School Board Regular Meeting

Carolyn PitchesGood evening ladies and gentlemen tonight is Tuesday November 12th of 2024 and this is a regular meeting of the city of Fairfax School Award. Please stand for pledge allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, there are no changes in our agenda tonight and there are no announcements. The next item is the adoption of the agenda. May I have a motion,

Stacy Hallplease? I move that the City of Fairfax School Board approve the minutes of the October 7, 2024 School Board regular meeting as printed and distributed.

Carolyn PitchesThis is the agenda adoption, not the minutes. Sorry. I don't have that one. Same thing.

Stacy HallJust

Carolyn Pitchessay you're...

Stacy HallI'm really excited. I was first. We're

Carolyn Pitchesnot televised today, so it's all good. I

Stacy Hallsupport the agenda, right? I move to accept the agenda.

Carolyn PitchesI move to accept the agenda. That's the agenda. As written and distributed. As written and distributed. Okay, may I have a second? Second.

Ashley Taylorpublic commentThank

Carolyn Pitchesyou, Mr. Okay. Ms. Hall moved. Ms. Hickman seconded. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Aye. None opposed. The motion passes unanimously. Okay. We will move on to presentations of the school board and citizen participation. Yes, we have Ms. Ashley Taylor. Okay, Ms. Taylor, if you'd like to come up front. You can just pull the chair if you wanted. You can sit there. You have three minutes, and if you want to state your name and your address. My

Ashley Taylorpublic commentname is Ashley Taylor. I live at 10th Andrew Cardinal Road. I'm here. I don't know exactly how any of this works, but as some of you all know, my kids go here, or my last kid is here. My husband's father's both a law coach. At Kempfield High School this year there's been a big saga of drama, with that coach and that administration. So I didn't know how it worked with how our school board interacts with their school board. But I wanted to make sure that our school board was fighting for an investigation. So I don't know how much background you all need on this. but essentially they had got a new coach who came from Prince William County and a number of kids came into that program and the county did an investigation which cleared some of the kids and the administration to play into,

but since then the VHSL has ruled and banned the playoffs for the next two years. and there's a lot of, it's hard to actually get a bunch of information. So, you know, obviously what I know is what I've read in different news articles and just kind of try to find out on my own. But I do think that that administration at Afield and up above needs to be investigated again. And, like, this doesn't need to be in there because a lot of kids on all sides of this for adults being selfish and really not playing by the rules. So I don't know what can be done, but I want to make sure our school board was aware of it and I didn't know if I should be reaching out to the county school board. So

Carolyn Pitchestypically the way citizen participation works is you speak to a topic and we don't really say anything.

Ashley Taylorpublic commentYou

Carolyn Pitchesdon't have to say anything. We're not televised, but we've all read the information okay I would if you were to send me an email or anybody on this board we would recommend that yes you have a voice doesn't matter that your city resident and that you should be emailing okay like our regional you can are yes I could do that today you can email our region assistant superintendent you can also email the county superintendent but we're part of region five I'm

Ashley Taylorpublic commentjust yeah I'm just I wanted to go to this school board it's not the superintendents because I've lost my trust in the superintendents so the school

Carolyn Pitchesboard member is Mount Vernon right right which is potato

Ashley Taylorpublic commentpotato I already emailed him okay I've sent a message okay so I just wanted to make sure that our school board is doing what they have the power to do, which I don't know what that is.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, I actually, I'll see the title anyway. So, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Hill. We appreciate you coming.

Ashley Taylorpublic commentSorry, I didn't have time to write something. No,

Carolyn Pitchesno, you're fine. I'm going to be meeting for

Ashley Taylorpublic commentlike another month.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, the next item on the agenda is a report from our student representative, Ms. Baccio.

StudentYeah, go ahead. The first quarter has come to an end and with it the last minute rush of getting assignments and grades done in behind us. While we have had a smooth transition into the new quarter, our schools have been buzzing with activity busy while strengthening our Fairfax community. Over at Daniel's Run, the chorus has kept the school lively as their performance filled the lobby with beautiful nominees. Students came together again during activities at a successful Dragon Day PTA event, which was their biggest fundraiser of the year. Currently, Daniel's Run is working hard to launch a safety task force to discuss concerns and brainstorm effective solutions to ensure a secure environment

for everyone at school. At Providence, their recent Harvest Day was a big hit as families worked together to gather vegetables and pull out garden weeds. The school has kept students engaged with events such as Family Math Night and their annual Scholastic Book Fair, which students eagerly picked out books. KJMS is feeling good as both their girls' and boys' basketball team celebrate finishing their seasons undefeated. Their academic team have also found victory baseball team winning the Washington, D.C. History Bowl. The middle school students enjoyed a variety of activities this month, including the orchestra concert pyramid, pyramid concert launching rockets in their engineering class and listening to special guests like authors who stopped by to discuss their books

and doctors who came in on career day. At our high school, enthusiasm ran high at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new concession stand with many of our board members joining in on the celebration. Annual Multilingual Career Day was also successful and offered the unique opportunity for students to attend a resume workshop, speak with an FHS alumni panel, and enjoy police and fire simulations. FHS has also had a series of fortunate wins this month. The marching band triumphed at the VMBC South County competition and 532 students were seen walking out of the cafeteria with lettuce donuts in hand to celebrate their 3.8 plus GPAs last year. Additional honors this month include the Virginia School Board Association Workforce Development Award

gained for our Outstanding Automotive Tech Program, a Gold Honorable Rating from College Board, and the Virginia Distinguished First-Time Purple Star School Award for their support of military families. I hope to see everyone at the upcoming City of Fairfax Holiday Craft Show on November 16th and 17th. We look for great work and stay focused on our goals.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. The next item on the agenda is a proposed five-year CF Capital Improvement Plan. I'll turn it over to Mr. Plottenberg.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThank you, Madam Chair. And this evening, we're here to talk about the five-year Capital Improvement Plan from FY 2026 to FY 2030. As you can see in this slide, we have the September 30th data for each of the individual schools from last year, opening day data that we've shown in the preview. And then our program to massive our buildings. The bottom line on this is business is good for the city of Fairfax students. We had a meeting today with Fairfax County's information technology staff who provided the most recent data that will be updated in this slide for comparative data. But what we show is that we're growing and Fairfax County Public Schools is flat. In fact, they've been contracted. have an increase. Daniel's run, we've been getting at the request of the board an update

from each of the individual schools and providing it in our weekly updates at the beginning of the month. We have just received the information from the principals as well that will be in this next Friday's update that show even though Daniel's run on opening day was 814, it's now like over 840. So when you have that much of an increase, in Fairfax High School you have an increase of basically It's pretty amazing to see what has been happening within the city in comparison to everybody else. The next slide really is the meat of the presentation, and it reflects the proposed 2026, FY2026, the FY2030 CIP. One of the reasons we had had this meeting this evening was we wanted to wait and see how and what the results were going to be on the bond referendum.

because previously we had included what was identified in the facility condition assessment for each of the elementary schools and the middle school and the high school. We don't have those in here this evening because we were successful in the bond's passage, and therefore we'll be doing the renovation of the two elementary schools, and all of those items that were listed as part of the FCA will be accomplished during that process. In addition, we're going to be doing the high school replacement. the roof replacement. So that's it, not reflected in here as well. We do not have, and it is online currently, and I think it's going to be kept online, we do have the FCA if anybody's interested in

what the outstanding needs are for the middle school and the high school. So basically for our secondary schools. But that will be sometime down the road to be reflected in potentially the future CIP or future referendum. And Madam Chair, that pretty much concludes includes what we have for the major capital items. But you saw on there that we had a number of individual elements and they were carpet and tile. That's our standard maintenance that we have each and every year. We had basically for that each year we had 64,800 for each year and that's a standard amount that we provide each year for carpet and tile. We have concrete repairs that have 21,600. HVAC replacement. We have $625,000 for the replacement of HVAC

rooftop units. And we have painting that's included in there of $30,000, paving of $25,000, roof repair and warranties, and roof maintenance is also obtained in there for the annual inspections and any kind of repairs that we might have. Then we do have other projects that are included. And Madam Chair, you'll remember that on many occasions before school and during the school year THEY IDENTIFY THINGS IN THE SCHOOLS AND OTHER BOARD MEMBERS DO THAT NEED ATTENTION. AND WE HAVE $20,000 THAT'S INCLUDED FOR THAT PORTION. WE HAVE UPCOMING MEETINGS THAT ARE GOING TO BE COMING UP. WE HAD OUR FIRST MEETING ON THE 16TH OF SEPTEMBER. THIS EVENING'S MEETING IS NOT ONLY THE PRESENTATION OF THE FEEDBACK THAT WE HAD RECEIVED

FROM THE SCHOOL BOARD TO GO AHEAD AND ADD SOMETHING FOR THE RESTROOM AND ENTRANCE FOR THE RESTROOM. and it's also a public hearing and we'll have another meeting on December 2nd. At that point the board will have the opportunity to take action. If any additional feedback that I'll be receiving this evening will be incorporating that into our capital improvement plan. And then we're going to be presenting at some point to the mayor and the city council with our budget and also we do a presentation with the planning commission. So Madam Chair, that concludes my presentation on the update of the CIP, and I'm open for any questions or comments that you all may have.

Sarah KelseyOkay, Ms. Pelson. On the concrete repairs, is that the stadium concrete, or?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffNo, that's really for curb and gutters. Okay, so there's a, and

Sarah Kelseythen the pavement is more the parking

Jeff Platenbergstafflot. The pavement is asphalt.

Sarah KelseyOkay, just making sure they're fine in my head, those two. Great questions. do because I know we had talked about the steps and stuff of like are we not painting those anymore at the stadium or because or is it once the press box okay just checking on that one okay and then um for my last one is the softball field why is that two different years by

Jeff Platenbergstaffthe time it's going to be bid and contracted it will go beyond one summer into another fiscal year.

Sarah KelseyOkay.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, so it's really a timing thing and it's stretched out over two years. Okay. We could put all the funding in one year, but realistically that's why we split in two.

Sarah KelseySo are we thinking it's more going to be done in fiscal year 27 then?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffCorrect.

Sarah KelseyOkay.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, that's typical. We did the, um,

Sarah KelseyI don't remember the baseball field being separated into two years. That's why I was

Carolyn Pitcheskind of... Well, the baseball field was done, and the turf and all that was done with different money. That was a whole different situation.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffAnd I'll be happy to put it back into the . No, I'm fine with it spreading into two years.

Sarah KelseyI just wanted to put that in my frame of mind why it was .

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, Mr. Martinez might prefer us to do it in one of the first few years, but I'll double check . Yeah,

Carolyn Pitchesyou can check with him. When we did softball field, their press box, their sound, that was all, that was done over a couple of years.

Rachel McQuillenAll

Carolyn Pitchesright.

Rachel McQuillenMs. McCoy. I have a quick question. How come for fiscal year 25, our unforeseen maintenance designate amount is $25,000? It's $5,000 more than the following years?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffWe were trying to cut down the actual amount. We can have whatever you prefer. The actual unforeseen maintenance that we've had, our expenditures have been pretty much in line with having a little bit of funding left over. And because we're going to be impacting so much with our bond program, we're trying to minimize any of these individual accounts.

Carolyn PitchesSo when we have carryover or money that's left over from a previous CID year, that we try to be responsible. And then we change all the out years to reflect that we haven't been using that much. So it may be. So it's going to continue to lower. It may, but then again, if we find that in FY26 we've approved $20,000, we spend $30,000, then we might go back $25,000 for FY27. It's just usually the superintendent keeps track of what is spent out of the enforcement.

Rachel McQuillenYeah, I just wasn't sure. I didn't remember that being a different amount. Thank you.

Stacy HallThat was all. Ms. Hall. So not a question specifically on this, but I did attend the council budget retreat on Saturday. And I'm not sure if I missed this or if the number was not totally provided somewhere, but they had a rough estimate of renovations needed for the middle school and the high school at $500 million. Yeah.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffDid you give them

Stacy Hallthat number?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffIt came in the FCA. Okay.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I missed that. I thought that was for all four schools. But maybe I'm mistaken. I think it was half a billion

Jeff Platenbergstafffor all four. I think it was half a billion for all four schools. And maybe it will be out. It sounded

Stacy Hallreally, really high.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffI think there was a lot of concern. Because what was provided is, the information that was provided was for escalation for moving into the out years. So it's very possible. But I have to look back at the FCA to see exactly what the number is.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, because we wouldn't even be going, asking for a bond until at the earliest 2032, is it?

Jeff Platenbergstaff2032 is where the money's moved out to,

Carolyn Pitchesbut it would

Jeff Platenbergstaffbe close

Carolyn Pitchesto that. Yeah, so by then, we're talking, because of our debt capacity. It would be eight million years, don't know if the prices are going to be, but I feel like it was half a billion for all four schools in the FCA. Yeah, I'll have to. Yeah, could you check on that?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffI'll check with Mr. Martez to see what he was using. Because he would have used the FCA's number. Thank

Stacy Hallyou. Yeah, I just was, my eyes were going crazy. Thank you. Can

Amit Hickmanyou remind us what the original back, the last time you proposed this CIP, was the number for the FHS restroom entrance notification? Is this price increased based off of our feedback? I don't need the exact number. My question essentially is, has this number increased, and what scope of renovations does that increase? It didn't

Carolyn Pitchesincrease. That was what was

Amit Hickmanproposed.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, I thought it was what was proposed. I thought it was the estimate that we got from the SEPs to the end.

Carolyn PitchesSo the answer to the old concessions.

Amit HickmanNo, I know. So what I want to bring back up a reminder of the conversation we had about that, that the board had hesitation about just adding in like that long dark hallway and that there was talk about updating that and I don't see that reflected in here and I would like to see some of that reflected in here with I understand it's a longer process but clearly it's not the exact same cost and how can we do it in the state in a way that doesn't involve a long black hallway

Dan PhillipsstaffAnd it would be dark

Amit HickmanStill We

Dan Phillipsstaffcan talk about looking

Amit Hickmaninto other options The

Dan Phillipsstaffrenovation might not be in this next fiscal year I think we have to...

Amit HickmanUnderstood, and then maybe it needs to be moved. If I may, we can add

Jeff Platenbergstaffa placeholder amount if we don't have an estimate because it was the board's desire that we have a renovation. And I know we talked about a

Carolyn Pitchesnumber of things that... Yeah, we did, because the fixtures in the bathroom are in pretty bad shape, so I had... Other partitions. Yes, and I had suggested that maybe we just make the boys' bathroom the girls' bathroom. I mean, no offense to the boys. Right, right. But that would at least alleviate some of that concern about still having to travel down a hallway that takes a bend.

Amit HickmanSo I would hate to see it. But I

Carolyn Pitcheswould hate to see it for the boys, too.

Amit HickmanAbsolutely. I hate to say put it in here at $40,000. Absolutely. We don't want to waste the money if that's something that's going to be adjusted additionally later on. So can you re-look at this before next time?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffGreat feedback. That's why we're here. Thank you. It will be significantly higher.

Amit HickmanUnderstood.

Carolyn PitchesIf you're just down a hallway.

Amit HickmanUnderstood. Yes. And like you said, if it's pushed out a couple years, if it's split over years, again, but I just feel like it's not reflecting.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, thank you, Ms. Hickman, for bringing that up.

Carolyn PitchesOh, for now and there. Well, we can talk about that. Mr. Front, where is, because that building is old, there's no, there's, I don't think we can add a third bathroom down there. There's not the, there's not the space to add on to the building. In reality, it's

Dan Phillipsstaffprobably going

Carolyn Pitchesto

Dan Phillipsstaffbe a big expense.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, because we could

Dan Phillipsstaffuse part of the concession stand. It's possible. I mean, I think we didn't have a lot of great work with the escrow, to be honest. Okay. and you come and you go back to the lawn board. Okay.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffBut we do need to put a placeholder in there so it's not viewed as just a lawn. Right. I totally think that's what we're here.

Carolyn PitchesCan you speak to the roof warranties for the high school in terms of what we are currently paying for those warranties just at the high school and the explorations? Because I know we have different warranties on different parts of the roof. I know like the MN wing has a different warranty than?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffCorrect. Mr. Phillips is looking up the actual warranty periods.

Carolyn PitchesOkay.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffBecause they vary.

Carolyn PitchesThe reason I ask is we're going to eventually replace the roof. Correct. I assume that's not going to be this year, clearly. I just want to make sure that I don't want to renew any warranties.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffCorrect.

Carolyn PitchesSo I'd like to sort of see where...

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, so you should be good, Ms. Bitches, you're correct, you should be good in terms of any renewal of any warranties, because we're getting to the tail end of all of the improvements for the warranty work. Okay. The way, my understanding, I'm just going to read the numbers in just a minute. We pay approximately $11,000 a year for someone to come out and walk through those, to take a look at it.

Carolyn PitchesAnd that's just this roof, or is it this NKJ?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffIt's this NKJ. $20,000 each, but it's misogyncing.

Carolyn PitchesOkay.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThen they identify anything that needs to be repaired on the

Carolyn Pitchesroof. And then they charge us for the repairs.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffIf it's not under warranty, which amazingly,

Carolyn Pitcheswe've been lucky.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffWell, we've had mixed. We've paid quite a bit over the years for work that was outside of the warranty. So, that being said, before we, part of the discussion was we're good for the period of time. we should be good. We shouldn't have any major expenses. Until such times we start the four to six year roof replacement. It's going to take us a while.

Carolyn PitchesRight. Yes. I just know that some of them were expiring late 20s and some early 2030, 3031. So

Dan Phillipsstaffphase one expires in 2031.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. So that's the first set to expirate. Yeah.

Dan PhillipsstaffAnd you know I don't know if it would go this way. But you can imagine if we're doing the new roofing line up with the phases that are in the warranty. So 2031 is phase one, phase two is 2032. Phase three 2023, 2033 rather. Okay. Phase four, 2034. Phase five is actually 2039.

Carolyn PitchesAnd what's the total cost for spending on those warranties?

Dan PhillipsstaffI don't know, I don't know if I have that one.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffWe spent over a million dollars on human people. Yeah. Because I looked it up one time.

Carolyn Pitchesand going around where it was for the high school annually.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah, because they were like $200,000, $300,000. They

Carolyn Pitcheswere very expensive. The warranties are expensive.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThey were proven to be approximately $300,000 to $600,000 a year. But we can follow up before I do it.

Dan PhillipsstaffThere's four

Carolyn Pitcheswarranties, right?

Dan PhillipsstaffThere's

Carolyn Pitchesfour warranties.

Dan PhillipsstaffFive things. One for each phase. that information when mostly did the FCA. So even with the cost, the work that was done, everything that's been done previously, all that stuff.

Carolyn PitchesAll right. Maybe we can just send it just specific to Fairmark's High School to the board.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffYeah. And I was looking at the FCA, just trying to find the information. But it really is the future and the out years that you were current, Madam Chair, in the future out of the years that they had identified. But I can't discern what the actual amount is, so I'm going to talk to Mr. Martinez to just .

Carolyn PitchesAll right, and the carpet and tile we have moved to what, these 64-8, elementary schools are done? Not quite.

Dan PhillipsstaffI mean, it's a

Carolyn Pitchesnever-ending project.

Dan PhillipsstaffWe're really close. We added additional rooms this year. So typically we've done four rooms in one school. I think we did eight this year. This year was more than one, and the end of year probably is more than one of the year between the end of summer school classes and starting the new school year. Just getting as many as they can get. I

Carolyn Pitchesfeel like the elementary schools were supposed to be... They might be, well, I mean, based on the

Dan Phillipsstaffold schedule of doing four a year, we would still have a number of

Carolyn Pitchesyears to spend on it. But we have done a few here. We've

Dan Phillipsstaffdone some here also and some of these, FCPS actually paid for. Okay.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffSo to the point about the maintenance and the maintenance cost, I didn't want to speak to it, but Mr. Phillips just said sometimes FCPS pays for them. Right. Because he's developed such a good working relationship, Mr. Phillips and Mr. Wood have gotten a lot of items that he only would have paid for.

Carolyn Pitchesyou're not like carpet tile things not warrant roof okay no thank you okay painting 30,000 is that just it's

Dan Phillipsstaffthe kind of thing we talk about

Carolyn Pitchesright like when we look at the railings and often in

Dan Phillipsstafffront

Carolyn Pitchesof KJ. Yeah, okay. FCPS picks some of those up. Right, so sometimes we, this is what goes, so when we have things like FCPS ends up paying for something, that's what ends up in carryover. Yeah, right,

Dan Phillipsstaffsometimes it'll look like we didn't touch any of it, but we have a bunch of work done. It's that partnership, and sometimes it's something's damaged, the building and this is part of the process and so it's a good part of it.

Carolyn PitchesSo thank you. I just wanted to clarify that in case anybody is listening and watching.

Dan PhillipsstaffYou know for example this last year we had the gutter sewer right here at Fairfax High School and there was conversation about who was going to pay for it and at the end we had seen it.

Carolyn PitchesYeah, and even some of the concrete repairs the city has paid for, right? Even some of the concrete repairs, like the sidewalks, the city just took care of it.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThe city has done that, the city has done that, the county has done that. The county has paid for the stormwater. Yeah, yeah.

Dan PhillipsstaffAnd then we paid for the curb cut for the ban room. Right. So it's, you know, some of it's just situational. like what's the reason for it is it something that's for the convenience of the program that's probably us if there's something that's damaged we need to repair off these accounts

Carolyn Pitchesso if you had to guess looking at this 2.1 million and proposed FY 26 thinking like historically what we tend to not like what would be like what what do you think we would maybe end up with in the end. Like, we're not going to spend $2.1 million.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffEspecially with the onset of ramping up with getting the RFP together for the bond and the bond work. And the distraction, the actual cost. I don't know. That's hard to say. We've been doing one heck of a lot in the past. So it probably would be a considerable reduction. Okay.

Carolyn PitchesAlright. I was just curious if the

Dan Phillipsstaffsoftball field gets going during 2026, that's a lot of money on a single project. Right.

Carolyn PitchesAlright. Does anybody have any go back? No? Okay. Alright, then we'll move on to the update on the school security option. Mr. I don't have any slides for this. Just a quick update.

Dan PhillipsstaffSo September 24th, there was another tragic school shooting in Appalachia High School in Winders, Georgia. Two teachers and two students were killed. Media reports following that tragedy, there was a lot of information about a wearable device that a lot of teachers were wearing. and some of the authorities gave that advice credit for it not being worse than it was, as tragic as it was. And so immediately after that, several school board members, even in our office, and I'm sure teachers everywhere were talking about it, so we reached out to a company that was mentioned in some newspaper article system, a little resurgent, and set up a connection with them. And so basically, We've done a couple things since then, and I'll just give you a quick update on what we've done since then.

We reached out to the manufacturer of the devices, and we did that with them right away, the week after this tragedy happened, and the week after the news stories, that's probably a better way to put it, to schedule a meeting and a demonstration with them. We've had that meeting already. We also met very soon after the court named Prince with their partners with Fairfax County Office of School Security, so OSS. they were already looking to do the vices before the tragedy happened and so they had a lot of information and again speaking of our city county partnership they're just such excellent partners and OSS is always there for us I just I remember my time as a principal they're there they're a moment away

same thing is true when we have things like this when we want to be partners with them or talk to them about something they're there they're providing information excellent, excellent partners with us. And a lot of that's relationships that we've had and we've had to use an FCPS and just carry over to our system. They invited us, they had a demonstration coming up with another manufacturer. So there's, there are a number of people who manufacture these wearable devices. Often they come with lots of other things. like some of the companies have visitor management systems, others have drill management systems and things like that, but the wearables are part of those. And so we've gotten a lot of information on that over the last couple of months.

So we had our meeting with one company, and I'm hesitant to mention the names of the companies right now because Fairfax County is in the middle of making their decisions as well. but we met with the company we set up we were invited to Fairfax County where we did a different company did a demonstration with us that was last Thursday and I attended that one and so we've got a lot of information out there Fairfax County also said so the Fairfax County machine might move a little slower than us because they have so many there's so many factors like when you start talking about 198 schools you can imagine the cost is a lot greater that might be for And these are relatively reasonably priced devices.

And so what we're hoping is that we're able to sort of I'm going to thread the needle, hit something soon, and then fill that gap while Fairfax County is getting their decision. Now at the end of the day, we are going to be part of the Fairfax County system. So whatever system they go with, that's the one that we're going to go with because it's there. Everybody in the building works for FCPS, so that would be what we want to do. Both companies that we've talked to so far have been very receptive to the idea that we might be able to do something faster and sooner and temporary to fill that slack. In fact, to their benefit, it might be a really nice pilot and good information for ACPS while they're making the decision

to see it happen in four states. So we're working through all those things, and again, I think we'll get some more information, if not this week, hopefully next week, Let's see, I got ahead of myself. Yeah, so again, oh and the other thing we need to, so those wearable items just in a nutshell provide an opportunity, and this is kind of what happened in Georgia. Every person in the building is wearing one of those. Every staff member, every staff member is wearing those. And there are codes, different ways of manipulating the device that that would do different things. Some of the devices you hit a certain number of times and it calls the principal or an administrator to come to the office or to the classroom.

It could be someone who is angry and having a problem, it could be a medical emergency, any kind of those things and it only notifies those particular people. The more intensive option is a different number of pushes or interactions, then signals, anybody who set it up to set to signal so security safety security kind of everybody is rather anybody you want to know the devices also mark where so in Georgia one of the things that happens multiple people push their devices at the same time and told the authorities it's in this general area so instead of coming in the building just looking blindly for whoever might be out there now things happen quick but they knew kind of where to start and I think

a lot. And so that's the wearable part. The procurement thing is another side of it. So we're working with the City of Fairfax offices. We've got a meeting set up scheduled with them next week. Because some of these come with longer term contracts. Now the vendors are willing to work with us because we're looking for that shorter period of time. So we're just going to make sure we follow all those rules and do it the right way and we don't do anything that's going to include us from being part of the fcc ps package right

Carolyn Pitchesso it recommended one one device that's

Dan Phillipsstaffthe

Carolyn Pitchessame same so you didn't want to be excluded when carrick county got around to being able to

Dan Phillipsstaffbuy computers we didn't want our computers to go back to the general pile right and what

Carolyn Pitchesdid you mention in this somehow the cost So let me

Dan PhillipsstaffGeneral cost. So the general cost is it's less than $100,000 per year significantly less. And if you start, so there's a cost for the devices, there's a yearly cost, and then there's a maintenance cost. And that's where the longer term contract thing is not going to work for us. Again, we don't need a five year contract. know what we're after and what we're doing. And they still have to figure out how to fit smart with them. But right now it feels like they're good at us. They're

Jeff Platenbergstaffexcited that you're working with us. And Dan's got them to be really sharpening. Because they know that this is how they've had success. And it would benefit them very well.

Dan PhillipsstaffYeah. So any questions about those devices? Yes. And then I've got two other single sentence security questions. Oh yeah. Ms. Hall.

Stacy HallJust the 100,000

Dan PhillipsstaffIt's lower than that. Significantly lower and there's a little bit of nuance in there and also one part of it, part of the reason I'm hedging is if we were to get this it involves some installation of equipment. And if we were to get out after one year our penalty for doing that, their willingness to work with this would be offset by having to pay to have the equipment removed. But it's not that much. And

Jeff Platenbergstaffthe difficulty with the price point is that we have to be in compliance with the county. So Ms. Innocente is going to guide us through that aspect. There are some certain aspects to safety and security. However, the current laws of the new economy are not to be. I think she is very straight. So we're going to work with her in the future.

Rachel McQuillenOkay, I'll move your roll. Training for employees. Has that been mentioned? Like how long does it take to get trained on this?

Dan PhillipsstaffIt's part of the process. and I'll just tell you the demonstrations about the device lasted about 20 minutes. I'm going to use it right now. It's real simple and straightforward.

Carolyn PitchesMs. Kelsey, do you have any questions?

Amit HickmanNo,

Carolyn Pitcheswe're not. Thank

Amit Hickmanyou for all your work and for listening to our voices.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. All right. We will move on to public hearings. We have an open hearing for the five-year CIP. Okay, nobody. All right, action item. Approval. Ms. Hall, would you like to make a motion for the

Stacy Hallapproval of the October 7th? I would. Thank you for recognizing me. I move that the City of Freckback School Board approve the minutes of the October 7th, 2024 School Board regular meeting as printed and distributed. They have a second. Second.

Carolyn PitchesI just want to move that this has been followed. Seconded to see if ever School Board approve the minutes of the October 7, 2024 meeting minutes. School Board meeting minutes as printed and distributed. Are there any changes, modifications, or additions? Any discussion? Okay, all those in favor signify by saying aye. Aye. Aye, none opposed. The motion passes unanimously. I'll move on to superintendent matters. Mr. Potts.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThank you, Madam Chair. Really exciting time. What I'd like to do is really the point of privilege just go on and thank really you, Madam Chair, Vice Chair, all the members of the school board, and really the Mayor, Mr. City Council Member Jeff Greenfield, the City Council, the City Manager, Mr. Laszlo, and especially J.C. Martinez, Mr. Phillips, definitely miss King and especially miss Dorsey for all of the time is work really as a group as a body as a concerted effort to make sure that we communicate clearly to our constituents for a huge investment on not only public education our children but a huge investment for the community as a whole our capital facilities are our community buildings.

I know I spent a number of evenings articulating with many of you whatever was included in the needs as identified in the facility management that we spoke of this evening to members of the community and communicating all about the bond referendum. Lori Mueller, who worked, really was guided more by Carrie Dorsey than Carrie did getting their input. doing a phenomenal job to make sure we communicated effectively with our constituents. I know that we went to back-to-school nights, PTA meetings, four public engagement meetings, one that was recorded for others to go back and refer to if they weren't able, members of our community. And then the fourth one, the fourth one was basically going back to the information,

but also providing question and answer for anyone who still might have questions regarding it. And I think because we over communicated and communicated and communicated with the guidance and the leadership from Ms. Dorsey, it really made a huge difference. As I said, going to the PTA meetings and virtual, not only the Rugby Club, but going with Ms. Dorsey to the Economic Development Authority, meeting with folks to articulate this. as many of us were at the Fall Festival, Rock the Block, all the other events, spending time with our community to make sure that people were aware of what we had upcoming, what the investment would be, and all the parameters and aspects of it, including, as I said,

Mr. Martinez and his excellent work with Davenport, the financial advisors for the city on what their investment would be, what it would cost for us to make this huge investment in our public schools. And even at the Class of 74, where Ms. Pitches and I have walked with former school board member and regaled with the Class of 74 through these hallways. At the end, I took it a little bit of privilege to articulate to them what was coming up, the impact, the importance, what was included, and what that investment would be with members of the community. So really, I just wanted to take a minute Thank you to our community. Thank you to each and every one of you in this room. Collectively, we are powerful.

Individually, we may be significant, but collectively as a group with our community, we are a powerful community. It was a historical bond referendum. It was a historical voter turnout for the city of Fairfax. And it was a historical percentage, 70% approximately, turn out 70% approximately voting in favor of this investment. So I just want to take a minute. I know many of you probably have things to say about this. I know I've gone on and on, but I can't say enough. I've been involved in over 15 bond referendums in multiple states, most of them with Fairfax County, and I have never seen, let me repeat that, I have never seen the amount of community engagement community interest, community support for such an investment such as this.

So, Madam Chair, I want to thank you, and let's get to work.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Thank you, Mr. Blackburn. Ms. Kelsey, we're going to move on to board members.

Sarah KelseyI want to wish good luck to all our sports teams that are playing in regionals this week and in the upcoming days. and then also I wanted to congratulate Katherine Johnson's, both their basketball teams boys and girls were undefeated this season they won all five of their games and so they did a great job also I wanted to say it was an amazing pyramid choir concert, it was very well attended I don't know that they could fit any more elementary age kids into the orchestra pit so full and even on stage between the middle school and high school students. It seemed like everybody was there. There was not a seat left to sit for anyone to view. Also, I'm looking forward to the high school's play, Much to Do About Nothing,

and Katherine Johnson's show of Dorothy in Wonderland that is coming up this weekend for KJ and the following weekend for the high school. And again, just to reiterate, thanks to everyone who voted yes to the bond to help us improve our schools.

Rachel McQuillenThank

Sarah Kelseyyou, Ms. Kelsey. Ms. McCoy.

Rachel McQuillenYes, I wanted to say thank you to Superintendent Plattenberg and Assistant Superintendent Phillips for your presentations today. I appreciate the update on the security stuff. Thank you so much for all the hard work you've done to communicate on our behalf for that. I wanted to say thank you to Carrie for all the work you did on our school bond referendum stuff. You were so supportive. You came through so many times whenever I'd reach out. It didn't matter what time of day it was or on a weekend when I'd see something that, you know, how do I, what do I do? Do I respond? So thank you so much for all of your help on that. Really appreciate it. And a big thank you to everyone who voted for the school bond referendum and supported our children because that's really what it's about.

So thank you.

Stacy HallThank you. I'm going to say a couple of same things, but I think it's important. First of all, I just want to acknowledge the concession stands in the bathrooms. Now the bathroom is fully open. They are fantastic. Everyone is loving them. It's great to work in there with the heaters, and the TV was really cool. You can, like, see what's going on in the field, and what was really nice is you hear them, and then you know that they scored, and then you're having a 30-second delay, and you're really watching what happened, which I really appreciated during the last hockey game. All right. I would like to recognize it's Military Family Appreciation Month and our Purple Heart designations. I think it's very important. And KJMS, I also will say the basketball team, my youngest is on the team

and it's very exciting and yeah really really fun for them. Thank you to everyone who came out to Career Day today at the middle school, especially to the Norbex County helicopter team. Yeah, we're doing that.

Carolyn PitchesI

Stacy Hallknow,

Carolyn Pitchesit's very good.

Stacy HallAnd Carrie, I think if you decide to leave the school board at some point, you might have a career in bond referendums, but don't go anytime soon. But yes, a huge thank you to our community, to Carrie, to everyone else. I know we all spent a lot of time and effort, and we were out there at all the events and talking it up, and we were door knocking. and just thank you because I wasn't sure how it was going to go and this was way more successful than I thought it was going to be and I think a lot of that was really thanks to all the outreach for people who said that they didn't know about it. They must live under a rock because we were everywhere. And they didn't take advantage. Right. But I'm glad that many did.

And my last item is that this month is also National Love Your Red Hair Day. So shout out to my son. That's right.

Carolyn PitchesI

Amit Hickmandon't have any fun facts. It's been a busy month. I think everybody said the amazing things that we have attended, that the schools have done, that the students have won or performed in. And it's just been incredible. I look forward to another month. I'm sure a lot going on as we gear up into the winter holidays. And we have our BSBA conference next week. And I'm looking forward to learning a lot from that conference. I want to also acknowledge the passage of the bond referendum. Another huge, huge thank you to Carrie Dorsey for all of the work that you did and to everyone else who was involved. And also to the community, for those who came out to the community meetings or other events, even if they weren't in support of the bond, because I think it was really important to have those conversations with individuals who had questions about it.

Some may or may not have changed their mind if they were or were not in support of it. But I think having those community conversations is really important. It provided us with ideas and thoughts about those who are more hesitant about the bond and got to hear from those who clearly supported it. And as of 7 p.m. last night, it is now at 69.72%. So, you know, every vote counts.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. Okay, I won't repeat everything, but Carrie, I have to thank you. We've been together in this office for a long time. And I especially want to thank all the board members. And actually, this is going to be a board member very shortly. For all you guys did in the community to sort of steer people towards the facts when, you know, people started playing telephone. You know, what they thought the bond was paying for and how it was going to be paid and all of that. Congratulations to all the reelected and newly elected while we're still waiting. Probably have a recount, try Zoom. And the class of 74, Mr. Platenberg said we spent a wonderful few hours on Saturday morning. Not everybody was happy with the name changes, but for the most part, they were impressed

with the building and it was fun to see. None of them really recognized each other, which I thought was hilarious. A lot of them didn't remember who each other were. I mean, 74. That's a long time. And you got the email, are you going to answer about the high school? Okay. We got another email about another reunion. So anyway, thank you for joining me in that tour. And I'm also very excited because I should see this fully functioning. Finally. And we look forward to what you guys can come up with for the old one. So if there is nothing else before the board, I will adjourn this meeting at an impressive 721. Thanks.

Stacy HallI am hoping we got a canvas opening up, but I am not sure. I have to bring in front of closing.