Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County School Board Forum, Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Date: Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Place: Fairfax County School Board, Virginia
Length: 1h 18m (video)
Official meeting video (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc4M_T1xZME
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 2026-10-27. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:05:58] - Good morning. I will call this forum topic to open our meeting at 10:35 and turn it over to Mr. McDaniel. - Great, thank you. Well, good morning, everybody. And we're here to discuss a forum topic that Mr. Frisch and I have proposed.

[00:06:17] It's been on board docs and circulated for a while now. But the title of the forum topic is the creation of a school board legislative committee. Effectively, functionally, what this does is right now, the school board, as we all know, has two legislative liaisons that operate sometimes together, sometimes separately.

[00:06:33] We have a liaison, which handles the work that's done down in Richmond with our delegation, which we have about two dozen members from Fairfax County, give or take. And on the federal side, we have a federal liaison that works with our federal representatives, which potentially could be increasing significantly in the number of federal representatives this fall.

[00:06:51] But what this proposal would do would be to take those positions, those two positions, and effectively eliminate them, however, in their place, it would create a standing committee of the board, which would be a legislative committee, and that would be modeled after the existing budget committee.

[00:07:08] The budget committee was different from all other committees in so much as that it's a committee of the whole, so every board member has a seat on that committee, but the day-to-day work, really the workflow and the tasking of the work that has to be done with the budget committee as a big legislative is delegated to a chair and a vice chair.

[00:07:24] So what this proposal will do is it would create a legislative committee of the whole it will be led by a chair and a vice chair. I think this accomplishes a couple of things. Number one, it marries the state and federal role. Number two, it has continuity in the workflow.

[00:07:42] So if it potentially followed the tradition, not the requirement, but the tradition of the budget committee where the vice chair becomes a chair, and then the next year that cycles through, instead of two brand new people taking up the work that's been ongoing, there would be more of a cadence of a workflow and more of that institutional continuance of the workflow.

[00:08:03] And I think overall, we're in a situation now, especially on the funding side, where we need to continue to increase our efforts in Richmond and with the federal government to lobby and to advocate for things that school divisions need, not only here in Fairfax County, but in my opinion, the rising tide lifts all boats.

[00:08:22] And if we get things out of Richmond that all other school divisions across the Commonwealth get, have a benefit of k-12 education throughout virginia so i'm happy to answer any questions it was a lengthy document i want to thank my staff for doing the research and putting this together and of course mr frisch as well for you know signing on to the forum topic mr frisch the only thing i would add is that um i think almost half the board has at some point or another served as liaison for state or federal um and you know we all have our a different approach to the work we've We've all had a different approach to the work.

[00:08:57] I think that it has become more and more professional over the years, particularly in the last three years or three or four years. And a standing committee of the whole, I think would enable more of a, there are things that happen with budget every single year.

[00:09:19] It's part of the process. And I think that a standing committee of the whole for legislative issues would result in the same and would benefit from the continuity that Mr. McDaniel spoke of. The other thing I would say is that at least during the pertinent portion of the year, I think taking advantage of some of the PM work session slots that we have scheduled could be a way to do this committee's work without taking away from these standard setting work sessions.

[00:09:49] So I'm eager to see it move forward. - Thank you, Dr. Anderson.

[00:10:06] My apologies, Mr. Mayor. that's okay that's all right thank you anyway i could support this there used to be legislative committee a long long ago uh of course it was not the committee as a whole for the entire body was a subcommittee but doesn't doesn't matter you know involving you know more board members you know perhaps you know would work better uh with with that said i'm just trying to see how this i think there was some clarification from mr frisch on how the work was going to be done we have

[00:10:42] director of government relations who will work on behalf of the school system and especially on in a school boards in legislative priorities and positions and advocate will answer questions from legislators and etc and report to superintendent and and the school board uh so that director's work and our committees via chair and vice chair of the committee's work I don't know how they're

[00:11:17] gonna be because chair and vice chair are supposed to also represent the committee not just an individual capacity unless you know they are advocating something on you know as an individual school board member that's one thing but if a chair and vice chair go down as chair and vice share of the committee they should be advocating for they should be working and speak on behalf of the board which can only be done through the decisions made by the board so you know very fast changing environment in general assembly i've never been a state legislator so i'm only uh

[00:11:55] you know saying that based upon what i was i've been hearing how would you be able to work with on behalf of the committee on behalf of the school board and also with the director of government relations so as much as this creates a committee of the whole there are certain things that don't change right like that what you've described takes place right now and the legislative liaisons uh articulate the view of the board as enshrined in our priorities if there's something that's not in our priorities then we don't advocate as a board on its behalf individual

[00:12:31] members can do what they want to do they can certainly to the board to to get it as something that we consider a priority so let's say that there's a bill popping up and different bills come up with uh different nuances that either in in sort of in aligned with our positions or contrary in opposition to our positions and in those instances i'm just trying to you know envision

[00:13:07] is coming up today and that they're going to vote on the next day, how will chair and vice chair be able to work the rest of the board to convey our positions or our changing positions or I mean that's where I mean as an individual board member you can always go and do it but as chair and vice chair then we'll be you will be put in different positions. No I agree and I think that what you just mentioned happens quite frequently in Richmond so the formal legislative package would obviously be the backbone of the work but as things shift and

[00:13:43] change and get sliced and diced in Richmond this chair and vice chair role are going to be very busy in January February and March I can speak to how the Board of Supervisors operates with a similar model and I'm not suggesting this because Lord knows we don't necessarily need more meetings but every Friday afternoon they have an update with what happened during that week and what will happening the following week and the board takes positions on things as necessary so that creating that feedback loop you know my hope is that when we move forward the creation of this the chair and the vice chair which would i which would be appointed during our reorganization later this summer would work with michael malloy would work with the board as a whole to put together a workflow

[00:14:21] process that would capture that feedback for when things do change in richmond because what i don't want to see to your point i think is a communication going down to the general assembly that is on behalf of the board when actually it may not necessarily be on behalf of the board so creating that feedback loop is something that would need to be done post creation but yes that that definitely has to occur could i ask a follow-up question thank you thank you you know i don't mind doing one work as a one board member and i'm sure that other board members would also agree that you know

[00:14:58] if the work is needed then we should that should be done uh you mentioned about how the board of supervisor works every Friday there may be a legislative update and then they actually meet is that something you are envisioning for us to do like for two months period of time that we need every Friday every certain time and then get updates and actually make a decisions based upon the update being provided I think what what mr. McDaniel described is like coming up with a process for the workflow is something the committee will work on once they've developed a process that they're comfortable with that's the plan that I think they would

[00:15:36] take and they can come back to the board for to approve that plan so another I guess another benefit of this is it would you know as a standing board committee putting that workflow in that timeline that cadence in place that would then be approved by the board immediately post reorganization probably August September timeframe would address those concerns and be fleshed out dr. Anderson thank you thank you for bringing this forward I do appreciate trying to organize this so I'm definitely in favor but I just have some questions about the nuances and unlike Mr. Moon I do mind doing more work so I

[00:16:15] just want to make sure we're managing expectations a little bit and I think Mr. Frisch talked about this a little in terms of how this will be organized as a committee of the whole so we would have regular work sessions to get the updates and to I guess I'm trying to understand would this be during the busy months that we would have these work sessions because it's not as helpful in some parts of the year as it is in others well I actually think the other parts of the year aren't used in the same way because of how busy it is at the you know at the beginning of the session but there's no less important work to be

[00:16:53] done in the for lack of a better phrase off cycle right relationship building getting to know staff all that kind of stuff should be happening but how the committee meets and the cadence of those meetings I think is something that the chair and vice chair of this committee will work on bring to the board as a plan of attack for the year and then with the board's guidance or approval that's how it would move forward that could result in work sessions that we call them committee meetings right and those could be we already have some

[00:17:29] committee well we already have some work sessions for the legislative program at cetera I could see the board saying that we'd also like to have additional work sessions committee meetings to facilitate the work that's agreed to sure thank you and I do agree that it will do well to support the continuity of work because I think I've been in the federal position for two years what I've enjoyed it I've also had no blueprint I just kind of did what made sense it it wasn't that there was a playbook from the person who was in the seat before me.

[00:18:05] Having said that, I do want to make sure that we're not forgetting that federal side because I know Richmond is where our money lies for the most part, well, not for the most part. It's more local than that, but we do have that side of advocacy that does require, I think, a different kind of attention only because it's a little harder.

[00:18:26] One of the questions that I have also is regarding what should we expect to see differently on this side? Because I will be honest, I think in the past couple of years, it's been a little bit harder for me to have a handle on what is happening at the state level from staff.

[00:18:42] We used to have those weekly emails from Michael Malloy's office that talked about all of the bills and their, you know, wherever they were in their path. And that seemed to have stopped. And that was very helpful. Not only did I use that for my own edification, but I also shared that with my constituency and with the, you know, the Mason Dems because people wanna know what's happening.

[00:19:04] So that's helpful. And I also wanna, it was helpful, but it is no longer happening. What I did find, I cannot state enough how valuable I found it to be this year were those Friday Richmond roundups that VSBA held. That's where I knew to the minute what was happening 'cause those people in the room and they're coming back and they're talking to school board members.

[00:19:26] And by the way, Ms. Setlow, they did say it is open to clerks. I did double check that for you and I forgot to tell you. But it was up to the minute information in terms of where things are. And it was helpful to also see what VSBA's position, because sometimes we're aligned and sometimes we're not, and that's helpful to know.

[00:19:44] So I'd like to believe that there'll be a difference in the work products and the outcomes rather than just creating another committee. So can somebody speak to that, please? And I'd like to go back. I think that would be part of the work plan that's proposed and then adopted by the board.

[00:20:02] And as adopted by the board, it then has the weight of the board behind it as opposed to individual board member expectations for work. So if the plan includes, in addition to the meetings we've kind of talked about, that we're gonna have weekly updates or whatever it happens to be, whatever the board decides, then that's what will happen.

[00:20:20] - Okay, thank you. And lastly, just speaking a little bit to Mr. Moon's point, I would love for there to be some more structured engagement, particularly the things that are happening in Richmond that are so fast and furious.

[00:20:36] I would not want for there not be a structured opportunity to say, hey, this bill has been amended in this way. What does the board think? So I would look forward for that to be structured rather than just being reflective of one or two board members' positions.

[00:20:52] - Thank you, Mr. McElveen. - Thank you so much. I think this is a good and interesting idea. Over the years, we've certainly had our issues with getting feedback into the system and time for it to make substantial impact.

[00:21:08] And we've also had issues getting conversations on the calendar as a board, and I think this would provide a mechanism to do that. I would like to hear from Mr. Molloy, since he's here and taking a big gulp right now. But if you could come to the table.

[00:21:25] Yeah. So if you could just share your thoughts on this and how, from your perspective, it would be operationalized, just knowing what you know of the Board of Supervisors process. Oh, good morning, everybody.

[00:21:45] I mean, I think anything that facilitates communication is a positive. I think having a structure in place where there's clear expectations in terms of feedback from the board feedback from staff and finding a way to marry that together is definitely a you know a positive a positive thing I will echo the comments that several board members have worked with most of you in some form or another as a legislative liaison and it does really it varies by by the member that by the board member that serves as a legislative liaison it kind of people make the position their own which you know is always a good thing but there

[00:22:24] isn't necessarily a strict continuity I think was the word that mr. McDaniel mentioned the one thing that I would would caution is and I think mr. Moon brought this up is the speed at which things happen in Richmond off session is one you know it's a completely different things but during session you know we are meeting start 7:00 a.m. meeting go until 7:00 p.m. their meetings happen daily things happen incredibly rapidly so to get that feedback and it

[00:23:00] may very well be that the committee is a great way to have that feedback come back to the team in Richmond more quickly I think it definitely has the potential to do that but as I said just having that line of communication and having clear expectations I think is going to be helpful so how would you envision the process to work during session I know in the old days we would get you on camera or get you on the phone as part of a work session or you'd have to drive up from Richmond and brief us and drive back what would you envision like a virtual meeting where you would zoom in with us I think

[00:23:38] technology helps you know and before we had technology it was a matter of you had to physically be present that is certainly one way that can be done it's the I think the Board of Supervisors and their legislative staff they do come back physically for some meetings now I will tell you that I think that they are cutting back on the number of meetings on the county side they're necessarily meeting so again these would be details that would be fleshed out as part of you know the committee work if you do as a board decide to set up a legislative committee you figure out the cadence of those meetings but it's certainly

[00:24:13] something that could be doable thanks that's it for now thank you miss st. so I want to thank Mr. Frisch and Mr. McDaniel for bringing this up I really think that this is something that is important for us to do particularly when you start looking at the things that we're going to be facing in the future and as quick moving as things are we also have to be nimble and quick moving definitely backs our students and funding for our schools I really appreciate this idea because I think this is where the board should be

[00:24:52] spending their time instead of a lot of operational stuff that happens down on the ground I think job to make sure that we're making sure our schools are adequately funded and looking at what's happening at the state and federal level and even at the local level with our Board of Supervisors I think that it's incumbent of us to take these steps and be the people that are the liaisons to these bodies to let them know what we need why we need it so I love this idea I do look forward to at this and diving deeper into this and seeing how we can make this a stronger muscle

[00:25:28] for the board to use so that we can use the influence that we have as electives with other electives. I think that's where our time and energy during this time of fiscal crisis has to be spent because that really will have such a direct impact on if we can pay our teachers and if we can feed our kids, if we have mental health supports for them.

[00:25:51] I mean, we have all these ideas of what we want. We have a great staff that can operationalize all of that if they have funding. So I really support this idea wholeheartedly and really want to look at how we can strengthen this muscle.

[00:26:06] - Thank you, Dr. Anderson for Go Back. Okay, any additional questions regarding the legislative committee?

[00:26:24] Gentlemen, do you have anything else you wanna share or say? What are next steps? - No, I don't remember. It's kind of new when we just talked about next steps. is kind of a little bit of a follow-up to what I asked before.

[00:26:41] Will there be some solicitation of ideas in terms of the structure from the full board regarding what the processes would be? I think Ms. Merring having served as the state liaison for a couple of years will be very helpful in this regard.

[00:27:00] And I've got some thoughts from the federal side as well. Is that the expectation that we can gather some input from the board rather than giving some input while it so it could be constructed rather than giving input after it's constructed which tends to be a little bit harder yes the forum consensus number one the first county school board agrees to consider action on the amendments to the strategic governance management creation of a school board legislative committee as detailed in the forum topic item on board

[00:27:40] docs before the board's July reorganization for the 26 27 school year so we have consensus that yes it looks like everybody in the room is in agreement and so we look forward to seeing that come to fruition oh we're not delayed delegating this to anybody else to construct it's just for this to be part of the July yes okay yes well to be clear the forum topic has an amendment in it for the governance manual and this says that the

[00:28:16] board will vote on that before the July reorganization so perhaps we put it on as new business maybe by THURSDAY AND THEN -- YOU GUYS CAN TALK ABOUT THAT IN CHAIRS. PERFECT. THANK YOU.

[00:28:31] WE WILL DO THAT. SORRY TO GET AHEAD OF MYSELF THERE, CHAIR ANDERSON. OKAY. I THINK THIS CONCLUDES THAT PARTICULAR FORUM TOPIC. NO. SINCE IT'S ALL FORUMS, YOU CAN ACTUALLY JUST GO STRAIGHT TO THE NEXT FORUM TOPIC, SINCE WE DO FORUMS AS A WHOLE.

[00:28:50] ALL RIGHT. MS. LADY, CAN I ASK AN UNRELATED QUESTION? OKAY. IF THIS WERE TO PASS, NOW WE WILL HAVE SIX BOARD COMMITTEES. And I know a couple of years ago we increased the number of persons on these committees.

[00:29:09] I would like for there to be a review of that because the 12 of us can only be stretched so far across these six committees before it becomes untenable. I think we went from four to five and for quorum purposes.

[00:29:25] And I'll be honest, in the committees that I've been part of, it doesn't seem to have SUPPORTED KIND OF THAT, I GUESS, THE INTENT, I JUST WANT TO PUT IT IN THE ROOM FOR US TO RECONSIDER THE NUMBER OF MEMBERS THAT ARE SERVING ON EACH OF THESE COMMITTEES BECAUSE NOW THERE WILL BE SIX AND THERE'S ONLY 12 OF US AND AGAIN THERE'S JUST SO MANY BODIES TO GO AROUND.

[00:29:46] OKAY. I'M GOING TO CALL ON CHAIR ANDERSON FOR REPLY. THANKS. THE ONLY THING THAT I WANT TO SAY HERE IS THAT THIS ISN'T ACTUALLY CREATING ANOTHER POSITION ON THE BOARD BECAUSE THESE TWO POSITIONS ARE ALREADY -- THEY WOULD BE replacing the two positions that are already in place so I'm not necessarily sure that this adds anything more than the structure of being able to call the the committee is a committee of the whole but the the chair and vice chair would still be the two people that are already tasked with that particular assignment I think that looking at whether or not we want to have we want to continue with the number of people on each committee that we have I will say

[00:30:24] from my discussions with the clerk team I do think it helps us make sure that we have quorum because if two people are gone we can still hold the meeting so but I think that that is something that we can ask Peck to look at again thank you mr. Frisch nope okay so we will now move to the second forum topic creation of the educational technology review committee and I will call on mr. Frisch and Mr. Dannen to get us started.

[00:30:55] - Good morning, thank you very much. I, this is my topic that I've helped lead. So forgive me if I overstop or misstep or some forth, but this was a topic that was really big for me and I'm really grateful for Mr. Fish's help with everybody else who gave inputs on it.

[00:31:14] I'll just start by saying, I think at the risk of bringing up bad memories, I think we find ourselves in a similar situation as we faced during COVID where we are in unprecedented times again. and what I wouldn't give back in precedented times. But in lieu of that, we're faced with AI, with technology in classrooms becoming ubiquitous.

[00:31:33] And so I think that requires a kind of nuanced, thoughtful approach. And I'll just say, I've been on the board now a month and a half, and one of the reasons that got me interested in serving this role was tech in classrooms, right? Not because I think it's all bad, but because I just think we need to be very intentional and purposeful about it.

[00:31:53] And I've got a first grader and a fourth grader. My fourth grader got his first one-to-one laptop and was taking it home. And I was a little taken aback when he was on the bus playing random games and so forth. So I think from having conversations with almost everybody here and members of the community, principals, teachers, educators, everybody, there's a lot of consensus that we need to take a good heart to look at this.

[00:32:16] And what gets me excited about this approach is that we will have everybody at the table, right? To help inform that discussion because it's a very nuanced discussion when we talk about using technology in classrooms. And I know, for example, a child that is diabetic and uses a smartphone to get notifications that his blood sugar is low.

[00:32:38] And it'll send notification to his teacher and to the school health staff, even to his parents. And that's something that I don't know what could be replaced, right? I know there's a lot of kids that use AAC devices to communicate. There are kids who have a friend of mine who has a son that has autism and is difficult in social situations and uses an app on his phone to be able to help generate questions, be able to have better conversations with his colleagues.

[00:33:02] I also recognize now that we've introduced more technology in the classroom, we have more data to understand what's working and what's not. And so, like I said, there's a lot of nuance here. It lends itself well to a committee of a broad cross-section of our community of educators to look at and discuss, you know, today it's AI in classrooms, tomorrow it could be, and nobody's proposing this, but tomorrow it could be robots in classrooms, right?

[00:33:28] And this kind of committee would be nibble enough, I think, to respond and provide guidance and recommendations on those sorts of things. So I will hand off to my colleague, Mr. Fish, to talk a little bit about why we're recommending this specific approach. Thank you. So Tom and I began, Mr. Dannon and I, began talking about this a couple of weeks before he was sworn in. And I think at least initially, we planned on advocating for something like this in the policy. And eventually, we met with, you know, our districts are right next door to each other. We met with constituents together to talk about various issues, including the committee

[00:34:06] approach. And during that conversation, one piece of feedback kept coming up, which was, can this move more quickly how can we get this going now and and so we took that feedback back and thought a bit about how do you get this happening without disrupting the policy work and so ultimately where we came to was a two-pronged strategy which is the the requested action here today which is one uh directing the superintendent to stand this committee up

[00:34:41] and number two directing governance to memorialize this approach in the policy that it's working on and that way the committee can start having an impact as soon as humanly possible i think we we say is you know getting this going as soon as practicable and it force the work of the policy to complete prematurely i think good work is being done on that front and we're getting there but I think if we act on this today, that work for standing up the committee can begin immediately.

[00:35:17] Board members can go about the work of appointing their representatives to the committee, and they can get to work so that impact is felt as soon as humanly possible. I think it's important to ensure that this work is baked into the operational fiber of the school division so that the objectives are felt and acted upon after due consideration of, you know, developmental appropriate use of whatever the topic happens to be, whether it's devices, whether it's AI, whether it's other things, and then that the board has oversight over this process

[00:35:57] to ensure that it's functioning as we expect. I think ultimately this comes down to a certain amount of trust, right? For some, the school division has to re-earn trust. For others, there is trust there and they wanna be involved in that process.

[00:36:14] And so we've gotta marry all of that with our North Star being the success of all students and ensuring that the choices that are made are operationally sound, but also that there's efficacy, that what we are saying these things are being used for are resulting in those things.

[00:36:36] If they're not, then we need to consider why we're doing them in the first place. So, I've appreciated the conversations I've had with colleagues and with Tom and with the community, and I look forward to this work moving forward as soon as humanly possible.

[00:36:55] - Thank you, Dr. Anderson. - Thank you, I appreciate you all moving forward, and I wanna say I've been scooped by you all because I was having those same conversations with Ms. Marin and governance, even prior to the committee really start to the AI work.

[00:37:13] I was just planning on letting the policy kind of work its way through a little bit. But nevertheless, I'm very supportive of this because one, it will give voice to what our community has been wanting. But I do have a couple of questions because I talked to you about this yesterday, Mr. Frisch.

[00:37:32] I understand this would be a superintendent committee. And at current, the board does not have any oversight into the superintendent's committees. the superintendent committees are closed meetings it's not as if anybody can just walk in they're not posted this is a space where our fan wow community it's not just the people who sit around the table but others want to hear that discussion and so the only way that that happens if it's a board committee i don't see anything wrong with keeping everything as is all of these individuals that are here but making it a school board advisory committee so we have two things one we have a board member that is part of um that is a liaison to that committee because that's what

[00:38:11] happens when it's an advisory committee and two it's a meeting that's open to the public if our goals as just stated is to either rebuild trust or to deepen trust the only way that's going to happen is if it's more transparently done if it's done behind closed doors i don't think we're going to get the most bang for our buck and i would be remiss if i didn't share that given that this board has eliminated now three school board advisory committees this will also lend and signal to the community that hey you know what we still want to hear from you we're still trying to do work that is transparent especially on this topic where there's so much vetted interest

[00:38:50] and it will be great again if this committee is an open committee and by open i mean people just can come to the gallery and sit and watch then they could be very clear of what do i communicate TO THE PERSON WHO IS REPRESENTING MY AREA. KEEPING IT BEHIND CLOSED DOORS THE WAY THAT OUR SUPERINTENDENT COMMITTEES ARE RIGHT NOW DOES NOT ACHIEVE THAT. SO I WILL BE HIGHLY SUPPORTIVE IF WE COULD PIVOT IT INTO SOME SORT OF OPEN SPACE. WHETHER WE'RE SAYING THAT THIS IS A BOARD COMMITTEE SO THAT A BOARD MEMBER SITS ON IT AND IT'S OPEN BECAUSE THAT'S WHAT HAS TO HAPPEN WITH OUR FOIA OR FIND SOME OTHER WAY TO MAKE IT A COMPLETELY OPEN COMMITTEE.

[00:39:29] otherwise i can't be supportive of it um to address those topics number one um the forum discusses the board's oversight function um on the the question of openness um it is important to bake this into the operational dna of the school division and this is how we already deal with issues of instruction and so i think it's important that that's how this is structured additionally i have zero doubt that the members of our community that we appoint to this committee

[00:40:03] will be speaking their minds both in these meetings and outside of these meetings and if if if i were to appoint somebody to this committee to this committee and i was not hearing back from them on a regular basis about how it's going it would be on me to ensure that i'm getting the appropriate feedback and acting upon it you know the board can send topics for the agenda to the superintendent and you know not every aspect of this is fleshed out but some of you know the grayer areas I think can be in the policy long as the policy aligns with the overall structure that we've articulated in the forum topic

[00:40:41] thank you for your comments but respectfully I do disagree because the superintendent already has all of these people already at her behest to do this work she does not need us to convene any of these individuals outside of the parent piece I'm sorry the community positions that would be appointed by board members even with parents I'm sure she has conversations with parents through the the family groups and in what do you call it the community conversations I I don't agree again if we're trying to make sure that our

[00:41:20] community is engaging in this let's give them the opportunity to truly engage it's just making the meeting open it's not changing any of these but it's being able to have somebody sit in that gallery in here firsthand oh this is what the chief of schools thinks about this oh this is what the chief technology officer thinks about this rather than having it be given to them secondhand and I don't see the reason why it has to be closed thank you I pretty much concur with what Dr. Anderson has said. I was looking, I was reviewing, I'm sorry that you know

[00:41:57] Mr. Dana we didn't get to connect yesterday. I really wanted to have a conversation, but when I was looking at the board oversight wasn't that clear what the board's rules were, because if it is superintendents just like other committees she may have to support her work, then we don't really have that oversight. Our oversight is a superintendent as opposed to this committees work which is under to support superintendent so uh i was more or less even

[00:42:30] thinking about creating a technology subcommittee for the school board at being such of importance these days with ai and digital devices and some you know so much concerns being raised and et cetera in order to properly respond and address to address those concerns and question from community But, I mean, this is not the board committee, but at least, at least involving community members, which is absolutely critical at this juncture. Not that we are trying to second guess

[00:43:05] superintendents' recommendation or our staff's work, but community has a vested interest in these, and then reflecting, you know, their input in our work is important. So this has to be so much of our advisory committees, advisory committee, they will always work with the superintendent, always will do. So more of a transparency, I think we want, I don't know what will be lost, having more transparency. That's where my question is.

[00:43:38] I think one thing that we've heard repeatedly from people in the community is that the advisory committee process is frustrating, and one thing that we've heard from parents on this subject is they don't simply be advisors thank you mr. McDaniel on that note yeah my line of questioning is kind of around the public feedback the gathering of that feedback the structure of the committee and how that would integrate so I guess my question is to boil it down very simply how would we infuse

[00:44:18] with the current structure as proposed of more of like of a curriculum advisory type of an operational committee how would we infuse any type of public feedback into that is that a part of this work is that a part of this proposal to to have some of that public feedback and I guess for staff perhaps dr. Reed do your current committees that are of a similar model that are more internal more operational do they have a mechanism for soliciting that public feedback or do you have a mechanism for soliciting public feedback well I think you know what the discussion really is revolving around a board advisory

[00:44:55] committee which is outlined in the governance manual which you know I'm really looking forward to those reports they're coming up in the next month or so at the end of the year we have a number of committees that have worked really hard all year and involve community input and feedback and I'm like I said looking forward to hearing those and I know staff respond to those as well at the end of the year that's a separate process or a separate track if you will from what we would characterize as more operational committees curriculum committees that type of thing and those are usually stood up they're not standing

[00:45:30] committees forever but they're stood up in the moment of introspection or need right like the math committee we stand up to be responsive to changing math standards for example and so forth so I can see the benefit of a superintendent advisory committee on this topic because the standards are evolving rather rapidly and the technology is both mr. Dan and mr. Frisch have pointed out in forum topic continues to evolve rapidly so I do think it's timely to have a committee I do think that the committee should indeed hear from our community

[00:46:06] our parents their families I did review the structure and thought that seemed very workable so you know I certainly support the the forum topic I also understand the idea of board advisory committees right I think that the I think we don't want too many committees on the same topic because then we can end up going in a variety of directions and at some point they need to converge right to become operational so regardless there are multiple ways for the community to give feedback even if it was an internal committee or a board

[00:46:43] advisory committee I don't know currently how many community members come to observe or be a part of board advisory committees maybe that's a good question to ask when they come this spring to share their reports because I think that that's you know I hope people are taking advantage of that opportunity thank you that was all thank you thank you miss Marin yes I'm pleased to discuss instructional technology anytime any day so thank you for bringing it I appreciate the acknowledgement that the policy is being

[00:47:21] worked on and I'm happy to discuss it and put more things in motion and in parallel tracks that's wonderful so I have a few comments that are procedural for the board's work some history and some questions about what's proposed so simple one is just for the list of people included I would suggest also the title one office and more than just you know one or more high school students I think really putting a good amount of students on that will be helpful because they are the ones who are really gonna lead us so I'd want to beef that up and

[00:47:58] figure out how to do that whether it's for the Student Advisory Council. I think the biggest thing I want to say again is like this is not business as usual we may have had an advisory committee advisory we do have advisory committees that advise us we have curriculum review committees we have policies we are in uncharted territory so I think we need to be more open-minded about how to do things differently so you know I don't want to just do things like the comment about this needs to be open to the public absolutely this is not a conversation that can remain within the foyer restrictions I mean there's no

[00:48:37] question in my mind that's what the people want and that's what I want the board oversight you know what are we really seeking here so if you've ever followed the curriculum review advisory committee work it's called together when is an opportunity to purchase curriculum or make curricular changes so for instance when we did the literacy review committee the call out board members are on a rotating schedule of like half of us get to assign someone to the committee and the next rotation around the other half of the board does it's filled with staff the developers of the curriculum come in and present it to the members

[00:49:15] there and then the committee makes a recommendation to the board and then the board publicly hears that proposal and then we vote on that curriculum purchase. I'm okay with this committee filling that work that is very different than a board advisory committee which is them meeting with FCPS staff delivering us a report that we do what we may with it. I think as been said the superintendent has a number of places to get feedback and I was remembering when I first got on the board under Scott Braybrand being like hey how many committees are what members you have and and we pulled together a list of all of the advisory committees

[00:49:53] the superintendent has convened, and also all the memberships that they had, and I think we should do that as well. I'd like to know, just as an aside, what boards our esteemed superintendent sits on, and what circles she's in, as well as where is she getting her input from, the collection of all these different task force.

[00:50:10] I think this conversation, and I could have a go back, but we need to be intentional of what are we deciding here? Are we deciding that the governance committee needs to be clear what to codify because we're not yet and maybe if we keep talking we'll get clear on what we want but right now I don't see that we're all on the same page just yet and I will take a go back please thank you okay Miss St. John Cunning thank you I appreciate this being brought forward it is timely and it is fast-moving I just want to say that in looking at this my staff and I went back and looked at the superintendent's EL 12 report on

[00:50:50] technology which the school board approved in January and there's a lot of information there's a lot of things that are already going on and I think that part of the issue of this is not so much transparency as communication getting the communication out to the community because there there are a lot of good things happening and it's all there we just have to look at it or we have to disseminate it and as a division we have to disseminate it as school board members we have to disseminate it I think that that's an important distinction to to look at I do think that we do need a structured and reliable mechanism and I think it should be different than the advisory committee

[00:51:29] boards because we get that at the end of the year we get a report at the end of the year this is moving quickly we need to be nimble we need to be flexible we need to be having experts at the table community at the you know our parents at the table the way this is outlined I do like the suggestion of including title schools and more students there but I really do think that what where we're falling down as a division is the communication I think that there's hot going on and it's just not in this area the fact of the matter is there's a lot going on with this whole division and it's like it just is what is the flavor

[00:52:05] of the day if it's transportation there's a lot going on there but it's not being put out it's not being pushed out you know if it's meals it's not being pushed out and I think that we get in that trap so I just want to have one one question because we have the newly launched AI website that a lot of information and it has information on the student guide to AI and the FCPS AI principles however when we went to that we couldn't copy or download that and I think that's really important information for our parents and our students to have so I do have a question for mr. Sethi about if he can

[00:52:44] explain what's going on there yeah no thank you for that question that website is still under development it is kind of released as a early model we have some updates with our parent quad meetings where we plan to release additional ways to communicate with the families on the topic of AI and our goal is to create simple pathways right if it's an app on your phone you should be alerted when a notification comes out we want multilingual messaging to go out so it's done in multiple modes and that's what we're striving to get to very quickly so you'll see a lot of this coming together over the summer and for next school year we'll have clear communication lines going out on those

[00:53:23] and how often are you communicating with our office of communication because I think that maybe we're in silos and we're not getting that information out to the people that have to be pushing it out because there was so much information and in terms of you know reviewing the the superintendent we have that that is one of the ELs that we have that we've already approved in January so that mechanism already exists of what is the superintendent doing how's it all being done but anyway I just went off yeah no we would certainly the goal was to kind of build the resource or it has information in there and then start working with the communications team over the summer to get them out to

[00:54:01] families through the various channels they have and be able to use that information in meaningful ways for next school year okay thank you no I I appreciate that. I just want to emphasize of what is going on right now that is not being hidden, it just is not being communicated. And I think that that's where we're falling short and we have to focus on that.

[00:54:21] Thank you. Mr. McElveen. Thank you. And thank you both for bringing this forward. I think it's very clear that we need to get moving on this as quickly as possible. So we appreciate you starting the process and coming up with such a solid proposal. So my first question is for Dr. Reed. How would you envision this group interacting with the think tank that that think tank present to this group with it the think tank is really a workforce development group which is going to have a very different focus it's not going to

[00:54:59] be so much about education in the classroom it's more so about the future of AI in the region and nationally and that work I think is going to be important more so as a workforce development goal but rather than what are we going to be doing in third grade for example instructionally which I see this committee very much so involved directly in the day-to-day what's happening in our classrooms and I think Miss Marin's comment about adding more students I think that classroom experience and how we shape that is really important and

[00:55:35] that would be fundamentally I think one of the primary drivers for this advisory committee I think there's always a linkage between the two workforce development will always inform what we do instructionally but does have if you will a different maybe a different focus great that's helpful thank you and then I agree with my colleagues who have stated that there should be a public facing piece of this right I think that is indeed what our community is demanding and then finally just in terms of membership I do also

[00:56:12] agree that we need more more students on this I think generally we've had the student member appoint someone to to our advisory committees although this is a different structure so I would suggest that but I would also beef up just generally the number of student representatives. Thanks. Thank you. Not seeing any other new placards. I'm going to take a turn. Really appreciate Mr. Frisch and Mr. Dannen bringing this forward. Being on the governance committee, I

[00:56:48] definitely see the urgency around creating this. I happen to agree wholeheartedly with how it's been presented in terms of how it should be structured. It basically is about instruction. You know, I'm currently getting emails about what's not in our social studies curriculum and I've got to communicate that with staff ask questions you know I've gotten questions about other parts of our curriculum but that's operational you know some of us you know worked years in school systems but we're not instructional specialists I also appreciated one of my colleagues

[00:57:27] sharing some input from students at uh at a high school but i also found the student input short-sighted when it came to teachers use of of ai because they're just not aware of how it's helping kids access learning especially students with a disability so um i support it i agree we need more communication i see this similar to um sort of like the brack committee that we got the the reports out of and we have to do good job with with communication I definitely agree with my colleagues we need more more student representation

[00:58:04] but I also feel like if it's if it's not structured as a superintendent's and committee I don't see all these people listed as attending and I don't we won't get the feedback often enough like this is a moving like right now it's moving as we sit here and we need to be on top of it and we need the experts at the table and it needs to be structured and I do have the trust in our system because I also know that I'll have the opportunity to appoint someone which is very important and I will be checking in with them and then utilizing my newsletter to communicate out what the work of that of that committee is doing

[00:58:40] so I support the forum topic as presented all right I see mr. Frisch has put his placard up yes thank you I appreciate that conversation thus far dr. Reed do you see any drawback in making these meetings public no sir so we could make the meetings public yes sir all right well I would be supportive of that and that could be worked into the policy as it's developed on the question of students I agree but I'm not sure the structure or the number so I'd

[00:59:17] like the work to begin and then if like when the policy gets constructed we decide well we want sack to do it and it'll be this many students then perhaps Perhaps we figure out a transitional phase where that part of the policy gets incorporated.

[00:59:32] As for Title I, I agree. I apologize for the oversight. I think that's an important element to include in the conversation for a number of reasons. Without objection, I'd like to include them on that because I think it's important.

[00:59:49] Do you see any drawback in including the Title I office? - No, sir. - Anyways, I appreciate the conversation. What I appreciate most is that we're all chomping at the bit to get this work started, so thank you.

[01:00:04] - Thank you, Ms. Dixit. - So I'm here also to support this forum topic and moving forward with it. I think technology is the most important factor right now in education and moving forward because of all the changes happening in this field.

[01:00:25] So it has to be a very dynamic committee obviously and has to really kind of think the futuristic, like what's happening in next five years, 10 years in technology space, and I think it's the right time to do it, 'cause we are at that tipping point with technology, so I appreciate you bringing this forward, so I'm fully supportive of that, and Title I office definitely needs to be involved, and we do have to bring equity in all our discussions.

[01:00:59] Thanks. - Thank you, Dr. Anderson, for a quick go back. - Thank you, I'm just gonna run through the list of my questions here and statements. One thing that I wanna put in the room, that if the advisory committees are not working, the onus is on us to fix it.

[01:01:14] Because I know what the feedback has been. It's been what we've heard from folks before we got on the board many years ago, and it still continues. It's 'cause I just heard it from my representatives last week when I had my meetings with all of them. We give you guys recommendations, then we hear nothing back.

[01:01:30] don't know what you're doing with it staff gives you a response so what does that mean i think we've been the first board that i was on at least the first year or so there was a little bit more activity about bringing forward some of the recommendations to um as as motions for staff to carry forward but that that only lasted a couple of years and then it just we hear it in june and by the time we hear these nine committees it's all like swimming in our heads and then we start the school year all over again and we don't ever look back so that's on us to fix so

[01:02:06] i want to raise that um two these are the committees in which i know there have been people in the galleries because i know because i've been in the galleries acsd flea cac fpac as well as msaoc and title one people come and they have sat i'm not saying it's a hundred people but people come in there sit but we know that people are really interested in this if they know this conversation is going on they are going to make sure that they come in and be part of it um there is a lot going on and that that miss um st john cunning just shared and i think that speaks to what my points were there's all of these things going on and yet we have that

[01:02:45] clamor for the community part to participate if you're making the amendment for us to make this a public meeting i don't care who runs it my next suggestion was going to be could we not have it be call advisory so it could have all the teeth you're looking for the school board public if you're saying these are going to be public meetings that are noticed and i'm sure they'll be in the evenings because there's plenty of parents then my work there is done but we cannot make this inside

[01:03:13] committee and so i think we've moved away from that so i will pause here miss maren it would be be really helpful to me as governance committee chair to get clear on what we're seeking because not only we're trying to decide today but we want to codify it and the meeting is in May 19th so I don't think that much is going to get done in the time to stand up this committee before then you know we mentioned the think tank again not clear on where that's standing you know if we're really chomping at the bit as was said then we've got to get clear on on

[01:03:53] what we we want and do we want a committee that's going to be reviewing apps and software and helping us make financial decisions or decisions about purchasing so if we do that's got to be crafted a little bit differently you know parents want a place to help influence decision and unfortunately again this is not business as usual so when we say you know you want it just as it is this is not really what this time calls for I mean to be honest because of

[01:04:27] way the superintendent has chosen to roll out ai we are under a microscope arlington has allowed their principals to have school-based opt-out of one-to-one devices for k2 something our parents are clamoring for we have said nothing about it the superintendent has said nothing about it so we absolutely this is us showing a good faith gesture to the community that we hear them we take them seriously we understand that we need to hold the superintendent accountable to making decisions to the community about how much technology what technology how much of the budget is being spent I have a budget question in

[01:05:05] right now that asks for all the money we are spending from positions to devices to apps all of that is happening because the division level conversation is basically a pep rally for AI and I'm eager to hear our experts today but we're still not talking about devices in classrooms and parent input so that's why this committee needs to allow the public visibility and influence on us so as governance chair I it would be helpful for you mr. Dan and mr. Frisch to help me know what to bring to the committee on Thursday May 19 so we could codify

[01:05:41] what you're seeking or what the consensus is yeah I'll say absolutely I know mr. Frisch is on the committee but I will share a lot of discussions that and I want to point out as well I had in my mental notes but just not my written notes to give credit to all the work that you all have done and I appreciate all the efforts you've made not just include the committee but outside the committee as well these discussions so absolutely and duly noted all right guys I see more and more placards going up so when we're over time by five minutes and have a full day so if there's something you absolutely have to say keep your placard up I'm gonna give you a minute okay mr. moon

[01:06:20] I don't know whether this is something I absolutely have to say, but I wanted to thank, you know, Mr. Frisch and Dr. Reed, you know, willing to consider this to be open to public, which is with our support, wholeheartedly.

[01:06:36] Second point is, to the forum topic requesters, how do you envision this review committee's work will affect other discussions the board is embarking on, including AI policy and digital device use time, et cetera?

[01:07:01] Are we pausing them? No, I don't think the policy or this are pausing. the work so to speak in terms of how it informs the work you know this is different it's modeled after the basal instructional review committees but it's different because it is not does not have an expiration date on it right so we are appointing members for one-year terms they can be reappointed over and over and over again many of us have people that we do that with for various committees so that's different the other thing that's different about it I think

[01:07:38] think is the ability for the, you know, the instructional review committees are kind of detailed in regulation, not in policy. And this is taking a hybrid approach. It'll be detailed by the superintendent in operationalizing it, and it will be enshrined in the governance committee's work on the policy, which will eventually come to the board. In terms of what's articulated here, I think we do a decent job of providing context of what the forum is hoping will be in the policy.

[01:08:14] That does not cover every bit, and my expectation if this moves forward today is that this will be public, and so I think that will be baked into the policy.

[01:08:30] The question about the number of students would be baked into the policy, perhaps, and eventually the board will weigh in on that, And if what governance comes up with falls short or isn't exactly where the board wants it to be, then the normal process for policy approval includes amendments, and it'll go from there.

[01:08:51] So I think we've tried to take as big a picture look at this as possible, getting into the weeds enough to begin the work without prejudicing—not prejudicing is not the right word— without getting in the way of governance's ability to finish its policy, 'cause there's a lot more to the policy than just this part and so that this can start now.

[01:09:20] We have governance coming up this month. What if the policy is not finished at that meeting or the meeting after? I'm not saying, I'm trying not, I don't believe in speaking into existence, but I know others do, so I apologize to those who believe that that's possible. But, and I actually think we made a lot of progress the last meeting on two fronts so knock on any actual real wood in the room um but um so i'm hopeful um but at least we can begin that work because even if governance approves it then it's new business that maybe there's a work session i don't know but there's a approval process after

[01:09:57] governance does the work as well um so maybe we get it done in june but at least we'd have a two month head start on getting this policy off or this committee off the ground thank you uh mr Mr. McIlveen. Thanks.

[01:10:12] 20 seconds. So just to follow up on what Ms. Mirren said, that we don't have time to talk about this. I do appreciate you bringing up the Arlington example. And as governance moves into finalizing the policy, I do hope that you will consider eliminating devices for K-2.

[01:10:29] The principals I've talked to are supportive. I think there's community support for that. So thank you. Thank you. Ms. St. John Cunning. So just very quickly because our advisory committees, I was at the MSAOC committee and this thing of like why don't you take our suggestions, why don't you do it.

[01:10:47] I was part of MSAOC when it was just MSA and we went through some of the things. It takes time to get things done and there were some of us with historical knowledge that said you guys have advocated for this, this and this and this, this and this has happened. So what they're going to start doing is going back and looking historically at what has happened and sometimes it doesn't happen immediately because it takes time we know it takes funding how you operationalize it so I think when you don't have a continuity of people on these committees they feel frustrated but the fact of the matter is that there is impact and at that meeting several of us could say I was on the committee when we were advocating for this and it has happened now and you know that was a long time ago so those are those things

[01:11:26] that we have when it was MSA so I just want to let the advisory committees know that things do happen their work is not in vain sometimes it just takes longer than what any of us have patience for but that's just the nature of the beast at where we work on I just want to thank them for what they do thank you and I happen to agree with you so they have a forum consensus number two the figures County School Board agrees the following recommendations direct the superintendent to establish an educational technology review committee ETRC which will hold public meetings and be consistent with the purpose charge scope structure and membership outline of the forum topic on board docs and to

[01:12:05] begin convening the ETRC at the earliest predictable time and direct the governance committee to incorporate and formalize these expectations in the board policy as part of its ongoing work ensuring that the ETRC's purpose charge scope structure and membership are codified as detailed in the forum topic on board docs do we have consensus on this I do want to say thank you mr. Frisch for adding the public because you know that was a thing that was very very important to me and I appreciate your flexibility all right so it looks like we have consensus on the board everyone say point of order the

[01:12:43] consensus means everybody agrees no consensus is a majority no it's not it we've we've gone around this before consensus this is what we're supposed to do is consensus making and I agree with the committee but I this is not a point of order it's a comment that I again as Governors chair want to understand there is not agreement on exactly what this committee is supposed to do unless everyone is exactly agreeing to this which means they're not doing the curriculum piece because well maybe I'm misunderstanding I guess I just want to

[01:13:23] be sure I understand what like that's going to function that the superintendent is going to be bringing running this like a curriculum committee which is a probably a lot of work which is fine yeah I think it's a lot of work okay so So okay, then maybe I am just pleasantly surprised.

[01:13:46] It just didn't sound like there was appetite for the comments I made. I heard some sighing and eye rolling. So I just want to be sure that -- I think Mr. Frisch summarized what he believes governance should do in relation to this. We can go back and watch it again. And then really quickly, Mr. Min, because we've got to shut this down.

[01:14:04] We're 15 minutes behind and we have guests coming. Thank you. Ms. Marron, if you take a look at the forum topic request, the outcome of the forum topic these two fours and one and two that I believe that that's where the consensus is so this is gonna go to a governance committee to reflect this but yes this room but also do we usually direct the superintendent to stand up a committee from a forum I mean this forum is not a public vote it I guess we've done it I guess again I'm just trying to understand this is a brand new thing I

[01:14:40] don't want to hold it up I'm mr. so when I thought about the different may I whether we normally do that or not. I think there was. I think, you know, whether you say consensus unanimity or agreement, general agreement, it's giving those two tasks, superintendent and governance committee.

[01:15:01] It will eventually come back to us for the final decision. - Okay, I just also still have a hard time expecting the superintendent to stand something up before the governance committee is put it in policy. This is how we end up in jams of confusion when it's not in policy. A forum topic is not a directive.

[01:15:17] - Well, just from my perspective, the forum topic has always had those boxes at the end that define the desired action. And so we debated on what the desired action was and landed on these two approaches with two different boxes.

[01:15:34] I think that the forum is fairly clear in terms of what the expectation is. And if there are enhancements to that by governance, that's part of the policymaking work that takes place. And the superintendent, just as anything that changes, will have to adapt to those changes.

[01:15:53] But at the basis, like the bare bones, like if we did nothing to adjust it, it would have to take the confines of what the board has just provided consensus on. And even then, it would still have to be adopted by the board. But at the very minimum, this is, let's say that the board was mired in disagreement on the policy for the next six months.

[01:16:14] I'm not trying to speak anything to its existence. The work would be continuing. The committee would be up and running. as the board has just weighed in. So that's kind of where we are. And I'm happy to talk about it in more detail at governance and bring language for the policy that I think aligns with it.

[01:16:34] - I'd like to just say it's concerning that the policy seems to be the secondary level of work. That is our work. Forum is great, let's do it. But the intention is that this policy will get approved by the end of this school year. And the next governance meeting is May 19th.

[01:16:50] And that's the only scheduled one. so let's put our money where our mouth is and do both i'm in so thank you for the allowance of extra time i just need clarification do you wish me to start the committee formation now or wait till the policy is completed the board provided consensus for the forum as written so move forward with beginning the committee now wait till the policy is completed correct okay ms maron are you a yes on the consensus now yes i will be a yes and can i also ask will there be language that we can have because part of this committee just to help expedite

[01:17:27] what the superintendent is putting together is for us to appoint an individual I'd love to know if you had some standard language for us to pull I mean otherwise I'm happy to do it on my own so typically the superintendent provides information to the board for how the when they they'd like the appointments made by and general language for the soliciting so okay all - All right folks, thank you.

[01:17:53] The forum topping is concluding at 11:47 and we'll do a quick transition to get started on the next topic.

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