Summary of the 5/25/23 School Board Meeting
School Board Meeting Notes from May 25, 2023
Consent Items & Appointments:
Consent agenda adopted, Passed 5-0.
Under the consent agenda, the school board adopted amendments to school board policy C-2.7, Superintendent Evaluation, to bring it in alignment with the code of Virginia. School board also adopted amendments to policy J-8.3.1 School Health Services to allow high school students to carry and administer Narcan with the consent of their parent or guardian, if they are under 18.
During the 2023-24 school year, APS will develop the 2024-2030 strategic plan. Tonight, under consent, the school board approved its charge to the Superintendent to define the key tasks the Superintendent is responsible for, as part of the process to develop this strategic plan.
Appointments: Dr. Julie Crawford as the Chief DEI and Student Support Officer effective July 5, 2023; SB appointed Sergeant Aaron Queen as Director of School Safety and Emergency Management; Dr. Kenneth Brown, Supervisor of Special Education; Emily Haslebacher, Assistant Division Counsel for Special Education; Lauren Johnson going to be the Assistant Principal at Hamm Middle School; Marcelo Flores going to be the Assistant Principal at Barcroft.
Superintendent’s Announcement and Updates
Every Student Count Video highlights what’s coming for summer school
Over 80% staffed for summer school, 3,436 students enrolled to date, which, according to the presentation, is 800 more students than last summer, criteria expanded for students who need support in “either reading or math” and not both;
May is Better Hearing and Speech month: He thanks speech pathologists, deaf and hard of hearing teachers and audiologists;
Parent Consent to allow students to carry Naloxene – grades 9+ Must Dos: Parent/guardian consent required under 18 yo, must provide date of training, must agree to call 911 if used, consent can be provided thru ParentVue or authorization form;
May 11, Feds ended the covid public health emergency; Durán wants to pause and clarify – yes this has happened thru federal government but “Covid has not gone away”. “The emergency phase is over but Covid is still very much a part of us, so layered prevention measures will still exist to make sure we’re operating the schools safely in this new phase.” Free rapid antigen test kids will remain available, Will continue to encourage folks to stay up to date on vaccines and boosters and continue to encourage folks to follow CDC guidance; no longer required to provide proof of vaccination; unvaccinated staff will no longer have to receive weekly testing;
“The opt-in surveillance testing program will expire at the end of the current school year. With the expiration of the Public Health Emergency, we do not have funding to sustain the program and rapid tests are widely available.”
“Isolation will be recommended but will no longer be monitored. We will continue to advise students and staff who have a confirmed or suspected case of COVID-19 to get tested immediately and follow the recommendations from the CDC.”
APS will archive our COVID-19 dashboard and move the monitoring of outbreaks of COVID to the School Health Bureau in alignment with other illnesses such as the flu and gastro-intestinal viruses.”
Announces Steering Committee for 2023-2030 Strategic Plan
Parents/Community Members: Maggie Slye- Chair Kathleen Clark -Vice-Chair Jennifer Fioretti, Greg Eastman, Alison Babb, Jamie McHenry, Patricia Montano, Lauren Bailey, Melinda Wuellner; APS Staff: Matilde Arciniegas, Gail Klein, Jeremy Siegel, Alison Cummings, Carlos Ramirez, Kevin Clark, Jonathan Martinez, Andi Webb, Wendy Crawford; Students: Jhosue Borjas Benavides, Blen Fisseha
Wear Orange on June 2 to Combat Gun Violence
Bright Spot: Parent Leadership Facilitation Training – Padres Lideres Facilitadores Training Happened – 16 Spanish Speaking parents nominated for their leadership and volunteerism; three days of training
Questions from School Board Members:
Mary Kadera: Asked a question re: summer school new curriculum (hands-on engineering) – wants to confirm in the fall school monitoring report there will be a report that hopefully shows growth in math and literacy to compare this approach to prior years (Answer from staff member: Yes, we’re working on collecting summer school data and what we collect)
Asked a 2nd question re: Narcan: In the future could middle school students carry Narcan? (answer from staff: Wants to focus first on high school, older students, additional maturity, will consider reviewing for middle school over next school year)
David Priddy: How will kids know to call 911? (answer from staff: training includes that)
Bethany Sutton: Are meals going to be provided for all students free of charge for summer school students (Dr. Durán answer: yes, it was in our budget – it’s in our local budget not federal)
Cristina Diaz-Torres: Supports Wear Orange Day; Question: Strategic Plan, how do community members access the meetings – will they be public? Will APS provide child care if folks come to watch the meetings? (Answer from staff: Participants only was envisioned, but if there is demand, we’d be happy to open it up) Cristina Diaz-Torres: I think it should be opened up. Durán: Monthly meetings are in the evening, sessions for community feedback on Saturdays but steering committee meets once a month, 6:30 – 8:45 1x/month starting in September. Cristina Diaz-Torres: Ok I misread the info thanks for clarifying.
Reid Goldstein: also supports Wear Orange Day
Monitoring Items
Social Emotional and Learning & Wellness Monitoring Report, by Dr. Darrell Sampson, Executive Director of Student Services
SEL is at the core & heart of APS strategic plan
Bright Spot: 3-5 grades
Areas for Improvement: secondary level and particularly the high schools; need to provide more opportunities for staff and teachers to build their SEL competencies; use info from the CASEL audit to drive improvement
Recommendations/Next Steps:
“Add 2.0 Social-Emotional Learning Specialists to support school teams in implementation of social-emotional learning curricular resources
Assist schools in refining their Student Well-Being goals in their School Action Plans and in considering measurement tools such as walkthrough documents
Increase opportunities for student and family voice”
Definition of SEL
SEL Grade2 3-5 Survey Results – starting to see changes in area of self-efficacy
SEL Grades 6-12 Survey Results – more flat; more concerning compared w/ elementary and national sample – still in lower percentiles for secondary students
Recommendations
Recommendation 1: Additional Implementation Support (staff training)
Recommendation 2: School Action Plans and Measurement Tools (feedback and coaching to schools as they develop goals; Refine formative measurement tools; provide coaching support to leaders)
Recommendation 3: Increase Student and Family Voice (Create a communication plan and resources for SEL; Develop feedback mechanisms)
Data – how do we look at the data? Your Voice Matters Survey, SEL surveys, School Action Plans; etc.
Q&A on SEL with SB Members
Bethany Sutton – Liaison for this presentation: This is a critical need across our country and we’re doing targeted work in Arlington; work is nuanced and outcomes take time; Q: have we seen shifts in the groups since fall or are we seeing the same gaps? Answer from staff: We’re seeing the same patterns, this will have to be part of our work this summer as we train school teams;
David Priddy – Survey results are in ParentVue in Documents; question: When will we see an update on discipline numbers: Chief Graves: We’ll have the data for discipline info at the end of the school year – it’ll be part of the monitoring and updates either in the fall or a submission to the board for review
Cristina Diaz-Torres - Interested in a new policy on return to school policy for kids out of school for a mental health crisis (we shouldn’t have to have this policy but it’s more and more common); For the specialists doing the walkthroughs…we do other walkthroughs across different topics, is there any cross-pollination or data collection for existing walkthroughs to collect the data? It doesn’t solve the problem but it might give us some of the data we can then use to triage the information to see where the resources are going? [sic] (staff response: Yes, we’ve been discussing);
Mary Kadera - We teach SEL skills explicitly but school culture should be a manifestation of SEL and be a model and see the tenets in action in the way the school runs, etc. She’s concerned some students - what they deal with at school, is very different from what they see in SEL lessons, this is a disconnect, we have work to do to ensure our school culture is clear about what is tolerated and not tolerated -- how are we looking to reinforce the norm that all members of a school community should be upstanders -- (staff response: Yes, we want staff to understand the competencies too
Results of CASEL Audit
Reid Goldstein - Question re: measurement tools - You’ve identified what we want students to achieve but how do we know that an increase in academic achievement or increase in attendance or reduction in discipline referrals that they are indeed a result of the SEL learning curriculum? (Staff answer; You triangulate your data. Surveys multiple times a year)
Action Item 1: The Heights Building Phase 2 Construction Contract Award
Presented at SB meeting 5/11, no new changes from there, Mr. Chamers of Design and Construction here for questions. - no questions
Sutton moved to approve the following:
“Approve a new project budget of $18,930,000 and approve the following: o Transfer of $4,050,000 from other project savings to the Capital Reserve.
o Transfer of $4,690,000 from the Capital Reserve to support The Heights Building Phase 2 Project.
o Contract 85FY23 - The Heights Building Phase 2 – Garage Addition, Field, and Accessibility Site Work to Costello Construction in the amount of $12,495,000,
o Construction Manager Turner & Townsend Heery Construction Administration Fee in the amount of $802,730, o Change Order to VMDO Architecture, in the amount of $361,904, and establish their new contract as the base fee in the amount of $1,402,051; • Authorize the School Board Chair to sign a future Crane Use Agreement, if required”
Passed 5-0
Information Item 1: Revisions to School Board Policies G-1.30 Goals, G-1.31 Human Resources Policies and Policy Implementation Procedures, and M-4 Financial Management – Capital Improvement Plan Financial Management
Presented by Steven Marku
Rename “goals” to “human resource goals”
Change list of protected classes to mirror the Virginia Human Rights Act.
Clarify that our benefits package is competitive, in addition to our compensation package.
G-1.31 Human Resources Policies and Policy Implementation Procedures
This policy is up for its regular 5‐year review and will be presented to the Board for Information on May 25. Staff are proposing the following change to Policy G‐1.31 Human Resources Policies and Policy Implementation Procedures. ∙ Retire the policy. The policy has been reviewed by the PRT, Subcommittee, and was made available for public comment.
M-4 Financial Management – Capital Improvement Plan Financial Management
Staff are proposing the following changes to M‐4 Financial Management‐Capital Improvement Plan Financial Management. ∙ Renumber and retitle to D‐31 Financial Management‐Capital Financial Management. ∙ Move some MCMM language to the PIP. ∙ Change quarterly status reports to three times per year. ∙ Other minor clarifications. Staff are proposing the following changes to M‐4 PIP‐1 Financial Management‐Capital Improvement Plan Financial Management. ∙ Renumber and retitle to match the policy. ∙ Delete out of date Pay As You Go language. ∙ Add the MCMM language that was taken out of the policy. ∙ Add reference to the five reporting phases for CIP projects under F‐5.7 PIP‐1 Capital and Maintenance Program. ∙ Add more detail to the Planning process for the CIP. ∙ Make other updates to reporting language to be consistent with current practice. ∙ Other minor technical changes. The policy has been reviewed by the PRT, Subcommittee, and was made available for public comment.
Information Item 2: Long Range Planning – Facility Evaluation Assessment Contract
Dr. Chambers - School Board Adopted FY 2023-2032 CIP for a long-range plan to renovate existing facilities; plan includes two stages: 1) finalize framework critera (this is done); 2) Complete evaluation for all schools and facilities using the criteria
Fee for Stage 2 requires SB approval b/c it costs more than $500,000
Stage 2 covers: 25 elementary schools, 6 middle schools, 6 high schools, 5 other facilities, project management, data management, etc.
Stage 2 Fee: $832,273
Cristina Diaz-Torres comment re: equitable facilities
Item will be acted on at June 8 meeting
Note: Mary Kadera participated virtually “due to personal reasons.”
New Business: None
Adjourned
To see our Scorecard for the meeting, click here.
