Summary of the 2/02/23 School Board Meeting

ARLINGTON SCHOOL BOARD MEETING SUMMARY

February 2, 2023

After Mr. Goldstein began the meeting and there was the presentation of the colors, in recognition of Black History Month, Jefferson Middle School Chorus sang the Black National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. This was followed by Black History Month Student Leader Recognition. Eight students from APS high schools and other programs were honored (do we need names). Additionally, three staff members were honored: Dr. George Hewan, Principal of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver Program, Ms. Renee Harber, Assistant Superintendent for Facilities and Lisa Moore, Assistant Principal at Dorothy Hamm Middle School.

Once the Consent Agenda was passed, Mr. Goldstein moved on to announcements including that APS is accepting nominations for Honored Citizens, a rundown of meetings in February and Abingdon Elementary School’s Lunar New Year celebration.

Dr. Durán’s announcements followed Mr. Goldstein's announcements.

Given the events of the past week, Dr. Durán led with an update on school safety and security. APS has spent the week reviewing procedures and making sure each school's plans were in place to deal with safety threats.

This was followed by a discussion of Education and Urgent Action on Substance Abuse. The APS current effort is focused on educating on the dangers of opioids down to even the elementary school level. Going forward, APS wants to have “community conversations” about the risk of opioids increase budgets for substance abuse counselors, provide more access to naxolone, increase student-led social media, increase outreach to PTAs and the community and work with Arlington County.

As part of Every Student Counts, Dr. Durán discussed College Tours and Post Graduate Preparation which included a video from Wakefield.

Recognitions for February, include the already discussed Black History Month, Career & Tech Education Month, National School Counseling Week, Crossing Guard Appreciation Day, Virginia Kindness Week, School Board Clerk Appreciation Week and School Bus Driver Appreciation Day.

Summer Activities Fair is February 16th at Kenmore Middle School and that the formal opening for the Planetarium was on January 29, 2023.

Mr. Goldstein, Mr. Priddy, Ms. Diaz-Torres and Ms. Zecher Sutton all had questions and comments about the events of the past week.

Mr. Goldstein wants to make sure that APS puts in place “changes that are effective”, that APS “identifies concrete steps” and “pursues every avenue”.

Mr. Priddy was concerned that APS is not acting quick enough, asked about test strips for fentanyl and wants more people trained in administering naxolone (Narcan). He is looking for “action now”.

Ms. Diaz-Torres wants to expand the availability of Narcan, potentially into every classroom and make it permissible for students to carry Narcan. Her questions prompted comments from Ms. Kimberley Graves, Chief of School Support and Dr. John Mayo, Chief Operating Officer on how APS is collaborating with DHS, AARI, ACPD and other entities.

Superintendent Durán said, “And very importantly we have continued to meet and work more strongly with our police department to find out the source of the drugs and where they're coming from. Each and every incident when we have a child, a student, has been found with any type of drug, opioid, the police are notified so they can not arrest the child and get them in trouble, if they're distributing--absolutely, but if its just on their body and they're just having it, then finding out where it came from and getting them the proper treatment they need."

Ms. Zecher Sutton wants to focus on prevention. She also had some safety questions about how/if substitutes are trained on school safety protocols and the status of lock systems in school classrooms.

There were 17 speakers during public comment:

7 spoke on Escuela Key/Lack of Transparency/School Safety

5 educators spoke on compensation, mandates, class sizes

5 spoke more broadly on school safety and lack of transparency, including Claire Nokes CCPTA President who asked about 6 incidences of violence during January including a rape. Only one of these incidents has been reported.

2 spoke on class sizes

1 spoke on the Strategic Plan

1 spoke on the Internal Auditor

1 spoke on VLP

See our Advocacy in Action here.

Jonathan Turrisi, Special Projects Advisor in the Chief of Staff Office, presented on the APS Strategic Plan. The current Strategic Plan is the 2018-24 Plan, and engagement around developing the 2024-30 Strategic Plan will begin this spring.

In a key change, APS plans to shift away from using advisory and community groups as the primary authors of the Plan to Dr. Durán’s Cabinet primarily drafting, with community engagement opportunities. Dr. Durán will establish a steering committee of students, parents, community members, and staff via an application process and will be appointed by Dr. Durán. More information will be announced this spring.

The 2018-24 Strategic Plan contains one objective for academic achievement: that elementary and middle school students will demonstrate one year of growth in one year, and that students performing at an advanced level will continue to do so.

The other objectives are to reduce opportunity gaps and disproportionality in suspensions, to achieve the inclusion goal of 80% of SWDs spending 80% or more of the day in a general education setting, that the Your Voice Matters survey will show improvements in a variety of measures (student social, emotional, and mental health; staff engagement, climate, and professional learning; and family engagement), that staff will participate in training, and that organizational operations will improve.

On 8 or 10 goals, APS showed flat or declining progress. See slide 11.

Mr. Goldstein asked several questions about plans to address the flat or declining measures of APS objectives, and requested that Dr. Durán consider adding interim reports on a more regular basis so that the School Board will receive updates more frequently than once a year.

Mr. Goldstein also asked about APS is targeting disproportionality in suspensions for improvement, noting this is the question he hears most often from the community. Dr. Durán explained that the Office of School Climate and Culture together with Ms. Graves has examined data and learned that APS has a small number of students who are continually being suspended. In response to this data, APS implemented some changes to its practices and new structures and systems, and added positions in the Office of School Climate.

Ms. Sutton noted the reliance on the Your Voice Matters survey in so many APS objectives and suggested the survey should be given more often or other benchmarks identified.

Steven Marku, Director of Policy, presented proposed updates to APS policies on interaction with the juvenile courts, school and police relations, and acceptable use of social media. Regarding school and police relations, the new policy will add a requirement to obtain public input for any change to the APS memorandum of understanding with the police. The School Board will take action on these policies at the February 16th meeting.

To see our Scorecard for this meeting, click here.