FCBOE met at 6 p.m. on Feb. 18 for this month’s Board Meeting. 

• The FCS Board of Education begins with the Pledge of Allegiance and approves the agenda for tonight’s meeting.

• The Board opens up to public comment, which is not aired. Meeting will resume shortly.

• The meeting resumes, and District 6 Board Member and Board Vice President Kimberly Dove begins Board Matters by addressing the implementation of the K-8 Model at Conley High School.

  • Dove clarifies any misinformation regarding this new model by stating that the decision has not yet been made and no action has been taken.

  • The district has an inclusive, transparent process considering employing this new program, and the community will need to rearrange attendance zones due to population decline in order to ensure that all resources are neither overcrowded or underutilized to their full extent while not being exhausted.

  • Dove asks for the Board and Supt. Dr. Mike Looney to hold off on the decision. She thanks everyone for their interest in the matter and assures they will be doing their best

• District 5 Board Member Linda McCain talks about River Trail Middle School, and their band’s notable musical achievements with the Georgia Honor Band. McCain also shouts out two Wilson Creek heroes, one who saved a child from a bus and the other who performed Heimlich Maneuver.

• District 4 Board Member Franchesca Warren talks about a Liberty Point Elementary School 4th grader who was awarded 3rd in the FCS Spelling Bee and will advance from here. A 6th grader earned 2nd place in the FCS Social Studies Fair.

• District 3 Board Member Gail Dean makes a shoutout to all the staff for their hard work and expresses strong appreciation for their work.

• District 2 Board Member Katie Reeves talks about Cambridge High School, in which two seniors were rewarded the GS Gold Award. In Hopewell Middle School, a student winner of the spelling bee will perform in the next round on Feb. 27. Ms. Brandy Davis judged the winning essay to name the rover that landed on Mars today. Reeves additionally congratulates the communications team for organizing graduation dates and announcements.

• District 3 Board Member Gail Dean thanks everyone who was interested and voiced thoughts about the K-8 process.

  • “I am listening to you,” Dean said.

• Dean mentions that there are 12 kids involved in a Yale psychology program. Dean talks about a first place win at the Science Fair about wind turbines as well.

• District 7 Board Member and Board President Julia Bernath mentions that at Spalding Engineering School, students have completed their rocket design. In Centennial HS, sisters become the first female wrestlers to compete in GHSA tournaments.

• Looney mentions that the K-8 decision’s delay is due to COVID-19 however emphasizes that community input is valued although it has been hard to get.

• The Board moves onto COVID-19 updates. Visuals can be found below.

Graphics courtesy of Fulton County Schools

• Looney reports that the number of cases in Fulton County is on the decline. However, he continues to emphasize the fact that this is still a serious disease and remains cautiously optimistic about the vaccination that will continue the next to the week. He refers to the data on the slides.

• No action in terms of teaching format is required unless a parent wants to switch to remote or switch to face to face instruction. To change, contact your school (administration) or building principal to make a change in the school’s software system. 

• The opening window is Mar. 1 - 12 to change for the second nine weeks. If it goes beyond those dates, parents can contact the zone superintendent to change.

• No questions on the  COVID-19 updates are asked.

• Executive Director of Strategy Ryan Moore provides a learning loss update. Visuals can be found below.

Graphics courtesy of Fulton County Schools

• Moore briefly summarizes the development of remote learning, from March 2020 to now. He refers to the COVID-19 Learning Impact slides and focuses on different trends in data. Some of the demographics who have experienced the most loss in scores include students eligible for free and reduced-price lunch and English language learners. 

• The data collected is based on diagnostic assessments from January 2020 to March 2020.

• The next major goal is to focus on the difference between at-home and at-school test takers.

• He notes several factors, including the possibility that numbers could potentially be worse because students at home could be receiving help from parents, and how the learning impact can be improved for students with disabilities.

• Chief Academic Officer Cliff Jones transitions to the next topic by reiterating Moore’s point and introducing current academic systems.

• Jones references the presentation slides for what FCS districts’ goals are to continue supporting students.

• Jones announces a nationally recognized exam to feed data to the community in a monitored format.

• Jones highlights the need for the fidelity of Tier 1 teaching, high impact Tier 2 and Tier 3 strategies. He also promises more parent engagement and communication, including reaching out in more languages and answering any questions or concerns.

• These improvements will be done by a steering committee that oversees work by providing project management governments. They will also define opportunities and include work teams that involve one principal, a superintendent, a non-academic staff member, and other members who will collaborate on Microsoft Teams. These teams have already begun meeting. 

• Jones closes his statement by the promise that each team will submit a monitoring plan and provide constant updates. 

• District 6 Board Member Dove questions the effort for students in K-3 and 9-12, as the FCS focus plan focuses on students grades 4-8. 

  • Jones responds that K-12 is included in the plan, but grades 4-8 are the focus because the data is part of a larger subset of all students.

• District 5 Board Member Linda McCain questions if the assessments are the only way of identifying students who need support.

  • Jones responds that social workers and counselors are part of K-8 who will help identify student. Another factor in identification will be through attendance and non-engagement behavior.

• McCain asks whether they can require students to join and engage then.

  • Jones replies that this is not a one summer intervention—they’re having a conversation on more specific scenarios; for example, more aid would be given to a student who is held back a grade. 

• District 4 Board Member Franchesca Warren asks whether there is a system of budgeting for the Early Intervention Program (EIP). 

  • Jones responds that the way are EIP teachers are earned will help reduce the class size model and the pullout model.

• Warren asks if the county has taken to consideration monitoring EIPs at schools where student learning loss is greater or more significant.

  • Jones responds that they do have program evaluation and that they are continually monitoring EIPs and bringing it to the Board as well as parents in order to monitor this at all levels because it is an interdependent process.

• District 5 Board Member Linda McCain asks whether they are working with county partners to execute the work. 

  • Jones responds that they have worked with and are working with tutoring services and other programs. They will continue to do so. 

• District 2 Member Katie Reeves asks about the data regarding learning loss and points out that despite several forms of aid coming across, students often still go backwards.

  • Jones points out that kids are not going backwards, but rather are missing steps that are crucial to development. For example, instead of going form Point A to Point B, they are going directly from Point A to Point C.

• District 3 Board Member Gail Dean emphasizes a goal to provide small groups and other necessities in the approach, including more space in the building that might even extend to portable classrooms. She thanks presenters for gathering the data. She also mentions that the plan shows interest in some sort of outreach where they can ensure that students have books in their hands.

• District 1 Board Member Katha Stuart questions if principals are involved in the process of building this process

  • Jones responds that each zone is represented and there is a principal involved on each team.

• Dove asks what extended time for summer school will look like, including how the time will best be used as they go through the process?

  • Jones admits that there is  no answer yet however they are working on it and Chief Talent Officer Ron Wade is among those who are making sure to plan all aspects of what the extended summer school time will look like.

• Wade reports that the extended time will not be the same for all students—every year, fewer and fewer students will be in the extended time because they will have eventually caught up.

• Warren asks what success on each grade level will look like, and if there is a clear definition of success.

  • Jones responds that the team is working on defining success and working backwards from there to map out course of action.

• Warren asks if putting teachers’ thoughts into the planning has been considered. 

  • Jones responds that due to the intensity of planning, it is not being done now, but they will have teachers on April 2 to go over protocols.

• Bernath introduces the renaming of Fulton Online School.

  • Hank Aaron’s family would need more time to decide if they will agree to let FCS name anything after him to honor him, so then FAVE was the name chosen at the end.

  • The motion passes with all in favor.

• To honor the staff and their commitment to their students, a motion to present a $1000 stipend is presented. Those eligible include full-time employees but those who work part-time or less than full-time will also receive $500 or some other bonus.

• The meeting is adjourned.