Summary of 9/21/23 School Board Meeting
In the Superintendent updates, Dr. Durán explained the procurement decision to choose CareFirst BlueCross-Blue Shield as APS’ sole healthcare option starting 1 January 2024. He addressed the feedback received on the decision about Kaiser not being selected and apologized for how staff was informed of the change. Dr. Durán shared that he would be sending an email to all staff with updated information on the decision and the switch in healthcare providers on Friday. Dr. Durán promised that in the future, APS would be more forthright about the timeline for contract renewals by emailing the information to staff and posting it on Engage. Dr. Durán also highlighted the open enrollment benefits fairs and dates [APE note: the fairs appear to be offered almost exclusively during teachers’ school hours], and he again apologized that information on the healthcare procurement process wasn’t clear and acknowledged that this change would be difficult for many staff, but that there will be financial savings with the change.
Dr. Durán noted that National Hispanic Heritage month is September 15 to October 15. This Board meeting’s Every Student Counts video is about the importance of regular attendance. Dr. Duran noted that in-person attendance is critical for achievement at all levels, and noted that 18 missed days (which is just two days a month) is considered chronic absenteeism and is a factor in VDOE accreditation. He then shared a video which highlighted that routine attendance is a critical indicator of academic success, and in fact, too many absences from school can keep kids from succeeding in school or life.
Dr. Durán also highlighted the new APS MOU with Arlington County Police Department which clarifies when and how Administrators must call ACPD for assistance and provides guidance for increased collaboration between ACPD and APS communications during a crisis. Finally, Dr. Durán noted the new School-Based Behavioral Health Program MOU between APS and Arlington’s Department of Human Services to provide four clinicians to provide behavioral health services at APS high school programs.
Dr. Durán flagged the APS Career and College Fair on October 10 at Thomas Jefferson Community Center. Finally, APS staff and the Strategic Plan leaders and consultants presented the APS Launches Strategic Plan Development plan, including details of the Strategic Plan Dashboard. The presenters discussed the myriad of ways they’re collecting feedback on the Strategic Plan development.
The School Board reacted with questions. Mr. Goldstein asked whether APS can share that a contract is up for renewal. Dr. Durán noted that APS did share this information in Board meetings, but not in an email or on our website, but they are changing procedures. Mr. Goldstein asked whether APS could have shared that Kaiser wasn’t a part of the process. Dr. Durán replied that APS could have once the contract was awarded. Mr. Goldstein noted that then, APS could have shared on 17 July. Mr. Goldstein followed up by asking who knew the information and asked for clarification on the PPO and HMO options with CareFirst. Dr. Durán noted that the procurement team and a consultant reviewed the bids and no one else in APS was privy to that information until the selection on 17 July. Dr. Durán said CareFirst has a PPO and an HMO option.
Ms. Kadera asked for additional information about the development of the RFP, and whether APS gathered information on employees’ concerns and needs to shape or judge the RFP. She also asked for additional information on whether there was anything in Virginia code or policy that would have prohibited APS from including employees in the procurement team. Ms. Kadera then asked if staff will be collecting data about how the MOU with DHS is impacting students’ experience when they’re trying to seek help and whether it is making life easier for staff.
Ms. Zecher Sutton asked Dr. Durán to remind everyone about the current ACPD and APS systems in place in schools. Ms. Graves replied that the new MOU increased the SSCs to 40, which are clustered across the middle and high schools and assigned to elementary schools in case they need support or response to a threat, and highlighted the new Director Mr. Queen who is a former SRO and focused on making sure our SSCs have the training and support they need. Mr. Priddy asked the community for feedback on the communication about the ACPD/APS MOU. Mr. Priddy also asked about how many of the four DHS clinicians have been hired. APS staff responded that three offers have been made, and a fourth is pending. Dr. Duran also noted that the MOU was a very collaborative experience with ACPD this time. Finally, Mr. Priddy stressed that attendance and student success are directly linked, and he highlighted that it’s good that APS is making people aware that the students do need to be in school. Mr. Goldstein then asked how long the insurance contract was and asked staff to highlight the next end of the contract. Dr. Durán responded that it will be up in three years, and they will implement the new communication procedures.
Public Comment focused on the change in APS’ healthcare provider and the communication of that decision (six speakers), the new SEL implementation at WL (six student speakers), the SOL scores and lack of resources to address it (2 speakers), the proposed closure of Nottingham (2 speakers), lack of basic resources (keys) to start school year (1 speaker), APS’ water bottle access policy (1), and the boundary process policy revision.
For the Monitoring Item, Chief of Staff’s Special Adviser Jonathan Turrisi, the Strategic Plan leaders, and the consultants from RIT International presented the Strategic Plan Development. They highlighted the timeline of gathering feedback and input, and the multiple methods of collecting feedback. School Board members responded with questions
Ms. Zecher Sutton asked about the plan for tracking diverse participation in community forums. The Strategic Plan leaders answered that it was an iterative process and they will be using a continuous improvement lens to course correct as needed. They also said they do collect some data on demographics, but are collecting it in a feedback mechanism. Ms. Zecher Sutton then asked about strategies for engagement at family forums given that they’re geographically based, versus aligned by school level. Staff responded that the focus was on equity of access. Ms. Zecher Sutton then asked about community focus groups and whether they’d though about strategies to engage members of those groups versus leaders of those groups. Staff responded that they asked the leaders from the community groups for volunteers, not just the leaders themselves.
Ms. Kadera asked about the next community engagement efforts in November and October. Staff responded that they’ll be having ThoughtExchanges, and some additional opportunities. Ms. Kadera shared that ThoughtExchanges can produce unconstructive responses. Ms. Kadera ended by suggesting that the Strategic Plan leaders go to where people are, such as TJ roller skating night, to get diverse perspectives. Ms. Kadera asked how APS’s Strategic Plan is aligning with the County’s Strategic Planning efforts. Staff responded that there’s a planned focus group with County Government and a meeting with County staff.
Mr. Goldstein highlighted that an in-person meeting at night means there’s a socioeconomic group that can show up and another that cannot. He then asked why APS wouldn’t ask for demographic feedback at the meeting. Mr. Goldstein then asked about the current strategic plan, which was reviewed downward from 25 performance metrics and revised downward to 10, some of which was because they weren’t being achieved. Mr. Goldstein asked how and when APS would make adjustments to performance objectives when it was clear that the objectives wouldn’t be met. Mr. Turrisi responded that they’ll be reviewed in the spring. Mr. Goldstein reiterated that it’s helpful to have an opportunity to revise the performance objectives so they’re more likely to be met.
The School Board acted on two Action items. First they approved the Third Amendment to Deed of Lease at Highland Holdings - Parking for Career Center Campus 4-0. Next they approved the Secondary Math Resource Adoption 4-0. There were no questions on either action item.
For information items, first Mr. Steven Marku presented the revisions to School Board Policies I-11.1 Family and Community Engagement and J-2.1 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Mr. Marku explained that the FACE policy is required by Title 1 (federal law). He reviewed a few of the updates to better reflect APS’s commitment to engage with the community and to streamline and simplify the language for clarity.
Ms. Kadera noted that developing metrics for the implementation of the policy would be part of the Strategic Plan effort.
Mr. Marku then moved to the J-2.1 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and explained the updates, which were mainly for simplifying and clarifying language. They require reevaluations of 504 triannually. Ms. Kadera asked if the tri-annual reevaluations were required by law, and staff clarified that it’s “regular” evaluations and tri-annual is consistent with that. This item will be acted on at the Oct 12th meeting.
The next information item was the Internal Audit Annual Plan by Alice Blount-Fenney. Ms. Blount-Fenney highlighted the Proposed Audit Plans with four focus areas: School Activity Funds, APS Purchasing Cards, Information Systems Equipment, and Gas Cards and Fleet Management. She has started the review of School Activity Funds, and explained that she’s started doing interviews with treasurers at schools on the school activities funds use and she’s learned that many Treasurers have different interpretations of protocols, and that transfers might need to be looked into. She noted that there’s a large variance in background and experience and she’s already begun to develop training. She noted that P cards also have different interpretations and APS needs stricter policies for the use of these cards and funds. Ms. Blount-Fenney noted that she sends monthly reports to the Audit Committee.
Ms. Kadera asked about an explanation of the scope of IT software. Ms. Blount-Fenney explained that she’d take a sample and then evaluate based on those. Ms. Kadera asked whether software teachers and students use in the classroom would be included, and Ms. Blount-Fenney said yes, since education is the primary business. Ms. Kadera asked about the timeline of this work and whether it could feed into the budget cycle. Ms. Blount-Fenney said she’d like to work with the Audit rep Mr. Priddy to coordinate that communication. Ms. Kadera then highlighted that APS did not ask for her kids’ iPads back when they transitioned from 8th to 9th grade. Ms. Kadera also spoke to the audience to remind the community that the internal auditor reports to the School Board, not the Superintendent or COO, and there’s a firewall between the two. Ms. Kadera then asked Ms. Blount-Fenney to review her background. She holds a graduate degree in management auditing, and over 20 years of experience in internal auditing, mostly in universities and schools.
Ms. Zecher Sutton then asked about Ms. Blount-Fenney’s approach to engaging APS on each of the focus areas. Ms. Blount-Fenney answered that she visits the different offices in person and tries to communicate weekly with the key stakeholders in APS. She also noted that she has monthly audit status reports which covers the goals for the next month. Ms. Zecher Sutton then commended Ms. Blount-Fenney for doing a needs assessment of the Treasurers and getting them all on the same page.
Next, Mr. Goldstein asked about the procedures for implementation, and specifically what steps Ms. Blount-Fenney will take if the sample reveals problems, and she answered that then they would expand the scope of the sample. Mr. Goldstein then referenced the reasoning behind the IT system audit, and noted that she had uncovered significant problems in a previous job. Ms. Blount-Fenney then noted that IT systems is also usually a significant part of a school system’s budget. Mr. Goldstein flagged that he thought that gas cards and fleet management audit would be significant and Ms. Blount-Fenney noted that the plan is a draft. Webpage is up and a charter. And template for the reports. And a foundation to work with. Finally he asked about the monthly status reports and the progress and who they were sent to. Ms. Blount-Fenney said she shared them with the Audit Committee, but she can follow any protocol. Mr. Priddy then discussed Ms. Blount-Fenney’s workload and said in the next two weeks they’ll discuss these projects and the workload and make any revisions before the Action Item in two weeks. Ms. Kadera asked whether they would be able to include the timelines of the Audit results, but Mr. Priddy said that would information would be decided after the Action Item. This item will be acted on at the Oct 12th meeting.
As the final information item, Mr. Priddy read the School Board’s draft budget direction for FY2025. Ms. Kadera said she was concerned that this budget direction doesn’t provide sufficient real direction and she would like more language that the planning factors are a clear priority, especially because they drive special education staffing. She asked for the clause “as budget capacity allows” regarding the planning factor study, to be deleted. Ms. Kadera also asked for the language about evaluating initiatives to be strengthened because the language that says “new initiatives” doesn’t cover everything that is discretionary spending. She noted that the Budget Advisory Council recommended that APS add in an explanation of impact for anything that is in discretionary spending, and she supports this recommendation and wants to add language about specific quantifiable outcomes with timelines and measurements for anything in this category. Finally, Ms. Kadera voiced her concern about APS’s continued reserves spending, and urged her colleagues to work together to develop discipline on that reserve spending.
Mr. Goldstein stated that he agreed wholeheartedly with what Ms. Kadera said, except for the reserves. Mr. Goldstein noted that he would also like to strike the clause as budget capacity allows because it’s already been decided that this is an urgent priority of the Board and that he agrees with Ms. Kadera that the word “new” should be struck in the clause about measuring impact of initiatives. Mr. Goldstein also asked to include the effectiveness of programming in the budget direction, and suggested adding a template to each of the budget pages with three points: Why budget line item is being funded; What impact or outcome is expected; and How it’ll be measured and when.
Ms. Zecher Sutton said that clear and concrete rationale with details, as well as the bigger picture rationale for budget items, especially changes or new initiatives, is important in the budget direction and budget itself. She also cautioned that the planning factor study may not be ready for this year’s budget. Finally, Mr. Priddy noted that since 80 percent of the budget is compensation, he expects APS will have to continue to use reserves to support that. He also cautioned that if the School Board is too specific with budget direction, it’ll put the Superintendent in a hole he can’t get out of. This item will be acted on at the Oct 12th meeting.
