School Board Work Session
Machine transcription of the meeting audio. Timestamps link to that moment on the city's own player — check anything that matters against the recording.
▶ Watch recording648 segments
Speaker 5okay okay thank you
Carolyn Pitchesby voicegood evening everyone it is Monday April 21st of 2025 and this is the work session of the city of Fairfax school board our first presentation is our middle school student panel we'd like to welcome all of you and thank you we know you guys probably have a lot of homework and other activities and other things you might want to be doing so we appreciate your time we just have some questions that we want to ask of you guys and trying to think of the best way if you guys want to just raise your hand if you want to answer the question that way we won't put anybody on the spot does that sound like an okay plan okay just who will start with facilities okay necessary hey
Kristina Ceceregood evening. So one major responsibility of the city of Fairfax is the school buildings or what we call the school facilities. What are some things you like in regard to the buildings or facilities? Are there things at other schools that you have been to that you would like to see that you would like to have in your school? Bing,
Carolyn Pitchesby voicebing.
Speaker 12Yes? One thing I like is we have an extensive ground, so we have a big field on the front. We have a nice blacktop in the back and even on the Bevin side of the building there's a room open field, some tables, like a tarp, like a tent. And I think that's really great because then, you know, when you have a lot of activities going on or you have recess going on, there's a lot of space. Like there's no shortage of that considering that, you know, we are in a city. which I find is really nice.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceIs there anything that you would add to that space? Nothing really. That you can think of?
Speaker 12Well, I mean, if there was some sort of way that we could get rid of all the geese poop on the field, that would be wonderful. That
Speaker 5would be
Speaker 12wonderful.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay. I'll write it down. Is anybody else? Anything inside the building? Any part, like, maybe any spaces that you would like to see for extracurricular activities or yes?
Speaker 10that's still here. So we don't make a mess in the hallway. That's very true.
Speaker 5One
Speaker 12thing I don't really like is that in some of the hallways, like at the hallway intersections, there are these like dividers in the middle of the door frames, which kind of
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceis
Speaker 12a literal pain sometimes because people are pushing and shoving in the hallways, that and it kind of hurt and it actually doesn't kind of it hurts a lot sometimes so it's like if there would be some way to get rid of those and put something on the doors um so that they can still close properly but there's no metal bar in the middle of the door frame that people um get slammed like if there's none of that and i think that would be kind of nice to see
Kristina Cecerewe remove them sometimes here in certain door frames right
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceIs it mostly on the old part of the building, Christy? Yeah, they're talking about the
Speaker 9Levin and Main Street. Yes, that one. Yeah, the old. I do want to, I was just thinking, like, on the other side, Germantown and Main Street, there is not a building. There's no. It's the renovated side. So you've
Carolyn Pitchesby voicegot to come.
Speaker 9Yeah,
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceI think it's the older part of the building. Anybody else? So before we move on, I forgot to ask everybody to introduce themselves. So Bryce, we'll start with you. Just say your name, what grade you're in. How about that?
StudentI'm Bryce. I'm in seventh grade. I'm Charles.
Speaker 12I'm in seventh grade. I'm Lauren. I'm in eighth grade. I'm in eighth grade. I'm in eighth grade.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay. All right. Ms. Hickman, do you want to? Sure.
Amit HickmanI want to talk a little bit about that. little bit about the cell phone policy I know that that's new for you eighth graders obviously for the seventh grade since your first time experiencing it so if you don't mind sharing a little like how are the how is the cell phone policy implemented in most of your classes they collected or they stored in a certain way and are the policies do you see that they're enforced in the same way in most of your classes or they tell is it totally different we'll just ask that you don't use like specific teachers names just give us a general idea
StudentI
Speaker 10think in most classes a lot of teachers always remind us to not use our phones during classes. And like in our school there's like a step, like if you have your phone on, and like they remind us like what would happen if you have your phone on and the consequences.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAwesome. Where do you store your phone? In our backpacks. In your
Speaker 10backpacks,
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceokay.
Speaker 10And they always
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceask us to keep it silent. Okay.
Speaker 12Soar? So a lot of my teachers, what they do is like, if they see a phone and it's not the first time, they'll take it and they'll keep like, they'll be like, okay, you know, I've seen you on your phone more than once, hand me your phone please, and they keep it stored in their desk in a safe spot, and then they're like, at the end of the day or at the end of class, can you please come see me, you know, we'll have a small talk, and I can give But something I also noticed that if it's repeated, I've seen this a couple times where it's, the teachers had to take the phone a couple times, they take it to the office, and they're like, now we're going to have to call your parent.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSounds fair.
Speaker 12Or guardian. Yeah, I mean, I feel like most teachers do this. It's not like one teacher in particular, but it's just kind of nice, and it's not like they're very strict, like, oh, you have your phone out. like oh you get detention, oh that's like suspension or anything. It's like gentle reminders and then it happens repeatedly then it gets a little bit more strict. The teachers get a little bit more strict.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceWhat about seventh grade, you guys? How is it in the seventh grade? Because you're coming from, you know, being in an elementary school last year to this year. It's mostly the same thing as the seventh
Speaker 10grade. I feel like the teachers do the same thing, like the warnings and stuff.
StudentThat's really it.
Amit HickmanOkay. How do you guys feel about the policy in general?
Speaker 12It's all right. I think it's all right.
StudentIt helps us sometimes to stay away from our devices a lot so we're not inclined to always use them.
Speaker 12That's why I think I'm glad. I mean, I think it's actually fairly generous considering what some of the other policies, other schools have, like Frost Middle School, for example, they have their students put phones in pouches and then store them in their backpack. So I feel like, you know, it's very nice that we do this, and I feel like it's a good system, and it works without needing to take further steps.
Amit HickmanFor those eighth graders who are there, do you see a difference between the cell phone use between last year and this year?
Speaker 12A little bit.
Amit HickmanOkay.
Speaker 12I feel like last year I noticed a lot more 8th graders were using their phones. And this year I think a lot of the 7th graders don't use their, like a lot of the 8th graders that were 7th graders last year don't really use their phones. Okay.
Amit HickmanI agree. Thank you.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceI'm going to just sort of piggyback on this question. So would you say that during a class period, is it often or not often that a teacher will have to stop instruction to redirect a student about a cell phone being out? Or is it just
Speaker 12infrequent? I would say it's infrequent. Okay. Teacher usually doesn't have to stop. And if the student is on their phone, something I've noticed is usually during free, like, you know, when we have independent work time.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay,
Speaker 12that's fair. And we're on our own doing our own work. And time students will go off and, yeah.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceWould you guys all agree with that? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Ms. Sassari, do you have a? Oh, no, no. Oh, okay. Sorry. Okay.
Speaker 21Okay, the next set of questions we're going to ask you are about some of the activities at school. So can you talk a little bit about what kinds of things you do during the recess time?
StudentSometimes there will be basketballs out, people will be playing basketball. Sometimes there might be footballs out. But
Speaker 10football is like more of the grass thing so that people don't get around the black tops. So that's one of the things.
StudentLike football, soccer, and then every now and then you'll see some people walking around the track or kicking around a soccer ball.
Speaker 12I tend to usually just, I resist on the field so I tend to walk around and talk with my friends. But I also see a lot of people, yeah, they have footballs, there's a couple of volleyballs, a kickball. Someone I know, sometimes he brings in a cricket ball and they practice, him and a couple of kids that play cricket, they practice their cricket pitching, which is actually pretty funny to watch. And then, yeah, but last year my recess was on the Germantown side of the building, so on that little bit of a street there. Just a little. And then so there was like hula hoops and jump ropes and frisbees and that kind of stuff. So I feel like there's a lot of equipment that are around the building for recess
that's more geared to the location. So like field will have more footballs and volleyballs and stuff. Locktop will have more basketballs and other balls and stuff. And then the Germantown side will have more hooloops, frisbees, jump ropes, ring toss.
Speaker 21So I'm going to ask a follow-up question related to that. So do you guys have ideas for other things that you would like to have available at recess other than what is available?
Speaker 12Not really. What we have right now is good enough. A lot of equipment actually sometimes goes unused. Some people just don't use it. And we only have like 10 minutes outside. So it's not like, you know, we have a lot of time to use it. So what we have, in my opinion, is good.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceIs there plenty of places for you guys, like for if you just wanted to socialize with somebody or read a book? Because I know I'm sure there are people, there are places to sit. Okay. I know you had a question about recess.
Kristina CecereI do. Last year you mentioned that you had recess at Germantown, and then it sounds like this year you were on the Bevin side. Are you all able to rotate around for recess?
StudentIt depends on where your TA class is, because if you have, it depends on the hall that your class is in and the teacher that you have. I guess it's
Carolyn Pitchesby voicedistance probably, right? you don't have to walk too far, you waste the 10 minutes you do have.
Kristina CecereAnd I guess for the 8th graders, have you been able to experience recess on both sides of the building? Or are you kind of only stuck on one side or the other the last two years?
Speaker 10Since we have LS which is during seminar, it switches like every month I think. Each LS has a different recess. So each time you get to rotate, and TH is like one spot for your recess for the whole year. So yeah, I would say that we switch recess for LS.
Speaker 11I know this is about them. You're experimenting next week with one recess and giving them choice. They don't
Studentknow that yet. We're going to send stuff to families. We're going to experiment to see if we can do it next year.
Amit HickmanOkay. So I have a question. What happens if the weather's bad? What do you do in your classroom for recess?
StudentWe're able to use our hot tops a little bit.
Speaker 11We're able to get some board games, too.
StudentYeah, like you said, you can use your computers and also get out board games or read a book or something like that. So
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceit's
Studentlike 10 minutes
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceof
Studentjust free
Speaker 10rest
Student-your
Speaker 10-brain time. Yeah. A lot of teachers have, like, board games in their classrooms. And, like, some art teachers, like, print out, like, colored computers.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOh, that's nice. Does anybody play cards? I'm just kidding.
Speaker 12Yeah, my TA teacher actually has a couple tennis balls. So what people in my TA do when we have indoor recess is we play table balls. So we bounce the ball into the floor and someone has to catch it. It's a great game. It's really fun.
Speaker 5Maybe some Kroosh balls.
Speaker 12Yeah, my classroom is at the end of the building so no windows. So that's why we're allowed to do it.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSo do any of you participate in after school? activities?
StudentYeah, I do track and cross country. Okay,
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceCharles, do
Speaker 12you
Carolyn Pitchesby voicedo anything?
Speaker 12No. Soren? I do Model UN, Quiz Bowl, and I did theater in the past, but now I can do it too. I'll put it with Quiz Bowl. I do a thing called
Speaker 10EIP with George Mason. Oh. Every Thursday. And they can give me a free Twitter. Oh,
Speaker 5cool. All right. You said EIP? Oh, EIP.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAre there any school-based clubs or groups that you wish that were available at Katherine Johnson that other schools have that we don't have?
Speaker 10Yeah. A lot of high schools have like a lot of different sports, like maybe like more sports. Because like I know our school you have volleyball, I can feel that futsal and basketball. Like other sports like maybe like tennis or other sports.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceWhat would be your like top two choices if you could have? Like outdoor
Speaker 10soccer.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOutdoor soccer. Anybody else? It doesn't have to be sports. Anything else you wish that?
Speaker 12Well, I know a lot of other schools, they have a debate club. I feel like that would be cool. I know we have a very strong model event program at our school, but obviously a debate program would be cool to have. Okay.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceYeah, 100%. Anybody else? Does anybody have any other questions?
Amit HickmanNo? Is there anything else you all would like to share that would help us?
Speaker 12I have a quick question. How do we all get selected?
Speaker 13How do they get
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceselected?
Speaker 5It's
Speaker 12a good question to
Speaker 5ask Mrs. T. Not Mr. Smith.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceThank you. Do you guys have any questions for us as the school board?
Speaker 13Normally you made a good impression on somebody.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceYes, yes.
Amit HickmanThank you. Someone who has the confidence to come speak to a room full of adults. So we appreciate you guys coming and being so open and honest with us.
Speaker 12Thank you. Thank you for having us.
Amit HickmanAll right. Grab
Speaker 15some
Speaker 12cookies. Yeah, I know. Thank you.
Speaker 5Thank you. Thank you. I just want to say, just to throw it out as a parent, we ask for school activities. I mean, I don't have kids in Atlanta middle schools, but very final time at CPM. Oh, yeah. It's amazing. It is amazing. I cannot, I don't even know how to thank you or whatever. It is amazing that they have some sort of things. things and you know I was so afraid of middle school. I had fun meeting middle school. I'm coming in. I was so worried. So and I think that's a lot of these needed like for
Carolyn Pitchesby voicea huge difference. Because there's something for everybody I feel like there
Speaker 5really is. Like every day there's no cheese now. Like there's a pickleball club that's just starting now. There's like a
Carolyn Pitchesby voicepickleball.
Speaker 5Yeah. Yeah. Like you know it's like it was my mind. Like this is a middle school and they have like so much. They do. Wait until
Sarah Kelseyyou get to head.
Speaker 5I have.
Amit HickmanWhat elementary schools did you guys go to? I was Willow Springs. Providence? Providence? Willow Springs. Willow Springs, Providence. Okay. It's always just curious kind of where people
Speaker 5are. It's amazing, and I do hope, I know there's rumors that it's going to go away, but I hope at least next year, the next couple years, when my daughter
Sarah Kelseywill school. Yeah. He's the one. Mr. Dayo's the best. He is. He's the one to thank. For sure. He does a great job.
Amit HickmanWell, thank him for being the coach for that. And congrats. You guys have been on a winning streak,
Speaker 18I hear.
Speaker 12Yes. Oh, yeah. We got nationals in two and a half weeks of things. There is
Speaker 21nationals.
Speaker 12We have one in Chicago, and then two weeks after that, we have one in Orlando. That's amazing. Nice. Yeah.
Speaker 5Very nice. It's been awesome. Yep. Good
Sarah Kelseyluck.
Speaker 5Good
Sarah Kelseyluck.
Speaker 5Thank you
Sarah Kelseyall. Good luck to the rest of you on the last two months, month and a half? It's about two
Speaker 12months. Mr. Dejo made an announcement at lunch. I think he said there's in total like 30 something days left.
Speaker 13That's all? 38.
Speaker 12Thank you.
Speaker 13Yeah, I was going to
Sarah Kelseysay, they know.
Speaker 13But
Sarah Kelseynot 30, 30 days
Speaker 18I'll graduate.
Sarah KelseyWell, but they have to go past graduation.
Speaker 18Wow.
Speaker 5Thank
Sarah Kelseyyou all. Have
Speaker 5a good night. Thank you very much.
Kristina CecereThank you. Thank you so much for coming.
Speaker 5Thank you
Amit Hickmanfor being here. It
Speaker 5was really nice to meet you. We'll see you guys next year. Thank
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceyou so much for coming.
Speaker 5Thank you. Thank you.
Sarah KelseyThank you.
Speaker 15Thank you. Thank you for being
Speaker 5here.
Speaker 15Thank you.
Speaker 5Thank you. Thank
Speaker 15you.
Sarah KelseyThank you so much.
Speaker 5Thank you.
Sarah KelseyI have your favorite.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceYes.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOh, do you have orange? I have more of those. Oh, I
Sarah Kelseydon't
Carolyn Pitchesby voicewant to actually, I don't want to.
Sarah KelseyThat's what I have, because all the orange ones are at school. Oh, are we muted or pause? You muted what? Are
Amit Hickmanwe still running? Should I pause it until we...
Speaker 5Yeah, it gets posted on the website. Alright, here we go.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay, good evening everyone. Welcome to the City of Fairfax School Board's student panel. We thought that maybe we would begin with everybody to say your name and what grade level you're in.
StudentI'm Ekrem Lumida. I'm a senior. I'm Caroline Cronin and I'm a freshman.
StudentI'm David Forrest and I'm a freshman. I'm Kenneth Conn and I'm a freshman.
StudentI'm Mila Pichardo and I'm a senior.
Speaker 9I'm Miles Burry and I'm a senior. I'm Tyler Rickman and I'm a junior. I'm Jonathan Duggan and I'm a senior.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay. Alright, so we have some questions for you guys. And if you'll just raise your hand if you want to respond to the question. no pressure but we'd love to get as much feedback as we can miss S. Ramos start with you
Kristina CecereI'm gonna start with one of our questions on the rolling gradebook do your question to your classes use a quarter grading system or a rolling of both.
StudentThey all use a quarter grading system. That's my second.
Kristina CecereWe'll go down that line here.
StudentMost of my classes are like a combination of both. Some of them have quarter and some of them have rolling.
StudentLike
Speaker 11I said, combination
Studentof both. Some have quarterly. Most of the classes I've taken have quarterly grade books, but only one of them had a rolling grade book.
Speaker 9All my classes
Studentactually have a quarter.
Kristina CecereOkay. And what are your thoughts on each of the grading policies? And do you have a preference of one over the other?
Speaker 9Yes. Me personally, I prefer quarter just because I'm a big procrastinator. and with being a big procrastinator, I mean, with the quarter, it gives me like a deadline to have such and such time to get you working, and honestly, you know, it's like a schedule for me basically, and that's how I process.
Speaker 5Yes?
StudentSo like the quarter grade book, it always gives you a fresh start for each new quarter, and you can't really escape any of your past mistakes, so if you did really bad in the find it better later on you can't like escape that ad initially.
Kristina CecereYeah we'll just keep going down the line here yeah. Yeah
Speaker 11so like Tyler said I think I like quarterly better just because it gives you a fresh start and it also it with the rolling rebook you have to go in and click in your assist and see what you have in the next like it's just it makes it too complicated and most of the students don't want do that extra step so they forget about those assignments and then explore the problems and all these assignments are zeroes.
StudentI think that the majority of my classes that have had rolling grade books are pretty easy like elective classes where it's like it doesn't really matter if you have a rolling grade book or not because it's not a difficult class. So it's like rolling grade book is more for it's like okay you've earned a really good grade in this class, let's carry it over. a rolling grade book, it's like, they're not hard.
StudentI think they're okay. I prefer the quarter grade system because I'm able to check my grades through the floor and know where I stand.
StudentPersonally, I think I enjoy the rolling grade book more. I think it's, I strive to get really good grades because that's just me. and I think it's annoying to have good grades in one quarter and all of a sudden one single thing that you mess up can give you a bad grade and make it hard for you to get a better grade that quarter. But if everything is rolling, you can have a good basis to start off of and that keeps you stable and you're able to keep around that good grade.
StudentFor me, I personally more prefer rolling grade book because you can see how much you improve each time. And it's like a quarter is like a overall grade, but for the rolling, you know, like each time I'm doing this assessment and this quiz grade, test grade. I mean like compared to detail and overall I mean detail is really important you know like every single detail and every single step you're going through is like against your own personal growth so I more prefer rolling.
Kristina CecereJust out of curiosity how many guys went to KJ when with them because they have a rolling gradebook throughout all classes how is that transition from a rolling great book KJ to sort of this difference of great folks here.
Amit HickmanSo really for freshmen it was the biggest change.
StudentI think I enjoyed seeing a strong grade and a grade that could be stable even if I make a mistake on one thing more. And I think I've been a little bit more annoyed this year by random assignments at the start of the quarter if I can migrate significantly. So I think, I guess I got a little bit more annoyed with the quarter grading.
Speaker 9Thank
Kristina Cecereyou. You got a comment?
Speaker 9So I'm not from this area. I just moved here. I'm from Georgia. And back in Georgia, we actually had a semester grade book. So we're in a new semester. That's what I'm about. I'm going to say from semester to quarterly, I like semester better just because it gives, most likely for seniors and newcomers, it gives you the chance to take the most important classes first before you take your regular classes. So we have a semester here for a student like me transferring in, I will only have to take my three classes instead of having to choose eight classes because we're quarterly, so now it prolongs me for early graduation or stuff like that. So overall, I have to fill that semester. But quarterly is also great,
Kristina Ceceretoo. Appreciate that. Thank you for sharing that. Anyone? Anybody else on the school
Speaker 5board
Carolyn Pitchesby voicehave any questions about rolling grade,
Speaker 5though? Okay.
Kristina CecereI'll move on to the next question on facilities. One major responsibility of the city of Fairfax the school buildings or what we call facilities. What are some things you like in regard to the buildings and facilities? Are there things at other schools you that you have...are there...I'm missing my question. Are there things at other schools that you have been to that you would like to see or have at our school?
Speaker 11I'm gonna start this one off because I'm probably the most into our facilities I guess you could say. I think Fairmont's High School does a phenomenal job of everything they have to offer here. There's a few little things, though, on just making sure. Sometimes there's hiccups with custodial issues. I think that's a big athleticism thing, but maybe more custodians sometimes is a little bit more helpful because sometimes outside there's just a little bit of trash here and there. I think they try their hardest, but there's only two that go outside. So I think that more custodial staff would be helpful. Other than that, this is the best school.
Amit HickmanSorry, can I ask what your role is? Because you seem very in the know here.
Speaker 11I guess I could. Let me be safe here.
StudentIs this like Nancy
Speaker 18in training here?
Speaker 11Just an assistant to the directors of the activities. Very cool.
Speaker 18And a student assistant to the directors. Well, thank you for
Speaker 11doing that.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSo where are you seeing most of the trash? Is it in the athletic fields or just? Random spots.
Speaker 11So just like things where you drive in and it's like, oh,
Studentpiece of trash there.
Speaker 11And obviously some people go out and get at this stuff with that. But it's just not regularly checked places. Like just
Carolyn Pitchesby voicemakes... Like along the fence line by the state. Yeah, it's always better. Sometimes blows it
Speaker 11out of the trash can. And other things like that. Very much.
StudentSo I have two things. Like, overall, I really like how things are at Fairfax. I like that the hallways are, like, actually, like, ample, because I know some other schools are, like, super, super crowded. They have, like, holes in the water. The ceiling's missing. Like, I do like that our school's, like, pretty, like, in place. But the two things I would have to say is when it comes to athletics, like, teen locker room storage, because I remember my, like, freshman year and sophomore year, like, I was part of the cheer team all four years, and I remember that we were not allowed keep our things in locker room because there weren't enough for all the girls plus the cheer team. So it was like the cheer team was kind of like, oh, just kind of figure out where to put
your stuff, whether it be the locker you just carry around all day. And that was like really annoying until, you know, my friends and I started to drive and we could just keep our stuff in the car. But I, and then I, it wasn't like that for the one season I was on the gymnastics team, but I will say like, if we're going to have a lot of like sports, like let's make sure that everybody can keep their stuff safe and not have to like you know blow two backpacks around all day and then my other thing i'm not really sure if this falls under facilities but like parking and like it's like it is not good at fairfax i got into a car accident coming out of the parking lot like and i just think like this really needs to be revised um i remember the
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceparking lot or the like
Studentleaving like the parking lot because thinking about the student lots um
Carolyn Pitchesby voicevery small little
Studentyeah like what coming into school it would basically if you're like looking at the front of the school it's that right lot coming out that left hand turn is blind every single time yeah and it's just like parents are very um inconsiderate to the fact that a lot of these people are new drivers or you know just like teenage drivers and get very aggressive as well and i've seen buses do this also seen parents I park on the other side so I kind of come out the kiss and ride to do my left turn and you know one lane is going up one lane is going down I've seen school buses in fact go across the yellow line up like the like the right side when they're supposed to on the right side to cut around the traffic
as I'm trying to do my left-hand turn and I've had like parents do it and I talked at them and they just looked at me like I'm crazy like but I think I just find it so crazy that school buses are doing this it's like trying to get I know you might have to wait, but that is your lane this morning. So that aggravates me a lot.
Kristina CecereYou had a comment, didn't you? She said. Oh, okay.
Speaker 11Adding on to Mila's point, I was going to talk about that even before she said it. I totally forgot about that. But I've seen two accidents so far at that intersection since I've been driving. It's just a four-way stop with traffic lights. It's the same thing that definitely, definitely, definitely needs to be done about it. Just people fly up and down there even during the school day. It's a blind turn and it's a 25 mile an hour speed limit, but everyone knows people go 30, 40, whatever. And it's very, very dangerous when you're looking left and you think you're clear left, you're looking right, then you go, fly back. And it could definitely get someone really hurt or even killed if they're walking across the street.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceMr. Pottenberg, since the school board, we own that road, what is the possibility of getting a speed camera put online run? Like
Amit Hickmanone of the ones that shows you the speed?
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceYeah, and says you will get a ticket if you're speeding. Just
Jeff Platenbergstaffcurious. and we have to prioritize it, check with that, so you're not going to get something like that. Because that is a blind term.
Speaker 18It is. Well, and just to emphasize, we've had them out to kind of assess for crosswalks and to assess for some type of a traffic light. It's slipping my mind. The project that's supposed to go in. Yeah, the Blind
Speaker 5Boulevard project.
Speaker 18Yeah, but that's not whatever the footprint of the amount of DOT traffic that has to travel over there. It doesn't mean the qualifications The kids have brought this up frequently, so I've tried to come up with some of that.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOh, is that?
Speaker 18Yes.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAs long as I've been on the board, it's been a problem.
Speaker 9What about having either a traffic officer, a school resource officer, doing like conducting traffic and that little online run, and instead of having right away, okay, that road, that lane had two minutes, okay, stop, let this person go out. Okay, now stop, let the buses go through. just a little more I feel like if there was officer present there then it could also no
Carolyn Pitchesby voicethat has also been we've had discussions about and I think mr. front-burg what was the issue we couldn't get they didn't have enough officers right that was down yeah
Jeff Platenbergstaffbut in general we couldn't
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceget any
Jeff Platenbergstaffadditional all those One of the things with staffing, much like custodians, they cut back the custodian ratio a long time ago for what qualifies the amount of square footage and activities and so forth at each level. The same thing, the difficulty of getting staffing for a patrol officer, the traffic guard out there has been one of the words here for it. The only other... I know that we actually do these, but that's the issue with that one, timing of the day when it's the most they want to go there's so much going on that they're needed really where they're currently stationed but but I will follow up again I add that to my list with the chief
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceof hines. Dr. Dre, in terms of parking do we have enough student parking? I'm just thinking about the parallel parking that's on line and run that's when you're It's hard to make that left and you can't see.
Speaker 18We do until about now and we max out at parking. Usually around May when our juniors now become of age to get permits as well. Right in May. Yeah, we have another small wave in the spring and then we do try to assign those spots towards the end. Sometimes kids want to still be in the front of the school versus being put on the side or around the back of the building. so that's still easy entrance access so we tried to honor what they're requesting right when they're purchasing the parking but to eliminate them no I don't think so because we end up using just
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceabout all the parking. And the
Kristina Cecereback lot is now just all faculty right because back like six seven years ago it used to be that used to be where the seniors parked yeah
Speaker 18we'll work
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceon that we'll see what you know so
Studentbathrooms They don't really work that well. There's always doors that are off hinge. Some of the doors are missing. Some of the, like you go to lock it and then the thing is broken right there so it really just slides back no matter what. A lot of them are broken. They've been broken for a while and that really needs to change because of like privacy and such. Also, the sinks, they don't work that way. Yeah, we know. There's a tap on. We made the sink on. We made the sink on. We made it like
Speaker 5this.
StudentYeah. You
Amit Hickmanshould have seen this. This big man. They just made fun of me because I was like, I can't watch my pants.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceIs it in all the, would you say it's in all the bathrooms? Yeah, most of them are all the bathrooms.
StudentAnd then also, I respectfully disagree with Mila about spacing the hallways. I think it's very crowded, especially at this intersection right here. No idea. Hallways. but another thing I also think is the lockers nobody uses them I feel like people this year use a locker in my like passing the hallways and so I think we should take out the lockers make more that would allow for more room but I don't know how that will
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceit's well we've looked into that it's it's a little harder than you think to just remove the lockers because then the floor it's Mr. Platenberg?
Carolyn Pitchesby voicecan't just take out the lockers because it leaves the way it was constructed.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffUnfortunately, they were absolutely spot on because they were placed up on top of this concrete form that has the tile around the base. You would then have that huge trimming hammer and that construction that would be at the base you wouldn't see.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceTo replace all the flooring in the entire school.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffWhat it really gets to is like a lot of things you're talking about, the new laboratory or sinks, fixtures that are going in aren't that way. They're made much more reasonable because of, and through renovations, that's when usually that's addressed. As far as bathrooms and locks, those are definitely things that we can bring up with Ms. Giselle Gray, and those are work order items. Whenever you have something like that, but let somebody know, custodial or an administrator know, because we can get those addressed as part of our school services agreement with various county public schools maintenance office. And they're supposed to come out and fix this whenever there's an issue, or if a door's taken off.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceThere are literally doors? Yeah,
Studentthe field pass bathroom, there's no door. It's been like that for at least a month. Probably longer.
StudentI will say about the locker thing, I actually used my locker a lot, freshman, sophomore year, when I didn't have a cheer locker. That's where I would stuff my things, and all my friends and I would. And also because of team activities, spirit boxes, whatever, it's kind of nice to be able to shove some things in there, then obviously once you get a card, it's a whole different thing right um but also the only other thing that i think to add is um you know the like the water fountains especially the ones where we like the bottom of your water bottle this is kind of interesting but in my biotech class we did um we were taking just like swabs of different things around the school to like try and grow bacteria and someone swathed like the top of um like the
refill water thing and like that bacteria was a different color than the rest of the ones that So I don't know if these are like been changed or like washed frequently, but it was a little easy.
Speaker 11I don't have any words. Comment. It is very bad. You don't know when the filter's been changed and that brings it back to the one in the field house. The red light's been on for so long it's been burnt out.
Speaker 5Oh my God. Really? Why do I not know any of
Carolyn Pitchesby voicethis?
Jeff Platenbergstaffagain those are maintenance issues so if you see those things I know you've driven me around but yeah those are things and if you see me in the hallway you know talk to me pull me aside that one does have
Speaker 18a work order in you though
Jeff Platenbergstaffyeah in the bathroom door
Speaker 18has a
Jeff Platenbergstaffwork order and in the bathroom door I mentioned it but how long
Carolyn Pitchesby voicehas it been I
Speaker 18mean we're running I mean we're running on FCPS work orders sometimes anywhere from six to eight to ten weeks for them to I'm just going to say mom. Because they're not in a list of priority.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSo can I ask a favor? If it's something like a bathroom, and it's been, let's say, two weeks, can we just go ahead and have the school contact us and we can educate and take care of? Just especially for bathrooms.
Kristina CecereI had a question mainly for Dr. A. You do a great job of having the kids reach out to y'all because I see all the QR codes and whatnot through school. Is there a way for students to report issues? Is there a form on their student page or something that says, hey, if you see something, the sink isn't working or there's a door missing or a lock? Just like a quick Google form
Speaker 18yeah would that
Kristina Cecerebe like too much would that be like like
Speaker 11yeah I personally from my experience I feel like I can understand and who to tell and all that stuff. And I think that average student would be able to, someone that's comfortable to talk to a teacher would tell them. And I think any teacher could get in contact with Ms. Gray or someone that knows who to put a work order for. But I think a form would be helpful. But I don't think there's any lack of students not understanding who to talk to. It's just going back to the same thing of a student's not going to go and say, I think that would be helpful. Yeah.
StudentWell, also, I know that in our leadership class, we've had, towards the earlier in the year, we had conversations with Dr. A, and she asked us a whole bunch of questions, and we told her things that we noticed around school, and again, the parking issues, all these things. Regularly, we've had chances to be able to talk to counselors or admins or Dr. A about issues that we've seen around the
Amit HickmanWhat about as freshmen who are brand new to the school? Do you guys know who to go to or tell those kinds of things to or not quite yet?
StudentI would just go to the teacher whose class I'm in and tell them so that they could tell somebody else. Other than that, I don't know.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay. Is there anything that you all have noticed about the facilities since?
StudentThere's two different kinds of sinks that I know are typically throughout the school.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceI
Studentthink one, typically you have to push and hold, otherwise it goes off. One of them is one that I've seen much more often, and if you push it, it'll stay on for however. And those are typically, there's less of them. But those are typically the ones I always go to so that I can press and then wash my hands.
Speaker 5sorry I'm
Kristina Ceceresorry can you just speak up just a little bit for me so sorry
Studentokay in the middle of the hall in the center where so like where students walk through like the C section I noticed like since it's such a tight space it's crowded there which makes students and push each other with their backpacks. And also in the bathroom, I noticed some students were getting to push toilets, or I can see some toilets in this armed mess caused by students. That's unfortunate.
Speaker 9Actually, piggybacking off of the door entrance, I agree with him, especially in the morning, and his missile getting out of there is a hassle. I thank God for the early release days on Thursdays and Fridays for seniors. Because maybe getting out of that door is like Black Friday in the mall. It's really terrible. So just to suggest that I don't know if it would be possible. I don't know if that door thing right there is going to close the door and it's like a rule throughout the day. I'm moving now, like opening the door because like, someone stepped in my new shoes the other day.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAnd it's the capacity. I mean, the school has crept back up in capacity to what it was back in about 2010. And in 2010, it was literally like shoulder to shoulder in the hallways. And we're approaching those numbers again. So the best thing would be capacity was a little less. All right. Does anybody else have any comments about facilities? Okay.
Sarah KelseyMs. Kelsey, you want to? So our next questions are about the new cell phone policy. And I love the looks on the face as you say it. How is the new cell phone policy implemented in most of your classes? Like when and how are the phones collected or where are they stored? are the policies also consistent and consistently enforced across the class excuse me
Speaker 5yeah you're good come on
Sarah Kelseydown there yeah
Speaker 5come hi
Sarah Kelseyhow are you
Studentyeah so in general I would say they're not very consistent across my classes oh David I'm gonna interrupt
Sarah Kelseyyou for a second don't share the specific teachers name yeah just just share the information yeah
Studentthere it's there are some classes where it feels like it's barely even enforced really and the the teacher is not paying full attention to students hiding their phones and there's other classes where it's that you're required to put your phone in the little cubbies. I definitely don't feel like it's very consistent. I think generally that keeping the phones in the cubbies is not the greatest of ideas because I think students end up hiding their phones and using them anyways. I think it would be better just for students to keep them in their backpacks and have of course strict policies on if you're caught using your phone. And I think it would be better if more teachers focused on kind of like walking around the
classroom and looking at students who are kind of suspiciously like looking down or looking at a specific corner of their computer or something I don't know just anything kind of like that personally I have also walked out of my class a couple of times without my phone and then had to go back I know a friend who forgot it and had to get it the next day didn't have it that afternoon so I I think that is something that is not the greatest thing to happen.
Amit HickmanSorry, when you mean cubbies, do you mean something like that on the wall with the numbers? Thank you.
Speaker 11So I'll just be honest here. It's always, always, always going to be a losing battle with students. So TikTok shop, they have $5 replicas of your exact same phone. You put it in the cubby and teachers never know, right? So it's always... There's always going to be a way where students get around it. Not that that's saying they shouldn't do anything about it, but if it's not a phone, it's a computer. It's not a computer, it's a personal laptop. It's not a personal laptop, it's a tablet. So it just keeps on piggybacking. And I think what would be a more productive way is keeping it in a backpack. If you see it in your site, then you get it taken. That's how most of our classes are nowadays. For the first week to maybe two weeks, it was always tough.
So it was little phone holders. Everyone had their numbers. Put it in, get it in class. And it slowly started to trickle. Maybe one or two times, put your phone away. And then after that, now it's not one of my classes is enforcing it. But if you have your phone, if you have it on your desk or anything in sight, it's a, hey, give it here, bring it up to your desk, and you lose it for the rest of class. And I think that's a little bit better rather than trying to get everyone's phones and who's number 19. It's just way, way, it's a big time suck at the beginning of each class to try
Speaker 9So, I've actually, when I got the paper, I was like, this is going to be a subject. When I first got to the school, I wanted to write a whole story about it, or a book, but I didn't. I'm happy I could say this, it's my right ear. Honestly, with the cell phone policy, like you said, it's always going to be a losing battle. I feel I'm going to like register to our actual government. We have a federal government and we have a state government. Federal government being you know, you got the district and the states being the schools. And then you have cities within the states. So I feel that you know, you as a school board, you give out your rules and regulations. The state, which is the schools, they say okay, we will have the cities or the classrooms
but also allow each individual teacher to make their own policy that can get approved. The majority of each class is like 90 minutes to a class, maybe 120 sometimes, depending on the class. They're not teaching that full 90 minutes or that full 120. You probably walk in, you get a warm up or whatever, the teacher teaches for the first 30 minutes and then you have your assignment. And during assignments, I mean people diagnosed with ADHD and I know you get accompanied in your IEP, but I mean just in general, when people lose focus on your class, you just got done teaching, was talking to you for 30 minutes. I mean, the attention spans are really short and especially as many people. Allowing the teachers, okay, you have 30 minutes, alright that's 5 minutes, you get your phone
who have access to their phone, listening to music, or look at a show while they're doing their work, I'm going to snitch at myself. I put my phone on my Chromebook, and I look at my show while I do my work. And sometimes my teacher has a problem with it. The majority of them don't, because they know at the end of the day, I still get all my work done. So allowing those teachers to have that structure to the way that they can organize their classroom, I feel like that would be a better way to do it, just because they're not having to enforce something they don't want to enforce.
StudentSo in my classes, a lot of my teachers ask us to keep our phones in our backpacks. Despite the teachers' best efforts, the students still get away with having their phones under the desk or on their screens. A lot of my teachers do walk around, but they're not noticing it. and then when the kids get away with it for the first and second times and then the third times they start making videos in class and I don't want to be identified in any of the videos and I know that some of my peers wouldn't want to so it creates a distraction it disrupts the learning environment and I would also say that if there's extra time in class I know that I would want my teachers to maybe give us extra practice or give us books to read or something
because I just think there's always more to learn and that the phone can't really teach you that much
Sarah Kelseyyou can have most of you have oh this is one more I'm
Studentsorry so for the cell phone policy I mean some teacher they're like really strict to the cell phone policy they're like stick to their like the policy they make like at the beginning of the school year they're gonna tell us like I'm gonna collect phone when it's during test time or like when I had handing back back those test grade you have to like we have to collect our phones but some teacher they did mention about the cell phone policy but they didn't stick to their policy like not consistent so that might cause some student taking advantage like they know this teacher is not stick to the rule and they know this teacher click phone one day and another day that teacher is not going to care about the cell phone policy.
So I mean like teachers should like stick to the point from the beginning to the end so students know this teacher is like really straight to this policy we have to follow it. So I mean this is something that we can't. Oh,
Sarah KelseyKenneth, did you have something?
StudentOkay, so in the beginning of my biology class, the teacher tells us the pair of phones and cell phone dealers, like that. We will get it back at the end of the period. Okay, for my other classes, cell phones remain with our class. We are now allowed to use it during class.
Amit HickmanOkay, thank you. Do you mind also saying your name?
Speaker 19I don't speak very well English, but I will try. It's about the cell phone policy, right? I always have a thought about the policy. I don't think it's something about the teacher. The teacher, some teacher said go and put the cell phone there, other teacher said keep it in your backpack, other teacher doesn't pay attention to that. I feel it's more the student. The student need to know that they don't need to load the cell phone, distract, and that is something that doesn't matter if the teacher or, I don't know, the president talks to the student. they don't will do it. If they don't want to pay attention to the class, they don't want to learn, the common excuse is like they are lazy. So if they are like those types of adolescents saying all the time that they are lazy and tired and those things, I don't think that there are no way to encourage to, you know, don't use the cell phone.
I think that it better focus in the student that wants to learn and the other, I don't know, they will know then in the future that that is a mistake.
StudentSo going off of that, because that was the point that I was going to bring up, was, so I remember when I was in elementary school, 6th grade, my teachers were always like, oh, well, things aren't going to be like this. middle school and in middle school I teach it's always like oh and things aren't gonna be like this in high school and one thing that I do not understand is like why um I feel like sometimes we're almost like baby about the phone policy like FCPS is so like oh what's your plans after high school college university trade school like all these things but I know for a fact next year when I go off to college my professor isn't gonna be like oh you have to put away your phone right now like we're studying like oh like um can you pay attention to this
lesson in college it's like if you choose to pay attention great like you say if you choose not to pay attention you fail that's on you and I've always been one to be able to self-regulate like my phone usage okay I want to pay attention to this class because I actually want to do good on this next test like I'm gonna put my phone down and I understand that like obviously there's all levels of high schoolers and there's people from all different types of backgrounds that maybe you don't know how to regulate like your phone usage but I also think like it's that really strong like if you are like If you actually have plans for your future, and you actually, I don't know, want to graduate and move on,
you need to learn yourself to be like, no, I have to put away my phone right now. I'm not going to use it while my teacher is talking. And if you don't, then that's on you, and you just have to learn your mistake later. Because the reality is, throughout the rest of your life, you are not going to be a baby. And I know this for a fact, because as I'm going through applying for colleges and setting up my college accounts, there's not a lot of instructions on what I'm supposed to do. And, like, I just know for a fact, and also, I work two jobs, and they've never told me, it's like, you need to put your phone away right now because you're supposed to be doing this. No, I'm supposed to know. If I use my phone right now, there's, like, there's consequences to those actions.
And I just don't believe that, like, certain high schoolers are going to learn that if they don't face those consequences. So, I don't know. I believe that there's just two sides to that.
StudentYeah,
StudentDavid.
StudentSo I don't know if you guys know anything about this, but back in like September or October or something, I got a notification from NBC4 and it was like the governor had signed something that required high school students to follow the policies of middle school, which is keeping your phone completely away, including during passing time and lunch and stuff. and it said it would go into effect on like January 5th, 2025 something. Never happened. Don't know what happened to it. But I don't think it should happen because, I mean, students are going to use their phones during class time anyways, but they're going to use it more during class time if they don't at least get that chance to relax and spend time during lunch
a passing period. And so, yeah. Yeah.
Sarah KelseyLet me do my next one because I think it'll kind of go with it because it's still on the cell phones. Kind of already answered one of our questions of how do you feel about the policy, which we clearly understand. So just to let you know, Fairfax High School is actually a pilot for the cell phone policy in FCPS. The question that we want to know though is, so other high schools when they start adopting these policies, based on your guys' experience this year, what policies and what things do you think they need to incorporate into it? So what should we have coming in? Because we're still kind of...
Speaker 18I just want to clarify before they answer that. So Fairfax High School was a control group. So we were not the cell phone holder mandatory. So as a control group, teachers could use the folder or just tell the kids to put it off and away. And then we were just to document the referral system. But we weren't like the pilot. They had the mandatory storage.
Amit HickmanYou want to go down the line? Yeah, let's
Sarah Kelseystart at the end and go down
Speaker 9Okay,
Sarah Kelseylater. Go for
Speaker 9it. So with all the new other schools of development, the schools that are trying to implement this new program, I would say referring back to what I said earlier is a more, I'm not going to say relaxed, but relaxed structure. Like my fellow students said, I mean, allow that teacher to, allow that teacher to regulate their classroom. That's what I'm gonna say. Because again, they're not teaching for a full 90 minutes. So allow that teacher to regulate their classroom, and that's how the cell phone policy will go by. I don't think that it should be a state-wide or a county-wide regulation. I feel that that regulation needs to be upon a teacher. The teacher, when they turn in their lesson plan,
they also turn in a cell phone plan. Okay, this is the plan that I'm gonna have for the next quarter, and this is what I'll buy by. the school, the district group has a say too much.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSo you think teachers should have autonomy with how they utilize that?
StudentI also agree with that, but I also want to weigh in about my thoughts about the film policy. So personally, I don't think it's that good because first of all, all teachers don't enforce it. Some do, some don't. But also, like smart watches, like they don't take away smart watches. So they can take away phones for a test, Oh my gosh, cigarette bumps, but then half of the kids have smart watches. It doesn't make any difference. They're just looking at the teeth they want. So there's
Speaker 11nothing bad. Yeah, adding on to that too, there's two sides of it for me. The academic side of me and the personal side of me. So I want to say the academic side, I have lots of friends. I go to North Carolina almost every weekend. My friends that live down there have a younger pouch.
Speaker 5I'm pretty sure they're quite. I
Speaker 11think that would be really beneficial because it helps you get stuff done. There's no way around it, right? But then the personal side of me is leaving early for any personal issues. What happens if there's an emergency? We had a lockdown here after, what did it, two years ago, a year ago? If I didn't have my phone, that would have been really scary. It was just able to be in contact with a few people, even though you're not supposed to. it's different on paper than when it's actually huddled around everyone. So I think that you're never going to get around it, but that's probably the only way that you probably could.
StudentI also agree a lot with what Miles says, in the sense that I understand having to put your phone up for a test, obviously, right? You're taking a test or a quiz. I understand that. Tyler was saying was like, if someone's going to cheat, they're going to find a way to cheat, period. Because people have been doing this since before. Most teenagers have phones, whatever. And it's like, I understand that obviously we want to try our best to make sure that like, you know, students are putting their best foot forward. But at the end of the day, there's only like so much that can be done. And then also like, there's like that like emotional aspect of it. I do remember that lockdown two years ago, like I was texting
like my parents and it's just like, oh wait, that it makes me, I know it sounds funny,
Studentwas going to say, yeah, I teach,
Studentget it. And, like, there's been days where I've, like, had panic attacks during my English class, and the only thing that calms me down is texting my mom. You know? So it's like, there's
Sarah Kelseytwo sides of it. Yeah, we get it. Kenneth, do you have anything you want to add?
StudentAre we on number two? Yes. I think other high schools should follow this policy in my violation class. Okay.
StudentSo like
Studentthe pouches or
Sarah Kelseythe cubby things?
StudentI mostly agree with everything Alden said. I think generally it should be a little bit more relaxed. I think mostly phones should be kept in backpacks. But, you know, if teachers say that students can use them, then they can. And also, I partially disagree with the smartwatch thing. I do have a teacher who, during tests, also includes that students have to take off their smartwatches and put them in their backpack. And I also have a question that I've never been able to ask the right person. In the videos that we've watched on lockdowns, it says that if you're not able to get to a classroom and close to outside, you're supposed to go out and get away from the building. And then once you're safe, you call 911.
But I wonder if none of the students that are outside have their phone, how are they supposed to call 911? And they're told not to go near the building because they could be thought of as the threat. So what would you do there?
Speaker 18You would need to flag down a stranger and tell them there's an emergency at the school. I mean, I'm being honest with you. If you're all running down the street and you're running away from the building and there's an active situation, it'd be to start waving your hands at traffic coming by, a Blenheim and saying help they need help at the school can you call that's what I would recommend.
Kristina CecereI always told my students to run down to the police station right down the street. Yeah. Yeah. Or the
Amit Hickmanfire station in the other direction. Right. I think you guys are really well suited here in between both. depending on which way you're going.
Speaker 5Is this a place?
Sarah KelseyUh-huh.
Amit HickmanYeah.
Kristina CecereLiterally. Right, on Plenum. Just break up.
Sarah KelseyAcross from the... You know where the Sherwood Center
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceis? You know where the elementary school is?
Sarah KelseyIn the church? It's right across. It's right back there, yeah. If you make a right out. You don't go that way. You go that way.
Amit HickmanYou say the
Sarah Kelseysprint?
Amit HickmanHave you tested it? No, I'll just...
Speaker 5It takes five minutes.
Speaker 11It takes a long time to sprint there.
Speaker 5He said seven minutes,
Speaker 5I don't think I can do it as seven minutes. I'll
Studentit.
Sarah KelseyWell, these two have an answer. Caroline, do you have anything you want to add?
StudentI would say I think the teachers need to use numbered pockets a lot more often because it's really effective when it is used. And I think teachers need to be a lot more strict about phone usage because it just creates a really uncomfortable learning environment when phones are actively being used during class. And I never know what my peers are doing on their phones. want our faces to be all over the internet if we're not comfortable with it and we don't know if they're identifying us in some way and then in terms of emergencies i feel like the term emergency with phones needs to be defined more because if there's an emergency and you're on the school grounds the staff is going to take care of you and they're going to make sure that you're okay
and then if you have to exit the building I just feel like we're in a spot where there's a lot of help around and so I think the term emergency needs to be more clearly defined in terms of phone usage
Sarah Kelseynothing else there do you have anything to add first you said come
Speaker 19back okay so So the question is if the school needs to adopt this policy. It's like, it can be, I think that you need to talk with every teacher and every teacher can take different way. I think a way that is, I don't know the exact name in English is meritocracia, like basically If you want something, you need to gain, you need to fight for them and you need to, you know, win it. Win that. If maybe, I was thinking, it's an idea, I don't know. If you want your cell phone, minimum, in that class, you need to have, I don't know, B in the grade. something like that. Something that you say, I don't know, ex-student said why he has their cell phone. And the teacher said, he has a B. You have a B.
I like it.
Speaker 5Everybody on the B. Exclusive.
Amit HickmanI like that. Very prophecy.
Sarah KelseyThat is, yeah, you learn it. Okay, last one on cell phones and then we're going to move on.
Speaker 9I actually like this idea. Another thing with the cell phones is when you take away their cell phone, when you give them their cell phone, the student, there are students that use their cell phone because, again, they do not want to be here. They're forced to be here by law. They're forced to be by their parents. I mean, they're forced to be here and they don't want to be here. So their cell phone is just another way of escaping that. When you take away the cell phone, all the student is going to do, for an extended period of time so he can go talk to his friends. He's going to go to sleep in the class. He's going to disrupt the class. So again, there's really no winning. His idea, honestly, it makes it winning because, okay,
you want your cell phone. Now prove to me you deserve your cell phone. Turning your grade, I mean, turning your work. Okay, you got an A. Okay, you did your work. Okay, I can give you your cell phone back. Now you can go sit down and do your work.
Sarah KelseyThank you.
Speaker 21Yes. I'm going to combine the first two questions, but the next topic is kind of looking at course selection So how are you informed about the courses and the options that you have as a student here at Fairfax? Do you think that the course advising process has been helpful to you? Or do you have any ideas for how that could be improved?
StudentSo this is like a topic that I actually feel really strongly about. So I remember when I was an underclassman, we would have, it was like a line time session where you'd choose four different things that you could go talk about that elective or talk about the class, and the teacher will do a slideshow and all these things, and you learn about the class. And I think that was helpful to an extent, but then what I found the most helpful was talking to an upperclassman who's already taken that course, not even necessarily with the teacher, sometimes with the teacher, but just getting a student perspective on on the class and I know that's like difficult because sometimes students are very opinionated
on teachers and whatnot but I think that is that isn't the most helpful because I don't want this to sound like rude or any types of way but there's definitely at least three classes I can think in my head I would not have taken if I knew that that is the way a teacher is in a class or if that is if that's just how they run the class because I've taken some very difficult classes with amazing teachers and have made it so great for me, but I've also taken some classes that are like electives or easier classes that, like I'm someone that I always like show up, like I always do my work, but genuinely I've had some classes where I do not want to go, I do everything in my power to like, if I have an appointment, I try to schedule
it during that class, like I do whatever I can to get out of it because just being in their classroom is so like almost like detrimental to me like I do not want to be there or if like the class itself is difficult and sometimes like sometimes it might be a teacher's passion but maybe it's teaching just isn't their like absolute strong suit you know and so then it's but it just makes it so difficult and like I was kind of in a situation like that with one of my classes this year that I realized that like this was not a good class for me to take and I did everything I could but need to switch out so I just kind of had to be like struggling a lot but like I got it really you know it's April but if I could have had like it like upperclassmen or someone tell me like the
actual truth about the actual class and the way it's run I think a lot of things would be different in terms of like kids that actually want to show up to school and like things like that Yeah.
Speaker 9Um, I mean, it's basically like the Keo name with upper classroom and lower classroom. That's like a really great idea. But have you ever heard the term like Raymont professor? Yes. Something like that for high school. Um, like...
StudentBut
Amit Hickmanam I, sorry, really quickly, am I right, can I just go up, when you sign up for the It could be a multi-teacher. Yeah, okay. And
Speaker 18the majority of them have multiple teachers.
Amit HickmanOkay, so there's just like a select few that have only one teacher. Okay, continue. I just wanted to clarify.
Speaker 9But like, rate my teacher. Like, because the piggyback of our third thing is like, if we know what we're signing up with before we can get, like, before we get into that class, I feel like it will help us. I have a class that I really do not like going to. And if I would have known when I signed up to that class that this is how it's going to be, if I could have looked at my profession, like, oh, like, I would have asked for a transfer before it was too late. Like, I feel like if we allow, if we did something similar, if we allow something similar to where, okay, there's a window period. You have three days to pick out your classes with your teacher, your ideal teacher, and then we can put you in there, we can put you in there.
But there's a window. Not extended, but I do feel like that is a better way to help. Because once you get in a class that you don't want to be in, I know for me, I'm someone like, if I don't want to be in this class, I'm going to show I don't want to be in this class, or I'm just not going to show
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceup. You're going to love college. You are. You really are. I think for, I don't want to speak for Ms. Anderson, But I think it's, first of all, they don't know. And if they did that for 2,400 kids, I think the whole scheduling process might have to start four years in advance. Well,
Speaker 18yeah, I think the difference in high school and college scheduling is high school scheduling is random, right? You make a blanket list of I want to take these seven classes, and then you put it into like a randomizer and it's good. Now in college, you get to actually look at it, cross-check with your professor, build slides and actually figure it out. So you're going to really have a good time.
Speaker 11Adding on to Brandon, but most adding on to Mila, I agree with Brandon as much as I could because it is, it's really, really hard to work with some teachers, right? But it's not their fault entirely because they have a really big passion for what they do but they can't express it well in a teaching environment, if that makes sense. There's some teachers that I've taken a test during, right after the lesson that we learned. So there was no time of trying to study or anything. Lesson, but only question test. So my brain is mush after that. And it's really hard to try to understand what your teacher's going to be next year. But that's not anything that across the world probably, but that's just part of high school and that's been like that
for as long as the school's been here.
StudentCan I add on to that real quick? Is that, yeah, okay, I understand that it's like somewhat difficult to be like honest about those things and that there's, you know, like 200 kids trying to get into like this one class and there's three teachers. Like you have a like 66% chance of like getting like that teacher that, or not getting that you right but if there's just a way for like students to actually be honest about the way that they feel about a certain teacher because I know I'm thinking of one person with specific brain I'm not gonna say who they are but it's like I know for a fact that they're the only person that teaches that class that subject and I've heard year after year after like I remember being a freshman hearing the seniors talk about this the
exact same problem and so then if it's a thing where it's like what she has 200 that's been like at least 800 people come through right and they all have the same complaint is there not a way that we can like really express how we feel about like one certain class or like one certain like teacher I don't really know how that would work in a way where we can be obviously respectful towards that person but like some type of honesty because that's then where I'm telling like my my junior friends like do not like just don't like skip it so
Amit Hickmanyou're saying give first giving feedback on a specific teacher so that it that can be changed or adjusted based on the teaching because we you know if you tell you have one English 11 teacher that
Studentisn't
Amit Hickmana good fit for you but you can't you know people have to take English 11 still but being able to and that's not that is another thing they're
Speaker 18teacher initiated I'm
Amit Hickmanhaving like the flashbacks to college where you finish the semester and you do the
Speaker 18anonymous. Do any of you here, do any of your teachers ask you for feedback on their practices and how they're doing? At the end of the year. At the end of the year, but not before that.
Speaker 13But there's nothing that we can dictate for
Speaker 18that. Okay,
Carolyn Pitchesby voicegotcha. And you guys don't see that information, that's strictly for the teachers. Like if the teacher asks for feedback. Oh, yeah.
Speaker 18Well, interestingly enough, we have a few teachers that are happy to share it because they'll use it as like coaching feedback in their journey. I have like four or five that have done that and asked like how would I better improve this, this is how people are feeling. Or just noticing that the classroom culture is off and we recommended them give the survey to see like what maybe isn't working. Because assessment is down, classroom culture is off, like now it's time to really maybe like get their feedback, right? to make the class better, but we can't mandate that. So I think David both had a comment.
StudentKenneth, do you have one? So I'm well aware of all the courses that's valued by the teachers. The staff did a phenomenal job informing the students of the courses offered before we pick our schedule next year. So the transition from eighth grade to here. Yeah.
Speaker 5Go
Studentahead. I felt pretty well informed about the courses. I did feel the course advising process was helpful. You can go to teachers of the same general subject and they can tell you more about what that next level of the course is like or comparing the normal versus AP or versus honors kind of thing. We have, of course, as she said, the time that those line time times thing where we can go to classes that we're choosing and the teachers can talk about what the class is like. And we have line time, and that time can be spent going to a counselor and talking about that. And, of course, a teacher that teaches you knows what you are like and what would be good for you. One thing that I think could be helpful is having a day for 9th, 10th, and 11th, all separately,
a class of their choosing, maybe two classes or something, and literally just sit in on the class and see what a normal class is like in that class with that teacher and see what that's like. Because you're not always going to get a good idea of what the class would be like just from the teacher telling them about it. for yourself acting as if you were a student in that class could help you understand what it would be like. And that could just be time during a certain period of the day where classes are in session and the class would be spent with students spread out around the school seeing what classes would be a fit for them.
StudentLay, do you have anything? For me, the thing I think we should improve about is that I get more feedback about how that class, what is the level of the class I want to take from the student more than I get from the teacher and counselor. Because for me, it's like a different situation. I'm new to the country and I was still in ESL last year. So we only have one ESL teacher in Fairfax High School. So it's causing like...
Speaker 13You mean counselor,
Studentright? Yeah, counselor. Sorry, she said... Yeah, counselor. So there's only one counselor for ESL. So there's like a lot of students because Fairfax High School is known for diversity. So, but even though I'm new to the country, I know what my goal is and what I want to take. I want more, like, deeper advice about, like, how can I achieve my goal? Because, like, in my home country, the school system is, like, totally different. So I'm, like, new to the system. So I want to know, like, if I want to achieve this goal, which class is going to be the best fit. I got those information more from the student, like, compared to getting those from the counselors. So I think like counselors should have some deeper conversation with the student,
have different situation and like background and whatnot. So maybe like more about to listen to the student, what their plan for the future and what their goal is. So I think that might be helpful for like what class you're looking for.
Speaker 21Can we head back over there?
Speaker 9So this is more like the overall course. I want to say load. One of the students up here said you learn something then it's automatic test. And I've been in a class, one of my classes is exactly that. And I don't know if it's something that the school can do or it's something that can be rewritten. I mean, I've talked to nurses, it's an important thing, but in English, almost English 12, I mean, you learn 15 vocabulary words each week. And after those 15 vocabulary words, you have to remember all of them and you're tested next week. So if I learn them Wednesday, I get tested on it Tuesday. And so the only problem with that is, is communicative. I said that word so wrong. but it starts from the very beginning of the year and it's to now.
So from August to April, I have to remember all of those words and they're all on my test. Or they're all on my quiz. So the words that actually repeat themselves or the definition that repeat themselves is like, okay, well, this is a one word. The definition could literally be three of these and they're all on the test. because which one is the right one? You gave me a week, you were not a week, but you gave me so much short time to remember all these words and now you're putting all these words in front of my face and they all have the same meaning. So it's really difficult and it's really cruel and unusual punishment when you give that test out. I don't notice anything that you guys, like,
the part why you can rewrite it.
StudentI think that the day where we go and see other classes, that's probably the best thing I think we do during a lifetime. So I think maybe we should have a second day because I found myself doing this year. I went to some classes and I was like, yeah, I don't want to take this class anymore. And then I was like, I looked back at the thing, and I'm like, I don't know which class I want to choose now, because I don't know what the content of this class is, and this class is, and this class is. And, like, I was lucky. I had a couple friends to tell me, okay, this class is whatever, and this class is whatever. But if somebody were to not have that, like, group of people around them, or they're new to the country or something like that,
they're new to the school community, they would have no idea, no clue what to do. So I think maybe we could have a second day of that instead of just one so you could see eight classes instead of four. And then also, I think personally, I've had some not awesome experiences with scheduling courses. I know it's very hard to schedule courses, but when it happens year after year, it's really annoying. And I feel it's all happening to myself. I'm going to be wrong, but that's what it feels like with my peers that I've talked to. So, and then also like, Can
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceyou
Studentbe specific? Like certain classes, like I asked to be in such class, oh it's full now, and then, because I think they're trying to I could be wrong, they're trying to like have every student reach a single AP class. But then we don't have room for other kids that want to take more and such. So if you're taking multiple APs, it's less like we want one because I have not taken an AP yet to take an AP. I could be wrong here. From what I've heard, that's what happens, but I could be wrong. And then also, talking about, I wish my counselors would have pushed me more in certain ways because I feel like I've missed a lot of opportunities I could have had in previous years. So middle school, I feel like I missed that on a bunch because my counselors didn't push me as much.
And that led to freshman year not having as much learning as I could have had. Sophomore year, same thing. And the only thing that saved me was AP World because it really introduced me to the whole AP spectrum. And I was always against AP. But I feel like if my counselors would have pushed me more, it would have led me to maybe get into that earlier and, like, realize what I enjoyed more and the different courses that I was able to take and I was able to succeed in.
StudentI remember, it kind of has to do with the course advising process, but I remember we did this for my freshman and my sophomore year, and then we didn't do it my junior year. I don't know if it's because the juniors just didn't do it and someone else did, but basically we had a paper that had like the eight classes on it, and it was like carbon copy, so one of them was white and one of them was yellow, and then you wrote down the classes that you were interested in and you don't have a conferences with your current teacher about what they thought of that class and then they would sign off on it regardless if they like agreed or not but that they like interviewed with you and I think that that was like so so helpful choosing what class to take the
next year because I specifically remember talking to my history teacher my freshman year saying you're going to do so good in AP world like like do it and I was like so unsure about that time I was like there's no way I'm gonna But she pushed me to take it, and it ended up being one of the best classes I've taken. And I also remember, so I was in geometry honors, and I went to take algebra 2 honors. And so I put that on my paper, and my teacher was like, I'm not sure. I think this might be a little bit too fast of a pace for your class. I mean, if you really try, you'll probably be able to do good. And I was like, I think I'll be able to do it. I struggled a lot in that class. And he was right.
He knew that it was going to be too fast-paced for me. Yeah, I still did it, obviously. It was fine. in it but like it was just like hearing his feedback was like so so helpful so I went into the year knowing okay this class is gonna go a little bit faster than geometry so like after I just realized I have to have to like
Speaker 13so and you're absolutely right it has changed the county has now instructed that we are not allowed to provide what that was called recommendations so we are not allowed to say anything like that anymore because we are an open enrollment students are not pushed into things that they can be in and then they're being blocked or there's a barrier to them being able to access courses. And so the thought is that when you take that away, kids can sign up for what they want to sign up for. If they have questions or comments, yes, that's why you still have your teachers telling you about the different levels, but specifically that practice, we had to eliminate it. I think we're all about to do it. But I appreciate your feedback on that.
StudentWas it because students were flat out not allowed to take a class that they wanted if the teacher didn't agree? Or was it just a general better than you do? You were still allowed.
Speaker 18So you had a great experience, whoever recommended you to take history. You didn't have a great experience, whoever advised you in math.
StudentRight. I
Speaker 18mean, that's fine. No, I know. But that's why. So even though it was presented to you in such a way, we're allowed to tell you you can go up. to tell you you can maintain we're not allowed to tell you that you can't achieve at the level that you are deemed you're ready to achieve so we can advise across we can advise up we cannot advise children down
Speaker 9what about students like what if you did something to like you know how you have ambassadors for each like i'm an ambassador for criminal justice okay why don't you have an ambassador for the math department you have an ambassador for the social studies department And then one day, you know how we have a career day. Okay, well, this is an ambassador day. You come, you have scheduled, line of time, eight. You send a group of sophomores, you send the freshmen in there. Okay, hey, I see that you have a post about English. Can you tell me about English 12? And you have it for each grade level. Would you still like maybe do something
Speaker 13like that? Yeah, a student, like you guys talked about it multiple times, and I think you're absolutely right. That street data of like just being able to talk to your peers I think that's very valuable. And I heard you when you said having the opportunity to have more of that. And I think in my head, I was being more specific in a sense of like, should we have a panel for students who want to take AP classes for the first time or who students who want to take dual enrollment or honors classes or a specific elective. And that's kind of like what's swimming in my head right now. So I definitely heard that feedback. But you can, that's always an option, yes. I think to speak to Tyler's
Speaker 18point, I think the goal is to find what you're passionate about earlier and push you in that way. So it isn't to offer priority or opportunity over one, it's to provide those passion and priority opportunities for all. Because everybody here, there's at least something that you're good at, somewhere you want to push yourself, somewhere you can go a little further, a seat you've never seen yourself in before. And what we don't want you to do is get to 11th grade and that be the first time you're opportunity. We want to find those opportunities earlier for every student even if it's just one. And that could be if you were in a self-contained special education class and you moved to a team talk class. Or it could be if you were in a general education English class and now
you moved to an honors English class. The opportunities are there for students to push themselves somewhere that they feel comfortable with. Not about being uncomfortable, but having that
Speaker 5opportunity.
Amit HickmanSo I am curious for the freshmen. Now that there are more, my understanding, opportunities as sophomores. Is that something you guys are hearing your peers talk about? You know, it doesn't sound like it was as common when you guys were a little bit younger. Like AP seminar, for example. AP geography. Not much talk about it.
Speaker 18Are you guys taking this? Is anybody enrolling in those classes next year? So you're talking about a little bit.
Amit HickmanI'll be curious especially with it well with the ninth grade offering yeah if that'll continue to change and in the next couple years we hear different things I
Kristina Cecerewanted to follow up someone forget who over there said that you felt shut out by AP classes because was that what was your option then was it did you go to another AP where you had to move down to an honors like what what quick for you?
StudentThis year I was going to take Lit and every class was full. I could have switched out as many ways as possible and I could not. So I either had to drop history, one of my history classes down or I could just stay in the English class I was in. I just decided to keep it as it was because I didn't want to mess up the rest of my schedule because we were already a couple weeks into school already. Yeah, so I just kept it out was and just throughout the year. So I wasn't able to take two languages classes I didn't mind. Also last year, same thing happened, but it was always English opposite,
Speaker 9correct?
StudentWhatever. But same thing that happened last year as well.
Speaker 5Thank you.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAll right, well, thank all, I mean, you guys, thank you. I know you have to. Oh, Ty.
StudentOh, one more comment. This doesn't pertain to any of this, but for blind times, Especially in the last few weeks we've had a lot of non-releasable line times. First, okay, so I'm just going to use this as an example. The cultural celebration, I'm 100% what they're doing it for, but I had a math midterm that same day. Right after the cultural celebration. And I normally use line time to study. And the fact that it was non-releasable made it so I tried to bring my stuff to study in there, and I could not study in there. it was way too dark, I tried as much as possible to get out so I could study for my midterm. Especially because that's like a very, you get it twice to three times a week, if it's
a short week, you get it once a week, you may not get it any time maybe. So I feel like it's a very good time for students to do their homework, especially if they don't have a study call or a free period. So I don't think we should be like, not necessarily throwing them away but shooing them aside and putting other opportunities in the way for some people. Don't necessarily prioritize those opportunities over the studies that are doing in school at the moment. Maybe if you're in a test that day and need to study for it, stuff like that and homework. So I think it's very important to keep that time open for students to use it how they please and get as teachers and whatnot to get the help they need instead
of switching it out for something else.
StudentI actually agree with that a lot. I think And, like, I know that this wasn't on here, but if there was just, like, I don't know, it's just, like, I find line time, like, so, so important. And I know people have, like, thrown out the idea of, like, oh, is it necessary? Because some people just sit there, you know, on their phone doing nothing. But, like, I think line time is genuinely, like, one of, like, the most important classes that we have. Because, like, the hardest class I'm taking this year is AP Physics. And I think first through, like, second quarter, every single line time, I was in my AP Physics class, like, talking to my teacher, like, trying to get at least a B. anything that I could and like I said earlier I like I work a lot after school
so sometimes that makes it like difficult but like having my time is just so helpful to be able to like work on things you test corrections like ask questions before a test or a quiz and like I don't understand like sometimes it does get frustrating when we have like a lot of like senior meetings or like just like another like type of event in that way
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceyes David
Studentso similar to that there was some survey we do it a couple times throughout the year I don't remember what it's called it's one of the bigger ones though we we have to go to like the NPR or the auditorium to take the survey but the most recent one which was probably back in March or something I literally was able to log into Schoology, go to where I knew it was, start it, and finish it before we left to go to the room where we were supposed to take it. And it felt like that was a waste of my time where we could have all just done it in our classrooms. And I know that when we go to the auditorium, the wifi is not very good there and there's a lot of students all using their computers at the same time and that makes it worse.
throughout the school. That's what it normally is. There's not as much stress on the Wi-Fi. There's not as much kids in one place. And I think the signal is better just in the classrooms. So everybody does it there. Which
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceclassroom is that? I want to know. I
Studentknow it is.
Amit HickmanI'm getting great Wi-Fi in here today for the record.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceI
Speaker 11agree with with them, line time is probably the most important class that FHS has to offer, right? And one of my teachers in particular says that she does not offer tests in line time, and it throws everyone off. When you miss a test, if you're a test appointment, doctor appointment, anything like that, it's really, really hard to work with her, especially me. I'm here after school a lot, but it's trying to accommodate to her. She's not here on Wednesdays, Thursdays. She's only here on Fridays and Tuesdays. It's like, can I please just take it in line time? So I think, I don't know if there's a mandate. It might not be, but it'd be nice if teachers could just help work with us a little bit and
Speaker 5let us take tests
Speaker 11in line time.
StudentSo I just have a little suggestion about course selection. Because our course selection is like during line time transaction, we can go to the course that we want to choose for next year. And the teacher who are teaching that class is going to give our presentation. but maybe we could like make a student representation like let the student who already have taken those class to give out the presentation because teacher giving the presentation because like teachers like they already know the knowledge they are teaching but the student is like learning something that brand new to them so if we make like student to represent and give out like feedback it might be more genuine and more helpful to students who want to
StudentOkay, so like, so like, so like sometimes like it can be hard to think like which class do you want to pick based on like your schedule and it has to do with picking choices. So like in the beginning of the year, so like in my cultural society, so like they had a They had a course on their sign-up, and I was thinking, like, should I get in the course of the research or not based on my schedule? But my mom told me that do something that I love. So she knows that my schoolwork is also important, but she also knows that what I want, what I left through my schoolwork is also important, so I decided to sign up for a course of the research. And what I left for the course of the research thing is that
I went out there and performed and I showed support to my club. So like, I also understand that, like, so like, we do so much school work, have to practice my instrument, volleyball inside school, and have to practice for my coach celebration. That's a lot of work. and sometimes I want to play games, but the school thing, but I know that school work's important because, like, if you get a zero, then that kills your grade, which can ruin your college application. So, like, I'm trying to understand, so, like, if I get frustrated or sad a lot, then should I take that class or not? That's all I have to think. Good
Carolyn Pitchesby voicequestion. Those are good questions.
Sarah KelseyAll right, last one. Thank
Speaker 9you. But I was listening and I was thinking to myself, and this kind of has something to do like hand-in-hand with the phone policy and also grading. We were talking about like quarter and rolling grade book, but I think we need to look more deeper in it when it comes down to, okay, you don't turn into grade. but at the end of the quarter it automatically goes up to 50 because the grade one doesn't recognize zeros. So in certain classes or in certain assignments, I mean, I know I don't have to turn this in because eventually it's going to say zero, but eventually it's going to become 50. And correct me if I'm wrong, but however, I believe that we should have it to where now, okay, you've been on your phone all semester, you didn't turn your work.
So why is it to where a student like me may or may not miss an assignment, okay, yeah, thank you for the 50, but that student who didn't do their work, who, you know, disobeyed the whole whatever, I feel like we should have it to where, okay, I mean, you get what you get. zero states I mean I don't know how you like regulate it but I honestly do feel that zero should now be recognized in the gradebook and I can say that now because I'm a senior. It
Sarah Kelseymakes you happy there are zeros in college.
Speaker 9I feel that a zero should be recognized in the gradebook.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceDr. A do you want to speak to that a little bit why because we did used to have zeros once upon a time and we... Up until COVID there were zeros.
Speaker 18Well and then we did then everything that the minimum grade was a 50 kind of compensated for what some of you talked about here is that one assignment would not derail like your overall average then now the policy changed back to you could give zeros for students that did not make a reasonable attempt at work at the work but the policy also says that before the end of the quarter and zeros have to be turned back to 50s so
Amit Hickmanthere's really no zero
Speaker 18I
Speaker 13think
Speaker 18that philosophy is like that you want to instill a behavioral change in adolescents because they are, yeah, by giving them 50, right? So if I have a terrible first quarter and, you know, my basement is a 50, but I'm getting myself together and I'm getting, I wouldn't be able to come back. I'm not coming back from a 22% as a first quarter grade. If I get myself together and get like a 60 and then maybe a 70 and something else, I'm not coming back from anything below a 50. And if you play the game of averages, you're not gonna be able to bounce back from that. And so the idea is that it's still an F, but that it isn't digging such a deep hole that a child couldn't dig themselves out of it is where the philosophy comes from.
And we know that adolescents' brains are so developing. So we're trying to give them those opportunities to see that not all is lost, that you can kind of work your way through coming to line time, doing retakes, like investing, like we really want to get those things kind of built in them, knowing that college isn't going to offer them those opportunities, but that ultimately, and I would say this, if you take grading out of it, like the primary goal is really to give them good feedback so that anybody up here can tell me, So, it's really trying to get even them to think beyond the grades because we're so grade-driven by that number, but it's really about the feedback. And if the teachers are giving them quality feedback to understand where they need to come back and improve, and that's where we're trying to get to.
And that's where we're trying to get to. And that's where we're trying to get to. But even with rolling grade books like We have a lot more teachers using quarterly because I love a rolling grade book too if it's standards or skill-based But we don't have standards and skill-based grade books. We have rolling grade books in name but not in practice, right? And so we're trying to get people To move in that direction as well.
Amit HickmanI think also part of it is that if you think about it if a zero was an F Then a 50 should be a C, right? But a C is like what 70 something is disproportionate And it's almost like the high school version of a bell curve. Yeah. Because when you're in college and everybody takes a test and the average is a 62, it switches it and they grade on a curve and then everybody's grades. They don't do it anymore just so you know. In any colleges? Some do. All right, guys. It's fine. The
Amit Hickmando not. Okay. Well, in theory, that's my understanding is it's part of it. It used to be, yes. It used to be. Yeah. I was at Tech's Adabel. They really
Speaker 5don't have that felon.
Sarah KelseyThey have them.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSome schools, but not the majority. They did
Speaker 5for my
Carolyn Pitchesby voicemaster's.
Speaker 5I just had a master's
Carolyn Pitchesby voicedegree.
Speaker 5Some classes have
Speaker 13the perm,
Speaker 5but it was
Speaker 13at the teacher's discretion. So my criminal justice teacher, my professor, Dr. Donnie, my doom is, oh my goodness, no perm at all in any
Speaker 18of her classes. And so in other classes, you can get around with them. But at the end of the day, we want them to get I mean, and that's why sometimes people get frustrated about retaking, but it's like if you can retake and you do better, we know you're learning it. Like, you're learning the standards. You're mastering the standards, right? Even beyond the grade, the better score shows us that you're mastering that content, so when it presents itself again somewhere else, you know it.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceOkay,
Speaker 18all right. Thank you, guys. Thank
Amit Hickmanyou so much.
Speaker 5Now you get
Amit Hickmanto do one. So I do have a question. I see you're floating on your ankle. How many are left?
Speaker 9Yeah, too many. Yeah, I think we have like 150 students doing your right now.
Amit HickmanOkay, because I see a lot of, some of you all don't have one, so. Are
Sarah Kelseyyou guys all out, the rest of you?
Sarah KelseyOkay. You can't get out
Amit Hickmanon the school. Oh, you can't get out on the school. Okay.
Speaker 9There's no point where I get to school, but once you.
Amit HickmanOkay. You have to have it for the second you stand out.
Speaker 5All
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceright, you guys, thank you. We really appreciate your feedback. And so, your administrator. Yes, we do. Thank you. You guys did a wonderful job. Yeah.
Sarah KelseyPutting it up with your administration. I'll
Speaker 13give you
Sarah Kelseya service hour. There you go. If you have any other questions, feel free to email us.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceThank you. Thank you guys. Have a great night. Thank
Speaker 5you.
Sarah KelseyThank you
Speaker 5for coming. Thank you.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceI feel like that's all you're
Speaker 18calling me. I know. Some other girl comes up to me today, she's like, I'm trying to get someone started seeing you. I was like, stop doing it. I'm glad that you're strategizing
Speaker 5with the
Speaker 18principle of how they're doing. This is not an FCPS to join the activity. This is not an FCPS to join the live money. Yeah,
Speaker 5does it sign? Wait, they get money? Yes. They buy into
Speaker 11it.
Speaker 18What? Yes. Last year at like $20.
Speaker 11No one won it last year.
Speaker 18$20.
Speaker 11We all
Speaker 18pay $5. I think it was just for the fun of the game. It's Langley.
StudentIt's the Langley.
Speaker 18Everybody's like, oh, let's all play.
Kristina CecereWe have serve faculty? Yeah,
Speaker 18right? We
Speaker 5involved. We'll play. We'll play somewhat more recently. No team manager should be there.
Speaker 18Yeah, I don't know, but they said it was like a big, it was like a $50 buy-in or something for the kids. Yeah, but it was crazy. And so they said they had kids to be crazy. Oh, I'm sure. No, because the pop was so.
Amit HickmanOh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was just some light-hearted, cute little, like, no. No, apparently not.
Speaker 5So
Speaker 18we had somebody, we even had an issue with that last year. We had somebody that had, like, they went to open their garage, and the assassin was hiding behind the bushes and slid into the garage. So when he went in, the girl got out of the car. And then she got the girl on the leg when she got out of the car. But he was like, you know, trust me. You just put it on it all? Yeah. You
Sarah Kelseyput it on it all?
Speaker 18Yeah. It's like
Sarah Kelseysuper tense. Yeah.
Speaker 18We're like milder. Some people have like horror stories about how crazy it's like, it's getting more like it. And then like, when you think about the popularity and the whole world makes it so it's everything that reminds me of it, right? I
Carolyn Pitchesby voicewas like, why
Amit Hickmandid you do it?
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSo
Amit Hickmanif it's around 8 and 1. So we walked out.
Speaker 11So we just got to do it. But everyone has everyone's limitations.
Speaker 5I can see somewhere. It's crazy. But when
Sarah Kelseyyou. Or
Speaker 5through the window. Are you kidding?
Jeff PlatenbergstaffThank you for the opportunity to talk to you about the summer program. There are a lot of questions about what is going to happen, and more importantly, what isn't going to happen. We talked about it again today, Chair. The summer of 2024, just to give you context, the elementary schools and the Young Scholars Program. Middle schools offered Imagine Math and the Reading Intervention Program. High schools offered some credit recovery courses online in person and several locations. These are the numbers of the students that were involved in each of those programs. So, I mean, it wasn't great but there were attendance and there were offerings for students who needed it. So, summer 2025, what's the deal with what's going on there?
where really no schools are offering Bridge to K or the Young Scholars Program except selected schools, like Providence Elementary School or Title I schools. They will include the SOAR intervention program and the Explorers Program, providing English language development and instruction. They're only being offered again to the Title I schools, so Daniel's Run will not be having them. Middle schools are not offering the Imagine Intervention Program at selected schools. and Jockton will be offering a pre-algebra called Algebra Power Up. It's a program designed to boost algebra enrollment and success. And I think actually we have better options at the middle and the high school. And at the high school, I was just talking to Dr. A,
she's offering summary credit recovery courses online and in person. In other words, she's got over 40 different classes that she offers over the summer. So huge shout out to Dr. A, for them. Some of the considerations, as I said, Dan has run into Title I school. We tried to get a cost assessment as to what the SWOR program alone really would cost, and it's over $44,000 in staffing. And as I said, it's not including lunch and so on. That cost doesn't include any barista K or any young scholars. Before and after school programs, it's important to note, they appear to have been more impactful than a lot of these programs. I'm not saying in all cases because every child is different. So what are the possible and future city support?
This really kind of goes down the history. Since COVID, we've had an additional position this summer to have the seats to the FCPS program for elementary. As you know, we've gone through trying to rush to provide opportunities when FCPS said that they were only going to have summer school with one school and then of course now having it go away. The city elementary principals discussed the possibility of adding a short kindergarten program for all students. I know Daniels run opposite like three to five days before school starts and the elementary principals have felt well we talked, whatever we talked about.
Amit HickmanThe first two weeks
Jeff Platenbergstaffof school. They
Amit Hickmandon't assign a teacher.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffAnd what What they also said, if you wouldn't mind, they were talking about how beneficial it was versus.
Amit HickmanYeah, so they're assigned a homeroom class for the first two weeks, but they switch in and out, and they get to know the students, and then they place them after the first two weeks in a kindergarten classroom so they can do assessments and get a better feel for the needs of the different children before they do placements because the initial come in for half an hour wasn't giving them the information. But that's done separately, that from bridge decay was more focused on just children who had never been in any sort of school setting.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffRight. Well, thank you for that clarification, because they both said, both of our elementary principals, say that that type of program is much more impactful and beneficial in the law record. Current city support, you know, really is, you heard about it tonight, about the transition, and how beneficial that was from some of the students you mentioned. So really that's a quick summary. I know I was asked to be brief and I think it was. And we did spend a lot of time talking about it, but the chair and vice chair, as Ms. Hickman just pointed out really in the clarification, talking about this and the impact. And as I said, it's more of what isn't being provided. Now, one of the questions that came up is, well what if they all of a sudden say they're going to provide some of this?
Well, no, these programs are what they've said is going to happen. And there were a lot of reasons for that, for staffing, getting people set up, making sure they could have the programs and locations, et cetera, the logistics of cleaning transportation. So with that, any questions you might have?
Kristina CecereAll right, Ms.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceSusseroy.
Kristina CecereI have at least one question for now. When it comes to the programming offered at Providence, only Providence students who are attending those programs or is that other students from Title I schools close to Providence?
Jeff PlatenbergstaffIt's only the students of Providence that can attend the Title I. Could
Kristina Cecerethey're
Speaker 15I think as Phil said it's because London Town is the other title. Oh that's right. They're having it. Right. So they'll be he could have a program up to 400 students so Mr. Pratt is already looking into, they're looking into hiring now a principal for that I believe.
Kristina CecereIs there any consideration for maybe considering students who are on free and reduced lunch, or might be potentially on free and reduced lunch coming into Daniel's Run to potentially be eligible for attending that programming there at
Jeff PlatenbergstaffProvidence? It's not my understanding that they're opening up for anybody but Title I students. And it was looking at, uh, reasonably. They're
Speaker 15not Title I, they're not allowed. That's unfortunate. It is.
Kristina CecereThank you.
Amit HickmanOkay, so one thing I would definitely be interested in getting the pulse from the Daniels Run, kindergarten teachers especially, is kind of what, looking at the numbers, I didn't realize there was only six children in
Speaker 5birth
Amit Hickmandecay.
Speaker 5Yeah.
Amit HickmanThat is way less than I thought it was. I think in past years it had been like 20, so that's interesting. But it's also interesting to look at that. there were 57 SOAR students at Daniel's Run versus 49 at Providence. So that 44,000 is a huge amount. But just kind of what the need is and what would the, I'd be interested to hear kind of what the repercussions are if this doesn't take place. Because I know you talked about the before and after school tutoring can be more beneficial. But Daniel's Run doesn't have before and after school tutoring.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffRight. The question is what the repercussions. Yeah.
Amit HickmanYeah. What would it look like if SOAR wasn't provided in the summer, and if it's not as beneficial as it might, you know, some say that it might be, what would it look like to help support the students who might have missed out on SOAR with the form after-school tutoring that's not currently taking place at Daniel's Run, even though it's thriving at Providence? If you need me to clarify, I will. I hope that made sense.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffIt did.
Amit HickmanOkay. That's all my time.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceWe determined that it's about $44,000 for SOAR. Correct. If we were to add Daniel Brown. Okay. Ms. Elsie?
Sarah KelseyI kind of am curious though on that $44,000 what that pays for. Like how, it's like, but how many staff, how many kids would that cover? Yeah. Would that cover the 57 that they had last year or is that going to cover 30 kids, you know? How many teachers will that actually cover?
Jeff PlatenbergstaffIt was my understanding there was an administrator. The number 12 brings a bell in my head. It was like 12 to 16 that they were looking in terms of staff. I thought
Speaker 5it
Carolyn Pitchesby voicewas based on the number.
Amit HickmanYeah, it would cover, it says it here. It would cover costs over $44,000 in staffing. That doesn't include lunch or curriculum. But that
Sarah Kelseydoesn't tell me how many teachers that is. And then how many teachers go in, or how many kids go in that class then?
Speaker 5So it says there'd be three sections, 85 hours. There'd be three teachers. There would be two resource teachers, one IA. The allocate would be for 54 kids. So it looks like they averaged. And there would be one administrator and a registrar. an office assistant, and a health aide, and a .5 family liaison. So that was the staffing for just Daniel's friend, for 54 children.
Sarah KelseyAnd then how much then would that then, because it says it does not cover the lunch or the curriculum support, which we would have to cover as well. So how much would that cost in addition? They
Speaker 5did not give us those numbers. They just gave us the staffing numbers. There is some, there was about $1,000 in supplies that they gave us. So I think that 44 includes the supplies, but it doesn't include. It doesn't include
Speaker 5curriculum. And from what I understand, that's also not transportation.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceYeah, transportation is going to be... Right,
Speaker 5transportation is going to be usually transportation.
Speaker 21Yes. I'm very familiar with the Bridge to Canterbury and the New York Scholars, but I do not know as much about SOAR. Could someone provide a little more background on that?
Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, the answer is, Tom, we'll go ahead and provide a written response on how long it is actually. Okay.
Jeff Platenbergstaffbelieve SLOAR
Kristina Cecereis like for students with disabilities, I believe, if I recall correctly. No? No. That's CSY. Oh, that's CSY. My apologies. Thank you for clarifying.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceIt is like remediation. I think it's mostly math and reading. Yeah. And the students are identified. And then they're invited. For all grade levels? Yeah.
Speaker 15We have it at all grade levels at Providence. When it was as robust as it was, it was a B
Sarah Kelseygrade level. Just a clarification, I'm sure I know the answer. ESY is still happening though, correct? Okay. I know it had, it's supposed to, but I just want to make sure that... Yeah, they can. Yeah, and if it's on the IEPs, it's legal. I'm just,
Studentyou
Sarah Kelseyjust got to ask one of those questions.
Speaker 5I
Sarah Kelseyjust kind of would like to know the other amount for the curriculum, lunch, and transportation as well. So like, if we did do this for Daniel's run, what would that cost as well? Yeah, because that, I mean.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffWe just simply didn't have it.
Sarah KelseyYeah, no, no, I know. I just kind of would be curious. And the
Jeff Platenbergstafftransportation people, we can try and get it.
Sarah KelseyI get
Jeff Platenbergstaffthat one, yeah.
Sarah KelseyAn estimate kind of thing, type thing on transportation, obviously.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffSo the curriculum lunch and transportation, right?
Sarah KelseyYeah, the stuff that wasn't included in that $44,000 for it. It's
Carolyn Pitchesby voicevery pricey. I don't know if we're going to be able to.
Sarah KelseyWell, and then that was my other question is, where are we going to find that money? Do
Jeff Platenbergstaffwe have to
Sarah Kelseytake something away?
Jeff PlatenbergstaffWe didn't have, we haven't even. Yeah. Okay. We were just trying to get the information because of the request because it came in. So, I mean, just the fact that some of the programs are being basically eliminated unless they have to be able to. Yeah.
Amit HickmanI'm not saying that when you wanted it. I would love it. I'm just saying. But my understanding, I think that my understanding is that also if a school does have instructional funds, they can offer their own program if they're not Title I, but they have to have the instructional funds to cover that. So I don't know
Speaker 15what that will look like
Jeff Platenbergstaffin other elementary schools.
Speaker 15Well, I mean, we would supplement with city funds to boost what the county gave us. Supplement it basically. Right. But I can tell you on the finance side, you don't even get $44,000 in your instructional supply account. So there's basically, you know, I can't imagine another school being able to offer that.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffThere were concerns about the staff, even though we had the numbers, about the ability to get enough staff. That's always hard.
Speaker 15But the other thing you need to worry about is finding people to do it.
Amit HickmanSo I was kind of curious, would we be getting more bang for our buck, looking into investing more in tutoring?
Sarah KelseyAfter school.
Amit HickmanYeah, before or after school, then we might, in a summer program, that also includes lunch and recess and all these things. If we're looking to have a way to remediate, because we clearly don't want the 57 students who capitalized on it and utilized it last year to not have that additional support. be more possible, maybe it's not.
Sarah KelseyWell, but that could kind of go with, because Providence does do tutoring before an actual, could we see what their numbers, like just for tutoring, like math and reading tutoring, what their numbers are, like, because obviously we've got 49 here for the summer. Are we hitting more? Because I mean, it'd probably be very similar to Daniel's run like that.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffAnd Dan had mentioned something about the conversations that Andrew was really bullish on that, saying that was more, There are other ways that we're making this
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceprogram. Yeah, that's what we're saying.
Amit HickmanThat's why I'm curious, can we replicate that program? This might be kind of the catalyst for the need to replicate it.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffRight, so I added, would we be getting more bang for a buck in tutoring after school? Mm-hmm. For us to follow up on that.
Kristina CecereMadam Chair, can I ask a clarifying question? Yes. Just to clarify, SOAR is, is that still being offered at Daniel's front? Nothing is offered. Okay. Sorry. I just saw Bridge Security Garden only young scholars is offered it. But everything else is getting cut.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceDaniels-Renold has nothing, right? Zero.
Speaker 5Nothing I can even know has received. But nothing I can even know has support.
Jeff PlatenbergstaffThat's a great point. It's been a great time
Amit Hickmanto renovate.
Carolyn Pitchesby voiceAll right, does anybody else have any? All right, I guess we can revisit this. I think it's best to do what the schools think is going to be most beneficial for them rather than us pay for something that they don't think is going to have a deep impact as something else. So, I don't know,
Studentmaybe
Carolyn Pitchesby voicewe could check in with the principals are in terms of what they, I guess it's mostly Daniels run. What, you know. Because they would need to have an administrator too. They have to pay. They have to have a summer school administrator. I mean, usually before he started. And the teachers, there's also
Speaker 5a strong, yeah, I mean, that they are not even Daniels run employees at the same
Sarah Kelseytime. I mean, they
Speaker 5would
Sarah Kelseyhire them all around the county, but you can apply from, it's just a summer school job. All right. And we'll go ahead and provide all these questions. Thank you. All right. Okay. If that's it, I'll adjourn. Thank you. At 9.03.