Superintendent Provides First Day of School Report for 2018-19 School Year

Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy provided the School Board with a First Day of School Report, including enrollment figures and other 2018-19 back-to-school updates, during last night’s meeting.

The Superintendent noted that the first day enrollment was 27,522 students. That is 581 more students than last year’s official Sept. 30 count and slightly off the spring projections of 28,022. The Superintendent pointed out that enrollment will continue to fluctuate throughout the month of September and that the official 2018-19 enrollment will be counted on September 30.

Dr. Murphy also highlighted work that took place over the summer to get ready for the new school year, including the ongoing construction of Fleet Elementary School, the New School at the Wilson Site, and the Yorktown and Career Center capacity projects.The report ended with a video highlighting the first two days of the school year. The video featured student arrivals and remarks from principals and staff on their priorities for the year, including equity and excellence; social and emotional learning; and safety and emergency preparedness. The full presentation is online.

ACTION ITEMS:
The Board approved the following items:

• Revisions to School Board Policy A-4 Mission, Vision and Core Values, and A-5 Arlington Public Schools Priorities – The approved changes reflect the adoption of the 2018-24 Strategic Plan.
• Revision of School Board Policy J-5.3.30 Admission and Placement – The Board approved staff recommendations to add a section on children of active duty military personnel as well as children of families with special circumstances.
• Contract Award for Pre-Construction Management at-Risk Services for the Education Center Renovation – The Board approved a contract for Phase I: Pre-Construction Services in the amount of $257,000 to MCN Build, Inc. The Board also authorized staff to utilize $4 million of the available bond funds identified in the FY 2017-26 CIP as “Secondary Seats TBD” for pre-construction phase expenses until future bond funds are available following the 2018 referendum.
• Contract Award for Kenmore HVAC Controls – The Board awarded contract of up to $600,000 to Automated Logic.
• Change to the Guaranteed Maximum Price for the New School at Wilson with No Change to Total Budget or Completion Date – The Board approved an updated and revised budget for the Wilson project and allocated $750,000 from the Construction Management Reserve and approximately $1.25 million from the Owner Contingency funds which are part of the overall Wilson project budget. This is a normal occurrence in all construction projects, and Board approval is required to allocate the budget reserves and contingency funding whenever funds are needed to offset market changes for construction materials or to fund other steps to address site conditions or developments that normally arise during a two-year project. This request is solely for approval of previously budgeted reserves and project contingency funds, and the total budget and completion date for the new school at Wilson remains unchanged.
• License Agreement for Historic Markers at the Drew Property – The Board approved a License Agreement for Historic Markers at the Drew Property which staff presented as an information item at the June 7 meeting. The Agreement permits Arlington County to use a portion of the Drew property for constructing, installing, using, and maintaining five Panels to display information about the history of the Nauck community.

More information about these items is available online at BoardDocs.

CONSENT ITEMS—SCHOOL NAMING COMMITTEES
Under the Consent Items, the Board approved the appointments to the School Naming Committees for the Montessori program at Henry; the Wilson Building; the Sixth Middle School and the Washington-Lee High School Renaming Committee.

INFORMATION ITEMS:

• Revision of School Board Policy E-6 Food and Nutrition Services – Staff is recommending the following changes: Standardized terms related to the National School Lunch Program; Move language regarding student eligibility to the beginning of the policy; Update legal references; Minor wording and punctuation changes; and Revise the Policy Implementation Procedures to reflect these same types of changes.
• 2018-24 Strategic Plan – Performance Objectives – At the end of June, the School Board approved the new Strategic Plan which included new goals related to: Student Success; Student Well-Being; Engaged Workforce; Operational Excellence; and Partnerships. Staff reviewed the proposed performance objectives which are quantifiable results that will be used to measure progress toward achieving each of the goals. The Board will hold a work session on Sept. 11 and is expected to approve the performance objectives at the Sept. 20 meeting.
• School Board 2018-19 Action Plan – Each year, the School Board establishes annual priorities to assist in keeping the Board’s work focused, effective, and aligned with the Strategic Plan goals. The School Board priorities for the 2018‐19 School Year will concentrate on the following areas: New Policies and Policy Revisions; Operational Planning; New Schools & Program Moves (2019); Capital Initiatives; and Additional Focus in Support of the 2018-24 Strategic Plan Goals.

More information on these items is available online.

RECOGNITIONS:
At the start of the meeting, the Board recognized Kenmore Middle School for recently being recognized as a Special Olympics Unified Champion Banner School. Kenmore is receiving this distinct recognition because staff and students are leaders of social inclusion across APS and because of their efforts to include students on a unified basketball team. There are only 131 schools across the nation that received this national recognition this year, and only six schools from Virginia were included in the group. In addition, every year, ESPN recognizes five exemplary schools as part of its Special Olympics Unified Champion Schools National Recognition program.  The five schools have met the 10 national standards of inclusion and were nominated by their state’s Special Olympics program.  Yesterday, Kenmore learned that they have been named as one of this year’s ESPN Top 5 Honor Roll honorees.

In addition, the Board congratulated Personalized Learning supervisor Heather Hurley who was appointed by Governor Northam to the Virginia Standards of Learning Innovation Committee. This committee provides the Board of Education and General Assembly with recommendations on SOL assessments, student growth measures, alignment between the SOLs and assessment, and ways to encourage innovative teaching in the classroom.

The Board also recognized Supervisor of Gifted Services, Cheryl McCullough who was elected to the Board of the National Association for Gifted Children.

NEXT SCHOOL BOARD MEETING:
The School Board will hold its next Regular Meeting (2110 Washington Blvd.) on Thursday, Sept. 20 at 7 p.m. The agenda will be posted one week before the meeting on BoardDocs.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Citizens who want to comment on any 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 will be posted to the website at aps2016.apsva.us/schoolboard upon School Board approval at a subsequent meeting.