Click this link to view the agenda on the Electronic School Board Web page

• November 12–16 as Attendance Officer Appreciation Week;
• November 8–14 as National French Week;
• October 14–20 as National Earth Science Week;
• November as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month;
• October 21–27 as National Chemistry Week;
• The Memorandum of Understanding with Youth For Tomorrow – New Life Center, Inc., to provide daytime therapeutic services to Medicaid-eligible students with permission from the parents in six pilot schools;
• The Cooperative Agreement with the Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision Impaired for PWCS students who are eligible for services. The agreement covers partial salary reimbursement for teachers of the visually impaired and allows PWCS to borrow Braille textbooks and special adaptive equipment to use with students who are blind, visually impaired, or deafblind;
• The Head Start funding application for federal assistance, policy council/parent committee by-laws, and annual self assessment, in accordance with Head Start Act 42 USC 9837;
• The payrolls for August 2012;
• Adjusting the property line of the 12th high school site to convey 7,589 square feet of property which is an easement to adjacent properties to Betty Jean Eller’s property. This adjustment will remove easement from school property and complete the land transfer, as was the original intent;
• The contract with Northern Virginia Stream Restoration, L.C. to purchase 17 Stream Condition Units for a total of $2,975 to compensate for the disturbance of intermittent streams and loss of aquatic resources during development of the Gar-Field bus parking expansion, to comply with Code of Federal Regulations, Chapter II, Part 332, Section 33;
• The contract with North Fork Wetlands Bank, L.C. to purchase 0.08 Mitigation Credits for $7,600 to mitigate the unavoidable impacts the Gar-Field bus parking expansion will cause to wetlands, to comply with the Clean Water Act;
• The storm drainage easement of 2,562 square feet at Lake Ridge Middle School to PWC Transportation for construction of a sidewalk;
• A request to increase the School Operating Fund budget by $2,109,985 and directed the Superintendent to forward the appropriate documents to the Board of County Supervisors. These adjustments are due to new revenues received and the increase in grant programs where notification to the School Division was after the approval of the budget;
• The School Board meeting minutes of September 19;
• The proposed priorities for the 2013 Legislative Session that will convene on January 9, 2013 (to view priorities, go to pwcs.edu under Announcements on October 5);
• The appointments of Ms. Dawn Bocanegra (Gainesville District) and Ms. Theresa Stone (Coles District) to the Special Education Advisory Committee; and
• The appointments of Mr. Chris Royse (At-Large appointment), Mr. Brian Shoop (Potomac District), Ms. Chris Pannell (Gainesville District), and Ms. Karen Meehan (Occoquan District) to the Safe Schools Advisory Council.

 Policies and Regulations:

• Student comments on the value of the Penn Trotters running club at Penn Elementary School;
• Student highlighting the success of Westridge Elementary School’s Odyssey of the Mind World Championship Team; and
• The ratio of science teachers compared to number of students at Beville Middle School.

• On the Standards of Learning (SOL) exams, our students match or exceed overall state results in all content areas.
  • 71% of our students received passing scores in math, versus 68% statewide.
  • For reading, while our students matched the state pass rate of 89%, black students exceeded state scores by five percentage points and students with disabilities outperformed state scores by four percentage points.
  • In writing, our students had a 92% pass rate compared to 89% for the state.
• The Virginia Department of Education announced that all of our eligible schools received accreditation, with all but two receiving full accreditation.
• Over the summer, Virginia enacted a new law requiring all schools to have epinephrine auto-injectors (EpiPens) and staff trained to use them at every school, in the event of a potentially deadly allergic reaction. Staff did tremendous work in just a few weeks to create new guidelines and protocols, update regulations, train school staff, secure the medications and related equipment, and communicate to parents about all of it. Within just the first two weeks of school, two students had unexpected and potentially dangerous allergic reactions to food. The EpiPens were there. Our staff used them quickly and effectively to deal with the potential danger.
• Our unofficial student enrollment count for the 2012–13 school year is 83,532. We had projected 83,837 students and the data we have collected indicate that we have 305 students less than anticipated. A presentation on the final official numbers is scheduled for the next School Board meeting.
• Congratulations to Coles Elementary School for being recognized as one of 50 schools honored by the “Virginia Naturally” program for their horticultural program and the conservation lessons it provides.