001we'll get the board members we'll start our meeting at 7 out of respect for the audience good evening and welcome to the February 4th fiscal year 2021 annual operating public hearing of the Prince George's County Board of Education I would like to ask everyone to please turn off your wireless communication devices as they may interfere with the microphones and the taping of our meeting at this point miss Berkeley would you please call the roll miss Boozer Strother here mr. Burrowes here mr. Montero here mr. Murray here mrs. Queen mrs. Shepperd here mr. Shawn president mr. Thomas mr. Valentine mr. Wallace mrs. Williams present mr. Omar Lola dr. Thornton president the Board of Education is convened this evening for the sole purpose of receiving public commentary on its fiscal year 2021 operating budget the Board of
002Education is scheduled to adopt as FY 21 operating budget On February 20th 2020 our board meeting that night will start at 7 p.m. the Board of Education recommended budget will then be forwarded to our County Executive Miss Angela also Brooke who will develop her proposal and present it to the County Council in March of 2020 in April the Maryland state legislature adopts its final budget including amounts designated for school funding the kind of council must adopt its budget for the Prince George's County by the end of May the Board of Education is necessary then reconciles this budget to the county has approved as approved and approved approves this regularly scheduled budget and a meeting on June the 20th of 2020 Lori and Joan don't know what its gonna be on the 28th or none colleagues
003will now hear from our register speakers this is the board's opportunity to hear from the community so board members will not address any comments that the members might make you will have three minutes to address the board at the sound of the buzzer would you please complete your final sentence I would like to ask our first of 13 speakers to please come forward her name is Catherine Aguilar she's a ninth grade student at the Park Hill High School is she here and I don't see her so our next go to the Lea Washington regarding higher learning miss Washington please come forward and if Miss Michelle Clark will prepare to speak after Miss Washington Miss Washington please proceed make sure the mic is on can you hear me yes thank you good evening good evening everyone
004my name is Talia Washington and I am the executive director at higher achievement at higher learning higher achievement higher achievement is an after-school academic enrichment and mentoring program serving middle-school students at higher achievement we believe that talent is everywhere but opportunity is not higher achievement closes the opportunity gap during the critical middle school years by leveraging the power of communities much like the vibrant community here in the county our proven model provides a rigorous learning environment caring role models and a culture of high expectations resulting in college bound scholars higher achievement actually has a 40-year history of successfully serving middle school students in DC and today we serve over 500 scholars in multiple school-based locations in DC and in Alexandria 95% of higher achievement alumni go on to graduate from high school on time and
005ready for college I'm very proud to be here and to share that last year higher achievement launched its first expansion here in Prince George's County in the summer of 2019 we launched our program at Greenbelt middle school where 63 sixth and seventh grade scholars we call our student Scholars engaged in a six-week summer Academy filled with academic courses to prevent summer learning loss free college tours and career focused field trips we are now halfway through our after-school Academy where those seems participate in after-school programming three days a week with academic support college and career-readiness enrichment and they are paired with two adult mentors who work with the scholars and small groups in both stem and humanities I'm here tonight to thank both the school board and dr. Golson for supporting rigorous out-of-school time programs like
006higher achievement higher achievement supports your FY 21 budget areas in a number of ways we are a data-driven organization with an academic focus our outcome goal each year is for scholars in our program to increase one letter grade or achieve our A or B in math and English Language Arts and we also focus on college and career readiness opportunities for middle school students research shows that quality after-school programs boost academics reduce crime and improve student behavior in DC for example 47% of juvenile involved crimes occur between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. every day and every dollar invested in out-of-school time programming saves 2 dollars and 50 cents in crime related costs in summary there are many reasons why both the academic and out-of-time community related benefits for investing in out-of-school time matter just as much
007as the investments that are made about what's happening during the school day at higher achievement we feel the work that we're doing clearly aligns with the work that you're investing in during school time and again just want to say thank you for continuing to invest in high-quality out-of-school time programs like ours as well as all of the many others that serve students after the school bell rings thanks again for all that you're doing for young people during the school day and out-of-school time thank you miss Washington the next speaker is Michelle Clark regarding spending priorities okay you guys aren't aren't taking into account I'm short but that's okay good evening everybody I just came here to talk to you a little bit about trauma-informed instruction and the need to keep restorative practices in the forefront
008in this next budget cycle we need the restorative practices because our children have trauma at home some of them recent immigrants bring their their trauma with them many others have seen things on the streets that you and I might never imagine and either way they need as much support from school counselors school psychologists and other specialists to make sure that they are ready to learn because if you don't know about trauma one of the things I know is that if you've suffered an extreme trauma you're not in any mindset to learn anything and our youngest students believe it or not have also suffered many traumas even some of my students and I teach four-year-olds so there have been people who some of my students one of my students actually saw her father pistol-whipped her mother
009and beat her senseless in the front seat have hurt their car she came to school the next day and she slapped one of my children across the face I couldn't figure out what was going on I knew something was wrong because this wasn't her typical behavior I mean yes she could be a little bit pushy a little bit aggressive at times but it still didn't fit and her great grandmother came in to see me a few weeks later and told me what she had witnessed just the night before that and all of a sudden it all made sense this same little girl is by now probably in about eighth grade by third grade she ended up being identified as as emotionally emotionally disturbed and ended up in a special school and one of the things
010I struggled with when she returned the school I was teaching at was trying to explain to her teachers what this child has seen in her life and all they could say was she acts up she doesn't pay attention she tries to get other kids going data nobody took the time to care enough about her to give her what she needed so she could have stayed at our school it's easier to identify and send out than it is to take the time to make that personal connection with your students I cried for that little girl for days please make sure you prioritize our students who have seen the most trauma in their lives they need all the support we can give them thank you look at miss Clark for your comments the next speaker is Jessie
011Simmons regarding Liberian media services and if Soni Woodley would prepare to speak after miss Simmons good evening honorable board chair and board members thank you for the opportunity to speak once again my name is Jessie Simmons and I am the full-time library media specialist at the Largo high school I worked in Prince George's County for over 18 years I started as a classroom teacher and embrace the opportunity to become a library media specialist because of my love for reading and my aspiration to instill in others the same desire I have worked as a media specialist at every level and I've seen how eager our elementary students are to read unfortunately this desire wanes as they get older I had the pleasure of opening the media center at the first green school in our County vans
012Ville elementary school this was my last full-time assignment at the elementary level while there I served a population of 900 plus students who I worked with on a weekly basis my students were able to visit the library at once a week where they learn library skills technology skills and checked out print resources being at my full time being a full time at my school gave me an advantage to empower my students with skills they would need throughout their academic careers and beyond contrary to popular belief students do not instinctively know how to navigate the abundance of information available to them through traditional and digital resources scholastics 2016 the Scholastic 2016 study called school libraries work also mentions the following data when it comes to the use of digital resources seventy-five percent of students have no
013idea how to locate articles and resources they need for their research sixty percent don't verify the accuracy or reliability of the information they find 44 percent do not have know how to integrate knowledge from their different sources our high schools have been staffed with a full time media specialists who are cultivating 21st century citizens it's equally important in the lower grade levels in order to prepare them with skills they will need to use in high school half-time personnel cannot be effective in their role because the lack of time impedes their function and curtail their abilities impact students achievement the media center should be the hub of the school building and should be open for business every day to be effective as such they are an invaluable resource to everyone it is based on the evidence
014and the impact I have made and continue to make in my community that I stand here tonight and ask you to consider staffing every school with a full-time certified library media specialist this move will be one that when made will be another step towards the success of our students both hare and beyond thank you for your time thank you miss Simmons for your comments the next speaker is Shani Woodley please come forward and if Nakia Nicholson would prepare to speak good evening my name is Sonia Woodley and I'm a library media specialist at Nicholas or middle school and Hyde's ville elementary school I'm also a Prince George's County native and a graduate of PG CPS schools while obtaining my undergraduate and graduate degrees at Towson University I always knew I wanted to give back to
015my community and become an educator for PG CPS as a first year media specialist working in my dream field has been rewarding but splitting time between two schools has its challenges I feel disconnected from both school communities and every time I return to a school at least one student always asked me why weren't you here yesterday or says I wish you could be here every day you have heard from a few of my colleagues who are full-time media specialists and other meetings and they have shared their ability to collaborate with staff and provide students with a daily service of literature and information literacy skills and our students need that is 21st century thinkers this school year I have been consistently absent at collaborative and team meetings because of my dual placement my input on initiatives
016and projects usually come in the form of a bullet list right off by a full time colleague of mine I believe a fellow media specialist said it best at the last meeting halftime is only half as good I'm here asking you to give each school a full time 1.0 librarian and give our students a chance to acquire the information literacy skills needed to be college and career ready thank you thank you for your comments Miss Woodleigh the next speaker is mr. Colson and if Kristen Lynch would prepare to speak next good evening if you could adult me for a few minutes and for my Millennial leaders if you could just act like you know what I mean because I'm gonna take you back to 1990 I was a 10th grade student too embarrassed to ask
017for help because my math teacher would make me feel this small at the time I ended up hating math hated math in fact I even hated going to school on B days the thought of going into the classroom made me physically ill and as you can imagine it was a life changing for me well fast forward I'm now an educator and instead of blaming what I do is think what if my teacher didn't know how to reach me what if she didn't understand the impact that teaching me about a growth mindset could be life-changing in a way that would change my life generationally what if she was able to show me and help me to connect with understanding what productive struggle really meant to help me understand that that's a part of the growth process
018what if my principal at that time was able to come inside of that classroom more than two times a year and help my teacher be able to raid our reach children like me what if lots of what is well the fact of the matter is this county has some beautiful opportunities beautiful opportunities to change the world but it starts with training and development of our leaders because many of them simply just don't know because you're great teacher doesn't make you a great coach because you're a great coach doesn't make you a great administrator because you're a great administrator doesn't make you a great central office leader it starts with training and so I asked this board the leaders to think about how can we identify our brightest spots within the county study them analyze them
019break them apart and learn from our mistakes as an administrator as an educator I've made lots of mistakes but those mistakes have turn into beautiful opportunities to get better so I asked this board to start prioritizing look at some of the things that we do really well what are the bright spots within our County and let's capitalize and let's leverage those things I to consider those things from the bottom of my heart I come in peace and I'm here to help you let's change the world thank you thank you for your comments Kristen Lynch you'll come forward please don't see yes is that miss lunch thank you and if tummy Michaela would please prepare to speak mr. Lynch please proceed and I come to speak with you this evening about making sure that our conditional
020teachers are sufficiently cared for I think that it is great importance that we shed some light on what has been happening with our conditional teachers it doesn't make sense to me that we have teachers who are working in the system taking courses and then being dropped because of some technicality or for lack of support so it is my hope and prayer that we will carefully look at the budget and determine what we can do to make sure that teachers that are conditionally licensed are able to take the courses that they need and that certification is making sure that those credits are being reviewed and considered to make sure that they have what they need to become certified classroom teachers in this climate of classroom teacher shortage we cannot afford to lose potentially great teachers and
021it's on us to make sure I keep saying make sure because we can't make it happen if we don't provide the tools that are necessary so I plead with you to look very carefully about what can be done because if we have them working for two years and then drop them then we bring another set of teachers in and if they don't make it drop then we're just spinning our wheels so that's my primary focus and then second to that I ask that you make sure that restorative practices or implemented with fidelity across the county we have cases where people talk about restorative practice teachers are uncertain about it what what it means and they think that it means that children cannot be suspended from school and it's not that they can't be suspended from
022school but it's that we need to put things in place that keep them from having to be suspended from school and that everyone that is called to implement it understands what restorative practices is and how to use it to better serve our students if we want to see growth in the classroom we want to see better instruction we met them we better make sure that these behaviors that are causing challenges for our teachers are put in to check in a loving way in a loving way and that's where we're struggling so teachers are becoming discouraged because they feel like well the principal says we can't suspend there's nothing we can do they just keep cycling the back in the classroom my 29 children are suffering because of the one we have to change their dialogue
023what are we going to do about that and I'm asking you to look deep at that because it's impacting our children and the great that they could do thank you thank you miss Lynch for your comments the next speaker is Tommy maquila if you'll come forward and if Mark Johnson would prepare to speak good evening my name is Tommy macula I am from Accokeek first a good news for you all my son is a senior at dr. Neal high school so more before what you will probably see less of me here these hearings also I want to thank mr. Rhodes and the Budget Office team for working with our organizations preserves these County advocates for better schools again on the budget Q&A session we really appreciate it I think it's even though turnout this year
024wasn't that great but still it's an important venue for us parent leaders in the in the school system to really be able to ask questions and understand the budget better so we really do appreciate it I think the quality of the people may overall the quantity at least this year when it comes to the actual budget I want to applaud the the CEOs proposed budget when it comes to those savings that were identified in the central administration it makes it the me and me feel a bit worth what the time that I've spent here several years coming to talk about the need to put direct resources from the central administration to the classroom it makes it seem worthwhile what now second year in a row I see that actually in the budget so thank you
025very much I appreciate that and I hope that effort continues year after year because I think that is an important thing to do my final point that I wanted to mention is more of a long-term budget issue that I I think you as there's the board and the system leadership do need to grapple with and it is the issue of the needs of our neighborhood schools versus the specialty programs and over the last few years we have seen our specialty programs grow quite a bit and we have fairly extensive specialty programs and my child has been able to take part in and they've been wonderful but on the other hand there is the issue of resources we have limited resources and some of the issues but that we are really dealing with like the transportation
026the the spread of these and and system or having specialty programs that really strange the transportation issues for example for us so I think we do need to be very moving forward I think you really need to long and hard any ideas of expanding this specialty program of really trying to maybe invest in the neighborhood schools so because I think the end goal should be that every child paid elementary middle school or high school every child and every parent feels comfortable sending their kids to the neighborhood schools and I think that's where we are falling short at this time some of the specialty programs are great but we should have the schools so that all parents and all students will feel comfortably in all of our schools in our neighborhood schools because those are really
027the fabric of our our County thank you so much for your time thank you sir for your comments the next speaker is Mark Johnson and if mr. Dana Parker would prepare to speak next greetings my name is Marc Anthony Johnson senior today is a special day yes my father's birthday I came in this school when it's desegregation for the first time I was raised with a single mom and for the first time looking at my arm dad visit any of my schools was when he saw my daughter going across this stage what I see where as opportunity is Parenthood fatherhood parents are expected to be understood through the parents and rights but it's hard for for a parent to be understood so somebody's gonna understand the parent communication barrel parental partnership voice example the use
028of paper duplicate curriculum via email or one sheet or one copy per family could probably save y'all some money I applaud Belinda queen for addressing the importance of parenthood new approach what I see would help is being proactive when now I've joined with 10 members and one of my colleagues here current parent and we're going to approach our collectively with a collective body what we want to support is students with low GPA and possibly the students who face in the judiciary system we want to try to help pivot to music arts and other things we can agree collectively thank you so much for hearing my voice thank you mr. Johnson Miss Parker please come forward and if miss Linda Redmond would prepare to speak no so oh I don't want to stop the flow of
029things I want to give kudos to mr. Rhodes you know when I go on record and giving him kudos as well as everybody else so I just want to talk about a couple of things real quick as you know I actually advocate in my spare time for specifically educational issues with in Prince George's County on a state and local and national level and I've gone around the county and asked specific things of the constituents in all of the districts because Prince George's County as a whole is where I live and I'm there a couple of things that kind of came up so I just want them to be thought of if not for this cycle definitely thinking about for the next one because I know dr. Golson as well as the board is far-reaching in
030their thought process first as always support for proper charter schools proper support for charter schools I just think there needs to be more oversight and accountability I you know I've been to mostly all the school school board meetings in the past years it always frustrates me that the charter schools are above you or standing before you asking for renewal without like proper information to all the school board members or school board members having not even visited a charter school at any point over the course of their tenure on the school board so that would be one thing also um moving documents to be available electronically such as mo use I did speak to mr. Rhodes about this I know that there's a cost associated with it but I can tell you now I was just
031in a meeting on a on the county level and I was kind of fighting in relation to the perception of Prince George's County Public Schools and I was referencing mo use that I knew about so it was just kind of hard having that conversation having a dialogue fighting for my school system with other residents and I'm not able to say oh well you can go right here and see what we do so just thinking about that and then support for the seventh grade in relation to a PSAT prep program I know they test in eighth grade but a lot of the schools the middle schools they don't really have a SAT prep program which kind of leads me concerned about ok now you're taking this test in eighth grade which kind of you know would
032put you in certain tracks and you don't even have the viability to understand maybe taking a PSAT and then finally welcoming schools we know the dynamic of our community is changing or not even just changing being more reflective what it's always been and we welcoming schools touches directly on the LGBTQ community and things of that nature and making sure that our students have a warm and welcoming environment whether it's their families or them themselves that are a part of that community as a whole and we want to make sure that our school system is reflective of that because we just want to make sure that we educate the whole child no matter their disposition no matter what they come from we also want to avoid any sort of gaps and the legal money's that are
033tied to those gaps if we don't you know properly prepare ourselves beforehand thank you for those comments and again those can be for this year or leading into next year thank you Miss Parker for your comments the next speaker is mr. Edmund miss Linda Redmond and if Cassie Morris would prepare to speak I make parents happy please continue to encourage schools to establish PTA PTA essays having a parent engagement liaison is not the same as a PTA PTSA that is accountable to the principal teachers parents and to the State PTA organization please consider ways to provide children who are affected by long term vacancies in their classrooms with more monitoring of their progress you mentioned summer credit recovery classes for middle and high school but that does not seem to be what these students need
034they have not failed but have lost content not not by their fault but because of a long-term teacher vacancy they may need refreshes makeup resources enhancements or a component added to the bridge program the proposed budget includes an increase of three hundred and thirty-two teacher position with only two FTE as special education teachers with the increase of only two FTE for special education our parents and teachers and special ed then heard please enhance and improve communications concerning bullying I believe you are serious about bullying but that is not what is really communicated I look for bullying in the guide to address some questions and concerns and that is a big concern but it was not there I finally searched to find information about bullying and I noticed that in October there was quite a bit
035of activity in the schools on bullying but that's a daily problem so I would encourage you to have to do more communication on bullying and to because bullies also know a miss have the same communication that I have I don't see as much information about bullying as I think we need to have finally many retired professionals live in the county not only from the federal government from education education systems and neighboring neighborhood jurisdictions from colleges and universities and more you have already tapped some as substitute teachers others may not want to go into the classroom but they have wisdom knowledge and experiences to contribute to projects and committees please pursue their involvement in involvement encourage principles and PTA leaders to seek out these retired professionals and press them for their infant involvement citizen involvement is
036good for the county as a whole thank you thank you mr. Edmund the next speaker is Cassie Morris and if Jessie vorak I think I'm pronouncing the last name right prepare to speak good evening everyone my name is Cassie Morris and I'm here deceiving on behalf of the LGBTQ dignity project and I'm here this evening to support the welcoming school initiative which is run by the HRC it is a program for elementary educators and personnel to use professional development lesson plan to ensure that school embraces family and student of the LGBTQ community this even I'm gonna read a letter from a former student from Prince George's County school I am providing this written testimony in order to give insight into what it was like being an lgbtq+ Prince George's County student and to add my
037support to the welcoming school initiative my name is Isaiah Lawrence and I'm a 25 year old black queer transgender man I spent 18 years of my life in Prince George's County and at attended Prince George's County public school from third to twelfth grade I attended new Carleton Charles middle school and graduated from partly in high school in eighth grade I was struggling with severe depression and come out as a lesbian during this time there was no LGBTQ resources available for me at Charles Karl although I know I recognize that I'm not a lesbian but I'm a transgender male experiencing gender dysphoria my experience with Prince George's County public school was through the lens of a lesbian girl / woman in school the only time I heard about trans was when my classmate was using slurs
038or mock other students since there was no intervention from teachers to discipline student using transphobia slur and if I was if I were there to associate myself with trans I would be a target for a ridicule and potential potential danger sadly as a Prince George's County public school instead of learning to accept my gender and sexuality as a health core part of my identity I learned shame which caused internalized transphobia and homophobia it is necessary for me to repress my feelings about my gender and my body in order to successfully and safely graduate from Parkdale high school the transition from middle school in high school as a lesbian as it challenges as middle school teachers fraud upon my interest in girl dirt their disposition was uncomfortable and cold causing me to feel uneasy and sometimes
039suicidal friends and peers who identified as gay male or female students were perceive as having feminine traits they were ridicule and harass about a student and male stuff it is unsettling that teachers weren't able to step up out of their biases to do their jobs and protect each student we did not feel supported our affirmed by our school system overall and I'm gonna end with this uncalled the writer wrote the Prince George's County school system failed to support me as a gender-variant youth and it continues to fail by prepare by not preparing his teacher as a supporting LGBTQ student it is my hope that if Prince George's County Board of Education understand the important of funding the welcome in school initiative in order to foster a safe and supportive environment for lgbtq+ students staff of
040Prince George's County public school thank you thank you for your comments the final speaker is just a vorak am i pronouncing that right you'll help me I'm sure hi I'm Jessie VEVRAA thank you I taught five years science at Hyattsville middle school I helped lead the volunteer after-school programme Kem's there and I'm a member of Maryland trans unity which meets monthly in Prince George's County I'm here to speak because there is a need for these trauma-informed programs the welcoming schools programs in Prince George's County Public Schools because there is a lack of understanding there are gaps I've had students come out to me every year and when there are support programs for other students they might find themselves unwelcome by other support networks without something that deliberately supports them in family and in other programs
041around their community these students if they feel uncomfortable if they feel unsafe they were not able to learn that is something understood by everybody in this room as as TLAs hierarchy of needs the need to feel safe will supersede any ability to learn anything we need these programs in Prince George's County scuttling schools because we're a loving community I was brought here by my best friend in college she was one of the first people that have truly accepted me and I thought of this is a great place and I came here to join this wonderful and welcoming community and I know that it can do better I know that it can be better than what uh pcaps I've seen but these gaps are not going to be erased without deliberate effort we're not going to
042get there unless we actually look long and hard at where students fall through the gaps and actually do the work to educate not just our students but our educators so they're truly able to support everyone here and make this a community that welcomes everyone thank you very much for your time thank you for coming to speak to us that exhaust our speaker's list I want to thank everyone who came to speak to the board and the meeting is adjourned thank you