School Board Work Session

Speaker 19introduce themselves and then we'll go ahead and start.

Lauren BartelmeHi, I'm Lauren Bartle-May. I'm on the school board for my first term. So I'm glad to have

Sarah Kelseyyou guys here. I'm Sarah Kelsey. This is my second term.

Amit HickmanI'm Amy Hickman, my second term as well. Christine Assesory, this is my first term. Okay.

Speaker 19And this is my eighth term. I'm old. So this is a special work session for the city of Fairbanks April 20th of 2026 and we are so glad that you all could join us this evening we know that you guys all have lots of activities and schoolwork so we'll get right down to it we each each of the board members will have a question and if you would like to respond you can just raise your hand does that work for everybody I'm sure

Lauren Bartelmethink about a time at school when you felt really excited what made that experience special.

Speaker 19Jonah, who went ahead?

Lauren BartelmeI'm sorry,

Speaker 19Jonah then Marley. I'll go first. Time at school, like, when I was excited to learn was during science when we did a lab, because, like, it was fun to do, like, to help me learn more than just sitting down and listening, like, to teach or talk, and it was, like, more interactive.

Speaker 15The time that I felt really excited about learning is currently we're doing a civics project called the Moth Congress. And since I'm really interested in the law and all of that, it was really interesting to understand how a court case works and how different attorneys and witnesses, how everything everything works, so it's really interesting, so I can understand what happens in court case.

Speaker 19Maybe a future judge, attorney, politician? Yeah, maybe. School

Speaker 16member?

Speaker 19School member, yeah. Anybody

Speaker 16else like to...yes? A time where I was really excited about learning was during an engineering project that I had to do. it was really exciting to like for my group to kind of combine all of our creative ideas and made something like very big and not only that but we learned we learned a lot about teamwork and communication during the group.

Speaker 19Does anybody else want to respond? Okay we're going to the second question and I apologize but when we call on you could you and tell us what grade you're in. Ms. Kelsey, do you want to read the next question? What is something your teachers

Molly Merloor school do

Sarah Kelseythat really helps students succeed? Abigail.

Speaker 15My name is Abigail and I'm in seventh grade. And something that I believe that my teachers do that really helps me and my peers succeed is providing study materials. Study guides, websites, or even videos are all very helpful when it comes to preparing for tests or quizzes.

Speaker 16Yeah, Clara.

StudentI'm Clara, I'm in eighth grade. And one thing that I feel like helps me succeed that my teachers do is they talk to me. It's less academic in the strictest sense, but it helps me to feel more connected with my teachers. And it helps me feel recognized not only as a student, but as a person. That makes me feel more comfortable and it helps me to feel better in the class and it helps me learn and it makes me feel more comfortable asking questions too.

Speaker 19That makes sense. Anybody else like to respond? Yes, Lee.

StudentI'm in seventh grade. And one thing that my teachers do is they give a really in-depth explanation whenever a student asks a question. And my hope is with creative thinking, anything that's just slightly off topic, but still helps to understand the main thing.

Speaker 15Anybody else? Yes, Laura. I'm an eighth grade, and I feel that not only do teachers help you succeed academically, I feel that they really try to connect with you and try to create a bond that you can trust and that you can go to them anytime, like if you need help or if you just want to talk to someone, I feel they really try to connect with you and create a bond.

Speaker 19Anybody else? Hi.

Amit HickmanFirst off, we really appreciate you all being here and your answers and you being as honest with us as possible. It really helps us be able to do whatever we can to help you. So my question is, if you could add one thing to the middle school experience that would make school more engaging or more fun for students, what would it be?

StudentI think that adding more hands-on activities would probably engage many students because physically touching things and seeing how things actually work I feel like is important for some students and their way of learning. And it also helps you understand. Instead of just talking about theories, it helps to actually see those teachings in action. It's also fun, especially in science, to see bubbles come out of the vials.

Speaker 16I'm the Mary and I'm in seventh grade. And one thing that, wait, what was the question you were saying? If you could add one more thing to

Amit Hickmanmiddle

Speaker 16school that would make it more fun and

Amit Hickmanengage.

Speaker 16Okay, one thing I would add to my middle school experience that would make it more fun is probably more hands-on learning, like projects or experiments because I feel like in a way it makes students understand more better about the subject that they're learning. Yes,

Speaker 11Claire. My name's Claire and I'm in 8th grade and I want to add on to what the past two people have said. So like, kind of like a passion project that you can work on in school, like something that you're passionate about and you want to like expand on it or learn more about it and you can do it in school instead of like outside of school without like teachers help.

Kristina CecereSo what advice would you give adults who are trying to make middle schools better for students?

Speaker 16Do you think you should try to understand the

Speaker 19student more and better because you never know what they have going on outside?

StudentJust to add on to that, I feel like as adults try to connect and build friendships with the students, they not only understand the students better and can better treat their but they can know what's going on or if something bad happened, they can, like if they know the student, they will be able to tell and be able to help them. It would also help the students feel more comfortable asking questions and reaching out for help.

Speaker 19Anybody else like to

Kristina Cecererespond? Yeah.

Speaker 15Marley. So I'd also like to add is like if the teacher is like having this hard time and figuring out like oh like what project, like assignment would best suit my class, I feel like we should ask students like their opinions because from a student's point of view it could be totally different from a teacher's point of view so I feel like getting feedback from students is a really good way of making a school and a classroom . That's great.

Speaker 16Yes, Valeria. Advice that I would give to adults is definitely listening to the students in school and also out of school. Because whether it's something that's about their future or their classes or anything that's going on at home. I feel like listening and having someone to talk to can make a student feel safe and can make them have a close relationship with their teacher.

Speaker 19Anybody

Speaker 16else?

StudentYes. I think that adults could give better rubrics or study guides to really help with tests and projects. And yeah, they would benefit students and get them better grades.

Speaker 19So, Joan, starting with you, can you guys each tell us what elementary school you attended? I attended college elementary school.

StudentI attended Mosaic Elementary School.

StudentEagle View Elementary School, Mosaic Elementary School, Providence Elementary School. I went to

Speaker 15Eagle View and then I went to the Willis Friends from Eagle View Elementary School. Good

Speaker 19variety. Is there anything else you guys would like to share with us? It doesn't have to be an answer to one of these questions, just any feedback on your experience in middle school? Dr. Wright, do you have any questions?

Dr. WrightstaffSure.

Speaker 19How much time have we got?

Dr. WrightstaffThank you, Ms. Pichens. Students, you guys are doing a great job. I'm really, really proud to be your superintendent with this type of feedback that you're providing to all of us. It's also helpful, he came in right at the last minute, but your principal, Mr. Smith, is here too. That's great feedback for him as well. I might put him on me things based on what you heard. That's my job as a superintendent is to stress out the principals. I have a few follow up questions on some of the things that you asked. It's really what our wonderful school board is trying to do and myself as a superintendent is we are trying to think about what are the things that you need to be successful as students. What do you need to be as successful as students right now as

amazing and talented and unique in different 7th and 8th graders. But also what do you need to be successful once you leave our schools? So for some of you that will be in 4 years. I have an 8th grade son myself. It scares me that in just over 4 years he'll be done with school. And some of you it's 5 years. And the other thing we think about too is that a lot of the things that you're going to be doing once you're out, once you're done with your educational journey. Whether Whether it's finishing high school and going into the workforce. Or finishing high school and going into a trade school. Or a college or a university. But a lot of the jobs that you will be doing in that time frame, they don't even exist right now.

Which is kind of crazy to think about. But as we look out to your parents, they can help you understand how much things have changed in the last few years. I have a niece that she's a genetic therapist. I was in high school, I did not know what a genetic therapist was. We have people that are AI trainers. There are all these jobs that haven't existed now. We are trying to think about what can we do to support you to be successful in any of those. You guys gave us some really good feedback. You talked about teamwork and communication. Marley talked about real world skills with that mock trial. Claire gave us a great example about passion projects. Something that we are really connected to. I think some of those are really

helpful for us to hear. Just a few things. So Marlee, I'm going to, you talked about that mock trial. You're really connected to that. Is it because it's something that you're passionate in or it's just that it's a real world thing that's connected to the society around us? What made you connect to that project as something that you pointed out for the school board? Yeah,

Speaker 15so I've always been really fascinated about court cases and how crimes are kind of situated in a courtroom. And I also really feel passionate about fighting for rights and fighting for what's right, really. And so I really felt that it was a really co-opportunity to really try to get into the real world. It was like a scenario where I could really get into the real world and see if I could make any impact into that courtroom.

Dr. WrightstaffThat's great. That's what we want you doing. We want you leaving our schools with the skills to go make that impact. Not to go be successful in the world, but to go out and change the world. So I think that's great. One other quick follow up. Both Clara and Jonah, you kind of talked about this idea of students or teachers knowing you as people or knowing what's going on or knowing what's going on outside of school. Can you tell us a little bit more, or anybody else in China, why is that important or why is that something that you shared as something that helps make your experience more valuable when you're in our schools. Jon?

Speaker 19Because when you understand the student makes it easier to understand, they don't help them learn certain things.

Dr. WrightstaffDefinitely. Claire, anything to add on?

StudentYeah, personal connection with the students could help teachers understand how to better teach them understand their strengths and weaknesses it can help them learn about if they learn about the student as not only someone to teach but as a person they can like help them with out-of-school problems they can help them better learn their subjects, they can introduce projects that can boost their education, and it just, it makes students, or I have, many of my teachers connect with me and talk with me, not even about school related things, and it personally helps me feel more safe and more welcome at And if you feel safe and welcome, then you don't have to focus on finding safety. You can focus more on your way.

Dr. WrightstaffYeah, that's really powerful. Thank you for sharing that. We want all of you to feel seen, to feel valued, and to feel heard every single day. Right? So that's really important. Mr. Smith, anything that you heard today that sticks out to you from your wonderful students?

Mr. SmithstaffYeah, I thought I gave my presentation last month. So, first off, excellent job students, awesome job here in public speaking. I would say three things, right? Again, heard about caring about you, right, as a whole child, right, not just about your academics, right, and that's something we preach from day one in August to our teachers, right, the bachelor of the way. I heard a number of you talk about hands-on, right? I've seen you in the hallways, I think science lends itself to that hands-on stuff. And so getting other disciplines to do that as well. I'm getting old, so there was three things, and I forget what I'm doing. I'll remember here in a minute

Dr. Wrightstaffbefore I leave. I think you're going to thank all these parents for supporting me. Thank you.

Speaker 19Okay. Well, you guys did great. Very impressive. You are all incredible public speakers. So you should all be very proud of yourselves. And we have a lot of good information. And I will just echo Dr. Wright's sentiments. That it seems like experiential learning, connections, and just really providing interesting learning opportunities in general seems to be what you all are looking for in school. I

Mr. Smithstaffremember Ms. Kitchis. Oh,

Speaker 19thank you.

Mr. Smithstaffstudent voice, right? So I think we have tried, like the last couple of years, the eighth graders, your input last year on what recess would look like, and on tutorial learning and those changes, right? Everybody out there hopefully took the survey as we kind of come up with some new branding stuff, right? And I think it trickles down, but individual teachers, right? As a teacher, that was something I know I did at the end of the year was get that information back to figure out what the kids enjoy doing, what they didn't, and we'll try to make some changes for the public. So those are what we need.

Speaker 19Great. Okay, well we are going to let you go home and make sure that you take a

Kristina Cecerecookie on your way out

Speaker 19and enjoy the rest of your evening. And keep in touch because we have an email address, so if you have any additional thoughts later, feel free to email us. It's very easy. at schoolboard at fairfaxva.gov. So, but thank you for coming. We'll take like a little five-minute break. I'll leave. No,

Speaker 3he really did. What? I don't know. Yeah, it's better in some ways than others.

Speaker 19Okay, good evening everyone. My name is Carolyn Pitches and I'm the chair of the City of Fairfax School Board. We are going to each, well I just introduced myself, but the other board members will introduce themselves and if you guys could introduce yourselves and also tell us what for Adrian, that would be great. So I'm going to

Lauren Bartelmestart down here. My name is Lauren Bartlemay and I am on my first term and I'm Sarah Kelsey and I'm on my second term I

Amit Hickmanmean I'm on my second term which means I'm finishing my fourth year

Speaker 19I'm scared I just looked at your mom I am. My

Studentname is Anna Hardy, and I'm in the 10th grade.

Speaker 21My name is Pat and Chongchukle. I'm in 9th grade. I'm Evan Curtis. I'm a sophomore. I'm Christian Lewis. I'm

Speaker 3a sophomore.

Speaker 11I'm Naila Adams, and I'm an educator.

Speaker 19Welcome, all of you. Each board member is... Oh, there's another. Hi, how are you? Come on in. Come on in. How are you? Okay, good morning.

Lauren BartelmeYeah,

Speaker 19have

Speaker 11a seat.

Kristina CecereOkay, good morning. Yeah, have a seat. Okay,

Speaker 19so for those who just came in, would you like to introduce yourself and tell us what grade you're in also? I'm Amin, and I'm James Bader. Okay.

StudentI'm Sorin Quatra, and I'm a ninth grader.

Speaker 19Okay, so welcome. Sorin, did you speak to us last year? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's really familiar.

Lauren BartelmeOkay, Ms. Barlamay, do you want to start? Sure. So the first question is, what types of learning experiences help you remember and understand things best? And anyone who wants to raise their hand.

StudentHannah. I was going to say, personally, I found hands-on more like field work stuff. like in leadership class when actually we have to go out and do the project, I've found that problem solving and decision making in the moment has grown.

Kristina CecereSoren.

StudentI would say lectures with guided notes are a great way that help me learn. and you know like you know as like in the presentations but as long as the instructor is keeping the students active like you know making sure they're always engaged.

Speaker 19Anybody else? Oh yeah.

Speaker 3I would say yeah like active learning is really good especially where the teacher kind of makes you figure things out for yourself like in chem class I know Miskita is really good about sort of making us figure things out on our own instead of just telling us the answers and have us memorize those, kind of figuring out how things apply, like in real life scenarios.

Speaker 11I would say as in the teacher being able to relate and tell us real life situations on how we will be able to use that on a daily basis. I would also say that having a teacher to be able to relate and tell me their perspective and their personal experiences also helped me be able to learn a little better.

StudentI like engaging activities. For example, in my Spanish class we have to learn vocabulary and sometimes the lists are very long. They use a software called GameKit. It's like a game. You can answer questions. And the questions are related to the content. And that really helps me remember and understand what I need to do for the subject.

Speaker 19Is it the technology piece to that or just the way it engages you? The way it engages you, yeah. Is anybody at

Speaker 15Goldstock

Speaker 19in the group?

Speaker 23Yes. So my marketing class, we do a group discussion and hands-on activities and just like projects. And I think that helps me a lot with marketing. And yeah, that's my job as well.

Speaker 19What is your name? Hi. Hi, my name's Paris. It's nice to meet you. Me too. Are you in 9th or 10th grade? I'm in 10th grade.

Kristina CecereOkay,

Speaker 19we just did the first question which is what types of learning experiences help you remember and understand things best?

Speaker 14So I think that the best types of learning and teaching that helps me learn the best is definitely hands-on steps or interactive. I think I learn much better when I'm being engaged to learn or activities, games, stuff like that versus just taking down notes. I think taking down notes is kind of like they get bored after a while so you know I don't really like lose focus and stuff like that. help keep it fun but still able for me still number.

Sarah KelseyAnybody have a follow up? Okay, please call it safe. Can you explain the GIM kit, what that is?

StudentThere's a variety of games inside, so the teacher will host a session and they have the games list to choose from that the students can play. but the core concept is in order to complete like to play the game you need to answer questions I've almost seen like a Kahoot style question look it

Speaker 19almost but kind

Studentof but yeah Yeah, relatively same concept.

Sarah KelseyOkay. Is it only one class that uses it, or is it, do

Studentyou use it in lots

Sarah Kelseyof

Studentclasses? I've only used it in my Spanish class. Okay,

Sarah KelseySpanish, okay. I think it's mostly, it's mostly language, I think. Okay. All right, do you want that? Yeah. Schools are preparing students for a world that is quickly changing. What kinds of skills or experiences do you think students will need most in the future? Yes, Christian.

Studentsocial skills. I've noticed that in our current society it's becoming very rural and there's less written materials that I've noticed. So I think being able to talk to people and communicate, especially on a deeper level, is going to be very important.

Speaker 11I would say change in general. Life changes quickly and a lot of things happen. So being able to get used to that change at a young age and get used to that can be a lot of character development skills that we would want to be able to set in 9th grade and 10th grade. So, just getting used to that change at an early age. So, when we do get to that point where we're out in the real world and it's changing so quickly, that would just not cause a fall. That's a

Speaker 19great answer. Soren, did you want to go?

StudentYeah, I would say one skill I think, you know, a set of skills that a lot of students could probably benefit from learning is smart financial skills. I feel like, you know, we send a lot of students out into the world and they're not financially prepared, you know, like to, you know, smartly handle their money, support a family, support themselves, support people they care about. So I think that's one thing that we could really do better about teaching a lot of our students.

Speaker 19I would agree with you as somebody who has two twenty-something year olds. You'll help in that department. Okay,

Speaker 3Evan. I would say originality is a big one. I think AI is getting a lot bigger and taking over a lot of things, especially in the writing aspect. And a lot of rubrics are really strict about a lot of those things. and I think just getting some more space for students to be original and to present their own ideas would be really good. Like I'm an AP seminar now and the IWA and stuff like that are really great for me. I've enjoyed it a lot to be able to kind of come up with my own argument and discover what I want to write about, even though we still have the stimulus packet to base it off of it. It left a lot of room for my own interpretation to be put in there.

Kristina CecereAnyway, I wanted to ask a word. So you mentioned financial literacy, which I completely agree. I'm curious if you've taken EPF, Economic Personal Finance. I

Studenthave not, but I am currently taking Principles of Business and we do go over a lot of financial skills. The teacher, Mr. Morrell, is really great about teaching us everything and we actually spent most of quarter three devoted to planning the future, how to apply for a job, how to handle a job So, you literally did a whole summative project on, you know, how to do a job interview, how to write your resume, and how to contact interviewers, and you know, all, so many important skills.

Speaker 19That's amazing.

StudentYeah.

Speaker 19How many of you have taken a personal finance cost already?

Amit HickmanWell, no, they do, but they typically take it online after temporary. Oh, yeah, or you have to, yeah, you guys are taking the summer online. They do PE now this summer. Right? Yeah, they're all not there.

Speaker 16Does that also account for middle school? Well, because I know they have that 4-H program where they went out to the school and actually learned

Speaker 19about doing a budget.

Dr. WrightstaffThat's part of that?

Amit HickmanYes, Finance Park.

Dr. WrightstaffIt's usually part of the 8th grade civics curriculum. And then to the place called Finance Park.

Speaker 19Okay, does anybody else want to share?

Speaker 23Yes. I think students need skills like critical thinking, problem solving skills, and also communication. And I think marketing helps a lot with that. I'm taking my team right now and we do a lot of that stuff. I think it helps a lot.

StudentI was going to say like effective communication. I just feel like simple things like writing emails or talking to your teachers. A lot of people don't know how to like professionally like words, stuff like that. I think that's because of like texting culture and stuff like that. Just simple things like that. They kind of try to teach us during lifetime in

Speaker 15ninth grade I think,

Studentbut it wasn't very like, it wasn't something very focused on.

Speaker 14I think adding on to trying to be more adaptive and stuff, because new technologies are coming out, so I think it's easier to have more flexibility since there are new types of resources that students can accept, like access, and they need to be able to access different things and use new sources and tools in different ways. I also think that communication is also another thing, where because how Anna said, like texting and culture and stuff like that, it kind of changes the way that communication runs because they're so used to, oh, like thinking before what they say or versus in an in-person conversation, you kind of just have to have a conversation. So I think being able to have a way to like

teach students how to properly communicate would be very important. Anybody

Speaker 19else want to share on that?

Amit HickmanOkay, Ms. Pickman. So first of all, thank you for being here, especially those who are in AP7 and have your IPA's and IPW's do this week, I know you're busy. So you guys actually hit on this a little bit, but with new technologies like artificial intelligence that are becoming more and more a part of everyday life, how do you think schools should and could help students to learn to use these tools more responsibly and effectively? And we can kind of just start here then.

StudentI think one way that, you know, I've started, this is one way I've started in a responsible way. And it's really helped me to help create practice resources for different classes like AP Human Geography, Biology, Math. I've used ChatGPT to help me create practice questions or help create comprehensive cram guides and review guides or lay out really complicated terms and layman's terms. And I feel like that's one way a lot of teachers can help students use AI for a better purpose rather than because right now the message that teachers are sending out to students that they are like about AI is like don't use AI AI is bad you know it's forbidden it's a sin if you use AI like it's like you know you'll face consequences but I think you know if we like if teachers show students how to use AI in that more you know

a helpful and productive way, I think it could actually benefit a lot of students. Obviously we should use AI to cheat and write our essays and stuff, but if we use it in that method to help us study and get better, then I think it's definitely a good thing.

Speaker 19What ideas would you have for using AI for writing? Because I know that that's always like the sticking point. Like how, what are, what do you see as responsible ways of using AI with writing?

Studentlike checking grammar or helping to revise or asking a chatbot, like hey, I'm a little bit confused, my teacher said this about my essay and I'm a little bit confused, can you maybe elaborate on what my teacher said and help me understand this a little bit better? or like you know or like you know doing revision or like you know finding small things in someone like you know writing before submitting it like to make small edits or something not writing the full paper not generating the idea for a paper you know just the students should write the paper the students should I generate the idea for the paper and AI should help the student make the paper better after that and help them improve their writing skills.

Speaker 14So originally I think the idea of AI was like wow, somebody can just do my work for me and show work. But I think in school it's so important, now I learn how to responsibly use it and I think it's just a super helpful source for learning and I think it's actually like sometimes like a not so good teacher and there's someone or some tool that can help you actually understand a topic I find myself using AI and it's actually helped me understand it much more than a way that like my teacher has taught me away and I think that if there's like some way that I can like a type of website software that I can instead of just giving you straight up an answer it's more like of a teaching tool so yeah it can know how to solve it but it'll kind

guide you through it versus just straight up what you're asking for like the answer and can actually teach you through it.

Speaker 11I would say knowing when it is and isn't appropriate to use AI. I'm going to clean off of what you said as in teachers make it seem like oh it's so bad to use AI although I feel like it's a lack of knowing when it is and isn't able to use AI. I feel like if students are able to know when they should be able to use AI and when they're not, I feel like it will help the whole community in school as a whole to understand that, oh, maybe I should use AI on these things and not so much on these. For example, as in math space that we're currently doing in our third-man, as in it gives you an AI helper to kind of help you if you're going to get stuck on a math problem, I mean it helps you, although it

doesn't serve even the answer. So I feel like just knowing the difference in between being able to to draw the line in between cheating and knowing when it's helping you is a big part of AI. Yeah,

Speaker 3to add on to that, I don't think enough people focus on the positives, because it is really good at doing things like data analysis and stuff, which we aren't doing too much of in high school, but as well it can help you. You can give it things like copies of rubrics and stuff, and it can mock grade essays for you and give you feedback and stuff, like what to fix grammar-wise and stuff, or maybe you can polish stuff up like this. Like I'm in speech and debate and I did have it run through my speech to give me pointers on it because my teacher, my speech coach, wasn't allowed to directly tell me what to fix in speech. So it is really good for things like that where the teacher's not necessarily allowed to help you

like with college board assignments, but you can get some help with it from that.

StudentI think Anna, do you have another question? I was just going to say like schools continuing to teach like critical thinking skills because, okay, a lot of us are starting to use AI on helping stuff. be like okay I'm looking at this like is this accurate information that I'm looking at and also being able to like generate more direct prompts like it can help you a lot if you're very specific on like what you're asking especially if like you're not trying to cheat but like you dad you just need to like jumpstart your idea if you're like very just knowing how to like word stuff using AI do

Amit HickmanI think you have any classes that active when you

Speaker 14need to utilize AI? I have leadership. I think our teacher kind of doesn't like, like straight up be like, oh your assignments are like AI, but he encourages us to get ideas from it, especially because, you know, we plan like events and ideas and same with social media. We look online, what's trending, what can we do to promote Spirit Week, stuff like that. So I think he definitely tries to promote AI and he encourages us to kind of get ideas from it, which I like I kind of like it because it's kind of like letting us think about oh like what type of stuff is out there and not only just limiting ourselves to like what Google and websites have to offer. Um,

Speaker 21I feel like AI is it's good overall like you get practice questions out of it, but I think schools should like really limit it because Because some students, they bring their like, OMA laptops from like their home to bring it to school, and they just AI everything, like every moment they get. Which is like, it's unfair to some students who like, can't afford that and like, have to use school provided laptops. So

Amit Hickmanit's blocked on school laptops, but not on personal.

Speaker 21Yeah, they find like

Speaker 3ways to like, there are, yeah, ways around it. Yeah,

Studentsome kids like, you know, get proxies, and they find ways to get into like, So

Kristina Cecerethere's no AI

Amit Hickmanwebsite that you're able to access with FCPS schools?

Speaker 3Outside of,

Amit Hickmanwe said, MathSpace has kind of like a supplement.

Speaker 3Like technically no, but people do find ways to get around that cost.

StudentThey just got really strict on it though and they've walked like basically everything. Yeah, so the students

Speaker 21like to bring their own stuff together. your own laptop from home and they're like it's

Studentreally unfair

Speaker 21for other

Studentstudents. Yeah so like those who can't maybe afford to bring their own laptop, those who choose not to bring their own laptop, yeah it's really unfair. So

Amit Hickmanit's not going to fire while school it's the actual laptop

Studentitself.

StudentI think if you even if you bring your own like bring your own laptop while your own school wi-fi stuff will be blocked but people like go on their personal hotspots.

Amit HickmanLike I had to do just now. Thank you for sharing all that. That's really good information.

Speaker 19Anybody else want to share on that topic?

Speaker 23So my English and history teacher actually encouraged us to use AI for brainstorming or learning new things. For history, I use AI a lot because we learn a new thing every day. I think it helps a lot. And we shouldn't depend on AI. They should teach us how to get those things that we only need.

Kristina CecereSo summing off that, what is something you wish schools offered more opportunities for students to not necessarily AI related but really any opportunities.

Speaker 14I think like real world experience or kind of like job related stuff that's kind of outside the school environment. I think it's really important because a lot of students are confused about what they want to do after school, after college, or even what they want to major in in college. and I feel like high school is kind of like the perfect time to introduce new careers or, you know, just interests that people can have outside of their, like, education and what they want to do in the future. I think ever since I was younger, I really the only two jobs that I knew were a teacher, a doctor, or a lawyer. So I think I kind of just switched between those three until I realized that there's so much more out there.

And I wish that, you know, there's kind of a more opportunity to have, like, newer careers introduced. talking to my mom I would be like you know I would love to be a doctor but there's so many other jobs that I'm not even sure about that maybe I would love those way more so I think you can introduce you know internships or just like shadowing that like the school can offer I think that would be really helpful and beneficial.

StudentThis is kind of more specific to like Fairfax High School but like what I found like personal experience like I wish we had more But teachers are just more flexible. I've found that with after school opportunities to make up work, I do sports. Last year I did a sport all year round. So I would have practice at 315 every single day. And teachers don't like us taking tests during line time. But my coaches don't like me missing. So I feel like teachers, I know line time is loud. But I feel like if I'm willing to take the test during line time, they need to be more flexible. Because the school gives you that time because they know school and they just need to be more flexible with that or maybe be more flexible at the

end of the year or end of the quarter. Like last quarter was crazy. We didn't have many line times so maybe teachers need to understand that I know they're busy but maybe they need to stay a couple more days than just Wednesday and Thursday when the late bus stays because like I would be willing to stay. Or they need to realize that I have practice every single day. Like I need to be able to make up my test during line time because my coaches don't like me missing.

Speaker 11I would say as in recently we had the job fair, although what I did notice is that it was very much slim pickings and even though we had slim pickings, it was the bare minimum. As in like if I were to go up to one day, like oh you have to be at such and such age to go ahead and apply. Although I want to go ahead and find me a job at an early age, so it just makes it a little bit harder to go ahead and find my way. of schools they prepare you more for college instead of what the real world is going to be like. They don't decide to go ahead and help and guide you to what career you want to do instead of what college you want to do. They only give you options for if what's next not what's going to base you

for what the rest of your life is going to be like.

Speaker 19We're talking about the job fair you guys just had the other day. Oh yeah.

Speaker 11So I feel like if we're able to as a whole to be able to open up that door for more careers and being able to guide students to what careers they want to do instead of just the college and what's coming next, I feel like will make a big difference in students being more employed and just a better school as a whole. Yeah,

Speaker 3I would say having more things to look into other jobs, especially for young people, because I know I have a late birthday, like I turned 16 in September, and I've been looking for a summer job in almost all of them, or a summer internship, almost all say you have to be 16 to start. politics stuff like this, but yeah almost all the stuff I've been looking into says you have to be 16 to start. So maybe just like a gateway to that sort of world of local politics that could be through the school and give opportunities just like this one for young people to get to meet representatives and stuff and discuss things.

Speaker 19Yeah and you are here in the city of Fairfax. I

Amit Hickmanwas going to say as the city resident you should look out a lot of the boards and commissions, especially for the next year have student reps.

Speaker 3Yes. Keep

Speaker 14an eye out for those. Another thing that's kind of not really related to like outside, but I think extra credit, just in general, I feel like, personally I'm not really a really great test taker, and I feel like it's kind of hard to kind of limit your main grade being on test. So I think that extra credit assignments could really help, especially for those stingy 2% away from a better grade, not really letting you redo assignments from the past two weeks. So I think extra credit could really help. And I think it kind of gives students an opportunity to redeem themselves when they were having a rough week, and it kind of really affected them. So I think just extra credit in general would be really helpful.

And I know a lot of kids have been kind of wishing that we offer that. So just a suggestion.

Speaker 19And Soren.

StudentI would say more academic-based after-school activities. Like, this is, again, this is just Fairfax High School in particular. Like, I feel like compared to other high schools in the county, we only offer, like, you know, a slight handful of academic activities, like Science Olympiad, and Forensic Speech and Debate, and Quiz Bowl, and I feel like that's the limit. and compared to other schools that have Model UN and, oh actually sorry, I take that up, the real subject and FDLA and then like others with Model UN and TSA and Varsity Math League and you know some, I'm sorry? What is TSA? Technology Students Association. Okay. And it's just like you know, why are we so limited and so many other schools have so many other programs

and we have such a large interest for these academic programs at our school. We have a lot of smart kids at the school that would definitely be interested in said programs. So why are we lacking in these programs?

Speaker 3Yeah, I know Mr. Ege really wants to get the TSA back up. Last time I talked to him. So

Amit Hickmanthere was one at one point?

Speaker 3He said so, yeah. I feel like

Amit HickmanI had Nancy

StudentMelnick's voice on my head. And all you have to do is fill out a form and

Sarah Kelseyfind a sponsor

Studentand talk

Sarah Kelseyto Ms. Molland. That's what it is. I'm being honest with you because my son tried to start a club. And I know that's exactly what she tells the kids every time. So go

Studentrun with it. She isn't the most helpful with people. I'm speaking from experience. She's not the most helpful with people trying to start a club. find people who are interested to join. Like, here's the form, go do everything. It's really hard. Especially if you're a brand new student so it really limits how many opportunities you have to start a club. So you're looking for

Amit Hickmansupport in being able to start the clubs? Yes. That's

Speaker 19really good feedback. We'll make sure that Dr. A gets it.

Kristina CecereYeah, so is anyone trying to start a club? My friend has. Have y'all, did you have any

Speaker 14difficulty finding sponsors? Yes. I think that for them, they kind of did whatever teachers were closest to them, or, but I think it also depends on like, availability of the teachers too. A lot of times they don't really want to stay after, but I think they did a good job running it. And they have a lot of people who are

Kristina Cecerein private. And sponsors remind me, maybe Dr. Wright, I don't see Dr. A in here, but a sponsor cannot be a parent who's a level three volunteer with FCPS, ASP, and JUR. Is that correct? I

Studentstarted a club, but it was at Daniel's Run. And I think being in leadership class, we had the connection to Ms. Dorsey, and that just made everything so much easier, because I was in that class, and Mr. Freeman and just help us with everything.

Speaker 11What I wanted to say for FLA Future Leaders of America, although we struggled to find a sponsor for us, we would continue switching sponsors and switching classrooms. It was very hard to stay consistent on a continuous schedule. And on top of having sports, not having a planned out schedule, a continuous schedule makes it hard to be able to have your whole week planned out when you have homework and stuff. So having that switch and change also makes it harder to be able to want to stay in a club or stay in a sport in general. So who ran your club? It was never consistent.

StudentWas it Future Lords of America? I know my friend started a club and I think it was Miss Gibbs Jones for a while but she left in the middle of the year. So I know that totally messed them up. And I also have been on the schedule because it wasn't

Speaker 11run by students. So wow, the communication is bad.

Speaker 19Does anybody else have anything? Want to comment on, share any information? I

Speaker 14think just I don't do a whole club thing. I think in general clubs, because they're kind of run by these student officers, it's kind of not really consistent. And, you know, there's supposed to be meetings every month, but I mean I'm in a couple clubs and I don't think I've had a single meeting since the beginning of the year. So I think that's kind of hard because you want your service hours, you want to be able to be part of the community and it kind of doesn't work out because you also have to rely on other student schedules. Not blaming them, I mean it makes sense, but I think it's just kind of hard for the students to be running it since they also have a lot on their plate as well.

StudentI would also say that sometimes you find a sponsor and they are willing to do it and you host regular meetings but sometimes the sponsors aren't willing to do much. And the problem is when you try to do club activities and you try to do things like fundraising and stuff, the sponsors will say, oh can you try to do it on your own? But then the school says, oh no, you have to do everything with the sponsor, but then so they just say forget it and then you don't end up doing anything and then you're just kind of stuck. It is really frustrating.

Speaker 19I don't have a good question. Our sponsors are purely volunteer. Yeah.

Sarah KelseyI guess it's a

Molly MerloVHS.

Kristina CecereYes.

Molly MerloElizabeth what?

Kristina CecereIt's a VHS. Or it's a quiz bowl.

StudentWe have a quizable national competition at the end of the weekend. Our sponsors have to pay for the substitute teachers to come in for them on Friday.

Kristina CecereI'm sorry, you said the teachers have to pay for that?

StudentYeah. The school told them, Ms. Melnick and Dr. A told our sponsors that they would have to pay either out of their pocket or club funds for the substitutes. I saw the email. We're

Amit Hickmanall looking at this. I

Studenttold them that was crazy but they didn't want to argue. They said we don't have any other money and we don't want to argue with them so we'll just do it.

Speaker 19This is quiz ball right? Quiz ball, yeah. Which

Studentis interesting because it's VHSL.

StudentEveryone in our school has said, oh, it's, you know, we don't have the money for it, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you have the money for football, right? You have the money for basketball. Well,

Amit Hickmanwell, I don't know. We can get to them all. Okay. But thank you for sharing that. Oh, you're

Speaker 19welcome.

Amit HickmanOkay. Dr. Wright, do you have anything?

Speaker 19You're good? He's got a task now. Does anybody have anything, any final thoughts before you thank them? What?

Kristina CecereI thought I'd have to communicate that with us. Yeah. What

Speaker 19do you mean? Did

Kristina Cecereyou want to hear the email?

Speaker 19Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, thank you for reminding me. If you all think of anything once you leave, because sometimes that's what happens at least with me, please feel free to email us. Our email address is very easy to remember. It's just school board at fairfaxva.gov. So anything that you want to share, we would love to hear from you. It's on the website, too. Yeah, if you go to City of Fairfax Schools, the website, our email addresses are there as well.

Amit HickmanYou can let your peers also know that, that if there's ever a plan, that we are happy to. We may have to send you to the right

Allison Leggperson to help with

Amit Hickmanthe answers, but we're happy to help facilitate that.

Speaker 19But thank you again for coming. You guys were very insightful. I do have

Studentone of the questions. Ms. Kelsey, are you the school board rep for ESC? Yes. I thought I recognized you.

Speaker 2Oh, you're the ESC? Okay.

Dr. WrightstaffI would say a big thank you to all these families. Oh, yeah, thank you. I would like

Speaker 19my child,

Amit Hickmanthough,

Speaker 16to talk about technology in the schools. And I only bring it up because my child has been a challenging child going through the school system because if there was a way to board the system, my son was going to find it. Yes. He

Speaker 19has the proxy. I'm not kidding.

Speaker 16Well, yeah, but I mean, he's being very quiet and I wanted him to share the knowledge that he has learned thus far as technology and

Studentthe positives. I think the only motivator I had to do anything like that back then was simply because like a website I really wanted to use back then was called Scratch. It's a block based coding language. People call it very limited, but I like breaking through the limits. It's very fun. I do it in my downtime because sometimes I just have that finish my work early. So it's something to do. But I don't know why at some point it ended up getting blocked. It's unblocked now, but it was blocked back in my elementary school and at some point my middle school blocked it too. So it was very upsetting. So it's like I didn't know what else to do with myself. So I was kind of just like sitting there.

And I think that's kind of what made me push to try to figure out how to get around it. That's mainly my motivator at least I think.

Molly MerloSo the positive that I'm thinking is that you have, you

Sarah Kelseywere a part of FBLA last year, and your teacher tried to own your skills

Speaker 19and be positive. Yeah, people ended up with that. So those are the challenges. We have positives in the school as well. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Amit HickmanThank you. Thank you.

Speaker 19How many artists have you ever been? I don't think it's that many years. We have another home to it. Like he's walking on a street. I just did

Sarah Kelseypoetry. Oh, you can't wait for it. And she sounds just like one of these famous poems. Like when you started talking, you're going, oh my god, I just need you to recite a poem right now. Because you sound like you were like into it. And I'm like, oh, let's go. Let's go. I know. Do you know who I'm talking about though? Okay, so she's here too. So yeah, I can't think who she was, but they just played the video of her, and I'm just in here, I'm like, and I think it's a sack. Like, if I close minus, I think for her. So, congratulations. Do grab a question. Or you can,

Speaker 19yeah. Here, share with me. Bye. You

Speaker 24feel very well circled, right? Oh, I know. She was in preschool,

Speaker 19now you're

Speaker 24gonna come talk to us. Oh,

Speaker 19this is

Speaker 24so cute. It's weird,

Speaker 19right? Oh,

Speaker 24thank

Kristina Cecereyou. Oh, it's

Speaker 19weird.

Kristina CecereThank

Speaker 19you.

Sarah KelseyI'm not

Amit Hickmangoing to be able to do that. We're also sitting on each other's laps.

Speaker 19I

Amit Hickmanthink it's right now.

Speaker 19Alright, thank you all for coming this evening. We know you have activities, school work, lots of things to do. So we'll get started right away. I'm

Kristina Ceceregoing to introduce ourselves and we'll

Speaker 19ask you all to introduce yourselves, name and grade level. I'm Caroline Pitches, I'm chair of the City Fairfax School Board and I'm serving my 8th term on the school board. My name is

Lauren BartelmeLauren

Sarah KelseyBartlemay and I am serving my first term on the school board. And I'm Sarah Calci and I'm serving my second term.

Amit HickmanI'm Amit Hickman and I'm also in my second term. Christina Sussre, this is my first term.

StudentWould you like to start with

Amit Hickmanme?

StudentYeah, sure, please. Hi, my name is Fabiana Escobar, I'm a junior here at Fairfax.

Speaker 24Hi, my name is Sandra Ivey, I'm a senior here at Fairfax. Hi, my name is Mark Nelson, I'm a senior at Fairfax High School.

Speaker 5Hi, my name is Sandra Mann and I'm a senior at Fairfax. And hi, my name is Gerard Schiller and I'm a senior at Fairfax.

Speaker 19Okay, alright, so we're going to ask you some questions and if you'd like to answer, just raise your hand and everyone's welcome to answer all the questions or some of them.

Lauren BartelmeMs. Brown, maybe you guys start

Speaker 19with

Lauren Bartelmethe question. So the first question is, looking back on your years at our schools, what is a moment or experience that stands out as especially meaningful to you? Yes.

Speaker 8So back in January, at the end, I had surgery on my shoulder, so I was out from school for a couple of days. And a bunch of my teachers, since it was an important time right about when second quarter was ending, were very helpful in letting me extend deadlines in a couple days and also staying after school for a lot longer, which I really appreciated, to help me finish and get all my work done.

Speaker 19That's really great to hear. Yes?

Speaker 24I would say my first year here, our first tailgate and football game, it really helped me connect with the school and interact with others.

StudentFor me, I think it was my elementary school years, especially sixth grade. It was my first year here in the U.S. and I was like three months to finish sixth grade. So I entered like around the end of the year and my English was like really bad and I didn't know how to connect with the teachers but I feel like that year was very special because my teachers tried all their best to, I don't know, get translators and get help in the class. It was really meaningful to me. What elementary school did you do? I went to Little Warren Elementary School.

StudentOne moment that really stood out to me, was really meaningful to me, was definitely the beginning of senior year, was interacting with the counselors. That experience where I was able to really go into my classes and really get a good depth look at them, and really, it was kind of surface level because it was the beginning of the year, I was able to have really good conversations with my counselors from what I wanted senior year, and it kind of felt like a whole culmination of the relationships I've been building with them this whole year. And it was kind of like they knew me. They knew what I wanted. They knew where I was planning and where I was going. And that relationship built upon those four years.

It was just so nice being there and really, like, I went in there, and I was like, I have to change a bunch of stuff. And it was, they were so willing to work with me. They were so willing to help my senior year be the best year possible. nice like this for I put in four years of working and talking to these people and it really felt like we were connecting on a level where it's like these are more than just counselors they are trusted adults that I can talk to and really like give my grievances to and really share my experiences with like I had no reason to stay in a class that I didn't feel like I wanted to be there because they create an environment where it's like if I don't want to be there I

can just go and I felt like I was super meaningful to me especially in my last year of high school. I guess I'm the last one to

Speaker 5go. I would say probably the most consequential time throughout my 13 years in FCPS was my transition between 6th and 7th grade. Of course that was affected by COVID, but what the school provided before COVID was an elective fair or an elective night at the middle school. A couple tours of the middle school, elective school and I feel like it really just helped me prepare for period classes instead of just following along later and it really didn't help with the transition.

Amit HickmanI assume you were in Katherine Johnson?

Speaker 5I was, I did get Katherine Johnson. I think

Amit Hickmanyou were in COVID sixth grade?

Speaker 5I was a COVID sixth grader. March of sixth grade.

Speaker 19Anybody have other minutes? Go back. Okay. I think that's pretty good.

Sarah KelseyOkay. What is something our schools do really well that we should continue doing for future students?

Speaker 8I would definitely say having the class variety, being able to take more electives, especially when you hit your junior and you don't have to take PE anymore, being able to take classes and electives more correlated to what you want to do in your future. and seeing something I want to do in my future business related being able to take a class right now in high school definitely helps with that and also explores your options and getting a feel for what classes can be like in college for that

Sarah Kelseyyes

Speaker 24I would say when we meet with our counselors and like how often we do I think that it really like sets up a structure in which like I know what classes to take for what to do to succeed later on.

Speaker 19Yes, what

StudentI would like to say is promoting diversity in classrooms. I feel like in each classroom it's a really good way to socialize and really understand different types of people in the world. I feel like for every single classroom I've had a different experience with almost every single person that have really learned how to navigate conversations with people no matter like race, ethnicity or anything because of how diverse these schools are and how promoted it is that you're in different classes with different types of people almost every time. And I think that's really the strength about Fairfax County as a whole is the diversity and how like everywhere you go you meet someone new and you really learn how to

talk your way through society and how to interact with different people of all kinds. I think it highlights the best part of a public school and I really think like Fairfax City School specifically encapsulates that.

StudentI feel like the opportunities for like academies and those kind of things it's really helpful especially when trying to decide to stick with a certain career you're not deciding for like what you're gonna do for life you're getting like a taste of what you can do for the rest of your career so I'm taking an academy right now and that has been really helpful and has given me a perspective of being like, oh, I don't think this is what I want to do, or probably this is what I want to pursue, or I don't really like this side of the career that I'm choosing. I would probably go to this other path. So I think that's...

Speaker 19In this academy, or are you... I actually

Studentgo to Fairfax Academy and Chantilly Academy. So doing both of them gave me a different perspective, because Fairfax is more like the arts, and Chantilly is more like technology. But both of them gave me a sense of I think I want to pursue something in technology but not too close to mathematics and stuff like that or probably engineering but more focus on the arts. So that gave me a bigger perspective.

Speaker 5And I'll last again I guess. So what I've seen with all of my friends and this has been the pattern throughout high school. is that anything that they want to do, first of all, their counselors are honest with them in what the class provides. And I am talking about the life of here, and the life of classes, just like other people. But I have seen people be able to do anything they want at Fairfax. Anything. Hands down. Except for Firefighter, but that's pretty big. Any niche, anything is covered at Fairfax.

Speaker 19That's very nice. Anybody have any follow-ups?

Kristina CecereOkay, go ahead. A lot of you are kind of hitting on a common thread of being able to find and connect with classes that are of your interest or career group. What's helped you kind of gravitate toward certain classes? Like is there anything that the counselors are providing or that previous teachers from earlier grades that sort of kind of ignited a spark?

Speaker 24I mean for me I would say it started even in like elementary school doing like an hour of code activity so like introducing that when I was younger helped set like what I wanted to do later on and then once I entered middle school they offered coding electives computer sciences So I was like, I would want to take those, and it really solidified what I would want to take in going into high school and prepare for that roadmap.

Speaker 5I would kind of say something a little similar to that is, instead of Hour of Code in elementary school, I did Math Club. Now this wasn't a school-supportive event. It was completely parent-funded. school or some teachers promoted it. And without them promoting it and really fostering this opportunity I wouldn't have been as aggressive with my math courses that I took throughout my time further on in high school.

StudentI feel like for me was the CTE Summer Academy here at Fairfax. I was able to take some coding classes just to have a taste of what it was like but then I started like being more interested in it and I'm thinking of even pursuing like computer science a computer science major so I think just kind of opportunities for the students gives them like a perspective even if you don't find yourself doing that in the future just getting a taste of what it's like it is really helpful because I never thought I would do computer science at all.

Speaker 19That's great. Having those experiences is a good thing.

Sarah KelseyYes,

Speaker 19Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyJust curious, is anybody else doing academy classes? Whether it's here or the other ones?

Amit HickmanOkay, so this is actually very timely and we have two of our representatives here from our construction or architecture team firms that are going to be helping us, but we're going to be doing some major renovations on Daniels Run Elementary and Providence Elementary, or two city of Fairfax elementary schools, and some improvements also on the roof here. But from your perspective, what kinds of spaces or features make a school building a great place to learn? And it doesn't have to be just from what you remember from elementary school, but in general or anywhere helps

Speaker 8most classes do are very decorative some are and some aren't and definitely being in a class that's more decorative instead of just having four beige walls around you definitely feels more welcoming and you're definitely more like you want to participate more rather than because you can focus better you don't feel like not constantly wondering what's going on outside and stuff so being able to like look around and see things just a little definitely helps.

Speaker 19Yes? What are you standing on that mark?

Speaker 24No offense, but the AC and heating. No offense,

Speaker 19I'm thinking.

Speaker 24Sometimes it can be a bit difficult to focus when I'm thinking about how... When you're

Speaker 19freezing or hot.

Speaker 24I'm really hot right

Amit Hickmannow.

Speaker 19Thank

Amit Hickmanyou, that's a very fair question.

StudentMark? For spaces or features that make the school learning a great place to learn, I would say usually spaces with a lot of students where students do, where there are a bunch of students it's easy for students like me to kind of immerse myself into it and in being in that space where there are multiple students it's easier to kind of feel like welcomed and feel like a place where it's like okay there's a lot of people here, everyone's going to be asking questions it's a really good time to learn so like sometimes we're in the auditorium and we're doing lessons and someone's on the big screen that amount of students there kind of helps make every question feel important because there are because when you do ask a question you know that some students

there probably might be thinking of it but no one's willing to ask so what that kind of encourages me to kind of ask questions in that spaces or I think that's important and then other features I feel like the library is also a really good space as there's a lot of things in the library that different students would when a student wants to read about black culture, black history, can also be in the same space as a student wants to read about just European history in the same way, and they can both reflect on it since they're both in the same space. I believe environments where they're tied to people who are there for different things but similar objectives can really foster good conversation

and overall extremely important in a learning environment.

Speaker 5Well, I guess I'll go. I would say, maybe not Dr. Ray, but all of the assistant principals have seen me eat outside whenever it's been over 45 years. Today, yeah. Ms. Anderson was out there. I always take the advantage when I can. I think it's really good for students' mental health to be able to go outside. I mean especially the school doesn't have too many rooms with windows. I mean I've had full schedules in years here where I haven't had a single window in my schedule. So I think that outside piece is just really good. The fresh air as well. I mean ventilation is never perfect. Great. I'm not necessarily talking about the school, but fresh air and sunlight is just great. Great for us. so more eating or more outdoor spaces maybe one outdoor classroom I

Speaker 24would say I miss taking like walks around especially like after like a couple hours like under the fluorescent lights I think some vitamin D would be good I

Studentwill add up to that I definitely agree with what they say especially like being in a classroom for an hour and a half, you need some break. So I feel like that would be really cool, a classroom outside, that would be actually really helpful. And I think it gives you like a different environment too, and you can engage more in what you actually are doing. Those are great ideas.

Speaker 19Anybody have any other one? Because we're looking person.

StudentAnd that's what my psychology teacher did is after a big test or whatever, he let us go outside and like do either do a walk around the school or something. One time, I think it was before AP season, it was AP season when we were doing test review, we literally went outside and get like review cards and we would play a game with the review cards and that helped. That was fun and it was really immersive. It was like a really easy way to remember because I think the game was like someone had the definition and someone had the name of the thing and then like out the definition and then someone who had the name of it would go to it and then they read out the definition.

Speaker 19I have who has.

StudentYeah. It was really useful. Anybody have any gobacks

Speaker 19on that one? No other ideas for the building.

Kristina CecereIf you could give one piece of advice to our school board about how to improve schools for the next generation of students, what would it be?

StudentMark. I've already talked to you. I just believe more immersion with the businesses around us or the entities around us. Like, we have the courthouse next to us. We have the Fairfax County Government Center next to us. We have the Fairfax City Government Center next to us. Those are all things students would love to participate in if they had a chance, all opportunities. Like, I did an internship with a defense attorney when I was sophomore year. Things like that should be, I think they should be way more common. I mean, like, the court is like a 10-minute drive from here. I think there's stuff like that, programs that would really immerse students in the community around us, strong the Fairfax community like you can see it at football games the

community members just go to enjoy the games I think I think we should really be immersing ourselves way more or like the students way more into that because those are careers that students are looking for and they're right there and I think yeah

Speaker 24I'd say like the job pair we had recently like it really helped I I know there was a science and technology academy that came and that was really helpful. And like outside of that, throughout the school year I think it would be better if schools mix social and work because I feel like towards the beginning of the school year that's like when it all hits and then by the time you get to second semester it's just like tireless just waiting until summer which can feel like very tedious

Speaker 19I

Speaker 5would I'm not saying that we're not connected but I would make a push for even more connectivity and like a unified feeling of the school and I have no idea how to tackle that in the slightest.

Sarah KelseyYou mean in grades?

Speaker 5Just in Fairfax? In Fairfax. Just the feeling of being in school. And also, I was, what everybody else was saying, it got me thinking back to middle school. There were, we have a lot of time here. There were learning seminars in middle school. And there were some where kids could move around. Where did you do that? I did the ping pong. And there were a certain number of slots, but kids killed they really wanted to do it. And it was a great break in the day. I got a football a couple times. It was a lot of fun. If we could get a couple of things like that for the Olympics, that would be amazing.

Kristina CecereI don't know how competitive the video games were for my now 10th grader. So

Amit Hickmannow it's

Kristina Cecerevolleyball.

Amit Hickman7th graders will always do volleyball.

StudentWe've got a volleyball team, right? I

Speaker 24don't know if we have volleyball. Yeah.

Kristina CecereYeah, go ahead. This might be for Dr. A, but do we have work study still at Fairfax? I mean, I remember when I was teaching here, we were talking about bringing... So

Speaker 1this year, actually Mark and another student came forward and actually asked to kind of start this idea of the lion experience. So that's not work study, but it's a capstone experience for seniors that they can fill out an application for And they compare with a little business a local Maybe a local government organization a local nonprofit organization And they can fill out an application and they will go the last two weeks of school They'll actually be exempt from their finals to go and they'll get that real-world application experience understudying or shadowing the individual and getting that that opportunity or experience I think to Mark's point, what we want to do is we want to strengthen the partnerships with more businesses and having individuals come forward.

This was a pilot that they advocated for about mid-year, right? So we kind of had to put it together pretty quickly. So I think we have about 40 kids that are going to go out and do it this year for the first time. They're very excited about it. We have some that are going to work at the local housing authority, some that are going to work. We have one that's going to Korea. She's been working with orphanages over there. So she's actually flying over there for two weeks to work with the nonprofit she's been working with there. So we have a variety of different, we have some going to the local elementary schools and actually working that are interested in education. Some going to car dealerships,

but working in the finance office based on being in DECA and entrepreneurship and marketing, right? So they've kind of found their niches. So that is really kind of like the new level of work study. If a student has a modified schedule, we can work with them, like with the business and marketing classes. They have an opportunity where they can have a work study period. and the teacher there actually will go out and see them in the field as well. And then now programs like Teachers for Tomorrow, our advanced engineering course, we can also partner them, electrical will be able to do it, auto tech can do it, we can partner them with a job and they can go out and have that authentic work experience.

Amit HickmanAnd this is a model in Fairfax County, right? Because I know. Yes, and just so you know. We have one from like Braddock in my work.

Speaker 2Yes, Carrie and I are gonna be working over the next couple of months engage more Fairfax City businesses in that process and so kids that may not have somewhere that they want to go but need something like we want to work with the city grounds team we want to work with like a lawyer or something like that so there's definitely some things that we're trying to work on to build that because we absolutely believe that these kids and the things are doing really cool It's such a small community.

Speaker 19There's so many opportunities within our short distance. Do you guys have anything else you'd like to share with us? Yes.

Speaker 24I remember my computer science teacher, she does a really good job of like sending potential internships to us. So like summer opportunities just throughout the school year. So she does a good job of connecting us to real world experience in addition to learning stuff in class. And I appreciate that so far.

Speaker 19That's great.

Speaker 24That's

Speaker 19amazing.

Speaker 5My

Speaker 24geospatial

Speaker 5analysis teacher does that too. Yeah, he's great.

StudentYeah, he's great. He really is. Shout out to our college and career specialist. She's there.

Speaker 5Shout out to Miss Anderson. Yeah.

StudentEvery, this kid finds every scholarship under the sun. Yeah. I don't know how she does it yet. Yeah. I

Speaker 24just had a brief conversation to her about scholarships, and she still sends me scholarships to this day. Biggest help ever. She

Speaker 19is

Speaker 24genuinely

Speaker 19a repository for every college. She is. She's great. She knows everything. She's fantastic. Dr. Reich, would you like to say a few words or?

Dr. Wrightstaffactually ask one question, but before I do that, I would, you just heard the shout out, but a big shout out to Ms. Anderson and Dr. A for being here and supporting these students, and then also a big thank you to all the families that are here to support these students. Guys, you did a wonderful job tonight in the last 15 minutes. You've been active listeners, you've been reflective thinkers, you've been critical thinkers, you've collaborated with each other, you've been public speakers, you've been thinking on the spot, all types of skills that I don't know what you're going to do in your journey outside of being, I know you're going to be wildly successful and I know you're going to use these skills.

So this is a purposely, you know, complicated question, but how did you learn to do all that, right? Everything that you just did in the last 15-20 minutes outside of having awesome teachers and awesome families, like how did you learn to do what you did in the last 20 minutes? Anybody have a thought or a theory or a guess?

Speaker 24Yeah, I mean model UN and just practice. Like, I did it only, like, freshman year. But, like, in this room, like, I learned how to speak publicly and try and cut out filler words and try and speak confidently. And in addition, my teachers, like, whenever we do, like, presentations, it's just practice for real-world applications. Great.

Dr. WrightstaffI saw some head nods here.

Speaker 8last freshman year for a lot of people is leadership and I took leadership freshman year and instead of having tests all the time you'd have at least one presentation a month and after that first quarter we would do presentations where we don't even get to see the slideshow behind us that we made so remembering it and then coming up with things on the spot like you would delete a certain slide sometimes and you'd have to come up with something just getting that practice that year in leadership

StudentI'd say just throwing yourself out there and getting comfortable with rejection a lot. Like getting that internship at the attorney, I got a lot of known responses and rejections. And with throwing yourself out there, like all the school board committee stuff and the board of supervisors and all that, I would just go to meetings and just sit there. And at first I just wouldn't talk to anybody. And then steadily I started talking to the assistants. and the more you realize, the more you make an effort to try and talk to someone, the more people will talk to you and the better you get at finding your way around people, learning what people like to hear, learning how to talk to people the right way and you

really start to navigate your way through people. And that's how you end up meeting Brian Hill, the Board of Supervisors Executive and that's meeting people like that and realizing, okay all you have to do is just put yourself out there and that these people really want to talk to you and that these people are excited. to the board of supervisors meeting and they were like freaking out because I was the first student to go there in like five years. Half people don't even know they're like real. Like they, they just putting yourself out there. People will notice and people will accept it and people will love it. Just seeing your interest and just seeing you try. And I think that's really important. And I think that's honestly one of the best ways to learn how to speak in

front of people, how to speak in front of a crowd is just putting yourself out there and just seeing I failed like man I went to um I kind of like I walked into Wharton because the door was open and I went to uh economics like what was it economics lecture at the very end I was up like the guy was there who I went to see and talk to and I completely froze and I didn't say anything and I think that was before I started everything ever since that day I was like dude I'm just gonna put myself in rooms and I'm just gonna talk and then that's how I learned how to talk That was still the most embarrassing moment of my life. I stood there and I looked like a deer in headlights. And there was food and he offered me food from the table and I just said thank you.

And then I took it and left. And then I never turned back. Like I was like, mom, we're leaving. Well,

Speaker 19you certainly are. I can speak from experience because I've received several emails from you advocating to. And I would have loved to have had you. Yes, that's smart. we wanted to they just said

Studentyour

Speaker 19email

Kristina Cecerecommunication was fantastic it was

Speaker 19super professional I honestly I hadn't connected the dots between you and your mom and I did not realize that it was you. And then until after I was like oh my gosh because you were what like 16 when you went out of the house. Yeah I was around 16. So you did a great job advocating for yourself.

Speaker 5Well I could give one last last answer. I would say I had a little bit more of a variety. What definitely got me out there was freshman year English where our teacher gave us points, actually made us speak in front of the class and we had to get like six, it was like three points every time you spoke you had to get 60 points by the end of each quarter. Oh, Mr. Green.

Kristina CecereI knew it.

Speaker 5Yeah, Mr. Green. Yeah,

Speaker 19that's who Claire had. She was going to talk about these

Speaker 5Yeah, and it basically became a routine to present in front of everybody in the class. And also, just like Samuel, I did model UN freshman year, only freshman year. There was also a summer academy I did for the Space Coast program that we had to make a presentation presented to our little group of eight people. Just peers. And our master teacher surprised us every time when he says, okay, well you said the word um, 103 times. That wasn't me. I was only 97. There you go. There's another one. 98. And then also city council meetings. I've been doing those pretty regularly and I've basically forced myself to not make a speech in advance. Just to go with what I know. And that kind of helps because when somebody has a question you can't look down at the paper.

Most of the time. You've got to have it ready at the

Speaker 24top of your head. I think I'll end on the last note. But I think it was my eighth grade civics teacher at Catherine Johnson who said you have to advocate for yourself because no one else will. And I think that's what started me being able to speak on my behalf in front of others because no one knows what I want to say but me. and if I care about like what I want to say I'm gonna do my best to try and get my message out there.

StudentI feel like you guys are not going to be the last ones to talk. Well I think for me was my experiences I mean I'm still learning how to talk in front of people but I think my experiences like especially like elementary in middle school, I will be like all the time by myself, quiet, like that shy girl. And especially like trying to step out of my comfort zone, I will just do the stuff that I never thought of doing, like being in the school play while not knowing any English. So it was really cool to see, to just push myself to do stuff that I never thought of doing. So I think speaking right now, it's kind of scary, But at the same time, it's just a little bit too. Like, every experience.

Speaker 19We all did a great job, so we did. Really impressive, really impressive. Okay, so we'll let you go, because we are sure you have something you need to

Kristina Ceceredo. Oh, did you?

Speaker 19Well, no, no, no,

Kristina Cecereso I know you're graduating and whatnot, I don't want to steal terms of this, but please email us, or continue to email us. Go forward at here

Speaker 19in fact, via email. Mark knows the email. on our

Kristina Cecerewebsite but seriously anything that comes up after you leave this room or if you have friends classmates like we're you know we may not have these we'll take to other people who they know that's really but we're here to listen that's what our job is

Studenti just wanted to share like i never thought that it was like very open to students to like actually like communicate oh yeah so this is my first time hearing this yeah and we have a

Kristina Cecerestudent rep too on our board as well so Thank

Speaker 19you. All right. Thank you all. Thank you. Take a couple. This is our next presentation, which is the renovation conceptual design. So, Dr. Wright, do you want to start? Sure.

Dr. WrightstaffOkay, good evening Chair Fitches and members of the board. Thank you for your time tonight. And I would just, again, be remiss before moving on to this topic without sharing how proud I am of all of our students. That was pretty amazing and pretty inspiring. And I was just side barring with some members of our design team. I think it's a really good, you know, that last question I asked about being curious about how they got there, how they learned some of those skills. Yes, that's content. Yes, yes, that's curriculum. Yes, that's pedagogy. And it's also environment. And so I think it's a great segue for us to be talking tonight about the type of learning environments that we want for our students.

So today's discussion focuses on our elementary capital programs and continues our work following the 2023 facilities conditions assessment and a 2024 bond referendum The goal for this evening is to review where we are To walk through the options in front of this board and provide or ask the board to provide clarity on direction I would like to begin by introducing some of our design partners that are supporting this work At this point, they're old friends. They have reserved parking spots out front. But just in case there are any guests in the room tonight, we have Molly Merlot from Mosley, who is helping us with Daniel's run. And then we have Allison Legg from Architecture Inc., who is supporting the work at Providence Elementary School.

So as we move to the next slide, I'll begin by briefly walking through the agenda. We're going to look at some of the key questions that are before the board this evening, or visit how we are arriving at this current path of where we are today. And then reviewing some of the concepts, the costs, and considerations for each school. And then we'll close with a discussion about some of our next steps. So the questions that are in front of the board today are really one question but two versions of it. So what is the design concept that will be the direction for Daniels Run Elementary School? And then what is the design will be the direction for Providence Elementary School. And as with last week's

discussion, this is a directional decision, not a final design approval. So, we're trying to say, help our design partners what is the direction we want to move in. You're going to see some graphic representations tonight. The final product, I can almost assure you, will not look identical to what you're seeing tonight. There's still a lot of iteration, there's still a lot of feedback and input that needs to be thinking. But we're trying to figure out are we trying to put an addition on this side of the building or that side of the building? Are we trying to put a really small addition or a really big addition? So those are the type of decisions that we're making this evening. And this clarity is

important to avoiding any delays, any added costs, and potential inefficiencies. So we want to think about how did we get here? And again for nearly everyone in this room, this is important to review. So in 2023, the City of Fairback Schools commissioned a facilities conditions assessment to look at all four of our buildings plus green acres and to think about what those buildings needed and what was the current state. And one of the big things that came out of there is all four of our buildings need various amounts of work on various types of systems within the buildings. But another thing that that SCA came up with is that all of our buildings and specifically our children's elementary schools they have good bones

they have good internal structures the foundations are strong the internal components of the building are strong so that makes them strong candidates for systematic renovations so coming out of that facilities conditions assessment we began down a path of systematic renovations at both schools so comprehensive everything in the building so all of your major systems your HVAC your heating, your electrical, all of your fixtures throughout the school, and then thinking about potentially some small additions at each building which would at a minimum remove the need for modular buildings on both sides, and then making sure that we have the type of designs that we're looking for in the future. So based on that direction the work began on the current path that we're going down. In

2024, the voters in the city of Fairfax approved a $220 million bond at a 69% approval rate. on the bond referendum was just related to school construction, but a lot of the outreach that the City of Fairback Schools did was talking specifically about elementary school renovations and work on the roof here at the high school. And so the program that we're working towards reflects a significant community investment, and it's also reflecting the community's expectation that we deliver high quality learning environments, responsible use of funds, and On the next slide, we'll see where that current program is. And I apologize that our screen is a little cut off. But because I said that, it magically fixed itself.

I don't know if you know how powerful I am. But what you see is the current program that the city of Fairfax Schools prior to my arrival began and where we are right now. And that includes, again, those renovations at both of our elementary schools and some work here at Fairfax dedicated to the roof. You can see estimated costs, and you're going to hear me use the word estimate and emphasize that this is the cost of where we are right now. It's inevitable that these are going to shift, potentially in both directions over the course of this project, based on various factors. But this gives us a ballpark idea. And then you can see the estimated timelines for completion. It's my belief that these timelines are achievable if we maintain the momentum of where we are right now.

And then the last thing we'll do just as a review is that renovation process. So if you've been to any of our meetings where we've looked to engage with our stakeholders, we've seen some version of this slide that talks about the process. So we begin with issuing contracts. Right now we're in conceptual design and then we're going to continue throughout the process as we move forward. We are currently finishing that concept design phase and that's where board direction is But again, I would remind everyone that decisions at this stage can directly influence cost and scope and schedule, but they're not final design decisions. And the last thing I would say before we move out this slide is to emphasize how much engagement has taken place so far, just since the architecture and engineering contracts were issued at Mosley and Architecture.

There's been significant staff engagement, community engagement, and then also the most fun part is some of the student engagement that we've done. You've still got a little snippet of that this evening. So what I'm going to do for this next section is present the options at both schools. And I'm just going to keep going through both of them and then I'll turn it over to the board for however you want to structure your conversation. But we'll look at Daniel's run first and then we'll move on to the projects. So as we look to Daniel's run, we'll go ahead one more slide to get an overview of the project and the team that's supporting us. So this is our team from Mosley. You can see some of the project leads.

Again Molly's here tonight and some of the contractors that they work with. And then you'll see on the next slide some of the basics of our project here. So this is an overhead shot of the site. The current enrollment is approximately 756 students. This building dates back to 1956 when it was the original Layton Hall Elementary School. And you can see the approximate size for square footage and the acreage of the sector. Now, Mosley has done a wonderful job of presenting several concepts for us to consider. We're going to go through each of them individually. but you can see three concepts that are all again I want to emphasize the you're gonna see where some of the additions to the building are tonight but I can't

emphasize enough that every other part of the building even if the shell of it stays the same will be gone through top to bottom and so what we're going to be looking at is does this meet our baseline needs is it but what are also some of the differences in circulation flexibility and construction approach advantages and trade-offs of each option and That's where we'll go next in this project. So we're going to look at option one first And I would say one more thing about Daniel's run too is that we have some significant limitations with the site Miss Gaye could you back up one slide? So So there's a lot of open green space, which is a great feature of our school, but a significant amount of that is in a floodplain.

So when you think about, and Dr. Wright, could we expand out the back of the school? Do we have any options there? They are very limited at the site because of that floodplain. And that's something that, again, our design partners at Mosley have, I think, done a really nice job of working through. So we'll go ahead, Ms. King, we'll go ahead one more slide. So we're gonna start by looking at concept one, is a has two small additions there's a one-story addition in the front and then a two-story addition in the back and as we look in the next slide you'll be able to see some of the advantages and disadvantages of this option and I'm not going to go through and read through every single bullet on each on each of

these but you know one of the things to consider on this one is it does a really nice job of maintaining grade level neighborhoods so there's enough flexibility in the building to have that educational continuity and it minimizes the demolition of existing structures so it utilizes a lot of the original building and then it's really strategic about how it places spaces throughout the building. Some of the considerations are it's still going to limit some of the circulation in the building any new stairway will only be limited to two stories and not three stories and it would have the least amount of new roof space which would limit if we want to look at PV arrays so solar arrays on the building the smoothest path to that is new roof space and so it has the

most limited amount of that as we look at concept two and you know our board members have we have one image here our board members have significant amounts some additional images to help these concepts come to life. This is a two story addition on the right side of the building. And then some work within our courtyard space are the major structural changes to the building. And then there's significant reconfiguring within the building. So this has some strong advantages where it looks at doing some restructuring over the courtyards. There would be a translucent corridor connecting the two courtyards It has some great options in those courtyards for some covered outdoor classrooms. You just heard our students on the panel talking about that.

This one specifically looks at where our SAC classrooms are and moving it farther down in the building towards the addition. And that's a really good example of a feature that is in Concept2, but it really could be in any of the concepts. And then, again, it tries to be really strategic about where staff workrooms, office spaces, small group instruction spaces are placed throughout the building. When we think about considerations, again, since it will not connect all three stories of the building, and then there's just additional cost and complications with the demolition of the one story wing at the end of the building where our first grade classrooms are currently housed. And then finally we're going to look at concept three. Concept three is a three

story addition that would have two stories above grade and then a third story extension on that lower level that's kind of built in the hill down near where the playground is. It increases connections and circulations throughout the building and would have a new stair connecting all three levels so So it would add to the other three levels there back by the cafeteria and gym. And it creates extended learning opportunities beyond our traditional classroom spaces in the building. And it does a really nice job of grouping together all of our specials classes. Our music classrooms are grouped down near the gym and I think that would allow some really great options and some really great flow through the building.

When we think about considerations on the next slide, There are additional costs to that three story addition, but it provides a significant amount of flexibility and a significant amount of flexible spaces for our students and our staff moving forward through the next 30 to 40 years, which is going to be the expected lifespan of this building. The last thing that we'll look at with Daniel's run are some of the estimated costs. What you're going to see here is all three of the estimated costs side by side. On the top part of the screen you see what in the school construction and renovation world we call hard costs. Those are the actual construction costs. Below you're going to see soft costs

which is our architects, our permits, our project management, all those different things and then some contingency work and then funding for FF&E furniture fixtures and equipment. You can see that generally speaking there all three concepts are relatively close to total cost and so given that minimal difference the decision is less about cost and more about long-term functionality and value. Based on the information available on the stakeholder feedback it would be my recommendation to move forward with concept three for It provides some of the strongest overall circulation with a full three level connection. It has an efficient use of the site footprint. It has greater long term flexibility for the building and it has the most opportunities

for sustainable features. Again, this option best aligns I think with what has expressed to me as the goals of future ready design, functionality and long term value for Daniel Turner. Okay. So before we move to any discussion, I also want to provide a similar set of information for Providence Elementary School. And again, this has been a really wonderful journey similar to the wonderful partner we have in Mosley and Daniels Run Architecture, Inc. is supporting our work at Providence Elementary School. And Allison Leigh is here to represent and to help us out during the discussion part of this evening. You'll see at Providence Elementary School some of those same basic details that you saw with Daniel's Run.

Where you have the overall enrollment, the original construction of Germantown Elementary School, and the various improvements and additions that have happened over the years. Additionally, you can see some basic details and statistics for the building and the site. Of note is the baseball field from the back of the school. That is that school property and those baseball fields are managed by our partners at Parks and Recreation. So you're going to see four concepts for Providence Elementary School And you'll we'll walk through each of them Right now to talk about what are some of the advantages and what are some of the considerations? So we're going to go to the next slide and start with concept one and I always fumble when I try and say this

so I'm going to say it really slowly. This one has received the name of many, many additions. So many, many additions. So you'll see multiple small additions throughout the site. So you can see an expansion off the back of the library. You can see at the back of the school a two-level addition that adds additional classroom spaces. You can see on the right side of the school, near the existing blacktop, a one-level expansion that would provide extra room for our specials classes. And then you finally see some extra work at our cafeteria area. And then that front bump out of the building is probably the best way to describe it. And that's a two level addition that would help expand the square footage in all of those classrooms on that

front part of the building. That's the original part of Germantown. And the square footage for classrooms in 1956 was a little bit smaller So it really helps modernize that space. One thing before moving on is that I would, similar to Daniel's run, Providence would experience outside of these additions, systematic renovation throughout all parts of the building. And the existing parts of the building that are not these blue additions would still receive those top to bottom new systems, new fixtures, upgrades, and facelifts. Two other things is that all of our options look at reconfiguring the cafeteria. Right now it's a very unique L shape, which provides some challenges for layout, supervision, and functionality.

So move it to a more square, rectangular shape. And then all of our options would spend some time reconfiguring Kiss and Ride in the parking lot. If you've ever been able to visit Providence Elementary School, you know that the way that it's structured as you actually entering on the non-traditional side of the road. So you have to channel your inner European driver to go and know how to move through that part of the parking lot. So all of the concepts I would look at would address those. So when we look at concept one, you can see some of the advantages and considerations. You know, the impacts during construction, the ability to kind of transform in front of the school and its cost-effective.

It would need some reconfiguration of the bus access, but that's really fairly minor. But one of the things that we heard a lot from the feedback, similar to the day on this run, of wanting to connect all three floors, is having the second floor of Providence be able to connect. Right now, if you know the building, it's like a V shape. And there's no way to get around completely back to school, which has lots of actual day-to-day implications for our students and our staff.

Speaker 19Dr. Wright, really quick, can you clarify, or maybe just so you can clarify, the addition that's on the back side by the blacktop that's out back, what is that supposed to be?

Allison LeggSo that would be one story and that would be in this concept we're proposing it would be music and moving art since art is a little undersized and that blacktop space wouldn't be lost it would be relocated maybe plan north of the gym where there's not a field that is utilizing that space right now. so

Speaker 19okay so the blue area that's where currently I think it's like basketball on the playground is on the right-hand side what what is that what is that I

Dr. Wrightstaffthink that's what she was just referring to

Speaker 19oh I mean on the best on the back side like the blacktop kind of wraps around the back

Dr. Wrightstaffso back towards I'm just going to walk up.

Speaker 19I'm sorry. No, it's okay. I'm going to stay here. I just have got it.

Dr. WrightstaffYeah, it's okay. So right here? Yes. So this would be a two-level edition. It's essentially probably, it's like, it ends up being four classrooms and some small, flexible space. So I think two classrooms on the bottom, two classrooms on the bottom.

Speaker 19Okay. And on the back, to the right, that's the art in these.

Dr. WrightstaffYeah, and that would be a one-level edition.

Speaker 19That's one.

Kristina CecereAnd the library is a one-level?

Dr. WrightstaffIt would stay, it would be at the same height as that library. It's like a double, you know, it's a big one open space. So it's a high ceiling here. So one of the things that, and this applies to all of our programs, is that we're looking at something called educational specifications or n-specs. Which are a guide for schools to say you need this much library space. Ideally you would have this much classroom space. Ideally you would have this much teacher lounge space. So our designers have done a great job of looking at that, coming up with a program or a programmatic design. And so this picture is in that. In this version you see that expansion of the library there to try and gain. Our library is

currently a little energized. Some of the other concepts, the library still increases. It just happens on the interior of the building. Okay. Great questions. So we're going to look at concept number two. And concept number two is still an on-grade addition. So it means that we're building everything just straight up from the ground. And I'm going to just work through the three sections of it. On the far right of the screen you have a small, modest, one story edition. That is again some of the special spaces just not as large as the other one. And then the biggest thing that you have is a really significant two-story addition that goes out the back of the building. When you would walk into this space,

and some of the other materials you have have renderings of this, you would walk into a large open atrium type space with a translucent roof that would still allow natural light to come in. And then you would go to two levels of classroom spaces. So I think it's five classrooms per level. So it adds close to 10 classes, and 5 or 4, Allison, do you know how to cover your head? But it's additional classroom spaces, and there's the appropriate office spaces or small group spaces back there. So that's your large addition. Seven. So 14 total. So it's a large addition back there.

Speaker 19Would anything change on the interior of the building where the previous concept has a bump out to help those I mean since we're gaining seven additional classrooms is there something that would be done on the interior to on this concept yeah to reconfigure those classroom not in the

Dr. Wrightstafffront of those buildings oh so you know what what the true answer is we can do whatever we want but we have some limitations right so one of the ways and we'll look at one of the so any of the any of the blue things that you see have pretty specific prices to them and so there is the ability to take well we like this and we don't like that so that that's possible but it's all going to have a cost

Speaker 19what I'm saying is so on the front of the building leaving it just as it is but like we said the classroom spaces were smaller when this building was done. In this concept they're going to remain smaller. So there wouldn't be like any taking out walls, combining classrooms, nothing like that on the interior.

Dr. WrightstaffThere's a little bit of it that could happen but we can't substantially change the footprint. I just wanted to make sure. That's a great question.

Allison LeggAnd the bump out ones also increases the quantity of classrooms. get a little bit larger but really it's our way of adding in an additional one because we needed it to meet the program.

Dr. WrightstaffSo if we look at some of the advantages and considerations that large addition is really the focus part of it. It has you know that e-trium space that you would walk into would be a new space for large group gatherings but I would say it would not be big enough to have full school assemblies. The if we, Ms. King if we can back up one slide, this also has, this concept also includes something that our design team has been referring to as a sky bridge, which would be a second story only connection across the courtyard. And it would have a larger space in the middle where it could be an instructional space, it could be a gathering space, but it would be limited in size. I would just just caution everybody in that.

And so that's one of the other options. So if we go ahead one slide, we'll see the advantages and considerations. I would not choose this option for it. This is, but that first bullet that you see is by building that large addition in the back, it provides you some flexibility around a swing space. So once those classrooms are constructed, they can really be constructed with minimal impact And then when we need to work on the rest of the building classrooms can cycle throughout that space There would still need to be a trick used for modulars or trailers on the site, but that would provide some flexibility in terms of considerations It will it will most certainly Cause us to lose one of the baseball fields back there. It's the most expensive

And there's some pretty significant relocating of existing rooms. They would still be there, but they would be relocated which is kind of where all of our servers are now need to be moved. So that's a little bit about Concept 2. And then Concept 3 is what has been termed by our design teams as a vertical expansion. So you'll see on the bottom right of the screen is some small modest additions to the cafeteria which helps with that reconfiguration that would be happening. And then a large two story addition. This large two-story addition out by the blacktop provides additional classroom spaces, additional music and art spaces. And then it also connects the entire second floor. So there will be a vertical expansion on top of our first floor,

so building on top of the existing first floor on that part of the building. And then this concept also includes some vertical expansion over, think about where the administrative suites are, building on top of that so again you have additional space on the second floor. As we look at the advantages and considerations, lots of flexible spaces, lots of circulation areas. We talked about that second floor connector. It would allow for a potential expansion that option that we were just looking at in concept two where we go out the building. It still allows for expansion if the and how much school ever needed to grow in size. In terms of consideration, all that vertical expansion adds some complexity in terms of building.

So you cannot have anybody underneath the second floor while they're building it. So it would just provide some just complicated phasing that our builders and our design teams would have to work through as they set the building up. And then finally, we started with three concepts they were hearing from the schools, we looked at a fourth concept. Some of the feedback they were hearing from the community. And this ended up with what you see, which is kind of a combination. So, Ms. Pitches, when we were talking about moving things around, or can we have a little bit of this on concept two, this is kind of how we ended up with concept four. So what you're seeing here is that large, two-story edition on the right side of the screen that still connects to the second floor.

You're seeing that sky bridge across the courtyard. And then you're seeing that bump out on the front side of the building. And that's concept four. So a lot of the things that I've described previously from other concepts, they're just kind of put together in a different model here for concept four. As we look at the advantages and considerations, it just kind of combines some of those advantages that you were able to hear from previous versions. And so the last thing before I stop talking is we'll look at just some of the costs for Providence overall. You can see the range in the concepts. It's a little bit of a wider range than Daniel's run. But I still think all of these represent a balanced approach between cost and program enhancements.

My recommendation for this board, again based on the information available and stakeholder feedback. I would recommend concept four for Providence but without the sky bridge. I think it provides strong flexibility for improved circulation and those multiple second floor connections are powerful and it creates some opportunity to expand older classrooms and modernize the building frontage. And then removing that sky bridge allows us to reallocate those resources to higher priority needs that this board might identify and maintain the integrity of the overall design and it just helps us continue to think about value within the project budget and hopefully that any of these approaches that we would go with I think provide a

good balance of quality costs and long-term functionality I'll just return to those key questions on the next slide before the board you heard some of the analysis and the recommendations. Again, all of this is based on trying to maintain alignment with the original bond approach, deliver strong educational and facility outcomes, and balance costs of long-term value for our city, and most importantly for our students. I think at this point we have a lot of information that will allow us to move forward with confidence, but it will be important to stay on track and avoid unnecessary delays which could lead to those cost I'm happy to answer questions, feedback, discussion. We've got the two pros here to help us out with all of that.

And the goal is to ensure alignment before moving forward. So I really appreciate the board's engagement throughout the last several months of this process. We look forward to a great conversation this evening.

Speaker 19Okay, so I think how we'll do this is we'll ask questions first, and then I'll ask board members for their preference for concepts for both schools. Selfishly, I'm going to ask the first question because I never get to. Are we splitting up

Kristina Cecerethe schools separately or are we doing them together?

Speaker 19We're doing them. Whatever questions you have, you can just ask them all at once and just indicate which school, what concepts you're asking about. So from Providence Concept 4, will there be anything done with the library? Because I know the other would be an internal.

Allison LeggYes, absolutely. In all the concepts, the library will be expanded. It's about 1,000 square feet below the ed spec. So, yes, in every concept, the library will be expanded. So in concept four, we're proposing to expand the library sort of within the administrative office spaces. In this one, the communications room, which kind of anchors the admin office, will remain as is because it's quite expensive to redo all that cabling. However, any of those admin spaces that are displaced would be redistributed or found within another area of either the existing footprint or the addition. So we would not, even though they would be displaced, we would not lose them as an amenity for the school.

Speaker 19Okay,

Dr. Wrightstaffand on... And I would just say real quick, sorry to interrupt, is just that on both projects, a lot of these, if there are questions of, hey, what would that look like, there are materials that you have designs or layouts of what that could actually look like. That's been provided to you.

Speaker 19And on, I would say, concepts two, three, or four for Providence, what will the increase in capacity be? Like

Dr. Wrightstaffprogram capacity, would we have an idea? Yeah, so all of them are, we've been shooting for a capacity of around a thousand students. And so, these additional spaces at Providence, it's a mix, you know, what you're seeing, I would say, on both projects is, it's having that capacity right around 1,000, but also having all of the program requirements that those educational specifications have, and having those flexible spaces, or those small group spaces. So the province has about 1,000 students in it right now. But as all of you know from spending time, they teach in every nook and corner of the building. So it's actually providing more dedicated spaces for them. Allison, is that a good way to say it?

Allison LeggYeah. And there are a lot of spaces that are being used as classrooms, but they're actually undersized. So this project would kind of right size those spaces they could have more area to kind of be comfortable and focus on learning. So even though maybe the capacity isn't increasing that drastically, the spaces are now going to be right-sized for the students and teachers to work in.

Speaker 19There were many spaces in Providence that were once open spaces that were then closed in to make classrooms. I think they called them wet or wet-dry areas. of those be reopened? Okay.

Allison LeggYeah, we have proposed that some of them be reopened sort of as collaboration space. I think that was part of concept three, which was also carried into concept four, is how do we use every inch of the building for learning opportunities? and so corridors right are essential for circulation but they're often underutilized when you know people aren't moving around so trying to open up parts of the corridor so they become breakout spaces so we've kind of coined some terms you know um like a welcome welcome commons right at the main entry of a reading commons outside the library the area that you're speaking of that's kind of in the wing that was closed in we are calling that a learning common so trying to incorporate these many moments

throughout the building so we're using circulation because we need it but there's also opportunity for teachers or librarian to pull students out or even you know teachers to use this space to engage and it could be very flexible so So trying to recapture some of that in a purposeful way.

Speaker 19Okay, and for Daniel's run, my question is, are we trying to look at like a commentary? Because I feel like Daniel's run never really had a commentary. Providence is, does it really either, it's a little bit more, like when you walk into Providence, there is like an open space, Seating or anything like that will that been possible? I can't know drawn. I know you guys have a challenge

Molly Merloright The challenge is twofold. I think probably with both schools with the program that we're working with Does not include any square footage in the programming for those kind of common spaces So like Allison was saying we're trying to look at where are opportunities in the building maybe off of corridors in some places like this enlarged library area is true in all of these that's one area that has been recognized as an opportunity area to have larger gathering spaces we looked at some concepts where we had that open to the corridors and had a little bit more of kind of that open feeling to it but the feedback that we got from staff was that in an elementary school they really preferred more of a sound barrier so we might have some more

visual connection still looking for opportunities for those wow moments and kids spaces and we are looking at the main entry and how can we open that up a bit more how can we make these courtyards more functional and transparent and useful with coverings and being able to have some more gathering outdoor amphitheater space but though there's a desire for a large gathering space it's just not really in the program so we're looking for smaller moments and collaborative areas and flexible learning spaces as we can fit them in within the building.

Speaker 19Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm just borrowing a few questions. I spent a long time with them through the drawings, so I think

Lauren BartelmeI'm okay.

Speaker 19Okay. Professor?

Kristina CecereI've got a few questions. With regard to Daniel's run, just to confirm, Concept 1 and Concept 2 are limited and then it's still we asked. Concept three would be all three floors. Correct. Okay. And does concept three also move the SAC classrooms at concept two?

Molly MerloSo that was, there were plus and minus to that. Any of them, we can still reconfigure and move the SAC if that's what is decided as we get into schematics. So like Dr. Wright was saying, there's still a lot of movement within the building possible. It's the general concept of how we want things, that there's a strong preference for SAC to be further from the entry area, we can do that. And that also might come up with looking at the revised main entrance area. We might need to relocate SAC anyway to enlarge that area.

Kristina CecereAnd then the library space, is that staying the footprint? Is that staying the same?

Molly MerloSo it's being enlarged. Oh, okay. So in all of them, it's kind of wrapping around the courtyard there and making that more transparent, reconfiguring the stair when you come in there's a lot of wasted space with that odd angle so really opening that up and making it a more open stair we looked at learning stair concepts but it was felt that it wasn't as necessary at the elementary school for that space but to have an open communicating stair that was a little more efficient that we could then take some of that space for extended learning beside it and then also have a two-story volume for the library with the story area beside the stair and having some more connection to the courtyard and some transparency that way really looking at making that a

destination and kind of a heart of the school moment and expanding use.

Kristina CecereAnd then with how many classrooms would likely be added to the Dingell's Run?

Molly MerloAt Daniel's Run, if you're looking straight classrooms, we're only adding one classroom to what's currently there. Across all three concepts? All of the programs are the same in all three concepts. So there's not really a change in number of rooms in any of them. It's just kind of where they are and how they're configured. But as you know, there's like a preschool program. So when we say there are six kindergarten rooms, the reality is currently two of them are preschool rooms. but they're going to be termed kindergarten rooms. And in schematics, we may decide with Dr. Wright if you'd rather see them labeled per how they're being used currently, or if we want to keep them labeled per the ed specs,

whatever will make sense going forward. We can look at that, but in the program analysis at the end of schematics, you'll see how it lines up with the ed specs and then what the use is for the school. So you'll be able to see those side by side.

Speaker 19capacity will still be increased?

Molly MerloYes. While it's on classroom. Yes. And it will be comparable to what you have at Providence, so there will be parity between them, so they're both going to be around 1,000 student capacity.

Kristina CecereAnd then for Providence, for Concept 2, when you were talking with our community overnight, you mentioned that there was an expansion across all three concepts for the cafeteria, but I didn't see it in Concept 2. modified for concept 2?

Allison LeggSo we don't show it in those blue massing. Those were kind of meant to show where the footprint is increasing. And as we move into SD, basically we would kind of rework the entire inside, so take out the guts, even address structure in there, reconfigure the kitchen so it's not so long and skinny maybe it becomes a little bit more condensed more like a square which allows the current orientation of the cafeteria which is more of like an L shape to become more of a square shape so we haven't figured out all the details but it's probably going to involve some structurally working and maybe something to do with the roof too.

Kristina CecereAnd then I think I saw in your plans that you're adding four additional classrooms across all concepts.

Allison LeggFour additional classrooms, but it's actually a little bit more because we do have the two trailers and there are a couple of classrooms that are undersized right now that were kind of, you know, used a teacher's workroom or used a smaller space. So they're actually going Probably four. Five, six, including the trailers. Probably eight. Because there are two classrooms that are currently undersized. They were just kind of, as Dr. Wright said, found space. Right. And

Kristina Cecerewith Concept 3 and the hybrid Concept 4, you're taking away some of those classes which are creating the little moments, those interactive areas where kids can pull out students and sort of look through the path.

Allison LeggThey're being relocated, they're not being taken away. Thank you

Kristina Cecerefor clarifying my term there. I think the last thing I'm just curious about the sky bridge sell me on this like what I'm having a heart like I I've done a lot of renovations in my house and I realize for any of your schools ready to run a house but I'm having it what's that like what like what does that look like and what in power school how other schools use it's like it see in the plans and it's connecting one side for the other essentially having another touch between the two sides but so so think

Allison Leggof like an overpass right like if you're taking the metro and you have to cross you know the freeway to get to parking think of something like that but in more thoughtful like engaging way with you know the environment we heard a lot of feedback about how the courtyard was just really this beloved place for the school and we also heard this challenge of just not being able to connect on the second floor right the first floor is this great loop and then the second floor doesn't offer that and there as mentioned some of the considerations when doing a vertical expansion is how do we build over occupied space and so kind of our solution to that was well can we connect somewhere else right so can we connect maybe through the courtyard so we want to solve this problem by

giving this continuous loop circulation but we also don't want to impact too greatly like what is happening on the courtyard so kind of treading lightly having a lighter touch on it so it's this kind of element that can span across the courtyard it's obviously not going to flow we're going to need some kind of structure that anchors it to the ground but it would be more of a light thing people could still pass through and still use the courtyard very similarly to how it is now but just addressing that concern of circulation but then along with the same concept right like we need circulation we need to be able to move through the space but how can we utilize circulation in another way and so maybe it becomes a

little bit larger in one area and you know people could students could come or teachers could come and use it as a place to collaborate or learn outside of

Kristina Ceceresquare footage of the courtyard right now and then and then with the sky bridge like what does that take take i used to take out locations more just like thinking about because you're putting a second story walkway over that then it's i mean i imagine that might and like we do a lot of gardening in there and so how would that impact you know angle of the sun and and access and just um i

Allison Leggdon't know the square footage um off the top of my head but that's something that i can definitely get for you sun studies because that was something that was of a concern for us for any of the concepts, right? Like, how does it impact the courtyard and light and stuff? So you're right that a sky bridge having some sort of built structure through that is going to impact it at certain times of the day, and we included those sun studies in our report.

Amit HickmanSo, most of my research I asked, so, can we just clarify, alright, we would only be adding one classroom to Daniel's run but an additional capacity, can you explain how that works?

Molly MerloSo, we're looking at adding two new music rooms and a new art room, so those are some of the support spaces that might be in current classrooms, so you're reallocating those back classrooms but then bringing in new spaces so you're getting more new rooms than just classrooms but it's how you're utilizing those spaces that's really thank you

Amit HickmanI

Molly Merlojust wanted to clarify for the public because I

Amit Hickmanknow

Molly Merlowe kept saying yes for

Amit Hickmannew rooms but right

Molly Merlobut there's also additional support spaces like there's not built-in work rooms at Daniels Run you know those are out in the corridors and there's large areas so we'll have four work rooms that are enclosed for teachers to be able to utilize there and distributed through the school so it's really reconfiguring some of the space both for support and teaching and specialists.

Amit HickmanAnd then I saw this as a question for both of you I saw one of the concepts I'm sorry I didn't write down which one about Daniels being able to do some solar paneling on the very community section is that something that would be able to be done in both schools in multiple concepts or only in certain ones?

Dr. WrightstaffI'll take a stab at that at first. So a couple things. Anywhere where we have new construction, which is we're building brand new from the ground up, and which means we can design the roof the way that we want, would have the ability to have solar on there right now. So you saw on some of the Daniels Run renderings, you know, on those additions that you do solar there. It's my understanding the rest of the Daniels Run roof right now is not currently structured for solar. The existing parts of the building. Providence, similar thing, a lot of, it's something that we can look at with any of the new construction. And then we're fortunate that however they did the addition, the newer parts of the building, that it actually is solar ready.

I think the most appropriate way to say it is that it gives us the option to do solar. Solar is a complicated process. So I would say that it's something that we can, having the option is what we would probably want on any of these, on as much of our buildings as possible. you get into power purchase agreements and licensing contracts and all that and all those different things but on the new the actual new additions and then a good chunk of Providence will have some options for it is that and

Amit HickmanI would

Molly Merloback up dr. right anything new will be solar ready so that whether or not the panels go in day one or maybe they get worked out after that they would be based on this.

Amit HickmanAnd actually Dr. Huygher, my second question is for you. What would you say kind of rose to the top in the more recent community listening sessions with staff and the public in terms of what people are looking for in the concepts?

Dr. WrightstaffSo I would say for both the connections of the buildings, so that three-level connection that Daniel's run, and then that connecting the top floor had a lot of positive feedback. I would say, you know, the addition of spaces, which may, so again, you asked a great question to Molly, hey, one classroom, but there's a lot of spaces being added, so that additional space, which then allows for three to four teacher work through, throughout the building, flexible teaching spaces throughout the building is something that I really wrote to the top. And I think, you know, but also, you know, there's, I'm trying to think about the right way to rephrase this. People, you know, there's aspects of both buildings that people like a lot, too.

So, like, not, you know, having them still feel like Providence, having them still feel like Daniel's Run is something that we heard as well. So, anything to add to that in terms of what came through from QVAC?

Allison LeggThe flexibility, I think, just space for flexibility.

Speaker 19Those were more questions.

Sarah KelseyAt Daniel's Run, on Concept 2 and Concept 3, the only true difference in the bigger part of the additions is one's three-story, one's two-story, correct? Correct. But it's the same square footage and all that, basically. The

Molly Merloaddition is a little bit larger. Well, they're similar because the floor plan of two is a little bit larger. Okay. Because it's only two-story. Three actually has a smaller footprint, but it's three stories. So they're similar square footages, but different configurations. And

Sarah Kelseythen on concept two, on concept two you show a bridge in the courtyards? Well it's not. What is the circle? Because I see it's something that's already there you're taking out. So

Molly Merloin concept two it's removing the multipurpose science classroom that's there. And it's going, yeah, so it's demolishing that classroom to extend the courtyard to make it more of a connected, larger one courtyard, but still maintaining the circulation path with more of a transparent, glazed corridor on either side. So you have that circulation, but you could open it up and be able to get access to the courtyard there.

Sarah KelseySo it's more of a wall, kind of. Is that

Molly Merlowhat

Sarah Kelseyyou're saying? Think of it as a glass walkway. Okay, that's what I'm saying. Is it a walkway or is it a wall?

Molly MerloYes.

Sarah KelseyGot it. That's what

Molly MerloI'm trying to say. Covered, enclosed glass.

Sarah KelseyIt would only be one story, correct? Correct. Just one story. Okay.

Molly MerloBecause there's not a second story

Sarah Kelseyacross from it. Yeah. Okay. And then at Providence, on the bump outs, the bump outs only on the front. So those class sizes will be slightly enlarged. on the other side of that hallway there's still going to be the smaller side or like does that make sense what i'm trying to get

Allison Leggus yes so right now the classrooms are kind of rectangular this way and the longer side of the rectangle is perpendicular is parallel to the corridor okay so when we're doing the bump outs we're proposing to rotate it the other way so the short side of the rectangle is parallel to the corridor so when we do that we're able to increase the number of classrooms that are there so they will increase slightly but it's more that we wanted we needed to get more classrooms in there so that is really what is taking up the additional square footage I think we're going from maybe like four to six that's

Sarah Kelseythat's why I was just any other kind of change to the back side of it then so

Allison Leggthe backside would not stay but the classrooms are you know with typically we like to say within 5 to 10 percent of the ed spec is a acceptable range to be in and pretty much 95% of all the classrooms are that were designed to be a classroom are within that acceptable range so

Speaker 15okay

Sarah KelseyI have Providence then also the courtyard are we changing the way like because I know Daniel's run we've seen suspects for like making it friendly for the special a the lower preschool special eds and stuff like that and so I'm are we changing the Providence courtyard at all other than this sky or

Allison Leggis that we want to enhance the courtyard but we're not proposing to do anything radical at this point but that is definitely the next step as we move into design to figure out what is there because there are so many wonderful elements of it not take away anything that is really beloved by either the the staff students or the community but just try to enhance it right make it little bit more usable or accessible or whatever those needs may be

Sarah Kelseyokay they just love the decks that come every year so that's why I know if I don't ask that question it would

Dr. Wrightstaffdefinitely be refreshed and upgraded and replaced where necessary I don't think we're looking at any major structural changes but you saw a game just run provide some potential structural changes to the layout of the courtyard

Sarah Kelseyand okay and then the sky bridge my question there is this this could be the Is there a way, I just know, I'm originally from Missouri and we have at Union Station connecting one building to another over this big highway, a bridge that walks and you can go up and down the bridge and the kids love crossing over the road and all that, this obviously doesn't have a road. Is there a way, if you're on the bridge though, to then come down to the courtyard? because that would make it much easier for the second floor people to get to the courtyard then or is are we thinking it's just a pool is what you're thinking like I know a lot of elementary kids that would love to go down a fireman I will not say the teachers but the kids probably I think

Dr. Wrightstaffright now if you look at just a first level addition there would definitely be something that comes down in the courtyard by structure. But not. Okay. And I think there's some, you know, abilities to do some design work around that structure. Allison's going to freak out because, you know, I, you know, remember, I actually did not recommend this guy, Bruce, but I'm going to paint a picture of it. Like, you know, that top circle part could be a big translucent space where teachers can come and do read alouds. And the bottom structural part could look like the trunk of a tree with different aspects of Daniel's run. Think about the sculpture at Radcliffe Park, right? Like we could, it could be a real focal point of the school, but again,

it would definitely have cost implications. And we want to be thoughtful about how that meeting space in the middle, how big that could actually be because of some of the things that Accessory brought up. Would it really then just, you know, would there be a big shadow in the courtyard at all the time? Or would it take up a lot of that space? So, some things to be thoughtful of.

Sarah KelseyYeah, no, I get that. To me it's very sunny courtyard, which also if you're teaching out there a shadow might be nice. I don't want to teach out in the burning hot sun. Okay, that was my question then. That's all I have. All right, so

Speaker 19I will ask board members for their preferences. Is Barclay okay starting, or are you okay to start at the other end? I think Christina has a follow-up. Oh, you have a follow-up question. And I have a follow-up question. You're sitting next to me. And I have a couple

Kristina Cecereof follow-up

Speaker 19questions, too. I'm constantly being in need because she's

Kristina Ceceremade me

Speaker 19paranoid about

Kristina Cecerethe whole.

Speaker 19Yeah, so I have

Kristina Cecereone to take. Why don't you ask yours more?

Lauren BartelmeI just have a question since there has been a lot of sky bridge discussion so my understanding procedurally is that these are big picture designs we're gonna have a next phase with lots of details we need to pick which option we're going with if we follow the recommendation and do option four can we leave the sky bridge decision to when we're going into the details or is that something that we need to be decided today you have to accept it but like like could we say we're doing option four and leaving the sky bridge up for discussion as we get to the details

Dr. Wrightstaffyeah so I think it's possible that we would So we would just have to know sooner rather than later because there's design implications where the sky bridge connects to either side. If it stays in then it causes, there needs to be a spot for it to enter the hallway which takes up classroom space. If we don't have it then the designers will start working through and put classrooms there. So it's probably something that could potentially allow for some decision time. And throughout this process you're going to hear about something called add alts or add alternates. So we can say, here's the price of it and then if you wanted to add this part on, there's an additional cost. And those are typically things that you can add on

and decide later on in the project. Right? They're like additional bells and whistles. This is one where there's actually some design and structural implications. So I think tonight if we get a direction on a concept I think we'll be okay we just can't spend too much time on the deliberations about the sky bridge and I'll look down I'm trying to determine how red I'm making Allison right now now I'm already like I think I think I think I was if we get some direction on a concept that and really it's but we need a little more time on just this part I think we can get the team started.

Allison LeggAnd at this phase, I think Molly said it maybe in our last meeting, it's all these puzzle pieces, right? And we have to figure out, it's our job to figure out how they all fit together in a way that makes sense, in a way that's functional, in a way that's beautiful, and that makes a great space. So right now, my brain is already thinking, okay, well, these puzzle pieces right which can we move around that should the sky bridge be in today okay we can design it a certain way with these puzzle pieces that are the most flexible and then you know in a month or whenever it flip-flops well we already know that this is kind of the question mark of the project and so we have a solution that we can easily just say okay well the hard part is

that these maybe might be in flux so where can we have some flexibility to just move things around should the decision go one way or the other so now is the time to take the moments and be thoughtful about the decision on bid day when the drawings are out and we get a number back from the contractor that would be a more challenging time to then make a different decision so and if it is truly an ad alternate then we're gonna have to think about that anyway so so there is time to make the decision that feels right

Kristina Cecerecould we achieve the idea of a skybridge without the skybridge right we have say Like in concept 3 like you have a second story sort of meeting open meeting space. Could it be like a bay window that overlooks the Courtyard still brings in natural light into the hallway and provides you know both without Building over the courtyard would that be something we decide later during those detailed specs or is that something that we say Hey, we don't like the sky bridge option for but hey we want you to still think about that meeting space and maybe like is that is that something we talk about now because I as dr. Wright said you need to think about what those classrooms or the spaces may be going away at one

currently is that am I understanding that correctly like yeah

Allison Leggwe've already kind of talked about okay the sky bridge is an ad alternate right it's kind of this thing that's really cool it's a possibility but it also doesn't provide with Daniel's Run. Daniel's Run will have this really cool glass corridor, perhaps, that connects, but there are kind of these different elements. So we've already kind of been asked to, okay, what would be an alternative to a sky bridge? What could we do within the courtyard that kind of creates this cool light-filled space that maybe floats a little bit or something? So we're gonna look at that in the next steps moving forward. that we have proposed is turning in where we're showing the connector on the second floor creating sort of like a roof you can kind of see it where the reading specialist is now like that

space it could be an outdoor deck kind of space and maybe it's a teacher's lounge or something so So there's some opportunity to have connection to outdoors, but not be at the courtyard, more from an observer level. So there's that opportunity too. And if it was, OK, we're going to get rid of the sky bridge, but we still want something that's kind of light-filled, perched within a tree, like a tree house, there's an opportunity to maybe do something that's enclosed rather than open.

Kristina CecereI know we're adding in some bathrooms into classrooms, so that's really what they thought with whatnot. Are we at this stage right now, assuming the answer's no, it's later, to talk about rethinking the bathroom spaces that are commonly used, like in Providence there's a bathroom right next to the cafeteria that's just a weird flow and whatnot. I mentioned this because when Ms. Barley and I went to the BSBA. Sorry. We went to the BSBA conference two years ago and it went into your firm. I can't remember who presented, but talking about the new build at Falls Church High School and some of the open concept backgrounds. That was our competitor. I know it's a very common theme across secondary schools, right, because you want this sort of open concept, right?

But like, you know, hearing, you know, I'll admittedly say I'm a sixth grader and I hear from other sixth graders of the province and how the bathroom gets congested and if

Speaker 19that open concept bathroom

Kristina Cecereidea, like, for people listening in, there's sinks in the middle but everyone has an individual stall and they come out and see if the kids actually wash their hands, I'm trying to go off to wherever.

Molly MerloThere are multiple concepts for how to look at the joint toilet rooms. And that's something that came up in one of the staff meetings we had some feedback on. And we were asking questions as we were looking at that. We haven't done the bathroom design in detail yet. That will be done during schematics. We're going to look at both accessibility needs and new accessibility guidelines. We're also going to look at where do those sinks go. One of the concepts that we talked about is maybe enlarging the area of the corridor, bringing the sinks out facing the corridor so that you take that hand washing out of the enclosed space, and that's more of a shared space that's easier to access from the corridor and monitor.

and so taking away a little bit of the, I think in the best way to phrase it, the perceived secretiveness of things that happen in toilet rooms to be able to just be able to function and be able to have healthy interactions there and be able to monitor the activities, does that make sense?

Dr. WrightstaffSo I think circling back accessory, that's where we're going next. Once we have an idea of where the big pieces of the puzzle are, the next part of it is what type of bathrooms are, what type of classroom doors, what type of light fixtures, those type of things. That's where we're going next. I

Kristina Cecerejust want to make sure I'm not, but I also recognize things like that could impact the placement of the classroom. I will be

Molly Merloworked into the next phase. Yeah,

Kristina Cecereand then the last thing just to clarify on Daniel's run, you know, when Dr. Wright walked us through Daniel's run last week, one of the things I was quite shocked by, I'm not a Daniel's run parent, but how much the lack of storage is there. and storage is always in the hallway and sort of there's open concept. And planner.

Speaker 19And planner. I know, I know, I know. We're just talking about basic. We'll get into that in schematics and be able to look at it. We're punctuating it.

Molly MerloWe're just trying to get the... We have heard impact or input from multiple people that they would like more storage.

Kristina CecereAbsolutely. No, I just, I like, you know, just because I know we were looking at those things and deciding on those classrooms and whatnot. The one thing that came up in our conversation as we're looking at it too is making sure that any new classrooms that are installed in there, or even smaller educational spaces, that they're always with the windows in mind just to make sure that students have access to those windows, especially hearing and thinking about what our students earlier said. Those are my

Sarah Kelseycomments.

Kristina CecereOkay,

Sarah Kelseymine will be quick. one thing because I know we're moving into it and I'm not going to look at you

Speaker 19no

Sarah Kelseyit's not when you do the next plans because I know it will get into the dividing can we get like a current list of like how many like I don't care where but like how many kindergarten classrooms they currently have this year how many first grade like that just someplace it can even be in your Friday newsletter. And then my other question is, when you did go do the staff previews, can you tell us, I think I asked you this, but I want to ask again, which one was the preferred one by the staff at each of the schools? The preferred concepts. So

Dr. WrightstaffDaniel's run definitely option three. And I mean, we did not do a vote for Providence, but there's a strong consensus around connecting the second floor. So that would be either option three or option four for Providence.

Allison LeggWell, option concept four was a result of the staff meeting. So although we didn't do a vote, like, concept four was...

Dr. WrightstaffAnd it was, you know, the big thing was we liked concept three, but we really liked bumping out the front of the building to make those classrooms bigger. So that's how you ended up that concept four. So I think it's safe to say concept three for Daniel's run and concept four for problems.

Lauren BartelmeOkay. Are we ready? Yes. Okay. I I think for Daniel's run concept three makes the most sense the only one that addresses the stair issue So I think concept three and then I agree with option for Providence I can get addresses the problems a lot of community feedback went into the hybrid So I I agree with for this recommendation. Daniel's run three, Providence

Kristina Cecerefour. For Daniel's run, option three. For Providence, option four without the sky bridge.

Amit HickmanDefinitely strong reference for option concept three for Daniel's run with the understanding that there would be continued conversations about looking into possibly switching where the entrance is and what that looks like and also separating SAC versus you know transfer safety reasons so those would be my two I would say caveats but sticking points and then I'm in agreement on concept for the Providence and I don't particularly have strong feelings for us the sky bridge I think it sounds like there's other options probably a better use of funds for more practical things even though I think it looks super cool but I'm also afraid of heights, so maybe I'm having some personal issues. In my mind it is.

Skybridge, you see it? Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyDaniel's run concept three, and I agree with Ms. Hickman where she's at on that, having that conversation further. Providence is concept four.

Speaker 19Okay, so I think we have a clear path. Are you in agreement? I don't know if she works there. I just said Daniel's run three, Robin's four.

Sarah KelseyShe was in order. I know.

Speaker 19She normally goes last. I just went down the line. Okay. She wants to go home. All right. Does anybody have any last comments or questions? Do you really?

Kristina CecereI do. We're going back to the sky bridge. for. So what is the time? I just want to, I'm just curious if I take... She doesn't know when she has to know

Speaker 19about it. The

Kristina Cecerespecifics.

Speaker 19The specifics.

Kristina CecereYou know. Like what's the date for the... Drop Debbie for the sky bridge.

Dr. WrightstaffSo I think it's something we're going to be working on over the next few weeks to try and get some additional information. So just to clarify, I'm going to... We're talking about concept four at Daniel's, excuse me, Providence, but we want to find a little more details about what this Sky Bridge might look like, the impact, how actually, what size it could actually be, and then we'll bring that back to you.

Kristina CecereYeah, I would even ask what would be the cost of rents with and without the Sky Bridge. Okay.

Dr. WrightstaffWe have a rough number on that right now, but that I can provide after this meeting, because I can't do it without my head. But I think we need a few weeks to just try and then so maybe we can shoot for the May 4th meeting. Well, I'll talk to our colleagues to see if that's possible, but if it's not, I can do it through written communication with you.

Allison LeggWe can, I mean, and if it's a true ad alternate too, we can kind of do the two different plans where it's SkyBridge is in as an ad alternate and then SkyBridge is out, right? and so what that impact on those connections are, where those classrooms are, whatever those spaces are. And

Speaker 19the current part of it, just to clarify, is for circulation purposes.

Allison LeggFor circulation purposes, when we were not doing the vertical expansion. So now that we are, we kind of have the two, you know, the two. So there's no, it's now just a cool thing. Now it's just a cool thing.

Speaker 19Alright. If there's anything else before the board, I will adjourn at 9.33.