School Board Approves Agreement with The Children’s School

The School Board approved a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Children’s School (TCS) at the Oct. 19 meeting. The MOU was developed collaboratively by TCS and APS for the Integration Station (IS) program.

TCS is a private, nonprofit cooperative daycare for children of APS employees, and Integration Station is an APS special education preschool program. Both programs are currently co-located in the Reed Building, which will be redeveloped into a new elementary school scheduled to open in 2021. The MOU ensures that both programs will move to a new leased space together and ensures their continued partnership at the new location. IS will remain at the new location for two years and APS will pay tuition to TCS for IS spaces.More information on the MOU is available on BoardDocs.

MONITORING ITEMS:

• Superintendent’s 2017-18 Action Plan Update – Dr. Pat Murphy reported on the action plan that supports the Board’s work this year. Key highlights from his report include the following:
  • Work to update the School Board policy SBP 45-2 Acceptable Use of Electronic Networked Resources and Internet Safety includes a community meeting on Nov. 16. The proposed revision of the policy will be presented to the Board on Jan. 4 and the Board is scheduled to approve the revisions on Jan. 18.
  • The next phase of engagement to develop new middle school boundaries will begin with three “What We Heard” community meetings next week. The first meeting will be held at Yorktown High School on Wed, Oct. 25 and the second meeting will be held at Wakefield on Thu, Oct. 26. Both meetings will include the same content and format, and the Oct. 25 meeting will be livestreamed. A meeting also will be held on Oct. 24 at Kenmore for Spanish-speaking families.
  • The process to determine the Instructional Focus for the Education Center is underway. A working group has narrowed possible considerations to four: A STEAM High School; a Creative and Performing Arts High School; an Early College; and an Expansion of Washington‐Lee to include additional International Baccalaureate seats. Background information, analysis and a description for each consideration are on the Engage website. Community input is being solicited through Nov. 1.
  • The first meeting to discuss the development of a new Strategic Plan will be held from 7-9 p.m. on Mon, Oct. 30 in the Discovery Elementary School dining commons.
• Graduation Task Force Update – Staff highlighted the 2016 On-Time Graduation Rate, discussed targeted interventions and reviewed the support of the Dropout Prevention Team and community involvement.
• Minor Construction/Major Maintenance Update – Staff updated the Board on the status of maintenance projects and funding.

INFORMATION ITEMS:The Board also discussed the following items:

• 2017-18 Internal Audit Work Plan
• Construction Contract Award for Early Work Package 2 for Fleet Elementary School

APPOINTMENTS:
Kristin Haldeman was appointed to the new position as Director of Multimodal Transportation Planning in Facilities and Operations. In this new role, she will be responsible for working with Arlington County Government, APS staff and community stakeholders to develop and implement an innovative Transportation Demand Management Program to address enrollment growth, new capacity and facilities.

STUDENT SHOWCASE:
Members of the Best Buddies chapters at H-B Woodlawn, Stratford, and Washington-Lee, Wakefield and Yorktown high schools and programs presented a report to the Board on their activities and growth. Best Buddies is a national program that helps create opportunities for one-on-one friendships between people with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) to improve the quality of life and level of inclusion for a population that is often isolated and excluded. The students shared how their participation is helping students with IDD form meaningful connections with their peers, gain self-confidence and self-esteem, and share interests, experiences and activities that many other students enjoy.

Next School Board Meeting: 
The next School Board meeting will be held on Thu, Nov. 2 at 6:30 p.m. The agenda will be posted one week before the meeting on BoardDocs.

For More Information
Citizens who want to comment on any of the items discussed at the School Board meeting should email the Board at school.board@apsva.us or call 703-228-6015. Citizens may call 703-228-2400 on the Monday after the School Board meetings to listen to a meeting summary. School Board meetings are also broadcast live on Comcast Cable Channel 70 and Verizon FiOS Channel 41; live-streamed on the APS website, and re-broadcast on Fridays at 9 p.m. and Mondays at 7:30 p.m. immediately following the meeting. All materials and minutes of the meeting will be posted to the website at aps2016.apsva.us/schoolboard upon School Board approval at a subsequent meeting.