the teacher and the AP were pleased with the results there were a few regular subs who have a background experience in success to successfully use the automated systems effectively

040for a long-term assignment retired teachers have significantly more classroom experience in FCPS savvy than any sub sadly he took a part-time job elsewhere and limits the jobs he takes so they are great assets to our community and we need to support them for the premier quality education they provide to make sure all students become a successful portrait of a graduate thank you thank you Mr Hickerson good evening superintendent Garza chairwoman Evans and Fairfax County school board members my name is Kevin Hickerson and I'm the president of the Fairfax Education Association and I'm here to speak tonight about the FCPS strategic plan specifically focusing on our lactation support pram programming policy and funding FCPS and how it affects our Premier Workforce the lactation support programming policy has the faa's full backing at the state level the

041Virginia Education Association helped Lobby Pat to pass the law that affected the entire Commonwealth that ensured the language and the affordable uh Care Act was being followed FAA past president Kimberly Adams you will not forget forget her because she she's a very important person um uh was was one of the staunchest advocates for it and lobbied tirelessly for its passage our employees are diligent workers who go the extra mile time after time to make sure that our students have the best education possible they sometimes feel guilty about taking bathroom breaks let alone the taking the time out to express milk for their child we are glad that FCPS is furthering its commitment to ensuring our employees can adequately take this on the FAA stands ready to help out in any way possible to provide ideas

042and support to create this policy we need to also examine the other policies and regulations that affect the health and well-being of our employees the FAA looks forward to having conversations with each of you here to discuss how we can help maintain a premier Workforce in the last budget the Faba Stood Beside FCPS and worked with you to bring more funding for this school year the FAA is proud of our collaborative efforts with the F FCPS and looks forward to working with you again the public should know that even though we had a victory in securing more funding to maintain and upgrade our Workforce we are still behind other other counties in this area in terms of average salary this could be one of the reasons that there are over 200 instructional vacancies in FCPS

043mostly in special education at the elementary level the vacancies have the potential to create stress in the classroom with bigger class sizes less one-on-one attention from our teachers and reduce positive outcomes for our students because of this the Fairfax Education Association and the Fairfax County Federation of teachers are committed to passing the ballot Initiative for the meals tax that will deliver 7 % of the revenue to Fairfax County Public Schools we will work with our fellow brothers and sisters throughout the county to make sure that it successfully passes thank you for your time thank you that concludes our citizen participation for the night we move to item 2.02 student representative matters I call on Miss Chu thank you um amongst all this talk I'd just like to point out some very quick notes especially on

044the issue of the rights of our LGBT student community um those transgender students and other sexual identity concerns there have been a lot of issues about the science of gender identity but I think it's important that as FCPS is at the Forefront of 21st century change often social change also must be considered with how science is evolving um nowadays I see a lot of different gay straight Alliance clubs or LGBT support teams coming up in high schools and even at the middle school levels and I just like I think it's important to recognize that when students are creating these clubs they're calling for a social change and a gradual change in culture within their schools so I do hope that I can hear more opinions from students on this but I just like to note

045the importance of seeing the initiative students are taking to bring about social change um in addition uh I'd like to recognize any Boy Scouts in the audience I apologize I didn't do this earlier but if there are any Boy Scouts in the audience completing their citizens citizenship in the community Merit no okay I apologize for that um also on a lighter note I will be visiting some schools coming up soon I'm very excited to meet um some new principles a lot of great student leadership teams and I hope that everybody has a wonderful and safe school year thank you thank you Miss CH we now move to our action items 3.01 governance committee recommendations for the family and early childhood education program feep has start uh policy committee I call on Miss McLaughlin for the

046motion thank you Miss Evans I move that the school board Chang the family and early childhood education program feep Head Start I uh policy committee from a board advisory committee to a superintendent advisory committee is there a second SEC second and by Mr mine uh Miss mlen would you like to speak to your motion uh just briefly um uh this is a a basically a recommendation that uh the governance Committee of which I served along with Mr Moon Mr mine and Mr Wilson and we uh then brought it to the full board uh with a recommendation that as we look to streamline the work of both the school board as well as um the work of the superintendent that uh this would align very well uh with uh the advisory committee working directly with the

047superintendent and so uh I I believe in listening to my colleagues during the work session uh there was uh majority support to make this change and so I uh look forward to tonight uh my colleagues uh supporting um this Mr mine would you like to speak to your second I would just second all that Mr Miss mcclin said um I believe this is a a way to streamline our work um and and better um liaz with the community and have staff leaz with this Comm committee directly thank you I see no uh more either hands or lights uh for uh Miss mlin well if no one else wants to uh to speak to it I do want to first of all emphasize because I think of my two colleagues miss daret kofx and miss Hines

048who have been wonderful Advocates uh for the value of early childhood education and uh Head Start and so I do want to make sure for the public who's watching this evening that uh streamlining our work and making it more uh effective in aligning with um the superintendent's operational uh oversight does not in any way speak to uh the board's uh commitment and passion for increasing and enhancing early childhood education so I I did want to just make sure everyone knew that the board uh beles this is one of the most important things that we can continue to expand and grow in Fairfax County Schools all right thank you uh seeing no uh for the uh hands or uh lights uh I will call for the vote all those in favor indicate by raising your hand

049um that is Hines palek Hoff Schultz Corbett Sanders Strauss Evans mclin Wilson darnette kofax and mine all those opposed moon and the motion passes we go to uh item 3.02 sponsorship policy I call on Miss McLaughlin for the motion I moveed that the school board approved the policy on Commercial Promotional and corporate sponsorships is there a second second seconded by Mr Moon Miss mclaughin would you like to speak as with the prior motion uh and serving on the governance committee this was another uh matter that uh the board took um not just the committee but then the board at a work session discussed uh how best we can outline how the school system will handle corporate sponsorships and uh how the the revenue would then be handled with uh the sponsorships and I believe that

050um this policy what's most important is that um both the school system as well as Fairfax County as a whole needs to have this type of policy in place and so I'm proud of the fact that uh our board is going to have something that very clearly outlines that and uh I uh look forward to the County government also uh outlining this in a more clear fashion Mr Moon I know that earlier today a one of my colleagues left a message on my cell phone I was busy all day long doing my day job so was not able to call her back uh on the question of a allocation of the potential donation to be coming to schools uh that when I was serving on the governance committee that our governance committee really wrestled with

051that issue but since we have never done this and there are too many school dist around the country that have this type of Poli see we were really not able to find the perfect solution for us until we actually have to go through actually implementing this policy and how that goes and we may in the future may need to make adjustments but until we actually implement this and how the business communities and other individual donors you know react to our effort seeking more help from outside we want know what the ideal allocation of the donation a a should be so uh that is your response that I should have given to my colleague who left message on my cell phone I have several people uh wanting to speak um M uh Mrs Huff thank you

052I I was that board member so I'll give a little background and clarification and I want to apologize uh to my fellow board members this came about at a work session and I did have some questions about it and uh it became new business right before we went on recess and then this week I was catching up on work and I thought wow I still have some questions and so I do want to have a discussion hopefully tonight possibly about um postponing for just a couple for two weeks to maybe get some more answers and I appreciate what Mr Moon's uh saying and and to to give uh those listening a little bit more background in this policy there's a stipulation that if a sponsor gives over $110,000 that 35% of it would stay local

053to the school 65% of it would go centrally um I've heard different reasons for that allocation but at the end of the day when I've heard I've talked to all the um people on governance there was some well not most everyone I think but uh it was sort of arbitrary when they came to that final 35 65 they threw a lot of different um numbers around and um as Mr Moon said not a lot of people have done this and there's not a known perfect percent uh but I guess I would appreciate maybe if we as a board asked staff and uh maybe with b um the business and Community Partnerships to go out and maybe seek some current sponsors and say what motivated you to give to the schools is there a percent sensitive

054point where after a while they're not not going to want to sponsor to a specific school or to the county as a whole because of that percent distribution um maybe we can reach out to the Chambers of Commerce in uh Northern Virginia in Mount Vernon and Lee and see if they have an opinion on it and then come back and um and maybe we stay at the 3565 but I guess I would like some more information from businesses on the outset and maybe then still we'll have to adjust but I still would like to pass the policy knowing that I've had some of those questions may be more objectively answered Mrs Schultz so this has been a a topic that I've been interested in for several years so I'm sort of glad that it's come

055up it's um unfortunate that it took a long time to come up and now we're sort of I feel like we're rushing to pass a policy um right at the end of our August recess we really haven't had um time to talk to talk about this and just because four board members um were able to sort of um have this discussion in a committee I don't feel like the board has had this discussion um I do feel like a 6535 split is very arbitrary and very capricious I don't know that it's based on anything in particular I don't know what would motivate um a corporate sponsor that's a a large organization or um a small business who for whatever reason because of local um has a an affinity um for a particular school maybe um

056they themselves I think we heard from somebody tonight who said they were proud graduate of anandale high school and you know if they felt um motivated to um assist you know their their alma mater or their child's school or their granddaughter school or the school that's most proximate to their small business as a majority of business businesses are um our small businesses not only in the Commonwealth and in our County but in the country I I don't know that driving um Business Partnership relationships with schools and creating partnership opportunities is aided or assisted in a hasty decision by this board to just say well you know you keep 65 we take 35 or we keep 35 you get 65 that is a it's a very strange concept that is a cookie cutter approach to a

057policy that I don't think fits at all with um the type of businesses that uh exist um in many different forms and have many different possibilities for contributing and supporting our schools so I feel like we're undercutting ourselves from uh from the outset right out of the gate um I think that each individual circumstance St should be taken up um but if nothing else we we are way premature on making a decision like this tonight um without engaging the very community that theoretically this policy is set to um to do Outreach to so I I can't support a 6535 and I do I do think we should um be postponing this until we have a more robust and meaningful conversation Miss Hines yeah thank you um I have to say and maybe I just again

058we've all been kind of a W for for August not exactly we've been working but we have not been um talking to each other we haven't had meetings really over August and so I'm find myself surprised to hear that some Schoolboard members think we're rushing this I was actually going to start my remarks with how I feel like we've waited a long time to be able to vote on this and that um I wanted to thank all the people who took months and months and months to put this policy together the governance committee and staff um it was you know as as chair for the last year I I kind of got to watch it as it developed I suppose or at least to hear about developments of it and um there was some impatience

059I think in certain members of the community for us to move a little bit faster because we've had this sort of ad hoc inconsistent um policy until now where certain schools have you know really great Partnerships and they get a lot of resources and um and other schools not so much and we don't have Equity across the county so I think it's very important that we have a policy that helps us achieve that and I think that um I think that's the purpose of the 3565 now we may decide that that's not as Mr Moon said we may decide that that detail in the policy is something that we want to evolve and change over time but that's not the only thing in here I mean we've got three pages of policy that address a

060lot of other questions about these sponsorship issues I mean we have ethical questions when we accept sponsorships we have to think about the um reputation of the school system every time we do that and all of that has been well thought out in this policy so I think we really need to um to to accept and adopt the work that's been done um and I for myself I think 3565 is a good ballpark estimate of how we balance the ability that some local communities and schools have to draw resources to that school and the challenge that other schools across the county have and you know that they are really not able to draw those kind of resources and it gives us an opportunity to share and to and to spread the wealth so um again

061I I thank those who worked on it and I will be supporting it Mrs Corvett Sanders yes thank you um this is a really important policy that we're working on and it's a policy that has been discussed um both in the working uh in the committee as well as we had a work session on it um the the thing that's important to understand about this policy is that IT addresses the issue of um both large uh donations and small donations and when we're talking about a split it's really a recognition of that the um facilities that could be named under this policy uh uh were built by school bonds they were built by the whole County they are shared by the whole County but the Strategic location of some of these facilities may be more

062attractive than other locations for corporate sponsorships and corporate naming and that is why the committee felt that it was important to go ahead and have a uh Revenue sharing agreement when it came to these large donations of over $10,000 additionally it's really important to understand that um the policy recognizes the Great Value and support that our traditional funding Partners have with all of our schools and that means the ptas the boosters and um the alumni organizations that support individual schools and uh so from that standpoint I think that the policy does uh as Mrs Hines mentioned it's quite extensive it warrants careful attention but it's also important that we do have a revenue sharing and um the because it after all it was Revenue sharing when we built these facilities as well and uh so

063I support the uh policy I support the exemption in the policy where it says that it does not apply apply to ptas booster organizations and existing individual School foundations nor does it um apply to sponsorship agreements that are in existence uh before the adoption of the policy and uh where there are some areas where we need to look forward in the future I would suggest that maybe what we do is we um take a look at the revenue sharing piece and in a time where we revisit it um if it passes tonight or if we go with a slight delay that um you know my question would be the we have very few situations today where we have named facilities and charged a fee for naming those facilities most of our facilities today that we

064have names for are named after honored professional that have served our school system or are named after um leaders in our community and so this is a new area for us and it's frankly in response to requests um by members of the boards of su Board of Supervisors and the business Community to be able to address this so thank you Mrs stra thank you um uh I think most of the policy is fine but I I do have a question with its uh uh Rome numeral 2D and it is the dollar amount stated um for elementary schools I think this is fine but um I think the reality uh if there is ever going to be a dollar amount that actually uh substantially pays for um a large purchase that a high school um is

065is trying to make um I think the dollar amount here is too low for that because I know what some of the high schools if they are actually going to use this policy um most schools when they're doing fundraising they're their small dollar amounts are maybe a couple of thousand so if we really intend to do any kind of a policy dealing with actual naming rights I have concern about the dollars we put in here um I would like to go back and uh actually talk with the um activities directors in our high school and see what they have to say therefore I'm going to make the following motion I moved to postpone the decision on this policy until the December 1st school board meeting and in the interim um actually talked to our high

066school activities directors um to find out um uh is this a reasonable amount because we wouldn't want to set up a policy where in the end we found out that we were actually discouraging um the one or two partnership that actually um might prove to be fruitful for any High School in in the county so that is my motion to postpone the decision of this until December 1st to give us an opportunity would you would you read your motion yes my motion is I move to postpone the uh the consideration of this policy until the school board meeting of December 1st which would give us an opportunity uh for further discussion with our high schools and activities directors um to uh get enough in I think clear information as to what the dollar amount uh

067should be that is my concern is there a second for this motion second second by uh M uh by Mrs Huff would you mind if we added to that motion to also hang on um all right uh Mrs stuss do you want to discuss your motion oh well I'm I is I'm more concerned about the high school okay and this is why and and not to put this off forever there's a lot of work done with it and I think the majority of it is just fine but I that is my preference we'll see what my colleagues have to say all right we have a motion by Mrs Strauss seconded by U Mrs Huff um Mrs Huff would you like to speak to your second and would it be out of order for me to

068ask about adding what my initial uh reason for postponing well you can you can uh uh ask to amend amend the amendment to just also um in the meantime just be reaching asking staff to reach out to uh the Chambers of Commerce and current sponsors to see if um what Mo just have more information what motivates them in sponsorships what is there something in is there something that would deter them uh would would you like to make that in the form of a Dr Garza did you have something you wanted to I mean we will certainly um seek out any information that's helpful to the board so I just want to say that up front I I will tell you uh we've never we've not ever had a policy and we've never really uh been

069in a position to sell naming rights so um it it so there's not really a basis for which we can go back and ask our business Community how much what the split would for the purchase of of naming rights or those kinds of sponsorships but I mean I think we're happy to ask them in terms of a um you know a scenario and ask them maybe what's a reasonable split get their opinion but we don't have any basis to build it one yeah and I appre and really what's motivating them are they alumni that want if it's not going to their school what is the motivating factors because they do exist you know there are sponsorships and businesses are familiar with them even if they're not for the school for other things so I feel

070like they would have some sense and and again not that they're going to name the percent but just to inform our decision some more and if there were other reasons for postponing it and I I I was maybe remiss in um um reiterating that I I support this policy and I'm very appreciative for the work I'm excited about uh the fact that we are getting this in place so so let me ask uh Mrs Strauss if uh she wants to amend her amend I could extend the language a little bit so that um but as I say it's it is our own high school people that right now will have a little more information little wisdom to bring to this um so I would to have language to right that we postpone this uh decision

071until December 1st to give us an opportunity to gain more information um as to the appropriate dollar amount uh and maybe we just leave it at that but I would recommend that that our high school people will be the ones that will have all right uh so I I have several people who want to speak and I'm I'm going to Mad po yes Mr Mo without anything in writing for us to see I don't know exactly what the motion says if it is simply motion to postpone until the December 1st 2016 that's very clear I can understand that even without them being written now but the the additional language you're proposing if that's really part of your motion and I think Madam clerk have you got the um the motion that we could see it

072in writing um you're uh can you put it up on the on the screen and we can see if um and you'll note we do have screens in front of us I it's if uh I know if we are able to make the um make make it a little um okay Dian to it it's not working okay um well what I have written down is uh I move to postpone to December 1st um to gain more [Music] information well I do think we probably need to have this in writing if um if it's going to be anything other than just postponing to a date certain we need to see it in writing uh should we take a brief recess so we can um do this Madam clerk um let's have a 10-minute recess so we

073can um get this in writing e e e all right would board members come back to their seats we're ready to resume board members who are in the back room if you would come join us again we would appreciate it all right Madam clerk I believe we have um the amendment um simplified language that um Mrs Strauss would like to propose uh Mrs Strauss would you like to um read the the new simplified language and yes the simplified language is just I move to postpone consideration of the the policy uh until the school board meeting of December 1st 2016 Mrs H do you still want to second that motion yes thank all right um all right um Mrs Strauss you would like to speak to this yeah and just well first of all um um

074because this came from governance it would obviously then go back to governance and my recommendation would be would give us a little more time to consider particularly the implications of Roman nual 2D because that is where I do have questions so and then it can come back and we will finally solve this give us a little more time to think thank you all right uh Mrs Huff I'm I'm going to let you speak to you you don't have anything more I completely agree I think it's a I'm happy with that okay so on my list I have um Miss palek and Mr Wilson and miss darnette kofax and then I have a couple of goack I believe I have a couple of Gob backs um Miss palek yes thank you well um my original comments

075were a little unrelated to to this motion so um I'm a little bit torn I think I I want to kind of second what Miss Hines and Miss corpet Sanders were sharing um I I think it's I think we're doing the right move and looking at this policy and wanting to pass it I also think it's important that we move cautiously um we are still a public school system and need to rely um most heavily on our public funds we also are an entire County um that is now seeing a lot of um division um whether it's socio economic or Geographic or otherwise so um I I don't know yet how I feel about the motion um I think that we I want to be clear that we have a policy in place for contributions

076this is for sponsorships so businesses organizations do currently have the ability to contribute um you you know this is we are charting new territory both for our County and um across the board for school districts so while I am open perhaps the idea of the postponing of this I know governments did work pretty diligently on this and I believe they did gather um as much information as they could at the time I believe it was over the span of a year approximately so I think I would I would need um to know that the postponing would um ensure that we do have more information and we can gather more information than we currently have rather than um just postponing and adding additional time that will bring us back to the same decision using the same

077information that we have so perhaps someone who was on governance at the time can share more information I would really appreciate that I I do think as Mr Moon said it's important that we take careful steps knowing that we can always always amend this have new motions um as I mentioned to one of the um supervisors who's very anxious to see this um in the book infinite just they go as far as to sponsor years so I just want to make sure that um what we do is um in the best interest of all of our schools and our school system and that we also do not begin to supplant our um County and state and federal funding so I'd love to hear from maybe one of the governance committee if if we feel that

078there's information out there that they have not already been able to gather thank you I have uh two people who have not yet spoken and then I have some Gob backs Mr Wilson thank you madam chair and Miss palic I can assure you as a member of the governance committee we have lots more energy to spend on this we're ready to go uh despite the time we've spent already um I actually uh will support the motion to Def furthest to December as I was rereading it today and this is the this is the challenge when it's a new policy for a county um and we are um it's not a not a very common policy in the United States uh that this is our effort to uh put together a policy that that does make

079a lot of sense and does provide the correct incentives that we want as a county and I'm just noticing that in the allocation of donations provision we've drafted it as a a cliff which uh means that at $10,000 the school gets 100% they would get $10,000 but at $115,000 they would get 35% of that and they would only get five so I think that we could come up with a little bit better just mathematical mechanism to protect schools so that you know if they if it's 10,000 they get 10,000 and that they get protected up to a point and then ultimately at 35% if that's the allocation we would choose so I think that there is some more work to be done on this and I I also Echo uh the various comments that that

080IL soliciting some input from chamber members and others just to make sure that at least our first cut at it does reflect well on this board and and on uh our policy thanks Miss daret Kovac thank you Miss Evans um I would be S inclined to support Miss strauss's motion but I feel like I we're kind of just talking around because we don't have specificity on what additional information we want um you talked about looking at the the athletic direct dsas yes and um but specific and then miss Huff had some additional information so I I would support this but I would like if we're going to do it I kind of want a general understanding at this table now what in what specifically information we want to gather and what the process will be

081will be that staff ga Gathering or or will be going back to governance okay so if we can speak to that are you are ask question I'm asking I'm asking Mr the make I guess what what I would suggest um Mr daret kofax since this is um if this passes it would go back to governance um it would seem to me that um Mrs Strauss and uh Mrs Huff have mentioned a couple of things that they would like to know and this would be an opportunity for other board members to ask any questions that they have all right clarifies the process for me then thank you um I have a couple of Gob backs uh Mrs um Schultz are you a GoBack okay then it's your turn so I just want to um I want

082to go back even at this table appears we have we haven't quite jelled around the notion that we've spent a lot of time talking about this um this was predominantly discussed um in committee it wasn't predominantly discussed at the board table with all of us there at a work session in terms of the nuances and there was great um ambiguity about where we were jelling on this issue of the split so we didn't resolve it um it appears from the work that we're doing at the table now that it isn't resolved um usually as some of the other motions that happened earlier this evening where we really didn't discuss it very much um the more we're discussing it and the more convoluted it appears to us at the table the more likely it is that

083we haven't come to um a consensus so I do think it does need to be delayed um I am very concerned about the notion of this concept of quote unquote Revenue sharing and um that wouldn't surprise some of my colleagues but you know the secret Dakota ring is wealth redistribution and um I I don't like setting this up from the perspective that if somebody wants to give something to some school they're not allowed to unless they give you know half of it away or more than half of it away um we we are uh undermining the notion that this is a public school system and that people have um individual liberties and that if they want to give something they should be able to give it now we can also build into it and I

084think Mr Wilson was getting there a little bit of having some kind of scale or some kind of incentive because what you can what we'll do by installing numbers directly into policy and numbers in policy is bad that's not policy that's regulation you know so us putting dollar figures in a in a policy is bad policy to start with um in my opinion um but what you could do is not incentivize people to give under $10,000 so they don't have to give any of it away I mean we're we're not writing good policy so I'm going to ask my colleagues to say one yes let's delay it two let's engage the Chamber of Commerce and some of our other established business partners and and also frequent smaller business partners partners that aren't necessarily you know

085the large credit unions and the Tyson's Corner um alikes but create something that is incentivizing to say Hey listen if you give and you do this you know something else will happen that's that's good policy and that's incentivizing not disincentivizing and then miss darnette kofax I think you had some really good points around you know let let's just have that discussion tonight look what do we want um and I don't think it's overly complex certainly do think it could be done by by December but I think to be intellectually honest and say you know we're not just going to L Lop off you know X percent um in in a very large government esque uh way and disincentivize people from giving and being collaborative partners with our schools I have a go back with uh

086Miss McLaughlin then Mr Moon then U Miss Corbett Sanders um as the new governance chair I welcome this opportunity if the board decides to postpone that it would come back to governance and that we would absolutely uh take the input not just from tonight but uh board members who uh do want to also ensure that the board considers any other uh questions related to the draft policy um for us to make sure that it's um discussed examined and brought back to work session before we would vote in December um but I want to answer to a couple of things that our colleagues have raised um first of all I I believe that M Corbett Sanders really captured it best what the sponsorship challenge is some of our schools are located in different parts of the

087county um or they happen to have uh football teams that keep heading to States cille you know who you are and so you know there's going to be corporate sponsors who are going to look and say that school location or that school's you know Sports prowess is where you know we want to go ahead and and do a sponsorship because it's going to have high visibility and that's fine um but I want every one of my colleagues to really think about this concept We Are One School District Fairfax county is not not 25 different separate school districts for each one of our high school pyramids that you would find throughout the Northeast that's the model they have and I am very thankful to live in a county that has one school district four million people

088and we make sure then that all of our schools are strong regardless of where you reside in this County um we know that there are certain jurisdictions where there is tremendous pockets of wealth when I was a former PTA president at my Elementary School we were lucky if we could raise 20 to $25,000 a year up in one of my other colleagues um schools element Elementary School in one year's time they raised $300,000 in their wrapping paper sales and I know because it was in the news the principes went and did their work for the day Up on the Roof because that was the bet if they hit that Mark so imagine when you're an elementary school PTA president you're looking wow what could we do with $300,000 so um that's just a reality and

089and and you know my children's elementary school is Middle income you know limit limited poverty but that's just a reality in this County and it concerned me then and it concerns me now this is not wealth redistribution and um you know I appreciate one of my colleagues bringing it up because I think that can then create um a misunderstanding understanding about what this is all about um if we believe in one County and in one school district then that's what this is about and interestingly we already have a model similar in this County we have cell towers throughout the county and the reason we have cell towers uh throughout the county different schools is based on need of the the cell tower companies they said you know what we have bad service over here we

090want to put a tower on that school well the community has mixed feelings about cell towers so Fairfax County Schools said to the to the communities well if it goes on your school property you get 15% of the revenue share and the other 85% comes to Central Administration that's pretty much wealth redistribution isn't it because it didn't all stay on the school even though the school hosts the tower no it's not wealth redistribution we're one school district and they need to use something they want to put something on one of our properties but the property belongs to the school district of fair fax County so um I do think that this is prudent to to to postpone I do think that my colleague um Tom Wilson brought up an excellent point that after $10,000 where

091it uh tips to a 6535 share it needs to be on the revenue above the 10,000 so this way the school's going to get the first 10,000 and then the revenue share after is 65 35 split or otherwise you might have the situation where everybody says well don't do $10,000 in $1 so or don't do 11,000 or don't do 12,000 so I think we can sort out a lot of this through the governance committee I I do agree with many of my colleagues who said let's check with the chamber for their input let's check with our current sponsors if we have any who've actually provided these types of sponsorships to date um let's talk to our directors of Student Activities um to see if they've had conversations with potential sponsor um but in the end

092I I don't believe the driving force for most of these sponsorships is that it needs to be the funding stays 100% within that school a sponsor just wants to know is my name recognition going to be in a place that benefits my company and nothing here says no we're going to make Your sponsorship over at this school versus that school because that's where we want to direct our money to um so I I thank every one of my colleagues tonight for really giving this policy the the serious discussion that we've done here um you know governance uh like a lot of our subcommittees we come to you all we do our best in work sessions to give you the information but we are always so pressed in our work sessions that often it it's uh

093compressed into just a summary discussion so here we are but I do think it's very good and I want to thank Miss Strauss and Miss Huff uh both of you for um bringing forward this uh amendment to postpone and and I do fully support it and appreciate that this will come back for governance to work with staff and uh make sure we capture all of the concerns of our colleagues thank you Mr Moon thank you Madame chair as I stated earlier uh you know Covenant committee spent a lot of time for us and and eventually a came up with a recommendation for the full boards consideration and presented at a work session in July I think some board members might have missed that work session had uh missed an opportunity to us to participate in

094discussion at that at that work session but having said that I I do not mind you know postponing until December one uh I do not think this is a matter of urgency other than there are some members on the County Board of Supervisors who want see this to be adopted by the school board as soon as possible and we are trying to be responsive to our funding Authority meanwhile I know that you know we have existing policy under which our superintendent is able to Ender you know any donation coming to us uh just without this policy without a formal policy you know there may not be a consistency but at the same time I have trust and confidence in superintendent that she will will try to make it as consistent as possible until we formally

095adopt our policy what the ideal allocation of donated you know donation should be uh if it is other than 35 and 65 just let us know and and how any board member or anyone who's suggesting is basing that on I would love to find that out I would love to learn how to do it uh but let's see whether we can make the decision on December one thank you I'll take just a moment to speak um I want to thank the governance committee for taking this on and uh developing a a brand new policy of this significance uh I know took a lot of time and effort so I want to applaud the governance committee for what they've brought to us um I think Miss um mlin said it very well uh as far as

096the the issue having to do with the split uh again whether it ends up being 30 3565 or or some other figure I do believe uh as Miss McLaughlin said so eloquently we are one school system and uh so I certainly support having that type of a split at the same same time I'm hearing uh people with a number of questions that they want answered and um we have the the former governance chair and the current governance chair telling us that there's not the urgency to do this tonight which I I agree with that so um I can support the postponement um and I I believe that everyone then will have an opportunity to let governance know um any questions that they would like to have answered any um uh information that they feel they

097need of course individual board members can also um seek that information on their own um which I think is uh certainly a worthwhile test for all of us so with that while I I support the um where the governance committee is going with this I think that a post home um at this point would make some sense uh just to give everyone a little bit more uh comfort with where we're going so with that I'm going to read the motion um I move to postpone consideration of this policy until the school board meeting of December 1st 2016 all those in favor please raise your hand and that is y oh I'm sorry it's not um uh Miss Hines Miss PCH Mrs Huff Mrs Schultz Mrs Corbett Sanders Mrs Strauss Evans Moon mclin Wilson darnette kopex

098opposed Mr mine uh the motion passes uh so we have postponed that action item uh until December 1st we now go to item four 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 items listed here have generally gone through Board review and documentation has been provided to all board members in the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting 4.01 appoint individuals to serve on committees as detailed in the agenda item is there any objection to approving the consent agenda seeing none uh hearing and seeing no objection the consent agenda is approved we go to uh item five new business the following

099your new business agenda items there will not be a vote tonight on these items but action is scheduled at a future meeting 5.01 adopt the lactation support programming policy as detailed in the agenda item 5.02 appoint individuals to serve a one-year term on the challenged materials interdepartmental Review Committee as detailed in the agenda item 5.03 adopt the changes to the four goal areas of the Fairfax County Public Schools strategic plan Student Success caring culture Premier Workforce and resource stewardship and now we go to superintendent matters Dr Garza thank thank you madam chair members of the board um you remember in uh in the 2014 2015 school year the board supported a very strategic and important investment uh that that enabled us to develop a program called our systems of support um our SAS our systems

100of support advisors um that um as you all know we've spent a lot of time talking about the resulting outcomes and the significant improvements we've seen um in just responsiveness to our students and I'm very proud to report to the board that the vdoe recognized FCPS as a Virginia tiered system of supports Trail Blazer in Richmond in Late July we had a number of our staff there I know Miss Molin also attended uh on behalf um we had other community supporters that were there and strategic partners that were there as well uh the recognition was presented at the classrooms not courtrooms school discipline and achieve the achievement Gap Institute Dr Don was at the ceremony to accept the award along with some others that I mentioned and I want to congratulate Dr Jane lip Dr

101Jill uh jauli jakowski and just so many other people throughout our system our principles for their support um you know certainly this is a source of Pride uh for our our school system so you should um feel good about that it would not have happened without uh the support that the board provided to our schools to make that happen we hope in the future to be able to expand that program uh to some of our middle schools uh in the future and certainly I think it's a practice that other school systems across the country can emulate I understand Dr Steve Staples was very impressed uh with the group that was there and of course I know that um everyone felt very good about the recognition it was certainly very prestigious recognition um our the on

102to other other recognitions the national procurement Institute uh has given our procurement Department who manages all of our contract negotiations all of our procurement activity uh they received the 2016 annual achievement of excellence in procurement award uh FCPS is one of only 20 three agencies in the United States uh to receive this honor so congratulations to our financial services um assistant superintendent Kristen Michael um our chief operating officer Susan Quinn all the wonderful people and our financial services department uh this is a distinguished honor and one I'm I know we're all very proud of because it signals to our community uh that we take um the responsibility of taking care of our precious taxpayer dollars very carefully so we're very proud of that that uh another recognition Kelly Lyn Scott uh who has taught math

103at Robinson Secondary School for the past seven years is one of of 213 teachers Nationwide to be recognized with the presidential award for excellence in Mathematics and Science teaching uh Miss Scott who is part of the grade 7 through 12 award cohort is one of only four teachers in Virginia to be recognized for this distinguished award so we we uh congratul ulate Kelly um and certainly her entire School her principal Matt Elon we're just very very proud of her and congratulate her on receiving this very distinguished award and then finally you know I'm G to have I need to talk about first day of school um I know that all of you are out in school some of you even joined me for my school visits um I just could not have been more proud

104of our entire system um and you know if I start naming off uh people who are responsible for making Tuesday such a a wonderful start I'll miss someone but you know it takes enormous effort of every aspect of this organization from Facility Services my goodness Fort belore Elementary School what a miraculous uh accomplishment that was uh our school bus drivers our um food nutrition services staff and I could go on and on I'm G to miss uh folks custodial services and then our principls and teachers and um everyone at central office who supported getting the start open um it certainly was a proud moment for all of us um and it's always an exciting day this probably one of the most fun days of the year right to see children excited about coming to school

105with their new school supplies ready to start the year and I think everyone's excited and enthusiastic um so again I'm just always amazed at uh again another smooth start it doesn't happen by happens dance it happens with lots of planning and preparation on the part of everyone throughout FCPS so um um I want to congratulate all of our staff for making it a great day for children and I also um welcome all of our about 188,000 children back to school um and we look forward to working uh with their families and with us in community to continue this great um the great work of FCPS so that concludes my report and again I hope everyone has a great 2016 2017 school year thank you thank you Dr Garza the next agenda is board matters and

106I call on Mr Ming I would just wish everyone a wonderful start to school and a wonderful school year Mr CeX I too am happy to be back to school um I was able to attend several open houses prior to the first day um at Hayfield Elementary Crestwood Elementary Edison High School and Garfield Elementary and uh at the at the first school it was I didn't realize I was walking into a kindergartener back to school time and I saw they were just so adorable they were like you were talking about the energy with the backpacks that are bigger than them and they're crying and their parents are crying and it was just a beautiful little site to see um I was able to be with Dr Gara at the opening of and um Miss Corbett

107Sanders and Mr movan at the opening of the uh beautiful new Fort bore Elementary upper thank you to our facilities folks who I know work really hard to complete that and get that ready for the start of school year it's it it it is a lovely facility and um today I was happy to attend with my colleagues Miss corpet Sanders and Miss Hughes the Lee Mount Vernon um chamber meeting today to give them a brief overview about um what is happening in our schools in our area so what did I oh miss Huff Miss H is you're not miss Hugh h i see I can't read my own writing thank you Mr Wilson uh thank you welcome back everybody uh to the 2016 2017 school year um this was my first chance to do the

108back to school video um I hope I did okay as those of you who may have watched it I think I'm up to 50 hits or something on it so um uh but welcome back um just a um bers bit of information here tonight uh outside this building Luther Jackson is a chimney which is being used by a colony of Chimney Swifts and tonight we get to see them as the sun goes down all three or four thousand of them fly in a big stream into the chimney and if you've ever never seen something like that uh I hadn't until tonight it is quite incredible to see so um I recommend uh if you are a burger to come by in the evening and watch that incredible display thank you Miss mlac a couple things

109first first I want to thank all of our speakers who came out tonight um one of the most important things that we can um accomplish as a board is to understand where our community is and it's also important to sometimes identify when the community might not have clear information and so I know um Miss Evans tried to U make a notation but it was a little noisy so I just want to reiterate for anyone who's still watching uh one of the speakers the later speakers captured it accurately this board did not put any new regulations in place the superintendent did not put um new regulations in place based on that policy um yes there's been some updates to the srnr yes there's been some changes to fle but that's that's work outside of the policy

1101450 that this board um spoke to the community about a year ago uh there have there were draft recommendations on how to execute on policy 1450 and this board said in a public meeting that we did understand and remain committed to engaging our public on it and so uh I do appreciate that if people hear incorrect information uh then they uh stand here this night tonight and and express their concerns uh but for those especially who um Drew upon my public remark Mar s from a year ago I stand by them we passed a non we updated a non-discrimination policy a year ago uh we are still waiting on the court system to uh the national court system to um make some determinations on these cases that are at a national level and uh we

111will continue to be engaged with our public um on this issue and I I take that very seriously um the other thing that I wanted to uh just share with my colleagues is not only am I pleased that Dr Garen mentioned um the award that we received um as a school system down in Richmond uh but uh there's two things from that first uh the the two-day conference took place right before we went into our August recess so I did want to let my colleagues know that providing you a summary that might have then sat in your inbox for a month and maybe gotten buried didn't seem very prudent so I will be sending you a summary just of my experience from attending the conference those two days uh it was a team that represented

112the Juvenile Domestic Relations Court uh the Fairfax County leadership uh myself and uh and then also uh two other individuals who work within the school system in interface with our court system uh it was school districts from throughout Virginia who attended this thing it was a free conference and in fact they paid for our uh meals and our hotel Hotel um down there um but it was basically the Virginia Department of Education saying we are very serious about uh schools or classrooms not courtrooms and it's all about diversion and so it was it was a great um conference and building on that um Dr Garza was approached by um the director of the juvenile court system Bob Burmingham that uh one of the um the chief judge of the juvenile juvenile court he presented to

113the sro's which as we all know the SRO are actually part of our police system and then they come and staff in our schools so the judge part of their annual um training the judge came and spoke to them about the merits and the importance of diversion trying to divert cases from the criminal justice system and so um they've now reached out to Dr Garza that they would like to have a judge come and speak to um her leadership team and or the principles um about just the information they imparted with the SR SRO so again you have people really kind of in in a collaborative mindset and so I was really pleased that they reached out to Dr Garza on that and I'm was going to uh follow up with Dr Garza and chairman

114Evans about how we could also uh have judge Carr uh who was the one who participated with us um perhaps share that 30- minute presentation with the board as well if it's deemed um helpful because I think this is again goes to uh even the broader work on skipped where we're talking about how do we have um inter you know County agencies all working collaboratively um toward the greater good uh so I just thought that was really exciting to see again this continue building of of connections and collaboration going on between County and schools and I think that's great um and then I just want to uh say that as the parent of now a junior in high school um the youngest of my children uh like many parents uh we're getting uh adjusted again

115to uh the school day and all the demands that come with um our students uh being in school and learning and the message I've been sharing with my community and bradic district is I hope we can continue to help our children every day find and discover the joy in learning um you know it's so important that our students academically um achieve but I want them to most importantly uh continue to find that that joy in learning and so uh I want to help promote that um because I know that's what our teachers want for our children as well um and I also want to give a special shout out to Mr plattenburg I don't know if I see him up there but uh he uh for any of you who who do have children who

116take the bus and have transportation I shared with them as a parent how impressed I was the communication that was done this before the start of the school year with email correspondence with printed um information being um provided to each child in their welcome packets to um the calls that were made the automatic calls all providing very explicit information about your children's bus routes pickup times if you run into any trouble here's what you should do be in mind that the first couple weeks um in a bus fleet almost the size of Greyhound it's going to have some Kinks and I I just thought it was one of the best uh things I've done I've seen as a parent recent years and really appreciate the work he did and uh other than that I'm probably

117exceeding my time so I'll defer from now if I might add to that Matt guilo in our Communications Department was also a very strategic partner in that work I know if Jeff were in the room he he would say the same thing so thank you thank you Mr MO thank you Madame chair uh traditionally month of August for the school board is is recess time to our rest relax and incorporate but I've never had so many meetings and community events during the month of month of August maybe for those who are still in their first year as a board member might not really realize that but August is supposedly a month the recess let's not let's not schedule more meetings in the future during AUST and and for those of you those of us who

118a who celebrate Harvest Moon Festival based upon lunar calendar Harvest Moon Festival is a week away from today September 15th when Moon becomes largest foest so I'll become fooler on that day and let's celebrate my being foolest on that day thank you and I yield rest of my time to miss H thank you uh Mrs uh stra thank you um I I want to compliment all of my schools principals teachers Dr Garza Jeff plattenburg U Matt guil everybody else who's worked so hard with this very very smooth opening um uh two of the things that I always look for in I sharing with the Dr Garza principal and elementary schools where in the first week of school the children all knew the principal and say hi by name hi fives hugs around the knees very

119open we want to see all of our people out in the halls and I'm seeing that I'm very very pleased and excited the children are happy children are excited and I've been sitting in so far Elementary classrooms to listen to the very well prepared and excited teachers in their back to school speeches I am impressed with their their discussion of curriculum helping communication technology Google Docs all the rest of it but um we've had an excellent opening and I'm very grateful and the children are terribly excited to be back in schools and the teachers are excited to have the children so we're off to a great start good luck to everybody and uh hopefully we will have just a very successful school year thank you Mrs Corbett Sanders I Echo the uh comments of my

120colleagues in thanking uh Mr plattenburg and his team uh the local principles and their teams and Dr Garza and the leadership team in a very smooth opening of this school year uh it's quite impressive uh those that don't know um the folks in Mr plattenburg organization were able to break ground and open a school at Fort belor within one year and it is truly a magical place so uh my hats off to them I also want to take the opportunity to thank Dr Ry and his staff we often forget about our human resources folks but they have done a Yan's job in satisfying the need to replace teachers that have retired replace teachers that have sought more um competitive salaries elsewhere and um he shared with me a remarkable number when I was asking him

121about his work this week and he said that over the summer Fairfax County had hired 1891 new teachers first welcome we are glad you're here we care about you because you care about our kids and are truly professionals the best and the brightest so we're glad you're here but we're also very appreciative of Dr Ry and his staff for doing a Yan's job I also want to thank our business partners that have worked very closely with the um summer programs in Mount Vernon where we did a number of steam camps for our um Title One schools and those include the support from Fort belor and the military as well well as St Louis and good sheeper churches which supported a steam camp at Bucknell and I wanted to share with people my favorite quote from

122that camp when they asked a young man about what he enjoyed the most about participating in Steam camp and what he learned he said I learned empathy and Engineering warms my heart and have a wonderful evening Mrs schel first of all my congratulations too to miss Scott at Robinson um I'm one of the parents who've been um a very very fortunate parent to have had her as a teacher for um one of my children and um that's an honor well deserved um I want to thank Mr plattenburg and the facility staff uh you know who you are um and the staff with Supervisor herit office for the time they spent on the walkth through um West Springfield High School is undergoing a renovation and all I can say to the parents and the students and

123certainly the the academic uh faculty and support staff um if you haven't seen a school on as small of a campus that's under renovation um like uh West Springfield um I hate to say but it's looks like a war T third world country when I went and saw it last week and I I know it was ready for um for opening day because I haven't had any complaints so I know that they have done a Herculean job and I know it's going to be a long three years but it's also very exciting it's like I don't know how long elephants are are pregnant but they're probably pregnant for a very long time and so I'm waiting you know there's a baby that's going to be birthed at West Springfield in three years and um it's

124going to be worth it it's going to be worth it um so I appreciate everybody's patience and certainly um fcbd um who were out there um the the chief um had uh just tremendous support staff so our West Springfield High School was able to return even though there are zero student spots black market for anybody who lives in the residential Park parking District next to it great great earning opportunity um collaboration on the side uh I want to thank the oon community I know that's not my district than the Springfield District but um the invitation to come and meet with parents and community members um in the Oakton Community um and talk about very sensitive topics um you are very warm and welcoming me across jurisdictional line so I appreciate that um I want to

125give a something that doesn't typically happen but I haven't ever seen it um Robinson um secondary had students who I assume were volunteers I I called them like ambassadors on the locker day where all the new students students were coming in and returning students were coming in to get their lockers and they walked around and they had uh little signs um sticks and you know little signs at the top that said you know do do you need me help ask me and it was one of the most um impressive things I saw of young students um taking ownership of their school and escorting you know parents who were overwhelmed because Robinson is such a large school and new students it was such such uh a neat program so um if any other school is looking

126to do something and evolve I'm sure they got some kind of volunteer hours and I didn't say anything any to to anybody that day but it's something that stuck with me for now a week um about how impressive that was um as we're going into uh this weekend I do want to in a a community that's um often touched by not only our military personnel um but also for those who uh have family members um and extended family members who are lost on 911 um that this is you know a a time to remember and be thankful for where We've Come And for those um who who lost somebody um I just found out that one of our retired teachers um who was with us for many decades um lost her husband actually yesterday morning

127and um his viewing is going to be on on the and his uh his funeral will be on Monday but it just you know brought to mind that um you know we we are in an area that was very heavily touched by 911 so thank you Mrs H just welcome back to school and I hope everyone has a great year Miss PCH yes a very warm welcome back to school um there are some very wise first through third third graders in my neighborhood and they said to me the other day you know at the end of school we really just want summer but at the end of summer oh my gosh I'm so bored I want to go back to school so they were all very excited came up and told me who their teachers

128were um and so I just it brought me back to the days when we were studying Heroes um in World Civilization and I remember my teacher saying well Western hero is someone who does a really good deed once in their life an Eastern hero is someone who does really good deeds every single day and lives that life I want to thank the 24,000 is that correct Mr Chase employees in our system um they are everyday Heroes they really do go above and beyond during the school year during the summer mornings nights evenings um I believe we started the school year with 170 or 171 teacher vacancies and so we do have a long ways to go to continue to support them um I want to thank Mr mcclemens and Mr Hickerson for speaking today on

129behalf of our teachers and staff I hope we as a board will continue to work together um with the supervisors at the state and federal government and our community to continue to um support our teachers and make sure they can stay with us and continue to teach our kids so thank you um on another note I do want to um let people know that we are one of the partners I know Miss um mclin spoke about some of the work we've been doing but there's a um communities of trust committee event this uh Saturday uh communities working together Justice unity and peace Town Hall at the Centerville Baptist Church um from 1: to 300 p.m. so the the as they say the key to building communities of trust is establishing positive relationships between law enforcement

130and the communities they serve so I do hope that members of our community will be able to join the event I unfortunately have to work um I will do my best to sneak away but it I hope this is one of um many discussions and conversations um as we work together as a county so thank you and have a wonderful amazing school year M HS thank you and thank you Mr Moon oh he's not even here okay and I assure you I I also plan to be full on that day so right didn't he say he would be full on the celebration of whatever um sorry um so by the time we get done to this part of the table there's not much left to say um other than welcome back to school and to

131the teachers out there I've been um where you are right now for many years I was a classroom teacher in the school system so I know how hard you've been working I know uh how much sleep you've lost and I know how committed you are to creating a welcoming and challenging environment for every single child and to uh building that family family that you will have over the next um 9 to 10 months with all of your students so I miss the energy that you're feeling right now at this time of year and um I wish you all the best I will just say for my part that I was uh very pleased to uh spend part of the first day of school with Dr Garza on uh her tour around uh various schools throughout

132the county and visit Holmes Middle School and their wonderful new principal there Mrs Barnes and um I want to thank the teachers at holes middle school for letting us come and join them in their classrooms to to visit and see all the wonderful things that they were already doing on the first day of school um I've enjoyed the uh the few back to school nights that I've I've already participated in and look forward to uh more it's uh particularly great I think Miss Dar kofx mentioned the kindergarteners I I saw a whole lot of kindergarteners coming in uh today and that's that's wonderful to see so with that um our meeting is a little bit different tonight following our adjournment we will take a f minute break and then meet in room 303 for the

133Forum work session and after the Forum we will meet in close session this meeting is adjourned e