001e if there are any Scouts in the audience here for badge if you'd come see me at the end of the Das here thank you board members come to the table this May 12 2016 regular meeting number 19 of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance a moment of silence and the performance of the national anthem by the hearnen high school symphonic orchestra under the direction of Alexandra chinski e e [Music] for [Music] how beautiful thank you all so much I feel like we are completely underdressed did you see they're wearing their tails and their beautiful dresses and I mean with all that these students have to do especially now in the springtime I'm just so grateful and impressed that we we were treated to
002that wonderful um that wonderful music thank you okay um item 2.02 certification of closed meeting compliance in order to comply with Section uh we we sorry in order to comply with Section 2.2 372d of the code of Virginia it's necessary for the board to certify that since the Fairfax County School Board convened a closed meeting on May 12th 2016 earlier today to the best of each member's knowledge only public business matters lawfully Exempted from open meeting requirements and only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard discussed or considered by the board during the closed meeting do I have a motion moved by Mr Moon second seconded by Miss Schultz all those in favor thank you that's unanimous um K item 2.03 announcements um just a few
003announcements before the meeting if you would like to review a copy of the agenda and any agenda item that is being discussed tonight that information is on the table by the auditorium entrance 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 uh the meeting is also being streamed live on the FCPS website homepage click on watch School Board live uh we also have Miss Karen Corbett Sanders cannot be with us tonight um please turn off or silence your cell phones I will now call on Mr press for announcements thank you madam chair just one announcement for this evening the board will be recognizing children's book week from May 2nd through the 8th children's book week a national celebration of reading
004storytelling and book rated events observes its 97th anniversary in 2016 and is the longest running National literacy initiative in the country established to promote higher standards in children's books the weat grew to involve Librarians Publishers and book sellers and is administered by every child a reader a 501c3 literacy organization dedicated to instilling a lifelong love of reading and children Nationwide author and illustrator events take place each year and the Children's Choice book awards the only National child chosen book awards program are announced during the week thank you Mr press item 2.04 recognition of national adult and continuing education week I call on Mr Moon uh thank you madam chair as the boldly agent to adult and Community Education ofis committee it is my great pleasure to read this recognition of a national adult and continuing
005education week May 16 through 20th 2016 the aulan community Community Education a program of fairfest County Public School schools began with an action by the school board in 1955 that's 60 years ago and on in over 16 years 60 years of the program's existence thousands of adults have learned essential skills and completed their High School educations Through The Years adults have learned new languages acquired job skills transition to new careers and grown as a workers citizens and parents the felx county community has looked to Ace to help develop our Workforce provide solutions to community problems through education and create a culture of lifelong learnings for residents of old ages adult and Community Education has made major contributions to the school system as a laboratory of innovation for the piloting of new programs and services in
006support of PRK through 12 education through family literacy summer programs extended day programs enrichment courses and driver education through creative programming and targeted advocacy for adult learner as well as providing enrichment opportunities for youth Beyond school day Ace has helped to create a dynamic Learning Community for all generations in felis County let me now uh invite staff who are present along with Ace other advisory committee members if any of you are here this evening to join us both members at the day for the photo e e e okay thank you very much for joining us tonight um item 2.05 wear orange for victims of gun violence I call on uh Miss daret kofax for the recognition thank you chairman Hines it is my honor to read this recognition National Gun Violence awareness day is sponsored
007by the National Academy of Pediatrics and the national PTA among dozens of other groups this this day of awareness is acknowledged Nationwide by a movement to wear orange in honor honor of victims and survivors of gun violence high school students in Chicago began the wear orange campaign in 2013 on the birthday of their friend and gun violence victim 15-year-old Miss Pendleton Miss Pendleton was killed in a Chicago Park after taking final exams First Lady Michelle Obama attended her funeral and President Obama mentioned Miss pend in his State of the Union addressed that year on average 48 children and teens are shot and die from their injuries each day in the United States one tragic example comes from our own Community this year in November of 2015 a 2013 high school graduate Joe Bose was a
008victim of Senseless and random act of gun violence in North Virginia where he attended Hampton University the color orange symbolizes the value of human life in 2013 teens on the south side of Chicago as classmates to honor their murdered Friend by wearing orange that simple call to action has grown into a national movement and orange is becoming the symbol of gun safety millions are coming together to fight to end gun violence in America the school board recognizes the effort to bring more awareness and Remembrance to the victims of gun violence by those wearing orange on June 2nd for National Gun Violence awareness day I thank all of you who've come out tonight for this I thank miss Karen vot who started the movement um who brought it toward me um she will be speaking later
009I also thank the parents and brother of um M Mr Kimberly and Kenneth Bose and Alec Bose the family of Joe Bose um you've signed up to speak and we'll hear you in a little bit but at this time I just want to say I admire your advocacy I admire your courage thank you for coming and being with us tonight and if you would like we can all take a picture you can come up here to the Das thank you e e e thank you Miss daret kofax and thank you all very much for coming out tonight item 3.01 citizen participation speakers are requested to limit their remarks to not more than three minutes the school board will not hear statements involving issues that have been scheduled for public hearings such as capital Improvement program
010budget and boundaries or personal attacks on any person complaints regarding individual students or school-based employees should be directed to the appropriate School principal or other school official speakers are encouraged to deliver their comments with the decorum and respect appropriate to the conduct of the Public's business speakers should please refrain from using personally identifiable information in connection with an individual student such concerns are best address to the appropriate School principal or other school official if the concern is a group concern please consider appointing a spokesperson and while the spokesperson is speaking those in support May stand to show their support tonight 10 citizens have signed up to speak we welcome you all here tonight we're happy to have you um first is uh Steve Greenberg to be followed by Sharice Glassman Dr gar chairman Hines legendary
011Mr press esteemed school board members I am Steve Greenberg I'm president of the Fairfax County Federation of teachers I represent outst outstanding Educators in FCPS those whose focus is on our students educating caring and protecting for them daily I will be speaking this evening in regards to agenda items Schoolboard policy 4660 overtime pay I'll also be addressing our need for a meals tax on the November ballot our recent Schoolboard workload focus groups and some future considerations for FCPS to make it the best in regards to the proposed revisions to align the call back overtime pay with the definition and regulations pertaining to overtime please know that fcft always employ supports when FCPS does business better and follows guidelines that involve the protections of their employees it's encouraging to see continual progress in all these areas
012I've also come tonight to ask all of our school advocates out there to continue to email and call their County Supervisors asking them to put the meals tax on the November ballot Although our County Supervisors came through this year with a booster shot for our school's budget we all remember the struggles to fund this community's needs over the past few years in fact last decade the budget concerns for this system have not been resolved not in the long term even with the additional monies this year we're still not Market competitive with salaries but perhaps of even greater concern to me personally is the devastation that's occurred in our staffing and support infrastructures in FCPS we heard this weekend often at the employee engagement focus group meetings with our school board members thank you to miss
013daret kofax and miss uh uh Hines for being there over the last 10 years we've cut hundreds and hundreds hundreds of needed positions because we have the work that needs done has been passed down the line to someone else or the work is not getting done or not done as well as it needs to we need to hire more Specialists counselors and espit to support our elementary school programs class size still needs to decrease further and our instructional assistance need to be used to help students and support teachers directly as they were originally intended finally some Central Administration office departments are so short staffed at this point that they're not able to to fully facilitate the need of our employees and we can and we need to do better for them than that these are
014workload issues as we heard this weekend but they're really founded in our funding shortages over the past many years this County needs a meals tax it needs an additional Revenue stream to alleviate the burden of paying for everything from our homeowners we need to rebuild our County and our school's infrastructure and to proove both the community and employees morale contact your Fairfax County Supervisor today and ask them to support putting it on the ballot thank you all for your wonderful support and your service to our students good night thank you Mr Greenberg um Sharice glasman okay um Timothy dusin to be followed by Kenneth longm thank you for letting me speak here this evening um it's a pleasure to be here I wanted to address an item that I read in the Express on for
015May 6 it said that uh there's that nine fic County Schoolboard members made a statement asking that the Virginia High School leagues stop hosting events at the r University uh the reason for that was for some comments that were made by the the school's president uh what the pre president made did make an Indiscreet statement he was what he was referring to was uh that Liberty University is is an Isis Target and he was trying to to give them a warning that uh the school was very well protected but unfortunately he used simply used the word Muslims to refer to Isis a very bad slip of the tongue he did later clarify himself but that gave the impression and apparently to the school board members that uh it was an anti-muslim statement when it wasn't
016um I was just down at Liberty University two weeks ago I have an a niece who is a senior high school and I was looking it over to as a place to recommend to her and uh I found that it it that when I talked to the students they said you know as far as the statements that F makes they they've made some he's made some statements that they don't like but it really doesn't affect them that school is a school of 14,000 students and uh they have a lot of departments I mean the professors there usually when you're taking a uh uh starting course that as a freshman you might even be a PhD they phds down there um my niece is interested in science so I visit the science Hall to see what
017they have and uh you would be amazed by what they have everything is all the lab they have Labs that are stateof the-art uh it it's a very good school academically and uh for for any anybody uh you know I would recommend all of you is before making a statement about that school to go in there and take a look at it if you hav it uh and it's and the student body was very inclusive about 15% of them are international students they had an international student uh Center there there are students there from all over the world and uh uh like I said when I talk to the students I said you know as far you know the you know the academics are are what affect them and as far as statements that all
018was made he made some others I don't like uh they don't affect them so I I wanted to to ask you to take another look at Liberty University and please uh reconsider your position I think it it is a really top Academic School and it is really really an asset to the state that we have it here thank you Mr duskin Kenneth Longmire to be followed by Karen bot thank you for giving us this opportunity I am Ken long Meer I speak on of my family and many of my friends and Neighbors in Sleepy Hollow but especially I speak on behalf of my daughter my oldest daughter who is an Alum steart and my youngest daughter who will begin High School there next year I also come especially in support of the students who have
019asked you to change the name of our high school we are not as some have suggested trying to erase or deny history history cannot be erased what is done is done and cannot be done history continues what then are we trying to do first we are trying to continue a journey of progress to make new history good history history that our children will thank us for second we urge you as our elected representatives to disavow the motivations the resentment the Defiance and the passion that led your predecessors on the school board many years ago during a time of massive resistance to name our high school after an officer in the army of the United States who took up arms against the United States that was according to the Constitution and to the US code of
020military ad Justice treason pure and simple it is clear why the school board named our high school after General Stewart but I have no doubt that the sentiments of this board today and of our community find any place in the hearts of our people today yourselves and our neighbors sorry I can't see the clock some alumni but not all fear that renaming our high school will consign parts of their important parts of their lives to Oblivion we believe that this would not happen my daughter Katie was an orchestra the drill team and crew our diploma records and distinctions would not be erased or destroyed the trophies and the cases claiming the achievements of Jeb Stewart will not be hidden away indeed several advocates in our community have suggested that we put a plaque up in
021the school that would explain the history of the school why it was named what it was named and why it was renamed as we move to considering a new name for our school it is fitting to consider the purposes of schools and how naming the school can help our schools achieve their purposes we believe that the primary purposes of public schools are to provide knowledge skills and Civic values and to inspire young people to achieve and to serve finally we urge you to rededicate our high school by choosing a new name that would Inspire our young people to respond creatively and positively to the many challenges that now face our community and our country thank you thank you Mr longm I just also wanted to uh thank in particular the steuart high school students who
022are here tonight um I know you've got a lot of challenging testing going on right now so so thank you so much and thank you for our PTSA president being here as well thank you okay Karen bot to be followed by Kimberly and Kenneth Bose hello I just like to thank you all for recognizing National Gun Violence awareness day and I'm just here to introduce the Bose family my husband and I just drove to Indiana to pick up our son from college and that's what they should be doing this weekend they should be driving to Hampton to pick up Joseph he should be coming home to celebrate his last summer before his senior year he would probably be doing an internship in journalism he was one of the brightest students at our high school Edison
023High School we have two Edison students here tonight as well and um Joseph was a student before my son was was there but he has a reputation at the school for being a happy kid including everyone joking in fact the school painted a rock it said thanks for the laughs Joe um it's heartbreaking that this family is here today they shouldn't be but I thank them so much for being here and I'd like to introduce Joseph's mother Kimberly [Applause] I'll do my best to remain within my time and I'll do my best to keep my composure um and this is Joe's brother Alec um I want to ask a quick question I would like everyone to participate by a show of hands how many in here have children how many have children involved in sports
024how many people have children that play soccer or or lacrosse how many people have children that en enjoy video games playing video games how about hanging out with their friends how about enjoying traveling how many people have children that are looking forward to voting in their first presidential election these are all things that Joseph represented these these are all things that Joseph was looking forward to doing he had just traveled to Brazil a couple summers ago and had his sights on traveling to Asia at some point Joe um was a journalism major as you know he was at Hampton University doing very well he just started an internship at his university on a typical College weekend Joe attended a college party with friends one block from an Old Dominion University dormatory I wish I could
025tell you it was a bad area or something he was doing that kids don't normally do but I can't tell you that while walking back from the party attempting to get to their car a slight altercation occurred between Joe's friend and a passer by a group of passerbys Joe attempted to diffuse the situation and say you know let's keep it moving it's not not that serious when the passerbys turned on him for no apparent reason Joe was Forever The Peacemaker he urged his friends to always get along it's very important that you know that Joseph could be your child your niece your Katie he could be your child your child is Joseph I have to be honest and sometimes it sounds a when I say this that I never thought that it could be my
026family that this type of violence would hit we all watch TV we think it's someone else I never thought it could be me I have my two sons went to Edison because they were joining the international baloria program I am a bar certified attorney and their father is an AR architect we've been working on our jobs 20 30 years I never thought that this could happen to us it's important that you know that there was absolutely nothing nefarious about this outing and there was absolutely nothing nefarious about Joseph he was an amazing son he was smart caring kind sensitive loving gregarious funny athletic quick witted a great son brother brother and friend Joe really is your child your child is Joseph my family and I again never thought this would happen to us and sometimes
027I wonder why Advanced countries have so little gun violence so I researched it and their gun laws are so much stricter than ours sometimes they actually have to have references and wait long extended periods to receive guns very low gun violence sometimes I feel like I have failed my children by living in the United States what a horrible way to feel Joseph is your child your child is Joseph you might have me remembered the president's um state of the union union address where he talked about smart gun technology this gun technology is ready to go it's the fingerprint technology I truly do believe that Joseph I would be picking Joseph up from Hampton University to begin his internship like he did last summer at wh where on his very first day of work at WHUR
028my Angelou died he was so excited about the fact that he had to glean all the information about my Angelou queue it up in the in the radio station system so that it was ready to go he was so excited he used to say to me Mom when I get my syndicated radio program what's the first thing you want me to buy him he was an excellent young man and it's almost difficult me to for me to talk in the past tense he is an excellent young man I want to encourage you each of you each and every one of you to get involved and a lot of people say I can't imagine what you're going through but if you have children you actually can it's too scary to actually imagine it so you don't
029I ask you to get involved because if we get smart techn gun technology and work on these gun laws to be stricter like they are in other Advanced countries you could save your very own child I don't mean to be scary I don't mean to be harsh but that's important for me to say because I remember saying to myself as I watch the news that could never be me my sons are too wonderful and great they they they that kind of harm won't come our way I prayed over my children every single day that the Lord would keep them from hurt harm and danger sometimes they caught me doing it and thought I was some sort of weird person I would pray over them all the time so even that can fall short I'm going
030to yield a portion of my time to my son to make sure if he has anything to say thank you for listening um so what I wanted to say um was just a statement about uh I think the attitude of gun violence in the country um my mom didn't mention this but um uh there have been no suspects apprehended there have been no arrests made um nothing really um surprisingly that doesn't really bother me that much um because that's not going to bring him back that's not going to make me happier maybe it will make some people happier but it doesn't really change anything the only thing that we really can do to change the situation is change the policy and change the attitude of gun violence and one thing that I always think about
031is why people feel safer in this country feel safer with guns than without guns you are substantially more likely to commit suicide with the gun or better yet have your child pick up that gun and we're at a school board hearing so this is really important you're more likely to have your child pick up that gun and inflict it on you or inflict it on themselves so I always think and I always ask this nation why is it that we feel safer with these killing machines than without and so one thing I ask no matter what side of this debate you're on no matter what issue you're on I ask you to think are you really safer with something that can kill someone in the blink of an eye then without that's all I to
032say thank you for your time thank you both um Casey Utley to be followed by Robert Rigby hello uh my name is Casey Utley I am a parent here in Fairfax County uh former PTA president but tonight I am speaking on behalf of showing up for racial Justice Northern Virginia in recent month we've seen increasing interest in disrupting the course of our history of racism in America nowhere has this been more poignant than in southern states like ours where cries of Heritage not hate have bannered long protected symbols of white supremacy as white Virginia we believe that white supremacy may be our history for some of us it may be our heritage but it doesn't have to be our Legacy we know that the homages to Confederate leaders and segregationists that we see today are
033not old history schools like Jeb Stewart were named at a time when progress was taking rot the integration of schools advances and voting rights among others these embittered icons are not part of our storied past they were retaliatory warning shots fired at those working to transform their communities into places of Liberty and inclusion it is offensive to human dignity that institutions we trust to embrace an educate our children still bear such visible political shrapnel schools should be places where all of our children are welcomed where they can get a glimpse of their Futures rather than be burdened by the failures of the generations that came before we stand with the students at JB Stewart calling for change we want our Legacy to transcend this Heritage of hate we hope that you all will vote to
034resist the dominance of white supremacy to make our schools safe and inclusive full of opportunities for all who live here thank you thank you Robert Rigby to be followed by Ruth Hoffman good evening board members Dr Dr Garza and FCPS staff my name is Robert Rigby I'm the current president of a new employees group called FCPS Pride we represent LGBT employees and allies including some sponsors of gas alliances we have been joined by several parents of LGB and trans youth in our schools last May this board approved an update to the non-discrimination policy to include gender identity thus protecting transgender students and staff in June the board approved a report about Family Life Education that proposed lessons about transgender people and gender identity we are anticipating the publication of regulations by the school system implementing
035these policies I assume such regulations would elaborate policies on such matters as facility use records names confidentiality and training for teachers and other employees over the last 15 years many other school systems have adopted Progressive policies and regulations including Los and well there's a list um I myself a particular fan of the Seattle policy which promises a desire level of privacy to all students who may be interested these policies in particular those that affect the use of restrooms are a hot button issue in our country now FCPS must be careful what it enacts and when it enacts it I think sooner is better than later we have seen the cost that North Carolina is paying with its ill-conceived law in terms of the backlash from the entertainment tourism and business communities and the office of
036civil rights uh pointed the University of North Carolina reports a chill in the recruiting and retaining of students and faculty FCPS would gain much support and a greater ability to attract employees with the timely publication of forward-looking regulations those opposed to transgender people have attempted Scare Tactics such as suing FCPS and in the recent suit against District 211 in Illinois personally I think this is frivolous litigation designed to delay progress last month we saw a much more important Court ruling in the glosser County case in that instance the fourth circuit um said essentially that trans kids are real kids and deserve equal treatment in school my basic purpose in speaking tonight is to assure you that you have the Avid and vocal support of the LGBT community and its allies and I think a much
037wider group of people in moving forward with the regulations thank you for listening thank [Applause] you Ruth Hoffman to be followed by Joan woly willery hi my name is Ruth Hoffman and I want to thank the board for the opportunity to speak regarding gun violence Awareness Day people across the country on June 2nd will wear orange to honor those who have been killed and to inspire action to end gun violence the color orange symbolizes the value of human lives life and also happens to be the color of Choice by hunters to improve safety many who typically speak about gun violence have often been personally affected they are forced to acknowledge the toll it takes on families and communities through their own personal loss yet they often act selflessly and find the courage and strength to
038come forward to raise awareness to help spare other families the burden of raising awareness shouldn't rest on the shoulders of survivors it should be upon all of us who care about our families and our communities to participate I'm here because I'm desperately trying not to become a survivor of gun violence I'm here as one of those mothers who were unaware of the pervasiveness until the elementary school in New Town Connecticut was the target of one of the worst mass school shootings our country has ever experienced and it was the phenomenon of having children of my own who were the age of the Sandy uh Sandy Hook children that spurred these begging questions why must we endure these school shootings why can't this problem be solved I'm a mother of two daughters who attend Spring Hill
039Elementary School Paige my 10-year-old was a first grader in 2012 the same age as the children who were killed at Sandy Hook on that December 14th each new day I have with Paige marks another day of absence for those parents and I am profoundly reminded of what those what was stolen from those parents that day my other daughter Samantha is currently a first grader and she reminds me of how small and vulnerable a first grader is and how afraid those children must have been while huddling in their classroom while shots were fired Spring Hill Elementary School is a wonderful school and methodically practices their lockdown drills but preparing for a mass shooter with practice drills should not be the best we can offer our children since Sandy Hook I have come to better better understand
040why we've been unable to fix this problem it's complex and it's difficult but the enduring American belief is that better things lie ahead and it's that belief that inspires our country to come together to solve problems but to come together we must first all become aware of the gravity and scope of gun violence we should not rely on the next school shooting to build awareness we should seek Solutions now we are privileged to live in Northern Virginia close proxim Pro imity to Washington DC and perhaps home to some of the most talented professionals who change and improve public policy the Fairfax County school board has a privileged opportunity to play an instrumental role in raising awareness thank you for supporting National Gun Violence awareness day thank [Applause] you Joan willery and is Sharice glasman here
041okay Mrs Willer much for having us here today to speak with you and thank you for saying my name the right way which nobody ever ever does I appreciate that um I'm speaking to you tonight not only as a parent whose both children well grown now went through the Fairfax County public school system but as someone who has been and still is teaching here for the last 30 years um I've taught an adult ed high school middle school and Elementary and will'll be retiring in June for the fourth and final time I hope um the last number of years has been very very difficult for your teachers trying to keep our children safe and feeling that we could be the last protection between them and someone who comes in intent to do them harm um
042when I first started teaching many years ago I was there was a Latin phrase in Loco penus which told told us that these were our children while while you their parents were not there and so we feel a an enormous burden to keep them safe and knowing that likely we may not be able to do that um and that is not really my biggest concern my biggest concern is our children growing up thinking that this is normal having lockdown drills at school the way many years ago we had drills where we hid under our desks um to pre in case of a nuclear attack these children have grown up with gun violence all around them in the news now just about every night and we have to bring about awareness to them that this is
043not normal that this is not right that this is not acceptable that it can be changed that you and I can change it and they can grow up to change it uh we don't we want them to be aware that it's in our hands to make a difference and that it's time as some of the other speakers said to speak up before it is somebody close to us in our family it's time for all of us to join hands and make a difference thank you thank you to all of our citizen speakers tonight item 3.02 student representative matters I call on Mr Press thank you madam chair I'd like to begin this evening by extending a warm welcome and thank you to our student leaders here from the student advisory Council taking time out of
044their busy schedules to share with us some of the wonderful work that they've done over this past year as you'll see in a few minutes the thoughtful work that they undertook this year was no small effort and I'm delighted that they will be able to share their findings with the board I hope that we can keep this precedent into the future and I hope that this continuing dialogue between this board and sa will continue to grow as a result of it this group took on Mental Health as a big part of their work and my understanding is they hope to continue that into the future I wanted to take this opportunity to give you all and the community an update on how some of the work that they LED on is progressing in this area
045and as it might be uh ramping up in the next month for preparation for implementation in the next school year firstly in collaboration with staff from our Communications Department we will be putting together a mental health web page on our newly developed website where will feature everything from student health tips to local resources to that best practice repository that I mentioned last month additionally we'll be providing each and every high school and hopefully many of our middle schools with disaggregated pyramid data from their youth survey to give detailed and precise information to their students and staff about the risk factors and unique challenges that their schools face I firmly believe that informing students that certain issues are prevalent in their schools more effective action can be taken to combat them we also hope to include
046this in our health education modules to equip students to confront the unique challenges that they might face and lastly we will be working with our counseling staff social workers and school psychologists to show students what resource they have available to them and to put a face to the name while this work is certainly far from finished I think that we could be confident that we're off to a good start in large part thanks to the work that these wonderful leaders have done moving on I've been busy over the past last few weeks I was fortunate enough to visit with the uh Hayfield Secondary leadership class A couple of weeks ago at the end of last month and returned the following day for the all count chorus performance which was an absolute treat it's it's just
047amazing to see a thousand sixth graders to come together and and sing in har Harmony you know I was never talented like they were so there was a little bit of Envy there but absolutely uh awesome to watch in that performing art spirit I attended both Madison's and Luther Jackson Middle's drama Productions I was Blown Away by how much energy and life those middle schoolers in Lion King costumes were able to breathe into this room and I was reminded for the millionth time just how talented and wonderful our students are and that is absolutely something we should not take for granted looking forward I only have three more visits before I can say I have been to every high and secondary school in the county I'll be planning visits to Oakton mlan and Langley High
048School shortly and look forward to hearing New Perspectives at each as I do at the Jeb Stewart Community name change meeting on the 23rd of this month thank you thank you Mr press item 3.03 the student advisory committee report to the board I call on Dr Garza thank you madam chair members of the board um I have the privilege of working with our superintendent student advisory committee um that group represents about about approximately 200 students four from each of our high schools um they are LED very very well by Craig perryer who's here tonight and Dr Alice Raley who wasn't able to be with us tonight um and I'll tell you every time I meet with them and I know many many of you have attended some of those meetings uh we always get such
049great insight and valuable perspectives and just they're always very thoughtful um in their guidance and and feedback to us so um I really enjoy the opportunity and benefit greatly from the opportunity to interact uh with them and so I have seen a little bit more um extended version of the presentation that you're getting tonight I was very very impressed again with how very thoughtful um they were and and really responding to each of these very complex issues and so I know tonight um that you will be equally impressed um I know that uh Mr perryer you're going to introduce each of the students I had a bit of an introduction as well might be some repeat from okay that's okay absolutely then I won't intr uce the students but these are the officers and I
050will tell you you all have done a a tremendous job I just admire and respect each of you so much and thank you for being being here tonight and then I won't steal any more of your thunder it's all it's all yours Mr perier thank you Dr Garza good evening it's an honor to be here tonight my name is Craig Perry the high school specialist for social studies in Fairfax County Public Schools together with Dr Alice Riley the coordinator for social studies we are the co-advisors for the sa sa is a superintendent student advisory Council uh the the committee is made up of about aund uh from 20 it's made comprised of students from 26 high schools uh each year uh we meet on a monthly basis hosted by a variety of high schools throughout
051Fairfax County um students engage with issues and topics under the guidance of Dr Garza regarding um issues that are relevant to the Fairfax Community the culminating activity for the sa is to report out on conclusions and recommendations and a presentation to Dr Garza at our final uh final meeting you'll have a reprise of that in part tonight um it's my pleasure to introduce half of the presentation team that is here for you tonight uh first juny so from uh Woodson High School is sa president Ela Thomas is the sa secretary out of Robinson Secondary and uh delegate Joseph lari is from South uh South Lakes High School right juny good evening thank you Dr garer for inviting us here today I am juny so I a junior at Woodson High School and the president of
052this year's superintendent uh student advisory Council so we will be discussing the mental health uh the two topics mental health and homework and grading policy today we had the assistance of Dr DD Baylor today um um this year over for mental health and then we had Miss Noel Kinko for the assistance of homework and grading policy and today we'll present the bridge version of our presentation and we will have proposed Rec recommendations for each topic thank you and with the first topic will be mental health hi it's a pleasure to be with you all today I'm I'm Ela Thomas I was a secretary for the student advisory Council this year and I'm currently a junior at Rob secondary school and um so yeah one of the main topics we the student advisory Council addressed this
053year was a topic of mental health we had guest speakers come in such as Miss Baylor and Miss Spears and they were a pleasure to be with they they informed us more on the issues on un student mental health and with that we us as a like um the various high schools came together and we discussed ways in in which our schools can address such issues news relating to mental health and then one of the most beneficial activities we did this year was analyze a youth survey in which various schools provided their input on the topic of mental health and from that survey we learned that some of the M some of the main mental health disorders students experience are insomnia anxiety depression ADHD and O OCD and we learned we also learned that some
054of the the main contributing stressor is academic pressure and so despite this growing concern of mental health um we're lucky to live in a county that does so much to address this growing concern and some of the current supports we have as of now are the crisis text which is a hotline number that students teachers parents can use to seek immediate help when they see someone in danger and by simply te texting the number available or calling the number and so that's been great um there's also the Cognito training which is program which invites community members to learn more about ways in which they can detect mental health illness um mental health illness symptoms or how to help someone suffering from a specific mental health illness other current supports include the health services which are
055our school counselors and psych um psychologists um other ones include anti-b activities which individual uh schools partake in no homework breaks which I'm I'm sure a lot of students have enjoyed um myself included um 26 acts of kindness um and another one which has been great is the yoga mindfulness sessions that some schools have during their study halls and so the S the student advisory Council agree that these have all been great um resources and programs available to students however one problem we detected is that um is that these resources are just not effectively advertised and that a lot of students don't know that such resources and programs are available to them one uh main one being the school psychologist a lot of them don't a lot of students have complained that they don't know
056where the school psychologist in their schools are and how to contact them and how to how to get a session with them like and so one of the main proposed recommendations we have is to um to advertise such resources better for next year other another proposed recommendation we have is a mental health awareness training for staff teachers play a very active role in their students lives um every day and so we felt that it was important to have a training session where teachers can detect um that teachers can learn how to detect certain mental health Sy symptoms in their students other another proposed recommendation we have is to update uh required mental health activity once a quarter we felt that this was extremely important because as of now we only have one presentation in the
057beginning of the year that a a lot of students forget about um later on throughout the year when school especially gets stressful and so we felt that it was important to have at least one required mental health activity um per quarter and our desired goal is one month to keep that message of the um mental health awareness alive another proposed recommendation we have is the to update materials for mental health presentations as of now the videos are um usually from the 80s and 90s and not a lot of students can relate to them because because um the problems that existed then are completely different from the ones now and so to make that to make that more relatable to students we felt that it was important to update the mental health U presentation materials uh
058another one is the srr um srnr should include mental health and we know this is a uh we don't know if this will work or not but a lot of um the videos that are showed in every school is one that uh a lot of students pay attention to so we thought that was important to uh include mental health so uh people become more aware of that and then lastly we felt that it was important to continue the youth survey that has been so great uh we've been able to gain input from various high schools that have low representation in um in the student advisory Council as of now and so that's been great and we felt we feel that that should be something that needs to be continued thank you and next we'll have
059um Joseph to talk about homework policy hello my name is Joseph and I'm a junior and sa delegate from South Lakes High School uh today I'll be discussing the proposed s recommendations in grading and in homework uh so after discussing issues in this uh area in these areas in sa sa came to an agreement that there are three main categories of inconsistency across the county and these categories include the test retake policy the 0 50% policy and the homework policy so as some of you might know across the county there is a huge inconsistency in the retake policy it varies from school to school and sometimes even from class to class um some schools have instituted minimum retake policies where the student has to get below a certain score uh in order to qualify for
060the retake for that test in which the student can get up to that certain score other schools can retake up to five times for 100% and some even do away with the retake policy sa agrees that there needs to be that there at least needs to be a countywide minimum retake policy we also believe that college level courses such as AP IB or dual enrollment should have more flexibility with the retakes since some of the material covered will not always be understood by students regard regarding zeros sa has come to an agreement that zeros should be apply for students who have not turned in their assignments it is simply unfair for the students who have worked hard on their assignments to only receive 30 to 40% above the students who have not done the assignment
061however for altern in assignments students should at least receive 50% uh considering that our grading scale is on 100 point scale the last area of inconsistency is homework so sic believes that there needs to be a countywide consistency in grade distribution or grade weight uh you know from school to school or even from class to class and subject to subject uh can vary 30 to sometimes 10% um uh Al also we believe that homework should have defined parameters uh which include little to no busy work and homework should also be a review or extension of the of the previous lesson learned in class I would now like to call upon our sa president Jun Su to finish off this presentation thank you thank you Joseph um I will be presenting the future topics for next
062year's sa 2016 2017 group um so the next topics will be mental mental health will be a followup from this year uh the school climate environment student workload and preparation so on the idea of mental health a follow-up for this uh from this year we strongly although we have proposed recommendations for you guys the group strongly believes that the conversation must continue between students teachers administrations and all over the county resources should be expanded by the discretion of the county but also publicly addressed as earlier to more students to reach out to um I came into high school as long as many others into knowing that the school did not have a psychologist and no student no student should ever come into high school or into any school believing that there is no one out
063to help them when the obvious answer is that those that help is across the hall or across the school and we need to reuse the resources that we have currently and make sure that they are available for every student across the county we have 200,000 students that we need to care for here and we believe that every individual here needs the resources that they can attain in order to address their problems and address their needs on the topic of school climate and environment sa recognizes that work has been done to destigmatize the whole comp competitiveness and stress environment in the county however we still believe that students should be educated by teachers administrators administrators parents or peers over scheduled preparation and taking a course more directed to the students needs and benefits no student should
064be persuaded or pushed to take a higher level stem course when their passion lies with liberal arts or or Humanities programs nor should a stem student should be pushed to take an arts program while their thisin will determine how they do in their classwork no student should come into High School unprepared for the competitiveness of Northern Virginia this should be a one-on-one conversation between students teachers their families and their schools we must build an environment where students can handle their workload and succeed in the activities and classes they love most not in a classroom where it will become busy work for them students must have a safe learning environment important importantly in order to Excel and achieve in the classroom on the topic of stud student workload and preparation prepar ation which is similar to
065the school climate and environment SEC strongly believes that students coming into High School must know how to organize their schedule and workload and have proper time management we must emphasize there are only 24 hours in in a day although it does sound ridiculous there are students around the county that overload on unnecessary classes activities and extracurricular things that in order to strengthen their college resume for the next few years and not focusing on what benefits them most this is overstressing them decreasing the amount of time they have initially initially and they get be caught behind on time on and import and the important aspects of their lives such as their family their friends and enjoying high school because is the best four years anybody could have and students should create a way where students understand
066the workload they get into as well as balance their schedules this again includes having one-on-one conversations between individuals classmates and other teachers um thank you for the opportunity tonight for allowing the team and I to share our presentation to you and we are now open to questions thank you thank you can we start with a round of [Applause] applause good yeah wait right there we have several board members who would like to ask questions I'd like to just start it off by saying I honestly this may be the most important report we receive all year honestly I mean the voice of the students after the amount of work and dedication that you've put into it I mean these are these are meaty and very important recommendations and very important work so thank you so very
067much um uh so I have several board members starting with Miss Evans to be followed by Mrs Schulz thank you madam chair I I mainly wanted to congratulate you on really an excellent report and all the wonderful work that you've done this year I was pleased to be able to have seen it one time before when I attended your last sa meeting and I was so very impressed with it then and contined to be now uh these are are two huge topics that that you've done a great job on um particularly I think compiling some of the things that we already do that we can extend from one school to another I think that that's important work too and you can uh be a a a vehicle for communicating that to the various schools um
068so I so much appreciate your recommendations I I only had one question which was on your recommendation of about adding mental health into the srnr is that uh are you envisioning that we would put a a link to current Services link to the website um significant information in there or some combination of those or did you get to that that level of detail um no we didn't get to that level of detail but I think any um change towards that or any inclusion of mental health in any part of the srnr would be a great change because um srnr is something that a lot of students pay attention to um we play that video in the beginning of the year and that's one of the like few videos that students actually pay attention to and
069they're required to uh read that booklet and like get it signed by their parents so just maybe I think the link would be a great start to it and um maybe over the years obviously this isn't a change that could happen very quickly like including into the srnr so I think starting with a link would be great and possibly over the years well I I appreciate that and that's given us something to think about as we look at the srnr the next time um the the mental health piece is is something so critical to our students and something that we have a lot of work to to continue on in terms of workload so I'm thrilled that you're taking on the task of mental health and climate and and workload um next year all of
070course as as juny said that are inter interconnected so um as you say there 24 hours in a day and we have to figure out how to help students have balance in their lives while while also achieving academically so thank you again for all your great work Mrs Schultz to be followed by Mr Moon first of all if I had three mics I'd give them to you because you all deserve a mic drop after that that was amazing amazing um I I have to say that um the every single thing that you said is exactly I've been hearing on the trail it's what I there's a couple times where I felt like I just automatically looked to Dr lip or Dr Garza and it there was like a mind meld going on with what you
071all were saying and it's so refreshing to hear um students taking part of the advocacy and saying you know what this is not working for us this is this is what we see from our side of the table and it isn't working for us and so you have contributed something very very significant um I've been advocating to have a college admissions round table and have a real discussion with this board and with college admissions officers around the country um around the practical application of what we're asking our students to do and the reality of what they're facing as a mom of a senior this year and did you say you were a freshman no I'm junior junior the two of you being Juniors I cannot um how articulate you are in getting it but being
072on a senior end and watching it's just it's like an like an Iron Man Triathlon trying to get across the Finish Line I mean I walked out of my house today and the IB film students were coming in because they still have to get work done and ju it's just pure exhaustion it's like a it's like a herculian race I had I did have a couple of questions for you because these are things that I hear but I would like to hear from you how do people peers either on SA or peers in your school feel about going to depression screening um so with the depression screen screenings there's such a big stigma around still around the county that if you go to one of these it defines who you are and we really want
073to change that stigma we really want to change the attitude attitude towards that Sigma and say it's okay to reach out it's okay to contact people that you need help help from because we really depression screenings is one of the resources that is available to us and we should take the most out of it because I know a lot I know a lot of people that have gone through that but they we don't have the resources at our school maybe if we called it something like and I'm not I am the last person on the planet to say that if you change the name of something it's better but M mental health and wellness screening is the exact same thing with an entirely different Focus to say it is okay to be mentally healthy and
074well but if you go get depression screening then there's something wrong with you so this is my advocacy and I'm hearing from you that there is a stigma attached from the student standpoint of oh they're having depression screenings you know let's line up who's the first in line for that um also um you were talking a little bit about the the stress of being on the Geral wheel of having to take classes in which there is no passion and to me it is one of the saddest things to stand in front of a class of students and say we're taking classes to check the block and we have absolutely no interest now not that you don't have to learn you know some of the basics in life particularly around communication skills and and all all
075of your math skills but to be pushed to feel like they're taking something just to quote unquote get into college opening the pathways to more electives and creating some breathing room in your schedule so that you develop a lifelong passion for Learning and that it becomes a joy and not something that you're checking off um did you all talk at all about the potential um that some of us have advocated for which is for student athletes to not have to take PE that if we could work work with the the State Department of Education wouldn't it be great if you're on a field or in a pool or on a dance floor or or or you know two three hours a day five six seven days a week you know what that is your athletic
076Endeavor and maybe we could give you some free freedom in that did you all talk about that at all we might have not mentioned it at the um uh Mr Ben press will elaborate on that that's something that comes up not necessarily in the formal conversation but does come up kind of in the more informal pieces right maybe when we were doing the um I remember we we had a really great uh discussion with our regional assistant superintendents and our regional staff that was something that came up then so um you know and I hear it when I when I go into the schools but something that kind of came up more informally we didn't you know we had pretty to use your word three Herculean tasks to take on this year and I wish
077we could have taken more time to talk about things like that and I have one last question about the youth survey you you all um lauded the Praises of the youth survey but um it is pretty unwieldy in terms of the length and the fact that it takes academic time and I don't really want to know if your family recycles or how many times a week you eat carrots um so was there ever any talk about you know what this is very helpful but maybe the questions could be narrowed down to being one focus more around mental health and wellness and and give more relevant answers did you guys talk about the fact that it's like so huge and maybe it's a little bit hard to find what you're looking for yes that was um
078in fact when we had our little individual convers not individual sorry um our little group conversations where the entire sa split up um that was something that was brought up a lot because a lot of students were concerned with oh well I don't think a lot of people will do the youth survey if they have 30 other things to do and so one thing we focused on was like when should the youth survey come out as in like should it be um near testing like we try to avoid spring like the springtime because that's when a lot of testing occurs so like we focus on like when that should come out and then the amount of questions and so yeah I think naring down the questions so that's it's not so much that takes away
079student times and pushes students to want to actually do the survey and so yeah that was something that we talked about that's awesome the last thing I want to compliment you on is the um the notion of having some mental health um items throughout the the class year I mean I went to one high school last year and they were having a d-stress week at the end of April I'm like this a little late why don't we you know learn how you know great relaxation techniques and good executive function techniques around scheduling homework and everything maybe in the first semester so that you have access to those skills all year but um you guys have done a wonderful job I'm so proud of you okay Mr moon to be followed by Miss mclin oh thank
080you madam chair uh great job job with the presentation I have uh one quick question to juny and couple of question to Joseph you know juny uh you commented that you know four years of highest class especially the best years in one's life I thought my best years were yet to come you I have no hope for that am I just a dreaming um well okay just think about it okay I'll get to Joseph for a little more serious questions Jose if you come to come to the microphone and on retakes uh you whatever your recommendation is to have a schoolwide minimum minimum retake policy sir that should be established why not countywide uh no yeah that's what I meant sorry countywide retake countywide schol yes uh I know South Lakes has uh 83% uh
081that's been working pretty well for us so far so I maybe we should experiment with a couple schools try different percentages and see how it works something there okay on the zeros you said for the zero point basically for the work not turned in because there's no work no point but 50% minimum for the work turned in yes what if a student turned in with a very minimal amount of work for example there were 10 questions student turned in with only one question work done well uh uh what we thought is that you know a 63 is already an F you're already failing so if if they did a minimum amount of work then they can just receive you know at least 50% it's a really bad grade you know I don't know what my
082mom would do to me if I came home with that kind of grade but uh that that was our argument there you know they shouldn't receive lower than a 50% if they're already failing so even with the very minimum amount minimum amount of work you get 50% that's your that's your recommendation okay let let me go back to retakes just one more time you think uh that let's say that there is three minimum or maximum retakes UNC test MH uh have you considered giving certain maximum amount one student can get on retail for example you know you can get maximum a up to a on the first taking of a test but on the retake first retake the maximum you can get is a little less than uh yeah that's what I mentioned so uh
083for minimum retake policy you only can retake up to that certain score so let's say uh it's an 83 as it is in South Lakes if you get belowed an 83 you only can get up to an 83 so no higher than that okay thank you all right thank you okay Miss mlin to be followed by Mr M certainly want to Echo uh what my colleagues have said that um in the end every single one of the 20 4 25,000 employees in the school system and your 12 school board members and your amazing student representative to the board we are all here for you and the hard work you guys are doing every single year but particularly this year is so meaningful to help guide us it helps us um your name superintendent advisory Council
084helping Dr Garza hear it from you um just absolutely outstanding um the presentation you gave so a couple of comments and I have a couple of questions um first of all it's for you to benefit seeing this as well as my colleagues and Dr Garza this is a third quarter a sheet this is this is a student who took a took a course happened to be AP World History what you're seeing on here is 26 different assessments over a 9we period And this is supposed to be a college level class one class 26 assessments 14 of them are actually tests and quizzes over nine weeks this is I think what you guys are trying to capture in in nine weeks you're you're getting tested more than once a week you're getting homework assignments more than
085once a week sometimes up to doing the math almost three times um you know you're having assignments and in a high school block schedule you're only meeting sometimes two maybe three times tops so every time you step into class you're getting assessed with something and we call these college level courses and we tell our students don't take too many AP college level courses but that this is not how colleges teach you might have four Assessments in 18 week semester so volume volume volume is one of the things that I you know really been hopeful that with your voices and what you presented and you talk about this in your presentation and Dr Garza having the leadership to say to her her team we need to really look at this um we we need to stop
086talking about it we need to really examine it and figure out how we can I know I was complimenting you but you had your head down I said your leadership your vision is what's helping us finally do this work instead of talking about it you're you're leading your team to do this work and that's what's keeping me hopeful as both a Schoolboard member and a parent that you know we are getting Beyond um being sympathetic we're getting Beyond recognizing the problem we're looking at solutions to the problem and and um and so I I not only appreciate your voices but I'm trying to give the shout out to our superintendent that I know you're trying to get us there and it's a long time coming and it's appreciated um but I I do want to
087ask you all um first of all what would you think about homework when you guys talked about the purposes of it it's to review what you learned or to extend off of what you had learned um but it's not again it's it's quality of that homework versus the the quantity um did you all talk about situations where you're looking at 30 math problems and 15 would have gotten you where you needed to be yeah is it yeah um yes we did talk about that a lot of students especially were talking about for a test reviews that they were given like uh 100 problems or 100 problems when and it was just repetitive repetitive it was a lot of busy work and then that they used like 10 of those problems on the actual test so
088a lot of and I've heard that from a lot of students in sa that they do that for test reviews thinking it would help but a lot of students just find it very tedious and found it as a waste of time when they had other stuff to work on so that's one thing like it's mostly for test reviews that I've heard students complain about tedious work such as that and having a lot of problems that they don't really thank you one of the other things that when I was meeting with the leadership classes Miss Schult and I have a lot of schools we overlap on and so we visited there with the students and at multiple high schools they talked about the change that's happened in recent years where FCPS used to allow total points
089um for your homework your quizzes your tests whatever projects that your grade was built on total points and now it's based on weighted grades uh and the the feedback we were getting from students was we really like the total points because when it's broken into just test quizzes essays and then everything else uh if you are hitting the max in one area you can't really help when there's been a deficit of one test that went poorly it it it kind of segments segments your grades in such a way that there's this really sort of a feeling of where you might have stumbled once it's hard to dig back out did you all talk about weighted grades versus total points and do you want to speak on that um yeah we definitely did a lot of
090the students during our informal meetings talked about how some teachers do some total points but still have that weighted grade I know a lot of students around County are in disagreement with the weighted grades as you said there could be a small quiz maybe worth five points that is a worth a lot more than a 20 point assignment and That deficit of the percentages is going to Total like um downgrade their um their grade so it's definitely a consideration that we've talked about and we really want to emphasize the whole total point system but we do recognize that the way to Great system is to prepare us for college thank you the other thing that I wanted to raise with you all and and um Dr Gars is something that we were talking to with
091students and actually teachers is this whole question of test retakes versus test corrections and with test retakes the challenge you have is then it does require extra time and workload on teachers they've got to you know create additional tests they've got to then set aside time to now administer the test retakes uh and students sometimes feel like okay now they're gambling they're going in and taking it in second time um but some other teachers have offered where you do test corrections it means that you are going to basically look at what is it that I did not master what didn't I still know that I should have known and you get a half point for every point that you missed so you're never going to you know suddenly oh well it's the best way to
092get a 100 if you if you got an 80 on a test but you did test corrections the best you're going to get is a 90 on that but it does enable students to focus on really looking at what is it that I didn't still understand and know and from the brain research often we we learn best or we we hold fast to what it is we missed and then we go back to try and remember to relearn versus you got it right the first time so I didn't know if any of you wanted to speak to just have you sensed a a preference or um a benefit of a test correction scenario and versus test retaking um uh my personal experience um a lot of my classes have test corrections then a test retake
093and that really strength really truly strengthens the material learn uh first you go over the material got wrong and then just to double check that you have the material down you take another test and um like I said before the minimum retake policy would ensure that they're not get up to 100% because they can only get up to that certain score that we set the bar at since in 83 sure the this the question I was posing though would be there we're not doing test correction test retakes not test retakes you just you took the test you do test corrections over what it is you missed so that you you're going back your teachers marked it wrong now it's your job to go back and correct it and you learn what it is that you
094missed the first time and then you get up to half of that loss so in the end you're not having to do test corrections plus test retakes your teacher is not having to deal with test corrections plus test retakes it's just the opportunity to do test corrections and that's what your new grade would be so I guess it you know part of what happens is it depends on the teacher so like uh I know some teachers they just do test Corrections they don't do test retakes and I was thinking gosh it's kind of a win-win for students and teacher workload um so it was something I was curious if you all had talked about a little bit more um and then just finally um I I wanted to tell you that I thought you all
095had excellent suggestions about um mental health you know you were looking at things that that might help address student stress but I wanted to leave you with a thought that the the suggestions you were giving was how we would treat the symptom of stress and what I would really like to see is us cure the problem so you know I think that we do have a responsibility to help do things that help lower stress levels uh and some of these activities are are excellent but in the end I I really hope that we'll continue to get to the root of the problem and I do think sometimes it has to do with volume of of the assessments I mean when you talk about where students are feeling stressed out sometimes it's not that the material
096is too hard or that you're taking classes you can't manage it's just time it's the volume of and and of time and assessment so um I really appreciate what you all captured up and uh you know I I guess I would just say to my colleagues I hope you'll think about that as well that we we are well-intentioned when we're looking at ways to sort of treat the stress but it would be great if we could actually find some more cures so we're actually not generating stress in the first place all right thank you students we have uh four more board members who would like you're doing a great job thank you um uh Mr mlan to be followed by mret kopx okay guys I'll be really quick uh thanks for your presentation I especially
097like your color coordination over there very nicely done um the um the one question I have is you had up there um mindfulness this one technique right um how much mindfulness are you getting in the classroom do you all get it do none of you get it well personally for me I'm not sure how it is with a lot of other schools but I know a lot of um I know slowly a lot of schools are doing like yoga and mindfulness in class personally I've been blessed with an awesome English teacher who really um who really uh she she finds mindfulness to be very important and before class she's like all right guys like let's be mindful and it's not like really cheesy and corny it's just us being silent like that's it and it's
098just like in silence we're just she's teaching us how to like breathe properly and at first like we were a little nervous we're like oh this is really corny but it was really helpful and no one complained everyone liked it and I think it's something I know my English teacher working to try to get that implemented at a lot of other schools and um personally I find it to be very helpful and I think it's um it's it's an important practice that we should learn in high school and I think it will also help as we go to college and um with our careers and everything I just find it a very important skill to have it's a skill yeah that that's awesome yeah we're we're we're very supportive of that um and I think
099when you were talking about um having quarterly activities were you talking more line um more in line about um what Miss Schultz was mentioning like like stress last weeks or mindfulness folus or what were you envisioning um well I think we should give the schools individual schools the freedom to decide what they would like to do but uh we just wanted to say at least a required mental health activity once and that can be up to the schools what they do and some ideas we provided was um maybe pep rallies like where they not pep rallies I don't want to say that but like assemblies where they talk about where students can talk about um certain or like guest speakers can come in to inform more on student mental health and that can't be that
100can be like like oh they um to encourage students to have a better like better to have a better awareness of mental health and then others can be other activities can be like the yoga and mindfulness during a study hall so those are just some ideas we have but we really leave it up to the individual schools to decide what they like to do give them that freedom to decide okay wonderful well we'll take your recommendations to heart and hopefully see some of those things implemented thank you okay um Miss DNA kofax to be followed by Mrs Strauss and Miss Hu thank you and thank you all for coming out tonight um I was able to attend one of your meetings this year and it was really wonderful talking to your group and actually seeing
101in action the deliberate process that deliberate and thoughtful process you went through to get to this point so thank you so much um Mr movan kind of really just touched upon my question because when we were talking about um Slide the one where you talk about current supports I guess it's slide four in your presentation that was my question pretty much as well he spoke on mindfulness but the 26 acts of kindness were some of you does your school participate in that and I I just kinded a little um if you could expound on what that is exactly does anybody um unfortunately Woodson has not done a 26 acts of kindness but we have really emphasized the whole Stressless laugh more weeks over the past few years and we really believe that those activities have
102made kids sort of enjy school a little bit more but we really believe that once school once once kids get into an environment into a like a state of mind where they're able to relax and let go and be like Oh I'm a teenager I get to enjoy this stuff for once and not really focus on I have AP homework doe tomorrow or tonight or anything like that and we really want to emphasize these activities quarterly based on the school's discretion and really make sure that we go at it thank you one wonderful well thank you so much again I know how challenging it is I'm a parent of a recent graduate and a junior and I know how much time you are spending in school and and in addition just looking at it from
103a Global Perspective the school from the umbrella perspective and coming up with these ideas collectively so thank you we really appreciate your comments Miss Strauss then miss Huff thank you very much this has been a wonderful presentation and I have enjoyed your conversations with the rest of my colleagues um one thing that um when we have talked with our own staff um particularly about the crisis link and uh and very often a young person who is in crisis or is really needs trouble or is in trouble it's hard for them sometimes to come forward but it is often their friend or a group of friends that will help them seek um uh the assistance that they need and I guess what conversations have you all had about helping each other and because you've acknowledged it's
104real you know depression screening no not me but sometimes as a friend you know somebody that really needs some help so have you talked about that so when I'm talking actually I'm going to say something and I think a lot of people I haven't really had a conversation with my personally I haven't had a lot of conversation with my friends talking about mental health because it is we've just made it become this really touch subject that not a lot of people want to talk about and I think a lot uh that's the case with a lot of students and I I'm really hoping that we could change that message with more like um what Miss Schultz was saying more positive um because mental health is not something negative mental health can be taken in a
105very positive connotation and I think that's what that's the message We should strive to go towards that so people can become more comfortable uh talking about it so as of now um with me personally at least that I haven't been able to have a really uh have haven't been able to have a like a conversation with my friends on like what's going on in their minds like yeah we say like casually like oh like that that test was hard I don't think I did well but like not like personally like one-on-one like hey like are you doing okay you know not that those kind of conversations and that's really unfortunate I hope that on um as we change the mental the mental health message that more people will be able to have those kind of
106conversations great because sometimes just saying hey are you okay yeah sometimes that opens up and provides the strength that that person needed thanks Miss huff and then miss paluk thank you you guys did a great job I did have another retake question sorry I was just curious to hear more about uh why you guys felt um there should be more flexibility for the apib test fees I heard you say something after about why but I didn't quite C it all well uh some of these high level courses um um can sometimes not especially the subjects in them or the material cover cannot always be understood by students you know it's it's high level it's high Lev material that not everybody understands sometimes so to make it a little bit easier on the students we felt
107that would be appropriate to have a little bit more flexibility for this high level courses uh to have flexibility with the retake policy thank you and then I actually have a question maybe for the chair or Dr Garza from an operation standpoint so I'm going G this is the first time I've been able to experience this presentation what do we sort of do as a followup what can they expect in terms of where we go with these mean what it feels like everyone feels like our great suggestion well great question um this is Dr Garza's advisory committee right although I think it's very important for the board to hear their uh reports as well so maybe at the end we could get Dr Garza to sort of wrap up a little bit and what what
108takeaways staff has from this great work so um Miss PCH um thank you for your report and I want you to know I was one of those students in the 80s 990s so appreciate it um but just wanted to ask uh Miss mcff and I were at Woodson um not too long ago talking to the leadership class and I spoke about when I was a student and how um I was a TJ I think at most I took three AP classes in a year um and how you know we have students at some of the best high schools in the nation and that wherever you go and whatever you do in life you will succeed um and and at TJ at the time learned to relax was the most popular activity um so I guess
109my question to you is uh the students kind of shared a feeling they said tell our parents so I guess I just want to know are there things that you feel as a board as a county you know we're talking about the whole child and portrait of a graduate is there more we can do to support the message to say yes success is very important and we want you to be the best version of yourself do you feel we're doing enough just in our message and being a voice um for students thank you um as a a current student at Woodson I'll I strongly believe that there hasn't been enough work up with that there's still I myself am taking 4 APS it does seem like a lot but these are classes that I love
110and enjoy most would because of my teachers and they're the best teachers I can have this year but I know a lot of students are taking four even five APS because they strongly feel like oh this is going to be a college Resume Builder and I asked them what are you going to do in the future and they're G they say they usually say a major and I'm like how is this AP going to help you and they always come back to me saying it's going to be a college Resume Builder and we really want to emphasize that sometimes taking two APS that really focus on what you love most and what you're really passionate about is going to be as worth as the same of taking five APS because we really want to make
111have those students make sure that they're getting the best time in those classes they're having the best teachers and they're enjoying the content that they're learning if they go into an AP class which is worth very heavily on their resume and they have little to disinterest in it that's going to affect them most in high school and that's just going to add more workload upon them and we really as you said we really need to learn how to relax in our schools not just Woodson but across the entire County thank you and if you do have follow-up ideas on ways that you think would be helpful to approach that to work with you please let us know okay Mr Press thank you uh to to respond briefly to miss hubson and miss pic points um
112the student representative is fortunate enough to attend pretty much every meeting so they were actually elected by this group so um you know for a followon piece I know Laura is very involved and will be very involved with this group and I hope that she can serve as a bridge between this board and the student advisory Council um you know I I tried to do that throughout the year and bring some of the amazing pieces of perspective that they gave me to this table to our work sessions um so you know I think to your point hopefully Laura can you know can can be that bridge and and really you know bring about the change that that these guys want to see but um I I don't think anybody was speaking after me so I
113wanted to take the opportunity to thank you once again and I've said it a bazillion times but I wanted to do it on TV to thank you all for the incredible hard work that you all did as Leaders of this group in you know as leaders in thought uh and coming out here on a Thursday night when I know you've got plenty of classes and homework to get to uh for tomorrow to share your perspectives uh with us all and I know I hear you know all year about how excited board members are to hear from students and I just wanted to extend my thanks to you again yes agreed very much and I do I know we have a couple of parents in the audience here are there any other parents of our students
114up here militaries are here anyone else no well thank you for coming tonight and for supporting these students um and I also uh do want to thank Dr garon for giving the board a chance and I'll turn to you in just a second giving the board a chance to um to hear this report as well and also you know we know that um this is a lot of a lot of Staff work you know so thank you to Mr perier um and Mrs Riley as well um and all the other uh staff members who spent a lot of time supporting these students Dr gra thank you uh yet again you know you've heard me say time and time again every time I'm around our students I'm just amazed and impressed with how intelligent how bright
115how thoughtful um they are and you know you tonight were again a great example of the wonderful Talent we have in our young people all throughout scps so I'm I'm really proud proud of you and I'm proud of our our group um and you can't help but take their their um ideas their perspectives and their suggestions seriously I know we are in fact I think they can tell you for themselves that we showed them periodically throughout the year work that we were engaged in um with regard to grading uh Dr lockart and I have have kind of laughed because we were so well aligned with the students it just takes a while to get everyone else uh with us we have an entire task force that we're working working on with grading so yeah these
116are not these are issues we're very much working on because they are important issues and um so I appreciate the perspective and I think you you all can help us move some of those conversations along because I think our our employees our staff our teachers care about what our students have to say and I think you can be helpful in leveraging us moving forward on some of these important issues so we are we are taking the work uh very very seriously I I'll tell you we had a wonderful um conversation around your presentation they also I thought were um demonstrated that these are not easy answers that these are complex issues that we we talked about this quite a bit um the grading homework there you know we have lots of complex issues around that
117um but I want to thank you all we uh are working on all these things and um we are taking your ideas and and perspective seriously and of course we meet with them so we are accountable to to to the team so um the there will be a grading report from the task force that's scheduled I believe it's next month um and of course we're continuing to refine and hone our work around supporting our students um around um helping their overall well-being uh some of the things that they talked about with regard to making sure that they're connecting and know the names of their counselors in their schools some of those things that we took to heart and we know that we can um that could be high leverage but easily accomplished so again thank
118you all so much for being here tonight you can see we have a lot of interest uh in these subject matters so you pick some topics that we we um we think are very important and certainly appreciate your perspectives and I think you all did quite well with some really tough questions yeah you really did in fact uh we're going to probably take take you on the road with us as we continue to talk about grading uh Joseph you could you take those grading questions quite well I was very impressed you were quick on your feet future staff prediction so yeah I was going to say you're hired so again thank you all so much for being here tonight we appreciate it okay thank you very much you can go do your homework now or
119whatever it is sorry I'm sure there's something left for you to do don't go do homework tell them to go home and relax don't you get it enjoy your four years um all right um but again thank you very much item 401 confirmation of action taken in closed meeting I call on Miss Dar kofax for a motion I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who assaulted students and staff on school property and who also disrupted the learning environment and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent second the motion seconded by miss stuss all those in favor that is unanimous thank you oh sorry with Miss Paul chick away from the table thank you okay item five consent agenda our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Robert's Rules provide for a
120consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion many items listed have gone through Board review um and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance items may be removed from the consent agenda at the request of any board member prior to the meeting we actually just have one consent agenda item tonight 5.01 award a contract for the West Springfield High School renovation project to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder Henley Construction Company Inc in the amount of 71 m770 th000 and authorize the division superintendent or the assistant superintendent of facilities and transportation services to execute deliver and administer the contract on behalf of the school board is there any objection to approving the consent agend agenda Miss hin yes if you would give me
121a point of personal privilege if I had if we hadn't had stuff hit our um inboxes in Spades today I would have asked for this to be pulled just so I could make a comment um this is to my West Springfield Spartan Community I know this has been a long time coming and it seems almost poultry that this is a a consent agenda item um because this is actually very momentous um I I know um this community is very much looking forward to it even as your parking spaces dwindle and your principal Mr mukai has a challenge in front of him and uh I want to thank um Jeff plattenburg and Kevin Sneed for all the work um that we've done behind the scenes uh to get here this is this is a very big
122day and you are going to have a beautiful school and it's going to be huge huge okay thank you um hearing no objection to the consent agenda the consent agenda is approved okay item six new business the following our new business agenda items there will not be a vote tonight on these items but action is scheduled at a future meeting 6.01 fiscal year 2017 approved budget I call on Dr Garza to introduce the presentation thank you madam chair chair members of the board uh we've had countless uh numbers of conversations with regard to the budget we've had many many work sessions and and board meetings and now we're to this place where we're presenting the budget uh as new business for your consideration so we're almost to we're in the Red Zone we're almost to
123the goal line um I I am pleased again I i' have to take this opportunity um to acknowledge the additional money we receive from the state and from our County um and I will tell you that that it represented about a 5.7% increase in revenue for um FCPS and it's the largest increase to scp's budget in a decade and it's really uh I think created a lot of excitement and certainly a shot in the arm U with regard to morale and just uh a sense of hopefulness about the future of our system so we're very very grateful um because the increase in funding provides us the opportunity to make a significant increase inrease um in critical investment employ employee compensation and reducing class size while not cutting vital student programming the fiscal uh year 17
124budget that's will be presented tonight for new business reflects this new revenue and adjustments that have been discussed U several times with our board uh at numerous work sessions and in fact the specifics that uh Christ and Mike will be presenting tonight were discussed at length at this past Monday work session and we have yet another work session scheduled on May 19th um to follow up and continue the conversation tonight so this should uh should be a very short presentation but it's um not any new information it's just something we will formally are presenting um to the board for consideration but it represents countless hours of work on part of certainly our financial services team but this school board and and then this entire um School Division so I'm going to turn it over to
125Kristen Michael to walk through the details um of this budget thank you Kristen thank you so much so FCPS is tradition of Excellence continues despite the tough budget challenges we faced this year the unprecedented level of Engagement with stakeholders in our budget development process has really provided the community and our citizens with an opportunity to have a voice in the future of our schools the fy17 budget funds our basic needs as well as makes significant investments in our key priorities it provides a step increase and a 1% Market scale adjustment for all of our employees it makes a significant investment in improving our teacher salaries and it also take steps to reduce Elementary class size without the funding support from the county and the state or with the funding support from the county and the
126state we were able to avoid any reductions to our instructional programs so their support was truly vital to Our Success so our fy7 budget included additional funding from the county operating funding totaling 88.4 million above our current year approved budget and then at the same time the Virginia General Assembly also provided an increase in state aid and sales tax totaling 22.3 million over our current Year's budget so both of those increases in Revenue combined with some non-instructional reductions that we took that totaled more than 30 million the largest of which was base savings allowed us to meet all of our required expenditures and address those key priorities of employee pay and class size so the following slides go over all of the adjustments to our advertised budget as Dr Gara indicated these are the same
127adjustments that we discussed on May 9th and following our public hearing on May 17th we have another work session to discuss this on May 19th so the County transfer that increase of 4.8% was 34.3 Million lower than our request in our average Ed budget in terms of state aid based on the state's final budget it was 12.3 million higher than our advertised budget our sales tax revenue is increasing by 4.6 million based on the state's budget and then lastly with the additional funding from the county and the state the tuition that will build Fairfax city for our actual tuition based on operational costs as well as projected enrollment will increase by 900,000 the net total of all of those Revenue adjustments is a decrease of 16.6 million so when we look at the required expenditure
128adjustments the state's budget also included an increase in the State Virginia retirement system life insurance rate that will increase our expenditures by 1.2 million then based on our final spring enrollment calculations we've completed the process of calculating and allocating Staffing to schools and that has an additional reduction of 3.8 million in total our cost for enrollment growth and demographic changes is 6 .7 million lower than our current Year's approved budget item C are health insurance adjustments based on employee participation our health costs will decrease by 2.6 million as compared to our advertised budget and then in item D we're reducing what we're budgeting for fuel to $2 a gallon which is consistent with what the countyy is budgeting based on our current fuel prices that we're paying we're also recommending that like the county we
129use one-time funding to set up a reserve to help us address future fluctuations in fuel prices so after making all of those adjustments we have a reduction placeholder of 9.3 million that allows us to balance a budget with a decrease of expenditures of 16.6 million so to address that reduction placeholder as presented at the May 9th work session we have the following recommended adjustments first increasing funding for beginning balance by 5.3 million with funding that's available from our fy16 third quarter budget review second our increasing Community use fees increasing the Personnel rate from $ 32 to $34 to increase additional cost in employee compensation will increase Revenue by 0.2 million both of those Revenue adjustments will increase our Revenue by 5.4 million in terms of expenditure adjustments we will move the cost of implementing a
130living wage for our food and nutrition services employees to the food nutrition services fund saving the operating fund 1.1 million as compared to the projection in our advertised budget and Item B will reduce our substitute rates to the market average creating just two substitute rates a long-term rate and a short-term rate saving us $2.3 million and finally in item C we will direct the superintendent to identify reductions totaling 0.5 million in central operating accounts for example supplies Professional Services for other operating accounts all of those adjustments together total 9.3 million will eliminate that placeholder so in summary our recommendations for the fy7 approved budget totals an increase of 4.3% from our current Year's approved budget knowing that we're just finishing the budget though it's important that we look ahead a followon motion has been submitted
131by the school board chair recognizing The Joint efforts underway by both the school board and County Board of Supervisors we've also started the work on developing a full fiscal forecast for fy18 and future years the compensation study will provide us with recommendations to inform our plans for employee compensation as we work to address FCPS is Market competitiveness in addition we'll complete projections for enrollment employee benefits retirement health and other rates and we'll also begin to work on investments needed for our strategic plan our fiscal forecast is going to be a very important step as both boards begin to work together over the summer and the fall last ly these are the important dates so as I stated we have public hearings on May 17th followed by a work session on May 19th to discuss this
132proposal I thank you for the opportunity to present the fy17 approved budget thank you Miss Michael um and uh as has already been stated but just to repeat um we have public hearings on the budget next Tuesday May 17 and if if need be on Wednesday May 18th and we will also have ourth work session on the budget on Thursday May 19th um M stuss as our budget chair is there something you'd like to add just very briefly um we will have an opportunity to um discuss the budget one more time on May 19th and after that if anyone wants to propose any additional amendments they will be due on May 20th thank you okay all right thank you very much moving on then um so the uh the new business item I will read
133aloud um on the budget is FY 2017 approved budget to adopt the FY 20177 approved budget as detailed in the FY 2017 advertised budget Modified by the adjustments included in this agenda item other new business item 6.02 approve redistricting of School boundaries and Adoption of pupil assignment plans to affect the reassignment of elementary students residing in malard court apartments from Woodley Hills Elementary School to woodlon elementary school effective for the 2016 17th school year in order to contribute to the efficiency of the School Division and to increase instructional Effectiveness by among other things balancing enrollment and utilization of school facilities all pursuant to applicable Law School Board policies and division regulations including Virginia code section 22.1 794 policy 81 30.7 Local School boundaries program assignments and school closings and regulation 22312 exceptions for attendance at
134other than base school and procedure for applying for intracounty exceptions 6.03 adopt policy 466 overtime pay as detailed in the agenda item and item 6.02 adopt the new school board policy which memorializes the current authority responsibility and definition of the auditor general right item seven uh superintendent matters I call on Dr Garza thank you madam chair I think in the interest with regard to the work session that we have coming up after the uh this meeting and I know it's a complex topic I'm going to yield my time um for that purpose thank you okay thank you all right item eight board committee reports um I call on Mr moon for a report on the governance committee thank you madam chair um May the fourth governance committee met to discuss for the third month in
135a row about the potential redesign of a standing committees and then also advisor commiss of school board and as as we all remember that we hold had a full as a part of full day work session discussed a list about the advisory committees and we had uh we are will be bringing up a a new business on June 9th and to vote on June 20th thank you thank you Mr Moon those are the only board committee reports that we have um next is is board matters and I would just um ask uh board members to keep your uh remarks brief if you could as you can see we have a lot of people here who are going to be helping us out with our um work session right after the meeting so we don't want
136to hold everybody up uh too late so we will start with Miss pchi I will be very brief and pass my time thank you m Schultz um I am uh going to be brief but I am going to acknowledge that um the students that are headed into this testing time um based on the topic that we had earlier this evening based on what I experience Through The Eyes of My Own senior um the students that are trying to get their work in and and the teachers um remember that these are uh 15 16 17 18 year old young people in our hands and they are stressed and tired and exhausted and they um they're doing their best maybe sometimes they aren't um and you know whatever we can do to help them across the line
137um we're just as tired as they are but um uh they're much younger and have a lot less uh bandwidth and um sometimes they're taking a lot on in terms of their um their view that everything is hanging uh on the very next test the next Quiz the next assignment and so um I ask for um uh the best out of all of our St STA and all of our parents as we try to get our kids safely across the Finish Line at the end of the year uh and um and feel free to reach out if you need any assistance in that Miss mlin U just briefly I wanted to give a shout out to uh Fairfax Villa Elementary that just celebrated their uh 50th Anniversary uh Mr Moon and I were there with
138um executive principal Becky big and um many other uh former um assistant principles and principes uh and other uh members of our Fairfax Family who were there to celebrate and uh honor certainly a wonderful Milestone so uh Dr Garza would have been very proud um it was a absolutely lovely um one-hour presentation with the coral groups uh singing and uh the new principal just spoke so eloquently and really captured 50 years years of amazing history in that community and uh so it was just a delightful event I'm so glad I was able to to share in that celebration with them and I got there in the nick of time before Mr Moon wanted to take my goodie bag Mr Wilson I'll keep it brief um but I did want to just uh comment that tonight
139I thought the public in particular did a wonderful job with their presentations to the board very eloquent and very moving speakers tonight agreed Mr Madame chair I'm going to yield my time to Madame chair so that you can talk about the Japanese language festival at Fox thank you okay I will miss Evans thank you I did want to um recognize the fact that um I attended the Hispanic leadership Alliance scholarship dinner uh with Miss PCH and just want to say what an amazing group of students were recognized that night you know their stories are just an a tremendous example of achievement resilience hopefulness and um and character so that was an amazing event I did want to make sure that my community my steuart community knows that um a um survey has gone out today
140about the potential for a name change that's gone out to parents students um alumni community members so I hope everyone will participate um the uh it is live between now and May 20th in addition to that we have scheduled a meeting on May 23rd 7:00 at Stuart High School uh to discuss the potential for name change so I hope you all will come out for that too thank you m TR thank you on Saturday Relay for Life for the mlan Langley pyramids um that will be very exciting and then next week is the Langley ethics Forum thank you Miss H I'll pass thank you Mr M I yield my time to our friends at RFC just quickly um I was happy to attend with Miss Hines the fcft focus group on teacher workload this past
141weekend and um thanks to all those who came out to my cofax coffee to discuss budget and and other issues and also it's always great to get out of the school so I was able to visit Crestwood lindbrook Edison Woodley Hills and bushill over the last two weeks thank you all for having me for various reasons Good Times and I will finish thank you Mr Moon it was nice to have you back out in the neighborhood up in hearen for foxmail elementary school's Japanese Matsuri Festival it's an annual Festival uh it was last Friday night and it's just wonderful um songs and food and games and craft from the Japanese tradition I think my favorite part is walking around with the student guides who are just amazing young people they have learned a great deal
142about um the Japanese language and Japanese culture and they're just so such nice people um and so it was really it was a great night thanks to the staff at Fox Mill for inviting us and and for doing all that work and to the parents as well the PTA is very much involved in that so um uh at this point we will not adjourn we will take about a five minute break and um so at 9:10 we will start our work session on erfc the education employees supplementary Retirement System