Prince William County Public Schools

School Board Meeting of January 12, 2022

View the agenda on the Electronic School Board webpage.

Watch the School Board meeting on PWCS-TV.

The School Board Approved:

• Recognizing February as "African American History Month";
• The proposed appointment (PDF) to the Superintendent's Advisory Council on Sustainability;
• The award of a contract for environmental and industrial hygiene engineering services to the highest rated offerors Aerosol Monitoring & Analysis, Inc., ECS Mid Atlantic LLC, and Applied Environmental Inc.;
• The purchase authorization for Student Learning to place orders for Star Reading and Star Math testing and assessment against the Master Agreement with Renaissance Learning, Inc.;
• The award of a contract for the procurement of shop equipment to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder (PDF), Fries, Beall and Sharp, Inc.;
• The resolution (PDF) requesting the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) accept, budget, and appropriate $62,403.16 awarded by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) under the Virginia American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) III award. And further, direct staff to prepare the appropriate documents to forward to the BOCS to accept, budget, and appropriate $62,403.16 to the FY 2022 School Board Operating Fund;
• The resolution (PDF) requesting the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) accept, budget, and appropriate $4,865,327.96 awarded by Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) under the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 and 2021-2022 Part B (Section 611 and 619) funding. And further, direct staff to prepare the appropriate documents to forward to the BOCS to accept, budget, and appropriate $4,865,327.96 to the FY 2022 School Board Operating Fund;
• The resolution (PDF) requesting the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) to accept, budget, and appropriate $3,103,304 from increased revenues. And further, direct staff to prepare the appropriate documents to forward to the BOCS to accept, budget, and appropriate $3,103,304 to the FY 2022 School Board Operating Fund;
• The resolution (PDF) requesting the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) accept, budget, and appropriate $18,194,129 awarded by Virginia American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (CSLFRF). And further, direct staff to prepare the appropriate documents to forward to the BOCS to accept, budget, and appropriate $18,194,129 to the FY 2022 School Board Operating Fund;
• The resolution (PDF) requesting the Prince William Board of County Supervisors (BOCS) accept, budget, and appropriate $1,773,900 awarded by Virginia Department of Health, Office of Epidemiology Division of Immunization. And further, direct staff to prepare the appropriate documents to forward to the BOCS to accept, budget, and appropriate $1,773,900 to the FY 2022 School Board Operating Fund;
• Recognizing February 7-11, 2022, as "National School Counseling Week (PDF)";
• Recognizing January 8-14, 2022 as "School Principals Week (PDF)":
• November 2021 payrolls (PDF) in the amount of $66,295,198.24;
• The December 1, 2021 School Board meeting minutes (PDF);
• The Joint School Board and Board of County Supervisors December 14, 2021 meeting minutes (PDF); and
• Confirming the January 4, 2022 Board Poll (PDF) approving continuing the January 5, 2022 School Board meeting to January 12, 2022 due to weather-related circumstances.

Student Representative Matters:

• Concerns related to student and teacher mental health
• The Strategic Plan (PDF)
• Safety in schools
• Thank you to teachers

Superintendent's Time:

• Good evening and Happy New Year. I appreciate your cooperation, understanding, and support last week as we dealt with the challenges related to inclement weather. I believe strongly that our students are best served in person at school to the greatest extent possible. To that end, it was great to welcome all students back Monday morning. In the event of additional inclement weather events, we will be better prepared moving forward to utilize the various inclement weather codes for both significant and minimal weather events.
• I would like to echo the sentiments of our School Board in recognizing Brentsville District High School's Donald Lambert Field and Unity Reed High School senior Shawn Murphy. During my first 100 days, I had the pleasure of visiting Brentsville District High School and meeting Drew Miller, agriculture teacher and turfgrass program coordinator, and several of his students. I also had the opportunity to see the Donald Lambert Field. I was very impressed, and I am not surprised that the field and our Turfgrass Program have earned so many awards. Congratulations to Principal Dr. Kat Meints, Mr. Miller, and our students participating in this Turfgrass Program.
• I also offer my congratulations to Shawn Murphy, who has earned the prestigious Butkus Award as the best high school linebacker in the nation. We are proud of you, Shawn, as well as the Unity Reed High School head football coach Carroll Walker. Shawn, we know you will continue to positively represent Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) well into the future.
• Congratulations to our new School Board Vice-Chairwoman, Adele Jackson. I look forward to working with you. I want to thank Ms. Zargarpur for her leadership as Vice-Chairwoman this year. Your support as I transitioned into the role of Superintendent has been invaluable.
• Earlier tonight the School Board approved a resolution recognizing Virginia School Principals Week this week. I want to take a moment to express my appreciation for the tireless leadership of our school principals, especially during a global pandemic. There is no question that now is the most difficult time to be a school principal. I sincerely appreciate our principals' efforts to ensure the safety of their students and staff, providing the most positive learning environment possible. Thank you for your dedication to our students and their families, our employees, and our communities.
• I want to assure everyone that the Division is closely monitoring developments on the Omicron variant.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released new guidance regarding quarantine periods, and we continue to follow the data and the science as it evolves. PWCS is working with the Prince William Health District (PWHD) and the Virginia Department of Health to evaluate the updated guidance from the CDC. To effectively plan for thoughtful implementation of changes aligned to the new CDC guidance, our current health protocols have remained in place. However, we are diligently reviewing guidance from the PWHD and will be prepared by late next week to outline how PWCS will implement the new CDC quarantine guidance moving forward.
• I appreciate your cooperation, support, and patience as we work together to continue to deliver critical education and services to our students as safely as possible.
• I also want to mention that we are in the process of concluding updates to our memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Prince William County Police Department regarding our school resource officers (SROs). The changes will help clarify the role of SROs in our schools and include new training and screening requirements, all with the aim of strengthening student and staff safety. I would like to thank Police Chief Peter Newsham, as well as everyone who provided feedback on the MOU through a survey that was sent to all families in November and open through December. We will share the agreement with our community once it is finalized.
• As many of you are aware, I concluded my first 100 workdays on December 1. I had the pleasure of visiting all 100 schools and centers, including our students attending our Governor's School and our students attending Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax. I appreciate the warm welcome I have received across the School Division, and I enjoyed talking to our administrators, teachers, support staff, students, and parents.
• The pride in Prince William County Public Schools is evident. I also appreciate the thoughtful feedback for the improvement of our schools in the future. Following these remarks, I will be presenting our new four-year Strategic Plan (PDF). We have used much of the feedback from these visits to shape many of the goals included in the plan.
• PWCS has ensured stakeholder involvement throughout the development of the Strategic Plan. The Superintendent's Advisory Council on Instruction, which consists of parent representatives from each school, provided early input in November 2019 as well as in November 2021. 3,887 parents, 499 staff members, 488 community members, 130 students, and 18 business partners provided input through the survey conducted in December 2019.
• A panel of representatives from higher education and businesses shared their priorities and those were incorporated into the development of the plan. Additionally, I met with local faith leaders and local labor union leaders. In March 2020, the Superintendent's Advisory Council on Equity provided input.
• In January and February 2021, Board members had the opportunity to provide individual feedback on the commitments and identify priorities for goals. Additionally, upon my arrival in July 2021 I met with each School Board member individually to document expectations and input for the Strategic Plan.
• Beginning in summer 2021, four working groups were identified to lead the work of each of the Strategic Plan commitments. These teams collaboratively developed the goals and strategies; these teams involved members from the Superintendent's Cabinet and Leadership Team, as well as school representatives including administrators, teachers, and counselors.
• On December 17, I sent a letter to all families and staff, as well as community members, sharing the draft Strategic Plan. We have a dedicated website on the Strategic Plan which can be found at www.pwcs.edu.
• This is a four-year dynamic plan that will continue to evolve and this evening I look forward to providing an overview of Vision 2025: Launching Thriving Futures.
• Mr. Chairman, this concludes the Superintendent's Time. I will now move to the podium for my further remarks on the Strategic Plan.

Policies: 

First Readings-No action is required on first readings.  

• Revision to Policy 123 (PDF), "Duties of the Clerk and Deputy Clerk"