Coraggio Consulting Fairfax County School Board Meeting, Thursday, September 25, 2025 Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia Length: 3h 39m (video) Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=texPgLvUegw Official School Board page (FCPS): https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/school-board Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting. Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-10-29. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- [00:00:03] September 25th, 2025, regular meeting of the Fairfax County School Board will now come to order. In the event of our tornado warning, everyone should quietly and calmly proceed through the lower right-hand door at the front of the auditorium and follow the directions of Unifor Security and staff. Please be courteous to each other and do not panic. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance, followed by a moment of silence in the performance of the national anthem by Justin Kijun Lee, a soloist from Luther Jackson Middle [00:00:34] school I pledge allegiance to the flag you guys please give one more round of [00:02:57] applause to our amazing student item 3.02 announcements on behalf of the school board we would like to welcome Fairfax City School Board Chair Carolyn Pitches and member Sarah Kelsey to us to join us this evening Mr. Frisch has submitted a written request to attend this evening's meeting virtually due to a medical conflict is in is attending this evening's meeting from his home in the Providence District all those in favor of Mr. Frisch's request unanimous for [00:03:33] all board members present Mr. Frisch can you check we see you can we check can you check your mic yes perfect we can hear you as well agenda item 3.03 honoring national literacy month proclamation I call on Mr. Dunn for a proclamation whereas international literacy day was established as September 8th by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization UNESCO [00:04:10] in 1967 in Tehran Iran as a reminder of the importance of literacy as a human right and in In 2024, the U.S. Senate passed a resolution designating September as National Literacy Month, noting that literacy is the cornerstone for personal growth, economic opportunity, and a strong society. [00:04:31] And whereas on September 28, 2023, the Fairfax County Public Schools Division Superintendent presented on the Equitable Access to Literacy plan, which commits to using data to identify systemic barriers providing a solid foundation and literacy and deepening educators knowledge of evidence-based literacy and culturally responsive teaching and whereas fairfax county public schools equitable access to literacy plan aligned with the virginia literacy act of 2022 to ensure that fcps aligns with the commitment to evidence-based and high quality foundational [00:05:06] literacy programs and whereas according to the 2024 fcps division literacy plan the district is committed to ensuring that students receive explicit instruction in reading and writing to achieve proficiency in literacy and eliminate disproportionate outcomes based on race, gender, zip code, ability, socioeconomic status, or languages spoken at home, and whereas this commitment has been made with the understanding that literacy is essential to human potential and economic success, as a 2020 Gallup study found that the United States stands to lose [00:05:42] up to 2.2 trillion dollars annually due to low adult literacy rates and low literacy creates a major skills gap in our workforce. Now therefore, be it resolved, the Fairfax County School Board hereby proclaims September as National Literacy Month and reaffirms their commitment to promoting reading and literacy as the catalyst for our students' future academic success, their preparation for jobs of the future, and their ability to compete in a global economy. [00:06:10] Is there a second? Mr. Moon, thank you. I will call for a vote. All those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Fresh, and myself. [00:06:31] That is unanimous. Agenda Item 3.04, Honoring Alice's Kids, a local nonprofit organization proclamation. I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a proclamation. Whereas every day, countless children may feel shame or embarrassment because they cannot afford a prom ticket, field trip fees, back to school clothes, summer camp, instrument rentals, and other items or services that more fortunate peers may take for granted, leading to potential setbacks in their personal and academic lives. [00:07:06] And whereas Alice's Kids, a Fairfax County-based nonprofit organization, responds to thousands of requests from teachers, social workers, and family liaisons across the country by anonymously paying for these items in a way that avoids shaming the child or their parent or caregiver. [00:07:25] And whereas Alice's Kids has provided direct anonymous financial assistance to thousands of children in need living in Fairfax County since its inception in 2011. And whereas Ron and Laura Fitzsimmons, who lived for years in poverty, named their charity after their inspiring mother Alice and whereas at the beginning of the school year Alice's kids is especially inundated with a request from Fairfax County public school teachers social workers and family liaisons for help in providing basic supplies such as a backpack back to school clothes and school supplies and whereas requests this year have [00:08:05] increased considerably compared to previous years at the same time many new teachers social workers and family liaisons may not be aware of the services provided by Alice's kids, whereas the School Board of Fairfax County Public Schools encourages all FCPS personnel to utilize the unique financial services provided by Alice's kids should they identify a child with a specific need. [00:08:31] Now therefore, be it resolved that the School Board of Fairfax County Public Schools expresses its deep gratitude to Alice's kids for supporting Fairfax students a way that lifts them while preserving their dignity is there a second second mr mcdaniel i will call for a vote all those in favor mr mcdaniel miss marron mr mckelveen miss st john cunning miss lady miss dixit miss sizemar heiser mr dunn mr moon miss or dr anderson mr frisch and [00:09:03] myself that is unanimous i would like to welcome all those here in support of the honoring alice's kids a local nonprofit organization proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the at [00:09:18] I would like to welcome all those here in support of the honoring National [00:10:31] Literacy Month proclamation to please join the board for a photo at the front [00:10:34] of the dais agenda item 4.01 community participation the next order of [00:12:26] business is community participation we welcome all community members who are here and those who have signed up to speak this evening additional information about signing up to provide comments at school board regular business meetings and public hearings can be found on the school board website at www.fcps.edu backslash school board. During the signup process, community members acknowledged they were informed of the school board's expectations for proper decorum when providing comments. These expectations are also available online with the printed agenda at the meeting in the meeting materials at the back of the room. We ask audience members to be respectful of one another. Shouting and [00:13:04] outbursts will not be tolerated. Please hold your applause until the conclusion of the speakers remarks audience members may not join speakers at the podium and should remain at their seats including when recording video or taking photos we are grateful to all those who have come to speak today and thank you for your cooperation school board members will be listening but not responding madam clerk please call the first speaker Barrett Wilford evening my [00:13:43] name is Barrett Wilford I'm a senior at Woodson High School and the captain of the Woodson robotics team our team has had many struggles in the past several years however this most recent year has been very historic in our region each team must compete in two regional events out of the seven available to then qualify for the district championship in our first regional competition we made it to the playoffs for the first time ever and got fourth place and then we won our second regional for the first time ever this called up qualified us [00:14:20] for the divisional championships and we even had the 20th highest statistics in the world for one of the scoring categories and then we went on to win this district championship as well this district championship was larger than a state championship as it had team the best teams from Virginia Maryland and DC at Woodson teams such as the crew team and eSports team which aren't registered recognized as official sport team, have had their names for their state championships recognized on the side of the school. [00:15:02] With robotics growing in popularity and with this recent achievement and now having over 50 active members, we think that we deserve to be recognized along these titles as well. On behalf of Cavbotics 8590, I ask that our district championship be honored alongside Woodson's other championship titles. [00:15:23] Thank you for your time. Michael Parker Michael Parker Misha Chernoff Good evening Chair Anderson school board members and Dr. Reed my name is Misha Chernoff and I'm an FCPS employee I am here to speak about [00:15:58] the 24/25 employee engagement survey and to inform the board in case you were not aware that the results are not being posted on the intranet like previous employee engagement surveys. In the past, employees had the ability to review the survey results on the intranet and analyze data by school, region, office, and division. This year I scoured ATLAS, which is the FCPS intranet, and could not find one data point, chart, or graph with the survey results. When I reached out to HR for [00:16:36] help finding the survey results on ATLAS, I was told if I wanted to review my school's results I had to contact my principal I then followed up with HR asking if there had been a change in how the results are being shared with employees and have not received a reply this leaves me with questions where are the full survey results who has seen them why are they not being shared with employees on the internet is there a plan to make this division-wide data available for employees to review and who benefits by keeping the survey [00:17:15] results off of the intranet we did our part by completing the survey FCPS leadership team it's your turn now to be fully transparent with your employees by posting the employee engagement survey result data on the intranet thank you Tanya Maddox Tanya Maddox and my name is Tanya Maddox I served in the [00:17:53] military for 29 years and I moved here from California and I brought my niece and my nephew with me and their mother and we moved to one of dr. Bennett from the Riverside School District told me that when I move here during the pandemic that they're gonna get a good fire Fairfax is gonna get a good superintendent and I said okay doesn't bother me with school as long as the kids are good we moved from we used to live in Ridge Drive Ridgefield Drive and [00:18:32] I moved out of there and moved to route one near north near Fort Belville because I'm military and I wanted to be closer to the base and we put our kids in the school there I was frustrated by the school and my thing is always follow the can follow the chain of command and I followed the chain of command so I sat down and wrote a letter and I said I'm gonna write this letter and I called Dr. [00:19:02] Bennett she said she's gonna answer little me she is not going to answer so I wrote the letter and I got a phone call from her secretary and she says Dr. Reed requests your honor to be here and I said me you sure I said oh it's gonna be on zoom and she says no she wants you in present I said okay so me being a chief I'm ready to fight this is it I'm ready she made me look because she had more [00:19:37] everything that I would as a chief she reminded me so much of Chappie James the first four-star black general she reminded me of that of her the way she carried herself the way she talked to her [00:19:52] thank you ma'am thank you thank you Cooper Jessup evening board members superintendent Reed my name [00:20:49] is Cooper Jessup and I am a badged mentor with the Woodson robotics team. I am the second loudest dad with the Woodson rowing team. I am a Mantua basketball scorekeeper and I'm the coach of a sixth grade Lego league team. But tonight I'm here to talk to you about equity. The board has made some several great calls in the name of equity already. Changing the way TJ admissions now works was a huge win. Equity is one of the reasons given for our current rezoning effort. As a dad, [00:21:22] I cheer equally loud for crew and for robotics. When the rowing team were state champions, I was very proud. The team's achievement was commemorated with a prominent display on the front of the school. The robotics team are champions also. Like the rowing team, they participated and succeeded in other events to qualify for their championship tournament. [00:21:50] The robotics team, like the rowing team, walked away with the trophies, the medals, and the imitation to the next level of play. Unlike the rowing team, the robotics team are district champions, which means for the entire state of Virginia, all of DC, and the entire state of Maryland. [00:22:09] Also unlike the rowing team, the robotics team were invited not to national championships, but to world championships. Unlike the rowing team, the robotics team's achievement was not commemorated on the front of the school. To quote our great leader, Dr. Reed, "We are embarking on a four-year plan to bring robotics teams to all FCPS schools that is a great plan we should finish that plan with equity though and be equally proud of the success and recognize them the same way as we recognize our other [00:22:43] championships like e-sports Eric Johnson Eric Johnson Christy Balbuena also signed up to provide have a video played tonight but we never received the video thus there is no video testimony tonight Chair Anderson community participation is complete. [00:23:16] Thank you. Agenda item 5.01 student representative matters. I call on Ms. McConaughey. Good evening chair vice chair and members of the board. Today I would like to reflect on the SAC meeting that happened this week. The superintendent's advisory council met for the first time this week. [00:23:34] They had their first meeting with Dr. Reed asking questions about current issues. I sent out a survey for this month after the meeting where I asked three questions. How well do you feel FCPS communicates big changes. for example, new policies or schedule adjustments to students, and what could make that communication clearer? [00:23:51] Two, what is one way your school could do a better job including student voice and decisions? And three, how is the new cell phone policy affecting your day, positively or negatively? For the first question, here are two student responses that stood out to me. In my opinion, I know recently that the FCPS community has had a lot of new changes in their policies. [00:24:08] Me personally, I never know of these changes before because I feel like FCPS doesn't really publicize it. So unfortunately, students like me won't know about these certain policies. I feel like FCPS should definitely start giving more resources for students who are curious about what these new changes are. Obviously, I think a lot of students would like to know what's going on in FCPS. [00:24:25] The second response that stood out to me said, Most new changes are communicated to the student body first as rumors, then they are made official. Communication should be made clear if it is made directly to students before it impacts them, either through email or schoolagy or parent contact. One concern that I continue to hear from students across FCPS, it's not just what decisions are made, but how they're made. [00:24:46] Too often, policies are announced without clear communication about the reasoning, student input considered, or how success will be measured. This lack of transparency can leave students feeling disconnected and sometimes even mistrustful of the various systems that are meant to serve them. Students want to be a part of this process, not just recipients of the outcome. Transparency builds trust, and trust builds stronger policies. [00:25:05] By openly sharing how decisions are made, what data is reviewed, and how student voice is included, and what the expected outcomes are, we can contribute to a culture where students feel valued and respected. I encourage the board to continue to prioritize clear communication and genuine student engagement and decision making. [00:25:21] It's not just about the policy itself but about the process that gets it there. On a related note I want to speak on behalf of the students of Hayfield Secondary regarding the mold issues that have persisted in their school building. For months students and families have expressed concerns about the air quality health effects and overall learning environment. [00:25:37] While short term fixes have been made the reality is that students continue to feel as if they're students continue to feel as if these are temporary band-aids rather than a meaningful resolution. As students, we want to feel safe and healthy in our classrooms, not distracted by worries about mold or whether conditions are worsening. [00:25:56] The uncertainty has created anxiety and that lack of clarity can sometimes feel just as harmful as the mold itself. This is why I urge the board and division leadership to provide a clear, transparent plan forward. Students' families deserve to know which specific steps are being taken, what timelines are attached to those steps, how will progress be communicated, and most importantly, how we ensure that this does not remain an ongoing reactive cycle, but is rather resolved through long-term investment in our school facilities. [00:26:18] Students at Hayfield and across FCPS deserve more than patchwork solutions. We deserve to learn in spaces where our health and folks are protected. The board's leadership in communicating concrete next steps can restore trust and provide the reassurance that students, staff, and families need right now. Thank you for your time. Thank you, Ms. McConan. [00:26:41] Agenda item 6.01, action item, certification of closed meeting compliance. In order to comply with section 2.2-3712D 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 September 25th, 2025. To the best of each member's knowledge, only public business matters lawfully exempted from the 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? Mr. McElveen, [00:27:18] thank you. Do I have a second? Mr. McDaniel. All those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, I am assuming, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, and myself. [00:27:39] All those opposed? Abstentions. Mr. Dunn, do you have a vote? You abstain? Mr. Dunn is an abstention. Madam Clerk, will you read the vote? [00:27:55] The vote's 11-0-1. The motion carries. Perfect. Agenda item, action, or agenda item, confirmation of action taken in closed meeting, item 6. I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a motion. [00:28:12] I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who was charged with an unlawful act in the community and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. - Thank you, is there a second? - Second. - Mr. McDaniel, all those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Sizemore Heiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch and myself. [00:28:41] Abstentions? Ms. Dixit, Madam Clerk. Motion is 1101, the motion carries. - Perfect, closed item or closed motion number two, I call on Ms. St. John Cunning for a motion. [00:28:57] - I move to deny the school reassignment appeal of a student who was charged under 18.2-58B.3 of the Code of Virginia as related to an alleged crime that occurred in the community and to confirm the disciplinary decision of the division superintendent. [00:29:14] - Is there a second? - I second. - Ms. Marin, all those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Heiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch and myself, that's unanimous. [00:29:31] Closed motion number three, I call on Mr. McDaniel for a motion. - I move to expel the student who committed a serious offense in violation of school board policy and who was charged with multiple weapons related offenses in violation of the Commonwealth's laws. - Is there a second? - Second. - Dr. Anderson, all those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, and myself, that's unanimous. [00:30:01] Closed motion number four, I call on Ms. Lady for a motion. I move the school board authorize legal counsel to make an offer in the case discussed in closed session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. Second. Mr. Moon, second. All those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. Moon, Mr. Frisch, opposed? [00:30:30] Ms. Marin, Mr. Dunn, Dr. Anderson, and myself. I believe that's everyone. Please read the vote. - The vote is eight to four, the motion carries. [00:30:45] - Thank you. - Opposed motion number five, Ms. Lady. - I move the school board authorize legal counsel to settle the matter discussed in closed session according to the terms and conditions discussed therein. [00:31:02] - Is there a second? - Second. - Ms. Seismarheiser. All those in favor, Mr. McDaniel, Ms. Marin, Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Sizemore-Hyser, Mr. Moon, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Frisch, and myself, opposed, abstentions, Dr. Anderson. [00:31:32] The clerk, please read the vote. The vote's 11-0-1, the motion carries. We got through them all, guys, good job. Okay, action item 6.03, advanced academics exploration of new full-time AAP Center in the Annandale Pyramid. [00:31:48] I call on Dr. Anderson for a motion I move that the school board approve to move forward with conducting the necessary community engagement process on the proposal for opening a new middle school AP Center at Poe Middle School is there a second second Mr. McDaniel Dr. Anderson would you like to speak to your motion I would thank you to Mr. McDaniel for pulling this off of the consent agenda because it does allow me the opportunity to share some additional details that otherwise would not have come to light in October of 20 October 20th 2020 two forum topics [00:32:26] were approved by the school board for future action one was to establish AP centers at all middle schools and the second was to expand local level level four local level four programming in all elementary schools this board action was consistent with the advanced academic report that was presented to the board also in 2020 by Dr. [00:32:47] Plucker and his team there's been progress with the local level for expansion and I believe very few schools are still left to meet that and I know Dr. Presidio I've been tracking that with you but to date there's been little movement on the on the middle school piece until now I'm in agreement that all middle schools should be evaluated for this expansion and will be supportive of the forthcoming follow-on motion. However we need to have a starting point to tackle this long-standing issue. Poe Middle School is a reasonable [00:33:24] starting point because of its unique position. Region 6 in which Poe Middle School is contained in the Annadelle Pyramid as well as Hayfield and Lewis. It is the only region that there is no middle school AAP Center. This requires students who are slated to go to Poe to leave the entire region in order to access programming which FCPS has determined they require. There's a gap in service continuity. Currently some Annandale Pyramid students must [00:33:59] transfer two times in elementary school in order to receive continuous full-time AAP services. That is a unique occurrence which does not happen anywhere else in Fairfax County Public Schools there is no fairness in that and certainly there is no equity in that structure to students and their families and their caregivers that is not an equitable access to program that is not equitable access to programming again to which FCPS has determined those students are eligible students who attend the k-5 local full-time program at Annandale Terrace Braddock [00:34:36] and North Springfield they must either transfer for one year to Canterbury Woods to continue sixth grade and then transition back to Frost or attend their neighborhood middle schools in order to receive full-time AAP via enrollment of four middle school classes, which is not quite the equivalent. As it stands, staff has followed the current guidelines which is outlined in Regulation 3333 and 8130. Staff's proposed timeline is consistent with the boundary process timeline and fulfills [00:35:08] the access to programming factor outlined in policy 8130 overall the FCPS commitment is to provide for all students still applies to this as well even though it may not impact thousands of students but it will impact hundreds of students we've shared before on this stage that all students deserve our best effort and commitment so there has to be no minimum to justify our advocacy the staff and principals at poe and annandale high school are excited by the possibility to to serve students who reside in the Annandale pyramid in the pyramid schools. [00:35:45] The superintendent has shared with me not once but twice. - Dr. Anderson, that was your time. I can put you on a go back. - Yes, please, thank you. - Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your second? - Just briefly, I'll reserve most of my comments for the follow on motion. I was happy to work with Dr. Anderson on this and the next motion as well. [00:36:02] This is a large step in the right direction and it's been coming for a long time as Dr. Anderson mentioned, so happy to second the motion. - Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. I see no others working. [00:36:18] Oh, Ms. Marin, go for it. - Thank you. Well, I applaud Dr. Anderson, the Mason district representative for being a true champion for her community. She has always got her eyes out for her students and I'm glad that the board can support her. [00:36:34] And for me, I do wanna be sure that as we go forward, that we're looking at the relevant policies and the regulations, which might seem mundane, but they really do help us be sure that equity and is achieved in the future. [00:36:49] We don't want this happening again. I also would ask if it's possible for this community engagement process to be rolled into the many, or a part of the many meetings that are happening about boundary conversations. And so, apologies for just sharing this, but I was at last night at South Lakes High School at the community boundary meeting, focusing on Southlakes High and Herndon High, and it occurred to me there's a lot of meetings coming up and a lot of opportunities, and while that's fabulous, it's also kind of overwhelming, especially since they're all happening right away. [00:37:22] And I just wonder, is there a way that in the upcoming already scheduled meetings in the Annandale Pyramid, could that engagement work out? Recall we also have the Western High School public naming, the public hearing process, and before we know it, we're also gonna have the CIP public hearing and the budget public hearing. [00:37:39] And so, you know, not only to help the public, you know, be engaged and not be trying to come back and forth, but really so that we're syncing up the holistic view because we know that there are more middle schools that also don't have AAP centers, and this is the most dire. [00:37:57] And so acting now is appropriate, but we also know part of the boundary policy process is to look at access across as one of the factors for boundary changes. So I just wanted to share that if there's a possibility to roll this out as part of the already scheduled community engagement nights, I think it makes it easier for the public to engage and I do support this tonight but I'm not gonna support going full sail into putting this in every pyramid. [00:38:27] You know this is a particular follow up that you know has been long time coming. I think the next piece about are we gonna do this in all the pyramids, the board needs to have a discussion about how we want to offer advanced academic programs. And I'm just not going to green light, you know, putting programs everywhere, especially not with a budget attached to it. [00:38:45] How much is that going to cost? So I will be voting for this main motion. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Barron. Dr. Anderson Fergo back. Yes, I'll just kind of finish my statements here. As I shared early, as I was, as I began just a little while ago, the superintendent has shared with me multiple times that she is supportive of this plan. [00:39:05] She's also outlined that this measure is also a strategy to bolster the district's plan for increased Algebra 1 enrollment. We will also benefit in the matter that we will be reducing transportation costs because students won't have to be taken out of pyramid. [00:39:21] Reduced capacity at Frost Middle School will be one of the side one of the results which will open the opportunity perhaps of discussing grade six in that pyramid. We will reduce capacity at Glasgow, which currently serves as the only middle school AAP Center in the Mason District so I hope for your support on this this evening and thank you thank you Dr. Anderson I will call for the vote all those in favor so Mr. McDaniel Miss Marin Mr. McElveen Miss St. John Cunning Miss Lady Miss Dixit Miss Sizemore Heiser Mr. Dunn Mr. Moon Dr. Anderson Mr. [00:39:59] Frisch and myself that is unanimous I call on Mr. McDaniel for a follow-on motion thank you I move to direct the superintendent to develop and present to board by march of 2026 a comprehensive plan for establishing advanced academic program centers in every middle school in the division uh is there a second second miss lady mr mcdaniel would you like to speak to your motion i would and i don't want to reiterate all the reasons that dr anderson spoke to on the annandale issue because they all apply across the other 11 middle schools and the other nine regions that do not have the access to this programming in our boundary policy [00:40:36] there's a line in there about equitable access to programming I was on a town hall last night with the community and this issue came up of what exactly does that mean what that means is you shouldn't have to go to a different base school to access various types of programs AAP is one of those types of programs that we should not have kids being bused out of their base school to attend and just to kind of give a sense of the scope Herndon Madison Mount Vernon Centerville Robinson West Springfield Westfield Hayfield Lewis and with the previous motion, Annandale. [00:41:09] What this motion will do is ask the superintendent to come back with a plan to close the remaining nine pyramids, the remaining 11 middle schools, to expand AAP across the entire division. As we know, Algebra 1 by 8th grade, that has been pounded into our heads by our very capable superintendent. [00:41:29] Algebra 8th grade is a key factor for student success, setting up not just for the rest of their K-12 education, but their post-secondary, but their post-education. and for life so i appreciate the support of my colleagues on this motion and i'm looking forward to the conversation thank you mr mcdaniel uh miss lady would you like to speak to your second yes um if anyone followed me on the campaign trail this is one of the things i talked about often i feel strongly in high expectations for all learners i did not realize until i got on the board how behind we were in mathematics and how some of our schools were not offering algebra one [00:42:07] in a robust fashion but we've done that work under the leadership of Dr. Reed we've moved the needle in all of our testing every single discipline reading math science and we have a lot of gifted learners in our in our system the other thing is become crystal clear is with the boundary work often the middle schools that are quoted as having the most split feeders in them are our AAP centers because of the very reasons that my colleagues have noted that students are leaving their neighborhood schools to go to an AAP Center for middle school only to come back to their high school because we don't have such a thing of a [00:42:44] high school level during my tenure working in Fairfax County we created open enrollment in terms of AP honors IB classes at a high school level we also did that the middle school level but I also want to reiterate that when students are in a center they travel sort of as a pod okay so they're in advanced academics in every single subject and for a lot of our students that's the level at which they need to be challenged and then we also have students who can take advanced coursework in some subjects or even perhaps all but this work is of great importance because I'm tired of busing kids to [00:43:21] programs instead of sending kids to their neighborhood school where they have the programs that they need for every single student so I strongly stand behind this it's something that I've wanted to do for a long time I'm also very interested in the October 2020 I guess board follow-on motion that my colleague referenced in evaluating all elementary schools for level 4 because that's not being done with fidelity either so while that's not the motion on the table right now I do think we need to look to make sure we have level 4 in every elementary school because again I think that our kids are much smarter [00:43:58] today than we were when we were their age and this is starting at kindergarten first second grade and so I don't think I think if we don't scaffold this way we're not gonna be ready for how talented our kids are when they're hitting fifth and sixth grade and they're about to embark on middle school and all of their schools that are in their neighborhood schools should have the program that they need so I obviously fully support this thank you thank you Miss Lady so we had a whole lot of lights come on all at the same time so I'm gonna do my best to make sure that I hit everybody but I have everyone so we're gonna start off with mr. Frisch Mr. Frisch we can't hear you I [00:44:36] think you need to be unmuted. How many years of Zoom and I still forget to press the unmute button. I apologize. I'm happy to support the motion and the previous motion only to speak once. You know these are essential services that we need to get to all of our students and with I think 10 pyramids that have no middle school AP center I think the work is long overdue and [00:45:07] I look forward to getting the plan because that's what we're really voting on is getting a plan for this and then we'll be able to kick the tires on it and move forward so I appreciate the makers of the motion and the previous motion and look forward to casting my vote. Thank you. Dr. Anderson. Yes. Thank you. One of the things that I failed to mention the forum topic that was introduced five years ago now was to expand in all middle schools and this was also very consistent with the advanced academics programming. I'm sorry. [00:45:40] Advanced Academics report which was commissioned by the 2019 board recommendation five is to expand to all middle schools so this is not just due now it is overdue by five years this is a long time and that we've been waiting to have this conversation and so I'm very excited to to support this motion because it's already something that the board decided needed to happen five years ago So we're just doing the work that was not done. [00:46:13] This is not new. This is just something the board already agreed to doing five years ago, October 20th of 2020. So I'm really looking forward to that plan because we do need to provide access to our kids. And this is just a tip of the iceberg when we talk about academies. [00:46:29] Academies are not even accessible for many of our kids just because of where they're located. So we have a lot of work to do to fulfill that tenet of the policy 8130, which is access to programming. Mr. Dunn. Well, I just want to add one pyramid that was not included on the previous list, which is South County High School Pyramid. [00:46:50] It does not have an AAP center. It does have a cohort, as does Whitman Middle School. And I get confused and I've done a lot of research to try to figure out what's the difference between an AAP cohort and an AAP center. They both start with C, some letters in common. [00:47:07] But the basic difference is you can leave the pyramid if it's a cohort And you don't have as much robust attendance and engagement in the same level of resources as a center. So I definitely appreciate the verbiage of this motion, which ensures that there is universal access in every single high school pyramid to equitable and fully resourced and staffed AAP centers at the middle school level. [00:47:34] because we have too many kids leaving their high school pyramids which is a bus transportation issue yes but it's also disrupting students established friendship groups established social relationships and forcing them to move between high schools between middle schools between high schools and that is disruptive to their to their learning it's disruptive to tune outcomes and what we're really looking to do is make sure that every child can receive a world-class education wherever they live whatever school they attend and thus have the maximum opportunity to achieve the American dream. Thank you. [00:48:11] Ms. Marin. Yes well I appreciate the conversation and the interest of my colleagues in trying to expand access and I think that's why we are committing to the boundary policy process. One of those tenets of the four is to expand access. I do think the board needs to be clear about how we continue on with past directives of a board. While I was on the October 2020 board at that time going forward today in September 25 as if that was just yesterday, it's imprudent. We weren't going through the boundary review process five years ago. We also have not had a public discussion about expansion of AAP centers. We have not had a discussion about how the school division and how this board wants to [00:48:50] offer AAP. If every middle school has an AAP center, are they really centers? Isn't that just providing the quality of instruction that some of our students need it was mentioned that students go in a pod some of my constituents think it's segregation I have constituents who tell me how after students switch to a different school their neighborhood friends are left behind other kids are left back to feel like they aren't smart enough so the board needs to have a real conversation because also from what I'm aware of which is only my own research because the superintendent hasn't yet presented this to us but this is a very [00:49:26] old and outdated model other school divisions when they're doing best practices do not segregate children and bust them other places I also want to you know we're already adjusting for all these different needs you know in middle school the students can take honors they could take electives they could take all these other things so the system is already trying to beef up the needed curriculum so again why does how is it a center it's not like elementary school but again we're just so missing the conversation I also think that we're starting to overload the community we have to remember that some people are unemployed they're [00:50:05] losing their jobs it's stressful we're doing this boundary process do we really expect that people will come out and be part of yet another engagement process not to mention the staff you know and I know Dr. Reed you know wants to commit to doing everything but I don't think that doing this fast when we've already got the boundaries and Western High School to be decided in January by January They're also going to throw in adding a bunch of AAP centers when, again, the board has not had a public deliberation with current data and best practices about what is best to provide advanced academic instruction to children. We know that the superintendent has a 2E, a twice exceptional [00:50:46] group. We have not heard those findings. I'm the liaison to the board's academic advising the public committee and they're doing all sorts of information that I know this board has not looked at. So I really urge my colleagues to, you know, just hold that enthusiasm for just a few weeks more until we get to the boundary phase part, and then let's see where things shake out. [00:51:08] Because why not have more career tech programs? Why is AAP any more important than career tech? There's no HVAC system, no HVAC program in the northern part, there's all sorts of things we could ask for. So I will not be voting in favor of this motion. Thank you, Ms. Marin. [00:51:26] Miss Dixit. Thank you Mr. McDaniel for bringing this motion I'm in support of this mostly like fact finding trying to find information I'm open to that I also want to see the cost implications as we are going to be into a little tough budget situation so would be interested to see how much of the fiscal neutral because as my my fellow board member said the busing takes a lot of time [00:52:02] and also resources and there's also other expenses which comes with these AAP centers but there is a benefit of that my my my son was in the AAP center but was a bit far from the house and they had to stay in the bus for like 30, 40 minutes every day, both like going to school and coming back. [00:52:26] So if you had been his other school, it would have been so much easier with 10 minutes right at the max. So and the extracurricular programs, I think, are offered more at the center schools, so they have more access to those competitions and things like that. [00:52:46] and it's it thing is open doors to a lot of the students who are not participating in if we have it in all schools so my vote would be to uh definitely figure out how can can we do this and um and i'm open to that proposal to see what uh dr bray dr reed brings it uh to us by march thank you ms tixit thank you and i appreciate this conversation um first i want to thank the the maker I want to speak once thank the maker the first motion I've heard a lot [00:53:23] from the Annandale community as well and many of the feeder schools but the importance of an AAP Center there so I thank you for the motion yeah yeah I was in the room yeah so thank you for bringing that I'm happy to support it as far as the follow-on motion I'm also happy to support this I think there are many many initiatives that we want to do and many good conversations we need to have and we can still have them because this follow-on motion simply asked Dr. [00:53:48] read to bring back a plan we will still have to have a conversation about budgetary impacts if any and there's time at that point when we have a more details of what that plan would look like I for one think it is a great idea to expand access at every middle school to an AAP Center too often we have children going out of their pyramid for AAP in elementary school and then coming back to their pyramid others leaving the pyramid it is it is such a cause of children being in and out of their pyramid adding to transportation costs, but most importantly impacting a student's ability to maintain those bonds and connections that are so important and as we've seen over the [00:54:25] research over the last ten years and more, starting to recognize the vital importance of the sense of connection and belonging to students' academic success. Having said that, one of the things that I felt very important, one of the reasons I wanted to be on this board was to expand access to educational opportunities and expand access to help foster student strengths. Those students Students who have an academic strength and need to be in an academic AAP Center Program, a level four center program, deserve to have that at their base school. [00:54:55] They shouldn't have to choose between leaving their neighborhood and the academics that they need. And this will allow us to expand that access and remove the barrier. I know too many students who had to choose between providing child care for younger siblings and going to AAP in elementary school. [00:55:13] I know too many students who at that critical middle school years had to choose between leaving friends I know too many families who are juggling two different schedules because of one child in AAP and one child not it is really important to provide this access and I'm really glad that we're exploring that opportunity so thank you to the makers of the motion I'm happy to support it Mr. Moon I thank you thank you Madam Chair thank you Mr. thank you Mr. McNair for putting up this follow-up motion I still do have a couple of questions to ask I don't know whether it will go to you or Dr. Reed would you Dr. [00:55:50] read perhaps first if this motion passes would you interpret this as something that board may want to implement from August or 2026 and possibly may have to you may have to incorporate in upcoming boundary recommendations but this is going to affect the enrollment at the middle schools I do not think that starting bringing a plan forward in March and trying to implement [00:56:23] in august is really five months it's it's not likely that any plan would be implemented in the fall of 26 there would need to be more thoughtful planning done so i think at the soonest it could be implemented or at least the beginnings of a plan could be implemented in the fall of 27. [00:56:44] so if this were brought to the board comprehensive plan were brought to the board in march and if the the board gave you full blessing, go with the full force, but you will still not be able to implement that. [00:56:59] Is that by August of 2020, is that your assessment? - Yes. - 'Cause I don't wanna give a first message out to public that with all the boundary discussion going on, whether this is gonna be another big factor into that discussion. [00:57:19] - So I haven't begun the planning yet because you haven't voted to direct me to do so, but I think that it may not be possible to bring every other middle school online even in the same year. [00:57:36] We have to be thoughtful about any significant change of this magnitude. There's a reason likely that this wasn't done a number of years ago, right? So I would really wanna be thoughtful about planning this and be thoughtful that whatever I bring you in March, it may be a multi-year phase-in plan of bringing all middle schools on board with a program because we wanna make sure the program's thoughtful. [00:58:04] There are certification requirements for teachers who teach in the advanced academic program. And there's not, we can't just dissemble current centers and have enough staff to cover every middle school. So there's some, we have to backwards plan, right? [00:58:20] Because we wanna engineer success for our children and our staff. So I would predict that whatever plan I bring to you in March would not begin the implementation till the fall of 27 and likely it would not be a full scale move in the fall of 27. [00:58:36] It likely will take several years because we have to build the capacity of our staff to provide the programming in all middle schools. - Thank you, thank you for your thought, for responses. I think that provides a lot of clarification toward this motion. - Yes, sir. [00:58:53] - Ms. St. John Kenning. - Thank you. I am really happy to see this motion. Like many of my colleagues, I believe that every student and all students can raise, can rise to, are capable to rise to the level of expectation that is presented to them. [00:59:15] And sometimes that comes at different times. And if you are not at a specific center, then you may not have that opportunity. I think every school should be offering advanced academic program I don't think we should call it a center it should be just an advanced academic program across the board for middle schools eventually across the board for elementary schools because it does help those students to be in a school that is in their neighborhood and it also helps them to sometimes be those role models for those kids that are right on that [00:59:55] verge of being able to advance and I've seen that happen so many times but if If you segregate those kids out, then that opportunity is lost. And so we are providing academic support for those kids that need it at that level. [01:00:12] But there's also leadership opportunities and the development of that child in other capacities that will make them a strong individual in helping support other students as well. So this is something that I know will take time and that it does have to be done thoughtfully. [01:00:29] But I think it's some we got to start with the first step and we got to start moving there and I think that eventually we'll get there but I am really happy to see this because I have seen this work in other schools that become local level fours and elementary schools and all of a sudden these kids that would not have gone to the center are taking this advanced classes and that's what we want. [01:00:53] We want that opportunity for all our kids. So I'm happy to support this. Thank you. I'm going to go ahead and take a turn real fast and then we've got some go backs. The cool part about the implementation of a plan like this means that we don't actually need community engagement because if we offer it at every school, then it's not necessarily talking. [01:01:14] The other cool part is that it's not actually going to impact boundaries because you're not moving kids and it doesn't impact capacity the same way we can actually keep kids in the base school where we expected them to be. So there are some benefits to this coming up with this plan. I also see a huge, this was one of the first conversations I had with Dr. Reid after I came on the board, is that I agree wholeheartedly that we need to review our current AAP offerings and figure out what our plan is moving forward. [01:01:39] I see this as a best time to plant a tree as 30 years ago or today, is that we're just going to get started here and then have that be an ability, give us the ability to open up a larger conversation in the future. So I wholeheartedly agree with this. I also think that this is essential if we're going to continue along the path that I hope that we're absolutely going to continue related to TGA admissions is that if we have offerings at every school, or if we're taking kids from every school, then we need to best prepare them to be successful in those locations. [01:02:10] So as far as I know, there could potentially also be cost savings related to reducing transportation costs and in addition I think that because we're we're educating children in classes anyways it's not necessarily an additional cost in the same way that we would expect because of the fact that the students are just identified for a particular class within a school so I see nothing but positives here I do necessarily I absolutely agree that we need to do some work on the back end to make sure that we are still headed in the direction that we want to be headed [01:02:45] but I think that this is just a stop along that path so I'm in support we're moving on to go backs with Miss lady so just a couple of points of clarification I was referencing when kids travel sort of as a pod that is the AP court cohort in an AP center I'm not a huge fan of that I do believe in the high school model that it might be the kids take everything at the advanced level but it might be that they don't but we need high academic expectations of all learners I do think this is going to be cost neutral or save money because as my colleague reference transportation is going to change I think at present I [01:03:24] have kids who could walk to Herndon middle but they are on a bus to go to Hughes so these kinds of things will change and in terms of boundaries you're going to your neighborhood school I also agree I think people need to fully understand this is a plan that dr. Reed's gonna bring it's gonna be a scaffolded implementation because it takes time and the other thing I'll say as I was at Marshall High School we transitioned from AP to IB and the IB training theory is that you know if you teach IB you teach standard and so the more teachers we get trained in advanced academics that also teach standard kids [01:04:00] the better the teaching is across the board again the more PD we can get for teachers and more enhances so it's in their toolkit but I think it's important people to understand that that would be my vision and it was always when I was working to build a master schedule I didn't want someone teaching just AP I like people teaching AP but I like them teaching some courses scaffold at different levels and I think it's important I think it helps our kids and I think it helps the teaching that's taking place so again just want to you know and and ultimately we would lose the term Center you would just go to [01:04:36] your middle school because that's it would have all the programming that you need I think it's time that we do we start making sure that our neighborhood schools have all the program our kids need instead of taking them away from their neighborhood schools because of a program that's that they don't have so again I'm very excited about this motion but do understand that this is going to take some time and I'll be patient in that process thank you Miss lady mr. [01:05:01] Dunn I I just want to highlight I love this as a template for future issues that we come across that we want to address whether it's world languages or CTE programs or other things because this is all about establishing a plan having the board review the plan and then executing against the plan for a number of years and as I talked ad nauseam at the last board meeting I really like plans because without plans you know it's just a bunch of people going in different directions so a plan is something that you can put on paper you can publish to [01:05:39] the public and then hold FCPS accountable to accountable to over over a number of years and perhaps over a number of superintendents because sometimes progress takes a very long time I think this is great and I hope this does become a model for other advances progress that we're looking to make in order to ensure universal access equal access to programming no matter what high school pyramid or what neighborhood you live in thank you mr. [01:06:11] dunn miss Marin so again I support expanding access to opportunities I also support planning out the work and the resources to make that happen you know in the near future reviewing the calendar ahead leading up to March 2026 we have the boundary work scheduled to complete in January 26 the Western High School programming at the same time just got word that our joint facility review committee of which myself and another member on with the Board of Supervisors a new committee that is tasked with finding budget savings on our facilities [01:06:47] that's going to start at the end of October and there's like five or six meetings between then and March that are going to need our staff in budget facilities and operations to help us make the best case to the Board of Supervisors about where we can find savings that's going to take a lot of work and we have a companion committee on technology we are also going to be developing the budget which again last year included no new investments and developing the comprehensive The Capital Improvement Program, General Assembly Advocacy. [01:07:17] So, you know, we had conversations about expanding world language, and we could have all the best ideas, but if we don't have money and time, we are really just -- it's not going to happen. So I'm concerned that this is putting forth a new initiative. [01:07:33] When the superintendent last year presented in her budget a budget without any new initiatives, we didn't get 120 million dollars and now we're approving a new initiative with zero dollars attached to this I heard more training for PD looking at international baccalaureate as a model wonderful program very expensive we're going to need time and by the way all of our elementary school teachers they're still learning how to implement the brand new reading program that is in year two so you know we need to do the work to get the money sorry I didn't mean to do that but [01:08:09] We just I just don't understand how we're going to do this well and again the best practice is not to create centers from what I understand because I haven't been publicly briefed about it. Thank you Miss Marin. I will call for a vote on the motion which will momentarily be on the screen. [01:08:29] All those in favor Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Miss Dixit, Ms. Seizmerheiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch and myself those opposed? [01:08:48] Ms. Marin. Will the clerk please read the vote? The vote's 11-1 the motion carries. Agenda item 7.01 performance review instructional program EL-9 monitoring report. Each year the school board assesses the superintendent in part on the basis of the school division's reasonable progress towards achieving the 2023 to 30 strategic plan goals and adherence to a set of 13 executive limitations found on pages 14 through 31 of the board's strategic governance manual. [01:09:22] The superintendent provides annual monitoring reports to the board for each executive limitation. The board then votes on whether the provided report is in compliance or if corrective action is needed. I call on Dr. Reed for a monitoring report on executive limitation 9 instructional program. [01:09:39] So thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board and public, as the chair just mentioned, I'll be presenting executive limitation nine, which discusses the instructional program here in FCPS. So paraphrasing this evening, the executive limitation nine talks about maintaining a program of instruction for all students within the division strategic plan goals. [01:10:08] And at the time of this report, to the best of my knowledge, information and belief, I've gathered information and evidence that I believe supports compliance with the Board's executive limitation associated with this topic and would like to share some highlights this evening. [01:10:23] There are currently 11 areas of executive limitation 9. On the slide before you, we have items 1 through 5, and on the second slide, we have items six through eleven and for those watching at home the entire monitoring report is attached to board docs and feel free to follow along this evening i will highlight some of the newly added or updated areas of executive limitation nine so one of the things we looked at on may 22nd 2025 budget follow [01:11:00] on motion update I wanted to provide an update on that as it was an opportunity to report back in this executive limitation and that was the request so as you see in the chart the both the elementary special education department chairs and AART's remained level this school year so the follow-on motion update generates information that was consistent with the board direction on On the next slide, under new and newly added information, we have some updates regarding our work around inclusion. [01:11:39] And again, there's a lot in the report that's not new or updated, but that we consistently manage. But these are new year over year. We continue to partner with our inclusion experts to support schools as we identify areas of growth. This work includes improvements to the IEP process, our staffing models to remove systemic barriers to inclusion, and having a series of asynchronous professional development modules on inclusive practices for all staff, some of which will be rolled out, I believe, later next month in October, which is our Division Professional Development Day. [01:12:16] In January, the Superintendent's Advisory Committee for Twice Exceptional Programming was launched, and that was a new committee last year. The committee is working on reviewing current structures and practices that impact our twice exceptional learners and offering recommendations at increasing access and development of unique programming for our twice exceptional students. [01:12:38] One of the outcomes of that group was also information that was handed out at back to school nights this evening or this evening this fall for back to school nights as well as creating definitions and a framework that will build on the twice exceptional. [01:12:56] handbook that was developed several years ago another bit of new or newly added information were the secondary grading and reporting guidelines that were updated for school year 2526 the FCPS learning model which represents the instructional vision vision for best practices in teaching and learning and this model was updated over last year's to match up and align with our strategic plan goals as well as teacher evaluation performance standards. [01:13:29] The basal resources that were purchased last year were new kindergarten through sixth grade and will be continued to be used. And our English language development common assessments will be fully implemented the school year and these help us monitor our multilingual learner student progress. [01:13:45] Those are all new pieces in our instructional programming. Another section of new or newly added information, staff is working to develop a plan for expanding our CTS programming and services, our career and transition support programming and services. [01:14:05] As we've noted, we've expanded access to Algebra 1 in 6th grade this year, and we continue to enroll more students in Algebra 1 by 8th grade with the same very high Algebra 1 pass rates in grades 6 through 8 as you've seen previously. We're also just really excited about the opportunity to provide these opportunities for our learners. [01:14:29] As we shared in previous academic matters, our Algebra Power-Up, which occurred during the summer for the first time this year, combined our AVID strategies with a transition into Algebra I for 8th grade and middle school. And finally, to support learning over the summer, we created a Summer Learning Resources webpage for families who have students currently in grades K through six one of the things we're working on right now is making sure that our younger students are able to take their devices home more regularly that way they spend less time on screen in the classroom and if they want to use screen time for support at [01:15:07] home that is preferable at this point as well as making sure next summer those Those will be accessible to students to take home for the summer to match our resources online. So at this time, Madam Chair, this concludes the summary of the Monitoring Report for Executive Limitation 9. [01:15:24] I want to add one point just at the end because this is our instructional executive limitation. I want to make sure that the Board knows that I'll be drafting and bringing for your consideration an increase in our graduation requirements around mathematics as part of an instructional program strategy which would start with next year's seventh grade class but I do think we need to think about requiring algebra trig as a graduation requirement a number of majority of other states already require that Virginia does not but it is a key skill set for our students to have that level of mathematic understanding when they leave Fairfax County Public Schools for [01:16:04] trade and technical school it's a necessity to pass apprenticeship exams it's a necessity it's the foundation on which the SAT exams are written it's a gatekeeping course for many chemistry and physics courses so I think that even if our state is not requiring it as a graduation requirement it's I think plausible that we join 40 other states in this country and require it here in Fairfax County Public Schools so I'll be drafting that with our instructional services team with a phase-in approach because we want to make sure our [01:16:36] students are aware of the requirement in plenty of time to be able to complete that requirement. So Madam Chair thank you for the opportunity to present EL9. Thank you Dr. Reed. I now call on Ms. Dixit for a motion. I move that the school board finds that the superintendent is in compliance with executive limitation number nine instructional program. I further move that the school board approved the monitoring report based on the super reasonable interpretation of [01:17:15] executive limitation number nine instruction program as outlined in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second? Second. Thank you Mr. McDaniel. Ms. Tixit would you like to speak to your motion? I would just like to say that Dr. Reid you know the algebra in you know eighth grade is it's a step in the right direction but what you envision is actually the trig and algebra as a graduation. I totally agree 100%. We are in that competitive world right now our students are going to be facing a lot more challenges and you know just to get [01:17:54] a decent job and with the changing environment. So I think it's it's amazing and I definitely would like to see this moving forward. Yeah thank you Miss Dixit. The current research says math limits 84% of your career choices And algebra trig is a cornerstone of that. [01:18:14] And if our students are completing algebra in eighth grade, geometry in ninth, that gives them three years still to, right, you could be in algebra trig by 10. So I think it's a very reasonable requirement as long as we start with a phase in. Mr. McDaniel, would you like to speak to your second? [01:18:33] Just that, you know, this board is getting to the point where we're about going to be halfway through our term. And speaking for myself, I know when I get to the end of my term, I want to look back and really be able to point to instances where we keep raising the bar of academic expectations. [01:18:50] That's really what this EL, what I really focus on with this EL. It just happened that this EL came tonight after the previous conversation that we just had. It was totally random. But you've been very consistent at raising the bar on academics across the entire division. [01:19:05] So happy to second and support. Mr. Dunn. Thank you. Can you provide more information on the current status of the implementation of the science of reading the benchmark literacy curriculum sure we continue actually it's year two of the basal curriculum and our elementary team has been working really hard the reading plans also which are a requirement i think the state requires those k-8 and fairfax county requires those to be added for [01:19:41] the ninth through twelfth graders because we know that not every student benefited from the early literacy curriculum work and the science of reading because it's a very recent initiative in the last several years our elementary staff have I think this year seen the the year two of the curriculum is much smoother I think teachers have become more comfortable with it and students are more comfortable knowing the routines because they've had a year of practice of those routines prior to the next year so we're excited about some of the progress and as you recall mr. [01:20:16] done. Last year was the first year we had multilingual student-paired materials for literacy, which we've never had in the division previously. And so that's a body of work that our multilingual staff, in concert with our general education staff, have really done a fabulous job of learning how to braid that into our literacy work. So we're hoping for much stronger data this year because, you know, it's brand new last year. So we're really hoping to see some growth this year that's great um can you advise like what level of complaints you've received about the benchmark curriculum I've [01:20:53] received a few but certainly not the same volume as last year so I think that we have students at times that have said that it's not the most exciting literature and I would probably agree it's teaching reading right and writing it's also requiring a lot more writing than we had traditionally been doing which I really appreciate I think where we as staff I think have one year of its use I I think there's a lot it's a lot smoother than it originally was so I [01:21:28] think I've received fewer concerns about it this year and I also want to note that there is no perfect curriculum right that they're gonna be we hope children are reading at home that they're utilizing our public libraries um and our school libraries our librarians work really hard to make sure we have books that are high interest for children so if they're not seeing some of the literature in the benchmark that might you know spark that curiosity that they'll find those books in our libraries i think we have some of the best librarians in the country and i've seen some of the book [01:22:03] collections and they're amazing so i think there's always a balance but i haven't heard as many concerns this year as I did last year I agree with you can can you advise I know that there was some discussion in past board meetings about introducing a new math curriculum that might I don't think it's called the science of math but is do you have plans or are you already implementing a new math curriculum in our elementary schools we are still in that selection process we're piloting a few different curricula we know that a high quality curriculum is critical we have to have that and I know there's not a science of math but I'm going to share [01:22:42] that direct explicit instruction of mathematics is just as important as direct explicit instruction of literacy so I think there's a high need for our young learners to master basic math facts because your ability to have fluent numeracy is important just as fluency and reading is important so more to come on a new math curriculum, but we should have something on board for the fall of '26. [01:23:12] And for those new math curricula, are you looking at best practices from Finland, Singapore, South Korea, countries that have, you know, high achievement in math outcomes? I know the committee is looking at a lot of those, the best practice for sure, and research-based strategies. I know that the TIMS report, which is the International report on math and science. [01:23:35] One of the issues they continue to raise year after year with the United States is how much review we do. We tend to review more than most other countries. So that often as our children get older, our scores become less and less competitive. [01:23:51] So I think what we want to do is make sure that whatever curriculum we select that, you know, that we're able to minimize some of the reviewing because the new content in mathematics is also very important to get to um i i met with uh an elementary school uh leadership recently and they mentioned that they had lost um seven instructional staff as a result of the budget cuts last year that were mentioned early in your report um some of those were classroom monitors some of them were um you know positions lost due to the trade-offs to maintain right the aart uh [01:24:28] full-time and the sped share and i just wanted to ask you know we're we're asking in that context for that school and other schools in a similar position for them to achieve the same mission with you know seven people's a lot right um in an elementary school that's fairly small um how you know is is there anything that we can do to to bolster staffing right within the limits of of our budget to enable um you know elementary schools to have the resources they need because Among the challenges are that you'll have a part-time ART or full-time ART doing the [01:25:07] young scholars and many other missions, and each of those missions is a full person, right? So how can we make sure that we keep on track, especially with advanced math and other important kind of division-wide goals if we're asking them to—we're not cutting back the requirements, right? [01:25:28] But we are cutting back the staff. So I think that that's something we're going to have to look at in our upcoming budget discussions is how we allocate staff. And I think we clearly need to make sure that our classrooms are focused on first, right? [01:25:44] But I think that's a definite conversation we're going to have to have with the budget moving forward. When we're not fully funded, it creates a situation that results in tough choices. And I think in the current budget environment, we can't expect more money given the cuts to Medicaid and other federal programs that is going to just put a huge hole in the state budget. [01:26:06] So I just ask, you know, not to come up with any solutions off the cuff, but definitely for us to think about how to be more efficient or make sure that we are adjusting the requirements at the school-based level if we're not providing them all the staff, rather than stretching staff then and asking them to meet unrealistic objectives. [01:26:28] Can you talk more about what we're doing to help students who are falling behind? I mean, we've talked in the past about the Spring Sprouts program, which is a great program, but as we've also talked about, that mainly helps the school in terms of reducing the chronic absenteeism, but it doesn't necessarily catch up the student in terms of learning. [01:26:47] And I do worry about students who fall behind, that we don't necessarily have a system to bring them back up on the grade level so is is is there a plan since I like plans that could be developed in a system that could be implemented or considered or thought about to to help students who do fall behind or who may arrive at FCPS's door already behind and and and and there might not be the resources especially at the middle school and high school level to get them back up up to speed yes sir so one of the plans that we did have um was our high impact tutoring and that's [01:27:25] really garnered um some very positive results i just saw a note this evening um miss lemon do you want to just share quickly if you can bring that email up i think you were copied on it while miss lemon brings that email up i think we did have a comprehensive division-wide plan for high impact tutoring and i'd like her to share uh the data and kind of give me a sign when you're ready - I'm ready. [01:27:48] - All right, let's hear it. - So for 2024, 2025, students who did not receive tutoring in reading averaged a six point increase on their SOLs, and students who did receive tutoring from our all in Virginia high impact tutoring program, they averaged 14 points increase. [01:28:08] And then with mathematics, again, students who did not receive tutoring, they did an average of eight point growth, and students who were participating in the tutoring did a plus 15 so really supported the acceleration that we were looking to get so our high impact tutoring plan worked however that money is no longer in the budget so we're going to have to look at how that plan came to be and how we might otherwise fund and support that work because we know it works the importance of getting fully funded thank you Mr. Dunn that was your time I [01:28:47] I can put you on a go back. Dr. Anderson. I'm very glad to follow that high impact tutoring because as I reviewed my notes from last year, that was one of the questions that I had asked. What is the impact of the high impact tutoring? And so thank you for sharing that. And it would be great if that was just embedded in here as well. We just got the note tonight. You just got it tonight. I believe it just came in like two hours ago. It wasn't in time. Just kind of going through what is here. [01:29:20] If you could speak a little bit more clearly to the strategy of homework that you've outlined on page two I believe of the report where you're talking about homework and the grading of homework. I want to be sure that community and staff are clear on what those expectations are because I know we've had much more extensive discussions about it which might be helpful for all to hear. [01:29:46] Yes ma'am we did re institute or reinforce the idea of homework and I'm just trying to pull up my page here real quick and I think that it's a critical skill set for our young people to learn and the younger the age that that behavior is practiced the better. [01:30:08] I don't know about the rest of you but I take things home still to work on on occasion and And it's something that's an important really executive functioning skill we're looking for among our youngest learners and our middle and high school students. [01:30:24] We put some guardrails around the expectation, which is we should never have homework that is anything other than practicing something that's already been taught. In other words, it's an opportunity to practice a skill that's already been presented, modeled, practiced, and worked on in a class. [01:30:43] It also can be used for reading at elementary. I think that children become better readers when they read more. There's a lot of research around that. We know that fine and performing arts students often are asked to practice instruments at home or practice lines or moves. [01:31:01] We know that many student athletes practice some kind of a sport or activity outside the school day. It's a natural part really of learning and growth not all learning happens directly in the classroom. So we want to recognize that effort as well and recognizing that effort within our formative grading structure made the most sense. [01:31:24] So I know that there's you know a little back and forth right now because parents are busy and so forth and I'm going to say really that it's really something that we expect students should be able to manage even if parents are busy right that this is a skill we hope and expect that our that our young middle and high school students are able to complete homework as a part of a of a learning experience here with us sure absolutely can you speak to the point regarding equity because there's conversations that if a student has maybe Mr. Dunn as the parent they're going to go home and review everything it's going to come back 100% correct and [01:32:04] if a student happens to have me as a parent and I'm busy doing other things and they don't have that additional support how are we addressing that piece which I know is a high concern for many communities so many of our parents who are the busiest parents have said they want their students to have homework because they want them to have an opportunity to practice skills whether they're working you know two or three jobs or taking care of other family members but there's a I think we make a lot of assumptions about what families [01:32:39] do or don't want in terms of homework or rigor for their students and I I think that in the parent groups and I meet with many many different parents across the division each year there's really a hope that they are able to see what their students are working on and can partner with their children to be successful in school for those students who have less adult support when they get home again the expectation is that homework is not new learning but it's practice of learning that's already occurred in the classroom and they're they won't necessarily be penalized for not being 100 correct [01:33:17] but rather the effort of completing the work would be the focus that's correct in particular reading logs right there's i don't know how you incorrectly read for 20 minutes unless you just don't do it but you know we have like I said fabulous library collections to enable access to high quality literature for our children for our music program you know I've kind of stated that but it's not intended to be a gotcha or a penalty it's intended to be something that builds strong healthy habits for our young people a habit of mine thank you last year when we completed this I also [01:33:56] ask questions regarding rigor how that would be measured and to ensure consistency across the division one of the things one of the strategies that you shared that would be utilized are the common assessments right please provide an update of that how is that going what is that showing because I don't see that being reflective here yes ma'am and that is critical because we heard some concerns that if we're in a certain part of the county a particular math class was not as rigorous as in another part of the county and we want to dispel those rumors and concerns because we believe that we have high rigorous instruction across [01:34:32] all schools in the county and should be accessible to all children as far as an update on the common assessment initiative I'm gonna call on Miss Lemon I know you've been very involved in that do you have a minute or two just to kind of where are we with that and what are we expecting as a result of that sure we are having windows for common assessments for different subject levels and then we have reporting out to the regions and the schools who's participated in those common assessments during that window and then schools have [01:35:07] the ability to really work together to kind of benchmark one another and to work with their regions and it also supports our team and resources and seeing what schools might need additional supports and resources to ensure that you know children are growing and moving we also have it on our dashboard and I would love to see that is that something that you can share with us again that doesn't have to be entire dashboard but a screenshot because I would love to get a sense of what is happening with those common assessments because I believe from what Miss Lemmon just shared are they optional because you said some schools [01:35:47] have completed them and some schools have not can you speak to their the common assessments are not optional there's just a window so there's a window for which the school can choose to take the test okay thank you for that so what are we finding where are we having great success and consistency across the division and where do we have more work to do so I would want to before I speak publicly about that go back to the dashboard and be very clear about that but I'm happy to provide in an upcoming Friday letter a static point in time picture from the dashboard yes that would be very much appreciated one of the [01:36:24] things I also notice here is a professional development regarding rolling grade book which I think is important because I don't think we have had fidelity with utilizing rolling grade book and with its intent it's just been something that we say but it hasn't had the provisions behind it but what I did not see is what is going to be provided for the middle schools that are still using rolling gradebook because we have high school courses high school credit courses happening at the middle school level which will follow those students and on their transcripts. Can you speak to that a little bit. Sure. Yeah. We did not want to add one more [01:37:03] thing to middle school teachers this year so we're not doing any requirement to use a particular gradebook at middle school at this time. If they are teaching high school courses I believe that's where they work with their high school colleagues but i'll turn to dr presidio because the rolling grade book is an anomaly to me uh here so i'll have dr presidio talk about it yeah so i think as dr reed already mentioned the focus for rolling grade book implementation division-wide is for high schools and school year 26 27 and that came out of the work that the board did last december passing the new grading and reporting policy wanting to get [01:37:43] consistency with practices but as dr. Reid mentioned we're starting with high schools in 26 27 so those are the teachers that we're focusing on with coaching support professional development individuals at the middle school level can choose based on conversations with their administrative team whether or not to use a rolling gradebook some were previously some were not so if teachers need help with anything whether it's technical setup of a rolling grade book and the student information system or best practices we're more than happy to provide on-site support but we're not doing any coordinated professional development for middle schools because we want them [01:38:21] focused on some of the other priorities like algebra by eighth grade sure absolutely and i don't disagree with giving them the opportunity to focus on some of their priorities but there is a gap there is a gap because we do have a number of teachers at that level who are using the rolling grade book which may not be to students advantages without the proper training I'll take a go back please thank you Dr. Anderson um Mr. Moon thank you Madam Chair Dr. Reed thank you for the presentation I have a few questions regarding basal resources I'm looking at your [01:38:55] report page number four at the bottom I think we all do remember that adoption of social studies basal resources was postponed or delayed being delayed due to the budget adjustments we had to make and so schools yes teachers are purchasing one-year digital subscriptions is that actually the division purchased one-year [01:39:28] the year before whether dad actually resulted in savings we believe it was far less expensive than or I don't know exactly what the numbers were but I know the point of this was not to purchase spend more money so dr. Presidio do you have a cost for the digital subscriptions for one year no not off the top of my head and also since couple of colleagues already mentioned about in a [01:40:03] budget another difficult budget year what impacts will not having a major resources adopted for another year how would that impact us in teaching and learning in social studies or any any basic resources. [01:40:24] Well I think that right now the lack of basal resources in mathematics will continue to be problematic for our ability to provide the best math experience possible that's consistent. [01:40:41] We talk often about being a school system and not a system of schools and having a basal curriculum. I think Mr. McElveen and I was trying to remember on the first day of school or maybe it was the second we were going through classrooms and actually a different schools and very much so saw very similar content in our literacy curriculum not you know in a pragmatic way but we were able to see concepts taught across grade levels which is what a school system has and when you have that level of basic curriculum we have that ability to see that across an entire county. [01:41:18] So I think, you know, we've waited one year for math. We postponed social studies. I don't think we can do both in the same year. So social studies may flip behind math. But that's in a budget that's as tight as ours right now. [01:41:35] I think we're going to have to make choices that are difficult. I mean, we're not, you know, deliberating budget right now. We're not. If it comes to that, if it comes to that, I'm hoping that we'll have a plan to be able to provide in the support the students and teachers deserve. [01:41:53] And with that said, another question that I have is the very last sentence on the same page at the bottom is schools have the options to purchase additional print textbooks. So are you implying that all the schools have a necessary resources to purchase additional print textbooks? [01:42:19] So there's a long standing tradition here, which I think I learned about in my second year here, where we don't buy textbooks for every student at the secondary level, but if schools want to, like there is an adopt, well I'm going to let Dr. Presidio explain it because you're the one that explained it to me as I was asking a lot of questions. So Dr. Presidio, the long-standing instructional services. Yeah, the short answer to this is this particular sentence is meant to indicate that if a school was short a number of needed textbooks hard copy [01:42:55] textbooks that they would use their instructional supply allocation that they get to purchase those additional textbooks so for example maybe they have an increase in student enrollment maybe some of the textbooks were lost or damaged over the last seven years of the adoption cycle that's why we provide the schools with those site-based funds to be able to make those purchases we just wanted everybody to know given the fact that we delayed the new adoption of materials that we extended the contract so that we could purchase new print materials as well as [01:43:24] digital materials off that contract you know what I'm trying to get at is whether you see a you know among among different scores why different practices of a purchasing putting copies no that that's not been the case we've always whenever we've done an adoption we've given clear guidance about the expectation and different times it's been different sometimes it was there needed to be just a class set of hardcopy materials and students could check those out if they needed to check them out and take them home other adoptions we did class sets and then [01:44:03] individual copies for students in the the major difference of why we've done it differently at different years is how much funding we had available to purchase the materials okay thank you thank you mr. thank you and first I just wanted to pass on a compliment I know the look on our face that I heard from 2e families as they started the school year and they got an email from the AART to the 2e family specifically saying please let us know how I can help you I'm [01:44:40] here to support your student and they were very pleasantly surprised and happy except that's the first time they felt acknowledged in that way at least that's what some of them shared with me so I wanted to pass that on to your team that the efforts are being seen and folks I know sometimes the good stuff doesn't get passed down so I wanted to pass it to you I am very excited about this report I think we're doing a lot of really good things a couple things when we talk about the basal curriculum to pick up from my colleague on social studies I think it's important as we're moving into those budget chairs are moving into the budget season you know I had a brief conversation with miss burden about this earlier about talking about what the impact last year was on [01:45:18] the things that we couldn't do and what that means and how the you know the literacy basal curriculum for example that the board funded a few years ago and the impact that has made right and the impact of having to delay the social studies curriculum and perhaps delayed even longer depending on where our budget situation falls I just think that knowledge is power so I think that is important I am thrilled about the algebra work that we're doing in the early math work we're doing and I'm thrilled about the literacy work that we started before that I still have the question around literacy work that's come up before for the students who didn't benefit from the science of reading the ones in middle and high school I had three meetings today with [01:45:57] special education families and this came up for some of our students with dyslexia who are now in high school but still behind in reading level so I would encourage you you don't need an answer today but encourage you and your staff to think about especially those who are behind into later grades as what are we doing to target interventions for them I understand that some of the budget you know we don't have the high impact tutoring but there are students who missed out on that so that's the first thing I would encourage you to look at I still think that there's room for understanding about dyslexia and how it how it manifests and it's great that we're talking about textbooks and books we've got to make sure in our language that we speak that we don't unintentionally [01:46:34] make someone feel bad if they're an audiobook or they're a different type of learner and I think there's a little bit of that happening from what I'm hearing from families so I think it's important to talk about access to you know all of these materials not necessarily reading so that is the first thing I would mention I think obviously reading is very important but however people can learn is the important thing to mention I am very happy to see this work on inclusion as we've talked about before the data is clear and the research is clear around these models I will say in some of my meetings today there is still [01:47:12] some concern about the fidelity of implementation of IEP processes and IEP GOALS IN GENERAL. SO I WOULD ENCOURAGE YOU. I'M GLAD WE'RE MAKING IMPROVEMENTS ON THE IEP PROCESS, BUT I ENCOURAGE YOU TO LOOK AT IMPROVEMENTS ON FIDELITY OF IMPLEMENTATION. [01:47:29] THANK YOU. THANK YOU. I ENCOURAGE THE PUBLIC TO GO AND LOOK AT THE REPORT BECAUSE IT DOES HAVE A LOT MORE INFORMATION. I'M JUST GOING TO REFER TO A COUPLE PAGES HERE. [01:47:44] First of all, great that high school instructional staff are getting that professional development on the rolling gradebook, but just for clarification purposes, can you explain that to our public? Because I think some people don't know what that means. Yes, ma'am. I'm going to have Dr. Presidio explain it. [01:48:05] So a rolling grade book differs from a traditional grade book. And I think most of us, when we went to school, probably were on a traditional grade book that at the end of a quarter or at the end of a semester, the grading window would close and you would have whatever grade you had for that term. [01:48:21] And then the next term would start over fresh and you would earn a new grade. And then at the end of the year, all those grades would be averaged together. A rolling grade book stays open from the first day of school till the last day of school. And it gives the opportunity for students to make up work that maybe they didn't master, you know, the month previously or the quarter or semester previously. [01:48:45] So it gives them more opportunities to demonstrate mastery. And, you know, one of the things that we've found that our teachers and our administrators really advocate for is that we believe that all of our students are capable of achieving at the highest standards. but we know that learning sometimes it takes a different amount of time for you know different individuals so the rolling grade book gives students that flexibility that if they didn't master something in the first quarter but they did it in the second quarter that their grade doesn't have to be averaged against their performance from a prior quarter now they've been able to demonstrate it they can get credit for that and they can continue to move on so that's the main difference with the rolling grade book and then there's you know technical things with [01:49:23] the setup and everything but that's the main difference thank you and then um on page five dr reed can you speak a little bit about the summer learning resource web page that you provided for families because i think that was a great resource and i really love that it was provided in different languages yes ma'am that was a new initiative uh this past summer and we hope to build on that for the coming summer um but it's really an opportunity for children not to LOSE A LOT OF THE GAINS THEY'VE MADE DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR. [01:49:54] THERE'S A TERM SUMMER SLIDE THAT'S OFTEN ATTRIBUTED TO STUDENTS LEARNING THEIR GRADE LEVEL MATERIAL AND THEN LEAVING SCHOOL FOR SIX TO EIGHT WEEKS AND THEN COMING BACK AND NOT MAYBE REMEMBERING EVERYTHING. SO WE WANT TO MAKE SURE AND NEXT SUMMER AS WELL, WE'RE GOING TO BE BUILDING OUT THOSE RESOURCES AND MAKING SURE THAT OUR CHILDREN ARE ABLE TO TAKE A DEVICE HOME OVER THE SUMMER if their family chooses to and be able to access those resources to maintain at least in the core academic areas, an opportunity to practice over the summer. [01:50:30] What we discover, I think, and what research tells us is one of the most important resources we have is time. And so how we choose to use time either during the school days before and after school, summers, weekends breaks can make all the difference for children that are either behind or children that have a desire to explore new content we're really examining all the ways in which we can use time differently thanks I love that and then okay page 7 and 8 world languages I think there's some really I [01:51:09] just would like for you to speak to the cohort of the students that earned the seals of bi literacy because I just think that's pretty amazing. So we're really excited about that the opportunity to earn a seal of bi literacy really recognizes our multilingual students in particular for their strengths and not seeing being multilingual as a challenge as much as it is a strength and I had a good time even our student board member, Faith, which she was at SAC this week, I asked the SAC group, like, how many of the [01:51:48] students in the room spoke more than one language? And it was easily two-thirds of the students in the room. And I think we need to recognize that many of our young people do speak multiple languages, and that is a strength. So I think that the opportunity and the promotion of the SEAL OF BILITERACY IS SOMETHING WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE. [01:52:09] YEAH. SO, JUST FOR THE RECORD, 4,041 OF OUR STUDENTS RECEIVED THE VIRGINIA SEAL OF BILITERACY. AND THAT'S AN AWARD MADE BY THE STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION. AND THAT'S -- I THINK THAT'S PRETTY IMPRESSIVE. YEAH, OVER 4,000, I THINK IT'S INCREDIBLE. [01:52:28] SO THANK YOU FOR NOTING THAT. I'LL MAKE SURE THE TEAM IS AWARE OF THAT. AND AGAIN, THESE ARE ALL THINGS THAT, YOU KNOW, WE'RE IN THE REPORT AND WE'RE NOT IN presentation. The question I was going to ask you is, you know, the success rate that we've seen with that, you know, high impact tutor tutoring and how we could expand and support that and the fact that there's no funding. I'll just go ahead. I mean, if you could just read some of the statistics, it's on page 15 in terms of what the impact was and their annual typical growth, [01:53:07] because that's very impressive so i'm going to um on page 15 of the report um and this was the all inver virginia funding which we were actually very grateful for and made extraordinary use of so we did have um not sure which data you want to prefer that i read but we did do in-person tutoring we had over 10 000 students that were tutored of those who participated in the reading Tutoring 38.9 passed their reading SOL with an average growth of 14 points from the prior year, which I think [01:53:47] Is really an extraordinary growth point For our young students and the math again, they had an average growth of 15 points from last year's math SOL so on average students in grades 3 through 8 who were below grade level and reading and received high-impact tutoring made 134% progress to their annual typical growth and um which um that's incredible um and on average elementary students in grades three through six who were below grade level in math and received high impact tutoring made 114 percent progress [01:54:24] in their annual typical growth as well as um close to 4 000 3 953 students or 41.61 percent that received tutoring had fewer absences this year compared to last year i think it matters when students feel like there's you know that level of support because we're often drawn to something we're motivated by doing something that feels good and when you're tutored and feel like you have more of a mastery and you're confident more confident as a learner I think it's easier to show up right every day so it [01:54:58] it's really shared some definitely positive data for us I just think that this is the kind of thing that we have to highlight to our funders and say we have seen and we have the data that shows this works. Right now we don't have funding for it. So we want to continue to be the stellar school system that we are. We need to be able to fund this programming. Then finally I would like you to speak a little bit along kind of the same trajectory but this is on page 17 the Twilight program because I think that's also really important for some of [01:55:34] our older students particularly some of the kids at work. Yes ma'am. So the Twilight program really is a flexible credit recovery program and support students on time graduation and we had 12 high schools participate this year serving 344 students which marked a 29% increase over the previous year of the students involved 95% were either promoted or graduated because of their coursework and this achieved the primary goals of the program wherein 426 [01:56:08] courses were completed over the 12 high schools thank you i think i could probably point to a lot more but those were the few that i just really wanted the public to to hear and to listen to see the success that we are um reaching and thanks to the hard work of all of the staff in our system so thank you for highlighting that yes ma'am miss tixit dr reed i just have a quick remark or maybe you need uh get your feedback uh you know ai is in everything in everyday life uh how is fcps [01:56:44] planning to incorporate AI for instruction design and also preparing a student for that future. Well so I'm really excited to share that we're going to be doing a presentation for the board on October 7th at our work session on AI and really an evening November 3rd I think we finally settled on that is we're titling meeting the moment right we feel like we are really needing to involve our community [01:57:20] in shaping the direction that we want to take with ai as we move forward and also level setting so we have a community-wide understanding of what we're talking about when we're talking about ai because it's become i think such a common term that i sometimes feel like i have one like bubble over my head about what i think it is but you might have a different bubble but we're sort of talking like we're talking about the same thing so i think the work session is going to be an opportunity to level set where we are as a school division and then the community evening is an opportunity to [01:57:54] bring our community to the table and talk about how we shape our future for our 22nd century skills we also have a strong partnership with ISTE the international society for technology and education richard collada is the ceo they've partnered with acsd ascd acsd and uh so we're very excited about that partnership we kicked off the third cohort of our lighthouse schools um earlier this week and you'll hear more about that partnership and what ai looks like um in that but we're very [01:58:31] excited about uh planning forward in that space mr dunfer go back i love the conversation about AI although I've been somewhat skeptical about AI generally but I wanted to just bring your attention to a new study that was published on September 16th by Google and the whole concept is learn your way is what they call it and it's personalized learning and it's actually the first usage of gender of AI and I'll circulate the PDF report to you but it's not just theoretical they [01:59:09] actually put together personalized content through their generative AI platform Gemini and then they went out and had it tested by independent experts which I think is exciting because they could take a single textbook which is you know locked in stone once it's printed right once it's published and they could from that through the AI drive content for different grade levels based on that single point of contact and also adapt it to different learning style so if you're an auditory learner if you're a visual learner if you're a kinesthetic learner they could adapt it just through this generative ai and i think that is so powerful [01:59:47] because that for me represents the most transformational application of ai that that i've seen outside of perhaps the medical and scientific fields and i think that really could help us to ensure that every child is getting the individualized support they need with the support of this robust platform, obviously with the oversight and assistance of an in-person human teacher, because those human social connections are what guide the learning process. [02:00:18] But I do hope that FCPS, being a leader in the AI in education field already, will actively look at this, and since it already has a partnership to some degree with Google, build on that, and see if we can pilot it to some extent. [02:00:36] Yes, sir. I know we're taking a look at that, as well as Conamigo. We've looked at that. And those follow into the high-impact tutoring ideas without sort of the human that is part of the process. [02:00:51] But definitely opens up doors for us, for our multilingual students, as well as students who just need a personalized support plan. And I think that's really all students these days. I think everyone needs a little bit of extra help. Thank you. Yes, sir. [02:01:07] Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I do have a question for Ms. McCombin. She had to leave, but she did ask me to ask her question, which is, can you share the specific developments, I'm sorry, the specific improvements in the IEP process? And she'll just take your answer. [02:01:22] Sure. Thank you. Dr. Presidio, you want to relay those, please? I know you've been working with Dr. Edmunds Hurd on that. Yeah. So there's a number of things that we've been working on. The first thing is we've been working with our consultants, the internet, actually they're international experts in the area of inclusion to review all of our IEP documents and our entire IEP process to make process improvements so one of the first things that we did is update our IEP checklist to really clarify the things that we want to make sure are discussed in every single IEP meeting [02:01:57] and we've included some of the new work that the board has done even recently with the cell phone accommodations for students with disabilities that's included on the IEP checklist now we've worked to make sure that as part of that process we're looking at the the ability for parents and students on the front end to really speak to student strengths because oftentimes in the past I think we jumped immediately to services that were needed without really fully exploring the strengths that students have and thinking about the types of accommodations and modifications that would enable them to be successful in the [02:02:35] general ed setting so we're working on that process and there's a lot more work that needs to be done but we're pretty excited to be partnering with the consultants we have again looking at every single document that we use in the IEP process thank you now I'm going to finish with the rest of my questions some things that I see that were missing from this because of previous discussions just some focus on closing the achievement gaps just kind of some that data really lives in instructional services as well as any plans or progress on writing which we know has been an issue and thirdly just the reading performance of students who are in the [02:03:15] sixth grade middle schools because we know that their teacher prep was not the same well the structure was not the same we've had some workarounds but I'd like to see a comparison between like students are we having similar performances um as well as on the last page I noticed all the field trips thank you for providing that but what seems to be missing here is how are we taking advantage of TJ's planetarium which in years past has been open for schools to visit as uh on a field trip and I don't think I've heard about that in quite a few years I would have to defer to Dr. [02:03:52] presidio about the use of tj's planetarium yeah so thank you for noticing the attachment on the field trips we just included that to really highlight that's the division sponsored field trips that we have so obviously i'm not going to go through everything that's on that list but starting in fourth grade with music performances all the way through things that we do for students at the high school level so those are division sponsored budgeted field trips that we provide for we do have access to planetariums including the tj planetarium for schools if they choose to take a field trip to a planetarium but that's not something that we do for all students at a [02:04:30] particular grade level and the chart is just the things that we do for all students at a particular grade level i'm not even sure that the awareness that this is an opportunity exists because from what i understand the planetarium at tj and at tj rivals that of what's downtown and so i i'm not sure the awareness is there maybe we can be a little bit more communicative with the elementary principals that this is an opportunity that exists just very quickly I wanted to speak about the pacing guides and the lesson planning I've received some concerns and complaints from teachers even principals that they're not as helpful as I think people who are developing [02:05:08] them are wanting them to be and they're inconsistent across the across the subject areas. I wonder how can we ensure that they are that you are receiving that feedback which is part of this executive limitation and we're having perhaps the folks who are writing them going into the schools to see how they're being implemented and really hearing about the concerns. No I appreciate you sharing those suggestions. I think they're all good. We we try to do a lot of that work. I mean first I would just clarify and we had some information in the EL9 report about the number of curriculum projects that we ran in the summer to update our planning and [02:05:46] pacing guides but I think one of the important things to note is that we develop those with teachers from the schools during the summer so those aren't things that are just done at Willow Oaks or in gatehouse those are things that are supported and really done collaboratively with instructional staff in the schools we do collect feedback on them they're never perfect there's always room for improvement one of the things that we're working to improve right now is on some of the resources trying to have more examples of how to differentiate our resources so as we're working you know again on our inclusion [02:06:23] work it's really important that we have differentiated resources and we're not asking teachers to create those additionally we're working to update some of our resources with videos that would actually show teachers how you would use a particular strategy or use a particular resource so we're always open more feedback those materials can always be improved and we go through a constant review refresh cycle um every year thank you thank you dr anderson uh mr moon but i'm sure i was not [02:06:59] asking for go back thank you okay at this time we're going to go ahead and and call for the vote which for the motion that's on the screen all those in favor mr mcdaniel miss marron Mr. McElveen, Ms. St. John Cunning, Ms. Lady, Ms. Dixit, Ms. Seismerheiser, Mr. Dunn, Mr. Moon, Dr. Anderson, Mr. Frisch, and myself. [02:07:26] That is unanimous. We are going to take a quick break in just a second, but we're going to do the policy review first, and then we're going to flip over and take a 10-minute recess. So, agenda item 8.01, policy review, instructional program EL9. [02:07:41] The next order of business is the policy review for executive limitation EL 9 instructional program. Annually the board will review each executive limitation at the time of the monitoring report is provided to determine if revisions are needed. [02:07:58] Board members may offer amendments to executive limitations at any regular meeting provided they send the final language to the board and clerk at least 48 hours in advance of the meeting at which it is to be considered. this time no amendments have been submitted in advance of this meeting but board members may provide comments on EL9 before we vote on maintaining their current language for the next year ahead. I call on mystics it for a motion. I move that the school board maintains executive limitation nine instruction program has it currently detailed in the strategic governance manual. Is there a second second. Mr. McDaniel mystics it would you like to speak to your motion. No. Mr. McDaniel would [02:08:38] you like to speak to your second. Okay. Seeing no other board members then we're going to go ahead and um vote for the motion that's on the screen all those in favor mr mcdaniel miss marron mr mckelveen miss st john cunning miss lady miss dixit miss sizemarheiser mr dunn mr moon dr anderson mr fresh and myself so that is unanimous so we are [02:09:03] going to take a quick 10 minute break and we will be right back board members please take your seats [02:18:42] board members please take your seats okay we're going to come back from recess agenda item 9.01 [02:20:31] academic matters i call on dr reed for academic matters thank you madam chair and this evening academic matters we're going to talk about future ready students in fairfax county public schools and we're excited to highlight some of the innovative learning experiences our students engage in across elementary, middle, and high school to support academic and career planning. [02:21:09] So this connects to goal 5 and talks about our commitment about every student graduating ready to thrive in life after school. Tonight's presentation will showcase examples that highlight our equity commitment to center student voice in preparing our students for success after graduation. [02:21:30] So as we think about what it means to be future ready, we feel that our students need rich learning experiences, durable skills and exposure to career related learning that best match their unique interest and goals. And honestly, I think as many of our students are preparing for careers that don't yet exist, they don't even necessarily realize what their interests or goals might be. [02:21:53] And I think many students have to have that experience to find out what they don't want to do just as often as what they do want to do. So tonight we'd like to showcase a few examples that are targeted towards goal 5 of our plan. [02:22:10] In FCPS, career exploration actually begins in elementary school. One of the ways our elementary schools focus on this is through opportunities for students to begin connecting personal interests and skills to classroom leadership roles. Some elementary students complete skill and interest inventories, explore job postings, letters of interest, develop early resumes and assemble portfolios that capture their experience. It's also an opportunity to see some of our portrait of a graduate skills in action. Another opportunity in middle school in particular is Fairfax County Public Schools is partnered with Junior [02:22:48] Achievement and our eighth grade students attend Finance Park as a economic and financial literacy education program that's conducted through business partnerships and it's an opportunity for all of our eighth graders to engage at this building and honestly I went I've spent a day there with eighth graders. [02:23:12] It's right near Frost Middle School I believe and really it's experiential learning and where students actually find out that it costs a lot more to do some of the things that they thought perhaps cost less so it's an opportunity to provide relevant real-world financially literate decision-making and each middle school has a finance park lead teacher who coordinates these trips and ensure that our eighth graders take part in this simulation at the high school level there are numerous opportunities to explore future career interests and additionally our [02:23:51] Our annual FCPS college fair and post-secondary night are coming up in the coming month here in October, and these are great opportunities for students and their families to learn more about post-secondary opportunities. Tonight we'd like to highlight a unique learning opportunity called Instruction to Industry. [02:24:12] In partnership with local business and community partners, we host an annual Instruction to I2I Future Ready Conference, which connects our students with over 125 local employers in high-demand career fields such as business, healthcare, technology, and engineering. [02:24:30] The event provides students with a chance to gain hands-on exposures to career pathways, and last year's event created 3,000 student-to-employer interactions with over 200 paid internships. The event will take place in March this year, where students will explore career presentations, networking mini-sessions, and mock interviews. [02:24:54] Additionally, our FCPS offers unique and specialized programming for students with disabilities through our career and transition services programming. Tonight, we'd like to highlight some of those opportunities that these services provide in partnership with local business and community and transition services. [02:25:15] So there are a number of different types of events that are highlighted on the slide that occur over the course of the year from October through April and provide opportunities for our students to explore future career opportunities. [02:25:32] Finally, Madam Clerk, let's go ahead and watch the video to see student learning experiences in action. Our goal is simple. It's to prepare every student for a successful future. That's why we're so excited to offer rich learning opportunities that align with Goal 5 of our strategic plan, ensuring that every student graduates ready to thrive in life after high school. [02:25:56] Through their K-12 experience, students across FCPS have targeted opportunities to explore future careers, build financial literacy, and develop portrait of a graduate skills. These experiences will help them transition successfully through graduation and into their adult life. [02:26:13] At the elementary level, schools are doing simulations where students explore different classroom jobs, matching their personal experiences and skills with roles like line captain, technology support or even cleanup crew. Applying for jobs this year was different because we actually had more of a choice for which job we picked and it made us feel, it made us have a more real world experience building resumes and applications, having to list down our skills and what we were good at how we could work in a group. We also had more of a choice. There was a wide range of jobs to [02:26:48] pick from, so that made it more hands-on and lifelike. Finance Park is an experience that all eighth grade students attend. Before they go, they spend three weeks learning about financial literacy, which includes savings, spending, and career options. If you visited Finance Park, you're going to see a bunch of different businesses. Students go from storefront to storefront where they're going to have to make some tough decisions. What choices are they making for their cars? What type of groceries are they purchasing? Are they going on vacation this year? [02:27:20] Are they budgeting for that vacation? Finance Park is a great simulation for all our eighth graders to experience what it feels like to be an adult making some real-life financial decisions. Every year, FCPS and surrounding school divisions across Northern Virginia team up with Virginia ed strategies and the inova healthcare system to host instruction to industry a future ready conference this is a regional event designed to connect students with local employers in high demand career fields participating high schools send students on this field trip that provides hands-on exposure to career pathways essential workforce skills and meaningful industry connections [02:27:59] but this isn't your typical career fair instruction to industry takes things to the next level with with career cluster-themed rooms, dynamic networking workshops, and even rapid-fire mock interviews. And the impact? It's huge. Employers reported more than 3,000 students to employer interactions, over 700 planned follow-ups, and nearly 200 paid job and internship offers, all from just one event. [02:28:24] And this year, it's bigger than ever. Over two full days in March, the conference will serve twice as many students as before. These opportunities, especially starting at a young age, open students eyes to the possibilities that they may have never known about, allow them to dream of a bright future, and give them the tools to thrive regardless of the path they take. [02:28:51] So, Madam Chair, that is Academic Matters for this evening. Thank you, Dr. Reed. At this now, I'm going to invite board members to ask any clarifying questions or provide comments. We're going to kick it off with Ms. Dixit. Thank you, Dr. Reed. [02:29:07] Amazing work being done in our division in terms of getting the students' future ready. I loved Finance Park when I visited with my son many, many years ago. I just wish it was open to more students in other grades too. Like high school, I think after 8th grade, they don't go back to this at all, right? [02:29:28] Maybe a refresher in 12th grade might be needed because then they're ready for, you know, real life after that. So they need to know how to manage money. I really like the Instruction to Industry Future Ready conference, and I think it's going to double the size. [02:29:47] That's great. Is it possible to do a more IT-specific conference, something like that, as we are into this industry right now? We are like a Silicon Valley off the East Coast in Northern Virginia, and so many big companies are here, innovative. [02:30:06] Innovations are happening in AI is another division. So I would like our students to get exposed to that also Because there are a lot of students right now after college are not being able to get the jobs They're this industry is looking for there's a mismatch Happening and if our students know that what this industry is looking for and they can intern with them Maybe it'll help them to future help them with their education post-secondary as well and then maybe come back to work for these companies so I would love to you know you know see if something like that happened with our maybe with the RIT [02:30:46] department also supports that. Yes ma'am it's a regional conference so I and you were correct I know our Northern Virginia Tech Council led by Jennifer Taylor they're really working to make us a hub right in northern Virginia technology hub. [02:31:03] So I will make sure we pass along that request that we increase the IT presence. Thank you, Mr. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. I heard about the IB CTE certification. [02:31:21] I am not sure I have that term correctly. Can you speak to that a little bit? I think you're talking there is an IB CTE capstone certificate And I am not sure where we are on that here in Fairfax County, but Dr. Presidio likely will know as it's part of our instructional program. [02:31:39] Yeah, so we do offer the IB career related learning certificate and students can earn that at all of the IB schools if they complete the coursework. And then there's additional assessment work and things that they need to do. But we do offer that it is available. [02:31:57] And can you explain how that's a benefit to students? Well, you know, I think, again, the the focus of the presentation tonight obviously was you know some division-wide things that we're trying to do but all of it is related to as dr reed already mentioned kind of allowing students to explore interests that they may have for future you know post-secondary education or future careers so if a student for example in an ib business class completes the career-related learning program that might give them additional information and additional skills [02:32:33] that would inform their selection of what they might want to study when they're in school and i'm using that particular example because my son who just graduated last year participated in that and he decided to major in business and finance when he went to college but again the the point is to allow students to have that deeper dive and really understand how to apply the more theoretical learning that they're getting in school to what those career opportunities would look like in the real world thank you i thought that was an exciting development [02:33:03] glad to hear that it is here thank you dr. Anderson Miss lady sorry I'm gonna be quick the iFuture the the conference that that they reference what's it I2I um I saw that the gentleman being interviewed had the CTE sign behind his head so I'm just asking is is that only the kids who are currently enrolled in the CTE course and how long have we been doing this no it's open to students [02:33:43] regardless of whether or not they're enrolled in CTE courses, although most of our students are enrolled in CTE courses. I think 65,000 students, you know, complete a CTE course every year, middle school to high school. So most of our students are, but it's open to anybody. That's our work-based learning specialist that you saw, who's part of the Counseling and College and Career Readiness Office. So he just happened to be filmed with the CTE banner behind him, but he supports work-based learning experiences for all students. And how long have we been doing this? [02:34:14] event it's a couple years i don't know exactly how many years but i think we're in the third year if i'm correct so i think this is the third year okay so perhaps it's since i left because i don't recollect it no it's relatively new yeah okay okay that's great i mean it's fantastic um and i love the expansion of it i just want to make sure it's open to all students um because you know some well you're correct a lot of our kids do take a cte course um not all of our kids do outside of the econ and personal finance um or perhaps ap econ if if they want the more rigorous [02:34:49] version um but the opportunities for internships and things like that are pretty phenomenal um for kids who are very much in a you know different track than a career technical track so that was my main question thank you thank you miss lady i hope that we get invited to the i2i conference next year because we're that would be exciting yes ma'am so agenda item 9.02 opening of Schools Report. I call on Dr. Reed for the Opening of Schools Report. Well thank you Madam Chair. I am thrilled to be able to provide our Opening of Schools Report and sharing a recap of our strong [02:35:23] start to the 25-26 school year. For tonight's Opening of Schools Report I'll be sharing who we are and how we provide a world-class education for each and every student in Fairfax County Public Schools. A look back at the success made possible through the efforts of our incredible community and I look forward to what the new year is going to bring for our students staff and families I could not be prouder of team FCPS we have an incredible community of students staff and families and we have been working hard as we prepared for this year I think you'll see the fruits of [02:35:59] our labor here shortly and recognizing that as we work together in an aligned coherent fashion anything is possible so let's roll the first day of school video to start us off the wheels on the bus goes round and round round and round round and round the wheels on the bus goes round and round all through the town we've been waiting for this time to begin [02:36:38] we ain't getting any older i kind of feel a little younger what grade are you guys second grade Dr. Reed, I'm your superintendent. As soon as that won't go away, feel the clouds on your shoulder, touch the sky feeling bolder. [02:36:57] Going up, going up, going up, going up. To meet you all, and we wanted to say welcome to the 25-26 school year and welcome to Kindergarten. [02:37:31] Going up, going up. [02:38:06] Mr. Muick is over there high-fiving the wheels on the bus, but he sings at senior leader meetings as well. nobody opens schools like fairfax county public schools it is one big celebration across the county we recognize learning happens best in community and the data that we have here we're thrilled about fairfax county public schools for the first time is proud to have seven of the top 10 high schools in the commonwealth be fairfax county public schools as well as the number five school in the nation according to us news and world report [02:38:45] We have 262 students from 19 different high schools that are among the semifinalists named by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation for 2026, which is a 40% increase in numbers over 2025, and our standard of learning results continue to show our division outperforming state averages. [02:39:08] We've also increased the number of 8th graders, as you can see, enrolled in algebra over the last several years from 58 to 74.5% and they are continuing to pass at similar rates even as we've increased our numbers. [02:39:23] Next slide. Let's talk a little bit about ready for real life and our seniors. For the class of 2025, we've identified that 81% of our students enrolled in a college equivalent course, over 16,000 earned industry credentials, 5,400 successfully completed a career and technical education course, and our students earn more than a hundred and sixty eight million dollars in scholarships. As we think about enrollment, we remain the ninth largest school division in the United States with 199 schools and centers. By public school enrollment we [02:40:02] continue to be larger than 11 states in the District of Columbia. Our learners are incredibly diverse and we're proud that 85 percent of our funding goes directly to instruction and support student learning. Our students speak more than 194 languages and more than one in three are eligible for free reduced lunch and meals. More than one in five are multilingual learners. More than one in six receive special education services and seven percent or just about 13,000 are military-connected. As we think about our staff, for the first time [02:40:40] in many years we started the school year with 99.7% of our positions filled on day one. It's the lowest in three years. We have a total of 41,298 employees, including part-time and hourly, making us one of the largest employers in Virginia. We started the year with 141 ambassador teachers from around the world who are doing incredible work and this is a program where there are over 700 ambassador teachers coming to the united states with just over 20 000 of these ambassador teachers applying [02:41:17] for 700 positions i'm grateful for the efforts of our dedicated and innovative educators and all of our staff who support our work in all kinds of roles across the school division it's one team one mission and it's showing great results for our children in this community we know that fcps works with many types of businesses that remain valuable assets to our students and the young people in fairfax county these partnerships take many forms and meet the needs of our schools [02:41:50] which help drive our strategic plan they provide key foundational donations mentors tutors speakers after-school programs student clinical experiences mentoring needs-based donations workforce development arts get to green all of our work is honestly the result of tremendous partnerships and our strong community support which has sustained the traditions of excellence here in fairfax county as we think about engaging our community engagement that's intentional is fundamental to [02:42:25] our mission as you can see we've got an exciting schedule this year again including 20 family vision group meetings we had a great start kickoff meeting at our event earlier this month we're also moving forward with community and employee conversations which take place throughout the fall winter and spring we've already had several of these meetings and honestly continue to hear valuable feedback that guides our mission driven work i want to thank everyone who comes out to share their thoughts voices and feedback and we're looking forward to continuing this work in the [02:43:00] coming year when we think about food and nutrition services the new menu items that are being rolled out are really exciting we've had 22 new lunch recipes and six new breakfast recipes and i don't know about you but i remember being at a dinner some time ago that uh let me think the frugal gourmet i'm trying to remember what his real name was but he was the guest speaker and he said you know most american households have 15 to 20 cookbooks and make the same 10 recipes all year [02:43:33] long so it's exciting to see that we're going to have 22 new lunch and six new breakfast recipes lots of opportunity for student feedback and engagement and a focus on sustainability and scratch cooking. We know processed food is not best for our young people. And let's think about those buses and all of our drivers, mechanics, routers, dispatchers, just an incredible team and team transportation. It was thrilling to say that 96% of our bus routes were on time on the first day of school, which is incredible as one of the largest school bus fleets in the entire [02:44:13] country to have that kind of on-time rate on the very first day of school so we continue to see a drop in our vacancies a 48% drop year-over-year is an incredible drop in our vacancies and as you can imagine the logistics involved in managing a fleet as large as Greyhound with 6,987 routes driving 93,731 miles every day our team does incredible work we're also this year excited to pilot a new safety [02:44:50] and routing system on our school buses the new tablet-based technology includes real-time navigation the radio frequency identification check-in for students which you're going to hear more about and live bus tracking for families all designed to make the ride safer and more efficient So we're thrilled about our work in transportation. [02:45:12] And let's take a look at some of our building data. We have 28 million square feet of buildings with 188 Energy Star certified buildings currently with 100 million plus worth of energy saved division wide over the last 12 years. [02:45:30] As we think about digital resources, we continue to improve our student device experience. We've purchased 28,000 new laptops, which, by the way, we did purchase fewer than we had intended based on budget circumstances last year because we extended 50,000 current laptops and just upgraded them to extend their useful life so we didn't purchase those. [02:45:55] We replaced 470 projectors, as you can see on the slide, and we've seen a tremendous uptick in our digital tool engagement with almost a 30% increase in parent digital consent with a 90% increase in the use of digital registration tools. [02:46:11] We continue to see the value our families get engaging digitally with our division. And we're thrilled that we are for the first time having an online calendar that is going to include events from all schools, programs, and the like, which is going to be a tremendous asset to our families. [02:46:32] And there'll be a whole nother presentation just on that to the board, as well as for the first time, we're going to be developing a mobile app, which actually is developed and is available in the App Store for either Android or Apple phones. [02:46:48] And this app will be able to put the power of news feed into every family's phone, mobile phone, because we find that more and more our families are on the move and can monitor calendar, parent view, and news feeds with emergency notices through the app. [02:47:09] So we'll be putting out information about that very shortly with a video as we complete our beta feedback period. Our capital improvement program, just want to clarify those programs that were completed this summer. [02:47:26] We provide during the first week of school. This is another data point that's not on the slide, but during the first week of school, the Office of Facilities Management received 3,042 work order requests. And within the first two weeks, the team successfully fulfilled and completed 1,537 of these and are continuing to complete those tickets. [02:47:51] Capital projects, added modern amenities, enhanced safety, removed modulars, and did renovations, created new classrooms, offices, libraries, cafeterias, and parking. You can see the summer infrastructure work completed is an enormous number of projects. [02:48:08] again are completed and schools under construction are listed we've already mentioned our new safety tools technologies and menu items so what else could possibly be new well you can read on the slide that there are a number of initiatives that are new or a continuation this year with perhaps a different focus and we continue to work hard to take our game up in every way possible we know that fairfax county public schools drive the engine of our economy strong schools support strong [02:48:43] businesses which support strong families and residents and community and we need to recognize that our work here in fcps doesn't just impact our students it impacts our staff our families and everybody across our community so when our schools thrive our communities thrive and we appreciate the community support and partnership in that so welcome back fairfax county public schools and I'm happy to take any questions but this presentation is posted for those who want to revisit it and rewatch the video over and over and over again so thank you madam chair [02:49:21] thank you Dr. Reed at this time we're going to go to Dr. Anderson to kick us off so many parts of this were exciting to to hear I'll just start with some of the good news things that I saw the teacher vacancies that's always been a high concern and it is very exciting and not to mention comforting to parents to know that their students their children are starting the school year with a teacher and not with a long-term sub so I do want to share kudos on that and I would be remiss [02:49:55] if I didn't extend kudos to Mr. Muick on the driver vacancy reductions I just want to know how did you do it because from what I understand this year we don't have any double back buses so I'm going to have mr muick and mr solomon answer because the two of them are a powerful team to solve this issue mr muick we'll start with you and then float to mr solomon yes ma'am um thanks dr anderson it was definitely teamwork between transportation and hr and the big thing was putting everything in one location so we have all our normal uh hiring conferences that the [02:50:32] transportation team does uh at lorton at stonecroft but once a quarter they have one here at the at gatehouse and uh william's team shows up with uh fingerprinting we've worked to get in nova to show up to do physicals blood work so you know once you get the driver candidate here we can do everything help them with their resume do the interview get the blood work you know the the more you get done before they leave the better a chance you have of of capturing them so um it was great teamwork between the two of us to do that or our teams really we just we were smart enough to get out of their way and let them work that that's very convenient because you also prevent all the delays [02:51:11] for them coming back to do all of those things great strategy thank you yes ma'am you're welcome and mr muick took the words right out of my mouth making it a one-stop shop so that our candidates can complete everything from fingerprinting to drug testing to making sure that we're doing their physicals to helping them with their application to coming and doing their interviews all in a one-stop-shop fashion versus having to send them from location to location to location and for what it's worth hiring a bus driver requires additional steps that other positions don't require so doing it all in one-stop-shop fashion while they're with you increases the likelihood that they're [02:51:46] hired exponentially that is fantastic thank you to both of you i do have a follow-up question for you Mr. Solomon I know that we're highly staffed so that's great but in terms of the substitute are we having a shortened period for from application to actual approval at the beginning of the year that's when we see our peak hiring volume for substitutes and we are seeing it take on average or we're seeing it take on average about four weeks as of our in a normal situation IT TAKES ABOUT TWO WEEKS WONDERFUL THANK YOU AND I ALSO NOTICE HERE DR. REED THAT OUR AMBASSADOR [02:52:23] TEACHERS CAME UP TO 141 I THINK WE HAD 125 26 LAST YEAR IT'S OKAY UM I I MY WONDERING IS WITH WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE FAIRAL GOVERNMENT REGARDING UM VISAS DO WE HAVE IMPACT TO THIS PROGRAM BASED ON THAT MR. SOLOMON AT THIS TIME THERE'S NO IMPACT TO THE J-1 PROGRAM YOU MAY RECALL that there was a temporary pause or challenge with j1 candidates getting appointments with the department of state to complete their visa processing back in may however at this time we [02:53:01] have no indication that there is an impact to the j1 program wonderful thank you I'm so glad to hear that one of the other things that you highlighted here I can't find which slide but it speaks to the consent form as a parent who has to do this for multiple children across so many layers thank you because this was the easiest year where I was able to just it was in one place and I just kept on going sheet after sheet after sheet and I yes no yes no or toggle to do it all it is so much easier I cannot stress how much easier [02:53:38] that form has or that platform has become and I'm sure some of the other parents had the same experience huge improvement so for that I'm very very very very very very grateful my last question is regarding enrollment we are about 4,000 off from the end of last year we anticipating growth and where we seeing this or is it scattered across the the grade levels could you speak to that please yes ma'am we generally grow from the beginning of the year through [02:54:10] till the October end of October but we are slightly obviously lower enrolled THIS FALL THAN WE HAD PREDICTED, BUT, AGAIN, WE'RE CONTINUING TO GROW PERHAPS NOT AS QUICKLY AS OTHER YEARS, AND WE DO HAVE SOME STUDENTS FOR WHOM THEY'RE A BIT RELUCTANT TO BE IN SCHOOL AT THIS TIME THAT WE'RE WORKING ON CREATING SOME ONLINE OPTIONS FOR THEM AT THIS TIME. [02:54:38] OH, THANK YOU. DO THEY STILL COUNT AS FCPS STUDENTS? THEY WILL BE ONCE WE ENROLL THEM. OH, I SEE. ALL RIGHTY, THANK YOU. THANK YOU ALL. YES, MA'AM. Mr. Moon. Thank you, Madam Chair. [02:54:54] Thanks for the presentation. I remember the first day of school, getting up at 4:30 in the morning to go to 1st, which by 5:30. It was very early in the morning to accelerate. With the slightly less lower enrollment, I know it's going to grow, but as of this point, does that bring us some savings? [02:55:21] At this point, probably in incidentals, but we're going to have to -- we're going to be monitoring that to see what the trend line shows and keep you updated on that. I guess with a lower enrollment, perhaps we get the less state funding. [02:55:37] There is a bit less of that. That's right. Yes, sir. Upsetting. Okay. With that, I was looking at the math data. Eighth graders enrolled in eligible one or higher, which showed a tremendous jump from 2020, 2022 to 23 year to 25, 26 school year 58.4% to 74.5% that's a remarkable 16% jump and below that slide at the bottom I will see for [02:56:11] fifth graders I think you need to include the fifth graders information taking advanced math going up by 10.6% I would expect if you want to grow high school students or eighth graders take higher math then it's got to start from early or grades so looking at you know elementary school data is perhaps the right thing to do maybe the fifth grade why is that only 10.6 percent [02:56:44] when eighth graders has shown higher increase in taking higher math well so the 10.6 percent in fifth grade year over year is just year over year growth in numbers of fifth graders um if i'm I'm reading it correctly. It's hard to see. [02:57:01] It says since 2022-23. So it was, it's not. Oh, there, I can read it on that. Right. 10.6% increase. So it is not as large an increase. And I think we're going to see larger increases once we have a math basal curriculum. But we do have a significant number of sixth graders now in algebra, which we've not previously had, it didn't make it into this report but I think miss lemon has that data for us so miss lemon can you share and we probably need to add it to the online [02:57:35] slide we have 741 students this year in algebra one in sixth grade and it's an increase last year I believe it was 30 so from 30 to 741 and I want to say 33 ARE PARTICIPATING IN OUR VIRTUAL CLASS AND 33 SCHOOLS AND 20 SCHOOLS ARE PARTICIPATING IN PERSON AS PART OF OUR PILOT. I'M MORE A VISUAL LEARNER THAN AUDITORY SO IF YOU COULD PUT THAT INTO WRITING AND SO THAT I COULD GO BACK LATER. YES WE'LL GET SOMETHING FOR YOU FOR SURE. AND THAT PILOTS [02:58:13] EXPECT TO EXPAND SO OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS WE EXPECT TO SEE ALGEBRA OFFERED IN EVERY ELEMENTARY school all 141 for our students. I'm excited to see 99 percent seven of our positions you know being filled at the beginning of the year but however did our position reduction have something to that? Most certainly right we had fewer positions to fill that's correct. That's that's a sad part of the fact of us seeing 99.7 percent but at the same time 99.7 is much better [02:58:52] what I used to see though yes sir thank you thank you thank you that's what I have mr. McElney well thank you dr. Reed this is a very helpful presentation and I do want to say how much I value being able to visit schools with you so I really appreciate them the first two days being able to go around it'd be nice if we could do that more throughout the year and have those opportunities the there's the slide on community engagement is also a very impressive slide I [02:59:30] would argue it may be too impressive I think we have we may have taken things too far when it comes to community meetings on various topics I think we need to think critically about topics we're engaging community on so there's There's just not a, people don't get tired of hearing from us. [02:59:55] There is value in doing targeted engagements that engage people on critical topics at critical times. I think the boundary meetings that are taking place right now are an example of where we may have taken things too far. [03:00:15] So that's just something to take back and consider. On the slide about our transportation work, I saw there are listed 31 electric buses. You know, my recollection last year is that with the grants we had received, that would have brought the number to something around 85 or thereabouts. [03:00:39] So is 31 -- is that what we're stuck with now, given that we've had to -- we're actually at 48 because we received i believe 17 um before the uncertainty with the federal grants around ev buses so i believe we're up to 48 and had the certainty been there for um funding for the remaining we would be up to what mr muick it would have uh we would have gotten us up to [03:01:11] about 108 there was about another 60 that got snagged with grant problems yeah we were on a we had a good tailwind going but we're i believe at this point plateaued at 48. got it okay that's very helpful um on on the food uh issues so one of the things that's come to my attention as well as several other board members is that we've seen um an increase of energy energy drink usage among students particularly middle middle and high school and that's concerning about a decade ago [03:01:50] we made a very concerted effort to remove all soda products from our schools to get rid of our sugary drinks and other things and I think that was a great stance obviously kids aren't procuring energy drinks at school but they're bringing them in so I think that's a community conversation we we need to have but it can be very harmful to student health and I know our principals are addressing that on the front lines but if there's we can think critically about how we can address that more broadly as a district. [03:02:23] And then I think finally just speaking broadly about beginning of school and the school year I think it's no surprise to anyone in this room that it felt like there wasn't any summer this past summer. [03:02:39] And we've become much more our summer has been really constricted. This year we're going into the middle of June. So I do think there's value in bringing back some form of the calendar committee or at least having that conversation as a board. [03:02:56] Welcome thoughts on that. I think that's probably a board conversation that we need to have if that's something that you all want to take a look at. But I would agree the summer flies at this point for sure. Miss Seismar Heiser. [03:03:13] thank you and um thank you for this presentation i think there's some really amazing successes in here kudos to your transportation team for 98 on time or it was i mean it that's amazing i remember that the lore when i was a parent for many years staying at that bus stop it was like oh it's first day it'll take a week or two before anyone's on time that was that was the statements at the bus stops and so to see 98 on time the first day is amazing um i do like to point out in slide 11 the hundred million dollars saved in the last 10 years from the energy star buildings i think it's [03:03:48] more i think it's really valuable to lift up that when we are doing programs that are helping our climate it also helps us save money and that's an important fact to lift up um i do want to mention dr reed just for the community to know on slide eight when i think it's like when you talk about the community meetings and it's okay you're flipping i i'll let you know i have a question don't worry. But I just wanted to commend you for that. We heard when we started on the board from a lot of families that there wasn't enough family engagement, there wasn't a family [03:04:24] inclusion, there wasn't enough chance to talk to families. And you did it the first year and I thought, okay, well, this is her first little listening tour and that's going to be it. And you've continued to do it every single year. And that is to be commendable because I see when I go to schools and back to school nights and other events, I see families talking about how engaged they feel with their schools that's also kudos to the hard work about building principals and their admins and teachers but you can see a different level of feeling engaged even if they're frustrated they at least feel like they're engaged with so kudos to that I wanted to ask a little bit about the enrollment decrease you know maybe it's probably too early to have a [03:05:02] sense of what's causing that I know there was some conversation about just the kindergarten birth FLIF right they can't they came through but do you think the current policies on immigration or what's happened to the federal workers and people moving out of this area could have had an impact that's a pretty big decrease from last year to this year and I think it's a decrease what we expected as well so I'm curious if you guys have any data or or didn't need to figure out what's going on we have some data and I'll be providing some reporting on that in the coming weeks we also traditionally start lower and continue to build um over the first [03:05:41] few months of school so um but i do think um clearly some of the immigration um policies have impacted families um and choices so i would just are you aware of any students who are choosing not or their families are choosing not to send them to school for fear because that is what one of my worries is that we have to are we seeing a greater rise in chronic absenteeism again maybe too early to tell but i worry about students missing out on education because of fear right so we're in our sixth week of school so it's hard to establish absenteeism rates as quickly it is um but i i can [03:06:20] get back to you on um the other topic i think just something to watch right because if we do if that's the fear how can we engage our families to make them try to feel safe right in this environment to send their kids to school and then the last thing I will just say as a an area and perhaps to work on a little bit on we talked about page seven about partnerships and you and I have had many conversations about the number of organizations and businesses in the community that are very eager to partner with our schools and I think that's an area for growth so I would love to see more information about these partnerships that you list maybe in a Friday letter and then [03:06:56] areas plans for for growth in that area especially if I just finish my sentence in eras of tightening budgets. I think those partners have become even more important. Thank you. Yes ma'am. Thank you Ms. Heismarheiser. Mr. Dunn. I appreciate the discussion about declining enrollment. I think it's concerning. I think there was a great article recently in the Heckinger report online that this is a trend nationwide and maybe immigration has something to do with it but it's also just families are having fewer kids and I went to an education conference this summer and learned from some colleagues in California and elsewhere that you know there is just a dire [03:07:35] situation in some school divisions which maybe you saw in your previous school divisions where you where you were a leader that and they are going to such an extent that they're hiring marketing firms that specialize in bringing in more students and I think we don't want to get to that point so i know i mean this is a wonderful presentation the videos are amazing but i think there's still a long way that fcps has to go in its marketing and communications there's just not [03:08:08] sufficient public awareness of the incredible data that is in this report i would love to get a sense of how this data compares to our peer school divisions and how it compares to private schools within Fairfax County because I bet if you rack and stack we're head and shoulders above our private school competitors and that's data that we need to publish that we need to put out there because there are a number of families in our county who have chosen to home school or to private school based on their belief that their kids will get a better education [03:08:47] But I'll bet you dollars to donuts that any public school in our county will give a kid a better education than homeschooling or private school, regardless of the school or how qualified the parents are who are teaching. And that story needs to be told because, you know, ultimately we're in the same business as, you know, any consumer retail establishment. [03:09:11] We need customers to come in the door because if they don't, that undermines the foundation of credibility that when we go to the county for, you know, further contributions to fully fund our budget. And so I just ask more efforts to be made to tell that story to the public, not just to us, you do a great job of telling us, but to tell the public and figure out ways to do that. [03:09:38] I love the state of the schools and other things you do, but sometimes I feel we only talk to, you know, PTA members and those who are already in the know. We need to get outside that bubble to reach the people who are retirees and might be encouraging their sons, their daughters, their relatives to either move here or not move here. [03:09:57] And I know housing affordability is definitely an issue, but those decisions can be influenced by word of mouth. Yes, sir. Thank you, Mr. Dunn. Ms. Dixit. I just lost my chain of thoughts. [03:10:15] So I wanted to just say, first of all, Dr. Reed, that FCPS, of course, is a trendsetter school system in the country, and we are continually improvising, improving the scores and everything else. [03:10:31] Just like the Algebra 1 benchmark we have, I wanted to know, and this may not be linked to our strategic goal, but how about science and mainly computer science? are we tracking that also as a like more number of students enrolling in them or we are encouraging them to do because that's where I see the future is. Yes ma'am I I know this afternoon I just reviewed a survey that's going out to students about computer science and I also you know I think our conversation on October 7th at the work session we're going to talk a little about [03:11:10] how we're programming our CTE courses across the division how we're doing a refresh or planning a refresh for our academy courses in conjunction with the conversation around the new western high school in conjunction with just making sure we have global work and knowledge priorities in place across the school division so I think there's that's a topic there's more to come on and of Of course, for much of the data science, machine learning, quantum, AI, a lot of it relies on mathematics and the ability to build logic and prompt writing around literacy. [03:11:48] We think that as long as we make sure we make good on those building block, core academic areas, it will also improve the possibilities for computer science in the future. Thank you, Dr. Reed. [03:12:04] So again, I think I'm too tired. Dr. Anderson, do you need to go back? Yes, just very quickly. I really wanted to just comment on Mr. McElveen's comments regarding the calendar. [03:12:21] I have been receiving a lot of feedback from parents about the calendar. And again, because of just the lack of summer. And I'm not sure what you're hearing from the teacher associations. but I'm wondering is there a space for us to make that one of your community conversations or a survey so that we can get more robust feedback because I'd like to get a sense of is the feedback that I'm receiving in a vacuum because it's it's been more than I've received I think in you know the last few years and I know we had routinely before had apparent feedback component to the [03:13:00] calendar process? So I think right now we have a perpetual calendar that's always three years out. One of the serious concerns that I was faced with when I first came to the division in the summer of 2022 is we didn't have a calendar for that fall because we hadn't come to agreement on that. And we don't ever want to be in a situation where we can't have calendars at least a couple years out for people for planning for travel for families for our military families that are moving in and out and having that information so i think before we want to start [03:13:37] surveying um you're asking my opinion so my recommendation is before we start doing the surveying that the board decide whether you want to step back from a perpetual calendar that enables us to have a three year out planning cycle because gathering information I think once you make that first decision then you would want to gather information about how you might want to amend it but right now we're we have the three year out calendars and that I think is a topic you'd want to decide first. [03:14:07] Sure I think there's some opportunity here for conversation because I don't think these two activities are mutually exclusive because if because because parents have loved the three year calendar because they're able to plan all of the things that you've just said but there has to be some space for us to get some feedback within that process so I don't think we stop the outlook without having I don't think that we can remove feedback about the calendar to still keep a calendar in front of them there's some space to do that and I'd just like to figure out what that [03:14:45] could be perhaps it's knowing we have the next two calendars coming and we are providing we're getting feedback now for the fourth year but something has to to change because the emails are continuously they're being more dissatisfied and i i think there's a space for us to also hear the community voice on this and i hope you can figure that out with your team well actually i'll wait for the direction of the board before i direct the team on that because that's currently something that's it's set. So I want to make sure that I'm following the direction of the board. [03:15:19] Sure. So I will raise that for the board's consideration then. Absolutely. Dr. Anderson. Thank you. Okay. Thank you Dr. Reed. You bet. Thank you. Agenda item 10 consent agenda. [03:15:34] Our adopted rules of parliamentary procedure Roberts rules provide for a consent agenda listing several items for approval of the board by a single motion. Many items listed here have We've gone through board review and documentation has been provided to all board members and the public in advance. [03:15:50] Items may be removed from the consent agenda by the request of any board member prior to the meeting. The consent agenda items are on the screen. Is there any objection to approving the consent agenda? Hearing and seeing no objection, the consent agenda is approved. [03:16:06] Agenda item 11, new business. The following areas are new business agenda items. There will not be a vote on these items this evening, but the action is scheduled at a future meeting. Agenda item 12, Board Committee reports. I call on Mr. McElveen for a report of the Audit Committee. [03:16:22] Thank you so much. So the Audit Committee had our inaugural meeting for the year last Monday, and we're pleased to welcome Mr. McDaniel to the committee this year while the rest of us are old timers. [03:16:38] In the meeting, General Koh provided an overview of our audit plan for the year, and we had a 30-minute technical meltdown, which was a highlight. So that was the extent of that first meeting. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. McRavene. [03:16:55] Agenda Item 13, Superintendent Matters. I call on Dr. Reid for Superintendent Matters. Thank you, Madam Chair, and welcome to the first full week of fall. It's pretty exciting that—I can't even believe we're already in fall, to be honest. first full week but here we are we have our fall sports season in full swing including the launch of girls flag football with our media day on monday at westfield high school and tuesday at annandale high school and i understand the washington commanders will be present for our uniform reveal so we're very excited there's a lot of interest across the school division and i can't [03:17:35] wait to see some of our first games i also had an opportunity to visit glasgow middle school and visit with some of our middle school students to create a video that will be coming out to the community regarding the implementation of our middle school weapons detection software and i want to thank owen diani jared alex willow and isla who spoke candidly about why safety matters so very excited about that had a chance to visit a number of schools in the last couple weeks in particular longfellow middle school with new principal chris butzer [03:18:09] had a chance to visit pe class as well and learned how to shoot an arrow archery can actually be a lot of fun attended a number of back to school nights employee conversations our first community conversations and got my first library card in fairfax county so had a chance to be part of the get a library card fairfax library foundation's national library card sign up month is this month so if you haven't get out and get a library card there's a lot of exciting uh [03:18:43] a lot of exciting selection so a great opportunity to meet with folks um also attended as i'm on the board of the northern virginia technology council we had an opportunity got some sethe and i to attend a meeting and hear from dimitri alprovich who happened to co-found the cyber security uh firm CrowdStrike and learned a lot about cyber trends and how technology around our region is growing to mystics its point it's really a hub here and enjoyed our educate Fairfax fourth annual [03:19:22] alumni hall of fame where we inducted a number of alumni and I continue to be so proud to be part of a community that has the amazing graduates and the folks who do such incredible things so special thanks to our community and all our staff and Finally just lastly I did attend the nattaway powwow rick kelly is one of our chiefs and he's in our it department And then the 17th annual asha jothi 5k fund run And the foundation shared $75,000 to a number of our schools [03:20:01] This year so a big thank you to them and everybody who turned out to that. So thank you madam chair thank you dr reed agenda item 14 board matters next on the agenda is board matters i will call on each board member to speak we're going to kick it off with mr frisch thank you um and for tolerating my head cold and illness uh i really regret not being able to join everybody there tonight i understand we had more politicians from richmond in our parking lot so that's always welcome i'm sure they'll keep coming back after november um in any case um been a busy couple [03:20:40] weeks we had a fantastic time at oakton's homecoming game um for our very first a night at the game in providence where we're encouraging people to come out uh and cheer on our football teams cheerleaders flags marching band etc uh so the community can see our very talented students in action. And the Cougars happened to defeat the Cavaliers for their homecoming game. So that was exciting to be there with Dr. Reed and Principal Lane as well. The very next day, I was at Miller Heights Neighborhood Bash, which is always a fun event in the Oakton area, talking with members of [03:21:18] the community. And then this past weekend, excuse me, I co-hosted the second annual Providence Day back to school celebration with Supervisor Palczyk and was grateful to have Chairman McKay, Delegate Marcus Simon, Dr. Reed there. The Marshall Statesman cheer team was fantastic. We had the Vienna Singing Princesses. If you've not seen them they're amazing and they're from all kinds of different FCPS schools. Lots of other great entertainment and activities as well. This past [03:21:50] Sunday I joined Mothers Out Front standing in for Miss Marin at Louise Archer with Dr. Reed and 100 mil supervisor Walter Alcorn and Delegate Holly Sebold as we celebrated Sun Day which is a new national day of action to celebrate all things solar and renewable energy. We talked about our new solar panels going in at 25 more schools bringing us to 35 and the new electric buses that are on their way as well and then finally uh presuming i'm better um i will be [03:22:26] attending mclean's football game tomorrow night um against the yorktown patriots as our second stop on this night at the game where we're encouraging providence families to come out and support their local high schools and then the following friday october 3rd is marshall's homecoming game and we will be doing the same there as well also against the yorktown patriots i'm afraid they're gonna think i have it in for him um i don't know if the buzzer has gone or not you had i think he had like 13 seconds left all right well uh lots to be proud of in providence district from national [03:23:03] merit semi-finalists to green flag schools uh just very grateful um for a wonderful start to this school year and appreciate everything that staff has done and the hard work of my colleagues to help get it off without a hitch thank you mr frisch we hope you feel better mr dunn well i've I've had the opportunity and pleasure to attend many back to school nights at Bellevue, Bucknell, other elementary schools, and recently I saw a great presentation about AVID in elementary schools at Gunston Elementary. [03:23:39] All of this is very exciting and there's just such great enthusiasm among parents and students at all the schools I've visited and so I want to just say thank you to all the parents who who are the first educators of their children who continue to guide the education of their children throughout their educational journeys, and who serve as indispensable partners to Fairfax County Public Schools, to teachers, to school administrators, and ensuring that their students receive a world-class education and achieve optimal student outcomes. [03:24:13] Thank you. - Ms. Seizmerheiser. - Thank you, and just exciting fall. can almost smell the pumpkin everything in the air so if you guys can smell the pumpkin everything let me know because that follows my favorite season the football games the homecoming parades and Halloween on all of the things I'm very excited and speaking of Halloween don't forget on October 4th the Kings Park Library has a costume exchange if you have a little one who wants to turn in their costume and get a new one come check it out in addition to that just a reminder of the folks out there I'm sending another newsletter but in my [03:24:51] newsletter this week the student leadership program is I'm seeking applications for a student leadership to represent the Braddock district so please get your students to apply I'm really excited we had a great inaugural program last year I want to thank the Canterbury Woods community for having me at their meet PTA meeting last night to talk about some of their concerns around the budget impacts to their schools and the importance of STEAM teachers and so I'll be talking to you more Dr. Reed about that tomorrow during our check-in and I'm very excited to announce that Wakefield Forest had a very exciting renovation celebration where they actually had a sock hop theme because [03:25:29] their school was founded in 1955 which was super exciting and Bonnie Bray's renovation is close to finishing so congratulations to all the National Merit Scholar semi-finalists from the Braddock District and the 12 Braddock Green Flag schools for your eco-friendly programs and you get to green programs and I look forward to seeing you at a football game very soon or a volleyball game and hopefully a flag football game as well very very soon. So with that happy fall everybody and have a great night. Thank you. Miss Dixit. Happy fall everyone have a good night. Miss St. John [03:26:07] Cunning. Buenas noches everyone. I was happy to attend the community conversations at Woodlawn Elementary with Dr. Reed and engage with parents and see some old colleagues there. Also I had fun attending the running the field at Edison High School where all the pyramid schools come and all the future Eagles get their little shirts that say I'm a future Eagle and then they get to run the field and it was so exciting to see all the parents all the kids and see them all at the stands cheering for the football game I also had the opportunity to go to Lewis High School to see [03:26:41] the initial presentation of the Lewis leadership team students projects they were so thoughtful They were so amazing. I can't wait to see them when they come to the end. Finally, I would just like to talk to our proclamations tonight. [03:26:57] We are so lucky to have an organization in our community that helps support our students and supports them in a manner that they get the things that they need, but their families and the students are supported in a matter that retains their dignity. And I want to reiterate the importance of literacy. [03:27:16] One of the reasons that I'm so proud to be on this board is we are doing the critical work. When Literacy Day was established, it was because of the importance that it is a human right, a human right to be able to read. [03:27:36] We teach that here. We provide that. And it's not just reading. It's showing our kids how to learn and have critical thinking skills. That is the foundation of all of our academic endeavors. [03:27:52] for our children to learn how to read and to be literate so i encourage everyone at home and our children to read as much as they can i also encourage them to get a library card from their local library because the library doesn't only loan out books they loan out a lot of other items and they have amazing programming for our kids so um with that i'll say good night and please make sure you all read thank you mr john cunning mr mckelveen i want to begin by reflecting briefly on the Alumni Hall of Fame event that Dr. Reed mentioned and that my at-large colleagues [03:28:31] and Dr. Anderson and I attended last Wednesday. I truly believe that's one of the, if not the most powerful event that our county hosts every year because we get to see how our graduates go off and change the world. And for those who were there, they'll recognize the power that we're in mr jim acosta's remarks as you know he is one of our alumni of um annandale high school but he talked about the immigrant experience and the values of this country and just really touched [03:29:06] me greatly um so thank you to jim and our other um 10 inductees into the hall of fame uh i also had the privilege of going to the vsba legislative conference um this past uh friday in Richmond with Dr. Anderson, Ms. Anderson, and Ms. Marin. I really valued the opportunity to engage in fellowship with my colleagues and folks from around the state. I will say the conference itself and the lunch situation were subpar, so we'll need to work on that in the future. [03:29:39] And then finally, earlier this week I was in New York for Climate Week, and one of the most interesting ideas I heard come out of that was that some districts are using the waste heat from data centers to heat their schools. So that is something unfortunately we're going to we may consider in the future. Thanks. So I believe last night I went to my final back to school night of the season. That was Dogwood Elementary School which did not disappoint. They had a wonderful setup for the specials teachers and they provided child care in the cafeteria. So dinner was on [03:30:15] while the parents the families got to visit the classrooms. I then went over to South Lakes High school for the community boundary meeting that was there and this was that general sort of update and you know I remain available for input and articulating the decisions that you know I will need to make about boundaries and so um you know headed on Monday to the superintendent's conversation and then meeting with concerned families connected to Flores Elementary in particular about the designation of Western High School for programming headed to Madison tomorrow for homecoming and then because I just can't get enough of marching bands I'm going to the marching band festival at Herndon high school on Saturday I invite you to join me it's going to be fabulous I hope [03:30:55] it doesn't rain and then I'm really stoked for the first committee meeting that's been scheduled for the joint facility review committee with the board of supervisors that's the kind of stuff that makes me very excited so have a great weekend thank you miss Marin mr. McDaniel I've been very busy over the last few weeks crisscrossing the county looking at very early in the morning morning person very early in the morning 7:30 7:45 watching the open gate uh machines the the weapons detectors at work um westfield edison chantilly woodson and a couple more i can't run off the top of my head um the most interesting thing i did was the clearview [03:31:32] elementary school uh back kind of the back school night barbecue where the kids got me to jump rope i jumped i made in nine jumps before i lost balance an air pod flew 10 feet out of my pocket And later that night, I had to take three to leave just to be able to go to bed. [03:31:50] But the funniest thing that happened to me in the last couple of weeks, I was picking my daughter up from the bus stop, and it's gotten to the point where she just gets off the bus and runs off with her friends, which is great. But she got about 100 feet ahead of me, and I said, Alice. She turns around and goes, and I look at her, and I'm like, what are you doing? [03:32:10] And she turns around, looks at me, and goes, and takes off running again. The kids are doing well with that good night. Thank you, Mr. McDaniel. Dr. Anderson, thank you. [03:32:26] I think Mr. McAveen stole some of my thunder because I did want to talk about the Alumni Hall of Fame. It was great, especially as the Annandale Adams had three individuals who are being recognized in addition to Jim Acosta, who had a wonderful, wonderful speech that was pointed and timely. [03:32:47] Obviously, he is an analyst and speaker. We also had Amir Abu El Ahwa, who is the chief of staff for our own board of supervisor chair, Jeff McKay. He was an atom as well as Dennis Scarborough, an Air Force veteran who currently serves as the executive director of operational readiness for the U.S. [03:33:08] Transportation and Transportation Security Administration for TSA. So it was just really wonderful just to see the very best that not the very best that Fairfax has to offer, but how they've come and are impacting the world. And there was a wonderful recipient who is the most accomplished violinist. [03:33:29] She's a musician and is just going around the country. Just very impressive. It's a very nice event. So I do encourage you all to attend as well. Just very quickly, I do want to say thank you to all of the principals for their wonderful back to school nights and open houses. Families have been very appreciative of having the opportunity to engage with staff and with teachers. [03:33:49] and it was very interesting at Poe, Ms. Barrow also did a video in addition to the school board video, she did a video during the advisory lesson to introduce herself to the community. I thought that was a great way since they don't do assemblies beforehand for the principals to have an opportunity to to be heard in terms of what they wanted to accomplish. [03:34:10] Also visited in the last couple of weeks Poe Middle School and Bryn Mawr Middle School as well as Edison High School and I just want to really give some kudos to those principals for all their wonderful work and at Poe I want to highlight the fact that there is a new approach of all hands on deck when it comes to the advisory period they are teamed up and everyone is involved principal deans everyone is there to connect with the students they develop they develop also their own community building relationships and they will be there the entire year and I find it fantastic that the administrators have already have also carved out that time to [03:34:46] build relationship with kids and I know that they're going to see exponential benefit to that. I also want to say thank you to the principal of Bradmore Park principal Williams for all of her work of work of running a school during a renovation which I don't know if Mr. Gordon is there is a week ahead of schedule which is a better position to be than behind schedule so that's also fantastic and at Edison it was really wonderful to hear from the principal and seeing how their focus on culture and community has [03:35:23] really impacted their discipline work so it does when we focus on things and put the right strategies we see the results and I'm not seen that at these schools thank you and good night thank you dr. Anderson mr. moon thank you I just want to note a couple of celebration holiday coming up starting with yom kippur on october 2nd so uh i wish a meaningful holiday to jewish students and families on october 2nd but more importantly uh mr beckerby knows about this harvest moon festival is coming up on october 6th [03:36:00] harvest moon because that's the day when we have largest moon based upon lunar calendar it's august 15th according to the lunar calendar it's our just like our thanksgiving and for koreans we call it chuseok for chinese they call it and for japanese tsukimi and tetrantho for vietnamese and they will be celebrating a a day of harvesting a everything they have worked so hard on that day [03:36:36] thank you madam chair thank you mr moon miss lady yes thank you this upcoming week is blue star Week, which raises awareness and fosters support for military-connected families who often move to new communities, especially in the DMV. Fairfax County Public Schools is committed to ensuring our military families feel welcomed and a sense of belonging to their local community. [03:36:57] I certainly appreciate your service and sacrifices. I have also been out and about in the community like my colleagues. I enjoyed being at Langley High School's Pyramid Gathering. [03:37:12] was interesting to see the marching band come in because it was middle schools and high school and lots of instruments. Unfortunately, they fell in that game to Westfield, but they will rise for another occasion. Also, in terms of boundary meetings, I enjoyed being there at South Lakes last night with my colleague, Ms. Marin. I also want folks to know that there is a boundary meeting on Saturday morning at Marshall High School that's at 9:00 a.m. I will be there virtually to hear folks and what their feedback is for that particular pyramid also will be at Hayfield for robotics on Saturday and then the Herndon [03:37:51] High School marching band competition that will be hosted I will be there to see my marching Hornets and this Friday I will also be as with mr. Frisch the McLean football game and then next week I've got a couple visits Churchill Road Longfellow and Lemon Road I will be with visiting next week and I'm looking forward to that and also for those of you that live in the town of Herndon the Herndon state of the town which is presented by our mayor will take place Tuesday evening at 7:00 p.m. so I will be there and would love to see some of you folks out there as well and I think that's it thanks and with that at 10:40 p.m. we are adjourned ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Coraggio Consulting · aguyonx.com