001Um the time is now 503. Good evening and welcome to the May 13, 2025 policy and governance committee meeting. I am Dr. Felton Moss, committee chair and district 7 board member. It brings me great pleasure to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and I look forward to our work tonight. For those of you who are unable to observe now, the meeting is being recorded and can be assessed on the PGCPS YouTube channel for later viewing. Um, at this time, Miss Adlay, will you please call the role? Dr. Moss, present. Mr. Briggs, present. Miss Buddha Shredder. Miss Walker, present. And Chair Jackson, we have three present. With a quorum present, the policy and governance committee will come to order. Uh, tonight we'll adopt the agenda. The chair wants to inform inform the public that the agenda for
002this evening will vary slightly to be able to accommodate our visiting speakers. After agenda 2.1 public comments, the committee will consider a presentation on agenda item 5.3 um policy 3323 purchasing then an overview of policy um of overview of 4.6 policy 5122 intercolastic and extracurricular activities. Additionally, the policies under category 6.0 0 were removed from the agenda to allow the public additional time to provide public comments as the form um as the forms were open late. So, just want to flag for folks uh we opened the forms late on those policies. So, in order to be in compliance, we needed to extend the window for you to be able to offer comment. So, I did want to lay that out tonight. Um committee members, if there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the May
00313, 2025 meeting agenda as amended. Or if committee members would like to add anything. We don't put that in the note, but I should have said that earlier, but if there are no objections, the committee shall adopt the May 13, 2025 meeting agenda as amended. I did want to add an agenda item. I'm so sorry I did not send it in in advance. I was wondering if we could just add a quick topic no more than five minutes about Eric's ID doll if that's okay. Yeah, absolutely. Um, thank you so much. Um, board members, if there are no objections, we shall adopt the amended agenda to include the provision around ER a discussion around Eric's law. Um, are there any objections? Seeing that there are no objections, um the May 13, 2025 meeting agenda is
004adopted as amended. And board member Walker, please flag for me when we get to that time if I forget it. Um absolutely. I'm going to ask Cindy to flag for us just in case we both forget, but I am all in. Thank you, Miss Adley. All right, let's approve the meeting minutes. If there are no corrections, the committee shall approve the April 29th, 2025 meeting minutes. um as distributed. Does any do any committee members have any um amendments or corrections? Seeing that there are no corrections, the minute to approve. We'll now move to public comment. Um there are three live speakers this evening. U registered public comment speakers can be live, pre-recorded, video, audio or written. to our public commenters. Um, you have registered to speak in a public comment forum where the board of
005education will listen to your comments um, but will not discuss them. You will have three minutes to make your presentations. Speaking time may not be relinquished to another registered or unregistered individual. You also may not address individuals or issues with profanity or derogatory terms. You will be warned once. If you continue, your comments will be muted and you may be removed from the meeting. You are encouraged to use titles rather than names, for example, principal, superintendent, etc. Your adherence to these guidelines will enable the public participation process to move smoothly. Our live speakers are first up um Yolanda Brown um for the topic of wise athletic booster club, wise athletic booster club speaking on 4.6 policy 5122 um intercolastic and extracurricular activities. Um, is Yolanda Brown with us tonight? Yes, sir. I am. I'm had
006to go pick my daughter up, but uh, let me pull over. I'm so sorry. You good? When you pull over, Miss Brown, I'll start the timer. How about that? Thank you so much. I'm sorry, y'all. Pulling over to good old Riverdale Baptist. Here we go. All right. Good evening. Um, all right. Here we go. Sorry, y'all. Um, good evening. I really just, um, oh, Yolanda Brown, uh, Dr. Henry A. Wise High School, the athletic booster club, uh, a very concerned parent of all of our, um, athletes and scholars. I think one of the biggest things that I wanted to point out um this evening is um the uh the shared the shared housing form and as it relates to our athletes um specifically as I was looking over the form and one thing that stuck
007out to me was section C of the form which states that the parent has to sign this affidavit and it states that the children or students are residing with me or us on a full-time basis. The entire form, however, leads a parent, I guess, to think that that child like this is a shared housing form, but full-time basis. So, it seems to contradict. And I think that that leads a lot to confusion with with the parents. Um, the name of the form of course is misleading because is it really a shared house or is it dual housing? Um, because that parent may very well own multiple properties. Uh, another thing to point out is I'm not sure if the county is taking into account that a lot of our children are of divorced parents and
008those parents nowadays the courts are actually awarding um um 50/50 custody. So that child has to, you know, seven and seven equal custody to their parent. So they have one parent that very well may live in the Largo um residency or another parent that may live in the wise community. How does the county go about deciding which parent is the legal address, if you will? because parents are sharing both physical, legal, educational, um all of these and it kind of just it's it's not a good look that we are not supporting co-parenting um and all of that. Um so those are really the just two big points of mine um that I really wanted to make um just taking into account. Also, um it seems that every time this happens, um with our athletic community,
009um it's always someone reporting things right before uh the championship. And I just find that quite interesting. Um, and I believe that once that once that athlete has been certified by the athletic director's office, there should be about a 3 to 5 day window after that at the beginning of the season, if you will. Once those certifications are done, there should be a 3 to 5 day window um for you to report. But after that, that's it. I'm done. Thank you so much, Miss Brown. Please drop. Thank you. I got you. Thank you so much. All right. Um, our next speaker is Jason Gordon. Um, individual speaking on policy and governance. Um, Jason, I'll begin when you're ready. All right. Good evening. Uh, I was hesitant about speaking before you about this topic because I
010have been told by upper leadership that I should watch what I say since I have aspirations to someday be in upper leadership positions and that I tend to talk very lawyerly. My comments about athletic policies and procedures are not foreign to those in athletics as I have brought them up in numerous athletic director association meetings and even in a meeting with area office leadership. Athletics is one of the highest performing educational programs in this county with a 95 plus percent graduation rate in a four-year cohort and 70 plus% collegegoing rate with at least 30% of those receiving some sort of athletic aid and scholarships. So, the first issue that I have is that in July of 2019, administrative procedure 5159 was adjusted to state that Prince George's County Athletic Association, the PGCAA, should report directly
011to the CEO, their design, and the coordinating supervisor. Since that changed, the Office of Athletics is operated out of the area 3 office under the leadership there. The administrative procedure states that in the procedure section that the high school administrators, athletic directors, and coaches shall adhere to all rules and regulations outlined in the Prince George's County Public Schools high school athletic handbook as well as administrative procedures. This line points to the associate. This line points the association towards the handbook for the PGCAA which consist of constitution and bylaws which state that in order to make amendments to the handbook, it needs to be voted on by the association and receive a majority vote. In order to make changes to the bylaws, it has to be approved by a 60% vote. Administrative procedures do supersede the
012constitution and bylaws, but in our profession, they have never been produced in private without giving those responsible for carrying it out, the members of the association, input along with principles and administrators. Upon pointing this out to leadership, the administrative procedure 5159 was then removed from the county website in 2023 and has not been updated or replaced since. Ever since the return of athletics from COVID 19, changes in leadership in the office of athletics in the 2020 2020 2022 school year, the handbook has not been properly vetted or amended by the association. Though there have been numerous changes that included the elimination of due process for infractions, eligibility changes, transfer processes and changes, and the allowance of anonymous allegations, just to name a few. Also, we as a county did not put in place the board
013policy changes that occurred in October of 21 2021 to take effect in that were to take effect in July of 2022 when it relates to eligibility. The fact that there has not been proper vetting and implementation of these changes, county leadership has decided to hang their hat on creating policies and procedures that do not improve the morale or condition of athletics. We have noticed that there's been at least one catastrophic and/or public negative event since the change in leadership due to this lack of focus. Uh solution. The PGCA needs to be returned to the involvement of all policy and procedures uh production and the previous not properly ratified changes need to be removed to allow for due process infraction hearings and procedures to be reestablished. The office of athletics should be returned to its focus
014on matters that affect athletics as it has been involved in other areas such as summer school, graduation, and other matters which I'm gonna have I'm gonna have to stop you. Um, we've exceeded the time. I will tell you there's still an opportunity to submit this to the policy and governance committee in terms of your written testimony to get to the committee, but in the interest of time um, and in the interest of the quorum, I have to stop you. So, I do apologize. Okay, that's fine. I I will submit because it's a written statement, so I got it. Please submit it to us. We'd love to have your written comments. Okay. Thank you so much. Um our final public commenter um is Reanetta Pace, individual speaking on policy and governance. Uh good good evening everyone.
015Um uh I wanted to express my concern regarding ongoing issues with uh the athletics department in terms of how uh there does not seem to be any transparency um with anonymous calls or just the way that a lot of the um uh teams various schools student athletes have been unjustly stripped of opportunities. ities um such as Wise High School. Um I felt that there should be a moratorum placed um after a certain time or after the athletics department has stated that they have vetted the players to play. They all have to be approved. So, why would we let an anonymous caller call in to to complain about someone living out of the school zone uh 20 days before a team is supposed to play for a county championship? Uh to me, that seems very cold
016and cruel. Um uh it just seems like there are uh policies being created as we go along. These things are not documented in the student handbook or the athletics handbook. Um the admitted admitted administrative errors seems to be something that has been consistent. It doesn't seem like there is any due diligence on their end or no one's following up to make sure that these er administrative errors don't continue. Um no one's thinking about the mental health of the student athletes. We have kids bringing guns to school. We have kids selling drugs in school. You have kids that are a part of a program doing something that is keeping them off the street and productive, but we snatch monumental moments from them. Seniors, I got wind of an email that Mr. uh that a a a
017person submitted to his athletic directors stating that an anonymous call had been made on middle school playoffs. This person decided that they were not going to move forward with the anonymous call because it was so close to playoffs. Why is that granted to middle schoolers where it doesn't even count? But that same courtesy wasn't granted to high school seniors who have the opportunity to play a on D1, D2, D3 level basketball. It's like we're working against our student body. We're not here to support, motivate, and encourage our kids to go to college. We're stripping opportunities from them, once in a-lifetime opportunities from them just to make a point. But who are we making the points to? Um because you shine a light on something does not mean that you're working with integrity. A lot of
018um uh Okay. Was that my three my three minutes? You can finish your thought since I allowed the other gentlemen. Uh so I want to make sure I'm fair. So finish your thought. Um in closing, it just seems that there's no uh standardized compliance policy. Um, again, how how did one person within the same department decide we're not going to move forward with addressing an anonymous complaint? However, you took a season from a team that went 20 and two that was getting ready to go play a huge county championship game with one day's notice. To me, that was just very intentional. Thank Thank you, Miss Pace, for your comments. And if you do have additional comments, please feel free to uh share those in writing with the committee. I believe we'd love to have them.
019Um, thank you so much for joining us. Um, committee members, if there are no objections, um, there is one um, individual who has requested to speak that had an issue with signing up. And so long as there are no objections from the committee, I do want to um, allow them to speak. Um, so are there any objections from the committee? Seeing that there are no objections to the committee, we'll have one final um public commenter and that is uh Lisa Hardgrove. Um are you Cindy? Did we bring Lisa Hardrove over? Okay. Thank you so much, Lisa. Um we'll begin when you start talking. Uh yes, good afternoon. Thank you. Um Dr. Moss. Um I, you know, I want to piggyback on one of the other comments that was made earlier today and that was, you
020know, the understanding of having the nuanced family in the Prince George's County community, right? So I know someone mentioned whether they're divorced, whether they're separated, who determines precisely. I don't think the Prince George's County Athletic Department should be able to determine the validity of a family arrangement. The cause for me is that I do not believe that they care whether or not um a student lives within the boundaries because in my instance, I sent them countless hours of footage of a Ring camera that shows this student lives with said family members and father and grandparents. But they did not care. It was more of a situation where they would rather deal with a gotcha moment and proceed without giving us the due diligence that we were we should have been granted. There was no reason
021why an appeal process um was not, you know, thoroughly thought out in the way that it should have been. I mean, we were getting kind of thrown in different directions. One email that I received said that we were to send a written documentation uh a written letter, I'm sorry, a written letter to the superintendent. Um you know, then other folks said, "Well, it could have been emailed." There's just so much inconsistency with that department, right? And so once again, I do not believe that it is in the best interests of the children or the families with the way that the current system is operating, right? Do you really are you really interested in whether the kid lives there or not? Or what is the documentation that you need? What additional documentation that you need to
022determine that? are, you know, do do you need to speak to the actual counsel, you know, the the family counselor to determine what the family situation is? I just believe that they did not show any concern for our particular family situation and they decided to not give us the correct, I would say, appeals process that we believe that we should have been granted. First and foremost, you show up a week before playoffs to say to say, "Well, we're we're going to do an investigation." There was an investigation for him to play at the beginning of the school year. And so, I don't understand what the process is. It's not transparent. It's almost like, okay, you guys did your due diligence at the beginning of the season, but then came back a week before playoffs and
023said, well, no, this was not accurate. I I just don't understand how they are allowed to continue to operate in this manner. And I feel like at this point, if this is happening every year, if this is happening so often, that there should be some changes to the bylaws where you can one account for a more nuanced family arrangement, and two, that it is transparent. you can't send somebody an email saying put this um in a handwritten letter to the superintendent and there's nowhere that that is stated in the bylaws. So, we need some consistency here. Thank you, Miss Hartgrow, for your comments. Um as I shared with others, if you have additional comments that you want to share, um our our testimony um email is available. Um I do want to thank all the
024public commenters tonight uh for your you know, your time and your effort into this work. It certainly support helps the board um as we continue to review relevant policies. Um at this time tonight um we are going to review uh board uh agenda item 5.3 which is purchasing. Then we will review um agenda item 4.6 policy 5122 intercolastic and extracurricular activities. Um just want to let committee members know um both of these will come with a presentation. Uh so we do have the athletics office who has graced us with their presence tonight um to be able to offer presentation around this but we'll start with um the purchasing policy. Um just a reminder uh committee members we revisited this last time we moved it along and we asked the administration to come back with a
025presentation. So at this time the chair recognizes Miss Welsh to introduce her guest speakers to present on agenda item 5.3 33 um 23 purchasing. Miss Welsh. Good evening. Um so if you want I will have uh uh Dr. Johnson first present um or director Johnson present her presentation followed by uh some minor changes that were made to the policy based on the conversation from the last meeting and then I would like to review the superintendent's memo because it does uh present the administration's position on the uh committee's uh recommend proposals for changes to the policy. So uh without wasting any time I'm sorry one second. Do we have a copy of the superintendent's memo? It should be on the on the board docs. Okay, cool. Maybe I'm overlooking it. My apologies. No, I I Cindy,
026is it up? Okay, it's me. It's me. I'm the problem. Thank you. Okay, that's okay. So, normally I have short memos, but this one's pretty long. So, I thought it was important to address the different aspects. But since we do have uh director um Johnson with us tonight, let's first uh let her present her um PowerPoint because it did what she did was gather data to address some of the questions that the committee members had at the last meeting. So, Director Johnson. All right. Well, um good evening everyone. I kind of thought that this was actually Robin was going to, you know, present um the changes that we had to 33 U 23 first. Um and then this, you know, presentation which were some of the questions that you all asked, you know, would kind
027of make a little bit more sense because you all asked, you know, particular questions on how um this impacted. And we talked about, you know, the last time that we talked is that we did have the FY24 data completed and that we would share that and FY25 is not complete yet. And so as soon as we're able to, you know, get that and um look at the data, we will definitely be able to share u show those comparisons between FY24 and what we did and then FY25. I did um put on the first slide was well that's this yeah was just our our mission statement um and I'm sure that you all are definitely very well aware of our of our mission statement and that we definitely try to make sure that you know we
028um exercise proper financial stewardship um you know as we're using these taxpayer dollars uh in addition to supporting the students here at PGCPS. So I the next slide please. So on that slide, I put just a snippet of the thresholds that are in our current um manual, a purchasing manual and it talks about the different thresholds and then it also at the bottom it talks about you know some of the exceptions and so I know that some of you all have reviewed these um because those are um the areas of concern and discussion from 33 um 23 that we have mentioned um you know we have tried to raise some limits um and the board has said you know no to some of those limits you know yes to some of those limits so um
029the next slide is um how we come into like part of the discussion that we had and what we had what we talked about in the last governance committee and so you asked you know like how many contracts are awarded under $50,000. And so in FY24, you can see that um we had 1,294 consulting agreements that were awarded um in FY24 and all of them were under the $50,000 threshold. We had one emergency that was issued, one IFB that was issued um and actually um two actually IC um P um writer contracts that were issued under that $50,000 um threshold mark. Um you also asked Dr. Moss, like tell me how many of those um especially in the non-bid consulting contracts um were between 45,000 and 50,000 just right under that cusp. Um and so
030that number of contracts was 17 contracts that were in that range. Um so that you could see um because that was a a definitely a question that you asked. Um and so then we go to the next slide which is over $50,000 because you know that is where we spent a lot of discussion. And so we wanted to see like what how many contracts were we had we awarded that were over $50,000. And as you can see, you know, we have them spread out by types um which are your non-bid contracts. Um those were 431 contracts. You got the emergency contracts which were seven. Um we issued 100 I mean I'm sorry I wish it wereund and uh any number of IFBs but only 23 IFBs. Um RFPs we issued 11 and then RFQS we
031issued one and then for the PAS we issued 114 of them. And then you can see over there what the total dollar amounts were um that we had for the awards of those. The other question that you asked was that um tell me you know how many of those contracts actually went to the board. And so the next slide is only for those over 50,000 of what actually was presented um to the board. And so we have here where we have the non-bid contracts. There were 78 um contracts that did not get board approval. But then there were also um let me go down the list where it's talked about not board approval and then we can um talk about what the um definition of um not required. Um, and then we also had seven
032emergencies. And then for the uh CPA agreements, we had 108 that did not go to board approval. Um, and so now let's talk about what a definition is for something that did not require board approval. So if you go back to 3323, there's a section four where it talks about standards. And in that standards, it tells you um the the different thresholds that were on the slide before, but it also talks about, you know, if it um if it was awarded to the lowest bidder, if um that it did not require board approval, if it was awarded to the highest bidder. So, all of those rules were looked at in that section. And then that is how we got to that number of the total of 389 that did not require board approval that were
033awarded in FY um 24. Um there were some other ones that did require that were um that did have board approval at the time. We did not check, but there are incidences where we would um send a contract to the board um even if it may or may not be in a category where um it does not require board approval. Um so I definitely just wanted to share that. You also asked a question that if we were to um change our board policy 3323 and that all um contract actions over 50,000 would require board approval. Like what would that look like? How did we quantify that? And so if you look um at this last slide that is up there um and if the standards are changed and reduced in section 4 then that number
034would be um 500 and oh I didn't write it down but it would be the 192 um plus the 389 that would then come to the board um at any given fiscal here. Um so, um again, this just really addressed some of the questions that you all had. Um and then that is the rest of the presentation. If you don't don't have any questions, I can turn it back over to uh Miss Welch. Uh thank you so much for for pulling this together. I'm going to see if my colleagues have any questions for you. Um and then we can get the superintendent's memo. Um, I do want to outline that I do believe we requested not just for the 50,000 threshold, the 50,000 threshold. So, so the committee requested not just for the 50,000 threshold,
035the administration requested to move from a 50,000 threshold to 100,000 and our recommended policy was to leave it at 50,000. You also requested to um be at 500,000 for, you know, for consultants and whatnot. and our proposal and what's currently in the revised policy brings at the 250. And so, Miss Johnson, I do appreciate you speaking to one element, but uh we were wanting to know about the other exceptions that are embedded. I know you're probably not prepared to do that. Um but we did request the other exceptions as outlined in subsection 4 of the policy, what the impact would be around that. And so it looks like we only looked at the 50,000 which is currently in board policy and you all are requesting to go up and have more authority um at you
036know at 100,000. So, um, do you know when we might be able to get the other exclusions? Cuz I I do believe that is what we requested because there were shifts in the other elements of the policy. And then I'll take questions from the committee, but I do just want to clarify what was asked um that we didn't get that in totality. And and so my apologies for not getting all of that in totality. We did we did have a lot of healthy discussions. So, um, oh, you would ask about, you know, a deadline and especially since we're at the end of the fiscal year, we're trying so hard to, um, close out our contracts, but um, at least uh, at least a week so that I can um, pull that data together if that's
037okay. We'll catch you in June. I'll give you two weeks, Miss Johnson. Oh, that that that's perfect. I hear I hear your voice. I hear your voice. Board member Walker, I see your hand. And then board member Briggs. Board member Walker. Yes. Thank you so much. I had to find an unmute button. Thank you. I appreciate it. You know, thank you so much um Miss Johnson. So appreciate uh the input that you gave to us. Um one of the things I think one of the gaps is really being clear with you on what um we're trying to solve with the requests that we're giving you. So whether it's what we're articulating out, but maybe the end state of what we're trying to get at the end of the day. I think one of the and
038it's multiple as um board member Moss just outlined, but one of the things I was also trying to do was um evaluate how much more work with the um decrease in what we start to see as a board, which is the recommendation on what we start to approve as a board. Would that add by way of time, resources, etc. and um timing for execution of the purchases order to make sure that we can do that as a board and at least count that into what our processes and systems look like. Although we will adjust on our side, it is important that we say hey this might add 500 more I'm making it up 100 more um RFPs to what you all will be approving at the board level so that we can pace ourselves and
039make sure that we can do that for work workload perspective. So that do you understand the question of what I'm trying to solve for at least from my perspective? I want to solve for what is this ad by way of additional fidiciary responsibilities which is in our realm to do. I want to understand what that means by way of the work that the board has so that leadership like Mr. Briggs vice chair and the chair can take a look at and make sure that they add that into our um executive board meetings and we have the appropriate time to do that alongside what um Dr. Moss is asking as well. was going to be really helpful for us to make the determination of where we go from here. You got time. You got time blocker.
040Oh, thank you. I just wanted to make sure you were I don't know if you were clear on that when you um were doing yours. I know the $50,000 mark was on there, but we also had some other thresholds that we wanted to see um just so that we can outline, hey, you all approve. You know what would be good? actually you all approve at this level right now and this is how many cases you all look at on a on an annual basis I'm going to make it up or half a year basis um what you're requesting is to go to this dollar amount which will now add an additional 200 to your um workload that you have so that now we can make the determination of how we work within that organizational structure
041to be able to be able to have additionary fidicial responsibilities which was the request of what Dr. had inside of his time. Thank you, board member Walker. One of the things I just want to say to the general public, uh, Miss Johnson, I appreciate you being here. Miss Johnson is fairly new, folks. Um, and we're thankful to have her. She she ain't been with us a full year yet, I don't think. Uh, and so she's just on boarding. So, uh, we appreciate you getting up to speed, uh, this quickly, Miss Johnson. So, I did want to want to say that, uh, which is why I was like, you going to need more than a week. Um, but I just wanted to acknowledge that she is she is fairly new to PGCPS and we're thankful to
042have her here. Um, so board member Briggs. Okay. Thank you so much, Chair Moss. Um, Miss Johnson, first before I I start, I want to just make sure I get your title right because I'm I know you're not a chief, but I want to make sure I know that what the title is. Director Johnson. So, um, director of purchasing and supply services is my title. Okay. I'm I'm going to call you Director Johnson, but I want to also echo the thanks um for you being here today. Um, I did want to I guess for me and I and I also want to say that you all do such technical work that you have like your own jargon all of the acronyms that you had and I was like ICFP I think I or ICPA I
043was like I think I know what that is but I know just for for the public sake I'm going to say that that's the I think that's the intergovernmental cooperative agreement right and then I think the um the other one I forget which one it was but just want to clarify that it always is helpful I think to give that context um because you know we all have like a thousand different acronyms The the last thing I wanted to say was that the increases that existed um so that were that were kind of in the revised language in the policy and this may be to you um Director Johnson or to Miss Welsh, but I believe that was based on state law. I think there were some increases. I just want to clarify like was
044the increase based on the state law and then if you could just kind of provide um or a change to state law and then if you could just provide some context on like how this would impact your office. So like if we had if the board had to you know look over um kind of a laundry list of like you know approvals, contracts, whatever it may be for consultants. I know we've had this discussion before and I know that we have a new team so I think this is really relevant for us to have this conversation but um I know sometimes that can hold you all's office up. So I just want to clarify like can you speak to some of the kind of you know impacts that this would have on your office if
045we were to have this really um kind of substantial list um come to us? Um please and thank uh yes we can I can provide that information. Um you know again um you know thank you for you know providing some more context to it um so that I can provide you all the information in which you all uh need to make a decision um and how you know we move forward um with the policy. Okay. Thank you so much for that. I just want uh just so and Miss Welsh I think this is a great opportunity for you to come in and present the superintendent's memo but just for the general public's sake you would had to been at our last meeting to follow this conversation. The the administration um in the exceptions clause um
046recommended moving from a $1 million threshold to a $2 million threshold um when it comes to buying instructional materials from instructional and staff development contracted services. the current B policy had them not having to come to board with anything over 500,000. The recommended policy change would be 250 and then for professional services um it used to be 250 as well and it was brought down to 150. And so the administration is given feedback on what how those changes would impact um their work. So just wanted to help the general public understand and follow the flow of conversation that's taking place here. Um Miss Welsh, I believe you have a memo. Okay, Cindy, do you mind putting the memo up? Thank you. So, I I'll just sort of take you through paragraph by paragraph. I did.
047The memo is broken up into the purchasing thresh thresholds which really focus on the recommendations that Dr. Moss had provided and then the next one is equity, transparency and accountability is the second half sec second half of it and that's related to board member Walker's uh uh proposals. So I um so that first paragraph under purchasing threshold were the requests that came through in terms of maintaining the 50,000 for specific equipment, materials, services or supplies. Um and that the um our recommendation to move the threshold for instructional materials was at 1 million uh two million and you want to make keep it at 1 million. And then the other area is that um that you recommended was that the threshold for the B board's approval for professional services be reduced from 250,000 to 150,000. Those
048are the only three that were focused on. Your other recommendations at this point are not concerns, but these three did pro provide uh major concerns. So, uh Cindy, if you can scroll up, um right there is perfect. Thank you. So, board member Briggs, you had asked about the legislation and actually in the 2023 uh legislative session, uh, House Bill 543 was passed and that is the um that bill actually moved the um threshold for competitive bids from 50,000 to 100,000 and that was for um the all the basically what's considered small dollar procurements related to specific equipment, materials, services or supplies. Um and the uh reason behind the increase really was based on cost cost studies that indicated that prices have risen and that um that if we don't raise the threshold and move along
049to to the 100,000 the risk is that the prices um that we're end up with more procurements that will be considered small dollar procurements and that's going to then require time and effort to complete the solicitation process. Um and then the board oversight which will will definitely encumber the deliberate process and drain time and energy away from the work itself in favor of additionally ancillary work associated with obtaining approval from the board. So, it's really the biggest thing it here is just the concern about the addition the the um the work that's involved in when you do have to do an RFP or an IFB and the time that's involved even to pro put everything together to provide it to the board when um they're requesting approval. Um and the fact that it's the the
050purchasing department is fairly overloaded at this point in time. So this that's just the 100,000 would have provided some relief in that arena. Uh the next area that was a concern, we had requested 2 million and the proposal uh was to keep it at uh 1 million. Um and um that was a concern also because it reflects that that one $1 million increase that we asked for really reflects the cost of increased cost of instructional materials due due to economic changes. And then the last one has to do with the recommendation to reduce professional services from 250 to 150,000. And we have had 250,000 for since 2022. Um and so these the concerns in this arena um the one of the major areas has to do with the office of general counsel and the services
051that they actually have to get from external counsel. A lot of different areas in the law. uh um specifically like civil rights, general liability, employment liability, immigration, construction, real estate and transactions. And you know the law just and I can say this from my own experience, the law is like going to a doctor. You wouldn't go to a pediatrician if you think you have a neurological problem. You would go to the neurologist. It's the same idea with the law. You definitely need to go to the specialist to the attorney who specializes in these different areas depending on the the nature of the case. And then if you scroll down uh Cindy to the next paragraph. And so the other concern is that um given that the um the Trump's administration's posture towards public education and
052novel positions on matters such as the title uh six and the patriotic education, transgender students, there's a high probability that um um that PGS will experience an increase in litigation. So that that is a concern where there will be a need for for um additional outside legal assistance. And the other thing is that case flow and allegations do change from year to year. Um but the the bigger concern also is the fact that it's it's quite easy to reach 250,000 in legal costs for a particular um uh case. And the fact is is that when a case comes in, general counsel wants to be able to assign the case to the to whatever firm they think is appropriate to address it. And because there's so many um timelines when it relates to the law, oftent
053times this the ability to be able to um do an RFP and and you know get different firms and then also go through the approval process could really interfere with the timeline that's involved in on the in these cases depending on the nature of the case. Um and so and and if it's a short timeline depending on the case then you it's like they can't wait. you got to move forward because of course expecting you to respond. Um so a concern is that the RFPs would require um uh for the different areas of law would be overburdensome especially for new and existing firms wishing to do business with us because um it really would require them to submit a separate bid for each area of the law that their firm covers and it could inter
054advertently dissuade some of the smaller minority or womenowned Prince George's County based firms from beginning or continuing business with PGCPS. Um the other thing is extended approval process could deter these firms from not even want to want to be able to um work with us uh mainly because they lack they lack the financial flexibility to endure lengthy procurement cycles. Um and then if you scroll down further s uh this last thing related to the uh thresholds uh the other thing it goes sort of to your question again board member brings in terms of just uh when you think about workload or the impact of uh when it you have to do RFPs and IFBs. U generally it takes about 200 200 to 365 days to issue an award an RFP and 100 to 150 days
055to award an IFB. So um the process is very time consuming and then of course board approval on top of that would eat up more time. So it's it's a function of both work and time that I think is the concern about the um about the thresholds as far as the equity and and transparency and accountability piece that board member Walker had um had proposed. Um uh the proposal was to adopt the verifiable goal that a minimum of 6% of the total annual value of all purchases of goods and services be awarded to underrepresented business. And then the def definition would be not be that it doesn't it's not limited to just certified businesses that are womenowned, minority owned, disabled owned, veteranowned, LGBT plusowned and nonprofit work centers for blind and severely disabled. um the
056percentage which shall be reviewed periodically based on ind uh industry trends and comm community. So in looking at the um if you can scroll up a little bit further Cindy Cindy can you scroll up just a tad please. Thank you. Oh Drake just take it down one second just down to the top of that paragraph please. Do you hear me? Do you can you do you know what I'm talking about? Can you just scroll down? Just the other way. I'm sorry. Up. I I'm not I don't know what I'm talking right there. Okay. No, keep going down. Up. I mean up. I mean, I want you to I want you to scroll up so I can go keep going down. Okay. Get the page. Go past that and get to the um equity, transparency, and
057accountability. I want to look at the second paragraph. There you go. Right there. You're going too fast. Okay. Anyway, so the re the and and this is all based on basically legal research looking at MBA MBE uh requirements and everything and also education article um section 5-112 uh which requires formal bidding requirements for the small purchase items which are at the now at $100,000 um uh dollars. So to try to maintain a variable goal of the minimum of 6% um the concern would be that you're basically doing a set aside from the formal business from the formal bidding uh requirements of education 5112 and then that could end up resulting in a non-compliance with the law. Well, it would result in law compliance because if we're required to formally bid, then of course we the
058bidding process we open up to anyone that's a minority business, but we can't guarantee that the that there's going to be a minimum 6% of total annual value of all purchases or goods and services uh will occur because in essence then you are setting aside the bidding process. um that and so um you still have to do the bidding process first, but of course you can do the all the other things that board Walker, board member Walker had talked about in terms of ensuring that we can get uh as many people that are you know under represented or in this instance minority businesses that um you know in terms of training them, providing sessions about how do you go about the process to even you know complete a bit all those types of things to
059encourage that increase there. Um the other thing that is a concern and this is you know talking to both office of general counsel as well as to both um our minority business enterprise um liaison person that we have and to um our associate superintendent in operations. The concern is that um that it would be very difficult to actually certify a person um an unrepresented business such as LGBTQ um uh um or even nonprofit work centers without taking them through some type of certification process. Um, and if we were attempting to um go be go beyond what the certification process is with MBE, for example, with LGBTQ plus, merely just even questioning someone and saying what can you provide proof or whatever could actually throw us into some type of discrimination suit. So that would that
060would definitely uh be a concern. Um and so um the recommendation is that we actually stay with MBE the the minority business um enterprise requirements and part of that is because if you look at the definition in Komar related to minority businesses uh which um uh board member worker does refer to the um they define it as economically disadvantaged individual um as and they also as a socially disadvantaged individuals. whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same and similar line of business who are not socially disadvantaged. Um and anyone that is there their net worth exceeds 1,500,000 would automatically they would not be included in that group. So um and Comr also defines socially disadvantaged individuals as
061an individual who has been subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias with American society because a membership in a group without regard to individual qualities which in that certification process when you're thinking about um a business that might be 51% owned and controlled by one or more individuals who might be LGBTQ plus I think if they went through the certification process the possibility is that they would definitely be qualified as MBE when you look at the definition in terms of cultural bias in American uh society because we're not because in essence the whole idea of the certification process to ensure that organizations like ourselves do not just look at individual qual we don't look at the membership like oh you're a part of this group whatever the group might be but instead we're
062looking at the individual qualities of the individuals who own the business and want to contract with us. So it is the recommendation of the administration that um to in order to be in compliance with state law that the um regulation and regulations that the all of the minority business enterprise requirements are are met and that we work to do that um and that um but that we it is the intent um that the um that in doing so we believe the intent of the committee would be addressed. But the administration also is definitely in agreement with the committee's recommendation for the superintendent to ensure good faith efforts are made to increase access to procurement opportunities for MBE and also reporting on a quarterly basis the percentage of contract awards to MBE businesses. So that that's
063basically it in nutshell for the um from the superintendent's um memo. Well, thank you so much Miss Welsh for the superintendent's memo. I'm going to see if committee members have any questions or comments at this time as it relates to this item. Is that Chair Jackson has his hand up? Chair Jackson. Yes, there. Thank you so much. You called me right in the middle. Um Oh, good. But, uh, real quick, I did have a question about the instructional material piece. Um I know that that a comment was made about economic factors you know tariffs etc increasing the overall cost of um you know instructional material in general. My question is is that how did you guys um forecast the delta exactly like so we know that the material cost would go up but by how
064much and and how did we calculate that delta? I mean like what forecasting methods or like how did you calculate that? And then also um did you look around in the industry in general and to see um you know what are they actually doing to compensate for that um expected increase in instructional material cost. Um so I just wanted to know if there was any analysis done around that. Thank you. And I would have to defer that question to uh director Johnson. Okay. And so uh yes, we did um do some analysis of the you know the data that we had prepared um for FY24. Um we looked at you know the requests that we had the volume of requests that we had and that we actually do um market research you know on a
065case by case um basis. So, so yes, we did take in consideration of that when we actually asked for the threshold to be um upgraded um to that $2 million threshold. Would you would you care to share any that that market analysis with us so we can um better see the justification of the increase? I can um share that information with you um when I come back if you don't mind. um because the um the uh supervisor that works on that particular um section um for that um is not here and she just definitely has all of the data um and and everything for that particular for those particular contracts because there is a lot of contracts. There is a lot of data. There are a lot of um avenues in which she actually did
066look at. So, she does go out do market research with all of the, you know, um, LEAs that are in the area, and I definitely don't want to misspeak about all of the hard work that she put into that, um, to come up with that that dollar amount increase. Thank you. I think I don't see any other uh, hands come. I want to do want to just, you know, flag for my time since this is my time. Um, you know, I I made these recommendations to change this policy and these thresholds. And I do want to be clear about it. Um, you know, even a quick market analysis just in Montgomery County. Our policy is actually very generous. In Montgomery County, that threshold is set at 50,000 for everything. The Prince George's County Public Schools
067U board policy has exceptions so that folks aren't actually having to come back to the board as frequently as they do in the Montgomery County world. I do think that for me workload and all of those things are factors that matter for me in this work, but I think we have a fidiciary responsibility as a board to ensure we're making good use of taxpayer dollars. And I hate to bring this up thanks the board actually failed this contract. Um, but we just had a contract brought to the school board for $649,000 last Thursday where there was no RFP posted online. It was not competitively procured. Um, it was an item that the administration wanted. And so I think we've got to be good stewards of dollars and part of that is ensuring that this board
068sees contracts especially in that magnitude of $649,000. Um but again, you know, my recommendation was not a million, not $2 million, but a million. Um that's, you know, as somebody who works in education, that's a lot of spending authority um for a school district, particularly around instructional materials. Um to move us down for I just want to name that that that's for consultants to come in and do professional development. Right now it said 250, part of the reason I asked the administration was to to bring us back some data to say how many vendors are actually coming in right at that threshold or right away from it across those exceptions. So while I appreciate, you know, the superintendent's memo, I do favor the the notion around um minority businesses and understand some of the concerns
069there. Um, but you know, in good faith, you know, I' I've got to exercise our fidiciary responsibility. And, uh, given a blank checkbook with taxpayer dollars at a time where, you know, we're trying to make sure every dollar and cent counts, I do think it's this board's responsibility to closely manage our financial resources. And that begins with contracting. Um, so, um, and I'm telling you, I'm I'm most worried given what just happened this past week with a $649,000 contract that we've yet to see an RFP for. So, um, I'm hyper sensitive to to some of these things in this moment. Um, but I'll I'll end my time there. Chair, Vice Chair Briggs, I see your hand is up and then, uh, board member Walker. Thank you, Committee Chair Moss. Um, so, Miss Johnson and Miss
070Mrs. Welsh, like, I just want to say one, I want to thank you again for the presentation. I don't I don't anticipate well, I don't anticipate that you'll have answers right now, but just want to clarify that for the market analysis piece. Um, and I think for also the public sake, like it may seem obvious, but it it might not also seem obvious, like inflation, right? If the dollar has buying power for a dollar this year, next year maybe 90 cents or maybe less than that. So, it makes sense to me. I guess my question is like is um what are some of the best practices around? So, if you are saying it's, you know, last year it was a million is now like $949,000. Um, is it best practice that you round up to
071the nearest 100,000 or is it like let's just go to a whole number um and do that? And I would love to just know like if you could if you have any market information on that because that may also justify the 2 million versus like you know 1,150,000 um as we get the numbers back. Um, and then I also just would love to know, like I said, I already mentioned this to you, uh, Director Johnson, but like my I guess my big concern is just us being a bottleneck to you all being able to do the work. And and I know that part of what I'm hearing from my colleagues is like process matters. So the process is I think the big picture is like what the school system is tasked with doing, which is
072like we're serving our students, we're serving our schools. And so that's the that's the mission, that's the vision. Um, and we're doing it fairly and equitably. And and I think that this is a part of that process. And so I just want to make sure that we have, you know, those things in place too where it's like if we're thinking about how your office sequences through these things. If you could just clarify that for us um so that we can have that insight because we may be seeing it as a board member. Um but I think also it would be good to kind of see it and you've clarified it somewhat in the memo. But what I mean is like how does this impact you? You know, what does this look like um in the
073day-to-day? And um that would be helpful for me to know at least. And and it might just be me having a a call with you. So, I don't want to put like any extra work on your plate, but um that's something that I'm thinking about is like it'll just help me. Yeah. My big concern is just us being a bottleneck to you all being able to get the work done. Um and you know, having kind of an extra layer um of of responsibility that the board has to do. And then I think the question is, Miss Welsh, I would also just like to add in here like what are some best practices there? Because do boards really have the capacity to look at, you know, 500 different contracts or is that something that happens? um
074if we're looking at each you know the rationale behind those things. So if there's any additional information I think the memo is helpful but just want to add that additional context. Thank you so much. Bo member Walker. Yes. Thank you. I just had two quick things. I think um you know this just brings up the point even for us as board members to really challenge ourselves even when it comes to amendments for our own ROI and our requests and our rationale. It just really challenges the notion of how much money are we asking for? What's the rationale? So that's one. The second piece that I did want to tell Miss um Welsh about thank you for this and I do understand what you were saying about my request for the 6% and I do understand
075how that can put us at a gap. So, thank you so much for resourcing that. Not a gap, but I hate to say liability, but a kind of watch out, I will say, uh, for what it means to our under un under underserved population. And so, I take that and for that piece in that small piece right there, I would say that we should, um, shift that language a little bit from what I had. I know I gave you like a whole synopsis of things to add to this, but for that piece right there, I do think um Chair Moss that it is worth going back and taking a look at that section for the 6% that I recommended so that we don't find ourselves at a disadvantage um by way of uh the 6%
076that I was asking that they make sure that we have for under under reppresented population and we can go in there and be really mindful of what the impacts are. Make sense? Absolutely. All right. Thanks. Any other colleagues have questions or comments or feedback? Well, Miss Welsh, based on that, I think I don't have any additional changes from what we've already laid out. Um, I do support u chair uh vice I do support board member Walker's um acceptance uh of the administration's um you know recommendations here. Um so, but yeah, but may I ask a few questions? Absolutely. As well, you're right. So um member Walker though when you say about the 6% what is your thoughts though on um doing away with an under excuse me a minute um under represented represented the under
077represented language and just going with all the MBE requirements and I I actually think and depending on the MBE there are some some percentage requirements that are actually depending on what's being procured a higher percentage than actually the 6% but it's specific to whatever the item is for procurement but and also though keep within the policy all the things that you added related to really training people you know minority business on you know how to procure you know all those kind you had like four I think there was four items there or something categories yeah we would incorporate and I already had made a change in the policy because we had the conversation about ensuring ing that the reporting so that when they do the quarterly report of the contracts they would also then provide
078the board for all contracts a report on how many of those how many of those contracts are minority business contracts. There was like several things you wanted reported. So, I put all that language in and the superintendent is is totally, you know, fine with that. That that's that we want to report that information to because it sort of also helps us be more accountable when we're reporting that information on a on a quarterly basis. Yeah. No, thank you for that question. I do have a response to you and some thoughts for the chair, Chair Moss, but maybe Chair Moss, do you want to go over to uh Miss Johnson just to before I because maybe she has input to what I'm about to say. Absolutely. Do you um ch uh director Johnson, do you want
079to give some feedback here before board member Walker responds? Uh yes. And so um just wanted to share um I know that this board is a little new just like me um but that we do provide a um substantial report um on our MBE reporting. And so that report um actually we're finalizing it now because it covers um a fiscal year from July um to December. We get it by annually um and that it does break down all of the NBE dollars that were spent on a monthly basis. It breaks down the CBBS, the CNBE, um the womenowned businesses, um the AfricanAmerican Hispanic businesses. So, it breaks all of those down in the contract awards um per month and that um that report will be finalized, but it does not address, you know, any of
080the um underutilized business, under representative businesses, I'm sorry. And then it also um so it doesn't address that, but that should be finalized pretty soon so that you all can uh see it and we're right on track with um how it the cycle goes with it being uh sent on an annual basis. Thank you so much, Director Johnson. Board member Walker. Yeah, absolutely. That sounds amazing. that means that uh what we're requesting as a committee should be easy to um put into you all's um overall reporting and the superintendent seems to be aligned. So I think that's right on par. Think at the end of the day what we're requesting overall um as we talked last time is really to ensure that we had our under represented population um in intertwined into the overall uh
081policy and that it was evident of it that we were making sure that we uh catered not only catered let me not say that that we made sure that we reported on and had access to the diversity that's within our population. So that's the first uh so uh Miss Welsh to answer your question you know I love the language outside of what you brought to my attention today which I hadn't really thought about about the ramifications of the 6% and it taking us outside of um maybe some aspects that I hadn't really thought about first. So with all the other language the same for this one I don't know the right percentage I would take it from you all but I would definitely say in alignment with what uh MBEs are with the county like
082let's just take the county alignment and let's just move forward with that. We don't need any different uh calculations or anything like that. I think the county's directive is just fine as long as we're clearly outlining because most important to me was really in in the committee as we talked was really outlining what is the definition of underserved populations and then how do we ensure that they had a stake at the at the table and were represented inside of Prince George County and I think we hit on all of that with training etc. Okay. Thank you. I want to make sure we uh so um if there are any if there are no more comments from committee members, we're going to move on to our next item. Thank you, Miss Welsh, for coming and and
083uh 3323. I think you have what additional changes the committee would like to make. Um so, um we're going to move on now to But Chair Moss, I'm sorry. Can I ask you, were you in alignment with that about the 6% because I know we talked about are you alignment with what I just said? Yeah, I'm I'm I accept your feedback. uh when she gave me the the the legal part, I I stand the same language that you have here. I support it for sure. Um I don't know any other way to fix it, board member Walker. So, I just have to accept it. I appreciate both of you, uh for working on that. Uh but let's go to board politic 5122, uh intercolastic and extracurricular activities. Uh we've got Dr. Marorrow in the house
084tonight. We've got uh Miss Shirley Diggs in the house with us tonight. So, Miss Welsh, I want to give you an opportunity. and director Johnson. Uh oh, she's gone. I was gonna tell her she Okay, that's that's what I was gonna say. And is it okay for director Johnson to leave? So yeah, I was going to tell her that. My apologies. Uh but if you want to go ahead and introduce your audience for 5122 intercolastic and extracurricular activities. Um and one I just want to, you know, thank this office for for coming tonight and laying out um some concerns that a couple couple of us had around, you know, athletics. I think they're going to give us an overview of their process and the way that they do business. Um, so, Miss Welsh. So, we
085are fortunate to have the um, athletics department here, which is um, can I cut you off for a second? I'm sorry. Go, please go ahead. I see board member Boozer Stru is here. Did you have any questions about 3323? Board member Boozer Strer, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to leave you out. My my apologies for being late. Uh, no, I did not. I'm good to move on. Thank you. I appreciate you. Um, all right, Miss Welsh, uh, 5122. So, um, the, um, guest that we have this evening is, um, Carleta Marorrow, Dr. Carleta Marorrow, who's our associate superintendent of high schools and non-traditional programs, and then, um, Marcy Holland, who's the director of secondary programs, and then, uh, Shirley Diggs, who is the coordinating supervisor of intercolastic athletics. I believe those are the three people
086that are in attendance this evening that will be providing their presentation. Yes. Good evening everyone. So, um thank you for inviting us out. Um I am Dr. Mel as she mentioned, but I'm going to turn it over to uh Shirley Diggs, the um coordinating supervisor of athletics to start us off and we'll bounce off of each other. Thank you. Dr. Mayor, I apologize. I call you Maro every time. So, Dr. Maro, I apologize. Just so everybody do the same thing. I do it all the time. I apologize. No problem. Good evening. Thank you for inviting our area 3 team to the policy and governance committee. So, based on your request, I will be reviewing board policy 5122, AP procedure 5110.3, including AP 5110.4 four since they all have to deal with the athletics. Um please
087note that we also follow school system policies which is not different for athletics. This helps us to make any of our decisions for participation to the students. Okay. Board policy 51 on the slide two. Did you Yeah, I was going to ask the question. Do you all have the presentation? Okay, there we go. We got it. We got it a week ago. It should be up now. Slide two. Um, board policy 5122. The main information as we move forward in the presentation. This policy reminds us that student participation in athletics is not only a privilege but an honor. This requires maintaining the academic standing and high standard of conduct. The policy defines graduation cohort as referred to by the expected graduation year and the graduation cohort year as the group of students who begin as
088a firsttime 9th grader in a particular school year. So moving to slide three, I've connected the administrative procedure 5110.3 and 5110.54 because they are similar. So the statement refers to for 5110.3 refers to student transfers. PGCPS students are required to attend the identified residential boundary school of his or her parents or legal guardian. The students transferred to another school may only be authorized by the office of student records and transfers and archival services. 5110.4 Four refers to the athletic transfers of outofcount and incount student athletes. The board of education expects that each student will attend the identified residential boundary school in which their parents or legal guardians reside. This board recognized that there are circumstances when consideration may be given for a student to attend a school other than their identified residential boundary school. On
089slide four, we talk about the background information for 5110.3, which was similar to the um statement, but for 5110.4 also uses the term legally transferred to another school may participate in athletics. We also refer to AP5111 for collecting acceptable residence verification when we do the transfers. On slide five, the next slide covers some important definitions within our different APS. And I'd like to point out a few that relate to athletic transfers. Boundary school, the school assigned to the principal address of the parent or legal guardian. Guardianship, a legal appointment, granting an adult the legal responsibility for the care and management of a child. Residency fraud, failure to failure to provide valid proof of residency and failure to inform the school of any change in residency. Households found to have committed residency fraud are ineligible for
090transfers until the following school year. Transfers. A request for special transfer to attend a school other than the inboundary school based on the residence of the students parent or courtappointed guardian. Student transfers granted according to section 8 of this administrative procedure expires at the end of the current school year. So they have to renew every year. Students will be required to attend the residency boundary school for the next year. And the last part of that is the athletic transfer packet which comes from our office. Requires the PGCPS athletic transfer screening form to be completed for all transfers. Includes all students new to a team. Requires the principal and AD signatures from the previous school and from the school that they're transferring into. On slide six, the athletic office is governed by the Maryland Public Secondary
091Schools Athletic Association pertaining to transfers and student eligibility. MPSSA has regulations and policies that must be followed by all public schools in Maryland. As you can see on this slide, local school systems may adopt rules governing their athletic programs that are more restrictive than MPSSA rules. Less restrictive may not be adopted. So all districts have different GPA requirements and residency pro policies. What mains remains the same is that students 19 or older as of August 31st are ineligible and students may participate for a maximum of four seasons in any one sport. Why is all of this necessary and reasons for some of our changes to transfers and eligibility? Transfers and eligibility has become a growing concern across the state. PGCPS created our rules and regulations to ensure compliance that these are followed. Number one, transfer
092students include including private school students were entering PGCPS with illegal addresses. Students transferring for the sole purpose of athletics from school to school. Another big concern is parents owning a home but using shared housing slash lease documents without proper verification. And this the shared housing um that must be updated every year with the proper verification of bills for that year. And that's where we seem to find some problems. We are not having equity and fair play for our student athletes at the right school. But we receive um hotline calls, emails, letters, and even school self-reporting of violations. They come at any time in any form. We also may hear from the state or another district concerning an athletic athlete or an athletic team in our county. Potential violations are reviewed and investigated. If a penalty
093is given, it is in alignment with MPSSA and in alignment with our local school system policies and procedures. Slide eight. When we enforced the fifth year student ineligibility, many wanted to know what other districts are doing this. Slide eight shows the counties in bold that follow the same rule. Please note this is new and it's in alignment with all of our policies. NCAA has changed their regulation. They do not accept any courses after the fourth year starting from the cohort 9th grade year. So that was new last year. Slides 9, 10, and 11 just talks about some of our um reasons uh for the EL eligibility change. You will see several reasons that relate to AP 5122 and stated in AP 5110.4. So after COVID, students started reclassifying so they could attend another school year.
094As we moved away from COVID, students are still trying to reclassify, but starting at an earlier grade level. They're trying it even in the 10th grade. Students started failing on purpose so they could repeat the grade level. Not to mention, this started to have an impact on our four-year graduation rate. private school students moving into our schools to become a fifthyear student with some of them already playing four years at their private school. Students started the emancipation process that was new this year in order to attend schools for sports but not legally ad emancipated through the court system. Lastly, National Federation of High School Sports state that eight semester rule for high schools exist in all states. Promotes timely progress towards graduation by discouraging students from delaying their high school education and participation again is
095a privilege granted to students during their four years in high school. The last slide is very important pertaining to the steps of our implementation and compliance process of transfer students. Number one, students new to the team or transfer students must report to their athletic director. Again, that's students that are new to the team or transfer students. The transfer packet must be signed by the previous school ad and principal and then signed by the school principal and ad from the school transferring into. The ads must submit the mandatory packet to the office of athletics intercolastic athletics. All required documents must be submitted for review, approval or denial. This includes transcripts, residency that is uptodate, special programs slashtransfers and legal guardianship. This should all be um submitted to us by the ads. Our office has 10 business
096days after receiving all documents to make the decision of participation and we will notify the principal and the ad in writing and based on our decision which could be a hearing they can come to us for a hearing parents are able to move forward with 10 business days to the superintendent office of appeals. So this concludes our presentation. Thank you for your time and any questions? No, you don't have any. You did do a good job. You did lay it out. I still got Thank you. I want to see if any uh committee members have any questions. Board member Brown, I do see your hand up. I'm going to defer to our colleagues on the committee first and then I'll get straight to you. Um any uh board member Walker? I I don't know if
097I understood this correctly. I just want to make sure I heard this right. Did you say that people that there are scholars who intentionally fail a grade so that they can be reclassified so that NCAA can see them the next year. Did I see that right? Okay. You were right. Yes. It goes back as far as middle school um for some athletes. Yes, that is a trend. Okay. And and Okay. And I I'll I'll reserve right to come back. Thank you. Board member Brown. Board member Walker is a little disheveled, so I'll go to board member Brown and then we'll come back. Oh, board member Walker, you have so much to learn about this wonderful world of sports. Um, thank you so much uh to all you all for presenting. Um, Miss Diggs, thank you
098so much. Um, I actually did have a question. So, I am a PGCPS mom with scholars in sports. Um, and that was definitely one of the questions that, uh, my kids asked me. Can I can you hold me back? Um, and so that I can be reclassified. That's like the term um that is used. And so obviously I said absolutely not. Uh however I think um for some reason there is some sort of incentive that goes with it. I also believe and I wasn't very clear on I guess how we're going to regulate this cuz I don't want to say it's only the coaches or it's only the parents or it's only the ads. It seems like this is a um a a well-known practice that is accepted um in a lot of schools and
099I kind of am curious how we plan on regulating this moving forward because it is discouraging um for some scholars that do want to have that opportunity um to be competitive but then you know it it seems to be a little political on once it gets to that realm. So, can you guys kind of um discuss on just some best practices on what we're going to do moving forward to try to regulate that uh and make sure that people are in compliance. So, board member Brown, one of the things we tried to do was implement that transfer policy. Um I believe that's new as of last school year. And so, we found that, you know, trying to find a way to actually track new athletes coming into the school building outside of the cohort. And
100now we actually keep up with the cohort year. And so that cohort year definition is the four years of high school beginning with your ninth grade year. And so even if you're in a private school, you have a state number now. And so your cohort year stays with you. And so if in fact you reclassify, then it shows up um often and then sometimes it doesn't. And so that's why we created that transfer process so that any student new to your team should submit that paperwork. So then we're able to get documentation from the previous coaches and previous school that says you entered school with this cohort. You actually only have one year of eligibility or two years of eligibility remaining that matches the cohort that makes you eligible. because we were running into individuals
101coming into our school system outside of the cohort playing that fifth year, some sixth year, you know, so we had to come up with a policy so that all programs could be equitable and fair. And I think too, and I'm so sorry, board member Moss or Chair Moss, I think it's a it's a safety issue as well that we have to consider. And so that was the only thing that I wanted to address. Thank you so much. I've got a couple of questions, but I want to go back to board member Walker um and see if she's ready now. Or I can come back to you if you want me to. Yeah, you know, I this is new to me. I do have a scholar in PGCPS in middle school. He is not in sports,
102so that's why I think I'm missing this world. So, I do appreciate board member Brown just letting me know. I just need to do a little more research. You know, the piece that I had is, and again, I'm not a sports mom, but I think about priorities and what's important. And obviously, a mom, I'm trying to put myself in their situation, feels like this sport is a priority for them at this time. So, I'm just wondering if it's even possible, and you don't have to answer me now. I'm just thinking out loud is for us to really track when a scholar, specifically an athlete, is doing really well in a class and then they plummet down. And maybe we can track that because that then gives us a lens or red light or something that
103flags to really say, "Hey, let me go look at this and really talk to the teacher and recognize, hey, they were getting all A's and all of a sudden they're failing at a D." And what I know as a parent is that we don't always track that. We don't always call parents when something is is is a little off. We kind of miss and I'm not saying it's all teachers, please don't get me wrong. I'm saying it's also parents, too. But I wonder if specifically around sports since we know that this is a gap that we might be looking to solve. What can we do in order to make sure that we catch that um and do something about it from the school level? So, I'm just asking you all to consider that as a
104next step. Thanks. Yeah. And so one thing um board member Walker of course the GPA requirement is there as well but depending on when your sports season if it's fourth quarter you need that for the fall sports and so you know so what we often find is when your fall sport is over you drop you know or and you may continue to drop or you just drop and then you come back around when your sport starts again you know so we have a lot of different ways that we see our athletes and then we'll see them just not come back to school because they'll withdraw and show back up the next year because they want to reclassify or continue to play, you know. So, it's it's different things that we've seen um in many cases
105homeschooling, you know, um go to a different county, go to a private school, sometimes they go to some of the nonacredited schools, you know, different ways that we that have come through the office that we're like, "Oh, wow." you know, um, so there there have been a lot of different cases that we've been able to explore and and even with the transfers, you know, we've had parents that say, "I'm transferring for sports or ath" and we're like, "No, you know, we're not going to transfer you for a for sports." And then sometimes they get through somehow, you know, and so those are the cases that we're like, we can't transfer anybody based on sports, you know. Yeah. I've got just a couple of questions here. Um, and mine really goes back to I I will
106say part of the reason why I wanted you all to come is because I was really disheveled at the fact that a student athlete in the middle of playoffs had to be kicked off the team and and wasn't able to play. And so, can you all talk to me around the like how how how we get to that place where we have to remove a kid who's in the middle of a season, right? Um, and then I want to talk about the shared housing form and if there's space in it for dual guardianship, right? Like the way it currently reads is I don't see an opportunity around it. Um, if if parents are divorced in some way. So, if you all could walk me through like you're in the middle of a season and you
107your parents have made a decision to move you and now your entire senior year is disrupted. like why do why did we suffer me I guess the question is if all of that is true why do we have to remove the student and what policy is actually forcing us to do that so say all that is true and that it did happen the kids not supposed to be there um what's really driving that that would be helpful for me to hear and I think the public right people consistently say why does this always happen at playoff and it why why does it seem like a kid is most impacted by this so um Dr. Romero, can you share a little bit about how we got there and how this works? So, in in many cases,
108most of the cases that we received are cases that are reported to our office, the superintendent, or the state. And when we receive them, whether it's the first day of the season, the last day of the season, we have to investigate it. That's the first thing. And so once we investigate oftentimes information that was submitted to our office or even the school was not accurately was not the accurate information and so in many cases parents. So what our administrative procedure says is you can only have one primary residence and that is the the administrative procedure from the school system not just athletics. We align with the administrative procedure for the school system. So even if you have multiple properties across the county, your primary residence is where you reside. And so if you're renting properties
109and things of that nature, you can't be that real estate agent and have students all throughout the um county. So oftent times you may there's a place in synergy for if in fact you don't live in the same household, if you are, you know, two parents and so forth. And so you do have the opportunity if in fact you're divorced, if you are separated and so forth. And then we have forms with align with the administrative procedure to support that. And so that that's part of it. I know that time is up. So Oh, you good. You can finish. Okay. Okay. And so that that's some of what we receive. And often times, you know, for whatever reason, it's become the trend for individuals to report at the end of the season instead of the
110beginning or, you know, so you know, when we look at our data, we've had four cases, I would say four to five cases in the last since 2023, 22 23 and each one has been later in the season. And so when it's reported to us, unfortunately, we have to research. And it's it's been in soccer, it's been in football twice and in basketball, you know, and so, you know, we want our teams to win. We know we have great athletes in Prince George's County, but we we have to follow policy and procedure to ensure that you're playing at the the right school, that, you know, you're playing with the right team, that you meet all the criteria, you know, and so forth and so on. And so unfortunately then we have to give penalty in
111line with NPSSA and the school system. And so and everything is spelt out in in in a you know as well as the appeal process for all parents if in fact there's an issue you know we have a hearing that the next step goes to the appeals office so forth and so on. So all of that is spelled out. Um I I'll have a second round. I think I'm out of time. I want to go to board member Boozer Shredder whose hand is up. All right. Thank you so much and uh thank you all for being here and for this great presentation. I wanted to ask there was um I think uh director uh Diggs you had said this during the presentation when you got to the shared housing piece you said that it needed
112to be validated each year and I wanted to clarify if that's only athletics or if that's every shared housing case of any student. That's every shared housing case. So, at the top of the form, we just went through this with the different committees of places. At the top, it says that it must be uh renewed every year. And that's not just for athletics. Yeah, I I I appreciate that clarification because I I could probably say with some certainty. There's probably inconsistency in the system on that. Um, so if it should be looked at every year, that's something that that I I certainly am um, you know, as a board member want to know more data on. So, thanks for raising that. The other piece that I'm interested in is um the, uh, the great um,
113new thing that you just did in creating the student advisory board for athletics that I saw announced on social media. I think I actually wrote in on this that that what I'm really interested in is the helping students stay on these teams and making sure they have the support they needed for the 2.0 and above. Um, we had very sad stories on in baseball, high school, uh, boys baseball this season because of grade point averages. And it just, you know, put me on alert as a board member and parent, you know, that, you know, to understand if all high schools are providing the same level of support, are are all teams receiving similar support? And I know that as a board we talked about all extracurricular activities policies and it and didn't want to say
114that athletes should get more academic support than a student who needs to maintain a to the GPA for any other type of activity. But I did see that up close this year and and I'm very much looking forward to this the student advisory panel's inputs on that particular issue. So, every school has two academic coaches for athletics. So, every school should be utilizing them. And I know we did in our schools of uh study hall and running those after school. And so, especially on the off season because just like Dr. Merrill said, that's when the kids just fall short. They just fall off. And so, um we will definitely look more into that. And believe it or not, I'm glad you brought up uh the student advisory because one of the big things on our
115gallery walk they wrote is keeping their athletes on the team because they're feeling it when it happens. So, thank you for that and yes, we'll look into it more. Um any Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, Bo. Um any colleagues with first round questions and we can go to second round with board member Walker. Board member Walker. Thank you. Um, just really quickly as I I'm going to be really looking into this. This is blowing my mind. Thank you for uh introducing me into this new world of sports. You know, shared housing, I've been there and I I had to do it every year actually. So, um I I appreciate board member Boost saying inconsistency. Mine was consistent, but I can imagine that it differs across. So, thank you for bringing that up.
116Um, I am a divorced parent also who has joint custody. Um, and both live in Prince George's County. And with that, again, I'm not a sports parent, but I'm just wondering, you know, custody battles happen offline all the time consistently. And I'm just wondering, is there an opportunity to I firmly believe, let me be clear, that you need to choose a boundary school. No matter if you have 50/50 custody or whatever your custody every other week, whatever your custody arrangements are, you have to have a boundary school, which means you have to have a primary residence that you have for the school system. So, we could be clear for a number of reasons, which I know you all know. I guess what I'm asking is depending on what the custody debates are throughout the course
117of the year, if a child or scholar has to go live with the other parent um and that becomes their primary resident in the middle of the school year anytime after they declare, you know, what happens to that? Where do they put that in? Where and and if they need to appeal, which I understand. So, a determination is made. somebody calls a hotline, somebody finds out and a determination is made. Do they then because I've been in an appeals meeting, but I'm wondering, do they then automatically get transferred to the new resident because of the the status and then the person has to fight the appeal while they're at the new school or do they stay in the current school until we can get clarity? So, board member Walker, it most of this lies in
118the hands of pupil accounting and so um when parents go through situation throughout the school year, they can definitely apply for the transfers and so forth to remain at their school. And in many cases, even with athletes, um because it's terminal, um it's called terminal transfer. So even in many cases with athletes, we don't move them if we know we're going to impact their instructional program and it's late in the school year, but for the following year, we do expect them to go to the proper school and play on the proper team, you know, and so there are provisions in place within the administrative procedure where if in fact you have a hardship, if things happen throughout the school year, you would either request to remain or transfer. But what you can't have is two
119houses as your primary, you know, and and what we find with sports, we've often find you have a child registered at one school and a child registered at a different boundary school, which often is a a different, you know, lease or shared housing to used. Thank you for answering us. I I've just got a followup here. Um, you know, one of the one of the concerns that I have here is our current board policy, which is this board has authority over board policy, not administrative procedures. And I do think there's an opportunity in our existing policy to add some language around shall um and and and what do I mean by shall? I mean, I think that we need to codify in policy that at the start of each of these athletic seasons, the school
120administration and staff shall have, you know, a residency meeting with parents or something the like to be able to go through this to verify all of this is true to have some review. It's just I we we've just had this to happen too many times and the students actually become um the most impacted by this. And so I'm wondering if you all as as a team see any opportunities for us to shore up either the board policy or for you all to shore up the administrative procedure for us to get better at this cuz I I I do think I don't think uh Miss Diggs wakes up to disqualify children and I just want to clarify that. I don't think Dr. Romero wakes up. Uh none of you wake up to but the reality is
121it's happened and there are children who um D1 opportunities are on the line and I mean this this means a lot for our kids and so what opportunities do you all see to shore this up so that it doesn't happen again? Now if it's happened four times and I I know you all can't get people to report earlier. I mean it's not you can't pick up the phone and be like, "Hey, you got something brewing over here. Can you report it?" But that there has to be some procedures or policies that we we can put in place to be able to get better at this so that it doesn't happen. Um, I'm sorry, board member Moss, we actually um this year again started working closely with people accounting because this actually lies in their shop
122to actually look at the administrative procedure to see what we could do um along with them around shared housing. Um we talked about the form, we talked about just different things we can do to try to help parents to understand it. And then we've also talked about from the um office of in scholastic um athletics how we can do some parent workshops to help them understand just policies and procedures um because a lot of this lies in the school. And so what we don't want to do as the athletic office to be that first stop, you know, we review what's submitted to us and what the schools have to rely on is what parents register for school. And so oftent times one of the things we've put in place with our athletic directors now that
123they're full-time is that you're going to have to dig in the file. You know, you're you're going to have to dig in more than just they filled out the form. you're going to need to look at the backup and ensure that it's up to date and things like that. So we've gone back with our athletic directors done some additional training as well as our registars because there's definitely a gap in the consistency of implementing the policy and so there is a report that you can pull shared housing. There are some things that you're supposed to do every 30 days you know and so forth. So we're working with pupil accounting to actually address what we can do with our registars and what systems and structures we can put in our schools not just for the
124athletes but for anyone who's on shared housing to ensure that our documents are accurate. Thank you so much. I'd love for you all to bring those recommendations back to this committee for a for a board policy item. this particular board policy does have some under under number four under this around academic eligibility but we don't talk about residency in this right I do think there's an opportunity in this board policy to shore that up um as well as the per pupil but I believe board member Booer Stru's hand is up now and so I want to make sure I turn the floor over to board yeah thank you so much um I I have a couple questions but first I wanted to ask about the activate online sign up program where documents can all be
125uploaded and there's the check off boxes and I presume I presume like there's a person on the other end who's looking at these very closely I guess the athletic director at the I I'll just go with high school level um I don't know if it's being used at the middle school level so is the activate portal helping catch difficulties for students quicker because I know in my district I have many I I don't know if it's many but I have athletes who are unaccompanied minors. They're living with guardians. You know, their their situations aren't that they have you know the the parents in the household who are very active at school to help with all this. So I was wondering if the activate system is helping them check everything. So, every athlete has to be
126on activate. And so, um, AD should be if it's some kids that can't get on it and fill it up, ad should be pulling them in, helping them get on it, and then they would go back to their parents to have them sign the documents. But it's also in Spanish. So, you know, that whole activate. However, Synergy is now asking that we are going to upload in the parent per uh view the whole packet so that parents could fill that out at the beginning in the parent view. So, that's where we're moving towards as we're moving forward. Oh, that's interesting. So, you're saying all of the to to become an athlete, to sign up for a team, you can see all that in parent view. You don't even the parent, right? That's what we're working
127on. Oh, that's a great idea to have multiple ways to get to it. Yeah. Um, and the other the other thing I would I would say is that I you know, you very comprehensive list of um scenarios on these slides that that I I would say there's always going to be one we haven't thought of. And and I know, you know, a school in my district was severely harmed by something. no one ever thought probably was possible in in what happened. So, um yes, all adults it you know the adults in the building and their teammates teammates all bear you know some you know if you see something say something it could happen on these teams too that we just we have to raise the level of comfort of saying something as soon as something
128looks off. So because we've learned if there's a way, someone's going to find the new way. So thank you. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. Colleagues, do you all have any more questions? I I I do want to say um if there are no more questions that we hope that you all will come back with recommendations for this policy. U we don't want to get ahead of you. Um but we do want to make sure we are addressing some of these issues. So, um, if if you I know you all are working with per pupil accounting to be able to think through how we can shore this up. There are some parent training pieces that we're talking about here. Lots of opportunities to tighten this up. Um, and um, thank you all for bringing this information together.
129It clarified for me a bit, but um, I do think we have an opportunity here to get better at this so that we can try to prevent and mitigate as much risk as possible. Bo is right. there's no way for us to plan for every scenario when it comes to this work. Um, but one of the things that uh, you know, somebody told me when I first moved here, it's like there's a lot on the line when it comes to athletics for our kids who can't afford to get into private schools in the area who have some really good teams. And so, there's a lot on the line and we really have to take this seriously in terms of opportunity for the kids all across this county. And so, um, I hope you all can
130come back with some recommendations for us to review around this board policy. I do think it's a little weak when it comes to eligibility um so that we can get stronger and hold people accountable. Um Dr. Mero um do you want to say anything just to wrap this up? Thank you for your leadership and getting straight on top of this when the committee requested you all to come and address some of these issues. I can't tell you how much I appreciate you putting together a presentation in 48 hours and saying we're gonna get this right, Dr. Mos. So um thank you for getting on top of it. But I do want to extend some time for you to um say any final remarks and you too, Miss Dixs. But um I just wanted to make
131sure I caught Dr. Melo was like on it in like five minutes. So um but do you have anything else you want to say Dr. Mero? Just want to say thank you to my team. Um just so you all will know Dr. um Miss Holland is the new director who all of the non-traditional schools and athletics fall under. And just, you know, within our athletic department, we have Miss Diggs as the coordinating supervisor and uh Mr. Mccclure as the supervisor of athletics and we recently this school year added a compliance officer, but districts size have about three or four compliance officers. So that's helped us to actually do some of this monitoring as well. um when we have applications, you know, we have three 400 students ready in August to try out for teams and
132so we have to go through all of those, you know, and so just want to just thank them for the work that they're doing because, you know, we only hear about the cases, but they're doing a a yman's job of just ensuring that our athletes, you know, have what they need and our schools. So, I just want to thank the team um for their work. And then we'll definitely come back um we'll deepen our team and add a student and a parent also um to look at the policy and you know some other ads and coaches just so how can we tighten it up because that's what we you know in the business of like how do we get better so your support as well. Yeah. No and just for the general public how this
133works. We brought them in tonight to learn a little bit more. We will be voting soon um on our policies to actual revise next year. uh and this policy will be as part of that work. So um this gives them time to work on it. So we won't take any actions on this policy tonight. This was the first step in that work. So this committee then will vote um I think next month on our y'all correct me committee folks been here longer than me. We'll vote next month on our official work plan for next year which will include this policy and then this comm they will be able to bring their recommendations back to us on this topic. So I do want to, you know, share with the general public how this process works in
134terms of policy making and shaping. Okay. Well, y'all go home tonight. We'll see you tomorrow. Thank you. See you tomorrow. All right. All right. Um colleagues, we just have just we have a little bit more to trudge through here um to get us through. Everybody's good. Okay. Um we have no legislative update tonight. Um, you know, since you all did I actually want to do something here. Khalif, tell me if I'm wrong. We did approve doc uh board member Walker adding Eric's law to the agenda, which is really a legislative item. So, instead of doing it under policies for first consideration, um, I think it fits best under the legislative update. Do y'all disagree, Borman Walker, do you disagree that it's fitting for here? Am I violating any rules or policies, Miss Welsh and Miss
135Adlay? Well, because it wasn't on the agenda um prior to this meeting from the Open Meetings Act requirement, um it that could possibly be considered a violation, but I would want to um refer over to your um board council to ensure um certainly in terms of not making any decisions or voting, you definitely can't do that because it hasn't been on the agenda prior because you're supposed to advertise it on the agenda. But I would defer to your board counsel uh regarding the opens meeting act. Yeah, it's an update from around legislation. We're not I don't think we're asking to act on the item, but I do want to hear from the council, but the I will say we did approve an and adding this to the agenda. Um so work general counsel. Uh yes,
136good afternoon. I I did hear that and uh I was a little hesitant, but uh yeah, since it's not all you're doing is providing an update uh and you're not voting on it, you should be able to discuss it this evening and placing it under the legislative part is fine as well under this situation. All right. I just didn't want I didn't want to intentionally violate I didn't want to violate any rules here. So, board member Walker, can you you you want to go ahead and talk about this a bit? I think it's really important. Um so, board member Walker. Yes, absolutely. No, thank you. And listen, I do not want to be the spark of any issues for OMA. Thank you very much. So, I do, you know, Eric's law is something that I
137brought up a while ago. I think it was August of last year to the policy and governance committee. And just as a refresher, Eric's Law um ended up going into a bill. It actually was signed today. I happened to be there uh which I'm really excited about. I'm such a proponent of this bill. And what it is is we have scholars that are driving. So, it's for uh drivers who have hidden disabilities and it puts an emblem on their um ID card to if they're ever pulled over for the uh police or um yeah to know that they have a hidden disability to be able to interact a little bit differently or at least to make them aware. And so, I'm not looking for action at all today. I'm just looking to make you all
138aware that I would love to be able to talk this at a later time about how, if any, we are able to support that. Again, the bill was signed by the governor today. I think that's great, but um in the future, what I would love for the the committee to consider is um a letter of support in the future to send to not only Eric, it's Eric's law and he has a hidden disability, but also just to him and his family for the work that they've done. um the commitment that they've had throughout this legislative session. I do recall talking to this committee and the chair prior chair now vice chair Briggs for this committee um about it and I know it was before the legislation really started talking about what the bill was. So
139the guidance to me at that particular time was, hey, let's hold off and not put together a letter of support, a proclamation, declaration, whatever it is, um, as of yet, but now it has been signed into law. And I really wish we were in front of this, but I think that there's something that we can do from the board of education because it does impact scholars. So, I just wanted to bring that awareness to you all um, in hopes that we'll be able to do something in the future for us to be able to talk about it. Thanks. Absolutely. Miss Welsh, you got your hand up. Sounds like you got I do. Um, board member Walker, do you have do you know the number of that that bill that got signed today? I do. Let
140me look it up. Okay. I just I'd be interested because because I want to read it and everything. Yeah, I'll send it to you if that's okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. He signed a lot of bills today. It was Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Boman Walker, for this update. I do um I do hope we can make some time to really elevate this. um perhaps you know we talk about this publicly during our presentation um to the board um next month because we will have items um so one I do think there's an opportunity to uplift this it does impact our students and it's just another win from the legislative session that uh we can be able to talk about and put action to. So so thank you for bringing this up
141and we'll make space for it. All right, friends. Um, policies for first consideration discussion item. Um, I can tell you there are six of them, but we probably won't do all six of them. Um, tonight, um, there will be two rounds per discussion, and each round will be two and a half minutes. If a third round is required, a vote will be taken. Um, I do want to see if, uh, the committee um, we'll pro there are four of them. We'll do four. Um, I'm going to try to get us to 7:30 tonight. Um, at 7:30, um, I think we will need to make a hard stop in the interest of folks time. Um, committee members, let me know if if that's going to cause an issue for any of you. Uh, you can text
142me on the side. Um, but please let me know that's going to cause an issue. But miss uh if you could um take us through the teleaalth policy um and policy 300 um and community schools. Um so if you could give us an overview of what's happening with these but we'll start with the tellaalth policy. Um so the chair recognized Miss Welsh to present our guest speakers and provide an update on the new policy tella health. So tell health this policy is based on a law that was passed uh last um the 2024 legislative session which requires uh school systems to have a tellalth policy in place. Um and it the um the Maryland State Department of Education in that particular bill that was passed the Maryland state department of education was was required to
143put together guidance of which they did finally get it together by the end of December of 2024. And then there were meetings that were provided in February um for the um to give provide more guidance to ensure that uh as each of the LEAs go ahead and develop their policy that it's in alignment with what the the guidance is for MSDE. Um, fortunately we were a little ahead of the game because we have been providing teleaalth um to uh students and through our through Hazel Health and so this makes it a little bit um easier on our end to be able to implement but it is a requirement and then we are supposed to be that everything's supposed to be in place to provide tele health beginning the the 2020 uh 2526 school year. So
144I will go through it um and just share with you um just the aspects of it that we are required to do. So the first part is just our policy statement which just says that we believe that all that the board believes that all uh that all students can reach full potential and succeed in school regardless of their personal personal characteristics and also that we're committed to providing equitable access for students to participate in telealth appointments in the school setting. Um, and the purpose of the policy is to provide the framework for providing student access to the telealth appointments. So, if you could scroll down, Cindy. Um, and this just gives you a definition of eligible student and we'll keep going. Um, and parent and um, these are actually some of these definitions are ones
145that we have used repeatedly in other um, policies. But my goal is to try to have some standard definitions that we use and and all the policies so we have a good understanding of what each of these mean. Um so parent is another one and then if you scroll down uh for further um the school practitioner initiated tellaalth is tellahalth services between a student and a health care pract practitioner external to a um external to a school when the school system has a formal agreement with the health care practitioner to provide health care services to its its students and then the definition of tellahalth for what it is. I will point out that the guidance from MSD said that school systems can either provide the school practitioner initiated teleaalth or where the parents actually initiate
146um um the tellalth through their um their own um their own practitioners, their own doctors and everything. So because this is in place um that the school this is and the system has already chose that avenue of how we're going to provide tele health that is what this policy will be addressing. So the first thing is um if you scroll down is uh equity and prioritization of access to teleahalth appointments. And so the superintendent design will need to outline a process for how high schools will register to participate in uh tellahalth and identify how each school will provide students with access to appointment times space scheduling for school initi initiated telealth appointments. Um and then uh any of the other parameters that might be needed in terms of limiting the number of appointments times for
147students mainly just to make sure that there's equal a access for all students that would like to access it. Um and then to also offer access to um uh all students regarding regardless of whether they have a disability or not and to make the necessary modifications and accommodations for students with disabilities so they can actually access the telealth appointments. And then if you scroll down further, Cindy uh and then developing strategies to impact uh to address the impact of acute and ongoing appointments on educational outcomes, school culture and classroom instruction. In one of the meetings that I uh attended through the state, the there were numerous school systems uh at the meeting uh staff from numerous school systems and probably one of the biggest concerns had to do with uh the interruption of instruction and
148how will that work in terms of how an instructional day will be and and what do you do when a student has missed instruction. Um so anyway if you continue another big piece of this is confidentiality because not only are we required to to meet all the uh FURPA requirements because it is a tellalth and medical service basically we also have to comply with the HIPPO requirements for patient uh for privacy of patient information and then um parental and student informed consent and so parents or the eligible student shall provide informed consent for their child to receive a teleaalth health and it should also include an understanding of the services being provided purpose technology and potential risk and benefits. So um there would have to be an actual form that the parent would have to
149complete or the eligible student as it refers to the definition in this um u policy and then communication and coordination of services. The superintendent shall develop a communication plan between parents, students, and staff regarding the process of scheduling advanced notice of appointments and compliance with uh the Prince George's County Public School administrative procedure which will which which actually I did speak to student health services and they already have begun the work on that the administrative procedure to go with this policy and the uh superintendent design include in the communication plan procedures for uh commun reg communicating regularly with the parents. about the services being provided, the students progress and any recommendations made by the telealth providers. So there to do this going to be there is extreme amount of coordination and communication that has to
150occur between the parents, the school, the telealth provider so that everything is running very smoothly. And then if you go to the next one, in-person support protocols. The um the superintendent designate must develop protocols related to transitions from appointments that um that support students need and minimize classroom disc disruptions as well as a plan for students who are unable to transition independently and who face challenges return to the classroom because we do have students that really can't travel down the hallways by themselves. they do need to have um um someone with them as they go through that process. The other thing is is that um the the superintendent design shall ensure that each school develops a plan for flexible scheduling strategies to addressing makeup work that are in line with with board policy 5113 which
151has to do with the attendance and parent involvement and helping to ensure the students are caught up on misinstruction. Um and then if you continue provision of services uh um the next one is that the superintendent design shall consider feasibility of designating a space in each school that is confidential has an internet access provides a seating option with a flat surface and a nearby electrical outlet to accommodate placement of a laptop and is not a bathroom or a closet. Uh and and that of course comes from the um from the uh um guidance from MSD. And then finally to ensure that all school devices used for the tellalth service comply with the with HIPPA and also with FURPA uh and all the school's network infrastructure equipped with robust firewall protections um and secure and encrypted
152connections. So the implementation requirements are that the superintendent is directed to develop an administrative procedure to implement the policy. So that is about it in a nutshell. All right. Um, so the question is, shall the committee recommend the new policy? There's no policy number yet. You all tell um to the policy sponsor for revision. Is there any discussion? Um, board uh vice chair Briggs. Thank you, Committee Chair Moss. Um, Mrs. Welsh, I wanted to make a a a request for an amendment to um section 4A1. Um and so I would like to amend the language to include collaboration with nursing staff uh present rep that repres I'm sorry, collaboration with nursing staff representatives across the district, whether through a survey or some other apparatus to co-create an effective plan that meets the realities of what
153nursing practitioners face daily. Um, I know it just mentioned about the superintendent doesn't need putting something together, but I would just really want to make sure they're collaborating with the nursing staff. Okay, that's fine. Anyone else? All right. Um, the question is, shall the committee recommend um the the new policy tellah health to the pos funds for revision? Miss Adlay, please take a roll call vote. Dr. Moss. Hi Mr. Briggs. Hi Mr. Hi. Miss Walter. Hi. Um the teller health policy um there are four in the affirmative. The new tele health policy will be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision approval. The next one we'll take up tonight is policy 3000 business. The chair recognizes Miss Welsh to provide an overview of policy 3000. Okay, Cindy, do you mind posting that, please? So, this
154policy is an old policy that we had um and only had a little bit of information in it. So, I did uh take the liberty to add a lot more information to it. Um, and actually it's in the 3000 series, but when looking at what's in the policy, I felt like that that this might be one that we want to move over to the uh the 0000 series because that one has to do with commitments. And this is is not it's broad in terms of what the the board is committing to in terms of the operation of the school system. So the the policy statement the f number a is that Prince George's County Board of Ed recognizes that resources and research management comprise the foundational support of the whole school program and that does
155come from the original policy that's on on the website currently. And then I added also that the board recognizes that effective work risk resource management involves strategic and efficient allocation of Prince George's County public assets such as human capital, finances, equipment, technology to ensure that the foundational support is effective. And then if you scroll down, the purpose is and I I just happen to see this. I can't believe I did this. So I I as I'm doing writing a policy I'll go through and list in the definitions what needs to be defined and um completely forgot to put the definitions but I will have that for you for the next meeting. Anyway, the purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for effective support to ensure PGCPS provides all students with equitable access to a
156quality education that promotes college and career readiness, social emotional learning and supports the holistic well-being of students. So then the standards is under this area if you scroll down Cindy is first of all to encourage advanced planning through the best possible budget procedures and super the superintendent design shall and of course that that comes from the previous policy and if you scroll down further um that they um will clearly the superintendent will clearly or res or designate will clearly define the resources required for each program considering the skills times and tools necessary um to um uh this jumped is what is formatting. Anyway, number two, anticipate upcoming needs based on PG strategic plan, federal and state statutory regular requ uh regulatory requirements and the Maryland state department of education. So um basically making sure you're
157very clear about what is needed to complete all these different things and then develop resource management plan that outlines how resources will be allocated and utilized over a specified time period and then develop a comprehensive budget aligned with the school system strategic plan and then involve stakeholders in the budget process budgeting process. Then if you go down to the next one, the next one again B comes from the from the current policy to guide the expenditure of funds to achieve greatest educational return to uh the superintendent design sha and that's allocate funds equitably across schools and programs concerning factors like students democra dem demographics and special needs and provide schools with adequate resources to support their instructional programs and operational needs. And then the next one, number C, uh to require maximum efficiency through effective
158resource allocation, utilization and accountability. Again, it comes from the current policy that's on the website. And um what under that is to the implement cost savings measures without compromising the quality of the students education and regularly reviewing and analyzing expenditures to identify areas of efficiency improvement. And then the next one is D. Again, uh most of this comes from um the previous policy to explore all practical and legal resources of income and I did include in addition to federal, state and local funding and seek the resources required to provide high quality education. So, uh, in addition to all the funding we do receive, then to also take advantage of seeking out and applying for grants from federal, state, and private sources, developing partnerships with businesses and community organizations to secure additional funding and resources, and
159exploring um fundraising opportunities to supplement traditional funding sources. And then if we scroll down to the next one, E. Now, this is a new one that I added. To ensure that Prince George's County Public Schools administrative offices, provide appropriate sorts support to the schools, the superintendent design shall adequately staff administrative offices with highly qual qualified uh employees, develop systems that provide efficient, effective management of the resources and require administrative offices to collect and utilize data to make decisions regarding all aspects of the operation of the school system. Um because just as tonight when you ask many questions about the purchasing policy, I think one of the things that the school system really needs to be focused on is uh in all the work they do no matter what the office is is to continually be
160collecting and you and then taking that uh collecting data about what they're doing, what the results are, those types of things and then utilizing to make future utilizing the data to make future decisions. And then the next thing at number F uh if you scroll down I have the superintendent design shall set high standards for safety of the operation and maintenance of school buildings a school work environment that promotes the health of student and staff and supporting environmentally the efforts of staff to provide a quality education. Again I have formatting issue and then finally the implementation which is that the superintendent is authorized to develop an administrative procedure to implement this policy. So um this is really just a a broad policy that's looking at the overall operation of the school system uh and what
161it what the purpose of it is to in terms of foundational to the to the operation of the system to make sure that we are managing our resources effectively and providing the best services and education we possibly can. Thank you Miss Welsh for your presentation. And the question is, shall the committee recommend policy 3000 business to the policy sponsor for revision approval? Is there any discussion on this item? Uh, board member Briggs. Yeah, I want to I want to apologize in advance. I want to say that Miss Adlay, you should put the timer up. Thank you. Um, and that I have a few things, so I might need a second round if others don't have things to say. But this this policy for me feels uh well, for me it feels very important because I
162think this is everything. I mean, it's so it's like it's where the money goes and it's how it how it flows through the different departments and everything that we've been saying even when we voted down the um Alvarez and Marcel um consulting agreement. I think this is getting at like we need to have a strong policy here. So saying that all to preface Mrs. Welsh that I can send over the language here, but I just want to kind of say this for the record. Um I was one for the first section for the purpose statement. I was um wanting to amend the language to say high quality education. Um just for the sake of saying that. Um the other is I'd also like to add in the purpose statement. All students regardless of race, gender,
163ability, etc. Um however you want to kind of frame that just explicitly defines what all means. Um also for that section maybe it's social emotional competencies or competence um versus and I'd also like to add language that says supports the whole child. And there's there's language out there around like um what the whole child means but some again I can share this with you but just want to say there's this actual terminology education jargon um that you can find um so then I wanted to get into the nest of both. But for the section 4 A5, I'd like to build out that language to say substanti substantively involve stakeholders in the budgeting process, mitigating time constraints and effective planning strategies for robust planning processes. Um, and you're going to send me this, right? Yeah. Yeah.
164Okay. Um, I also like to mention internal stakeholders such as streamline budgetary processes that are in partnership with the grants office because it talks about the grants office further down and then it's also aligned with all applicable state laws and policies i.e. the strategic plan. I guess my vision is like I really would love to see the superintendent and team like when they're talking about the budget it's like this is our northstar right so it's like it's the strategic plan it's these really highle things and when they go to the grants office so when they go to wherever else that they have to partner with they're getting information about what that office needs and they're able to plan and look across those different things based on different dimensions of whatever it is that's guiding their
165planning. So, you said the strategic plan in the in the in the um policy and I think that's great, but I would just love for that to kind of be like a there some conversation there. I said I apologize in advance. The last thing I'll say and then I did have a few more um was for 4B 1 and two. I guess these were questions. Does the superintendent designate I'm assuming this is Chief How use discretion when allocating funding needs or is this formula funding already designated? is this formula funding that's already designated in certain areas because it says that they should do this equitably, but then whenever we hear super um Chief How talk, she's always like, "Oh, well, you know, there's student based budgeting and they get this amount of money and this
166is where the money goes." It's kind of like it's just already designated. She doesn't have a lot of free will. And so, I just want to make sure the policy matches um the reality. And then I said, if it's the latter that the superintendent doesn't need doesn't have a lot of latitude there, then I would instead want the language to be updated here to reflect the reality of state mandates while imploring the bud the budget to highlight specific areas that are inequitably funded so that the board can have a line of sight into it. So yeah, the last part I'll say and sorry for taking the time here, um is that instead of her thinking about this equitably, she's highlighting for us, hey, we have gaps here. um so this school is not getting funding
167or this program is not getting funding for these reasons and this is something that could be reported to the board versus I think her trying to mitigate it if she doesn't have that freedom to do so. Um and I'll stop talking there but hopefully that makes sense Mrs. Welsh and I can send you more language. We can have a talk about it. Yeah. Thank you board member Briggs. Um I do want to flag for committee members um our new process is like when we have these substantive changes like this it's we submit that in advance of the meeting so that this time can really be discussion and the other committee members can see it. Um so I just want to flag that for our committee when there are substantive changes in this way. uh let's
168make sure we submit those in advance so the other committee members will be able to engage in the discussion because I I don't know that I can engage with with these substantive changes um now but just just wanted to remind and board member Briggs um I see you put your hand right back up. Yeah I wanted to say well I wanted to say this I think that that I think that's a best practice and I know that Mrs. Welsh probably has something to share, but so I don't want you to lose an idea. But I also just want to flag um committee chair Moss that I think not everyone's going to always have the opportunity with work and life to always have a chance to read the policy. So I just want to consider any
169barriers to that to being able to get feedback if that does exist. I don't want that to be an unintended consequence that it's like we have to do that in advance. I know for me I just I couldn't read it until like probably two hours before um and there was no way for me to get the information over Mrs. Welsh. So wanted to give that additional context and you know other certainly appreciate I certainly appreciate that. We'll continue to do everything we can to support you in that way. I do believe we've added calendar invites and things but we'll continue to support you to make sure you can participate fully in the conversation. Miss Welsh. So I I just wanted to um follow up on what um board member um our vice chair Briggs said.
170I So when I started writing this policy at first when I first read it I was like what is this policy? there's hardly anything to it. But then when I really got into the meat of the policy and started thinking about it, I thought this is really a very very important policy for the board because it's really talking about the the big picture overall operation and what you want to see across the system. Um and so I appreciate um your comments and and further discussion just so that we are covering many of the different things that you're talking about. Um I um there's you know this is a big system first of all. Secondly when you talk about equitable funding what they it's studentbased funding so depending on the number of students that you have
171as well as we also have a lot of state funding coming in that drives like the blueprint funding that drives uh the the uh the characteristics of your population where one school might get more because of the nature of the students that you have in your school. But it is equitable in the sense that no one school is getting a higher higher per pupil uh basic found you know funding um to start off the foundational funding is it's equal you know to all the schools um so there are the it's not like um uh uh chief how has a tremendous amount of flexibility be just because of all the it's actually driven by state law in terms of how we do fund the schools but it's also has been I mean I've heard all of
172you talk about this and I know it's you know in other areas this conversation about ensuring that we do provide equitable funding for our schools u and we don't let any of the schools out in the process so uh but it's also bigger even in terms of operation of the school system because I've heard you say it and I heard you say it tonight in purchasing about where's the data to support this you know what's and and I think those all really important processes of how a system should operate to be as efficient and as effective as it possibly can. So, I look forward to your comments. Yeah, I I was going to flag for you all for this policy. I would actually I was going to flag that we not vote on this tonight
173because I think we do need a little bit more engagement around this policy. I think we need to engage Obafa a bit um because this does set up the framework for budgeting. Um, I actually didn't make any comments uh in writing because I wanted to to to hold on this one because I do think it's an opportunity to set up our budgeting framework. I know I've got colleagues on the call who also want to codify in policy how we communicate about our budget broadly and so I think this policy can be directive in that way. So I do think we need a little bit more time um on this one. So I was going to say that we actually not vote to advance it tonight um so we can spend a little bit more time
174working on it if the rest of the committee will accept that. Okay. All right. I'm gonna move on to community schools and it's going to be our last one. Um, and I want to do it justice though. Um, so community schools, Miss Welsh, the chair recognized Miss Welsh to do overview of policy 1100 community schools and we've done substantive work on this policy too. Um, we did it early on. So, so glad to see you back. Uh, if we could get a high level overview of what has changed since that last time that would be great. So I I I want to uh share that when we met previously, we were um um responding basically um to we had made some changes based on on law from um I think the 2024 legislative session with
175um Senate Bill 161. So we made some changes to it, but we also made changes um the for um if you recall PGCEA had uh provided different recommendations for changes and we had Dr. Horton here who then talked about the different changes and one of the recommendations that came out of that meeting had to do with ensuring that we have like um three administrators at at the steering committee so that we'd have an elementary, middle school and uh charter school principal available. Um, so all those changes are there, but I at the time when we're about ready to move it forward, I said, "Well, you know, House Bill 504 is sitting out there and there's language in that bill that actually um could change some of the things we have in our community school." So
176that's what brought us to um to um stopping at that point in time and not doing anything uh further. So, um I wanted to um let's go back to can you go back to the beginning under the definitions and I will point out the changes that have been added as it relates to uh what was in 504. So, if you look right here under needs assessment, we didn't have anything that really talked about that to determine the needs of students in community schools for appropriate wraparound services to hence enhance the success of all students in the school. And actually that is um that is that is in the law that we are when we do the needs assessment it's not just to look at assets needs and interests of the school community but it's also
177to look at what are the necessary or appropriate wraparound services for our students. So, I added that language. And then if you scroll uh again through it, Cindy, I think you'll come to another highlighted area that I added some more language from the bill and everything in blue was previous changes. Okay. Right here. So then if you recall we had this this whole conversation at the when we reviewed this about the frequency of which the implementation would be uh plan would be reviewed. And so actually um they have uh put it changed it in the law that says number one that the implementation must implementation plan must contain measurable goals and that they have to be measured at least once every two years. So the implementation we had had a conversation about annually and then
178this came through and so it actually should be measured every two years instead of what we had which was three years and then um each of the community schools should submit it's actually this is actually under the um the community the community school coordinator should submit the data to the superintendent designate annually regarding the numbers of students requiring wraparound services, the number of students and families provided with wraparound services. the types of services provided families or and organization and community members who volunteer, rate of chronic absenteeism, student disciplinary actions and strategies for reducing the rate of chronic absenteeism. And then number six says the super design shall submit to MSD each community school's data on an annual basis. So that is all new language based on the passage of house bill 504. And then if
179you scroll down further, keep going. Um this one says uh the you um utilize the MSD evaluation to tool to assess progress made on the implementation plans measurable goals um of the established community school. And that that again is from the uh from the the bill. And then this next language is new language that says if you'll scroll down Cindy to the E. Thank you. The superintendent design may expend up to 50% of the funds received for community schools only if a plan is developed in consult consultation with the eligible community schools that ensure the provisions of the plan are consistent with the requirements of education article 9.9 of the ante code of Maryland expendure. The funds must directly re benefit an eligible school including to provide central support to effectively manage program funds and
180if you'll scroll down Cindy further and then enter into contracts with the outside service providers that support at least two community schools and then coordinate spending on behalf of the community schools and any other administrative costs as defined by the MSD regulations which we don't have at this point. They'll be I know they'll be updated based on this change in law. So, all of those things were uh things that we that are new from um House Bill 504 that I went ahead and added to the policy. Thank you so much, Miss Welsh. Um committee members, um we're going to vote on this. Um and I'll see if there's any discussion around it. I'm going to rely on board member Boozer Shredder who follows this provision of the blueprint to let us know if we've cleaned
181this this policy up. Um so, I'll take a round of discussion and then we can vote on it. But I'm I'm counting on board member Bruce Strley here to let us know that we've we've cleaned this up. Um the question is, shall the committee recommend policy 1100? I mean, yeah, 1100 community schools to the policy sponsor for revision. Any discussion? I guess that means we're good. We'll take a roll call vote. Um all right, Miss Adel, Dr. Mars. Um I Mr. Briggs I Miss Buddha Shredder I welcome I um that policy has moved um to it. Yeah, the it's be recommended to the policy sponsor for revision and approval. Um I do want to take care of the policies for second consideration to move into public comment. So there are three items for consideration and
182we'll move to public comment. Uh policy 011 sustainability plan, policy 01 0123 artificial intelligence. Um and policy 3323 purchasing um the question is shall the committee release the policies under agenda items 5.1 through 5.3 for public comment. Miss Adelide, please call the role. Dr. Mars. Hi, Mr. Briggs. Hi, Miss Buddha. Hi, Ma. Hi. There are four in affirmative the policies under agenda items 5.1 through 5.3 will be released for public comment. And there are no policies for third consideration. Um, first reader. Um, the chair. Oh, Miss Russ, you got something for me? I see your hand. I'm sorry. And I should have said this fast sooner, but did you want the purchasing policy to go out to public comment because I was going to make changes for that um um board member Walker had uh
183indicated um need to be changed. Plus, you wanted to bring it back for uh for that her to bring more data. I said I just asking the question. Uh it's the will of the committee, but once it come back to public comment, we can still make changes to it and respond to the public comments, but I'm happy to follow the will of the committee here. Uh, I didn't catch that either, but it I mean once it comes back for public comment, there's still an opportunity to continue to tweak it. So, I guess we could get some engagement. Board member Walker, I see your hand up. Happy to follow the will of the committee. Yeah, I'm I'm fine either way. That's fine. We did ask for Well, I did ask for the data, so uh thanks
184in advance. I'm happy for it to come back when public comment comes back. Um, thank you for that. But the other piece I did want to ask, um, is for some reason I did a lot of work on this. I want you guys to know for about the $7,000 for the board and I sent it to Miss Walsh in advance. I thought we were talking about it today. So whenever we do talk it I did my homework early clearly. I didn't mean to be that early but it is early. Just such a such a good student. Good student. I'm telling you. I'll make I think picture is there next time. I think we got the legal opinion and we didn't put it on the agenda. Yes. Perfect. When Cindy and Robin and I talked. So,
185we'll take care of it next time. Uh, Vice Chair Briggs. Yeah, I personally I really would love that to go out to the public because I think one one of them important things that we do is we provide to the public for them to weigh in on it and give comments and feedback. So, I don't want to I don't want to kind of, you know, um, take that ability away from them to see any of these changes and to weigh in on that stuff. So, I would I would actually like it if instead of it going out to public comment first that we actually make those changes so that when it goes out the public can see it and they can give their opinion on it. That's the purpose of public comment. I and and
186I was can I just say one thing? Um Sure. Member Moss has just that I was going to say that if if we went out the public comment, but then we come back and we make more changes, we're going to have to send it back out to public comment again because the the public is supposed to have the opportunity to see what it is that we're going to send to the full board for action so that they can comment on it. So for fairness to the public, I I feel like I mean we can send it out twice. That's fine. But they really are I don't know that that's our process in our in our new policy development process. That second part I don't think is included in our new policy development process. I I
187what's what second part that if we make any modifications after public comment it goes back out for public comment again. I don't know that that's our policy development process. I think we talk about the changes we made when it goes before the full board. What normally, but in the past, I think what we've been done is tried to get all the changes done in advance before we ever send it out to public comment so they see what the committee feels is like the best version of it before so that they have the opportunity to comment on it. So, I think that's what board member Briggs is talking about. I think yes, that's what I'm saying. And I think it's only fair that they have that opportunity to see it and to to weigh in on
188it. Um, so I I just think what is the will of the committee at this point? I want to make sure what what what do we want to do here? You want to put a motion on the floor? You you I you would need to resend the motion that we just made and that you would need to resend that decision that your motion would need to be to resend the decision we made, pull that item, then vote on all the other ones and then hold the other one back. So that that's what you would need to do since we've already voted. If you're not going to make a motion, I'll um I'm happy to put the motion. Uh I would like to um not move. So I would like to move to not send policy
1893323 purchasing um out for public comment. Um you got a vote to resend the decision that we made. Well, can you you need to your motion needs to be to resend the vote we just made on pol on agenda items 5.1 through 5.3 and then I'll have to take them separately because we've already formally made a decision. Okay. Um did the motion that you made do you remember what you said? So I can resend it. I can give the resend recision language if you tell me the motion. I just gave it to you. you would need to make a motion to resend the policies under agenda items 5.1 through 5.3 um to send those items to public comment. Then after that, you're going to need to make another motion for 5.1 and 5.2 I mean
1905.1 and 5.2 to go to public comment and then that would leave policy 3323 out. So lots of maneuvering here I for this Yeah, I think that's because we voted. Um, okay. So, I I move to resend uh items 5.1 through 5.3 um to not go out for public comment. I think that's what you said, right? Yes, that's that's that's the motion you need to make. Okay. That that's the motion. Sadly, Miss Adlay, uh the motion is to not send these items out for public comment. Could you please call the role? Dr. Moss. No, Mr. Briggs. I Miss Buddha Shredder. I Miss Walker. I It's fine. Three in the affirmative. All right. So, which So, now you need to make a motion for the ones that you want to go out to public comment. Um,
191I'm happy to move uh so for items 5.1 through 5.2 to go out for public comment. The motion has been made for items 5.1 and 5.2 to go out for public comment which is sustainability plan and artificial intelligence. Miss Adel, could you please call the role? Dr. Moss. Hi. Mr. Briggs. Hi. Miss Shredder. Hi. Miss Walker. Hi. Um items 5.1 and 5.2 will move to public comment. Um, and because item 5.3 is under second consideration, um, 3323, there needs to be a motion to table this item. Um, are we leave it alone? I want to Can I make a motion that we get the data today so we can move it forward for public comment? I know it's past the time. It's 7:38 at this particular time. I'm wondering if the board will consider because
192it was already on the agenda if we can hear the data that Miss Welsh has brought to the table and research so that we can make a determination of action tonight. Um 3323. Yeah. Are you not prepared for that? You don't want to do that. Can we have discussion? I'm more than happy if she's got the data. I don't have the data. Oh, I thought you had the data. I was No, I'm waiting to get it from purchasing. I wish I had the data, but now they're the ones that have to give me the data. Can you just remind me specifically what I asked for? I'm sure I have a list somewhere, but just so I can know if it's something that I want to still move forward for because clearly I'm the one that
193asked for it. Yeah, you asked for data around how this will impact their workloads and the board. I did I did um I do still want to know that. Sorry y'all. Fine. Yeah. And and you wanted to know also what the impact will be for the board in terms of workload too for the for how many policies I mean how many yeah um contracts will be coming to you. I just think it helps us to organize a little bit better. Wait for it. We we meet again when uh two weeks I think. Yeah. So I I I wouldn't need a motion. This is just hanging on the agenda. I think it Oh yes. I'll make a motion um that we postpone the uh discussion and action uh to move forward on this particular policy. Miss
194Adlay, the motion has been made to postpone policy 3323 purchasing uh to the next meeting. Um Miss Adlay, will you call the role? Hi. Mr. Briggs, I miss I walk. Hi. Affirmative. Um, at this time, the chair informs the public that the final virtual policy and governance committee meeting for the school year will be on June 17, 2025. Please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education website for meeting information updates. Thank you all for great discussions and attendance. To our viewers, thank you for watching. There being no further business, the time is now 7:40. The May 13, 2025 policy and governance committee meeting is adjourned. Thank you. when it's wash. Yeah.