001Good evening everyone. I am Teresa Smith and I'll call the May 7, 2025 Parent and Community Advisory Council meeting to order. Miss Wilson, can you please take role? Yes. Rebecca Brown. And please, if you are on the line, please uh come off and mute and speak up and say present. Rebecca Brown, can you hear me? Share. Yes. Yes, I can now. Share Holden. Reverend Dr. Emily Huggin, uh, Carleta Lundy, Mashira Derton, Latanza Wilson, present. Halen Lobo Cororeas Christopher Smith Lawrence present. Thank you. Teresa Smith present. Dolores Milhouse present. Elsa Hinton present Shade Davis Dr. Sheila Jackson present and Robin Welsh present. Miss Wilson do we have at eight? We do not have a quarter. We do not have a quorum to conduct business today. We are not conducting our regularly scheduled meeting this evening due
002to not having a quorum. We do have two presentations and therefore we would like to hear from our presenters tonight. There will be an update from Dr. Baldwin from transportation services and then there will be an overview from Mr. Turner with the integrity and compliance office. Dr. Bowwin, you have the floor. Thank you, Chair Smith. Good evening, members of our PECAT. Um, thank you for the privilege to speak with you a little bit tonight and share some transportation updates. I am going to share my screen. Hopefully, you will see that. All right. Can everyone see my screen? No. No. Okay. Let's try again. Yes. How about now? There we go. Okay. Some things. Okay. So, straight. Here we go. So tonight I would like to just provide some um information update on our implementation phase
003one prioritized recommendations for the third quarter and additionally we will provide an update on the progress of the phase 2 prioritized recommendations that will be implemented in the 2526 school year for the third quarter. our metrics highlighting both our progress and the continued challenges we face. So starting with our writership from December 2024 through March 2025, we have assigned 616 more students compared to the previous quarter. understandably that these figures reflect planned data uh what's scheduled in our system which serves as the basis for the operational planning and analysis. Next, looking at our trip utilization, there was no change between the second and the third quarter. And these the trip utilization primarily deals with the number of trips that our drivers do daily. And a trip is equal to a school run. So if a
004school has 10 runs, that's 10 trips. And our buses um will take just that many. Our seat utilization presents a challenge. What we've seen is a dip in this quarter. While it's a minimal dip, we attribute the change to our McKini Vento population. These students are often assigned to vans rather than buses. And since the vans are counted in our total vehicle inventory, they impact the occupancy calculations and reduce the overall um utilization rate. I will tell you for our McKini Vento population uh last week the numbers were 1,445 students identified in the uh Mckin Vento program and we have routed 1,47 of that number. Uh and so this goes to the regular school bus uh what we're using our vans and also what we're utilizing with our contractors to transport these students. We are
005continuing to use our bus stop consolidation efforts to yield results. We reduce the number of unique stops by 279 for this third quarter. Uh this is directly tied to the ongoing strategy for stop consolidation to help improve ontime performance. Our trips have increased by 31 uh this quarter primarily due to our McKenna V McKini Vento assignments uh as expected with more trips comes an increase in our routes which are defined as pairing of our morning and afternoon trips. We've added 16 additional routes this quarter. As such, the active vehicles that we use remain stable with just a slight increase from 940 to 939. Well, it's important that every trip uh for for assignment, it's important that every trip gets assigned a vehicle and and we need that for proper tracking uh within our GPS system.
006On our staffing side, we did see an increase of 16 available drivers. However, we still face a significant staffing challenge. We still have roughly 156 routes without a permanent driver and this still remains a priority for both my department and our HR department. Lastly, we made some small but meaningful improvement in addressing our bail time imbalance. Uh we're moving three trips that previously created an inefficiencies in our scheduling. Overall, the numbers don't reflect perfection. They do reflect progress and that's something that we have stated since day one. We started this realizing that we didn't get this way overnight and we're not going to be able to fix it overnight. So we always are working for progress not perfection. Steady movement, measurable movement in the right direction. The next set of slides I'm going to just
007briefly go over what we talk about with unique stops. our utilization uh just gives the numbers of what I just spoke about in our summary. The bell time alignment and our balances we are the goal is to work to have an equal number of trips per tier. So, if you see here, tier one with 1,316 trips that we had in October 23, but when we started the school year for 24, we were at 870, excuse me, 999 for the first tier and 8 875 for the second and 861 for the third tier. So, we want to try to have a balance of trips per tier. Same here. This deals with uh our PM. The PM is a little bit more because of the the ending times between our elementary schools and our secondary schools. And
008and just a little back history with the three tiers that we start at 7:30, 8:30, and 9:30. We have six different end times because the elementary school day is 6 hours and um 10 minutes and the secondary day is 6 hours and 30 minutes. the staffing challenges what was mentioned before. Uh we did see an increase but we have strategically reduced our open full-time equivalent positions and redirected these resources to create an additional 25 nonCDL driver positions. This move was a costneutral and it aligns with our effort to expand flexible staffing options in response to our ongoing shortages. So these nonCDL drivers we use to uh drive our vans. So we have a fleet of 16. Uh we're working to get to 50 of our non CDO vans and so we are trying to match
009the personnel with the resources. Uh we have an additional 20 on order for FY26. So despite our efforts, even with the continued consolidation of routes, we're still facing a significant number of open routes, currently at 172. We've made some operational improvements, uh, but the staffing component still remains relatively flat uh despite our pressing challenges. So looking ahead to school year 26 we have phase two prioritize recommendations from our action plan as part we're pleased to share that several um areas of meaning for progress. First we initiated the search for a new parent communication app to replace stopfinder. To guide this process, we've launched a district-wide survey to gather feedback on the current platform and understand what families want in a future app. In other words, we we we hear uh we've heard we we've made
010a gallant effort to really work to manage the app and and provide the services. Uh but things are still not working to our advantage. And so we are actively looking. I'm hoping that everybody received the survey and had a chance to respond. I'm very excited that we had over 3,500 families responding to the survey. Um right now we have analyzed some of the data and I will share that with you here in just a second. there. Second, we are exploring the implementation of hub stops to improve service for students attending our specialty schools. This includes developing a partnership with the Prince George's County Department of Parks and Recreation to potentially utilize their community centers as designated stop locations. These strategic stops are aimed to reduce the ride time and support more efficient routing. We anticipate
011sharing additional information later this year uh with an update to the board uh and also to our Obafa um committee. So let's take a look at the results of the parent survey. The survey here shows significant significant concerns with our current app. Over 60% of the users reported issues with inaccurate or delayed GPS tracking. And I understand that because that's directly related to how we have to cover due to our shortage of drivers. 55% experience unreliable notifications. Among those who have not used the app, nearly 30% were unaware it even existed. While others cited difficulty assessing or navigating it, navigating it, a large majority of our families expressed a desire for improved features such as real-time bus tracking, estimated arrival times, and push notifications. Our team is going to use this feedback as we review
012content and evaluate new apps, address these gaps, and be able to come back and present to you a recommended solution that clearly addresses the needs and desires of our families and our communities in moving forward this. And so, um, this data really just it it helps me go after and talk with vendors because now I have information that I can share with them that says this is what we want and I need you to produce this and show me how it's going to be done. And so, we've had some great conversations with vendors. U, I'm excited of those conversations. Um, not many have met the challenge, I will tell you that. So um when I come back with you and tell you you can best believe this is going to be a good service uh
013moving forward. So just in review with the hubtop collaboration uh here we are working to we want to work with a pilot with four schools door Kennedy Phily Williams overlook and my Angela these schools are are experiencing extended commute times they um these four schools have some of the largest program boundaries of all the schools in the system. For example, the PE Williams boundary goes from Laurel down to 214. And now that that group is they're finishing the year at at Robert Gddard. Um next year they will be back home at their location on Harry near Harry S. Truman. Um so that presents some t challenges for us in terms of ride time. So, we're looking at what we can do to make that a little bit more efficient with all of our families. And
014so, that's one of the reasons why we're looking at our community centers and trying to use those as a safe haven stop where parents can drop students off in a safe environment, protected environment, and keep moving to work uh from that standpoint. So to address this, the three things that we want to share and focus on are definitely reducing the ride times, making it more efficient, centralized pickups, improve our driver utilization, and that's really where it hurts because some of these routes, these trips, they start at 7:00, 6:30, 7:00. That means I can only use them one time for one trip because they spend the entire morning picking up kids for one of these four schools. Reality, I really need them at the 7:30 tier doing a trip. I need them at the 8:30 tier
015during a trip in addition to the 9:30 tier t doing a trip. And right now, we can't do that. And so this makes it more efficient if we can reduce that ride time. that my goal is to reduce the ride time to 60 minutes or less. So that's the challenge of my team. And what we're looking at is is really looking at our boundaries. We're able to see our hotspots where where students our population density occurs most and guaranteed there's a community center nearby. Uh that's one thing I like about being here in Prince George's County is that the service centers, the community centers are in abundance and and so we want to be able to take advantage of it. Um in our preliminary conversations that we've had with Park and Planning, they like what
016we're offering. I think it's a great collaboration that we can work toward. And so here again, we're still working out the logistics and once those things are finalized, we'll be able to bring it back and kind of um talk with the families about this as well. And keep in mind, this year is a pilot. So we may experience some some ups and downs, but because it's a pilot, we may be able to pivot here and there. So as we look to bring other schools on board with this. All right. I have said enough. I will stop and answer any questions that you may have to the best of my ability. Thank you, Dr. Bowwin. Um, that was an excellent update. And just for the record, I did get clarity that we can ask questions. So,
017if there are questions from those who are present today, please raise your hand and I will acknowledge you. Just before the questions, Dr. Baldwin, can you stop sharing, please? Absolutely. Can Miss Lawrence, thank you, Mr. Baldwin, for the presentation. Just a quick question about input. So, I know that the survey went out to parents and families. Were students at all asked like high school students, I'm thinking, um, for their input? I know that some of them have some really good ideas. Um, just wondering if if you all are working with them at all. We were we sent the survey to all of our families who have registered school messenger um accounts. Um, so we hope that it went it didn't it went to the family. It didn't go to individuals. Uh, whatever email account that
018the family had, that's where the survey was sent. So, student input. Are there any other questions, Miss Milhouse? Yes. Um um Mr. Baldwin, absolutely. This was this was great. Um great information. Um, I I really like the idea of the hub stops and I the question that I had was to explain it a little more, but you did explain it. It would be a location where the child could be dropped off um almost I guess um like you know before and afterare um concept. Yes, it's either it's right right now we have presented that in options as a parent waiting or being having that ability to drop off um after a certain period of time. It would not be considered like before school care, after school care, there was a window. But um that was
019also this is also in conversation about do we is there opportunity for that center to actually offer before and after school care looking at some challenges. We're looking at different options of how that would play out. But that would be feebased more than likely. That's me. And so the other so I I do appreciate um um when you stated the 60 minutes or less I I you know a measurable goal is always something that piques my interest. Um but I I would like to know when you show the tears um what what were the key factors because it was impressive to see how you were able because you said you didn't want that much difference in between each tier. What were the key factors that you know helped you all reduce the um I guess
020the the transportation differences between each tier like to get them because it I think was at 54 was the the number the difference that was there. Yes. Yes. So this begins um this is this is the pre-erouting the pre-outing stage where where we are right now and to balance the tiers how we got from from October 23 to August 24 August in October 23 we had over 1300 trips at the first tier and in August 24 we were at um 999 so roughly reduction of 300 trips what we did uh we had trip consolidations where we were able to combine trips and we also shift schools. This was the big piece where we actually shifted schools um no no more than 30 minutes. So if a school had 15 or 20 trips and we shifted
021it from a tier one to tier two to help balance it, that's what it went toward. Um okay that that was that's good. That's good. Thank you for that. And the other piece back to the hub um since it you know looking at the community centers is there a way um that if we are um willing to really work and engage with parents that we are communicating an opportunities for parents to maybe even volunteer at those hub sites. Oh yes ma'am. Absolutely. Right. Right. So that that in my mind. So we're not because we don't have any money, right? Because of it's so tight. Mhm. But if we can make sure that parents know in advance um about what's happening in um once I guess every school at the beginning of the school year, I
022guess July is when it opens up to do the volunteer um work again for the next school year that parents need to get it in during the summer. Um so we're not at a crunch period if that is an opportunity. So, we're creating some pathway and supporting parents to if they need to get fingerprinting done um then to move into making sure that they do require training for volunteering um so we can really support this as a community um to I mean because when you're reducing drive time for a student 60 minutes or more that that's you said 60 minutes or less or 60 minutes or more? 60 minutes or less. Um 60 minutes or less. there's still a lot of time stop hours a lot of time not to have a child on the
023bus and so I think that's huge if the hub stops could be something that could support that. I will tell you Miss Milhouse right now and I'm not sure if families know uh especially our specialty families that the ride time is expected to be 90 minutes currently. Yes, I know. So that's that work that we want to reduce it so I can use drivers on all three tiers. So I got a mutual piece in this. Okay. And do you think you're going to get an influx of um applicants with the um the furls and layoffs that are coming down the pipe? Are is that do you see a peak right now in application? Well, I do see a peak. Um a lot of the peak right now is because we ramped up our job fairs
024and the number of classes uh that we that we teach throughout the month. So, we've seen a little increase. Uh, right now we are back kind of where we are last where we were last year. Uh, I'm looking for 100 drivers by July 15th in addition a minimum of 100 drivers. And so, that's the task the challenge I've asked of our HR department. Um, and and they're doing their best to make it. Matter of fact, I just I'm just coming from a job fair today at Eleanor Roosevelt a little while ago. uh we had one there. So it's constant work, man. It is it is a constant task and I implore each of you if you have folks or reach into your community, our churches, uh we need bodies. We need folks and and we're
025doing what we can do internally. Uh but there this is where that collaborative effort helps uh to to bring folks in. Even if it's a part-time volunteer, anything, we need our bodies. We need bodies to help. And we do all of the training and and we cover the majority of the costs for obtaining your CDL. Well, well, thank you so much for and I know you all have been working extremely hard, so I I really appreciate it and especially taking all my calls and emails and really helping me. um with with my transportation. So, thank you so much. And however, if you have flyers that you can share with PCAT um and that would be great. That would be really great. I will. Thank you, Miss Milhouse. Uh Miss Wilson, I see your hand and
026then I have just a few questions to ask as well. So, Miss Wilson, thank you so much. I only had um two questions. The first one um was in reference to uh when you speak about trip consolidations are these what are referred to as uh the double routes and if they are um I think you already had mentioned that you're aware that sometimes the trips are taken about an hour and a half um so it's just a thing of you know sometimes they're actually you know an hour and a half two hours and I think it would be helpful for uh parents when you do have these double routes because from the experience that I've seen, there are certain common double routes that you will see when they do buddy up. It seems like they
027only run the route one way. So, if you're one of the uh your your students is one of the ones that is usually on there for the one and a half, two hours, it would be nice if they would kind of flip-flop sometimes for some fairness so that your child gets home and can do, you know, work and do all the things that families need to do as opposed to always being on the short end of the stick. Um, and so you kind of spoke to that, but if you wanted to speak a little bit more there, that would be wonderful. And I just have one other um questions like comment. Sure. Sure. The I can talk the doubles that we occur is as a result of the driver shortage. So we are asking our
028drivers to do more with less. So that means more bodies on the bus and extended ride times. What we what the challenge was using the current system is when we have to pick up that extra trip that double trip we couldn't directly reflect it in our map and the time. So many times we get it, well my stop says 7 o'clock, but the bus comes at 6:30 or bus is coming at 7. And for us to manipulate that would throw off other times. And so that was that's a barrier within the system that we've been trying to work through. Um hopefully we'll have a solution for next year so it would not be as troublesome for our families in and working with that app. But I get it. Um I know the the doubles that
029occur. Um sometimes you want to switch them out. And that's something that I can take back to my team and and and share because we've right now what we have is probably what we're going to finish the year with with doubles. And we want to be able to actively capture that within the system and be able to update times. uh because I would I would love for you to be able to use that stopfinder app and and see that time that's posted there be that actual time. It's not that case right now 100%. So, but thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. And the second thing um uh I wanted to know and my apologies I wrote it down so I wouldn't forget um when uh will these community center hubs allow for children
030to kind of like selfch checkckin? So, you know, with a lot of changes with your uh parents that are a part of the federal government going back into the office, some of them have set hours now and they don't have the flexibility that they used to to even be home to see their children go to school. Um, and so if they are going to their bus stops now, obviously their parents are not there. So would this be a system where the children are able to just you know walk down to these community centers and selfch checkckin so to speak um as opposed to the normal you know we did before care and afterare when my son was was in elementary school and um you obviously had to sign them in sign them out but you
031would not be able to necessarily sign them in and depending on some circumstances the question is will you be able to sign them out timewise. So, you know, is that something that you guys are taking into consideration? It is. It is something definitely that we're checking in uh for consideration. One thing for us is accountability. So, every student will be assigned a bus stop just like they are now that community center. So, that's accountability for us for for to be able to tell where our kids are. Number two, within our system, I want to be able to give a kid a card, an RF reader card, where they could actually scan on the bus, and you get a popup on the app that says, "Hey, my child is on the bus and my child is
032at school." When they they scan on the bus and scan off the bus, I want to get us there. We won't be able to get there next year, but I want to be able to get us to a point where kids can do that. self check with a a reader card that you get a notification or push notification knowing where your child is. So yes, we are talking about that with our community with the with parking planning. And I would say thank you so much. That is actually, you know, a level of comfort knowing that you guys are actually thinking ahead to some unique type of um technology to be able to utilize to help uh parents. Um, and so with that, I will yield back to the chair. Thank you, Dr. Bowwin. I realize
033that um, tonight probably won't cut it um, as far as obtaining information from you. So, I would love the opportunity to follow up with your staff to possibly have another meeting with PCA. um because ideally everybody isn't here and there may be other questions um from our representatives that need to be asked especially in light of this pilot for the hubs. Um I think that some key questions was asked this evening but um there may need to be some followup. Chair Smith, I find if you wanted to get questions from the group and email them to me or go through um the board exec and send those to me, I will be happy to to work on them and send them back to you and anytime you want me to come back and talk that
034just send me an invitation. We'll be happy to come back and share some more information with you. Awesome. Um, one one quick question I did want to ask um relates to the GPS tracking, which I I know is all tied to this tracker, but it's it is a pain in the parents butt. So, it's really good to hear that you guys are considering to get a new app. But one of the I guess flaws, I'm going to call it a flaw because the functionality is there as it relates to tracking the bus, but it's tracking the correct bus. So my question is, how are you guys addressing when a bus is assigned to a route temporarily so that it can be tracked? That's the first question. And then I was just curious with your report,
035you you you um based on the survey results, it said 63% reported challenges with GPS tracking. I wanted to know how does that correlate with your internal data because that number is only from the parent side. Is it is it about the same? Is it higher with the film is higher since we know that parents can't find the bus. So correct. So so one thing I will tell you the app does work but it has to be in some ideal situations for it to work. And and here is the the crush. We make a point like I was very hard on my team to ensure that every vacant route had a vehicle a bus assigned to it for tracking purposes because now we substitute by vehicle right so if I got bus one two three
036taking route ABC and now I need bus 456 to take ABC it's just a flip you know I can take one substitute so We weren't doing that before and it was hit or miss if you saw the bus on the map. Right now, of the 5600 trips we have, there's a vehicle, a bus number attached to every last one. Now, my problem is the system can't necessarily capture all of the trips that are assigned to it at a tier. And I'll give you my worst case scenario right now. The 7:30 bell time has the most trips. And what happens, what we have to do to cover that is a plan double. So that means we automatically assign a bus two trips. Typically, it's a high school trip and an elementary trip. So right off the
037bat, that's two. What's happening? I have to assign an additional high school and additional elementary. So at that 7:30 tier, I have four trips assigned to that one bus. As it's transmitting GPS data around, the system doesn't know where to associate each GPS event to. So sometimes you will catch it and sometimes you you won't. And and that's the problem and that's the crutch that we have. It doesn't happen in like every every every trip, but when we have to substitute and we adding more than two trips to a bus, we run into those issues. And so somewhere I'm going to find a solution to that because that's our reality right now with the driver shortage. So we're going to have to assign extra trips to our buses at their tier times and that's the
038reality. So I'm finding I'm researching what app can handle that work that workload. That's our reality right now. So I get it. I'm I will happy to explain it to our families. Uh I it's it's not a problem. We're going to be transparent and and and tell you here are components why it doesn't work, you know, and then there are some sides of it that that do work. So I appreciate you bringing that question up. Uh, I hope I shed a little light on that and and just know that that's one of my own pet peeves for the vendors um to handle that and that's one of the scenarios I share with them. Yes. So, thank you. Let me just take I I see two hands, but let me take a quick pause. I know
039I have more questions, but I won't be able to answer them tonight. So, I will make sure that they get over to you um because I'm just thinking about timing and moving the meeting along. Mia, can can you tell me if our guest, Mr. um Turner, is here? Yes, he is. He is. So, um Miss Lawrence, if I could hold your question and send that along, but Miss Hilton, I did want to give you an opportunity. I saw your hand. So, if you could ask just one question. If you had more than that, we can send it via email. You're on mute. Miss Hilton, you're on mute. I'm so sorry. I say she can ask her question. I'll send you my and then Okay, no problem. Yeah, go ahead. I was just going to say
040I'll be respectful of time. So, I'll send my question as well because I think it's going to require a little it's a little nuanced. So, I'll I'll put it in an email, but thank you. Awesome. Thank you all. Oh, Miss Walker, I see your hand. I know. And I'm gonna be respectful for time. I get it. We have another guest. Just really quickly, I would love if um after all the questions come together, your Q&A if you want to um send it to um Mia, I know you all do and then copy my the two board liaison because we can make sure and Mia can help us to send it to the board members and make sure the Q&As's also get into our own newsletters I have and we communicate to um the public as
041well. That'll be helpful because you all are asking amazing questions. Thank you. Awesome. Great. Thank you for offering that. So, we'll make sure we get that done. So, Mr. Bowwin, thank you again for giving us this update. It was a lot of fruitful information. So, we will definitely be following up and we will probably have another meeting with you. Absolutely. I love it. Thank you for allowing me to speak with you guys. Awesome. No problem. Thank you. All right. So, um the next presentation that we have, let me just get to my note here. Um all right, is from the Integrity and Compliance Office, Mr. Turner is here to provide an overview about oversight with PGCPS's execution on policies and fiscal operations. Sir, you have the floor. Thank you. Thank you, Chair Smith. So, uh,
042first I want to say greetings to everybody and I'm glad to be here. Um the parent the parent and community advisory council is a obviously a very important organization um as we try to make sure that we're doing all the best for our scholars. So again I am Frank Turner. I am the integrity and compliance officer for the Prince George's County Public School System. Um I know I was told I think before I came that I had about 10 minutes. Hopefully I can go over that a little bit. Uh but I'll be respectful of time as well. But let me tell you a little bit about myself because I want it to be that we're connected in a a more personable level. So, a little bit about my background. Uh I was, you know, raised
043in in Maryland. Um so I'm a Maryland guy. Um um I I had spent about 25 years 26 years in federal law enforcement between IRS criminal investigation division and um the federal bill of investigation. Um I was in senior management and uh in in IRS criminal investigation division and then at the FBI I was uh leading a forensic accounting team. So, um that's my background per se, but this has always been a desire of mine to get into education. Uh my father was a professor, college professor at Morgan. Um my wife has traveled around with me um and has always taught special education. She's uh a special ed teacher right now in a neighboring district. So I can always, you know, do hypotheticals and pick her brain in the evening. So it's always that that's
044always helpful to have that at home, that resource. And and she's got a a masters in education administration. So uh that's a little bit about me. Uh two kids, both go to college at state colleges in in Maryland. One goes to University of Maryland, College Park. The other one goes to Talson University. So I'm very much into Maryland education. Um, so that's a little bit about my background. So I'm going to share um my screen and then go through a presentation in regards to um the office of integrity and compliance. So let me share my screen. And Mr. Turner, if you feel that you need more than a 10 minutes, by all means, um, do as you please. Okay. Okay. Noted. Noted. Um let's see how can you guys see my screen? We can. Okay.
045Excellent. Excellent. Um so the office of integrity compliance is basically like the office has been referred to uh I've heard it referred to a couple different ways. I've heard it referred to as the inspector general office for PGCPS. I've heard it referred to as the watchdog office. Um it seems to be uh that actually and it was created by the general assembly. It was created at the state level and it seems to be that that was a little ahead of the curve because I don't know if everybody's been tracking but uh I know Howard County just created an inspector general position. Uh, I know that Anaondo County had a inspector general position that didn't make it through, but now they're going to go after it again based upon what's, you know, happened with, um, Prince
046George's County and what's happened with, um, Howard County. So, uh, that's what I hear. So I think that this is uh um you know it's it's it's something that's not uncommon um to have obviously when you have big institutions especially with a lot of funding involved to have this type of um office. Um, I was appointed to the Office of Integrity and Compliance as an integrity compliance officer in January of 2024. So, I hit a year on board. And this past January, I brought on my um first uh staff person after, you know, listening and learning um for some time, getting to know the system, getting to know the board. Of course, I had to put the offices together. There's two office locations. Um, you know, because it was a brand new unestablished office. You
047had never existed before. So, of course, I had to write the position descriptions and determine what I needed to make this office uh what it was expected to be. So um the mission of the integrity and compliance office or the office of integrity and compliance is uh to improve compliance, rigorous monitoring and enforcement of all applicable policies, procedures and laws to prevent and detect fraud, waste and abuse of funds and property. Um the vision that I have for the office um was to you know provide continuous assistance in securing the highest standards of integrity and compliance while promoting trust and ensuring accountability into the future. Uh that's you know obviously we always want to do things um like I think I thinking about something that Dr. Bowwin said when he just presented related to transportation.
048We just wanted to get better. It probably will never be perfect, but we always want things to get better. Um, the team is made up of dedicated investigators and financial analysts with special specialized backgrounds and credentials. Um, I have two uh people on my staff, my deputy and my new investigator that just started on Monday that are bilingual, speak both Spanish and English. Uh, you know, I know that about 40% of the population um in Prince George's County is is is span is are Spanish speaking um um with with their background and and culturally. So, thought that was important. Um and then I have a compliance and audit specialist and she's led internal audit uh audit teams before. So, that was great to be able to recruit her and get get her on board. Um,
049and she's and and you know, she's a a resident of of Prince George's County, as is my um latest investigator. So, I'm just I'm just really excited about the team and it's finally it's finally coming together. Um so again the the the team has expertise in law enforcement audit accounting compliance risk analysis, fraud examination and legal fee legal fields to ensure proper oversight of PGCPS execution on policies and um and fiscal operations. So, as of again, as of Monday, I have that uh investigator number two um added to the integrity and compliance office. Um so, you'll see that there's a uh financial administrator, deputy. Um and then I have an executive administrative assistant that I brought on from within Prince George's County Public School System. Um it was not that that position. I did not
050want to be an outside hire. Um so I brought that came internally. Really really happy to have her on board as well. Uh she she joined me last July. And then the compliance and audit specialist who joined me last September and my first investigator I got in December and then like I said my second investigator came in on um this this this past Monday. So here's what we do and what we don't do. Um so we're we're in place to improve the effectiveness and efficiency. So that's programs, policies, practices, and operations. Um and then we're also looking to prevent, investigate, and report waste, fraud, and abuse of property or funds. Like I said previously, uh we examine, evaluate and report the adequ adequacy and effectiveness of internal controls. Those internal controls are mostly more systemwide
051more uh it could be let's say across all high schools or it could be across a program areas like special education. It it could be, you know, uh it's not going to be something um that is at the school-based level and it's a more of a routine internal control that would be handled by uh internal audit. Um we also are looking to uh improve employee compliance with applicable law, policy and ethical standards of conduct. Um we conduct conduct administrative investigations uh do budget analysis. We provided a budget analysis for this this current budget um to the uh Prince George's County Council um and gave them our um our input and analysis on the on the current budget request, but most of it was uh honestly we gave them some things to think about, but we
052really tried to support the ask of the board of education and the and the um superintendent. A lot of what we do is to is not just to investigate, but it's also to partner with the system to, you know, to help them get accomplish what they want to accomplish. Um, you know, as long as, of course, there's there's adheres to compliance and their own policies and everything else. Um, so we do performance audits. We have a kickoff to a audit coming up. Uh this will be the first big audit that we're doing. Uh that kickoff is uh on um May the 14th, so next week. Um so we're pretty excited about that. What we don't do is investigate employee misconduct related to sexual harassment, discrimination, and retaliation. So there's, you know, that under the Office
053of uh human resources, there's an office for that. Um and then we don't conduct routine audits on internal controls and processes. That would be internal audit that would do that. We don't investigate inappropriate relationships between students and teachers. Um we don't now okay well I'll say something at the end once I get through reading these. We don't create policies and procedures. Um, so we make recommendations on what the policies and procedures should do, what should be, um, and then make sure that there's no violations of law or at the federal, state or local level for policies and procedures that are put in place. Uh the the board of education is is the um entity that would obviously be dealing with setting um policies for the school system. And then the superintendent would obviously do the
054administrative procedures to uh enact and support the policies that came from the board of education. Um safety and security inspections. Uh there's an office for that. um you know for of the safety and security office uh headed by uh Gary Cunningham. So that's that of PGCPS facilities that would be his area. Um and then perform criminal investigations on juvenile delinquency, security threats, viol violent incidents or other criminal events. Now, on that column of things that we don't do, if it were to be that there was an office that wasn't doing it um that they were violating policy or law and doing one of those things, then we would get involved. Uh there's also certain scenarios where we may partner with safety and security. Uh we just had to do that uh on a Saturday and
055I can't get into the specifics of that incident, but we had to get in uh one of my investigators had to be uh on site at a school this past Saturday and uh with safety and security uh for a matter we had to handle there. Um so let's see. So I think that that kind of summarizes that. But again, if there was something where it was systematic or a group of schools or a group of people in leadership or something like that and it was in that column on the um right hand side, then maybe we would get involved. Um but otherwise on the routine things on the right hand side, we would not get involved in those types of scenarios. Uh how we gather information and subpoena authority. So, we um the OIC receives
056uh complaints and tracks complaints through various channels. I'll talk about that a little bit more later. Um but our complaint process um we have you could either mail something to us. We we take walk-ins. Um you could it could be through our um our email address. uh oiccpgcps.org. It could be through the phone number we have set up just for complaints to come in. Um so we wanted to have as many channels as possible. And when you do when you go online and access the complaint form, you actually um you uh there's a form to fill out and there's some questions that are asked to make sure that we're starting on the right foot with the complaint and we get as much information as needed uh as soon as possible. As far as one of
057the things I told my staff, I said, I I don't want it to be a scenario where complaints come in and people who are complaintants don't know what's going on. So, I'll say that again. my staff knows that I I expect a response in 10 days from the time a complaint comes in to either say that we received it or um and just to acknowledge receipt. So you guys may say, well, why does it need to be 10 days? If I email it, some some can email it can be emailed right back. Well, if it's mailed to me and it comes in via the mail, then that gives us that latitude to say, "Okay, well, it came in." So, then there's not an expectation. Oh my gosh, I dropped something in the mail. It's been
058two days and I haven't heard back. Right? So, that gives that um that that buffer for responding back to a complaint. Now, if if the complaint comes to us and we um determine that we should not be handling this complaint for whatever the reason, it could be for like I said those that column that we just went over, then we're if we refer it, we're going to monitor it. And when we when we refer it elsewhere, there's g we're we're saying that it needs to be something needs to be said back to us within 30 days of referring it out to another office. as to what you're doing with that complaint because we consider when it comes into the OIC then then we have some some handle of it. Um we don't want it to
059be that we just referred it and we're not monitoring it so that we have a system set up to monitor um when we refer complaints out. And then also another thing that my in my standard operating procedures, another thing that happens is is that you're the complaintant is alerted of the referral. So you're you're told, okay, this needs to go to HR, right? This needs to go to safety and security. This needs to go to uh whatever the applicable offices. Um so that's a little bit about the uh receipt of complaints. The OIC may facilitate individual interviews. So, this is interviews. Um, you know, we do interviews, we can do depositions and oaths. Uh, and and we have subpoena authority. That's all in state law from when the law when the office was created. So,
060that's in Maryland state law that we have those authorities. Um, sharing information with the OIC. Um so the the statutory authority to request from any PGCPS this is in the state law too PGCPS employee or official any available document or other information concerning the school systems operations budgets and programs or uh or vendor contracts. So official, so the employee would be, you know, the rank and file employees. Of course, the officials would be the leadership. Um, you know, it could be the superintendent, it could be the board of education members depending on what the scenario is. So, um, that that's what the statutory authority covers. Um, and it said that, you know, there will be a response promptly and without any interference to the OIC's request for information. So sometimes um you know there have
061to be a little bit of a negotiation because a lot of times you know we we we need something back um um you know faster than maybe a certain office is used to responding. So we try to work with that office but at the same time as long as it's a reasonable request then know you know we need we need this information back fast because keep in mind the whole system or the or this particular office may not know what's going on. So I I need things to continue to move and I need the work continue to flow. Um but I do work with folks on that inside the system and and at the board level. Um so that's a little bit about the request for information and um and of course we safeguard information.
062Um you know confidential student information should not be shared with the OIC. We we understand that we run into some times where um we were handling a matter and it was like we needed to see what the response was going to be by the by the school system and they were like well this is this has to do with a a special education um scenario and IEP and we were like no no no we don't need that information we just need to know how you're going to how you're going to handle we don't need to know what's in the in there. Uh we just need to know how this is going to be handled. So we've clarified that a couple times. Uh and everything has worked out fine. Um and then so yeah, we we're
063really so the confidentiality is important. My whole staff has to sign a non-disclosure agreement uh with me. I I or set that up for day, you know, day one. Um, and they each take an oath of office that they sign uh on day one. So, I just did that uh yesterday on um for my newest investigator. What is considered fraud, waste, and abuse are these are our three primary areas. Uh, of course, fraud is an intentional act or attempt to obtain something of value from the local school system or another person through willful misrepresentation. Uh fraud includes deception, concealment or omission of information resulting in the school system suffering a loss and or perpetrator achieving a gain to which they are not normally entitled. Waste and abuse are definitely more subjective. Um, fraud is more
064clear-cut, uh, more black and white as we may call it, but waste and abuse is definitely, they're definitely more subjective areas. Um, so, you know, it's inappropriate act or omission by an employee with control over or access to PGCPS property or funds that unreasonably uh, deprivives the local school system of value. um weights does not necessarily involve private use or personal gain but involves needless careless or extravagant expens expenditures expenditures or or mismanagement of resources. So um again more of a um mismanagement of resources can be really really subjective um intentional and then abuse is intentional misconduct or misuse of authority or position. Abuse also involves wrongful or improper use uh or destruction of PGCPS resources. What types of complaints should be reported? Um so this is more so kind of piggybacking on what we're
065talking about with waste, fraud, and abuse. So, here's just a few examples of um you know um some things that should be reported. You know, there's wage theft. We heard about that. Heard about that somewhere else. I think it was uh that on the news recently. Yeah, I'm not going to talk about that that much, but that was uh wage some wage theft allegations there. um falsification um destruction of official records of course billing and payment requests dupletive you know duplicate services or services not rendered so this is just gives you I'm not going to uh go through all these but this just gives you an idea of um and and these these examples are on my landing page on the office of integrity and compliance's landing page so you can always go there and
066and check them out. Um, I I got ahead of myself and I talked about how to submit a complaint. Um, so yes, I I am a resource to PCAT, right? I am a resource to parents. I'm a resource to the community. I want, you know, folks to know about the existence of the office. The office is new. This is the first school year that we've actually been in existence. um you know within a with a staff. Um so this is uh you know it was a great inaugural school year. We we we have done some things to publicize the office but this is you know speaking to you all is a continuation of that process. We've um reached out to multiple uh organizations. This is not the first time I've uh done after hours uh
067speaking. So uh and done you know al did u uh a presentation at the principal meeting. We've actually done um office of general counsel retreat presentations to the office of general counsel um made multiple presentations to the board of education um about what the office does. So, but this is a continuation of like um we did we talked to uh CASA um and and a bunch of and and I've met with a lot of the um done meet and greets with obviously with county council members with uh board members who who have requested it. I've always offered it um and also with uh the the heads of the unions. So, um, again, we have incident reporting form. You can call the the phone number and leave a voicemail if if it's not answered by the
068executive administrative assistant. Um, you can send an email if there's something that you want the office of integrity and compliance to look at um or get or or want me to know about, want the office to know about. Uh you can and you can mail stuff and the you know just so you know so at at at Sasser we're in a trailer. Um so you know so we so there's another location like if somebody from the building let's say at Sasser or from or from anywhere uh wanted to come and talk in person. Um that's why you know the county has been great you know gracious enough to let us have an office at Curry. So, you know, because the whole back side of Sasser could see if somebody walked to the uh office of
069integrity and compliance, right, to come into the office. So, this way you could go to where it's more of a neutral office and you go to the building and then you go um we all sit on the third floor there. Um, so this this gives you some more uh uh it's more anonymous if you want it to be like that and you don't want people to see you come into the office of integrity compliance. And that is basically a rundown of the office. Um we are currently working uh you know to try to do as much as we can. Let me stop sharing. Oh, here we go. There we go. Okay. So we are currently uh you know trying to we have a lot of we have a lot of we've had a lot of
070cases this year and um we've had a lot of things that we've got into related to you know there could be like some soft spots in certain policies or um or administrative procedures. So we've we're trying to work with the system on that. Um, so we're trying to, you know, balance between proactive and reactive. Uh, some things obviously, you know, we want to make sure that our complaintants know, um, that we're working on on their items. So, we're trying to get complete as many cases as possible. Uh, some of, of course, as you guys could probably imagine, some are more complicated or convoluted and some are less. So, we are uh, working with that. We're also working on um you know we've done um some management advisories uh throughout the year to the um to
071the school system to the superintendent um uh hierarchy on down we've done some actually related to the board too and trying to you know say to the board hey this is we see this this way and this may need to be a little stronger and Um, and that's that's it in a nutshell. I mean, there's a midyear activity report um that talks a little bit about it's 15 pages. It's on the web page. Uh, the next big report to come out will be the annual report um which will come out, you know, we got to get through the end of the year first because I can't even capture, you know, our our metrics until, you know, June 30th until the year is over. Um, but I'm I'm looking forward to to showing the accomplishments of
072the office in its first year. Uh, so I I'll be quiet now. I know I went over the 10 minutes. Um, and see if you guys have any questions for me. Well, Miss Turner, thank you so much in presentation. I think a lot of clarity. You're breaking up. Hello, Sheriff Smith. I I can't hear you. Is it just mine or is can everybody else hear? No, it's it's not. And until chair Smith comes back on, um I'll jump in and state that she was sharing thank you. You provided a lot of clarity um during this time and until chair smiths come back. If we have any questions um please raise your hand and we'll go through and a round of questions. Okay. So, that means either everybody's tired or it was No, I think it
073wasn't it wasn't or it was very thorough. Um I mean I'm I'm not going to say it was or was not. I'm just trying to look to see if there you know it was very beneficial. It was very a lot of information that you shared. Um but I I do have a question. And I wanted to give the floor to someone else. And in looking at the um board of education for the ethics panel, right? And then you have the office of integrity with you all and then the internal audit. Um for me, I was just trying to really get a good understanding of how these groups seem to do very similar things um but very different. like the board of education ethics panel is you know the key role is to really um focus
074on um I guess any ethical conduct or ethical conduct of the board of education and your role is or your team's role is more so focused on fraud waste and abuse and then the internal audit group we don't engage with that group, but it really is more about raising concerns. Do they bring the concerns to the OIC? Do you concern from the internal audit? Do you get concerns from the ethics panel? Um, h how does how do you all so so the ethics panel? What's the difference? I guess I want to just ask the ethics panel uh really has to do with their their main core goal and uh I I'll see if uh board member Walker wants to chime chime in on this but my understanding of their main goal has always been the
075financial disclosures. Um so they may handle some other things. Uh, I know there's an upcoming um training for the ethics panel coming up in June. I think it's 7th. I'm not sure. Um, so that's kind of the their core area. the uh internal audit would be more and and we've I I've actually like if you go to the PGCPS main page and click on report fraud at the top it it breaks out what when you would go to the hotline when you would go to internal audit but when when you would come to the OIC and when you may want to go to the state IG for education. So basically what it says is if if it's more of a school school-based scenario um then you want to talk to you know they do a
076lot of internal audit does a lot of audits related to the school activity funds. They do a lot of more the routine things. uh my like the audit that we're getting ready to start is a very big area audit. I'm not saying that they don't do those two, but uh most of what we would be doing would be more in the investigative realm because that's um really the the crux of, you know, when you're looking at waste, fraud, and abuse. um you you're you're trying to investigate um to see if any of that is actually occurring. So um they they would be so mine would be more systematicwide would be at a kind of a the leadership you know level uh internal audit reports to the board of education. So, it would be kind of
077uncomfortable for obviously if there was something going on um with a board member or even if a board member were to refer something on another board member that would be kind of uh challenging for internal audit to try to handle because they report to the board of education. So um we are uh independent entity um that is responsible for looking at the whole system. Um, but you know, again, it would be more of is this a a programmatic? Is this a a a program area that has an something is going wrong with it? Misuse of funds or uh it's not working as efficiently as it could and we see it or we have a complaint related to it. So, it could be again proactive or reactive. It could be something that we we we're already
078seeing and that we want to get to or it could be reactive, meaning that somebody has come in and complained about more of a of a bigger umbrella issue um related to, you know, like a a set of a vendor out there or how a contract was solicited or what's going on across the whole uh special education program or versus at something that's kind of at the school level um which would be more of like internal audit has been handling that and Chair Smith is back and I I appreciate it. I I did just want you to really summarize whether or not internal audit and the ethics panel also send you reports to investigate, right? That you I I know and externally, but internally you can get, you know, a a note from anyone in
079the system. Anyone. Okay. anyone if and I'll use and hopefully I'll use uh uh board leaison Walker as an example again. She could actually say e even if she didn't want to have her PGCPS parent hat on, if she didn't want to have her board member hat on, she could send something to us anonymously. So that would go for anybody from the ethics panel could do that. Anybody from internal audit could do that. And so if you know and we would you know take a look at what she sent in. Uh now does it make it more difficult if we don't know if we can't like let's say she sent in something but there was some followup that we wanted to know or had some questions about and if she's anonymous then it makes it
080a little bit more challenging. So um to answer your question, the ethics panel can send something absolutely to the OIC. Internal audit can and has sent stuff to the OIC. Just like sometimes the OIC may say, "Hey, this may be something that the internal audit may want to look at first because it's more of a school-based issue." We do it all the time related to I'll give you an example. I give this is an exaggerated example, but I'll give you an example. Miss Mr. Attorney, I I miss I'm not gonna I am gonna cut you off because I Miss Hinton has her hand raised and Miss Smith is back. So, I do want to pass the meeting back to our chair and um she may throw it back to you, but I know Miss Hinton
081also has her hand up. So, um thank you for allowing me to interrupt you to kind of jump in and chair Smith. Sure. Back. And thank you, Miss Manhole. Go ahead, Miss Hson. Sorry. I just want to say thank you for being with us. I think you provided great information and I have so much to say, but I think I would like to say it in private and I also feel like what you saying what you say was a key. You will follow up. But my question is, are you like looking without a compli complaint or you need to wait for a complaint for you to just take a look at something like in a school for example? No, we don't have to wait for complaints to look at anything. we we see stuff uh
082that we have, you know, let's say concern about or we want to give attention to and and we see it just in the normal um living and breathing as part of uh interacting with PGCPS. So, we don't have to wait for a complaint if that's does that is that your question? That is part of my question because I have children at the school um two school but I also go to multiple school is a part of the community. I like to go to many event where I talk to people and I see many people complaining for the same thing that I am complaining even it's not the same school I feel like um it's some aspect in the school they need to you know like be on the lookout because there something is happening that
083I'm not the only parent but I am right now the one struggling with that concern but I'm not going to go in details But thank you. I think you provided great information. Now, now keep in mind that I'm just going to say that one t sometimes if there is something going on and there is an office in PGCPS that really should have the first opportunity to try to um handle the the situation, then we will defer it to them. But but remember what I said earlier, but we're going to monitor what they're doing. Now, if somebody came in and said, "Hey, there we already have evidence that HR is not doing they this is an issue. HR is not doing what they're supposed to do, and this is this is what we're showing you. Now,
084we're going to just take it and and investigate it, for example." Right? Because it's already like it was an issue. Then HR got involved. They didn't follow procedures. they didn't maybe follow the the board's policies on how they were supposed to do stuff or maybe there's something that's inter you know not you know going along with what the local state or federal laws are or or even uh you know Maryland state department of education regulations and rules. So then we're going to say okay they had their shot at that now we're investigating. Does that kind hopefully that help helps a little bit to clarify? It does. Thank you, Miss Lawrence. Yes. So, I just wanted to know, thank you for um being here and for the presentation. A lot of good information. So, I just
085wanted to be kind of clear and and you know, so like how does your office ensure transparency without compromising privacy? like um like how do you inform the parents and community members about like the outcomes without compromising privacy? Great question. So what we've done um sometimes we actually have to generate more than one report, right? We may have to generate a report internally um to get some change within the system. Um, not that long ago, we had uh a report that hasn't it it hasn't been released publicly yet, but there's a report that tells you the issues, but it's written in a way where it doesn't say specify this particular school, but it tells you what the the the challenges are. And even when we and and when we send it back internally for the
086change, there's more information, but sometimes it still doesn't say exactly who the complaintant is. It it all it all depends on if the complaintant is willing and how they feel when this is, you know, this is where things are and so do you want us to divulge and then you know you sign off on it uh that you're the complaintant about this matter like for example I'll give you an example if there let's say there's an employee issue right but this employee issue has we discovered that this is a practice that is not being done across multiple sections, it's being done inaccurately across multiple sections. So when we go to let's say um HR or to the superintendent and say this has to be changed um and then let's say they they change it, right?
087So then the report would show this is what we found. they changed it and it would be more uh when it was put out publicly it would be more of a um uh you know it would protect the complaintant right because the complaintant may not want to be known internally and externally but the change has occurred and that's what we want the public to know so and and yeah that's helpful thank you yes thank you Mr. Turner. So, I don't see any other hands. Um, I think I may close out the questions. One of my questions were was actually answered in a response already and it was about a reporter um having the ability to remain anonymous. Um the other two questions or yeah the other two questions that I have um the first one
088is if we suspect that there are inefficiencies with the program does the reporter need to provide evidence related to the claim or will you guys work to obtain that information? Can we just make the claim essentially is the question and then does the claim have to tie directly to fraud, waste and abuse? Good question. So like let's just use the prior presentation. If somebody said I believe that the uh redo of transportation isn't being done well, well that's too that's too broad, right? I would need more information than that. So would need more evidence and also would obviously my one of my staff would have to would be reaching back out right to to get more information especially if it was not an anonymous reporting. Um and then the so that that's first of so
089the most the the more information you can provide obviously the better our starting point is and okay now chair Smith I lost I I forgot the second question what was the second one maybe I have three questions but the second part to that is does the claim have to tie directly to fraud waste and abuse? No, no, absolutely not. It can be related to, you know, there's a soft spot or there's a a gap in a policy and a procedure. Um, this policy or procedure isn't being practiced the right way that it's written and the expectation by the board of education or by the superintendent's administrative procedure. So, it could be a practice uh it could be a po a board policy that you believe that violates the state regulations. Um, of course. So, no.
090And and I'm always looking for ways, you know, we're here, the office is here as, like I said, it's known as an inspector general office is a watchdog office, the integrity and compliance office, but it's also here to help the system improve and to partner with, you know, it's not always about, you know, I know last fall I did a press conference and stuff like that. It's not all, it's not about that all the time, right? I want we want the the PGCPS to get better and sometimes you know the the more I can do and the more the system works with me sometimes that that keeps the because remember I'm independent office too but there sometimes that keeps the state IG out of the backyard and that keeps the media out of because I
091want uh PGCPS's reputation to to go up at the same time and you know um and that's what I want to contribute to. Okay, great. Thank you. But but it but yeah, I have to be transparent. you I work for the public so I have to be you know and I'm talking about you all more so the community than than you know than the media or anything like that but the community and the stakeholders and PGCPS and the parents and and primary and most first and foremost the scholars we want them to get better and benefit absolutely so there just one last thing um if a claim is substantiated and I you know that there will have to be corrective actions how How long do you guys monitor the school system to make sure that
092you know they they keep that alignment in whatever that corrective action is? Well, that's that all depends on the corrective action, right? There there's uh I'll give you an example. Um, I'm trying to make sure that this is like No, I can't put that out there. But there's there's a particular office, right? And this office um has had uh personnel shortages in it. It's an important office. It's had personnel shortages in it. It's had it had uh uh in a workload that was inherited by new people in this office. And when I came in and I took a look at it and we because there was a complaintant um and when we when we analyzed it and and did a did a dive into it, it seemed like that they were already correcting this problem.
093So, I was able to go back to the complaintant and give them a a detailed assessment of PGCPS is already working on this. It's going to take more time, but we're monitoring it and it's not going to be that. Okay. Well, we're going to get it done in the next five years. No, no, no, no. That's not that's too long, right? So, so we're we're nudging and especially if there if things are moving in the right direction. But sometimes we'll, you know, we'll maybe bring it to the attention of other entities. You know, sometimes the county council has been uh complaintants to the office of integrity and compliance. So sometimes I have to update them on things that are being already done or maybe the board needs to know, you know. So, it's it's always
094there's a lot, but and um but there's going to be a lot there's gonna before the end of the year comes out, there's going to be quite a few things that are on my page that are going to come out. Um there's a couple couple investigations that um and and and some things we're working on that are are close to being to being done. Um but again, unfortunately, there's no like alerts. I think I've heard this before this requested like can we get an alert when you put something out on your page. So there is no alert system that we have. But what I'm going to try to do, especially if I think you have uh an appetite for it, is I'm going to try to email you all, you know, the the community organizations,
095the big organizations, and say, "Hey, I just released this." So, I'm gonna I'm I'm gonna try to make that a a routine for myself. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Um I see uh Miss Milhouse has a question and then we'll probably wrap it up here. Yeah. I just want to um just state quickly. Um I know you mentioned that um you you are serving um you know us the the PGCPS stakeholders and then you mentioned the media and I'm just hoping that um you know you know I mean the budget that you have is um PGCPS budget right? it it's not a budget from um I guess it is part of the county but I mean the media really has nothing to do with this and so the work that you do to me
096um really is about how you are um helping us to get better right helping us move from good to great and not to um exploit things that are happening bringing them to the attention and where it needs to rise right and making sure that people are held held accountable. Um, but I'm always leerary when people want to jump in front of the media to kind of um, you know, broadcast what is happening when we're not really getting the work done. So, we're just saying, you know, we have some issues, but what are the things that we're putting in place? So, I just wanted to end on that and just say I'm I'm really hopeful that the things that you're saying are really about how we're going to work together, be accountable, and improve on what's
097happening internally so when the world sees PGCPS, they know that we are actually best in class. Absolutely. Thank you for ending on that note, Miss Milhouse. Yes. Well said. Uh Mr. Turner, the presentation material was so great that we would like to know could we get a copy of it. I assume this is not proprietary. No. No. Uh yeah, I will uh I'll send you guys a copy. Sure. Okay, great. Thank you for sharing. So um that concludes our session this evening. Um, so PAC members, there will be some followup um via email and I hope you all have a wonderful evening and to my guest speakers, thank you so much for attending this evening. Good night everyone. Thank you for having me. Thank you everyone. Good night. Good night.