001The time is now 5:36. Good evening and welcome to the March 18th, 2026 Operations Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting. I'm Zakia Goins-Smallwood Committee Chair and District 8 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 will be available for later viewing on the PGCPS YouTube channel. Ms. Conley, could you please call the roll? Ms. Goins-Smallwood Present. Mrs. Brown Here. Ms. Ajakaiye Here. Dr. Endiful Chair Jackson There are three board members present. Uh Ms. Conley, I don't know if things have been edited to include our newest board member. They have not, but I will make sure to add her. Hello, Board member Jackson-Saunders. How are you? I'm well, thank you, Ms. Conley, and thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you
002so much for being here. We're glad to have you. So, since we now have a quorum, the Operations Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee will come to order. If there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the March 18th, 2026 meeting agenda. There being no objections, the March 18th, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted. If there are no corrections, the February 11th, 2026 meeting minutes shall be approved as distributed. There being no corrections, the minutes are approved. Moving on to public comment, there are no public comments for tonight's meeting, but the chair would like to remind the public that public comment is available in our committee meetings through the same channels um as our regular meeting um both written, pre-recorded, and live on our on our Zoom meetings. So, with that, we'll move on to our presentations.
003The chair recognizes Dr. Coleman, our chief operations officer for the safety and security update. Thank you, and good evening, Board Committee Chair Goings-McCant, members of the board and community stakeholders. This evening, the Department of Safety and Security Services under the direction of Director Gary Cunningham will provide an update regarding our trends, security incident data, as well as our camera system upgrades that are actual and planned uh as a part of our overall menu of security uh uh supports in place for our schools. So, at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Director Cunningham. Good evening, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to present. And I believe we have a slide presentation. If you could pull that up, please. And if not, I'll find mine and share it. I think they're going to
004share, Director. Okay. Standing by. >> If it would expedite things, I can share it as well. Would that be helpful? Let me go ahead. In the interest of time, yes, that would be helpful. Okay. All right, Director Cunningham. You just let me know when you want to advance. Thank you, sir. Again, Gary Cunningham, Director of Safety and Security for the school system. Next slide, please. We're going to review the camera incident data, just to kind of let you know where we are. And then talk about our camera system upgrades. I think they're two are very closely related. And I think the the more we upgrade our systems, the better we will get. Our data is taken from uh different uh categories. Uh SchoolMax was our system in 2023-24 school year. Then we since moved to
005Synergy. Next slide, please. These databases are incidents that are recorded by school administrators, not the security staff. So, it's very impartial. Uh we take their data, we include it, so that we know exactly what's going on in our schools. It includes data from the elementary, middle, and high schools. And this this data is uh year-to-date data for uh 2003 to 2000 I'm sorry, '23-'24, '24-'25, and to date. Next. So, in school year 23-24, the incidents that were uh calculated, we had 606 I'm sorry, 6,651 incidents. The following year, we're down to 3,304 incidents. And we believe we credit a lot of this to uh our safety and security enhancements. We rolled out a full program in 24-25. We rolled out a uh clear book bag policy. Uh and we started to see a significant reduction
006in incidents. What we're seeing this year is we're flat up 2% uh up by uh 72 incidents uh across the board. Next slide, please. What we're seeing increases in are a couple of areas. Possession uh use of dis- distribution of of drugs within our schools. A total number of 625. And what we're seeing, and what we attribute a lot of it to, is the use of vape pens. So, we've recovered to date uh 1,063 vape pens. Not all of them have had marijuana or or drugs in them, but that's what we're we're uh we're starting to see a lot of use as it relates to kids using vape pens uh to smoke marijuana. Next slide, please. Um uh some of the decreases, uh bomb threats, we've seen significant decrease in in the bomb threats. Uh
007we work with the police department very closely. Whenever there's a threat um to to uh uh of a bomb at a school, the police department pays a visit to the child's home to ensure that they do not have the capability of carrying out the threat. That child does not come back to the school until we know for sure that they don't have the capability of doing that. So, we've seen a significant reduction in that. Threats of mass violence are also significantly down. Again, we work with the Prince George's County Police Department, Department of Homeland Security. Uh and whenever a threat is made, we verify whether or not the child has the capability or or the willingness to actually carry out the threat before they return to school. And those threats are being taken very seriously
008uh, by the police department and some of the kids are actually charged, uh, criminally. Next slide, please. Most proud of, this category here, possession use of firearms. In 2003, 2004, uh, when we started to implement our weapons detection program, uh, I'm sorry, our security enhancement program, uh, we had a total of six firearms that were recovered in our schools last year to date. I think that year we ended up with about 13 or 14. Uh, last year, we had a total of four, uh, this time last year. And to date, this school year, we've had one firearm recovered. Um, possession of other guns, and we're talking about replicas, BB guns, water guns, anything that looks like a gun. We put that category. And then, uh, other weapons, we look at knives, brass knuckles, tasers, pepper
009spray, and anything that would fall into that category as a weapon. So, we're we've seen significant decreases in those areas and those things that are coming into our school. One of the things that we've been able to do with our updated camera systems is once we identify um, weapon within a school, we literally, uh, go to the camera room and from the point that we recover the incident occurs, and we go backwards. We follow that child in reverse to the point that they came into the school. Because we want to determine exactly how the firearm or the weapon entered the building. So, right now, we have, um, someone that takes the camera feed and literally goes throughout the day. If it it happened at 2:00 in the afternoon, he's got to go through all the
010footage all the way up until the point of the incident and tracking that child throughout the school. So, we do that and then we go we review our security process and systems to determine what we could have done differently to keep that child from bringing that weapon into the school. And it's working very well for us. Um we've been able to assist um most recent incident at Parkland High School, we had a stabbing. Uh we were able to track that incident all the way back until that student brought the knife into the school. Uh that of course is evidence and it was uh used with uh the um detectives uh as evidence in the case. Next slide, please. Camera upgrades. Next slide, please. So, all of our high schools are slated to be done by
011the beginning of next school year. Our our we were on track to have it done by the end of the school year, but our contractors are not they just don't have the bandwidth to do them all. So, we're going to have we should have them all upgraded by the beginning of the school year uh 2020 27. Uh so, that that's what what the plan is at this point. One of the things we're also looking at is phasing upgrades to higher definition cameras in our entrances, gymnasiums, and also our parking lots. So, right now every uh all the schools that have been upgraded, they do have the capability of doing a lot of different things, but what we're trying to do is instead of having 10 cameras in the parking lot, a higher definition, higher resolution
012camera that can scan the entire parking lot and uh give us what we need. What we found when we had when we had to go back and look at camera footage is that our cameras were not adequate as it relates to things that may have happened 100 yards away from the camera. So, the higher resolution uh cameras will give us the higher definition that we need in these cases. Next slide, please. We are looking at the new technology. Um we're using Parkdale High School as as a pilot. They have uh they're slated for the upgrade. So, we went out and we They asked for additional personnel and we cannot uh add just keep adding personnel. We want to start using some of the technology that's available. So, we went we did a quote Parkdale High
013School to bring that school uh up new camera system using some of these features. Um it's we're talking about almost a half million dollars um to just for one school. Next slide, please. Uh motion detector cameras will allow us to be used in areas where stationing staff is less efficient. So, instead of having a security person in an area all the time, motion detect detector cameras will alert us when someone goes into that area. So, we can they can be at the other end of the building and and get get a notification of a student in that area. Next slide, please. Voice activated cameras. If we have children that are in an area and a fight starts, usually there's a noise and argument that occurs prior to that. So, they can activate our cameras, also.
014We're also uh have uh cameras that can talk uh two ways. So, the voice is activates and gives us an alert that there's an incident and administrators can talk through our system through the a speaker in the camera and uh notify them that security is on the way or that they shouldn't be in the area. Next slide, please. Tablets. So, instead of having someone stationary at a computer desk, uh looking at the camera systems, we're looking at uh issuing tablets to administrators at the school and security staff. That way they can stay mobile, moving around, receive alerts, and respond to incidents without being stationary or stuck in one place in the school. Next slide, please. Wireless cameras. So, we have areas that are difficult to run wires, our athletic fields, opposite ends of parking lots,
015uh sometimes in our gymnasiums. So, what we're looking at some of is some of the wireless camera features. Again, they're more expensive, but it it's much more practical to have a wireless camera system than it is to try to run wires across a parking lot. Digging digging up a parking lot, the cost for that is offset by the cost of the camera. Next slide, please. Radar cameras. So, it occasionally you will have a football field or athletic field, uh where we have a camera there, but if there's rain, fog fog, or darkness, our current some of our current camera systems don't pick those things up. So, radar cameras will pick up the that uh motion even when it's dark. So, we're looking at that for some of those areas uh that we may need them.
016Next slide, please. And I think that's it, and I'll uh entertain any questions now. Thank you, Director Cunningham. Board members, do we have any questions? Can we have Vice Chair Brown? Yes, thank you uh for the presentation, and thank you so much for your willingness to share the information as a mom of PGCPS to see those numbers go down as my kids are in high school is very promising and so it means a lot to see that my kids now can go into an environment that is much safer than it was before. So thank you for all the hard work that you all put in. I will say just as a district five representative, I know some schools and some parents were looking to help with possible and I primarily have elementary schools where my
017district is and one of the inquiries that came up is hey, can we get a ring camera? Is that a possibility for us to put it in front of the school? What does that look like and I said I will ask and so I'm asking and I just again, I really appreciate you all taking the time and doing so. So we're the police department currently has a ring camera program. So anyone that wants to sign up their camera to be used by the police department to to look at what's going on in the community, they're willing they can do that. What we are in the process of doing is working with the Prince George's County Police Department on a memorandum of understanding so that we can allow them access to our cameras. Adding the cameras
018to our parking lots will give us the the line of sight that we need but will have the ability to monitor those areas completely but we will not be sharing that information with the the ring system only with the police department. So that's understandable and I know that the police department they typically have a voucher program. Are they offering that to PGCPS or like some sort of rebate opportunity because they are looking into our cameras? Is that a option to I I alleviate some of the cost from PGCPS. I am not aware of any rebates from the police department. And again, we would So, the way the way the Ring Ring system works is it goes through the Ring platform and then back out to to the police department. Our system does not do that.
019Our system is self-contained. So, all of our data, all of our images are in our system and do not go to any third-party. Uh we would we would give the police department access to our information. Um and they would have direct a direct link to us, not through Ring. Now, are are we in opposition of that? I'm so sorry, Dr. Coleman. No, no. I was just going to add that the MOU that's being contemplated with the police department would be at no cost to PGCPS. Are we in opposition of the schools getting Ring? Is that is that going to be disruptive? I don't understand exactly how you want want to use the Ring system. Sharing our data with the police department, sharing our information with the police department would I think solve the issue that
020you're talking about. But, is there something else that I'm missing that you think will be solved by Ring? No, you got that that was the answer that I needed. Thank you so much. Okay. And it's also important to note as parents are are considering that generous offer that we have camera coverage at all of our schools. Right? I know we talked about high schools right now, but all of our schools, whether be elementary, middle, or high, all and K-8s, uh they all have camera coverage and we are continuing to expand the quality and quantity of those cameras as we move throughout each budget season. Thank you for that additional context. I think that's incredibly helpful. Um especially as we're having these conversations about the cameras and where you all are looking to upgrade them. Um,
021knowing that we have them at our elementary schools, too. Board member Jackson Saunders. Thank you very much, Madam Chair. Um, Director, um, thank you so much for the presentation. I have to echo Board member Brown's comments that it certainly is um, happy. I'm happy to see the numbers, um, where they are at this point year-to-date. I wanted I guess I was a little concerned about maintenance, repair. Can you give us a little bit of context about are we experiencing any difficulties with maintaining the camera equipment? Has there ever been an issue regarding um, schools reporting, you know, not having access uh, due to you know, destruction of those cameras? Can you give us that side of the hardware story? Sure. Um, thank you for the question. We have about 16, uh, alarm maintenance technicians that
022are assigned, uh, to the safety security office. They They do most of our 99% of our repairs. So, and the way we we set up our cameras, it it's literally plug and play. They can take a camera out, plug it right in. When we run when we have our contractors run the wires, we try to put the most advanced cabling systems in so that we're kind of one or two generations ahead so that we don't have to come back and replace the cable wirings when they upgrade the cameras. So, right now, we have a budget to maintain the camera systems that we have. We're well within our budget. Uh, the cameras that we're using now, we generally try to place them in areas where they cannot be reached by students. So, we don't have a
023a big issue with cameras being disturbed or damaged. >> Board members, do we have any additional questions? I do have Well, I had one and then now I have two. The first um question specifically from the presentation when you're saying that Parkdale is currently our they were the pilot school. Does Parkdale have all of those types of cameras that you walked through and talked to us about? And then what data do we have specifically coming out of Parkdale about how those newer technologies have been impactful? And then the other question about that, in case we run out of time, was about the MOU with the um police department specifically. Sure. And and thank you for the questions. So, Parkdale has not had any installation at this point. So, 2 weeks ago we went out, we
024did a walk-through. The uh they were scheduled for the upgrade, um but right after this the incident with the assault that occurred in the school, uh we met with the principal. We always do what's called a critical uh life-threatening incident critique. And during that critique, she asked for additional staffing. I don't have additional staffing to give her. So, we thought about ways to address her concerns without adding additional staffing, and that's how we came up with the idea of looking at technology to address the concerns. So, we did a cost uh estimate. We walked the site with our uh contractor, with the police department, with the school administrators and security staff, and we determined what technology would work in specific areas. So, we may not have a a voice-activated camera in every area, but in
025those areas where you think it would be uh um worthwhile to have, we're placing them in those areas. So, it is the scope of work has been laid out. The uh equipment has been in in the procurement process and the vendor will be installing it before the end of the school year. So that's the pilot or the first test and then hopefully we will have them in all of our schools by the first day of next school year. No, ma'am. So we all all all of our all of our high schools so upgrades go in two different phases. One is to remove all the analog cameras out of all the schools. So we will have that done for all the high schools by the beginning of next year. So we'll have digital cameras um done
026in all of the all of the high schools. Then we're looking at again the additional funding that we asked for some time ago uh was to upgrade all the entrances. So although have they have digital cameras, they may not have a camera that covers the entire parking lots or or or the all the entrances. So that was what the the request was to upgrade those entrance cameras to higher resolution higher resolution higher definition cameras so we can get more defined pictures as they come into the school. Uh again gymnasiums have some cameras but they don't have enough cameras to cover the crowd and have uh the better resolution pictures and and the same with the athletic fields. None of our athletic fields have cameras right now. So with that would be something uh brand new
027that we would add. Uh parking lot coverage and none of our schools have parking lot coverage for cameras. That would be something new that we would add. Those are things that we would like to do but they would have to be slowly phased in because of the the funding. Got you. And then Dr. Coleman, I saw your hand raised. Did you have something? >> I did. I know that there isn't much time but I did want to add. Director Cunningham has done a tremendous job in my opinion of continuing to build on our layered approach to security of our facilities. So just as he spoke to improving the quality and number of cameras at our in our parking lots, our gymnasiums, our stadiums, he's also working through other pilots where we've piloted the implementation of
028vape detectors at several schools. We can he continues to give input into our schools that are being designed so that we're we're creating schools that are designed uh to be secure as they're being built with secure vestibules and and items like that in addition to providing ongoing training for staff. And so, it's a layered approach that we are taking to security in addition to the camera upgrades. Thank you. I do have additional questions, but I know I'm way over time and I want to give my colleagues an opportunity for a second round before I ask. So, board members, do we have any second round questions? Seeing none. Um my question was going back to the question about the MOU with the police department. What exactly is their access? Like is that ongoing access whenever they
029want to get into the systems? Is that a conversation if they come to us and can ask for certain information, they get it? How does that work? The police department has a real-time crime center. They have connected with cameras on the State Highway Administration, the National Harbor, shopping centers all throughout Prince George's County and and the ring cameras that someone that were mentioned earlier. What they've asked us for is access to our cameras. What I have responded with is that I believe it should be done specifically for it should be a event-driven. It shouldn't be just uh random access, random viewing just for the sake of viewing. We have uh athletic events with large crowds uh inside of our um um athletic fields, we have inside of our gymnasiums, uh the and auditoriums often times
030they draw lot large crowds. So, those are the type of events that I would like to see uh the police department use them for. And then there are emergency incidents where they would need um immediate access to camera footage. Instead of us relaying information, they would be able to see real-time if there was an active assailant in a building. Or even the fire department, if there was an incident that occurred within a school, they would be able to deploy personnel based upon what they saw on the cameras instead of having to search for those individuals. Thank you. I think that that's incredibly helpful, that clarification that you all are working on that. Cuz I can I can only imagine the emails and the phone calls um about that particularly. So, I appreciate the clarification. Um
031if there are no additional questions. Thank you so much, Director Cunningham. We do have one additional question. >> I'm so sorry. I slipped it in there real quick. Would we Does the public have access to the MOU or no? Cuz I know that that was a question a constituent had. I will have to run that by general counsel. I do not believe it it at this point it has not been made public. And I don't know what the policy is as relates to making that public. Unless Dr. Coleman has any additional No, nothing to add on that topic. Thank you all so much. Both Dr. Coleman and Director Cunningham. And with that, we will move on to our student-based budgeting update. The chair recognizes Chief Hal, our Chief Financial Officer, for our budgeting update. Thank
032you, Committee Chair Goins-McCants, and good evening, board members and to our community. Um we have with us this evening Director Shavon Smith. She will walk us through an update of our school budgeting process, student-based budgeting process, but school budgeting in general. Um a process in which we have been planning for for several months now. We began the process in December, working very closely with our school leadership team, Chief of Schools, the area offices. We've had several engagement points with principals throughout the budget formulation process as well. As we all know, there have been different changes that are impacting schools, and so as those changes were unfolding, we were sharing that with principals. Um principals were also provided with um projected enrollment um for the coming school year. That is the basis in which budgets are
033developed, and so that information was released at the end of November, so they could begin to understand what the impact there to their individual school may look like for the coming year early, so they could begin to anticipate um what those changes may potentially look like. Once we went through the whole budget development uh process in terms of the allocations, which Director Smith will walk us through, again working very closely with the area offices and the IDs. Um Again, there were further touch points with the principals as well to provide um more detailed information around that overall process, but the overall goal this year was to provide as much information early and as often as possible so principals could be in the best position to plan and prepare. Now Shavon will walk us through shortly.
034The tool itself has not yet been released. But a budget tool in its place has been released which is new for this year and the principals have been using that to build and develop their budgets. We've worked very closely throughout this process in addition to the schools team, but also the title one office, the community schools office, our partners in human resources. So it has been really a joint collaborative effort for all things school budget. So with that being said, I will turn it over to Director Shavon Smith. Thank you, Chief Hal. Let me share my screen. Thumbs up. Can you guys see my screen okay? Thank you. Okay, and I just want to apologize. The sun is just loving on me quite a bit. So I apologize if I look like an apparition. It
035really is the sun is right there. So I apologize if that's a little distracting. Okay, thank you so much. Good evening. My name is Shavon Smith and I serve as a director of budget and management services and as Chief Hal mentioned, I am here today to provide an update on our budget process specifically focusing on SBB or student based budgeting formula and our early planning overview for the school year 2027. Okay, so we're going to start with looking at the cycle where Here are. This timeline kind of outlines major milestones um for our SBB process, specifically for the months of March and April. Um, budget tools and guidance to our traditional schools were released. I believe that was Friday, March 6th, and our charter school allocations are anticipated to be released um to our operators
036and principals um no later than this Friday, March 20th. Um, our schools are currently developing the budgets in the workbook, and we'll kind of talk a little bit about that a little later. There is a workbook in lieu of the tool, but once the budget tool does goes live, they will transfer the budget that they developed in the workbook into the tool and submit within the established deadlines, and it is a tight window, um but the schedule that we have created collaboratively um helps to ensure that we remain on track for board approvals and the finalization of school level staffing before the next academic year begins. So, now, this should look very familiar. So, our allocations begin with blueprint. Um, we get a standard per pupil foundation amount for every student. For fiscal year 27,
037that amount's $9,496 for every eligible student. Um, so it starts with taking the certified eligible enrollment um that we get from student enrollment services uh that was certified by the superintendent and provided to the state. We take that amount and multiply it by the per pupil amount of $9,496. But then, of course, we have weighted amounts. So, we have certain criteria for our students. You've heard this before. We have our com- compensatory education. Um, those of our students who may be in poverty, we have our multilingual learners. Those are students where English may not be the primary language spoken at home. Of course, our special education, those are our students with disabilities. There's also concentration of poverty, which is restricted in nature. We of course have pre-K, and we have college and career readiness. And
038then based off of that, there's other factors. We get program aids, that's just transportation. And all of that, once that's calculated for every school, we get a total revenue. That is the blueprint funding that we get. Some of the factors that go beyond We already talked a little bit about concentration of poverty. We were very intentional for fiscal year 27, the administration worked really really hard to maximize our restricted funding such as concentration of poverty. This helps to generate savings on the unrestricted side. As well as free up funding for our school allocations all together. Um Not just for concentration of poverty, it also We also did it for college and career readiness. Even though college and career readiness is not considered a grant or restricted funding by the state, we the district market as
039restricted because we want to make sure that those funds are specifically used as intended. The purpose of it is restricted in nature. Um but it does not come to us unrestricted. Um and so and then just to we want to be clear. So transportation aid, it really serves as a cost offset because our transportation costs far exceed the revenue we get for transportation. And then any adjustments that need to be made to ensure that we are compliant with statutory and operational requirements. This kind of goes back to we always call statute 5234, um, where we have at least 75% of the revenue must follow the student to the school, um, for most of our programs, um, which leaves us at most 25%, um, and for Prince George's County Public Schools, we do not retain 25%
040for central office support and we'll kind of talk about that a little bit later. We are definitely less than that. We're probably more around 11 or 12%. Why? This may be a little bit hard to see, but once we calculate the revenue, now we have what we call deductions. So, you have a total allocation and then we're going to we're going to have a couple of reductions and maybe an offset or a subsidy. So, there's four categories you see here. The first one is school-based locked. That truly just is, um, essential positions and costs that are tied directly to a school. That can our principals, custodial staff, um, certain special education positions, um, substitute coverage costs, um, so central offices decide what is going to be locked when it comes to funding. That then gets
041deducted from total allocation. We also have what we call centrally managed locked and those are resources that are managed by the central office, but directly impact schools and that can be our security staff, nurses, transportation, um, staff. And then what I would say everything else falls in central office support. Um, these are critical administrative services like finance and HR that allow schools to focus on what they need to do, which is instruction. Um, and then we have something called a subsidy. You could call it a safety net, but basically it's just an adjustment or a supplement for schools where the student generated revenue doesn't meet the full operating costs required by blueprint. Um, so or or the needs of that particular school. We've we've talked a lot in the past about there are certain things
042that blueprint does not necessarily have a dedicated funding stream for our specialty programs um is one of them. So, also we also know that foundation that amount the 9,496 that we talked about a little bit earlier it is not always enough to cover the fundamental needs to operate a school. Um, and so sometimes a school even though their revenue the even though their their students are generating revenue, it still may not be enough to cover the fundamental needs of a school. Small schools we find that to be the case a lot. So, when you put all that together, you basically get what we call the funding formula. You have your total blueprint revenue less the school-based lock funding less your centrally managed funding less central office supports, that equals your net allocation. And when you
043add in a subsidy if needed that equals your student-based budget allocation. And I want to be clear, none of these were dictated and determined by the finance division. So, we work very collaboratively with the chief of school support leadership. We work very collaboratively with all four area offices um and the associate superintendents um who then also work very collaboratively with the instructional direction directors um and then there's been there's currently ongoing level meetings with principals to review, discuss ad nauseam. There's been a lot of communication to help make sure that we are all on the same page and there's an understanding because clearly, as costs are rising, it is very difficult, even if you got the same allocation or a little bit more than the previous year, it does not mean that you're able to
044purchase everything that you purchased in the past because costs are going up, salaries are going up, contracts are going up, supplies are going up, everything is increasing and so fundamentally, we want to make sure it is clear that we have to to do smart budgeting, not just at the program or central office level, but also at the school level. So, when we talk about our planning overview, that way 27 budget planning process is guided by strategic priorities and fiscal constraints. It's been a really tough year thus far formulating fiscal year 27, but we're doing it, we're doing it collaboratively. Um, key considerations, of course, include enrollment trends, blueprint implementation, and rising costs. Um, and while we are focused on maintaining equity, um, we also need to ensure financial sustainability. So, as I said before, we've
045had a lot of collaboration across several departments and schools, which is critical in developing a balanced budget and that includes individual school budgets. Um, and so, what the budget office has done is prepared comprehensive workbooks. It's all in Google Sheets, um, but it allows them to build out their budget almost like a simulation as though they were in the budgeting tool, which we call Apex. Um, it provides them a list of their positions, the staffing, um, the cost of the positions, um, to include benefits. It allows them to plan out their discretionary spending. Um, it also gives them their title one funding, particularly the staffing, um, their community schools or concentration of poverty funding. If if they are a community school, they will see all of their funding streams in this workbook, which they will
046also see when the tool goes live. Um, and then what's new this year is we're asking principals to itemize their current and anticipated contracts, um, to include vendor details, um, in the purpose of the contract. And as you know, um, Chief House mentioned many times before that we really want to optimize and streamline, um, how we contract out services. Um, we we would love to not have schools individually go out and provide or seek contracted services for like services if we can do it centrally. Um, maybe we can can negotiate better costs, um, and things of that nature. But it's just really difficult to know because principals do have autonomy. Um, that is one of the purposes of student-based budgeting. Um, so we're not always aware. So, this will help us kind of understand, okay,
047what contracts they do have in their building and why. Um, we can put it all in one place and then from there see if we can negotiate maybe better rates, make sure that we're not having differentiating rates. Um, one school is paying this amount, another school is paying another amount. So, it's just really standardizing our our our process. And all of this will be integrated into the tool, which they are vigorously working on updating. So, the allocation process is long and tedious. There's a lot of information that has to go into it. It all builds on each other. So, it's very difficult to start one's part of the process before going through all the other steps before. Um so where we are right now, we are still in the allocation phase for our charters. Um
048hopefully we resolve that by Friday. Um and then it's building out and implementing their budget development um and getting into the tool. Um and then the last thing I will say is that we are hosting clinics in April. Once the tool goes live, they input their data into the tool. The goal is by the time we get to the clinics, the goal is for principals, operators, IDs, and everybody in the approval process to already have a good understanding of what each budget entails. Um they can ask questions. We can go through if there's concerns and then literally post clinic ID does final approval. Um and we can button up this whole process. Um but it is a long process. It's probably the longest part of our budget development process. Um but I appreciate and I
049just definitely want to thank Chief Hal, um Chief Marrow um and her entire team for their collaboration, their patience, our principals. Everybody has been really really great and understanding. They've asked really good questions. They've challenged us where we needed to be challenged. Um and I think we will continue to refine the process going forward. And so with that being said, that concludes my presentation and then please let me know if you have any questions. Thank you. Thank you so much, Director Smith. Committee Vice Chair Brown. Yes, thank you so much to the budget team um for this. I don't know about y'all, but I was a little depressed while going through this, I'm not going to lie. Uh it is it is very um disheartening to kind of see where we keep continue to trend,
050and it's not just us, it's really the entire state that is dealing with this budget shortfall, um and it's it's pretty evident that we have to make a lot of hard decisions. One of my questions, and I don't think I saw it in the presentation, and maybe you all could expand a little bit about how grants are added to this budgeting process, if they are added to the budgeting process, because I know certain grants take care of certain things. Does that help alleviate um the budget crisis, and um I wasn't really sure about the fund balance and how that correlated with the budget. I was a little confused as to what you were um discussing. So, if you can touch on that a little bit, I would greatly appreciate that. Thank you. All right. So,
051I'll start with uh so, for fund balance, so fund balance is part of our revenue stream. Use of fund balance. Um our goal is to wean both the entire district off of depending on fund balance for recurring operational costs. Um that's not good business practice, um but for right now, uh we have $25 million allocated in the budget um for the use of fund balance. Um and that is considered um to help cover costs. Um as far as our restricted how So, some of the ways that we're trying to optimize, for example, I'll use college and career readiness. Um normally, in the past, we just used it for dual enrollment, but in further exploring um what we call the baby blue book. There's other uses that we can use to cover cost for post CCR
052pathways for our schools that offer IB or advanced placement. And so we as a district we made the decision that we will also include the cost of our advanced placement teachers for those schools who receive CCR funding. Um which is less money that has to be used with non-CCR funds or what we call unrestricted funding. Um so that's one opportunity. Another opportunity um is concentration of poverty. Um and so we have some some of our schools used to get locked PEAs. Um but we were able to use our concentration of poverty dollars to cover the parent engagement assistants in addition um our our Is it the mental health clinics, Chief Powell? I want to make sure I'm I'm speaking on time. Some of our interventions, um academic interventions. Like there's other things that we're covering
053um with the concentration of poverty dollars that no longer have to sit on the unrestricted side. Chief Powell, did I miss Did I miss something? Yeah, just to add to it. Um so when you think about the restricted funds that are available at the school level because not all of our grants are allocated to the schools. We have many of our entitlement grants, title two, three, four are centrally managed and it provides support to our educators, to our students, but they're managed by the different program staff in the central office. Um but then we have our title one grants. We have our community school funds as uh Shavon mentioned. Those resources are available at the school level. So, part of the school development or school budget process, which includes one source of funding, which is
054the SBB funds that come from blueprint dollars. You also have funding from Title 1 and funding from community schools. All those resources comes into this school budgeting platform. So, right now they're starting with the workbook that Director Smith talked about. That same information is in the Apex tool. So, if I'm a principal and I happen to be So, all principals are going to have SBB dollars. But, if I'm a Title 1 school, I also have Title 1 resources. And if I'm also a community school, I have community school resources. And so, when I'm building my budget, I'm considering those three different buckets and how I can utilize those dollars. There's limitations on how you can use your funds for Title 1 as well as community schools. But, you're building your budget in consideration of all
055three funding sources. So, you're making strategic decisions about how to optimize the dollars that you have available to you. So, it does feed into the school budgeting process that the principals use to help formulate their their plan for the coming year. Board members, do we have any additional questions? Um well, I should say, do we have any more additional questions for first round? Okay, seeing none. I did have one first round and then I'll go to you, uh Vice Chair Brown. When we are looking at the numbers and I don't know, um Director Smith, if you could pull back up how we go through blueprint revenue all the way down to what principals actually have to budget with. My first part of the question is, are the numbers for um centrally managed and then central
056services? Yeah, centrally managed funding and central office supports, are those static numbers or do they change? And then the other part of the question is what then is the community's involvement with this particular part of the budgeting process? Sorry, I had to find the the unmute button. So, yes, it could change year over year. Um but the also the blueprint revenue also changes year over year, right? It depends on the demographics of the students. Um the locked funding, it just depends also on the needs of the students. Um same with the and that's whether it's school-based or centrally managed, both are locked. Um and then central office supports could also change. It really just depends on um where we are with central office. Um but I will say from a community input, so I do
057believe that in the principal's guidance and every principal receives the same guidance, they have to, which is I think what they're going through, um they're discussing in the level of principal meetings going on between this week, last week, and next week. Um but they are required to get community input. How they do it, there's a slide deck that they can share and post, get community input and feedback. Um and every principal is required to do that. Um and so I I do believe that it's also encouraged and it's also uh required for our charter principles. Um and so the engagement they're developing the budget, but they also have to provide the community input. And I do believe that our chief of school supporting leadership also provided guidance via her letter on the timeline of what
058that should look like. There's a dashboard that's also included in the workbook that has all kinds of resources and references for principals. I'm just to make sure that it is a well-rounded process. Yeah, and if I may just want to add to that real quick, when you think about the process we went through most recently to identify cost reductions across the district, which included central office functions, that indirectly impacts the school budgets as well. So as the central office budgets were reduced, that means the portion of the central office costs that need to be covered will be lower coming out of the the blueprint revenue that's generated by each school. So it is all interconnected and one sort of feeds into the process for the other. Thank you. Community Vice Chair Brown. Yes, thank you
059again for this the additional information. I think for me one of the questions that I had is from the last meeting that we had, I guess from the die, excuse me, one second. I think my computer was about to die. See if you all can you all still hear me? Yes. Okay, perfect. We we had this question about equity and maybe this is not something you all can answer, but what I'm hearing is that depending on um the type of school that you have, the student-based budgeting the allocation is kind of surrounded by that. Um not only by the blueprint dollars, but if you're a community school. So, if you're not a community school, you're just receiving the money based on blueprint and pretty much that's it because I don't want it to be a
060thing where we have different parts of the district who are against each other, but I did kind of want a little bit more clarity cuz I'm looking like, well, I know I have one school that's a community school and that is a blue, you know, obviously getting the blueprint funding and getting uh obviously the school base all the things. Um but then not all my schools are like that. And so, can we kind of speak to the expectations for that cuz I don't I don't want it to be a this part of the district against one part of the district, but I do want a little bit more clarity on that. Thank you. Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit. I mean, you you think about sort of the the basis of of
061uh the blueprint funding formula, it is about ensuring that we've got the dollars to support the students with the greatest needs. And so, to the extent you've got students in poverty versus students that don't, then there's going to be resources available to support those students in those schools. Um and so, the funding does follow the student. That's the way in which the legislation is written, and that's the intent is to provide those additional wrap-around supports and services um for those student groups, whether it's ML students, those with disabilities, or students in poverty experiencing poverty. Um we at a minimum, you know, we we want to try to make sure that everyone understands it's not equal, but it's it is equitable. So, it really is trying to support the students that need it the most, and
062so that is really kind of the foundation that drives the funding formula, but in addition to that, you have to layer into consideration of other needs that exist at a school because blueprint dollars don't necessarily cover all the things that's needed, whether it's a specialty program or whether it's a smaller school with smaller enrollment or a school that doesn't have a lot of um different needs base for those students, um but they still need resources to hire just the bare minimum to have teachers and have instruction uh instructional supports. And so, there is this additional layer um that we go through in terms of determining those allocations with the associate superintendents in the area offices along with the IDs that say, "Okay, what's let's do the blueprint formula first. Now, let's look at it from
063an operational standpoint and does this make sense, and how can we make adjustments to ensure the schools have what they need in order to support all students in the schools?" So, it's not an exact science, but there is a lot of um consideration and thought to make sure that we're making adjustments to support the different needs of schools that may not be driven specifically by the blueprint formula. Thanks. Board member Jackson-Saunders. Thank you very much. Um my question was originally regarding equity, but I want to take it uh a little step further and maybe you can kind of educate me a little bit about this. What type of flexibilities do the school leadership teams, um and not just talking about principals, but all the stakeholders within that school community, the teachers, um the the the
064ancillary supports, how do they help influence um student-based budgeting at at local school level? So, I heard a little bit about community, but does that include the actual educational stakeholders within that school building? That's a great question. Um the answer The short answer is yes. So, the principals receive their allocation. It's a pot of funds um that they then have the discretion to determine how those dollars are utilized. Um and it's expected that they are going to engage with their staff um and helping them understand the challenges that school's going to be facing, the resources that's coming into the school, and to get their inputs in building and developing the budget. In addition to the staff at the school, the principal is also expected and required to engage with their community as well. So, through
065their parent groups, community groups, have meetings to get inputs on how uh the budget should be to get input to inform decisions that are being made around how the budget should be developed um for to meet the specific needs of that school. So, there is engagement that is expected um by the principal with their staff and with the community. Um I don't know if that fully answered uh your question, Board Member Jackson Saunders, but I do have a I think piggyback question on top of that and then one more additional question about our funding formula. So, in that case, and I guess I should have to bring it back just a little bit, my introduction to student-based budgeting was as a member of an extended leadership team at a PGCPS school when I worked at
066Crossland, and my principal did take a lot of time with that team, all of us, as well as with his smaller um AP team, to go through the budget and make sure we all understood how it worked. And I know how he operates and very much a best practice in terms of leadership, but in terms of what the words are and maybe this is more to for member Jackson Saunders question. How are we ensuring that there is voice from the entire school staff community and I said use the word community, but how are we ensuring that there is voice or is what you're telling us that there is not necessarily a way right now of ensuring that. It is just the expectation that our principals are using through their leadership and their leadership styles including
067all stakeholders. Yeah, I mean the chief of schools can certainly speak to how that's operationalized. I do know that the associates work very closely with the IDs and then work very closely with the with the principals in that engagement with their staff and with the community. There is information that we provide to the principals as well to help them build out and share information out to make sure that there is consistent messaging and information that is being shared particularly around the you know the budget formula and the way in which that works. Some of the challenges and some of the changes that might be taking place for the year. So the principal has something to start with and to sort of work with. But I do know that there's a lot of close collaboration between
068the school leadership team and the principals to ensure that those meetings are taking place. It certainly is a very strong expectation. How they're managing and monitoring that I can't speak to that specifically, but I know that there's very close engagement around that process and I don't know if Dr. Coleman can remember when he was a principal what that may have looked like, um, but I know there's a very close connection between the area office and the principals and making sure that's getting done. Yes, certainly there is, uh, as a as a former principal and as an instructional director who supervised principals, there are structures in place at the area office level to ensure that there is, uh, certain number or amount of community engagement and then there are also structures in place so that internal
069governance, uh, with giving, uh, input from different stakeholders around your building are also captured. Greatly appreciate that. Um, I know we kind of blurred round one and round two there, my sincere apologies, but do we have any additional questions for second round? I'll see any night. Thank you all so much for sharing about our, uh, budgeting process. Um, and with that, um, we will move towards adjournment. So, please be advised that the next virtual operations budget and fiscal affairs committee meeting will be on April 15th, 2026. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. Thank you all for sharing all the information with us today. To our viewers, thank you for watching and there being no further business, the time is now 6:41 p.m. and the
070March 18th, 2026 operations budget and fiscal affairs committee meeting is adjourned.