001We are going to go into our next item, boundary study program and program analysis update. Um, may I have the presenters come to the front table and make sure you introduce yourself? Uh, this is a topic of great interest to the board and to the community. Uh, we are building in incremental updates uh so that we can keep everyone informed. to the meeting. Yeah, Miss Yang, just procedural point of order. If we could uh request the board make a a motion to revise the agenda to reflect the reordering of the items. Move to revise the agenda to reflect the reordering of the items. Second. All in favor, please raise your hand. Thank you everyone. That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, uh, President Yang. And I will say that this is likely to be a very
002hot topic in regular fixture at uh meetings to come and uh even beginning with today. We heard testimony from uh the community about the boundary study. We will continue to hear more testimony from the community about the boundary study and the associated projects in particular uh the uh program analysis. Today uh you will hear an update on the current boundary study progress uh and we have entered into a contractual agreement on February 6, 2025 with Flow Analytics to conduct and facilitate our boundary study for the reopening of Charles W. Woodward High School, the new Crown High School in the expansion of Damascus High School in the fall of 2027. Uh the scope of services in the contractual agreement with flow analytics includes project consultation and data validation, development of the community engagement process, impartial analysis
003of the boundary study options, facilitation of the community engagement, coordination of my recommendations and the board of education study process. Today we will focus on our initial onboarding and project planning with flow analytics and the initial community engagement process aligned to the board's policies including policy FFA the educational facilities planning and ABA the community engagement policy. Uh the team will return uh for another update on April 10th, 2025 uh during the board business meeting to provide an update on the process and to present a draft community engagement plan. Uh we'll also talk uh very briefly uh about uh the program analysis plan as well. Um I will now ask uh uh Mr. Adon Mimmoon, our deputy chief of facilities management and our associate superintendent for curriculum and instruction, uh Nikki Hazel to present. Good afternoon.
004Um so, um can we get the slide deck up please? Thank you. Um yeah, so good afternoon. Uh we are here to uh provide an update as Dr. Taylor already said to um talk about what we have done um so far and what is um currently happening. Uh there's um a lot to update on that front and as well as um give you an update and and u um and preview of what's to come over the next uh few um few months. So um before we um start our discussion today u would like to take a moment uh to acknowledge some of the feedbacks as we have started engaging with our community partners um uh and to in our effort to have a culturally um responsive community engagement. There's an over um arching theme that
005we have heard from the community members about their experiences that they have had in the past uh boundary studies. Um so um we are you know we are utilizing that feedback uh as we move forward with our study. Uh many of the community members have shared their frustrations about a a lack of communication and the trust in the process. So we're this is why we're going to be um you know um using this opportunity to uh try to do this in a much more uh comprehensive way. Uh we are committing committed to ensuring these uh studies are conducted in align alignment with our board policy FAA uh as well as the uh board policy ABA which is our community engagement guidelines. Um so what has happened so far we have contracted with flow analytics we
006have had multiple meetings with them to start talking about our data for that is going to be analyzed for the boundary study. Uh we have also put together a cross functional project team from across MCPS uh different uh divisions including facilities, transportation, food and nutrition uh academics um and and we're meeting with Flo on a regular basis to start discussing uh about the um all the data um and then we have also put together um a community um advisory group um that is from the different organizations within the community uh and we're, you know, engaging them to prepare the community engagement plan that we will bring to the board on April the 10th. Um and then in the next few months, we're going to start going out to the community um and start informing. The
007first set of meetings is going to start happening in April. We'll talk a little bit more about that uh as we go further down the presentation. And then uh in May uh we're going to start presenting the boundary options to the community. Next slide, please. So the there are you know in parallel to the boundary study there's Miss Hazel is going to talk a little bit about the um the analysis of the um the program uh programs that we have in our secondary schools. We have kind of divided the the um the efforts into several phases. So we've already finished the first phase which was to for the boundary study which was to you know um finalize our contract. We're currently in the data uh collection phase as well as initial u community engagement meetings.
008Uh and then between May and July, we're going to have uh developed boundary scenarios and uh present the options to the community and and provide the community um opportunities to provide us feedback about uh about these options. And then over the summer, those are going to be um the feedback is going to be analyzed and uh and in back in um August and September when the schools uh open back up, we will go back to the community for any updated options to um and provide, you know, opportunity for the community to provide more feedback. And then um October through February is going to be when the you know final analysis is going to happen and we're going to sit down with Dr. Taylor and uh in creating the superintendent's recommendation and that's going to be
009taken to the board in February and the vote is due in uh March. This is for the boundary study. I'm going to hand it over to uh Miss Hazel to talk about the program analysis. Thank you. So, as was stated, uh we are doing a program analysis of all of our academic programs across the district. And our goal ultimately is to ensure that we have equitable programming for all of our students across the district. And so this program analysis includes all of our programs. Um and so it's all schools. Um so it goes actually beyond um our our boundary schools that that we're focusing on. Uh our first phase uh was to collect data to ensure that we were very clear about all of the programs, who's in the programs, where they're located, demographics, and
010um the implications on operations as well. So that piece is finished and we are putting that together and packaging it for you all and for the community to better understand uh where we are. And uh now we are in the second phase as we are working to ensure that we have an advisory group. Our goal is to en to have some of the members from the boundary advisory group join our group so that there is some consistency of and understanding uh the process and what is taking place. But we want to make sure that we have um a nice uh group of uh members on our committee um from all parts of the community in our district. our students and our staff who can really give us some good input on our programs and we
011will develop a framework for programs um hopefully by the end of next month. Um it's a tight timeline, but that is our goal to be able to develop a framework so that we're very clear about what we want for all of our students in the district as it relates to equitable programming. And then as we move into our our later phases, we want to work alongside of flow analytics and our our facilities team to ensure that when they are presenting boundary options that there are also programming options that go along with it. And then ultimately, as you can see there, as we begin an implementation phase, we will ultimately get to our elementary schools as well. Um but it is very important for us to have a clear understanding of what our high school programming
012will look like, where programs will be located in the district over time and then be able to kind of have that vertical articulation for our elementary as we move forward. So that is the the high level plan. If you could go to the next slide. Um so our um u policy FAA, our educational uh uh facilities planning and uh board regulation FAA which is the um educational facilities planning um um also relates to education facilities planning identify four main factors when we um are um creating a recommendation for um the board to consider any boundary studies. These factors include uh demographic characteristics of student population, geography, stability of school assignments over time, meaning making sure that you know students are not getting moved multiple times during their you know experience in one school and then
013obviously one of the other factors is uh facility utilization. Um the this policy guides um the educational facility planning process and leads to the equitable and fiscally responsible and educationally sound decisions while promoting public understanding uh for these processes. Uh when developing recommendations for the board, the superintendent of the school will provide an a rationale for each recommendation that demonstrates the extent to which any recommendation advances any of these factors listed here. While each of the factors will be considered um may not be physible um for an individual option to be able to um adequately address all the factors listed here. Um so that would be uh you know the decision point for the board at that time. Go to the next slide please. So these are um some of the initial engagement that we
014have um already started talking about. Um we put together the MCPS project team. Uh that's a cross functional team that has all the members from uh transportation, food and nutrition, academics um um and uh logistics uh as well as facilities and these are the team members that are going you know already started disc you know having discussions uh with FL about the existing data. Then we also have the community uh project team which includes um the team members from the different community organizations that are um coming along with us. They're going to be helping us uh shape uh the community engagement plan that we plan to bring back to the board on April the 10th. Um they're going to be help us, you know, um um provide the feedback from the the and the diverse
015voices that we would like to hear as we move forward through this um u boundary study process. And then we also um will be working uh with the board um education advisory committee. Uh when that um when that committee is formed and when they start having their meetings, we will make sure to engage with them and keeping them informed as well as having them review um the community engagement plan and getting their feedback. Uh and obviously the largest component is this the community at large. um as we start uh engaging the community uh we're going to make sure that we're taking every opportunity to to reach out to as many um um community members as we can. And in that regard, we have already started getting some really good feedback from our community project team
016as to how we should, you know, think about and be thoughtful and be um deliberate in our approach to the reaching out to the community instead of just targeting say the the high school u auditoriums. Um you know some of the feedback that we have received is to um also you know have these meetings in the middle schools and the elementary schools because by the time this um boundary study actually goes into implementation these are the students and the families that are going to be coming into those high schools. Next slide please. So as far as the community uh engagement um our commitments um um is is is to adhere to the board policy uh ABA and and to develop and uh uh promotion of inclusivity um cultural uh cultural responsiveness and anti-racist engagement. Um
017and the these are the things that we're going to put together and present uh to the board on April the 10th. Uh and then you know our you know commitment is to engage the you know stakeholders um who um reflect the community's diversity and experiences and to that regard we have reached out and and and in that in our community project team we do have a diverse group of um community members and we're still you know working with other groups um and um and we also are you know going to be working with Mr. uh SA to engage some of the student members um that you know we could get the student voices as we move forward with the with the study. Um we also are planning to meet with the faith council um end
018of this month uh to talk to them about you know providing some additional members uh so from different uh portions of our community to help us um you know give feedback throughout this process. So um as I started talking about our community engagement, the first set of engagement is going to start first week of April. Uh we're going to have two sets of meeting for each one of the two um boundary studies. There's going to be um two meetings for uh the Woodward U boundary study and there's going to be two meetings for the Crown and Damascus um high school expansion project uh community engagement. And one of these meetings are going to be virtual. So the first meeting on April 2nd will be virtual for Woodward. Uh it would be you know um hosted
019in Zoom and we will make sure all the uh close captioning is available for anybody who participates. We do plan to um record these meetings so that it is available uh for any community members that you know are unable to participate on the 2nd. They will have an opportunity to go back and review these meetings. Um and then we're going to have an in-person meeting um for Woodward uh on the 8th. Um and then for the crown um we're you know having a meeting on the 7th um in virtually as well as an in-person meeting in Gaithersburg High School High School on the 9th. So the first set of meetings a lot of folks have already started um asking what the purpose of these meetings are and are we presenting any options at these meetings
020and the answer to that is no. We have not uh started you know developing any options for the study yet. The purpose of the first four meetings is just to bring the community along and and getting them uh oriented to the boundary study. is talking to them about the process. Talking to them about how they uh are able to give us feedback as the study progresses and um and the survey uh you know um the links to the surveys as well as we will also provide them with the calendar dates for future meetings so they know uh when you know when they can expect us back in their communities to start actually talking about options. So the first set of meetings are going to be just to uh orient the communities so that they know
021what's happening and what they can expect throughout the process. In round two, we will go back in uh May uh late May and early June. Uh and this is when we do plan to um start u presenting the initial options to the community. What it will do is uh allow them to look at the look at the options, the initial thoughts and and you know how it it affects each one of the four factors and then you know they will have the entire summer to be able to give us feedback on those options which we can collect over the summer for future uh phases of this project. Sorry there slide. Okay. Um so yes uh the the engagement timeline um so April is going to be the initial sessions as I discussed both virtual and
022in person and in May and June uh we're going to have community meeting sessions uh which will you know we will present the initial options at that time and then we will also give them the uh the survey that will allow them the community to provide feedback uh and then between July and August we're going to collect all the surveys and look at um all the feedback that we are getting from the the community and use that feedback to refine those options and go back to the community in September for a second round of uh discussion and presenting presentation of options uh to the community and then October November time frame we will be collecting more feedback from the community in order for us to present the uh superintendent's recommendation in December of 2025. I
023think that is the Yep. So um so essentially they that was an update on what um you know what has been happening with the boundary study, what has happened, what we are doing currently and what we plan to do in the next few months. Uh as I you know Dr. Taylor has already mentioned u that we will be back on April 10th with our community engagement plan uh for a discussion with the board at that time. Uh and now we will open uh it up for board member questions. Thank you for the presentation. Um now I know the boundary study are not just about adjusting the school zones. It's also about our planning for the future and that's why we have both the boundary study and the program analysis happen at the same time now.
024So um I'm going to open up for my colleagues for uh questions and comments. I'm going to start from my right hand side and then I'll go uh online. So Miss Stewart, one question and one comment first. Ra. Uh well first of all thank you. I'm so happy that we're getting started and the message has gone out to the community that these meetings are coming up. Um, I did get some feedback uh that the first meeting um is at Walter Johnson, the DCC, which is five high schools, huge community. um they're feeling nervous about this whole process just because the discussion of Woodward really started to tell you the truth in the WJ cluster and so to get buy in um from the community knowing that we have Einstein which is hugely overcrowded and Blair
025which is the biggest school I think in Maryland um so and crowded and also Wheaten which is bursting at the seams. They want to know that they will have um input that will be seriously listened to. And so I know the meetings have been scheduled, but whatever we can do to get the DCC to show up and if that means possibly after the first meeting, if you see a low attendance rate to schedule something to kick this off in the down county, it would go far so we have a level playing field from the very beginning. And some of this is perception. Um, but that is it's it is it is a perception. So, thank you, Miss Wolf. Hey, thank you for the work you've done so far. My my big concern of course is
026program evaluation because as you know, East County is not in the boundary study. At least the Northeast Consortion is not. So, you know, we heard Bridget How ask several very good questions about the program evaluation and when I started thinking about I think I know the answer, maybe I don't. I think it would be a good idea and you could tell me how much I don't know how much work would be involved in this to put up a Q&A about it on our website or whatever website that that you think it appropriate to go on. But I think it would help people understand and the Q&A needs to include why now? Why are why now when you're doing a boundary study, they don't seem to be related. So, how is this going to be integrated
027into that? Now, I know that you said one question, but these questions won't make any sense if I have to wait to go all the way around. So, I'm just going to go on with my other one. I I don't I think that you're doing a lot of community outreach for the boundary study. I'm wondering don't we need community outreach so people understand program evaluation so that they understand how this is going to impact them even though they're not a part of the boundary study and they get buy in and feel like they're part of whatever is being decided because right now there's no feeling that anybody cares about what's going on over there. It's sort of like starting to feel like an island unto itself. And so I think it would be really important
028while you're having these initial community meetings that you have a few initial community meetings over in the east county so that we don't feel left out of everything. Plus, I think program evaluation could have an impact on a lot of things if you do this right. And the fact that East County is left out kind of raises the question, and I'm going to keep saying that, by the way, so you could get used to kind of raises the question of of the case program over at Sherwood by Sherwood not being a part of the Northeast Consortion. I think it misses out on students who might think about going there because there's no bus transportation over to Sherwood from where we are. So, that's just something that I wanted you to think about because we're really
029starting to feel like an island unto ourselves and I don't really like that feeling. Thank you, Miss Wolf. Um, okay. So, I'm going to go to Miss River. Thank you. Did you want to answer or no? Okay. Yes, you did. Okay. I was going to Can you turn on your mic, please? Yeah. respond to that but I didn't know whether we are waiting to for everybody to make their comments or should we respond Mr. Mammoon, I appreciate that. Uh if you would like to answer a board member's comment, turn on your light and then we will uh have you answer the question. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Sorry. So go going back to your comment about the the engagement. So that is an excellent point. Something that we also talked about as far as you know
030how do we uh reach out to to the you know broader community. Um the idea behind the first two meetings were that yes these are extremely important meetings. These are again mostly talking about the process but not necessarily actually talking about any of the of the boundary options. Um and so these are very important meetings. So we tried to do those in in locations where you know their um public transportations are available which is why we you know picked the uh picked the high schools that we did as well as uh you know Gaithersburg High School being one of them for the first round for for Crown. uh allows us to, you know, allow most, you know, more people to join. And then we're going to obviously have those meetings recorded as well, the online
031versions of it, so people are able to able to, you know, uh view them. Uh and as we move forward with the um with the future phases of the boundary study, we're going to be scheduling these at different high schools for for for you know, for different rounds. And again, you know, as we see the attendance, we do have, you know, flexibility built into our contract to add more meetings. So, the comment that you made about, you know, if we're not seeing proper, you know, amount of participation, then we will obviously will have the ability to add um more meetings um and and you know, in in certain locations to make sure that we're reaching as many of the community members as we can. Just as a quick followup, um being that you're not that
032this is it for the roll out, um we want to make sure that at least it is um going out to directly to parents through communication systems, through the Remind, through email in different languages. So um we they we don't we won't get the message back like oh we didn't know this was happening. So the fullon push to let people know that it will have there will be a virtual option and accessible in person option um but sooner than later so that the messaging really gets out to just about everyone. So thank you. Yeah, thank you for that. Thank you miss all. Yes. Um thank you so much for the presentation. Um, I'm just trying to when you say, you know, there's already the community meetings, I I thought you meant Woodward and Crown in
033April, but it it sounds like there's other meetings going on. I'm just wondering if we can make sure that we have that on the website. um all the meetings that in in a calendar and schedule of all the meetings that are happening. If there's a meeting coming up, if we can highlight it that for that week so people know. Um and on Mrs. Wool's point about the Q&A, I think it's a great idea. I think we even should be explaining what a program evaluation is, what goes into a program evaluation, what are the ingredients of a program evaluation, right? not just assume that um our community members already have, right? That they're all like great evaluators, but just, you know, to give to give our community the tools in order to be able to be
034uh engaged in this and to keep in mind that we have a lot of first generation. We are a very, you know, multicultural diverse community that we have a lot of people that have not been engaged because sometimes they don't have the tools. So, they feel out of place. So I would like us to to figure out how we can do um like a toolkit on how to go through a boundary and you can share it with me too u boundary evaluation and when you have all these committees right these advisory committees the project team the MCPG project the community at large I know where there's going to be communication but I think it's important of when the communication is being taken because if we want some of these committees or like the board of
035um the education advisor committee to really be able to make an impact because these are people are taking time off of their time to be able to come, you know, and give of their of their time that we actually, you know, things have now already happened where they're not going to be able to have a say or be able to have an input. So, I I'm hoping that there's going to be a way of communication that is going to be just very clear and coherent to be able, you know, and synchronized, right? So, I'm I'm hoping that everybody's calendars and times are, you know, you all going to share all that good stuff and then be able then to have cohesiveness into the process. Thank you, Miss Sylvestri. Yes. um very much looking forward to
036the larger comprehensive community engagement plan that you will present to us April 10th, I think you said. Um and uh these two kickoff meetings um we got to get them right because it sets the tone for the whole process going forward. So no pressure, but uh um you know, just wanted to emphasize that point. And just a point of clarification, um the program evaluation, Miss Hazel, you I heard you say it will include elementary school programs. Could you clarify that? We will begin with um analyzing high school and middle school first and as we u make recommendations for how we ensure that we've looked at all the programs and recommendations for where we may replicate programs across the district for equitable access and things of that nature. Then the next phase will be elementary because
037we want to make sure high school high school and middle school programs are set and those elementary programs align to what the middle and high school programs are. So we want to get that down first and then the next phase will be elementary. I just want I just want to add one sentence to that. Thank you Madam President and Miss Sylvestri. Um, a a good way to think about this and and also why it's good to to look at the secondary just in general when you're doing any kind of boundary adjustment or any kind of program adjustment is you you really need to conceptualize this of where you want the students to end and then backward map how to get there in the the most effective and efficient way that you can. So it is
038smart for us. Perfect world, we do all of this all at one time. But even if we were to do all of this at one time, as impractical as that would be, we would still scope and sequence it in this order because we would want to start with what the aspiration is for an end point. What would what do what are we expecting of a graduate to attain and then what programmatic decisions need to inform how we get to that point? So what uh Miss Hazel is talking about is as we're ramping up, it's really about as we're mapping backwards. Thank you, Mrs. Emberman. Thank you. Um I also, you know, I appreciate all the work that has been done and this um update. Um I appreciate that also that a lot of this work
039is being done in house in MCPS. Thank you for that. Um, I also have a question about our program study. Um, and it it sounds like um it sounds like there's some confusion about what what are kind of our expected outcomes of this. Um, like can the community expect that they're going to see more programs open? Are they expecting to see programs close? Are they expecting to see programs move? Um, I think clarifying that would help kind of ease a lot of a lot of the questions and that is perfect for what we are doing in in phase two. We are taking a look at the data. We have in some areas very low enrollment and low interest but we have programs running. We have in some areas uh high interest, long waiting lists, one
040program. And so we are in a place where we need to make decisions about how do we ensure that those programs that have high interest and there's high industry demand are placed equitably in our district. It may be we replicate programs. Maybe we sunset a program. We need a a long-term and a short-term plan for how we roll that out. So that will be phase two with our stakeholder group to really um make some decisions about again what do we want for our students, what's mandatory from the state um and where are we where do we want to be 5 10 years from now with with our programming and and looking at it across the district making sure that all of our areas east county everywhere that there are are programs for our students to
041be able to access. So phase two is really outlining that and then the third phase would be how do we implement it? So what does the actual fa a phase in plan look like? So that's what we will be doing and we'll continue to update um the community. We do plan to do a survey um and I think the website the Q&A all of that is a really great idea to keep the community updated. Okay. So it sounds like the the community can expect that there will be change but it's going to be based on where we see our student interest and our growth. Great. Um, speaking of that notification, I know environmentally we try to focus on reducing the amount of paper that we use, but I also can speak that there are many
042families that check folders and, you know, that's part of the routine. Um, it might be something that we consider um in notification across that that's that's something that is easily accessed by everyone and that's something we could consider doing. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sana. Yes. Thank you. I I want to say I appreciate uh the the dedication to really receiving student input across all aspects, you know, from the board side to the MCPS side of both of the sort of community engagement partners. Uh really having that focus on student input is is important to me. Uh moreover, even the potential of going into schools during the day and start starting to speak to students during that, you know, we don't have to take an entire community engagement session just to listen to the
043students. Uh and you know, it really frees up some more time for for us to listen to to all sides of our constituents, right? from our students uh during like potential at like lunch or even during uh for our community members after school during some of those engagement sessions. I want to say uh in regards to the program uh evaluation like true and comprehensive program evaluation really does mean across the county, right? Uh as someone who you know who is bust over an hour, right, to to get to a program, right? and it and it it is a very difficult thing to to take up and and it was one of the reasons why I left my program, right? Because it would have meant an hour uh to to be busted across. But also understanding
044that if we're looking at program evaluation, a big part of that means that programs can be located accessibly, but they also must be implemented with fidelity to ensure effectiveness. So whenever we're looking at whatever the program evaluation may be, how are we ensuring the effectiveness of these programs um to the state that they that they are currently being seen at or how are we improving them beyond what we're seeing them in? Uh it's not enough to just put a program somewhere and say, "Well, we gave you accessibility um if we're not going to give the resources to support it." Uh and I believe in MCPS to give the resources to these programs to really help them and make them thrive. Um and then my final uh thing is really about the access to information. Um,
045so like I think the that an update on dedicated uh like c can can we get an update on the dedicated redistricting page that we were you know talking about a while ago and then uh also any materials that we're talking about with with regards to redistricting and the program evaluation should really be easily accessible. Uh and every single piece of material that we're putting out to the community should be available in one space, one uh one page on the website. And I would really even go as far to say as including a tab at the top of our website uh for this because it's such a big part of what our uh community is going to see over the next couple of years. Um that I I think it's that important that we would
046really do that much. Um I understand that's not possible, but I do believe that we need to make the communication as accessible as possible and access to information should not be a barrier to entry. Thank you. I'm going to go check online to see if Miss Montoya has any comments or questions. Go ahead, Miss Monatoya. Thank you so much, and I apologize for having to step out and take the remainder of the meeting from home. I just wanted to say thank you to both of you and all of your staff and all the other MCPS staff. I know that these are two very large lifts and it takes a lot to organize and it takes a lot to gather all of this information and put it into a coherent approach. Um, so I appreciate that.
047I appreciate these slides. They're very clear. It gives me a snapshot of all the important information. I'm going to carry this around in my bag so that when people ask me, I can provide them with these times and date and uh timelines. So I just want to say thank you both of you for providing some clear slides for us today. Thank you. Um I have a few I have a comment. So um tag along with Miss Mononttoya's comment. So we need to cut through the noise. So having a clear chart is very helpful of the timeline. And I also say throughout our community engagement make it make sense. It's very overwhelming for our families. These are their children we are talking where to attend school we are talking about. So avoid the jarens. For example,
048when you talk about proximity, right? Actually just be simple. Say, hey, this might change this this bus route. This might means this neighborhood might need to take the bus or this means this neighborhood can walk. Cut through some jarens when we do that. and also end every meeting clearly with uh what's next. I think when we have a community gathering and afterwards people are in a waiting pattern. So to be able to make it clear say our next engagement or today we are doing this our next step will be this and the timeline for that is probably during this time that will uh be very helpful for our families. And one more thing is set the expectation. What are the chances in a school system with 160,000 students everyone is happy any single day. Right?
049And the same with boundary studies that this these are difficult conversations that we know that the end result not every family will be happy with the end result. However, in our effort, we need to be clear. We need to gather all the feedback and make clear rationale what the final recommendation is and why we are making those recommendations. So in the whole process of boundary study I think that uh setting expectations and making an effort to meet our expectation is uh uh like of clear communication robust community engagement is uh important. Um my final question is um when you are going out to do the uh when you do the Zoom session and that page would that be posted and and how would that be communicated beyond our regular um email to to our communities?
050Yeah. Yeah. So, we are working on different many different ways of getting out, not just the email. We're, you know, also considering getting it out through our partners, the county uh offices, their outreach. Um, we're also, you know, as you know, one um already was mentioned about, you know, uh maybe having a piece of paper with a QR code or or a link to the meeting that goes out to to the in the backpacks to the to the students. So, we're, you know, we're we're looking at, you know, the broadest way possible for us to to be able to get that information out. Uh, and as far as Mr. Sarna's question about there is a dedicated website, but I uh love your suggestion about, you know, making sure that is there's a link to it
051on the on our main page. So when you know people are visiting our our main website that there's you know one of the things like a banner maybe that says you know boundary study and then uh you know if it but we do have a page so folks are able to get that the information uh not about the meetings previous recordings any of the information will be available on our website. So I appreciate that uh using uh other organizations uh trusted community organization or community connectors um uh it's has proven to be very effective uh in the past in the county. So I hope we we can continue to do that. All right. Are there any other lights? Miss Stewart? So, not to throw a mon a wrench in the I'm going to say the
052wrong saying, so I'm just going to stay away from sayings. Um, the transportation study um that was also supposed to be happening soon. Um, there was a community members and other people set up to talk about the transportation study. The reason I'm bringing that up is that when we do our program study, transportation has a lot to do with that. And so I don't want to miss an opportunity to um fix some of the complications that happen today with our programs and transportation. Then also knowing that um there's other modes of of transportation that can be used now because um some of that changed at the state level about what's allowed and um this could open up flexibility and also looking forward maybe even to work on healthier start times. So will what's happening with
053the transportation study along with the this other huge study that's happening. So I can't speak to the study. However, we are working very closely with transportation with the program analysis and plan. So they are working alongside us as we are mapping out any programs for the future. Transportation and facilities are working with us. Uh they're so they are very much included in that plan. I I don't know about the study. Yeah, for the boundary study as well. I mean we do have as we mentioned our uh crossf functional team that is uh working with flow uh very closely includes uh you know our um transportation team then you know because you know obviously when we're talking about boundaries one of the first things we start with is the walk zones and then kind of work
054our way out and transportation's been in involved in those communications uh and those discussions as we start. So they will be part of this entire study process as we as we move forward. Is the transportation study still happening or is that on hold or do we know? I I believe that we do have that in the works and um there is a component here and if Kat Melchody if you want to come forward uh to talk a little bit about perfect world all of these things dovetail into uh a new reality for MCPS that's a lot more efficient than the one that we're working with right now and transportation is a big part of that. Um, I know that we've we've entertained some thoughts uh from a few uh constituents about elements of the the
055transportation study that could even be uh potentially expanded to conceptualize some other frameworks with start times and a few other things too. So, those are some things I know that we're we're we're looking at as well. But, uh, Cat, thank you for being here and please uh share some thoughts. Yes, absolutely. So we have a steering committee um that was formed after the consultant report was created and um shared and we are working through the part of the study that dealt with the routing solution. And so we just completed an RFI for the routing solution. The members of our committee were invited in to give feedback on the RFI submissions and all of that is being used to form the basis for an RFP for the transportation routing solution. And we're very excited about that
056because um it hasn't been updated since I started in 1999. So, I'm fairly certain before that when the new Blair opened. And so, that is a huge part of this because the efficiency that comes with using an updated system allows us to make better decisions and support programs um in a better way, which is amazing for our students. So, I'm very excited about that work um and the sort of the the connections that it brings to the boundary studies as well as any kind of program analysis because like Nikki said, we all work very closely together. Um and we want students to be able to access um you know, programs and also you know not do it where they're sitting possibly in transportation for over an hour. Um so yeah, we're very excited about it.
057There's a lot of overlap and connections and more to come. I have to say I'm excited about this too. It's almost like we're looking at this in a holistic way um which will only help us move forward um in our goals and um also because I know there's a lot of waiting lists and if so if we could have um that we could alleviate our waiting list by having programs in different areas and then have kids be able to get there efficiently. So anyway, thank you. Thank you for that. Mr. Rivera, thank you. Um just very quickly, you have mentioned the um the faith council and the faith council is under the community partnerships uh group for the for um for the county. So I was just going to also highlight the fact that they
058have the other groups um where um many folks are very very involved and they have um a tap into a larger community that they represent. So my hope would be that you will share that information or even do a small little presentation to them um to make sure you know that engagement happens. But as to Miss U Sylvester's point, no right, no pressure, but you you really those two first meetings are very crucial um to setting the tone. Um I have a question. I hear the word transportation study. Can someone remind me didn't we just had a transport transportation study a year or two years ago that there is a result and so how is this what we are talking about transportation study now relate to that transportation study please illuminate they are one and
059the same and so we have the results from um that study that was done and we are using them in collaboration with the work that's being done for the boundary studies and the program analysis to make sure that all of the pieces are connected. So it's a continuation that's a overview now when we are looking at specific thing then we'll continue to absolutely and as Mr. Moonside, we have a lot of members of um our transportation groups internal as well as external stakeholders from our community partners involved in this as well which is really exciting. And how long will this transportation study take? Is it the whole duration of boundary study or what are we looking at timelinewise? I think it'll be a part of the process for as long as this process takes and
060then beyond because um you know the program analysis will continue throughout and so it will the the initial phases will sort of dictate what comes next and and how we can support you know sort of the next phases of program analysis. So it seems to me the scope of work is getting bigger and bigger. Okay. So I would really appreciate uh some deliverable that you can share with the whole board in terms of I'm clear about the boundary study what the outcome is but what are the deliverables for the program evaluation and the transportation and I know that uh improving the school system is a ongoing journey in all aspects but in terms of what we are talking now what deliverables are we talking about I would like us to have a very clear idea
061thank you missi maybe Dr. wants to clarify first. So, I I'm I'm going to make this even muddier and say that there is a a whole lot that will be influenced by the boundary study that will create other deliverables that that we need to review because this will influence our nutrition program and uh the size, space, and utilization of our cafeterias. This will impact our staffing plan dramatically uh and shift uh human capital in a lot of different places throughout the district. So I think I think you're right to ask about the multi- faceted deliverables that will be a part of this. Um, we can absolutely see a concrete map on a piece of paper that shows where the general attendance zones are of a home school deliverable check. We can see a program of
062study that articulates pathways at our secondary schools and eventually our elementary schools that shows what course offerings are at what schools and what the processes might be for elective programs or elective academic opportunities. Check. We might see um uh bus configurations and transportation plans that align to a specific school just like we would see a nutrition plan and a staffing plan that would align to a specific school and what staffing exceptions might be created because there's a programmatic change at one place versus another place and what schools are we anticipating growth versus we're anticipating uh retrenchment. So I think some of the deliverables fortunately are are a part of things that we already create and um they are they just need to be presented and articulated in the way uh that that the team uh
063is is making them as a part of this process. Uh I think it is really important that the board pointed out that there is not a whole lot of enthusiasm behind the boundary study maybe right at this moment because it doesn't feel like there's a lot of impact and that there are geographic parts of the county that need to be brought into the conversation. But the reality is is that the boundary study and its ripple effect will literally affect everyone in some way, shape or form. And so being sensitive to that and making sure that the board sees deliverables and that we can tie those changes to the changes that are really happening as a part of these attendance boundary changes is really important for the community to see. Yeah. Both in a practical way
064of um impacting everyday life in the school district and also from the board's point of view for any project uh the oversight. So without a clear understanding of our uh end deliverable and the mindstrong to hit that um we will appreciate having that uh to to to stay on top of all of this. Um yes, Miss Sylvester, just back to the transportation issue. Just making sure I'm clear. There was a transportation study that has concluded. You used the consultant. The board got a report. What you're referring to as a transportation study, it's like analysis, right? It's like as we're going through this boundary study process, there is a a transportation analysis that has to happen for all of this to work. Am I understanding that correctly? Yes, that that is correct. because any changes in
065the programs as well as boundaries going to have impact which is why we do have I mean transportation is one of the biggest partners in this uh in this whole conversation so they're they're part of the core group. Just wanted to clarify for our audience that the study is one thing and this is an analysis which is part of the uh boundary process. Thank you. See no other lights. I want to thank you for your work and your presentation. We anxiously wait for the April 10th update.