Good
afternoon, everyone. I call to order this March tenth, twenty twenty-six Loudoun County School Board meeting. We'll start this afternoon with item number two, which is approval of the consent agenda. Board members, are there any changes to be made to the consent agenda? Seeing none, I will now entertain a motion to approve the consent agenda. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to approve the consent agenda. Thank you. Is there a second?
Second. Thank you. We have a motion made by Mr. Pepper to approve the consent agenda, seconded by Ms. Chernov. Um, it has been properly moved and seconded to pr-approve the consent agenda. At this time, we'll take a vote. Um, clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote. All right, clerk, please close and display the vote. Um, that motion passes with seven school board members present, includ-- voting yes, including Mr. Svendsen, Ms. Chernov,
myself, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rashid, and Ms. LaBelle, and one school board member abstaining, Ms. Ricardi, and, Vice Chair Donahue absent for the vote. Thank you, and we'll move on to our item number three, the School Board and Administrative Advisory Committee update. Tonight, we'll be hearing, from the School Board Advisory Committee, the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee.And we'll receive an update from Miss Erin Kunkel, our MSAC chair.
Welcome back, Miss Kunkel. Good evening, Chair Chandler, members of the school board, Superintendent Spence, and community members. My name is Erin Kunkel, and I am honored to serve as chair of the Minority Student Achievement Advisory Committee. Tonight, I'm pleased to present MSAC's school year twenty
twenty-five/twenty twenty-six update to the board. Our theme this year is Building Foundations Together. This phrase means that we are committed to working together, showing up for students and families, focusing on steady, essential work that lasts. Tonight, I'm happy to share how that commitment has taken shape in practice. Next slide, please. At the heart of MSAC's work is our mission: to partner with Loudoun County Public Schools, parents, and the community to acknowledge and promote the needs of
minority students by building a school system that is culturally and socially competent and positioned to provide fair and equitable learning experiences for all students. Next slide, please. Equity is not about serving some students at the expense of others. It is about ensuring that every child in this division has what they need to succeed. This school year, MSAC made a deliberate decision to look inward before looking outward. We paused and reflected and asked
ourselves, "Are we equipped? Are we prepared in the way that we need to be to do this work well?" That reflection led us to three focus areas: recommitting to the core role of an MSAC delegate, strengthening our structure, training and engagement, and deepening student engagement and their sense of belonging. You cannot build strong foundations for others if your own foundation is unstable, so we started there. Next slide.
With that foundation in mind, I would like to walk you through the concrete ways we have been building capacity and making an impact across the division this year. Next slide. One of our most meaningful investments has truly been in our delegates. We introduced structured onboarding and men-mentorship so new delegates felt welcomed, guided, and supported rather than having to figure things out on their own. We sharpened how delegates engage in policy analysis, grounding that work in real student experiences.
For example, we've asked the question, "What do policies mean for a seventh grader who does not see themselves represented in the curriculum?" Or, "How does a family navigating a discipline process feel when they do not fully understand?" To support this, we partnered with the Division of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility and with Dr. Tyler to offer training focused on becoming better equity-oriented change agents. Our delegates are not just attending meetings, they are learning how to
advocate, how to move inside their institutions, and how to create change at the school level. We have also provided clear action pathways so that when delegates return to their schools, they know what to do and who to meet with. Meet with your principal. Meet with the equity leads at your school. Get on your PTO or PTSA agenda. Share MSAC updates and the meeting minutes. And we encourage them to engage with us on policy matters. Next slide. Our delegates have shown
up. What you see in these images from some of our meetings is not a committee going through the motions. It is a committee member and a community of s-delegates in the room at the tables doing the real work. This is what it looks like when our community shows up for its students, and we are proud of every delegate who has walked through those doors this year. Next slide. MSAC's role also includes providing feedback on board policies, and this year we took that responsibility very seriously.
Our delegates have reviewed and provided structured feedback on twenty-three board policies this year. Each one is examined through an equity lens and with the question: how does this policy affect minority students and all students and their families? We remain committed to centering equity in every policy conversation, keeping students and families in the forefront rather than as an afterthought, and maintaining early and transparent communication with the school board and division leadership so we can continue to be trusted partners and collaborators and not just a checkbox in the
process. Next slide. I would also like to speak directly to what our community has brought to us this year. The concerns we hear from families have clustered around four areas: racial slurs and hate speech, disproportionate outcomes for minority students, students' sense of belonging or the lack of it, and access to ac-advanced academic programs and pathways. What I hope is clear is that when I s-name these four concern areas, that I am not talking about isolated complaints.
We are seeing similar patterns across grade levels, schools, and backgrounds. Many families do not come to MSAC in a moment of calmThey come to us when something has gone wrong for their student, when there has been a harmful incident, a discipline decision that they do not understand, or a missed opportunity they worry will close doors later. By the time they reach us, they are often tired of repeating their story and unsure if raising concerns will make a difference. What they say they want most is straightforward information, someone to
validate what they are seeing is real, and a partner who can point them towards the next step. That is the role we play in MSAC, not to replace school processes, but to help families navigate them and to ensure their experiences and the patterns that we hear about and we see inform the work at division level. In response, MSAC has created a space for families to share those experiences. We have connected them with resources and information, presentations to help them navigate systems that can feel
inaccessible or even overwhelming, and encouraged and equipped parents to advocate for their own children and for other families within their schools. We have continued to invest in our delegates and into the families that join us so that the people closest to the schools, the parents, families, and students, are prepared and have a great way to respond. There is more work to do, but families should know that MSAC sees them, we hear them, and we are not standing still, and we are not giving up on this work. Next slide.
One of our clearest priorities has been growing the representation and voice of MSAC. This year, thirty-six MSAC delegates have participated in general body meetings representing schools across the division. Last year, we had representation from roughly eighty percent of schools. That's significant progress, but it is not where we wanna be. I met last year with Dr. Spence and Assistant Superintendent Dr. Ellis Williams, and from that meeting, Dr. Spence issued a clear call to action. Every school should have and needs to have at least one s-
MSAC delegate. We are eager to continue that work and to reach that goal. We want to partner with division leadership to act on that and to strengthen recruitment pathways, improving mentorship, and increasing student delegate participation because students must have a voice in conversations about their own education. Our goal is simple and it's ambitious. We would like one delegate, one MSAC delegate in every Loudoun County public school, and we are treating that as a shared goal between MSAC and division leadership.
Next slide. Building foundations together isn't a slogan. It is a description of the patient, persistent, and collaborative work of change. Next slide. As we look ahead, MSAC will continue to expand delegate representation, sustain equity-centered policy engagement, and support families through access, information, and advocacy. We are committed to strengthening our partnership across the division and continuing to collaborate in numerous and continued new ways because this work is
always better when we do it together. On the horizon, we are excited to bring our community together next week on Wednesday evening at Better Together, our family dinner and social. And then we are excited to join together again on Saturday, May ninth, to celebrate the students, teachers, administrators, staff, and MSAC delegates who make this equity work possible. We are also preparing for school year twenty twenty-six twenty twenty-seven executive board election, and we will continue with our delegate body meetings, and we are also going to
beginning launching our member MSAC membership drive with the ongoing goal of inviting more families and more secu- school communities and community members into this work alongside us. Next slide. I would like to close with this. MSAC exists because the community believes that every student, regardless of race, background, religious identity, or zip code, deserves to be seen, supported, and set up to succeed, and every student deserves to achieve
their dreams. We are truly grateful for the opportunity to serve in that mission and grateful to the school board and to the division for your partnership, collaboration, and willingness to listen. On behalf of the MSAC Executive Board, the MSAC delegates, and the families who trust us to carry their voices and their stories, I say thank you, and I am welcome to answer any questions you have. Thank you, Ms. Kunkel. I appreciate your being here and giving us this presentation. It's nice to have you back. Thank you. Um, I, I wanna just start off by saying I'm, I'm so
excited about your initiative to ensure that every school has an MSAC delegate, and I'm curious, what we can do to support that effort and how do, you, become an MSAC delegate? We could use the help, honestly, if as school board members, you are visiting your schools, checking in with principals and asking them. We're not saying we're, we're open to any parent, guardian, community member that would like to come on alongside us. All they have to do is fill out an application.
I respond back, "We've got your application." They join us at a meeting, and we go through the process of getting them trained and getting them filled, getting them filled in on what we're doing currently and what might be going on, in the background so they're prepared to go. Um, we believe that anyone who wants to do this work is welcome. We don't pick. We don't choose. We just say, "Please, come join us. Come help us." And I believe that we can fill this goal. I think that it's not out of the realm of possibility. It is ambitious, but
sometimes you need to shoot for the moon in order to make good progress. Well, thank you so much for that, and I'm looking forward to joining you at Better Together. Thank you. Um, and with that, school board members, do you have any questions? Uh, Dr. Rasheed? Thank you, Chair. Yes, I have a few questions. I, I wrote them down, and apologies if you already-- You might have mentioned, so some of these are, might be a little bit of an overlap. But if there's any way... Well, thank, thank you so much for giving us this information, and definitely for the Better Together that's coming up next week, and for the equity in May. We're really excited for that. Um, but yes, is, is there any way you could speak on the collaboration
between MSAC and, the division of DEIA? Yes. Um, we have been very fortunate, and I've been honored to, in my previous two years as chair and coming back in this, spring semester, if you will, as chair, to really get the opportunity to work alongside the division of DEIA. I am incredibly biased. I do not hide that. That team shows up and puts in the effort and the work for every student. They're available and open to us to answer questions. I have reached out to various members of their
team. Even in passing conversations, when I come to meet with Dr. Ellis Williams and Mr. Muhammad, they might impart some little nugget that influences how I plan the meetings or reminds us to guide the meetings differently. Um, they encourage us to join them when there's an opportunity to come sit in on their discussions. I had the honor of attending one of their presentations at the Adams Center, and I was blown away not by just the work that they're doing, but also just being in the Adams Center and having that experience. And the division really does care about our
students. When we send parents their way, I'm always encouraging parents to reach out to them because some parents feel like, "I can't talk to anyone. I've talked to enough administration officials," and I always try to encourage them and tell them that, "You may have talked to so many administration officials, but I know you haven't talked to them because there's an answer there, there's a resource there, there's support there." And I really truly am grateful because the division of DEIA has stepped up MSAC's game. And because they step up, we've had to step up and grow and expand how we do things together.
You had mentioned something about delegates, in, in your slide, and I was just wondering, who provides, the, the training for-- the leadership training for the delegates. Um, it's usually centered around, me or the executive board. Um, previously, before I became MSAC chair, I was the membership chair, and so my job and my role was to change-- train the delegates, and so I know what to do. And usually, it's informing the delegates on the history of MSAC, why our committee was stood up, the work that we did in the past, the work we currently do now, and just reminding them of the things. Like, we tell them straight out the gate, "You don't get to come in and demand that
something gets changed right here, right now." But we ask them to be a collaborative partner, to be a support system. I always encourage the delegates, "Show up in your school and just ask how can you help." Sometimes it is... My previous experience was cutting open popsicles at a school event, and people cutting open popsicles made me a familiar face, which made me a resource and a connection for them to do that, and so that's what we encourage delegates to do. Every school has a different culture and a different system, so we have to remind them that one size doesn't fit all. I wish I could hand you a book and a flyer and say, "This is how you do MSAC," but
that wouldn't be beneficial to the diverse population and the diversity within our division. So we encourage them to approach it as who you are. What I do might not work for another, another delegate, might not work for our vice chair, but everyone has a way to connect, and we encourage them to focus on that and lean into making meaningful connections. And how are they appointed? Um, the delegates are-- They fill out an application. Usually, the process goes that either the PTO leader or the PTSA leader, in, sends out a call and asks for delegates to sign
up or anybody to volunteer to become a delegate. If the PTSO does it and the parent would, or the principal would like to volunteer a parent or nominate a parent, they can send an application, and it's a digital application that we have, and all they have to do is request it. When they fill it out, the minute it's submitted, I get an alert, and I see that it's submitted. We review the application. If there's something missing like, what's your school or did you check in with your principal or your PTO, we try to encourage delegates to make sure that they at least talk to the PTO leadership or their principal, so they're not
just volunteering out of the blue. We wanna make that connection. And then from there, we don't-- There's no interview process. There's nothing like that. It's like, "Hey, you signed up, so we'll take you. Join us. You said you wanted to volunteer, so you're stuck with us now." And then from there, we lean in together, and we do the work. But we wanna keep it simple and streamlined. We don't wanna discourage people from joining us in the, in the work and joining us as delegates. And just my last question: What is, what is the most impactful, I guess you could say, endeavor that MSAC has done for the community that, that you can think
of? I would say because it's coming up soon, I think Better Together because I feel like we needed it. The first year that we did it, we needed Better Together, and we needed that moment in the midst of everything happening. It got to December, and we were just like , "What do we do?" And I had a meeting just to follow up with Dr. Ellis Williams, and we were like, "You know what would be great? Is just getting together one time as delegates." And then it became, "What if we got together as a division? And where would we host it, and how would we do it?" And we grew this idea that started small.
Our first year, we had twenty-five people, but I believe it was the people who needed to be in the room. Last year, we were blown away by having over a hundred people. And this year, I'm just hoping whoever wants to come our way can join us. I have been shameless in saying, "What are you doing next Wednesday? Would you like to join us? What are you doing? Would you like to come to this event? You should join us. If you need a break and you wanna come to a place where you can just enjoy yourself and relax and have good conversation and just be in a group and in community, please join us." And so I feel like just reminding people that you can come to a place and not feel judged, not
feel picked at, and just be yourself and be who you really are is great, and I feel like it's an honor to be able to host something like that and bring that to division and know that it's different. And, you know, I'm kinda proud to say that nobody else is doing it and that it's something that is MSAC. And I always tell people that if you ask me what MSAC is and who it is and what it does, I always lift up Better Together now and say, "This is what MSAC is."Thank you. Mrs. Griffiths.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, thank you for your work, Ms. Kunkel. Um, I just had a couple questions for you. Mm-hmm. Um, well, I see you have two openings for MSAC that have been open for a while. Mm-hmm. Um, you are listed as the past chair. Mm-hmm. Could you just let me know what your, role is? My current role is I have been reelected as chair. We had a special election in February, and I am reelected as chair. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Maybe we should fi- fix that on the, on the, website. Yes. Um, you know, going back a little bit, my suggestion has
been to combine the, the new equity council with MSAC. Um, you have somebody on MSAC that's also on the equity council, so- Mm-hmm ... I was curious as to why we, you know, the, I saw the openings. I was curious to know why we couldn't combine because I believe there's 10 students in the equity council, that might want to be on MSAC, and maybe they are already. So it's why do we have the two? Um, that was a question that I had, why we couldn't combine the two. Um,
and if you could answer that for me, that would be great. Okay. Can, why, why are they separate? Um, I believe that when MSAC was originally stood up, the idea was to deal with the, the racial disparity and the racism that had been prevalent in LCPS up until a certain point. And with the attorney general's finding, it was determined that changes needed to be made in LCPS, and part of that was MSAC being stood up, not as a watchdog, but as a partner, a collaborative partner, to work with the division to help highlight this because oftentimes the stories
of minoritized and marginalized people don't get heard, or they're lessened or saying, "Well, that's great that happened, but all of these other things are more important." And so when MSAC was stood up, it really was about advocating for an equity committee, someone to bring these concerns, to have these equity-based conversations and discussions about what was going on in the division. Now, as to MSAC's participation and overlap with the equity committee, we had, when the equity committee was stood up, we had three representatives on the board. That was, that was sustained and through the
equity committee, and that was just so we could participate and be involved in those conversations. It wasn't to take over. It wasn't anything like that. It was to continue to be a part of conversations. Our representatives on the equity committee, more often than not, their feedback on policy or on issues was aligned with what MSAC did. Our equity council or equity committee members would report back to us what they heard. They would share their findings. If we had something to report out, we would sometimes ask our delegates who represented us to say, "Hey, can you share this event going on?" Or, "Can you share this, this policy we're working on or these things that have come to our
attention?" And that was our way of communicating with the equity committee. Now, do I think that MSAC and the equity council, the new equity council, should join together? No, I do not. Because although our work is aligned and although we do line up in many ways, I think MSAC provides something unique and special, and the equity council, as it is just brand new, has the potential to provide something unique. I do see that there is going to be a long partnership and collaboration, but we are parents, and we are in and out of these schools daily. We go into the classrooms if we have the little ones, or we're sitting in the
parking lot talking to our parents and parent friends, like I was doing this afternoon picking up my older kids. We are-- We have connections to the community. We can relay information. There are oftentimes that parents don't wanna come and say, "Hey, I gotta talk to a school board member," but they would rather express their concerns to a delegate, somebody who's in there with them in the experience. I've had experiences where parents talk to me because I am a delegate and not just because I'm MSAC chair, because they know that I know what's going on in the school. I'm a part of the school community.
And oftentimes, if you don't have somebody who's in the thick of it with you and understanding, it's difficult. And so I would say no, I believe strongly that there should always be an MSAC, like I believe there should always be an equity council. And giving up that resource and that connection to the community does a great disservice not only to this school board but to this division and, frankly, to our parents and students. And when it comes to our students, student delegates that we had the previous two years, and even now, they know that I am rooting for them. Our executive board and our delegates are rooting for them.
We want the students to come. We would be like, if you told me there are 500 students out here that wanna be delegates, I'd be like, "Sign them up." They are welcome to come to this table because we don't wanna shut out their voices. We want them to feel welcome. We want them to feel heard. And I have been influenced and inspired by previous student delegates that have reminded me of small things that I maybe forget as a parent, and they make me a better parent, delegate, and an MSAC chair because I am listening to those voices. So I would encourage the board to strongly consider supporting both MSAC and the equity com- equity council as
individual entities but also giving us the space and room to collaborate because we do great things, and we do even better things when we're together, and I'm excited, even in this time as chair, to support the equity council as it's been stood up. Um, is there overlap with, students that are on the equity council that are in MSAC? Because it sounds to me like you need students. You need some more students for MSAC. We, we, we're open. Our student delegate application is open all year. We don't have a cutoff date for that, and, I made the decision last year not to
cut off the application date for MSAC delegates too. But we, we do have student delegates that maybe serve. We know that there are student equity ambassadors that serve in that capacity as well, and that's students being involved, and I am not one to say, "No, students, that's too much involvement." If that is a student that wants to be involved in that capacity, and they have the bandwidth and the ability to lean into that and to make a meaningful contribution, I would encourage them 100%. We have student equity ambassadors, that are attending our MSAC
meetings. We have student delegates that attend them when they can. We understand they have priorities and commitments, so we keep them as informed. But yes, I would love to see student delegates. If I'm asking for 100 delegates in schools, then I'm gonna ask for 100 student delegates in schools as well. I would love to see the room filled when the division of DEIA has their JEDI symposiums. I would love to have our student delegates in the room with their counterparts that are student equity ambassadors and really have great conversations. So, if an MSAC, delegate is not able to make
a meeting, you would say that they could go to the equity council as well, the back and forth, or? No, our meetings are different. Our meetings are informational. We, we-- I would say that if they cannot make a meeting, our delegates know that they should reach out to me or anyone on the executive board, and we will provide the meeting minutes, we will provide them the meeting link when we get that and the transcript, and we will keep them informed if they have questions. And I have delegates that will ask me and send me emails if they missed it, "What did I miss? What can I report back to my school?" So we do everything we can to keep our
delegates informed. Uh, thank you. Um, just so you know, I had reached out for information on the equity council, and, I had to ask for it several times. I'm not sure why, it was not available to the public. Mrs. Griffiths, I'm sorry. The, the presentation is on MSAC. Okay. Um, so it, it's not, pertinent to the conversation. I'm trying to clarify the difference between the two. I, well, could- Um, and actually, if, Dr. Bergen or Wes Allen can do that for me, that'd be great. Thank you.
I'm, I'm happy to jump in. So the MSAC is a school board advisory committee that was established by the school board as a part of the agreement between the attorney general's office at that time when it was Attorney General Herring and the Loudoun County School Board. So that remains a school board advisory committee. The equity council was formed when the division was putting forward its equity commitment and wanted an equity council to support the work of the equity team. Recently, as we've talked about, that is
now an administrative advisory committee with a school board liaison, that's Ms. Donahue. So two separate types of committees functioning separately in terms of their advisory capacity. So are they gonna provide, feedback on our policies? Part of, part of their work will involve offering administrative guidance on, on policy, correct. Um, I haven't seen it as a public council where, anybody can go or- It's not a public meeting. It's an administrative advisory meeting. So it's not-- So for transparency, we're
not able to, as board members, we're not able to attend and- It's an administrative meeting, correct. O-okay. Not open to the public. O-okay. Thank you. But you do have a board member liaison, and that is one of the reasons we have a board member liaison, so that that board member liaison can come back and share during board member comments what may be happening at that committee. We have several other committees that are structured that way. Um, yeah. So for example, we have the School Business Partnership Council. You have a board member liaison to the School Business Partnership Council. Mm-hmm. And we have a few others. And it's structured that way so that a board member can come back and provide information about what's been going on with that committee.
I appreciate the clarity. I just, I see overlap. Thank you. Thank you. Any further questions, board members? Um, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. And thank you, Ms. Kunkel. Um, really appreciate learning more about MSAC and the good things that they're doing. Um, first question, I know that, and I'm excited to see you at least try to help you get to that hundred percent goal. I mean, I'd love to see that. Yes. What's the student delegate percentage look like? Um, the student delegate, when, we opened up MSAC to student delegates two years ago, we had for the previous two years, we had
about twenty-five student delegates that came and went. Um, this year there had been a little drop off because a majority of our delegates were seniors. And so they joined us as juniors, and then they became seniors, and then they went on to do great things. And so as heartbroken as I was to lose all of the seniors and stuff, we haven't had as much engagement. I know that, we have tried to, we'd had discussions previously in the fall about what we could do, but I think it's just a matter of getting the application back out there and people knowing
and, getting the word out and letting students know that they are able to do so. Because I think once they know when they see it, then they find their way to us. And I think it's n- it's still new. I think of it as still new, a new initiative for us. And I'm hoping that even opening it up just for the remainder of the school year, we bring in more student delegates and let them know you can join. Even if they are graduating, by the time June rolls around, I'm like, "Ah, hey, if you're here with us for two, three months, that is still work that we're doing. That's still your voice in the room and being heard." So we don't
complicate it, but I know that we do need to get the word out and kinda amp up that communication. And so I'm working on ways to get that out to everyone and to make sure that the schools have it and the students know, because I do believe it is important to let the students know that there is a place for them as well and, and just encourage them to join us in the conversation. Excellent. And that's only-- Is it only for high school students, or can middle school, elementary- Um, we are open to seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders. We do have, we do have a little flexibility for sixth graders, but if anyone under the,
under seventh grade, if any student under seventh grade wants to apply, we, collaborate and we lean on the division of DEIA to kinda have those conversations because we can be talking about some tough things, and we don't want those students to be overwhelmed or not understand all the information. We don't discourage them from applying. I will say my daughter, when she was in sixth grade, she's like, "I'm going to apply." I'm like, "Well..." But she wanted to apply, and so we know that there are younger students that do wanna join us, but we defer to the division of DEIA on what that best practice and that best
implementation would be because I don't want to have any child feel overwhelmed or feel like they're out of their league because they don't fully understand what we're talking about. And so we, we just encourage them to apply. If I could, I would say, "Oh, yeah, sixth through twelfth grade," but I don't want to, have a negative impact on this work. I want them to be excited about it and engaged with it and not scared or afraid to actually be a part of it. Okay. And then, I n- couple other things you mentioned in the presentation. Yes. Just would love... Just curiosity more than anything.
Yes. I know that you mentioned you changed the onboarding process a little bit this year. Yes. What were the changes that were made? What did it look like? We, we had, previously had it that you could only... That we were very much either your PTO president or your PTSA president was the one that could put in the nomination. But we had principals that were emailing us and saying, "Hey, I have this parent that wants to be a delegate." And going back and saying, "Can you reach out to your PTO?" And the principal's like, "I approve. I'm doing this." Was like, okay, we need to change that.
We simplified the application. I can do a lot of information, but sometimes there was too many words on there, and I'm like, "Nobody has time to do all that reading these days." So I simplified the application. We're asking for the basic information. If there are gaps we need to fill in, we do. Um, we, we don't... We did have a portion on our application where we asked, like, "Why do you wanna be a delegate?" Some delegates wanna share that. I find that when they come to our meetings, they're already telling me why they wanna be here. It's because they care. And so we just simplified it, made it so if the principal nominates a
delegate, that we accept that nomination because it is the principal of the school. It is school leadership. We just tell the delegates, "Once you are onboarded and we bring you in, just get on your PTO, PTSA agenda so they know who you are and they're n- you're not one day showing up and being like, 'Hi, I'm here,' and they have no idea where you came from, what you're doing." But we just want to allow that if the principal or assistant principal is making that nomination, that we accept that because that is school leadership. That's, that's excellent. Then finally, the last thing is I, I was looking at your community concerns list. Mm-hmm.
Um, in particular, you know, obviously r****l s***s and h**e s****h and disproportionate discipline outcomes. I'm assuming these are things that are being brought as well to some of our committees- Mm-hmm ... performance monitoring, specialized programs and centers, when we talk about access to advanced programs and pathways. Yes. Um, can you elaborate on any of those- Um, I can elaborate ... and what kind of what you're doing- Um, I will say I know it, it's- Or just what you're doing at the committee level maybe. Um, we'll-- I will say that when it comes to r****l s***s and h**e s****h, we know that to date, 90% of the complaints,
90% of the infractions are using the N****d, and that's concerning. But there have been issues of a*********c l******e and a*********c s*****s being put on there. We have delegates that report back to us about, a**********c l*******s, s***s, h**e s****h being put to them. We hear things about people feeling, targeted and pointed at. We have heard stories from students that feel like they're targeted and pointed at because they might not speak English as their first language. And we understand that there is a policy and there
is a structure as to how those are dealt with. We know that there is a certain way we do, w- certain steps that are taken. It is concerning to us that DEIA is brought in after the fact to mitigate the situation and maybe clean it up, when I feel strongly, and we do feel strongly, that that should be something that they should be a part of. Not fixing the problem, we understand that that's a discipline issue, but education, school culture, how that's impactful. And so we have discussions about how we can impact school culture, because if you change the way something-- If you change an environment, you change what's
set in it, you change what's-- how people interact in it. It's like we hear about teaching our students to be upstanders, not bystanders. Telling our kids we can't just say right from wrong, and it's easy to discount and say, "Well, it begins at home." Some of us are doing that at home, but some kids don't have that support, and so we're concerned by those things. When it comes to access and pathways, we would like to know what those pathways are, not after the fact. We would like to know, like, how do we apply? Sometimes we get the information and we're like, "Well, that window closed, but thanks for informing us." We have parents that may not get that
information right away at their school, so we'd like to know about when to apply for academies of loud. We'd like to know about how to navigate academic pathways like math pathways, or how to engage with CTAC, and what our kids are experiencing when they get those presentations. Now, I'm a nosy parent, and my kids get the third degree. It's a Spanish Inquisition in my house, so you're gonna answer all my questions. Mm-hmm. What was this presentation? But other parents don't have that access, and coming to MSAC meetings is oftentimes where they hear that, and so we just have those same concerns. We know that there's discipline
disproportionality. We, we have been saying that for years. We are open to con- having the conversation, collaborating, discussing what we're hearing and seeing, and bringing some force more of our parent concerns. We by no means are sitting here pointing the finger saying, "You're wrong. Fix it. Fix it now." That's not how we operate. But we wanna help, and we are here to help, but we can't help if we constantly feel like the information is coming to us secondhand, or we're saying, "We're seeing this issue," and, "Okay, you see this issue." "How can we help with this issue?" "No, we're gonna work on it." That doesn't help because the
problems only get worse. And I don't think any of us want to see children suffer or feel harmed or feel like they don't have a safe space, because oftentimes s- I believe school should be one of the coolest places you can go, but I'm also a nerd. So- ... what do you do? But I feel like school should be the coolest place you can go. It should be your safe space where you're with your friends, where you're in a classroom, where you feel like, "I can show up, and if I make a mistake, I have the grace to learn from it, and I can get better. If I don't understand it, I can ask questions and get a good education." So we have, we have those concerns, but by-- as I said in my remarks, it's
not an accusation, it's just that we hear parents saying that, and when they come to us, they are worn out. They have knocked on so many doors, had so many conversations, dealt with this for so long, that they're coming to us like, "Okay, you're my last resort. What can I do? Who can I talk to?" And that's usually when we step in and offer to help and offer to make a connection or provide a resource that can support. So I appreciate those comments. It's always good to bring clarity, and I appreciate-- It's so clear the important work that you're doing for us as a division, to bring voice to sometimes the voiceless or people that don't even
know how to access it. So I thank you, for your presentation. That was very helpful. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, yes. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Ms. Kunkel, for the presentation and for all the work that you do to support our students across the division. I wanted to just ask, because, because the work that you and MSAC do is interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, do you have adequate opportunities and support to work with other advisory councils and administrative councils? Yes. Um, we have, since I've come back as chair, since
February, I have not had an opportunity to reach out, and make a connection with, LEIF, NGAC, and CTAC. But I do have SEAC's chair and past chair on speed dial, and so we are, in contact. We ask questions. We-- If there's a concern, if we see a policy that pops up, and I think it might be something that SEAC is working on, we reach out, we collaborate. If we have feedback, we have been known to say, "Okay," or, "Who's writing the letter today? Who's going to make this comment today? What do you need me to say?" I have sat in the gallery and
spoken to, the SEAC chair, the current chair and past chair, like, "I'm gonna make a public comment. Here's your last call. Is there anything you need me to say? How can I help you? How can I collaborate?" We talk about, a hope and a wish is to maybe one day get all of the committees in a room and just have a big old symposium and a big discussion where we just talk about our shared goals. Because something I learned in the past as MSAC chair is that there are a lot of ways in which we all do intersect, and we all cross over. And one of the things we discussed is that while
we may be talking about different equity issues, our definition of equity and our definition of what we ask-- are asking for and what we're advocating for is the same. And so I always welcome that partnership and those discussions and that collaboration because it makes our committee better. It makes all of us better as chairs and leaders in the committee. And so they know where to find me, where to call me. Uh, they often can guess where I am. If I'm not here, I'm toiling away at the computer, working on questions and asking things and getting their feedback if I feel like there's something we need to do. And they have collaborated with us on policies
this year and several times last year. So I'm really glad that we have that great relationship with SE-SEAC, and I'm hoping that I can build that relationship as well with the other advisory committees. Thank you, Ms. Kunkel. The idea of a cross-disciplinary symposium sounds logistically challenging, but- Yes. ...like an amazing opportunity. Yes. So I, I hope that you get, buy-in and opportunity to do that. Thank you. Thank you. Um, seeing no further questions, thank you, Ms. Kunkel. We appreciate your being here tonight.
Um, and with that, we will move on to item number four, our work session. Um, item four point oh one is the Department of Teaching and Learning Instructional Framework Alignment with School Improvement and Professional Learning, presented by Mr. Slevin, our Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning, Nicole Algone, the Director of Professional Growth and Innovation, Amanda Kim, Supervisor of Instructional Design and Innovation, and, Scott Mizuzol, the Supervisor of School Improvement.
Good afternoon, Chair Chandler, Vice Chair Donahue, school board members, and Dr. Spence. We are happy to join you this afternoon for a work session focused on the implementation of our instructional framework. The team in teaching and learning and across the central support continues to implement our instructional framework, which, is our division's shared vision for teaching and learning. Currently, the focus is on aligning our school improvement efforts and professional learning with the framework, and we're here this afternoon to talk to you a little bit about the steps we are taking to move towards that
goal. I'd like to take a minute to just have the team introduce themselves briefly. Good evening, everyone. My name's Nicole Algone. I am the Director of Professional Growth and Innovation. Good evening. My name is Amanda Kim, and I'm the Supervisor of Instructional Design and Innovation. Good afternoon. I'm Scott Mizenzal. I'm the School Improvement Supervisor. As you know, the development of our instructional framework was in support of our LCPS strategic plan, specifically tied to goal one of preparing our students to be knowledgeable critical thinkers,
communicators, collaborators, creators, and contributors. However, tonight's presentation also will move into our conversation around supporting staff when it comes to identifying needs and providing supports. We will review the structure of our instructional framework through focus areas, how those focus areas will support our school improvement process, and then in turn inform our professional learning. At this time, I'm gonna turn it over to Ms. Algone, who's gonna talk about the framework focus areas. The instructional framework serves as our division's shared vision for what high-quality core instruction looks like in every LCPS
classroom. The framework focus areas were developed as a way to highlight through lines within the framework. Focus areas are the instructional themes that weave together the related teacher actions and student actions around our division's priorities. You can see the eight themes listed here, and they serve as entry points for schools to align their data and specific school improvement strategies with the instructional framework and professional learning. Our goal is to align all LCPS supports, resources, and
professional learning around these focus areas to provide greater clarity and coherence for schools. This project works to provide a unified set of resources for schools when they identify a goal and strategies in the school improvement process. One of the first things we did towards working towards that collective goal was to form a group of focus area expert groups. Our groups are diverse individuals from both central office and school-based leadership. Each of these members of our groups have a deep knowledge and expertise related to each of the focus areas.
When our expert groups meet, they work towards curating and organizing resources and professional learning, into a cohesive set of tool sets. And the goal is that schools would utilize those tool sets to inform and work towards school improvement goals and strategies. On this slide, you see a chart that outlines, that, that diverse group of members who are part of our focus areas. Uh, you will notice again that each group is made up of a combination of central office leaders and school-based administrators.
As this graphic illustrates, the instructional framework, school improvement process, and professional learning are all interconnected to ensure student achievement. The framework provides the common vision, the improvement process helps us set measurable goals, and the professional learning provides the targeted support necessary to reach the goals. Beginning each spring, schools conduct an annual needs assessment to identify root causes and evidence-- and set evidence-based goals within a continuous plan do study act cycle.
This ongoing process ensures we consistently measure strategy implementation and its direct impact on student outcomes throughout the year. As schools engage in this process in the preparation for the twenty-six, twenty-seven school year, they will be aligning their instructional strategies with a focus area from the instructional framework. This alignment supports schools in prioritizing high leverage actions and professional learning that directly addresses the root causes identified in their data. As we move through this spring, our schools are actively engaged in
three critical steps pr-- to prepare for the upcoming school year. First, they're collecting instructional practice data to serve as the foundational data points for the root cause analysis. Second, they will be reflecting on the two thousand twenty-five, two thousand twenty-six school year, identifying what worked this year and what are still some ongoing barriers. And finally, this work culminates in a comprehensive needs assessment, which schools will use to update their school improvement plans to align directly with the specific instructional framework focus area for the year ahead.
School teams will receive ongoing supports before and during this process. To ensure the needs assessment is comprehensive, schools look at three distinct categories of data to include outcome or academic outcomes, instructional practices, and climate and engagement. I wanna specifically point out in an-- under the instructional practices data points, our use of teacher instructional observations and student action walkthrough data. These new data points align directly with the specific teacher and
student actions defined in our instructional framework. To illustrate how this data informs our process, slide thirteen presents a snapshot of teacher instructional observation data from our high schools, representing over seventeen hundred observations completed as of late February. In this sample data, we see our high school educators are demonstrating consistency in several core areas. For example, ninety-six percent of observations showed a clear focus on essential academic concepts and skills aligned with
LCBS curriculum and state standards. We also see high percentages in classroom environment, with ninety-three percent of teachers effectively establishing high expectations and ninety-three percent modeling routines that promote a safe and nurturing space for students. While these foundational areas are strong, the data also reveals instructional opportunities that we can address through our focus areas. Communication to students of characteristics of high-quality work and success criteria was completely observed in sixty-two percent of the observations.
Furthermore, sixty-six percent of observations reflected teachers promoting student ownership of learning through activities like goal setting and self-assessment. While the previous slide focused on teachers' actions, slide fourteen shifts our perspective to the student experience through our instructional framework walkthrough tool. In this sample data, we see strong evidence of students contributing to a positive and respectful learning environment with eighty-seven percent of observations showing students modeling established norms and routines.
Additionally, sixty-five percent of students are approaching academic challenges as learning opportunities by asking questions and connecting ideas. The data also highlights critical areas where we can empower students further. Specifically, we can see an opportunity to help students use evidence and feedback to reflect on progress and set learning goals, which was completely observed in only thirty-six percent of the visits. These insights are exactly what schools will use to select their instructional framework focus area, ensuring
their improvement strategies directly impact the student experience in the classroom. As mentioned before, the teacher and the student actions that are outlined in the instructional framework are interconnected. So it makes sense that a school, when analyzing data, would look for those connections and leverage them for growth. So for example, a school might notice that that teacher practice of defining curriculum-based learning objectives is a current strength. And that teacher practice is directly related to the teacher action of communicating high quality work and
success criteria to students and families, which data shows is currently a gap in practice. So together, that strength and that area of growth might s-- they-- teach-- schools might identify those connections as connecting to clarity. Therefore, a school might select clarity as a focus area. Once schools have utilized data to determine a focus area and choose their improvement strat-strategies, we must think critically about how we're supporting our teachers in that growth.
It is essential that schools can easily draw upon instructional resources and learning opportunities that are directly aligned with their specific goals. We are taking significant steps to organize our PowerSchool professional learning system by using tags that will help our staff quickly find training sessions tied to a specific focus area. Additionally, we are curating focus area toolsets that bring together resources and professional learning into one easily accessible location for school leaders.
Beginning on our county-wide staff development day on March nineteenth, learning sessions will be tagged to these focus areas to create a division-wide inventory of our offerings. This allows us to identify any gaps in support and empowers schools to select professional learning that is aligned with their chosen school improvement focus. This graphic that you see here outlines the number of sessions offered on March nineteenth for our county-wide professional learning day, and you'll notice that fo-- the focus areas of literacy,
responsiveness, and structures are the most tagged focus areas. As I share, the ta-tagging of sessions on March nineteenth will allow an administrator or teacher to make informed choices by enabling them to search for sessions that are aligned to their school needs or their personal interest. Last week, our offices had the opportunity to present to principals on this topic. At the end of that session, we asked principals for their feedback on what type of professional learning or resources might be most supportive to their future needs.
The items listed on the screen represent the four most popular responses from principals. Our next steps is to share this feedback with our focus area expert groups and utilize it to inform the toolsets. We appreciate the opportunity to share this work regarding how we are aligning our school improvement planning and professional learning with our instructional framework. We would value the opportunity to hear your feedback on these efforts. We have two questions that we wanted you to think about, and of course, we'll welcome any other questions and feedback that you might have.
And the first is looking at the eight focus areas, we're interested to know which focus area resonates most with you. And then additionally, as we continue to refine this work, what specific considerations or perspectives should we keep in mind? Thank you. All right. Um, thank you so much for the presentation. It's really wonderful to h-hear how all of these, progressions are coming together to really better serve our students and families. Um, with that, I'll open the floor to questions. Oh, Ms. Chernoff.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I-- w-we were blessed to have this, version of this presentation in the Performance Monitoring Committee, just, what was that? Last week. Uh, so I fully geeked out at that meeting, so I will spare all of that for tonight. If you really wanna hear my comments, you can go online. It's, it's, you know, worth a listen. But I, I do wanna pull a few things out because I think... I think that for the public probably listening to this, it may just feel like, "Oh, yeah, we're talking about instruction and some foundational things, and we're trying to be responsive to
schools." But the complexity of this is so... I, I don't even have a word for it. Teaching here and knowing there's a hundred schools and looking for that consistency and that grounding, and then the data to support the individual needs of every single school, which then has every single learner sitting inside of it, all eighty thousand of them. When you really think about a document that was built with the people that do the work, that was cultivated alongside the best practices that have served this county for
years, and then you think about aligning that with school improvement processes, and then rolling that out into professional learning that is responsive to what teachers need to help move the needle for kids, like, incredible. This is an incredible feat. That we are at this point in Loudoun County Public Schools is so exciting to me. And I said this at the Performance Monitoring Committee, and I'll say it again, I love to be proven wrong. And when we went down this path, I was like, "Oh, boy, here we go. One more thing." 'Cause I thought we were sort of nibbling at the edges of all the best practices that we've done for many, many years.
And I'm like, this is-- I think, Mr. Brownsley said, "We don't want this to collect dust on the shelf." But when I first heard about this as a school board member when I was just coming on, I was like, "Oh, it's definitely gonna collect dust. Like, this is just gonna be a fad." I am so wrong. So, so wrong. This is so wonderful. The teachers are talking about it. The principals are leading with it. The children are having their outcomes measured by it. And I am just so proud of the team. I'm so proud of this division, and I'm really, really excited to see where this goes.
I think we're at the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we're gonna see with the walkthroughs and the data, what our different schools can learn from one another. And I, I am genuinely, genuinely envious that I did not have this as a teaching tool because I think it would have really pushed me forward as an educator in a way that I just didn't really have when I was teaching. So kudos to the team. Obviously, I'm a fan. Um, keep up the good work, and I cannot wait to get in more of the weeds of the data and see how you're using this to help our students. So thank you.
Thank you. Um, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. And just to pi-piggyback on what you were saying, Ms. Chernov, as far as the data, and it, it might have been discussed in performance, I'm not familiar with-- I didn't attend. But SOL pass rates, a literacy sc- liter-literacy scores, graduation rates, if we can get all that for next year, that, that'd be great. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you guys for the presentation. Um, I wanna echo a lot of what my colleagues have said.
Um, this is amazing. I feel like I-- you put these dialogue questions out there, so I have to answer them. The two that, the two that I really am interested in are authenticity and rigor. I'm interested in authenticity because it was, along with ownership, kind of the lowest marker. And so, like, what does it mean for, for work to really be authentic? And that's a huge challenge as an educator myself. It's a huge challenge, to, to have students produce authentic pieces of work or, um... A-and I'm not talking about AI, I'm talking about, like, stuff that's relevant to
the real world that's super cool. Um, and then rigor is, is always a challenge in this day and age, and we're pulled in so many different directions like the SOL exam or, or, you know, like reading scores. I see literacy is at one hundred and ten here. But, one of the things that, that I, I really, really love about this, and I was digging into slide fourteen on student actions. Um, I love this student walkthrough, right? As administrators, so many times we walk through the building and we're looking at, you know, what the students are doing, but we're
really observing what the teacher is doing. I love the focus on what are the students doing and where are they going. And I will tell you that this data that you have here already backs up a lot of what, what I see, right? Is that students have a very hard time reflecting on their work, reflecting on the quality of what they get. They are so interested in what is my letter grade that I got on this assignment that they don't care as much about the feedback they're receiving, which is what's really gonna help them grow and what's gonna help them improve on the next time. So I absolutely love the student action walkthrough.
I think it's in some ways more valuable than what we're seeing on this teacher walkthrough, because as we see, like, in almost every category, teachers are topping eighty percent and highly effective, which is another kudos to LCPS. Um, the very last thing that I wanna say is, in the dialogue, that second question you guys ask. As we continue this work, what are some things that we should be thinking about it? My biggest thing is if this is the way that we're gonna frame our work, and this is the way that we're going to frame our professional development, we need to be all in, right? So many times as an
educator, professional development seems scattershot, right? We do this one activity, and then we never visit it again. So if this is where we're leading, and this is great, I mean, this is awesome what you guys are doing, we need to-- this needs to be, like, our buy-in going forward. Um, even as we get the data, of course, we can tweak it. But, how do we continue this with the re-- for the rest of, of '25, '26? How do we build on this when our teachers come back in '26, '27? And how do we continue this great work onward and into the next school year?
So I'm excited to see where this is going. Um, I think this is a really cool process that we've done. Um, some of the theme alignment's a little bit tweaky for me, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around it. But, this is really cool, and I'm excited to see where it goes. Thank you. Can I just make one comment? Of course. Somewhat in response to Mr. Pepper, but also Ms. Chernov. What's important, I think, to note here is that while the school improvement process is always focused on our schools, like, th- that's the heart of our, our school system, what I really appreciate about this team is the thoughtfulness
we're putting into changing the systems that support schools. Uh, we need to be responsive. So you point out authen-authenticity and ownership have lower numbers in terms of offerings. Next year, when we're evaluating this, it should match where the schools are in terms of their need, like their school improvement plans, what their needs are. And that tells us in teaching and learning and student services and DEIA, here are some things that we need to be changed in terms of making sure we're being responsive to schools, so that cycle can be more effective. Um, so as much as it is about helping schools make
progress, it also is informing what, what we need to change in terms of our support centrally. And that's what I really appreciate about the leadership of this team, as well as Mr. Rounsley, you gave a shout-out. He's probably watching. He regrets not being here. Uh, but he, of course, is a big part of this team as well. So thank you for that feedback. Thank you. Uh, school board members, any-- Oh, yes, please, Mr. Ricardi. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Guys, thank you so much for this work. It's, it's really amazing. Um, I was just kind of thinking about this after the PMC meeting, and, I wish half my clients would be as, thoughtful in their
evaluation and surveying and data collection processes as some of the things we're doing here 'cause it's pr- it's pretty amazing. Um, I think the thing that's really interesting about this too, and I think at some point in time it'd be an interesting conversation is, and, and maybe a good question here is, for the student actions one, do the students see or get any kind of measure around this? I mean, how does, how does that play in? I mean, I see this as kind of like a, um... There's one thing that's-- There's one thing about how you're performing academically, right? How well, well you're doing in your studies, but this is almost like kind of the soft skill pieces that go along with the learning
process. It would be really... I'm just thinking way out here 'cause I'm not suggesting this is what we're doing, but I just... This is the kind of stuff that I think about. Um, you know, even like in the report card process, like these, you know, this is how your child is doing academically, and this is how they're doing on these kind of topics, and how they're applying what they're learning, and how they're seeing themselves in the material, et cetera. So has there been any thought to, to that moving forward? So we have, brought like, and Ms. Kim shared our focus groups together. And when we did that process, we started to learn about some of the, the
ways that teachers are using the, student actions in the classroom, and having students reflect, at the end of the, of the class. I'm thinking about a Potomac Falls example that was shared with us about a teacher that was using this in an English classroom. So small scale, yes. I think that's really great to have students reflecting about this and sharing this with parents. Um, and it is happening, in a small scale way with teachers who are starting to look at those student actions. Um, and you have my brain spinning about other ways that we could
incorporate the student actions with our students. Did you have something you wanted to add, Mr. Sullivan? Okay. I was just gonna say, I mean, as part of that too, and I'll stop after this one. Um, it, it's also a reflection of what happens in the workplace after school, right? Because you have competencies around your knowledge area that you, in the work you do, but then you also often have competencies around kind of more soft skill types of things as well. So I think it's a great way, especially-- and even doing that kind of in a scaled way, you know, starting in elementary, just in the concept of tracking these kind of things, and then getting more advanced in
middle school and then really in, in high school, using this as a way for people to really kinda be able to tie that to what this is like in a workplace in a performance evaluation process and how your performance and your, your work gets measured. So I don't know. Again, this is my workplace mindset thinking about this stuff, but I think it's a great, it's a really great start and a really great, set of, of data points, and I'm really excited to see what you guys do with this. Thanks. All right. Um, I will just say I really am so heartened to hear my colleagues', observations.
I, y- I feel as if anything I could say now would really just be to tag on. Um, we're really so appreciative. I'm really so appreciative of the work that you've done. One of the things that I really sought to improve in, in coming on the board was pushing for more consistency. I think it is really difficult when you're serving, a community that's as large and diverse as ours to, hit that note and make sure that everybody has access to the same experiences regardless of where they are. And I think this work goes a long way, in
bringing that together. And I guess I would say, I think structures, might be one of the, focus areas that resonates with me and, of course, also rigor. So, thank you for the presentation. We're g- glad that you were here this evening, and, you've certainly given us all a lot to think about. Um, and with that, because we still have time, I'm gonna ask if we can take up our information item thirteen point oh one. Um, that's the Department of Communications and Community Engagement School Business Partnership twenty twenty-six, Virginia School Board
Association Honor Roll Resolution. Um, that will be-- The, this item tonight will be presented by Ms. Natalie Allen, our Chief Communications and Community Engagement Officer, and, Ms. Renee Dawson, our Director of Family and Community Engagement. Good evening, Chair Chandler, members of the board, and Dr. Spence. We are thrilled to be here with you all, and I am gonna turn it over to Ms. Dawson, our Director of Family and Community Engagement, to share a little bit more about this resolution. Good evening. Um, I'm here tonight to share the VSBA
Business Honor Roll Resolution. The Virginia School Board Association Business Honor Roll recognizes businesses and organizations that demonstrate outstanding support for public education. Local partners play an important role in strengthening our schools and expanding opportunities for students through resources, expertise, and meaningful collaboration. So each year, the Loudoun County Public Schools School Business Partnership Executive Council reviews outstanding partnerships across the division and
recommends exemplary partners for this recognition. These partnerships will also be celebrated at the School Business Partnership Awards Recognition Breakfast on April sixteenth, twenty twenty-six. Gotta get a plug in while we can, right? Yes, we do. I'm excited. Um, I think we're gonna hit the seven hundred mark, a little bit more. So tonight, a resolution is presented recognizing these partners for nomination to the twenty twenty-six Virginia School Boards Association Business Honor Roll.
They will be formally recognized at the March twenty-fourth, twenty twenty-six school board meeting, and the resolution reads as follows. The twenty twenty-six Virginia School Boards Association Business Honor Roll. Whereas public schools and local businesses are an integral part of this community, and whereas many local businesses play a crucial role in supporting our schools, and whereas the economic health of our community, our state, nation, depends on the strong public school system, and
whereas collaboration between local public schools and local businesses strengthen schools and the business community alike by providing a well-trained and highly educated workforce, and whereas an excellent public school system is vital to the quality of life in this community and fundamental to preserving a strong democratic society now and in the future. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board names Ashby Ponds, Longstone Farm, and Luckstone to the twenty twenty-six
School Boards Association Business Honor Roll, showing appreciation for their ongoing support for Loudoun County Public Schools. Their work has aided this community in focusing on the goal of providing the best public schools we can for every child who attends them. Thank you. Thank you. And as the liaison to the school business partnership and, and really just starting, having only gone to two meetings, I've been really excited to have the opportunity to learn more about
what all of our school business partners do to aid our, our families and our students. Um, but I was hoping that you could give us an example from each of these three special honorees to share with my colleagues, like, why what they're doing is so amazing that they are deserving of this recognition. I can absolutely do that. Actually, so Ashby Ponds is one that I'm really excited to share with you all this evening, and this is a partnership between the Department of Student Services, our special education CAST
program, where students are able to work at Ashby Ponds and get actual career opportunities and career exploration. And they'll do that through housekeeping, culinary, and various, other fields. So that's our Ashby Ponds, which I'm really excited about that partnership. Do you want me to do Longstone? Mm-hmm. Okay. Um, Longstone Farm has developed a strong and meaningful partnership with Lovettsville Elementary School and various other schools in the Western Loudoun area, supporting both the school's instructional goals and the
broader efforts of the school community. Through the partnership with the school's parent-teacher organization, Longstone Farm has played an important role in strengthening community engagement and supporting school fundraising efforts. And so they've contributed resources, hosted opportunities, and helped create, meaningful experiences for families, through their partnership. And then lastly, Luckstone has provided meaningful and generous support to all the elementary school and many other elementary schools across Loudoun County, with a focus on academic
enrichment, community engagement, workforce development. In addition to their support in schools, they also participate and have participated in the division's Job for a Day program, welcoming students to learn firsthand about careers in the industry and the important role they play in the community. And in support of student learning, this one is really exciting. Luckstone is sponsoring and organizing an all-school field trip for all the elementary students in the spring, and they're carefully aligning this visit with the science
standards of learning for every grade level from kindergarten through fifth grade. And this experience really does ensure that the students have equitable access to high-quality, real-world, learning opportunities that collect... that connect classroom instruction with hands-on exploration. Um, Luckstone has also partnered with the school to explore and support the development of an outdoor learning space, helping expand students', opportunities to engage with science and nature in meaningful
ways. And I could go on and on with all the things that- So I don't have a lot of time. They're also really supportive of our teachers. Luckstone does a really good job of, supporting teachers as well and do- does a lot for teacher appreciation across the school division. Yeah. So they, they just do really great work in general. And luckily for us, at our next board meeting, representatives from each of these groups will be here to be recognized as well, so we'll get to say thank you to them in person. Yes. All right then. Thank you for offering that, information for us.
Uh, school board members, do you have any questions? Um, Ms. Labelle. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, ladies. Um, one of the things that I noted when you were talking about the opportunities provided by all of these three wonderful businesses is the opportunity for something we were just talking about, authenticity. These are showing how real skills in school lead to real skills in employment, so thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you for pointing that out. Yeah.
All right. Thank you. All right. Um, we-- I have been informed, that we can, or we have another, cabinet member who is prepared to go before dinner, and we still have fifteen minutes, so I'm going to skip, our information item thirteen point o two for now and ask that we move on to thirteen point o three, Specialized Programs and Centers Committee, the Middleburg Community Charter School, twenty twenty-six school calendar presented tonight by, Ms.
Chernoff and, Ms. Ray-Mitchell. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, in the Specialized Programs and Centers Committee, we were presented the Middleburg Charter School, tentative calendar. This happens each year, as a review to ensure that they contain the appropriate amount of instructional time. Middleburg Community Charter School uti- utilizes a slightly different calendar than LCPS. The major differences in the calendar are that the first day of school is August sixth, twenty twenty-six, and the last day of school is June ninth, twenty twenty-seven. The calendar does contain a hundred and eighty student
days, and the calendar was reviewed, in our meeting and was voted three to zero to come to this full board meeting. Uh, Ms. Mitchell, is there anything you would like to add to that? No, Ms. Chernoff, thank you for that great summary. Unless there are questions, I might be able to answer those. All right. School board members, are there any questions? Um, yes. Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, thank you, Ms. Mitchell. I-- It did not occur to me to ask this question, at our last... until after our last committee meeting. Um, but I-- Because we are-- we have this matter before the
full board now, but the-- we also had the Hillsboro Charter School's proposed calendar come before the committee, which will also likely be coming before the board soon for approval as well. And I noticed in reviewing those two calendars in conjunction with each other that, the, the Hillsboro calendar, I believe de-includes as student holidays, certain holidays that are on the LCPS calendar, that the Middleburg calendar does not. And I was wondering if you could just speak briefly to that difference.
Yes, Ms. Donahue, thank you for the question. So just for information, the, charter agreement states that the charter schools follow a modified year-round calendar, that begins with the first day of students in August and ends on the last day in June. So the Middleburg charter also does intercession for students, so kind of like an, a year-round calendar. So some of the holidays that we have that Hillsboro might also use, they do not have because they have other days added into their
calendar. Thank you. Any further questions? All right. Um, seeing none, thank you so much for the presentation. Thank you, Ms. Chernoff, for presenting. And, with that, we will now move to recess. The school board is in recess. Everything
working? Good evening, everybody. The board is coming out of recess at this time. Um, tonight, we'll move on to our next item, number seven, the pledge of allegiance and national anthem. We have with us this evening the Tolbert Tornado Elementary Chorus. Um, they'll be performing for us. This chorus is open to all fourth and fifth grade students and has a total of ninety-seven members. As you can see, they're not all here with us tonight. But we are very pleased, but wow, what a great number for your program, and we're pleased to see all of the students who are
here. Thank you for being here with us. Um, the students love to sing and perform, and they are very excited to be with us this evening to sing the national anthem and to, lead us in the pledge of allegiance. We are really excited that you're here, and welcome. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 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-spangled banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and
the home of the brave? Thank you so much. That was incredible. Thank you for being here with us tonight. Um, with that, we'll now move on to item number eight, recognitions. Um, item eight point oh one, our one LCPS spotlight, Aligning School
Improvement, Instructional Framework, and Professional Learning at Sully Elementary School. Uh, tonight, we will have our, John Tuck, the principal, Yvonne of, of Sully Elementary School, Yvonne Tenador, a teacher at Sully, and Hannah Prebock, the specialist in professional learning and school support. Good evening, school board and Dr. Spence. Uh, thank you for the opportunity to come here tonight to highlight some of the work, that we have accomplished this year with regards to our alignment
between the school improvement plan, the instructional framework, and professional learning that we have provided to our teachers. Next slide, please. So here's our agenda for tonight's presentation. Um, I'll be introducing our team, discussing our connections to the one LCPS strategic plan, summarizing our alignment process, highlighting the LCPS instructional framework focus area, specifically responsiveness, which is the one we have chose to highlight, sharing our learning and implementation cycle, and then allowing Miss Tenador to describe what practice actually looks
like within their classroom. Next slide, please. Um, so as, the chair just said, I'm here. I'm John Tuck, the principal at Sully Elementary School. Um, I'm joined by Yvonne Tenador, one of our fifth grade teachers, and Hannah Prebock, a specialist in the Office of Professional Learning and School Support. Next slide, please. So our presentation tonight directly aligns with goal two of the one A-- LCPS strategic plan for excellence. We will be focusing on how we strategically select and align our professional learning and coaching within our school improvement process, with a
focus on the instructional framework to impact student outcomes. Next slide, please. So Miss Prebock will now explain some of the work that has been done related to alignment at the division level. Good evening. As you heard earlier today, as a division, we are working to really align school improvement processes, the framework, and professional learning. And they're interconnected and together influence student achievement. And in order to do that, we've been i-- created these framework fo-focus areas. Uh, next slide, please. Sorry.
And then one more slide, please. The framework focus areas were developed as a way to highlight through lines within the framework. These focus areas weave together teacher and student actions around key priorities. There are eight focus areas that schools u-- can use to help guide their continuous improvement, one of which is responsiveness, which is the area that Sully is going to talk a little bit more about today, and how they've been using that focus area to guide their school improvement practices. Next slide, please.
So every school comes into the school year with a school improvement plan. Um, and throughout the course of the school year, we go through PDSA cycle reviews. Um, during each one of these, we look at how instruction is happening in the building, what type of impact it's having on kids, and if any tweaks or adjustments need to be made. Um, when we had our first PDSA cycle review of the year, a lot of questions came up based on teachers and other individuals in the room related to a need for greater clarity, and a shared understanding of what inspected instructional practices would be.
So as a team, we made the decision to pivot and to look at resources that were available within the county to provide a more clear direction and focus for our staff. Um, our team landed on the instructional framework focus areas, specifically the area of responsiveness. Um, this was relatively new, not something that had been fully rolled out yet, but something we felt like we wanted to give a try-- sorry, give a try. Um, the area of responsiveness directly aligned to our needs related to our core instruction, as well as meeting the needs for students where they are instructionally. Next slide, please.
So we adapted our SIP strategy to include specific language, within the instructional framework. So our goal became that teachers will utilize responsive instruction, which includes scaffolding, differentiation, and flexible learning paths daily, to-- based on student data during both the literacy and math block. It was important for us to call out some specific instructional strategies that we wanted teachers to leverage in the classroom, as well as find ones that could apply across multiple content areas within our building. Next slide, please. So once we had made that decision and picked our area and adjusted our
goal, it was then time to establish a clear path of what we wanted to be able to accomplish with regards to it. So we worked to develop and deliver professional development to our staff related to the area of responsiveness. Um, we do this two different ways in our building. One is through, whole school staff meeting PD, which is the way it's traditionally done in most schools. Um, the other way is through something that we call academic targeted support. Uh, during our academic targeted support sessions, teachers are able to see practices in action because it inclu-- it happens during the school
day. Um, they are then able to go and practice with their own students, and then ultimately come back as a group and reflect on the learning that they have received and what they might have learned from that experience, and then plan moving forward. After that professional learning has occurred, teachers then engage in coaching cycles with either our division instructional coach, our instructional technology facilitator, or a masre-- math resource teacher, who are all there to provide professional development for them. Throughout all of this, we are tracking implementation data and impact data, and then eventually we get back to the top of that
circle again and we're going through another PDSA cycle. Um, I'm pleased to announce when we finished our second one, we decided that we didn't need to change anything. We felt like it was working and we were on the right track. Next slide, please. So we selected Miss Tenador to highlight tonight because she applies professional development in her classroom immediately. She seeks coaching to make sure that she is meeting the needs of her students, and as a result, her average conditional growth on the winter MAP administration was fifty-seven percent, for her entire class, with an astonishing seventy-one percent of our Tier III students,
seventy-one percent average conditional growth for her Tier III students. She is truly proof that with quality, responsive instruction, students can make significant progress. We are pleased to allow her to share with you tonight. Good evening. When I was asked to share about my classroom, I kept thinking about magnet tiles. So when you happen to see students build them, you realize something special, like strong structures doesn't hap-happen by accident. They actually start with clear base, right pieces, and intentional
connections, and that's how I approach instruction. Also, when I first came here as an ambassador teacher, I thought my experience as an English language learner myself would be enough to support my students. But then I realized it takes more than shared experiences. It's true that I have that empathy and insight, but it's not enough to support all my students. It takes more than shared experiences. It takes intentional design. So I now use that lens to target these research-based strategies and scaffolds I
put in all of my learners. Next slide, please. First that I put in my classroom is responsive instruction through scaffolding. I know you believe in me that everything begins with a solid foundation. So I start my classroom with clear learning targets and model expectations so that students know what we're building towards. And also after that, I provide writing routines with peer feedback, graphic organizers, and sentence stems so that students will organize and share
their learning. I also use and teach content vocabulary intentionally so that students will be sh-sharing and collaborating with confidence. I know scaffolding in my classroom isn't just about simplifying. It is putting all the right tools that will make students be- Confident and independent. Next slide, please. And also, our-- just like Magna-Tiles comes in different shapes, our learners comes with different strengths and
readiness level. So we make sure that we differentiate and scaffold our teaching. We provide flexible learning paths based on student readiness and multiple ways to demonstrate mastery. Next slo-slide, please. And of course, we collaborate. Coming together as a team inside mis- my classroom is not an option, it is a must. I intentionally collaborate with my EL and SPED teacher every day, both pre-planning and real-time planning, so that we will know what
small group targeted instruction we will provide for our students. And just like that, how Magna-Tiles wor-works, piece by piece, connection by connection, and we put-- and when students put the right pieces together, they don't just finish their assignments, they actually create learning that lasts forever. Thank you. Any questions? Oh. Well, thank you so much for the presentation, and thank you so much for sharing your experience, with this new, framework and, and
really for sharing what it's like in your classroom. It's so meaningful to hear how you're taking all of these things and putting them into action to serve our students. Um, so thank you again for being here. And with that, I'll open the floor to the school board members for questions. Um, Ms. Chernov. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I was just saying to Mr. Slovin that I'm always appreciative as a school board member when we have a presentation about the nuts and bolts of what this looks like from a behind-the-scenes, top-down perspective. But really, this is the magic, and so I appreciate you being here and speaking. Um, it's so inspiring and beautifully
spoken. And I especially... You know, we talk a lot about sense of belonging here in Loudoun County Public Schools, and it's really important as that foundational piece, but you really hit on it. Those shared experiences matter for building that foundation, but then you have to be intentional about moving the needle for each student. And so I really, really praise you for lifting that up and for knowing that and for your analogy. Um, it's clear that you're doing incredible work, and, and the team I know is in the back, also standing behind you, in solidarity and strength. So I appreciate the work that you're doing for taking the bull by the horns with
the instructional framework, and, look forward to seeing more work in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Ricardi. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm really excited for all of the work that you all are doing right now. Um, and I'm really excited I'm gonna be visiting you guys on Thursday, so I'm super excited to see the whole building and see all of this in action. So thank you guys again for coming and for sharing. Um, I think one of the things, that I as-- having been a Sterling resident for quite some time now, is it's just really great to hear about, our unique culture in the, in the Sterling district.
And we have really amazing students and really amazing families and teachers. And honestly, just thank you guys for your investment in, i-in the schools and in our students, because it really does make a huge, huge difference for them. So thank you guys, and thank you guys in the back. I'm looking forward to seeing you guys on Thursday, and thank you for coming tonight. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much for the presentation. We appreciate your being here. All right. With that, we'll, we'll now move on to item number nine, student
school board representative's comments. Um, I, I promised that I would try not to be a complete and total dork about this, but I'm so, pleased that I have the opportunity to introduce our student speaker tonight, because she's been my neighbor, and I've known her for almost her whole life. And, just super thrilled to see, how you've, grown. So I'll say tonight, Ria King is our student school board representative from Potomac Falls High School. She is the current president of the Student Council and Leadership. Ria has been part of this organization for the
last three years and has helped with countless events at Potomac Falls. She is part of the DECA organization and ambassador for Morgan's Message, and played varsity s-softball for three years. Um, welcome, Ria. The floor is yours. Thank you so much. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ria King, and I'm a senior at Potomac Falls High School. This year, I've had the privilege to serve as both the student council president and the student representative for the school board. In both of these roles, I've worked closely with students and staff to organize events that bring our community together, like homecoming.
Homecoming week is meant to set the tone for the first semester of a spirited senior year. By taking on this role, I felt the weight of that entire responsibility. The student council underwent weeks of preparation to unite our school and create a positive environment for the students. However, my biggest lesson in leadership came from a simple pep rally gone wrong, transforming the way that I see dependability and community. Our pep rallies are designed to showcase our tremendous school spirit, including our band, sports teams, and numerous clubs. I lead a team who spends countless hours idealizing inclusive
games, brainstorming basic logistics, and preparing every single little detail. My favorite part of homecoming week is the anticipation from the entire student body, setting the tone for an unforgettable homecoming weekend. However, within minutes of our Friday pep rally beginning, chaos broke out between a small group of students in the bleachers. The disruption caused havoc in the gym and eventually grew unsafe for other students. Everybody was caught off guard, and the entire event was derailed. Weeks of planning turned into seconds of disaster and disappointment. Standing there, watching the energy shift, I was at a loss for words.
After the rally ended earlier than expected, I gathered my officer team during class. I explained to them, still stunned by what had just occurred, that we cannot let our disappointment guide us for the rest of the weekend. We needed to respond with action and ensure that tomorrow would be different. I presented a plan by reassigning roles, securing support from administration, and ensuring that safety would be prioritized without interfering with fun. The next day arrived quickly, carrying an entirely different tone. Our decorations hung flawlessly in the gym, the music flowed smoothly, and the energy had completely shifted to something I had never witnessed
before. It was positive, respectful, and safe, while being alive with energy for the students around us. Just twenty-four hours after their disappointment, students were dancing, singing, and thanking us, joined by adminis- administrators who expressed appreciation for our turnaround. The success of the dance did not erase the disappointment of the pep rally, but rather reminded us all of who we are and what truly matters. Moments like these remind me that our school community is not built just through these events, but the many achievements that bring us together. Whether this is applauding performances and productions put on by our Potomac Falls
Drama Department, honoring student, student athletes for their hard work at the state level on and off the field, celebrating exciting improvements to athletic programs, such as new facilities for both our softball and baseball teams, recognizing leadership and service through cl- clubs and organizations like DECA and SCA, or supporting fundraisers and school initiatives that strengthen our entire school community. A community is not shaped by one situ- situation, but rather how it responds in a crossroad. A small number of people can cause chaos, but an even smaller number of students can create transformation and influence others to
do the same. Leadership requires preparing for both the good and the bad, and is not proven when everything goes as planned, but rather when people are able to get up and take action in moments of defeat. Guiding my school through this experience showed me that I'm capable of pivoting when faced with pressure and uncertainty, but most importantly, how the Potomac Falls community is able to respond with both courage and excitement. Thank you so much. Thank you, Ria, for being here and for sharing your updates with us. Um, we really appreciate it. All right, and with that, we'll move
on to item number ten, the superintendent's report, presented by Dr. Aaron Spence, our superintendent. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the board. It's always my pleasure to share some good news from around our school division. This evening, I'd like to start with some administrative appointments. First, I'd like to ask Alicia Hakes to stand up. It's my pleasure to announce that Mrs. Hakes has been named the next principal of Broad Run High School.
Ms. Hakes previously, previously served as an assistant principal at John Champ High School, and most recently has been serving as the supervisor of Integrated Professional Learning in Prince William County. She began her career as an English teacher at Pitt County scores-- schools in North Carolina before continuing her work in the classroom at Osborne Park High School in Prince William County. She will assume this new role on July the first. Congratulations to you. Next, if I could ask Nakia Purnell to please stand up. Ms. Purnell, who has brought her cheering section, has been named the director of
Special Education. Ms. Purnell most recently served as the assistant director of Special Education and has been with LCPS since two thousand and sixteen, beginning as an eligibility coordinator before moving into roles as coordinator for procedural support and supervisor of Special Education. Prior to joining LCPS, she worked in Fairfax County Public Schools as a Special Education department chair and taught in both Clarksville-Montgomery County Public Schools in Tennessee and Henrico County Public Schools, and we are very pleased to congratulate Ms. Purnell as the new director for Special Education.
Congratulations. If I could ask Mildred Charlie Green to please stand up. Continuing with staff announcements, it's my pleasure to welcome Mildred Charlie Green to Loudoun County Public Schools as the new director of middle schools. Ms. Charlie Green joins LCPS from Baltimore County Public Schools, where she served first as executive director of secondary schools and later as chief of staff. She previously held administrative roles in both middle and high schools in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland and began her career as a classroom teacher in DC Public Schools. I know you'll join me in welcoming Ms.
Charlie Green to LCPS. Congratulations again. Moving on now, more than one hundred business and community leaders recently joined LCPS for a career and technical education expansion plan roundtable. The goal of this event was to help shape the future of career and technical education programs across our school division. During the roundtable, industry partners shared meaningful feedback on the technical and professional skills most needed in entry-level hires. They also discussed emerging trends impacting their fields and the types of courses and industry certifications that strengthen student readiness.
This insight will directly inform updates to the, to the division's career and technical education five-year plan. And as workforce needs continue to evolve, LCPS remains committed to ensuring that classroom learning reflects real-world expectations. Next, Hannah Boggs, an EL teacher at Elaine Thompson Elementary School, has been selected by the United States Department of State to participate in a Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms fellowship. Earlier this school year, Ms. Boggs participated in a ten-week online course that focused on global
education and global competence. She also recently participated in professional development events in Washington, DC. This summer, Ms. Boggs will continue her learning in India, where she will be immersed in both Indian culture and the Indian educational system. Ms. Boggs shared that she hopes to learn about and be able to utilize resources for global competence in her classroom. Congratulations to Ms. Boggs on this achievement. The Department of Teaching and Learning recently celebrated eight LCPS educators who have achieved national board certification.
This voluntary program is designed to develop, recognize, and retain accomplished educators while strengthening continuous school improvement. The educators you have seen here on this slide have pursued this certification to deepen their impact on students and elevate their professional practice. Often described as one of the most transformative professional development experiences available, the process centers entirely on a teacher's own classroom. Earning national board status requires a rigorous multi-year commitment involving hundreds of hours of reflection, critical writing, and
evidence-based self-analysis. This certification typically takes one to three years to complete, so congratulations to these educators on this outstanding accomplishment. Next, the LCPS Transportation Department was rec-recently featured in School Transportation News, highlighting our coll-collaboration with business partners to strengthen communication with staff, students, and families. The article showcased how the department is using these partnerships to enhance engagement and improve the overall experience for the community we serve.
And then finally, this evening, I'd like to share just a bit about Inspire Loudon. This event returned this year with a staff-focused learning experience celebrating innovation and collaboration. More than two hundred and fifty LCPS staff members participated in this event held at Lightridge High School on March the 7th. This conference centered on strengthening instructional practice and supporting student success while highlighting best practices for integrating instructional technology and offering hands-on opportunities for learning, idea sharing, and professional growth.
Workshops featured topics such as building custom AI teaching assistants, creative strategies to boost student literacy and vocabulary, and expert guidance on using makerspace tools and interactive displays. These sessions provided practical classroom-ready strategies that educators are able to bring back to their schools. Inspire Loudon continues to serve as an excellent platform for educators to learn from one another, share expertise, and deepen their professional connections. And Madam Chair, that concludes my report.
Thank you, Dr. Spence. And with that, we will move on to item number eleven, public comment. The procedures for public comment. Um, thank you for engaging with the school board through the public comment process. The school board welcomes comments 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 disclosure could violate applicable confidentiality requirements. I do wanna take a moment to clarify a few things. As has been previously explained, speakers can personally identify a student or employee without
stating 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 ask that 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 board policy. For example, comments that target, criticize, or attack a student or an employee or a student or an employee from a specific named 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 and do not target, criticize, or attack an individual identifiable student or employee are permissible. Under school board policy, I as school board chair am charged with the nes- responsibility to maintain order during school board meetings. Accordingly, when reasonable, I will warn breaches of decorum, civility, and respect and ask speakers to redirect their comments prior to possibly discontinuing individual speaking privileges or taking other actions to preserve the
civility, decorum, and orderly conduct of the meeting. Such action includes calling a recess in order to maintain and/or restore order. If speakers fail to comply with school board policy regarding public participation, you will receive a warning and 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, and I will 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 d-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
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 the public comment period ending for the evening. Distribution of materials to school board members. Copies of materials for school board members should be given to the public information officer in the media box at the back of the boardroom before the start of the meeting. Please provide twelve copies of the 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 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 Mayur Patel, followed by Lauren Triplett. Good evening, school board members. I am the parent of a rising middle school student who will attend
Lunsford Middle School in twenty twenty-six twenty twenty-seven school year. I'm here to respectfully express my concerns about the decision to stop the school bus service for middle school students in our community by increasing the walk radius. While we support and encourage students to walk when it is safe, the current route raises serious safety concerns. Students would need to cross busy intersections such as Braddock Road and Donovan Street during peak rush hours. In addition, the part of the route requires student to
walk through someone's private property just to reach the public sidewalk, which raises serious safety and liability concerns for the county. For many students, this would mean nearly a forty-minute walk each way, often in winter weather and while carrying heavy backpacks. Over time, this physical strain can affect students' energy and focus, making it harder for them to perform academically and participate fully in school activities. It also raises concerns about whether the situation is truly equitable for students who must walk such long
distances compared to their peers who have transportation. So I respectfully ask the board to reconsider the plan and reinstate bus service so our children can travel to school safely. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Our next speaker is Lauren Triplett, followed by Chris Stevenson. Can you... Ma'am, are you there? We can hear you. Good evening. Thank you to the board for the opportunity to speak tonight
on the issue of the Stuart-Weller Elementary School bus and bell schedule. I am the parent of two students currently at Stuart-Weller Elementary, and I'll have a third child starting kindergarten there next year. The current seven thirty AM start time has a real impact on our daily family life. My daughters leave our home just after seven AM, often before my husband even leaves to begin his own hour and a half almost commute.
Because of the early schedule, my first-grade daughter is eating lunch around ten AM, which creates an unhealthy eating pattern for the rest of the day. This schedule affects family balance when evenings are short, mornings are rushed, and the early routine carries into the weekends. If an early schedule must exist, it shouldn't fall on the same school year after year after year after year. Stuart-Weller has had the earliest bell schedule
for four years. A fair solution would be rotating early start times among elementary schools so that no single community carries that burden indefinitely. Our elementary students are still very young, and their schedule should reflect what is healthiest and most developmentally appropriate for them. At the end of the day, our family and many other Stuart-Weller families simply want a schedule that allows our
children to be rested, healthy, and able to spend meaningful time with their parents during the week. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Chris Stevenson, followed by Bhonu Pa-Padar-Padaria. Good evening, Madam Chair, members of the school board. I'm Chris Stevenson, LCPS parent and member of Civic Ground, a Loudon-based group challenging the president's assaults on our children's education and future
As you probably know, this week, the president's FBI obtained twenty twenty voting records in Arizona because he still believes the twenty twenty election was rigged, which is a lie. And it is upon this lie that his presidency exists and functions. This reminds me of something I read in Hannah Arendt's book, The Origins of the Totalitarianism. "To this aversion for official historiography must be added the terrible demoralizing fascination and the possibility that gigantic lies and
monstrous falsehoods can eventually be established as unquestioned facts, that man may be free to change his own past at will, and that the difference between truth and falsehood may cease to be objective and become a mere matter of power and cleverness, of pressure and infinite repetition." President Trump is assaulting LCPS and its facts-based educational system. For our children, will you please issue a statement asking him to apologize for his falsification of history in this
instance? Our students' bright future lives on truth and dies on presidential lies and all of authoritarianism's other ills. I hope that you can be brave and that you have courage. Thank you. Thank you. Um, next up, Bhanu Perdo-- Perdali-- Perdarla. I'm so sorry, I mispronounced your name, and Emma Johnson. Hey, good evening, school board. Uh, I am Bhanu Perdarla, parent
of, the upcoming middle school student. Um, daughter gonna be attending the middle school, Ludford Middle School, for the year twenty forty-seven. And I live in the same community as, Mayur Patel, who expressed concern and, requested, to reconsider the walking zone for the Ludford Middle School. I would like to also add a few points that, the crossing of, the product and, the Donovan Drive always pose for,
accidents and, will-- and, is creating a lot of risk for the students who are, walking to the middle school. I sincerely and honestly request the school board to revisit this, walking zone path and, consider, looking at options to restore the school bus back for our community. This will be very helpful for many middle school students, who are gonna be attending the Ludford Middle School. Thank you. Thank you. Emma Johnson, followed by Takoya
Burks. Hello? Hello, ma'am. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Um, my name is Emma Johnson. Um, I am the parent of a current Stuart Weller student. Next year, I will have two children at Weller, including a kindergartner. Um, I am also here to respectfully request that the Stuart Weller start time be moved to eight AM during the upcoming bell schedule assessment. For the past four years, Weller families have carried the
earliest elementary school start time. We are asking for relief from what has been an ongoing burden for our students and families. A seven thirty AM start time creates real challenges. It requires very early bedtimes that are difficult for many families to sustain. Mornings are rushed and stressful, especially for young children. Students are eating lunch at ten AM, and the two fifteen dismissal time is especially difficult for working parents who must arrange additional care in the middle of the afternoon. This is not simply about convenience, it's about being fair.
If transportation constraints make it impossible for all elementary schools to begin at eight AM, then Stuart Weller should rotate with another school. Sharing the earliest start time would be a more equitable approach and ensure that one community is not continually carrying the burden year after year. With bus routes being remapped and school boundaries being adjusted for next year, this is a logical and timely opportunity to make a change. I respectfully ask that the committee move the Stuart Weller start time to eight AM. Thank you so much for your time and consideration. Thank you. Takoya Burks, followed by Louis
Burks. Good evening. I'm the parent of two incredible special needs children in the Dulles District Special Education Program. And tonight, I'm speaking not only for my daughter, but also for the seven other vulnerable children who shared her classroom. My daughter has autism, a language processing disorder, and global developmental delays. She loves to sing, she loves to dance, and she brings a sweet, sassy spark to every room she enters. But she cannot come home and explain to me what happens during her school day
or tell me when something is wrong. That vulnerability means that she depends entirely on adults around her to keep her safe. Instead, for two years, my daughter endured abuse at the hands of her classroom assistant hired by this district, and she was not the only child. My daughter was beaten, locked in a bathroom, and neglected. She came home on numerous occasions with scratches and bruises. Her long curly hair had been pulled. She had her whole entire middle of her crown cut out
without any explanations. There was days where she retur-returned home missing undergarments with no explanation. I watched my once joyful child become afraid to use the bathroom, hide under the tables, and scream every morning when we tried to leave her at school. We were told it was separation anxiety, but it was not. It was anxiety and fear. What makes this even more disturbing is that the concerns about what was happening in the classroom were known by the school leadership, including the assistant principal, the
principal And numerous other staff members. This-- Yet the abuse continued, and it was not properly reported or investigated. This raises serious concerns about the culture of reporting abuse in this district, because staff who try to speak up should be supported, not intimidated, which is why the practices of human resources and hand- Thank you. Our last virtual speaker is Luis Burks.
Burks. Good evening, school board. Which is why practices of human resources and handling of abuse reports must be also be independently investigated. At the same time, families continue to see reports of restraint across the district, yet many parents question whether the true numbers of restraints or serious incidents involving special needs children are ever fully reported. When reports fail, accountability disappears, and recently this district declined the use of the school resource officers, yet oversight and accountability are exactly what vulnerable children need when system fails to protect them. Parents trust this district to protect children who often
cannot speak for themselves, yet the trust was broken for my daughter and the several other children who sat beside her every day. Too often it feels like this district is more concerned about protecting itself, reliability than protecting the children it's responsible for. Eight vulnerable children were harmed in the classroom. They cannot stand here and tell you what happened to them, so I will and I will not stop until every one of them receives justice. What's disgusting-- What disgusts me the most of this situation is not just the, the abuse that occurred in one of your classrooms, it is how the system responds
after it was reported. Once this case reached human resources, it stopped feeling like it was about justice for the children, and it started feeling like more managing liability and protecting the institution. We hear a lot in this district about honor, courage, and commitment, but those values mean nothing if they disappear the moment abuse is reported. What families saw instead was silence, containment, and a system that's more focused on protecting itself than protecting children. Even now it appears that the school system is not fully working with Loudoun County Sheriff's Office to ensure the teacher responsible is held accountable. It is deeply troubling that
even with witnesses and reports, we are still waiting for accountability. Families should never have to fight this hard just to have abuse taken seriously, while the very people who allow it to happen continue their role as if nothing ever occurred. I am also disappointed to hear the resistance to the school resource officers at elementary schools when the real issue is protecting vulnerable children was already happening inside your classroom. By the time problems reach your- Thank you. Uh, we will now move on to in-person public comment. Our first speaker is Kristen Lloyd, followed by Jackson
Day. Hi, I'm Kristen Lloyd, and I have, four kids, three of whom are at Stuart-Weller. Thank you to the board members who have had conversations with me on the side. Um, I'm here to bring up the issue of the bell schedule once again. When the, the T- Transportation Committee, Finance and Operations works on a new bell s- assessment, it is my strong opinion that all seven thirty AM schools should be switched to a later time. But I'm here today, like others, to speak for families at
Stuart-Weller. Nearly two hundred families have expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with the current bell schedule. I'm involved with the school and have a good pulse. I have three kids at the school, I'm on the board of the PTO, I'm constantly talking to, to other families at events at the school, and the issue of the bell schedule repeatedly comes up. I urge you, Dr. Spence, to make this a priority for your team. In the November twenty twenty-four survey, elementary schools with a seven thirty AM
start were by far the only group dissatisfied with their schedule, more than double any other group. It's unfair to keep burdening this same segment, which is about thirty percent of elementary school families. LCPS prides itself on equity. This is not equal treatment. This is a barrier to our students' success. LCPS strives towards a school system that treats families equally. Please hear our concerns and find a fair solution. Thanks.
Thank you. Jackson Day, followed by Jenna Hardison. Jenna Hardison, followed by Ruth Lee. Hello, my name is Jenna Hardison, and I am also a parent at Stuart-Weller Elementary School. I have one child there this year and one that will be starting kindergarten next year as well, and I am also here to ask for your consideration in, making our start time eight AM next school year. I think that it is a
way, it's an opportunity for, a great deal of relief for a lot of families at that one elementary school. Um, I agree with Christy that, I, seven thirty is, is hard on every single elementary school family. Um, but I'm here to speak for Stuart-Weller and hoping that especially because the Lansdowne neighborhood is being removed from our district, our district is actually getting a good deal smaller in terms of, the bus routes. And all of that is having to be re-looked at and retimed, and I'm hoping that this
is a good opportunity for us to have our bell schedule reconsidered. Thank you very much. Thank you. Ruth Lee, followed by Chris Countryman. Good evening, everyone. My name is Ruth Lee, and I'm here to discuss the, respectfully ask that my daughter's special permission de-permission denial be overturned. She experienced severe bullying during seventh grade.
The school leadership advised Camden to ignore the behavior, and it escalated into depression, anxiety, sleep issues, self-harm, cutting, and a fear of pub-public spaces. I've emailed very detailed information to each of you, and I hope that you will look at the information that I sent. After transferring her to the other middle school and instruct-- by instructional suitability, her confidence has grown. She's formed healthy relationships with students and staff, and I want the na-- I want her to go through to the natural
continuation through to the feeder school, which is Stone Bridge High School. Keeping Camden on her current path of progress is so vital to her safety and self-esteem. Starting over at her home school again will jeopardize her progress by punishing her, the victim, while the students responsible for the bullying face no consequences and are still there. We moved her to get a new start and new environment in hopes of transferring her to a new s- to a new high school. This is not a request of convenience. This is need for Camden. We understand enrollment concerns and
capacity, but this situation should override that capacity. If I move, I'm automatically in the school. But as a last resort, a child needs your help, and I'm sure you can find a spot for her. Stone Bridge also has a smaller Asian population, which is Camden. She is biracial. She would fit in really well there. I respectfully ask you again to overturn that denial and let her continue to ninth grade or for the next four years so she can have peace and safety. LC-- We feel that LCPS
has let her down once. Please don't do it again. Thank you. Thank you. Chris Countryman, followed by Sam Wong. Good evening. I wanna begin again by recognizing the effort LCPS has been putting into improving processes and transparency. A tremendous amount of work and coordination has gone into these efforts, and I wanna start by saying thank you. One of the areas being worked on is
job descriptions. LCPS and LEA are currently engaging an LRN, or a Labor Relations Neutral, third party to determine appropriate bargaining unit placement of job titles according to the guidelines established in Section Six of the two thousand twenty-four Collective Bargaining Resolution. Job descriptions are an important factor in this process. The Collective Bargaining Resolution also states in Section Four that the school board retains the exclusive right to establish and change job qualifications and job descriptions,
effectively excluding these topics from collective bargaining. I share this not as a point of conflict or contention, but as background for why we are approaching the topics the way we are. LEA has started assembling and providing focused feedback on job descriptions and requesting reclassifications based on the overlap of Policy Seventy-Six-Fourteen and the LMC. My comments tonight mark the beginning of these focused advocacy efforts with substitute bus drivers and communication technicians in
facilities. These positions, once we dive into the details, I expect will become self-evident why we think they're appropriate, but I look forward to our continued partnership as we work through these discrepancies. Thank you. Thank you. Sam Wong, followed by Suzanne Satterfield. Hi, good evening. My name is Sam Wong. I'm a congressional candidate for District Ten, but I'm here 'cause, Loudoun County is my home, and I, I wanna express my concerns for the, SRO, issue about
having school safety, and public safety. 'Cause, I share Sheriff Chapman's concern about, him saying that it's kinda scary what's going on in the elementary schools that, we're, we're gonna deny the SROs. And, and as a former, Army, veteran of thirty years, I served twenty years in the defense intelligence and on-- I was a first responder in Baghdad as a crime scene investigator investigating very, very horrific crimes, okay?
By Al-Qaeda, and one of them was a bombing on a, on a school, on, on a daycare where, where forty children were, were murdered. And I was there going through the rubble and was given a box of, body parts in a Chiquita banana box. And so I, I vowed on my life to put these bad people away and that we should never have to bring those kind of violence to, to America. Unfortunately, here we, we can't be certain. And so I relate that to, to what's going on in, in Loudoun
County because, well, what, what does Al-Qaeda have to do with Loudoun County? Well, September eleventh, five A-Al-Qaeda terrorists came in through Dulles Airport. But then what does it relate to the schools? We don't want to have this horrific event be the September eleventh to our families. And so revisit, please take a look at how we can work out s-school safety, if it's SROs or something else. But let's come to a, a kind of compromise where we can have school safety, SROs,
whatever, so that the families are gonna be spared some horrific event where they can live the rest of their lives. Thank you. Suzanne Satterfield will be our final speaker tonight. Thursday is Detransition Awareness Day. In your claims of being inclusive, where's your plo- proclamation for this? You had an opportunity to stop lying to students and state the facts that no one can change their sex, no one is born in the wrong body, and that being their authentic self doesn't require them to take drugs and undergo surgeries to change their appearance and risk losing the feeling
of sexual pleasure, among other health concerns. You could have apologized for the harm that you have caused students by keeping eighty-forty in place and that you will work to end it. As long as eighty-forty continues, you will continue to harm children. Many detransitioners have said that they had early access to porn, and some have been sexually abused, which has helped explain their past dislike of their body. Some detrans boys were less masculine and teased by their peers and told they were girl-like or must be gay, as if that were a bad thing. They were so insecure that they started to believe they were meant to be a
girl. Then there were some kids that felt like they didn't fit in with their peers and found they could find a home in a trans cult where they were love-bombed and convinced they were born wrong. All of the detransitioners quickly found out that the cult only loved them if you never left it. The point is that none of you know students enough to know what's in their head and the experiences they have endured, but you are willing to make them believe they were born wrong. When adults tell vulnerable children they are born in the wrong body, they feel it
must be true. To you, it may just be words with no consequences, but it is you that played a role in destroying their bodies, their hearts, and their minds. Parents have reported to LCPS concerns they had about a teacher. LCPS ignored them. Antonio Geno Ford was just indicted on possession of seven counts of por-- of child porn and online solicitation of minor. Parents do know better. Shame on you. Thank you. That incl- concludes our public comment period. And with that, we will move on to our action items.
Our first action item is item twelve point o one, Curriculum and Instruction Committee's new policy fifty-one forty, Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics. Dr. Rasheed, do you have a motion? Yes, Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the Curriculum and Instruction Committee's approval of new policy fifty-one forty, Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics. Second. Um, Dr. Rasheed, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes, Chair. Thank you. So the House Bill two six eight six introduced new guidance
about accelerated mathematics among middle school, where such that the Department of Teaching and Learning drafted a policy called fifty-one forty, Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics. Um, that was, introduced to CNI, early in November, and we got feedback from committee members, and then, fifty-one forty was posted for public and committee feedback later in that same month. And then, division council made their final review on January sixteenth. So CNI committee, unanimously voted for bringing this policy forward to the full school board and
hence where we are. Thank you. Uh, s- school board members, is there any discussion? All right. Seeing no more discussion, we, will move forward with the vote. It has been properly moved by Dr. Rasheed and seconded by Vice Chair Donahue that the Loudoun County School Board adopt the Curriculum and Instruction Committee's approval of the new policy fifty-one forty, Advanced or Accelerated Mathematics. Um, clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote.
Clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present. With that, we will move on to item twelve point o two, Department of Support Services, Appointment of School Naming Committee for High School Fourteen. Um, Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board appoint the committee names-- the-- appoint the committee to suggest names for the new high school, HS fourteen, as recommended
and identified in the list posted on BoardDocs. Second. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue, would you like to speak to your motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, we have discussed this matter previously at the full school board, when Ms. Tate, explained to us that, that she and her colleagues would be bringing forward a list of names, for our consideration and approval to formulate a naming committee pursuant to school board policy sixty-five ten in order to
select a name for the high school that is about to be built and is anticipated to open in the fall of twenty twenty-eight. Uh, m-membership, names for consideration were proposed by staff, by school leaders in the schools that will likely feed into HS fourteen, and board members were also, encouraged to propose members, to be considered. Uh, the list of the names of all the individuals who have been proposed f-for membership in the naming committee have been posted on BoardDocs.
Uh, and we need to approve the naming committee to get it formulated so that they can start doing their work to recommend a name for the board to approve. Thank you. Um, and board members, I, I just wanted to take a moment as a, point of privilege before we start tonight and raise an issue that we discussed at r- the retreat. Um, there are likely many people that we know on this list, and I would respectfully ask that we speak to the issue and not to any specific people. Um, and with that, board members, is, are there
any comments? Um, yes, Mrs. Griffiths. Uh, thank you for mentioning that, Madam Chair. Um, Policy sixty-five ten is the same policy previously used for the school renaming committees. While I appreciate, Ms. Tate and her team's work in bringing this forward, I believe this policy should have gone through finance and operations, first for some updates and revisions. Uh, for naming schools, it would've been helpful to clarify key expectations up front, specifically avoiding naming schools after individuals and avoiding
conflicts of interest with committee members and school board members. When schools were originally named, a lot of thought went into their names. Uh, we shouldn't have to revisit the issues later on. I sincerely hope we do not repeat the chaos we experienced during the past renaming of schools. Because of the current optics of this policy, and the, committee, and the continued appearance of conflicts of interest, I will be voting no today. Fairness and non-partisanship appear to have been cast aside once
again. The policy re- needs revisions to avoid these conflicts of interest. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, Ms. Ricardi? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, having sat through a bunch of the, renaming committee meetings, I, I would like to just kinda just share my ho- hopeful expectations that, this group moving forward will really focus on the desires of the local community that are coming from this area specifically, and will put that forward.
Um, I'm really concerned, and I will be watching this process really closely. I am also concerned with some, you know, conflicts of interest. We've got an interesting, an interesting cast of characters, which I'm-- and I'm excited. We got a lot of really great, people here from the community itself. But I wanna just make sure that, that, we're doing everything from a school board perspective to make sure that we're supporting the staff as they're going through this process. Um, there were a lot of, interesting dynamics, as I mentioned. Last time it got very political, and I'm really hoping that we as a school board can do all that we can to support the staff in this process to make
sure that it's, as reflective of the local community as possible, and that we're, di- strongly discouraging the political play that can certainly, find its way into these processes. Thank you. Thank you. Um, yes, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Having been on a previous naming committee myself, and having observed the renaming committee meetings, I found them to be vastly different
experiences, and I enjoyed my experience on a naming committee. I thought that it was a fascinating window into some of our more esoteric school functions and, and also an excellent opportunity to have dialogue with other people from other backgrounds about what they think is important. And I encourage our naming committee to do exactly that. To-- I agree with Mrs.
Ricardi to think about what they feel is important to the community, reflective of the community, and that means different things to different people. Um, and I have every confidence that the naming committee is going to present us with some, well-considered and carefully selected, curated choices for our consideration. Thank you. Thank you. All right, seeing no more discussion, we will move forward with the vote. It has been properly moved by Vice Chair Donahue and seconded by Dr.
Rasheed that the Loudoun County School Board appoint the committee to suggest names for a new high school, High School Fourteen, as recommended and identified herein. Um. All right. Thanks, everybody. Um, we'll skip those two, typical statements. And clerk, please, close and display the vote. All right. Um, that motion passes with seven school board members voting yes, including Ms. Ricardi, Mr. Svendsen, Ms. Chernov, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, and Dr. Rasheed.
Uh, one school board member voting no, Mrs. Griffiths, and one school board member abstaining, Ms. LaBell. All right. Thank you, everyone. And with that, we will go back to our information items, and that takes us to item number thirteen point o two, Department of Support Services. Current elementary school students affected by twenty twenty-six, twenty twenty-seven attendance zone changes, Policy eighty-one sixty, survey results for certain rising grade five students. Um, tonight will be presented by Mr. Kevin Lewis, our chief operations officer, and Ms.
Bev Tate, our director of Planning and GIS Services. Thank you, Ms. Chandler. So, as you're aware, the board took action to make attendance zone changes in December, on December sixteenth of twenty twenty-five, and that affected schools in Ashburn-- the schools of Ashburn, Cedar Lane, Discovery, Dominion Trail, Elaine Thompson, Hillside, Legacy, Madison's Trust, Mill Run, Moorfield Station, Newton-Lee, Sanders Corner, Selding's Landing, and Stuart-Weller. And so those changes will take place in the fall of twenty
twenty-six. By Policy eighty-one sixty, Exceptions to School Assignment, rising fifth graders are allowed to stay as long as, as if they request to do so. And so Ms. Tate and her team sends out surveys after those actions are taken And so we, in this item, you see the results of that. We sent a hundred and ninety-four surveys out. Hundred ninety-- hundred fourteen of those were responded to. Ninety of those students, their parents have elected for their students to stay at the school that they were previously assigned to. And so we, as staff support that, the schools all have space,
and we are in support of doing so, and happy to take any questions from the board. Thank you, Mr. Lewis. And, board members, is there any discussion? Um, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, Madam Chair, I move to suspend the rules at this time. Um, Mr. Pepper, would you like to, state to what intent? Yes. Yes, Madam Chair. Um, this-- I would like to move this to an action item, because as the, as cabinet has, let us know, this, this, these numbers are really important for planning purposes for next year. And so in order to move our planning forward as
quickly as possible so schools can get out with staffing and all the other things they have to do, walk zones, bus zones, you name it, we need to approve these numbers now to give them as much time as possible. Second. Thank you. Um, a motion has been made by Mr. Pepper to suspend the rules to move this to an action i-item so that we can take action to prevent de-staffing, and seconded by, Vice Chair Donahue. This motion is not debatable and requires a two-thirds vote. Um, with that, clerk, please open the vote.
School board members, please record your vote. I'm not getting anything, unfortunately. Um, could we clear it again? Try now. Oh, she has to. Thank you. Um, clerk, please close and display the vote. Um, that motion passes, with seven school board members voting yes, including Mr. Svendsen, Ms. Chernov, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mrs. Griffiths, Mr. Pepper, and Ms. LaBelle, and, one school board member voting no, Ms.
Ricardi, and Dr. Rashid, absent for the vote. So now we can take this item up as an action item. Um, is there a further motion? Uh, yes, Mr. Pepper. Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. I move that we approve, the item numbered thirteen point o two the current elementary students affected by the twenty-six/twenty-seven, attendance zone changes survey results for certain rising grade five students. Second. Thank you. Um, Mr. Pepper, would you like to speak to your
motion? Uh, th- yes, Madam Chair, I would. Once again, this would help, tremendously with our staffing and, other operational needs. Uh, as I mentioned previously, we're going to suspend the rules. Um, we really need as much time as possible to, prepare for the twenty-six/twenty-seven school year. Passing this tonight would help us tremendously. Thank you. School board members, is there, any discussion? Um, Ms. Ricardi? Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, Mr. Lewis, can you explain to us a little bit more about the, the timing requirements?
I, I'm j- I'm just gonna say this, you know, and again, kinda following from, the last meeting, I am not about us-- I mean, suspending the rules is something we should be doing very rarely, and we've had two meetings in a row now where we've done this, so I'm super concerned about this. But could you talk to us a little bit more about the timing of this and the, the need for the urgency of this? Yes, ma'am. Thank you, Mrs. Ricardi. So one of the things that we're looking at is the c- schools, all the schools now are currently in their process of staffing or de-staffing. And so there were, as you notice on, and i-in particular, Madison
Trust has fifty-three students that will be not leaving them and staying there, which may have an effect on those teachers. So it's, it's, it's an effort to pick up two weeks, 'cause there's information now, so it'd be an action item in two weeks. In that period of time, there's a lot of work that goes on for folks that are looking for new positions and, and principals that are trying to staff and de-staff their schools. And so there's a lot of confusion around that, what's gonna happen, when's it gonna be. And so if the board were to share or to, to approve this tonight and, and solidify that decision so everyone knows where we're gonna be in the coming weeks, they can get all those
decisions done. And it helps the s- the teachers that are looking for positions to help the schools there, and it helps the community who are also waiting for that decision. So we believe it is a very helpful thing to, to get that decision ahead of time and not have everyone wait for another two weeks. Is there a reason why we didn't bring this up two weeks ago? So the, the surveys are done time certain, so after the school board takes motion, then we send the surveys out, we get the surveys back. The survey closed, I think, last Sunday or something like that, so it hasn't been that long. And so we bring it to the board as soon as we get the results of that. All right. Thank you so much. Yes. Madam Chair, if I, if you don't mind, we also, if we could go
back and have the full motion read because the motion includes, the, the transportation item. So if, if we could go there, that would be helpful to have that on the record. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Madam Chair. I w- I- Mr. Pepper, would you like to read the full motion, please? Yeah, let me just... I'm in BoardDocs. Let me just find it, Madam Chair. I appreciate it. No problem. It's above Attachments. Yep. I'm- Go all the way down ... scrolling down. There it is. All right. Um, I move that the Loudoun County School Board approve the except- the exception request received for certain grade four students to remain at their
twenty-five/twenty-six elementary school for grade five. There will be no LCPS bus transportation provided. Transportation to and from school for these accepted students will be the responsibility of their parent/guardian for their f- students' final year of elementary school. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. I, I wanted to briefly say, following up on Mrs. Ricardi's comments, I also am generally opposed to suspending the rules unless we have a compelling reason to do so.
In this case, I do believe we have a compelling reason. When we were having the public hearings on this, zoning, attendance zone boundary discussion, there were a number of parents and families from the affected communities and some staff members who came before us to advocate for not making any changes, to, uh... excuse me, for, to advocate that not to make changes, not to move various zones out of Madison's Trust, in particular because they felt that the, the
staff group there was such a good team of working together and that they did not want that to be disrupted. Because we ultimately decided to move, particular zones away from Madison's Trust, that is going to cause a significant staff reduction, but this, if we grant this motion, they won't lose as much staff as what they would do if we were not to approve this motion. And in addition, because if we don't, the longer we wait to take action, the more likely it will be that Madison's Trust in particular will
have to release some of its staff to other schools and may not be able to get those staff members back. Uh, I believe that is the core of part of the community concern, and again, I, I do believe that that is a compelling reason in this circumstance why we should go ahead and address this issue tonight, despite at least my general reluctance to support suspending the rules, and I will be supporting the rules. Thank you. Um, I just... Uh, before we continue on with discussion, I would like to, make sure that we follow the proper procedure, and as we read the c-corrected full motion, I would like to
ask if there's a second. Second. Thank you. Um, so we have a second by Vice Chair Donahue, and now I will recognize Ms. Labelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'd like to point out that this particular policy that we're looking at right now applies to all schools that have had zoning changes, not just Madison Trust, and we typically offer any students that are moving from one school to another, if
they are the highest level, be it fifth grade, eighth grade, or eleventh grade, to go to or remain at their school. So this is not a really big difference than before, and it will apply to all of our schools that are having zoning changes. So people need to keep that in mind when we look at this. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm just concerned about, the exceptions, which would be permissions, correct?
Um, exception requests for current, students to stay at their school. Um, can we verify... It says exception requests, but can we verify that, permissions were given to these students? Um, you sur- you have the number of surveyed, but then you have a number that says exception requests, so can you, can anybody answer? Mr. Lewis. If I could- Oh, sorry, Dr. Spence? Yeah, the, the, the granting of their ability to stay at their school is
what this vote is. If you all vote on this this evening, you are in effect giving them permission to remain at their current school. Thank you. Um, Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, also want to, speak, just like Vice Chair Donahue and Mr. Cardy, I'm not a huge fan of suspending the rules either. Um, this is clearly just done to, you know... We, we spent time surveying. I do have a few little concerns, and as, as we go forward, right now as I look at the participation rates, it's only about fifty-eight point eight percent.
I would love to see if we can figure out a way going forward to get that rate higher. The last thing I want is for someone in those attendance zones who has a rising fifth grader to realize tomorrow morning that, "Oh, the school board just approved all these exemption requests, and I just missed the deadline." Um, so that is something to think about. That being said, because of the time nature of this, I'm, I'm willing to go forward and put this, out there, particularly as I do worry about staff having to transition between schools, so. Thank you. Uh, Vice Chair Donahue.
Thank you, Madam Chair. To allay Mr. Pepper's concern, and if that concern is shared by any of the fellow board members, if that does happen, those families can appeal, and they frequently do, and we've already sat... There, there have already been instances of, of our special appeals panels hearing requests from families who missed the deadline, after other zoning decisions. Thank you. Uh, school board members, any further discussion? Okay. Seeing no more discussion, we will move forward with the vote.
It has been properly moved by Mr. Pepper and seconded by Vice Chair Donahue that the Loudon County School Board approve the exemption, exception requests received for certain current grades for students to remain at their twenty twenty-five to twenty twenty-six elementary school for grade five. There will be no LCPS bus transportation provided. Transportation to and from the school for these accepted students will be the responsibility of their parent/guardian for the student's final year of elementary school. Um, clerk, please open the vote. Board members, please record your vote.
Clerk, please close and display the vote. Uh, that motion passes unanimously with all nine school board members present for the vote.All right. With that, we can move on to item number fourteen, board member comments and committee reports. Um, this week we'll start on the left with Ms. LaBelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, it's been a busy two weeks on the student behavior and accountability.
We finally had our first meeting together, and, we had an introduction to our members of what the SBAC does. And then we had, some time to look at what we have coming up to, to policies we need to change or amend or bring forward in the, coming months before the s- end of the school year. We also had a busy time with several appeals, and, those were learning
experiences i- for many of us, me included. So we have been busy. Thank you. Thank you. Um, Dr. Rasheed. Thank you, Chair. It's been a busy time during my end. At this month's Curriculum and Instruction Committee meeting, we received three important updates. First, the Gifted Education program is considering how adjustments to staffing, evaluations, and curriculum development can help support equity and inclusion and enhance gifted services. Next, LCPS will continue to promote AI literacy and
digital citizenship so that educators and students understand appropriate uses and potential impacts of generative AI. Division requests for feedback are coming. And finally, new ADA Title II accessibility rules means that-- mean that all LCPS digital content must be accessible by default rather than by request by April twenty-fourth. And this includes the ability for content to be interpreted by screen readers, the inclusion of captions for audio and video, and the avoidance of color alone conveying information.
That's a really tedious job for all the educators out there. There are tools available to staff to ensure accessibility, and LCPS will include accessibility language as part of procurement and contract processes. Um, I say this with great, conviction because we have to do this on the college level as well. The next C&I meeting will be held on Monday, April sixth, due to a scheduling conflict with our regular first Thursday timing. Also, I was excited to receive the update earlier today from MSAC. I truly enjoy my role as school board liaison for that committee.
A reminder that nominations for twenty twenty-six MSAC Annual Awards are open now through April tenth at five PM. Each year, MSAC does honor students and the educators, the administrators, and schools who are making meaningful equity-centered impact across the s- school division. Awards will be presented at the lovely EquiTea event, which is, mark your calendars, May ninth. Families, students, staff, and community members can submit nominations at lcps.org/msac. As Chair Kunkel talked about March MSAC meeting earlier today, we'll be dedicated to the Better
Together family dinner and social. I'll be bringing food to that. Check MSAC social media for the QR code to RSVP and sign up for a potluck dish, and then come celebrate with us on March eighteenth at six PM. It's supposed to be really fun. Thanks. Thank you. Mr. Pepper. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, these past two weeks have been busy. Uh, had the privilege of attending, specialized programs and centers and FNO and the brand new audit committee, but I will let the chairs of those committees make their reports as well. Uh, student services did not meet these last two weeks.
Our next meeting is on Thursday, the nineteenth, followed by a work session, to go over, our new policy, that I mentioned the last meeting. That'll be on the twenty-fifth here as well. I'm excited to attend, my first Gifted Advisory Committee this week. It'll be on Thursday at the school board office. I did not get a chance to attend the last one because we had our budget meeting. Um, that's okay. Um, I'm really excited for this one. And then a-as far as the schools go, I had the opportunity to, be on the Puma Pod, which is the podcast at Pine Brook
Elementary School. Um, has not aired yet. I believe Dr. Rasheed's episode aired this week. Um, but talked, all things, Pine Brook and football. There was definitely a little bit of football conversation there with, with Mr. Thiessen. Um, had a really, a really good time talking about that. Um, and then this past Saturday, I had the pleasure of attending Liberty Elementary School's Stemmer Day. Really cool event. Um, we actually had heard about Lux Stone. This morning, Lux Stone ran a whole room with an excavator simulator where kids could sit in a chair and run the excavator on the computer. It was really cool.
Plus, they're giving out popcorn, and I was starving, so it was great. They had a whole room. It was amazing. Um, what a really cool event. They, every single room in the school was pretty much used for a different STEM activity. There was also a petting zoo. There was definitely a wallaby there, and a wallaby is, like, the cutest thing if you've never seen it. Um, so really excited for that and really excited to, keep up visiting schools in the Dulles District. Um, that's all I have. Thank you, Mr. Pepper. Um, Mrs. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, nothing real exciting out of the finance and operations yet, just approving contracts. But, we will work with, Ms. Ricardi on ways to
im-- Ms. Ricardi's suggestion on ways we can improve, viewing the budget in the future. We will submit those suggestions at future meetings. Uh, shifting gears, I was excited to see Grease this past weekend at Riverside High School. Um, it was an amazing show. Uh, just wanted to give a shout-out to Ms. Gilligan, theater director at Riverside, and Ms. Jennifer Canales, who also put a lot of work into the show and concessions. Great staff that did a lot of great work. The concessions were extraordinary, so I wanna thank them again.
Um, I look forward to attending Little Shop of Horrors, I have to give them a plug, at Broad Run, The Sound of Music at Stone Bridge, and Matilda, at Belron- Belmont Ridge Middle School next month. Um, I also heard that Matilda at Trailside this past weekend was a big hit. Uh, a lot of exci-exciting things going on. Um, now I encourage everybody to take the time and hit our shows at our great schools. Um, and I am continuing to make visits, to our schools, and I'm enjoying them. And that's it. Thank you.
Thank you. Uh, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. It has been a very busy couple of weeks. Um, last week I had all of my committee meetings. Um, so I, as, as Ms. Labelle said, our first SBAC regular committee meeting was last week. We also sat on two student discipline appeals. Uh, in the last couple of weeks, we had special programs and centers, and we also had the very first meeting of the brand new audit committee, which was, for me, very exciting.
Uh, it was largely a kind of an overview and introduction to the Auditor General's office processes and what to expect going forward, and I'm excited to roll up our sleeves and, and dig into the work, at our next meeting, which will be on April eighth at six PM. I'm also excited to report as the liaison that the Equity Council had its second meeting, on, just on Thursday of last week, which was very well attended and went very well. Um, in particular, some particular
highlights were a report about a student hall, a student town hall at John Champ High School, where the students discussed equity and LCPS's commitment to, supporting students across the community, and also the invitation to discuss and, to discuss and provide feedback for some proposed policies working their way through the Student Services Committee. I am looking forward to the Equity Council's next meeting, which will be on May seventh at five thirty. In addition to that, I had the privilege of attending the CTE visit at Tuscarora High School, where I got to see the HAMSai classroom,
along with some of the other amazing, CTE facilities and programs at Tuscarora High School. That was, that was a huge treat. Uh, I was invited to the Primrose Preschool, where I went-- yeah, where I stopped by yesterday for International Women's Day and got to sing some songs with some four and five-year-olds, which was fantastic. Uh, and yesterday I went to the meeting of the Youth Advisory Council for the Loudoun County, PRCS Department and got to talk with some of the high school students there about things that they love
about their schools and things that they, could s- maybe see some improvement. They don't like the cell phone policy, and they don't love the grading policy. Uh, I actually brought back the handwritten lists that the students made and put them out here on the table behind us. So I encourage my fellow board members, to take a look. Um, so that is, that's a lot of stuff, and I ha- I'm having office hours on Sunday. Uh, if you want to sign up for a slot to come talk to me, I encourage you to do so. The sign-ups are posted on my social medias. Thank you.
Thank you. Um, I am, very excited, with how the month of March has been going. I have, um... Although it is quite interesting that Dr. Bergen and I have already been working very hard with our partners in this Board of Supervisors to pre-plan for our first joint, Board of Supervisors and School Board Committee meeting, which occurs on the twenty-third. Um, I have really enjoyed digging in, to all of the, data in, Performance Monitoring Committee.
That's been really engaging work, and have loved joining, like as I mentioned earlier, the School Business Partnership has been really, engaging. Um, also looking forward to student services next week, but truly the highlight of the past two weeks was attending Dominions Evening with the Arts. Um, this is an evening where all of the schools in the cluster, present some form of art. Um, the hallways were full of students', drawings and other types of artwork.
Um, students from every level, really from kindergarten up to our soon-to-be graduates. Uh, but the best part was watching the musical performances. We saw some choral performances and really, I say this without any hyperbole, I think Dominions Wind, Symphony could perform at Disney World, m-maybe as Disney's symphony. Uh, they're so good, and I, I was just so impressed with the performance. It was really delightful evening. Um, and with that, I'll pass the mic over to Ms. Chernoff.
Thank you. Apparently, we have front-loaded months 'cause I also had all of my committee meetings last week, but I will speak to the ones that I am chair and a part of. In the Specialized Programs and Centers Committee meeting, we reviewed the academic calendars for Middleburg Community School Charter and Hillsboro Charter School for approval, which we discussed tonight. We also rep-received an exciting, and I was somewhat emotional, update on the View Transition Academy, a proposed program for students ages eighteen to twenty-two that will focus on employment, independent living, and community participation after completing academic requirements.
Planning is underway, including a needs analysis to project enrollment, early outreach to community partners and employers for feedback, and initial operational planning related to staffing, location, transportation, and even the carpeting. Next steps include finalizing the program framework, confirming logistics, and developing a phased implementation on the timeline. Lastly, we got an update on the dual language immersion expansion possibilities in elementary school. We reviewed available program model types and explored considerations related to potential new language programs and staffing and resources required that might be required for those.
Mandarin and French topped the charts in a recent parent survey and may be e-explored alongside the Spanish programs we already have at three schools, which will-- or at two schools, which will add a school at Leesburg Elementary next year. I am now also the liaison to the Head Start Policy Council, and as part of those meetings, parents report out on given concerns and celebrations from each program. So in effort to better understand and support that work, I asked if I could visit all the existing Head Start programs. Um, so last week I saw three, Dominion High School, Sugar Land Elementary and
Guilford Elementary. We saw a four-year-old class at Dominion, which also serves as a lab school where high school students can work and support. We saw threes and fours classroom at our two elementary schools, and it was an absolute joy to see the routines and structures and play happening every- where we went. There is so much joy in, joy in these spaces, and it is just the best to be able to spend time alongside our youngest learners. And thank you to Mr. Slevin, Ms. Rosario, and Ms. Duffin for a very fulfilling morning. I closed out last week with a great meeting with our new director of the School
Nutrition Services, Ms. Samson and Ms. Willoughby and her team. There are some exciting initiatives underway around school meals, and I love getting to hear about them. We originally just planned for a meeting, but Ms. Samson tha- thought it would be best if we went and jumped and visited a school. Of course, my answer was yes. Uh, we stopped by Waxpool Elementary during lunch. I got to see the program up close. We-- Ms. Samson walked me through what we-- she does for look fors in her visits. We went through the lunch line ourselves, saw the menu off- options, and even toured the kitchen and storage areas, hot dogs and hair nets included.
I learned a lot about how our teams handle food allergies and offer culturally responsive options as well. As Ms. Griffis mentioned, theater season is upon us, and this weekend I had the pleasure of traveling under the sea with The Little Mermaid and visiting Riverside as it trans into Rydell High. So it was a great weekend and a great jam-packed month. Thank you. Um, Mr. Svendsen. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'll start with the committee update. We have Legislative and Policy Committee, the first meeting with our new name, tomorrow, and we'll be discussing public feedback we received on
policy sixty-three thirty regarding the distribution of information and posting within schools on school grounds. Um, and then we'll also be-- have two information items, about appeal of administrative decisions and school building administration. So, I-- That's, that's the update from the L and P Committee. Uh, I am looking forward next week to attending my first LEAF meeting as liaison since the prior month's meeting, unfortunately coincided with our, our Board of Supervisors meeting. Very much looking forward to joining the members of LEAF. Uh, my highlights of the month so far have been visiting my
alma mater, Hillside Elementary, for a school visit. Um, I really enjoyed touring the school with Principal Mills, and seeing the students and seeing some amazing artwork that the third graders put together for Read Across America Week, for their, their great covers for the books they put together in the library. Um, and I also really enjoyed visiting my sister's elementary school that she attended, Mill Run Elementary, and getting to chat with her third-grade teacher and, meeting with Principal Bryan, who did a great tour of the school.
And it was, overall-- And, and I cannot, uh... I, I have to say it was very exciting to be there for Read Across America Week because I got to read to Miss Amadi's first-grade class, and the questions they asked were, really delightful. Um, and, that, really kinda underscores the importance of the work we're doing, why we're doing it. Um, and I also just wanted to end, you know, none of this work would be possible without my two amazing school board aides, both of whom are proud LCPS graduates, one from Park View, one from Riverside. So I just wanted to give them a shout-out as well, because this
work's not possible without them. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Ricardi. All right. Thank you so much. So again, super busy week, or two weeks. Um, I was at the Sheriff's Town Hall on February twenty-fifth. Uh, we visited Rock Ridge High School and got to meet Principal John Dolman. Um, it's an amazing school with almost every student participating in some form of advanced courses. It's all but, like, a dozen of them that maybe aren't. It's just amazing there. So that was a great experience. Their DECA team was getting ready to go down to Virginia Beach, and they have... Uh, one of their projects is their school store, and if I say the word
swag, I am just telling you it's swag on the next level. It is amazing. Um, I went to the CTE Expansion Roundtable meeting. What an... In here, it was a packed room. It was a fantastic, experience and lots of really, really great, great stuff going on with the CTE expansion, pro- of the programs. I went to the Reflections Awards ceremony at Har- Harper Park Middle School, which is a, a PTA-driven art, awards program, which was amazing. Um, I went to Stonehill Middle School and met with Principal Rohini Tohan, and, the Stingrays are really amazing
there too. Got to see some robotics projects in action and got to watch a brief performance by their guitar class, which was-- I didn't know we had them, but in fact, we do, which is pretty neat. Uh, the Performance Monitoring Committee met. We heard presentations that you heard tonight about the instructional framework and student behavior. Um, we had, the Inspire Loudoun event this weekend at Lightridge High School. I went to that. Um, that was kicking back to my days at George Mason in, instructional, technology, which was really, really cool. A lot of people were there. Um, it was a great experience.
And then I think that one of the things I think that is, really great about going and doing these school visits, and especially for me in Sterling, is always wanting to be a resource for our students and our schools that really need resources. Um, Principal Frew had shared with Lauren and I while we were there that they needed, snacks, and they needed about a fifteen-thousand-dollar investment. So today, thanks to LEF, and Danielle Nadler, we were able to meet that gap and fill that gap completely with their donation, which is pretty amazing. Um, so I wanna thank, Principal Frew and LEF and,
for their support of Sterling Middle School. Uh, coming up, we-- our second Sterling District newsletter will be going out early next week, so watch your inboxes for that. Um, I'm gonna be visiting Sterling, Forest Grove, and Sully Elementary Schools this week and participating in Sterling Loves Bingo nights. So we are doing bingo night on Friday night at Forest Grove. It's a fundraiser. That's gonna be a lot of fun. I'll also be going to Tuscarora High School for the Loudoun County Regional Science and Engineering Fair. And then finally, we are doing-- My, my goal is to have quarterly town hall meetings, one on the Loudoun Valley side of the district and one in Sterling
Park. Um, the first one is gonna be on Mon- on Monday, March sixteenth from seven to eight thirty at Rock Ridge High School, and then Thursday, April sixteenth, at Sterling Middle School. And with that I'm done. Thank you so much. Thank you. Um, and with that, we can move on. Um, our last, item before we go into closed is new business. Is there any new business? Okay, seeing no new business, we'll move on to item number sixteen, our closed meeting. Um, Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a motion?
Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board recess this public meeting and enter into a closed meeting pursu-pursuant to Section two point two dash three seven one two of the Code of Virginia for the following: Discussion and consideration of a student matter that would involve the disclosure of information contained in a scholastic record as authorized by Section two point two dash three seven one one sub a sub two of the Code of Virginia, and discussion and consideration of the performance of a specific public employee as authorized by Section two point two dash three seven one one sub a sub, sub one of the Code of Virginia.
Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Ms. Labelle. I have a second by Ms. Labelle. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board go into closed session. Is there any discussion? Clerk, please open the vote. School board members, please record your vote. Clerk, please close and display the vote. Um, that motion passes unanimously. Or excuse me, I'm sorry. Let me restate that. That motion passes with eight school board members, voting yes, including Ms. Ricardi, Mr.
Svendsen, Ms. Chernov, myself, Vice Chair Donahue, Mr. Pepper, Dr. Rashid, and Ms. Labelle, and one school board member abstaining, Mrs. Griffiths. And with that, we are in closed session.Vice
Chair Donahue, do you have a motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the closed meeting be adjourned, that the Loudoun County School Board reconvene as public meeting, and that the minutes of the public meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting. Vice Chair Donahue- Second ... has made a motion, and I hear a second by Ms. Chernov. Thank you, Ms. Chernov. Sure. No problem. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board adjourn the closed session. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, board members, please record your vote.
Uh, clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all eight school board members present, and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Uh, Vice Chair Donahue, do you have another motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the following resolution certifying the closed meeting be adopted and reflected in the minutes of this public meeting. Resolution number three two dash two five slash two six. Whereas the Loudoun County School Board has convened a closed meeting on this date pursuant to an affirmative recorded vote and in accordance with the provisions of the Virginia Freedom of Fa- Information Act, and whereas Section
2.2-3712 sub D of the Code of Virginia requires a certification by the school board that such closed meeting was conducted in conformity with Virginia law. Now therefore be it resolved that the Loudoun County School Board hereby certifies that to the best of each member's knowledge, one, only public business matters lawfully exempted from open meeting requirements by Virginia law were discussed in the closed meeting to which this certification applies, and two, only such public business matters as were identified in the motion convening the closed meeting were heard, discussed, or considered by the Loudoun County School Board. Thank you. Second.
All right. We're cagey tonight. All right. Getting one more by today. Okay. It has been properly moved and seconded. We're just waiting for you. Okay, okay. Come on. You guys have to play by the rules. All right. There was a motion and a second. That's right. We were done. Okay. Um, clerk, please display the vote. The motion passes unanimously with all eight school board members present, and, Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Now, Vice Chair Donahue, do you have a final
motion? Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move that the Loudoun County School Board authorize the execution of documents necessary and appropriate pertaining to the student matter as considered and discussed in the closed meeting. Second. Thank you. I have a second by, Ms. Chernov. Um, with that, let's proceed to the vote. Okay. Um, clerk, please close and display the vote. That motion passes unanimously with all eight school board members present and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote.
And with that, we can now move on to adjournment. The March 10th, 2026 school board meeting is adjourned. Thank you, and drive home safely.