Notes from the FCPS school board meeting on April 4, 2013 (for a school project)

1. Jason Dunn

2.  FairfaxCounty School Board
 April 4, 2013
 Not a public hearing meeting – those only
occur five times per year
 Falls ChurchVA: Jackson Middle School
auditorium
 4 hour long meeting!

3.  Mostly older folks and others involved in
contracts with the school board
 Audience was about 25 people
 The Board was made up of 12
members, eight district board members, two
Members at Large, one student board
member (not present), one chairman of the
board
 Superintendent Dale and the Assistant
Superintendent were present and spoke

4.  The first 15 minutes involved a talk from
Superintendent Dale on what FCPS is
stressing in the 21st Century: academic
achievement, life skills, and commitment to
the global community
 Two FCPS schools were featured in a
congressional hearing as success stories.

5.  Presentation by Alejandro Gomez of the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD)
 OECD statisticians were adapting national
ratings systems using the PISA test, to generate
data on individual schools
 FCPS schools fare fairly well against other
successful nations’ school systems
 FCPS really enjoys analytical data driven
approaches to education reform, although
Gomez was received with some skepticism from
board members

6.  Correlation between teacher salaries and
educational outcomes
 No correlation between total funding for schools
and outcomes, what seems to matter is the
distribution of funding
 U.S. spends more per child than most countries
after factoring cost of living, though smaller
percentage of total government spending
 Lower number of hours taught by each teacher
corresponded with better educational outcomes
– the reasoning is that teachers have more prep
time.

7.  Small classes typically means more teachers
are required
 This makes the job pool less
selective, typically lowering quality
 Korea Japan and Finland often have larger
classes in front of the very best teachers

8.  Short presentation by “EdLeader 21” which is
a group of schools committed to 21st century
skills. FCPS is a member.
 GeraldGordom of the Fairfax Board of
Economic Development speaks on critical
thinking and its importance in business
 Finally, action items…

9.  Renovation forTJHSST (the prestigious tech
school in FCPS) – 67 Million Dollars wow.
Unanimous vote.
 Expulsion votes were unanimous
 Discussion of hiring candidates, unanimous
 Friendly guy mentioned to me that the board
always votes unanimously.
 Recess (three hour mark now.)

10.  Asst. Superintendent presents info on
redistricting.
 Several high schools facing extreme
overcrowding, districting is meant to balance
out that load.
 Finally there is some conflict! Braddock district
member was unhappy thatWoodson and Fairfax
high schools would take on increased burden
 Other members skeptical, but were not
inconvenienced to the same extent
 Vote postponed until the next meeting.
 Concluding remarks were quick.

11.  Alejandro Gomez was treated poorly by a few board members
who were apparently concerned or disappointed by some of his
statistical arguments. Many of them were fairly insulting, accusing
his team of forgetting critical subjective assessments and the
importance of sports and arts. I very much enjoyed his
presentation, it gave some evidence for unpopular opinions. As a
math person I liked the heavy statistical approach to school-wide
analysis.
 The procedure seemed to be regarded as legal requirements that
are burdensome.Voting is apparently always unanimous, issues
are generally postponed until there is consensus and deals struck
at the closed meetings.
 Family involvement is not a part of most meetings. Closed
meetings do not even allow media presence or audience. Family
issues are left to specified nights.

12.  Yes, they passed a large renovation project and
discussed statistical analysis that impacts
budget concerns.
 This meeting was a large discussion on
curriculum and assessment and how it must
change for 21st Century learners, a key
responsibility outlined in Ornstein et al.
 Just like the text said, while the board is
technically in charge of hires, they vote on one
large hiring package bill. Without any discussion
at all.They allow schools to take charge of hires.

13.  Very non-diverse board. Of the 8 district board
members, 7 were Caucasian women.
 The only nonwhite school board member was
asian, and he was the chairman of the board.
 There was a divide between genders between lower
and higher positions.The superintendent and asst.
superintendent were men, as well as the members at
large on the board and the chairman.
 The remaining members were female except for one
male district member.
 This is not representative of the FCPS population.