Good
afternoon. I call to order this February twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six, Loudoun County School Board meeting. As a point of privilege, I'd like to start the meeting off by wishing Mr. Pepper a very happy birthday. Thank you, Chair Chandler. All right. Um, we'll start this afternoon with item number two, approval of the consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda? Hmm. No, not till six thirty. Oh, um, bef-- let's see. Before we vote on the consent agenda, we
have several proclamations to read. The first proclamation recognizes March second through sixth as National School Breakfast Week. This proclamation will, will be read today by Ms. Ricardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas the School Breakfast Program has served our nation admirably since it was permanently established in nineteen seventy-five, and whereas the School Breakfast Program is dedicated to the health and well-being of our na-- our nation's children, and whereas the School Breakfast Program joins and has been joined through the years by many
other excellent school nutrition programs, and recently-- recent research shows students are receiving their healthiest meals at school. And whereas, during National School Breakfast Week, Loudoun County Public Schools recognizes the vital role school nutrition professionals play in ensuring students begin each day nourished, focused, and ready to learn. And whereas, research consistently shows that students who eat a healthy breakfast demonstrate improved concentration, stronger memory, better problem-solving skills, and higher attendance, laying
the foundation for academic success and lifelong wellness. And whereas, there's evidence of continued need for nutrition education and awareness of the value of school nutrition programs, and whereas by providing access to balanced, nutritious meals, our schools support not only physical health, but also the cognitive development and emotional well-being that help every student thrive in the classroom. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims the week of March second through sixth, twenty twenty-six, as National School Breakfast Week, and encourages the community to
become aware of the benefits of the School Breakfast Program and support good nutrition habits for their children to help develop a more healthy community for today and the future. Thank you, Ms. Ricardi. The second proclamation recognizes March first through seventh, twenty twenty-six, as National School Social Work Week. This proclamation will be read by Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas social work and social workers help address the nation's pressing issues, including increased needs for mental health care,
especially for children and adolescents, substance use disorder treatment, and increased economic and political division. And whereas school social workers enhance the academic mission by providing services to address these issues and other barriers to learning, helping students reach their full potential. And whereas school social workers are actively committed to helping students explore individual and collective abilities, strengths, interests, and talents using research-based interventions and promoting education equity. And whereas school social
workers help parents focus on ways to further their children's educational, personal, and social growth by strengthening the link between school, family, and the community. And whereas school social workers bring unique professional knowledge and mental health perspectives to school personnel and families to help identify students experiencing academic challenges due to social, emotional, and/or behavioral difficulties. And whereas school social workers contribute to prevention and intervention services by providing comprehensive assessments and
screenings, program development, individual and small group counseling services, as well as crisis intervention, consultation, collaboration, and restorative practices to reduce barriers to learning for students. And whereas school social workers are recognized for their vital role they play as catalysts in helping to create an environment that is conducive to effective problem-solving and learning for the whole child. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognizes March first through seventh, twenty
twenty-six, as National School Social Work Week. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Uh, the third proclamation recognizes March second, twenty twenty-six, as Social Emotional Learning Day in LCPS. This proclamation will be read by Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas social emotional learning, SEL, is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions, and achieve personal and collective goals,
feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. And whereas SEL competencies develop throughout our lives and are essential to success in our schools, workplaces, homes, and communities, and allow individuals to contribute meaningfully to society. And whereas SEL can be taught and developed throughout childhood, adolescence, and beyond. And whereas schools, families, and the wider community must be engaged to enhance the strength-...
depth, and pace of acquisition of SEL competencies. And whereas SEL helps return long-term social and economic benefits to society from the implementation of evidence-based SEL. And whereas Loudoun County Public Schools supports students in their acquisition of the core SEL competencies of self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. And whereas LCPS supports students in their acquisition of foundational knowledge to
support the profile of graduate and career and workplace readiness skills. And whereas LCPS supports students with community building and connections across the school environment to support student learning. And whereas LCPS supports learning environments that foster welcoming, affirming, and inclusive opportunities to promote equitable opportunities for academic and social success in school and in life. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board recognizes March sec- second, twenty twenty-six as SEL Day in
Loudoun County Public Schools, and encourages all community members to learn about and share their knowledge of the importance and impact of integrating evidence-based SEL into our schools, organizations, and community. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. The fourth proclamation recognizes March twenty twenty-six as Equity in Education Month. This proclamation will be read by Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas Equity in Education Month is celebrated in March to promote educational equity in Virginia, the Virginia School Boards Association established the month to increase awareness and support for
students. And whereas, educational equity is the premise that all students have the opportunity for success, regardless of their background or circumstances. And whereas, educational equity is achieved through creating intentional systems of support that meet the diverse needs of all students in order that they meet their full potential. And whereas, Loudoun County Public Schools has adopted a commitment to equity to ensure student growth and success for every child, create culturally responsive environments where all students see themselves represented,
foster a sense of belonging, and eliminate opportunity gaps. And whereas, educational equity focuses on creating a learning environment that's tailored to meet individual student needs, such as accommodations for students with disabilities, appropriate access to buildings and campuses, supports acquiring English language services, and the rejection of behavior that is discriminatory based on inherent characteristics. And whereas, the Loudoun County School Board continues to be committed to equity in education and creating a climate and curriculum where all students receive the resources needed to graduate prepared for success after high
school. And whereas, the Loudoun County School Board affirms that providing an equitable education for every student is a valuable mechanism for increasing academic success, building a thriving community, and driving economic advancement for its citizens. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board recognizes the month of March twenty twenty-six as Equity in Education Month and supports equity in educational best practices and programming opportunities for all students. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. The fifth proclamation recognizes
National Women's History Month, um, as March twenty twenty-six, and this proclamation will be read by Ms. Labelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. Whereas Women's History Month began as a local week-long celebration in Santa Rosa, California, in nineteen seventy-eight, and since nineteen ninety-five, each president has issued an annual proclamation designating Women's History Month, celebrating the courageous women who have helped our nation build a fairer, more just society that is the very fabric of our
democracy. And whereas Women's History Month honors the contributions and achievements women have made, celebrating their perseverance and leadership across society and their impacts on history, the present, and the future. Whereas, though these women's stories too often go untold, we stand on the shoulders of many sung and unsung trailblazers, from women who took a stand as suffragists, abo- abolitionists, labor leaders, to pioneering scientists, doctors,
engineers, educators, groundbreaking artists, public servants, and brave members of our armed forces. And whereas the National Women's History Alliance has set the the-- this theme for twenty twenty-six as Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future, celebrating the diverse contributions of women who are leading sustainability efforts across environmental, economic, educational, and social justice movements. And whereas in Loudoun County Public Schools, women
comprise seventy-seven point twenty-three percent of more than the thirteen thousand dedicated individuals in our K through twelve workforce, serving as teachers, administrators and leaders, counselors and coaches, support staff and mentors who inspire and empower our students every day. And whereas the young women in our schools represent the next generation of leaders, innovators, and change makers, and it is our responsibility to provide them with the opportunities,
encouragement, and support to reach their fullest potential. Now, there be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board proclaims March twenty twenty-six as Women's History Month in Loudoun County Public Schools, and further be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board encourages staff and community to celebrate women's history by learning about their contributions and encouraging women and girls to continue to break barriers and to learn from and be
inspired by the many contributions of women throughout history and today.... Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. LaBelle. The final proclamation recognizes March twenty twenty-six as Visual and Performing Arts in Our Schools Month. This proclamation will be read by Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Whereas Music in Our Schools Month, Youth Art Month, and Theater in Our Schools Month are integral opportunities for our community to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of visual and performing arts in our schools. And whereas visual and performing arts have
enriched Loudoun County Public Schools throughout its history, describing, defining, and deepening the human experience for every learner. And whereas visual and performing arts education provides a lens through which students understand themselves and their world, fostering meaningful intellectual engagement and global citizenship. And whereas visual and performing arts education develops students' creative thinking, expressive communication, collaborative spirit, and critical thinking as part of the profile of a graduate. And whereas visual and performing arts education serves as a
catalyst for unlocking the potential of the whole child, empowering students to apply critical skills across all academic disciplines, while elevating the morale and vibrancy of school culture. And whereas visual and performing arts education significantly enhances school culture by building self-confidence, self-reliance, empathy, and compassion in students, creating a supportive and vibrant learning environment. And whereas visual and performing arts educators continue to demonstrate dedication to their students, creativity, and
resilience, providing impactful visual and performing arts education. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board formally recognize March twenty twenty-six as Visual and Performing Arts in Our Schools Month. Thank you. Thank you. I'll now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. So moved. Oh, thank you. Second. All right. Um, we have a motion by Mr. Svenson to approve the consent agenda, and a second by Vice Chair Donahue. It has been properly moved and seconded to approve the consent
agenda. At this time, we will take a vote to approve the consent agenda. Clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes unanimously with all seven school board members present voting yes, and Ms. Chernoff and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Um, with that, let's move on to item number three, our School Board and Administrative Advisory Committee update. Tonight, we will receive an update on the School Health Advisory
Board, presented by Jeannie Kloman, Supervisor of Student Health Services, and Kirk Dolson, Director of Student Services. Oh. Good afternoon, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, and members of the school board, as well as Dr. Spence. My name is Kirk Dolson, and I am the Director of Student Services for Loudoun County Public Schools. Unfortunately, uh, Ms. Jeannie Kloman, our Student Health S- Services, uh, Supervisor, was not able to be with us this evening due to a family emergency, so you have me presenting this information. This afternoon, I am here to pres- provide you with, uh, the School Health
Advisory Board update. So the School Health Advisory Board, um, o- otherwise known as SHAB, is liaised by our own Dr. Samira Rasheed. Um, our bylaws can be found, um, on our lcps.org website, uh, on the Student Health Services page. And just very briefly, the mission of the Loudoun County Public Schools, S- uh, SHAB Committee, um, is to advise the school board, you all, on, um, concerning community perspectives about the school division's health programs, services, and
activities that are consistent with the requirements of relevant law, rule, or regulation, and, as requested, to assist with the development of health policies in the school division, as well as the evaluation and status of school health, health education, the school environment, as well as health services. One of the things that SHAB does is annually update the Allergy Procedural Handbook. This handbook identifies responsibilities and practices that, when followed
consistently, promote a safe, inclusive, allergy-aware environment for all students. This year, LCPS Supervisor Amy Wheeler, and Ms. Wheeler is the, uh, Supervisor for Health and Physical Education, presented the Family Life Education curriculum to SHAB for review, for required review, comment, and feedback. Members were divided into groups to review the curriculum for specific grade levels, and SHAB members were given an opportunity
to review the curriculum over time and provide feedback into an electronic system. Members had an opportunity to review all feedback that was entered, as well as ask questions. We also had a presentation from Teresa Lucas, the LCPS School Nutrition Coordinator. SHAB received education and information related to federal requirements for school nutrition and activities involving the sale of food or beverages during the school day. Members have reviewed School Board Policy sixty-one twenty,
Wellness, which is up for renewal and will have opportunities to provide feedback on the policy.... Related to the policy review, members of the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth, Rev, um, from the Rev Your Bev campaign, made a presentation to SHAB highlighting the importance of hydration and avoiding hidden sugar in beverages. This is the second year that the Student Health Services, um, Department in LCPS is using FollowMe apps to
observe the blood glucose of students with diabetes who use a continuous glucose monitor, otherwise known as a CGM. When parents and guardians have completed the required paperwork, LCPS staff may connect a school iPad to the student's CGM to observe the blood glucose at times determined by the medical provider and when the application alarms to let us know the blood glucose is heading out of range. In school year twenty-four, twenty-five, we
followed about thirty students, and this year we are following about sixty-six students. Using a Follow app to observe blood cluce- blood glucose can help limit interruptions to learning for students with diabetes and facilitate early intervention when blood glucose is trending out of the optimal range. And last but not least, our mobile health clinic, Inova Partnership. SHAB has been encouraging the mobile health clinic team, uh,
efforts to support student health and school attendance. The LCPS Community Schools nurse practitioners provide students with free physical examinations required, that are required for school entry. Students are referred to community resources for health, mental health, dental, or vision concerns, and immunizations. And I am proud to share with you all that LCPS was recently approved to, to be a Virginia Vaccines for Children, VVFC provider. With parental consent, LCPS nurse
practitioners will begin immunizi- im- immunizing students with immunization deficiencies later this month. And with that, I am-- I appreciate your time and attention, and I am certainly, uh, here to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, Mr. Dolson, for that presentation. It's very informative. Um, school board members, do you have any questions or comments? Uh, Vice Chair Donahue? Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, uh, thank you for the presentation, Mr. Dolson. I, I'm, I'm not sure if-- I'm not sure if it's related, but, uh, I
had the privilege of attending the Health and Wellness, uh, Resource Fair on Saturday and, uh, learned there about, uh, our school system having received a grant for some mobile health resources, and I wondered if you could tell us anything about that. So yes, ma'am, um, that is something that we were going to share at our SHAB meeting that was supposed to occur yesterday, but because of the cancellation of school, we were not able to share it. Um, it was shared, um, with Mr. Pepper and members of the Student Se- the Student Services Committee meeting, um, that,
um, we are entering into a partnership with, um... In order to provide a school-based health center, um, in coordination with Health Works for Ner, uh, Northern Virginia. Um, in essence, what it will do is it will provide a federally qualified health center, um, within Loudoun County, uh, and, and again, in collaboration with, uh, Health Works for Northern Virginia. It is, um, a one point seven million dollar renewable grant, um, f- uh, based out of the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental
Services, to provide mobile health care, mental health care, vision, and dental care to LCPS students, families, and staff. Thank you, Mr. Dolson. I appreciate the update. I was very excited to hear that news over the weekend. I'm glad we're- Yes, ma'am, we are very excited. Share this today. Thank you. Dr. Rasheen? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Thank you, Mr. Dolson, for this awesome, uh, this, this awesome information. Um, I had the pleasure of visiting the mobile clinic last year, and it was, uh, really nice. I mean, you really feel like you're in a clinic just on
wheels. So it was, it, it was quite enlightening, and we got to see some of the kids that went to visit there as well. Um, unfortunately, I no longer, uh, meet regularly with SHAB. Um, many of the c- we, we did have some committee reassignments, so I'm really grateful for the time I was able to serve with all the health-focused, um, and driven committee members, especially as a healthcare provider myself. So I know that they'll continue all their good work with, uh, Mrs. Griffiths as their new school board liaison, and I know she'll be SHABbing with you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Well, I, I will also say I'm so happy to hear that we're
able to, um, add the Virginia Vaccines for Children, um, provider as a service that we provide to our community. Um, I am, uh, have been lucky to have watched the inception of the mobile health clinic and, and really feel it's had a very positive impact in our community, especially in my district, and, um, wanna thank you for the ongoing support and help, um, in that effort. And, uh, thank you for the presentation. Thank you. With that, uh, we'll now move on to our work session. First up, we have item four point o one, the Division of Diversity,
Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility, Equity in Action, Supporting the LCPS Community. Um, tonight presented by Dr. Leticia Ellis Williams, our assistant superintendent; Mr. Shaheed Muhammad, the, our director; Cynthia Lewis, supervisor; and Jessica Heitfeld, Field, um, the DEIA coordinator. All of these employees are with the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. Welcome. ... Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, fellow board members, and Dr. Spence. Thank you for the opportunity to
share the impactful work of the Loudoun County Public School Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility. I'm Dr. Leticia Ellis Williams, and I'm joined by my esteemed colleagues. To my right, Mr. Shaheed Muhammad, Ms. Cynthia Lewis, and Ms. Jessica Highfield. Next slide. The primary focus of the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility is to improve outcomes for all students. In doing so, it is important to recognize the unique characteristics of our staff, and most importantly, the unique
characteristics of our students. We approach our planning with intentionality by using a research-- by using research-based and asset-based approach to design processes, practices, and structures to ensure, ensure student success. And you can see on the slide, the Loudoun County Public School is an excerpt from Policy ten forty. It's a lengthier document, but this encapsulates the rationale as to the spirit of that policy. Next slide.
This looks familiar to all of you. It's the LCPS Commitment to Equity. The LCPS Commitment to Equity is a foundational document that communicates the importance of creating and sustaining an environment that fosters student success. There is sub-- there's a substantial amount of research that shows a student's environment in school is a key lever in a positive academic achievement and student engagement. Ensuring that children and adults feel they belong in their school community, mandates that we are committed to
educational equity. Next slide. Thank you for our friends over in the communications office. We now have our little DEIA quick fact sheet, and it does not encapsulate the entire kitchen sink, but what we have before us here this evening is the following: This snapshot includes the types of supports provided by the division, across the division, the number of supports provided, the categories of professional learning, an overview of equity walks, and the number of equity
walks completed by level. Next slide. So the LCPS Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility is very proud of the partnerships and collaborations we have to ensure alignment with departments, divisions, and offices in support of all students, staff, and families in the LCPS community. In this presentation, we will focus on four major areas of our work: our collaborative efforts, support for learning environments and school
culture, elevating student leadership and voice, and enriching family and community engagement. Next slide. Thank you. Providing professional learning is one of our major focuses that reaches school and central office leadership, equity leads, and teachers. We collaborate with departments and offices to facilitate professional learning. Equity-focused leadership is a collaboration with Human Resources and Talent Development, the Division of School Leadership, to
provide professional learning to assistant principals, deans, and aspiring leaders on a myriad of equity topics. Some of our most recently offered professional learning has been on leading with empathy, cultural humility, inclusive curriculum design, mitigating racial slurs and hate speech, and cultivating a sense of belonging. Keeping in alignment with our common theme of belonging, we collaborate with Human Resources and Talent Development to provide professional learning for new teachers and mentors on students' sense of belonging, as well as
professional learning for equity leads, so that they may have resources to share with staff in their school buildings in real time. We provide professional learning for teachers and administrators by unpacking VDOE Standard six, and we have created a crosswalk document, which supports teachers and administrators expand their understanding of the performance indicators for Standard six. We continue to collaborate with the Department of Teaching and Learning in support of the instructional framework and
elevating what inclusive curriculum is and why it is important at the system and school levels. Next slide. Thank you. The LCPS Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility partners with community organizations with the goal of fostering more equitable and inclusive school environments for students. Together, we work to make our schools and communities places where everyone can learn, achieve, and thrive. This work is ongoing with check-in meetings and planned events, where feedback and successes are shared.
When applicable, information garnered is shared with the Department of Communications and Community Engagement. Next slide. This next area of focus is on DEIA collaborations. Our work in DEIA focuses on intentional collaboration across the division, directly aligned to divis- division priorities and to improving student outcomes. Providing culturally responsive instruction for students is an ongoing collaborative effort and is embedded in the LCPS
instructional framework through high expectations, the welcoming and inclusive classroom community, and within student-centered learning.... These collaborative efforts have included the development of the culturally responsive framework and ongoing professional learning for school leaders and teachers. DEIA has also partnered with the Division of Teaching and Learning, Student Services, School Leadership, Human Resources and Talent Development, and Research and School Improvement on a sense of belonging by establishing shared language, designing and develop-- delivering
professional learning, and developing aligned resources. And finally, in collaboration with content offices, DEIA has provided teaching and learning content-specific professional learning on student-centered learning and culturally responsive instruction. Next slide. Now we're going to move into our next area of focus, learning, environment, and culture. Equity walks are a structured, non-evaluative process that provides schools with classroom and
school-wide data aligned to the VDOE Evaluation Standard six: culturally responsive teaching and equitable practices. The process begins when a principal requests participation through DEIA directly or the Department of School Leadership to schedule an initial meeting. During this initial meeting, the principal and the school team identify goals and determine focus areas for the walk. From there, DEIA plans and conducts the walk, analyzes the data, and prepares a formal report.
In the final phases, the building principal coordinates the date of the equity walk debrief and determines the team members present. DEIA will then facilitate a data dialogue with the school team to review findings, identify strengths and areas of growth, and reflect on recommendations for next steps. Next slide. Equity walk next steps and outcomes are led and implemented by the building principal with collaborative support from DEIA. Next step actions have included presenting the report to school leadership
teams, the school-based equity committee, collaborative learning teams, the whole staff, and in some cases, the broader school community. Equity walk follow-ups include targeted professional learning, development of resources, and additional data collection from students and families, guiding next steps and continuous improvement. Next slide. Thank you. Our next area of focus is student leadership and voice. As part of the strategic plan, our division creates regular opportunities to amplify student voice.
The Student Equity Ambassador Program is a space for students who are passionate about issues of justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. Students are in these roles because they see a need in their schools, and they want to advocate and take action for solution and change. Student equity ambassadors are volunteer students in grades six through twelve. Each middle and high school selects two to three students for this role. We meet with student equity ambassadors four times per year virtually and once per year in person.
Students can also reach out to the specialists in our office when additional support is needed. We provide learning for students around how to collaborate, how to advocate, what does it mean to be inclusive, what does it mean to be an ally, and what are some ways to learn about others and what is important to them? The goal of our meetings is to develop leadership skills, celebrate students' work in their schools, allow students to share ideas, and discuss the ways in which they can impact change in their buildings. We ask student equity
ambassadors what they've learned about leadership through their work with us. Students let us know that learning how to listen and amplify the voices of others, being a strong collaborator, being intentional about including others, and even bringing in students with different opinions as a plus that allows for more ideas to be shared. Student growth experience-- Next slide, please. Thank you. Student growth, experience, and the student environment is our main goal. Our core initiative is to
enhance school culture and instructional practices by creating opportunities to actively listen to student voices. A significant component of this work involves students exploring and articulating their personal values and stories. Last year, for instance, we collaborated with Trey Baker, a nationally recognized spoken word artist and author, to help students discover the power of their own narratives through poetry. Our student equity ambassadors each wrote and shared original poems, connecting their personal stories to the principles of
diversity, equity, and inclusion. This impactful experience provided a foundational understanding that strengthened their leadership abilities. Several of these students championed this work back at their schools, encouraging their peers to engage with poetry and successfully advocating for Mr. Baker to present to fellow students. As a result, Mr. Baker was featured as a speaker at student assemblies at both Heritage and Dominion High Schools. His presentations focused on student empowerment.
Uh, next slide. As equity-oriented change agents, student equity ambassadors participate as guests on the DEIA podcast and host moder-- and moderate and participate in student-developed panels. Their efforts have reached the Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce annual DEIA Summit. Student equity ambassadors address inequities in their schools and amplify barriers to student promise. Student equity ambassadors support their schools to ensure that their peers are empowered to make meaningful and equitable contributions to their school community and the world.
Next slide. ... We will now shift to our last area of focus, family and community engagement. Our division works within the community, learning about different perspectives and concerns. We meet regularly with the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, Loudoun County Government, and others. This work has led to professional learning opportunities for staff and deepens our understanding of community needs. Recently, DEIA leadership designed a panel-style presentation for parents and community members at the Adams Center in Sterling. Another
project we have that deepens family and community engagement is the DEIA podcast, Better Together. Our goal is to share our work with the LCPS community, highlight our partnerships, and to define equity work and its impact for students and families. Some topics from recent episodes include student-centered engagement, representation, the power of professional development, inclusive access for student success, demystifying DEIA, and DEIA in action. The podcast
features work for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility that is happening throughout the division. Guests on the podcast include students and LCPS leadership from Human Resources and Talent Development, the Division of School Leadership, the Division of Family and Community Engagement, Dr. Spence, and members of our own division. We also boost family and community engagement through the DEIA newsletter. The newsletter is published five times during the school year and is available on the LCPS website.
It supports schools in their work and includes examples of DEIA in action in the LCPS community, general updates, community events, school board proclamations, and an overview of upcoming observances and holidays. This year, our focus is on belonging, and we always include resources and articles for learning. Next slide. Our division, oh- Our division has worked along the Department of Communications and Community Engagement and the English Learner Family and Community Engagement
Office to enrich community engagement, to enrich community engagement in LCPS. Our collaborations include professional learning for equity leads and building administrators to address family survey data, and information and resources to provide language support for families who require it. A professional development session for family liaisons is being planned to support them with building and sustaining a bridge of belonging for families. Our community work continues with the newly formed administrative committee, the
Loudoun County Public Schools Equi- Equity Council. The council met for the first time last week. There are twenty-five council members that include parents, staff, students, community members, Loudoun Interfaith Community, and Loudoun County Government. The goals are educational ex- excellence and staff and student belonging. Next slide, please. The work of the division is ever-evolving, and we ma-- we remain
committed to growing our content knowledge to support the Loudoun County School community. We look forward to the continued collaboration with all invested parties and participating in robust data dialogues to inform the necessary steps to ensure the promise of each and every student. And that's our team. Ms. Randolph was not there that day, but we thought we looked really cute, so we chose that picture. Next slide. Thank you for the opportunity to share an overview of the work of the division of D-
DEIA. Uh, we did not throw the kitchen sink at you, we, 'cause we'd be here much longer. But at this time, we'd like to entertain any questions or comments from the board. Thank you so much for the presentation, and, uh, board members, I'll open the floor for questions. Uh, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you very much, Dr. Ellis Williams, and to all of your team members. Um, I, I am a little bit biased because I am the board liaison for the Equity Council, and I was, I was very excited to be able to participate in the first meeting of the council last week.
Um, but I was hoping, Dr. Ellis Williams and your team, that you could tell us a little bit about, um, the goals of your team, short term, medium term, anything that you have long term, uh, how you... what kind of metrics and systems you use to assess progress, and what needs your team has for continuing the work that you're doing. Thank you, Vice Chair, um, Donahue, for those questions. So we have, um, every year, we've created a logic model.
We've adjusted that logic model to meet the needs of our goals and our activities and our outputs, uh, with the support of our, um, Rossi team. Um, and this year, our goals were, I could-- I won't read them all, but I'll be happy to share the document with you. Um, is to create an environment that is welcoming, inclusive, and affirming, to give every student, family, and staff member a sense of belonging, to develop LCPS employees' capacity and skills to provide an equitable, culturally responsive environment. And third, and there are more, ensure equitable out-- opportunities and diverse representation in key
decision-making within a division. Some of our outputs are the number of meetings we have with our different invested parties, um, equity lead, attendance, data, uh-... professional learning attendance data, student equity ambassador attendance data, DEIA created tools and resources, and of course, our newsletters, and a number of work groups we participate in. Some of our short-term outcomes include, um, staff members gaining an understanding of the principles of, of equity, inclusion, and accessibility, community
members proactively engaging all family members and community members. And midterm outcomes, um, students from all backgrounds are growing and achieving at grade level, and all students are graduating, which is also a part of long-term. And as far as community members, all families feel welcome, included, and affirmed. And we tend to stay away from, in our logic model, long-terms, because we feel as though when time elapses, that's time where either harm can be caused if someone's not having the experience that we want them
to have in LCPS. So we focus on short-term and midterm goals, as opposed to beginning, middle, and end, taking a litmus to see, and that creates a longitudinal time in which things may not be happening for the best interest of a student or family. Thank you, Dr. Ellis Williams. You mentioned, uh, some of your metrics as participation in professional development and also in, in work groups and other things like that. Is that participation voluntary on the part of the people who are attending? At times, it's voluntary, like our equity walks are voluntary.
Principals ask for this. It's something that they, um, volunteer to participate in, and they recognize an area that they wanna examine. Other times, it is based on our student equity ambassadors. When they sign up, they're signing up to receive the training, receive the learning, and grow as leaders, and so that investment of time and energy is self-selected as well. Um, when we're working with our, um, colleagues from our other divisions and departments, it is usually needs-based. For example, our work with the instructional framework is something that's- it's
not voluntary. It's something that we're-- it's an initiative for the district and the division, and we are helping to facilitate the ways in which there are equitable lines of effort and practices embedded within this construct of that document. Thank you. And since you mentioned the, the student equity ambassadors, uh, how is, how is that program going? Do, do we have equity ambassadors in all of our schools? Are the numbers increasing? What's the interest out there? Yes. We have student equity ambassadors in all of our schools and,
um, pr- programs as well. Um, we-- our students are really working toward advocacy. They're advocating for things like prayer spaces and reflection spaces. Um, they work toward bringing awareness to their schools around issues such as, um, having voice on student advisory, um, daily recognition of students, so students talking about, like, they wanna hear more from their teachers when they're doing, um, things well. And they're also focused on collaboration, um, efforts with their school leaders, and designing and leading school
initiatives and campaigns, like, um, No Place for Hate campaigns, and, um, one high school's working on a Root Out Hate campaign. So our students are, um, bringing up the need for that, leading that, designing that, and really bringing that student voice and speaking to leaders about what-- how to really reach their peers, and how to run the initiatives in a way that will have the most impact. That's very exciting. I feel like it wasn't that long ago that we, we did not-- you- y'all did not have ambassadors yet in every school, so it's very exciting to hear that the, that the interest is increasing.
Uh, and that, I'm sorry, I distracted you, um, but my, my last question, Dr. Ellis Williams, had been: Does your team have the supports that you need to continue doing the work? Is there other support that you need from us? Thank you for the question. As I look over at my superintendent, I am quite sure that Dr. Spence will provide us with all necessary human capital that we need to expand our bandwidth for our division to be able to have a greater impact across the division. Right now, the score is nine to one hundred and five, and we'd like to
be able to move away from creating asynchronous professional learning and be able to have adaptive change over time and spend more time in schools over a lengthier period of time. But with our current structure, we spend a significant amount of our time reacting and working in the moment. So with more staffing, we will be able to accomplish that gradually as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you very much, Dr. Ellis Williams, and Mr. Muhammad, Ms. Lewis, and Ms.
Highfield. Ms. Ricardi? Thank you so much. Thank you for this presentation. I really appreciate it. So I'm just-- I'm looking at the DEI quick facts, um, sheet really quickly, and it looks like this last year, you guys had thirty-four equity walks, um, between the schools. Um, I guess my first question is, I'm assuming all the schools get information about how to request having the equity walks. Um, and thirty-four out of a hundred schools, I don't know, uh, how is that-- how does that compare to the year before? I guess, would be one question.
And then, um, you know, one of the things, and, and we've talked about this before, I'm just- I'm always looking for the data, the impact data, right? And there's a lot of really great information in here, kind of about the, the qualitative side of the programs that you all offer, but I'm really looking also for the quantitative data, um, the effectiveness of the training programs and things like that, because I just think that's a really important piece of information for us to have. So that's a couple different questions kind of thrown out there, but I'd love to get your feedback on that.
Thank you. Um, if I need you to reiterate one or two, I will ask you to do so. So first and foremost, as I stated earlier, um-... having the number of schools and the time that it takes to actually give the quality of an equity walk is a half-day endeavor. So we roughly start around seven fifteen in the morning, and it ends around noon. From there, we come back to the office and debrief, and that's just based on one school and a number of classrooms. We've currently visited a hundred and forty classrooms across the division. So when we look at it, when we look at it in that sense, we feel like we've been in
a lot of spaces and a lot of, um, different environments to be able to glean based on standard six of VDOE's, um, standard. Um, we wanna be able to get to more schools, but that requires the bandwidth. We are small and mighty, and it is a voluntary situation. We're not going into schools unless we have been asked to by leadership or if leadership has invited us into the school. So we just began to have this happening with a level of fidelity just this year. So this is basically baseline year.
Last year was the tweaking and us developing what that will look like and what it should entail based on the feedback we received from the brave leaders that actually invited us in last year. So we hope to grow the numbers. I know Dr. Spence and I have spoken about having a goal where we will reach a certain amount of each schools at each level, but at this juncture, we are invited in, so it's not something that's scheduled, um, without a discourse to say, "This is welcomed at this time, or we would like to do so at a later date." Your next question was in reference to
the quantifying and qualifying of the data. We have a logic model that I'll be happy to share with you that actually, um, demonstrates our inputs and our outputs, and it's both qualitative in nature and quantitative. We do rely on the data from our annual, um, stakeholder survey to be able to glean from the questions that are in within the construct of that document to see what the experience is for our students and our staff alike, so we're able to lean into that with the support of our RASI team. We also have our own trackers that
are in our division, as we would say, in-house, within the house, in which we are able to look at which schools we're going into, which types of, um, supports they require, whether we're going in a proactive stance, whether we're in a reactive stance, and we look at this data, and we work with the level directors and our leadership office to see where there are areas that may need to be, for lack of a better term, targeted supports, intentional supports, where resources provided by the regional cluster leads. Each member of my team, who's actually seated beside me and behind
me, all have a regional cluster and will be happy to share which of your clusters have had which interactions, um, and you will be able to see the types of work that's happening in your regional clusters, and we track that as well. Just, just a point of clarification, Ms. Ricardi. There have been seventeen completed, uh, I think we were adding up the elementary- Oh, yeah. - and the high school together with the numbers. So seventeen, actually nineteen as, uh, the end of this week for this school year. For this school year, okay. And we had some last year in the initial phase of the
implementation. Great, that's super helpful. Thanks for that clarification. Yeah. Um, uh, so I just-- I would kinda just say, I would love to, um, really see, like, more impact data. You know, and I, and part of that reason why is just from the bigger budgeting perspective, right? At some point in time, we're gonna have to really start justifying all of our programs and all of our services and, and really start looking at that at some point in time in the near couple of years as the budget starts leveling off. And so I, and I know you guys have been around for a couple of years now. I would love to start seeing, um, you know, this is kind of
the extension of the PMC work that I'm doing too, right? Like, really taking a look at the data and the impact data that you're having. So, um, you know, as somebody that runs training programs, um, for my clients all the time, it's-- I'm always asking them about feed-- getting feedback, and I would love to be able to see some of that feedback from the programs you're offering, um, just because I'm curious as to kinda what the feedback is and the impact, and so I'd love to see that at some point, um, as you guys move forward. But thank you so much for this. It's been really, really good information. Thanks. Dr. Rasheen? Thank you, Chair Chandler, and thank you for this amazing presentation.
You know, I'm so proud to work with the DEIA, uh, office as part of MSAC and, you know, all, all the work that you do to help, uh, with all the students and, you know, making such an impact across the division. I did have some questions, that being said, uh, if, I don't know who to ask, um, but what are some of the most impactful, um, or rewarding parts of your work? Not that you didn't mention it already, but if, if, if you have any more, that'd be great. Yeah, so, um, thank you for that question. I would say that, um, both equally impactful and rewarding
is the support that we provide for schools. Um, we've had over two hundred requests just this year, um, for, um, support in terms of, um, guidance, in terms of equity walks, um, equity, equity committee support, um, support for equity leads, and school data. Um, so it's equally, um, impactful because, um, the school is then, uh, receiving our guidance and our support, um, resources and professional learning, um, and
then turning it around to, um, make an impact for student achievement and also their experiences. Uh, we received an email just yesterday, uh, with a celebration on a belonging pep rally that Stonehill Middle, um, just, uh, um, planned and then im- implemented with their student equity ambassadors, and, um, it's really rewarding to, uh, receive those emails and see the impact of the work. And, um, just a follow-up question: If you could, um... Well, how does your division support student leaders, and what's been that
impact, or what, what has been the impact of that? ... Well, we supported our s- our student leaders, um, first of all, by providing them that space, because it's wonderful to see our kids get in community with like-minded students. As I said, it's really a passion for them. Uh, we provide a lot of training and learning around allyship, inclusivity, what it means, belonging and inclusion. We talk to them about how they can get involved with their school leaders, how they can, um, be a voice
for other students. Uh, we also support them in their leadership as a spectrum, because we have some students who are more outgoing and are doing, um, bigger things, such as campaigns with their schools, and some of our students are having one-on-one conversations, answering questions that parents might have. You know, what is a student equity ambassador? So we talk about that, um, spectrum of leadership. We bring in speakers to engage with our students, so they see how young people like themselves are out in the world and advocating for issues around DEIA.
And we also advocate for students to be a part of our school-based equity committees, um, that schools are working toward and really focusing on the issues within their own buildings, and having them have space, um, on those school-based committees to bring their voice and bring the voices of their peers into that room. And I promise one last question, and, and I think you answered part of it. If you could tell me more about your team's, um, community collaborations, if any more than what you mentioned. I'll be happy to share. Um,
not limited, but to include, um, our collaboration with the Loudoun County government, their office that mirrors our office. We do have a lot of collaborative opportunities. Um, the collabora-- the collective interfaith community, uh, we meet with to be able to support our families, uh, within the Loudoun County community. Um, community relation organizations that we collaborate with as well when there are, um, issues, concerns, and/or compliments. Um, we're happy to say that this year we did not have as many as previous years' situations or
circumstances that put us in a position of, um, having to move stealthily, make a change, because we actually have put in the work with our students, and we're cultivating environments in which we are diminishing on some of the incidents that might bring communities into our school d- with issues or concerns. The civil rights organizations, as well as local fraternities, so our, um, sorority organizations as well. Um, most recently, we helped support an endeavor, um, in which there was a free family shopping spree, in which
over two hundred families in Loudoun were able to come and shop for free. And there was actually, you can go from children's to household to just like being in a grocery store, and it was held at the Historic Douglass School, and members of our team, I, I, I ran the aisle for detergent. And so it was, it was something that was really rewarding because we're able to be in a space and not be in our current capacities, like we're the office of, but to be in a community and share time, space, and cultivate relationships that are necessary to continue to support this work and to inevitably support the
division. Mr. Svendsen? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Uh, thank you, Dr. Ellis Williams, and your team for the presentation and for all the work that you're doing. Um, I first wanna say thank you for empowering student voices in this work. I know, first, they're making a difference in their schools and their communities, but second, they're building skills and broadening their, their perspectives that they're gonna be able to bring into every facet of their life. So I think that's really, uh, meaningful work that you all are doing. Um, and my, my question was, uh, specific to the equity walks. Um, you had discussed the observational data that you all were taking in, and I
understand it may be situation-dependent in terms of the purpose of the equity walk, but could you give us an example of some of the observational data that you all are taking in? And, and maybe it's has to be a concrete example from a, um, a particular reason for the equity walk, but it might be helpful for, for us to understand a bit what you're looking for. Yeah. So thank you for that question. Um, as we kind of break down the performance standards, uh, we think about six point four, which is inclusive curriculum. Some of the data that we are observing is, uh, uh, how are students being, uh, represented in the curriculum or instruction that this-- that
they are being, um, provided by the teacher. Um, a lot of the, uh, als- also the data from teacher moves is how they are, uh, interacting with students or having students interact with each other to gain, um, different perspectives, um, through d- discourse and dialogue in the classroom. Also, the, the relevance or, uh, the availability of student work and authentic student work that really impacts, uh, not only the indic- the, uh, implication to the curriculum, but also giving a piece or a snapshot of their personal lived experiences.
Um, and then, uh, of course, how, uh, teachers are maintaining engagement, uh, within the instruction, um, providing visuals, um, doing equitable calling practices, uh, things of that nature in the cl- uh, that would, uh, align itself with a particular performance standard, such as inclusive curriculum. Um, as we get deeper into that is the evidence of the intentional planning, um, uh, to, um, em- empower or elevate the work that's going on, that students can bring their lived experiences and outside
experiences with their familial con-- um, information into the, into the learning environment, so that students can gain positive experiences learning about each other while they're learning the content and the standards, um, in the classroom. So that's, uh, one particular example. Thank you. That's very helpful. And, and when you all are able to provide feedback in the classroom about, you know, equitable calling practices or ability for students to engage with each other, have you been finding that those recommendations are, are taken in by, if it's in a, you know, classroom teacher,
and, and implemented? Um, and is there a, like, a follow-up process that you all have for, for making, making sure it's implemented or further discussing with the teacher, um, about those recommendations? ... Yes, so that last step of the equity wall process is ongoing. And so a lot of times, we are giving the school teams the opportunity and time to really think about what it is they want to, um, elevate in terms of instructional practices within the building. And sometimes it's not immediate, so we do follow up, um, over time and ask some- with the recommendations
that we've provided, what are some ways that we could collaborate and support you in the work in your next steps? Uh, we hope that to be a, uh, not just a one-shot, uh, situation, but over time, so that, uh, we are there to support the schools in their, uh, process of really improving or elevating s- their instructional strategies for all students. And, and really, how does that address some of these, um, outcomes or gaps, uh, that students are having? Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Mr. Pepper? Thank you, Madam Chair, and, and thank you, Dr. Osler and your team for the presentation. Uh, it was definitely informative. A couple things to begin with, um, first is I really am appreciative that your focus this year is on belonging. I think that, um... I, I know from research that when students feel they belong, they're more likely to attend school, they're more likely to be active in school. It improves attendance, it improves graduation rates, it improves basically all outcomes. Um, my question with that is, what data are you as a team taking on how the work you're doing on
belonging is successful, um, so that you can- you see where to tweak your work, I guess? So as I stated earlier, this year is a baseline year. We were swatting multiple, um, endeavors over the past two years, and this year, the intentionality of really taking a dive into data dialogues around belonging, talking to students, um, we value the soft data, the qualitative, as well as the quantitative data. And sometimes, the lived experience is not as, um,
respected as numbers, but when we're talking about human beings and the lives in which they're living, it's, in my opinion, the most important. Because if you can speak with a group of students and they're telling you: "This is what it feels like to attend my school. This is the ways in which our leadership team and our teachers help us understand that we belong, that our assets are welcome, that there's not a dominant culture that is literally creating the environment, and we have to figure out how we navigate it, but that we are all- all of our assets are included, and we are all a part
of what it is that makes school X or Y the school that it is." And so hearing from the students is so important to us. Having the students be in spaces with adults who can help enact that change is important to us. And as we all know, even as adults, sense of belonging is, is important because it's hard to function. Students, you know, tend to have more resilience, um, when it relates to certain aspects of the world, but this is very primal and very important in order for them to be able to grow in the environment in which they show up to every single day to attempt
to be the best version of themselves, and we don't take that lightly. And their words and experiences is something that we truly value. That's, that's excellent to know, um- Oh. Oh, no- I just wanted to add- Please continue. No, jump in. I just wanted to add because we love working with students, and we recently talked to students about what makes them feel a sense of belonging. And, um, overwhelmingly, what some themes that came up was respect for students, listening to students. Uh, students want to have clubs, activities, school spirit and school pride was important to them. Um, support for new students came
up, uh, uh, over again, and having trusted adults, someone that they can speak to. Uh, we also work with schools, and we help them go through their data and analyze their climate survey data from parents and students as a part of our work with schools and helping them to identify some areas of, of growth and to even celebrate, um, what they're doing well. Just add to that, um- No, sorry. Um, looking at that annual student, uh, survey data, um, with the schools and disaggregating it by the schools that we've been heavily supportive of this year, looking at some
of those questions that are equity focused, um, that we can really look at and do some comparative analysis to years past. As well as when we look at the learning environment, uh, we really wanna take a look at some of the schools that we've been supporting heavily with mitigating r****l s***s and h**e s****h, to see, uh, if reduction has occurred in that, in that endeavor. Uh, we do know that at- as of right now, we are around three hundred and six incidents for the school division. Uh, last year, at the end of the year, we had six hundred and fifty-four. Um, so we're just really looking at those as also
metrics to kinda look at impact as well. I, I appreciate that. You, um, all have mentioned trusted adults, which I think is very important. Are we still doing equity leads at the schools? We are. And, um, how's that going? We have a hundred and forty-two equity leads across all the schools. So some schools have, uh, co-leads, um, and it's going very well. And I, um, in terms of some information that, uh, Ms. Lewis shared, uh, those meetings with equity leads are invaluable, um, because really, they're working with the school
administration, um, to really look at the equity focus for that school and getting support from us in how we can support them in their efforts. Um, and those efforts, those focus range from a lot of different topics, um, but we wanna make sure that it is, uh, aligned to what the school needs. And so we're very proud of the fact that these, our equity leads are, uh, having, you know, uh, consistent equity committee meetings at the school, but also they're having the chance to meet with their school principal and administrators to really talk about the work that they're doing over the course of the year.
And so, uh, as a support to them, we look forward to having those open conversations with them on a consistent basis. ... That's excellent. Um, I'm gonna end kind of my line of questioning with two things. One, I'd love the opportunity to join you all for an equity walk. I'd love to see what's going on, um, just kind of at that micro level, 'cause it's super interesting to me, the kind of questions you're asking, the kind of things that you're seeing, um, how you've kind of tied it to the, the VDOE frameworks. Um, so that's, that's the other thing, and then the other piece of the puzzle is, would love to, you know, kinda talk through, and not
at the whole board focus, just the idea of how we mitigate slurs and h**e s****h, um, something that's, that's pretty important and near and dear to a lot of the things that I, I do and I believe in. So appreciate the work you guys are doing, and thank you for the presentation. Thank you. Ms. Neal? Hi. I just wanna say thank you for the presentation. I learned a lot. I know this is a little bit out of the ordinary for, like, a student to speak, but I guess from, like, a student's per- perspective, like, I don't hear a lot of this data from school, and I feel like I know a lot of people at my school who would, like, love to hear this type of thing, and, like, it would really
put into perspective for a lot of people. So what do you think that, like, I can do as, like, a normal student to, like, bring this awareness to, like, teachers to, like, just show us more of, like, the stuff that's going on, um, in your guys' program? Well, thank you, and it's not out of the ordinary. We love talking to students. I think that the first step would be to reach out to your equity lead at your school. Um, your principal and leadership team would be able to direct you, and they will be able to support you in bringing your concerns to leadership. And if there is a, um, equity school-based team already at your school, you can ask to come and speak or ask
questions, because each school, um, is expected to have an equity lead school-based team in which such questions, concerns, or excited, you know, thoughts can be brought to. Thank you so much. I am a part of the Black Student Union at Champ, so I'm definitely gonna bring that to, like, the attention to, like, bring more awareness, especially during advisory lists and stuff like that, 'cause I just know, like, s- especially at Champ, like, so many people would just, like, love to hear just, like, data like this to, like, um, bring more awareness. So thank you. And we'll make sure that Mr. Everett Callaway will reach out to your equity
lead. He's your regional cluster lead, and so he will support the lines of effort as well as any other member of our team in doing so. Great question. All right. Um, thank you so much for engaging in the conversation with us. I really appreciate your questions. Um, and thank you to the team for your presentation. I-- Before I let you, um, m- move on, and we'll move on to the next item, I just wanted to say I always try to center my own work in an awareness of who we serve here, and it really means a lot to me knowing that sixty-one percent of our students are
students of color, and that the work that you're doing really has a direct impact on making our school climate, um, more welcoming and, and ensuring that all students have the opportunity to be successful. So, um, I, I couldn't possibly come up with any more questions. I think our, um, team covered it today, but, um, thank you for your efforts. Thank you. All right. Um, next up, we have our final work, um, session item, four point O two, Department of Student
Services, Restraint and Seclusion Annual Report, presented tonight by Ms. Tedra Richardson, our Assistant Superintendent of the Department of Student Services. Good evening, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, members of the board, and Dr. Spence. Policy fifty-three forty-five serves as the compass for guiding our s- our practices in restraint and seclusion of students. By providing a framework that ensures consistency, fairness, and effectiveness in
decision-making and actions, it establishes clear guidelines, objectives, and boundaries within which LCPS operates. Moreover, policy fifty-three forty-five provides a mechanism for accountability and transparency. It also serves as a tool for continuous improvement, allowing for regular evaluation and adaptation of practices to better achieve desired outcomes.
I am joined this evening by our Director of Procedural Support, Mrs. Donna Smith, and I will hand it over to her at this time. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Um, I wanna start with talk, talking, uh, briefly about policy fifty-three forty-five. It was recently, um, revised in February of twenty twenty-five. There were a number of revisions to the policy, but I think the most significant revision was the prohibition of seclusion. So when you see the data, um, it will have some data regarding seclusion, but starting in February of twenty twenty-five, that was a prohibited practice at,
within Loudoun County Public Schools. Policy fifty-three forty-five, restraint and seclusion of students, serves to protect the rights and interests of stakeholders while promoting efficiency, equity, and progress. It is through the implementation of a thoughtful and inclusive policies that we can navigate complex challenges, uphold standards of excellence, and drive positive change in society. So the Department of Student Services promotes a multi-tier system of supports. That's sort of our first beginning of the measure. There's really a tiered sort of approach that we do with, um, supporting
students. Our first supportive measure is the multi-tiered system of supports. It promotes, um-... It's for all students through universal, targeted, and intensive interventions. These interventions include and are not limited to positive behavioral interventions and supports, PBIS, social and emotional support through the unified mental health teams, and individualized behavior plans. The MTSS framework provides the foundation that fosters safe and supportive learning environments for all students and staff, so that really is the foundation of our
work. With Policy fifty-three, uh, forty-five, there are a number of requirements, uh, as well as just in Loudoun County, we have a number of training requi-- annual training requirements, um, which is the s- second part of our support measure. So we have some annual trainings, it's for all-- they are for all students, because all, um, I'm sorry, all staff, because all of our employees have the responsibility for understanding and complying with the policies and regulations related to the appropriate response
to student behavior. Each school must have a team that includes members that are trained in the use of physical restraint and seclusion. The school-based team is compi- composed of administrative and instructional personnel, including staff, who, by reason of their training and job responsibilities, work with students who exhibit challenging behavior and have the potential to engage in dangerous conduct. I do wanna point out that we do continue to do training in seclusion, although it is prohibited, because we wanna make sure that our staff are aware of what seclusion is, um, in case there is some emergency
situation that, um, that occurs, that staff are under-- are aware of what is and is not appropriate. Um, when it talks to-- I wanna go back to where it talks about the teams of members trained. So that is called our Behavior Intervention Team. You can see on the previous, oh, it's on this current slide. Um, each school is responsible for having a Behavior Intervention Team. Um, and we also utilize the MANT system for training who care of crisis intervention and then VCU, and I'm gonna talk about those a little bit
more. Policy fifty-three forty-five for restraint and seclusion, we do specific training with MANT for special education teachers, teacher assistants, behavior assistants, um, special education deans, administrators, as well as any staff member in the s- on the school-based Behavior Intervention Team. It's, uh, self-paced. We have some self-paced modules. So there's-- first, there's just modules that they all complete, and that's the first layer of training. And then we go into the MANT system, which is more
involved for s- staff that are specifically working with students with disabilities, that require a high level of training, as well as our Behavior Intervention Teams. The MANT system has three levels of training. There's relational, technical, and supplemental. The relational training is a trauma-informed approach, um, to teach staff to really... It's about building positive relationships, understanding behavior, understanding your own behavior and your own responses to trauma and crisis situations, reading verbal and nonverbal communications of the students, managing your own
personal emotional responses to student behaviors, um, verbally de-escalating potentially aggressive situation, utilizing physical techniques and restraint to intervene and prevent inter, uh, imminen- imminent danger or serious physical harm of, um, self or others. The re-- technical and supplemental MANT is only training provided to staff who really are, um, working directly with students who are at risk of having significant behaviors that may require, uh, a crisis intervention, um, as
well as the Behavior Intervention Team. We also provide that training to bus drivers and bus assistants as it applies to what is safe to do on a bus. Um, this school year, we actually transitioned to something called MANT three point oh, which is the newest version of MANT. Um, one of the big differences between the two, between MANT two point oh and three point oh, is they replaced the language of restraint with holds, so they're not called restraints in the training, it's called holds. Um, and they added, added a couple of additional holds.
But when we do our trainings, we t- do talk about how it is considered a restraint for our data reporting. We also use UCARI, which is a crisis management system that is also trauma-informed, to resolve conflict, um, as well as physical techniques. It is with the use of cushioned blocking pads, so it really does take a little bit, um, take away from that physical interaction. It's more of a protective barrier to protect everyone, um, and keep this, uh, the environment safe. Select employees, also very similar to the UCARI-- to the MANT technical and
relat-- and supplemental, utilize the UCARI training, um, so it's also our BIT team members. And then on the bus, some of the pads are too big, but we do provide training as needed for specific pads that would be safe to use on a bus, and that training is provided by Office of Special Education. MANT, uh, faculty members provide that training. In addition, the Virginia Commonwealth University Autism Center of Excellence, it's safety for all autism training for transportation staff. It's something that was developed by VCU ACE, and we utilize that to
do bus training on an annual basis. Another, um, requirement for us is really some documentation of restraint and seclusion. We have restraint and seclusion incident reports that are, um, there's a form that is completed as part of fifty-three-- policy fifty-three forty-five. It captures information described within the regulation. Administrators and designees fill out that as immediately upon, um, being involved, there being an incident in their building. Um, and then that is also, those
incidents are part of the student record and are provided to the parent within twenty-four hours....parents are notified. Um, I'm sorry. Now we're gonna do some working definitions of the restraints. Um, so the first type of, um, intervention is mechanical restraints, um, and that is the use of any material device or equipment that restricts a student's freedom of movement. That doesn't include devices implemented by trained school personnel or utilized by a student that have been prescribed by an appropriate medical
or related services professional, and are used with parental consent, and are for the specific and approved purposes which the devices are designed. And I'll give an example of, uh, something that wouldn't be a mechanical device. Maybe a student that's using a gait trainer, and gait trainers have belts that keep them strapped in so that they are able to use their gait trainer. That's an approved device. It's a medically, um, prescribed device, so that would not be considered a physical restraint. Or if a student is in a stroller or a, um, car seat, and you've got the five-point
harness, or the straps that go in a stroller for moving a student, transporting a student, that would not be considered a mechanical restraint for those specific purposes. Seclusion, again, I- as I, um, I said, is prohibited in, um, a prohibited practice in Loudoun. Um, that is-- I skipped physical restraint. I'm sorry. Physical restraint is a personal restriction that immobilizes or reduces the ability of a student to move freely. Physical restraints are only allowed to be used as a last resort in an
emergency situation when any other-- when all other interventions would be ineffective. Um, it is only to be used to prevent a student from seriously harming or injuring themselves or others, to quell a disturbance or remove a student from a disturbance in which a student's behavior threatens serious physical harm or injury to students, uh, defend self or others from serious physical harm or injury, uh, obtain possession of weapons, um, or, um, dangerous objects. Restraints must be discontinued as soon as a danger is no longer
evident, um, and may only be-- may not be used, um, for, like, destruction of physical property, and the div-- unless they are using that property like a desk or a chair as a danger to someone else. Restraints may never be used to punish or discipline, a means of coercion or retaliation, a convenience, or for any other reason other than those that are, uh, allowed in the regulation. And then seclusion, although prohibited, the definition of that is, uh, involuntary confinement of a student alone in a room
from which they are physically presented from leaving the room. Um, and it should only be used, um, when there is, uh, imminent danger of self or others, and should be stopped as soon as that is no longer a concern. So I'm gonna go over the data for Loudoun County Public Schools for restraint and seclusion. Um, first and foremost, children's safety is the most important for us as a division, so their well-being and dignity are paramount in the educational environment. As educatior-- educators and stakeholders in the education
system, it's our duty to ensure that every student feels safe, respected, supported, and thrive academically and emotionally. The following slides capture the last three years of restraint and seclusion data for Loudoun County Public Schools. You will see the number of incidents of restraint and seclusion and mechanical restraint. Um, it is broken up for students with disabilities, students without disabilities, and students who have a Five Oh Four accommodation plan only, 'cause we do have some students that have both-- who are both special education and have a Five Oh Four.
Those students are reported as students with disabilities under IDEA, under the IEP section. It's important to note that the incidents report, reported are not reflected of the number of students, and some students have multiple incidents in the educational setting, and there is a slide that has that, um, also in the presentation, which I found errors in just a while ago, and so I've got them corrected on my sheet, and I will make sure it's corrected for you all as well. So this first slide is the number of instances of physical restraint in Loudoun County, um, locations. I think important
you will see in this, there-- these are our comprehensive schools. We also have slides at the end that are for students who are in private day and residential settings, because we report those differently, uh, separately to the state. So for last school year, this is the twenty-four, twenty-five school, school year data. Um, there were-- there was one instance of physical restraint for a student without a disability, seven incidences of students with a disability, um, under IDEA with an IEP, and then none with students on a Five Oh Four
plan. So that's the number of incidents. We had a total number of eight incidents last year in our comprehensive schools for restraint. For seclusion, we also had eight incidents of seclusion, um, and those were all eight were with a student, um, with a disability under IDEA. Of note, I think it's important to note that the policy change was February of twenty twenty-five, and there were two incidents of seclusion after the policy change. And what my office does when that occurs is we meet with the staff, we do
an overview of exactly what happened, review the situation, um, and then we do retraining if retraining is needed. Um, and both of those incidents, there was actually a significant risk to staff at the time, that the judgment of the staff, they felt like they had exceeded all other options available and, um, needed to remove themselves from the situation for safety purposes. But there were two at the end of last year. For mechanical restraint, we had one incident of a mechanical restraint, and it was with a student with a disability.
I think what's important to note with this mechanical restraint-... is we are required to report a mechanical restraint anytime law enforcement uses handcuffs on our school property on a student if charges are not filed. And in this particular situation, law enforcement used handcuffs on a student due to a s- crisis situation, um, but the student was not charged, so we have to report it as a division, um, as a mechanical restraint. And that was that one incident for Loudoun
County. This next page is the page that had the clerical error. Um, it had the number of instances instead of the number of students, so I will correct it. So you can see our three-year trends, and we really are doing a nice job continu- continuing to reduce the number of instances. Um, for the school year twenty-four, twenty-five, it's broken up for older than age nine, and then nine and under. That was a focus point for the previous, um, policy. So for the
number of, um, physical restraints, there were a total of eight restraints. Of the eight restraints, two of those students were students older than nine, three of them were under the age of nine, or nine and under. So it was five students with a total of eight incidents, if that makes sense. Okay? For mechanical restraint, it was a student older than the age of nine. And then for seclusion, um, there were eight incidences of seclusion, but two of-- it was two
students older than nine and five students nine and under, so seven students with eight incidences of seclusion. So this next section, I'm gonna review the data for restraint and seclusion for students in private day and residential settings. Um, these students, the majority of our students, are supported through the Children's Services Act, which was a law enacted in nineteen ninety-three that establishes a single state pool of funds to support services for eligible youth and their families.
State funds, combined with local community funds, are managed by local interagency teams who plan and oversee services to youth. The core values for the Children's Services Act are: support a system of care, child-centered and family-focused, provide a continuum of care, integrate services across agencies, foster collaboration, fiscal accountability, inclusive excellence. The CSA process in Loudoun County is ad- administered through county-operated units.
The local CSA unit is based within the Department of Family Services, or DFS. Services are typically funded by Loudoun County CSA, um, t- services that are typically funded by Loudoun County CSA are for behavioral, emotional difficulties, and can include community-based, residential, and special education services. CSA policy is set by our local Community Policy and Management Team, CPMT, which is made of appointed members from the community and local government. DFS, which includes Foster Care, Child Protective Services, and Juvenile Court Unit,
Juvenile Court Services Unit, is a member of the CPMT. Other CPMT member agencies include Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun County Department of Mental Health, Substance Abuse, and Developmental Services. Educational placements for students with disabilities and private day placements are one of the final contin- considerations along a continuum of special education services, um, spe- special education and related services, um, which ranges from the general education classroom and with inclusion to residential placements. As of June of twenty twenty-five, at the end
of last school year, we had forty-three students in pr, um, private day placements and eleven students in residential placements. That number does fluctuate throughout the year, but it's pretty consistently right about that range. Again, I wanna, um, point out that there's actually a separate set of regulations that the private day and regi, uh, residential schools have to follow through the Virginia Department of Education. So they don't follow Loudoun County policy; they follow the state regulation. For the twenty-four, twenty-five school
year, in our private day and residential placements, we had nineteen incidents of physical restraints. Um, let me go to the next one. For mechan-- there were no incidences of mechanical restraints in the private day and residential setting. And there were ten incidences of seclusion. All of these were with students with disabilities, 'cause these are all placements of students with disabilities. Um, and then this next slide is where I had another, um, where it had the number of incidents instead of the number of students, so I have that corrected.
So for physical restraints, there were nineteen incidences total. Nine of those were children, of children who were older than age of nine, and then there was one student who was under the age of nine. Um, there were no mechanical restraints. And then for seclusion, it was one student who had been secluded ten times. Um, and then our last slide, we are really just do a breakdown of, um, a number of the school divisions that we often
are looking at data in comparison as we are continuing to grow and improve as a division. And if you, um... This is actually coming from the VDOE reporting website for restraint and seclusion. So for Loudoun County, for the number of restraint, number of students restrained, our number is one of the lowest of any of the school divisions reported, as well as our number of restraints.... seclusions, um, for us, um, is lower than some. Some have zero because there were school divisions that already had seclusion being prohibited in their school division.
Um, and some of the school divisions are a little bit smaller. I will say if you were-- if you look to compare the VDOE report to at what we reported, it's gonna look a little bit different because on the state reporting, they combine physical restraint and mechanical restraint to be the same thing. So where we have eight and one, there's just gonna say nine, and that is why there's that difference. They put mechanical and physical together under physical restraint. I do, um, wanna do a shout-out to the teams who are doing our trainings for Mant and
Ukaru. That responsibility's moved to my office this school year, and there are some remarkable, caring members of our team, um, that do this training every day, and they are very passionate about it and focused on the trauma-informed part and the dignity for the students and the care of the students, as well as the care and the toll that this takes on our staff as well. So I would be remiss without a shout-out to those instructors that we have across the division. Um, we also have school-based instructors, but they are doing a remarkable job, and our numbers do tend to appear to
continue to go down, um, for restraints. Anybody has any questions? Thank you so much for the report, and I will say I've heard directly from teachers in my district who really appreciate the training, the additional training in, from Ukaru and, uh, Mant, and that's making a big impact. Um, board members, do you have any questions? Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Richardson and Ms. Smith, for the presentation. Um, I, uh, as you
all know, I have an avid interest in this topic because of the work that we have done in this area on student services over the last couple of years. Um, I was surprised to see that the number of seclusion incidents increased so dramatically from the last couple of years. Uh, dramatically in that there were only two or three, you know, previously, and then this year there were-- or this past year, there were, there were eight. Um, I had written down some questions that I was going to ask about those numbers, but Ms. Smith, you actually addressed them in the course of your presentation.
So, um, I, I was going to ask if there's any information that you can tell us about the, the instances with students age nine and under, uh, for any of them, for the restraint or the seclusion instances with those younger kids. Are you able to tell us, like, what was the youngest age of any of the students that fall into those categories? I don't have that information with me. Um, we were-- we've historically reported nine and under,
um, just, this is how we reported, but I don't have the specific information with me. I can get that-- I can, I'll get back with you with that, but I don't have that with me. Thank you. I was, I was just wondering, and it's not really a question, I guess, but I, I will use this as an opportunity to plug the policy that we were working on in student services- Mm-hmm. - uh, at the end of last year, fifty-three forty, because as our, our newest board members might not be aware, um, the definition of seclusion, uh, as specific as it is, in that it pertains to a child who is left entirely
alone. My memory from when we were working together previously was, for example, if a child was in a room and there is a staff person on the threshold doorway of the room, that does not count as seclusion. Is that correct? That's correct. Okay. That's correct. So it does not count as seclusion, which means right now, we do not have any requirements or methods for tracking those instances or reporting them to parents and families. Um, not that, not that I'm saying that we're-- that any of y'all are doing anything wrong,
but I think it would be good to put systems in place to track and report those instances that do not rise to the level of seclusion. So, um, I'm-- it's not, it's not up to me anymore with student services, but I encourage my friends and colleagues who are on the committee now to, um, to continue working on that, on that issue. Thank you for everything that you do for our students. Board members, any other-- Oh, Mr. Svinson. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, I just had a couple questions. Um, so it looks like, and, and correct me if I'm, I'm reading the numbers wrong,
but we had, uh, five students that were, uh, secluded, but there were eight instances of seclusion. Is that right? That is right. And so, um, if a student is secluded a second time, I guess I'm wondering, what are-- what happens after a seclusion, uh, has occurred to ensure that this doesn't happen again? As it seems, it did happen again to certain students. Um, and just kind of curious about what the practices are, um, following that. Yeah, so actually there were eight incidences of seclusion this school, um, last
school year- Mm ... um, with, um, a total of seven students experiencing it. So for, um, per policy, if a student experiences a restraint or seclusion more than once in a, the school year, the IEP team needs to convene to review the incidences to determine if there needs to be an amendment to the IEP, if an, uh, functional behavioral assessment or a behavioral intervention plan is necessary to support the student. Um, s-- and if it's not a student with a disability, school teams are still
required to meet to discuss the incidents to determine whether there needs to be some type of intervention or support for the student. So that is an ongoing part of the process. As well as if a student with a disability experiences a restraint or seclusion more than once, the IEP team needs to convene. It needs to be documented in the IEP that the student presents data, that presents behavior that may result in the need for that level of a crisis intervention. It's documented in the IEP, discussed with the parent, so it's all part of
that, um, discussion. ... Thank you. That's helpful. Um, and then on the, um, the student that was handcuffed, I see the mechanical restraint is in the older than age nine category, but could you share a little bit more information about the age or grade level of that student? Um, and also, I, I guess the-- I presume that the person... So, a-and can you just give a little more context on that? I may have some follow-up questions based on that.
So, um, I can tell you that it was a secondary student. Um, the specifics of the incident, I really be-- due to confidentiality, it being we only had one in the division, it really would be not information we could really talk about. And I can tell you in this moment, I don't remember because it was last school year, um, but I can tell you it was a secondary student, um, and it was law enforcement intervention. It wasn't our school safety off-- security officer, it was actually, uh, law enforcement that, um, was involved. And when you say law enforcement, was that the SRO, or is that, uh... Okay, it was the SRO?
Yes, sir. Um, and do our SROs receive, um, training akin to MANT or Ukuru or other training in terms of, um, dealing with a situation like this? Um, we have offered, but they are-- they do not all, um, participate. Um, a-and I know you don't have these numbers in front of you, but it would be helpful to have a, a breakdown in the number of SROs who participate in the training versus don't, uh, participate in the training. Thank you. And I, I have to say that it is discouraging to hear
that training would be offered for folks working in our schools, and they would not take the opportunity to participate in that training. Um, so thank you. Thank you. All right. Board members, uh, we will recess this meeting for dinner and reconvene at six thirty. The board is now in recess. Good
evening. The board is coming out of recess at this time. Um, we are gonna do something just a little bit out of order tonight. Um, thank you guys for your patience. Um, I have been notified that Mrs. Chernov would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Um, Ms. Chernov, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter. Hello, everyone. Hello, Chair Chandler. Um, this is a personal matter. I am away. I'm out of town. Um, I am alone in a conference room at the
hotel I'm staying at, and I think I already said it's a personal matter. Um, thank you so much, um, for offering, for offering us your location as well, Ms. Chernov. Um, given this is a personal exemption, and I believe this is your first one, um, for the-- this year, um, therefore, I will entertain a motion that Ms. Chernov's request to participate remotely be granted. Uh, Madam Chair, I move to, uh... I move for the board to approve Ms. Chernov's remote participation. Um, Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion to approve,
um, Ms. Chernov's remote participation. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you. Um, the motion was made by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Ms. Ricardi. Let's see. Um, with that, um, Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. All right. Um, Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all seven school board members present. Uh, welcome to the meeting, Ms. Chernov. Thank you. And with that, we will continue on with item number eight, which is the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem.
Tonight, the Rock Ridge High School Chorus will be our pledge leader and national anthem performers. Representing Rock Ridge High School, this talented group of singers, ranging from grades ten to twelve, has a palpable passion for singing. Members of Rock Ridge Sings have proudly represented Loudoun County Public Schools through performances for the US Department of Education, the Virginia Music Education Association Conference, and on the Millennium Stage at the Kennedy Center as part of the Music in Our Schools Month celebration. The singers are routinely selected for
district, state, regional, and national honor choirs, as well as the Virginia Governor's School for the Visual and Performing Arts. This evening, the performance of the national anthem will be directed by former choral director and current performing arts specialist, Mr. Jordan Mar-- or Jordan Markwood. Um, welcome, and thank you for being here tonight, and everyone, please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. ... States of America, and to the Republic
for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. O say, can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hail'd at the twilight's last gleaming? Whose broad stripes and
bright stars through the perilous fight, O'er the ramparts we watch'd were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. O
say, does that star- ... Land of the free, and the home of the brave! Thank you. That was wonderful. All right. Next up, we'll move on to item eight point o one, um,
our recognitions. Uh, tonight, we are having a signing ceremony, um, to acknowledge the collective bargaining agreements for the certified employees and the non-certified employees' bargaining units presented tonight by Miss Lisa Bolen, our Chief Human Rights Officer. Good evening. Tonight marks a historical milestone for Loudoun County Public Schools. We gather to formally sign two collective bargaining agreements, and to recognize the dedication, professionalism, and shared
commitment that made this moment possible. Over many months, representatives from both Loudoun County Public Schools and the Loudoun Education Association engaged in thoughtful and rigorous negotiations. These agreements reflect meaningful progress in compensation, including step advancements and multi-year cost of living increases, that support the talented professionals who serve our students each and every day. Reaching agreement on the division's first collective
bargaining agreements required individuals on both sides of the table to approach their responsibilities with seriousness of purpose and a shared commitment to students, staff, and community. This evening, we will sign each agreement separately. We will begin with the Non-Certified Employees Bargaining Unit Agreement. For purposes of this agreement, a non-certified employee means an employee who is not requi-quired to hold a professional license. This includes valued
members of our workforce, such as paraprofessionals, administrative assistants, custodians, bus drivers, school security officers, and many others who ensure our schools operate safely and effectively every day. I would like to recognize the members of the Non-Certified Employees Bargaining teams. Representing LEA, Chris Countryman, President; Chief Negotiator, Mary Hayes, School Security Officer at Potomac Falls High School; Andrea Herzfeld, Administrative Assistant at Harper
Park Middle School; Jordan Mante, Digital Experience Specialist at Belmont Ridge Middle School; Clayton Thomas, bus driver, and serving as alternates, Karen Terrell and Karen Colantonio. Representing Loudoun County Public Schools, myself, Lisa Bolen, Chief Human Resources Officer; Chief Negotiator, Cliff Dozier, Director of Workplace and Labor Relations; Kevin Lewis, Chief Operations Officer; Don Treanor, Executive Director of
Facilities; Kimberly Jones, Supervisor of Special Education. Additionally, both teams were supported throughout this process by Cambria Chris, Administrative Assistant of Workplace and Labor Relations, who worked behind the scenes, helping ensure the coordination and logistics that made these negotiations possible. On behalf of the school board and the entire division, we would like to extend our sincere appreciation for your dedication, professionalism, and continued
service to Loudoun County Public Schools. At this time, I would like to invite the following individuals to come forward for the ceremonial signing of the Non-Certified Employees Collective Bargaining Agreement: Chair April Chandler, Vice Chair Anne Donahue, Superintendent Dr. Erin Spence, Chief Negotiator Cliff Dozier, Loudoun Education Association President Chris Countryman, and Chief Negotiator Mary Hayes. ... I would now like to invite the members of the Non-Certified Employees
bargaining teams to join us at the front, front for a commemorative photo. We will now turn to the Certified Employees Bargaining Unit Agreement. A certified employee means an employee who is required to hold a state-issued professional license from the Virginia Board of Education or the Virginia Board of Health in order to be employed in their current LCPS position. This includes both full-time and part-time permanent employees, such as teachers, counselors, psychologists, and other licensed professionals who provide direct
instructional and student support services. I would like to recognize the members of the Certified Employees bargaining teams. Representing LEA, Chris Countryman, President; Chief Negotiators, Charles Hansen, math teacher at North Star School, and Christopher Kunkes, math teacher at Independence High School; Corey Brunet, EL teacher at Broad Run High School, Erin Crumbliss, science teacher at Freedom High School, Suzanne Kuckler, music teacher at Harper Park Middle School, and serving as alternates, Daryl Dawson and
Michelle Barnett. Representing LCPS, Lisa Bolen, Chief Human Resources Officer, Chief Negotiator, Cliff Dozier, Director of Workplace and Labor Relations, Kevin Tyson, Executive Principal, Secondary, Elaine Lehman, Director of Elementary and Charter Schools, and Nykia Purnell, Assistant Director of Special Education, with alternatives, Ray Mitchell, Chief of Schools, and Sheryl, Sharon Willoughby, Chief Financial Officer. On behalf of the school board and the entire division, we again
extend our sincere appreciation for your dedication, professionalism, and continued service. At this time, I would like to invite the following individuals to come forward for the ceremonial signing of the Certified Employee Collective Bargaining Agreement: Chair April Chandler, Vice Chair Anne Donahue, Superintendent Dr. Erin Spence, Chief Negotiator Cliff Dozier, Loudoun Education Association President Chris Countryman, and Chief Negotiators Charles Hansen, Christopher Kunkes,
and Cliff Dozier. And again, I would like to now invite the members of the Certified Employee Bargaining teams to join us at the front for a commemorative photo. Tonight
marks a historic step forward for Loudoun County Public Schools, and we celebrate not only the signing of these agreements, but the spirit of collaboration and professionalism that made them possible. That same spirit will continue to guide our work in service to our students, our colleagues, and the Loudoun County community. Thank you, and congratulations to all who contributed to this milestone. Thank you so much. On behalf of the school board, I'd like to thank each one of the team members who really worked together and came to the table to make this
possible. It is an, a historic occasion for, um, our school board and LCPS. Um, now, I believe I have also been informed that Mrs. Griffiths has joined the meeting. Um, with that... Um, I have been notified that Mrs. Griffiths would like to remotely participate in tonight's school board meeting. Mrs.
Griffiths, please state your location and whether this is a medical or personal matter. I am in my home, and it's a medical matter. Thank you, Mrs. Griffiths. Um, is anyone present at this location with you? Yes, um, my family's here, but I am in an office away from them. Thank you. Um, therefore, I will entertain a motion that Mrs. Griffiths' request to participate remotely be granted. Madam Chair, I move that the school board, uh, approves Mrs. Griffiths' request to participate remotely.
Thank you. I'll second. Uh, Ms. Ricardi? I'll second. Thank you. All right, it has been properly moved by, uh, Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Ms. Ricardi. Therefore, uh, Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Um, Ms. Chernov, please state your vote. Yes. Thank you. Um, Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes with all eight school board members present for the meeting voting yes. Welcome to the meeting, Mrs. Griffiths.
Thank you. All right. Um, we will continue on now with our student school board representative comments. Um, tonight, our student school board representative is Delaney Neal, a student at John Champ High School. Delaney is a dedicated student and the twenty twenty-five/twenty twenty-six student council president. She is deeply passionate about leadership, advocacy, and contributing to something larger than herself. Her commitment to service is evident in her roles as the historian for the Human Trafficking Awareness Club, a
Morgan's Message ambassador, promoting mental health awareness and athletics, and a member of the Red Cross Club. Athletics plays a significant role in Delaney's life. She has been a varsity lacrosse player for three years, serving as team captain for one season. Her athletic experience extends across multiple spor- sports, including varsity field hockey, varsity basketball for two seasons, and one year as the manager for the gymnastics team. Whatever the field, uh, whether on the field, in the classroom, or through her involvement in various
service initiatives, Delaney consistently seeks opportunities to make a meaningful impact in her school and community. Welcome, Delaney. The floor is yours. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Chandler, Dr. Spence, and members of the school board. My name is Delaney Neal, and I'm the SCA president of John Champ High School. It is truly a privilege to stand before you tonight as the student representative for Champ. Serving in this role has given me a deeper appreciation for what makes our community so strong: our willingness to grow, to lead, and to create opportunities for every student to
succeed. This year at Champ has been defined by opportunity and excellence. Academically, our students continue to rise to high expectations. We are proud to recognize three National Merit semifinalists and twenty-two National Merit commended students, and we maintain a sixty-six percent AP participation rate, reflecting a culture where students challenge themselves. We expanded our curriculum with eight new courses, giving students more pathways to explore their interests and future careers. Student involvement is stronger than ever. We ne- we started twelve new clubs, bringing our total to eighty-six student
organizations, including Baking Club, Pickleball Club, and an IT Certification Club. We also re-established our National History Honor Society, strengthening opportunities for academic enrichment. In world languages, six students are applying to the Governor's World Language Academies in French, German, Latin, and Spanish, and several students qualified for the Seal of Biliteracy, celebrating both achievement and diversity within our community. In STEM, our Cyber Patriot team placed first and second overall in the Virg- in Virginia, an extraordinary accomplishment that highlights the strength of our
cybersecurity program. Leadership development continues to thrive. Our student council association will be attending the state conference for the second consecutive year through the Virginia Student Council's Association, strengthening collaboration and leadership across the Commonwealth. Additionally, two students were selected to attend the Hugh O'Brien Leadership Conference at James Madison University. What truly sets Champ apart, however, is our commitment to inclusion. This year, our United Sound, Unified PE, and Unified Theater programs continue to thrive.
United Sound pairs students with disabilities alongside peer mentors in our band program, creating meaningful music experiences and lasting friendships. Unified PE brings students of all abilities together in a shared physical education environment, promoting wellness, teamwork, and mutual respect. Unified Theater provides inclusive performing art space, where students collaborate on productions and put a true spotlight on ability. These programs reflect our belief every student deserves to be seen, heard, and valued. We have also seen positive results from
the cell phone policy. Classrooms feel more focused, engagement has improved, and students are more present in both their learning and in their relationships.... As I look back on this year, I see more than statistics and accomplishments, I see growth. I see students stepping into their leadership, supporting one another, and taking their pride in their school. Champ continues to be a place where students are empowered to explore their passions, challenge themselves, and contribute meaningfully to their community. Thank you for your continued investment in our students, and for ensuring that student voice remains part of these important conversations.
Representing John Champ has been one of the greatest honors of my high school journey, and I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve. Thank you. Thank you, Delaney, for being here and sharing your experience with us. Um, we are so honored to be able to hear your voice and reflect on your experiences at, um, John Champ. So thank you. Um, with that, we'll move on now to the superintendent's report, um, presented by Dr. Aaron Spence. Thank you, Madam Chair, and members of the board.
It's always my pleasure to share some good news from around our school division. Starting with February, being School Board Appreciation Month, I'd like to take a moment to thank our school board members for your dedication to our LCPS community and to our students. The work that our school board engages in has a vital impact on our students, on our schools, and on our entire community, and your actions and decisions ensure that LCPS students have access to a high-quality education. So thank you for all that you do and for your dedication. Please join me in a round of applause for our school
board. Now, on the screen there, you can see, as a special thanks, second grade students from Moorefield Station have created ceramic flowers as a thank you for your work, and each of our board members has been given a flower to take with them this evening. Next, congratulations to Guilford, Sugar Land, Sully, and Sterling Elementary Schools on being designated as Virginia Community Schools by the Virginia Department of Education. This recognition follows a rigorous application and review process and is awarded to schools that prioritize meeting students'
needs, while strengthening family and community engagement, and supporting emotional and mental wellness, and fostering meaningful student motivation. Each school demonstrated strong alignment with the Virginia Community School model and a sustained commitment to high-quality implementation. Nearly sixty schools across thirteen school divisions earned this recognition statewide. Community school service hubs that bring together educators, families, and community partners to remove barriers and expand opportunities so our students can thrive academically and personally.
Last week, Potomac Elementary enjoyed its first-ever Kindness Fair. With support from Potomac Falls High School peer students, the Potomac students rotated through stations where they participated in hands-on activities, celebrating empathy, inclusion, and respect for one another. Students also explored coping strategies and participated in a dance party, where they learned that kindness grows stronger the more you use it. The event, which was coordinated by the school's counseling team, strengthened connections and reinforced Potomac's commitment to ensuring that every
student feels valued and included. The Division of Family and Community Engagement, the English Learner, Family and Community Engagement Office, McKinney-Vento Services, and the Loudoun Education Foundation recently participated in Ready to Respond: Strengthening Loudoun's Food Security Network, a countywide event that focused on food insecurity and a coordinated community response. This event was spearheaded by Loudoun Hunger Relief, in partnership with the Loudoun Education Foundation, and brought together
more than forty food pantries, meal programs, and community partners. The purpose of the gathering was to strengthen coordination across Loudoun's Food Security Network, build a shared understanding of community needs, and ensure consistent, clear communication to families about available food resources. Through cross-sector collaboration and dialogue, participants focused on aligning efforts and preparing for increased demand, with an emphasis on helping families know where to turn for support. LCPS's participation reinforced our division's role as a
key partner in countywide planning efforts, and ensured that our students' needs and their families' needs were represented in broader community responses and communication strategies related to food security. This weekend, United for Wellness, LCPS's eighth annual mental health and wellness conference and resource fair, was held at Heritage High School. Nearly six hundred LCPS families and community members participated in the event, which offered opportunities to learn about mental health and wellness strategies to support our students.
More than thirty sessions were offered, covering topics such as understanding ADHD, addressing childhood loneliness, and navigating the influence of AI, and many, many more. These sessions provided families with practical tools they can use right away, and in addition to the information sessions, more than one hundred exhibitors, including local businesses and LCPS offices, shared information about the services and supports they provide. Student volunteers helped welcome and guide visitors throughout the day, and the event was organized by the Office of Student Mental Health
Services, with support from the Department of Student Services and many other LCPS team members. Many thanks to all involved for what was truly a great event. And then finally, this evening, I would like to encourage our families, staff, and students to complete the annual survey, which opened on February nineteenth and closes on March the seventeenth. The data collected from this survey provides invaluable insights that directly inform school improvement plans and division-wide strategic decision-making for the twenty twenty-six-twenty seven school year and beyond.
By gathering direct feedback from our families, students, and staff, we gain a holistic view of the learning climate and the operational health of our schools.... Our goal, of course, is to ensure that every voice is reflected in the data as we work together to provide the best possible educational experience for our students. More details and resources can be found on our Stakeholder Surveys two thousand and twenty-six information page, accessible via the link that is shown right here on this slide. And Madam Chair, that concludes my report.
Thank you, Dr. Spence, for your report. Um, with that, we'll move on to item number eleven: Public Comment. Procedures for public comment. Thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments from the Loudoun County- from Loudoun County residents, and believes that strong community engagement and outreach are important components of a successful school system. Speakers must limit comments to the time allotted. Based on the number of speakers and the agenda this evening, all speakers have been allotted two minutes each for public comment.
Please be advised that speakers who miss their time slot will not be called at a later time. Decorum and civility. All audience members shall maintain civility, decorum, and respect for the functioning and dignity of the school board at all times. Please remain seated unless arriving, departing, speaking at the podium, or during a break. Violations of civility, decorum, and respect include: shouting, heckling, jeering, applause, or other noise which disrupts or delays the meeting; obstructing speakers from being able to see the school board and
vice versa; interrupting speakers; attempting to speak when not called to do so by the chair; and approaching a speaker or otherwise attempting to intimidate, disparage, or distract a speaker, staff member, or other meeting attendees. Speakers should refrain from vulgarity, obscenities, defamation, profanity, and other like breaches of respect, nor may speakers target, criticize, or attack individual students or, and/or individual division employees during public comment. As a reminder, School Board Policy twenty-five
twenty states: Speakers may not target, criticize, or attack individual students during public comment. Speakers should communicate those concerns to their school principal or an appropriate school official. The school board requests that comments on an individual student or employee-related matter not be shared at public meetings where the discl- closure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. I do want to make-- take a moment to clarify a few things. As has been explained previously, speakers can personally identify a
student or employee without a student's or an employee's names. That is, personally identifiable information is any information that a reasonable person can link together to pinpoint an individual student or employee, and where that individual student or employee is known to others in their school and surrounding community based on the context that is shared. The school board welcomes you to share your concerns, but asks to the extent that you have prepared remarks that target, criticize, or attack any individual students or employees, you generalize such remarks to
ensure compliance with the board policy. For example, comments that target, criticize, or attack a student or an employee, or a student or an employee from a specific name school, or a student or an employee with any characteristics, where the information would personally identify that student or employee to others in the school or broader LCPS community, would violate school board policy. However, comments that discuss general concerns with students or employees at
schools, do not target, criticize, or attack an individual. Identifiable student or employee are, are permissible. Under school board policy, I, as the school board chair, am charged with the responsibility to remai- to maintain order during the school board meetings. Accordingly, when reasonable, I will warn of breaches of decorum, civility, and respect, and ask speakers to redirect your comments prior to possibly discontinuing individual speaking privileges or taking other actions to preve- preserve the civility, decorum, and orderly conduct of the meeting.
Such actions include calling a recess in order to maintain or restore order. If speakers fail to comply with board policy regarding public participation, you will receive a warning and a request to redirect or generalize your comments. Should you fail to redirect or generalize your comments after that warning, you may be asked to yield the microphone, at which time you should yield the microphone as well as the floor, and take your seat. I will then call the next speaker. To the extent necessary, I will also warn of breaches of decorum,
civility, and respect from attendees prior to taking other actions to preserve the orderly conduct of the meeting. Speakers should face the dais and direct their comments to the school board. Per School Board Policy twenty-five twenty, members of the school board will not answer questions or respond directly to the public during the public comment period. Violations of decorum or civility by any meeting attendee may result in the chair directing staff to remove the attendee from the remainder of the meeting. Repeated or persistent violations of
decorum or civility by the a- audience may result in, on the decision of the chair, public comment being tabled until a later point in the meeting's agenda, limiting the number of attendees in the meeting room during public comment for safety reasons, or public comment period ending for the evening. Distribution of materials to school board members. Copies of materials for board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the board room before the start of the
meeting. Please provide twelve copies of materials. Under no circumstances may a speaker approach the dais.... The public is reminded that access to school board meetings is available through LCPS-TV on Comcast Channel eighteen and ten seventy HD, and Veri- Verizon Fios Channel forty-three. The live stream of the meeting may be viewed on the website. We look forward to hearing your comments. We will now start with our virtual public comment. Our first speaker is Chris Stevenson, followed by Meredith Ray.
Madam Chair, members of the school board, I am Chris Stevenson, LCPS parent. Six of our children have gone through elementary, middle, and high schools here. Our last is a senior at Loudoun Valley, a member of Civic Ground, a Loudoun-based group challenging the president's assaults on our children's education and their future. LCPS thankfully teaches that bullying is unacceptable and harms people. Unfortunately, the president is a bully who uses public shaming and ridicule against those with whom he
disagrees, verbally and emotionally abusing them, and dishonor- honoring and harming the office of president. For example, he called Colorado Governor Jared Polis a scumbag and said he should rot in hell. The president posted a video of the Obamas as apes. His Attorney General, Pam Bondi, responding to a question by Representative Jamie Raskin, said to him: "You don't tell me anything, you washed-up loser lawyer."
On behalf of LCPS students, including all of my children, will you please issue a statement asking the president, respectfully, to apologize for his bullying, especially to our children who are disoriented and damaged by this? Be brave and have courage. Thank you. Thank you. Meredith Ray, followed by Wayne Smith. Hello. Um, I am a parent of two LCPS
students, and I know that it was not actually that long ago that I spoke to the school board asking you to not increase the number of SROs in our schools, and I want to thank you for doing the right thing at that time. Unfortunately, the sheriff now thinks that he can just force this into practice without a request from the community or the schools or the school board, which is honestly just really weird. In addition, the sheriff went before the board of supervisors and had no answers to the following basic questions you would expect him to know as someone who wants to hire sixty-one new SROs. Those, uh, questions
included: What data do you have to show that an SRO in ele- every elementary school is best practice? What was the majority of the calls for? Do we have a breakdown of what they were for? How many students were arrested in prior years? He was also unaware that in the annual s- statewide school safety survey, which he cited in his own report about adding SROs to elementary schools, more SROs was something that almost no school staff surveyed said that they needed for their schools to improve safety. As far as the arrests go, according
to the sheriff, there was only one arrest from the SROs last year, so absolutely no one should be concerned about a school-to-prison pipeline. But then he admitted there were thirty-nine petitions. A petition is a formal written request to initial- initiate legal proceedings for a juvenile, and it's still legal charges and can still also lead to them being taken into custody. So really, the difference is just that legal proceedings against a minor or an adult gets arrested. Um, apparently, he forgot that he also provided prior year arrest
numbers in twenty twenty-four to the press. He told Loudoun Now that there were thirty-one arrests in the twenty twenty-three, twenty twenty-four school year, uh, twenty-two in twenty twenty-one, twenty twenty, and twenty twenty-two, twenty twenty-three. So we went from twenty-two to thirty-one to forty last- Thank you. Wayne Smith, followed by Michael Deville. Hello, my name is Wayne Smith, and I am a LCPS parent. Um, and, uh, I just wanna say that, you know, along with other speakers, that I oppose the increase of SROs in our elementary schools.
Uh, you know, children should feel safe when they come to school, knowing that, uh, the teachers and the staff are there to support them, not, uh, armed, you know, officers walking around the school. Uh, in addition, you know, uh, my son goes to, uh, Little River, and in Little River, they just spent, you know, a lot of money, and I'm sure other elementary schools as well, to increase the security at the entrances. Uh, and, uh, you know, so we haven't even had a chance for, for that expenditure to really take effect.
Um, you know, not only the infrastructure changes that were, um, that were, uh, made on the school's entrances, but also the contract security officers that-- who are there as well. So again, I think we've already spent enough resources to keep our children safe. In addition, that, you know, within a two minutes drive, we have sheriff's office and other schools, middle schools and high schools, that do have SROs in them as well. So, uh, again, I just wanted to voice my opinion that I oppose the increase of SROs in elementary schools.
Uh, and with that, I... That's my time. Thank you. Thank you. Our last virtual speaker will be Michael Deville. ... Good evening. My name is Mike DeVille. I'm a parent of two LCPS students who have attended elementary school here. I'm asking you to reject the proposal for adding SROs to our elementary schools. The plan presented is a poor use of resources with little promise of protection for our
students during an active shooter situation. Numerous school shootings in places like Parkland and Uvalde have demonstrated that there is no clear evidence that SROs prevent school shootings. Instead, police in schools are associated with negative outcomes for children of color and students with disabilities, creating trauma for students rather than preventing it. The evidence we do have points to the following ways that do prevent violence: threat assessment teams, more
mental health professionals, early intervention for students in crisis, safe firearm storage education, and common sense gun laws. The requested expenditure of eighteen million dollars a year can be better spent on evidence-based methods to protect our children. Board members, please use your vote to support proven methods to protect our children during an active shooter situation. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we will now continue with our in-person public comment.
Our first speaker is Erin Kunkel, followed by John Leto. Good evening. My name is Erin Kunkel, and I serve as the current chair of MSAC. I want to acknowledge the concerns about school and student safety that are very real and very deeply felt within our community. When our families speak about safety, they are speaking from love and honestly from a place of fear, and both deserve to be equally heard and very-- and taken very seriously. MSAC continues to be re--
remains committed to the work of equity that is being done in our schools and across our division, and we are asking that the school board, please take the time to listen to the parents and families within the division as they express their concerns, and to allow us to be a part of these conversations as they go forward. Thank you. Thank you. John Leto, followed by Carrie Kidwell. Thank you very much. I'd like to start by saying happy birthday, School Board Member Pepper.
Um, I'll also introduce my credentials. I'm an educational psychologist. I have a PhD from Yale, forty years of experience and over a hundred publications. I've lived in Loudoun County for thirty-three years, and over that time, I've worked with thousands of Loudoun County students, helping them with their educations. And while many are very bright, there are those students who sometimes get stuck. They don't get it, they walk away from school, and not sure, you know, this material, and they go home, and they don't know what to do.
Now, teachers have too many kids to address each child's individual learning needs, and a lot of families just can't afford to hire private tutors. So there's an equity kind of challenge, something that we touched upon earlier. For the past several years, I've been working on a self-assessment method that teaches students to identify what they know and what they don't know about a subject area. And what's really beautiful about this is it only takes ten minutes for a student to learn to do this, and they can self-assess very accurately, and
we've done this with second grade to college-level students. Many students are Loudoun County students. And what they do is they self-assess, they see where their knowledge gaps are, and then they go back and they remediate. They relearn the material, focusing on, "What didn't I get?" And this is so accurate that we have sixteen scientifically published papers that show that when students do this, on average, they improve their performance by one and a half to two and a half letter grades. We've done this in math, reading,
science, history, and foreign language. Um, I'm here today to offer my time free of charge to Loudoun County to implement a program here so that we can improve education outcomes for all. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Carrie Kidwell, followed by Donna Wica-- uh, Widowski. Good evening. I'm here tonight as a mom, an active volunteer with Moms Demand Action in Loudoun. We focus on gun violence prevention work. We educate the community on safe storage and suicide prevention. We distribute gun locks, advocate for common sense policies, and
more. As parents, we understand and we share the urgency the families feel, trying to keep our kids safe from harm. This is why we do this work. But policy decisions should be guided by evidence, not our fear. The Loudoun County Sheriff's Office has requested funding from the Board of Supervisors for school resource officers in the elementary schools. In a study funded through the US Department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice examined decades of school shootings and found that the presence of an armed officer did not reduce injuries. In that dataset, shootings where an armed officer was present were associated with
higher fatality rates. There is no clear evidence that SROs prevent school shootings. In addition, national data shows that students of color and students with disabilities are disciplined and referred to law enforcement at disproportionately higher rates. As we consider school safety initiatives, we must ensure we are not widening, widening existing disparities.... fortunately, research tells us what works. In schools, that can include prevention efforts such as controlled building access, threat assessment teams, mental health support, and nurturing communities. It also includes initiatives like the secure storage notification
the board passed unanimously last year. In the community, prevention includes implementing and enforcing safe storage of firearms in homes and vehicles, red flag laws, background checks, community mental health support, and more. Keeping firearms out of the hands of children and at-risk community members is critical. We all want safe schools and communities. I ask this board to advocate for evidence-based investments that strengthen prevention and student support, rather than expanding law enforcement presence in schools with our littlest learners. Thank you for your time and for your important work.
Thank you. Donna Widowski, followed by Lynn Davis. Good evening. My name is Donna Widowski, and I'm a former member of the United States Secret Service. In the event of an emergency inside an elementary school, you will need the training and skill of a sheriff's deputy, not an unarmed guard, as Superintendent Spence has recommended. Unarmed guards will have the same ability
as a citizen bystander to call the police when time is of the essence. A sheriff deputy, SRO, as part of the emergency response team, will have the ability to know who to call, whether you need fire and rescue, whether you have a medical emergency, and what kinds of steps will be taken to notify parents. Recently, in Spotsylvania County, an elementary-aged student brought a loaded gun into the classroom,
and it discharged. Luckily, no one was hurt. Superintendent Spence, I would agree with Sheriff Chapman in placing SROs in the elementary schools. Thank you. Thank you. Lynn Davis, followed by Jane Jackson. Good evening. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Every time there's a mass shooting, we hear the same lines: "This isn't about guns, it's mental health." If that's true, where is the funding? You can't claim mental health is a problem and
then vote against it. You can't say the answer is treatment while cutting the very systems that provide it. If we believe mental health is the center of this issue, then let's act like it. Let's invest in care, early intervention, and support families. But we have to be honest, mental health cannot be just about talking points after a tragedy. It has to be a commitment before it, because if we're not willing to fund the solution we're naming, then we're not serious about
solving the problem. The sheriff thinks adding SROs to elementary school is a solution to a problem that he can't even clearly defend the data for. The study has shown that educators list eleven other supports they need before they ask for armed police. So why don't we respect educators and give them what they need? The only tool in Chapman's arsenal are cops and guns. But sometimes a hammer
needs to realize that everything in their path is not a nail, and just because this is the only solution the sheriff can provide, it doesn't make it the right solution. I ask that if a vote ever comes before you, you will vote no and keep SROs out of our elementary schools. Thank you. Thank you. Jane Jackson, followed by Caitlin Lozinski. Hello. I wanna thank, uh, thank you for this opportunity to speak with you
tonight, and to thank you for all that you do to support our public schools. I didn't know we were celebrating the school board, but, um, I'm so happy to do so. Um, I've been attending school board meetings and school board committee meetings for the last, I think, four years. I've seen the extraordinary commitment by this school board and former school boards to do what is right for the students of Loudoun County. It is a lot of work. As a community member, a grandparent of three
kids who-- well, I-- two have graduated, um, one is, one is a junior. Um, I've been looking, you know, as I'm attending these meetings, I'm looking at the policies and procedures and seeing what you have to do just to prepare for these meetings and to get the work done, along with the superintendent and the staff and, and teachers. Um, it's a lot of work, but, and the compensation is, is I'm sure, not what you do it for. It is your public service, and
also, also I think it may be a l- b- labor of love. Um, I am looking forward tonight to listen- listening to the presentation the board receives as a summary of the safety and security measures currently in place in Loudoun County Public Schools elementary schools.... in order to better understand why the sheriff's office and the police, Leesburg Police Department are proposing to install police officers in more of our elementary schools, when the data continue to confirm the
disparities in, in discipline, wherein students of color and disabilities are statistically higher relative to their enrollment. We need to provide an equitable, an equitable environment for all students. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Caitlin Lozinski, followed by Ryan Hoover. Ryan Hoover, followed by Delegate Gary Higgins. Um, Delegate Gary Higgins?
Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the board. Uh, my name is Gary Higgins, and I have four grandsons in Loudoun County Public Schools. Um, I'm here to speak in favor of, uh, school resource officers in elementary schools as per Sheriff, uh, Sheriff Chapman's proposed four-year plan to phase them in. This is not a new proposal. It was actually made previously by Chair Randall in, uh, March of nineteen ninety-nine when I was on the board of supervisors. At that time, Chair Randall spoke of the
urgency of protecting our children, starting then and following the sheriff's rec- recommendations at that time. No action was taken. Came up again in twenty twenty-four in your own LCPS Blue Ribbon Panel report. Again, no action was taken. And here we are in twenty twenty-six, and the issue of school safety is all that much more pressing than it was seven or even two years ago. In life, we protect the things that are valuable or precious to us. We have security and protect our airports, shopping malls, sports stadiums, music and art venues, museums,
banks, armored cars, churches. We even protect our public servants like yourself in this building, the County Government Center, the General Assembly building, and the US Congress. Closer to home here at LCPS, we have SROs in our middle schools, high schools, football games, basketball games, and sporting events, and fine arts productions. I would ask you a question: What is more valuable or precious than our elementary school children? Nothing that I know of. Please get on board with Sheriff Chapman's SRO proposal. These are professional law enforcement officers.
We have been waiting since two thousand and nineteen. Let's not wait until we have a tragedy that could have been prevented. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Susan Cox, followed by Andrea Weiskopf. Hello. Consistency, safety, community building, SROs have that ability. An early experience a young child in public school may have is with the crossing guard. We rely on crossing guards who work under the sheriff's office for our child's safety. We want to foster community where
our children can trust law enforcement. SROs is the next step. We are privileged to live in a community where our sheriff has made it a priority to have outreach and well-trained personnel. Did you know that our very own Sheriff Chapman was named Sheriff of the Year by the National Sheriff's Association, which is one of the largest nonprofit associations of law enforcement, just a few years ago? Sheriff Chapman was also voted Best, Best Public Servant and Favorite Public Servant for many, many, many years in a row. Did you realize that he put out a comprehensive study on the value of a
sheriff's office over the police, um, office, and his outreach is top-notch? Are you aware that when Sheriff Chapman first took office, he made mental health training a priority for his deputies, and he established the Crisis Intervention Team training program? CIT is its abbreviation. It trains in mental health, de-escalation techniques, first aid, and revive. Revive is opioid reversal
training, and it is available to the public. DARE is another notable program under the sheriff's office, which stands for Drug Abuse Resistance Education. SROs are trained in CIT, active violent incidents, fair and impartial policing, uh, verbal de-escalation techniques, classroom instruction, internet safety, building, um, bullying prevention, alcohol and drug awareness, gang awareness, and personal safety. If the sheriff thinks it's a good idea to phase in SROs, I suggest we might
want to listen to him. Thank you. Thank you. Andrea Weiskopf will be our final speaker this evening. Perhaps the worst duty for middle school teachers is lunch duty. You stand in a loud cafeteria, watch kids dunk chicken nuggets and carrots in swimming pools of ketchup, clean up spilled chocolate milk with school paper towels, and help kids find their retainers in the trash. The only good part of lunch duty was getting to talk with the seventh grade counselor. But then she stopped talking and
narrowed her eyes. I followed her stare. She was looking at a child on the other side of the cafeteria. My colleague said, "That child hasn't eaten anything from her lunch today, and yesterday, she only ate carrots."... While I was complaining, the counselor was watching. And while I will never stop hating watching ketchup drip from celery sticks, my perspective changed. That perspective is what schools need. Schools don't need an armed,
uniformed police force patrolling the halls. Schools need counselors armed with insight. Why does that student always have her arms covered, even on hot days? Why does that student cower when his friend's antics become too rambunctious? The answers require empathetic listeners and problem solvers, like school counselors. The answer does not require a heavy belt with a taser, cuffs, and lethal
weapon. Most SROs will tell you that they love working with children and families. I would hope so, but that isn't the point. In fact, I am willing to bet that in the oppsi- absence of toxic masculinity and gun culture, many of those armed patrollers would be school counselors. Do you want each and every child to belong and feel safe? Hire counselors. Black Lives Matter. Thank you. Thank you all for coming out today and for providing your public
comment. Uh, with that, we will move on to our next item, item twelve, uh, our action items. First up, we have 12.01: Department of Academics, Action Plan to Support Targeted Support Schools. Uh, Dr. Rashid, do you have a motion? Yes, uh, yes, Chair Chandler. But before I speak to the motion, can I give a summary, or should I just give directly? Well, actually, I would like-- Could you please start by making the motion, and then I'll ask you if you'd like to speak to the motion? Sure. I'd like to make a motion that the Loudoun County School
Board, uh, approve the TS, the TSI multi-year school support plans to be submitted to VDOE for state approval. Thank you, Dr. Rashid. Dr. Rashid has made a motion that the Loudoun County School Board approve the TSI multi-year school support plans to be submitted to VDOE for state approval. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. It has been properly moved and seconded. Dr. Rashid, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. Thank you, Chair. Uh, the VDOE identifies eleven LCPS schools as TSI, or Targeted Support and Improvement schools,
and two LCPS schools as being, uh, comprehensive support and improvement. So LCPS is required to submit s- some sort of multi-year sc- school support plan for each of those TSI schools so that we can address those learning gaps for our students with disabilities. The TSI action plan was already drafted and... Well, rather, already presented at the February tenth school board meeting that we had, and it's been drafted and placed as an attachment in board docs. Um, I, I don't know if I left anything out. I'd like to ask Dr. Ashley Ellis if I le- left anything out.
Thank you, Dr. Rashid. Thanks. Nope, I think you did a great job. Nothing else to add. I will just add that I, um, have no new information to share, but as soon as the board does approve this item, staff will proceed with submitting the targeted support and intervention multi-year s- school support plans for the eleven schools, as well as the school improvement grants that accompany that and are mentioned in the plans. And then in a couple of months, once we have the, uh, more detailed, comprehensive support and improvement plans for the, the two CSI schools, we will bring those back
separately. Thank you. Uh, school board members, is there any discussion? Uh, Ms. Ricardi? Thank you so much, Madam Chair. Um, I appreciate all the work you guys have done on these, um, on these reports, and I've had my conversations with, um, the team about these already. But, um, one of the things I would just say about the reports in general is, um, there's a lot of repetitive, uh... They're basically the same report. Um, and I'm concerned about that in a couple of ways. I'm also kind of concerned about the fact that every single one of the schools has a hundred percent, the goal is one hundred percent, um,
competency in the subject matter, and while I love that that's the, uh, the aspirational goal, um, I would really like to see those plans a little bit more customized for the schools and the issues that the schools are, um, really trying to focus on. Um, I would hope that VDOE would, you know, in theory, accept the, um, the reports, but-- or the plans, but I'm not really sure, you know, who's reviewing them, so I'm curious. I'm going to be very curious to see how that plays out. Um, again, I'm-- I understand the thinking behind this 'cause we've had
these conversations, um, and I appreciate the time that we spent doing that, but I just, I raise some questions about and concerns about just the fact that they're all very similar and not very-- it doesn't seem to be very customized. Thank you. Yeah. Um, Mr. Pepper. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. I believe that at the, our, our last meeting during our information item on this, I actually asked the same question that Ms. Ricardi was asking, and I believe Dr. Ellis explained, if I'm not mistaken, please correct me, Dr. Ellis, that, um, because the goals have to be very specific to, uh, reading and science, and then also very specific to
mathematics, that, um, the goals were already very similar and that we had a list of specific options that we could really just choose from, strategies that VDOE, um, presented. Am I correct in that? And so we were pretty limited in, in what we could do as strategies. Yes, sir, that's correct. And, um, and Ms. Ricardi and I have talked about this before, so nothing that you said or I say is, um, will be a surprise to her. Um, but I, I do appreciate you, um, uh-... bringing up what we did discuss at the last meeting, and I'll just reiterate that, um, these s- these new
plans, these, um, multi-year support plans, are new and separate from the annual school improvement plans that schools work on, and are very specific and individualized to the, to each and e- every individual school. Um, and it was very intentional that the goals and strategies in these specific support plans are similar. Uh, we plan to use, if we receive the SIG grants, uh, for, as I mentioned, te- um, teacher assistant training and, and consistent practices across the schools to
address the needs with students- for students with disabilities. Thank you. Um, seeing no further discussion, um, it w- the motion was properly m- made, uh, by Dr. Rasheed, and seconded by, uh, Vice Chair Donahue. Um, clerk, uh, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Uh, Ms. Chernov, please state your vote. Yes. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Yes.
Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. All right, thank you. We'll move on to item twelve point o two, Policy twenty-three ten, Committees of the School Board. Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the proposed amendments to Policy twenty-three ten, Committees of the School Board. Um, Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second. Oh, thank you, Dr. Rasheed. Um, school board members, is there... Oh, I'm sorry, pardon me.
Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, please, Madam Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, I brought this policy before the board, uh, at the previous meeting as an information item for the purpose of extracting the audit functions out of the LA and P committee, and establishing a standalone committee to oversee all of the internal and external audit functions at LCPS. Um, the- after our last meeting, this was posted for public feedback, and there was some feedback received from MSAC, which I
just wanted to briefly address. Um, MSAC had a few proposed edits, uh, which, i- in, in my understanding, all centered around the idea of wanting to ensure that individuals appointed to, particularly advisory committees, are, um, are people who are, uh, supportive of furthering the mission of those advisory committees. Um, I understand MSAC's concern, and, and appreciate where they're coming from,
um, but I, I would say I am not inclined to support making their proposed edits at this time, partly because the edits or the amendments that I'm proposing to twenty-three ten right now, have nothing to do with advisory committees. They have to do with standing committees, but ap- p- probably more importantly, because the... I, I have a concern that MSAC's proposals could be construed as viewpoint discrimination, and in addition, would be, in my mind, potentially
too subjective to add into our policies. So again, understanding MSAC's, the, the origin of MSAC's concern, uh, I, I don't feel that I'm in a position to support the recommendations at this time. Thank you. Um, school board members, is there any discussion? Dr. Rasheed? Thank you, Chair. Um, as the MSAC liaison myself, I do want to point out the recommendations that MSAC has proposed for twenty-three ten for the board's consideration, and, uh, they came in last night.
Um, and a lot of them do deal with, I believe, if I'm not mistaking, the duties of the board member liaison, and, um, you know, and it, it specifies which line numbers. But, um, like, the first recommendation is to include language that speaks to the eligibility requirements of the liaisons and committees. Um, and so, uh, you know, MSAC did-- you know, would like to see language in the policy that members of liaisons will support the work of the committee. And then, the second is really specific in that same, um, in that same policy, um, for lines two oh six and two oh seven of the red line
copy. Uh, they would like to see an insertion of the qualification of the members, specifically dealing with subject matter experts to an advisory committee. And then, the final MSAC recommendation pertains to duties of the liaisons, um, to the advisory committees, and, uh, I, I believe they reference specifically line two two eight to two thirty. And I do recognize that these proposed recommendations are beyond the scope of what Vice Chair Donahue's specific amendments, uh, to have the audit committee be sep- a separate standing committee, rather than as part
of the LA and P Committee. But I do wanna share, um, these thoughts, uh, you know, with you guys, my colleagues, to do due diligence as the MSAC liaison. Um, I do w- wanna hear, you know, if there, uh, just the appetite from everyone here, um, and I am prepared to make any relevant motions for consideration, if any. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper? So thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, so I appreciate the work of MSAC, as always, um, in making these recommendations. I just feel that, um, with- we're talking
about policy twenty-three ten in this context, the purpose of the, um, motion made by Vice Chair Donahue was, um, to create a new committee and not really to alter some of the language in here. So as much as I, I like these, I'm- don't think I'm gonna support them at this point. ... Thank you. Ms. Ricardi? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I agree that I wanna focus on this, on the creation of this new one tonight, but I actually do, um, think that there's some really valid points in MSAC's feedback. Um, particularly,
um, you know, as it goes-- Yeah, uh, I, I think that if, if we're making appointments of to school-- of school board members to committees, we gotta make sure they're- we're gonna, those of us that are on those committees and doing that work are gonna back up the work and support the work of those committees, um, directly or, or otherwise. So, um, I agree that we should do that. I don't know if tonight is the night, and I think we need to work through it, but I would, I would actually really welcome break-- putting that part of it back into committee for discussion. Um, goes with, um, LA and P... Well, L and
P, LA and P, I don't know which one we're gonna be at, but, um, it would go back to that committee, correct? It would. It would? Okay. So I think maybe that part of the discussion, I think, would be a very valid discussion for the committee to, to explore, 'cause I think and generally, I would, I would support that. Thanks. Thank you. Um, yes, Dr. Rashid. Thank you, Chair. Again, thank you. I appreciate the discussion and hearing that there's not, uh, ample interest from my colleagues here on the dais. I, I won't be making any amendments, but again, I do appreciate your willingness, uh, to consider MSAC's recommendation. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, Mr. Svendsen? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, I just wanted to add as, uh, the Chair of Legislative Audit and Policy Committee, that, you know, we would be-- we would welcome these, um, recommendations, um, at the committee level to discuss. Thank you. Uh, yes, Dr. Spence. So j- just for clarity for staff, did you want us to bring that back to the committee for further discussion? Mm-hmm. I don't believe I've heard a motion. O- okay.
Thank you. Thank you. Okay, is there any further discussion? Um, okay. I'm seeing no further discussion. Um, a motion was ma- properly made by Vice Chair Donahue, that the Loudoun County School Board approve the proposed changes to Policy twenty-three ten, and that motion was seconded by Dr. Rashid. Um, we'll now move forward with the vote. Uh, Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Um, Ms. Chernov, please state your vote. Yes. Um, Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote.
Yes. Clerk, please close and display the vote. The motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. And we will move on to our final, um, action item for this evening, uh, Item twelve point o three, Policy thirty-four ten: Office of the Auditor General. Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the proposed amendments to Policy thirty-four ten: Office of the Auditor General. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second.
Thank you, Mr. Svendsen. Um, the motion is seconded by Mr. Svendsen. Um, Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, this policy, um, I'm putting forward these amendments to go in conjunction with, uh, the changes that we just approved to Policy twenty-three ten, to make the, um, to make Policy thirty-four ten now in line with the standing committees of the school board. Uh, I am going to be proposing a couple of, um, minor, uh, kind of cleaning
up amendments, um, but that is... That's really all I wanted to say about, about the motion. Okay. Thank you. Um, school board members, are there-- i- is there any discussion? Um, yes, Dr. Rashid. Thank you, Chair. I, I know I'm, um, very verbal today, but, um, so, uh, as again, the MSAC liaison, I do like to raise the recommendations that MSAC has proposed for thirty-four ten for the board's considerations. These, again, came in last night, so I, I don't know if everybody had a chance to review them. Um, so e- specifically, I believe one of
the questions was defining internal auditing. Um, there is, uh, no definition, um, for defining a- auditing, and maybe, uh, Mr. W- Woods can, can comment on this, but, um, we... MSAC would like to see some sort of definition or clarity among that de- that definition of internal auditing, auditing, and that's one part. I do have other recommendations, but maybe we could tackle one by one, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Dr. Rashid, did you, um, want Mr. uh, Woods to- I- if it's possible and if there's time. Um, Mr. Woods?
Uh, yes. Um, the definition of internal auditing is in lines four through ten. It does not specifically reference internal auditing definition, but it is the definition of internal auditing. Uh, I would understand if one were to look at it, if it wasn't as clear, but that is the definition, which is the purpose. And so we put that in as purpose, and it is the definition of internal auditing. We- you could decide to add language to clarify that, but
the language is in the policy. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I, um-... Also wanted to just add, uh, briefly in response to, to this MSAC suggestion and Dr. Rashid's point. Um, after reviewing the MSAC feedback, I did discuss the concerns that MSAC raised with Mr. Woods, and particularly in regard to this first question about the definition of internal auditing. Uh, Mr. Woods referred me to the Institute of Internal Auditors' International Professional Practices framework,
which defines internal auditing as, quote, "Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve the organization's operations. It helps the organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of governance, risk management, and control processes." So when Mr. Woods states that the definition of internal auditing is already in the proposed policy amen- uh, is already in the policy at lines four through ten, that's what he means.
It's my understanding that is what he means. That is correct. Dr. Rashid? Thank you, Chair, again, and I just wanted to, you know, show the other-- show the board members something about their second recommendation in regards to the redundancy of the word "policies" written twice, and then, then their last recommendation, it specifically references thirty-eight to thirty-nine, that MSAC would like more clarity on the referenced self-evaluation. Uh, and again, maybe I can reference to, uh, Mr. Woods to provide a little bit more clarity on the referenced self e- evaluation. Uh, as currently written, it seems like,
um, the auditor general provides input to a draft evaluation, which is then updated, um, for a final evaluation by the audit committee. Um, and I believe the issue was that if it's not a true self-evaluation, then the-- there needs to be more clarity in regards to what's being evaluated, like the Office of Auditor General, audit plan, et cetera. Thank you. Mr. Woods? Uh, yes. If I were to submit a self-evaluation, that would be the first step, and it would be a self-evaluation.
The language in there provides for the next steps after I provide a self-evaluation, but the self-evaluation would still hold true, that language would still hold true, as I would submit that self-evaluation, and then the next steps would be for the audit committee to review the self-evaluation and move forward from there. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Uh, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair, uh, and to Dr. Rashid's point about the second proposed MSAC recommendation, uh, I would like to propose an
amendment on line twenty of the red line for thirty-four ten. I propose that we remove, after LCPS regulations, that we remove the comma and the word policies. So the line would then read: Adhere to relevant school board policies and accompanying LCPS regulations and procedures. Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion on line twenty that we remove the comma and the word policies. Second. Uh, is there a second? Second.
Uh, thank you, Ms. Labelle. Um, it has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Ms. Labelle. School board members, is there any discussion? Madam Chair, I, I just would, I wanted to- Would you like to speak to your motion, please? I just wanted to thank MSAC for, uh, for pointing out that, um, for pointing out that grammatical correction. Thank you so much. Um- And Dr. Rashid, thank you. Okay. Is there any further discussion? All right. Uh, school board members, we will vote now on, uh, Vice Chair
Donahue's amendment to, on line twenty to remove the comma and the word policies. Uh, this m- amendment has been seconded by Ms. Labelle. Um, Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Um, Ms. Chernov, please state your vote. Yes. Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Yes. Thank you. Um, Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes, uh, with all nine school board members present. Um, is there any further disc- oh, yes, Vice Chair
Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, I may ask Mr. Allen for some guidance here, but, uh, as to whether this needs to be a motion, but I also noticed in reviewing again, the red line that was posted on board docs on line forty-two of the red line, at the end of that line, there appears to be an extra set of quotation marks. So I don't know if we can call that, like, a scrivener's error and just get rid of it, or if I need to formally propose a motion to get rid of it. Thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. You can refer to it as a scrivener's error.
That would not require a vote. It's a technical change. Thank you, Mr. Allen. In that case, I just wanted to raise the scrivener's error at the end of line forty-two and ask if staff can take out that, that stray, uh, quotation mark before the revised policy gets posted. Thank you. All right. Any further discussion, school board members? Okay, so we'll move forward with the vote. Um, the motion as amended, um, that the Loudoun County School Board approve the
proposed changes to Policy twenty-three ten. Thirty-four ten. Thirty-four ten. Yeah, thank you for the clarification. So just to be clear, um, the motion made by, uh, Vice Chair Donahue and seconded, um, by Dr. Rashid is... Or no, by Mr. Svendsen, um, is that the Loudoun County School Board approve the proposed changes to Policy thirty-four ten, Office of the Auditor General. All right. Uh, school board members, please record your vote....
Uh, Ms. Chernov, please state your vote. Yes. Mrs. Griffiths, please state your vote. Abstain. Thank you. Um, clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes with eight school board members voting yes, including Ms. Ricardi, Mr. Svendsen, Ms. Chernov, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rasheed, and Ms. LaBelle, a- and one school board member abstaining, Mrs. Griffiths. All right. With that, we will move on, um, to item thirteen, our information items.
The first item is in- is item thirteen point oh one, Curriculum and Instruction Committee, new policy fifty-one forty, Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics, presented by, uh, Dr. Samira Rasheed, the Chair of Curriculum and Instruction Committee, and Mr. Slevin, Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning. Okay, thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair. Um, so Virginia House Bill two six eight six introduced some sort of, uh, new guidance on mathematics acceleration in middle school, um, and it included automatic enrollment based on state assessment scores.
So the Department of Teaching and Learning developed the draft policy of fifty-one forty to ensure compliance with legislation and also to support access to accelerated math pathways. Um, so I believe, um, on January sixteenth, Division Council made their final review of the policy, and so the C&I Committee approved to forward the policy to the full school board on February ninth, and, thus, hence we are here. And I'll turn it over to Mr. Slevin. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. I do have a brief presentation this evening to share with
the board, um, regarding the development of this policy. As a reminder of our timeline, this policy was developed in response to state legislation. We presented it as an information item at the Curriculum Instruction Committee on November fifth, and shared it at a f- full school board work session on November eleventh. We then opened the policy up for public and advisory committee feedback from November seventh through November twenty-first, before bringing it back to C&I as an action item earlier this month on February ninth. I would like to acknowledge the work of Ms.
Juliet Kenney, our math supervisor, as well as Mr. R- Roundsley, our director of teaching and learning K-twelve, in, in the development of this policy. The foundation of this policy stems from state code requirements. The policy includes four main components. First, automatic enrollment. Students who score in the statewide upper quartile on their grade level or end-of-year SOL math assessments will automatically be enrolled in accelerated math. Second, it requires a parental opt-out provision, so parents, per policy, will have the opportunity to opt their child out of this automatic
enrollment. Three, multiple pathways. We must offer pathways, other pathways for enrollment beyond the SOL scores, such as teacher or parent recommendations, student preference, grades, portfolios, and other standardized te- tests. And finally, a section for annual notification. We are required to inform parents annually about the enrollment criteria, the importance of middle school math, its impact on high school math, sequences, and specific courses available. During the public feedback window, we received several thoughtful questions and recommendations from the community.
I'd like to walk you through the key themes of that feedback in the order we received and reviewed them, along with how we responded. The first piece of feedback requested that we make the policy's language more adaptable in case the specific state law changes, rather than looking into the specific House bill. In re response, we updated the language to reference the Code of Virginia rather than House Bill twenty-six eighty-six in both the legal references and the introductory pa- paragraph. Next, regarding supporting student success and parent education, we received a question about how we will support students who are a- automatically enrolled but
end up struggling, and how we will educate parents to make informed decisions about opting out. To address this, we have updated the LCPS secondary math course selection information on the math website to increase transparency. For student support, we are launching a math summer boost program in summer of twenty twenty-six, building student-centered supports directly aligned to our math curriculum. Also offering aligned MDS interventions for Tier Two and Tier Three needs, and highlighting flexible course options like algebra functions and data analysis, and algebra one double block.
We received feedback regarding defining accelerating math. A community member recommended clearly defining what advanced or accelerated means within the policy itself. We agreed and added a new definition to lines three through five, which now states: For the purposes of this policy, advanced or accelerated math is defined as a course one year beyond the student's current grade level. Additionally, our secondary math course selection website links to the gifted office for students seeking additional or sing- single subject acceleration.
Another piece of feedback related to clarifying other standardized testing. The same parent asked us to list specific examples of other standardized testing in this policy, such as AP or CLEP exams. We considered this, but ultimately chose to maintain the broader language of other standardized testing. This preserves flexibility and encourages schools to look at a full range of multiple data points, rather than limiting eligibility to a strict set of specific tests. There was feedback regarding proactively opting in. Some families asked if they could proactively opt their students into their
classes, even if they didn't meet the automatic SOL criteria. The answer is yes. Section C of the policy addresses other criteria that may be considered, and cross-reference the math course selection information outlining multiple data points families might consider when making this choice.... We also received feedback regarding clarifying course availability. A community member pointed out that the phrase "available, a- advanced, or accelerated math courses," and expressed concerns over the word available. We decided to delete the word available from lines twenty-six to thirty, because
all LCPS middle schools currently offer the accelerated and advanced ma- math course ways pa- covered by this policy. And then finally, I believe this feedback was from SEAC. Um, it was recommended that the annual notification explicitly state that student accommodations are available in these advanced classes. We fully agree, and we added a statement to the annual notification section, clarifying that accommodations provided in any LCPS classes are also available in these courses. We believe that these revisions reflect a collaborative process that honors the state requirements while being
responsive to our Atlanta County community, and I'm happy to answer any questions the board may have about this policy. Um, thank you, Dr. Rashid, and thank you, Mr. Slevin. Um, school board members, do we have any questions? Um, yes, Mr. Svendsen. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, and thank you, Mr. Slevin. Uh, this is, uh, not a question, but, uh, just a comment and thank you, and, uh, Mr. Slevin's already heard, uh, me, and Ms. Chernoff, and Dr. Rashid say this, but we really appreciated how this presentation laid out, how public feedback was taken into account, and kinda walks us through it. And, you know, this week, I was reminded of how important this kind
of presentation is. You know, we had a survey in Leaf where folks said: "We find our meetings very informative. We're getting a lot of information from staff, but we don't always know how or if our feedback is being incorporated." And this style of presentation really shows the work, and it shows folks that they are having an impact by providing the feedback. So, um, really appreciate the teaching and learning team doing this, and, um, I, I think it's really helpful for the public to see how this is, uh, an iterative process. Thank you.
All right. Any further discussion? Um, seeing none, um, thank you, Mr. Slevin. And, uh, we'll move on to item thirteen point o two, Department of Teaching and Learning, Social Studies and Global Studies, um, Instructional Resource Recommendation, which will also be presented by Mr. Slevin. Thank you again, Chair Chandler, members of the board, and Dr. Spence. I'm here tonight representing the Department of Teaching and Learning to present our recommendations for the Social Science and Global Studies K-twelve instructional resources. This process represents a comprehensive effort
to ensure our students have access to high-quality, aligned materials for the upcoming years. I'd like to, uh, thank Daniel Graham, our social science supervisor, as well as her team, David Holt, our textbook specialist, and Alyssa Moritz, our library and media services supervisor. Our process began in August of twenty twenty-five with an RFP to vendors. Throughout the fall, content review committees scored materials and identified finalists. Following presentations and public-- a public comment window in January, we are here today to present these recommendations as an information
item. We anticipate this coming before you as an action item on March twenty-fourth, as, uh, following one more period of public comment. We prioritized a balanced and inclusive review process. Our committee was composed of seventy-two percent teachers and twenty-four percent community members. To ensure geographic and diverse representation, we screened nearly two hundred and fifty community applications and engaged with advisory groups. On the teacher side, we were able to place all secondary applicants and the majority of elementary applicants. It is important to note that the
VDOE has yet to release an approved textbook list for the twenty-three st- history and social science standards. To maintain high standards, we integrated VDOE's high-- criteria for high-quality instructional materials directly into our own review rubrics to ensure full alignment. We surveyed ninety-five social studies teachers regarding their preferences for digital or print materials. A clear majority indicated a preference for a hybrid of digital and print resources. This feedback directly informed our decision to recommend digital platforms supplemented by print sets for use in our
schools. Beyond the committee, we partnered with the Office of Family and Community Engagement to invite fourteen community organizations to provide formal feedback via one-pagers. This ensured that diverse cultural and historical perspectives influenced multiple subject areas, rather than being restricted to a single committee seat. Our final recommendations were based on consolidated data. While we followed content review committees' rankings in almost all cases, the adoption team occasionally made adjustments to ensure consistency in course progressions, to ad-- or to address specific accessibility or other
considerations. For our elementary students, we are recommending Studies Weekly for kindergarten through fourth grade. For fifth grade, which focuses on regions of our country, we recommended TCI's Social Studies Alive. For middle school, we recommended Savvas My World Interactive for U.S. History, both beginnings eighteen seventy-seven and eighteen sixty-five to present. For civics and economics, we recommend Five Ponds Press, Our Government, third edition. In the high school space, we recommend Imagine Learning's Traverse World History
for both World History One and Two. For AP World History, we recommend BFW's Ways of the World. World Geog- Geography and AP Human Geography will utilize Cengage resources. For U.S. and Virginia History and Government, we recommend McGraw Hill. Our AP U.S. History and AP Comparative Government courses will use W. W. Norton's Give Me Liberty and Essential Compo- Comparative Politics, respectively. For our electives, recommendations include TCI for semester economics, McGraw Hill for AP economics, and BFW for our
psycholog- psychology courses and AP African American studies.... Every digital platform was vetted by DDI and Instructional Technology. All recommended resources can be supported in our network and offer Schoology integration. You can see the interface scores here, with TCI and Imagine Learning receiving the highest marks for user-friendliness. During the public comment window, we received fifteen comments from teachers. Elementary feedback was particularly favorable towards Five Ponds Press for its layout. We also received specific secondary
feedback regarding our AP and Introductory World History courses. Following this evening's presentation, the school board is scheduled to vote on these recommendations on March twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six. Between now and then, there will be one more opportunity for the community to provide feedback. The resources will be online and available here at the administration building. Once adopted, we will immediately begin the process of ordering materials and planning professional learning for our educators going into next fall. At this time, I'm happy to address any questions you may have regarding the selection process or specific resources recommended. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman. Um, thank you, Mr. Slevin. Uh, board members, do you have any questions? Uh, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Mrs. Griffiths. Uh, thank you, Chair Chandler. Uh, uh, thank you so much. Um, uh, Mr. Slevin, can you provide a list of the fourteen community organizations that were invited to share formal feedback? I believe, uh, you can send this to me or the school board on a one-pager. Uh, yes, I could share that with you. So some examples include-
Thank you. Some examples include the Adams Center, the Black History Committee, uh, at the Thomas Bosch Library- Mm-hmm. -the JCRC, um, the Latin Freedom Center, but I could, I could send the board the entire list, but those are just some high-level examples. Thank you so much. And, um, if we're going to see this presentation again, maybe attach it, um, to the presentation or, you know, make sure it's on the agenda. Yes, I will, I will include that as an- Thank you ... information item when this comes back to the board at the end of March.
Thank you so much. Board members, any further questions? All right. Um, thank you so much, Mr. Slevin. Um, and with that, we will now move on to item fourteen, our discussion item, um, fourteen point oh one: Safety and Security Measures for Elementary Schools. Um, to ground us in this conversation, I thought it would be helpful, um, for us to, uh, pull a baseline understanding of what LCPS currently, um,
uses in terms of protocols for elementary school safety. And to that end, I'd like to ask Dr. Bergen if you could please give us an overview. Yes, ma'am. And thank you, Madam Chair, for adding this important discussion to tonight's agenda and allowing me an opportunity to share with the board and our community some of the safety and security measures that we have in place across all of our schools in the school division. Let me begin by emphasizing there is nothing more important than the safety and security of our students and staff.
The Division of Safety and Security, in conjunction with local law enforcement and other public safety partners, has created a comprehensive safety and security plan to protect all of our students, our staff, and our visitors. This plan contains visible personnel and technology, along with behind-the-scenes security monitoring and rigorous visitor management protocols, all designed to protect our students, staff, and visitors. Following an evaluation by a
blue-ribbon panel of security experts, we're very proud to share that the panel identified our plan as a national gold standard for K-twelve safety and security. To ensure the integrity of our efforts, we cannot publicly discuss all aspects of our security plan. However, we have uploaded today a new graphic to our website underneath the tab for safety and security. As shown on that graphic, we
implement many layers of protections that include the following across all of our schools. First of all, all of our doors are locked, and visitors can only gain access to our schools through a secure vestibule that utilizes enhanced security technology. Next, all visitors must comp-- with a visitor management protocol that requires thorough vetting by our contracted security guards, as well as
LCPS office staff. There are literally thousands of security cameras installed across the school division in both the interior and exterior of all of our campuses. These cameras are continuously monitored by both school staff, as well as dedicated security personnel within our own security operations center, otherwise known as the SOC. This occurs around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and is assisted or augmented by newly
purchased AI software that lays over top of the cameras. Next, the outer perimeter of all of our schools and our school grounds are regularly patrolled by law enforcement, as well as by our own LCPS safety and security personnel. And lastly, our SROs, or School Resource Officers, are assigned to all of our middle and high schools, and these officers also regularly check in on our elementary schools, to which they have been assigned by clusters.... There are other
safety measures that include the use of a multidisciplinary threat assessment team at every school to evaluate all potential threats, as well as school-specific crisis management plans that are consistently tested through training, exercises, and drills. Some of the newest security initiatives in this year's budget that are specific to the elementary schools include funding to purchase wearable devices for all staff that will allow
any staff member to instantly, by touching a wearable device, contact law enforcement for immediate assistance. Also, in this year's budget, is the placement of contracted visitor management guards inside of every one of our elementary schools. And lastly, new this year, we hired a dedicated group of additional SSO patrols specifically for our elementary school campuses. Lastly, I'd like to emphasise the importance of the entire community in being an
invested partner in our work in keeping our schools safe by reporting any and all suspicious or concerning behaviour, either anonymously through our Safe2Talk app, or by speaking directly with a school administrator or with law enforcement. We are very grateful for our community's steadfast commitment to the See Something, Say Something principle. In summary, we are continuously assessing our security plan and incorporating nationally recognised best practises, including modernised
technology and protocols to strengthen our capabilities. We're very grateful for our partnership with local law enforcement, and through our collective efforts with our school resource officers, as well as other sworn law enforcement officers, working alongside together with our own school division safety and security personnel, including our school security officers, our patrol officers, our contracted visitor management guards, and the rest of our staff, we are able to safely and securely monitor our
campuses so that our teachers and our students can focus on the most important business of the day, which is teaching and learning. The implementation of this plan is a team effort that includes experienced leadership from our Director of Safety and Security, Mr. John Clark, as well as our Chief Schools Officer, Mrs. Ray Mitchell. They are here this evening in the meeting, along with myself, to address any questions that board members may have regarding our safety and security efforts. That stated, I would like to caution the board
members that we would prefer not to engage in any Q&A that would unwittingly expose potential security vulnerabilities to any potential bad actors, who could then subsequently use that information and attempt to exploit any weaknesses. If needed, we would be happy to go into closed session as appropriate to address any confidential matters that the board may wish to discuss. And with that, Madam Chair, I turn the discussion back to you and the rest of the board members. Thank you, Dr. Bergen. Uh, board members, let's open the floor to
discussion. Uh, Ms. Labelle? I'd like to know what the AI components on our cameras do. Do they recognise, uh, dangerous weapons, knives, guns, whatever? Uh, yes, ma'am. I'll take a first crack at, at answering your question, and Mr. Clark, who was instrumental in evaluating various vendors, uh, may wish to elaborate on, on that answer. But the, the cameras look for things that are out of place. That could be in the middle of the night, a car that drives
onto the campus when there usually are no vehicles on the campus. It will alert the individual in our SOC who's there to pay attention to that particular camera angle, that something is out of place. Um, it will notice if a person has fallen, uh, and it will alert the individual within the school to pay attention to that camera angle because someone may have slipped, uh, and the camera will alert our staff that there is a potential, uh, medical situation. I'm sorry. Um, Dr. Bergen, I'm, I'm so, so sorry to interrupt. That's okay. Um, thank you. Um, I believe if we need to go any further, we
might need to go into closed. Yes, ma'am. Okay, thank you. Uh, board members? Uh, Ms. Ricardi. Um, if we need to go into closed to answer this question, then just feel free to let me know. I, I'm not sure where our lines are here on this, on this kind of thing, but I'm just trying to-- I think just from a big picture perspective, working our way down into the, into details which we can't discuss here, I guess. Um, w- so we have SROs in our middle schools and high schools, and so what's different in the posture in
elementary schools that we didn't start integrating SROs into elementary schools? And we've taken a-- I know we've taken a different security approach, I guess, with them, but what's different between kind of the elementary school environment and the middle school and the high school, where we've got SROs already? I'm not, I'm not privy to the previous report, so I'm not sure kind of where, how that decision was made or how we came to that. And Dr. Spence, that may be more for you, I don't know. I- I'm not aware of any previous report. Um, I mean, we had a Blue Ribbon panel.
Blue Ribbon panel did not specifically suggest we should have SROs in our elementary schools. The Blue Ribbon panel discussed security, um- In general ... in general. And, um, I'm not aware, prior to that, of any reports or any conversations with the school board specifically about SROs in the elementary schools. I wasn't-- That would've all predated me for sure, and I'm not-... even familiar, kind of in the historical context of conversations internally, that, that that's ever occurred. Thank you. Mr. Pepper?
So I'm, I'm-- don't know if this is gonna answer a little bit of kind of what Ms. Ricardi is asking, um, but I'm probably the only one on the school board who's had deep experience working with SROs. Um, and I think the key, the key letter that is in that acronym is the R letter, which is resource. They are really, truly a resource for the school. Um, I know that when I was, um, teaching physical science to eighth graders, I would bring our SRO into the classroom, and he would help us do a lesson on,
um... We actually, it was really cool, he put up the r- the-- This is not gonna be a safety thing, but he put the radar trailer up, and then we would time cars as they went to two ends of the parking lot and calculated speed and distance. Um, we also helped him do coefficient of friction. When I was, you know, an assistant principal, um, he was the one in our division who looked at the cameras for us and was able to, to, to give us our camera work. But there were a lot of things that he wasn't going to do, and he wasn't supposed to do. Um, he was not there to break up fights. He was not there for student
discipline. He was only there when a student discipline matter got to the point where, um, a legal reason would be involved, AKA, we found a weapon on a student of some sort. Um, and in no way has any SRO I've ever worked with been involved in prevention of any kind, right? They are really a resource for the teachers and the administrators to lean on, to get, um, kind of questions answered, and to be just completely truthful.
And, and the SROs I've met in Loudoun have been wonderful, so I'm not picking on any individual SROs here. Please don't get me wrong. A lot of the time for SROs was downtime. It was a boring job. Um, they filled in the gaps by maybe playing in student-faculty basketball games, although the seventy-five-year-old SRO we had where I was, was not doing that. Um, but at the elementary level, there really isn't a need because there's not the same level of resource that's there, right? You're not having students with, at, at nearly at the same high school level, drug
issues, weapon issues. I know we heard stories tonight about a student in Spotsylvania County who brought a, a gun in the backpack and the gun went off. No-- Whether or not an SRO is in the building is not going to prevent that because it's hidden in the student's backpack. The SRO is not there to be like: "What's in your backpack?" They're not running a metal detector as a kid is walking into a school building. We know the story in, in Newport News, right? We all know that story. An SRO is not going to prevent that. What's going to prevent that is an assistant principal doing their job, right? And the SRO can be brought in
afterwards. But when we-- All of this safety and security discussion, I think, that we're trying to have is about the presence and the need for and kind of immediate response to the SROs. And, one, data doesn't back up that they're doing anything, and two, the incidences in our elementary schools are so few and far between that it doesn't fit with that R in School Resource Officer. So that's where I am, both based on my experience and knowing what an SRO
truly does. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I wanted to follow up on, uh, on one thing since Mr. Pepper referenced the incident in-- the recent incident in Spotsylvania County, um, to point out that, yes, there was a student who brought a loaded firearm into school, which happened because that firearm was not secured safely in the house where that child lived. So as to the people
who have said before: "Why did the school board vote to communicate safe storage firearm information to the community last year?" This is why. Because this is one of the ways that we reduce instances of firearms in our schools, firearms being held by children, and the potential for intentional or unintentional shootings, is by making sure that children cannot access firearms in their homes. Um, and I, I would rather see us, LCPS, spending our efforts,
um, supporting safe storage firearm information, providing information to the community about how to obtain gun locks, uh, and other less invasive means, um, to work on securing our schools. Thank you. Thank you. Chair Chandler. Chair Chandler? Uh, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Uh, thank you so much for that, um, Ms. Donahue. Uh, we... This is just an extra layer of security. We did put that information, um, into the packets for the beginning of the
year through ParentVUE regarding safe storage and locks. Um, but I will tell you, it just takes one time to have an incident. Um, and just to reiterate, speakers today, um, these SRO positions have been budgeted. The funding is there. As you have heard, this is not a question of whether we can afford it, it's a question of whether we're going to follow through. Uh, the building had-- This building that we have our meetings has extensive, uh, security measures. Um, our elementary school students deserve at least the same, I think.
Um, every school should have at least one SRO.... um, these are our youngest, most vulnerable students, and their families send them to us every day, trusting that we do everything in our power to keep them safe. So, um, with the positions being budgeted, I think, um, this is a real tangible gain for LCPS and for the families we serve, and I strongly support moving forward with placing SROs in every elementary school. And I encourage my colleagues to, uh, also support. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, Ms. Labelle? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, yes, they are resource officers, and yes, they are in the building, and I have worked in many buildings where they were. They develop relationships with students. They help keep some of the students from going the wrong way as we talk about things. I've heard people in, in the audience today talk about their children being frightened and, of guns and all this other kind
of worry. Having an SRO that's going to be there, going to be friendly, going to be developing rep, uh, relationships with the children, might help them when they move into a middle school where there is an SRO. Uh, in addition, I did some research. Surprise, I like research. Um, there have been six hundred and forty-seven deaths by guns in various schools in the last ten years.
There have been sixteen hundred requests for services from Sheriff Chapman's office to elementary schools, only elementary schools. I mean, if we count that up, that's a lot. It wasn't just for, uh, possible sh- guns in the school, threats around the school, parents coming in, uh, bomb threats. There are lots of reasons that we have SROs at our
schools. And lastly, I keep telling everybody, out in Western Loudon, we're different. We don't have, except for the new high school that was built, Woodgrove, uh, we don't have elementary schools or middle schools within walking range of, of our SROs. Um, if you were to have a problem at, uh, Lucket-- I'm sorry, Lovettsville Elementary, it is eighteen
miles away from Woodgrove and takes twenty minutes to get there. If we have an active shooter who is shooting through the door and into the building, enters the building and is tr-- running around in the halls, twenty minutes, how many people are gonna be killed or injured in twenty minutes? Waterford Elementary is twenty-four miles, and that would be twenty-eight minutes. If the, uh, Woodgrove team had to go to Lucketts Elementary, that's thirty-three minutes to
get there. Okay, well, let's say we're gonna ask Tuscarora's team to go, because that's another one out there. If they go to Lucketts, it is still twenty minutes, and I need to add that Lucketts has work going on on the road. It's often backed up, often clogged. It is right there in fift- on Route 15. Getting in there is not easy. If they were to go to Waterford, that's twenty-four minutes. Same problem, only we have dirt roads in that condition, and if Loudoun Valley responded to Waterford, it
would be fifteen minutes. That's probably the best one that we have there. So if we're looking at having that kind of response time, if we're to have a shooter outside the building, I wouldn't want to be the board member that voted, "Oh, no, we don't need SROs in our elementary schools," especially if the children were injured or killed. So think about that before you vote, you know, against it. We really do need that kind of
protection. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I wanted to respond to a few of Ms. Labelle's points. For example, uh, yes, there have been, unfortunately, a significant number of school shootings and fatalities over the last ten or so years, and this is despite the fact that many districts, including ours, have been adding school resource officers. In twenty twenty-three, there were three hundred and forty-nine gun violence
incidents at schools, which was the highest number in a single year, and that was two years ago, despite increased presence of school resource officers in various school districts across the country. Demon-- The documented incidents, including Parkland and Uvalde, have shown that the presence of an armed school resource officer at a school does not necessarily mean that a school shooting is not going to happen or is going to be foiled. But what evidence has demonstrated is that once
you start adding SROs into your school community, you see dramatic increases in the number of arrests and law enforcement referrals, expulsions, and out-of-school suspensions in the student population, especially among students of color and students with disabilities. And I think it's, it's a little troubling for me to hear my colleagues talking about-... friend, the frien- the presence of a friendly police officer, because at least as, as I am not a person of color,
um, I, I have the privilege of being able to view police as a presumably safe space, but not everyone does. And, in addition to that, my, some of my concerns here, uh, which Mr. Svenson touched on in our earlier conversation, is if we were going to add school, additional school resource officers, I would want to know if they've received training for de-escalation, training for dealing with special needs students,
neurodi- neurodivergent students, students with mental and physical disabilities, and other special needs, knowing w- if they have had training on restorative practices and culturally responsible policing. Uh, the sheriff, I don't believe, tells us whether he trains his SROs with this kind of training, but as we learned from our staff, we have offered that training to them, and it's been rejected. Um, I also am concerned that LCSO is starting to wear body cameras, and if they are doing that in our schools, I would like to
know what control do we have over who is viewing that footage and what is being done with it? Because that i, that is also something that I don't-- I have not had any indication that the sheriff is going to be willing to be cooperative with us around those issues. I would like to see if we are con-- if we are serious about reducing gun violence and overall violence in our community, I would like to see the sheriff enforcing red flag laws, providing gun locks to our community, promoting and, and providing safe storage education to the community,
supporting the school's effort to do that, which he did not do when we were looking at that measure last year. I also frankly question his motivation, um, by saying that he's concerned about the safety when he stopped providing safety at these meetings. Since that was also brought up, that we have security measures here in this building. Yes, we do, and we pay for it through private security because the sheriff does not provide security here anymore.
Uh, the other, the other point I wanted to make was on the... Or two points I wanted to make, was the night that we had our joint meeting with the board of supervisors, when the sheriff presented his, his ask for agreement to fund elementary school SROs, there had been a shooting in Maryland that same day, uh, which was raised. Again, that school had an SRO, and that shooting still happened. It does not mean that, the presence of SROs does not mean possibility of school shooting goes down to zero.
And my memory of that meeting was that the sheriff said at that time, his officers were responding to four thousand calls a year at elementary schools, and that is not what Ms. Labelle said as far as numbers, and my understanding is that he has walked that back. So, that's all. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Pepper- Chair Chandler? Uh, just a second, Mrs. Griffiths. Mr. Pepper? Oh, sure. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I, I also want to, um, respond to one of the things that was said about the calls
for SROs at the elementary school. One of the things that the sheriff did supply our superintendent, Dr. Spence, with, um, was the reason for the calls so far, um, in twenty-five, twenty-six, but also over the last, I believe, five or six school years prior to that. When I look at this list, I see directed patrol, and there was a description of directed patrol that was shared with us. It's a just-- It's a follow-up call. They're just walking around. Juvenile complaint, crossing guards, threat assessment, which is actually handled by an administrator, um, suspicious incident, project lifesaver
follow-up, information-only calls, nine one one open line. Those are all the top lines. In fact, that is the vast, and I mean, vast majority of the calls here, right? You have-- We are talking, um, you know, two for suspicious vehicle, two for a weapons violation. That means the weapon was found by presumably an administrator, and the officer is following up. You know, assault with injury, one, one, one. So the eight hundred and forty-eight calls that are, that have happened
here, when I look at this list, these are not urgent, we need an officer stat calls. These are, "Let's bring the SRO in because it's something that an officer might wanna follow up," or, "Let's bring a member of the sheriff's department in because that's something we want to follow up." It is not the immediacy of, "Good thing we have the officer here, or this wouldn't have happened." I, I don't see any of that in this data. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mrs. Griffiths.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just to clear up, um, our previous board, uh, decided, uh, no more, uh, officers in the school board meeting, um, after an incident that happened in June 2021. Uh, the previ- previous board decided not to have them in the school board meeting, so, um, that was not, uh, um, Officer Chapman's, um, you know, decision. I also wanted to mention around the storage, um, the, the
safety storage we were working on and locks, I do recall that, um, off, uh, sorry, uh-... Sheriff Chapman did provide, uh, information on safe storage and where you could pick up locks at the time. Um, so I, I just wanted to correct the record on that. But also, and one more thing, as far as the Maryland incident, um, I do- I was following that incident, and the SRO was there, but had to leave to take care of another incident at another school that didn't
have an SRO. So, um, I don't know if the situation happened just because they knew he'd left. Um, I don't know, um, what happened there. And of course, you can't control every incident that happens, but, um, I think he-- I believe he did leave to go to another school to take care of a, a potential incident there. So, um, uh, in regards to, uh, Ms. Donahue's comments, I understand, um, we can't, um, we
can't control everything, but I think in that situation, um, if he was there, you know, um, honestly, we don't know what would have happened. Maybe he could have helped out, um, in that situation. So, um, I just wanted to give a little more context, um, to those three items as far as LCPS or the former school board cutting the contract with, uh, Sheriff Chapman as far as having officers, but also he did provide storage and where you can get locks. I recall there was an exact address
where you could go to pick up a lock, uh, for free. So, um, I just wanted to bring some more context to that, um, going back, uh, I think that was a year or two. Thank you. Thank you. Um, is there anyone on staff who has the ability to confirm what happened in '21? Because I believe there may have been a letter on record, but I don't have access to that at this time. I'm not sure. Good evening, everyone. Thank you. I'm not sure which letter you were referring to, if you could
be more specific. Was there any-- Um, I-- A- and again, that was five years ago. Um, but I believe there might have been a letter from the sheriff's office that was specific to, um, what happened at the June meeting. There were multiple pieces of correspondence between the sheriff and the superintendent at the time. Yes, I'm not sure about a specific letter, but there were several different pieces of correspondence. Um, do we know if there was, um, a specific action by the
school board that, um, made a specific decision in regards to how security is handled at this building? Or, or could you-- Are you able to offer us any more context? I do not recall any action by the school board in terms of security with LCSO. Okay. So, um, thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. I hate to belabor a point, but, uh, I was in a meeting with Sheriff Chapman in 2024 and asked him if he
would consider providing security at these meetings again, because I was interested in saving the funds to the division of the contract that we pay to private security, and he said to me, "No." Thank you. Chair Chandler? Uh, yes, Ms. Knopf. Thank you so much. Um, I really just wanted to take time to listen tonight to my colleagues. I mean, obviously, this was presented to us, um, from Chair Randall, and I appreciated the way that she brought it to
us in a context where we were all hearing it together. I think that that was important. Um, it has become a little bit muddy to me about what the timeline here is and, and what the, what the need for the response from the school board is, but I know that it is definitely a, a, a subject that we should be talking about as we are the ones that make decisions for the schools. Um, additionally, the thing that I feel like is most missing from this conversation, a piece that will begin tomorrow night in Leesburg with the sheriff's department, is the public feedback piece. Uh, I have
heard, you know, over the last couple of weeks that we've been tackling this anecdotally from my community and from teachers, you know, through shorthand conversations and questions, overwhelmingly, that people want this, that they want SROs in the elementary schools, from the community members that I have interacted with. But that is a limited number, um, in terms of, of having a wide reach. So what I would really like to see LCPS do is take a step to really engage our communities. I mean, to me, as an elected official, that is the most important part of the
job, is hearing from the people in our communities and our families, and I, you know, I would really specifically like to hear from our LCPS parents that have kids in schools, and I would like to hear from our educators. And I appreciate, um, I know LEA worked with, you know, a limited survey to teachers about this, and they had some nuanced questions. For me, I'd really like to s- see some clarity here. So if we were to do some kind of survey, and I know we're in the middle of another family survey, so I think that that makes things a little bit more complicated. But I would like to see, you know, basically a
yes or a no. Would you like to see SROs in our elementary schools? Yes or no, and then maybe an open text box for why, um, so we could analyze those responses. But I, I would like to see some clarity. There's a lot flying around in terms of research. There's a lot going on, um, in terms of... It's hard to separate out feelings when we talk about safety, you know, and I, I have tried to play the feelings versus facts argument in my own head. I mean-... From a feelings perspective, I taught in elementary school. I was a kindergarten teacher when Sandy Hook happened.
It was a very impactful moment in my career. Um, I remember coming in the next day and being shook by seeing their little faces, just wanting to do everything I possibly could to make sure that they, each and every one of them knew that we had a safe space and that they were safe, and I want that for every single student in LCPS. Um, and I think that we do wonderful things in terms of safety. I am having a hard time personally seeing a side where this isn't an added
layer of protection, um, for our elementary schools, and, and I, I support that. But I think the important part here is to hear from our community. So I'm asking for that. I don't know if that's doable. I know that the, the sheriff's office is holding the town hall, um, and I believe-- I, I think there will be subsequent town halls, but I think that's an important part of this dialogue as we move towards clarity in a timeline for getting this feedback back to the board of supervisors. Thank you. Um, Dr. Rasheed?
Thank you, Chair Chandler. I'd like to echo Ms. Chernov's sentiments. However, I'd also like to point out that we did receive a lot of on-flow messages or let's talk messages. We did receive a lot of in, um, uh, emails in regards to how, uh, a lot of public feedback, um... how, how a lot of public, uh, people in public felt about this matter. I, I, I, I do hope for, and I like how Chair Chandler has suggested to the board of supervisors meeting for a, uh, town hall, for, uh, Sheriff Chapman to
bring about a town hall. So I would like to formally hear more, uh, public feedback in, in all areas of Loudoun County. Uh, however, the majority of the let's talk, and I, and I know that's not the final result, but the majority of the let's talk and email messages that we received, and you all received, were saying that they were not for SROs. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Uh, Ms. Ricardy? Thank you, Madam Chair. I, I too really appreciate everybody's feedback and thoughts on this. Um, I'm, you know, I am very curious about the data as well. I will be attending the town hall tomorrow 'cause I wanna hear from the
public. Um, I've heard, um, as, uh, Ms. Chernov had also mentioned, too, I've also been talking to a lot of people, um, teachers, principals, and parents in Sterling, um, across the political spectrum, which I think is also very important, is to hear from everybody across, uh, acro- across those issues as well. Um, I've had an overwhelming response of people that are in support of this, uh, and I'm just being very measured and just true- truly honest about that. Um, I think, um, and somebody else had mentioned earlier, too, is
I, I am not gonna be the school board member that has to apologize to parents 'cause if we didn't do everything we possibly could to keep our kids safe. So, um, I'm just gonna be really honest with you at that, about that. I watched what happened in Montgomery County very closely. Um, um, Mrs. Griffiths is correct that the SRO that was at that school, at Wootton High School at the time, did leave to go to, uh, to deal with another issue. Um, that is very troubling to me i- in hearing that and understanding that that could be, you know, the case, and I am very concerned.
One of my elementary schools has a sh- sheriff's, um, office right next door, so their, you know, their response time is literally milliseconds. But I can really respect the fact that in Western Loudoun, that distance is far greater and far more difficult roads to trespass in order-- uh, to, uh, traverse in order to get there. So, um, I am very curious to hear about, uh, hear from the public. I also understand that a lot of the feedback that we've been getting in Let's Talk has been, um, urged by one, one group of folks, and so I really wanna make sure we're hearing from everybody in the broadest way possible.
I think that's very important in this matter. Um, it is incredibly, um, it's an incredibly emotional issue, I think, for a lot of people as well, and I honor that. Um, but at the end of the day, um, this is not money that's coming out of the school board budget. This is money that the county has, and I think it's a resource really worth spending. Um, I've had a lot of conversations with parents and students and teachers at my Sterling schools who have really positive relationships with their SROs. They're viewed as very, very valuable members of those school communities, and they provide a lot of different things
besides, um, a security presence. It's a lot of, um, community building, and as somebody had also mentioned earlier, there's also some really great relationships with kids that are really troubled and really need a good, positive role model in their world. And I also, um, I also appreciate the fact that you mentioned about the training aspects. And in the MOU, we can certainly require in those negotiations the additional training that we wanna see from the, those deputies when they're put into an SRO position. So I don't think there's anything in here
that, um, isn't, you know, is, uh, not a positive, is not a positive. I mean, I have ten schools that are minority majority schools, and I have not had anybody tell me that they're having terrible experiences with their SROs. Um, I get that this is a political issue for some people as well, um, and I just wanna make sure that we're actually acting in the best interest of our students and our faculty, um, and, well, our instruct- and teachers. Um, I think that's really im- important, too.
I don't wanna have to apologize to a teacher's spouse because we've lost them, because we've had some really serious incident at a school, when we could have prevented it by having this additional layer of security. So I think that kinda hits my totality of things, but I appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Svendsen? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, and I, I appreciate my, my colleague's comments about the importance of public feedback. Um, I appreciated Ms. Chernov asking about public feedback at our board of supervisors meeting with Sheriff Chapman. Um, as a, as a younger school board member, I was
a, a little, uh, bothered that the, at, at that point, the, the scope of the MOU- ... public, uh, soliciting public feedback was limited to local news and Facebook, because a lot of people my age, who are parents of, uh, kids in elementary school, are not on Facebook and don't watch local news. Um, so I'm glad there will be a town hall. Um, I think that's a good first step to start to get, uh, folks from all walks of life who, who consume media all sorts of ways, uh, involved in the process. Um, I also wanna say that I appreciate that, you know, my colleagues
on, on the board here, you know, with varying perspectives, are all coming at this, uh, valuing the, the importance of our students' safety, our teachers' safety, and, uh, have the best interests of, of our schools in mind, and folks have different opinions about how we can accomplish that. But I think, uh, I do really appreciate that everyone kinda has the, the best interests of the school division in mind and at heart, um, even if folks have maybe different ways, uh, to get there. Um, and I just wanted to kinda end, end on a note about
the process. I, I think this process is a bit backwards, because as the conversation has reflected, there are a lot of unique un-- Our schools are unique environments in which, uh, law enforcement would be operating, and we have a lot of specific concerns and questions that need to be addressed by the school board and by the, our staff here, um, you know, as just was, uh, uh, illuminated by our discussions about, uh, the use of, uh, the use of handcuffs in the, in the presentation about restraint and con- and seclusion
by an SRO, and the fact that not all SROs are participating in training, um, related to interacting with students with disabilities. Um, and I, I really appreciate the SROs who, I presume, some are taking up the ability to, to have that training. Um, it's disappointing that some would not. Um, and the-- So there are just a variety of unique factors here in the, in the school context, that make it more appropriate for the sheriff's office to be coming to the school board to discuss this, discuss our, our MOU, instead of going to the
board of supervisors first. Um, the, the board of supervisors is, is not, uh, in our schools every day, uh, like our staff, uh, like our school board members. Um, and, and I, and I, I wish that the sheriff's office would be willing to engage here first, to, to have these conversations in detail, um, as opposed to, you know, kind of, uh, trying to skirt, skirt around us at the moment. Thank you. All right, um, so I, I'll, I'll jump into the conversation and, and, um,
just would like to, of course, state, since we are not, uh, making a decision at this time, and we have not made a decision on this matter, I'm speaking only for myself in the capacity that I represent Algonquin District. Um, I wanna start off by saying that as a mother and a former preschool and substitute teacher, um, there's nothing more important to me than keeping our kids safe. Um, I feel this deeply. I consider it as an important-- the most important obligation, and try to center my work here.
Um, it really resonates with me when I hear Ms. Chernoff talking about what it was like as a kindergarten teacher on the day of and after Sandy Hook. Um, that experience had a huge impact on me at the time as well. Um, it happened, of course, we'll recall, um, many years ago. In fact, my daughter, who's a freshman in college, was a kindergartner that day, too. Um, and so I know- knew very, um, uh, you know, in, in my soul, uh, what it felt like to hold a
kindergartner's hand, and, um, I knew... And, and in that time, as a preschool teacher and as a substitute teacher, have had the experience of doing the drills and being in situations where, um, the school is on lockdown, and not necessarily knowing in that moment why, but continuing to make sure that the kids are focused on and what they need to be focused on, and safe. Um, this is a very important conversation, and it, it's a conversation that, um, should include
many voices and many perspectives, and it's not a conversation that should be made by one person. Um, we know that the law dictates that our arrangement with SROs and, and maintaining the program in our schools, um, is established by code, and is also, um, an agreement between the school board and the law enforcement agency. Um, last year, our, um, division representatives were involved with the law enforcement
agencies in negotiating, um, around the MR-- the MOU. Um, and that process occurred over a long period of time, and yet this issue didn't come up. And, um, in our item that was brought forward to the school board, parents in our community submitted a great deal of feedback. I know I've, I've mentioned this several times. We got thirty-six pages of feedback. Um, but we didn't know that we were having a-- going to be having a conversation about elementary schools, so we
didn't get any feedback, um, through that process. Uh, I also, um, have mentioned this before, and will mention it again, that I feel that the alignment in this process is not appropriate. I, I don't understand how the decision could be made by the board of supervisors. I understand that they are the funding source, but the agreement is between our school board and the law enforcement agencies, and, um, you know, I, I am perplexed at how this has come about. Um, uh, the--
When we were in front of the school board, I mentioned that this is-... the idea of having SROs in elementary schools is not typical, and at that time, I cited, um, all the places where they don't use, um, SROs at the elementary school level. Um, all, they, all of these are neighboring school divisions, and like us, use tactics like, um, secure vegetables, visitor protocols, emergency alert systems, threat assessments, and staff training. Um, and I know we heard a speaker tonight mention the Virginia Department of
Criminal Justice Services, um, a survey where only fifteen percent of the schools, um, identified that more security personnel was a priority. Um, you know, none of this conversation really should be about an either/or proposition, and I, I have mentioned over the course of my time on the school board that I really try to frame my work here on who I serve, and I mentioned it even earlier
tonight, right? We are a school division that serves a majority of students of color. And in citing, I, as I have many times cited, um, twenty-seven years of national data and academic study that has taken place, um, there are some issues th- with SRO programs. Now, does that mean the issue exists here? I don't know. It's not meant to be a criticism. It's an invitation to collaborate in a better way and
to make our relationship stronger, and let's, let's ask some questions to make sure that we're serving our students the best we can. And I think we would be better off if we had that discussion in a meaningful way around revising the MOU. Um, when it comes down to it, the reason why I keep coming back to this is because there have been many studies that show that the presence of SROs can lead to adverse and severe consequences, not only for
students of color, Black students, Indigenous students, Latinx students, Hispanic students, but also with students of dis- with disabilities. And all I am asking in this conversation is that we ensure that we are framing our relationship in an appropriate way that serves our students, and it, it, it truly is an invitation to collaborate in a better and more meaningful way. Um, I don't think ultimately that this decision should be made quickly, uh, with one government entity acting in a unilateral way.
Um, I think we need to be more collaborative and work on building more trusting relationships. And I certainly, uh, don't think this decision should be made without first consulting with the school board. And with that, I'll ask, is there any more, um, discussion? All right. Um, well, I know all of my colleagues on the school board will be quite excited that we do not have a closed session. And at our, uh, work session, we discussed, um, changing the agenda so that we do board member comments and committee reports
and new business before any proposed closed meeting. Um, so now we actually do have time, uh, for board member comments and committee reports. Um, I would like to start with our, um, board members to the right. So, Mrs. Ricardi, you're up. Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you for doing this. I really appreciate it. I appreciate the accommodation and, and rearranging the agenda for this. So, um, with that said, uh, February has been a really busy month. I'm excited to be the chair of our Performance Monitoring Committee. We've met twice this month.
On February fifth, we reviewed the strategic plan metrics and student achievement trends, um, and we saw a solid uptick in English learner proficiency, which is, um, which is great, but we still need to focus on chronic absenteeism. It's still a priority for us. On February twelfth, we dug deeper into assessment data and intervention results, and, uh, my big push right now is to take all the data that we've been looking at for the last year or so and actively start building out a school board dashboard for real-time transparency, and also as a way for us to
have key data and metrics that we're looking at, um, across the width of LCPS. So I'm gonna be seeking feedback from, from everybody in that process as well. Um, as your representative on the Career and Technical Education Committee, I'm thrilled that February is CTE Month. We had a great meeting last week reviewing the strategic planning process and discussing, um, CTAC events. And, um, you need to mark your calendars for this Thursday at five thirty right here. Um, we're gonna be holding the CTAC ex- um, Expansion
Plan Roundtable to talk about how we can grow continuing education options for every kid in Loudon, which is gonna be a lot, a really interesting session. Um, on the ground, I visited, uh, Rolling Ridge Elementary School this month. I got to read some, to some eager first graders, which was a lot of fun. Um, their curiosity was really inspiring, and a huge thanks to Principal Michael Bird and Executive Principal Shauntelle Simon. Um, I was al- I also went to Sterling Middle School with Lauren Chernoff and, uh, Principal Fitzroy Frew, who has a personality
as big as his awesome name. He is so amazing. Um, had pretty much every adult in that building running reading, um, reading circles with- for about thirty-five minutes, and I was joking, that's probably the quietest a middle school ever is in a day, is during that time. But it's a really amazing experience, um, really getting, um, targeted inter- reading interventions for their students, exactly how they need them. It's just really an amazing opportunity for those kids, and the reading, um, improvement scores, I'm sure, are gonna be tremendous.... I had two more visits planned for yesterday, but since it was a snow day, those are
gonna get rescheduled. So we'll, um, be visiting Rosalie Carter in Forest Grove in the coming weeks. Um, I have a ninety-day plan, a start plan, um, that includes visiting all of our Sterling schools by the end of March, and so I'm on track to meet that goal. I wanna say congratulations to Park View High School, who just earned their national honors, um, national honors for the twenty twenty-five ESEA, E-S-E-A, uh, Distinguished School Award by closing achievement gaps. And then, as, um, Dr. Spence had mentioned, Sterling, Sully, and Guilford were also,
um, uh, recognized this year as a Virginia's, uh, community school designations, whi- which I think is great. Um, I'm also getting ready to start doing some town halls here in the coming weeks, and so I'm ex- really excited about getting out into our community. So thank you so much. Thank you. Uh, Mr. Svendsen. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, I wanted to highlight some of the work from Legislative Audit and Policy Committee. Um, I guess we should say the Legislative and Policy Committee now, LNP. Um, that's one update, that, uh, audit is now its own standalone committee.
Um, so w- currently, we have one policy that is up for feedback, uh, until Thursday, February twenty-sixth. So we'd encourage folks to submit feedback on policy sixty-three thirty by the end of the day Thursday. Um, so this is the policy that governs the distribution of materials on school grounds, including ma- political materials. Um, and, uh, this is updating a policy that's, uh, that's quite old. So, um, this is something that is really important to a variety of stakeholders, to,
uh, staff in our schools, um, to our parents, to our students, um, and I want to make sure that the committee is balancing the, um, the safety of the school environment and, um, and keeping us focused on, uh, on the, for example, at a back-to-school night, focused on the, the subject at hand, which is getting parents, uh, into the, the classroom to speak with students, teachers, with, uh, balancing the democratic process and making sure, um, that, uh, folks, uh, have the opportunity to engage civically.
Um, so I really would appreciate feedback from the community on the best way we can do that with this policy. Um, so that's sixty-three thirty. Um, that deadline is this Thursday, the twenty-sixth, and we'll be continuing to discuss that in committee. Um, and I, uh, would just like to say, um, on a, on a personal note, I really enjoyed attending, um, the, the resource fair this weekend at Heritage High School, um, focused on wellness. Um, there are so many amazing mental health and wellness resources that LCPS staff, um, and community, uh, volunteers, and
pr- mental, mental health professionals are offering, um, and it was great to spend time speaking with folks there, um, at the high school about the various programs. Um, I especially enjoyed speaking with, um, LCPS staff who are working on our McKint- McKinney-Vento services and helping students, um, who are experiencing housing insecurity and, and providing resources, and just a reminder of the incredible work that LCPS does, um, outside the classroom as well. Thank you. Thank you. Um, I see, um, I, I did hear from Ms.
Chernoff that she went ahead and logged off, so we'll hear from her next time. Um, and I'll go ahead. Um, I have been very excited to jump back into committee work. It's nice to get grou- you know, to, to really jump into something new, and I've enjoyed, um, our presentations in the PMC committee and our conversations and, um, our work in student services. Um, it's very exciting, um, to, to dig in. And, um, i- it's busy all the time, um, but some of the best things that have happened for me
personally lately are attending the Kindness Fair at Potomac. Um, it was incredible, and I had the opportunity to share, um, that day, uh, especially with the principal at Potomac, how exciting it is for me as a, a parent and a school board member, to see some of the kids that I remember in kindergarten and first and every grade, um, now as, as seniors, acting as peers to our younger students. And it was really such a nice event, um, in memory of a teacher who had worked at Potomac for, um, at least a decade, who had
passed away recently, supported by her family. Um, and, and really what we saw was the, the counseling teams had worked to give the students a grounding in all of these concepts, and then they had also worked to make sure that the high school students knew, um, what their lessons should be. And then watching it all come together in, in the gym that day was just lovely. So every student got to learn about kindness and, um, remember this wonderful teacher who had served at Potomac. Um, I also really loved,
um, being able to go to the wellness, um, United in Wellness event this weekend. I inte- attended two set sessions, uh, one on anxiety and one on, um, that was really teenage anxiety, and then als- the second one was on belonging, but really in terms of reaching students who may not feel that they have a place, um, in our community. And to hear from the, uh, Brian Bartel Foundation on that issue was just incredible.
I'm, I'm grateful to the team for making that opportunity possible, and I did, um, notice, I, I believe, just based on my own perception, that the crowd was bigger this year. So I'll be excited to hear more about that. Um, but de- definitely seems like the word has gotten out and people are there to take advantage and, and to utilize those lessons and resources that we can make available. Um, I guess that's all I have. Thanks so much. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? ... Thank you, Madam Chair. I have also been excited to get back
into committee work, especially because I'm on new committees now. Um, so we had our first meeting of the special programs and centers recently. Um, so that was, uh, that was interesting to start to get the background on what that committee does, 'cause I didn't really-- I still don't really understand, but starting to learn. Um, and, uh, we also had our first- we had our first SBAC committee meeting and our first SBAC, uh,
discipline appeal, um, both of which I've loved, and I am just as excited about that committee as I thought I would be. So I'm, I'm very happy to be on it. I'm looking forward to, to the work that we're going to do this year. Um, I went to, uh... I also went to the Health and Wellness Resource Fair on Saturday. I brought my third grader with me. We both had a fantastic time. Um, she particularly liked all the swag that she got everywhere. Um, and, uh, and I, I had a good time meeting, you know, meeting
people, and, and similar to Mr. Svenson, seeing all the, all the vendors, uh, and opportunities that are out there to support our students and their families. Um, we had the first, the very first Equity Council meeting, uh, last week, run by Dr. Alice Williams, who's the chair of that, uh, of, of the Equity Council. Um, that was very exciting to be part of that group. There were thirty-five people on the, um, on the Zoom call, um, and we talked about what we're, what we're gonna do going forward, and it was really
exciting to see all the enthusiasm, uh, and the path forward. So I'm excited to be part of that. Um, and a couple of weeks ago, uh, I went to the, to an event at the Hillsboro Charter School, um, which others, uh, others here went to as well. Um, and at the end, a group of children came up to Ms. Labelle and myself with a piece of paper that- on which they had written: "This is our petition to get a new music room,"
with all, with all these little kids' signatures. And I, I have that, and I scanned it, and I'm going to send it to everyone because it was the cutest thing I've seen in a very long time. Um, and it was, uh, it was my first visit to Hillsboro. Uh, it was an interesting experience to see the school, uh, and it was wonderful to see the students and how excited they were and a- all the things that they were working on. Uh, and then to be capped off by the, um, in- intrepidness of this group of fourth and fifth graders who
provided us a petition for a new music room, was really cool. Um, and last but not least, uh, I, I'm very grateful to the students at Moorefield Station Elementary, who made these lovely, uh, these lovely ceramics for us. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Griffiths? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I want the people of Loudoun County to know I'll be on the following committees. I'll be chairing the Finance and Operations. I will be a member of the Board of Supervisors Joint Committee, and also a member of the Legislative and Audit, um, and Policy
Committee. For advisory, I'll be on the School Health Committee, so, um, please look out for those. Um, I will be meeting with different schools and parent organizations throughout the year, uh, to listen to any concerns. I appreciate all the feedback I have received from parents, um, with students currently in our schools and the taxpayers of Loudoun County currently. Um, I'm getting a lot of feedback from, um, those organizations. Um, I thoroughly enjoyed, uh, All-District Choir at John Champ High School and look forward to attending Grease at
Riverside High School next month. I am also going to plug Little Shop of Horrors at, uh, Broad Run, um, and I'll probably mention it again because it's in April. Um, there's a lot of exciting events going on. I ask that everyone please support the arts at our schools. Um, and please note, um, we are still receiving information or feedback, rather, on redistricting, so there is still time for our constituents to fill out applications for special permissions to stay in their current schools.
So, um, I ask that the people of Loudoun County look into that option or to reach out to their district representative for assistance. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Mr Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, it's interesting being a new board member to get into committee work right now. Um, I am currently on the, uh, S- Specialized Program Centers, SPC, um, and learning definitely more about how they work, as well as finance and operations. We've had a couple meetings with that already, um, and really kind of
sinking teeth into policy, um, and the financial goings-on of the division. I am also lucky to be the chair of the Student Services Committee, SSC. We had our first meeting last week. It's all blurring together at this point. Um, the biggest discussion to come out of it was, um, we are working on Policy fifty-three forty about removal of students. Um, that is going to a work group that's gonna be made up of, um, members of the SEAC and, and MSAC, and GAC, and so we're really trying to get this policy right
before we move it forward to the full board. We also heard about new Policy fifty-three ten, to kind of redefine special education, just a simplification, combining fifty-three thirty and fifty-three ten together, as well as a new policy on how we can support pregnant students. And of course, the most exciting part of the meeting was to learn more about our mobile medical service, which is going to be traveling around Loudoun County and providing medical care in all facets to, um, our community, which is just absolutely fantastic. Um, over my past month, I've had the opportunity to visit,
uh, several schools. I got to do a little reading time at Madison's Trust. I got to see, um, a math lesson I had no idea what was going on with at Freedom High School. Um, I'm a science teacher, not a math teacher, as well as, um, you know, spending part of my day at Lightridge and, um-... Gum Spring and, and Lunsford. So it was really, really fun. This past weekend, I did not attend the Wellness Fair. Instead, I was at Park View High School as a judge for the Odyssey of the Mind competition. Um, I was judging the spontaneous problem, and I wanna say congratulations. I'm gonna run through this quickly, but
congratulations to Hamilton Elementary, Cedar Lane, Blue Ridge Middle, Pine Brook Elementary, Sanders Corner, Watson Mountain, Goshen Post, Elaine Thompson, Smart Rail, Trailside, Round Hill, Ashburn, Hovater, Stuart Weller, and Willard for all making the state tournament, um, as well as all the teams who were competing. If you've never seen Odyssey of the Mind, it is super fun and super nerdy, but, um, just, like, totally awesome, um, creative problem-solving at its absolute finest. I also had the chance to have, uh, my first community meeting last week, uh, more members community. I learned a little bit more about our virtual learning program, as well as talked
to, uh, one of our members of LEAF, uh, which is exciting, and I have not had a chance to go to the one meeting we've had for GEAC yet, even though I serve on it, because it was the same time as our budget meeting, unfortunately, but excited to pass the budget. I'm also excited to work with all of you, and I do also wanna give a shout-out to my friend Isaac at Moorefield Station Elementary, who made me this really awesome blue flower with a ladybug on it. Um, so thank you, and also thank you for the birthday wishes. That's all I've got, Madam Chair. Thank you. Um, Dr. Rasheed? Thank you, Chair Chandler. I think, um, I think you forgot, John, that,
um, Mr. Pepper forgot to add, I think you're- you went to Pine Brook for a podcast, I think, or you're about to go to. That's on Friday. It's on Friday. I know. I already went, and I know you're up next, so that's gonna be fun. Um, at this month's MSAC meeting, LCPS Ombuds Carrie Williams and Director of Strategic Communications, Joan Stahlgren, provided an overview of the Let's Talk messaging platform. Uh, it's a-- this is a quick way or a simple way to reach out to offices and departments across LCPS website, and you will most often see a, a grey Contact Us bar on the right side of an LCPS
division-level webpage. So I do encourage constituents, uh, to use this platform to contact your school board members as well. Delegates were also able to use guided scenarios in a workshop to help them foster engagement through advocacy-focused conversations with school administrators, and nominations for the twenty twenty-six MSAC Annual Awards are open now through April tenth at five pm. Each year, MSAC honors students, educators, administrators, and schools who are making meaningful, equity-centered impact across the school division.
So awards will be presented at the EquiTea event on May ninth, so mark that calendar. And, um, families, students, staff, and community members can submit those nominations at lcps.org/msac. Finally, the March MSAC meeting will be dedicated to the Better Together family dinner. Yes, our family dinner and social. So check my, um, MSAC social media for the QR code to RSVP and sign up for a big potluck dish, then come and celebrate with us on March eighteenth at six pm.
And don't forget, you could, um, do... uh, students can do a take-home meal for Ramadan, 'cause I understand that we have Ramadan this month and a little bit of, uh, March as well. So, um, so February eighteenth to March nineteenth, student can-- students can request this meal through the regular food service line, or parents can contact the school cafeteria manager before lunch service. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Um, Ms. Labelle? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, SBAC has been snowed out twice now. So our last
meeting was in December fifteenth, where we finished going over Policy eighty-two twenty, which is student discipline. Uh, then we finally did get to have a meeting on February fifth, when we were doing an appeal. We had already had a slot for an appeal, so we just slid a little, a little, uh, SBAC introduction meeting in there, and my colleagues, um, Mr. Svenson and Ms. Donahue, got to experience all sorts
of stuff, and Ms. Donahue was thrilled, as I recall. Mm-hmm. And, uh, so we're looking forward to maybe having a meeting at the end of March. I hope there's no snow. Um, I also, uh, had some things cancel on me, but I did go to the Hillsboro ten-year anniversary, um, celebration with Ms. Donahue, Ms. R- Ricardi, and Ms. Griffith, and we got to watch
all sorts of interesting displays that were initiated and presented by students. So that was a good one, as well as the petition at the end of the evening. That was a lot of fun. So that's where we are at this point in time, and maybe I'll have more to tell you all next time. Oh, I also got to go to a SEAC meeting. So there wasn't a lot going on for me since the holidays, but we'll catch up. Thank you. And, um, I'm just gonna reclaim a tiny bit of my time, since
I don't think the buzzer went off. But, um, as the chair, um, I wanted to go ahead and let you know that I've decided that, um, for the new audit committee, the chair will be Vice Chair Donahue, and also serving on that committee will be Ms. Ricardi and Mr. Pepper. So I don't want to hold up any preparations you have for organizing, um, by waiting to send you an email tomorrow. Um, and with that, I will ask, is there any new business? Seeing no new business, we can move on to adjournment. Um, thank you so much for being here tonight. This, um, February twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six, school board meeting
is adjourned. Thank you, and drive home safely.