--------- All right. Good morning everyone. Yeah. And thanks for your flexibility in the agenda and everything we've been, um, working through that. But we're really excited because, um, at the end of this meeting or kind of midway through, we're gonna have a great session, um, about workforce. And we, we all attended those who attended the workforce committee. We're really wowed by what Dr. Grabs and what Christina are doing. So, um, we'll get through the, the first part of the meeting, and then, as I said, we're gonna have tons of fun. Um, I'm calling the meeting to order. And then if you recall, last month we talked about membership
and we, um, determined that we had for next year, going into next year, we had the right amount of, um, council members. And, um, that is allowed, allowed by the school board. But afterwards, I got a phone call from one of one person around this table here that, um, basically said that she wanted to step down. Um, she has served well. She has done an amazing job here and wanted to give an opportunity to somebody else to join the board.
So, if I can please ask Sharon to stand up in front with me in front, because I've got a special little treat for her. And it is Sharon Wright, everybody. So would it be up here? Yes. So Sharon, we 100000% appreciate everything that you've done. You've helped us transform this council from when, um, again, you stepped in, um, with, with Denise, and then you led and then again, and then you, you helped me get into this role. And, you know, we all worked together, not only to bring workforce, to bring the breakfast back, but again, you were instrumental in all of that.
So in appreciation. Thank you so much. We wanna just thank you all that beautiful. Yes, you can. Um, so yeah, Denise knows, when I first came in, um, it was a different council. It was largely led by LCPS. Um, grant did a wonderful job. So no, no, nothing against Grant. But the businesses in the room weren't really talking. We weren't, we didn't have a role. And so my whole first year on the council, I was like, what is this supposed to be? Because I don't think this is why I am in this room. Um, so I started getting a little more vocal
and a little more vocal each year. And then that's when I decided it was time to switch it up. It was time to, and Carrie, you were also instrumental to me to, to be a voice for me. 'cause you were new around in the council around the time that I was coming in as well. And, um, I knew that we had to make it a much more business focused LCPS, like sharing that, that role because we're here for a reason. We have this passion for our youth, and we needed to have those voices be heard. So that was sort of my mission when I,
when I sized it all up. A lot of, you know, that I'm a, I'm kind of a quiet leader. I'll come in and observe, and then when I'm ready to make my voice heard, I do. So, um, I'm really proud of where it's gone. And Stacy, you're doing a fantastic job. So congratulations to you as well. Yeah, and I'm excited for where it's going. And Susan's gonna come in and, and cheers to Renee Too. And Renee, like you have switched it up as well. And like, this council wouldn't be where it is without you as well. So you guys are all amazing. And I met, I'm never going far away. I'm still gonna be in the classrooms. I'm still doing all the things
she is, um, that won't change. So She, she is, I told her it's like Hotel California. You can check out anytime you want, but you can never leave. Yeah. So she's all in. So she never will is my passion. So, um, just because I'm not in the room, I'm still very involved, so. All right. Round o'clock. Awesome. So this also means another update. Um, so, 'cause I always get confused at this time of the year because, you know, again, not only that schools ending and everything, we talk about the council new leadership roll in, um, you know, I kind of hand over the responsibility to Susan in August,
and then she takes over at the August meeting. And we had originally thought that we would have a June. We knew that we weren't gonna have a July meeting, but we originally thought that we were going to have a June meeting. But, um, our June meeting falls on Juneteenth, which is a holiday. And also then with all of the various, getting the schools wrapped up, getting the children out, getting graduations done, all of that, it, there was just no space to do a June meeting. So this is gonna conclude, um, my leadership here, but we will talk about that and we'll kind of do the formal handover to Susan in August.
But all summer long, um, I'll be working with Susan, um, and Renee to again kick us off really well in August. All right. Don't leave me. I introduce Yes, John, would you like to introduce yourself? You're like, how do I follow that? I mean, who's that girl? She's making me do this. Do I, do I, are you gonna gimme one of those, you know, plastic? How long do I have to be involved to get one of those years? It's a year's thing. Uh, Hello everybody. My name is John Sutton. Uh, and I am, uh, responsible for the government relations office here in
Loudoun County Public Schools. Uh, uh, it's an exciting transition for me, um, starting, uh, working with Natalie and, and Dr. Spence and Grenada to really be a, become an integral part of not only our legislative process, not only, uh, within the framework of, of the, of this building, the school building, but also the business community and the greater Loudoun County community. So I'm very, very pleased, uh, to be here. Um, been very welcomed. I have a ton of cards. Feel free, it has my numbers on it. Feel free to call me at any time about anything,
and I'll be more than happy to, uh, do everything I can to help. Never hinder, always help. I like That. Thank you so much. I'm much appreciated to be invited. Thank you. That's A great tagline. Yeah, she's writing it down. What's that? Never hinder all. Um, okay, so we're, Yes, sure. Do you mind, can you just like, outline what your scope is of your role? I don't like, it seems, I don't know what, I don't know what you do. Um, okay. Uh, so I'll stand so everybody can see me. Um, I feel like I'm teaching social studies again. I know. There you go. So basically what I'm responsible
for is working with our legislative partners in Richmond, working with our legislative partners here, uh, in, uh, in Loudoun County. Uh, working with our community leaders to, to sort of craft, um, not only community and legislative opportunities, but sort of craft relationships that's designed to work with our delegation, go to Richmond, our federal partners, and kind of, you know, create an environment where we all kinds of, we all think of things that we can work with legislatively to, to benefit the county and, and specifically the schools, uh,
and the business and, and businesses. I know, I know. That doesn't answer your question. It's, it's, I I could probably do 12 things. Um, but on the, just on the face of it is, is basically legislative work, lobbying work, um, and, and working with the county. And, and So you work pretty closely with the county government's legislative team, John Freeman. I, I'm, I'm literally, literally, in fact, I literally talked to, talked to, uh, him the other day. So yeah, we're, we're, we're absolutely, absolutely building, building those, uh, those connections. So,
And not to speak for John, but yeah, please. Yeah. The other thing is, is, um, like up to this point, I think there's been, um, room for us to improve, sort of like how we, um, have more of a collective impact related to our legislative agenda and how we move, um, things that we wanna move forward in Richmond. Like, for example, even though it got canceled because of a snowstorm, like some of us on the council, some of us with LEF, um, John was actually facilitating us
to all go up to Richmond and talk to our delegation, um, talk to some of the folks in the governor's office about, you know, workforce development and partnerships to kind of lead that work. And so this is just a way for us to get more of a presence in Richmond and a way for us to make sure that we're connecting all the dots related to our business partners and our LCPS folks. And then of course our delegation in Richmond and DC. So, So you said that way better. I talk in clips and So, Well, I used to have your role at the hospital, so I knew Yeah, I know exactly what you're doing.
And it is hard to describe because It's, it really is. It Really is. So my children, my children, uh, who are, I mean, I have older kids, uh, as, as some of us do here, they, they, the people ask 'em, what are, what are your, what do your parents do? And they'll have this great thing about what my wife does, and they'll say, I don't know what my father does. He talks on the phone a lot. That's what my youngest daughter Said. Exactly. He Talks on the phone a lot. So, yeah. So I thought together, you guys did a great discussion. Write that down for Dory. We good? Alright. Well, Gina was unable to meet with me, so, um,
if everybody can take a moment to review the minutes from last, um, last month's meeting, please do so. And then when somebody's ready, they can seek a mo I'll seek a motion to approve them. All right. I'd like to seek a motion to approve the minutes. Barry second. Susan, any discussion? Any edits? All in favor a. Aye. Anybody needs ab sustain? Okay, Mr. Passed. Mr. Passed. Okay. So up next we have, excuse me, community reports
and we wanna hear about the computer science advisory. So Monty, take it away. You're here Back in person. Back in I at One of the schools this morning. I love it. The only one I have is an update for the hackathon that is this weekend. Uh, so Carrie, keep me honest. Want to thank Microsoft, Google, and ManTech as our sponsors for Another one, swoop, Another fourth one. Keep me honest, Angelina. Awesome. Yeah. So four sponsors. That's a great update from last month. It is. There's fourth one. That's why we wanna get these reports. So tell me again, The hackathon is this weekend at the
academies of Loudoun on, uh, the 17th and the 18th. Okay. But the four people that are, Um, Google, ManTech, Microsoft. And May I ask a question? I might be the only one in the room who doesn't know, but can you actually explain in like 30 seconds what a hackathon is? Uh, so it's a programming thing. So you're talking about coding, so kind of like an our code, except it's a, everyone's on their computer trying to, uh, crack different types of codes or programming, different types of software. Some of, some of them are timed, some of them have kind of obstacles to 'em, but it's fun. It's a two day competition for,
they're expecting 450 students. Districtwide, it's hosted at the Acade, but it's open to all, It's not just all CCPs. So you're not trying to like hack the pen computer, But are we teaching, it's too, It's not open, closed network Email Getting out. That's The chamber's a target designed, Get them excited about The point is being able to program, uh, getting them more excited for things like Python or at the, on the upper levels of coding. Okay. Yeah. Sounds cool. Barry had a question, a question, uh, Monty, do they do something based on a purpose,
like solve a certain thing? Uh, because we do a number of different hackathon, but I'm wondering in the computer science, would they give them a statement, now solve this one, this is your time. And then they program certain things to Certain things. So launch is different obstacles, so some of them are set up that way. Um, but there're kind of puzzles, so to speak. Uh, ine do you wanna add anything? No. Okay. I know enough to be dangerous, but I don't know all the details. Um, that's the honest truth. But I'm sure if you'd like to stop by, you absolutely Could definitely see bystanders. So if you are interested
but have no idea what it is, it's a great chance to find out what exactly it is. If you have any kids or other young people in your life that might be interested in coding, it's a great way to figure out what are they talking about or help them, uh, be encouraged 'em to be more interested in, uh, going into kind of computer science Jobs and programs. And you said it wasn't just L CCPs, was It regional? It's it's district, it's Just through the district. Just the district, not the region. And from there, do they move to the next step or is it just Contain from this one as a competition? I think, um, depending on the brackets,
some will be invited to the next one. So I think it's not even region is the next step. I think it's state, State. See, Meet Carrie to keep me honest. Thank you. Well, I'll jump in and add just a little bit more. I'm the interim principal at, uh, the Academies. Yes. Uh, the theme of the, uh, event is time travel. Okay. And our mascot at the academies is the Raptor. And so you'll see if you attend, um, an image of a Raptor, uh, in the future, what that would look like. So, um, it is free and I understand we have a student that's traveling up
to four hours, uh, to come and attend the conference. So that's great. That's, That's motivations. Are there any other questions for Monty? Thank you, Monty. That was good. Alright. And next up we have workforce development. Oh, sorry. Next up we have, we have with, I see I had like five minutes, so, because I'm gonna take a little bit longer. Just a little bit longer. So still a very healthy balance. So great job on the, oh, I'm sorry I didn't update that date. It's still that total. It's, that's the current total.
I apologize for not updating the April 11th date. That's okay. Um, we are still awaiting a $3,000 payment for the School Business Partnership Awards that I am diligently following up on. So I will get that money for you all. So a healthy balance. So get your grill, Renee for the first responders. It's exciting. Um, even there's so many. Good. So I wanna start with the pictures. Um, who knews Sharon. And here I'm featuring you in the Rotary.
So thanks to Sean, Sharon and Natasha and Michael, Dr. Grs. And then photo cred, courtesy of night, Dr. Grs. So, um, Sarah had mentioned about, um, dominion Trail and shared a story at the last, um, at the last meeting we were all together and then Sharon shared that money would be coming for a Title one school in Ashburn. That is the only Title one school in Ashburn. So I, and then I found out that the family liaison is applying for a grant. And so this money that the Rotary contributed
to Dominion Trail is going to, is going to go far. So thank you for that very much. Um, the picture to the right is our board on a PAC Night at Fueled. And to date, we have packed, um, 38,360 bags, meal bags this week or this year. Wow. Another initiative and the year's not over. Um, another initiative that the fuel team is really going to work hard to find partners and launch. So keep this in mind, either for your own business
or as you go about your, your days looking for high traffic areas. We're looking for permanent drop sites for snack and hygiene items. So, um, you know, we have a lot of great partners that participate in drives and community members, but we're also just wanting to have labeled bins at local businesses that people can just, you know, I'm thinking gyms, doctor's office, I don't know. We're thinking about different things. But currently Birch Street Bookstore and Alloy Personal Training, which was a connection from Melanie.
Um, they are already signed up to be a collection site, so that's awesome. Um, and then our think Big corner spring into STEM celebration. Um, so Amazon, I think I mentioned before, had contributed funds for four science labs. And I went, I wanna get the schools wrong, they at Forest Grove, Frederick Douglas Guilford and Potomac Elementary Schools, you guys, Amazon came in and did this full day celebration labs on hands-on work t-shirts,
lunch, coffee truck for the, for the teachers at every school participating. So it was a week. And, um, it's exciting. So, um, we're, we're thrilled to bring that hands-on learning to those, those Title one elementary schools, um, innovation and education grants. We had 64 applications this spring, which is double what we normally get in the spring, which is awesome. That's our goal, um, of $75,000 in s that's what we can't do, unfortunately. They were selected this week,
but our grand total for the year to distribute grants is $90,000. Um, and then scholarships. We received 65 applications for our spring grant or scholarships, as you recall. We have will CRO Science and world language fluency that we kind of do throughout the year. Um, so we were able to award, um, with Willow Crop Total $82,000 in scholarships, which is exciting. That's amazing. Excited. Thank you for that. Um, outstanding Educators Banquet is coming up
and we have 92 nominees and new Teachers of the Year winners. Um, principal of the year, teacher of the year. Um, hey, if you want in on this, I'll take your sponsorship today. So at, it's at Stone Tower, um, the last Friday is that May 30th. May 30th. So it's a, it's a fun time. It's a good time. And, uh, it's just a lovely evening to celebrate their hard work. Golf Classic is coming up October 27th. Everything's open now. And then I just wanted, um, give a quick, I'm sorry.
How am I doing? No, you're okay. I'm doing okay. Um, so we talked about a hackathon, but just some of the other work that we do to support this the school district now and into the summer is we have our Beam Summer Math Academy coming up again. 207th grade students, 88th graders are starting in June. I wanna thank Gina with Jack Can Cook and RTX, formerly Raytheon and Subsidiaries. And we're crossing fingers for Dominion Energy for sponsoring that. Um, it's great. The score improvement for these kids
that participate in this camp is unbelievable. Um, and then likewise, we're helping to support the world language. I immersion the Summer Science Fiesta camp, which is fun. F and um, this has, um, these, again, showing kindergarten students coming in going into the fall of their first grade. They were scoring 2.3 on an assessment. They're up to 3.5 after their participation in this camp. So it's, it's amazing, really. It's so cool.
Um, in a couple weeks we're partnering with Microsoft on a device giveaway, laptops, refurbish laptops of faculty and staff are going to 100 students need in need at Dominion and Parkview High School. And Microsoft came in and added all their software to the, you know, Microsoft Word and Excel, all the things. So, um, it's recommended students will be receiving first come, first serve basis, these laptops as they go into their future. Um, very excited about this Workforce development fund.
I know we're gonna talk more about workforce. Um, we pitched a proposal to Loan Credit Union, um, low Credit Union approach, approached us about kind of revamping their scholarship program and making more meaningful contribution to the community. And so they're contributing a part of their five year pledge. We have a five year pledge from them to, um, the Tools for Success scholarship for trades, and then also stipends for internships. So we are piloting this with the town of Leesburg. I think we have a meeting on Friday to, uh, this summer.
So we're, um, I think the CTAE department and Melanie and all that's, that are involved and of course lot in credit union for the funding to be able to offer these grants to businesses to support interns over the summer. And then likewise, we're working on a Go Virginia Grant for, um, workforce development and expansion and work-based readiness proposals. So stay tuned on that. And then the other internal news is we passed our budget for next year and we have new officers and new trustees. So Michael Perham will be our president.
Kelly Blanks will be our vice president. Carol Adelfa will be our treasurer. Susan Mitchell will be our secretary. And then our new trustees are Dr. Stephanie Bernard. She's from Shannon Doda University. She Crab, who's a member of 100 Women Strong and a family liaison, liaison and our fuel on our field committee and packs like every week. She's amazing. Amanda, I, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna work on that pronunciation. She is with Apple Federal Credit Union, and then Jeff Morris is coming back, um, to join our board. Nice. So that's our news.
Just a few things going out. Well, Carrie, and I'd like to ask you, because I did announce that we have this like summer hiatus, but work continues and you, it's not like you get to take the summer off. Um, so as you have updates throughout the summer, can you get them to Renee and myself and we will get this out. So we'll send 'em out. So it's not like you're not gonna hear from us until August, but I do think that great updates, maybe we can do like a monthly update. That'd be amazing. Okay. I'd love to. And shine is happening. I know I usually share a shine. Um, but it's happening next week and then the beginning of June. So All right. Share your shine,
then share my, I'll share my shine. We'll get that out next week. Thank you so much. Perfect. So now we're gonna go over to good news updates. So Natalie, right? Um, I know I can't fill Dr. Spence's shoes, but I will roll down this list and if you have any questions, I'm here. So, um, first and foremost, we had, um, 13 students receive scholarships through the National Merit Scholarship Corporation. Nice. Um, which is a big deal, and I'm sure you'll see some great news about that in the press. Um, we also, at our last board meeting, recognized 21 employees of the year.
Um, and that was in instructional and operational roles. I don't know if you've been like looped in, but in the last I think two years, we really revamped our employee recognition program. And so rather than just focus on teacher and principal of the year, we're making sure that we're recognizing a lot more people. Um, and then at our next board meeting, we will be recognizing, uh, the folks who have 40 years of service or more. So they will get, um, a plaque and, you know, pictures with the board and those kinds of things. And so that's also very exciting. Um, all, let's see, sorry.
Um, we had a woodgrove freshman when the first at, um, when first place at Virginia History Day. And there, yay. Um, and this year's theme was rights and responsibilities in history. Um, and so her project explored the history of lobotomies and the medical community's failure to uphold ethical standards, particularly in relation to patient rights, gender discrimination, and the violation of medical responsibilities. Interesting topic. Yeah. Um, so I, now I need to read that, you know, We need to share That out.
And then last, but certainly not least, and I might be stealing Renee's Thunder a little bit, but we have our, um, avoiding the summer slide Family Academy on May 28th. Um, so that'll be at noon and five or six. Six six. Thank you. Um, and so that is kind of the, the last one of this season. And I think that it'll be great for families to kind of hear how, 'cause we know summer slide is something that happens to students every year. And you know, hopefully they'll hear how, um, they can avoid that.
Um, and just for kind of an FYI as far as the board meeting next week, we're gonna go over calendar options. So that might be something that you hear about in the community. And I'm guessing, Mike, you're probably gonna talk about it, but you're gonna have a great presentation also at the board meeting as well. So I won't steal that. Awesome. Awesome. Okay. We've got a special treat. Now let me just say, I'm gonna try to do this now before I hit this. Um, it's not gonna run through the system. So if you are online, you're not gonna hear this. But I will, I will share this video out to everybody.
And this is an example. Uh, we tried to put a nice little compilation together of the impact that you all have that you may not realize you have amount of public schools. So this is kind of our love letter or thank you or acknowledgement for how much we appreciate what you do to support our student. I'm not gonna cry, she's got tissue here. Um, but I have to play the, the music to it, um, through my laptop. The slides like do the presentation for
we are the spark. Yes, you all are the spark. And I will send the video out to you all because you couldn't see the words that were after this, but we tried to capture all of those moments and times where you worked with our kids. You inspired us, um, as a division. And we are eternally grateful for everything you do and we see it. So you are the spark Question. Will that go on our landing page? It will. So yeah, part of our, part of our work this summer is to, I cannot wait for you to see the
re-imagination of our website. And that video will be on there. And you guys, I'm gonna send this out so you'll have it. And I know Dr. Spence isn't here, but I can kind of speak for Him a little bit when I say, um, having, you know, worked with him before. We've never seen a, a community that supports its school division the way we do in Loudoun County. So just, I mean, you've been here for four months and you've said that already, right? Absolutely. Like I just feel, I think really, really fortunate for the support that this community gives the school division. So, um, and another thing with Dr. Spence, I know he was supposed to go over federal funding
with us today. Um, and he's at a graduation. So what I'm gonna ask him to do, and I think we can put it together, is send you all kind of like a, a written version of what he would say. Um, 'cause I know I can't do it justice, you know, that's kind of his, his shtick and he'll, he'll be able to explain it really well and talk through it with everybody. So just wanted to say, you know, we didn't forget about that. Thank you. I had that in my note to say, but thank you for, for that. But yeah, graduation, that, that was important. So, um, and then we can also ask questions in August, of course.
Yes, a hundred percent. Um, okay, Dr. Grs, do you wanna Sure, I'll keep it brief 'cause I think we have another 15 or 20 minutes with you all. So, um, Natalie set me up really well. Um, one of the updates I wanna give is we've been very fortunate to be in front of the board several times the past few months. Um, just last week we did a board presentation. It was more from our advisory council. Um, it was supposed to be a 15 minute presentation. Um, just kind of an update of what our advisory council was doing. I think it turned into a 45 minute, almost hour conversation. Um, it felt like a defense, the amount of questions they were getting.
Um, but it was really well received. And just to Natalie's point, I think it shows the engagement of our board in career and workforce development. So I provided some updates from Advisory Council. Um, I think one of the highlights is, um, we are revamping our advisory council and we had 118 applicants for 20 positions. And so they're across all 17 career clusters, um, and across the entire county. So we'll have a really good representation coming into next school year, uh, for our advisory council, which really informs where our programs are going in the future, the work that we do, the engagement that we do, uh,
with our business community. So really excited about that one. And then next week we come back and we're gonna give, um, another board presentation. This one's 45 minutes to an hour. And we'll be taking them through two things, two topics. One of the topics we're gonna take you through today is how do we have better conversations with students around career development. Um, we're gonna you a really quick primer, but if you didn't get enough today, you can watch the board meeting at 4 45 next week. Um, and then we're gonna give some updates on our five year plan, um, which we've been talking about all year, um, which is really what our programming we're hoping to look like for the next five years in terms
of expansion of efforts. Um, so really fortunate, I can tell you. And just to kind of piggyback, when Natalie said, I've never had this much face time with a board in a community in a single school year. Um, uh, we must have given five to seven board presentations this year around workforce development. And I think it's from the energy that we, we get even in this room. Um, and so I just wanna give you all kudos for standing us up and elevating, uh, that work. Um, along the same lines, like Christine and I have been doing a lot of increased community conversations. Uh, so this past Monday we took Dr. Spence, we took Chair Mansfield, uh, we went and visited Northrop Grumman
and did a really amazing, uh, industry tour. Um, we have pictures of him in a red bonnet and a white suit. Um, it was very HandsOn, we were in clean room. Um, and then we are, we're uh, meeting with Stewart this afternoon. We're talking about ag. Uh, we really appreciate everything we're doing. Ag I'm gonna share a little bit as well, meeting with Denise tomorrow to talk about ag. Um, Sean Mitchell has invited me out to do a tour of a Nova Hospital. Um, so I really wanna give Christina kudos. You know, we're, we're really trying to immerse ourselves in the business community and we've been spending a lot of our time the past few
weeks, uh, doing industry tours and learning more from the workforce around the needs. Uh, building off that we are doing a pilot this summer with LEF in the new Ag school. Um, ag has been a big focus for us to share. Renee planted those seeds, no plan words, uh, early on when I got here. Um, but Ags a tricky one that we talked to Stewart, we talked to Denise about what does that look like from a program expansion perspective. So we're gonna do a summer camp at no cost to kids, small amount of kids, um, in partnership with our office. We're gonna provide the funding, um,
to get kids out on a farm and, and listen to them. You know, what interests you about ag? What does that look like if we build a program in the future? Uh, and then get some teachers and some counselors out there. And so we're really pleased around that partnership. Um, it's not as easy. I had an ag program and that is a huge gamut of programming. And so rather than just start a program, let's get some kids out there free of charge and have some conversations with them around, uh, the work moving forward. Not to steal, uh, Christina's thunder, but um, really making some progress on internships. We're gonna hire three for our own office. Uh, really putting our money where our mouth is in terms of hiring kids.
They'll work, uh, in, in the CTE office doing, uh, work for us. You may see them here in the next few the next year doing, uh, different work that we need done. Um, and then we partner with, uh, Loudoun County Government. They came to us in the fall and said, we wanna hire kids. We don't know where to begin. And um, I think they're taking on 10, 10 students this summer through our new summer jump program, which is a pilot of getting students in work, uh, over a six to eight week period over the summer. I think Christina talked a little bit about that last meeting. So, um, those are the major updates. I just wanna piggyback one last thing.
Um, we've seen a significant increase in grant funds in partnership with LEF, um, almost to the point where we're meeting this afternoon to talk strategy. I think we got like a 40 or $50,000 ham side grant last year. We just got a quarter of a million dollar almost. Um, and I think that's from the partnerships we're building, I think think Claude Moore, we've been meeting a lot with, they see the vision and um, I mean they quadrupled the funding requests that we made to them. So we are seeing some significant funding increases. We just need to make sure that we can balance the workload as well. Um, but some really amazing stuff happening.
So please to share. Um, and Christine and I will talk a little more in the next topic as well. Thank you all. Alright, Let's go over to Sarah. All right, good morning everyone. Um, just a few updates from our team. This is actually a really busy time of year for our family liaisons. Um, their positions do not work during the summer, but as we all know, the needs of our families don't stop just because it's summertime. Um, so they do a lot of good work this time of year and making sure that our families are prepared for the summer when, you know, when they're not in the school building, um, to get their basic needs met, their, you know, their clothing needs, their food needs, things to kind
of keep them secure over the summer until they come back to us in August. Um, so they've been working really hard with that. We do have our final staff meeting tomorrow, no next week, um, for our family liaisons. Um, and we'll be recognizing service awards for our team members. We do five year service awards. Um, we do have a couple staff members who are at 20 years. We have one who's 25 years, um, which is pretty incredible when you think about the, the workload that they take on emotionally, um, in that position. Um, and one quick thing I wanna share about our, um, next staff meeting that we're having next week.
We always have breakfast for our team. Um, but this time we're having breakfast catered by Anna Suda Community Kitchen. And if you're not familiar with them, they're a fantastic nonprofit organization within Loudoun County. Um, they have, so I'll give them a quick shout out. They have, um, a kitchen over at Dulles Town Center where they provide hot meals to the community. Um, they provide meals to our local shelters in the area. They have a food pantry on campus. Um, they do a lot of really great work. They have a training program where individuals can come in and get like serve safe certification. Um, so they're doing some really great things in our community. Um, and so they'll be at our meeting catering breakfast
and also talking about their services. But if you all have meetings or retreats at your own businesses and you're looking to, um, have a catered meal and give back to the community, that's a fantastic way. Um, all the proceeds from their meals go back to support their nonprofit mission. So a really great organization. Annaa Community, kitchen River in Dallas Town Center. And we can, in our follow up for this meeting, we'll make sure that we include the contact information. That's awesome. And if I may add one more thing that I forgot to speak about, working with Sarah and Renee's office, a program that we've been working on throughout this year
to launch next year is in partnership with c an organization called Communities in School. And we will be, um, launching this program or LCPS at Seneca Ridge and Dominion High School. And this is just a continuation of the great work that's been done at the elementary level with the community schools, the six community schools that we have there in Sterling. Just providing site coordinators with complete focus and attention in building community partnerships, um,
wraparound services for the kids. Um, they will be on site at the schools and we've been in the process of touring schools that have participated in Fairfax in this program. And then we just had their group committees and schools come to our schools. So really excited about that and how that will support the family liaisons and the social workers and the psychologists and just all the work they do. So excited about that. Thank you. So during the month of March, um, we had 3,895 families that were served with family liaisons
and they served a total of 5,629 students. Um, and just to share a couple of stories for you all from this monthly reports. So one of our, uh, testimonials comes from our families at Catoctin Elementary School and she says, A project I began working on in March is partnering with a parent and the PTA to develop a welcome to Catoctin presentation deck, an event for new families to be held at the beginning of the school year. We brainstormed all the information that parents find helpful in beginning their elementary school tenure. We have an outline of the presentation of what it will look like, what to include, and a set update and a plan to utilize the presentation
to help welcome new families throughout the year with all the information that they need to know. In addition to this, we are using, um, in addition to this, were the usual assistance requests that came in during the month with a few more than usual medical related needs, um, arising after our vision and hearing screenings were completed in our school setting. I continued to provide additional support to the family that was impacted by the house fire in February as well as all that was just a nice picture of some of the different work that they do. They are often times working with families in need, but they're also doing a lot of strategic family engagements, um, events within their school as well.
A story from Stewart Weller Elementary School. Um, and actually Gladys from Stewart Weller is in the picture on the left hand side. Um, she partners with Nest for us and they provide, um, the bags. Right. There are birthday gifts that they give out to students whose families otherwise may not be able to afford a birthday gift for them, uh, which is great. So Gladys said our school cafeteria often generates a significant amount of food waste. I decided to open a food recovery program at Stewart Weller. I got in contact with the nutrition specialist to get the information after investigation and asking other schools about the program. I had a meeting with my principal to discuss the idea. I got the green light for the project.
March was a month of getting information. Now I'm planning to make a video to illustrate students and teachers about the program. And we are planning to launch in May. So I'll definitely come back around next year and give you the update on that program. And then finally, from Selden's Landing, um, Julie says, one of our families has been in and out of shelters and homelessness for a couple of years. Last month they got into a Tree of Life shelter. Mom started as an electrician apprenticeship program and is doing very well. She now needs afterschool care. I worked with McKinney Benzo and got both students enrolled in the casa the Parks of Recreation afterschool program. They started within a week of mom's request.
They just moved into a new place and they can stay in that place for up to two years. I've been working with McKinney Benzo and, uh, for bus transportation and have been sharing housing information with the mom so she can get on the waiting lists for after when her two years at this current apartment is up. Excited to see these steps being made toward her stability. That's all I got. Thank you. Say thank you so much. I'm gonna quickly have Renee just talk about together remembrance and then you guys see the rest of the, the dates there. And then I'm gonna give the whole rest of the time to, um, Dr. Grubbs and Christina. So together, remembrance for those
of you all that don't know, is an event we've done in partnership with, um, the Office of Social Sciences and Global Studies. And it is a way and we've partnered with, um, Potomac acom, LEF, just the big group. It was the award winner for last year. And what we do is, um, it's a way for us to teach our students about Memorial Day. Um, and it's tied to our curriculum and in partnership with Flags of Valor, which I love Brian. And so what we do is, um, our business partners pay for flag kits.
We send them out. We have over 3001st grade students that will be participating. But we need to build the kits. We need to put it all together so we can ship it out to the school. So today in the Learning Commons at 11 o'clock, um, we are gonna be doing flag kits. We have about 60 business partners that are coming in to help put these kits together, to ship them out to schools. Um, we're very excited about it. And that will happen today at 11 o'clock. Um, and then the actual day that the kids build flags, we'll be March, uh, or May, May 22nd.
Um, and that's where across the school division, at the same time we'll have all 3000 of our first grade kids building flags. And we want them to display those flags over Memorial Day weekend. Um, and remembrance each one of you all, I have personal gift for you, it's a poppy. Um, and so you all have those. If you are coming up to help pack, just come up at 11 o'clock. Um, if not, just uh, wear it on um, Memorial Day, but also wear it on the 22nd when we have all of our kids across the division building flags.
Um, and then one quick thing. The breakfast, we have the official date for our breakfast. Mark your calendars. It is drum roll April 24th. April 24th of next year. So we're very excited about that. Yeah. And guess and guess what? The past chair gets to be the chair of the breakfast. So you're gonna be hearing from me this summer. You're gonna be hearing from me this summer 'cause we're gonna get going. Um, I'll have the portal open ready for you. Exactly. So Carrie and I are gonna be bugging you this summer 'cause we're not gonna wait until the the fall. Alright, share. That's it. All
Good. And I'll share that together. And remember it's video from last year with Renee so she can add it, um, in her. Yeah, send it off to everybody so You can kind of see what happened last year and this year will look different. Alright, so I'm gonna hand over the rest of the agenda to Dr. Grabs and Christina. Alright. And I just wanna give you guys a big thank you along with Denise for really leading the workforce committee. This, this year. I think that I talk about making great strides. Mm-hmm. You guys have just blown it up. So, um, go ahead. Thank You. And that's really Christina
and Denise, I mean Christina and Denise have been working together behind the scenes on the committee meetings. And um, I'll just second what Stacy said. It's been a really good committee, um, moving the needle on some of the work we're doing. Um, we're gonna do a very condensed version of this. So, um, but it is engaging. So Christina's gonna come around and give you all a deck of cards. We do need these back 'cause I need to use these for the school board on Tuesday. If you love them, I'll get you your own set. Um, but at the last committee meeting we were sharing some updates of the work we're doing and a lot of the work we're doing is very technical in terms of program expansion. Um, thank you. I can't multitask. So, or I would be handing out the, Um, so we, um,
you know, a lot of the work we're doing is expanding CT programs, but if you're expanding programs, you're not having conversations with kids around careers, then we're just putting programs that may not have seats filled. So we're, we're doing really like a two-prong approach. And so, um, I think last meeting, Stacy and Renee said, Hey, why don't we bring this to the council and share this. We did this just in context as a two hour session with our teachers, April 7th. Um, we're doing it as like a 30 minute session with the school board on Tuesday. You're getting like the four or five minute version. So, um, just, you know, we'll, we'll take you through it,
but, um, just realize that this isn't the deep dive. Um, when you talk about career development, uh, the R SAC model, R-I-A-S-E-C is based on the Holland Codes theory of career development. It tries to categorize people in a six different personality types. This isn't new, this isn't really groundbreaking, it's been around since 1969. Um, if any of you were in the armed services or took the ASVAB is actually mapped back to the rise SAC Model School links, which is now our career development, um, platform,
uh, through counseling. All of that is based on the rise sac model. What doesn't really happen is the conversations. You might take the career interest survey and then you find out that you're mapped to an engineer or a scientist. What doesn't really happen is let's find out who you are and have some conversations around that and then connect that to the career that you're interested in. So on the next slide, um, I'm gonna, we're gonna take you through all the letters and we're gonna have you identify yourself. Um, I'm gonna start with r So for nay, if you don't mind advancing the slide. Um, do you wanna do the video there? Let's try, if not, um, let's, we can just do the pictures.
If not, this is the short video. Realistic is about hands-on doing. It's about physical activity. It's about being outdoors. It's about working with your hands. It's about manual dexterity. So when I think about the careers carpenters, for example, score very high on the realistic theme. One thing about the realistics too is that they like to see the output of their labor. So at the end of doing the physical work, they like to see the accomplishment, whether it's a house that's built, something that's been drafted or designed or created. So electricians, builders, carpenters,
but also your physical therapists typically leading with that. Realistic athletics and sports, you know, athletes typically leading with the realistic theme. Also your military professions. Many of them also will fall into that realistic side of the house. Alright, so I'm gonna do r and we don't need to play all the videos. We'll summarize them. Um, I'll yield to Renee on time, but if you go to the next slide, um, the work we're gonna be doing moving forward is really increasing the conversations we're having with kids about their skills, their values, and their interests. So the r if you look at this slide here, um,
notice there's no careers up there, right? There's no, 'cause students have biases around careers both from their family, from society, from movies. Everybody that watched CSI the whenever that was, they wanted to go be a crime scene investigator, right? Um, so realistic are your doers. They like to build things, they like to create things, they like to be outside. Um, these are your problem solvers. I'm looking around this room and I see some rs not to label you, but if you're, if you're an R, go ahead and put your raise your raise your R letter. I'd love to see if anyone identifies themselves.
My construction folks, my STEM people, I know my HVAC guys over there, he's probably an R. So, um, in talking to students, we would have them think through their skills, their values, and their interests. Again, we're not talking about what career you're interested in yet. We're talking about who, who are you as a person. So that's r you don't have to pick one. So if you're waiting for your letter, you can be the principal We did this with last week and they said that they were all six letters. Yes. Uh, so, uh, we'll go to the next letter. Christina's gonna do I, so I
Have I the investigative, we don't have to play the video 'cause I know that we're short on time. So these are our thinkers. They're solving complex problems. You see from the image here. Some of their skills in, in, um, ologies are like an, um, analytics data, um, and logic. They prefer to work with data solving problems. Um, some of the careers are, um, web developers, computer analyst, um, who resonates with I investigative. Very curious. Come on. I know it's some, a data center.
You're in medicine. Oh, you're awesome to be in this room. You kind of have to be over. Yeah. Yep. So, um, we'll summarize these at the end. So just, uh, you know, we, I saw some eyes around the room. I definitely see a lot of eyes in here. Uh, the next letter is a, this one's a bit of a tricky one. Um, some people think, well, I'm, well, I'm not really an artist. Um, art, it's not just about painting and drawing and sculptures. It's about creative expression. It's around creating. Um, so we did this about a month ago
and we had our carpentry teacher at Academy is allowed, and he was sitting front and center. We did r he was like, I'm an R I'm done. We got to a And he was really thinking through, he said, you know what? I build furniture. I do chess ports, I'm, I create, I have some artistic. And so he became an r and an A on the spot. And so when we talk to kids, they may be like, you know, I don't enjoy art class. Maybe, right? But, but you are, they do have some creativity behind them. And that changes all the, you could be an engineer and have some artistic, but if you're just thinking about the R and math and science, you completely shut out a whole career
trajectory for yourself. So, um, r again, those are our creators. Uh, those are folks that you may sketch, draw and paint, but you also like to design, you like to create, um, you're expressive. Um, you have hobbies around the work that you're doing, like the carpenter that I talked about. Uh, so if you're an r, um, or an a, sorry, I was just talking about r um, I've literally done this like 30 times in the last two weeks. Uh, if you're an A and we keep changing the letters. Oh no. So as a team, we've been dividing the letters up. So, um, I've been the consistent r uh, so if you're an A, raise your hand.
I saw. Yep. So I see that in or there. What's really interesting also about this one last week was we were sitting in this room, Dr. Murphy was there, and we had a principal, um, who has worked with her colleagues for 20 years. She's very by the books. Um, And she was an R outta the gate. And we got to a, and she said, and I see her thinking, I was like, oh, I'm kind of an A. And I was like, well, why, why do you also think you're an A? And she says, I was a ballet dancer. And the principals around the room are like, I had no clue. Oh, you would not know. I'll just tell on her. I, it's Michelle, uh, Petrell.
Oh wow. County. So if you, but in that moment you're talking about people that worked with her for 20 years. It unlocks something that folks didn't know about. So it's beyond just career development. It's about knowing our students. It's around a sense of belonging. So, uh, you know, in that moment, if she's like, I'm an R or another letter that's coming up, but it unlocks something that her colleagues knew nothing about her. So I have S which many of us I think will fall in line with s and this is not just like social butterfly being social. This is about compassion, being a helper.
A lot of the times these are educators, nursing, different fields like that, human resources. Um, and they are very, very compassionate and they want to heal others. I know many of us fall an s And again, just to piggyback what Christina said, um, and we kind of were doing this on the spot last week, but Prince a few weeks ago, some folks would be like, I'm not an s 'cause I'm not an extrovert, I don't like to go outside. What? But it's more than that. You have empathy. Are you caring? Are you a communicator? And so when you're talking to kids, um, they may push away from the s kind of careers
because their biases or perceptions are completely around extroversion and, and being, you know, outgoing. Uh, so I've e um, E is enterprising. Um, these are our persuaders. Um, they like to debate, they like to lead groups. They like to make decisions. They like to market and sell things. They also like to start businesses and projects. Um, these tend to be your legislative liaisons, uh, your school board members, your board members, your development directors, council members,
school based administrators. Uh, so I see a lot of ease in this room. Um, I think about Tony, the, um, program. Our entrepreneurs tend to be a lot ease as well. Uh, so if you're an E, which I'm seeing a lot of ease around this room, I'm an artist. You're an, I see it. The bow tie gives that off. Um, these are also color coded. So we are mapping all our courses back to these letters, um, as well. So when students pull up a, you know, they know their letter, they're also gonna be able to sort
by all of our programs and our courses to say what programs and courses align to these letters. So that's e And our last one is conventional. So these are organizers. They like structure, they like, you know, things that are done on time. I feel like that's Stacy a hundred percent. So we can get out and clean. Um, and mostly a lot of the times these individuals are lawyers. It um, they like data numbers. So any Cs, mini Cs are in. And I think too to, to wrap it up, one of the things, I don't know if this is on the next slide,
but we had the principals and um, also teachers do their top three. So is anybody willing to share their top three, one or two people Put 'em up Too? Yeah. Okay. CENS. Guess that I see a lot of that in in the work you do, Natasha. Okay. E, SA. I see it. Mm-hmm. See it. Creator. I'm Natalie. SEI mm-hmm. Purple, yellow, blue. A CS. Okay. I think I'm an REII See that very investigative. I know, that's what I was thinking. I mean,
that goes without outdoors. Righting. Can I ask a question and you might've said it already, what grade will you be doing this with? Yeah, that's a great question. And then what, like, once they figure it out and they have an idea, yeah. That's part of curriculum path, but then also like career after school. Yeah. So one of the reasons that we brought it up last week was, um, you may recall last meeting if you were here, we reorged. And so Christina will have five work-based learning resource teachers underneath her. So that's our entry point. That's our unit of change. They will be out in the high schools, the middle schools
and elementary schools doing career fairs, having some of those career conversations. They're gonna be really our first layer of impact. Um, we will work with school counseling eventually school counseling is bought into this. So we will be, uh, next year working with school counseling as they're talking to kids about this work. And then we trained all 400 of our CTE teachers. So as we look at the curriculum, we look at those conversations that are happening in the classroom. Um, we'll infuse these cards into the work we're doing daily with our teachers. The nice thing is this isn't a unit in the curriculum, right? This is, you got 10 minutes at the end of class,
you got four minutes here, you got 30 minutes. It's, it's very flexible. It's, it's really part, it should be part of every teacher's, um, tool belt essentially. Um, we're also gonna be changing our like program pathways, like how we advertise programs to be centered around the letters as well. So as you read a course description for a course and you just did R SAC as an assessment with your counselor and you know, you're an r and i, you know what courses map back. So it's another tool to think through how you select your courses moving forward. So, um, I think we've got some really good ideas
for scale up, but, um, we also wanna bring it here because you're engaging with our kids, you're having those conversations. The days of putting up a flyer, um, you know, this isn't to push back, but you know, you walk down a hallway and you see a poster on a specific trade and did you know you can make that much money that's not working right? It's, it's not, it's not working. We gotta talk to kids about what their skills, their values, their interests are, and then connect to the careers, right? Um, we've, we've gotta kind of shift the model and so this is start, um, some of that work. So
I, I just fell in love with this. I know. That's, that's why we were just, yeah. And I just, I do think that that approach is amazing. But we'll get more cards. We probably need to get more cards. Yeah. Yeah. We've given out probably 300 cents of these already. So, um, but I am running low and I need this for the board meeting on Tuesday. They need to leave their cars Watch, if you wanna know what our board members identify as And put 'em back in order. We'll, My letter A or I, I don't remember. Got a question, everybody. A question first of all, this is fantastic. This is a great way of asking, and Christina, this, this is really great idea. You may have already said it.
Is this something that can be in a schooling and kids can do a self-assessment and then in high school kind of customize their curriculum or pathways or however, or even in middle school, they have the opportunity as a rising eighth grader to do those pathways before they get to high school? That's a great question. So actually with the new schoolings platform, all of our counselors are taking them through, it's really more of a career interest survey, that traditional test, right? The bridge we're trying to build is that when you finish that, the students will see, oh, I'm a, I'm a doer. I'm an, but if you we're not having the conversation.
So the cards are about the conversation that should be happening before and after. Um, so this is, this already ties really well into the school counseling work, but the counseling work, and this isn't, um, counselors awareness. Take this survey and then you get the results and there's nothing that comes after. So this to me is the bridge between now I pick courses and how do I, So, so they will have that ability to Customize. They'll have that, that's Fantastic. That's, sorry, I gotta go Senior staff. Sorry, go ahead. Tony or whoever. It was just on the board meeting John And Tony and then Tony. John, did you have something? Uh,
Yeah, very quickly, uh, had just reminded me of a coworker that we had, who's this big, rugged, you know, guy with a beard name, big giant beard. He Was An ex-cop and ex-cop the whole bit. And he announced at some point, I can't remember when he let us in on a secret that as a, as a teenager, he was a figure skater, which is crazy, which says a lot about this particular person. Um, I wanted to make one comment if I could. Um, and I, and I, I, I say this not to hear myself talk, but I, I think that just to, just
to throw something back at all of you folks, as I sit here, I have been in this, in this business for a long time. I've dealt with, with elected officials, I've dealt with, this does not happen in any place that I've ever worked. And so when I look at Loudoun County, okay, when I look at Loudoun County, I, I said when I, I came here 'cause Alan and I have worked together for a long time, and, and Dr. Spence Loudoun County is literally pointing the way. We're the glamorous girlfriend, right? We're the, we're the tip of the spear, right?
Brains, but we got brains. I understand that. I understand that. And all joking aside, beautiful inside and out, I think what's important for, for all of the business community to realize is regardless of what you hear or, or the hubbub or, you know, we have some of the, the most, uh, and this is not political, but it, if I'm making my point, we have some of the most socially conservative members of our delegate, uh, of, of the, I I can think of one senator in particular and one house member
who literally look at Loudoun County as the blueprint. Think about that. Everything the business community does in conjunction with the legislative process, the communication process, uh, Dr. Grubbs, who literally is pointing the way for the entire commonwealth. Think about that, Dr. Grubbs. And so I just wanted you guys to, I just wanted you guys to know that pressure. He's an Eve. I just wanted you guys to know that It is amazing to me. That's the e it is amazing to me. And, and, and please engage me.
I wanna be a part of that. It's very exciting. Uh, I wanna, I want, I definitely am excited to be Here. So he's only been here since July. It Doesn't, I've been, I've been around, I've been around the whole a bit. So it's, it's okay. Uh, and He's joining our rotary. I just wanna, um, you know, I just, I've, I've been in lot of counties myself and I know we're ending, um, this last meeting. So I'll just make some final remarks. Almost to the day I put an offer on a house in Loudoun County. And so to look, you know, just the friendships and you know, Sean texted me on my birthday a few weeks ago. I mean, I didn't get a birthday text,
not getting any old, trying, trying to like raise this. I've never just to stand something up. I've been in counties where it takes three years to build these partnerships and, um, the intrinsic motivation do what's right for kids is just, you've made this so easy on me. So I'm super appreciative and Ray has been an amazing, uh, partner. Yes. Um, during my transition, um, I sold my house and then I had a month where I didn't have a house and I was like kind of living outta a van almost. She called me up even before I got here and we would just talk shop about the transition. So, um, thank you everyone for today. I gotta run the senior.
And just in closing, I just want everyone to give themselves a big round of applause for really successful read my emails. Part: 2
Good afternoon everyone. Welcome to the May 15th, 2025 meeting of the Student Services Committee. I apologize for arriving late, and I appreciate your patience. Um, I am Ann Donahue. Chair of this committee. With me is Ms. Melinda Mansfield and Ms. Carrie LaBelle. Uh, the, that is our, uh, this is our call to order. Um, this meeting is being audio recorded, but it is not being video recorded or live streamed currently. Uh, the recording will be available for anyone to review, uh, in the future on the LCPS website. Item number two on our agenda is public comment.
Do we have any public commenters today? I'm told we do not. Thank you, Ms. Winslow. In that case, we will move on to item number three, approval of the April 24th, 2025, uh, draft minutes, draft minutes of the April 24th, 2025 Student Services Committee meeting. Um, the minutes are in the packet. Hopefully we've all had the opportunity to review those. Um, so if there are any edits or corrections, now is the time. And if there are none, I will entertain a motion to adopt the minutes. Ms. Labe,
I'm moved to adopt the minutes from our last meeting as presented. Is there a second? Yes. Second, Ms. Mansfield. Uh, that motion has been properly made by Ms. Bel and seconded by Ms. Mansfield. All those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. That motion passes unanimously. And with that, we will move on to item number four are action item, which, um, I gather will not be presented by Mr. Dolson despite our agenda. Ms. Richardson. Thank you, chair Donahue. So, policy 8 1 1 5 individuals who may be admitted free is back
before the Committee for action again. Uh, last month we discussed the grammatical and formatting improvements that were made throughout the addition of section six, which is the admission of, of students, um, who are children of certain federal employees, which, um, directly connects to policy 8 1 2 5. That was a code change that had to be added to both of these policies. Um, we did remove any, um, duplicated legal references. And based on the feedback of the committee, I draw your attention to line 39.
We did have discussion over what does it mean to demonstrate a serious intent. So we have expanded that language based on the conversation from committee in April. It now reads, demonstrate an intent to complete high school by completing a plan with a school counselor to meet graduation requirements. That was your feedback. Um, there were no other recommendations made during the April meeting, but certainly I will give you time to look over the policy. Um, if there's any questions, I will,
I'm available to answer Ms. Mansfield. So, um, I see that, let's see, is it two A starts on line 25, uh, on the red line 25 starting with a, um, individuals with disabilities in accordance with IDEA and related state regulations who will have reached the age of two years on or before September 30th and of the school year, or who have not reached their 22nd birthday and who have not completed a Board of Education approved
secondary program are eligible for free education. So I had, um, I have some language from CAC on that that follows the regulation apparently more consistently. Um, and it says, and I can give it to you, whose second birthday falls on or before September 30th, um, and who have not reached their second 22nd birthday on or before September 30th, two to 21 inclusive, and I guess that's in accordance with the code of Virginia,
a child with a disability whose 22nd birthday is after September 30th remains eligible for the remainder of the school year. I think that last part is kind of, That is directly taken from the SPED regulations. I mean, I staff don't have any disagreement with that revision. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Okay. Should I give, um, I guess I make that motion. Yes, but we haven't done anything yet yet. Right? We haven't made any mo we haven't made an initial motion. There are no motions on the court. Yeah. Okay. So that's gonna be my amendment and I can give that to you too.
I second, Uh, but we have to, we haven't done it yet Before. Before we, before we get there, um, I, I have a, I do have a question, Ms. Richardson. Um, I understand that the equity committee also suggested, um, I believe I understand that the equity committee suggested some language added related to immigration status. That is correct. So, um, you should have a copy of the feedback in your packet. Again, we did receive, um, feedback from CAC committee
and then representatives or members that participate on m sac and equity. And we did have, excuse me, one recommendation that did, um, sort of ask or they made a statement like, the policy is silent on immigration status. Mm-hmm. So that is something certainly that the committee could consider adding to the policy, should it be the will of your collective interest. Thank you. Um, does, does staff have any opinions about the proposed language? I would definitely, so if it's something that you would like for us to contemplate adding to the policy, I would just need the opportunity
to run this past our LCPS legal mm-hmm. And see if, if our, if we, um, cross reference immigration status in any other policies. Thank you Ms. Richardson. Yes. Ms. Manfield, I think, I think I think maybe shouldn't in this thing, not just reference it, but also mention that Supreme Court decision, is that something that we could, you know, that it doesn't deny, just to make it clear, perhaps as a p note, I'm happy to take that recommendation to legal counsel,
to Mr. Allen if you all are interested Yeah. In adding that provision to our policy. So, Um, so my, my thought about that, um, and I, I tend to be in support of adding some kind of language that clarifies that, um, that students will be admitted regardless of immigration status. Um, but I, I am actually would not, um, I think I would prefer not to be referencing specific legal authority,
Even in a, I mean, as we do for, we do all the rest, you know, all of the rest of the stuff. 'cause it's not state code. Okay, that's fine. Is it your, is it the committee's recommendation that we consider the addition of a reference to immigration status as like a new paragraph two starting on line 20? So we would have to renumber the rest of the policy. Is that where you would like for us to insert? That's sort of where we go over the free admission requirements. So we have the requirements, then we have age of eligibility,
That could be a possibility. Then the next session section is residency. So I think it fits best in that front section. So you would recommend that as opposed to, I I believe the equity committee's proposal was that it be Either in paragraph B part of the resident, I thought part of the residency, Um, Section, they, they, they suggested adding a new paragraph B at line 1 23, which is just after, um, residency. Where does the committee feel it best fits?
I guess for, for me, I would be inclined to think that it fits right since we, sorry, thinking processing while talking. Um, we don't have, I mean we have like the first paragraph of requirements and then the specific section on eligibility, specific section on residency. So I guess my inclination is to think that it should either be added under paragraph one requirements
or under paragraph three residency. Thank you for that feedback. Sure. Donahue. That's how, um, Mrs. Evans and I were just sort of processing as, as we read the language on immigration status. It does sort of fit, we're sort of defining it as this is the requirements to be considered as an individual who may be admitted free into public education here in LCPS. We weren't necessarily connecting it to residency, but certainly we will follow the direction of the committee. Ms. LaBelle? Ms. LaBelle, Thank you.
I think it needs to be said as soon as possible in the policy because people are going to be wondering why are we doing this? And they may not read as far as residency. So, you know, like we usually put definitions first. The very first paragraph would be a, um, or the requirements section would be a very good place to put it and it would explain it and get that obstacle to thinking, I guess, out of the way before it proceeds with anything else. I think I agree with that. Ms. LaBelle, that paragraph about requirements.
Does state proof of age and residency may be required prior to admission? And in light of that statement, I think that it would, it could make sense to add somewhere in this paragraph that, um, This is legal federal law, Uh, that something along the lines of district will not require documentation of US citizenship or, or immigration status. Ms. Mansfield, Ma'am. Thank you. Chair Donahue. Um, so we wouldn't say LCPS does not deny admission to any student based on immigration student status.
I mean, I guess we should ask legal about that. Honestly, what we should I agree with all of the sentiment though, and I think that would be a great part, that requirement area right there. Okay. So it seems to be the consensus of the committee that we should take some language or work with some language with LCPS legal counsel to add immigration status as a reference in the requirements paragraph in section one. Yes. Yes, please. Staff will do. So, Um, that being said, is there
a timing issue for this policy? Are there, are there timing considerations? Um, no. So I, if, if the committee takes action as amended once you all vote, um, it won't make it for the May 20th meeting, but it would go for information in June before the full board. So my, my only concern with about that is if we are contemplating adding some language related to immigration status, that couldn't be, since we haven't seen it,
we would be voting on it as an action item without the language. So the version that'll be posted, that would be posted on board docs if we vote tonight to forward this to the full board, would not have that language obviously. Correct. There are amendments that are proposed on the dais. Uh, so it wouldn't be completely unheard of, but Correct. But you can also keep this as an, as an information. You can also keep this as an action item for next time. Right. So that's, that's why I was asking about the timing. Yes, because, And the full board does have a second meeting in June. Mm-hmm. But, so we have time, right?
You guys have two meetings in June, June 10th. Yes. But when is our meeting here? Do we have a June meeting here? We do, it's in June. Fifth. Fifth. So then and the board meeting, when is that? The 10th. The 10th. The 10th. And then it's the first one. Is there another board meeting after That? They're the 24th. Okay. So it would make the two meetings afterwards. Okay. Um, if, if that is the, if we think we can still get it to the board in June, I think I would prefer to keep it in committee so
that we can review and discuss the, the right, the immigration language. Is that, is that Absolutely. Does, does that cause Heartburn burden? Not at all. Richardson? Nope, not at all. Okay. Happy to do so. Thank you. Um, should we discuss any additional, um, your, your cx uh, your cx? That's it. It was just, it was just putting it in the regulation and, and she could probably, uh, put that in there too and then you could see that language altogether
on at the June meeting. Right. But I think, hmm, correct me if I'm wrong, do we have to make a motion to keep it in, uh, action since it's on action right now? Yes, you do. I think I do. Yeah. Oh, Okay. Then I move that we keep the proposed revisions for policy 81 15, uh, in committee to reappear as an action item on our June agenda. Is there a second Ms. LaBelle Second, uh, motion has been properly moved and seconded.
Is there any discussion? Okay, all those in favor, please raise your hand and say aye. Aye. Aye. That motion passes unanimously. Uh, so Ms. Richardson, we will look forward to seeing this again in June. Thank you. With that, we will move on to item number five on our agenda revisions. Proposed revisions to policy 81 20 on compulsory attendance. Hi there Ms. Evan. Yes. So as an information item, we wanted to have you review compulsory attendance 81 20. There are very little changes that were made, um,
mostly just to update policy numbers that have been, um, changed, um, over the last years. Um, but if you look, you'll see on line 22, we've just updated that policy from eight dash 11 to 80 80, which is home instruction. Um, we also on line 34, updated policy eight dash 21 to policy 40 10, which is tuition fees. And then on line 44 we remove the pronouns and what they for consistency. And then two more minor changes on line 81,
the Department of Student services, not pupil services. Um, and then again, 82, 84, 85, 87 are all related to just aligning the pronouns consistently. Thank you, Ms. Evans. Um, can you tell us a little bit about, uh, paragraph D that was added beginning at line 92 on the red line version? It is exactly the same. So I think it's all read because the four mening, um, this was reviewed by division council on five nine. Um, but there are no changes in d Thank you for that clarification. Here's, here's the, the
Formatting. Okay. Yeah. It jumps out when its an Entire red. It does. And what is this whole new edition? It's not new. Yeah, Ms. Mansfield. So this, this um, aligns with the absentee, the absence, the new law Or Guidance or whatever For absences? Yes. Okay. For compulsory attendance. Um, and what we do as a division with our attendance officers and who's responsible, um, you see the parent responsibilities, the exceptions from compulsory attendance. So nothing has changed there and the code is still the same. So what happens if, uh, the attendance officer goes
and everything else? Um, what is the um, the consequence? It's individualized to the family situation. Really what the attendance officers do at the beginning of the school year is focus on the non enrollment, which is described in D. Those are kids that we are expecting to come to school but they're not coming. Right. So we need to figure out what's happened, have they moved. So we do take a take a take time, put together a list, the attendance and registrar attendance, administrative assistants and registrars reach out to the families counselors reach out. Um, and then once they can't, if they cannot find them,
then we have the attendance officers do post office checks, do home visits to see where they may be, call other school divisions because we wanna make sure they're enrolled in school and then for safety reasons. But when we have students who have truancy concerns or the parents are not having their kids come to school, they're issued a letter, um, asking them to enroll their child within a certain number of days. And if they don't then there can be a petition to the court. So this is just for non enrolled students. What about enrolled students who don't want, who disagree with their IEP and there's a period of time, um,
and then the attendance officer is called. So typically it wouldn't be the attendance officer that's called. There's usually a lot of interventions that are put in place that are more interventions like the social worker or the school psychologist or the school counselor who knows that family the best. Before we push the attendance officer route, we try to work with the families have collaborative meetings, but there is another policy 81 40 that lays out the process, which isn't this policy. Um, 81 40. There is something in there that about that. Yeah. So we have an attendance plan.
We do an attendance conference, which is a multidisciplinary team meeting. And then after that the attendance officer can then take families to court. Oh, they can take families to court? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. Under the circumstance that you described Mrs. Mansfield of um, there being a disagreement over an individualized educational plan, we don't usually view a parent withholding their student as truancy. Um, while those, we are monitoring those days, every effort is made to come back to the table and work with the family, whether it's through the IEP process
or making them aware of medical home bound. Should that be an applicable option for that particular family. By Code of Virginia, we do have the mandatory 15 day drop. So we are constantly working with families to come back to the table to come up with a plan so that students are actively attending school. Those circumstances might happen once a year where there's a disagreement and a parent chooses to keep their students out. We make sure that they know that um, resources are available
through Schoology. The option of in-person services remains available. Even though you may disagree with them as a parent, the services are still here for your student. And we still remain available to come to the educational planning team table and work with you through whatever con concerns you might have. So a parent disagrees at the IEP meeting and says, I'm gonna unilaterally place my child. And there's a period of time where they have to find a new school 'cause they haven't figured, you know, they haven't decided on it.
And during that period of time, that's when a truancy officer has been called in the past. So that's what I'm wondering. The cases that I'm aware of, we have not involved our attendance officers. The school will still be consistently reaching out. Mrs. Mansfield, it's the third day that your child hasn't been here. Is there anything that we can help with? Do we need to connect you with different resources? We really want little Johnny to come back to school. Um, we would also be working to schedule subsequent meetings with the family to continue to work through what the concerns might be through that process.
We are informing parents that 15 consecutive days missed does result in an unen enrollment, a withdrawal from LCPS. That doesn't mean that we stop working with the family. We're still trying to come to the table because ultimately at the heart of what is going on is we need to provide the child education. And while you as the parent may disagree, we're going to continue to work with you and reiterate the services at your homeschool remain available. And then here's all the other options that we're willing to work through.
Okay. That's how it works out. I would add that It doesn't feel good sometimes, but that's how it works out. That there may be Situations where there's been attendance patterns prior to a parent not agreeing to whatever the IEP recommendations are. So there may have been instances where we've had an attendance officer already involved because of a pattern of chronic absenteeism. Um, due to medical reasons, there's a lot of situations. But in those situations, we're not gonna file a petition and take a family to court, especially when there's medical mental health
or you know, any other challenges that they're facing. The goal is to try to figure out how do we make this work. If it's a blatant refusal to send your kid to school, then that's different, but we're always gonna be trying to work with the family. Um, but there might be situations where an attendance officer was already in the know and involved with a family. And so when a family decides, well, we're not going to send our child 'cause we don't agree with this, they might have already been part of that conversation. Mm-hmm. Thank you Ms. Evans and Ms. Um, I have a question as well. Um, just there is, uh, another policy 81 40
that is related to attendance. Has there been any thought of combining the two policies? We have looked at that they are both very lengthy. Not this one, but 81 40 is pretty lengthy. I think it's about four pages. And it also has a regulation that goes with it that walks through all the definitions and the steps and the roles and everyone that's involved in that. Mm-hmm. So that is why we did not, um, when we previously updated 81 40. Okay. So the, the reason why I was asking is, um, on the red line, uh,
part two B at lines 24 to 28 says, any person having control or or charge of any child who permit permits the child to remain at home and not attend school shall be subject to prosecution. Which sounds very serious, but there are some exceptions or exemptions listed in 81 40. Mm-hmm. Um, uh, small amount of concern if a parent is looking at this language, but not 81 40 for there to be some confusion about. Absolutely.
Yeah. And that's why we do have the cross reference at the bottom where we should Yep. Right. 81 40. Mm-hmm. But that, that is the parent guardian responsibility is straight from the Virginia code. Mm-hmm. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Alright. Um, I think, I think we don't have any other questions about this policy at this time. Thank you. Um, so this will come back for action in at the June meeting. Um, please send it out for feedback. We'll look forward to seeing it again as action in June.
Uh, so now we will move on to item number six, new business. Is there any new business, Ms. LaBelle, If I might ask Ms if I might ask Ms. Richardson, would this be a good time or place to discuss what we discussed yesterday? Absolutely. All righty. I will bring it up then. Um, one of the things that has concerned a lot of our special ed personnel as well as parents, as well as some board members, is the fact that so many of our students in special education can't quite
reach the, the standard diploma requirements as much as we support them as much as we do. They can't do it in four years. Um, and yet the parents don't want them down getting an adaptive IEP diploma. And I can understand why because they are so close but not quite there. We used to have a diploma called a modified diploma for students of this ability, but it was taken away in 2013 and hasn't been around since. Um, one of the things we were discussing the other day,
Dr. Richard and I, Richardson and I, um, another teacher had brought up with us as well, uh, that we need to do something about that and the idea that we could combine a new or, or get the legislature to approve a new diploma option that would go along with our plan at the Transition Center to earn credentials and call it a credential diploma or some such thing and have the requirements that we used back when we had a modified diploma,
combine the two and bring out a new diploma. Um, I think that we need to talk about this as a board and see what we can do to move the idea forward. Uh, that's basically what I'd like to see us doing if we can. And this would be the committee to start it in? I did. I would be interested in hearing more about what we can do in that area. Certainly. Um, as, as the design team has been working on the plans for the Transition Center, we have talked about how we are going to make sure that the workforce
or whatever post-secondary option our students leave and go to have sort of a verification of these are the competencies. Now some of our students will be able to gain the actual credentials while others will have competencies. That is really what led Ms. LaBelle and some of our special educators across LCPS to say that modified standard really reflected this for some of our students. It afforded them the opportunity to still have the 20 credits, right, with five being verified across the core content areas
of English, science, social sciences, math, and their electives. But also afforded them the opportunity to have some flexibility to take some courses that could count for credit that weren't core content. Um, there were also some testing modifications that were afforded to those students that were working towards the modified standard. They removed that diploma option away and now we only have advanced standard and applied studies. And there is a big difference between the standard diploma and an applied studies diploma. There are no verified credits required
for the applied studies. And so ultimately we're saying we still need that in between ground. And so some of the conversations we've been having as we've been moving through the work of the Transition Center is could the board or would the board consider making this a legislative priority to work at the state level to bring this back for our students? We know that we have, um, legislative support through our senators, um, that really advocating for more transition centers across the commonwealth.
We know that career and technical education opportunities and experiences for our students with disabilities are very important and they do have to be differentiated to meet them where they are. So, um, that is why Ms. LaBelle is bringing this before the committee for you guys to think about. Mm-hmm. Look into it, um, have some more conversation and possibly consider it as a legislative priority for next school year. Thank you Ms. Richard. So this, this is not something that the board could decide to do on its own. You're saying this would have to be, it would have to be a,
a change in the Virginia code? Correct. First. Okay. Alright. Thank you. Ms. Mansfield. Has Ms. Mansfield needs to Leave? I know I do need to leave, but I I do wanna know. I, can you help me remember why they got rid of it? Is it because of U-S-D-O-E? Is it because of something that we weren't doing? Ms. Ms. LaBelle and I tried to research that and we couldn't find the definitive reason why, but we're still doing some more digging so that we can use that right. To help inform our way forward
to bring a similar diploma option back. Um, we just know we were informed that it was going away to, to my knowledge it certainly wasn't related to any JARC study. Um, it happened around the same time that they removed the VGLA for SOL option for our students and they introduced VMAs and then also removed the modified standard. But we are doing some more, um, research to go back to prior to 2013 to see exactly what that guidance was coming from the Department of Ed. I mean, I remember all this a little bit
and I think that there was something that came down, but also it was, have y'all looked at the Board of Education? Now I'm gonna be the first one to say that video e website has changed and it is really difficult to find anything. And I think they've gotten rid of a lot of stuff, which is annoying. But, um, because you have all that history there, um, including superintendent memos and all the rest of that, it's all gone. So, um, I, I don't know if we could ask a little, you know, look at the, have y'all looked at the Board of education and their, all of that been that Time period? Yes. I've searched, um, all of, for the old soups memos
and they're not available. Um, so I did go back to my old files from my previous school division and I was able to find things prior to 2013 where we were definitely training on modified standard. And then the next thing I have is sort of a shift in my training to my staff then of new for 20 13 14. It's the removal of modified and the introduction of VMAs, the removal of VGLA. So we will do some more legwork to find out why we can. I, the one thing I have not done yet is to call the VDOE,
Ms LaBelle and I just met, um, the other day. So that is on my to-do list to reach out to the new, um, coordinator of transition services, Mrs. Morgan. I will reach out to her and see if she can give us a little bit of the history. I'm just wondering if it's in a CAC report too, somewhere. We can try to look there as possibly as as well. Okay. Sorry Ms. Libel, Essentially I was, uh, head of a state, um, transition program at the time and we were all in shock when it happened. We were calling the legislatures, calling VDOE, saying,
no, no, no, no, no. But I also have some contacts that were actually there when it happened and I will try to reach out to them as well. I've been asking teachers who were around, they don't know why. So I think that, you know, trying to get back in time to people who were there at the time is also important 'cause they know why they made the decision. So thank you Ms. LaBelle. Well, it's an interesting idea that I look forward to talking about more and conveniently, as you know, I'm a member of the a and p committee that'll be meeting on the 27th.
Uh, is there any other new business? Seeing none, we will move on to item number seven and adjourn. Uh, our next meeting, uh, will be June 5th, 2025. Uh, thank you everyone for coming and get home safely.