001okay the time is now 5:02 p.m uh good evening and welcome to the February 20 2025 Prince George's County board of education budget work session and public hearing for uh fiscal year 2026 uh I am Jonathan Briggs Vice chair of the Prince George's County Board of Education thank you all for joining us um the vice chairman informs the public that Spanish interpretation services are available during this evening's meeting to access this feature click the globe icon at the bottom of the screen Mr Brian aloro please make this announcement in Spanish or Miss Mora can we have you say give the interpretation please thank you so much for those unable to observe now the meeting is being recorded and can be accessed later on the PGCPS YouTube channel um the vice chairman informs the public that
002this evening's meeting will begin with the B uh budget public hearing followed by the budget work session at 6m um in keeping with the board's rules of procedure section four internet meetings the internet standing rules are as follows members shall keep their video on remain on camera at all times keep their microphones on mute until recognized by the chairman raise their hand icon and wait to be recognized by the chairman and unmute their microphone to speak and mute it when done speaking members may speak twice on any motion for two minutes each time failure to adhere to the internet standing rules will result in the member being removed until the member can rejoin when the rules can be adhered to I'll get to questions uh in just a second um but before we proceed the
003chairman reminds everyone to adjust their Wireless communication device to prevent technical interference with the meeting's recording please ensure all microphones are muted until the chairman grants you the floor um the chairman reminds all board members to ensure that their microphones are turned on while speaking or recording for recording purposes lastly the chairman informs the public that the registration link for tonight's public hearing will remain open for five more minutes to accommodate additional comments in accordance with policy 8345 public comment the public May register on site for public hearings until notifi that the testimony registration form is closed if you wish to sign up now the link can be found on the screen or by visiting the board web page I'm GNA pause really quickly because I saw a hand in the air and before I
004move forward I want to recognize okay you shaking your hand board member Walker so we'll move forward um so miss adelan please call the role Dr andall present Miss will present Mr bricks present Mrs Brown present Mrs go mck present Mr Jango Dr Moss present Miss Walker present Mr Jackson present we have seven present okay thank you so much uh adet um the Board of Education thanks you for participating in this public hearing to share your thoughts on the FY 26 superintendence proposed operating budget your involvement is essential as we work together to address the needs of our students and staff in Prince George's County Public Schools I'm recognizing that the chairman is now here I'm going to turn it over to um chairman Jackson for the remainder of our opening thank you so much
005Vice chair Briggs uh now moving into public hearing the chairman recognizes the register speakers for the public comments um register speakers have three minutes to make their presentations and may not relinquish any part of their speaking time the board will recognize your comments but will not address them speakers may not address individuals or issue with profanity or derogatory terms you will be warned once if you continue your comments will be muted and you will be removed from the meeting speakers are encouraged to use titles rather than names for example chairman board member superintendent principal Etc of our speakers the first is Devin Glenn individual speaking on the budget is it my turn are you calling me now no it was um I'm sorry it was uh Devin Glenn he doesn't seem to be in the
006uh meeting at the moment okay well I guess we can move to Mr Loris mhouse okay good evening everyone my name is theoris mhouse and I am here before you tonight with serious concerns about the FY 2026 budget process and its lack of transparency and genuine Community engagement first the budget process appears to like clear consistent communication with the stakeholders the ab committee holds meetings without public reports and there's no visible tracking of changes made since the December proposal this leaves us in the community in the dark about crucial decisions affecting our children's education second the Board of Education proposed amendments are not publicized for public comment this raises questions about the true value of our testimonies how do our voices actually impact the decisions being made what happens to our input after these forms
007and why don't we have a real two-way engagement strategy that allows for Meaningful dialogue between the community the Board of Education and the superintendent regarding the budget third there are concerning inconsistencies and lack of clarity in the budget itself for instance the associate superintendent position appears in both the chief of communication or the chief of staff in the department of communications as there are these current positions or this a new position if the communication engagement office is losing staff why is there an increase in its overall funding and why does the Board of Education need an additional $184,000 for communication when we already have a communication and engagement office fourth transparency is the foundation of trust and accountability the current process falls short we need clear consistent reporting of all budget meetings and decisions a
008public tracking system for Budget changes operations for the communi to communicate on all proposed amendments and a detailed explanation of how public input is incorporated into the decision making lastly I urg is board to consider its approach to community engagement we need real dialogue not just one-way communication we need to see our budget reflected in the decisions being made and we need to understand the rationale behind every dollar spent especially considering the 37 million dollar deficit we're facing in conclusion I Call On The Board of Education and the superintendent to do better Embrace true transparency Foster genuine Community engagement show us that our voices matter in this process stay focused on our children and not your personal Ambitions and personal and political affiliations thank you for your time and attention have a good night thank
009you miss milous moving on to uh krie Martinez Latin America Youth Center speaking on local impact grants she's coming over now okay hello everybody I'm sorry I'm trying to make this work hello um good evening members of the board education my name is Carrie Martinez and I'm here on behalf of the L American News Center on promotor passway as a promotor I provide long-term intense case manag mentoring to students with um with n PGCPS today I would like to share the stories of two students I have the privilege of working with hopes to bring awareness to advocating into continuing to support the promotor pathway one of the students I have worked with for the past two years have been experienced severely homeless during this incredible difficult time the promotor pathway has played a v a
010viral role in providing support for her housing needs while encouraging her to stay in school I have conducted daily check-ins Dem moering her grades attendance providing foodb hygiene items connected her with with family and cenal Housing Resource additional I have been able to successfully contact her to PGCPS homeless service where she's now receiving transportation in from school as a result to support providing the youth attendance has significantly improved she has made great um great academic process particularly in English and Spanish most importantly she's now in stable housing I would like to highlight another student I have worked with for the past two years when she has been referred to the promotor pathway she was struggling with reading Proficiency in both English and Spanish on many occasions I supported the youth in reading through assignments to
011help her obtain better understanding I complete daily check-ins to sure she continues to suceed if there's are any challenges I make sure that she's able to communicate them to her teachers I'm most proud of being able to advocate for her educational needs which has led her to implement of an indivisual education plan being put in place to address her educational needs when continuing to support Prince George's County Public Schools along my colleagues I'll be able to continue to provide much needed long-term wraps around supports to students who may otherwise mean May otherwise not be engaged in school thank you thank you Miss Martinez next is uh Miss Tonia Winfield she does not seem to be in the room okay moving along um Mrs uh garcel arita sorry if I mispronounced your name Latin America Youth
012Center speaking on Educational Funding for Community Partners yes I'm here good evening members of the Board of Education my name is graciella areta and I'm here on behalf of the Latin American Youth Center promotor pathway program to raise awareness and advocate for continued support of our Work N PGCPS where I provide intensive case management to students facing many different challenges that impact their ability to present and and be engaged in school today I'm proud to highlight the story of one student I've had the privilege of working with over the past last year when I first met the student she had just arrived from Mexico where she had been sent as a baby to live with her grandmother because her parents were unable to care for her she is the third of eight siblings and was
013the only one raised in Mexico making her transition back to the United States especially difficult after a few meetings she quickly built a connection with me and I have been able to support her in a variety of ways by providing grocery bags clothing and access to Mental Health Resources in the community I've also helped her navigate her coursework and advocated for her with teachers as she works through the challenges of the language throughout our time together she has faced numerous obstacles in rebuilding relationships with her family adapting to life in a new country and finding her place as a student in an unfamiliar educational system yet despite these challenges with the support of the prometer pathway she has made remarkable progress she has strengthened her communication skills learned to advocate for herself both in school
014and at home and has significantly improved academically when we first met she was uncertain about her future she is now on track to graduate a year early this may and has even take the ASAP test in hopes to joining the military with continued support of Prince George's County Public Schools I along with my colleagues will be able to continue providing these essential services to students to ensure that they have resources and guidance and advocacy advocacy they need to succeed thank you for allowing me to test back today I appreciate your time and support thank you so much there miss um uh Wingfield join the room again okay moving on to uh Miss um sha SCH schik director of promoter pathway um Latin America Youth Center speaking on the budget amendment for District 8 Oxen Hill
015schools and Middle School hi thank you so much for having me and I'm actually um speaking about prematur pathway as a whole um so my name is Shana scholnick and I'm the director of the prur pathway Latin American Youth Center Maryland Multicultural youth centers um I'd like to thank you for the opportunity to testified today um to talk about our work with the prator pathway um the prator pathway provides long-term case management um and support to young people in PGCPS we've been in PGCPS since 2014 um providing Services across the county um over this time we've prepared we've serve close to a thousand students across FR geores County Public Schools um and we've seen up till now about 270 students graduate from high school which is very exciting um we are an evident space model
016so we um a randomized control trial of the prator pathway that was conducted by Urban Institute demonstrated that students who had a promotur um were one-third more likely to stay in school than students who did not have a promotur um a recently released follow-up evaluation assess the longer term impact of the model G Gathering data on youth between 22 and 29 years old providing a glimpse into their lives as young adults and five years post initial evaluation um 81% of promotor Youth had received a high school diploma compared to 75% of control group youth youth who did not have a promotur um we also saw long longer term impact regarding employment youth who had a promotor were more likely to be employed and to be making more money so we're talking close to $8,000 a
017year more for youth who worked with the promotor than youth who did not um so we're really seeing the long-term impact down the road um as school staff continue to be overwhelmed what the lasting impact of the pandemic are promotors focus on students facing the highest risk um according to the American school counselor Association the student to school counselor ratio is 1 to 310 in Maryland for the 2023 2024 school year already stretched to thin schools benefit tremendously by having trusted Community Partners in the building who can assist in crisis situations and provide increased resources and support promotour are there to serve students that might not otherwise feel connected or supported some of these students are struggling loudly and others quietly either way these students need a consistent adult who will listen act and support
018um many we know that um budget decisions are very difficult we know that um but we also know that we can't abandon strategies that work and have been proven effective over time so we have a long track record of providing support um to students in Prince George's County Public Schools and we would love the opportunity to be able to continue that um thank you so much for your time I appreciate you all listening thank you so much next we have uh vice mayor Gomez from the city of District Heights does it seem that vice mayor Gomez is in the room okay uh moving along Mr Robert Wood individual speaking on the budget oh good evening good evening everyone how's everybody doing I just come here today as a concerned parent and taxpaying citizen I will
019be brief uh I got a chance to meet a lot of you all at the last town hall meeting uh great conversations I am a simple-minded man uh I see here uh snapshot of our budget and then I pulled out the whole PDF of the budget took a nice deep dive into there and for the life of me I do not understand uh why we at pretty much three billion dollars have issue when it comes to books or giving children PR books that would allow parents to follow suit along with the syllabus that was given to them in the be very beginning of the year now at my school I had some issues even getting a syllabus uh at this point not just for my child if I'm going through this I could only imagine
020out 132,000 students that we have here in Prince George's County I'm not the only parent that is going through this how do we better the the student experience as well as the parent experience and what type of planning and what type of actions are we taking to rectify these situations now I will say this before I go and before I leave I would love to give kudos to everyone like I said I spoke to this past week uh I did receive a phone call from Miss Tony over at Central and we are getting our our way with with getting a book for the classroom for my child uh that is still nevertheless even though I am super grateful for that it is unacceptable on a mass in to any individual student and parent to have
021to really go through these rigor remotes just to get a textbook if you take away the the Chromebook you can't take away the textbook I understand that some are saying oh and I heard they don't really print the textbooks out anymore that's fine if that's the case then please allow us through uh what is it called clever or Cleaver is the app that allows us to see the textbooks if that is the case uh I gave you credit during the pandemic you did allow that token per that child's laptop but the issue that we have and that others have had is that when you sign in through a different laptop or a different Chromebook the tokens do not work therefore you get an error message and you can't see a textbook and you really can't
022help out with your child so a as a good parent I just want to bring the best experience to Prince Georgia County Schools to my children and I know that's what exactly parents like to do as well but please I would love to hear the plan or what we have here on the the3 billion dollar that we have and I don't really care to hear many excuses thank you thank you Mr wood there is one written comment also from Ashley Kerney city council council member um at large for C Pleasant who wrote on translation services there are no pre-recorded comments thank you all for your comments who participated tonight being in more comments we will call for a uh brief recess the time is now 5:22 um so in what is that 38 minutes we
023will um reconvene for the public hearing at 6:00 please note the same meeting leak will be used for the public hearing thank you the time is now 6:02 welcome back to the February 20th 2025 Prince Georgia County board of education budget work session and public hearing for FY 2026 to those of us joining for the first time this evening I am Brandon Jackson chairman of the prince Georgia County Board of Education the chairman recognizes board member goens mccans chair of the operating budget and fiscal Affairs committee to introduce the budget amendments received and approved by the committee thank you chairman Jackson the board proposed 23 amendments which were were discussed at the operations budget and fiscal Affairs meeting last evening we will address the amendments in groups by division at that time board members will
024have the opportunity to alter withdraw or pull any Amendment once we have discussed the applicable division the board will vote on the amendments to be included in the requested budget and the board will consider the requested budget with amendments at the board business meeting on February 27th 2025 our first division is the division of academics there are four amendments as two have been withdrawn since yesterday special education compliance liaison Aviation program continuation um budman's office third grade literacy lab pilot the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of academics is there any discussion if you would like to amend or pull amendments you may make a secondary motion at this time board member Briggs thanks so much uh chair goens MC I would like to
025pull Amendment two special education compliance leaz on and amendment five utman utsman office please and thank you so I believe I say just so noted board member Boozer Struthers yeah thank you so much I was going to comment on the special education compliance position I I want to thank um Vice chair Briggs for his thoughtfulness around um looking at that position this year and and Dr White's um very very helpful analysis from the budget uh the both obaa committee meeting last night but I think there's alignment on on the vision and the the goals so I want to I just want to offer to help in the future and the second was that I was going to talk about some of the reasons what why I'm not favorable toward for the ombudsman's office that you
026did pull because I did experience the version of that as a parent um prior to be you know while it existed for a little while and I I I couldn't speak favorably to how that was managed so thank you that's all thank you board member Boozer struther board member Moss yeah I was going to uh to lift the third grade uh literacy lab pilot up um just an item to pull to make sure we explain it to the public a little bit so I I don't know if I can do that now or I do it at another time I don't know the process um I believe we vote on whatever is not pulled and and then we talk about what is pulled um I don't know if our parliamentarian is here to make sure
027that I am saying that properly or anyone else director Fitzpatrick yes uh it is Germaine to the main motion which includes the four and so he can have any discussion about that at this time in his 2.5 minutes thank you for that clarification the board member loss yeah I I don't um need to pull this separately to have a conversation on it but uh We've the district has made a a deep commitment to ensuring that Scholars can read um and this is a pilot that's happening in two other schools uh in the in the district and I believe it's a unique opportunity to bring this work down to the central part uh of the county and um we we've already started this work uh and I'm really excited about it to to see our third
028grade literacy work is in alignment with what's happening across the state and and um I just really also want to take the opportunity to uplift the academics team and the work that they've been doing with the University of Maryland around literacy um this just continues to grow those eort those efforts to make sure our kids are able to read um I just can't say enough about what our academics team is doing around literacy and I think this will continue to codify what are Best Practices that can actually be held across the district to make sure all of our kids are reading on grade level and so that's why I offered um this this amendment um um to the budget uh just to include and expand the existing work that's already happening U but I just
029wanted to take the opportunity to uplift our academics team and the work that they do to make sure our kids can read and to show how this really aligns with our existing work thank you board member Moss board member Walker yeah just for clarity are you pulling that bill um Dr Moss no I just used my two minutes to talk about it I might have Abus okay so I do have a bill I mean a bill I do have one that I just wanted additional clarification on it's not yours but I just wanted to know about process um after the ones are pulled that we're no longer going to be talking about will we be going through each one so that the sponsor has an opportunity to talk through it or is this the opportunity
030because that's we've done that prior and I just if that if not I'll ask it now yes so the ones that are pulled we'll talk about them and talk about them separately and vote on them separately the ones that are not pulled we're voting on them together in the division the ones that are being pulled we're not going to talk about anymore correct like those are the ones that people are wiping away right no we are pulling them from voting on The divisions amendment to talk about and vote on them individually director Fitzpatrick do you have a clarification there you're muted sorry I think to answer your question CH Walker now is the time for you um to speak about uh if you have questions about either of the two currently it's not something built
031in for each of the maker of the amendments to speak about because um we did speak on them at length but you do have 2.5 minutes to discuss anything J remains of this motion great okay well the chair is wanted to talk and then I'll go after that ask my question thank no board board member um Walker I was I'm sorry oh it's no problem I didn't know if you were given the rules no problem um I know you all talked on it last night I haven't had an opportunity to go to aafa committee I don't know if all the public has seen it yet so it might be good to give like a a one minute over but the one I had it was actually one of um Shar Jackson one of yours so
032I'm glad you're get ready to talk it is um adding to the board office and so I'm struggling and this is for anybody that has additions to any Central um positions I'm just struggling a little bit with us um having a $37 million deficit and adding anything to Central positions especially when some of our amendments are to reduce Central positions um especially when we needed so much in a classroom and so I was just hoping you could help me um a little bit with your thoughts on um that new position thank you absolutely but maybe it got pulled I no we're division of academics right now the board office comes up oh was separate yes oh for every section sorry why I'm trying and I apolog I know it's a little bit I'm trying to
033make sure I read it properly and explain it properly which is why I'm reading all of the amendments in the division that we're talking about at that moment I'm clear I apologize sorry no need to apologize because if you weren't clear other people probably weren't either I still see um hands raised I'm going to go in the order that they are raised uh board member Moss thank you Chief how thank you I just wanted to clarify because we're tracking the discussion and I want to make sure that our team is clear on the terminology that's being used when I heard pulled I thought the amendment was being rescinded but if that's not the case if it's being pulled to discuss separately if you can just clarify if all as we're going through the Amendments which
034ones are being rescinded versus maybe pulled to the side for further discussion if you can clarify that that would be helpful thank you absolutely my statement to begin with was alter withdraw or pull and I apologize it probably should have been pull for additional discussion um is that is that statement now clear alter withdraw as in the person who wrote the amendment or propos propos the amendment no longer would like that amendment to go forward and then pull in terms of us actually talking and voting on it separately from the division vote that's super helpful and I know we I saw some other hand a few other hands and then hands that went down because I want to make sure everybody is clear so at this time we have no more hands chair Jackson did
035you want to say something no I was going to offer that point of clarity but I think you summed it up um I'll go back I guess repeat at this point the question is with the two amendments that were pulled the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of academics to include Aviation program continuation and the third grade literacy lab pilot is there any remaining discussion for those two amendments seeing none uh Miss Adin please take a roll call vote Dr andall Miss bu hi Mr BRS hi Miss Brown hi Mrs go MC hi Mr Jango Dr Moss I miss Walker I CH Jackson all right seven in the affirmative thank you there are seven in the affirmative the budget amendment Aviation program continuation and
036third grade literacy lab pilot are approved going to our first pulled items special education compliance liaison recognizing board member Walker yes um is there somewhere um where do I go to see the breakdown by departments sorry are you looking maybe I could call reel I hate to call him in the middle of a meeting but are you looking at the sheet fiscal year 2026 Board of Education amendments template okay and then um where do I go to see the order in which you're going through them in because I'm also trying to pull it up directly at the same time to go through it to see if it's an addition or subtraction ction I'm so sorry no problem I am looking at and I don't know um director Fitzpatrick can we get sent out thank you
037so much can we get the I was I was gonna ask specifically can we get the the Excel sheet that this comes from so that we can sort it by division to board member Walker's Point no I can I I know where the sheet is for this one here thank you so much that's I'm looking for right there and I will just comment it is in the order of division if you it is I see it y I just need to get on that sheet thank you guys I appreciate it thank you no thank you again if you had a question somebody else probably had it as well Vice chair Briggs thank you so much chair go mckin um so I first want to start by just thanking the um uh the the the academics
038Department the special education department for their feedback um I want to thank community members including um Miss Peggy Higgins who has offered you know some really helpful insight into a lot of what's happening with special education on the ground um and you know I want to say that the goal really here is that we know that Prince George's County continues to navigate challenges with compliance as noted in uh meetings and and I know that there's a lot of hard work to continue to address that um the you know the spirit of the amendment was really to ensure that we had the additional supports to address the concerns that we know impact our families and our students and our communities um and and then I also want to say the ust's office was at one point
039a requirement per policy that the board has um with all that in mind you know I'm I I remain committed to ensuring that our um you know our students our schools and our staff have the resources that need to be effective but after additional clarification and context from um Dr Wy and others um I think pulling right now this specific amendment is the the the best thing to do there's definitely been support from um the academics department but I think right now additional Clarity um to really kind of refine a role that makes Mo the most sense and one of the pieces that I'll highlight is that this role that I was envisioning would capture more than the special education compliance liaison would be able to do um and there are a number of roles
040that do that there would also be another highlight is that there um will continue to likely be compliance issues and I think that what is the right next step is um perhaps a role and and I think we can probably have continued discussions about that we definitely can have continued discussions about it um and whether this is a next year um you know budget amendment or a discussion um for now to figure out the scope of work that that's something that we can do um and then last thing I'll say is the ust's office though it was um you know abolished uh there are Specialists Regional Specialists that handle a lot of this work so that work continues it is happening um and so you know I know that so many stakeholders ERS were very
041passionate about this issue and they continue to be very passionate about this issue I continue to be very passionate about it um but right now I don't think that the the special education compliance liaison role is the right answer to this problem um that that we're trying to address um so thank you so much thank you so much for that um detail Vice chair Briggs I just want to make sure that I'm clear does that mean that you are now withdrawing that amendment I would like to withdraw Amendment two special education compliance Le on in amendment five EMB busman's office got it thank you so much Vice chair Briggs board member booer struther uh I was gonna ask the same thing if withraw was where we are and and again just offer support around the
042Future Vision of the of the special education position and if at any time uh some history about the former structure of the Ombudsman office is needed I um would be happy to be part of those conversations about why the area resolution Specialists have been just way way more effective thanks absolutely thank you board member booer Str struther superintendent house thank you chair I just wanted to to mention a couple things on on both of um Vice chair uh Briggs as amendments number number one in reference to the special education appli compliance a big portion of what what we've seen around non-compliances had to do with um just not having certified teachers quite frankly and that's something that we're truly focused on in terms of this uh HR audit uh that we moved on but um
043Vice chair Briggs I'd like to uh to to get some time with you maybe next week and talk a little bit about what I was thinking in terms of potential uh rorg I had a chance to dive back in to take a look at what the anbum office looked like and I've actually worked with an anbum office office in the past as well and there might be a a cost neutral opportunity uh to offer some Synergy to ensure that we're utilizing some of our current uh resources but reorganizing them in a way that that might make sense I look forward to to touching base with maybe you and and Sher Jackson uh about idea that could come maybe at the the start of the new FIS school year thank you so much superintendent house superintendent
044excuse me house Dr White good evening everyone before we leave academics I did want to take a moment just to thank uh board member Briggs we've mentioned a lot about our our partnership with the University Maryland that would not have been possible without him um while my team is definitely doing a lot of work I just want to thank you for bringing that to the district I me it's been very powerful in the work that we've done I wanted just to acknowledge you thank you thank you so much Chief white board member Briggs yeah I think this is a night of gratitude but I wanted to say uh to the superintendent that um we have a call tomorrow so that's the great thing I want to say this publicly for the for the uh public
045to know that we we're serious about this and it sounds like this will be something that'll move forward so just grateful for that and um and also I want to acknowledge I know this um it wasn't just me that helped with the UMD uh UMD partnership with mile but it was a former board member um um board member Murray so I want to just acknowledge Him as well because it was his partnership with a lot of the relationships he established there so um but thank you all and looking forward to continue conversations thank you so much Vice chair brig so with those two amendments being withdrawn we're going to move on to the division of accountability where we have five amendments expansion of Hillside hwsc program expansion of lacour program Grant expert grants management assessment
046and strategy offices merger the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for theis vision of accountability board members are there any is there any discussion if you would like to amend resend SL withdrawal or pull an amendment for discussion you may make a secondary motion at this time board member excuse me Vice chair Briggs thank you so much chair go M Kant I would like to pull um item nine Grant expert and item 10 grants management assessment noted thank you board member Boozer struther I would like to pull the strategy offices merger for more discussion noted thank you board member Boozer struther board member Brown yes I would like to pull amendment number eight the expansion of leyc promoter program noted do we have any discussion sorry um
047okay the question is shall the Prince georgees County shall the Prince George's County Board of Education well I think I'm able to shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approved the budget amendments for the division of accountability to include the expansion of Hillside hwsc program and the grants management expert that's not the one that you are pulling board member Briggs correct or you're pulling both of them for discussion buing B for discussion okay so shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of accountability to include expansion of Hillside hwsc program Miss Adelaide please call a roll call vote Dr Ando Miss bu hi Mr BRS hi Mrs I miss G Mrs Gans I Dr Moss I miss Walker I I hate that I didn't pull it for
048more discussion hi okay Jackson hi seven in the affirmative there are seven in the affirmative the budget amendments are approved and we will go back to the ones that are pulled for discussion uh starting with LA YC promotur program yes I think I was the one that who who brought that up um the question that I have when we talk about the expansion is it just the expansion for where the program is now or is that across the district so this was my Amendment and from my standing after speaking with uh Chief ster as well as the several of the people we heard from earlier today this contract is up at the end of this fiscal year um and so when I originally uh requested it I wanted to make sure that the funding for
049this contract contract included those two schools that I um initially mentioned um Oxen Hill Middle and Oxen Hill High School so that we could make sure we were funding that um and then I have since learned that we are we are moving and Dr ster I will probably hand it over to you after I explain we are moving that um that work to Community Schools since most of those schools are Community Schools um Oxen Hill High School is not a community school however which is why I did not pull um or withdraw the amendment and Dr ster are you able to speak some more on what's happening with that contract I am so there's two contracts and questions here um what you just mentioned is the the hillside contract sort of let me back up
050so lyc contract is ending June 30 that's the contract that we're looking to roll over to Community Schools the hillside contract which is for the two 16,000 here that contract is ending next year so we do have a year left on that contract and I believe the request here was specifically the service to schools however those schools are currently being served under this contract but it's my understanding that U that this amendment was to help provide additional funding due to loss funding through other means uh so um that so to short answer your question is if we simply take the 216,000 and put it towards the hillside contract that contract does not have a specific list of identified schools so Hillside and the schools could allocate those funds accordingly there's reference to five schools without
051names so Hillside wishes to engage with five schools is the capacity under their existing contract so there would need to be some changes perhaps to the existing contract with the additional fund that are being added um so some language could be added you know as a result of this Dr ster I believe board member Brown's question was specifically about um lyc and their contract my apologies so Lac yes that contract does end in June of 2025 and the intention is to move forward with Community SPS I know that time was up but board member Brown was your question answered yes I I didn't know if we have if we would have a second round I believe there's time for a second round if you had another yeah I just had a follow up when when
052I think about lyc is that going to be accessible to all students um my concern is that with the current Administration and the funding it may look or seem that we're only targeting um certain students but in Community Schools we know that all black and brown children um would benefit from this so I just wanted to kind of get some more clarity on the program so the the target is to again have the scope of work that's identifi within this program transition over to Community Schools Community Schools would issue an RFP but it would service only those schools that are identified as Community Schools which is over half of our schools so it would include the student membership of all of those schools and um yes so it would include all students within those designations
053of Community Schools And to clarify the specific amendment was included and not withdrawn because Oxen Hill High School is not currently designated as a community school but they would be losing the support of this program I don't see any other hands but I did see a hand go up and then go down is there any more are there any additional questions or discussion of this item seeing none um oh board member Walker yeah thank you so much couldn't get there fast enough I just was wondering how we choose um just for my own information how we choose schools for such programming it's not to you um board member it's more to maybe Doug trater how do we choose um specific programs um such as this one in the one before but they um in their
054districts thank you so the current Lac and Hillside contracts have been Partnerships that have been in place for years they've been supporting these schools uh since the initiation of this program which was uh during the Dr Maxwell Administration why the identified identification of these particular schools back then I would have to I would have to research that no that's yeah I think that's fine you've answered it sufficiently I guess um maybe me outside of this just understanding the program because there might be benefits in being able to apply this to other um across the district I think I'm with um board member Brown just the some of these are amazing programs and to hear about them during the amendment process makes you start thinking about your um your your Scholars inside your District thank [Music]
055you thank you Bor member Walker is there are there any additional I apologize y'all I keep seeing the hands go up and down and I want to make sure I'm not missing anyone seeing no additional h the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendment expansion of lyc prur program Miss Adela please call a rooll take a roll call vote Dr andall hi Miss hi Mr Briggs hi Mrs Brown I Mrs G pant I Dr Moss I miss Walker hi CH Jackson hi it's in the affirmative there are eight in the affirmative the budget amendment is approved our next budget amendment for the division of accountability is Grant expert board members do we have any discussion Vice chair Briggs thanks so much chair go m i I want to
056quickly say that the grant expert first want to thank the accountability office Dr ster um for his feedback yesterday at the oafa committee meeting um made a lot of sense what this role would do um however my kind of vision of what this role would be which was really a grant liaison that would work with schools more closely um and then collaborate with the Grant's office was the vision um doesn't seem to kind of resonate with this specific role there's also I think a lot more um there just the the for lack of better term the fiscal note that's tied to that is pretty um significant so with all of that being said I would want to work further with the office to kind of you know identify and develop something that really fits and
057addresses the need um versus having a role I do however want to thank again community members in particular um Miss Marilyn Irving who um was really passionate about this idea and thought that you know having something that we really um create somewhat of a connection between our schools and outside sources of funding especially during these really challenging Economic Times um as we all know is really essential and so having ways that we can kind of identify different revenue streams is going to be important and it's something that I'm still committed to um but think that right now this at the cost of what it is um is is is not fiscally responsible so I would like to withdraw the grant expert Amendment thank you board member Briggs Vice chair Briggs board member Walker you know
058I appreciate that uh Vice chair Briggs I will say that any type of additional Revenue we can get into our system in order to help with programming is amazing so I'm with you on that one um I I think that um with with your pulling it back or with drawing it that maybe we have an opportunity for the superintendent team um in the grants office to really hone in on additional Revenue sources that we can get I know that sometimes we're short staffed in that office but it is something that um should be a priority for us as we look at this deficit so uh I don't see there he is uh Mr house maybe that's something that you can really double down on for for Grants um as we go out forward and even
059with some of our Congress people who are uh offering grants that that would be amazing for us this time so thank you Mr bcks for even thinking of that thank you you board member Walker seeing as the amendment Grant expert has been withdrawn uh we'll move on to Grants management assessment Amendment Vice chair Briggs again this is for the public fruition but you know the grants management assessment was really going to take stock on the entire grants office provide some tailored um supports around ways to be more efficient and effective um and I think that's a really important and great idea um and Dr or agreed yesterday um however I think really developing um a contract that that that that the range of what we would pay which would likely be more than 15,000 um
060since this would have to be a bided process um is something that I would want to further develop so I think right now um given that context I am going to withdraw the grants um management assessment thank you Vice chair Briggs I did have my hand raised but I will defer to you board member Walker and then I'll then I will speak oh your hand was up first it's no problem um but I I can go I was just wondering it's more of a question especially as we talk about grants I'm wondering if the Community Partnerships office is is helpful in this sense um it's more for Mr house um or if if that can be helpful in I know that there were some reductions that were proposed inside of that aspect but do we
061have Staffing in that department who are able to help with Community Partnerships and engaging the way Mr Briggs was saying we can definitely be able to pull in additional funds that way different function uh quite frankly uh if there are opportunities that come up from a community engagement standpoint they typically uh come come back to our grants office for the necessary support okay so that lever is there so our I think what I understood is that Our Community Partnerships and engagement right now as they make those connections they give it to the grants office who then goes forward and pursues those grants right I heard it right the grants office is the uh is the the centralized uh area where we want uh grants to be focused on uh whether that you know be coming
062from a particular Department uh particular School uh we want it to be centralized in in the Grant's office thank you Vice chair Briggs um I just wanted to add on top of that for clarity for the public and also for myself as a new board member um is there opportunity for board members to engage and find out more about that grants process and specifically how we in our capacity um can support that work and what opportunity there is for the community to then be involved in that as well I've been contact Ed by several constituents who either formally work as grant writers or have some ideas about ways uh just wanted to make sure that we have some sort of way for us to connect the community with the school district especially since we are
063facing this budget deficit on grants we'd be glad to uh to set something aside whether it be small groups uh put together some kind of flowchart uh that really gives an explanation of what the process is so I'll get with both Chiefs Trader and um um Louise to uh to look at uh what might be a better way to communicate this to ensure that not only the board uh but also the community understands uh how and uh and what it looks like to to walk through this process greatly appreciated superintendent house board member Brown yes hi I just wanted to flag for situational awareness that this particular meeting is not on board docs unless somebody else has seen it so um for the board staff and for uh other board members we really want to
064make sure that we're transparent with the public um and this is an this is an oversight that cannot be missed moving forward over I don't know if somebody else wanted to address that because I I can see this on board dots I might be clicking on the wrong thing that or something different than what you are is can somebody address do we have somebody able to address that or fix that in the moment and I'll move to board member uh Boozer Struthers to I I was going to say that it's it's on board docs because it was a two-part hearing into a board meeting with the pause if we had extra time it's one it's one entry in board docs yeah been getting um constituent feedback saying that the public cannot see it so I
065don't know if it's because we have access to it um but the public is not able to have access I do see um director Fitzpatrick yes I want to make sure I understand um the the feedback is that the the Amendments is not on board dos um currently uh when the Excel sheet that lists the 23 amendments and the links to the explanations is listed on board dos but I'll just make sure that it is for public viewing last I checked it was Al just double check thank you board member boo Boozer Struthers did you have another uh no not on that topic waiting on the the amendment okay board member Moss I believe the concern was that this wasn't posted at all the meeting wasn't posted at all not necessarily the documents um the
066general public might be looking under feature tab rather than looking at um the tab around operating budget and fiscal Affairs so I know that happens sometimes but I think the concern was that the meeting wasn't up or the or the number yeah or m brown can you clarify just so that we can make sure that the board office is addressing the right thing yes so when you when you go on board docs and you go to the main governing board you do see the February 20th 2025 superintendent proposed budget for the 5: p.m meeting however you do not see it for the 6 PM meeting and I think that is what they are referring to got it I'm seeing that as well um I know go ahead director Fitz Patrick I was just going to
067say that board member Bo sh is correct that so that that entry is a work session and public hearing for a five o'clock with the break in between for for a six o'clock so it is there and it was there on time but I I see how there may have been some confusion I think to that uh Point board member Brown a huge part of what we have been saying in several of these um work sessions is that we would just like some more clarity around this and we're also hearing that from our constituents so um going forward I think we're going to have some sort of discussion about how we can make things more transparent and clear for our constituents to see in situations like this so thank you so much for calling for
068call in that out and we will see what the I guess proper procedures Etc are to make sure that that's clear for our constituents in the future because my phone is also going off about people not being able to find the meeting board member Walker yes everybody's getting text got it so I'm just looking for um direction to our public now as we sit right here so they should go to board do just so I understand it correctly Mr Fitzpatrick if you want to just come on and just give direction to our public so could join us it's the it's when they click on a five o' right just so we could be clear oh I think he might be doing something in the background um is there is Cindy here yes I'm here perfect
069if you could just give direction to our there he there he is my screen real quickly that's okay thank you so if we go over to the BW um B dogs and I'm signing as a on a attendee or the public rather I we go to the superintendent um budget work session and public hearing if you hover over to view agenda it's right here under the presentation section thank you and if you go back to that page and just show the if it's okay if you could just show where the phone number is I mean the the zoom link when they click on it where they see the zoom link and everything right on the first page as soon as you hover over it it's going to bring of the link to the meeting thank
070you so much um welcome and on the agenda is where you find the agenda items thank you thank you so much for showing that our constituents I'm pretty sure we greatly appreciate that I personally appreciated that so thank you since the amendment was pulled we will move on to the next Amendment strategy offices merger board member Boozer struther yeah thank thank you so much so I I I just want to make sure I heard the conversation clearly last night Dr ster that um that this reduction would not be beneficial that you are merging blueprint implementation strategy strategic planning strategy and frankly you know I am thrilled that we are at this point finally it's been it's been difficult and um I I do do not observe that it would be beneficial to reduce the uh
071experts that you have working on this because getting the plan right understanding our future reporting compliance and Reporting and compliance that this is the moment where we want to get all of that right so Dr strer if you can just repeat what you said last night that you do need the equivalence and that it will be cost neutral but you're you were asking for not a reduction I just want to make sure I'm I'm hearing that correctly that is correct I believe the spirit of this is to look at maximizing efficiencies um we are aligning our strategic planning efforts for blueprint and our district strategic plan they are going to come together in 2026 to prepare for the 2027 school year so this is that planning year so we will be looking at again combining
072the efforts of those two strategic planning offices one for blueprint one for the district strategic plan uh this upcoming year and you are absolutely correct this upcoming year is the critical Year we're developing both plans so we need all of those resources um so we are already moving forward with discussions and talking through and having those offices work together so again we're looking to squeeze more blood out of this turnup by merging those off those offices together to address needs and get them all thinking alike but yes we do need those expertise from both sides of the house to come together for this upcoming year because this year we'll Define what our strategic plan is moving forward as well as our blueprint response moving forward so thank you for pointing that out yeah thank you
073I I I mean I I agree I just the the I I know the expertise that's in these offices and and I know the difficulty of what we are experiencing out of Anapolis with budget concerns and we you know we're fighting hard to stop the you know this billion dollar reduction over the next eight years but this is going to be complicated and the um compliance requirements for the aib msde are just they're just excessive like we just we have to get the plan right and we have to know where we're headed so um I I would ask that we do not reduce positions here this year thank you board member Boozer Str board member Moss yeah thank you so much for your questions I thank you for your your comments around this item I
074propos this amendment in that the initial office the the initial findings was that this office was responsible for Esser one two and three reporting and the leads grants and many of the initiatives um my understanding are expiring that we're in this grant um in no way was the idea to get rid of blueprint staff um the spirit of this amendment was to combine these two offices who both have strategy and their title has Strate strategic functions and so um that was the purpose of this um in no way was this an attempt to uh remove staff who had been working on blueprint only one of these offices was actually doing blueprint um the goal here was to have a cost savings measure um you know to be quite honest uh we have to make tough
075decisions around budget items sometimes and make sure we don't impact schools and classrooms so this is largely driven by that um I do believe there's an opportunity uh to accept a friendly Amendment around this um to rather than reducing uh 50% of the staff not having two directors I do believe we don't need two directors to run these two offices so um I would be amable to Revis to amending um it to at least remove two positions rather than the 50% that I proposed so my Amendment proposes merging these offices and once you merge it um reduce the staff by 50% I am amable um to remove in two positions once the offices emerg rather than uh 50% uh because there is a reduction of responsibilities uh there is no planning around Esther one two
076and three we are losing some of these other grants and this team um was planning for blueprint all the while working on some of those functions so um I am amable uh to revising but I do think these offices need to be combined um to do this work thank you board member Moss um I saw hand okay hand is back up board member um Boozer struther would you mind letting me get to board member Walker and then coming back to you for our well board member Walker then superintendent house and then back to you for second round I was hoping superintendent house would be able to answer the question that I have so maybe he should help to explain thinking that's what his hand is up for are you helping in explanation superintendent house or
077no I'd be glad to to kind of share my thoughts here I don't know if it'll answer the question that uh that you have that I haven't heard as of yet can you ask your question first B member Walker or do you are you just waiting for whatever yeah let me just go no problem I um was going to tap into what um Dr Moss has already said I think that in this effort of going through here to assist as much as we could with the $37 million deficit it was to take a look at where consolidation could happen from the outside looking in and when you look at titles like strategy not really knowing the details in them but reading what they are and seeing that one aspect is looking at blueprint another one
078isn't really trying to come up with creative ideas to reduce that budget and tap into us getting more money into the classrooms with that said I was also going to draw on part of this money here is a proposal I made to have all the central offices reduce their discretionary budgets by 10% to Aid in that um and that's across all Central offices and so I will I just wanted to state that there and I think my overall question and I appreciate uh Dr Strader for saying hey I'm trying to do what we can over here and so if Dr ster is able to run this effectively and efficiency with what we have now in order to get the job done I say that we lean on the expert and if he's able to do
079that then we do that so we can use the funding elsewhere it's not a more it's not a question it's more of a I think this is some of the hard decisions that we're going to have to make as we continue to go through thank you thank you board member Walker superintendent house yes I'm I'm actually gonna have um um duck Trader Chiefs Trader to to jump in here but what I will say is because we we haven't gotten the clarity uh during during this Federal Administration and all the changes that are coming down what we do know is of course the Department of Education is going through some major changes we don't know uh what that's going to look like but what I will say if there are dollars that end up flowing through
080it's going to come you know through this office it's going to you know pick up uh these responsibilities but I do want U Chief Strader to share some specifics around what this looks like uh I will say this we have really started to do some work on the C at the cabinet level to ensure that these teams come in uh on a consistent basis uh to start merging blueprints start merging the idea of our strategic plan knowing that we're going to be moving into a a new five-year strategic plan very soon uh so we had some Synergy really really going uh Dr strer yes thank you for the opportunity so I just wanted everyone to keep in mind when you're looking at the Strategic initiative office that's currently comprised of a director um an admin
081assistant supporting that director and two specialists so when you're talking about reducing this office by two positions that's leaving truly one person to manage all of blueprint so uh we are looking to reor these positions we are looking to uh redefine these positions but maintain the same position counts so the pluses and minuses will be relatively cost neutral but the blueprint effort itself with all of the planning all of the progress monitoring everything associate with this is going to be a bigger job than just one person so I'm just I'm just trying to put it out there I understand it sounds like two positions is is reasonable but we've been asked to actually add to this office and add to the strategic planning office as we're getting ready to develop these plans so the reduction
082is just so I just wanted to create that context so folks actually understood what the removal of two positions would look like regarding and uh Dr straight I'm going to take your last 18 seconds if you don't mind I think it's important to know and to realize that these employees are are members of of the Union as well so it comes with um you know maybe we have to ship them different places throughout the district so we're going to be taking a close look at this through through human resources as well thank you so much I don't believe to this point um board member Moss has gotten to speak on this specific Amendment and I know board member Bo strs your hand has been up I want to make sure we get through round one
083before we get to second round but please no I'm not trying to silence you I just want to make sure that everybody gets round speak she she should actually first and then I should go second board member booer strs I I also see Chief how's hand up and um maybe she has some additional insights before we continue you yes Chief how thank you um I just wanted to add with uh with what Dr Str referenced in terms of the blueprint implementation and ongoing compliance we are in the very early stages of implementation this is a heavy lift that's growing by the day by each month and so as we get into the next phase of this the work around the implementation the ongoing planning and the monitoring is going to increase and if we're not
084in compliance there's a major Financial impact where our funding will be withheld so I want to make sure that we're being very mindful of when we're thinking about an opportunity to cut cost could be at the risk of not being in compliance which will result in funding being withheld to the district thank you Chief Howell board member Boozer Str yeah thank you chief chief how you U well Dr ster and chief how you you know both really get to my concerns and and my experience and you know the the um the superintendence association of Maryland has really um you know been highlighting that we are moving into this critical area of of compliance and Reporting and it's I think hundred 79 reports that each district will be providing it's a really big number it's in
085it's in their um 14 page um plan this year mentions it and there is a risk risk of loss of funds and now there's a new bill that's talking about Community Schools and compliance and potential loss of funds that we just I I'm just very concerned if we lose our expertise it this reorg I appreciate the reorg as I've said but I I just don't think now is the time for this this Division and I um I I'll be voting no for those concerns and I will certainly continue to look for reductions to help with this but this one is a risk thank you thank you board member booer strether board member Walker yes absolutely thank you so much for the perspectives that you all are sharing tonight I think that's the beauty of these
086discussions here especially when we can't watch the um the meeting that just happened last night because we're on other board calls um so one of the things I just wanted to share is given what I'm hearing now is a severe risk this is what I think I'm hearing is that we're at a severe risk of not only compliance but also the work that we need to do in the office to support the blueprint with this proposed reduction um Dr ster can you help us with with if you were to go knowing the work that is there um is there any um sort of merging and integration that can happen to execute the work and what could that look like inside of the office I think just to drive for Solutions focused um activities or you
087might say to us hey I'm not able to cut any of that right now but help us with what that looks like so we can progress forward where are you I lost where you are there you are on my screen yeah so uh we have been working through plans of pop we looking at merging the two offices uh to board member BRS I believe or Moss um was mentioning the fact that we don't need two directors associated with this office and we would agree we'd be looking at uh moving towards a supervisor with three Specialists under there but in as we look to adjust the positions and realign the positions to better support blueprint there would be some pluses and minuses and redefining these positions so that's why I would say right now there might
088be some some savings but I wouldn't go to the test of of $100,000 in savings but we are looking to reorg and combine these efforts under one director and and make this happen thank you I'll give my remaining time I just wanted to make sure because when we vote on this we're going to be voting on that piece there as well as the 10% for Central offices and um I know that we haven't really talked that but um I'll give the remaining time over to Dr Moss if he wanted to add into that piece thanks thank you board member Walker I don't think in the rules we have to give remaining time but I appreciate that thank you for member Moss yeah so I just want to clarify a couple of points that were made
089while I appreciate some of the commentary I think I revised my amendment in this original conversation um to only remove the director um so that we can move these Services over but I will name for you we can make the case for every office in this District that there's going to be a risk associated with that but when you have a $37.4 million just like we do at our own home table you have to make you have to make cuts and sacrifices and as we continue to go through this we'll be able to make the case for that we've not talked about the strategic planning and resource management office and how it's staffed and what those responsibilities are which is where this would be folded into but in the interest of concern uh I'm willing
090to amend my Amendment tonight and remove the director so that there's no there are not two directors now that this office can be fully Consolidated which was the spirit of it and I do want to clarify one point so that we're not over you know focusing on the role the chief of accountability under Dr strer has someone who does federal reporting I believe the superintendent said that title one and those potential cuts from the federal government could see those we currently have an Essa entitle one coordinator in this office we also have someone for monitoring and accountability if you have an office that's focus on monitoring and accountability they could actually monitor and assure accountability of the blueprint as well I don't think you need another office doing monitoring and accountability separate from monitoring and
091accountability of the blueprint there is some duplication of services I see here but you know you all are working here every day I'll pull back on my Amendment but I would ask the superintendent that as you think about reor there's there's a consideration um for how we consolidate services I don't think we can continue to do the work that we're doing with a central office this big and redundant services I I just don't see how we can do that and this is the first step that I saw but I would you know suggest that the superintendent comes back we to ro bless plan um to show how we can do this but in the interest of this conversation I will pull back on my Amendment um but I I'll I'll only ask that the amendment
092be to merge the two offices and remove one of the directors in the interest of the conversation but we're gonna make a lot of tough decisions over the next year around budget and we can all make the case but I want to be clear there's somebody that can do compliance for in monitoring and accountability Dr ster has an entire team focused on all these works and we're just talking about one today thank you board member Moss I did have my hand raised I it lowered so I will defer uh Dr andul board member anderl because this is your first your first time raising your hand I want to make sure that we are having Equity of voice in these conversations thank you um so actually um Dr Moss's comment um was helpful I was trying
093to get clarity on on exactly if we were talking about the original Amendment or if we're talking about um kind of this uh suggested um adaptation and so I wasn't sure um s stra Dr if you had the opportunity to speak to what this could look like with this suggested revision if that was what you were speaking to when you were saying that I think I heard you say that you know removing of two offices certainly was Su I'm sorry two position certainly was not feasible but if we actually did adapt it and suggest to um have it just be one one role could you speak to what that could potentially look like or if you if you're able to at this point or if you need more time to think to actually think through
094and speak to what that could look like or how that would impact your office uh so I I'm struggling with this a little bit um it's it's one thing if we're look looking at a reduction of Staff of sorts it's another thing to call out individual positions the roles and responsibilities of individual positions to me here needs a lot more work than just talking through this in a an agenda you know in a board meeting of this sort um the the blueprint office has significant responsibilities in what it does uh across the state the blueprint is defining our funding it is what we do uh so any reductions to this office like we shared earlier would be problematic to redefine positions better align resources across other offices uh to board member off's Point uh we
095are looking always to maximize our efficiencies and so forth so again I'm struggling with pointing out particular positions because again this is this is challenging uh without especially understanding the details of what these particular positions do so board member mooss if there's a motion to eliminate positions from my Division I would rather focus at the division of the whole and I could find the stings there and redefine the work within my division but to attempt to call out individual positions and and here try to tell you how I would do this if you did X Y and Z that that's really a challenge for on the spot so I would you know um I don't know how to best answer this question uh so um you know again we are always looking to maximize our
096efficiencies we are looking between these offices to maximize our efficiencies uh and our strategic initiatives office works very closely with grants there's because they're both within strategic planning Resource Management often times our strategic planning folks are helping our grants folks and our blueprint folks blueprints helping grants they're also helping strategic initiatives so it's a pool of resources helping to address all of these needs so to say I'm going to pull one person and how that would impact the whole you know or two people or if you eliminate a director the director also has the assistant that goes with them so it's an impact of two people so there's a lot of nuances of what we're talking about here but that's why it's it's problematic you know if there's interest in reduction of positions you know
097I'd like to keep that at a high level you know so we can best figure out where and how that would be least intrusive to the operations of our division thank you Dr ster Dr Murphy Baldwin thank you uh good evening everyone I just wanted to jump in because I know as we continue to have the dialogue regarding uh positions and Staffing I want us to be mindful that um many if not all of these individuals we are referencing are in um the unions as the superintendent referenced which also means that at the end of the day if a position were to be eliminated Human Resources would still owe that individual a position um and so we would just be moving that person that position that funding to just something different um I also want
098to be mindful that with the negotiated agreement along with administrative procedures having a conversation that centers specifically on positions that would have incumbents does open us up for liability that um if matters are litigated because of this conversation it could potentially result in actually more money being spent on things that we actually don't don't want to do such as litigated matters so I I think Dr ster said it so eloquently that we do want to look at a high level and stay away from positions because many have incumbents in it that I just want us to be mindful would speak against our um administrative procedures and even some of our board policies um so I'm happy to have any conversations offline to talk about the specifics but I just wanted to share that with everyone
099as we continue the conversation thank you thank you Dr Murphy Baldwin Dr Moss I just want to clarify for the general public I don't believe our directors are part of the union we can have that conversation a little bit later um if I'm wrong I stand corrected but what I want to do say is you know we had 2700 FTE last year that went unfilled and so I don't think we're short on opportunities to find folks a place to work but what I do want to clarify um is that um I hold true I don't think we need two directors for both of these offices if we can consolidate and remove the director you know that that is my Amendment um you know I these Amendments have been posted uh for a number of days
100uh if this Administration believes that there's an opportunity to reord uh Chief straighter division um I would have gladly accepted that before this conversation now um but I I think we have to make tough decisions I'm very hyper cognizant of the blueprint um I was there yesterday fighting for it and so I don't want to see reductions in that but two offices with strategy in the title where one has lost some of its work the S One S 2 S 3 work some of those grants have falled out I think we've got to be good stewards of the resources that we do have and as we advocate for them um so I just want to drive this point home we had 2,700 ftes last year unfilled in the district uh in some capacity and so
101we're not short on opportunities for people to work in other roles we have number of roles that weren't filled I mean I found out today you know we we had 20 athlet athletic trainer positions 12 of them um you know we looked at I mean 12 of them last year in the budget we only feel we only feel two so there are opportunities we we've got to be good stewards of our resources I just want to end my comments there thank you board member Moss board member Walker yes thank you so much you know as we continue down these amendments we're going to have a lot of discussions about where we found positions and where some opportun ities are so I thank you Dr Baldwin for reminding us about unions and about being good stewards
102of our people and I just wanted to say that we firmly believe in the people that do the work every day like every single day so to the public looking on this is as a result of $37 million and our struggle when we are there talking about blueprint and how we're fighting for making sure we keep the Community Resources um for our schools like we're there fighting and as we take a look at the resources I'm not just talking about duck straters uh Dr sters I'm just talking in general as we continue with these amendments you're going to hear like hey about Central offices right nobody's looked at each and every one of them but when we say cut travel by potentially 10% the same in the board office like I have an amendment for
103that too it is just we got to find where this money is so I just want people to understand it it's not a personal thing it is where can we really shave and still do the work that we need for our for our Scholars so Dr ster I think what I heard you say is that you are aligned with the revised um Amendment which was to look at the directors inside of your Division and if that is if that still holds true then I think we'll be able to move on the um is that what I understand Dr ster because I know there's been a I just want to make sure before I vote that that's what you were aligned to kind of taking a look at that structure there with the revised um amendment
104that was suggested the reduction of the director position yeah thank you um Dr ster and I know it's not easy it's just taking a look at where we can grab on pieces thank you and I see Miss he but I'm done thank you thank you so much board member Walker I'm gonna because I haven't had a chance to say anything I want to make sure that I get um my comment on and then I will get back to you again um board member Boozer strs because again I don't want anyone's voice silenced in this very important conversation this chair chair b um what I think is important is uh I've heard us talk a lot about the $37 million gap and what we haven't had an opportunity to do which I think would be extremely
105helpful is to have our Chief Financial Officer talk about uh what we have focused on already what we're thinking um we've gone through some of this before and uh and offer an opportunity for us to at least get an update so the Community as well as a board could hear uh where we are in reference to the Gap absolutely and I have every intention of uh recognizing Chief how I just wanted to add for the record that we have are now on our third budget work session and questions Etc and this is not to any one particular person questions have come up repeatedly we've asked as board members questions repeatedly and the responses that we have gotten have continuously been either we'll get back to you or they are answers that do not directly answer
106our questions to the point where we then getting questions from our constituents about hey I don't know if you had a back room conversation about X Y and Z so I just want to make sure that since we are in this public forum now and we have definitely heard from uh Dr Murphy Baldwin and everyone else about all of the potential implications of some of these amendments it would have been extremely helpful and I hope in the future we can have have these conversations like when the question is directly asked as opposed to getting in this situation now on our third budget work session where we're literally having it when we are trying to vote on amendments that questions were asked directly about weeks ago I just wanted to make that statement and I see
107our chair um has raised his hand as well chair Jackson yeah I I would like to make a motion to um to uh call for the vote for these for this amendment for these amendments so can I just do the point of order I just couldn't hear Dr Strader's answer that was all I was raising my hand for I could not hear what you how you answered the question may I so the question that was posed was would I support a reduction of the director position in this office the director actually overseeing the blueprint office uh my response would be I would prefer to be able to honor a reduction someplace within my division and be given a courtesy of identifying which positions uh I could address so for instance as we we've shared the
108the blueprint responsibilities are so great I hate to touch that office whether it's eliminating the director entirely or eliminating one of the supervisors uh if I could be given the ability of just one position or two positions within my Division I would prefer to be able to look at reorgs and other opportunities within my division for those positions instead of singling out the positions within my blueprint office um this is the challenge that I'm facing in and responding uh to this question in this particular Amendment um so that's again we the blueprint is such a huge responsibility to reduce and as word member m shared uh in the other office there might be other offices within a division that could be addressed here there or wherever but that's not the question I'm being posed which
109is the challenge that I'm facing here so again usually we're asked about overall reductions for division reductions in Staffing whatever the case says we could address that but again this challenge is because you're asking about a particular office that has such high responsibilities and you're trying to address fiscal needs and this is just really problematic so would I support any reduction to the blueprint office no are we going to uh look to gain efficiencies by reducing a director role perhaps and and upgrading another position you know to best support the work of blueprint but best aligning the resources with another office that can share responsibility yes that is what we're going to do um so again I don't don't don't know how to best amend this to address that thank you thank you Dr ster
110and definitely understand the position that you are in obviously as a central office leader myself in another District I definitely understand I just have a I don't know if this is a point of order question but there was a motion on the floor and I again don't know if the parliamentarian is here there was a motion that was made and I don't know if that I've been told that motion is supposed to stop everything and we have to vote immediately I just want to I have a point of order I have a point of order before the motion superintendent house had recommended that we hear from Lisa how so that we can understand before the vote and so I was wondering if you could pause your or what what you wanted to do chair um
111with that information thank you so much that was why my hand was said I also at some point want to revise my motion wherever that looks like I'll revise my motion yeah I don't know where I was gonna ask you to do that in the work in in this order and I generally know parliamentary procedure but I'm lost at this point so um I will wherever it fits yes I do want to have uh Chief how be able to speak because we all want to hear that answer I just want to do we have the parliamentarian here to let us know what is the proper thing so we are not completely out of order at this point at the parliament Arian is not here I will defer to to know so what I think can
112happen is that I can remove uh my motion um uh to call for the vote off the floor and then you can proceed with um entertaining um Chief how and then U we can move forward from there thank you chair Jackson Chief how thank you um so just wanted to provide an update on where we are with our budget deficit yesterday in the abbaa meeting I provided an update on our Revenue projections based off of the state aid that was released in mid January based off of current legislation based off of that current legislation our revenue is going up around $19 million so that brings the deficit that we had of 37.5 million down to around 23 million and out of that 23 million we've already been able to identify by around four four or
113five million so we have about $18 million left with the work that we've been doing throughout this budget formulation process it's ongoing so we were at a point in time in December and we've been have ongoing conversations to address the budget deficit um we've been looking at a number of different measures in order to close the gap and based off of what we've identified we are in a good place to be able to close the remaining gap of around $18 million that includes looking at revised budget assumptions that includes looking at organizational efficiencies that includes reduction in discretionary spend and as I stated yesterday in the abbaa meeting a lot of that has been targeted looking at our budget and our prior year expenditures Trend analysis to see where there's opportunities to specifically Target and
114reduce the budget to align with historical actual um and then look at I mentioned looking at some of our broad systemic projections and so we do systemic projections across the board for some of our big ticket items and re-evaluating those in addition to continuing to scrub our reserves and I want to put a pin in the conversation around reserves because as you know with any budget it's a stale as soon as it's approved and you always have to have a contingency plan so it's a fine balance between how much of a contingency do you have for things that will come up during the year that you don't know about versus using those funds upfront in order to fund other efforts that you are aware of at that moment so really digging deep with the team
115to go through the reserves line by line to figure out where we can maybe cut it a little bit leaner without causing risk to the district So based off of where we are right now we have a path to close the gap as it stands now with that being said we know that currently funneling through the general assembly are the proposed changes to the blue print that would plause aspects of it that would impact our funding and there's different variations different conversations taking place but based off of the bills that are out there now we would stand to lose addition can I keep going or am I out of time we would stand to lose an additional $20 million and that would increase our deficit up to around 62 million I want to be very
116clear that the pause and blueprint is going to result in an impact to not only central office but to schools because that funding is directed towards schools so if they pause a portion of that funding and that funding is lost that's going to reduce the amount of funding available to schools and what all leas are facing is having to increase classroom sizes reduced Services because you can't absorb that in central office the cut is too significant too substantial I do know that there's a lot of advocacy out there around changes to the current bill that would minimize that impact also looking to advocate for the county to still hold us harmless for their share of the blueprint so there's the blueprint funding that's funded by the state and the local government if the states wants
117deposit we're asking for the county to still hold up their share of that funding formula so we have somewhat of a direction if that bill does go through that's going to pause that aspect of the blueprint but it is going to hit the entire District central office and schools there's no way around it we can't avoid that but based off of where we are right now based off of legislation that exists right now our budget Gap has been identified we have a path to close that so we can move forward and have a balance budget however I will I will say with any amendments that are coming through today we have to go back to the back to the drawing table to be able to further close that Gap but yes thank you I appreciate
118that Chief how and I want to give board member Moss an opportunity to amend his amendment I just for my own self I don't know if this is a point of it or point of order but I had we had a specific question and time yesterday for that and I'm just I sincerely appreciate you for giving us that additional information but there was time for it yesterday and we didn't get that update yesterday when we were talking about amendments in oafa so I sincerely appreciate you giving us that information now but some of that information would have been extremely helpful to have yesterday but I do I see additional hands and I want to make sure I get board member Moss an opportunity to amend his Amendment yeah I I you know I uh want
119to appreciate the work of everyone in our district um I understand where you're coming from Chief Stater um and I'll oblig um but but I I do want to say this this is quite disappointing to get this news today around budget like a a a yellow brick road for reductions I don't know that I still understand the path and as and I have a fiary responsibility to protect our resource ources and so I just want to articulate that we needed a plan for Budget reduction prior to coming here to vote on amendments today and this is the first time I've heard we had a plan but given that this Administration says we have a plan uh I'm amable to Chief stator's recommendation he'll want to go through his office but I don't believe that he
120should have to be the only one to do that um others should others should join in that fight um and do this um but if you all have a plan I'd love to see it and if there's a plan to all 37 I'll remove my Amendment tonight but I had not seen one prior to this conversation so if there is one um I'll pull back on on my reduction amendments I have other ones but I've yet to see one thank you we still have time for I I don't know board member of moss if that was directed to anyone in particular so I would defer to the superintendent at this point if he'd like to respond to my comments thank you board member uh moss in in conversation in reference I usually get an update
121uh specifically around oafa and it was my understanding that this information reference to reductions was provided to the board yesterday um so um just wanted and I'm not sure um Lisa you may jump in that was my understanding when we uh we discussed and you provided updates and reference Dr baa but that was that was my understanding yeah it's on the presentation that was shared um during Oba yesterday which is posted on board do specifically if you go to slides five and six I mean go through the whole presentation but there's an update on the revenue um there's an update on the reduced budget Gap and then in my and when I was on that slide specifically I talked about the fact that we had a path to close that Gap and if you go
122back and listen to the session it is recording I got I don't mean to cut you off I've got 13 seconds but that path still isn't clear you said you have a path but the path isn't clear and I guess since I made that specific statement that is what I was referring to the idea that the path and all of that kind of stuff while we appreciate the additional information here in this meeting it would have been helpful to have it before we get into the discussion about the particular amendments I still see additional hands raised and I know we don't want to like it is vitally important that we have this information as well as the public so I want to make sure that we are recognizing hands um and also recognizing that the
123proposer of this amendment has put on the floor a additional change or Amendment to the amendment um and I didn't hear a response specifically to his proposed amendment or change to his Amendment so I guess that would be superintendent of Chief Jackson has race his hand as well thank you or chair Jackson it's all good um I'll like to make a a motion to uh postpone this amendment um to get further information from uh Chief Trader and the superintendent um to talk through um possible reductions and then we can come back and vote on it at at another time that's my motion second thank you since we have a motion and a second Miss um Aden can you call a roll call vote sorry Dr and hi Miss bu hi Mr RS hi Mrs Brown
124hi Miss G MC hi Dr Moss no Miss Walker Miss Walker no no Tre Jackson hi sticks in the affirmative there are six in the affirmative I just want to make sure that we are clear um we have voted that we are going to get this information and we are expecting this information so we can discuss it with the public and I see chair Jackson your hand is raised did you not put it down no yes sorry I didn't put it down apologies thank you and then board member Walker did you have an additional statement on this what we just voted on or are we moving we have another amendment my um um I I I I just have a a whenever the right time is just to talk about I'm I'm I'm extremely excited
125but really surprised to hear that we um saved $ 37.3 million that we have a a way to close that so whenever we're able to talk about that I would like to talk about that piece right there you can let me know when appropriate time is thank you so much because are we going to move forward with the other amendments or are we not are we going to postpone them when do we talk about it I'm just a little confused on where we are at this particular time thank you so and again I don't know if we have a parliamentarian maybe not because we're in a budget work session I believe the conversation was about the specific the specific ask to cut a position but we still have we still have the strategy offices merger
126and we do have other offices I mean excuse me other divisions to discuss on this um to discuss on tonight's meeting with other amendments um and I know this is very clear like we all want this Clarity on this path forward so I want to make sure we are all clear on what it is that we are voting on and moving for Chief of Staff Boyd hi yes good evening I just wanted to bring forward a very quick question you mentioned earlier that um the information wasn't presented so I just wanted to know Are there specific questions that we can address from the presentation from yesterday thank you GNA defer to board member Walker and then I will answer it's your off of committee feel free to please jump in thank you thank you I
127think for myself we have had several concerns come up now about talking about positions and we've got several additional amendments coming up about specific positions and again these amendments were put forth by last week and so I I personally am not I'm trying to figure out what our path forward is right now because if there is a legal issue with those things I don't know why that wasn't brought to our attention prior to us coming to this meeting today to vote um and quite frankly being in front of the public acting like we did not spend hours and hours preparing this agenda as well as the work sessions and oafa meetings prior to this um and I think that is where we are now getting into the question and I don't want to belabor the
128point but we also to that point have several amendments that are similar to this amendment that if we have that issue like we're going to continue to have that issue as we go forward tonight and because it does have so many legal implications and quite frankly implications on people's lives we don't obviously want to make a mistake or do something wrong in our fiduciary responsibility for this budget okay so respectfully I think that that's clear what is unclear is that there's a question about it sounds like there's clarity that is needed from the presentation yesterday and I think on on on top of that I completely agree with you U board member goens um we've got a number of of amendments where the board has a number of amendment amendments even given that we have
129a pathway uh right now in reference to the Gap um I'd like to provide an opportunity to uh develop a session of questions question and answers around um the uh the the the Gap the $37 million gap and we can either do that in small group and then come back uh to go over those amendments with the public uh to ensure that everybody's on on the same page I sincerely appreciate that superintendent house I see two hands uh board member moss and then we'll go to board member Walker so we don't have me interrupting yeah I I've just got uh Chief boydd I appreciate your question superintendent I appreciate you offering to to do this I've got one question and I if I could just get a spreadsheet to say will all the numbers add
130up to 37.4 million dollar and how we've actually closed that deficit it is a simple question if you all can pull the table up today I think it could end this conversation and say this is where we're proposing to make Cuts there's a million here there's two million here there that's 3 million here and then the board members we don't have to move forward on these amendments that we already have I mean we've got an amendment to reduce travel coming up we've got an amendment to reduce do a 10% reduction across offices but if this Administration provides us with a table that says we closed the Gap and this is where we've done it then we wouldn't have to vote on those amendments that that's all I'm asking for the question is that's simple if
131we've got that today uh I think we we could get out of this meeting agreed and I think this is this is a similar process that that we went through last year uh where we focused on the how and and got there and um Chief how if you want to share just a little bit about what that process looked like of course the Gap is a little bit bigger this time uh but uh we developed uh the how and got there Chief how thank you um so yes typically when we're facing any kind of budget Gap or budget deficit it is an ongoing process um and we usually talk about the how we're going to get there but we process and we share the details of that later on in the budget cycle um and
132so we said very early on that we were going to take a close look at internally what we could do to stay as far away as far away as possible from the schools but the first part of this was waiting to understand what our Revenue adjustments were going to be and we did share that in the ab meeting a couple weeks ago we gave an early look at that point in time that the revenue was increasing by $9 million and we shared that again last night so that's essentially cutting it in half um for the work that we've been continuing to do and it's an on it's an ongoing process we identified where there might be there's not might be there's opportunities to look at Contract assessments some of our budget assumptions and I'm trying
133not to get into the sausage making of budgets um but a lot of it is high level systemic assumptions that we can refine that will help to kind of bring that number down but just to kind of talk about the process in general we typically itemize those detailed changes later on in the budget process um as we get further through um the budget cycle so typically when we get through the requested cycle the primary focus at that point in time is to reflect the changes in our revenues and that's what will be transmitted over to the county and then we continue working on refining and getting the budget changes processed and loaded into our very manual system in order to capture that those reductions before we get to the final approved budget later on in
134June but we can certainly provide a high level I just have to warn you we have a very manual process and so I can give you high level assumptions of what those numbers are going to be um if that will help provide some insight um but that's not something we were planning to display and to provide today I was hoping that with the conversation that we had yesterday with the update in revenue and our path forward to close the gap that there will be a level of understanding that this ongoing budget conversation is going to be ongoing um but that we do feel that we're in a better place now than we were a month or so ago but we're not done yet because there's also other bills going through the general assembly which could
135still impact our budget so we're not stopping we're continuing to dig deep and we know that we have to reset our budget because we were faced with a change in our in our budget um last year thank you so much Chief how I know we have a lot of hands raised we do also have several other amendments so we want to make sure that we are clarifying and that everybody is getting their questions and their concerns answered before we vote but we do also have other divisions that we have amendments on so um board member Walker and then Chief Boyd um yes it sounds like we're going to continue to go through the Amendments which is great um we foresee that there'll be additional cost so we'll continue to go through these amendments um I
136did just want to express that you know we there was no baa meeting last night and I do appreciate that it happened last night and this is amazing information to know but when we can close a $ 37.3 million budget I think that's worth an email out that just literally says that these amendments that we've been really working on in order to to help close the gap we're still going to go through them and we probably still need them because they're not going to equal $37 million they're not going to equal $19 million so it makes sense for us to do but I'll tell you that um for what for a meeting to happen last night with the expectation that those who couldn't make it last night would be able to get through that amazing
137information today we probably could do a little something better than that from the board side so maybe in the future we consider having that OB a meeting and there maybe be a gap of a week between the two so we can actually take a look at it and really digest the information so that then we can come back and be really intentional on our conversations here um I'm Dr ster I'm sorry that you you're the one that sparked all the great discussion right here and so it's not targeted to to you but I think we'll be more cognizant as we continue to go through um these additional amendments um that's the piece thank you so much chief yes thank you so much chair going M I just wanted to um I agree with um board
138member Walker and I think maybe there's a structure difference but I just wanted to acknowledge for those of us on the call and for the public that the information that Chief how just laid out was information that she shared um and was outlined as a part of the process thank you so much thank you so much Chief Boyd given this we're going to move to [Music] our next office or excuse me division but it is the board office we have three amendments our board budget analyst District Liaisons and then board member budget reduction the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approved the budget amendments for the board office board members is there any discussion if you would like to amend or pull an amendment you may make a secondary motion at
139this time board member Walker is that hand are you lowering your hand or sorry I thought I was off mute thank you I'd like to um pull out line item 12 District liaison in the board office for more discussion thank you thank you board member Walker seeing no other hands and I'll pause since last time I didn't pause to give people time to raise another hand seeing none the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the board office to include board budget analyst and board member budget reduction oh I'm sorry I'd like to pull the other one I didn't see the other one for additional discussion too there's two thank you it's an additional could you oh the two nte so the district liazon and board budget
140analyst are the two that you thank you so the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the board office to include board member budget reduction seeing No Hands raised Miss Adeline please call the roll call vote Dr Ando hi Miss bu Tre hi Mr Briggs hi Mrs Brown hi Mrs go mcken hi Dr Moss hi Miss Walker so that we can talk about him right oh no it's not so we can talk about it no this vote is for to cut the budget we're voting on the board budget to cut the board our individual oh that was my Amendment yeah I want to chop it $500 thank K Jackson yes it's in the affirmative thank you there are eight in the affir affirmative the board the budget
141amendment board member budget reduction is approved we'll now move to discussion on board budget analyst oh thank you and can I just say that number 20 for board budget reduction was not up there with the other board uh I just want y'all to know on a sheet so I wasn't completely crazy okay I was just looking at the sheet it was number 20 okay all right um I did want to discuss this I just wanted to ask if um uh chair Jackson could give um just a little bit more details on the district Le aison to start with thank you so much here Jackson thank you so much um so first first I want to start and say thank you um chair go MC um for the opportunity to speak so when it comes to
142the budget analyst and the um the uh District Le aons the reason why I think it's it's the time to uh make sure that we secure our infrastructure given these um political uncertain times and also like with the changing Chang changing landscape um you know of our funding I think that this is the time that we need to make sure that we secure our um Board office and this is not the time to reduce our services but make sure we Step Up in service because our charge is to make sure that we provide quality customer service um and a lot of times um our chief complaint is not being able to connect with our community um not having um uh I guess not having um a stronger presence and I know there is a a
143Community Partnerships office um that we work diligently with them um but I know even this past week when we had a meeting in District um one of the chief complaints was they can't get to us they can't get connected to us Community engagement is one of the Morey indicators for every successful school system and so I think that this will put us in a position um to make sure that we engage our um constituents even better we have a tremendous amount of schools without PTO and ptas these disons um will help us bolster those numbers we want to make sure that um because of the change in funding landscape that we will make sure that the resources that we do have ail ailable that we able to connect our constituents um with those resources and
144those programs that we do have available so I think that this will give us an extra opportunity to help create um that customer service or that customer experience that are um that our constituents need so much and I think having that budget analyst also will actually help us find opportunity and economic R to will I think um will pay for both of these positions in the long term um just like what we're dealing with tonight I think if we had our own budget analysts um already squared away and locked in that could have helped us kind of better understand um what what Chief how and them I think they will be working in partnership with Chief how to better understand exactly um how they were to uh close this budget Gap and also help identify
145areas um thank you thank you chair Jackson board member Brown yes thank you and thank you uh chair Jackson for clarifying that I I do have a concern um because we have been heavily speaking about a deficit I I am concerned about adding additional positions um mainly for perception with our constituents in the community um of course we were tasked to do community engagement we were tasked to ensure that we um tap into our community and ask them for assistance um whether it be our Peak members diab members um PTA members whoever there are uh we we have a strong County who wants to be involved in the work that we do for PGCPS so I just want to caution um that we add positions in this uh deficit this large deficit that we are
146in especially not understanding or not knowing what the full scope is going to be like uh towards the end but I I feel as though since we were elected into these positions um this is this is a part of the job that we do and so I wanted to um point that out but thank you thank you board member Brown um board member Walker I see your hand raised but booer Str hasn't spoken on this amendment yet can we have go to board member booer strs and then go to you thank you thank you thank you so much and thank you chair Jackson for uh these amendments so the board budget analysts what I've been really interested in is is strengthening how we tell the budget story through you know a skilled um you know
147someone who really knows how to use information graphics and other tools to explain the budget and I was wondering if when you're thinking about this person in that position would would they really be focused on this this concept of of how to use information graphics and other tools to for our constituents to better understand the budget is can I answer that question chair absolutely so so yeah absolutely so the the budget analyst person um will be hired to so you have um Finance which is um a very um a niche subject a lot of people don't understand Finance as a whole especially getting into the weeds if we have a person that can interpret the financial um nomenclature from you know the the chief's House Office present us as board members with um more digestible
148and palatable information for us to better understand and also present it to the public in a way that they can understand I think that there's a level of um transparency that can occur because a lot of times people are lost with inside of the numbers also from just equipping us with the tools to better understand to dive into the budget having somebody that not saying that this is like a us or them type of scenario with um chiefs house office but have somebody um that's looking out for the interest of the board specifically and how we're managing because this is our um you know our biggest lever as far as our scope of authority having somebody that can support us in this endeavor I think is um Paramount in order for us to execute at
149a high level so that's the reason why I think that this budget analyst position um is up the utmost important okay great and I'm going to use my remaining time I um also we've been trying to do this for some time we actually had we actually had a plan in let in the budget to to hire a few few um POS Communications budget analysts um lobbyist so to me it feels like we're still trying to get there and this feels part of a longer plan and I understand the reasons why and I I agree that this is I don't I don't see this as because we're making up a deficit from Chief how's division like I see it as an expansion of our constituent services and communication the other the other piece is um while
150I do think I do agree we are in such a tough spot around perceptions of where we add where we where we reduce but you know my fight around accountability not being reduced I also feel like this board office is not this board office is losing its ability the board members in the office are losing our ability to fully do this job because our job is bigger and harder uh may I have more time or do I need a second round um can we hold that until never mind I think everybody can you come in thank you so much chair Jackson did you have something to add to that or you had your own separate your own separate hand raised for yeah I had a different comment but uh just and I was going to
151respond to uh what Pam was saying this was big this was part of a bigger strategy on making sure that we deliver the services that's that that are needed to our constituents um and I know this is something that we've talked about for quite some time and we've um to taken these iterative approaches on how to get there um and I just think this is just another step in getting closer to what a full board looks like um and this model was set up up in a lot of different and especially the bigger counties um across the country that Ser some of the biggest school systems that we are not equipped to handle the the workload that we do have and so I just want to make sure um as chairman the reason why I
152put in this um this budget amendment that we equipped our team to make sure we can handle um 133,000 um plus families um and their concerns and their needs and make sure that we can be good stewards of the budget and that's the reason why I think we need to be have our infrastructure in place in order to to our people thank you thank you so much chair Jackson board member Walker thank you so much and I appreciate the explanation um which was my first question just to know a little bit deeper on what your thoughts were um for me in my single vote um I'm not going to be able to support the $459,000 that comes alongside uh the uh District Lea and it's really built around um we have I think that for
153us right now it behooves us not only in our role but to leverage the relationships in the in the in the um departments that we currently have so tapping into our superintendent and letting him know where the gaps are and how we can get help on from Community Partnerships from Community engagement office from our Peak that we rely on from just really optimizing what we have in order to get the work done plus as an elected board member I know in District n9ine they're expecting me to do um some work in the engagement inside of the community and while I recognize that this is over a full-time job let me be clear um I do also want to be mindful of adding $459,000 in order to have three people inside of the board office to
154help us um reach out a little bit more so that's I just wanted to give you my perspective on that um on that piece right there for the piece about the um the budget analyst I am a fan I've been asking forever about infographics Etc I I think last year though when we put this in a budget so one I I'm not all the way there yet for a full-time FTE at $143,000 but what I am ad meable to is last year we put it in as a contractor to do this work to really dig into the budget and really find where we should be looking where we might not get to because we have these full-time jobs I'm amable to that and making sure we actually have that in place to do which we
155didn't last year even though we voted on it but also to push the superintendent house to say hey I think that actually this sits within the C your your your area of the how because you all have this budget and to be able to help us to tell The Narrative of the infographics that we've been talking about forever um and so you help me with does can that happen there or should that be somewhere else because we have to be able to tell the story about PGCPS we have 62% the budget what does that look like where is our money going and if we can't do it within what you currently have for resourcing then I want to help with this amendment right here so if you can help me with that so that I
156can know about supporting um chair Jackson on on that particular one because we do need that thank you so so yeah so I appreciate that question I appreciate that question um so oh it was to Mr house I'm sorry oh sorry okay all right that's okay it was just to Mr thank thank you so much board member walker uh Miss Lopez can we have the timer start again for um superintendent House's response thank you chair G mcon thank you um chair Jackson as as well as um board member Walker I want to want to take an opportunity because I you know what I'm what I'm hearing is the opportunity for our Community Partnerships to really work with the board uh to focus on the areas that uh that uh you're you're speaking specifically about and
157what I'd like to do especially being that we have I think about 90 peas is to to have Mr Morales to share about he and I have have talked about this and what that could potentially look like um so Mr Morales will you share just just a snippet of what that could look like and uh and a little bit about our discussion absolutely and thank you chair Jackson and uh board member Walker I appreciate your framing on the optimization piece because as you know this was part of the plan that was presented in October and we're only about 4 and a half months in and we have started to realize some efficiencies um and as a part of those efficiencies we really have streamlined the efforts to speak to the district leaon which we have
158I think it's actually near closer to 100 peas now spread across the 201 schools um that can help support this work on the ground level but we also have someone dedicated to those parent organizations and it would be this would be a great opportunity to collaborate and leverage what we already have with the board um to identify those areas where you may be hearing that there's a lack of communication um but also to your point uh board member Walker to on the narrative standpoint right start planning now for the next budget work session so that we do have the necessary pieces in terms of infographics videos what we need to make sure we have a clear understanding that we can share with the community and really amplify and control that narrative so those are those
159are two different parts of the team that we're happy to leverage and collaborate with the board on uh to see those things come to fruition thank you so much Chief Morales we've got more hands raised um chair Jackson I don't know if you raised your hand again or if you lowered it and then you're coming back for a second round I apologize the way that Zoom does this system is a lot different than other systems so I want to make sure I'm going in order is is hand from um when I was waiting to to from the first time it's all good no no no go ahead it is now your your time I was going to say I know I know there that can be a lot of back and forth but I I'll
160just say this as my last comment um one I think that the 470 uh was it $75 or 400 plus, um uh price tag I think is is is a is a bit um much I don't I don't I don't think it will cost that for the FTE um so I think there a overshoot with the price tag on that as well um as well um also we were price cont ises when we were developing this um Amendment um instead of having nine one to support everybody we reduced it to three um and also I think that there will be a great opportunity to work with um you know the Partnerships um office uh but as it stands right now um I just feel like we're not equipped from the board office perspective to handle
161and it's not about not being able to engage because we signed up for this or we elected this CU that's something that we definitely we engage um all the time as as you know I think it's just uh being able to help our community even more I think there's a lot of U missed opportunities um to get into um you know the weeds with our um schools and our parents and our communities and I just think that there's a lot of Mis opportunities like I said this model was set up along um most of the major um Comm uh major school systems in the country um I don't know what's talking to one of my colleagues earlier Dr Moss was saying that um he knows that Miami day county has it I know a few
162more around the country that has it as well that has service these in these huge U metropolitan areas um so I I digress um thank you so much thank you chair Jackson so we had board member Moss your hand is back up for first round correct okay yeah no can you follow I'm Sorry Miss Lopez can you follow us so we're not stopping with me acknowledging different people board member moss and then uh board member Boozer strs yeah I just want to speak in support of this amendment um I actually think given as someone who represents district 7 on the school board I have three functioning ptas um and I see this as an opportunity for us to be able to strengthen that model um for the school board member to be able to work
163with our Peak representative as well as uh this District aison to be able to strengthen that work you take my as the the chair Jackson said you talk about Miami Dade who's one of the highest performing school districts in the country who has significant parental involvement and parental engagement I met with all of my PTA um leaders from last week and from across the schools that we have and there was the number one concern that they needed help navigating the school district and so having an additional support person who is working with the board member to navigate that can be powerful Dr Jackson is doing great work um I I would love for I thought the super I thought um Chief Morales was going to speak a little bit more around how Dr Jackson's work
164can interface with the board's uh District liaison work but we'll get there if this amendment happens I trust that the leadership will get us there but um I think this is a unique opportunity for us to set our board members up to be successful and I I I know I know my colleagues might be feeling this but um I'm certainly feeling that I wasn't here our workload has increased uh as board members we we now have more meeting to attend and whatnot and I've missed some of our our local meetings that are really Central to being connected to the district and this liaison can help and then I just want to like really honor one of my colleagues on the board as I say this um I watched a gentleman testify yesterday um and in
165in Annapolis about the power of our schools he spoke about our schools better than probably any of us could I'm just going to give Tim credit uh for his work he gave a powerful speech but he's been working with a board member um over the years and really engaging with that board member over the years and so if we had more Tims who could go Lobby on behalf of our district and we had District liaison who were able to develop those I think we can really get somewhere um our number our number two customer which is really our number one customer is our parents the kids are our first customer but parents are second if we can get parent engagement right I really believe we can move this District forward so I think this is
166an investment that is worth our while it's our parents I mean I heard a gentleman passionately say I don't know how to navigate the district and it's and and so these folks can actually be a strong arm in being able to do that so I strongly support the chair's Amendment um to move in this direction and uh just to laugh a little bit we figured the budget out so we can add these we can add these three people board member Boozer strs yeah thank you thank you so much and um you know Dr Moss did hit on some of the points where I wanted to head around this like when I first saw it I did have a reaction of you know adding to the board during this time but honestly I you know I've
167now been on this board for six years I think I I have now served with 34 different board members over six years and I've been through a lot of board office structure and we are overwhelmed we are work we were not supposed to work 40 to 60 hours on this job at $188,000 a year let's just be blunt County Council members have staff they have full-time staff full-time job we are working full-time we have a third I share someone with three other colleagues it's untenable we cannot serve our constituents the same way when I first joined this board when there you know we have an audit committee we now pushed our we now have to all serve on two committees we now some of us are serving on three because we have a climate change
168action plan ad hoc committee we have the disability advisories commit we have Peak and I will tell you the folks serving on those committees aren't getting enough there we don't have enough people to support them to their full potential and so I do think the time is I do think the time is now because I'm feeling that we are Slip I'm slipping I cannot get to my schools I used to get to my PTA meetings I am in board meeting Zooms in meetings all the time now and I need to be able to get back out to my constituents there's been a shift and we need the resources because we are we I I I'm feeling great about this board we are a high performing board but we need to be able to be we
169need we need some relief because we cannot keep up this pace for our constituents and I say that for as a board member actually went through the pandemic and I'll will tell you we had leaon for a little while I was able to get the climate change action plan done because we had a board liais on we could manage that Focus work group we haven't had a focused workg group in two years and so I support this I like I said at first I was like had a visual reaction but frankly looking at this last six years we need to do this so we can support all of our parent engagement at our level and in our schools thank you thank you board member booer strs board member Walker and if we have no more
170uh comment after this we'll move to our vote thank you so much M will just be really quickly I do um agree I I'm I'm feeling it I I am slipping as well but what I also know is that we have to work smarter um so that we don't have to work harder with that it's the Partnerships of absolutely recognizing what's in the superintendent Lane and what's in our lane and to be honest I think that a lot of the work that I can let me talk on me a lot of the work when I really assess it that doing for the board sometimes falls into what the superintendent team should be really working on and so when I look at the priorities of what it is as a board member what my constituents need
171and what works for district nine I've got to get smarter in doing that with the money that we have and so I don't need to convince anybody I think that there's probably going to be enough votes to move this forward but at this particular time it's and it's for I don't want anybody to feel I'm talking to District nine people looking right now is that me not supporting this bill right now is really financially and it's also ensuring that we get to the work that is necessary for board members and so I know that each of my um parent community staff like I meet with them or I've met with them and they've come to the table and I know that they need support so I'm going keep on working one by one y'all keep
172on coming one by one and together we GNA take nine and we GNA have to make this work with what it is that we have so that's what I'm I'm supporting for this particular time but thanks so much thank you board member Walker Dr anderl are you lowering your hand all right it's going up and down I'm lowering my hand thank you Dr UL um seeing no more hands uh these were technically two two different amendments that were pulled and we did have discussion together but we because we pulled them we have to vote on them separately so the question is shall the Prince Georges County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the board office District Liaisons uh Miss elyn please call a roll call vote Dr Andel hi Miss bu hi Mr
173bricks hi Mrs Brown nay Mrs g mccans i Dr Moss I miss Walker no J Jackson hi six in the affirmative thank you the vote is six in the affirmative the budget amendment is approved the question is shall the prince judges County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the board office board budget analyst Miss ad please call the role I just had a discussion I didn't hear the answer to um my question to superent house about this particular one right here and then I wanted to ask if there was if I could add a friendly Amendment if chair Jackson would take it the first question I had is around does your office or does chief Howell's office possess the capabilities and the resourcing right now to be able to pull our um infographics
174Etc that's needed to tell the narrative that was one question that didn't get answered during the discussion so chair um gos MC if you want that to be answered that's fine it'll help me with my vote and the second piece was I wanted to ask um chair Jackson if he was ad meable to this being um a contractor position versus a full-time position which will help me with where I'm voting on is um thank you so much I will let uh chair Jackson answer that question I do believe it is currently a it is currently a contracted position valet shair Jackson yes um thank you for that no I'm not um okay thank you thank you and then miss Lopez if you can put our timer up and then to that point I apologize board
175member Walker I missed the fact that that question was not answered answered and so superintendent house is able to answer it for us thank you chair going to M uh what I'd like to do because I know that there would be an increase in in workload specifically in the budget office so Chief Hal if you want to talk about what uh what those expected applications would look like I'd appreciate it thank you so to answer the question specifically no we don't have the capacity to kind of help visualize and tell the budget story that's one of the goals that we'd like to be able to have um but right now our team is just beyond stretched with blueprint implementation and all the other things that we're responsible for um I know our experience in the
176past has been in working with other Financial um folks in some capacity with the county or whether it's internal audit and now we've got the office of integrity and compliance when it comes to really understanding the budget and helping to tell that story they come back to the budget office and so it does end up being a heavy lift for the team to help support that work because it is complex and complicated so um moving forward with this I understand the need and uh uh uh the resources that would be beneficial to help tell that story um but it will also have additional impacts to my team in supporting that effort um and we're just already stretched pretty thin thank you so much Chief Hal and then thank you superintendent House for um getting that
177answer to the question and board member Walker for bringing it up that we missed it uh the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the board office board budget analyst Miss pleas Dr Andel hi Miss Budd Str hi Mr Briggs hi Mrs Brown nay m g MC I Dr Moss I miss Walker no J Jackson hi six in the affirmative there are six in the affirmative the budget amendment is approved moving on to the division of communications there are two amendments Communications office staff reduction and eliminate the chief of communications position the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of communication board members is there any discussion if you would like to amend or pull an amendment
178you may make a secondary motion at this time board member Brown yes I believe um in yesterday's meeting it was discussed that this was already withdrawn um so maybe Chief how can confirm or um superintendent house be glad to do so if uh if that's okay um Miss goens can't one of the things now let Chief how come off with mute uh our budget book was was printed and there was a kind of a a happened timing uh so miss how if you don't Chief how if you don't mind sharing kind of what that timing looked like we did eliminate uh a chief of communications position uh but it just didn't make it into the the budget which caused I think some of the confusion that's here CH pal yes so just to clarify our
179budget book was produced in December based off of decisions that were made as of that point in time the elimination of that position was effective January 1 2025 and so because of that it was still already captured in our budget for 2026 um so when we do produce our next budget document that update will be reflected showing that that position has since been eliminated thank you so much with the board member um board member Walker was that your Amendment yes it was so that's that's great there was two so the one that I still see on there that one must have been foed I didn't know was but thank you so much for that one no problem thank you for that correction the one I'm looking at on our amendments one is the one that
180is taking an FTE from um uh Mr morales's Department to put in the board office is that the one we're going to talk next that's the one that I see on the sheet my apologies my list had both of them and it didn't okay the memo that one of them that you had chosen to withdraw your Amendment after the conversation that was I did but I they probably did for me because they realized the error yeah I didn't but thank you thank you so with that uh clarification um we are just looking at the Communications office staff rejection Amendment because the chief of communications position amendment has been withdrawn we want to pull that for greater discussion if necessary yes we don't have to pull it it's the only am so we don't have to
181pull it would you like your two and a half minutes to start to discuss absolutely yes to start off the discussions I just wanted to let people know why um I put this one in here this one is uh with the intention to move and reallocate funds so as you know the communications there's been a request for the board office to have uh Communications and as a former chair I can tell you that it is a lot of work to try to do press releases and everything as related to the board of education so I recognize that the need is there what I also recognize is that we don't necessarily have funding to put at that right now so as I look at the different departments I look inside where Communications is and recognize that
182there is an opportunity to leverage one of those amazing resources there right over here in our own budget office so that they can stay focused on board Communications and it's not only about press conferences and things like that we know that the uh the administration doesn't do those type of things but it's also about communic outwards for social about our narrative about talking to people about budget about all of the things we want our public to know so that we can engage differently it's all of that built-in one and I believe that we have the opportunity to leverage a resource and I put of the 22 projected FTE that are there to come over and just one of them to be um really attributed to the board of education and that would save us $84,000
183I believe the number was that's wanted to give context to begin our discussion and do I I have more time yes so I did get some of the response to that and since I have it uh it just says just for the public who might not have seen the chat um that the administration strongly dis uh discourages this adoption of the amendment giving the charge on Communications and Community engagement to better support our students and our families and our offices the language access coordinator position that would be realized from the already proposed elimination by the associate superintendent within a division would support increased um efficiency I can't pull it down won't give me access um but thank you for that response I think that'll help us to start the discussions thanks thank you board member
184Walker in um the interest of time uh Miss Lopez can you restart for board member Moss board member Brown and then Chief Morales thank you I'd just like for chief Morales to if this position doesn't move um you know out of his office what do he see as his office's role in supporting the board I know there's been some questions about that I myself reached out and was told that that office didn't support the board so if this amendment fails and this FTE stays with the other 21 um and how does uh Chief Morales Envision being able to work with the board to support communication um with our goal of being one PGCPS yes thank you for that question and this opportunity to answer so just to put it in context um one thing is
185the position has already been proposed for elimination out of cycle to create an additional position as a language access coordinator within the office of interpretation and translation to help with the increase um so if this was to go through we'd have to identify additional funds because we do need that support the we've seen increases uh I think upwards of a thousand just from 24 to 25 but to get to the center of your question Dr Moss um th those actually were the the the framework with which we work with the board was actually laid out in the communications plan and I'm happy to to share that with you but it does very clearly lay out in terms of what we're able to support the board with the way I Envision that collaboration is as we've
186done um it's never an issue of not working with the board or not supporting the one voice it's simply you know providing what may be necessary data so we've done this in the past where we provide the data that's needed to generate certain talking points the support if it's something that we're doing collaboratively as a district for example a press conference or um a press release or whatever the case is we will obviously partner on that and and and Lead that if it's something that's a board initiative the board would lead but we were we're happy to support the board office as we've done in the past so it's um it's based on the situation it's based on the collaboration yeah I I I would like to hear a strong commitment from the administration to
187tighten that role up and explicitly focus on supporting the board and comms if we're going to be one PGCPS so if the administration can make that commitment there wouldn't be a need to move an FTE out of communications to the board I understand your existing framework uh but there should be an opportunity to revise that framework and um I love board member Walker but I wouldn't support her Amendment if you make that commitment tonight so one of the things if if you don't mind me jumping in that um I think we we may be able to to think about as well and um I think Dr Moss you made a um a humorous suggestion in reference to the Gap being being closed I know there was an opportunity last year where the board was looking
188at having some contract um support around this area I might add you know that that might be an opportunity I think this department is is already uh stretched and uh and we're willing to support but I think what what comes first is the the focus on on the district first we will be able to and do our best to be able to support the board um but the district is first but I I would you know have the board to think about the possibility of of uh having you know additional dollars that are allocated specifically uh for communications whether it be around uh Contracting uh with uh with an agency but we will do our best uh to to support if it's the will of the board thank you superintendent house I have a point
189of clarification and I saw several hands go up and down um so I want to get that part second but my point of clarification from the way that I read the amendment is that we we are funding the position that we asked that we want to have in the board office by taking one from Communications can you confirm or clarify for that um board member Walker just so that we and the public are aware of what we're actually voting on with this amendment absolutely what I am saying is that the board office needs Communications we can't afford Communications but we do have a Communications team that has a team so what I'm saying is take one of Mr Louis's take it out of his department so now he'll have 21 put that one inside of
190the board office and that board office represent that that Communications person will do all of the AFF mentioned discussions that I just mentioned for the board thank you now what I will say is I will pull it in the if if they will support strongly support the board and list that out but what I've heard is that that probably can't be done and so my Amendment still stands as we need to move someone over and if that doesn't go through then um we I we have to just vote vot on a budget as is and that is the person inside of the office thank you thank you board member Walker and I also want to point out um for clarity when people lower and raise hands it changes the order so I don't know who
191was where um board member Brown were you lowering your hand as in you no longer had a discussion thank you and then Chief Morales I know you answered board member uh Moss's question however your hand was raised prior to that are you raising your hand now again so that you can make that statement and then after you um Chief Boyd raised her hand so you're raising your hand to make whatever statement you raise your hand yeah okay in that in that case um so we can cut down on the amount of time y'all are hearing my voice um Miss Lopez can we allow um just restarting the timer for Mr um excuse me Chief Morales then Chief Boyd then Chief how thank you um so yes so what I wanted to share was what one
192what I've already shared which is that out of cycle 5 positions were proposed this was one of them um to realize some efficiency so if this went through we would need to search for additional um cuts essentially of positions to be able to realize that almost $200,000 cost that was one thing the other thing I'd like to share is the context around the 22 positions they are not all the same function um and so they are broken down between graphic design web services uh strategic Communications media relations a lot of different functions so individually those areas are pretty stretched pretty thin um but even with that we have been able to as we have in the past support board member events I think right now the challenge with the capacity has been the individual board
193member events in terms of district meetings and and kind of those independent things that are that are done independently by board members but when I speak of collaboration and support we're obviously willing to provide is when we partner on these uh larger events these initiatives um we can definitely provide that and then we can always take everything on a case-by Case basis we most recently uh produced a video for chair Jackson and and we've done other things for for different folks um as capacity allows so we're definitely uh adaptable and we will be continue to be as adaptable as we can be um with the resources we have but I I will say that this passing will definitely create a situation where we will have to um probably realize also some some delays or or
194or reduction in Services we provide to the schools and offices currently as well thank you Chief Morales I want to recognize board member Bru str's hand was raised are you lowering it now or I've lowered it thank you Chief Boyd yes um I I guess I would just ask I think this amendment came from um board member Walker um that the board consider um external relations um uh leaders uh instead of District Liaisons one of which the three positions that were just voted on could be a Communications specialist so just wanted to ensure that you all are also considering that as an option in addition to what superintendent house shared around contracted Services thank you Chief Boyd Chief how yes I just wanted to clarify and to make sure that we're all understanding the um
195proposed amendment correctly already reflected in the superintendent's proposed budget is a communication specialist for the board office that was submitted as part of the budgeting process the way I understood the amendment is that this was an opportunity to make that um uh additional FTE request cost neutral so in the budget that we already have that position is already baked into our budget so if this amendment is approved it would reduce or make that um incremental position cost neutral but we already have that position in the budget as it stands now for the board office so I just wanted to clarify that I'm I'm sorry can you clarify again because I I we did vote I'm sorry can you say that one more time just so I understand when we were developing the proposed budget a
196request was made from the board office to add a communication specialist that position was added and it's included in the superintendent's 26 proposed budget as it stands now the FTE is there the dollars are there for that so this amendment if it were to go through um would eliminate a position and that funding would help to make the addition of that proposal that has already in the budget cost new so we're not shifting over a resource because the resource is already in the proposed budget you already made the request it's already in the budget but eliminating a position is just going to make it cost neutral does that does that make sense so it's already in the budget as it stands now this is not add to it it's already in the budget as it
197stands now so we would yes but what it will allow I thought because you can correct me and what I thought it would allow was allow that 184,000 to then be reallocated elsewhere that will be better used for our Scholars is that not true I thought your amendment that we're talking today was to help fund the communication specialist for the board office so I was just simply saying yes but moving over okay this is where my rationale was so this is what I thought I type is that moving somebody that's currently inside of a Communications office over to the board office with then allow that $184,000 that was seated there to be better used within closer to our Scholars is that not true can I jump y'all are saying the same thing can can I
198great but I W to make yeah yeah y'all are saying the same thing it's it's budget neutral that's what I was going to say with my time this is budget neutral is what it's already in the budget what you're saying board member Walker is that you're actually taking the money so take the the person out it's the it's the money that's actually coming out of his office that is going to the board office um instead of two two uh different 148 or 184 whatever it is so yeah you're taking the money from him to fund what exists in the budget office is what you're doing yes and using that money to put towards our Scholars thank you so much uh board member Moss for that clarification was that what you were using your time for
199Al together absolutely um I'd like to call previous question on this if we can we if nobody else got anything else forget my previous question let's just vote because that mean we would vote twice I see no more hands the question is shall the Prince Georges County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the communications division Communications office staff reduction Miss Adel please take a roll call vote Dr ano sorry point of order that last question wasn't answered chair am I able to remind you of what that question was yes please yes no problem Chief Boyd had asked a well gave a proposal of us to consider the last three um votes the last three persons that voted for district Liaisons if the board would consider one of than being um in this position
200and I don't think anybody ever answered that but that was board that was chair Jackson's um uh Amendment so maybe he would need to answer it it's point of order it lacks germanity at this point given that those motions have already passed perfect thank you just wanted to make sure we close that we never close that one thanks thank you for that board member Walker this one is also your Amendment so um just wanting to clarify that you are okay with us going on with the vote your Amendment absolutely thank you so much thank you the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the communications to visit Communications office staff re reduction Miss Adela please take a roll call vote Dr Ando hi Miss bu no Mr
201breggs hi Mrs Brown no Mrs g mccans i Dr MTH I miss Walker hi Chad Jackson hi six in the affirmative there are six in the affirmative the motion excuse me not motion the amendment passes um I think we have we're going to move on to the division of operations there are two amendments economic feasibility study and renaming of schools the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of Operation board members is there any discussion if you would like to amend or pull an amendment you may make the secondary motion at this time chair followed by board member Walker and then board member Brown thank you so much uh Cher going k um so with the economic feasibility study I think that the intent is
202actually uh great trying to make sure that wherever uh we decide to move um the Sasser building if we do move that we do economic feasibility study to see as we work to um uh move move into a building what would it uh mean for the community so the economic feasibility study was uh geared towards kind of doing that economic analysis before we were to make a move but I think working with um the superintendent and um uh Dr Coleman I think that they're doing some of that work already so um I would like to pull this amendment for now and I think that they're doing a lot of that work already and I don't want to duplicate efforts um but I would just like to see um an analysis from um the administration if
203that's possible on the impacts that'll have on our communities thank you so much chair Jackson I want to clarify are you pulling it for further discussion or are you pull I'm actually pulling it from considerations after further discussions um Pi consideration today and also um with the renaming of the schools as well while still have the mic uh I think that the uh opportunity to rename the schools I think is is a noble um effort and there is conversation uh that's going on between the administration um and also ourselves and so as we work out those kings and um the superintendent um lays out a plan and a pathway forward I think that what we could do is postpone this uh budget amendment until we get uh more granular details on the roll out of
204the renaming of some schools and I think that we can postpone this amendment for further consideration at another time thank you thank you so much chair Jackson so to make sure that I am clear you are resending one Amendment and then postponing another amendment absolutely thank you so much board members with those updates do we still um do we still have our comments and questions if so we'll start with board member Walker and then move to board member Brown and then board member booer struther yes and thank you so much for putting this full um shair Jackson I am a fan of the renaming of our schools I think it's imperative for us as a system I do as they go through um superintendent houses your team goes through and looks at it I just
205saw the $110,000 um price tag for it and I do see the details behind it maybe we have some opportunity in there too maybe even to leverage some of our um Scholars to be able to do some of the artistic work on that so I just wanted to just add that for your consideration as we move forward and look to reduce costs Etc um especially because this is being postponed so we have a little bit more time to do some research on that thank you here Jackson and I uh talked a little bit about this and there's a a couple different Pathways that can be taken uh quite frankly this was the the overall cost of renaming all of uh the schools that are in question and um you know there very would there very
206well could be a pathway where we look at this over the course of three four years uh so that the cost is is spread out over multiple fiscal fiscal budgets so so uh we definitely look forward to additional conversation and and doing it in a fiscally sound smart way thank you and for the remaining time I just wanted to uh just in in a piece of mind too thank you for that piece right there and I like spreading it out and being intentional on it I'm also a fan of renaming is that we leverage our Scholars inside of the process too they're amazing artists as you know within our uh within our Scholars and it would be amazing to see some of their work um within our buildings too thank you I'm a it thank
207you so much board member Walker board member Brown and then board member Boozer strs yes um so for yesterday's oafa meeting we did discuss the cost um it's not 10,000 it's more like 10 million plus um for renaming these schools and so I wanted to make sure that I gave that clarification and I also did want to give Dr Coleman an opportunity sorry for putting you on the spot to kind of expl expl what those costs means um because I don't want to overstep or talk about because we're not only talking about a changing of a name and a signage there are significant costs when it comes to changing names so if I can have Dr Coleman speak on that sure thank you so much uh Brown so when we talk about renaming we're talking
208about the significant costs around the uh from an operations perspective on the rebranding aspects so those are things like School signage uh electronic signs gym floors uh many of our high schools have auxiliary floors that would need to be renamed uh gym bleachers uh scoreboards uh we have turf fields that have been installed in some of our 11 of our um high schools those would need to be redone uh we're talking about Stadium Schoolboard rebranding cafeteria rebranding some of which uh we just recently did at like a Gwen Park High School uh and then we shift over uh to the um uh the academic cost uh many of our high schools have uh spring fall and U uh winter athletic sports teams and there's a significant cost associated with um uh switching out all of
209the uniforms uh we did a one cost analysis for a high school it was approximately $95,000 uh for a high school to Rebrand all of the uh athletic equipment uh and so those are some of the costs that we speak to uh that gives us a price tag of estimated over $10 million in order to initiate this work thank you so much board member uh Brown was that all thank you board member Boozer Struthers and then it's pulled board member boozers yeah thank thank you I'm um definitely in support of this initiative in fact the policy and governance committee did significant work on preparing for this moment and updating the the re the naming of of schools policy um at the time I I also we were naming some new schools you know because they
210were brand new and there had to be a naming process and that process is not always um you know it it can be contentious it can bring up a lot of feelings it can um it needs to be done carefully and in my estimation I didn't I when I first brought this up giving a heads up that uh chair Jackson and I wanted to make sure Dr Coleman was thinking about funding I I wasn't thinking that we could do that many schools at once I think I suggested five because we are asking existing School communities to First raise their hand and say we're ready for this process um so I do think we might have some reality around Readiness and how quickly this moves so I did want to raise that piece just from some
211of my experience around around this that we cannot assume every school Community can move at the same pace around around this um but I think the fact that chair Jackson has prioritized this and that all that hard work we did to prepare for this moment um I'm I just want to thank him for doing that thank you thank you board member Bozer Str were you asking for um Dr Coleman to speak on that yeah yeah and from his experience and then I did also want to remind everyone we do have to have a final budget Thursday night and vote on it and if we have any amendments our the team has to work really hard and fast to turn a budget over to the county executive on March 1st so I do think we also
212need to keep in mind that we only have one more opportunity like we have to finalize a budget next Thursday night and so we you know we need to move quickly absolutely I want to acknowledge that both chair Jackson and Dr Coleman's hands are raised and that was going to be uh my followup to uh chair Jackson so as we move um chair Jackson and then Dr Coleman uh chair Jackson can you include when you would like to postpone this uh Amendment discussion too well I wanted to uh thank you for that I would what I wanted to do is get back uh with the superintendent um and kind of let's work together to see what's uh you know what what can we do in the in the window that we have for this year
213I know there has been some preliminary discussions on what it would actually look like what would community community engagement look like um you know in the whole process and I know there's already um a model that's already set out there um so that's why I'm looking to maybe postpone until we have those conversations with the superintendent um I know we had some um ideas of rolling this thing out further uh this month later on this month um at our next board meeting but I know right now what we're just trying to do is uh get our arms around this budget amendment so uh I know that the budget amendment I think that's an aggregate number that the 10 plus million dollars um which is something that we're definitely not looking to do um this cycle
214um and so I just wanted to make sure that we table it maybe four sometime next week after we get in front of the superintendent kind of talk through what's going on thank you thank you chair Jackson Dr Coleman thank you so much and I just really wanted to thank uh board chair Jackson and also uh board member Bozer Struthers for really articulating uh that this is a nuanced and and collaborative process uh that that engages that that really focuses on community engagement not just the expense uh that would be in operations or around uniforms it really does require a level of Engagement with the community uh that has to be really thought through uh this aggregate number really spoke to 22 schools uh and to superintendent House's point you know perhaps we look at
215it as a phased approach as opposed to all 22 at one time uh but it's a collaborative approach we've been working uh with superintendent house and also with our chief of staff because we know that this is a cross collaboration uh and we just want to make sure that we acknowledge that as we move the process forward thank you so much uh for that clarify that clarification um Dr Coleman and so I believe we are now we are now voting to postpone this um and to board member Boozer str's point until a vote on this amendment until next Thursday at our next board meeting with the understanding that we do need to have these finalized numbers from superintendent house and his team prior to that so that people have time to people have time to
216make the changes to the budget so we can also vote on those changes at the board meeting I think chair Jackson and I have some scheduled time on Monday we'll just make sure to infuse Dr Coleman and his team on that time if that's okay chair Jackson so that we can get the ball rolling as quick as possible absolutely thank you so much perfect thank you so much for that clarification gentlemen so at this point the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education postpone the budget amendment for the Operations Division renaming of schools until next board meeting Miss Adela please take a roll call vote Dr an hi Miss Buddha sh hi Mr bricks hi Mrs Brown hi Mrs g mcken i Dr Moss hi Miss Walker hi J Jackson hi eight
217in the affirmative there are eight in the affirmative the motion to postpone is approved uh moving on to the division of Human Resources we have two amendments research study to improve talent pool and revamping the onboarding process the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the division of Human Resources um is there any discussion amendments or resend resending amendments at this time board member Walker you're muted sorry can we pull the one research study to improve um talentful to chat just really quickly absolutely seeing no other hand so we are separating um the two we only have two amendments we're separating the two um any discussion on the other Amendment seeing none the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approve the budget amendment
218for the Human Resources Division uh research study to improve talent pool Miss adelay please call a roll call take a roll call vote that's the one that we're going to discuss right before the roll call Vote or no yes right yes my apologies I got it's no problem we working together it's getting late it's no problem um board member Boozer strs are you ask are you raising your hand to discuss the one that we pulled or the one that we have not pulled I guess at this point I guess I I need to understand both of them so I guess I thought we ended up and both will have discussion no this this is the general section for us to have discussion when we had multiple amendments for a division um we were trying to
219pull pull them so if people had additional statements they want to make but this is on both I thought we ended up with them both essentially pulled because we had two and they just got separated so yes you're two and a half minutes for your statement I I I I just don't I I would just like to know if these came out of the out of the HR department's audit and we're actually supporting that like I just need to understand where they came from I I can answer that for you um B Str this is exactly from the audit that was done so exactly what you just said um I spoke with Chief Balwin about this and it was based on a number of different um factors most of which came from that research study
220um around targeted ways that we could actually improve hiring and retention um for teachers and other um staff members including bus drivers in our County so that is immediately related and then for the um the teacher recruiting and onboarding overhaul this is actually a plan that the HR office had developed on their own so they were thinking about ways that they could kind of C some of the um perception issues that PGCPS has as we know there was like a um in one of our recent school years the the Baby K incident with the student on the bus with a gun and so there there are ways that they want to really counter some of the kind of uh narratives that exist around PGCPS with throughout the state um to be competitive with other counties
221in hiring and also retaining teachers so um this is all like it's directly aligned to um that research as well as targeted action plans that the HR office has um developed thank you thank you uh Vice chair Briggs is your hand raised to speak in addition or were you just trying to respond to board member booer str's statement yes the board member Walker yes I that's why I asked to poll so we can handle two in one stone I really just wanted to make sure this was in alignment with uh Dr Balwin um desire and in Partnership absolutely thank you so much and I think you say yes so sounds great so with that clarification do we still want to vote on these two separately or are we are you removing your request to have
222it pulled and vote on them together oh no we can put them together as long I I I'm as long as Dr Baldwin's all in and this is in support of the work that they're doing um for us to move forward put them together thank you and thanks um m BRS for bringing it forward for the administration thank you both so with that clarification the question is shall the Prince Georges County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the Human Resources Division to include our research study to improve talent pool and revamping the onboarding process Miss adelay please take a roll call vote Dr andone hi Miss sh hi Mr Bri hi Mrs Brown hi Mrs g m i Dr Moss I miss Walker CH Jackson I eight in the affirmative there are eight
223in the affirmative the budget amendments are approved moving on to the division of school support and Leadership we have one Amendment Library service says expansion the question is shall the Prince georgees County Board of Education approve the budget amendment for the division of school support and leadership board members is there any discussion yeah didn't you pull that one yeah I'd like to pull that Amendment um so but actually resend it I'm sorry I'm using the wrong language tonight I'm and I'd like to resend it to um I I I just want to say this in my recension of this is that you know I had a school um williiam Bean Elementary that didn't have a librarian um I really think at some point we need to focus on making sure all of our schools have
224Librarians I heard the feedback from the team around Librarians and make sure we have full-time ones we're just not there yet um and so my Amendment only looks at one elementary school and I know we would need to do it across the district so uh given that understanding I'm going to pull my Amendment um but I believe um yeah we can not pull it resend it completely thank you so much for that board member moss and I I do want to shout out the parents at William beans and I don't know if you've ever been inside of it but uh it actually has a library built in the center of the school a really nice School built around the library um and they were really adamant about being able to have that for their young
225folks lots of multilingual Learners at that school so the opportunity to have a librarian who can find multiple books in various languages but um at this time um I'll hold it until we have a more comprehensive plan around Librarians across the district thank you so much for that Dr Moss um having uh the amendment rescinded we will move to the office of integrity and compliance we have one Amendment removal of OIC from the budget the question is shall the Prince Georges County Board of Education approve the budget amendments for the office of integrity and compliance um I see Hands raised so um Miss Lopez please put time on please put the timers on for board member Boozer Struthers Board member Walker and then chair Jackson a point point of order uh Madam chair yes uh
226I would just like to say that uh our executive director um does have um some legal guidance before we uh take comments about this particular um amendment that I think is uh important to share absolutely I want to acknowledge that board member Brown's hand also did go up um Miss Lopez can you note that as well do we um director F Patrick would you like to share what that legal guidance is for us yes we reached out to the board's legal councel who shared that uh essentially and I don't have it in front of me so I'm not quoting that we do not have the option to defund uh if we if the board does defund this office then it puts the board at risk of um further legal matters to be forced to fund
227the office we appreciate that um very important uh context and clarification director Fitzpatrick um board members if we still have comment I will um again direct Miss Lopez we'll just start over as each board member talk so we are saving time starting with board member booer Struthers then board member Walker then board member Brown yeah thank you I I did introduce this amendment um in 23 the board did um you know let the general assembly know that this was U duplicative roles in office uh the you know the board's internal audit office which um you know is per you know has been around for decades and performs at a level that this office is nowhere nowhere near 67 Audits and uh more than 500 submissions to fraud waste and abuse and you know annual audits
228um right now that's 12 uh FTE for 2.2 million yet somehow this office is spending 1.6 on five um and that's because this office that's supposed to be about um waste is has salaries that are about $100,000 more for everyone in the internal um audit office so if we cannot so these are bloated salaries and in fact when the director was hired that start starting salary was more than our chief academic officer our core Chief function so um I have been very disappointed about the roll out of this I've been outspoken about uh the duplicity and um what it would take for this office to grow to the point of the work that our office does we are as the board of elected Board of Education we are the only ones who can you know
229hold the school system ultimately accountable because the voters hold us accountable so I did need to put that out there I understand that the general assembly is trying to work with us they have a bill to move this budget um I of course think it's much bigger than dollars but the um so my uh if I'm being told you know this is now not the time my alternative amendment is that if this is not removed from our budget that this office has to align with the salary scale of PGCPS and reduce these bloated budgets um down to scale of equivalent um performance jobs in PGCPS so that is something I want to see if we can entertain that that if this doesn't go away that we at least aren't paying these wasteful salaries thank you
230so much for that context board member Boozer strs board member Walker I do see um Mr Fitzpatrick's hand up is it something related to uh this year I'm imagining that it is did you want to recognize him before I go he might have pertinent information before before I get started yes thank you so much for pointing that Out director Fitzpatrick thank you for that I wanted to uh actually read the the guidance because it may speak to what board M Bo sh mentioned my initial question was twofold one the question um was it questioned whether the board had to include the recommended uh amounts recommended this is a quote amounts recommended by the integrity and compliance officer in the final budget and secondly what are the legal implications of the board defunding OIC uh and
231I will read the response in response to your inquiry below please know that I read the language of the Maryland annotated code AS compelling the Prince georgees County Board of Education to include the budget recommendations of the integrity and compliance officer in its annual operating budget if the board fails to do so in the same manner that other interested parties can do in cases where the requirement of the code has been violated a mandamus action can be filed with the court system to compel the action to occur similarly an affirmative action to defund the monies set aside for the integrity and compliance office can be interpreted as violating the requirements as set forth in the code thank you so much for that clarification uh director Fitzpatrick board member Walker and then board member Brown yes
232thank you originally these were put in as two different amendments and they were merged to one just I guess given the title of them and so a secondary piece of that if you look inside is to um to um remove the 20 24,32 that is being requested for another position this upcoming year what I think I hear from Mr Fitzpatrick is that we have an open checkbook and what this says is that no matter what funding is asked that we have to pay for it and and I think that that is unfortunate and unacceptable um for us being not only in a deficit but for good stewards of fiary responsibility so um I just want to make sure that what I heard was that whatever is being asked from this office at any time needs
233to be put inside of our um budget did I just hear that because my piece on um reducing the 204 326 that's being asked for this year to remove Mo it and um I think what you're saying is that that's not an option right direct as to not get into the lane of providing legal advice I will read it again uh just read the words on the page again um and so the question was about the code and I quot the code first it says each year the integrity and compliance officer shall submit to the County Board a projected budget for the Office of the upcoming fiscal year and it says the County Board shall include in the county board's annual operating budget proposal the amounts recommended by the integrity and compliance officer and the
234response was please note that I that is board's legal council read the language of the code AS compelling the Prince georgees County Board of Education to include the budget recommendations of the integrity and compliance officer in its annual operating budget thank you I'll wait for the next round it's going to be more than 23 seconds thank you thank you board member Walker board member Brown yes thank you um so I I Know Chief how uh yesterday did discuss and and maybe she can correct me so please um I'm asking for her feedback it was my understanding that yes we would be um liable for this position and having it the budget however I believe Chief Howell um stated in the meeting yesterday in the obaa meeting that um they are requesting that the County Council
235pay for this essentially um but not take away from the budget that you know for our Scholars so if they are giving us um I don't know the X amount of dollars you know they are also going to add that salary and that budget for the office that they ask for so Chief how can you speak to that please thank you yes so that is correct in the current proposed 26 budget um we did include the full cost of this office of Integrity compliance including the program enhancement for the additional position based on the legislation we shall include it in the budget based off of what's being recommended and so though that fully loaded budget is captured in our uh budget in addition to that our County contribution request reflected in the proposed budget and
236it's going to be reflected in the budget that's transmitted to the county um does consider not only the minimum required in accordance with blueprint it's also adding to that the fully loaded cost of this function to be paid for by the county now obviously they can vote to not do that but it's going to be in our requested budget that it is fully funded by the County government thank you so much Chief how board member Brown was that the end of your thank you I had a request uh since we didn't have clear legal um a clear legal answer to that question especially since board member Boozer Struthers has presented an amendment to her amendment is it possible to get a clear answer on whether or not we are able to we are able to
237request um board member boo str's amendment to have that salary and office be in line with um commensurate divisions in the um Administration so what I what I will say and I'll I'll ask our our legal counsel to to weigh in here I know a rid of mandments is something that you know we pay close attention to Mr Henderson do you mind uh sharing sharing uh some of some of your Insight in reference to to this if you don't mind yes uh good a good evening uh board members so I have not done the independent research uh into this issue but based on the advice that was provided to the board by board counsel um what my understanding is of board council's advice is that the board could vote to defund the office of integrity
238and compliance but that defund of the office comes with consequences and one of those potential consequences could be a rid of mandamus where a court would order the board to um fund the office because what my understanding of the the applicable statute is is that the way that it's written Prince georgees County Public Schools shall fund the office and so by defunding it and if there is subsequent litigation filed we will essentially at some point be ordered to fund it so the board is within its discretion to vote to defund it but it does come with consequences thank you so much board member Walker yes so my um initial um input was not to defund I I agree with you on defunding it's here it's a law I won't vote for defunding it but what
239I would like to do is on Thursday if our legal council they'll be there if they can talk to us about ramifications or alignment for board member booer str's request for putting this in line with um other PGCPS functions number one and then secondary piece about what my original request was was about not about the $4,325 that's being requested this year if that can be deferred into into a future year until we can hear from the Council on whether or not they're taking it on because they might not they also are at a opposite as well so we don't know that they're taking that to be honest so likely it will be sitting exactly where it is so I would like to know what can be true for us to just say hey let's pause
240a minute on this additional $244,000 until next year so we could now really see um what comes out of it because it might pay for itself and then we'll all be winning uh that is my request if we could wait until Thursday where they could answer those two questions because they were two different amendments they just got lumped in thank you maybe that's for chair Jackson I don't know who the questions to um yes so are you making a motion to postpone this amendment until Thursday until we can come back with more answer or what more information yes but for those two specific requests yes I am absolutely thank you thank you so much for that clarification so the question at this point is is um shall the Prince georg's County Board of Education postpone
241the budget amendment for the office of integrity and compliance until next Thursday Miss adelay please take a roll call vote where the legal council will be present thank you for adding that where the legal council will be present please take a roll call vote Dr ano hi Miss Bud hi Mr bricks hi Mrs G MC hi Miss Brown hi Dr Moss hi Miss Walker hi Chay Jackson hi eight in the affirmative with eight in the affirmative we will postpone that Amendment pending legal um council's response um lastly our last Amendment for the evening is for all divisions and offices reduction of travel and central office discretionary funds the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education approved the budget amendment for all divisions any discussion recent or amendments I'm gonna this is one
242of my items so I'm going to pull it um but if the budget crisis has been solved um it might not be necessary but uh I'd like to pull it for discussion it's the only amendment in this section so we don't need to pull it for discussion but we're open for discussion board members if anyone has anything they would like to questions comments changing the Amendments anything at this point in time um I would like to ask if what's in this particular amendment is part of the budget plan that's already been put together this particular Amendment would Implement a 50% reduction of non-essential travel across offices and divisions that utilize operating funds for travel um there's also a component of this that came from board member wart let our speak to to have all Central
243offices reduce their discretionary budget by 10% to eight in the 37 million deficit we are currently facing so um I'd love if this is included in the administration's plan for reducing a $37 million deficit or if there are other measures outside of this I think I'd love to hear thank you um thank you Mr MOS one of the things that I will share and I'll let chief chief how share a little bit about this because we did have this conversation a months ago uh around around the possibility of uh of of travel what uh what we do know in terms of the effects is that you know professional development training is definitely something you know attending workshops conferences making sure that our our staff are up to speed on the uh the most beneficial um
244um professional opportunities that are out there the collaboration and networking is something that's extremely important not only to central office staff but I think to to board members uh as well the idea around Recruitment and Retention is is extremely important here you know traveling to uh job fairs to to help with you know the the HR functions that we talked about programs and partnership development as well engaging the the kind of external Partners whether it be universities or Grant organizations um the last thing that I'll I'll mention is you know just the idea around um best practice implementation site visits those are all things that allow us to continue to be uh uh successful around programs and uh ensure that the district firsthand is allowed to uh stay up on the best practice strategies that
245are out there so uh I'll let Chief how talk a little bit about uh kind of where we are in terms of um this particular measure in reference to the Gap closing uh Focus that we have thank you so as it relates to travel and discretionary spend across the board um we have identified specific opportunities very strategic whereas discretionary spend that's currently in the budget wasn't necessarily in line with historical Trends and that's where we really focus our targeted efforts to cut discretionary spend um as it relates to travel as superintendent house outlined that is certainly lwh hanging fruit in terms of an opportunity to identify where we can cut non-essential travel I will say that at the beginning of the budget formulation process we knew we were facing a budget deficit we knew we
246were going to be facing challenges and every division was tasked with going through and cutting their budget already before it was even submitted or realigning priorities to fund travel that they felt was necessary for their division and it's very different from one division to the other so that exercise has already taken place in terms of rep prioritizing spin to support travel that's needed um to the extent that we have to dig deeper on that that's a lever we can certainly pull but based off of the some of the discretionary Cuts because they weren't all just in travel some cases it's supplies it could be contracted Services we were able to identify enough to be able to get us to a path however as I outlined before this budgeting process is not over we still have
247the possibility of changes to blueprint which will require us to go back to the well and make a deeper haircut as it relates to our discretionary spend if we have a $62 million gap to close versus a $23 million gap so that is a level we will pull because we don't want the brunt of that to solely fall on the fol so we will have to go back and cut our spin across the board even further to accommodate that greater reduction that is something that we will certainly do but yes we've looked at discretionary spend across the board not just in travel but we have looked at Travel as well but not just travel only thank you so much did that fully answer the the question absolutely board member Walker and then board member W
248excuse me board member Moss yeah absolutely thank you so much for that Miss how um I think what I heard you say through that is that you've already cut some discretionary funds is that what you said okay and then I think you also said that you've already uh cut some travel as part of your $37 million plan okay um I love what Dr Moss did asked for um earlier which was and hopefully you all will be able to provide that when we do get to Thursday is the plan as far as where did the 37 million I'm excited for it like thank you all for doing that work um for the 37 million and where did we find it and so what we will be able to look at as um and how it relates
249to the work that we do every day so that'll be super helpful and I think it'll help answer some of the questions that we have here while still um ensuring that as we continue forward because we know in a budget like they we're not going to get everything we asked so there's going to be some more reconciliation after this amazing process so with that we will be able to have flexibility I think we'll be able to um see that clearly you know taking a look at that sheet would you anticipate that you would have a plan like that that equals the 37 .3 million that was found within a spreadsheet we can provide an update at the board meeting that will outline changes in Revenue which is half of it and then the other half
250relating to expenditures yeah makes sense thank you so much that would be really helpful too thank you uh given that understanding I believe I can table this amendment um to our board meeting next Thursday um if if it's the will of the body happy to table it also the understanding that um I'll likely amend it um to exclude teacher professional learning um as part of this I was prepared tonight to revise this reduction to not include teacher professional learning um but I'd like to table this until next Thursday after we've seen the administration's plan for the $37 million reduction thank you so much much board member moss and board member Walker the question is shall the Prince George's County Board of Education postpone the amendment for reduction of travel Central Service central office discretionary until
251next Thursday Miss etel please take a roll call vote Dr anord hi Miss Bud CH hi Mr Briggs hi Mrs Brown I Mrs goost MC I Dr Moss I miss Walker I CH Jackson I it in the affirmative there are eight in the affirmative the budget amendment is postponed uh that concludes our um amendments the Board of Education approved the following amendments to the superintendent's proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 Aviation program continuation third grade literacy lab pilot expansion of Hillside hwsc program expansion of lyc promotur program board budget analysts District leaon Board member budget reduction Communications office staff reduction research study to improve talent pool revamping the onboarding process the board will consider the following amendments at the next board meeting strategy offices merger renaming of schools office of integrity and compliance aligning employees
252salaries with the PGCPS salary scale and postponing enhancements and the reduction of travel central office discretionary funds thank you all so much oh apologize board member Walker yes thank you so much for recognizing me I was just wondering when it comes to the office of integrity and compliance can we break those back out again please because I think they're two different discussions I can be more clear so there's um do you did you understand um there were originally two amendments there was the one that was that um board member booer struther did the friendly Amendment on today um and then there was a separate one for the $24,000 if we could just break those up so we could talk about those separately that would be great thank you and seeing ah head nod so thank
253you so much for that uh call out board member Walker um with that thank you all so much for your hard work this evening and how late we've been on uh the call I know we are all incredibly dedicated to making sure we have the best school system in the country um and with that I now return the meeting to chair Jackson thank you um board members Zia uh thank you all for watching and joining us tonight um and with that being said the prince Georgia County board of education budget work session and public hearing for for FY 2026 is a journ good night