Are we ready? Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. Um, thank you for being here today. I call to order this February eighteenth, twenty twenty-six school board retreat. Um, in terms of our plans for today, uh, my hope is that we will be able to ground ourselves through this conversation. Um, given that we are effectively a new board, it seems important to discuss expectations and norms, and to come to co- uh,
consensus on some of the technical aspects of our working relationship. Um, so with that, um, I would open the floor to, um, school board member comments, if you would like to share, um, some of your ideas for how you hope that we work together and, and perhaps, um, what motivates you to be here. Mrs. Griffiths? Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, this is just, um, you're asking for comments, basically, how we can work together with the meetings and that
sort of thing, and give suggestions? Okay. Um, r- really, um, what I'm looking for is an opportunity for us to sort of discuss our expectations for how our relationship will work, in terms of how we're working together as a board. Um, and what I'm hoping for is that we would be able to sort of discover some guiding principles, um, and perhaps a North Star that guides our work together here as a board. So, for example, um, I'm happy to start, right? Like, um, one of the things that's important to me as a school
board member is that we focus on holding education and the welfare of our students at the heart of all the decisions that we make, um, and that we work together with respect and courtesy. Dr. Rasheed? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, I think this is a great opportunity, I guess, to kinda open the floor for a discussion. I think that it would, it, well, I, I think that it would be really helpful that during board meetings, and again, I don't know how this would be done, but if we could kinda always recenter ourselves and always maintain that
focus, that it's all about the students, and I throw myself in there, too. Um, so I don't know if there's some sort of exercise we could do or workshop from time to time we could do, that could make us kinda be focused on it. I'm not negating that none of us are focused, but sometimes there's topics that kinda make us go astray, and, um, I, too, kind of go astray, so I always need to kind of need that reinforcement. Thank you, Chair.
Okay. Miss Labelle. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think that as a board, we were elected because school boards are supposed to be nonpartisan, and I would hope that we would approach any of the issues that we have, focusing, as Dr. Rasheed said, on students and not, you know, party politics or anything like that. I think that we were elected as individuals. We owe our allegiance to our constituents, and that, that should be where we are focused.
Thank you, Miss Labelle. Mr. Pepper? So... And, uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm gonna say this as one of the newer members of this board, as many have had the opportunity to serve several years. I think, um, one, I agree with what, uh, Miss Labelle said. I agree with what Dr. Rasheed says, Rasheed had said about making sure our focus is on the students and doing what's best for the students. Um, one of the things that I, I do think that we need to center our- ourselves on is that we're not... As a board, we're nine individuals, right?
We're not always going to agree on everything, but the way that we interact with each other, the way that we work with each other, the way that we treat each other, um, really does need to be respectful, and kind, and honest, and transparent. Um, and to approach every conversation we have, whether one-on-one or as a whole board, with both kind of where we're coming from, but also respecting that everyone has their own background, their own experiences, their own difference of opinion. Um, I think that's very important. Thank you. Um, Miss Chernov?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I'm looking forward to this more of a day of listening and just hearing where people are at on the various topics. I think the topics that are on here will help guide some of the, you know, beliefs that we have. Uh, for me, the number one thing for a board to function well is to have good relationships. I think Mr. Pepper said it well. You know, we're not always gonna agree, but a mutual respect that we all were equally elected to be here and represent our communities is really important. Um, it goes without saying that students are at the center, I think, but, um,
sure, I'll reiterate that.... And additionally, I, um, hope that we can figure out what the best way to communicate is, because I think in terms of a board that starts to wander off the path, is a board that's not communicating, and a board that, um, operates in more of a blind side environment, than making sure that everyone is read in on what, what's important and what's coming up, and, and kind of knowing where we stand. I realize our quorum rules make that challenging at times, um, but I think that that was something in the last two years that we really were
striving for, and so I'm hoping to reestablish that foundation today. Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, I echo, um, the sentiments of my colleagues, and only wanted to kind of add to/reinforce, um, you know, after two years on the board, I have been, I have been pleasantly surprised by the working relationships that I've been able
to, to forge doing this work, um, and with, with people who I disagree with, um, on sometimes on policy issues, sometimes on what I view as moral ethical issues, and as well as on political issues. Uh, because as many people have already pointed out, we are here to do what is in the best interest of the students and staff of Loudoun County. And I have, like I said, been pleasantly surprised that when we are able to focus on that and to give each
other the space to hear each other out and assume good intentions on the part of our colleagues, and have open listening ears and try to reach compromises, um, it's gone in many ways better than I, than I thought it would. Uh, and so I look forward to continuing to work on that myself, um, with with the new board members, uh, and, uh, as well as with, uh, all of our returning board members as well, to continue to work together to prioritize the best interests of Loudoun
County. Thank you. Any further comments? All right. Well, um, as part of this, uh, table setting exercise, I thought it would be important for us to look at some of our foundational documents, and to that extent, I have asked, um, staff to sort of speak just briefly to an overview, and, and then I hope that we can have a conversation for how we intend, um, to work together. Um, so with that, we'll move on, um,
to item three point zero one, our board norms and policy review, and, uh, Mr. Allen will kick us off. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Policy ten thirty-five, entitled School Board Norms, Protocols, and Violation, was adopted in April twenty twenty-one. It sets forth the general norms for school board members to include social media norms, protocols to include expectations for how to respond to various communications or requests from parents and guardians, and the media, communications with one another, committee chair
reports, visiting schools, professional development, and then lastly, sets forth the processes and procedures for addressing when school board members are alleged to have violated any of the norms or protocols, school board policies, LCPS regulations, or law. The LAMP committee reviewed this policy last fall, and it's my understanding that at its December ninth, twenty twenty-five meeting, the committee voted to move this policy out of the committee to the full school board, so that it could be taken up with the board as an information item, with the caveat or request that the school board
chair hold the item in December, so that it could be discussed in a work session after the new school board was seated and a new s- chair is elected. So this is the first opportunity to do that. My understanding is that the idea of presenting this item today is for the school board to have a dialogue about its norms and protocols as they currently exist in policy ten thirty-five, and to determine if there are other expectations, norms, protocols, that the school board has an interest in memorializing in this policy. One item that Ms. Chernoff raised during
her tenure on the LAMP committee was whether the board has an interest to memorialize the duties and roles of board leadership, either in policy ten thirty-five or in a separate, distinct policy. In response to such requests, staff incorporated, um, the red lines that you'll see, um, and on lines one twenty-nine to four thirty-two, which are about seven pages or so. These are compiled from other policies and governing documents to include the annual resolution, um, annual organizational resolution. Additionally, you'll see red lines, um, for
section B, professional development, on lines seventy-eight to eighty-eight, which incorporates language from policy twenty-one forty, um, which is orientation and professional development for new school board members, as that policy was recently revised by the school board, as some of you will recall, on December sixteenth, twenty twenty-five, to focus solely on the orientation and professional development for new school board members, rather than including continuing professional developments as required under Virginia law. Reviewing this with fresh eyes, that language preexists in policy
ten thirty-five, um, albeit in a paraphrased form, in lines four ninety-one to four ninety-seven, which is under section E8, protocols. So the board may wanna consider consolidating that language as it moves forward. With that, I'll turn the floor back to you, Chair Chandler, for, uh, further board discussion. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Anybody want to jump in? ... Ms. Chernov? I'm happy to kick this off since a lot of these changes were at my request, and then with the approval of the LA and P committee, which I very much appreciated. Um,
for me, as a new board member two years ago, as we were kind of navigate, I, I, we were kind of, you know... We were all new. So learning the policies and the structures that we have, especially as it relates to what the best practices across the state or in our neighboring districts, was, was something that kept coming up frequently. And one of the things that would come up is, you know, in other policies, as listed here, there was lots of responsibilities of the board chair, it seemed to me, that were being mentioned sporadically throughout. And for me, that was hard to keep track of what is that leadership look like, what
is the accountability there? Um, and so I was very grateful to staff for doing the legwork, which was extensive. It turned out to be more extensive than I even anticipated, um, having all of those roles and responsibilities in one place just so that we could see them. So I'm appreciative of that. I don't know-- I would- I really don't have a personal preference on whether we create another policy out of this one. This makes it quite lengthy, but I do like having it all in one place. I think it, it provides transparency for the community, for the board. If you're a new board member, you know what that role would be and what, what
the expectations are. Also, if you are not the chair, there is a lot here about how school board members interface with the chair, and so I think that that's important to know in terms of accountability as well. So I would like for us to stick with having them all in one place, um, but the form of that, I'm-- I don't really have a preference. Um, as I was reading through it again this weekend, uh, one of the things that I, I mentioned in committee and I feel like still is lacking here in terms of the duties, is what is the communication expectations back to the board, and when is the
board solicited for, I guess, consensus feedback would be the best way to say it. Um, we talk a lot in this board about the will of the board, and of course, that remains true for a majority. How are those opinions solicited throughout these various processes? I think a blanket statement about how communication is expected and, and turned around would be helpful. It is something I feel that is missing. Thank you.
Ms. Ricardi? Thank you so much. So, um, I also went through this, kind of, and took my time reading through it this weekend, and I think it was really helpful to see everything in one place. Um, and, and part of this is, you know, understanding the difference between public and private boards and nonprofit boards and whatnot, and what the chair roles do, and, and it differs depending on, I guess, the format and the structure of the organization as a whole. Um, I agree that, um, y- you know, in this case, and this is, you know, again, just my opinion on this,
um, you know, we are nine duly elected, um, individuals, and my thought, um, is really that, you know, the board chair is here to facilitate the meeting and help set the agenda and whatnot. But I feel like there's an enormous, uh, number of things in here that I'm uncomfortable with, and I, I look at this through kind of a, a, kind of the both sides of the coin thing. I get, um, why some of these things are probably in here. It makes... Some of it, I, I get the gist of it.
Um, I think I would like to see this be a much more collaborative, um, scenario, and in that, our, you know, uh-- and this isn't you specifically, but just as a function of the board chair role and the vice chair role, that, um, we as a board are read in on, on everything. I mean, i- in the sense that I don't see the board chair being, uh, off doing their own thing, separate from the rest of the board.
And so I agree that I think there are some pieces around that. I think there are just some accountability pieces for sure in here that need to get tightened up. Um, and that'd be an interesting conversation. I don't know how we're gonna-- if we're gonna go through this piece by piece, or if we're just gonna, uh, you know, uh, look at this just as a whole. Um, this is coming back to committee, or is this going back to the board? Where are we on the process for this? Just out of curiosity. Really, that's part of the conversation- Okay ... we're having today, right? Okay. I mean, I, I could absolutely see it going back to committee, um, and giving the committee an opportunity to decide if it should be its own standing
policy, um, having some conversations around the, um, actual items, and then having it come before the full board. But, um, as the past chair of LAMP, it was, uh, you know, my goal was to clear the docket so that when the new school board started, um, there, there would be a clean slate. And so that really was... And, and having our conversation, um, I-- and I, I will say, I really have appreciated having this all together in one place. It-- I could find it, uh, very difficult to have to try and go and
find in every policy, um, where all of these things lie. Um, but to that end, you know, I think it is the will of the board, and the reason why it's on the agenda today is so we can decide what the best path forward is. Um, Ms. Chernov? Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to follow up on some of Ms. Ricardi's comments, I-- It, it is extensive. A lot of it for me, in being on, again, being here for two years, a lot of it's just a function of efficiency, making sure that things get done. Um, because if...
I, I can speak-- We, we have a lot going on all the time. I think you guys probably realize that too. So for me- ... it's not a matter-- I mean, we elect the chair, and, you know, that's part of this role, and the vice chair, although the vice chair's roles are shockingly minimal, um, in my opinion, but, uh, that's, I guess that's how it is. But for me, so I wanna speak to that efficiency a little bit and the respect I have for that process. I think for me, the layer that is important as we go through each one, again, is just that, how were we solicited for just staying in the loop, you know, on all of those things?
I mean, not necessarily signing off on attendance records or, you know, academic records for the whole year, but 'cause we get those in presentations. But just those, those decisions and meetings that are had that are, you know, specifically between the superintendent or the chair or legal counsel, that we are constantly... You know, which is an additional kind of bullet point for you if you're the chair, but to make sure that it is board corporate, you know, that we are really making sure that we are checking that box, and it, and it doesn't become a routine of, "Oh, yeah, I did that, but I didn't circle back." So I think having that accountability in the policy would help
me. The individual items, having been through this process, feel appropriate to me in terms of the level of getting the work done in a division this size. Thank you, Ms. Chernov. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, following on to some of Ms. Chernov's comments, um, uh, for ef- efficiency reasons, for making sure that work is getting done, as, as has been said, it, it does make sense to consolidate a lot of this decision-making into one person.
Um, I think related to the, the question of communication between the chair and the rest of the board, while it does make sense for those responsibilities frequently to fall to one person, the rest of us are also presumed not just to have approved of, of them, but to know about them. And so we, we do get questions from our constituents, from community members, about: "Did you know that XYZ happened? Did you approve XYZ happening?" Uh, and it just, um, when there isn't, uh,
robust communication, it, it can put individual members I, in... I, I will speak only for myself, I guess. I, I have had, I have had moments where I have been in what I felt was a less than ideal position, um, having, you know, trying to answer a question from a community member when I, I didn't, I didn't know the answer because it was, uh, a, a decision that had been made that I just didn't know anything about. Um, not, not trying to get out of the lane, right? And not, not trying to, like, insert myself beyond
what was appropriate for my role, um, but just wanting to have, uh, as has been said, like, the insight into what decisions are being made. And I do think that that has to be balanced with: how do you figure out the best way to do that communication, um, you know, in writing, with how much frequency? Uh, wanting to not necessarily invite feedback, where feedback is neither necessary nor, um, potentially appropriate, um, but
just as a means of communication. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Pepper? So going back to this Policy ten thirty-five, I love that these duties are all in one place. Um, does make it, does make it really easy. Are you laughing at me, 'cause- No, I said, "You're welcome. It really does." I thought you were laughing 'cause I said duty. Um, but, um, I'm wondering if, and, and this is just for me, because ten thirty-five is titled Norms,
Protocols, Violations, um, duties is really a separate thing for me. And I'm wondering if a policy that just specifically spelled out, you know, duties of chair and vice chair would be a much cleaner place to put it, um, and easier to find. Um, I also am going back a little bit in this policy, reflecting, of course, on the experience that myself and a couple of members had during our, our onboarding, when it talks about, you know, line seventy-eight to, I wanna say, like, eighty-eight, about,
um, professional development and, and, um, maybe putting in some more details, I don't know where we would fit this, on what professional development, uh, or onboarding of new school board members looks like. Um, particularly having just had that experience, knowing, you know, a lot of the good that we went through, like, there are some amazing things that we did, but there's also some things that I'm still like, "I need to do X and Y. How do I approach, you know, these couple things?" And, and so cleaning that up as well.
But like I said, I'm glad this is all in one place and easy to find. The question is, is it the right place for it? Thank you. Ms. Griffiths. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I think that, I guess we took a lot of pieces from other, uh, policies and kind of put this, put everything into this ten thirty-five. It does come across a little bit like, um, we're shifting procedural power, um, to you, Madam Chair, um, in at least three areas: student disciplinary appeals, licensed employee dismissals, and, and
school, uh, visit oversight, um, to have it all under, uh, one-- I'm all about putting things all under one umbrella, but it just gives the, uh, the wrong impression. Um, and, and with that, I did wanna say that as far as school oversight, um, while I appreciate, uh, structure and working with the administration to visit schools, um, I thoroughly em- enjoy visiting my district schools, and I'm in solidarity with my community, and I like to be able to
just go to my schools sometimes if they have activities or events going on. Um, you have nine school board members here, um, with different schedules, um- ... I don't feel like we should have to check in with administration if we want to visit one of our schools or if we're asked to go to one of our schools. Um, that's an issue I have, uh, because I feel like that's been brought up before, um, and not necessarily in public, but behind the scenes. Um, we're school board members, we should be able to go
to our district schools when we need to, if there's anything going on, and also to, uh, advocate for, uh, staff and students and, uh, talk to our staff at the schools and find out what's going on. So, um, that's one of-- that's a sticking issue for me. Thank you. Thank you for bringing that forward. Um, as this is currently in draft form, um, especially on line four seventy-three, um, that's not actually how the current policy reads, because it wasn't passed out of
committee. Um, it was just a suggestion that we had to bring, uh, policy in line with our, our current process, which has been to notify the chief of staff if we're going to a school when we haven't been invited by the principal. Um, but that is certainly something that could continue to be a discussion. Okay. So seeing no urgent further discussion, um, would there be an appetite by the board to send this back to LA and P? Um, yeah, Vice Chair Donahue.
Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I... Not to put Mr. Svenson on the spot, but since he is the current chair of, of the LA and P committee, I was curious what his thoughts are about this. Thank you. Um, thank you, Vice Chair Donahue. Um, yes, I think it would be helpful for it to come back to committee. Um, I, I think that looking at some of the other school divisions policies in the area, there-- it seems like there's quite a mix in terms of the level of detail that's included in policy versus what's in practice or in a regulation. Um, so it might be helpful for us to kind of
walk through each piece and make sure it's, like, appropriately placed here versus, as, you know, the previous discussion alluded to something that may be as best as a, as a practice. So, um, I, I think, I think it would be helpful. Thank you. Mm. Ms. Chernov? I agree, and I think that the consideration for having a separate policy or a manual or the millions of things that we talked about in LA and P previously, the different iterations that are out there of this, I think, are still important, and it sounds like Mr. Pepper supports it being separate. So that could definitely, hopefully, be part of the conversation as if you decide to
split the seas on it. Could we please take a temperature check? If there's- To split- -further discussion? Or to go back to committee. To go back to committee. All right, thank you. Um, this policy will go back to the LA and P committee. All right, next up, um, we'll discuss item three point o two, our global response to emails. Um, we-- I guess I'll s- say it, we should probably look at four different categories of emails: um, emails to all board members, emails to more than
one board member, but not to all, um, emails to one board member and the at-large member, and committee emails, and come to a consensus for how we wanna hold or handle those. Um, as a reminder, I guess, or for the information of our new school board members, um, we, uh, had a board retreat at the beginning of our first term, those of us that are back today, um, and it was decided at that time, uh, that emails to all board members would be responded to on behalf of the chair. Um, in sort of having the experience of being a board member,
um, before being chair, I f- don't necessarily feel that that is a hundred-- I mean, I think it's important for us to respond to matters that have been decided with a united voice, um, and that's part of our, um, school board norms as well. But, um, I would not, uh, like to prevent anyone who is speaking directly to their constituent from responding, but that I would be very interested to hear what the other board members think about this. Uh, Ms. Labelle?
Uh, that's a good point. Um, Ms. Chernov? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I have lots of opinions on this. Um, I was pretty vocal in our first outing that I d- I-- this idea of one person responding blanket for everyone kind of made me uncomfortable, just in, in terms of the nature of that. We are responsible to our constituents, and sometimes as a board, while we do move forward as a majority, there are other perspectives that can be represented, and someone might appeal to a minority opinion, um, in those instances. Additionally, it
became more complicated as we got into the specific curriculum and instruction work with the grading policy, because people were reaching out to us from all one hundred schools, and I was responding, but in some instances, I, I know that that did step on people's toes if that was their district. So because it was like, well, if it's to everybody, it should be go to the chair of the board. Um, so we had some conversations about that in our committee. So I think the water's pretty muddy on this right now, and when things are muddy, I think things fall through the cracks. ... and I felt like that on a number of occasions.
We also have the issue of mass emails that come through on particular issues that I, um, believe outside groups, um, probably give a draft to contact your board member. Um, that may not always be the case, but when you get flooded with, you know, a thousand emails on the same topic with the same exact email, um, that becomes a challenge in terms of responding for the chair, I would imagine. I mean, I know our former chair had spoken to that, but that, you know, responding to thousands and thousands of emails is hard. Um, so I think it is a balance.
I don't think it should solely be bore by the chair. I think in terms of responsibility level, that's a lot. Um, I think something that makes it clean is if it's in your committee, you can respond to it, if it's in your district, you can respond to it, and if it's to you individually, you can respond to it. That seems to make it easy for me. That's sort of been the rule that I've been following, even though we talked about not doing that. Um, I, I think, you know, communication with the people in-- that you were elected to serve is, is first and foremost, and then as the work applies, I mean, I wouldn't know how to answer some of the questions
from other committees. So I, I think it's important to have flexibility and not be so rigid. Thank you. Um, Ms. Ricardi? Yeah. I'm so glad we're talking about this one, 'cause this is such a crazy town thing, especially with Let's Talk. Yeah, I know. I know. I hear you. Um, so I, I, I lo-- I mean, the idea of Let's Talk is fantastic. I just feel like we, we need some operating procedures around that, especially the one-- I mean, number one, I-- you and I've already had this- Yeah ... tag you on something, y- I didn't realize you were already on, right? There's just some operating pieces of that, um, that I think would be really
helpful. Um, the other thing, uh, within that too is this whole responding in a certain number of days to certain types of things and trying to figure out who-- did s- uh, I handed-- I tagged somebody in this, did they actually take it and run with it, or is it just sitting here, and is there a res-- I mean, I had a whole bunch right at the beginning, and I'm like: "I've tagged people, but I have no idea if that's the right thing to do, if that's the right person," although I think I've got that part okay. But I think there's just some operating procedures around Le- especially Let's Talk stuff. The, the individual, the one-on-one, um,
people in our, in our district, I, I think that's makes perfect sense, and I would respond and want to be timely to that. But it's the-- for me, it's the bulk email or emails to all of us, and then, okay, well, who's, who's, who's running with this, and then who's gonna close it out? Do I close it out, or if I close it out, does it close it out for everybody? Like, just some protocols around that I think would be really helpful. Ms. Lavelle. As a passing thought, and I have done this several times, I get letters from somebody that's not a constituent of mine.
If I feel that the question is better addressed by their own con-- uh, board member, I refer them to the board member and say, "Please contact your board member. It's so and so at..." And I give them the address, "And if you're not getting a reply back from them, please let me know, and I'll see what I can do for you." Usually, at that point, if they write back to me and said, "Well, I, I wrote my board member, and I never heard back," I say: "Okay, well, I will make sure I tell that to her the next time I see her or speak with her or him, as the case may be."
Now, we have more than one him, I-- you have to be careful. So... Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I, I realize I'm slightly differently situated than everyone else because everyone-- I'm everyone's board member. Um, you know, but I have observed in previous instances, right, like, people will reach out as, in my capacity as chair of, uh, Student Services Committee, to ask questions about special permission. Like, if I were a district person under, you know, depending on previous guidelines, um, it wouldn't necessarily be-- would not
nef-- necessarily have been appropriate for me to respond, um, to some of those inquiries, uh, which I, you know, I also had some, um, hesitations about the approaches that we were using before. Um, it is, it's important to have consistency in responses, as, as Chair Chandler said, uh, especially where a decision has already been made. Um, you know, but that I, I don't think that means that we should be prohibiting each other from
adding their two cents and responding. Um, right, like, the, our constituents reach out to us because they want a response. We are here to represent them. They deserve to get a response from us, and I, I am aware that many people keep track of the ratings that we get on the Let's Talks and, um, things like that, uh, that are, um, you know, that are-- there, there is keeping track of that and keeping track of, um, the numbers that indicate how responsive you are to your community. Like, there is value in that, and so the
previous practice of having the chair respond to emails on behalf of the entire board is, um, you know, I, I can see ways that it is less than ideal for other members. So I'm, I'm in support of, uh, of, of not continuing with that practice. Mr. Svendsen? Uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Uh, one thing I maybe we won't figure out at this meeting, but just thinking through, we often get these emails, um, that don't go through Let's Talk or, you know, OnFlow, and they just come to the
email address, and that's even harder for folks to keep track of than if it's in Let's Talk, and you can see people tagging. So it might be helpful, like, to discuss a system where it goes to, like, the full school board and our individual email addresses and getting that into Let's Talk so that- ... folks can keep track of it. And, you know, or some kind of, maybe not, maybe not putting it into Let's Talk, but some kind of tracking mechanism for the emails that just could disappear into the, into the, um, the wind. Mr. Pepper? So I, I agree and disagree with my colleague, Mr. Spencer, on some of these things.
Um, uh, I think there is kind of a segregation I have between actual email and Let's Talk. Um, because with Let's Talk, I can see whether it was sent directly just to me or whether it was sent, you know, with a reply to the entire board. With email, I have to look at who it was sent to, right? Because with email, it could be sent just to me, it could be sent to the entire school board email. Um, it could also be sent to me, and then every one of you also could have gotten it individually, and I have literally no idea how it arrived in my email, and, you know, we all love the forms that we get repeated over
and over. I'm having a very hard time with having a single set, like, this is the protocol we're going to use, because there's just too many variables, right? I, you know, I get an email sent to me that was clearly sent to all of you, but it was someone in my district, so I feel like I really need to respond to them. Or, um, I see something on Let's Talk that I'm like: I don't even know who this person is or what they're talking about. This is no relation to me. Um, it's sent to the entire board as a blanket inquiry.
This is something that's probably better handled by, you know, just a singular email from the chair. So having a set policy makes it very... or set protocol, I guess, makes it very difficult to kind of assess and triage the email situation. Um, because that's what I'm doing is I'm, I'm triaging emails, being like, "I need to respond to this right away. Um, I need more information." I love the little in progress button that we get on Let's Talk. It's the only thing I like about it. Um, because I can be like, "I've received your email. Please let me contact the right people, and I can get you an answer." Um,
but I, I have a very hard time saying, you know, if X, then Y, right? Because there's too many other things than just a direct linear relationship. And, um, no, please don't drive people to Let's Talk. Please let them send me a direct email to my inbox. Thank you, Thank you, Chair. I actually don't have any issues with the OnFlow messages. I find that the current process through it, that we have works out. I liked how it kinda has an umbrella on top. I do like how we triage it. Maybe I'm just missing something. I've been answering every message that I receive in my
inbox, as well as in OnFlow. Um, I don't know, maybe I'm just, uh, missing something. And I, I, I think we've had tags, like, among school board member colleagues. They say, "Look, you know, this person is in your district. You know, do you, do you wanna attend to this?" And they'll tag me, and then I think it's a great system. Um, I do- I don't find that there's any issues currently for me. Thank you. Thank you. Ms. Ricardi? I'll just also say, too, I, um, and this may be just an access issue, again. Might be also 'cause I'm new, I don't know, if anybody else is having the problem. But I would like to be able to have my aides dealing with a lot of
this stuff, at least initially, um, both in Let's Talk and in my email box, um, and then me handling the things I wanna handle. So I don't know if anybody else is doing that either. Are you- Yeah. Yeah. Okay, then it's an access issue. Okay. Then it's an access issue for me. I'll take care of that. Okay. So, um, in trying to encapsulate the conversation that we've had so far, we all seem to be in agreement that, um, when a constituent writes directly to the school board, the school board member should respond?
Yes. Okay. The only concern that I have is that the, there are always potentials, pot- the potential that some people will not get a response. I mean, that's an accountability issue, I guess, that we will hold each other to, perhaps. Um... Sure. I guess my question is, uh, I, I don't wanna diminish the sentiment of that conversation that we had two years ago because I believe it was like, we don't want nine different perspectives
going out if something has been decided, right? And I totally respect that. Um, I think a lot of the emails we do get are before a decision is made, but there is a difference in after a decision is made. Let's talk about special permission right now, right? Like, I'm getting a ton of emails about the eighty-five percent, um, capacity. That's been decided, so there is... That, that should have a clear response from the division because there's no wiggle room there. So would, in that case, would that be something that, like, I don't wanna add more to you, but would that be something where the chair could respond and s- to, and, you know, maybe cc the board first and say, "This is what we're
sending," so that you don't have to respond? Because, but I think if it's before a decision, we should be able to talk with them, chime in, you know, hear their opinion or whatever, but I, I think it's more an issue post-decision. Is that accurate? I agree with your sentiment. I think the majority of emails that we receive are actually people sharing their perspective before a decision is made. Yeah. Um, and, and then once a decision is made, it will be the, the responsibility of the chair to reflect the board's decision. Yeah. So could that be maybe a, a clearer-
A clear line? -line in terms of differentiating for what might be more appropriate? I mean, if it's a Leesburg person who's asking about special permission, I'm happy to respond. The policy is the policy. We adopted it. But if that were the concern, I could see that that could be a line to consider. I mean, and it's also possible that you'll get emails and not know what district p- people reside in. Oh, for sure. That does happen. In the inbox. Yeah. Like you said, many variables. Var- many variables. Okay, thank you. Okay, so this is an accountability issue that we will hold each other to, which is something we can flag for later. Um, yes, Mr. Pepper?
Um, uh, thank you, Madam Chair. Kind of going off of the data of what Ms. Chernov said-... on a email that is a post-decision thing, right? Such as special permissions, for example, um, that is sent directly to us. Maybe it's not a constituent, we don't know. Do we wanna have some sort of system in place? Because what I feel like might be the best scenario, um, is even to run it through communications, perhaps, right? To get a, a standardized response. So, Dr. Spence is shaking his head no at me. Yeah, no, we don't need to.
Or just, um... I mean, I don't wanna speak outside of policy, don't get me wrong. Right. I mean, I-- Well, there's, so there's this policy. Uh, there's also a policy later, later in the agenda on written comments and complaints, which, um, also probably is relevant for this part of the conversation. Um, one, one of the things I'm reflecting on as I'm sitting here listening to you all talk is, I, I think there are also a lot of instances where you all are responding to constituents, and we don't have any idea what you're saying because we're not copied on those emails. Um, and so one of the things that we've talked about in the past is,
if you are responding, to ensure that we're tagged in to a response. Um, because oftentimes, we're getting similar emails from the same people. Um, and one of the things that's really important is that there's not misalignment on- in the responses, because, you know, you don't want a, a parent or, or a member of our community getting four different messages about what may happen with their, their concern, right? Um, so, uh, that's not directly addressing your respon-- uh, your question, it's just a broader reflection on the general nature of the conversation. Specifically to yours, no, I don't
think... Um, I, I think if it were, if it were an issue of a global response to an issue that's already been decided, I think that, for me, would be properly situated with the chair, which is- I know Lauren said she didn't wanna put on her plate, but to me, like, that's where it probably should be situated. And then, at least in my experience, the chairs, um, will work with either me or the chief of staff, uh, and/or communications to try to support getting the best possible response based on what, what we know is going on.
Well? Thank you, Madam Chair. I-- One of the things that I tend to do, I often get questions from my constituents or sometimes other constituents, asking me about something, and I don't have all the correct information. Thank
you, Samara. I know I pushed it, but didn't go on. But, um, sending questions like that, or complaints that I might be getting, um, for example, we brought up special permissions. Um, I got one that somebody said, "Well, I heard it was up to ninety percent, and it's been changed." And I did send out a note to Mark, and he confirmed, "No, we're st--" Or no, Kurt. And he did confirm, "Yes, we're still at eighty-five." So, you know, at that point in time, it was a quick thing for him, a quick thing
for me, and we can get the word back out, and we know that we're giving out the right information. So a lot of times, that's what's happening. Dr. Rashid? I think the worst is, and this is just me being very transparent about this, is that when there is, um, y- it-- the conversation is still tied to the school board member, and you're not referring to another school board member, it's still on your plate, and you're still responsible for the answer, but when there's a cabinet member that doesn't respond. And you're waiting, and you're waiting, and I- I'm talking weeks.
So when that happens, I think that's when-- I mean, you're still telling the constituent, you know, "Stay tuned, folks," you know, "I'm still looking into it." I think that's when it, it... For me, that's the only time where it could be an hindrance. But then, at that point, then I just, I cut and paste. I take my information, and then I send a personal email to that board me- um, to the cabinet member, so that maybe things kinda got, you know, lost. It's a lot of information that they're getting from other constituents, other board members. That's what the cabinet's getting, so maybe things just get buried. So for me, that's the only issue I ever had.
And I don't- I wanted to ask what other board members are doing when they're not getting a response for, in regards to a resource. Th- that's, that's just my issue. Sometimes, I don't get that often, but what do you guys do when you have an issue and a cabinet member is not respon- responding, maybe because they're out, maybe they're on vacation? What do you guys do? Thank you, Dr. Rashid. Um, Dr. Spence, would you like to respond? Yeah. So, um, a- absolutely. Obviously, um, if that's the case, uh, I would suggest, rather than waiting and waiting, that
you just reach out directly to me or to our chief of staff, Dr. Bergen. We will ensure you get a response. That should not be happening. Okay. Um, so please, uh, check my encapsulation here. Um, but so in the event, um, that emails are sent to all board members, the school board member that represents the district, if it's known, will respond by district. They will tag in staff, uh, when it's necessary. And when the school board has made a decision on a
topic and there continues to be questions or feedback, the school board chair will respond.... Um, then, um, in the interest of time, I'm, I'm gonna ask Mr. Stinson, and then I'll, I'll come back to this, um, but I, I do wanna m-move forward. Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll keep it brief. I, I guess my-- I think the distinction I would make, um, is between emails or, or correspondence that's about policy versus operational stuff. Like, I think that...
I guess I don't understand the distinction about s-something after it's decided, if it's a policy thing. Like, I think that I could still respond to a constituent and say, "Here's the facts, here's what's decided. I might not agree with it, but it's, it's what happened," or, "I do agree with it. This is why I supported it." Um, and I think that the school board member, I don't know why that would shift to the chair and not stay with the school board member just because it's decided. Whereas something that's operational, where we need to go to admin to get a response and explain the process, that would be something that, um, you know, we would tag in the admin and make sure that maybe the chair takes
responsibility for something like that. But I guess I didn't wanna add something to the chair's responsibilities when I think it, it would s- be fine with me staying in our corner, um, responding after something's happened, if it's more policy-based. Okay. Um, Mrs. Griffiths. Regarding permissions, I'm just trying to remember, um, and sometimes my, uh, the LCPS emails go to my spam. Um, when we did put through the permissions at eighty-five percent, did we do a press release, you know, that we could, you know, that clearly
states everything? I'm trying to recall, because sometimes they go to my spam. Uh, maybe Dr. Spence can answer that because, um, it has come b- to my attention that, um, a lot of people didn't know about the permissions, and I didn't have anything written exactly to send them. I'm, I'm happy to forward you the communications. There was actually significant communication on the issue. Okay, thank you. Okay, um, school board members, district will respond to constituents. Nothing will preclude district from responding to constituents,
but in the event that a decision has been made by the school board, the school board chair will reflect the decision that was made by the school board. Then, to go back in, uh, when emails are sent to more than one member, but not to all, the district board member should respond. Do we agree? And, and that would not preclude- Just, just to, for clarification ... the at-large member from responding. Um, or there could be a discussion, and then the decision could be made who responds.
And then, would-- do we want the committee chair to continue to respond when issues are being asked, uh, that are in committee? Right. Well, and I mean, that's also a collaborative choice that we have to make as school board members to make sure that we're including the right people in the conversation. Um, Dr. Rasheed? So just, just for clarification, so if let's say a constituent reach out, reaches out to a specific committee, and there's three board members, so they just address
it to all three. So the chair should respond, but they won't reply all. How would the other committee members know that the chair has responded? Or should we just assume it's up to the chair, and the chair will just handle it? Would you, uh... Ms. Labelle? If you put out, respond, reply all, if we were all on the same committee, you, me, and Linda Deans, like we used to be, and I put out an answer that somebody asked me, and then put it reply all or added your names in so that you would get a response knowing what I
had said, and that this is taken care of. Um, that would, uh, violate the quorum rules, right? I mean, it would technically trigger the quorum rules if, if everybody's on- Just because I'm responding to them, a signal that this, this letter has been answered. Well, um, Mr. Allen, could you weigh in on that, just so that we're all on the same page? Yes. Thank you, Chair Chandler. In terms of best practice. So, uh, whether a virtual meeting is, um, occurring would, um, be an analysis that talks about
simultaneous or contemporaneous, uh, emails back and forth. So if it's an announcement similar to when, um, the board chair may email all of you all, that's not a meeting unless you start weighing in, board member rep board member. So that could be a potential approach, um, to take, as long as there's not a kind of contemporaneous responses from the committee members. Okay. Only one person responding. Mm-hmm. Is there a consensus? So then that will stay with the chair, but the chair will
attempt to inform, perhaps by BCC, the other members. Okay. Um, is there any further discussion on this t- topic? All right, let's see. I would like to discuss briefly efficiency in meetings. Um, we have shared some of the board of supervisors' role of engagement, um, and their order. Um, I think that's a long-term discussion that we could put on our work plan, and, um, we would need to make extensive changes before we enacted, um, any of those specific protocols.
One thing I will point out is that I... We follow Robert's Rules, and in Robert's Rules, um, there is a point that you only speak twice to a motion, and I would like to see us, um, in the, for the sake of efficiency, um, hold on to that, um, norm. Um, is there any discussion? ... Sure. So when you're talking efficiency, are you talking length of meeting? Are you talking about just getting through items faster? Like, what-- when you're defining efficiency, well, how are you
defining it? Well, one of the things I think, uh, and it, it is very interesting given the conversation that we had at the last meeting, is that it's hard to get to everything that's on the agenda, especially if we-- I mean, not to say that we shouldn't get into the weeds, but, um, I think there can be some rules that would make each motion more efficient, so that we're better able to get through the agenda. That would be my hope. Um, I don't necessarily enjoy not being able to complete everything that's on the agenda, and, and we have several choices when that happens for what we could do.
Um, but I do think it's an-- just... It was something that I noticed in my study in preparing for being chair, and I don't think it's necessarily been normative here. Um, but I do think it could be an improvement if it were something that we tried. And, of course, I'd probably need to ask Vice Chair Donahue to help me keep track, um, in the event, uh, i- in real time, but, um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, without taking a particular position on whether or not we should switch to that system, I would have
some clarification questions. For example, if I, if I want-- if, if I ask to be recognized and am recognized and have some questions for a staff member, uh, a cabinet member, and the cabinet member gives me an answer, and then I have follow-up questions, are my follow-up questions my second speaking to the motion, or is that merely a continuation of my first? And similarly, if a fellow board member asks me a question about something that I said on the dais, and I reply: Is
that my second speaking to the issue or not? From my perspective, it would be just be being recognized to speak twice for any one motion, and that's not-- If there are four motions, you can speak twice to all four motions and any item, but it's just not necessarily, um, doing more than that, but being recognized. Um, Mr. Pepper? With-- And I'm all-- Thank you, Madam Chair. I'm all for the efficiency of the meetings. I like this idea of speaking twice. Um, I believe, and this may be a question for Mr.
Allen, um, what Vice Chair Donahue was talking about are points of information or points of clarification. Are those going to count towards our speaking towards a motion? 'Cause when I believe it's, it's speaking twice, it really is speaking either for the motion or speaking against the motion, as opposed to points of information, points of clarification. Um, I would agree with you, but, uh, Mr. Allen, would you like to speak to that? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Uh, yes, Mr. Pepper, I... My perspective is in, in agreement with yours.
Um, Ms. Ricardi? Just to kind of follow up on my first question then. Um, I think the thing that's really different in the way the Board of Supervisors meetings happen and ours is that we have the, uh, a bunch of the administrative staff that's there, and we're-- there's a lot of back and forth between us and them, asking questions and getting clarifications before-- as we're, as we're clarifying our own views on varying issues, right? And they don't do that as nearly as much as we do. They don't have their whole, you know, a bunch of their cabinet there to answer those kind of questions. So I think their format of doing the, the, you know,
um, going around the room and doing it a timed thing makes sense for them because their format is different in their meetings. Um, I don't know that we spend, um, many of us spend more than two ti-- I mean, maybe in a really thorough discussion, but we're not sp-- I don't- Right. Well, I mean- But many- ... Lily, but here's the thing about that: I think it's actually really great. I think in just watching the board over the last many years, like, there's more con-- like, really valuable conversation happening on the dais now than I've ever really seen, and I appreciate that. I like hearing from everybody and kind of getting people's views on things.
Um, if we were, you know, and, yeah, maybe some of it's taking longer, but I-- there are other ways I think we can be efficient in the meeting, but I, I think that's a valuable opportunity for the public to hear from us and for us to hear from each other 'cause it's the only time we can really, as a group, come together and talk about these things, so- You're absolutely right, and I'm not- I'm trying to be care- ... suggesting a time limit at all. Just two, two times to speak to a motion. Um, yes, Mrs. Griffis. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I just want to say, um, a difference that I've noticed is you let, you let us-- Oh, am I
echoing here? Oops, sorry, guys. Uh, you do, you do let us speak first, and then, uh, you go after, which is really good, so you open it up to our thoughts. Um, as far as efficiency goes, I had, in previous retreats, had other suggestions. Am I allowed to, uh, mention them now? Um, well, I, I know Ms. Ricardi had mentioned comments, moving that up to the beginning. But also, I, I just want to reiterate, uh, presentations, maybe up to fifteen slides, uh, would be helpful. Um,
also, um, when the presentations are loaded... Well, this is a little bit out of the efficiency, but, um, when the agenda is done, the slides and/or presentations should be uploaded onto the, uh, agendas in BoardDocs. Um, also, you know, I, I would like t- I would like, uh, Dr. Spencer, Dr. Bergen to elaborate on two things. Um, share the process of the students on the, uh, dais. Who, who's, uh...
How do we go about finding those particular students? Um, and my suggestion is always one, because then it cuts it down a little bit. Um, and then, um, as far as band performances and all that stuff, I love that stuff. I'm just curious to know how we choose-... um, the bands that come in and play and national anthem, I wanna make sure we're giving everybody an equal chance, uh, ev- every school a chance to come and play at our, um, at our board meetings. But as far as the, um, students on the dais,
maybe cut it down to one, that might cut some time down, but also the slides in the presentations, and I've mentioned that before. I don't know if comments would cut down, uh, with efficiency, but, um, I know Mr. Cardy had mentioned it, moving to the beginning of the mo-- of the, um, meeting. Thank you. So just to briefly respond. So the, the principals select their representative from each of the schools. Um, there aren't frankly enough formal meetings during the year to have just one at each meeting, um, and so there are a few meetings during the year where you
have two. Most of them have one, but there are a few where, where you'll have two, so that all of the high schools and the alternative sites can have a representative, um, um, on the dais as a student school board representative. As far as the performances, um, the fine arts supervisors solicit, uh, those folks who want to have their groups perform and then schedule them accordingly. So that, that's a solicitation, and they decide if they want to perform. Thank you. Oh, yes, Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I have mentioned previously, and will continue to again, that,
uh, I think that we should have a conversation about whether to continue with our public comment rules and guidelines in the same way, or if we should make amendments to that, and I think we should make some kind of change. Um, I think when you look back at our meetings where we have not gotten through an entire agenda by ten o'clock at night, um, most, if not all of those instances, also correlated with a very high number of public speakers, um, which is the public's right. I acknowledge that, agree with that, not suggesting that we should be rolling public
comment back. But, um, I, I do think it is worth noting, since we have new members here, that the way that we do public comment here on the Loudoun County School Board is very different from the way that other school boards do it, and also different from the way that the Board of Supervisors does it. In most places, they have limitations on the number of speakers who can sign up for public comment, which we do not, in one night. Um, they-- we do have the limitations on the length of speakers, uh, that each person has to speak, but that varies depending on how many people are signed up.
So when we only have six people signed up and they get two minutes, it doesn't take very much time out of our agenda. When we have a hundred and twenty people signed up, we still give them at least a minute each. We've never, to my knowledge, while we've been on the board, um, they've not-- the speakers have not been assigned less than a minute, which as many or all of us know already, is... It's difficult to get something across in only a minute of being able to speak. But, uh, even with that limitation of only a minute, if we have a hundred and twenty public speakers, it takes us two and
a half hours to get through public comment. Two and a half hours out of the six hours that we have here, the less than six hours, to get from a meeting that starts at five thir-- at four thirty till our ten o'clock stop time. Um, I... And I don't, I don't know what the answer is. Um, I don't know if the answer is limiting the number of people who can sign up for public comment, or, uh, I believe Board of Supervisors also limits the time on their overall agenda, right? Public comment can only take an hour and a half of their agenda. I don't know if that is the sol-- uh, is the right solution for us, we're limiting
the number of speakers that can sign up, or I have also floated the idea of maybe it shouldn't be part of our regular board meetings. Maybe we should have a separate night, once a month or twice a month, that is the night for public comment and recognitions, athlete recognitions, other things. I don't know, but I think, I believe it is worth having a conversation. If we are serious about this-- If we are serious about the idea of making our meetings more efficient and being able to get through an entire agenda, I don't think we can avoid talking about
making changes to public comment. Thank you. Mr. Allen, is public comment a right? Thank you, Chair Chandler. Under Virginia law, public comment is not required, um, at every school board meeting or public bo- meeting of a public body. Um, there are certain prescribed situations under law, such as budget approval, as you just did, redistricting, um, and some other prescribed, but it, it's not required to be at every, um, meeting of a public body. May I briefly clarify? Sure. Uh, sorry. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you, Mr. Allen.
Um, to clarify what, what I meant, I did not mean to suggest that there is, that there is an, an acknowledged legal right for the public comment period in our meetings, uh, except in those limited circumstances like redistricting, rezoning, budget. Uh, I was s- I was commenting more on the broad idea of our community has the right to petition us, um, regarding their, uh, you know, their grievances, their, their laudatories, um, their opinions on, on what is
happening in the community and what we're doing in some form, but we are allowed to have appropriate regulations on the time, manner, and place of those expressions. Thank you. Um, Ms. Lavelle? At one of our other meetings, um, I made a suggestion somewhat similar to what Ms. Donahue is talking about. I suggested, since we meet twice a month, that the first meeting would be for presentations, um, the, the work PowerPoints that we
see, uh, recognitions- ... whatever we need to do that we usually do from four thirty to six o'clock, plus public comment. Then on the sec-- but instead of ending the meeting, because this would help, uh, they wouldn't expect a second public comment, we, we continue the meeting on the second, uh, board meeting of the month, and that's where we could get to do our actual work on policies. Um, that would allow people that are here for public comment to have a little
bit more time to speak, feel more comfortable. We could listen to everything, do everything that we needed to do that dealt with the public or with the schools, and then the second meeting that we got together for, which would be a continuation, so we didn't have to worry about that, we would actually get to work on policy the whole time. So that was what I thought, and that's how we, uh, kinda left it. We never discussed it any further. Thank you. Um, Dr. Rashid? Thank you, Chair. I just, uh, I just had a recommendation, or
I think it would be helpful. I understand that certain topics or certain concerns from the public bring about a lot of people, and then we get this long list of people that wanna comment from the public, which they have every right to do. However, I think it would be really helpful if we don't have a repeat public speaker to come the next time on the same topic, and I think that's what takes up a lot of time. So it'll be like, let's say, um, anything from nutrition fund, and if the same person just keeps coming back with the same issue, I, I think that that kinda hinders
other people that wanna come out. It, it, it makes it longer, the public comment time. So I think that a public speaker or rather, a public commenter, I think it would be helpful if they don't come back twice in a row, like consecutively, so they have to skip over. I forgot which district does that. I don't remember. There was a district nearby that does that. Thank you. Um, I also find myself, um... I think it would improve e-efficiency if we kept it to items that were on the agenda. I mean, that would be very beneficial. Um, Ms. Ricardi?
Uh, so, um, Supervisor Saints and I had a long conversation about this. He has lots of opinions around the public speaking, which I f- which actually, I frankly, I agree with him on a lot of it, in fact, almost all of it. Maybe all of it, actually. Um, you know, his, his big thing is our job is to hear from the public. That is one of our three big things, and there are many ways to do that, but I have no appetite for getting rid of public comment. Now, do I think we could reformat things? Yeah, I do. Um, uh, and I'll be honest with you, he was very
big on, "We need to turn the cameras back on. Um, we need to..." Um, they do the ninety minutes. They do it for, like, two or three minutes per speaker. I'm, I'm okay with, you know, ninety minutes of time that we allot. The reality of it is, we don't-- Those nights that, that we go really long, we remember, but we haven't had a ton of those, and when we do, it's usually around a really hot topic. And so if we, if we do the ninety-minute thing, which, you know, I'm okay with, people, I think, in the communities will start rallying certain individuals to come speak for them and come just as, as, in
numbers, not necessarily to speak. So I think there's some of that that happens, too. Um, but I think it also helps us to understand the weight of some of these topics in our communities, and I think it's good for us to hear from them. So I think those are key ones, too. Um, so I'm-- I just, uh, I'm, I'm really interested in us having this conversation again. I know, and I was present, and I get the rationale for why we turned the cameras off, but he was very big on, "You guys need to be hearing from the k-- the public. It needs to be public. People need to see and hear everybody that's coming to speak." But I do
agree with, you know, maybe ninety mi-- giving everybody two minutes, and then we have ninety minutes total. Um, that's forty-five speakers. That's... Have we looked at the numbers to figure out kinda what are, what is our average for the year on- Thank you. It's not... None of us are, are not, um, subject to that error. Um, ultimately, just from reflecting on the experience, we've had some nights that have had over a hundred- Right. A hundred and twenty-five. I would say, um, it's probably more
typical to have forty. Um, it just really depends. I think it's incredibly important to hear from the community. Um, uh, in, in interest of time, since we're at forty-five minutes, um, and still have a closed session, I w-- and we haven't necessarily started working on our work plan for twenty twenty-six, I would ask Vice Chair Donahue to add that, um, to the board, and I think that's something that we could put on our work plan for this year to continue discussing. Um, the last thing I would like to say about this, um, really, and I, I think, um, Mrs.
Griffiths, I appreciate your comment, um, in terms of how I've been trying to operate as board chair. Um, a- and I just say this really more as a reflection of it's a, an important value to me and not as a reflection of how anyone has performed. Um, but I just think, um, one of the best ways that we can be in relationship with each other and with the community is to speak to ideas and not to personalities, and, and that's really just something, um, that I would just like to place on the table. I'm happy to hear from anybody else, but, um, I just think it's, it's a great way
to operate, and it, it really gives us the ability, um, to work collaboratively. Okay, um, seeing no further discussion, we'll go to item three point oh four, uh, written comments and complaints, and, uh, Dr. Bergen, we've asked you to kick us off. Well, good afternoon. This really is very much related to, uh, the conversation that, uh, you just participated in with global response to emails. Um, I took note of some of the comments
that-... resonated with me as I was listening to your conversation. W- what oftentimes happens is, a constituent will choose to communicate through Let's Talk, and one of you or several of you will take the conversation out of Let's Talk and put it into an email. And that's because you, you get a, a notice auto-generated from Let's Talk that someone has communicated to you, and you take that notice and treat it as the email, and then forward it outside of the system, and then now we have two dialogues going on. We have one in Let's Talk that maybe didn't get back to, and then we have one that
jumped over into an email communication. So one thing, if, if it would be helpful for you all, is if the constituent has chosen to communicate through Let's Talk, that we keep the communication in Let's Talk. And if the constituent has chosen to communicate by email, then we respond by email rather than convolute the two, if that resonates with anyone else. 'Cause I often t- find myself having to go answer an email and then go back and embed the comments inside of Let's Talk, so I'm, I'm doing two things. Um, because it's in Let's Talk, one of the advantages to the system, I think it was, uh, several of you made a
comment, you know, something has happened and you don't know if it got resolved, you don't know what the answer was. Um, if it was generated within Let's Talk, we'll make sure that we answer the question within Let's Talk, and you all can see that. So wh- when all the board has been copied on a comment or a complaint, um... Which, by the way, the topic of this conversation is, is, uh, to discuss Policy eighty seventy, which has been on the books for almost twenty years and has most recently been revised in twenty twenty-two. Uh, it requires that we have a process in place for the public to voice a concern, or a comment, or a complaint, or a
compliment, for that matter, and Let's Talk is the designated vehicle for doing so. Um, the policy requires that we make the form available at least once a year. We make it available every day of the year, and that's why we, uh, that's why the policy is in place. Um, so whether it is an email or it is a Let's Talk dialogue, if you see that the chief of staff has not been included, um, our practice has been, and I would ask you to continue, to tag me. So if the email is, whether it's operational or policy-related, whether it's come to you individually or it's
come to all of you, and you see that the chief of staff hasn't been at least CC'd, um, if I can see it, I spend a good portion of my day just tracking to make sure. So I'm very, uh, troubled by the concern. You know, when I hear the comment that, you know, "I've asked a question, and it doesn't get answered," w- we're very-- we believe we're very responsive to you as board members, and I want you to always get a re- a response. So, but if I'm not aware, um, I, you know, I can't, I can't bird dog it for you. But if I am aware of a comment within, uh,
OnFlow, Let's Talk, and/or in, in email, I'll be watching for resolution because relatedly, you all get a report weekly on board inquiries. So when something has been asked by a board member and an answer has been provided, whether that's operational or policy-related, you all will get a copy of it. So you'll know the question that was asked and the answer that was provided, and I'm responsible for compiling that information. All the more reason why I need to be included on anything that you are discussing amongst yourselves. Um, there were some comments from some of you about, you know, you don't, you, it--
you feel like you need to respond because it came to you, and some folks are a little more savvy, and they'll send the exact same email to all of you individually, but you don't know that. And so, again, if you copy me, uh, or you come to me, then I can respond to you and say, "Thank you for sharing that with me. I've, I've already received it from the chair," or, "I've received it from someone else." So you'll know I got it, and a response is being generated. And in terms of some of you want to respond to your constituents yourself, and we certainly honor and respect that. So if it's in Let's Talk and someone has asked a question
and you tag me, and/or your board aide tags me, or the appropriate member of cabinet, who may have the most direct source of information, we'll put the response in Let's Talk as an internal message to you so that you can then respond to your constituent. Or we'll ask you: "Would you like us to respond to the constituent?" Or: "Would you like... Here is a suggested response." That's one of the advantages to Let's Talk, is we can dialogue within, and you all can see the, the suggested response and that that matter has been, been taken care of. Um, I'd just end my comments with, uh,
when a constituent finds their way into Let's Talk, and they do every day 'cause it's, it's right off of our webpage, we have a disclaimer right at the front that sometimes they just gloss right over, and they don't read. But I would ask that you reinforce as you're communicating with the constituents, and that is the policy that constituents, when they have a concern, that they start with the level where the concern originated. And oftentimes, what happens is, we'll hear from a constituent who has a concern about something that happened in a classroom, or on the bus, or before or after school, and they've not communicated with the teacher about their
concern, they've not communicated with the principal about their concern. And so one of the first things we do, well, I say we, administration, when we become aware of this, is we make sure that the individual who has a concern is connected with the problem solver or the person who can solve the problem. Um, we have talked about that with your board aides, who oftentimes respond to these matters on your behalf, and that one of the things that you can do to acknowledge and let your constituent know you've heard them, and you have empathy, and you're concerned for them 'cause they have a, they have a concern, is to say, "It does not appear that you have addressed this with your tish- teacher.
I would ask that you please do that first, and then feel free to let me know if, you know, if you didn't have resolution, or please check in with your principal," whatever the case may be. I'll, I'll stop my comments there to see if there are questions or, or more dialogue on this topic. Thank you. Um, board members? I- I'll be honest, I put this on the agenda because, um, Dr. Smith chastised me with this policy once when I got involved in an inappropriate way, even though I had been a board aide before being elected.... So, uh, thank you for just entertaining that
reminder. And then, um, seeing no further discussion, we'll move on to item three point o five, uh, policy twenty-six ten, Loudoun County School Board aides, and I'll ask Dr. Bergen again to kick us off. Thank you, Chair Chandler. Um, I think you're all aware, if you're not, please be aware, we did have an orientation with all of your aides on the tenth of February. It's good to see all of them or many of them behind you here, be- behind you all, behind, referring across the room from me. Um, and I just wanna review some of what-- It happened on the tenth because we were waiting for some of the last new board aides to get onboarded by HR, and once we
had everyone onboarded, we, we had communicated a date. Um, we did spend a good deal of time in that orientation session on this topic, uh, but 'cause we know that they spend a lot of time in Let's Talk on your behalf and how to respond to, uh, constituent matters. Oftentimes, it'll be at your constituent, the concern in one of your schools, and you wanna know that that's been addressed. You know, there's a concern, and you want, you wanna know that got handled, and so-- and as do we. And so they did meet, uh, Phil Hudson. Phil is someone we've encouraged them, in addition to tagging me, to tag
Phil. Phil is a coordinator of constituent services in DOSL. And so, when he learns of, in Let's Talk, that someone has a concern, something hasn't been addressed, a question hasn't been run to ground for them, he'll run it to ground. He'll work with the, with the DOSL team to make sure that the principal is informed and that the school is responding to that individual parent, and you'll know that all happened 'cause it'll be captured in Let's Talk in an internal dialogue. Or, or I will do that work, but if it's in Let's Talk, we'll make sure that an internal dialogue is generated, so you and your
board aide knows we have it, we're working on it, and we're going to answer that question. Um, in addition, we also shared with the, uh, board aides a directory of our cabinet members and what their major responsibilities are, which cabinet members support which committees. Um, we would ask the board aides, as we would ask the board members, that you keep your communications to the superintendent, the chief of staff, and the cabinet, that you don't communicate below the cabinet. Uh, in some cases, there are some exceptions, like when we're in the midst of redistricting, and Bev Tate is the known expert on the topic, you go to
Bev. But as a general rule of thumb, uh, k-ki-- if you're not sure, please direct it to me and allow me to do that for you and, and connect the right staff member with whatever the question or concern is that you have, to make sure that we're answering that question or concern in a timely manner. Um, we also spent a good deal of time with the board aides talking about how to navigate within BoardDocs, and gave them a list of all of the committees and the meeting structure for those committees. Because one of the-- o-one of you asked me, uh, I thought it was a great question, said: "How do you think I can best
utilize my board aide?" And I said, "Well, I think one of the best things they do for you is to help you know what's happening at the committee level." 'Cause you all are on a committee, but there's eight of them you're not on, and all that information is very publicly available in BoardDocs. And so, if the board aides are watching what's happening at the committee level and keeping you apprised, virtually everything happens in committee is gonna end up at a board meeting where you are gonna be asked to weigh in on something. And so, as much time as they can spend s- living in BoardDocs and informing you about what's happening at the committee level. So we wanna make sure they had access to that information and can navigate
within there. And then, of course, we talked about this, we talked about comments and complaints in eighty-seven, amongst other things. But, uh... And we talked about confidentiality. We had, uh, legal was in the room and talked about, uh, the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and FERPA, and confidentiality, uh, and other topics. But I'll stop there to see if you have, uh... Well, just one more thing I wanted to highlight. This all is listed in policy. If you've not reviewed it yourself, I'd encourage you with fresh eyes to look at policy twenty-six ten, which is board aides. It's an extensive policy that lays out in great detail responsibilities of
board aides and, uh, what is required of them. Um, uh, it, it, it's clearly stated, uh, not that you all need reminded, but I'll, I'll just highlight out of it, that board aides cannot attend any meetings in which confidential or privileged information is shared or discussed, nor should confidential or privileged information be forwarded to them, um, gets confidential and privileged information for the board members from the superintendent or from legal counsel. Um, I'll stop there. Madam Chair? Thank you, Dr. Bergen. Uh, board members, any comments or questions? Uh, Ms.
Ricardi. Yes, I actually have two questions. Um, one is, are... In the new technology platforms that we're gonna be getting here, are we gonna be able to have those committee meetings streamed live? I mean, I thought this one was gonna be, but I don't know that it is. Um, are we gonna be doing that with the committee meetings, so they can watch if they're not here? Um, we actually had a discussion about this in LAMP, probably a year and a half ago, and, and we had, um, Mr. Smith provide us with documentation about how many times people were engaging with the committee meetings and how
much effort it takes to record all of them. And I think at that time, where we landed was, for the amount of people who are watching, it doesn't necessarily make sense to utilize that many resources because the numbers were actually low. Okay. Um, Mr. Smith, not to put you on the spot, but uh, does that, is that an accurate reflection of our conversation? Uh, that is correct. But
all of the committee meetings are recorded for posterity?... so they may not be available at the exact moment that, but they are available. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. My second question really quickly is just about the confidentiality thing. I know the board of supervisors, board aides are in confidential meetings and get access to that stuff because they've signed their non-disclosures as, and, as well as our board aides have. So, uh, I know this is kind of an ongoing discussion and debate. I get it, um, I
get, and I get why. But again, our board aides have been hired by us. They've signed on non-- their confidentiality agreements. So, um, I guess my question is, wh- um, why are we still insisting on that when we've, we've taken every-- I mean, we've all signed them, too. So, I mean, we've all-- everybody in this-- Well, I think everybody in this room, I'm assuming that all of them have, um, have signed them. What's-- I'm gonna kinda say, kind of, what's the issue with this at this point?
And we're all looking at Wes. Um, I gave you some think time, and w- not your specific question, but related. One of the things we wanted to impress upon the board aides is that when they're communicating any question or any matter, they're doing it on your behalf as the elected official, that they're not the elected official. And so, uh, that may be one of the reasons is, i- any questions or concerns that you have, you're gonna ask your board aide to run to ground for you and then get the information to bring it back to you, as opposed to staff communicating with them directly or directly communicating with the
elected official. Uh, maybe Wes wants to layer on some more to, to that answer or not. Thank you, Mr. Ricardi. Um, I, I think that's the will of the board in terms of what policy says regarding confidentiality and access to confidentiality, and then it's a contractual matter that's set forth, um, in the non-disclosure agreements that board aides sign. So, um, don't know much more to say. Well, um, Ms. Chernov?
I mean, I've have had this conversation with Mr. Allen and several others, because to me, the point, point of a board aide, amongst many things, is making sure that the work is being done efficiently. I mean, that's, that's the point, right? It's to have that extra set of hands, eyes, ears. So when we're limited in certain confidential matters to even share, just to have a dialogue with our board... I mean, I'm not talking about someone going out and then sharing that. I mean, obviously, that would be a violation of the NDA, and I underst-- I really
do respect the h- the confidentiality between client and attorney. I think that's a no-brainer, and a no-brainer for highly confidential matters, especially as it relates to personnel. Definitely would never wanna cross that line, but I agree with Ms. Ricardi. I think, uh, w- we had this con- conversation in committee, too, about, like, what's the point of the NDA if you have to get permission from Dr. Spence every time a com- a school board confidential email comes in, even if it's just an update or a report on something that you're looking for, like, did I read this right? Did I s- see that right? Did I process everything? Um, because let's be honest, I mean, I'll speak for myself, the amount of
information intake in this position is mind-blowing. Like, I think I've adjusted over two years. I've, I've learned how to take in that information, but it's still so much. And so to have that trusted person that is in the game, so to speak, with you and knows how you feel about things, how you think about things, be able to sort of read something with a different set of eyes, has value to me. I trust that she is not going to go blab that to anybody else because she signed an NDA. She's bound to it. So I struggle also, especially
been having the conversation about wanting her to have email access. We are working on a shared folder situation so that I can share more of my email with her. But again, that's another step in the work process. Um, so I echo those things, and then I'll just ask my other question, and then we can... I don't have anything else to say. I do think also there's just-- we have a new group, a lot of new aides that have come. Welcome, we're glad you're here. Um, and they're building a really nice camaraderie from what I hear from mine. Um, so there are some operational things I think that they would like to
implement, you know, pre-meeting meetings or being the liaison between different committee members who can't talk, which has been a long-standing practice. But are those things that we ne-necessarily always have to solidify in policy, or should that be, you know, something we can trust them to ask the others if they want to? Obviously, we wouldn't force anybody, but I think as a board, like, my concern is if they wanna collaborate more or go to school visits with, you know, multiple board members, like, I think those kinds of things are, are nice for them to be able to do, but I don't know... I never know if we, like, have to, like, outline the changes in the policy, 'cause
it's pretty spe-specific about what they can and cannot do. So just food for thought, um, to make the work more efficient. Well, I actually think this makes a nice transition to the last item on our agenda. Well, it's not even. Before we move into, um, finalizing our work plan, um, accountability is a big part of this, right? And I appreciate your s- referencing the NDA, but ultimately, I mean, that, that is a q- a question I have for the board, right? And, and this is a different situation that has evolved over
time, right? As when I w- was a s- a staff aide, um, I came in as an employee of LCPS and was responsible for being, um, supervised, um, by LCPS. That changed, um, at-- with the previous school board. Um, but ultimately, in the event that there is a failure, who's accountable? Right, but what's the mechanism, right? Like, should we send this policy?
... to LA and P? To clarify, I mean, I, I think that's- If we want changes that are, you know, more specific to allowing that or providing a mechanism for who the accountability falls on, and you don't feel like that's... I mean, to me, it, it's the board member, and then there's a mechanism within Ten thirty-five or the other one, Ten thirty-five, to hold board members accountable. Um, so I, I mean, I would be open to that if that's what we want. I just-- I don't wanna get into a place where we're so legalistic that we-- they can't help us. Like, that's, that's kind of where we moved away
from. Understand. And so I wanna, you know, this also has to do with trust. Like, we have to be able to trust, you know, and I can only speak for myself, but I trust her. Um, Mr. Swenson. Um, this may be for my own clarification, just to understand, 'cause I, I think I agree on certain items that we would wanna make sure the school board aides can see. But are there particular pieces of information-- like, we have the legal piece, which is separate, but I guess, what, um, are some examples, um, that like, of information that we currently can't share with the school board
aides, but we would like to? Um, you know, one thing that I think would might be helpful, like the, the Friday updates we get from Dr. Spence, I, I don't think there's anything really confidential in that for the most part. So that's something that, you know, if there is something confidential, we could put a disclaimer at the top, um, but otherwise, like, share that with, with the school board aide. Um, but yeah, I guess, just curious, Ms. Ricardi or Ms. Chernov, if there are, like, particular pieces, um, that you had in mind. For me, it's mostly about just them getting the emails that I get, which I
know w- then I would have to trust that if it says highly confidential or attorney-client privilege, that they would not open that, which I understand. So we-- like I said, we're finding a workaround with an external folder that is an extra step for me, but we're-- I'm trying to meet them in the middle. I have asked Dr. Spence for permission, as per policy, about the board updates each week, because that's what the policy says, is that he has to give permission in those instances when it comes from him, if she can see them. A lot of those permissions are locked out, um, in terms of, you know, personnel and things like that anyway, so she wouldn't be able to see them.
So that would be the appropriate mechanism, right? If we want more information, we just ask you. Ms. Ricardi? Yeah, and I would just add to that. Um, uh, the way... And again, this is more of a corporate background background, right? But when I hire people and they have-- I mean, I o- I run my company, they get to see all kinds of client confidential things in a law practice, too, um, all the time. And my expectation is, if I have a breach within my team, somebody's gonna be gone. Like, I w- I won't-- We're not playing those games.
I'm not playing those games here. Um, and I take it, and I take that seriously. So, um, a- and I brought people on that I trust implicitly with that information. And I also like the idea as well, I mean, just I would like to be able to have more of a thought partner amongst my aides so that I can noodle through stuff, because they're looking at things, I'm looking at things, and it would be nice to be able to have that, um, have that. So, you know, and again, it's the fire hosing of data and information. I, I-- here's the thing: I, I'm not, with all due respect, I'm not here for us to ask permission for things.
I think we need to come up with the, with the model that works for us as school board, and then explain how we want, how we want that to be, um, and versus us asking permission to have, have that. I mean, I'm not... That's the role that we play here, is we're in charge, and we have to decide what we wanna do. And I think that, um, I think that it's important that we all have aides that we all trust and that can be trusted with the information that we've got. Thank you. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, just a couple of things in response to some of
the comments that have been made. Um, this-- I, I take Ms. Ricardi's point, but I, I think the... And I have worked very little in the private sector, but if we-- if this were a private sector situation, yes, you could choose to fire someone who works for you if you were unhappy with their performance. But moreover, if other people in your organization were unhappy with that person's performance, most likely they could also result in that person getting fired. And under our current set- setup, we can't do that.
Um, if, if my aide does something that someone else on this board thinks is wildly inappropriate and violates our norms and protocols, the onus falls on me, and me alone right now, to discipline them or to hold them accountable. If I choose not to do that, right now, there is nothing that anyone else at this table can do, and that raises some concerns for me. That if-- It raises some concerns for me, um, particularly because the-- particularly where we are here
talking about with some people at this table saying that we want to give more access to things to our aides, and I-- It's not that I don't want to be able to do that, I do. I want-- I would prefer to be able to discuss everything that we talk about and think about and vote on, and discuss in closed session here with my aides, but I don't, because right now, that would violate our policy, and because to me, the, the risk of negative consequences to us as a group, to the division as a
whole, if there are failures with information being repeated, advice of legal counsel, sensitive information regarding specific students, regarding specific employees, I, I have huge concerns over those potential situations. And until we have a, until we have what, in my opinion, would be a better system in place- ... hold people accountable if there are failures like that, I will not be supporting, um, e- for
example, expanding additional access for our aides. Thank you. Okay. Um, are there any other ways that we would like to discuss how we can be more accountable to each other? Um, as a follow-up... Oh, I was just gonna say, as a follow-up to our conversation, I, w- my team did a deep dive on, uh, agenda setting in school board meetings, and, um, what I am willing to do is move new business and school board member comments before any closed sessions. I think that would be a good compromise.
Uh, the goal overall with the way the agenda is designed comes from... Or the, the, it is established through Robert's Rules that you work through the old business and towards the new business, so I don't necessarily wanna move something like announcements, um, up, but I think we would make- we would meet the require- or we would get to those items more efficiently if we did them before we went into closed, and then adjourned after closed. So, um, I hope that's agreeable to everyone. Um, I also would suggest that we put, um, staff
aides on our work plan. Um, and with that, I'd like to move on to, um, that item, four point oh one, our twenty twenty six work plan. Um, I have socialized this with some of you. Um, we've done a great deal of work over the last two years in, um, putting together a process for the evaluation and goal setting of the superintendent, and, um, putting into policy the evaluation of division council, and that is something that we will continue to work on this year. Um, but to that end, I would like for us, as a school board, to
work towards evaluating ourselves and setting some goals. And, um, to that end, uh, M- Mike Murphy, who's helped us, um, with setting up the process for evaluating our superintendent, um, is available to do those things if the school board is agreeable. And, um, I absolutely would love to hear what ideas you have in terms of what we should continue to work on, um, in these retreat sessions this year. Um, Ms. Chernov?
Can I ask a clarifying question? Is this, like, each individual is reflecting on their own practice, or is this board corporate efficiency rating or both? I think it's a, it's a conversation that we have- Okay ... um, in terms of deciding what we wanna work on together and how we wanna work on it together, and then evaluating if we've been successful. And I, I think, you know, it, it feels like a logical s- next step to me because I've found, um, the process that we've put in place, and I'll be excited for the new board members to see it as we
approach, um, June. Um, but I, I think it makes sense for us to sort of be able to, um, express some goals and then hold ourselves accountable for them. As a school board? As a school board. Okay. Not necessarily as an individual. Okay. Does- And certainly not- I think our constituents hold us accountable as individuals, so... And that is a hundred percent the way it should work. Right. But I, I think in terms of how we come to the table together, um, there could be some opportunity for, um, more productivity if we set some goals
and, and then assessed if we were meeting them. Yeah, I will just say that I like this idea of this conversation. I like that I, I think for me, it would be about two things, which we've touched on here today, which I think we're kind of, like, circling around, is one, towards working towards better work efficiency, using our time wisely, and that's through the entire governance process, from answering emails, directing them to the right people, to working through committee, collaborating all the way up to the board. I think that all those things are really important.
Um, and then I would also say, just in terms of accountability, is just how are we gonna make sure... What are the measures for us gonna be? You know, because we are-- we do struggle with this, I think, in terms of we're nine individuals, and we're very different individuals. Um, and we each bring different strengths to the table, and we're all learning at different levels. So I think we have to walk that delicately in terms of how we hold ourselves accountable, because it can't be all one person doing it. It has to be a shared vision of where we wanna go as a board, so. I agree completely. Any, um... Yes, Mrs.
Griffiths? Um, this is sort of, you're po- you're working on the, um, twenty twenty six work plan. Um, I know you're talking about the board in general, but there was something I forgot to mention earlier, that I think we're giving enough time, uh, to have this done by the end of the year. Um, I had mentioned in a previous meeting, having compare-- I know this is getting away a little bit, having comparison budgets with and without investments, is that something we can put, um, as a request to the, uh,
administration to have that for our budget talks by the end of the year? Um, I'm not sure this is the best path to do that, but I don't think that there's anything that would preclude us from making that request. Oh, okay. I just wanted to make sure I included it. I forgot to mention it ye- uh, earlier. I don't know if you want to put it at the end or as new business. Um, I'm sorry, I'm getting away from the actual plan. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Any other ideas for things we can work on this year? All right.
So we will look for... Oh, yes, Ms. Labelle. I do wanna say that for the past two years and the beginning of this new term, that we, as a board- ... tend to work pretty well together, and I appreciate that from all my colleagues. We tend to listen to one another. We're serious with discussion. Sometimes we're a little silly. I know me in particular, with my, with my microphone here, but, um, I really appreciate all the work that everybody's put together to work together, and that's
something we need to continue to do, I think. Thank you, Ms. Lavelle. I, I really, um, could not agree with you any more, and I think that we've been able to do some amazing things over the course of our time here together, um, when we've really looked past those differences and found the things, um, where-- that we, we can meet in common. Okay. Um, of course, we will be, um... I'll follow up with you after, when we have some other dates in mind. Um, I would like to-- Please email me if you have a time preference,
if this time doesn't work for you. I know, um, not everyone-- everyone almost has some other commitment outside of the school board, um, so we'd like to respect your time. And, and truly, that was one of the reasons why I tried to make this a, a working lunch. Um, so thank you all for being here and for cooperating and collaborating today. Um, and with that, I will ask 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 pursuant to Section two point two dash three seven one two of the Code of Virginia for the following:
consultation with legal counsel pertaining to actual or probable litigation, where such consultation or briefing in open meeting would adversely affect the negotiating or litigating posture of the public body as authorized by Section two point two dash three seven one one sub a, sub seven of the Code of Virginia; discussion or consideration of matters that would involve the disclosure of information contained in student scholastic records as authorized by Section two point two dash three seven one one sub a, sub two of the Code of Virginia; and consultation with legal counsel employed or retained by a public body regarding a specific legal matter requiring the provision of legal advice by such counsel
as authorized by Section two point two dash three seven one one sub a, sub eight of the Code of Virginia. Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Thank you, Dr. Rasheed. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board go into closed session. Is there any discussion? All right. Um, given that we are not in our boardroom, um, we will, uh, take a, a vote by show of hands. Um, all those in favor, um, please raise your hand and say aye.
Aye. Aye. Go to closed. All right, um, thank you. Um, the motion passes unanimously with all board members present. Uh, the board is now in closed session. Board members, we are gonna hold closed in the, um, boardroom, so please join me in the boardroom....
Okay. 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 its public meeting, and that the minutes of the closed meeting reflect that no formal action was taken in the closed meeting. Thank you. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Is there a second? Second. Thank you. Um, th- I have a second by Ms. Chernov. It has been, um- If you're going to ask for discussion. I am. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board
adjourn the closed session. Is there any discussion? Vice Chair Donahue. Thank you, Madam Chair. I was just going to note for the record that Mrs. Griffiths did not, uh, was not present in, uh, or participating in the closed meeting. Thank you. Um, any further discussion? Seeing none, um, board members, we will record our vote, um, by taking a voice vote. Um, I will call in order of district. Um, Mr. Svendsen?
Aye. Ms. Labelle? Aye. Mr. Pepper? Aye. Ms. Chernov? Aye. Dr. Rashid? Aye. Um, Ms. Ricardi? Aye. Vice Chair Donahue? Aye. Um, my vote is aye. Um, so that motion passes unanimously with eight school board members present for the vote, and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Um, with that, 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, resolution number two seven 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 Information Act, and whereas Section two point two dash three seven one two 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. Vice Chair Donahue has made a motion. Do I have a second? Second. Um, I have a second by Mr. Svendsen. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board certify the closed meeting. Is there any discussion?
Seeing none, uh, we will, um, ask the board members to record their vote by vote, voice vote again. Uh, Mr. Svendsen? Aye. Ms. Labelle? Aye. Mr. Pepper? Aye. Mr. Ch- uh, Ms. Chernov? Aye. Dr. Rashid? Aye. Um, Ms. Ricardi? Aye. Vice Chair Donahue? Aye. Um, my vote is aye, also aye. Um, so that motion passes, with all eight school board members voting yes, and Mrs. Griffith absent for the vote.
Next, um, Mr. Svendsen, do you have a motion? Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the school board authorize counsel for the school board to take the actions as discussed in closed session. Thank you. I have a motion by Mr. Svendsen. Do I have a second? Aye. Thank you. Second. I have a second by Ms. Labelle. All right. Okay. It has been properly moved and seconded that the Loudoun County School Board, um, certify... Or excuse me, could you please rep- record, or repeat the motion, Mr. Svendsen?
Yes, Madam Chair. I move that the school board authorize counsel for the school board to take the actions as discussed in closed session. Thank you. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, we will record our vote again by voice vote. Um, Mr. Svendsen? Aye. Ms. Labelle? Aye. Mr. Pepper? Aye. Ms. Chernov? Aye. Dr. Rashid? Aye. Um, Ms. Ricardi? Aye. Um, Vice Chair Donahue? Abstain. Um, and my vote is aye. So the motion passes
with s- um, seven school board members present for the vote, voting yes, including Mr. Svendsen, Ms. Labelle, Mr. Pepper, Ms. Chernov, Dr. Rashid, Ms. Ricardi, and myself, and, uh, with Vice Chair Donahue abstaining, and Mrs. Griffiths absent for the vote. Um, with that, we can now adjourn the school board retreat that occurred on February 18th, 2026. Thank you so much for your hard work today, and please have a nice
afternoon.