Prince William County Public Schools

School Board Meeting March 16, 2016

Select this link to view the agenda on the Electronic School Board webpage.

Select this link to view the School Board meeting on PWCS-TV.

Public Hearing: Two citizens addressed the School Board about the proposed FY 2017 budget/CIP.

The School Board Approved:

• April as Arab American Heritage Month; Child Abuse Prevention Month; Mathematics Awareness Month; and School Library Month;
• April 25‒29 as Transportation Employees Week;
• May as National Physical Education and Sports Month;
• May 11 as School Nurse Appreciation Day;
• May 14‒21 as Healthy Communities for Healthy Youth Week;
• Contracts Awarded to:
  • Taft Construction, Inc., for construction of 10 classrooms at Belmont Elementary School;
  • R.J. Crowley, Inc., for construction of 10 classrooms at Henderson Elementary School;
  • Kenbridge Construction Company for renovation and 13 classrooms at Lake Ridge Middle School;
  • V.F. Pavone Construction for the building of "Potomac Shores" Elementary School;

• Increasing the FY 2016 Budget and Appropriation for The Governor's School @ Innovation Park;
• Recognition of Prince William County Chief of Police Stephan M. Hudson for his leadership and commitment to the safety and well-being of citizens of the Prince William County community;
• The following businesses for inclusion on the VSBA 2016 Business Honor Roll: Dominion Virginia Power, Possum Point Power Station; Mason Game & Technology Academy; and Integrated Finance and Accounting Solutions;
• The School Board Meeting Minutes for March 2, 2016;
• Confirmation of a Board Poll Dated March 8, 2016, regarding clarification on the Godwin Middle School name change;
• The FY 2017 Budget/CIP; and
• The Superintendent developing a plan for the formation of an infrastructure Task Force.

  Citizen Comments:
  Citizens spoke on the following topics:

• Potomac High School welding program opportunities;
• Godwin Middle School name change;
• Procedures on renaming a school;
• Bullying and suicide prevention;
• Teachers contract and planning time; and
• Class sizes and salaries.

  Presentation:

  Dr. Michael L. Walden, Economic Consultant, presented a report that estimated the economic impact of PWCS as of June 1, 2015.

  Superintendent's Time:

  Dr. Steven L. Walts, Superintendent of Schools, made the following announcements:

• Assistant Principal Melissa Yuditsky at T. Clay Wood Elementary School received the Virginia National Assistant Principal of the Year Award from the Virginia Association of Elementary School Principals. This was a surprise announcement at her school and the students and staff gave her a great celebration.
• Ms. Lauren Wilson, Math Teacher at Hylton High School, received one of the top awards in the country for teachers, the Milken Educator Award. This award is considered the Oscar of teaching and comes with a prize of $25,000 from the Milken Family Foundation. Mrs. Wilson is Prince William County Public Schools' seventh Milken Educator Award winner.
• Mr. Michael "Buddy" Lint, principal of New Dominion Alternative Center, is the finalist for the "Washington Post Principal of the Year" and the PWCS Principal of the Year.
• Ms. Kathleen Dail, ESOL teacher at New Directions, is PWCS finalist for the "Washington Post Teacher of the Year" and the PWCS Teacher of the Year.
• PWCS has launched the "Circle of 6" app designed to help keep students safe. PWCS is the first K‒12 school division in the country to offer this free app. We encourage all of our high school students to download it from the Apple Store or Google Play. Look for the app by its name: Circle of 6 U-PWCS.
• The Virginia Department of Education recently released a statement regarding student achievement on AP exams. Our students continue to exceed both the state and national percentages of seniors earning qualifying scores on one or more advanced exams. To support this, the College Board named PWCS to the national AP Honor Roll.
• Potomac High School's boys basketball team and coaches won the state 5A Championship for the second consecutive year.
• Woodbridge High School student Usman Ishaq won first place in a poetry reading contest last month. He advanced to the state finals competition.
• Simran Patibanda, Graham Park Middle School, won the 38th annual Prince William County Spelling Bee, and congratulations to all the participants who won spelling bees at their schools to advance to the county competition.
• Battlefield High School's I-LITE Cyber Defense teams took first place in both the Gold and Silver CyberPatriot Competition for the Mid-Atlantic Region. This is an online competition designed by the Air Force Association to inspire students toward careers in cybersecurity or other STEM disciplines critical to our nation's defense.
• A number of school robotics teams were winners at the VEX state championships and will go to the World tournament: Triangle Elementary, Marsteller Middle, and Forest Park High School won the top honor - the "Excellence" award. Other teams also qualifying for the World Championship are Ashland Elementary School, Graham Park and Benton Middle Schools, and Woodbridge High School.
• Brandon Walker who is jointly enrolled at Forest Park High School and The Governor's School @ Innovation Park and Shaheer Imam who is jointly enrolled at Battlefield High School and The Governor's School @ Innovation Park won the Grand Prize trophy at the Prince William County-Manassas Regional Science Fair. Their project results will assist marine biologists to more easily track and monitor the diminishing North Atlantic "Right Whale" population by using a new algorithm implemented against a computational GPU cluster processed in the cloud. Their win continues a five-year winning streak for The Governor's School students at the Regional Science Fair. The Grand Prize winner at the middle school level was Eleanor Sigrest, a student at Benton Middle School, for her work in engineering. See the School Division website at pwcs.edu for pictures and a list of all the winners.
• Dr. Walts stated that on behalf of the School Division, we want everyone here to support students and families who has lost a loved one and who are going through a difficult time. Please know our hearts are with you. We offer our condolences to everyone who spoke tonight. This must be incredibly difficult for you. Dr. Walts noted that a presentation on bullying will follow his remarks.

  Board Matters:
  The following topics were raised by School Board members for board discussion and possible action:

• Mrs. Rita Goss, associate superintendent for Student Learning and Accountability; Mrs. Carolyn Custard, director of Student Services; Dr. Doreen Dauer, supervisor of Student Assistance and Prevention Programs; Mr. Keith Johnson, associate superintendent for Human Resources; Mrs. Amy White, director of Human Resources; and Ms. Tanisha Holland, compliance officer, gave a presentation and spoke about student and professional bullying. Click to see powerpoint presentation.
• The revision of Policy 137, "Polling of the Prince William County School Board" - First Reading. (No action is required on first reading.)

Volume 11, Number 13 - Publication date: March 17, 2016