My school board mail bag

This newsletter is usually my space to share what I’m learning and thinking about in my role as a school board member.

But this time, now six months into the job, I want to share to share what I’m hearing from all of you: essentially, what’s on your mind.

I’ll be real—it’s a lot. The list below is a snapshot of all the issues and questions that you’ve sent my way that are above and beyond the items that were already queued up for discussion and voting during regular School Board meetings (like the budget or the bell time study).

These are the ones you’re emailing about, raising during office hours, or asking to discuss in a phone call or meeting.

Each of these issues is important to somebody, and so they all deserve some kind of acknowledgement and response.

However, you can see (I hope) how easy it would be to go “an inch deep and a mile wide” on everything, or to get distracted to such a degree that no issue gets completely worked through.

So what to do? For me, I try to make sure I’m focusing the majority of my time and attention in these areas:

1. Basic needs. If students are hungry, or sick, or in crisis in some way, it will be really hard for them to learn.

2. A healthy school (and school district) culture. Students may arrive at school ready to learn (basic needs met!) but if they’re put in a toxic environment, they likely won’t be able or willing to do their best work. The same is true for school staff. (Readers, can you think of a workplace you were glad to escape at some point in your adult life?) Everyone in the school community needs to be safe, seen and valued.

3. Teaching and learning that is relevant, rigorous and research-based. To me, "relevant” means that students understand how what they are learning relates to the world outside of school and to their own experiences, interests and aspirations. “Rigorous” means there is just the right level of challenge, and “research-based” means it’s grounded in what we know about the science of learning.

But enough from me. Let’s hear from all of you.

From January through June, here’s what you’ve asked about.

1:1 assistants for students with disabilities
Academic interventions: communication to families
Academic progress: dashboard and tracking
Accessibility at The Heights
Advanced coursework for students significantly beyond grade level
Advisory input to policies being revised
Afterschool offerings and programs
Animal Sciences program at the Career Center
Antisemitism in schools + community
Bilingual Family Liaison allocations and workload
Bus driver and bus attendant concerns
Bullying
CASEL supporting SEL in APS
Collective bargaining concerns
Community school model/services
Compensatory services for students with disabilities
COVID: masking policies
COVID: air filtration
COVID: isolation and quarantine protocols
COVID: parent notifications and content tracing
COVID: test-to-stay
COVID: outdoor lunch
Device (iPads and laptops) access in summer
Dogs on school property
Education technology (use of Lexia, Dreambox, etc.)
Employee Assistance Program
End-of-year celebrations for students
English learners: preparation for life after HS graduation
Extended School Year services for students with disabilities
Federal school meal program (end of universal free meals)
Health textbooks and resources
Immersion and structured literacy
Inclusion for students with disabilities
Inclusive history curricula
Math coaches and math class sizes
Medicaid reimbursement for the school system
Mental health risk assessments
Planetarium staffing
Pride Month recognition
Psychologist allocations and duties
Racism in schools
Reading classes in middle schools
Reading on grade level in high school
Restorative justice
Safety: responses to fighting, weapons and more
Safety: communication to families when there is an incident
Safety on school buses
School staff input into district decision making
Sexual harassment
School cafeterias (those that weren’t fully operational until mid-year)
Speech/language pathologist compensation and certification
Staff Appreciation Week
Student Code of Conduct
Substance abuse prevention and treatment
Substitute teacher shortages
Summer school staffing
Summer school eligibility
Teachers Council on Instruction
Testing coordinator workload
Transportation for extracurriculars
Trauma-informed practices
Tutoring
VLP staff placements for next year
VLP task force
Virtual Virginia eligibility for next year
Wakefield pool maintenance