School Board Work Session

Carolyn PitchesGood evening everyone. Today is Monday, January 27th of 2025 and this is the work session of the City of Fairfax School Board. So we're going to have all of you all in one place. And we're going to start with Ms. Baymig and Assistant Superintendent of Region 5, the region report. Wonderful.

Rebecca BaenigstaffWell, good evening, everybody. Chair for pitches, members of the school board, Mr. Plattenberg, Mr. Phillips, and team. We're thrilled on behalf of the Region 5 leadership team here. We're excited to join you tonight to present the state of the schools. We're especially grateful that our principals are here alongside us this evening, Dr. A, Mr. Smith, Ms. Mullen, and Mr. Pratt. We appreciate their support in not only preparing this presentation, but of course the great work they do in their schools every single day on behalf of the students, staff, and families in this community. This year's presentation holds special significance because we've had lots of change since just this time last year.

and I think we're here the same week last year. We want to give a wholehearted welcome and congratulations to Miss Sessori and Mr. Bartolome on your important milestone in becoming members of this board. We really appreciate you being willing to serve. It's such an important part of our work. I don't know if the city of Fairfax has ever had a full school board with so much educational background and experience. But

Kristina Cecereby voicethis is like a powerhouse

Rebecca Baenigstaffteam of educators, which I think is to have people who want to step up in our community and all that would be to serve in these roles, but people with educational backgrounds and experiences is pretty special and unique and completely appreciated. And of course, Ms. Maloney is new since last year. And then the Region 5 leadership has changed with Mr. Stokes and Mr. Lehman joining the team. So lots of change, but as we know, change supports all of our growth and just accentuates the work we do, having new people. So tonight's presentation will be structured around three major components. First, we'll provide just a brief overview of Region 5, including some high-level data around our key priorities to help familiarize our newest board members with the region.

Our main focus is that middle section you see there, really aligning our presentation the FCPS strategic plan, excellence, equity, and opportunity. And in this section, we'll highlight the strategic priorities across the five goals of the strategic plan and present relevant data specific to the four city schools. I'd like to kind of give a disclaimer that tonight we're endeavoring to cover all five goals in the presentation. FCPS leadership presents these goals individually to the Fairfax County Board in reports. So our aim tonight is to be as concise and efficient as possible. We certainly as always are happy to schedule any follow-up conversations if we don't get to all the questions you might have or

also connect you with some of our colleagues in FCPS I know we have a history of colleagues coming to the board and sharing relevant information So please just let us know we're happy to further engage around this important work and then lastly given the recent changes in our state accreditation system will provide an update on the current state of our city schools based on last year's metrics while offering a timely forecast as we prepare for the new accreditation framework this year

Kristina Cecereby voiceso

Rebecca Baenigstaffjust some brief data on region 5 it encompasses a five high school and FCPS Peter Elementary and middle schools. We proudly serve 43 schools and nearly 39,000 students across the Chantilly, Fairfax, Marshall, Westfield, and Woodson Pyramids. I think this map of the region is interesting. You can really see just the grounds that the region covers. As illustrated on the map, we span a large geographic area. We draw from six different magisterial districts within and the county of Fairfax, and of course, the city of Fairfax residents. So we feel lucky, and we always joke we just have to occupy the Oaten Pyramid, and we're completely in the false church, you know, like a little game of risk. But no, take that off the record.

We're good. So just shifting a little bit to the Region 5 priorities, we've had two main priorities for the last several years. The first you see here is centering our work around building strong effective guiding coalitions within each of our schools We know that leadership cannot rest solely with the principal and how necessary it is to cultivate teams of teacher leaders To work alongside the principal to drive progress and improve outcomes for all students So to support this work our region leadership has been actively participating in guiding coalition meetings across the region last week meeting with their team we're providing feedback after those visits should just foster growth and strengthen strengthen support around the work and

we've also provided our school leaders with opportunities to collaborate with fellow administrators from schools with similar needs sharing their experiences and the work of their guiding coalitions within those networks and we found that super beneficial. Our second priority, and this is our third year of this work, is focused on learning and implementing effective behavior for solutions. And this initiative was driven three years ago really around the needs to address challenges in the aftermath of the pandemic as our schools work diligently to restore a positive school culture, reinforce both academic and social behavior your expectations, and strengthen relationships. So this process that is reflected in this text

is really mirroring the cycle we use for academic instruction, identifying the expected academic and social behaviors for students, explicitly teaching those expectations, collecting data to assess whether students have mastered those skills, and providing then targeted interventions and supports as needed, needs school-wide or whether we see for individual or small groups of students. We built a really strong partnership with one of the authors, Jessica Hannigan, and we'll be welcoming her back in just a few weeks for a second session with our leaders from the region. It really helps to have somebody so grounded for leading us. So now we'll dive into the FCPS strategic plan, excellence, equity, and opportunity.

This plan serves as our division's North Star, and it's charting the course of our work starting in 2023 and through the year

Kristina Cecereby voice2030.

Rebecca BaenigstaffOur strategic plan's organized around five student-centered goals that you see here on the screen. these are the outcomes that we want for each and every one of our students. Each of these goals has a set of measures and this is how we monitor and make the necessary, monitor our progress and then make the operational adjustments to stay on course. Each goal also has an equity commitment and this is our promise that we make to each and every student to support them in obtaining these goals. And then on the bottom you'll see the four operational pillars that support strategic plan. So these are the principles on which we organize our work and structure our work to achieve our goals. On this slide, you'll see, as we operationalize the strategic

plan, we've identified initial priority metrics to focus our efforts in schools and departments. We know we can't do all of the plan and do it well, so that's why we've really prioritized measures to start with. And these are key drivers for success across multiple measures within our strategic plan. This really provides schools with continuity of their efforts, really allowing teachers and staff to become more proficient in this work before introducing new work. So if you look at goal one there, our metrics recognize that our students enter FCPS with a wealth of diverse academic and non-academic experiences and reflect our efforts to meet the needs of all students, whether their first day of formal education, starting in preschool,

kindergarten, or as a transfer into the system. So for that, we are monitoring the availability of pre-K. we are also monitoring multilingual learner sharing moving on to goal two this school recognizes the importance of fostering a safe welcoming classroom and school environment where students are engaged and set up for success so for this school we're monitoring chronic absenteeism discipline disproportionality and inclusion of students with disabilities Goal 3 focuses on core academic achievement and rigor across grades. And for this goal, we're monitoring reading by third grade, middle school, algebra 1, and advanced coursework and CTE in life. For Goal 4, this recognizes the importance of students having options to take an elective

or an extracurricular that ignites a passion, fosters community, and deepens expertise in an area of interest. delving into course taking patterns and participation in curricular, cocurricular, extracurricular, and enrichment activities. And for this goal in particular, especially the equity and activities, we are really at like a super building of baseline, right? Because we don't necessarily, what we've discovered in some of this work is sometimes we don't even have the system to have the current reality, the data collected for what the current reality is. So you'll find as we review these goals tonight, some we have a lot more information and some less because our goal teams are really still at the foundation of pieces, really collecting that baseline data.

And then the last goal will five focuses on every student graduating ready to thrive in life after high school With the skills to navigate adapt and innovate so for this we're looking at graduation Equity and really looking as early as I'm afraid to identify students that are New dashboards

Kristina Cecereby voiceI appreciate seeing that Gold 4 has an equity in extracurricular activities. What does that encompass? So we're going to get into it a little bit. That

Rebecca Baenigstaffis an area that we're still very much identifying with the current reality. We have some examples of that at our elementary schools. We recognize, especially our Title I schools, don't always have, you know, the robust PTAs to fund a lot of after-school programming. And so one of the things we have done for Title I schools, and Mr. Crack can certainly talk about how Providence is benefiting from this, but pay for science Columbia, pay for math Columbia, pay for young scholars work, right? So just really making sure that we're not leaving it up to individual schools, but really being systematic in that. Also, I'd say our middle school sports. And, you know, again, we're very lucky at Catherine Johnson.

I'd say one of the very best after-school specialists who hasn't always had a robust program that really is something that is a model for other schools. But again, looking at what is offered, knowing that the afterschool programs are largely driven by student interests, but really looking at that and kind of making sure all students, no matter what there's a goal at school, are going to have those opportunities. So the expansion of that sports across country and track is just another way that we would do that. But I'll just, our principals, Gordon and Chad, are there other examples you might offer?

Chad LehmanstaffWell, I think that, you know, obviously there's expanding opportunities at the high school level as well. You mentioned the introduction of the middle school sports. But there's also been the additional, like volleyball, girls wrestling, winter cheer, just providing a few additional opportunities for students to participate in those activities. And I think it's just continuing to try to learn at, like Becky said, this is actually a goal area that I am working on or a part of that team. And it's really trying to, in the onset, as she mentioned, kind of collect that data from the schools to see, like, where are we currently? Because we just don't have the data available to see what is each elementary school providing.

How are they staffing it? How are they funding it? What transportation modes do they have available to students? Because as you can imagine, that can drive a lot of when students are able to access after school or parents, whatever the case may be. So I think it's continuing to try to provide opportunities. Because Fairfax City and Fairfax County in general are very rich in opportunities. It's just being able to make sure that students can access them in a way that's going to benefit perhaps all of our students.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, that's a quick question. When we talk about equity in high school sports, I often think about high school sports are supposed to be an opportunity for kids to play sports. not necessarily be able to access them through clubs or play to play. And now it seems, we live in Northern Virginia and I'm guilty of this, I had two daughters who went through Fairfax High School who both played EC and L soccer. Never an issue to make the soccer team, but there were plenty of kids who played rec or hadn't played but had interest in playing but they couldn't, they weren't given that Well, at tryouts, your coaches understandably want to take the top players. But then we have this, it just doesn't seem fair to kids who don't have access to private

trainers or plane travel or any of those things. I think this has only been exacerbated probably in the last 15 years or so. Back in the 80s when I went to the Airbus County High School. It was. You could try out for the volleyball team. If you never played volleyball, it's okay. Come try out. And now it feels very much like a lot of kids don't even go to tryouts because they don't have those advantages that a lot of kids in this area do in terms of that?

Chad LehmanstaffI think it varies, and it depends a bit, too, I think on the sport and the school. So there are some sports at the varsity level or at the JV level in some high schools where they don't feel the team because they don't have enough students who come out to try out for that sport. And then you have other sports and if you haven't played competitively and have a certain skill set, you're not likely to make the varsity team, where the goal becomes more about being competitive.

Carolyn PitchesIs there an effort to identify those in each school, maybe offer an intramural type of team? This is just me.

GeorginastaffI can speak to a few things that we're doing. I know a lot of our multilingual learners have some challenges, but a lot of them are very interested in soccer. conflicting or competing interests, right? Where maybe they can't always stay for four days of practice after school or it doesn't lend itself to the schedule or maybe they're not when they're trying out making the team. So we're working on kind of like a soccer without borders program, kind of, but more of like an international and a flexible schedule for them to kind of just provide that opportunity. And then there are some, if you look at co-curricular, like maybe you didn't make the cheerleading squad, dance team right so we do have some other options where we can like direct

students to there are other things that don't have that you know you don't get caught from but that you still

Chrisstaffit's no cut right so and right obviously they're I

Georginastaffthink it's also being open. I know that it probably seems a little more popular in Maryland than in Virginia, but like that girls' black football kind of has taken like an insurgence, right? So we did have a student that came and she started like a club, right? So I think we've had like nine new clubs created this year. So it's also that entry point for opportunity, finding the sponsor and making sure kids can find their people and have something that they like to do. So we do try to support that as much as possible. Thank you. We're really... Yeah.

Speaker 8I would say briefly just to kind of piggyback on what he was saying earlier, I think because we've been fortunate to really fully leverage the funding that's available to us from Title I. This year it's a real kind of focus around after school programming. We already had such great support utilizing the City of Fairfax funding, so it's really created this amplifying effect to having our program be as full and rich as it's ever been. We have, we through And so we have this like combination of like math Olympiad science Olympiad You know partnership with the city of Fairfax this is a series of help like also like After school soccer right we also had like Staff driven We've been clubbing sponsored driven after school clubs.

We have a volleyball program that one of our staff members is really excited about. It's been a really kind of mixed landscape, and it's created for a lot more opportunities for students than we've ever had, and I think it's because of the different funding that's been there to support staff supporting it, as well as, I would also give credit to, we've created our own after school coordinator as well, and Megan Randolph is one of our classroom teachers and has been a real leadership role for her. And that position is there because of the funding that's in place through Title I. And because of that, it's allowed us to do more with some of that city room, right? Thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou, Mr.

Speaker 8Raj.

Amit Hickmanby voiceI'm actually going to follow up.

Carolyn PitchesOkay.

Amit Hickmanby voiceLooks like you're going to go into the individual things. I will wait. But by the way, not every school walked on.

Speaker 4in 1984?

Speaker 15You

Carolyn Pitcheswere probably born.

Rebecca BaenigstaffNo, so yeah, we will go into depth on some, we'll go into more depth than others on some of these measures, and you'll I think as a result of the precedent, you'll see where we have more data than that, and what, you know, these questions are about goal 4, but we're just still so early in that process. But what I love about this is this is our work, right, for the next many continue to provide you all with these data the school suggests that you would be able to come right alongside us to see that evolution.

Chad LehmanstaffOkay, so that leads us into the school improvement plans, which of course are aligned to the strategic plan but also then to school accreditation measures. And for school improvement plans, obviously each school is tasked with developing a school improvement plan and then monitoring that plan What's required is that at the elementary level, they have to have a reading goal at the third grade level and a math goal. And then you have some choice areas as well that you can choose from. In the middle school, we're looking at the reading goal as well, along with eighth grade algebra. Students are accessing that course. And at the high school level, there's a performance and coursework, which you have actually some options in terms of how you might tackle that particular goal in your school improvement plan.

towards advanced coursework, which you will learn a little bit later in the presentation has been a really sharp focus area for Fairfax High School, where Dr. Ray has seen some really great gains in that area. So just to kind of give you a very high-level overview of the school improvement plans for each of the four schools, they of course align to those required areas within their school improvement plans. I think the one thing that's really interesting to point out as I was reading through and continuing to learn more about these schools They're really focused on the growth aspects, and so using the new assessment, the VALS, which stands for Virginia Language and Literacy Screening System, which is given K through

3, utilizing that new screener as a way to really measure student growth is something that our schools are committed to because we know that that early literacy is so impactful. And then as well as continuing to use SOL measures, specifically focused, you'll notice have there. There are gap groups that they're strategically focused on. You'll see a big focus around kids with disabilities and for multilingual learners for both reading and math. And as you can see, Daniel's run. And I think everybody, you know, even outside of the school improvement plan, everybody continues to stay focused around chronic absenteeism because we know it's so critical to student success. And we'll talk a little bit more

about where schools are in just a minute with that. And you can see Providence, they're selected, one of their choice goals being around the SEL screener and monitoring that area of emotional regulation, which we know is important at that age. And I know a little bit down the road, Becky will actually talk a little bit deeper about the SEL screener. And so not to continue repeating, you can kind of see where the goals are there again focused on reading and math. Johnson is also great focused on that student growth however at the middle school level they use I-Ready as their measure for that the assessment that they utilize and again focused on students with disabilities as they are in math as well making sure that they are

demonstrating growth specifically for students with disabilities in math is a big big target area for Chris and his team over there. Science has become an increased area of focus for our middle school and our high school students as well as fifth grade science but wanted to make sure that students are achieving there and then Becky mentioned that one area that we are monitoring very closely is that discipline disproportionality and you can see where Chris and his team have implemented a goal to reduce discipline referrals where they're seeing some of the highest referrals coming in which is for our multilingual learners, along with students with disabilities. So really trying to tackle and leverage interventions to

reduce the amount of discipline that they are receiving for those students and trying to implement a positive approach. And so I had mentioned already around the advanced coursework goal at Fairfax High School is, and we're going to look at some data down the road so I won't spend too much more time on that. And as well, one of the data measures that we can get each school year is how students are performing in terms of getting a C- or better in the course. And so looking at how students are performing in coursework and looking at the percentage of students who pass all of their courses and increasing that number to up over 90%. is a rule that Fairfax High has. And then again, I mentioned chronic absenteeism already,

which the good news is, as you'll see here in a minute, each of the schools made some significant improvements in decreasing the chronic absenteeism rates last school year, and hopefully that will continue, although there does continue to be some challenges, I think, with making sure that all of our students attend each and every day. So we're going to jump in now to the first goal, goal one, which really is focused on recognizing that all students need to have a strong start in their educational journey no matter where they enter our schools. And the two target areas that we focused on here in this presentation, which is really aligned with the 11 priority areas, is our multilinear learner progress.

and our pre-K experiences and kindergarten readiness. So I'm going to jump in a little bit with our multilingual learner progress. This is a goal across the division, not only in Fairfax City schools, but certainly among the four principles that we have here and the schools represented in the city of Fairfax because we know that this population continues to grow in our schools and we want to be able to provide support that we can for their success and for them to be able to acquire that language as quickly as possible. And so just to provide a little background in terms of how we measure that, some of you may certainly already be familiar with this, but each year our multilingual students are assessed using the WIDA Access exam

to monitor their language development, and this measures them in all four areas of reading, writing, listening, and speaking. and this year actually we'll get into the new accreditation framework a little bit later in the presentation very briefly but this is the first year where this will be its own measure. Really really looking closely and focusing in on how students are acquiring that language and performing on the WIDA access is really critical to our students and to our schools and so that has been a big area of focus in as I mentioned all of the schools across the division. here in Fairfax City as well. So here's a little bit of data where you can see over the last year, the past two years,

how we have increased and you'll see last year some really noticeable gains. And what we're showing here, as it says at the top of the chart, the percent of students who are multilingual learners that meet the state standard for progress towards English language development compared to Virginia overall. measured by WIDA Access. And you can see of course across all of FCPS and in the state, although not as large in the state, there were improvements in this area but then specifically when you look at each of the Fairfax City Schools you'll also see that growth. Which just really speaks to the work that they're putting in and it will continue to put in to make steady gains in this area. And very

notable there is you see Johnson making a really, really sizable game. So a pat on the back for everybody at this table and of course for Chris down there. So I think, you know, one of the key areas here is that as this has become an increasing the large focus area for our schools, you just see better alignment of the processes. And one example of that that I think really speaks to the work of the city schools and really the Fairfax Pyramid is the work that they are doing as a pyramid. So they have pulled together the ESOL teachers across all three levels to engage in professional development as a pyramid to really take a close look at the data in terms of how students are progressing, but then also to really talk about the strategies that they want to implement

pyramid-wide to make sure that students are making the growth that they need to make. And I think that that's going to really continue to pay dividends in the upcoming years as students progress. And also there are some other, I think, as the WIDA exam has become increasingly more important for school accreditation and making sure that our students are making growth, are becoming very intentional around how students are preparing for, how the staff views WIDA testing time, and how important it really is to the school. And I don't want to steal Dr. A's thunder, so I won't get into it too deep, but she's got a very special program that I know she's put into place with some fun terminology. WIDA-palooza, right?

What's the word? WIDA-palooza. What,

Rebecca BaenigstaffMarch 2nd and 3rd? Yep. WIDA-palooza. Know

Chad Lehmanstaffwhat I'm missing. It's bound to create sheer joy here at Fairfax for those days of preparation. But it really is important because the students and the families really need to understand the significance of this exam. Not only for the school, but really for their students' growth and progress in terms of taking it seriously, understanding how they're going to be assessed, understanding what those questions look like that they're best prepared for taking it and they can get an accurate representation of where they are in each of those four domains and that information that is really helpful in terms of deciding their next level of programming and so we want to make sure that that students are prepared and our

staff becomes increasingly prepared for the language learners that they have in their classrooms each of our teachers needs to be able to approach instruction at the tier one level at the day-to-day classroom level being comfortable learners. And so I know that the principals here have implemented plans as part of the school improvement plans where they have a sharp focus on doing just that. And I believe I'm going to turn it over now to Mr. Stokes. Sorry, I did have one more slide here, but I think I've already talked to most of these things. So I'll turn it over to Mr. Stokes now to talk about early childhood. Thank

Gordon Stokesstaffyou Chad. We wanted to take a few minutes to talk about pre-K experiences for students across the division, all Fairfax County schools, but certainly within the city of Fairfax. It's important to start with understanding the importance of the pre-K experience. When students have a positive pre-K experience, it provides a foundation for their social, emotional, and cognitive growth. and knowing its value it's important to understand the different experiences that exist for students within the county and the city of Fairfax. Within the Commonwealth of Virginia there is no pre-K requirement for students across the state. So then that can create this dichotomy. We have families that have access and resources that allow their children access to pre-K programs

and others who have faced certain barriers. However, based on a family need or a student's needs, there are different programs that are offered from a pre-K standpoint for students. And for students who qualify in their IEP or families that need certain economic thresholds, there are options that are available. It's important to notice or to note the importance BPI provides guidelines for programs, pre-K programs that they have to follow in order to receive grant funding from the state. So BPI supported programs, students, families must apply for their children to be involved in these programs. The program itself has to use an approved curriculum and students in a BPI funded program are assessed

throughout the time. As you can see here, here's a little bit of data about our two elementary schools within the city. And the number of students that came to the school having a preschool experience. And this is data based on last school year. We're still waiting for the updated numbers for this school year. But you can see the outcomes of what the data is run in our province. Yeah,

Carolyn Pitchesit seems pretty typical. We usually have about 40 to 50 city residents who don't receive. That's consistent. There is. Okay.

Gordon StokesstaffHere's a little bit more breakdown about the applications of enrollment of students in different pre-K programs. You can see, based on basically classroom size limitations, some of the students within in the city attend pre-K programs at schools outside the city schools. Currently there are 18 students receiving their pre-K experience at Providence Elementary School. And it's just important to note that different programs have different student-teacher ratios. For example, the Penn Star program is basically 8 students to 2 teachers. The VPI supported programs can be no more than 18 students per one teacher. create some of the space constraints that you see here. So with those constraints in mind, FCPS is certainly

devoted, and one of the priorities is how can we expand pre-K access to students, knowing the importance of that initiative at such an early age. So there are an array of different initiatives and actions that are going into effect or in effect to try to broaden this access for students across the district. So certainly advocacy for funding is important for program growth and continuity where we have a good thing going. We want that to continue. We know that limitations are also a factor. So partnerships with non-FCPS entities is also very important when we can open up access for families. We're hopeful for next year, for the coming school year, that funding and resources will be allocated to offer Daniel's Run to open up an

pre-k opportunity for the following school year. So we'll see as the budget plays out and that's certainly a goal for students within the city. Certainly staffing is a crucial factor making sure we have highly qualified and committed individuals who want to support students at the school age as well as ongoing professional development to make sure that those staff members who are working with our youngest students are well prepared for the variety of learning opportunities that are available whether it's the pre-k or students in our pre-autism program to receive those more specialized services and just provide the variety of array of opportunities for our young folks Let's say we do want to turn our attention to going to, yeah maybe pause for a couple

of questions.

Speaker 12Thank you.

Kristina Cecereby voiceMs. Hester. I'm going to go ahead. I'm just thinking about our preschool programming at Providence. Is there anything that our city supports to increase capacity for that? That's a bigger conversation. I'm trying to get comments right on that one, but that's my initial thought there.

Rebecca Baenigstaffin this community, right, that have need, and we have that all across the county. You know, a couple things. I know that, you know, the good news is the number of kids coming into kindergarten with preschool experiences increasing than compared to years past as a division went up like 4% over the previous year. So the good news is, right, we have more kids coming in, and the bad news is we also are seeing a growing economic, right, for it so we have more families applying for head start and other programs that are you know income based more than ever before we don't have them so i think as a county we are currently serving at less i'm pretty sure it's like less than 50 percent of income eligible students for

preschool so this is a huge priority we have actually on a white board with dr reed and where we meet as a leadership team have kind of looked at if we want to have 100% of our students start in 2030 how many classrooms do we need to be opening up every single year I do know and I'm not thinking the name off the top of my head but I can look it up in 2027 there is a place in the city where there's a vision for like a preschool set which will open I can look it up and get it to you guys, but it was part of the plan in 2027 that whatever space this is, which is located in the city of Fairbairn, not in a school, but centrally, could actually open like eight classrooms. So I think there's more. I think you guys are always engaging in.

PlatenbergstaffWell, you know, they were talking about any space, whether it was Green Acres, having any additional space for it. They were looking initially for any possible space that would be available. I think they're looking

Rebecca Baenigstaffat like community spaces,

Platenbergstaffright? They were, they talked to Parks and Rec as part of their outreach through the Deputy County Executive there. I didn't know of any firm result in the effect of that. I mean, they had asked us about expansion at our school. We just didn't have the capacity. So we

Carolyn Pitchesdo work with our own. The city school board has worked with the Scott's Main Street. We have an elementary school. That's the city school board. And we work with them. sliding scale for students who, for us, it's always been transportation seems to be the main issue for our families who are underprivileged economically and have a difficulty getting there. It's not necessarily in a city that we can't find programs. There are a lot of preschool programs in the city of Fairfax. It has always been, how are we going to get to the program. And, you know, so it's space for CNN. Right. And staffing, 100%. But as we know, our elementary schools are thinking

Rebecca Baenigstaffat, yeah,

Carolyn Pitchesit's more than 95%.

Rebecca BaenigstaffI mean, my hope would be because FCPS is engaging in this large-scale boundary study, right, which, of course, is a multi-year process. I dream of a future where we straighten out some of the boundaries that don't make sense for kids. They'll be more space and all the things. Exactly. Right. And we can get kids that are served in, whether it's special ed programs, Head Start programs, all of our specialized programs as close to, in their base floor as close to as possible. So I hope that just that work, that long term, I know that's not like right now. We still have so many students that need to be served in the long term.

Carolyn PitchesAnd creating space. I hope that it's being elevated. I mean, I've highlighted that this is where MSN wants to be. Yeah. Hugely.

Rebecca BaenigstaffAnd we've already made so much growth just this year with the number of Head Start classrooms we opened this current year. And that is in the budget to continue expanding next year. so it is certainly a priority

Kristina Cecereby voiceso

Amit Hickmanby voiceMike's also a pre-k question preschool time so passionate about this I'm curious about applications received versus the students that are eligible so we're talking about two very different population whether it's income based or for special education anecdotally I've seen a decrease in acceptance for students within special education my assumption has always been staffing but I'd be curious about the breakdown here for our schools in terms of how many applications are received for both because they're two very different services or is this this is

Rebecca Baenigstaffsolely

Amit Hickmanby voicehead start this is solely head start okay that was nice because

Rebecca Baenigstaffany student that qualifies for an IEP and has an area which they deemed our needed services we're required to

Amit Hickmanby voiceprovide less students

GeorginastaffI mean

Amit Hickmanby voicethere's also right we also the increasing we're identifying earlier so right students are really identified so that the severity of the needs are going to be prioritized essentially so

Rebecca Baenigstaffthat's interesting that's the first slide I wonder if students are getting resource level rather than like a full-time it's getting a lot more like one

Amit Hickmanby voiceto two hours

Rebecca Baenigstaffof services

Amit Hickmanby voiceI will say

Rebecca Baenigstaffit's just hit start yes but I will say in terms of our special education programming like it is incredible just the need in our community just last year, for this school year, I think it was 76 classrooms we opened across the division. That's not just preschool autism classrooms or our ECCB classrooms at preschool, but it was also enhanced autism for learning. And so just that there is a growing, and again, if we're about to work with schools on expansion,

Speaker 15you know,

Rebecca Baenigstaffbecause we're right now planning for next year, making sure we're staffing those classrooms. So it is possible that just, I know sometimes it takes a little bit of time.

Amit Hickmanby voiceWell, the need,

Rebecca Baenigstaffas you said, the need to completely increase the time dealing with the service of the children. The

Amit Hickmanby voiceearlier, the better. So when they come to elementary school, we're not now identifying a kindergarten and first grade. I'm almost like playing at children's time. So it's critical.

GeorginastaffAll

Speaker 4right. Thank you. I just had a question about the incomplete applications because it's almost half of them are incomplete. Is it at the bottom of

Carolyn Pitchesthe category? I took a very far example.

Speaker 4No, it's eligible but not served. Okay. That's like three. That's another

Speaker 15circle too.

Speaker 4Is there is there stuff to be done as to like why parents are not completing the applications like is there an education There is standing like is there outreach to educating parents about Kind of what resources are

Rebecca BaenigstaffDefinitely, and I don't know what you might have to add, but I mentioned earlier that, you know, like the increase in the students who are showing me, like the reason we have a wait list is because we have more families submitting applications. So I think that really speaks to the work and we do have early childhood folks that are working to educate, you know, get the word out that these programs exist.

Gordon StokesstaffI think that would require a little bit more unpacking. I wonder if language barrier or things like that may have led to, oh, I think I'm done, but I'm not really, and to your point, what could better guide families and really putting their everything forward so that it can be fully considered? That's a really good question.

Rebecca BaenigstaffI know our schools do a great job. You know, as you meet families and you have the student enrolled and then you see the little brother or sister in the stroll. the time Make sure that they are And

Speaker 8I think that's important to know Where this like the application process So and they in the early childhood office has a lot of resources, family liaisons, that kind of really develop that partnership to come to the school and helping classes, nutrition classes, parenting classes with our pre-K families. But a large component of their process, of course, is seeking out and identifying families and our registrar is a real point of context, as Becky said, helping to kind of, okay, who are current existing, we have families that are in our school age program, who are the siblings that are kind of coming up and making sure that they're applying or identifying .

Rebecca BaenigstaffI will leverage your question. The moment you asked how can we help, I don't know about the space problem because Providence has a long history of the space issues, but as elected officials, just your advocacy with the state and federal entities because for these programs, 60% there are 60% funded locally. That's a lot. And for our students with disabilities that we're serving in our early childhood programs, 1% of the budget comes from the federal government. The rest is funded locally. So a lot of this is dependent on funding. certainly you know doctor and budget priority but we're not going to get there you know I think

Speaker 8that's the shift and then you went up no longer don't call it head start pre-k because it's misleading to the cave that's right money is coming from heads sounds like a couple years ago shift and how we're describing the classes pre-k instead of head start classes.

Amit Hickmanby voiceIt's somewhat misleading though, right? Because you think about pre-k and a lot of people don't realize that it's not really actually available to everybody. It's not universal. And the threshold for reaching the ability to be able to receive the services is very low. So we have all these families kind of in this middle ground. They don't quite qualify, but they definitely can't afford private preschools, which are exorbitant. So we're missing, my guess is that kind of like 25% of students that we're missing who haven't attended pre-K before kindergarten are those students who just don't have that possibility of transportation or whatever it is, but don't quite meet that income requirement.

Rebecca BaenigstaffYears ago, I went to this fellowship out at UCLA with our former head of early childhood, and it was really just like a think tank to just come up with a project or a way to expand pre-K. And she had this great idea, which I don't know how you could ever bring it to life, but this idea of if we offer preschool for tuition for families that are not within the eligibility for this pre-k program and then use that to offset the cost for this and I think like if I had young children I would if I was gonna pay you know as well kinder care right I might as well pay and get them in like where the teachers really would know how to prepare them for kindergarten we would need a lot of facility space but you know I think it's great we're having the

conversations and we have that primary

Kristina Cecereby voiceand kind of like a sliding scale would suck. Yeah,

Rebecca Baenigstaffexactly. That's where everything starts. You have to start with the dream.

Carolyn PitchesWe have a safe way that means overhaul making it. No, they did that in

Sarah Kelseyby voicemy hometown. They took an old grocery store and it's now the school district. Early childhood center.

Gordon StokesstaffWhat we want to do is turn our attention to goal two within the strategic plan. So concerning all the excellent academic and extracurricular programs offered within FCPS, if students do not feel safe, supported, and included and empowered, their goal will be before the access and enjoy the learning experience is often diminished. One of the priorities in looking at this particular goal is examining discipline disproportionality. And this is a factor being examined not just in FCPS but honestly at divisions across the nation because this will not affect students across the country. So, when thinking about discipline disproportionality, it's when examining a particular student group, and whether they are disciplined at higher rates as compared to other student groups looking at that particular in that school.

And we can see nationally which student groups tend to be ones that have higher rates of discipline disproportionality. I think it's important to think about the different types of disciplinary consequences and experiences for students. Certainly the impact of out of school suspension is particularly significant, whether it's one pretty major disciplinary incident that happens to a student or perhaps several incidents over time. The impact of lost time out of school, feeling of the water in the building, is certainly So FCPS has shined a light on disproportionality in schools across the region and have begun making efforts to address this particular phenomenon. Certainly, one particular stance is to be proactive.

We don't want students to be involved in incidents that then result and then be the subject of different school disciplines. So this looks back to the region priorities with behavior solutions. Behavior solutions offers a wonderful framework for schools to be really proactive and really explaining the desired behaviors that they want to see from all students to really reinforce that and hear them, expectations, lessons for students to really understand and engage in what is expected of them, positive behavior incentives for students to continue to be acknowledged for doing the right things. And so Region 5 schools and certainly City of Fairbanks schools have invested in that wholeheartedly. At the county level, in terms of working to reduce discipline and disproportionality,

there are different cohorts that have been formed, there are network improvement communities to really study the different root causes of student discipline and how to respond more effectively. There's a goal innovation team related to the strategic plan to dive into this work. Last school year Fairfax High School was identified as a school with higher discipline disproportionality for certain groups. But through the wonderful work of Dr. A and the team here at Fairfax High School, they worked to decrease, to reduce discipline disproportionality. And for this school year, they were moved off of that list that was happening more closely examined their disproportionality. Not that they haven't taken their eye off the ball and they're still working on different

initiatives and efforts to proactively address student behavior. I want to call out restorative practices. That's something happening at schools across the division, certainly here at Fairfax High School. When students do make that mistake or have that particular moment, there's a lot that the harm that may have happened and find ways to address that behavior with students here in the building as opposed to the out of school suspensions and other kind of quote-unquote traditional practices that have happened. So again, kudos to the Fibrex High School team for their work to run the make a dent in that and in turn increase student belonging. And just here are some of the different practices that are occurring across the division to again keep this as a priority

student well-being and student well-being at schools in all different levels. That's it. I'm going to turn things over to back to Mr. Layman. Let's think about chronic absenteeism.

Chad LehmanstaffYeah, so we've talked about this a little bit already, so I won't spend too much additional time on it, but to highlight a few key points, and in case you may not be aware, chronic absenteeism is defined as missing 10 percent or more of the school year for any reason. So that includes both and unexcused absences. Sometimes I think folks in the community may be a little confused by the fact that excused absences don't count when in fact they do. So a long trip overseas where a student misses two weeks of school has an impact on that student's level of chronic absenteeism. So this of course has been a division-wide focus particularly coming out of the pandemic. We know that rates were extremely high with students missing a lot of school for a variety of reasons

and disproportionality pretty similarly across the country have been working to make sure students are back in school and that speaks true to the work here in Fairfax City Schools. Here's some data for you just so you can kind of take a look at 22-23 school year was really problematic across the entire state the division and all of our schools and you can see that data that brings true in Fairfax City Schools. But then last year, through everyone's hard work and focused energies around making sure that students were in school, we did see drops across all of the schools, significant drops. And I know that that work continues. But it still is challenging in some ways, particularly for our multilingual learners.

That tends to be one of the subgroups where we still see troubling trends in chronic absenteeism rates. And so all of those combined efforts around focusing on multilaterals is important and certainly for attendance as well. So to highlight just a few things, I think, you know, primarily speaking, that increased focus has caused school teams to make sure that they are closely monitoring and quickly intervening on attendance concerns. One of the challenges in addressing attendance concerns is that it's almost always very specific to that individual student as to why they may or may not be attending. And so one sweeping program doesn't necessarily solve the problem, it just takes time. You need to get in and figure out what may be going on with a particular student.

That being said, I think some efforts were made to increase communication to families, sending attendance report cards, these types of things, and increased messaging to let families know the importance of this, to quickly communicate to families when students may be missing school, and then to try to just tailor and target interventions to support those students in making sure that they aren't here. I know at Fairfax High School there was a robust after school and Saturday program that was put into place as schools are able to earn some additional attendance credit so to speak back if students attend outside of the typical school day you can earn some time back into a student's attendance record and in some

cases that can be helpful for the school and for the individual student. So this continues to be a focus and I think proactively as well and just trying to make sure that school climate the environment the instruction that's happening day to day is engaging for students and it's an environment where students want to be and I know that that has been a primary focus area for all the principals that are sitting up here in their school teams I'll turn it over to Becky for some information on the SEL screener

Rebecca BaenigstaffSo the SLPL screener is not a formal measure in our strategic plan, but we felt like it was still an important piece to talk about. Because as we're talking about kids feeling safe, included, supported, right, it's looking at multiple data points. And really, you know, with our school teams and then, you know, creating plans for students to ensure that we meet those outcomes. So we thought this was an important case. It's certainly something that our schools really leverage in their work to support all students. So FCPS does partner with Panorama Education to develop and implement the screener, which, as I'm sure you won't know, we administer twice a year to students in grades 3 through 12, once in the fall and then in the spring.

In kindergarten through second grade, we're still assessing, but it's really the teacher assessing the behaviors they see versus students reporting. So the screener has really been a wonderful tool for us to gather valuable information about a student's social-emotional skills, emotions, relationships, school environment, and overall well-being. So as I shared before, this data along with multiple other data points are used to provide both academic and personal support for our students. So there's a lot of data in the next few slides. But here we have our elementary schools data for grades 3 through 5. So there's a 3 through 5 screener and then a 6 through 12 screener. So the elementary schools kind of get two different reports looking at 3 through 5,

and then there's 6th graders in Stanley. So this is the 3 through 5 data, and you can see the data for the division in the middle to just give you some context. And these percentages that you see here are favorable responses. And that kind of varies depending on what the question is. So every question has a like or a series of responses. So it's not a strongly agree every time, right? It just depends on what the question is. So they have favorable and unfavorable degrees within those responses. And that's where this data comes from. screener addresses six different topics here and then you'll see in the sixth through twelfth grade screener there's an additional topic of cultural awareness and action you can see here though that I think two two areas to

highlight I'd say are supportive relationships which really is how students are how they consider their the support they have from peers from adults at school and at home and also I see another strength here the social awareness and relationship skills that's really how well students consider the perspective of others and empathize with them So I think those are definitely some areas of strength when we look at this data. Overall, I do want to commend all four schools. The response rates for these screeners were very, very high. Daniel's run had 94.3% of their students participate in 3-5, and Providence 97.7. And then working with our central office team that needs this work, those were very high

which really helps us make meaningful data. You'll also notice, if you look at this data, and as we look at the next three slides, too, you'll see declines from the spring to the fall. And so there are a couple reasons for that. One is actually, you know, we are constantly refining these tools, our folks who work on our CEL team at the central office. And so they did work with Panorama to update the wording of some survey questions from the spring to the fall to enhance accessibility for students. So they did have some adjusted scores, and they saw this pattern across all schools in the division. In addition, they said this is what they typically see. I don't know if it's like the summer slide on the social skills, just like we see on the academic side.

Fall to spring would be probably a better measure of progress because you're also serving the same groups of students, right? Especially when you look at the middle school where you've got 50% turning over. So perhaps we'll consider next year doing fall, spring and leaving the fall out to maybe have, you know, demonstrate more what progress might look like. And again, this is like any assessment, right? It's a snapshot in time how a student felt that day that they were taking it, right? if you walked in and you just got in a fight with your boyfriend. Like maybe, you know, or you know, I mean, so we just, and that's why, you know, this data is really about what are the themes we're seeing across the school.

It really helps schools determine their teams, you know, for advisory. Are there particular lessons we should be doing for morning meetings? Are there certain lessons we should be doing? should we pull in some of our second step curriculum right to address kids seem to be really struggling with emotional regulation so this largely is about what what do we see globally that students need and then of course when looking at other data points you know we are looking at data specific to certain students and trying to really that right to really check in and certainly this can flag students that we need to take a closer look at as well so here's the sixth grade data for the elementary school you know I see a strength here in

challenging feelings and that's really how frequent students feel challenging emotions with higher it's force indicating that they have big feelings less frequently right and if we just think about this work you know kids even being able to identify that is is a skill right what a challenging feeling sense of belonging to you is a strength and that's really whether how our students feel their value members of the school community and again for the sixth grade alone that cultural awareness and action and that's really been a big focus of many of our schools in the region really engaging kids and conversations about issues around race ethnicity and culture in school and I applaud our administrators for really bringing that curriculum in and I think we'll continue to see

these areas and then if you look at the middle and high school you'll see again strength around support relationships emotional regulation and self-management and responsible decision-making and again Katherine Johnson had a response rate of ninety four point eight percent Fairfax 87.4 but I believe you were the highest high school in the county for the second year in a row

Georginastaffyeah

Rebecca Baenigstaffshe thrived kids

Carolyn PitchesI have to just speak to your Saturday school post because we had Saturday school for a little while back in the 80s. Spring apple.

Rebecca BaenigstaffI'm so curious to just some of the actions that our schools take when looking at this these things earlier but it really does inform you know what what student support do we need at the within teams our grade level teams and you know look at this data our bonus committees are MTSS teams really developing those plans for individual students and then also you know planning professional development you know as we see it's making sure our teachers are being expected to cover a lot of ground right so just making sure we're building their capacity they have tools that they feel comfortable delivering the lessons with their students to make that impact so the last piece with goal 2 is really looking at

academic inclusion so FCPS has a strong vision I think this is another area you'll kind of feel probably similarly to preschool. Sort of naming a place where we've fallen short as a division for a number of years and really creating some next steps and action plans to improve. So our vision for inclusion is to ensure that our students with disabilities have the same full access to academic, non-academic, extracurricular educational settings as their peers, as appropriate and the most inclusive environment to meet the needs and goals of each student. So you see here on the screen, you know, it is creating those inclusive opportunities because we know what that does for kids and not just our students with disabilities,

but for all students, creating that sense of belonging, building those social relationships and friendships. And we really want to become a model for inclusive education, you know, in the country. So, looking at where we're sort of starting from. Oh, I guess the PDF didn't keep our colors. Sorry about that. There's a lot of red. We have it. We have it. We have it. Okay. Okay. I mean, it's just the projector. I feel like every time we're in this room, it's projector. It's going to be the projector. Okay, you have it. That's the important thing. Yeah, I see it on there. So, we are using the VDOE indicators five and six as a starting point for monitoring our inclusion rates. So these are indicators that the state reports on annually as part of our requirements under IDEA.

So indicators 5A through C focus on inclusion for students in grades K through the age of 21. And indicators 6A through C focus on inclusion at preschool. So this data that you're looking at shows both overall state and FCPS performance for the 22-23 school year in comparison to the state targets for that year. And you may wonder why are we looking at data from

Kristina Cecereby voice22

Rebecca Baenigstaff-23? That's the most recently reported from the DOE. So we just don't have the 23-24 data. So cells in green mean the target was met and red is not. So you can see while we have made progress toward inclusion, we still have not met the majority of the state targets. So during the 23-24 school year amongst FCPS students with an IEP, an estimated 59% of students kindergarten through the age of 21 received 80% or more of their education in general and so only 59 percent 80 percent or more in general and 24 percent of our preschool received the majority of their special ed services in general part of that is access because of the preschool needs that we talked about earlier and we also saw disparities with student groups when

this data was examined so definitely lots lots of opportunities for us as a school division So some of the strategies that we're currently focusing on to improve our realities around inclusion is to these five big ideas you see here on the screen. So we're focused on one, just like you heard Chad talk about with meeting the needs of our multilingual learners, is building the capacity of our teachers to meet the diverse learning needs of our students, including professional development this year that has been focused on universal design for learning and providing then in addition to the PD providing instructional resources that support our general education teachers in differentiating instruction

for the learners in their classroom. We have developed cross-departmental teams in the county to support both the UDL inclusive practices work and also expansion of our twice exceptional support And as you're probably aware, we have a neurodiversity specialist that was hired a number of years ago who is a key leader of these teams and in this work. Another key effort that we've had is that we are strengthening our IEP processes across the division for considering placement in more inclusive settings through a tool that really helps teams identify the least restrictive environment. And so not only has that tool been created, the staff have been trained and we are using that tool in our schools.

And we're in the process now of developing, we're big on dashboards. Dr. Reed has brought the dashboards, which help our, when you have this work and you're monitoring it, it's critical to have the right data. So our IT wizards are creating a dashboard where we'll be able to monitor the least restrictive environment across our schools, which is really exciting. And then we're super excited this Thursday we're engaging with some experts on inclusion, which I'll have a slide in just a moment, that I think will really help not only bring the best practice to us, but also really help the division chart an action plan for the next several years around strengthening our inclusive practices. So you'll see here Dr. Julie Koston and Dr. Christy Freddy-Fronzak are going to come on Thursday and meet with our principals.

This is their book we're all going to be diving into. But really, we're looking for them to help us develop a three-to-five-year action plan for the division, service delivery model for our students with disabilities and providing that professional development that we know will be necessary to ensure our students are are supported in the general ed settings. So we're excited about this. It will be a great great chapter that we're starting and one that's longer. There was a lot of culture later goals are a little trim so it's okay

Kristina Cecereby voiceI have a very brief question. Are the dashboards public?

Rebecca BaenigstaffYeah, they're really important. I'm just saying they're

Kristina Cecereby voicereally important when they're public But I

Rebecca Baenigstaffwill say there's transparency in that these are goals we're working on so in that same that that slide around where we are with inclusion I mean that's public data that's data

Kristina Cecereby voicejust thinking about the behavior solutions how how do you balance or how does the administration balance recognize their behavior or all students that remain in there. What does that sort of training look like? And I know a lot of that probably deals with your sort of justice and such, but I was going to be just a comment.

Gordon StokesstaffWell, the student rights and responsibilities is the basis for school discipline. So administrators are, when an incident occurs, it's really doing the backfinding and really getting to the root cause, the investigation to understand what really occurred and really okay what is going to effectively address the situation but also what is the behavior that this incident really highlights and is that something that needs to be addressed through kind of an array of different options that the school has if there's the typically if it's something that's you know super harmful something that really involves some level of aggressive or harmful behavior, the administrator has to weigh that. Is a suspension, is something that I'm going to call more of your traditional approach warranted?

That doesn't mean that the learning still doesn't occur as a part of that or after the fact, because a student's going to come back to your, in most cases, the student's going to come back to that campus and have to reintegrate back into the school in a positive way. Administrators are always saying that there's more of an option to have it be addressed within the school At the at the school level even if it's something that in school You can still just But I think in the triggers also certain things do warrant that out of school consequence because of the significant nature of that behavior so they're always weighing the two and if there's a way they're doing more study practice um they're going to consider that yeah

Rebecca Baenigstaffi mean i think your question is one that's on the hearts and minds of a lot of parents right with a teacher yeah and teachers right when we have a student that's really struggling to meet the expectations for a lot of reasons right kids come to school with all experiences, trauma, you know, there are a lot of reasons for the behaviors and it's always balancing, right, meeting the need of the student but also maintaining a safe environment. And, you know, when we have students coming into school, you know, our students who aren't reading by third grade, you know, we know that we're not going to get them reading when we're not, right? It's a dedicated, systematic research-based process. And I think, you know,

is no different, it's just harder, right? It's personal, it's impactful in a different way. If your peer isn't reading, it's not impacting you in the way your peer is really struggling to finish themselves in the classroom. So I think, you know, it is hard and I think it's a constant balance, right? Because we don't throw kids away, we don't throw them in modern classrooms, we have the responsibility, but we also have to recognize the impact that that has on every other child and staff, right, that are having to support the student. I don't know if our principals...

Gordon StokesstaffI just wanted to call you, is kind of looking at impulsivity versus intentionality. Certainly younger students are gonna see a lot more impulsivity in their behavior. The older that students get, they have a better understanding and hold the impact of their behavior and be able to control.

Kristina Cecereby voiceand some of the ways that can be.

Gordon StokesstaffAbsolutely, and that could, regardless of the age, that could be another factor. So that's also part of the disparate process for student and IEP. Consultation with other people on the team to really think about all aspects of that student. But yeah, absolutely, school and student safety, staff safety, and kind of balance with the outcome that student is always taken into account.

Amit Hickmanby voiceWe're on the same thought length today. I don't know if this is a question or a statement, but I think some of what you're discussing is very similar to what we said about pre-earning rate. Sometimes it's based on availability, and as we're identifying more and more students with needs, which are not just, you know, we have a lot of behavioral challenges and emotional challenges that are showing that more and more and more over the past, especially five years, having the ability to service the children. And I think a lot of parents have this idea if someone's not suspended, they didn't get punished, right? So there's no, like, that to them is the direct correlation. And we know that that doesn't work oftentimes, right?

Like, there's a reason that people who get sent to prison more often than not are re-adjudicated and it's a cycle, right? Because we're not providing the re-adjudicated practices. So I'm curious, especially at the elementary school level, everybody knows everything apparently about each other at all times. you know what is there space to put some resources for parents to understand the benefits of some of these more restorative practices you know and how just because their child didn't you know something happened I understand the court safety issues sometimes having a child having that child spend three days at home it's not anybody in this ultimately like we reinforce the behaviors supervision right so who knows what they're watching for playing

so I'm just wondering where is there space for that in the elementary schools to provide that education and I don't know Providence as well but I know Daniel's friends like every day like that child should be a cell well is that helping anybody and

Speaker 15I think it's the tier I think that when you look at you have a lot of discipline, what's going on in tier one? Because you should be preventing it before it gets there. And then by the time you get to the tier two and tier three behaviors, those should either be new students or students who we recognize that behavior is communication and we're going to be building that student's needs. Like you were talking about students with IEPs. You know, a lot of times they're unidentified and that's why, you know, the behaviors are happening so it's really looking at each student but I think too that there's always the struggle between academics and behavior and how much time are we allowed to spend and I think that you know we have this new reading program

come and then they want us to have morning meeting time I think that you know that's a tough that's a tough decision because you cannot you have to have the behaviors in check before they can do the party so taking away morning and waiting time isn't the time to be taken away. So I think having a really strong tier one helps quite a bit. And I know like in Providence you guys started the second step, which is something I'm familiar with as well. It's a great curriculum and it teaches a lot of the skills that students weren't really getting at home.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceOkay, really easy questions. Yes or no. On the FCL, 6th grade through 12th grade, you set as a test, are they the same questions? I bet the 6th graders get the same questions as the 12th graders.

Rebecca BaenigstaffI'd have to look at the argument. You can see the questions on line.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceGeorgina's saying yes. I would look at my child. 90% sure, but I was looking at yes. Yes, after the readjustment.

Rebecca BaenigstaffYeah, if you go on the FCPS website, you can see that.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceThey're

Rebecca Baenigstaffall published. Oh,

Sarah Kelseyby voiceI've seen some, but I've never completely looked at my child's current year. And then the other one I had is with chronic absenteeism. I know personally you get a letter when you get close, and you get a letter when you get there. Because I had a very sick child last year. What happens though to those parents that do like those families that do get the chronic absenteeism? Is there like a You know like I know I'm like we were going through school like you had truancy parents had to go to class Is there anything that we're doing to try to help those families or you know? I understand sometimes it's a sickness that you know Like my daughter was sick for a whole week and then again Is there is there something that with the families that it's not something like a sickness that it's just oh

Is there something in place to help those families so that they are getting the skits?

Speaker 8Yeah, I think This I think That's a real tier three conversation understanding that each of those situations presents you need circumstances that require unique responses right so trying to fair is this like a chronic illness and perhaps they're not getting the necessary medical care that they might be and promising to us and I you know leveraging our family liaison or school social worker or school psychologist right or maybe in some senses mental health challenges right or school avoidance perhaps someone living outside the boundary having transportation issues I kind of at that point really go kid by kid and that's what we're doing as an attendance team right we're meeting each week to determine okay let's see where

we are we can really identify those students who are chronically absent and we able to kind of really clearly say okay what is it that what is that there that they might need based on the number of absences and when there's their pattern and then really assigning like a case manager so to speak on our Depending on what that student or family might be.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceAnd then reaching out to that

Speaker 8family. Yeah. Yeah.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. I think my question's .

PlatenbergstaffOK.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceCan I just piggyback sort

Carolyn Pitchesof on the chronic absentee. So the student does have a chronic illness. One of my children has POTS, which seems to be more prevalent now than it was 15 years ago. how is that treated differently than somebody who's sick for a week

Kristina Cecereby voiceand then,

Carolyn Pitchesyou know, yeah, but I'm saying like somebody who's sick for a week, but also then goes on vacation with their family and they've missed that 10% because there are certain chronic illnesses in teenagers that are very unpredictable and do not know what's going to happen from day to day.

Rebecca BaenigstaffYeah, we have,

Carolyn Pitchesyeah,

Rebecca BaenigstaffI think those are, when you've uncovered the stories, we do have several students that are medically fragile as well that miss a lot of school, right? Like multiple scenarios relating to those situations.

Speaker 8What I would say is I think it's the shifting mindset that like chronic absenteeism is not a good thing. Right, right. And I think we really, unexcused absences, it's still that subset of absences, those are problematic. You have not communicated to us why your child is not present in school. We wanted to kind of figure that out. Maybe that's kind of the worst case here, a real truancy issue, you're not bringing your child to school, you're not meeting that obligation. But I think in the broadest sense, like a student missing school is not punitive. We really just want to figure out what's going on. And so maybe in some instances we would kind of really think that maybe this child would be qualified

You know be eligible for intermittent home down instruction or and so in that would kind of allow them to be able to access School in a way that they weren't previously, but I think it's really kind of understanding What is the root cause of this and what might we be able to do so that's there's very able to access In a way that they weren't I

Rebecca Baenigstaffknow that some of our school board members on the county side feel strongly about, especially some of our really impacted, you know, medically, students. Now our schools, I think, are exercising the sensitivity in those situations, but at the end of the day, the state still is labeling them chronically absent, so I know that there's advocacy with the state. Like, could there be, if a student has an IEP, could there be an indication on there that would sort of put them in a different category, to our centers, like Kilmer Center has its own accreditation framework, an alternate plan, knowing that just the goals and the work of that school is very different than the works of our traditional comprehensive schools, right?

So something, I know there's advocacy around that, I don't know if the state would

Kristina Cecereby voicebe

Rebecca Baenigstaffopen to a consideration on that, but it is something of concern, and I know our schools are really sensitive to those situations.

Carolyn Pitcheswith long COVID, which is very similar to POTS. You could be out for two weeks, and I'm fine for three months. There's just so... Yeah, exactly. So I just... Homebound... By the time you get homebound arranged, that... You might be back in school for a month. So I just wondered... I assume the school just works with those families on a case-by-case basis, and it's not, you know. I do like the fact that we're not looking at chronic absenteeism just as this negative thing for all students. Obviously there are some where we're looking at how can we help those kids come back to school, whatever capacity that is. I appreciate

Georginastaffthat. I think it's the one that too is, you know, outside of students that have health struggles, is even like systemically looking at some of our processes, right? Because, you know, we are a very diverse international school, you know, with a lot of travel, right? So we changed our pre-arrange absence process. It used to be you had your teacher sign off and then administrator. Now the administrator has to sign off first. Before the administrator signs off, they actually call home and have a conversation with the family. Say, do you realize if you're going to be absent for the next 18 days, like you will be withdrawn. You could lose this place. there's a lot of like misconceptions I think around oh we're just gonna have to miss school

for this so there's like this this conversation that's really important like in the moment now if it's emergency that's one thing if it's vacation that I'm trying to plan or take you know that's another right also continuing to promote we do for our families at the beginning of the year the calendar's out for the next three years right so it's a great time to stop planning like because we do know because of our international community that they will travel right and so just thinking about like as you look at these breaks just kind of with some of that guidance document that these are great pockets of time and extended you know I mean pay attention to all of those things like as you're planning because it's different than it was before especially if people

had kids go through before like this didn't you know this didn't look the same impact the same so just trying to have more of those case-by-case one-on-one And then really also understanding the academic implication of it as well. If you miss that many days of school, can you keep up? Can you make up with the work? You make up the work. Are you going to be okay? And then we really just leverage that, as we call it, the attendance buyback program. We do really leverage that program with kids that are in this window of between 9 and 16 days of at risk. I call them at promise, but at promise of being chronically absent. is here to support you you come in we have teachers here to help you you can

earn your hours back and you can earn some of this time back as well to not be chronically absent but that's new too right so it's another conversation with the parents right because Saturday school's a bad thing why does my you know because there's a lot of perceptions around it right so you do have to call and have a lot of these conversations just to kind of like educate and a lot of kids don't don't want to always miss school we know life happens and they do like the idea of earning back the time right so this is not what my attendance looks like on my transcript or this isn't what you know they mean so I

Chad Lehmanstaffthink a point of that because he just recently stepped out of the principalship is the time intensity of the work so when you as you start to implement systems that that force you to look more kid by kid, it becomes very labor-intensive and time-intensive. So you pull a student in for what you might think would be a very quick conversation around attendance turns into an hour-and-a-half-long meeting where now you've got a social worker in and there's all this stuff that comes out on the table. And so sometimes when you're talking about, and I know the city schools in some cases are fortunate to have some additional staffing is afforded to them, which I think pays dividends, because it takes staff intense focused work

that is really time consuming, and you have to connect with these families and these kids in order to really make the gains that you want to make in some of the more complicated cases. So just to put a plug in for the work of these teams and how much effort and digging that really takes this system to recognize. There are currently multiple pieces of legislation on the table for them to consider changing how chronic absenteeism is calculated, so it's not good for attention.

Rebecca BaenigstaffNow we're going to get into the academics. Goal 3. Our first priority in Goal 3 is reading on grade level by third grade. We know third grade literacy is the key milestone for our student's success. Third grade really represents a transition that happens between learning to read and reading to learn. And we know that students that aren't reading on grade level by third grade have difficulty comprehending the content that's taught in subsequent grades, and can quickly fall behind, not only in language arts, but in other subject areas as well. And we know the research is very clear that third graders who lack proficiency in reading are four times more likely to become high school dropouts. And evidence on the positive side of that shows that students who are reading on grade

level by third grade graduate and attend college at higher rates in their below grade level here. So this is a very important measure. So for this goal we have two key accountability metrics that you see here. So the first metric is the pass rate on the third grade reading SOL. So you see here the data for the division and then our two elementary schools. That's the first row. And note that this is unadjusted. So this is the raw pass rate. When you look at other data sets, you'll see adjusted data with much higher pass rates. And that's because that adjusted data is taking into consideration growth in previous years. it's taking into consideration our multilingual learners who have been in the country less than 11 semesters,

transfers into the county, and so that data pulls a lot of, you know, pulls a lot of it out. But we use this on it just because this is the reality. This is how our kids are doing in our classrooms. So you can see the second metric there, and the second row is the benchmark on the iReady screener. ready the 40th percentile is really where we want that a minimum students to be that typically if they they're at or above the 40th percentile they do have students so it's a very important metric that we're looking at our primary students this year as Chad mentioned earlier we have implemented a new screener and that is the VAL so we're going to look at a little bit of that data in just a bit So our literacy work has been largely shaped by the Virginia Literacy Act that

went into effect this year and it really brought about three major changes in our schools. And so the first is this new screener. So we now we formally use I ready in grades K through three. We're now using the vowels you know K through two. In third grade we use the vowels as an additional diagnostic so we give the already and then for students who are showing risk we took a deeper dive because the VALS is a one-on-one assessment. We also have new expectations from the state for kindergarten through third grade on reading plans so students that are demonstrating high risk on the VALS are then receiving a formalized reading plan with an intervention that matches their area of need. And then lastly, and a big one, it's one bullet but it's big, is the implementation of our new curriculum, Benchmark Advanced.

And Benchmark is one of the pre-approved state research-based programs. And so we've been implementing that. I want to note a few things here. while the VALS, the VLA is as newly implemented this year, we have been deeply embedded in this work and the shift in reading since 2021. At that time in Fairfax, we created the Equitable Access to Literacy Plan, which really was the beginning of this shift in our literacy practices grounded in evidence-based reading research. And so with that plan early on, that's when we first started using our We developed universal screening practices, we developed curriculum guides for elementary teachers that had explicit, systematic phonics instruction, and we saw significant gains

in our phonics scores as a result of that work. With the BASEL adoption, it's super exciting, I'm very proud of our staff. it has it has been a challenge but we have a really great I think framework as a division to teams that are focused on all of their reading practices they come together centrally in their schools and really learning and growing in their practice I also like to highlight over the past many years since we started part of more access to literacy work we've really built up a lot of and teacher training on evidence-based programs. And largely a lot of that we could do from our ESSER funding when we had it. We have many, many teachers trained in Fortney-Gillingham, in letters and other programs that has really just, I think,

opened up just the ability to meet the needs of our readers and really show growth in these periods. And then you saw earlier, you know, we have a tight alignment with this goal with our school improvement plans. the valves as I mentioned is our new screener and it is it is delivered on a 101 assessment in the fall so you can see here this is the percent of students showing high risk I will say like kindergarten we saw really high rates across the division but it's because the rigor of this assessment was so much higher than what I read it was before and what the kids would have learned by the time this assessment was given. So we're in the middle of collecting mid-year data and what I'm already beginning to see from a lot of schools is many students coming out of that high-risk category and more kids entering the low-risk category.

So this is how we continue to measure growth and whether or not we're on track along with our unit assessments for the benchmark group.

Gordon StokesstaffInherent to the strategic plan is guaranteeing rigorous academic experiences for all students. So certainly the goal of having all students not just enroll but successfully complete algebra by eighth grade is another tangible class set of the plan. And it's important to know that successful completion of algebra in the school by the end of the grade, it really opens up a lot of opportunities for students once they get to high school in terms of their just different course operators and different options for them as they move through the next four years. So here's a little bit of data on successful completion of algebra in the division compared to Katherine Johnson in the school over time. And certainly it's important to note that this metric is both students who pass the course as well as a successful passing of the SML test so that they get the verified credit.

So thinking about students leaving middle school with a high school credit is also critical for their ongoing course progression in addition to what they can also attain through completion of a work, a branch, a level one. And even though we're focused on eighth grade, it's not solely depending on what happens in middle school. There's a lot of work that happens through elementary school to really equip students with the ability to successfully engage in algebra. And then certainly after, we don't want kids to just kind of get through by the skin of their teeth but have a really successful experience so that when they go to high school they're for those next experiences in their math and course progression.

So all the schools in the Fairfax Pyramid, and specifically the city of Fairfax schools, they're considering and looking at all the implications of having students have this successful completion of algebra. So there's a lot of alignment that they're working on within math instruction elementary through high school. The Fairfax Pyramid has identified goals ongoing with their math progression. There's professional development and vertical articulation opportunities that they're working on for teachers within the Fairfax Pyramid so that you can see the successful progression of students in their math progress as they move up from elementary through middle to high school. So certainly an ongoing goal for the pyramid.

Along with different curricular adjustments that are happening countywide, we're certainly a lot of additional success for students in that here in the Fairfield Spirit. I'm going to turn to Chan and talk a little bit about advanced

Chad Lehmanstaffcourses. Since I've started in the position, one of the things that I really enjoy is talking a little bit more closely with Georgie Mack and her team and the work that she's been embarking in here at the high school in terms of getting more students enrolled into advanced courses. and I think just being a colleague of hers recently, I know this is something she was actually working on before the division kind of made it a focus, so I know that this is a passion of hers and of her school team. And when I come in and talk with the folks at Fairfax, you can tell it's a passion. In fact, I think they call it a passion push to get all students to consider an area of interest advanced course. And so some of the data is really pretty impressive in terms of the work

that they've been doing. This of course really sets the stage. We know from the research that if a student can successfully complete even one advanced course, AP dual enrollment course, their likelihood of being successful in postgraduate, postsecondary work is much higher. And so it's a really critical step for students to experience that. And I think I think what it's really doing, at least my impression thus far, having spent the time that I have, is that it's really changing the culture of the work that's happening in the building where students are feeling empowered to really step up and take those courses. And it feels like a college, like they're really upping their game in terms of college

preparedness for students. So I think that's really, really important work. and it's focused in on the equity work too because it even more significantly impacts students who may be underrepresented in those advanced courses. So at first glimpse at this slide, you may not recognize the significance because I didn't at first either. But I think there's an important point to make with this slide. So what this slide is showing is the percent of students who successfully complete at least one AP or dual enrollment course here at Fairfax And what that means is they got a C minus or better in the course. So it kind of looks like it's flat. But when you consider the sizable increase in enrollment, what some folks would think is that when we enroll more students in the courses,

we're going to see a dip in performance. But what I think is being highlighted here is that they have significantly increased enrollment and yet have been able to maintain performance. So I think it's a really important point to make even though the graph doesn't necessarily jump out at you. So here's just some numbers. Kind of show the enrollees from last year to this year. And you can see the sizeable increase in courses that students are accessing. There's different ways to pull this data and to look at it. Virginia and her team continue to analyze this point very, very closely and carefully. But you can see across the board, you know, just the number of students, the number of courses that students are accessing.

And I know that they are also continuing to add opportunities, currently piloting AP imageography, piloting AP seminar that will stand in as a 10th grade English credit, as what will become a standard course offering for 10th grade. and families could opt out of that if they chose to do so. And other advanced courses that they're installing, I know the dual enrollment courses, I couldn't name them all for you, but I know Georgina can. I know we've talked about some of the courses that she's doing. And this is being recognized. You'll see that bottom point there where College Board improved Fairfax High School from a bronze honor roll to a gold honor roll in terms of just sort of recognizing the breadth of access that's improving and just sort of that increasing of that college-grown culture.

So really, really solid data points to be proud of, I think, in the work that the team here is doing. And that leads us, well do we want to take questions for both of you?

Kristina Cecereby voiceSo I noticed I know about vertical articulation or 30 conversations of aligning planning between maybe elementary middle or middle and high school so that teachers can have cleaner vertical articulation rather than just be a choice or something you do after school rather during the school day so they can strengthen those understanding of curriculum.

Gordon StokesstaffI know there's a lot of initial planning talking about that. Yeah, I mean we've got

Chrisstaffour math teams together, right? But

Kristina Cecereby voicelike algebra one in middle school, planning algebra one in high school.

ChrisstaffYeah, so, but that wasn't during the school day. Right, I think right, if I heard your question correctly, right? Certainly the... The current format of the school calendar presents some challenges when it comes to professional development. But we have worked, Regina and I have worked, to get our math teams together and to better talk about what does success look like in Africa, specifically where geometry is in there as well. And, but again, that is a tricky trick. Fairbax came over. I don't know how they worked at Georgina. You were here for the center of getting over here. It was certainly during, still during your school day. It was towards the anniversary of the day, right? We are certainly, I think this is one of the benefits

of the city because we have more money, right, to pay for subs or something like that. get our teachers over there. So we'll overcome it.

Kristina Cecereby voiceI think my thought was if this is part of your goal, and then making that a little easier for teachers, so that those conversations happen naturally. My second question is around the AP coursework as a former AP coordinator. I'm very excited to see this work. And especially seeing the growth for enrollment and no impact whatsoever on the past, So that's phenomenal seeing. When it comes to professional learning for teachers, what does that look like to support enrollees that may not be traditional students? I need that term, but I'm just phrasing it that

Georginastaffway. And that's some of the conversation that we had. So this year for, I like to do an operational survey with our staff and actually ask them, like, would you like to have whole group faculty meetings? Would you like to have small professional learning communities where you can actually have an entry point? They voted so we actually went into small professional learning communities around a UDL text of their choice So an area of interest but also with a push for access, right? So as we're delivering universal design lessons actually looking through the lens of the text that they're reading To talk about how do we create more equitable access and they're actually in cross-curricular committees which is giving them a very different perspective as to how people

are creating those access and opportunities very much from a lens of looking at our maps data and saying these are students that maybe you're falling in a risk tier for reading or a risk tier for literacy these are students with disabilities these are the WIDA scores that you have of your kids and really kind of getting all teams to look at the data in that way to kind of consider what planning implications are and sometimes when people see like oh we want to increase that AP enrollment another 15%, right? Some people are like, you're just trying to put everyone into AP. It's

Amit Hickmanby voicelike, no,

Georginastaffwe're trying to create successful pass forward, but we want to support you instructionally. Well, how's that going to work? Well, actually, universal design for learning. So really kind of beginning to create that variance. So we're really trying to deepen the learning there, and then even do some specific training with CLT facilitators to kind of turn around and take back to their teams as well of the data, right? So constant, constantly looking at that data to be able to support. And then just a few other things to look at is, we started smaller this year, but it's probably the most intentional groupings of advisory that we have done before. So really deepening the conversation of how can we further enhance that to support students

that maybe are taking this for the first time or self-identifying that they're struggling advisories during that lifetime period to make sure that they are getting what they need to retain the course and to be successful.

Amit Hickmanby voiceFirst of all thank you for pointing out on the slide that the passing rates and the sequence, because that was not clear to me at first. This makes a lot more sense and that would be one of my questions. Great we're putting them in AP courses but what are their grades look like? So that's wonderful and I will say you all did a great job of selling this AP seminar for 10th graders like my son's all in and all of his friends are all just like so excited about it so however they talk them about it big

Rebecca Baenigstaffwork I

Amit Hickmanby voicehave a question for you Chris my understanding is in order to do algebra in eighth grade they should be in math honors seven right which then which kind of pushes back to that they need to be an advanced math in sixth grade is there communication about how that's happening because you kind of almost like miss the boat almost in some ways right if you're not in advanced math in third or fourth grade or fifth grade you can you know and i see this also personally because i had a fourth and fifth grade cobit kid who missed two years of math because he went from regular math to advanced math so is that a conversation that's happening and how do we line that up?

ChrisstaffLet's start with the microscopic level, what we're doing. So we are, we have the notes here, but this year, somewhere along the line you're going to get some sort of very condensed or skip that, right? Whether you get or whatever. So we feel that taking math 7 hours, So if you're coming out of sixth grade in the general ed math, for lack of a better term, but they're not in the advanced math, right?

Amit Hickmanby voiceSixth grade math, not seventh.

ChrisstaffYou're in sixth grade math. That, to go into math seven hours, which is math. I can get it. Why am I not teachers? We're talking about that. So like this year, when you look at our numbers, We have this year 66% of our seventh grade students are at Mass. 7 honors, which is about 20% higher than county average. We're defaulting to this year's 6 graders. Mass. 7 honors has the default class, and certainly we work with families. They feel like they don't want to be there, but we feel like that sets them up to best for success and how to grow. I think I'll let elementary speak, but I think one of the challenges I faced at One thing was, although many of our club four students were clearly going to say, there was a plus for math

because we ended up having advanced math sections with sometimes 20 or 30 kids who were not club four yet. But we had the ability based on some assessments to do that. So

Amit Hickmanby voicethat's how you're getting to, part of my question is, what does the space look like? And I'm proud that it's a little more classic, but it seems to me like advanced math is a capacity.

ChrisstaffI would say yes for us if they were taking advanced math, but there's going to be a we got to make sure that we find ways for them to be successful and

Rebecca Baenigstaffjust big picture wise, this is another area as an admission, right, because to meet that school it's literally the math office and they're working with several of care on the meds to really look at this. It's like rewriting our whole curriculum. And I wouldn't say to take advanced math out because I think many of our families would have a heart attack. But it is, it's giving more access. It's integrating it into the regular curriculum. If we want all students to meet this benchmark by eighth grade, then we can't have inequitable opportunity, right? Inequities with opportunity because if you look across all the elementary schools, and some advanced math for a variety of reasons. Whether it is teachers, especially in sixth grade,

knowing the curriculum and having that training to teach it, right? There are a lot of reasons why this might exist, but if we rewrite the whole core curriculum, then it takes a lot of that out. And that's deep work that's happening. I don't know what our elementary principles want to address kind of the current.

Speaker 8Yeah, I mean, I think it's really important. My mindset is like, you don't want to go in with the sense I think a few things that the division has done, particularly this year, like with the third grade curriculum, it's a lot more highly aligned between what they describe as advanced and general education. So those teachers, they want to have a lot better conversations. So for us at Providence, we have two sections of advanced math in the third grade, whereas maybe two or three, we have one. So I think you're always poised to kind of expand, to have additional sections. you know your classroom teachers right you could just have an additional section sometimes we're going to use a supplemental teacher like a math

resource teacher to teach an additional section right so that kind of helps to reduce the overall class sizes if you have an additional teacher who's supplemental to so I think it looks a little differently grade to grade and I think that something to know is that the division still has like a screening guidance to determine how to best identify students for advanced math using a variety of data points like the SOL score, some of the graded SOL score in the previous year, the math behavior rating scales in addition to using a pre-assessment at the beginning of the year. So it's in combination because I think you don't want to just put someone in a class and not have them be prepared to be able to take on the rigor that they're

going to be. You want them to be able to access the opportunity. But ultimately, you're right, it is working backwards from the goal. And I think we're highly aligned as a pyramid in having this conversation. So it doesn't feel like, oh, we've done our part, your turn now I think you want to really feel like it's one conversation and understanding that like it starts very young right and I think It's a mini-year project and you can't just simply say all right everyone's advanced math now because then that really deprives Those students with what they might be in order to demonstrate efficiency and master the standards

Speaker 15You know we're gonna that we're gonna adapt to what our students need and if that's two sections

Amit Hickmanby voicethe possibility yeah

Speaker 15absolutely

Amit Hickmanby voiceyeah I struggle a little bit the education behind it for parents right because a lot of times I don't think understand that when they're taking or whatever we want to call it it's going on a Facebook transcript. So when we're doing that and then parents feel very, a lot of parents feel pressure, but then also want to look up oral language, like where, what does that look like in terms of the understanding that, yes, we want to do it, once your child gets, we want them to work hard. And this is really important and it's really foundational for the work.

ChrisstaffYeah, well, you know, we have some opportunities for parents and we have a curriculum night, right? So there's an opportunity for parents ask questions, we do another or we address the parents I think we can probably continue to move back on that communication because my guess is when you're sitting in an auditorium that's really big and you've got a rising 7th grade, right? You're probably primarily concerned about You may not hear or apprehend everything you said. Certainly the math teachers, right, is there helping students make some decisions on courses, right? Yeah, right, we can certainly probably increase our opportunities. Ultimately, we don't want students to expunge courses, but there is a little bit more.

or taking it to middle school has some other avenues.

Amit Hickmanby voiceYeah, I'm just thinking, really, right now in sixth grade, we're making decisions for our child what's going to happen

Georginastaffat least,

Amit Hickmanby voicereally for their entire math career. Right. That one form you had was like, here's your path, which was super helpful. And then the high school also did it in the presentations. Thank you for providing that. But I think just that, again, that education of what does this look like for your child in the future? I don't think it's common health action. Thank you.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceI just want to piggyback on it, is the other thing that they do offer at KJ is, and I think Catherine told me it was the second year, is the pre-algebra, the algebra readiness. Of course, the semester elective that kids, so if they are, they just need a little bit of extra support in algebra, they're in, they can be in seven honors, but then they're also as one of their electives they take a algebra readiness course and it's basically taking the same they're they're giving them extra work to build up their algebra skills so next year they're ready for algebra. It actually is working on the same thing which is a work.

ChrisstaffI think we're very careful about taking the electives. Right, yes,

Sarah Kelseyby voiceit was a call from Miss Teague and I got a 30-minute conversation

Chrisstaffwhether

Sarah Kelseyby voicewe really wanted to do it

ChrisstaffBut

Sarah Kelseyby voiceI have found it is very helpful because the way that teacher does it is they are working a chapter ahead of the honors class and it's so it's very beneficial they're getting that extra support in advance and so it just gives them a little boost

Speaker 4my question is related to the reading instruction I know with the legislation in the state, a lot of the stuff that FCPS is doing, it's been focused on what they're doing. So I guess I'm curious what their backs and other riscos are doing to address the kids that are not getting, I mean, they've already been through all of this and did not get the benefit of the curriculum and will not get the benefit of that new curriculum. So I guess I'm just curious of what's being done because there's still a few more years of those kids.

GeorginastaffSo one thing that we, so we transitioned from, to the MAPS assessment this year, which is, I actually like that test actually better. It actually is a lot more skill driven and focused. So we spent a lot of time at the beginning of the year actually kind of training the teachers on how to best use those resources. And then we kind of have done a deep analysis of those results as we receive them. I think I just looked at it because we just got our report. It's probably about between like 19 and 23 percent at like each grade level of kids that would be like in the yellow that needs some more like intensive supports around reading as identified and then you can like break them down by skill. So what we've really been doing is looking at entry points in teacher planning and in CLT teams for how we can offer those skill entry points for kids within the curriculum that they currently have. So it's not necessarily feeling like something extra, but

this is a support and a skill that we know that certain students need their potential through family resources. And then students that need intensive supports, of course, we have a literacy class as well that we work kind of very intentionally to rebrand as kind of like a young adult fiction course. So there's a lot of high interest texts in the class coupled with a reading program, but that it feels a lot more like an elective than an intervention, right? Because kids were not taking it because they felt like they were being put into an intervention computer program it was like a waste of collective

Speaker 4so

Georginastaffthose are there's a probably two of the bigger things

Rebecca Baenigstaffdata is sharing it with all the teachers across all content yeah what's it here's the English department so what you need to know about students in your class it was really like let's arm all of our teachers with this information because you need reading to access I just thought that was a stand-up.

GeorginastaffYeah, and I think that it's, you know, everything that they read, majority of the time, is nonfiction texts, right? And so they're reading the nonfiction in all the other core classes, right? In English, they get a little more time than they need to read. For leisure, but knowing that a lot of the nonfiction area was one of the greater struggle points was affirming to our teachers that they needed to have kids reading more. Versus PowerPoints or certain things, access being given to them, are there entry points for kids to read in your class versus pulling out all the content for them. I'm still giving them guides and scaffolds, but also reading is just a great practice.

ChrisstaffSo we did something similar. Most of it's also I-Ready. Well, what was nice was I-Ready was better than what they used before. So we actually took, in August, since we had the higher income bids, and I think one benefit I think that vocabulary piece was so critical, but the elementary is really short up the phonics piece, but that vocabulary that rich, like, comprehension. So that's much like Georgina, right? We have some of the literature here that we all mentioned, but other simple, it's been explicit teaching the vocabulary across awkward forms, right? So, like, I direct this, it's surprised people, right? and knowing that there's still some years right where we're going to

Rebecca BaenigstaffAt least we can maybe get four and five together. Consider it. Okay. I can get

Chad Lehmanstaffus back on time at four because I feel like we've already kind of talked about this in the question part. We've talked about the extracurricular opportunities, which are quite robust and continue to grow, but that's just an area. Like I said, I'm just going to get a little bit further. So skipping ahead then to five, a lot of the conversation here in the next few slides is really again about high school data. But if you take a look, steady improvements over the past few years in graduation rate and a reduction in dropout rate, which I think is really significant because even though those percentages might seem small, it's a chunk of kids. that's successfully completing with their cohort. And so that's really important and it's important

that that continues to improve as the new accreditation framework comes into play as well. And in kind of talking with the team, some of the key strategies that they have been able to implement, making sure that any senior who is off track has a graduation plan and they are discussing what steps taking a look at what other options they might need to consider. Whether that might be a twilight class as a way to catch up a credit which would be a class like in the right after school time frame into the evening. Maybe the student is able to access a course at that time and they can't access it first thing in the morning or something. Just to try to look at what flexible options they may have to get

students across that stage in a timely manner. So also I know you know as highlighted on here they're offering opportunities increased opportunities and it's great to have the academy programming here but increasing those trade opportunities opportunities and high quality work based experiences. And so you know those it's still ongoing work and as we kind of talked about with attendance in many cases this is this is also very much who is off track for graduation is probably due to any number of different reasons and figuring out what that reason is and how they can best engage that student in accomplishing what it is they need to accomplish is time intensive work. And when students reach that age, of course, you know, they have a little bit more independence.

And so you have to be able to figure out ways to really navigate that with them and has been able to make gains in that area. So I think excellent work there. And then just to kind of give you, I'm going to turn it over to Gordon. He's going to give you a little snapshot around the accreditation framework in case you haven't seen it.

Gordon StokesstaffSure. So for years we've operated under an accreditation model in the state for measuring our schools' performance. And through last school year all four of the city schools were fully accredited. on the different performance measures by course or subject area as well as by reporting group. In the majority of areas there is the top level, level one levels of student performance based on their completion and scoring of the SOL exams. For Johnson and Fairbanks High School there are two reporting groups where the students were performing at a level two, so just below the benchmark level based on a couple of reporting groups. So based on those designations, both KJ and Fairbanks High School are with

receiving supports through Project Momentum program. So basically through our Office of School Support, schools can receive additional resources and dialogue opportunities really just to highlight areas we want to see improved performance by specifically student reporting groups and throughout the year through this school year there are series of meetings that these two schools are are engaging with these meetings involve doing some data dives some actual classroom visits and learning walks to see the practices happening in these different classrooms for these specific areas, professional development opportunities for teachers and admin teams to really, again, shine a spotlight and provide additional support for schools to increase their performance.

So we've had some really great conversations at both schools. There's a lot of really good work happening in both settings to provide additional support for students and to put our teachers to better meet student learning needs to really see a lot of progress with these different Now, that's it.

Rebecca BaenigstaffJust for context, too, because Project Momentum for the past decade has been really about identifying schools at risk for full accreditation. And this year, it's been a major shift in how the office functions and how schools are identified because it was solely based on SOS and only. This year, in our region, we have 10 Project Momentum schools. including schools like Chantilly High School, Wood Center School, who are identified for other areas. But it's because we're really looking less than, I mean, certainly the school has a holistic accreditation

Amit Hickmanby voiceneed.

Rebecca BaenigstaffThey're going to be identified, but it's also enabling us to be nimble and support schools that maybe just have, you know, one or two student groups within any content area and really differentiate. So in the same way sort of differentiate for individual students that need different things in schools doing that at a larger level as a division. So I just want to give you that context because I think, you know, you hear project momentum and some people associate with the schools not doing well, and it's really, no, this is our proactive way to be responsive to specific needs in schools.

Gordon StokesstaffMeanwhile, we learned very early on in the school year that a new metric assessment is now going to be our new standards. So shifting from an accreditation model where schools will still have some familiarity with the previous model to an accountability system. So now the system ongoing will be the SPSF school performance and support framework. So this new system really highlights different components that make up a school's accountability. mastery, growth for elementary and middle schools, readiness, and certainly graduation metrics from the high school level. So taking all these different details into account, a school will then receive an overall performance rating. And the four different categories of rating,

distinguished, on track, off track, or needing intensive support. So we're all still grappling with what this really means We're in different ways to leverage growth and progress based on these different components of the overall accountability system. But as we've unpacked this so far with the data that we have from last year, all four of our city schools are slated to be on track. We're in that on track designation for this school year. So schools are very attuned to the different data that they have where they can really do some specific intervention and work to really learn more points, so to speak, based on this accountability framework. So we're certainly learning a lot. We did some dialogue with our principals last Friday

and our last principal meeting to do a little bit of a deeper dive into this. And we'll continue to just be an understanding as we move through the year with our eyes on this new target around accountability. Can you speak a little bit

Speaker 15about the, I'm going to say MGI. I just said I'm sort of broken.

Gordon Stokesstaffthe Federal Graduation Index, FGI. Yeah, there's a whole new vocabulary that we're all learning here. And, yeah, just different cohorts that are measured based on like a four-year cohort versus a six-year. There's definitely a lot of new vocabulary here. And I felt like, Georgina, you've been doing a little bit of your own dive at the high school level. this and we're here already starting to see opportunities to really kind of maximize the performance of our students and based on this new metric enrollment, enrollment, enrollment, enrollment, enrollment, enrollment, and enrollment. So enrollment in our advanced courses, speaking of Chad's discussion there, employment, looking at the high leverage, high wage, high

Georginastaffleverage, high wage, and high quality work base. I honestly I'm not a popular person when I say this sometimes amongst people because of the way this was wrote out but I do what I like about the three E's is that with like multiple certainty it does hold schools accountable to students exiting here with a plan and a path. And they can earn points in multiple categories, but I just do like that very often we'll set goals and we'll have accountability metrics and they don't include everybody. And the three E's includes everybody and includes all of our staff and accountability to getting everybody there. And I do like that because I just think it creates something we can all get behind and feel good about

that path.

Rebecca BaenigstaffAnything like the multiple learning progress that we talked about earlier, the fact that that was never a measure that was part of our goal at all.

PlatenbergstaffThank you for your partnership. We're just happy to get together.

Amit Hickmanby voiceIt's a super easy question. It's probably a really silly question. Are you allowed to contact parents of students who are over the age of 18 without the permission once they turn 18?

GeorginastaffNo, you're still supposed to know.

Amit Hickmanby voiceOkay, so it is. It's similar to like a...

GeorginastaffThere is a kind of like... I do not remember the exact name of the form. Like a student could petition to fill out a form that says that they take ownership like their sys axis and communication it's like a process and form they have to fill out in general you can still know in general you still are communicated with a bunch of students That's great.

Amit Hickmanby voiceI can't. The minute they turn 18, I can't communicate with a parent, which is really challenging because 18-year-olds are typically not a parent.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceIs it

Amit Hickmanby voicepossible to

Carolyn Pitchesget the graduation data for a fair factor in the last 10 years to sort of see where we were, where the graduation rate we had had? Yeah, just to see multi-year. Yeah, because I do remember being much lower when I came on the board, seeing those numbers make me happy. We'll check with our data. Okay, Georgie,

Speaker 4another

Carolyn Pitchesquestion for you. So the dual enrollment, I know that, I'm going to talk to Jeff or Dan about this. Do we have any dual enrollment, or are we working on any dual enrollment opportunities for CTE courses through that might look like our auto tech program. Nova has a huge welding program, auto tech program, and they have certifications. Something that kids can earn credit towards those certifications if they leave their place and go into one of those programs.

GeorginastaffYes, so not with auto tech, with fashion design. with Teachers for Tomorrow, entrepreneurship, I'm thinking about the CTEs right now, the musical, Eric's program, musical theater, so some of these are new ones they've been added. With dual enrollment options, we could explore that. Sometimes the challenge, I think sometimes the CTE doesn't always line up with the trade expectation, and so sometimes that can be a little more difficult. I did

Carolyn Pitchesmeet with the people at Northern Virginia community specifically about this type of thing. They do work with some other schools in their auto tech to sort of partner with them. As we know, the auto tech industry is desperate for people.

GeorginastaffNo, I think you're thinking in the right vein, because I think that, as we talked about, you talked about like sixth grade expanded advanced math classes. I think there's going to have to be a lot more intentionality in students actually taking the sequence versus taking things as an elective, because I think I'm kind of interested in it. And so like offering those type of opportunities is a great opportunity after I've taken out of one to go into a dual enrollment to Or or three right to kind of continue matriculating through the past So that's great And I'll actually reach out to them to get some more information about that because we're already having a lot of those advising conversations right now with

We are rising seniors next year where they're kind of like well, maybe I'll take something different and it's like, no, if you really liked this, continue the path, right? Because two years consecutive will make you a completer, right? When you take, but that is different. Like, that's been a different approach to us. They're building a

Carolyn Pitcheswhole new, they invited, they invited, because my husband and I did a scholarship through NOVA, so they invited us to come work, because they're, they're building a whole new campus for auto tech and welding and all of those things. He's so passionate. His kids go on to do amazing things, whether it is to go on into college to do automotive engineering or something, or just get certified, ASC certified. I just thought it might be something, you know, that would be interesting. And I have one other question that I don't want to ask anymore. For sixth grade, the advanced math, Do you find that it's difficult in terms of, because we know elementary education teachers are just more of being like a generalist,

and as math progresses and advanced math in sixth grade looks a lot different than advanced in third or fourth, do you have any, like how do you, do you have any problems getting teachers who are, to teach it but are comfortable enough with the content is that a struggle or you I know you have Laura Knight who's been there teaching it taught my you know my kids so but if you were to add like another section

Speaker 8we so we do have two sections of the sixth grade

Carolyn Pitchesand it's fine And

Speaker 8actually I just want to follow up on the third floor of the things. So I think we are fortunate. So I think that we'll simply know that it hasn't been a challenge yet. And I know I think, certainly I think you kind of figure out who you have. And it's like for any challenge you want to kind of identify the person who's best to meet the needs of the students in front of them. In some instances that requires kind of additional support from like math resource teacher, which we have tremendous staff resource teachers Tracy Cicero who really can do a lot of coaching with teachers Tracy who's the math resource teacher has taught that section before herself So I think it's a matter of combination of finding the right person coaching and also never kind of

being limited and thinking no we can't do this right right I think it's always like Susan said earlier if we have these needs for our students it's our obligation figuring that out yeah

Amit Hickmanby voiceright

Chrisstaffbut I would say that definitely the people teaching it I think at every grade level people that do their passions, right? They may have talked on the floor or something. We knew there was somebody there with a passion in math. I feel like most teams probably have these two people. Okay, that's good. That's great.

Speaker 15No, I'm just going to grab and keep before she leaves.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Okay.

Speaker 15Mr.

PlatenbergstaffWalker, do you have anything? Wasn't there something that you mentioned also about an ASL partnership with NOVA? Oh, yeah. We can talk about that. No, I just thought it

Carolyn Pitcheswas.

PlatenbergstaffYou've got so many different things going

Amit Hickmanby voiceon.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceShe does. Once she's awake, everyone's talking in the morning.

PlatenbergstaffBut really, just to thank you all, again, it's amazing the depth and breadth. And when you go through all of the focus areas, what most people in public education don't understand is the work. It's different when I went to school in Fairbanks County Public Schools and graduated. I may have survived without taking a lot of those advanced placement courses in math, algebra at an earlier age, and we used life goals in high school. But anyway.

Rebecca BaenigstaffEverybody's dating themselves.

PlatenbergstaffBut I can't thank you enough for the areas of focus. The shift that's been happening in our landscape has been massive. Some for better, some for worse. But through it all, you maintain the focus on our children. And so for that, I just cannot thank you. And I feel so fortunate to be working with such an incredible team of talented, education-focused individuals that I know the city is very fortunate. partnership and thank you to all of our principals for all of your work and again your targeted focus and you know there's questions about vertical articulation and training and the challenges with having the timing of the of the day of when they're planning time for actually you've been working around that and you've been working around that before someone

suggested to you um the conversations you've been having about math students your statement about here you go, the fact that we don't operate that way is good. Anyway, that's why I'm a defender. I got to make it as fun.

Carolyn PitchesAlright, we're going to let you guys leave. Thank you to our friends. See you next week.

Amit Hickmanby voiceMaybe we've already asked all our questions. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, again, I just read from

Gordon Stokesstaffthe Lord. But if we have a, we can email the other. Of

Platenbergstaffcourse, yeah. Okay, so, for sure.

Rebecca BaenigstaffYeah, he might have probably some problems in the meantime. Oh, no, some things. So, I have a few more guys who don't

Chrisstaffwant to ask. The judges

Gordon Stokesstaffare always, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average, or the average,

Carolyn Pitchesor the average, or the average, or the average, Thank you. Thank you. Oh yeah, of course

PlatenbergstaffI have that one. Yes, it's in that one. Well, yes, and I admit, you're fine, but you're fine. You're fine. So these ones show where they are in the new framework. Basically, you're fine. So, in the new program, which we do our school, we're planning on the unadjusted, which is down here. So this is the adjusted date. Thank you.

Rebecca BaenigstaffThank you.

Kristina Cecereby voiceI'm taking 40 time.

Rebecca BaenigstaffNo, I'm very good. All right. Did you want to hear so much? Thank you. Great to see you all. Some of those who they want to make sure to be a student or a student or a student or a student. OK.

Amit Hickmanby voiceLet's go ahead and just keep going. Yeah. Thank you. Oh, OK. Yeah. Yeah,

Sarah Kelseyby voicebut I got to get you to do this. We're

Amit Hickmanby voiceso far away now. I know, like

Carolyn Pitchesa mile and a half.

Amit Hickmanby voiceHi,

Sarah Kelseyby voiceguys.

Amit Hickmanby voiceI

Carolyn Pitchesdon't

Amit Hickmanby voicethink it's really good.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, superintendent's goals, so... Jeff, you ready to take some? Yeah,

PlatenbergstaffI am. I'm ready to take your feedback, yeah.

Amit Hickmanby voiceOkay.

Carolyn PitchesNumber one. I'll start... I was starting with... Lauren, all right. Lauren's going to start... I know. Okay. Um, Sophie. Just wait. Tell us who's right. Yeah, I'll get it. I'm just asking for four. Oh,

Gordon Stokesstaffyeah. Save you a trip. You'll feel very far. Yeah.

Speaker 4All right, ready? And begin. All right. Okay. So, we had two different versions that we weren't quite sure which was

Platenbergstaffthe most of the

Speaker 4today.

PlatenbergstaffI understand that now.

Speaker 4I think that's

Rebecca Baenigstaffmy fault. I think I grabbed

Platenbergstaffthe wrong

Rebecca Baenigstaffone to put on the form.

PlatenbergstaffActually, what it was is the data import ended up only keeping the old one in there. It didn't have the new one. So it's all of our opportunities.

Speaker 4So we were talking about wanting to make sure that the smaller districts we were getting information on there, our education processes in particular, the false church and Manassas City, just an elementary school, and Alexandria City, and feeling less the need to hear from Prince William or Loudoun or Arlington, which really focuses on the smaller counties. And then...

PlatenbergstaffI'm sorry. Oh, sorry. Let me make sure I get that. So the ones that you actually want, you would just list them and we'll make sure I get them.

Carolyn PitchesYeah. It was the same ones. Yeah. email

Platenbergstaffthere were a couple that some people wanted that were different so

Speaker 4that we were thinking Falls Church Manassas City and Alexandria City and then under each bullet point the language was different for each school system as to what exactly you were going to talk about. So we were wanting the language to be the same for each district. And then we were wondering if we could add a part to it about having a presentation to the board after that's all done, rather than in an email, but actually having a presentation. And we were hoping that we could have that by the end of March.

Carolyn PitchesMarch.

PlatenbergstaffOkay.

Amit Hickmanby voiceMeeting with the individual districts and gathering information.

PlatenbergstaffNo, I got that. And then the presentation by the end of March.

Speaker 4Right,

Kristina Cecereby voicebut the presentation is

Speaker 4a summary of what I'm doing.

PlatenbergstaffI understand what that is. Yeah, and that makes sense. I was just thinking the timing of it.

Speaker 4In what regard?

PlatenbergstaffIt just seems kind of short. Now, I do have a lot of them, but if I'm predicated, this is what I was thinking, by the way, see now. What I was thinking is I'm predicated on them responding and being willing to share the information with me of the RFPs that they have. Some of the relationships I have in the other jurisdictions, like Melanie K. White, she'll give it to me. She's superintendent of Alexandria, right? Falls Church, I already had theirs. February 2nd, I already got theirs. In Monassas City, I'm not sure about that individual.

Carolyn PitchesSo really you only have to reach out to Alexandria City and go to Monassas City. Just reach out. answer you, then you can say, look, I contacted her. I just

Platenbergstaffwant the expression, though, if I come back and say, here are the criteria. Pretty much the standard within each of those, just so you're aware. There are nuances of some that provide things like, for example, their rating of herbs. I'm sorry.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, I'm a little confused. Okay, so do we not need to get information from different jurisdictions? We just need to get it. Okay. Because originally we had all these places, and then in reading the revisions, it seemed like, well, I know I, for one, like, you can just look at, like, Ballester City because we're pretty similar, and you know Peter, we can leverage that. They just finished it. That was a little bit different. I mean, I guess my question is this. It's your goal, and you have all these things, but now it sounds like you don't think we need to get

Platenbergstaffinformation. No, no, I didn't mean to suggest that at all. I was just saying if I don't from the ones that you have in Manassas.

Carolyn PitchesRight, that's what I'm saying. You have to have Manassas City contact Alexandria City and you can't get that information from them That's fine you have two other avenues right you have Falls Church you have Fairfax

PlatenbergstaffAnd then I agree consistently with and just

Carolyn Pitchescommunicate that with us right like

Platenbergstaffabsolutely Hey, I

Carolyn Pitchescan't get these people to deserve you guys to have does the board have another system you want me to contact. And that way, as long as we're, I think, in communication, are you guys all good? Okay. Yeah. Might come down to you get two school systems to give you the information, and that's all we need. That

Platenbergstaffmakes sense to you. I do think they

Speaker 4just did an elementary school.

PlatenbergstaffAlexandria did.

Speaker 4Or Manassas City.

PlatenbergstaffYeah, I don't know. Why don't you? Okay. Okay, so. And Peter's thing was a public current partnership. That's a new answer. Yeah, they

Carolyn Pitchesdefinitely did. Because at CBDC we talked a lot about Fairfax County considering, you know, looking at that as an option. I think they said it works better for certain instances. It does,

Platenbergstaffbut you have something of value to leverage.

Carolyn PitchesIt didn't

Platenbergstaffsound like, right. If you do something there, that would be a good.

Carolyn PitchesIt just didn't sound like maybe it would.

PlatenbergstaffIt might not, but I'll read that way you'll have in the presentation. Just in

Carolyn PitchesArlington, I thought we might have visited Arlington. Do they do something?

PlatenbergstaffThey have done in the past different things, but I'll go in to this.

Carolyn PitchesSo the Falls Church, it's kind of a public. Yeah, they did. That's how they did it. In Arlington, I think that one that we went to, Cardinal, they did something. They

Platenbergstaffdid a partnership because the library was there. Yeah,

Carolyn Pitchesthe library that Westover, it was a Westover library that's there. Anyway, all right. Okay, one do goal two.

Amit Hickmanby voiceYeah, so goal two is something. You saw you change the dates a bit. Took out the group replacement. Totally fine. I want to push back a little on the timeline for getting the RFP out. and awarding the contracts. Because right now with that, then we've gone over a year since we've gone past before we even have the professional. I'm just worried how far out we're pushing all this. And is it possible to push it up a little end of June possibly? Just thinking about also what summer schedules look like in terms of getting people together and to have those meetings, and the full-runs availability.

PlatenbergstaffRight.

Amit Hickmanby voiceI'd really love to push that up.

PlatenbergstaffYeah, and the reason you had asked that question, and I thank you for that, because you were the one that gave me a few things, I said, hey, you don't have a date in there for that, and I'm a little concerned about that. I presumed, and I should have clarified, you said I presumed, and accurately so, that it was based upon the fact that we had this whole thing deferred. So, um...

Amit Hickmanby voiceWell, I think the deferral, from my understanding, is more for the payment stuff. We can still do the RP process. Right.

PlatenbergstaffWell, that's what... So what we did was... Right. So what we did was we went ahead, Dan and I both met with Patty Innocente and Ron Hall, and we asked them who they had already spoken with, the finance people from the city. So their directions were not our directions. So they were not aligned. What we're doing, what does that mean? That means I didn't know, I couldn't drive this train and say, hey, I want to get the start to be done anyway. But what we did was through that meeting, we were able to get them to say, well, their schedule is better if it gets done in the timeline you're talking about. So my desire is, that's why I don't have it developed yet, because I haven't gotten a confirmation from them, that their workload is going to allow us to be able to get RFP

RFP out of the way, even though we can only spend $3 million between now and next June 30th.

Amit Hickmanby voiceMaybe I'm not understanding the timing. So I'm thinking, let's say you get the information back by the end of March from the other jurisdictions presented. Is it unreasonable to do that the actual RFP is then created within a month? I

Platenbergstaffdon't think,

Amit Hickmanby voiceyou

Platenbergstaffknow, so what I've been doing is, contrary to all of this, is I've been gathering segments and pieces and providing them to the procurement staff in advance of, so that they had segments of procurement documents that may be nuanced, right? Now, I haven't provided them everything yet, and it was to get the conversation going because I'm the type of person who likes to plant the grass seed and mow the lawn at night. So recognizing that my timeframe initially on this bond referendum and having quite a bit of experience in it, I wanted to go ahead and get people focused on making sure that we were going to keep on track. When we had that meeting deferring and delaying all of our projects from about $18 million worth of expenditure

that was originally planned in the cash flow that you were provided in one of the weeklies, to what it was now in the revisions of the weekday I provided today that included the current cash flow, that changed how much they would be spending, in other words, how much of work companies would be working with us and therefore charging us. As part of that, in working with the staff, the Dermot staff, I'm working on their schedule. Their initial schedules were consistent with what I provided, and the timelines that I provided, I think, accommodated before what you're saying. They were the weeks of that, Lauren, you had mentioned that you would be able to work through the week of spring break, like they already said, we can work around all of them.

That timeline, I think, was consistent with what you suggested.

Amit Hickmanby voiceIt

Platenbergstaffis. I'm

Amit Hickmanby voicestill... I'm not sure that I'm totally following it. I wasn't at the meeting about the delay and deferral. So is it too aggressive of a timeline to say that the RFP, we delay it a little bit, that the RFP goes out by the end of April and then give it a 60-day process to afford a contract by the end of June?

PlatenbergstaffI don't want to be setting myself up for failure on a timeline that right now I still have to work with other staff to be able to accomplish. I don't have a problem with it personally. The thing is, I don't want to say yes for April when I haven't nailed that down yet with Patty and her staff. Now, I'll be happy to go ahead and shoot for that as a goal. my question is this why April for the RFP and June for the award when you look at the sequencing of timing of design work of gaining the architect the schematic aspects of that and going out into the community with that delay that delay has impacted us from when my initial schedule that I had provided you which was to have it awarded by, do you recall that initial date in the first one, was it June?

I

Amit Hickmanby voiceguess I'm not following because my purpose is in the timeline is to then have stakeholder meetings beginning next fall, right? Before this fall is too far off of people's radar. We did such a huge...

PlatenbergstaffAmen. So if the intent is to get... I'm perfect then. If that's it, let me identify the timeline to make sure that we have stakeholder meetings beginning of fall, the beginning of the new school year.

Amit Hickmanby voiceRight, but does

Platenbergstaffthat work?

Amit Hickmanby voiceYes, but isn't the contract awarded before that happens, before

Platenbergstaffthe stakeholder

Amit Hickmanby voicemeetings?

PlatenbergstaffIt is, and that requires your approval of that contract. If that's the goal, if I'm not hearing you clearly, but if that's the goal, then that can be the goal that I will obtain. So it's more

Amit Hickmanby voicereasonable to say August 30th to approve our first school board meeting of September to approve the contract?

PlatenbergstaffI think it would have to be, like you said, in the summer before the board breaks.

Amit Hickmanby voiceThat's what I was thinking.

PlatenbergstaffI know, but that's what I want to make sure. If I set it up that way, I can work with, I'll work with Patty Innocente to make sure that we have our first stakeholder meetings at the beginning of the school year. Because I agree with you. So after

Amit Hickmanby voicethe contract is over?

PlatenbergstaffYes.

Amit Hickmanby voiceOkay, is it, I mean, and again, we don't want to say go for failure either, so is it possible for you to communicate with Patty, maybe CC Carolyn, to see like if she if you say to her hey this is the timeline i get asked to do is this reasonable can we get through this process because i know she needs to be involved in it

Platenbergstaffyeah i don't um because

Amit Hickmanby voiceit's essentially the timeline you said before and

Platenbergstaffi worked with her when i first got that initial timeline i worked with her to make sure that it worked i just want to make sure that i want to make sure that we can still that they'll still be able to honor it i believe they will i just got to make sure that she's not here to say that's

Amit Hickmanby voicewhat i'm saying okay just keeping us

Platenbergstaffbefore

Amit Hickmanby voicethese are approved, you know.

PlatenbergstaffLike if she says

Amit Hickmanby voicethat's possible, we don't want to put you in a situation.

PlatenbergstaffAbsolutely.

Amit Hickmanby voiceAnd

PlatenbergstaffI agree the whole intent of what you said. If I can make it happen, I'll make it happen. Because the goal to have it begin in the fall of this year, I don't think is unreasonable at all. In fact, you know, that seems, you know, I would like to have gotten all this stuff done before.

Amit Hickmanby voiceBecause by then, people are going to start asking questions, right? Totally. You did all this prep for this, Now what? Okay, thank you for hearing that.

Kristina Cecereby voiceGreat, goal 3. Just to reiterate some of the things that myself and members of the board, we don't feel that goal 3 is appropriate as a superchemical since these all align with the expectations of the role. several of the senior members highlighted that item two of goal three was something from a January 2023 goal setting that you had done and so since this seems to be a recurring thing and since we highlighted that this is part of your job we again don't feel like this is appropriate it should be here. We really want something that as our conversations have gone, highlighting how can we elevate the excellence of Fairfax City Schools. Whether it be like I mentioned, finding ways to create free opportunities for after-school

enrichment, bringing in partnerships with George Mason. I know past superintendents have strengthened AP programs or looked at way back when, bringing in technology in certain ways. Like there's all kinds of ways that we can strengthen and sort of create excellence within our schools that elevate us beyond FCPS. And I would really like the sequel three be something that makes us stand out. I don't feel like this stands out.

Gordon StokesstaffI Can

Speaker 14I say something? Can I push back? I mean, not push back. Can I maybe like just being defensive or in... We are stretched as staff, and I'm sorry, but I don't mean to push back. That's why we're having this conversation. So those initiatives were all great, but that was the... And I can say that because I was here, right? I was here when we did the boundary change in Fairfax, was here when we did the... and Caroline can talk about it too. I was here when we did AAP when we brought local level four. That was awesome. That was the only thing we did.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceThat

Speaker 14was it. That was it as a staff. And to do this, I mean, this referendum and this bond work is so much work. And the press box and the concession stand and the, like, I can't tell you, and Caroline can speak to this, I cannot tell you how much this job has changed in 10 years. The amount of expectations on us is huge. I get that. He's a superintendent. I get that. He's

Platenbergstaffcalled less than full time.

Speaker 14I mean, whatever. I get that. But Dan and I truly are, and every week we are way above our hours. Every week, all the time. And so to say, like, we want more programs and doing all that kind of stuff, like, that's so much work. And I'm going to pull back because obviously, like, I'm passionate about this. But I feel, and I'm being defensive of Jeff, and he doesn't need it and all that kind of stuff. And we are so stretched thin, this staff. And for you guys to say, oh, we need more, we need more, we need more. I think there was a

Kristina Cecereby voicemiscommunication.

PlatenbergstaffWell, let me see if I can find the comment thread since that. Because what I'm thinking is we have expanded some of the partnerships. Well, since I've been here, I personally have expanded two partnerships with George Mason University. One of them was in the tank, and I worked with the former George Mason University liaison and moved on to a better job to make sure that we could have the volunteers in our schools. And the second thing I got, which Carolyn was really pushing for, but I got it with David Bore, was to get the early acceptance with George Mason at Fairfax High School. Because we didn't meet the criteria that George Mason wanted, even though everything I said and everything she said that came out through me was clear.

We're a partner, we're a location. It's a slam dunk. It's a no-brainer. Look at the advantages we have. Look at the university president, George Mason, and his interest in expanding in some of the conversations he's having with the city about expanding partnerships. Yes, they want to move into Green Acres site. Yes, they'd like to make some kind of expansion in that area. No, do I think that's going to happen? No. But they're still talking about opportunities. So we've expanded and grown the partnership with, and our principals have on their own, bolstered the teacher prep program. Chris, I wish he was still here, would be able to speak to that. So looking at those things, my thoughts about Common Threads is

it's always a good idea for me to look to see if there are opportunities for expanding partnerships with George Mason. So I think that that's something that I'm kind of wired to do, being a Mason grad, having fenced there, NCAA Division I, back when they had a fencing program. Fencing. Yeah. But the point being is I totally agree with any opportunities that we have. That's why we participate and we have a meeting this Friday with the research practice, the superintendents group and so on. So that to me is not, I think I get it is what I'm saying about that. And as far as highlighting what we're doing and expanding programs, we know that you have a specific passion about the after-school program and the grant associated with the 21st century grant.

We've spoken with the grant administrator for Fairfax County Public Schools and he says it's a loss leader, not interested. And what we've done is we've said, okay, well, are there ways, why isn't it, right? The devil in the details. and I personally was kind of starsis. What I felt was the administration and getting a group to help support that, they're out there, they can apply for the grant on your behalf, and part of that grant pays for them to administer the minutiae of the data collection. You said that you have experience with that specifically in Arlington, where another group is assisting middle school? I've

Kristina Cecereby voiceseen, I just want to clarify, I said my professional role on the data management side, which is a necessary part of that grant management, but I've seen the benefits of that grant within a title one elementary school.

Carolyn PitchesCan

Amit Hickmanby voiceI say a bit though before we go too far down the path of another goal? I want to first off say, I hear what you're saying, Kerry, and I can see on Dan's face that he's wholeheartedly agreeing. So I guess if the case is that there's an overwhelming workload, the goal was not met, the goal was to say that this is a role for the superintendent, it's a part of a job description job to be honest, right? You know that, to communicate with the job description. Let's

Platenbergstaffbe clear about that. It was a request to have that in there as part of my first goals. I've just kept it in there because I thought it was a priority of the board. That's fine if it's not. Well it still

Amit Hickmanby voiceis a priority as a job description, I don't know, so I don't know, is there a requirement to have three goals? So, let me, we

Platenbergstaffdon't. No, there's no requirement, as you said.

Amit Hickmanby voiceBut that said, I think it does need to be a further conversation of what the workload looks like. Because if it's to the point that everyone's up to here and that it's going to continue, then we need to look at redoing the job descriptions and who's responsible for what. And we did begin, you know, by looking at the assistant to the superintendent's job description. But I think, looking, Jeff, I don't

Georginastaffeven know that you

Amit Hickmanby voicehave, aside from your contract, I can't seem to find out if there is an actual job description. I have no idea.

PlatenbergstaffAnd make no mistake. When you hear about the threshold and the amount of burden, I'm suffering the same. Totally. So to think that just because they say it, it's one of these things that I think there's an opportunity, your point, for us to have a clarification of those elements associated. Yes. When I start talking about what I've been doing with this bond program and what I know is required, the advance work, it's an opportunity.

Amit Hickmanby voiceSo what I'm saying is that I would, and I don't know if the rest of the board agrees, I would say let's leave it at two goals specifically written for this purpose. But then we need to sit down and figure out a way to look at the workload that is being asked of all of you. what is it under each of your job descriptions what does that actually involve and make sure that we are not putting on expectations that are too high of any human being to be asked to do because we value the work that all four of you do and it's important that we you know find that balance while at the same time promoting our schools right we and this is not part of what you're feeling i think is very similar to what teachers are feeling administrators are feeling

like everyone in the world is feeling that like we always want to do one step better and there's complaints there's so many this and that so how do we find that balance between what has to be done what's coming in on you and then we'll work on you guys so I I'm hoping that we can find a way to make that work so that none of you feel that you're totally beyond up to here with the understanding that there's also going to be things and you know some of our stuff is coming from external pressures also

Speaker 14like yeah and I apologize for being defensive and I think that I what what necessary was saying was we want you guys take on new initiatives and new projects and that is what I heard because like oh you guys in the past and I was telling them Carolyn like all the stuff we've done in the past from AAP to you know we're doing the boundaries like and you have to admit since this is Karen like she can join a year before me I mean as far as you know being on this team how much it's changed like how the expectations on you as a and then just how much it has changed so much as far as yes and Carrie to be fair

Carolyn Pitcheswhen Carrie started your hours were like 12 hours a week he started at 10 started at 10 right so I think that's what Amit is saying I give like Dan you and I have talked to him like you know sometimes what's expected of you in the city spills over and you still do your crap for FCPS. That's

Speaker 12a great job for FCPS.

Carolyn PitchesBut I think just finish your thought on the complexity. I think for all three of you, I think what you're saying is, let's look at what everybody's doing and do we need to adjust things. Exactly. And I

Amit Hickmanby voicedon't think at any point when we talked about this, and I don't want to speak for you, but I don't think the idea of it was to say, oh, let's add new work. having a conversation to make us best at city school.

PlatenbergstaffAnd that's what I thought, Christina. When you said this piece, that's why I said, let me find the common threads. The thing that was mentioned about the after-school program, I thought was a great example. Because what you did was you brought up conceptual parts with the part that you just clarified. And I asked you to help get me additional information on that other group that's helping to manage it. And you had said, well, in the meantime, I'd like to know if there's receptivity. to and we've talked to Andrew about it and he's receptive because what you heard tonight he's doing everything? Yeah, so he's thinking this might be a way, and it comes out in the spring, this might be a way for me to align with what I'm doing and meet students even greater than what he's

articulated tonight and you're going to see next week. So that to me was where we could positively and potentially look at possibilities while not trying to overwhelm any one person. You were going to say something. I'm sorry.

Speaker 12I think just like my thought, I appreciate caring. It's obviously something that we need to address. I think that having the opportunity to look at what we're doing now and where we're going, If I could offer when I was principal province, bringing the local over four program to province was a really heavy effort.

ChrisstaffIt was

Speaker 12a full year before we actually got to start it and then every year there was another layer involving staffing, retraining, and so many elements. And I think one of the conversations I had with Ms. Beining as my supervisor at the time was like, What's the other thing that I'm going to do? What's my other big project from here? And she offered, like, just do that one well. That's the big thing. I think in this case, we're taking on a massive responsibility with all the work around from now transitioning from the bond referendum to the actual work that has to be done. And we're doing it with part-time folks. And that's a real challenge. And I think, to speak to Carrie's thing, like, we're all doers, and we all want to do that new,

shining thing that comes out there. And every time, like, we're working with Georgina, labor thing for students and then just like at every school there's a yes and then talking to folks in George Mason about other possibilities and all those are things that we want to do and it's almost like when you do testing in school like there's you've got a full-time job and you're already working 60 hours and now it's testing season and here's another part-time job it's too much and then what ends up happening is you don't do any of the things well and I think just that a moment to reflect on the things that we have upcoming and the idea that we don't want to do it well we want to do it well and giving us that opportunity to do it you know what i mean

Carolyn Pitchesi will say i think we're losing sight of things here this is the superintendent's goals so it

Speaker 12went down a different path yeah when you stepped out of it right

Kristina Cecereby voiceso i if i can i just want to acknowledge I hear you carry because I'm a man so I acknowledge that. And I see, and I do see the stress on your faces. I do, I really do. I think when I highlighted those programs, I wanted, I recognized how in-depth they are. Like, I remember, I was, right at the last turn, I was right alongside with you, Dan, when you came in and it's become a phenomenal program, you know, at Providence, where it's been successful. When I see superintendent's goals, I see these as like unulators, right? Where even if right now the focus is the RFP, but is there something that you're hearing from your superintendent and advisory committees? Is there something that you're hearing from your principals

where we can do it touchably, we can start the conversation, where that's the goal and we can look ahead, right? That's what I'm asking for because right now this is going out to the school getting an RFP is a really important process, but as a parent, when I look at these, I mean, I'm wondering what's going on with academics. I'm wondering how is, how is this, and I know this because I've been a parent and a teacher here. I know there's a lot of amazing work happening with my principals, but what could we

Speaker 4do?

Kristina Cecereby voiceWhat, what could be piloted? Is there anything that we could highlight here to go beyond just facilities but also take a step and have a goal attached to some of the excellence that's happening here to highlight that, elevate that. Again, it's a superintendent goal. Not putting more work on the city. Is there something else? That's why I highlighted the after-school enrichment because I feel like that's something that is a conversation with FCPS, can be managed by a private partnership, that's how the grant could work. There's a number that could happen there. But that's the way I see that. Again, onion layer, right? Like let's not make it a massive thing for one year. That's not a goal, but that's...

It's like a start of a process. Exactly.

Carolyn PitchesSo like if, let's say Jeff is going to do one goal as an RFP and then one goal is to highlight the schools or something to advance the schools. Yeah, but it

Amit Hickmanby voicemight

Carolyn Pitchesbe hearing everybody right that goal might be for this year hey I'm gonna work with Andrew I don't know I'm just making this crap up. I'm gonna work with this school or all four principals to see I got

Platenbergstaffone. You helped me by what you said, Carol, and you were really helping me.

Carolyn PitchesI think that then you have one that's going to satisfy the whole facilities thing. That we have to do. And then we have one that's the start of maybe something that takes to... Remember Carrie, remember when I did one-to-one devices or whatever, it took what three or four years before that came to 100% fruition just starting the process. like well so technically just

Platenbergstaffso I can help out with this is I don't know and then I'll let you to your help too we've already started I've started and Dan started it carries been involved in because we need every week and have a staff meeting go through everything and we do it really as a team because it's a lot and what we've done is we've been working on one thing about this 21st Century grant beginning to have those conversations to grow the potential for additional supplemental after school work. So that's a good one. That's one right there that we're already working on. Well guess what? We're doing the same thing with basically career in technology education, the electrical program that we've been working on, that Dan's been

working on having individual meetings, I've had individual meetings, about getting this electrical program, the one we went and visited at Edison, added to Fairfax High School. That's another example. That's a

Carolyn Pitchesgreat goal.

PlatenbergstaffI got you. That's what finally clicked. And thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou, Carolyn. I think they just need to pick something that you don't have to solve the world's problems and

Platenbergstaffall of us. The problem is that the problem has been that, you know, I get this, and then when I think about whether or not I can meet another one, like I said, some of this is my own fault. Please.

Carolyn PitchesWell, I will say this, Jeff. So, and I kind of stepped back, but when you sent your goals, I read like all the revisions that people sent, and then you sent your goals again, and they looked the exact same. So I was like, something's not right. Like, we're not, what everybody here on this board is saying, is not, like, we're all on different Which I think Dan, that's sort of what you're trying to say. Like everybody's feeling very, everybody's having big feelings. But I think what the board is trying to say is we want you to pick two goals for you. This doesn't need to be about Carrie or Dan. Something that you want to do as superintendent. Obviously the RFP stuff, that's going to be you, right?

Amit Hickmanby voiceWell, I think what I was, it's a trickle down effect

Georginastaffalso, right? Like,

Amit Hickmanby voiceyes, parts of it. But I guess maybe not the RFP, I mean, I don't know, maybe I don't understand the process. I hope that doesn't have a huge impact. It's all about your time, Jeff, but.

Carolyn PitchesRight, like that's going to take up the majority of your time.

PlatenbergstaffYeah. Dan's also on the evaluation committee.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, but that's like, but see that's not part of your goal. I understand. I

Platenbergstaffwas just talking about the

Carolyn Pitchestrickle-out aspect.

PlatenbergstaffThe burden.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, like there's going to be other things that are part of that that everybody's going to have a hand

Platenbergstaffon. And my goals, I'm sorry, we talked about this. When I, the data was exported, it was the exact same one that was the first one. All the changes were in the narrative one that I sent individually. Yeah, I got

Carolyn Pitchesthat, but they were the same.

PlatenbergstaffNo, they were a little bit different, but I get you. I get the overall point.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, anyway, long story short, get two goals. One the RMP and one something that you, however you guys want to work it out, that is maybe something that you've started the work on and you're just going to advance it a little bit more this year. But don't look at it as something, I mean, especially when we're trying to highlight or bring something to schools. Just know that none of that ever happens in a year. You might just be having conversations all year about it. Or you might be looking into grants.

PlatenbergstaffSo what I'm going to do, just so you're aware, is I'm going to go ahead and reflect on this feedback. To me, it's really constructive and good, to be honest.

Carolyn PitchesI pretty much think you got one done.

PlatenbergstaffThat's what I heard. That's what I heard. And the other one, just so you're aware, I want it to be aligned with our schools. So I'm going to be talking with them about their other SIP goals. Basically what we talked about about our innovation funds that we've been providing to make sure it's something that's aligned in that arena. And the example I'll use, Christine, I'm sorry to keep throwing that one out there, but the example I'll use is the expansion of what they're already doing and the potential for something like that.

Carolyn PitchesWhat might be helpful for you, Jeff, is during a regular board meeting when we get super intense matters, talk about whatever work you're doing with Georgina around the electricity. program or you know things bringing up the electrical.

PlatenbergstaffThe deal with that is I get a point. It doesn't have to be there. Yeah. Because some I can't talk about because there are the partners that haven't gotten their buy-ups approval. And right now FCPS. So we're doing all this work. Georgina has a great idea. FCPS may just say you know what we don't like you guys we're not returning your calls and we're just not going to move in this direction right now and start from.

Carolyn PitchesOkay that's fine but just tell us if that's what you're working on. Okay. Like even if they tell you to go you know pound sand. Just say hey Georgina has this idea this is we're helping her we're not sure where it's going to end up this is the plan.

Speaker 12I think some of what you saw in us is fear, knowing what's coming with all the left-wing stuff.

Carolyn PitchesI was talking to Eric Descento out there about the new... I was going

Speaker 15to use the bathroom and Eric was coming out

Carolyn Pitchesof the

Speaker 15bathroom and I

Carolyn Pitcheswas going into the other round. Sorry. It is really late. I do think that there was a bond that went on tonight.

Speaker 12If I could clarify, Christina, I wasn't talking about being fearful of that. I'm talking about the renovation project.

Carolyn PitchesOh, yeah.

Speaker 12That's the fear. You know what I mean? Just knowing the things that we've done already, now this is on top of it. And the delay didn't help me.

PlatenbergstaffYeah. It really, to be honest.

Carolyn PitchesI don't want to ask you about the process. You

Platenbergstaffcan ask us about the president. We're excited about that, to be honest, even with the snow delay date. So the fear is based upon a lot of the unknowns and the recent shift. And when there's shift, until we get it sorted out, like my response to you, I mean, really, and I apologize if I came across it in any way, but my response is, my god, I've got this big delay and now I'm going to award it before when I originally won it and they told me they're not going to do it that way. So I'm thinking, my fear is, how do I do things that I don't have control over? Why did you say

Carolyn PitchesFebruary and June then?

PlatenbergstaffI had December in the narrative in the other one. So the point being, it said December October, November, December in the narrative and Mead asked me about not having it in the one and she was spot on and it was because of the delay and I was fearful. So my thing is you gave me a way to move forward by saying, Jeff, just listen. The goal is to get our community to be having the conversations when school starts next in the fall. I'm spot on with and I believe in my conversations with the procurement people they're aligned to so I'm a I can do that

Amit Hickmanby voiceand I in my eye they're separate the procurement office and then the funding from the city so maybe I'm not understanding that they're

Platenbergstaffrelated they're related you were a contract you spend money you work contract you delay spending money by saying hey we're gonna work a contract but you're not gonna do anything until well

Amit Hickmanby voicethat's the question is can we do that can we award a actually do anything until the phone

Platenbergstaffclear in

Amit Hickmanby voiceterms of finances, but we still need to start doing other things behind the scenes to get to that point.

PlatenbergstaffAmen. Without being

Amit Hickmanby voiceon top of anything.

PlatenbergstaffAnd that's the challenge that I have now, and that's what I thought you were recently asking about, why I didn't put a date in there, because of the delay. So I'm going to work that out. I'm going to get these two goals. I'm going to do what you asked, and it's late, and we all need to breathe. and know that we're all in it for the same reason. I

Carolyn Pitchesdo think, though, if there was this...

Sarah Kelseyby voiceSorry, I'm really sorry. Yeah, I'm in pain.

Carolyn PitchesJust keep going. You know, whatever it is that I miss, we do need to figure out. Like, we do have to have some things where, you know, each of you are staying in your own lane, so to speak. because like Gary if you're working 60 hours a week I mean we need to know like we never do

Speaker 1460 but I mean it's hard it's hard when with this show this small of a staff exactly and we all bleed into each other like I can't tell I'm not working saying

Carolyn Pitchesthat you're not gonna bleed into each other but but we do need to know like if Dan's doing all the work and you and Jeff are going out to lunch every day we are totally man making this up We see a lot of charges. You've

Platenbergstaffseen the wait-up game?

Carolyn PitchesWe need to be looking at, like, it's not tenable, right? But if you're all working 40 hours a week and two of you are supposed to be here for 10 hours, or more than that now, then those are all things that need to be addressed, especially as we move through the spring and into the fall, which we don't know what that's going to bring. Right? We can move on. Sorry. Like hijack.

PlatenbergstaffNo, no. It's important. And you added it to the agenda for the retreat.

Carolyn PitchesYes.

PlatenbergstaffSo there you go. So. We'll put the retreat. Communication.

Carolyn PitchesCommunication. We're going to have a plan around communication.

PlatenbergstaffBecause that's part of this frustration and fear stress. So that'll work. That's good. Good ideas.

Carolyn PitchesBut, you know, I will say that I think communication is key. So if you're doing things, we need to know about it. Because if we don't know what you're doing, then everybody, I mean, we don't all hang out together every day. I don't know what they're doing. We work in the same building we'll see each other today. So it's good to know in general, like, hey, this is what we're doing to promote our schools or to move our schools forward beyond what FCPS is doing. Because then we can tell people that. Like, hey, this is what the city's school's office is doing.

PlatenbergstaffSo 99% of everything we put in the weekly updates, the ones that are half-baked and aren't ready for prime time aren't in there. we can communicate and that can

Carolyn Pitchesjust be like at a work session at the work session everyone updates so it's not on TV it's nobody listens to our meeting

Amit Hickmanby voiceso

Carolyn Pitchesbut I think that you know in order for us to continue on and people not get completely stressed out we have to learn to listen and we have to learn to also talk and whoever's going to talk we need to be doing listening because I think sometimes and I will just this is not a therapy session but I have felt like I have said things And then it just, I feel like nobody listened. I'm not saying all of you didn't listen to me, but nobody's like, ah, I've never had this conversation. So I think that we all, all of us need to practice on listening to what each of us is doing. I'm a little overwhelmed at work right now, so you have to forgive me. and I drop the ball on things. I'm frequently going to possibly be late to Monday meetings

or a chair just for a little while.

PlatenbergstaffThat's fine. You've said a good thing, Carolyn. You've said a good thing, and I have to say this. We need to give all of us a brace.

Carolyn PitchesYes, but everybody needs to let everybody know what they're doing I don't think anybody knows what everybody is doing. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I can give people grace as long as I know that we're all doing what we need to be doing, right? Well,

PlatenbergstaffI hope there's no feeling that people don't

Carolyn Pitchesfeel that people want to do it. Well, I'm not saying there is any. I'm just saying, like, I had no idea that some of the stuff you guys were doing. Like, I walked in here and heard, and I was like, what? Like electricity. Yeah. I

Speaker 4just heard about electricity. I

Carolyn Pitchesthink that's good.

Speaker 4I'm

Carolyn Pitchesjoking. I'm joking. So anyway, and I just think that if we talked to each other, it would be a lot better. Like, I don't know when people are overwhelmed, if nobody tells me. You know, like Dan, you and I

Kristina Cecereby voicehad

Carolyn Pitchesa really good conversation. Like, a very good conversation. And I thought, oh, I didn't realize that this is what you're doing with the other part of your time. So anytime I ask a question or I have to remember that you have this whole other life outside of this.

Speaker 12You know, that goes to all of us. Everybody uses the world. Yeah, I know. It's just like

Sarah Kelseyby voiceI wasn't thinking about it. Barb, you too. I don't want you feeling that. Is it Barb, is your phone dead yet?

Carolyn PitchesBecause I do this frequently, I have to apologize. I'm not going to shut up. When I have a thought, because I will forget it, because I just have too many things going on, if I text you and it is 4 in the morning on a Saturday, it's too now to feel like you have to answer me. Or

Platenbergstaffcall you back.

Carolyn PitchesOr call me back. Unless I say I need you to call me back. But sometimes I'll think, Barb knows this, and I have texted right away. So, but anyway. Just going to do two goals. One's done. You're going to work on writing the other one. Just send it in the form. Right. And then. Thank

Platenbergstaffyou.

Carolyn PitchesAnd then we'll talk about communication in a week.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceOh the next thing will be a joke

Speaker 14I

Sarah Kelseyby voiceread that though

Speaker 14yeah we'll do it very quickly okay okay just so the board knows we are currently we've been writing there's two different MOUs this is the first one this MOU is all it is this is going to be sent to Fairfax County saying that we would like to appoint anyone if they have a committee we would like to be the one to say who are committee members have been this is a result of their boundary committee where we've had some challenges and the goal behind this is so they know that we can appoint someone that is familiar with with city nuances and everything like that so all this is there's one kind of caveat to this this is that our new legal or new lawyers so it might change a little bit but it probably not going

to change that much so we just wanted you guys to be aware that we were writing this and it's okay with the board you don't have to vote on it or but Carolyn then will send to Carl.

Amit Hickmanby voiceThat's what I was going to ask. Who does it get a trust to?

Carolyn PitchesWe'll

Speaker 14give him a heads up, but essentially it is from now on if you guys are forming a committee, we want to appoint our own person. I don't think anybody else knew

Carolyn Pitcheswhat it was. I think one of them knew. Is

Amit Hickmanby voicethis something that their school board can confirm and then require of the staff?

Speaker 14asking as an addendum to the SSA, or are we just saying this is just an understanding?

Carolyn PitchesIt's just

Speaker 14truly an MME. It's just truly an MME.

Carolyn PitchesCommittees are part of the SSA, so it's basically like just a... We just want it in writing, that we can

Amit Hickmanby voicesay

Carolyn Pitchesyou guys,

Amit Hickmanby voicefor future

Carolyn Pitchesboards.

Amit Hickmanby voiceRemember they had that nuance there, like, well, some of these committees are school board committees, and some of them are staff-led committees.

Carolyn PitchesYes, but their whole reasoning behind why their board isn't allowed to, because they're all magisterial. so it's different for us and we contract with them so

Speaker 14we pay them to be a part of it. I mean that's a good point. I mean I can put it we just put SCPS committees I can put out and you can tell me what the two.

Amit Hickmanby voiceThat was just what they put in that one email about the boundary study that there's a difference between school board committees which

Speaker 4would

Amit Hickmanby voicebe like like CPDC right a school board committee versus staff lead committee can you

Speaker 14I don't remember that language but if you can find it I would it to me then I will take just take her language and put it in there say both yes right yeah in

Carolyn Pitchesyour vote of our base yes both the school board and

Speaker 14FDPS yes okay so I'll do that and then that'll be a good way to follow up with the safety and say hey you've updated this she

Rebecca Baenigstaffsaid fostering get back I think I sent that email to you for a

Carolyn Pitchesresponse.

Rebecca BaenigstaffThat's okay. She said that he got back to her, but she was still writing the response from, she was going to write you a response. A response to the playoff. Right. That was Friday, I

Carolyn Pitchesthink. Yeah, did she know how long did she stay?

Speaker 4She didn't. I mean, she just, you know, she was a lawyer.

Speaker 14Carolyn, when you said we're adding communications, going under norms like or is that like where I used to do

Carolyn Pitchesthat? Yeah, it's the norms. I think it's just

Speaker 14how we are. Yeah, so I carry,

Carolyn PitchesBarb has the thing. Oh, yeah. No, the communications plan. I do remember it has all the. Oh,

Speaker 15yes. I like

Carolyn Pitchesthat book.

Speaker 15Yes.

Carolyn PitchesIs

Speaker 15it? I

Sarah Kelseyby voicedidn't say that. I paused at that spot.

Speaker 14It's like a PDF.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceYeah. Yeah,

Speaker 14what? So it's like how superintendent of the work. So it's not, okay. So. So, it's not like where I used to

Carolyn Pitchesdo it. No, no. It's basically like how we're going to communicate moving forward in terms of, like, Christina, I had Barb back in the day. Christina brought up about how the school board is going to communicate with the community. Like, I'm more personal. Okay. Okay. Like, offering, you know. Honestly, I was just asking about it on a Saturday or something. than how I'm going to communicate with whoever's superintendent, whoever's chair is going to be. It's all

Speaker 14like those moving pieces. It's fine. I just think if either of them is fine. She was just thinking, do I have to do this? Is it communication me?

Speaker 15Basically, it's nothing. It's sort of like the math pathways thing.

Sarah Kelseyby voiceDo I need to do this? I should do it. She's like, do I need a presentation? She's like, I did one last year. Don't make me do another. Are we going to end the meeting? Yeah.

Carolyn PitchesIf there's nothing else before the board, I am going to adjourn the meeting at 10-0-1.