Summary of 9/7/23 School Board Meeting

Dr. Durán shared the first day of school update:

Day One enrollment is 27,407, slightly below last year’s official enrollment figure. APS is 98% staffed on day one and continuing to recruit. APS is continuing to work to strengthen transportation and Dr. Durán urged families to share feedback and concerns. Parent Square is the new app being used to communicate with parents. Currently, 40% of families are signed up. APS also offers the family information line, 703-228-8000, for transportation, registration, extended day, food services, tech support, and general inquiries. APS is tracking questions/calls in order to identify ongoing issues. In response to the presentation, Ms. Kadera asked for a follow up on extended day waitlists and bus hub stops. 

Public comment focused on the proposed closure of Nottingham Elementary to convert it to swing space (12 speakers), the changes to middle school boundaries and walkability (2 speakers), the approach to boundaries generally (1 speaker), APS’ bonding capacity vs. school needs (1 speaker), the proposed calendar policy (4 speakers), and substitutes and air conditioning (1 speaker). 

Dr. Durán introduced the academic update by observing some bright spots but noted a “real need” to go deeper on secondary literacy in particular. He said, “We’ve come a long way but we have a long way to go.” There will be a work session on September 26 on the instructional visioning project. For those interested in school-by-school reporting, there is a “school quality” profile maintained by the state and Dr. Durán invited community members to use that resource if they would like to go deeper. 

Dr. Mann presented the academic update:

First, he identified “bright spots,” including that APS-wide pass rates in math rose by four percentage points from last year and all subgroups increased performance. Reading scores were flat (though still outperforming the state), although there was a slight increase in fifth grade scores. All subgroups in science increased performance. One school went up 45 percentage points in science and APS asked that principal to speak with her colleagues about what they did. Social studies showed a seven-point increase APS-wide, and all subgroups increased performance. APS showed a 10-point gain in fall early literacy (kindergarten) benchmark performance. 

However, while there were increases across all subgroups, gaps remain. In addition, writing performance dropped by two percentage points. Dr. Mann observed that merely outperforming the state “is not what we want to be as a school division.” Further, scores for students who are economically disadvantaged do not outperform the state average in every area, specifically, reading and science.

Regarding students with disabilities, Dr. Mann noted that the data showed that students in inclusive classroom settings far outperformed students in self-contained classrooms. 

Dr. Mann then discussed professional learning, instructional, assessment, and resource supports APS will provide to teachers in order to support students, for each of math, reading, writing at secondary and elementary, science, and social studies. 

The School Board reacted with questions, which Ms. Diaz-Torres as chair limited to two each.  Ms. Kadera asked about whether APS has mechanisms to identify which schools are seeing impressive results and how to replicate that across the system. Dr. Mann said that APS reaches out to principals to talk to others about what they’re doing, and APS will be doing more of that. Ms. Sutton asked whether the gaps among subgroups are getting larger or smaller. Dr. Mann did not have that information at the meeting to respond. Ms. Sutton noted this is an area APS has said it wants to look at with urgency, so this information will be important to have. She then asked how APS is doing at providing teachers with the capacity to provide effective feedback on individual student writing. 

Mr. Goldstein asked questions about the pass rates for Math 7, which is showing significantly lower performance vs. the state average. The explanation given by Dr. Mann and Dr. Durán was that the seventh grade assessment captures only those students taking the Math 7 course, and does not include those students taking, for example, Algebra 1. (These students are presumably higher-performing.) Mr. Goldstein asked a similar question for the earth science scores. Similarly, students taking earth science in APS are those who need that credit to graduate, whereas other APS students gain the credit from other courses, and their scores are reflected in those respective course-specific SOLs. 

Ms. Diaz-Torres asked about the 129 APS seniors who did not graduate last year and whether there is a correlation to attendance. Dr. Mann agreed that is a key correlation. Ms. Kadera added that she suspects there is a correlation with reading as well, and asked Dr. Mann how the approach to secondary literacy will be different this year. Dr. Mann responded that APS should double down on training, ensure that students are in the support classes they need, and buying resources appropriate for secondary students.

The School Board acted on the calendar policy and presentation to clarify and solidify in policy the criteria for forming the school-year calendar. Ms. Diaz-Torres commented that there was very robust feedback on the calendar. Mr. Marku presented changes to the initial draft: first, clarification that starting earlier would mean ending earlier; second, the holidays are now described as being closed for operational reasons, as opposed to termed “religious holidays”; and third, to take out the end of year adjustments. Mr. Marku described 1788 responses on Thought Exchange. The first and second “most commented” topics related to the earlier start to the school year and the holidays and winter break, but Mr. Marku did not describe whether these comments were in favor or opposed. 

Staff presented a summary of the top three comments, but did not provide information on community feedback about the religious holidays and winter break, despite it being the second most commented topic.

Mr. Goldstein expressed that APS is in “the instruction business” and not in the religious observance business, and that the five religious holidays create significant disruption to instruction and to childcare for working families. The final vote was 4:1, with Reid voting against the calendar policy. 

• Early in the discussion, APS indicated that they do not have data on operational absences for staff. Our note: This is likewise salient to the discussion of the religious holidays as schools must have a secular reason (e.g., significant absences) to establish a holiday.

• School Board Member David Priddy proposed an amendment (which passed 5-0) to start school a week before Labor Day (instead of two weeks) in response to community feedback on the summer start date. Mr. Priddy cited both to his uncertainty that the data demonstrates that aligning with neighboring districts is important to staffing and also to community feedback. Ms. Sutton agreed. Ms. Kadera explained that she now believes the staffing concern may be real, but continued to express concern that there is no data quantifying the magnitude. Ms. Diaz-Torres echoed the lack of data, urged monitoring substitute staffing, and suggested revisiting the policy will be important.

  • OUR NOTE: Neither staff nor School Board Members acknowledged that the policy codifies additional paid leave for 12-month staff via collective bargaining for winter/spring break and establishing the newly added days as “off” for staff (note: APS leave policy G-3.2.4  already addresses religious leave for all staff).

• APS staff will present the SY 24-25 and SY 25-26 calendars at the November 30th School Board meeting and they’ll be voted on at the December 14th meeting. 

• Mary Kadera suggested to find more five day weeks by combining teacher work days with religious holidays. Ms. Kadera supported greater collaboration with the County for programs on the days off is well-intended, but Mr. Goldstein said that the infrastructure does not exist now, when families need it.

  • OUR NOTE: There is already a waitlist for elementary students for Monday, September 25 and camps for future days off will not be posted until September 15. 

There were information items on: (1) retiring the policy relating to food service vending machines, which have not been active in APS since 2014, (2) the deed of temporary easement and construction agreements for synthetic turf, (3) replacement projects at W-L stadium and Williamsburg fields, (4) a third amendment to the lease agreement relating to the parking garage at the Career Center site, and (5) the secondary mathematics resource adoption timeline.