001[Music] do [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] board of education now comes to order my apologies for starting a little late this morning please rise for the invocation oh god we pray to administer that which is just in all educational policies being ever mindful of your guidance stir us to action with love wisdom and understanding of the united stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome to the meeting of the board of education this meeting is being televised live on aacps tv and live streamed on the internet general information and protocols for the meeting are posted on the sign by the doorway as you enter the room so please make sure you read those if you have not already
002mr grannon and mr reinhart are not able to be here this morning item 2.03 is approval of the minutes so moved second so i need discussion all right all this paper okay motion passes how many do we have six six zero all right item two point zero four mr gilland thank you madam president i move to add to the agenda item 5.00 2017-18 board of education meeting dates item 2.05 is recognitions and there are none today item 2.06 um miss sasso today we recognize a true professional who plays a vital role in our school system serving as a link between students parents staff and the community she provides a valuable service to students who are struggling with academic success and overall well-being and to teachers who benefit from her guidance in working with their students
003claudette robinson blackwell social worker at macarthur middle school demonstrate a high degree of professionalism in her daily interactions with all those who live she touches claudette consistently maintains a professional and positive approach while helping other staff members focus on positive aspects and solutions for students she's a leader on her trauma team responses modeling for others how to respond in a calm and supportive way even in a crisis situation claudette is a skilled communicator because of her ways in connecting and working effectively with staff claudette was chosen from among nearly 100 psychologists and social workers to be a crisis prevention training for our county furthermore her department chair at macarthur notes that claudette is the first person that she wants to have with her when there is a difficult parent or student meeting claudette's work is
004as effective as students as it is with adults providing counseling and trauma support to schools where they have experienced a student death or other tragedy she uses intervention method to de-escalate children reduce aggression and violence and maintain safety of the crisis student and others she also conducts both individual and group counseling with students working on such topics as anger management social skills and improving behavior claudette is an active member of school teams that are focused on promoting positive changes and growth including the pb is team the behavior support team and the student support team she's also a member of the kindness committee in support of the superintendent's be nice campaign claudette is continuously taking a new volunteer and charitable projects such harvest for the hungry backpack bodies and the gloves and hats campaign she also
005serves at her as her school volunteer coordinator soliciting parent volunteers and spend time screening and training them claudette robinson blackwell you play an integral role in promoting the health and welfare of the macarthur middle school family your interpersonal and professional skills make you a great communicator and as a member of a select group of highly qualified professionals chosen to train other staff countywide in these techniques are of the many reasons you have been chosen educator of the month for december 2017. the board commends you and thanks you for all you do for anne arundel county public schools congratulations [Applause] congratulations okay how did we connect claudette to be here today what did they tell you well i thought that i was coming to speak about our county's backpack buddies program [Applause] so i was talking
006to my husband about uh that program and my supervisor and my supervisor supervisor about the works that are in place in my building so you got me mr whiting so i'm here uh and i want to thank my family for being here and i want to give first give honor to god for such an honor um i don't consider this work this is just what i do i'm very passionate about the work that i do for the students and families and i thank you all for seeing the talents in me i i come to work ready to go every day i have a lot of time to think about what i'm going to do in my 45 minute commute to work every day and it's what great joy that i bring to the job every
007day so it's truly an honor and a gift to receive [Applause] members of your family who are here with you i will um first i want to start with um okay she can't remember your name it's um let me try and connect you all it's all about connections right so we tell our students how we persevere and build character and grit so a little bit about my own personal story and how i'm standing before you today my journey to maryland began in 1981 when i lost my own mother to breast cancer so my beautiful sister took on the reigns of raising me and to the woman that you see before me and you know that you can't do that without a strong man that stands beside you so i had the privilege of being raised
008by a man of great character no nonsense go to school get your grades and bring home attitude of gratitude and they're both here today so matt mcmillan please stand [Applause] so they raised me and [Applause] and my wonderful husband who is always keeping me grounded and focused and he's responsible for my nice outfit [Applause] but really he is like the backbone of what i do to kind of push and pull and we uh we just got married two years ago so we're still like [Music] sheldon blackwell is here along with my great honor and privilege to have my mother-in-law alice [Applause] and blackwell always keeping me inspired and freed up as i go into the buildings and in the community so thank you all for being here today [Applause] and mr whiting is here he
009is going non-stop in the building buzzing here buzzing their housing everywhere as you all know and uh he's here i guess he's a part of this great honor and he knows the work that goes into running the building and seeing that the students families and staff are attended to so i just want to thank you for all that you all see in me every day my family staff members team members thank you all so much i appreciate it we would like to present you with this certificate thank you and a belt with your name so that you can use it when it's necessary at the intermission we'll be taking pictures with you and all your family too so don't leave me okay thank you thank you very much [Applause] all right item 2.07 is um
010employee of the month and who has the oh mr gillilan thank you madam president today we recognize an employee in our school system whose work ethic reminds us of the song no one does it better because frankly no one does his job better than james selman custodian at corcoran middle school [Laughter] [Applause] mr salmon begins each day at six a.m placing cones out on the parking lot to assist with traffic rain or shine he then thoroughly goes through the building making sure everything is ready for a smooth school day for both teachers and students whenever there is a problem that needs his attention james always goes above and beyond to get the problem resolved he takes pride in his work knowing that the appearance of the school is his responsibility james is unfailingly courteous and
011professional to everyone with whom he interacts he strives for excellence in all tasks big and small and keeps working until things are completed to perfection james follows through on all requests no matter how trivial they might seem and responds to anything asked of him with willingness and maximum effort he exemplifies the high standard of customer service that aacps asks of its employees and always sets a positive professional tone in his interactions with others mr selman's contributions to the positive environment at corcoran don't stop with his meticulous care of the facility he interacts with students in a number of ways he is an amazing role model and mentor for the students at corcoran one can hear him every day telling students to do their best and stay positive and a strong piece of advice he gives
012to students are your actions or how others perceive you administrators at the school have told us that some students say that they are trying to do better in school because of mr salmon james salmon you are a perfect example of whatever of the whatever it takes approach that helps make corcoran a safe supportive positive environment for students staff and families if anyone were to receive an award for a positive attitude it would be you your constant smile positive attitude and happy demeanor are contagious the corcoran family feels lucky to have you on its team so on behalf of the board of education the students teachers and staff of the anne arundel county public schools we are pleased to recognize you as the employee of the month for december 2017. congratulations [Applause] [Music] a little surprised
013yes what did you believe you were here for today the moon furniture [Applause] no uh no back breaking work today um who uh we saw a few people came in if you'd like to introduce them that's my wife in the back ross and solomon [Applause] it all started from the great tutoring of diane hall we do have a citation for you uh there's the the speech i just gave that's there for you as well and the bell is engraved so you can bring it anybody with it whatever you need and we'll take a picture in a few minutes thank you congratulations [Applause] all right item 2.08 is volunteer of the month miss cole throughout aacps all of our schools are fortunate to have members of their community who devote their time to our students but
014some schools are truly privileged to have a volunteer that continuously exceeds all our expectations our december volunteer of the month has engaged all aspects of sunset elementary school and has successfully welcomed and encouraged other parents to become involved in school as well this effort has significantly increased staff and community involvement in the school this month the board is honored to recognize miss aaron bell pta president and devoted member of sunset elementary community as volunteer of the month as laura espinoza assistant principal stated mrs bell has been an asset to sunset elementary school and since her child enrolled she has jumped into supporting our parents teachers and students by serving as an officer on the pta board first as vice president and currently as president mrs bell works tirelessly to ensure that families and members of
015sunset elementary community are involved with the ongoings of the school through a monthly newsletter as well as a newly remodeled social media page as miss candida st john said aaron's enthusiasm for the entire school community is evident she works hard to achieve the mission and vision of sunset elementary and aacps miss bell also strives to communicate effectively and be a positive role model to all in the community mrs bell embodies teamwork and commitment to the school community says tony carr school principal ms carr also says that mrs bell has been actively involved in planning and providing innovative programs and activities for the entire school community she has successfully organized a variety of pta events to increase active family involvement at our school notably she is high supporter of teachers and staff at our school and
016recognizes their dedication in the education of students one example that is truly outstanding is the father-daughter dance that was held this winter for the first time at sunset elementary from the red carpet at the front door flowers for each of the girls in fairy tale decoration mrs bell led a team of volunteers to bring her vision to life the event was such a success that even the dj posted about it on social media saying that no other gig could compare to it and expressed that he was humbled and proud to be a part of it as ms espinoza said miss bell has set a vision of partnership between the community and school and through her positive and kind words and effective actions has built confidence in our school community and has been a catalyst to
017increase parent participation as well as staff involvement miss bell thank you for your exemplary volunteer work to benefit the students staff and family of sunset elementary school would you please come forward and with great appreciation i would like to present you with a volunteer certificate and bail to you [Applause] and how do they trick you to come here today some boring pyp representatives and who has come here to support you today um my husband and my friend with the pta lindsay and we've become great friends outside the pta so i'm very grateful for you i like had no idea this was actually okay thank you i would like to congratulate you and present you with a certificate and this bill to do whatever you please thank you and please stay afterwards for pictures congratulations thank
018you [Applause] item 2.09 is school and community highlights miss corbilek stay again mrs hummer and miss nelly and i had the opportunity to go visit the international education or welcome center located at the phoenix academy about a week ago and we were just so impressed by the staff and the lobby was full of folks who had been displaced from hurricane maria and they were coming in and getting welcomed and and situated here at aacps we're just grateful that we have that center available now mr gilliland thank you again madam president um i would just like to say i had the privilege of visiting the fall student artwork exhibition which was held at the maryland house of delegates building this past monday i could not stay for the entire event but i was able to tour
019the uh gallery that they had staged at the start of the event and the winner of the event was elizabeth kiley of sverner park high school and her piece was called gramps which i thought was just amazing but it really was a testament to the great creativity of our students statewide and you know certainly very special for aacps to have uh one of its own win the state award be presented uh by first lady yumi hogan miss nally early this morning i attended the scholarship for scholars uh meeting and uh this this group board of trustees was established many many years ago by former superintendent dr um ed anderson to uh use the sheet funds uh that can come to us through the state and it is it is over the years the group has
020provided over in excess of three million dollars in scholarships to anne arundel county public and private students and so it is really made a huge difference for our students debbie hardy who is the executive assistant announced her resignation this morning she's been working with scholarship for scholars for 17 years and she will as greg stiverson one of the board of trustees members said she will be very difficult if not impossible to replace i also want to thank the board of trustees this volunteer group and i want to commend south river high school as from out of the high schools who had the most applicants for scholarships they had over 76 applicants 76 applicants in 2017 and 57 received scholarships so this is um a commendation for the counselors and the people who really let the
021students know i know the board of trustees goes out and uh and i want to you know encourage all guidance counselors in their in their schools to let the students know get this information out because these scholarships uh are invaluable there's one worth six thousand dollars which was the ed anderson scholarship so they are excellent wonderful scholarships i also want to commend anne arundel county retired school personnel each year they give 12 thousand dollars to this organization to provide scholarships for students who are pursuing uh a degree in education and i think this is a remarkable way that our retired teachers they do a lot and that people don't even realize i'm one so i know what they do but anyway but they do a lot but this is one thing that i don't think
022is really maybe people don't know about but they do provide these scholarships for these worthy students so thank you very much scholarship for scholars for all that you do and thank you to the guidance counselors for for making sure that the students are aware of this opportunities thank you i want to echo what mr gilliland said we're talking about the great creativity and talent of our students in the county uh this past weekend i had the pleasure of attending an original play at annapolis high school lost in narnia this was a play written by a student directed by student everything was student-run and very ambitious and really was a great opportunity for the kids and a really fine result for it so really enjoyed that and i know all of our schools across county just
023do amazing drama and artwork and so as we get into play season and concert season i encourage everyone to go to your local school and check it out even beginning strings concerts because someday they will be seniors and they will sound better [Laughter] so item 2.10 is the cac report good morning melanie tiger chair of the cac uh we continue to meet the second monday of each month 7 to 9 p.m here in the board room like last year we won't meet in december because of the busyness of the month and to let our subcommittees get started so our next meeting will be monday 8th january we will have matt stansky i saw him over there present the budget to us which is just in time for the public hearings and workshops so that's good
024timing to have that in january he's been gracious enough to do that the last few years and it's really one of our favorite meetings of the year i feel like we learned so much at that budget meeting so thank you for your willingness to do that we also appreciate dr alato's visit in october where he presented the strategic plan to us which of course is before the board today we've got a really great committee this year those board members that have made it to meetings have seen we have really engaged members and they're eager to disseminate information on behalf of the board and the county and to filter feedback back in an effort to help get the word out next week kelly pernell our vice chair and i will be doing a parent connect cable
025tv interview with teresa tudor so we'll be filming that and i don't know exactly when it will be coming out but watch for that so we hope to get some information out about the cac that way as well common issues we've heard about this year won't be a surprise to anyone in this room we do still continue to hear about the school calendar and school hours overcrowding in schools is a hot topic now social and emotional wellness of students i'll get to more of that in a minute but it was really great to see one of our social workers be recognized this morning and that's addressing some of the things that we're hearing about and then transportation we do appreciate the board and the staff's willingness to work with us on answering questions so as
026you know we have sent specific questions both to people in the staff and the board and have gotten very helpful answers that we've been able to get back to the community and we appreciate that as you'll see from the list of subcommittees some of these are things that we will work on so we have finalized our committees for the year just last week we have populated all of those and there are five the first one is a continuing committee from last year that has been renamed slightly with a focus partially based on the strategic plan and conversation with dr alato that we are focusing on social emotional wellness of students so we have a core of committee members that are experts in mental health life skills preparations high risk student populations and so we're hoping
027to learn more about the services provided by the school to help get the word out to the community about those programs to identify cluster specific best practices so that we can share those with other clusters and then perhaps identify any gaps if they exist in services so to that end we did have the director of student services who i see back there um he came out to our november meeting which was really helpful to to educate all of our committee and to help that subcommittee get started our second committee is focused on we don't really quite know what to name it but school overcrowding and community development relationships so both of our mr gilliland and mrs hummer um when you came that was an area of interest as as as all of us know we
028have many new students um and and having the staff to follow has been a challenge for multiple reasons so the board and staff have helped us already to learn about how the community development process in the county has allowed an increase in student populations that's contributed to overcrowding in some areas so what our committee wants to do is to help educate the community about how that happens with respect to community development and then advocate for the school system as appropriate to ameliorate those impacts related to that our third committee is a little bit broader is based on advocacy in general so related to school overcrowding but a little bit broader we have many members who are just really eager to work with our community to advocate for our schools and so we're trying to figure
029out ways to do that we're aware that by cac policy we are limited in how we can lobby on issues and we'll work carefully with teresa and the board to make sure we follow all of those policy guidelines and the vision isn't to lobby per se but to really mobilize community stakeholders to help advocate for our schools that's really the vision of that of that committee and then our last two the fourth one is on college and career readiness really focusing on the great programs that exist throughout our county already and to help disseminate those best practices and our experience with the cac will find one high school cluster does some really neat things with respect to college and career readiness and we're just hoping to maybe collate those and help get the word out
030and and use the resources already provided by the school system and make sure that those are that word about those are getting out and then finally we have a long-standing committee on equity we will continue that work the focus isn't set uh specifically yet they will get with the equity office which has had some changes over the last few months in personnel we want to make sure that our focus is in line with that office and with with the board as well so we definitely would appreciate input on um items of interest from the board as well so our committee work is just getting started like i said we just finalized those on one december so we'll be getting started on that and then look forward to updating you in the coming months on on
031what we find thank you thank you item 2.11 is pta report hello i was i was also in shock congratulations bell thank you for making the pta what it is i hope people will follow your lead and that you will be a great example and i would love to talk to you about maybe you know joining us here at the aac pta you know we always need great leaders like you to continue to promote the ptas as you can see it's a great addition to the schools so thank you very much i'm so happy i was here this morning okay so that makes me my leeway even easier so audits are done every school if they still need any help we are here to help just send us an email and we'll respond as soon
032as possible we also encourage all ptas to please file with the irs as we want to continue to maintain their status we don't want to lose that please reach out i try my best to answer all emails as fast as i can and if not we do have a meeting next tuesday here at this building at 5 30 and i will be here even if nobody else shows up and if you need any help i can help you out also the maryland pta is very gracious has been having a lot of trainings for our treasurers audits treasurers so we do have one tonight and it's a webinar so you can be in your pjs and one on the 14th so no excuse to my treasurers and ptas who are listening to please take it seriously
033because we do benefit a lot as a school having ptas as our example ms bell and of course other schools that i am very proud of listening and hearing and seeing on their twitter pages and facebook the wonderful work they do for our children every day so i encourage them to continue to do that and that they know that i am very grateful to be up here representing them so thank you very much that's all my updates thank you okay we're now going to take a short break so that we can have photos taken with our employee volunteer and educators of the month so if all those folks would head to the lobby and we'll be back here in about 10 minutes [Music] uh [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] do [Music]
034so [Music] do [Music] do [Music] me [Music] so [Music] so [Music] okay we're going to start back up is it not on can you hear me now no oh there we go thank you miss howell all right we will now move on to public comment anyone wishing to speak on an item not on today's agenda may offer testimony during this public comment portion of the meeting speakers are allotted three minutes each and may not allocate their time to others a tone will sound when time has expired the board asks that comments remain civil and appropriate for the various audiences that may be watching or viewing this meeting student specific and personnel matters are confidential and cannot be discussed in this forum it is not the board's general practice to engage in question and answer session
035with speakers for the record please give your name before speaking and handouts should be given to the board assistant so first tracy henderson jimmy arbogast janet taff and that will be the first batch good morning thank you for welcome my name is tristan henderson i'm a proud mother of jones elementary school um i have um i'm starting i have a question you know concerned of students within the school districts for the state of maryland because number one is do not know what's covered on the test was coming home from school okay lately i have noticed that oh my son you know came home from school you know and the test was kind of confused for the math no math cause and i know for a fact that okay the department of education has changed the
036guard that's confused with the parents okay right now i want to know the scale i have noticed that it was 59 percent in the reading with the nampa snack and the math and science and history okay i know that this district has tried to improve the education for these kids and i feel like okay we have time yeah to start at home and when they're in school it's a different step i noticed that you know a lot of change as far as the testing goes we just probably do not know with coverage on the test okay and the test is now confusing the kids because if they're going to learn a new way of math we want to know the formula the new way of math and how we can work with our children at
037home to teach them without the children coming home with the like i say the study guide the review for the study for the test some of the teachers are not uh giving the students that information to bring home this is why i'm addressing the board because something needs to be changed okay now i know that the old gray scales like a is okay 899 a are not a star on it's b you know be okay if they're going to do the great that way we would like to know that way okay with them changing and telling us uh the other way or it's confusing we want to know whether i shall improve in reading and math and where they you know address you know i want to address that option to me that's why i'm
038here you know because without me not noise uh what's covered on the task just like for example the teacher gave the kids the testing this comes from department education where they had to uh stuck in an answer on okay now the question is some of the answers to the question is not related to the question it's been arrows and i feel that something needs to be done stuff that needs to be fixed you know something needs to be fixed on that they need to do something about that because i noticed that in the textbook that my uh child had brought home and uh they had used it like any proper world when i say a proper world okay like i'm america okay i am african-american okay but there are jews in the divine time on
039our ask our history okay like they're saying that they're trying to say that we are slaves okay i don't like the way they use it because it's like it's not taught in school in school because it's like there's no building in school you know because if they use that word like slave or use the n-word in school what's that they i think they don't you know they're pushing the child to become a business you know and miss henderson um thank you that time's up dr our lotto go ahead i'm glad i'm letting her translate ms anderson thank you for coming in would you do me a favor and meet with our assistant superintendent for curriculum instruction so she can talk one-on-one with you about what your concerns are yeah thank you thank you thank you
040all right good morning members of council i'm jim arba gas i think some of you already know about me by now i've been in the news a couple of times i'm highlighting some incidents going on southern high school i'm the father of a transgender student who was targeted earlier this month actually last month by a group of bullies calling themselves confederate lives matter while this may have been the highlight that made the news i assure you this wasn't the first incident and certainly wasn't the last incident of bullying and targeting against transgender children in my school uh i will admit that my initial knee-jerk reaction was to blame southern high school and look at it now i know that wasn't the case moving forward i want to acknowledge first that uh the board members some
041board members did actually email me and respond to my emails when i first brought up my concerns i believe that the school board itself is the one notified the police and that's what started the initial investigation i also want to highlight that i was contacted on the 30th of november by the regional superintendent for the southern cluster to which i did reply and i expressed some of my concerns about change in policy i've yet to hear from him the maryland attorney general's office for civil rights reached out to again the school board the maryland state school board and the regionals and county school board who in turn i did reach was contacted by the deputy superintendent for students yesterday afternoon and she wants to set up a meet and discuss changes at southern high school
042my goal is not to change southern high school i admit southern high school is just one factor moving forward i want to encourage the school system as a whole to set up a true policies true guidelines that is universal throughout our school i look at our school system arundel high school is probably a good example of principal and staff taking a lead taking reins on how to protect these transgender children meet high school is another good example however i believe the administration at both the middle and high school levels don't know how to treat transgenders because they don't have a clear guidance they don't have their left and right boundaries realize the lgbt community especially transgender community transcend race sex religion and even republican democrat whatever they are out there these kids are the silent
043the silent ones that are going to school every day they don't want to highlight themselves they don't want to be targeted they don't want to show that they were born in one sex and they are definitely another sex they want to go about their lives however they are day by day ever growing being targeted for hatred for physical abuse for physical violence and in some cases rape however i believe the school systems and schools themselves should be that safe that neutral place for these kids to go educate themselves go and do good things and also be able to confide with their teachers and staff if there's something going on both at home both in school or both in the public and i'm asking for change there are two good support groups in this state p
044flag of maryland and glsen that'd be more than happy they're both non-profits that would be more happy to come here and help educate this board members and staff of the schools on how to treat and respect these transgender children i'm not asking for a big change i'm certainly not ex asking you to accept my child and his decisions by asking you to protect the children and help educate these children harvest thank you for coming in um uh and i i know that as you said you've met with school staff um and i know that you recently as as early as yesterday wasn't we're in contact with our deputy superintendent mrs jackson i know you're setting up a meeting i don't know that you are aware that we were if i'm not mistaken the first school
045system in the state to develop guidelines to support transgender students i am and those are those are guidelines that we that we say are dynamic meaning we need to change them and improve them and get better as we learn more and better ways to support our students so if you've not had a chance to review those please do and then you can help us provide and certainly in the meeting and i know that mrs jackson asked you yesterday for specifics what are some of those specific things that we can get better at and not just supporting your son i know you're advocating for all of our transgender students so uh if you can help us with those specifics those are dynamic while they're written down and they're posted on our website um and we made
046them very public and we've started and we started when we developed those guidelines we started professional development for our teachers and administrators and we're going to continue to do that but they are dynamic we need to learn more um from students from parents from others we've been in contact with a number of the other support groups glsen and others so that we can learn more and improve our guidelines so i look forward to learning more about the conversation you have at the school with our deputy superintendent thank you so thank you for your continued support thank you good morning my name is janet taff i have been a resident of tracy's landing for 30 years i live in a tight-knit community with great neighbors who have children at southern my children are grown and my
047daughter is a fourth grade teacher in chicago she shares much information me with me about anti-bullying and i've been there and helped her set up her classroom and signs are everywhere and there's no tolerance for bullying i am here to support the arbegas family i have not met them until today their son has been the victim of harassment and bullying at southern i know about this through the capitol newspaper i have been in contact with miss corbilak who encouraged me to come and speak out if i felt comfortable this is not my thing that i typically do but i'm happy to be here and and let you know that the community does care about this child and all children at southern and other schools mrs kerberlock told me about the investigation but i do not
048fully understand the privacy laws protecting the perpetrators but it appears there is silence as to the consequences of the actions towards the victim if parents are to talk to their children at southern as suggested in the letter that was sent home after the article appeared in the paper and i want to highlight that was after the article appeared in the paper the parents were asked to talk to their children and what do they tell their children at southern what are the consequences if something is done rather than just talking to them they need to know what's going to happen if you do something you bully you spit on somebody you disrespect them my background is health care specifically dental care and i am big on prevention what is being done to prevent future harassment such
049such as the attack on ryan arbogast everyone should feel safe at school and i hope that some of the things you're talking about i learned a lot this morning about what has happened with the transgender situation but what i'm looking at is more in the way of prevention so this doesn't continue to happen not just taking this one incident but i certainly support them and their son totally but i would like to know um what's going on and it seems that because of these privacy laws and rules that we don't get that information i printed out this thing that's the policy from the board of education of anne arundel county about student records and i had some questions when i looked at this because it's talking about it reminds me of the hipaa information i'm
050familiar with in healthcare that we all have to sign but what this talks about in one at one point under this section d um make available to parent legal guardian or eligible student who would be ryan in conferences with appropriate school personnel and to make these records available so i don't know why the information is withheld um i know it has to do with the age and all that and i certainly don't know the law about it but i was just printing this out to familiarize myself with it so i appreciate your time and all that you do thank you dr aladdin thank you um and and thank you for supporting being here and supporting the arby gas we have a student code of conduct and maybe we can that's posted on our website maybe
051we can share that with you so that okay perfect all right so you're well aware so there are consequences we don't identify students and consequences publicly those are things those are private like we would go like we're looking to protect all of our students both the victims and the perpetrators and so that's not information but but there are consequences the schools take those seriously in all in all cases and file the student code of conduct and contact the police when necessary right thank you thank you miss taft all right um next group is patricia mathis priscilla smith pilot earl smith randy williams and mike shay good morning i'm patricia mathis i live in annapolis and i'm a retired teacher i'm here today to ask you to speak out against the construction of a cell tower
052at shadyside elementary the international agency for research on cancer classified rf radiation as a possible human carcinogen in 2011. since then the national toxicology program study found exposure to wireless radiation increased the prevalence of malignant heart and brain cancers in rodents and so in 2016 the american academy of pediatrics issued recommendations to reduce cell photo cell phone exposures just recently maryland became the first state to respond to the new u.s study linking wireless radiation to cancer the maryland state children's environmental health and protection advisory council issued recommendations to reduce radio frequency radiation to students in classrooms to as low as reasonably possible the council cited the recent u.s national toxicology program findings of increased nash of increased malign cancers in animals as well as children's unique vulnerability to the radiation while several countries already have
053such protective measures maryland is the first state to have a state body issue protective recommendations so why is this school board not responding to the maryland children's environmental health and protection council's call to reduce rf exposure to children in schools instead you're adding more by endorsing a tower near the playground isn't it the job of the school board to consider the issues brought before it aren't you supposed to help us fix the problems instead when we talk about this issue you just say we don't agree how could you not at least consider the possibility that you might be making a mistake in the face of all of the studies and organizations who are citing the dangers and risks in november 2014 in a unanimous decision the mayor and city council of greenbelt maryland sent a
054letter to prince george's county administration opposing the construction of cell towers on school properties in the city the mayor said it's basically a way of raising money and that's not the way to raise money cell phone company there could be a serious financial risk to putting up a tower on school grounds what liability insurance does the board and department have cell phone companies are informing their shareholders that there's a financial risk due to health issues one example crown castle company wrote in the 216 annual report to its shareholders quote the potential connection between our radio frequency emissions and certain negative health effects including some forms of cancer has been the subject of substantial study by the scientific community in recent years we cannot guarantee that claims relating to rf emissions will not arise in the
055future or that the results of such studies will not be adverse to us end quote thank you miss mathis oh yeah a little juggling thanks okay do i i don't have to do anything huh okay um my name is priscilla smith from shadyside uh my family neighbors and i have been coming here for the past few months speaking out against the proposed cell tower at shadyside elementary school and we've presented numerous current medical studies and clear community opposition i'm here again because unfortunately this board has yet to do anything to help us and the decision is still in your hands your response to our concerns so far have been that you don't share our concerns on the other hand you have you actually have a full-time employee dedicated to helping milestone put towers on school
056grounds who do you work for milestone or the public the american academy of pediatric has changed their official recommendations for rf exposure on their website they recommend that the us government tighten wireless exposure limits and that the public reduce children's exposure to cell phone tower radiation the american academy of pediatrics states that children are not little adults and they are disproportionately impacted by all environmental exposures including rf radiation they continue to state that current fcc standards do not account for the unique vulnerability specific to children and that it is essential that any new standard should be based on protecting the youngest and most vulnerable populations to ensure that they are safeguarded throughout their lifetimes in fact our very own maryland state advisory council on children's environmental health and protection issued recommendations to reduce radio frequency
057radiation to students in classrooms to as low as reasonably possible but as you can see school districts are not acting on these expert public health recommendations why not if you do not share my concerns then you are also saying that you do not share the concerns of the american academy of pediatrics or the maryland state advisory council on children's environmental health and protection putting a cell tower on school grounds directly violates the mission of your board to protect children and violates the trust of the children you're working for in no way can you comply with the clear recommendations of the american academy of pediatrics to reduce children's rf exposure and continue to put cell towers on school grounds in maryland i'm asking you to reevaluate and cancel those deals you have with milestone and len
058forecast and stop putting cell towers on school grounds in maryland please thank you thank you miss smith my name is pilot earl smith and i live in shadyside i want to know why you are putting cell towers at schools i live right next to shadyside elementary school i am a kid that will be forced to live under a cell tower nobody asked me if that was okay if medical doctors are telling you to reduce radiation for children then why are you not listening living next to a school should be the safest place to grow up what are you doing to help me thank you pilot hi i'm randy williams and um i just gave you a handout of a letter from dr martha herbert dr martha herbert is a pediatric neurologist and a neuroscientist she's
059at the massachusetts general hospital and on the faculty of the harvard school of medicine she wrote a paper to review literature looking for a potential link between electromagnetic frequencies and autism spectrum disorders in a letter to the los angeles united unified school district she in 2013 she wrote the following and that's all in the paper i'm just giving you some quotes there are thousands of papers that have accumulated over decades and are now accumulating at an increased accelerated pace as our ability to measure impact becomes more sensitive that document excuse me that document adverse health and neurological impacts of emf emf from wireless wi-fi and cell towers can exert a disorganizing effect on the ability to learn and remember and can also be destabilizing to the immune and metabolic functions those are her quotes that
060are in the letter that i gave you so um please review this letter she said she stated uh 550 citations of studies that were done in her document she wrote a study a 60 page document reviewing the cases um but please review this because uh this basically tells us that there is absolute definite scientific studies out there that tell us that cell phone cell towers are not safe and increasing the wireless capacity of our classrooms is extremely dangerous and while we're looking at that i know they're putting the addition on to shadyside elementary school and since i'm on the pto and i really care about the children maybe we can just look at hardwiring those classes and not adding any more wi-fi to a school that doesn't need it thank you very much thank you
061miss williams mike shea and i'd like to speak to the process and transparency the senior manager of the school system would know the process and would know that he was not accurate when he promised our community an up or down vote this last september the senior manager of your planning knew that our written questions for milestone were never answered even after he repeatedly asked milestone for them to answer our written questions the senior managing manager planning new milestones required public meeting account was not accurate and a representation of what happened he was there it was billed as a community informational meeting and still the community's questions are not answered these are the exact reasons prince george's county dismissed milestone from doing business in prince george's county but for our anne arundel county school board this
062is business as usual you've aligned yourself with milestone a company that's thrown out of prince george's county for reasons that you continue to ignore and defend the majority of the anne arundel county school board is on the wrong side of safety for our children the wrong side of history the wrong side of process and the wrong side of transparency you've overworked you've overreached the system on behalf of milestone for no direct benefit to students and by most educated accounts endangered their health you've also dodged accountability by not voting in front of the public i'd like to give you an update on our community and parents being locked out of the pto and now closed out some of the anne arundel county school board administration has claimed dependents independence from the pto there is plenty of
063written and implied relationship that exists we've talked in the past about the lock out of our parents with the assistance of the school board the school principal in shadyside i will share with you that the locked out has now turned to closed out the executive board of the pto voted unanimously to disregard the request of 12 new members to create a standing committee on health and safety the principal is a member of the executive committee this was an important and reasonable request by the parents that wish to focus and work on the most important issue for our children parents expect and assume this issue of health and safety is being addressed by the pto and it is not it is being shunned thank you mr shea cj mushah and kina armagast am i saying that
064correctly is it kina i didn't is it is it kina it is kina okay thank you go ahead and start okay great thank you so much for having me here today my name is cj muscha and i live in mayo maryland i'm here to talk about the cyber bullying and physical bullying taking place at southern just as a community member and advocate of equality there has been quite a lot of violence going on and a number of folks from the community have spoken up and reached out and offered support to the school to the county council and now to the school board and we're really happy to have your ear the gay straight alliance at southern high school has also spoken up and asked for the opportunity to speak before the student body and humanize
065some of the aspects that other students may have trouble relating to or not have a lot of exposure to unfortunately that request a pretty simple request was denied um and i don't want to single out southern because we're all a community and nobody should be left alone in this either the school or the board or the actual individuals targeted or doing the targeting this is something we work on as a unit the students targeted and the students who are doing the targeting are really voicing a need for our guidance as a community at a minimum some basic anti-bullying education would be a wonderful way to start really a wonderful way to start and there's a lot of resources available to us after crofton elementary school experienced a traumatizing hate crime incident at their school the
066community government and local churches student body everybody came together in a show of loving kindness for the students in school and folks that used the facilities from that effort kindness grows here nonprofit has been developed and also offers some really amazing anti-bullying workshops in the community the principal at crofton is having that workshop take place at the school the workshop was developed based on extensive social service and experience supporting youth and young adult psychology and wellness and i think it would be a great place for southern to start as well and something easy that they could kind of take advantage of that's already going on in the community thank you thank you miss michelle hi my name is kina arbogast you heard from my husband jimmy previously my son is ryan he is a transgender
067student at southern high school he's been a victim of both in-person bullying cyber bullying physical threats among other things unfortunately in our community i'm here today to ask you guys to step up both the guidelines on transgender students as one they are not sufficient they do not meet the needs of the students uh and also to ask that their information be completed unfortunately many of the staff members we have come across are both not aware of the guidelines participly existing and the ones who are aware that they exist don't know either what they say what they mean or how to actually execute what they say from a safety standpoint and my my understanding of the guidelines there's really not anything in there that protects these lgbtq students although um sorry train of thought i know
068that our students fall under title nine and i don't see anything written in the guidelines that refers to that i know that's something important that historically has protected you know children on sex discrimination however i don't see in the guidelines anything referred to that all the things i sent you thank you um so that's my poll at title nine um as far as the staff the guidelines the staff needs training um as far as lgbt concerns as far as what their students are experiencing what what it means to be that student and what they experience in their school environment what their needs are from the teachers from the staff from a safety standpoint is is my biggest concern right now is that these students are not being protected you know again because the the staff
069the teachers don't understand the guidelines and also because the guidelines do not have safety safety you know safety codes written within them safety zones one of the things for that should be in the guidelines which some schools such as arundel high school have is something called safety zones which for any student is a place where they can go and they can be removed from a bullying situation regardless of the reason for the bullying yeah i think that covers that as far as the training for that as my husband said earlier there's wonderful resources within the community one of them being pflag another one being glsen so if you could take the time and help us get those those resources and that training in order to keep all of our children safe thank you miss arbocast
070is there any other public comment okay to item 4.01 which is um an information to action item do i have a motion to move this from information to action all is favor dr allata your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend that the board of education approve uh the contract for professional engineering design and construction administration services for the parking lot and bus loop expansion at arundel middle school are there any board questions or comments any public comment all those in favor motion passes okay item 5.00 is the 2017-2018 board of education meeting dates mr gilliland thank you madam president i move that the board of education general session on january 24th 2018 scheduled for 10 a.m be changed to an evening meeting beginning at 7 00 p.m are there any board comments miss corbilak my only
071concern with um switching it today i i know that i personally can't be here at that evening meeting i can be here for the day meeting and mr reinhart and mr granny aren't here to weigh in so if by chance they're not available either we would be down to a five person meeting which means everybody would have to vote in unanimously for anything that we're trying to pass i understand we won't have our newest board member until february so that's my only concern about the switch i don't have any concerns about the switch but i want the public to basically know that the consideration of the board to change it to an evening meeting is because most of it is budget and even though it has been public already that the budget has discussed at
072that meeting we would be making some type of decisions so that they are no actually it's not that it will not be that it's not the budget meeting we will pr prior to that in the two weeks prior to that we will have two public budget hearings and a public budget workshop but the 24th january 24th meeting will not be to vote on the budget we simply would like to move it to an evening meeting because we try each month to have a day meeting and evening meeting to reach more people and the previous the earlier meeting of the month is a day meeting so this would be for that so it would not be a budget meeting there will be other business going on but we won't be voting on the budget that night
073okay okay any other comments all right all those in favor opposed okay motion passes 5-1 item 5.01 is administrative personnel appointments dr alato your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend the personnel listed on the attach sheets be promoted and or appointed are there any questions or comments okay all those in favor motion passes six zero um item five point zero two is personnel um dr charlata your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend the board approve the actions as stipulated on the attached sheets okay um are there any board questions or comments all those in favor motion passes six zero item 5.03 is an information item policy and we have a lot of policy today go for it ms ortiz second readings good morning for the record jeannette ortiz legislative and policy council so we have item 5.03
074is board membership policy b-a-a it's on second reading i did want to point out that at the last when this was this policy was on first reading it was requested that i insert sunset language to make it clear that after a certain date different provisions of the policy would go into effect without the board having to take action and just to give a little bit of background on that baa is being amended as a result of new state law which will ultimately create a fully elected school board so that has caused us to have to update some of our board policies and this one on board membership so you will see on the bottom of the first page here under position item two i added it's similar to what the general assembly does with sunset
075language i had to tweak it a little bit which basically says that the policy language will remain effective until december 2nd 2018 and then at the end of that with no further action by the board the new policy language will take effect and that follows on the second page i on the second page where it says the composition of the board shall change beginning december 3rd at such time the board will move toward a composition so that of seven non-partisan elected members that will move forward language because it won't be a full elected board as of december 3rd so that moved toward encompasses exactly and so i was trying to wear that in the way even though the law says we now have a fully elected school board you know as of june 1st when
076it went into effect that's not technically accurate because the first elections are in 200 2018 and then we will have three more elections in 2022 so it's not until 2022 that we will truly have a fully elected school board so i put it i put that language moving towards the fully elected school board just to kind of address that that some will be elected but some will still have been and they're appointed okay positions are there any other board questions or comments and this is a second reading and this will come before us for vote the next meeting yes correct all right item 5.04 so policy b a b board powers and duties again was um this was not affected as far as having to do any sunset language and the change here was some
077stylistic changes but specifically under position there was reference to the education article of the maryland code however because we're now moving towards an elected school board we are also under the election article so i just put in accordance with state law just to be accurate but that's in effect once it goes there's no future effective date on this particular policy are there any board questions or comments any public comment okay this one will be coming back to us next month yes next meeting correct item 5.05 so policy bb appointment qualification qualifications in term of office this is similar to baa in that some provisions take effect now once the board finalizes and improves the policy changes and then other provisions will take effect december 2nd 2018 so if you see on page 3 of 7
078of the policy at the bottom item five i inserted the same sunset language that i uh inserted in policy baa are there any board questions or comments any public comment we'll see this back first third reading yes the next meeting item 5.06 this is policy bfa board policy dissemination i don't have to make any additional changes to this one so again it's just um updating how we disseminate our policies and regulations to the public okay any board questions or comments any public comments okay see it back here next meeting yes correct item 5.07 so this is a student fund raising make sure i have the right one in front of me yep student fundraising call c-k-e and this was just updating um policy that was very dated and just reorganizing it and updating it to
079current practices are there any board questions or comments any public comment and so far none of these have received any public comment when posted on correct yes okay all right we'll see this one back next week meeting yes thank you um item 5.08 so this is a dj funding proposals grants and special requests you may recall at the last meeting on first reading i explained that we have currently four different standalone policies dealing with substantially similar things so a group of us met to determine the most efficient way to have this information out there for the public and so policies dja djb and djc were consolidated into a new policy dj and the accompanying regulations were consolidated into the dj ra regulation are there any board questions or comments any public comment okay we'll see
080it back next meeting item 5.09 okay so this uh this is policy kd visitors to the schools i know there were some questions and clarifications that were requested of this policy on first reading so you will know under the purpose on page one of the policy i inserted language to make it clear that we are dealing with school visitors during the school day i also included or other bona fide school activities that is language that has used in the education article in state law i know there was a concern expressed of you know what if it's an activity that's happening outside of the normal school day so that i think will encompass everything we needed to it makes it clear this is for school regular school functions and those were the that was the only
081i did the same for the regulation as well my apologies um on the purpose of page one of the regulation i inserted the same language just to clarify that okay are there any questions or comments on this policy any public comment all right there was oh wait i'm sorry ms sasso i want to go back to the word shall was it basically pinpointed anywhere that for us shall is must yeah so i spoke to tyson about this and i know that the board has discussed you know what terms should be used to indicate that something is required and so what was determined prior to my arriving at aacps and what is consistent with state law drafting is that shell is a must and a requirement there are instances in state law which [Music] must is
082used if it's something like you must be sort of for the election the school board the new elected school board you must be a resident of anne arundel county to to run for you know the elected school board but other than that it's very limited when the state uses must shell is is what is used and may is just optional and may not is really shall not so that's um so i did speak to tyson about that at prairie requests miss sasso and he did agree that we are using the proper language and we've been consistent throughout our policies and regulations and in the older policies and regulations that i come across where shal is not being used i've updated it so that we are consistent because we don't want inconsistencies as that could create
083questions as to our true intent so it is known that our intent for shot is a must it's a requirement yes yes and that is um used in state law and regulation drafting as well and um state law i actually created my own little drafting manual to help me draft and i've put that in there the definition of what shall is and then the state has a drafting manual and it explicitly states what shall means what may means and what must mean thank you you're welcome and i just wanted to say there was one public comment on kd and it was just someone i believe it was a either reading specialist as one of the school staff just asking about the provision in the regulation where it states that you know on page two of
084three item six that parents who wish to create an audio recording of a meeting with school personnel would have to request permission of the school principal and she was just asking for clarification of that and i was able to answer her question she was satisfied with my answers all right let's see this one back at the next meeting yes thank you all right item 5.10 so this takes us back to these are rescinding of policies and they relate to policy dj um and as we've done in the past you may recall we did it with materials of instruction over the summer policy ih where because we were consolidating policies and regulations to one new policy and regulation the other policies that have now been sort of transferred over are no longer needed so once the
085board approves the final version of policy dj at that time i would ask that you also vote to resend policies dja djv and djc as they were they will be incorporated into policy dj are there any board questions or comments one any public comment all right we'll see that one back on the 20th yes item 5.11 okay so we have policy iih quarterly assessments at the division of curriculum instruction office of school performance division of advanced studies and programs and instructional data division are bringing policy iih quarterly assessments before you for first reading this policy was last revised on november 4th 2015. the updated policy removes the language regarding waiver of the quarterly assessment in the fourth marking period and keeps this process in the regulation where truly belongs the regulation has been updated to
086allow only seniors who are in ap or ib courses to take an i and take an iap or ib exam the option to waive the quarterly assessment in the fourth marking period this change will would take effect in the 2018-2019 school year the policy will be posted on our website for 30 days for public comment and we can answer any questions you may have mr gillan thank you um my my question is not necessarily about the changes for the policy but just within the policy the and and i know it's in the reg as well the the comment about uh superintendent's designee um uh allows the the farm students to to not have to pay for ap or ib exams um is is is there a way that that's done with some discretion or you
087know something that's discreet so that um it's not widely known you know so that students can do that without fear of others knowing i think michelle batten can answer that for you yes the answer is yes that is done discreetly through the counselor's office and the administrators there any other questions or comments any public comment all right so we'll see this one back in after the 30-day problem with the 30-day period and that was a lot for you today but that's it thank you thank you very much all right item 5.1 [Music] is an action item maryland open meetings act trainee designation mr gillilan thank you madam president i move that the board named julie hummer stacey corbilek and colin reinhardt as official maryland open meeting act designees of the board of education of anne
088arundel county second are there any forward comments on this this is a new provision of the law and um once board members have received training they can then be designated as the destiny and mrs corbilek mr reinhardt and i all completed the training so that's why it is now coming before you and so all those in favor motion passes sorry my my quiz off um dr arlatta your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend board approval of these courses beginning with the 2017-2018 school year all right and i believe no we do not have so are there any board questions or comments regarding these new courses okay any public comments all right all those in favor all right motion passes 6-0 okay item 5.14 is an information action item do i have a motion to move this
089from information to action second dr lotto your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend board approval the brockbridge elementary school deed and deed of easement second all right and are there any board questions or comments all right well i'll have one this is just in a little sliver of the corner of the property is that correct yes ma'am for the record alex shack knows chief operating officer one of the slivers is so little it's 0.012 acres i believe so it's it's a corner it's a street corner is there any public comments so all those in favor motion passes 6-0 all right item 5.15 [Music] um this superintendent's recommendations on redistricting this is an information item and we have a do i do your recommendation first presentation we have a presentation good morning president hummer vice president gillian
090members of the board dr alato for the record i'm lisa seaman crawford director of facilities and with me is greg stewart senior manager of planning and alex shaknovic in accordance with board policy jaa and regulation j-a-a-r-a the superintendent is required to submit to the board his recommendation for redistricting no later than the first board meeting in december the board will review the superintendent's recommendation along with any board member proposal and by the end of january determine which option or options will go forward to a public hearing at the board meeting following the public hearing but no later than april 30th the board shall make an announcement make and announce its decision in public session there are two redistricting proposals in your packet the first is an option to alleviate projected overcrowding at macarthur middle school
091due to continued enrollment growth this option is proposed to go into effect in the 2018-2019 school year the second proposal is following the completion of george cromwell elementary school renovation in addition moving the kindergarten students currently attending ferndale early education center back to george cromwell elementary george cromwell will return to a k-5 facility pre-k students at hilltop would then be reassigned to ferndale early education center relieving the overcrowded at hilltop elementary school and this proposal will go into effect for the and 2021 school year and mr stewart will provide a little more details on the proposals before you good morning greg stewart for the record if you turn to the beginning of the packet you'll see two colored maps that is the the current middle school boundaries for mead middle and macarthur and maryland city
092the catchment area for the maryland city elementary school currently goes to macarthur middle and what we're trying to do is basically unify that area if you look on exhibit two it basically makes that area of the maryland city community as one to all go into one middle school so we're basically balancing it from the enrollment projections and we're also geographically making the whole place unified so that's the the general um redistricting it's again the maryland city entire catchment area into from macarthur to me middle there are two other pieces in that um there are grandfathering option for those rising seventh graders uh they would be given the option to remain at macarthur middle if they choose and the second part of that uh is the because a macarthur is a um ib program middle years
093those students that are currently enrolled as a sixth grader in that program they would be given a preference to continue in that system and that's that's the other recommendation for this and again their summary you'll see the community's recommendation also i'd like to thank the committee they did you know a lot of work in the two basically two different meetings that we had and also my staff scott shuler and mark lucas helped them put together some of the exhibits and and background for it the other redistricting is the if we flip forward a little bit is the ferndale it's actually three schools involved is the ferndale early education center and as lisa mentioned uh moving the once george cromwell which is currently under construction is to move those students back in the 2020 school year
094and once we do that we'll actually be able to programmatically move the pre-k students from hilltop down to ferndale which helps hilltop out and the other part of this there is a small area at the if you look at the map kind of back in the in your packet you'll see a a map there's a small area in the bottom that currently it represents not currently nine students and those students actually walk to george cromwell but in order to walk there they actually they walk through the hilltop attendance zone then have to cross over the overpass of 97 to get there and the idea is to incorporate that into the hilltop um district and that way it would be all-inclusive our transportation division has gone out to the site uh there is a crossing guard
095that goes over welum avenue and they felt it was a safe route to school and it would improve that situation those students that are living there there is also a provision for grandfathering for those rising 4th graders and the only difference again if if you read the committee's recommendation uh there is we have a slightly different recommendation uh than they had uh they were saying all the people that currently live in those homes would continue to go to george cromwell but if somebody moved in a new family moved in or somebody who just started school they would actually have to go to hilltop and we didn't think that was an appropriate we thought if we're going to redistrict we need to move them all at the same time and um with that we'll take any
096questions you want to have mr gilliland thank you madam president and and thank you for this um uh in in broad terms i i like what i see um i i just had a couple of um questions that i think are within the scope or are charged with this but hopefully the clarification will help and this page isn't numbered but it's um i guess we'll call it exhibit one within the the ferndale cromwell hilltop packet the color map and this little patch of blue the overlook area that's within the the hilltop uh boundaries i'm just from a logistical perspective and again i know that's not necessarily within today's charge but um can't we do something better with that um i i just i just feel like the the buses are you know going all the
097way over here and then going all the way back over there whereas um you know we've got north glen that that appears at least on the map to be a stone's throw and then certainly you know it's within the hilltop area adjacent to the north glen area and overlook is just way the heck over there so i guess just getting some clarification on that certainly ella check the chief operating officer so we're going to take a look a more comprehensive approach to that we've got the richard henry lee school that you can see just at the bottom element of that page and some other capital improvements that are in the works or or contemplated so the charge of this committee specifically was with respect to our capital improvement program at cromwell but we're going to
098peel that onion layer back a little bit further and take a look at the entire area as you know that when we are going about the process also of establishing the old mill areas once we begin bifurcating those areas into that's going to create a lot of domino effects so you are correct there's a lot of sort of historical cleanup that has to occur but it's a little bit of a right time right place and i think we have a plan to address that and and many other these small little uh technical anomalies or adjustments that have um sort of manifested themselves over the years and then the second part just to hilltop in particular and again i i the numbers that that are here certainly are trending in the right direction but i i
099just think of of hilltop and you know certainly from you know the conversations i've had with the the prior principal um i i don't know the the current principle there at least have not met with her since she moved from from north glen but um i i just think of you know yes we're within uh we're below capacity we're 93.2 projected in in 2022 but then 630 students at hilltop elementary is still a lot of students at that school in particular and i'm just hoping that um if if there's a way some shifting can occur as as part of a broader conversation later that's going to alleviate hilltop and we fully intend to do exactly that awesome thank you all right are there any other questions board questions or comments so um are there any
100public comments all right so um the board will review this recommendation and um along with any board member proposals and determine no later than the end of january which option will go forward to a public hearing on restricting so thank you for all your work on this item 5.16 is the 2017 to 2022 strategic plan this is an information to action item do i have a motion to move this from information to action exactly okay all those in favor okay dr a lot of your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend the board approve uh our strategic plan for anne arundel county public schools for from for 2017 to 2022. okay do i have a second okay and we have a presentation yes it's very short presentation for the record my name is maureen mcmahon i'm the
101deputy superintendent for academics and strategic initiatives and i'd like to ask my colleagues to introduce themselves hello monique jackson deputy superintendent for student and school support good morning jason dykstra executive director of instructional data so as you know um for approximately the last 18 months we've been working on the plan with our internal stakeholders and our community at large so at this point in time we had the plan open for two weeks and we received 56 public comments over the two week period of time approximately 40 percent of which came from internal stakeholders and 60 from outside stakeholders we took all of the comments that we received and we read them multiple times and the plan has been changed to in multiple places to add detail to answer some ambiguities that were brought up and
102uh it's more robust at this time one of the biggest things that was brought up by multiple stakeholders was in some ways what happens next right in other words they brought up the notion of uh where are we going how do we do the next steps although that was asked many different ways that was that was really a piece of it and you'll see now on many pieces of the plan where we we talk about a strategic plan toolkit for both our schools and our offices that was always in the plan it can't be built until after the plan is approved but the the notion is we recognize that schools and offices are going to need support with the plan and so that will end up having to live on this website as well to
103support all the stakeholders in achieving what's presented here so with that i know my colleagues and i will take any questions you may have miss sasso i basically read all of the comments and it really surprised me how many negative comments are in here you said you have revised the plan and personally today if we're going to take a vote i will vote no because i would like to see all of their revised things that have happened because after reading it i mean i underline yellow after yellow what was negative and i would like to see what was revised to basically take into consideration what was discussed in the negative miss corbin i just i had some questions more like a wordsmithing um i had my english professor hat on and as we've talked less
104this more sometimes so i'm i'm wondering we have these five values and to me two four of them could be condensed down to two so i'm just trying to understand why they were split into five from the way i read the values value number two all means all is the value and that including in that is that we value diversity we want to nurture we want to celebrate it but we also want to make sure everybody feels welcome so i'm wondering if we can have one value that's essentially all means all and explain it with the the text that's in value one and two then my my second thing i see is that our second value is that we want to make sure our students are prepared for college career community how we go about
105doing that is part of value four obviously we're going to do it in the classroom but we also want to do it outside the classroom so can we combine those two into one value that we value preparing students for college career and community and then value five is fine that's the community engagement piece i that's totally totally get that the value that i feel like is missing from here is more on the corporate side which i know that stakeholders aren't always thinking about we're all talking about people and the touchy-feely stuff but we're a billion dollar corporation and i think we value here at aacps running it efficiently like i think that's a value of our school system and i i think we do it well not everybody agrees but i'd like to see that
106as a value that we value having an efficiently run corporation essentially you know efficient use of our resources our times our talents our treasures so that's sort of where the kind of revisions i would like to see if we're going to revise anything um i think everything's here and i think it's great i just wonder if we can sort of condense it down draw a lotta certainly i know there are other there are other board comments um but i'll just jump in at this point i think um the the values that stand before you that have been published up to this point are a direct result of all of the community input so both internal and external and it was made very clear by our stakeholders that these were important values we did discuss internally
107should we combine so your suggestion is certainly one that we talked about but we thought we thought it was most important to have them separated that there is we want to make sure that diversity is not lost among other things the all means all and that making sure people are welcome this really rose to the top this was something that was very important to our stakeholders and this is 18 months worth of work we were out doing as you well know and you as a board participated yourself in workshops in our forums at the high schools in surveys and the like and so we felt it was important as a team that these five that that the the community see the values that they brought forward and discussed so if the board wants to combine
108those we certainly can do that it's in the end it's your plan but if that's the if that's the direction of this board then i'm going to suggest that we not vote on this today and you give us time i'm going to need more feedback this is the appropriate form to do it publicly i would say it's not time to vote on it if the board wants to make some changes but we felt strongly that coming from the public these values are what rose to the top and i want to be very clear that the public sees what they discussed in the plan that it's not hidden and certainly something like diversity i don't want um i don't want undermined as important as it is to be woven into something else i want it to
109be a very clear and distinct piece of what we're doing because it's elevating all of our students and eliminating all of our gaps that's our key the interesting thing um business that's a i think it's something we do well i appreciate that coming i think it's something we do well as a school system we manage over a billion dollar budget and i think we've got we're well recognized internal practices that are recognized each and every year through matt stansky and his team by state and national groups of our ability to manage our budgets um this was not something that rose up um to the top of one of the values and it may be because our stakeholders see that we do it well maybe that's the reason it didn't but again if the board wants
110us to uh include something so that there are some data points that we can follow and um celebrate if you will i think that's what i'm hearing this is corbin again that's something we can incorporate but again i would say give us time then this is not the day to vote on it if this is what the board wants to move and it will be your discussion again here publicly we're glad to move forward with that and have some discussions and get some more input but then today would not be the day to to make that vote ms sasso yes i would like to ask the committee basically when they since you have stated that you have basically taken into consideration some of the things that they requested you know as you incorporate those if
111you would just because there are major areas that they have touched and commented on negatively if when you include that you know you say tell us back you know because of these comments we have addressed them and we are solving them this this way i want the public when they made the comment to feel that we answered their comment by doing this well i'll say we the comments i think what was the total number 56. um and and keeping in mind that 56 and you say the majority of them are negative um we had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people involved in this it was very important to me and to this team that this was out publicly and this was going to be a strategic plan built by this board and the public
112we serve and so i think um it's these volumes that while many of them may have been negative in that comment we had hundreds and hundreds of people that that submitted and they see this plan um they see what their comments were in this plan there will be some negative comments i assure you that we're not going to be able to address and that we will not move forward with and i don't think the board would support that either um so i don't know that we're going to be able to address every single one of them to the satisfaction of people we will certainly rest assured um this assassin remembers the word we will consider them and look at them but i don't believe that every negative comment or or suggestion we'll be able to
113incorporate into our plan that's why i said they're in general areas so i just want to clarify because you would set about could we then suffice it for them and we will not be able to satisfy everybody no i i i can't satisfy everybody but in general areas like you pinpointed you know whatever it happens to be teachers was one of them you know so you address it you know it was solved by putting this here thank you doctor early january mid-january would you say mid-january end of january okay second meeting in january okay um oh shoot um mr gillan thank you madam president um i in a moment i'm going to to make a motion but um just a couple of comments uh to start and um first i i agree with mrs korbalak
114um i think in your english hat you were saying word consolidation i don't want to twist your words in economics we call it efficiency so we're we're in the the same spot um but i i also um agree wholeheartedly with her about the um the business uh component uh to the strategic plan because while i do think we do a great job you know there's always room for improvement um and i do believe in showcasing the the greatness that exists here and and certainly that that business and operational uh component uh is is a true testament um to the leadership not just of dr arlato but i think mr shaknovich and his entire team um and where we can showcase the good and um look at the ways to change uh quote a former superintendent
115who noted the book good to great you know the collins book uh quite often and i i think as we move from great to whatever is beyond great um i i think it's just good to have that there for a couple of reasons and and i do think that as we have a a new high school on the horizon and and then an additional high school uh on on the further horizon over the next decade there's going to be a lot of money that this board will be accountable to the public on managing well and um with with that accountability of of the board certainly there's the accountability to the superintendent and and then obviously the accountability to to the senior staff as we look at the old mill project it's no secret and i'll
116say the b word but i mean we're looking at a billion dollar project um i think when we consider what what is all entailed there um uh high school uh high schools on down a billion dollars and that's a huge undertaking and and so when i i think we look at this five-year plan um we're staging i i think the biggest growth that this school system has seen on the capital budget side in decades so i i think there's room to have that that value um added so i do thank mrs corbilek for for that um one question i was going to ask and and you know maybe this is just semantics but um i i certainly trust your your judgment um the strategic plan should it remain 2017 2022 or should it be 2018
1172023 well that was gonna um that was something i was going to bring up um if if we are not going if the board is not going to vote today and you're going to push this into january february whenever you want us to come back and continue this conversation if we've done some work um our current plan will have sunsetted at the end of december so what i would suggest is that the board after your conversation is finished that someone make a motion for us to continue to operate under the current strategic plan until a new strategic plan is adopted if that makes sense in whatever words you choose i'll make two motions right so madam president if i may uh two motions um one is that we table the vote on the strategic plan
118uh until the first meeting in january um if we can talk a little bit about that first meeting in january i don't know if that's going to give us much time we're going to be going into the winter break and i'm going to want to make sure that any language changes or additions or or major changes i guess um that we're sharing with the public and we're getting it out there so i would if that makes sense i think we're going into a winter break and i'm not sure people will be available yes can it be done by december 19th can the changes be done i don't believe so no matter and we also have having budget presentation at that time and we don't want everything to get lost okay and do i what about
119public comment is it okay to me okay so madam president i i move that we table this vote until the first meeting in february which is february 7th 2018. so move second okay are there any board comments on this motion is there any public comment on this motion yes my name is victoria calhoun i'm here as a parent but i am also the president of the jessup elementary school pta i have 30 years of military service strategic planning and the like the term strategy is misapplied often and it has been in this case this so-called plan before you today is not a strategy document but some sort of marketing ploy that has been to be levied on the citizens of this of this county and waste valuable educational time of the kids currently attending anne
120arundel county public schools there is a tendency to use the term strategy as a general term for concepts or ideas of a direction in which to proceed as was done in this case but good strategies are the domain of senior leaders that use them to drive organizations to higher levels of achievement and outcomes as miss corblek and miss misaso excuse me if i mispronounce your names have mentioned this document which was created for you is really some sort of website i had asked for a hard copy of the document and it was not provided to me this is the second meeting on this subject i have been to the format of the meetings were horrible and you have been horribly been misled in the conversations today about how those meetings were conducted and how the
121public was participation was solicited this document that was cure this website that was created has no ends no ways no means to achieve the required goal that every child actually meet or exceed the necessary standards to be the best that they can be in their lives or chosen profession religious and philosophical teachings direct people to stay away from forward people twisting words from their true meaning and who whose total intent is deceit is to deceive people and then and their conduct is not straight forward in their dealings i said i had asked for a copy of this plan one was never ever provided the this posting on this website was the first time public comment had been taken in any sort of written form i had gone to the meetings and i had actually provided
122some comments within the format of those meetings which was terrible i am i told you i'm standing here today as a parent that there are real issues that need to be addressed in this plan that were brought up to both this board many times and to the current commission and that have not been addressed i think your idea to table this issue is absolutely correct i would like a opportunity to input my ideas to this plan in a collaborative website other parents had asked to be able to actually provide content to the plan and i am willing to do that to help the community get ends ways and means to actually fill the gap and i had provided documentation to the curling commission on how to address the budget issues and so to the business
123end i do believe there are ways to get after the major issues that we possess here today and i do recommend that you table it and get real public input thank you thank you um i we've got to vote on the thing so um i do want to say i appreciate all the work and the the input that has gone into this and um i think what you're hearing is the board just wants some more time to digest and give and give our feedback on this so i'm in support of this motion as well so if there's no further board comments all those in favor of um tabling the vote for this until february 7th okay motion passes mr gilliland thank you again madam president um given that uh motion uh having passed uh i
124now move to keep the current plan in effect until the vote occurs on the new plan second any board questions or comments on that motion any public comment okay all those in favor okay the current strategic plan will continue in place until february 7th thank you very much this has been an incredible amount of work thank you item 6.01 is a review item award of contracts are there any board questions or comments on this item any public comment all right okay that oh i'm sorry miss sesso i just have a question it has to do with the underground fuel storage tanks probably a question for alex alex around how many underground tanks do we have just a guesstimate and are they in compliance with the epa you know they're not leaking we don't have any
125problems with them sure alex checknow chief operating officer so probably on the order of about half of our schools are serviced by underground fuel oil storage tanks simply because the natural gas supply the pipe natural gas supply in this county does not reach many many areas so large swaths county don't even have the opportunity to to have natural gas service be available where that opportunity exists or continue to migrate in that manner but as a result of that we are left with uh the only option being these underground storage tanks so the answer to your question directly is yes and this is part of the contract that allows us so they do have to have uh maintenance inspections that are done on them cathodic protection has to be reevaluated uh the various components of it
126the overspill buckets the caps etc on them are inspected and maintained by us and then maryland department of environment also externally validates uh those tanks as well so there's essentially three sets of eyes on them our own staff set of eyes our contractor set of eyes and then the maryland state department of environment sets device on them and one of those tests we test the ground underneath too to make sure they're not leaking no they're actually no we we do not test the ground underneath of the tank there's other ways to identify whether the tank is leaking the ground in and around the tank is tested in general once the tank is being removed out of service so as part of the removal process should a tank be replaced or should a tank be removed
127such that we can switch over to natural gas service at that time that's when the ground is uh tested but that is the way to test for a leak is not to dig underneath the tank and test the soil there's other methodologies that are used to do that okay thank you yes ma'am any other question board questions all right thank you mr shaknovich all right that concludes the um the agenda for today the next board of education meeting is wednesday december 20th at 7 00 p.m the next board policy committee meeting is wednesday december 13th at 1 pm and the next board budget committee meeting is wednesday december 20th at 5 00 pm and mr gilliland thank you madam president i move that the board going to close session to conduct collective bargaining negotiations or
128consider matters that relate to the negotiations those in favor meeting is adjourned [Music] [Applause] [Music] wow [Music] you