SCAC Minutes
November 11, 2003

Eileen Kugler opened the meeting and noted that two of the four SCAC members running for the School Board in the recent election had won. She congratulated all four for their willingness to take on the responsibilities of higher office.

Kugler discussed the recent and sudden death of Nancy Sprague, chief academic officer of FCPS. She said that she had known Dr. Sprague well through her husband, who had worked for Dr. Sprague, and that Dr. Sprague had presented frequently to the Council. Dr. Sprague was a key leader in FCPS and will be sorely missed.

Dr. Domenech discussed the personal loss he feels with Dr. Sprague's death but noted that she herself would want the school system to move on and name a new person to her position. He has appointed Brad Draeger acting chief academic officer and Kevin North as acting assistant superintendent for human resources, replacing Draeger. He has also specified Tom Brady, chief operating officer, as his designee to attend any meeting of the School Board that the Superintendent cannot attend and to execute official documents relating to state, federal, and impact aid requiring the Superintendent's signature, effective November 3. He noted that he has needed to replace the chief academic officer twice in the past six months; the ability to find replacements among FCPS employees illustrates the system's "strong bench."

Domenech noted that the school bond referendum won approval by 76 percent of voters. The newly elected School Board is the most gender-balanced Board he has seen in FCPS--half men and half women. Of the six new members, one (Ilryong Moon) has been on the Board previously.

Domenech noted that 91 percent of FCPS schools have earned full accreditation from the Virginia Department of Education, based on results from the 2002-03 Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, up from 89 percent in 2001-02. Statewide, 78 percent of schools earned full accreditation. Those fully accredited in FCPS include 12 of 22 Excel schools.

Ben Cooper asked if this referred to state or No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accreditation. Domenech said it referred to state accreditation. He noted that SOL accreditation is less an issue for FCPS. The bigger issue is NCLB, which entails specific sanctions for not meeting standards.

Domenech discussed the charter school application from Parents for Autistic Children's Education (PACE), which is now being considered by the School Board. PACE has long agitated for a program of strict applied behavioral analysis (ABA), a Skinnerian approach that requires one-on-one instruction. The proposal would have a teacher-student ratio of 10-1 (8-1 required by state law for regular schools) and would provide the one-on-one instruction with approximately 60 hourly employees (one each for the 60 students in the program) who would be paid approximately $12 per hour with no benefits, in order to stay within the funding restrictions. Schools for the program were selected because they had available space for it. The program would operate on a modified calendar, though none of the schools selected operates on that calendar.

The School Board would be voting on this proposal at their November 20 meeting.

Jamie Bradshaw asked what groups the PACE School would be looking to as a pool of potential hourly employees to fill instructor positions. She had heard that college students might be one such pool. She asked what the qualifications would be for these positions. Kevin North said that there would be some training of such employees but also said that probably 120-140 people would need to be hired in order to continually staff the entire program with 60 instructors.

Bradshaw asked whether the program would include inclusion for the autistic students in the regular school program. This would be part of the program.

Ellen Oppenheim asked if there were any research evidence of the effectiveness of such a program. Domenech said that an FCPS pilot program had worked for some of the children involved but not all. Oppenheim said that these students particularly need consistency and wondered how this would be possible with hourly employees as instructors.

Barbara Allen said that FEA members who work with autistic children say they feel isolated and exhausted by the intensity of the program. She wondered how $12 per hour employees would work in schools. She said there are many more questions than could be answered in the time frame available.

Karen Weaver said that, based on her experience in North Carolina, charter schools are never revenue neutral. For instance, staffing issues always cause first-year expenses as staffing is realigned. Domenech said that such first-year expenses for the PACE School are estimated at $500,000 to $700,000.

Weaver asked whether the School Board had an obligation from the state to approve the proposal. Domenech said there is no such obligation.

Dick Reed asked how many autistic students there are in FCPS. Domenech said there are close to 700. Reed asked whether the PACE approach, if it works, could become a better, cheaper way to provide such instruction in FCPS. Domenech said it could not; the state requires a 8-1 student-teacher ratio, not 10-1 as in the PACE proposal.
Nell Hurley said the PACE people are offering their own children to be students in this program and that they should be given a chance.

Ray Worley said the issue with ABA is the high cost to do it correctly and asked if parents were willing to be trained to provide it themselves.

Domenech noted there would be a public hearing on the proposal on November 17 and a closed-meeting consultation of the Board with its attorneys on November 18.

Kugler mentioned that there are horror stories about D.C. charter schools due to lack of central control. The school principal has a program in his or her school but is not in charge of it. She said it is interesting that NCLB calls for more professional staffs, yet PACE wants to staff its school with college kids.

Kugler introduced Kevin North and two teachers, Roger Baskin and Kerry Plitnick. North had provided information to Council members in advance. In addition, he said that the three steps for recruiting teachers are first to capture their attention, then to spark their imaginations, and third to capture their minds. FCPS can sell what it has to get teachers to want to come here. The FCPS family of employees is the biggest draw; quality draws quality.
Baskin said that he came to teaching as a second career after an earlier career as a preacher. The GWU "transition to teaching" program made it possible.

Plitnick said she is from Pittsburgh and came to FCPS because of the support offered to beginning teachers.
Hurley asked if FCPS had a program to recruit retired military personnel. North said FCPS works closely with a program at Old Dominion University to recruit retiring military personnel.

Worley asked about use of the Internet. North said there has been a tremendous positive response to FCPS Internet recruiting (Career Quest) and online application processing.

Cooper asked why teachers especially want to come to FCPS. Plitnick said strong support for new teachers and great principals were her main reasons.

Oppenheim asked about career switchers. North noted that many people want to move from another career into teaching but do not realize they need to take courses to learn how to be teachers. Many of them are willing to take the coursework and make great teachers.

Katie Lynch asked what keeps teachers with FCPS. Plitnick said it is great principals and other teachers willing to help and support new teachers.

Baskin said that the Transition to Teaching program places you as a teacher in the same school for a year before you become a regular teacher so that you are not really a first-year teacher when you become a regular teacher.
Reed asked how many applicants there are per position, leaving aside early hires like the two teachers there. North said there are about 15 applicants per position. FCPS recruits year-round and has already hired many teachers for next year.

Reed asked if it is possible to direct stronger hires to needy schools. North said this is left to principals, who ultimately hire teachers their schools need.

Hurley asked about former FCPS teachers returning from living elsewhere. North said they receive all their FCPS employment credit.

Hurley asked how many teachers were leaving to work in adjoining jurisdictions. North said there are very few. A survey with a 50 percent response rate showed seven teachers going to Loudoun County last year, the largest number to go to an adjoining jurisdiction.

Baskin said that principals are the biggest reason teachers stay. Luke Fennell gave a banquet for his teachers at Edison. Principals show they really appreciate their teachers.

Kugler asked why FCPS did not have a recruiting partnership with Howard University. North said he was working on getting one.

Weaver asked about the hiring process. North described it. The automated interview was developed by Gallup based on FCPS principals' identification of the best teachers and an analysis of their qualities.
Lynch asked about getting more Hispanic and Korean teachers. North said FCPS is working hard on this but that members of minority groups are not entering the profession in large enough numbers to dramatically change the numbers of teachers from these groups.

Allen noted that many excellent teachers work in low-achieving schools. North said that many of the best teachers prefer to teach in these schools; they want the challenge.

Suzanne Levy asked about the cost -of living as a barrier to teaching in Fairfax County. North said that the Smooth Transitions program, using partnerships with business, offers new teachers opportunities for discount rentals, interest-free loans, moving discounts, and discounted Internet access.

Worley asked about "attitude screening." North said the interview process provides this. Lynch said the information from Kevin's office plus calling references provides her with the information she needs to hire a candidate.

North noted that principals give up two Saturdays a year for job fairs at which they can interview many candidates.

Domenech noted that student population growth was 1,900 less that projected this year, but the student population still increased by 1,200.

Reed asked if booster clubs' and PTAs' funding was audited. Domenech said the booster clubs are audited by the school system but PTAs are not.

Levy noted that some schools have different criteria for different honor rolls. Paul Regnier noted that FCPS supplies an honor roll for each high school to the Washington Post and that this is based on the same criteria (straight A, 4.0 GPA) for all schools. However, some schools have additional honor rolls with different criteria.

Hurley noted that one of the Gibson reports indicated discrepancies in actual expenditures per pupil among schools. Domenech said this is mostly a function of the differing salary averages among schools; some schools have many employees with fewer years of service (and therefore lower salaries) than others.

The meeting was adjourned.