Board of Education Policy & Governance Committee Meeting - Jun 17, 2025

001That we can have some conversations around this, um, to ensure that we can see those, which I think was one of the problems, is that we don't have the visibility Um, so some of these contracts up front, and I think that we can be creative to do that, as well as still getting the work done. Um, for the Board of Education. Thank you, Committee Chair Moss. Um, I want to echo what Board Member Walker shared. I think, I guess, what I'm taking from this is that, um, I'm thinking about intent. What's the purpose behind the changes that we want to make, and are there other ways, um, to the language that was used, creative solutions. To address that, and I think… we can pull out the information that is essential for, uh, the various departments

002to report out on. If there are things that we're concerned about when we think about seeing those big dollar values. We can have that information, and we can include that language in this policy to ensure that we're getting those reports quarterly on those things, and I think that could address some of the issues and concerns around fiscal management, which is obviously very important. Um, and… and I wonder if maybe… I just want to also echo the point that we have. We are… we're the board members, so we have the authority to add this back to the work plan, um, if this is something that we want to revisit, and so I do think that this is something that, if we put it and we implement it, and it doesn't work the way that we're hoping,

003then I think we can always revisit it. But I think about the intent behind why, and also the variable concerns of timing that do exist. Thank you, Vice Chair Briggs. I'll take a moment and take my comments here. Um, I am hypersensitive to… to workload and work demands. What I do want to surface is, I respect the administration's intent of talking about the length of time that it will take. What is central to a strong procurement process is someone who's worked in the district has adequate planning. And so, with adequate planning, um, you reduce the back end, um, of having to take so long, or the impact of not having something when you need it. Conversely, we have a policy around emergency procurement, um, that would allow you, in the event that You need something

004immediately, and you cannot follow our traditional process, um, then you lay those out. And quite honestly, board members, we haven't talked about single and sole source, um, but… Um, we've had some challenges with that. Just as recently, um, and it's been retroactive rather than proactive. There are steps that Ms. Howe, I heard you say we didn't have really a board policy to speak to this Comar is very clear, uh, around what we should be doing around single and sole source, and when that comes before the board. I've also been on boards that have a much longer window for contracts that are, like, $250,000 and the like. Um, boards are seeing them one month and getting two, you know, 30 to 60 days before that contract comes out. And so, I hear the timeline argument, but

005I also want to be sensitive to the fact that planning is important when it comes to procurement, and that's how we be good stewards of the school district dollars. And my final comments, I'll address the notion of apples to apples. Well, actually, Montgomery County has way more procurements than we have. They are the largest system in the state. And they found some way, um, to do this. I actually think we do a better job. I mean, they say 50,000 or above everything, we at least have some delineation here, and we give folks a little bit more breathing room in our policy. Um, but at a time where folks are concerned about how we're spending dollars, I think it's overwhelmingly important for us to Um, you know, show our good faith and manage this. We have

006a number of responsibilities as a board, but we have a strong fiduciary responsibility to be good stewards of the dollars in our district, and I think that begins with contract and authority. Since 2023. Uh, we've had over 20 sole or single-source contracts, and, um, honestly, uh, you could review the list of them, and they don't all appear to be only… the only vendor. The justifications are not as strong, and so taking a reactive approach, I don't know that I can support. I think a proactive posture, um, is the best thing that we can do, but that is my comment Uh, as it relates to the policy. Anyone else for a first round? All right, um, Board Member Walker has raised her hand, so we'll move to a second round. Um, absolutely. I don't want you

007nor the public to misunderstand what I'm saying here. Fiscal responsibility is one of our core attributes, one of our core responsibilities. Being proactive is absolutely the first thing that we want to do. I also want to be realistic to learn what are the best practices that we can leverage in order to get to the end state. And what it feels like the end state is, and I know you can be… you can leverage your time in order to talk about this, um, what it feels like the end state is, is to be fiscally responsible and be stewards of our, um, finances within PGCPS and the Board of Education. And I am all for that. I think what would help us is to learn from those districts that you do talk about. Um, so if it

008is for us to ask someone there to talk about what are the best practices that you might use in order to ensure that you can get, um, all of your business done for the Board of Education. Um, I'm happy to… to listen to those and see how we can apply, uh, those. We could have potentially our… Ms. Howell on the call, so we could understand how can we lend this into our systems before we put together a process that we might not fully understand the overall impact. I think they're closer to the work in that it behooves us to really just put a little bit more work in this so that we understand. Um, when I take a look at things like Um, two and a half months added on to a process. What I

009will say is time is only one aspect of this. I would look at the money as well, because money is important. We do need to see those, and I think that a process that we could, uh, leverage is being able to, in advance, right? So maybe they know in advance, I'm taking a look at this, the director of purchases has 7 months. So, at some point, we should be able to, as a board, take a look collectively at what contracts are coming up. Around this threshold, and talk to us about what those are, so that we can give our questions and potential solutions to those, or just say, hey, we're gonna have an issue with this, the same way that we did, um, we have done previously. I think are opportunities that we can, so

010that we can make the best of the time that we have, the resources that we have, and the business that we need to do overall for PGCPS. That's… that's my piece. Uh, thank you. Absolutely. Any other colleagues have a second round of comments before I… Um, I do rec… I… Board Member Walker, I know you might be expecting me to respond to that first request, so I will. Um, seeing that there are other comments for folks, I think… I think you're right. Uh, we've actually been fortunate, Director Johnson actually came from Montgomery County, and so… Uh, we do have an opportunity to learn from whatever challenges they had with their low thresholds and what opportunities we can learn from them. I certainly support that work. I don't know that that is caused not to advance,

011um, the policy, in that we still have… this still has to go out for public comment and the like, so we do have a bit of runway to continue learning around the work, but I think you're right, Board Member Walker, around Learning a little bit more around how districts are managing this, how other boards are managing this. Um, I think we can, um, I think we can do that. I think that's important to do, and… This policy has a couple more steps to go before it's actually the official policy of the board, and that's… that's great, um, to make us aware. Anyone notes? Um… want to add… Board Member Levo, I know you are here, I don't know if you wanted to jump in. I know we've done our rounds, but I wanted to extend

012to board members that are on. I think I saw Board Member Goins McCant Um, but I wanted to extend to at least the two of you, if you're here, if you wanted to jump in, although you're not committee members yet. Did you all want to jump in or raise questions or concerns, or say anything? Thank you, um, Chair Moss. Um, I am fine, thank you. All right. And I thought I saw a board member go into McCants, I have… maybe I didn't, but… Ms. Howe, why don't you, uh, Chief Howe, why don't you go first, because I do want to share that I have made some changes to the policy in relation to the data that we found. And I want to go over those with you first, but I think she might have something

013to add first before I do that, so… Yes, one thing that we can certainly provide to members of this committee, if you don't have it already, we do have a summary of what other districts are doing across the state. Montgomery County is actually one of the most restrictive LEAs in the state, but most of the other LEAs sort of vary, they more align with the current thresholds within the Comar legislation, or somewhere, or some variation thereof. So it does vary and differ, so I'd be happy to Um, share that with you so you have that information. Um, and then the only other item that I was going to mention was really around the language in the legislation currently that speaks to the competitive bidding process. That really is around goods. Um, so equipment, materials, goods,

014not so much services, and that's where the districts have a little bit more flexibility to determine what makes sense Um, even from a single or sole source procurement standpoint, and we have leveraged both here, as I said, historically. Um, in the past, right, wrong, or indifferent, but that's been, you know, kind of the practice that we've put in place here. I do think that there is an opportunity. I think we all are looking for the same thing. That at the end of the day, to ensure we're getting the best value For a limited doc… limited dollars. I mean, you're speaking to the budget person here, so we certainly want to be able to stretch that dollar. Um, as far as we can, and we want to make sure that we're securing the best pricing, that

015we're taking advantage of bundling our procurements. I mean, looking at this data has been really eye-opening in identifying opportunities where we can ensure that for a district of this size, we're using our buying power to make sure that we are getting the best pricing that we can. So I think there's definitely an opportunity for us to work together To make sure that we're working towards that common goal. Absolutely. Thank you so much, Ms. Howe. Ms. Welsh, did you want to go ahead and review the policy? Yes, um, Cindy, did you get your sharing capacity up? Does it work now? I just saw her up there, on there. Yeah, it's just showing me a bunch of… Question marks. Oh. Um… Uh, let me see if I can, um… I don't have this up on my computer,

016because I have… I have several things going on here. Computer screens and stuff. So I want… I want, um… I could. Uh, Ms. Walsh, could you talk us through it? I believe board members… I believe board members have the item on board docs. And they could use it, um, in the interest of time. We… I know we have a filter… All right, thank you. Yep, I can do that. So, um, when… just to give you a little bit of background, when you looked at the chart to see the different procurements that were approved at the, at the, um, by, um. Director, um, Johnson. Many of these actually were actually below, were above what the threshold was, and what came… we had many conversations about this, and what came to light is that Um, there was

017an understanding, and I think this came, again, came exactly from what, um. Chief Howe was sharing is that the… all the players left that originally wrote the policy, as well as We're interpreting the policy, and so all the new players come in, and they're believing it's one thing, because they've been told by the other ones this is how it is, when the reality is, it wasn't quite the same. So there were two provisions Oh, two provisions in the policy. If you keep scrolling down, Cindy, or whoever has it in front of us right now. And, um… I don't know what that is. I mean, that is something we added because of OOA, but keep, uh, scrolling down a little bit further. I keep going. Keep going, you're gonna get to, um… so this provision for…

018This is new language, and this comes directly out of Education Article 5-1-12. And it's basically says that, um, a contract for a school building improvements, supplies, or other equipment shall be awarded to the responsible builder offer who provides the best value and conforms to the specifications with consideration given to And then it lists out all these different things, which gives the… when anything is going to be procured, uh, formally, that it allows for the system to be able to Take into account, like, the best technical value, and also the best price, and there's times, and many times, actually, where we have… end up going for best technical value over best price, because it's actually meets our needs much more than Much better than… than something with price. But this language here is replacing… now, if

019you scroll down, it should be in the next page, and you'll see it, and keep going. You'll see it in green on the right. If you… can you scroll over so you can see over here on the right Oh, I guess go up a little bit. It should be a green… keep scrolling up a little. Yeah, this is interesting. I have to say, this document… Hey, Cindy. Hey, Cindy, can you go back to page… 7 of 12? And let us see everything to your far right. Psalm 7 of 12, everything to your far right. There it is. Oh, you're right, there it is. That's what I was trying to get. Okay, if you could scroll up a little… Thank you. And I think it might be a little bit further… is there one above that

020one, or is that the first green? Thing. Okay, that will keep going down where that green is, thank you. So that… this is what's taking… deleted. And, um, I did work also with, uh, General Counsel on this, so that you know, so to make sure it was accurate But, um, one of the things that says here that if for any reason the contract cannot be awarded to the lowest responsible And responsive bidder, who's been meets the requirements and evaluation criteria set forth in the IFB specifications, is the most favorable the evaluated bid price, the recommendations shall be approved by the board prior to awarding the contract, but the superintendent designee shall fully advise the board As to the reasons for not recommending a word to the lowest responsive… responsive and responsible bidder, and then it

021says, if for any reason the contract cannot be awarded to the highest rate of technical responsible and responsive, uh. Proposal, scroll down, please. There you go. Um, that award recommendation shall be approved by the… prior to awarding the contract And the superintendent doesn't need to fully advise the board as to the reasons for not recommending the ward to the highest technical Uh, responsible and responsive proposal Um, and then all contracts awarded to the highest rated technically responsible and responsive proposal shall be approved by the superintendent designee. The Director of Purchasing and Supply Services. So, what has happened in the past, and this has been historically been going on probably prior to even our 22, uh, the 22 version. Um, because this is old language, is that, um, anything that was a word to the highest

022rate of technically responsible bidder, or proposal, or whatever, that… that never went to the board, regardless of the threshold. So that's why… so what's happening is, and that's why you saw, even with the, um, sole source. With the one contract you have referred to, Dr. Moss, is that it did not go through that, uh, that process And many of them haven't, and that's because, number one, I think We were all interpreting that the thresholds drove everything, but the people that had been here from before, and what's been passed down, and just the change of personnel over and over again, it's come to light that that is, like, an exception in the language. So, what… I took all that out because what really needs to be, certainly, the system needs to have the flexibility to consider

023both, like, the technically best proposal, as well as, you know, the best price, all those things have to be into consideration when you're determining which one you're going to choose. But regardless, the threshold should drive what's going to the board. That's… that should be the standard. Like, if anything above the $50,000 or the $150,000, or the $1 million, then it should go to the board. So that's why you see that change in the language, so that In the future, there will be no confusion over… and it doesn't matter what type of contract, it just will Who come through to the board, but saying that, and you saw the numbers that, um, Chief Howe shared with you, it will increase your work significantly. Um, because there's not a much larger number of contracts are going to

024be coming through to you that did come before. So, that's just another factor considered in terms of the extra the extra, um, time that'll be spent in board meetings looking at the contracts. So that's the one change, and then, Cindy, if you can scroll down further. Keep going. I think it's at the very end, it's in green. Oh wait, stop a minute, let's see what this is. Uh, oh, I did take this out because of the minimum 6%, because if, in fact. Um, by saying you absolutely are just gonna go flat with, um, minority business, um, owners to… or enterprises to be, uh, awarded contracts That can usurp the actual, um, the competitive bidding process, which then puts us out of compliance with 5-1-12, which we actually talked about at the last meeting in terms

025of actually having a set limit, so I just wanted to let you know I did take that out, and then if you scroll down further. There is, um, under implementation responsibilities, so this is We added this language. The superintendent shall include language in the administrative procedure that requires written justification for sole source procurement contracts award pursuant to Comar 21050502 and 04, and written assessments to documents, uh, that documents the benefit of using an ICPA. So we wanted to make sure that that, as in the administrative procedure, that is actually in alignment with the OLA recommendations, with their findings. And what we are required to do in our corrective action plan. So, and then I did add for legal citations, those, um, citations that you see over there on the left. So those were the changes

026that I made. Thank you so much, uh, Ms. Ms. Welsh, for… for uplifting those. Again, thank you, Ms. Howell. Um, and Director Johnson for come in, uh, to tonight's presentation. Um… on 3323, um, the planning policy. Um, so the question is, shall the committee, um, and I do want to flag one thing. When we say our workload, all of our contracts currently go to the consent agenda. And it's pulled if a board member has a question about them. So I do just want to clarify for the general public Um, that… that they're… right now, our current process is any contract that supersedes the authority above what's already in board policy, it simply goes to the consent agenda. Uh, for board members to review and actually vote on. There is no loan process where we're spending

027time going through each contract Um, it does go to our consent agenda. Um, but the question is, shall the committee recommend Policy 3323, purchasing to the policy sponsor? For revision approval, Ms. Adlay, could you please take the roll call? Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? Um, yes. Ms. Boosters rather? Ms. Walker. Aye. Um, aye. Therefore, in the affirmative. Policy 3323 will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Miss, uh… Miss Welsh, uh, if you could provide us with a legislative update? Yes. Before we go forward, can I just… Is it appropriate for me to just ask? I know, I feel like sometimes we make statements, but then we don't have an opportunity to add in. And, um, maybe when it does come, I'm not asking for it to be said here on this meeting, but

028maybe when it does come forward, Ms. Howell can help us understand the two and a half months, um, estimation. Uh, because I just think both of those were contrary, just so we could all understand the length of time addition, that would be super helpful. Um, perfect, thanks. No, I had others, but I could just write it in the tracker. Did you get all of it? Good. You could, go ahead. I want to say… I just want to make sure, because I'm… I'm… listen, I'm all here for us to make sure that we can actually have oversight over more. I just think we need to be, especially in this climate, be extremely, um, intentional on what it is we're spending money on, so I'm a fan of that. I was just wondering, also, when I look

029at the steps. There's this evaluate process, and how can we, the board, be a part of that process? Because that might help. A little bit, but all of my thoughts in order to condense it and improve it, I can talk to Ms. Howell, um, offline about if that's okay. Gotcha. Yeah, and it might be… and just to be transparent, Board Member Brock, I think you're 1000% correct. It might be safe to let her take care of that in administrative procedure. I don't also want to… so I hear why you're saying that, because it might be good for admin procedure. Rather than board policy, so that we're not further complicating their work, so… I think you're right. Ms. Howe, did you have anything else in closing, or did you want to address, uh, Board Member Walker's

030comments or concerns? I want to make sure I give you space. I appreciate the time, uh… be able to come back on to have any closing remarks. I'm just looking forward to working with this team collectively to come up with the best policy on a going-forward basis. I do want to yield to Director Johnson. Um, because she might be able to address the two and a half months. Though you maybe don't have to do a board tracker, so maybe she can give you a quick answer right now, or… Because, you know, that tracker is wearing us out a little bit, but that's okay. We're getting through them. The general public doesn't know about that tracker, but… but go ahead, Director Johnson, take the time you need here. Alright, um, in addressing the two and a

031half months. Um, that is really the time that it takes from the time that we have, um, that we've selected. Um, whatever the contract method is, because there is the selection Um, process in everything in which we actually award. And so, from that point, then we work with the departments. Um, so that they can craft, um. The board action summary. That board action summary goes through many layers of review. It actually starts, um, at the purchasing level, because purchasing has to make sure that Um, the information and the recommendation of award is in alignment with our COMAR, our RUS, our regulations, our manuals, and all of the work that we've put in to get that procurement at that particular point. And then how it travels. Um, for the different reviews, because they're financial reviews, there

032are other reviews that it would go to, um, before it is actually submitted. To, um, the board to be placed on the agenda. So… That, in addition to, you know, when that meeting is going to happen. And then, after that, we've also touched some time to that, of when those, um, board action summaries are returned to. Um, those end-user departments, because then after that is when we actually would issue the contracts, which are notices of award, so that they can go out to the vendors at that point. So, that is just a quick snapshot of some of the things that are inside of that timeline. Walker. Okay. And the only other thing I'll add to that is that as we're going through whatever decision is made, there's… and there's gonna be a transition period of

033time, right? If we go from a current practice to whatever the practice is going to be on a going-forward basis. So, in addition to the transformation work that we're trying to do, regardless of what happens to the board policy. You're now also going to shift a very large organization to your point, you have to really do planning and do your work very, very differently. And it's… it's not easy to shift. A large organization like this on a dime like that, so it will be an initial transition backlog. To kind of get us to where we need to be, so we're planning for this on a going-forward basis, so I do look at that initial transition period, that there's going to be some bottleneck, and making sure that the work Aligned with the board calendar to

034make sure we get everything on time, so it's… it's going to require some effort to get through to where we want this to work, on a well-oiled basis, but initially it's going to be… it is going to be a little bit of a logjam. Thank you all for coming, and I just want to say to the general public, Chief Howe just assumed the function. I know she said it in the beginning, but if you weren't here in the beginning. This office has moved a bit, and so… and Director Johnson is fairly new in her role, so… Um, thank you all for taking this on and really doing an analysis of prior practices. I know we've asked a lot from you all, like, pulling all these things, but it sounds like you also found gaps in

035your work, so it will help you figure out how to structure the system moving forward. So thank you all for your engagement tonight. And, uh, Chief Howe, I'm gonna let you go. I know we got you tomorrow night, too. Um, so enjoy your family at some point. All right. Um, at this time, we will move to the legislative update. Um, I'm gonna recognize both Board Member Walker. Um, I'll recognize Board Member Walker first, and then Ms. Welsh, or I don't know if y'all plan together around Eric's Law. Um, but I do know we have Eric's Law, and then we have Legislative Day. So, um, if y'all plan together, go in whatever order, but if not, Board Member Walker, you can start with Eric's Law, and then, um, Director Welsh, you can talk about legislative day.

036We're gonna knock it out right now. So, we'll just click yes. Is that how… did y'all plan together? I got you. Alright, here we go. Yes, absolutely. So, Eric's Law, I've… listen, I post about it all the time, because it just excites me. About it. So, Eric's Law really is a law that was passed last legislative session around hidden disabilities And the intention, literally, is to put a butterfly, although I hear that's under some discussion right now, but to put an icon, let's say, on either an ID or driver's license. So, if a driver, in our case, our high schoolers or beyond, um, are driving and they have a hidden disability, that the officer or whoever they're talking to, um, even MVA, will recognize that there is a hidden disability with this person, and hopefully

037be able to engage them either in a little more intentionally. Is the intention of the law. So that did pass, and I know before it passed, we did have discussions as a committee Um, just on how can we recognize Eric and Eric's law, because obviously it does impact scholars who are driving. Um, it could potentially have a very positive impact on them, and I know at the time. What we decided as a collective was. Um, it hadn't become a law yet. And we just want to be careful on how we engage early on things that are not directly tied to education. Therefore, we didn't move forward with any type of recognition, but… I would love to… encourage us to, at this particular time, really to, um… Acknowledge it? What does that look like? I guess

038we could talk about it. Maybe it's just a certificate of appreciation for knowing that it will impact some of our scholars, even though it wasn't an education bill. So, Ms. Rob… Ms. Welsh, I don't know how you feel about that. I feel like we talked about this in the past, but it's for anybody of driver's age or that has an ID that has a hidden disability, and we know that some of our scholars, um. Fit that population. Ms. Walsh, I'm turning it over to you. Okay, um, so, um, I've… I… and maybe I'm not totally understanding what you're thinking, but I was… the only thing I could think of, though, is that I don't know if our parents… our parents of our students are aware of this. Um, so that… which I think, um. For

039some of our students, you know, that might be an important thing, because, you know, they get their driver's permit when they're 16, Um, and then, now, the law says when they turn 18, they may choose not to have that under On their license that they can then have it removed. And, you know, different people are funny about wanting others to know that they have a disability. So it is a personal choice once they turn 18, but prior to that, it may be very helpful, because you know, students, children, kids, from 16, 17, up to 18, their frontal lobs aren't necessarily developed anyway, and then if they are dealing with any kind of intellectual types of issues or something. This could be a benefit for them. Um, so I… I was just thinking, I don't… and

040I wouldn't know, we would have to talk about how you would want to go about it, but it might be something that we would want to let parents, you know, make, you know, make parents aware of this, that this is something, when they go to MVA, They can absolutely request it. Um, it also might be something for the Disabilities Advisory Committee to have conversation to discuss then and move forward to be able to, um. You know, just… it's really about making parents aware this is an opportunity for them, and when they go in, when the parents go in. To get, you know, to get the driver's license or whatever, they, the MVA cannot request… will give us proof that there is a disability of any type. So, it wouldn't be necessarily, like, the parents have

041to feel like they're being, you know. Um, a question, and all this other stuff, or they have to provide this proof, but they certainly can be, and I'm sure it's a major concern for parents of Students who do have disabilities, especially ones that are not apparent, you know. Um, so, I mean, I was thinking that might be something that we might want to do to really help make the bill… the law more functional Um, and how parents help these students access this. This was what I was thinking in my mind when I read through it. Love it. So, as we close this piece, uh, and turn it back over to the Chair of Policy and Governance. Um, maybe what we're saying collectively, if you would agree, is that, um, one, maybe move it over to

042DIAB, Um, with our recommendation to talk about, uh, what it means and what their proposal would be for any communication that goes out. Um, coming from that committee, and maybe even joining with us as a partnership to send out, I think that that would be a great idea. I put those words in your mouth so you can correct me there. And then the secondary one, I guess, for us to talk about is Um, if we could just send a letter of, um, at least acknowledgement to, uh, Eric, because it does… We know that it does impact scholars, um, potentially inside of PGCPS. Would you say, yes, that that's a good one for us to talk about, Ms. Welsh? Are you aligned to those two? Yeah, I am. As we round it out? Okay, okay. Um,

043Cindy, um, Director Cindy. Thank you. I do have one question. Board Member Walker, the letter, would it be coming from the Policy and Governance Committee, or… the full board. I think we could talk to, um, Dr. Moss, but I would think from DIAB mixed with policy and governance would be sufficient. That eliminates some layers. Okay. Uh, makes an independent diet. Yeah, and Diab is coming to the next board meeting, too, so, um, I think we have them coming up on the 26th for a presentation, too. So, around… some recommendations they have for us, so this might be good for us to say we'd love to partner with you additionally. I think there's a tremendous opportunity, and that's Board Member Brown. Yeah. I believe is the, um, the… but no, I like all the ideas, um,

044and we could go ahead and begin drafting the accommodation to at least acknowledge it, too, so… Um, happy to support that. To work here. Um, Ms. Welsh, do you want to talk about Legislative Day? Um, I'll make one announcement around legislative advocacy day. I know that, uh, we may have a… we may have a date change. I think it's important, um, but, um, Board Member Walker is gonna serve as the lead from P&G on the planning of it with the administration, but… Would love to hear your updates. I know you got some information for us, but… and you and I talked about this a little bit. Already, but would love for you to lead this out, but just wanted to let our committee members know that, uh, Board Member Walker has graciously, um, opened herself

045to. That's great. Um, serve as, uh, to help us lead out, but here we go. I'll turn it over. That's why I asked if y'all planned the Eric's Law thing, too. Um, but here you go. Well, first of all, the date that was chosen that we, um, had talked about a couple months ago for next year was September 12th. As it turns out, September 12th is an early dismissal day. So, to do it in the morning like we've normally done in a school, uh, that… early dismissal days can sometimes be a little chaotic anyway, because you're changing students' schedules, you know, and, you know, kids are coming and going. So, to do it in a school in the morning would really probably not be the best thing to do, and so it would either be

046to think about either doing it in the afternoon of the 12th. Or changing the date, or not doing it in a school building, and doing it in another type of building. Um, so those are all choices, and since we're working together on this, you know, I've… and I did speak to Quincy about it, too. About just, um, you know, having the committee talk about it in terms of what they think might be the best thing As far as, um, for, you know, for our schools, as well as for our legislators, the public, everyone. In terms of what would be the best way to go as far as the date. Yeah, I'll turn this over to you all, but I do want to flag that a couple of board members wouldn't be able to be there,

047because we have a national priority going on as it relates to, um, our governing organization, NSBA. So, I do think it would make sense for us to move it, but I have no recommendations of when. I just wanted to flag that our board members would even be impacted by the initial date that we had, but I'm certainly going to turn it over to the committee. Um, if we could take maybe the next 5 to 7 minutes to get through this, and Board Member Walker, I'll turn it over if you want to navigate this part of the conversation. Yeah, that would be great. I'm really excited about Legislative Day. I think we've been hearing from not only our own committee, but also from legislators that we definitely need to have this earlier in the year, and

048we have accomplished that, guys. So this is really exciting. I think we can take a look at dates. Fridays usually work well, and so the next one is the 19th. Maybe we could put a couple out. Um, at least that we can make sure we can get to, make sure we don't have any conflicts, and we can do that Uh, if you all pull up your calendars, at least we'll have something, a couple dates that we can go ahead and give To legislators, and we can at least align on. That's one thing we could do tonight. I think the other thing is that Ms. Welsh, if I could talk to you offline about the agenda, another thing that we've heard Um, is that we want to make sure we have kind of a work session,

049making sure that people leave with tangibles, and I think we have an opportunity to do that. I'm really excited about it, actually. So, I have some ideas. I know John Tell does. Um, why don't I work with you offline, and we, the three of us, could get together and kind of power through what that day might look like, and then we can send it to the committee, if that's okay? Um, what do you think about that? No, that would be fine. I was… I was… the only reason I pulled the agenda up was because I… I did have a conversation with Dr. Moss about how we were working, like, is it… were we gonna do it as collaborative type of approach? And so… and because September… whatever date we pick in September, it's gonna be

050here before we know it. It's quick. Yeah. That it would be helpful, and I do know that there has been conversation about the previous agendas and, um, and the conversation in terms of having the opportunity for delegates and senators to be able to talk and engage more and be a part of that process, and I think I even heard it just recently in the County Council meeting, uh, there was a conversation about it. So, I… I wanted to show what we had from last year, but to say, um, maybe we should be thinking a different way of doing it. For the future. Yeah, so I'll take the lead from this group, um, and so what I've done, I've heard from some people, so why don't you, myself, and Jontell get together? Um, I know I

051talked to, uh, board member uh, Brown about it, too, so we'll just get together in a really small group and be able to, uh, post it back to this group. If anybody has anything that they'd like for us to consider this week. Um, I'll pull something together for this week so we can get all, uh, to the horses. But in the meantime, let's just get a couple dates, if we could go to September, guys, if you have a calendar up. The next date was the 19th, that next Friday. How's that look for everybody? Let's try to get two. Great. It works for me. It looks like Board Member Booza-Struth there put a, uh, well… Oh, and Board Member Olivo, too. Yep, so did Jonathan, so, um, Board Member Briggs, Commissioner Briggs, so that's great. Um,

052what about the 26 I have on here? A potential board retreat that day? So, um… Okay, but I think we might have an opportunity to… These are the proposed date, but typically we have it this Saturday. Is that… Cindy, is that where Ritchie actually happened, or is that just… Okay, so let's do those two. Um, maybe we could take those offline and then talk about those a little bit, um, further offline. So that would be the 19th and the 26th. And we should look at the school calendar also. Just to make sure there's nothing going on, you know, in schools that day. Yep. Good point, good point. Okay, well, I think that concludes our wrap-up, I think, for next steps, what we'll do, unless you all had anything additional. Is that if there's anything we

053should talk here. If you have anything that you want us to consider, let's make sure we have that today. Um, also, I'll take offline to get with Jontel and Ms. Welsh this week. So we could just brainstorm an agenda and what the look and feel will look like. I'll, um, send out an email to our team of where we are, and then we can get to going. We'll lock on the date. And, um, get that at least formatted out so we could be ready to send it to legislators, and then run that by, um, Chair, um, Moss. Is that good? Sounds good, thanks. Sounds good. Works for me. Okay, um, now all of our colleagues can come to Legislative Day, because we… they all started sending emails, so thank you for solving the problem. Um,

054so let's, uh, Ms. Ms. Welch, do you have anything else related to Legislative Day? Okay. That's go to… okay, let's go to 4.0 Policies for First Consideration. No, not at this point. Um, there are 8 more items for discussion. There will be 2 rounds per item, um, with two and a half minutes. If the third round is required, a vote will be taken. What I also want to flag for committee members, um, you can submit Um, your revision request through the policy recommendation form to save time. I know you may have not gotten to them. I know we're working on improving this practice, and Our weeks have been busy, but I do want to flag for you, as much as it's helpful with these policies that we get the written feedback to Ms. Welsh. Um,

055prior to our time together. So, I just want to say that much. Now, 4.1. Um, I'm gonna recognize Ms. Welsh for the committee work plan, but what I do want to say to you, um, you know. We will be sending this to the full board, but there are opportunities to revise it. Um, the work plan, and… I sent you all an email of a draft survey, um, that you could provide feedback on for the general public. To give us feedback on our work plan to be able to say, these are policies that we should consider. Also, legislative priorities. So, um, in whatever spare time you have, because you all have so much, um, if you could provide feedback on that survey. Um, but we do have to, because of our board policy advance, our committee

056work plan. And one of the things I'll say to those in the community who are listening. Um, you know, your board members, whenever you told them you wanted to see a policy revised. We tried to make it fit into the work plan, or when someone came to this committee, and we said, we need to review that, it's… Ms. Welsh has done an amazing job, and Cindy, to get this in the work plan, but… There will be opportunities to revise the work plan based on that feedback, that survey that we're putting out. So committee members, I know some of you have already given feedback. Um, I think we need to get that to Cindy by the end of the week, um, but if you need more time. Just let me know. But at this time, I'll

057recognize Ms. Welch to present the committee work plan. The question is, shall the committee recommend the work plan to the full board approval? Um… And so now we'll have discussion around it. Ms. Welsh? Presentation? Yes. So, for the, um… so if you scrolled so that we can see them all, and actually, I just realized I have a typo there, it should say 2526. School year, but it is for next year. So, these… the ones that are listed here, uh, several of them we've already discussed that for upcoming, uh. Um, uh, for this coming year, but the rules of procedures, the 4200, that one is one that OGC has requested, and I think it goes through the whole process of when you are doing appeals for 6202 and 4205. Public comments, uh, one that was requested

058for it to be, um, came up on the list, so… so actually, Cindy and myself, Cindy started this list, and anytime people were requesting or something came up that needed to be added to the list. These were ones that were added up to the list this past year. Um, disabilities Issues Advisory Board, it's my understanding that they would like to have that policy revised, so that's why I incorporated that in there. And then we did receive a letter from a parent on the student… the disabilities… on the student appeals of disciplinary Action. Uh, 5115, so that one, uh, was a request from this past year, so we included that. And then the conversation, I think, at the last committee meeting with the Interscholastic and Extracurricular activities, uh. The conversation about making some revisions to that

059particular policy, so that one's on the list. Um, then there's two policies, uh, 0126 and 0127 that were done back in 2016. And they have never been updated, um, since then, um, and they're critical, very important policies, and so, um. The idea being that we would be able to possibly combine both of those policies and incorporate everything into one policy. Uh, grant assistance is another one that's an old policy, but, um, we are working on the revisions to the administrative procedure right now, so I think it'd be good to have that one. Up-to-date. The wellness, nutrition, and Physical Activities Policy, we were supposed to go over that this past year, and it was on our agenda, but we did not get to it, partly because we did not get results of the study committee, and

060that was the whole purpose of bringing it back within a year, that policy requires a study committee to look at physical activity for middle school students. So, they are still working on that, so they will have that done for next year. School-based management teams, we… they, um, the request was made a few times to see if we could get some principals in to come in and talk. About how they run their school-based management teams. You all, as a committee, had requested that we, you know, talk to a couple principals about it. And unfortunately, um, by the time they made… they actually, I think, got around to making the request, it was close to the end of the year, and trust me, being a principal once in my life The last thing I'd want to do

061is probably come to a committee meeting on a policy when you're trying to close out the school year, and you have kids going this way and that way, and staff going every which way, so… I understand why they weren't able to get any, uh, uh, principals for this year, so that's on the calendar for next year. The other one that came up was student use of social media and portable electronic devices in the school. That's a really new policy that you all did in the spring of last year. But the reason that, um, it's going to be included, um, it was included was, number one is MSDE did run a task force and come up with recommendations, and I do think that that might be something you would like to at least consider. Um, and

062you might not decide you don't want to make any changes to the policy, and you like it the way it is, but that is, um, one piece of it, as well as my understanding is that Mr. House Had met with numerous groups and gotten feedback from different teachers' groups, I guess, and parents' groups. Um, in terms of what recommendations were, which I think would be important to consider, um, to look at. So that's the only reason I put it back up on the, uh, for this coming year. And then, um, the Office of Internal Audit. So we have three, you have this… this policy, 8373, and then you also have, what, the policy called audit, I think, auditors. Uh, which is talking more about external auditors, but Uh, the, um, Sydney and I both talked

063about this in terms of, uh, putting those two policies together so that you would talk about auditing in general, and then we'd have our internal auditors As well as then the external auditors. And then the next thing was, um, Board of Education Standing Committees and focused work groups There is supposed to be, um. We want to incorporate Board Policy 9140 into that, um, policy… to that policy, but also, there's supposed to be a group a policy committee that is actually looking at… and let me see if I have it here… is looking at, um. I don't have it, but it's looking at Um… well, first of all, yeah, we have the Citizens Advisory Committee. But then, we have one called Citizens Advisory Committees. Which is a whole separate one that talks about all the different

064kinds of committees you can have, which seems like it would make sense to incorporate the two, for any of these advisory committees, as well as standing committees, as well as Um, um, the superintendents, the evaluation, what's as stated in one of the committee… one of the policies, it talks about the evaluation of, um, the superintendent by a committee to begin the process first with an evaluation committee. So, it's sort of like putting several pieces together And updating 8100 so that it considers everything it should be out there in terms of standing committees. And it would also include advisory committees and then focused work groups. Um, and these, as we go through these last ones. Our goal was, so if you recall, we had these bylaws, all the 9,000 bylaws, and little by little, we've been

065chiseling away, moving these bylaws, either… either by rescinding them. Or changing them from bylaws into policies and moving them over to the 8100 series. So if we get through the rest of these, what'll happen is all the 9000s will be out of the way, and that whole section will disappear. And you'll just have your internal, um, policies, that'll all be sitting in the 8000s. So, the next one is Certificates of recognition, which would also incorporate Board Policy 3186 and 9305. Then bonding of officers, which is very old and definitely a bylaw, we are required to have bonding of officers, but, um. That would be updated, and then, um, Dr. Moss, you had brought up this past year about the participation in meetings electronically. Um, and so I put that back on the list because we…

066because it wasn't on the work plan for this past year, so it would be on the work plan for next year. And then annual report, another 9,0001, which is, um, again, required by law. Uh, but right now, it's a very old pause that we need to update, and then… management of bank accounts is not that old, but it should be updated and then incorporated into the 8000 series. And then the last one is the evaluating the superintendent of schools. I added that only because That policy doesn't have anything to do with the committee, which is supposed to be… there is supposed to be an evaluation committee. Now, just as Dr. Moss said earlier, if there are any of these that you feel like are not appropriate, or we shouldn't even be touching, or whatever, please,

067you know, it's your policy, so you need to say what, you know, what you think should be included or not be included. This is really sort of the, you know, looking at what's… what we've heard, what people have said, what they want, and then what we know… well, I know the long-term goal was to try to get the 9000 series you know, it's cleaned up so that it didn't exist anymore. So that… that would be all of those, and then Cindy, if you scroll down. Then these are ones that we would recommend for rescission. Um, and there's a couple 9000s that are there, and then the numbering and indexing abort actions, is that… I jumped down, I apologize, but that one is so weird, it's just saying you're gonna number and index your board actions.

068And then the conversation of opening of meeting with prayer, that, uh, you did receive, I think, public comment, uh, related to, um. One of your constituents were concerned about the fact that, basically, they felt like their rights were being violated because of having prayer in the, um, board meeting. So I think that… so that's why that one's up there for rescission. And again, it could be put over on the section of the one that you just want to review and revise. Anyway, then the auditor went on, which I told you will be combined to the other one, the Citizens Advisory, which will be combined to $8,100. Newspaper advertising, I did talk to our communications office, and we don't advertise anything by communi- by the newspaper anymore, so there's no reason to have that policy, so…

069So that would be removed, and then information packets, we haven't done in years, and so that one would be removed. And then combining cost estimates of board resolutions with proclamations and, um. Something else, which is 83849305, so that they could all be put together, and that… yeah, and then proclamations. So we're sending both of those and putting them all into one policy, and I think that's it for all the rescissions. And then, if you go down to Component 3, this is about all the administrative procedures that now need to either be developed or updated based on the policies that have been done during the past year. Um, so I just put those in place, and then if you… and the only student telehealth, we don't have a number yet for that policy, so that's the

070only reason there's no number there. And then if you scroll down to the last page. Um, this is, um, the two, uh, policies that… two APs that we currently have that have no policy, but I think are important ones would be immunizations and accident reporting. So, um, of course, any of this is open for discussion. All these components, just as a refresher, is based on the, um. Your policy development, um, policy, which actually talks about the fact that this is… you would receive a memo from the superintendent with these four components addressed in it, so that's what you are receiving. Board Member Walker, um, and then Vice Chair Bricks. Thank you, um, as always. Thanks, Ms. Welsh. Um, I wonder, Ms. Welsh, I don't know how to put this on there, but at one time,

071board members, I think you'll remember, because it was a big deal, remember when we talked about that 9000 series, and Um, we had some help to go through and kind of rescind a number of those. But… and I know we did this exercise, but I was wondering, does it make sense to call it maybe, like, a review, just to make sure all of those policies that were rescinded, I'm not looking to revisit them. Are actually translated to either a policy or an operations, or we have it somewhere. Um, I just want to make sure we didn't miss anything. So that's one I wanted to ask what y'all's thoughts were. And, um, for some reason, I'm not thinking of the exact 9,000, um, policy. I just don't know if it translated over, and I just want

072to do just a double check. For that, that's one. And then the second piece, I didn't see, um, PCAC on there, and I know we talked about that. That's policy 1500. That didn't make it to the list. Um, I think we revised it in 2024, but there's been some things that we talked about of late that might just be quick, um, policy updates. To think about, colleagues. So, I'm happy to hear from you on both of those. Yeah, the ones. I could answer the piece on the 9000 series, if that's okay. So, with the 9000 series, after we develop rules of procedure, I've been tracking it very closely to make sure we incorporated everything into rules of procedure, and whichever one we missed, I worked with Ms. Welsh to kind of either give them new

073numbers. I'll have them resend it, because they were duplicates in other policies. We should just probably put the rule, just Cindy, we should probably put the rules of procedure on anyway, um, for next year. I think there are a couple of pop… there are a couple of practices in the rules of procedure that may need to be revised, um… that we can talk about a little bit later, that I don't know that when we… when it was done prior, we thought about the implementation of it. So… But I'm happy to talk about some of those early on. Like, just looking at the rules and procedures, sometimes it's a bit hard to do. So, to Board Member Walker's point, I think we just need to put the whole rules of procedure, Ms. Welsh. As up for

074review next year. And we can do that, but I do want to share, um my thing… my… and certainly, you tell me if you think you want to do something different, but I'd like to try to keep our number down to about 16 policies, because what has happened is, number one, is that We… we keep running out of time. The policy meeting goes on for, you know, for a lengthy time, and then if a board member can't really stay for the entire time, then we can't finish it. So then these policies keep getting moved over to the next, and I don't think it's good practice to rush through policies, just because that is probably the board's most important work when they're putting a policy together. And, um, the other thing is where there could be

075a special session, there's a lot of talk about a special session for legislative session starting in October, as well as then the regular session. And once those… that gets into, you know, moving forward, then a lot of time, is often spent in a policy meeting discussing just what's happening legislatively. So, I… I don't want us to end up plowing up policies, so I was thinking, if we looked at And if it's a monthly meeting and two new policies and a monthly meeting would be introduced. And then, when we get to where we have it every other week, it would be one new policy that would be introduced every other week. And that way, we're not… we're not running in… running into policies And running out of time. That was my… just my plan. So, um,

076if we're gonna add something, then I think we should think about then taking something off, also. Yeah, mm-hmm. Okay. Um, I appreciate that, uh, flag. Um… I think we can get into prioritizing a little bit later, if that's okay with you. I like we just at least get them on the list for now, and then we can get to prioritization a little bit later, if that's okay with the rest of the committee. Okay, um, we're, uh, Vice Chair Briggs. Okay, thank you so much. Um, I'll… I guess I'll add on to that. I did have two policies that I also, um, sent in and would love to have considered on the list, so this was… Board Policy 5110, it was about sibling enrollment. Um, I had a constituent that reached out. I think it's a

077really… Important policy, because essentially it's… having a sibling at a school, and right now, what happens is, if you have, let's say your sister, Mrs. Welsh when you were 10, was at a school, um, but was heading off to high school, or heading off to middle school. Um, what happens is that the enrollment period that exists doesn't count as a sibling at the school, so… If you are applying during enrollment that doesn't qualify for the sibling enrollment process. Um, they actually have to be at the school the next, uh, school year. In order for that to happen. So, I think it's… I think it's something that's probably a quick thing to change. It's a really quick, easy language change, but I think it would have a significant impact on students. And then the last one

078was, um… this was an administrative procedure, 6144 language immersion program. Um, it deals with. Specialty programs, and essentially there was a family that traveled, um. For… because they were working for USAID out of the country. We all know what happened with USAID, and they were enrolled at one of the immersion schools. They came back probably within months, and they couldn't get their son re-enrolled. He was in kindergarten at the time, but when they came back, he had to kind of go through this really. Um, laborious process to get back into the school, but he had already demonstrated that he was able to Um, he had the competencies to be at the school, so I think that that's another one that's not a heavy, um, you know, requirement of time, but I do think that it

079could be something I have a significant impact on the community. So, wanted to just name those two, um, for my colleagues, and also for you all. I sent that as a Google Form doc, um, submission. Um, that I think you have possibly seen. I… and actually, I appreciate you bringing that up, because I did see both of those, and felt that those were ones that would require changes in administrative procedures and weren't necessarily policy. Items, because they're really… it's all about how we're operating, you know, in terms of the, um… if a student leaves and comes back, you know, um, in that particular situation, as well as the sibling enrollment, and there, I can't… I was just trying to look it up quick. There's an administrative procedure that does talk about sibling enrollment, so that

080would just be making, um. That change that you talked about putting it into that ministry procedures. That's the only reason I didn't incorporate that into the policy list. Because I thought we could make those changes in the APs. Okay. Well, yeah, then maybe we can have a conversation about that offline, and I know we have our Yep. I also want to flag that sibling enrollment is on meeting agenda tonight for rescission. That's great, okay. Nah. Okay, um, is there anything else on this, uh, item? Okay, the question is, shall the committee recommend the work plan to the full board for approval? Ms. Adenlay, could you please take the role? Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? Aye. Let's do this, rather. Ms. Walker. There are four in the affirmative, the work plan will be recommended to the full

081board. Let's move to Policy Item 4.2. Um, home and hospital teaching. The chair recognizes Ms. Welsh to present Our guest speakers, and to provide an update on the new policy, home and hospital teaching. You're muted, Ms. Welsh. I apologize. Anyway, um, oh, there it is. Okay, so, um, this is a new policy. We did have an administrative procedure. We've had that for a while, but we had no policy to go with it, and And in essence, home and hospital teaching is something that's provided to students who have, uh, either… they either have, um, and it's actually required by law in Education Article 7-301.1, And so, if they have either a physical or emotional health condition. Um, or if they are pregnant, our parenting student, actually, um, that they, um, have him in hospital as an

082alternative. To actually come to school every day. So, in essence, it's really laying out what the requirements are for when you offer a home and hospital teacher in terms of Um, the fact that you have to have, um, something from an authorized health provider that, um, basically Lays out the condition of the student and everything, and is the justification for why the student would need home and hospital teaching, and it is a short-term service, it's not intended to be for, like, all year long or anything, but during the time that a student is ill. Or having some type of emotional or physical health conditions. And then, um, there's… what it says is the superintendent shall ensure that, uh, all the instructional services are provided to students Uh, that do qualify under this condition. Um, and

083it's also… I did, uh, refer back over to Board Policy 5119.3, which pregnant and parenting students Um, because that is one of the alternative forms of education that we listed in that policy for a student who would be Um, you know, pregnant… pregnant to the point where they weren't able to come to school, or they were a parenting student, then they could, uh, for the first couple weeks, they could actually, um, get their Education, and through him and hospital teaching. Um, and then, um. Let's see… the other responsibility of superintendent or designee is to ensure that parents are made aware of this as a… as an option for when students are having some type of qualified health condition. And then, um. The superintendent and the AP does lay this out in terms of the manner

084in which the instructional services will be delivered, uh, safety procedures. Also, including training to ensure appropriate supervised safe environment for students and teachers. And then developing a review process to resolve any disagreements regarding… that might arise in implementation of services. And then every 60 days, calendar days, there should be a review and determination of the continuation of the services. Um, their superintendent's also responsible for, um. Ensuring that determination for the need of the service begins as soon as possible after the verification of the need for the service. So. Uh, but not later than 10 school calendar days, and then for a student with a disability, an IEP team would be the ones that would determine the instructional services to be provided to the student. Uh, that has the verified physical or emotional condition, as well

085as the team would have to develop a plan for returning the student to the school-based program So, pretty much, this is, uh… straight from the law, but it is a requirement, and we, you know, we have a policy now that goes with the administrative procedure. Um, committee members, are there any questions or discussion around this policy? Board member, uh, Vice Chair Briggs? Okay, thank you so much. I had, uh, three, four things that I wanted to just flag for Ms. Welsh, and I'll send this as a comment as well. Um, but I wanted to include mental health and behavioral health explicitly, so depression, anxiety, trauma as qualifying conditions, not just physical illness. I think… I don't think I saw that in the policy, but you can clarify that. It is an emotional health condition. Oh,

086yeah. Oh, it is? Okay. Um, and then I said to include students in partial day programs or outpatient treatment who still needs academic support. Um, was that something that you… I was reading through it quickly, but was that something that you had in there? No, but it's… but it would be any… any student. I mean, it doesn't matter what program they're in. Let's say they're in, um. Um, you know, partial day program or something, and they become ill. And they can't attend their partial day program, um, they absolutely can access that. So… I mean, I could… I could probably add some language somewhere. I don't think you need to. I wanted to make sure that that was in there. If that's in there, then, um, that's great. Um, that's great news. Um, I also wanted

087to add in disproportionality tracking, so monitoring for inequities based on race, disability, language status. Oh, okay. Um, and then lastly, annual reporting to include the number of students served, the average wait time, outcomes, and demographic breakdown. Um, I'm not sure if I saw that in there, but you can clarify for me. It's not, but, um, an annual report, okay? Right, yeah. Thank you so much. Uh, Vice Chair Braz, did you get everything? There were 4, I think I only heard three, unless I missed one. No, it was four, but two of them were already included in there. Yeah, they were four Okay, cool, cool. I can't count. It's okay. Board Member Olivo? Thanks, Charmas. Um, and this might be just a question because I'm… brand new to this work, but I… just the word vows

088just… strikes me as odd. Is that the typical language that we would use in policies like this? The board vows to. Oh, I mean, we could put any language there. The… I mean, anything the board wants… the committee wants to put in, that's fine. Yeah, it's… but it's not consistent, though, across some of our other policies. We don't say vows in that way. It's not… it's not consistent, so I think that's a good flag. Um, I don't know what our attorney would say about that, but Val's is, uh, probably has some… some legal weight beyond what we really care about. All my colleagues are shaking their head, and the attorney came off camera, so we probably should get rid of the word vows. Well, I… I can put… normally, I put is committed to. Board

089Member Walker, you came off mute. Were you going to address the vows, or you wanted to say something? I just want to make sure I got everybody here. No, I was gonna agree. Usually, we… I was just gonna say, sometimes we say shall, or… but I'm good with however… is not vows. Thanks for catching that. Uh, no doubt, no doubt. I wanted to make sure I included you. Um, Ms. Adlay, could you please call the roll on this, then? Dr. Moss? Mr. Brakes? Aye. Is Google this rather? It's welcome. There are… For in the affirm… We all talking. What you got, board member Walker or Cindy? What you got? Before I hear from a dude. What you got, Board Member Walker? All right. There are four in the affirmative. New policy, home and hospital teaching

090will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Now Policy 3000 Business, I think we've seen this one before, too, so, um… Yes, so this is one that we, um, that we discussed at the last meeting, and then, um, Board Member Briggs, uh, shared some, um. Um, actually sent me an email with all these different things, so I have to confess that That, um, Board Member Briggs, the things that you wrote, I really… I did… I made some changes that I could figure out, but some of them I really was sort of at a loss what you were talking about, so I did… what I did was I put it into the policy. And highlighted so that we could discuss Specifically, what you would like to see in the policy, because I want to

091make sure it's what, you know, what you actually are requesting. So, um, uh, if you can show it, then I can… share what… what… all the highlighted areas Um, our, um… If you go down… so, this was an old policy that we had, and it maybe had only just a few sentences in it, and so you'll see anything that was the black language was from before, you know, the black, uh, font, but the red font was the new language incorporated that we went over last year, except for If you see anything that has, uh, that's highlighted in yellow, and those are the recommendations from Board Member Briggs. So you had asked that… would say that in this purpose, that it would say all students versus students, and then you talked about Um, the total student,

092or whatever, the total child, or whatever, which I did look that up at that, referred to social, emotional, mental, physical, and academic needs of each student. So I incorporated that into The policy, and then if you scroll down further. So then you, um… You said, um, substantially invoke stakeholders in the budgeting process. And this is where I thought maybe we would want to sort of discuss and maybe try to clarify, and then you had mitigating time constraints and effective planning strategies for robust planning processes. And then it has internal stakeholders, such as Streamline budgetary process that are aligned with all applicable state laws and policies. So, maybe if you talk a little, maybe we'd know better how you would like that to be. And I will also say. From a planning process, internally, what the

093school system does is that way back, like, in September or October, as a, like, a director of an office. I will get information from the finance office that talks about what needs to be put in place. And then, um, I will, you know, I look at what our needs are, what we spent previously, what our needs are, what are our plans for the upcoming year. And put the budget together, then I go… I go through… with it with our chief, and then, of course, the Chief, he goes through it with, you know, the chief of finance, as well as the superintendent, so there's a lot of internal review going on. Uh, as these things are being developed. Um, so, um, so I wasn't 100% certain when you said effective planning strategy, robust planning, whatever, so

094maybe we can talk a little bit more about it. And then, the next one was. Again, as the highlighted is what, um, Board Member Briggs shared. Seek out and apply for grants, and then coordination between the grants office From federal, state, and private sources sharing bucketed climate, environmental health equity areas where Funding is lacking with a specific funding amount to get to adequacy in a timely fashion. And, um, I wasn't certain who was… the coordination was with. You said between the grants office, so I didn't know which offices are actually coordinating, unless you're thinking That, uh, Grant's office, along with the, um. Any department that wants to do a grant, like, I… Dr. Golsan had had me write the safety grants, so of course, to write the safety grant, I worked very closely with the

095grants office to put that grant together to meet all the legal requirements that need to be put in place to have this, so that we could get the grant. And then it… you said about the, um, sharing bucketed climate, environmental healthy equity areas. So I… there's some grants that, um, the state puts out, MSD puts out, that are not really competitive grants. But you… but they're available, and you would be crazy not to access the grant, because it's funding, like, that's how we got all the locks on the doors and the indoor locks on each of the classroom doors. In the school was because it was non-competitive grant, but MCSS was putting it out there, so of course we pursued it. So, um, and it is an area that's lacking funding, so I just think

096we need to just talk about what that language looks like. And then, under E, You have, uh, to ensure the administrative offices provide appropriate support, so you had Adequacy of applicable offices, I wasn't 100% certain what that meant. Adequately Staff administrative offices with highly qualified employees, and adequacy for applicable offices, so I felt like that needed a little bit clarified… to be clarified. And then. Um, and then the one on annual, excuse me a minute, um. Annually evaluate system efficiency. That one makes sense to me, just because you're going to do an annual evaluation on how efficient you are, and then if you scroll down. Then the last one was, and I'm not sure what happened here, but that should be a G, to ensure that the business of PGS results in providing students with

097a transformative educational experience, each standing committee of the board shall coordinate its work with the other. Oh, I don't know that you gave me… you said something. But what made me think was. Actually, and it happened to do with the conversation when the standing committees and how they really need to intercha… they do interact… they should be interacting to some degree, because there is an interrelationship. And then, when I was looking at, um, what is going… I started listening… so all of this caused me to listen to the other committees and what they were doing, and as I'm listening, I'm realizing, oh. This is important legislation for legislatively, that we might need, or this is really important as possibility for a policy, and so it made me think that maybe, as a school system, when

098we're looking at all these standing committees, though. There needs to make sure that there is coordination among the standing committees in terms of sharing information and stuff, because they really don't sit separately. They really do work, you know, they're all working… you really are all working together. In a way. So, that's… I did… that was my only addition. The rest were all Jonathan's. Okay. Well, I think you… I know you posed… er, I'll let you go, Chair Moss. You're good, Vice Chair Briggs. These are all yours. Okay. Um, so one, I want to say that Whole Child is obviously, I think you have found that that's a term that is used in the… uh, education community, so that's looking at the entirety of the child. I'll be quite honest with you, Ms. Welsh, I'll have

099to go back. When I read through the policy, if I have the context to go over what I was thinking at the time, that I can give the clarity. Um, I'm happy to walk through right now. What initially I think my thinking was, but I'd have to read over that section again. Um, I know you said for 4A5, I'd like to build out the language to say substantively involve stakeholders in the budgeting process. Mitigating time constraints and effective planning strategies for robust planning processes. So I think, essentially, what I was saying was, and I was hoping that you would translate that into kind of some legal, statutory… well, this isn't statutory, but policy language that would make sense, um, but… Just tell me what your end goal was, though. What were you thinking? Really? Yeah,

100I'd have to read that section, so I… obviously, I isolated that specific piece for a reason, but I think what I said was I'd like to mention internal stakeholders, such as streamlined budgetary processes. Better align with all applicable state laws and policies. So I think, essentially, what my thinking was, if we're backwards planning, we're thinking about the strategic planning that happens when we as a board work with the superintendent around whatever the strategic plan is. The goal is that we're also taking into consideration… I'm assuming there would be some coordination, and I'm obviously trying to draw from whatever it was that I was thinking at that time, so I'd have to go back. I don't know if this is gonna be super helpful to you right now, because I'm thinking back to what I was

101talking about then, but without looking at the language. But what I will say is I think my assumption is, what I was saying to you, was that we're backwards planning with the end in mind. So, we have this strategic plan, we're moving the direction of all of the different, uh, stakeholder or departments and offices. Working in coordination to really… Um… provide input. Can you Cindy, what would be helpful is if you can pull up the language, that'd be helpful. Can you pull that up? And I think that was sub-bullet 4A5. Would it be helpful for us to sort through this when it comes back to the committee again? I think so. I think, honestly, I think what makes the most sense is for Mrs. Welsh and I to have a conversation about it Um, offline,

102because I'd need to look at what the language says. So there… I don't know, and I also don't think it's a good use of time right now to have a discussion about it Um, I don't know that… Yeah. I'd like to… I'd like to advance this on to the next step, and then you all can address it in the the next level of policy change, which will be after public I think this has one more step. Is this first for it? Yeah, it's after public comment. We can address it then. This is… this is… this was discussions item again, so it still has to be voted, um. Yeah. Yeah, okay. It has to go to… back to the sponsor, it has to be, um, go through the approval process first before it goes out to

103public comment. Yes, yes, okay. Alright, well, let's just do that, and then y'all can… the next time we review it, before it goes out for public comment, not what you want it to be. Um, by Sheriff Briggs, we can make, you know, adjustments to it. Okay. I'm happy with whatever. What I would want to do is, Mrs. Welsh, we can find a time to talk, probably… All right, the question is, shall, um, the committee recommend Policy 3000 Business… I'm sorry, I didn't ask the rest of the committee if they had questions. Y'all forgive me. Yeah, there you go. Anybody else have questions or comments? All right. The question is, shall the committee recommend Policy 3000 business to the policy sponsor for revision approval? Ms. Hadley, will you take the role? Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? It

104was a shadow? Ms. Walker. Aye. There are four in the affirmative. Uh, we have 4 in the affirmative. The Policy 3000 business will be recommended to the policy sponsors for revision approval. Next up is Policy 9354, Board Members Voucher Reimbursement expenses. The chair recognizes Ms. Welsh to provide an overview 9354 board members voucher reimbursement of expenses. Okay, um, Cindy, if you don't mind posting it. So, if you recall, just to give a little background, we had looked at this policy several times. And we did make a good number of revisions back and forth, and then, um, you… the… at the last time we discussed it, or the time before that, you said, you must talk to internal audit. Of which then, finally, I went and I discussed this whole thing with Indra on it, and

105as… and then that's what came to light, was this whole issue of going to professional conference, uh, going to conferences and everything, and does it come out of the $7,000 per board member, or can the board office have, like, a set amount of money set aside for professional conferences? Of which, then, it went through, I don't know, several different legal reviews, like, and finally the idea was that we should send it out to the Attorney General to get their… get his or her opinion, so we did receive advice on this from the, um From the, um, I think it was Assistant Attorney General, and she did share… she basically addressed all the things that we had talked about in terms of the fact that they… because 4- I mean, 3-1004 does require professional development on

106the part of the board members, just Prince George's County Public School Board members. Um, it's not a requirement for all board members across the state, and it lays out very specific Requirements for what type of training. I think her… her thinking was, is that they, um It should probably, um… it would make… it would… she didn't see it being a conflict with the $7,000 reimbursement limit. Since that other provision is in the law. Um, and, um, if… Um, if the board's attorney is on… on… on the call, I don't know… I know you just asked him, and he didn't answer, but if he was, he can certainly jump in here at any point. I, you know, to provide a better explanation. So anyway, so in essence, then, um, doc… Board Member Walker provided, um, some

107feedback In terms of some language that she would like to see, so then I… you'll see that the… in yellow, is the actual, uh, additions based on the opinion that we… or not opinion, but advice that we did receive from the Attorney General… Assistant Attorney General, so… and this is some of your language. Board Member Walker. It says, direct payments by the Board Office for Professional Development Conferences aligned with Education Article 3-1004E, are not considered reimbursements and do not count toward the $7,000 cap And then, if you scroll down further. Keep going. Um, and those… that actually was some old language, um. That we had… we had lots of conversation about distributing flyers, and then there was… our conversation was about adding non-recurring, and then putting mailers in, and then, of course, fraud. Uh, as

108it relates to policy 109, but then scroll down further, there's more I added there, um… Uh, that's not it. Keep going. What is this one? Oh, Attendance at Professional Development Conference may be covered through either reimbursement or direct payment by the board office. And then, um, we… I had already addressed this, actually, in 8200, Where, um, to some degree, where it says, in accordance with Policy 8200, professional development for board members, the board office will directly fund the cost of professional development conferences that address the following subjects. And this is actually $8,200 aligns with 3-1004. So then if you scroll down. It then has the different topics that is in the law that other board members are supposed to be trained on. And then it says, in order for the board office to pay for

109the conference, the board member must provide documentation that the conference addresses any of the above subjects. So that would be then… that would be based on the… based on that advice that we did receive from the Attorney General, and then… If you go to… there was one other thing that had to do with the IRS. Um, and the, um… If I recall, the, um… Let's see… I think she basically said. And I did put the… I didn't touch it because of what she had said in her, uh. Go. You can go. I'm sorry, there's… dog came in here. Um, anyway, she says that, um. Marriage reimbursement, hold on. Ultimately, the county board has the statutory authority to adopt its own bylaws, rules, or regulations Um, and the county board could decide to clarify or change

110its own rules as it relates to mileage reimbursement. So ultimately, she's saying, you can do it any which way you want to, so… and we had had this whole conversation related to Are you getting reimbursed from the board office? Are you getting reimbursed from your home? Where are you getting reimbursed? And she's basically saying, whatever the county board wants to do, they have the authority to make that decision. So, I didn't touch what we currently have, because I didn't know if you wanted to discuss it further, and And make any other changes to it. Is that… that was the last bit of the changes, right? Yeah. Yes, uh-huh. I think this committee was going back and forth about folks home. For people who live… I'm not gonna make this about a particular board member, but

111I will make it about a particular community. Um, for folks who live in the southernmost part of the county, it is a bit of a trek. Um, to come all the way across. So, um… I do think we need to, um… I do think we need to shift a little bit to going from home. Uh, particularly for that concern. Um… Yeah. I don't know. But that's where we were and how we got here, and so I support changing it now that legally, we can. I think that was the only, like, concern we had. Um, but I'll allow that board member to speak if they so choose, but I do support the change, uh, based on… That far out. I happen to drive down there the other day just for the heck of it, uh, just

112because I haven't been down there. Like, since I really moved here. Um, but I do think it's important for us to make the adjustment. Thank you. The members of District 9, thank you. Um, I can't believe you were down in my neck of the woods and didn't call. See what happens with board members. I'll just leave that there, not for my two and a half minutes. Board Member Walker, you raised your hand, so I'll allow you… But I did want to ask about the, um… There's a piece in there about community engagement, and let me just say, I'm a fan. I'm not trying to change anything, guys, but of the ABC, like, A through H or something, I did see community engagement. Can we just define that, just real quickly, out loud, not necessarily, um…

113In the policy itself, and the reason I'm asking is because I recently asked about, um, reimbursement for something, and was told the answer was no from legal counsel, but I saw community engagement. I'm like, ooh, it hit that, but… maybe somebody can help me with what that is. Uh, maybe, Cindy, if we pull that back up, or… I'm sorry, not Cindy, uh, Ms. Welsh? You know, one of the… Do you know we're in the policy I'm talking about? Um, yes. And that… that… that… Um, Cindy, if you've been putting it up, it is the first item of the subject matter for the training. Yeah, it is. Yeah, okay, scroll down, Cindy, to the, um… If you keep going… Can you scroll down to where we get to the, uh, it'll… Yeah, right there. There it

114is. So that is one of the first items, um, but it doesn't, of course, provide a type of definition. That's okay. I just was… okay, let me just double back on it. Um. And it is… it is about… it is about professional development, so it's like going to a, um. Like a conference, and they have sessions on community engagement, so as a board member. Oh, got you. What's your role in engaging with the community? Uh, and how we're, you know, effective ways of engaging with the community, things like that. So I'm just brainstorming what might be in a professional development session. No, that's helpful. Honestly, you've already answered the question. Perfect. You've already answered it, that's perfect. Thank you. I just was hoping for some context. So that's super helpful. I'm super clear. Okay, thank

115you. Are there any other questions about the changes that have been made here? Um, Ms. Welsh. Are you asking us… there's only one, really, decision point we need to make now, and that's around mileage from home or from the board office? That's really the only decision point, right? Right, and I'm trying to find that in the AP… in the policy, where we actually have the language there. Um. Ah, darn it. To see what we currently… because I know we went back and forth and back and forth on it. For the life of me, it's not popping out when I read through it on my… oh, wait a minute. Um… oh, when we talk about mounts, we defined it as actually under the standard mowage rate. Under definitions, and we say, um. Um, for board non-local

116travel, it's that… well, that's not quite the same as mileage rate, but we have the definition there, and then we say standard mileage rate. Mileage will be reimbursed at the prevailing IRS standard mileage rate for miles traveled in excess of the round-trip daily commute Between the traveler's residence and base location or designated service location. So that's what's currently being defined as as a standard mileage rate that you would be, um, um, you know, reimbursed for. So that… that's the… that's what the Attorney General… the Assistant Attorney General's saying that it's up to you to decide how you want to do that. Um… Any thoughts here, colleagues? I favor the most generous one, uh, whatever, uh, whichever one that is, and I think the most generous one is from home. I'm in favor. Any… any dissent

117here, or a different perspective? All right. Um… I think we're good here, Ms. Welsh. Um, can we… But this… but I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but it does say mileage rate for miles traveled in excess of the round trip daily commute between the traveler's residence and base location or designated service location. So what they're saying is. That you're subtracting, you're taking that out before you actually get reimbursed. So, what you're… you're saying is it should be… you're saying that the base location will be the home, and then any mileage from your home to… to either the Board of Ed or to any event you're going to, is what I think you're saying. Yeah, and what I would… what I think it would be important to do is to add a definition in the

118policy of… as… with respect to board members, that the base location Um, is their home, because we don't hold an… we don't have, like, office space or workspace inside of the Sasser Building, so… I think you need to offer a definition in the policy to get us there. Right. Okay. Um, Cindy, I see your hand is up. Yeah, I do have one question, and maybe that's for… legal counsel. This law on the $7,000, right? Will mileage reimbursement come from that $7,000? Or from the border cow. No, it would be related to the way the… and the attorney can jump in here, but I read it as if anything that's related to that professional development would come from that professional development pot of money. Not from the $7,000. So, if it's professional development, any associated costs,

119but I'll defer to the attorney. I read it that way. I could be reading it wrong. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I read the same way you read it. Thank you so much. I just wanted to be able to share it with my team. Thank you. Um, Ms. Bush, are you good again? And just one other question for Board Council. So, my interpretation of what the attorney and the Assistant Attorney General said in terms of the mileage rate, are you in agreement with that, where she writes, uh, it's up to them to decide how they want to do it? You're… you're muted. I agree, that's what she says, and she says they can establish their own Oh, so that's exactly what she says. Okay. Okay, I just want to make sure. Okay, colleagues, well, um, if

120there are no other comments, Ms. Adlay, will you please take a roll call vote on Policy 9354 Board Members Voucher reimbursement of Expenses? Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? Aye. Physical disorder? Ms. Walker. Alright. Form the affirmative. All right, colleagues, we've got two more that we're voting on, and the rest of them are recensions. So, uh, hang in there with us. Um, the next one is employee use of social media and personal electronic devices. The chair recognizes Ms. Welsh to provide an overview of the new policy, employee use of social media. And personal electronic devices. Ms. Welsh, I want to ask you, in your presentation. Can you talk around what the district has done in terms of employee engagement to draft this policy? Um, I'd love for you to include what we've done in terms of employee

121engagement to draft this policy, if you've had a chance to do that. But you can present now. So, um, actually, we've done nothing. Because, because the policy is actually from the Administrative Procedure. I mean, the administrative procedures sitting out there with no policy. But I can tell you where it came from. It was actually… the administrative procedure was driven by an incident that happened in the school system back in 2016. Uh, and which many… a good number of elementary age students, you know, um, were… were basically sexually abused, and so in what happened was the system put in place Um, numerous administrative procedures and policies to really support and secure Um, um, the students. Uh, and one of the… and in… when the task force who had… that evaluated what was happening in the school

122system for such a situation to occur. One of the things… things were that there were no real restrictions on employees' communications with students. In terms of both for social media as well as for, uh, cell phones. So, um, and so it was not uncommon for staff to be able to make personal phone calls to kids, to text, do personal texts to kids. You know, to, um… and even social media, and if you look at all the research when it talks about student safety in terms of, um. Sexual predators and sexual abuse. Um, of course, public schools are as an attraction place for people who have issues in that particular area. But it's also critically important to make sure that, um. That our students are protected, and that there's rules for, you know, how do you

123communicate with students? And… One of the things is you should not be doing personal emails or personal texts or personal calls to students at any point in time. And we do have numerous, um, apps set up for them to… for our staff, even, like, on field trips. That they can communicate with the parents or with the student, but it's going through our personal… our school system apps. Which then also protects the student. Um, so these really were put in place specifically for the protection of students. But also to acknowledge, because student, um, employees, as far as professional media sites. Um, social media sites, that has become very popular, and it is a good way to communicate with, uh, the community and with parents. What are expectations in the classroom, ways to send homework home through

124the professional. Uh, social media sites. And then, of course, making sure that from the personal media sites, the personal ones. That there are definite restrictions so that the line, you know, that fine line is never crossed between student and staff interactions. So that… so that's basically how this all came about. It's… it's really in terms of, um, basically protecting students and helping employees know what the boundaries are and what they can and cannot do. I got you, that makes… that makes total sense. So, essentially, what's happening is there's an alignment between the AMN procedure now. Okay, all right. Um, at this time, I'll see if my colleagues have questions, um, about the policy or any feedback Board Member Br… Vice Chair Briggs. Yep, thank you so much. Um, Mrs. Welsh, I did have some, some,

125uh, additions here around the points that you were just making, privacy and secure… cybersecurity protections. Um, so I know you talked about, um, the social media piece, and I'm not sure if you explicitly called that out, like. Social media platforms in the policy. Was that in there? Okay. It talks about… well, it talks about, um. I talked about social media both from a professional social media site or presence, as well as the personal social media site and presence. I don't list any particular sites or anything, but I'm just saying, I mean, but then it talks about how you would use a professional site versus a personal site. Um, I want to go to the, uh, this privacy and cybersecurity protection. So, I wanted to say ban of use of personal, uh, sensitive student information. So

126that's grades, health info, behavioral records… I don't think I saw that in there. Um, when you were speaking, but you can correct me if that's the case. Um, also staff training on cybersecurity and FERPA compliance is part of onboarding annually, so I would love to see that staff are actually especially new staff are receiving some type of training, and that that's indicated in the policy. Um, around use of cell phones and any… student, uh, information. And thank you for that. And then mandatory use of district-approved apps, tools, and restoring of transmitting any student-related data, uh, student-related data. So I think that, like, I can imagine that, uh, teachers are going to be using their phones, and they'll probably download apps that the school uses. There may be information that's shared, or they may screenshot things,

127or share with their colleagues. So I think if there's just some way that we can kind of strengthen the language in there to ensure that that's protected. And again, you can correct me here, Mrs. Welsh, was that… was that included in the policy, uh, proposal? So, all the protections were included in the policy, um, and there was also language related to the whole thing about not taking pictures of the students. Now, just to distinguish the two, for a professional site. You would be able to, um. Um, if in fact the student… the parent had signed off on the publicity consent form, so that allows the school system to Uh, take pictures of students, then, you know, so let's say a teacher has a professional site, and their class went on a field trip. And the

128students have Uh, that have… they have publicity consent forms signed for the students, then if the teacher, you know, the teachers love, especially younger, you know, young students and stuff, teachers love to take pictures of their kids in different sites. They will, uh, take those pictures. And post them on their professional site. Uh, which is very different than their personal social site. So, there are… there is language there in terms of what the requirements are, but you are saying… I want to, um… Go back to looking at what you're talking about in terms of cybersecurity information, and just look at that. A little bit more closely. Okay. And then the last thing, uh, Mrs. Welsh was, um, I think you were alluding to this, but if you can just… I was trying to interrupt before

129it got to the, um, the time over, but… Um, prohibiting of live streaming or posting, uh, of, like, you know, sensitive information in restricted areas, so classroom during instructional time. It could be an innocent thing that teachers will do, they'll want to, like you said, take pictures of their students, or take pictures of their kids, but just having something in there that really restricts live streaming or anything, um, that would interfere with Really, um, important things, including lockdowns. Please and thank you. Okay. Those are good. Um. Did… I just also want to flag, did… did we get these in the… in the tracker? For… did Board Member Briggs, did you submit these into the tracker for the feedback? I didn't, but I can do it after. Okay, I got you. Colleagues anymore, um, feedback or

130discussion around this policy? I appreciate you, Ms. Welsh, clarifying that this was in relation to the admin procedure, so, um, this is… this is all I had. Um, Ms. Adlay, could you please take a vote? Um, could you please take a roll call? Um, for employee use of social media and personal electronic devices, it'll be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. Roll call? Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? Aye. Let's do this further. It's welcome. Right, yeah, so let me say. All right, uh, for an affirmative, the new policy employee use of social media and personal electronic devices will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. We've got, uh, one more major policy tonight, and colleagues, um. At 7.30, I'm gonna have to leave, so I just want to flag… flag that for

131you all. Um, the policy 0104, Title IX, 2024 Amendments to USDELE regulations. Ms. Welsh, could you, uh, present this to us, please? Yes. Um, so that policy, um, is… has been updated, um. When it was done back in, I think, 23, had included language related to, um, it does talk about, uh, sex-based discrimination. And… and harassment But the, um, and there's lots of definitions in there, but anything that referred to, um, gender identity or expression. Has been removed because Title IX, it has been removed from Title IX, and is, um And so they have moved back to the final rule, which is, um, 20… which is the 2020 rule. Um, and we were actually, originally, when this got put on the list, it was updated to be in line with the 2024 rule, and then

132that's a different thing's happened this year, and everything got changed, and now… Uh, also because of, um, some federal district court Decision, as well as, um, the, um, the amendments to Title IX, the regulations. They've now, um, taken all that language out of the policy. So, this policy now does not have that, but it does have a couple additions of… that we're not really that laid out previously. One has to do with the fact that Title IX does protect, um. Um, students, um, for pregnant and parenting students. Um, on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, false pregnancy, termination of pregnancy, or recovery from any other conditions. So that was not… never in our policy, but should have been, because that is definitely Uh, related to, um, um, to… that is a Title IX, uh, protection. And

133then, um, Cindy, you're going through it, so let me just check, uh. If you can keep going, um… I'm trying… So I… so there were additional, um, um. Definitions included. If you want to scroll back up for one second, please. Just to look at this, um, I put in language for retaliation, because that's always a concern, that if someone reports sexual harassment or sexual discrimination, they might be retaliated, and then, uh, actual, uh, knowledge. Is there… there's the… the… oh, keep scrolling down, please. Oh, yeah. I just lost you. Can you get back up to the page you were just at? Um, keep going a little bit further. And then it lays out, um, keep going a little bit further, it's really just, uh, defining the language that's currently in the law. One has to

134do with consent. Um, because consent is not a factor ever with, uh, sexual harassment or sexual discrimination, and then actual knowledge, um, which is making sure it includes notes to any elementary, secondary school, employer report by alleged victim or any third party of a Title IX coordinator. Which is the Title IX coordinator in person by email, phone, or mail, or by mail, so… because the actual knowledge is that when someone makes us aware, like, even, uh. A student goes to a teacher in the building and talks about something that's happened related to, say, sexual harassment or sexual discrimination. Then that teacher has the responsibility of moving forward and reporting it to their administrator or to the Title IX coordinator so that it can be investigated. So then if you scroll down further. And this just

135defines consent, and then it also educate… what an educational program is. There's parents, I put that in because it refers to parents numerous places. This is a… definition we've used in a lot of the policies. I'm trying to make sure we use consistent vocabulary terms across the policies, so… That's there, and then this defines the different parties Uh, which I think was previously there, slightly different, uh. Definition, but keep scrolling down. I'm trying to go quickly, I apologize, and keep scrolling, Cindy. Um, and then we have, of course, the definition of retaliation, then we have sex-based discrimination, sexual harassment, and this was all there before, keep going. Um, keep going. And then, um, single instance of sexual assault, dating, violence, and stalking, that's in addition. This all language in the black was all there before.

136And then, um… I defined employees and school property, and again, as to align with our other policies, keep going. And then… Um, there's reference to third party, so, I mean, it doesn't necessarily be… this… Title IX doesn't just protect employees and students, but it could… it could have, uh. Protect anyone that's coming into the school system. I also protects applicants for jobs. Uh, and then, if you keep going, Title IX personnel, so just so you know, if you Um, let's go back up, there's… every school system should have a Title IX coordinator, and whenever there's been a complaint, that there has been sexual harassment or sexual discrimination. There should also be an investigator, which sometimes will be the Title IX coordinator who does the investigation, but then there needs to be a decision maker, and

137the decision maker cannot be the investigator. And that's specific in the law, so those are separate, so I put that into the policy. And then, if you keep going, um… This is a whole section about pregnancy that wasn't there before. And then this talks about that the superintendent's responsible for assigning, uh, the, uh, who will be what, who's going to be the investigator, Title IX coordinator. The decision-making, that talks about professional development, which is really important, um, for both the making sure that, uh. All… everyone, all employees, they receive annual mandatory professional development on implementing this policy, which we do have a Safe Schools module that does address this. And then, uh, we want to make sure that, uh, in addition to that, that the actual personnel, Title IX personnel that are doing the work,

138they've been adequately trained to do the work appropriately. And then, if you scroll down further, there's the reporting options. Meaning that, um, there's many different ways that it can be reported, but the bottom line here is, is that if you're reporting. That, um, any which way you want to report, and to whoever, it is the responsibility who does get… receive the report to get it to the right person so that an investigation can be, uh. Can be done. If the person wants an investigation… investigated, sometimes people will report but then say, no, I don't want this investigated. So. And then, if you scroll down further. Um, and then if there's any violations of Title IX, it is the responsibility, if you become aware of anything from a… just your responsibility as an employee, you are

139to report also. And then, um, just they say you observe harassment, sexual harassment. Staff on staff, or staff on students, and it would be your responsibility to report, and of course, the person If they've made a good faith report, they cannot be retaliated against. And then if you continue further. Down the line, um, let's see… This is all old language. There's a discussion about the equitable investigation. Um, scroll up one second, please. Just one there. Um, has action rights without a formal, even with or without a formal complaint, we must promptly respond And take steps and remedy any unlawful discrimination or harassment. And this is to make sure all formal complaints, it doesn't matter who's complained, it is the responsibility for us to be… make sure that we have investigated And that we have done

140it within a reasonable amount of time, and then if you continue to scroll. Um, we… the school system is resp… carries the burden of proof here to make sure they have done everything they're supposed to do when they're investigating, and they've done a thorough investigation. And then, um, the Title IX decision maker is required to objectively evaluate all the relevant evidence. Uh, to make a decision, and then they must issue written reports. It really just lays out all the steps that are supposed to happen. Now, the AP itself will have much more detail, but this gives you your basic steps. Then there is the opportunity for informal resolution if, in fact, the complaint would like to have formal resolution, and then there is appeal process, uh, depending on the results of the investigation and the

141findings. Either the complainant or the respondent could file an appeal, which would eventually, uh, could end up coming across the board's, um. Office, and where, you know, the board members having to make a decision. Then if you scroll down further. Uh, it talks about keeping the record for at least 7 years, and then there's a whole thing on retaliation, which is important, and then if the person doesn't want to do go through our process, they can file a report with the U.S. Department of Ed Office of Civil Rights, or you're going a little too fast for me, Cindy, or a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, so… Um, you don't have to go through our process. You can file directly with them, and then if you scroll down further, I think that is about it in

142a nutshell. Talks about the superintendent developing administrative procedures and taking immediate action to correct any violations, um. Um, and then over… making sure that the Title IX coordinator oversees implementation and compliance. The worst thing for a school system and the greatest liability is if it is found that the school system acted in deliberate indifference to any complaints that they receive related to sexual discrimination. Discrimination or sexual harassment, so that's why it's so important for the system to be responsive and to document everything. Yeah, thank you so much, Ms. Welsh, for overviewing this. Um, I can't be the only person traumatized by the fact that we have to revise all of this because of Yeah, um, so I'll see if there are any, um, comments or concerns, and Vice Chair Briggs, you'll have to take over

143the meeting for the reassensions after this. I have to go after this vote, but all we have are the policies that we need to rescind. But are there any discussions from committee members or questions about this policy, it appears that we need to be in compliance with federal changes around Title IX. This is the first time I actually feel like we are having to revise a board policy that runs a file to our equity policy, so I just want to… I just want to name that out loud, and that's tough to process, but I understand the legal ramifications of not doing it. So I just want to say to the general public that, I mean, we have an equity policy that we stand by. Um, so, for sure. Any comments from my colleagues? And I…

144Well, I just want to say, we also have the non-discrimination policy, and we also have, um. We also have LGBTQ plus policy, so we do have a lot of policies that I think reflect what the board's, you know, thoughts and feelings and convictions are. Um, you know, even though we did have to change Title IX. Thank you, Ms. Welsh. Um… Alright, shall the committee recommend Policy 0104, Title IX to the policy sponsor for revision approval? Ms. Adley, please call the roll. Dr. Moss? Mr. Briggs? Give me this draw there? Aye. Ms. Walker. Or the affirmative. Aye. Okay, we're gonna move on to item 5.0, policies for second consideration. There are two items for consideration. I think we have two before we season. Oh, we do, I'm sorry. We'll move to that. Okay, so… That should

145be 4.8, 4.9. So, the two policies that we have for rescission are Policy 2880, or 2483.1, Notification of Board of Education Policies. Which is rescinded, and then a rescinded policy 5110.4, Sibling Enrollment. The chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh to provide an overview of the rescinded policies for 2481.3, notification of Board of Education, and 5110.4, Sibling Enrollment. Mrs. Walsh? So, uh, so 2453… uh, 2483.1, which is Notification of Board of Education Policies, that information actually sits in Policy 8101, which is policy development. So it's a redundancy of what we already have in that other policy, so there's no reason to continue keeping this policy, which is Which is only, like, three sentences long. And then policy 5110.4, which is sibling Enrollment, is actually referring to That students who have, uh, have a sibling who have been assigned

146to a self-contained special education program at another school other than their residential school. Or boundary school, or whatever, um, that their siblings can then request a transfer, and they will be able to go to the same school that their student who's received… their sibling who's receiving special ed, they can go to the same school. And we actually have that language sitting in the policy that talks about transfers. That's one of the One of the reasons you can get a transfer is because your sibling isn't a special ed program in another school. So again, it's a redundancy, so that's the only reason these two are being rescinded, because they are redundant with current policies. Okay, so the question is, should the committee recommend the rescinded policies to the policy sponsor for revision approval? Any discussion. Okay,

147hearing none, Ms. Adelaide, please take a roll call vote. Baptum Moss. Okay. Mr. Briggs? Ms. Bula-struther? Is that okay? It's really affirmatively. Hi. Alright, they're in the affirmative. The rescinded policies will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. We'll now move on to item 5.0, Policies for Second Consideration. Uh, there are two items for consideration. Item 5.1, new policy telehealth in 5.2, Policy 1100 Community Schools. A question is, shall the committee release the policies under Agenda Item 5.1 and 5.24 public comments? Any discussion? Miss Adelaide, please take a roll call vote. Mr. Briggs? Is this Treather? Aye. This is okay. Familiar furniture. Bye. You're in the affirmative, the policies under items, uh, agenda Items 5.1 and 5.2 will be released for public comment. Um, now moving on to 6.0, policies for third consideration.

148Uh, first readers to the board. So, item 6.1, Policy 0111, Sustainability Plan. Item 6.2, Policy 0123, Artificial Intelligence, Item 6.3, Policy 0124, E-Rate Management, uh, item 6.4, Policy 3120, debt management. Um, item 6.5, Policy 4135, Activities, Organizations, Political. In Item 6.6, Policy 5150, Student Involvement Rights and Responsibilities. The policies under Agenda Item 6.1 through 6.6 were submitted for public comments. One public comment was received. This comment was from for Policy 4135, activities, organizations, political. Um, the chair recognizes Mrs. Welsh, uh, to share the comments received. Actually, I apologize. I never didn't even think to pull those up. Cindy, do you have the… okay, thank you. I am really sorry. This is, um… Um, uh, has to do with policy, uh. It says 413, that's not correct, it's missing a number. Cindy, do you… oh, 4135,

149I'm sorry, 4135. No, it says 4135. Okay, thank you. So this particular policy is they're talking about the fact they are in support of the current policy. Um, and I would like to have, uh, include that a rule of not using PGFS, um, may not use use of PGS schools may not use the facility's equipment, material, personnel of the Board of Education office during the duty hours and con… And to conduct their campaigning. Or execution of duties of family members. Employees will make it clear in their oral written statements, campaign materials and actions that they speak as individuals and not as representatives. Of… or employees of PGCBS. And that is their personal views. Um… And I actually think we do have that language in terms of, um. Not using, number one, not use… first of

150all, not using students as a way to, um. Advocate for what it is that you want, but also not, um, making sure you're very clear that it's not… that it is your personal opinion on certain things, and not, like, the board's opinion. Or who else, you know, whoever else that you're representing. Um, and we also have language in there that talks about not using the school facilities during the day. It's not supposed to interrupt the day at all if you're running for office. So I think, uh, I think we have most of the things that were in that comment covered in that policy. Thank you so much, Mrs. Welsh. The question is, shall the committee recommend the policies under Agenda Item 6.1 through 6.6 to the full board for enactment? Any discussion? Okay, Ms. Adelaide,

151please take a roll call vote. Aye. Mr. Briggs? Did you do this, rather? Hi. Ms. Walker. In the affirmative. 3 in the affirmative, the policies under Agenda Item 6.1 through 6.6 will be recommended to the full board for consideration and enactment. We're now going to move on to item 7.0, adjournment. This is our final meeting of the school year, so huge congratulations. I mean, it's been a journey of hard work, of dedication, of, I think, pivoting quickly. Um, and so I do want to just take this moment to thank the entire P&G team. I think, you know, we know that even when things get hard, um, the work that you all do night and day to put… to construct these meetings is really appreciated. Um, so thank you all for your continued support and engagement

152throughout the year. I also want to thank the public for their time in Tuning into these things, because without you, we wouldn't be able to adjust our policies in an equitable way. Um, the chair informs, the vice chair informs the public that the next virtual policy and governance committee meeting for the next school year will be on August 19th, 2025. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information and updates. Thank you all for the great discussions and attendance. To our viewers, thank you for watching. On behalf of the Policy and Governance Committee, have a great summer break. There being no further business, the time is now 7.42. The June 17th, 2025 Policy and Governance Committee meeting. Thank you so muchIs