001Thank you all for your patience. The time is now 7:02. Good evening and welcome back to the February 26, 2026 Prince George's County Board of Education meeting. I am Brandon Jackson, chairman of the Prince George's County School Board. This meeting is interpreted live in Spanish. To listen to the Spanish interpretation, please call 508-9245155. Again, it's 508-9245155. Please focus your attention on the screen for the Spanish version of this announcement. Thank you for anyone unable to join us live. The this meeting is being recorded and will be available for later viewing on the PGCPS YouTube channel. Lastly, for recording purposes, the chairman reminds all board members to ensure their microphones are turned on when speaking. Board member Aikay, please lead us in the board prayer. Oh God, we pray to administer that which is just in
002all educational policies, being ever mindful of your guidance, steer us to action with love, wisdom, and understanding. Amen. Thank you. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance. >> Pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Miss Johnson, please call the role. >> Miss Ajakay, >> present. Dr. Anderle >> present. >> Miss Boozer Strer >> present. >> Mr. Briggs >> present. >> Mrs. Brown >> here. >> Miss Goins McC >> present. >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders >> present. >> Dr. Moss >> present. >> Mrs. Olivo >> present. >> Mr. Jackson >> here. >> There are 10. >> A quorum is present. If there is no objection, the February 26, 2026 meeting agenda will
003be adopted. >> Mr. Chair, >> I move that we move um item 17.11 to the general order. >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you. Noted for the record, please. There being no other objection to the February 26, 2026 meeting agenda item. Meeting agenda is adopted. Approval of meeting minutes. Are there any corrections to the January 22nd, 2026 board business meeting minutes? January 22nd, 2026 close session summary. February 4th, 2026 virtual emergency board meeting minutes. February 5th, 2026, budget work session and public hearing meeting minutes. February 12th, 2026, budget work session and public hearing meeting minutes. February 19th, 2026, budget work session and public hearing meeting minutes. February 25th, 2026, close session summary appeals review. There being no objection, excuse me, there being no correction, the meeting minutes are approved. News break. Before we proceed
004with tonight's agenda, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the new face up here on Adis. Um, this evening, uh, I have the distinct honor to welcome Miss Shandra Jackson Saunders as she begins her service on the board of education. Miss Jackson Saunders is a nationally recognized educational leader and nationally certified school psychologist with more with decades of distinguished service and dedication to students, families, and educational excellence. She is a recipient of the National School Psychologist of the Year Award, the first African-Amean to receive this prestigious recognition and has built a career grounded in integrity, equity, and student centered leadership. her extensive experiences the District of Columbia public schools in the District of Columbia public schools along with her nonprofit governance and advocacy work brings deep experience in education, mental health and public
005accountability to this board. We are confident that her insight, professionalism, and steadfast commitment to children will greatly strengthen our collective work. Please join me in welcoming Miss Jackson Saunders. The chairman recognizes Dr. Joseph for the PGCPS spotlight. Thank you, Chairman Jackson. In tonight's spotlight, you'll see a powerful reminder of why our work matters. At a time when we've made meaningful progress in recruiting teachers and reducing vacancies, you'll hear from one of our own educators whose journey to the classroom started as an unexpected unexpected path but grew into a deeply fulfilling calling. It's passionate educators like these across Prince George's County Public Schools who make thriving school communities possible. And you'll see the impact in action at Ketering Middle School Spanish Immersion School where creativity and excellence recently took stage. Please enjoy the video. >> I
006didn't go to college to become a teacher. In fact, teaching wasn't a part of my original plan at all. But life has a way of placing you exactly where you need to be. I stepped into the classroom for the first time thinking I was just filling a role and quickly realized I had found my purpose. Every day I get to help students see their own potential before they believe it in themselves. I get to be the steady voice, the encouragement, the example. This job challenges me. It pushes me and yes, it demands more than I ever expected, but it also gives me more than I could have imagined. Teaching isn't just what I do, it's how I make a difference. I didn't take the traditional path, but I wouldn't trade this word for anything because
007when a student succeeds, so do I. >> This is not only an honor, but a historic privilege, and we are proud of what this moment represents for our student, their voices, and their future. Oh, today is a historic day for Ketaring Middle School. It is really amazing to have this beautiful uh Declaration of Independence displayed here. It speaks to what the children have been able to accomplish. They are they are scholars. They are immersion students. And I'm so proud to be here with the other elected officials to enjoy this moment with them. So, first of all, this is a homecoming for me because I graduated from Karing Middle School. So, it's great to see our school system doing so well, that we are embracing languages and cultures and the arts and that we are being
008recognized as one of the premier school systems for that inclusion and diversity. And so, today means so much to all of us. I think the main thing that I want students to get from the performance is just the idea that um you can choose what it is that you want to be. We're so excited to be here today to help celebrate creative freedom with students. We understand the importance of students using their voice to help impact the community, the world that they're in, and couldn't be prouder to bring this opportunity by having the Declaration of Independence here on display for students to look in the past, but also leverage and build upon what's in the past to help impact the future that's in their hands. Thank you. Now for the chair's report. Black Black History
009Month is a time to honor the achievements, leadership, and contributions of African-Americans throughout history. It is an opportunity to reflect on the struggles for justice and equality, celebrate resilience and excellence, and recognize those who work continues to shape our communities and inspire future generations. During this month, we honor leaders whose lives reflect the strength, excellence, and enduring impact of black leadership in our community. Born in Randolph County, Alabama, and educated in the historic Rosenwald Descendant School, tonight we proudly recognize Dr. Alvin L. Thornton's journey. His journey represents transformative power of education. A graduate of Morehouse College in Howard University, he dedicated 38 years to Howard University as a professor and a senior academic leader here in Prince George's County. His service has been historic. as a three-time board chair in the 1990s. He led efforts
010that resulted in landmarks 1998 federal uh consent decree advancing equity and investment in other schools as chairman of the Maryland Commission on Education Adequacy um equity and excellence, the Thornton Commission. He helped shape statewide education funding reform. He later returned to the board as chair in 2018, advocating for the blueprint for Maryland schools future and transformative schools construction. Dr. Thornton's scholarship, leadership, and unwavering commitment to justice continues to leave lasting legacy. Dr. Thornton, on behalf of this board and the community we serve, it is an honor to present you with this Black History um award for this month. Can we all congratulate Dr. the door and ask him to come up to the front. beside the tall chair. Yeah, let's do that. want you to say a few words just >> till I stand here.
011>> Yes. >> I am so uh deeply honored uh to be the recipient of this recognition. Let me first of all thank my former board colleagues and the new members of superintendent. Uh thank you all so much. You know I've spent a lot of years in this building behind the desk. So I know the awesome responsibility that you all have and I thank each of you for stepping into this space. I know how difficult it is. So I express my appreciation having experienced it for so many years. Particularly to the chair of the board. I uniquely know what you go through. I chair the board four times. So, thank you for your service, sir. You know, uh, our former great, uh, Congressperson, Elijah Cummings, said this, and it's the thing that has always driven me.
012You know, our babies, I always call them our babies. The older one in the audience will know that. I always call them our babies. Cummings said that our children are the only future that we have. I've known that from the days when I picked cotton going to Rosen Wall schools, going to segregated schools in the deep south. Our babies are the only future we have. And our obligation, our solemn obligation is to share what we have, particularly our wealth with our babies to make sure that they are resourced in order to inherit the future that only they can inherit because we won't be there. So I thank all the people and the people who are watching us for committing ourselves to share what we have with our babies to make sure they are resourced to
013make sure those who educate them are resourced in modern buildings and all of that and we have to sacrifice to do that. One of the things that I have always appreciated is I the sacrifices that I have made in order to make sure that our babies have adequate and equitable funding for their schools that there's a bridge to excellence for them as a part of any blueprint that we might think we have for the state. You see that connection? >> Bridge to excellence and a blueprint for the future which must be based upon our doing what our constitution requires. The most important thing that the state is obligated to do by the constitution is to fund public education. Is to make sure that it is adequately and equitably funded. That's article 8. That's the most
014important thing. So, let's hold all of our leadership and ourselves up to that obligation. I deeply appreciate THIS and we stand up to standing ovation. one of the architects of Prince George County education for sure. We do have um a couple of your former colleagues and mentees that want to just, you know, impart a couple of words. >> So, Dr. Thornton, I think I am the last one standing since our time together. And I just want to say that um I came onto this board in 2018 after an election and you came on as appointed as as the chair for the you multiple next time. And I did not understand until serving with you um the impact that you would have on me and my leadership and my commitment. And I think back to the
015fact that you started as a as a parent advocate just like what brought brought me to this board and >> organized with that statement my family my family member. >> YES high school. >> Yeah. And I I do and you know when I look out and see so many parents here this evening and we are once again talking about funding. We are once again talking about that we need need that commitment from the state of Maryland and from our county to fund our system. I think you being in the room tonight, you are a reminder that this fight has been for decades and that together we have to still stay together for these next steps. So, thank you so much for being here. >> Thank you. >> Um, I, you know, I can say so
016much about my first experience meeting, uh, Dr. Thordon and, you know, people often ask me now like, how do you know so much about school finance and and the blueprint? And I go back to my first meeting with Dr. Thornton when I asked him to support me for the school board, he he brushed that off. He says, "I'm not getting in that." He said, "But what I do want you to go read is article 8." Um, and he said, "And I want you to spend your time focused on dispelling the myth that 63% of the county's budget actually goes to the public school system because that's not true." And so, I thank you for teaching me, showing me the way, holding up the light of alpha, uh, as you do the work. But yeah, I
017just had to make sure I say it. But I I want to say this and I I I just have to say it in front of everyone else. There would be no blueprint without Dr. Thornton. Um and so we have to honor the legacy that's in front of us. There would be no without Thoron Commission, without Kurt, none of that would be possible u without Dr. Thornton. And we thank you for your leadership. And um I hope each day this board is living up to to being calm, being respectful. That was my second charge. He said, "Do the right work. respect your colleagues uh and we tried to live up to that. So, thank you for your leadership. >> Thank you. No, he's still shut. >> How's it go? All right, I would like to
018recognize board member Brown for the community shout out. >> Thank you so much, Chair Jackson. Good evening, everyone. I am Robin Brown. I'm your district 5 school board member and I'm honored to recognize Buoie High School cheerleading team for their outstanding achievement at the D1 I think that's what it is D1 national high school cheerleading championship. Buouie High was the only team from Prince George's County to qualify and compete in this prestigious national event. The team learned two full routines and performed both flawlessly in front of thousands of spectators. Judges specifically praised their routines as fun, engaging, and precise. a testament to the hard work of both the students and their coaches Tamara Adams, Chelsea Bedward Degen, and Tiffany Smith and their team manager, Jouri Aromuse Shado, sorry if I said your name wrong. uh
019as one of the few all African-American cheer teams, their performance during Black History Month exemplifies excellence, unity, and the continuing continuing legacy of achievement in our community. Buoie High School cheer cheerleaders have made Prince George's County very proud, not only for their talent and dedication, but also for representing the PGCPS community with pride, unity, and excellence. Now, please join me in recognizing and congratulating these amazing scholars. As I call your name, please come forward and be recognized. You guys ready? They sound a little nervous like they didn't know they were going to come up here. Yes, you're coming up here. Okay, we need to see you. Amaya Wilson, Eronola Faki, Bethl Germa, Delise Wallace, Graham, Giani Jones, Gloria Adakei, Lauren Smith, Leila Snowden, London Stevenson, Olivia Harden, Paris Sample, Sincere Chase, Shilia Stallings, and Tatiana
020Smith. Last and certainly not least, I would like to invite the coaches and team members to please come forward to join the team for pictures. Oh, did I forget somebody else? Hold on. We didn't for What's the name? >> Newman. >> All right, Miss Leila Newman. Thank you. Everybody, two of us. >> Are we okay? Thank you so much. At this time, I would like to call for a moment of silence as we honor the memory of the following PGCPS staff. family and community members. Danielle Goodwin Jr. John Hansen Buslot Mr. Ronnie Winston, teacher at James Goolson. Tanisha Russell, bus driver at Central Garage. Thank you. The board informs the public of the following upcoming meetings. Please turn your attention to the screen for the list of meetings. All right. The next business meeting of
021the board of education will be held Thursday, March 26, 2026 at the Sasser Administration building um beginning at 5:30 p.m. Please continue to check back, excuse me, check back uh with the board web page for updates and more information. Moving on to public comment. The chairman recognizes the registered speakers for their public comments. To our registered speakers, you are allotted three minutes to share your remarks. Speaking time may not be transferred to another individual. The board will not engage in dialogue during the portion of this meeting. Speakers are expected to refrain from using profanity or derogatory language. A warning will be issued once. Continued misconduct may result in a speaker being muted or removed from the meeting. To support a professional and courteous environment, speakers are encouraged to refer to individuals by their title such
022as chair, board member, superintendent, principal, um rather than by name. This evening, we have 15 public speakers. There are 54 written comments or pre-recorded videos. The chair encourages those who were not able to speak uh to submit their comments in writing to testimony atpgcps.org. Again, it's testimony at pgcps.org. Our first speaker tonight is an individual uh Dolores Milhouse. District 7. I'm a parent. Thank you. in district 7 with two bilingual children thanks to the PGCPS Spanish language emerging program. I am speaking tonight not from emotion but from documentation. Over the past several weeks, families have been told that the proposed $150 million in reductions are due to underfunding from state and county. In board communication, we were told due to this underfunding and in order to stabilize our budget, Dr. Joseph was proposed has proposed
023$150 million in cuts. Those cuts include elimination of the language immersion program, Elargo High School, conversion of Paint Branch Elementary from Chinese immersion to Chinese world language, conversion of Capitol Heights Elementary from Spanish immersion to Spanish ro language, and restructuring of IB primary years with impacts to middle school years to IB middle school years. These are not French programs. These are longstanding instructional pathways. Now, here is what Annapapolis told us. According to the Department of Legislative Services, over the last five years, the state aid to the district increased by $512,392,274. That's over half a billion dollars with an average annual increase of 6.3%. So, parents are asking a reasonable question. If funding increased by more than 500 million, how are we in a position where classroom programs must be dismantled? We are not fighting over
024a slice of the pie. The pie grew. We are asking how was it sliced. So, public meetings confirmed that compensation agreements were approved above blueprint minimum requirements. No one disputes that teachers deserve pay. What we are stating is that if commitments were made beyond required levels, we as the public are presented with a multi- a multi-year sustainable plan to understand the financing and yet we are told that it's still solely due to underfunding. Merlin education article title 4 grants this board general supervision and control. Title 5 outlines budget responsibilities. Board policy 330 requires prudent physical management in alignment of expenditures with educational priorities. Classrooms should not be absorbing the cost of decisions made without a sustainable funding model. Barbara Jordan once said, "What the people want is very simple. They want an America that is
025good as it promises." Parents want something just as simple. We want a school system as good as it promises. Follow your policies. Follow the law. Protect classroom first and show sustainability plans that matter and impact and support the classroom. Stop shifting blame before reconciling the numbers. And let me be clear, we are not fighting over a piece of the pie. We are fighting and following the money to make sure that the whole pie that was made is sliced for the children and not for the adults. Thank you and have a great next speaker. Thank you. I'm here to talk about three numbers, 33%, 3 billion, and 95 million. First, to fellow parents, I stand with you to see these cuts restored. But I refuse to favor one school or one program over another. We must
026fight together to deliver full funding for all of PGCPS. This board has no power to generate revenue. The county and state do that and that's where we need to do this fight. Here is one advocacy example. A few weeks ago, I worked with PGCPS, the PGCPS team to mobilize on HB 352. It's a community schools bill fixing a sunset so we don't lose budget flexibility in the future. the impact. It can help us protect funding for things like arts education and language programs. Today, I testified on a tax decoupling issue to prevent funding from being diverted to private school voucher programs. Fighting to protect every future penny is how we are going to win and do more than save programs today. We can save them for future budget cycles, too. The blueprint faces a $3
027billion shortfall by FY30. Legislators are already talking about cuts to community schools. Without a second builttolearn act, our school construction progress will stall. PGCPS gets 33% of our funding from the county, far lower than our peers. Montgomery County schools get twothirds of their budget that's county funded. Anna Rundle gets nearly half. We rely way too much on state funding that's at risk of collapse in the near future. While county officials generate excuse after excuse instead of generating the revenue we need to actually fund our schools. Our job is not to give the county the budget that they want. It's sending them the budget that our students need. Use the budget calendar to your advantage. make them on county council explain right before facing voters why they failed PGCPS students. A $95 million request is far
028less than other eleas are asking for. B Montgomery County is asking for 180 million. But since many county officials only seem to speak politics, I'll make it clear to them. Pass a budget without the 95 million. You just voted against funding teacher payraises. You just voted to make teachers pay. Sorry, you just voted to make students pay so politicians don't have to. We need this parent engagement and this level of parent engagement at every single PGCPS meeting. We need your voices in Largo and Annapolis. And we need you fighting for every PGCPS student to save not just your program or school, but all of them. Thank you. and I urge this board to take on the county and fight for every single dollar for PGCPS. >> Thank you, Miss Theresa Smith. Miss Terresa Smith. Good
029evening, Board of Education members and interim superintendent Joseph. I speak tonight for families and scholars across our district who see proposed budget for what exactly it is, a fundamental breach of trust and a glaring failure to protect our academic programming. I am a parent of an elementary scholar in the French immersion and IB program, so this is personal to me. For months, families were explicitly told that necessary budget cuts will be kept away from the schoolhouse. We were assured that it would be minimum impact on the classroom. Yet, the budget before you tonight delivers a major blow to our emerging pathways as well as the IB primary and middle years programs. What has been presented to us is not a strategic financial plan. It is a dismantlement of the very programs that drew families to
030this district and kept our scholars globally competitive. You are not trimming the edges. You are ripping out the core. Programs like IB and language immersion demand critical thinking and build independent learners who are prepared for the academic rigor of higher education. Removing these foundations does not solve our financial deficit. It simply lowers the bar for our children. We expect fiscal responsibility to begin centrally, not with our children. We expect transparency. We expect lawful governance. And we expect you as a board to rigorously protect the instructional programs that directly serve our students academic futures. If this board is truly committed to fiscal responsibility, we must look at where the money is actually going. Before you cast your votes tonight, I have two direct questions that require public answers. First, how does approving new administrative spending while
031cutting essential classroom pathways align with your duty under policy 3130? Second, where is the tangible e ev evidence that central office restructuring was completely exhausted before it was decided to touch instructional programs? We need to see it. You cannot ask families to sacrifice children's advanced academic foundations while central office operations remain shielded from the same level of scrutiny. I urge you to vote against any budget that compromises our classrooms. Produce the information on central office restructuring. You all you all are accountable to policy 3130 and to ensure that the burden of this deficit does not fall squarely on the shoulders of our children. Thank you. Thank you, Anna Gutierrez. All right. So, good evening board members and interim superintendent. My name is Anna Gutierrez and I'm here today as a concerned PGCPS parent. I have
032a second grader at Paint Branch Chinese Immersion and I have a senior at Central High School French immersion. Tonight, I want to address an issue that transcends budgets, numbers, and financial projections. It involves your responsibility to uphold the educational integrity of our schools. I acknowledge that this budget season has presented a lot of challenges, but more so than the deficit has seen challenges to the integrity and the word of those elected and appointed to guide our children's educational journey. You have stated that throughout this process, we remain anchored in our values, protecting our negotiated agreements, preserving resources closest to classrooms, and identifying efficiencies with integrity and transparency. However, what we are witnessing contradicts that statement. We are seeing vital student facing programs cut while at the same time proposing additional central office fundings over a
033million dollars for a new department, over 4.4 4 million for AI surveillance, which we know is currently being weaponized against the black and brown people who make up the majority of this county. Oh, and we cannot forget spending over $1.2 million for the payouts of s two superintendent past and present in a 12-month period. This same amount is the same amount it costs to fund the Chinese immersion program for over 500 students each year. It could also probably cover the entire middle and high school programs as well if they were properly funded, which you guys have mentioned that it has not been. In a time of budget constraints, these additional expenses are not wise and take away funding that is vital to preserving resources closest to the classroom. Now, side note, while discussing specialty programs,
034the claim that they don't adequately support the 130 plus PGS students is divisive. Spending over 1.2 2 million on two individuals don't benefit children as much as the specialty programs though it does highlight the board's priorities. Programs like Spanish, French, Chinese language immersions, IB, AVID, Montasaur, Science and Tech, and so many other specialty programs provide essential opportunities for our diverse student body, many of whom come from lowincome and multilingual households who will not have access outside of school. These programs give children a chance and access to future. What is more integral than that? Because the Oh, real quick, um, in closing on this, the 100th anniversary of Black History Month. In the words of Malcolm X, education is the passport to the future. For tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for today. Let's prepare for
035our children's futures today as tomorrow belongs to them. Brandy too. Good evening board members and interim superintendent Joseph. My name is Brandy Teal and I live in Board of Education District 5. Two of my children attend Maya Angelou French Immersion IB World School in Board of Education District 8. I'm here tonight not just as a parent, but as a taxpayer and community member who expects this board and superintendent to follow your own policies and uphold your fiduciary responsibilities. Board policy 3130, budgets, outlines your responsibility for sound financial oversight, accountability, and stewardship of public funds. Yet, based on your own public meetings and budget discussions, the financial decisions being made do not reflect that responsibility. At the same time that you have acknowledged budget challenges and pledged to keep cuts as far away from the schools
036as possible, we are watching studentf facing programs and services being placed on the chopping block. This is not only a budget issue, it's a governance issue. When new central office costs are approved while instructional pathways and essential services are reduced, that signals a breakdown in fiduciary oversight. Parents are now seeing the real world consequences. The high school immersion pathway has already been cut prior to the budget being voted on or finalized. IB pro programming is being cut. Elementary immersion access is being eliminated. These are not abstract numbers. These are decisions that directly impact children. So now I am asking you directly how does approving new administrative sp spending while cutting classroom pathways align with your duty under policy 3130? Where's the evidence that central restructuring was exhausted before touching instructional programs? What concrete reductions have
037been made at the central level to protect the schools? Parents are not confused about what you said. You said keep cuts away from the classrooms. You said protect educ educational instruction. You said strengthen oversight. We are holding you to those statements. We expect fiscal responsibility to begin centrally and not with our kids. We expect transparency. We expect lawful governance. And we expect you to protect the instructional programs that make our students globally competitive. The community is here. We are watching. and we are prepared to continue to be here until fiscal oversight and student protections are aligned. My oldest daughter is a student at my Angelou French immersion IB World School. She wanted to be here tonight but couldn't because she's at soccer practice. She wanted me to tell the school board specifically to not cut
038the IB program. And if you wanted to understand it and its value, you should all come and visit the school. Thank you. essence. Um, Essence Harden. All right, moving on. a cur. >> Sorry, it's Amy. I was typing late at night and I obviously didn't finish my whole name. So, um, members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening. My name is Amy Kerr and I'm the proud parent of four children, two of whom are currently bilingual in the Prince George's County Public School System. I'm here tonight to appeal for your reconsideration of the current budget proposal, which includes the cancellation of the high school immersion program and the potential for cancellation of other important specialty and immersion programs. As you know, the immersion programs are a remarkable opportunity for our
039learners to be exposed to an increasingly interconnected world. My children have attended Dora Kennedy for the past eight and nine years, and not only are they able to speak a second and now third language in the middle school level, but their exposure to the immersion program has provided them a totally different perspective on education. Their teachers are from French colonized countries in Africa, France, and America. And these incredible men and women have taken their own educational experiences and provided my children with exposure to different perspectives through a pedigogy that can only be found in these types of immersion programs. I I want to make sure to thank all of them on this record for giving my children that frame of reference, especially in a world that is increasingly divided and lacks perspective. It is with
040that glowing review in mind that I cannot understand the decision to cancel any and especially the high school immersion programs. As an administrator of higher education myself, I understand budgets and challenges that are presented, especially in today's complex environment. But as an educator, I also know that planning is an important and ongoing process. And I'm absolutely stunned that a decision of this magnitude can be made just eight months before the start of the school year. I hope I don't need to remind all of you that these are the same children who in March of 2020 were abruptly told that the school was closed due to a virus and didn't see their friends again for almost an entire school year. Did you not just receive renewal for a grant to strengthen behavioral and mental health services
041students? Why then are you doing this to those students and making abrupt decisions that causes the stress you're trying to help? I urge you in future decisions to communicate well in advance program cuts that programs that might need to be cut and to provide opportunities for student input so that this in this uncertain world our children can at least find some consistency in their educational adventure. The immersion program at Largo and in PGCPS as a whole is has so much potential and I'm not going to waste my precious time today outlining the many challenges that have been overcome to get to the thriving community you see here behind me today. I w I do want to take a moment to just recognize how much it has grown and ask that you give them all time
042to grow and show you how incredible they can be. I attended the Largo openhouse last fall and was absolutely blown away by the level of programming, professionalism, and excellence I saw in that program and I'm so excited for the pathways that my daughter had now doesn't have um in going there. My last thought tonight is that without a clear path to continue in language pursuits, I think we'll see fewer families interested in the immersion programs at the elementary level and I fear that perhaps this decision is actually just a long-range effort to kill specialty programs altogether. If so, can you tell me now so I can keep my other two kids away from this school system. Thank you for your consideration. Have a great night. Stephanie J. And while we're waiting on Miss Jenkins, uh,
043Kelly Burgess is next. Good evening. My name is Stephanie Jenkins and I am a parent uh at Overlook Full Spanish School in District uh 5. Um, I'm here because the proposed FY 2027 budget was released on February 5th, the same day as the public budget hearing. Families were expected to review hundreds of pages and provide feedback immediately. That did not give parents a meaningful opportunity to understand what was being proposed or how our children would be affected. Board policy 3110 exists to prevent exactly this situation. This policy was not followed and families were shut out of the review process before hearings began. The board of education slides talked about excellence. Our students are excellent and they deserve excellence in the school system. I am a proud parent of the immersion program and I strongly urge
044you to reconsider immersion pathways and the IB program. One of the things that was mentioned was equity and standing up for the people who are not able to be here today across the county. But if you are cutting these programs, how is that demonstrating equity? If you are not giving parents adequate time and not adhering to your own policy, how is that equitable? Please explain that to me. Especially in this climate, we should all be concerned with equity and stripping our children of immersion and IB programs does the exact opposite. So in spite of this, the board has chosen to move forward with the vote that would eliminate language immersion programs and the IB program. These are not extras. They are academic pathways that students are already in and that families relied on when making
045school decisions. When I enrolled my kids in the public system, I had the option of doing a private Spanish immersion program. They do have one in the county and they do have one in Alexandria. I chose to enroll my children in the PG County public schools and I chose that for a reason because I wanted them to get the best possible experience that they could have and all children deserve that right and you are choosing to take it away especially by stripping them of the opportunity in the high school program. So again I ask the board to pause the vote. Please reconsider um the cutting of immersion programs and the IB programs. Please hold additional hearings so that parents can have the opportunity to make their voices be known. Again, I respectfully ask the board
046to reconsider and I do thank you for your time and I thank you and I speak on behalf of myself, my kids, and for the other parents that were in the overflow room and couldn't be here tonight. Thank you Burges. >> Good evening, board chair, board members, interim CEO, and most importantly, uh, parents and children. It's beautiful to see all the little ones out here today engaged in the process. Uh, my name is Kelly Burgess. the AVID coordinator and AVID teacher at Dwight D. Eisenhower Middle School from way up north in uh Laurel here to uh be the lone one crying in the wilderness for the AVID program specifically and a specific school. Um I appreciate my colleagues. Thank you. I appreciate my colleagues here who've uh voiced um the importance of protecting all these
047programs, but I wanted to leave you here tonight with the impact of what an AVID program can do for a specific community. Abbott does an excellent job of providing structure and supports academic excellence and closes both the achievement gap and the opportunity gap in the county. When families don't know what opportunities are in front of them or how to navigate those opportunities, an AVID program in a school helps pull alongside them to make sure that students who wouldn't normally be on that path are identified and helped with the application process to some of the programs we talked about today that are on the chopping block. At Eisenhower, we over the past 13 years, we've grown our program to 400 students, which is over 40% of our school. During that time, we've increased the overall GPA
048of the school from 2.34 to 2.79. 159 of our current eighth graders ended Q4 last year with a GPA of 3.0 and above. We use AVID as a vehicle to support our middle schoolers journey to challenging academic high school programs. 132 of our eighth graders applied uh last year. Almost all of them were in AVID uh were accepted into one or more Prince George's County public uh school high school specialty programs. We are able to spiral with our kids by identifying them in fifth grade and staying with them all the way through those tumultuous middle school years of sixth, seventh, and eighth to make sure they land in the most challenging future preparing program they can be in. Whether it's college, CTE, we have our eyes on that goal from the moment we identify them
049in the feeder school. And so when you cut programs like AVID, you cut your eyes and ears that feed these programs that these parents are so passionate about. So like the previous speaker, please look at the budget again. And my pray I'm a praying man and my prayer for you is that you would attack this problem with courage, creativity, and compassion. Thank you for your time. Tam Davis Brown. >> Good evening, Chair uh Jackson and members of the board of education. For the record, my name is Tamara Davis Brown. I am a member of uh live in Clinton, Maryland in District 9. Um welcome to our new school board representative. I stand on the other side of these uh parents you see in red that are here today. I am the proud parent of an
050airport executive as well as a civil engineer. I am currently a member as a community member of uh Steven Decar Middle School, but our children attended John Hansen Monastery at a time where the French immersion was also housed in Oxen Hill at that time before they moved to their building to form Maya Angelou French immersion and they were also our students were also a part of the international balorate. So the Monasuri, French immersion and the IB programs all go together and I stand in solidarity with these dedicated parents and students that are here today to ser to save their programs and ask you not to cut the international balora programs as well as the immersion programs. We want global thinking. We are in a competitive global environment and in order to continue to comp uh
051prepare our students, we should continue these programs. I can say for myself um having students my my children's who attended Prince George's County Public Schools along with the students in the French immersion and international balore program. You have the best and the brightest. Why cut these programs? There are so many parents that have lost confidence in Prince George's County public schools and have put their kids in private schools. You do not want to drive away the best and the brightest by cutting the the programs that you have here. And so I urge you to reconsider the your budget. And look, I I I wholeheartedly think that this school board is topheavy and you need to cut at the administrative level first. You've got people making $200,000 in this school system, but we don't see any
052cuts towards the restructuring of the the school board and the board of education. Please make the cuts in at at the education level, at the schoolboard level, as opposed to the classrooms. Thank you so much, >> Miss Rakes. >> Good evening, board members. My name is Sharice Rakes. I'm a Prince George's County parent and my child attends Dora Kennedy French Emergent in District 2. She's 9 years old tomorrow and is in the third grade. I also have a four-year-old who has grown up listening to her big sister practice French and who fully expects to follow in that path. I'm here tonight not just as a mother, but as a Prince George's County native, former K through8 specialty program student, Thomas Pullen, a former international baloria student and a taxpayer and community member who expects this
053board to follow its own policies and fidiciary responsibilities. Dora Kennedy is not a struggling school. It is thriving four-star K through8 immersion program with strong academic performance and bilingual achievement. It is a pro program families intentionally pursue because it works. And yet this thriving program was displaced recently into a shared facility forcing a pro proven immersion model to adjust itself to solve a facilities problem. Now we're seeing the same pattern through the proposed budget. French, Spanish, Chinese, international back lauria programs that are academically strong and deeply valued are being reduced to address financial challenges. And I have to ask respectfully but honestly, why are we solving systemic problems by cutting what's working? When a program is thriving, it should be reinforced, not repeatedly asked to absorb disruption. From the outside, it feels like these pathways
054are slowly being weakened. first structurally, now financially. As a mother, that's deeply unsettling. Language immersion strengthens cognitive development, executive functioning, and long-term academic outcomes. It prepares students to compete globally. You have said that classrooms will be protected. Immersion is the classroom. You've said that student outcomes are the priority. These programs produce outcomes. My children deserve stability. They deserve leadership that protects strong academic pathways and they deserve decisions that reflect long-term educational vision, not short-term balancing. I'm asking you to protect what is working. Do not let thriving programs slowly erode for strengthening them. Thank you, Tiffany Connelly. and she'll be followed by Piper Kerr. Good evening board members and interimm superintendent Joseph. My name is Tiffany Connelly and I live in Board of Education District 4. My children, I have three, um, attend Phyllis E. Williams
055Spanish immersion and Ketaring Middle School Spanish immersion. I am here tonight not just as a parent, but as a taxpayer and community member who expects this board and superintendent to follow your own policies and uphold your fiduciary responsibilities. Board policy 3130 budgets outlines your responsibility for sound financial oversight, accountability, and stewardship of public funds. Yet based on your own public meetings and budget discussions, the financial decisions being made do not respect reflect that responsibility. At the same time that you have acknowledged budget challenges and pledged to keep cuts as far away from the schoolhouse as possible, we are watching studentf facing programs and services placed on the chopping block. This is not just a budget issue. It is a governance issue. When new central office cuts are approved, while instructional pathways and essential services are
056reduced, that signals a breakdown in fiduciary oversight. Parents are now seeing real world consequences. The high school immersion pathway being cut after decades of success. IB programming is being reduced. Elementary immersion access being eliminated. Transportation routes are being destabilized because overtime is being cut. These are not abstract numbers. These are decisions that directly impact children. So I am asking you directly, how does approving new administrative spending while cutting classroom pathways align with your duty under policy 3130? Where is the evidence that central restructuring was exhausted before touching instructional programs? What concrete reductions have been made at the central level to protect schoolh houses? Parents are not confused about what you said. You said, "Keep cuts away from the classroom. Protect educational instruction. Strengthen oversight." We are holding you to those statements. We expect fiscal responsibility
057to begin centrally, not with children. We expect transparency, lawful governance, and we expect you to protect the instructional programs that make our students globally competitive. This community is watching, and we are prepared to continue showing up until fiscal oversight and student protection are aligned. Thank you, >> Piper Kurt. Hi, I'm Piper Kerr. I'm a student at Prince George's County Public Schools. I go to Dora Kennedy French Immersion. I'm in eighth grade. I'm here tonight to appeal the current budget proposal, which includes the cancellation of the high school immersion program. I was planning to go there cuz I thought it would be a great idea and my mom always says how good a gift I have with languages. I have many friends who were also planning to go there and they are getting very confused by
058that we thought it was canceled. It It's getting confusing. This is the 40th year anniversary of this amazing program. It gives so many people remarkable opportunities. I, for example, know three languages, have many friends and teachers with unique experiences and knowledge. Through the many years I've been learning French, I've grown an aspiration to be an interpreter. If Largo immersion program is shut down, that dream would be much harder to achieve because any other school in the area I would go to would not have the level of friendship I'm seeking. Overall, I know budgets are difficult, but I frankly don't understand how a program with this much potential could be cancelled. It has helped so many people so much, and it makes me so sad to know that that might not be an option for so
059many kids in the new language programs. In conclusion, I urge you to reconsider shutting down the immersion or not shutting down the immersion program at Largo and help many people get better with languages and benefit from these immersion programs. Gina Bower followed by Priest. Amen. >> Good evening board members and interim superintendent Joseph. My name is Gina Boulder. I live in BOE District 9. My daughters were enrolled in the Spanish immersion program from K through 8 at Overlook Full Spanish immersion school and Ketering Middle School. Currently they're in the IB international baloria program at Frederick Douglas High School. One is a ninth grader in the IB pre-diploma program and the other is an 11th grader in the IB diploma program. They were in preschool when I started advocating for our school system to add Spanish
060immersion and IB among its specialy programs. My 11th grader was in the inaugural kindergarten class for Spanish immersion. the current proposals to eliminate not only the IB middle years program for inboundary scholars but also the IB pre-diploma program for specialy program applicants and TAG continuity students seems like an intentional weakening slowing and blocking of pathways that would encourage and support pursuit of the IB diploma program. These proposals beg the alarming question of whether the ultimate aim is to terminate the IB program in PGCPS in total. The troubling answer seems to be yes. I urge you to address these requests and concerns. Number one, keep IB for four years of high school as a PGCPS specialty program. Number two, engage IB families for a better return on investment in PGC on a better return on IB
061investment in PGCPS. Embrace language emergent in IB programs as assets in PGCPS to maintain viability of IB as a specialty program for high school. Keep these components. A eligibility via eighth grade specialty program application and talented and gifted continuity students. B acceptance of 9th graders for the 2-year pre-diploma program and C acceptance of 11th graders for the 2-year program to help achieve a better return on investment for the IB program in PGCPS. convene current and prospective IB families for meaningful engagement and partnership towards that end to increase enrollment, accelerate high achievement outcomes, and elevate the reputation of PGCPS, improve and expand access to language immersion and IB programs instead of dismantling them. Many families are drawn to IB as a highly regarded or prestigious liberal arts college preparatory program. As such, families with an eighth
062grader, for them, a four-year IB course sequence starting in nth grade is more appealing than a two-year course sequence starting in 11th grade. Popular specialty programs for high school span four years with 8th grade application and 9th grade entry. In contrast, the proposal to reduce IB from a 4-year course sequence to two years is out of step and otherwise not what families want or expect in a liberal arts college preparatory program. Engage us in helping to improve the return on IB investment. do what you can as leaders to move language immersion and IB programs forward through a consultative process rather than backwards through actions that seem unilateral, shortsighted or rushed. Thank you. >> Thank you. Amen. >> Good evening chairman and esteemed members of the board. My name is Priest Amen. I am an educator
063at the Paint Branch Elementary Chinese School and I'm here tonight on behalf of the staff, the 500 children, and the families whose future depends upon the decisions that will be made here in this room. The students in this program are wonderful. I have observed firsthand our children flourish and build confidence in both their English and Mandarin skills. By discontinuing this immersion program, our children who spent years master and uh putting in an effort to master the Mandarin language will hit a wall that will impact them in an ever growing and complex job market. The proposal that was that was given on February 9th is not a solution but more of an lottery of inequity. Of every grade, only 25 of the 80 to 100 students in that grade will be selected to continue. twothirds of
064the students that are already engaged in the immersion program would simply be ignored and that will create what would be called or known as a two-track system of inequity inside the building amongst the students. If a lottery system is introduced, a gradual phase is a phase in is preferred is preferred beginning in kindergarten. Also, this proposal was not presented without any input from parents or teachers. The community affected did not even have a seat at the table. In a system that strives for fairness and equality, this is not how these decisions should be made. So what we are asking for is full fiscal year 2026 funding for all levels affected in the academic programs in fiscal year 2020 in the fiscal year 2027 budget. Chinese immersion at every level, high school immersion across all languages
065and the IB program. Give us the time and the space for a real community process. one that includes all stakeholders, teachers, parents, and students. And finally, in reference to AI, to the AI surveillance in our schools, we don't need to invest in solutions that hallucinate threats like the one that occurred last October 2025 to 17-year-old Taki Allen, who was simply eating a bag of chips, but the AI in the Baltimore County's public schools flagged it as a weapon. And then the young man was surrounded all of a sudden by eight officers. We need to protect our children at all levels and not subject them to faulty systemic surveillance and biometric mod monitoring. We have to be careful with how we handle the development of our young minds because a sudden change can can be a
066traumatic shift shift to them and negatively impact their future development. Thank you. All written or pre-recorded public comments are posted on Diligent. Thank you for participating in tonight's um public comments. Now for the report of the superintendent. The chair recognizes Dr. Joseph for the superintendent's report. >> Thank you, Chairman Jackson. Uh, Miss Robin Welsh, director of government relations, compliance, and procedures, will now provide an overview of Prince George's County Public Schools legislative review process with several bills currently poised to impact our district. She will discuss specific legislation, our official positions, and the data behind them. She'll also discuss how we're partnering with the board in our advocacy efforts. At this time, I'll have I'll turn the mic over to Miss Welsh. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Joseph. And good evening, Chair Jackson and members
067of the board of education. Um, this evening I will give you I'll start off first. Oh, it's so I'm sorry. Okay, no, this jumped ahead. Hold on. Here we go. I will first start give you just a quick little uh review of the process that we go through in terms of reviewing uh the bills that are being proposed this session and then the determination of the actual uh position and what the rationale is and how we determine that. So, uh, the Department of Legislative Services actually sends to us these requests for these fiscal worksheets and the the worksheets are actually asking us to determine what the operational impact is FS and fiscal impact of a particular bill that has come through. And so, we get this for like right now we've done a total of
06882 worksheets. And so, when these worksheets come through the request, I send them out to all of the wonderful chiefs and their departments. their their associate superintendent and they many times are bombarded with loads of these worksheets to complete, but they're critically important to us because they lay out what the impact is in terms of how we operate as a system as well as how much it's going to cost us. And of course, the probably our greatest concern are the unfunded mandates that have been coming through. So once that is there, I take that information that comes back. We do send it back to the department of of legislative services. But then I take that information and look at our legislative platform which was voted by all of you and take that information, compare it
069and make a determination on what is it? Is it does it something we should support? Something we should oppose, maybe support with amendments, whatever the choices are. Then when we have policy and governance committee meetings, we discuss these bills and discuss the positions in case someone may have a different thought about a particular bill. Once the position is identified, we do track the platform, the legislation, but then we have our ad advocacy efforts. And so the chair of policy and governor governance which is uh chair moss and the vice chair who is chair Olivo they they along with our the boards actually lobbyists do a tremendous amount of work in Annapolis. I'm sure other board members have been there too but they do a tremendous amount of work talking to the delegates talking to the
070senators um that are the lobbyists will write testimony for them and they testify in different types of hearings. And then on top of that, the other thing we do is we have a legislative position news brief which our deputy chief of staff Megan Thornton puts out and it lists each of the different bills and what the positions are and and the rationale. So that is sort of the process as a whole. And when you see all these different areas and there's probably more, but we see bills in all these different areas coming in and like for one one weekend I think we ended up with a total of 35 bills that came through. So, I mean, they're just they're flying in quickly during the legislative session, especially the first half. When the bills go back
071or go through the different committees, if they're amended, they will then come back to us again and they'll ask for that impact. And we might change our position depending on the on the amendments. So, to not take up much more time, I'd like to just hit on a few of the bills that have come through recently that are in all the different areas up here that we can just talk about for one second. So, the first bill I want to talk about is Senate Bill 311, House Bill 490, which is the blue blueprint of Maryland's future uh revisions. This bill is of course very important to us because it impacts our blueprint funding and also what kinds of flexibility we have in terms of using those blueprint funds. So, we are supporting that bill with
072amendments. The things that we do like about the bill is the fact that it does expand the definition of wraparound services for community schools to include other evidence-based academic interventions which was not part of the wraparound services previously as well as it is extending expanding dual enrollment up to 2030. So that is a very positive thing. Um it's also supports ext uh we appre support the extended personnel and per pupil grants through school year 27 which was previously supposed to end after this year. And this is to provide programs of fine art instructional programs for grades prek to 12. that the area that we're most concerned. We're appreciative of the fact that this bill what it does has done is they held that they have shifted the whole harmless list for the C schools which
073was supposed to end after this school year. It has now been extended to a school year 27. That that just that little piece there equates to $90 million which is really significant for the school system. What we are though proposing as an amendment is that they don't sunset it at all. That it just continues through so that we have it year after year because we absolutely do need that funding. Um so that's a blueprint bill. Next bill we have is a special education bill and that one had to do with it's um it's a house bill 1013 Senate Bill 863. So currently we many of our special not many but we have numerous special education students that receive that require one-on-one student aids and that determination for them to have a one-on-one student aid is
074determined by the IEP team and that that that provision for that pro for a student to have that might only last for a year. It's not for the entire life of the student. It's whatever the team determines are the needs of the student. So, for that reason alone, we hire these a one-on-one assistance or aids um as temporary staff because we never know when the IEP team is going to make a decision and end up, you know, take saying we don't need this aid anymore and then we don't have a place to put the the employee. So, we're you know in a bind. So, we hire them as a temporary um uh employee and of which they do not receive benefits. This this bill is now re would require that all school systems, if you're
075hiring a one-on-one assistance assistant, even though you might not need them within say 6 months or a year from now, you would have to hire them as full-time salary employees and get full benefits. And so we oppose this bill. It is definitely an unfund funded mandate. And we see the estimated fiscal impact um would be for se school year 27 would be about $34 million which is very significant. Um the next bill which impacts all of you is the bill Senate bill 375 and it's county boards of vet artificial intelligence training program requirement. uh right now we have here have posisted monitor as the position and the main reason is in terms of the training itself it's addressing things like the capabilities limitations and risk of of AI safety and ethical uh considerations student privacy
076and data protection laws um and procurement guidelines and oversight and those are critical I think critical things that board members should absolutely have knowledge about um and so in that regard that is very possible very positive because AI training is vitally important in this digital world that we live in. However, it is the board's decision to decide what they want and need think they need for their professional development. And so the bill itself actually usurps the board's autonomy by not allowing them to make that decision to do the training and they're having legislation that tells them they must have the training. The next bill is Senate Bill 350, House Bill 26, open enrollment policies and funding. And this particular bill allows for um all any county. So any county across the state, any student living
077in any county can go to any other school system in the county and not in the state and not have to pay tuition cost. So you'd have students coming from maybe Charles County. Our students might be going to McGomery County. We might have students coming going to Calvert or coming from Calvert. I mean it could back and forth all over the place. And so the the first of all our transfer process in terms of if you're requesting transfer from school to school is pretty extensive. The work behind the scenes in terms of being able to track track these students and me make sure that they're we're looking at what is this a school that's opened or there the classroom that's the seats that are open in a particular grade area. So it's extensive work back
078and forth and lots of back and forth communication. So to be able to extend that to across the entire state. It would require addition at least an addition of one staff member if not more uh to work in central office just to be doing that work. And then also it would require the upgrade of our student information system to address external transfers. The other area that would be concerning is the fact that right now we have lots of conversations about students trans playing sports in a school that is not their boundary school and that the MSPA rules definitely say you have to be um you have to reside in that school at which you are being on that sports team. So this would cause extensive difficulty in terms of students coming and going um from
079the different counties. So for that reason alone we do oppose that the bill because it does would cost us money and it is an unfunded mandate. The other thing is it does use up the board's autonomy. So the board of education all of you know have the major responsibility of governance for the school system. And so it's yours your jobs to determine do we need a policy in this area or this area. And so the fact that we have legislation telling us you must have a policy again takes away your ability to govern the school system. The next bill is the Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day and Maryland School Pedestrian Awareness Day and that's House Bill 486, Senate Bill 526. And this bill is designated November 14th as Ruby Bridges Walk to School Day
080to commemorate Ruby Bridges. and it um designates the second Wednesday in October each year as Maryland school pedestrian awareness day and to produce to promote safe pedestrian routes to and from school and MSD would be held responsible for providing all the resources for programming to in terms of educating our students about both of those reasons. So, we do support this bill because first of all, it aligns with our goal to have safe routes to school for white walking as well as even biking and safety and community initiatives as well as it specifically honors the civil rights legacy of Ruby Bridges. So, that is why we're supporting that bill. The next bill is Senate Bill, House Bill 233, public school construction alterations. And there's many different provisions in this bill, but the one bill that was
081ve the one provision that was very concerning was that there was language in it that said that it would recommend that state approval of $1 million would have to occur. So, anything that you're going to do, if you're going to do reservations to renovations to any of your HVAC programs, construction changes, stuff like that, once it hits the level $1 million, it has to go to the state approval. That process alone would hold up the entire process of doing the construction, all the steps that go to that even in terms of our HVAC systems. And so we propose that that be increased to somewhere between 3 million and $5 million. Um, so that is the support with amendments. And I think we're getting to our last bill and this is an environmental climate control bill.
082Senate Bill 381, House Bill 614, school building energy usage monthly report. So, it's requiring the board of education to collect and report data on energy usage to the IA and then and then it goes into detail about the what data you would have to provide. And we support this bill because it does align with board policy 011 which is sustainability and then Prince George's County Public Schools climate change action uh plan. And in fact we at this point um the sustainability office and oper in operations has actually been working on putting together they have submit they're doing a bill management platform utilizing data for energy usage and it should be up and running by July 1, 2026 and they already have the staff to be able to do that run the reports. There would be
083no additional cost and it does align with all of our goals. So, um I think that is about it. Are there any questions? >> Board members, are there any questions? >> All right. Uh first up, I have is that uh Dr. Moss. >> Yeah. Robin, thank you so much for your work and your leadership in this area. um you've been a tremendous asset to the committee. What I want you to go back and explain for the general public is SB 311 and HB490 which um has gerineess to the blueprint for Maryland's future and its revisions. Um there's a $90 million impact inside of that um and the hold harmless provision that is being extended to FY2027. um we believe that it should be uh codified in the law beyond 2027. Can you talk to the
084public a little bit around why the blueprint revision bill SB311 and HB490 um are critical to the long-term fiscal health of PGCPS? >> Well, just $90 million is a lot of money to lose for those programs and we depend on that money. Um, and fortunately we'll be getting it for another year. But once that funding, it's like a a cliff falling falling off a cliff. Once that funding goes away, then we somewhere we have to be able to find the money to to because the money is going towards our community schools and all the programs that were previously funded uh through the blueprint in this particular area. So it is critically important for for us to be able for them to maintain actually extend that that um um uh hold harmless so that we get
085that funding for years into the future. >> Yeah. I I wanted you to explain that to the public because if SB 311 HB490 um does not pass for some reason, it has implications beyond FY27 and we could find ourselves having to cut um 90 million from the budget. um if that bill does not pass with these revisions and um there is no promise that should this bill pass because it does not codify um the $90 million provision for comped in law after next year. So we really only have one promise and so I I raised that significant concern in front of a great cloud of witnesses uh as we would say in my church that we'll be at a different conversation after FY27 if we lose comped dollars. And so our advocacy is beyond critical
086uh and important beyond tonight's conversation. >> And that's very good point. If it doesn't pass, we won't get that money. So we'll be looking at 90 million cut for next year. So thank you. Next up is board member um Amy Olivo. Uh we have US7 is that you don't know why you think okay >> I guess that may must conclude our comments uh for tonight. No further questions. Thank you. >> Thank you. Next up uh is uh Vice Chair Briggs for the chair of the academic achievement committee. >> Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Chair Jackson. Good evening. I'm Jonathan Briggs, academic achievement committee chair, and I'm pleased to provide an update on the work of the committee for September 2025 through February 2026. Our work continues to focus on the interim superintendent's
087five big rocks. Literacy, mathematics, multilingual learners, dual enrollment and internships, and chronic absenteeism. During this period, we've held five meetings with one canceled due to inclement weather. Uh, concerning special education and section 504 services, currently 25,581 students are receiving section 504 services, a 5.5% increase since the first quarter. About 15% of schools are non-compliant and the office of 504 is actively monitoring and addressing these issues. Year two of synergy implementation introduced a new 504 database and staff training to improve documentation and tracking. Common accommodations include preferential seating at the elementary level and extended time for structured breaks at middle and high schools. Student testimony reinforce how critical these supports are for academic success. Concerning comprehensive support improvement for schools, we reviewed the district's turnaround strategy for 24 CSI schools guided by the strategic acceleration framework
088which focuses on leadership, support and accountability, talent management, and instructional infrastructure. Members engage the administration on benchmarks, timelines, and resource alignment to accelerate improvements. Uh concerning community schools initiatives, the community schools model has expanded to 147 schools aligning with Maryland state guidance. Discussions focused on wraparound services, funding, scaling challenges, and integrating attendance and academic supports. The committee emphasized tracking the impact on literacy, math, and chronic absenteeism. Our next steps are moving forward. The committee will continue to monitor CSI benchmarks, reviewing attendance strategies, assessing the impact of community schools, and ensuring oversight aligns with measurable gains in literacy and mathematics. Our next meeting is scheduled for March 16th, um, 2026. And in summary, the committee remains committed to strong oversight, accountability, and aligning district strategies with measurable student outcomes. We will continue to provide updates as
089implementation advances. Thank you, Chair Jackson. Thank you, vice chair. Are there any questions? Board members. Okay, moving on to climate change. The board chair recognizes uh Pamela Boozer. >> All right. Thank you so much, Chair Jackson. Um I am bringing forward along with board member Alivo uh for your for the board's consideration the bus modernization and electric school bus focus workg groupoup proposal which is aligned with our climate change action plan specifically priority priority area number four commit to lowcarbon school transportation in our board's 2021 resolution committing to 100% clean transportation by 2040 as outlined in the brief Uh PGCPS has made progress. We have acquired electric buses and conducted financial modeling. However, electric buses still represent a small portion of our fleet. Charging infrastructure remains limited and we currently lack a detailed phased imple
090implementation roadmap to reach our 2040 goal. Transportation remains one of the district's largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. Without a coordinated infrastructure, funding and fleet transition strategy, we risk falling behi we risk falling behind our commitment, potentially increasing long-term costs and missing funding opportunities. This focused work group is designed to move us from incremental progress to a structured strategic transition. The work group will conduct a district-wide assessment of current and potential future bus lot locations, complete a charging infrastructure assessment for bus lot modernization and decentralized charging. Perform a total cost of ownership analysis and identify funding pathways. Clarify the role of our of alternative fuel buses as a bridge strategy. Developed a phased electric bus transition roadmap from 2026 to 2040. The group will include board members, PGCPS staff from transportation, sustainability, capital programs, as
091well as community and parent and student representation. The work will begin in March 2026 and conclude with final recommendations for board adoption in October 2026. An interim report will be presented in June. There are no direct budget implications at this time. The purpose of the group is planning, coordination, and development of actionable recommendations. This effort reflects our responsibility to deliver safe, reliable, and equitable transportation while advancing student health, environmental stewardship, and long-term fiscal sustainability. I move that the board approve the formation of the focus workg group to ensure responsible, strategic, and structured pathway toward achieving the 2040 clean transportation commitment. Thank you. Thank you, board member Boozer Stru. If there is no objection, the board shall approve the formation of the focus group to ensure a responsible strategic and structure pathway toward achieving our 2040
092clean transportation commitment. All righty. The board uh shall adopt your recommendation. >> Thank you. >> Moving towards politics and governance, uh the board chair recognizes Dr. Moss. >> Yeah. Thank you, Chair Jackson. We have two items tonight. Um, you heard, well, we have three items. You heard from Miss Welsh that outlined our policy positions on state bills, but we have one item tonight that we'll respond to around policies recommended for enactment. This is policy 5122. Um, this is requirements for participation in intercolastic athletics. Uh, this particular policy went under revision this year. Um and we changed a policy requiring that the superintendent shall verify um residency for students at the beginning of each academic season. Uh this has been due to some some issues we had around AC uh athletic eligibility. So we revised that
093policy to put a little bit more teeth in it working with our athletics office. Secondarily uh the policy and governance committee wanted to address um uh concerns around Eid and calendar changes. We've gotten significant um emails around this. Uh we received countless emails as it relates to Eid and our non-instructional days for this academic year. While there are no proposed changes to this academic year's calendar beyond the makeup days, the policy and governance committee is actively working with our local and state partners to find a meaningful solution to this year's and future years calendar challenges through direct lobbying. Um, in addition to that, we are actively awaiting um a policy decision from the state board of education as it relates to this year's calendar waiver that we submitted. We also anticipate um that the administration,
094Prince George's County Public Schools Administration will bring forward a revised calendar for next year uh that includes uh Eid in that calendar. So, just wanted to update given the abundance of concerns we've got around calendaring and Eid. Chair Jackson, uh this concludes my report. I'd ask that the board um move forward policy 5122 requirements for participation intriccolastic activities athletics. All righty. Thank you, Dr. Moss. Uh board, are there any questions? If there is no objection, the board shall accept committee's report and recommendations. Thank you. Moving towards presentation, the chairman recognizes Dr. Joseph for the budget update. Thank you. Thank you, V Chair Jackson. If we can put the uh presentation up, please. Uh that is the wrong presentation. Go to the next slide. Maybe it's there. No, that's the wrong one. Okay, if we just
095have one moment so we can get them the correct presentation. If you can, we can email it to you if you easiest. Diligent has the correct version. Hey, hey, Dr. Joseph, did you want to start um while we we figuring out pulling out the presentations? You have anything? I'll >> wait for the presentation. Yes. >> Okay, cool. Thank you. Let's see. It's good. Okay. Well, it better be good after this wage, right? Well, thank you, Board Chair Jackson, members of the board, and to our community. And I remember my first day uh as interim superintendent here in Prince George's County, and our first press conference uh and at that conference, I shared that serving in the role of interim superintendent uh would allow me to speak with both clarity and uh directness. I also have
096the privilege of holding a tenure track role at Howard University and the educational leadership and policy studies department. I share that because tonight uh I'll put my professorial hat on uh to help us better understand the moment we're in uh as a school district. Tonight's a difficult night. Uh it's a night where we're reminded uh we're reminding ourselves how we got here. uh where we are and where we want to go. I see the frustration and I heard you know the emotion uh in many of our parents and students voices tonight and I want to begin by saying something clearly. You know families are not wrong for loving our programs. uh when you fight for IB or immersion or an AVID program uh you're fighting for your children and quite frankly uh that is what
097good parents should do but my responsibility is not only to protect programs my responsibility uh is to protect the 132,000 children uh that we serve. You know, this is not about choosing between excellence and equity. It's about how we build excellence for every child. So, tonight I'll frame this conversation uh through three lenses. First, I'll talk about recognition. You know, how did we get here? Then I'll transition to res reversal. Where are we going? And then I'll talk about redistribution. How do we sustain at levels of excellence that our families should expect? So, I'll start with how we got here. You know, this is not about moving from isolated excellence to systemic excellence. Prince George's County Public Schools is not a collection of exceptional islands. uh it's one system and that system has to be
098designed intentionally. But I'm going to take us back uh to 1978 uh because that's when our county uh changed their charter and brought in uh a a notion uh called TRIM, right? TRIM caps growth of our primary local revenue sources first brought to Prince George's County in 1978. Uh it was amended in 2012 and at that time uh state law allowed a school only a school only pathway above the charter cap. So, so we have a charter that limits how much we can fund uh from the um property taxes uh in in our district uh which has had some some challenges for us. In 2016, uh that cap moved from 96 cents uh to $1 with an extra 4 cents treated as a school uh dedication. Then we have uh something called tiffs and tiffs
099capture increment increment growth and divert it from uh general operations. Essentially uh a tiff is a public decision to reserve future growth and property tax revenues for a specific project in a specific place for specific years instead of allowing that growth to flow into the county's general fund where it could be used to support funding schools. Then we have debt obligations and debt obligations constrain bond flexibility. These structural realities limit how much discretionary funding flows uh to schools. Uh this is not about preference, it's about math. When we when our reserves are constrained, our choices become much sharper. We're often funded at the required state levels, but those levels are not transformational levels. They're simply minimal levels. Minimum funding has kept the lights on, but it doesn't help us build a future ready school system.
100And when you're operating at minimal levels, you begin to make targeted investments instead of systemic ones. Under fiscal pressure, excellence becomes concentrated in specific programs. Scarcity doesn't just reduce options, it sharpens patterns. And patterns, if left unchecked, become inequities. We didn't set out to create imbalances, but systems built on scarcity produce it. Our programs are strong. Magnet programs, immersion programs, IB programs, ABIT programs. They reflect innovation. They reflect rigor and they reflect commitment, but they serve a limited number of students relative to our total student enrollment. When excellence is structured in selected paths, we must ask, well, what about the many? This isn't an accusation. It's simply an analysis. Funding at levels not scalable districtwide flowed towards specific programs. Meanwhile, there are neighborhood schools that operate without the same levels of structural support. Equity isn't
101subtraction, a subtraction, excuse me. It is design. And we are in the process of redesigning. Now, the blueprint for Maryland's future changed how funds flow uh to our schools. funding now goes directly to schools and central discrep central uh dis discretionary subsidies have been reduced. That decentralization is progress but it does force us to change our business model. We simply cannot continue to operate like we did a decade ago. Now, at certain sites, we serve less than half of 1% of our student populations with disproportionately higher staffing ratios. In times of fiscal challenge, leadership does require us to prioritize the many over the few. That's not personal, it's structural. Our IB diploma, our IB diploma program is extremely prestigious, but the yield relative to full diploma completion is low compared to the investment. We're proposing
102reductions at certain levels to redirect $2.8 million towards literacy acceleration. It's not about diminishing rigor. It's about aligning investments to impact. Now as we talk about reversal, this is the process of how do we move from pockets of excellence to beginning to think about scale. So moving from concentrated to distributed excellence. You know, justice requires reversal, not eraser, not abandonment. Reversal. We're shifting from concentrated excellence to distributed excellence. We're recalibrating so that rigor is not reserved, but it's in fact expected. Here is what redistribution looks like. Acceleration in mathematics and literacy for every early learner. $27 million to stabilize special education to support district-wide special education needs, AI tools, and safety upgrades for every classroom. >> These these investments do not serve a program. They serve a system. If these challenges are to take effect,
103uh we will not walk away from those schools that have been affected. We'll establish a work group inclusive of our PTA leadership, our staff, and our administration that affect that that work with the affected IB programs, AVID programs, and emerging schools during the 2026 2027 school year. Our purpose will be to ensure that rigor and continuity remain strong in those schools. Our extraordinary chief academic officer, Dr. Judy White will provide quarterly updates uh to the board so adjustments can be made based upon the advisor's feedback. We'll partner with our principles and our PTAs to create transition blueprints. Uh we'll preserve culture. We'll protect academic momentum. This is recalibration, not retreat. We serve families who may not have the platform or the flexibility uh to advocate publicly. Leadership requires us to consider the one thou the
104132,000 children that we serve uh in our school district, including those whose voices are not amplified. So, I ask, who's not in the room? the county executive, our county council, our state delegation, our business leaders, and our community. We all have to come together to solve this structural deficit that we have. This is not solved by our school board alone. We'll continue to advocate for structural revenue reform. We'll engage our business leaders. We'll work with our county and we'll work with our state partners. Excellence at scale requires shared responsibility. So to conclude, I'll say in moments like this in public life when leadership is required when leadership requires us to see beyond what's being taken towards what's being built. Tonight it's one of those moments. We're not retreating from excellence. We're redefining how it lives
105within Prince George's County Public Schools. Excellence cannot be reserved for the fortunate or the vocal. It must be structured into the daily experiences of every classroom, every teacher, and every child. If we are courageous enough to confront the limited the limitations of our revenue, if we're honest enough to name the inequities scarcity has produced and disciplined enough to invest in what lifts all students, then history is going to record this moment not as a night of loss but as a turning point. a moment when we chose not to conform or not not to choose comfort, not applause, but responsibility uh and chose to build a system worthy of everyone of our 132,000 children. To the families who feel uncertainty tonight, we see you. We value the communities you've built inside of these wonderful schools. And
106if these changes are to move forward, we'll stand beside you to ensure that culture, academic rigor, and opportunity for your children uh continue to thrive. That is our commitment. And at this point, I will turn it over uh to our chief financial officer who'll walk us through uh some of the specifics of the recommendations and the options uh that are present tonight. >> Chief Alonsense, >> it's insulting. >> Are there AI expenses? What exactly are we paying for? What are the >> condescending excellence? And how do you measure that lifted all the I I'll ask you guys to to quiet down in the audience while we make the presentation. We have public comment already. Please >> this programs are based on lottery. So there is that's >> Excuse me ma'am. Can you can can you
107quiet down and let the presentation proceed? Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you, Dr. uh Joseph. Thank you, board chair Jackson. Good evening, members of the board and community. Today, we want to provide you with a budget update of the program revenue outlined in the governor's budget that was released subsequent to Dr. Joseph's interim uh um excuse me, proposed budget that was submitted at the end of January. What we have here is a review of the blueprint revenue, 95 uh% of which funds the operations, unrestricted operations for the district. Um so this is based off of what was outlined in the governor's budget. Um the column to the far left is our revenue bud revenue budgeted for this fiscal year. The next column after that is what's in the requested budget that will be presented
108this evening uh for fiscal year 27 and then the year-over-year change. Um the first section up above outlines the revenue by different uh funding programs for blueprint. Um overall for the major state aid revenue is increasing about 3 and a half%. Um as stated previously the revenue for blueprint is really tied to student enrollment as well as per pupil amounts. that's driving the varian variances that you see or the changes you see year-over-year. If it's going up, it's tied to either the enrollment change or the per pupil amounts. Want to highlight here in the next section in the middle relates to our funding from other county board and federal sources. Um that increase of 50 million that you see there reflects our request for an additional 50 million above the minimum required um outlined in
109blueprint legislation from from the county. And then you see all of this offset by a reduction of the use and fund balance which we've discussed previously um as we continue to wind down the use of that as a recurring funding source going forward. This is a view of the same revenue proposed for 27 but by funding source. So previously we were looking at it by blueprint program. This is the same look at it. You can see overall state and county revenue are both looking to increase year-over-year. The state increase is tied to uh shift in the blueprint funding. It's wealth equalized for the state. So as our wealth changes relative to the state, the state is required to contribute more. Uh the increase you see for the county again represents primarily that $50 million request
110that we're asking for for 2027 offset by the fund balance. Down below is a view of the change in our restricted funding sources. Those are our grants. In the governor's budget, you primarily see the change or the increase for state revenue that's tied to um the community schools plan for 2027. Um we have an additional community school coming online. And then we also have the continued phase in of our community schools um per pupil grants. That amount increases as they go throughout the implementation. So that's the main driver of that $19 million increase that you see there. And then you see some other reductions in county that's tied to their share of some other blueprint grants and then the reduction on the federal side. So overall we have a budget of uh $3 billion in
111revenue uh being requested for 2027. That's about a 2 2.1% increase over 26. So I want to just briefly pause for a moment to talk about the county contribution. So blueprint is really clear in outlining what each county is required to fund their school system. For PGCPS, that requirement for this year yields a $1.1 million increase over 2026. Um only a million dollars. Um so if they do nothing else, this is what they're required to do by law. This is why we are asking for an additional 50 million to help offset the impact of just stabilizing our essential services as well as investing some of our enhancements for next year. So, I wanted to briefly recap what we've been discussing for the last 6 weeks or so with regards to um our proposed reductions for
112uh this year. Overall, we had a target of around 150 and we've achieved about 148. that's been identified. This here outlines about 58% of those are coming from centrally managed efficiencies. Another 31% is tied to strategic realignment of resources. And then the smallest um impact is to the schools and that has been our focus was to minimize the impact to classroom instruction. So overall central office centrally managed budget reductions um approximated nearly $87 million proposed. Um these have been primarily driven by position eliminations. Over 55 positions have been eliminated. um the reduction of contracted services and other discretionary spend such as non-local travel, conferences, registration, um consulting fees, um uh software license costs, um really looking at where we can streamline our work to try to minimize the impact in other areas. The strategic realignment
113relates to um not cuts but redirecting the funding source for services that will continue. We have quite a bit of um resources that we're able to shift over onto our community schools grants. Some of which relates to services and activities currently provided um from different positions and roles as well as some of our uh other wraparound services and supports. Um that approximates about $17 million. We're also shifting some of our um maintenance work planned for next year to be funded with some availability on our uh capital improvement budget. That's around $4 million. And then as it relates to substitutes, because we have been so successful in filling many of our vacant positions, we're now shifting those resources to support the positions that have been filled. The impact to schools has been around 10%. Um, as
114discussed earlier, there has been an impact to some of our academic programs, the boundary immersion programs. Um, the elimination of the elementary uh e EYP and middle school middle years program for IB AVID. Um, a reduction of some of our prek classrooms. Our prek enrollment is going down. um as well as some modifications to a couple positions um supporting some programs at the science and tech and aeronautics. Um overall there has also been a reduction of some discretionary spend for schools. Um but this again has been a really targeted focus to really minimize the impact to classrooms. So this evening the board will be considering three different versions of the budget for uh a vote. There is the current budget as it stands now which reflects um the proposed budget delivered earlier in January that
115has been updated for the finalized revenue or the preliminary revenue reflected in the governor's budget that continues to um that results in excuse me an increase in our revenue unrestricted revenue specifically of around $18 million. The other funding source that we have that's built into the current proposed budget relates to all of the reductions that were made, that's another $148 million. So, the sum of those two helps to cover our essential supports. That includes our mandatory costs and some of our other essential um costs of doing business. But there's still a gap between what we've cut and the increase in our revenue and what we have to cover of about $15 million. So that gap in addition to the accelerance of $35 million that Dr. Joseph referenced earlier is why we're requesting another $50 million
116from the county. So 15 is needed just to stabilize our operations and the additional 35 will be used to support the accelerants being requested. So that's one version of the b of the budget to be considered during the last work session on February 19th. An amendment was presented prior to um and briefly discussed during that work session to increase the request from the county from 50 million to 95 million. So an additional $45 million. That additional funding level would allow for cuts to be restored. Not all of the cuts. We have 148 million, but 45 million of those cuts will be restored, including um those specifically outlined relating to academic programming. Everything else in the proposed budget will remain with regards to funding the accelerants and covering all the other essential supports. So that's version
117two of the budget to be considered. Subsequent to the work session that we had last week, another amendment was presented as well um which is similar to the current proposed budget which asks for an additional $50 million in funding from the county. That option, however, is looking to make a modification to one of the accelerants included in that proposed budget, and that is to remove approximately $1.9 million related to the AI enabled cameras um and use that funding and to use that funding instead to restore um a modified version of the immersion program offerings. So that concludes the presentation for this evening relating to the budget. >> Thank you. So now I'll pause for um questions from board members. Are there any questions from board members? Is that you, Robin? These numbers are messed up
118today. Board member Brown. >> Yes, thank you so much. Um, it's a difficult day today, let me tell you. Okay, I did see in the presentation that there were possible um central office reductions um citing about 86.5 million about 15 positions are on the line um which when these positions or in the event these positions are no longer um or on the line for cuts, the school's staffing should not be impacted. Job titles should not be impacted. Um layoffs and a realignment. I think my question is what are those positions that you all were thinking about possibly having on the line? If you could respond to that, if you can I and want to sidebar that that's fine. Um, but I think the public is right in wanting to understand, do we start from the
119top and have we moved like how do we get here where we had to get to the end? Um, because it's hard. It's really, really hard. So, I wanted to know if you all could kind of cite what that 86.6 million looks like in central office. I can I can start and then I'll I'll turn it over to our uh chief of of finance. You know, uh cutting $150 million in one year, it's significant. And I don't think um you know most places in the country I mean you look around you pick the city whether it's Chicago or Los Angeles or right down the street here in uh Baltimore County you know you see when a h 100red million is usually cut you see devastation and in mass positions. We were intentional uh about taking
120close to hund00 million out of our central office. Now we we had a lean central office to start. I mean I've I've worked in other places that have much more and we cut from that lean uh to start. There comes a point where as we're looking at variance uh if you begin continuing to cut from your central office uh you'll see significant impacts. For example, uh just recently we turned around and had the ability to go to virtual learning and about two weeks uh when the board approved about two two weeks later uh we had 132,000 students go virtually you know and and we learned from it but we were able to execute on that because there was central capacity. there are other districts in the region and in the country that could not do
121so because they don't have the capacity. You know, you have to have a a level of capacity to be able to address variance across across the district. And so cutting 100 million from central office was significant, but I'll turn it over to to answer your question. >> Excuse me. We can't just blur. Hold on for a second. Dr. Joseph, I know this is a sensitive subject and it's our scholars, but we got to allow the administration to to to have the opportunity to describe what they want to talk about. So, I I want to give everybody grace right now because we don't want to take action, but this is the third time I've asked the audience to quiet down, please. Um, I just want to ask one more time, please allow us to communicate, you
122know, our points. Um, we have public comment. We listen to everyone. So, please allow us to have this discourse. Thank you. >> Thank you. So, to answer your question, um 86 million was cut from centrally managed operations. 55 positions are being proposed for elimination. I know on the slide, one piece of it in a particular area referenced 15, but there's other positions throughout the organization. And those positions are in different departments from the IT tech coordinator positions. I've got four in the budget office that are being eliminated. We've got positions in human resources and positions in the chief of staff. I mean, we went through general counsel positions. Every division went through and we had a target of of initially a hundred million dollars to cut from our respective budgets. And so each division chief
123went through their division and identified what they could cut. They were not specifically directed to cut positions. In fact, we were really focusing on discretionary. Um but the recommendations were provided to cut a combination of both. So in addition to the proposed 55 positions, there's also looking at our contracts. So there are contracts that have been cut. Some are not going to be renewed and some services are just being streamlined. Um we looked at some of our uh co error software applications that we were uh going to continue to fund in our general fund budget now that the SR dollars have gone away. Those have been cut. So really each division went through and identified where there were opportunities to gain some efficiencies to again try to stay as far away from schools as possible.
124I do also want to point out the fact that we often focus on central office as a whole. When it comes to our total district operations, um in 26 about 87% of our district's budget was in direct support of schools. The way in which we manage and operate as a district, not all of our school costs are sitting in a school cost center. They're managed centrally, but they're on behalf of schools. That's just the way that we operationalize the budget. So 87% of our budget supports schools, 13% central office. That's in 26. Based off of the proposed budget and where we stand and the reductions that we've made, that has now shifted even lower down to around 10 and a half 11% is central office. Everything else is in direct support of schools. Whether it's
125instruction, whether it's transportation, whether it's custodial workers making sure that our buildings are clean, whether it's the IT techs that are on the ground in the schools, all the work that we do from a from an academics, school support leadership standpoint is in direct support of our students and our scholars. >> Thank you. >> Does that does that conclude your comment, vice chair? Uh I want to say thank you so much Dr. Joseph. Thank you um to pal for the presentation. Um I want to I guess I want to take a step back and just um ask a question about I know this is obviously a difficult time for everyone and also want to thank the community for just their advocacy. I know that this had an impact on all of us to hear those
126stories and the impact that they'll have. Um, one of the things that I, as I'm looking at the budget and the specific part around the cost of doing business, the $27 million, if we are making a request for $2 and please correct me here, by the way, $214 million above what we already currently have. That's in addition to, can you correct me here? Is it that we first need to if we get any additional money, we need to address that 27 million first before we can allocate and distribute funds elsewhere. Our costs are increasing about 200 million as you identified. Um and our funding sources are limited. Our revenue is only going up a little bit. And so we're getting a lot of that um resource to fund those costs by the reductions that were
127made of $150 million. Um, so the cost that we're looking to cover, the 200ish million that you referenced, includes the cost of doing business. And so that work has already been done to identify where we can reduce to support that um along with the little bit of increase that we have in our revenue, but there's still a gap of about $15 million. And so if in the event, let's say worst case scenario, hypothetically, we don't get the level of funding from the county that we've requested, we don't get the 50 million, we have to cover that 15 just to cover essential services. So we'll be back at the drawing board looking to where we can continue to refine um and make changes and adjustments to our overall budget. >> Okay. So can I step back
128just so that because I think that there are so many numbers in fact. So like the $50 million, let's say best case scenario is we get the $50 million from the county council. If we get the $50 million, are we subtracting 15 because we have that deficit from the 50 million? >> Correct. So that 15 is going to cover that gap and then the remaining 35 is funding the accelerants special education. >> Okay. And all so then the 15 has to be distributed among those high priority issues before we can even think about anything beyond that as a priority. >> Correct. Okay. Yeah, I I I want to thank you all for your work on this. Um, this is this is no easy task um to be able to sort through this and um the
129question that I have as it relates to prior year spending. I have to ask this question because there is an immersion program that sits in my district as well which is overlooked. So, I have to ask I have to ask this question and um and I I'm not here to put two schools against another. Um but I I need help understanding how we spent before this budget. And what I appreciate about parts of this proposed budget is I feel like it does deliver on an equity commitment. When I look at what we spent in prior years on immersion schools, we have one immersion school where we spent $1.6 $6 million, but in the neighborhood immersion school that I represent, we spent $225,000. So, and I with all due respect, I think it's important to be
130clear and and I have nothing against the Paint Branch community. I don't want to put communities against one another, but we did spend $1.6 million at that one immersion program in that district. Can we talk about how we got there um in the work? How did how did we get there? And is it okay to continue to create that kind of inequity across the system where one immersion program is getting 1.6 million and another is getting 225 million. That's not justice. >> So I think that speaks to the fact that the immersion program where's my microphone? The immersion program in your district is schoolwide >> versus the two schools that we brought forward in our proposal are boundary programs. So because they're boundary programs, students flow in and out constantly. In a regular immersion program,
131there's application and lottery. You apply, you come in in kindergarten, you cannot enter in any other grade unless you can demonstrate language. In a boundary program, for example, at Paint Branch in 2024, Hollywood's boundary merged and we put 190 more students in that building. So you have to build a program to not only handle teaching immersion, but for any new student that drops into the building, you want to put wraparound services. So we are double staffed at Paint Branch and Capitol Heights versus our regular comprehensive immersion programs. >> Is is it true when I did the math? Um the math just didn't math for me. That tells me that 62.2% of what we spent on immersion programs last year was spent on one school. Am I right or wrong in my assertion? That's correct. >>
132Thank you for answering my question. >> Are there any more questions from the board members? >> Board member Olivo. >> Thank you so much, Mr. Chair. Um, and I just want to thank all of our community members we who have been emailing us, calling us, talking to us, and who came here tonight. Um, and thank you as well to our staff who has worked really hard under some very difficult circumstances um to figure out these numbers. Um, the blueprint for Maryland's future was a real watershed moment for education in the state of Maryland and did in fact um and has brought additional revenue to Prince George's County Public Schools. Um, some questions were asked around where that money went. Um, I'd be really really interested um to hear a little bit more about that officially,
133but I think that a lot of that money went into our community schools um and to our community school programming. Um but my my one question um is does Blueprint, which very much tells us how we need to spend our money, does Blueprint support the um the extras, if you will, of our specialty programs like IB and immersion and even our science and tech and our aeronautics program and all of our incredible programs. Does blueprint money from the state fund those extras? >> Thank you for that question. The short answer is no. Blueprint funds the schools based off of the student demographic in those schools and we're expected to cover all the services that's needed to educate those students from all the academic programs, athletic programs, extracurricular activities, um transportation. And we do receive transportation
134funding, but there's a gap between that funding and what it actually costs to transport those students. So that gap, we have to cover that. The rising cost of special education, we receive funding for that as well. But we have over a $200 million deficit with regards to the cost of sped and and servicing those students. And so that's covered from other blueprint funding sources. Even when you think about the foundation funding that's intended to cover all basic needs for a school, it's insufficient to cover the cost of salaries and wages and technology and mental health supports and getting our students uh CCR ready. It's just for the smaller schools in particular or those schools that don't have the diversity and the student demographic, those are the ones that we have to really supplement with additional
135funding just to cover basic servicing for the students in those buildings. Vice Chair Briggs, >> thank you. And this is going to be my last question for this round, but um Chief How, I had I really wanted to know more and hope was hoping that you could share more about the innovative or creative solutions that could exist. I know that we presented um you know information here about the realities that we're faced with but when I was looking at um you know across different counties Prince George's County Montgomery County and and county and how much they're how much they give we know that those counties are very different. I mean they have a different you know base of students demographic the need that they have the wealth that they have um properties that they have
136in those specific counties like commercial properties where they and then higher tax bases and things like that. I was just trying to understand like if we're thinking about the possibility that we may not get the $50 million. Um well one can you speak to have we historically gotten significantly above the minimum contribution from the county? And also I want to clarify that I know we've talked about the fact that that's not the case in you know in Prince George's County and other counties but is this a matter of um from what you see in the your knowledge of like the math is this a matter of the county not caring about education um or could this just be fiscally also that we have limitations on you know how much revenue can be generated through taxes.
137>> Yeah. So as Dr. Joseph spoke to earlier, it is a resource problem, a funding problem for the county um to be able to pour more funding into education. Um I certainly wouldn't characterize it that they don't care about our students. Um but it's a math problem. They're, you know, they're trying to cover all the costs with their revenue that they have coming in for all the different um county services, including the school system. Um so that's certainly a challenge as it relates to as it relates to that. In terms of um have we received funding above the minimum? Um prior to um we used to receive an energy and telecom funding source that provided dedicated funding to the school system. Um and it varied between I don't know 25 million sometimes it would go
138up to high as $55 million and that would be above and beyond the minimum that was required at that time. Um that was changed in 2025. So the last or 2024 was the last year we got it. So, we have not received that additional funding source that now goes towards the county meeting the requirements of blueprint. Um, other counties do receive above and beyond the minimum requirements and that can look very different from one district to the next depending on the wealth. Um, so Prince George's County has met the minimum requirements. Um, but since uh the repeal of energy and telecom, they've been funding us at just the minimum and not above that amount. >> Okay. So, possibility that we don't get the $50 million. Um, you know, I was thinking about the fact that
139we have a lot of property, for example. And I I'm just thinking, you know, when you have families that are in hard times where they have to figure out where can we get additional money or how could we think creatively about this, can you just speak to any So, in this example, it was could we draw from some of the property, the equity, and redistribute to uh the superintendent's point. Can you just speak to any other creative solutions that you all have considered if that is is the case so far? >> Yeah, I'll speak to it a little bit and maybe Dr. Coleman can chime in as well. But much of the property that our buildings sit on, if we demolish the building, that prop property is deed back to the county. Um, or we
140might bank that property for future use for us to use at a different point in time. Um so but we have had conversations around is there a way to possibly in the interim if we have a lot that's available how that can be monetized potentially to provide additional funding sources. You want to add to that Dr. Coleman? >> Yeah thank you Chief How? And so part of the challenge that we have related to that um board member is that over the past three years we've had seven building failures. And so the spaces that may have been unoccupied previously, we've actually had to press them into service to provide occupant uh uh space for offices to function or to actually move our schools. So, we're at a point right now where we don't have any vacant
141spaces that could be red re um re-imagined as revenue sources. >> Okay. Yeah. And and again, that was just to say for the community sake, not just about that, but other creative potential solutions. So, would love to have that conversation more to potentially share that with the community. Thank you. >> I'll like to go to uh board member Gwens McCann for her first round. Thank you, Chair Jackson, and thank you members of the administration for giving us this presentation. It was truly sobering um about a lot of the things that we have asked about. Um I have one question because I've heard a lot and also have gotten a lot in my inbox about immersion programs. Um one of which we are very proud of in my district by Angela French immersion. Also on the
142chopping block is our um primary and middle years IB programs which my Angelou French immersion happens to also have. And so my question specifically, what are we talking about when we are talking about these primary and middle years programs? Do we know what it is that we are losing by cutting them? And what specifically is this money paying for? not just at myAAngelou but at all of our elementary and middle school IB programs. >> Sure. Thank you for that question. So first I want to just communicate to our families that IB in high school our diploma program will remain that is in every school that we have it for next year will be Parkdale Frederick Douglas and Laurel High School. In our primary years and middle school years, even our diploma program, when we engage
143in anou contract with international balorate, they have certain requirements that we must fill. For example, every school must have a coordinator. If in a school like yours that you mentioned that has primary years and middle years, I have to have two coordinators because they believe they're two different programs. So whether I have 200 students there, 600 students, I have to have two coordinators. Additionally, at the primary years and middle school years, uh IB wants you to have additional uh staff that you provide to schools because you're building this rich program and it could be what the school desires. If the school desires that they want to put their emphasis in art, if they look at that they want to add technology, if they want to add a language, you're really building this program at each
144school with international baloria in the school. And so we provide um easily up to five additional positions to those schools. Uh, one of the things I've communicated is that in our primary years program and in our middle years program, they are engaged in the Prince George's County curriculum. So, while we have the designation for international balorate, we are working on service projects, um, they're building projects baked learning, but those are actually lessons that the teachers in those buildings are creating. Uh, we also have to put money towards conferences, training. uh we put money towards um making sure that the schools have additional resources and um materials and so there's a list of things that we have as a criteria that we must use. Our goal is to maintain the rigor in those buildings. Our goal
145is to curate all the materials that our schools have already created because it is our intellectual property. It is the property of Prince George's County Board of Education and to really work with those schools next year moving forward to implement what they already have in place. Additionally, because I know this was a question, I just want to clarify for our families. Any eighth grade student wanting to come into one of our IB high schools across this entire district, they apply in 8th grade and they enter that high school in 9th grade. They are cohorted with students starting in 9th grade. We start putting them in programming in 9th and 10th grade and they enter into the IB courses in 11th and 12th grade. >> Thank you. Um, board member Ajakaya. >> So, I just want
146to say thank you once again for, you know, all your efforts during this budget period. Um, I know it's not been easy, but like, you know, thank you all so much. But my question is like going back to like finding creative solutions for, um, you know, generating more revenue. Um, historically, has there ever been like, you know, a situation where we reach out to, I guess, the federal or yeah, the federal national government to request for funds there so that, you know, we have additional funds in addition to the state blueprint and also to like our county, you know, giving us money. >> Thank you for that question. That's a great question. We do have a um robust grant application um uh process to pursue and go after different grants uh sources whether it's at
147the federal um state or other uh private levels. Um each of the different areas um within the within the the district can initiate pursuing different grant opportunities and then we have a uh grants organization under Dr. administrators leadership that helps to facilitate the completion of those applications to pursue those dollars. Um we do receive quite a bit of entitlement funds um which come from the federal government and that's those are non-competitive grants but there are quite a few competitive grants that we pursue on an annual basis as well. Um I want to do I do want to point out that many of the uh restricted fund or grant programs are specific ti are specifically tied to ser certain um uh activities. So we can't generally use them to do whatever we want to do with
148those funds. Um and we always want to be careful particularly around those grant opportunities that um involve bringing on board um additional resources that we're careful about that because when that funding source goes away, you're now impacting positions for employees. So we try to be very mindful of that as well. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Moss. Um, you know, one of the things that's exciting for me is that, you know, we are having a conversation about world languages and immersion programs. I think this is really important when we talk about access and opportunity. And, um, you know, I believe if we're going to make a commitment to language um, language programs, we should be thinking about how we can get as many kids as possible in this district to having access to a language option.
149Um, and that's that's important for me. I think we should be talking about that and I think that's the heart of part of this conversation. Um, I also want to ask a question. I'm curious to know I know there was a survey done at a school. Uh, perhaps that was that was paint branch where we engaged parents. There are about 500 students at that school. If my math served me correct, I'd love to know how many parents participated in that survey. um did any of them favor um the language model that would have given every kid access to uh full for language versus how many said actually immersion inside of that. Um and I I load this conversation with the fact it's healthy for us to talk about kids having access to language. It's important.
150As someone who has traveled, I know it's important. As someone who studied language, I know it's important. But what but what's important for me when I wake up every day as a school board member is that I'm moving a policy agenda that gets every kid language, not some kid's language. That's what I'm committed to. So, did you have any conversations with parents? Uh, were they supportive of immersion? How many were part of that? How many were part of the World Languages program? I'd love to hear the numbers there. >> Sure. >> We've been accused of not engaging parents, so if the survey wasn't right, let me know. >> Sure. The school actually conducted a survey. Um there are approximately 500 and some students in the building, but if you back out prek, you have about
151494. On an email on Feb, I think it was about February 13th, one of the parents that was PTA parents that was engaged in that survey indicated that there were 116 responses of which um 85.3% which would have been about 99 students indicated that they wanted to maintain the program. The remaining amount was split between parents who weren't sure or parents who did not want it. And so that left about 300 and some parents, I'm assuming, who had no response. And so that was 99 parents. And we built a plan B for you that would have addressed 150 parents. >> So we we didn't hear from a majority of parents in that school around what they wanted that option to be >> as of February 13th when the data was shared with me. No. >>
152Okay. Thank you. Board member Jackson Saunders. >> Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. Um, and as I am the the most recent uh appointment to this board, and my ink is probably not even dry on my sworn affidavit saying I take this seat. I want you to know that I have been intentional in this short period of time to visit certain schools, to speak with certain stakeholders, to attend meetings at Ben Firehouse just last evening, listening to the concerns of the constituents in District 9, the district that I represent, and I've heard them loud and clear, Mr. Interim Superintendent. They're concerned about transportation, specialty programs, and of course special education services to name a few. I want to speak to part of your presentation and it was the equity slide because that concerned me. The
153equity slide as it relates to the IB program which of course I am impacted by that as well in terms of these cuts. It suggests that there was low outcome based on the number of enrolled individuals in that program. And so I want to know how much of the cuts that we are seeing in these programs is based on the fact that enrollment just does not sustain the program as it presently exists. >> Thank you for the question. Yes. Um, one of the decision factors, uh, was how much we're spending for the the outcome uh, the product that we're getting. As we thought, as we start thinking about scale, you know, as I said, our our challenge is we know in Prince George's County Public Schools, you know, there's been a myth that um, you
154know, the greatest rigor is only, you know, if you're going to get the best rigger, you it has to be in some type of specialty program. And as I said in in a moment of scarcity where we've, you know, heavily invested in the few, you know, I think we we've got to begin shifting primarily because the funding that we get now with the blueprint requires that as the dollars are going there. So now's the time to think of a strategy of how do we scale rigor at scale and what are the what are the programs we can invest in that will get the greatest scale for impact. Thank you, board member Brown. >> Yes. Thank you so much, Chair Jackson. I think this question is going to be to Dr. Coleman. I know we're shifting
155building repairs to C CIP. I think that's what it was said. Um, but the long-term operating versus capital cost implications and deferred maintenance risk are not nec weren't necessarily quantified on the slides, but what are the fiscal and operational risk of shifting repairs to CIP? We're talking about deferred maintenance backlog and warranty impacts because obviously not a lot of our schools are in the best shape. So from shifting that, I I was curious what that was going to look like moving forward. >> Yeah, thank you so much. So for this upcoming fiscal year, we were able to secure an additional $53 million for our capital budget. And so that offset the 10 million of the $13 million reduction that we made in the building services area. But to your point, as we move into subsequent
156years, that offset will be a challenge uh for our capital budget. This is a one-time infusion of funding, and once we've spent it on major repairs that may be um unexpected and can't be planned for, it it will be something we have to balance structurally moving forward. >> Dr. And >> thank you, Chair Jackson. Thank you um so much for the presentation. Um I too want to um just acknowledge the the community members who've come out this evening um to advocate. Um and I believe that Mr. Burgess is no longer here. Um but um I had more of a statement um that I think Oh, is he? Oh, there you are. Hello, Mr. Burgess. Um so um I serve district 1 and I had the opportunity to um just stop by um Eisenhower um I
157think to some of the points that have been made. You know obviously we have people who are you know emailing us continuously about um some of the proposed cuts and then we have in other instances um programs that we're not hearing a lot from. Right. And I'm sure there are a number of reasons for that, but I think for me I wanted to make it a priority to go to those who perhaps we were not hearing from. And I appreciated what I learned while visiting Eisenhower. I learned a lot about um both their IB program as well as the AVID program and had an opportunity to ask some direct questions about impact to some of the points that have been made here earlier as well. Um, and what I learned was that they were able
158to easily speak to the impact that they've seen at that school. At the same time, I think we are also able to acknowledge that what they've seen at their school may not be what we see across the county. And I think that is essentially in large part what we're talking about here. Now that is not to say that it is not fair, all right, for the programs to be cut. But I think what it does say is that we have an opportunity and an obligation to figure out if there is any type of alternative for the continuation of programs where we are seeing impact even if it is a gym right in in one particular area or seen as a unicorn. So, my hope is that we can continue to um look into options um
159even if tonight we're having to to vote um on a budget that perhaps does not reflect um all of what we'd hoped. So, I just want to state that and again thank the Eisenhower community and everyone who came out tonight. And again, no specific question, just more of a statement and acknowledgement of impact that we're seeing in certain parts of our district. And one one important thing we'd like to say, you know, for those schools that have the local funds, because the way we're shifting funding, uh there could be an opportunity because a school is a community school, they're a title one school, or they're because of their construct, they're getting more dollars, their enrollment is growing and such, they could purchase AVID on their own. uh or they could, you know, consider looking at
160the IB support uh or purchasing an immersion teacher if that's something um that they their budget could afford and if that's something that uh they felt would move the needle uh with the focus on improving reading mathematics and so forth. In some in some instances, it's not going to be they're not going to be it's not going to be feasible. They won't have enough money, but in some instances, it will be. But we'll give that flexibility. And I know I'm over, but I just wanted to say I appreciate that and I think that's what we need to be able to communicate and also support in instances where it is possible. Our schools will need our support to explore those options. Thank you, >> Port member Gwens McKay. >> Thank you so much for that. Um,
161additional clarification. Uh I also in kind of piggybacking on what my colleague said, I am very concerned about the concession when we talked about option B that the wording says specifically immersion programs when that does not include all of the programs that were cut, especially considering the visits that I made to um my French immersion school, the visits my colleagues have made to the schools in their districts and the very real concern about that not being able to be feasible for all of our schools. And so my question number one, with that 1.9 million, does that fully cover option B? And is there space in that 1.9 million to have that conversation with all of the affected schools and not just immersion programs? in order to restore all of the academic programs, that's closer to
162$10 million. Um so with that um amendment that was suggested around 1.9, it would just provide funding to partially support um the immersion programs specifically, but not all of the academic programs that we've been discussing this evening. >> Got it. But with the options that were proposed and discussions that were had, what was the amount that was given for the option that was proposed and then what is the difference in that amount? >> So from when I came and did a proposed B for immersion programs, we went from it was going to add another 400,000 back to do proposal B. We went from about 2 million down to about 200,000 if we ran it as a world language, which would impact every child in the building. Adding proposal B, which would give both schools a
163um lottery for 25 students per grade, took us up to cost about $480,000. >> Got it. And I know I'm almost at time, but I just want to point out that we're talking about equity tonight. And while I hate the fact that we're talking about money and taking and essentially taking money from one place to put it somewhere else, when we're talking about equity, if we're going to make a concession in one area for one program, we've got to at least give other programs that opportunity as well. >> Board member Levo. >> Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Chief Hal is tonight when we um when we vote on this budget, I really consider that to be just the start of our budget process. Can you outline for us the next steps and when this budget
164will come back to us and also perhaps share um in recent years, has it come back to us higher or lower than the requests that we made to the county council or to the county executive, excuse me? >> Yeah. So if the budget is voted on tonight, it will be transmitted tomorrow. Has to be be transmitted by March 1st, which is Sunday. So we plan to send it off tomorrow. The county to the county executive. Um the county executive then has to transmit her recommendation to the county council by mid-March. Once it gets to the county council, they have their own budget process similar to ours where there will be budget hearings um around the proposed budget, not just for the school system, but for all of the agencies. Um, the county council has to
165get through their own process and vote on a budget for the school system by the end of May and transmit it back to us by the beginning of June. And then we have to reconcile what they approve to what we transmitted at the end of February. Um, and also during that time is where we make any other reconciling adjustments that may reflect changes that come out of the general assembly process. Um, as an example, um, have we been funded at a level different than what we've requested? Um, I've only been here five years, and in the five years I've been here, uh, usually it's no, unless there's something specific that the county wants to fund. Um, but it's not usually at our request. It may be for a specific project that they want to fund
166and they will provide us additional funding for that. Um, oh, I'm just I was wondering what happened. Um so um we'll have to see what happens with that. I mean they have their they have their own >> Can I just clarify when you say it comes back to us? No. Not as the same. Do they give us generally in the last 5 years you've been here more money than we requested or less money than we requested? >> Um usually it's what well at least for the last two years it's been what they've been required to fund us at. Um, so whatever the blueprint has been, that minimum amount is what they've provided. Prior to that, it may have been an additional amount slightly above the minimum, but not substantial. >> Thank you. >> All right.
167Thank you. That concludes our comments um on the presentation. Thank you, Dr. Joseph. Moving towards the consent agenda. Dr. Joseph Thank you, board chair. Uh, I recommend uh that the board approve consent agenda items 17.1 uh through 17.16. Sorry, 17.1 was was pulled. Oh, one was pulled 17.11. Excuse me. One. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, so correction, I recommend that the board approve consent agenda item 17.1 to 17.10 and then 17.12 to 17.16. Thank you. Board members, would you like to pull any other of the any other agenda items u for discussion? And remember, um pulling an agenda item doesn't mean a no. We're just pulling it for later consideration. Okay, thank you. Um, if there is no objection, the percentage of items 17.1 through 17.10 and then 17.12 through 17.16 will be
168adopted. There being no objection, the consent on item 17.1 through 17.10 and 17.12 through 17.16 are adopted. There's no unfinished business. Moving to uh general orders uh which 19.1 was the old 17.11. So the resolution pro for proximity learning um Dr. Joseph your team. >> Yes. I'll turn it over to our chief academic officer uh Dr. Judith White who will also bring with her Miss Trenel Bowman, head of special education. >> Sure. Thank you so much. We really appreciate the opportunity to explain a little um around this resolution. I'm going to turn it over to our associate superintendent, Trenel Bowman, to give us an update on where we are with this resolution. >> And maybe go to the microphone. Yes, >> that thing was all over the place. here. >> Yes. >> Testing. Okay, there
169we are. Good evening board members. Thank you for the opportunity to share with you about the proximity learning contract. This contract, this proposed contract will provide case management services to our district for schools who have high vacancies of special educators. It will also provide compensatory education services to students who require them as a result of our vacancies and our IEP meetings that determine if they are should they should be awarded comp services. Proximity learning um will also if you think about the term of the contract is about 3 years and four months. The contract terms are approximately 2 million a year. Keep in mind that this is a fee for service. So we do not use the entire amount each year. um we would only pay for those services that are used. So if we
170only use 500,000 for that year, that's what we would pay for. There's also a termination clause within the contract that allows us to terminate the contract. And then the other piece that I would share with you is that this is a purchasing cooperative agreement, which means that we must adhere to the terms and conditions of this contract because we are writing a com um competitive contract from the purchasing agreement. This does that complete your comments? >> Yes, that concludes. >> Thank you so much. Um I know that uh board member Levo um you're good. All righty. The question is, shall the Prince George's County Board of Education adopt agenda item 17.11? Any further discussion? Okay. Uh Miss Johnson, please call the role. Miss Aikay >> I >> Dr. Anderl >> I >> Miss Boozer Strruther
171>> I >> Mr. Briggs >> I >> Mrs. Brown >> I >> Miss Goris MC >> I >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders >> I >> Dr. Moss >> I >> Mrs. Olivo >> I >> and Mr. Jackson >> I >> there are 10 in affirmative. >> Thank you. Uh motion adopted. Moving on to uh 19.2 which is the old 17.17 adoption of the FY27 board of education requested operating budget board members. Are there any uh questions? >> Two options. >> So it was it was uh Yep. So 17.17 adoption of the education requested operating budget and then 19.2 is uh 17.18 and that amendment uh from my understanding has been withdrawn. The amendment to increase additional u request to the county executive for $50 million to $95 million will be withdrawn. >> Okay. The question is,
172shall the board The question is, shall the board, Prince George's County Board of Education, approve the FY27 Board of Education requested operating budget point. >> Um, should we clarify that we're voting on the first option? >> Option A. >> Yeah, option A, which was the original proposed one. >> Yes, we're voting on the original proposal. Um, the FY27 uh budget. So, board member Boozer Shrethers. >> Yeah, thank you so much. So, um, looking at the original budget amendment one slide and then amendment two, um, I wanted to speak to the, um, the additional 45 million. uh that motion has not actually needs to be made actually in a board meeting. I know during the virtual budget discussion I spoke to a reason why I wanted it to be raised to 95 million with that that
173extra 45 which spoke to and I'll just recap a little bit that I believe the the circumstance of our county executive and partnership with um appointing an interim superintendent um with some expect with a high expectation of a PGCA a contract that is an additional 95 million. There should be partnership to pay for that and I spoke to that from the philosophical point. But tonight, I do not want to limit the 40. I do not want to li limit a number because I believe the voices the voices that the roar has been 150 million. And I think that roar from our parents, from this board, from our interim superintendent is being heard. And I do I would not want to put a limiting number on this budget at this point in time that our legislature
174and our county executive and county council are listening. And I would also say that up until just 2020, the county council budget hearings were the are the primary budget hearings. Now, I do not I maybe it was pandemic. I do not know why we're not packing the county budget hearings, but I could tell you that is where you'll go in on the night of PGCPS's budget where it would be packed with PGCA there. There would be packed with parents speaking to the value of PGCPS holistically in the budget. And so I do not know, you know, if it was the pandemic that shifted that culture, but that is the primary moment for the stakeholders of Prince George's County to talk about the budget funding. And so this continues. I will be be there and by
175your side, but I am not going to put a limiting number at this time because I believe the $150 million number, it's competing with the real need of 150 million. Thank you. Thank you board members. Are there any more comments before we take a vote on option A? All right. Um I I do have a comment um on option A. My comment is basically like um you know district six I love district six and uh I feel like a lot of times as board members we're like torn between um fiscal realities and like demand from the community and and and most of the times the demand for the community out uh outsizes the the fiscal reality that we have and we got to make tough decisions, but um when I'm forced to make these tough
176decisions, I always, you know, have to look back to my north star is is equity and social mobility. And when I when I look at the cuts that proposed, I understand the intent, but when I, you know, as as a representative of my district, District 6, we are disproportionately impacted by the cuts. um not just this year but previously as well. Um and I've and I've said this on the day before that we we uh closed down Concord Elementary School um not too long ago. Um Central um lost um IB um Largo um is is facing cut from an immersion program. you know, uh, Capitol Heights Elementary School emerging again like and and I can go on and on and Largo Largo actually shares another high school. So, you got Largo High School and Largo
177International School in the same colloccated in the same building with two separate principles. Both schools are equally great, but I'm I'm just talking about the uh disproportionate impacts um on district 6 just as a whole. And so for that reason, although I understand the cuts and I understand how we're trying to make the equity play, you know, for the whole entire PGCPS, but it it can't come on the back of just just District 6. And I don't want to say just District 6, but I just want to say it can't come on the We just can't cut so heavy in my district. I think that we have to spread the sacrifice around. So So I'm I'm going to vote no. Option A. Are there are there any more questions? >> Okay, Miss Johnson, please take
178the role. >> Miss Aikay, >> no. >> Dr. Ander, >> no. >> Miss Boozer Strer, >> no. >> Mr. Briggs, >> no. >> Mrs. Brown, >> no. Miss Gwens McC. >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders, >> no. >> Dr. Moss, >> pass and come back. >> Uh, Mrs. Olivo, >> no. >> And Mr. Jackson, >> no. >> Okay. And Dr. Moss, >> no. >> Okay. There was zero in the affirmative. >> Motion fails. Mr. Mr. Chairman, I have a motion to to reconsider the FY budget with an amendment. >> Please do. Um I'd like to amend the option B option um with an amendment that would um establish a work group over the next 90 days um between when we remit this budget to the county council and uh by the time they remit it back. Um,
179and the purpose of this workg group is to bring together business community, teachers and principles, union partners, a parent from every board member's district, the superintendent and leadership team, the county council leadership, board of education members, and Maryland state delegation members to do three things. To review existing expenditures, staffing models, contracts, and program investments. Identify opportunities for cost efficiencies, operational streamlining and strategic reinvestment and ensure alignment between resource allocation and district priorities including student achievement, special education services, um academic programs, including IB immersion um and AVID programs, literacy acceleration and workforce stability. Um, additionally, the second thing uh this work group should do in the next 90 days before our budget is tr transmitted back um establish and identify sustainable local, state, federal and public, private funding opportunities, explore innovative revenue mechanisms and partnerships and
180coordinate legislative and intergovernmental strategies to strengthen our long-term fiscal stability. Um, I'm proposing uh this amendment today, Mr. chair and board members. Uh because I believe we do have an opportunity over the next 90 days to bring all of our assets together. Um because the harsh reality is is perhaps if the county council does not meet this budget recommendation and the county executive, we may have to make more cuts. And so we should be doing that together and not just as a board of education. And so I hope my colleagues will support this workg group that will happen um while also moving forward um option B um which um is a streamlined version of the original cuts um to the schools and to your point would create a lottery in some of the programs. So
181I hope my colleagues will support uh this amendment and option B of the budget. >> Excuse me. Thank you. Thank you for the motion to reconsider. Um, just give me a second to uh converse with uh >> the motion to reconsider and then you can take up my amendment. I'm sorry. >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> Motion is to reconsider the vote on the budget. >> They can debate that vote on it and if it's adopted then the budget is before them again. What he just said is not amendment to the budget. >> Okay. >> It's a completely separate motion to form a committee called a work group. >> Okay. >> To go do something >> and I don't know what I don't think you can postpone this because it has to be since Sunday. >>
182So postponement is out of the question. >> So you can't do that. >> You can move the reconsider as we talked about this and then do whatever you want to the budget but not form a committee and not postpone it. Um, Dr. Moss, you might need to come over and talk to Dr. Swift, Mr. Swift real quick. We just want to make sure that we are in compliance with all um standards. Mr. Chairman, I'll maintain my motion to reconsider the budget. Um, I'll strike the amendment that I propose and offer that amendment as a new item in new business um to establish the work group. given that there's no geraness between the budget and the work group um in terms of functionality. So if we could vote on option B and then um what will
183happen is I'll propose my work group as new business. Okay, just let me make sure that's the motion. So he said the the motion is that you have to reconsider the vote on the budget. So we Oh, budget A, option A. We voted no. So you want to reconsider. So we moving on to option B. >> Absolutely. Or we could just vote on option B. >> Okay. Mr. Chair, do you recognize me for a motion? >> Yes, I do. Sorry. Uh, audience, we had to get the uh technical um language right um so we won't be in uh violation. So, um I remove my motion to reconsider um for the purpose of this conversation and I offer a motion to approve option B um which is the third document in um diligent that you'll be
184able to see. It's option B. There are three in there. Um option B is the last document uh inside of uh board doc. So, I move that we approve option B. >> Gotcha. And I'm going to open up for discussion in a second. The question is, shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the FY27 option B board of education requested operating budget? Any discussion? >> Okay, I have U board member Ber. >> Yeah, thank you so much. Um I I just just so I don't miss the chance on this because I was looking at our slides from the earlier presentation the final budgets and there's the one called amendment two that removes the 1.925 million accelerant for AI enabled security cameras. I would like to amend the budget with option two to also
185remove the 1.925 million accelerant for AI enabled security cameras. It's the same thing. It's the Yeah, it's the same thing. I apologize if I'm confusing the language. The slide said amendment two, which removed the AI security and moved $1.9 million over for academic programs, >> which >> It's the same thing. >> The my the reason I'm saying option B is cuz on our public meetings, they refer to it as option B. So, I do apologize. Okay. >> But on the slide, it's referred to as amendment number two. >> Okay. >> All right. So, I want to go down. So, I have uh 15. I have Dr. Moss and then 16 I would say uh board member Gwens McCann. >> Is that for me, Dr. Moss? I appreciate that. Um, board member Boozer Struts, I would
186also like to add that the wording on that slide and the wording that we are asking for in that is not the same. And so I' looking at the numbers on the budget, they might sit the same places, but academic programs and immersion are not one and the same. We've got two other programs on the block in this conversation. So is there looking at the way the budget is written versus the wording on that slide, which one are we legally voting on? And then how do we make sure that that is included when we vote >> instead of just >> she said um excuse me, Mr. Swift said uh you will make the amendment to include just all academic programs and not just immersion. Got it. So, I know I can only address this to
187you, Chair Jackson, but can I make that amendment now or do I have to make that amendment later? >> Yes, you can. >> Thank you. So, I move that we ensure that the wording in the budget that we propose says academic programs and not just immersion programming. >> Okay. Without objection, the amendment is adopted. Thank you. All right. Uh, moving forward, we have questions from Dr. Moss. >> Yeah. I just just for the general public, they've asked for this, so I want to make sure they get it. If you could leave amendment number two on the screen so the community can see what we're voting on. And I just want to voice over what this what this does. And amendment two. The reason man, you're moving real fast. Yeah, if I can get There we
188go. Amen. >> There we go. Amendment number two. This is why we need a budget increase so we can get new technology all our schools. Um, but amendment number two maintains the county funding request at 50 million. It removes 1.925 million accelerant for AI enabled security cameras. It uses that 1.925 million um for academic programs. So that is what uh board member Goen McCants is revising. The 1.925 that was for AI enhanced cameras will go to academic programs, not just immersion programs. Um so just want to make sure that clear, but this is what we're um voting on. And if you recall back to the last meeting where they had three columns in the documents to show the original what was happening, the propo the original proposed change and then the final change. It's what's
189in that uh middle column that we're talking about here um in the color-coded documents. So in the case of Paint Branch Elementary School, if I recall correctly, it goes from 13.5 units to three three three units uh for immersion program. So you're looking in that column where the change is made. It is the the middle column I believe of that document. complete. They complete Vice Chair Briggs. Thank you, Chair Jackson. Um I I just want to say and I I absolutely understand the sentiment behind my colleagues um amendment to the $ 1.925 million. And I also agree that I think that this should be for all academic programs. One of the things that I'm concerned about is the feasibility of the amount of money that we have being able to actually have an impact on
190any of the programs if it's spread across so many. I know that that dollar amount, and I'm happy to defer to Dr. White, I know that dollar amount was specifically kind of tailored to the ability for at least some degree of continuity of the program versus a world language program. Um, and I would just love to hear from the like an expert opinion before we make that decision as to whether or not it would actually have the impact that we're intending it to have or if there is a a better alternative for us to take. Dr. White, >> uh, what I would say is the reason I came with option A as the CA as the CAO is because I took a look at what I thought we could do to hold some type of
191um, valuable program in schools for children. However, we'll go back in the work group if that's what you're proposing to look across to see what options that and that's the decision that we'd have to call IB and say what's the least amount we could do to maintain something with integrity. We'd have to call AVID to say what's the least amount our school teams along with my teams will have to be in schools and say what programs are working well. I think that's what the intent of in my mind of you saying spending the next 90 days gathering some data and then I might come back and say my pro my proposal stands. Um but I think you're asking us with due diligence how and how can we make a fair proposal across all programs and
192we're willing to go back and do that. So, so I guess what I would say to that is I'm I'm okay with like it being academic programs, but if the impact is that it wouldn't have a significant impact on IB or others, um I don't know if if board members are opposed to it being for some program where it could have impact as we've listed here. Um and I just want to say that so I'm I'm willing to not like counter the amendment, but um I just wanted to give that additional context. Thank you, >> Dr. Anderville. >> Yeah, I just want to make a quick comment to that. I think what we know already just based on the information that's been presented to us is that the 1.9 would certainly not cover, right, all
193of the academic programs. We know that. But what we know or at least in what sounds like it's um possibly um being proposed here is that we have an opportunity to see how those funds could be used right while also looking at other areas over the next 90 days. So I believe that's what I'm hearing. Um and I'm open to trying that versus trying nothing at all. >> Dr. Moss. >> Yeah. I just want to say um you know we'll take care of this workg group and the new business but I think critical to this work is and and I hear the parents loud and clear um that you know there there could have been a better opportunity to engage with them around design. Um I I don't want to call a parents name um
194wrong but I think it's Anna Gutterz. I remember I remember meeting with >> Gutierrez. I knew I was going to get it wrong. Uh >> Gucci Arez, >> Anna Guerri. Um she we literally had a conversation and in that um she was proposing different models where she had reworked the budget and had a conversation around it. I think having an opportunity to sit at the table with our I ain't mean to get you all them claps like that. No. Um but um having a conversation and a workg group with parents in that fashion over the next 90 days can help us get to a better place. We're not all we're not going to agree at the end, but making a commitment and saying on the day that we're going to give 1 million here and
195another million here and we don't know all the and 500,000 here and we don't understand the realities. Um but we also I think I proposed this amendment because um we really need the opportunities to give AVID and IB a chance to really understand again and allow our chief academic officer and team to work with these folks. They may come back with the same proposal after 90 days. But what I also need to say here is this is no guarantee. I fully suspect that we may have to cut more out of the budget uh when the budget is reverted back to us and we may have deeper cuts. And so having had the opportunity to engage with stakeholders from business community, council, parents from every schoolboard, district really affords us the opportunity to to deliver on
196um you know tough cuts uh for for kids and families. So um I hope my colleagues will support the amendment um as is. Are there any more comments? All right, Miss Johnson, please call the role. >> Miss Ajakay, >> I. >> Dr. Ander, >> I. >> Miss Boozer Strruther, >> I >> Mr. Briggs, >> I >> Mrs. Brown, >> I >> Miss Goins McCannz, >> I >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders, >> I >> Dr. Moss >> I >> Mrs. Olivo >> I >> and Mr. Jackson >> I >> there are 10 in the affirmative. >> Option B passes. Moving on to new business. Is there any new business? Dr. Moss. >> Um Mr. Mr. Chair, I'd like to make a motion to um uh approve the strategic alignment work group. Um so I move that the
197Prince George's County Board of Education established a PGCPS strategic realignment work group to address the current physical realities by aligning existing resources and recommending um new revenue strategies. And I'm happy to submit the emot uh the language for the record to uh Cindy and team. >> Thank you. Can you repeat that one more time? >> I move that >> Okay. >> the Prince George's County Board of Education >> establish the PGCPS strategic realignment work group to address current fiscal realities by aligning existing resources and recommending new revenue strategies. Point of personal purp. >> Okay. So the question is And uh do Mr. Swift said they should have a timeline. When do they report? >> In 90 days. >> Starting March 1. >> Okay. The question is, shall the Prince George's County Board of Education establish
198the PGCPS strategic realignment work group um for 90 days starting uh March 1st? I guess that covers it, right? >> Any discussion? >> All right, Miss Johnson, please uh call the row. >> Miss Aikay, >> you have a vote. >> That was felons. >> I >> Dr. Anderl, >> Miss Boozer's brother, >> I >> Mr. Mr. Briggs >> I >> Mrs. Brown >> I >> Miss Goins McC >> I >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders >> I >> Dr. Moss >> I >> Mrs. Olivo >> I >> and Mr. Jackson >> I >> they're intended to the affirmative >> motion is adopted. Any more new business? >> Board member Goen Mccass. >> Thank you Chair Jackson. Um and in light of all the conversation we've had today about having to come back and our superintendent's um plan
199and offer to make sure that he meets with our PTA from all of the affected schools. I want to actually make an emot a mo mercy it is late uh make a motion that expands upon that and makes that an official board working group. So, I move that the board of education direct the superintendent and his team to establish for the 2627 school year an academic program continuity working group to support schools and communities impacted by relocations and adjustments to IB AVID and immersion programs. This working group will be inclusive of PTA leadership from affected schools, teachers and support staff representing impacted programs, school-based administrators, the SMOB and PGAS president andor their design and appropriate central office representatives um to be appointed by the superintendent. Um the purpose of this working group is to safeguard
200the rigor, fidelity and continuity of instructional services within these affected schools. identify implementation challenges and opportunities for strengthening program delivery as we go into this next school year and another very difficult budget cycle and elevate stakeholder voice in this conversation. And then I further move that the chief academic officer provide those quarterly written and oral updates to the board during next school year as mentioned. Um and specifically these up updates shall summarize feedback from this working group identify progress towards maintaining program rigor and continuity because that seems to be a very obviously we're here for education like that's the most important part. So we want to make sure that we are keeping that outline any recommended adjustments to those programs and then provide data where appropriate to inform board oversight and decision-making. And I hope
201this motion will affirm the board's commitment to academic excellence, stakeholder engagement and continuous improvement in service of all of our students, not just some programs. >> So, um, the question is, um, shall can you read your motion over with and then we'll vote on it because I there's no way I can repeat that. In short, >> in short, >> yes. I move that we establish a 20 school year 2627 academic program continuity working group for all schools impacted directly by this budget and relocations. >> Thank you. Are is there any discussion? >> Miss Johnson, please take the take the role. >> Miss Aikay >> I. >> Dr. Ander >> I. >> Miss Boozer >> I. >> Mr. Briggs >> I >> Mrs. Brown >> I >> Miss Goys MC >> I >> Mrs. Jackson Saunders
202>> I >> Dr. Moss >> I >> Mrs. Olivo >> I >> and Mr. Jackson, >> there are 10 in the affirmative. >> They are attending affirmative. The motion to direct the superintendent to establish the 2026 2027 school year, a program continuity work group to support schools and communities impacted by relocation adjustments to the international balorate IB AVID and immersion program is adopted. Um, thank you all for joining us tonight. Uh to our online viewers, thank you for um waiting with us to 10:26. Uh there being no further business, the time is now 10:26 and the February 2026 uh 26, 2026 uh business meeting is adjourned. Thank you, Mr. Smith.