001okay the T time is now 5:01 PM uh and good evening and welcome to the October 22nd 2024 policy and governance committee meeting I'm Jonathan Briggs chair of the committee and District Two board member it brings me a great pleasure to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and I look forward to our work tonight we're going to move on to roll call um so miss adelay please call the roll Mr Briggs Pres Dr Miller pres Miss Walker Miss Bud Str present Mr Jackson three present we have a COR great thank you so much Mr adla we're going to now move on to item 1.3 adoption of the meeting agenda um please be advised that to accommodate our visiting speakers the order of the agenda will be will vary slightly um so the agenda item 4.3 policy
00261 53 field trips will be considered after agenda item 3.1 blueprint implementation update um if there are no objections the committee shall adopt the October 22nd 2024 meeting agenda as amended okay hearing none there being no objections to October 22nd 2024 meeting agenda is adopted as amended now going to move on to item 1.4 approval of the committee meeting minutes um so if there are no Corrections the committee uh shall approve the September 24th 4 2024 meeting minutes as distributed um and and there being no uh Corrections the September 24 2024 meeting minutes are approved we're now going to move on to item 2.0 and I do want to just pause and recognize that um our um ex official member the the chair of the board has joined us as well um and so just
003say good evening thank you I'm a voting member of this one actually you get more of me in this one oh okay uh so we're now on item 2.0 public comment on agenda and non agenda items um uh registered public comment speakers can be live pre-recorded using video audio or written there is one registered live public comment this evening and that's from Miss Teresa Smith um individual speaking on policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process um so miss ad and if she is in the waiting room great we can let Miss Smith in don't see her I am sending the link to her the invitation to be promoted to panelist I'm not sure if she's she's declining it okay let me give her another 30 seconds yeah because I see her it's an
004attendee so Miss Smith if if you're I'm assuming you can hear us um but you would need to accept the invitation that would pop up on the zoom screen for you to be promoted to a panelist so you should see that um as opposed to rejecting it okay we're going to give it another 30 seconds and then we're going to move forward um but we will we do welcome if you want to submit written comment um M Miss Smith um we can take that um in the event that we can't hear your testimony verbally but we're going to try um for another 30 seconds or so miss adet any updates is she still rejecting it okay all right so um we we aren't G to be able to hear Mrs Smith uh Miss Smith's uh
005presentation unless we we may actually be able to postpone this um piece of the the item and then come back to it if she in the next two minutes or so is able to join um and then we will move on to the introduction of the blueprint piece uh which is item 3.0 um and if Miss Smith is able to accept that then we'll we'll pivot back to that um so we're going to move on to legislative agenda and we're going to go to three item 3.1 blueprint implementation update um the chair recognizes Mrs Welsh to introduce her presenter Dr car Libby for the blueprint implementation update good evening um we're very fortunate to have uh Dr Cara Libby and her team here today this evening so she can provide us with an update on
006the blueprint she was here last year a couple times and um we had actually even asked her near the end of last year she could come and she said well nothing really specifically had changed but that if we wait until this time this year that she would be able to give us an update so we are fortunate to have her here so I will let her introduce herself and her team so good afternoon Kyra libbing and strategic initiatives director and blueprint coordinator for Prince George's County this evening I have Dr Wade with me she's one of my project managers and assists me with blueprint and everything else and we also have an external partner with us and I will let her introduce herself hi my name is Tara bergfeld I am with westad nice to
007meet you all uh we do have a PowerPoint presentation would you like for me to share or you would you would like to share if you could share please yeah that it that I'm not multi-talented like that thank you so of course update on blueprint for marylands future next slide please and our wonderful Board of Education okay now we're going to give you a quick status so in 2023 you know we submitted our first blueprint plan it was more like um I call it a the Baseline the accountability and implementation board the state government oversight committee for blueprint for across the state wanted to know what do we want to know from each of the local school systems in terms of this blueprint implementation based on the law so the first iteration of our blueprint
008plan in 2023 was about 200 pages and it's and it was like okay pillar one Early Childhood pillar two career ladders pillar three College on Career Readiness pillar four more resource more resources for students and then pillar five the accountability what will that look like we fast forward to 2024 and the we call it the aibb the accountability and implementation board now they have a a better handle on what they are looking for in terms of the blueprint and what the school systems need to report on so the second blueprint plan that was created developed in 2024 was in two parts the first part was the systemic response it asked the local school systems to talk about the district's goals Visions strategic plan our communication plan to stakeholders and it asked oh am I muted
009oh oh I'm back our three top challenges and it um asked for us to progress monitor how are we going to address our challenges and of course the board members assisted us with that systemic response in March 2024 part two was when the aib said okay now we're going to delve into the Five Pillars everything the school system reported on in 20123 is almost like now what are you going to do about it how are you going to do it and then what are the challenges thus far to implement this blueprint so in May 2024 we completed the Five Pillars we pulled together part one and part two we sent our Visions in in July 2024 and we received our final approval for our blueprint plan in September 2024 and of course on the slide
010you'll see the link to our plan and then also as you all are so wonderful that you always do you promote our website so that's our link to our website and we also have the plan in Spanish and French on our website next slide please thank you so this year the aib through surveys asking the blueprint coordinators and others what do we need to do to help to implement this we said we need we need help we need Partners we need those experts in the field that are going to help us to implement per pillar so this school year Prince georgees County public schools we have five Partners we have a partner to talk about prek expansion and the private providers and that partner is is helping us now to look to see what what
011they can do to assist us with the private providers we have a partner uh City Works DC that is helping us with our career counseling because there are career counselors in all middles and high schools and we have a partner HCM strategist to help us with College and Career Readiness in those Pathways and we also have nce who will assist us with our career ladder our partners have just started to assist us and to talk about the scope of work and to figure out how they will how they will assist Prince George's County with the implementation of blueprint through each of those areas now what is really important and I said something several times to the aib we need assistance with resource allocation what does it look like in terms of blueprint and the budget
012and that is where West Ed and Miss Tara have joined us this evening because this is where it's going to be important for all stakeholders to know what's coming within the next year or two on how the allocation is going to look different and how the funding follows the student so I'm going to turn it over over to Tara so she can talk about our partnership with westad and and resource allocation thank you Dr Libby good evening my name is Tara bergfeld I am a senior education Finance associate on the Strategic resource allocation and systems planning team at westad my team provides technical assistance to and research on behalf of states and school districts on topics related to school funding for Education accountability systems and systems alignment specifically westad is a very large organization I
013am a part of of one team um that specializes in school Finance I am very excited to be leading the work to support Prince George's County Public Schools um in the planning and implementation of the resource allocation and strategic budget area of the Maryland blueprint I've been at westad for almost three years prior to this I was the director of resource strategy for Metro Nashville Public Schools where I directed The implementation of Art District student-based budgeting system and for many years prior to that I worked for the Tennessee comp trollers office I supported our state legislature on issues related to school funding and policy as a part of this work our team is assisting The District in evaluating their current budget and expenditures as they align with the requirements of the blueprint specifically around minimum
014funding requirements at the school level for example in the aggregate the district must allocate at least 75% of funds to the school site level so we are supporting in the analysis to determine how many schools are receiving that required minimum funding and how many will require additional resources and in what area following this analysis I'm so sorry I'm working from home this afternoon and my child just walked in the door I'm so sorry sorry Cooper please give me a few more minutes please please go on out for a second I am so sorry it's late where I am or later sorry um following this part of the analysis um we are going to support the team in developing data visualization and other materials such as talking points and one pagers to support you in communicating
015about the B the budget priorities with both internal and external partners with this work we'll come supporting the development of a community engagement plan to facilitate ongoing resource allocation and planning conversations do we have any questions yet and I think um Miss bur I think um we'll probably just hold all of the questions the end yeah I only have two more slides okay great so as Dr Libby said we really just started kicking off this work together um probably really full steam the last couple of weeks um we've met with the finance office first to understand the current processes for allocating centralized versus School level costs and over the next month we are going to conduct our analysis of the minimum funding requirements as I mentioned on the previous slide and identify where resource shifts
016need to occur to do this we are going to meet with program teams including the school-based budgeting office to understand how resources are allocated for specific program and student needs such as English Learners and students with disabilities among others following this initial assessment period we are going to draft recommendations for changes to the SBB formula as well as any other potential shifts in the district's multi-year budget plan based on blueprint requirements because any changes to the SBB formula can have an impact on school budgets we are going to work with your teams to develop guidance for principal so that they understand what is changing and why and lastly in the spring as I mentioned we're going to assist with communication of all of these changes to the board of education and the County Council as
017well as families staff and the public and next slide please so what are the anticipated outcomes of this work together first we are going to see changes in the way that your District allocates resources the law requires a minimum funding level by school our work together will help inform the development of the FY 26 budget that will get more schools closer to this threshold and I don't have this on the slide um it's still a bit amorphous but we also really want to to support the team to think about not only how to implement the blueprint compliance requirements a lot of this is accounting showing how some Central costs are allocated out to the schools but really about how to actualize the spirit of the law we don't want to shift around resources on paper
018only we don't want it to just look make the accounting look like resources are going to certain schools just changing the way we're you know cost coding something we truly want to Resource schools and children the way that they need it the most and to do this fully it it really is going to take more than one budget cycle this isn't going to happen overnight um the formula as it's structured requires some segmenting of costs so for example we have this program for English learner students and this amount of funding for this interventionist but we don't want to think about in instructional interventions in these funding silos we really want to help you think about how you can serve multiple student groups that are not just defined by how the funding is Flowing to them
019so we plan to support the district in processes to separate out the funding from the programming um from an implementation and student needs standpoint we're going to do this by offering opportunities to engage with other school districts that we are supporting in Blueprint and implementation as well as connecting with some um content level experts at westad around specific programming and I touched on these actions that are outlined on the slide in the previous slide but again anticipated outcomes from our engagement together will include adjustments to the district's SBB formula to align with blueprint requirements updated guidance that will complement those changes and communication support to make sure that those who are impacted understand the how and the why about the changes that we've made and still plan to make to align with the Maryland blueprint
020that is my presentation for today thank you great thank you so much and want to confirm that that's the end of the presentation for everyone okay great um so board members the floor is now open for discussions I'll recognize you in the order of your rais hand um and we'll start with Dr or vice chair Miller good evening first let me just say thank you Dr Libby I know you've been working tirelessly you and your team on this and each time you've you have delivered for our school system so I just want to St by just saying thank you um putting us as leaders in this work I'm really appreciate it and then also leading the charge with saying hey here's how we need help with the Partnerships um so that we know you know
021this is a joint effort for our community and you just stepping forward and doing that is commendable so I just want to say thank you uh for that and thank your team on our behalf for that as well um the part that I grapple with is probably a question for terara from West wested and see here's another uh place where you got a partner because there things that we're going to have to do different where you talked about separating the funding the funding from the program so you're looking at how it's following the student which is going to be totally different as to how we've looked at funding for for since I've been in education what my question is about when we have funding so you have a school that's probably Title One CSI then
022you got blueprint fronts so when you come to adding those federal funds in then you might have Title One title two in there how do we ensure and maybe this something that we're still working on because I know title one looks at the program but the blueprint is looking at the student what supports do you think would have for principles in order to help navigate that complicated formula sure that's a really good question and a really good point um you're right title one does look at programming but I think it is still possible to look less about what the funding dictates for what is an allowable use of a program and think more globally about how to serve students in a school building less about allowable use more about need first and then find the
023funding source that will allow that program I think typically we look at funding source dictating the program and maybe we kind of try and flip that around a bit we want to look at the ideal programs that would serve students in that building and then find the funding streams that make sense by blending and braiding them together and that's where the strategy and the support is going to come in for for principles when they're making their budgets great thank you so much um and we can always have a second round if there's additional pieces Dr Miller we're g to move to board member Boozer struther all right thank you so much chair and uh thank you to Dr Libby and the team the um piece about the um moving towards the data visual ation is
024just so right on target for the board in our recent Retreat we had identified that as a priority for this year that we could really um explain to our stakeholders and to the County Council uh these blueprint escalations and and exactly you know the benefits and and impact that they'll have on our students so um really happy about that alignment and then the um second piece uh Miss bergfeld on uh that that you presented on the um where we're headed with SBB and the um need the the needs assessments uh driving uh the decisions around the expenditures and I know that principles have been this is the the blueprint is a heavy lift on principles um at this some of our high concentration of poverty schools with over a, students you know as I've described
025that this is like having a $2 million Social Service organization now in your building but you haven't been able to hire any staff to actually be that Social Service organization so I think what I'm really looking for is will the will the principles be able to drive the staffing needs based on the outcomes they're expected and and I know absent you know improving um attendance rates is is a really big one and that we need more social workers in the building so if you can speak to that flexibility on that portion of the follow the student pillar four I would appreciate it thanks sure and I just want to clarify the timer is that for me as well to answer okay um so honestly that that is a policy decision within the district around how
026much flexibility principles have around those Staffing decisions um that that you all can kind of philosophically approach Staffing and filling those vacancies is a challenge it's one thing to get a big pot of money it's another to be able to strategically use it if you can't hire folks and so finding ways to support principles when they perhaps can't fill a position and finding other ways to utilize those funds that may be where that the guidance can come in as well perfect timing you you really took that to heart so thank you for that um you know and if there are other questions um we can do a second round but I did have a question for you miss burkeville and I'm really just thinking about this from kind of the outward facing piece where there
027are members of the public that are watching this people who aren't Ed policy WS or who aren't really super clear about how School budgets work um who may be wanting to understand more about student-based budgeting and I think you've kind of gone over it at a very high level which I think is is helpful but I was just curious like when you talked about like braiding and blending funds and funding streams um what what would be the I'm making an assumption that like the goal is to get the most out of the dollar that exists but if you could just explain that more for people who are um really lay and they're like wanting to understand why is this you know something that we're using our time and our energy towards doing that would really
028be helpful to me sure that's a great question so school systems are funded with lots of different revenue streams state Federal local they they're all coming in and many of them have requirements on how you spend the dollars federal funds specifically you know there's a lot of reporting required it must be used it it is calculated based on a certain formula such as Title One based on economically disadvantaged students and it must be used for XYZ for those students and then you have to report up how you spend those dollars um similarly now you know the blueprint has um its own spending requirements through the funding formula money is coming in based on student inputs and it must be spent in a certain way so there's lots of spending requirements on school districts around how
029they structure their programs blending and braiding are um terms that are used for how you maximize all of the resources that are coming into your school system it's not just keeping all of your funds segmented oh think of it as you know sometimes there's a grant and it has a very specific purpose it is given to you to do this particular thing but with all of this pool of money that's coming in between blueprint federal funds and others we want to maximize them we want to use the most restrictive funds first like title one they have um requirements for how you must spend those dollars but perhaps you know you could boost that program by stacking more dollars on top of it from the blueprint the term braiding comes into play Because when you're literally
030looking at a braid like three different strings you know braided together in the image it means that they retain their funding source for reporting requirements they don't get lost all in this big pot of money um blending is when you are able to blend multiple Revenue sources together and the reporting is kind of less defined as during braiding there are some consolidation options um for school districts around how they they blend and braid funds at the school level that we could talk about um for some guidance for you know your team for the fiscal part of the team on that um but for a high level blending and braiding is really just maximizing all the funding that comes in knowing how it can be used and using the most restrictive funds first so that you
031can deplete those and then stack others on top thank you that was and almost created a visual in at least my mind so really appreciate you um sharing that and it sounds like what I'm hearing is this will be a be an opportunity to really stretch the dollar um if there's $10 per student then you can get the most out of that $10 that exists by having you all on board so thank you so much for all of that um board members are there any committee members are there any any additional questions um for Miss um for Dr Libby um for Miss Bur field or other um folks on the call okay well we want to say thank you and it was really quick and easy and uh thanks for taking the time and no
032problem at all having uh your child come into the it made it very human so we appreciate it and we're very grateful uh that we you know we we blessed with his uh very very quick um presence um so with that being said we are going to move to the next portion we're going to go back for a second to public comment because we do have Miss Smith on the line now she was having some tech issues and they ready to move forward um but want to say thank you to Dr Libyan team um for joining us we really appreciate it and feel free to stay on or to leave um and so we're going to go now to the register public comment um again register public comment speakers can be live pre-recorded using video
033audio or written as I mentioned there's one registered live public comment uh this evening and that is Miss Teresa Smith who's an individual speaking on policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process so I am going to turn it over to Miss Smith who's joining in a second yeah um chair bggs I'm sorry to interrupt but I did see I think Dr Libby um was trying to get the mic there for a second thanks for that yes Dr Libby sorry I was getting ready to leave so I just want to to say that's why we're partnering with West Ed and then also more to come and the current blueprint plan it's like 100 pages but if if you want to read anything in the plan go to pillar five and read pillar five and
034read question 23 that's really going to give you an indepth response of how we're going to move forward with this blueprint and budgeting and plus PGCPS was one of seven that had question 23 approved the first time around oh all right I wish we had the uh little celebration Emoji uh that we could use but that's we can just do it uh in in in voice so thank you so much for okay thank you bye bye all right and we're gonna welcome Miss Smith for her public comment on policy 4113 okay so she's having some tech issues again so hope y um we'll give it 30 seconds and um and be patient practice some patience chitten yeah I saw that sorry okay great so we're going to well well we appreciate you making the time
035um Teresa and look for for to your written um your written statement so we're now going to move on to item 4.0 and we're going to go to item 4.3 uh which will be um uh policy 6153 field trips um I recognize Mrs Welsh to introduce her presenter Mr Philip Hughes uh for the update on policy 6153 field trips good evening um so I want to just um backtrack for a second on field trips because as that as when we met I think it was August and we discussed field trips there were bits and pieces of information that you wanted to have answers to um and so in um in September then I met with Phil actually was the instigator behind this group meeting but we had all these players that we met across the
036schools the area offices and everything to discuss the field trips and issues that were coming up on the field trips and uh Phil who is our director Phil Hughes he's our director of risk management he actually provided some excellent information in terms of the whole process um for um how we even determine what is a viable trip and what isn't in terms of liability so I I I asked them if there'd be any chance he'd come and share that same information with all of you because I I thought it was quite interesting so I'm not gonna talk anym for this moment but I'll let Phil um go ahead and talk a little bit about the Phil trips and good evening thank you for having me um so Robin wanted me to talk about about really
037the role of risk management as it relates to student field trips uh we are a field trip approver along with the associate superintendent principal in ID uh once we've been made aware of a field trip the first thing my office does that I do is really we do a res a risk assessment we want to determine if the field trip is safe or how can we mitigate any kind of risk or Hazard as it relates to that field trip um that involves several factors uh certainly goes into the investigation of the vendor uh maybe uh talking to my counterparts and other leas um meeting with the vendor uh and actually really going on site to see exactly what the field trip entails and provide recommendations and suggestions in order to mitigate risk or or increase
038the safety of that trip uh the second thing that we really want to do is look at the the liability waiver uh in the days today a lot of these vendors are trying to transfer their risk back on to uh PGCPS and more importantly to our parents and our students and if you read a lot of the waivers you'll find that uh what the vendors want to do is transfer their risk even when they're negligent and so we we can't have our families um you know uh signing away um their their their uh obligation or signing away their their ability to seek indemnification in case their child is hurt as a result of the negligence or liability of that vendor so we work with the O the office of general counsel uh to to um
039make amendments to that waiver to provide it back to the vendor in order to make that uh waiver more neutral uh certainly uh if one of our children uh damages something on their site they're going to expect us to pay for it and certainly we expect them to take on their uh their liability if due to their negligence one of our students is is harmed um and so and then you know the other things that we really try to do again is all around about the safety of the of our students uh again making sure that we're doing a proper investigation uh to ensure that the trip is safe um you know we are and right now we are putting a to together a list of approved trips we think that that will help speed
040up the time in which a school uh will will will will need in order to get a the field trip approved but certainly if I'm aware of the vendor I'm aware of the field trip uh it is a lowrisk field trip normally normally they have my signature within 15 minutes to 24 hours and so we really try to turn those things around it's really when we're not aware of the trip we don't know what the activities are I'm unfamiliar with the vendor um that it does take a little bit more time to ensure that uh trip is safy I'll give you one example if our kids are going out to the boat we're going to request the vendor to provide their Coast card inspection we're going to require that the vendor provide that the uh
041the captain has the a valid license we're going to ask for the float Clan we're going toensure that they have life vest for that meet all sizes of children we're going to want to know what the communication and the emergency plans and so we go through that analysis just to make sure that the trip is safe and is suitable for our kids regardless of the age yeah thanks okay um so thank you so much uh Mr Hughes for that for that presentation and we'll now turn it over to board members if you have questions feel free to raise your hands I'll recognize you in the order of your race stand we're going to start with um chair of the board Walker you are muted or I think your volume might be really low you're unmuted
042oh thank you so much um I didn't know if they wanted to go through this document first I'm happy to have you guys go through that document no problem no that that's occasion oh okay so what no worries so one of the questions I was gonna ask thank you very much I was wondering if you and I think you might even be able be about to answer it I was wondering if you docu document the um hazards or the um concerns because as others want to attempt to do a field trip they could just take a look at that and see what the concerns were in order to help out prior to you getting them so I don't necessarily document the hazards or the concerns we will not approve a field trip unless those Hazzard
043or concerns have been addressed we won't approve a field trip unless the liability waiver meets our legal sufficiency and so the next school that comes behind us uh comes behind that one it can be automatically approved because we've already done the leg work up front yes um is there a checklist so for instance I guess I would know if I wanted to take my Scholars on a boating trip that there will be some clear precautions for it is there somewhere I can go and say if it's a boating trip or anything to deal with water then here's a checklist um to make sure that at least when you get it you can do less work or is that something that you feel that you don't need um at this time because of the waiver or
044anything else that you already have I don't necessarily need a a a a checklist because each individual trip is different and so you know if it's environmental trip people have we found that those that are doing environmental trips they've been doing this for a really long time and so there's their their the safety is is much higher than you know maybe some other that may be new to being a inv vendor and so but we treat them all the same we're still GNA I'm still going to go out on that boat with them I'm still going to see what the kids are actually going to be doing I'm still going to talk about when they're on the boat see what their safety Protocols are we're going to make sure that the captain and the Shipmates
045are um first a CPR and water rescue license and so we're doing all those things and and so sometimes a che a checklist May um pigeon hold you into certain things where when I'm when I'm there and that's why we want to meet with the vendors because we actually want to see what's going on certainly I start that by going online looking them up may even go into DLR to see if their if their license or they're in good standings but from there really getting a good gauge on what they're going to do how safe they are about safety is really in that in the conversation that I'm having with the vendor thank you so much very thorough thank you there other questions okay um I did have just a really quick question Mr Hughes
046and this was more on the like when you get to the last Domino so there's if you're visualizing 10 dominoes the last one is like the impact of everything that led up to that last Domino um and it's like a delay in field trips or fewer field trips because of different reasons and that's what we heard from the community was that there was concerns about postco um you know having fewer F field trips and I was just curious with some of the pieces that you mentioned um in the earlier phases like the vendor the approved vendor list is that a list that like one are is PGCPS holding on to people let's say that there was like a boating trip five years ago that was initially improve internet I know things can change with businesses
047so you still want to stay in compliance or consider liability but um is there like a list where it's like you all are kind of holding on to the information and providing it to schools and then the second question was like is there a way of collecting information in advance from schools around potential field trips so that you a lot of that vetting process can happen before it gets to like any delays and field trips happening so if I can answer the second question first certainly when I'm talking to um the the school field trip coordinators or the community coordinators my conversation to them is that if you're unsure and when you're thinking about a field trip let me know let's have this conversation because as soon as I I'm aware of it as soon
048as I can jump on it and again it takes time to do a lot of these things um certainly when you're talking about boating and they're thinking about it in the winter month the boats don't go out in the winter so you have to kind of wait till the spring which which uh compresses time uh so again as soon as I'm aware of it uh then then that's when I act on it uh the second question is that we are that we are creating a subcommittee of of of stakeholders from all around PGCPS so we can put a list together of approved activities and then that list will go out on a bulletin each and every year it will give us the flexibility then for that that group to come together every year go through
049that list and update that list whether we want to add activities or delete those activities for various reasons okay got it and I might I may I might email you offline with some additional pieces I think we had I don't want to belabor uh some of the questions but I really appreciate your response there are there other questions all right oh okay looks like chair uh of the board Walker has one more question no I was just going to remind you to please put it in a Tracker thank you oh the qu thank you yes please all right we know you're about process and I appreciate that so okay I put that question in in the tracker and hopefully revil you also hurt that just in case I forget um we're GNA we want to
050say thank you um Mr Hughes for joining us this evening for the presentation um it's really helpful because I feel like this was something that we were want to know more about so your expertise on the process has been really helpful um to clarify some things um and as as with their other presenters feel free to stay on if you want to or you can also head to your life um in whatever you have going on this evening so thank you so much he might thank you very much you might want to just stay on till we get through the field trip policy in case anything comes up that that they have a question that you might want to answer because we're going to talk about the policy itself for just a few seconds so
051certainly and then you can then you can hang up I'm sorry but just I'm you're here so I hate that you know L you if you're here and we have a question that comes up um so at the at our August meeting there were questions one of the questions had to do with um could we get the um could we find out what trips that the schools went to last year so um the area offices each of them had a sort of a spreadsheet and um that they um each they were totally different from each other so it was not like the data was you know the same data from from across each uh group as well as Community Schools also did a a field trip so ba it was pretty difficult to read and
052so I only was able to I did area one actually did sort of simplify it for us and that's what have Cindy that you can show them so you can see what that's all the elementary schools and if you look you can see the names of the schools and um the types of trips that they went on throughout the year um can you like scroll down send it like so they can just e I think that last number was oh I'm looking at it was what 601 that oh 651 so about 650 Elementary trips that happened last year Unfortunately they didn't they it wasn't collected by school it was just all put together in one thing but it gives you at least an idea of what was happening in Elementary uh School level as well
053as the types of trips most of them I look through the most of them were pretty uh academically oriented types of trips that connected to the to the curriculum then I was able to for cluster um it was a cluster seven and8 which picks up your K to 8 and your middle schools I I was able to sort of be able to count for school and IT schools went from as as low as 16 trips on in a year up to 53 trips in a year so that gave you at least the range of what that group of schools did um I could not de say high school and the middle end the um Community Schools they actually went on a total of 430 trips um and so and I think and talking to people
054that one of the things was that the the people wanted to know why the Community Schools get to go on so many trips compared to the other schools but part of that is all related to the blueprint and blueprint funding because if you read in the law what a wraparound Services one of the one of the things that is considered wraparound Services off-site learning opportunities and educational field trip so they they're specifically saying you need you need to spend your money on these types of things because they're considered wraparound Services um as far as the other question you had asked was the um uh could we do a survey and then you wanted to look like link to another survey instead of sending out a separate survey and so um the um cultural survey was
055was going to be coming out and so I did contact that office back in August and unfortunately a cut off for any adding any questions to that survey was um July 1 so we had missed they already had their survey questions ready to go so they that we missed that opportunity however they like the idea of adding some questions about the field trips so they took all the information because they plan to add some lesson some questions in the and when they do their cultural survey next year about field trips so we might be able to get more information additionally the area offices have said that they uh intend to uh have one uniform way of collecting um the data on who's going on what field trips so um what I did do though was
056in terms of the language I so in our meeting I think uh when we talked to area offices what I um heard was a couple people talking about the fact that sometimes I asked the question some of your I asked your questions that you had asked at the meeting and that I asked the question about how long it takes like why would it take so long to get through the process and um they area office said well a lot of times they like in each of the schools there's usually one person designated to get all the information together and send it out and sometimes it might be like the assistant principal or someone it depends on the school but it might sit there for a while before it ever gets to gets sent to the
057area office and so they might so the school the teachers especially might feel like that well it's I sent all this information in but you know nothing's happening and the process is so long then I also talked to some schools and to uh people working within the schools and CTE who does they do a lot of trips too and they actually said well you know a lot of times because the instructional director has to sign off that they a lot of times will um um it'll get over to the area office but because everything's paper it's not electronic so it's all just a clunk of paper they have to be able to catch that instructional director when they show up in the building to say hey can you sign sign off on this field trip
058which when you think about it is pretty um cumbersome just because you know there's a million other things that might be going on and then you have this stack of these field trips that you're supposed to try to grab the instructional director and get them to uh do it so I did I um did put um Cindy if you'll put up the field trip policy a minute and because I did make a couple changes based on this information so if you scroll down and I highlighted it these are all things that were there before but if you scroll down to um I think it's page four here the administrative approval and and I we also went step by step ac across all the forms that have to be completed and and there's not I it
059could not see anyone that was a waste of time because they're all related they're either there to help this school by giving them sample uh permission slips things like that so they actually trying to make it easier for the school and um the issue of the uh the only thing I did know is that you don't have to have all the information about all your students you do need to have a sense of how many students when you start off with the trip but by the end of the trip by the time you're ready to go you better know exactly who these students are and all their contact information in case something happens on the trip that you have to get a hold of the parents as well as you need to know that information
060up front to figure out how many shop you need but what I did so that's why I said the approval proc process needs to address all the necessary requirements however the process for implementation must be automated so I feel like they that that and that they're going to be working on the administrative procedure that that's what in fact they'll be coming back probably in another 30 days or something with a um a revised administrative procedure and that one of the things that is going need to happen is they have to put in electronic type of form so that you could go in like the ID could go in and sign you know or it's not a big deal for the vice the assistant principal whatever to send the stuff over because you're just sending it
061electronically so either way it should speed up the process significantly and it doesn't get stuck in someone you know someone waiting for the person to show up to sign off on something um so I did add that language and then because the the data that has been collected and I think it's because they've not really been required Community Schools keeps uh um the the names and numbers and specific information and that's probably because for funding purposes you need to be able to demonstrate what you use that for those funds and for the blueprint but uh if you scroll down Cindy they um to the end where it says the implementation responsibilities I did add this other language um which goes to the whole idea of keeping data on what field trips were that people are
062schools are going on um and I said said the superintendent will provide an annual report which will include a summary data for all approved and denied trips to include School area cluster grad specific designations Community Schools example Title One and location a trip um and because they are area offices are in the process of revising that so that it's that they have uniformity across all three areas um I think this is the perfect time for them then to you know begin that process so that they C the superintendent can provide you an annual report um so those were the basically the two revisions that I included in an effort to address your concerns about the process and also having the information about what trips the schools are going on thanks so much Mrs W for
063that um walk through um we'll now turn it over to board members if you have any questions please raise your hand all right see any um any questions um and I just want to make a comment and maybe um Mrs Welsh you can take this under consideration but um for this the deny trips and the proof trips if we could just have like the reason because I feel like if there's some way to code like you know if it's like didn't have liability reasons or you know funding or there were some other piece there the other thing I just want to mention is like I had a conversation with and I think I talked about this already um during the last time we talked about field trips but there was a teacher and there was
064like a parent advocate that talked about the coordination with the buses I'm not sure if Mr Hughes is uh knows this process but apparently like in order to secure the buses you have to have a certain amount of chaperon and some other things like cleared it seems like there's like an approval piece and um and if you don't have that within a certain amount of time then they lose the opportunity to get the bus because they couldn't get things clarified so there was like a timing issue where the trips weren't happening because um they had to like have this process that exists I'm not sure if that's reing a bill for you but just wanted to mention that as a okay and Mrs W I know you Ling to this um so otherwise no I
065would just say um chair Briggs that there could be the if if in fact there's a delay on people either signing and sending forward or once that receive signing and so the information just sitting there and the school had already started working to get their their bus but they could never confirm it because they didn't get any any finalization that might be part of the breakdown I don't know I'm I I don't know that for a fact I'm just you know hyp prophesizing yeah so I would want to address that too if that is an issue just to get clarity on that last piece um other questions all right well seeing no questions um if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 6153 to the superintendent for revision approval okay there being no
066objections policy 6153 fi trips will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval um thanks so much again Mr Hughes for joining us this evening um and we're going to now move to item 3.2 legislative update so I will now recognize Mrs Welsh for the legislative update okay Cy do you mind U putting it up on the screen please so as um just a couple things one is um Shelby um mcra who works in my office she did do all the design for the uh legislative platform um and so you'll get to see it now in its design form there are some changes to minor changes well one major change but then the rest are minor but I wanted to make sure you had the opportunity to see this before it moves over to the
067board to vote on um so if Cindy if you'll scroll through um the the um this just gives you like the index what and of course the vision and mission of the school system and the board Ved and if you scroll down keep scrolling and then a little bit about uh the Board of Education working with the with the the um superintendent and of course this housing and governance committee and and putting together the platform and then of course the office of government relations which is under superintendent and then if you scroll further down and then so these are the four areas of legislative priorities that we um uh identified as um areas that of all the things we talked about seem to be the most important so and this is your opportunity that if
068you think differently you should absolutely you know you object and say maybe it should be this or maybe it should be that but um I will give you a sort of the what this is saying I'm not going to read the whole thing to you but I'll say what it's saying basically and then give you the rationale and then you know we can maybe we stop there Jonathan at that point just to have a conversation about that and then move through the rest because the rest will go pretty quickly if you're okay with that um so okay so the first one is the implementation of the blueprint and and this actually was scattered through the document previously where we had the whole conversation about the fact that we're not getting guidance from the um from
069the aib and MSD in time for went to meet the time to meet the um time frame or the deadlines for the requirements that we have to meet and how that can be very problematic um for the for the school system and why it's important um to um that piece as well as continued funding in uh numerous areas because even though we have we have received tremendous amount of funding through the blueprint the requirements are are pretty significant um and often times uh they are that that those types of requirements are NE not necessarily truly funded to the degree they need to be for us as a school system to meet um those requirements and so the uh board is advocating this basically says that the um board is advocating uh for uh guidance from
070the aib and msse regarding blueprint requirements be provided up to 18 months prior to the deadline for meeting the requirements so that pgpa is able to make the necessary operational adjustments to comply with the requirements um and I think that's that every single Chief had talked about that previously and about how critically important that piece was um the next one was School Safety and Security and that um in your um I want to say the um September board meeting the superintendent in his report to the board said that his that the um highest priority for Prince georg's County public school is school uh Safety and Security and he provided a lot of information at that point in time and so um because there's needs in a wide variety of areas in school safety um we
071put that in that particular area um um be not in a w in a wide variety of areas like you have your active Shooters and all the things that need to be in place to ensure that a school can be safe in a situation like that and working also with law enforcement um in terms of ensuring that they can respond immediately and and know where to go we have uh these funding grants that we have taken advantage of um um they are are going to continue but we certainly need even more ability to uh fund um more aspects as far as not just equipment or training but even in terms of funding for staff and so this um this basically said that PGCPS is seeking support for legislative measures that continue uh and expand the
072safe to learn out grant funding for school building security measures and to pay for staff to operate and monitor Advanced security technology in the schools so it's very similar to what was there previously when it was a section of its own under ongoing issues but I but we did pull it over to the priority area just because quite honestly if you don't have safe schools none of the other stuff really matters because you know parents want their children to be safe when they come to our schools so that's critically important um and then the next one was the MSD literacy policy which is an excellent policy the in fact the State Board just voted on it today and approved it so it will be going into effect and um it has uh some very good
073components within the policy um the uh concerns though that um and there is funding in fact they announced in a presentation today that they had been state had been awarded 40 $40 million um through um um Esa funds um to help support the implementation of this uh of this uh policy and that um they had already awarded 3.8 million to the schools um to be able to um this spring to be able to implement the policy but saying that though I will say that we still have a lot of needs in the in the uh in our school system we do not have we are we right now we have uh 21 of the of our elementary schools don't have a designated Point person who could be a coach working providing the embedded job uh
074training uh where the would be working in the classroom with the classroom teacher to make sure that they're implementing the science of reading Tech um uh instruction in the right way so even with the funding and we use the grant fund I did check on this we've been using the grant funding to help support that but we still are not covering all of our schools um as well as um there um we're going to need additional funds to cover the cost of the what they refer to as high quality instructional measures um that the the um a policy is requiring and then the uh additional staff in addition to coaches there's a language that talks about the fact that if in fact you're a student who's having a lot of difficulty basically unlocking the code
075and being able to read then you might be in the need of intensive interventions which then requires a more Staffing to be able to because your classroom teacher has to there's also in the policy says You must have your core instruction you can't take away time from core instruction to do interventions so so what that means is that you will need additional staff to be able to uh provide those types of interventions or um supplementary instruction and although we have some reading specials that do provide that we don't have enough when you're thinking about all the elementary schools that we have in this County so we are highly appreciative of the money that the school that the um you know the blueprint has been providing and and the grand funding that they have received however
076for us and because we're such a large system we have a lot of needs and um a lot of work required in terms of working on literacy that um we are basically asking for continued uh funding for uh job anded training resources and increased Staffing so it's really just to bring their attention to the fact that um that we will need that you know those additional resources um and then the last one is immunizations for students new to to the us so we basically this past year we had 400 4,000 newcomer students and a newcomer student is defined as a student who was born outside of the United States and then recently has arrived uh in the country and is new to pgps and so um of there 4,000 newcomers um they um for a
077lot of reasons you know and just just because you're new to under country and everything and trying to make your way and stuff these students were not a were not able to be immuniz immunized in time um for for them to be able to start school and so when it was time to do the September 30th count for enrollment count which is what our funding uh is based on the school systems funding we basically uh it resulted in at least uh we lost about $70 million in funding um that was um that we're going to now lose it'll be cut across the blueprint prek funding F foundation and multi-arc program uh and impact to compensatory education and community school funding so it that so that's one piece of the puzzle but then actually even more
078importantly is that these students are not having the opportunity to start school like all the other students or or even if they come in the middle of the Year there might be a gap in time before they can actually get into school because they didn't have their immunizations which really is very problematic because all the research shows of course that you must be in school to learn and the more absences you have the greater your chances are of not being successful and so we want students to be able to start school right when school starts you know and be in school all the time so those were the four P priority area we um uh read of what uh chair Walker had provided um to education leaders and I know that she had a reference
079School Safety and Security as well as the literacy policy so we incorporated uh those into the mix um and the blueprint was based on just because you know our Chiefs are very adamant that we they really need to have the time to be able to implement uh what's required of them and then this new information came to light related to the um I just I was just informed about last week and we think that's pretty significant we do have language back in the body of the platform under ongoing issues that talk about being able to uh access vaccines so we can in vaccinations but still doesn't cover the cost of everything so what we're asking in the immunizations is really that they extend the day instead of 20 days you have like if you come
080to school and you can show that within the next 20 days you have an appointment to get immunized your child immunized then you can start attending school and we're just asking that they extend it to uh to 45 days so that we have additional they our parents uh of newcomers have additional time to get the the vaccines so that was the policies please if there's if you think we have should have a different policy you know you need to share at this point if you think we should change anything whatever you know we we this is your opportunity to say what you like to see there see Hands um so I'm gonna go with Dr or vice chair Miller and then on Deck is um chair Walker thank you so much thank you so much
081Miss Welsh this is um this looks really good I mine is not really to change anything because I I I I can't see what we could substitute one for the other but I also understand the challenge of going in with too many initiatives however um we keep grappling with this thing about the teacher shortage and they've done some work in terms of um trying to make it uh our profession more accessible but to give us to to have some or or to should I say to look at the legislation and put some leeway so that we can be able to better attract teachers in Maryland um to the profession don't know quite what that looks like but I think that right now there's so many um challenges to access um good teachers should I say
082or or should I say those who want to be teachers so we have those par professionals working in the classroom there was time when we had funding from the uh what is it called federal government we were able to get the parents into teaching it was tough many of them didn't finish and so now they're kind of like hanging um could is it something that can be done to to make sure that we get these indiv uh these prospective teachers in the classroom plus um path Pathways to lure and it could be something that's tied in with blueprint um but I don't think blueprint does it does a career ladder but doesn't necessarily uh hit on Pathway to lure and I think that's the path that I'm really trying to get some uh legislation around
083so last year they actually did pass a couple bills that were were really beneficial in terms of alternative Pathways to be become a teacher as well as uh relaxing the laws uh for student for teachers coming in from other states um because they used to have it where you had to jump through the same amount of Hoops when you'd already been certified in another state so why can't that transfer over so we were actually pretty pleased with the passage of those bills because it did open the door for more access to teachers um um we do have a section in the back of the document I mean not in the back but it's like the second ongoing issue which talks about Staffing and Recruitment and we could add a uh a support in there that
084talks about again something related to Alternative uh Pathways or you know something like that what you're talking about we could find language to put in there to include that yeah that would be great that and I did I was very pleased with what they did with certification from different states that was great but I think our challenge is the alternative Pathways and speaking as a practicing educator who does that the IND District pathway that they're having us develop is is becoming so arduous that it's almost like they need to go back and do the same thing that we're doing to take the courses in college when the teach teachers are already teaching we just need to give them either credit for the work they're doing have a higher ed Professor come and evaluate what they're
085doing to make sure that they are up to par and then probably give them their licensure so just uh putting some language in legislature to allow some other Alternatives in partnership with higher ed okay right I'm going to move to chair Walker thank you so much um thank you once again Miss Welsh for all the work that you do for us and with us collectively to ensure that this legislative season is amazing um you know I don't know if there's more to that page um I don't recall seeing a booklet yet it might be in my email somewhere but um some of the things I know that were really important as well were um school safety yes thank you for adding that uh board autonomy and Independence um I didn't see that anywhere kind of
086flashed in in there um funding for our mandates I know that that's always intertwined inside like as bills come one thing I'm really excited about is as we open up communications with our legislators we're already starting to see have these amazing conversations but that's something that um we definitely want to keep at the Forefront of everyone's Minds because we know without fiscal notes we find ourselves in a lot of discussions and trouble and then um our ongoing educational I'm going to call them Partnerships but it is whenever their educational bill that are put in it's again that open transparency and communication and ensuring that you know as especially as we talk curriculum one of our cores is that we maintain curriculum within our school district and um we want to make sure that legislation doesn't
087come back on that so maybe it's going through the the booklet last year and just seeing like the highlights so that we can make sure we capture those somewhere so so I will say that um okay first of all if you want to put it into a priority that's perfectly fine any one of those items however I will say we have whole pages that address everything that you talked about so um oh good I just we can look at we can maybe look at um then look at that and then if there's anything I mean actually when I brought it to chair Brick's attention about having some priorities he said well how are you going to figure out which one's a priority because they're all so important which is a very good it's very a
088good point to make so um and so so we can have a further conversation so maybe we look at this and then if you think well you know we still need to make that a priority we can absolutely do that okay thank you you know what I'm s I'm sure as soon as I take a look at it it's going to be amazing I thought it was just that one page and I'm like oh no we got to have a little bit more in there okay thank you thank you so much um I just want to clarify really quickly that there's ongoing priorities um is the term that's used in the booklet that you'll see um when you get a chance to look at it um going to go to board member Boozer struther yeah
089thank you so much and uh thanks to everyone for your hard work on this it is um the booklet is very attractive and and telling the story better and better so I I'm I'm noting that and I I want to express my thanks what one thing I do want to say about the legislative priorities page um it it's very hard to read like The formatting the layout and it doesn't jump out is like these are our four top talking points for this session so I would ask that that the designers really think about the fact that these are our four top points that we all want to be on task and make that easier to read I mean the the the actual formatting is extremely difficult to read not being like you know having that
090the way the words are so and no graphics and everything like the rest of the booklet so if I'm flipping through the book I'm probably going to skip this page and go look at the great pictures of students and school construction and and so I'd like to see that alignment um and the actual taking in of this because we're going to be handing this out to everybody um the second is that I do think with the immunizations it's the delivery method and the Health Care System that's the bigger problem and later on page third what's called 13 of the booklet where it's mentioned again um it mentions the um providing PGCPS leas who manage their own professional nurses and have school-based clinics independent Avenues to secure vaccines to students to close the gap on immunization
091compliance to me that should be way at the top like if we're going to put vaccines as a main issue that should absolutely be added to to that fourth column we can do that so that's that that's my immediate feedback on this thank yeah and uh oh um see we're second round so I'm going to go to chair Walker I can wait until you do yours Bor bember bricks no I can wait to okay um perfect the thank you I have um board docs wasn't working great for me earlier so I have opened it up um thank you very much for that I can see all of the page now which I will go through but it hits on all of the things that I just mentioned so thank you Miss Welsh um the other
092point is and we don't need to battle it now but um regarding vaccinations I don't think it's mandatory for our Scholars to have vaccinations and I know that um the covid vaccination is not required for our Scholars staff so maybe we just outline what they are or immunizations is different than vaccinations so as we look at the literature I mean as we look at the verbiage let's just make sure we stay in context um of it because um we can just you know highlight a couple of things that will get parents up in arms about a couple things but I might if I misunderstood that uh board member booer strs I apologize I just know that all vaccinations aren't required for our Scholars it's it's really um in fact there's a whole page in MSD
093that lays out very specifically what are you're correct I mean they're very specific ones that children need to have you know during but let me look at that terminology cuz maybe we can clarify that a little bit so that it's not um so you don't get confused about were talking about you need to have Co vaccination well no we're talking about things like uh DPT yeah the big ones I mean the ones that the standard ones thank you uh board member booer Str yeah thank you chair Walker I do get excited about this topic it's very important to me um but there is a comar and there's a page right off there is yeah so it we can reference Omar 10643 and we we link it right there we link it of course MSD links
094it um but it's called vaccine requirements for children so I agree with you immunizations vaccine those are you know that that you know we use both but there there's actually a law on each one that that children must have at certain ages an entry into a public school thanks yeah thank you for that clarification um I just want to say um Mrs Welsh that I really agree with the the layout I think that that was probably something we talked about internally was just I think making it more um intuitive is the feedback that I would give like obvious like you know that those are the four pillars it's like bold something that's bold is very clear maybe there's like a visual or some image that just makes it really easy I also like the feedback
095of like making it engaging because I I didn't think about the fact that people would probably go to the pictures first and be like oh look at the like at is that is that green belt like you know you're trying to like figure out things and you're not really reading it you get lost in it so just making it somewhere where it it's logical in some way you're not like easily confused and then maybe an appendix I do think a like a place for like terms just so that there's something that if if it's not hyperlink because it's not a digital document but someone's actually reading like a physical copy then they can go and they can say okay wait what are the you know what are the IM immunizations again and what is that
096requirement um so those are my pieces of feedback um and last thing for Shelby if possible I know she's like taking this task on but from the design stance if there's some way to make the ongoing to distinctly make those things separate because I feel like the the reading is those four pillars or those four things are like our big priorities but they're not our only priorities and then all the rest of that is like stuff that we continue to care about so the local autonomy the special education Charter Schools that's stuff that we're still going to be talking about in Annapolis and we just want readers to understand that like it's not like we're just saying that those are like four and then it's like what's the rest of this other stuff so it
097needs to be it needs it needs to be clear it needs to have some type of like way to make that and I think there is a way to do it and just wanted to say that okay are there other questions yes just go ahead I'm sorry let me raise my hand yeah because I think I didn't raise my hand either so I was gonna no because I believe that um chair Walker had a second round so let's go with you first and then we'll go to chair Walker um Dr Miller mine is just a play on words and I'm not married to it but I remember when I was talking about the um um what is it called uh the teacher um Pathway to licensure will you have Staffing and Recruitment and I know
098Buzz towards a recruitment and retention I think that when I think about Staffing and recruitment it seems to me it might be the same one and the same even though I think you're talking when I when I read through it that you're talking about mentorship which is a retention effort so I'm wondering whether we should change and have retention on there recruitment and retention or in another word that it's clear this is not just about recruitment but it's about retaining our Workforce okay all right um and then um chair Walker yes thank you so much um since you're taking feedback I can avoid an email and give it to you uh Miss Welsh the first is on page um on the first page if we could just have my middle initial added e um to
099all of the places wherever it is um oh okay thank you so much the secondary one is I think you know adding on to these four core I kind of like the rhyme of that but four core legislative priorities just just a suggestion you can take that back to the team they can decide what they want to do with it but if we put one two three for make that kind of stand out it goes to what other board members have stated tonight um the thought about just the wording around ongoing PGCPS issues like maybe we want to say concerns or um something around like a synonym for it um they do continue to be large issues so I don't want to sugarcoat that but I think that um we can maybe take a look
100at what that phrase uh looks like uh for those and maybe we can number them um not big like the four core but um number them so we could see it'll make it just a little easier to read um excuse me you mean number the actual like student welfare has a number or do you mean number the supports and the opposes oh no ongoing PGCPS issues it says right now and local board local school board autonomy would be one Staffing and recruitment might be two okay got it all the ones that say on the same title ongoing PGCPS something other than issues um or whatever they come up with um I love that and then I love the idea that uh Mr Briggs gave about kind of separating out um the different aspects so then
101it goes to PGCPS program highlights um which is which is awesome so thank you I think that those um big core things um really stand out as well okay and I don't know if we say anywhere um I don't know that it's necessary but we could put it at the bottom maybe thank you um to our legislative support throughout the course of the year not only these 90 days but we know that we're not re Revenue generating so we want to make sure that we not only verbalize it but if there's anywhere we could put it in print I think that that's value added as well okay thank you so much and there's space at the bottom page can I can I offer um I wanted to just make a statement and this really wasn't
102about the platform but and it's this might just be my personal my personal opinion so I'm just maybe saying this for the record but I think like um I really appreciate the point of appreciating our legislators I think when we say we're not Revenue generating um it could for me it could feel like those are like private dollars like you're giving us money that we you know otherwise wouldn't have but these are public dollars these are taxpayer dollars and this is for a public institution so I don't want to like I I wouldn't want it to be misconstrued that it's like we're saying like we're really happy that you're giving us something that we're you have to like you're you're mandated to like give us money so we're you know but if it was a
103private Corporation or something then it's like thank you for giving us money that we don't we're not owe but you are giving us money that we this is money that you have to give us um and so the really the goal is like that you're using those dollars in effective ways and I just want to make sure that's clear in the and that that we're not miscommunicating that and I don't think that's the intent but I just want to make sure that it's not misconstrued however they choose to word it I think it's amazing I know that we don't go out in um for 90 days and push so however to your point the right words are to put it I think it's value added perfect are there other questions all right so if there
104are no objections the committee shall recommend the legislative platform to the full board for consideration there being no objections the legislative platform will be recommended to the full board for consideration now going to move on to um item 4.0 policies for first consideration uh so there are now six items for discussion we'll have two rounds per discussion and vote for a third round if necessary each discussion round will be um two and a half minutes per per member so we're going to move to item 4.1 policy 8265 evaluating the superintendent of schools um I recognize Mrs Welsh for an update on policy 8265 evaluating the superintendent of schools okay um Cindy do you mind putting the um policy up please so this is um this we had we did have this policy 8265 and we
105did also have a policy um uh 9265 which was a bylaw but that was one sentence all it said was you're going to evaluate the board each year so uh and I flip-flopped it because we want to eventually get rid of this 9,000 numbers Bec move everything over to internal policies or wherever they may belong and just then eliminate that whole list that the ones that are just sitting there as bylaws right now but they're not they there really many of them are just internal policies so I did um end up making revisions to 8265 because that did have a little bit more information as it relates to the the evaluation of the superintendent so it it does say that the super that the Board of Education will evaluate the superintendent annual and then this
106is U the purpose of the policy is provide guidelines for how what and when the superintendent will be evaluated by the board um and so then um if you scroll down a little bit Cindy I do have uh definitions one is artifacts um because the policy as we go through it you'll see refers to artifacts meaning that there are things like written records documents produced by the superintend as part of the job responsibilities uh maybe also board meeting uh minutes articles written for publication PowerPoint news from presentations agenda from meetings LED recordings of press conferences things like that might be artifacts and then indicators of goal and expect and expectation attainment might be including documentation such as multiple valid and reliable data sources um a direct observation of the superintendent by board members client surveys
107um and then again referring to the artifacts and then your performance goals these would consist of measurable goals with specific timelines for the achievement that are aimed at desirable yet realistic Improvement targets that align with Prince George's County's Public Schools needs and or concerns and then the standards would consist of and if you'll scroll down Cindy um first of all annually uh prior to the beginning of the school year the superintendent and the board chair chair shall meet to agree on the format evaluation instrument and annual performance goals for the superintendent's annual evaluation the board shall approve the evaluation instrument um so that would be the first standard and then if you scroll down a little bit further uh no later than January 30th of each year the board will provide the superintendent with an
108informal review of the superintendent's progress of meeting the agreed upon performance goals the performance of job description expectations and the implementation of board policies by reviewing the indicators of goal and expectation attainment so you're really looking at three things one is whatever goals that that was agreed upon that the superint will be working on for that year as well as what's in his job expectations that required and then the implementation of board policies because we have uh board policies number one we have a good number of board policies that talk about the superintendent imple implementing administrative procedures and then they actually go into more detail like for example like annual reports like we have you know like we just talked about field trips there's one for bullying I mean there's lots of different reports that
109the superintendent's required to provide um and um there's lots of things the superintendent is just responsible for as you look at what your policies are so I feel like these are important pieces to consider in that process then not then C no later than June 30th of each year the board shall formally evaluate in writing the performance of the superintendent the valuation should be based on a review of the indicators of goal and expectation attainment of the performance expectations as detailed in the superintendent's job description agreed upon performance goals and the implementation of board policies then D the superintendent shall develop a plan of action to support goal achievement the plan will include an annual timeline for goal attainment based upon indicators of annual progress then e the board shall provide the superintendent with a
110copy of the completed evaluation within 30 calendar days uh following conclusion of the annual evaluation conference the superintendent shall have the right to respond to the board's written evaluation either Orly during Clos session or in writing the evaluation of the superintendent and substantive information considered by the board in completing the evalu ation shall be considered confidential then F the board Council Shall Serve as a resource for the board and the evaluation of the superintendent including but not limited rece receiving and compiling individual board members evaluations then G the end of the year evaluation conference shall include a review of the superintend performance with regard to meeting the agreed upon performance goals and performance expect expect expectations defined in the job description and implementation of the policy the composite evaluation shall represent the consens of the
111board the evaluation conference shall occur as an agenda item for executive session and then H the board chair and each board member shall sign the annual Summit of evaluation at the time of the conference unless changes must be made as agreed upon by uh the full board uh superintendent may include a written statement the superintendent shall sign the evaluation within five working days and then the board shall implement this policy now please feel free to make whatever change that you want I don't know what process you have in place already to evaluate I merely was going off of what you had in um 8265 previously and then just researching I looked at some other school systems evaluation um material as well as um different organizations like aasa and recommendations for things that should be considered
112for when you're evaluating the superintendent thanks so much Mrs Welsh um the floor is now open for questions um your your hand will be recognized in the order of it being graced um we're going to go to um board member booer Str first thanks um the um policy and how we're operating with um this the current superintendent contract which is a public document from June 2023 um is aligned to a November one of each year as the oh start that's in the contract but I guess for the policy I mean should have this contract followed the policy of Jan of that annual review is by what date January the annual review is by June 30th so you're wrapping up that school year by June 30th yeah they're not aligned um so I don't know if
113if there's a provision around except otherwise agreed in a contract I mean because right now they're not aligned so is the so I so actually with looking for the contract because I thought maybe maybe we publicized that contract I know in another school system I worked in that was you know public it was right out there so everyone can see yeah the entire contract and for some reason I could not find it and when I went into board dos all the all the information for previous board meetings were dis disappeared I don't know why so I wasn't able to pull it up but if I I because I that's exactly what I wanted to look at to identify what you had already agreed upon in the contract yeah it's it's search you know when you
114use the search function of board docs if you search Millard house contract you can find it it's Boe hyan Millard house and it's June of okay great there additional pieces B no I just wanted to call out the the fact that the contract isn't have doesn't have the same alignment I didn't know if the policy should say unless otherwise contracted between the board and the superintendent to cover discrepancies in that date and and I think Mr Ferrar could probably be helpful with that as well great uh we're going to go to chair Walker yes I would agree um thanks Pam for bringing that up um I do think that we should have that stipulation there um there's a probably a number of reasons why depending on pay and all of the things where dates are
115done so I think it's um exactly as you said if otherwise stated in a contract that we actually align to I'll um pause for coming back the second round I'm still just reading a couple things I wanted to make notes on thank you okay other questions for round one I guess that would really just be Dr Miller myself all right well I think we can go to round two and um I know that you mentioned you have questions so if you're ready chair Walker we can go to you yes thank you so much um I'm going to just uh take another read of this and I will add it to the tracker fores thanks so much thank you for that um so assuming that there are no substantive changes that we wouldn't like agree with
116whatever is going to be in the tracker um if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 8265 to the superintendent for revision reproval as we read it here so this isn't with any inclusions um can I ask a question that you've reference the tracker a couple times now tonight so where is the tracker so if if um uh chair Walker does put statement comments in in terms of something that she feels needs to be changed how how do I get that information because I don't know what the tracker is no no problem no were you gonna answer Jonathan no you okay no worries so um our tracker so our board one we need to make sure that you are um able to be assigned in there but what happens is that we have
117this uh action tracker and so the board staff will put any questions or concerns or anything that comes from the community or maybe comes out of here and then what happens is then it gets assigned to a person so Robin you probably haven't been yet assigned soon to come but I'm sure that they can assign you and then it will come to your email then you would respond to it and then it then comes back to me if I'm the person who originally put it in so that I can get that answer the benefit of that is that one it keeps all of our answers together at one in case there's other board members who want to take a look at it two um it also ensures the continuity and accountability of actually getting the
118answer um responded back to and three it should cut down 85 million emails coming to you for the same topic when we can just reference the tracker and I know Revel has his hand raised so he'll probably add a little bit more where I fell short sure when recognized by Mr bricks you want to add in there R Mr Fitzpatrick yes thank you the only thing I will add is that the only people who can be assigned in the tracker are Chiefs and so if we had a an action item for you uh Robin then it would go to Chief Boyd and then she would uh assign it to you oh okay great Mr Briggs I did have a question about H before um I could send it in the track where I could just
119ask it here which would you prefer well right now we had on the floor if there were no objections to the policy and then I think you added in that piece to the tracker so if you we can go back a step and if you just want okay well then I object so that I can say this real quick okay in letter H it says the board chair and each board member shall sign the annual Summit of the evaluation at the time of the conference and so with this does that just mean just the people who are there or does it mean that everyone on the total Board needs to sign it at some point oh maybe I can just recommend the the the answer okay I recommend that the answer is at the time
120of conf well I guess maybe it's implied at the time of conference I'm saying for those people that are actually there only because I just wouldn't want to hold that up because we clearly have to have Quorum in order to vote so we'll at least have our six and maybe those six folks can sign it um likely we'll have input from everyone because we get input already but if we can just somehow make it really clear that it's those folks that's signing it was it clear to you guys it says the board chair and each board member shall sign the annual summative evaluation at the time of the conference unless changes must be made upon so at the time of conference I guess that insinuates that it is the Quorum that's there right did you
121guys read it like that or some me I read I I read this the full board okay yeah so my recommendation would be that um those that are currently there knowing that there's going to be a quorum already because that's the only way we can vote that those folks sign it okay I guess we can talk about that my concern of having each person on the board sign it is if they weren't there it might um elongate the process um but we know that we had a quorum who was there that day in order to give the full feedback so I'd love to hear board members recommendations but that would be my my recom there are questions to the suggestion uh I'm G to go to board member Boer struther then um Vice chair Miller
122yeah I agree agree with that I I I think I could read it both ways I think I assumed it was who was in the conference so the board members present would sign it that that if you weren't if you're a board member and you weren't present then you don't you know you missed your opportunity I'll I'll clarify that all right and vice chair Miller I was actually going back and I do agree with uh board chair Lolita Walker and my colleague pambo is Str the only part that I I'm kind of grappling with is because the in the full board employee is the superintendent if we don't all sign it will it mean that it could be nullified that's the only thing that that that I grapple with but I do agree that if
123you're not there we don't want it to take a month before we get it all signed off by everybody you know that that's the piece you know I'm I'm okay with by the end of the week everybody's signature but we can't guarantee that well can oh can I just interject maybe um before we get into dialogue I'm wondering like I mean I think sign off is sub Ive and so a sign off could be in writing you say something via email you have a person that responds back let's say a person is with child and they can't make it but they really have strong opinions about it or they you know something happened with the family member like I don't want to create barriers where board members really do want to participate but for whatever
124reason they couldn't and I wonder if we can get their sign off in a different way so that when we come to conference we know that everyone signed off on it to Dr Miller's point because I do think that everyone should be saying yes I agree was in the contents of the contract but I also agree that we shouldn't be holding up the process but could we get like that sign off in a different way and maybe that could be just part of internal processes I think the beauty is that the answer is yes I believe because the board right now offers a plethora of opportunity to give input so for instance for our current superintendent if you think about the last review and the one that's upcoming what you'll get is a link that
125you'll have plenty of time in order to add in to each of the objectives that are there so that's one opportunity to that's one opportunity to kind of give your input and sign off on your input that's being there um now that's one type of sign off that could be inside the process already because that currently does exist the board office sends out a link where each board member has the opportunity to give their input and that is summarized and then that input is what is given to the superintendent before we go around for Ratings so that is our current process now I think think what someone could say is yes I did give my input it was talked there but then what happens at the end after we give the input that document isn't
126changed that document is then that feedback document is then attached to the review so that doesn't go away so we could potentially use that for people that aren't able to be there as a mechanism for signing off on that um now their rating also don't forget in there is their rating as well so they would have put their numers in then that number is averaged into where we um go forward so that's an opportunity there I wanted to just remind folks about great thank you for that uh chair Walker we're GNA go to Vice chair Miller okay I think hopefully I'm not saying the same thing that chair uh Walker just said but we uh we do have opportunity for input prior to the actual day that we we're giving the rating I wonder if
127the sign off could be because after that day of the rating we've given the feedback that I the rating that they given I'm going to say 48 hours I don't I'm making up a number to just take a look at it and sign off because at that point we're not changing anything you gave your input before 48 hours to sign off otherwise after that 48 hours then we assume consent and we just move forward yeah I think if however we want to vote on it as a board so it sounds like this discussion is like that can be evolving and that doesn't have to be in the in the policy we can that can be defined outside of the policy we have the clarification there so the question oh I'm sorry um can I can
128I just ask a question I think I needed to add then um so each because you just shared a piece of information I wasn't aware of but each board member does do their own individual rating so I feel like that needs to be added into this so versus just language that talks about consensus uh that way we you're clear that this is the role of each board member in the evaluation process I agree I think that we have to show some type of accountability at least ownership that everyone does have opportunity for sure that's my personal opinion um we're going to go to Vice chair Miller I was going to piggy back and say um the word opportunity because some may choose not to do it or may not be available but at least they
129have the opportunity to give to to do their own rating so the question is shall the committee recommend policy 8265 to the superintendent for revision approval any discussion uh yes Mrs W I'm so sorry I I want to I I I feel compelled that I would like to pull up the contract and just look at that to ensure that there is alignment throughout th this to the contract before we make a final final um before you all make a final decision just because uh it could look very different than when it comes through for action and I don't want to be sending something through that you then later say we really want to change this or this especially if chair worker is going to also provide some additional input I'm just you know I I
130don't know that's just my thought it might you know you want to pull pull up the contract well I want to I want to look at it to make you know CH see if I you know whatever needs to be realigned I need to do that that language I mean I can do it and S through for action but but you haven't then actually seen yeah I don't care whatever you want to do I just I'm just trying to think about the process to make sure you have everything you want in the in this policy you know before we move forward with action that's all I want to make sure I understand I think you might be getting blank is not because we don't agree with you I think I might maybe for me I
131might be trying to understand are you asking us for an answer like is that a rhetorical question well I'm just I'm recom so I guess I'm making a recommendation that maybe it would be wiser to give it another discussion only because if there are any other substantive changes we' why not have that finalized before you move it forward for Action okay I see okay but it's just a recommendation no then I think we can okay so then that would be still with the question but I want to go um to board member mov the Str before we move forward yeah all of that makes me think we're not ready for action that we need this to come back for discussion if that more work needs to be done in that regard that's all I wanted
132to say is that it needs to come back so let's vote to that way because we're about to vote so miss Adel please um we we've had discussion to postpone so please uh take the role a yes is and so I'm sorry so the question is shall the committee recommend policy 8265 to the superintendent for revision approval um if you're saying yes then that means that you're saying let's move it forward if you're saying no then that means you're saying let's hold it for further discussion Mr Briggs uh no Dr Miller no it's coming back for further discussion correct yes no Miss Walker no Miss Budd Str no for four NOS zero yeses motion passes well fails all right so um so now I'm going to call for the for a new question and the
133question is shall the committee postpone policy 8265 to the next policy and governance committee meeting um Miss aded please call the RO um and affirmative vote would be yes um we would be bringing back to the next committee meeting a no would be no let's not bring it back to the next committee meeting the BRS yes Dr Miller yeah Miss Walker yes Miss bu yes for in the affirmative the motion passes great so policy 8265 evaluating superintendent of schools will be brought back to the next policy and governance committee meeting for further disc discussion we're now going to move on to item 4.2 policy 8101 policy development I recognize Mrs Welsh for an update on policy 8101 policy development um Cindy do you mind um posting it please so um the first thing um this
134is okay this it looks different than what mine is maybe I printed out a different one let's see okay let's look at this um anyway this this is um the the previous one had Lin through it that talked about the policy it was we didn't have it aligned to the same purpose like how we have our structure set up now so I had to re s of reorganize it and add in um some language you know take out Chief exec Ive officer put in superintendent and then also um I added local laws and regulations but that that statement comes from the previous policy as well as the purpose uh which was to provide uniform format for policies and establishing processes for policies are developed implemented monitor evaluated reviewed and updated and then the definitions are
135fairly are pretty much the same definitions um that you had before um I did make a couple changes so if you um scroll down Cindy through the definitions keep proceeding these were there before so if you keep going down um so then uh amendment I did add amendments substantive changes to a policy and then um uh non-substantive amendments but the reason I added that was because um Mr Swift had said we shouldn't use the word change but we should use the word amend so then instead of referencing changes we'd be referencing amendments so that's why I put that language in there um as far as the definition for policy I did um originally it said a written document uh adopted by the board that furthers the Visions missions and values of pgbs and guides the
136development implementation of educational programs and systems I did provide a little bit more information there uh talking about um the the vision mission and and u values but also that the board exercises its leadership role through the formulation and Adoption of policies and the board policies guide the overall development implementation of the educational and operational programs and are consistent with the board's long-term goals and objectives um and then um just the change with instead of changes it was Amendment and then if you proceed further um Cindy okay and then we get into the standards so um first one is all policy development revisions activities will adhere to the process detailed in this policy um and then we have this was what we had previously which was that uh how does the policy get on the
137list basically to be addressed or to be developed then it's uh through recommendation of the full board any board committee or board authorized focused work Group which like for example good example last year Peak Haack they definitely wanted to have um the um both the parent engagement policy as well as the pacak policy uh revised and and they were instrumental and making sure it was on the list for policies so that's example and then any board member can um ask the chair of the policy and governance committee uh with a copy to the board chair and the director of the board office um they would like either a development of a new policy revision and then if you scroll down further uh Cindy um and then the superintendent is to also o comply with the
138established policy uh development uh activities and so all this was language I was there before it says all board policies will be reviewed within a seven-year cycle so we have been working hard to try to update policies that are from the like 2000 to 2010 group because we still have a lot of good number of policies that were done back in 2005 2006 2007 and we do I don't know that if any school system that does as many policies as we do we really moved a lot of policies through so um but ideally I think it's a very good idea that if the policies are placed on a cycle so that they that they don't become outdated that we can keep them updated and then that when they referenced previously about the established annual policy
139development activities this is the part where the superintendent is supposed to Pro present you with an annual report um and then it will include policies that require or we recommended for revision and if you scroll down Cindy and then administra procedures that require revisions to be in alignment with board policies and then the last one um if you scroll down is um policies that should be created to align with existing administrative procedures so there used to be and I'm not sure why any of my deletes haven't showed up that's very bizarre um in the document I have they they're there but you do see all the things I added so it's sort of strange but anyway it previously had also talked about um that the superintendent should provide policies that have been reviewed but are
140not recommended for revision and since we've been doing this um since this policy went into effect there has never been we never end up providing that information because there really hasn't been any reviewed that had been recommended for revision so um I'm not sure that's very instrumental when we're really looking at which policy should we be putting on the list to be addressing for this upcoming year um and then we have um this next one is really pretty much the same language that was there but I scroll back up for a second Cindy uh then certain cases outside the regular cycle policies will will require non-substantive that you say changes it now says Amendment and the superintendent design will present the policy containing the non-substantive amendment um to policy and governance committee for an action
141at a regular scheduled committee meeting um and then the policy committee May recommend to the board to take immediate action on these modified policies so um for example let's just say there was a change in law or something and there's a policy that there need and it's not super substantive and I I can think of one right now it has to do with um I want to say it's a policy on oversight by the board and it lays out specifically what the superintendent is responsible and what the board of education is responsible for and in that where it talks about the superintendent's responsib and I just ran across this this past week it says that the superintendent's responsible for consolidating schools well that was before House Bill 1079 when the superintendent was able to close
142schools now the superintendent is not it is the board who makes that determination so going into that policy instead of saying well we're going to now review and go through the work of doing major revisions what this section is really talking about is all we're doing is making a correction so that it's the board that's responsible for the consolidation of schools and not the not the uh superintendent and I'm and we really haven't talked about this as a committee but I'm thinking and there these kinds of things aren't sitting on the work list for the year but there are things that that would be a very simple based on this information to make the changes so that it's accurate so I don't know what you're thinking is but I mean this has been there forever
143so you know I think it it's it's it's good language that you we should take advantage of because we haven't and then policies of the board that should include the elements the following elements which we have listed here if you scroll down um and then if you continue so then um it says at the beginning of each school year the policy and governance committee will approve the a list of policies to review during the school year with the guidance from the superintendent and um director of the board office the committee chair will report to the full board at the October board meet uh board business meeting the list of approved policies to review during the school year so that's new language and that was a um uh their um from um that came from 8100
144which actually talks about the fact that the policy committee will uh the chair will provide that information so I just in Incorporated that and then if you uh scroll down further the committee chair in collaboration the vice chair stop right there Administration staff and board staff will determine each meeting agenda because generally speaking it's usually um it's um chair Briggs myself Cindy and um and vice chair um melor who are invited to meet to talk about you know what the agenda will be for the following uh meeting and then once a policy is added to the agenda for discussion so this is the important piece and it reflects also what Mr Swift was talking about once a policy added to the agenda for discussion then the policy sponsor the superintendent board blah blah blah blah
145blah will provide the rationale for the recommendation and what I'd like to do is as we go through each of these in the future because you asked me all the you have asked me several times on different policies but why did this one get on the list and nine times out of 10 I tell you that what which is true it's because it's an old old policy and we really need updated it's very outdated but I think it would be helpful just in terms of understanding why are we even looking at the policy um that I can provide that information uh when we are um you know when we're doing that when we're discussing it and then the rationale for the recommendation and then um um uh amendments to the existing policy and then Administration
146staff will will develop the new policy or Amendment or amend an existing policy which is what we do right now then the administration Staffing committee shall consider the following factors in the preparation of the draft policies so things this is new language so if we would in in doing policies and I do I do this I look at Maryland State Board of Education federal state local laws and regulations Court decisions scroll down cost um cost uh implications which you as a committee frequently have discussed similar policies of other school systems I always look to see what other policies are out there research literature um I'm always look at other stuff and the effect on operations and those impacted by the policy and then the Administration staff is responsible making sure that the draft policy is
147not in conflict with any of the other board's policies or administrative procedures then the next piece the committee will review the PO policy and make suggested Ed edit edits the policy will then be reviewed by the office of so that would be like when we're having discussion we make the final changes but then uh it will re be reviewed um by the office of General Council for legal sufficiency and by the superintendent and the superintendent will provide the committee with a written statement regarding operational impact legal ramification of the policy and provide any suggestion changes which is the memo that he always provides and then the committee will vote on whether to take action now this is this is a little bit different but the committee will vote on whether to take action to to
148seek public comment if the committee approves seeking public comment on the policy the policy will be posted on pgps web page and publicize for Community input for no shorter than two weeks so the difference here is instead of having to vote and send it to the board to um for them then to make the re to with a recommendation to send it out for public comment you as the committee will make the decision to send it out for public comment um and send it out for public comment because the comments actually come back to the committee to then review the comments and make decisions on whether or not you want to make any revisions to the policy and by doing it that way it actually actually saves time you don't have to wait to get
149on a board agenda and then wait for the board to vote on it and then and then send it out so you're still getting your public comment uh the board office will still publicize it you know that it's out for public comment and make sure people are aware that it's out there but then you come back you review the comments which you do anyway and then you would make any re additional revisions uh to the policy and then once you have revised the policy to what you like it so that the committee says yep we're good with this that's when it would go to the board with the recommendation to adopt the policy and again this is based on Mr Swift's recommendation and then theyve recommended the policy will s the full board for consideration
150the board shall provide an opportunity for public comment on the proposed policy during the consideration of the policy so the day that it's like say on Thursday you're going to have some policies that the board's going to vote on that policy that board members can I mean community members can certainly provide public comment prior you know when the public comment section is and then you have that information that you might make cause you to want to make any changes to the policy but if you're good with the policy the full board then just votes on the policy and it's done so it's not coming back up for first reader or second reader it's just coming for consideration which is what he had put into when he gave us um I think he sent um chair
151Briggs myself and Cindy sort of I think of what his recommendations would be for revision so then if you scroll down Cindy uh and then the board would take action on the proposed policy so of course it provides the committee the community two opportunities to provide any com well they certainly they can always come to any committee meeting and provide public comment that's the first thing second ly then we have that twoe public comment section and then on top of that when it's to the board for consideration certainly any you know Community member can provide public comment during the public comment section of the board meeting then as far as administrative procedures I did um uh make a couple changes here administrative procedures will be submitted to the board within 30 days of the board's
152enactment of the corresponding policy uh currently it says concurrently but because often times there's changes in the policy even to the point I mean you've made changes to policies up to at the very end I think it would be wise to at least have that 30-day period so that the AP can reflect any final last minute changes to the policy and then um of course the the superintendent is supposed to then after he does approve the administrative procedure when they've been reviewed or revised or developed then he sends them to you so that you get to see them and your job is really it's an information item only but you are also looking to ensure that the administrative procedure does reflect what you are requiring what you want to see happen um and so you
153want to make sure there's alignment between the policy and the administrative procedure uh Cindy can you scroll down and then um uh and then when um and you we already do this when the the board office will then once the policy has been enacted the board office will inform the superintendent in writing with the the policies have been enacted and then the superintendent or Des will update the pcps websit to include the newly enacted policies and then I think that's it let's scroll down one more section for implementation responsibilities uh change in CEO to superintendent uh the schedule list the uh policies oh this is about um that just the things the superintendent must do the the schedule which he does provide with any new policies that we need to be uh addressing for the
154upcoming year um that was a change from CEO to superintendent number three the same for two and three and then number four the superintendent design is responsible for the publication of Maintenance of the board's policy on the pgcpf website previously it said the policy manual but we don't really have a manual we just have the websites that list all the policies so that is that and then Cindy is there anything more um um and then it just says the superintendent doign in collaboration with the director of the board will develop process to ensure continuous monitoring of board policies and their implementation and the submission of reports so like this past summer um myself and revel put together a list of all the reports that if you go through all the policies there's we have a
155good number of policies that require the superintendent to provide a report in during the school year at anytime some starting the beginning of the year some are like in December ones in January it just goes throughout but there's all these reports that the superintendent should be providing the board and so we did um the two of us sat down put the list together and then I did share that with the superintendent and chief of staff so with the idea that he will be able to provide you with all of the updated information that you need um when it comes to um the port that's it sorry I'm sorry for talking so much but I feel like this is such an important policy I wanted to make sure that I tried to highlight anything that got
156changed so that you're you know you're aware of everything that's going on right now and certainly make whatever changes you want to make you need to go well thank you so much for that presentation um Mrs Welsh we're now going to turn it over to board members for any questions Okay g go to Vice chair Walker or I'm sorry uh Vice chair Miller it looks like you're muted I was trying to follow along on the document on bordo and there was one area where you said that there was a conflict with HB 1079 can you go back to that one I couldn't so I was saying that there's language in this policy development one that talks about being able to do change non-substantive changes without having to go through this lengthy process um and I
157gave an example of like for example where there's a change in the law and the one section where it says the Su the um and I have to look up that policy number but it has to do with its oversight board oversight or whatever and it specifically says the superintendent with um is responsible for you know uh actually consolidating the schools well that back then when that policy was written which was was just a couple years ago cuz 1079 is maybe 2 years old um if that was correct it's no longer correct that they changed that the law to say that the board of education is responsible for closing schools uh and ultimately consolidating the schools so that would be one that we do all we're doing is making this particular change to for it
158to be accurate but not it's not open you know for so because I know we have so many policies we do need to update we don't ever really take advantage of that one section in this policy development policy but maybe we should be starting to do some things like that just to up make sure that you know if we see something that's not up to date we update it but we don't have to go through the extensive process that we do when we're really truly reviewing a policy only because I lived it I was going to say I I thought that the HB 1079 said that the superintendent or should I say CEO was had the made the decision on school consolidation the law stated that so our policy mirrored that um at the time
159when we did that particular policy yes it did but then 1079 came and it actually changed it so the so no longer does the uh superintendent the superintendent provides a recommendation to the board of education but the Board of Education absolutely makes the final decision thank you so much um Vice chair Miller are there other questions okay I just had two really quick comments um Mrs Welsh I think um and not sure if I saw the language in there but to Vice chair Miller's um point if we could have something in there that says like a um just a update to the board when there is a change a Law changes or something you all make that change it it it's good but it also is important for us to know that and then I
160think the other thing I would say is the concurrent piece with the administrative policy um feel like the board policy drives the administrative policy so I'm not sure if it it's necessary that we have to align Ducks because they should be saying what we're saying um and then draw out the language a bit more um and if they do go against whatever the board policy says then we would need to clarify that but I don't know if they needs to be a part of the process per se I'm not sure and say it again what what like what's board the board policy is the policy that that where the administrative policy deres what whatever he's going to say so when you were saying like that concurrent piece where it's like well let's make sure it
161matches and it helps when we're going through that whole process of like approval by the board I just want to clarify I'm not sure that that's necessary if the administrative policy is saying something different than the board policy then they need to change it is how I feel is right like the board policy is the the policy um and they should be following that absolutely I yeah I absolutely agree that's why I felt like saying 30 days after would ensure that I I can give you a perfect example of the one that has to do with um the wellness policy so here just as we working on the wellness policy they they the um the divisions that were responsible for the wellness policy they actually did their own Wellness AP and so and it came
162out at like the it was right I mean they came to us for reviewer at the same time but guess what it's nowhere near so that now it has to go back for revision and everything to update it but they weren't without having a policy in front of them even and we had a lot that was one that we had a lot of back and forth discussion it took us a while to get to that point so they're moving forward and that I I just think from a just when you think about timing it would be better to at least have that finalized policy and then we say within 30 days you must have the administrative procedure that goes with it that will then align with the policy that's what I was trying to say
163I see I understand okay all right are there other any other questions okay if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 8101 to the superintendent for revision approval there being no objections policy 8101 policy development will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval we now going to move on to item 4.4 policy 5143 bullying harassment or intimidation recognize Mrs Welsh for an update on policy 5143 bullying harassment or intimidation so bullying oh bullying harassment and um intimidation um you had uh several comments at the last board meeting and I think I went through and highlighted it these were you this came up not the last board me but the um at last year's uh one our policy committee meeting so if you just scroll through it Cindy you'll see the changes these
164reflect what I did go back and listen to the video and these changes sort of reflect the changes that it was after Dr Tissa Holly provided her presentation of the data and everything okay we can stop there and um uh the a couple of the things in the data made us realize made you all realize that maybe we should have some more specific language in the policy so one was um when we looked at the data a lot of the bullying was happening in the classroom and so uh we I added language to say and this is about um uh annual professional development but in addition to everything else that is there is also to provide teachers with classroom techniques to prevent and handling bullying in the classroom because there's everything about uh prevalence causes
165consequence of bullying evidence it talks about increase uh use of uh evidence-based strategies but sometimes um I think they really need some very specific training on actual techniques to really help them when things like that are occurring in a classroom and then the next thing is uh conducting um um uh let's see let me read this to see what it is because it was in relationship to what you had Shar I said conducting regular classroom lessons oh had to do with students then are the training of students related to bullying and making sure that they understand that they have an awareness of this and what is bullying and what they can do those kinds of things so then I added language about conducting regular classroom lessons on social emotional learning that build student capacity for
166self-awareness and management and social awareness as well as sensitivity and tolerance including those based on person's ability cognitive social emotional and physical uh ethnicity race family structure language national origin religion sex sexual orientation gender identity expression physical attributes and social economic status the reason I added all this originally I know why this came was because when you looked at the data there was um definitely more students that were receiving special education services were B disproportionate so that students that receiving special ed services were bullied more frequently than those that were not and so we're talking about students with disabilities um and and so students are getting bullied probably about their um about their ability uh level you know and it could be in any of the developmental areas but then I started thinking but these
167are other factors too of which students often bully each other about and so therefore I did expand it to incorporate all these but again it's the idea that we're actually working with the students and uh talking to them training them it's a preventive kind of thing but to be up front with them explaining all this and helping them uh develop sensitivity sensitivity and to and tolerance and then if you scroll down further I think there's one other section Cindy keep going um oh and then I did add that place the C because we we'll be talking about that a little bit later in the ID badges it says place a QR code for reporting bullying on the back of the students identification badges which actually now that I think about this because chair Walker in
168the conversation about the badges actually said we should probably though keep also the um I think the website uh address because if the bully if the cell phone policy ends up the state ends up with a cell phone policy which basically says you're not allowed to have cell phones at all in the school then it's not going to be very helpful having a QR code then you really are going to want the website address so I will put that in there also uh place the QR code and the website address uh for the reporting the bullying and then scroll down just make sure I didn't miss anything Cindy oh oh get back there's okay um oh and then there was um I can't remember some statement about ensuring parents are uh are provided resources so
169I did put in provision of information for parents about community health and mental community health and mental health Community uh community health and mental health resources so that they would be provided that information if you know both basically up front as well as if there is a situation where their child is either bullied or is the Buller and then if you scroll down further I think I got all the comments keep going Cindy um that's it that was everything so that really was um all the things that were addressed in that policy meeting when they you were discussing the bullying thank you so much Mrs Welsh for for that um I do want to say that we are at 7:20 and we are going to have a board member that's going to have to hop
170off at 7:30 um so we may have one more policy that we can get through um I no there's there's faces and unfortunately we always have a laundry list of things and we had those presentations today so it did did eat up some of the um the meeting then we had to have those discussions with that being said um there are questions on this policy want to make time for that so board member um okay so Vice chair walk or Miller um and then we'll go to other hands um this is something I can also put on the tracker in the admin procedure which I know that is done by Administration I don't see some correlation or somewhere where we we could strengthen this policy to ensure that the student who is exhibiting the bullying
171Behavior cuz I um parents family or whoever uh you know Guardians are to engage to ensure that there some sort of restorative um plan is put into place I do see where it talks about about collaboration with families and Community um but it doesn't really um ensure that the family and Community engage it gives them an option you know um so the child may receive punitive measures but that doesn't help stop the bullying um the punitive measures while they are given I think the bigger picture I want to see here is giving the student or should I say the scholar whatever he or she needs in order to um help them through whatever they're going through that's causing them to bully another student you're muted Mrs so the student deal on the bullying is what
172you're saying that we would do that for okay correct because it it covers the student who's being bullied a and that is it's Paramount but the goal is to stop the bullying and in order to stop it so that we don't you know another child doesn't suffer is we need to address the core or or the root cause of the problem which is what what can we do to help the student who's um exhibiting The Bullying Behavior so you know what we could I could add uh because if it's in the policy then it has to be addressed in the AP and I could add some language that just says uh something to do with um something that would be working with the student who has done the bowling um it's because we do have
173we do talk about what kinds of trainings and stuff so we could add like you know I have to think about the language I would use but I I know exactly what you're saying that I could put that into the policy if everyone was in agreement I mean and then the details of it would actually be sitting in the administrative procedure but this gives you sort of like a it gives guidance basically to the people working on the procedure that you need to incorporate specific language on how to work with the student who's bullying thank you yeah working with the student and the family okay great are there other questions on this policy okay um I just wanted to make one comment Mrs Welsh again this is just for consideration and I know we we've
174got to get through this but um I just wanted to say I heard you say tolerance and I know as we're talking about like staying up to date in the the diversity Equity inclusion space I think they've moved away from using tolerance oh okay and they're like more around acceptance um because you can tolerate someone but it doesn't mean that you're really seeing them I'll change that a policy yeah um okay so if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 5143 to the superintendent for revision approval there being no objections policy 5143 bullying harassment or intimidation will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval um I want to be respectful of time so we have six minutes and we have um the attendance absent Insurgency policy Mrs W do you think it
175would be possible to get through that in maybe four minutes I I I I can talk fast okay all right not there's not a lot of changes to it so I can I can talk fast as if Cindy can put it up real quick okay great and and I appre I mean I know this unfortunately this what we're going to have to do um but we're going to move to item 4.5 policy 5113 attendance absence and treny want to recognize Mrs Welsh for an update on policy 5113 okay um so send if you scroll down keep going it'll show up right away keep going okay so de so I if I remember correctly um board member buer Str talked about uh bement leavea and actually in the minist procedure is a whole section that talks
176about students who uh get leave for family members who have passed but it also includes extended family and close non-relatives so I they they they actually had gone a little bit further on the administrative procedure but I think that I'm thinking that goes to what you were talking about in terms of reement Lea so that was the one change and then if you scroll down further uh Cindy um keep going that was just a change from Co to superintendant um go wait wait wait I saw one little red line here let me just see what oh like okay same change keep going um and then um also I have in addition to the categories of ified in state law the superintendent is authorized to identify other emergencies or set of circumstances which con constitute a
177good and sufficient cause for absent from school as a lawful absence so then if you proceed further down here you'll see one of them which U we um it turn it used it used to be that when a student was okay stop a minute stop stop stop go back up for one second Cindy when a student was um um was actually um he was being charged with the juvenile or Idol offense and detained awaiting adjudication he would then be moved out of the school system and coded as no longer a student in the school system and and he would then be part of DJs so that's not the case anymore during that time period until he's he's gone through the disposition he actually is still enrolled in the students home uh school as well as
178DJs facility so he's dually enrolled so then if you scroll down um it says then that we are responsible during that time the whole school shall utilize an attendance code creat specifically for this situation for the days that a student is attending the DJs facility um so we're not disenrolling the student then the next one is the superint and this goes again to what Sher um um I mean board member um B rather said the superintendent is responsible for developing and maintaining a system of accurately recording and Reporting student absences both lawful and unlawful then the superintendent design shall Pro by training for all School staff with attendance reporting responsibilities to prevent incorrect reporting of absences then schools are required to initiate positive and supportive interventions to students who exhibit Behavior indicators of possible future
179treny parents must be informed about their students attendance and invited to meet with staff to develop uh strategies for improvement and then if you scroll down further Cindy I that might be it keep going um that's it oh I meant to add I'm sorry I meant to add the citation for that the the new law that talks about the student who's adjudicated I will put that in but anyway that I think I captured the changes but I don't know that for a fact so um but if we need to add other things then we can certainly do that great thank you so much Mrs Welsh um now turning it over to my colleagues for any questions all right board member booer struther yeah thanks and I I really appreciate seeing the expand to the Data
180Tracking and and the uh positive um interventions so thank you so much for bringing that into this policy I think when I first brought up the bereavement and it's interesting because I thought we had already made that expansion of close nonf family um back in 2022 so I'm curious about that but the um but it was more around continuing along the lines of our previous uh student member of the board colleague who had brought up that the time that the that the length of time is too short that many students have to travel out of the country and so I think that's where I was looking for was the how many days how many days could a student be absent lawfully for bereavement and I don't I'm not sure we actually um address um that's
181an odd one let me look at that because I might I have to look at the administrative procedure too because I might have specific language and if I'll look at the number of days they have and then see about extending those days because I do know like for employees that you you have four days of bre leave but let's say that you have um even like changes let's say like they don't actually have the the ceremony you know the services or whatever till like say a week two weeks whatever later you can take your bement leave whenever you need to you know in relation to uh the person who's passed so um I I can absolutely look at that language yeah I might be thinking of the administrative procedure where some of these details are
182listed after we did the that might be where I'm I might be merging data from from that document but that that I just wanted to clarify that that when I brought it up that's I was trying to continue um something of interest to our former colleague that she felt was very important to students as a student member of the board okay thank you so much um still got okay no other questions there um are there any additional questions okay so I feel like I'm hearing that there is an objection to moving forward policy 5113 um because we want to have it for further consideration um so I'm just going to move through that process are there uh if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 5113 to the superintendent for revision approval okay
183there be no objections policy 5113 attendance absence insury will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval um we are at 7:30 and I believe it's uh chair Walker you have to I do I tried to stay until our ending time of seven but I do have a meeting at 7:30 that I'm leading so I do apologize colleagues but I have to I do have to run thank you is there anything that needs to be voted on before I head out Mr bricks there're all the other policies and we have regardless we have we don't have a quorum so we can't move forward even thank you so much there's a quorum there's three of us oh there's three oh okay great oh then I made that up so great we can sorry to interrupt so
184blly we're we're we're still moving here I hope we get to those next two sections where we could move things to the board yes I think we will get to that um all right well we're going to we we're going to keep moving forward we're at item 4.6 uh policy 2566 student identification cards um I recognize Mrs Welsh for an update on policy 2566 student identification cards okay um Cindy can you uh show that one so of the um I think I don't know why that is bolded that's the weirdest thing it's not bold in mind that's weird anyway um so I did put um the web link and the QR code um because that was what was uh provided um and then um I did include also because there was a we had a
185lengthy conversation at the at the the last meeting on this about well there might be other information the superintendent would want to be a want to provide and therefore we should um maybe make sure that that if he feels that there's something else that needs to be provided on the back of the student ID uh card that it should be there so I did add the student may have other information printed on the back of the student identification card if deemed necessary um there was conversation though about that you would have that that you could scan the card and therefore you could actually identify pick up all the information about the student like all the identifying information students name address telephone number all that type of information and I did not include that in the
186main reason is be from a confidentiality standpoint um I can tell you that we have employees that lose their ID badge all the time and so that's our employees who are adults so the fact that if you had students who um actually um lose their badges which I'm thinking that's absolutely a possibility then it opens the door for any want to be able to grab that badge and scan and get information about the student and we we are responsible for ensuring that you know that information has kept confidential and so I feel like it's really putting the student at risk in terms of um putting making it that easy to access that type of information um secondly there was a conversation then about um because we had a a a comment a public comment related
187to um the um what was it the using the preferred name for the student is lgbtq and wants to have a preferred name and then this conversation went back and forth and then I a board member buer struther said what about if we since we already have a policy it already addresses this that and we do and that we why can't we just go ahead and list it as a um a uh related policy so I did put that in I added that and I want to just read you what that other the lgbtq policy says it's um it says School shall allow all students and staff to use their chosen or preferred name and gender pronouns that reflect their identity regardless to whether they have undergone a legal name change process and pgps shall
188ensure that school staff use as students or staff's prefer name and pronouns consistent with the student's gender identity in its student and staff um Information Systems except where the school is legally required to use the student's legal name or gender assign at Birth so the that we do have a policy that already addresses that so absolutely then the student could do that and so I did put that policy then in under the other uh for references other board policy for that policy 0103 and inclusive environments for lgbtqia plus people and those were the those were the last recommended changes from the last board meeting thank you so much Mrs Welsh um questions for this about concerning this policy okay um I just want to make one clarification and and then we can move forward but
189I think Mrs Welsh for for the for the accuracy I think gender identity and sexual orientation might be different right so you could have like a preferred pronoun or a name but that has nothing to do with your sexual orientation so I think we might need to just clarify that because it may have not have anything to do with lgbtq plus um if a person has a different preferred name or it might be an assumption in that policy that they are lgbtqia plus I think we were responding to the public comment at that point um that was specific I mean I think I mean really when you get down to it if a student puts you know says I don't I don't use my first name I use my middle name I don't want to
190be called by that name or something I mean generally people do that they will you know use the student's preferred name which might be totally unre to gender yeah exactly so I just want to make sure that was clarified um I'm not seeing any other questions so if there are no objections to the uh committee um recommending policy 2566 to the superintendent for um revision approval seeing uh none that there are no objections policy uh 2566 student identification cards will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval we're now going to move on to item 4.7 new policy evaluation of Library materials recognize Mrs wilsh for an update on new policy um evaluation of Library materials okay this is a new policy and it is um it's based on the um on uh let me
191see if I can find it um House Bill 785 Senate Bill 738 uh which was passed this past legislative session and it talks about it's quite an interesting uh bill but um we'll just go through it and talk about it a little bit um so if you proceed the policy um we had the statement you know that the policy statement for with the the board affirms is responsible every student with high quality instructional materials resources support learning of all students at all classes all grade levels and then scroll down a little bit further Cindy um the board is committed to ur students and parents and something else I can't read the top because it just went up just a tad too far um let me see U the uh the purpose of the board has
192committ sure students parents and staff are afforded the opportunity to provide objections so this essentially not evaluate but provide objections to materials in school library media program and that is that's this is all coming directly from that law then I have defined Library meeting U media materials which is a wide range of materials that our school libraries provide I did Define parents so that um instead of just saying parent or Guardian it's you know a parent is a natural parent or a legal guardian or any individual ual acting as a parent in the absence of a parent or legal guardian so we had those definitions and then we start with the standards and so um what it says is that the the law says this specifically so Library M media materials for this is for
193school library services and resources provided a school library media program are provided for the interest information and instructional support of students and staff of the schools uh the program serves um secondly the library media materials up I got to type over media materials um uh sh may not be excluded from the library um um from the school library solely because of origin background or views of the individual who created the materials the material then the next one and this again this is straight from law library media materials may not be excluded or removed from the catalog of a school library media program because of partisan ideological or religious disapproval and then and the next one um this is um this is what the law is requiring the superintendent designate shall establish a uniform process for
194students parents and staff to submit an objection to library media materials in the school library media program then the superintendent doesn't need shall ensure that the review of the library media material that has been objected to will be conducted by a a committee and a timeline shall be established to conduct and conclude the review process of the objection in a timely manner the then the next thing talks about the committee will provide a written decision regarding the objection if the person does not accept the decision they shall have 10 days from the date of the committee's decision to appeal the decision to the superintendent design then the library media materials shall remain available for use by students and staff until the review and appeal process has concluded so you still keep that out even though
195they're objecting and then this last piece which again is directly from the law it says the board may not dismiss demote suspend discipline reassign transfer or otherwise retaliate against a certified library media Specialist or School library media program supports staff for performing their job duties consistent with the above standards that's it and that is in education article 4-42 um so generally speaking uh we do have an administrative procedure talks about evaluating um Library materials and made up of a committee that does that evaluation we don't have a policy that addresses that but this particular uh um uh what was in the law is very specific to dealing with uh objections to the material versus an actual evaluation process for the for uh identifying what's in the media center thank you or program thank you so
196much for that Mrs Walsh question questions concerning uh this new policy evaluation of Library mats bort member boo Str yeah I I would just oh wait I think was parent is this the one with the parent were you define parent again at the top right I do in definitions yes yeah I would ask that you do the same definition you did for field trips because that one was okay expansive and then if that is now the Bo's official definition of parent who I don't think I've ever seen it so expansive as I saw it for field trips that's interesting you know because I actually was going through policies trying to find definition for parent and I've never even thought to look into field trip so even though I was working on field trips so that's
197interesting so yeah it's much more expansive it has um biological adoptive and then I think goes on to like Guardian the Guardians custodian Guardian caregiver foster parent so not a problem if I mean but I mean because if you just read the field trip definition of parent now you read this one you may be left out right like the adoptive parents are now left out so I I'm just I just noted that cons inconsistency okay thank you putting that out other questions or comments all right um so if there are no objections the committee shall recommend the new policy to the superintendent for revision approval there being no objections new policy evaluation of Library materials will be recommended to the superintendent for revision approval we're now going to move on to item 5.0 policies for
198second consideration in public comment there are three items for consideration um so we have item 5.1 policy 9100 officers um I recognized Mrs Welsh for an update of policy 9100 officers Mrs Welsh if there's any way to truncate or consolidate language here um we may still be running against time um okay um I what I'm going to do is I have the memo here from the superintendent and basically what it's telling us is that this policy was a consolidation of bylaw um 9210 which is chair bylaw 9220 Vice chair and bylaw 9230 secretary treasur and executive officer and that it it now also includes more definite responsibilities in terms of the um board chair because that was based on the house bill 1079 that laid out those responsibilities and then it also includes duties of
199the vice chair and then identifies the superintendent as the secretary treasur and executive officer and the responsibilities of that position and then the other thing it does um it talks about if there's an absence of the chair and a board meeting or a temporary unavailability of the chair and the vice chair or a vacancy in the office of the chair and a vacancy in the office of the vice chair so that is um based basically uh that in a nutshell there was a couple little bit of um just clarifying language changes like um where it says the board shall select other board members to serve in the capacity of the chair and vice chair until the return of the chair or vice chair but that was added because because the decision because we expanded then
200to Vice chair so we included that and then I'm trying to think what else uh if you can scroll down Cindy I don't think there's any very mine or anything else oh um the board will elect a replacement of the chair to serve until the annual meeting at which time the election of the chair will be held this is just clarifying language and then the replacement of the vice chair s Shall Serve until the annual meeting in December which time the election of the vice chair will be held and I think that's it if you can scroll down quickly and then I think we're done that's it thank you so much Mrs wsh questions concerning policy 9100 officers all right seeing none if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 9100 to the
201full board for public comment consideration there being no objections policy 9100 officers will be recommended to the full board for public comment consideration we're now going to move on to policy or to item 5.2 policy 9500 reform governance pay for performance recision item 5.3 policy 9265 procedure to evaluate the superintendent recision I recognize Mrs Welsh to provide an update on the policies under agenda item 5.2 and 5.3 so basically the reason they were recommend for recision was because of the Redundant we already have in the uh code of conduct for the uh for the board I mean the board's code of conduct it talks about um that particular um what's what policy 9500 actually addresses so there's that that is a redundancy so we don't need that one which was originally a ball and then
202the last one procedure to the superintendent that's being resented because we will have the policy of8 um let me see what it is eight eight I I'd have to go back to my pile but anyway that policy for the evaluation of superintend was one of our very first ones we don't need to have two policies again it would be redundant so they're being removed for being resented for because they are redundant yeah and I think we've had so many discussions about this so if board members have questions um remembering that we've Ted talked about this a bit um please let me know now okay um so if there are no objections the committee shall recommend the policies under agenda item 5.2 and 5.3 to the full board for public comment [Music] consideration there being no
203objections the policies under agenda item 5.2 and 5.3 will be recommended to the full board for public comment consideration we're now going to move on to item 6.0 policies for third consideration um so that the eight items are for consideration seven of them will be considered as a consent agenda the policies were distributed to the general public for comments and only one receive comments so we're going to move to item 6.1 policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process recognize Mrs Welsh to provide an overview of the public comment response received on policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process so there was there was a comment that came in um um related to the 41 13 which talks about the fact that um because we did change it to one one special
204education parent and this particular parent is requesting that uh we go back to what the original request was was to allow two uh parents um to um to serve on the panel um so that that's the main part and then also remove seesac training requirement and instead just say um uh that uh the we uh let's see we do request that a community involvement members including parents family be offered the opportunity to attend training sessions provided by credible entities so those were the two comments that I mean that was the same comment but two items in within that comment they want to change from one to two parent to two parents of students with disabilities um and then that we would um have the uh remove the cack training requirement and instead talk more uh
205specifically about the fact they would be offered the opportunity to attend training because they were parents I will say one thing um the process for when they want to do uh when they want to interview because they're being selected to be on the interview panel I don't know how quickly that operates but I don't know that there's time to stop and make sure they're trained before they can be on the interview it could hold up that process of selecting a principal um because when when they're going through that process you know that when principles are now becoming vacancies are becoming a open and years's we got to replace them I'm not sure how quickly HR moves through that process but um you know I don't I mean just trying to find training for the parent
206and then you know I don't know that could be problematic I'm just just a thought okay um thank you so much for that Mrs Welsh and just want to see if there are any questions concerning the comment or the policy uh board member Boer struther yeah thank you um I think I I I'm not sure where I I apologize if I missed when this training component came up because to me it seems kind of arbitrary and I don't even think cak has a specific how to sit on a principal selection panel that doesn't so I'm a little confused by that and would agree um that it seems a little arbitrary to think the parent couldn't sit on the panel without whatever panelist training one would be given and it does feel like we just I
207agree like what happened to you know other parents on the panel so it I thought the idea was one that one that there were more than one and one would specifically need to be parent of a student required special education services so we lost it seemed like we started with multiple and so I'm only looking at the revised copy and I have to pull up the old one but something it seems like something got lost there I think it was two and at least one should the parent of special education student was what I thought the the request had been of us it was it was the original request said two parents but then when we there but there's supposed to be other parents also that are on the committee because it's it's Comm as
208parents of that school community that are there and um um and then we had to decide on one parent instead of one parent of a special education student in addition to the other parents but um now I want to pull up that language because I I didn't I don't see any reference to parents otherwise that's where I'm confused okay because it should it should absolutely say that oh and we have 20 seconds have establish procedures addition other and stakeholders at least one of the St should be okay so they're talking about stakeholders and it says stakeholders includes school specific staff parents community members and high school students so so there so it this is merely saying that one of those stakeholders will be a parent of a student receiving special education or Section 504 Services
209um and we can certainly take the ccat language out of there but it at there because it's referencing stakeholders the interviewing process should include an addition interview activities and interview panel of stakeholders it's saying it it doesn't say how many parents it just says includes school specific staff parents community members and high school students um and I would think a lot of that would be dependent also on the um size of the school and everything too you know our SCH schools have like 2,000 students compared to a school that has you know maybe 300 students is very different but I don't think the intention there is to say we're we're not going to have any other parents but the parent of the special education student because within that definition it's very clear that it's it's
210school specific staff parents and community members and the students um I want to go to I don't know if the question was fully answered but um I to to's liking but I think we're out of time we can come to a second round I'm going to go to Dr uh Vice chair Miller thank you I was just making sure um Robin Welsh will you reading the admin procedure or the policy because I'm looking at the policy and it just says stakeholders correct I am I'm saying that the stakeholders def is defined as it includes school specific staff parents community members and high school students so it's not saying how many parents it's it's just referencing that you're uh in that panel you're going to have um is made up of stakeholders which include parents so
211it's not saying anything the only thing and I pre prior to adding the language about the parent of a special ed student or a student receiving SE Section 504 services that we didn't even have that there so we it was just assumed it could be any number of parents or you know students or um uh community members so in this instance now we're saying of of the parents that are going to be on the panel one of them need to be a parent of a student with that receiv special 504 Services it doesn't necessarily say it says stakeholders but it doesn't and the special education representation should be there but what about a parent of you know another parent does it it doesn't specify that but the definition does so stakeholders itself references I mean
212we can put any kind of clarifying language you want it does say include specific staff parents and community members so when you see the word stakeholder in the language it means that you're going to have parents and one of those parents are going to be a parent of a special education student but you you could have any number of parents it doesn't specify the number of parents but it it doesn't mean it's just only the parent of the special ed student but if you think we should have some kind of clarifying language we can certainly do that we still have 37 seconds do uh Vice chair Miller no I just wanted to make sure that it was inclusive and um knowing that I you know uh as a parent of a special education student this
213is important to me and other stakeholders in my community but I also want to make sure that other all parents feel included in this policy if that makes sense okay I mean I I can take get rid of the definition and just write the entire definition out in that D so that it's saying parent if that you think that makes it more clear um so because we're at time we're going to go to um board member booer struther um for a second round yeah thanks and you know I I think because I've experienced this and knew that parents were multiple parents were on this so I went to the AP and I think this is once again one of those situations where the AP continues on and clarifies so on the in the AP there's
214seven groups invited and four are school specific community members that's where parents come out of those four um there's a lot of Staff in here um and the high school students for high schools but maybe the stakeholders maybe the stakeholders need to list um parents um parents of students with special education services and then it becomes more clear that at least one of the stakeholders shall be parent of a student receiving special education or 504 services period And so that way you've got this particular stakeholder is named and then there's an extra policy for the stakeholder does that help uhhuh would that help my understanding sorry maybe I should I can't that's pams sorry who this if you would like no I just wanted I wanted just to be clear because I think I I
215agree with what she's saying so stakeholders is is is a stakeholder in the community but being specific about in addition there will be a parent or stakeholder with a child who has who receives special education services correct well the that particular stakeholder isn't named so parent of a of student receiving special education services 504 plan becomes now in the list of stakeholders and then that particular stakeholder has additional policy that they must be represented that I I'm just I'm trying to figure it out without it without it um having to say the AP because the AP goes into to say how many of each so what we would do is then then just say this includes school specific staff parents including um a parent of a student with receiving special ed or 504 services and
216then community members high school students blah blah blah which implies that it's they parents but one of those parents are going to be a parent of a student receiving special ed 504 Services is that what your reference is that what you're suggest yeah but e codifies that they that one has to be on the panel so then it does yes yes yes okay yeah well I don't want to throw a you know um any any additional confusion here but I just wanted to say I think what I heard from the um the constituent that wrote in was at least two for representation which I think I I do like the idea of if you have a group of eight parents and only one is a parent of a child with a disability or special education
217needs I do think representation wise it would be good to at least have to out of that assuming that there might not be more there may be more but I I would think that the threshold would be at least at least at least at least two is what I would I think it felt right to me when I was reading it and I appreciate the suggestion that she made in addition to the what my colleague shared are there any other questions or comments right uh if there are no objections the committee shall recommend policy 4113 to the full board for first consideration there being no objections policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process will be recommended to the full board for first consideration and we are going to add two special web parents
218right yes yes please okay oh and you know what well we can move forward because we we didn't have any objections um but there was the pin in the training piece that I believe was mentioning like that training was not required and right now it's saying that it has to be with cak but it they're not authorized body to do that and so there there might be that option for like outside um trainings from kind of authoritative for bodies that exist um so um I feel like that means we're going back um and that's fine um but I do want to recognize Bor members of sh if you have a comment on policy 4 yeah I I think what I don't understand is what is the training when you're on a panel all of you
219are trained to be on that panel to select a principal I I just find it arbitrary I'm very confused by it you know I'm sorry can I can I interject I do know that Dr Miller has to go and I think we we're like right at the Finish Line we have just literally so I think if we can get through that we can have that conversation um offline um there is there are items 6.2 through 6.8 so that's policy 8100 Board of Education standing committees and focus work groups uh item 6.3 policy 9210 chair recision um policy 9220 Vice chair recision policy 9230 secretary's Treasurer and executive officer recision policy 9270 actions for by individual board members recision policy 9361 meetings time and place recision policy 9367 meetings Quorum and Adoption of formal action recision
220there are no objections the committee shall recommend the policies under agenda items 6.2 through 6.8 to the full board for first consideration okay there are no objections the policy IES under agenda items 6.2 through 6.8 will be recommended to the full board for first consideration we're now going to move to wait I'm so sorry and I know you want to rush but I have to bring this back to this thing about the parents because the the comment is saying that all the parents and community community members are going to be offered the opportunity to attend training about special ed uh disabilities about disabilities before they're on the panel so I think that's that's um it's they they're offered the opportunity I I'm I'm gonna I have to say from an Administration standpoint that is that
221is really burdensome to be able to move forward in the in the um process of uh interviewing um student uh um principles I agree I think it would be very wise and I'm sure they do it that they bring the parents in and the community members and whoever to talk about the interview process and what they're supposed to be looking for and blah blah blah all that stuff but um the she this particular comment is asking for us to change it so that every basically the stakeholders are going to receive training related to um students with disabilities um are there are there considerations for policy 9 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process um to not move that forward for first consideration it looks like we still need to have some more discussion on
222this to make sure that there you go okay so the question is shall the committee recommend policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal selection process to the full board for first consideration any discussion hearing none U Miss adet we're going to um take a roll call again uh saying yes is moving it forward for for first consideration say no is not moving it forward for first consideration having continued discussion Mr BRS uh no Dr Miller no is BU there no right um the negative motion fails thank you so much Cindy um I call so I call for the new question the question is shall the committee postpone policy 41113 Community involvement in the principal selection process to the next policy and governance committee meeting Miss aded please call the role Mr RS yes Dr Miller
223Miss buther yes three in the AFF affirmative motion passes great policy 4113 Community involvement in the principal election process will be postponed until the next policy and governance committee meeting we're now at item 7.0 thank you um closing remarks from the chair and adjournment um so the next virtual policy and governance committee meeting will be on November 12th 2024 please continue to check the Prince George's County Board of Education web page for meeting information and updates there being no further business thank you all so much for the great discussion thank you for sticking around if you have other obligations um The Time Is Now 8:06 pm and the October 22nd 2024 policy and governance meeting meeting is adjourned good night thank you good night hey Rob can you yeah I can stay on so I
224think we need to like