Summary: 2/17/22 SB Meeting

The meeting began with a recognition of Black History month, including a performance by the Gunston Middle School choir where they performed the Black National Anthem.  The School Board recognized the winners of the 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Literary and Visual Arts Contest, and shared a video featuring its participants and winners. The Board also recognized School Board Clerk appreciation.

The consent agenda included changes to PIPs for Advance Classes and appointments of three individuals to JFAC.  The agenda item changing some policies for APS’s advisory boards like SHAB was removed from this meeting but will be brought up again soon.

The Superintendent’s announcements included School Bus Driver Appreciation, a mask update with off-ramps tied to metrics, the impacts of SB 739 (the law allows APS to require masks but it requires them to accept opt outs) and math inventory data.  Dr. Durán also covered ARP/ESSER Funds – 2M for learning loss recovery like hiring specialists and interventionists, purchasing evident-based instructional resources and providing professional learning opportunities this summer and next.  In addition, 147K for before and after school programs including tutors. Summer school fair is online at apsva.us/summerfair.  APS is also starting a Bell Study project – APS currently has eight different start times and their goal is no more than four.  Last study was in 1999.  Dr. Durán also covered the budget timeline calendar.

Board questions included Ms. Kadera who asked about how many students have not demonstrated growth.  Dr. Durán will have a dashboard with data to see student progress.  Ms. Kadera also asked about the ESSER grant and how many students will be able to access the tutoring.  Ms. Loft says children will qualify based on last spring’s SOLs and are scoring in the basic or below basic in assessments. 

Ms. Kadera and Ms. Diaz-Torres had further questions on mask policies: the effective date and how higher-risk teachers will be accomodated. 

Public Comments included Virtual Learning Program parents asking APS not to pause the program, varying views on mask requirements, school psychologist called in about mental health and the student/mental health professional ratio and salary for MA pay scales and two APE speakers, one on isolation duration and another on budget spending.

The Board then voted 4-0 on accepting the new Board Strategic Plan after thanking Mr. Stockton for his work and presentation last meeting.  

The bulk of the meeting was then on the pause of the Virtual Learning Program, the future of the program for students with a medical exemption as a hybrid of Virtual Virginia and homeschool supports like PE.  Ms. Graves said the current program is falling short of APS’ vision.  Board Members expressed their concern over the way the data was presented comparing VLP student scores to APS as a whole and discussed their regrets over the way the program started with lack of staffing and poor communication.  Of note, Ms. Díaz-Torres proposed that VLP staff members be retained and "assigned" to the task force for developing the revamped VLP program.

Ms. Loft presented:

• The middle school reading inventory classifies 25% VLP students as performing below basic, which Loft termed a “critical reading deficit. 16% of non-VLP students are performing below basic. 

• For middle schoolers, 17% of VLP students earned D’s and E’s for the first quarter vs. 4% of non-VLP students, and 26% of VLP students earned D’s and E’s for the second quarter vs. 5% of non-VLP students. 

• For high schoolers, 17% of VLP students earned D’s and E’s for the first quarter vs. 10% of non-VLP students, and 23% of VLP students earned D’s and E’s for the second quarter vs. 12% for non-VLP students. 

• For EL middle school students, in the second quarter, 39% earned D’s and E’s compared to 15% of non-VLP students. 

• For middle school SWDs, in the second quarter, 33% of VLP students earned D’s and E’s, compared to 10% of non-VLP students. 

All Board Members present voted to pause the program and to convene a task force charged with creating a long-term plan for a virtual option.  For next school year, students need to apply for medical exemptions in the next month or so - parents will be notified of approval within two weeks of the application.  Virtual Virginia classes will begin on August 22nd.

Information Items were next.  First was on the Mid-Year Fiscal Monitoring Report and Recommendation for a One-Time Employee Bonus Payment. They are currently projecting a 13.9M carry-over for this academic year. The Superintendent’s recommendation is for a one-time bonus for full time staff of $1,000 and prorated amounts for part time staff costing 5.596M. The next board meeting will have a vote on the recommendation.  The bonus is, in part, to thank staff for taking on additional work due to staff shortages. 

Next they covered the 2022 Elementary Boundary Process. APS says that due to enrollment changes during the pandemic, there will not be a need for boundary changes in the Fall of 2022. They may need to do small adjustments but they do not anticipate any major changes. The School Board had a working session on February 10th on this topic as well with a deeper dive in discussion. 

Finally, they covered School Board policies including leaving school grounds, reporting serious incidents, tobacco, and search and seizure.  Feedback was solicited from Advisory Committees and draft policies were posted on Engage for 30-day public comment periods. Some policy changes include using less punitive language and clarifying due process and adding Restorative Justice language. They also made some changes to incidents that are required to be reported and added “hate  speech” to the list. The School Board will now be notified for incidents required to be reported.  The Board will vote on these changes at the next meeting.

See our Scorecard on this meeting here.