Thread by @FFXParentsAssoc

SB mtg open 🧵

Congratulations to Sofia Ielmini, recipient of the Laura Ashley Piper scholarship for her academic excellence & community service.

The scholarship is named in honor of a former student rep & Air Force Lt. that died in Iraq in 1994. https://t.co/bVwQFoX46qwashingtonpost.com/archive/local/…

The SB takes a 5 min break, following lengthy speeches by almost every member on various proclamations.

The delay means that votes on the equity policy & giving themselves a raise won't happen until the late evening hours after the public has mostly stopped paying attention.

"We are supportive of expanding programming & academic opportunities at all schools, but we are already hearing concerns from many parents about how equitable practices will be implemented.

Does equity mean restricting or reducing programming or activities? Or taking away… https://t.co/O0MmlldRZ1twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

During the academic matters segment, Dr. Reid notes updates with its Special Ed Enhancement Plan, its compensatory services process, and its ESY program.

The number of ESY students this year is up from last year, but the program is vastly scaled back from the 2021 high.

It's almost 11, and we still have not gotten to the equity policy or the SB's vote to raise their own salary.

The school board spent over 2 hours giving lengthy speeches in support of various proclamations, resulting in critical SB business being pushed until near midnight.

The school board is currently considering the revised SRR policy.

@LauraJaneCohen raises an amendment to protect students with disabilities from having a statement requested w/o parental consent.

@LauraJaneCohen The school board is currently in a lengthy back & forth about parliamentary procedure.

Live look at the FCPA social media team right now.

After engaging in a fruitless effort to build the plane while flying, the SB gives up its attempt to wordsmith Ms. Cohen's amendment & will table the amendment until a later time.

There was broad consensus that students w disabilities need protection via more parental rights.

The SB votes to approve the SRR w changes that include a discrimination & harassment reporting tool for students & families.

Of note, the 4th Circuit recently found that a bias reporting system in Loudoun might violate the 1st amendment.

The SB passes a follow-on motion directing the Supt. to work with the SB to come up with an amendment to protect students with disabilities from being asked to provide a statement without parental consent for a suspendable offense.

The SB takes up the equity policy with the SB largely claiming that the policy is about removing barriers to ensure equal opportunity.

The SB claims, despite Dr. Reid's statements otherwise when she was hired, that the policy is not about providing equal outcomes.

Following various speeches spinning the equity policy (while ignoring the actual equity measures being used to support lowered standards), the equity policy passes unanimously.

Next up, the proposal by the SB to raise their salaries by 77%.

Some note this will help recruit economically diverse SB candidates. We note this justification would be more convincing if the measure wasn't being proposed after all the SB candidates have already been endorsed.

Tamara Kaufax brings an amendment to reduce the salary increase to $48K, to make the salary more comparable with similarly sized school districts.

Abrar Omeish says that materials supporting this salary measure were passed out during closed session, a statement that suggests that the school board discussed this measure in closed session to avoid public disclosure of their discussions.

The amended motion passes with only @AbrarOmeish voting against it. Ms. Pekarsky and Ms. Meren abstained.

@AbrarOmeish We note there is a credible argument for raising SB salaries as part of an effort to bring more nonpartisan professionals to the SB position.

Even more effective at accomplishing this would be if political parties stopped endorsing candidates for these nonpartisan positions.

@AbrarOmeish The Arlington branch of the NAACP urged a similar measure last year, noting that a small group of party insiders effectively choosing the next school board is anti-democratic & undermines the recruitment of good SB candidates. arlnow.com/2022/01/27/naa…

@AbrarOmeish The meeting ends at 1 AM.

Thank you for reading our tweet thread, have a nice night everyone.