001because has been the time is now 502. I call the order I called to order the January 17 2023 policy and governance committee meeting welcome and opening remarks good evening and thank you all for being here my name is albertron Reese chair of the policy and governance committee and student member of the board it brings me great pleasure to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting and I look forward to our great work tonight I'll first yield to our new Vice chair Walter fields for any remarks okay Mr fields [Music] Mr fields do you hear us foreign but I'll move forward well so we'll have introductions of committee members starting with board members followed by Administration then Board office staff and board legal counsel thank you uh chairs around you with my name is Judy mcinsmari I
002am the chair of the board and a member of a voting member of the Palestine governments committee okay hi Pamela Boozer Strother board member for district three and member of the committee and I just want to congratulate um our student member of the board board member Saron Ruiz on your uh chairmanship of this committee look forward to working with you thank you hello everyone Jonathan Briggs here District 2 representative um and also obviously a member of the board congrats to chairs Ronda Ruiz and uh Vice chair um fields thank you thank you hi I'm Cheryl Landis I'm actually a consultant who has been retained by the chief of staff Michael Dickerson and CEO Dr Monica Goldson my job has been to do observation assessment make recommendations in terms of how to improve the functionality of
003the board office um I will be with you for the next two weeks um and I'm really it's really a pleasure to be here and congratulations Judy mickens Mary for the new leadership position well deserved um and I'm just really honored to be here thank you thank you I miss miss Welsh and Mr fields good evening um my name is Robin Welsh and I'm the director of government relations compliance and procedures and it will be a pleasure working with our new chair chair of the committee as well with our new as well as with our new members of the policy committee so welcome to all and congratulations thank you all right Mr fields okay I can hear you now all right excellent jeez technology introduce yourself Mr fields I am Walter fields do you need
004anything more than that that's good you're the vice chair thank you thank you I'll call you back okay and our Board office nearly all Council my name is Cindy adley I am the administrative support staff to the policy and governance committee and I'm also the assistant to our new chairman good evening everyone uh Dennis Whitley the third the law offices of Shipley and Horn and we are board Council and congratulations to the new board committee chair and vice chair and the new board chair as well I look forward to working with everyone thank you thank you alrighty so I think we have a full house so we have a quorum to keep business moving okay so 1.3 adoption meeting agenda may have a motion to adopt January 17 2023 meeting agenda I moved to adopt
005January 17 2023 meeting agenda another second second has been moved and properly second to adopt the January 17 2023 medium gender any objections here none motion passes agenda is adopted alrighty approval of the committee meeting minutes may have a motion to approve the December 13 2022 meeting minutes I moved to approve the December 13 2022 minute a meeting minutes thank you has been moving properly second to approve December 13 2022 meeting minutes any objections hearing none motion passes all right 2.0 two point all right there are no registered public common speakers this evening uh registered public comment speakers can be live pre-recorded using video or audio or written alrighty 3.0 legislative update 3.1 update on May legislative committee meetings I'll now yield the floor to miss Welsh to update us on the Mabe legislative committee
006meeting Miss Welsh so um myself and um board member Megan's Murray and um uh Cindy uh Alvaro yes Cindy as well as board member visit Strother all attended the May legislative committee meeting it uh the first one for December not December January excuse me and at that meeting um they uh basically just went over again some of their legislative priorities and provided an update on those as well as discuss the advocacy process and the legislative process so it was sort of like an educational training for everyone in terms of moving forward through the legislative process it was it was quite informative huh thank you all right we'll move on to um the May blueprint implementation uh I'll now yield the floor to miss boozer's brother to update us on the May blueprint implementation ad hoc
007committee all right thank you so much Cher I um uh on behalf of my liaison role to mabe's uh committee giving providing this report and uh I wanted to just first note that the document uh prepared for the board will need to be added to this agenda item in in board docs I I thought that had gone up so I did just want to note that before I forget but the I want to thank um board member fields for joining with me to draft a memo to our colleagues about where we are with the stage of the blueprint uh plan drafting uh that memo included that the aib had finished the overall draft plan on December 1st and then directed The leas the 24 leas to draft their plans and response and they were provided
008a a hundred page template to do so and many of you know that we of course have been instituting this plan based on the blueprint legislation and uh it's not like we're starting from scratch by any means at all um it's just that the aib was delayed by the the former soon to be former Governor to delayed the aib which delayed all of these timelines so this is where we are and now our blueprint coordinator uh Dr Carl Libby will be is managing a team of more than 9 500 of our PGCPS employees of our colleagues to draft the plan in the the five key pillars for governance I have been teamed up with Mr fields on that on a particular task in that and so all of our colleagues have received the overall plan
009so that once the PGCPS plan comes there's a deeper understanding of what what they're reading and on February 14th at this meeting Dr Libby will be presenting with a team from from this larger working group where things are in the plan because on March her goal is to have the plan finished on March 1st because it's due on March 15th so she'll have that time so unless there's any questions that concludes my report thank you thank you Mrs Australia Cindy Miss Adeline permission to address Miss Pamela I do have one question are we referencing the letter that was sent up to all board members is that what you would like to have uploaded about docs that's correct it's the cover memo with the full plan attached thank you for checking all right thank you Mr
010board members any questions okay all right thank you thank you alrighty we'll move on forward to 4.0 policies for discussion tonight there are six policies for discussion colleagues keeping in mind the number of policies we have tonight and to it be cognizant of everyone's time I would like us to adhere tonight to the five minute and three minute rounds for discussion um Miss Adeline will be tracking that so just so everyone's on Loop with that um and so we'll first start 4.1 policy 3506 public charter schools now you have the floor to miss Welsh to give us an overview of the proposed revisions for this policy so um with policy 3506 I had shared at the last meeting that we in the Maryland law as an education article 9-110 there was specific language that talked
011about what a school system's policy should contain uh which was evaluation of the charter school revocation of the charter reporting requirements and financial programmatic and compliance audits for public charter schools also if you recall we did have um Elizabeth Sanders who's the instructional director for charter schools and Dr Monica Gaines who is the charter school liaison came to our last meeting and did a presentation and talked pretty gave us a nice overview of everything that's involved in the entire Charter School process from the beginning when someone applies to have a charter up through the end when they're actually having the charter and the charter schools operating so I also share with you that our policy is was quite old it was from 2010 and basically it just um defined what charter school was but it
012didn't have any other information at all in the charter school so in essence I was I really went through and and really almost rewrote the entire Charter School a policy to reflect what are the requirements in the law of the information that um also that uh uh Elizabeth Saunders had shared with us at the last meeting so uh yes uh Cindy if you wanna um I think you yes if you want to go to the um to the policy and you can pull it up so we can just look at it and I'll just I'll just I won't go into a lot of detail because it's here for you to read but I can at least tell you what components I did include so if you would just scroll down first to the just uh
013just a little bit Cindy so I can talk a little bit okay right there it's a policy statement so what I did for the policy statement since we do have a strategic plan that goes into a good amount of detail about what uh the plan is and what we want to move forward I pull language from that strategic plan because we do have language that says um that we want to provide every uh Prince George's County Public School student with a premier education characterized by Innovative relevant accessible Learning and Development opportunities that build 21st century competencies and so if you look at the requirement for a charter school charter schools are supposed to be they're supposed to be providing Innovative curriculum and new ways of teaching um that's different from our regular Public Schools so
014that's why I thought our language in this strategic plan was quite appropriate for including in the policy statement I then went through and added some definitions to help make the policy a little bit uh more clear so if you just scroll down a little bit um and come to the standards then it's um so the standards I think are probably the most important it starts off with the board's Authority and so the board absolutely has the um is is what is who is responsible for basically um uh accepting an application uh as as the application goes through the power the application process and the board actually the school system has 120 days to review evaluate the application and then make a determination and the CEO and her staff will also review it and then give
015a recommendation to the board of education and then the Board of Education from there will review it and make a decision on whether or not they're going to accept the the application or not and if you continue to scroll down a little bit send you to the next page then it talks about um the what I just shared with you if in fact the board does deny the public charter school or application then the applicant May appeal that decision to the State Board of of Education as a 4205 C appeal as far as some of the things then some of the basics in terms of charter schools that uh we have Public School uh public charter school funding which is um whatever that we as a system provide each Public School in our in our
016school system then we are also required to provide a commensurate amount to the public charter school um and but and the charter school has the right to the operator has a right to make to do financial management and decision making but just like a public school the CEO it retains the authority and responsibility for approving the Charter School's annual budget every single year um as far as in student enrollment um it is um that should be open to all students in a space available basis except for where we might have a lottery uh and that and then that would would uh Drive which students would be approved to be in a public charter school a particularly one that was applying it is we did I did add a language that talks about the fact that
017we will not discriminate against any student on the basis of race color national origin citizenship status religion marital status sex story sex sexual orientation gender identity identity disability or age and then I also reference the fact that students um with IEPs absolutely have a right to go to a charter school and the charter school has the responsibility of making sure they implement the um IEP for the student the next thing has to do with school facilities and charter schools are responsible for meeting all federal state and local facility health and safety standards if you can scroll down to the next page Cindy as well as they they must also be appropriate for the educational programs being offered and they need to meet all the Ada standards so that they are accessible to all students as
018far as auditing and Reporting require governments so if if you recall I think when we were looking at maybe um I think it was I can't just recently a policy that we were looking at had to do with uh I want to say the oversight policy and it talked about the responsibilities of the board and the CEO and all the reports that the board of board of education is responsible for providing to like msde which those reports come from the uh CEO and the CEO gets her reports from each of our schools and in this instance is saying that Charter Schools also have to comply with all of the applicable reporting requirements um as well as they must follow through and they're required to go through the same Financial programmatic compliance and or internal audits
019that are that are consistent with the law of regulations as well as our board policies and administrative procedures and so we our public schools actually go through uh numerous Audits and so the publish their Charter Schools would go through the same um and then the charter school is evaluated on student achievement and this would be by the board student achievement fiscal management and other criteria pursuant to the approved application so depending on the conditions that were written into the charter contract there might be some very specific Provisions that when it comes time to do an evaluation of how those Charter Schools operating that the those specific Provisions would also be considered in the evaluation process um now the Board of Ed does have the right and the responsibility to revoke a charter school agreement for
020any one of the following reasons so then if you would just scroll down further Cindy and this list out all the the um the things that could happen that would cause the Board of Education to want to revoke a charter school agreement for example the uh the school or the operator reached the contract first of all or they fail to comply with many of the federal state or local law requirements their physical condition might be a substantially deficient they as far as academics and instructional services that could be a reason because there's they might be substantially deficient the facility itself might not be mean the needs for the educational program uh and it um there might be issues related to health Safety and Security for the students and staff and then also um this the
021actual operational school might not be in the best interest for our students so those would be all the reasons um and this all comes from the law but these would be all the reasons that the um the Board of Education might consider um revoking a charter school and then once the the application the uh if the agreement were we both see um personnel and students would be reassigned um based on our policies and mystery procedures and negotiated agreements so generally speaking most the students would be going back to their to their home schools unless they have have decided to let's say they do sign up for a lottery for one of our other specialty schools something like that and then all the resources that were provided by the Board of Education originally they still remain
022under the control of the Board of Education and then if you proceed a little bit further Cindy um and um I think that's basically it and then the CEO is responsible for developing an administrative procedure to implement this policy so that that's sort of it in a nutshell does anyone have any questions yeah actually um well I'm not sure if I need to be recognized or not yeah alrighty thank you Miss Welsh Mr Riggs um you go ahead great um just one piece thank you Miss Welsh as well um I thought this was great um one area that I would just add not necessarily a question but just maybe a Amendment um that could be considered is um around the Discrimination piece it mentioned um trying to find it so if you find it before
023me then just tell me where I should be at um it's just after the definitions so let's see well anyway you said gender identity I just wanted to suggest adding in gender um because I think that gender identity is a little bit different and then also adding in gender expression um just to make sure that the language is inclusive um so those are just two things that I as you were kind of sharing I was thinking about as maybe additions to the gender identity um gender and gender expression okay thank you yeah thank you Mr fields um I was wondering when I read the policy statement and the purpose you know when Charter Schools were first um created they were supposed to be Laboratories that traditional Public Schools could look at and you know provide
024some examples that Innovations could then be applied to traditional Public Schools I was wondering if there was anywhere in our policy statement where we could state that because I think there's a lot of confusion among parents of why Charter Schools can do certain things in traditional Public Schools can't and why can't those benefits be extended over the traditional Public Schools you know I think we've created a system in public education where people look at Charter Schools as not as public schools and I think the the Lessons Learned in charter schools not all of them but some of them cannot be applied to our traditional schools so just somewhere in there talking about the Nexus between our public charter schools and our traditional Public Schools okay thank you any other further discussion okay so I guess
025Miss Welsh um if these revisions could be made and I guess um we just bring it back the next meeting for action or would it just be for more discussion ask it that question but I will let you know that I think I think it will be ready then for Action if if we are saying it's going to be ready for action then I need to send it to both the office of general counsel the board's attorney Dennis Whitley and then also the CEO has to go through it and approve it also so um you you tell me how you like to proceed we're going to go in that direction that I can take it through the review Pro review and approval process um colleagues I mean I'm okay with the revisions that were brought
026up tonight um anyone have any objections towards um what was mentioned by Mr fields and Mr Briggs if not um then yeah Miss Welsh um if it could continue on and he brought back to the January 31st meeting um for Action okay thank you thank you okay moving on 4.2 policy 8100 standing committees and focus work groups Miss Welsh I'll yield to you again okay give me one second uh Miss Aden did you have a hand up yes I do have a quick question now the meeting is January 31st are we going to be ready by then for that one or we're gonna do February February's meeting um so I I have to say that we have uh I think five or six policies today that are up for uh discussion six and if people
027are ready to move forward then that's going to be six policies that are going to move forward um for Action saying that though because um everyone that is on the list that has to do review and approval also do many other things I don't know that they can move that many policies through in the approval process uh that quickly um I don't want to speak for them but I just know that's you know that's a lot of policies I have to review and and then get and approve so I I don't know if we want to at this point say let's take it through for action but if in fact we're not ready then um I would have to let you know at the planning meeting in a week because I'm going to move it
028anything that we have tonight I will move out to for the the review process tomorrow so that they have as much time as possible to start that review process okay if you could just bring a recommendation to the planning meeting and then we'll decide which policies okay this one can move forward okay uh are we the next policy the standard PM 8100 which is the uh boards POST Board of Education standing committees and focus groups so the main changes um I think our big conversation at our last meeting had to do with the process first of all identifying who are the members of each of the standing committees and then who is the leadership of the standing committees and um when when would this happen would this happen in June or August so if you
029go to um the the under standards where it says a Committee Member appointments um I did I did basically cut and paste so uh board member of business struther had recommend that we go back and look at the board policy from 2019 because that policy uh was probably a much more functional policy it worked uh had it was more democratic in the process of identifying who would be on these committees and who would be the leadership of the Committees and so I did go back I followed that recommendation the rest of the committee members thought that we should go do the same so we I went back and looked at that recommendation and Incorporated most of that language I know that at our meeting there was language about the student board member and and what
030standing committee would that student board member be allowed to be be a member of and actually in the 2019 policy it actually said that they can serve as a member on any of the standing committees so I Incorporated that language into the policy um and then and I have have that it would be the board chair who would be making the responsibility it would make be making the decision about who would be uh who what were the appointments for which committees so if you look at that language it comes basically directly from pulse from the policy of 2019. now um another piece of the of the conversation came from the fact that um the question about when and should we do it in June or should we do it in August so just to give
031a little bit of background information um several people in the committee last time felt it was important to do it in June so that we could begin working ever the committee could start working in August and we wouldn't be dealing with appointments and Leadership and that type of thing the concern was is that the board the student board member though doesn't actually get officially and please jump in if I'm not saying this correctly but doesn't officially get uh find or knows that they are now a member until the end of June and so would they have the opportunity to uh participate in any of the standing committees that they would like to you know so they can put in what they would like to be a part of um and then um the other issue
032was when would you then when would be that when would the chair and the chair the vice chair be appointed and would that be in June or August so right now the way it's written I do have June but if someone thinks it should go back to August and the conversation went back and forth a couple times uh their last committee meeting so it's it's really up to the um the uh the you all the committee to make a final determination but this does contain the language that came from uh policy from the policy it's policy 8100 but from 2019. in terms of um you know the student board member um I I I'm all for you know getting everything done in June that way you know we have the summer the chair of Vice
033chair gets a summer to really um start thinking of the work plan for the committee and things like that and now rushing it um my only thing is you know what language could we put in place um in terms of having the chair or vice chair be cognizant of reaching out um to this uh new board member I know their their term officially starts July 1st um and so I don't know you know what the language could say regarding that about reaching out what companies they would like to serve or since the policy says they could serve in any if they come on the board they just choose once they arrive I don't know so you're are you asking like is there a possible way we could have language that would say something to the
034effect that the board chair would that like say in June reach out once we know who the student board member is going to be reach out to student board member prior to making any final decision about who's going to be on what committee and just ask that student board member right right something along those lines um Mr Jerk would that question be asked as a part of the uh process when the student board member student board members are running could that be a part of the question there what policy if elected what uh committees would you like to sit on um practical I think I mean the student board member I think is already elected prior to the start of June um and so maybe it could just really be the board office reaches out
035to I I'm not sure I think it'd be um Department student services or the CEO who already knows the name by that point um to ask for the information the student to ask them which committee they would like to serve um and it could really be something just like that um as a student board member elect you know you already know the name by the start of June and so the process could really happen in June um is just I don't know if we want to include verbiage um I would feel comfortable including verbiage because you never want to just just [Music] um but yeah you want to recognize Pam uh chair Ms Bruce's I'm sorry oh that's right thank you uh I was actually going to address that as well that I was thinking
036there was some language around that in June that the chair not on the board and the student board member elect um you know that it is explicitly stated knowing that the the you know the that student seat starts on July 1 it didn't seem like that should be any barrier to having that information for them to get started on July one so that was one thing I wanted to support because I know we were we were still sort of this is a lot like we're it sounds like we're all getting a little more aligned around that that before July 1 is fine uh I was going to ask if the 2019 version had did that do we no longer say two committees for the student member of the board because I seem to remember that
037was a that was somewhere in policy at one point in time but a getting Clarity if that actually was removed in 2019. all right see actually um now that I'm looking back at this I see that it says only you're right it only says one no wait a minute hold on it says student board members should serve as a member of the academic achievement committee but I did read somewhere else and I'm gonna have to go find that where it said any committee um no I know what I did I think I'm glad you brought this up I know now I remember I had so many policies the past two weeks and it's like a blur but I know what I did because of what and this is again a discussion point because that our
038student board member uh you actually said that you felt like it should be all three committees and that even the classic committee because of the fact that that um there could be the possibility of legislation going through again that would allow student board members to vote on budget items and so you felt like we should keep it open just in case there is that possibility that would open up and that's why I picked that language up I'm sorry I didn't identify that as one of the ones we discussed so you're right it did not come from previously it only said one standing committee um and we actually then talked about uh what I actually said academic achievement committee but we had talked about also academic achievement and policy and then our our our chairs I
039now she he shared with us that it should be uh all three so again that's a discussion item for tonight's meeting on which on what like how many committees would you uh want the student member to have be able to be a part of yeah and and I do want to say that you know the expansion to serve on all three of any of the three I think you know is I think we are fine with that I do think it was like a limited to two and I don't and I don't know if that's around the uh committee membership counts pushing that or time or the or because there's some because the time the student spends or because historically around the issues of voting on the budget so the operations committee was just not
040an option so it was limited to two so that's that's all that historical I just wanted to that I agree that no limitations on the three but should there be continue to be that serving on two is the maximum that I guess that's where we are so yeah I will I'll agree with you um I was surprised not to see in the policy because when I got my onboarding um I was told too as well um to pick two and so I'm not sure where it explicitly says that um but that that's what I was told when I came on and that's why I picked two um and so yeah I mean out I'm in Greens I think it should be um a limit of two committees um just to be cognizant in terms of
041other board members wanting to join um you know certain committees but not being able to because you know you needed one over here one over there um so yeah I agree with the language any further comments um Miss Welsh so may I ask a question so are we looking at language that says any two standing committees or just the academic and policy and governance I would say any two okay foreign Vice chair of each uh committee shall be selected by the board chair um in June I can switch that then to August if if you're in agreement so that it's all done in August in June or or do you do you all think differently just let me know I agree with June um does anyone have any objections to June okay so June it
042is okay okay colleagues any other any further discussion okay seeing none Miss Welsh if we can move this forward on whatever path it needs to take next for taking action um so is it something that you would like to bring back further for discussion as I make the final changes on what we discussed tonight or I can move through the review process I can't guarantee it'll be ready for action but I can do that so you just let me know does would anyone like further discussion um I guess not okay I would just like to ask for a a version that's easier to read like if you like a version that looks final I'm just having some trouble with this current version following everything if that would be possible so what I could do is
043um I could provide both the with the track changes and then I could provide a cleaned up version for you just so it would be easier to read uh that I do always provide the track changes through these committee meetings only so the public and see what changes we have made yeah compared previously but for final decision making it might be easier than to see the far see the clean version yeah I would appreciate that thank you you're welcome foreign alrighty next policy board by law 9360 meetings of the board Miss Welsh leave it to you again okay so I am basically um going to attempt to identify the changes that Mr Newsome had uh talked about at the last meeting I did make one change which is what uh Mr Whitley had recommended when
044I was talking about annual meetings because we have an inconsistency in the law where one law says there will be the annual meeting on the first uh Monday of December and in that and that at that meeting you'll vote for the chair and the co-chair of the board of education but that but then we had a new law that was recently passed that talks about the fact that the chair and the co-chair will be voted on by the board uh and that term of office will be for two years so there's definitely a little bit of confusion in the law so Mr Whaley had recommended that uh instead of saying the annual meeting that will be held on the first Monday of December I wrote the biannual meetings that will be held on the First
045on Monday of December for the purpose of of voting for a chair and a co-chair or a vice chair um the other changes that um Mr Newsome and I did call him just make sure I I had everything was is that he did include language that said that the closed session meetings may be recorded recorded in order to ensure accuracy of the written Menace but said recording shall be treated as confidential so that's yes that's in the definitions right here yeah he added that change which there was a discussion at the last meeting about that um and then you can find the next one he under special meetings he talked about instead of um um having like uh seven members or whatever that that you would have because in another year you're gonna have 10
046members so he just added the language at least half of the board members would be voting to have a uh uh when there was a request to have a special meeting that as long as you've got agreement on at least half of the board members for that meeting um then they would have and it would have to be at least 72 hours in advance of the uh of the meeting um and then the there would be um they would they would discuss prior because I think this is what you had brought up remember Boozer Strother about the fact that sometimes when you get into a meeting you get into a special meeting you don't even know what the special meaning is about and then all once you're being asked to have an action when you
047haven't had a chance to really consider it so he did say um they um if the meeting is for discussion the topic of discussions must be cited if the meeting is to progress propose action the proposed action must be cited um or no business shall be transacted at said meeting except for what which the meeting is called so he he's basically saying there needs to be clarification in the notice uh for the special meeting uh what to determine to basically clarify is it for discussion or is it to actually propose an action so that that was another change that he put in and then he also put in on the same page that really to emergency meetings that instead again of the seven people that it would be a a written request of at least
048half of the board members so that since we'll be going back to 10 and previously it said 72 hours for an emergency meeting and he changed that to 24 24 hours um and then Incorporated some of the very same language that he had in the special meeting as far as uh whether it's an action or a discussion item and the reason he did change it to 24 hours is because the emergency items are really meant to be only items that they truly are emergencies that need to be um it says a meeting that is scheduled to address an item that cannot wait until the next regularly scheduled regular business meeting so something that the board uh either need to discuss or make a decision about so he did that's why he changed it 24 hours
049because something could come up that new to you need to act upon that quickly and then let me see if I can find oh he also said that for if it turns out that the board meeting is not going to be um in person instead it's going to be virtual he added that at least one week's notice is required to change an in-person board meeting to a virtual board meeting so we added that language um I think that might be all the language that he added and just double check yes I think that's it um and I did have one question because I noticed that still was sitting here in the um in the policy has language about as of December to 2nd 2024 no motion or resolution may be declared adopted without the concurrence
050of six voting board members I had thought there we had a discussion previously that talked about possibly removing that language at this point because it could be confusing because of the date and I don't I don't know if we've decided anything on that or not but I just want to double check before finalizing that it has to do with the new bill that got passed for when uh we went on December 2nd 2024 we now have you'll you'll have 10 elected board members anyone recall and if not that might have been a discussion we hadn't made notices I went through our minutes I did not find anything about it so um I think it's further down if you keep keep going is it it should start off with uh um keep going Cindy wait the
051back the back up uh is it this one keep going keep forward yes uh no that's not it because that one we had already agreed upon keep going uh uh here it is right there as of December 2nd 2024 no motion or resolution and then um so no motion or resolution may be declared adopted without the concurrence of six voting members [Music] um and I don't I don't know and this might be something that um Mr Whitley would wants to weigh in on um you know as the board's attorney so so yeah I guess I'll go Mr Whitley then Miss America I don't remember us having this conversation at the last board meeting um but my knee-jerk reaction is that it's probably okay because it does align with when the board would go to a
05210-member all elected board and it seems to be uh consistent with what the policy would be at that point in time perfect I just wanted to double check because I don't want to miss anything I just want to make sure and I just want to make sure the border that the board have any questions or any concerns I think board member uh uh our chair uh yes we're making smart I thought you had a question well it's not so much a question it's a concern like everything else in a bureaucratic Society if that date slips but I've heard folks in Annapolis then would we be wetted to six even though we may still have 14 numbers I don't know I'm I when I had the conversation with uh with Mr Newsome my concern was policies
053should reflect the way you are and then when you need to change and you do it but you know I don't want to create confusion I really don't my only concern is that if everything goes as uh scheduled uh then somebody would have to change the policy uh before that point in time or they would still be requiring seven votes for a 10-member board um again I work for the boy it would be my recommendation that we be prepared for a 10 member board and uh if something were to happen we can change it as opposed to having requiring seven votes I'm fine I can accept that I just wanted to make sure we had the conversation and it's recorded someplace thank you no there's no other board members have any questions or concerns thank
054you I actually was going to say something similar to board uh chair mckins Murray that this process in Annapolis is playing out this session and there's a bunch of recommendations and they may turn into one or multiple bills and I think they want to get it done this session which gives us time maybe we could wait until the end of the session before we finalize this document or not but you know even the question of a you know I think that a two-year term of chair I think one year terms are typically tip you know there's typically one-year terms this rotating shared leadership model that they may come back with you know I I just don't think this is over and I I understand chair Mick and it's very concerned but I do think we
055would have time to fix that one but I I understand where you are uh Mr Whitley around that we've got a show we've got to show that we're listening to Annapolis you know Annapolis has said something and we need to reflect it so um I I agree with you on on that point but I do think we're going to see some modifications come out of the whatever happens that this document will change but I don't I think there's so so much important uh operating information in here that we should keep moving the one that I noted and I apologize that this didn't stand out to me last time we discussed it was the the that there isn't a provision for weather related uh change from an in-person meeting to a online meeting like right now
056there has to be a one-week notice if we're changing from in person to online and does seem to me that this technology the good use of it is that if we have a snowstorm the board can still meet by Zoom we don't have to stop our business but I leave you know bring that up for discussion uh right now see what folks think of that foreign have any comments colleagues Mr Fields I mean Mrs mickens Mary I would uh concur with uh board member Boozer Strother on that issue of weather um because I think it's so unpredictable these days that you need to have some provision in there um so that we're clear about what the scenario is uh in case of inclement weather or an emergency okay my only thought was uh power outages
057I don't know if you need a caveat in the policy for that but uh the board needed needs to recognize that even though you may have the mechanism to do it it might not be power in every household so that's when we thought about it okay all right I do want to ask Mr Mr President I was just going to re respond that uh uh that definitely would be a consideration so maybe it's May that we may that you know that we may do that and that way it can be evaluated for those exact reasons of full participation and and of course uh the administration's participation you know so I I guess it would be leaving open that that we have the possibility to do it for um so with the board there are other
058emergencies that prevent us from meeting in person you know hopefully not um so I would like to see it so would the board like go from a week to some other time period 48 Hours 72 hours the week needs to stay because I think that's that's different I think that's when we recognize some of the issues that we realized around calendars so I think that needs to stay I think it's this additional line around that we may Choose You know to hold the meeting online due to whether health or other emergencies that kind of line that's what I that's what I'm thinking so like an exception language that says in a situation of inclement weather the board May without the the whole week's notice I can put some language in there you know put something
059in there that would give a little bit of leeway there if it's inclement weather but I'm thinking so the thing is is I guess the other question would be 24 or 48 Hours um um our weather says crazy around here that they can it can be predicting one thing and within you know few hours the whole weather tend to look totally different than what they predicted so what would be the the choice here in terms of how what would be the the limit as far as when they could do it I Mr fields in 48 hours okay I mean I think weather predictability has gotten really pretty good these days and so you have a pretty good indication you know within two days of what the forecast looks like okay colleagues any I do have
060to want to acknowledge Dr Harris I see he's joined our meeting um so Dr Harris I see your hands up hey everyone just one question if we're talking about language within the policy should we also outline um who gives the final call on that I'm guessing it would be the chair of the board I figured but I didn't know just to point out the language does say here that a majority of board members what says bar the majority of board members or the chair may change an in-person board meeting to a virtual board meeting okay well thank you for bringing that out um alrighty okay any further discussion in terms of the policy okay Mr chairs this one we may want to bring back for a discussion item especially considering we thinking that Annapolis may
061have some changes that need to be implemented right yeah Miss Welsh um if we could bring this back as a discussion item okay so yeah okay um writing moving on thank you colleagues alrighty 4.4 policy 5122 interscholastic and extracurricular activities Miss Welsh okay um so um we had we did have uh this was back in November I think we had uh Shirley Diggs who is the coordinating supervisor for extracurricular I mean for interscholastic athletics and also George McClure who's the supervisor of French classic Athletics come and talk about the problems that they the high schools were encountering with an attempt to implement the policy had been put into place I want to say uh back in 21 I think and so um there was a request to consider making revisions and basically move the policy
062back to what previous what the policy previously had been so just to give a quick recap the current policy talks about the fact that a student could play on on um Ben Anderson interscholastic Athletics um without having a 2.0 GPA they would be put on on a period of probation which then they would be required of 20 days they've required to do all this extra coach they'd get extra coaching and extra class work and all this kind of stuff to try to help bring their grades up um and actually miss uh when Miss um when Miss Diggs came and explained it it turns out that even the even the practicality of providing something at the end of the day actually would then take away from the students ability to even practice and the language and
063the policy talked about the fact that they could attend practices they just couldn't play at games um and so the whole process it just seemed to keep running into itself in terms of being able to do it and so in our last discussion I think the committee members were inclined to go back to much of the language from the previous policy where we talk about the fact that a 2.0 GPA is an actual academic requirement for students in interscholastic athletics so I I wanna um so that changed it occur and I'm going to take you through that but I want to point something else out you we actually had this as academic eligibility also for extracurricular activities but we talk about if you read the definition of um extracurricular activities it says um approved before
064and after school activities that are for academic enrichment or promote service to the community excluding interscholastic Athletics so it sort of seems a little ridiculous to have an academic eligibility for something that we want students to be a part of that where students can actually participate because it's to really enrich their education so they should have the opportunity to be a part of all these you know could be clubs different activities whatever that that and it could it could be quite important to many of them because there might be an area of interest that they really have an interest in and they feel part of and that might help them better connect even with the school you know in terms of their education so what I did was I broke the policy out and certainly
065we can make any changes but I broke and I also looked at some other school systems and what they had also done and we have several systems out there that did not put academic eligibility for extracurricular activities so I broke it out and I said for the policy statement that that yes uh they we recognize you know the Athletics are important but that they still have they have a responsibility in maintaining and their academic standing and but for the uh for extracurricular activities this board is committed to ensuring that all Prince George's County Public School students have Equitable access to educational programs and school related activities um and that the board believes that access to participation in extracurricular activities engages students interests and ability and is an important part of students overall educational experience so
066I Inc operated that and then as you move through the policy and you get to the standards where I think you are right there that's perfect um and it's pretty simple policy it just lays out that for um and the other thing I added was middle school because I believe board member business brother you had requested isn't there a possibility that we could also have have that academic eligibility requirement a 2.0 for Middle School athletics um and so I did um I did go ahead and incorporate that also into this policy so it does say middle and high school students must earn an overall quarter grade point average GPA of at least a 2.0 in order to participate in Scholastic Athletics and then I also did um um talk about the fact that the our
067current policy says that if if you enter ninth grade you forget if you don't meet it when you're entering then you can't participate but I went back to the old language and we did have a conversation about this the last uh at that committee meeting when we did discuss extra or inner Scholastic Athletics I did say students were checking matriculating to ninth grade are exempt from the high school interscholastic athletic eligibility requirement until the first grading period and then that the eligibility would kick in at that point in time um and so and I did also add some language about students with IEPs and 504s having the opportunity to participate in um intercholastic Athletics then for the actual actual quick extracurricular activities um I um the previous language I've been it's the expectation of the
068Board of Ed that every school provides for students with the opportunity opportunity for participation in a diverse range of extracurricular activities I added also though and you go if you all scroll down Cindy I can you can they can see it right on the screen under extra keep going under extracurricular activities I have here this the student the principle of Destiny will provide and communicate opportunities for all students to participate in extracurricular activities by uh ensuring that there's a total program of extracurricular activities in the school that is comprehensive while balanced providing many and varied opportunities for all students and then I did also include language saying that all students May participate in extracurricular activities regardless of race color and all the different protected classes so I did and I did take the Liberty to
069add that language only because and it goes back to your original definition of extracurricular activities and ensuring that they have the opportunity to enrich their education so um this is a good one to talk about and get your input on what your thoughts are about the policy no thank you Miss Welsh um I truly appreciate you making the difference I think that's a really good point that we definitely want kids to get involved when it comes to organizations and clubs that Foster I guess Unity or you know they may find a new trait that they really love and they make new friends um and this may bolster their academic experience and I think this is something that um also miss Diggs brought up you know why not have a distinction between Athletics between clubs you
070know they are two very different things and so um I appreciate um this language so I'll start with Miss boozer's brother then Mr Fields all right thank you so much um to piggyback on that I I did just uh search for older versions of this to understand why extracurricular is part of it um I still not very clear on how they got combined but I will say the 2011 over the 2011 version totally separated out the 2.0 being the interscholastic Athletics had a totally separate section on extracurricular activities no reference to Great GPA and directed The Board of Education directs the superintendent to develop extracurricular activity guidelines so they were somehow we merged them some point right so I I agree that needs to be very clear that the the 2.0 and maybe this is
071a chance to even think about these policies being this way maybe there is another policy but maybe not for today but uh the other one is middle middle school already operates under you know it the administratively the students are informed to keep a 2.0 I'd have to review the administrative procedure around that but of course I mean I guess that you know in terms of Maryland competition rules I guess yes it changes once you're in ninth grade in high school so and you know again since we have a couple new members I want to I had an experience of trying the new policy with a couple of students helping their them and their parents and it it didn't work and I tried it in two settings try to use it we didn't have the AP
072and went back to the policy it it I think it's right that Administration came back to us on this one and I'm I'm glad we're addressing it and support the changes thank you foreign I have real mixed emotions on this um as a former student athlete as a father of a student athlete who went on the college as a student athlete there is a deleted statement from the policy statement a paragraph that said research shows that students participating in interscholastic athletic programs and extracurricular activities have higher academic achievement including graduation rates and grade point averages and that's a very true statement um and I think that um I have always looked at Athletics as Academic Enhancement also um I think students who participate do better and I think when you look at extracurricular activities whether
073it's drama club or let's say an environmental Club even if we don't require a minimum GPA I think something needs to be said that we encourage those students to maintain High academic standards because I would hate it to be felt like as an athlete I'm being required to hold this academic standard but if you join a club you're not we're all students and we're all taking on these responsibilities and I know in my daughter's experience it helped tremendously uh that that requirement was placed upon her and other athletes that they had to achieve that GPA when you go to college it's the same way and I don't diminish extracurricular activities and separate them because I think in terms of student time and effort they can be a lot alike where there's an extracurricular activity or
074an athletic team so that's that's my only hesitation um you know I I hear you in terms of the difference but in terms of what the expectations we place upon our students I think should be the same Mr Riggs thanks for recognizing me um for me in and I want to be quite honest I haven't had a lot of time to read this and so that's something I'm gonna get better at um and I'm tempering myself from asking lots of questions because that's probably my inclination right now but what I do want to say is I think around the equity piece of this all um this feels a bit like a carrot and stick situation where you know we're incentivizing students with the Athletics but then if they aren't meeting expectations they're being distensivized and
075I think that um from the equity end of it you know students who may have circumstances like a death in the family or are dealing with homelessness or other kind of factors that are outside of their control I just want to make sure that they're not being punished because I didn't get a 2.0 and they may have valid reasons as to why they didn't happen so I would really kind of urge Us in the policies to kind of consider um ways that we can craft some language that of course still holds a high standard for students to participate in these clubs but at the same time doesn't punish them um I think particularly for students who um this is an outlet this is an opportunity for them to you know engage and have that balance
076and you know if it was something that happened in their life that they can't control um I just wouldn't want them to be punished for that so that's something that I can probably look through the policy and figure out where and what part I would make that suggestion but um that's just something that stood out to me Miss business driver thanks yeah I think Mr Briggs is getting at you know this difference between extracurricular activity and Athletics because Maryland state has the law the 2.0 law and this is not it is very difficult for our high school principals and athletic directors when we run in when they run into this it we a team can be made ineligible and lose the full team loses um benefits of that like going on to state championships so
077there's the there's a big difference there so um I I would encourage conversation maybe direct conversations with the CEO to dive to dive deeper um into that if you you know want to understand it better or or the uh or our director directors of Athletics but I think that Mr Briggs is getting to maybe there's something separate that extracurricular activities is a separate discussion around the fact that some of these extra curricular activities are meant to help rate to to help with academic achievement that's you know the the point of them so if you fall below a 2.0 again it doesn't make any sense if this is if the activity was meant to to help you you know be enriched for that and there are um you know I'm sure every High School is different
078but you know they all of them I think all of them have the after school um uh study halls there's definitely um you know the academic program built in I believe for our uh the athletic team so but that's something else that would have to be I think might be in our former meeting recorded explaining all of that but there are there are there is the access to the resources so thank you thank you Miss Welsh I was just wondering if it might be helpful for the new board members on the committee if from Cindy sent them the um or I think she has a copy if not I I think I could find a copy of the presentation that uh Miss Diggs had uh had provided because that might give a little bit more
079information about what they were running into when they were at that school level because I yeah it's an important thing to consider I don't know I'm just throwing that out as a suggestion right in Mr Fields no I I'd appreciate that and I and I do understand I do understand the difference I guess I guess my point is the expectation that we place upon students that we're placing expectation upon student athletes to hit a certain GPA but for extracurriculars which I understand are different there is no reference to encouraging their academic performance so I would hate for a student to feel as though if I join this club I don't really have to you know worry about my grades because you know there's no requirement upon me to perform and so perhaps this speaks to
080the need for to really divest this policy that there should perhaps be two one for athletics and one for extra curricular activities the other point that I I meant to bring up is that under extracurricular activities under B3 we say all students May participate in extracurricular activities regardless of race color national origin and so forth think that state same statement needs to be placed for athletics um and also for athletics and I don't this is a a very sensitive subject but about gender identity so um is it is it self-selection in terms of gender identity and Athletics um because I think that is a bridge that you may cross one day that you may have a transgendered student who would like to play on the team that they identify with their gender and the statement
081that is supposed to be all inclusive might not be all-inclusive that's just my thoughts I appreciate that Mrs mckins-murray and then I'll add my comments okay uh my thought is I personally believe the 2.0 standard should be for both groups so what I was going to ask on this Welsh what's the downside for the extracurricular activities for it not to be 2.0 because I don't remember I guess from the presentation that that they made a case for that no they they were more focused on the um on the extra quick on the um so maybe it's a matter of just asking the question when you go back to Madam chair uh if you're in the math club and you don't have a 2.0 I think it might help that you be allowed to participate in
082the math club even though you don't have a 2.0 but let me offer this in this new age of providing equity I think we should start the mindset of giving a child what they need if they need additional assistance to help them to reach that 2.0 then I believe we should do that so I I still would recommend that uh Miss Welsh go back and ask the question because we need to look at this providing equity for all children which means you shouldn't be really making a difference uh I think with Mr Briggs Mr Fields but I I think strongly that um that we should uh continue the discussion around that thanks right Mr business Struthers uh yeah just following up with Mr Fields um and also this consistency of that of that uh non-discrimination
083language I think we're we still need to get it down like the same everywhere um and places where because already it's that same one that we already noted you know isn't quite up to even our own language of our administrative procedure on transgender and gender non-conforming students and I did just want to um note to my colleagues administrative procedure uh G physical education classes in intramural and interscholastic Athletics um addresses uh gender identity in physical education intramural sports in them and then the inters Athletics the mpssa association guidelines so we we do have an AP that um I wanted to make sure you knew knew about uh that was adopted April 12 2021 are you Miss Welsh well and I was also going to bring up the same thing that you actually have us sitting
084in your policy for um um uh what is the number on that one it is uh zero one zero three inclusive environment for lgbtqi plus people and and IT addresses the fact that absolutely um these uh whether you know any gender diverse student can absolutely participate in interscholastic athletics so we you already have that sitting in your policy and the protected classes just so you know I did pick that up out of I want to say zero one two five if I remember that which policy that policy which is an anti-discrimination um like one of your anti-discrimination policies um I do want to say one thing about extracurricular activities if you're looking at the wide range of extracurricular activities and being able to provide additional resources uh to those students who can't make the 2.0
085um and I don't know if you're saying the same thing then are we going back to are you saying the same thing for athletics that if they can't make the 2.0 we're going to be providing um additional resources because um um I know they already have student advisors for the Athletics but for extra quicker activities I think with when you think about how a high school operates in the many different activities that do exist they do have different types of resources and interventions available to students but if you're specifying just for the additionally for those students who want to participate enough in an extracurricular activity and then are not allowed because they don't have a 2.0 I think another thing to consider would be budget because I think the high schools they are using the
086Staffing they have at this point and to be adding anything additional in terms of interventions and supports and things like that could possibly lead into additional Staffing just be provide that service I think so uh I guess Miss Welsh I do ask that um Mr Fields Mrs comment about the protected classes be put on top as well for interscholastic activities let me copy and paste that language I'll be glad to and then um in terms of the 2.0 requirement um I do believe in having the 2.0 requirement for our Athletics because you know we have that state um requirement and you know the benefits in terms of teams being able to move on um for extracurricular activities I don't want to put a GPA just because like you mentioned there is a wide range of
087you know clubs are made before after school and some of them you know maybe um to support students who go below 2.0 GPA and so you know is that then preventing them from being a part of a club that was supposed to help them um do better in their education you know and so just because there could be such a different amount of different types of clubs you know ones that could really help students um I would refrain I think from putting that requirement um and so I will ask um board members would you like to open as well well one question if if in fact you if the committee decides that you're not going to put the requirement for the extracurricular activities then is it would you want to follow up on the recommendation
088to actually separate the two policies and have one that talks about intersclastic Athletics and then one policy that talks about extracurricular activities um I believe both policies can sit together um I think we have them separated enough within the policy as it stands where you know you're able to interpret what falls into Athletics what falls into clubs um and so I saw your hand Miss boosters rather well I mean now um I I even looking back at the previous versions I don't understand why they were put together like even looking back at 2011 11 it looks so like oh yeah and let's just throw in extracurriculars but not have a GPA I don't know you know where where we're headed and I and I and I'm hearing some really great things here like you know
089Mr Fields how you're saying like what are we saying about extracurriculars are we are we defining the the value the expectations you know the you know High performing schools and the extracurriculars they offer do we have a standard of like you know high school should be offering X you know right now you know it's it's by building like do we have a minimum standard of what's accessible to our high school students and middle school student students for extracurriculars like you know some of us are talking about you know the you know you know debate teams coming back you know across the system in a more systemic way that maybe there's more here than we have we haven't even discussed because we really have been talking about the athletes through this com most of this conversation
090that we've been having for which went on for all of 2021 there's lots of YouTubes if you want to hear the board discuss this um so I I throw that out there I just think we're having a really good discussion here about that we haven't really died there isn't a policy around what we expect PGCPS to provide our let's just say middle and high school students um around extracurriculars okay I guess what I hear you guys saying is that in all high schools they may be doing something differently with the extracurricular activities and what I am saying is that I guess the the staff that came to talk to us it was focused on the um the um Athletics maybe we should choose Maybe how many high schools do we have 20 22 maybe we
091should have four people come from a high school to tell us show us what that difference is because I don't understand personally why they there cannot be a Scholastic requirement so I I need to hear that or they can send me something let me read it I don't know I just need to know why that standard does not exist and why we some of us believe that it shouldn't that's not what I'm hearing in this meeting right now I am hearing that there should be a standard so I need to hear from the folks I guess in the building at least one two or three of them since we have 22 schools I only choosing five different areas of three from different areas to help explain it away thanks Mr Briggs yeah thanks for recognizing
092me I think um I was really thinking about this and I was having a hard time understanding why I would take a student off of a debate team or Art Club or in athletics because they don't have a 2.0 um versus it sounds like what's already in the language is that they're some type of wraparound supports or interventions for the students and I think that that probably fits better with what I think is ultimately the goal which is to support them along the path to the academic through the academic process um maybe they can't plan the sport maybe they you know can go to the debate discussion but they can't participate in like any of the regional debates or whatever um but I just feel like I don't really understand the purpose of taking the
093the kid off of it and then I think the other thing is I partly don't understand the well I'm not going to say I don't understand I don't think that it wouldn't necessarily make sense for the um the extracurricular and the intra Scholastic to be split simply because I think that you know if the argument it just depends on what the argument is if it's saying for the Athletics you know hey this is really taking you away from the academics the same could be said for debate or the same could be said for our club or the same for you know choir right and so I think that we're going to split the intra Scholastic piece then it's almost like there are different groups within that that kind of fits more with the Athletics and
094so maybe just having that kind of that standard um may fit a little bit more um but I guess I just I couldn't answer the question for myself and I'm posing it to the group as to why I would take a kid off of any of those things if they don't have a 2.0 versus supporting them and having interventions in place right and you know I wouldn't want to Define I guess a GPA requirement for clubs in terms of our policy um you know that would affect all types of clubs regardless you know as long as they're in our school system it would affect all clubs when currently a lot of the current clubs that are in schools like National Honor Society SGA even some debate teams do have their own GPA requirements for members
095to join their clubs and so you know have you know giving them that leeway to decide um if they want to have a GPA requirement um I think is the better route because you know this is what I was saying before you know we have different types of clubs you know like you mentioned an art Club um you know I wouldn't see a GPA requirement for that but you know something like um I don't know like like an Honor Society you know I would see a GP requirement for that yeah right but having to Define that I think is so tricky with such a wide range of clubs that there are um so Mr fields um you know I I go back to they're all everyone's a student and that extracurricular activities and uh Athletics
096are not required for a school system to provide right they are they are extras that we provide to enhance the student experience but enhancing the student experience I don't think we want to diminish the reason why students are there in the first place and that's to get a solid education and to perform well um in my high school we had a requirement for extracurricular activities I was in student government if you if you had below I think it was a 2-3 you couldn't participate you couldn't participate I think in any of our activities because and they made clear that these activities would help enhance your academics but they didn't want to be in a position of saying even so we're going to allow you to participate even though your academics don't meet the standard because
097I think they were trying to instill in us this notion that whether it's a club or a sport you represent the school and this district and in this District we expect High academic performance did it leave some students out absolutely but those students were encouraged to get the help to pull their academics up because when we think about a 2.0 that is a minimum threshold of a GPA like if if you're not above a 2.0 you're really struggling either as an athlete or as a student in a club or activity and I think if we're going to talk about this issue of academic achievement in the school district then we have to set the tone of what our expectation is for all students that when you walk through the door we don't differentiate if you're
098on the basketball team or The Debate Club you're all students and we hold you to high standards and so even if you don't want to include a GPA for extracurricular activities there has to be a statement in there about students of holding High academic standards if you participate in extracurricular activities because if not you're leaving the door open for a lot of students who might not be mature enough to say hey my GPA is on the margins but you know I can still join the art Club so I'm not going to work hard because I know no one's ever going to question me about my GPA because it's not a requirement whereas the athlete is sweating it out because if I don't get that 2.0 or better it's going to jeopardize not only my play
099but it could I have to jeopardize the team in terms of their success for the season so that's just my this is one issue you will find that I am very um passionate about because I think this this environment of low expectations has crept into public schools to the point that we we don't give our students enough credit that they have the ability to achieve something as a minimum threshold of a 2.0 GPA and I and I think if we're going to move this District forward and raise our standards for our students we have to start in every corner of student life Athletics extracurricular activities whatever it is we always have to hold everyone to a high standard Mr Briggs and we'll move forward yeah yeah I just wanted to I just wanted to add
100in again I think it's really important for the policy that we understand what the basis is because I think that if this is meant to offer balance if this is meant to offer an outlet for students then I think that's the important piece which is that if this is you know an escape for you or some it's a mental health opportunity for you then I don't want to punish a student for not meeting a you know 2.0 GPA I think the number I think it's okay to have the the GPA I think that that's fine I think that could be arbitrary to be quite honest with you a 2.0 at one school could be very different than a 2.0 another school um and I also think that there are other reasons behind why a grade
101may look a certain way so I do think that it's important that we just understand the basis Behind these activities which is that they're meant to offer balance they're meant to support students along the way they're they're meant to be encouragements for the student but also I mean you just never know the impact that they could have you know it could happen unintended consequence for a student who's pulled from the Athletics or from the debate you know and we would we would hope that it would be that they would be more encouraged to you know and get involved and engaged but I think the really the purpose here is to say what types of supports can we offer students Beyond you know if we see that they're struggling you know whether that's a student who
102is working a part-time job and they're falling to 2.0 schools should have those processes in place to really support those students and so I just wouldn't want it to be a punishment piece versus I think you know an incentive to continue to participate and then to really support uh teachers and you know other Administration and really engaging intervening that students uh you know development um so I think there's a way that we could craft this where it's not necessarily pulling students from something but we can say keep the 2.0 GPA um while also holding you know them accountable for meeting a certain threshold and participating thank you so okay Miss Mickey and I'm recognizing the time and I'm appreciating what you're trying to do but this is a serious discussion and I'm not saying that
103we prolong that discussion tonight but I am saying I'm suggesting that we have this as a continued discussion at our next meeting but think in terms of who can provide us additional information because we need more information in this room than we I mean on this Zoom uh than we have at this moment in time in order to move us Beyond where we are I do not see uh a 2.0 in removing a child from anything is really being a punishment it should be an incentive to help them to stay on that debate and I don't think debate teams being down to 2.0 anyway but maybe it is but I don't think so but um we we need to turn our language around this around as well so I'm suggesting that you go back to
104the administration uh Miss Welsh and see who's willing to come talk to us around the um extracurricular activity because we've had a lot of discussion around this Scholastics uh the academic I mean the Athletics right I can oh I can do that I can see if I can get someone to come I might it might not be at the next meeting it might be the one after that but I can certainly um speak with Dr Gholson about it thank you so um yeah so policy um we'll push it forward for further discussion um at a later meeting when we could get um someone from the school system to bring more insight and I will send uh the presentation that they did put on for interscholastic athletics over to the new board members too so they
105can look at that okay thank you alrighty moving on 4.5 policy zero one twenty two data dashboards so back to Ms Welsh so this with this policy we haven't discussed before this is the new the first time that it came up as a discussion item and um it is um the revisions that were made to um basically it is just to they were made to align with the um strategic plan in terms of this uh what the Strategic plan uh measures there is definite language within the within the policy statement that that references the um strategic plans language uh in terms of um providing equity and justice for all stakeholders and access for all students through broad rate array of relevant educational opportunities and high quality learning environments um so but on top of that
106then we the purpose of the policy is really to provide a transparent and comprehensive uh way of monitoring uh how we are doing so in the if you look in the Strategic plan they have what's called a critical success indicators which are linked to each of the Strategic plan their outcome goals and so if um if you go down Cindy to the uh keep traveling so just get just as looking at the definition for one second uh this critical success indicators are targets that have been established to monitor progress towards achieving the outcome goals established in the Strategic plan and then if you go further down in the policy to the standards um what it does it talks about annual targets which are would be the um the csis from the Strategic plan and then
107um it would address each of the outcome goals so if you and they're re corresponding um components so if then when you think about a dashboard that lists out how each school is doing or a different groups of students are doing however you broke out the data you would then be able you'd want to look at in terms of what we set as our goals for the school system so there are if you scroll down you'll see like others educational Excellence excellence and Equity Workforce operational excellence and then mental health and wellness so those are the four outcome goals and then underneath there each one of those I would just go back up a minute please then there are it's broken out into each of the components so that a dashboard that you would that
108you would be putting out there for the public that would provide transparency and and how well we are progressing would then be addressing all of these individual areas the components within each of the outcome goals um and so then um so that's the first part of the policy really just talking about what we'd be measuring and then if you go down to the second part if you scroll down Cindy to the data dashboard reporting continue down a little bit further and then um it would say uh that the the data would when it became available when they're measuring at different times then they and you would have it also just to be clear an administrative procedure that would have grow into much more detail to specifically talk about like reporting periods when it would be
109reporting those types of things but it will it lays out um that as the data became available that appropriate intervals status reports of progress and how we were attaining each of the csis would become available through Electronic Reporting modes so that all stakeholders including you know know they wouldn't just be limited board members and staff and parents but anyone who wanted to just get on the website and pull up the information could could put up and look at it and then um we I did put in language though because there are definite FERPA uh requirements that have to be met when you have small small numbers of students and stuff in terms of reporting data so therefore that would be I wanted to incorporate that so that weren't we are in compliance with that particular
110law and then I if you'll scroll down Cindy uh just say that the CEO would be responsible for develop developing an administrative procedure to implement this policy so I did share this uh with the um office of accountability uh under Chiefs Traders Division and had them review it to see if it aligns with like what in terms of what they are doing when they do uh and I think uh both Doug Strader and Anthony Whittington came to our policy and governance committee meeting last year to talk about data dashboard so I did share that with them to have them reviewed to see if it really did reflect what we the data we'd be collecting to to really evaluate how well we're doing as a school system and they they were in agreement with it so
111that that's basically it in a nutshell it's been updated to reflect what's being measured through the Strategic plan thank you Miss Welsh colleagues any questions comments foreign okie dokie alrighty skinny none um I guess Miss Welsh we could move this one forward um for Action okay whatever you know it's put at the next meeting Mr chair um his Pamela's hand was up oh my bad yeah sorry I was a little slow in hitting my button I I appreciate it um yeah I just I just wanted to note that this progress towards the Strategic plan and the critical success indicators moving to a dashboard is just significant and I just want to thank Administration for um getting us to this point so I it's more of a comment than trying to to change this in any
112way thank you oh thank you okay moving forward all righty policy 2214 trespass scene warnings yes good question are we going to keep it as a discussion item or are we taking action we are taking action okay Miss Welsh policy 2214. so this uh this policy this is a um a really just an updated policy that we had in um but the last time it was amended was April of 2010 and it uh probably didn't say very much one little statement basically saying that we would uh deny people uh access into arms of school grounds if they're unauthorized or if they're if their behavior um is objection objectionable or otherwise undesired and um pretty much that that was what it said didn't say much more so what I did was I did go through and
113um put in some language about um uh the fact that we absolutely do want parents and visitors and community members to be part of our schools and you know come to visit and be you know participate in different kinds of activities however there are times when we absolutely cannot afford to have those people certain people on on the school grounds especially in they have been probably the biggest thing that comes to mind is if you look at the definition that sort of explains it all under willful disturbance um where it describes the conduct of an individual who willfully disturbs or otherwise willfully prevents the orderly conduct of activities administrations or classes out of school I'm less or threatens with bodily harm any student employee or other individually individual lawfully on school property and a school
114bus or at a school-sponsored event or off school property or threatens with bodily harm any employee at home by any means including in person by telephone or by electronic needs if the threat arises out of the scope of employee of of employment and so if you look at under the standards Cindy if you can just roll onto scroll down to the standards where it talks about um keep going that's the definitions but if you go to um uh wait a minute you're in the wrong policy I'm sorry you're in the data dashboard and we're in the uh no that's oh so the wrong one got posted there let's see what that is oh trespass warning there you go um so so if you look at the standards uh and this this comes directly out of
115the law it says basically that our principal I mean I I uh personalized it for our school system uh Prince Ford design administrator or a CEO may deny access to a Prince George's property to a person who is first of all not a modified currently registered a student or employee of pgb PGCPS and doesn't have any lawful business to pursue at the school system or at the school um is a modified currently registered student though who has been suspended or expelled for a certain period of time and they are not supposed to be on school property or as an employee who's been denied access to school property because they've been as a result of administrative action so they might have been put on administrative leave which will say you are not allowed to enter school
116property and then creates a willful disturbance which is the definition that I just provide forward so it is not to prevent people from you know participating and being part of the educational process but it is there to ensure that the educational process proceeds without being interrupted or disrupted and making sure that the environment is safe for both students and staff so it lays out when they actually can be denied the policy does and then it talks about denial of access letter and um the um what the letter would uh consist of and who can send it and um the fact that the the Nile can't exceed One calendar year so if you are saying you are no longer allowed to be on school property let's say to an apparent who maybe became was very disruptive
117and violent and they felt the school felt that it was unsafe to have the parent on school property at that point the length of time could only be for one year that they would be uh denied from coming into the school system and then also those anyone who is denied can appeal that decision at any point in time and to the board bed so then the letter that goes to the person must um also just let the person know that they can appeal that the decision and then it also talks about the fact that the Board of Education and this again is in the law so annually shall report annually to the Maryland State Department of Education the number of student disruptions that occurred in a previous year um and so under implementations I have
118that of course the CEO is authorized to develop an administrative procedure to implement the policy and then I also have that the CEO shall provide the board with an annual report addressing the number of school system disruptions that occurred the previous year so that's that's pretty much that and then that show it's just reflecting what current law says okay colleagues floor is open for questions or comments [Music] um do we Define anywhere uh public school grounds I only asked that question because let's say there's a group of parents who are going to protest um a matter in a school building and they are in the street um that is adjacent to the school building or across the street from the school building is there some necessity I guess I should ask our board cancel this
119for us to Define what we mean by public school grounds can I just say one thing we do have a definition in the policy that talks about uh school property foreign I think we have school property throughout the whole uh policy so I can read it to you it says any property owned or leased by Prince George's County Public School are used by Prince George's County public school for school-based activities the concept of property extends the school activities such as field trips use of Parks and Recreation facilities Etc school buses bus stops facilities are scheduled uh by the school system for students use are considered an extension of school property uh so board Council the school property extended to the street uh the Public Square would probably not be school grounds it would probably depend
120on a case-by-case basis but if it's these public street that would typically not be school grounds I only asked a question for you know first amendment purposes in terms of you know public protest or demonstration that we just need to be clear with the public what we're talking about when we talk about trespassing yes that's why I use the word Public Square I wanted to make it clear that it was a First Amendment issue any further discussion okay um colleagues as well I do have one question so do you think I should be providing a little bit more clarification clarification in the policy in the definition Mr Fields do you think it suffice which you brought up or what board Council just provided suffices I I just think that if if the situation ever arose
121that we should be prepared to respond likewise so that the public is clear that we're not infringing upon sort of those First Amendment rights that when we talk about trespassing on school property okay so I think Mr Whaley and I you could let me know I think the language could stay as it is yes I think Miss Welsh has done a good job of uh trying to uh Define school property no definition is going to be all inclusive but I believe the one that she gave is a very good definition a good working definition okay um so I believe this policy can move forward for Action Miss Welsh okay I will send it over for redo all righty that's it for policies for discussion alrighty 5.0 policies for review or action all actions taken on
122policies today are pursuance to board policy 9340 um policy development Roman numeral four paragraphs ending uh we have one policy for reviewer action and that is a policy on inherent heroin and opioid education and Community Action Act of 2017. um so colleagues can have a motion to forward the new policy uh to the full board with a recommendation to seek public comment okay Mr chair have the new board members been made aware or briefed on this policy I was going to have Miss Welsh brief um during discussion okay so I don't know if uh chair I moved forward the new policy here in the opioid education and Community Action Act of 2017 to the full board with a recommendation to seek public comment just a second all right it has been properly moved in a
123second I'll now yield the floor to miss Welsh for an overview okay um so this policy um it's it's based on a lost pass back in 2017 actually and it is in accordance with education article 7-426.5 which does require the school system to have a process in place so that you we can administer overdosing medications to students and other persons in school property who we reasonably believe to be experienced an opiate um overdose um if he also goes into place and again these are all legal requirements that we have state safe storage of the medication and school health rooms and that there's training and certification of the school health uh school-based health professionals and any other identifying individuals that we are going to provide training to and that we have a plan for educating the
124students and staff on science and symptoms of a field overdose and the reporting of a suspected overdose and that we also annually notify parents that um this is that the medication is available in each School and that we if we felt like there was a reasonable that it was reasonable to think that like say a student was overdosing that our school nurse would be probably administering that medication to save the person um and then there's it also addresses having a plan in place for collaborate collaborating with the Prince George's County Health Department and educating the community about overdose dose related emergencies um there's also uh provision in it it talks about if the person if let's say your school nurse is operating in a good faith and honestly believes that they're the person that they
125are administering the medication is overdosing um that they should not be held um personally liable for any act of omission so um it sort of hits all those um areas and it is driven by the law and at the last mean there were several questions that I wanted to provide those answers one of the questions had to do with how does the training work and the training is actually virtual the health department provides it to all of our um it was our School nurses and we did get some of the athletic directors uh trained also and it was a virtual training that they provided and um we um do not have everyone trained that we would like to have trained and and first of all people can sign up with the local Health Department to
126provide the training it's something that you know you don't have to be necessarily associated with a with the school system you can actually if you wanted to go get that training the health department would provide it and I know for a fact that our um uh supervisor of nursing is trying to get her leadership team uh trained also um so that number one they can do additional training of other people within the system and also she wants any all of her nursing staff and and especially the history of Team trained in cases it goes to the question also board member mickens Murray you asked was well what if the on a particular day there isn't a um a nurse there or it's a school that doesn't have a nurse so that so the idea being
127that if we have additional staff trained their goal is then to be able to have that coverage so that you know you're not stuck with not having someone trained so that she is working with the health department at this point and uh that it sounds like the health department has provided an okay they're just trying to get a date to provide additional training and then get our people trained several heard her leadership team the nurses leadership team uh trained so that they can go out and do additional training so that we can have as many people trained as possible to be able to identify first of all overdoses and then also to be able to administrate administer the medication if it's needed so that's about it in a nutshell as far as the policy okay
128thank you Miss Welsh um board members any comments or questions Mr fields oh uh when we say other identified Personnel um are students informed who is trained in a building let's say there's an emergency and they can't find a nurse um do they know who in that building is trained to administer a dose or is that something that just by happenstance staff is alerted and they go to an area where a student may have may be experiencing an overdose like how does that work with non-health non-health professionals non-nurses so at this point the only other non-health non-nurse people that are trained are some of the athletic directors so but as far as what students are trained in as far as identifying who they might be able to administer the medication that I don't know I'd
129have to get that answer for you and I'll gladly check in with the nursing office to find that out I do know though that they are they are our policy is saying that they should begin and if they haven't yet they should begin training the staff and students for signs of overdosing and then who to go to to report it so that they can get get it get get someone to help them so but I will check to see what they might have in place at this point um with this policy now in place anything that they they have done a lot in the schools already without a policy but if there are things that have not been done previously like first of all they'll be doing an administrative procedure that addresses many of the
130things in the policy and the training piece will be a major piece to make sure that whether it's a student or a staff member they know immediately who to go to to get help for say a student they see they think might be overdosing or something but I will check it out for you any other comments questions okay all right hearing no further discussion um colleagues um are there any objections um to moving the policy forward to the full board with a recommendation to seek polar comment there we go alrighty hearing none um all those in favor stay for Saint aye aye all righty those opposed all right carry no opposition uh motion passes and policy will be moved to full board with the recommendation to seek public comment thank you colleagues alrighty 6.0 committee
131recommendations public there are two policies voted on and approved by the full board with the recommendation to seek public comment all right so first that is 6.1 policy um the naming of schools School District facilities dedicating areas of school and School District facilities or grounds and erecting monuments um and policy 4200 employee and for 205 appeals before the board of education so on January 12 2023 both these policies were voted on and approved by the full board with the recommendation to seek public comment okay 7.0 new business alrighty there are two policies being Advanced for consideration as first reader All right so first it is 7.1 policy zero one zero four Title Nine on December 8th 2022 um this policy was voted by the full board to seek public comment there was one public comment
132received um colleagues may have a motion to forward to the full board um revised policy zero one zero four Title IX with a recommendation to advance consideration as first reader at the next Board of Education meeting I moved too forward to the full board revised policy zero 104 title uh nine with a recommendation to advance consideration as first reader at the February 23rd 2020 through two that three Board of Education meeting thank you is there a second second has been moved and properly second I'll now yield the Floyd Smith Welsh to give us an overview of the public comment response muted okay we only received uh one one public comment uh for each of the policies um actually from the same person and so for the policy on title uh Title Nine uh this particular
133person definitely was in agreement with the policy but as she did say students as young as Elementary School levels are familiar with derogatory terms for for otherness and we need to help them understand this is unacceptable um and so I think she was just expressing an opinion because I know we do extensive training in that whole Arena and then the second one had to do um with um uh what was it policy um 108 code of conduct and this person said that she she appreciated the policy because she felt like there should be accountability uh for the board members so those were your two public comments that we received all right all right thank you Miss Welsh um colleagues are there any objections to forwarding full board to the full board revised policy zero one
134zero four Title Nine with the recommendation to advance consideration as first reader alrighty hearing none I got some motion passes um the policy will be moved to full board with a recommendation as first reader policy zero one zero eight colleagues may have a motion to forward to the full board revised policy zero one zero eight code of conduct with the recommendation to advance consideration as first reader at the February 23rd 2023 Board of Education meeting I moved forward to the full board revised policy zero 108 code of conduct with a recommendation to advance consideration as first Rita at the February 23rd 2023 Board of Education meeting second it's been properly movement in second colleagues are there any objections to the policy hearing none motion passes and policy will be moved to full board with the
135recommendation to advance consideration as first reader alrighty 8.0 governance second readers we have no policies being Advanced as second reader um follow-ups next steps so follow-ups from previous meetings will be posted on board docs upon receipts the next policy and governance committee meeting will be held on Tuesday January 31st 2023 at 5 PM this meeting will be virtual and please check the board page on the PGCPS website for more information now 10.0 closing remarks from Sharon and Jeremy all right thank you everyone for a great meeting with meaningful discussions around board policies um I'm beyond honored and excited to serve as chair of this committee I look forward to supporting our great work and continuing continuing the Excellence that comes out of this committee so thank you so much everyone are there any additional comments
136from anyone before I request a motion to adjourn Mr Fields Miss Mick and Murray I just want to commend our committee chair um I think that it is incredibly important that our young people are leading the way um and I'm so proud to serve under him um as the vice chair of this committee um I think he is an example of the quality of students that this school district produces and I think we should be proud that as a governing board our student member is chairing an important committee such as this so congratulations thank you let's make an American into uh chairs surrounder with I am so proud of you you have worked very hard this year you've helped shape the way we process the policy and I appreciate you and I know you're going
137to do a wonderful job so thank you and continue to model for other students of what they can accomplish in the Prince George's County public school system thank you so much thank you madam chair Miss Landis um I did not want the meeting to adjourn without me making this one comment this one observation and that is uh the work that Cindy put into organizing this meeting uh I followed the script everything was tight that's what I'm looking for uh the meeting ran well there were no hiccups and I'm very very pleased so good job Cindy everyone who makes sure this committee meeting um happens and so with that do I have a motion to adjourn I moved away at General second all right it's been moved in properly second to January 17 2023 policy and
138governance meeting any objections hearing none meetings adjourn and good night everyone second I heard two male voices um who would like to second second there you go alrighty good night everyone good night good job good job thank you great job