Testing. Oh, Miss Setlow, are we ready? Yes. We're ready to begin. Alrighty. Thank you. The time is 07:31PM and this 12/01/2025 the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center public hearing of the Fairfax County School Board is now called to order. Mr. Frisch has submitted a written request to attend this meeting, this evening's meeting virtually due to a personal conflict as he has a work commitment and is attending tonight's meeting
from his home in the Providence District. All those in favor of Mr. Frisch's request? Okay, that is unanimous with all of the board members present. Ms. Sutloh, do you need a name, a roll call of the names or we're good? So we have Mr. McDaniel, Mr. McElveen, Miss St. John Cunning, Miss Lady, Doctor. Anderson, Miss Sizemore Heizer, Mr. Moon, and Miss Anderson are all yeses. Correct? Yes. Everyone said yes. It's unanimous. Could you please check your audio and video? Good evening Doctor. Anderson and everyone. Hello Mr. Frisch, thank you. Good evening and welcome to the proposed Glendale Advanced Academic Public Hearing.
Tonight's hearing will be is being broadcast on channel ninety nine and live streamed on YouTube and on our website at www.fcps.edu, dash, live stream. If you are not able to attend tonight's public hearing but are interested in providing comments on the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center, you may contact the board by sending your comments to communityparticipation@fcps.edu. We have seven pre registered speakers who will address the board at this public hearing.
If you have not registered to speak but you would like to address the board, please see the clerk or deputy clerk to sign up for one of the five reserved slot walk in, speaker slots. Please note that these individual please note that those individuals will speak after all pre registered speakers. Speakers are allotted two minutes and we ask that you stay within that time limit. The timer will start when you begin to speak and the timer will sound after two minutes. Please ensure that your remarks are limited to the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center and
that your remarks adhere to the school board's expectations for community participation. Included in these expectations are that only one person is allowed to is allowed at the podium after I'm sorry, is allowed at the podium when speaking. Neither adults nor children may accompany a speaker to the podium. Copies of all expectations are copy of the room or on board docs.
If you have a hard copy of your testimony, please give it to the clerk before you head to the podium. If you have electronic copies of your testimony and would like to share with the board, please email it to communityparticipation@fcps.edu. Madam Clerk, please call our first speaker. Thomas Zenart. Good evening. My name is Thomas Zenert, and I am the parent of a fourth grader at Canterbury Woods Elementary. I'm here tonight to express my deep concerns about this proposal. First, this proposal rests on a false premise that students from future schools like North Springfield only attempt Canterbury Woods for sixth grade.
The vast majority, vast majority, including my son, start there as early as third grade. The proposal as is would force my son to leave Canterbury before sixth grade, depriving him of the opportunity to graduate with his cohort. Second, the parents of students otherwise headed to Frost have been blindsided. Supposedly, this conversation going on for more than five years, yet many of the parents here only learned of the proposal only a few weeks ago through the media. North Springfield's PTA was never engaged nor was Canterbury's. And the community meetings provided us with no substantive information about your plans proposed AEP
program. You cannot in good conscience say that FCPS has afforded the parents due process. This feels like a rush job with no clear explanation for such an aggressive timeline. Last, we're troubled by unanswered questions. By 2028, Poe is projected to be over capacity at a 109% where Holmes sits at 84%. So why choose Poe over Holmes? FCPS flatly denied to us that this move is an effort to bolster Poe scores, but in a vacuum of information, it's the only clear rationale for this maneuver on this aggressive timeline. So I respectfully offer three recommendations.
First, delay the decision. Use your timeline to properly engage impacted families, collect feedback, and align this proposal with the overarching plan for universal middle school AEP centers. Two, consider a phased approach. Start with Glasgow to relieve overcrowding and pilot the program while continuing to study the program while continuing to study the impacts. And three, allow case by case exceptions. Give students like mine the option to remain at Canterbury in transition of Frost with their peers. Thank you for your considerate. Paula Abate. Alright. Good evening.
I'm speaking on behalf of many Braddock district families whose children attend the full time center at Canterbury Woods. We're deeply concerned about this proposal. Our first and foremost concern is that this proposal creates multiple unnecessary transition for the Braddock students. Currently, our students transition to the center school and continue with the cohort through eighth grade at Frost. Under the new proposal, our children will transition to the center school, leave elementary school a year early, and then enter Poe with an entirely new cohort. And as currently proposed, only the fifth and sixth grade students will be grandfathered in.
We understand the challenges that the Mason District or the Mason District students face due to Glasgow feeding multiple schools in pyramids, but this proposal doesn't solve the instability within the pyramid and merely shifts it from the Mason District students onto the Braddock District families. Additionally, we would like clarity about Poe's academic readiness. We have received vague assurances during the meetings. And to that end, we would like the school board to address several things. What is Poe's current accredit current accreditation status? Is Poe still a Project Momentum school?
If so, what tier? Have any other FCPS schools successfully managed the dual distinctions of both Project Momentum and a full time AAP Center? And will FCPS commit to hiring experienced full time AAP teachers or Poe? Creating a cohort at Poe will immediately have an an impact on the standardized testing, but I would remind you all that you have a duty to meet the academic needs of all children, not just, reposition students to artificially bolster performance metrics. We given that, we would like to request that all Braddock District students at the
full time center be grandfathered through Frost Middle School until such time as an elementary school is established in the Annandale portion of the pyramid, and you are the FCPS is better able to articulate a credible and detailed academic plan for Poe. Thank you. Joanna Eddy. My name is Joanna Eddy. I am a Poe District resident and a parent of a sixth grader at Poe and a third grader at Columbia. One of the criticisms I've heard tonight and at a meeting a month ago is
that this process feels rushed. Everyone on this board knows that that critique is laughable. In fact, this process has been slow as molasses. In 2019, I sat in my living room with a group of concerned Columbia parents to discuss why we need an AAP Center at Poe. I won't use my time tonight to explain the reasons. You've heard them before. The reasons haven't changed. Decade has. I've turned a new page on my monthly calendar 74 times since that meeting. If this vote were a library book, it would have been marked lost by now.
If this vote were bread dough, it would have gotten moldy in a cold oven just waiting for the school board to turn it on. And if this vote were a child, a kindergartner at the time of that meeting, like my son, he would now be a sixth grader like my son. It's too late for him to benefit from an AAP center in our neighbourhood. But it's not too late for hundreds of kids in Region 6 who deserve the same opportunities close to home that middle schoolers in student.
We're simply asking that you finally correct the glaring and long standing denial of equal access to educational programming for the children of Region 6. This vote is about fairness. This vote is a no brainer. And this vote is long overdue. Karen Bradford. Karen Bradford. Jackie Mosley. Hello. My name is Jackie Chevalier Mosley. I am a parent, in the Annandale Pyramid. I'm also the parent rep one of the parent representatives for the Annandale Pyramid on
the Boundary Review Advisory Committee. And, my neighbor, Hannah just stated, this really is a matter of equity. Region 6 is the only region without a middle school AAP center. I have been not surprised, but saddened through my participation on the Boundary Review Committee. Anytime there is a discussion of a change in boundary where kids are getting added to Region 6, people are upset about it. And that's sad because relatively speaking, Fairfax County has great schools, including in Region 6. And this is, just a small step toward toward remedying that.
Lewis is great. Annandale is great. Poe is great. Hayfield is great. I just as a parent of two little kids and, an active and engaged community member, I strongly urge a yes vote. It's it's past time. Thank you. Adrianna Arizi Ariza. Sorry. Evening. My name is Ariana Ariza, and I have a son in fourth grade currently in AIP at Canterbury Woods Elementary School. First, I want to state that we, parents with kids in AIP program, were informed directly about this proposal.
And there was no opportunity to participate in a formal survey, but only after the first meeting on October 22. This lack of communication and transparency is concerning, especially given the significant impact this decision will have in our students' education. I also do not understand the rush to start the AP program at Paul Middle East. The priority should be strengthening the existing academic program first. Once Paul demonstrates a strong and consistent resource with this, then it will make sense
to consider adding an AEP program. If Palm Middle School has not yet demonstrated the strong results with its existing program, I do not feel confident it's ready to support an AEP program. I am concerned that our children will be treated as test cases for a problem that may or may not work. My son has already built a solid group of friends at Canterbury Woods and he enjoys his school community. The transition to Frost is something he has been preparing for and looking forward to,
especially because his his older sister attended both Canterbury Woods and Frost and had an excellent experience. For our kids, attending an established AEP center is something they have earned through their hard work and academic ability. They have put in work to qualify program. And we parents have supported them with the understanding that they Greg Martin.
Good evening, friends. I am Greg Martin, a parent of two middle schoolers at Holmes Middle School. I appear today to express my enthusiastic support for this proposal to establish an AAP Center at Poe Middle School. This proposal, long needed, is a material step towards equitable treatment of Mason District students and Region six students. Earlier, you heard from my friend, Joanna Eady. I'd like to thank her for hosting that conversation in her living room those years ago. I'd like to thank doctor Anderson for her dogged advocacy of Mason District students and families. At the time of that conversation, I was starting off what would become four years
of the presidency of the Columbia Elementary PTA. Across those four years, I heard a consistent theme, a theme of frustration with the inequitable treatment of Mason kids. A particularly frequent chord within that theme regarded access to AAP services. Families told me stories, stories that you don't want to hear as a president and you don't want to hear as a parent advocating for your community. They told me stories of sixth graders standing at a cold, dark bus stop before 6AM, their students' only option for transportation to Glasgow.
Cold and tired kids seeking a challenging curriculum. Think about that. We can do better. Families are frustrated at sending their kids outside of their pyramid, away from their friends, away from their neighborhood to simply access the AAP services that they deserve. By approving this proposal, the school board can materially better the lives of many students and families, keeping them closer to home, in their neighborhoods, and with their community. I firmly believe that each of you sought service on the school board for a simple and challenging reason to improve students' lives.
With this proposal, you have that opportunity. You have the opportunity to help many kids and many families. I urge you to approve this proposal. Thank you. Jennifer Weidman. Hello. My name is Jennifer Wideman. I am the parent of a third grader at Canterbury Woods. I agree that there does need to be an AAP center in our pyramid, but I am here to address my concerns for the children that are already enrolled in their current AAP program. My daughter goes to Canterbury and I feel like she's already made a really hard
choice to leave her friends and to start new with Canterbury Woods and to get a whole new social aspect. But beyond that, I've looked over the SOL scores and I've looked at Holmes versus Frost versus Poe. And I just don't see how in three years Poe will be able to provide the same academic level that Frost is currently providing through the SOL performance, scores.
So, I also see that in three years post going to exceed its current maximum occupancy. So, when my daughter arrives, it'll already be over crowded. So I'm not saying that this should be sorry. I'm not saying that we shouldn't have an AAP. I do believe that we need to change the proposal to allow the children that have already made that decision to follow the path that they chose.
If they want to go to Frost, if they want to go to Glasgow, they should be able to remain there or make that choice themselves and not be forced to make, to go to a different path that they've already made that decision. Thank you. Karen Mast. Hello. I am a parent of a fifth grader at North Springfield, a third grader at Canterbury Woods, and a kindergartener at Braddock Elementary in an autism class. You can imagine it was a, tough decision for us and for our third grader
to go to Canterbury Woods to leave his friends, and to have three elementary students in different schools. But it was important to us because we saw the benefit of the AAP Center School at Canterbury. It's already been a little over one quarter. But my son has been absolutely thriving there. He has a lot of friends, more than than he had before.
I'm worried about him and his the other students who made that difficult choice to move. And now it's being proposed that they leave after fifth grade so they don't get their last year at Canterbury with their friends. They also move to a middle school where they don't know anybody. So this isn't them going to their local middle school like Holmes. It's going to a completely different place, so they're starting over twice. And I just think it is, not in their best interest.
I think it'd be best if they had a choice and could continue at Canterbury and go on to frost if possible. Thank you. Doctor. Anderson, that was our last speaker. Thank you. Thank you all for coming this evening. The public hearing on the proposed Annandale Advanced Academic Center adjourns at 07:52. Good night all.