001And then Ms. Johnson, if you could work on bringing Board Member Jackson Saunders over from the waiting room, that would be terrific also. Okay. Yes, I sent the notification for her to accept the promotion to the panel. Okay Perfect, so we'll see, see if she's able to join us. Okay, there are 3 board members present with a quorum present, the policy and governance committee meeting will come to order. Good evening, and welcome to the May 12th, 2026 Policy and Governance Committee meeting. I am Amy Olivo, Vice Chair and District 4 board member. It brings me great pleasure to welcome everyone 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. I'd like to inform the public that agenda item
002number 7.1-0116, wellness, nutrition, and physical activity will be discussed immediately after agenda item 5.0 public comments to accommodate our wonderful guests This evening If there are no objections, the committee will adopt the May 12th, 2026 meeting agenda as amended. There being no objections, the May 12th, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted as amended. If there are no corrections, the March 24th, 2026 committee meeting minutes shall be approved as distributed. There being no corrections, the minutes are approved. There are no public speakers this evening, and so we will move right into agenda item 7.1 policy 0116 Wellness, nutrition, and physical activity. At this time, we will consider this agenda item. And I recognize Mrs. Welsh to present her guest speakers and to provide an update on policy 0116 Wellness, nutrition, and physical activity. Thank you, Ms. Welsh.
003Good evening. So this evening, the policy 0116 Wellness, nutrition, physical activity went through a significant revision back in October of 2024. And in that revision, there was language that was the question came up Is there a possibility that there can be recesses in middle schools? And of course, there's such there are semi demands in terms of curriculum and what needs to be done time-wise. It was really determined that was not a possibility. However The committee at that point felt strongly that they needed to know more about what are ways that we can get physical activity for middle school students. So a language was put into the policy that said we would the committee, this policy would come back, and we would look at it And a study group made up of middle school instructional directors,
004principals, assistant principals, a representative from school services, representatives from academic division addressing physical education, health education, as well as other content areas as appropriate community members, representatives from local university colleges We'll meet and review and analyze evidence-based research regarding the impact of physical activity on academic achievement and social and emotional wellness of middle school students, the possibility of incorporating that we did add this incorporating recess into the middle school a school day, effective ways of incorporating physical activity or breaks into the middle school student school day, and implementation of physically active lessons in middle school classes. So this evening, we have with us several numerous people and quite a wide variety in several different divisions, departments across our Prince George's County Public Schools that are here to share the research that they did and what
005they came up with and what their recommendations are. So what I will do is I'm going to introduce Amy Wiley first, who is our supervisor of physical education And ask her then to please and she can introduce herself, but then introduce all the other people or point to them, and they can introduce themselves. Because we are very fortunate, and we also have principal 2 middle school principals in addition Instructional and student services staff and health services. So, Amy, if you would like to do the introductions. Thank you, Mrs. Welsh. I'm Amy Wiley. I am the instructional supervisor for physical education, and I'm going to let my colleagues come off mute and introduce themselves. So Dr. Doncore. Good evening, my name is Dr. Nonna Doncore. I supervise health education here in Prince George's County Public Schools
006Thank you. Mr. Nance. I'm Kenneth Nance, proud principal, Buck Lodge Middle School. Thank you. Dr. Jones Good afternoon. I'm Dr. Tracy Jones. I'm the supervisor for the Office of School Health Thank you, Mr. Clement. Hello, everybody, Marcellus Clement here, proud principal of Greenbelt Middle School Did Dr. Frazier jump off? Oh, there you are. Dr. Tammy Frazier, I'm the Wellness Program Coordinator for Prince George's County Public Schools. Thank you. I could not see you in my screen there. So sorry. So that is our committee. So I will… I don't need to talk anymore because you all are the experts since you did the research, so I'll let you move forward with your presentation. Thank you. And Ms. Johnson, will you be able to bring the presentation up? Okay, so first of all, I want to thank
007you all for having us and for the individuals that assisted with this task. And I forgot to send the updated version, but we were originally presenting on the 14th of April, and today is May 12th. So we got together and got information around middle school physical activity or recess and we are presenting moving towards success, the case for physical activity in middle school, boosting academic performance and emotional wellness These are the committee members. Some of them are not on today. So there are a few more people that assisted us with information. And the why we're here is because of the board policy 0116. And this is the reason for the work that we do around physical activity and other areas for the school system A section of the policy clearly called for a study group,
008and that's what we have done, is put this group together. So the science of the active brain. So there's a neural connection. physical activity triggers that miracle growth for neurons in your brain. It also helps with executive function, which many of us may have that issue. So even just 20 minutes during the school day helps with working memory mental flexibility and attention. The emotional shield, which I know we're all focused on social-emotional learning and wellness for our students, and the evidence-based research actually proved that there is adolescent anxiety and depression Reduction by 7% to 8%. So recess. When we looked at the research, by the way, a lot of it talked about how middle school students don't want us to call it recess, and they think that's for elementary kids. So there was a lot
009of conversation around blacktop brakes or fresh air brakes, calling it something different so they don't think about it being recess. So, so many things happen during recess. The unstructured growth of their social skills, they become leaders when they're, able to, you know, interact with each other, and there's no teacher or someone overseeing that right over top of them, and lots to do with working on conflict resolution. It also gives them a focus reset So it helps on task behavior. I'm not sure how many of you get up and take a walk or a stretch break, but it definitely helps when you have physical activity throughout the day to reset your brain for focusing and helping with on-task behavior. So the middle school myth, as I mentioned, the kids don't want us to call it recess.
010They they We just have to think of ways to make it something different. And a lot of times that physical activity or recess time is. It's cut because of instructional time. We need to make sure that students are in those classes learning You can't push everything into that that school day. So the recess to instruction ratio actually increases classroom productivity. So physically active learning. So when we looked at it, which I've been in the system for a while, we had a program at the elementary level called Take 10, where we wanted students to have activity in the actual learning of the classroom that they're sitting in during the day. So take 10, you know, did 10 min, maybe split it up into 5, where they actually had movement embedded into their learning. So they could
011move during a gallery walk or act out concepts in any content area, actually And then the 6% advantage I wrote it down and One moment I was going to tell you what PAA stands for. It's physically active. Oh sorry guys. So I will look it up as we go on. But the study found schools using active lessons had a 6% gain in standardized test scores. And I want you to know lots of this information is from 20 or 30 years ago. So we've known this for a very long time that movement is where it's at. And we like to call it a brain boost in health and physical education when we're presenting, not a brain break, because your brain is not on a break. It actually energizes your brain And If we did one to
012five minutes in a classroom every so often it would help with the tiredness, the brain tiredness, not the not that the brain needs a break. Next slide, sorry. So I would like some of Mr. Clement and Mr. Nance, if you could just come off of mute one at a time and talk about what you think school level wise. So we looked at, you know, low barrier, high impact. So it doesn't have to be 20 or 30 minute period for them to have recess or a break. It can be short snippets, so I'm not sure if you all, through our conversations, thought of things that you could do in your middle schools Yes, I can go first. Once again, hello, everybody. Marcellus Clement from Greenville Middle School. I'm going to take it back to being a
013former physical educator myself. It was actually I learned this through my student teaching method was not in this county, it was in a different county where lunch was connected with recess and of course we have to make sure our students get their food and get a chance to eat in a certain amount of time, but what the structure was, it was 15 to 20 minutes of eating time, and then after that time, what happened was the principal or whoever was the supervisor on lunch duty, had an access way where certain staff members would go outside with the select students that wanted to participate, and And they had 10 minutes of recess, and then came back in after about 10 minutes, just to make sure that brain break or, you know, endorphin release was allowed for
014those students to proceed with the rest of the day in the afternoon. I think that is something that at my school, I can try to incorporate, but of course, you have to have the logistics of staffing to be appropriate in those places and have an access point where if you leave the cafeteria, it's short to either a gymnasium or outside fields That can provide that opportunity. I know myself personally, when we see our students get a chance just to have that physical activity, it does calm some of our students down when it deals with the middle school student, because they can be very anxious and hyper about a lot of things. But just that physical activity can help, you know, just proceed with that And it was something that worked very well when I did
015my student teaching at this particular school. Everybody bought in with it, and it seemed like it did bring a great morale for the students as they proceeded throughout the day. But I'll have Mr. Nance, you know, support on his side of what he thinks is good as well Yeah. Thank you Principal Clement and then Amy, that acronym was physically active across the curriculum. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I just wanted to make sure they were aware of that. Thank you. I knew it was something simple and I was forgetting it Yeah, one of the things that I noticed with my students is when they have physical activities, like today we did a post MCAP incentive and we had, it was differentiated. We had the kids, we had something going on in the gym and something going on
016in the back of the building And the staff unsolicited told me that the kids were more engaged in the classes. Basically, what we did is we had a rotation where some kids were in class, other kids were in the gym, other kids were outside doing carnival activities, and when they came back from the carnivore activity, they were more focused and engaged, and I've noticed over the years, when we do dances, when we have any type of Physical activity, we have vendors that come in. Corey, the dribbler, he's dribbling with the kids, or some type of physical activity. Not only are the kids more focused, but their relationship with adults is actually better Versus not having those opportunities. So I would, add that everything, Principal Clements said, but I would add that as well Thank you
017both for your expertise as former physical educators and current principals in Prince George's County. I think you both know best middle school, because that's where you've been. So I appreciate it. I think that is the second to last slide. Yep. So here's an example. You know, we provided some samples, and that link actually goes to more brain boost activities. And in my presenting two different schools, classroom teachers A lot of times they just want to know what to do. They want someone to give them a list or provide those activities and make it simple for them. So there are tons of brain boost activities and also curriculum embedded movement activities that we can share with staff in Prince George's County. So here are some of our recommendations. Dr. Jones or Dr. Frazier, I don't know
018if you wanted to share anything from the health services or student services perspective. I just want to add that also after eating, if you do some form of walking around, it also helps with the digestion of the food, so it's not just sitting there. You know, we oftentimes we get itis after we eat So, by doing some type of activity after lunch, that also helps. And Dr. Tammy, you want to add anything Absolutely. For our schools that are recognized as one of America's healthiest schools, we've had to submit to our application a different type of physical activities that are involved right now in the buildings. And so I know some schools have implemented The walking and learning aspect when they go outside and they're performing science projects, or they're listening to instruction using AirPods or
019earbuds, that they're actually listening to a story That's going to engage them in their reading classes or their literacy classes. So when they return back to the classroom, they're prepared for the classwork, but they've already walked around the campus or walked in the hallway to listen to the story to then address it. And so there are different activities that are already taking place that we've already implemented. And so to do this across the board and making a recommendation so that every school has to input, every middle school, this would be awesome And even better for the students Thank you both so much. And Dr. Doncore, anything you'd like to add? No, I just concur with everyone. I was thinking about what Dr. Jones mentioned about movement after lunch to aid with digestion. So I thank
020her for highlighting that Thank you. And as I was working through this with everyone, I happened to be walking at Watkins Park and they're on the walking paths, they have QR codes that you can scan and it takes you to different activities So I wasn't sure if that's something, you know, a school could do where you put up a QR code, I don't know, in the hallway or in a classroom. So it's something simple. The kids I know we're probably all worried about the phones in their hand, but if they happen to have it, we can use it to incorporate movement into their day, as well as someone else had talked about schools that have walking paths around the building, not just for staff, but their students as well And as a mom of two
021students in Prince George's County, I can tell you my kids love Just Dance, and we sports, and they are both teenagers in high school. So there are just simple ways that we can incorporate movement and engage students and make it fun, as well as convince them that they're not learning, they're just being active, although they're learning at the same time. Okay? And I believe the next slide is the bibliography. And I wanted to point out a couple of things on here. So a lot of the research came from. So here are the highlights the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, American Academy of Pediatrics, Cdc. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention NIH There's the International Journal of Physical Activity and Health preventive medicine, Journal of School Health, Applied Psychology, Nutrition, and metabolism. So the research has definitely
022been there. It's been there for a while, and I, as a An employee and a parent would love to see us incorporate movement in in all levels. Okay, I'm not sure if any other committee members had anything they wanted to add before we close out, but I want to thank you for your time. And the committee, thank you all for making it happen. Thank you so much, everyone. Ms. Walsh, sorry I jumped in. Did you have any closing remarks on this before we move to board member questions? Or comments? No, I think it's, you know, we can answer all the questions. That would be helpful Perfect. Great. Thank you so much for all of this information. As a PGCPS parent myself as well, this aligns with what I know and see from my kids and
023have seen over the years, board members Please raise your hand if you have any questions or comments that you'd like to share. Let's see. Board member Briggs, please. Thank you so much. And thank you to everyone for the presentation. It was not only thoughtful and helpful information, but I think it definitely deeply resonated with me as a former teacher. I guess one of the questions I have is, and I think that there's a lot of research out there around play-based learning Around project-based learning, which I feel like might be somewhat analogous, right? Students getting up walking around being creative in some to some extent. But I was curious about like the teachers and the staff that may not have the flexibility. Let's say it's inclement weather and you can't go outside or the gym You
024had a lot of kids in the gym area, right? Are there alternatives that you found in the research that could get to it? For example, natural lighting? I know in the wintertime, I'll sometimes have like a light that I put up that kind of mimics the sun a bit. Are there things that can happen in the event that we can't And then I guess also the other piece was around students who may be neurodivergent or students that have disabilities. The policy is, you know, is broad, but also don't want to put that expectation on schools if they can't actually need it. So can you just speak to any of the things that you think should be in the policy to kind of be sensitive to what teachers and school leaders are faced with, as well
025as other kind of unintended outcomes like inclement weather. I would love to hear from the principals. I don't want to be just the talker here. No problem. I'll say 1 thing. If it's a school wide juncture that we could do as a whole, for example, let's say after we come back from lunch, let's make it a mandate. Let's have a two minute stretch break or things of that nature that classroom teachers can incorporate. That's a whole school-wide juncture of what we're trying to do, not only with physical health But that also helped with classroom management as well. So speaking to that and just having a belief in it, and us as building leaders like myself or Principal Nance or whoever's a leader inside the building, if you have that vision that can set and give
026the purpose and research and reasoning behind it, you will have the staff that will follow through And I think it also me and Principal Nats talked about this all the time, just the culture of what we do in our buildings and understanding the importance of why we're doing this. It could speak volumes of how we can lead in that way. So just in case there's inclement weather or things of that nature, everybody, regardless of their physical educator or not. They can learn some type of activities that we can do just for one or two minutes to reset back in class. Principal Nance, did you want to add anything? I just saw the time running down. I didn't want to mess that up, but You're fine, go ahead. Okay, I echo the same thing. I think
027Principal Clements said it earlier, it's just that adult, it's not even just the staff, just the adult buy-in. And I think that would be the biggest barrier to anything that you do in a school is just the buy-in of the staff And I think the other positive part is, if the staff is moving too, they also are getting that benefit. So it's a two for I don't want to go over. I know Vice Chair Olivo, I'm not sure if I have just like 30 seconds Sure, go ahead. Yep. And then we'll move to board member Brown. Which is the last piece was just around like how you all as principals are thinking about implementing this for teachers and staff, you know, what would that look like as far as professional developments or ways to get
028them active to Well, one of the things we do at Buck Lodge, we're a large school, so a lot of times we have to do things virtually. But when we bring folks together, we never sit and get. It's always a gallery walk They're getting the professional development, they're working in groups to do sorting, and we try to do a lot of modeling. So there's a lot of if they take breaks, they normally… that breaks are pretty much incorporated in anything we do as far as professional development. And just to add to that, what we do to incorporate staff is we promote this, like, as an emolument opportunity, where we do, like, a walk-in club or things of that nature, where we use the bottom parts of our building. We're a larger school, just like Buck
029Lodge. They'll use the bottom part of our building just to have a walk-in club to encourage that type of movement within the staff, even if you never worked out before, this is something you just have that engagement where that can add to the buy-in, where if we can do this, let's find a way to do this for our students, too, in the classroom And may I also say from a central office staff perspective, we do, we'll start with a walk, and then as we go along, we'll stop in people's offices and say, hey, would you like to join us, you know, or we'll schedule it at a certain time So that people can put it on their schedules and join. It's all about just getting up and moving, even if it's walking up and down
030the hallway. Sometimes it's inclement weather, so we'll walk in the hallways up the steps and then back down, or we're going to our auditorium And we'll just walk around the auditorium. Sometimes we'll play music and we'll walk to the beat of the music. Again, it's just about moving and getting that movement in Thank you so much, everyone. Thanks. Board member Brown, please go ahead with your questions or comments. Yes, board member Briggs already asked one of my questions. Thank you. Okay. Perfect. Great. Well, I just, I had a comment as well, so I will share that whenever I have the opportunity to speak at career days, which primarily has been elementary school and middle school, and I talk about the role of the board and policies and what policies affect our students Recess or some
031sort of break always comes up. It's incredible, so especially if I'm talking to a 5th grade class and they're just they can't believe they've been informed clearly by someone that starting next year in middle school, they won't have recess, and they just can't believe it. And so I've had many career days where the students implore me to please make sure we have recess or some sort of brain break in middle school. So this just aligns with what I am hearing, and I'm sure what you all are hearing from our students And I think, like board member Briggs you know, part of my question, and it has really been answered, I'd say pretty well, is I know that we have so much to pack into our school days and Especially at this time of year, it
032just feels like there aren't enough, you know, minutes in the day to get everything in that we need to, and so what I was really appreciate is these little kind of 2 to 3, 5 to 10 minute ideas And partially what I'm wondering, and I'd really appreciate you all's thoughts on is, you know, I know we push a lot of information as well to our teachers, right? What is… what would you recommend as the best way to share this list of ideas or ways for them to easily incorporate this into their classrooms, or right after lunch like how how do we best share These ideas with our teachers so that it just doesn't become like yet another Task on their really long list of everything that they have to handle that day. Yes. Okay. Yep,
033so, the neat part about Nana and I is we have a teacher in every building, so we do professional development with our teachers and can have them share. I have also presented at Principal Nance's school, so we could actually provide a presentation and share the information And model it, you know, if the principles would ask us and we're able. Okay, great. Principles And about 23% of our schools have school-based wellness teams. And so it's not just the teachers alone, it's the administrators. It even could include a student on that wellness team and they can help encourage and get the buy-in of the staff and students. And usually folks buy in when they're fed or they see the benefit. And so we're not feeding them, but they'll see the benefit if they have if we have
034the research behind it. And I will just add to, I think Principal Nance is both like I am a title one and a community school. So what we use is we use those vendors to help promote not just activities for our students, but our staff too. So whatever physical opportunity like right now in the flag football league that our school has joined or different community organizations, I want to promote this as a mentoring, and that is part of their mentoring thing, like Higher Achievement, which they include recess within their planning for academics after school. So we use those organizations to try to promote some physical activity that the staff can be accompanied with it, too. Like. community youth events, does yoga as one is their activities they do after school. So using those funds to
035try to bring that to our school as well Great, thank you. That's super helpful. I actually have a second question, but I wanted to see if any of our board members had a round two of questions before I ask mine. Okay, I'll go ahead and then if you think of any other questions, feel free to raise your hand. Ms. Frazier, you mentioned the school-based wellness teams. 23% of our schools What advice or recommendations do you have to increase that number so we can we can get more school-based wellness teams at our schools? Because I think you're right, that could be a key piece of all of this. Okay So let me just preface this with last year we only had about 18% of the schools, I think it was about 18% that were participating, and
036my numbers doubled this school year. So I'm super excited about that What's happening now is, like, I've partnered with Amy. I've partnered with Nana, I've partnered with psych services. I'm going to be hosting different training sessions for their staff. So when we get into the building, they're all heard the same thing. They're all aware of the school-based wellness team. They're all aware of the expectations, and so I expect an increase in the number of schools that participate and have school-based wellness teams And then I'm going to be a little more hands-on this fall by helping them develop, get their ideas, working with physical activity if this is what we're going to move towards and see what we can do to increase the participation and the following of the board policy which requires a school-based wellness
037team. So Okay Great. And I also thank Dr. Tammy is being a little on the shy side. We actually had 13 schools that were classified as Americans' healthiest schools this year, whereas last year we had three And so she has been astronomically, as it relates to that, she also received a grant from Kaiser To help, the process, a$ 20,000 grant. And then also, one of the things that we're going to work with our school-based health centers are, is as they come in and they get their physicals, and they have appointments with our nurse practitioner at the school-based health centers, that they also talk about the importance of the physical activity and moving and you know those types of things Terrific. Thank you. I love Dr. Jones, that you are like, hey, wait a minute, she
038has not shared her kudos enough. So thank you for sharing all that. Mrs. Welsh Please, yeah Can I ask just a couple questions, please? So my first question is that what specifically does the school-based wellness teams do? Are they looking at health things related to only students or staff and students or just can you just give me just a little bit in terms of what they do? Oh, okay. So they're actually working with students, staff, and the community. It could be something related to immunization compliance. It can be food insecurity. It could include health education and tobacco education. It was interesting that this year I found that elementary schools thought they weren't teaching tobacco education until we dug a little deep into the health class and say, oh, yeah, you just haven't taught it yet.
039It's coming up in March, right? So it really it there's a Certain topic areas that they have to hit, right? And so the team will develop a goal for their school at the beginning of the school year based on a survey they complete. It'll help them develop or choose what their goal would be for that year. One or two, it doesn't have to be a lot But it could be improving attendance. Why isn't a student coming to school? Oh, is it because our immunization rate is high? So, if we bring the mobile clinic, or if this was a school that has a school-based health center, we can have an impact on attendance almost immediately So it really just depends on what the need is for that school. So could you And also what before you
040go on, Robin, there's a health and wellness policy that is mandated by FDA, and part of that is making sure that schools are adhering to that wellness policy. So that is also a part of what the school-based wellness people do, making sure that the school is following the district's policy on that So thank you because that's sort of what was going to be my next question. Do you see these teams being able to assist if, in fact, the committee decides that they'd like to put some language into the AP to the policy that says specifically about Having movement breaks or whatever, but something to do with movement for students. You could, you see these teams as being very supportive and moving forward in the middle schools. Absolutely, absolutely. We have a wellness champion that will
041work directly with the Wellness Council, right? And so once we share with the Wellness Champion what we would like to do, what agenda we would like to push for the school year, then they would take it back to the wellness teams, and then they will reach out for assistance if they need some more guidance to get the team on board So then my second question is, and so when policy is written, it's written for what it's a tool of governance for the school board. And it's for them saying to the school system, this is what we'd like to see happen. And so if the committee determines that that's what they'd like to see, it's always though important to understand what are the restraints, the constraints that schools are having to deal with, what are all
042the factors Because you don't want to throw something in on a school that then is like screaming, help, help, because we can't do all this. This is too much you put on our plate. So my next question would be, if you're thinking in terms of, like, time or like what is there, what is available in terms of a middle school day that opens up that opportunity that would be considered reasonable and people wouldn't be feeling we wouldn't want to get them stressed out just trying to put that into the day, you know, because the whole idea is to de-stress. So You know, I'm sitting at a middle school right now daily and what I've noticed is they have a virtual morning announcements. The teacher has to sign on to Zoom. So now everybody can see
043what's going on Everybody can participate at the same time, and I think it'll be easier to get everybody to do it at the same time, as opposed to different staggering the time of day for movement, right? And so if there was that five minute break, that five minute time slot, that 10 minute time, no, 10 minutes is too long, 5 minutes, maybe two 5 minute breaks in a day to incorporate some activity school-wide it will just become second nature. It would be an expectation, and it's not something that the teacher has to do, you know, in their classroom alone when everybody is doing it And so, for those that can do it virtually via Zoom, via the smart boards or TVs, I think that would be probably the most efficient way To get this done.
044Can I add to that? And I also think it could be something simple, like you could have a line dance, you know, at the beginning of the class, and they can just get up and they can line dance like right there. It's all about movement and being creative. Kids like to dance I don't know, Mr. Nance and Mr. Clements may not like that idea, but it's still moving And I would also add, and most middle schools have an advisory block, and that would be a good time to incorporate some structured movement. It could be incorporated in the schedule and it wouldn't impact any other content area Including creative arts Oh, that's helpful. Okay. Ms. Welsh is that finish up your questions? Yes, it does. Thank you. Perfect. Thank you so much. Board member Briggs, please.
045Yeah, thank you so much. And I think Ms. Walsh was really actually going down the path that I was thinking, which is that So I'm saying this is a person who had, you know, the ability to work for the office of the Surgeon General, the Department of Human Services, and I know that public health messaging is not… it's like drinking from a fire hose, right? You can say all the things, but people want to know things like an apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Or drinking, you know, 8 cups of water is a good thing. And I'm just curious, like, what are the highest leverage things that if we're thinking about what school, you know, teachers who are like, I want to do something, this data's saying this thing, but I really just
046don't know what to do, right? Line dancing isn't going to be realistic for me in this moment, or maybe it is But, like, what are some of the highest leverage things from the research? And I just wanted to say that I wonder if maybe there's an additional piece with the committee around kind of having some of those things. If we really want to see, you know, an impact in outcomes academically. But also just students' overall happiness Then what are some of those things that we can pull from the research that can say, if you do this thing, then at least right, just get students to walk around to the water fountain or whatever it may be, would be helpful. So I just want to add that additional piece to what Mrs. Walsh was asking, because
047I feel like our policy is like drinking from a fire hose. You need to do these things, but then it's like, it's practical when you actually have like five things Then it reduced down for schools to say, we can do these things or we can do something else creatively to try to meet this expectation and So I think that's something we could work on. I'm not sure from the principal point of view what would actually work. I don't know if we can pinpoint five things right now or like the top, you know, top three. I can tell you as a mom of a ninth grader, I know we shy away from social media, but the whole TikTok dance thing I know Nance and our Clement are probably seeing it, you know, before school, after school,
048but I think dance is a big one, especially at the middle school level where we can get them moving just in the moment. It doesn't have to be something vigorous at the time, but something short and sweet If I can add, one of the things that we're speaking strong in our school is the Maryland report card, which I know we're all evaluated from from different schools. And one of the things that when we talk about just the physical activity and being, you know, having that social awareness or that mental health support for our students, it will reduce our suspension because the impulsivity will be reduced down because they got a chance to release for those activity moments or those structured times. And if we're having our suspension rates go down, that gives more chance for
049our students to be successful in school, which will lead to higher test scores. So I think it'll be a correlating thing that will go on that we will show through time Like Amy said, but just making sure we're being consistent with it, that's going to be the thing we have to do. And to add to that real quick, so kids at my school don't have access to their phones during the day, which is a plus for us. We've seen a huge decrease in conflict amongst staff, I mean, students, and conflict among staff students and staff. But one of the things that I try to emphasize to my staff as it relates to this, is when we're talking about their rating, when they're getting, Rated for FFT. Basically, the highest distinguished has everything to do with
050children and they're them the adult is the facilitator, and the child is basically controlling the learning, which could absolutely incorporate movement in that with the with the child. So I always kind of bring it to that point. So there's a benefit for the, for the teacher. Mr. Nance, I am excited to hear that, that you guys decided to have no phone access. Thank you so much for all those comments. Yeah, thank you, everyone. Let me just take a second to see if anyone else has has any comments. Miss Welsh, is there anything else that you feel like you need right now as part of this Oh, you're on mute. I am curious to hear the committee's thoughts on this in terms of what they'd like to see in the policy. I think all of this
051information has been extremely helpful and also understanding a little bit better what the parameters are within the middle school day is extremely helpful also Yeah, thank you. Board members, do you have any comments right now? This can also be something that we think about a little bit based on everything that we learned today from the presentations and bring those comments back at a later date. But as of right now, do you have anything that we Would like to move forward with potentially incorporating into this policy. We're member breaks. No, I just want to say thank you for all of the research. I think it was like really helpful. And I think more time to think about it would be good because there's a lot in here, but I just don't want it to be to
052the points that many made like you know, to too much for teachers, or too much for school leaders to take on, but as long as you all think from your expert opinion, like, a lot of this makes sense in the day-to-day, then, then I trust that, and I think this is great. May I add a comment? Please, yes. Thank you. So not that we want movement, physical activity to be competitive. But I know these middle school principals here have some healthy competition around some of their athletic teams. So I was wondering the system is using the Bloom app right now where we're walking for wellness Oh. Oh Steps for our wellness. So I was wondering if maybe there's something we could do to get more movement going, maybe area-wide or make the help the kids
053get involved in it so they can come up with something where it's A competition, but not really a competition, for them to get moving, because I know middle school, you know, they, like I said, I had a middle schooler a few years ago in that competition during athletic seasons is amazing. So that's, I'm sorry to interrupt, but that's an excellent idea because everyone like at SASA right now is walking. And it's all because of this blue map because it's not that we're super competitive, but the idea, so I could see that being an excellent way of just really looking at the whole activity in a completely different way, not like, oh, there's another requirement, but more of, yeah, we want to do this, because look for our… look at our school and what we've been
054doing. What I think is, I think… I do think that would be extremely helpful, but I… so what I'm thinking is, is that the language that Working on the language for the policy would be a more global approach, but I do need opportunity to think about everything and probably re-listen to this whole part of the session, just because that'll be helpful for me to incorporate it. And then the administrative procedure could actually then go into a much more detail about specific As far as all the possible options that could be available or considerations as middle schools plan and move forward with this. I'm not a communications person, but the senior signing day is a big thing. So maybe if we had like a middle school middle schoolers are moving and we could use the communications
055piece where it's more of a broader, you know, here's what we're doing in middle school and Communications could tie into that and showcase the movement happening. I think that would be neat as well. Thank you, Ms. Wiley. I love that idea as well. My brain's spinning also of, like, movement minutes, like, schools could somehow track them, and we have a, you know, a grand prize for our middle school movement minutes, or, you know, something along those lines, and So if a teacher has a class of 25 students and everybody's doing a 2-minute break, brain boost break in that class, that's 50 minutes of movement minutes that they can track that day, I think we could get up into like a million, you know, movement minutes right Times the number of students, and if something happens
056every day And at the same time, as Mr. Briggs has said, I think we need to be a little careful at the board policy level of how we are really encouraging this, but not you know necessarily like forcing a principal to participate in this in a specific way, but allowing that school-based culture to also kind of lead the way in how each school does it. So I think I know from my perspective, what I'd like to do is think about this a little bit more, and I know Ms. Welsh's mind is going as well. But I think what you're pretty safe to come away from this is that the members of this committee are in strong agreement and deeply appreciate all of the research and information that you have shared about the importance of these
057movement breaks and making sure that, you know, whether it's called recess or called, you know brain boost time or movement minutes or whatever we call it, that this continues into middle school And that's certainly what I hear from 5th graders and middle school students at this career day. This is the policy that they want me to to look at. So I just I really am grateful for this discussion. Okay, so I'm going to move to, and I just also want to let you know we're gonna take a quick vote on moving this policy forward. And I welcome you all are more than welcome to stay for the rest of our business meeting, but also you are more than welcome to jump off because I know Several of you are still at your office, and it's
058been a long day, so we really appreciate you being here. So the question is, shall the committee recommend policy 0116 Wellness, nutrition, and physical activity to the policy's sponsor for revision approval Any discussion? I know we've pretty much had our discussion. Miss Johnson, please take the roll call vote. Back mass Mrs. Olivo? Yes? Mr. Briggs Aye Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson. We are 3 in the affirmative Thank you. Policy 0116, Wellness, nutrition, and physical activity will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Thank you again, everyone, for this robust discussion. We'll next move to agenda item 6.0, legislative update. And I again recognize Mrs. Welsh for our legislative updates. So basically right now the governor is signing bills So and he has signed numerous bills, but the specific education bills,
059it's been announced that he will be signing them on May 25th So right now things are fairly quiet as they move forward to for him to sign. I suspect that he'll probably sign most of the bills. I, you know, I don't know who'll veto any of them. But of course, we don't want to count our What is our eggs before they're hatched, just because, you know, I wouldn't want to do that. But in the meantime, though, I have been working myself on… I'm almost done putting every bill that at least has made it to the governor on a chart for our chiefs and the other departments As far as what their responsibilities will be in implementing the law. And it's quite interesting, because when you get down into the nitty-gritty of some of these bills,
060they're a little scary for some of the things that we will be required to do. So that my goal was actually to have that completed by next week, even though the 25th is until the following week, but I know that a lot of people are anxious for if there's things… so many of the bills, although I did notice that there's more bills this year that say they will go into effect in October than in the past. But there's still a lot of bills that still say July 1, 2026, which is very difficult sometimes to implement for that quick of a turnaround, but the sooner I can get it into their hands, the better it is. But on the other hand, I certainly don't want them to start working on something that turns around and the
061governor never signed it. But we'll have that all ready for them so that once he's going through all the bills there, we'll be ready to go to start implementing certain bills. So I think that's basically it for the legislative update right now. Thank you, Mrs. Welch, and thank you for all that hard work ensuring that our staff is aware of all the statute and law changes that will be coming down the pike from this year's legislative session. So we'll move to 7.0 proposed policies. There are six additional agenda items for discussion this evening. Each item will include two rounds of discussion with 2.5 minutes allotted per round. If a third round is needed, we can take a vote on whether to proceed with that So we'll be looking at 7.2. The rules of procedure And
062I would like to recognize Mrs. Welsh again to provide the update to the board rules of procedure. So just to give a little history about a year or two years ago, the parliamentarian said that we needed to get rid of some of our bylaws. And he ended up putting together these rules and procedures and procedure. And so that sort of picked up many of the things that occur in a board meeting and what the steps were and what you need to do by law So as I went through these different several more bottles, and some are just actually policies. But there's they're only like one liners or tiny little pieces of information, not very much. It dawned on me that this sort of a little screwy to have this stuff sort of randomly showing up
063over here and here and here When these are the things that actually are being addressed in a board meeting and discussing it also with Ms. Adeline in terms of putting it into the rules of procedure. So if you look at the agenda for tonight, it talks about a cost estimate for board resolution, certificate of recognition, opening of meeting with prayer and proclamations that being rescinded The only reason they're going to be rescinded is because they're actually being placed into the rules of procedure. So with that, if you could bring up the rules of procedure Ms. Johnson, we can look at those quickly to see the changes that were made. It looks, oh, I'm sorry. Sorry, Tia, you jumped off my screen for a second, so I didn't think you were there, but now I see
064you again. Sorry So if you scroll down to the consent, actually to the call to order. Go back up. Hold on, go back up to the right there. So as far as the board prayer If you looked at the current policy or bylaw, it actually has, let me see what the number is, it actually has The as a policy. It just… all it says is that you're gonna pray, and this is the prayer. So, what I did was, I put it in under your, where you have the opening ceremony piece, and then it says, for prayer, and then your next thing is Pledge of Allegiance. So I added both of those, but with Board Prayer, I then have in prints appendix 3 And if you go to the very end of the of the procedures
065where there are the appendixes, the appendix three is actually the board's prayer, of which then the board would use that prayer for the prayer. So it sort of takes care of that piece Then the second piece under the consent agenda items, it says the consent agenda items right there. Okay. The consent agenda items may include but are not limited to. And then we have the proclamations, which the board may issue proclamations to recognize, honor, commemorate, or endorse individuals, groups, institutions, movements, anniversaries, or other events which we, which is basically, again, from the bylaw or policy. And then the next one's resolutions, and the big piece about resolutions is that they are all recommendations presented by the superintendent will When feasible, include cost estimates. So if you're bringing a resolution, which is going to actually be
066something that will cost the system money, then, and this is actually currently in that policy, then you have to identify a source of funding, a startup cost, the continuing costs, and the budgetary impact and justification for the expenditures Which, if you look at board action summaries, that's exactly what they lay out for each of the things that are in a resolution. So it's for that policy. And then the next one, I did include that. This is unrelated to Anything out there that's currently in positive procedure, per se, but I went and went through agendas, many different board agendas, just for seeing what all the things that came up under the consent agenda. And also what came up were contract awards and recommendations So I included the contract awards and recommendations for contract awards presented and
067recommended by the superintendent. Oh, excuse me, that was contract awards presented and recommended for by the superintendent, which shall include description of the services of items, cost Source of funding budget implications, justifications, describing how the service or item is being contract addresses, how it addresses PG needs and other required information in accordance with then your policy, which is the purchasing policy 3323. So if you look at what's required on that policy, I mean, it's pretty clear about the different things like even even if they end up having to do a sole source or they hop on another contract from another county or something, they're supposed to provide that justification, so those would be things that would… would be part of the conversation under contracts when it came up under the consent agenda. And then another
068item that often shows up under the consent agenda is your budget transfers within The operating and capital accounts. And again, and that one is in accordance with policy 3160 transfer of funds, which then lays out very specifically the steps for that. So and I did at when at the very top, I said consent agenda items may include, but are not limited to, because I didn't want to limit the board So that they can only do those items, because there might be something that comes up that is really appropriate to be under the consent agenda. And so I added that. So I think that covers each of those Each of those policies that were there as singletons and can be incorporated into this rules of procedures and that way it's all together in one place versus
069sort of piecemealed across the sections So that's it. Terrific. Sorry, I couldn't find my unmute. Thank you so much. Board members, are there any questions? Okay, seeing none The… the question is, shall the committee recommend the Board rules of procedure to the policies sponsor for revision approval? Any discussion? Okay, Ms. Johnson, please take the roll call vote. Dr. Moss Mrs. Olivo Yes Mr. Briggs? Aye Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson. We have 3 in the affirmative Thank you. The board rules of procedure will be recommended to the policies sponsor for revision approval. Next, we'll move to 7.3 policy 9260, auditor. The chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh to provide an update to Policy 9260 Auditor So bylaw, we are required, the school system is required to have an annual audit by an external auditor. And
070so this really lays out in detail what it is. It's an education article 5-109 that requires it And basically it is an actual financial audit, not a performance audit, but the audit shall be conducted by a certified public accountant or partnership with certified public accountants who are licensed by a State Board of Public Accountancy and approved by State Superintendent of Education So and then the audit has to be made in accordance with the standards and regulations adopted by the Maryland State Board of Education, and then the results of the audits, including a letter of recommendation submitted by the auditor, are a matter of public record, so everyone can see that information And will be reported to the following entities within three months after the close of the fiscal year. And so that's the Maryland State
071Superintendent of Schools of Education, the Prince George's County Executive, and the County Council receive a copy of it. The Joint Audit and Evaluation Committee of the General Assembly receives a copy of it. The Senate Budget and Taxation Committee receives a copy of the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee, the House Appropriations Committee, and the House Committee on Ways and Means. So there, and and just so you know, because our office ended up being tasked with making sure that we provided the report from the auditor to all these people, and it's through the Department of Legislative Services. We have to provide loads and loads of copies that are sent out, and then they send it to all these different people, so everyone gets to see what were the results of that audit And on an
072annual basis. And then the other piece I added is the board may agree, so this is just opening the door if you want to do this, but you're not required to do it. So it says the board may agree to perform a contract for a performance audit of PGCPS As stipulated, and this is the next section of that article, Section 5-100 of the educational article. And a performance is an assessment of the Prince George's County Public Schools practices to determine whether it is operating economically and efficiently And whether corrective actions for improving its performance are appropriate. So that is always something that the board can say. I mean, if that's they feel like that's a question and they would like to see that, you know, be looked at, then they can always say, we want
073to move forward with a performance audit Which takes a slightly different twist than your regular financial audit And so the superintendent then would authorize, would develop administrative procedures to implement this policy. And that's it. It's a pretty simple one. Great, thank you so much. Mr. Briggs. Yeah, thank you for that presentation. I guess the one question I had was, and I'm looking in the policy to the references that you mentioned. So this might be mentioned in those references, but where in the policy it says, you know where it would be posted Within the timeframe, so that as far as accountability goes, when the board is like, where should this be if we're reaching, you know, hearing things from the community or other partners, having something clearly in here Oh. Yeah. We could put something in
074there. I'm assuming we would do like a link or something to it on the on your website. Yeah, and if it's mentioned in the references like that this is standard protocol, then that's fine, but I just wanted to say, it might be good to have it in the policy, too, so that we all know when we look It is not, and only because it doesn't say that in that kind of detail in the law, but absolutely, I can add that. That would be, you know, that's great, because it is a public record. Okay, thank you so much. Thanks so much, Board Member Briggs. That was a great suggestion. Are there any other comments or questions? Okay, terrific. The question is, shall the committee recommend policy 9260 Auditor to the policy's sponsor for revision approval? Any
075discussion? Ms. Johnson, please take a roll call vote. Dr. Moss Mrs. Oliva I Mr. Briggs Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson. There are three in the affirmative Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Policy 9260 Auditor will be recommended to the policies sponsor for revision approval. We will move on to agenda item 7.4, policy 3186, cost estimates for board resolution rescission. I'd like to recognize Mrs. Welsh to provide an overview of Policy 3186 Cost estimates for board resolutions rescission. So the reason we're requesting a rescission on this is because it's being incorporated into the procedures for the board meetings. Perfect. Thank you. Are there any questions from board members? Okay, the question is, shall the committee recommend rescinding policy 3186, cost estimates for Board resolutions Any discussion? Ms. Johnson, please take a roll call vote. Platinos
076Mrs. Olivo I Mr. Briggs Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson There are three in the affirmative Thank you. Policy 3186, cost estimates for Board Resolution will be recommended for rescission and released for public comment. Moving on to agenda item 7.5, policy 8344.3 opening of meeting with prayer rescission The chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh to provide an overview of Policy 8344.3 opening of meeting with prayer rescission. So again, this particular policy is actually being incorporated into the procedures for the board meetings and therefore it needs to be rescinded because we don't need both Thank you. Are there any questions around this? Okay, perfect. The question is, shall the committee recommend rescinding policy 8344.3 opening of the meeting with prayer? Any discussion? Ms. Johnson, please take a roll call vote. Dr. Moss Mrs. Olivo I Mr.
077Briggs Aye Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders. And Mr. Jackson There are 3 in the affirmative Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Policy 8344.3, opening of the meeting with prayer will be recommended for rescission and released for public comment. Next, moving on to seven points, item 7.6, Policy 8384, Certificates of recognition. The chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh to provide an overview of Policy 8384, certificates of recognition So again, this policy is being incorporated into the rules of procedure. So therefore, we don't need to have it. So that's why it's being rescinded. Thank you. The question is, shall the committee recommend rescinding policy 8384 certificates of recognition? Any discussion? Okay, Ms. Johnson, please take a roll call vote. Dr. Moss Mrs. Oliva I Mr. Briggs Aye Mrs. Brown Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson There are 3 in the affirmative
078Thank you, Ms. Johnson, policy 8384, Certificates of recognition will be recommended for rescission and release for public comment. Moving down to agenda item 7.7 policy 9305 proclamations. Rescission. The chair recognizes Mrs. Welch to provide an overview of policy 9305 proclamations, rescission. This is the last one. It will be, again, is incorporated into the rules of procedure. So therefore, we don't need to have this policy. So that's why we're requesting rescission. Thank you. The question is, shall the committee recommend rescinding policy 9305 proclamations? Any discussion? Okay, Ms. Johnson, please take a roll call vote. Dr. Moss Mrs. Oliva I Mr. Briggs Hi Mrs. Brown I Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson There are 3 in the affirmative Thank you, Ms. Johnson. Policy 9305, proclamations will be recommended for rescission and release for public comment. We don't
079have any policies for community input, and we don't have any policies for enactments, so we can move to agenda item 10.0 adjournment. I'd like to inform the public that the next, oh, I'm sorry Oh, no, I'm sorry. Go ahead Did I miss something? Oh, I was going to say that we actually do have two that are moving out for the consent to go out for public comment. Oh, okay. It should be just checking the The agenda Okay. Is the 2 that have to do it's 8301 and 8302 for policy, both of those. The one is 8302 is student appeals and hearings, which have to do with sections 730 Okay. Appeals and hearings. And then the other one is 8301, which has to do with 6202 appeals for certificated staff. So both of those are up
080for to move to vote on to see if they wanted to put them out for public comment Okay, thank you for catching that. And so let's see, let's move to a roll call vote on releasing those 2 policies for public comment. Ms. Johnson, can you please take the role? Dr. Moss Mrs. Olivo I Mr. Briggs Mrs. Brown I Mrs. Jackson Saunders And Mr. Jackson There are 3 in the affirmative Thank you. So policies 8301 and 8302 will be released to the community for public comment. Thank you, Mrs. Welsh. Now we will move to adjournment. I'd like to inform the public that the next virtual policy and governance committee meeting will take place on June 16, 2026. Please continue to check the Prince Georgia's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates Thank you
081for a really great discussion this evening and for everyone who joined us, especially our guests. To our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 6:19, the May 12th, 2026 Policy and Governance Committee meeting is adjourned Thank