School Board Discusses Proposed High School Options Recommendation

Approves SBP 25-2.2 Enrollment and Transfers for Schools and Programs

Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy presented the Arlington School Board with his recommendations for additional high school seats at last night’s meeting. The superintendent is recommending a hybrid of the Education Center Site and the Career Center site to provide the high school seats needed by 2022.

It was also recommended to further explore options at the Kenmore site, the Career Center site and Washington-Lee High School as long-term solutions to high school capacity needs.

The recommendation includes the renovation of Education Center Site to include approximately 500-600 seats as well as the renovation of the Career Center Site to include approximately 700-800 seats in addition to the 800 planned for Arlington Tech.

APS is projecting more than 30,000 students by 2021 and almost 32,000 students by 2025 while Arlington County’s 30-year population forecasts the population of school-aged children 0-14 is projected to peak by 2030 with 41,500 resident children.APS has contracted for three additional studies to further inform planning.

Those studies include:

• Education Center renovation to educational use;
• Phased additions to the Career Center; and a
• Field study for the high school options

The Board will hold a Public Hearing at the June 15 meeting. The full presentation along with the high school options analysis and ratings is available on BoardDocs.

ACTION ITEMS:
The School Board approved the revision of School Board Policy (SBP) 25-2.2 Enrollment and Transfers for Schools and Programs.

The Board also approved changes to SBP 20-1.210 Award of Credit, Non Credit Courses. The changes align with current Virginia Department of Education VDOE guidance. VDOE guidance now permits the awarding of standard credit without 140 clock hours for work equal to the progress and learning achieved in 140 clock hours of instruction when certain criteria are met. Detailed revisions are available in BoardDocs.

APPOINTMENT:
The School Board appointed Brian Boykin as the Principal of Williamsburg Middle School. Boykin is currently the Assistant Principal of Carlin Springs Elementary School. The Board also approved the appointment of Frances Lee as a full-time Assistant Principal at Wakefield High School.

MONITORING ITEMS:
The Superintendent provided a progress report on the APS 3-5 Year Plan, and a brief update area of engagement during the 2017-18 school year, including:

• Options and transfers; including lotteries; defining options and providing an annual update;
• Developing the 2018-24 Strategic Plan;
• Middle school boundary process;
• Elementary boundary process; and
• Developing the 2019-28 Capital Improvement Plan.

INFORMATION ITEMS:
Instructional Resources Adoption – Staff presented its recommendations for instructional resources in English Language Arts, Science and Social Studies. The presentation and list of resources is available online.

Adoption of the Name for the New School at Jefferson – Staff presented the committee’s recommendation for the new school at Jefferson to be named Alice West Fleet Elementary School. Fleet was a long-time Arlington teacher. She was the first African-American reading teacher in Arlington and the first African-American teacher in an all-white school. During her career, Fleet taught at Hoffman-Boston, Drew, Woodmont and Reed elementary schools. The Board is scheduled to vote on the recommendation at its June 15 meeting. The complete presentation is available online.

Revision of School Board Policy 30-2.2 Boundaries – The Superintendent is proposing minor changes including replacing crowded with over utilized and criteria to considerations.

Revision of select School Board Policies on Non-Discrimination – Staff is proposing changes to Nondiscrimination policies: 10 School Board; 25 Student Services; and 35 Human Relations.

• Policy 10-13 Human Relations – Recommended changes: broaden the language indicating protections available and remove details that are covered more fully in Section 25 and Section 35 policies and policy implementations procedures.
• Policy 25-1.15 Student Equal Education Opportunities/Nondiscrimination – Recommended name change from Student Sexual Harassment Policy; Clarify protection against discrimination and harassment on all protected classifications; add a definition section; designate compliance officers for student complaints; and address remedies for complaints.
• Policy 35-4.4 Employee Relations-Equal Employment Opportunity – Recommended changes remove language related to student complaints; add language related to disability protections; and designation of compliance officers for staff and applicant complaints.

Construction Contract Award for the Kenmore Middle School Internal Modifications – Staff is recommending awarding of the construction contract to Marion Construction, Inc. for $578,599 and to approve the total budget of $1 million from the Capital Reserve. The internal modifications will increase capacity by 75 seats from 985 to 1,060.

Construction Contract Award for the Wakefield Internal Modifications – Staff is recommending awarding the construction contract to Bennett for $1,675,517 and to approve a total project budget of $3.6 million from the Capital Reserve, reducing previously approved funding by $400,000. The internal modifications will increase capacity by 300 seats from 1,903 to 2,203.

Contract Award for Job Order Contracting – Staff recommends approval of the award of contracts for Job Order Contracting Services. Job order contracting is:

• A method of procuring construction and mechanical services by establishing a book of set unit prices;
• Obtaining a contractor to perform work as needed using the prices, quantities, and specifications in the book as the basis of its pricing; and
• Vendor collects a percentage fee for developing scope, creating proposal, executing and managing project.

The full presentation is available on BoardDocs.

Construction Contract Award for Early Work Package 2 for the New School at Wilson – Staff recommends awarding a contract to complete early work Package 2 to Gilbane in the amount of $14,088,865. The full recommendation and presentation is available online.

Contract Award for Pre-Construction Construction Management at-Risk Services for the Career Center Renovation – Staff is recommending that the Board approve the pre-construction phase services contract award in the amount of $104,000 to Skanska. More information is available on BoardDocs.

Term Contract Award for Program Management Services – The Board is being asked to award a term contract to Brailsford & Dunlavey. The complete presentation is available online.

RECOGNITIONS:
The meeting began with a ceremony honoring APS retirees. The Superintendent and School Board thanked the retirees for their contribution to the education of APS students.After the retiree ceremony, members of the Student Advisory Board presented their annual report to the School Board.

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.