Dustin Wright, Executive Director of the Strategy, Planning & Learning Office presented to the committee on the implementation of practices outlined in the Four Pillars of the Strategic Plan. The presentation began with an overview of the Strategic Plan development and organizing structure. The new Chief of Staff comprises the Office of Strategy Planning & Learning, the Office of Professional Learning (OPL) and the Office of Research and Strategic Improvement (ORSI). The mission is to improve student outcomes, organizational effectiveness, and organizational agility by implementing continuous improvement systems. The office is charged with Strategic Plan implementation and alignment of division work. The Strategic Plan is the foundation. Then there are SIIP Teams in schools and interdepartmental Goal Teams. Departments will submit plans on how they will work in each of the areas of the four pillars. The Four Pillars identify what the division must do well to reach the goals for all students.

• Pillar A – Differentiated & Culturally Responsive Learning Environments is focused on Teaching & Learning.
• Pillar B – Vibrant Home, School, & Community Partnerships acknowledges that Family & Community Partnerships are vital because schools can’t do it alone.
• Pillar C – Diverse, Adaptive, & Supported Workforce is focused on Hiring & Retention to ensure staff have what they need to achieve division goals.
• Pillar D – Culture of Equity, Excellence, & Accountability brings it all together through data guided decision making.

There are levels of implementation at the school level, department level, and division level. Some things are more urgent right now and some are lasting changes for the division and may take longer to implement, refine, and bring to scale.

The November 12th School Board work session will be the first reporting which will be on Goal 3.

After the overview, Mr. Wright took questions from individual committee members. Topics included:

• Interest in the Goal teams
• Enacting the Equity Commitments
• Student impact and participation
• Professional Development on Equity

C. Farrish called for nominations for Co-Chair. G. Becerra was nominated and seconded. He accepted the nomination. The vote was unanimous in favor.

C. Farrish called for nominations for Co-Chair-In-Waiting. Q. Craig had self-nominated and was seconded. She was voted in unanimously.

George Becerra opened the meeting. The minutes from the last meeting were voted on and approved as submitted. Cheronda Farrish shared some norms which would make the meeting go more smoothly which are:

• Turn nametag to be recognized to speak.
• Give all space to speak - one question/comment per turn. (Follow-ups will be recognized after all first questions/comments have spoken.)
• Wait to bring up off-topic questions/comments for New Business.

The written staff response was shared with MSAOC members in advance. Dr. Sloan Presidio lead the presentation of the Staff Response. He commended the work and outstanding report which the MSAOC has done historically and again this year. He shared that there are some recommendations that the staff have already been able to address and others that they have not yet been able to address. He shared that just because something has not been done yet does not mean that it will not be addressed later, and he praised the continued advocacy efforts of the committee. Dr. Presidio shared information about the Teaching & Learning & School Environment sections of the annual report. Ms. Lisa Hall, Chief Experience & Engagement Officer, Christy Scott, Director of Community Relations, & Angela Aldave shared information about the work their office will be doing to partner with families, in response to the recommendations in the Family Partnership section of the MSAOC report. Krista Simkins, Talent Acquisition Management Director spoke to the HR work with respect to the personnel recommendations in the School Operations section.

Following the presentation, staff members responded to questions from the committee. There was much discussion regarding the annual report including who provides the response, when the report is made to the board, and how the recommendations may be used by the budget committee.

Kim Amenabar shared the structure of how the subcommittees will address the charge this year. The work groups will be:

• Pillar A – Differentiated & Culturally Responsive Learning Environments
• Pillar B – Vibrant Home, School, and Community Family & Community Partnerships
• Pillar C – Diverse, Adaptive, & Supported Workforce

Members will receive a form asking for committee preferences. Future MSAOC meetings will include time for subcommittees to work on their area to draft the annual report.

Congratulations to Dr. Lynette Henry on her new appointment as Executive Director of Educate Fairfax.

Congratulations to Karen Keys-Gamarra on winning the election for VA House of Delegates.

We will be reaching out to the newly elected School Board members to have a meet and greet and invite them to understand the work of the committee.

Lisa Hall introduced her team and each presented information about their office’s accomplishments and focus.

Family & School Partnerships – Renee LaHuffman-Jackson, Director, shared the ways her office supports schools in partnering with families in ways that are based on mutual trust, culturally responsive and linked to learning.

Student Registration & Language Services – Ms. Hall shared for Coordinator Dave Anderson, who was not able to attend, about the registration process and the improvements which have been made, including on-line registration. The translation and interpretation office has increased their response time as well. They hope to focus on continuing to expedite and improve the registration process.

Ombuds – Dawn Clements presented the work of the Ombuds office which was established in 2018. There are now 3 staff in the office. The Ombuds provides informal assistance to answer questions, resolve concerns and voice complaints regarding FCPS matters. They offer assistance with brainstorming and navigating the school system for families, students, staff and community members. Their focus is on increasing student-centered outreach to serve more students.

Educate Fairfax – Lynette Henry, Director, shared that the fundraising office of the CXO is aligning its priorities to the priorities in the Strategic Plan. All funds go directly to support schools or programs. There is a Board of Directors made up of community members, the Superintendent, or her designee, FCPS leadership representative and an assigned School Board Liaison. The foundation brings in funds to support students in need with supplies such as technology, clothing, and hygiene items. They also fund curriculum, materials, teacher grants, and employee recognition. In addition, they recognize Alumni and bring them back to share their accomplishments. The foundation is focused on student, staff, and community engagement to provide the resources to support the pillars of the Strategic Plan.

Communications – Beth Visioli, Executive Director, spoke about the role of the communications office which includes strategic planning for large initiatives, crisis and incident responses, media outreach, The communication office strives to tell the stories of our division and respond to inquiries. They oversee the FCPS website and social media accounts and support schools with their individual accounts as well. They also produce the FCPS This Week newsletter, the Employee Newsletter, and provide informational toolkits to the school board and principals. Communications has a graphic design team for brand management, video production staff, and photographers. They also manage FOIA and FERPA requests. A focus for 2024 is to compete a redesign of the FCPS website.

Community Relations – Christy Scott, Director, shared the mission of the community relations team which is to build relationships and trust with our community. They provide Communications and Communications strategy, Community engagement and events, intercultural engagement, as well as business and community partnerships. They provide outreach to hear the voices of our communities and engage with multicultural families through focus groups and listening sessions. Their focus is to increase meaningful engagement at events as well as feedback opportunities.

Kim Amenabar shared information about the 3 subcommittees: Learning, Partnerships, & Workforce. Members who submitted their selection form all got their first choice. Others were placed where needed. The group broke into subcommittees to begin initial work. The outcomes for the worktime were:

1. Select a subcommittee chairperson to:
   1. Keep the group focused and on track.
   2. Organize drafting the Annual Report.
   3. Communicate any needs for data or information to the Staff Liaison.
   4. Convene extra meetings if needed.
2. Discuss possible areas of consideration to begin to narrow down the focus of inquiry for the annual report.

Subcommittee assignments will be emailed to all members.

• November Meeting Notes (Vote)
• Questions for January presenters from the Office of the Chief of Staff:
  • Sherry Wilson, Asst. Superintendent, Human Resources
  • Jay Nocco, Executive Director, Professional Learning
    • There are requirements around compliance – outside of that what are the areas we are focusing on. Is one of them cultural proficiency?
    • What does every teacher need to have in place and how do we make sure they have it with the turnover?

New Business

• Successful Children and Youth Policy Team – George Becerra attended the meeting to see how the work aligns to the Strategic Plan. Met with Fairfax County Government group and they highlighted the racial differences. There was a discussion on race and identity and how professional learning is needed.
• Strategic Plan Goal 3 Presentation to SB 12/4/23 (PDF)

Two of the departments within the Office of the Chief of Staff presented to the committee on their work to support the foundational practices which contribute to Strategic Plan Pillar C – Diverse, Adaptive, & Supported Workforce.

Professional Learning

Jay Nocco, Executive Director, Professional Learning

Mr. Nocco clarified the distinction between Professional Development (PD) and Training. PD is generally future focused learning of longer duration which is designed to promote employee growth and overall competency in adaptive skills while Training is usually of shorter duration, job specific, and is focused on providing the technical or concrete skills needed in the present.  He shared that FCPS offers professional learning in a variety of from required to optional, on-line and in person as well as synchronous and self-directed. The key factors when thinking about professional learning are Knowledge, Skill, Attitude, and Beliefs.  These are where the design of the learning needs to be focused on where you want to create the most impacts.

Providing professional learning does not guarantee that what has been shared will be implemented.  Once the Professional learning is provided there may be a knowing doing gap which then has to be addressed through evaluation, compliance, and coaching.

In FCPS Professional Learning may be delivered through the Office of Professional Learning (OPL) however much of the PD provided is department specific.  OPL centrally coordinates staff professional development support from hiring to retirement. This includes Great Beginnings (new teachers), tuition reimbursement for staff, Title IIA federal grant funding for professional learning, Instructional Leadership, Teacher Leadership, Instructional Coaching, National Board Teacher certification and systemwide PD. Operational Leadership is something that the office has realized needs to be improved and has begun a new leadership program for operational staff. Affinity Groups have been started in the last 2 years to provide staff from various groups a space to get a sense of belonging and connection.  There is a learning management system called MyPDE which schedules and tracks in-house PD and training.

In response to a question about time for PD, Mr. Nocco explained that early release Mondays started in the 1970’s and at that time an additional 30 minutes of instruction was added to Tuesdays – Fridays to compensate for the 2 hours of early release on Mondays.  When early release ended in 2015, students got 2 additional hours of instructional time, however teachers never regained that time for professional learning.  Additionally, because the calendar was created to emphasize 5-day weeks for students, there are fewer PD days, and they are concentrated at the beginning and end of the school year.  Because of this some of our practices have changed.  There is more asynchronous learning, and more PD in schools from instructional coaches and leaders during collaborative team time.  The cost is a great cognitive load on teachers.  Research shows the importance of learning, modeling, coaching, and practice for teachers to improve their performance.  Advocacy is needed for our staff to have the necessary professional learning and planning time so teachers can do their job well.

We have really streamlined the required PD that is assigned. Required PD is due to a federal, state, or division regulation or a leadership decision. Managers, evaluators, and principals are the ones who are responsible for monitoring if their staff complete required professional learning.

Human Resources

Sherry Agnew-Scott, Assistant Superintendent, Human Resources 
Krista Simkins, Director, Office of Talent Acquisition (OTA)  
Felicia Hamilton, Employment Specialist, Office of Talent Acquisition (OTA)

Since COVID things have changed in how the public views working in education. HR works with principals and staff to help them understand the importance of treating staff well and making FCPS a great place to work. The HR team described recruitment initiatives and events that they attend including those for students in teaching programs and career switchers. Diverse initiatives sometimes need outreach to different parts of the country.  HR is also developing pipeline programs such as options for IAs to become special education teachers, Teach for Tomorrow (contracts for FCPS students going into the profession).  The OTA team is working to staff 200 schools.  A centralized hiring team will be placing early contract hires but other candidates are given a choice of schools. FCPS has been approved for the iTeach program through the VDOE which allows candidates to get everything needed for licensure quickly and at a low cost.

Progress has been made since last year in having schools with more teachers who are Asian, Black, and Hispanic teachers.  More work is needed in diversity hiring but there is improvement. Participate Learning is a program we have to bring teachers from other countries for 3-5 years.  We are looking to expand the program to 100 teachers next year.

Dr. Agnew Scott shared the structure of the HR office:

Employee Relations OER - ensures the equitable administration of applicable federal, state, and FCPS regulations and laws impacting the FCPS community.

Employee Services & Operations ESO – leads employee communication and customer service efforts to include fielding HR-related inquiries, conducting new employee onboarding, maintaining salary plans and personnel records, and administering staff recognition, retention, awards programs, and engagement surveys. We also develop and manage the department’s fiscal and technology resources.

Labor Relations OLR – ensures compliance with collective bargaining and administer the grievance process. Provides training related to collective bargaining.

Office of Executive Director – partners with community businesses to provide support to management to define and implement people initiatives that benefit the division. Business mindset specialists consult with HR.

Cheronda Farrish opened the meeting and introduced Caitlin Kim, the newly appointed member representing Ilryong Moon.

The minutes from the January meeting were voted on and approved as submitted.

Edward Osborne brought up the Advisory Committee Operating Manual which will be voted on by the school board. Important points to consider are, timing of committee reports, Advisory Board committees needing to include follow up on the recommendations from the previous report (instead of the staff response), and meeting procedures. The draft will be sent to committee members. Feedback should be emailed to Kim Amenabar no later than February 14th.

Dr. Geovanny Ponce began his presentation by sharing about his background as an immigrant and his professional journey as an educator. He then shared information regarding the structure of the Chief of Schools office. The Departments under the Chief of Schools are each of the 6 Regions including the regional leadership as well as the schools, the Department of School Improvement and Supports (DSIS), the office of Student Activities and Athletics, Nontraditional School Programs, and Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology.

The Chief of Schools stated his strong desire for all children to have a variety of opportunities to succeed. Currently, different programs and opportunities for students are being reviewed to ensure that students are being served.

Some of the challenges Dr. Ponce named are the wide variety of diverse needs, the persistence of some groups of students not receiving the education they deserve, and the on-going staffing concerns.

• March presenters will be Marcy Kneale, Assistant Superintendent & Dustin Wright, Executive Director, from the office of Strategy Planning & Learning office.
• Dr. Bussey Parent Resource Library renaming on Feb 26th (see calendar invitation)
• March meeting will be in Gatehouse - room 1600.

Call to Order

Cheronda Farrish opened the meeting. The minutes from the February meeting were voted on and approved as submitted.

Dr. Bussey Library Dedication

Qia Craig shared that the dedication of the Dr. Larry Bussey Family and Community Library was held in February and was well attended by his family, MSAOC members, and others who knew Dr. Bussey.

Annual Report Draft Deadline

Kim Amenabar shared that subcommittee drafts of the annual report sections will be due by our May 8th meeting. At that meeting subcommittees will give a brief presentation of their section and recommendations so committee members can ask questions and the Executive Committee can be familiar with the recommendations prior to the presentation which is tentatively scheduled for June 20th.

Dr. Michelle Reid, Division Superintendent, addressed the committee. She thanked the MSAOC for their work and stated that this group’s work is the work. Dr. Reid shared that they are creating a dashboard to be able to make decisions in real time which are driven by the data. She noted that there has been an intense focus on what the data is, but we haven’t done anything with it. An example of a data driven change is that a new program called “Spring Sprouts” will allow students who have been chronically absent to get days credited back to them by attending classes during spring break. Another positive change is that Noel Klimenko and the Equitable Access to Literacy team have done an excellent job reviewing and selecting the new literacy curriculum. This will be the first time in almost 30 years that FCPS will be using basal curriculum, giving teachers the same materials across the division. Dr. Reid also shared the importance of sticking with current initiatives saying that next year we’re going to double down and stay on course and not get pulled off course by something new.

Dr. Reid stated that it's not just what happens in the classroom but what happens in the whole school that connect children to school. She shared that Math and Science Olympiad have been initiated at every Title I school to make opportunities available across the division. Middle School sports programs have also been very popular. The division is trying to make sure that everything we do is intentional across the county.
Marcy Kneale, Assistant Superintendent for Strategy Planning & Learning presented information on the implementation of plans to address the Four Pillars of the Strategic Plan.

Overview of the Strategic Plan Work: This is a 7-year plan. The pillars are the “How” and the goals are the “What”. Student outcomes are the focus of the plan, and the Pillars are the work that is happening to ensure that we achieve the student goals. We’re currently in the process of detailed reports to the school board to provide baseline data. So far there have been two Goal reports and there is another next week. Staff is bringing data to the board on each of the goals to show the current state, any disparities, and what we think the causes might be.

What’s being done to examine the pillars: Baseline reports will give us a starting point. Then we can understand where we need to shift resources. For example, we know our workforce is changing. Becoming a new teacher is different than it was in the past. We plan to place our instructional coaches where there are large numbers of new teachers so they can work day to day with those teachers in their first three years to make them strong and want to stay. There are many attempts to open pathways to teaching beyond traditional programs in universities. We’re seeing more teachers coming from those pathways and they haven’t had the same preparation, so we need to support them and make sure they’re successful.
Goal Teams: Our plan was to start these sooner but as we did the baseline reports we started to see overlap with the goal teams. Champions of each team have been named but as we dig into the data, we are seeing a lot of crossover so the goal teams are a work in progress.

Family involvement in Strategic Plan implementation: Schools can’t do it alone and there needs to be a partnership. Dr. Reid still has community conversations and there is a need for additional family and student voices. We have to engage with families in different ways to get different results. We’ve been fortunate to work with Dr. Henry to think of ways to partner differently. There is an advisory group that meets with Dr. Reid regularly. Dr. Reid wanted to make sure she was hearing from every school, so each school was asked to invite 2 representatives. They are divided into 4 groups which meet with her every other month. These meetings are a way to combat some urban legends and also to bring information back to schools. Some topics have discussed have been safety, boundaries, and programming. This is a way to establish two-way communication with families.

What happens to the pillars if the goals aren’t met: We would need to revisit what is being done. As we develop data systems in real time it’s helped us be more agile in addressing the issues. Not meeting goals would make us think differently about what strategies we’re using to meet goals. Our SIIPs are all aligned, and 190 schools had improvement in attendance, so we know that using real time data is useful in making real time changes.

Equity Commitments: We’re presenting data very intentionally and we interrogate data to see where we are not making goals, but we need to speak with families before we start implementing strategies or figuring out root causes. We have to talk to families if we’re going to engage in work to improve their experiences and their outcomes. Dr. King added that her office is resetting the Equity Leads program work to support the Equity Commitments. It is necessary to be intentional about talking to the communities that are having challenges. The youth survey provides one type of information but doing empathy interviews can get to a different set of experiences.

Work of the Strategy, Planning, and Learning Office: We are focused on aligning the efforts and resources as well as building the structures to get the whole division to work in alignment. We also have regular engagement with the county government because community work impacts the schools.

Budget Advocacy Letter

A letter is being drafted to send to the School Board regarding the budget process and MSAOC’s input. This will be circulated to the committee prior to sending.

Dr. Bussey Memorial Equity Award

The 2nd annual award will be presented at the Equity Symposium. The website and information flyer are being updated. Information will be sent to the committee to share with their organizations. Committee members who would like to be part of the selection committee should email Kim Amenabar.

Advisory Board Manual

There were no major edits to the document that was shared last month. The School Board hopes to have training for Advisory Committee Chairs to help them be more aligned in their work.

Strategic Plan Advisory Committee

Some members of the MSAOC participate on a new committee to advise the staff regarding the implementation of the Strategic Plan.