School Board Regular Meeting

Carolyn PitchesGood evening, ladies and gentlemen. Tonight is Monday, September 9th of 2024, and this is the regular meeting of the City of Fairfax School Board. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Ann MondayI pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States

Carolyn Pitchesof America

Ann Mondayand

Carolyn Pitchesto the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay we have no changes to the agenda and no announcements so I'll begin with a the adoption of the agenda may have a motion please Madam Chair Ms. Kelsey

Sarah KelseyI move that the city of Fairfax School Board approve the September 9th 2024 agenda as written and distributed may I have a second

Carolyn PitchesMadam Chair yes Ms. Hall thank you it's been moved by Ms. Kelsey and seconded by Ms. Hall all those aye aye aye none opposed the motion passes unanimously okay um the next item on our agenda is the resolution to order to honor former city of fairfax schools superintendent george steph i want to thank everyone for coming this evening to honor george his leadership transformed the city of fairfax schools in countless ways and his vision and dedication elevated our schools and created a lasting impact on this community and while I did not have the privilege of serving on this board under George certainly my two daughters benefited from his vision and his work the city of Fairfax is eternally grateful

for his service and it's a privilege to celebrate his incredible legacy this evening with all of you so with that I'm going to read a resolution and then I'm I'M GOING TO INVITE PEOPLE TO SAY A FEW WORDS ABOUT GEORGE. WE'LL INVITE YOU TO SIT AT THE TABLE. I THINK I'M JUST GOING TO READ IT FROM HERE. OKAY. OKAY. WHEREAS GEORGE STEPP WAS SUPERINTENDENT OF THE CITY OF FAIRFAX SCHOOLS FROM 1996 TO 2007, AND WHEREAS MR. STEPP SPENT 27 YEARS AT FAIRFAX COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS AS A TEACHER, PRINCIPAL, AND AREA SUPERINTENDENT, AND WHEREAS MR. STEPP ATTENDED Morehead State University where he earned his bachelor's and master's degree and continued to work on his doctorate in education at Vanderbilt University. And whereas Mr. Stepp led the successful

completion of two school bonds to renovate all four city of Fairfax schools. And whereas Mr. Stepp oversaw the consolidation of four elementary schools to two, which are now Daniels Run Elementary School and Providence Elementary School. And whereas Mr. Stepp provided steady leadership in his years as superintendent, as a leader and a colleague, and whereas Mr. Stepp was known for his mentorship, helping younger staff members and colleagues in professional development, and promoted many to leadership roles. And whereas Mr. Stepp will be remembered for his high expectations for students and staff, his kind heart for his friends and family, and he leaves a THRIVING SCHOOL COMMUNITY IN FAIRFAC CITY.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT THE CITY OF FAIRFAC SCHOOL BOARD EXTENDS ITS HIGHEST COMMENDATION AND DEEPEST APPRECIATION TO MR. GEORGE STEPP FOR HIS LEADERSHIP AND SERVICE AS SUPERINTENDENT AND SEND THEIR DEEPEST CONDOLENCES TO HIS FAMILY FOR THEIR TREMENDOUS LOSS. DATED THIS 9TH DAY OF SEPTEMBER OF 2024. WE'LL MAKE SURE THAT THIS GETS TO CAROL. OKAY. Okay, so I'm going to start with Janice Miller. Come on up. You can sit, stand, use the microphone. It's all new in here, Janice. I know.

Janice MillerIt's amazing. Gosh, it's so nice to see faces from the past. It's comforting because we know that what was done a number of years ago continues and continues to improve. As elected officials, we know that we stand on the shoulders of people before us. I want to speak for just a minute about George coming to Fairfax City after he retired as school superintendent from Fairfax County Public Schools. superintendent. In the old days, people in this room will remember that Fairfax County was divided into four administrative areas and George was the superintendent for area four and the area four office was at 11 Oaks which is now where Crestmont is or in that general area. George was hired by the board that was elected from 1994 to 1996. So he

came in the spring of the year prior to the time when Penny, Rude, Alan Griffith, Gene Moore, Al Doring and myself were elected that July. I'm forever grateful to Pat King, to Jim Smith, to Suzanne Levy, to Gene Moore and to Al Doring who were smart and savvy enough to bring George on board. George, for those of us who know and remember him, George And you didn't want to get in his way when he had a good idea and he had lots of good ideas. When Alan, Penny, I, and Jean and Al Doren came on board, we followed the work of the previous school board. And that work was to renovate our elementary schools. And the problem was, I mean, today we're talking about another bond issue, but the buildings in 1996 were really in awful condition.

So our job as a board was to get the community on board and to get that 96 bond issue passed. I can remember many times, especially that Alan and I sat in Sisson House upstairs in George's tiny office and strategized about how to bring this person on board or that person on board. As I said, George was a force of nature and he had lots and lots of good ideas. George was a hard worker and he was a strategic thinker. He always knew how to how to work two or three steps ahead. He left, when he left Fairfax County, he had excellent relationships with people in leadership positions with county school board members and with just about anybody. Who was anybody in Fairfax County Public Schools? And he brought those skills and that sense of collaboration

to our sweet city. As Carolyn said, George was a mentor, and he was loyal to his friends. to our schools, he was loyal to our teachers, and he was loyal to our students. George, what I want to leave you with is George's belief in public schools. Today, we look around, and it's become really sad that people don't believe in institutions anymore. They somehow think our institutions are simply not there to serve and to better our communities. But George's underlying belief was public schools are institutions that are there to serve our children and to serve our families. He believed that our staff, our classroom teachers, who I like to think of first responders, is that those people are there not to have a job,

but to make the lives of our families and most of all our children better. And I admire George so much because he could scout talent. He could find, he could go through a stack of resumes. One of the things that George did was to work with Fairfax County Public School so our school superintendent's office has a role in selecting our principals. principles. And he would look at resumes and I would say, so what it looks like, he said, I don't like them, I'm going to HR. And he would go to HR and go through stacks of applications. He brought a team of fabulous principals to our building. And he worked with those principals and he mentored those principals. And some of them I think actually thought George was

their boss, which he wasn't. But it was such an exciting time to be part of our public schools here in Fairfax City. I was fortunate enough for much of George's tenure to be chairman of the school board. And I talked to George every single day, five days a week, sometimes more than that, as I did with Ann Monday. We talked a lot too. But it was just he was kind. He was funny. He could be irreverent. He could give you the stink eye if he didn't like what you said. My favorite thing was is that if there was a problem, he would call. And what he would say to me is, hey, girl, you sitting down? And when he said to me, are you sitting down, I knew there was nothing but a problem. But George was such a good person and such a friend to me

and taught me so much about being a public official. And I will always be eternally grateful to him for his service and for his friendship. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesAND I WOULD BE REMISS TO NOT MENTION THAT MS. MILLER WAS ON THE SCHOOL BOARD FOR 29 YEARS. LONGEST RUNNING SCHOOL BOARD MEMBER. I WOULD LIKE TO ASK FORMER CITY OF FAIRFAC SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT, WE HAVE TWO OF THEM HERE TONIGHT. with Ann Monday. Thank

Ann Mondayyou. It's great to be back. I know this room well. My name is Ann. I'm going to have to put my glasses on. My name is Ann Monday and I was the city superintendent who had the honor and challenge of following George Stepp after he retired. I knew George for many years when we both worked for Fairfax County Public Schools but also as a city resident myself since since 1978, I knew it appreciated him when he was the city superintendent. In those days, I used to thank him regularly for protecting the value of my house by improving the schools and attracting families to our community. I last spoke to George in February of this year. My husband died in January and to my great dismay, our email accounts were hacked

right after his death, causing people in my contact list to get fraudulent messages desperately asking for help. George got one of these emails. He was smart enough not to answer the message, but kind enough to call me directly instead. He wanted me to know that if I ever needed anything, he would always help me. We talked poignantly for a while about the passage of time and about the difficulty of loss. We had a number of colleagues in common that we had warned together. George sounded so strong and positive. He had overcome his own health challenges, and he said he was thinking about coming to Virginia, maybe this summer. I told him that if he did, I would be happy to host a gathering of city and county friends that he might want to see.

George and I ended that conversation saying how much we hoped that we would see each other soon. It's heartbreaking to think that that vibrant life ended so quickly and tragically. I cared about George Steff as a person and admired him as an educator. He was my advocate and mentor who encouraged and promoted me. He played this role for a lot of people, including a number of women who 30 to 40 years ago were not always encouraged to pursue leadership roles. George was comfortable working with and supporting strong women. George was ahead of his time in many ways, but one was in his determination to close the opportunity gaps between the affluent, largely white population in Fairfax and the minority population, which disproportionately lived at or below the poverty level.

When I was a school administrator in the 1980s and 90s, George was my boss, and he continually pressed me to be sure that all students were learning at high levels. He recognized long before others did that our system was denying access to elite and advanced academic programs from them. He saw that there were parents who just did not know how to get what their children needed in our large and complex school district, and he believed that schools had to communicate better with these parents. Some of you may remember that under Georgia's leadership, the city staff developed a model document actually called a roadmap that mapped out the critical academic choices that have to be made by children beginning in the primary

grades that can set a student's academic career from then on. George wanted all parents to know how the system worked. He was not shy about talking about uncomfortable truths, and I greatly admired him for this. I'm sure we all appreciated how George navigated the perilous process of closing and renovating schools. I didn't think he could do it actually.

Phyllis PajardoIn

Ann Mondayfact, I teased him about that from time to time. And while this work was largely focused on improving facilities, George made sure that he negotiated academic improvements as well. For example, he got resource positions at the elementary schools in technology and science. He was looking to the future by enhancing instruction in these important areas. I don't know if you realize this, but George also got the county to put the Academy for Communications and the Arts at Fairfax. Believe me, there were leaders in Fairfax County who preferred other locations and were reluctant to agree to invest in specialized facility requirements and equipment at a school that the county didn't own. But George convinced them that Fairfax High School was the right location and the rest

is, as they say, history. I remember how impressed I was that George pulled this off, but I was not surprised. This is yet another example of George's determination to provide opportunities for students, and it's also an example of his infamous political skills. Like I said, it was my honor and challenge to follow George as a city superintendent. His were enormous shoes to fill, and candidly, live up to his standards. But I did my best to maintain what George provided for students in the city. Not only the best facilities in the region, but also access to a full array of quality academic programs. George Step's life and legacy are clearly ones that this city rightly celebrates and honors. And I thank you so

much for having this opportunity to talk about my friend, George. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesI WOULD LIKE TO WELCOME OUR MOST RECENTLY RETIRED CITY OF FAIRFACS SUPERINTENDENT PHILYS PAJARDO.

Phyllis PajardoI GUESS JANICE KIND OF STARTED SOMETHING THAT WE HAVE TO KIND OF CONTINUE AT THIS POINT. SO GOOD EVENING CHAIR PITCHES AND BOARD MEMBERS. and to the past and current elected officials that are also in the audience. Good evening. As Chair Pitches said, I'm Phyllis Pajardo. And seven years ago, almost in this exact time, it was in August, that I was sworn in as the city of Fairfax's new superintendent. And in my remarks, I actually referenced George Stepp. specifically I referenced him as someone who had a tremendous impact on my leadership. So tonight it is with a great deal of continued respect that I speak in recognition of Mr. Step. I met him in the early 90s. I'm sure that's hard for you all to believe right now, but in the early 90s,

I was completing an administrative internship and George was our area superintendent. He visited our schools pretty often and he stood as a giant among our little elementary school students. Little did I know then just how much of a giant George was. Our paths continued across and I'm privileged to say that George promoted me three times during my leadership career. Okay, so you heard about his affinity to strong women, and I feel like I'm one of those. In each of the roles, I learned more about George, and I learned more about leadership and how to be a strong and effective leader. Among many things, George taught me to understand how someone saying no is not a finality. You know that George didn't take no as an answer.

Then he showed me how to be tenacious in following up with people so that they understood your perspective. He also taught how to help others see that your ideas were in fact innovative and needed to be implemented. We greatly benefited from George's giant and innovative ideas and you've heard Mrs. Miller and Mrs. Munday speak to some of those. The George Stepp standard of excellence was a high bar. We saw that high standard throughout his career. He developed others to be focused, relentless, and to set and realize goals that positively impacted student success. George visited me at Sisson House during the first year of my superintendency. And we talked about a lot. Mrs. Wisikowski probably remembers a very long conversation.

We talked about those daggone synthetic roofs at the middle school and the high school. We talked about the enrollment. We talked about the tuition agreement, the budget, CIP. It was almost like I was being re-interviewed for the city superintendent position. George looked at documents. He asked questions. That was George. We discussed the future of education, and he advised me to be courageous, saying an entire generation of kids were depending on my leadership. I took that very seriously. I'm just one of many leaders who George Stepp promoted, developed, and mentored during his career and who he continued to mentor in his retirement. So I say to the Stepp family and to the Fairfax County community, you can be assured that

George Stepp's legacy lives on and his leadership echo reverberates and will continue to do so for many years to come. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesOkay, our next speaker is former FCPS Superintendent Dr. Scott Brabrand.

Scott BrabrandGood evening, everyone. You know, in a way, I know these remarks, it's taking up some time for the board, but I almost see this as a passing the torch moment, really, for the City of Fairfax. George has a legacy. He was a champion for students and for public education. So I want to give three, four quick nuggets about this step legacy. First for Fairfax County, he was one of four area superintendents. when the areas he ran a fourth of Fairfax County Public Schools and he did it under the leadership of Bud Spillane really in a time where Fairfax received national acclaim it was the rise of Fairfax as a national school district he was principal at West Springfield he was principal at Lake Braddock he took his schools to new levels of academics and it's probably why the city looked

to him when they were looking for a new superintendent. So in the county, a tremendous legacy. He was really part of the dream team in the 80s and 90s with Bud Spillane. For Fairfax City, he retired but quickly became the city superintendent. This was a city that faced, as Ms. Miller already said, aging infrastructure. People were moving more and more to western Fairfax, which was building new schools into Loudon. And there was competition from schools nearby, the Oakton Pyramid, the Woodson Pyramid. There was a lot of competition outside these city limits. But George was a master politician. He was a master coalition builder. And he built a coalition in this city to reinvest in the city schools.

You know, I now work as executive director for the Virginia Association of School Superintendents. things a school superintendent can do is close a school. George closed

Janice Millertwo

Scott Brabrandschools in this city, half of the elementary schools. I don't know anywhere where that's ever been done in any other district. And that superintendent not only survived, but thrived. But George did all the work up front, just like others said, he was a strategic thinker. He thought three or four steps ahead. And part of the deal in closing the schools investing in the remaining schools, the two elementary, the middle, and the high. And that really turned this city into an even more dynamic place by having the investment that he did in schools. And I don't know any other leader that I've ever seen that could have pulled that off and continued to succeed. He also focused in the interview process, which I went through as principal 25 years ago.

he focused on academics and excellence for every kid and he did things in the city with staffing with professional development budgets to make sure the city remained with a cutting-edge academic reputation and then for me and so many others the mentorship that people already talked about i was lucky to be named principal of fairfax high almost 20 years ago as the long-awaited renovation of the high school began and I laughed I told folks I was the only principal in Fairfax County Public Schools at the time that could say they had a superintendent in the building literally every day and George was in the building every day but it gave me an opportunity for a mentorship that I think changed the trajectory of my career by having him there now he was always supportive

He mostly just asked questions, but he could be direct and decisive when needed. The second year I was principal, I was looking at a promotion in the weekly FCPS thing about a job opportunity, it would be another promotion, and it had just been advertised. It came out around the same time, and within five minutes of that being listed, he came in and I started to say something and smile, and he leaned down on my desk and said, young man you're not going anywhere I said George I didn't even say anything goes you don't have to say anything you're not going anywhere and then George the follow-up was this when you move up you need the competence to know what to do in these jobs and you need the courage to be able to do it that's what he said

And of course, I didn't apply, but years later I did. And George continued to be a mentor after I left Fairfax High, then in FCPS, then to, to leave the Fairfax area to go to Lynchburg. And then especially George to tell me, yes, it's, it's good to come back, come back and be part of FCPS and the Fairfax city community. And that was the only sticking point in the contract was if I was going to come back, I had to come back and live in Fairfax City. Actually, it wasn't a sticking point at all. There was agreement to do that and George was there every step of the way. And just the final legacy I want to share with you is words of comfort that can only come from George himself. I kept in touch with George throughout my superintendency here and afterward

and I spoke to him on the phone just about a month before he was killed. He was still into everything down in texas he was meeting with school board members he was following the gubernatorial issues there he was asking me about the governor here how he was doing was he really focused on public ed and he was still meeting people and building coalitions in his community his loss is immense and i can only share words of comfort by using his words my dad died suddenly in 2011 just a little bit after leaving the principalship in fairfax and a lot of cards from the Fairfax city community and staff, but the card I remember most of all is from George. And this is what he said. Time will ease the pain.

Nothing will replace the loss. I'm sorry. You have to experience both your friend, George. And I say to all of you, time will ease the pain of George's passing. Nothing will replace the loss of this great man. And I'm sorry, this city of Fairfax community has to experience both. we lost a legendary man whose legacy of excellence for public education and for all children who will never be forgotten. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesI'd like to invite anybody else if anybody has a story they want to tell about George, anybody who wants to say a few words, anybody? Gary. Mr. Gary Rasmussen, he's former City of Fairfax council member. Thank you for coming this evening.

Gary RasmussenVery briefly, everybody who's talked tonight was either on the school board or connected with the school somehow. I was on the City Council when we did all the things that you've talked about tonight. And the thing that always impressed me about George was, among other things, the Council trusted him. We really felt that he had the best interest of the city and the schools and the children in what he was proposing that the school board do, which would then come to Council to find AND THAT WAS THE KEY ELEMENT OF GEORGE. WE FELT WE COULD TRUST HIM. AND WE REALLY DID. THANK YOU.

Carolyn PitchesTHANK YOU, GARY. MR. ALLEN GRYFTH, WHO SERVED ON THE SCHOOL BOARD DURING GEORGE'S TENURE AS

Jeff PlatenbergstaffSUPERINTENDENT.

Allen GriffithI DID. AND WITH REGARD TO JANICE, WE ENJOYED THAT. in retrospect we enjoyed it at the time perhaps not quite as much fun but I remember the bond issue the big guy biggest thing where's Rob letter when we harass him around no and so we had jobs to do we worked this community up one side and down the other what did George do he went to Fairfax Hardware and he went to the McDonald's right over here where the old guys met every day. And he worked that crowd. And he won them over. Who'd have thunk it? It was a part of the population that we should have never expected to carry and he carried them for us. Never forget it.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Alan. Does anybody else want to say a few words? Jeff, do you want to say anything?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffI can't really add to what everybody else has said. All the stories you hear about George, Mr. Stepp, as I refer to him, are so true and so genuine and heartfelt. And it's because he made a difference. He made a difference in the lives of those who met him. He made a difference in the communities that he served. And he continues to make that difference even to today. fortunate those who had the opportunity to work or know or even hear of the history and legacy of mr. George step he truly was somebody when he walked into a room you just felt his presence and I hope we all feel his presence for a long time to come thank you

Carolyn Pitchesthank you well I'll just say thank you to everybody for coming this evening. We have a ton of food and desserts and drinks so if you guys would like to spend some time together please feel free to. We have a very exciting meeting if you'd like to stay. But otherwise I just like to thank everybody for coming. Okay thank you everyone. Then our next item on the agenda is a report from our student representative and who is Miss Sia Batra welcome Sia you may go ahead and give your report

Studenthi everyone hi everyone I'm gonna start by introducing myself and then following with my report hi I would like to start out by saying I'm honored to be here today I'm extremely excited to be helping to incite change within Fairfax City schools my name is Sia Batra and not only am I a senior at Fairfax High I was raised, born and raised in Fairfax City and have gone through the entire Fairfax City public school system. This year I would like to focus on student health and well-being as well as accessibility to education. While we have already made great progress in both of these areas, there is definitely more to be done in order to combat the rising mental health crisis faced by teenagers globally

as well as more to be done to make opportunities increasingly equitable. meeting with principal Dr. A, we were able to play a role in producing a website that made job and college resources more accessible. We also began to plan temporary passes to excuse students from class and emergent mental or physical health crises, as well as discuss the beginning of a paid summer program that will encourage more high school students, especially those that are low income, to seek out research and internship opportunities to better prepare for college. see if we could expand this program to support as many students as possible on their journey to higher education I am grateful for the opportunity to work

with you all this year and can't wait to see what we accomplished together thank you thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou Sia

Studentokay the next oh and not for my report oh oh okay okay

Carolyn Pitchesgood

Studentokay

Carolyn Pitchesthank you for the introduction the

Studentschool year is officially in school the school year is officially in full swing and we're off to a thrilling start as teachers administrators parents and students work to make the school year memorable with moments of learning growth filled with plenty of fun and fun was definitely had this past Friday at Fairfax High Schools unite and excite event with over 40 clubs present followed by the first home game of the season the community came out to have a spectacular night our Fairfax community came out to get henna tattoos, support field hockey by buying Rita's, and enjoy a football game against Oakton on a warm fall night. Over at Daniel's Run, Ms. Suzanne Mullen has started her new position as the principal of Daniel's Run. She has already begun to bond with students and

parents through events like Principal's Coffee on August 19th and during the school back to back to school Q&A. Back to school was a huge success as friends reconnected and enjoyed food from many local food trucks. Their PTA events have also gone well leaving more parents connected to their children's education after the first meeting and picnic. Providence is also doing amazing as they keep up with the Panthers Way Spotlight that honors kids who practice being safe, responsible, and kind. Congratulations to all the kids who have been recognized so far and good job to the Providence staff for doing an amazing job of supporting and nurturing the admirable qualities of our students. KJMS also welcomes a new principal

Mr. Chris Smith, who engages with students and teachers by doing classroom walkthroughs. They also are keeping up their streak by being named Virginia Naturally School for the 11th consecutive year and have also received the EcoSchool Green Flag Award. Congratulations to KJMS for gaining such a prestigious award and keeping up with environmentally conscious efforts. They also have begun with after school activities with some interesting clubs this year including paper quilling, quiz bowl, and a basketball team. Fairfax high school students have also been getting used to a variety of new policy changes including a digital pass system and mandated away for the day policies. There is also a new partnership with GMU that will allow Fairfax

high school students with above a 3.25 GPA acceptance to GMU without essays, test scores, or recommendation letters. This new opportunity will allow more Fairfax kids to gain access to and reach greater success within their careers. Recently, DECA Days was a huge success with over 450 students attending and engaging in team building activities. While this past Friday was so eventful, there's more to come with a homecoming tailgate and football game this Friday. We had such a fun start to the school year and it will be exciting to see everyone come together this Friday for another great time. Thank you.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Steve. Sorry, I apologize. I thought that, okay. The next item on our agenda is the tuition bill and the FCPS fiscal forecast. And so we have FCPS's Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Lee Burden, and Alice Wigington, who is Director of Budget Services, and Mr. Matthew Norton. Matthew, what is your title? Assistant Budget Director. Assistant Budget Director. Okay. Thank you.

Leigh BurdenstaffThe floor is yours, Lee. Good evening. Again, I'm Lee Burden. I'm the Chief Financial Officer. I've got with me Executive Director of Budget, Alice Wiginton, Matthew Norton, Assistant Director, and on behalf of FCPS, I would like to take this opportunity to express our appreciation for Mr. Plattenberg, Mr. Phillips, their team, and the Fairfax City School Board for their continued support and partnership. The tuition amount charged is based on specific formulas outlined in the school services agreement. The projected tuition is based on estimated costs. however once actual costs are known a true up adjustment is typically applied to the first tuition payment for the following fiscal year the presentation this evening will include the

final fiscal 24 tuition bill and an update on the fiscal 25 tuition estimate and after the presentation you know we'll address any questions that you all may have in addition to the presentation additional materials have been posted including the final tuition bill and historical trends in I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Wagington, who will provide the Fiscal 24 Fairfax City tuition final bill.

Alice WigingtonstaffThank you, Lee. Next slide, please. In summary, you'll see that FCPS's FY24 operational costs represent a net increase of $205.4 million, or nearly 6% over last year's actual, compared to FY23. What you'll see on this slide is while this is not an exhausted list, some of the drivers of that nearly 6% increase include compensation adjustments of a 3% increase for all of our employees. We provided a step increase for all of our eligible employees. That averaged about a 2.22% increase on average. We also extended our salary scales. This was the second year in a row that we had added an additional step to all of our salary scales to be competitive in the market. We provided funding for teacher leadership stipends at our elementary schools to be comparative to our middle and high school.

And then we also funded an extended contract for a counselor at all of our high schools. We also included some significant changes in our enrollment and student needs as well. Also, in addition to all of the compensation adjustments we included in our FY25 budget, I wanted to remind the Board that the General Assembly approved their state budget after most localities had adopted their budget. In fact, they had adopted a budget in September, which was three months after the fiscal year began. In that budget, they included an additional 2% increase that localities hadn't planned And so what we had to do was go back to the board, present an adjustment to our revised budget in order to get that approved.

So in addition to all of these compensation adjustments, there was an additional 2% that was provided to all employees that was effective January 1st of 2024. The cost of all of these compensation adjustments that I'm referring to totaled and student needs, enrollment and student needs totaled approximately $230 million. That is offset by base savings that we recognize each year in our budget, and that's just to recognize the turnover and just the natural churn that we would expect year over year. So that offset brings us to about roughly the $205 million increase that you're seeing year over year. On the next slide, in addition to just the increase in the overall operating costs that I just went over,

the other drivers that impact your tuition bill are going to be the enrollment, so the change in your ADM one year over another, the impact of revenue credits, as well as any city-funded positions. So of the $5.7 million increase year over year, about $3.1 million, or nearly 56% of that, is due to salary increases that I just talked about, as well as some multi-year initiatives that was included in the FCPS budget. About 1.8 million, or a little more than 32% of the 5.7 million, is due to the impact in enrollment. So Fairfax City saw an increase of 79 students or 2.8% increase year over year in your ADM as compared to your FY23 actual ADM. Could you give

Carolyn Pitchesthat number?

Alice WigingtonstaffSure, sure. So for context, your actual FY23 ADM was 2,835 students. For this bill, your actual ADM came in at 2,913. So that's the addition of 79 students. And almost 2 million of the increase in the bill that you're going to see is due to the increase in students. About .4 million or a little more than 6% is just the change in the revenue credits one year over the other. And then .3 million is due to the impact of city funded positions, which was also due to just salary increases for those positions. On the next slide, we provide a historical comparison of FCPS's cost per pupil that's shown in like the bluish, purplish color. and then Fairfax City's cost per pupil, which is shown in orange.

The importance of this slide is that from FY15 through FY21, you can see that historically the city cost per pupil has just been slightly above FCPS. But in FY22 and FY23, this pattern deviated, and the city cost per pupil dropped below FCPS, And that was due to the substantial revenue credits that was reflected on the bill, mainly due to a significant infusion of federal stimulus funding for the past, you know, few years. In FY24, you will now see that that cost per pupil is trending back towards historical norms, and we would expect that to continue in FY25. On the next slide, FCPS estimates the projected tuition payments prior to the final adoption of the approved budget. And in this past year was also prior to the adoption of the state budget.

It's important to note that the Ferris Facts City Tuition Bill serves as a revenue to FCPS. So typically that estimate is conservative. Our projected payment totaled $52.3 million. And it's important to note that that's net of your classroom rental. So the city also shows classroom revenue as a revenue item coming into your bill. And we just deduct that from what is owed. So we credit your bill that way. And then based on your actual expenditures, that actual ADM, the final bill totaled $58.6 million, which was $6.3 million more than what we had projected and what was included in our budget and bill to the city. When we look at our FY25 tuition estimate, FCPS included a revenue budget of $55.7 million.

Again, that is also net of your classroom rental. And what we're seeing is that the similar factors that impacted the FY24 bill are likely to impact FY25. to play another catch-up year going into FY25. We are going to need to monitor your enrollment and your student needs going into this fiscal year. We also need to recognize that there will be reduced revenue credits in the FY20 bill when we come here this time next year. And the reason is that the ESSER III grant, which was the final federal stimulus grant, that is ending at the end of this month. So you will see a decline in revenue credits of the FY25 school year. And then we also included some compensation adjustments as well, increases in our current FY25 budget. We'll continue to

collaborate with Mr. Plattenberg and his team so that we can try and monitor the impact of any enrollment fluctuations that we might see throughout the year, as well as the enrollment fluctuations for FCPS because that impacts if we are growing slower than you're growing that's also going to impact your bill as well so we will continue to do that as well as when we get into FY 26 that budget development process we typically begin in the fall with our presentation to the board of our fiscal forecast in November that'll be the first time that you'll see an estimate for the Fairfax City tuition bill going to the next slide is just our FY26 tentative budget development calendar. Like I said, we begin our budget development

for the upcoming year, so that would be FY26 in the fall, and then we're going to present that to our board first in November, and then we do a joint county board of supervisors presentation with our board, which includes their fiscal forecast at the end of November just before Thanksgiving. In January, towards the end of January, proposed budget and then after holding public hearings the school board's going to adopt their advertised budget in February. In May we will adopt our budget and then that will determine the transfer to FCPS. So at this time it just concludes our formal presentation. Just as always we thank you for the opportunity to be here today. At this time we'll address any questions and

clarifications that the board might have.

Carolyn PitchesOkay and I'd like to make a couple of clarifications sure so everybody knows on the board we represent about 1.66 1.67 percent of Fairfax County so we are responsible for that percentage of the operating costs which you can see on the tuition bill I believe it's number 8b and then if you look at 11 L that's where you'll see the classroom rental which was two point about two point almost 2.4 million dollars and it's also TO NOTE THAT THE TUITION BILL IS BASED ON THE COUNTY'S ESTIMATE OF WHAT THEY BELIEVE WE ARE GOING TO PAY, WHICH IS JUST A GUIDELINE THAT WE USE WHEN WE CREATE OUR BUDGET. AND OF COURSE, UNDERSTANDABLY, THE COUNTY USES A CONSERVATIVE ESTIMATE. SO WE SORT OF THAT'S OUR JUMPING POINT.

So just to make that clear that that's sort of how those are like the basics. Does anybody have any clarifying questions? You don't have to ask any now. You can send emails. I'm sure Allison or to Lee. Send them to Lee. Madam Chair. Yes. Ms. Kelly.

Sarah KelseySo the estimated budget that you get, what is the ADM you use? Do you use, like, the March one to figure out the number, or do you use the September? He's answering as I'm – he knows where I'm going with this. Like, so you're using the September count for the estimate, and then, obviously, you'll use the March one as the actual, right?

Alice WigingtonstaffSo typically it actually is more of a percentage increase over your prior year's tuition bill is what we normally step out with. Historically what had been happening is that we were increasing our budget or your our tuition budget from you at about 2%. We recognized that our budget was going up probably in like FY 20, FY21. And the timing is really good because right now is when we're going to try and estimate what's going to happen at the end of FY26. So more than a year and a half, you know, into the future. So at that time, we don't have all of the ADM estimates at all. Our DIT will come here to you and probably present ADM, I think later in like November. And by that time, we're kind of well

into the throes of the budget. So timing has always been a challenge. In 21, we had increased the tuition revenue at about 3.7%. Of course, that was also, again, that was a year and a half before, so well before the pandemic and what happened as a result of the pandemic. And we saw that there was a credit that was going back to the city. So we're trying to get this nice balance between not crediting too much and not owing too much. So we saw that two years in a row and so then we almost over corrected to try to bring that back down. So I do think there's almost like this perfect storm between that correction, the timing of when we estimate, the increase in the number of students. When we looked back historically, just back to 2015 even, so almost 10 years ago,

we have not seen this type of student a 2.8 percent student increase it actually had been declining and there was one small year when it went up just slightly but relatively stable so this is a this is a new trend for the city likewise for FCPS we saw like a point seven point eight percent increase in our students so you all are growing even you know faster than the overall enrollment increase and certainly faster than FCPS. So we definitely need to keep monitoring. That's not just what we're doing as a county, but what you guys actually look like and what's happening in terms of development, you know, in the city.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. I'm sure, Ms. Kelsey, some of it is due to students returning from independent and private schools, but also the fact that we have so much development going on in the city. I think we're realizing more, you know, WE HAVE MORE STUDENTS COMING INTO OUR BUILDINGS FROM THE DEVELOPMENT. I HAVE ONE MORE QUESTION.

Sarah KelseyON THE COST PER PUPIL, CAN YOU EXPLAIN, I UNDERSTAND HOW IT WENT DOWN THE CITY'S COST PER PUPIL OVER 22 AND 23. CAN YOU EXPLAIN WHY THE CITY IS TYPICALLY HIGHER

Alice WigingtonstaffTHAN FCPS? SO, ARE YOU SAYING SOMETHING? Okay, one moment. Yeah, you're good. We'll get to the line charts, which are the bar chart and the presentation. Yeah. So it's really going to be the size, right? So we're just a huge division. So we're going to recognize some economies of scale that certainly the city is benefiting from in terms of just the availability of programs that the size of your school division may not be able to do if you were to run a city by your own. So from that perspective, all of the administrative overhead and the programs that we're able to provide, all of the city students, surely. But because you guys are a smaller portion, when you divide that same number of costs between a smaller group of kids,

You're just always going to be slightly above us for another like small city. We try to sometimes look at Falls Church because they're they're also small. They're about like 20 like 23,000, you know, in terms of their cost per pupil, 23,700. If we were to do the cost per pupil for the city among just the surrounding jurisdictions, you would probably rank about fourth with Arlington, Falls Church, Alexandria City first. And those are much, much smaller. So you're definitely saving from that perspective. And you're getting more in terms of the programming that we can provide.

Leigh BurdenstaffYeah, to circle back, it's essentially what she said at the beginning. It's economies of scale. because you know we know that if we look at the cost per pupil by school for our smaller schools it's it's much the it's always going to be higher than it is they're really big schools and it's just economies of scale yeah thank

Carolyn Pitchesyou and typically our tuition per student is only 500 to a thousand dollars more than the county so it's a pretty it's a good deal

Sarah KelseyI would

Carolyn Pitcheslike to recognize that this City of Fairfax Chief Financial Officer Mr. JC Martinez is here and he was a huge help in the whole reconciliation of the tuition bill so thank you for coming does anybody else have anything

Amit Hickmanyes

Carolyn Pitchesnot

Amit Hickmanquestions okay just thoughts I can't seem to pull up our meeting agendas but I would love to relook at when the first budget proposal from the superintendent is and it's in because i think it was earlier last year so that way it's after that november 12th

Carolyn Pitchesyeah yeah it'll be it'll be december when we vote on and we vote

Amit Hickmani don't know why i was thinking oh the

Carolyn Pitchespreview you

Amit Hickmanmean the preview so i'd love to see what that date looks like and if it's like right i think it's right around the same time maybe we have the flexibility moving it to the second meeting of the month as opposed to the first meeting before the november 12th and then the other thing is maybe I know typically Mr. Foreman comes and presents to us like late spring

Carolyn Pitchesno he used to come in November right so is it

Amit Hickmanpossible that we can have him earlier thank you that was we'll be moving him

Carolyn Pitchesback to earlier in the year

Amit Hickmanyeah because typically yeah I love that

Carolyn Pitchesyeah thank

Amit Hickmanyou

Carolyn Pitchesyeah that's perfect great

Amit Hickmanthank you

Carolyn Pitchesokay everybody else good okay all right thank you so much for coming We appreciate it. And we will move on to summer in the city. So Mr. Phillips, the assistant superintendent, is going to talk about our summer programming. All right.

Dan PhillipsstaffA little microphone

Phyllis Pajardoproblem. Hang on one second. I'll just talk.

Stacy Hallby voiceThere we go. We can't afford

Dan Phillipsstaffit. Superhuman strength. Yeah. Thank you, Chair, for some pitches Good evening everyone. It's great to see you again. You might remember, so our summer school, we have our summer school program at all three, all four schools during the summer. You might remember that in elementary the summer school format had changed last summer and the board expressed some concerns with just some numbers and things and I think we had requested an adjustment for this past summer which we got, you know, we talked about that in the spring. And so this summer the Daniels Run students met at Daniels Run. They had students with them from Fairfax Villa Elementary and also Willow Springs Elementary and the Providence students were able to meet at Providence this year with students from

Eagle View and Waples Mill. So there are still three schools at each school at each site but instead of having Daniels Run or the Providence folks at Daniels Run or vice versa we all had our kind of home home school advantage for our students and you'll be able to see in the numbers that that did help somewhat. The programs ran again this summer for three weeks with staff from all the staff from other FCPS schools. And you can see some of the numbers here. So the SOAR program, if you remember, is the program that provides new students with opportunities to strengthen core math and language arts skills and help them prepare for the start of the following year, or upcoming year. And SOAR program, in a lot of ways, is something just to kind of keep the momentum going that

students had at the end of the year. So it's sort of a July, just an opportunity to stay sharp, YOU KNOW, AS YOU'RE GETTING READY FOR THE YEAR AHEAD. THE STUDENTS IN PRIMARY SOAR THIS YEAR IMPROVED IN THEIR COUNTING BACKWARDS AND THEY ALSO MASTERED SOME SUMMER SPECIFIC ROUTINES AND PROCEDURES AND THEY HAD A GREAT TIME DOING IT. STUDENTS IN THE UPPER SOAR FOCUSED ON OPEN AND CLOSED SYLLABLES AND LANGUAGE ARTS AND STRENGTHENED MULTIPLICATION SKILLS BY USING A RAISE THIS YEAR. OUR TOTAL NUMBER FOR STUDENTS, YOU CAN SEE DANIELS RUN HAD 57 DANIELS RUN STUDENTS, Providence had 49 Providence students on site. Total numbers of those sites, Daniels Run had 143 students all together counting the other two schools

in addition to the home students. Providence there were 82 students all together and 49 of them were Providence students. So 89, I'm sorry 82 from the total of the three schools. So that again summer school is those three big programs at elementary school. The SOAR program, Bridge to Kindergarten, and scholars advanced academic sort of program. The bridge to K program, bridge to kindergarten program is a chance for students mostly who have not been in preschool, not had that experience to just practice what it's like to be in school a little bit before school starts. It's not exclusive to kids who haven't had preschool, but for the most part that's the audience for us. and you know it we can always see in kindergarten after about three weeks

kids can walk in line they can sit at the carpet they can do these things bridge to K is the chance to practice that before school even starts for some students and so this year we had six students from Daniel's run in bridge to K and eight at Providence and those numbers look small when we look at them here but typically at Providence when I was principal we'd have about 10 to 12 Providence students who came. So it's not all that small. The overall program, Daniel's Run had 33 students in Bridge to K. So that's from the three schools together. Providence had 30 kids altogether with eight of them being Providence students. So again, not atypical really. Maybe a little bit on the low side, but not much. Some of the Bridge, I'll go back one more. That's

okay. Just a couple more quick sentences. The students this year seem to come in stronger foundational skills, which was great. So they could sit properly at the carpet early. They practiced raising their hands. They're continuing to learn, or throughout the process, learning how to share and give others personal space, which is a big kindergarten skill. And they had a good chance to come out of their shelves and interact with each other. They also learned how to greet students, adults in the building, both in and out of their classrooms, and they practiced successfully walking to their buses and identifying their seats. So all good things for them to know when we started here a couple weeks ago.

Barb, next slide. Thank you very much. The Young Scholars Program. Young Scholars, it's not just advanced academics. It's students who are young scholars or students often who are in underrepresented groups that have a chance to practice. You know, teachers see a spark. They see test scores. They see things in the classroom that lead them to believe that these students are capable of some good advanced thinking. And so they're part of that program. This year, there were 18 students from Daniels Run, 37 total in the Daniels Run Young Scholars Program. There were 22 students from Providence and 34 total from the three schools in the Providence Young Scholars Program. And they focus on their portrait of graduate skills,

communication, collaboration, that sort of thing during the time that they were in the program this year. And then just some quick reflections from elementary school. So in total, there were 160 students from Providence and Daniels Run that participated in the summer school programs. The leaders reported a great successful summer, solid progress for students, good participation from both schools this summer. So the whole field advantage did help somewhat. I THINK THAT OVERALL PARTICIPATION POST-COVID AND ALL THE EXTRA THINGS WE DID THAT YEAR WHEN WE CAME BACK FROM COVID, SUMMER SCHOOL DROPPED OFF A LITTLE BIT AT THAT POINT. IT STAYED A LITTLE BIT LOWER, BUT IT SEEMS LIKE IT DID COME BACK UP A LITTLE BIT FROM LAST YEAR.

THE PROGRAM ADMINISTRATORS WORKED REALLY CLOSELY WITH THE SCHOOL OFFICE STAFFS AT BOTH SCHOOLS, AND THAT'S TO HELP FIND STUDENTS, MAKE SURE EVERYBODY GETS ON THE RIGHT BUS, ALL THOSE KIND OF THINGS. They really appreciated had spent having Spanish speaking people at each school to help with parent communication Something that came up last year for the first time The summer schools offered hot lunches at both sites and the kids loved it The staff loved it for the kids It does create a little bit of an extra barrier for the summer programs that are also happening in the cafeterias But the schools worked really well and I think over time that'll become more and more seamless It was better this summer than it had been last summer

And last summer we didn't find out about the hot lunch until right before school our summer program started. So this year we had a chance to think about a little bit beforehand. And this year we also had a clinic person at each school which was nice to have during the summer. Or health room I should say. It's not a clinic but it's a health room. And they also had a new system to identify when the bus routes were finished. So in the past it was kind of just this waiting game to see if anybody came back who didn't get met at the site you know from the buses. We had a way for the drivers to let the school staff know it's good to go home, that it's time to go. And then the only real concern they noted was the size of the buses was a little bit

inconsistent, which made some students have a longer ride home. Like if they were on a bigger bus, there were more stops. It took a little longer than those who have small buses. So that's the elementary program. At the middle school this year, Katherine Johnson didn't offer the traditional summer school. That was offered at Franklin Middle School this year. So 25 students from Katherine Johnson attended the SOAR program at Franklin Middle School. Seven students attended the Young Scholars program. So I think we see a little bit of that lack of home school advantage there because there was travel required to get there. But we did get a report that the students were successful, the ones who did go, so that

was good. and then on the site at Katherine Johnson we offered the rise or the school offered the rise program which is again that orientation for students who are rising from elementary school gives them a great opportunity to be in the building to walk around to see people to get familiar again before the actual school year starts and we remember that middle school is the time where you're giving up that elementary school experience you've had for seven years it's the first time in that new building so it's a great program and they were to stagger the schedule a little bit this year which made made it possible for more kids to attend. 193 students total participated over the two-week period

the program that went didn't span two full weeks but happened in two different weeks and the school team reported that the students really had fun they enjoyed meeting people from the school in advance and it's just a great opportunity for students and then finally Fairfax High School we once again the athletic programs. We have great summer camps from the athletic programs, the coaches, along with a band camp at Fairfax High School. With the board support, they were able to offer, again, a Latin and French language camp for the second year. We had 57 students in that program, over two one-week sessions, and the hope is to pique interest in foreign language for those rising students, and staff

reported that they had another great summer there. And then finally, Dr. A and her team hosted the on the RISE program, again, orientation for new students coming into the school. It helps new students acclimate and creates connections to Fairfax High School. They even had about 200 kids in the program and 75 volunteer mentors working at the program this year. So it's a great opportunity for rising freshmen, and the school board supported the program. It's just a great way to help them feel that connection before their school year starts. So kind of just all together, we certainly thank the board for their support for the summer programs. We also offer collectively a huge thanks to all the teachers, school staff members,

administrators who ran the program, and parents who supported it as well. And so with that, I welcome your questions.

Carolyn PitchesThank you, Mr. Phillips. Ms. Kelsey.

Sarah KelseyMy one question would be on like the SOAR program. I'm curious, do we have numbers or can we get numbers for how many they actually invite from the schools versus how many actually are attending and I'm just curious to know if it's you know there's a reason that like if they're not attending like if it's the timeframe or

Dan PhillipsstaffI think we're gonna find that it is the time okay but it's also just you know we at the elementary schools we were offering tutoring before and after school in addition to the things that students got during the day and so I think that it's not that it takes a toll but it makes it's a lot of work during the school year and so when we started doing that we did see the summer numbers drop a little bit but let me get accurate information from this past

Sarah Kelseyyeah I was just curious on that and thank you thanks for the picture of the world language camp that came

Dan Phillipsstafffrom the teachers I didn't take that it

Sarah Kelseywas very enjoyable for her as well and I did because when I took her I actually had the question of how are they doing it for the kids that took it last year because they did have some repeats. And my daughter did inform me that they did recognize they had four groups, and two of the groups were repeat kids from last year, so they were able to continue their learning rather than doing the same things over and over again. That's good. Good teaching. Yes, so that was very great to hear because that was going to be my question that she answered for me. Fantastic.

Carolyn PitchesOkay. Ms. McClellan, you good?

Stacy Hallby voiceGood. I forget what we do here. Just one comment on the Lions on the Rise. I think it's probably the same one I had last year. I love it. I think the program is fantastic. I just think the timing is not always conducive to kids that are in football camp, that are in band camp, and I know we can't always just make new rules and new dates, but it seems like there is a large population of students that might not be able to attend ever if it continues that way.

Dan PhillipsstaffI can pass it along. It's a good point. Thank you. Thank you.

Amit HickmanMs.

Carolyn PitchesHickman.

Amit HickmanI was curious, when will the conversations begin about the school placements for next year? Because I think, as you said, there was a difference in numbers being like at homeschool advantage and if it's now going to be a rotation that our students will not go to Eagle View.

Dan PhillipsstaffWhen

Amit Hickmandoes that start and what are the odds of us hosting again?

Dan PhillipsstaffI feel like if we put in the request, the odds are probably pretty good that we'll get it. I think we planted that seed really early with the FCPS folks last year, kind of right after this meeting. And so we'll do the same thing again this year. And I think the only thing to think about, the other schools, there is some advantage to be in there. And so the schools that we're paired with may want that opportunity for their students also. You know what I mean? So it's one of those things I think we see the benefit in it, but others probably do too.

Amit Hickmanand I don't want to hog the playing field here, but obviously it benefits our students.

Dan PhillipsstaffIt also comes with additional work at the school, so they may be happy to have it at another place.

Amit HickmanThat could be it, too. And then my other question was about Bridge to Kay. I just feel like I remember it. That's actually quite a bit smaller, and I'm interested if there's just a transition, a need for it, with the push on children attending preschool. Like, you know, is that? I'd be curious to know why. I think kind of the same question was asked for the SOAR program, invited where are they being pulled from because it just does it seems a lot lower and that might not be a bad thing but yeah

Dan Phillipsstafflet me let me check I think with I just from past experience at Providence I know it wasn't always the easiest sell because some of the students who haven't been in preschool before you know sometimes the parents have not but not wanted to take advantage of that opportunity until kindergarten right so I think we had to make a lot of phone calls and we both schools do some pre-screening after registration that gives us people that we really want to invite you know gives us an ever

Amit HickmanDaniel's run being larger I feel like there was like three full classes like it was pretty big

Dan Phillipsstaffyeah

Amit Hickmanmaybe not last year but

Dan Phillipsstaffwell that last year would have been the three schools together so that would have made it bigger but let me let me check let me find out

Carolyn Pitchesthank you

Dan Phillipsstaffand

Carolyn PitchesI will say there are typically 40 to 50 STUDENTS IN THE CITY WHO DO NOT RECEIVE PRESCHOOL SERVICES. I DO KNOW, DAN, THAT I'M GOING BACK, WAY BACK. WE DID TRY TO ATTRACT THOSE FAMILIES TO THE BRIDGE DECAY. AND SOMETIMES IT WAS TRANSPORTATION ISSUES OR FAMILIES. TRADITIONALLY, A LOT OF THOSE FAMILIES, LIKE YOU SAID, didn't want school services until kindergarten there were language barriers at times it was just a whole host of a

Dan Phillipsstaffvariety of different reasons

Carolyn Pitchesbut Katherine Johnson we always had summer school at Katherine Johnson every year that I've been on this board we've had summer school at Katherine Johnson And I would say that middle school students are less apt to go to summer school if they have to go a longer way. Because that means getting up even earlier or, you know, taking more time out of their day. I don't know if I missed it. Was there a reason why? I guess

Dan Phillipsstaffit's the same rotation, you know. but we

Carolyn Pitcheswe've always had it even i guess the city paid for the programming um i think we used to call it celt yeah

Dan Phillipsstaffwe've

Carolyn Pitchescalled it different things over the years yeah i think it

Dan Phillipsstaffwas you know i think um there was a period of time where fairfax county wasn't offering them

Carolyn Pitchesyeah they weren't offering at all so we always

Dan Phillipsstaffhad our own you know and um that changed a little bit before covet started but

Carolyn Pitchesyeah with

Dan Phillipsstaffmore consistency. And now the combined thing, last year was the first year that I knew of that ever happening in my, whatever it was, 14, 13 years as an administrator where we combined schools. And we saw the impact of the elementary last year, and I think we saw it at the middle school this year.

Carolyn PitchesI just feel that if we're going to continue to try and tackle these achievement gaps, we have to pull out all the stops. We have to try to do everything we can in the city to keep things easier for our families to get there. Also, I was a little disappointed with the young scholars numbers. They're

Dan Phillipsstaffdown a little bit.

Carolyn PitchesCan we look at how can we increase that? It just seems seven students for over 1,000 kids that

Dan Phillipsstaffare in

Carolyn Pitchesthat

Dan Phillipsstaffbuilding. It's probably the travel again, though, but I don't disagree with you. I don't know what the...

Carolyn PitchesAnd the Young Scholars Program, you know, we're trying to attract kids, you know, who, you know, may have issues with things like transportation and just supervision to get...

Dan PhillipsstaffWell, that would all be in that one package. So let's put in a request. So

Carolyn Pitcheswe'll work on that for sure.

Dan PhillipsstaffAnd there, just if I could offer, even if we were to find out that we're in a rotation and we need to stay in it, there still might be something that we could offer at home. you know because the board's always been so supportive of that

Carolyn Pitchesyeah and bridge decay has always before now again I'm going a little further back before the pandemic we did typically have about 12 kids

Dan Phillipsstaff12 at Providence is a number

Carolyn Pitchesyeah we got to 12 I felt same at Daniel's run because I would go every summer but it might have yeah there might have been a little bit I think when Megan do you I remember one year I visited when she was there and it seemed like a bigger group

Amit Hickmanthree

Carolyn Pitchesgroups

Amit Hickmanyeah yeah

Carolyn Pitchesso okay does anybody have any other questions any go backs okay thank you mr. Phillips Jeff do you want to give a quick school opening update. Looks like they all opened.

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThank you Madam Chair. Yeah I have a brief presentation that I can provide and really it's just talking about what a great opening that we had. You know in the long and short of it is that what an exciting school year. Sia mentioned it at the beginning in her report pretty much the students hit the ground running and we were very very fortunate to have that happen. You heard in the budget presentation this kind of superintendent comments since I'm going to just wrap it all together so we can in the essence of time as this is posted on the website for people want to look at the data and any questions the board may have I'll be happy to answer but you heard in the tuition presentation they talked about enrollment and Barb recently provided an

email I think regarding the enrollment for city kids at each of the individual schools and in my presentation if people take a look at that you'll see that the enrollment in the city is up it's only down in one school and that's actually in Providence lost a couple of students however it's still up so mostly

Carolyn Pitchesup in middle and high

Jeff Platenbergstaffcorrect and you know we've seen and where we've seen it up is significant because it's kindergarten and like sixth grade so we have positive healthy problem that chair pitches alluded to with all of our development and the data are reflected in our presentation the only other thing I'd like to say is in recognition of our student representatives that are here this evening two of the three thank you so much Michaela Green and Tyler Rickman for being here with us in the audience as well I'm really excited to have three students as part of the superintendent's advisory committee to get their feedback input and involvement because we got a lot going on and but what a great start to the school year the weather always is helpful and and really it was just with

things kicking off it was really just an amazing moment to see such positive engagement classes that were already starting on time the elementary students the kindergartners having their pathway to where the clinic is where the is and those who weren't able to make it to the summer safaris and the preschool before school events just the excitement feeling the buzz and seeing the talent that we have even in this room this evening is just but but that's no but that's the excitement and really honestly that's the buzz and we can't say it enough just that these are the new stewards of our public trust and a part of our process. We've we talked this evening about building on the shoulders of others and as superintendent I'm humbled to have the opportunity here as

my mentor was Bob Russell and you heard of others having other mentors and the same thing with the students those that came before you were amazing and you all are amazing as well and we're just fortunate to have you here. So it was a great year great partnerships with the police department. Madam Chair I'd love answer any questions you might have if you all want me to go through the presentation I will but I thought in the essence of time I

Carolyn Pitchesjust

Sarah Kelseyhave one on the elementary enrollment classes and on Daniel's run does that include is is that only the preschool class or does that also include the special education preschool classes

Jeff Platenbergstaffyeah I think it's only the preschool class I don't believe it includes the preschool students

Dan Phillipsstaffwould have been listed in the gen ed class that they were in

Jeff Platenbergstaffcorrect okay they

Sarah Kelseyhave the pack class though that's they're self-contained

Jeff Platenbergstaffpreschool art class yeah so

Sarah KelseyI didn't know if they were counted part of that grade

Jeff PlatenbergstaffI just

Sarah Kelseycurious about that

Jeff Platenbergstaffyeah and this information by the way the same as well yeah yeah okay

StudentYes. No, no, leave it where I was. Yes. Yes. We were having a lot more struggles trying to get schedule changes done, and I feel like every year it just gets a little bit worse trying to figure out your schedule changes and I was wondering if there's anything to be done with that in

Jeff Platenbergstaffthe high school levels and in the lower levels. Yeah, see, to answer your question directly, if you look at the chart behind me and on the wall over there, you're right. I mean, you take a look at last year's 2343 student enrollment, 2401 this year, and it's been growing since this data was provided to us, right? the capacity the program passing on the far right of the column says 2399 that means you're over capacity means you have more students than space you add into it the academies and have 1500 students arriving each and every day and going into those hallways it makes it tight there is no doubt in regards to courses and course offerings if that's always a challenging annual process of identifying

whether or not there are enough students to make a course so to speak make in other words having enough to provide a teacher and a space for it with all of the amazing offerings we have at Fairfax High School but the same trickles down to all the different schools and when you look at program capacity on the far right and then you look in the enrollment if you show a disparity or a difference between the two and the program capacity is higher then technically from a physical plant capacity perspective you have enough space within that school the city has been in the past really forward-leaning on capacity issues with particularly the elementary schools and Providence elementary school in the past

and they worked in regards to getting relief I do know that one elementary school in FCPS has additional classrooms that were added as part of their renovation in mosaic in the event that there were boundary adjustments that would alleviate the overcrowding here and therefore move more students into mosaic and correct and oakton elementary school and the and what happened was the pandemic and then everything contracted well as i referred to and as you heard in the tuition presentation the city schools had a 2.8 percent increase and fairfax county public schools overall was flat which means it was close to zero uh seven tenths of a percent so when you have that type of We have to keep our eye on it to make sure that we're providing enough accommodated space.

And I will say that in the referendum, we've included enough capacity for the renovation of our elementary schools to not only accommodate the crowding that's currently in the temporary buildings, but also two additional classrooms. Now, if there's an expansion of program, you know, that might go away. But that was the forward thinking of this body, the school board and our consultants, to make sure that we had flexible space to grow into. If the enrollment continues to skyrocket, that might eat up that space in advance of the referendum being done, but that was the plan in order to be able to accommodate it like you suggested. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I don't mean to be flipped, but carefully, because it

because at middle school, especially when you look at the hallway and the transitions, that was one of the reasons why the expansion that this board allowed for to increase the athletic space in that smaller room and because they were having too many clashes and the need for multiple classes in the gym at the same time. It's a healthy problem to have, but they've been navigating it really well, amazingly, instruction for our students but it doesn't come without challenges once you start creeping up especially when you have as many special programs as the middle school has

Stacy Hallby voiceand just one other kind of trend so if we look at what 8th grade was last year it was 538 and then what came over to 9th grade is 612 which is an increase of like 70 students and then if you look at 11th grade 590 is 624 it's another 34 students roughly 104 students there do we know where they're coming from is this legitimately all of this new development is this people are moving in and out well

Jeff Platenbergstaffto answer your question we don't know exactly where they're all coming from but we do know and you heard when they said there was an increase in 79 students in the tuition enrollment out of that it was over 60 that were from that we had 16 new students enroll from the new so one could presume that there's a direct correlation between the two and we are that's the beauty of working with mr. Foreman we've asked him to go ahead and continue to identify how many of the students are coming from city schools yeah

Carolyn Pitchesand I would also request that we find out what the increase in county students has been at the middle in the high school yeah from last from the 2023 enrollment to the 24 25 enrollment but Katherine Johnson is very for me personally that I find it troublesome that we're at that capacity that is not an age group developmentally that does well with overcrowding so you know we haven't had any overcrowding at Katherine Johnson in a long time in fact we were down at 900 for even under for a little while so I'd like to sort I mean we should probably explore like where the increase is coming from if it's city and you know then it's city but then if it's city city kids get those spaces so if we're over that many spaces right

Jeff Platenbergstaffyou

Carolyn Pitchesknow you and I have walked this walk before you were here

Jeff Platenbergstaffcorrect

Carolyn PitchesProvidence

Jeff Platenbergstaffyes we have

Carolyn Pitchesyeah and

Jeff Platenbergstaffit's madam madam chair to your point 61 of the new registrations at the word done at the middle school and only 15 of those were city residents

Carolyn Pitchesso that's where we need we need to see what boundary they're close to in terms of middle schools I know we have significantly fewer in middle schools than we do elementary schools but what their what their numbers are looking like

Amit Hickmanso

Carolyn Pitchesyes

Amit HickmanI want to piggyback on that because the last time mr. Foreman presented we he did not indicate a huge increase for our local construction so it does sound like this is probably outside of our zones and i know more recently we've been receiving updates on the building but it sounds like there's probably some pretty big construction going on on the outskirts but this is these are august 19th numbers i'd be really curious if we could get an updated numbers with the end of september now that everybody has come back because we

Leigh Burdenstaffas we

Amit Hickmanknow there's typically an even larger increase once people are back from vacations or people realize kindergarten registration happened um

Carolyn Pitcheswe're supposed to be in school

Amit Hickmanright it happens um and you know some of these numbers at both schools are creeping up to in elementary schools you know 27 28 children per classroom and i know we have that still gives us space at least at daniels run without the Title I restrictions, but we're getting pretty close. So I want to keep an

Carolyn Pitcheseye on that, too. Well, with the Title I restrictions at Providence, we've been struggling. And quite honestly, it's not necessarily the space. It's the staffing. Right.

Amit HickmanSo that's why I want to kind of make sure, you know, and I'm looking at this kindergarten class of 27 students per class at Daniel's Run. We add in a couple more, and those are big. So keeping an eye on where that is I think would be really helpful because I don't, you know, I know we update sometimes, this year in particular to get that

Carolyn Pitchesyeah so when you get the September 30th numbers maybe you could share that at the just doing the weekly update all right

Stacy Hallby voiceyes all we can

Jeff Platenbergstaffprovide that in fact madam chair it asked if we could go ahead and get those on a regular basis as well there are seasonal flux every point that's been made is an excellent point and I could go on is why asked very good questions and we can do it monthly.

Stacy Hallby voiceOkay thank you.

Carolyn PitchesAll right that are we all good to move on? Okay uh there are no public hearings this evening so we're gonna move on to action items and we the only action item is the minutes from the July 1, 2024 regular school board meeting and the clerk has provided the minutes um and so is there a motion? Madam Chair. Ms. Hall.

Stacy Hallby voiceI move that the city of school board approved the minutes of the July 1st 2024 school board regular meeting as printed and distributed is there a second

Carolyn PitchesI second okay so miss Hall is moved miss McCullin is seconded the city of Fairfax school board approved the minutes of the July 1 20 24 regular school board meeting minutes as printed and distributed are there any changes additions modifications okay being none no additions all in favor signify by saying aye aye no members are opposed motion passes unanimously. All right Mr. Pottenberg you did your whole superintendent matters do you have anything you want to add to them?

Jeff PlatenbergstaffThank you Madam Chair and I apologize just in recognition and also our thoughts and prayers for the families in Georgia for yet another senseless tragedy that must be addressed and I just I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that but thank you.

Carolyn PitchesThank you. Ms.

Sarah KelseyKelsey. I just want to say I'm glad we had a great start to the school year. And I am excited to attend the many back-to-school nights we still have left to attend. Just to see and hear all the great things that the schools are already doing at the beginning of the year. And thank everyone who came and showed their respect and love for George Stepp. Thank you very much. And also hopefully everybody has a safe and fun homecoming at the game on Saturday and the parade, or I'm sorry, the game on Friday and the parade on Friday and the dance on Saturday.

Carolyn PitchesOkay,

Sarah Kelseythank you.

Carolyn PitchesMs.

Rachel McQuillenMcQuillan. I just want to reiterate what Superintendent Plattenberg said. My thoughts are with all the families and those affected in Georgia. I also had a I'm excited to see the schools filled with children now it's been great start to school and the first Fairfax high school football game I got to attend last weekend which was great that was wonderful and I'm looking forward to homecoming this weekend so

Carolyn Pitchesthank you thank you miss McColl and I'm yes

Stacy Hallby voiceI had shared this with chair pitches but I just wanted to maybe mr. you could somewhat look into this but my mom had sent me some technology that goes on a badge you already did

Carolyn Pitchestoday for

Stacy Hallby voicethose that are listening it's a badge and you click a little bit and it's very cool and it tells you where exactly in the building or classroom that there is trouble going on and certain number of clicks means what the problem might be and for those who read the article it was just installed a week before at Georgia at that school so I mean Unfortunately, they were trained on it. They were able to use it. I mean, it was a terrible tragedy, but it does sound like had they not had that, it could have been much worse. So love to be a pilot program, as usual. Thank you. Yeah,

Carolyn Pitcheswe're going to be looking into cost and, yeah, feasibility. All right, Ms. Hickman.

Amit HickmanI see why you guys always say I haven't recited everything now that I'm down at the table. I just want to thank all those who spoke about Mr. Stepp not having had the pleasure to meet him. It was really inspiring to see the number of people that he mentored and guided and the diversity within that group and how they all had very, very similar thoughts. And thank you. An

Carolyn Pitchesexperience.

Amit HickmanYeah, it was really important to see, and I'm glad that we were able to participate in that. I enjoyed the first Daniel's Run Back to, or PTA meeting and Back to School night. well attended Kona ice line was very very long so you knew how well attended it was looking forward to all the back-to-school nights SAT meeting coming up we have the bond referendum information sessions that I think are really important for the community to attend to get all their questions answered for that prior to November and I look forward to seeing everybody at the homecoming parade and game and hopefully we have a better outcome than those last two minutes of Friday's game

Carolyn Pitchesokay so there's nothing left to say I we're also looking forward to the upcoming PTA meetings I think Fairfax high schools is the 17th or 19th one of the two we're in the right week at least via it's that week looking forward to Katherine Johnson's back to school night homecoming parade on Friday. It's a busy month. September is traditionally a busy month for the school board. Okay. Is there anything else? Anybody has? Okay. Mr. Philp? No? Okay. If there's nothing else before the board, I will adjourn the meeting at 816.