001The time is now 5:02 p.m. Good evening and welcome everyone to the March 10th, 2026 policy and governance committee meeting. I am board member Amy Olivo, committee vice chair and district 4 board member. It brings me great pleasure to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. For those unable to observe now, the meeting is being recorded and can be accessed on the PGCPS YouTube channel for later viewing. Miss Johnson, can you please call the role? >> Dr. Moss, >> present. >> Mrs. Olivo, >> present. >> Mr. Briggs, >> present. >> Mrs. Brown, Mrs. Jackson Saunders, >> present, >> and Mr. Jackson. >> We have four. >> Thank you. With a quorum present, the policy and governance committee meeting will come to order. Um, the chair informs the public that the following agenda items have been removed from
002tonight's agenda to allow the committee additional time for review. Those are agenda items 6.0, 7.2, and 9.0. We appreciate your understanding as the committee carefully considers these matters. If there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the March 10, 2026 meeting agenda as amended. There being no object, there being no objections, the March 10, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted as amended. We will move toward approval of the meeting minutes. If there are no corrections, the February 24th, 2026 committee meeting minutes shall be approved as distributed. There being no corrections, the minutes are approved. There are no public speakers registered this evening. There are two items for discussion. There will be two rounds of discussion per item during the discussion and each round will be 2.5 minutes. If a third round is required, a vote will
003be taken. So, first we have um policy 5121, grading and reporting for elementary and secondary students. And I would like to recognize Mrs. Welsh to present her guest speakers to provide an update on policy 5121 grading and reporting for elementary and secondary students with reference to AP5121. Mrs. Welsh. >> Good evening everyone. We are very fortunate this evening to have with us Dr. White who is the chief of academics and also Tony Brooks who is the director of instructional and operational support. and they will be um here to talk about the actual AP that um is actually uh correlates with the policy um specific I think to elementary school um and just how it operates and sort of gives you an idea of how when you think about the policy how it's being implemented through
004the AP. Good evening everyone. So, uh, 5121.1 is elementary, 5121.2 is middle school, and 5121.3 is high school. Uh, these administrative procedures are reviewed every single year um, and reposted every July so that our schools are operating off of a new procedure in case any nuances need to change as we move about the school year. These administrative procedures make sure that we give um course of study. It it applies to syllabus. That way our parents know exactly for every course what should be there. In the syllabus it outlines um our category weights which are assessments, classwork and independent assignment for every content. It provides the percentage that each category weight is assigned. It also goes through just discussing reporting of grades, how grades should be entered, how grades are calculated when we have students that
005transfer in and out. So, it is the overall guidance that we use and have the intent for for schools to follow and assign grades for students. Um, I believe you all had some questions around assessment. So, I'll stop for a second to find out what specifically your interest in 5121 in terms of what more specifically you'd want to know so that we can provide an in-depth information and address um any questions or opportunities um that you may have about that policy for elementary school >> board members. Um Dr. Moss. >> Yeah, thank you so much. I just want to flag we had a parent on >> Yes. >> who had questions around whether or not this board policy requires for you all to send home copies of the assessment. They were they understood that they
006would get like all copies of all the other graded assignments, but they were suggesting that the board the administrative procedure requires you all to send home copies of standardized assessments that we give to all kids. I think that's the only question we really had about it. Sure. So, um we had and just so that you all know in the 10 years that I five years as this um director of CNI and the five years as a chief um I have engaged with one particular school that's had ongoing questions and communication around the topic that you raised. Um when this was first raised, the question was around um some teachers not providing uh families when asked uh how students are doing. So our belief is that if a student is receiving a grade for an assignment,
007a parent 100% should be able to see what the assignment is. What has changed is some assessments teachers are handwriting. They do. Students have a paper copy. They're filling them out. Absolutely. A student would see it. probably when we went into COVID many of our assessments some of them that our team creates which we create that they can use or they don't have to use and we put them in our Pearson platform what you all would know is once an assessment is in the platform you can't send home what's in the platform so what we offered our families is that if there's an assessment that you have a question on because a teacher might use that grade that there is a way for parents to come communicate with their teacher to find out how students
008did to come to the to the school to look at the platform just overall what the the questions were asking what standards were aligned and to get a better understanding of how their students have done. It is my understanding that some parents have had some challenges in a particular school according to the parent in doing so. So in speaking to those parents in December, one of the things that I walked away with is that while we communicated that to schools, we did not do a great job communicating to families the process. So, a couple of things will occur. In January, we had our communications team send it out to all parents that, hey, if you have questions about assignments that are in a Pearson platform or another platform, here is the process that you should
009engage in if you need to communicate with your school to find out how your scholar did. The other thing that we did was add that language to our website in two different places for parent use because it was not there as well. The last thing that we have done, and we did that in January, the last thing that will happen in July of 2026, we've already added additional language of what that process is for parents to get that information in our administrative procedure 5121.1.2 and.3 moving forward. So, it's there effective July 1, 2026. Board member Moss, did that answer your question? >> It did. Thank you. Super helpful. >> Yep. >> Great. Thank you, Dr. Moss and Dr. White. Are there any additional questions from board members? Um or member breaks. >> Great. Thank you
010so much. Um Dr. White, I had just one question and this is something that came up over the years which was around the progress reports and the release of the um report cards. I know that heard from community members, from families, um them saying that progress reports were released. There wasn't enough time for them to kind of >> have a quick turnaround to respond to the grades that they saw that their students had. So, can you just speak like is this the um the layout that we have currently? Is that effective? Are there things that you suggest um that we update in the policy in making it more kind of uh responsive to students being able to kind of address the and mitigate issues with their grades? Sure. So, our chief information of technology officer,
011Dr. Zuckermanman, his team actually, and Tony, correct me because I might be off. His team actually works to designate what those days are. What I can do is I and for this team, I can go back and grab that calendar of dates to show you. So, normally we have 45 days of instruction. Um, then there's a window of time for teachers that have um to go in and enter grades. And from there there's a window of time where grades are submitted. From there we also have an administrative procedure 5116 which is um Tony correct me on the correct name. It's a it's a grade change is that >> say say it again. >> Grade change >> authorization and appeals. >> Grade change authorization and appeals. That that actually provides a window of time. It is
012not just a few days. It is a window of time after grades come out. That is normally not at progress report time. That is a report card time for families to engage in the formal process of appealing a grade. When that process is initiated, the the school has a certain amount of time to respond. That then goes to the instructional director at the area office who has an appropriate amount of time to respond. Then it goes to the chief of schools to respond. So it goes through a chain. In terms of progress reports, um we only send home report cards at the end of the year in a mailing. So the moment progress reports are live, families have an opportunity to see progress reports. Again, they only can appeal once we get to the quarter
013grade and it's not a short period of time. And what I will do is send to all of the board members that timeline with the dates from the administrative procedure so that you can see the amount of time um for appealing. And I'll give you an example. At the end of the year in quarter 4, I want to say that we have until September. Now, sometimes I make things up, so my team is always around to correct me, but I want to say from the end of the year in June, they have until September to to file a grade change. Tony, is that correct? >> That's correct. For fourth quarter and summer, that's correct. >> So, I'm just saying that to show you the length of time. Um, now during the school year, it's not
014that lengthy, but that just shows you that it is a it is a long window of time that families have to communicate if they are expecting or asking or requesting for a grade change. >> Okay. And I think I was so that that's helpful too. And I think the last piece and thank you uh board member Olivo for um allowing me to just go for this additional piece but it was just really around like the responsiveness because we know that you know you can get a summitative [clears throat] assessment you can get a formative assessment but it's like if you don't have that rebound time to address the issues then the grades come out shortly after. I was just curious based on your professional expertise if you think that that if what we currently have
015in the grading policy if that works um if that is the case then great and it sounds like you're saying that it is. Well, what I would what I how would I would answer that first. Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to clarify in our administrative procedure. If schools and teachers are following that procedure, it also asks that teachers put in grades every week up to two grades per week in a class. So, if they are actually doing that, parents throughout the semester, every single week should see grades. There should not be all of a sudden a dumping of grades and you are shocked at what your child has received. You would you should be as a parent following along in that parent view all year long. um that synergy which is
016the grade um it is it is where we have official grades in synergy. You should be following that through. If you see that your teacher is not putting in those grades two days a week, you should be number one communicating with the teacher and then if you're not getting a response communicating with the building principal. If that process is being followed, then there should be no surprises when you get to progress report and or report card time. >> Thank you. >> And that is spelled out in the administrative procedure. Thank you, Mr. Briggs. And um Dr. White, I will share that is my lived experience as well as a PGCPS parent. I can see grades, you know, being entered every week um sometimes every day um and follow along that way. Board members, are there
017any additional questions for Dr. White? >> Okay. And board member, can I just also add for the parent that's out there following Canvas because their educator, their teacher could be using Canvas. Canvas you grades go into Canvas, but Canvas is not our record of grades. Grades move over from Canvas into Synergy. Synergy is the official records of grades. So sometimes there's a discrepancy with by the time it takes to roll over and a parent may say, "Oh, but in synergy is the formal records for grades. And I'll just clarify with for that the way that parents look at synergy is called parent view. Is that correct? Okay. Yeah. There's I know there's there's a lot of terms. So >> we're working on you know that parent group that brought that up. It also allowed me
018to see that there are some better ways that we can communicate with our families to make it to like clear up some of these terms and where things live and just so we're working on that as well so that when we get to July we can also have a parent outfacing how to really understand the administrative procedure what type of questions to ask your teacher. We've already done um a document on if you have a parent meeting what is the way to run a parent meeting with your teacher. So, we're going to work to um find better ways to communicate with our families that will help them through this process. >> That sounds great. Thank you so much. Terrific. Um Mrs. Welsh, is there anything else that we should review or discuss around this policy
019before we move to the recommendation vote? >> No, I think I think it's fine. And I think the AP is what really provides all the detail on how it specifically works, but the the policy itself just provides the broad, you know, requirements. So, I think it's good. >> Okay, perfect. [clears throat] Um, so we'll move into that vote. The question is, board members, shall the committee recommend policy 5121, grading and reporting for elementary and secondary students, to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Any discussion? Okay, Miss Johnson, please take the roll call vote. >> Dr. Moss, >> I miss >> I. >> Mr. Brick, >> I Mr. M. Jackson Saunders. >> I >> There are four in the affirmative. Policy 5121, grading and reporting for elementary and secondary students will be recommended to the policy
020sponsor for revision approval. Thank you. We will now move to um our unnumbered as of yet policy, immigration enforcement activity. This is a new policy. Thank you so much, Dr. White and Miss Brooks um for being here. We really appreciate it. >> Thank you for having us. >> Byebye. >> Thank you. The chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh to provide an overview of the immigration enforcement activity new policy. >> Good evening again. Um so the um interact the policy's name is interacting with immigration enforcement agents and it has actually gone through a couple reviews now and really the changes we've made are in response to the public comments that we have received several different times. So um this was the last group of public comments that we received that um we have um that I incorporated into
021the policy. The policy is based on um a new law that was passed last year or the year before and uh House Bill 1222 which actually requires all school systems to have a policy that addresses what schools and what staff within the schools are supposed to do if an immigration enforcement agent um enters the school. [clears throat] So, it lays out the specifics based on the policy that was provided uh through the attorney, the Maryland attorney general based on House Bill 1222. Um the new changes though in the policy that we have um now included and if you scroll down uh tail, you'll see all the yellow ones were the changes from the last time that we met and discussed this policy. And a lot of them were just definition changes um to basically provide
022a little bit more clarity in the in the policy so we understand what we're talking about. And then if you go further down and scroll down further now I will tell you something that we did do. We did away with a school zone. If you can back up a minute please to the last page. And instead what we put in its place was school property. And if you read that definition, that definition is very very extensive. So it goes it talks about any uh all buildings, grounds, land owned, leased, used or operated by or on behalf of PGPS for a school administrative or operations um including athletic fields, playgrounds, parking lots, walkways, and all areas of school buildings and other facilities. For the purpose of this policy, school property includes school buildings, grounds, and land.
023uh utilized by public charter schools to conduct educational program and other school school activities regardless of who um who owns the building or property. School property um also includes school buses and other vehicles including vehicles operated by contracted vendors as well as fixed equipment utilized for school administration and operations. So we really um extended that whole definition so that it's it's trying to take into consideration every possible place um that anyone could be in at any point in time. And so that is what's then put in throughout the the policy when you read about school property. So if you can scroll further down and then the um first uh new standard that is there is that school resource officers um that the school resource officer and school security staff shall not perform a function of
024an immigration enforcement agent in relation to investigating, apprehending or the detention of immigrant students and their families. So there has been uh across the country, I guess, different law enforcement agencies that have been um entering into agreements with federal law uh immigration enforcement a um agencies um to sort of help them uh as they uh as the federal agents are attempting to um detain immigrants in the country. So, what we wanted to make sure was that our own school resource officers, our own school security would not engage in that particular activity and that they would um you know, because they're they're that's not their job. They're supposed to be working for the school system and um really assisting and supporting and keeping our kids safe in the schools. So, that that was added to the
025policy and again that was based on public comment. And then um the uh other thing we did was if you go to the next page um where it says the superintendent and designate shall ensure that staff receive professional development addressing the steps that they required to take if immigration enforcement agents appear um on school property or during extracurricular activity events and school events. So again that was the the school property if you recall the definition we just did previously that's actually now sort of expanding everything uh when we had that definition as well as also dur during extracurricular act events and school and school events. So it's not just in school during in school time but it could be anything outside of school that the the school system is sponsoring. So that that's now included.
026And then um we have um and this might have been before but a school will enact a a this is down on K K I think ABGFJ K. Okay. It says um okay, a school will enact a shelter in place when immigration when immigration um enforcement agents are confirmed to be present on school property. And so again, that means when you think about that broad definition, anytime the an immigration agent is showing up um and the superintendent designate shall designate unsight staff to confirm such a sighting, initiate and conclude a shelter in place and immediately communicate the situation to students emergency contacts. So the shelter in place when there's a shelter in place and and usually most schools have some type of code that they'll say and what it does is and they practice this
027this drill where then they all the students must go to a specific area where staff are and it could there might be numerous places across the school but it's all protective areas to um just to protect the students and they're all in one area so you know where all your students are. They're not like out roaming the halls or anything like that. So, um I think that was the last addition that was added to the policy and again based on public comment. >> Thank you so much. Um Mrs. Welsh. Board members, are there any questions? >> Great. I just want to take a minute to thank Mrs. Welsh and thank um our policy and governance committee members for their really hard and thoughtful work on this policy. Um, we've also worked, as many of you
028know, in partnership with CASA on this and um, I believe they believe that this is quite frankly the strongest policy in the state of Maryland as soon as we pass it. Um, so I'm really proud of that and just want to thank everybody and I see Dr. Moss's hand so I will um, call on you please. >> Yeah, I want to um, thank Vice Chair Levo for her work on this. Um, part of the reason why I gave the meeting to her tonight is this is kind of a milestone in her work of working with Kasa over the last few months to get us to this place. Um, I look forward to our colleagues supporting it at the board level, protecting our students, students uh from immigrant families or who are immigrants themselves. Um, it's
029the most important work we can do uh in this climate right now. So, just want to thank board member Olivo for her work. I don't know how many meetings she's had with CASA to get us here. Um, and so I just want to thank you and also thank Miss Welsh uh for all of her work and legal maneuvering to try to make sure everything we do is is to the legal standard. So um just really appreciation of the work that's happening here. >> Great. Thank you so much Dr. Moss. Um really appreciate that. Okay. Uh the question is shall the committee recommend um polic we'll have to get that policy number um immigration enforcement activity new to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Any discussion? Okay. Miss Johnson, please take a roll call vote. >>
030I Mrs. Oliv. >> Mr. B. Hi >> Brownie. >> Hi. >> There four. >> Thank you. There are four in the affirmative. The immigration enforcement activity new policy will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Um and I believe that means that the next step for this one is to the full board um for full board approval. So I look forward to that. Um colleagues uh it is that is the conclusion of our agenda. Um so we will move to adjourn. Um the vice chair informs the public that the next virtual policy and governance committee meeting will be held on March 24th, 2026. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. Thank you all so much for your discussion and attendance. To our viewers,
031thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 5:27 p.m. The March 10th, 2026 Policy and Governance Committee meeting is adjourned. Thank you all so much.