Prince William County Public Schools

School Board Meeting of June 19, 2019

View the agenda on the Electronic School Board webpage.
Watch the School Board meeting on PWCS-TV.

Positively PWCS:

Each School Board meeting begins with presentations about the good things that our schools are accomplishing. These presentations are intended to focus on how we are preparing our students academically and socially for success in college and careers.

• The Brentsville High School Turf Program shared about their national award-winning program.
• The Prince William County Community Foundation and Adam Russo, director of food and nutrition services, shared one of their initiatives being Combating Hunger on Wheels (CHOW) with their CHOW Wagon, which will help provide food to children in PWC.

High School Attendance Area for 2021-22 - Public Hearing

• Citizens were given the opportunity to speak regarding the matter of the high school attendance area modifications that result from the opening of the 13th High School.

The School Board Approved:

• Authorization for the Chairman At-Large to sign documents pertaining to the application for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) (PDF), as amended by the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA);
• The proposed FOIA Guidelines for the Office of Internal Audit (PDF) as drafted by Division Counsel pursuant to Virginia Code § 2.2-3795.3 (7);
• The submission of a request to establish a 35 mph School Speed Zone along the Prince William Parkway for the John D. Jenkins Elementary School;
• Authorization for the Superintendent and Supervisor of Purchasing to award contracts to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder(s) and approve change orders from June 20 through September 4, 2019 and meet school opening and operational requirements below the existing procurement threshold;
• Commendation of 2018-19 Student Representative and Alternates to the Prince William County School Board;
• The contract award for aerial lighting replacement and repair services to Lighting Maintenance, Inc. and R.E. Electric Company, Inc. (PDF);
• The contract award for architectural and engineering services for a new three-story elementary school design to the most qualified and best-suited offeror, Moseley Architects, P.C.;
• The contract award for civil engineering services to Ross-France, P.C. and Timmons Group, Inc.;
• The contract award for roof design services to Facility Engineering Associates, P.C., and Restoration Engineering, Inc.;
• The contract award for structural engineering services to ADTEK Engineers, Inc., and Moseley Architects, P.C.;
• The Memorandum of Understanding between the Department of Criminal Justice Services and Prince William County Public Schools (PDF) and further that the School Board approve the delegation of its authority to enter into such an agreement to the Superintendent of Schools;
• The carryover of FY 2019 encumbrances and unencumbered balances, to increase the FY 2020 fund budgets by these amounts, and to appropriate these amounts to the appropriate funds for FY 2020, and further, direct staff to prepare and forward the appropriate documents to the Board of County Supervisors as soon as the encumbered and unencumbered totals are determined;
• The Interagency Agreement between Prince William County Public Schools and the Judge Patrick D. Molinari Juvenile Shelter and authorize the Superintendent of Schools to enter into the same on behalf of the School Board;
• The Memorandum of Understanding between Marine Corps Installations National Capital Region Marine Corps Base Quantico, Quantico Virginia and Prince William County Public Schools;
• The annual tuition rates and fees for FY 2020 and that daily tuition rates are to be the annual rates divided by the number of required instructional days.
  • Non-resident regular day school programs:
    • In-State students $6,336
    • Out-of-State students $12,453
  • Special Education rates as shown on the attachment (PDF);
• The Development Impact Statement for the Reserve at Long Forest rezoning (PDF) that states the School Board is opposed to any rezoning application that causes student enrollment either Divisionwide, by school level, or by student enrollment at any affected school to exceed 100% of capacity;
• Revision of Policy 303 (PDF), "Cash Receipts in School Buildings";
• The Shenandoah Valley Migrant Education Program Agreement (PDF) for 2019-20;
• The May 2019 payroll (PDF) in the amount of $58,822,820.61 pursuant to Virginia Code § 22.2-122(C);
• School Board Meeting minutes for June 5, 2019 (PDF);
• Revisions to the 2019-20 "Code of Behavior" (PDF);
• A boundary plan for the 13th High School and other area high schools in conjunction with Mr. Trenum's resolution. For more information, please view the related web story;
• Naming the library at The Nokesville School in honor of Ms. Debbi Ames, who is retiring after 40 years of service to the Nokesville school community; and
• The request of the Freedom High School Class of 2018 to name the school's central courtyard in honor of Inez Bryant, principal of Freedom High School.

Citizen Comments:

Citizens addressed the School Board on the following topics:

• Representative from No Kid Hungry Virginia recognized PWCS for earning Gold in the Division category of the Virginia Breakfast Challenge;
• High School boundary changes
• The National Geographic Educator Project at Penn Elementary School;
• Proposed extension to Superintendent contract;
• The 14th High School;
• Teacher pay compared to Loudon and Fairfax counties; and
• The proposed renaming the library at the Nokesville School.

Student Matters:

• Sasan Faraj, student representative, attended a meeting at Stonewall Jackson High School (SJHS) where students shared their concerns about the proposed boundaries.
• Sasan also shared that PWCS recently had its first ever One for All Ball, an inclusive prom. He reported that students had a wonderful time and thanked the SJHS cosmetology program for doing free make up for students. He also thanked those who donated food, and SCA presidents, SCA officers, and parents and teachers who helped out with the event.

Staff Presentation Topics:

• Presentation of Achievement Data for Head Start, VPI, and VPI+ (PDF)

Superintendent's Time:

• Since we're on the subject to of Stonewall tonight, there is an area we should be really proud of that I haven't talked about, their International Baccalaureate (I.B.) program.
• Since 2014, 80 Diploma candidates have achieved the I.B. program diploma.
• In 2018, the average score for diploma candidates on an I.B. exam was 4.75. In Stonewall Jackson's history, the average score for diploma candidates on an I.B. exam has never been below 4.51.
• Since 2014, 213 candidates have graduated with honors from the I.B. program at Stonewall Jackson High School.
• Some of the candidate extended essay titles include, but are not limited to, "An Evaluation of Salvadoran Anti-Insurgency Methods During the Salvadoran Civil War (1980-1992)" and "Are Zeno's Paradoxes Truly Paradoxes? The Calculus of Discrete and Continuous Motion".
• I.B graduates have gone on to attend prestigious universities such as Cornell University, Georgetown University, United States Naval Academy, and University of Virginia.
• The I.B. and I.B. Middle Years Programs at Stonewall encompasses 35% of the entire student body, roughly 800 students.
• Stonewall remains competitive in the region, nationally and globally for its success. Stonewall's students, as evidenced by pass rates on their exams, compare favorably or even exceed other high schools.
• Moving on, I would like to add my thank and recognize our School Board student representative and alternates. Sasan Faraj, now a graduate of Patriot High School, served the past year as our student representative. Annabel Bergeron, Brentsville District High School, and Wilfredo Villatoro, Gar-Field High School, served as alternates. Thank you to all three students for their time and dedication to serve as a voice for our students.
• I would also like to recognize our gifted education staff members, as well as the Gifted Education Advisory Committee for efforts to ensure more minority and economically disadvantaged students are included in our gifted programs. As you can tell by this slide, our minority participation in gifted programs has increased from 48.1 percent to 53.5 percent in the past five years. (Second slide) The percentage of economically disadvantaged increased from 16.6 percent to 22.8 percent. We continue to have a lot of work to do in this area, but I am pleased to see the positive trends.
• During our budget talks this past winter, we discussed a pilot program that would open a high school track for use by the public. I am pleased to announce that the tracks at Forest Park High School and Colgan High School will be open for use by the public daily beginning July 8. In July, open track hours will be in the morning from 4 a.m. to 8 a.m. at Colgan High. And in July, Forest Park High will be open from 5 to 9 p.m. Beginning in August, we will make adjustments to the hours based on seasonal high school sports and those adjusted hours will be advertised to the public.
• As we conclude our final School Board meeting for this school year, I want to thank our teachers, administrators, support staff and all other employees for their hard work this past school year. Thanks for your dedication to our students and their families. I had the pleasure of making almost 200 school visits this year, and I appreciate the warm welcome I received at each school, as well as the quality instruction and love for students I observed on each visit. I hope you all have a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you next year.
• Dr. Walts briefly spoke on the subject of the proposed extension to his contract. Watch the video of the June 19, 2019 School Board meeting to view his remarks.