SB Mtg 🧵:

Dr. Reid congratulates Spring Hill Elementary School for being named a National Blue Ribbon School by the US Dept. of Education. doe.virginia.gov/Home/Component… The student rep notes problems with FCPS's grading policy, specifically that:

-classes where the heavy grading emphasis on summative work falls victim to small sample sizes & doesn't reflect student performance
-the liberal retake policy burdens teachers & demotivates students.

SB Mtg 🧵:

"Every single school district needs to be talking about JLARC, b/c imagine how many buses they could buy."

SB Chair Frisch calls for more Richmond $ to be provided to school districts, so those districts can spend the extra $ on electric buses. FCPS has added 105 electric buses using grant $.

Unfortunately, the buses can't be used for double-back routes bc there aren't charging stations all around the district. The grant $ came w no $ at all to build infrastructure & the buses can't be used for field trips or sports bc they can't guarantee the ability to charge them.

SB Mtg 🧵

The SB rejects a motion from @MateoDunne to allocate $8 million towards year end funds for a comprehensive facilities condition assessment of all buildings & facilities & to establish a new renovation queue based on that assessment.

In a surprise move, Mr. Dunne calls for an outside investigation into the allegations re: the Hayfield HS football prgm (allegations of ineligible players, cyberbullying, & more).

Mr. Dunne labels the recent internal investigation "not credible," highlighting that 15 football players came from other districts.

SB Mtg 🧵:

Many grassroots @FairFACTSMatter members in the audience today calling for a halt to proposed boundary policy changes.

Emily VanDerhoff (union leader that fought to keep schools closed indefinitely) loudly booed when voicing support for the boundary policy changes. Mr. Frisch pauses the video testimony of activist Robert Rigby speaking in support of the boundary change policy due to loud booing from the crowd.

SB Mtg 🧵:

The SB elects Karl Frisch as the SB Chair for the next year. The vote is 10 in favor, 1 abstention (McElveen) & 1 opposed (Dr. Anderson).

Sandy Anderson is unanimously elected as Vice Chair. "I believe this represents an example of waste. Wasted resources. Wasted funding by FCPS."

@MateoDunne opposes FCPS's long lost of outside law firms as duplicative.

FCPS wastes significant legal $ every year, in recent years suing parents & initiating unnecessary lawsuits to advance agendas (e.g., to preserve permanent mask mandates).

SB Mtg 🧵:

On Sex-Ed, the SB votes to ask the Family Life cmte to study whether to recommend teaching gender identity in ES. The community review process reflected community opposition to this measure.

The SB also voted to not include both the male & female reproductive systems in the 4th grade puberty video.


During the strategic plan segment, Dr. Reid highlights the Davis & Pulley Career Ctrs, which provide career opportunities to students w disabilities aged 18-22.

SB members highlight the need for these centers to serve more students beyond the small % currently being helped.

SB Mtg 🧵

Activists speaking during community participation renew the push for combined gender sex-ed classes despite enormous public opposition to that proposal from teachers, parents, & students.

Many expect a SB vote on this will occur at the 6/27 mtg.



Board members question options to address an idle food storage warehouse that FCPS isn't using.

It is yet another terrible procurement decision made by the prior supt. to sign a 5-year lease for the warehouse, which is wasting $300k a year.

SB Mtg 🧵

"I believe that we have a sacred responsibility as elected officials to listen to the voices of our constituents.."

@MateoDunne proposes a budget amendment to focus salary increases on classroom instructors, rather than increasing the salaries of central office staff.

The SB resoundingly rejects Mr. Dunne's budget amendments, essentially ignoring the fact that central office staff are already being paid at market levels, whereas classroom instructors are not.

SB Mtg 🧵:

The SB considers the following changes to the SR&R:
-Adding language on neurodiversity
-changing some definitions, incl. to self defense standard
-increasing penalties for marijuana/THC to conform with VA standard
-changing Title IX lang. to conform to fed standard





The SB passes Dr. Anderson's SR&R amendment designed to limit cell phones being used for instructional purposes by requiring the principal (or their designee) to approve the use.

SB Mtg 🧵

Precocious 8-year old, Olivia B, gets rousing applause during community participation in calling for more kindness & a day to learn about students with disabilities. Dr. Reid gives a report on strategies used/considered to tackle chronic absenteeism & discipline disproportionality.

Strategies for the former incl. ⬆️communication w parents.

For the latter, FCPS suggests increasing "restorative justice" & proactive measures.

SB Mtg 🧵

The Schoolboard votes 7-2 to authorize a settlement w a student that sued the board, w Ms. Meren & Dr. Anderson opposed.

It's not clear if this settlement is in B.R. v. Fairfax County School Board, the suit brought by a student alleging she was repeatedly sexually harassed & raped while FCPS failed to act. Today's mtg is the first under new rules that cut down on the amount of speeches permitted supporting nonbinding proclamations.

The new rules have had a beneficial effect: significantly reducing the amount of lengthy speechifying taking place.

SB Mtg 🧵

SB considers a plan to change FCPS's pension plan (ERFC) to address a gap occurring after 25 years, causing some teachers to leave.

Several SB members express concern with the costs of the change, in light of uncertainties re: how much budget funding FCPS will get.



One critic emails us to criticize the measure as growing an unfunded liability before FCPS receives its budget $.

The critic asserts that the measure is marketed as a needed tool to retain teachers, when it mostly benefits admin staff, including the 2 that proposed the change.

SB Mtg 🧵:

During discussion of the sole source contract w The College Board, @Moon4Schools asks FCPS to push the company to stop limiting AP course options, even as the supposed nonprofit rakes in millions of dollars off schools nationwide.

Asst. Supt. Klimenko presents the instructional committee's rec to purchase Benchmark Advance as the basal instructional resource for elementary Language Arts. The basal program will use evidence-based instructional materials & decodables to teach reading.

Klimenko calls Benchmark's culturally responsive texts & materials a "big factor," in the decision to go with Benchmark over other vendors.

SB Mtg 🧵

Dr. Reid asks the board to adopt the FY2025 budget, which calls for an 8.6% increase to $3.8 billion to cover exploding admin, construction, & compensation costs despite flat enrollment.

The county executive expects to raise county property taxes to meet this ask.

Dr. Anderson characterizes the budget as "bare bones." 🤔

Mr. Dunne implicitly disagrees, noting that the budget doesn't even attempt to identify areas of savings.

We agree, the budget provides across the board compensation & cost increases w/o any effort to trim bloated admin costs.

SB Mtg 🧵

The Board approves the Capital Improvement Program, reflecting large constr. $ increases even as enrollment stays stagnant.

The Board also amends the CIP to put @ParklawnFCPS & @CoatesES on the boundary change table, to address overcapacity/trailers at these schools.





Parklawn ES, with 99% of students qualifying for free/reduced meal status & numerous refugee students, faces overcrowding, necessitating boundary change consideration not part of the original CIP.

Several board members expressed concern at the one-off bandaid process.

School board meeting: Dr. Reid starts the academic matters segment (we take credit for making happen, by the way -- prior to FCPA calling out the board for never talking about academics, this did not exist). Reid focuses on the advanced academics goal in the strategic plan. There are numerous benefits to advanced coursework, and parents applaud the superintendent for highlighting this important goal in FCPS. Notes exam fees waived for kids in need. Financial ability should never inhibit a child from taking a rigorous course.

SB Mtg 🧵:

First mtg of the new board, the board elects Karl Frisch as its chair & Melanie Meren as its vice chair.

Lots of pleasant words exchanged, but the nomination of these two strongly signals that politics will continue to be the main thing the board focuses on. During the academic matters segment, Dr. Reid touts favorable data on graduation rates & dropouts.

The data still shows a small increase in the dropout rate over the last 2 years & that enrollment is below where it was prior to the decision to close schools.

SB Mtg 🧵

In her farewell speech, Abrar Omeish asserts she has faced ageism & anti-Muslim bigotry & accuses her SB colleagues of trying to silence her & of walking away from the dais when they disagree with her speeches. Emblematic of the last 4 years, this mtg has been almost entirely spent giving lengthy proclamations congratulating themselves on how well they think they've done.

SB Mtg 🧵

"I would urge going forward that when you solicit support for this important subject, that we stay focused on that proclamation"

@Karen4Schools criticizes Abrar Omeish for repeatedly raising the Arab-Israeli conflict during a resolution honoring Native Americans. Ms. Derenak Kaufax also criticizes Ms. Omeish for having the "poor taste" to "use this proclamation to divide rather than bring people together."

SB Mtg 🧵

After 1.5 hours of delays, recognitions, proclamations, & partisan community speakers claiming an election mandate for more politicking on the school board, we get to academic matters, where Dr. Reid discloses that FCPS is facing a tremendous increase in absenteeism.



Dr. Reid attempts some halfhearted spin, claiming illness & food insecurity as culprits, & that FCPS is below state levels.

No one mentions that the problem is largely caused by the SB's disastrous decision to close schools for longer than almost anyone in the country.

SB Mtg 🧵

In a shocking moment, Abrar Omeish objects to calling for a moment of silence for the victims of Hamas terrorist attacks.

Ms. Omeish states we should not permit one side's narrative to predominate & states that the saying "No Justice, No Peace" applies to the conflict Karen Corbett Sanders speaks in favor of the SB's practice of spending an hour at every mtg speechifying in favor of nonbinding proclamations.

Ms. Sanders postulates that these segments allow students to feel appreciated, a theory that ignores the fact that the public almost entirely tunes out of the mtgs since the speechifying pushes the action items into the late hours.