001The time is now 7:02. Good evening everyone and welcome to May 11th, 2026 strategic realignment workg groupoup meeting. I'm Zakyia going committee co-chair in district 8 board of education member and it brings me great pleasure to welcome you all to tonight's meeting. For those unable to observe now, the meeting is being recorded and can be accessed on the PGCPS YouTube channel for later viewing. The agenda and documents that we will be discussing can be found on the PGCPS diligent page linked from the board of education web page. >> Miss McMillan, please call the role. >> Bronson, >> present. >> Denise Cabrera, >> present. Amy Sawyer, >> present. >> Catherine Sutton, >> present. >> Ashley Pier, Charice Vickery, Camila House, >> present. Carmen Lewis, >> Senator Elona Washington, >> board member Amy Oliva, >> present. >>
002Board member Dr. Moss, >> present. >> Board member Zakia, >> present. >> Dr. Sean Joseph, Dr. Deianne Collins, >> present. >> Dr. Douglas Strader >> here. >> Dr. Dana Edwards, Miss Sahal. Dr. Jamie Browers, >> present. >> Dr. Kevin Kendrick, >> present. Mr. Jeffrey Parker, Miss Felicia Coar, >> present, >> Dr. David Curry. Miss Michelle Tal Monroe, Miss Joel Preston, >> Mr. Kelvin Pink, >> present, >> Mr. Trent Holmes, Mr. Roosevelt Lines, Dr. Donna Christie, >> Mr. Nick Schmidt, >> present. >> Miss Arnette Jones, >> present. >> Mr. Hava Johnson, >> present. >> Miss Carl Robinson, >> present. >> Mr. Wilbert Brimson, >> Miss S Harris, >> Sante present. >> Thank you, Miss Essence Herman. >> Miss Christina Bailey, Miss Shir Green Huggins, Mr. Ronald Williams, >> Mr. Alexander Austin, >> present. >> Got it.
003>> Mr. Alexander Austin, >> Mr. Corey Jones, Miss Jamie Florina, Miss Candy, and M. Mr. William Lash. >> Miss Tamisha Keys >> present. >> Thank you so much McMillan. The co-chair recognizes Dr. Jamie Bowers for the committee workg groupoup charge presentation. >> Good evening. I just want to spend a few minutes bringing us back to our purpose for our work group this evening. So along our road map, we are moving into the back part of phase one uh and looking at our um different workg groupoup committees this evening. And we have three great guest speakers lined up for you to share some information within each of our su uh subgroups. And then as well as hopefully some of those discussions this evening are going to help begin to frame some of our policy recommendations that
004we will be coming up with as subcommittee members. Just a a reminder of some of the resources. We do have the um committee assignment form for you to review. We also have our Google folder structure for each of our three subgroups that our members uh are able to access our notes documents and any other documents that our group facilitators put in their Google folder. as well as we have the strategic alignment committee work resource document which has uh many many uh links to accesses regarding budget um and other public facing things that we may use um as resources or references during our workg groupoup time tonight. just to ground us in our responsibilities uh for each of our subcommittee uh groups for our fiscal review and resource alignment which is facilitated by board member Moss.
005Some of our core responsibilities are looking at our district-wide spending staffing contracts and program investments. Looking at our cost efficiencies, redundancies and opportunities for reallocation a cost benefit analysis and shortterm and long-term resource alignment strategies. And this evening we're joined by uh director Ka Baldwin over our transportation who's going to be sharing some information uh with you this evening for our revenue and sustainability subcommittee which I facilitate. Our responsibilities that we want to be grounded in are uh reviewing current revenue streams, gaps and vulnerabilities within our uh existing funding structures, new and diversified revenue opportunities, advocacy strategies uh that lead lend themselves to more flexible spending or funding sources. And this evening we're going to be uh joined by supervisor Andrea Benbal who's going to be sharing with us a lot of information about our
006grants that we have um access to here in the district and some grant funding sources. Our third subcommittee is our stakeholder engagement and policy recommendation subcommittee which is facilitated by Dr. Kevin Kendrick and our responsibilities uh that this committee is grounded in are stakeholder engagement strategies looking at uh planning out public meetings, listening sessions and surveys for stakeholders to share meaningful and actionable feedback and insights as well as uh developing policy recommendations. And this evening he's going to be joined by uh Megan Thornton and Dr. Sheila Jackson and talking about some of our stakeholder engagement work within the district and how that can help support this subcommittee. So at this time we're going to be placed into our breakout rooms and we are scheduled to be in our breakout rooms about 60 minutes this evening
007and we will be returning back to the whole group around 8:15 to debrief our work tonight and speak about next steps for our next subcommittee meeting. Thank you so much, Dr. Bowers. And so with that, we will now break out into our subcommittees. >> Um, co-chair Goings Mccants. Um, we should remind people that we are coming back the last 15 minutes for a share out as we did the last time. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Moss. All right, people should be going into subs If you have not received a notification to your set now, >> I don't think I haven't. Um, board member Alivo, are you supposed to be in stakeholder engagement? Yes. Okay. Same as the same as my body. >> Thank you. Danger on the Dr. Jackson, you should have gotten something.
008Yes. Dr. Collins, would you like to >> I can start in uh Jamie Bower's group. >> Okay. >> And then I'll be able to float like I did last week or No, >> or I can just be there the whole time. I don't mind. >> I'll make you a co-host just in case you'd like to know. >> Okay. And >> I should be over where Kuba Baldwin is. turn. There should be a popup. We know how kids [clears throat] Giant pride. We keep our community whe You can have all the comforts in We're supposed to leave. >> Doesn't allow us to leave. I clicked on it and it didn't take me there. [laughter] I'm not hearing you. >> I was on mute. I'm not sure. What room are we in? Are we in the main?
009just put me in. So, I was supposed to leave. I clicked on it, breakout room, and then I clicked on it and it didn't allow me to. >> Oh, I don't know. And it's it's not giving me giving us any options to um Oh, here. Ah, here we go. >> I got spirited away in the middle of a sentence. [laughter] You're not alone. >> I was about to say something really passionate as well. How how how dare someone. >> Well, only if you solved all of our budget problems and you got the county council to give us an additional $30 million will I allow you to finish your powerful words. So, is that the solution? >> Sorry, you're breaking up. I I I [laughter] couldn't hear what you said. >> Wow. Well, um I I'm
010going to facilitate a time for us to share out here. Um if if each group could share out your learnings. I know we had a healthy conversation uh in my subcommittee, but would I don't know who's reporting out from each subcommittee. Um and then at the end, um Micah has a couple of announcements uh just in terms of where we will uh when we will meet again uh and all those good things. But um committee uh group one which my group can go first um subcom um subcommittee chair Victory. >> Good evening everybody. Dr. Kendricks, you were Kendrick, you were not the only person who was in the middle of a statement. So was Miss Hearn then in our group and I was like oh 30 seconds 10 nine we were gone. Um so we
011had a great discussion today. Um Director Baldman um came to visit us and we were very um thankful that he came. We got to talk about um some of the findings that were done for a report um back in 2024 around um transportation and kind of how we got to where we are today with our new Chipmunk app and um some of the great data that they have now. Um, and we kind of broke down kind of some of what the routes look like, some of the methods that they're using, and um, how we've moved from just a solo option of yellow bus only to now we're in like a mixed um, modalities of transportation with third party vendor. We have 50 vans out there and then we do still have our um, yellow buses
012out there. And I will say for uh the record just so that our public and then everyone on the meeting understands how transportation budget works. It is the total budget for transportation divided by per bus um divided by the number of buses in the fleet and that equals the cost per bus. Did I get that right Dr. Baldwin? Dr. Ballin >> as as per the formative audit right when >> as per the formative audit. So I will add that to my notes. >> Yes. Um and so in in the end we we discussed some things that um again the community may not like. Um and that discussion definitely led around what does transportation look like for specialty schools? What does transportation look like for specialty um school attendees for high in high school? Um and
013also what does it look like around having hub stops? We had another question out there that we didn't get to and I'm sure we'll um send it over to Director Baldwin around kind of what this the center part of the county looks like. Um but and we'll get that over to Micah. And so our homework um that we came up with um out of that um for director Baldwin is we want to know what are the raw numbers if we wiped out transportation for K through8 specialty schools. if it was a thing and we want two tiers. It kind of leans back to the homework we gave to the team with Dr. Kendrick last time we met. If we created hub stops for specialty schools and we eliminated some bus routes, what's the raw numbers
014there? And then what if we had to eliminate transportation in total for K through eight specialty schools? Um what does what's those raw numbers? We know that there's an equity thing. We're not saying we're taking it away. We just want to know the raw numbers to see what that looks like and see then we can start working with different departments to see how do you bring back in equity? What does that look like? Um and I believe we also had a question the third one was around what if we did hub stops for those students who were in specialty schools um specialty high school programs. And then Dr. Kendrick, we have questions for we have homework for you again. And that was um we need a campaign I think currently. This is not a future
015thing. This is a current thing. Um director Baldwin needs a campaign around absent calls and to contact the main transportation number when your child is going to be out sick or can't make the bus so that that stop can be skipped for the day. Um, and you'll have to work with him more on that, but there is a need that they don't have need to have the bus drivers going to every stop if we know that this child is out sick or something like that. Um, and then I don't think we added to the list last time around a um stakeholder engagement around hub stops for specialty schools. And so a hub stop would essentially be at maybe like a shopping plaza or maybe a um park and ride and then all the kids that
016need to ride that bus have to get there and then get their bus to their school. And that is all I if I'm missing anything, anyone from my team, please let me know. But I do not believe I'm missing anything. I And I do have to go off mute go on mute and off camera because WWE is happening above my head and I need to go handle that. >> Yeah. Um I I'll just add one comment here. Um that's hysterical. Um we were fortunate to have Essence with us. Um who is from I think the correct number is 2250. Am I right? Essence >> from 2250. Um who um who's a bus driver as well. So we we're very fortunate to have that that layer of perspective as part of the conversation tonight. >> Um
017group two, Dr. Kendrick and then we'll let um Dr. Bowers um round us out for tonight. >> Yeah. So um our meeting tonight pretty much focused on coming up with last time we met we brainstorm ideas on how we were going to engage the uh stakeholders on getting their feedback from the budget. Whereas tonight we actually started to narrow down and very specific things that we would like to do. Um, we did have a challenge though because um, we know that right now we're waiting for what the county is going to say with regards to how much if they're going to give us any remainder remaining money. I know 20 million has been committed, but there's 30 million that we need in addition to total 50 million. And so a lot of the work that
018we're going to do really depends on what that will be. Um, and so we're trying essentially to we were trying to essentially say, okay, if we had the ideal time that we had, what specific ways would we engage uh families, students, educators, and staff um because we want to eventually try to put this to action? But again, it really kind of depends on the timeline um and what is feasible between now and June 1st uh or mid June. And so that's essentially what we were working on uh tonight. Yeah, I'm sure I mean I should probably say this whole group and then I'll let Dr. Bowers round us out, you know, um our work um you know will be harder um you know for sure when the if if the board has to make decisions
019where we don't get the full 50 million um our work will be really hard and I I think my colleagues will want us to come back to you as we get ready to make that decision. that's that's what you're here for. Um, you know, for us to layer some things to to to be able to make the right decisions for kids. If the county council does give us that money, I've been clear with folks um and I I joke with my colleagues on the board who roll off this December, um, you'll leave and we will have solved a problem and then Amy, Zakiya, Tiffany, and all of our new colleagues and I will have another problem next year um, if we don't structurally deal, you know, with with what's happening. So your recommendations are really
020important. Um so um you know depending on what the superintendent may give us a new task if we get the $50 million um or the board may have a different task um to look at. But you know our our work is still hinging on that. But we want to have a set of recommendations that are ready to go um in the event that we have to make that kind of decision. I think we're getting there in some of these groups. I think some some really good coming out here um you know for our work. Um, so Dr. Bowers, um, I hope you all have found us a new revenue stream, um, so that we don't have to deal with any of this. Your group is tasked with finding more money so we don't have to
021cut anything. >> That's a really tall order. I didn't I didn't know we were in charge of that. Um, [laughter] we had a great um, discussion this evening around grants. So last week during the uh or two weeks ago during the meeting there were several next steps and looking at what uh grants do we have access to, what's the life cycle of a grant, how do we procure grants, uh what are some other um community partners uh via grants that we have access to. So, um, Supervisor Andrea Benbal gave us a great presentation and we had some good Q&A about the different types of grant funds we currently have and, um, how we can start building partnerships with other grants. And I think during our next, uh, meeting, we're going to debrief what we heard
022tonight and start talking about what are some other um, revenue uh, access points we can start looking at. Uh, and then we also need to debrief what we heard tonight about grants and how we are taking those grant funds from the different sources we get them and how we're making decisions in the district about how those funds are allocated. So, I think we got some really good next steps tonight, but we did a lot of really good learning um, and talking through a lot of questions um, about our grant process and access tonight. Yeah, I I I really appreciate that work there. I I wonder if we could for you all um Superintendent Joseph, are we able to get the revenue authority to meet with them at the next meeting? I know we had worked
023on that a little bit, but I think talking to the revenue authority um also is another good point. I was having a conversation, maybe it was you, Dr. Bowers around what the revenue authority is responsible for in the county and and and where they can um tax others so that we can spend. I just said that out loud, right? Um but um >> talk about those speed cameras that are strategically posted on school property and where the funds from those speed cameras go. >> Yeah. District Heights. Um and I'm saying this um upsettedly if I can create another word. District Heights um in one month procured $50,000 off one little camera in the small city of District Heights. Um and I know I'm $500 of that 50,000. Um so, um you know, >> we can
024follow up. They're supposed to be they're supposed to be uh sending representatives uh to our sessions, but I'll I'll follow up with Judith. Uh I'll send her an email today and follow up. >> Yeah. And on the state side of it, the money that we pay for the flags for not paying those tickets, I'm curious if that could go to blueprint. So, I got I got lots of thoughts in terms of um how how the state is nickeling and dimming us every every way and how it might be useful to the to the education system. Um but we appreciate everyone tonight. Um um coach Gwens McC will be in you don't. Okay, Micah, do you want to let folks know that we're not meeting on Memorial Day and when we're meeting? >> Yes. So, to
025account for Memorial Day, our next meeting is going to be on May 26, Tuesday. >> Yeah, we're going to meet on Tuesday instead of the Monday so we don't miss uh so we don't miss a week. So, so we do apologize uh for for moving that, but we're we're concerned we're going to miss a week. And if you know people who haven't been here that should be here, um you should say something to them about them not being here. They got a nice memo from us today encouraging them to come back and asking if there's ways that we can support them. Um so if if you know someone who's missing, um tell them I'm going to put an APB out on them. Um I started with a letter today. Um we'll we'll knock on their
026doors next because they're going to be truent in just a moment. Um, and so we'll try to try to get them in the building, but I don't have anything else. I'll turn it over to superintendent for final remarks. >> No, simply, thank you. Thank you for your incredible uh work and time. I know we know it's a lot. Um, you know, but but we feel like we can make better decisions together. So, we look forward to continuing in the discussions and, you know, moving us forward. >> Um, and, uh, I think that'll do it. Um, oh, my colleague, uh, board member Olivo is here tonight. Did you did you want to say anything? I apologize. >> No, thanks. I just we we've been having a great great discussions. Um, we do have one someone from
027the revenue authority who has been participating in our stakeholder engagement work group. So, I'm sure if we wanted her to talk about um something else, we could we could do that. But she has been actively engaged. And um, thank you everybody. >> Oh, nice. That's good to know. All right. U Micah, let's let's let's work with um Dr. Bowers on that for the next meeting. Okay, y'all have a good night. It is 8:32. Um y'all have a good night. Thank [snorts] you. >> Thank you. Good night.