January, 23, 2014 Board of Education Meeting

001good evening my name is Natalie swadley and I'm a senior at catville high school the pearl of Clinton my GPA is a 4.0 and I'm the vice wind commander of Air Force jrc unit I'm an active student in Statesville high school I'm a varsity soccer and softball player I participate in everything relating to rooc and I am a member of the National Honor Society and Kitty Hawk Society my plans for the future is to attend a four-year College such as North Fork University and participate in their RC program where I would like to major in criminal justice my long-term goal is to become a officer in the military and become a military police officer I'm a motivated and strong-minded sasville high school student and I am ready for college now I would like to to

002welcome you to the January 23rd 2014 Prince George's County Board of Education meeting highlights for this evening will include the proclamation designating the week of February 10th through February 14th 2014 as the peace week for Prince George's County Additionally the Board of Education would like to address address the 2014 2015 school calendar please continue to check ww. pgcps.org for upcoming Board of Ed Board of Education meetings and events and now the January 23rd Board of Education meeting will begin thank [Applause] you thank you so much good evening ladies and gentlemen friends and colleagues uh I'll thank you so much for your patience uh I am uh so excited about the packed house that we have here this evening our apologies for keeping you waiting but you know when the house is packed and the and

003the main event comes on you got to be a little late to build up the anticipation a little bit so uh so thanks folks for waiting for us uh this is of course the January 23rd 20133 board meeting of the Prince George's County Board of Education again a reminder particularly since I see some young people in the house this even evening turn off the cell phone keep it on vibrate uh ladies and gentlemen as it interferes with the microphone and the taping of the meeting and of course makes for a very awkward situation when your phone rings uh uh before I begin of course let me uh thank again uh Miss Natalie swadley a 12th grade student at saratz high school and vice Wing Commander thank you like so many others she represents what excellence

004in education means every day here in Prince George's County we know that you will uh continue to serve us well and to represent uh uh yourself and and your students well thank you Natalie uh okay uh Miss Mundy would you please lead the board prayer and Pledge of Allegiance oh God we pray to administer that which is just in all educational policies being ever mindful of your guidance steer us to action with love wisdom and understanding amen I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America to the stand na indivisible andice thank you so much Miss Mundy Mrs Parker would you please call the role thank you Dr Anderson Mr burls here miss apps Miss Eubanks here miss Higgins here miss Jacobs I here Dr Kaufman Miss Mundy happy to be here

005Mr Valentin here miss Waller here Miss Williams here miss Muse Ario Miss Boston here Dr Eubanks here thank you thank you colleagues and uh before I take an adoption of the agenda uh Miss Higgins do I have a motion yes um Mr chair I move that we uh move 13.1 public comment on non-agenda items to to after 5.1 on public comment on agenda items second it has been moved and seconded to move uh non uh to move up to uh non-agenda items to agenda items or something to that extent is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say I I all those opposed all right so in addition before we take adoption of the agenda in addition to that change please note that item 1.1 the motion uh to meet an executive

006session at 3 p.m. was canceled uh uh because item 2.1 oral arguments at 4:30 p.m. was also cancelled uh uh and uh and so those are changed and in addition uh to that change uh uh that we just passed I entertain a motion to adopt a 201 uh4 January 23rd board meeting agenda so move second has been moved and seconded all those in favor please say I I all those opposed colleagues may have a motion to approve the January 9 2014 board meeting minutes so moved it has been moved and seconded is there any discussion seeing none all those in favor please say I all those opposed the minutes are approved item 4.6 we will now have a news break entitled is there a doctor in the house I can pick up stuff I can

007pool I like my holding up remarkable medical devices like a prosthetic hand artificial knees and perfectly formed skull bones generated by 3D printers as examples of her agency's oversight responsibilities Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Margaret Hamburg recently spoke to the assembled biomed students at Bladensburg High School who could one day be working for the FDA themselves Dr Hamburg earned her MD from Harvard Medical School and completed her residency at what is now New York Presbyterian Hospital wild Cornell Medical Center she conducted Neuroscience research at Rockefeller University in New York and at the National Institute of Mental Health and later focused Fus on AIDS research as assistant director of the National Institute of allergy and infectious diseases I was very fortunate in many ways in that I grew up in an academic setting I actually

008grew up on the Stanford campus and both my parents were on the faculty at Stanford and actually at the medical school these kids are so impressive because they they haven't always had all those opportunities and yet they've made these commitments to their Studies have identified this area of interest for Learning and possible uh career development after answering questions that range from the safety of genetically modified foods to the new nutrition labels on restaurant meals Dr hamburg's parting words were a personal prescription for Success follow your passion to not try now to Define exactly what you're going to be doing 2 3 four decades from now not to set your heart on one particular thing but to de into the opportunities before you the reaction to Dr hamburg's plea to keep options open was immediate as

009students including Bladensburg newly selected posi scholar sensed its wisdom I've always aspired to be a pediatrician so I plan on going to Bucknell and majoring in chemistry or biochemistry and later on going to medical school just like Dr Hamburg and eventually becoming a pediatrician as of now I'm looking into working as an environmental biologist so who knows I might possibly end up working at the FDA this would be the frontal lob the prial lob doal the cerebellum and the hyp of Salamis would be there stirring as the commissioner's words were the biomedical students hardly need more motivation in their anatomy class for example the identification of body parts on mannequins is intense as wouldbe health professionals try to raise their stem cell and skeletal IQs abdominal good what separates your thoracic cavity from your abdominal

010your diaphragm good I think that the biometal program is fantastic just because it allows students so much more access to applicable science and it's now associated with diseases that they're seeing in their families It's associated with case studies that they're seeing in the news they're able to put together bodies like you were seeing in here earlier um so just the Hands-On aspect in the real life applications I think is what is really going to make a difference for these kids to be able to pursue it in the future the students as they're coming in we're trying to give them an excitement to become a lifelong Learner in anatomy in physiology so that they don't just take a course but they understand that they're taking a process that's going to deliver them uh into a career

011eventually but they'll be prepared and enjoy the journey along the way the real world immersion in the biomedical Sciences is as hoped giving students the chance to sample careers along the way discarding some reconsidering others at first before I even got to class I was like okay pediatrician that looks good no I don't want that forensics no I don't want that I was like I can go somewh microbiology I don't want that took chemistry I'm taking chemistry right now I don't want that I'm I'm still looking and I'm still searching and I just keep writing them down and scratching them off to see which one I want and which one will keep me happy show just as Dr Hamburg found her health care happiness in ways unimagined so too will James a doctor in the

012house if you will of his own making the pressures on me were different because everyone expected of course I'd be a doctor with two doctor parents and so making that final decision to actually go into Medical School some ways was harder because I had to reach deep in and and determine is this what I really want to do or is it just what's expected of me and then of course my career path hasn't been that of the typical doctor when I get in this class I'm thinking about 5 years from now 10 years from now am I going to be sitting behind a desk am I going to be saving somebody's life that's what I see that's when when I come this class I just got to remember canack off this is more than just

013a grade this is more than just a A or a B this is for the rest of my life for channels 96 and 38 this is Dave zar [Applause] thank you for that as you see every day we're working to offer every one of our students a full range of College and Career options as they uh as they leave our our schools prepared for the challenges of the world and just another great example of a great program that does that I just got to uh just give aside it still continues to amaze me and I don't know if we've given David Zar a Lifetime Achievement Award for the tremendous work that he does for this for the school uh for the school district but his work uh uh on really uh publicizing the great work

014that we do every day is tremendous so uh special shout out to him uh all right we'll go to item uh 4.7 which is the report of the chair um a couple of notes first you know uh uh now that our board is complete with our newest board member Sonia Williams welcome again Sonia you're a veteran now second second meeting you're a veteran uh we're even more focused on the enormous tasks ahead of us to advance the achievement of our diverse student population through collaboration with the CEO with his staff with our colleagues in in our uh in our uh staff unions and associations uh throughout uh as well as the uh community at large uh the Board of Education would like to encourage all constituents to be sure to attend the upcoming fy15 proposed

015operating budget work sessions and budget public hearings uh those who had the opportunity uh to listen to Dr Maxwell present his budget knows that it is ambitious and robust uh and we have a heck of an important task as a board now uh to move that budget on to the next level and to make sure that we present one uh that is worthy of the great uh uh students uh parents and teachers who work with us every day for us to do that we need your support and we need your attendance uh on January 27th 2014 we have a uh work session at 5:00 P pm and a public hearing here in the boardroom at 7 p.m. on February 29th we have our second uh public hearing at 700 p.m. and on February 25th we

016have a work session and public hearing uh at 700 p.m. all sessions work sessions and public hearings will be held here in the boardroom so please do uh attend and give us your feedback kudos to our students uh congratulations to the 12 Prince George's County Schools alumni from the class of 2013 who are recently honored for receiving their International Balor diploma or IB diploma uh to earn the IB diploma students had to pass the IB exams write an extended essay and complete course requirements in theory of knowledge in creativity action and service while participating in the IB Program during the Junior and senior years of high school all honores are currently pursuing degrees at Higher Learning institutions again congratulations and best wishes uh upcoming events uh we have a February 27th 2014 board meeting at

0177 p.m. uh uh and all meet that meeting stated will be here in the boardroom persons interested uh in speaking at those meetings of the board must register with the office of the Board of Education two and a half hours prior to the meeting by calling 301 925 6115 I'd now like to yield the remainder of of my report for a point of personal privilege uh to my colleague and friend Curtis Valentine Mr Valentine thank thank you thank you Mr chair um good evening everyone um my name is uh Curtis Valentine I'm a member of the school board here um and when I began became a teacher here in the county one of the first people I interacted with when I walked into the school was a custodian any of you all know that in

018our schools uh our custodians our custodial workers do their best to create the environment for students for teachers administrators to do the work that they're doing uh they are the the institutional memory of our schools they create a an environment of Public Safety and for many of the staff they allow them to come in early and stay late and know that they'll be taken care of when I went to visit my wife uh at the time when she was teaching at Steven Decor Middle School the first person she introduced me to was not her principal but was to the custodian when she went to work at ow and Science Center when I went to visit her there the first person she introduced me to was the custodian she said these men and women take care

019of me they make sure I come in I feel safe that the environment is one of learning so what I wanted to do on behalf of the school board in front of everyone is recognize our custodial workers for all the work that they do uh the tireless work they do for the work that Mr Brown did at stepen Deer Middle School for the work that Mr Clark and Mr Johnny did at Owen Science Center to create an environment for my wife but also for many of our teachers and students to come in and feel proud of their learning environment but also understand that as staff turn over that these custodial workers are there uh and that they they take ownership in our school buildings and that they understand that we have the support and the

020support of our school system so I'd like to bring up Miss Cynthia Collins from seciu local 400 to accept this U token of our esteem on behalf of the custodial workers and the ation reads uh certificate of recognition presented to custodial services and recognition of your hard work and tireless efforts to provide clean healthy and safe learning and working environment in Prince Georges county public schools presented on the 23rd day of January 2014 signed by board chair sigun Eubanks and CEO Kevin Maxwell thank you very much everybody in here this thank you Mr Valentine for uh for taking that initiative and thanks to all of uh uh the dedicated and committed employees of Prince George County Public Schools and with that uh I will yield the floor to Dr Maxwell for his report thank you

021very much good evening everyone now that we've had our first significant snowfall of the school year I hope that everyone has had the opportunity to familiarize themselves with our winter weather emercy codes uh when the threat of inclement weather arises we work collaboratively with County government and agencies National Weather bureaus and adjoining school districts to determine a plan of action that ensures the safety of students and staff while traveling to and from schools and offices Please be aware that due to the size of our County weather conditions may vary greatly between the Southern and Northern Communities and the decision to close schools has to be based on all road conditions School operating status is posted on our website and share with local radio and television stations you can also sign up on our website to

022receive emergency e alerts that send notification of school closures or delays directly to your email or cell phone for details and to sign up for for uh e alerts visit our website as a reminder the deadline to apply for the second semester of evening high school has been extended to Tuesday January 28th the program on runs January through May and is conducted at crosson and Northwestern High School sites you can also register to take the online version of the program tuition and registration rates apply to find out more click on the revolving story on our homepage registration for charter schools and Specialty programs is also currently in progress these programs offer a variety of challenging and specialized programs for students including Creative and Performing Arts language immersion montau talented and gifted science and technology and

023more seats are filled on a space available basis through a lottery process the deadline to register for the charter school Lottery is January 3 1st and the deadline to register for the specialy program Lottery is March 12th other programs of choice have their own registration deadline separate from the lottery for details on all programs please visit our website and don't forget to share your input as we develop the school district's operating budget and CIP plan the Board of Education will host a public budget hearing on Monday January 27 at 7M here in the boardroom and the department of capital programs will schedule one more opportunity in the central planning area uh for the community to take part in develop the educational facilities master plan your input is crucial in helping us develop an operating budget

024and capital Improvement plan that truly reflects the needs and priorities of our school Community thank you thank you Dr Maxwell thank you for reminding us about this lovely snow and weather we've been having uh I'm sure students are happy to finally be back in school and we won't have any more delays uh that's uh been official official board policy right now no more delays for the rest of the year it's too too late [Music] oh except for tomorrow oh Lord all right all right well we'll see you kids all the way through June then all right folks we are now at uh uh uh item 5.0 public comment on both agenda and non-agenda items we have a nice long list today so I'm going to read all of the guidelines for the evening uh you

025have been registered to speak in a public comment Forum where the Board of Education will listen to your comments the board will not address your comments all registered speakers will have three minutes to make their presentation at the sound of the buzzer speakers May complete that sentence only registered speakers may not relinquish any part of their speaking time to another registered or unregistered individual speakers may not address address individuals or issues with profanity or derogatory terms um you will be warned y yada yada but no one will do that so I can skip that part uh speakers are encouraged to use titles rather than names uh for example principal superintendent etc etc please do leave a copy of your statement in the file box located next to the microphone your adherence to these guidelines will

026enable the public participation process to move smoothly uh we have um 13 speakers are registered for us this evening we're so excited to have you uh uh expressing your uh uh your concerns to the board so we'll start uh with speaker number one uh Mr David Khan Mr Khan thank you the board has before today a draft policy on um culturally proficient schools and Central offices this is a great idea there's so much good in this and yet the draft is pulled down by some rather dangerous language that's in it so I'd like to uh highlight some of the problems with the way this is worded um it defines culturally relevant uh it says it means that students see themselves reflect in curriculum and one of the outcomes is that uh every uh PGCPS shall

027provide every student with Equitable access to high quality and culturally relevant instruction curriculum support and other educational resour resources every student that doesn't mean just white and black and you know there's not a single white culture and there's not a single black culture and there's not a single Hispanic culture Italians are not like Scandinavians and African-Americans are not like uh more recent immigrants from Africa and you have Arabs are you going to teach how the uh the Muslims um uh contributed to the Fantastic improvements in mathematics and physics are you going to teach Holocaust studies and how the Jews financed the uh Revolutionary War are you going to teach things about the Lans are you going to teach things about all these people and if they're not reflected in this which is what you say

028you're going to do you're looking for lawsuits so you might want to examine this and say what you really mean um you talk about outcomes and the board establishes the following outcomes well the board can't establish an outcome it can work towards it it can desire the outcome but it can't establish the outcome because the outcome will be established by the work that's done under this so I suggest a change then in the second outcome I thought this was brought up at the policy meeting that you had back in December but PGCPS shall welcome and Empower all families and then it says including under representative families of color including those whose first language may not be English well that's unnecessary if it's all families and this could be seen as words of limitation for example

029the reference to esol students is are only those who are under repesentative families of color so so that if you're a representative family of color or if you're white the fact that you have um a second language I mean English is your second language you don't come under this you don't necessarily get any help the worst part of it though is in number six reviewing policies procedures and practices that may impede the school system from correcting over representation of students of color in areas of special education and discipline and under represent representation programs such as gifted and talented this is really easy deny black kids the educ the special education uh that they need and lower standards for gifted and talented I'm sure that's not what you mean you've got to come up with a

030better way to say this the goal of this is terrific I love it but you got to have a better drafted policy thank you thank you our next uh speaker uh on the non-agenda item uh is m m or Mr Morgan Austin Middle School student is Morgan Austin here oh here she comes all right hello Morgan good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Morgan Austin I am currently an eighth grade student in he highville Middle School in the Creative and Performing Arts program for theater my request at this time is to please allow myself and other out-of-bound students currently attending H highville middle school to attend Northwestern High School Academy for Visual and Performing Arts program most of the students in the CPA Pro program will be attending Northwestern these are the students that

031I have worked long tiring hours with both before and after school I have built relationships that have helped me Foster my creative and academic achievements Northwestern will allow me the opportunity to maintain consistency as I pursue my Creative and Performing Art Talent transitioning from high school middle school with which is a theater school for Northwestern I have thrived at highville and am surrounded by teachers that have taught coached and nurtured me both academically and creatively we have relationships in a spirit of cooperation and teamwork that have developed over the past 2 years among me and my CPA family to watch us practice and perform together is a thing of beauty we have bonded and gel a feed and feed off of each other's Creative Energy we have formed relationships that will forever be a part

032of me my issue is that I am what they call an outof bound student upon leaving he highville in order to continue on the Performing Arts track under the current boundary structure I will have to be busted to suland high school my mom attended an informational session where it was was made clear that out of bound students would be would not be allowed to attend Northwestern and will be sent to suland high school I a Chevy Maryland resident and suland is a much further commute more than twice the distance than Northwestern Northwestern is where I will I wish to continue to pursue my Performing Arts dream any consideration given this request will be a blessing and greatly appreciated thank [Applause] you thank you Morgan our next speaker is eno Wilson Jr Mr Wilson good evening

033good evening Mr Wilson um my name is Enoch Wilson Jr and I am also a 8th grade um student at highville middle school and I'm currently studying studying theater lab and my CP department when I was younger I remember my life goal was to be a wrestler and a police officer by the time I got to fifth grade my whole life gold changed I realized that by expressing myself with true theatrics theatrics that I made my teachers and family members laugh while in the sixth grade I learned also the opportunity to attend a CPA school that helped me develop my skills and further Talent on stage I auditioned for theater Lab at highville middle school and was very excited when I got my letter of of acceptance into the program since that time I had

034the opportunity to grow in in my area of interest and performing on stage at my school and also the folders at theater lab as liander and M Sumer night stream I was very proud of myself when I won awards in my performance but also more importantly being able to understand the play and the language during Shakespeare time I have grown and learned so much understanding in the theater in the CPA theater lab teacher my teacher she makes me um give out my full potential and helps me does my best the teacher the other teachers are just as encouraging as well as my friends and I have true grown a relationship with them during this time but I was deeply sad to learn that once I leave highville middle school that I would not be able

035to attend um Northwestern I would have to go to a school across town so my neighborhood school does not offer a CPA program those these are my friends that oh my desire would be to continue to um be in the highville area and have the right to attend Northwestern High School they have a CPA program that will keep me challenged and academically and also build my craft as an actor most of my parents that attend highville Middle School are also going to n Northwestern because they live in this area these are my friends that I'm familiar with and developed a strong relationship with and we keep each other encouraged I hope you don't mind if I mention that my brother Rico Cooper attended and played football in Northwestern High School for the 10th Grand year

036and graduated in 2000 so please I'm asking that you reconsider the decision on sending your students in the highville to a school across town my twin sister who was a dancer at highville Middle School in the CPA program we are all striving in the area and we love the opportunity to continue to strive for excellence in the heinsville middle middle school area and continue to come to Northwestern thank you [Applause] thank you uh next up is nette Moody good evening everyone good evening my name is nette Moody and I am the nutrition Outreach coordinator with Sher strength sharff strength is a nonprofit organization it's nationally known but more specifically here in Maryland are working with the county to help end childhood hunger a pretty lofty goal set out by the governor of Mali one of

037his goals for 2015 is to end childhood hunger um ironically enough one and five kids are actually very food insecure which means they don't know where the next meal is coming from and we are trying to close the gap between students not knowing where their meal is coming from and make sure that they are provided with the best food and nutrients especially while they're at school um you guys may not know but this month January is School Board recognition month and the Maryland noed hungry Campaign which is the campaign working to end Ted hunger here in Maryland would like to thank the Prince George's school board for all their support and making sure that students in this area start the day with the healthy breakfast Prince Georgia school board has been instrumental in helping us

038move School breakfast out of the cafeteria and integrating it into the regular school day we've helped fund over 30 schools to begin an alternative breakfast model um the share strength campaign gives out various granting to help the schools buy equipment or just to help kind of promote breakfast in the school Believe It or Not breakfast for some reason isn't very popular especially among the younger kids so we try to make it seem more appealing and appetizing to um the kids at school um our biggest success is actually in our Maryland meals for achievement or MFA schools um our organization helped to fund and support Governor Mai to give $1.8 million more to Maryland schools to fund this making more students get free meals at school and our biggest achievement I would say or one of

039our biggest achievements is Princeton Elementary School in suland Maryland at the beginning of the school year they were serving around 87 kids for breakfast and now it's 282 students it's a 200% increase um breakfast is extremely huge and as you guys know it's the most important meal of the day you have to have breakfast whether it's a you know snack bar or something kids need to have something like that in their stomachs to perform better and do good in their test and studies um because of the support the board members because of the support of the board members and our food service director Joan shorter we've helped fund and support over 37 schools in the county so that more students are eating breakfast and ready to learn and a special thanks to our CEO Mr

040Kevin Maxwell for being a national voice for promoting our school breakfast and as was mentioned earlier by the chair as you guys know we did have a couple school days so yes of course a lot of students are very happy but there are pocket of kids who are actually pretty sad because they weren't able to get free meal or just a meal alone at school and so just something to kind of keep in mind the next time you have a school day um board members you guys will receiving a package like this that'll be going around has L of information about organization and it also has my business card for any other questions or concerns feel free to reach out thank you so much thank you Miss Moody our fifth speaker this evening is Leona

041Lowry Leona Lowry here good evening everyone I'm Leona lri fitsu the Visual and Performing Arts coordinator at Northwestern High School I am a 20-year employee of Prince Georges county public schools musician Mentor teacher Mentor Arts integration specialist and lifelong Arts Advocate I want to thank the board and Dr Maxwell first for the support that you've given the Arts in general and in this County and the Visual and Performing Arts Academy at Northwestern in particular we now have additional Staffing and resources that will allow our students to not only be career and college ready but to compete on National standards and the Arts with peers from around the country we will have additional tutors to prepare our students for private instruction and M music our TV and Film Studio will have a new tricaster which will

042allow live and remote broadcasting of events and class classrooms we have new instruments for music and music for the orchestra and band artists and residents that will help to inspire the students of the academy in dance and visual arts we are proud at Northwestern to be allowed to carry the name of our illustrious Alum Jim Hinson and we're proud to send students off to work with the national with the Washington Opera Broadway Productions Network news and Television Studios we have teachers actors singers dancers all over the world in order for for Northwestern to continue this success however we need students who have had an extensive arts training before grade n like the students at he highville CPA program to join our Academy in order to complete their college preparation in the Arts and continue the

043Excellence pathway that they've already begun students who are beginning or an entry level in arts at grade n are less likely to Su successfully compete for college and Conservatory auditions because of that lack of intensive training if Northwestern remains an in boundary only program only three of the 85 CPA students at he highville will be able to attend Northwestern the remaining 81 students many of them living right there in hyattville Brentwood and those Northern areas will not be able to attend because of the boundaries restrictions these students were allowed to audition for for Heights for middle and they were accepted and they were provided transportation for grades seven and eight but now in grade nine they either have to give up their passion for the Arts or be bust across town to suland high school

044and many of them can walk to Northwestern but they're considered out of bounds my office in the creative arts supervisor's office has fielded dozens of calls from highville middle Charles Carol middle green belt middle Buck Lodge middle parents who want their children right in the area to attend Northwestern but the boundaries closed my proposal tonight is to provide our feeder School hi highville middle access to northwestern's vpa program it is more educationally sound and fiscally responsible to send students to a school 5 minutes from their old school rather than to bust them across town to continue to study the Arts or to have them drop the Arts all together at a school that doesn't even have their program if we're committed to College and Career Readiness and all students should have that consideration we are

045offering best practices to these young people we should have best dancers best voice teachers best media inst structures thank you so much and thank you our next speaker is precious Carter good evening in agreement with Northwestern High School proposal I would like to further reiterate the importance of the Highfield Middle School CPA students being given the opportunity to audition for Northwestern BPA let me first say I am precious Carter the Creative and Performing Arts coordinator at hefi middle school as current Creative and Performing Arts students they are considered to be students of highville and students in highville feed into Northwestern High School so why shouldn't these same students be given the same opportunity we're not asking you to open the boundary to everyone but we are asking that stipulations are made to accommodate the Creative

046and Performing Arts students these students have chosen careers in the Arts and just like any other career choice parents teachers and administrative specialists want them to receive the best instructional practices that will prepare them for College and Career Readiness as the cluster of schools highville middle and Northwestern have begun to establish a collaboration amongst the schools at both the staff and student level in an effort to build creative mentoring relationships that will Foster academic performance and professional growth our goals at both schools are to PR prepare our students for competitive Global Society presently we serve 200 students of which at least 75% of them are out of boundary students it is unfortunate that while the mass major majority of them are highville residents according to the boundary stipulations they're considered to be out of boundary

047why allow our students to attend our feeder school for Northwestern and then deny them the opportunity to attend it why deny them the opportunity to further develop their crafts to prepare them for Collegiate auditions and scholarships at their current schools fater school what happens to those students that do not meet their creative those school students who have to go to schools that do not meet their creative needs many of the students homeschools do not help perform in arts programs where do our creative writers go future authors hi Ville presently is the only creative performing art school with creative writing as a discipline and those students are hoping to matriculate into Northwestern as journalism Majors what happens what happens to the Future Elementary School that you plan to have with the new creative performing art school

048that matriculates into highville Middle where are they going to go we're presently presently attempted to build a cluster of schools between the three schools what will happen to their opportunities if we do not stop and think about the future of these students and their development as we continue to prepare them daily through collaboration our goal is solely toward College and Career Readiness and overriding what Society has statistically said that they cannot do but of which we know that they can do if happy little bluebirds fly beyond the rainbow why oh why can't I please consider making a class for highville Middle School creative Performing Arts students give them the opportunity not just to fly but to spread their wings and soar thank [Applause] you I I don't see anything in my public speaking guidelines about

049not being able to sing so thank you our next speaker is Alicia Davis is Alisia Davis present good evening Dr Maxwell members of the board my name is Alicia Davis I'm here I accepted appointment as a Medicaid liaison over 5 years ago with the Department of Transportation Prince geores County Public Schools I would like to share an experience that I entitled a broken system I'm an employee who was injured on the job can you believe that no one came to help me I I was a very diligent worker in more areas than I was hired to do is it possible for officials in this system to allow to have a policy that is conducive for all employee in the community with Prince shett County public school system if you could take a moment to follow

050me on the overview of my journey I was severely injured October 4th 2011 due to faulty off office equipment while I was sitting at my desk working on a spreadsheet for payment I sat up and sat at the chair and it broke throwing me backwards hitting my head neck and back the carpet had no no padding my body weight hit the concrete four which was indoor outdoor carpet I blacked out for a moment and was very dizzy I was taken to Concentra Medical Urgent Care where I suffered from headaches constant pain head to my neck back legs and arms the chair was affected it was broke at the welding in addition it was a newly purchased office chair that was purchased by Prince George's County public schools here is um what occurred in the fall

051new events they never performed an MRI they did typical X-ray and wouldn't do an MRI because I was in constant pain but they felt an MRI was suffice at the time I went back to work which the county states that they do not have light duty but I'm here to state that they sent me back for a week I was in pain to actually have to go out with work restrictions on a light duty policy on October 17th I had an emergency appointment with another orthopedic doctor that took me out of work immediately and I was out now until the present even standing today Corville is Prince georg's County Board of Education insurance company took their time approving MRIs pain management epidurals and other services that were required and majorly delayed my treatment to me

052this is grossly affecting my recovery and prolonging my healing I have I've lost my health insurance I have one child with the disability I had to go on public assistance and try to get insurance for myself to this today I don't have health insurance I had to search all over the DMV region looking for free medical services and hoping to find a much needed exams that were I needed to have because I hadn't had for two years it would not have taken place with your organization had been advised or talked about during my interview process if I knew this policy was get well in 90 days or lose it all I would have never taken this job it was delay in treatment how do you get well in 90 days I asked myself I was

053also told that had to pay a $1,500 a month benefit after my 90 days expired well you know you're injured and you're on a reduced income how can you pay $1,500 to continue your healthare now keep in mind I was injured on a job by purchase office equipment by your school system there was time stated by the union that they have covered people in the past in situations like myself like I said I had a disabled kid that had medicine that costus $2,000 a month and it it's heartbreaking to stand here because I was a very diligent worker to end it you know I was making $314 a week on workers comp so I come to you today and ask how am I supposed to survive when you all can't accommodate my disability and I

054stand today because my I'm heartbroken to work for a system that has left me um cold and dry and some people on the board have been notified have yet and gotten correspondences from me have never even responded to help me and my family so that's why I stand today because if you're entered on a job you're left out in the cold and I you know would want you all to take a look at this and I would like to meet with the CEO County Executive you know the chair so we can work these out because I don't wish this on anyone it's been a nightmare for me so I if you have to be in my shoes I'm a single parent I'm a widow of two so I cry out for help and I stand

055here today and hope you all can B ically understand my cry I was a diligent employee to stand today it took everything I had to come out I thank you and I hope you can take that time and consider my pain through this all thank you yes our next speaker this evening is Dita Spencer is Dita Spencer here good evening my name is Dita Spencer I'm the mother of two straight A students who love school my husband and I work hard to support and encourage their love for school and reading and age appropriate activities I also resign from my corporate position to start a family child care because even though I can only have eight in my family center I'm committed to helping as many children as I can truly prepare for school and have

056a love for learning that being said as you make the decision to vote on whether to move our Barack Obama fifth graders to middle school I would greatly appreciate it if you would keep the following in mind and in prayer for the success and safety of our children there are many articles and studies that deliver the pros and cons of moving sixth grade to Middle School please consider these issues many 10 and 11 year olds are not mature enough to handle the social pressures of Middle School most of our Barack Obama students are doing very well and being groomed by some amazing teachers and caring staff to continue to do well in their technologically advanced learning environment however with very little notice you are going to require them to completely change the way that they're

057learning and studying and receiving information most of these students while they are looking forward to middle school and high school and college they are also looking forward to their last year at Barack Obama to be the sixth sixth grade leader ERS they were groomed to be many 10-year-olds are not responsible enough to be home by themselves and with no after care in middle school that leaves us parents with another challenge to face if they are the only school being moved that does not make for much of a peer support system for them and potentially leaves them as targets for older children moving children from one overcrowded school to another does not seem to be a logical step in alleviating overcrowding issues particularly when other schools in the area are underc capacity my opinion noted I

058wanted to highlight this in almost all the data pro and con the Common Thread is preparation you wouldn't logically send a second grader straight to fourth grade or only give them a few months to prepare they obviously need that third grade work but they also need time to grow and to mature for the next stage in most instances in life preparation is required for health transition please give us parents and our children the respect of allowing what logically takes some time to prepare for instead of only a few months I do thank you for your time and attention and I truly truly appreciate the work that you are doing for our babies and for our community thank you so much and thank you our next speaker is Derek homesley it's Derek holmsley here good afternoon

059to the distinguished board members Dr Eubanks CEO Dr Maxwell I am Derek homsley I am a product of this school system I graduated from Sriracha High School in 198 6 I became the acting director of Transportation in 2009 I went on in 1996 to represent this County in the Olympic trials in the long jump in Atlanta I have a four-year-old daughter I am a parent I mean I I have parents sitting to my left here who are Educators two retired principles in DC public schools that were very well respected I am cut from a superior cloth I am here today to talk about a conspiracy against me as the Director of Transportation I was asked to send a disclosure letter to my department about behaviors that are are not accepted by Prince George's County Public

060Schools which had Department of Transportation rules and regulations attached to them the former director of Labor Relations did not want the letter that I sent to be sent out to the masses the letter that was approved by the former deputy director of of schools the and the former general counsel of schools he in turn the the former director of Labor Relations wanted me to send his letter I told him if we send that letter you would get grievances he sent the letter anyway after sending me an email telling me I don't give a damn who you told who you need to check with to send it I said send it after that a mulus occurrence happened for me two weeks later I was uh the the former director of uh Transportation who was promoted to

061the chief of supporting Ser services and the chief of it came to my office and confiscated my computer and my cell phones and told me I was under investigation for internet pornography during the course of their investigation the the investigation showed that there was no internet pornography in my computer or in my cell phones so then the charge turned to inappropriate emails for which these emails contain pornography and I am not an IT Guru but if you send an email through a computer that has a pornographic picture attached to it it will attach to your hard drive how do you give me an investigation from IT services that tells me that my computer does not have internet pornography in it if the emails that were sent through this computer had pornographic pictures attached to it

062as I continued the journeying this I was told sitting in my home with my father two officials from local 2250 the bus driers Union in which I supervised came to my home and told me that the director of Labor and relations and one of my former Transportation supervisors who sat and worked with the former chair on their attempt to become chair again exchanged these emails and infiltrated them into my computer and caused my demise I ran my department cleanly I ran my department well and I never had a smudge on my record until this time so I'm asking the board to please look at my case investigate my computers and my cell phones and give me the opportunity to clear my name and I'm a product of this school system and I I I can't

063believe believe that I'm standing here talking to a school system that I ask God through my athletic career to allow me to effectuate change and when I got this job here I was delighted because I effectuated change by transportating transporting your children to school thank you I thank God for this opportunity and I thank all of you for this this opportunity today thank you our next speaker is Carol Barber Carol Barber please make your way to the mic thank you good evening my name is Carol Barbour and I'm addressing my concerns about the human resources hiring process and the lack of Latino principles a multicultural Latina I meet all lure requirements required by the state and I'm a fifth generation educator I was a successful administrator in Prince George's and several other school districts I've

064won Community Service Awards and received a Governor's Citation for excellence I served our County by volunteering evenings and weekends to interview teaching candidates I hope to reestablish my roots in our school system I've re reapplied to reenter the school system since 2008 between 2008 and 2010 the application process has changed at least twice in 2009 an associate introduced me to the former board chair spouse the former board chair spouse asked my associate and me to give a political fundraiser for the former board chair my associate paid for the fundraiser that we hosted jointly I stopped hosting political fundraisers because my participation could have created a conflict of interest throughout the camp campaign season the former board chair spouse informed me via email that opportunities opened up on June 30th that I have the patience of

065Joe and that we don't forget favors among other statements when it became obvious I would not host additional fundraisers there were no interviews beyond the second level with no other option I entered litigation though I'm no longer in litigation and let me be clear the process was quite instructive during depositions the chief academic officer testified that I'm qualified and and eligible for hire the acting Chief Human Resources officer testified that I must be eligible since the system accepts my applications a former female Chief Human Resources officer testified that some candidates who didn't meet state certification requirements were hired when reviewing an email that named such a principal she said I don't keep tabs on people Doris did as you can see she also testified if x did not pass the exam it would be near

066the end of the year anyway so height would have removed her from the principal ship it would have been his call the chief academic officer and former acting Chief Human Resources officer testified that I'm qualified and eligible for hire this former female Chief Human Resources officer testified that principles who were not qualified by state standards were hired there is quite a hiring conundrum indeed thus I request a formal meeting with the chair of the board the chief executive officer the Chief Human Resources officer and a decision-making representative from the county executive's office to resolve my Myriad concerns I do not wish to be a problem I wish to reestablish myself in this school system to again be part of the solution thank you thank you our next speaker is Alfred Turner Alfred Turner here uh

067good evening board members and uh Dr Maxwell thank you for the opportunity to speak I'm here today to express my continued dissatisfaction with the lack of response and the Integrity of the several supervisors Chief officers and directors of which you had left to maintain the oversight of some of the largest budgets in our district namely the supervisor of Transportation chief of Transportation uh director of purchasing and supplies her superiors Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer I have made numerous inquiries regarding the status of my uh Freedom of Information Act request and bid protest on the ifb 049-2 providing few additive based on the process in your uh purchasing the supply manual a says an interested party May file protest to an award or propose Award of a bid or propose against alleged solicitation defects

068alleged only restricted uh specification omission of required provision or ambiguous or indefinite evaluation factors B States all protests are to be submitted to the responsible director or Contracting Office of the person Department within 10 calendar days after the bid of the pro uh protest has actually opened and you have to present it in writing as the above mentioned bid was uh evidence of all the violation item listed above I filed a timely protest on 312 2012 to date neither the chief of Transportation director of purchasing and supply the chief uh the CFO or the COO has provided me with an answer regarding my concern all of which have uh notified I have notified on numerous occasion and provided documentation to support my allegations how are we as taxpayers parents and community members expected to trust

069the board when there officers which have been made aware of clear violation of law at a minimum federal guidelines and they failed to act and you also the board members continue to leave them in place yes I have also courtesy copy several of you all in the emails uh to make you aware of some of the violation namely bid steering by the transportation supervisor Chief and purchasing uh director allowing repeat allowing repeat so sourcing of the product under bid 0493 for 11 years this bid was issued to the same vendor or one of his subsid subsidiaries without seeking any additional participation imposing unfair stalling tactics to prevent MBE participation intentionally imposing cost per bid requirements on MBE then posting the complete opposite in the bid violating fair and open competition for local mbes by imposing

070acccessory cost requirement which was clearly stated that they would be absorbed by the board in good faith mbes come expecting to do business with the board to take over the board by Mr was to clean up the black hole of the waste and reestablish some Integrity in the system if this is a careful look at at the individuals who have been in the department for years it does not take a genius to realize what needs to be done Dr Maxwell and board members the fox cannot guard the hen house please clean up the yard thank you thank [Applause] you and our next speaker is Mr Gerald megot Mr megot would you please make your way to the mic good evening sir good evening um uh good evening board and um CEO uh my thoughts today

071I wanted to share two ideas and I think everybody knows my spirit now when I when I come to the table uh my focus is on the students and um I'm embarking on two different projects that I thought you might find interesting for the students um a research assignment in which I'm teaming up with 100 um CEOs and entreprene leaders in the DC metropolitan area my background you know I've have eight years of experience um on a Fortune 500 executive level on the district um Regional and state level working with the CEOs to answer one question and the question is um why don't more young people aspire to be entrepreneurs and so in interviewing these CEOs and these directors what we're doing is we're coming up with a profile of who they were at the

072ages of 14 to 18 and this profile is designed to give a road map for not only um students but it's giving a road Mac for teachers um parents anybody's involved in these students lives to say these are where these CEOs were at that age group and what can we do to kind of shape our future in those directions so we've garnered some attractive attention from um the CEO of priceline.com I have a meeting with him in February um one of the CEOs and um executive directors of projet Aviation but the idea is I'd love to be able to team with some of the schools so as we're continuing to develop these um interviews and these meetings package that and be able to provide some type of assistance to give out to the school system

073to show students who are interested in Business and Entrepreneurship these are the people that are making it happen today in our community here's how you can connect with them and here's their stories so that's really exciting the second is I sit on the board of the fellowship for Christian athletes in mcgomery county and I think one of the other ways we can accelerate our students and their livelihoods is some of the role models in the classroom are our athletes and if we can impact their lives in a special way we may be able to encourage them and and Inspire their lives to shape others as we've been doing in mcgomery County so I'm working on a special project with the the state director of the fellowship for Christian athletes who was an who graduated from

074Buie State High School and also our board chairman in Montgomery County graduate from Buie State High School to put together a program inside of Prince ridges County so if you have coaches in your school system that are interested in connecting I go to a lot of the basketball games and I serve as a character coach for the middle school where we improve students characters and we might end with a nice God bless you and see where the conver ation goes so I'd love to um have any type of connection to some of the coaches who may think um inspiring students in another direction or a special way could be beneficial in their classroom and in the livelihoods of uh of the hallways in the schools so the the two ideas is um coaches and also

075putting together the research for the uh um project executive in the hands of um principles and teachers and maybe we'll do um some seminars and assemblies that we talked about a couple months ago so I thank you for your time and we always want to do something Innovative to advance the students lifestyle past the um the traditional and uh and see where it goes so really appreciate it and continue the great work thank you our next speaker is Sandra Collier Sandra Collier in the house good evening my name is Sandra Collier and I am the President of the PTA at Barack Obama Elementary School and we would just like to bring our concerns to the board today we are asking that the board reevaluate the boundaries at Barack Obama elementary school there are students that

076spend over one hour on the bus to get home how is that a neighborhood School Barack Obama Elementary School pulled from five surrounding elementary schools when they open according to the enrollment status on the Prince George's County Public School website those five schools are now all under enrolled Villages of marbor plans to redevelop the golf course with 300 homes this will surely bring additional students to Barack Obama Elementary if you re-evaluate the boundaries this will potentially eliminate the overcrowding at Barack Obama so that the sixth graders will not have to be removed removing the sixth graders out of Barack Obama Elementary School why were we only notified of this proposal in December at the form at James Madison Middle School why in the middle of the school year how do you prepare your fifth grader

077Midway the year that they may be may be going to the Middle School in the middle of the Year Common Core is a new curriculum just enforced this year so we now want our students to adjust to the new curriculum and they now have this new distraction of moving to a middle school they entered into the fifth grade knowing they had another year at their state-of-the-art Elementary School many families moved to this District just because they knew their child would be attending this state-of-the-art school why would you move students out of an already overcrowded school to attend another overcrowded school out of the mouths of babes at our last January PTA meeting one of our fifth graders comment comments was as you parents sit and worry about our education we worry that we are the

078youngest and the smallest students at the middle school we are concerned about being bullied um as I said I recommend um here today for the Barack Obama PTA and I want to show you that PTA at Barack Obama worked as a unit so I'd like all the members of the PTA and parents and students student of Barack Obama to please thank you thank [Music] you s's business okay thank you very much uh that concludes our list of speakers for this evening uh thank you for taking the time to come out in this weather uh to share your thoughts your concerns and your suggestions with us we listen we hear you and we deeply appreciate your voice um so now we will move on uh to um there are uh no legislative agenda items this evening

079and there are no discussion items on the agenda this evening either so we move on to item uh number 8.0 uh the consent agenda I will now yield the floor uh to Dr Maxwell for an introduction of items 8.1 and 8.2 under the consent agenda uh Mr Dr Maxwell thank you um 8.1 is a proclamation commemorating peace week in Prince George's County public schools for the week of February 10 through four what two 2014 uh and 8.2 is a declaration of surplus for property identified as Thomas Addison Elementary School 7100 Oxen Hill Road Oxen Hill Maryland on December 2nd 2013 the chief executive officer that would be me received a request from The Prince George's County government to transfer ownership of the school located on 7100 Oxen Hill Road Oxen Hill Maryland 20744 also referred

080to as Thomas Addison Elementary School thank you Mr barles i' like to move 8.2 to item 10.1 um the uh 8.2 to non-consent agenda item 10.1 uh that does uh does not require vote we will move that to a non-consent agenda item uh and I will um entertain a motion to approve item 8.1 under the budget consent agenda so moved second it has been moved and seconded is there any discussion hearing none all those about 8.1 yeah oh sorry Dr Anderson uh yes Dr Maxwell since we want to engage parents uh in the schools do you think it's feasible to engage them in in uh advocating for um uh peace and uh advocating uh um for for uh safety in in our schools during that period during peace week I I certainly see no problem

081with them advocating during that week and and every other week of the school year but particularly to bring them to the schools for some activity possibly to bring them to the school for some activity during that week we can certainly consider that make a suggestion to principles that they think about how they might do that all that Miss that's all okay is there any other discussion seeing none all those in favor of adopting item 8.1 under the cons uh consent agenda please say I I all those opposed motion carries we now move to item 9.0 the budget uh uh consent agenda uh and I will now yield the floor to Dr Maxwell for an introduction of items 9.1 through 9.5 under the budget consent agenda so 9.1 is an increase in the scope of work

082and A&E Services for Tulip Grove El elementary schools uh major renovation project in the amount of $4 46,7 N3 9.2 Kenmore Middle School approval of a proposed change order number seven in the amount of $2 29,285 to the contract of specialty Construction Company Incorporated for steel frames for rooftop units uh item 9.3 are the February 2014 expenditure requirements 9.4 are appropriation reass assignments over $100,000 within a major category for period dece uh for the period December 13 2013 through january3 2014 9.5 is a ratification of 201314 school year agreement on employee contracts confidential and board employees thank you may I please have a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.5 under the budget consent agenda so moveed it has been moved uh and seconded to approve items 9.1 through 9.5 under the budget consent agenda

083is there any discussion seeing none all those I better all right this a budget consent agenda so I'm going to call the role Miss Parker please call the role on the motion Dr Anderson Mr burrow hi Miss Eubanks hi Miss Higgins hi Miss Jacobs hi Dr Kaufman hi Miss Mundy I Mr Valentine I miss Waller I miss Williams I miss Boston I Dr Eubanks I thank you motion passes thank you that concludes item 9.0 we now move to item 10.0 on the nonconsent agenda item in which we would take up uh previous item 8.2 the Declaration of surplus of property identified as Thomas Addison Elementary School on 77100 Oxen Hill Road Oxen Hill Maryland Mr burrow uh Dr maxw staff can you all walk me through the process uh of the evolution of this um

084uh uh item on the agenda prior to today what was the the process that your Administration followed um to get us here today good evening good evening so what takes place is um in this case the County government requested um us asked us if we wanted to utilize our Thomas Addison building right and then reached out to um our director of operations Sam stefanelli to see if we had any use for the building we looked at when was the last time we used it um we have not accessed that building for 5 years um we've used use staff to kind of go out and um remove the debris and trash that's been placed in the facility because it's been unoccupied for so long right have been van vandalized um we looked at what the square

085footage was for the building which is approximately 25,000 sare ft um its location and then determine whether it would be a building that we would need in the near future right unfortunately with 25,000 Square ft that would only accommodate less than 175 students right so at this time we don't have we don't have a need for facility with such a low um SRC and we hadn't used it for years and now the location is not the best location with the implementation of the new um at that time the new um Mall Outlet Mall that's there and all the traffic from the National Harbor right um we told the county no we did not have a use for it they then um drafted a letter requested the property and then we began the process of creating

086a board action summary and did you consider the community proposals that were on the table uh prior to their the letter they that they submitted to you so when you say community propos you mean the what the county will use the building for no there were there were several conversations with um at the time Carl beler beler Sam stefanelli uh there was a school uh a private school uh that was Spanish Immersion that wanted to lease the building uh they um conducted a walk through of the building um it appears from the last email that I was able to pull out of my email account that uh Eric Walker and several uh Personnel from the school system uh was moving in the direction of awarding them um or leasing the building to them um the

087the private school made several commitments to the school district that they would work with our students allowing our students to have access to the the facility and also to their Spanish imersion program program um as you know Hy left Dr Potter left then Dr Crawley came all at the same time and so you know I've had several conversations with them over the years I had a pastor of a church in Fort Washington that recently reached out to me um you know asking about this facility and so my question to the administration you know this was posted in Bard dos Bard dos four days ago um roughly and uh you were contacted I believe in December right uh moving forward it would be helpful to to gain as much information as possible ahead of time um

088and to provide enough notice to the board ahead of time because there are proposals you know I have a 20 Page proposal here from a school in the district um and 50% of the private school students um at their school 50% uh come back to the school system for middle and high school and there's several other community proposals for this school and I ask the administration to to consider this as a first reader and second reader I'm very happy that it will be used to train um our our um our our Stu you know our citizens hopefully uh I think that's an amazing thing but I would hate for community members to feel slighted because they have been in contact with staff and they have been working through the process to the best of their

089ability I ask Administration to to make this a first reader second reader to allow time to review those proposals um to have those conversations to ensure that community members like this group and other groups did not feel slighted by this move and uh the administration was not willing to comply with that right this is before the board as a consent agenda item and consent agenda according to policy is something that's administrative in nature or something that the board has reviewed in the past this is the first time that we're seeing this and so I didn't have adequate amount of time to reach back out to these Community groups letting them know that a change had occurred um and so you know I have no problem with with this today I have no problem with it

090becoming a training facility for MGM um it's you know I represent this community and if you're going to do this um if you're going to declare this property Surplus at least have some regard for the people that live in the area so let me share that um I've been in this position for a year and a half right and this is the first time that I've heard of a private school wanting to access and utilize that building and I must be honest I've had um Charters to reach out to say that they needed facilities and we've tried to accommodate and in any of our vacant buildings and typically they have not been able to use them just because of size right but this is the first I've heard of that um so I would think

091that even in the year and a half that I was here if they were interested in that actual property that they would have reached out directly to myself or anyone in our staff within the last year and a half yeah I have emails um from yeah uh Sam seanell is in here and I know he's still with the system and other personnel and maybe it didn't reach your desk um you know I think moving forward if we're going to have um and you know I did my best to work with Administration offline regarding these issues um I think moving forward if we're going to declare property Surplus or impact neighborhood school or neighborhood community it's important that we consider the proposals that are already on the table from the people that live in that area

092do you mind sharing the year that that information was requested 2011 is the last the last walk through that they did but like like I said they' they've been this is the last email that I've received I know a number of those individuals are still talking about it in 2012 I had correspondence with PTSA leaders at the school um as early as two months ago I talk with a parent at the school about it and so this is the last correspondence in my email but the the school's closed so I'm not sure but yeah so the school was shut down but this proposal this private school proposal this private school I got you now I'm sorry PTSA when you said PTS when you said parent I didn't understand thank you for clarifying no problem the

093PTSA at this school uh was on the proposal committee um that met with Dr height I know they was working uh they work with Bonita colan Potter for quite some time and I'm not opposed to to moving forward the training facility it's just um very difficult for me to represent the community not knowing that you're in the process of working on this you know I got 4day notice if you knew in December it might have been helpful to just shoot me an email um to let me know that this is something that you're looking at doing thank you thank you I have uh Dr Anderson Miss Jacobs Miss Boston Miss Higgins uh and myself in the queue anyone else wants to get in the queue let me know um I understand the concerns of Mr

094Burl but I I have to tell you I was very excited uh to read that uh the school could possibly be used for training center because the first thing that came to my mind is how we could prepare more of our citizens to take on the jobs at those three major companies in in that Community that's uh at National Harbor MGM and and Tanger Outlets so I'm looking at this as a great opportunity that we don't have to pay for possibly to have our residents prepared for jobs that many of them have not been capable of of getting so I'm excited about it notwithstanding you know I'm excited about it possibly being used for uh for that purpose and I would certainly be happy to support this okay thank you Miss Jacobs thank you um

095excuse me my my concern I actually uh support thank you Dr Anderson for um approaching it from the standpoint of what could be used for the community my concern is actually um and if there's some legal impediments to this just let me know what those are and that is why not let them lease from the school system instead of us Surplus the building I know it was long before my time and probably a lot of people sitting here that the school district surplused a lot of areas um in some previous years and then when we actually needed the property we didn't have it so my question would be um lease it to uh MGM let them build the build it back up into a training center and when they're done they give it back to

096us still could be used as a community um um organization and it's still owned by the school district so um we're of the uh belief that the law compels us when the county asks us for a property that we have no in ention of using that we yield it to the county would you like to speak further to the changes in the law and I'll be glad address the uh M Jacobs the statutory rubric uh is not quite uh as availing as you you might suggest section 4-15 of the education article sifly states that when a school board or school system no longer has a need uh for a land School site or building for school purposes it has an obligation to inform the County government and the County Council um of the fact that

097it's Surplus so that the County government initially can make the decision as to whether or not it has a need for for economic development or as part of its economic plan in the county if the county then decides that it does not have use for it in conjunction with in this case let's say MGM National Harbor um then under another section of law that was passed in 2011 that's codified at 9- 111 of the education article school boards have an obligation to offer it to Charter Schools if it wishes to use it and again this size this condition may not make it very uh amable for Charter Schools who want to use but that's if the canic government doesn't have a need for it uh nowhere in that statutory rubric does it provide that private

098schools not charter schools which as we know are public schools in the county and in the state that private schools have a priority for usage uh Mr Barrow to the uh to no I'm saying that private schools don't have a priority use of of the property now unless we have reason to believe that we have a need for the building as a school or for offices uh down the road and I just heard uh Miss gson say that we don't then there's no reason to maintain it in our inventory and preempt the County's role in Economic Development by just leasing it directly to to MGM it's an interesting um analysis um especially considering whether it's private schools or not I think um I think what I heard Mr Burl say is that we didn't hear

099what the analysis was in terms of actually making ultimately making the decision that we had no educational purpose for it so um and I and I I appreciate that because I think specifically what you read was that once we've determined that that we're not going to use it for an educational purpose and so that's at the administrative level that you made that decision that's what you're saying correct yes Miss Boston um you know I support us doing uh remaining this property back to the county um my question is is if we didn't how much would it cost for us to renovate that property uh to use for to have a school or another organization to come in because I I want you know I just want to hear for the rucket how much it would

100cost to renovate a property that property I definitely don't have an exact amount for you but it would definitely be in the millions thank you Miss Higgins thank you Mr chair um could you help us understand how this became a consent agenda item instead of a discussion item um it was brought to our attention in December as Mr um burls brought um so announced earlier that um the County government wanted our Surplus property we had no need for it um it's been in existence and unoccupied for 5 years um it has become a a item where there has been vandalism um and we wanted to provide the opportunity for the County government to have that um site as soon as possible and they requested that if we could grant that property as soon as the

101process would allow they would appreciate it so but in this process is also a board action is required so for it to come in as a consent agenda item um certainly says consent agendas there are no discussions so I for me personally it puts me in the position of having to add questions as opposed to have it be a discussion item and and I'm I'm speaking for future events as well if there are things that are going to cause this kind of um action on the part of the board it would be very valuable to have a discussion to have the full um presentation by the ad Administration in regards to what we're doing because I look on it and I see we're giving a surplus building to the casinos I don't know what we're

102getting in return for that I think our students we certainly have tremendous needs as identified in the in the budget and so to turn a a a school over and then I hear there's also Community needs that could be addressed so if this is the best plan I think it would be better for us to talk together and have the full information as opposed to putting it on a consent agenda item and then board members having to pull it off and raise issues and it found sounds like um it there there's dissension when there's really um a lack of of um ability to come together in terms of this uh I I have uh a problem without any kind of understanding as to what MGM casinos will be providing the school system back for the

103use of that property and I haven't heard anything about that what how do we as a school system benefit from that I would say to you that I don't see it as within my purview or my role or the board's role to negotiate with MGM over the use or anything of the building the law says that if the county has need for the building and we don't we convey it back to the county that's our role and responsibility the county then through its Economic Development arm they're going to have to work that out with MGM whatever the the lease you know purchases are I mean MGM is certainly you know I think uh been in the newspaper saying they want to be good partners and those kind of things but it's not up to us

104to to withhold that to to say unless you give us something we're not going to follow the the direction of the law as we as we see it and understand it we got a request in December to convey a property that hasn't been used for 5 years back to the county not in my wildest imagination could I have thought that we'd be you know talking about you know requests that are a couple years old that that neither Miss Golson nor myself nor you know people at this table at least perhaps somewhere else in the organization but that we have no knowledge of uh I mean this is 2014 not 2011 not 2012 there has been a change in leadership I understand that but everybody else is aware of that too it's been pretty widely spread

105and if people are interested in in things they should be conveying that currently not not years old and I think that that communication would be best done through the administration of the school system and not individuals that then we don't have any knowledge of I mean when when Mr burough says he needs to get back to these people on private schools I'll be quite honest and say I believe that's the role of the school system not the elected board to mean you know negotiating where you know private schools are going to be housed uh and if they've been talking to us uh you know maybe maybe we would have had a different perspective on it but for now we've got an empty building uh that hasn't been used for 5 years that we have no

106purpose for going forward that we can uh foresee and the county has asked for it back and so you know I think all those points are well taken and would be have been valuable to have in a discussion or in some information as opposed to consent agenda item and Mr margol is presiding what the what the law says we have Authority or not to have had that documentation because otherwise we're reading a consent agenda item that says we're giving Surplus property to a casino so I I do want we're giving to the county not to the casino that that's I can read the board action summary says we're giving it to the casino no we're giv no no no we're conveying it back to the county as a request from the County government to convey

107it to them the property will will be used the location will be okay thank you I do want to clarify um about the process I looked at a previous board action summary for Surplus property and it was initially placed on consent it wasn't on first and second reader and that was back in 2011 and so that was also the reason why I placed it for consent this year I can go back and look at my notes thank you have some myself and then and then Dr Valentine so um I'm just so I'm clear we do we I know we lease some of some space in some of our buildings to some government agencies but other than that aside from Charter Schools I have we do we have the the knowledge expertise or interest or history

108and leasing buildings uh to private entities the most recent one that I'm aware of is to um the city of Green Belt um utilizing a small portion of green belt Middle School which is currently under renovation so they have not um occupied the facility actually no one has how however it would be fair to say without conveying the property we do have churches and organizations who through our building use process use our school so but they're not receiving the building or leasing the building in its total you know from us they're using a building that we are occupying that we are using not one that is Surplus all right and so is it your assessment George this this might be for you as well because it seems it seemed when you when when you read

109the law that it's relatively cut and dry we have a building we haven't used in 5 years the county says we need it we are part of a shared governance structure we're not you know a completely separate entity from the rest of the government we are part of that government and the law says we ought to be working interchangeably and so if we don't need need the building we convey it to them and well there's plenty of gray area in in the uh in the language of the law does it seem pretty clear to you that that's that that's our move I don't want to presume that the board doesn't have a role in here I mean the Board needs to approve the recommendation of the CEO or not obviously uh but yes I think

110it is somewhat uh cut and dry in as much as the recommendation goes that there is a considered judgment on the part of the administration that there is no need for this bill building and if there is no need for this building and the board agrees then it needs to be considered Surplus and turned back to the County government under 4-15 of the education article if the board does not agree and thinks that there is a need for this building educationally in our inventory then you're free to reject the CEO's recommendation right so I understand that but we so so it it would just see seem as I understand it that yes we have every right to say we think there's there there is a real need for this building here's the need don't do

111that use this need that's different than saying we don't know if there's a need we just don't want to give it to you right now we're going to hold on to it because there might that that's correct we might be need a future all right so I may I'll conclude with that other than just to talk about a process point because I've been corrected on this on a number of occasions we not only we both have the right to discuss a items that are in the consent agenda item and every time we move I've I am very explicitly now been told to ask for discussion and of course we have the right to pull it off of the budget cons consent agenda item which we have so the processes are in place for us to

112have the discussion because after all we're we're having it right now Mr Valentine thank you um and my comments come from the perspective of the board member who lives closest to this building um um for the longest this building has been vacant I think longer than 5 years I'm surprised you said I thought it was more like 10 um when you pass this building it is vacant um for anyone who lives in a community where is a where a vacant building is located where you have children playing it is not safe uh I have been looking for years to figure out what was the use of this building um because of where it's located in the middle of a community where as a parent of two knowing that this building is available for people who

113may have unseemly ideas to do with it that is being used for something uh a member of the Riverbend Community someone again who lived right down the street from this building uh I am happy to see that something is being used for those who would oppose it uh I would ask you what you would do if you had a vacant building in your community for more than 5 years boarded up where children play and and there was a use where County Employees County potential County government County companies excuse me would be able to use that to create Workforce Development opportunities and hopefully Partnerships with those local schools for those of you who like to use additional additional money to refurbish it I could find a number of schools in the area that would take that

114money gladly and use that for other uh more timely uh reconstruction uh particularly in the school areas uh that which I live and I visit on a regular basis uh so I would recommend approving this as a community member as someone who lives very close to the school as a concerned citizen that does not like to see uh vacant buildings in their Community thank you I see no one else buzzing in for round one we'll move on to round two Mr barl and Miss Jacobs and I'm not sure if I if my comments were clear um once again I I don't oppose I'm I'm not opposing um allowing the the County government to use this facility for training I want to ensure that Community groups and Community Partners are not um ignored um as the

115board member who's elected to represent that District I've received the phone calls regarding this property and I've received the phone calls regarding proposals dealing with this school and you know um moving forward you know I think it's important that the administration and the board work together you know certainly uh that's what the school tried to do before and I'm not saying that uh the community should work solely with the board member or work solely with the administration if we're going to succeed as a community and as a school district there has to be a partnership between the board and the CEO um I'm not opposed to this I simply wanted the administration to take the time to review all the proposals before making a decision and that's not too much to ask for the people

116that I represent thank you Miss Jacobs thank you Dr Dr Eubanks um just to be clear don't want my comments to be misrepresented um you know I think someone asked a question what would MGM use the use it for in terms of turning into a training facility I think one misconception with regard to casinos and part of the Mantra when the whole gambling issue was put before the voters was that there this would bring jobs to our constituents and there's some suggestion that just because people live in Prince George's County they would automatically get these jobs and in fact um as I understand it the jobs that are that exist in casinos really do require extensive training for people to be up to parted to get the jobs so for example our high school students

117could graduate and still not be um have the skill set available to them to be able to do that so to the extent that this would be a training facility that MGM would use to train citizens of Prince George's County so that they're prepared to take on the jobs um I think that's a great thing in no way was I suggesting that the school district pay anything to refurbish the building um my my question was very specific to let them have it let them refurbish it and the school system remain um owners of it you've explained that that's from a legal perspective um not necessarily feasible so just to be clear about what my comments are and I'm not suggesting that there wasn't discussion or anything like that I'm just simply saying that I understand

118the purpose of it I just would like for the school system to maintain ownership which we obviously have heard we can't do thank you I see no other comments on this issue uh so I will entertain a motion I'm I I move to accept 8.2 I'm sorry I moved to accept 8.2 it's been moved is there a second it's been moved and seconded is there any other discussion on this motion hearing none Miss Parker please call the role Dr Anderson hi Mr Burrows hi Miss Eubanks hi Miss Higgins hi Miss Jacobs Dr Kaufman hi Miss Mundy I Mr Valentine I miss Waller I miss Williams abstain Miss Boston I Dr Eubanks I motion passes thank you uh we uh are now uh moving on to item 11.0 we have any yes uh uh governance unfinished

119business second readers I will now yield the floor to Dr Maxwell for introduction of items 11 Point item 11.1 under governance unfinished business second readers so item 11.1 is the Board of Education policy 0102 focusing on culturally proficient schools in central offices and 11.2 if I may is the uh fiscal year 2013 final operating budget transfers thank you uh Miss Higgins you want to talk about this sh I put it on the floor first or do you want to do something different well I'm I'm going to suggest that we um pull 11.1 given the comments made by Mr Khan and give us a chance to review them to make sure that the policy is reflecting what our intent is so I would make that motion there is h a motion on the floor to pull

120item 11.1 I'm sorry could I use the word table till next meeting that's probably more accurate to table item 11.1 one to the next meeting for uh of second reader uh board policy 0102 uh is there a second to this motion second it has been moved and seconded is there a discussion I see Mr Valentine can I ask Dr Maxwell to tell us what the impact of delaying this two weeks would be on any things you had planned none Dr Anderson Dr my reason for seconding the motion is that I think some of the language is a little loose and I would like to see um uh sort of like stated objectives that are measurable because I don't understand you know language like welcoming environment I mean you know it's nice and how do you

121Empower people and how do you know that you have done that uh Equitable access to high quality that's you know just kind of loose so I I love the idea I think it's wonderful um I think that some of the goals could be stated in terms of objectives and some of the outcomes could also be stated in terms of objectives and if we have measurable objectives there that we could monitor over time and have some mechanism for monitoring then I think the the the um uh the uh uh policy would be much stronger thank you don't don't I got it because I actually we we weren't supposed to have discussion I would just remind folks this is a board policy we we wrote this Dr Maxwell didn't really have anything to do with it so

122I appreciate us directing the comments to I'm happy to have people work on fixing it though but regardless we we worked on this in committee and we approved it in committee I don't have any problems with us taking another look at it without question but let's not go to Dr Maxwell okay I said too much I must stop right now stop my attorney said stop no more discussion the motion is to table this until the next meeting and no one can talk about it can I do this by V Voice vote at least all those in favor please say I I all those opposed the motion carries we've tabled our item uh so we will now move on to item number 11.2 may I have a motion to approve item 11.2 under governance unfinished business

123second readers I can't do anything without a motion so move it has been moved may I have a second it's been moved and seconded is there any discussion I can't talk about this right I can't talk can I talk about this too Abby no is there any non- discussion we're not discussing this it's been properly moved and seconded um and so since there can be no discussion even though that's what my my my script says is there any discussion just saying to done all right please call the role Mrs Barker Dr Anderson hi Mr barrows Miss Yanks Miss Miss Higgins hi Miss Jacobs hi Dr Kaufman hi Miss Mundy hi Mr Valentine I miss Waller Miss Williams I miss Boston I Dr Eubanks I all right motion carries motion carries thank you that concludes uh

124uh that agenda item uh we've taken care of public comments uh item 14.0 follow-up items followup items from the January 9 2014 board meeting are pending due to uh recent office closures and when available these items will be posted on board dos uh uh item 15.1 colleagues may have a motion to confirm actions taken Mr chair did you uh do the calendar 12.1 first reader 121 oh new business first reader yeah I did that you missed that I'll do it again item 12.0 new business item first readers I will now yield the floor to Dr Maxwell for an introduction of item 12.1 under new business first readers it it is on the agenda as a first reader I think I believe everybody has copies and doesn't require discussion we have no more presentation all right

125colleagues we're now at the point of accepting item 12.1 as a first reader there's no discussion necessary may have a motion to accept item 12.1 under new business as a first reader so moved may I have a second it has been properly moved and seconded um uh to accept this item as first reader uh all favor please signify by saying I I all those opposed the eyes have it this item has been accepted as a first reader thank you Abby uh okay now item 15.0 there not a 14.5 or anything I missed item uh uh 15.1 colleagues may I have a motion to confirm actions taken in executive session on Thursday January 23rd 2014 it has been moved may I have a second it has been properly moved and seconded that the Board of Education

126hereby approve actions taken an executive session on January 23rd 2014 and are as follows Personnel appointments student appeal legal matters and administrative matters is there any discussion hearing none all in favor please say I all those opposed the items uh taken in executive session on January 23rd have been confirmed colleagues may I have a motion to adjourn second it has been moved and seconded that we adjourn a January 23rd 2014 board meeting is there any discussion hearing none all those in favor please say I all those opposed ladies and gentlemen we are adjourned have a great good night