Summary of 8/18/22 School Board Meeting
The August 18, 2022 School Board Meeting began with Opening/Consent Items
The meeting is called to order.
Board member David Priddy joined the meeting with MS Teams because of personal reasons, and Dr. Kanninen.
The Board met in a closed meeting to consider 133 appointments, 36 changes in position and/or salary, 18 resignations, 5 resignations with prejudice, 2 retirements, and 2 terminations as authorized by VA code 2.2-3771 A1. Seconded by Mary Kadera. The motion passed 3-0.
The School Board then unanimously adopted the consent agenda. As part of that consent agenda, revisions to various policies: B-3.6.37 Electronic Participation in School Board Advisory Committee Meetings, B-4.4 Electronic Participation in Meetings by Individual Members, E-4.3.30 Use of School Equipment, E-4.3.31 Telecommunication Facilities on School Property, E-5.1 Student Transportation Services, G-3.14.30 T-Scale Evaluation, G-3.14.31 P-Scale Evaluation, I-5 Opening Exercises, and I-8.2 Class Size were adopted.
The School Board then announced the following appointments:
- Appointment of Dustin Barnes as Principal of Tuckahoe Elementary School, who was present and gave a speech;
- Appointment of Matt Thompson as the Labor Relations Specialist, who was present and gave a speech;
- Appointment of Erin Wales-Smith as Assistant Principal at Claremont Elementary School, who was present and gave a speech;
- Appointment of Dr. Dimar Brown as Director of Talent Acquisition and Management who was present and gave a speech;
- Appointment of Sarah Putnam as Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction who was present and gave a speech;
Announcements
The School Board thereafter moved to the following announcements:
- The School Board will have a closed meeting on August 25 at 5:30 pm, and
- The School Board will have a closed meeting on September 8 at 5:30 pm, followed by the school board meeting at 7 pm.
Afterwards, Superintendent Durán gave his announcements (slides here): where he welcomed teachers back for their official first day. APS is 99% staffed. Last week there were over 300 teachers who joined APS.
He also mentioned the new 2022-23 Priorities called Every Student Counts.
1. Know every student by name, strength and need
2. Develop a culture focused on assets, not deficits
3. Use student data to ensure every student has the support they need to succeed
4. Provide quality instruction for all with additional supports for identified students based on data, including students with disabilities, English-learners, Black and Hispanic students
5. Create a positive school climate and culture
- School starts on August 29th and new start and end times.
- APS Family Line – 703-228-8000 will be tracked and ensured all inquiries are answered.
- There is a new virtual tutoring service provided for 6-12 graders in all subjects.
- NEW Learning Resources for English Language Arts, Math, Social Studies, and Science instruction.
- Safety and Security enhancements including over $5 million invested in strengthening building security with trained School Safety Coordinators onsite to support all our schools.
- School Meals are no longer free and will cost Elementary and Secondary Breakfast: $1.80, Elementary Lunch: $3.10; and Secondary Lunch: $3.20.
- New “Where’s The Bus” mobile app to track bus arrival time
- Free ART (Arlington Rapid Transit) Benefit for students will be $1.00
-COVID protocols are updated to follow the latest CDC guidelines.
One modification is all tests will be permitted for clearance to return, including rapid tests, if an individual is experiencing Covid-like symptoms.
Another modification is symptom-free students and staff who have had a direct exposure to an individual testing positive are exempt from quarantine.
APS Annual Online Verification Process begins on August 22, 2022 on Parentvue.
Dr. Duran also highlighted APS Literacy Leadership Summit 2022.
Monitoring item: APS Academic Performance Update
Dr. Gerald Mann, Chief Academic Officer presented Academic Report (slides here) .
From the Priorities for 2022-23, Dr. Mann highlighted 3rd item on student data and on how its being used.
SOL testing -the pandemic set everyone back. In 2020-2021, there were substitute tests for 11th grade writing, and 8th grade English assessment instead of SOL. And in 2021-2022 return to pre-pandemic testing.
APS’ performance on DIBELS showed improvement improvements across all grades and demographics.
But Dr. Mann reiterated that there are gaps in all content areas on DIBELS and SOL assessments, especially for black, Hispanic, English learners, and students with disabilities.
Dr. Mann highlighted a few bright spots, including:
There was an overall improvement in SOL performance in reading, math, science, and social studies from 2020-2021 to 2021-2022.
Overall math improved by nine percentage points.
Overall science and reading each improved by three percentage points.
Overall social studies improved by 16 percentage points.
SOL Readings went up 3 points as a district and exceeded the state average pass rates, kudos to the 3rd-grade level.
SOL Mathematics improved overall, kudos for 8th-grade math from 53 to 73. But more work needs to be done for 7th-grade math.
For the end of the Science test we need more work to do.
For the social studies test, was an alternative test that not many states took.
For the writing test, there was a substitute across the state. But there is a gap.
The subgroups- black, Hispanics, disabilities, and English learners have major gaps, especially for English learners where science score was 17 out of 100.
DIBELS data show possible trends but there are still major gaps.
To move forward Dr. Mann highlights 3 new resources that will be implemented: Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) (Reading), Into Literature Virginia (reading), and enVision (Math). Plus he mentioned Professional Learning (PL) and also collaboration with the collaborative learning teams usage on data.
He points to slide 21 of how each student will get high-quality education. From high achievers to those who need intensive support. And how to do the intensive support without pulling children out of their class. For those intensive support it needs to be in additional not as a substitute.
Ms. Diaz Torres – Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released their data 48 hours prior to this presentation. So the data was analyzed quickly for this presentation. Ms. Diaz Torres also highlighted slide 21 to express its importance (See below). She also wanted to know how the strategic plan applies to English language learners, because without students who do not know how to read we are doing them an injustice.
Dr. Duran says there is a five-year plan for assessing the needs, determining resources needed, and funding for English learners (APS is already working on English learners). There is a statewide budget constraint on funding for teachers for English learners.
The Office of English learners department is doing professional development with general instruction teachers to support English learners, especially at the middle and high school levels. Previously English learners were assigned to English learner teachers and pulled out their core classes.
Ms. Kadera also highlights this slide (above). This is the application and this how student data is being used for each child.
Dr. Duran says this data will be put it in the dashboard and the equity profile.
Ms. Kadera also says writing and socials studies because there is change in the sample size for the 2020-21 data and the 2021-2022, will be unable for comparison. Dr. Mann also conferred about the discrepancy in comparison.
Dr. Kanninen said she is content with the presentation, and that Dr. Mann’s presentation command of the data. And she also wanted to highlight slide 21 as well, and how to determine which test needs to be referred to, DIBELS or SOLS.
Dr. Mann said he asked Dan Houzer this question this week, and the answer is its not an either/or both data points. It will be with Collaborative Learning Teams (CLT) and teachers will use all the data to confer. The Collaborative Learning Teams are composed of teachers.
Mr. Priddy also brought up slide 21 and that this was part of the School Board’s discussion.
Ms. Diaz Torres wanted to highlight the English language learners’ science score because it was such a huge dip.
Dr. Mann said it was also a sample size.
Ms. Kadera wanted parents to know that SOLS and DIBELS have different tests and have different purposes because one is a measurement of the school performance, and the other is student performance.
Mr. Goldstein wanted to see if we can mark the statistically significant results because there are discrepancies in some scores with sample size. And he wondered what other ways to measure progress.
Dr. Duran said there were a plethora of other data points of how the children are doing.
Information item: Arlington School Board 2022-2023 Priorities
School Board Member Torres presented these priorities based on the strategic plan. (slide here)
Priority 1: Ensure student well-being and academic progress with a focus on innovation, equity, and evidence-based practices.
Priority 2: Recruit, hire, retain, and invest in a high-quality and diverse workforce to ensure APS is the place where talented individuals choose to work.
Priority 3: Improve operational efficiency.
Chair Goldstein wanted to reiterate that the Board in collaboration with Superintendent Duran kept the major priorities from last year, but drilled down on how to implement those priorities.
Dr. Kanninen reiterated that this is a collaboration. She also said that the adoption of these priorities does not make the news, but does set up the School Board on how to move forward. The School Board and the Superintendent know what to expect from each other. She liked that the majority of these priorities focused on the students and a little on operational efficiencies.
Chair Goldstein also said that these
This will be discussed at the September 8th school board meeting.
See our Scorecard for this meeting.
