001Um the time is now 502. Um good evening and welcome to the March 24th, 2026 policy and governance committee meeting. I'm Dr. Felton Moss, committee chair and district 7 board member. It brings me great pleasure to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. For those who are unable to observe now, the meeting is being recorded and can be assessed on the PGCPS YouTube channel for later viewing. Miss Johnson, could you please call the role? >> Dr. Moss, >> present. >> Mrs. Olivo, >> present. >> Mrs. Brown, >> Mr. Briggs, >> present. >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders, >> present. >> And Mr. Jackson. We have four present. >> With a quorum present, the policy and governance committee meeting will come to order. Now we'll move to adoption of the agenda. The chairman wants to inform the public that agenda
002item 7.1 policy 3415 schoolbased management teams will be discussed immediately after number F5.0. Public comments. This is to accommodate the presenter's need to depart the meeting early. If there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the March 24th, 2026 meeting agenda as amended. There are no objections, the March 24th, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted. This time, we'll need to approve the minutes. Uh if there are no corrections to the March 10th, 2026 committee meeting minutes, um they shall be approved as distributed. There being no corrections, the minutes are approved. We'll now move to public comment on the agenda items. Um there are no public comment speakers this evening. Um so we'll move to item 7.1, policy 1700, the disabilities issues advisory board. Um oh no, we'll move to policy 17 uh policy 3415, schoolbased management
003teams. Miss Welsh, um you are recognized to present your special guest speakers and provide an update on policy 3415, schoolbased management teams. We're going to ask uh Miss Johnson to put 10 minutes on the um on the clock. Thank you. >> Good evening everyone. This evening we're discussing the school-based management team and teams that policy and this policy actually was discussed I think almost two years ago and we've brought it up numerous times but never were able to to be a to have the opportunity to have se several principles here so that they could actually talk about how they run their uh schoolbased management teams and from their perspective what makes those teams uh effective. I will tell you that the reason and previously when the committee had looked at this policy, they did they
004specifically asked could we have some principles come and talk about their school-based management teams. So that is why I wanted to make sure we had the opportunity for you all to come and share your um your what your experiences have been and what you think makes it effective. U I do believe and I can't see with all the people here but I think Dr. Maro is here um who is our chief of school support. She said she was going to attend. Um and then um we have um I'm going to let each principal introduce themselves. We have a high school. We have u two elementary school and a middle school that are going to speak briefly. And Cindy, they do have a presentation. But before they begin um doing the presentation, I'd like for them
005each to introduce themselves. So we can start with Dr. Pat, is it pate or P? >> P. P. >> P. Okay. >> Uh, good evening everyone. Uh, Dr. Michael Pate, principal of Cooper Lane Elementary School. >> Um, let's see who's uh see. >> Should I have Dr. Richard McKe next? >> Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Sure. >> Good evening everybody. Uh, my name is uh Dr. Richard T. McKe and I am the proud principal at Hyitzville Elementary School. Looks like we have the district 7 principal, Dr. Natasha Kyler. >> Not doctor yet, but yes, my name is Natasha Kyler and I'm the proud principal of Drew Freeman Middle School >> and DeMarco Clark. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Dr. Demarco Clark and I'm the principal of PTOAC High School. >> Thank you, Dr.
006Clark. >> So, I I don't see uh Dr. Marorrow here at this point. she'll probably step in. But why since we're all waiting, Cindy, if you or is it um who is working with us today from the office, whoever's here is working with us, if you could put up the presentation for um for them and then I will let them begin the presentation. Any questions that board members have afterwards, this will be your opportunity and then if we need to make revisions, we can do that to the policy. >> Thank you. Is it maybe Miss Johnson's supposed to put it up? >> Yeah, it looks like she's working on it. >> Do you all want in the interest of time, do you all want to get started or you need your slides to start? >>
007I would need mine to start. So, I understand. I think if um if I speak on behalf of my colleagues, most of us uh put everything into a a slide presentation to where we would be able to uh be as uh productive as possible. So that's not the not the policy. We're asking for the the actual PowerPoint, please. There we go. So I I will start. Um again, my name is Dr. DeMarco Clark. I'm the proud principal of PTOIC High School and at our SPMT meeting, our school planning management team, we hold our meetings on a monthly basis. The key role is to ensure that school operates effectively. Um we develop and implement and monitor our SP our school performance plan ensuring that we make data datadriven decisions and we want to make sure that
008we are determining that our all of our departments are receiving adequate resources. So we put had this structure this meeting to make sure everything is structured on a calendar and we get input from various individuals. Next slide. So, our stakeholders are administrators, um my leadership team, teachers, secretaries, um we have our student uh SGA representatives, we have a parent uh representative and my um athletic coaches. So, I put my just sample agenda on it. Always we start with the vision, the mission statement of the various items that we are um discussing. Um we do hold things in a general manner because we have um we don't want to share confidential information um with parents and things of that nature in the setting. However, this is a um a very intimate meeting in which uh systems
009and structures are reviewed and put on a calendar so we can all be on the same page. Now you can go to the next school. Next slide. And this one would be for me. So, uh this is for Hyetszville Elementary School. Uh we use our school uh based management team uh very much uh focused on school improvement. Um it's sometimes this uh team goes by different many different names such as the school performance plan team or the school improvement team. uh we have done everything that we can to align uh our SPMT to the administrative procedure but the biggest thing is is that we want to have collaboration make sure that we have input from a variety of stakeholders and really get multiple perspectives to uh uh really focus our school decisions especially around school
010improvement. Uh so uh this is an example of uh who our team is. So we have our school improvement liaison, special education, classroom teacher, parent engagement assistant, parent representatives, community school coordinator, and myself or another administrator. Uh I want to make sure that it's clear. We do have representation across all bargaining units, um, instructional support staff, families, um, and also our parent representatives come from our CSI designated identified subgroup per the guidance from our, uh, CSI team. Uh very much like uh with the high school, here's an example of what our agenda items look like. Uh just in a different format. Um we try to document what's going on. Um over to the right, you'll also see that we keep folders uh for accountability purposes of the different documents. We meet normally um and I
011wanted to really highlight flexibility. We want to meet uh because parents have a lot of things to do and a lot of different schedules and there's a lot of stuff that happens during the school day and so we really try to be as flexible as possible to accommodate that. And so uh here's some uh pictures of different school improvement team meetings. So again we try to use different opportunities. So sometimes we use different parent nights or different family nights and we sneak in stuff about school improvement or other things so that we can get as many diverse perspectives as possible. Um again we really try to uh do that during ELO nights building workshops but the flexibility really allows us at Hyetszville to hear a lot more voices. We also use surveys. That's a real
012big way that we can get additional input and we actually use those surveys in order to make decisions around what kind of ELO's, what kind of processes that we want and what they need. Um that includes principles budget surveys, conversations and emails. Uh just as some examples, um our families have rated ELOs's very popular and very as a big priority. um recent uh feedback uh because a lot of times ELOs's are uh and by the way if you don't know what that is that's an extended learning opportunity they tend to focus on grades three up because those are MCAP grades but our community really wanted something for our lower students and so this upcoming year based upon that feedback we're going to have one in grades one and two uh we look at PBIS um
013and I also want to point out that I do not run our meetings that is our actual FAC person who runs our meetings. I am a member just like everybody else and contributes and just some successes. Uh it really is a flexibility in our meetings and the engagement uh that's really empowering for teachers. Uh formalized meetings are awfully difficult sometimes. So uh I really push for flexibility. All right. So, um, again, my name is Dr. Pate, proud principal of Cooper Lane Elementary School, and I'm just going to speak a little bit about how we're driving impact through shared leadership. Next slide, please. So, how we leverage um, SBMT at Cooper Lane, we use it as a decision-m structure, just not just a discussion. So, we really want to have our agendas grounded in data, evidence,
014and student outcomes. Um, as my colleagues mentioned earlier, we we are aligning our work to our school performance plan. And more specifically, we are a community school, so we want to align all of our efforts to the community schools pillars just to make sure that staff and family voice are heard. Next slide. So our approach here at Cooper Lane again, we partner with the community schools model to ensure alignment across all of our initiatives. So we really want to ensure that we're connecting the academic, social, emotional, and wraparound supports um for the entire school. More importantly, we use data cycles lagging and leading. So, our MCAP data, district benchmarks, classroom data just to really drive our conversations to make sure that we are putting the um the best uh next steps in place. Again, we
015always want to make sure that we are centering our decisions on student needs and more importantly um with um a lot of initiatives, we want to make sure that they are cohesive. So we are really strategic and we run things through our um entire agenda and our entire team so that all initiatives are cohesive and not operating in silos. Next slide. So this is just a a few objectives that just outline and highlight our shared decision-making model. So at Cooper Lane, we do talk about um as much as we can about budget guidance, so wants and needs and really try to be transparent with our school community for the upcoming school years. Additionally, um we come together to discuss the implementation of our school performance plan cycle. So, as you can see here, um we've
016had uh groups that focus students on students with disabilities focused on a small group instruction with math and then just improving foundational literacy and comprehension in the area of reading. Um additionally to the right you see just the different stakeholders. We have our community schools coordinator, teachers, parents, our PA, um sometimes our nurse attends just to make sure that we all are aligned. Next slide. And then these are just a few artifacts just really trying to leverage the voice of our families. Um we've had the opportunity for school leadership, donors, parents, and students and also stakeholders to come together to make important decisions for the school around community, community engagement, youth development, and family supports. Next slide. And then lastly, what's working here at Cooper Lane? Um, strong staff voice and collaboration. Just an increased
017use of data in our conversations and everything is aligned to our school performance plan, which really just uh uh grounds our work in collective accountability. And then what we are improving is just the follow-through between the meetings with our families. We want to ensure that we are continuing to expand participation of families who are less engaged. But that's just a quick snapshot of how we are using the SPMT process here at Cooper Lane. >> Okay, good evening everyone. Again, my name is Natasha Kylie, the proud principal of Drew Ferman Middle School. Please let's go to the next slide. So for us at Drew, um we don't necessarily call it SBMT uh SBMT. We normally do IoT which is our instructional leadership team and when we meet we do meet monthly and when we are meeting
018we're definitely focusing heavily on our instructional and our cultural side um with our I guess information that we gather throughout the year. We always look at data and it's grounded in um mainly test scores such as benchmarks and our MCAP data but also teacher created assessments as well. We also look at um like our business intelligent which will give us like our attendance and so forth just to make sure that what we are discussing we're grounding everything in evidence and making our decisions in evidence. Once we realize what we need to do and we've come to um a consensus of the best strategies to improve our scores, we are looking at some instructional strategies. And once we do that, it is a cycle of looking at it over several weeks. We do refine it, um,
019adopt it, tweak it, whatever we need to do. But we are utilizing that cycle several times throughout the year. Um, once we do that, we also find ways to help build up the culture and make sure our culture is like more of a learning environment. We have some meaningful incentives. um my sentence they do go around our attendance but it's also more focused this year um with the academic side of things. So of course those who make honor roll but for improvement and then also um just you know good good faith effort of how they are trying to succeed and do much better academically. Um I will say we also are improving um in making our incentives for the behavior portion but once we you know have tackled that down which you can see in
020our scores we reduce our suspensions and so forth we want to definitely focus more so on um just that academic portion. Who can you go back up for IOT? So who's involved in this meeting this monthly meeting? We have, of course, our administrative team, our teacher leaders, um our community school coordinator, which she he actually coordinates with our PEA, um our IEP facilitator because we are a CSI school and we want to make sure that we're catering to all needs. Um our subgroups for CSI is FED um MLL which is our Esau population which is one of our teacher leaders and then also majority of our school which is economically development because we're over 90% in that um group. We also have our scheduler, our counselor chair and our data coaches that's involved. Um as
021you can see we do have our mission and we're reminded of our mission when we go into our meetings all the time. Our our main purpose is to make sure we are um administering rigorous instruction and making sure we are building on our students character development. We can go to the next slide. All right. So this is an example of our agenda. We normally have our quick links. Um we also have attendance who's there. We make sure we have our norms and our objective. Please go to the next slide. And then of course we have whatever topics that needs to be discussed um any announcements that needs to be uh noted and of course next steps meaning our deliverables. Once we finalize that we do inform our parents. We have surveys for not only just
022our parents for our staff as well. And then we also have our meetings when we have our parent engagement meetings. Same thing just as my previous colleague stated, we always try to slide in what we are doing and how parents can actually help and work with their students at home on help building our instructional strategies not just in the classroom but it extends at the home. We also utilize some of our funds to provide some um kits for parents to utilize and to hopefully help support the students instructionally at home. And then we also have our afterchool programs which was based off of um one of the surveys that we've had last year that really really made a huge impact on our students on um just tutoring but not just tutoring to help them be
023well-rounded. We have other partnerships that helps them in other aspects such as um you know braiding hair or just doing yoga and some other things of that nature. So this is how we kind of utilize our um IoT. We start from the nucleus and we just kind of spread out and that's it. >> Thank you all so much for your presentation. Um are there any questions from my colleagues? Um one of our colleagues requested a review of this policy who is not on the committee this year. Um, but this this does provide an update around where um we are on schoolbased management team. So, I'm going to see if any colleagues have any questions. Well, I I want to Oh, go ahead. U Vice Chair Olivo. >> Thanks so much, Dr. Moss. Um, and thank
024you so much to our principles for this really great presentation. Um, as Dr. MOS mentioned the the main reason that we have brought this up is because um one of our colleagues who um and as do I believes really strongly in the power of our school-based management teams um at our schools and we would really like to see you all obviously are you know kind of our gold star examples of of these schoolbased management teams. I I would be curious from our principles, is there anything that we could do as a board to help one support the work that you're doing? Any, you know, policy changes for example, or um that you would recommend a way that we could potentially strengthen the policy to help more principles um do the great work that you all
025are doing? I can speak for um um my staff and and possibly for some colleagues, but uh I don't want to speak on behalf of all of my colleagues, of course. Um I find that allowing some flexibility is really ideal. Um having a standardized meeting on a consistent basis and being able to get all stakeholders in at that exact time can sometimes be very challenging. So just allowing that you know the the team sometimes meets when we can meet. So sometimes there are parts to where um I can only meet and we can only meet with our families and then we bring in the staff and then we give those perspectives and then we try to come back. So allowing some of that flexibility um also who the members are um the flexibility in that.
026So for example, there's a few of us who are CSI schools, schools in improvement. And so when we are uh doing some of the work, it's important that the members that there are members of that are a part of our team that represent the subgroups that we are in school and improvement about. So that way we can truly gain those perspectives. And so it's not just a matter of okay, well we have any parent, we have specific parents who are geared towards that. And so, um, that's the portion that I can speak to that I think is very valuable, um, for us. >> Thank you. That is incredibly helpful. Um, anybody else have thoughts or did did Dr. McKe speak for everyone? >> Um, he hit on mostly all the all of the points. I
027would just like to add um just to just ensure that you know everyone is being just consistent um with it. That's the most important thing. Um because we're pulled many different ways and and many but we it's critical that this occurs a minimum on a monthly basis um because the structure and the system will go out of whack. So just in making sure that that's embedded in the policy is critical for me. Thank you so much. >> Um, board member Jackson Saunders. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. And, um, just by introduction, principles, um, I'm Shandrea Jackson Saunders, one of the well, the newest uh, member of this board of education. Um, and my background is school psychology, 35 years in the public school system. And so that kind of frames my my query. Thank you
028so much for the presentation. Um I appreciate that you all respect the fact that this shared leadership is critical to the success of your schools. Um three schools that have presented talked specifically about the parent um involvement in the team and I noticed that uh the Drew Freeman's principal, Principal Kyler, you talked mostly about your instructional leadership team. So I'm wondering three principles. Do you also have your instructional leadership team in addition to your school-based management team? And then for principal Kyler, um how do we address the importance of that parent voice which may be missing in your instructional leadership team um in terms of this whole idea of shared decisionm? So kind of two questions rolled into one. Well, I can um address the first qu the first question. So, yes, um I do
029have an ILT team separate from the SBMT team. Um how we operate here at Cooper Lane, we are on a structure where every Thursday there's a meeting. So, it is it is either the ILT meeting, it might be a staff bi-weekly PD meeting, it might be the SPMT meeting. So we sort of cycle through um that approach so that we have some consistency. Okay, the first and third of the month that's bi-weekly PD. Second is ILT. The fourth um Thursday of the month is the SPMT. So that has helped um but also too there is a lot of crossover with the members of each of the um teams. So the instructional leadership team usually houses our out of classroom positions, math resource teacher, reading specialist, grade level chairs, but those individuals also serve on the
030SPMT team as well. So they go hand in hand, but to Dr. McKe's point, just with the flexibility there's and to Dr. Clark's point, a month there's a lot that happens each week. We might have snow days, we might be off, three-hour dismissals. And so just trying to make sure that we are maybe able to combine um some of our meetings to ensure that everyone um gets the information. >> We're out of time there, but I do want to give principal Kyler an opportunity to answer your question so that you get both. >> Yes. Thank you so much. So as I stated, we have our community school um person who is there and with our school community person that is our connection with our parents because he meets um weekly with our parent engagement assistant.
031And so even with her, we utilize um our surveys and when we have our parent engagements, we always, you know, do a upto-date on what is going on and we ask for feedback from our parents all the time. So we want to make sure that all stakeholders are involved in what's going on um at Durham constantly. >> Thank you. So thank you so much. Um I'm going to take the the last question here. No other colleague hands are up. My question is for Dr. Mar. Dr. Mar, are you available to answer a question? >> I am. I'm I'm just off camera in transit. Yes. >> Oh, okay. Well, I'll ask it offline. If you're trans transitioning, I'll ask you another time. >> Okay. >> I know how to find you. >> Okay. >> Um but
032thank you all for coming. uh principles um as a former school principal um who had school-based management teams that that met each week um because we were also in school improvement. I understand the criticality of this work. Um I understand that most school principles are managing a million things. I laugh with Dr. Mark. I'm not that old, but um I am still too old to be a school principal again cuz I could not do what you all do. And I hope that makes sense to you. My hat is off for the work that you all are doing. I don't know that I could do school improvement again. Um, but I appreciate the work that you all are doing and thank you all for coming. And others of you don't have to deal with me. Principal
033Kyler has to deal with me. So, I want to give her a special thank you for having to deal with me cuz her school is in my backyard. Um, but thank y'all for coming tonight. >> Thank you for having us and listening to us. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you, amazing principles. All right. So, policy um this policy is 3415 school-based management teams. Um the question is, shall the committee recommend policy 3415 to the policy sponsor for revision approval? >> You've got some revisions, Miss Welsh, already. >> Well, I what I I I did want to ask the question. It was a question that also board member Brizzer Strather had asked um and I and and listening today this was extremely helpful to hear the principles because um the uh you're right I
034was like three principles that definitely have more I think it appeared and it might not be the case but just in the presentation appeared to have more of a shared leadership played a more role of a shared leadership type of role with all the players and parents were a major factor in it and and really did help with the whole decision making. And I and it makes me think I'm looking at the policy itself that it might be something we would want to add something in the policy related to um um professional development or something that addresses shared leadership and possible professional development for principles on that because that's that's not always an easy thing to do uh when you're in a leadership role to be able to share that leadership. Yeah, thank you for
035that, Miss Welsh. What I would like to do, if it's okay with you and it pleases the rest of the committee. Now, I'm going to say this because I'm biased um because I was a school principal. Um perhaps maybe given that concern, if these principles could workshop some language and make a recommendation to us if they feel that that's necessary for their colleagues. Um it it perhaps could be another requirement. That's just kind of my initial reaction to that. I'd love to hear what my colleagues have to say. Um but um I worry about um you know adding a professional development requirement um to them um for what they already have to do um to even you know the the professional they already have. So I do worry about that but would love to hear
036my colleagues response to it. And I see you've got something too. So I want to yield the floor to you. I just want to say one thing. We do already have some language in the policy that talks about provide professional development regarding functions and processes of the school-based management team. You could even say functions and process of schoolbased management to including shared leadership to its members annually since there's already professional development set aside that that the committee had decided on previous. Just a thought. Yeah, I I'll see I'll engage the rest of my colleagues here um and and kind of hear your thoughts and reactions around this before we have Miss Welsh to actually bring it to us as a draft. Um Vice Chair Levo, >> um thanks Dr. Moss and um Miss Welsh, I
037I absolutely hear what you're saying. you know, in in reading this more carefully, what what I would like to do now is is actually go back and read um the AP on this because I do feel like what we have here in our policy does allow for it does talk about the professional development. In my opinion, it allows for the type of flexibility that our principles were just, you know, just mentioning in that it is not extremely prescriptive um other than, you know, the members. But what I haven't done um and I I should have done that in preparation for this meeting, but I'd like to go back and read the administrative policy um here. And I understand completely that is not our role. But in in the idea of of you know our board's
038goal of really ensuring that these are um you know implemented with fidelity across all of our schools. I'm wondering if there are um some conversations that we could have with the superintendent about the the AP that's related to this um and or just a a stronger emphasis um in ensuring that that um that we do have school-based management teams across all of our schools. So those are my initial thoughts. Thank you. >> Thank you, Vice Chair Levo. Any comments from any colleagues? So, I think we have a little bit more work on this. Let's uh send this back to the policy sponsor for revision approval. We can talk through it. That was my question with um Chief Maro. I was going to ask what does it look like for them to monitor um the effectiveness
039of this? Certainly talk to her offline about it, but I had questions around how do we know principles are doing it? How often are they doing it? Um those kinds of questions. So, um, yeah, I I think that, um, we have a little bit more work to do around this. So, Miss Welsh, if we could bring it back for the next meeting, that'll be helpful. >> Okay. >> Um, so the question is, um, shall we recommend policy 3415, schoolbased management teams, um, to the policy revision sponsor for revision approval? Miss Johnson, please call the role. Dr. Moss. >> Um, yes. >> Mrs. Olivo. >> I >> Mr. Briggs. >> I >> Mrs. Brown. >> I, >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders. >> I, >> we have five. Affirmative. Um, policy 3145 will go back to the policy
040sponsor for revision approval. Committee members will see it again uh at our next uh meeting. So, we'll have time to work through some of those concerns we have and make recommendations. At this time, we'll move to item 6.1, the legislative update. The chair recognizes Miss Welsh for the legislative update. U Miss Welsh, um we'll get you started here with the legislative update. Um Miss Johnson, if you could give us 10 minutes on the um clock, please. Um, Miss Johnson, I did send a um a chart that has I had just listed some bills out. If you could post that, please. Well, while she's pulling it up, I can what I can share is that uh we had crossover um as of yesterday. So, that tells you which bills are going to continue through the process
041and which bills just did not make it. Um, and so although there's still a good number of bills out there that did go through the process, um, and are here for us for more hearings and stuff, which will be pretty busy within the next 2 to 3 weeks till the session closes. That's not the chart I sent, just so you know. I sent I sent Cindy a chart to have posted um that it is not listing all these bills. So, if you could, thank you. Um but anyway um so I didn't want to go through all the bills because I do know that um you know we we don't want to be here all evening discussing all bills but I thought I'd just pick a few that I felt were really important because I know
042we'll be having future conversations especially in terms of uh is there going to be necessary to provide testimony you know go to hearings things like that so um if you could um I and in the meantime because I don't want to hold you all up I can at least talk I can talk until the chart comes up if you want if that's okay with you. It's up to you. Um Dr. Moss. >> Yeah, my colleague if you want to go over highle overview, the colleagues have access to the legislative tracker um where they can see all the bills. Um so we could just proceed with your overview of which ones so that the larger public can hear them. And for those of you who are watching from the public, um our legislative tracker is is
043online and Miss Welsh does a good job updating it in real time and you can see the crossover bills have already been put on that tracker as well. So you can see quite naturally um what our position is. But Miss Welsh, please feel free to go over um your over >> I'll just go through a couple. Yeah. Um so, so the um the one that um the first one I wanted to talk about was Senate Bill 311 and that did cross over and one of the things we were most concerned about in that bill. There's numerous provisions in the bill, but probably the most had to do with the um hold harmless for the C to that originally the bill says that the law says it would end as of school year 26 and now
044um this bill extends it to school year 27. So, and our and of course our goal was to ensure that this bill did make it. Ideally, it'd be nice if they extended it forever, but right now at least even to have another year of funding is really important for Prince George's County Public Schools. That means an additional approximately additional $90 million. So, it's critically important. So, that bill has u moved forward. Um, and there's some minimal uh revisions or amendments to that bill, but nothing of any real significance. Um um the next bill that I think is important to um talk about had to do with um the bill related to the electronic devices. So, um this is House Bill 525 and it is um the uh student electronic communication device use policy and this
045bill everyone was surprised that I have sat through um a pazam meeting this morning and everyone was quite surprised that it did make it through crossover and the bill itself is pretty um pretty um uh strict in that it's number one saying you cannot have any um uh electronic device portable devices which is your cell phones or social media during the entire school day. So the minute you walk in the door uh to the end at end end of the day you walk out the door you would not be using any you would not be allowed to a student would not be allowed to have have that uh with them and they would have to store it somewhere. It doesn't give any it's not prescriptive in the sense of where you're going to uh store
046it, but you still have to store it. And it also has u language as it relates to um the um like uh discipline that you must have you must discipline a student if you can't suspend or expel, but they must receive discipline if in fact they end up you know sneaking their their uh phones out or their cell phones out or get on some type of mo social media site. uh like if they're even if they're using a school systems um um like laptop or something, but um it's it's so it's pretty it's pretty prescriptive and it and it and it says what will happen is that you're going to have to have the your policy addressing all these things. So for this school year, we actually had the social media the portable electronic device
047and social media policy back on the agenda for this current school year. We were supposed to do it earlier in the year, but when all those bills showed up, I asked that we would put it near the end of the year because I didn't want us to have to make changes to it and then turn around and have to make changes again. So, it could very well be if this bill does pass that we would be really making some major revisions to the the um policy that was done I think almost uh not last spring but the spring before. Um so, that'll be an interesting one to watch. And then um the next one is um oh shoot it went too fast. The um hold on one second. Uh the next one is uh the
048bill on um the Maryland charter school program. And this bill is is actually um concerning because it it what and I did share what in this chart that I made what was the um what we had in our fiscal note but what was really concerning is the fact so this looks like uh it wouldn't have that much operational impact for us but actually because the money would flow directly to the to the public charter schools. However, it could have a significant long-term impact on any of the our leased facilities. And if a charter school uh if provided with these funds makes capital improvements to our facilities without our input, consent or collaboration, that would be incre. So, that is a real issue. And then also um because we want to make sure that we that
049we Prince George's County Public Schools has a significant role in approving um a and actually facilitating any improvements even on our lease uh facilities um by public charter schools um and so by having IA facilitate the dispersement of money and the and oversee the work that would be I think a real issue for us. The bill also has um it did originally say that so the state money would go to the charter schools for their facilities and it was going to be u by like at student enrollment at that school multiplied originally it said $1600 per student and the bill has been amended down to $200 per student. Um but there is um this is a a um a bill that could be problematic just because of the nature of how it's being structured for
050the flow of the money and the approval for the the change in the um the facilities. Um so that's one we'll be watching. And then um the next one is a bill that we're concerned about that is House Bill 319. So, House Bill 319 is a bill that is um being it's repealing um the sunset revision that was in the law right now that says you cannot use that once this bill law sunseted that you couldn't use alternative school uh student transportation. So for years that you were always told you could never use you can never use vans to transport kids and then it came into law that said you could use vans for to transport the kids but it was the bill it said only until such and such a period which would be
051this upcoming year it would sunset and you could not do it. Well, when you think about our students that we transport to non-public placements and we may have only like one or two kids on a bus to run and the a humongous bus to some of these schools would be such a waste of money for us. So that is why um this bill is an important bill. But there is a a amendment that is and there's conversation and I don't know where where it's going to land but there is a language about actually allowing um school systems to use Uber or uh taxi cabs to transport kids and although that might sound like a lovely another alternative for us I I think that in itself would bring a whole set of problems um just in
052terms of even let's just think terms of security where you put you you are the school systems putting a child in a in a Uber or a taxi it's a transport but uh we don't have the ability to say these companies all of them have to be fingerprinted blah blah you know all these different things so that is concerning and I do know that both Maven and Pazam had concerns about uh if that provision will end up moving forward or not and then um the just I just wanted to let you know that Ruby Bridges walk to school day did make it through. It did cross over. So, it looks like it's very positive like it will be um uh you know making it to uh to the you know to the end. And then
053if can you scroll um uh down further just to see if it's okay. Good. Um that one is um I don't want to talk about that one. Just keep going for one second. I want see if there's any more. I think I might be at the end of my list. >> Um I think that was it. Um, so those are some of the big ones that are going that are here right now. I will say there's many others. Uh, one of the big concerns is the budget bill. Um, and we will be, uh, I within the next week to two weeks spending more time really delving into that to see what that impact is for us. I I don't think it'll be that significant this goound. It's probably future goarounds might be a little bit
054more of a concern, but um, we will be spend more time with that. Any questions? >> Thank Thank you, Miss Welsh, for your presentation. I'm shocked you didn't say this, but I've got to say it. Um, we have masterfully avoided >> oh, >> unfunded mandates to PGCPS and um, this might be a record year because there isn't a single one um, that crossed over. So, Miss Welsh, I was shocked you didn't you didn't toot the horn a bit on that one, but um you know, we're still not out of the dog house until Sy died, but um we we've had a we've had a good experience on unfunded mandates. If you want to share a little bit more. >> Well, I can I I will we have been very fortunate, but I I we think
055well and I my understanding is that the legislators have also been sort of preached to about unfunded mandates. So, that's helpful for us, too. But I will say our probably our most exciting bill had to do with our the bill that required um that the all the an additional audit each year these quarterly reports to the state to MSTE and then moving all of our one-on-one assistance over from from being part-time to full-time where they would end up getting benefits which would have cost us significantly $20 million and was it was pretty extreme and we were very fortunate that probably one of our biggest unfunded mandate and actually Senator uh Washington actually pulled that bill and it was based on the fact that he did ask MSDE for information about how our uh special education
056how how special ed education is working in the school system because we are under corrective action and MSD wrote a a letter which was very neutral. it just laid out we've done blop which is shows that we're doing all this work to make the all these improvements and then what we still need to continue and that I think in it of itself made Senator Washington realize that we're very sincere about our efforts to improve special education and um and he actually pulled and that that was very exciting. I wasn't there but I was watching cheering when when I saw it. Yeah, we we've had a great legislative session. Um, thanks to to you and your team, the administration from Advocacy Institute. She's not here. Both of them are not here, but um Lolita's engagement with
057um our delegates and senators and our advocacy day that we all put together from um Pam preaching to us to watch every bill every day, every minute, every second. Um we've we've truly been able to cross really a a strong threshold and I've got to be honest and say our coordination with our interim superintendent too. Um we've been right there in lock step. So um no nobody knows all that you have to do Miss Welsh responding to all those fiscal um notes that you get each day. Um so we thank you for your leadership in this co colleagues. Do you all have any additional questions for her? I do want to flag I have tremendous concerns about that charter school bill. We've gotten into a better place. We've gotten a dollar amount down from $1,600
058to $200, but I've told Senator Rosa Pep um it has long-term consequences. Um the funding stream that they're using that's federally um doesn't have the support that they anticipate right now. >> Um and so it could draw on state coffins um to be able to to fund it a little bit later. Um I think it's a noble task. I do worry about how it will impact um us in the long run. So, we'll continue to monitor the progress of that bill, but I will have to commend Senator Roosevelt. He's come around on this uh and has has listened to us a bit and has made some adjustments to to that fund. Um but I do worry um as as any good um school board member would um about the the impact of that. And I've
059gotten emails from other school boards across the state who also have concerns about it. So, I do thank you for uplifting that to the general public. It's certainly one to watch. But got to thank Senator Rosa Pepeep. He came to the table with us on this early on. We met on it. He's been a good faith actor um along the way in in this in this work. >> Um and I will tell you that May and Pazam both oppose this bill and what you said about the federal funds within five years they eventually they would be totally fade out and the state would be funding everything which is really problematic. Yeah. Okay. Well, we we appreciate you for the legislative update. Um um we will now move to we only have two other items. Um
060policy 1700, the disabilities issues advisory board. Um this should be a quick one. Um the question is shall the committee actually do you have an update on 1700 Miss Welsh and uh board member Brown would you all have an update on 1700 at all? If not I understand >> I can share that. >> Go ahead. >> I'll let you talk. I'll let you talk. Um, M. I did I was going to say you I gave you the last update and um >> you got this. >> Okay. And I was going to say board member Brown sent me the update and of changes after she and um uh board member Oliva had the opportunity to talk to DAB and or D whatever it is and discuss possible changes to to the policy as it stood. So
061I they had asked for a dollar very briefly they had asked for a change in um the name of the policy and so I did and I actually the um uh um Cindy or who Miss Johnson that's who it is who's working for the board could actually post it um because it's we have that online anyway and it would be the their one of their they gave two choices and I did put advisory council and disabilities affairs um so that would be an ACDA A instead of a DIAB. So, so when you go then through the policy I have uh listed all of the um changes and I did um there either in blue or they're in um they're in um highlighted but the big things is they did ask for um advising on some
062additional things which would be service provision um data um compliance with mandated state and federal requirement data service provision. Wait a minute. Service provision data compensatory education data um I'm sorry it was compliance with mandated state and federal requirements uh in addition to just the two right now that the policy holds it talks about which has to do with uh accessibility and hiring. And then it they wanted also language in the policy that says that the membership that there would be 10 members appointed by the board but it would be staggered staggered appointments that way that um if so you at least have some continuity and you know people have experience you know you're sharing it versus a new group every year or every other year. And then so that's in the policy. And then
063um the the next thing um was that they requested um the um this the if you scroll down for one second and I have to tell you I can't tell you how much time I spent today trying to enlarge this print and for some reason every time I would do it it would not allow me to to print print it out for me to even print to bring today. So I'm trying to read this little bit of print. It also has language um in there that says that the um the the the ACDA, which is the the new name, would work collaboratively with the special education students advisory committee uh to ensure that both advisory groups operate efficiently and maintain a clear distinction between um the two different groups and um and develop written and
064verbal communications protocols that prevent overlap and element uh eliminate confusion, which I thought was really good. And then may call may um the ACDA may engage um PGPS subject matter experts to examine the information gathered during uh ACDA's initial research efforts to assist in identifying potential areas of recommendations. And then I think I think that was the last except there was one recommendation which um had to do with hiring. Um, let me see if I can and we already had in about um that it would be opens me u follow the opens meeting act um did I fix that in there also opens meeting act and uh Robert's um rules of order I think that might be already oh here it is there and then the last one was um had to do with um
065oh dedicated aids So the compensation and classification office should update the pay structure for dedicated in order to establish a pathway towards creating three/4er time or half-time positions and increase wages, offer benefits, provide paid training and attendance with professional development days and uh compensate even when assigned student is absent. Um and deliberate deliberately recruit for DAs. them. First of all, the we all of the DA positions, dedicated a positions, we found this out as we were advocating for the bill, um the autism bill, um not the autism bill, but the other bill. But the um what the thing is is that basically this is um something that is um management um prerogative in terms of salary and benefits and it is the responsibility of we have state law that actually says that the superintendent is
066responsible to the for the day-to-day management of the school system and and the actual management of um the fiscal the financial aspects of all all the different divisions including HR door. So, that's the only thing I did not put into the policy because number one, it really steps out of line with what the law says and it and and it would also be extremely restrictive or prescriptive, I should say. So, I think I picked up the changes. If there's anything else I missed, please tell me and I will certainly add it to this policy. >> Yeah. And colleagues, you should have been able to review this prior to the meeting. Um, so, um, if Go ahead. Um, board member Brown, >> I was just real really quickly. I must I don't know if I missed
067it, but do we talk about um having established bylaws? Because I know PCA has established bylaws. >> I think there is something in about bylaws because I remember typing it. I just I I hate to say this, but this print is so small I can hardly read it. Um, >> yeah, it's included in there. >> Okay. I just wanted to make sure. I think you're right. It was talked about, but I wanted to make sure. Okay. Thank you. So that was >> no problem. Vice Chair Levo. >> Um this might be silly, but um regarding the name, I wanted to suggest because all it seems to me that all of our other advisory groups start with the um the issue first before it says advisory committee. And also we need an easy acronym and I
068was wondering about disability affairs advisory committee instead of advisory committee on disability affairs because then we would have D A little easier to say but also it aligns with special education parent you know those the the the topic you know being first and then advisory committee being at the end. Just wanted to throw that out there. I don't if everybody disagrees that's totally fine. Um but wanted to suggest that >> thank you for bringing that up. It would be deck and that would be easier to say than all the other stuff. I'm fine with making that change. Um is there any dissension from the committee? Okay. Um we will recommend policy 1700 the disabilities issues advisory board to the recommend to the polic to recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval um with the
069suggested changes. Um Miss Johnson will take the role >> I >> Mr. Grace, >> I >> Jackson Saunders >> I >> the affirmative. >> Five in the affirmative. And I just got to thank board member Brown and Vice Chair Levo for their work over the last eight months um with the disabilities issues advisory board. Uh is it been eight months? I think I'm right. at least six at least six to eight months working to really get that policy to that place. So, thank you all for your leadership in that regard. Policy 83 83443 opening of meeting with prayer. Um, this is a policy that we have to rescend um for legal reasons. Um, so the chair recognizes Miss Welsh. If you could provide us with a quick overview of this, Miss Welsh, but I think
070it's pretty clear board members have been get have gotten communication in the past about it. So actually um I um so we had recommended that this be rescended early like a year or two years ago and mainly because it came to light I think again it was board member Ber that brought it to our attention she had been at an NSBA conference and in the conference they talked about the fact that there should be no prayer that we really shouldn't have a prayer if just because even though students are not required to be at board me board meetings there is instances where students are there because they're either coming to get some type of an award. Um, you know, or they're presenting something to the board. Um, and so there opport there's these are opportunities
071that you would not want to take away from them because they wouldn't feel comfortable being asked to pray this prayer. So, actually, I did talk to uh Mr. Horn about this and he said no that he had actually done research and that he he has a different opinion. So, I said, "Well, then I'm going to turn this over to you and you can share because we don't have to resend the policy. It was just a followup from a previous one we had done, but I thought he could share his information. >> Thank you very much, Miss Wil. My apologies for my voice a little bit today. I guess a little bit of pollen's gotten to me, but uh actually uh Mr. chairman. Uh um back in June of 2025, the American United for Separation of
072Church and State wrote a letter uh indicating that uh having prayer before these meetings were illegal and violated the constitution. And we researched it and wrote a couple of page letter. you may recall because I believe you were copied on it uh and uh our findings are that uh based on the case law and it's even Supreme Court case that the language that's actually used that says oh God we pray to administer is not in any way uh compelling participation or serving uh uh unifying the board in any kind of religious way and those the wording that you had was okay. It it did not violate the constitution. Now, having said that, you know, that doesn't mean you shouldn't resend the policy and for other reasons that you might have. Uh I will resend the
073letter that we sent to the uh American well uh to the American United for Separation of Church and State because he wrote the letter, Mr. Smith wrote a letter and he cited some cases. Well, when we looked it up, it it almost seemed like it was a AI deal because what he was citing is not what the law said. And we went back and said, "Here's what it means. Here's what it says." And in and in June of uh 2025, we said, you know, you you are not violating uh the the Constitution. That was the issue we focused in on. Now again, there may be other reasons why you want to do it, but uh but violating the constitution is not one of them. >> Thank Thank you, Attorney Horn. Um colleagues, if you do
074you have any questions for the for the attorney before we vote on this uh resention? Miss uh Johnson, will you please call the role? The question is, shall the committee recommend rescending policy 8344.3? >> Uh, no. >> Yes. >> Mr. Briggs. >> Hi. >> No. M. >> Jackson Saunders. >> No. 13 affirmative >> policy 8344.3 will not be rescended um based on this committee's recommendation. Um yeah, we've got item 8.0 policies for community input. There are none tonight. Policies for enactment policy 0126 student safety prevention of child sexual abuse and reported suspected child abuse and neglect. The policies under agenda item 9.0 were submitted for public comment and one public comment was received. Um the question is shall the committee Oh, you're moving too fast. Miss Welsh, what was the public comment? >> Okay. Um
075so the um public comment was that um the it was a parent who responded and asked questions like be providing more uh clarifying timelines for reporting explicit language stating reports must be immediate made immediately made and directly to CPS or law enforcement and a clarification that internal reporting does not replace mandated CPS reporting um to ensure that there's no confusion. So for that piece of the comment I do need to share that that is what is actually sits in the administrative procedure all those types of details it's very clear about as soon as you call in a report you're supposed to do it as soon as possible and then within 48 hours you must then put uh uh give a written report send in a written report um and and it's very clear about what
076the role is then it says um strengthen parent and community advi education requirements annual parentf facing training or webinar s clear guidance shared at the beginning of each year posting reporting instructions promptly on school websites and the increased transparency and trust and I do know that Shila Jackson um and I don't know if she continues to do this but she did at least once a year did something for parents related to um uh child abuse and child sexual abuse and as far as training we actually make that a requirement of our all of our staff all staff in Prince George's County Public Schools in the beginning of the year they are required to it's in one of our mandatory training um uh requirements and then every year midyear for all of the uh principles I
077have put together a PowerPoint that includes the all the information in our administrative procedure on reporting sexual abuse and then the administrative uh procedure related to interacting inappropriately with students and then also sexual and dating students. There's three different administrative procedures. I put that had put that PowerPoint together and I actually send it out to every single principal and they are required to uh during their February March staff meeting go over that uh PowerPoint with them again as a midyear reminder and we actually require them to send in their signin sheets and we track all of that and I just recently sent an email out to every um associate superintendent for the different areas saying we're still missing this school, this school, this school. So, we're almost done. We almost have them all, but we
078we watch that very very carefully to ensure that all of our staff get trained twice a year um on this because it's so important. And then it says add studentfriendly reporting mechanisms, anonymous report systems, clear posting and reporting information, age appropriate explanations. There's actually language also in the curriculum related to that, but again, that would be the administrative procedure. and then monitoring and compliance oversight. Uh all of those things actually we do track we do track the number of staff that are trained and uh we also track the number of reports that are made. We have a direct connection with CPS. We meet with CPS on a monthly basis and we actually have a spread shared spreadsheet that provides and this is of course for our own staff that we're responsible for and lets us
079know any any you know who has been reported you know a report has been made on our staff and follow up on that. So we actually have a fairly high level of accountability uh and we monitor continuously through the training as well as what's being reported. So, I think I think everything's pretty much covered. >> Thank you, Miss Welsh. Committee members, do you have any questions about the public comment? Want to make any revisions? Okay. Um, so the question is, shall the committee recommend the policies under agenda items 9.0 to the full committee for enactment? Miss Johnson, please take a roll call vote. >> I miss I. >> Mr. Brits. >> Hi, >> Ms. Brown. >> Hi, >> Ms. Jackson Saunders. >> I affirmative. >> Five. In the affirmative, the policies under agenda item 9.1
080will be recommended to the full board for consideration and enactment. The chair informs the public that the next virtual policy and governance committee meeting will be on April 14th, 2026. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. Thank you all for great discussions and attendance. To our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 6:13. The March 24, 2026 policy and governance committee meeting is adjourned.