Summary of 6/9/22 School Board Meeting
At the June 9th, 2022 School Board Meeting:
Opening/Consent items:
- Presentation of Colors; Arlington Career Center AF JROTC Cadets Corps
Recognitions of many amazing students in APS:
- Arlington Career Center Space Force JROTC Cadet Corps senior leader recognition
- Top Honors in the National Latin Exam
- National Scholastic Art and Writing Contest Winners
- All-VA Music Honor Ensemble members
- Washington-Liberty Senior Maya Koenig Named US President Scholar
- Minority Student Achievement Network (MSAN) Intersectional Social Justice Collaborative participants
- Arlington Student Athlete VHSL Recognition
o Wakefield:
Crew Girls and Boys State Champions; Nadim Adb 3rd in State in Indoor and Outdoor 1000M and Regional Champ in 800M; Justin Delgado Pole vault 2nd in State; and Rhys Carlson was Regional Wrestling Champion.
o Washington-Liberty:
Ava Schwarz 3rd in Lincoln Douglas Debate; Boys Basketball – Liberty District Champions and 2nd in Region; John Baker Northern Region Wrestling Champion; Ellie Joyce – Liberty District and Northern Region Dive Champion; Claire Mowery – Liberty District 50M swim champion; Boys Indoor District Track Champion; Zemeron Bein Northern Region Champ in High Jump; Boys Soccer – Liberty District Champions; and Boys Outdoor Track – Liberty District Champions.
o Yorktown:
Field Hockey State, Regional, and State Champions; Owen McArdle State Champion in Cross Country and Indoor 3200M; Girls and Boys Swim and Dive District and Regional Champions and the Girls Runner up in State and Boys were 3rd, Swim was also 200m and 400M Relay Girls Champions and Nolan Dunkel 3rd 100m Fly and 1st in 100M Backstroke; Girls Basketball Liberty District Champions; Anna Macon Corcoran 1600M Indoor State Champion; Crew Women’s Varsity 4 State Champion; Boys 4 x 100 Liberty District Champion; Viktorie Klepetkova State Indoor Runner up and Outdoor High Jump Champion; Girls Soccer District, Regional, and State Champions; Boys Lacrosse District and Regional Champions; and Girls Lacrosse District Champions, Regional Runner Ups, and State Champions.
o Board Member Cristina Diaz-Torres thanked staff, family, and community members for supporting students and their achievements.
Consent Agenda: voted on and adopted unanimously
o Board Appointed Carl Steward Supervisor of Secondary Mathematics in the Office of Academics
o Board Appointed James Welch as Assistant Principal at Dr. Charles R. Drew Elementary School
o Board Appointed Iliana Gonzalez as the Director of Planning and Evaluation
Announcements:
June 13, 2022 Public Hearing on the CIP at 7pm (new date)
June 22 Virtual policy subcommittee meeting at 8:30am
Board is accepting applications for the Advisory Committees for next year
Mary Kadera:
Gunston Middle School – shout out to Journalism teacher and student staff of Good Morning Gunston which was selected to represent American afterschool activities
Five student athletes from Wakefield who are traveling to State Special Olympics in Richmond this weekend
Glebe Elementary School won their Odyssey of the Mind competition and won third in National Competition
Dr. Durán:
Graduation and End-of-Year Celebrations
End of Year Calendar Dates
Preparation for Summer School (begins July 5!)
New APS Equity Profile Dashboard
Online data tool to provide more transparency on student opportunity, access, and achievement.
Three community conversations on the dashboard in the fall.
Senator Tim Kaine held a Roundtable with Wakefield Students on gun violence
Board Member Mary Kadera – two suggestions related to the Equity dashboard, add data on post-secondary plans and make sure there are translators at the community conversations in the fall. Also happy Pride month and recognition of and support for our LGBTQ community and colleagues.
Board Member Cristina Diaz-Torres asked where the community could ask questions about the Equity dashboard.
Public Comment:
The public comment portion of the meeting featured six speakers:
- One teacher – Discussed her opposition to “core knowledge ELA curriculum” for all APS elementary schools because it’s anti-diversity and inclusion. Core knowledge is a literacy program that tries to impart American ethnicity in a systematic way.
- One parent – Discussed the widespread use of and selling of drugs – particularly gummies – in APS schools. She said directors and teachers know about this, but no one is stopping it and parents are very worried. Some parents can’t work because they have to protect their kids from this drug selling. There’s also been violence surrounding drug selling.
- One parent – Discussed the need to remove all COVID mitigations so students don’t have a fourth year of restrictions – no more contact tracing, quarantines, and testing, and if not, be transparent about when the restrictions will stop.
- One parent – Discussed the need for a normal childhood for children, including with parent involvement at school. APS has been confronting a mental health and literacy crisis, and lack of normalcy is making it even harder to fight these. Rising Kindergarten orientation was just cancelled out of an “abundance of caution”
- One parent – Discussed the need for normalcy and for that message to come from the top because we can’t have a fourth academic year upended. Students need a year free from quarantine, parents are an essential for our children’s schools and the mental health of our kids is important.
- One APE representative – Discussed the need for parents to be involved including having to watch field day off campus, despite other outside visitors – including local politicians and camera crew - allowed. and the importance of partnering with parents and allowing parents to attend events of schools.
Monitoring Items:
Next was the Monitoring Item 1: the Student Advisory Board Annual Report presentation. The SAB had three committees and provided recommendations for the 2022-2023 school year. First, the budget committee was focused on teacher turnover and recruitment difficulties and suggested that APS reallocate unused funds for teacher financial incentives. Next, the mental health committee recommended that APS engage in more efforts focused on mental health awareness and conversations for students. Finally, the Sexual Assault/Harassment committee noted that the current courses on these issues aren’t sufficient and APS should expanding learning on these issues, including with a clearer understanding of the personal and school response.
The 2nd monitoring item was a FY 2022 3Q budget update. Presented by Leslie Peterson, Assistant Superintendent, Finance and Management services, this update includes what is expected for the full FY22 ear as of March 31, 2022. Net revenue expectation for FY 2022 is down $1.9 million for FY 2022. State Revenue is now expected to be $4.6 million above forecast with Local Revenue and Community Activities Fund inflows expected to be lower than plan. The increase in state funds is tied to higher sales tax while shortfalls in summer school tuition and the Apple buy-back program drove down local contribution. Loss of extended day fees and community swim meet fees dropped Community Activities expectations.
More than offsetting the net revenue decline is $23.1 million in lower-than-expected expenses. This is tied to $14.7 million in non-contingency salary savings, $3.6 million in fringe benefits savings, lower Community Activities Fund expenses and other smaller swings.
Together these items point to a potential $21.2 million that will be available at close-out. When netted against the $3.5 million in carryover from FY21, the projected funds available at closeout are $17.7 million. At this time, APS staff does not recommend allocation of these funds since they are the only funds available to replenish reserves. The next update will be in December 2022 when an allocation recommendation will be made for any closeout excess.
As part of this update, Ms. Peterson also updated the FY2022 Capital Budgets, both Major Construction and Minor Construction/Major Maintenance (MC/MM). There are 12 active categories.
· Format changed to remove projects that are complete.
· Timeline for Campbell and Swanson kitchen and vestibule projects to be completed by Fall 2024 vs. 2025/2026.
· Format changes also include what is current for each project vs. all the changes that have occurred since project inception.
· MC/MM identifies 123 projects with 62 completed and the remainder to be done or started in next 6 months.
Internal Audit Final Report was on the agenda but was postponed to 7/19/22 due to “unforeseen circumstanced”. It will be “presented as currently posted.”
Action/Information Items:
1) Resource Adoption- Action: This was presented by Sarah Putnam, Director Curriculum & Instruction. The recommended adoption includes includes K-5 ELA, K-12 Math, K-3 Social Studies and Middle/High School French and includes no changes to what was presented to the Board on May 26, 2022. Board member Mary Kadera asked a question that sought to confirm that Core Knowledge ELA, the K-5 proposed resource, supported exposure to knowing cultures around the work but was not supporting assimilation. Board member David Priddy asked about how CKELA worked with social studies and Ms. Putnam clarified that there is no perfect resource that pulls in VDOE ELA and Social Studies requirements. This was voted on and passed with all 3 board members at the meeting voting for passage.
2) Amendment to the FY2023 Adopted Budget – Information/Action: As expected, the Virginia General Assembly passed its budget which led to some changes in the APS budget. Namely, it increased operating funds by just under $1.0 million. As part of this, discussion, Ms. Peterson mentioned that APS received ARP funds from the state for the purpose of $1,000 bonuses and that there are some issues. Upon questioning from Mr. Priddy, it seems that the amount is not enough for a bonus for every employee. APS would need another $3.0 million to do that and they are working through this issue. As expected the state issue is basically “a wash” as indicated by board member Cristina Diaz-Torres. Mr. Priddy motions to approve the changes and it is passes, securing “yes” votes from all 3 board members present. There may be additional changes to the FY23 budget that will need a vote at the June 23, 2022 meeting.
3) Resource Adoption – Information: Ms. Putnam back to present on 6-12 ELA. APS staff recommends adopting Houghton-Mifflin Harcourt with this to be voted on at the June 23 meeting so that it can be on-boarded in July and August and be ready for students Fall 2022.
4) First Amendment to License Agreement at Quincy Site- Information: Cathy Lin from Facilities and Operations presented. This proposed some changes for a lease between APS and the county for 48 parking spaces for APS white fleet vehicles. APS staff recommends the changes and the county has already approved in consent. This will be voted at June 23, 2022 meeting.
5) Amendment to Sun Tribe Solar Comprehensive Agreement – Information: Contract changes to the 2018 contract that include eliminating ATS and Wakefield from the contract since roofs not appropriate for solar installation, changing the name of the Reed location to Cardinal, and allowing price escalation at Cardinal and Kenmore. Upon questioning, Ms. Lin indicated that due to financial difficulties in the overall solar industry, if the escalation were not allowed, the provider would withdraw from the contract. Even with the escalation, the price for solar power at these locations is expected to remain below that of Dominion Power. Other school systems have also had to make similar amendments. Ms. Lin can find out what FCPS change were. This will be voted at the June 23, 2022 meeting.
6) FY 2023-2032 Proposed CIP– Information: This was a joint presentation from Leslie Peterson (Assistant Superintendent of Finance & Management Services), Renee Harber (Assistant Superintendent of Facilities & Operation) and Lisa Stengel (Director of Planning & Evaluation). It reviewed the proposed FY2023-2032 CIP that was first presented on May 31, 2022.
The CIP is a ten-year look at the APS potential major construction projects. It builds from the shorter term 2022-2024 CIP. The 2023-2032 CIP goals are to prioritize an annual and consistent investment to improve and upgrade our existing infrastructure while also building a new facility to serve full-time Arlington Career Center (ACC) students, students from across APS high schools, and prepare for future enrollment. It is anticipated that the new ACC facility will be built on its current site with the existing building “refreshed” to house MPSA and the current MPSA building demolished and turned into green space. Key projects at existing schools include safety measures including entrance/vestibule updates, kitchen updates and conversion to turf fields and shells.
The 10-year CIP presented at this board meeting has a $403.23 million price tag with $275.32 million expected to come from bond issues. Of that $275.32 million, $165.01 million of bonds is expected to be up for vote in November 2022 with the bulk of this total expected to be used for ACC construction. Amounts to be determined in the proposed CIP are long-range plans to provide other updates to existing facilities 2027-2032, cost for swing space to house students as the new ACC is constructed, and the cost to demolish the existing MPSA building/renovation into green space. Furthermore, the plan includes a placeholder of just $15 million for conversion of the current ACC to MPSA, an assumption that appears to be low.
At the end of the presentation, Superintendent Durán alluded to concerns that arose from the May 31 meeting. APS appears to have assumed it had carte blanche access to $320 million in bond capacity to help fund long-term projects beyond the ACC, when it appears that the Arlington County Government (ACG) was assuming APS will be able to access just $78 million in additional bonds. In a June 7, 2022 letter addressed to the APS Board Chair Dr. Barbara Kanninen, and her colleagues, the Joint Facilities Advisory Committee (JFAC) detailed its concerns. (link the letter). Central to the JFAC concerns is that $78 million is not likely to be sufficient to fund other long-term needs such as long range facilities renovations at existing schools, needed swing space for school renovations, relocation of MPSA, reuse of the legacy career center and site work on the Career Center including fields. Ms. Kadera questioned also questioned why estimates were not included for some of these in the CIP since APS has data from recent similar projects. Dr. Durán indicated that after JFAC raised its concerns, APS spoke with Mark Schwartz, Arlington County Manager. Dr. Durán said Mr. Schwartz is not concerned with the APS vs. ACG bonding capacity discrepancy but did not provide a reason why he is not concerned. The CIP will be voted on at the June 23, 2022 school board meeting.
See the meeting Scorecard.
