School Board Regular Meeting

Carolyn Pitchesgood evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is monday november 3rd of 2025 and this is the regular meeting of the city of fairfax school board please stand for the pledge of allegiance

Speaker 6I

Kristina Cecerepledge

Speaker 6allegiance 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, but I would like to welcome Stacey Hall and Rachel McQuillan, two council members. Thank you for coming this evening. we have one and I didn't see mr. Martinez okay and Melanie should have looked up I guess again thank you all for coming this evening we have an announcement to make this evening we are going to be naming our new city of Fairfax schools superintendent and I'm proud to appoint Dr. Dustin Wright to serve as superintendent to the city of Fairfax schools effective December 1st of 2025 so after a national search with robust community input and thanks to guidance from our former superintendent Dr. Phyllis Pajardo we identified Dr. as the right leader for our, that was an accident, for our city of Fairfax schools.

He's a longtime city Fairfax resident. He is also a former Daniels-run elementary administrator and an experienced division leader, most recently serving as chief of schools in Falls Church City Public Schools. We look forward to working with Dr. Wright, and we welcome him to the city of Fairfax schools. Dr. Wright, I invite you to the podium to say a few words. I will also say that we will be swearing in Dr. Wright on December 1st at our first regular meeting of the month of December, and everybody is invited to come to that. Dr. Wright.

Dr Dustin WrightWell, good evening. Thank you, Chair Pitches, and good evening to the members of the school board. to our educators and staff, to our city leaders, to our families and community members that support our schools, and most importantly, to the students of the city of Fairfax school system. It is a privilege to be with you. My name is Dustin Wright, and I'm deeply honored to serve as the next superintendent of the city of Fairfax schools. As Chair Pitch has said, in December, I'll have an opportunity to share a few more remarks and a few more of the right words, hopefully. I'll just start by sharing a few words of gratitude. I want to thank the City of Fairfax School Board. Thank you for your trust, your confidence,

and for giving me the opportunity to serve this incredible community. I'm deeply honored to partner with you in leading the City of Fairfax Schools and advancing the vision and priorities you have set for our students and families. I also want to let all of you know how excited and how proud I am to be here and to be able to serve as your next superintendent. I'm proud to call the City of Fairfax my home and to raise my awesome family here. I'm proud to join a division that so clearly puts students first. I'm proud to work alongside people who care deeply about one another and about what public education can be at its very best. It's an honor to join this team. I'm excited for the work ahead, inspired by the people I get to work and learn alongside,

and ready to build a bright future together for every student in our city. I can't wait to get to work. Thank you very much.

Carolyn PitchesI'd like to invite Dr. Wright's family up to take a photo.

Speaker 6We're going to step out of the way. I don't know. Right in front of the die. How many times have I used this? Thank you. There will be lots more photos in a couple of weeks.

Carolyn PitchesAnd Dr. Wright, you're more than welcome to stay for the meeting, but we will not, you know, hold you accountable quite yet. Okay. The next item on the agenda is the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion, please?

Sarah KelseyMadam Chair. Ms. Kelsey. I move that the City of Fairfax School Board adopt the agenda as written and distributed. Okay.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second?

Sarah KelseyI second.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Barley. Ms. Kelsey moved. Ms. Bartlemay seconded. All those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed? None are opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. Presentations to the school board. We do not have anybody signed up for citizen participation. And we will move to the student representative report. Ms. Lucas.

StudentGood evening. This is the October 25 recap. The month began after Yom Kippur and did sundown on October 2nd with Rathashana, an observance holiday on October 3rd, and a teacher work day on October 4th, providing a long weekend for rest and reflection. Classes resumed on Monday the 6th. Indigenous Peoples Day fell on October 14th as another student holiday. Fairbanks High School welcomed younger students to its junior high cheer clinic on the evening of October 3rd, where grades K through 8 practiced routines from 4 till 8. The school's homecoming celebrations built steadily. Daniels and Dragons joined the downtown homecoming parade, marching alongside the lions in a route lined with families waving signs and cheering under clear skies.

The activities continued with the homecoming dance Saturday, October 18th, held in the Fieldhouse parking lot with a spectacular Mamma Mia theme, along with a win by the Varsity football game and court presentations on October 17th. Seniors spent the month finalizing college plans with counselors hosting drop-in sessions on the Common App application. Many submitted early action materials before November 1st deadlines, supported by workshops on essays, recommendations, and financial aid. The library also opened for Boundary Information Night on October 28th, drawing parents from the Woodson and Fairfax Pyramids to examine draft maps in person or online. At Catherine Johnson Middle School, the Red Ribbon Awareness Open House on October 24th brought families together to discuss drug-free living and healthy decisions.

Principal Chris Smith and the library Bearded Dragon Lady Bart greeted visitors throughout the month, while prayer spaces remained available for students of faith. closed with Spirit Week starting October 31st, hallways filled with themed outfits, team colors, and eagle pride ending in a two-hour early release. Daniel's Run transformed its grounds for Field Day on October 3rd, where parent volunteers ran relays, obstacle courses, and games that held dragons laughing from start to finish. Those same students later traded sneakers for parade shoes, stepping off proudly in the Fairfax Homecoming Parade and earning waves from the entire city. Providence Elementary maintained its daily rhythm of the Mandarin Chinese instruction for every grade

and the STEM labs exploration that produced working prototypes and garden harvests. Morning responsive classroom circles reinforced kindness, and families began preparing for upcoming math and avid night. Across the division, elementary early Wednesdays continued on schedule. The online gradebook walked from 4 p.m. on October 31st through 6 p.m. a.m. and November 10th for report card processing. The first quarter is done. And thank you for a productive and spirited first quarter.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Ms. Lucas. Do any board members have any comments? Okay, great. Thank you. Sounds like things are busy so far this school year. Okay, next we have Ms. Giselle Gray, who is our Fairfax High School Community Use Specialist, and she is going to give us an update on community use at our building.

Gisele GraystaffGood evening, school board. Thank you for having me here. Love coming and chatting with you once a year, Madam Chair, and great warm welcome to Dr. Wright. I can't wait to work with you. So our community use is rolling right along. I was here just a year ago and excited that we were back on track fully have recovered after COVID and we are continuing to be right on track. We are filling, if you drive by, you will see the parking lot is absolutely bursting at the seams. It seems like truly seven days a week. We're trying to welcome everybody as often as possible. And if you were there any time last week, it seemed like we were having three, four, five six concurrent events at once so yes we are bustling and truly building

community everywhere there's so much more than grading and we truly welcome everyone and having it be a beacon of the community for them to share and get to know each other and participate whether it be athletically or you know or club so stop on by anytime dr. Wright we welcome you anytime any day there's nothing better than actually seeing the school in action we have just in the past couple of weeks hosted several events for Fairfax County Public Schools as well and you see several photos in the slide right up above we had the ignite awards again this year which actually boasted a beautiful reception in our newly decorated zen garden which is our original senior courtyard if you haven't been there recently has

all new plantings beautiful fountains and it's it's just lovely absolutely lovely lots of The classrooms are taking their coursework out there, poetry readings, and so forth. So really, really nice on a nice day. A couple of cute photos of the fire department supporting us as they do 24-7, but on that particular day they were there playing with our band and hosing them off, if you will, just getting them cooled down after a hot day practice. We also held Homecoming Outdoors this year and really dressed it up beautifully with a lot of nice lighting outside of our gym entrance. So just a few photos to show you life in action over at Fairfax. We also just last week or two weeks ago, excuse me, hosted a beautifully well attended multilingual learner dinner for the families in our community to be able to share and come together and get to know each other in fellowships.

So that was really, really well attended. It was practically standing room only in the cafeteria. So some nice photos of that. The next slide shows you are an amazing custodial team. We are finally fully staffed. It seems like there's always two or three that we're hiring, but we're fully staffed. There are 19 and a half positions that we spread out throughout the day. They're working truly seven days a week and really loving all the overtime from our wonderful events that we're holding on the weekends. They love being at Fairfax, and there's a few beautiful photos of the whole team there during Custodian Appreciation Week. So to get to some of the new things this year, we, as you all know, have implemented the OpenGate system.

We were a pilot program towards the end of last year, which we were all a little trepidatious about. The timing was right around graduation. going on and we are so grateful that we have that opportunity to pilot it work out all the kinks and it is truly running beautifully and smoothly every morning so the students really have it down to a system we are able to get those buses in on time get everybody into their who is arriving on buses to their classrooms on time every morning so it's really running within about half an hour two entrances we're getting everybody processed. So some photos of that. We did brand our equipment and I keep getting phone calls and emails from across the county asking us for the contacts.

It really helps, bless you, in making it a welcoming entrance rather than what was quite sterile at first and a little bit intimidating to the students and we noticed a really big difference really quickly just by adding welcome you know a few branded paws and making it just part of their normal surrounding really really took that stress level down so some photos of that we're grateful for For the EV stations that were installed at the school, I will say people are using them. The community is coming through and using the EV stations. We currently have 13 staff members who are regularly using them during the school day. They're operating only for school staff from 8 to 4. So community members can pull in and use them on their own after those hours.

The majority of the use is until 9 p.m. That's what we're tracking. The app has a really nice way of tracking when the usage is. We were a little concerned of maybe a lot of loitering and people coming in and Uber finding out that we were a location and having parking issues. And I'm happy to report we've had none of those concerns. had any concern for having to be more stringent about it or police it or anything else so it's working beautifully and the staff is truly grateful those 13 who are using it I are really grateful for having that benefit so just turning to building maintenance which is part of the other thing I do at the the events we are set over winter break to do some floor replacement on three classrooms

for those of you who may not be aware we have a combination of tiled classrooms and some original carpeting that's getting a little old and musty and so every year we try to do handful of classrooms and work our way down the list of that flooring replacement. So over Christmas break FCPS is funding the replacement on three classrooms, two in the A-wing and one in the D-wing. With those two A-wing classrooms we will have completed the A-wing. So just to give you a little bit of an idea there are about 52 classrooms left on the list HVAC is an ongoing conversation that we're all having we are can we've I've met recently well since school started since since August with the HVAC managers from sideburn and

And it is their assessment and recommendation to the board that we continue with the preventative maintenance, repairs as needed, monitoring along the way, and truly try to extend the life of these units until renovation, keeping in mind that we have about three wings that are troublesome. them and by that I mean we have a building engineer who's assigned to the school there are three wings in particular the the C of A C and E which will trip out on us depending on the temperature depending on just the wear that it had over the course of the week and will require them being started manually if our engineer is out of the building on a particular day when that happens there may be a delay where we're calling in a work order sideburn will

come over and address it they are very responsive they will do it the day of however they may there may be an hour delay right by the time they get to our building so just be aware of that but their overall assessment truly is if we're thinking of renovations sometime in the next three four years they consider that we can extend the life of these units and consider replacing maybe at that point today they actually started some repairs on the Ewing multi-zone unit and there's they're scheduled to be repairing some minor parts on the D wing multi-zone unit tomorrow we're a voting location this will not affect the rooms that we're using for voting and we don't have teachers and students in the building tomorrow so they're

capitalizing on that time off today and tomorrow to get those orders work through

Carolyn Pitchesthis is great Which wing is the most problematic of the three?

Gisele GraystaffDifferently. So good question. MZU in the A wing is tripping out on us. So that's mostly the one that takes the manual turning on and restarting. MZU C is one where we're having some challenges with the dampers and the timing. and the set points actually sticking. So not being an HVAC expert myself, I can tell you that is the one I get the calls from because it tends to be very, very hot. It also coincides with the runs, not to get too technical, but the runs on the HVAC. So you will have the machine and then the channeling for the air going to several classrooms. air really, really hot, the last classroom on that run, 10 doors down, may not get the air pressure or the heat at the same level as classroom one. If that 10th classroom calls in that they're cold

and we need to raise it, the first classroom on that run is going to cook. So there's a balance of they're not.

Carolyn PitchesC has always been, I mean, that is a notorious, and A has always been notoriously

Gisele GraystaffYes.

Carolyn PitchesNothing has changed is what you are telling.

Gisele GraystaffNothing has changed. But I think their assessment is that we can keep working with it, keep repairing them. The temperature ranges are an important yet separate issue. That is a set point issue and also where those classrooms lie on those runs. There are about four offices off of the MZUE in the E-Wing that are working off of a thermostat in a classroom. So those offices, for example, do not have their own thermostat, but they're on the same run. They don't have their own unit. They don't have their own damper. They just happen to be on that run. So it's dependent on the classroom closest to it being occupied, calling for the HVAC to kick it on for them to get some relief in those offices. That's just an example.

So in that case, we're adding fans. We're thinking about spring, summer, when it starts getting a little bit more humid, maybe putting a dehumidifier in those classrooms, in those offices, excuse me, to make it more comfortable.

Carolyn PitchesThey're

Gisele Graystaffnear the academy. It's not the issue with the academy office, but these are adjacent to the academy office, yes. Yes. And if anybody really wants to get more in-depth about that, I welcome you to the next meeting I have with the sideburn folks, especially as we get closer to talking about replacements or renovation and what that might look like. behooves us to really involve them in that conversation and really get some candid assessment from them at that point when we're really ready to talk about that.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Could you send Barb the information?

Gisele GraystaffYes.

Carolyn PitchesOkay.

Gisele GraystaffThank you. Absolutely. Mr. Phillips and Mr. Wood have also been involved in those conversations with J.C. Ramos is the lead, and I know they've been in communication very recently. Yeah. So thank you for that support. It's always helpful as well. All right. Well, we back to community use and events at the school. We also over our office also oversees our student texts. We don't teach them. There is a student tech class, but we do employ them and these are students who have gone through the training through the student tech curriculum and they have their fully full of FCPS employees and are able to work both at our school and any other school that may have student tech needs in our case they do quite a bit of work with city band when we're performing at

any of our feeder schools as well so they like those those jobs we are we have employed techs right now, and five going through the hiring process. As I mentioned earlier, our custodial team consists of 19.5 members at this point. We have a lovely woman who works full-time at Alexandria City Schools and then comes and works 20 hours a week for us, and she is the best. So love having her. We welcomed her about three weeks ago. The Vienna Arabic Language School renewed their long-term contract with us, and so they have returned this year. They're wonderful partners. They're there every Sunday. They have 150 students who are studying Arabic and meet at Fairfax once a week. El Futuro, adult English classes, a hippie class that really focuses on work development

LINGWILL FAMILIES ARE ALL MEETING ONCE A WEEK AT SCHOOL AS WELL. DR. A IS INVOLVED IN TEACHING THOSE ENGLISH ADULT CLASSES ON TUESDAY NIGHTS. AS YOU ALL KNOW, WE'RE PARTNERS WITH CITY PARKS AND REC. IS THERE A QUESTION? OKAY. SORRY. CITY, FAIRFAX, PARKS AND Recreation has a memorandum of understanding with the school. They're using our fields, our athletic facilities, any time our teams are not on there. There's robust activity. They're also bringing their annual craft show again this year, the 4th of July parade, or fireworks after the parade and celebration. So we look forward to working with them on that again. The Fairfax is up next so over Thanksgiving if you have family in town or neighbors that

are looking for something fun to do that's a wonderful wonderful event to come see and the craft show is set for the third weekend of November so that is always a crowd pleaser every year and City Band is returning again this year they're there every Wednesday rehearsing and all of our spaces in the music wing concerts at Fairfax this school year. So there's not much space for bringing more in with the academy also performing in our auditorium. But we'll welcome them if they call. So the next page just gives you a quick list of our current and returning customers, if you will, and community members who are using the facility on a regular basis. We're grateful for all of them. And then to end this evening with the revenue report, the first few slides will just take

you through what the last four years are just for comparison. But this year we ended up with $83,000 roughly over that. about $3,000 difference from last year's overall revenue, and the difference really is in staffing. And the way to look at that really is that we're trying to make an effort to save our events staffing costs. So if there is a way of capitalizing where we have two or three home events that we can maybe overlap and work the event with minimal staffing, we're trying to do that so that we're not charging the athletic boosters or the athletic group or science or drama additionally when we don't need to. Questions?

Lauren BartelmeMs. Barlmay, do you have any questions for Ms. Gray? I have two. I was just curious more about the student techs. It was a program I did not know existed. So I was curious more information about what the students are doing.

Gisele GraystaffThey're the magic behind the scenes. So they're running the shows. They're running the lights and the audio and helping with set build. as a customer for CityBand, for example, the student techs are in the booth running all the cues that the director may give them for an event. And it is a tech class that students can take, tech one, tech two, and they get paid a different band. If they're a tech one or a tech two, the big difference is whether they are certified to go on the Genie Lift and be able to change lights out, for example, on the catwalk and things like that. Yeah. I love working with them.

Lauren BartelmeYeah. Thank you. And then my other question was you talked about 52 classrooms remaining for the floors. I was curious how many have been completed.

Gisele GraystaffI can go back and get that number for you. But this is year eight for me, and we've done everything from 10 classrooms a summer to sometimes three as we are this year. Some of it depends on, well, it's always dependent on funding. We are currently already in talks about what may be able to be done this summer to get our name on that list again to try and knock some of those out. The city school board has funded a lot of those renovations of the flooring. if it has come up where it's a safety issue, something we need to do right away. We can't wait till our card comes up in the summer, for example. And so we've done that consistently the eight years I've been there. These three that we're tackling this winter break happen to be on FCPS Dine.

Lauren BartelmeThank you.

Gisele GraystaffYeah.

Sarah KelseyMs. Kelsey. Going on those same lines, you say that the carpet's replaced with tile. Is this tile tile or is this carpet tiles?

Gisele GraystaffThey're VCT tiles.

Sarah KelseyOkay, because I know there was one room that we thought it was tile, but it was carpet, the multipurpose room. Yes. It's carpet squares more than tiles. And so that's why, yeah, okay.

Gisele GraystaffWe did a renovation last year of the MPR, the multipurpose room, and the library, both in carpet tiles, so that the next time somebody spills a cupcake on it, we can just pull the tile up. So for that reason, in both those locations, the carpet allows for acoustics to be a little bit more pleasant, especially with large numbers of people, microphones going and things like that. So yes, the three that I'm discussing are VCT tile, which obviously is going to be a lot more durable in a classroom.

Sarah KelseyYeah. And then my other question is on those parent programs that are brought in by the Family Engagement Center, are those taught by, I know Dr. A teaches one of the classes, Are they taught by any of our other staff, or is it more outside staff that's coming in?

Gisele GraystaffSo they're all free programs. They have an agreement with FCPS to bring these programs into our schools for these families. And the English is also being facilitated by Maria Fawes, who's one of our teachers in the building. But the other programs are mostly facilitated by their staff. So Hippie brings their staff. Edu Futuro brings their staff. Okay. Thank you. Yes. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI was just curious with the EV stations, have you had any students asking to use it? Zero. Okay. I know we've had discussion at some point, but that's interesting. Nobody asked. Okay.

Gisele GraystaffI thought those were going to be the challenges, the code getting out. finding kids are using the code and and or asking if they would could have permission because they all of a sudden have an ev in the family and it has not come up yet i imagine this will continue to grow continue to be something that's quite coveted right now we have the system running beautifully they've worked out a system where they're all keeping each other honest they're pulling if they can't get the car out of the spot within the two-hour limit they're you know giving the key to a friend to move it they're working it out but it's 13 staff members so and the free part of it so the benefit of having it free only extends to teachers or staff you as well

if you'd like to but yeah so so far it has not posed a challenge at all okay thank you yeah thank you for asking

Carolyn Pitchesthank you miss Sessori I

Kristina Cecerelove seeing how much use our building is getting from the community this is it's so nice to see it just so vibrant every night I drive by it my question about EVs and And remind me the revenue from that when it comes from the community. Where does that go? Like when someone charges their car and they have to pay for that, who receives the revenue from that? That's an excellent question.

Gisele GraystaffI don't see it. Okay. My understanding is the EVs were put in by the city. And so Mr. Phillips may be able to shed some light on that.

Carolyn Pitchesyeah it has there's been no profit there's not a profit yet more of

Kristina Cecerea service

Dan Phillipsstaffthan a profit generator

Carolyn Pitchesseeing

Kristina Cecerewhere I can get dollars that's what yeah so no money to be out well I will also plug that we're one of the few maybe the only school in the area that has Evie for our staff for free that's a great hiring plug by the way for any staff looking to work at Fairfax High School I love also seeing the replacement of carpeted tile in the classrooms, having work

Lauren Bartelmethere.

Kristina CecereHow frequently do we paint those classrooms in the high school? And that's typically done through FCPS. Is that right? Yes.

Gisele GraystaffSo all work orders for painting are completed by FCPS. There's a six-month wait right now. We're on the list. And we paint every year. So, truly, they love coming to Fairfax. We treat them very well. We just had all our curbs painted as well. But the classrooms, as needed, we do inspections consistently. And we try not, right now I have the classrooms all set up. Teachers just set up for the beginning of the year. They've gotten through one quarter. If I tell them I'm coming in over Christmas break and we're taking everything down, we may have a mass exodus. time it. Spring break seems to be a little more palatable, and we try to do as much of that kind of work over the summer. Yeah.

Lauren BartelmeThank you, Ms. Sussery.

Carolyn PitchesSo in terms of the HVAC, I would assume, Mr. Phillips, maybe you can speak to this. Once we get the roof started and hopefully finished within five years at that time that would be an opportunity to replace some of those HVAC units would you like

Dan Phillipsstaffto speak to that just very briefly I we did replace some also right last spring so it's not I think the thing that we've thought about certainly at Fairfax and our other schools too even though we're aiming toward renovation we still have to live now and so yeah if something needs to be done. In fact, I'm going to bring it up in the CIP in just a few minutes.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, exactly. Could you speak a little bit about the outdoor classroom? Like, who's been using it? What type of, you know, use it's?

Gisele GraystaffSo the outdoor classroom spaces at Fairfax became really popular through COVID, right? It forced us out. And the teachers love them. They absolutely love going out there. We have a reminder in our weekly message to our staff that they can reserve the outdoor spaces just like they can the multipurpose room. And where we currently have groupings of picnic tables outdoor, those are what we are currently considering as options for teachers to use. So the area directly outside of the field house and the band room, just between those, is one area. There's an area outside between doors six and seven. There's a garden there, and we've traditionally had a couple of tables there. They've been moved recently, but there.

And then we have some picnic tables outside the academy entrance in the back of the building at door 10, and another set of picnic tables outside the chorus room at the front of the building. All super popular. Depending on the size of the class, they'll pick and choose where they land. FCPS is currently building an outdoor classroom, a true outdoor classroom, outside of door 11.

Carolyn PitchesWhich, just for reference purposes, is near the academy door.

Gisele GraystaffYes. Yes. It's between the academy entrance at door 10 and our loading dock. And it is an area that we're currently using as an outdoor eating space. Dr. A is big on giving the students an opportunity to get some sunshine, get outside, run the wiggles out a little bit. So we've been using that space for a good two solid years. And when they came out and surveyed and decided this was the perfect spot for an outdoor classroom, they got no resistance from us. That is a space we would love to have looking even better. So my understanding is they're putting paved material down, raised planters, a rain barrel. They were there last weekend putting in a water connection so that we have a faucet out there.

And the project currently looks like it may be taking us through the beginning of the summer. So they're moving their contractors from location to location, just kind of like a home builder does. They send their electrician to all of their sites, and then their plumber goes to all of their sites. So it seems really slow in coming, but I think it's a lot of the infrastructure. Once they've got that done with the pipes and the water spigot and the whole thing, then they can really start paving and breaking ground on that. by it's a little fenced area that looks like nothing's happening, but I can tell you they have been out there. So, and the timeline was six months, and that would take us to the

beginning of summer.

Dan PhillipsstaffOkay. Mr. Phillips. I was just going to say, I noticed the materials dropped off for the planter on Monday. Today's Monday. It must have been over the weekend that I saw it. So, something's happening. And we're also going to replace the fence between the dumpsters, the fence that's sort FALLING APART. SO WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A NICE NEW FENCE A LITTLE BIT TALLER AND IT WILL MAKE IT JUST A NICE OUTDOOR SPACE.

Gisele GraystaffWHICH WILL BE AESTHETICALLY PLEASING AND ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT IS THE LOADING DOCK. SO WE DON'T WANT ANY EXCITENTS THERE. RIGHT.

Carolyn PitchesAND MR. PHILLIPS, WHEN YOU AND I WENT AND VISITED, I THINK IT WAS VISITED OVER THE SUMMER.

Dan PhillipsstaffWELL, WE'VE DONE IT A COUPLE TIMES. I KNOW.

Carolyn PitchesSO OUTSIDE OF THE ACADEMY WHERE THE BENCH AREA IS, WE HAD TALKED ABOUT MAYBE TRYING TO figure something out there as well we got some really

Dan Phillipsstaffexpensive estimates I'm doing a repair there so we still it's a work in progress okay it's a thing that we need to think of when they keep thinking we certainly will okay it's a functional space right now but it could look a little better so

Dr Dustin Wrightand

Gisele Graystaffthat is by the way where we've moved our picnic tables that we were using where our new classroom is gonna go all those picnic tables now move to the area you're now

Carolyn PitchesI was there when we were there.

Dan PhillipsstaffVery popular area at lunch with kids. I mean, I've counted up to 100 students out there. They love going out there.

Carolyn PitchesAnd how would somebody buy tickets for the Russell Ballet Nutcracker? Is it on theirs?

Gisele GraystaffOn their direct website, yes. Okay. Yes.

Speaker 6Okay.

Carolyn PitchesAny go-backs? Nope. Ms. Lucas, any questions? Okay.

Gisele GraystaffThank you so much. It's always a pleasure. coming and seeing you and Ms. Cessary and I caught up this morning as well for Aurora Roundup so it's a pleasure seeing you again. So thank you. Thank you. Good night. Thank you

Carolyn PitchesGiselle. Okay next on the agenda is the proposed capital improvement plan and our acting superintendent Mr. Dan Phillips will do this presentation.

Dan PhillipsstaffAll right just a very brief presentation and update from from month. As you know, our five-year capital improvement plan, we're in the planning stages right now. And I think you'll have an opportunity to vote on it this evening if you go ahead and go to the next slide, if you will. Oh, let's see. They're back. Okay. Tonight's the second night of our public hearing. And then we'll do a presentation, the date to be announced for the Mayor and City Council and the Planning Commission coming up soon. We'll go to the next slide. Again, just a reminder that in the past all these restorative maintenance projects or work was listed as part of the operating budget of the CIP and now I'm sorry it was listed as part of the CIP before after this year

it's or during this year it's going to be moved to the operating budget but just as a placeholder and so we can stay current. All the work some of it, as I mentioned this evening, carpet and tile, concrete repairs, HVAC, painting, paving, things, they're a better fit in the operating budget than they are in the capital improvement projects or budget. So we'll be moving those over. Just a quick update from last time on the next slide. The board asked me to look into HVAC, and I think the previous plan had it that we would be using the surplus money that was left over from previous projects, but we've added back in $313,000 across the board for the next five years just to address come up while we're doing the renovations. The cost of the HVAC units in the elementary

schools are part of the bond referendum. So they would come out of this. This would be exclusively so the surplus that's in there right now plus the amount that we're asking would be the funds that we would have available for the middle and high school needs. And to your point, Ms. Pitches, as we, you know, when we get to a point where we know the roof is solid and we've completed that project, we'll be thinking about renovations ahead at the high school and figuring out what needs to be done before then and what can be done kind of in between while we're waiting. And again, the idea at all of our schools and today we were at a meeting with the architects thinking about the renovations at the other schools, at the elementary schools, and just

knowing that during this process we're not going to be uncomfortable, we're not going to do sacrifice the needs of the students and the staff in the building now for what's coming in four years. and pay attention to it this funding will help us a couple other things on the slide that we're looking at right now we got confirmation on the softball field cost so it is the two and a half million that we had put in before so no increase on that so it's a current current estimate and then also we got an update on the cost of the turf replacement at the high school and so I think we had it previously at $650,000 and the most recent bid is $750,000 and that's all work that we're hoping to do this summer. And so those are the only real changes from

last time. And so at that, I just welcome any questions you might have.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori? No questions at this time. Ms. Hickman? Ms. Kelsey?

Sarah KelseyYeah, just to refresh my mind and everybody else out there, the turf replacement is the stadium and the side field, or is it just the stadium? It's just the stadium. Okay, so we're not – It's

Dan Phillipsstaffreally just the – The practice field, I guess. In fact, it's the stadium inside the track, so none of the areas on the outside. Okay. We've had some conversations about adding some things for track and field, separate project.

Sarah KelseyOkay.

Dan Phillipsstaffthe stadium it's not that

Sarah Kelseyother field we

Dan Phillipsstaffdid exactly no no no it's the only and and this is we are on year 10 of what's supposedly a 10-year turf and and and it's safe and we've made sure all that is true right now and we've got a plan to keep it should anything fall through with the funding that hopefully we can do it this summer

Sarah Kelseydo you know is this they have to basically tear up the current turf or is it just make it look better

Dan Phillipsstaffand then add whatever so that the The second thing is what they kind of do each year. They come in, fluff it up, they put in new chrome rubber, things like that. This is removing the turf, removing the layer underneath the turf, replacing it with something that's a little bit more modern, and then putting new turf down on top of it. That should last us eight to ten years again. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesSure.

Lauren BartelmeMs. Farrell, no questions. Okay.

Carolyn PitchesI have no questions because the HVAC is in there.

Dan PhillipsstaffYep. It's vacuumed. Thank you for pointing that out, Ms. Fitzgerald. We can

Carolyn Pitchesbe done. I do have one question. Sure. In terms of the carpet at the high school, once we get the number on that,

Speaker 6I

Carolyn Pitchesknow that we do a certain amount in the elementary schools each year. I guess we don't do a set amount in the high school.

Dan PhillipsstaffNo, but we might be able to pick. Finish your question. I'm so sorry. I was anticipating. Yeah, you

Carolyn Pitchesand I, yes. I'm just trying to figure out if there is a way. I mean, it'll be interesting to figure out how many more classrooms are still sitting with carpet. Yeah.

Dan PhillipsstaffI think there's a way for us to think about it. I think we're really fortunate also that FCPS is a real willing partner. They helped us at Providence last year. We did Daniel's Run. They're doing these at the high school now. So we can take the funding that we've set aside for the elementaries and start moving to the high school. And I think the middle school is good for this right now. some replacement in those bigger areas with the carpet tile. But we can start moving toward helping the high school and accelerating that process. Okay. Thank you. Definitely.

Carolyn PitchesAll right. So the next item on the agenda is the public hearing for the five-year capital improvement plan. We do not have anybody signed up to speak to that. So we will move on to action items. The approval of the October 6, 2025 regular meeting minutes uh may i have uh oh the clerk has provided the minutes um is there a motion

Amit Hickmanmadam chair

Carolyn Pitchesuh miss hickman i

Amit Hickmanmove to approve the what's the date of uh october 6 2025 minutes as written and distributed uh

Carolyn Pitchesi may have a second i second okay miss hickman moved miss cessary seconded city of fairfax school board approved the minutes of the october 6 2025 regular school board meeting as printed and distributed are there any changes additions or modifications okay being none all those in favor signify by saying aye aye aye no uh no members are opposed so the motion passes unanimously next action item is the approval of the proposed fy 2027 to 2031 I should say capital improvement plan may have a motion please madam

Lauren Bartelmechair

Carolyn PitchesI

Lauren Bartelmemove that the city of Fairfax school board approved the FY 2027 2031 capital improvement plan CIP as printed and distributed okay

Carolyn Pitchesmay I have a second second okay miss Bartle may move miss Hickman seconded the city of our back school board approved the 20 FY 27 to 31 capital improvement plan as printed

Speaker 6All those

Carolyn Pitchesin favor signify by saying aye. No members are opposed so the motion passes unanimously. The next item is the reading and approval of the full-time employment resolution for the superintendent position. I'm Mrs. Sessori. Can you please read the resolution? Madam

Kristina CecereChair, whereas at its meeting held on November 3rd, 2025, the City of Fairfax School Board, the employer, has changed the position criteria for superintendent to a full-time position effective the first day of November 2025. Now, therefore, be it resolved, one, the position will be a full-time position for which tenure is not restricted as to temporary or provisional appointment, and any person hired in this position will be an eligible employee as defined in Section 51.1-125 and 51.1-132 of the Code of Virginia. Two, the employer acknowledges that pursuant to section 51.1-125, 51.1-132, 51.1-135, 51.1-155, 51.1-206, and 51.1-217 of the Code of Virginia membership in the Virginia Retirement System,

VRS, is compulsory for any person hired in this position. three the employer agrees to report any person hired in this position to VRS immediately upon employment for the employer acknowledges that a VRS retiree cannot be employed in this position unless the employer reports the individual to VRS as actively employed and five the employer acknowledges that pursuant to section 51.1 dash one two four point nine it may be liable for any overpayment of benefits resulting from the employer's failure to report a full-time employee to the brs okay um may have a motion

Lauren Bartelmemadam chair

Carolyn Pitchesuh miss borrow may i

Lauren Bartelmemove that the city of fairfax school board approve the full-time employment resolution for the position of superintendent as read, written, and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesMay I have a second? Second. Okay. Ms. Bartleby moved and Ms. Hickman seconded. City of Fairfax School Board approved the resolution for the full-time employment for the position of superintendent as read, written, and distributed. Are there any changes, modifications, corrections, discussion points, none? Okay. All those in favor signify by saying, Aye. No members are opposed, so the motion is unanimous. Okay. The next action item is the reading and the approval of the City of Fairfax Superintendent Appointment Resolution. Ms. Sessori, can you please read the resolution?

Kristina CecereMadam Chair, whereas there is a vacancy for the City of Fairfax Schools Superintendent and whereas the school board wishes to appoint Dr. Dustin Wright as the City of Fairfax Schools superintendent for a term commencing december 1st 2025 and ending june 30th 2030 now therefore be resolved that dr dustin wright is appointed as the city of fairfax school superintendent for a term commencing december 1st 2025 and ending june 30 20 30 and be it further resolved that the chairperson and clerk are authorized to execute an employment agreement with dr dustin wright for a term commencing December 1st, 2025 and ending June 30th, 2030.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, may I have a motion, please?

Amit HickmanMadam Chair?

Carolyn PitchesYes, Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the resolution appointing Dr. Dustin Wright as the City of Fairfax School Superintendent as read, printed, and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, may I have a

Amit Hickmansecond?

Carolyn PitchesI second. Okay, Ms. Hickman moved. Ms. Kelsey seconded. The City of Fairfax School Board approve the resolution appointing Dr. Dustin Wright the City of Fairfax Schools Superintendent as written, read, written, and distributed. Are there any changes, modifications, discussions, corrections? Okay. Being none, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye. No members are opposed, so the motion is unanimous, Dr. Wright. Okay. Got lucky on that one. We'll move on to Superintendent's Matters. Mr. Phillips.

Dan PhillipsstaffThank you, Chair Pitches. First, I want to thank Ms. Gray for keeping us up to speed tonight on all the exciting things that happen at Fairfax High School. I get to work really closely with Ms. Gray in my position as Assistant Superintendent and just appreciate her professionalism. And Giselle's involved in everything at Fairfax High School and just does such a great job and she does it with such a great spirit and she's so unflappable and that's really needed in a lot of those cases. So we just appreciate her so much and thank her for the presentation tonight. I also want to thank the Board and Dr. Projardo for being so thorough in the process of selecting I know it wasn't an easy decision, and I'm so excited to welcome Dr. Wright to our team.

We have a lot of work ahead of us over the next few years, and I know that he's up to the challenge, and I'm excited to work closely with a longtime friend and colleague and can't wait to get started. And, Dustin, you're joining us at, you know, an incredibly exciting time, and I know already you're already in, so we are too. Congratulations and welcome. And finally, our renovation process, the thing that's going to drive a lot of that work for with us for the next four years is really starting to feel real now. If you look at Daniel's run in Providence, especially this last week, you'll see architects, engineers, technicians in the building already, surveying, scanning, planning, all sorts of

fun things. We have amazing teams from both architecture teams working at both schools, and I think it's going to be a really fun process. Our students and staff deserve to have modern, safe, and comfortable buildings, and it's our intent to make it happen. and just thanks again to our principals and school staff for being ready to jump right in this is outside the scope of what they normally do and it is extra work but they're excited and they're also all in so they're gonna be great partners with us they're ready to jump in with this and to create something special at each of our schools and I look forward to a productive time ahead thank you

Carolyn Pitchesthank you mr. Phillips it will move on to board matters miss Bartle May

Lauren BartelmeI just wanted to second the welcome to Dr. Justin Wright we're really excited to have you and look forward to working with you.

Sarah KelseyOkay Miss Kelsey. I'll say it too you'll hear it about three more times but congratulations and I do look forward to working with you in these coming years. I also would like to say some things coming up is Katherine Johnson has their play coming murder on the 518 I'm guessing that's it's just like 518 coming up on the 14th and 15th so I'm excited I'm going to try to get out there to one of those shows also looking forward to some of the listening meetings that we have coming up for the renovation and is that next week too? Next week. Next week and then also if you want to be cold tomorrow night the field hockey congratulations to the field hockey team because they won their regionals but now tomorrow they get to start their road to state so come out and cheer up those cheer on those girls.

Carolyn PitchesThank you Ms. Kelsey. Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanSo I also want to congratulate all the fall teams for completing their fall seasons and those who have advanced to districts, regionals, and as Ms. Kelsey said states. I really enjoyed participating in the homecoming parade and getting to watch the very exciting game. There's been some really exciting games lately. So come watch those. And then coming up as Ms. Kelsey said there are some shows and concerts arriving as well as Katherine Johnson Matilda is also being shown at Fairfax High School the weekend of the 20th. I was trying to do the math. With everyone else, welcome and congrats to Dr. Wright. It was a long intensive process for us and I think for you as well. We were lucky to have some really incredible candidates and are so grateful that you were the final decision

here and will be joining us. And then last but not least, please don't forget to vote tomorrow.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Sessori.

Kristina CecereThere's a lot going on in our schools right now. So thank you guys for highlighting I would be remiss to not, Ms. Kelsey, I don't know if you mentioned math night at Providence this week. It is this Thursday. I'm very excited about math nights because I'm a former math teacher and I love it. I want to take a moment and just welcome again Dr. Wright to our city schools. It's going to be very exciting to working with you. But I also want to take a moment and thank those who did apply to the opening. It truly was an honor to meet with each and every one of you guys. It was a lot of talented people there. I am looking forward again like everyone else to the community listening sessions on the Providence

and Daniels run renovations. It makes me very happy to see this part of the bond moving forward. And last I want to just share an opportunity for public comment at the state level. The Virginia Board of Education is considering the cut scores for Virginia's end-of-year assessments, the standards of learning or SOLs as they're called. Those cut scores are what determine what is passing for students. The Virginia Board of Education will vote on November 13th, but public feedback is open through November 6th through their website. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesAnd I also encourage everybody to participate in that. Okay. Congratulations to the field hockey team. That's amazing. I will ‑‑ you know, nobody mentioned the craft show. I love the craft show. So anyway, don't forget to go to the craft show at the high school, at Fairfax High School. Welcome, Dr. Wright. I want to invite our community, your friends, family, to our meeting on December 1st, 2025. at 6 p.m. in the atrium right before the swearing-in of Dr. Wright as superintendent of the city of Fairfax schools, which will occur at 6.30 right here in Chambers. So please come out and support Dr. Wright, the school board, and our school community. Ms. Lucas, I'm going to give you the final say on everything.

Okay. I

Gisele Graystaffwant

Studentto say congratulations first and foremost. You were actually my principal when I was in kindergarten and first grade. So it's kind of a full circle moment. But congratulations and I wish you all the best.

Carolyn PitchesAnd I was still in my early 40s I think when you were at Daniel's right now. I'm just teasing you. Okay. All right. All right. If there is nothing else before the board, I will adjourn this meeting at 7.32.

Dr Dustin WrightThanks. Thank you.