School Board Regular Meeting

Speaker 11The End

Carolyn Pitchesgood evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is monday april 6 of 2026 and this is the regular meeting of the city of fairfax school board everybody please stand for the pledge of allegiance

Speaker 11i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, we have no changes in the agenda this evening. I'd like to welcome our Region 5 Executive Principals. We have Chad Lehman and Gordon Stokes. So welcome. Thank you for coming this evening. Our first item is the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion, please?

Sarah KelseyMadam Chair.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyI move that the City of Fairfax School Board adopt the agenda as written and distributed. May I have a second?

Kristina CecereSecond.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Kelsey moved. Ms. Cessary seconded. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. None opposed, so the adoption of the agenda passes unanimously. We are going to begin this evening with a presentation of the donation to the all-night graduation party. We are pleased there are many members of the all-night graduation committee and students here. Hopefully I'll get everybody's name. I don't know if everybody's here, but I'm going to say everybody's name just in case. Donna Sabo, Marcy and Noel Sackey, Foster Zinn, Patty Coates, who's also our FHS PTA president, and Christine and Casey Parker. So welcome. Thank you for coming. The City of Fairfax School Board proudly recognizes the committee's outstanding dedication and tireless efforts in creating a safe, memorable, and truly exceptional celebration for every Fairfax High School graduate, which I think began in 1988, the year I graduated high school.

In appreciation of this important tradition, we are very excited to present a check for $2,000 in support of this work. If we could have everybody from the committee and school board members and Dr. Wright come down for a photo.

Kristina CecereKids.

Speaker 11Kids. Kids. You guys want to hold it? Yeah. Here. I'll hold it. You guys are going to be working. Let's go find this. Seriously, man. Okay. In three, two, one. And squeeze in a little bit on the edges. in three two one awesome thank you so much have

Carolyn Pitchesfun yeah yeah THE AGENDA IS THAT I WOULD LIKE TO ASK MR. JEFF GREENFIELD TO PLEASE COME FORWARD. THE SCHOOL BOARD WOULD LIKE TO RECOGNIZE MR. GREENFIELD AND THE LABOR DAY CAR SHOW FOR EVERYTHING THEY'VE DONE TO SUPPORT OUR SCHOOLS. I HAVE A FEW WORDS HERE WRITTEN. FOR MANY YEARS, JEFF AND THE LABOR DAY CAR SHOW HAVE BEEN INCREDIBLY GENEROUS TO OUR STUDENTS AND OUR SCHOOL COMMUNITY. OVER THE PAST SEVEN he has helped to provide thousands of backpacks filled with school supplies to our schools and most recently he and the labor day car show donated five thousand dollars to support our school food pantries and help students and families experiencing food insecurity providing each of our schools a check for one thousand two hundred fifty dollars to buy food for students in

need jeff cares deeply about helping others and that has meant a great deal to our schools we are grateful for his kindness, his generosity, and the way he continues to show up for our students. Tonight, we want to thank Jeff publicly and present him with a small token of our appreciation, a Fairfax High School sweatshirt as a graduate of Fairfax High School, and a supporter now of our schools. We want Jeff to know he will always be part of the Fairfax High School family.

Speaker 11Thank you. in the background. Excellent. You guys. In three, two, one. Awesome. One more. In three, two, one. Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks. Thanks. All these guys are a little off. Thank you.

Dustin WrightstaffI better see you wearing that. You all have fun?

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Okay. Next is presentations to the school board. We will start with citizen participation. We have Ms. Ashley Taylor signed up to speak this evening. come up to the podium.

Ashley Taylorpublic commentOkay, good evening. My name is Ashley Taylor, and I'm here tonight to sincerely thank you for your leadership, your integrity, and your commitment to doing what is right for our students, teachers, and our community. As many of you know, most of you know, He's a junior at Fairfax and plays on the football and lacrosse teams. Our older two children are FHS grads, all attending city schools since starting in kindergarten. My husband, Trey, is also a teacher and the football coach at Fairfax. The investigation that was opened in July of last year affected not only our family, but dozens if not hundreds of students, their families, and the broader community. I want to thank the city school board chair, Carolyn Pitches, assistant superintendent, Dan Phillips, as well as recently appointed superintendent, Dr. Dustin Wright, and of course, Fairfax principal, Dr. Georgina A.

For meeting with parents on numerous occasions, responding to our emails, and doing everything they could to advocate on behalf of our children and staff. There was a steep learning curve for most of us who had no previous experience dealing with an investigation, administrative leaves, and Fairfax County public schools. At times, it was daunting, disheartening, and downright frustrating. Without your support, I'm not sure where we would be today. I'd be remiss if I didn't also mention parents who spent more time than they should have to, researching rules and policies, writing, sending, and resending emails, and showing up to speak at county school board meetings. This extends to some of our brave and well-spoken student-athletes.

your willingness to advocate for transparency and timeliness was crucial as we move forward my hope is that we will continue to work towards more open and direct communication and we continue to evaluate our relationship and agreement with FCPS I also hope this serves as a good reminder to other parents and students that our principal our board our city school leadership are all open and willing to work with parents and students to address concerns and the best route forward is not social media posts neighbors, believing everything you read online, and what you may hear secondhand. We all share the same interest, doing what is best for our students. Our parent group found every meeting we asked for was scheduled, was held in a timely manner, and we were able to speak openly and

honestly. And in turn, we were spoken to open and honestly. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts for your support and helping us navigate a very difficult time and situation. We greatly appreciate your shared desire for not only transparency but fairness and consistency because of your efforts we are able to move forward this spring with your help we hope we have modeled for our children and students and integrity and good character as well as the importance of speaking up and working together again thank you on behalf of our family as well as many other parents and students we all thank you thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou miss Taylor next we will report, Ms. Lucas.

Abbey LucasGood evening and a happy April. As spring arrives in 2026, Fairfax City Schools are buzzing with energy growth and excitement. Third quarter is done with strong momentum while students and staffs and families look forward to warming days, outdoor learning, and the final stretch of the school year. Here are some recaps and highlights from March 2026 across our schools. At Fairfax High School, students celebrated Women's History Month with a powerful assembly featuring student speakers, performers, and exhibits highlighting the contributions of women throughout history. Fairfax High School hosted their annual fashion show and cultural celebration for students and their families highlighting diversity and spirit.

Spring sports practices officially began with baseball, softball, soccer, tennis, track and field teams hitting the fields and attending spring break tournaments. At Katherine Johnson Middle School, eighth graders participated in high school registration night and completed their course selections for the next year. Students wrapped up map testing and engaged in meaningful service projects during the National Kindness Month. A weekly newsletter kept families updated on spring events. In Daniel's Run and Providence, the Daniel's Run Springers performed at the Spring Choral Festival in mid-March. Students celebrated Read Across America Day and Dr. Seuss's birthday with a leak-long literacy celebrations, costumes, and guest readers. The school hosted its annual

wellness fair focusing on healthy habits nutrition and emotional well-being as seasons changed march engaged stem activities tied to sustainability in eco schools usa including a wide school a school-wide recycling drive and environmental awareness projects families enjoyed a multi a cultural night with food performances and displays celebrating the diverse cultures in our community wishing everyone a wonderful spring season filled with sunshine continued academic success and joyful moments as we close out our third quarter. Happy April and here's to a bright and successful spring ahead. Thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou, Ms. Lucas.

Abbey LucasDoes anybody have any questions

Kristina Cecerefor Ms. Lucas?

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Okay. We will move on to a presentation from Dr. Wright. He's going to talk to us about the 1% sales tax that's currently being considered.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. Good evening to the board and good evening to the members of public that are watching the presentation this evening. As Chair Pitches introduced, we're going to talk a little bit about some proposed legislation that is currently under review in Richmond as a part of this legislative session. So I'm going to provide some updates on House Bill 334 and Senate Bills 66 and 607. These bills relate to how localities may fund school construction and renovation projects. And again, just to emphasize, this is all proposed legislation at this time. And we'll talk a little bit about where it is in the process. So as we look at the next slide, I'm going to intentionally say that there's a lot of information on here.

And there's no need to review it all in the moment because I'm going to try and provide a high-level overview in the next slide. language for each of the three bills that are under consideration in terms of their introductions. And then there's also, for members of the public, hyperlinks to each of the bill's Senate or House pages that tracks where they are in the process, if there are any people that want to look into a little bit more of where we are on each of those bills. If you do take some time to zoom in and look at the text, you'll see that they're very similar between each of the three bills. not 100% identical but very very similar. So as we look at the next slide we'll talk a little bit

about an overview of what all three of these essentially say. So this proposed legislation would allow counties and cities throughout the commonwealth of Virginia to consider an additional local sales and use tax of up to 1%. Any such tax would require approval by voters through a local referendum this revenue would be restricted to school capital projects including construction renovation expansion or the repayment of related debt so really specific in terms of the revenue that comes in from this one percent sales and use tax of how it can be utilized by cities and counties this additional one percent on at least in the proposed form would not apply to specific things such as groceries for food and home consumption or essential personal hygiene products.

And this would represent an additional funding mechanism available to local governments separate from their existing revenue sources. The second bullet on this slide talks about one of the distinctions between some existing bills that are in place throughout Virginia. And this current version allows local governing bodies to determine whether or not to include an expiration date. So you're going to see some examples of some other bills in Virginia that, you know, when they were voted in by their residents, this sales tax will be in place to this specific date. So the referendum would or the localities would get to choose whether there's a specific date where it ends or it's in place for longer than that.

As we look at slide four, you'll see some of those localities that have received authorization from the state legislature. And there's a limited number throughout the state. These include Charlotte, Gloucester, Halifax, Henry, Mecklenburg, Northampton, Patrick, and Pennsylvania counties, and the city of Danville. This proposed legislation would extend this authority to all counties and cities in Virginia if approved by the voters. On the next slide, you're going to see where we are in the legislative process. So I'm going to do my best to channel. I'm a bill on Capitol Hill and think about how this all works but please note that I'm not an expert in this area but these bills were proposed and again if you go to some of those links

you can find who the sponsors were and how it went through the process but all three of them have been carried over by the Senate Finance and Appropriation Committees and any further action on them will take place through the budget process so instead of being a bill desk. It'll be if if this comes to pass, it'll be through the budget process. It'll be an amendment in the budget process. In terms of timing, that budget work will begin on April 23rd. And the legislative outcome and final form of this, these proposals are still pending. In terms of how long that budget process can be, in some years it's been it's been a one day. So we might know something on April 24th, or it might be several days, depending on how much

and updates happen throughout the budget process. On our final slide, I just want to mention that as a city Fairfax Schools team and with our partners on the city government side, we'll continue to monitor the legislation and provide updates as additional information becomes available. I would like to thank one of my great colleagues, the city's chief financial officer, JC Martinez, who's here tonight. If there's any questions that are pertinent to his knowledge base, probably most of them. And with that, Chair Pitches, this concludes the presentation, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. Barlmay, do you have any questions? Not right now. Thank you. Ms. Kelsey. Ms. Hickman?

Amit HickmanNo questions. Just want to say on record that I really hope that this is something that continues and goes through because it will really benefit the schools in the city and the entire state.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori?

Kristina CecereI'd like to echo those comments as well. a lot of conversation around diversifying our revenue sources into the city to help supplements, not just put the burden on property tax owners, property owners through their taxes. But this could very well bring in, what, between $10 and $12 million toward renovating that if I did my math correctly. Do I remember my numbers correctly? Which is not nothing, but definitely helping kind of chisel away at things. Thanks.

Carolyn PitchesThe counties that currently are authorized to impose this tax, do they currently utilize that option? Do you know?

Dustin WrightstaffThat's a great question. I'm not able to answer that with authority in terms of if any of those have expired. So, again, the reason there's that distinction in the proposed legislation is that some of them were it was in place for the length of the repayment of a school bond or it might have been in length it might have been five years where they're going to have the tax and then they were going to ask for another voter referendum so we'd have to go back and get that information to see what is the status in each of those divisions

Carolyn Pitchesokay i'd be curious to see which of those counties um do impose a tax and if possible um how much uh what what the tax generated for them annually if we can if we can

Dustin Wrightstaffyeah and that's a that's a really important question i know that we have some resources available to us on september 2nd of 2025 there was a joint city council and city schools meeting that provided some information publicly from the davenport group that had some of that modeling in there that's something that is publicly available and is something that we can share with the board.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Thank you. And I would agree with the accessory. This is an important opportunity because it is a different revenue source and one that extends the tax burden to people outside of our community and would help to pay for school renovations. It would lessen the burden on city residents. Thank you, Dr. Wright. Okay. And the next thing is our State of the Schools address. And we have Mr. Chris Smith, principal of Katherine Johnson Middle School. We are thrilled to have him here this evening. Welcome, Mr. Smith.

Chris SmithstaffThank you. Dr. Wright, Madam Chair, school board members, region office, members of our community. Again, always an exciting night for me to be able to present the positives in some of the growth areas of our school. This is my eighth presentation, so I feel like maybe I'm reaching some rarefied air, at least some of the principals that I knew. I don't know, Miss Pitches, maybe you can help me figure out what the record is. I will try to beat it here. And there is a basketball game tonight, so I'll do my best to get us home before that starts. want to you know I tend to put a lot of pictures in the presentation I think it gives you hopefully a flavor of what it's like to be at our school even though

it's seven o'clock on a Monday night but talk a little bit about our demographics attendance academics city support transitions and then just some joyful things at the end this is pitches I will let you decide if you want me to stop at some point for questions or just go through to the end and I tried to highlight some things based on the region presentation from a couple weeks ago and not just duplicate last year's presentation. So to give you a little bit of a look, so hovering around 1,150 students this year, that's down about 25. It's what we expected, so it wasn't a surprise in terms of staffing. Again, you see our numbers of AAP Level 4 students, our special education students, and communication languages, right?

English and Spanish being the overwhelming amount there in our school and I know these charts can be a little bit difficult to see again just ethnicity I wanted to show you we've had a little bit of a variation this year amongst our Asian and Hispanic populations a little bit of increase in our white population grade level pretty much 50 50 between seventh and eighth grade the next and I think that did they get the updated that I sent they did okay because I had made a mistake and and so English proficiency proficiency again a little bit of a dip that kind of two three percent dip that we've seen from the previous slides this proficiency levels is one that I added this year I did not have last year right because just because you see that number of 20% it's

important I think to know what makes up that 20% right if a school has all level three and four kids that's a different environment than a school that has more level ones and two so I know that again there's lots of pieces of pie in that proficiency but looking at that dark blue and yellow is about nine and a half percent for both of those those are a level one and twos right so students who country more recently and then at that wedge of level 3 of 24 percent I think it's important to note not only us but most schools countywide right you tend to see students plateau and this is where we're trying to push them out of services right through the WIDA testing past that level four so that's that

wedge there. Attendance, and again I put this here right because if you know nothing else comes in these later slides without attendance. So this was the Friday March 27th right before spring or the day of spring break there so it's our most recent numbers were at 12.4 percent. Last year we were at 13. That IP fit I heard elementary folks refer to it as IP fit so either one right it is I wrote it down somewhere. Maybe it's on my next

Speaker 8sheet here. I didn't.

Chris SmithstaffBut it's these recovery hours and days. So you see that if we did not do the IP fit hours, we'd actually be a little bit higher than last year. So we gather those after school and on Saturday. We've been running Saturday school since

Sarah KelseyJanuary.

Chris SmithstaffWhat I would say on attendance this year, I think one thing we've tried to do is focus on some positive rewards, for lack of a better word, school-wide. So we've had competitions amongst the teams. You know, in middle school, we have four seventh-grade teams, four eighth-grade teams to try to make that transition a little easier. So we've done different attendance challenges through the course of the year. And again, we have an attendance team, right, that's handing a lot of these individual cases, right, when it comes down to it. Many of these are individual meetings that you need to have with families and try to tackle what some of the challenges are. You see the next picture here, right, a very timely challenge.

Now, this one was dealing with tardies, which doesn't exactly fall into our evaluations and things, but it's something that makes the adults in the building a little crazy at times, right? But when they're in the hallway and they shouldn't be. But so, you know, trying to, again, time in some timely things like the basketball tournament there with tardy challenges. So a bit more positive stuff as well as the meetings with families. You know, I think we want to celebrate just briefly some of the things that were brought up in the region presentation, right? students exceeding our projected score our reading math and science performance and our in our advanced math as well so I stole these slides from their

presentation but just to see right again year-to-year right we had a 67.7 percent right which again is another growth from the year before I do want to shout out to our excellent ESOL team our students certainly with the effort that they put in when they take the WIDA test. We have an excellent ESOL team led by Mrs. Johnson. They're always willing to adapt and learn and do a great job with our ESOL students. Again, you've seen this before, lots of information. Just draw to the fact that, you know, those areas that I mentioned, when you look at, like, what we could have gotten, you know, like in math, we got a 19.45 out of 20, right? So again, we were pretty close to Getting full points there and so many of our

Academic ones, you know, we did a really nice job Just 1.1 away from being distinguished we were hoping for that but we like I said we exceeded our projection by 3% so our teachers and

Speaker 8students did a great job last year

Chris SmithstaffMoving into math again this slide similar to last year we haven't really changed much in terms of structures mostly in support which is what we're going to get to but again we have our CLT's creating common experiences and assessments we use math space which is that FCPS approved platform we have tutorial learning and after-school support I'm going to dive into that a bit more in depth here shortly and then some of our students are have access to tutors numeracy focused learning seminars. It's really a new name. It should be tutorial learning. We have math competitions. We have a partner with Fairfax High School to have their student tutors come over and multilingual learner courses as well. So going to spend a little bit of time on next

year. So this is what algebra enrollment looks like for next year. So it says our current eighth graders it's really our current seventh graders rising eighth graders just let me know if you have a question if I confuse you but right now right we're at 84 and a half percent of eighth graders for next year who will be enrolled in algebra you see that we increased by about 10% last year and then another 10 percentage points this year to me it's not just enrollment and I think to many right it's also we want them to be successful right so it's things right so we've made some strides in terms of enrollment and we'll talk a little bit more about success I think ultimately again we're talking a lot of

numbers but it's individual kids and families right and so we recognize the need often to to talk with families right about what the best decision especially as a seventh grader the next one so speaking of our seventh graders says again current seventh graders but it's really our rising seventh graders here so this is enrollment in pre algebra or higher you see that we're at ninety point five percent of our seventh graders will be taking pre algebra or higher for next year I will one caveat right we still have although students have registered for classes again there are continuing to be individual conversations certainly as a so tests come in parents may change their opinion advice. So the numbers will fluctuate a little bit, but that's where they are now. I want to point out that, and I think we said this in the, came up in the region meeting, I think, that the current fourth graders will automatically be enrolled in pre-algebra, math 7.

So pre-algebra is math eight. Math seven will be no longer offered for the current fourth graders. Does that make sense? We have two more years of seventh graders having an option of seventh grade math or pre-algebra, which is basically the eighth grade math. And then I wanted to show you this. And, again, I apologize. I didn't stay for the elementary presentation. Maybe they had done this. But just again, we certainly have sixth graders that are taking algebra. So you see that we have about 20 kids that will be coming to us next year that will be in geometry. Those are those sixth graders that are taking algebra now. That pre-algebra number is going to fluctuate. We're going to have more kids.

Our advice to rising sixth grade parents is to register pre-algebra as a default. them will go in to algebra and historically we've waited for SOL scores to come out there's a little different guidance I think coming this year where we may not have to wait as long for that decision but just know that that number will increase in terms of algebra so again students being successful right it's one thing to enroll in the class but if you're not successful so some changes that we made this year I'm going to try to give you the quickest cleanest version and I'm happy to dig down into the nitty-gritty details if you want but last year did a lot of listening one of the things the teacher said so we had learning seminar and we had TA last year right learning seminar

was year-long it had some really good cool stuff going on right so like one teacher literally is running paper airplane club and then next door English teachers trying to deliver an intervention right so a couple things kind of hard to do the intervention when next door you got paper airplanes and a lot of fun stuff going on paper airplanes don't cost a lot but some teachers do run clubs that cost some money right and so they're doing that every other day the course of the year right so they got a little tired to be honest, right, of having to fund that or to ask us to fund it. And those kids that were sitting in that intervention next to the paper airplane club, they never got a chance to be in the fun stuff, right?

They were always in the intervention. We took input from students. This made us change our recess as well. But bottom line is we have three things. We have learning seminar this year, Mondays only, student choice. Sorry about my hands. All the fun stuff's going on. Everybody gets a chance to do the enrichment It's one day a week. We chose Mondays because sometimes we're off on Mondays and we didn't want to lose days for enrichment Then we added what's called tutorial learning. So If you don't know the state requires Intervention for certain students when it comes to literacy that's mandated they have to be in there based on their screener scores we also use the map scores which is our math screener to identify students who

are a couple grade levels below and if they're not in an intervention for English then they're in our TL math sections the rest of the other thing last year was students didn't really have a chance to move they the way the system was set up it was just really hard like if you just missed a day and you wanted to go make up a test or you wanted to get some extra help with some homework right they didn't have a chance to move so the RTL if you're not in one of those two interventions you do get a chance to move on those days and then we have the same teacher advisory period every other day where we do lessons and advisory time so that has not changed we have increased the support for students in my mind and allowed them some movement as well do

Carolyn Pitchesyou want to stop paused

Chris Smithstaffi thought yeah yeah yeah yes yep happy to pause

Carolyn Pitcheslet's take some

Chris Smithstaffcan i actually can i do one more yeah is it one more slide because it's the same thing and again i just wanted some other support so we added after school what's called our learner's lab it's monday wednesday thursday after school we have two to three teachers who stay each day um we identified wednesday as our math day i will say this we it was a little sluggish at first but the last i'd say right started to take off so we have teachers there from 2 30 to 3 30 and then the Fairfax high school students come over from 3 30 to 4 30 every Wednesday for additional math support and we also this year our avid teacher mrs. Nygaard she supports to seventh grade their pre algebra classes we identified those

classes based on the number of students who were making that jump from sixth grade math to eighth grade math again sorry but math eight and pre-algebra basically interchangeable right so we put her in with two classes they are focusing on binders and agendas they talked about she did a survey with the kids talked about some of the activities they've done students said this is a couple quotes from students keeping an organized binder and reviewing notes is not just about being tidy it's about building a foundation for algebraic Another student said I think they I think reviewing your notes keeping your binder organized and making sure you pay attention Because it really pays off when the test day comes and you've been preparing for a while

And like you could even study before and stuff in your binder is organized. So we are seeing some payoffs of that. So Let's now pause and I'll take

Kristina CecereNecessory I Have two questions could I get you do one and then do a go back is that all right or you

Carolyn Pitchescan ask

Kristina CecereFirst of all, I love the changes that you're describing about the learning seminar and bringing in that student voice and whatnot. I think it's so impactful to be able to reflect on that and make it worthwhile for students, having been at Fairfax previously when that happened. I had a question first about the math. I recognize that we no longer do the Iowa testing to determine placement for students going into algebra one into seventh grade. And I'm curious, I was actually looking at my sixth graders, academic literacy. Is there any map testing from sixth grade that could perhaps guide that thinking rather than just solely relying on SOL scores? Because you mentioned that you use map testing for interventions during seventh and eighth grade.

I'm just curious if that's used maybe for those conversations of maybe tweaking placement.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, so this is the first year that elementary is using math. They have used iReady for their math

Speaker 1screener as well.

Chris SmithstaffI think the key word I heard you say was guide, right? I think there are less barriers to get into algebra, but we also want to make sure we're using some data to help guide parents and families into what's best for their kids. that would be one of the things we would use as well.

Kristina CecereThat's great to hear. And then when it comes to high-impact tutors, I noticed that you have that on your list. Where does that funding come from? Is that some, is that, I'm assuming that's not high school students or

Chris SmithstaffMacy students. High-impact tutors, it's through Fairfax County. My understanding, not an expert, but I think the funding comes from the state of Virginia. and they are adults that we have hired that have been screened through the county's tutoring office.

Kristina CecereIt's not tied to ESSER funding because I know that's kind of dried up at this point and that was tied to high-impact community throughout the nation.

Dustin WrightstaffI believe it's been the all-in funding, all-in Virginia funding is my understanding, which is state-level funding. Yeah.

Carolyn PitchesGo ahead.

Amit HickmanMy question is actually very similar to Ms. Estreys in terms of just expanding a little more on what information is being shared with sixth grade parents with the understanding that their seventh graders will be taking a high school course. Is there information being provided that that will continue with them and be on their record? I just remember we've had parents confused about that and didn't realize they can expunge it later. How is that being shared?

Chris SmithstaffSo there's buckets of kids. So we're talking about sixth graders who are in advanced math who have an option to go to pre-algebra or to algebra. Yes. Yes. I'm just making sure. Because they're the only bucket of kids who can go to algebra. So we do give that information. We had a parent night in a rising sixth grade elective night where me and Mrs. T do a presentation. We do a virtual presentation. that we record and send to parents, right? I know that not everybody watches that, right? So, you know, when we look at some of the information that comes to us, that's why I say that number changes because we'll make some personal phone calls to families to certainly encourage them, right? If they haven't signed up,

and it looks like the data supports that. And also just to tell them, hey, this is, the data has come in, and it is a high school credit class, and is this what you want? now if that makes sense yeah

Amit HickmanI'd be curious to

Chris Smithstaffsee

Amit Hickmanhow those numbers change because you showed us you know the pre-algebra are higher yeah with like about 20 signed

Chris Smithstaffup right now have access to it was not broken down like that for us last year we had the algebra numbers

Amit Hickmanyeah

Chris Smithstaffbut not I'll

Amit Hickmanbe curious how much it changes between now and the start of school just once those SOL scores do come out yes thank you

Sarah Kelseymiss Kelsey I watched the video thanks so just let me know um no so my question is kind of along the lines of the math as well with the numbers that you do have you have math 7 is having only like 31 kids is that basically then you will just have one math 7 class for the whole seventh grade

Chris SmithstaffYeah, it might be two. That's stuff that we'll get to here in the coming months. But yeah, it is a very, you know, last year I had, I think, three teachers teaching it. I think I'm down to two this year.

Sarah KelseyYeah, that's what I was going to say, because I know normally you have one for each team, and now,

Ashley Taylorpublic commentokay.

Chris SmithstaffWith the current fourth graders, it won't even be an option.

Sarah KelseyYeah.

Chris SmithstaffYeah.

Sarah KelseyAnd then my other question is, you have all these great things in place, like the after school and TL and all that for the kids when they do start possibly struggling with algebra being it is made for high school age type kids. How are the teachers getting the kids to realize they need that help or they need that extra support? Because it is after school.

Ashley Taylorpublic commentYes.

Sarah KelseyAnd the TL isn't, but, I mean, most of that is after school going to the Wednesday or going to finding that extra time for the teachers. Yeah. How is that being approached to the students and to the parents that this is another thing to help them because they are, you are noticing them struggling?

Chris SmithstaffYeah. So I would say it's always easier to dispense advice than to be the parent and, you know, when it's your kid. So I recognize that. to it right I think that the first thing you know we we have put out school-wide about the learning learners lab and what it means but I think first off that individual encouragement invite from the math teacher right you know the good thing with grades online right parents certainly know you know you don't have to wait for the first quarter grade to figure out what the grades are right so that personal invite our counselors do a great job right and so that's another I am taking Dr. Reed's advice from a principal meeting about a month ago. I'm meeting with students next week, 7th and 8th grade students.

Teachers are giving me some recommendations of kids who they feel like can definitely pass the SOL but their motivation is lacking. So sometimes it's me or another administrator, right? Sometimes they still don't listen, right? Sometimes they say they're staying, but, you know, after school, again, they can sometimes wiggle around. on a list that we just call down to the office every Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday because they sometimes wiggle their way even if they stay after school. So there's many things to that. And I think, you know, we don't like to see kids struggle, but this is the time to do it, right? And so, you know, it's not necessarily a bad thing, right? Because I think what you see with the Abbey kids saying, it goes across subjects, right?

and that if they can figure out how to do something hard. My first question to most of the kids, are you doing homework? Nope. Okay. So what's our plan there, right? And then you get that extra help. Does that make sense?

Sarah KelseyYeah, that does. I was just, because it's in my head going, how else are they, because with the Rolling Gray book, we don't always get the grades right away and stuff like that. And so how do they know until it becomes too late sometimes? and so that's that was my question is that people are noticing it yeah saying and calling the kids so thank you

Dustin Wrightstaffand mr. Smith would you be able to talk a little bit to miss Kelsey's question about how you and your staff use some of the information and data that you have available those map assessments or you know any type of common assessments across a grade level that might help you identify some of those kids even earlier on before that rolling grade book pops up as an actual issue

Chris Smithstaffyeah and again I think you're current to me it's a couple buckets of kids, right? It's kids, to me, the map is kids who are struggling with some fundamental skills, right? And again, our changes this year, we were able, we were even,

Dustin Wrightstaffwe

Chris Smithstaffwere quicker to offer math interventions. We got it up and running basically by the end of September. I think next year we can do it even sooner. So that's one bucket of kids that needs help, right? I think I was thinking your question, sometimes it's more that organization piece. It's doing the homework. It's studying, right? They think they study, but all they did was, like, look at their notes for a couple minutes, right? So that's just another bucket of kids, right, that we help in a variety of ways, right? So did that answer? Yeah. Thank you. Yep.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Borrome?

Lauren BartelmeI think most of my math questions got answered, but I did want to make

Ashley Taylorpublic commenta

Lauren Bartelmecomment

Ashley Taylorpublic commentabout

Lauren Bartelmethe learning seminars. I know some of the kids that were losing the ability to do fun activities were also the same kids that might not have a fun elective due to support classes. And so there can be a double whammy sometimes of those kids losing access to those fun activities. So I really appreciate that change. I think it's important for those kids.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, and I don't know if I said it. I mean, there was a group of teachers who volunteered to be on a committee. We got student input, right? So it really was, you know, it was once we got through that process, everyone bought in. You've done a great job.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I do have a

Speaker 11math question.

Chris SmithstaffI know. There's a lot of math passion on the board.

Carolyn PitchesSo now that we have sixth graders taking Algebra I, and we're going to have more seventh graders, we're increasingly more seventh graders also taking Algebra I, Virtual Virginia offers geometry as a summer course. So we may be seeing some of those kiddos taking that geometry during the summer. how are we or are we planning for how we're going to address these students who will now be in algebra 2 possibly as seventh or eighth graders if

Chris Smithstaffyou're talking about our hope next year is to have a section of algebra 2 right now this year we have about 10 students that we send over to fairfax through the support of the board right that that section gets paid for there's the buses Again, we don't anticipate a large number. Mrs. T checked on this last week. I don't think she got specific Katherine Johnson numbers, but they said the numbers right now of kids in algebra who have registered for online geometries, like single digits across the county, again, may change. So our hope this year, we know that going into 27, 28, we're definitely going to have to, right, if I go back, I'm the one with the clicker, I can go back to it. Yes, you can.

we know that that cohort of geometry kids for sure is going to need algebra two as eighth graders right so we know we're going to have to you know that'll be a healthy section right next year um that section again is a lower number but we'd like to keep it in house if we can

Carolyn Pitchesso you we would have to hire no

Speaker 8we

Chris Smithstaffhave three current math teachers we have nine math teachers on staff. Three have the mathematics certification that allows them to teach Algebra 2. And so we have, yeah, three that can do it. That's our hope.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, great. Abby? Ms. Lucas, sorry. Ms. Lucas.

Speaker 1Yes.

Abbey LucasNow it's on. Okay. Yeah, so I was wondering, obviously you're making a big jump from sixth graders to seventh graders doing really advanced math, how are they going to do in high school? Like, obviously, middle school is very different. You get a lot more support, more attention, everything. When you go to high school, it's completely different. You get less support. Your calculator is taken away from you, basically. How is that going? Because I remember I was completely fine in middle school math, and I was in high school math at the time, and I was fine. Then I went to high school, and my calculator was gone, and I was all of a sudden failing math. as someone who used to get eight. So I'm wondering, how are you going to build it

so their skills last to high school?

Chris SmithstaffYeah, so you're leading us to a future slide, right? Which is we partnered with Fairfax last year, right, in terms of math. And again, that term success, right, is to me, just be talking as just a regular person. To me, I used to teach AP government, right? I always told the kids, if it's your first AP class, like, get a C, right? I felt like if you got a C, you can write in your college application about how you stretch yourself and got a C. Like, get a D. It's hard to explain a D, right? And so, you know, to your point, I think getting more on the same page with Fairfax about some things, right? The things we talked about last year, you know, what is success, right? Is it, you know, is it a certain score in an SOL, right?

minimum kind of competency test, right? The calculator is a point of contention, right? I mean, I think basically we realized we could rely on it a bit less and Fairfax could probably rely on it a little bit more. And so we, our teachers, have done, I think, a really nice job over the last two years of doing more paper, pencil. And in fact, right, they see when they give the performance matters assessments, which are the countywide assessments, right, okay on the computer portion and then we give them paper and pencil and have them work things out and it's a little bit more of a struggle right so that I think building some of those skills right of the challenge of Avid is to build it across the school and those organizational skills right I think the

teachers and staff at Fairfax still very much want to support kids it's just the school has now doubled in size right when you leave when you leave middle school right so

Speaker 8does that help that makes yeah

Chris Smithstaffokay

Carolyn Pitchesmr. Murray do you have any questions so

Speaker 8you mentioned that the children that are in fourth grade now are on pace to take pre algebra for a bright seventh grade is that right yes so is that like are they testing for that in fourth grade or are they just on pace for pre algebra so

Chris Smithstaffthey've changed the curriculum with The fourth graders now had a different curriculum in third grade than the previous third graders, the same in fourth grade. So that curriculum is going to continue to change fifth and sixth grade, where in theory they will have gotten all the math they've needed to then take pre-algebra as seventh graders.

Carolyn PitchesIs that it? Okay. All right.

Chris SmithstaffAll right.

Carolyn PitchesWe can move on.

Chris SmithstaffThere's also English. We teach other subjects at Katherine Johnson. Again, much like our math, right, collaborative teams are giving common assessments. This is the first year that both seventh and eighth grade are giving the performance matters assessments, which is, again, the county-wide assessments using Lexia, again, tutorial learning and our after-school support. Again, we have high-impact tutors on the literacy side as well. We have, again, I should have changed it. It's not learning seminars. It should be tutorial learning. again the I do want to just reemphasize literacy comes has to come first because it's state law right that if they fall below a certain threshold right in the I ready testing and then and then the VALS testing after that that they have to

stay in that literacy elective then we have sorry literacy TL some of the kids are in a literacy elective so they don't have to also be in a TL class as well So the biggest thing I want to focus on here, so this was our iReady performance mid-year. I want to point out, and again, I think we said this at the region meeting, but a phenomenal job that our elementary folks are doing. I say that having been there when some of that work started, right? And you can just see those first three categories of phonological awareness, phonics, high-frequency words, right? There's almost no red there. And so the work they're doing is awesome. we started last year vocabulary as our focus right the vocabulary if we can

build that ensure that that's going to be the bridge to to the comprehension and so we have really focused on that the last two years I bring this quote up there's a lot chock-full that you can read here but I showed it to my staff simply because so it talks about the school in Steubenville Ohio and basically sticking with it, right, and they talk about they adopted an effective literacy program, sustained professional development, and then they stuck with it for 25 years, right? So, like, to be honest, our iReady data mid-year, it was kind of stagnant, right? We didn't see, like, this awesome growth. It wasn't, we didn't go backwards, but we didn't see a lot of growth either, but I really believe we're on the right track when it comes to vocabulary and the work that we're doing

and instruction-wise, and so I just wanted to make sure our staff knew that we just don't, you know, happens at mid-year doesn't mean we throw out sorry my hands again all the good work that we're doing right and so we just have to stick with it I'm confident that our we'll see those results all right on to city support of course the transition counselor we spent a fair amount of time last year outlying that again we have that again this year it is a wonderful support right now she's spending most of her time with us and beginning connect even more with with our eighth graders, whether it is some behavior, academic, or mental health concerns that you might have for a student. We have a Think of It summer camp that the city supports.

We did it last summer. We're doing it again this summer. We have about 30 kids that come, and we have a couple staff members who run that. Some of the funds have gone to staff development, professional learning. We'll get into that. Avid and Korean classes, and then unified sports. So we already talked a little bit about AVID, and I've lost my

Sarah Kelseypaper trail here.

Chris SmithstaffI did want to point out that we're adding a section of AVID for next year. So right now we have 1 7th, 1 8th. Because of the demand, obviously with Daniels Run and Providence

Speaker 1being

Chris Smithstaffschools with AVID, the demand is pretty high. So we'll be adding a 7th grade section next year. And that leaves Mrs. Nygaard with one spare section. right now our thinking is kind of become like an avid coach instead of being assigned to two particular math classes, being able to give her a bit more flexibility to get into multiple classes is kind of what our thinking is. We had four math teachers attend the National Avid Summer Institute last year, and then we had four more attend training through the course of the year, and so our math teachers are doing a great job. Not to leave out other teachers in previous years, We've had social studies, English teachers, so again, just growing AVID. We have a collaboration with Fairfax in terms of a pyramid signing night and celebration.

And like I said, we're adding an AVID class next year. So our Korean, we offer Korean. So we do offer four world languages, which is on the higher end for middle school, especially when I did my research. you know it's a little easier if you are certainly if you're the South counties or hayfields of the world right and you've got the actual world language teachers in high school sitting in your building certainly a school like Hughes middle school that shares a campus with South Lakes right they can do some well again a little easier so you know I think it's just a nice complement to city schools that we do offer four languages our Korean teacher did a great job this year she participated in this global correct classroom project we

participated in a zoom there was another number of zoom sessions of course at any time you can talk about k-pop demon hunters it's going to be very popular and then this next slide right that's the sign that is outside the school there in Korea announcing the partnership between our students and theirs and so to learn from their peers in Korea. And so we really appreciate that. Next is, if you haven't seen a unified sports event, I would encourage you to do it. This is one of the awesome things. We participate in basketball and track and field. And so last year, a former teacher of ours, he's a great photographer, and he took like some hype pictures of some of the athletes that we had. And this year we included our unified sports team.

So again, the city helps with the buses, the transportation to get the students to this year. It was at Chantilly High School on a weekend, and they have an event coming up, I believe, at Madison High School for Trek. Again, I want to give a shout out to Ashley Meese and Mike Scherkowski, two of our teachers who volunteer for this. sports basketball team. You have our buddies, so our students who help them at the games, and again, just a really great event. And I'll go through some other pictures there of our players who are very excited to have their hype pictures taken here. So again, last year we partnered with Fairfax. I think the snow days kind of didn't sit in this year. Last year we did a game with Fairfax

as well. which is great fun. Kind of back to that quote, right? Professional learning is really important. So last year we had all of our teachers on their summative year had the Teach Like a Champion text. This year we got it for all of our teachers. So this is where we're grounding ourselves in best practices. And so all of our students have the book. They've committed to at least one strategy out of the book. Many of them have committed to more than that. we just had CLT days and so we were able to fund subs for all of our CLTs have a day to reflect on the teach like a champion strategies they got to observe other other classes and they basically did like our algebra and geometry team went to the math 7 and pre-algebra classes you know civics went down and

saw US history vice versa so again that was a really important funding and what that multiple days next year so we appreciate that help

Sarah Kelseycollaboration with Fairfax

Chris SmithstaffAbby already let us there in terms of the math course it mean dr. I we get along very well we often are texting or picking up the phone and you know I think any time that we can to Abby's point earlier I think know what the high school is doing right and decide whether or not it is appropriate for us at middle school, right? I think we're still middle school. We still have 13- and 14-year-olds, but certainly we want to figure out what they're doing and adopt it if we can. This year, our pyramid focus has been on our English language learners. So once every couple months, we have a couple of our teachers. Our administrator goes over to Fairfax, and our pyramid is meeting to talk about English language learners and best practices.

And this year, another focus has been So our special education chairs, NAPs, got together over the summer, actually, along with Dr. A and I over the summer, and they've continued periodic meetings, again, just back to Abby's point about even, you know,

Speaker 1middle school,

Chris Smithstaffyou know, high school is different, right? And what is in that IEP maybe in eighth

Dustin Wrightstaffgrade isn't necessarily always appropriate for high school.

Chris SmithstaffOn the horizon, last year, this was chock full of things, right? So, you know, I think the biggest thing, just to update you on the boundary, which you may already know, we have rising seventh grade, seven mandatory kids. So we lost seven kids, right? They did not have an option. We had rising eighth, we had 13 who have the option, and two are staying with us. Again, I think certainly the vote on transportation probably had an impact on that, and we certainly understand why that vote, you know, happened. I don't think it's necessarily a reflection of what they think of our school. And then rising ninth graders, there are eight mandatory students

Speaker 8who need to go to Chantilly.

Chris SmithstaffStart time, stuff's still floating out there, right? Nothing was decided. You know, there was not a start time change. I know the school board has said that they certainly want to keep trying to figure out a way to change start times. But for next year, start time is the same. And math textbooks really hung up, I think, in the budget stuff. I know there's a, my understanding is I think a math textbook, some schools are piloting it, and they want to do a full adoption of it, but it's just going to be budget dependent.

Carolyn PitchesKeep going? Which textbook aren't they? No,

Chris SmithstaffI don't know. I'm not sure which one was finally chosen, but I could get that for you if you want, because I know there are schools piloting it.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, that would be great.

Chris SmithstaffThank you. I'll let

Carolyn Pitchesmyself

Chris Smithstaffa note.

Carolyn PitchesAll right. Does anybody have any questions up until this point? Ms. Sessori.

Kristina CecereI'm a little disappointed about the start times. I just want to make sure my comments are publicly out there on that one. Though one thing I want to kind of go back to is you were talking about your school accountability, the reading growth, and going from elementary, where there's a large emphasis of science of reading, and there's a lot of investment on the benchmark curriculum, which I know is a fourth or fifth grade where the curriculum is around corn. There's a unit to traumatize students listening. So I'm curious, like, what does that look like for a sixth grader who is embracing the science of reading? phonics and whatnot, but transitioning into an English classroom, what does that look like?

How do those strategies exist there for science of reading?

Chris SmithstaffYeah, and I would say I am not the middle school English expert. I do supervise math this year. But what I would say is that, you know, I think historically speaking, middle school and high school teachers were not if they had some training on how to teach kids to read it was it was limited right right they were used to having kids come to them knowing how to read right and so there is a learning curve right of of that aspect of it right we had a lot of training state that was mandated by the State last year I want to say it was I think it was upwards of 40 hours of training that content teachers had to take in terms of the science of reading so they they've gotten more of that background there is a curriculum that

we're teaching I think again it's a little I think across the board in secondary right is maybe a little slower for teachers to adopt just because it's such a different mindset from previous right where you would you know we would sit around and go okay we're gonna read the outsiders and we're gonna teach these themes right where this is more a bit more prescriptive and so you see you know I think there was my experience in elementary early on there was some about a one single curriculum but also everyone there was trained for the most part on how to teach kids to read right I think it's just a little bit slower adoption but we we have last year was a growth year this year again we're given all the assessments teaching the curriculum and you know we'll continue

to improve that cycle

Kristina Ceceredoes it seem like an easier time this year teachers are a little bit more, just finding it, since last year was a growth year, this year seems to be more, okay. And then just, you talk about a lot of collaboration between middle and high school, and this is something else I've long advocated for since being here, is, you know, that conversation between middle and high school, I love hearing about that. Is there ever a thought that, you know, creating common planning during the school day, just because we're you know i recognize that there's restrictions to teacher contracts limitations to what they can do i know that some teachers used to go over to fairfax during the year to facilitate some of that conversation of planning and just thinking about those 30 kids

who will be taking algebra two what next year right that you have a solid section right there for next year or two years two years two years from now you know that that's a singleton teacher at your school and to be able to have that connection with Fairfax, be able to know, you know, every unit and planning that. I'm just curious if that's maybe on the horizon too.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, I think, you know, our assistant principals in middle school are due to go to a 12-month contract starting July 1st, right? So I think, like, that's one of the things I have not been able to talk to Dr. A yet about, right? but you know I have them now for two and a half more weeks than I did previously right so can we you know I think that's a natural starting point when it comes to some of the departments I was when I was previously at Katherine Johnson you know we would have different teams go over certainly I think we you know we're fortunate right being a city school that we certainly could fund that right I think it's a matter of time I think the school calendar as well right in terms

The number of days where schools have the ability to make some individual choices is less than previous years. And so that's also hard, right? I think any time I'm always a little leery of sending teachers out of the building when there's kids in their classrooms. Sometimes it has to get done, right? But I think we certainly want to continue the collaboration and get the teachers together to learn from each other. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Heckman.

Amit HickmanI was curious if you have any updates on the after school sports like basketball and volleyball that were supposed to be inner school. And I know we had some very disappointed students and families. Any updates on that situation?

Chris SmithstaffWell, I'm meeting with two principals tomorrow. We have been working with central office to try to figure that out. But I do have a meeting tomorrow with two principals. I think, you know, again, I think just going back to that, again, a little bit of that history, right? Some schools were doing it last year. I think when you talk about all schools, for instance, doing basketball, you know, like Braddock, for instance, or a secondary school, they just struggle for gym space for their current sports structure, right? So, you know, it's different schools have some different concerns. You have the six, seven, eight schools, right, who are like, you know, do our sixth graders get a team or do they have to compete with eighth graders, right?

So I think getting our concerns as principals together earlier, I think the questions can be answered and then it'll just come down to funding. So nothing great answer yet.

Amit HickmanOkay,

Chris Smithstaffwell, thank you for continuing

Amit Hickmanto work on it and have it on

Chris Smithstaffyour radar. I am on that committee, so I can give you direct updates.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey? Ms. Borrome?

Lauren BartelmeI was just wondering if you could speak a little bit about the vocabulary focus of the literary literacy instruction.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, so we started on this last year. So we have a team of teachers that meet once a month. Our literacy committee works on different strategies in terms of teaching the vocabulary. And this is, I think our focus has been across all content areas, right? This is not an English thing. Like, it's got to go beyond the English classroom, right? So, again, whether it's in PE, I do supervise PE as well as like our CTE classes, right? So that's part of our SIP plan, picking specific strategies of how to teach the vocabulary to students. We have, like I said, it's part of our SIP plan. reflect on it in our CLT days. We continue to share a variety of different strategies in terms of teaching vocabulary

and not just give a definition and take a quiz on it. I think building that background knowledge as well is really important to the vocabulary for it to really sink in. Does that help?

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I'm going to go back to math.

Chris SmithstaffOkay.

Carolyn PitchesThe competitions that this is, is this anything different than like math counts or math Olympiad? No. It's those things. Yes. Okay. Yep. I just wanted to see if there was something else out there I didn't know about. Okay. Dr. Wright, do you have any comments or questions for Mr. Smith?

Speaker 8Okay.

Chris SmithstaffAll right. All right. Last few. So, again, this was something that came up. So, just transitions to seventh and ninth grade. It really starts in December of that previous year, right? So we have the sixth graders come over for their field trips. We do a curriculum night at Catherine Johnson for Catherine Johnson students. Of course, our rising ninth graders do the same in January to head over to Fairfax. We have a night in May. This year it's May 13th where we do a parent night for rising seventh graders, and we do tours for the students. And, again, that's another place. I forget who asked the question, but about, like, the math, we go over a couple slides. Because, again, at that point, we can still make some changes to classes.

Over the summer, we do building tours and ice cream socials. We have our RISE program. I do, depending on how the calendar breaks out, at least three or four. Usually it's every Monday evening, a virtual parent question and answer session with parents. I learned coming out of COVID that it's a lot easier to answer parent questions in July and August than

Lauren Bartelmethe first day of school. So

Chris Smithstaffwe do that. Of course, we have our Eagle Fest, which is very popular, back-to-school night. We do parent academies during the school year. This year we did a session on the Parent View gradebook in Schoology on social media, and we just did one in March on alcohol, drug, and tobacco awareness. We're a Purple Star school. some parent coffees for our military families. The electives fair is the picture that you see there in the gym. And then next week, our rising ninth graders, our eighth graders, will head over to Fairfax for their field trip. And, of course, we have the transition counselor, which makes that transition to eighth to ninth a little bit smoother. Just some things you'll see around our school.

You know, the counselors are certainly a really important aspect of middle and high school, right, that's a little different than, you know, we're lucky we have more counselors than we had in elementary. You know, welcoming students to KJ there. You see some smiling students. That's an avid bulletin board. It says, turn your can'ts into can and your dreams into plans. We love our pep rallies. postpone one before spring break just because of scheduling but we have rescheduled it for a couple weeks from now career day you know one of the highlights whether we have the helicopter or not but we have had the helicopter for two straight years that's always a fun night we get a great great support from city partners and our counselors do a great job with that again it's kind of

giving you a flavor of joyful things going on we do a staff underground spirit week and so you're really observing students catch on pretty quickly that something's going on. Those are some science students putting together a periodic table using cereal boxes.

Carolyn PitchesThat's such a good idea.

Chris SmithstaffOne of the last ones here, you know, we started talking about the need to probably update our mission and vision. It also led us to like a branding conversation. So we're working with our yearbook company, which is Jostens. So we sent a survey out to families, students, staff. We got over 850 responses, and that's a picture of us meeting. We're in person, but the person from Jostens is virtual there. So that was our teacher leader team, along with our behavior solutions team. And he basically said, to sum up, he goes, there's like lots and lots of positives, and it's kind of like splattered all over the place, right? There's kind of not this central thing. And so what we've, we haven't made any decisions,

but I think what we've honed in on, right, this idea of an eagle and at the same time, Catherine Johnson's work, right, with space and astronauts, right? And so something in there lies maybe three or four words to kind of become our brand. So we're working on that. And lastly, I just wanted to thank our custodians. DC area for now 52 years and that snow and ice a Couple months ago. I regretted not going back out that Sunday night shoveling the rest of it As this pile of sleep piled up outside my door. So I mean it was right I mean it was hard for us and then they came into work and just like equipment broke shovels broke And they don't complain They're the first ones that have to go in when the weather is bad

And they stay there through you know and not only was the hard to remove the snow But of course the temperatures were just brutal right so again I just want to give a big shout out to our custodians. They do a great job keeping our building clean And that's it for tonight excited to Be up almost done here with year two and I look forward to my ninth presentation next year

Carolyn PitchesCan I ask you one more question?

Chris SmithstaffI'm not going anywhere.

Carolyn PitchesSo what is the turnout like for your parent question and answer sessions?

Chris SmithstaffWhich ones? The virtual ones? The virtual ones. Those are pretty good. Those we get probably somewhere between 20 and 30 parents. We also, I didn't put it in there, we do a Spanish version as well. So I forget the times. I think we do like five to six for an English version and six to seven for a Spanish version. That's a good turnout. Yes. For those in the summer. I think you have a lot of, you know, it's mostly rising seventh grade parents who just have a lot of questions. And they should have a lot of questions, right? It's a big transition.

Carolyn PitchesI know since the 80s we've called it alcohol, drug, and tobacco awareness. I assume vaping is somewhere in that.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, vaping falls. Well, it depends what you put in your vape. It could be tobacco. It could be drugs. Right. But yes. And that's the one, you know, and maybe we need to do it early in the year. As a parent, I found that to be just so useful. We had one person show up for that. So again, we just need to continue to... It was in person. Again, I think the power of that one is in person because he's handing out things. I think the thing that I learned most recently is some of the drinks that are in boxes or cans look a lot like energy drinks. They may have THC or alcohol in them. right so but yeah that one's a good one

Carolyn Pitchesyeah it just seems like vaping is so much easier to hide than it was yeah yeah smoking cigarettes and it was very hard to yeah hide that okay does anybody have any go backs uh

Sarah Kelseymiss kelsey um i don't know if mine so much as a question as a suggestion maybe because I know you have the curriculum night for rising seventh graders is there something also for rising eighth graders because sometimes they don't always know you know the civics versus honor you know because if we only talk about what's we have to offer in seventh grade because I know like when they did the curriculum night for high school it's you learn about everything they can't you know all the different areas but they don't always honors versus regular in some of the eighth grade classes as well

Chris Smithstaffyeah so we don't right we have the individual conversations that each counselor has with their students about classes right because we feel like they know the electives for the most part being in the building is why we don't do a different event and we feel like that the individual one-on-one counseling okay covers that

Sarah Kelseyokay I didn't know how much that was done yeah you know then um but I my recommendation would maybe have two for your core classes have two classrooms because I know when we walked into the social studies it was like packed and you can't really get to the teacher or hear what they're saying because there were so many attending that night but there was only like one room for social studies um so maybe yeah that's a good problem to

Chris Smithstaffhave if lots of people

Sarah Kelseyit

Speaker 1is yes there were tons

Sarah Kelseyof people there yes um and then my other thing was that alcohol drug and tobacco I wonder because I think wasn't that scheduled for one night and we had bad weather or something and so we had to change

Chris Smithstaffit. If it would have been that first night, how many would have? It's in person, which I realize is tough, right? There are certainly obstacles, just putting a plug that it's a really good one. I

Sarah Kelseywas going to say, I was planning on the first night, but the second night I couldn't make it. Okay. Dr. Wright.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. Just a few closing reflections. Big thank you to our partners on the Region 5 for being here tonight and Ms. Boehnig who provides great support to Chris and his staff. Chris, great job and thank you for everything that you shared. I think in your presentation it did a really nice job of two things. First, it showed what you saw and he was going, you know, spent time on math slides and time on, you know, tutorial learning slides and talking about, but there's a lot of intention, a lot of discussion, a lot of the just things that you see on these slides are the result of four or five, six hours of conversations amongst the staff deciding what's best for students. What's the best way? How can we put this in place? So just

a lot of thought and intentionality behind the work. And what he's talking about is the results of all that. So just really appreciate all that when they, you know, when you, as an avid school, you talk about wicker strategies, you know, where there's inquiry, excuse me, I'm inventing words tonight too. Collaboration and organization. Your staff is doing that to figure out what is best for your students. So appreciate that. And then the other thing I think you see is just, you know, Chris was talking about it, but it's the representative work of the entire team at KJ. From the administrators that you see here, the custodians that you saw on the last slide, you know, instructional assistants, teachers, assistants, specialists, custodians, cafeteria workers,

everybody does a great job to make KJ a great place for all of our students. And then I would just close with my first visit as the superintendent to Catherine Johnson Middle School was on one of the secret staff spirit days. I believe it was flannel. So Chris would introduce me. Hi, this is Dr. Ryder, new superintendent. And they would be like, hi, it's nice to meet you. I don't normally dress like this. So when I saw that slide, it was a great memory for me. But also just a great sign of the culture of the staff and the culture of the school overall, which is what you want when you send kids to a school every day. We're putting a lot of trust in all of the educators and the leaders, and I think you're doing a great job of earning that trust every day.

So thank you, Chris.

Chris SmithstaffYeah, thank you for all the support. It's awesome to be in the city.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you. We

Chris Smithstaffalways

Speaker 11like seeing you. All right.

Carolyn PitchesHave a great night. Okay. We do not have any public hearings this evening, so we'll move on to our action items. The first one is the approval of our March 2nd, 2026 meeting minutes. The clerk has provided these minutes, and is there a motion?

Amit HickmanMadam Chair?

Carolyn PitchesYes, Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the minutes of the March 2nd, 2026 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, I may have a second. Second. Okay, Ms. Hickman moved. Ms. Bartle may second it. City of Fairfax School Board approved the meeting minutes of the March 2nd, 2026 regular school board meeting as printed and distributed. Are there any changes, modifications, or additions? Okay, being none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. No members are opposed, so the motion passes unanimously. Okay, we will move on to superintendent matters. Dr. Wright.

Dustin WrightstaffThank you, Chair Pitches and the entire school board. I'm excited to share a few brief updates and reflections as we finish up our meeting this evening. Just a few quick plugs on some important dates for some of the budget events and capital project events that are happening for the City of Fairback Schools. So for our elementary school projects, we want to make sure that there's a reminder that on April 15th at Daniels Run, there will be in the afternoon a community engagement meeting for our staff members. and then in the evening it's online for anybody connected to our Daniels Run community a community engagement event to provide feedback on some of the conceptual design plans the same exact schedule will happen on April 16th at

Providence so staff members in the afternoon and community members in the evening those community meetings are virtual to try and make it as accessible as possible for everyone involved those have been published in the school newsletters but just want to take a minute to provide the plug here and then also we're doing lots of work with our our city council partners on the budget process which will go to a vote on May 5th over the past several weeks have tried to stay focused on maintaining strong visibility and connections across our schools in the broader community spending time in our buildings attending events and engaging directly with our students staff and families has been an important part of staying grounded for me in the work and

understanding what our priorities are and how that's showing up in our practices every single day. So during the last few weeks, I've had some great connections in our schools. I went to a PTA meeting at Providence Elementary School, which was really great to reconnect with some of the board members there. And then we're also in the process of setting up an end of the year opportunity for the executive boards of all four PTAs across the city to get together to just, first of all just get together and talk and connect and then share ideas share contact information make sure the president and elects from each board knows the president elects at their counterpart schools and so I think that'll be great at Daniels run a big congratulations to miss Kylie horn who

was recognized as the region 5 outstanding new elementary teacher and we're gonna have an opportunity to recognize her at our June meeting at Fairfax High School was able to be a part of the National Honor Society Ms. Lucas did a great job of describing the community cultural night and she was a great volunteer helping take tickets at the event. But I continue to be thrilled at the events I get to go to in this role and this was definitely one of the highlights. Earlier in the month, a big shout out to John Staley and our government partners in Falls Church City and the town of Vienna. There was an event with the girls lacrosse teams at Madison High School, Meridian High School, and Fairfax High School,

where some professional lacrosse league players came to speak to the students and then took questions from the crowd. So it was awesome to see a few professional lacrosse players. They were in town for a big tournament. But the most impressive part was to watch our students ask them questions. And they were really thoughtful as they were talking to these players. and it was really great to see what was on their mind and what they wanted to learn from other professionals. It is the start of spring sports at Fairfax High School as well, and I know I'm excited to be at some of those events. And then additionally, a big congratulations to Mr. Joaquin Perez, who is recognized as the Region 5 outstanding new secondary teacher,

and we hope to be able to recognize him here at the City of Fairfax in our May meeting. quick updates that around a focus on CTE. And I know we hear all the time how this is a big, important focus for us and a lot of support from the city for back schools. I was able to tour with Mr. Pat Marstall and Amanda Jarvis, Nova labs on Germantown. So a big plug for anybody who is a city resident or just lives in the area of a great resource in our community. It's a, it's the coolest maker space you've ever been to. and I was there to talk about we've got some early stage partnerships with the city of Fairfax schools where we have students utilizing those we're trying to talk about how we can expand those partnerships which was really I think

we've got some great ideas we have two schools where our students could walk there during the school day and I think that provides some really unique opportunities back to the things we can do here in the city of Fairfax schools that you can't do anywhere else and so a great conversation to get that going the The superintendents throughout the state are divided, and the school districts throughout the state are divided into eight regions. So Region 4 is a lot of the Northern Virginia school divisions, and the superintendents get together on a regular basis to meet. And in the most recent Region 4 superintendents meeting, we were able to speak with Jenna Conway, who's the new state superintendent with the Virginia Department of Education,

and Senator Barbara Favola, who's from Arlington, but a big advocate in our area, and she's also the chair of the senate senate education and health committee so it's really good to have that dialogue to ask them questions to hear their feedback on some of the big issues that were taking place within our city excuse me within our area and then finally really really exciting one of the talked about the community and cultural night it was great but on march 25th the first convening of the superintendent's advisory team took place which is a mixture staff members community members student members chair pitches was able to attend and it was a really really powerful discussion so we had this event and then we have another meeting in may and

so we did we asked some of the same questions that i've been asking lots of different groups throughout this entry plan process what makes our school strong what do you see as opportunities for growth here in the city of fairfax and what hopes do you have for the future of our schools and then one of the challenges i set forth to this team and this is what we're going to come to discuss on May 12th. And then what a member of that team will come and provide a recommendation to the school board on June 1st is what are ideas, what ideas do they have for a strong, inclusive community engagement process that's ongoing? So kind of a regular, you know, if we want to be able to, we heard, we were talking with Mr. Smith

about some of those engagement opportunities, what works well, what doesn't, how can we have something that is a regular feature of what we do in the city of Fairfax schools taxpayers residents students staff members know that they can engage with us and so we're going to we've got some great ideas brainstormed the next meeting we'll be talking about what are some of the nitty-gritty nuts and bolts what would work well and then they'll deliver you a recommendation on june 1st now i would like to close with just a public sharing of some of the goals that i'll trying to be working on as a superintendent during this first year. There's three of them, and I'll stay at a pretty high level with each of these goals,

but try and give a few examples of what those will look like. So the first goal that I have, which we've talked about in several of these superintendent matters, is to implement an entry plan with priorities of fostering positive relationships, building trust, and inspiring a shared vision for the city of Fairfax schools. might look like are conducting listening learning sessions establishing structures for ongoing stakeholder engagement so you can see what we were just talking about how the work we're trying to connect that presenting to the school board and entry plan findings report and then trying to find some priority focus areas goal two is helping lead the strategic planning and launch of the city

of fairfax schools 220 million dollar school modernization and facilities investment initiative that supports future-focused learning environments and long-term community investment in public education. So a lot of things that we've been doing are connected to this with the big capital projects at both of our elementary schools, and there's a lot of different things we'll try and do to meet that goal. And then finally, goal three is around strengthening communication and operational effectiveness to better support our school's student success and the community. So this is work on the budget process, providing the school board with updates throughout the year, potentially doing some long-term strategic planning.

So those are some of the things that I wanted to be able to not only share with this board but share with the public because it's going to help drive a lot of the work that I'm trying to do in this role. So with that, Chair Pidges, that concludes the Superintendent Matters Report.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Dr. Wright. We'll move on to board matters. Ms. Bartlemay.

Lauren BartelmeDr. Wright touched on this, but I also wanted to offer congratulations to Fairfax High School's Joaquin Perez for earning outstanding new secondary teacher for Fairfax County Region 5 and also to Daniels runs Kylie Horn for earning the outstanding new elementary teacher for Fairfax Region 5 so I think that's a big accomplishment and speaks a lot to the

Kristina Cecerequality of our schools

Sarah Kelseymiss Kelsey I echo those sentiments as well. I'm looking forward to this month is full of celebrating all the hard work our kids have done. There's pyramid art shows, there's musicals, fashion show. Every day almost there is a new way to celebrate our students. I'm looking forward to getting out there and seeing all the hard work that they've done so far this year and celebrating that as well as attending. I know Daniels Run and Providence both have community connection nights coming up, and those are something that really are beneficial to our families. Ms.

Carolyn PitchesHickman.

Amit HickmanI just want to thank Ms. Ashley Taylor for her comments earlier this evening. I'd like to acknowledge the parents who support our FHS football program and its head coach this past fall. I do think it's important to note that while the investigation ultimately did result in Coach Taylor's reinstatement, that outcome may not have been as widely communicated beyond our immediate community. Ensuring that final outcomes are clearly shared can help provide more complete understanding of situations such as this. So we'll ask our partners at FCPS to continue to communicate that. And as Ms. Taylor shared, our focus remains on supporting our schools, our families, and most importantly, our students.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Hickman. Ms. Sessori?

Kristina CecereI want to echo everybody else's comments so beautifully said. I want to take a moment to highlight this Thursday evening's FCPS board meeting where the agenda includes several motions regarding our school calendar. For those who may have not seen, Mount Vernon District Representative Mateo Dunn recently provided an excellent analysis of the calendar in his newsletter. And while I fully recognize the importance of professional development, especially for elementary school teachers. I do share his concern that the balance has perhaps shifted a little too far, causing disruptions to consistent student learning. Our community in the city is welcome to engage on this issue before the vote Thursday night by sending a message

to the county school board through their online portal. Feedback is always essential, especially when involving the school calendar and any concerns around student learning.

Carolyn PitchesAnd I'll piggyback on the Thursday night meeting. National board certified teachers will be recognized. I believe we have two in the city that will be recognized. I know a few of us will be there to cheer them on. I'd like to welcome students back tomorrow. I know you guys are so excited, but it's the home stretch. So summer is oh yeah sorry over there Kevin. But you know what you can you could come you know we're here so yeah. I'd also like to congratulate Mr. Perez and Ms. Horn. Ms. Horn is a 2020 graduate of Fairfax High School. She graduated with my daughter and actually they grew up together went to CCD together. She was very young. So congratulations to both of those teachers. Oh, and next week is, is it Book Madness?

Is that what it's called? Battle of the Books. I knew it was something like that. I'm looking forward to that as well. So if there is nothing else before the board, I will adjourn the meeting at 8.07. Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page Page