Board of Education Budget Work Session & Public Hearing February 5, 2026

001The time is not… I'm sorry, go ahead. The time is now. Oh, thank you. I'm just anxious, I'm ready to… jump into it. So, uh, the time is now 5.03. Good evening, and welcome to the February 5th, 2026 Prince George's County Board of Education Budget Work Session. in public hearing for the FY 2027 Interim Superintendent Proposed Operating Budget. I'm Brandon Jackson, chairman of the Prince George's County Board of Education. Thank you all for joining. Um, the chairman would like to inform the public. That Spanish interpretation is available by clicking on the globe at the bottom. of the screen. And again, that's the globe at the bottom of the screen. Um, Brian, would you please assist us with translating this announcement in Spanish? Yes, that will be me. Um, Siles en espanol en la combutadora en

002la sesion sum en la pantalla baja de la pantalla abra un global de interpretacion. Zoom en la pantalla baja de la pantalla toca el icono del eclipse. interpretation, toque Spanish. You're welcome. Thank you so much. For anyone unable to join us live, this meeting is being recorded and will be available for later viewing on the PGCPS YouTube channel. In keeping with the board's rules of procedure Section 4 Internet Meetings. The Internet Standing Rules are as follows. Members shall keep their video on and remain on camera at all times. Um, keep their microphones on mute until recognized by the chairman. raise their hand icon and wait to be recognized by the chairman and unmute their microphone to speak and mute it when done speaking. Members may speak twice on any motion for 2 minutes each. Failure

003to adhere to the internet standing rules will result in the member being removed until the member can rejoin. When the rules can be adhered to. For recording purposes, the Chairman reminds all to ensure that their microphones are muted. And when not speaking and turned on while speaking for recording purposes. Before we proceed, the chairman reminds everyone to adjust their wireless communication devices to prevent technical interference. with this meeting tonight. Please ensure all microphones are muted until the chairman grants you the floor. Lastly, in line with Policy 8345. public comments, it is established that the public can register on-site for public hearings until. Um, the public is notified that the testimony registration form is closed. The Chairman wishes to inform the public registration link for tonight's public hearing will. remain open until 7.15 PM. To accommodate

004additional comments. To register, please visit the link displayed. On the screen, or scan the QR code. Ms. Barton, please call the roll. Ms. Ajakae? Dr. Anderful? Present. Ms. Ms. Bruce? Mr. Briggs? Present. Mrs. Brown? Ms. Goins McCants? Present. Dr. Morris. Mrs. Olivo? President. Present. Mr. Jackson. We have 4. Here. Thank you, Ms. Barton. There is a quorum present. Now, for the adoption of the meeting agenda. If there are no objections, the February 5th, 2026 meeting agenda will be adopted. There being no objection to February 5th, 2026, meeting agenda is adopted. Uh, now for the budget overview, the Chairman recognizes board member. Um, going to McCants, chair of the Operating… Operations Budget and Fiscal Affairs Committee to open the budget work session. Thank you, Chair Jackson, and thank all of you all for being here. I

005want to acknowledge the incredible work that everyone has put in to get us to this point. All of the dedication. the late hours, um… tough conversations, we sincerely appreciated. Uh, this budget work session is intended to address questions and provide answers regarding the budget. That our superintendent will put forth. Each division will have 10 minutes to present and provide an overview of their mission, core services. And their budget, their proposed budget for next year. So with that, the committee chair recognizes Dr. Joseph, Interim Superintendent for the Budget Process Overview. Thank you, board member going. Today, we're presenting a series of proposed budget. Uh, reductions intended to preserve the integrity. of our primary mission to ensure that no compromises to sustainability of instructional quality. leadership development or service delivery. I will begin with the proposed FY27

006operating budget. The proposed FY27 approximately $3 billion budget. is a stabilization plan addressing a $150 million deficit. primarily by reducing central office and non-instructional costs to prioritize. $110 million in compensation increases, as well as investments in special education, math. Reading, uh, safety and security. In addition to AI literacy and professional development. This recalibration aims for long-term fiscal health while protecting student outcomes. During our three work sessions, we'll take a deeper dive. Uh, into each division's operations. Priorities and proposed spending plan for the coming year. Throughout this process, we encourage the community to review the published. budget book and to participate in the public hearings, to share your feedback on the proposed budget. Before the board brings it to a vote on February 26. Your feedback through this process has been invaluable, and we look forward

007to your continued engagement. Now I'd like to welcome Chief Howell. and her team to present an overview of our proposed FY27 operating budget. Good evening. Thank you, Doctor Joseph, and good evening, board members. PGCPS family, staff, and community members. I'm gonna go ahead and… share my screen… I'll make sure I'm pulling up the correct… Are you here? Alright, and everyone can see that okay? Um… Alright. So before we get into it, just wanted to sort of, uh, really kind of set the stage for the purpose of the work sessions, as was discussed. Briefly, as we will take a deeper dive into what's proposed and what's. proposed for the 27 operating budget for each division, so that's going to take a little bit of a different slant. Um, than what we've had over the last couple

008months, where we spent some time walking through the budget formulation process. culminating with the release of. Dr. Joseph's proposed budget on January 22nd. Um, the fiscal year 27 proposed budget book has since been published, and it's on our. budget website. And the budget book is a document that's required by legislation. Um, we're required to capture information in there, such as our accounting structure. our budget methodology, our fund structure. Revenue data has to be captured in a certain way, expenses by certain state-mandated categories. and student enrollment data, to name a few requirements. Um, and while this is required by law, it's not the easiest read to really be able to tell a story. of our budget priorities and considerations that are being considered. So that's really the focus of tonight and for the upcoming work sessions.

009is to be able to bring that story to life in a way that provides a clear understanding of what's being proposed. Um, for our spending priorities for 2027. So we've spent some time over the last month or so reviewing this high-level overview that kind of captures. a quick synopsis of where we are in this process. We started with a $150 million gap that we knew that we had coming into the budgeting exercise, and. As we've worked through that, we've achieved about 99% of those reductions needed in order to help close that gap. Um, we developed a plan, a proposed plan, that includes investments. totaling nearly $58 million. 35 million of that relates to our accelerants to be able to help grow our academic outcomes. And $23 million is tied to just our normal cost of

010doing business, and includes, you know, like, textbooks and our computer and. vehicle refreshes that we do on an annual basis. Um, some additional investments in student support, higher costs in utilities. Um, as well as technology and maintenance. Once we pulled everything together and knowing what we needed for this coming year, we did the work that was required to help close our gap that we had coming into it, but in order to support these additional investments, we knew that we were going to ask for. Um, and requests from the county support of $50 million for 2027. So, our mandatory class that we have, and we've discussed this a little bit before as well, that really kind of set the foundation of our gap that we knew coming into this. At a minimum, we knew we had

011to… we had to cover, excuse me. Um, cost required related to our negotiated agreements of around $95 million. In addition to that, there's funding that's. Required to support our retiree future benefits. We also knew that our salary lapse assumption that we had in our budget. needed to come down for 2027 because we now have more positions that are actually going to be filled. So that was an impact as well. And then there's a small component that's required by law. Relating to, um, our career counseling, um, and that amount increases every year depending on student enrollment, so there's a small adjustment there of about $200,000. When you think about our overall reductions, we've discussed these a little bit previously as well, the total of around $148 million. It ranges in very broad categories. The majority of

012which is in our, kind of. Student support services area, much of that relates to, um, you know. substitute costs and other non-instructional impacts, and as we get into our conversation today, we'll talk a little bit more about that. Another big portion of that relates to facilities and operations. As well as academic and programmatic adjustments as well. So those are the three big divisional areas. We'll spend some time today. talking through that in a lot more detail. Um, we also have the impact of operational and central efficiencies. Information technology, as well as some of our financial strategies and reserves to help close that budget gap of $148 million. Our accelerants, our investments plan for next year, approximate $35 million in special education, safety and security. professional development, math reading, and artificial intelligence. And again, in our

013review today. We'll spend some time talking through these investments in a lot more detail for those three divisional areas. So the cost of doing business, and we discussed this briefly earlier on the previous slide, this is something that we. you know, really relates to an already core part of our operations. We go through a process annually. to evaluate and determine which textbooks require adoption, which ones that don't, but still we have to be able to maintain. the costs associated with those digital licenses, many of which we have for our textbooks now. We also have additional, um, costs associated with supporting. Um, one of our charter schools that is going through an expansion for friendship, each grade they're adding an additional. Um, grade to their student enrollment, and so we forward fund them as they're going

014through the expansion. Um, so that's what the 3.8 million relates to. And then, as I, uh, stated earlier, we have other utilities and costs of doing business, so our utility costs continue to rise, certainly in this. months where it's really cold, we're expecting higher costs, um, for sure, and we'll see what that's going to look like for next year. But then we also have our, just our ongoing increases and some of our technology software and licenses that we have every year. There's built-in escalation. tied to those agreements. So overall, those. costs equate to about $23 million. Um, at around 10 additional FTEs, those are tied to the dollars associated with, uh, Friendship Charter. So now, we will turn it over to the division areas. We will spend time going through the Division of Academics. the

015Division of Operations and the Division of School Support and Leadership. Thank you so much. Uh, the committee chair recognizes Dr. Joseph for the Division of Academics Budget Presentation. Thank you, and I'll just start by saying, while navigating significant budget reductions, the Division of Academics has prioritized protecting the instructional core. These strategic system-level decisions were made to preserve literacy, mathematics, special education. and high-quality instruction while maintaining alignment, sustainability, and return on investment. This presentation will provide clear and transparent explanations of what has changed and why, as well as how schools and students will be supported through these transitions to continue to experience strong academic opportunities and outcomes. At this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Judith White, our Chief Academic Officer, and her team. Hello, everyone. Good evening. Thank you for allowing us to come

016and talk about our proposed. changes for the Division of Academics. So, the Division of Academics is made up of 6 teams. Of course, we have Career and Technical Education, Curriculum and instruction, early learning, specialty program in the Arts, Instructional and operational support, and special education. in building anything, and in looking across the division of academics, I stay grounded, as well as my team, in our student learner profile. These are the areas that we would like to see the skills, the knowledge, the dispositions of our students as they leave our district. every cut, every thought, every action, every dollar put towards our academic programs all aligned to this ultimate goal. So, what is the mission for the Division of Academics? Two things, very simply. Excellence by design and having a collaborative nature, because we must work

017with every single department in our system. to ensure that the instructional core for our students is well prepared. And that we have a collaborative nature in making sure that everyone is reaching the goal. And so, in order to do that, we have 3 main core services. Number 1. we create. And so, we curate, we create, we are making sure that what we put in front of our teachers is the right work, that is aligned by standards, um, as provided to us by Maryland State Department of Education. We also develop, so when you create, especially when you think about the instructional core, you must develop, you must develop your teachers, you must develop our students and what they're engaging in. So, a part of our job is ensuring that our educators have the best professional development

018opportunities that they can. So that they're providing strong academic programs in front of children. And the last thing is exploration. So we cannot stay stagnant. We must, at all times. be considering what's new, what's coming. We must be forecasting. We must be thinking about the next generation of students. And how, you know, really looking at, is what we're doing working? Really looking at a return on investment, looking at ways that we can collaborate, maybe look at duplication of services. And so this budget narrative will seek to do a couple of things. While we will discuss areas that we have cut, we also want you to know that we are looking at renewing and accelerating. our students and what we prepare and put before them. We are strengthening our content. That means that every year we

019go in and we look at what we have. We get feedback from our teachers to figure out ways to make it a stronger product that we put before them, and then we reevaluate. We look at our own infrastructure and determine what we need to keep, what we need to adjust, and what we need to get rid of. And so, key highlights that you will hear from me today through this presentation is that the Division of Academics Central Funds our discretionary was cut by about $12 million. Our budget, however, will maintain the integrity of interventions across reading and mathematics. The amount of proposed reductions are in career and technical education, curriculum and instruction. Early learning and specialty programs in the arts. Our special education realignments will fund. Our support to 12-month autism services, which we know

020we need, and provide additional occupational therapists. And the last one, key highlight for us, is that we will identify specialty programs that will not have curriculum or boundary implications, and that schools with program transitions will be provided with support and planning for new program implementation. So, what are the major initiatives for the Division of Academics? Know that every single thing we are proposing aligns to our blueprint for Maryland schools. We are going to continue executing reading and mathematics literacy plans. We will have a focus on special education and multilingual learners. We will offer professional development that is aimed at enhancing differentiation. We want to make sure we're using our data and that we are integrating our technology in our classrooms. While prioritizing face-to-face with teachers in. prioritizing direct engagement. We want to make sure that

021it's seamless. As we integrate both technology and our human touch. We want to prioritize student readiness for access through dual enrollment, career pathways, and industry-recognized credentials. We want to improve our digital access to textbook interventions and supplementary supports. And we want to explore more innovative approaches to learning, specifically really looking at how we can elevate the arts and AI. All of those are grounded in our accelerants. that Chief Howe has already discussed. So what will remain? Sustainability. We will sustain our professional development alignment, our interventions, and our instructional core. And looking at our professional development, we really took time to think through what that looks like across our system. And how we can engage with other offices to make sure that our PD is really, really tight. We will sustain our interventions. We also… what

022will remain is our efficiency. So, really looking at, are we efficient in our contracts and our systemic planning, and really efficient in how we are prioritizing what we must do. And then, what will remain is alignment. Always looking to ensure that every single thing we create and do is aligned to our blueprint. will be aligned to our new strategic plan and to MSDE. It is aligned to making sure that we have high-quality instructional materials. And that we are evaluating with our research and evaluation team our return on investments in everything we purchase. So then what's changed, you may ask? our approach. And so, you hear me say 12 million, but you hear me say all of these things that will remain. our approach has to be, where were… where was duplicate… where were we duplicating

023services? Where could we really tighten? How do we still put in front of children a solid program. But making sure we took time to say. What was overflowing. So, you all know that when we came out of COVID, we had a lot of ESSER funds. We had an opportunity, sky was the limit. So our cup was overflowing. This opportunity allows us to say, what can we keep in the saucer, but make it really, really grounded and really tight. Our discretionary funds. That's changed. I just told you we cut $12 million. But it has not impacted. how we want to approach children. What's key to know is that when you look at our contracts and you look at our systemic planning. We had to make sure that everything we needed to do was covered through our

024discretionary funds, and we found a way to do that. Which changes our specialty programs? Tonight, before you, as discussed on the 22nd. We will have some proposed changes in the area of avid immersion and International Baccalaureate. So, to talk about the $12 million, when I started this presentation, I discussed that I have 6 teams. It's important for you to know that while I have 6 teams, this $12 million cut only came from 4, and they're listed on the left side. That is because our special education. was… no funds were removed, and I want to say that again, especially for any parent listening. Special education will remain funded. We did not touch our funds in special education as we had to make cuts. Our special education team, we have to maintain maintenance of effort, which means

025that what we put before children, what we align, what we use to purchase. must maintain the level. So, these four teams were hit, and then what you see on the left side are the program changes, and on the right side, you see the impacts of those changes. So, you've heard me say that PD is important, and it is, but you'll see here where I did eliminate. Our stipend funds for professional development lead teachers, and I minimize the amount of money we're putting towards professional development. We will still have strong professional development because we are going to partner with our Department of Organizational Development, and that means our approach. has to be seamless, and has to look at the progression of learning across our entire system. And it has to do it in a very strategic

026way. So, where I might have offered 50 professional development opportunities, what professional development should we be offering. and how. And we are committed to do that in a way that allows it to be stronger than ever before. We are halting our instructional music marching band upgrades. In the past, we were able to get the majority of schools done. However, we will continue to keep an inventory and prioritize as future funds become available. We will be removing Pre-K and Montessori snacks, however, we will be able to have opportunities to work with Food Nutrition Services to see how we can work with students walking out of the door and utilizing other funds to approach that. We will discontinue our IB Science and Tech and Aviation Summer Bridge programs, as well as our close-up summer academy. However, we

027have 12-month staff there, and we're going to work with our students to still find ways to engage them over the summer as they prepare to enter these accelerated programs. We are eliminating duplicative tutoring programs. We went back and looked at all of our data, we looked at our usage, and we found where are students using programs. And so, we, instead of just offering 5 and 6, we will be minimizing what's offered, but we'll still have 24-7 access for children. We are delaying major textbook adoptions and eliminating duplicative interventions. So instead of for interventions having several interventions per grade, we found what is the biggest buck. Where can we get norm data that can allow us to inform our parents of how our students. 1. Yes, ma'am, but… Okay, where will we get our interventions from,

028and how will we align that so our parents will have norm data? As well as our textbook adoptions, while we're delaying, it allows us actually to allow teachers to stay grounded in work that they're already doing. And then you see AVID, our program funds, and then we reduce long-term vacancies across the division. Special education, I just wanted to put before you how we are cost neutral in the things that we need to do around autism specialists. An occupational therapist, you'll see that here, no cost to the system, but allows us to service students in a greater way, especially around autism. Now, I wanted to come back today and provide you all slides that you can use in our community. community could see in terms of what we are moving from. And what we're moving towards.

029So, when we talked about immersion, boundary programs, for Capitol Heights and Paint Branch. It's eliminating immersion, transitioning away from the boundary program. But what we've never had. As you look here, we have students who are impacted, and you see that we have Chinese at Paint Branch, and we have Spanish at Capitol Heights. You will also see, I'm going to talk about our Greenbelt Middle School program. Our Largo high school program, our International Baccalaureate. For primary years and middle years, and then our middle school AVID elective course. On the next several slides, you will see where we break apart what has changed. And what we will be moving towards. So let's just talk for a brief second, because we've talked at length about. Our paint branch programs, our Capital Heights programs. The difference between our lottery-based

030and our boundary is that our lottery-based students come in at kindergarten, and they stay the trajectory. However, these two programs, you can come in at any grade. Because of that, these programs have double the staff. that any other program has. An example of a child coming in at a different grade. is in 2024. We transitioned Hollywood students into Paint Branch. We had 197 new students drop in, none that had the language, across every single grade. We have to staff or impact that way. So we would like to currently move this program and transition it to an elementary world language program. Currently, we have 12 in our district. Um, when you think of 136 programs, or 136 schools, and I only have 12, they will be a part of this mighty number, making us now have

03114. We also will identify for these two schools that they will not run a regular world language program because a lot of the students in the school have more language than we would put in any other program. If you go to the next slide. And we look at our AVID changes. We know that we have 21 schools that have AVID. It is an elective course. Only 16% of our middle school students are receiving that service. However, we want to move to a model. where we have college and career coaches by Blueprint. In our middle and high schools, and we'd rather use those resources to touch every single student grades 6, 7, 8. in 9th through 12th grade in a way that can propel our students through college and career readiness. When you look at our

032IB Year program, that's our primary year, so this is Melwood Elementary and Maya Angelou. We are moving away from the IB model. Something to note in all of these programs, number one. all the programs that I'm mentioning. The curriculum that they are in will still be the same exact curriculum. There is no different curriculum. 4IB or 4 immersion. And the core content in Schools Ahead Abbott is still the same core content. When you look at the new model, they are moving towards the same curriculum, no change. All of these students are in their own boundary school, so they are not being asked to go anywhere else. And the small portion of students who are in a school that we've allowed them to go if the program is ending, will be allowed to stay to the

033conception of the program. For IB, and if you go to the next slide, for our middle years program, we will be maintaining a culture program in our school system driven by our learner profile. Our students will still have emphasis on global competencies. They will be grounded in our curriculum, they will still have projects that they can focus on that the teachers have already built and developed. The interdisciplinary approach will be maintained in tutoring through all of those programs will also be maintained. And so, at this time, I don't know if I take questions or if I move to the next presentation. We will take questions. If you all are done with your, uh, first part of your presentation, thank you all so much. Each board member will have 2.5 minutes to ask their questions and

034receive an answer. Any unanswered questions within the allotted time will be captured as a follow-up. Board members, do we have any questions? And we will start with… Committee Vice Chair Brown. Thank you, Chair Boins-Mcance. Um, good evening, everyone. Excuse me. I did have a question for Dr. White. I, um, I know… I've gotten a lot of calls and emails regarding. the IB program. The concerns, of course, a lot of families. did enter lotteries, or felt like they. move certain places because they knew that their child would be in this type of program. I think that, um, prior, obviously, to all of this. IB, and I… I mean, we had IB growing up, too. did such a great job even marketing. The capabilities, I feel like maybe, is that something that we're gonna be looking into,

035possibly even marketing the curriculums that we're using? Not saying that we're not doing it now, but I think. the public, um, and I can even add myself, right, that we're so conditioned. to feel like IB is the one all of all of everything. Um, for our children to be successful, so… Not saying that any other curriculum is not well, but I think. for so long, we've just been conditioned in understanding that IB is the creme de la creme when it comes to curriculum and how our. scholars have advancements when it comes to their education. So, can you talk about, I guess, a little bit. about possible marketing strategies, or maybe some… some… some more opportunities for families to fully understand. hey, if I'm not in IB, what is my child going to get? Sure, so

036first I want to discuss misconceptions. For the program at Millwood. Our primary years and our middle years program, there is no lottery. They are boundary programs. They are in the school that they would go to whether IB was there or not. high school IB is. our diploma program is not going away. For any family out there that has applied. Right now, to our diploma, grade 11 and 12 IB program. That program will maintain at every high school it is currently in, except for Central High School, because this is its last year. So I just wanted to note that, because I don't want parents to think that's going away. That is the only program. that operates from a curriculum. Other than Prince George's County Public Schools. So the curriculum that you're speaking to, their parents are

037like, it's a phenomenal curriculum, it's rich, it's not going away. For every other program, they're operating already today in Prince George's County Public Schools curriculum. Thank you. Board members, do we have any additional questions? I do have one in the same vein. Oh, here we go. I'm now seeing more hands. Chair Jackson? I'll let… I'll let, um, Ari go first. I yield to the… and I'll go after. Okay, um, thank you, and thank you so much for this presentation and updates. Um, my question is about, like, the summer bridges for, like, the specialty programs, like. Uh, science and tech, aviation, and then also 3D Scholars. Um, like, I know, like, a lot of parents who have, like, you know, older kids who have already gone through the program. They'll probably, like, they probably know the

038benefits of, like, their kids going to meet the students that they're gonna be with for the four years of high school. So what are the, like, what is the replacement that's going to be in place for, um, these students who are looking forward to going into these programs, and. Yeah, so what we realize is, you know, we… when we run summer programs, of course, there's cost to, um… the staff that we hire, you know, really the experiences, but we have many staff members that are 12-month already, and so what we would like to do is find opportunities where we can engage with those students, maybe find ways where they can meet and engage and partner them up, but do it in a way that our staff can maintain it where we're not paying because we're

039using 12-month staffs. So we had to cut the way it originally looks. But we want to work to see what can we give them on things on during the summer to work on that really get them to think about rigor and the experiences they're gonna have, but how also can we engage them to learn one another, to maybe do some partnering, some things asynchronously without us? So we're working on building that now, because we don't… we realize the significance of it. Again, you know, I say to everyone when we talk about programs, our team developed them. So we value it, and we know it's important for students entering those schools, wanting to have friends and wanting to make connections. So, as we build out, if this budget were to be approved. I will be able

040to share more of what specifically that will look like before we get there. Chair Jackson? Yes, thank you, um… So, my question, and I had mentioned this last time we went over it. So, in that area, in District 6. We had… so we're… we're taking the IB program at the Central High School. Um, Capitol Heights Elementary School. You know, isn't, you know, Capital Heights as well, that's right down the street. And then we close, uh, Concord Elementary School last year. Which is, you know, just a couple of miles away. So just in that specific area. We're, we're cutting a lot and we're doing a lot in that community. Um, and I just want to know. What programs are we… so we're losing the immersion program. Hmm? Um, in the Capitol Heights Elementary School. Central High

041School is losing IB. And then, um… Oh, Concord closed down. And so, we just… we just, in that area, and that's the area I represent. Okay. What are we going to backfill those programs with, um, because it seems like we're losing out on a lot of programming in our area. Yeah. Well, you will be glad to know, because I thought about your area, that we put 3D. scholars at Central High School, so they're now one of our four, um, 3D Scholars program. Okay. We are in one. Right now, in, um, Capitol Heights, we are… we already have tag at Capitol Heights, but we also are making it a Spanish world language program. It will not operate as if our regular Spanish world language, we will build a specific world language program because we know students

042have more language. So, both of those schools will still have a program. It will be a different program. Okay, and then wasn't there, um… Is there a Chinese? Okay, alright, cool. Alright, thank you so much. That's at Paint Branch. You're welcome. Board member Buzer Struther? Yeah, thank you so much, and um… Thank you, Dr. Wright and Chief Howell, for these, um, for the introduction presentations. The clarity that I. I'm seeking is… There… there seems to be, like, two things going on. There's the pressures of. the funding sources not being at the level. That we need and expect, and have been working towards. And then there's a determination about academic. programming that… may not… that we're determining. isn't a priority for the future, and we're… what I'm trying to understand is. If there's parent advocacy to

043the funders, the state. General Assembly, County Council. Regarding this gap. Will these programs… necessarily… be funded and continue to be implemented as known. And I ask that because I, you know, I know that. Dr. Joseph went through a. process. I know AVID at the middle school level would be a great. example of… there's a determination. by those stakeholders most engage the principals to say. admin, you know, we have… another way to do this, AVID, is not. what we think is best. So, can… Can someone give some clarity on. on that, like, we… fight, go lobby and fight for the funding, and these automatically come back, or not necessarily. And so, I will… I will turn this over to Dr. Joseph, but what I will say is. Our hope is that we get funding. If we

044are not funded. It could mean further cuts. So, when I talk about the Division of academics, and I tell you that I cut $12 million, and I can tell you that I've still tried to maintain a strong program. If our system has to cut further, I will cut further into academics. So there's always going to be a trade-off. Um, but I will let Dr. Joseph speak to, or Chief Howe speak to, um, the money that we're seeking, if that makes us. solvent in trying to get up to the accelerant point, or if that makes us bring things back. I will turn that over. Yeah, sure. And I would say… You know, asking for the additional $50 million is simply to stabilize us. Um, to get those programs that we cut back, we'd have to get

045above that, and then as a board, prioritize that these are the programs we wanted to put back. And so what you're clarifying is that some of what we're seeing. is a… is a, uh… efficacy, efficiency, determination, like AVID, that we have other ways we believe this will go better. We don't need to spend the money. Yes. Others, we actually still believe in them. These were just the hard decisions. around cuts. Yes, when we had to cut… $150 million from the budget, and academics, you know, cut the $12 million from their budget. You know, they were centralized funds, so they're dollars that didn't go directly to schools per. Um, the blueprint. They were things that, as a district, we said we valued and we were maintaining. But as we had to cut, and because we didn't

046cut from school budget dollars. These budgets were essential, and I know people get confused because they say, well, you said you weren't cutting anything from schools. But now, we're losing AVID. Well, the answer is because those were centralized funds that we were. providing for, and so when we cut in central office. We had to address those budgets, and those budgets did touch schools, unfortunately. But yes, it's, uh… you know, it is a… so, we're looking at duplication of efforts and ways we could do things more efficiently with the dollars that are dedicated for those purposes. Mm-hmm. And when you think about division of academics, him saying that they're centrally located, really, my $12 million was from my direct. departments. I cut another. $12 million from my central programs. that are in my budget. So, it's

047a lot. It's what you said, the hard choices, but the only thing I would say, different than how you said it, is we value all of them. And all of them were hard choices. And I also want to correct myself, Board Member Jackson, it's 3DE. I kept saying this, 3D scholars? I said flowers. It's 3DE program at Central. And then also, maybe Board Member Jackson was asking about the Largo High School Chinese program that's in this district. I don't know if he was referring to that. Well, the good thing about Largo, um… Largo actually has also a talent ready. That's a middle years college program where students… we're working for students to be graduating with their. Hmm. high school diploma and their associate's degree of art. It's our computer technology program, so your district is

048well taken. Yeah. I still had 10 to 15 seconds left, so I'm just gonna come back to. to my topic, um… the… thank you, Chair Jackson, those are all very important. Um… But so, the bottom line is. families now know. We are now saying these are the cuts, we've. Go lobby. You have senators, you have delegates, you have county council members. district in at large. Go lobby, tell your stories. Tell them what will be missing from the school system. if we are not fully funded. So I just want to end on that point that you just. Validated that. the funds can keep these programs, so thank you. Thank you, Board Member Bozer-Struther. Board members, do we have any additional questions for the Division of Academics? Um… I do not see an additional hands for a

049first round, so… We will move on to our second round. Uh… Yes, thank you so much, Chair. I just had a quick question about the positions. I know that there were some individuals, obviously when the program's being taken. where they offered other jobs within the county. Um, were they riffed? Can we kind of speak a little bit. on what the expectation for the staff… the staff that got let go from these. programs or potentially got let go from these programs. What does that support look like? Are they going to have other positions available to them? Thank you. I will turn it over to Dr. Edwards on that one. Good evening, thank you for that question. Um, just to clarify, the employees were not ripped. There was no reduction in force. All of the employees associated

050with the programs are in a collective bargaining unit, so they are protected. in terms of making sure that they would have other positions. Um, the notification was really around the program that you're associated with will not run based on our recommendation. Um, within this operating budget for the coming school year. Um, the employees were notified. We will definitely offer opportunities to review their resumes. provide and learn where they may want to see themselves in terms of career-wise for next year. But if an employee loses a position, um, our responsibility is to make sure that they have a position for next year, and to do that as quickly as possible, and our goal is to be able to try to do that, um, before the end of the school year. Board member Ajakae? Thank you. Um,

051so my question is similar to Chair Jackson's question earlier, but it's about Greenbelt Middle School. I wanted to know, what are, like, what is the program, or, you know, what's gonna be there in lieu of the immersion program being renewed right now? And then another thing I wanted to quickly comment on is the College and Career Readiness, um, being available. Um, through dedicated career counselors for middle school and avid elective courses, like, if we could really push that, um, resource out as much as possible before, like, it actually gets there. Because I know, like, a lot of high schoolers, they didn't really know that they have that resource until it's like. I don't want to say it's… it's never too late, but until, like, the last minute, so if we can let students know before

052it's there, and even while it's there, so that they're just aware of, like, the resource that they have. Yeah, sure, thank you for that question. So, Greenbelt Middle School. is the feeder for… Um, paintbranch in terms of immersion. What I can tell you is that we've never been over 50% of the students leaving Paint Branch wanting to go to Greenbelt. The current students in grades 6, 7, and 8, we only have about 30-some students there now. We will complete and transition those students. They will stay through the trajectory. We will keep one teacher there to fulfill their immersion experience, um, as they become 7th and 8th graders, and then the 8th grade group leaving out. That school has tagged, that school has, um, just other, uh. um, curriculum as other middle schools would have, but

053understand that that program was only touching about 30 students. So when you think about how Greenville… how big Greenbelt Middle is, it wasn't… that's… less than a percentage of their population. In terms of. Um, we agree with you of college and career readiness, like, we're really doing this campaign around dual enrollment with Blueprint. We have to ensure that every student who is deemed CCR has post-pathway opportunities, and that every student who has not yet been deemed CCR has pre-Pathway, so we're really going to be in the next year looking at students, looking at their data, providing them with opportunities. Um, I will spend time with my team, really working with the coaches that come from Employee Prince George's as. a liaison to our school district to talk about what's the touch for a 6th grader

054versus a 7th versus an 8th, and then what's the difference of a touch from a 9th grader to a 12th grader who's headed out of our district? We believe exactly what you're saying, so we know we want to tighten that up. I want to be able to say to families the specific thing your child will learn in each of these grades as they exit out of our school district. And Ari, I think you bring up a good point, is how are we communicating to our families so that they know what's out there, and then how do we let our kids even push us. To say, what should I… what should I be getting, right? And then I haven't received that, but they said I should. And so, how do we communicate that to allow them

055to be advocates for themselves? So once we have that plan solidified, I will share that with you. Doctor Anderful. Yes, thank you. Um, good evening, everyone. Um, Dr. White, I just had a quick question. Um, so… So you mentioned communication, um, and what you are… kind of thinking about just continuing to communicate, can you just speak a little bit to, um, what communication to families looked like at the onset of this decision, or even prior to. Um, how do you communicate these cuts to. to families, um, if at all, how are they, um, engaged? in, um, and also informing some of the decisions that you all, um, are proposing around what the future. Um, programming will look like, and I'm speaking specifically, um, in regards to the IB programs. Um, and the Chinese immersion programs.

056Sure. So, uh, as we work through the budget process, you know, our superintendent, our. our executive team held plenty of, um, budget sessions, and even had a budget advisory committee. What we probably… what we could have done better, I'm not going to even say probably, is that we didn't get before our families in those specific programs before we came to the board. On January 22nd. Our timeline, including us communicating with our building principals, ensuring that our building principals had an opportunity to speak to our staff, and after that, we were at the board presenting. What it has looked like since then is us going out to particular communities and begin speaking and. having Q&A sessions. We've actually created Q&A documents so that our building administrators will have. This week, I held, um, a meeting with

057a couple of the immersion programs. We've held meetings with, um, next week, I'm meeting with IB, so… Could we have done things differently? Absolutely, to get that engagement, to listen, to hear their voices before we got to the 22nd? I think that's something that we need to add in our timeline to ensure it's done, so that it's done well. Because we do want our parents to know this is a transparent process, and we want to hear their voice. What I have reiterated since the 22nd to every family that we have communicated with. is all of these things are proposed. And so, we're trying to listen to what they're saying, take what they're saying into account, understanding and still knowing we have to cut $150 million. So I will own. That that should have looked different.

058But we value our families and we value their voice in any community that needs us to come out and speak and work with them, we are more than willing to do that. Thank you, Dr. White. Thank you so much, uh, Dr. White. We will now move on to… the Division of Operations and Supporting Services. The Committee Chair recognizes Dr. Joseph for the Division of Operations and Supporting Services budget presentation. Thank you. Our proposed Division of Operations budget ensures the highest quality of business operations essential to student success. While continuing to deliver core services, this proposed budget balances the necessary. cost savings with organizational effectiveness, focusing on reductions on discretionary spending instead of FTEs. An increasing investment in safety and security efforts. At this time, I'll turn it over to Doctor Coleman and Mr. Washington, who

059will provide an overview of the Division of Operations and Supporting Services budget presentation. Thank you, Dr. Joseph, and good evening, Board Chair Jackson. Uh, members of the board, staff, and members of the community. My name is Shiraska Coleman, and I have the privilege of serving as the Chief Operating Officer for the Prince George's County Public School System. I wanted to open by first sincerely thanking the operations team for their tireless work in response to last week's winter storm. I'm grateful to be a part of such a hardworking and selfless team of men and women who daily place the welfare and needs of students. Uh, and our community first, so we can move to the next slide. So the mission of the Division of Operations is to provide the highest quality business operations and supporting services.

060that are essential to the educational process of students. To achieve this mission, our core services are to provide a safe. healthy and welcoming environment for students, staff, and the community, while efficiently and safely transporting students and providing appealing, nutritious meals daily. In addition, we support school construction, modernization, and system-wide facility needs. We implement the Board of Education-approved climate change action plan and strive to provide exceptional customer service. In this proposed budget plan, we will continue to utilize funds to support infrastructure and operational enhancements. The Division of Operations contains the Chief Operating Office, the Office of Supporting Services, and 7 hard-working departments. Four of the seven departments are supported by the operating budget. The exceptions are the Department of Capital Programs and the Office of Alternative Infrastructure Planning and Development. that are funded by the capital

061budget. And finally, the Department of Food and Nutrition Services that operates under a separate non-operative. operating budget. Listed here is the staffing breakdown for the division. There are approximately 3,300 centrally managed positions to support the daily demands of the school system. Our objectives regarding this proposed budget are, one, to meet mandated budget reduction targets for FY27 by exploring cost savings in both staffing and discretionary spending. And two, to ensure organizational effectiveness and strategic alignment. Next, thank you. Key highlights from this proposed budget include, one, no FTEs will be affected from this budget. Reduction, cost savings will only impact a reduction in discretionary spending. Two, reductions in the safety and security services department were limited given the superintendent's priority for the continued enhancement and acceleration. of safety and security efforts. Third, the largest amount of proposed

062reductions are in the Building Services and Transportation and central garage departments. Fourth, nearly 15.3 million, or 71.9%. of the proposed reductions are for contracted services and overtime expenditures. And then finally, approximately $10 million of building services reductions. were offset by increased access to available funds in the capital budget. We were able to achieve the targeted budget reductions while protecting the jobs of our staff. No positions were impacted through these proposed reductions, which is important because we need the full complement of our staff to meet the daily demands of the district. In fact, we are continuing to hire bus drivers in attendance for transportation and security personnel to keep our schools safe. Next slide, please. Listed here are the proposed reductions. the division. As you can see, the majority of reductions are being absorbed. by the

063Building Services and Transportation departments, $13.5 million and 7 million, respectively. Next, we will share the core budget areas, including what's in the budget, the proposed budget. What's changed, and what is the impact? Regarding building services. Building Services provides custodial, maintenance, and environmental services for students, schools, and administrative personnel to maintain a clean, healthy, and safe. work environment. What's changed is a reduction in expenditures. for overtime and contracted services primarily. Through collaborating with our business management finance division, and the County Office of Management and Budget. The Department of Capital Programs has increased access to funds that will be used to offset a majority of the building services reductions in contracted services. That's primarily in the area of major repairs. Some we can predict, and others. Uh, are unexpected. At the same time, in order to reduce

064overtime, building services will prioritize health and safety emergencies like snow and ice removal. as overtime, and we'll schedule other projects as daytime work. The impact is Building Services will utilize $10 million approximately in capital programs funds to continue supporting the emergency needs of schools. We will transfer selected contracted services. to the Food and Nutrition Services Department, which operates from a different budget and has the ability to absorb some of these operating costs. And finally, we will utilize. internal staff on our maintenance team to complete some required inspections. Like bleacher inspections. Regarding transportation, transportation Services delivers efficient fleet and transportation services with the goal of enabling students to arrive at their destination safely. And on time. Uh, the significance of what's changed is that there really is good news here. Our school district has been able

065to significantly reduce the number of bus driver vacancies, thank you to our HR partners. From over 200 vacant positions several years ago to under 70 vacant bus driver positions. Currently, this increased manpower allows us to better meet the transportation needs. while simultaneously reducing expenditures on overtime. In this current fiscal year, transportation utilizes two routing systems. While transitioning from Transfinder to Bus Planner. And the parent app, Stop Finder to Chipmunk. This month, transportation will begin operating solely from one platform. As a result of these changes, transportation can reduce what we pay in overtime while maintaining operational readiness. While simultaneously decreasing the cost of contracted services and improving the efficiency and reliability of our transportation system. by operating out of one routing system and one parent app. The Department of Sustainability and Resiliency leads the efforts to

066execute, promote, enhance, and embed the sustainability. of PGCPS's physical plants and the culture of the school system, and monitors the execution of the PGCPS Climate Change Action Plan. A reduction in expenditures for contracted services is the primary adjustment here. Despite these reductions, DSR, or Department of Sustainability and Resilience. is still prioritizing the pursuit of grant funding to support the mission of the department. A portion of these contracted services will be shifted to the Office of Alternative Infrastructure Planning and Development to support the identification of additional grants. and support with the application, tracking, and processing of these opportunities. DSR will also continue to invest in energy dashboards, which are part of the CCAP, but will expand to fewer schools and reduce the investments. being made in the technology. The chief… the office of the chief operating

067officer provides the highest quality business operations and supporting services that are essential to the educational success of the PGCPS students. By direction of the COO, the Associate Superintendent for Supporting Services facilitates. Collaborative relationships with all departments and divisions within PGCPS. Across both of these offices, we are making significant reductions in non-essential catering services, travel, and other non-. critical expenses. The impact here is we are placing a moratorium on catering. Uh, reducing local and non-local travel, and also reducing the expenditures on dues, subscriptions. awards and certifications that we deem, uh. not urgent. The safety and security services department provides a safe and orderly learning environment that reasonably ensures the safety and security of students. faculty and staff, visitors, and parents. Dr. Joseph has proposed an increased investment in safety and security services as an accelerant. The

068proposed investments of $4.35 million focuses on modernizing technology. increasing security personnel on hand. The proposed $1.9 million increase will support the integration of artificial intelligence security camera capabilities. for enhanced monitoring and response in key areas at our high schools. The coverage will be enhanced in school entrances by integrating facial recognition and. weapons detection capabilities. in parking lots being used, uh, by being able to use car license tag readers to identify prohibited vehicles, as well as our stadiums to control large crowds. The proposed $2.45 million increase includes additional staffing. That will allow us to complete the rollout of our security enhancement devices. to our remaining secondary schools. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions. Thank you so much, Dr. Coleman, board members, do we have any questions? Committee Vice Chair Brown? Yes, thank you

069so much, and thank you so much, Dr. Coleman. into your team, I got… wonderful emails about just… how school sidewalks were cleaned up, and how the staff did a really excellent job, so I wanted to make sure that I pointed that out. I also did have, um, just a question about. I guess what we all learned with the cleanup portion. Do we have anything in our budget that addresses. upgraded equipment? Is that going to take away… I guess from… because it seems like you have an influx of cash, is what I was. what I saw from it. Um, how are we addressing that? Is that going to be addressed. for future equipment, because I know that was definitely a concern, um, for families still getting in and out through schools. You know, of course, we're

070hearing about ICE. So, uh, Bowman Brown, thank you for the question. I'll turn it over to Director Stefanelli to speak to that for a moment. I did. want to get a little clarity around infusion of cash. I wasn't quite sure I understood what that meant. No, it… were you… did it… I'm sorry, were you explaining what you were reducing, or did you have additional funding? Oh, I understand. No, we were actually making a reduction. Mm-hmm. Got it. In the, uh, contracted services that are in the department budget for building services. what I was explaining was we're actually having to offset that reduction in the operating budget. by earmarking funding in the capital budget to make up the difference. Yes, ma'am. Because there's certain work that's critical that has to get done. You have a boiler

071that goes down. You must get that work done to keep schools open, so we'll be shifting the funding that's going to support it from operating to capital. to no more than about $10 million. Good evening, everyone. Thanks for the question. A little clarification. Most of the conversation around ICE and sidewalks was in the neighborhood area, the schools. The school staff did an outstanding job making sure that our school properties were safe as soon as possible. However, this was the most challenging snowstorm I've ever. been involved with since I've been here, and I've been here for 33 years. The combination of the snow and then the 4 inches of ice on top. made it very difficult for everyone. Um, having said that, we… our equipment, everyone's snow equipment, works to about 12 inches. We, uh, once

072you get above 12 inches, you start to have to… you have to use heavier equipment. Um, we were able to… We bought in heavy equipment, we were able to rent them and hire contractors with heavy equipment, that's what allowed us to help. get our buildings up so quickly. Um, it's not cost-effective for us to stockpile equipment that can handle. 12 to 24 inches of snow for this 10-year storm. It's much more cost-effective. To make arrangements, which is what we did. Um, to have that… to rent that and have that available for the one week, or the two weeks that we need it. So, uh, and Dr. Coleman, uh, in last year's budget. Uh, actually established a line item for us to have a. um, funding to rent equipment for issues like this, so… We were

073kind of out in front of this. It was a lot worse than we thought it was because of the cold temperatures and the ice reforming every day. But, um, I think… Using a company to rent the equipment, or using contractors to bring those in. is the most cost-effective way to attack storms like this. We probably won't see another one like this for quite some time. And if we do, I'm confident that we can, um… follow the same plan that we use this time, and be out in front of everybody. We did a fantastic job. Yeah, I think… and I just want to make sure that I say this. Thank you, Director. Um, to, you know, thank you. I did receive some feedback, of course, from families. There were a couple of schools that possibly did

074not have the support of volunteers to help and assist, so there were some schools that. did not get complete, you know, sidewalks and things like that, and I did get pictures and the things like that, so I want to make sure that. I let my constituents know that we are here to support in any way that we can, and that. the administration is wanted, so I appreciate your clarification, and thank you. Doctor Moss? Yeah, no, Director, definitely, I appreciate. Um, your comments here, I just had a question, a conversation with a colleague earlier today. about this, and I appreciate you clarifying to the general public that it makes no sense. for us to stockpile this kind of equipment for a storm. Um, it just not would… it wouldn't be… considerate of our budget to be

075able to do that. Um, so, no, I don't think we should be running out buying equipment to deal with a storm that, you know, happens. You know, once every 30 years, based on. you know, your leadership experience, so I appreciate. the wisdom that we have in our staff here in PGCPS, um… But my question really is around security. There is a… there's a misnomer out there. that we've not, um, updated our security systems at some of our high schools. We heard it today. Um, I heard it today while I was in Annapolis doing some lobbying. So, can you all walk us through where we've been in terms of security enhancements. Have we completed the work at our high schools? now at middle schools, and this increase in budgeting. How does it get us to 100%

076in terms of our secondary schools? Or are we… are we already there in terms of our Phase 1? Security enhancements. And thank you so much, Dr. Moss. I'll answer the first portion, then I'll turn it over to Director Cunningham to speak to the camera upgrade cadence that we are working towards. But with respect to our security enhancement devices. Uh, it was clear that Phase 1 was to implement the security enhancement in all high schools first. So they were prioritized as that first phase, so all of our high schools are equipped with the security enhancement devices. That second phase included expanding to select middle schools and K-8s. that was led by the data, uh, to determine which schools needed to be prioritized for that technology. Dr. Joseph, through his accelerant, is going to allow us, because

077these are labor-intensive. pieces of equipment that you need more staff in order to implement the security enhancements. So, through this accelerant, we'll be able to hire the additional staff. to then be able to man the equipment and complete the rollout in all of our secondary schools. Our remaining middles and our remaining K-8s. I'm gonna ask Director Cunningham to speak to. The camera upgrade process that we're undergoing, because that is an ongoing piece of our. investment as well. Doctor Coleman, if you could speak to, like, metal detectors too, because I think that's where the misconception is. Oh, I'm sorry, the security enhancement devices are the metal detectors. Yeah, I apologize. Yeah, whenever I said security enhancement devices, I'm talking about the metal detectors, so. They are in… the metal detectors are in all of our high

078schools. They are in selected middle schools and K-8s, and provided this accelerant is able to be funded. we will be able to have the metal detectors in all secondary schools. Good evening, everyone, and uh… just to follow up on what Dr. Coleman said, we have mental. Sometimes in 14 of our middle and K-8 schools. adding additional personnel will allow us to spread them throughout the entire middle school population. What we found. One of the less big lessons learned is that when you have the devices, you need someone to. be at the devices so that when there is an alert. You can take immediate action to determine whether or not it is. Uh, something that needs to be… checked, or it is actually a weapon, so… We did find that we needed additional staffing, and the

079number that we need for each… the minimum staffing that we need for each device. would be 3. So, that allows us to operate several lanes and devices at the same time. and keep the student flow moving. The metal detectors can do about 300 and. 60, uh, students per, uh, every 10 to 15 minutes. But that's a pretty brisk pace. But you have to have a systematic method of getting the. children through the devices. And we found that 3 people is the minimum number of people that you need. to operate devices and keep the flow going. And with that being said, so we are also in the process of upgrading all of our camera systems. In our schools, we have, uh, by June of this year, we will have. AI-capable cameras in all of our high

080schools. So we've started working that process every year. We're giving money from the capital side to upgrade. the hardware in the school, so by the end of June, we will have AI-capable cameras in all of those. Um, all the high schools, and we're working our way through the middle schools. In addition to that, AI-capable means that they have the. bare minimum standards for AI capabilities. So if you want to get facial recognition software or weapons detection software, those are applications that are within that AI platform. that we will have to upgrade specific cameras to. So our plan is to look at all of our entrances to our schools. and upgrade them with the AI-capable facial recognition and weapons detection software, and this will give us an alert. as people approach the schools, instead of waiting

081for them to get to the schools. We believe they may have a weapon. Or they may be a prohibited person, a person that may have some type of warrant, or cannot come onto school property. We'll get that alert. Prior to them coming into the building. So that's our stance there. In addition to that, we want to use that AI-capable software and high-definition and high-resolution cameras. in our gymnasiums and our, um, stadiums. Uh, we found that when we had incidents in the stadiums and the gymnasiums. the cameras that we had were not… capable of capturing clear pictures. So we're gonna invest money in the high resolution cameras, so that if there is an incident, we will have that forensic information that we could pass on. Thank you, Director. I'm gonna pause this right there. So much.

082to the authorities when it's necessary. Um… Thank you so much for that additional, uh, information. I know a lot of people had questions about those. AI-enabled cameras specifically. Um, we are over time, so I'm gonna move to Board Member Ajakaia. Okay, thank you so much. My question is about the transportation services. Um, you mentioned in the presentation that there's going to be. A reduction in expedentials for overtime, and also contracted services, but I wanted to ask, how is this going to, like, affect the time that students get home? Because right now, I do know, like, there's been, like, a lot of students who have, um, expressed their concerns about them, about themselves getting home really late. Considering, like, buses have to come back to the school after dropping off their first set of students. And

083then, um, this, like, affects things such as, like, homework time, um, you know, them being able to, like, help out in the house, probably, so… I just wanted to ask, like, how does this reduction of expedentures, like, correlate, or how will it correlate with the time that students get home? Like, will it affect it? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much, uh, Board Member Ajikae. So, the… this is why it's a good news story, right? the reason that we have students who have to wait for their buses when you have many, many vacancies is that that driver has to complete their original bidded run, and then come back. to the school to take the next group of students home. So, that driver gets additional overtime, but it also increases the wait time for students. So what

084we are doing now is closing those, uh, the gap in the number of vacancies, where we have many fewer vacancies. We're under 70, whereas before we were over 200. So what does that do? That decreases the need for the use of overtime. Because now, each route has a driver who can run it. Which means the students don't have to wait. The bus is right there to take them home. So the more we can fill these positions. The less overtime we need, the faster students can get serviced by their driver. Thank you so much, uh, Board Member Blons-Mcance. Um, I had a really quick question, Dr. Coleman, about. our charters. I know that they, um, receive certain services and other services they don't receive. concerning the metal detectors or the security enhancement systems, um… there is

085a charter in my district that has communicated they don't have that, so I just was curious to know, is that something that will be covered by the district? is that gonna be happening soon? Um, and then also for the AI cameras and software, will that also be installed? in charters. Sure, thank you so much, Board Member Briggs, for the question. So, security services does not support. the security posture at our charter schools. Um, not with staffing. Uh, not with, um… infrastructure, like the chart, like the metal detectors. Most of the charter schools are operating out of buildings that they lease and are not owned by PGCPS. Director Cunningham, did you want to add anything to that? We do offer them support if they are asking for technical guidance. Or things that they need that are

086security-related questions, we do offer them support there. Okay, so, and can you just speak to, like, what that process is? How would they go about that? Is that, like, a request, or a waiver, or… Um, you know, because obviously we care about all of our students and their safety, so just want to make sure that that message isn't being distorted, that we don't care about that. Can you speak to, um, how a charter would go about doing that? So as it relates to how charters are funded, um, they are funded very differently, and in the state of Maryland, they are responsible for their buildings and their building codes. And so, as it relates to security enhancements and security services, they would be responsible for actually purchasing those things. We do have a such thing as

087buyback services, that if, in fact, a charter school was interested in, um, speaking with us about how they can contract out. to actually, um, explore the option of its security enhancements, we would then work with them through how they could obtain that. Okay, okay, thank you so much for that, Dr. Mark. And the one thing that I would also add is that in cases of emergencies, the charter schools have reached out to safety and security services for support, and we are always there to provide it. Okay, thank you, Dr. Goldman. Thank you. Um, so I did have a question. Just before I speak. I don't know if this goes to. Doctor Merrill or Doctor Coleman. Um, in regards to, um, the security enhancements. Um, cameras and, um, all the AI stuff. Um, you said that

088they're gonna be in all high schools? And then selected middle schools? So the security enhancements, meaning the metal detectors. are currently installed now. in all of our high schools, and in 14 of our middle schools and K-8s. under this proposed accelerant, we would add the staffing needed to complete. the metal detector rollout in all secondary schools. Gotcha. Okay, good, thanks. I just wanted that point of clarity. Alright, thank you so much. And I do have, um… well, technically several questions rolled into one, so… Please humor me a bit. I sincerely appreciate you giving us the breakdowns for the cuts from each of your departments, um, especially Board Member Ajakae's question that helped. You help us understand a little bit more why there is such a large reduction in transportation, considering we have so many concerns

089about that. And so I have a similar question around the. size of the cut to building services, especially considering the age of our building. And I know you've done a lot of work in Obafa to help us understand the difference between our capital programs budget. And this operating budget, but can you speak a little bit more about how we're taking such massive cuts to building services and still able to maintain our buildings? Yeah, thank you. I'm gonna actually ask, um, Director Jackson to speak to this in just a moment, but. What I will say is that the reduction proposed for building services is $13 million. Um, the director, uh, Jackson and the team have been working with ONB. to get access to additional capital funds, and I just ask her to speak to that, and

090how she's planning to offset that, uh, 10 million of that $13 million reduction. Good evening. Thank you so much for that question. I was waiting and hoping for it. Um, so… When Dr. Coleman mentioned that major repairs category, that's a category that already exists within the capital, um. program portfolio, and it's usually 95%, um, building service projects and support projects already. Uh, we recently have been working with our OMB partners, with the county to, um, access some prior appropriations that. haven't been reconciled with our system until the last 6 months. Um, now that they are. We have around $50 million in that category that we hadn't previously had access to. So when we say we've earmarked those for building services to offset that reduction. That's what we're talking about it coming from. Um, so that

091way, um, we're kind of formalizing what we already do with our major repairs category, and then that offset really helps us be able to fund that without stopping the capital program. And so, I guess for clarity, this is money that was already allocated to us that just had not been given to us, and now we are able to. do that work, or is this separate? It was allocated, but there was a changeover in the county system that made it hard to decide, like, is it on the books and actually reimbursable, and can. PGCPS responsibly loaded into Oracle and spend it, so it took some back and forth for us all to agree that, no, these are live appropriations, let's spend them. Thank you so much, Director Jackson, and… Dr. Coleman. Board members, are there any

092additional questions? Seeing no hands. The committee chair recognizes Dr. Joseph for the committee… for the Division of School Support and Leadership's budget presentation. Thank you, Boardmember Goins, we can't. So our budget strategy in the Division of School Support and Leadership is centered around four priority areas. protecting the classroom. Two, targeting central office vacancies. Three, data-driven adjustments, and four sustaining vital programming. Uh, at this time, I'll turn it over to Dr. Morrow and her team for an overview of the Division of School and Support's leadership budget. Good evening, thank you, um, Dr. Faison, if you could. Kia stuff. Dr. Faison? Did we lose her? Got you. Good evening, everyone. Good evening to our Board of Education, our families, our community, our students, and our leaders who are joining us tonight. I'm Dr. Coletta Mero, the Chief

093of School Support and Leadership, and I will be sharing our proposed budget for the school year 2027. Next slide. Next slide. And so, our mission in the Division of School Support and Leadership. is to provide comprehensive support and leadership development that we focus on ensuring that our students receive aligned academic excellence. With high-quality services that also provide a focus on ensuring that there's college and career readiness through innovation and ensuring that our students are ready for the global society that we're in today. Next slide. And so our focus, our core services is around integrated school and student support, which is around coordinating coaching, student services. and school-level guidance. And then our resources and operation with student wellness alignment, again, around operational systems. Comprehensive student services that includes our mental health, attendance, behavior, and family engagement.

094And then important to all of this is the accountability progress monitoring and leadership development, and so ensuring that district-wide accountability measures, monitoring progress across schools and departments. And that continuous professional learning and leadership development is at the core of the work that we do. as a division of school support and leadership. Next slide. Within the Division of School Support and Leadership, of course, we encompass all of the schools. Which is broken into our Area 1, which is elementary and our Early Childhood Centers. Area 2, our middle school and charters. And then Area 3, our high school and non-traditional programs. And then the other side of our work, our wraparound and supporting services, is our student services department. Within that, of course, this is all that actually comes together with the support of every system in

095the school, every division in the school system supporting our schools and our leaders to ensure that we can move academic achievement. And so, just a breakdown of, um, the CSSL. Again, within our area offices, which always seems so big and so small, where we have our area superintendents, and then we have our instructional directors. And our leadership coaches, our liaison, and so forth. And then on Liz's side, with our supporting student services, we have two directors with 12 divisions that fall within. almighty Division of student support and leadership. Next slide. And so our key highlights tonight, I will reference the reductions to personnel, which were prioritized to central office positions. Which eliminated… we eliminated vacancies on hard-to-fill positions that have been there for multiple years. Um, we focus on reductions to vacant central office positions

096that were aligned to reflect the declining demand, such as our adolescent pregnant students. And our international student enrollment. Um, cost savings will only impact the reduction in discretionary funding for schools in that instructional positions. Don't know what that is, excuse me. Um, funding for student programs. around our health centers, mental health clinicians, and sources of strength has been calibrated to sustain current service levels, with a commitment to expansion of our fiscal resource permit. And lastly, we'll focus on proposed reductions protecting the integrity of our primary mission to ensure no compromise. to the sustainability of our instructional quality, leadership development, and service delivery. And so, what are our core services, our budgetary changes. And what impact, um, the sustainability of these services? Next slide. So, in the area office, our goal is to provide oversight and

097support for schools and school leaders through targeted coaching, leadership development, data monitoring, and continuous improvement. Um, through that, our budget resources are aligned to professional development, school performance monitoring, data analysis. that we work with our principals and school leaders for coordinated support and services. And so, in our proposed changes in the area office, we did reduce two central office administrative assistant FTEs. and discretionary funding. And so, with that targeted approach, it allowed us to look at our funding in the central office. to actually, um, ensure that we're not impacting the classroom. And so there's no adverse impact on the area office. Um, we actually saw this as an opportunity to make, um, to provide some equity in the teams and the resources to align. And just reducing that discretionary funding at the area office, which

098allowed us to reduce 3.2 million on the area office side. And then you'll see on the next slide. the categories which these reductions fell, which we have a couple of positions that over time. We were able to reduce, and the bulk of this, uh, targeted, um, reduction is from the actual discretionary budget. Next slide. And so this will show that those reductions and where exactly they came from within our central office, um, just as many of the other divisions. You have some program that falls under central office, and so that's where you see those positions that were vacant that we actually were able to cut back in our reductions. Within our discretionary funding, you'll see which all of the area offices came together, looked at what exactly we could, um, cut back on in our

099proposed reductions, and these are the categories. that were impacted, um, as a result, and each department was able to take a look at. where they could stand to cut, and of course, as a district, we've put a moratorium on certain spending, and so this is where most of our discretionary reductions came from. Next slide. And so, in terms of the school, um… operating resources. What we put forth in our proposal is reducing 32%. of our traditional school's discretionary funding, which is $4.9 million, which will allow our schools an opportunity to align their funds. Um, within their discretionary budget to their priorities, to the school district priorities, and also look at our strategic planning to make decisions. that truly align to the priorities by taking the funding from the school operating resource budget, it allowed us

100not to touch the classroom. And so when, um… when school leaders receive their budget, they'll see the reduction on discretionary funding, which they'll still be able to allot, where they would like to make those choices within their budget, and we will ensure that all of our schools. still have enough funding that they're able to operate and sustain where they've been the previous year. Next slide. And so… and I kind of spoke to this, but in terms of that school operating resources, and if you're not sure what school operating resources is, this is that day-to-day money that schools receive around specific to, um, do their specific priorities. in different categories, um, to align to the actual effective school planning. Um, our SPP and our instructional priorities align with our, um, district's Big Rocks as well. And

101so, we actually see this as an opportunity as we are digging into our strategic planning, as well as our school improvement process to actually help our leaders to be more effective in their planning and more purposeful in what they do with their funding. And this proposed reduction equals about $4.9 million across all of our schools. Next slide. And so, as I mentioned earlier, our student services side of the house. Um, which is led by Dr. Faison. We actually have two directors with 12 different divisions. all that encompasses the needs of our students and staff within our schoolhouse, from our Office of Homeschooling. down to our mental health services, and so I'll now transition into, um, the sustainability of our student services side of the house. And so our student services division is aligned… their aligned

102priorities are around our Big Rocks and our, um, Blueprint Pillar 3 and 4. A lot of our work that we're doing around MTSA support. as well as our college and career readiness. And so you will see throughout how we're implementing our priorities. And ensuring that our allowment of our funding aligns with the priorities. And so the proposed, um, reductions in student services actually. equals about $3.8 million, which was, um, the threshold that was requested in terms of us trying to meet. that $150 million deduction, um, that as a school district. And so, you can go to the next slide. As you see here, you'll see where the proposed reductions lie in our discretionary funding. And I'll go more in detail as we talk about our student services side of our division. So, within, um, that…

103I'll propose deductions, um, reduction, I'm sorry, there's about 79,000, um. that we are proposing to reduce through our, um, adolescent parent liaison program. We currently have, um, 7, uh, one vacant position. And so, we've had that vacancy for some time, and what this would allow us to do, since we have not been able to fill that position over time. We will actually, um, divide that caseload among the, um, current members of that team. And while the caseloads will be a little higher, we have been doing that for some time now while that's been vacant. So, since it's been vacant for some time, we've decided to actually make the reduction there. And so I'll, um… in our international office positions, I'm going to continue. Um, which is our division, which coordinates across our departments with our

104English language learners. Uh, we're proposing to reduce one of our vacant bilingual texts and one of our vacant, um, clerk typists. in that department, in which actually consists of four bilingual texts. and one specialist. And so we don't see that where this will actually be a huge impact to our division. with this actual, um, decrease with the, um. outlowering of numbers of integration… I'm sorry, immigration, um, enforcement and our trends of what we're seeing in our enrollment, and so we don't see that this will actually, um, be a big. cut to us with this, um, proposed reduction here. Our private duty nurses, so our private duty nurses, um, we have some one-to-ones that are currently serving 60 to 80 students. And we're utilizing 11 FTEs and supplemental contracted agencies for this. And so we proposed

105reducing four private duty nursing positions, and these positions, again, have been vacant for some time. We were approved for 15 positions in the past 2 years, and have had trouble filling these 4 positions. And so, to offset the vacancies and reductions, we've expanded our network with staffing agencies to actually assist us. With contracted services and so forth to actually ensure that our students' needs are met. And that we continue to meet the need. So that's what, um, this actual reduction is referring to. And so our mental health services, which we know this is something that we, um… It's dear to our heart, and so we have a multi-tiered clinical model that we implement. in our mental health services team. And with that, um, we are investing in. this… previously, we… again, we received lots of

106funding through our ESSA funding to support this, and so our goal is to move this funding over to our community schools, um, clinicians. Through our Blueprint funding so that, um, as we propose this mental health, um. just the, um, the, uh, reduction that is actually shifting to our community school function, um, funding. And so this investment will help us with our programs. Um, and our schools are not funded through, um, community schools as well. Next slide. And our school-based health centers, which we're excited, we're ready to kick them off, but, you know. Our snow slowed us down a little bit, but we actually initially proposed that we open up 10 of our, um. mental health, um, community centers, but now we're gonna actually open 7 this year. And so, um, instead of opening at 10,

107we'll open 7, and part of that funding will, um, be made through our Blueprint funding so that we actually can have that collaborative approach as a district, and when we expand in 2028, we'll continue to make the expansion. Um, and so that reduction is actually from us not opening up the 10 schools, but opening up our 7 school-based health centers. Any questions? That 10 minutes goes fast! It definitely does. Board members, do we have any questions for the Division of School Support and Leadership? Thank you, Dr. Marrow and team, and Dr. Faison followed the incredible work that you all do. Um, school-based, uh, the… the centers that we were going to roll out. Um, you know, what is the long-term plan for that? Um, are there any connections to, like. I know we lost, like,

108federal Medicaid funding. I do worry about that. I thought that was going to be really great work for our communities. Um… What's the… do we plan to revisit this at some point? Um, I know we haven't, you know, rolled those things out, so we're not really, per se, losing something that is already. been at place, but I know there was a long-term plan to make sure these health centers are in all the schools, we did that, you know, when they designed. Drew Freeman and all those different schools, we were expected to have, you know, to have clinics all across these schools. The spaces are in our new buildings. Um, if you're not ready to talk about this yet, and you're just trying to get through the budget, I understand, but I am curious of where

109we're going long-term with this work. And if we've looked at, like. you know, ways Medicaid can support this or whatnot. Um, yeah, just a question. Dr. Faison, I'm going to turn it over to you. Okay, I would just say succinctly. Um, we have rolled out 4 clinics, um, at the start of this year. And what we are doing is utilizing Medicaid to bill. for those families who have that resource right now. And what we're looking to see. is if those, um, students who are receiving the services through. Medicaid, um, uh, billing, uh, will offset how much we're actually having to pay. children for the rendering of those services. So we are looking to leverage those funds now. And are we hoping that if we see that… if we see an opportunity. Um, in terms of

110the reimbursement on these. I'm curious if there's a plan to, like, re-up these and start using Medicaid as a revenue stream to continue building these out. since we're at 4, the plan was to build more. Are we doing this research to figure out if this is a viable revenue stream to bring more online? That's a great question. I look forward to working with Dr. Coleman's team and our chief, um, around that. Yeah. Board members, any additional questions? Dr. Moss for round two. I'm sorry, I want to get back in this. Um, Dr. Coleman, is your team. Thinking about that all, this perhaps sounds like a way… I know there are facility costs. Um, and I guess there's a question for Dr. Faison as well. The schools… the new schools that we built. Um, we have

111space already, so I don't see much facility cost. There would just be, like. you know, all the cost that comes with running a clinic. Um, and y'all can just tell me to stop, because we have not had time to talk about this yet, but… Um, maybe we should have another conversation around this, but I think it's important. for us to get these health clinics up and roll, and I understand we're in the middle of a budget cut now, but I just want to make sure we're exhausting all of our thinking and our revenue streams to do it. Well, I do know that as a part of our P3 schools, we certainly have built in… well, go ahead, Jason, I'll let you go ahead and speak, too. Yeah. No, no, I was gonna say, uh, we

112do have the facility and the space, and they have been built out to accommodate that. Uh, I do recommend that we just. uh… get a smaller group together to talk through that… that process, but. we have built them for separate entrances, a separate security system, so it is literally, um, ready plug and play. We just, uh, have been waiting, and Dr. Faison and her team have been waiting for the vendor side of this, but the infrastructure is there. Um, and I would say, uh, that, that, uh, we just need to just have conversations on what that looks like, but they are in place and ready to go. And Sean may have some updates on the newer schools as well. I appreciate you saying that. I just think there's an opportunity for us, county resources. together

113to really build this out, um, and think about this, because we do have a shortage. of access to healthcare across the county, and so. perhaps there's a braiding of resources so that this can truly be a community health center in these places. that we had planned to do. Um, I think there's an opportunity here. I just wanted to point out, um, so we have opened one, or was planning to open one in January. Uh, at one of the, uh, these first six of our P3 schools. by the end of March. We should roll out… have rolled out all 6. Um, um, of the, uh, health centers in the first P3 schools. Uh, we're using national, um, children's medical centers is going to be the vendor, and they were up, and that vendor was obtained. through

114the county who's responsible for, uh, manning these facilities. And they will be up and running, all of them should be up and running. I think… I said March, I think it's May, but we have a rollout. The first one was opened in January. We've been working very closely with them to make sure that they had all the specialty needs and all the utilities worked, and that they had their equipment all fit into those facilities. And, uh, they are operating the first one, and as I said, they should all be… all six should be operational one day. Thank you so much, Director Matlock. Yes, thank you so much, Chair Goins McCants. I wanted to talk about just the mental health services. I did see, obviously, a reduction, but. Uh, and I did hear a lot about

115community schools. Um, definitely receiving the support. In my district, I… I think I only have one community school. Um, and then I have, I think it's Northview, and then I have, um, Bowie High School, which is my only high school, so… I know my district probably doesn't need. as much support, maybe, than other districts. However. Um, can we talk about the support that they are still going to receive? Because I don't want it to be a misconception that. any resource that they had is gonna now be taken away, because it's going to be given somewhere else. Can we talk about that? Thanks. Thank you so much for that question, and just to clarify, every single school. has an allotment of a mental health clinician, whether they are. a community school or a non-community school. I

116think the great thing about PGCPS is when ESSER sunset, um, our school system kicked in $5 million. to ensure that mental health clinical services. could continue for the schools who were supported by, uh, ESSER, and these are our non-community schools. So, the cut that… or the reduction that you see, um, that is anticipated for next year is because every year we have a number of schools. that leave our general operating funding and shift to community schools. Because those schools receive a new designation of being a community school. So that's where you see the cut. It is shifting from funding only, not a shift in service. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Faison. That was gonna be… that was gonna be a huge part of my question. Um, can you speak to how specifically those. If each school

117is still retaining that support from those mental health services, and we are shifting from one budget to another. is that going to impact any schools? the students in those schools' ability to get the service. So is there, like, multiple people at one school, or… Do community schools have more of these support services because they have a different budget? So, so right now, um, um… our community schools are able to pay for, um, seven and a half hours worth of services. Um, for our non-community school side, um, our clinicians are still working in the schools. seven and a half hour days. Um, what we have done with the hybrid funding model is the school system pays for a portion. And then our agencies are billing for the other portion. But it is intended, and what's occurring

118now is that our clinicians are in schools, whether they are in a non-community school or community school, they're there for seven and a half hour work days. And so, there's no shift in services, um, as it relates to. funding. It is who will receive the bill and who will pay. And that's the shift that's occurring, um, for next year. Thank you so much for that clarification, Dr. Faison. Board members, do we have any additional questions before we close out our second round? Seeing none, thank you all for your presentations and the insight that you all have shared. Uh, we truly appreciate it. I now return the meeting to Chairman Jackson. We might be having some technical difficulties. I'm sorry, I just… You didn't hear me? I'm sorry, I didn't know I was on mute. So

119I was saying that, uh, there being no further… Business, the time is now 6.52. The meeting will recess for… Uh, 8 minutes… Um, to reconvene at 7. PM, uh. There being no further business, um. We'll be on recess, and please also note that this will be the same link for the public hearing. Thank you. Good evening, everybody. Hey, Cindy, you wanna, uh… Restart the meeting. Uh, Chair Jackson, we are here. We're just waiting for you to stop. Great. Alright, the time is now 7 o'clock. Welcome back to the February 5th, 2026 Prince George's County Board of Education Budget Work Session. And public hearing for FY 2027 Interim Superintendent Proposed Operating Budget. To those of you joining us for the first time this evening, I am Brandon Jackson, Chairman of the Prince George's County Board of

120Education. The Board of Education thanks you for participating in tonight's public hearing to share your thoughts on FY 2027 Interim Superintendent Proposed Operating Budget. Your involvement is essential as we work together to address the needs of the students, staff, and Prince George's County Public Schools. Ms. Barton, can we start with the roll call, please? Mrs. Ajakae? Dr. Anderhold? Ms. Booster-struther? Mr. Briggs? Mrs. Brown? Ms. Goins-mcance? Dr. Moss? Mrs. Olivo? Mr. Jackson. Here. We have corn. Thank you, Ms. Bartley. Now moving to public comments. The chairman… the chairman requests that all speakers ensure that the name used. to register for public comment tonight matches the name. Um, that's logged in to the meeting. Um, we had some complications with that last night, so we want to make sure we get that correct tonight. Um, we will

121now hear from the constituent comments. The chairman recognizes the registered speakers for the public comments. Um, but to our public speakers. Um, our registered speakers, you are allotted 3 minutes to share your remarks or questions and receive. Speaking time may not be transferred to another individual, speakers are expected to refrain from using profanity or derogatory language. A warning will be issued once. Continued misconduct may result in the speaker being muted or removed from the meeting. to support a professional and courteous environment, speakers are encouraged to refer to individuals by title, such as chair, board member. Superintendent, etc. Our first speaker tonight is Mr. David… Reyes. This individual speaking on electric buses. Mia, do we have him, um, queued up? Yes, we're moving him over now. He's over here. Okay, thank you, and can we, before

122Mr. Reyes goes, can we make sure that the rest of the list that we have. are queued up and ready, um, to go. Can we individually chat them to make sure that they're locked in so we can move along. Come on, please. Thank you so much, Mr. Reyes. Absolutely. Okay, do we have, uh, Mr. Colts available? Because we can move along, and we can come back to Mr. Reyes at the end. Emmanuel Coates. individual Prince George's County, speaking on school policies. At this time, Mr. Coats is not here. We're moving on to Gina. Bolar? Ms. Bowler, are you there? We've moved them over. They're not speaking. Oh, but they are present, though? Hello. Hello, can you hear me? This is Gina Bowler. Yeah, yeah. We have some… Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Yeah. Yes,

123we can hear you now. Thank you, Ms. Bowler. Hi. I think that's the, um, I guess the… thing asking me to join as a panelist. For speaker. Thank you. Should I go ahead and start? Yes, please. Thank you. Greetings, my name is Gina Bolder. Thanks for the opportunity to speak this evening. Um, my topic is the IB program at Frederick Douglass High School. I'm the proud mom of two. students there, a scholar. in the, um, 9th grade IB pre-diploma program, and also an 11th grader in the diploma. diploma program, where long-time residents of the county and. Uh, Douglas is our in-boundary school. I'm among the Douglas families who actively seek to engage throughout the year, including as concerns the budget process. Yet we were surprised by the January 26th and 27th announcements flagging the proposal

124or the decision. To conclude the IB program at the end of the school year. Uh, but keep the IB diploma program. Um, as a specialty program. Notably, the announcements were silent about. the pre-diploma program. Um… and with that program, entry is in the 9th grade. Through the, um… the specialty program application process, or TAC continuity. So, I'm looking forward to next week's, um. PTSO meeting at Douglas. It's a general body meeting, but I understand that we will learn more about the January announcements regarding the IB program. And that, um… school and district leadership will be there to speak about it. And to take questions, um, along with cover other topics at that general body meetings. In closing, um, I'm asking. Uh, that the board and the school and the school system. Um, consider these requests.

125Please keep your commitment to the IB families, including the current. IB pre-diploma program 9th grade scholars, such as my daughter, continuing the two-year track from… 10th grade will help them prepare for and access the rigor and prestige of the diploma program. If not, I'm concerned about disruption to IB continuity, less preparation for the. IB diploma program, fewer rigorous courses available to 9th and 10th graders at Douglas. an erosion of trust among current and prospective IB families and. Douglas families. Please update or revise the sample four-year planner for the International Baccalaureate Program. at Frederick Douglass High School. and distribute it as soon as possible. to families, so that we can… proposals would affect, um… our students in the coming years. And also, please host timely meetings, um. that are dedicated to IV, host those meetings with

126the families. Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Baller. And please… the IB Parent Council. Thank you. Um, moving on next to… did we get… Yes, ma'am. Chairman Jackson. May I please make an announcement to all of the public commenters. We will send you a message that will promote you to become a panelist. You must accept that in order to be moved over to speak. If you decline it, you would not be able to speak. Go ahead. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, so, next up, we have, uh, Alicia Renee. Good evening, Chair, board members, and Superintendent. My name is Alicia Renee. I am a Prince George's County parent and a non-attorney special education advocate and IEP coach. Excuse me, Ms. Renee, are you able to come on camera? I live here. Yeah, I can come on camera.

127Thank you. Alright, so I'll start over. Can you see me? Very, very good. So, Chair, board members, and superintendent. Yeah, we can see you, thanks. My name is Alicia Renee, I'm a Prince George's County parent and non-attorney. Virtual education advocate and IEP coach. I live here, I'm from here. My family is here. I'm speaking today because the fiscal year 27 budget reflects decisions that directly affect. Whether students with disabilities receive what the law already requires. IDEA and COMAR are not optional. Fape is not a goal or an aspiration. It is a legal obligation. But just do not override civil rights. The district's own materials identify several serious risks. First, the budget reflects a $150 million gap. and proposed this district-wide reductions that directly affect staffing coverage and school-level capacity. I'm not here to protect central

128office positions. I'm here to protect service delivery. When substitute staffing coverage and school capacity are weakened, the risk of missed IEP services increase. This is not a financial issue, this is a faith issue. Second, the district is relying on a $40 million salary lapse assumption, budgeting as if vacancies and turnover will not exist. Staffing gaps are a primary driver of missed services. Delayed evaluations, and denied supports. Budgeting around vacancies does not eliminate the compliance risk. It shifts it onto children and families. Third, the special education is framed as a strategic investment, yet budget. The budget materials do not include transparent public compliance metrics tied to outcomes. There is no dashboard showing IEP implementation rates, missed services, evaluation timeline compliance. Compensatory services owed versus delivered, or staffing vacancies by role. And there's the red flag for

129every taxpayer listening should understand non-public tuition for school-age students now exceeds $64 million. That level of spending now reflects a failure. That level of spending reflects a failure to build and sustain in-district capacity to serve students. with disabilities in their home schools, in alignment with least restrictive environment requirements. This is not the cost of doing business, that is the cost of weak operational controls and years of unresolved compliance issues. At the same time, the district is promoting AI-enabled cameras and AI literacy initiatives. as strategic investments. Innovation does. not to substitute for… it's not a substitute for compliance. Families are still struggling to obtain timely evaluations. IEP servicemen is actually delivered, qualified providers, accessible transportation, and appropriate placement decisions. Thank you, Ms. Renee. Alright, thank you, appreciate it. Um, moving on to our next speaker. Yealink.

130Masaneres Jalen is not here. Okay, Yelen is not here? Okay. Okay, I, uh… Takaya Bell. Hi, everybody! My name is Dasia. Can y'all see me? Excuse me. Cool. Um… I'm here representing Judith P. Hoyer, Montessori. PTSA, our members are residents of school board districts 4, 5, 6, and 7. because we were a specialty school. I'm here because we need a gym. We're a 5-star school, and our scholars deserve a gymnasium. We do not have a gym. It's a pre-K3 to 8th grade school. And we don't have a gem. Our physical education teacher, Mr. Little, is doing an amazing job modifying an ordinary classroom in order to teach the curriculum, right? Because physical education is a part of their curriculum. Physical education plays a critical role in students' physical health, their emotional well-being, their overall academic

131success. And yet, our current facilities significantly limit those opportunities. Also. because we don't have a gym, the middle schoolers can't participate in middle school sports. Um, and they shouldn't have to choose between their world-class Montessori education. and playing sports like basketball. Uh, organized team sports will not only enrich the collaborative aspect of their Montessori education, but will also enhance their school spirit, their sense of belonging. It has been proven that students who participate in. Learn teamwork, resilience, discipline, leadership, good sportsmanship, integrity, self-respect, responsibility, increased self-esteem. emotional regulation as they learn how to handle pressure and frustration while maintaining focus, enhanced motivation to increase performance in the classroom. They learn time management and uh… there's a reduction in involvement in risky behaviors when they play sports. We're hopeful that the board will consider this request. And

132recognize the importance of investing in facilities that promote student wellness and equity. Um, one last thing. I believe it's only 6 5-star schools in the county. Judith P. Hoya Montessori is one of them, and I believe that our scholars have worked super hard, the staff have worked super hard, they deserve a gymnasium, and I'm hoping that we can, uh, elevate this on the priority list. I know there are schools across the county that need things, but I believe that this is. a priority for our scholars, and I'm willing to work with the board and whoever else that we need to. pull funding from. I heard people on the call talking about the state and the county council. I'm willing to talk to whoever. I have to, in order to get this done for my son.

133And thank you all for letting me speak. Thank you. Moving on to, uh, Ms. Danielle Rose. Alright, be quiet. Hi. Um, I'm here to speak about the proposed cuts to the Chinese immersion program. I am uniquely affected by this. You are managing to devastate all 3 of my children's lives. I have. one in elementary, one in middle, and one in high school. So, my two oldest, who thought they would be going to high school together, we don't know. Probably, maybe, who don't know. Um, you know, I feel like this is a very hypocritical cut. You know, you want to make world citizens. There is 1.4 billion people that speak Mandarin. My children are all learning it. Um… I just feel like there was a… there are ways, there are several ways. We're willing to work

134with you. Uh, to improve the program. Um, and to expand it. we're sort of a weird, um, boundary school that's also an immersion school. And, like, we would love to work with you to make it better. Uh, no one's actually ever asked us, you know, no one from the immersion office ever reached out to say, how's it going, and like, are you happy? I personally love it. I wish more people could attend. The teachers are amazing. The language development that I've seen in my children is amazing, and we're latecomers. My oldest didn't come till 4th grade. So she is one of these children that was directly called out, you know, in the letter of. people who come in late, and yes, we did come in late. But we have had an amazing experience. Also, I

135mean, I do feel like there is an obligation to us. We bought in, and we want that same buy-in from you. Um… you know, there is… There's several ways to improve the program, and I think a full-scale cut is not the way. Montgomery County has a Chinese immersion, and they have a wait list. Virginia has Chinese immersion. they have wait lists. Why can't we do it? Why can't we do it better? Why can't we do it the right way? Let's just try something before we full-scale cut this program. And, um, you know, I just want you to be able to see the face of some of these students. Can you see something? Meow. Meow? This is my first grader, she loves Chinese, um, she actually just started dreaming, like, not all the time, but she

136has dreams in Chinese. A world language program that's not gonna cut it. That is not… right now, she currently takes math. science in Mandarin, and then has a Mandarin class on top of that. Like, she is making leaps and bounds, her brother and sister are making leaps and bounds. these cuts, like, not only devastate my family, but they devastate all the families who have bought in. Thank you. And all the progress that our children have made. Thank you, Ms. Rose. Appreciate you. Thank you. Alright, uh, moving on to our next, uh, speaker tonight. is, uh, in, uh… Gutierrez. Hello! So, good evening, members of the board and the community. Oh. Oh, did I phrase? Hello? Oh, there we go. Yes, we're here. We can hear you. Okay, I froze on my screen. So, everyone, my

137name is Ana Gutierrez, and I'm a parent of a Chinese immersion student. Uh, who currently attends Paint Branch Elementary School. And I come here before you today with a deep concern regarding the recent decision to eliminate this program that has been a beacon of opportunity. For many families, including mine. I am a lifelong PG County resident. I'm an educator for over 15 years. And I chose to move to College Park for this program. I have an older son who was also in an immersion program. He is currently a senior in the French immersion program. With a 4.2 GPA, over 25 college credits. and has been accepted to multiple honors programs from several different colleges. Thanks to him being an immersion. And the benefits of being in immersion. And we look for those same things for

138our younger son. And losing this program will not only diminish the future prospects of my child, but also the future pro… prospects of countless other families. within the county. Dismantling this program is not just a here-and-now decision, it has far-reaching implications. Families are already leaving PG County at an alarming rate. And this decision just continues to undermine an ever-growing. Um… trend with the county. Other districts, like Montgomery County, D.C, and multiple Northern Virginian county school systems. half immigration… I'm sorry, immersion programs. specifically Chinese immersions, and they have wait lists. PGCPS should not be getting rid of this program. We should be improving. this program. This, um, as mentioned, it… this decision mirrors a trend that I've seen in PG County so many times. Like, looking at our budget, we are prioritizing fundings and surveillance, administrative.

139administration funding, high and mid-level, to name a few, instead of focusing that money on student-centered programming. As community members, it's our responsibility to demand that our school systems. priorities reflect the educational needs of our children. Therefore, I ask the board to consider to keep the Chinese immersion Program alive, from elementary. to high school, because once this. program is cut, it's going to be irrevocable. It is going to be an ongoing. trend of poorly made decisions by the misguided. PGCPS board, over countless years. So… I'm gonna leave with this quote. If you plan for one year, plant rice. If you plan for 10 years. Thank you. plant trees. If you plan for 100 years. educate children. Let's not short… let's not allow short-sighted decisions to… The potentials of our students and community. Let's work together and

140educate children. Thank you so much. I did see that, um… Yealink was back in the chat. Can we… can we circle back and, um… Get, uh… Yalen, please. I searched for that name, I don't see the name. Y-a-y-l-y-n. Hmm. I see the name. Uh… Yeah, it's… the last name is M-A-N-Z-A-N-A-R-E-S. J A Y L Y N M. So, is it J, or is it Y? Because I… it was signed up as a Y-A-Y-L-Y-N. I just want to make sure I'm pulling over the right person. It is… it is correct. I can confirm that. Is it. It's J or Y. The… the person whose name is listed. the Zoom name is J-A-Y. L Y N M. Okay, I'll pull that person over. I'm just being cautious because the name was… registered as one. Just wanted to

141make sure. I think they're there, thank you. Yeah, they're there. Good a- good evening, members of the board. My name is Jaylene Manzanares. I am a junior at Leydensburg High School. And I'm here to speak. about the importance of keeping our environment clean. And protecting the health of. the people who live within the community. Every day, students ride buses filled with diesel exhaust. This not only pollutes the environment, but it also harms our health. Diesel fumes. can worsen asthma, cause serious breathing problems, especially for children. Whose lungs are still developing. Many students are exposed to these harmful. fumes multiple times a day. Both. on the bus rides to schools and in their neighborhoods. I see children outside playing and enjoying the beauty of nature every day. But it's painful to know that many cannot do

142so because of asthma. Or the fear of triggering an attack. I've known many people in my life. who have suffered from asthma, and I couldn't imagine going through it. This is why I would like to thank the district. For beginning the transition to electric school buses. I know this change will make a difference for children who. For children who ride buses. Every day. Two schools. to activities, but. Many students are still being exposed to harm… Harmful pollution. And now is the time to take stronger action. With the budget process underway, you have an opportunity to make. history in our county. I urge you to invest in electric school buses. And continue advancing the school's district climate change action plan. The transition to electric school buses. is a crucial part of this plan. When the air

143is cleaner, students are healthier. And we can better focus in learning in our classrooms. We believe in your work, and we believe you can lead the transition from diesel to electric buses. Work on the budget with us. With love and care for us. I strongly believe that all students deserve to have clean air and a healthy environment. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you. Millie Hall individual. Speaking on the condition of Bowie Center for the Performing Arts. Chairman Jackson, Midley Hall is not here. Okay, Antoinette Adams? And neither is Antoinette Adams. Alicia Baines individual? Budget, special education. Neither's Alicia Banks. I think that concludes all of our speakers for tonight. I just want to make sure that. So, I know that, um, did we ever get back to Emmanuel Coats? Did we find

144that person there? No, they never signed in as Emmanuel Coates, no. Or Escobar. No, we don't have anyone with the name of Cynthia Escobar. Okay, all right, cool. So there… I've received it again, I've received notice on this one, too. Um… Cynthia Escobar should be in there under the same spelling. I'm checking… It's an estro bar, but it's not hers. Just pull whatever Escobar over, just pull that person over, that's fine. Okay. Okay, will do, once again. Chair Jackson, the name Escobar is no longer here, they may have left. Then… then we're, uh… I mean, I'm sorry, Board Member Booster-Struthers, uh, didn't you say that the person said they were there? Yeah, I received it. text saying they're here, but I'm in agreement, I'm not. seen the name as clearly as I saw the other

145student. Okay. Uh, the match to the student Zoom. But thank you, everyone, for… Yeah, we definitely want to say we can take care of our scholars, for sure, because, you know, but I understood. I just wanted to make sure that we had the opportunity, gave them the opportunity to speak. But we can just go ahead and proceed with the meeting. Um, but if they're, uh… as a matter of fact, if there are no written comments for tonight, and there are no pre-recorded videos. So, thank you all for your participating. Participation, excuse me, um, and the chairman informs the public that the board will. host this, uh, second virtual meeting that will be… Thursday, February 12th, 2026, at 5pm. Again, that's Thursday, February 12th. At 5 PM. As a matter of fact, um. I think it's

146gonna be at 5.30 PM, actually. 5.30 PM, please check in the Prince George's County Board of Education website. Um, or diligent for meeting information and updates. Thank you all for watching and joining us. There will be… since there is no further business, the time is now 7.28. In the February 5th, 2026, Prince George's County Board of Education meeting is adjourned. Good night