Summary: 12/2/21 SB Meeting

Summary of the December 2, 2021 School Board Meeting

• At last night’s board meeting, the School Board heard many parents’ concern over the boundary changes affecting elementary immersion feeder schools. Dr. Durán and the Board discussed issues.

  • Mr. Goldstein raised concerns about the small number of Claremont students in island who would be realigned to Escuela Key and whether they would be guaranteed a spot.

  • APS staff said they need to consider VLP students who may return, if they can’t guarantee spots for all students, they will still provide transportation to Claremont for the next two years. No students are being taken off the waitlist for immersion.

  • Mr. Goldstein suggested Boulevard Manor students who feel social emotional problems due to previous realignment should seek out mental health counselors available to them to address these SE issues they’re facing.

  • Board voted 5-0 to approve the Boundary Change & Adjustment to Immersion Feeder Schools for SY 2022/2023

• Board also heard from APS bus drivers who allege harassment at the hands of the head of the Transportation Department for speaking out. Some drivers expressed dismay at the 1% raise noting that does not keep with cost of living in Arlington.

• Board heard from 2 speakers on behalf of APE, including the proposed 2022-2023 SY Calendar calling for APS to offer the same number of instruction hour and days prior to the pandemic; and on the importance of access to materials and reducing the reliance on EdTech.

• Board announced several upcoming meetings including a Dec 9 - work session on compensation study, which Dr. Durán encouraged all to watch. He noted he wants APS to be in top 1-3 in region for compensation.

• Bus Drivers will receive bonuses on Dec 6, and APS is applying for VDOE grant to offer incentives to bus drivers.

• Notes that Retention bonus have not been in budget since 2010-11SY, this is currently under review.

• Asks that he and APS be held accountable to make sure of compensation goal to be market competitive.

• Dr. Durán took a moment of silence for the shooting in Michigan and reiterated APS takes every report of violence seriously. Reminded families and staff APS has a 24/7 support line through Cigna to make reports. 833 632 4462 to call. Also noted that SEL lessons are taking placed that 8th and 10th graders are participating in SOS (Signs of Suicide) prevention program.

• Board heard a vaccine update.

  • State target was 30%; Arlington is at 47%. 80% of age 5+ have at least 1 shot.

  • Vaxx status is not required by APS and will only be confirmed if child is a close contact. APS gets these numbers from Health Dept.

  • Two weeks after fully vaccinated, students are exempt from quarantine requirements so long as they are asymptomatic.

• Dr. Durán announced that on Jan1 2022, APS is changing vendors performing surveillance tests.

  • New company is CIAN Diagnostics as part of CDC grant through VDH.

  • All staff and families who want to opt-in will need to opt-in again for this new company. New consent links will be sent out.

  • Current vendor: ResourcePath, will continue to deal with athletic/extracurricular testing and symptomatic for testing at Kenmore.

• Board spent a significant portion of the meeting discussing the proposed calendar for 2022/2023 SY.

  • Mr. Mayo presented calendar. Said action (vote) will taken at next SB meeting;

  • Calendar survey had 3958 respondents;

  • Highlights: Recommending a pre-labor day start, 8/29/22. Lunar New Year and Eid al Fitr are not list on calendar because they fall on weekend;

  • Proposed calendar includes 176 instructional days for Elem and HS; 175 for Middle School. Elem gets 8 ER days; HS gets 5 ER days;

• Ms. O’Grady asked if staff could reach out to County to have Parks and Rec offer programing on world holidays so that working parents have opportunities for childcare. “It’s important to honor our world holidays and make sure it can be a positive experience for everyone so that child care doesn’t become a hinderance for people to appreciate the culture and diversity” of the county.

• Questions arose as to consideration for post labor day start (O’Grady) or to give staff personal time off and students excused absences instead of the world holidays. Mayo responded similarly: the calendar committee seeks to keep the 22/23SY calendar similar to the 21/22SY calendar “let’s get data on the current start date before we make more changes.”

• Discussion about snow days.

  • Calendar proposal has built in snow days: MS & HS 7 days; ES 6 days

  • Durán explained, once APS goes below the 990 (state required) instructional minutes, that’s when we have to go to remote learning or adding on other days or extending day.

• Mr. Goldstein inquired whether down the road, the Lunar New Year would cause ‘further complications’ to APS meeting the 990 (state required) instructional hours. Answer is Yes. Mayo said it’s not until 2027 that Lunar New Year will fall on an actual school day.

• During public comment, Board heard from 2 APS staff from the DEI office spoke to provide an update that they have equity teams established in almost every school in the district.

• Board heard from Kathy Lin, of APS Facilities regrading a request for a temporary easement at TJMS & community center to accommodate field upgrade to turf. This item will be included in the next meeting’s consent agenda.

• Board had no questions for Dr. Durán following his announcements. Board had no new business to address at the end of the meeting. Learning loss was not addressed at this meeting. See our Scorecard for this meeting here.