001Please pardon me. Okay, one moment, let me… let me talk this, make sure Cindy is… Cindy, can you answer your phone real quick? So… Okay, Ms. Johnson, you started recording already, right? Thank you. The time is now 5.39. Yes, I did. Good evening, and welcome to the February 4th, 2026 Prince George's County Board of Education Virtual Emergency. Meeting. I am Brandon Jackson, chairman of the Prince George's County Board of Education. Thank you all for joining us tonight. The chairman would like to inform the public. Oh my gosh. That Spanish interpretation is available by clicking on the globe. At the bottom of the screen. Mr. Brian, could you assist us with translating the announcement in Spanish? You have the what? Are we good on the transition to the, um, chat for the… Spanish interpretation, Ms. Johnson?
002Yes, I believe so, yes. Okay, thank you. 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 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. 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 they're done. Members may act twice. on any question for up to 2 minutes each. Failure to 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
003purposes, the Chairman reminds all to ensure that microphones are muted. When not speaking and turned on while speaking for recording purposes. Before we proceed, the Chairman reminds everyone to adjust their wireless communication devices. And to prevent technical issues. Please ensure all microphones are muted until the chairman grants you the floor. Ms. Johnson, please call the roll. Mr. Carrie? Doctor Edifold? Present. Okay. Ms. Buzrava? Mr. Briggs? Mrs. Brown? Mr. Bois-mcance? Here. Present. Doctor Moss? Mrs. Olivo? And Mr. Jackson. You have 9 vehicle. Here. Thank you. Now for the adoption of the agenda. if, uh, I'm sorry, motion carries. If there, um, is no objection, the February 4th, 2026 Emergency Board Business Meeting Agenda. will be adopted. Yes, Dr. Moss. Sure. Yeah, I'd like to add an item under, uh, new business… under new business… tonight, um,
004that would reflect a board policy for this process to happen. that we're doing tonight annually, so if we could add that under new business, I'd like to add it, where we would vote on. Mr. Chairman, it's not in order. Where should it be, Mr. Swift? The special meeting was called for the purposes of 5.1 and 5.2. 5.1 and 5.2 are the business permitted. So, no other business permitted during this session at the moment? That's correct. Thank you. So, are you okay with moving forward, Dr. Moss? I'll oblige. Thank you so much. If there are no objections with the February 4th, 2026 Emergency Board meeting. um, agenda is adopted. Now moving to public comments. The chair recognizes the registered speakers for their public comments. to our registered speakers, you are allotted 3 minutes to share your
005remarks. Speaking time may not be transferred to another individual. The board will not engage in a dialogue during this portion of the meeting. Speakers are expected to refrain from using profanity or derogatory language. A warning will be issued once. Continued misconduct. may result in a speaker being muted or removed from the meeting. To support a professional and courteous environment, speakers are encouraged to refer to individuals by their title. Such as chair, board member, superintendent, or principal, rather than by name. There are 11 public speakers this evening. our speakers this evening are. Our first speaker that we want to recognize is Gloria. pariah. Individual importance on giving out Chromebooks. to those who need it. Thank you. So, Jackson, uh, Miss Paraya. doesn't appear to be here at the moment. Okay, thank you. Uh, moving forward to…
006Ms. Leslie Brooks. Uh, can we make sure she's available to speak? And get rid of the microphone. I'll mute her. She's now joining… Just give them one moment to speak, please. Okay, I think I'm available to speak. Hi, everybody. Okay. Good evening, my name's Leslie Brooks, and my son attends Capitol Heights Elementary School. First, thank you for taking the time to convene this emergency meeting and for providing space for public comment. I appreciate the leadership and effort involved in navigating complex decisions that affect families across our entire county. My comments tonight are offered in a spirit of partnership and long-range planning. While this week's conditions, or last week's conditions, rather, have been described as a historic weather event. The broader reality is that weather-related closures occur every winter. Winter is predictable, even if specific storms
007are not, and this presents an opportunity to shift from reactive decision-making. to a more intentional, flexible framework that better serves students, families, and our educators. I recognize the challenge of making decisions for a system of approximately. 40,000 students. At the same time, scales should not require uniform solutions when conditions and community needs. very significantly across the county. A more nuanced approach, one that balances safety, learning continuity, and local context. would strengthen trust and outcomes across the system. With that in mind, I respectfully offer several policy considerations for future winter planning. First, decentralized decision-making authority. Empower our local schools, or at least our individual districts, with defined authority to determine operational status during inclement weather. Based on local road conditions, infrastructure, and community needs. Within clear county guidelines. To provide clear winner contingency plans, establish and
008communicate a standardized winter response framework in advance of each school year so families and staff know what to expect. 3. Implement predictable transitions to virtual learning. Implement virtual learning beginning on the second consecutive snow day. Providing continuity while limiting extended instructional disruption. Ensure students are able to meet virtually with their peers and teachers, if not in person. Offer flexible attendance policies. When schools are open, allow families to decide whether attendance is safe for their children without academic or attendance penalties. Thereby permitting local schools to open for families that can have their children attend. And then if none of these work, alternatively, consider a long-term calendar review. If extended winter disruptions continue to be unavoidable. We have climate change, um, happening. These are going to be more frequent. Um, every year, explore structural solutions such as
009a longer winter break, allowing families to plan childcare and. educational enrichment opportunities in advance, similar to how we already do so for summer breaks. At its core, this is about trust, trusting our educators, school leaders, and families to make thoughtful decisions when giving the right guidance and flexibility. When we rely solely on centralized decisions, we risk limiting communities' ability to support one another and adapt to real-time conditions. Students benefit most from being in school learning in person and engaged. and teachers. Thanks so much. Now, Miss, uh, thank you, Ms. Brooks. Amanda Collier? individual virtual education. Okay, moving forward… Catalina Soule? individual support of virtual education. My name is Catalina Solalachian, and I'm the proud parent of a Hyattsville Middle CPA hawk and a Northwestern High School VPA wildcat. Thank you so much for the opportunity
010to speak today in support of Virtual Learning Days. As our current snow ice storm unfolded last week, I spent a lot of time wondering why we were not moving to virtual learning, given all the experience we had gained. during the COVID pandemic. My daughters were in kindergarten and fourth grade in March 2020. So I know that every middle and high school student in the nation, along with teachers, administrators, and parents, has a lived experience to call on. I remember what we were all capable of, including our youngest children who learned and adapted at record speed. We emerged from that terrible time with an invaluable tool. One that we can now use to both safeguard and educate our children through extreme weather, new public health emergencies, and even political instability. As a parent, I believe it
011is critical that we move forward immediately with approval of the virtual learning plan. At the same time, I cannot help but feel that we are repeating the experience of waiting until the emergency is already in full swing. Well, this was inevitable in 2020, it need not be the case now. As we look forward, I would urge PGCPS to add additional components to the current plan so that it is proactive and preventative. And integrates all the elements of an emergency preparedness plan. Here are a few areas that I think are needed for this plan to translate into a true educational bridge for all our students. Number one, make Chromebooks universally available on a take-home basis for students. If resources do not allow this for all schools, start with all Title I schools. I do not know
012why the decision was made this year to make some schools' cart-based models for tech, such as is the case with my daughter's school, Hyattsville Middle. I do know that it will be much easier to quickly operationalize virtual learning if students already have devices at home. The current plan does allow parents to request Chromebooks. But isn't it foreseeable that request will not be made in time? Or that the same circumstances that may require schools to be closed could impact on the ability to deploy tech. Or that supplies may run out. Let's ask ourselves. Who is most likely within our school system to lose educational access within this scenario. Number 2. Plan for virtual learning practice days or drills. Our children routinely undergo active shooter drills, fire drills, and other drills to prepare them for emergencies. For
013virtual learning to be successful. School students and parents also need to be ready. Virtual learning drills could be limited to checking the ability to log onto Clever at home. Or could include virtual instruction on one of those short 3-hour early dismissal days. I don't know what is feasible, but I do know that the time to work through operational glitches is before the emergency, not during the emergency. Number 3, form virtual learning teams at the school level to proactively assess readiness among teachers, tech, students, and families. Gather the lessons learned from all stakeholders from our living memory of the pandemic. And systematically evaluate the successes and the failures of all future virtual learning deployments. Number 4. Work with our community schools programs to conduct extensive proactive outreach to limited English-speaking families. Families were differently abled children.
014Families experiencing housing instability. In short. Families who are more likely to be left behind. If we work together, we can ensure that virtual learning can benefit us all. Thank you for taking this important step forward. Thank you. Um, moving to the next, um, individual, uh, discussion on emergency preparedness, best practices, and how to avoid issues we are currently dealing with. Ms. Robin Dixon-Jackson. Oh… Okay, moving forward, uh, I have… Sarah Gaime? Speaking on individual Chromebooks distribution process, immediate internet access, and support. Next, I have, uh… Darren Showalter? Penalizing students with unexcused absences because of snow days. Darren is here, if you could just have one moment. Hello, can you hear me? Hello? Yes, thank you. Okay. Yes. Good evening to the members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity for me to speak. I'm
015here to ask that students not be penalized with unexcused absences. On the makeup days, when snow days led to calendar changes like extending the school year or reclaiming spring break or summer days. Families do not control the weather. Students do not decide when schools close. And they should not be punished for how the district responds to these closures. Spring break and summer plans are often set months in advance. Work schedules, childcare, custody arrangements, camps, and other non-refundable travel. Make those plans difficult, if not impossible. to change after the calendar shifts. I'd also note that many of you on this board, as well as many of the teachers, bus drivers, and administrators in this district. Likely had plans during those same breaks that cannot simply be undone. Pardon me, are you, are you able to come
016on camera, please? Yes? I can try. It didn't let me before. Okay, no worries, you continue. Okay, sorry about that, guys, I was trying. Um… When families can't adjust, these resulting absences have, from what I understand, are labeled unexcused. That label is inaccurate and unfair. These absences are foreseeable, unavoidable, and directly caused by the district's decisions to cancel school, not by student behavior. Yet they carry real consequences. This is a straightforward solution. On makeup days created by snow-related calendar changes, the district should either grant additional unexcused absences beyond the 10. Or, additional excuse absences, or simply not count student absences toward. any of these at all. This keeps accountability where it belongs and avoids punishing students for circumstances outside of their control. I'll end with this. If the district needs flexibility when snow days disrupt
017the calendar. then the district needs to offer flexibility in how it treats attendance afterwards. If we need to be flexible as parents with snow days. You all need to be flexible with unexcused absences. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Um, moving forward to… Thomas? that Rhodey? Forgive me if I didn't pronounce it correctly, no virtual school. Uh, for Rudy. Uh, good evening, members of the board, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak before you. My name is Thomas Fedrodi, and my daughter attends 2nd grade at Cesar Chavez Public Charter School. Um, I am strongly against the idea of virtual learning in virtual school is not an okay path forward. I am mad that we are even considering it as an option, because we owe it to our children to give them
018the highest quality education. that we can provide, which is in person, not virtual. It has become increasingly apparent as we advance into the digital age. that the time spent in front of screens is not time well spent. Case in point would be the drop in national test scores during and shortly after the COVID pandemic. Learning loss has occurred. The desire to use technology to make up for in-person instruction is educational theater. A way to try to do something. But it is a wholly inferior product. We live here, in this county. We pay taxes in this county, so that we may receive instruction here in this county. Parents, or not teachers. We have other jobs, and are not trained in education. or in the current curriculum. It is hard enough guiding our children. through homework, which
019is somehow different than what we grew up with. Our jobs do not stop. The idea of using virtual learning is a failure of leadership to plan and make difficult decisions. You are shifting the burden of education from yourselves to families. If you are considering virtual school instead of extending the school year. you should be seeking the input of a broad spectrum of parents instead of the 15 speakers. On this call. Thank you. Thank you. Moving to Kamika. Excuse me, Kamika Harris, individual moving forward together for our students. Okay, uh, moving forward, uh, Julia… Barnets, individual. Good afternoon, everyone. Well, good evening, everyone, and thank you for having me, um, members of the board and parents and students that have joined for Peach County. Um, my concern is, uh, that we should have an asynchronous virtual
020learning. And this is my statement. Why was asynchronous or virtual learning completely removed from the school calendar? In previous years, there were typically 2 or 3 asynchronous learning days scheduled. in December or January, when students return to in-person instruction from COVID. Asynchronous learning remains essential, particularly given that we experience snow annually from December through early March. This approach should have been retained as a contingency, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic. demonstrated its viability as an option. Please note, this is Marilyn. We get snow every year. All the lives are gonna start born and raised in Maryland, we get snow, and we get it December to early March. So, this is something that is not new. For all grade levels, as an alternative to school-issued laptops, many households have access to personal computers, laptops, or mobile devices.
021Instructional materials and updates could have been distributed through existing communication platforms such as ClassDojo. Current view, student view, Canvas, or even email, all of which are already actively used within the district. I understand that elementary school students keep their devices in classrooms due to age, safety, and related. considerations. However, for these students, why was there no provision for alternative learning materials, such as a winter packet? Or at least communication regarding assignments to be completed during extended absences. Also, as another option from way back in the day, when I was a child, a PGCPS student, they had a TV channel that used to have assigned. Assignments and curriculum information by grade. This may be an option to those. who, for elementary, kindergarten, and even pre-K. I also wanted to add in to also consider. using the
022virtual learning, possibly as. for half days. This would also cut down on. Having to have a staff to come in, keeping our drivers off the road, utilize that for maintenance, things like that. Uh, those virtual days can help us in more than just the snow days. Uh, my next thing is the internet access, which is a concern. What provisions will be made for families without Wi-Fi or internet access? Previously, during the COVID-19 period, when laptops were distributed. families without connectivity were provided with portable Wi-Fi hotspots through programs offered by providers such as T-Mobile and AT&T. These initiatives targeted low-income households that could not afford internet service. Will a similar program be implemented or considered now? If not. is this an option that can be explored as a long-term solution to support families lacking internet access?
023That's all I have, and I thank you all for your time. Thank you. Mr. Meyer? Thank you very much. I come tonight with a simple message to the dedicated staff of PGCPS. Thank you. To the Building Services teams who spent days outside working hard in days outside working hard in bitter cold. to our cafeteria staff, who continued the important mission of providing food security for PGCPS families. to the administrative team, who have spent the past 10 days traveling the county, assessing conditions, and weighing the types of tough decisions with no easy answer. Thank you. And to all the municipal leaders and neighbors and parents who have done your part to clear bus stops and intersections and pathways to help get our schools ready for return. Thank you, too. I've been doing this long enough to
024remember being a PTO leader 70 months ago. When our schools abruptly shut down for a very different type of crisis. I stress patience to my fellow parents then. and do so again today. Virtual learning is not perfect. And it isn't always easy or convenient, or a smooth transition. But we got through it then, and we can do it again. My message tonight is a public display of confidence in this administration. this board, and Team PGCPS. And to our educators' ability to pivot and continue doing what you do best. Even virtually for a few days if needed. The primary purpose of our schools is providing education to our students. That doesn't change just because conditions are challenging. And it's time to come together as PGCPS and support a plan that will keep our kids learning. Our
025mission must always be to put students first. Yeah, how are you? This past week has also been a clear reminder of the importance of the PGCPS Climate Change Action Plan. This was not just regular snow. And this storm may have been unique. But the threat of extreme weather and its devastating impact is not. There's going to be more extreme weather ahead. Because we can't reverse a climate crisis overnight. But I do want to be clear to all the criticisms that I've heard. PGCPS has been planning for climate disruptions. We've done far more, and shown far more leadership. than almost any other school district in America. And although we'll be losing this board's leading climate action champion later this year. We must make sure that this important work continues. So the PGCPS, and to all who
026helped get our schools back open. Juan, yeah. Thank you. Now, let's approve the virtual education plan on the agenda tonight. and keep moving forward. Thank you all very much. Thank you, Mr. Maher. Um… So we did have quite a few people who. Um, we're not… we're called in… we're not available to, um, speak, and I think it's because they're… Screening and their actual real name. may have been different, so they weren't letting. To unmute their self, so I want to circle back to a couple of them that we missed because of that. error on our behalf, um. Starting with Amanda Collier. Yes. Hi, can you hear me now? Thank you. Uh, my name is Amanda, I'm from Hyattsville, and I have 3 students in PGCPS. For my 2-year-old and infants and toddlers to my 7.
027greater at College Park Academy. I must decide to skip this meeting since our students were finally back in school. And then today, I got an email 13 minutes prior to, uh, dismissal from my elementary schooler's day. canceling his after-school activities. And sending families scrambling to pick up their students, but allowing athletics and facility rentals to go on. Somehow, the school play is a much more dangerous activity than basketball practice. And I know that someone needed to speak out. to keep you guys, our PGCPS leaders, accountable. to the students that you serve. Virtual education is an inferior substitute for in-person days. I know many of your families like mine, went through several years of virtual schooling. Which poorly served most students and had massive absenteesm. And that was during a much more planned situation than a
028last-minute virtual school day this week, or during any weather. event would be. In addition to poorly serving the majority of kids going to traditional schools, virtual schooling does nothing for our most vulnerable students. Those with disabilities, or those who are served by the infants and Toddlers program. My 2-year-old son has missed a whole month of services, from snow days and delay days. If we allow PGCPS to take virtual days and count them as real school days. I foresee a lot more days called off for vague safety reasons. We already have, by far, the most number of weather days in the state. And are consistently the first to close and last to open. in December, for example, we closed for a moderate amount of rain, the only district in the state to do so. Neither the
029geography of our county or the neighborhood served justify the extreme number of weather days and delayed days we use. Virtual school days will just encourage more of the same. Instead of holding you, our leaders, accountable for doing the real work to get our students back where they belong in school. Thank you. And we'll circle back to Kamika Harris. I think that we have… Uh, your, um… microphone, ready to go, unmuted. 5. Hey, hey, Mike, it was, was, uh, Kamika Harris? Yes, I'm here. Can you hear me? Perfect. Was there, uh… okay. Good evening, board members, leadership, families, and friends. I'm Kamika Harris. I'm a parent and PTO president at Thomas Stone Elementary School. and a member of the parents… and community advisory Council for District 3. First, I would like to say thank you for
030listening to us and making. those difficult decisions in the past weeks. I also wanted to extend my sincerest. depreciation to our building staff. who are out there, despite the cold every day, preparing our schools for our students. Let's face it. The weather had a lot to offer. thought we had it, but… We were shocked by what it brought. We're almost there. We're at the halfway. We can make it to the definition line. There is no way to please everyone, or to have everyone in full agreement. in facing such complex and challenging decisions. What matters now is for us not to live in the past. But to learn from what we have. Been through and move forward. And the important thing here is together. It doesn't mean that we're gonna be best friends. However, it will
031take each of us to give and take, and to do our part. in the best interest of all our students. I've spoken to students who are. wondering when they'll get back to school. And then there's some who are… all over the moon that they haven't gone back to school. We have also used up all of our snow days. And like our sister. Montgomery County, we are currently unable to implement virtual learning. Based on our device constraints, as well as requirements, approval by our board and by state. Hopefully, we will make some progress this evening and in future meetings. On the topic of meal distribution, I would strongly encourage exploring closer distribution, location, especially for our community schools who have issues. traveling to these current locations. We could look at opportunities such as mail trains. Or
032distribution on wheels. So, let's look forward. Let's… So, at this time, I respectfully raised these questions. Do we need to account for more snow days in our future calendars? What experience… what will happen if you do experience another significant snowstorm? How can we all our counsel, or cities and our neighbors more accountable? Are there public and government. agencies who are willing to assist us with our device. constraints. What adjustments can we make with our… So, at this time. Let us work together. combine all our ideas or suggestions and solutions and move forward, working together. We can make it. Thank you. Thank you. There are two written comments. And no pre-recorded videos, which are on Diligent for public. Review. Thank you for participating in tonight's, and thank you for your input. Moving on to the consent
033agenda. If there are no objections. The chairman recognizes Dr. Joseph for his presentation on items 5.1. And 5.2. Thank you, Chairman Jackson. And, uh, good evening, board members, families, and staff, and our community. Tonight's conversation is not about fear or reaction. It's about responsible leadership. We know that preparedness is not a technical exercise, it's a moral one. Uh, it reflects how seriously. We take our obligation to children. Especially when conditions become uncertain. Over the past several years, we've learned the hard truth. Instructional time is precious. And once it's lost, it's difficult to recover. Weather events, public health concerns. and infrastructure challenges are no longer rare disruptions. There are realities that we simply must plan for. Strong school systems don't wait for crises to decide how learning will continue. Strong systems prepare so students experience stability.
034clarity and continuity. That's the purpose of the virtual instructional plan before you tonight. Now let me be clear about what this plan is. And what it's not. This plan is not a replacement for in-person learning. Our classrooms, grounded in relationships and human connection. remain the heart of our school system. Uh, this is a continuity plan. A bridge that allows learning to continue when physical access to buildings is temporarily disrupted. It provides predictability for families. Clarity for educators, and consistency for students. At the core of the plan that'll be presented tonight. Affirms a simple principle. Our commitment to children does not pause when the buildings close. Equity is essential to the work that we do. And preparedness without equity is incomplete. This plan includes access to devices and connectivity. clear instructional expectations and intentional support for
035students with disabilities and multilingual learners. Our goal is not simply to move learning online, but to ensure every student can continue learning with both dignity and support. And continuity doesn't mean we're lowering expectations. Virtual instruction under this plan is standards-aligned, structured, and meaningful. Attendance matters. Engagement matters. Instructional quality matters. Our educators will be supported with the guidance and tools needed to deliver real learning. Not just busy work. Finally, this plan reflects. respect for our families. Families deserve transparency and advanced communication. not last-minute confusion. Uh, schools work best when families are treated as partners. Not spectators. Approving this plan signals that we are a district that learns from experience and plans forward. Not backwards. When conditions are uncertain. Our values must be clear. Tonight, we choose readiness over reaction, continuity over disruption, and justice over chance.
036That's the responsibility before us. And that's our responsibility. We're prepared to meet together. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Andrew Zuckerman and his team, and they will present our plan. Thank you, Dr. Joseph, and good evening, board members and members of the community. I'm gonna pull up a presentation, if that is alright. Just give me one second… Let's see here… Here we go. Alright, everybody should be able to see the presentation now. So, as Dr. Joseph said, my name's Andrew Zuckerman, Chief Information Officer for the School District, and I'm joined by. Ms. Kimberly Robertson, our Director of Technology Integration and Support. As well as Doug Hollis, our Business Continuity Officer and, um… Our school calendar guru as well. So we have two items before the board tonight. One is a
037Virtual Education Day plan, as we've been discussing and hearing comments about. And thank you for all those comments. I'm excited for us to share. Uh, information, and I think we're gonna address a lot of what's been raised tonight. The other item is authorization from the board to utilize additional school calendar days. Potentially, if needed, to make up for closures that we've had so far this year. So we're going to start with the virtual day education plan. And… we have a brief presentation. 5 or 6 slides, so that we can have plenty of time for discussion and questions with board members. And our discussions tonight is going to include. legislation, um… Uh, and changes in legislation, as well as overview of the instructional elements, technology, communications, and many other things. I know people are wondering, why
038didn't we have this plan in place before? And I think as we go through the presentation. it will become more clear as to why our focus in the last two years. has been on traditional calendar make-up days with a focus on rigorous in-person instruction. As well as why, given the experience we've just had in the last couple weeks, why that approach. no longer holds up. So we'll go through the legislation first, because I think it's really important to highlight what the legislation. currently allows us to do with respect to virtual learning. And then we'll go through the other elements of our plan. And I'll close out with some key takeaways. So, for context, state law changed. So that at the start of last school year, the 24-25 school year. There were major changes to virtual
039learning in the state of Maryland. You may recall, and some of our speakers talked about this, that when we came out of COVID. School systems in Maryland were permitted to apply to the Maryland State Department of Education to use. both synchronous or asynchronous virtual days, not only for inclement weather. but also other days, like staff professional days, as we heard from one of our speakers. Here in Prince George's County, we did use virtual learning. in the 22-23 school year and the 23-24 school year. But that learning was asynchronous. And what that means is, um, it's not live instruction. What we're doing now is synchronous, uh, over a virtual platform, Zoom. Um, asynchronous is not that direct live back-and-forth instruction. And so, our virtual learning, as it was mostly everywhere in the state of Maryland. in
04022, 23, in 23-24 was asynchronous. When the law changed for the start of the 24-25 school year, the biggest change and impact on school systems. really had to do with what was allowable to be considered a virtual day. Namely, that a virtual education day now had to be a minimum. of 4 hours of synchronous instruction. So whereas in the past, districts could do asynchronous activities, which could easily be replicated with paper packets, for example. You can't do that anymore. This law also changed at the same time that many districts in Maryland. Like us, we're transitioning away from a full take-home model of student Chromebooks to a hybrid approach. So that we and others could better manage the Chromebook fleet at the elementary and middle school level specifically. At a time when the federal funding that
041was used to buy all of those devices. was expiring. And so, taken together, we, as other districts, one speaker mentioned Montgomery as well, we made a decision that we wanted to deprioritize. virtual learning, because we knew it was not an ideal pathway for learning. And would require a significant shift. in how we approach virtual days and what we were doing, particularly for our youngest learners. As a result, we decided to focus our inclement makeup weather days last year and this year. on in-person learning. The problem with that approach? is that we became entirely dependent on traditional makeup day plans, and those plans work well. almost every year, except not this year. The last time we had this type of situation was 2016, Snowmageddon. Between then and now. Our makeup day plan would have been fine,
042but it doesn't hold up when we have the type of ice storm that we had last week that prevents our students and staff from getting to school. So we have to adapt. It would be irresponsible not to. And we need to adapt in a way that allows us to meet all aspects of the law. Given our current, current, uh, technology environment. So implementing virtual learning under this new legislation is a huge undertaking, but we can do it. We definitely can do it, and what we are presenting to you now is only going to get better and more refined. And improved each school year. And, uh, so that's the context for the legislation. Um, I just cannot emphasize enough the criticality of the change in the law. And so, in addition to 4 hours of synchronous
043instruction, our plan, by law, must be presented at a public board meeting. We have to have a solid technology device distribution plan, as some members of the public have spoken about. implement our IEP accommodations in a synchronous virtual learning environment, address our early childhood learners. And we're going to show you, um, in the next few minutes how we plan to do that. And so, I'm going to turn it to my colleague, Ms. Robertson, who will get into the instructional elements of the plan, Mr. Hollis will share some of the communication. We'll come back to the technology components, and I'll close this out, and we can open it up for questions and discussion. So, Ms. Robertson, I'll turn it to you. Thank you so much, Dr. Zuckerman. Thank you so much for having me this afternoon
044to speak a little bit more about the instructional elements of our Virtual Education Day. Um, recognizing that in Prince George's County Public Schools, we believe in high-quality education and excellence among our staff. educators and our students. Our Virtual Education Day mirrors regular instruction, which will provide access to college and career readiness standards. Our educators will provide 4 hours of live synchronous instruction, as indicated by our legislative requirements. However, students will also have access to independent. asynchronous activities. Teachers will continue to use their regular curriculum and the digital platforms that they have access to now. For consistency and entry into their virtual learning environment. All of our students and teachers will access their learning through Canvas, which is our learning. management system. It is also the platform that contains our curriculum and exemplar courses developed by
045our Division of Academics. Teachers will connect virtually with their students for live instruction using Google Meet. Google Meet is now embedded in each teacher's Canvas course. And the meetings can be easily set up for synchronous or live instruction. Additionally, Google Meet allows us. to enable attendance tracking. So, once the meeting concludes, the teacher receives an email. With the names of all the members who have attended the live. Um, instruction. And that information can then be recorded in Synergy, which is our official record for. attendance and grades. During synchronous instruction, as I mentioned, our students will. First, connect with Clever, which is where they are accustomed to going. Um, each day to access their digital platforms. And through Clever, they can access Canvas. In much the same way that our teachers access meet. Our students will
046be able to do the same thing. As mentioned, students with IEPs will continue to receive their IEP services virtually, as well as our multilingual learners. And students with differing abilities. There will be no district or state assessments provided during our virtual education days. And students will submit their assignments based on what has been determined by their teacher. Um, and students who are. Um, not available or not able to attend will be allowed to make up work. that was missed during the Virtual Education Day. So this essentially gives you a broad overview of our instructional elements of our virtual education day. But at this point, I'm going to turn it over to my colleague, Mr. Douglas Hollis. He's going to talk a little bit more about the decision-making and communication process. for the virtual education day.
047Thank you, good evening. Um, yeah, just want to speak a little bit about making the decision in communication. Um, I think it's appropriate… Uh, the praise that has gone to Dr. Coleman and his team. And so many people in the school district. Um, I think, um, our chief operating officer. and communications team spends a lot of times with our senior cabinet, making decisions and assessing. Uh, where we are. And one of the things we want to say about virtual education plan is. Um, we just have to make sure. that it's safe to travel. Um, traditional snow days are not going away, but we do recognize that when we have utilized all our makeup days. Um, and there is time to prepare. Where we can see, potentially, that something severe is imminent. Um, and we would
048be out of makeup days. There is an opportunity to make a decision to switch to virtual education plan. And so that is why we're presenting this tonight. That is some of the aspects that go into the decision making. Um, sometimes the beginning of an assessment. Um, starts one way, so… Um, that Friday in which we left. We were assessing snow. Um, no one, I think, could predict the level. of freezing and hardening of our roads and streets in those conditions, um, and so the decision about safety's continued to be at the forefront. Um, but the conditions had changed and advanced some. Um, the Office of Communication is essential and really plays two. essential roles. One is to help us get ready. Um, there's going to be some things that my colleague, uh. Kim Roberson, we'll
049talk about a little bit. Um, and, and… in terms of getting ready and training. And getting our students ready, but that… that message from communications the day before. Or 2 days before, allows individuals to understand that the weather is imminent. And now we need to make sure that we are getting devices in people's hands, that people are able to review once again. Even if they have already done some training earlier that year, um, an opportunity to just be ready for what virtual learning. Looks like some students will need. Um, for… for passwords and things of that nature to be placed in their hands, and so communication plays a great role. In that, um, parents have an opportunity to be a part of ParentVue and be on that platform throughout the year, but it's important. That
050as we get, uh, that get ready announcement. that they are reminded and have an opportunity, if they have not signed up yet. Or to communicate with their school and work with their school. about the digital pieces that they may need, that they're able to do that. Um, and then finally, uh, Communications has done an excellent job over this, this, this, this, uh, situation and event. Um, to communicate with us, uh, through established communication means. Um, generally, we will hear, uh, Prince George's County Public Schools. We will generally name a color code. And then we will describe what that means as well. And so virtual learning would be named, um, if we were moving to an education plan, the virtual education plan. Um, and then everyone knows that. Uh, we would just be ready and geared
051up. Uh, so our students could access. things appropriately. I'll turn it back over now, uh, for us to continue to talk about technology. Alright, um, so, of course, our plan relies on. Equitable access to technology. Um, all of our teachers. have access to a district-issued MacBook or Windows computer. Um, currently, and they are able to use that both at home or at school. Um, for virtual learning. We encourage our students who already have a device at home. to use their personal device that they have. However, we do have a plan in place. to issue devices to students who… or Chromebooks specifically, to students who may not have one at home. Um, the communication has already begun to go out. To… for families to request a device through ParentVue. and the directions, as you see, are
052linked on screen. And I just wanted to talk a little bit, because I did hear earlier about, um, the switch to. Heart-based and, um, in some schools, and Dr. Zuckerman alluded to it a bit on the first slide. So, during the pandemic in 2020, when we had ESSER funding. Student had more access to technology to move. back and forth from school to home each day. But as he mentioned, that funding is now gone, and we, um… And just as before, but we now need to take more critical care. of the devices, so… in most cases, in many cases, not all. Um, many of our principals have decided. To retain devices and carts at school, but they're still available to students to use them. Throughout the instructional day. So those will be deployed. Um, in the
053event that our Virtual Education Day plan is activated. I'll also mention that, um. To avoid having to deconstruct a cart. Um, my team has already delivered. Uh, boxes of additional charges that will just be used in the event that a virtual education day. is activated. Um, so again, we… we encourage students who have a device at home to use their device. But if they need one, we do have. a plan in place to deploy them. Um, and I also mentioned, because I did hear in public comment about the hot spots. Again, during the pandemic, we had ESSER. funding or emergency school relief funding that allowed us. repurchase, or to use. Um, hotspots for families. And, um, some of those were deployed during the pandemic. And a limited number of those continue to exist, so if
054there are families. boost your needs a device for Virtual Education Day, we can. Provide a limited number of devices, and our team is also gathering resources. To provide to families for low cost. internet programs that do exist. Um, so… Yeah. I do, um, Ms. Robertson, I do just want to jump in, just real quick. Um, just about that during the pandemic, because it was some really, really interesting data that came out of the pandemic that I think would be valuable for the board to know. That, um, we did distribute. 6,000 hotspots during the pandemic. And at the height of the pandemic, of those 6,000. 187 of them. were utilized. And of those 187. Um, only a fraction of them were used more than one time over a 6-month period. So that data right there sort
055of spoke to us and some other districts had similar experiences about the availability of Wi-Fi and connectivity. So from that fleet of 6,000 hotspots, um, we were… Um, we now have a different approach, which is we, um… distribute some to our McKinney-Bento office and our home and hospital office that are used on a limited basis right now. We still retained some hotspots, and as Ms. Robinson said, families are. can work with their school teams, particularly parent engagement assistants, um… who we've been working with, uh, for the last several years around reduced and discounted internet service, but it was just very interesting data from the pandemic about, um. So just in closing, and as it relates to the technology piece. Um, again, the digital platforms that exist in our district can continue to be used for
056students to. engage and communicate with their teachers. In some cases, Google Meet and or Canvas may be new. For teachers, however, our team is also preparing a host of resources. to assist, which include checklists, websites, training, office hours for our teachers, educators, and staff members. We're also developing resources and support for our families in multiple languages. Um, to be able to access during virtual learning. Um, experiences. And of course, while students are at home continuing their virtual learning. We're still expecting for them to use the established protocols and expectations. Um, as… just as they do at school. So, for this final portion of the presentation, I'm turning it back over to Dr. Zuckerman. Great, thank you, Ms. Robertson. Thank you, Mr. Hollis. So, just some key takeaways from what we've talked about, and I want
057to reiterate a few points. Traditional snow days are not being eliminated. The legislation is very, very specific. A district cannot convert to virtual until they have exhausted all of their snow makeup days. This year, we have 5 snow makeup days that are on our calendar, so we would have to exhaust all 5 before we convert it to virtual. Most districts in Maryland have somewhere between 3. 8, 10 megabases. 3 is generally the minimum. Um, so I want to clarify that, that we wouldn't enact this plan at a minimum until we've exhausted our. Snow makeup days. Um… virtual education allows us to, um, to leverage technology in extreme weather conditions. That's what the law says, in severe weather conditions. And so, again, the difference, the key difference in the legislation now that's impacting school systems in
058Maryland from the 24-25 school year and on. is that the instruction must be live. And that's a big difference. And so, uh, but the advantage of it is that it does… virtual education does reduce how much we would have to modify or extend the calendar. In… in extreme weather year. Uh, this would be an extreme weather year. So this is not intended to replace the traditional snow day. This is intended to address. the extreme winter weather year. This year, in the implementation of this plan is going to be a little bit different than what it would be in the future. Because we're doing it now, which would impact. the next, uh, potentially the next inclement weather day. Whereas, next year and the year after, it would be much more targeted to. Uh, if we were
059preparing for a major winter event. So, this gives the district much more flexibility. Um, and we would do everything we can to provide early notification to prepare for this. So… Um, those are some of the highlights. We're happy to, um, discuss this plan in greater detail. The plan is in Board Docs in greater detail. We have, uh, by Friday, we will have, um. a website with FAQs, with resources, we've already met with our principals. Um, we'll be meeting with them again on Monday, we'll be doing training, as Ms. Robertson said, and we're just mobilizing over the next couple of weeks in the event that we would need to activate it this year, and then lessons learned from this year will be applied in future years. So, with that, um, we will stop sharing and say
060thank you to the board for considering this, and. Look forward to discussing this with you and answering questions. And Dr. Zuckman, the only other thing I'd add before we conclude is. Like, our goal was not to be haphazard this year. I mean, I think you. You look around the state. people did stuff. Don't know if they followed the law or not, but they did stuff. on Prince George's County, we're gonna follow the law. Which means we need to take time to do it, you know, so, you know, the question comes. Why didn't we just jump in? Well, because we didn't want to do something that would be counter to the. strict requirements of the law that have been communicated. And, you know, when we left, we weren't prepared, because we hadn't done these things, we
061hadn't presented to the board. Uh, so we had to go this stretch. Without. And for that, you know, we take full responsibility in, you know, knowing moving forward. We will bring to the board in October or November a plan to get approved so everybody knows, make sure our folks have been trained and prepared. So if we have to have an extended day, we can just move right into it seamlessly. We were not in position to do that, uh, this year, but moving from today, if approved. We'll be ready for any storm, any health concern, any issue that keeps us out. We'll be prepared if we can know in advance to be able to do that. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Joseph and team. I will, uh, pause. And take questions, um, from the board. Mr.
062President? Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry. Yes, sir. Uh, they're going to involve debate on 5-1 and 5-2, shouldn't they just pull them? Yeah, we… yeah, you're right, because it's like a centigen item. So, yeah, we will, um… We'll pull them, and then we'll move them to a general? Mr. Swift? Uh, yes, if they're going to debate them, they should be pulled and made general orders. Okay, so right here, we would just, um… He would just pull on turn. Yep, we'll pull 501 and 5.2 to general orders and proceed. 4, 5, 1, and 5, 2. Okay, that's fine. So, um, moving on to… General orders, and so we'll… put the items 5.1 and 5.2 under general orders. And now, um… I will take, uh, questions from the board. So the first hand I see is… And I'm
063just going on the order of my screen, because it doesn't say 123. Um, so I have, uh, Board Member Booster Struthers at the top. Thank you so much, Chair Jackson, and um… Uh, first of all, thank you to. everyone in operations and school-based staff who prepared us for return. today, um, our bus drivers are. Food and nutrition Services team who. also worked last week, um… Uh, a really deeply grateful for all your hard work in these difficult. conditions and as well as our collaboration with, um, county and municipal. governments that, um, have been particularly helpful with, um. shoveling the bus stops and. making sure these next few days go smoothly. I'm trying to get just a little more clarity on. The… the law aspect that got us to the point of this agenda item. just
064backtracking… to 2023, the Senate Bill 610. That established that every school system must have the. virtual edu… education… for prolonged state of emergency, and then. By May 9th, 2024, the board passed this, and it's very detailed on the. website. So, um, I'm trying to just understand what happened with this Maryland code. Education 7-103.2. That is saying that the board hasn't. approved of a plan. Um, I just didn't want there to be any misconceptions that we've done nothing. Since the law passed in 2023, that we actually had. significant planning documents on May 9th, 2024. Um, so if I could… if we could just give some clarity about. why, you know, why this… if this action hadn't happened previously, that Dr. Joseph. That's a great question. So there's two separate virtual. pieces of legislation. One, which you're
065referring to, Ms. Buzer-struther, is. Um, biannually, school systems must present to their boards. a virtual day education plan for a prolonged state of emergency. That is what we presented, and we will be coming back to you later this spring with, again, it'll be similar to this. Um, but that is a… that is, um, when the governor declared a state of emergency for a prolonged period of time. I believe the law said greater than 2 weeks is statewide. It's envisioned for. Uh, God forbid, but a future pandemic or natural disaster, or something like that. this is different. This is virtual education for inclement weather. And so, they're two separate laws, and they're two separate, um, plans. So, this one. In the pre-24-25 school year. Um, we had to actually apply to MSDE to get. our plan
066approved, and that's why it was largely asynchronous. The law changed, gave that. permission to local boards of education and change the law to the 4 hours synchronous minimum. And we've talked, I think, twice at our last two calendar presentations. Last year. I believe Dr. Moss has asked us, um, both years, to lift this up, and we've said. Uh, similar to what we said tonight. Um, why we hadn't pursued the virtual education. And I probably said the same thing I've said tonight. About half the districts in Maryland did, the other half. did not, for different reasons. And we find ourselves tonight reflecting and saying, now knowing what we know now about what just happened. We want to have a plan. We're intentionally moving away from that, and now we're moving back in that direction. Um, so
067that's the difference. They're just two… we actually have to have both. We were required to have one, we don't have to have the other, let me put it that way. This is actually an optional plan, the other one is required. The prolonged state is required. Thank you. Moving along, I have Dr. Moss next. Thank you. Yeah, thank you so much, um, to the administration for bringing this together. Um, I like my, uh, my board member, my colleague, uh, Board Member Booza-Struther. I'm curious around the law change. and want to take a bit of my time to articulate to the community. Um, you know, what happens in Annapolis directly impacts what happens to us at a school level. Uh, it is… quite interesting that we have this much state-level policy around making a decision. Uh, when
068it comes to making decisions about what type of learning kids will have. That's pretty crippling for a school system to have to jump through these circles and hoops. And so I just want to lay that out there. We appreciate the state-level accountability, but it does pose some issues for us here tonight. I do got a couple of questions that I need you all to answer. Maybe it's an FAQ, but I've got, um, one of my parent leaders who asked a question around. Um, have we considered staggering learning in the virtual learning plan, whereas some kids may have to have a shared device? And so, as we think about that virtual learning plan. Are we thinking about families and households where there's a shared device? One of the other tension bridges that we currently have right
069now in terms of this plan. is a change in term. Um, some folks are confused as to whether or not we're in Term 2 or Term 3. I've gotten some clarity. around the fact that Term 2 perhaps has been extended to Friday, and then we'll roll over into Term 3. don't know if parents have gotten that guidance yet, but if we could do that, it would be super helpful. We've not talked much about my third concern that I've heard from our parent leaders and staff. And I've just got to say thank you to our staff. I would be remiss. Folks have said everything on Facebook, but thank you to our teachers and our educators and our folks who are cleaning sidewalks, uh, and folks who are driving buses every day. So I'm going to tell
070you thank you. Uh, for stomaching this and getting in this, but… I do have some concerns around. Um, when we get to the calendar around President's Day and taking that day, um, and there are educators in our buildings who may not have. care options for their children. So those are the 3 concerns that, you know, at some point I need to make sure we address around this. Um, but I want to be hyper-clear around the fact that there are policy conditions that got us to this place, um, and I tried to make a motion earlier. Um, but it would… I think we need a board policy moving forward that the administration. I'd be happy to respond, and I agree with you, Dr. Moss, on the annual board policy, so I'm sure you'll bring that up
071at a future meeting. Because the current legislation actually does not require annual board approval. It's silent on that. So, we could bring this one time. And you could never ask for it again, or we could never bring it again. Obviously, that's not what we would want to do, so I appreciate you memorializing that. Um, just with regards to the staggered start time that you said, so, uh, we still have, um, duty hours, teacher work day, school schedules that we need to. adhere to, and so, because of the 4 hours of synchronous, the idea of. us distributing devices, while we'd love for families to leverage personal devices. We know that if you're a family of, let's say, 3 children, you may have 1 or 2 devices at home, and that's. That's good for, um, Monday through
072Friday homework and other things you need to do, but when you have to have. synchronous schooling, it becomes difficult to stagger that, uh, considering just our teacher work day as well. So, typically, Dr. Moss, in situations like this, we would generally follow a school bell schedule. Um, for this, but, uh, it's welcome feedback, and we'll certainly look at it. Um, just with regard to just your second question, just about the end of the quarter, today was the end of the second quarter. This was just incredibly unlikely that the Friday before we went out happened to be. the second-to-last day of the quarter. And we… we thought about it, we knew we were going to go out, but we didn't want to declare a shortened end of the second quarter, because that could potentially impact students
073who were still submitting assignments. So we've been waiting desperately to open schools today so we could end the second quarter, teacher grades are due on Friday, and everything just. rolls from there. Um… And, uh, I'm embarrassed to say I don't… I don't remember your third question, Dr. Moss. it's okay, I appreciate you. Candace Perkins, District 9 representative, because they don't have a school board member. had that question around the end of term, so thank you. Yep. Okay. Rimbo. Thanks, Chair Jackson. Um, and I just would like to reiterate my, um, my colleague's thanks and appreciation for, um, all of our personnel who have worked so hard. To get us open today. Um, I had the chance to drive by not every school in my district, certainly not every school in the county, but quite a
074few schools yesterday and today. And I just want to say that our school personnel have done a phenomenal job. I saw cleared sidewalks. all around the entire perimeter of the school, cleared parking lots, um, just really, really impressive. Now. Those, um, access sidewalks to the school and roads and ramps. not so great, but our schools, um, were looking great, so just wanted to say thank you for that. Um, I wondered, um, Dr. Zuckerman or someone from your team, if you could talk a little bit more about. how the makeup work opportunities will work, I think that's pretty relevant, um, to Dr. Moss's question about, you know, families who may have 2 or 3 kids, but one device at home. I think it's also incredibly relevant to the fact that. Many of our parents will still
075be working, um, and have other commitments during this time, and. Especially with our younger students may not be able to really help them do school for those. Um, 4 hours of synchronous, and then the rest of the assignments. So if you could just share a little bit more about the makeup opportunities and how that will work and the flexibility that we'll be able to give, I would really appreciate that. Yeah, well, and interestingly, the law actually specifies that, so we are obligated to that. It's obviously a morally right thing to do, but it's also memorialized in law. So, in a perfect world, um… everything would work just great in a household of 3, like we said, everyone would have a device, we would obviously push the devices out, but. Uh, there could be a power
076outage at that home, something could happen, right? There could be an emergency in the house. Um, and so in a situation like that, a student could knock their computer off the table, and. And one of them is… so there's so many things that can obviously go wrong, and so that's why the law does say opportunities for makeup work will be provided. And so, part of the training and guidance we'll be giving to our principals and our educators is just around what the appropriate timeframe looks like. I think… I just want to come back. To what Dr. Joseph said, because I think it's really important. This is… this is a bridge. for continuity of learning. This is not intended to replace or even. mimic what is going to happen in a traditional classroom. So I think
077we have to… I think we have to adjust our expectations around that. Um, and just candidly, and just know that, um. Look, there's districts around this state that open schools a couple days ago, and many students did not go to school. In that situation. That was not a perfect learning day. Just like if we're gonna do this at home, it's not… it's probably not gonna be a perfect learning day. Whether you're in school. Or whether you're at home. Um, this is a backup plan in serious weather emergencies. So that… because we're going to talk in a few minutes about the calendar, and the constraints that we have. And, uh, we're gonna see the challenges and the trade-offs, uh, and the opportunity costs. So, I just, I just want to clarify that. Thank you. Board Member
078Brown? Yes, thank you so much, Chair Jackson, and thank you so much to. all the staff, um, families who endured everything for the volunteers that came out, I really appreciate you all. this time really helped me understand even more that it really does take a village. Um, and so we just have to continue to support one another from the families, from the community, um, to make sure that our scholars get. the education that they deserve. So there were a couple of concerns that some of my constituents had. The first concern, because I do have primarily elementary schools in my district, and before and aftercare was a big thing that came up. You had families who. would have liked to have their children in the before and aftercare, but of course, the schools were closed. And
079they were still responsible for paying, um, and so that was. a little upsetting for some families. So that's the first one. If that's something we can rectify, what does that look like? Um, the second question, of course, I had about special education and 504 services. How will IEP and 504 minutes and related services be delivered and documented on virtual days? What is the process for notifying IEPT teams? And what compensatory services will be provided if they are missed. Good evening, Board Member Brown. It's good seeing you. It's good seeing you all. Um, I will go back and work with our vendor-managed team to find out what contract say. We know that our parents work directly with our vendors, but I will be committed to. Uh, look into each of those contracts to see what it
080indicates, and then I'll be able to respond, um, to the board with a response. Thank you. No problem. And then regard… uh, thank you for that, Dr. White. And then regarding IEP accommodations, and I see my colleague, uh, Ms. Bowman come off mute, I would just say that the plan. envisions the proceeding with accommodating students with special needs. So. If you have a dedicated… a co-teaching model. then your instruction synchronously would be co-teaching. If you have a dedicated aide, the dedicated aide would join you. in the virtual classroom. That being said, it may not be perfect, and Ms. Bowman, um, if you can just speak to what our IEPs allot for as a result of what we learned during the pandemic, that would be helpful. Mm-hmm. Yes, thank you so much for the question. Um,
081I do want, um, our public and our board members to know. that based on our lessons learned through the COVID experience. Um, there was legislative, um, legislation passed. And all of our IEPs in certain sections around accommodations, IEP goals. transition goes. We have what we call IEP planning for emergency conditions. So, throughout all of our IEPs since 2000… In 23, we have components that capture what will happen if there's a prolonged school closure. And we need to pivot as far as service is being provided. So what does it look like in a virtual environment? each of those IEPs now document that, and we've been doing that. For the last 3 years. And then, final thing, we'll just… we'll just jump in and add Dr. Coleman and I have been going back and forth to one
082of the parent concerns earlier today. Uh, well, moving forward, so whether this Thursday and Friday, though, we'll have after-school activities, uh, closed the weekend. Uh, um, have after-school activities move forward, but just know that there won't be any transportation because of the threat. Uh, to refreezing of roads and residential areas, so we can send something out making that… making that adjustment that. The families just know that they'll have to pick their children up. Uh, because we can't have the buses on the road with potential freezing, um, we can work that through as a compromise. Thank you, uh, Dr. Endefel. Yes, good evening, everyone. Um, I will echo my colleagues in just thanking. Um, the fourth… fourth staff, um, in addition to all the support staff, I had the opportunity to visit. Laurel High School for
083Food Distribution Days, um, last week, and would be remiss if I did not. recognize all the building staff, our food and nutrition staff, and others who have just worked tirelessly over the past, um, week and a half. Um, just to support our families. Um, and so, um, I'll move on to my questions here, um, and I have a few. Um, so… One thing I'll… actually, I'll start with a comment. Doctor Zuckerman, I appreciate you just being reflective and speaking to just both the context around the law, but also reflecting on some of the decisions that have been made and why we now need to shift. Um, I would certainly say that, you know, when I heard you talking about, you know, one plan being optional, um, and one being mandatory, I don't think that anyone
084ever, um, hurt. from having too many plans. Um, and so, um, I certainly encourage us to put as many plans in place as possible. I think. you know, actually, I know our community is worth it. I'm a parent myself. And, you know, I often mention this, and so when we think about the communication. that we've seen over this past week. I'm really interested to hear more about how we are capturing the feedback that we've received, how we are actually going to make changes. Um, to ensure that moving forward, we are taking what has worked well and what did not work. Um, and we're making the necessary changes. I see some of what's referenced in the virtual plan around communication, but I'd also push us to go a bit further here. I know there's more detail.
085I know we wanted to just be able to provide maybe a snapshot for the public today, but as a parent myself, I'm even wanting more. Um, you know, one of the benefits here of being on the board and being a parent is that I'm able to both get the communications that our parents are receiving, that all parents. are receiving, while also sitting in this seat and getting communication from this space as well. And I'd say there's still some work to be done. Um, I'll point out one thing here. Um, the virtual education plan, um, at the beginning, where it notes when it will be used. I think there's more that we can say about when it will be used here. I think this is a little vague, um, and I would just want to hear
086a little bit more about how we will determine it is not safe. What does that mean? Um… Thank you for going over, um, when makeup days have been used, but there is time to prepare, also being a criteria. Would want to hear a little bit more about that. Um, I know I've exhausted my time, so I'll circle back, um, in the next round. Okay, thank you for that. Um, and we appreciate that feedback, and part of this discussion is to capture that feedback, and we will… incorporate that into the plan itself, um, that will ultimately be published, um, and we need to publish it. Uh, by Friday. Um, and so we will take that feedback specifically, Mr. Hollis, Ms. Robertson, and I, and our team. And make some language adjustments. I do just want to
087say, um, you're 100% right. This plan, while detailed. still, at an operational level at the schoolhouse, there's what we're presenting to you in the framework of what it will look like. Versus the actual training that we're doing with our educators. Uh, training with our principals, we had Ms. Sowell, one of our speakers, gave us feedback on doing drills. Uh, we were considering OneDrill. Um, and that's what Ms. Robertson said. Uh, so we heard that feedback, and we wrote it down, and said, okay, maybe we'll do 3 or 4. Um… Uh, drills, just like we do fire drills. the get ready in a perfect world, so we're planning, um, for multiple contingencies, is what I would say. In a perfect world, we would be able to have… see a snowstorm developing in advance and say. Um,
088we need to now activate. I will say this, and then I'll yield. Dr. Joseph and I and Dr. Collins were on a call with other superintendents around the state, and a superintendent from another county said they're one for three. in activating the virtual plan, meaning. there was weather coming in. They thought they might need it, so they got ready, they made the announcement, they did their drill before they went home, everyone's ready, students have their passwords, everyone's ready, and then the weather didn't materialize, and everybody had to come back to school the next day. And the effort required. To do that takes away from the in-person instructional time the day before. And that was some of the calculations and decision-making over the last couple of years around this. Uh, Ms. Robertson said something really, really
089important, and I just want to highlight this. We did not want to… when you have to break down a Chromebook cart, it's like a 40-minute process, and then putting it back together is another 40 minutes when you're talking about all the wires. So, our team, led by Patrick Taylor, our IT supervisor, and all of our technicians and our inventory management team, has spent this week pushing out. 60,000 chargers across our schools, so there's emergency kits of chargers, so we don't have to take that time to do that. Um, and we also don't have to send students home without a charger. So, so… And again, I'm being repetitive here. What we do this year will be so enhanced. Uh, come next year, from how we're doing this, right? This is real time, and we get that.
090Um, but we're only gonna get better with time with this. Thank you, Dr. Zuckerman. Um, board members, I just want to remind you of our time constraints. Let's try to stay within our time constraints, because this meeting can get. We still have a second round to go. I know this is important information, but let's see if we can keep our questions very direct and succinct. Um, moving, uh, to board member, uh, Ajakae. Thank you. So, um, I want to thank all of our PGCPS staff and personnel for working together to, um, you know, help us bounce back remarkably into the first day back from the 2026 snowstorm. And of course, I want to thank, like, all the families and students for, um, a successful first day back, and lastly, I want to thank you all
091for this proposal for virtual learning, because many students have reached out to express, like, their desire for the return to virtual learning during, like, the time when we had the severe weather. To avoid, of course, like, learning loss, and also make sure that we are continuing learning and we're not forgetting anything that has been learned throughout the year. However, there are significant concerns, um, with the regard… like, regarding potential loss of breaks, such as. President's Day, or even the possibility of. Like, losing some days for spring break, we're just losing it entirely to accommodate for traditional makeup days. And I saw in the proposal on Slide 5 that the superintendent can only declare a virtual learning day once the district has used up. All the scheduled makeup days. So, given that the student… given that
092students are, like, you know, intended to be home on certain scheduled breaks. Could we consider using the virtual learning, you know, days or virtual learning models for these potential makeup days? Because this would help the county, um, meet the 180-day requirement while still letting students have, like, that flexible at-home environment that was originally intended through the day off. And then another question that I did want to ask real quick is. Are students losing their spring break, or, like, is spring break getting shortened? Because that's another question that a lot of students have been asking recently, too. Thank you. Well, remember, Kai always asks the tough questions, too. Go ahead. Um, so… Yeah, yeah, so, so, um, you're jumping ahead, um, to the calendar, which is totally fine. Got it. I guess I will just break
093the news that we are not going to use President's Day. it's operationally too big of a lift to pull off, um, between now. Uh, in terms of an in-person instructional day, we did get approved, um, for a waiver. Uh, to open on President's Day by the state superintendent. Um, but we're not gonna… we're not gonna use President's Day. You ask such a good question about virtual, and I asked the same question, and unfortunately, we cannot go virtual. on President's Day, because I thought it would be a perfect opportunity. And the reason we can't is because the law. says very specifically. that the county school board may authorize the use of virtual education days in severe weather conditions. So unless we have severe weather conditions. on President's Day, when we were planning to be in person.
094we couldn't go virtual. We explored that this week. Regarding spring break, we are doing everything we can to not touch. Uh, spring break. The heart of spring break, certainly Monday through Friday. And then the end of spring break is the Monday after Easter. We are requesting and will be requesting the authorization to open on that day if we were to get approved from the state superintendent. as a potential day, and it gets complicated, but in the event the State Board of Education would not grant us a waiver of the 180-day student requirement. So it may be that we don't have many other options but that day, or extending the school year into the fourth week of June, which is also something we really, really don't want to do. Um, and I can get into some
095of those puts and takes in the 5.2, um, but we want to avoid that, just like everybody else does. I remember going to McCarr's? Thank you, Chair Jackson, and I want to… Um, reiterate my colleagues' appreciation for all of our staff, and as well as our parents and families. Especially building services, food and nutrition services, um, don't want to. Play the long list of naming everybody, even the volunteers who showed up, um, but I think it's important to acknowledge all of the people who. showed up to help get schools open and making sure it's as safe as possible for our students. Um, and also acknowledge a lot of the concern that I've heard from. Parents and family members throughout the past week just. Especially since we started talking about this emergency meeting and, um. virtual
096learning, as somebody who worked for the county in a school, um, during the pandemic. I don't think anybody wants a repeat of that, and so I think the administration for clarifying specifically. We are not just trying to do the exact same thing, we just need a stopgap. My question specifically are around. The calendar and these days that we are approving or are on the agenda to be approved. If we approve those additional makeup days, will we have to go through those days as well? Or have those days as well before we can implement the next virtual learning? And then, also, circling back to kind of the conversation around the. MiFi devices, etc, during the… pandemic, do we have a way of notifying parents? I've seen the ones for Chromebooks specifically, but notifying parents how to
097sign up for those supports if they need it. ahead of a possible declared emergency day. Yeah, on the latter one, we'll be working directly from our schools with that, just because of the experience in the pandemic. And our parent engagement assistants, um, are able to work directly with families. Um, who know just the on-the-ground reality. Um… Uh, so, so yes, that's the plan. We don't have the inventory of hotspots to push out. let's say 3,000 hotspots. When we know the need from the pandemic was under, you know, 200 or so, at least back in those days. So, we have to take a different approach. Whereas Chromebooks, um, we have the inventories in our schools. So, just with regard to the calendar, um, if, um… Just on… we've used 8. snow days, and we have 5.
098makeup days built into our calendar right now. So, um, we know that we can extend the school year on June 18th. That would be one more day. It would be ideal if we can stop at 6 and get a waiver from the state board. Uh, on the remaining 2 days. Because we've exhausted our makeup days already. then yes, we can go virtual on the next day. We already have to… still have to make up two more. The virtual… the virtual… if we were to have another day of inclement weather, that would be 9 snow days. So the ninth snow day would be virtual. Um, in that scenario. Again, an ideal… ideal world, we get a waiver for the 2 days. Um, I'm confident, that we would get a waiver for one of the days. I
099don't know about two. So that's why Monday, April 6th, comes into play. Um, and all we're asking tonight is for the authorization. to potentially use it if we don't get that waiver. And we're also open to other ideas. I mean, the other scenario would be either spring break. Or extending into the week of June 22nd. Neither of which are ideal. So, we're sort of out of moves on the chessboard when it comes to. where we can go, um, to make up that 8th day. Vice Chair Briggs? Thank you so much, Chair Jackson, and I want to also echo the sentiments of the appreciations for… and sorry about that… appreciation for the staff, for everyone who, you know, did the hard work of ensuring that our schools were open, um, day one, but also to. Um,
100the families who had grace with us. Dr. Zuckerman, I believe that you already kind of insinuated in some way that there's a plan in place, standard operating procedure, but I just want to confirm that whether that exists right now or that's going to be created at some point. The goal is to have some type of coordinated process to address snow days. And then, um, with that in mind, can you just speak to what that might look like? I'm assuming that there will be coordination across offices. Um, I know some of my colleagues already mentioned the outreach to families, but just more so internally, what would that look like? Um, what is that process, and, um, does it exist? And if so. Um, can you speak more to it? Sure, and, um, Mr. Briggs, if I
101could just ask a clarification. You said, uh, coordinated process for snow days. Are you talking about snow days or virtual education days? I'm thinking about both. I mean, it doesn't have to be snow days, but if we have an emergency that occurs, regardless, and we have a virtual learning requirement. is there a standard operating procedure that's in place for that? As you were saying. Um, so, yes, we will be updating, um, just our emergency weather codes just to start. That would… that would trigger, um. Uh, virtual education. So, uh, and as Mr. Hollis said in the presentation, we would be communicating in advance. So, for example. Um, let's imagine that next week, uh, fingers crossed, not next week, but imagine next week, that, um, there was a storm forming, and the weather forecast was calling
102for Thursday to be snow. We would start mobilizing on Monday. Um, in preparation for that, in terms of broad communication, that this could be a potential situation, that we would go virtual. We would then activate the virtual education day plan. Um, and then the day before, or 2 days before, we would then distribute devices for students who need it. Um, and prepare to move in a virtual setting. Um, again, this year, because it would be for one… I mean, it could be for many days, but. Um… but because we're coming at it at the… in February, it's going to look different this year, obviously, than if we were to start this at the school year. So yes, all of that would be coordinated. Uh, between me, Dr. Coleman, our communications office, and Dr. White, Dr.
103Marrow, in terms of pushing all of this information out. I think that's everybody for round 1. Moving to round 2. We'll go with board member, uh, Boozer-Struthers. Yeah, thank you so much. I would like to address a little more scenario planning and the concept of if. the severe weather event hits one or a few schools, such as a tornado. Or hurricane situation, or flooding. And, um, there is no, as far as I understand, all of our temporary building swing space are. occupied in our, uh, attempts at our school construction plan. How does this… how does this go into effect? in this concept of a zone. zone usage, if… and I would say even with the severe weather event like we're having now. If we had a… building, such as a high school, where presumably the
104students have their Chromebooks, and that building's electricity or heat is out. for what is looking like a few days, just because of being able to get to it and fix it. would this plan go into effect just for that situation? So if you could… kind of spin out some of the scenarios, because the concept of the zone or. particular buildings impact. an ability to get back to those buildings has come up through some of the. the comments, uh, this week and tonight during public comment. Thank you. Yeah, so this… this plan and the legislation related to it does not speak to the issue that you're talking about. This is a school system closure. Um, it's not an individual school closure. And the law distinguishes from a calendar perspective as well, Ms. Booster-struther. when you have
105an individual school closure, which we have, if there's a water main break or something like that. Um, you do not need to, uh, make up that day. You do have to notify the state and account for it, um, or account for it, rather, but that's a single school closure. This applies, and this plan applies at the system level, and it does not apply at the school level. There's nothing stopping a school. from, let's say, doing it in that situation, but it wouldn't count towards the school's school day. Uh, in that situation, we do have that, where we have situations, every school district does. Where, uh, students are not in school for 180. It's the system level where we're counting that. That's just because of emergencies you're talking about. Can I just… can I just live
106for you? I hope that… I hope that clarified that. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. Last year, we had a water main break that impacted 59 schools. Uh, we attempted to submit the paperwork to the state. Just to be on the right side. And the state said thank you, but it's not a big deal. It's not your school system. So that just gives you an idea for even zones. It impacted 59 schools. And they said, you're fine, you still have made your 180 days. Thank you. I think that adds to the… complexity of where we look for. um, information under the increasing severe. weather events under, you know, uh… Our responsiveness to climate change, and… Um, I think it… this is just elevated, you know, making those connections more and… And realizing that families want
107to have. Thank you, board member. Uh, moving forward, um, I have… Doctor Moss on the screen next. Yeah, thank you so much, um, for all this information. Thank you for answering the question on President's Day. my text messages were lighting up on President's Day, so thank you all for answering that question. Um, there are two points that I want to make here. One is a bit of a chest rather than checkers. Uh, Dr. Zuckerman, we not made it to the calendar yet. But I'm imagining if we baked less snow… I'm wondering if we baked less snow days into our calendar. when we vote for it, would that then trigger earlier virtual learning? Would there be an option to be able to do that? So I'd love to hear if we play chess there. The goal
108is always to keep kids learning as much as possible, and so I'm interested in playing chess to that end. Um, the second question I have… Um, gets us over into budget, but an opportunity for the superintendent to clarify where he's going with professional learning. I want to say to the public, this is step one, uh, to even be able to be prepared in the event of it. Step 2. is around professional learning. I would imagine we need to do a good bit of work to get our teachers skilled up for whatever model we need to do. Um, but even beyond that, I'm curious if we're thinking about baking professional learning. into the work for year-round teaching and learning, where some of these moves that teachers have to make in the event that we move to
109virtual learning. are inherently baked into our instructional program. So those are my two wonders. Um, and then I'd be remiss if I didn't celebrate, um, a school that landed in my text thread. which is not in District 7, but Phyllis Williams Principal Cynthia Rogers. Apparently, her team set up virtual instruction in some way, be it asynchronous, be it asynchronous. for their families, and I just want to celebrate principals who are doing that good work. Sure, plenty of them did it, but that one landed in my text messages, so I wanted to call it out. But those are my two questions. Yeah, so on your first one, you're 100% right. Um, Mr. Hollis and I were talking and saying. Once we do this, we… we have to… we have to look at the make-up days again
110for, uh, the calendar we just approved. The calendar's rock solid. The public does not need to worry about that. It's the makeup days, Dr. Moss, you're right. And we would want to come back to you to have this conversation. So that's to be continued. Um, let's get this up and running, um, and then we, we definitely want to come back, because you're, you're totally right about the chess match on that. And I don't know the right answer, and we have to discuss that with you, and we all have to discuss that, because it is a chess match. Um, the second question, I'm not sure I totally understood when you said. Did you say… I know we're… we're gonna do some year-round exploration as a separate workgroup, but are you tying it to that from the
111last meeting, or something different? I'm just saying, when we think about professional learning, we need to be preparing teachers year-round. to flip to this model in the event that it happens, and then just bake that… that's just good teaching and learning practices, too. So I'm just saying we need to fold all that together. The superintendent is asking us to approve an Office of Professional Learning. I would imagine this would be baked into their work. The other thing I would just add to that is, you know. You are 100% correct. Um… Three years ago, we rolled out Canvas for our secondary, and then last year, we rolled out a new information system, and this year we rolled in elementary. So it also propels us through that professional development. If this is the platform that we're gonna
112want teachers to use. is to make sure we're getting everyone in using our curriculum that's already established there. setting those things up at the beginning of the year, so from day one, we have… we know where to put the Google codes. I think Andy, um, the Google Meet, I think Andy mentioned that, or Dr. Zuckerman mentioned that when he said. Um, working with our staff to make sure if we have to move that they know. So I think this allows us, through our professional development opportunities, to get even stronger and stronger instruction every single day. Yeah, and the only thing I would say is… We know… we need to dramatically improve professional development in the district to make it accountable. consistent and job embedded. Once we hire, um. If approved, the budget approved, and we're
113able to bring on. Our associate superintendent, uh, to help with that work. We'll lay out the vision criteria, and plans, but we have to be very focused in year one. So we can come back with more specifics about what the year one plan would include. Thank you. Board Member Brown? Thank you again, uh… Chair Jackson, so I did have a question, since we are speaking about. our staff and our teachers. We do have a collective bargaining unit, and I want to know how impactful. how the collective bargaining unit is impacted by this. So how do virtual days. Uh, expectations align with. teacher contracts regarding synchronous hours. prep time, substitute pay, like, has the union been consulted, and agreements documented. Yeah, so, um, over the last, um, 9-10 days since the weather started, we've been. Every
114day, um, talking with all… all of our bargain units, um, had multiple conversations about this specifically. Um, we want to make sure, um, Ms. Brown, as we do this, that there's adequate. time to get ready. So… Um, Ms. Robertson talked about office hours and the assistance that we're going to be providing over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, we have a couple of weeks, um, and not one week. And in addition. Um, certainly for the very first virtual day that we do, if we have it this year and next year, we would open on a 2-hour delay so that we can have our technology team, our trainers, our information technology supporters. have office hours, virtual office hours, to help educators with any last-minute prep. Um, again, it's compressed this year, um, but you can imagine,
115like, what Dr. Moss said. Um, um, and others have said, um, about. Professional development, starting with pre-service week. Um, drilling, uh, on this. So, in being in a position that. We're just fluent in it, so we might not be fluent in it now, um, but we can become fluent in it. So, yeah, the answer is yes. Okay, that's good to know, because I want to make sure the public is also aware that we have agreements. And so everything, even with the law from the state, everything has to come together, everybody has to be aligned. Yeah, I just… and I'm sorry, Chair Jackson, I want to flag one thing, because I think it's an interesting point. On January 26th, that was supposed to be a half day for students and a half day for educator, um,
116grading and reporting. And what we did in consultation and collaboration with PGCA's leadership, um, was. move that… to make that a virtual full day. For, uh, for teachers to do grading and planning and reporting. And essentially, the student makeup day will be moved to what was March 20th. Um, which was a teacher day. So, the teacher contract very specifically, has, um, teachers may work at an alternative work location remotely for professional grading and planning. Um, so this… this just takes the traditional day and now makes it a virtual. So from a teacher work year, teacher duty year, we're very, very mindful. of that, um, as we do this. Thank you. Um, board member… Gwen McCans, are you, did you, did you have a question? Oh, sorry, I ended up. My question was answered, Chair. Thank
117you. Okay, um… Does that conclude the questions? So I'm gonna go ahead and call for the vote. All right, thank you. So we're going to handle 5.1 and 5.2 separate. Um, so we can let Dr. Zuckerman speak to 5.2, but I want to go ahead and. move forward with the vote for 5.1. So if there are no objections, agenda item 5.1. will be adopted. Hear no objections. Agenda item 5.1 is adopted. Uh, now moving to… agenda item 5.2. I'll turn it over to Dr. Zuckerman. Yeah, thank you so much. Um… So, we are requesting here. authorization to utilize 3 days that we had not brought before you. One is President's Day. One is the Monday after Easter, and one is June 18th. I've already said we're not going to be using Presence Day, but we
118wrote this board action summary last week, um, so if you were to approve. Uh, this is all potential. You know, we're declaring that we are not using present-day. So this gives us the flexibility. to extend the school year one more day to June 18th, which we're going to need to do. And then the option of utilizing the Monday after Easter if we were not to be approved for a two-day waiver. from the State Board of Education. So ideally, we would, uh, we're going to apply for one where it's not timed yet to apply for one. You do that after the winter season is over. Um, uh, but there's been a lot of energy at the superintendent level among Dr. Josephs and his colleagues to. push for a minimum of a two-day state waiver, so we'll
119see. how it shakes out, but… We, um… so we're just asking for permission to use these days. Certainly, we really need to use June 18th. The Monday after Easter is to be determined. Thank you. Um, so board members, I'll take the questions now. Uh, the first hand I see is Dr. Moss, followed by Dr. Goins McCain's. Yeah, thank you so much, Chair Jackson. Uh, Dr. Zuckerman, you know I respect you a lot, and I respect the superintendent a lot. But, um, I would feel more comfortable voting for this, uh, this board action summary if we remove the President's Day. Um, you know, y'all might wake up and fall off the bed one day. We need to laugh around here and decide you want that President's Day. And I wouldn't want folks to say, uh, well,
120you know, you voted for it. So, uh, I think we need to amend the document officially, um, to be able to do this, but I thank you for your hard work. on this, but I think it would be appropriate to amend the document. I respect that it was written in advance of. this board meeting, but I'd feel good tonight sleeping if we amend the document officially that removes President's Day. If we're not going to use it. Yeah, would it be possible for the board to maybe make a motion to just approve it with taking that out? I'm gonna lead that to Mr. Smith. I've been… I've been, uh, 0 for one on, um, on motions tonight. Okay, alright. So yeah, you want to make the motion, um, when we… when we're about to wrap up,
121so we won't have to vote on it right now, and then let Dr. Full. And, um… You know, board member going say that piece, and then you can make the motion afterwards, if that's okay with you. That's what works for you, Chair. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Chair. I will… I appreciate you clarifying for us how the makeup days are. how they end up on our calendar, how they are chosen, um, and the plans that we go through to. get them… get to them, and how that affects virtual days, makeups, all of that. Can you speak a little bit more to… Can you speak a little bit more to what we would possibly have to do if a waiver doesn't come through? And our virtual learning gets to the point where we have too many
122days. I've gotten a lot of questions from constituents specifically around. If we have to go into the school year, I mean, to extend the end of the school year, if we have to go into spring break. So that's the first question. And then the next question. is specifically around those days, what does attendance look like for our students for makeup days? Is it just considered a regular school day? Because we do have some equity issues with religious holidays, where they fall. Um, and what is on the chopping block, so to speak, in terms of breaks and what is not. Yep, it's a great question. Um, it just went out for a second. Um, it's a great question, thank you. Um, so the 5 make-up days, uh, currently are March 20th. May 27th, uh, June, um…
123uh, 15th, 16th, and 17th. Um, certainly if, uh, some of those days coincide with religious or cultural observances, then. We give grace, and we excuse those absences like we always do in that situation. And, um, in this situation, for a makeup day, let's say for the Monday, if we were to have to use the Monday after Easter, for example, um, and again, I hope we wouldn't have to. Um, there would obviously be… need to be excused absences there as well, because that's a… major calendar adjustment, as the gentleman who presented talked about, like, give us as much advance notice as you can. Um, so… We have to make up, without a waiver, we have to make up 8 days. We cannot apply. virtual learning to any of the previous 8 days. So the 9th day,
124if we're closed. could be, and we would do, virtual learning. So we're still. on the hook for 8 days. We can account for 5 of them. Already. If you authorize us tonight, we can definitely account for June 18th. That gets us to 6. Um, at that point, we're hoping for a waiver. We're not… we wouldn't be asking for a waiver for more than 2, because. Ideally, the night day would be virtual. Um, or the 10th day would be virtual, and so that, we just open virtually on the day that we would otherwise be in school. So any permutation here still needs us to make up 8 days of in-person. instruction, or get a waiver. And my sincere hope is we make up 6 in person and get a waiver for 2. That would be ideal.
125Thank you. I have, uh, Board Member Oliva. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Chair Jackson. Sorry, give me a second. Remember Olivo? Oh, sorry. Um, I just… Um, wanted to reiterate, and I… I will share, you know, this is something that I… I should have thought of further, but, um… I think, um, Dr. Gwenz-mcance was maybe starting to reference this. At this point, um. And in next year's approved calendar, we are looking at. using, um, both days of Eid. Um, as makeup days. And, um, that was only raised to me recently, and again, I… I'm… I'm disappointed that I didn't think of it earlier to raise, but I do want to raise it now. I understand that, um, it's not necessarily something that we're able to fix at this point, but I do want to raise
126it for future consideration of calendar and, um. days that we established as makeup days. Thank you. Thank you, Doctor Hanifl. Yeah, thank you. Um, so my questions have… my primary questions have already been answered, um, regarding EIDS and… and some of the other decisions that were made, but. But I will say, and maybe this is something that needs to be taken offline, I know that there has been. Um, some type of explanation provided, I believe in one of our, um, maybe in our last board meeting, uh, with the presentation about the calendar, we went into a little bit of detail about. how certain days were chosen, but I would be more curious, um, to know. how these… some of these days were chosen, um, over other days, right? So, if there were other days that
127were up for consideration, and instead we chose these days because of specific reasons, whether it was because. of where they fell within the calendar year. Um, or just in general, what the other options were, I'd be curious to know. Um, I know, uh, student board member Ajakae, um, asked about spring break, so obviously that has gone. untouched at this point, so just curious to know, um, you know, what other options were considered. And again, if that's something that we have to take off. line, um, for you just to provide a little bit more information, um, that's fine as well. But specifically, I'm asking because of some of the religious holidays that were referenced here. Ah. Absolutely. I think there is, um… As Dr. Zuckerman has referenced, um, a bit of give and take. And it
128is challenging for us. We have some traditions in our school system. We take the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. It just happens to be something that we do. Uh, there's a number of closures that are state closures. Um, we want the full week for spring break. The state also. Recognizes that, uh, the Friday before Easter and the Monday after Easter. Um, are both holidays, or closures for the state. Uh, and then we have things such as. Recently, we've enjoyed longer. winter breaks. Um, we have negotiated contracts. That say that, um, they're going to be. at least 8 half days already. Um, which impacts us. We have a teacher contract that has 192 days. We're trying our best to try to balance those things. We also recognize by law. Um, that when we look at days in which
129we. decide to say we should be out for something. Um, outside of the normal scope. It should actually have an operational impact. Um, we've done some searches of past years where we've had school on some of those days. Um, particularly those that may be religious in nature or religious observance. observance for some communities. Um, and it has not had the impact. Um, in terms of an operational impact from our teachers and students in attendance. Um, and so we're trying our best to have those things. Dr. Moss, you know, made the suggestion of should we have less makeup dates? We could, if we just had 3 makeup days, which is the state minimum of makeup days. then we wouldn't have to put on makeup days on any of those days. But we would also say the
130other give and take there is. Um, by having some other makeup days, at least we are giving. families an opportunity to know that there's a possibility. If it's a rougher winter, or we have other emergencies, uh. that we would take that day. Um, having less makeup days means that we would have to modify the calendar. Uh, coming to you, um, or going to the state for certain reasons, um, and there's less runway for families to plan. Because they never knew or expected that it would happen. And so it's just challenging, and we're trying to find. those days as best we can. Um, it's not perfect, um, and I will say that. Um, there was probably about a 6- or 7-year stretch. Where neither of the Eats were impacted. Um, because they fell in the summer.
131Or they fell in the early part of the fall. Um, it follows the lunar holiday… the lunar, uh. cycle, and that's different. And so, there's the other piece there, too. We do the best we can. We are sensitive to it. We want to respect the beliefs of all our community members. Thank you. No, also, like, to come in myself, um, I have two quick comments. Um, one of my questions, would I be remiss if I didn't bring up a concern or a question from our community? In regards to, um. adding time to the end of the school day, um. And kind of letting it be, like, an accumulative, uh, effect, like, if we were at 30 minutes or an hour to the end of the school day. Uh, to provide that extra instructional time, and
132then over. The duration of, you know, however many days will equal. Um, a full school day, have we considered any approach like that? It's a great question, uh, Mr. Jackson. The, unfortunately, Maryland law, with the exception for Anne Arundel County, because they have a pilot waiver. This year, we are required to go 180 days. And we have to fulfill. a hours requirement. Virginia only has hours, so they could do what you're talking about. Here in Maryland, we have to meet both days and hours, so we couldn't go to school for 179 days. and then add, um, hours or minutes to the school day to then get that full day back. It just doesn't work that way. Currently. Now, that is a potential option for, um… advocacy in Annapolis, um, and… Yep. Yeah. I think Dr.
133Moss over there. And Amy as well, Board Member Olivo. And then my second question, Doctor… I'm sorry, did I cut you? Go ahead. Well, I was just gonna say, that's why the Virginia districts, for example, it's so different in how they approach this, because they have an hours requirement, and so they build more hours into it, and so… Um, it's just fascinating, because we've always had this conversation, well, how can they just not have to extend the school year over there? It's because they don't have the days requirement. Great. That's something that we might want to consider on… in our P&G. My second question… is, um… and it's just more, I guess, a general statement, um, but… There's a lot of areas that deal with. quiet amount of snow regularly. Um, and, you know, just
134like, uh, NSBA was just, um, recently, but. Um, there's a lot of communication in the industry, in every industry, right, against, you know, with peers and. You know, have we, um, linked on… Uh, like the… the Colorados, the New Yorks, the Pennsylvanias, like, areas, the New England areas, like, they get. Um, uh, tons of snow, more snow than we have… we do traditionally, and, you know, just to kind of really understand. Their, um, approach to, uh, comms piece, to, you know. Education, continuity, um, and then the like. And so, um, I just wanted to know, have we, um… Reached out to them to kind of understand their game plan and how they, um, proceed, because they deal with it so frequently, and this is… I don't want to say it's a rarity to us, but…
135Uh, we don't get snow like them, so I would definitely love to know, um, have we done any, um, outreach? We actually… we actually have. We haven't done as probably broad of a canvas, um, in a formal way as we could, but we've done plenty of informal outreach, and I'll say two things just anecdotally. I happen to get stuck in Portland, Maine when the storm was here. Portland, Maine, got 17 inches of snow. Schools were closed on Monday, and school buses were rolling on Tuesday. I couldn't get home, but the school buses were rolling on Tuesday, January 27. So, there's no… there's not… they just… they're just… that's what they do, right? They've got the infrastructure, the equipment to move the snow. The driver's drive through snow, they're trained to do that. Snow tires, it's
136a totally different experience. I will tell you about a different experience in the state of New York. I won't name the district, but I have family who work in this district, and I said. You are a hybrid model. How do you… how do you do your virtual? And my cousin, who's a teacher, said, well. Um, we… we send the devices home, or kids use their home, they flip to virtual on that day, we say hi to them over Google Meet, and then we assign them asynchronous activities. and they go have a snow day. So, that's the gamut. So, we're trying to, you know, that's… I mean, there's lots of other things in between. I was talking to Dr. Christie of PGCA, who, um. has, I believe has family or friends in upstate New York, or,
137um, I'm probably messing this up, but. Now they're flipping to virtual on the regular because they get so much snow, and that's probably higher quality instruction than what I heard from. Um, my cousin in the other district in New York. So I think there's… it's all over the place here with respect to that. Um, our context is Maryland-specific, though, Mr. Jackson, because of this legislation. And so… and I just… I just want to come back to that. It doesn't mean that, um, you know, our lift is going to be bigger, but I think we're going to have a better product as a result. I would just say, as Maryland being the context, though, we do have school districts in the western part of the state. that receive very similar weather to what you see in
138the state of Pennsylvania. They are… they have the equipment, though. They are back in in 2 or 3 days. And so, it's just a different experience. Um, our infrastructure, as Dr. Coleman. Um, has not had any sleep and has had to really wrestle with it. just as a county, it's just not… Uh, equipped in the same way, which then impacts everything else. What the plans that we put out. the communication we put out, etc. We're just not equipped that same way. Yeah, thank you so much. Um, so now that. Or remember Booster Streother? Um, we're back… back in school, and the weather. forecast is… is not particularly looking like we'll have disruptions. for the next few weeks, unless something shifts, but… Now, now… Let's knock on wood. So… now everyone needs to get caught up
139on everything that was canceled and had to be rescheduled, so… I was wondering if there's gonna be this. centralized place that could also help. you know, board members and parent leaders know. Like, when high school visual and performing arts. tryouts are rescheduled, when… what impact on testing elementary through high school, AP, like, what… every… all of those calendar… items that individual students and families are probably feeling some stress over, so. And also just helping more community members be. uh, inform so we can help them know where to find that information. And then, tangential to that is. Um, Dr. Zuckerman, I was wondering, how are we doing with parents in parent view? Um, the numbers… logged in using ParentVue to get all this information, and now the new question of. Sure. Um… I think you have
140an excellent idea about the systemic communication. I think we, as a leadership team, need to take that back. Certainly, after tonight's meeting, if the board. Um, approves at least the calendar modification. I know you did the virtual plan. We'll put out a communication that speaks to what happened tonight, just so that we are really clear about the 6 make-up days that are confirmed. Um, and then we'll have to communicate out about whether we get a state waiver, and if we need to go farther. I think, uh, either Friday or early next week, it's an excellent idea to fold in a larger communication, so I'm just capturing that note for our team. Um, because that's not just me, it's my colleagues. Um, regarding, uh, parent view, so we're… Uh… I have to… we were… last I
141checked, we were well… well, we were over 100,000. Um, in parent view. And going into this, we had disaggregated the data, um, because we have, uh, about 10 or 11 schools where the critical mass is not. in the 90s where I'd like to see. So we have to do different outreach. to those schools for device distribution that… and this is some of the operational details that Ms. Anderful. Uh, was Dr. Andreful was talking about that may not be in the plan that you just approved, because we know we have to go to those schools and probably have a different approach. for this time around. Um, certainly for next year, um, and why I keep saying it's going to continue to be improved. We… we have to, we have no choice at this point but to
142have. Not a re-enrollment process, per se, but we have to drive every family into ParentVue at the start of every school year. to do a few critical things. Um, this would be one. Indicate whether or not you'd need a device for virtual learning. I'm very excited to talk to a student board member Airy at some point. We're going to talk about access to devices in general, because we can leverage this approach. to do that differently and at scale. Um, technology acknowledgement forms, uh, bus transportation forms, potentially media release. So I think we have this opens up this moment to do something different in the future. But in the short term, Ms. Booster-struther, while we are north of 100,000, which is really good, we know there's about 10 or 11 schools that we have to go
143deeper at. And we'll be working with those principals next week. And it might not involve a parent view in that situation for those schools. Yeah. Thank you, and I didn't know if Dr. White wanted to comment on some of those academic. calendar, impacts as well. I'm very sorry, Dr. White. That's okay, the only impact I know that we'll have is our VPA auditions were the last two weeks. And CPA would have been the last two Saturdays. I believe it's this Saturday. However, I will… those parents will be communicated with, and we will have it on the website if it's not already there starting tomorrow, because we can't wait. If it is this weekend, I can't wait for communication from next week. So know that we will communicate with those families. Um, we tried to get
144them in this past weekend, but… We shut down 2 weeks in a row. So for us, that's the only impact, um… Also, um, any parent that we are extending lottery or certain programs, that also will be posted. for families to know. As well. I appreciate it. There's also some concerns about missed school instruction days before these state. tests and AP tests, and I didn't know if you had some advice for families on that. Well, the great thing about our curriculums is our standard spiral. So we don't teach a standard, they get it one time, and that's it. Those standards. especially those major standards continue to flow throughout the year, and so we know that our teachers are ready to receive our students back, as evidenced by today, and we know that, you know, we'll keep
145working with our schools. I'm adjusting where we need to. If we know that we miss some critical needs, if we have schools. that are trying to figure out how do I catch up? How do I navigate, they will be able to reach out to our supervisors to get support on what that looks like if they need the support. Thank you, board members. Um… Moving on to, um, oh, sorry, Dr. Moss. Yeah, are you ready for me to make my motion? Yes, sir. Um, yeah, I'd like to, uh, move that we approve the calendar. I mean, approve the superintendent's recommendation minus President's Day, um, as an option for make-up days. So the question is, shall the board… the Prince George's County Board of Education adopt the modification of the PGCPS 2025-2026. School year calendar minus President's
146Day being used as a makeup day. Right, uh… If there are no objections. the… amendment, uh, will be adopted. So the Prince George's County, uh, excuse me, just trying to read it the right way you said it, but the. Prince George's County Board of Education will adopt the modification of the PGCPS 2025-2026 school year calendar minus. the President's day being used as a makeup day. Approved. Motion is approved. Alrighty, uh, this will… the chairman informs the public. That the board will hold its first virtual budget work session. I'm hearing tomorrow, and that's Thursday, February 5th, 2026, at 5pm. Please check the Prince George's County Board of Education website and or Diligent for the meeting information updates. Thank you all for the discussion. Uh, in attendance to our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no
147further business. The time is now 7.48, the February 4th, 2026 Emergency Virtual Board meeting is adjourned.