001good afternoon everyone and um at this time I'd like to reconvene the board of education meeting and I will remind everyone that we do have a quorum. A closed session meeting was held today pursuant to general provisions of article 3-305B of the annotated code of Maryland to discuss personnel matters to consult with legal counsel and discuss matters related to negotiations. Dr. Lelle Dennis from the refreshing found international ministries here today will lead us in the invocation. Please remain standing for the pledge of allegiance. Greetings everyone. Jesus, we give you praise on today. We thank you for this day. Lord, we ask you to come into this meeting. We ask Lord that every conversation would be led by you. Lord, we pray peace in this place. Lord, we thank you right now that every decision will
002be made for the best of the students and the community. Lord, I pray that you bless every board member, cover this meeting with your blood. We thank you for a good report. We thank you for our community being better because we all came together this day in Jesus name. Amen. >> Amen. >> Dr. Dennis, thank you for being here today to lead us in the invocation. Appreciate it. Okay. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> I actually thought, you know, I was going to do this and introduce Mr. Curtis Broad uh Broadwater because he is he here today? come on up please. I want to introduce it's my pleasure to to recognize
003him. He was actually going to lead us in the pledge. Um he is our honore for the month of December. Curtis Broadwaters from Pocomoke High School. And uh thank you Curtis. Before you sit down I want to share with everyone why you're receiving this honor today. Uh Curtis is a remarkable young man. He truly embodies the core values of this recognition, responsibility, service and engagement and civic engagement. As the cadet captain of Pukamok High School, JOTC, Curtis has demonstrated outstanding leadership, discipline, and commitment to excellence. His dedication was recognized nationally when he earned the Legion of Valor Bronze Cross award from the United States Marine Corps. One of the highest honors a JOTC cadet can receive. But what stands out most about Curtis is his heart for service. He gives back to the school and
004the community without hesitation, reservation, setting an example of selflessness and integrity for his peers. Curtis, we're proud to celebrate you today and to recognize the difference you make not only as a leader in uniform, but as a leader in life. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. Okay, now it's time for our superintendent report and I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Wallace. >> Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. It's hard to believe that we are already um right at the doorstep of our winter break. Uh with this Friday closing out another busy and successful stretch of our school year, the season is often filled with celebration and tradition. And it is a time when the pride we feel for our students and our staff is especially evident. [snorts] Over the past few weeks, our executive team has been out
005in schools attending concerts, performances, and different showcases. From children's theater productions to elementary music programs, we have been continually impressed by the confidence, creativity, and talent of our students. These events highlight not only our students talents, but also the dedication of our teachers and staff, some of which are here today, who make all of these opportunities possible. At the same time, I also want to acknowledge that winter break can be a challenging time for some of our students and families, particularly those who experience food insecurity. For many children, school meals provide an essential source of daily nutrition when schools are closed. And that support is not easily replaced. In response, Worcester County Public Schools will once again offer winter break meal sites to help ensure our students have access to nutritious meals during the break.
006Meals will be available on December 30th and 31st from 12 to 1:30 at Buckingham Elementary, Snow Hill Elementary, and Pocamoke Middle. I also want to recognize the many acts of kindness and generosity taking place throughout our schools and offices this holiday season. From food to coat to toy to pajama drives to other efforts supporting our families in need, these things reflect the care and compassion that define our Worester County Public School community. They also serve as powerful examples to for our students of what it means to be engaged, responsible, and empathetic members of our community. As we head into the holiday season, I wish everyone time to rest, reflect, and reconnect with those who matter most. To those who celebrate, I wish you a merry Christmas. To those who don't, I wish you a happy
007holidays. And to everyone, I wish you a safe, healthy, and peaceful holiday season and an enjoyable winter break. Back to you, Mr. Fonte. >> Thank you, Dr. Wallace. And now it's time to turn it over to our student representatives who are going to share their monthly reports from their respective high schools. And I think today we're starting with Kanye Reed from Pok High School. Kanye. >> Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. The holiday season is an excellent time to serve others and the students and staff of Pok High School have been working diligently to do so. Mr. Cartwright, our school liazison, has been leading student service learning groups in produce gleaning in partnership with the Society of St. Andrew. Fresh produce is then distributed to families at no cost. Items collected have included sweet potatoes, turnipss, cabbage,
008collarded greens, and kale. In addition, Pog High School supported a Thanksgiving food box giveaway as well as a hot Thanksgiving meal distribution. We have also been collecting donations of gift items for our inaugural holiday bazaar and warm clothing drive. We are grateful for the generous support and excited by the number of donations received so far. Our school counseling department has also been very active. December past events include on December 3rd, we had our um on-site admissions where 13 members of the class of 2026 were accepted on site. On December 8th, we had our career cafe where agriculture, transportation technology, and education were offered to our students. Coming up on the 17th of December, there's an afterchool fast session for students and parents from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. So far, we have 60 of 96 students
009who have completed their FASA and 19 of 96 parents who are currently in the process of doing so. Also, on December 17th, we will host our Warrior Winter Wonderland from 4 to 6:00 p.m. This event will include parent teacher conferences, hot meals, and the holiday bazaar where parents and students may select free gifts to share with others. Additionally, on December 18th, we have the Food for Holidays Maryland Food Bank event. We are pleased to conclude a successful session one of after school activities with a strong participation in high school enrichment and the tutoring opportunities. Drive on time continues to provide driving instruction for nearly 30 students through Wednesday. Winter sports are underway with pool with boys basketball, girls basketball, swimming, and track all securing early wins. Notably, our warrior of the week, Cameron Noble, set
010three school records at the first track meet of the year. Upcoming January events includes on the 9th of January, we have a chat and chew with Pokemon hosted by Mr. Cartwright, Miss Cloud, Miss Crease, and Miss Lines. On the 15th of January, we have a career cafe where construction, government/ finance, lawn marketing, food service/aggriculture, transportation technology, and education are offered. Now to worry your technical high schools report. December has been a very productive month. We kicked off the month with our Nest early childhood learners taking a field trip to Stephen Decar High School to see the play Poultry in Motion. Our Nest children had a wonderful time laughing at Chicken Little and rooting for Henny Pennney. We're excited to play in more field trips in 2026. Our eighth grade students from our middle schools have
011been visiting Worcester Tech to gain insight into the numerous programs that they might be interested in exploring as high school students. Eighth graders have been encouraged to consider the five different programs that they can enroll in as a high school freshman. And they have been invited to attend the summer stat camp sessions to further find a program that matches their interest. To date, all seniors attending war tech have conferenced with administration about their po postgraduation plans. 40% of students plan on attending an in or out of state 4-year university. 22% of seniors are planning to attend Warwick. 8% would like to continue their craft by enrolling in a trade school. 6% are enlisting into the military or local fire company. And lastly, 20% of seniors are positioning themselves to enter a program related job or
012apprenticeship. All 157 seniors are attending Tech have a post-secary plan to either be enrolled, enlisted, or employed. Additionally, several indust industry and economic partners have been visiting worshshire tech from the clear flooring and pohena of Salsbury to advanced technology institute of Johnson and Wales University. All students are being presented with a plethora of options to consider. We're excited to congratulate and celebrate our December students and staff of the month. Our AM student of the month is Annayia Pitman from Pmok High School. She's enrolled in our carpentry program. Our PM student of the month is Garrett Lman from Snow Hill High School. He is enrolled in our automotive automotive program. School secretary Kelly Clark and guidance secretary Beth League for the first time ever are tied for staff of the month. Congratulations to each of our
013December celebrities. Worship Tech is celebrating this holiday season through service and the act of giving. Staff and students have been contributing to the United Way and Eastern Shore Type 1 Diabetes Foundation. The school adopted a Pokémon family for our worster gold family Christmas comp campaign. We have donated gifts for Brooks Toys closet and we are celebrating one another throughout our worship tech 12 days of Christmas events. This past week, worship Tech hosted a Newsome Gospel Music Awards celebrating people for their unique unique gifts and talents who might otherwise go unnoticed. We want to thank the board of education and district leadership for their continued support and we wish you all a merry Christmas and a healthy, successful new year. This concludes my report. Now to Cashon Marsh representing Snow Hill High School. Thank you, Kanye.
014As winter settles in, Snow Hill High School is gearing up for some big academic milestones. Over the next several weeks, our students will showcase their hard work and learning through semester 1 state assessments scheduled throughout December and January. These important assessments, algebra 1, government, biology, and English 10, are key steps on each student's graduation pathway. In fact, algebra 1 and English 10, also serve as college and career readiness and indicators, making this testing window especially meaningful to students future success. We are very proud to recognize one of our students who earned second chair percussionist in the All State Senior Honor Band. This outstanding accomplishment reflects both individual dedication and the strength of our music program. Congratulations to this talented Eagle for representing Snow Hill High School with excellence at the state level. Just as our
015students are working hard academically, winter athletics are off to an exciting start. Girls basketball has returned with a full JV and varsity team and is focused on defending its title as 1A East Region 2 champions. Boys basketball, also fielding JV and varsity squads, is determined to make another deep playoff run after reaching the regional final last season. Wrestling continues to grow with our co-ed team building on last year's historic 15-6 season and our girls wrestling team entering its second year after three athlete after sending three athletes to the state tournament in its inaugural season. In total, 50 Eagles are competing on the wrestling mats this winter. Boys and girls indoor track teams also have seen strong participation and look forward to standout performances. Additionally, our unified lifting program is expanding following a successful first year
016strength strengthening inclusive athletic opportunities for all students. Beyond athletics, our afterchool academy remains one of the brightest aspects of our school community. As session one concludes, participation has grown to 153 students, representing 40% of our total enrollment. We are excited to launch session two with a new opportunity-free driver's education for participating students through a partnership between WCPS and MSD. Families will pro provide a refundable $25 deposit and intend and attend anformational meeting at SHHS on December 16th. The After School Academy continues to offer enriching options such as cooking club, subject area tutoring, the stock market games, and weightlifting, supporting both academic growth and personal development. Our counseling department continues to focus on preparing students for success beyond high school. Recent recent school links lessons supported college and career exploration and long-term planning. Seniors participated in
017Salsbury University's on-site admissions day with many receiving same day admissions decisions and families received valuable support during our FAFSA completion day on December 12th. On December 12th, we hosted our annual career fair, giving students meaningful exposure to a wide range of career paths through participation from more than 20 local businesses with community partners. Our students and staff are proud of the exceptional work taking place across our academic programs, athletics, and student support services. We remain committed to helping every Eagle grow, achieve, and soar. On behalf of Snow Hill High School, we thank the board of education for your continued support of our students, staff, and programs. As we move through the winter season toward the upcoming holiday break, we wish everyone a safe, healthy, and joyful holiday season. That's it for Snow Hill. I'll leave
018it to Sophia Fonte with Decator Report. Thank you, Cash. It is the season for giving and Steven Decar High School has definitely gotten into the spirit. A simple stroll through our hallways will even give the Grinch a smile with our academic departments preparing their entryways and festive themes. Kudos to all departments for their jolly good participation in our student government association sponsored annual door decorating contest. Throughout November and December, many of our extracurricular organizations joined in on the festive spirit as well and served our surrounding communities. First, our SGA sponsored a food drive for Dia and collected over a,000 pounds of canned goods. The NJOTC program sponsored its annual toys for Tots drive. The Key Club and Students Against Destructive Decisions collected coats, hats, gloves, scarves, and socks for the less fortunate. The Key Club
019and Fellowship of Christian Athletes partnered with the Salvation Army to ring the bell in our community. And the entire SCHS student body participated in Operation We Care, contributing a healthy donation of toiletries for our nation's troops. Members of our National Honor Society worked with Wister Gold and adopted a less fortunate family for the holidays. Additionally, members of the student body volunteered for parade events in the towns of Berlin and Ocean City. Lastly, Mufatheta made a sizable donation to P Jam for Kids with Cancer and Surf Rider Club painted storm drains for the town of Ocean City and continues its robust recycling program. Meanwhile, life has been busy with our co-curricular programs as well. The annual children's theater performed for thousands of children and adults all across Delm Marva. Members of our band, color guard, show
020choir, and NJOTC performed well throughout the parade season, and our NJOTC earned excellent marks for its annual inspection. Lastly, our band and band front represented Stephen Decater High School all the way to the Pacific, performing in the annual Pearl Harbor memorial parade in Honolulu, Hawaii. There is also exciting news regarding other special programs in the school. The fall session of the afterchool academy wrapped up with over 200 participants with students producing the newspaper, preparing for robotics competitions, creating decorations for the Berlin Christmas tree, helping Coastal Hospice sort donations, and dozens of students receiving academic support. Our math club team earned top honors and junior Tyler Kim earned second place out of over 80 participants at the Eastern Shore Invitational Math Competition. Senior Trey Rail will represent Wester County as the Maryland Page. Dozens of seniors
021gained on-site acceptances from Salsbury University, and we've had scores of students receive positive referrals. We are so proud to have such model students represent us in various fashions. In the wide world of sports, congratulations goes out to our numerous athletes who earned Bayside and state recognition and or signed letters of intent to take their games to the collegiate level. Finally, our winter sports teams are off to a great start with nearly 250, sorry, 250 winter athletes participating in 13 different sports teams. The end of the semester promises to be equally as busy as counselors assist seniors with their post high school plans and prepare underassmen for scheduling and course mapping. We are also in the midst of administering over a thousand state assessments in the WIDA, MISA, GV, and MCAP examinations. In closing, we'd like
022to wish everyone a safe, relaxing, happy, and well-deserved holiday break. May 2026 bring us peace and success in everything that we do. Now, back to you, Miss Ferrante. >> Thank you, Sophia Cash, Kanye. Um, there's never a lack. Just listening to those reports makes you tired. You guys are doing a lot. So, really, um, we appreciate you being here and bringing us that information. And as always, um, we wish you a merry Christmas, happy holiday, and we hope to see you next year as well. Now, I'm going to, um, turn it over to Mr. Tolbert for our monthly blueprint report. >> Thank you, Mr. Fonte. I do have one update to share regarding the blueprint today with the board. Um, as part of the blueprint law, uh, 25% of new blueprint funding for each school
023system is automatically withheld until the AIB meets and confirms that the sufficient progress is being made in receiving achieving the blueprint requirements. Uh the AIB did meet on December 1st and approved to release the FY26 funds for 22 school systems including Worcester. Also at that meeting they decided to send letters of concern to 10 school systems and Worcester did receive one of those letters. Uh their concern with Worcester was related to minimum school funding and FY26 [music] budgeted data by program. I have two charts I want to share with the board from the December 1st AIB meeting. Kind of explain what they looked at and what they did. Carrie's got the first one up. Can you make it any bigger, Carrie? Yes, perfect. Yeah, this first chart is outlining actual FY25 expenditures for the 24
024school systems uh by program for minimal school funding. Uh FY25 was a baseline year. Uh just for the board's information, the minimum school funding requirement for most blueprint programs is that by FY27, 75% of the blueprint revenues is allocated by school. So as outlined in this chart for FY25, Worester is already exceeding the 75% requirement for most programs and very close in the remaining programs. We're last. Can you highlight that, Carrie? Is it highlighted? Okay. >> Yeah. >> So as you can see, we're exceeding the 75% almost every area. That's the 27 requirement. This is for 25 data. But the AIB also looked at a second chart and this is the minimal school funding by budgeted area for FY26 and this is as of October. The AIB uses budgeted data as a basis for sending
025letters of concern. Any school system that had a zero amount shown in the category received a letter of concern. I just want to clarify that the legal requirement is not budgeted data. The legal requirement is actual expenditures and we're in full compliance for FY25 and we anticipate being in fully in full compliance FY26 and the budgeted data now is in as of today for the FY26. Uh the letter of concern that we did receive does require us to file a timeline to input the data which we do have and we let we'll let them know that area is already now shown up in our budget. also mentioned that we will be invited to attend a future meeting with AIB to go over our plan to get our budget data in. But once again, the budget
026data is in now for FY26. So we are in full compliance. So if the board has questions, I can certainly answer them. >> Any board members have any questions for Mr. Tolbert? >> Dr. Andy's. >> I just want to point out to the audience that the the blueprint is an unfunded mandate. We don't receive enough money in Worester County Public Schools to fully implement the blueprint. And I just hopefully everyone understands in our community and in our audience the demands placed on our school system by this state unfunded mandate. And I want to thank Mr. Tolbert and his team for doing everything they have been doing over the last two, three, four years to deal with this unfunded mandate. Every time the state runs money through the wealthbased formula, it's an unfunded mandate. And AI,
027the the blueprint is an unfunded mandate that we all have to deal with the best we possibly can. And we will continue to do that over the next several years. But I think it's important for our audience and our community to understand this is one of the state unfunded mandates that we're required to deal with because it is state law. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Andy's. Any other board members? Mr. Tolbert, thanks for the hard work and the presentation bringing us up to date on the blueprint. >> You're welcome, Mr. Thank you. >> Um, next is school safety report. I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Record. >> Excuse me, Dr. Record. >> Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. As an information item, the December uh safety report brings a successful November American Education Week
028um conclusion with many visitors to each of our schools and many positive reports. There we go. Sorry about that. Uh with many visitors to each of our schools during American Education Week and we also received many positive reports from our parents and community members. Additionally, we're preparing our next month's safety committee meeting as we continue to work to hardening the target and strengthening the heart. And uh I'm excited to announce that we did receive notification of successfully being awarded uh by the school safety grant program a school mapping grant which will provide detail resolution imagery and accurate floor plan models for each of our school buildings. The grant notification was recently awarded and we'll be beginning uh that work starting in the new year. That concludes the December safety report. Back to you Mr. Ferrante.
029>> Thank you Dr. Eert. Anyone have any questions for Dr. Recorder concerning the safety report? Okay. Thank you very much. It's now for time for um school and community recognition. And I'd like to know if anyone from the WCTA is with us today. I think there is. >> Nice to see you, Beth. Thank you. How about the Wester County Educational Support Professionals? >> Happy holidays to you as well. How about the Wester County retire school personnel? >> Nice to see you, Helen. Thank you. How about any representatives from various based school groups, PTAs, PTO's, SCAKS, etc. Anyone from there? Okay. Thank all of you for being with us today. Now, we have some accommodations and some superintendent recognition programs. So, we're going to step down. >> [clears throat] >> Good afternoon everyone. Um, I'm gonna
030ask Mr. Tyrie Thornton to to step up here and I'm going to introduce him. Uh Tyrie is our December Heartbeat of Worcester honore. Um it's really an honor. I can tell you as a superintendent, it's a full circle moment to see former students leading the way in our district or I see even former students in the audience leading the way in our community and doing great things. Um but it really is if you're an educator, you work in that field, it really is a full circle moment to have a student doing great work now as an adult back in our system. So, um, Tyrie was one of my students at Pogo High School, so it's super exciting to have him here and honor him today. Um, in his role as head custodian, Tyrie goes above
031and beyond his job description every day. He mentors students throughout the school day. He supports student athletes before and after school. He leads his custodial team with enthusiasm, pride, and commitment. Tyresese presence at Pocamo High School is felt in every hallway, not just through his work, but through the care and encouragement he offers to everyone. As a tribe leader and trusted mentor, Tyrie steps in whenever a student or colleague needs support, guidance, or word of encouragement. He pours his heart and soul into Pocomoke High School, and we are so grateful for the positive impact he makes on the entire school community. Tyrie, you are truly the heartbeat of Pokamok High School and the heartbeat of Wister. [applause] I would say he's taller than me now, but [applause] next I'd like Sage age hall to come
032forward. Thank you. You want to stand right here? That'd be perfect. And then we'll move over. Um it's my pleasure to recognize our December Surge Award honores. Two students whose character, kindness, and perseverance make a powerful difference in their school communities. Our first recipient is Sage Hall, who is a senior at Steven Decar High School. Um and she is a recipient of the resilient voltage award for perseverance. Sage's journey is a powerful testament to the strength, determination, and hope that she has. Through extraordinary personal challenges, she has emerged as a dedicated scholar, leader, and a role model for her peers. Sage has taken on rigorous academic challenges and remained deeply involved in her school community, and she continues to lead with positivity and purpose. She truly exemplifies resilience in every sense of the word. So,
033congratulations to Sage >> [applause] [applause] >> And then I'd like to ask Ray Suggs to come forward. He's making his way forward. Um he is our second honore and a 10th grade student at Snow Hill High School. Honored with the heart of the circuit award for his kindness. Rey is consistently polite, respectful, and thoughtful towards students and staff. He looks out for others. He encourages kindness and he leads by example in even the smallest moments. Ray's genuine care for others brightens the day for those around him and strengthens the culture of his school. Let's give Ray another hand of congratulations. [applause] >> [applause] [applause] >> Next, I'm going to introduce Miss Tamara Mills and ask her to come forward who is going to bring um it's one of my most exciting months when we get
034to honor the artistic talents, although we're working on making that happen throughout the school year, not just sort of at one time. But we're super excited. Today, we have some normal celebrations and we have some new ones. I want to thank Miss Tamara Mills um for her leadership of of the arts as well as many, many other programs that she oversees um because she does a wonderful job. So, I'll turn it over to her. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. And thank you all for being here. Thank you to our board, our executive team. And um this is one of my favorite times of year because as you've heard already from our awesome board reps that there's all state going on and concerts and parades and the children's theater and there's so much in
035the arts that the students can excel at. And one of the other things is our holiday card competition. So um we have been doing this for a long long time. New this year, I'm going to start off with our newest uh recognition. knew this year, Dr. Wallace and the executive team decided instead of purchasing cards from Worcester County Public Schools for the holidays that they would use one of our top uh winners of the um holiday card contest and use a student image for the cards that the school system gives out to the public. And so um it was Dr. Wallace and the executive team made a pick and this student um let me back up a little bit. For the contest this year, I always pick a theme, a theme that can be easily
036integrated into art education. So something that might involve an element of art, color or shape or a particular time period. So this year's theme was winter's palette. And what I love about the theme this year is students um they they understood this and kind of created their design in so many different ways. They represented that word palette either by using holiday colors, maybe it was a monochromatic design focusing on tints and shades. Um so a lot of different different interpretations and I loved that. So this first one was a watercolor. It looks like a watercolor design and some colored pencil perhaps marker kind of a mixed media. And this is the image. I'm going to bring up Miss Forester, the art teacher, and she's going to say just a few words about the student who
037won this, and I'll show you the design. Thank you. So, this student I do. We want her to come up, too. All right, Daisy, come on up. Daisy has been with me for quite a few years. Um, she is always up for a challenge. So, when it comes to a contest, she's like, I'm going to do this. And um she did she did quite well. I'm excited to have her again next semester uh for my advanced art class. [applause] So, Daisy will get and all of our rec uh recognition award awardees today, sorry, will get a framed photo of their original work and they will all get a little gift from us. So, thank you so much. go on up and we'd like to take your picture, [applause] >> Mr. Green. Yeah. Thanks. >> Yep.
038There you go. >> Note to the others. >> Congratulations, Daisy. Now, before I get to the top winners of each age category, we had an honorable mention this year, um the amount of skill and work involved in this particular piece was unbelievable. When I show it to you, you're going to see that the entire design is created um with little teeny tiny cut paper designs and assembled. It's absolutely stunning. I'm going to ask Miss Heather Riser, her art teacher, to come up. And the honorable mention this year goes to Laya Johnstone. [applause] So, if you if you get a chance to come to Decatur and look at our at the art case, Laya first made this design really big. It's 18 by 24 and it's made of recycled wallpaper. [music] And so that kind of
039gave us the idea to create it smaller with a winter more of a wintry scene um with the wallpaper. And she found out that the smaller version was much more difficult than the larger one. But both are beautiful. And she's also on our green team. And so we love that crosscurricular connection with with art and recycling. So, [applause] and with our traditional uh card winners, they also will get because these are the cards that go out to the staff members in Worcester County Public Schools. So, the family will also get a a small selection of cards they can give to their family. [applause] Congratulations. All right. Now, we're going to start out with our youngest artists in our age groups. And so, for our preK through two age group, I'm going to ask Miss Cindy
040Sullivan from Snow Hill Elementary to bring up with her Mr. for Messiah Jackson. [applause] Thank you. Messiah is an extraordinary artist. You can say you knew him when. He is incredible. He works very, very hard and he's a delight. >> [applause] >> Thank you. It was a beautiful construction paper collage with some really nice texture in the background created through uh crayon. [applause] All right, our next Congratulations, Messiah. Do you want to go give that to daddy? >> Thank you. All right, our next age group was our third third through fifth grade age group. to our upper elementary. I'm going to ask Mr. Bob Hullbert, the art teacher at Ocean City, one of the art teachers at Ocean City Elementary, um Emma Yun's art teacher, and he's going to bring Emma up here with him,
041and they're going to share a little bit about her design. Thank you. Well, Emma drew a nice drawing of something that would I think she anticipated the weather because she drew a cup of hot chocolate with a marshmallow roasting over top of it. And um I think all of us would love to have one of those at this point. But Emma's a tremendous young artist. She's doing a great job. She's always excited about what's the next thing she's going to do. Um, and I just continue to encourage her because she's she's also one of those ones that you probably should get their autograph now because she she will be selling them later, I think, some one of these days. So, great job, Emma. Congratulations. [applause] >> Thank you so much. Really liked the light pastel
042shades or tints of that particular piece. Do you want to congratulations, Emma? Emma. Oh, we already heard you want to give that to her parents. Thank you. All right. Our next age group was our sixth through 8th grade age group. Uh this particular uh student is going to be welcomed up by Mr. Michael Aval. Mr. Mr. Aval is the art teacher. So, he's going to bring Miss Ammyra Collins up with Amamira. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amamira Collins up with him and tell us about her work. >> Thank you. >> Good afternoon. >> Afternoon. >> Um, so Amamira is just a very creative and talented young artist. Um, when I introduced this project, uh, it was a collage piece. You have it here. Okay. Um, you know, I introduced the criteria for it and
043Amamira just got it right away. She just had a creative vision and she did that with all her art projects. Um, so I'm very proud of her and I hope up you keep up the uh artistic endeavors in high school cuz you got something. >> Thank you. [applause] Going to head up front and get your picture. And if you couldn't see from a distance, it is all um different shades and tints of greens and blues cut out of small pieces of magazines. So looking through finding those just the right colors. >> One of my former students. I got to make sure. [laughter] >> Do you want here? Do you have your phone? I'll take it. >> [applause] >> Let me give you here, Mr. Aval. That's for her. All right. Um, we have two more.
044We have a 9 through 12 and then we have an overall. So, our 9th through 12th grade winner this year, Miss Forester, I'm going to welcome her back up from Snow Hill High School and I'm going to have her introduce Miss Lux Nier and tell you about her work. Lux is in my art tube class and she is really starting to master acrylic painting and um this artwork is done with acrylics and she works super hard and she's like, "Can I paint again?" I said, "Finish this next project. Can I paint again?" So, I have a feeling her next project, because they get to make some decisions on their own, I have a feeling it will be acrylic. >> CONGRATULATIONS. [applause] >> And that was you said it was acrylic, correct, Miss Forester? That was
045acrylic painting. It shows great depth. Congratulations. And our final recipient for today is our overall winner. So, um, those who vote vote and and the individuals who vote can sometimes be from the public is that they were up at the last board meeting for the public to see, but also people who are here in the central office. They all vote anonymously. Um, and this was the overall pick from all the grade levels and that is also Miss Forester student from Snow Hill High School, Miss Delaney Patrick. [applause] Delaney is with me this semester in my 3D art class. And I said, you know, guys, would you all like to try this contest? And Delaney was like, I'm in it. So, um she actually has more skill and talent than she admits to. So, she's she's
046quite talented. If you take a look at her artwork, she created a um beautiful um lighthouse, something that we all see living on the coast. [applause] So, while they're taking that picture, I just um thank you so much for the families who were here and for all the students who entered. There were many from every school. Um and I want to ask the parents who were here too, please keep encouraging your children to be creative and to really embrace their talents. And thank you so much. Congratulations. Um thank you so much to our executive team and our board for always supporting these creative endeavors. and in allowing our students to really get these recognition opportunities um because the arts are so much a part of our kids' lives. Thank you. Happy holidays. >> Thank you,
047Tamara. [applause] I have to tell you and anyone who works at the central office who bops through the central office at any point when all of the artwork is out, it is a really hard decision to make who to vote for. And I think sometimes people vote for multiple ones. To be honest with you, it was very hard as an executive team to pick our winner. We actually had to do a secret vote to pick our winner because they were all so good. So, every year, um, our students just their talent shine through. Um, I'm going to introduce Mr. Bevel Aqua, I believe, next, who is going to introduce Mr. Rick Stevens, who is a is a stranger to none of us, um, and our Skills USA and some of the honors that they most
048recently brought home. >> Good afternoon, Mr. Ferrante, members of the board, Dr. Wallace and executive leadership team. A lot of people ask what is Skills USA and the simple answer is this is our varsity sport. Every student in our school is a member of Skills USA. What you all see on Facebook or hear in the news is typically our competitions that occur in the spring. You hear about our state winners and then in the early summer you hear about our uh our national winners. This is different. This is our leadership group. Uh we have three tiers today. You're going to hear about our state officers. You're going to hear about our statesman award recipients. And you're going to hear about our advanced statesman's award recipients. And if you have to link it to sports, think
049of it as first and second team bayside. That's sort of what we're looking at here. Before we begin, I do want to thank several of our adviserss. This is a lot of work. We have Crystal Bunting. We have Kelly Clark in the back. We have Denise Cotton Cen right here. And Phil Craropper is our outgoing Maryland Skills USA advisor of the year. Finally, [applause] I'm going to turn the mic over to the one and only Rick Stevens. >> Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. I want to thank our administration because they're so supportive and definitely all of you. Thank you so much and the parents. So, this is actually our local officers for Skills USA. Every year we go to we go to the carousel in Ocean City in November. Uh there was roughly around 425
050kids from across the state of Maryland. And this is where they learn to be leaders in our in our communities. And so hopefully some of these will actually be up here one day or as a county commissioner or so we definitely want to keep them involved in our county. So this year we were lucky enough and she earned it. She's our Skills USA Maryland state president Sydney Wade. [applause] And also we have our state parliamentarian Lydia Serrano. [applause] These young ladies uh served as the state officers. They planned all of the fall conference through their meetings and presented six different times with a group of probably around 40 people. So they did an awesome job. They're going to hand out the pins to our statesman and advanced statesmen. So first of all starting off our
051statesman award. Gaya Cray, [applause] Leila Green, job, Amelia Harper, [applause] Julia Sailorova, [applause] Regina Welsh, [applause] Keandre Douglas, Briana Ellis, Alyssa Jeffers, [applause] Amaya Johnson, Max Maguire, [applause] Haley McCowski, Ava Schiffer, >> [applause] >> Cania Smith and Amanda Guo [applause] and also our advanced statesman Max Jacobs, [applause] Jack Phillips, and Fiona Guerrero. Again, I want to thank the parents and thank you very much. Thanks for all your support. Um, I travel across the state. Where's Mr. Copper? Mr. Copper, teacher of the year, of course. He's also serves on the board of directors with me for Skills USA Maryland. We travel around quite a bit. And let me tell you, so folks, we are lucky. We have great kids in this county. And we and that's because of these people up here and the schools they
052go to. And thank you all very much for what you do. Appreciate it. Sure. [applause] >> How you doing? Congratulations. Thank you for appreciate you. Thank you. Can't see her. She can't see you. >> We did pick a few of you to be in the back. >> All right, three. Everybody look right here. >> Pop up and take a good look. Welcome. [applause] Congratulations. >> Congratulations. We'll just take a few moments till everyone exits. We'll begin re resume the meeting. >> [snorts] >> Okay, now our time for public comment. All individuals who signed up to address the Worester County Board of Education may do so for one or two minutes regarding information, accommodations, or concerns which may need future board attention. Concerns that are specific to an individual will not be discussed in open session
053and should be directed to appropriate district personnel for investigation. When called to address the board, please state your name and address for the record. And I do not have anyone on the list. Is there anyone in the audience wishing to speak today? Perfect. >> Okay. Well, next we'll move on to our consent agenda. The board has had an opportunity to review the consent agenda. Does anyone wish to have anything pulled from the consent agenda for discussion? >> If not, I need a motion. Yes, Dr. >> I don't wish to pull anything. I just want to make a comment when we're about Berlin Intermediate School. >> Okay. >> But let's let's you want to do that. >> I make a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Okay. Dr. And makes a motion to
054approve the consent agenda as presented. Do I have a second? >> Second by Mr. Gordy. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? All right. Dr. Andy's, you want to make a >> I wanted to thank the folks who worked on the Berlin Intermediate School uh proposal today. I just want to point out so everyone in the audience in our community understands that school was built in 1970. So it's 55 years old, I think. and it's long overdue for systemic renovation or or replacement. And I want to commend the entire team for the document that you put together. Uh Berlin Intermediate School, Snow Hill Middle School, and Pocamok Middle School were all built at the same time. They all use the same open space format. And uh as educators, we all know that open space
055fails. It fails kids. It was the wrong move at the time, but it it happened. So, I'm very excited that we're going to be doing something with Berlin Intermediate School, either systemic renovation and or a replacement of the building, and that will come in the near future to make those determinations. Uh, and incidentally, when those three schools were built, they were paid for entirely by the state. >> I'll say it again. When those three schools were built, >> everybody's shocked. They were paid for entirely by the state of of Maryland. And I know that as we move forward, we're going to consider safety concerns. The car stacking on Route 113 is a major challenge for parents and our community. And the safety because those cars stack on 113 either and drop off in the morning
056or pick up in the afternoon and that's a major safety concern. Also, the separation of buses and students and so forth and so on. Um, but the my one request if we do a systemic renovation, if that's the decision, please get rid of the mansards. Please get rid of the mansards. The maners are the metal surfacing that goes around the entire building between the wall, the exterior wall and the roof. Those maners require significant maintenance. And one of the challenges that I faced in a prior life was getting someone to maintain and paint the maners. So if we replace the building, maners are not an issue. However, if we do systemic renovation, please get rid of the manserts. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you, Dr. Anyone else wishing to speak? Okay. Now, I'm going
057to turn it over to Dr. Recorder for the curriculum instruction report of our agenda. Thank you, Mr. Fonte. It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. Jennifer Rain and her team of Miss Michelle Bradley. Um, Pokemok High School was recently recognized as a five-star school and part of their recognition was their systems, their operations behind the scenes that led and gave opportunities kids for or opportunities to students for college and career pathways and post-secary opportunities. And as I was listening today to the board meeting, I noticed that in the voltage award, there was mentioning of college and career opportunities and AP classes. During one of the student board reps, there was a a mention of becoming college and career readiness through the MCAP. How a school organizes that, how they task, and how they system themselves
058is exactly what our one of our five star high schools is about to present. Dr. Rain, Miss Bradley, it is our pleasure. >> Thank you and thank you for having us. I'm actually excited that you introduced Michelle as a team because she is in fact an entire team. So, that was actually perfect wording. So, thanks for having us this afternoon. We're excited um to talk about personalized pathways, especially ESSA. It is exciting to be a leader in a high school right now because ESSA focuses for high schools on postsecary um performance, right? Post-secondary endeavor. And while we have a 100% graduation rate, we honestly don't judge ourselves on our graduation rate. We judge ourselves on how our students do two years, four years, eight years, 10 years after they leave us. So our job during
059our students four years with us is to make sure that they find success after they graduate and that that success is maintained. So that is our shared vision. I just want you to take a couple seconds and read that. I'm not going to read that for you. So this is our why, right? Um, and we encourage our entire school, students and families, um, around the why of ESSA and the why of school quality and postsecary success and how important that is for all of our students. Our I guess our secret sauce is really just high expectations and high support for students as well as educators to meet the needs of all students and believe in all students. One of the ways that we make sure that we are not missing any student in our school
060um is we track everything, right? So we like to say that we are studentdriven data informed. So everything that we do keeps a student in mind and Michelle um has designed a data tracker for everything that we do at Pokamok High School. Right? So if there is a system um there's a way of monitoring there's a way of ensuring that every single student is making progress then we can ensure that every student is ready for postsecary success when they leave us. So this is an example of how we track ESSA opportunity or it's called access um we call it opportunity. I think the key here is to make sure that we not only provide an opportunity for students to take dual enrollment courses um be involved in a CTE program um for opportunity and access
061but we make sure that we are encouraging students to take advantage of dual enrollment courses and CTE courses. So those are the two top elements. Um as well as AP courses for ESSA opportunity and this is SS opportunity is basically under ESSA a a mark of school quality and student success, right? Um so we backmap our scheduling. So our school counselors work with every single student to talk about what they want to do when they graduate, right? Um their passions, their talents, their interests. Then their schedules are backmapped from that and students are then scheduled for dual enrollment CTE. Even if a student may say, uh, I want to, um, go directly into the trades, which is amazing. We need more students to go into the trades. We also encourage students to take dual enrollment
062courses. What we tell students is there are too many things that could possibly be a barrier. We don't want them to close their own doors. We don't want them to think you know what college isn't for me because once that often with our students if they just take a dual enrollment course because a lot of our students are first generation college students they take a dual enrollment course they find success and then all of the sudden they start thinking oh my gosh I am a college student I can be successful and that's what we want all of our students to feel when they're at Pok High School. The second way that we track and also we track in the summer, we track quarterly and we track after every single assessment. So again, it's not just
063tracking, but it's progress monitoring and then adjusting necessary supports in order um to make sure that students are are making progress um as well as necessary high supports for our educators as well. Uh so it's not just on students, it's making sure that our teachers have the capacity to meet every single need. So this is ESSA completion. So ESSA completion and freshman on track which which you will see shortly are measures of postsecary success. So ESSA completion tracks all of the ways um that students can find success. And as you have seen in the previous slide, we're at 96.8% already of our seniors um have hit the mark for ESSA completion, have hit the mark for ESSA opportunity, and we're already 1% higher than last year. So, that is exciting and it's still early in
064the year. So, um we're really just we're just getting start well we're not getting started with this now. We get started in nth grade which you'll see shortly. Another big piece of this is if students are in school every day, it's very difficult to make sure um that they are on track um for their post-secary success. So, we also track chronic absenteeism. uh we pick up a lot of points on ESSA for chronic ab absenteeism and and it is essentially um extremely important for students to attend school each day. This is also personalized. So we split students up according to um who has relationships with students and then we have one minute meetings during your 60 time where we talk to students quickly um about where they are um if a student has already missed
065let's say 14 days. We plan with that student what are some of the barriers coming to school every day. Um and we do some goal setting around that and then we can continue to progress monitor as well as make phone calls home or even a parent conference. Over to you. So like Dr. Rain mentioned um another measure is the freshmen that are on track. So we do start this system when we actually start at the summer they before they come to us um by gathering their demographics as well and we enter all their information in the spreadsheet and then we start meeting um as a team to look at their progress in their courses to ensure that they earn four at least four credits in five content areas by the end of their freshman year.
066Um, and if they are not on track to making that progress, then we discuss them. They appear on our list at our bi-weekly uh student progress meetings. So then we look at the students course grades. Again, we reach out and uh brainstorm with their person or people who have good connections with them and put a plan in place. And then switching over to CCR, very similar, another very sim similar system to ESSA is our system that we use to track CCR. Uh so Dr. Rain will kind of flip through the next few slides. It kind of just shows you it's a really long spreadsheet because since we've updated CCR again to include more metrics, which is great, more opportunities for our students, there's many ways that they can attain CCR now. So again, this is
067updated after every semester, after actually I update it every quarter as well with their GPA and then also um after every assessment that they take and then that's used by counselors as well for scheduling purposes. So I did include some statistics as well. So, our class of 2025, 68% of them were CCR and in September using our systems, uh, the class of 2026 is already up to 83%. And so, that's a 15% increase. And for the 17% that are not CCR, they all have an individualized plan that we meet monthly to discuss their progress. >> Does anyone have any questions? board members, Dr. Andy's, I see the wheels turning. Now, >> I just wanted to thank Dr. Rain and Miss Bradley for the outstanding job you're doing. And as our superintendent always says, and I'm
068I'm paraphrasing her, every student needs to be known by the by their strengths and their needs. And you're operationalizing that theme from our superintendent. And I congratulate you on being a five-star school. So, congratulations, team. >> Thank you. Before you go, before you go and Dr. Wallace has some comments. >> Yes, thank you. Um, I think what's really impressive to me, number one, is the oper oper operationalizing. I don't know why I'm having trouble saying that word. Um, of the systems that have been put in place. And for me, it's it's really nice because I can see the whole trajectory of where Pocamok High School was in tracking systems and how far you've come. you've done a really nice job of continuing to personalize it, continuing to update it, continuing to make it better. But
069I just want to remind the board in case you missed it in the last um board meeting when Tom Hamill was talking about it. Poke High School is performing four standard deviations beyond the mean and Dr. Dr. Andes preferred to stick with the unicorn terms. So, we'll stick with that, but it's it's almost impossible and I talked to the state board about this. So, I want to give Dr. Rain and her team um all the credit and congratulations in the world. Um, and the students at Pocamo High School in the community, um, because they truly are making magic with their students every day to steal a phrase I think we used a few years ago there, but um, they really are doing the unbelievable. They're doing the impossible nearly and they deserve a lot of
070credit for that. So, thank you for all that you're doing and um, do better next year also get more points. So, we're working on that. So, thank you all for having us. We appreciate it. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Now I'd like to turn it over to Dr. App for um the administrative and physical operations. >> Thank you, Mr. Ferrante. Uh board members, for your consideration, we have the December personnel exhibit. Uh new hires, Jennifer Clayton, educational assistant, uh Pok Elementary School. Robinson, educational assistant, Steven Decar Middle School. Uh separations this month. Mary Barl, cafeteria assistant, Pokemoke [snorts] Elementary School. Michael Holden, custodian 2, Snow Hill Elementary School. Christopher Jones, teacher, Worcester Technical High School. Kristen Wen, teacher, Cedar Chapel Special School. Morgan Smith, teacher, Sha Elementary School. Promotions. [snorts]
071Jason Hilbert, head custodian, Berlin Intermediate School. Valerie Montgomery, teacher at Berlin Intermediate School, and other announcements. No action required. Um, Miss Katie Addis, board member, central office, uh, resignation. The superintendent recommends approval of the personnel exhibit as presented. >> Thank you, Dr. App. Um, board members have any questions for Dr. App concerning these hires or resignations? Okay, I need a motion and a second for the approval of the exhibit personnel exhibit as presented. >> So move. >> Motion by Miss Mccomomas. Second, >> a second by Mr. Smack. All in favor? >> Any opposed? Thank you, Dr. Okay. Now, I'd like to see We're Yeah. board comments. Oh, yeah. That's the most important thing we're here for today. Carrie, come on up. Everybody wants to know about this board calendar. Carrie, [laughter] >> no pressure at
072all. Board, I think you have a copy of it in front of that you can review, too. >> Yep. I believe the board has hard copies of the calendar options that I'm going to go over with you shortly. >> Okay. >> Um well, good afternoon everyone. Um so just to get us started, um just an overview of the calendar development process. Uh this began in October with our annual survey going out to gather input prior to the initial proposals being developed. Following the survey, the calendar committee met to design new proposals based on that input. Today I'm bringing before you those options as anformational item only today and after today those options will go out for a vote by our school system community. That vote information will go to the superintendent and she will make
073her final recommendation to you in February alongside our annual virtual day instruction plan as well. >> [snorts] >> So, as part of our process, we utilize Thought Exchange, our community engagement platform, to conduct the calendar input survey. And that survey ran from October 27th for a twoe span ending on November 7th. The survey had strong participation with,446 responses. And as you can see, the largest demographic groups participating were parents and employees. Location-wise, participation tended to mirror the size of those schools with our north uh our northern end schools having the largest amount of responders. Now, a key question asked was the top priority of the calendar, an early release in June or providing more breaks throughout the school year. And while in previous years like last year normally it's an even split [laughter] um this
074year we actually had a clear preference that emerged with uh 57% indicating a preference for an earlier release in June. Respondents also indicated that they preferred break that excuse me respondents that indicated they preferred breaks were also asked to rank how best to tackle that. Um, and as you can see in this breakdown, uh, they thought padding those holiday breaks was the clear preference. And regarding professional development, respondents indicated a preference for early dismissals. And of those who chose early dismissals, they ranked their days of preference as the following. Thursday was in first place, Wednesday in second place, and Tuesday in third place. And then moving on, the survey also included an open-ended question where any additional input could be captured. Thought exchanges tools crunch this qualitative data in a variety of ways, but here
075I'm just sharing the summary. Uh in your board packet, you not only have this summary, but a breakdown of uh differences as well as common ground as well as the full robust list of comments received. That is a lot if you so choose to go that route. Um so taking that, our calendar committee met in early November where as a group we dug into this survey data and we had some rich discussion around the responses. So while a clear charge was to end this the year earlier in June, utilizing that entire data set, the committee split into subgroups to develop different calendars with the primary differentiator being the integration of professional development. Ultimately, the group designed three calendar options accompanied by a few recommendations which were provided to the superintendent and leadership team for consideration.
076So, I believe you have those three in front of you, and those options are available in your packet, but just so you're aware, most of them are very similar. All of the options begin school on September 8th, the day following Labor Day. Our countywide PD day will be held on November 3rd, which is election day. Uh Thanksgiving and winter breaks are pretty much the same. And then finally, they all end with a tenative last day of school on June 15th. The difference is in option one that utilizes early dismissals for professional development as well as one other tiny change. Spring break has one additional day of closure on March 25th in that option. Your option two utilizes staggered closures for PD which to give a little bit of context about that that allows us to
077provide full day professional development for staff at those schools uh without the difficulty found with early dismissals like schools dismissing at different times or transportation challenges of half days. Additionally, the staggered closure does not result in um additional instructional time being lost. With this model, students will miss two full days of instruction, which equates to this the four half days that they would be missing with the early dismissal structure. And then lastly, option three, the committee actually uh chose to come back together uh to create a hybrid of sorts of both uh in which the first half, you can see the first half of professional development is using the staggered closure and then the second half is using the early dismissal dismissal structure. The committee felt like this would give families a pilot of sorts
078where they could try both options and inform us in a survey in a later year what they preferred more. So those are your options and I know I went over this earlier but just so you know so you are aware of next steps following today's meeting. These three options will go out for another vote. Um and the results of that will be shared with the superintendent and team and then I will be back before you likely in February with her recommendation. So, do we have any questions? I know it's anformational item, but >> first of all, I know this is an undertaking and we thank you for what you go through because it is and we're very inclusive as a school system making sure that we hear everyone. Um, but board members, any questions for
079Miss Steers on this. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you very much. We appreciate it. >> We look forward to seeing the final product. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Now, I'd like to open the floor up to my fellow board members for any comments they may have before the end of the end of the year. Mr. Gordy, >> make sure you speak into the mic, sir. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I just wanted to uh give a shout out to Worcester Tech and Mr. Stevens at his Skills USA program over there. I know we just recognized a number of them and uh Mr. Stevens and the school in general does an incredible job with the Skills USA program and once again we are widely recognized as state leaders as as a result of that effort. So
080we have state leadership in every area including academics but it's nice to see that even in Skills USA as you saw we have a state president and a state parliamentarian and uh they just do an incredible job bringing us recognition bring the students recognition. So once again county reflects as number one in that area. Thank you. >> Thank you Mr. Gordy. Mr. Buchanan. >> Uh yeah Mr. Gordy. I'd like to give a little shout out too to the uh to the tech center uh a couple Saturdays ago. Uh they had a drop in event at the Pines Cafe and uh we decided to go over there and and uh and check out and see what was going on and it was very very impressive. Um not only was uh Mr. Craroppers Pine Cafe in operation
081and a lot of people were taking advantage of the great food that was there. But [snorts] the there were different departments uh from Wester Tech that were working together uh to produce from with their students and from their students products that could be sold to the public. Uh and a lot of the products were u holiday oriented. Um multimedia department was there. the uh the department that deals with the 3D printer and laser design and items uh that were manufactured and even Rick Stevens welding department which I had to purchase a couple things uh from that. Uh but it was it was good to see uh outside of school, you know, this was a Saturday um departments working together for the benefit of the tech center. Um now it had a twofold type thing there.
082Uh not only the recognition of having the public look and see what's being produced there, but also uh the products that were sold, the monies went back into the departments. And so they're trying to be self- sustaining in a sense. Not that they're not going to we're going to have to still keep funding and everything. uh but it gave the students also a chance to understand uh a product made a product sold you know and and for that experience um there were a lot of people there uh I spent a lot of money there [laughter] but it was well worth it and uh I think we we should be very very proud and I know and I know the school system is very very proud of of the tech center and like I've said in
083the to the public out there. If you get a chance and you're going down uh 113 and you've got some time on your hands, if you could, you know, maybe uh ring the uh security thing to get in and ask the principal if you can have a tour and just to go through the the uh the different departments, you will be supremely impressed with it. Thank you. [snorts] >> Thank you, Mr. Buchanan. Mr. Smack >> uh to all the schools, the faculty and staff and students, to everyone that's listening, I wish you a very very blessed holiday, stay safe, think about the poor and the needy and smack family love you all. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Smeck. Dr. Um, thank you, Mr. Fonte. I wanted to recognize and thank the Steven Degard High
084School band for representing Worcester County, but not only the entire state of Maryland in the annual Pearl Harbor Day parade in Honolulu, Hawaii on December 7th, 2025. And I also want to thank the many businesses and individuals who donated money to make this possible so that our young people could have a once-ina-lifetime experience and the leadership of of Steven Decar High School for making this all possible. What what an opportunity for those young people to go. And I wasn't asked to be a chaperone, but I would have volunteered, sacrificed myself to go to Honolulu, Hawaii for a few days. But that's okay. That's all right. Don't worry about it. Uh, second thing, I want to commend the Steven Decar High School Children's Theater. uh they always do a wonderful production every single year and thousands
085of children from throughout the lower shore have an opportunity to actually see a children's theater a play and performance. Also want to thank and commend the many high school bands, middle school, so forth and so on who participated and band fronts who participated in the holiday parades. If you've noticed, the temperature was very cold during the holiday parades. And playing a musical instrument or or using a banner in a band front and walking down the street during the holiday is a significant uh challenge. Let's put it that way. It's a significant challenge. So, great job all the bands, band fronts, band directors, and everyone else who did an outstanding job for the for the parades. and also to our musical folks uh our coral vocal folks who put on a wonderful programs in the evenings
086for our entire community. So congratulations to all of them. I want to commend our superintendent of schools. If you had an opportunity to watch, our superintendent of schools presented an outstanding report before the state board of education. I can't remember the exact date. Uh our [clears throat] it happened. It happened. You can still go on YouTube probably the state state board of education channel and watch her presentation. She did an outstanding job and truly let the entire state of Maryland and the United States know what an outstanding school system that we have here in Worcester County. So, I thank you. I thank you for driving all the way to Baltimore, 200 West Baltimore Street, finding parking, so forth and so on. But most importantly, I thank you for shining a light on Worcester County Public
087Schools. And I thank you for your outstanding leadership of our school system. And finally, I wish everyone celebrating Hanukkah, Festival of Lights, a happy Hanukkah, and everyone else a very merry Christmas. Thank you. >> Thank you, Dr. Andy's. One thing I can always count on is Dr. Andy's is very thorough and covers everything. So, if there's anything you want to say, you're going to last. You're not really going to get it in, but thank you, Dr. Andy's. I appreciate it. You do an outstanding job of making sure that we recognize not only our students, but our staff here. Um, I just also want to extend a warm and um, greetings to everyone for the holiday season, whether you celebrate Christmas or what, however holiday you celebrate. And I just want to I want to tell
088you how thankful I am for everyone in the school system here, not only our our students, but our staff and our everything that they do because they do such a terrific job and we we really do appreciate it. The board appreciates it. So, with that, I'm going to turn over to Dr. Wallace and ask her to give you someformational uh items of meeting updates. >> Yes, I will also give one more shameless plug. If Santa hasn't prepared all of his gifts yet, the Pines Cafe as well as the Wister Tech Marketplace are open for business. And so, um there are still plenty for you to purchase and support our students, um and support their their artistic and business endeavors because as Mr. B said, it's the full circle. It's the creation to the product to
089the selling to the customer. So, um you can head there if you need to before the holiday break begins. Uh December 22nd through January 2nd, our schools are closed for winter break. We will reopen on January 5th, 2026. I think we're getting a flyover right now. It's celebrating that. I don't know. Uh Monday, January 19th, our schools are closed for Martin Luther King Day in honor of that day. And then on Tuesday, January 20th is our next regularly scheduled board meeting. Back to you, Mr. Fonte. >> Thank you, Dr. Wallace. Did uh we mention that the Pines Cafe will be open until Christmas Eve. Um I don't know if we did or not, but uh if you need any holiday items, they have great muffins. Uh I could go on and on. Great cookies, uh
090great baked things. So, thank you, Chef Craropper. Um no, I want to We didn't have enough time uh today to keep we didn't want to keep everybody waiting. So, what I'm going to ask our board is that we need to go back into our closed session. So, I need a motion to uh enter into close session. Uh, and a second. Motion by Mr. Smack. >> Second. >> A second by Mr. Gordy. All in favor? >> I. >> Okay. And we will go back into close session. Thank you so much.