Summary of October 17, 2024 School Board Meeting
Meeting Open:
Chair Mary Kadera opened the meeting.
After the presentation of the colors, the School Board recognized Hispanic Heritage Month including a Student Leader Recognition video and recognition for 8 Latino students. The School Board also recognized Principal Carlos Ramirez of Randolph Elementary who received the national recognition of 2024 Principal of the Year from the Association of Latino Administrators and Superintendents Awards (ALAS). They also recognized Arlington Career Center student, Dafnee Marques Padilla, who received the ALAS 2024 Student of the Year Award.
Consent Agenda:
Motion passes 5-0.
Chair Kadera also acknowledged new staff appointments
Superintendent Announcements:
The superintendent monitoring report will address chronic absenteeism in APS. Accompanying the report was a video showing how 3 schools encourage regular attendance.
Red Ribbon Week is Oct 23-21, National Substance Abuse Prevention Month
Emergency Preparedness Week is Oct 28 - Nov 1
Accreditation:
All APS Schools are accredited by the Virginia Department of Education
Two APS Schools receive accreditation “with conditions” level three
Carlin Springs for science
Wakefield for chronic absenteeism
This is the last year of the current accreditation system [Read our Sept 26th newsletter article about it.]
Update to Application window for Option School Lottery (pre K-12 option schools programs and transfers)
Applications open Mon Nov 4, 2024 at 8am
Applications close Fri Jan 24, 2024 at 4pm
LIVE virtual lottery is Fri Feb 7, 2025
Update to Virginia Preschool Initiative Eligibility: New families must complete a phone screening to determine eligibility. If eligible , an in person appointment will be set up.
New: APS cabinet and central office leaders are signing up to assist schools by substituting in classrooms, including Dr Durán. He recently served at Claremont ES. Next week he’ll be at Jamestown ES, in November he will serve as a bus attendant.
Dr. Durán’s Bright Spots:
Recapping all the visits to schools in first month of school
Fulbright Teacher to Singapore: Geraldine Maskelony. Statistics and Data Science Instructor
Kenmore counselor, Dr. Sheila Barnhart-Ramirez, recognized as Elementary School Counselor of the Year for Virginia by the VA School Counselor Association
Public Comment:
Senior at Yorktown, captain of debate team advocating for more funding for the debate team so they can participate in the national circuit to produce better debaters and more awards. Also suggests adding a class of speech and debate
W&L debate team captain student, also advocating for more funding for debate teams.
APS teacher, on teacher salary scale, and shortage of special education teachers.He noted that APS got a high Niche rating, “but it’s how they treat the most needy students that really tells about a school system.”
Head coach of Speech and debate advocating for more funding. Team has grown, budget has not. Hinders opportunities.
PTA president at Barrett. Speaking about overt anti-semitism and hate speech and harassment. Urges APS School Board to protect Jewish students
Elementary school mom about a bus that consistently gets kids off late for school.
Parent about Jewish students feeling unsafe with anti-semetic issue at W&L. “Inaction stains this entire system. It makes APS students feel unsafe.” Urges APS to enforce all rules evenly, that no teacher should be above the rules.
Parent advocating that “these little tools” ie, smartphones are not an issue in schools and that students should have access to them during the day
Parent representing SEPTA
APS bus driver about lack of assistants on buses and students following rules
Monitoring Report
The topic of this week’s monitoring report is Chronic Absenteeism.
Dr. Darrell Sampson, Executive Director, Student Services, gave a presentation showing that:
APS has a goal that by 2030 APS will reduce chronic absenteeism rate to no more than 8%
APS Definition of Chronic Absenteeism:
Missing 10% or more of the academic year.
This means 18 days per year or 2 to 3 days per month - regardless of the reason.
66% of absences last year were excused absences
Dr. Sampson noted that analyzing 2022 data, APS students who were chronically absent:
score lower in reading (21% lower pass rate in 3rd grade)
GPAs are lower
in math 26% Lower Math SOL pass rate.
94% are not enrolled in Algebra 1 by 9th grade,
15x more likely not to graduate on time
Dr. Sampson shared his bright spots in APS’ effort to bring chronic absenteeism down:
number of schools meeting VDOE expectations of chronic absenteeism increased from 24 to 33 between 2022-23 SY and 2023-24SY
“All demographic groups have seen reductions in rates between 2022-23 SY and 2023-24SY” (However, he highlighted that Ms. Turner had pointed out that some discrepancies were found and that after a re-analysis. “In actuality, our rate for the 2022-23SY was 15.9. And that explains then that overall the drop was 2.7% between 2022-23 SY and 2023-24SY.”)
Ms. Faiza Jackson, Supervisor of School Social Work discussed improvement in demographic groups. She pointed out that disproportionality exists:
white students have a 9.8% rate while Hispanic students have a 21.1% rate.
Hispanic students represent 49% of those who are chronically absent, while making up 31% of the total APS student body
The board heard from a additional speakers on the topic:
W&L Attendance Specialist, Tamika George, spoke briefly about that school's experience and the causes of chronic absenteeism: overwhelming load of classes, substance abuse, mental health.
Dr. Liza Burrell-Aldana, Principal of Claremont ES spoke briefing about that school’s experience reducing their chronic absenteeism rate from 19% to 9%.
Senior at W&L High school about school support
Judy Apostolico-Buch, Barcroft ES Principal about community support to help combat chronic absenteeism.
Discussion on Chronic Absenteeism:
School board members Turner and Kadera both commented on APS’ efforts to bring down rates of chronic absenteeism and asked what the system can do to drive progress.
Ms. Turner asked staff:
Which of the many strategies being currently implemented are actually working to reduce absenteeism? [Dr. Sampson responded that making sure each school has an attendance team as well as home visits are a good practice. EDUFuturo is helping with community engagement with Wakefield and Arlington Community.
What can we do as a division for the folks in this building rather than leave it to the schools? [Dr. Durán said home visits are now a big part of the partnership piece]
Whether APS should start focusing on absenteeism earlier in a student’s timeline? “We ought not to lose sight of our middle schools. Gunston appears to have gone up last year.” [Dr. Sampson responded that yes, they are looking at the 8th - to 9th grade transition specifically]
What are our neighboring districts doing? She noted that per VDOE data, the APS rate is flat year over year while Fairfax and Loudoun counties showed reductions. “Looks like they’re starting with a bigger number and doing more to reduce it faster. Is there anything we can take away from that?” [Dr. Sampson said the districts do collaborate through a series of regular meetings. Ms. Jackson noted that quarterly regional attendance meetings may be shifting to monthly. Dr. Durán chimed in that APS is participating nationally on this issue through a program with the White House.
Chair Kadera noted that stressors in a family and family mental health can be an important factor in some of the absenteeism cases. She:
Asked if a parent knows there is a problem, but doesn’t have resources to help them, who is the best reason for them to reach out to at school for help? [Answer: Counselor or social worker]
Commented that there seem to be three buckets of causes - individual root causes (ex: a family situation), demographic root causes (like those for Hispanic students), and then cultural root causes at a particular school. She urged APS staff to think centrally about strategies to piece together the three buckets.
Additionally, Ms. Zecher-Sutton commented that "the cadence of our breaks from school do not necessarily align with the time it is appropriate for a family to visit their home country.” She also wants to work on reducing the stigma of missing school.
Ms. Diaz Torres chimed in to share her Swiss cheese metaphor: “Each individual treatment is like a slice of Swiss cheese. It’s got holes in it individually, but if you layer enough of them together you end up with a solid block. And the question in my mind is, do we have enough layers?”
Information Items
1) Proposed FY 2026 Budget Direction
Chair Kadera School board directs the Superintendent to prepare “a needs-based budget … through which a balanced budget could be achieved.” Included acknowledgement given the current APS financial situation, it would take more than a year to establish and maintain any new practices
2) 2025 Legislative Package, presented by Steven Marku, Director of Policy and Legislative Affairs
“The General Assembly has a lot of authority to manage and micromanage what we do here,” he noted.
The goal is to identify which put the greatest burden on APS and fight those, said Mr. Marku
On Funding, APS supports the implementation of recommendations from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission
On Student Achievement, Marku said one of the biggest priorities this year was advocating regarding the updates to the accountability standards issued by the state board of education.
APS wants the General Assembly to override to make growth weighted as heavily as mastery for ES and MS students and APS supports administering SOLS in other languages.
Mr. Marku explained how APS Elementary school accreditation would be affected under the new standards.
New standards:
11 schools “Distinguished”
9 schools “on track”
5 schools “off track
Old Standards
24 schools “Accredited”
1 school “accredited with conditions”
Discussion: Chair Kadera suggested that the Virginia General Assembly delay the full implementation of this accreditation framework since “parts have not been built out.” The idea that we would be held accountable next fall to a system that is still being built, is an issue of concern, she said.
Ms. Turner noted that mastery is important and that the purpose of school is to have children achieve proficiency. She noted that there are upwards of half of our students who are not proficient in reading when they leave elementary school. “That is something worth paying attention to and making sure we strike a balance.” She also asked for clarification about performance-based assessments for all end-of-course SOLS. Dr. Durán explained that goes back years to an SOL innovation committee recommendations to move away from solely multiple choice assessments and provide a performance based task. Ms. Turner pressed how those assessments would be assessed, Dr. Durán said to the teachers and staff.
3) Policy Revision and Adoption: Policy Changes: updating introductory language and changing goals to reflect the new strategic plan. School board action will happen on Oct 29, 2024
4) Deed of Temporary Easement and Construction Agreement and Deed of Easement at Kenmore Middle School Presented by Cathi Lin, Director Facilities and Operations.
County has identified 2 projects in the Glencarlyn neighborhood and requests 2 easements at Kenmore Middle School. These include construction of a driveway at 2nd St. South and beautification project at 2nd Street South and S. Manchester Street, and a permanent easement for the driveway on 2nd Street South. Construction would end before August 18, 2025. Landscaping would end before August 2028 to give time to see if non-native species grow there. APS legal has approved this. Facilities recommends that the SB approve as well. A vote on this will take place at the Oct. 29th School Board meeting.
New Business: None. Meeting Adjourned.
