001Dr. Andreful? Miss Walker? Chair Jackson. Alright, we have 4 board members present. Thank you. With a quorum present, the Operations, Budget, and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting will come to order. If there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the January 28. 2026 meeting agenda. There being no objections, the January 28, 2026 meeting agenda is adopted. If there are no corrections, the December 17, 2025 meeting minutes shall be approved as distributed. There being no corrections, the minutes are approved. There are no public comments for this evening. But we do want to remind the public that you do have the option to make public comments for our committee meetings through the same manner that you do. Our public board meetings. on Diligent. So we'll move on to our presentations, starting with our revenue production. projection, excuse me,
002update. Uh, the chair recognizes Chief Howell, our Chief Financial Officer. Good evening, thank you. Um, at this time, I'm actually going to turn it over to Director Siobhan Smith. And she will provide the update. Good evening, I'm going to share my screen. Can everybody see my screen okay? Thumbs up, okay. Thank you. So I'm gonna give a brief update. Um, on our revenue. So, as you know, the governor's budget was released last week, I believe Wednesday. of last week, and I just want to give you a couple of highlights. Um, and what we saw in the state's budget concerning education. Um, so the state's FY27 budget continues to grow K-12 funding. With 359 million statewide increase and maintains its commitment to the food brand, which. We… we knew, based off of, uh. His first happened
003said he had weeks ago. For PGCPS, the most significant positive is the $228 million set aside to hold. Our CEP schools on this. As farm participation declines. And so, this protects many of our highest-need schools, and I don't know if you remember, but we talked about if that provision. The boardrooms provision, if that goes away as a current law, it is slated to. Um, it would be a huge hit. to our revenue. Um, and so when we got the preliminary state aid, we saw where we were held harmless and. According to the governor's budget, it is their intention to advocate for this to be a permanent hold on this. Um, so that we're not fighting for this year of the year. So that is a positive, is a huge positive. Um, for MBAs across the
004state. But overall funding increases are welcome, they do rely on the Blueprint fund balance rather than recurring revenue. Which does raise some sustainability questions going forward. Um, in addition, the budget also includes targeted investments for assessments and school safety, which can help offset some of our unavoidable cost increases. But we need to be cautious. These gains must be viewed in the context of rising operating costs that continue to outpace revenue. Um, and so while the headline is increased state support, that is true, the underlying reality for. GCPS is a mixed picture of protections alongside new pressures. Um, so we want to be careful. to not celebrate too much. There's still a lot of pressures regarding the state and local governments, along with school districts across the state. So now we can talk about some of
005those risks, and then our advocacy priorities for our district. Um… the most significant risk. For our district is the state's decision to shift teacher retirement costs to local government. Um, statewide, it's totaling about $39 million for Prince George's County, it's estimated to be about $5 million. And again, that doesn't sound super significant, but we just want to. make sure that the messaging, while. the superintendent, along with the Board of Education, is collaborating with our county. Um, officials. to receive additional funding. Towards the county contribution. Um, that's above and beyond what is required via Blueprint. This… the county is also receiving pressure from the state, where a lot of, uh, the state and local cost sharing, that percentage. is lessening for the state and increasing. For the county. And so, that can create. pressure on the
006county that could then, in turn, impact. what they have available to provide in addition to what they're already having to provide. And these would not be appropriated funds to. The district, these would be on behalf of payments that would increase. Um, so just wanted to put that out there. Um, and so just to reaffirm, that SHIP doesn't reduce costs, it just shifts, it transfers the cost. Um, to the counties. Um, we are also concerned about the changes to the disparity grant, which could weaken targeted age for our large. I need districts like Prince George's County. Um, and at the same time, Prince George's County Public Schools continues to face rising costs and compensation, transportation, special education, compliance. I mean, these are all things that we've already kind of talked about. Um, and so our advocacy
007is focused on protecting our high-poverty schools. Avoiding further cost shifts and ensuring the blueprint maintains fully funded and sustainable. Um, and so our core message is quite simple, supporting the blueprint means supporting the systems that serve the highest-need students. Without shifting costs to local governments. So, looking at this, when we talk about total operating revenue, now we're at the phase where we are talking about. Now that we see the preliminary state aid and the governor's budget. We are comparing it to what our assumptions were in the proposed budget. So there are some slight variations. Um, so this slide talks about total. operating revenue. The difference between the FY27 proposals, which is superintendent. I presented last week. Um, and the FY26 requested, which is post the preliminary state and file coming out. Um, the primary difference.
008Here is mainly in restricted. Um, our total restricted revenues increased by about $18.9 million, or 6.4%. Uh, between the proposed and requested levels. And this is primarily driven because of the concentration of poverty grants. That was the largest single driver of the increase of about 16.8 or almost $17 million. Um, and the last piece was the floor ladder funding. Um, our career ladder, we had a lot. more teachers than we assumed, um, that were counted, uh, for, um. the career ladder, and as a result, that represented an increase in our anticipated revenues of about $1.3. million dollars, so when you put those together, that constitutes the biggest portion. of the increase, um… And then we also have… we'll go into the next slide, which will outline what's going on with the unrestricted. Um, and so
009the… Biggest change on the unrestricted revenue. is the $3.9 million. I'm gonna say boost from the county, but basically. It is supporting our junior ROTC, and we have some health partnerships with the Department of Health of the county. Um, and then we have a second adjustment of about $3.2 million in state aid. Um, and this is from a major state aid, I should say. This is primarily driven by finalized enrollment counts, um, and then updated funding formulas once we've received the preliminary state file. Um, so those adjustments, those slight on the unrestrictive side, still gives us a little bit more. Zoom, of course. to… Close any deficits or any concerns that the district may have. Um, and then finally, just wanted to just walk through some upcoming key dates. Um, as you will know, we
010have 3 upcoming work sessions and public hearings. I'm on the 5th, the 12th, and the 19th, and then finally, we are going to be requesting. Our Board of Education to adopt their FY27 requested budget on the 26th. of February. And with that being said, that concludes the update. No, it's not a lot, um. But it is good news in the sense that all the percentages were going the right way. They were going up, not down. Um, so at this point. I will stop and answer any questions you may have. Thank you so much. Board members, do we have any questions? Um, I don't see any hands, but while I give my colleagues a moment, or Zoom a moment to catch up, I do have. a couple of my own. One… I don't know if you
011have all the answers, and if not, feel free to direct us to whoever does. With the career ladder. You mentioned that there were more teachers on that than we expected there to be. Can you explain a little bit where we got our estimate numbers from, and how there could be. how those numbers could have been off. Yeah, so now try to explain the best to my knowledge, um, and then it may be something that they follow back up with you. Um, so part of it is… At the time, we used the estimated amount that, uh, our. Human Resources Department. Um, calculated in the fall. So they provided numbers, but there was probably a reconciliation. Um, that happened with MSDP that adjusted our numbers, and as a result, it resulted in, um. additional teachers. To qualify
012for the letter funding. In addition, um… I'm assuming there's going to be a second reconciliation that happens probably in the spring. Um, so… but we weren't aware, and so we got the state aid document that finalized the final counts. Um, that was. And I'm cheap now, I don't know if you have anything to… That's the best of my understanding. You pretty much summed it up. It's definitely a reconciliation between. the account information that we provide. Um, and validating that with MSTE. To make sure that we sort of land on the correct. Gotcha. Thank you. And then my other, uh, part of the question to make sure that I am understanding. the state has requested that local. Uh, locally, we take on the cost of… teacher retirement to the tune of about $5 million, and that
013would be an ask of our county government. However, because it is something. That is a cost affected with the school system. it's not a part of our budget, but a part of what they are paying to support us. Are there any other costs like that? Broadly that we're aware of. Yeah, we actually… there's about… $200 million in. Um, costs that are paid on behalf of. the school system. Um, it includes items such as, um. school crossing guards, uh, there's debt service that's tied to bonds. that are issued for capital programs. There's the P3 payment that's paid on our behalf. Um, so those are just… The music. So those are just some examples of some of the payments that are made on behalf of the school system. That's not part of our operating budget. Um, but
014when you think about it collectively in terms of the support for the district. It's our operating budget, plus these on behalf of payments that are made as well. And there's actually a section in our budget book that we. Gotcha. have those summarized. It's way in the back, so if you get through the 300 or so pages of the budget book. There's a schedule in the back that outlines and summarizes all the payments that the county makes on our behalf. Gotcha. Thank you so much, Chief Howe. Board member Ajakaia? Thank you, and thank you for, um, this wonderful updates. My question is on… it's from slide 5. It's about, like, the JROTC funding received from the county. I wanted to ask, are there any other, like, um, programs that will also receive, like, some additional funding,
015like, just so that the students can have something to look forward to? I know there's a lot of JRTC students in the county that would be really excited to hear about this funding, but um… Just to give hope for the other students so that they know if there's going to be more funding provided for their specific programs, too. such as band, and so on and so forth. So, I am not sure of who my stuff. On the restricted side, what additional funding, like, I don't know off the top of my head, but I can't stand it up. Our junior ROTC funding is funding that we receive year over year, but there is a local share to that. Um, and so that local share is usually completely unrestricted side, or we have to reduce the blueprint
016dollars that we get in order to pay for it, but this year, we are asking the county. To cover that for me, um… With the addition of funding that raised. It's so… right now, it's not a high pressure. to cover that. Local portion of the 5D, and so that's why it kind of looks like it's an open increase. Yeah, so, um, with the JROTC program. essentially the funding that we get for that is tied to paying for the instructors that helps to support that program. Um, and the funding that we get to cover the cost of the instructors comes from the federal government. But there is a local match that we're required to pay. to support the cause of those instructors and that local match. is the share or the portion. That would come from
017the county government. Um, so… in the past, it was a separate amount that was above and beyond. the maintenance of effort? That the county would contribute towards the local batch, or the local share of the… Um, J-R-O-T-C instructors. Since the advent of Blueprint, it's kind of been rolled up into that total number that they provide to us. Um, but we always like to kind of call it out as a separate item. Um, so we're not taking a blueprint funds to take care of this local match requirement. So that's why you see that captured there. Thank you all so much. So, with that, do we have. Any more questions, board members? Okay, seeing none, thank you all both. Uh, we will move on to your budget work session overview. Chief Howe? So I'll just kind of
018speak to it at a high level, Siobhan presented earlier on the last slide. We have 3 work sessions. Coming up February 5th, 12th, and 19th. Um, for those that have been a part of the budget work session. process in the past, um, the format. for this year will be different than how it's been in the past. Um, what used to happen in the past, there would be a series of. questions that will be submitted. by board members to administration, based off of the review of the budget book. And then we would come… to the work sessions, to be able to talk through the responses to those questions, that we would provide those responses in advance. For this year's session. Um, as you know, there's been a lot more engagement throughout the budget formulation process, and
019we've been. doing it in phases, sharing different aspects of the budget formulation as we've been going along. We spent a lot of time in the beginning initially talking about, um. the reductions that were being made, and then we've talked a little bit more about the enhancements that were being made. This is kind of really pulling it all together, so each division will spend about 10 minutes. Providing an overview of… their overall division, providing a highlight of their overall. mission, their core services. Um, and really, what is the focus of what they're going to be doing with their planned budget for the coming year? They'll be able to kind of bring the full story together about what reductions did take place. in their respective division, but more importantly, to really focus on. What remains in their
020budget and what they're going to do with that for the coming year. Um, this will be after the budget book is released. Um, so folks who want to have a sneak peek at the budget book. Which is great reading if you like to get into the numbers. But this is a… it's a great way for each division to kind of bring their budget story to life. So they'll spend time, about 10 minutes, going through that at a high level. Um, and then the floor will be opened up for questions from board members. Um, the work sessions will be. preceded by, or followed by, public hearing as well, so there'll be an opportunity for public comment as well. And so that format will be the same for each of the three work sessions. Um, the first
021work session coming up next week. We'll start off with the big three, as we like to refer to them as. That will include the division of Operations. the Division of Academics and the Division of School Support Leadership. Um, and then there's two following work sessions after that, and I'm sorry I don't have it right in front of me. Um, I'll try to pull it real quick, um, shortly, but the next section on the 12th. The format will be the same, um, each division will spend time presenting for 10 minutes, and then, um, it'll be followed by Q&A. Um, but the goal is to really help to. provide a little bit more color, um, and understanding about what is in the budget. Um, because sometimes it's hard to glean that just by looking at tables and
022schedules and the budget book. So this is really a good way to try to bring all of this together, but at a division-by-division basis. So that is the overall… plan for the work sessions. Thank you so much, Chief Howell. Board members, do we have any questions? Doctor Andreful? Yes, um, good evening, everyone. Hopefully you can hear me. I have a little bit of background noise. Um, so I just had a quick question. I heard you, um… Be back up. Let me just ask pointedly. So, Chief Howe, can you explain how this format is different. from what we experienced last year. Yeah, so for this, um… For this year, there will be short presentations that are put together by each division. And they will spend about 10 minutes sort of walking through. Um, their division, really
023providing some understanding about what is actually captured in their budget. What changes took place in their budget, so what they may have reduced, what enhancements or accelerants there may have been in their budget. And really, what is her plan to do with the budget that has been appropriated for the year? Keep in mind, we spend a lot of time over the last, I don't know, month or so talking about reductions. Um, of $150 million, which is a substantial amount. We haven't cut that much in one year. Um, but there's a $3 billion budget that still remains. So we really want to spend some time talking through what is planned for the coming year. that's built into, um, each of those respective. budget. So that's really how the structure's going to be different. It's going to
024be less of a… sort of coming into it and responding to prepared Q&A. But really, hopefully, since we've spent quite a bit of time over the last, you know. 5, 6 weeks or so along the way, providing insight into the budget formulation, some of the decisions that were being made. Um, hopefully there'll be less questions, uh, around that, because there's been a lot of discussion about that already. But just really give an opportunity to kind of pull. pull it all together for each of the different areas. Um, so some of it will be information we've shared before. Um, but it's really kind of laser-focused, one. division at a time. Whereas before, we've been providing information at a high level for the whole district. Okay, all right, thank you, that's helpful. I know I only have
025a few seconds left, so I'll follow back on the second round. I know for some reason it felt like that's similar to what happened last year, but perhaps it… maybe it just wasn't done to that level, so… Um, my assumption is you have set expectations, or someone has set expectations for what should be included in the overviews to ensure that there's continuity across. Um, is that true? Exactly, exactly. So each division will pretty much follow a very similar format. Um, and again, it's really about education, that's really kind of the goal of this, is to make sure that. The budget book is a nice supplement, but this is really… an opportunity to kind of just provide information about each area, what are their core services, what is the mission. What will be their main focus
026for the coming year, and their spending plan for the budget that's been appropriate for their area. Um, and also, I did want to just go back to quickly, because there was a question asked about the different divisions. So I mentioned the big three will be the week of the 5th. Um, the Division of Academics, Operations, um… And school support and leadership. Um, and then the next work session will be accountability. human resources, information technology, and the Board of Education. And then the final work session on February 19th. will be the Division of Business Management Services. The chief of staff, um, Communications and Community Engagement. And then the Office of the Superintendent and General Counsel. So that will be the flow of those 3 different sessions. Thank you, Cheryl. Or the order of those three different
027sessions. And in each of the sessions will be the division chief, and they'll be there with their directors as well, and their associate superintendents. Is that gonna be on the website, on the budget resources website, where people can clearly see? Yes. Yep. Board Member Brown? Thank you, uh, Chair Goins-Mcance. You kind of segued into what I was. I'm gonna ask… Chief Howell, can you confirm if the budget book is going to be published tomorrow? Because that's noted in the timeline. I know we've been in snow days, so… Are we still with the timeline, or, you know, we've all been in snow days, so I can only imagine, um, but I kind of wanted to know, um. If we're still sticking to the timeline, if the timeline is going to shift, can you speak on that?
028Thank you. Yes, I will give a huge shout out to the Budget Office, because rain, sleep. Sean, snow. They have been busy, busy working. Um, it is… it is shifting just a day, so we are expecting to release it on Friday. Um, but they have been busy working throughout this time frame to ensure that we stick to our time schedule, because it's really important. that the budget book is released prior to the work sessions, so that our community, our stakeholders have an opportunity to review the budget book prior to February 5th. So, kudos to the Budget Office. They've been working really hard. Thank you. Yes. Are we gonna be able to see an update, um, in the timeline on the website? Just because I know several people have checked and have asked that exact same
029question. They're looking for the 29th. Yeah, um, we can circle back with the comms team and see if we can have that updated to reflect the 30th. Thank you so much. I want to give my colleagues an opportunity, if we have any more questions for a first round. And if not, we'll open it up for any second round questions. Okay, I don't see any additional hands for first round, second round… Do we have any additional questions for Chief Howell? And… Director Smith. Seeing none, thank you both so much for. Uh, your presentations and answering our questions and requests. And with that, we will move to… Our operations updates. Um… The chair recognizes Associate Superintendent Washington. For EFMP and educational specifications. Update. Uh, good evening, uh, Chair and board members. Thank you for this opportunity, uh,
030and, uh, I will share my screen here. Move this into… So, I'm coming today on behalf of the Department of Capital Programs, uh, specifically, uh, the, um, Office of Planning, uh, to provide an overview of the work that the planning team will begin, uh, this winter. really two big planning initiatives. Uh, the educational specifications, uh, which are, you know, really what. schools need to support teaching and learning. and our educational facilities master plan, which is our… uh, 10-year plan, looking at all of the facilities, uh, long-term planning, uh, for the county. So, really, to start it off, the educational specifications are literally just a blueprint. We create, um, prototype ad specs. So, for elementary school, middle school, and high school. Uh, they were last updated in 2015, and they align with the EFMP. So they're
031one and the same. With that said. We also have ad specs that will be specified per school project. So, we have a baseline prototype that we send out when we are getting quotes and trying to get architects involved in the development of schools, but then there are specific, uh, project-specific ed specs based on the programs that will be in the schools. Um, any special ed programs, any special, uh, components within a school. And that is what is used when we build schools. Um, like I says here, the EdSpec. define space types, sizes, and very specifically, adjacencies. So… putting loud sports and music classes away from the academic classes, and so… so that's kind of how. the ad specs work. These, uh, work with the architects and planning to make sure that what we deliver. in
032District 5, it's the same that we would deliver in District 8. Um, so, the educational facilities master plan is really our, uh, plan for, um, academic and community needs over the next 10 years. So, we first looked at this back, uh, and it was approved in 2017. And within that, we looked at facility condition, educational adequacy, and, uh, goals that the district had looked at before. 12, uh, to 15 years ago, the big driver was reducing overcrowding and moving to 6th grade out of. elementary schools, so there was a big push for more middle schools, uh, to be part of. the EFMP and the priority list. That… it may change. That will change based upon data collection and analysis, community and stakeholder engagement. Um, and really. seeing what our facilities, uh, need and the conditions
033that they're in. One thing that I want to stress is that we have. Uh, two cycles. Uh, cycle 1, cycle 2, cycle 3, based upon, uh, the… the dire need and the urgency of the schools, with Cycle 1 being the most urgent. Just because a school is in cycle 2 does not mean it automatically bumps up to Cycle 1. It's a whole reassessment. There may be schools that were Cycle 3 that have deteriorated more. And need to rise to the top. So, we say that because there may be an expectation that, okay, we just cleared out and all schools rise. That may not necessarily be the case. Additionally, there may be other priorities that the board and the school system wants to undertake. that will adjust the schools that will be evaluated in the, um,
034and the priority that they will have within, uh, the EFMP. So, here's the timeline. Uh, really, right now, we are, um… thinking about our data needs, outlining key questions, uh, and topics. So, what are the key questions? One of them is around, uh, pre-K, universal pre-K. How are we incorporating that into our, um. elementary schools. Right now. We are adding, for every elementary school that we deliver, 4 pre-K classrooms. That's… is that where we should stay? Do we need more seats? Additionally, we are looking at, uh, with, um, Associate Superintendent, uh, Trenell Bowman around Special Ed. Are there specific, um, things that we need to change in our school design? and the numbers to reflect the booming population of autism that we're seeing within the district. Uh, so those are some of the key questions
035and topics that we're starting to. highlight and outline that we will, uh… try to grab data and pull data in as we go forward. Uh, then, uh, for the rest of the year will be data collection. So there will be literally going into every school, uh, doing a site assessment. also conducting stakeholder input, uh. there will be, very shortly, a release of a comprehensive communications plan that will… I'm sorry, that will literally lay out, um, in extreme detail of all of the community, um. opportunities and input opportunities that will exist that will include, uh, in-person and virtual meetings that will include going to every district, both. Uh, bored, and probably council district as well, um, and so, in addition to probably regional meetings as well. So, it will be a very comprehensive, uh, opportunity and
036program to get as much input as possible. Uh, then, uh, the next… this time next year will be drafting. the initial draft of the EFNP and the consultants that have been hired will do that. Um, and then finally, we will be presenting to the board for approval the final. EFMP for adoption. With that said, there will be iterations that will be provided to the board, so it will not be under vault, uh, lock and key, and then we just deliver it, uh, next spring, uh, for approval. There will be opportunities, I am sure, uh, for input, as well as this is what we're seeing right now. This is the information that we have. And, uh, for feedback to find tweaks or find additional information if needed. Uh, so, like I said, the current activities, uh,
037we've had, uh, a project kickoff. Um, we've identified consultants, uh, that will. support with the communications, with the EdSpec, uh, development, and with the, um, site assessments. Um, we have started an internal committee. Uh, the Facility Advisory Committee, so all of the, uh, chiefs. Uh, from academics, um, from, uh. finance, uh, to school leadership, school support and leadership. operations, everyone is on the Facility Advisory Committee. Why? Because we want to make sure that everybody sees the direction that's going, that there's feedback from all parts of the district. Specifically, academics. Um, we on the operations side, we like to get stuff done. But, you know, we also need to be told, hey, this is. things that we're thinking about, and that things change, and there are iterations as they go, and so that's the… That's the,
038uh, the necessity of having Dr. White and her team in the room, and Dr. Merrill and her team, just to make sure that, you know, we are understanding. how the buildings need to operate, and the flexibility needed to ensure that we can deliver the educational program in our schools. Uh, we are compiling existing data and documentations, really. What were the last assessments, what are the, um, the building records telling us? Uh, and then the pilot assessment of 3 schools. What does that mean? That means we're gonna go all the way through this process. with 3 identified schools. So we would do a facility assessment, which is the condition of the building. We will do educational adequacy. There are some questions around that. That basically means that, are we able, and is the school able to
039deliver its program in the school that it has right now? So, if we are talking about a school that's 160%. uh, overcrowded. that probably means they're going to have a very poor educational adequacy, regardless of if the facility, uh, is well-maintained. Um, and that's the… that's the difference, and so we would take, uh… three schools through that process to make sure that we are comfortable with the steps that we're using to do full assessments. Um, and then we will take it out to all of the schools. There will be internal stakeholder meetings, as I was saying, uh, reaching out to the board and the school communities. Um, we'll draft educational specs, uh, and we'll have as many community input sessions, uh, as we can to ensure that there is maximum visibility into this process, but
040not to hide the ball. This is the process that helps us identify the next. 10 years of priority schools. So this is a very, uh, important process for us. We are excited about it. We're excited about the opportunity to continue to move forward and deliver schools. And we are excited about ensuring an equitable process to make sure that that happens. Um, and with that, I will turn it over to see if there are any questions. I hope I can answer. If not, I will make sure I get answers for you. Uh, but, um, uh, thank you so much. Thank you, Associate Superintendent Washington. Board members, do we have any questions? Yeah. Hi, Mr. Washington, um, thank you for the presentation, appreciate it. Um, just had a quick question about the, um, pilot assessment that you're
041suggesting. One, I think it's a great idea to, you know. to pilot. I'm wondering if you all have given any thought to, um, criteria for selection of the schools? I'm just wondering how you'll ensure, or if you started thinking about that, how you'll ensure that the data that you capture from those initial, um. you know, assessments will be, you know, helpful, um, as you consider scaling. So, um, it's just where my mind went initially. So, wondering if you've given any thought to that, and how you'll select which schools you'll. Um, do the pilot with. my… I will follow up to confirm, but my understanding is that it's going to be a school at each level. So, high school, middle school, elementary school. And my… my understanding is that it is going to be schools that
042we have identified. And we believe, we understand. what the condition of that school would be. So, for instance. the biggest swath of schools that we've seen the most problems in over the last 5 to 10 years have been our STEAM schools. Schools with steam plants in them. They've had a higher, um, you know, uh, failure rate. Um, some of the schools that we've had to close have been steam plants. So we are going back, and those. schools will be the first ones assessed, so one of those initial schools will be a STEAM school. Are we seeing the level of deterioration that we expected to see? Are we not? Why is that… is that… could it be programmed? Could it be a lot of different things? That would be one consideration. I think also it will
043be utilization. identifying schools that may be underutilized and overutilized. So, because what we want to make sure is that we have a consistent, to your point, we have a consistent. approach that we can scale up, and it's consistent across, and there are no. And if there are outliers, we know why. Like, we are able to bring it back to the control, basically. Um, so, but I will confirm exactly what the process is. Also, if we are picking them, or are the engineers picking them because of other criteria? And so, I will commit to get an answer to you, a specific answer, uh, to you, how they plan to approach that. Um, but that's… that's a great question. My… general understanding is that that's. how they are thinking, but that may change based upon information on
044the ground. Thank you. Um, if I may just, you know, one, looking forward to just seeing that, again, out of curiosity. But to your point about the control, um, if they are not thinking in this way right now, it may be helpful. To ensure that there is a school in that initial sample that, you know, that all of the schools aren't exactly the same. Right? And so, that you're not only assessing STEAM schools because of our, you know, because of whatever our. Yep. you know, initial assumptions may be. It may be helpful to have one, um, in that subset that almost acts as a control, so that you have a comparison and you're able to really test out. Um, some of what your assumptions are for the pilot, so just a thought. Board member Ajakae?
045Thank you, and thank you, Mr. Washington, for, um, the presentation. Um, my question is more so, like. how… so this is about, like, the educational facilities, like, you know, being built, right? Okay. Yes, ma'am. Um, so I wanted to ask, so, how often after the first 3 schools are identified and, like, they start getting built, will, like, other schools start… being considered for, you know, new facilities, because you said that the first update was provided in 2017, so, like, that means next year will be almost 10 years, so will we have to… will the county wait another 10 years before selecting another 3 schools, or… How many years interval before more schools can be also considered for the program? So, so, once this process happens, a priority order is identified. So, to clarify, since 2017
046through, uh. say, 2028, PGCPS will deliver 22 brand new schools. So, so that… so that is basically what we have focused on, is delivering schools. So, we will continue to work through that priority order. This just creates the new. the new priority order as we go forward. So, we will continue to move forward, so… Uh, right now, uh… Uh, in the queue is high point, CoolSpring, New Northern, Gwen Park, like, so they're already. you know, uh, priority. We're just now sliding in the additional schools. as we continue to keep going. With that said, the biggest caveat, and I'm glad that I'm drafting after finance, is money. So, as long as there are capital funds identified at the level requested so that we can continue to move projects forward, that's really the regulator. of the timing
047is, uh, we have seen, uh, just. the level of, um… capital funding, which we get all from the county, uh, that has, uh. decreased over the past few years, and so that is something that we are watching and want to be thoughtful about. Ah… Uh, but, all things, uh, you know, staying equal, that is our plan, is to just continue to add priorities, and to continue to move. Uh, with this process, there's one other fun part, is consolidations. Uh, that will be part of the conversation. That's a move that the state is pushing, um, as well. Uh, for, uh, state match funds, uh, is maximum consolidation and utilization of. facilities, so that is also… and that would also be part of this conversation as well. My question is actually a compound question. So, in that
048vein. When we are looking at this Facilities Master Plan. You spoke about building, but how are we evaluating. I guess the difference between building and then acquisition of additional buildings, one. And then number two, when we're talking about our. We're talking about our capital improvement funds versus our operating budget. How do we determine which pot of money. Which action is coming from. Okay. So, first, this process here is all around the facilities that we have in our stock now. So, we have roughly 208 schools and 18 administrative facilities. So, the EFMP is not looking at administrative facilities. So it is only looking at the, um, the schools that we are, uh, that we have in our facility portfolio. So, this is not taking into account if we are to acquire any property or anything like
049that. It's what we have right now. And so, that assessment will be, like I said, it will be facility condition. But then also educational adequacy, and the, you know, the useful life still left in the building. So, um, this also plays out where we may not need to rebuild. We may just need a roof. We may need to… so it literally sets up a priority. that allows us to prioritize projects so that we can go into. Uh, each budget year with a real, um, tight sense of what we need on the capital budget side. So, for the capital budget versus operating budget. The big thing for us is that we are permanent fixtures and assets, that we are creating on behalf of the school system. Operating is year by year. capital, our budget actually rolls
050over every year until the funds are expended for projects. So the way to think about capital, and it's separate is long-term. uh… fiscal, physical plant. type of assets. We're delivering assets that, right now, we're looking at will have a useful life of 60 years. So that's where. And that money comes from bonds that are placed by the county. So, so it's separate from. Uh, the operating budget, which is out of revenue. and taxes, uh, and, and other fees, etc. But ours is solely based upon the affordability limit that the county sets for placing, uh. general obligation bonds each year. And then that is matched with the state match. So the… we… we put together the CIP. the state says that we will give, I think, 65 percentage, which is… it changes every year. So, X
051percent. from the state, and then the county has to match it, and before we can move forward with any project, we must have all money in hand. So we must have all of the local. in all an estate, and then we're able to proceed. And that's why it takes us a little longer for projects to get started, because it may be multiple fiscal years before we get all of the, uh, the money necessary to move a project forward. Thank you for that, Associate Superintendent Washington. Board members, do we have any additional questions for… Round 1. Seeing none, do we have a need or request for a round 2? Vice Chair Brown? Yes, so, sorry about that. Um, thank you so much, Chair Coins McCansen, thank you so much. to Jason Washington, I appreciate all the
052work. Debt capital improvement has done, um… I know a lot of information, I've learned so much from you all. Um, one of the questions that came from a constituent was what year. with those new priority order schools start based on state and county funding. Uh, current projects are not even breaking ground until 2028. all the way into the 2030s, for example, High Point. And Northern High School, the new Northern High School for Overcrowding. Um… so yeah, do we have an answer for that? Uh, it will be after then. So it… so, so it will… it will basically be… if we can accelerate as much as possible, definitely. And so, right now. We are only basing our priorities on what we know right now. So, for instance. We have identified, we don't know the school. Capital
053Programs is to give us a recommendation, I believe, in a couple of weeks that will come to the board. for a new Southern Elementary School. Like, so, they have to now figure out where that will be. They've put a placeholder. in the priority list, that there will be a new consolidated elementary school, and now they are… they… because we need one, so now they're kind of come back and tell us what… where the school will be. what communities will be impacted, and then the board will vote, and then that will start the planning process for that school. And so. That usually is how it works, is that CI, the capital programs team. has already identified, and I believe that there's also a, um, a middle school, a southern middle school, that's also. uh, targeted in
054the next. I'll say 5 to 8 years as well, even though it's not in the priority because it's not identified. It is in their stack, and so that's how they will start identifying schools that are not identified yet, but we've kind of slotted them in, and told the state. we will be coming back. And so that's kind of what happens. We signal to the state, we started planning for this school, we will come back in 2 years for planning dollars. We will then come back with… for construction dollar cost, and so that's kind of how we set it up, but it starts with the board. It starts with the capital programs team saying, we've identified, we're going to do a new. elementary school here. This is our justification, this is why we need it, and
055then the board says yes, and then that we then identify that, and then we start with the planning process. So I would say… Yeah. I would say, with this whole… Uh, it's… we are gonna do the best we can, but uh… high schools cost a lot of money. And we have 3 of them. uh, lined up right after each other. Um, Suitland is beautiful. But, you know, and then they also take longer to be able to. So… Thank you. Are there any additional second round questions? Uh, well, seeing none, I have one that… also kind of builds on… Some of the things you just spoke about. In that case, then. You spoke a little bit about this timeline and. an internal… Uh, working group. Do we have any… Representation from the county. on those work
056groups, because a lot of things, I know you said it's about our facilities that we have right now, but sometimes the. issues, etc, that we have with our facilities are not just. a facility issue on our part, but it's also things that we share with. County government? Do we have any representation. from them in this process. Yep. we will have representation in terms of participating in input. They are not on the facilities administration committee. That is driven by administrative procedure. So, so that… they're not on that, but that's why there will be outreach to our community stakeholders. to, you know, either have listening sessions or to meet with them to talk through, uh, concerns and questions, because you're right, we have. community schools with parking. We have. schools that have a strong, uh, significance in
057communities, uh, and so it behooves us to, uh, to meet, uh. communities where they are, but there's no one on an internal committee as part of this process. of external to PGCPS. Well, I guess my question, to clarify the difference between community input and involvement, because that was going to be my second. Okay. Question. We have… I know you said comms is working on that, and we'll get that, but any sort of idea of when those will actually start, so we can let. Oh, no, we will let you all know. Our expectation is we want those to start in March and April. So, so, and, uh, pretty much the rhythm that. you have seen from the budget is probably going to be the rhythm that we are gonna… it's a lot of square footage to
058cover, and it's a lot of communities to, uh, to engage. Um, and our… our drive to the consultants, putting the schedule is that we hit as many folks as quickly as possible together, so, like, we're not… One group on, you know, in February, then we start again in April. No. It's going to be a sustained effort, because we want to make sure that every community… that we're not. that we're moving, uh… to get input, but that is the expectation, is that this will be, uh, very robust and, uh, very aggressive, and just in terms of getting out, uh. as quickly and as thoroughly as we can. Um, for engagement and for feedback. Gotcha. Yes, thank you. Chair Goynsman, are we… is this for, uh, second round? I want to make sure that I'm respectful of
059the time. Over. Vice Chair Brown? We are still technically in second round, yes. Okay, thank you so much. So, I have a question. I know you all receive input from the community. as a liaison for the disabilities issue advisory Board. I think it's going to be very vital that we have someone from. that community that is aware of some ADA issues that we've been having around. Um, obviously our older schools, but even going into our newer schools. We want to make sure that they have a voice and they have a say, so what does… what does that look like as far as community endpoint. from an ADA perspective, um, because I think they're… I do believe there needs to be oversight in that. Well, it will start with, uh, Associate Superintendent Bowman. So, so Tronell
060will be… is part of this. group. But she also has a team that know very well, and they, they love letting me know, uh, of the things that need to be fixed quickly. Um, so, so what the expectation is, is that we have, we'll set. together an agenda of what we're covering, and the first two topics are special education. And, uh, mobility. So, so those are the first two topics that we are covering as a FAC committee. One, because of the, you know, the impact and the growing. impact of the special education community, and two, because of the fact that, um. What we… there seems to be a lot of confusion, and I don't know where… around. what our designers are being told is ADA compliant. Versus when it's finished. So, for instance, um, there
061was… it took a minute. But in our newer schools, we do not have a… a fire evacuation plan for our students with wheelchairs. We put them in corridors with fire-rated walls now. So that they stay in a… in a secure vestibule place inside the building where the fire department can come get them, versus us having a plan to get them out of the building. That's a change. And our special education colleagues, you know, were very concerned when they didn't see a plan. And we were like, no, the plan is to move them to fire-rated corridors. And so, so I think. to this point, Board Member Brown, having those discussions in these meetings, because that's what, you know. we on the operations side are architects, and Deepy is saying it's fine. But then, the end user
062is saying, this is new, where did this come from, why do we… why are we doing this? So, we… I definitely see the value of making sure that we bring in voices as we start to make progress, specifically around the ed specs. on, okay, but have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? And so that they are general, and they don't have to be one-offs for specific schools, but they can be generally applied across the district. So, with that, board members, do we have anyone who did not have an opportunity to. Ask their questions in… first or second round that would like to ask additional questions. Okay. Seeing none. Um… We will move to our adjournment. Please join us for our upcoming budget work session on February 5th. 2026, be sure to sign
063up on the PGCPS website if you have any feedback you would like to share. Our next virtual operations budget and fiscal Affairs Committee meeting will be on February 11, 2026. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. So with that, thank you everyone for the great discussion. Uh, to our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 6.35. And the January 28th, 2026 Operations Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee meeting is adjourned.