001is so [Music] foreign [Music] my [Music] oh lord [Music] um [Music] it's [Music] okay [Music] good morning the november 2nd board of education meeting is now in session 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 stirs to action with love wisdom and understanding the [Music] for which it pledge one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all before we begin i just want to mention that dr frank let me know that he is on travel today and i have not heard from mr grant but i understand he won't be with us either item 2.03 is approval of the minutes do i have a motion to approve the minutes all those in favor motion passes seven zero
002zero item 2.04 is established agenda order and the agenda stands as published item 2.05 are recognitions and we don't have any this morning item 2.06 is educator of the month mrs nelly good morning parents and the general public often wonder just what is it that school counselors do on a daily basis gone are the days of counselors simply handing out college applications and making schedule changes for students today school counselors are vital members of the educational team they help all students in the areas of academic achievement okay and personal and social development and practicing strategies for success in school one such outstanding school counselor is our educator of the month kim perillo who shares the wealth of her background and knowledge at belvedere elementary school mrs perrillo has embraced our county's initiative to teach children
003to develop a growth mindset by teaching students lessons about their brains and how hard work helps them grow smarter through her growth mindset guidance lessons the belvedere students are learning perseverance and grit she teaches students about the brain encourages them to seek out challenges and helps them to view setbacks as a normal part of the learning process mrs perillo promotes positive changes in the growth of her students she runs counseling groups based on identified needs such as anxiety and grief due to personal issues at home she has a masterful way of speaking to and with children she is extremely effective at counseling both students and families in crisis and she excels at dealing with students with challenging behaviors as the school's 504 facilitator a job she shares with the assistant principal she does an excellent
004job of explaining the section 504 process to parents mrs pirillo is extremely kind and empathetic when dealing with concerned parents which is a large component of the school's counselors school counselors role she is calm and steady in the face of difficult situations because of her ability to deal with challenging situations the administration has designated her a teacher in charge when both administrators are out of the building kim perillo also oversees the televised morning school news selecting students training them and teaching them the character trait of the month which the news crew commit communicates to the student body each day in addition she organizes a comprehensive career day every spring reaching out to families and community members to maximize learning opportunities for students kim perillo you play a vital role in the educational process for the
005students at belvedere elementary school you provide proactive leadership that engages all stakeholders in the delivery of programs and services to help students achieve school success so for these reasons and more the board is honored to recognize you educator of the month for november 2016. congratulations please join me well thank you thank you so much and i really really thank you and provide you with this certificate and this bell now you can ring wow now uh tell me first what lie did they tell to get you here um that i was helping with um the counselor's third year counselors meeting oh upstairs totally caught me off guard so good job guys well and who's with you oh my gosh i have my wonderful admin past and present so i have tammy pranovich assistant principal i think
006she has something to do with this i have a feeling and kaye panagopoulos my former principal my current tara tara lambton sorry my husband jason pirillo my mother-in-law joyce pirillo so thank you guys you guys are sneaky i'm impressed i'm impressed well i hope that i live up to this wonderful honor thank you so much well thank you so much thank you to my awesome school counseling team there's a back well we'll be taking pictures out after in a little bit when we have a break so make sure they all get out to get a picture with you thank you so much thank you very much [Applause] item 2.07 is employee of the month mr gilliland thank you madam president today we honor an employee in our school system who for nearly 40 years has
007dedicated himself to aacps schools and students he has been the model employee and gentleman at all times throughout these years and he has left his mark on the hearts of students parents educators and communities especially at bodkin elementary oh [Applause] he is retiring soon but instead of going into the specifics of why everyone is so impressed with alvin talley otherwise known as mr al take a look at this we're not just watching anyone we'd be lucky to have him because his friendliness is helpful he always gets the job done is our role model because he's awesome and he always got a smile on his face you're the man mr owl so awesome because he always hugs me every day and says how is the day when he does a hip-hop parade when you're the good
008season because um it like gives you a little hint that like he is like really excited for you um hooray i know i'm really mad at you for leaving but i'm actually very excited for you there's nobody better than you he's the main one who takes care of school [Music] what can we say about alvin said al has been the best uh great we've worked with him almost 20 years now from a good role good role model wonderful friend always smiling best friend thanks mr owl from cheerleading to you to mr owl we thank you for making our days better hey all right [Applause] mr al you have been described as legendary and on behalf of the board of education and the entire aacps family thank you for your extreme professional depth of character and
009the impact you have had on generations of students in the pasadena community congratulations on your retirement [Applause] then oh congratulations thank you sorry you doubt you looked a little surprised so what did they tell you i don't know it wasn't this uh my former principal miss james marie hofstede mr rockoff already he was my first principal operations manager chris former tj bachman mike sheener co-worker karen boyer oh our nurse miss sue and the head woman in the office of trees and miss mr gilroy i think yeah misty and our guidance counselor is jennifer elsas i think did i miss anybody i think that's it thousands of other people you had an impact on along the way so we've got for you a bell thank you certificate for you that's in here and then also a
010copy of the video congratulations [Applause] item 2.08 is volunteer of the month ms sasso audrey hepburn once said as you grow older you will discover that you have two hands one for helping yourself the other for helping others many of our anne arundel county school volunteers are retired citizens who no one lives the adage by dedicating themselves to our students today the board of education is proud to honor one such exceptional volunteer mr lenny burton as november's volunteer of the month lenny burton loves the students of tyler heights elementary and they love their mr lenny almost every school day lenny brings his lifetime of knowledge skills interest and cheerful encouragement to serve the tyler heights students and their families the tyler heights yearbook is full of lenny's photos that capture precious moments for the entire
011school community he works closely with the yearbook staff to gather download and edit hundreds of photos with his camera always nearby lenny always assists throughout the school day both in classrooms and beyond he works one-on-one with students to strengthen their reading and reading comprehension skills and mentors individuals who need extra attention guidance and encouragement lenny heads tyler hyde's successful backpack buddy program in loving memory of his friend brenda schuner legacy of service he and his team of commitment volunteers ensure that more than 70 children take home nourishing snacks each weekend each week he and his team of dedicated volunteers provide backpacks full of nourishing snacks to help other 70 families in need in addition the backpack buddies provide them with coats in the fall handsome toys for the holidays and warm winter blankets principal julia
012wars writes he provides consistency that our families need and has developed positive and long-lasting relationships with our staff and students our school is a better place because of mr burton's exemplary commitment to volunteer according to kathy metzger the school's former volunteer coordinator lenny has an amazing heart for our tyler heights students i am grateful to know him and witness his selfless service to our school if i could clone him i would we need more volunteers like lenny classroom teacher lindsay james sums it up mr burton helps struggling students goes on field trips joins in special ed celebrations and always smiles he is determined to make all students feel safe loved and nourished our students are so fortunate to have such a wonderful role model mr lenny burton would you please come forward with great appreciation
013i want to present this volunteer of the month certificate and the bail to you [Applause] okay what lie did they tell you that we were going to come up here and educate you about that okay we would like to present you with this certificate and the bell so that you can ring it as soon as you are arriving to volunteer and thank you very very much for your service who else is here with you today um the love of my life my wife alan uh lying former pastor who got me here and uh who's anna my sister jean i'm trying to see beth corrin jimmy's here somewhere but honestly all of them are equally deserving it's about a hundred of us that work on this project and um everyone who's devoted to his children and
014every one of them deserves thank you very very much [Applause] and we'll be taking some pictures of our honorees at the break shortly item 2.09 is school and community highlights mrs hummer um last week i attended the stem awards program um at studio 39 where the top two stem students from each of our high schools was recognized a very impressive group of young people with career aspirations from everything from doctors to forensic scientists it was really incredible and one of the most moving parts of it was each of these students picked a teacher who had a great impact on them a teacher fellow and they read a statement about those teachers and they were wonderful and it showed the range these many of these are top high level math and science students but teachers that
015they pointed out included an art teacher the cosmetology teacher different people it shows the impact across the range for these students so it was really a special night um i know many of us had these going on this week but i attended the vocabulary hat parade on halloween at monarch global and it's fascinating to see their creativity of the students for the different things they had and a lot of fun and to see the different hats and then playoff season is upon us i went last night to the mead north county soccer playoff game go mustangs they won 4-0 and they will meet several park this weekend but a lot of our teams are in the playoffs this week so it's going to be exciting a few weeks coming up for all of our fall
016sports and one other thing i bet y'all didn't know that this month is the 100th anniversary of school boards in maryland a hundred years ago this year school boards were founded so it's our anniversary there you go yes at the same time that there was the stem presentation that night we had to divide ourselves and decide which one we were going to go to and there was the crass one and the craftsman was really an outstanding community project in which our school children basically decided to bring forth the different politicians the different leaders of the community to discuss issues that were pertinent to the schools and it really really was an outstanding program mr gilliland thank you madam president i just want to extend thanks a special thank you to jody reesey i had the
017pleasure of joining her last week along with dr arlatto at hilltop elementary school they fed me lunch i was able to eat with the students i had a great bacon cheeseburger they tricked me into eating turkey bacon for the first time in my life but it wasn't too bad um but i i dr alato had the same thing he was behind me in line he said give me that too so it was it was good um but it was great to um to see the um the food services program in action up close and personal and um i i've got to really give kudos to karen williams the um the cafeteria manager at hilltop elementary um who just runs a great a great show and then certainly kudos to to jody and her team here
018and then afterwards dr alato and i had a chance to visit a few classrooms and with louise de jesus and muhammad in in the second grade you know i walked into the class he hugged me and took me around to every corner of his classroom to to show me all of the great things that they are doing um in in second grade reading and um the student would not let me leave the classroom and um he was just so excited about the learning that that was happening there and and again just kudos to to hilltop elementary uh jody karen uh louise and certainly thank you dr alado for for welcoming me there miss williams i was also at the crafts legislative dinner and i just wanted to say that we had four phenomenal speakers they
019gave great speeches great presentations i would like to say that jacob baumgart the first vice president who put this whole event together did a phenomenal job for the first year uh cbf who allowed us to use their venue it was an amazing event and i can't wait to see what they do in the future i also had the chance to go to the cross dinner and i echo what everybody said it was a fantastic evening called youth vision and voice and we have some amazing voices out there with our students and then dr erlatto and i got a chance to tour the monarch academy in glen burnie that was my first visit there to that particular monarch and it was just a fantastic facility especially for our those kinesthetic learners out there a perfect environment
020for them so thank you item 2.10 is our cac report good morning i'm kelly pernell i'm the vice chair for cac and i have a quick report for you we have met twice so far this year and we've had speakers from where we have the policy committee come and speak to us on the transition from the valedictorian salutatorian system to laude and we also had don counts from the coordinator from advanced learning come and present to us on the changes in the gifted and talented identification process and gift and talented program we have formed our subcommittees we will continue with communication equity and testing looking at those things we've also branched out adding technology bus transportation and kind of a big lump one of counseling mental health substance abuse life skills prep looking into some
021of those things and finally we would like to ask the board to be involved informed of the budget as early as possible this year so we can get the word out and encourage our communities to be involved in the budget hearing process this winter so that's about all unless you have any questions for me thank you thank you item 2.11 is the pta report no pta report today so then it's time for a break for pictures and we'll be back shortly for the action items [Music] with the idea well is [Music] um [Music] hey [Music] there [Music] so [Music] so [Music] mr [Music] do so [Music] so [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] all right we're gonna go ahead and get started
022it's time for the public comment portion of the meeting anyone wishing to speak on an item not on today's agenda may offer testimony during this public comment portion speakers will be allotted three minutes each and the board asks that comments remain civil and appropriate for the various audiences that may be watching or viewing the meeting student specific and personal matters are confidential and cannot be discussed in this forum this time is intended for speakers to voice their opinion and not necessarily as a question and answer period speakers may pose questions but answers will be counted toward the three-minute allotment for the record please give your name before speaking and handouts should be given to the board assistant i have five completed cards bruce bell marco bennett deborah wood lisa van buskirk and don patterson good
023morning my name is bruce bell and i'd like to discuss the board of education's proposed redistricting particularly as it affects the annapolis high school and south river high school clusters i'm concerned about its impact on the families and children of the route 2 corridor where i live but i'm also just trying to better understand the board's long-term plan and effect on the entire county i understand and respect your obligation to provide our children with the best education by the most efficient effective utilization of our resources and i thank you for the hard work you guys put forth every day to ensure that the route corridor community is active and engaged we want to help provide a solution one that is rational objective and data driven one that is fair and considerate of all the constituents
024involved so long as we too are treated fairly though we disagreed with the board of education's recent vote to not rebuild edgewater elementary school we continue to dedicate ourselves to the future of our children to the community and in fact to the whole county much as you do every day as we understand the annapolis peninsula is being considered for redistricting in april 2017. we received dr alata's letter res uh dated october 11 2016 and as i hope you understand it was concerning especially in light of the edgewater uh decision that the elementary school decision in effect the latter implies potentially switching our children from feeding into the south river high school cluster and its associated schools to the annapolis high school cluster and its associated schools logically speaking we just don't think this makes sense
025there are four major concerns with potentially redistricting the route 2 corridor away from the south river high school cluster first a comprehensive review of the county's current and projected student enrollments and school capacities for all schools according to the 2016 educational facilities master plan clearly illustrates room for growth within the south river high school cluster second current bus routes favor keeping the student population within the south river high school cluster while increased congestion traffic patterns and road safety do not favor redistricting the students into the annapolis high school cluster third the families and children of the route corridor neighborhoods are very active and long-term members of the edgewater community and lastly we want to ensure the education is the number one priority not redistricting for redistricting sake we look forward to addressing this in detail
026with the board of education in closing i'd appreciate just i guess getting a status of where the proposed process is at this point do we have the committee form yet no the committees have not yet been formed but that's that's forthcoming that's the reason the letter went out so we're just collecting interested in partying so we'll be working with each of the schools including the three schools in the south river cluster um that are part of that peninsula that we'll be bringing into the committees thank you and what is the timeline for the process and what benchmarks are that can be completed and by when the recommendations was to come back to the board in february correct the decision will be made in april by the board so a recommendation will come to us we
027will decide which ones to take to public hearing in march and then we would vote in april so it's still the the timeline as published earlier that hasn't changed correct okay and why is the route 2 corridor being considered for redistricting when the current and future capacities of the south river high school cluster continue to support our enrollment there we are we're looking at the 795 empty seats in annapolis and the fact that the edgewater elementary school is about 133 students over capacity right now and we're looking geographically at the annapolis peninsula so those neighborhoods happen to be on the annapolis peninsula so that's why they were included and one final question how does that factor in the development and growth in the annapolis cluster itself we haven't looked at the data that's what the
028committee is responsible to do and bring back the recommendations here well to the superintendent first and then to us in february okay thank you very much for your time i appreciate it i'm marika bennett next not here okay deborah wood good morning my name is mariko bennett and i am here representing the local naacp i'm here as a parent and i'm also representing the national coalition of the 100 black women so we should not criminalize our children for childlike behavior a suspension should not lead to a sentence we are requesting that the board review every school where an sro is present to determine if there are disparities in the policy or administrative practice in regards to the enforcement of filing charges against students in particular we would like you to compare this by race and
029overall between the following schools severna park and brooklyn park broadneck in annapolis arundel and south river we also reviewed the policy with regards to the role of the sro and it states that these officers should practice a restorative justice approach to resolving issues we ask that you provide us with a report on best restorative justice practices currently in place we would also like the board to clarify if it is the policy or a practice in which an sro files charges in every case that involves a low-level fight is it a policy or is this a practice and is this standard in every school in the county if this is the policy then we stand ready to work with you to ensure that the effects of this policy are understood by the board and the operational
030results are clear our child's situation has forced us to reach out to other families in this community what we found is that we are not alone and the community desperately wants to ensure that the minority community is not being overly criminalized overly criminalized we want to ensure that all policies and practices are being enforced equally within all schools regardless of race we feel that over-criminalization of children is unacceptable and as tax-paying citizens in this community we will not and cannot stand for this we know all too well that this county has a proven history of discriminatory practices unfortunately as an office to ensure that our children in our county are treated fairly excuse me an office to ensure that our treat our children in our county were treated fairly was created as a direct result
031of past discrimination unfortunately this office was dismantled less than three years ago it was established after the naacp and other members of the community brought a civil rights lawsuit against anne arundel county public schools and won we owe it to our children to ensure that they are not being discriminated against in their own school system arresting children for being children negatively alters and impacts their life forever given the nature and urgency of this matter we asked the board to move forward with an immediate investigation and provide us with transparent with a transparent report of your findings we look forward to working together to ensure that all of our children's futures are bright thank you [Applause] debra good morning my name is deborah wood i'm a child advocate and resident of this county for 34 years
032the incredibly early start times for public high school students in this county entered my awareness when i couldn't get a teenage babysitter on a weeknight for my young children now these children are grown with children of their own in these three decades i've learned a lot about the needs of children in our community and the national concern based on sleep science for high school students to get more sleep thank you for moving ahead with a 13-minute slide for next year but please let us work together to forge a plan to bring our high school start times in line with the recommended 8 30 a.m or later start time that will allow adolescents to complete all the necessary phases of sleep to help their brains clear out the toxins from a day of thinking and process
033and store the experiences and information and emotions of the prior day accommodations for sports jobs child care for younger children and transportation need to be worked out for this to happen will it take another decade i have a grandson who's a kindergartner at folger mckenzie elementary ten years from now he'll be a tenth grader if we start now it needn't take that long change is always hard there will be resistance sacrifices and hard compromises but it must be done just as the band-aid stuck to a skinned knee that's trying to grow new skin must be removed change must come the band-aid analogy tells us that a quick rip 8 30 a.m a.m by the fall of 2018 will have severe short-term repercussions a lot of protest and pain a slow gentle removal with each adjustment
034anticipated and planned for might take some time two years three years five years please not 10. good morning board of education lisa van buskirk we're start school later i've just come from meade high school where i was speaking with the students against destructive decisions during their advisory period and i was talking to them in advance of next week's drowsy driver awareness week and last month's teen safe driving week they were all nodded their heads in agreement when we discussed that they're among the eighty percent of animal students who don't get the required eight hours of sleep one student mentioned she only got an hour last night the counselor told the story of a friend's daughter at south river stem program who fell asleep and told her car while driving to school and now she gets
035up even earlier so she can take the bus so i was discussing drowsy driving with them and statistically over half of anne arundel students have driven drowsy which has been described as the same as drunk driving but without the fun delaying start times as you know will help our students over the next few years achieve a little bit more sleep and we may not achieve the 60 to 75 percent reduction in teen car accidents like minnesota and wyoming jurisdictions but perhaps the 25 percent achieved in kentucky or the 27 to 41 difference between adjacent counties of chesapeake and virginia beach with their early and late start times start school later looks forward to better understanding the time frame of implementation for the healthier and safer school hours of the next two three or five years
036and i leave you with a quote we should always be driven to do what is best for the child and not what is convenient for society and ultimately there's no money that will take back the life of a child who has died in a sleepy driver related accident a known consequence of early start times that's from dr maeda chen from seattle children's hospital thank you good morning my name is don patterson and now retired after teaching 30 years in anne arundel county public schools i originally shared these remarks at a hearing held by the anne arundel county members of the house of delegates in september regarding how members of the school board should be selected and believe that they are relevant here as well i have never been a fan for elected school board because
037it only seems to politicize a body that should be focused 100 percent on the education of students in what is best for all students the focus on students seems too often to get pushed aside when adults get preoccupied with running for political office or dealing with adult issues a recent example is a hubbub over guidelines for inclusion of transgender students how many people find it comfortable uncomfortable and difficult to talk openly about this issue i do and i suspect many adults and students do also for students this whole topic may be confusing and they are looking at to their teachers and parents for direction what messages are we adults sending the language used by audits by excuse me the language used by adults when discussing this challenging issue is revealing superintendent george gelato noted that
038federal state and local laws forbid discrimination related to gender identity and gender expression and he stressed that anne arundel county's guidelines are consistent with the system's goal to eliminate the achievement gap and elevate all its students all means all he said one delegate from my district 33 said the school's policy was wrong because it may cause some non-gender students to feel uncomfortable the county executive's objections to the policy also focused on the possible uncomfortableness felt by non-transgender or cisgender students the county council then weighed in on this issue and passed a resolution opposing the school's policy inciting how the policy quote would disadvantage students who are not transgender unquote while another council member explained complained of the guidelines and nor the will of the masses and the majority should rule wow doesn't this sound like
039the same arguments we heard in the past regarding civil rights jim crow gay rights and same-sex marriage basic human rights in america are not subject to the women of the majority group they are part of what it means to be a person to be an american i was heartened to read the powerful comments from scott howarth president of the crass the association of student councils that in regard to uncomfortableness he said the focus of opponents is misplaced stating that quote growth is painful but not as painful as being a child with incongruent anatomy and certainly not as painful as being victimized because an adult who you trusted told the parents of your whole class how you are secretly different so they can avoid you unquote i believe today's youth in general are more accepting and
040supportive of differences among their peers continued education regarding gender identity and what it means to be transgender would greatly help non-transgender or cisgender students reduce any uncomfortableness they may currently feel i applaud the superintendent and craft for their leadership in addressing this issue and ask the school system and the board of education to continue working for acceptance and success for all our students thank you for listening good morning janet norman annapolis high in annapolis middle parent i appreciate you being here to to take our um our input and i know it's been a difficult and uncomfortable session receiving a barrage of emails on various issues i know it's a very tough job that you do and we appreciate you listening and and providing and taking the input of parents who are so vested in this
041system i want to show you a picture from my son's bus stop this morning um this is it uh it's actually construction paper because i couldn't afford to use all the printer ink to uh to show you what the real picture i took on my camera of how incredibly dark it is that's not safe for he and his other students to be walking to bus stops to be standing by the side of the road it's not safe for him to be driving he's driving at 16 down forest drive and riva road two of the most dangerous roads in this county you don't want him on the roads at that hour especially completely sleep deprived so i'm asking um what has been accomplished in the past two months uh regarding the implementation of a long-term plan
042to move to safe and healthy hours uh we'd like a report back a lot of times parents lash out at the board because we feel that we're not getting any information um and it's a it's a frustration speaking uh rather than you know true opposition it's it's more of we don't know what's going on please fill us in please fill us in on how you have achieved progress in the last two months toward using the software coming up with a plan that could move us to healthy start times by 2018 because the current situation does great harm i was heartened to hear the dr alato's be nice campaign i think civility and and teaching our students how to interact with each other is extremely important one of the elements that would help them achieve that
043is proper sleep a number of studies have shown that students are more irritable when they don't have enough sleep and many of you who are parents have have experienced this as sleep divided parents you're just more likely to snap your emotions are not as in control and and you can't contain uh the frustrations that you're experiencing so if we really want our students to be to be civil to be interacting in a positive way we need to give them the sleep that they need to do that i noticed that mr moser provided me some information that i asked for regarding the number of absences after the brawls at annapolis high and over 25 percent of the school was absent the next day so if we can reduce hostilities among our students it impacts a great
044number of students that missed out learning on that day and and other days where they were afraid that something bad was going to happen thank you very much i don't have any other cards is there anyone else who would like to speak before the board at this time okay we'll move on to action items item 4.01 is administrative personnel appointments dr aletto your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend that the personnel listed on the attached sheet be promoted and or appointed those in favor motion passes seven zero zero item four point zero two uh personnel dr alato your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend the board approve the actions as stipulated on the attached sheets all those in favor motion passes 700 item 4.03 is an information to action item the 2017-18 school year calendar do i
045have a motion to move this from information to action all those in favor we now have an action item dr alato your recommendation yes ma'am i recommend approval of the 2017-2018 school year calendar okay we have a staff presentation okay good morning first of all i'd really like to thank the calendar committee as you know it's made up of all of our negotiating units parents students community members and all of them took their responsibility very seriously they came prepared they had lots of input and lots of suggestions so i just really want to thank them because they really did a great job this year the calendar committee has worked very hard on the calendar you have before you we feel very strongly that the calendar is an instructional instrument we have a minimum of a
046hundred and eighty days that we must arrange in a way that we can maximize instruction for our students to help them achieve at their highest possible level this year given the governor's two executive orders we had many challenges while we do not feel the decision should be taken away from leas on how to arrange the days to meet the needs of both students and the community we feel strongly that we should abide by the law and not try to build a calendar that relies on waivers to make it work the one very strong message we have heard from parents teachers and students is that they want you to let them they want you to approve a calendar that they can plan accordingly for their next school year with so much in the news and so
047much flux that's something that they really feel strongly about and they wanted me to share that with you we do have consensus from the calendar committee on the calendar before you this calendar starts the day after labor day ends on june 15th and includes all the closings that are mandated by federal and state law as well as negotiated agreements to create a calendar that does all of those things we had to shorten spring break to three days and only build in three inclement weather days while these were not things we really wanted to do it was necessary to give us a calendar that follows all the laws and the executive orders we are happy to answer any questions that you have mr gillen thank you madam president and thank you for uh shepherding this through
048uh the process um i've got a couple of questions that have come through uh email most recently um from a couple of constituents and my apologies for uh to you for for not sharing them uh in advance just just for prep reasons so um one is around the start of uh fall sports um it seems that that date has not shifted and um just just for the record uh for for the public at large to be aware of of how that works uh can can anyone explain how that date is is determined and and what some of that interaction is with the agencies that deal with sports and and some of the inner county aspects that that fall into that well that those dates are given to us and our athletic department headed by mr
049culp has specific dates through the state that we have to start it goes around getting um athletes that enough time to be conditioned before we have the first game and things like that this year the start date was august 9th but one of the principles on the committee brought up to mr kopp that he really would like us to move that since we were starting later to at least no sooner than the 12th which would give athletes coaches athletic directors people another week of vacation summer vacation so mr culp took that back to all of the ads in the county and had a meeting with them and they all were in agreement that they thought that was a good idea to do that so that's why we're starting on august 12th i've had some input
050also from youth groups about this too so we're hoping they're going to follow suit and start a little later to make sure their athletes have a little longer too for that vacation so ms gillin if i could add you you ask a great question it's good for for all to understand so we are um the start and stop times along with all the regulations with regard to athletics in uh high schools across maryland um are run by mpssaa so that's the maryland association of of athletics um and they determine um the start and stop times and it has to do with one um in the fall a lot of it uh it has to do with when they want to try and get the lat to find the championship football game done by the first
051week of december they then back map through the calendar and tell the local school systems when they can begin the team when they can begin practice on the front end because of heat acclimatization there's a certain amount of time that students have to start to participate in fall sports without pads i'm using football as an example but the other sports are included because of the heat in august and they have to have certain number of days without pads and then they can go to helmets and then go to helmets and shoulder pads and then full pads and then full contact and so those are some of the things that regulate when the start and stop times of our of the athletic program so that's dictated to us by the state agency and that's across all
052school systems so all school systems in state of maryland are starting on this on during that same week and so they i think this year it was august 9th was the start date it can't be before then we can adjust it afterwards but we can't we can't start before that thank you and and i know a few of us received that email i believe it was yesterday and and so i appreciate that clarification one one other question that i'll ask it's a broader question that i think many of us you know certainly in this room today know but i think just for the the general public as as emails have come in asking in essence what determines what's the gauge that the school system uses and the calendar committee certainly more specifically uses to determine
053a half a day or an early dismissal versus a full day when when we're talking about conferences or professional development opportunities etc when we have and it's not a half day we have two hour early dismissals two hour early dismissals give us a full day of school so that's very important because we not only have that minimum of 180 days which we go 181 in anne arundel county but 180 days but we also have seat hours and those seat hours are completely separate from the days so we have to watch all of that and count that so we're counting all of that we have extra seat hours built into the calendar so when we take those two hour early dismissals we're always looking at what's going to give us the most bang for our buck
054so some of it is literally teacher work time at the end of each assessment so each quarter when we have quarterly assessments there are two days that are two-hour early dismissals to give teachers the time to grade those assessments and then others are for professional development and we try to lump it with the teachers longest day so usually they actually get three hours in that day that they can provide professional development so we're looking at just how we can utilize our time to best provide our teachers with professional development but still protect the seat hours and not have to add additional days to the calendar mrs burch i have a question about christmas break at one point i thought that um there in some of the information that came out that we had shortened christmas
055break by one day from what was originally proposed in this calendar can you tell me where that came from originally we were going to not open until january 3rd and that's because of the afscme negotiated agreement and when their holidays fall so we were required by that particular agreement to be closed on the tuesday january 2nd but we have worked with that group and they are fine with having their days just within the other break and not specific to the language of so that language will probably be modified well thank you so much to them for being helpful to us we're very very responsive that's that's wonderful i because i know that has been a difficult thing in the past so that's great that's wonderful because i know that that has always been an issue
056great and that's specifically this year it was very important right because it would have caused us to go two days instead of just one i mean obviously the first needs to be off because right the whole world is closed on the first except for the mall i think um the other thing i want to ask you um did you consider at all um not having any snow days well we talked about it we certainly did we really feel like that isn't prudent because when you go and defend later and ask for waivers if we do use more days and you're asking for waivers the first thing they're going to do from the state is say to us what have you done to mitigate the damages kind of and so we feel strongly that we have
057to have some days built in there we know that we're probably going to have a few days in the last year i have all of that information from all of the counties if you wanted that but basically four to five or more of the average of what we use but we just couldn't make it work with doing more than three i was just wondering because um you know the governor implied when he made his announcement that it didn't matter if there were more snow days than people had because they could just be waived so so i didn't know if it was a possibility to just not put any snow days in and then go to the state board and say well we don't have to go after the 15th so please wave them we were
058actually our administration was actually very um proactive in this and actually looked at asking the monday easter monday if we could go ahead and request a waiver we officially did that and we were turned down because until you use the days they won't give you a waiver what will happen to happen is the waiver could be that they waive the last day the 15th that could be what the waiver is or the waiver is that they're going to have to wait days we're looking too just so that everyone is clear on that the very the fourth snow day would be easter monday we would request that if we have large amounts of snow prior to our spring break we would request that we go that day to make up for the fourth day and then
059we're kind of where we are average what we use anyway and after that we would have to request waivers and see what they do but basically if there's any more than four snow days we won't be going to school for 180 days and that will affect instruction exactly well you have two laws that are in conflict with each other you have 180 days and you have the june 15th hard-earned no the governor said we won't be going after the 15th so we that could be exactly what happens this is going to really new territory so it'll be interesting to see how that plays out i'm i'm going with that we'll go with you i have some questions also that have come in through email um for clarification on some of the half days and days
060off the first thing i do want to go back and revisit the fall sports beginning on the 12th we've had some folks asking um you know if we started on the ninth last year and we started two weeks before labor day why aren't fall sports starting on the 23rd if we have the flexibility to shift the start date of sports as long as we don't start before the 9th why not take those 10 days and i'll let dr arlotto because he's really nice one of the concerns will be that we'll put our student athletes at a disadvantage we certainly could start later right so the the state tells us you can't start before x day um whatever it is on a given calendar year but i think it will put our students at a disadvantage
061because once they start practice as i said earlier mr gillen they have to have a certain number of days for heat acclimatization certain number of days of practices before they can go into their full scrimmages and and getting into pre-season scrimmages and then starting their competitive schedule because the competitive schedules are still going to end by the first week of december so it just shortens the amount of time that our coaches will have with the student athletes to get them ready for the season and do we know if mpssaa is looking at their start date in lieu of the governor's executive order yes as you know i'm a member of pazzam so the the superintendents association with state of maryland and pizam officially asked mpssaa to review the start time uh for this coming school
062year given the fact that the governor's executive order uh and starting post labor day and this is as i'm sharing with you this is uh the information that they officially shared back with kazeem but they're still considering it or they're there they have considered it and their concern is giving the student athletes enough time in the heat of august to get ready for the fall seasons and so they are not they they are not looking to shift later than where they are now okay so parents can not be there assuming we might push it later planning vacations the week of the 14th they should go with the 12th correct okay the second question i had was from families october 20th the msca professional development day is that a negotiated agreement day or yes it is
063so that's not a flexible day um these are all from people who would like to get spring break back i certainly understand we would like that too december like our three parent teacher conferences also i've i've had parents saying that they're not really being utilized i know we really only had one so far this year um i understand from even my colleagues that they went to their children's school and teachers were busy all day i guess it depends on the school and the teachers and it is it's a new practice the way we are doing and giving the opportunity three different times within the year so your your first couple years of that you're acclimating to that new schedule so there's going to be um some transitions as parents get used to the ability to
064do that yeah and that's what i've i've said we don't know what the data is going to show right for the next two days um two hour early dismissals january 29th and 30th end of second marking period i think you've already answered that we're building those in at the end of the quarterly assessment right still allow teachers to degrade is that a negotiated yes item as well and then school's closing for students on the 31st i assume that's the semester break switch also negotiated but you have a work day that's a full work day and that says that um it could be made a school day for students it would it could be a school day but they would still get a full day if we had to adjust for snow then that would be
065off the first february they would still get their full day okay okay um second page those are all the same things professional development oh april 17th we have professional development two hour early dismissal after two other days the week before as half days some parents are concerned about having to adjust their work schedule for three days in april kind of back to back like why did we choose the 17th as opposed to a different different date we've moved these around several times with input from teachers and students the 17th we can't we are bound by not really being able to do professional development in may because of ap testing the first two weeks and your seniors are leaving there's lots of things going on in may so that's why it is a rough time to
066do it but that was when we thought it was best i mean you could certainly change that if you thought it was a better day what right we don't have any half days in march we know we have some days off but we have assessments we have um the maryland integrated science assessment is going on then we have the beginning of spring break um schools closed for parent conferences that's why we didn't touch march okay plus we still have snow days in march but we can certainly we're open to that if you all wanted to do that and then my last question is under religious observances uh have we considered adding october 19th diwali to the list i know some of our counterparts in other counties are celebrating that day or closing for that day
067we're not advocating to close we have not had any requests to do that from any um parents or community members we could certainly do it if you'd like us to add it under the observances but we have not had that request at all not even one okay right as an observance not a closure but we can certainly do that okay mr gilliland thank you again just to to piggyback on the religious observances um section um i know that uh the school system uh generally has not closed on rosh hashanah but it has closed on yom kippur and we used to this is the first year this is the first year okay um but yom kippur this particular calendar uh next year falls on uh a weekend right and i know that that that changes uh
068from from year to year so going beyond this particular calendar and you know putting on our our our forward right we're going to i'll let bob we've discussed this at last but i'll let him handle this i guess my the big question is is whether i know easter monday for instance is a state mandated day uh for closure but um is yom kippur one of those days no no okay so we would have flexibility we have the data for rosh hashanah to show you the impact that it had this year right okay if you would like that but so you're correct it falls on a weekend in 1718 but a weak day in 1819 so that's a discussion the board would have to have when the calendar committee would have to have in fact in
0691819 not only would you have that date to consider but you'd have another election day thank you it's going to be a that's going to be really a challenge here as well if nothing changes i don't have any other questions from the board i have a car a card from janet norman thank you janet norman annapolis high annapolis middle parent um i wrote the board last night an email to all the board members asking if you would please consider delaying a vote on this calendar for two weeks not having a final vote on the calendar in order to allow parent input to really look at this calendar and give you their their impressions and and and work with you to develop the best schedule with all the constraints that you're put under um i i'm
070extremely concerned that um the press release went out october 28th that was friday uh about the the this is the final calendar we're proposing and you're voting on it on essentially two two and a half business days later um that doesn't give parents time to examine what you're putting forward for their 81 000 students and you all know how the school year dictates every element of our lives every every minute we have to be here or plan vacations with our families is dictated by the school calendar so i had heard there were some changes and i went to print out the school calendar on thursday october 7 october 27th last thursday i printed out the calendar from your website not realizing it was the old tentative calendar it was not a new calendar that you
071were voting on last thursday you had an old the old calendar up on your website as the 1718 calendar so um you can you can see why people are frustrated and mad and um don't correspond with you kindly because they feel like they are left out of the decision-making um i would also propose that you take the four personal um professional development days that are early dismissal and flip them to be late arrival why not take that opportunity to give high school students the sleep that they need in a readily doable manner that's that's not hard to achieve there's there's many things some people don't know that in high school if you don't show up on the first day of high school sports tryouts you don't make the team i know a number of of
072players at annapolis high families were away you don't get another chance you don't make that team and you're requiring us to be there weeks in advance of school starting with nothing else for our kids to do but the family has to be back for that incredibly early high school start season so please work on that as much as you can um and let people know that probably your 30 000 elementary school students and parents don't know that you're not having an early dismissal on halloween next year that's always been in the calendar and parents have counted on it um but they don't know that that that has not always been in the country in many years it has been in the calendar too in many years it has thank you do you have any additional
073public comments all right all those in favor of this proposed calendar opposed okay motion passes seven zero zero thank you item 4.04 is the 2017 legislative program this is an information to action item as well do i have a motion to move this from information to action all those in favor i now have an action item and a presentation good morning for the record i'm jessica i guess we need george's recommendation first oh i'm sorry it's okay i wasn't asked yet uh yeah yes ma'am absolutely i recommend approval of the revised 2017 legislative program okay now we have a presentation i apologize good morning for the record again i'm jessica kutches representing the legislative and policy office it's my pleasure to bring to you the recommended 2017 legislative program well also for only november our
074legend our general assembly convenes very soon in january the session this year is january 11 through april 10th the document in front of you provides a comprehensive overview of the board's position on topics that will that impact public schools and education in maryland and will likely be topics of conversation amongst the general assembly this year this program serves many purposes the first is that before session begins the program is sent out to all of our elected officials to provide them with background positions and beliefs for our school system so that they are aware of the board stances when drafting reviewing and amending bills during the session we use this program to advocate on your behalf when bills are filed we this document allows us to respond quickly to bills as they change rapidly and want
075knowing your positions ahead of time allow us to be responsive to the needs of the general assembly in the this way and finally throughout the year this program is utilized by staff so that they know board positions on topics that often came come up during the year so i'm happy to answer any questions that you have related to this document at this time i just had one i know we talk about our funding wanting to be equitable in our facilities etc in here but i'm wondering if it would be beneficial to add a separate position for equity in general for our students i know that some of our colleagues in montgomery county have have put forward some wordings such as having an atmosphere of respect and non-discrimination for students in general would it would it
076make sense to have that as a separate position instead of i know it's tucked in the word equitable is tucked in various positions but have it as a separate position yeah that makes a lot of sense to me it aligns with our strategic plan as well as our non-discrimination policies and language that is woven throughout our policies so i think if the board had a recommendation on specific language that would make a lot of sense um ms williams okay so i move that the board add to the the legislative program the following language as the first bullet in the academic achievement section under aacps supports an equitable learning environment that promotes an atmosphere of respect and non-discrimination for all students and staff members regardless of actual or perceived race color religion national origin sex age
077marital status sexual orientation genetic information gender identity or disability second okay all those well we need to discuss mr gillan do you want to comment on that or something something different okay does anybody want to comment on the motion mrs burge um i definitely support the amendment i think that it's a great idea for us to put out there that this this is what we believe as a board and that way no one can question what our what our thoughts are and to clarify this would go under the existing academic achievement position as the first bullet that's correct that's how i heard the motion okay is there any public comment on this motion all right so we voted on the motion to add it all this in favor okay so we're adding that bullet to
078academic achievement now mr galilean thank you madam president and i um when i ran in the back and and came back out i lost my page but there there was a um a specific bullet that noted and i can't find it now but something to the effect of funding vis-a-vis community colleges and and i'm sorry i i don't know what page it was on um i know the comment that you're referencing uh it was um thank you page six um and certainly when i'm in this building i um take that to heart but but i i want to just ask did something happen last year that that that may have prompted us to add specific language indicating that a community college versus k-12 funding issue i i just wanted to to understand the rationale behind
079that certainly understanding why but but why this year versus why not last year or previous years right so um it may be helpful to explain the process but to specifically answer your question there wasn't a specific incident that prompted that language this year but this document is shared with staff members that have expertise in each of the fields and so our budget and office basically thought that that would be prudent to make that addition and i think it's essentially as the board knows there are limited resources as far as funds are concerned at the state level and so we just want to ensure that we're while we you know work collaborative with collaboratively with community colleges and we are sharing different responsibilities with them as a result of the 2013 legislation regarding college and career
080readiness we don't want any of the responsibilities that they take on to then take funding away from us because we still have the needs that exist but there wasn't a specific incident we just thought interviewing every year we sort of make this better based on our experiences and as the board's aware there's committees looking currently at how public schools are funded in the state of maryland and we want to ensure that our piece of the pie doesn't shrink thank you is there any public comment on the legislative program overall all those in favor of the revised 2017 legislative program as amended all right motion passes seven zero zero we now have two review items 5.01 the carroll esparum administration building telecommunication transmission facility so this is a proposal to have a cell tower put on
081the property here yes ma'am it is are there any board questions or comments i just had one question i know when the fees when it's on a school property some of the fees go to the school where would the fees for this particular tower go again they come into the school district so we'd be the school part of it stays at the school part of it stays within the cluster so the cluster element would be distributed according to the revised procedures that we've adopted here in the school district okay is there any public comment on this item right thank you and the last review item is 5.02 a word of contracts are there any board questions or comments are there any public comments okay then i have a couple of announcements before we adjourn back
082to closed session the next board of education meeting is wednesday november 16th at 7 pm the next board policy committee meeting is wednesday november 30th at 1 pm and the next board budget committee meeting is wednesday november 16th at 4 30 pm mrs hummer yes i motioned to move to closed session to discuss the appointment employment assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of appointees employees or officials over whom this public body has jurisdiction or any other personnel matter that affects one or more in specific individuals to consult with council to obtain legal advice on a legal matter and to conduct collective bargaining negotiations or consider matters that relate to the negotiations all those in favor all right that concludes the general portion of the meeting [Music] you