Meeting of the Baltimore County Board of Education - February 10, 2026

001I see we're ready. Good afternoon. This is Chairwoman Jane Lter. I call to order the meeting of the board of education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. This evening's board of education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast and on BCPS TV Xfinity channel 1073 and Verizon Fios channel 34. In order to officially conduct this meeting, all voting items this evening will be done by roll call vote. May I have a motion to go into close session as permitted by the opens meeting act as found in the annotated code of Maryland general provisions article 3-305 B1 and B7 to discuss the appointment employment assignment second I'm sorry assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation removal resignation or performance evaluation of employees employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction or any

002other personal matter that affects one or more specific individuals and consult with counsel to obtain legal advice. So move Stleski. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Hen. Thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Mumbbe? Yes. Miss Dleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumphrey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong. Yes. You say yes. Thank you, Miss Harvey. Yes. Miss Leicter. Yes. Thank you. Good evening. This is Chairwoman Jane Lter. I now call to order the meeting of the board of education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. I invite you to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag to be led by Miss Foresight Onambe. We will then have a moment of silence in recognition of those who have served education

003in Baltimore County to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight's board of education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast and on BCPS TV Xfinity channel 1073 and Verizon Fios channel 34. In order to efficiently conduct this meeting, all voting items this evening will be done by roll call vote. The first item on the agenda is consideration of the February 10th agenda. Dr. Rogers, are there any additions or changes to tonight's agenda? I am unaware of any changes to this evening's agenda. Thank you. Hearing none, the agenda stands as presented. The next item on the agenda is personnel matters. And for that, I call Oh, whoops. I didn't read the

004bottom, did I? Sorry. Okay. Earlier this evening, the board met in close session pursuant to the Open Meetings Act for the following reasons. To discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation, removal, resignation, or performance evaluation of appointees, employees, or officials over whom it has jurisdiction, or any other personal matter that affects one or more specific individuals, and consult with council to obtain legal advice. The close session summary and the open session information summary can be found on board docs under this board meeting agenda date. The next item on the agenda is personal matters and for that I call on Mr. McCall. Good evening Mr. McCall. All right. Good evening, Chair Ler, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. I'd like the board's consent for the following personnel matters tonight.

005We have retirements, resignations, leaves, and educator lensure appointments. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel matters as presented in exhibits D1 through D4? So moved, Harvey. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second, Stellleski. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Aumbbe? Yes. Miss Stellleski? Yes, Dr. Seavoy. Yes, Mr. McMillian. Yes, Miss Pumphrey. Yes, Mr. Young. Yes, Miss Dominowski. Yes, Miss Hen. Yes, Miss Fmppong. Yes, Miss Harvey. Yes, Miss Licter. Yes. Thank you. Our next item is public comment. This is one of the Thank you, Mr. McCall. This is one of the opportunities the board provides to hear the views and receive the advice of community members. If not selected to address the board, members of the public may submit their comments to the board

006members via email at bcps at bebbcps.org. The Baltimore County Police Department's Homeland Security Unit and Office of School Safety has recommended safety and security protocols which are posted in the boardroom and available in board docs and on the board's participation by the public website. While we encourage public input on policy, programs, and practices within the purview of this board and this school system, this is not the proper form to address specific student or employee matters or to comment on matters that do not relate to public education in Baltimore County. Inappropriate personal remarks or other behavior such as language that promotes violence against a BCPS employee or that disrupts or interferes with the conduct of this meeting are out of order and will not be tolerated. Persons who otherwise disrupt or disturb this meeting will not

007be allowed to continue their remarks and will be escorted from the meeting. Please observe the 3minut clock which will let you know when your time is up. The microphone will be turned off at the end of your time or prior to the time at the discretion of the board chair. We will start with our school system affiliated groups and our first speaker is Miss Leslie Weber from the PTA Council of Baltimore County and she is virtual. Miss Weber. Yes. Can you hear me? Yes. Great. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Board of Education members, and Dr. Rogers. I'm Lesley Weber, president of the PTA Council of Baltimore County. I'd like to focus on some key budget related items on which we've recently testified and share several updates. As we noted last month,

008PTA Council recognizes the challenging fiscal landscape facing our school system due to decrease funding decreases at all levels of government and due to the increasing needs of our students and families. We understand how difficult it is for large school system to balance many competing needs and interests. PTA Council is pleased that BCPS is prioritizing the recruitment and retention of the BCPS workforce through compensation enhancements. We know it's difficult, but we hope that class sizes, especially at the elementary school level, remain as small as possible. We're happy that hiring additional special education teachers and PAR educators is included in the proposed operating budget and that there's a continued commitment to multilingual learner resources. PTA Council appreciates the proposed budget's continued focus on safety and climate, which aligns with our partnership with BCPS to advocate for responsible

009cell phone use and the safe use of technology. We've also supported having safety assistance in our schools. So, we're glad that these important positions are being prioritized. Finally, we're grateful that BCPS remains committed to the community school strategy for which the council has advocated over many years. Now, for several updates. We're pleased that county bills for which we advocated passed recently. Bill 9725 establishes the office of immigrant affairs and a permanent chief of immigrant affairs. Bill 9825 assure ensures that county employees and police focus on public safety rather than civil immigration status. Both bills align with National PTA's position, rights and services for children and immigrant and mixed status families, which asserts that all children have the right to equality education, adequate food, and healthcare. We're proud to announce that the chair of our justice,

010equity, diversity, and inclusion committee, Edwin Perez, was personally invited by Lieutenant Governor Miller to attend Governor Moore's State of the State address tomorrow beginning at noon. Edwin was selected because of his strong leadership and wide-ranging advocacy related to protecting immigrant and mixed status students and families. We joke that Edwin wears many hats. We're happy that PTA Council is one of them. Maryland Public Television will broadcast the event live and it will be livereamed on the governor's official YouTube channel. Thank you. Thank you. Our second speakers are from the Baltimore County Student Councils and that's Manreed Anad and Sam Park. Good evening. Oh, good evening. Good evening, Chair Miss Leter, Vice Chair Miss Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, student member Miss Ambbe, and other members of the board. I'm Murray Anand, the BCSSE president, and I'm Sam

011Park, the BCSSE vice president. Today, we are here to update you on the current status of the Baltimore County Student Councils or BCSSE. We have been doing a ton of exciting things in the past few months. BCSSE has made substantial progress in enhancing student engagement and leadership countywide. On November 8th, we hosted our first general assembly of the year with 15 plus schools and close to 100 students in attendance. As part of our leadership development, our student workshop coordinators and operations directors organized workshops focused on a collaboration and networking. Since our last report, BCSC's had have five executive board meetings consisting of over 40 executive board members who have been working efficiently in their respective roles and producing some amazing results. We have also successfully held three virtual student seminars this year open to all

012secondary BCPS students. In October, we talked about school safety with Mr. Knox, the BCPS executive director of school safety. In November, we had our SMAB outreach seminar attended by our current SMAB foresight. In December, we had our service learning seminar with our wonderful BCSSE adviser and face program specialist, Miss Wade. Overall, these seminars have been an amazing opportunity for students to share their thoughts and concerns directly with central office staff while also getting to hear informative presentations from them on their expertise. Our next one will be on February 18th to share about mental health resources such as talking points. We're also excited to share that our 2026 2027 SMOP applications recently closed on January 23rd. As we work through the review process, two finalists will be announced soon. They will go on to participate in

013speeches as well as a Q&A before the voting day in April. We are also continuing to remain heavily involved within the Maryland Association of Student Councils. This past month on January 24th, BCSSC hosted the annual MASSE legislation session at Lock Raven High School. This event welcomed more than 400 students, advisers, and guests from across the state to discuss proposed legislative bill stances, vote on constitutional amendments, attend workshops, and vote on the final two nominees for the state student member of the Maryland Board of Education, whose applications will be sent to Governor Wesmore for a final decision. We are proud to announce that Abiola David Arawalo, a junior from Eastern Technical High School, was chosen as one of the finalists. And since our last report, the board of selected students has held four meetings. During these

014meetings, students from all across the county came together to discuss student related topics such as school safety and advocacy. We also wanted to share that we'll be hosting the first ever In-person Boss meetings since the pandemic. It will consist of three in-person meetings for each respective region in the upcoming months. Finally, we'll be going down to Annapolis on February 24th to speak directly with Boltzman County delegates and senators in the Maryland General Assembly on official youth related bill stances supported by BCSC. Thank you for allowing us to speak here again and we thank you for all that you do for BCPS students. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next speaker, our next category is unions and our first speaker um virtually is Mr. Billy Burke. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Dr. Rogers

015and members of the board, thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of Case. At the last meeting, you all had a conversation about the transition to virtual learning. I collected feedback from school administrators, and I'd like to share that feedback with you. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, but I do have some recommendations moving forward. Our principles and assistant principles are remarkably resilient. As one leader noted, "We figured it out, but the process was frustrating." While many report that the actual instruction was a success, there are systemic issues regarding communication, equity, and logistics that should be addressed before the next weather event. Here are the successes. When the screens turned on, BCPS shown. Principals reported outstanding attendance, exceeding 94% in some schools and praised the improved security features in Google Meet that prevented disruptions.

016Teachers, including those new to the profession, delivered highquality synchronous instruction that maintained academic continuity. Here are the challenges that mostly dealt with communication and logistics. The primary grievance from the field was the timing of the directives. Information regarding device distribution and instructional expectations shifted daily, culminating in a chaotic Friday morning. There were last minute details. Some principles received orders at 8:00 a.m. Friday to distribute, charge, and scan hundreds of devices into incident IQ, a task that took hours and pulled teachers away from instruction. There was some resource misalignment. Instructional materials and packets from the district often arrived after schools had already spent tight budget dollars printing their own. The digital divide has returned to our elementary schools. There is frustration regarding the inequity between grades three through five who have devices and prek through two

017who do not. Parents were confused why some children were were online all day while others only had paper packets. Many schools could not send home chargers. Students were forced to log off once batteries died or rely on mom's phone to join a lesson. Compensation and expectations for par educators and additional assistance remain unclear, leading to low morale and inconsistent support for our most vulnerable students. Our principles are asking for a clear message way before the threat of winter weather. We recommend early decision-making. Finalize the go no-go plan for devices as early as possible. Standardize schedules. Implement a consistent countywide elementary virtual schedule to eliminate parent confusion. And for logistic support, address the charger shortage and provide clear early guidance on attendance and pareducator roles. Our school leaders and teachers proved they can make virtual learning

018work. Now, we must provide them with the predictable, timely support they need to lead and teach effectively. Thank you for the opportunity to speak. Thank you. I'm going to pause for a second. It Don't look at me like I'm crazy. It's raining. Um, in the building, do you want to put a bucket there? Okay. Just a Yes, it is. We'll just We'll just Yes. Everything's melting. We're having our own weather related event right now. It's okay. Except Miss Pumprey needs to face that direction for me. We're just waiting for a bucket. We've got reporters. We can report on on the weather. I'm teasing. I'm going to report on the timeliness of our facility staff as they come in. Or should I keep going? Should I keep going or wait? Okay. And our next is Mr.

019Lloyd Allen. So, I just want you to realize if someone comes in here that No worries. What's happening? Is this this seat is dry? Correct. Yes, it's right in front of me. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board. Thank you for your time. I'm Lloyd Allen. he him vice president of Tapco speaking on behalf of the organization with permission from President Olds. I moved to Baltimore in 1999 to teach mathematics at Parkville High School. As a general educator, I had two sections of geometry that had 32 students each. In a 32 student class, students can hide. It's more difficult to build rapport, to know the students as people with personalities, to give personalized feedback, to make positive phone calls. home and to return papers to students in a

020timely fashion. However, at least the room in which I taught physically had enough square footage to fit 32 student desks. Some of my colleagues had larger classes where a student would sit at the teacher's desk, which could lead to mischief, where students had to sit on the radiator, which would then click incessantly, or where students physically spilled out into the hallway. In my current assignment, after two years of staff reductions, I'm in several classes that had to be reoriented so that more desks would fit in the room, and every seat is taken. The desk density means that some classrooms have virtually no aisles in the middle of the room. This interferes with everything from one-on-one help to handing out papers. One of my co-teers would have students work on boards around the perimeter of the

021room about once a week last year, but this year there's not enough room for us to have the students get up and move at all during the 80minute period. Can you picture this for a moment? People can't freely move around our room. And in the class, I don't have the space for proper one-to-one conversations with learners. How can I effectively alter the trajectory of a child's learning career if I can't properly get face-toface with them? These conditions are inadequate, but inadequate doesn't do the situation justice. Inadequate conditions mean futures are impacted. It means students that could have excelled just barely get by. It means students teetering on the edge of failure fall over that edge. with all that implies and all the harm that does to a child. The proposed budget would cut 594 and

0224/10en full-time positions. Many of these cuts to classroom teachers. Why would we do this to our students? Any progress we have made as a system is due to the connections between educators and learners. Increasing the staffing formula means increasing class size. Increasing class size means adding barriers to learning. Let us not do that. Consider this. As an educator, I am the school. As families, you are the school. As a community, including folks who don't have children, we are all the school together. We are connecting, communicating, and educating each other. Right now, the school is not the buildings, it's the people. We have to protect class size so we can build these relationships and get students to reach their greatest potential. If we are here for the student, and I am, then we must not increase

023class size in Baltimore County public schools. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Allen. Our next category are nonprofit community groups. And our first speaker is Mr. Chum. Good evening uh Madame Chairman, Lectctor uh and board members, Madame Superintendent Rogers and staff. Thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. I am representing Bilingual Global Citizen Public Charter School. We strongly believe that there was a very big misunderstanding in the interpretation of the fac purchase agreement we submitted to BCPS and that misunderstanding led to a decision about opening in the fall of 2026. Six. This determination appears to be based on an incomplete or inaccurate understanding of the agreements intent and provisions. We respectfully request that the decision be reviewed in the light of the full context of the agreement, including the party's original understanding and the operational

024steps already taken in good faith. A careful reassessment will help ensure that the decision aligns with both the contractual framework and the BCPS broader commitment to supporting educational access and continuity. Allowing bilingual global citizen public charter school to continue operations and proceed with the plan for 2026 opening will serve the best interest of all students, families and the community. Significant resources, planning and collaboration have already been invested towards a successful opening and halting progress at this stage will create unnecessary disruption. We strongly believe that open review the misunderstanding can be resolved without preventing the school from opening as scheduled. We respectfully urge BCPS to reconsider the position and work collaboratively with us to allow operation to continue and ensure a timely and lawful and opening for the fall 2026. We thank you for your time.

025We thank you for your service. Thank you very much. Thank you. Our next category are individual citizens or students. And our first speaker is George Bizignani. Good evening. I don't know all of you, but I'll address the board as one whole thing whole um congregation. Thank you very much for letting me to speak. I wanted to bring it attention to the board about a situation that happened on May 20th of 2025. A school bus hit my motorcycle and I and to date the board and Baltimore County Public Schools have not given me any kind of help whatsoever. I'm out $2,300 for bus 54 hitting me. Okay, Miriam, I sent a whole packet of information to you. I have not heard a word back. Nothing. Okay. I've talked to attorneys and I've talked to the Baltimore

026County Executive's Office. They asked me to present this to you and to have some some sort of resolution. An article was written by the Baltimore son by our gal right there about a 75 year old motorcycle accident. I'm asking that the Baltimore County Public Schools makes me whole again for $2,300. I'm not asking for anything outrageous. Excuse me. I just need to make sure that this line is okay since it's for the record. uh Darren Burns, sport attorney. I'm I'm not aware of the lawsuit that the gentleman's referring to and I don't know if there is in fact a lawsuit, but if it based on the board's instructions for public speakers, if he's going to get into the specifics of active litigation, then generally you all do not allow that. Okay. So, am I allowed

027to continue or not? Not if you're going to talk about the specifics of the case. Not if I'm going to tell you about the specifics of the case. Uh-huh. Well, I'm asking that the board consider giving me $2,300 for my expenses for medical bills and repairs to my motorcycle. Okay. I've talked to attorneys and they have said I have to lie about my injuries to bring on the case. I'm I'm not that type of person. So, I'm asking that some consideration. I'll leave you these if I can leave you these. Excuse me. If I can leave you these documents. I have six copies. I've sent these to Miam before. Okay. So, I won't get into what the bus number is on here. I will not make that public information because I don't think it's fair

028to the bus driver, but it's a dangerous situation because he's still on the job. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, beware. There's somebody that you can hand the documents to. There should be somebody. Okay. I have six copies. If you give them to this gentleman, he'll um There you go. Thank you. I appreciate the time. If you would reconsider, at least give me some salt is that you've at least looked at the documents and give me some something in in return. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Edwin Perez. Oops. Our next speaker is Edwin Perez who is virtual to this evening. Good evening. Can everyone hear me? Yes. Good evening, Mr. Perez. Good evening, Superintendent Rogers, Chair Licker, and members of the board. My name is Edin Perez. I

029stand before you tonight as a concerned community member and an advocate for the immigrant students and families who call this district home. I want to begin by acknowledging our progress. We deeply appreciate the recently updated BCPS immigration guidance. It is a vital first step, but we cannot afford to be complacent. Guidance is is a suggestion. Policy is a promise. In a climate of profound uncertainty, our families need more than suggestions. They need the security of formal commitment. It is time to show our students that our support is backed by the full power and authority of this district protection. In Baltimore County, we already have the structural tools to lead. We have the new Baltimore County Trust Act and a newly codified Office of Immigrant Affairs. These are more than just line items. They are moral

030and legal assets. We must leverage them to transform our current BCS guidance into a strong binding policy that ensures human rights and student dignity are non-negotiable. Under Plyer Vidau, we are the legal and moral guardians of these children during the school day. To fulfill that responsibility, we must move beyond advice and adopt a formal policy that acts as a shield, formalizes a district-wide safe zone, and protects our privacy. True advocacies does not stop at the schoolhouse doors. Showing we love and care means protecting our students before they even reach the front steps. We must acknowledge that the fear of surveillance near our schools and in surrounding communities is real. I urge the board to work towards supporting neighborhood safety by empowering educators and community partners to coordinate and neighbor and conduct neighborhood patrols to counter

031surveillance during commutes. Prioritize emergency preparedness proactively assist families in creating emergency contact plans and preparation for the best is the best best defense against panic and empowering through knowledge. Committing to continuous know your rights training for student, staff, and families. When we organize, we ensure that every student and every resident is informed and empowered and unafraid. Our students have seen enough fear as we witnessed this past week. They are no longer asking for our sympathy. They are crying out for our support and our action. Let us formalize our support by turning this guidance into a permanent improved policy. Let us lead with courage so our families can live without fear. We can no longer no longer just say we love and care for our students. Now we must step forward and we must show them.

032Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Camry. Good evening. Uh good evening, Chair Leter, um uh Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board. Uh thank you for your time this evening. Um my name is Matt Camry, and I have a son and daughter at Oliver Beach Elementary School. I'm here to discuss the southeast area elementary school boundaries. Uh I believe I speak for all parents in saying that the boundary study and subsequent rebalancing of enrollment between Senica Chase and Oliver Beach elementary schools is sorely needed and overdue and learning that our school Oliver Beach was at 50% capacity and Senica and Chase were over 100% capacity. Clear common sense that enrollment needed to be balanced to ensure all children get a good education and receive the attention they deserve from

033our teachers. With that being said, it's critical that we get this boundary study right and in time for the 2026 school year. The primary objective of this boundary study was to balance enrollment across all three schools. The committee ultimately narrowed the study down to two options. Neither option achieved the objective and there was ample opportunity to do so. Furthermore, BCPS has since provided updated utilization figures using September 30th, 2025 enrollment along with adjustments for the movement of special education programming. These updated numbers render all efforts put forth for the boundary study null and void. Hundreds of parents hours and the committee's hours of time and deliberation has been based on inaccurate data. So how do we resolve this? First, the public needs to be briefed on the change in data, the source of the data

034and details of the change. The few slides provided in the recent PowerPoint are very far from sufficient. Simply saying in one slide that enrollment is balanced is not acceptable. Two, the boundary study committee needs to reconvene, digest, and discuss the new data and determine if it changes their recommendation. It's critical we give them the time to do so. Three, the board needs to dis to guide this process, provide the committee and the public with a timeline that allows for these actions, but still meets the due dates to allow for this change in cannot be pushed to the next year. A board member needs to be clear and concise regarding the objectives of each meeting in the upcoming weeks and be in attendance. In addition, I recommend that another committee member, parent committee member be added

035to each of the committees for fresh perspective. This can be done, but the board needs to act now and lead the way to resolve the issue. Parents in the community are relying on your guidance and support to follow this process and reach a fair and equitable conclusion. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Matthew Powers. Good evening. Uh, thank you uh, board members for the opportunity to speak to you. I'm going to second what Mr. Camry said. I'm here as a parent from a student in Oliver Beach Elementary School and a future student. She's a young one, but she'll get there eventually. Um I believe the I was here originally object because the study was showing that we were over or at near capacity which me misses the point of the study to rebalance

036the schools but new data was presented today which is good that we have actually updated data but that goes to show that the flaw in the system and the process here uh I believe the committee convened in September and it's puzzling to me how we did not have active enrollment numbers when we presented the options. in late October at Middle River Middle to the public. The public was then asked to comment on those options uh using old data. I agree with Mr. Camry that we need to reconvene the committee and allow them to actually look at the six or seven courses of action that they actually went through. Ensure we're actually balancing the schools properly based on the new data. Ensure that we're not splitting up communities unnecessarily. I know this is a tough decision.

037No matter what we have to do, we have to move students. I agree. 50% capacity at one school and the other schools at 100% is not a good answer. But also at the last minute on the day that the data is actually presented to the committee, the entire tables and demographics and everything change which wasn't presented to the community and allowed us to review and understand is also unacceptable. It's also not clear how resource management is going to influence on any of these decisions. It looks like we were just looking at pure numbers of students. It doesn't it's not clear how resources will be impacted, funding and things and how it follows the students if uh if if we're actually balancing schools properly and actual manpower is going appropriate places. Also the current option has

038buses passing each other splitting up communities going for further away schools which seems to be unnecessary. seems that we could balance the schools and keep communities closer together to their home school or a school that's actually in their backyard as opposed to busing them 15 25 minutes away passing another bus busting students in the opposite direction another 15 20 minutes away so I ask that you reconvene the committee I ask that we also guide the committee and introduce Baltimore County officials into the process as opposed to just community members I think Oliver you kind of made it that we were pitted against each other in my opinion. You had nine voting members from the three different communities. It just sets us up to pit against each other as opposed to having some unbiased opinions in

039there. I think we could have more faculty members to offset the vote and make an actual better unbiased opinion and things and not make it a community against community type decision. And you guys are the board that has to make the tough decision. I think you guys should have that data in front of you and be able to look at more courses of action than just one recommendation. So, thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is or our last speaker is Lauren Teague Meredith. Good evening again. Good evening. Thank you um Chair Lecher, Vice Chair Harvey, and Dr. Rogers, and um all members of the board for the opportunity to speak tonight. My name is Lauren Ty Meredith. I am a parent of two BCPS elementary school children. I'm speaking today as

040a parent who believes that school should be the safest place in a child's life outside of their home, regardless of immigration status or the status of loved ones in their household. Every morning, I send my child to school trusting they will be cared for, protected, and able to focus on learning. No parent should have to worry that school could become a place of fear for their child or for their children's classmates. But for many families in our community, that fear is real. When children are worried about what might happen to their parents or themselves, they can't fully learn. They miss school, they shut down, and they carry stress that no sho student should have to carry. This doesn't just affect families targeted by ICE. It affects classrooms, teachers, and the entire school community as students

041come home asking hard questions. The board of education received a policy drafted by Tabco and CASA in April of 2025. It protects children's privacy, sets clear rules for how staff respond to immigration authorities, and make sure no child is singled out or made to feel unsafe. It also supports teachers and staff by giving them guidance and not leaving them to figure out situations on their own. I urge the board to adopt this policy and stand with parents who just want their children to learn in peace. At the end of the day, I want every child in Baltimore County to feel safe, raise their hand, show up ready to learn, and dream about their future. Adopting this policy sends a message that BCPS values children over fear and education over intimidation. Further, Senate Bill 293 requires

042county board of education to complete antibbias training at least once during their term. This law took effect in July of 2025. and I'm urging the board to move forward with training so that you have the resources and tools to make great decisions for our students. Thank you so much for the opportunity to see you and speak with you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent report and for that I call on Dr. Rogers. Good evening, Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, and members of the board. I am pleased to provide a February update to the board and community. Close the slides and get started shortly. The first thing we want to report on is that we are extremely grateful to have announced on the six direct admit partnership with CCBC. This allows

043for all of our graduating seniors to have streamline access to the community college of Baltimore County together with Dr. Curt Nitus. We announced this to the community last week. It also allows for a very gentle handoff. CCBC will reach out directly to our students. Um, our students will have access to financial aid and actual course counseling. I believe the number that Dr. Curtitis shared with us was that more than um I think she said 90% of her students uh attended school last year uh almost tuition free or tuition reduced. And so this is a great opportunity for our students uh one that happens in many other uh places and spaces and large school systems. And so we're excited uh for the class of 2026 to be able to participate. And this is also a great

044opportunity for our families uh in terms of lowering uh fiscal responsibilities during challenging time and access. So for the next few slides I want to provide a few updates to our community. Uh the first thing that I want to make sure um that is clear particularly since we are only in February and it is uh while none of us knows what's going to happen with mother nature it is likely that there will be more inclement weather. I want to make sure that everyone is clear about how we make decisions. these sources that I use and the team who calls me at 3:00 in the morning uses, the team that is out in every zone in our school system actually surveying conditions, weather works, the National Weather Service and ACUE weather that along with BCPS operation

045team members who are out and about on the ground that is the group that comes together to make a recommendation and myself and Dr. Grim then have a conversation to make a decision on behalf of the 108,000 students that we serve. Um we take our decisions for closings, delays, cancellations, etc. very seriously, safety is our first and primary uh consideration. While uh sometimes it might not be 100% apparent as to why decisions were made, if we receive information like we did last Friday regarding a weather event that will start when we are supposed to have students on buses traveling home. It is unc incumbent upon us to make sure that we consider the safety of these students. As you know, we had um quite a storm at the end of January. After three traditional weather

046days, uh we transitioned to virtual learning. Um as we talked about during last meeting, I also want to recognize and um thank Mr. Burke for his partnership. I appreciate the sentiment that the time was um hugely successful. However, there are opportunities uh for more information, opportunities to consider whether or not a uh school systemwide schedule for elementary school would be in order and some other uh feedback that they received. So, while there was a lot of information that was out, there were plans from the uh summer and fall for what the expectations were in terms of technology management. Um there's always opportunity to remind people and make sure that there is follow through in a timely manner so that people are not uh caught off guard by mother nature. Uh we did send out a

047survey last week to our community. We had more than 10,000 responses. The responses are categorized on the screen for you, parent, caregivers, students, and school staff. Um the first question we wanted to know was uh in the event of additional inclement weather uh day closures this year since we're only in February, what would people like us to do? And the prevailing uh response was to transition to virtual. You'll see that uh nearly 85% of the community uh shared that sentiment and you'll see it on the slide uh in grade bands. When we uh spoke about extending the school year, about 8 and a half% um were in favor of extending the school year. We also gave the option to make up days during the school year without extending uh like spring break and etc. Uh

048approximately 6.8% of the community uh was in favor of that option. And the third question that we asked um was about accessibility. accessibility to the uh materials to the virtual classes and assignment with minimal difficulty. You'll see overwhelmingly positive uh response. About 92% of our um stakeholders overall uh access the instruction with minimal difficulty which is aligned with the feedback that we received uh from the two days of virtual learning. Uh that being said, there is additional uh feedback that we want from our staff members, ways to improve because it is very early on in the winter season. And so we will be gathering additional feedback um to make sure that everyone is well equipped with the information that they need for any future virtual inclement weather days. Want to take some time to speak

049to student protest. um student protests on Friday, February the 6th. Want to provide some uh specific information about the expectations in Baltimore County Public Schools and what actually took place on Friday, February the 6th. I also want to acknowledge uh that there are uh differing opinions on the matter uh across uh Baltimore County Public Schools. We know, acknowledge, and respect that with such a large school system. Uh but the key factor or the key word here is respect. Um our ability to respect each other, to respect differences is critically important. I am personally troubled uh by some of the characterization and name calling of children who attend schools in Baltimore County public schools. Um we are going to model our expectations around uh respect and ask uh that everyone joins us in modeling for the

0508,000 students that count on us. Uh that no matter what the opinion is, uh that we are to be respectful in characterization particularly of students that we are all here for. Um specific information, you'll see an excerpt from our student handbook, the 2526 version, page 8. Students have the right to freedom of speech, religion, and the right to organize and assemble peacefully, but speech and behavior that are disruptive can be prohibited. Our staff members are expected to record period by period attendance. That is a daily uh requirement. Student rights are subject to school authorities setting reasonable limits regarding time, place, and manner. All students are expected to conduct themselves safely and appropriately. Any student who violates the code of conduct receives consequences in alignment with the code of conduct. BCPS works closely with Baltimore County

051Police Department. Um, as this February 6 uh protest is what we are speaking about in this uh moment, I also want to remind people this is not the first time that students have organized and have had protests in our schools uh over the last uh several years. uh should a walk out occur. In addition to communication that goes uh out in advance uh provided the school has notice to families, a follow-up communication is sent to the community uh with details regarding the uh student walk out. Staff members are to remain neutral uh despite personal opinions and families are encouraged to discuss personal expectations with their children. Um, in terms of the facts, because we did work very closely with the police department, there was a uh command center and coordination to make sure that all

052of our students were safe. Uh, we do have some data from Friday, February the 6th. 39 protests were planned as were reported to us. 36 of the 39 were held. Um, and 5,797 participants uh were a part of those protests. Uh this data came from the department of safety, the department of schools as well as law enforcement uh partners. And so we wanted to make sure that everyone had access to this information about uh this the rights that our students have and what our expectations are in Baltimore County public schools. And lastly, um over the last few weeks, and we still look outside and see all of the snow and the ice in many spaces, I wanted to um on behalf of the entire system, um provide a hearty thank you to the operations team,

053facilities, uh grounds, building services, transportation, our department of safety, and Baltimore County Police who have been working together uh to keep our students um in school safely. um it hasn't been uh 100% perfect, but the commitment of these uh individuals is truly recognized and appreciated. And so with that, I'll turn it back over to you. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the chair's report. And I'm going to keep my remarks brief so we have a lot of time for our second budget work session and other business tonight. Um we recognize there's been a lot happening and the board has received many, many emails on topics like budget, boundaries, weather, current events. Um, thank you to everyone who's reached out. Your feedback is valued and it helps us consider all perspectives. Also, today we started

054receiving emails concerning wiki being eliminated and um, since I'm here tonight, please know that the wiki program is not slated for elimination as a lot of these emails um, being sent to us are indicating. Um, building on what Dr. Roger said a pos a positive but sometimes overlooked update is our partnership with CCBC which continues to benefit um BCPS students. On Friday, the new direct admit program was announced alongside other existing programs. The new direct admit program helps students transition from high school to college or career training. Students gain access to over 300 programs, academic advising, financial aid guidance, tuition free options, and can choose from a number of programs. BCPS really greatly values our partnership with CCBC and the opportunities it affords our students. Um, to those parents who may be listening and not

055aware of what B what CCBC offers, I really encourage you to speak with your child, your school counselor, or visit the website for other additional details um that really can help offset a lot of course costs and give our kids um a leg up. So, thank you to CCBC. I'd also like to express our ongoing appreciation to the staff for their efforts regarding the FY27 budget. We are grateful for the responses provided both in written form and that will be given in tonight's presentation to the board of ed. As a reminder to the public, the many many questions posed and the responses can be found on budget 100 um which is on our BCPS website when you arrive on budget 101. I said budget 100, it's budget 101, correct? Budget 101. Keep scrolling all the

056way down and you'll find the responses to our questions towards the bottom um before all of the video presentations. And lastly, congratulations to all of the teachers that have been nominated as teacher of the year at their respect. The board of education appreciates your hard work, your dedication, and commitment to providing quality education to our students every day, and we're excited to celebrate you and your achievements at the Champions of Children event in April. And next on our agenda is our student member of the board report. And for that I call on Miss Uname. Good evening board chair Mrs. Lter, vice chair Mrs. Harvey, superintendent Dr. Rogers, members of the board, staff, families, and BCPS, the BCPS community. Over the past month, I've continued working to strengthen student voice both within Baltimore County and across

057the state. On January 24th, we successfully hosted the Maryland Association of Student Council's legislative session, bringing together student leaders from across Maryland to review our official legislative bill stances and select the final two candidates for the state student member of the board, who were Lorenna Woo, a sophomore from Montgomery County, and David Rooo, a junior right here in Baltimore County. It was incredibly wonderful to watch students engage in discussions and help shape the statewide student legislative agenda. As one of the state legislative affairs coordinators, I was proud to help support and facilitate this work, and I'm grateful to everyone who helped make that day a success. At the county level, I've also been working closely with BCPS TV towards producing my monthly SMOB update segments, which will help keep students, staff, and families informed about

058board work, student initiatives, and opportunities for engagement. Additionally, I've continued collaborating with student leaders across Baltimore count, the Baltimore County student councils, supporting executive board planning and leadership development opportunities to ensure student strong student representation across our schools. On February 18th, we'll be hosting our mental health seminar using the Google Meet code BCPS seminar. As part of my ongoing commitment to student safety and awareness, I also had the opportunity to partner with our office of school safety on a project to ensure that students clearly understand what to do during emergencies and feel confident in the systems designed to protect them. With that in mind, I'm excited to share a public service announcement that we created explaining the I love you guys standard response protocol which will now be played. School is where we learn, grow,

059and build friendships. But when the unexpected happens, being prepared makes all the difference. The standard response protocol gives every student, teacher, and staff members clear, simple actions to follow in an emergency situation. Hold, secure, lock down, evacuate, shelter. Simple practice steps to keep us safe. Safety is about more than one person. It's about all of us working together. When we know what to do, we can focus on what matters most, each other. Thank you to Mr. Knox, our executive director of school safety, BCPS TV, and other essential staff members who contributed to and organized this video. And thank you to every student, stakeholder, decision maker, and educator who continues to speak up, engage, and contribute to making our school system stronger. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is unfinished business report

060on board policies. This is the second reader for these policies. And for that, I call Miss Christina Pumphrey, chair of the policy review committee. Thank you. Members of the board, the policy re review committee asks that the board accept the committee's recommendation to amend the following board policies. Board policy 4102, sexual harassment. Board policy 5320, student organizations and clubs, and board policy 8320, final action by the board. These policies are presented to you on tonight's agenda as exhibits I1 through I3. Thank you, Miss Pumprey. Board members, are there any separations being requested? Okay. May I have a motion to accept the recommendation of the board's policy review committee for board policies 4102, 4320, and 8320. So moved, Miss Hen. Thank you. Second. Seo. I don't think we need a second since the recommendation is coming

061from the committee, but thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Abe, yes. Miss Dowski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Damonowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fmpong, yes. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Leicter, yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is action taken in close session. And for that, I call Mr. Burns. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh the board took no actions on legal matters in close session requiring confirmation. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is contracts awards and for that I call Mr. Young, chair of the building and contracts committee. Mr. Young. Members of the board, the board's building and contracts committee met on Monday, February 9th, 2026. Items K1 through K29 were forwarded to the full board for

062approval. I request item K13 be separated out for the vote. Thank you, Mr. Young. Board members, are there any other separations besides for K13? Chair Lar, this is board member Fen Pong. Yes, Miss Fong, I just have a question on K9. So, should I wait for a discussion? Um, yes, please. Unless you want it separated. I think just an answer to question should be sufficient. Thank you. Thank you. Any other separations? Okay. Um, may I have a motion to approve items K1 through K12 and K14 through K29? So moved, Miss Hen. Thank you. No second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee. Any discussion? Miss Fang. Thank you. Um I just have a question about K9 which is the um contract for Morgan State University aspiring leaders um non-deree administrative lensure program. Um

063within the description it talks about the last bullet says that the enrollment is open. Um and it's for those who already hold a master's and are seeking lure as supervisors of instruction assistant principles and principles. Um and so my question is actually more so I guess about the process with this. This was something um recently we talked about in equity committee as far as options for assistant principles and principles. So this says it you have to hold a master's and I guess I just wanted to know are there other options available for educators if they don't hold masters do years of service um take into account or is it only if you have a mast's and then you could um apply for this program. This particular program does not require a master's degree in order

064to uh participate in the court. Okay. So, that last bullet am I did I just It does. Okay. I'm sorry. I apologize. My apologies. It this one this program does require a master's degree. Yes. Okay. But then, Mr. McCall, does it sounds like Are you saying there are other programs available that do not require a master's? in order to seek the lensure for the uh for the supervision or administration. There are other programs that do not require the master's degree. Correct. Okay. All right. Just wanted to be clear. So there are other opportunities. It's just this isn't one because of the requirement for a masters. That is correct. Right. Okay. Got it. Thank you. Thank you. Any further discussion on items K1 through K12 and K14 through K29? Just double check. May I have a

065roll call vote, please? Miss Aumbbe? Yes. Miss Stleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumprey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Dominowski? Yes. Miss Hen? Yes. Miss Fong? Yes. Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss Lar? Yes. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve item K13? So moved, Miss Hen. Thank you. No second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee. Any discussion on item K13? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Abe, yes. Miss Stleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, recuse. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss FPMPong, yes. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Licter, yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the report on the Southeast Area Elementary School boundary recommendation. And for that, I call on

066Dr. Grim and Mr. Taylor. And Dr. Rogers will get us started. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, and members of the board. Um, as Miss Lter said, uh, both Dr. Grim and Mr. Taylor are here to provide to you a recommendation on the Southeast Area Elementary School Boundary Study. Um, I just want to bring back to everyone's awareness. Annually, we have a process for student uh, enrollment. There's September 30th is the official date of student enrollment and as you know the process um is both internal and it also requires external validation from the state. Um, I want to also acknowledge the uh communication that we received from uh community members uh at first concerned that we were moving uh one school that was at 50% capacity uh with two schools that were over 100%

067um to numbers that were not balanced. The revised numbers or the updated numbers that were validated were provided and are a part of this presentation. I just want to um call that to everyone's attention and um would like uh Dr. Graham and Mr. Taylor to walk everyone through the process that was followed. So, good evening, Chair Leter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, members of the board. Thank you. Um so, as Dr. Rogers said, we're here with the recommendation from the Southeast Area Elementary School uh committee. Um next slide, please. Uh you've seen this slide before. It is the process that is followed through uh board policy and superend superintendence rule 1280. Next slide please. So this particular uh boundary study had three main objectives. Uh the first was to accommodate special education program programming.

068The second was to balance enrollment among the participating elementary schools. And the third was to eliminate uh those satellite attendance areas uh when possible. Next slide. In terms of accommodating the special education programming, this objective was established as a known outcome. It was a non-negotiable and not a consideration of the committee. So what that means is when the committee first met uh the committee was informed that a regional program would be part of of this equation. it would be part of the study and that regional program need is based on feedback from uh the department of special education and where they where they have the needs basically and they have needs in this area in this cluster um to provide additional programming for students. So it really wasn't a that part wasn't a consideration of

069the committee although the committee was informed that this would be an outcome um at the beginning of the process. The other two objectives to balance enrollment and eliminate the satellite attendance areas were really the focus of the committee's work. Next slide. This map shows the current elementary school boundaries for three participating schools Chase Oliver Beach and Senica. Next slide. The Southeast Area Elementary School boundary change process was initiated in spring of 2025, and the committee began meeting in September. The committee met three times between September and November 2025, formulating and reviewing various boundary change options. This evening, the committee's recommendation is being presented to the board for your consideration. The board's public hearing is scheduled for February 25th and a vote by the board of education is scheduled for March 10th, 2026. Next slide, please.

070Throughout the boundary study, BCPS implemented practices that fully engaged the community, sharing information about the process, obtaining feedback to provide to the committee. Some examples for stakeholders to provide feedback include the online comment form, public information survey, I'm excuse me, public information session, and the online survey and emails. All information received from the public during the study was provided to the committee. Next slide, please. A total of 11 map variations were considered throughout the course of the committee's work. These options were the result of committee and public engagement throughout the process. As part of the process, the committee selected two options to share at the public information session. These two options were also the focus of the public survey. The survey results were shared with the committee and were considered as part of their deliberations.

071Ultimately, the committee nominated four options for final consideration. Next slide, please. These maps show the proposed attendance areas. This one. Oops. My apologies. The committee went through two rounds of voting. The first vote resulted in a tie between option A, option A, and option B. The second round of voting resulted option B receiving the majority of the votes. Next slide, please. These maps show the proposed attendance areas for option A and option B. The committee recommendation option B is on the left. Next slide, please. This chart shows the enrollment and utilization of the participating schools at the beginning of the study. Two schools, Chase and Senica, were over capacity at 100%. Oliver Beach was significantly under capacity at 50%. And these numbers are based on the data we had at the time, the endofear school

072year 2425 enrollment. Next slide please. In this table, students have been redistributed based on recommended recommended boundaries and enrollment updates with September 30th, 2025 official enrollment. With option B, the boundary study committee achieved the objectives of eliminating satellites, accommodating the program, and balancing enrollment among the three participating schools with all three schools under 90%. Next slide, please. Option B results in 122 students moving to other schools and 589 staying at their current location. Next slide. With respects to the next steps, the board will host a public hearing on the proposed boundary recommendation on February 25th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. at Stemer's Run Middle to gather additional public comment. The board of education is then scheduled to vote on the boundary change at its March March 10th, 2026 meeting. We would like to take this opportunity

073to recognize and thank all of our committee members and community members who engage with BCPS throughout this process. Thank you for that report. Board members, Miss Harvey, thank you, Madam Chair. I I we had two parents uh tonight uh come to talk about the enrollment uh the the planning on the boundary study and the enrollment numbers and how they impacted or changed um the outcome of the boundary study. So can you talk a little bit about how getting those updated numbers impacted the study? Yes. So I'll start and then I'll uh ask Mr. Mr. Taylor to provide some specifics. So, um, when the when the study is when our plans are formalized, obviously in the spring before the the following year, when we begin the process in September, we use the most current publicly available

074data that we have. In this case, it was from the end of the 2425 school year. So when we began um the study, the committee was informed that the data being provided was from that that time period um and that it could that it could change over over the course of time. Um ultimately what happens um and Dr. Rogers alluded to this in her in her commentary. Um, and quite frankly, this is sometimes a little bit there's a little bit more variance in in these numbers than we sometimes see. Um, the official September 30th enrollment number is while that's locked in with us in mid October, it has to go to the state for vetting and we can't publicly report it until um mid November or later. And so what actually happened is by the

075time the committee um had its final meeting, uh Mr. Taylor and the team were able to share the numbers at that time and I believe that was at the last meeting that they had. So they did know um at the last meeting that the utilization numbers would change although we didn't have them locked in in a in a graph at that time. So the utilization numbers on slide 12 across the schools are the new numbers that are being used for consideration. Yes, ma'am. They are they are based on our official September 30th enrollment that was verified by MSDE. The numbers that you see on the slide before that um I believe it's slide 11 are the numbers that uh we had at the end of last school year. Thank you, Miss Pumprey. Thank you. So

076again, based on some of our speakers tonight, um what I heard and maybe I misheard was that the initial utilization was not quite as I mean this looks pretty even to me, but what they initially saw I think um when they voted or your recommendation for what you know is coming forward to us um was there was more of a discrepancy. It wasn't quite as balanced. That is correct. Okay. So my question is, is this a coincidence that it came out so balanced or was there some anticipation by either the committee or staff members that these numbers might become more balanced after we got the new enrollment numbers? So again, I'm going to ask Mr. Taylor to chime in. Um, rarely do we see something this balanced at the very end of a study, quite

077frankly. Um, not only not only is it are they balanced, but for us they're at an excellent utilization rate because they provide um they provide a little bit of buffer. Um, if we were to ask the IA, they probably would not be happy with this utilization because their goal in every instance is 100%. So, um, so yes, I would say it is it is, um, I don't want to say it's lucky, but we rar we rarely see numbers this close in alignment when we're done among all schools. Um, so I I would like to take credit for our team that we planned it this way, but but that's not what happened. And again, this process is really driven um through the committee's work. Um, Mr. Taylor, do you have anything you want to add? Um

078I would like to add that at the last meeting before they started voting that meeting we they were given the actual enrollment of each of the schools September 30th enrollment. So they were made aware that the actual enrollment of each one of these schools has actually gone down since the end of the year those numbers were provided. So they kept that as part of their deliberation when they made their final decision. Okay. And um when we when on slide nine when you talk about vote one and vote two both of those votes were at the same meeting. Yes, Mr. McMillian. In all due respect, it seems counterproductive that we start this process and we don't have we start with one set of numbers and then we we introduce another set of numbers when the process

079is almost complete. And what's that saying saying to our our parents and our community members about the work that they put into this? It it just seems like it's a little bit out of whack, out of time, out of something. Dr. Rogers, does it seem Wait, it just seems counterproductive to me. I mean, we got all these people upset because we've reintroduced we've introduced numbers after all this work's been done. So, there's a couple things that I would say to that. Um the first one is uh we have to start boundary studies at a certain period of time because we are doing a lot of the work internally. They're staggered throughout the year and that comes forward to the board of education for scheduling. Um as Dr. Grim has shared, typically there are enrollment shifts

080but not this level of enrollment shifts in the community. So the numbers might move and not end up um this neat as they did. Um but I would uh say that the work that the community did um is absolutely valued. The community came up with the options that resonated with them. I think the team started with two. They moved to 11. Uh examined those options over a period of time. Um when they had that tide vote, they eliminated the choices that had uh only one or two um decisions. And then uh as Mr. Taylor indicated that on the final date of the vote, everyone had these are the new enrollment numbers in these specific schools. Um, as you know, we have requirements from the state of Maryland for September 30th uh enrollment and we also

081have uh requirements in terms of when we can share that information. And so, um, I have not had an opportunity to go back and watch the videos, uh, based on the, uh, reports that I've heard. It sounds like that that was, uh, made plain, um, as a part of the, uh, committee meeting process. Uh, Mr. Taylor could speak more to that if I've stated anything in error. That's correct. I' I'd like to add one other um item, Dr. Rogers, that may help you, Mr. McMillion. the utilization at at Oliver Beach was around 51%. Um that that is significantly lower than the utilization at our at our other schools. So the the variance that provides when you look at a boundary change like this um and balancing out that utilization again that's that's why when the

082final numbers look the way they do today at um at those upper 80s within 1% it's it's really striking that they're that close. um because as the as the committee could see in the initial um numbers if we were to use last year's um that it wasn't quite so close the utilization was much higher at the other schools. I think that speaks to the small size. So every student in a school um the size of a school like Oliver Beach has more weight to it in terms of a percentage than obviously a much larger elementary, middle or high school. Now, am I overlooking is is there a a a slide that shows the data that we started with and the data that was added or do we have to look at a couple different slides

083to figure that out? So, if if you um if you look at slide 11, Mr. McMillion, that's the one that that they were provided with at with the data that they started with. Second column, fulltime FTEES. That's the Yes, sir. That's the That's the total FTE enrollment at the end of 25 and yes and what the utilization would have looked like at the beginning of the study. And then the next slide is what the um the adjusted numbers were based on um the results of the study and the uh the September 30 enrollment numbers. So if that's helpful and then the the final slide and I know again it's three different slides. So I know your question was is it all in one place? No. Um the that third slide uh which is slide 13

084um again outlines and Mr. Taylor went over this the number of students that would stay at their schools and the number of students that would move by school as well. Thank you. You're welcome. So just building on that one more time. So the slide 11, slide 12 that has the crazy alignment of percentage of utilization. The committee saw that they knew that with the new enrollment numbers and their option B when they voted, they knew it was going to be 87, 87, and 89. No, no, they they had the they had the new enrollment numbers. They did not have these percentages weighed out for what it would look like. Right. So when they voted, what what utilization numbers did did they have the one on slide 11 they thought they were giving cuz that that

085wasn't what they thought the option B was going to give them because that was still 50% to Oliver Beach. That would be the numbers they have would be on the website. Um we just provided the most up-to-date information on this PowerPoint. Okay. Okay. So, they didn't see the utilization that we're seeing on 12 when they voted. That is correct. We didn't have those numbers at that time. But those numbers I've seen those numbers somewhere. I think we've gotten lots of emails about this. I think people are including the other utilization numbers in their emails to us. So, they've their theirs was more of a discrepancy between them. It wasn't this. That is correct. Okay. So these numbers are doing what the intent of the study was to balance out the utilization in the three schools.

086So it still worked when you got the these numbers do it best right the special um program that's going to be at Chase. Are those students included in the the numbers? Yes. Okay. They are counted here. Okay. Thank you. I saw somebody else's hand. Oh um I think we have some that haven't questioned yet. Miss Hen, you had a question. Yes. Thank you, Madam Chair. Good evening, gentlemen. Um, thank you for this presentation. I have a few questions um, this evening. So, the original utilization numbers that are on the boundary study website, those are the only ones seen by the boundary committee. Is that correct? Those are the only utilization numbers. We did provide them with new enrollment numbers. We just didn't calculate the utilization. the new we provided new enrollment numbers for the three

087schools based on the official September 30th, 2025 enrollment. And Mr. Taylor, when were when were those provided? Because I went back and watched the last meeting and I don't recall that being discussed. Yeah, that was provided November 19th, which was the last meeting. And those weren't presented and I couldn't find those on the website. Well, I the the information was provided in a slide and a presentation. If you go to the um every meeting, we have a slide presentation to review the boundary process and provide answers to questions. That was one of the answers of the question that that they had was do you have more up-to-date information? And that was one of the slides that was provided to the committee that well it looks like this if you can see the um PowerPoint on

088the website. Okay, that that brings me to my next question and the reason I watched the last meeting is because option A and B the two final options did not actually balance the enrollment. I was concerned because option A left um one school I believe it was Oliver Beach at 83% while the other two were at 95%. I don't have the numbers in front of me but it was roughly those and then option B left Oliver Beach at 99%. So I was a bit perplexed because our boundary study committees are always guided towards the best possible solutions. So could you speak towards um the that process and how they were guided towards achieving that objective? And I know Dr. Grim said that the option I believe it was Dr. Grim said that the options met

089the objective but if the primary objective was to balance enrollment um as I look at the numbers neither option A nor B met that objective. So can you speak to how they landed on those two options? Well, the start of the process, we present the objectives of the boundary study. We also list the considerations in 1280 that they should keep in mind, and we review that with every meeting. Ultimately, it's the committee's job to decide what the options may look like, how to change the options, which options to consider, which options to choose. So even though every meeting we tell them remind them of the objective ultimately the decision is theirs decide where the new boundaries go. So at any point did was the concern raised with the committee members that hey these numbers aren't

090looking too balanced. You might want to revisit your maps. No we we don't we don't judge what the committee comes up with. We we have we do exercises that evaluate the different options. Um that look at the different options how they do or do not meet the objectives. The committee does that. We have them have conversations about it and then ultimately when they vote they are the ones that decide where those boundaries are going to go and which options going to be recommended. We do not guide them towards particular solution. I think it's also important to note that the that the primary objective for this study was also the addition of a special education program in the in the area which was shared that that that would happen and again the most optimal location for

091that was going to be at at Chase Elementary. um in terms of looking at the numbers and what the the committee's recommendation was. Again, it's very rare that we have um such balance as we ultimately ended up with based on the September 30th enrollment data. Um, so sometimes that balance looks a little different and and while we strive not to have any overutilization, in this case with the this significant underutilization at Oliver Beach, um the conditions were more balanced within the three schools even with the committee's original recommendation and numbers. But but according to the presentation, that primary objective had already been predetermined to establish the special education programming at Chase. So that wasn't part of the scope of work of the committee at all. That was predetermined by BCPS. The scope of the work

092of the committee was to balance enrollment and it has been BCPS's role to guide the committee to um meet their objective. So their objective was to balance enrollment. So my original question stands, why wasn't the committee directed to meet their objective when it's obvious to anyone looking at the numbers that they didn't meet the objective? And not to not to fault the committee, they they're volunteers. They worked very hard. They've spent a lot of hours on this. And the two options that they came up with in in both cases, they enrollment wasn't balanced. And it was clear that it it wasn't even close to being balanced. So while ultimately we got there, we got there outside of the work of the committee because the committee hadn't even seen these numbers and hadn't seen the updated

093utilization before now. Dr. Rogers. Sure. Um, thank you for those comments. I would first note um on the website as Mr. Taylor indicated it is slide number 13 that has the official September 30th 2025 uh enrollment data that was provided to the committee. Uh Mr. Taylor has indicated um that in his role in his capacity he does not guide the committee. Um he uh provides them with all of the data directs that they uh communicate and make ultimate recommendations. And the next step that's a part of our official process is that the recommendation from the committee comes forward to the board of education for review and deliberation. Um agreed. Uh the numbers ended up more balanced than originally um uh discussed in the um group. But I would identify two things. the uh making sure

094that we have a location for our students receiving special education services in that area is something that is achieved. And now with these shifts in enrollment, the utilization uh has been uh achieved and is here for board of education review and deliberation. Thank you, Miss Fang. Thank you. Good evening, gentlemen. Um, I have a question about the survey. So, slide 8 mentions the survey, but the results are not in this presentation. Um, you have to go back to page two of the survey results that are posted. And, um, as far as responses, we see 73 from Chase, 71 Oliver Beach, but then only 12 from Cynica, and two from other. So, um, it Oliver Beach is 71, which is like five times more than Sica or 59 more votes. Can you speak to that communication

095and what efforts were done um as far as getting the feedback and responses for the survey from the community? The survey um is part of the public information session process. The public information process is advertised. It's published upfront when we start the process. Um, office communication sends out invitations so people can come to the public in information session. The descriptions of the public information session, includes comments about taking the survey. Um, we have cards that have a QR code on it so people can do it right there at the meeting. We have computers during the meeting public information session so that they can do the survey there if they want. They can do it on their phones. Um principles send out letters to the community to inform them about the public information session and the

096survey. So we used multiple means of communication to the public to invite them to public information survey and to announce the survey itself um the public information session and to announce the survey itself so that as many people as possible would participate. Thank you. And then what is the population of Senica Beach? need to go back to those boots mutation. Oh, um I'm sorry, Mr. Funk, can you repeat your question? Sure. I was trying to find what is the population of Senica Beach, the students? Mean Oliver Beach or Senica? I'm sorry, I mixed mixed the two. It's a mix match. Uh Senica Elementary. When when you refer to population, Miss Mr. Fong are you are you asking for the enrollment number or are you asking for the demographic information of the students? So I'd be

097asking in this case for the number of students. So in in this case um the number of students at Senica that would stay are students. Um, Senica would receive seven new students. Senica would also lose 37 students. No, I'm looking for There it is. Slide 11. Okay. And slide slide 13 as well. And slide 13. Okay. So again, even I guess when I look at it, the 78 is small when you look at it in comparison to enrollment, but the number 12 is definitely small, at least in comparison to the other two. So I appreciate the efforts. I'd like to know um I guess if you as you we continue to go through these boundary studies, what ways are we also looking at at encouraging that feedback? Um, I think we have been doing a

098better job with recent uh boundary studies, but for this one with only having 12 from one school, that's a concern to me. Um, so I'd like to know, I guess, as we um, you know, look at we continue doing this, what things are we looking at, working on um, improving or can we um, can grow and improve and reaching out to the parents to facilitate the responses. Thank you, Miss Pumprey. Did you have another question? Oh, yes. Um, yes. And I I apologize if this is repetitive. I'm just trying to follow the timeline here uh as far as when the new information was received about enrollment. Um, so when I'm looking at slide eight. So when the committee selected the two options A and B, they did not have that enroll updated enrollment um information.

099Correct. That would be before it was um presented to at the public information session. No, we that information was not available before the public information session. Okay. But uh meeting four was the last meeting. So at that last meeting when they had the four options, they did have that information. Yes. Okay. Thank you. I'm trying to just look at the timeline here and figure that out. So I appreciate it. And as Mr. Taylor said, they had the enrollment information at that at that time, not in utilization. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Leski. Did I see your hand up? Thank you. Yeah, I think we're all trying to understand some of the details here, but thank you very much for your presentation. Excuse me. The meeting was on November 19th. Yes, that was the last meeting of

100the committee. Okay. Would it be possible to send the board the slots, excuse me, from that? I know you said posted. They're posted online. Posted. Okay. Do you know where the slides would be posted? Yeah, it's on the boundary. If you go to the homes page, the boundary. Okay. Thank you. And then my other question, I know a parent spoke about the bus routes and I actually was lucky to teach at Middle River Middle for many years. I understand that some students really do live remotely and far from the schools. So, can you speak to I guess what the plan is in terms of time limit for bus rides and coordination of the buses and then of course with special ed students if they're traveling a greater distance because of um it not being their

101home school uh their transport as well. Thank you. So, so I'm going to answer that first and then I'm going to ask Mr. Taylor to answer. Um Mr. Stky, I had the same question when when we looked at at some of the final results and we had a meeting um with uh not only Mr. Taylor's group but uh Department of Special Education leadership and transportation leadership and um even there there is a um a small satellite boundary that is there. They have calculated the time and distance um and looked at both options and they are they are very similar. Um, option A would require more adjustments in transportation and longer uh, bus ride times, transportation had shared with us than option B would. Um, so they've they've looked at that and and also one of

102the major components for identifying Chase as the site for special education programming was exactly what you asked, which was the the bus ride and ride times. Um, it would be disingenuous of me to tell you what the exact ride times are because I I can't. Um, and that's going to depend on the the student enrollment from the area. What I will tell you is that um there are some existing uh routes already that are very solid into the area that that would service Chase. And so transport transportation is was was a big part of the deciding factor um in special special education identifying their desire to have the program there. Mr. Taylor, do you have anything you want to add? The only thing else I would add is that um transportation attends all our meetings

103and when the committee asks questions about it, they do provide answers. And in fact, at the fourth meeting, um they committee members asked specific drive times for certain planning blocks to get to certain schools. And um sorry, it's again on one of the PowerPoints in meeting four on the website. So it has that information. So committee had this information when they made their decisions and meeting four was November 19th. That's correct. Okay, great. Thank you very much. Miss Hen, thank you. Um gentlemen, there is a document it's titled the 2425 statistical information comparison and it's integral to this entire process. Um it's linked as the option statistics document on the website. Do you have the capability to share that so that the board can see the document I'm referring to? I did put a link

104to it in the team's chat when Madam Chair was asking about it. It has several um tables on it with the utilization estimates, the demographics by option, feeder patterns. Are you familiar with um the document to which I'm referring? She wants us to post this. Um, board members, Miss Hen has um put it in the chat, so you can all open it from the chat. Is that something we can um broadcast, Madam Chair? I'm not sure if if they have access to this document right now. What can you can you pose the question based on that you're asking Miss Hen based on this statistical information? I I can. My question is simple. Um, if this is the master document that has key statistics, my question is when new enrollment data became available, why wasn't it

105um why wasn't this document updated with the new enrollment data so that the committee could consider all of these other statistics given that they use this um data quite intensively when they're looking at maps and formulating their recommendations. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Yes, thank you for that question and thank you for the um feedback. I think uh the members of the team that are seated here today um unfortunately uh are are not in a position to uh go back and answer why this wasn't done. What they can share with you is that um publicly available data became uh available to members of team BCPS in November. The last meeting for this commi uh committee was also in the middle of November. Um I will make the request to the team should we be in another

106boundary study that has a similar um situation that that information the statistical information comparison is updated and provided as a part of the fourth meeting uh moving forward. I I appreciate that Dr. Rogers. And I know this was a small study and other studies are much lengthier. Committees meet for more meetings. Um, and there are more moving parts. Um, in those committees, I've observed that this document has been updated and that may have been at the request of the committee members specifically. Um, as options have been updated, those those committee members may have requested to see these statistics. Um it's unfortunate that this was not done in this case um because we we want our committees using data. We want to make datadriven decisions and it's unfortunate and I believe my my concern is that

107it invalidates the outcome and would this committee have arrived at other recommendations? Um it's great that the numbers do look balanced now. However, my concern is that what would this what would this process have looked like had they had um these statistics based on the updated enrollment projections or had they been asked to balance enrollment using the best data that was available at the time? Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Miss Fang. Thank you. So I was just um wanted to again hear from Mr. Taylor about what things they were doing to improve those communications. I had mentioned about um the 12 students from Synica and percentage wise out of 342 students that's 3.5%. So, do we have a cut off or are we going to look at a cut off at a certain point

108to say if we don't hear from more than at least a minimum number of uh your community? We're going to do more efforts um to reach out or again what are we doing to work on improving still getting some of the responses from the communities that we are not hearing from in large um numbers. In this particular study, we did um monitor the response rate and at one point we asked the principal to send out another notice to their community so that we can increase the number of responses, right? But that number that 12 is uh out of 342 students that's coming to you guys at your you know you you bring that actually forward at the last meeting. So you have, I guess, access to that data or information prior to bringing it back

109to the full community. Now, at least there's two parents, I guess, from Cynica that get to participate, but again, with such a small number, I mean, I think it just seems like we need to do more than just send another notice because that particular method wasn't the most effective. Dr. Rogers, yes, Miss Funkong, thank you uh for that feedback as well. um your uh comments and concerns are noted. Um one of the things that we can do is try to leverage um community school facilitators in schools where we have community school facilitators. We can uh try to leverage the backpack method and additional methods beyond um uh the principal sending out notices uh to families in their email to increase uh family participation. And as you know for the last uh 3 years we have

110uh updated this process and really worked to um try to gather as many um voices as possible as uh you've highlighted in this particular instance uh there was not a lot um there was not enough response from the Senica community. Thank you. And then um moving to the regional program, I think that was said that it's going to be at Chase and u the Chase numbers include those students. We have moved away from regional programs for ESOL, but it seems like we are staying with them, I guess, for special education because we're talking about there being one at Chase. Um, so since we're continuing with this regional program, can we just hear I guess why we are choosing to continue with the regional programs for our special education and we're keeping it in this particular

111format. Mr. Pong, I think that's another topic um as far as regional programs for special ed. So we can put that on an agenda list if you would like. Okay. So then when I'm not sure, but that wasn't part of the the boundary committee's decision. Had nothing to do with the regional program. That was a given before it even started. The numbers are included. So that's why I was asking because if we don't have the special education regional numbers included, then the numbers could also look different across the board because you're working with different numbers. So you're asking how many are going to be at that part what the um capacity is for that particular program. So yes, how many then will be included for that? Approximately 30 students. So just 30 students at Chase.

112Okay. Okay. And then we can still add I guess if it's still a separate topic about why um we're still regional programs. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. The board will hold a public hearing. Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Stleski. Yes. Thank you. Um just a quick question. Um, thank you to Miss Hen for um, putting the statistical information comparison in the chat. I was wondering if this could be um, uploaded to the boundary study website link. It is there. It I think it is already, but we'll double check. Okay, great. Thank you. Somebody will double check. Miss Pumprey. So, one more quick question. Um, we did hear some input regarding uh the a request for additional guidance to the committee. Is there anything in our policy which I think is 1280 that precludes us for

113providing additional guidance to the committee as far as staff or is it more of a best practice to allow the committee um not to be influenced by staff members in the process? It has always been our practice not to influence the decision of the committee. That was when I started doing this work. That was something I was told. We were not supposed to have the committee think that we had predetermined or had an idea already that the recommendation must come from the committee. So all our practices have been designed over the years to make sure that every option comes from the committee, the recommendation comes from the committee. I would I would also add that um with feedback from the board, we've moved away from using consultants to to do this work and we've moved

114it in house where we um make sure that that community engagement is is uh we're more in touch with that. Um we're more in touch with those parts of the process. So, this isn't this isn't the first that we've done as far as being on 1280, but um as Mr. Taylor said, we believe our role is to um is is to be there as a resource as part of the process and to frame it rather than to do any type of guiding. Okay. And so, as far I guess that's more what I mean as a resource more than guidance. So if there are questions that maybe you know they the committee has but needs staff input for that someone is available for those questions they're just not going to lead them and guide them in

115one direction or the other. Correct. That is correct. And we provide additional when the committees ask for additional options or or they want to move planning blocks around. They have questions as Mr. Taylor said about uh transportation special education. We have experts in the room that can answer those questions. If the experts aren't there, they enlist them at the at the follow-up meeting and bring the resources with them at that next meeting. That answers my question. Thank you, Miss I mean Dr. Rogers, did you? No. The only other thing I would share for the uh community members that are here as well as uh members of the board um while the team facilitates the meetings, they will also um ensure that moving forward that is it is impressed upon every committee that convenes the importance

116of uh reaching uh options that move forward to the board that emphasize balancing numbers with utilization. and it will be part of our practice to make sure that the updated numbers um are provided as as long as they are publicly available. So I wanted to highlight that for you. Thank you. Okay. Um Miss Pong, is your hand still up from last question? It's not showing on my screen then. Okay. Sorry, Mr. to do. Okay. Okay. I think All right. Let me get back. Um, the board will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, February 25th. Madam Chair, my hand was up. I'm sorry. It wasn't showing on mine. Go ahead, Miss Hen. Thank you. And Dr. Rogers addressed it. So, thank you. 40 seconds left, Miss Hen, on your time. Okay. I wanted to clarify that

117in it has been past practice that the um lead or facilitator has provided parameters for the committee not in that they're leading them to a certain outcome but the parameters such as Dr. Rogers mentioned were that the recommendation should balance enrollment. Another parameter that I wanted to ask about is was this committee guided or given the parameter of making recommendations that are in the best interest of all students versus their own particular school? Absolutely. In fact, the wording we use is suspend parochial interest and do what's in work for the best interest of all the students. Miss could you hear that response? I could and if Mr. Taylor could elaborate on how that was explained to the committee. In the beginning of every meeting, we have a PowerPoint presentation which reviews the parameters, the considerations,

118the objectives and we restate certain things that we think are important and that's how it's communicated to the committee. Thank you. I believe we're good. So, we're still holding that hearing on Wednesday, February 25th, 2026 at Stemmer's Run Middle School in their auditorium at 6:30 p.m. Speaker sign up will begin at 5:30 and will end at 6:25. The board is scheduled to vote on the boundary on March 10th, 2026 at our board of education meeting. Again, the hearing is Wednesday, February 25th. It's Demer Run Middle School. Speaker signup begins at 5:30 until 6:25. Thank you gentlemen for your presentation and answers to our questions. Next on the agenda is our work session number two on the superintendent's proposed FY 2027 operating budget. And for that I call on Dr. Rogers, Dr. Grim, Mr. Tantliff, Dr.

119Malex, Dr. Jones, and Miss Charlie Green. Good evening, Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, members of the board. We are pleased to open work session number two on the FY27 proposed operating budget. We want to begin first by uh making a clarification regarding Wixie. We're only making the clarification because there is a wiki. Um wixie wiki um there is a wixie and there are no changes to wixie um in an effort to uh provide that clarification for messages that will come to uh Miss Gver. Everything you said was correct but wanted to identify the product. Um also want to share this uh work session number two. Uh we have posted all questions that were received by the close of business. Uh we already have a set of questions uh that are uh set number three that

120will be available before February 24th. Um the deadline for any additional questions is the close of business this Thursday. This will ensure that staff have enough time to research and post the um answers uh to all board member questions. We are up to 168 pages worth of responses and 93 questions to date. want to again share um this proposed budget really addresses uh tough fiscal challenges that we are facing while prioritizing the feedback that we received from our community member. um prioritizing that recruitment and retention of our staff by honoring both year two and year three of the compensation package as well as moving forward a balanced budget that includes the target of 2% increase which is an additional $30 million above what is required as we know um Baltimore County Public Schools like all

121the other school systems in Maryland is slated to receive additional revenue for the upcoming year. Our additional revenue um should total around $46 million. This slide simply shows with declining enrollment and increased costs in wages and benefits that there is a gap between the compensation costs and the additional revenue that we are receiving. The increases of revenue simply do not keep up with the rate of increased compensation. want to share what is new, what has happened since we have last met. Um, I continue to engage with the team in ongoing meetings with the county executive and her team. Just as recently as yesterday, I had an opportunity to meet with county executive Clausmire. Um, she is very clear as is her team. Uh, there is a desire to do more. However, where we are currently

122in the budget process, uh Baltimore County public schools budget process and the Baltimore County government pro uh process um does not allow at this time to know how much more. So, we are going to remain in constant communication. Um as soon as more information is available, uh she is going to provide that information. Once I have that information, it will be shared um with the board of education and our community. I want to again reiterate um that she was clear as was her team that she absolutely has a desire to do more in FY27. The question is how much more and as that information becomes available, it will be shared uh directly. Uh also want to take this opportunity um to uh share that uh we are grateful for that desire to do more particularly

123given the fact that the uh state budget has already been shared and in the state budget there are increased costs uh for local government. So, it is certainly a big deal that our um county is uh still expressing commitment to provide uh funding for our school system that is above maintenance of effort. I've also had the opportunity um as the president-elect of Pazam to um present to uh in a blueprint brief briefing at the Ways and Means and Appropriations Committee. Um you'll see on the slide some of the slides that were uh provided as a part of the briefing elevating to our state lawmakers the special education funding crisis that we find ourselves in across the state of Maryland. Uh Baltimore County being the third largest school system um and third largest uh large set

124of additional funds that we do not receive um state or um federal funds to cover. and we are legally obligated to meet the needs of our students receiving special education services. Uh we have asked for their support with that. We've also asked um for support uh to close the gap in compensatory ed in the state budget. Uh the budget that came out um addresses a large portion of it about 12 millions, but there is still $3.5 million of a gap that exists uh based on enrollment. And so we are advocating to um our lawmakers in Annapolis uh to help all school systems to close those gaps. Uh we are going to go through a series of slides that highlight some uh uh themes that we saw emerge in the questions um or uh questions that

125uh we received in our communications with uh other stakeholders. Uh the first is we want to just be extremely clear about the central office positions that have been eliminated. The orange table you have seen before several times. Um it speaks specifically to the supervisor level positions that have been eliminated in BCPS. Uh there was uh some claims made uh regarding positions that were eliminated were really uh not eliminated. They were uh largely vacant positions. In FY25, when I had the opportunity to present a proposed budget to this board of education, I shared that our first step was going to be to eliminate high numbers of traditionally vacant positions. And so we did that in FY25. In FY26 and FY27, the central office position reductions were largely filled. 82% last year and 86% uh this year.

126These are positions that are eliminated and um individuals are filling those positions. So want to make that clear for our viewing public. We also received some feedback about the revised budget book format. Um I believe it was uh shared earlier by chair uh that during the last work session we talked about making sure that the budget um information was accessible to our public by the next day. We met last Monday. By Tuesday, we had added a button um to the top of our web page, which you see there. And also at the very front of our web page, there is a button for the bud budget, making it extremely accessible to any member of our community that wants to um go to budget 101 or the operating budget work site. Um you also see on

127the slide the many opportunities um and many groups that we engaged with um throughout several months to develop the budget. Um as a part of those conversations we heard many things. Um we implemented um that feedback making sure that there was clarity around um where does every dollar go in our budget making sure that there was clarity uh between the difference between the operating budget as well as the capital budget and um other items. Uh most recently we received a request uh to make some changes in our budget book format that were similar to other school systems. Baltimore County Public Schools is not averse to that request. Um, as a matter of fact, what you see on the slide are the steps that we will take. Uh, we will convene a team to take a

128look at those links. Uh, create a crosswalk, analysis of what is included in some other large systems in the, um, state of Maryland that perhaps is not included in the same format in BCPS. We will have an opportunity as we do for everything for the community to provide some direct feedback and input. We will then look at the feasibility create a design and have an updated format um implemented for FY28. So I wanted to make sure that we provided some clarity that we are open to that and certainly will implement the process necessary to make changes. wanted to take a little time to um talk about salary turnover as that has been a point of discussion. Wanted to start with the historical context. And so um what you first see in front of you is

129a recommendation from the efficiency review report. As you will recall um uh the previous board in 2021 received a report with several recommendations for team BCPS. What you see in front of you is recommendation 3.7 in the chapter on financial management. In that recommendation, it specifically spoke to modifying the practice of underestimating staffing vacancies at 2% when the number of vacancies uh had been at that time consistently closer to 4% annually. Um there was a final report that was presented to the board of education and the public. Um it was posted in May of 2022. At that time the decision was no. Um and you'll see on the slide the rationale that was provided that BCPS would not move forward with that recommendation. However, last year um when we were in the FY26 budget process,

130um some of the feedback that we received indicated that there were uh millions of dollars in potential savings uh from the recommendations of the efficiency report. And so at that time last spring, we presented to the board of education as well as the county council members as well as our uh senate and house delegation an update on the 2021 report. You'll see the three columns as we presented them. Um an analysis of the 19 items that were moved forward with a vote of no or a decision point of no, pardon me. and then isolating the seven recommendations that were related um to finances and any updates. What you'll see from March 2025 is uh recommendation 3.7 is right there and um it was shared that um that no was turned into a yes. We had

131already implemented that uh recommendation and this slide shows when we implemented that recommendation. And so again, that was uh FY24 information. Um when we talk about salary turnover, we show first a graph that shows the FY24 actual percentage, the FY25 actual percentage, and the FY26 projected percentages. Salary turnover is not a new source of revenue. It is the amount of money left over in the salary budget at the end of the year. Salary turnover includes every single position in Baltimore County public schools across all departments. FY24 was the last time that 2% was used as the budgeted amount for salary turnover. Starting in FY25 and last year in FY27, excuse me, 26, the budgeted amount was increased to 3.6% nearly double that 2% rate. The FY27 amount will also make sure that it is consistent

132with FY25 and 26 at 3.6%. Salary turnover was high in the past um because we had a large number of budgeted vacant positions. Uh we largely addressed that starting in FY25. Since FY25, we have reduced the headcount in BCPAS by more than a thousand positions. So when you have a lower headcount, you have a lower amount of savings. As you see in the graph pro provided by fiscal services, the vacancy rate must meet or exceed the projections. Budget and accounting are award-winning budget and accounting team that has received awards for the last 22 years staffed by accounting experts. They identify the internal rate based on the system needs and the historical trends that are unique to BCPS. It is also worth noting that as a school system, we must retain enough money in our fund

133balance for potential uh supplements. Uh we have had uh supplements provided um since for the last 5 years, the range has been from $4.7 million to $35 million. And uh lastly, the money that is reduced from salary turnover um is money that is not available in the fund balance. And so the um effort and the attempt was to um address uh some of the information and the questions that we received around salary turnover. Uh making sure that everyone had accurate information to when fiscal practices were last. um enacted in Baltimore County public schools that we were not conflating practices that have occurred prior to FY25 with the current practices in the budgeting in accounting team and team BCPS. Uh my last slide before I turn it over um to Dr. Grim is about the fund

134balance. um trying to graphically represent for our community members that the fund balance uh many things go into the fund balance. Salary, budget savings is one thing, but also any other savings, any unplanned res revenue, closed purchase orders, if um light bills come in um less than what was expected, if light bulbs come in less than what was expected, and everything else in between that goes directly into the fund balance. Um what goes out of the fund balance is equally important. any and all unplanned additional expenses. Um some of those examples are snow removal. Um we plan for snow removal in our budget. Uh but we are never able to plan for uh what mother nature is going to do. For the last years um we have not had any um spec large uh snow

135events. Um that is no longer the case uh in this current year. We also use the fund balance for catastrophic events um for flooding that occurs in our third oldest set of buildings and you saw a demonstration this evening um as well as uh major equipment failure that um occurs in our buildings. It's an annual use for ongoing expenses um a small percentage with m which Mr. Tantliff will speak to. um special education overage as um I shared as I have advocated along with the 23 other superintendents in the state of Maryland um to our lawmakers that costs um school systems more than $1 billion uh in funding at the local level to provide mandated services to our students receiving special education and as you know um our one-time ERP project um Those are some

136of the examples of what the fund balance is used for. And so at this time, I will turn it over to uh Dr. Gren to speak to instructional quality. So, thank you, Dr. Rogers. First and foremost, um at last Monday night's hearing. I did hear the drip drop. We had staff out Tuesday. They could not replicate it. Um so, we'll have staff out tomorrow now that we have a better idea of what's going on. So, again, we I apologize, but that will be addressed. Um there's been a lot of discussion this budget cycle around um ratios um and looking at our our our classroom numbers. Um but we wanted to take an opport a minute to to talk um about instructional quality and the work that employee training and development has spearheaded over the last

137three years to improve instructional quality. And as this slide indicates, um, principles have the greatest impact in the schoolhouse at at 25% as instructional leaders. But really our systemic, uh, focus on research for better teaching principles has provided staff including teachers, administrators, and central office with a common language and common expectations related to teaching and learning. This has led to richer discussions about teaching practices and more impactful feedback conferences. All key components of teacher efficacy. Teachers and leaders have participated in targeted professional learning on core components necessarily for highly effective first instruction. So this graphic really outlines the progression of our professional learning arc, beginning with clarity for both the teacher and student, moving to high expectations and mastery objectives. John Hadtie conducted the most powerful metaanalysis of the research related to what makes the

138most impact on student achievement. And again, you see that snippet here. And it's important to note that collective teacher efficacy was the most impactful with teacher clarity and teacher expectations related to achievement also ranking at the top. We know that the back to basics foundational components of teaching and learning are part of the skillful teacher pyramid and are evidence-based and impactful. So that instructional quality is really the key component of moving our schools forward. And with that, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Charlie Green. But before I begin, uh, there is a video that actually exemplifies exactly what you shared, and I believe Miss Gover is prepared to share that. Now, this work will be the unifying force behind systemwide professional development. We have not engaged in this type of cohesive work for

139more than a decade. Professional learning is a critical lever to school system improvement. Principles account for 25% of student achievement in school. The research on teacher effect size when they're working together in a PLC, there is nothing more important and nothing has a greater impact on student performance. There is no way we do this work without people. And there's no way that we do this work and make sure that we're effective without making sure that we're on the same page, which means investing in you, investing in recruitment, investing in retention, and investing in professional learning. And there isn't anything as determinant of student achievement as what the individual teacher with the kids knows, believes, and can do. We have trained almost 300 school administrators in the principles of research for better teaching which has allowed

140us to have highquality conversations about instruction across elementary, middle and high school. When we first decided that we were going to use the research for better teaching company, we looked at our data around instruction and our data shows that we need a laser focus on effective first instruction. And what skillful teacher allows us to do is hone in on very specific skills that teachers need to have that are not new. As executive directors, the walkthrough data that we've seen as educators have engaged in the learning with research for better teaching has been very encouraging. We've been able to see school leaders able to provide strategies as they develop their repertoire and we've been able to see our educators providing effective feedback to help support student growth. Not only did we, you know, work with our

141research for better teaching cohorts, we also took the message to our um central office professional leadership development. So it's not just the educators. So, as you talked about shifting culture, it's important that every, you know, 20,000 employees understand the message and notice the focus is on student achievement no matter what their role. And in order to make instructional progress, in order for kids to be more successful, everyone has to be on the same page. It's been great to have two years of professional development at the system level so that the words are not new, the vocabulary is not new, the processes, the structures are not new. It's just a matter of tying in all of that learning that we've had over the last two years thanks to the superintendent's initiative to really um train all

142staff on this. And this is a much more strategic focused way of looking at instruction. It's about how do you take the science and the art and merging them together to be able to again get the student outcome or the achievement that we're looking for. if you have quality teachers in a classroom. So when a student goes from one classroom to the other, they're not going to you're not going to see those gaps. And so I think with RBT is helping closing those gaps. So accelerating learning, closing the gaps. It's about that that teacher who is that centerpiece and being able to teach students with quality. Well, outside of the classroom, our student achievement and progress is increasing. So it's really fun to experience. inside of the classroom. Our culture of learning is blossoming and

143our students um agency is also increasing. The independency is really fun to watch and observe. Um the light bulb moment that every teacher has is happening more and more in our classrooms. Our students are conversing about what they're learning. They're owning their opportunities um to engage in the classroom and they're a part of the learning experience. Um students most importantly are able to give feedback to teacher. Um that way teacher can use that driving their informal uh assessments or formal assessments of students and then they can make make responsive decisions for the children in the classroom. I participated in all the summer PDs and the professional development PDS and just being as a new teacher second year. I think the biggest things that I took away from it was probably like that time management skill

144and the importance of routines and attention because having that environment that's working in the classroom. Um being able to push your students to that higher level thinking and that effortful thinking to get them where they need to be. It all starts with that environment. The system professional um development in the PD days have really helped uh myself and my colleagues refocus um on high quality instruction and um fast forwarding student achievement by planning and looking at daily instruction in the planning phase. We're able to make sure that our lessons are meaningful, they're clear, and they're aligned with curriculum and standards. Furthermore, our deliberate planning is allowing us to embed research-based strategies and tools to set students up for success and also maximize student engagement. Thank you. I'm glad we took a moment to to watch

145that video. We've been having some very important conversations and as we all have, we've been hearing directly from our community concerns about class size and class ratios and we we receive those conversations. It's very important to continue talking about those things, but it's also important to really recognize, um, what really makes classroom instruction effective. And so, um, we wanted to just introduce for the good of the viewing public some of the work that we're doing to ensure highquality teaching in every classroom. We also know that the research says that when you start seeing the benefit of smaller class sizes, it really caps out at about 14. That classes are more than 14, you lose some of that benefit of smaller class sizes. That is not in any way to say that we do not appreciate

146smaller class sizes, nor do we believe that changing these staffing ratio is a go-to. We, as Dr. Rogers have said, we believe that that is the option of last resort. But we also know that highquality teaching involves multiple factors and we just wanted the public to understand what some of those additional factors are. Um, tonight I wanted to, if we could go back to the slideshow, just regground us in our negotiated agreements. I did bring this forward at our last work session. Just as a reminder, um our negotiated agreements between the board of education and our associations include language around uh layoffs and furlows, specifically no layoffs, no furlows. That language has been present in our master agreement since 1996. And so that's important because 99% of BCPS workforce, 99% of them are represented employees,

147meaning that one of the master agreements applies to those individuals. In fact, fewer than 100. There are only 100 nonrepresented uh staff members in team BCPS. The chart that's over to the far left, as you can see, represents some of the reductions that have taken place. And many of those are impacted. uh many of those impacted folks, most of those impacted folks are nonrepresented employees. And so what happens with non-represented employees and what happens with all employees when a job is eliminated is what I'd like to discuss uh with you next. And that is if you go over to the green box, our employees are placed in positions that are closely aligned with their credentials and their expertise. Simply put, positions because of our master agreement language are when they are eliminated, we still owe

148a position to those employees. And so part of the work that our human resources team does, and they do it quite well, is works with those staff members to identify a position in which they can be moved. And so it's important to ground our conversations there because as we are all looking to come up with a budget that is balanced, it's important to recognize that we do have a commitment to our employees to make certain that we are honoring the master agreements and that we're finding positions that are within their area of expertise. Uh, next slide, please. And so this next slide talks specifically about why a dedicated TV video team is essential. And I'm speaking specifically about BCPS TV. And I speak specifically about BCPS TV for a number of reasons. I'll start by

149saying that BCPS TV is made up of represented employees. So that slide that I showed you previously applies to everyone in BCPS TV as well. They are represented by OPE. They're represented by ESPC. So in very much the way we would not consider eliminating an entire uh group of folks in ESPC or OPE, we have to really be very cognizant of the messages we send when we look at a particular office. No layoffs applies to BCPS TV as well. I speak also about BCPS TV tonight because I've heard said and it's actually a quote that this is the office that might have the least impact on students. I would argue that the uh student members of the board's uh comments tonight as she shared uh the safety video would beg to differ that students are

150actually impacted by the work of BCPS TV because it speaks directly to how they communicate. If you take a look at this slide, the public communicates differently. The vast majority of people receive their information from social media and from digital content. If you want to think about the last time you picked up a newspaper, an actual paper newspaper and read it from cover to cover. I still do, but I don't know how many other people do. Um, people absorb and receive a number of different types of content and primarily they are digital. It provides equitable access to many of our multip multilingual learners. So, if you look at video, we're able to actually close caption. We're able to change it into multiple languages. We're able to communicate directly to our audience. In addition to that,

151it provides a window into our schools. Frequently, our community is asking about what happens in classrooms. They speak to transparency. That's part of the work that BCPS TV does. Right now, we are all experiencing the work of BCPS TV. They help us comply with the Open Meetings Act. We just saw a presentation on a boundary study. They produce those uh those videos as well. You heard said several times, oh, it's on the website. Go to the link and you can actually watch the meeting. That is the work of BCPS TV. They create short form videos to improve understanding because we know that those short digestible videos again is how we consume all of our or much of our information. We do it ourselves. And then lastly, it is a standard practice for large school systems.

152Frankly, 20 plus is the number many large school systems have. And this data is directly from the National School Public Relations Association. I think the bottom line that I'd like to convey is that it is not an add-on. It's not a nice to have. It is actually a part of our infrastructure. So just as we think about the infrastructure that we experience every day, the internet services we experience, the electricity, all of those things that help move things along, BCPS TV, that content is part of that. And so just tonight, we heard about a safety video that our student member of the board shared. We just watched a training video that shared information about the work that has been going on across the system. We alluded to and we didn't see it but links to

153boundary studies. We also are experiencing the work of BCPS TV here and it'll be archived so you can experience it moving forward. If we can move to the next slide please specifically and again I want to highlight this BCPS TV increases and improves accessibility for all of our community. They videotape athletic events, which we know is very important to many of our student athletes. That film, all of that information is shared. They videotape all kinds of things that are happening at our schools. They create and archive YouTube videos that are very explanatory and help move people forward. They work with parent university to make certain that information is out in the community and it creates connections. I heard a question from board member Fmpong about how are we increasing communication. I would hazard a guess

154that BCPS TV could play a role in making get more people involved in our boundary study process. Once again, it is a critical part of infrastructure. And so I just wanted to highlight I also highlight this because if we look at our four priorities and they are depicted on this slide, academic achievement, we've shown tonight how that work is connected to improving academic achievement overall. Infrastructure, as I stated, it is a critical part of the way we do our work. safety and climate as well as ensuring a highly effective staff. And so I wanted to make certain that we brought this to light as we continue to have our conversations about the operating budget. I wanted to remind viewers that uh we are talking about represented employees. We do not typically single out a single

155office but this office has been specifically singled out. So I felt it was my responsibility to make certain that if we are talking about BCPS TV that we are talking about them in their totality that we are valuing the work that they do and the support that they provide for our families. And so this final slide which I won't read for you speaks to highlights of other work that BCPS TV does. And so this was uh the challenge or the the task for us was to identify themes in the questions that we saw. Uh this came up last year it came up again. Uh it has been commented that perhaps the efficiency review or the county auditor indicated that this might have the least impact on kids on students in schools and I would um

156you know certainly want to make certain that if we are making that claim that we have all of the information about the work that this office does in front of us. So I thank you for allowing me to share that and at this time I will turn it over to my colleague. Thank you. Um on the first slide uh there were some questions about breaking out the uh compensation costs for the second half of year two and year three. So these are the same totals you saw uh at the previous meeting. But just breaking out by bargaining unit the difference between salary fringes uh and the grand total is the same as last time. also want to point out uh because we had some dialogue about it last time that when you just look at

157an office, you can't just take the FTEES or take the total salaries divided by the FTES because there's a lot of other nonFT or non um permanent position costs that won't show up with the corresponding FTE. And here you have some of them listed that we discussed last time. Stipen subs, um AAS, so permanent temporary employees, tutors, PD, etc. There's there's a long list of things. So, we just wanted to remind everyone you can't just look and to divide the total by the FTEs. Um, mid-level administration that generally refers to the principal's office. So, it's principal, AP, secretaries in the school and in our curriculum and instruction uh department here in the central office. Uh, a number of the supervisors, managers, etc. also fall into mid-level administration. But the vast majority of these costs are

158in the schoolhouse. Um you can see uh here the m most of the increase is just due to the negotiated compensation increases. So of the 4 million in salaries and wages. Um 2.5 million was school-based salaries. Um charter schools were almost a million of it are two new charters that are currently in the budget. Um and of I just mentioned we have the year two and three steps in cola. So, it's it's an extraordinarily large compensation increase this year because we have half of year 2 and all of year three. So, you're getting a full year and a half of increases. So, anywhere you look in the budget book, you're going to see relatively large salary increases. It may at first glance uh be a little confusing, but that's really what's driving it. Um, let's

159see. and non-s salary expenses are actually reduced overall in uh mid-level administration. Next slide. Uh a couple questions about substitute teachers because um uh it's noted in the book it appears that there's a $10 million increase in substitutes. So So first of all, substitute increase substitutes are not full-time equivalent employees. Currently, substitutes are 100% contractual, managed by Kelly Services. We've been, this is the fourth year we've been on the Kelly contract. Uh, next year we're transitioning back to substitutes in-house, which through the whole of our existence, we've always managed the subs directly. We tried four years with Kelly, but uh to save money and to bring it back in house. They're coming in next year. So, it it's not an increase. It's just a movement from contractual to salary. So, uh there have been a

160couple questions about that. Um grant positions, um it's a very steady percent of the budget. If you exclude ESER, which uh we all know is an extraordinary uh bump in our uh grant-f funed federal expenditures, it's about 6% very very steady of the budget year in year out. There's certainly some variation. Um, but it's pretty steady. Um, our three there's really three major grants that we have. On the federal side, we have title one. Um, on the federal side, we have the IDA special ed pass through grant. And then on the state, of course, now we have the concentration of poverty, which has grown really exponentially over the last 5 years since blueprint came into existence. Certainly a lot of other important grants, but they're just much smaller than title one, IDA, and concentration of

161poverty. Um, and on budget 101, you can see a list of the grants. Next slide. There you go. Uh, I I touched on this again last time. This is the same slide we looked at. It was just a very simple example. Bring it home to the board. You can't just look and see uh one FTE and a and a very large salary because the board member stipens are also in the salaries and wages of the board. Uh we just I just mentioned on the other slide a stipen subs AAS etc. So uh just wanted to mention that again. Uh fund balance Dr. Rogers mentioned it last time and we talked about it uh quite extensively at the last meeting, but fund balance in the FY27 budget is about 2.4% of the general fund budget. Um

162it's an ongoing stable source of revenue. It's a critical component of uh the general fund. We always want to keep a substantial balance both so it's repeatable so we can you know I think I said last time we want to um it's a precious asset that we want to um covet and not let it go uh too low. We also use it for emergencies, contingencies, supplemental appropriations um and any overages that occur, things like special ed. uh fund balance can only be accessed through this board's approval and then approval by the county council. The superintendent, um the staff, no one can access that funds without going through that process. There's absolutely no way to access that. Uh and this this chart here just shows a couple of the supplementals that we've had the last few

163years and what they were for. Um and also our budget appropriation transfer which in April, both of those um uh documents will come to the board for approval in April and then they'll go to the county council. But you can just see the amount of uh BAT as we call it and the budget supplemental. Now with the BAT, just a reminder, um the BAT is just it's budget neutral. was just moving money between categories and we'll talk about that a lot more when we come and present that uh to this body in April. But the point is we need flexibility in the budget. We can't end the year just a couple million dollars under budget and we must end under budget. We have to end under we cannot go over budget. We need to have

164uh some flexibility in the budget and that's why most of that comes through um salary savings but uh it's still a very low uh numbers a percent of the budget. You're talking about our variance being 2ish% 2 to 3% of the total budget. So it's really pretty moderate and uh we just have to have that flexibility or we'll be at risk of going over budget. Um we talked about fund balance uh last meeting. This is our final slide. These are the same overall figures that you saw last time. Um but but a key takeaway was we want to use a sustainable amount. So we have 50 million in the uh budget this year. Our plan is to uh temper that down over the next few years to get to about a $30 million which we

165feel is a sustainable rate and that's about what we used precoid. the balance got very very large as a result of uh underspending during COVID. It was the uh leaving at the end of uh the end of FY20 everyone went home. FY21 we were remote the full year. FY22 we weren't doing many field trips. We had a lot of vacancies. Um, and I think within Maryland, just the ESSER grant was so large that in itself may have driven up our vacancies because there was so much demand for positions because there was so much money just floating through the system at that time. So, we feel like we have uh as much as the the budget can really sustain this year and our plan is to um uh you know be very careful with that resource

166and not go too low. And again, if we do go too low, it'll create a large gap at some point, which we looked at last time. So, for instance, if we continued using 50 million a year, or if we increased our uh turnover rate to 4% or 5.5% I think was mentioned, we'll run out of fund balance really quickly within the next few years and then there'll be a really large gap will be dealt with. So it'll be the ultimate kicking the can down the road because we'll end up with uh just a huge gap that'll be almost impossible to overcome if we end up in that place. So I think this was the last slide that we had today. Thank you. Thank you all for that presentation. Um just FY couple FYI for board

167members. We're not voting on the budget tonight. We'll vote on it um in two weeks at our next budget meeting. If you submitted questions past the deadline, they'll be worked on um and then posted or posted for us. Um so at this point, um I will I'd like to make a motion to extend board members time to three minutes. Is there a second? Second, Pumprey. Second, thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Mr. Gomebe. Yes. Miss Dowski. Yes. Dr. Seavoy. Yes. Mr. McMillian. Yes. Miss Pumphrey. Yes. Mr. Young. Yes. Miss Damonowski? Yes. Miss Hen? Yes. Miss Fong? Yes. Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss Lter? Yes. Thank you. Okay. Mr. Burns, you ready? Okay. Questions, comments? U Mr. Allesky, you may start. I'll start. Sure. Um, first of all, um, would it be possible

168for this next set of questions to be dis uh to be posted early enough before the meeting since we'll be voting at the next meeting so that board members have a time to review the notations. Staff members will make every effort to okay post. Thank you. That's greatly appreciated. Okay, I'll get started. Um, in terms of library media specialists, I believe it would be 64 secondary library media specialists. How many of them have a library aid? So, the department of schools um conducted a survey after our last meeting Monday. Um, we do know that there are general education para educators that some schools choose to use. Um it is not all schools in uniform as we move forward. Uh Miss uh Charlie spoke to everyone is uh required a position. We do have some um

169availability with uh ESPC staff to ensure that uh reallocation uh ensures that every secondary school has a media assistant to provide support. Okay. And that would be for FY27. Yes. budget neutral. Great. Thank you. And then would there be some training for those specific employees? Great. Thank you. That's wonderful to hear. And then in terms of the non- library time, the two class periods, would the library media specialists also have an advisory? I know that I think in middle schools they're have a have a lesson as part of an advisory and then the device distribution and collection could be part of an advisory. I will take that back to the team. Okay, great. Thank you. And then um is there a plan to sunset this need to have them teaching the two periods? I know

170that of course Komar and policy wants a full-time library media specialist. So I understand fiscal circumstances this year, but I just want to make sure we have an ideal long-term plan. Thank you. Thank you. Um I think our overall goal would be to uh reduce class sizes if class sizes uh end up being increased. Um prioritize that first and then uh restoration. So there would certainly be a plan uh in alignment with the fiscal realities that the school system is uh facing. If if uh class sizes change uh the plan would we would prioritize reducing class sizes first. Okay. Thank you, Mr. McMillian. I have a question or a motion right along with that with Mr. Lusky's comments. I move to restore secondary libraria specialists to full-time positions for the fall of 20 2026 and

171going forward with no classroom/advisory responsibilities. Is there a second? Second. Still, any discussion? Thank you, Mr. Um I can repeat it to restore secondary librarian media specialists to full-time positions for the fall of 2026 and going forward with no classroom advisory responsibilities. Mr. Manowski discussion measure uh if anyone can answer this Dr. Rogers um what would be the fiscal impact of that? I can um calculate that for you because you're talking about uh 60 individuals with two periods. We will have to calculate that and um post that response. So it is um you know if everyone has on average at least 25 students, those are 50 students per building um that wouldn't have access to classes. And so, not only is there a uh there's a there's the impact in terms of the work that

172we're trying to do to maximize the existing certified teaching staff to keep class sizes as low as possible. We would be undoing that. So, the only thing I would suggest is that it would be hard to vote on that without knowing what the fiscal impact would be. That that would be my only thing. Thank you, Miss Pumphrey. I, if this is proper, I'd like to invite a a motion to postpone the vote on this until our next meeting when we have additional data regarding fiscal impact. So, did you just make an amendment to the motion? Well, that's a motion, a separate motion that that becomes the priority. Okay. So, is there a second to Miss Pumprey's motion? Second. Thank you, Mr. Young. Further discussion on Miss Pumphrey's motion? It's not. So, may I have a

173roll call vote on Miss Pumprey's motion? Mr. Gome, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillion, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Lter, yes. Thank you. So then going back to to Mr. McMillian's is that off the table now. Okay. Thank you. Um did you have another question Mr. Okay, Miss Fmpong. My hand was raised for discussion for the last one. So I'll put it down. I'm sorry. Thank you Miss Hen. Thank you. What is our variance percentage and dollar amount year-to date budgeted versus actual school salaries? Um, I don't have that figure with me tonight. What percentage and dollar amount of budgeted school salaries and wages were reallocated to other spending categories in FY26? I'm sorry, FY25. Um, we

174I don't know that off the top of my head. I'd have to review uh the BAT, but the BAT was approved by this board and uh they would have we would have reviewed that at the meeting, but we can look at the BAT and get you that figure. And lastly, what federal revenue changes will be made as a result of the Consolidated Appropriations Act signed into law on February 3rd? So, I'll answer that. um that was signed on February the 3rd. It is the 10th. Uh we have both our uh director who's responsible for uh federal grants and the office of law re reviewing that information to um identify the impact and make recommendations to our team. Okay. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Madam Chair, I have a motion that I forwarded to the full board

175for consideration um that I'd like to introduce um this evening for a vote on at our February 24th meeting. Would it be appropriate to um read that motion now and ask that we vote on February 24th? Um yes, I think Thank you, Madam Chair. Wait a second. There's a point of clarification being asked. I just want to be clear. We're Miss Hen is making a motion, but we are not voting on the motion until the next meeting. Is that Mr. Burns? I thought what I heard her say is that she was not making a motion, right? So, I don't know how you classify it, but no, I would say you can't make a motion and then say for later, we're not seconding it or moving on it tonight. I mean, I'm sorry, acting on it

176tonight. Can't have it both ways. So, I'm not sure what you would call this. May I clarify, Madam Chair? Yes. Thank you. Um, I'd like to introduce a proposal for the board's consideration for vote at the February 24th meeting. Okay. As long as you have three minutes or less now, so go ahead. Okay. 115. I'd like the board to consider amending the superintendent's budget through the following four-part um plan. Part one is a federal revenue reconciliation. Um the special revenue fund would be increased by 10 million to reconcile with the consolidated appropriations act signed into law on February 3rd. Um these funds will be restricted to their mandated purposes um title one and idea. Um part two is a vacancy rate realignment. The budgeted vacancy turnover rate shall be increased to 5 a.5% which identifies

17728 million in existing general fund revenue. These funds would be reallocated to restore classroom teaching positions previously identified for reduction. Part three directs the superintendent to preserve all existing FY26 instructional staffing ratios K through 12. Um to bridge the remaining $3.8 million gap between the identified vacancy savings of 28 million and the total cost of ratio restoration. The board would formally request that the county executive provide supplemental funding in that amount. And part four adds a layer of budget oversight asking the superintendent to provide quarterly reports of budget line transfers which were previously provided to the board's budget committee for any transaction of 50,000 or greater with any within any single MSTE category. This is to track any um budgeted funds that are allocated to salary that are um diverted to contracted services or other

178non- salary operational costs. So what this motion does is it reconciles the availability of federal funding with its mandated use. It adjusts vacancy savings in alignment with the recommendations of the county auditor allowing us to preserve current classroom staffing ratios. It changes our request to the county executive reducing our ask to 3.9 million and allowing us to preserve all school staffing ratios. And fourth, it holds us the board accountable for providing regular ongoing oversight of the use of vacancy savings to fund school-based positions as attended. And by considering this motions, we this motion at our next meeting, we the board would be accepting responsibility for our budget and choosing our classrooms. And this motion in its entirety has been forwarded to the full board for consideration. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Other board member

179questions or comments, Miss Pumphrey. I just have a I guess a request is the best way to put it regarding Miss Hen's motion. if we could receive this is probably already you're probably already thinking about this but um a staff response I guess I don't know if that's the right term to this proposal or staff recommendation or analysis of this proposal um at the next meeting as well. Yes. Thank you uh Miss Pumprey. We will uh provide information from our fiscal team. Thank you Miss Pumprey. Other comments or questions concerning the budget? This is Miss Fon, cheerle. Okay, go ahead, Miss Fon. Thank you. Um, I did have a question also related to Miss Hen's uh motion um as far as if the it's a fourpart, but does it have to be um taken in

180its entirety in order for those numbers to work out the way that they do based on her calculations? I I guess I'm Yes, go ahead. respond to her question. Um, would you like me to respond now, Madam Chair, or when I formally make the motion? And this may be a question for Mr. Burns since we don't have a motion on the floor. It's for consideration only at this point. He's thinking, well, I'm I'm not I think we're mixing apples and oranges. I think a board member asked another member to answer a question about the proposal. So I think within the range of what you all are doing tonight as a work session, she could answer that. I would caution Miss Hen that um she is out of time with respect to her own uh statements,

181but if the board wants to answer each other's questions, you can. Okay. So um go ahead. I I'm happy to answer that. Um CS Mong, two of the um parts of the motion are dependent on on one another. The 32 million um gap in preserving the staffing ratios are dependent on the 28 million um and the 4 million in supplemental funding from the county executive. the 28 million by adjusting the vacancy um rate and the four million in supplemental funding from the county executive. Um the other two are are not dependent. Okay, thank you. Thank you for the question. Miss, did you have your hand up before? Yes. Um, as noted in the slide about um, BT DC BCPS TV and how there's several large school systems that have 20 plus um, employees staff on

182there. Could um, could you name some some of those school systems? I couldn't I couldn't u recall I couldn't do that now, but I can certainly get that information for you. Okay, that would be great. Thank you. Um and then also with regards to larger class sizes and understanding that you know once you hit the 14 threshold you know you're not really losing that um you know whatever effectiveness it has but my concern mostly with it is that we are already near that 25 for most of our schools. I know the data shows a little bit differently, but um just from personal experience um my elementary school every grade is 25 or more and Sparks is in the same boat as third to fifth grade. Um and it's not just the number of students, it's

183the fact that we have gone from that um more inclusive school environment where we're bringing in our special educator education students which is is great but sometimes the special education students require or require I can't um more attention from the special educated educator you know pair educate what person in there watching them but they might actually be watching five or six other IEPs but they're like they have to focus their attention on that one person which takes away from the instruction of the teacher in the head at the head of the class. Um so my concern is great that we are expanding from 20 you know we're saying 1 to 25 but really when you have all those um when you do the formula the class sizes are going to be more than 25 they're

184going to be closer to 30 and I want to know what kind of supports we're going to have for our special educators in those situations our IEPs what what how are we supporting those teachers and in able to control that classroom get um instruction out. Um what what are we doing? What's the plan for that if we have to end up doing this 1 to 25? So I think I will um highlight a few things. Uh the first thing is as was shared last week um our staffing allocations for students receiving special education services who have individualized education plans is separate from our general classroom teacher allocations. Um we do have uh programs where students are included in when you have students that are included the calculation for a student receiving special education services is

185different in terms of the weight to um their uh non uh their their peers in the classroom to ensure that an inclusion class does not have a um high number of special education students which then turns it into it's no longer a least restrictive environment in alignment with their IEP. Um I heard some terms about control and people who are in the rooms. Um our teachers are provided with uh co-teers. If it's an inclusion class, the responsibility for the instruction is both to the um special education teacher as well as the general education teacher. By Maryland law, everyone is required to implement um the accommodations in an IEP to meet the needs of students in their least restrictive environment. Um, I would be interested in uh seeing specific data regarding schools and populations of uh

186youngest learners that were 25 going to 30. It's very important to me that the community is clear, especially in elementary school, that should be the grade level with the least amount of variability. I will also highlight for this board in FY25 when we came together, one of the first things that we did was address that grades three through five historically had the highest class sizes, the highest staffing allocation, higher than middle school and high school. So certainly if you're talking about grades three through five, two years in, you might see those numbers a little um higher than uh kindergarten and above. I believe when we shared the direct numbers last year, uh we see anywhere from six to nine% in the younger grades of students in our schools sitting right now with uh more than

18725 students. So if there are spaces um where that is not the case, uh we definitely want to have that information. Um, that is not to say that if a school receives an allocation for 25 students or for 50 students and they grow to 52 or 53 that they're going to receive an extra teacher. Um, that is is not um a realistic expectation. Nor are those teachers readily available. Uh, what we are providing and I neglected to say it and so I appreciate uh this question that gives me the opportunity to say it. What we are providing to our principles when we do staffing this year are staffing caps. In those staffing caps, we have broken it out by grade level. In the secondary uh grades, we have broken it out by content and we

188provide what the guidelines are for minimum but also what the guidelines are for maximum. Um we are going to be very um uh strict if you if you want to call it that with our monitoring of maximizing the use of the resources that are available. In a chart that I shared last week, you'll see elementary, middle, and high the number of full-time equivalent employees that are paid and hired to teach full-time all day, but they have been granted release periods. This is no judgment on what they're doing in those release periods. I certainly believe that they are working to support students in the building. However, if we are moving forward with consideration of increased class sizes, we must maximize all the certified individuals in our classroom. And so I will end with the training that

189we provided on first instruction is where we are investing that is coupled with the monitoring that happens not only from school building leadership but also the monitoring that happens from central office on a regular basis to make sure that the classroom environment is conducive to learning. And so that means that students are focused, that means that student needs are being met and that there is um momentum that continues uh highly engaged classrooms. And so certainly if there are spaces where there are concerns, I would invite for those um specific um challenges to be reported, if they have been reported first to the building principal. Beyond that, the executive director of schools and our chief of schools, Dr. Jones, is sitting here. She takes these uh concerns very seriously and spends the majority of her time

190inside schools in classrooms. If there's anything that you want to add, I turn it over to you, Dr. Jones. I I think you covered it, Dr. Rogers. We just want to make sure that wherever this exists, please bring it to our attention and when or if something like this comes to our attention, we try our best to address it immediately. So, thank you. Two quick follow-ups that um when you talk about the caps, will there be caps on how many students will be in a classroom that with IEPs too? Will you cap that? So there is a formula um there is a formula that we will make sure that everyone is applying. Um what is typical across school systems is one to one and a half to make sure that we're in compliance with the

191least restrictive environment. I how many students do you like how many students you put in that equation that have IEPs that are in a classroom? So that that is what I'm referring to. So for every one student that does not have an IEP um and then you have one student that has an IEP in terms of the number the class uh cap that you have, you're counting the student with additional needs as a higher load. So one and a half. So potentially if you have a class of 25 10 of them could have IEPs. No. Because 10 of them would be counted as 1.5. So okay be 20. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Um and then that um I forgot my other question was my will come back to you later. Okay. We'll come back if you

192remember. Um other questions Mr. Deleski. Um, thank you. Um, in thinking about um, supports for teacher in light of class size increases, I know there's some supports in place that teachers highly value. Um, education foundation and peer assistance review are two that come to my mind. Um, so how are we ensuring that those programs continue and can be consistently implemented given the financial constraints? So, there are no plan changes to PAR or peer assistance and review. Um, the blueprint actually requires for all school systems in Maryland to have a program to provide support to um new teachers and so there are no plan changes for that. in terms of uh support and continued uh operations of the education foundation. Um again that's another area where we plan to uh remain fully operational no uh impact

193to services of the end user. Great. That's great to hear. And were there any staffing cuts in these areas? There are no changes uh planned to par. Uh we do have uh consolidation of some areas as you have in the department level book. The final decisions uh won't be made until the spring. Okay, great. And PAR relies on stipens, right? To the um uh what is it like a team of teachers and consulting teachers and is that a stipend? I don't know. Mr. Tantliff, does PAR have a stipen? There is a stipen associated with PAR. Okay, great. Thank you. And that is fully funded. Yes. Great. Thank you. And then my other question, um I know in light of and this is a difficult question, but I know in light of the the financials, obviously

194every dollar counts. So some teachers have come and shared about um like Tabco grievances and the cost involved there. So if you can speak to the amount of cost to the system of the grievance filings for the this year so far and how that is funded. I can't speak to that. Um first I would have to consult with legal on whether or not that information uh is information that can be publicly shared. Um fiscal would have to do some uh information gathering and additionally I I believe it is the right of not only Tabco but every association has the right to grieve. Um and with grievances are associated costs. I think it would be frowned upon largely um for any school system to take efforts that would um infringe upon the rights of individuals to

195grieve. And I see board counsel um nodding in agreement behind you. Okay. Um can you share is there like an estimated cost in the FY27 budget for that? I don't have that information. Okay. Thank you, Miss Fong. Thank you. Um, I have a question. Uh, I guess followup. So, Miss Not sure which board member now. I'm in the operating budget questions and it's on page um 21 question number 72 and it talks about department 094 which is equity and that it's been zeroed out moved to department 177 with the training um and then there's additional questions and information uh uh asking about the details. So the response talks about that it was just moved and it's part of the reorganization um but there was a reduction to three positions. In the response it talks about

196um the reclassifications of the titles even for um the name of the department itself. So it's moved from the office of equity and cultural proficiency. It's now Department of Employee Training and Development. And so my question is in regards to that because Carson/comments um because as a board we have a commitment to equity. We have an equity committee. We even have an equity policy that's 0100 and as well as with our committee we have an equity advisory council. So it concerns me when I see that we're moving a department under another department. we're not even referring to it as equity anymore and then we are reducing the position. So there's some defunding that's happening there. So I'd like to hear about the work that um I mean why do we have to do it this

197particular way? It sounds like if the funds are not changing, why are we doing it this way instead of continuing as we have in the same vein funding the office of equity and cultural proficiency as is? And instead of decreasing positions, we should at least be trying to maintain if not increase the positions. You want to so I don't know that I so so could you repeat the question please? I want to make sure that I can responsibly answer. Um I do want to speak specifically to the work and I know Miss Fong you continue to work directly with Mr. Handy as it relates to the work of the equity committee. So I don't believe that that work has subsided in any way. I don't believe that that work has changed in any way and

198in fact I believe he is responsive and and leading that work. Um I do know that high expect high expectations teaching is the work that all of the specialists are engaging in as part of the office of workforce development. Um I employee development I don't know that their focus has shifted their expertise certainly has not they continue to work alongside principles when principles either request their presence or there is an issue in a school that is related to an equity concern uh these same folks come forward and and do that work. So I don't know that I can speak to the operational piece of titles. I can certainly allow uh Dr. Grim who is supervising that work or at least that work falls in his shop. I can certainly allow him to speak directly to

199that. So, thank you. Uh, Mr. Funk, those changes actually took place or are in place now. Um, so they were part of the FY26 um changes that occurred and so that team has has actually actively been involved this year in uh the employee training and development department. Um, as Miss Charlie Green indicated, um, they are, uh, an integral part of our workforce development plan. So, not only are they, um, continuing much of the work that that they've started and that they have been engaged in over the years, um, but there are new threads throughout the organization where they're providing support to all of our workforce. And if I just just may add, and I appreciate uh, Dr. program reminding us that it did occur last year and part of the thinking was to be able

200to make certain that it was all of their work was embedded in everything that we do so that all employees who are participating in the training uh that we provide to teachers to principles to support staff are receiving benefit of the expertise that this team provides and so you did see Mr. hand you feature it on the video um when we talked about uh research for better teaching. So I think that's further evidence that the work is not um siloed but is actually integrated fully into the work we do to ensure that all staff all staff regardless of position understand uh the work of improving learning for all students. Thank you for the response. another there was a mention that this is operation I guess what I'm looking at is that it's operations in alignment

201with what the board has said is priority and commitments and so like if the work is staying the same and hasn't changed again why necessarily the move from a whole separate department and even the removal of or the change of names that it's something different how is someone necessarily to know that department of employee training and development deals with our equity and cultural proficiency how is a parent to know a student to to know a staff member to know etc. We don't even have we don't have that department to go to the specialists are no longer identified as the same. It's just inongruent when we say here's we have this commitment and even for blueprint there's something talking about highly diverse um staff of teachers and leaders. We don't and we speak about the highly

202trained but not necessarily the diverse piece. So it just again it's looking that we're moving away from being able we don't even we don't we're not talking about or identifying diversity explicitly or specifically. So I would uh thank you for that Miss Fong. I would add a few comments and uh submit this for your consideration. Um for us as a school system equity is not siloed. Equity is not a thing or rests with the responsibility of uh four or five individuals. As you know over the last year few years we have had to make reductions particularly in central offices. Um there was a reduction by one position last year. Um we also had in Baltimore County public schools three years ago and prior to that where um professional development was happening in several divisions in

203several offices and what it led to is desperate training for our staff and so we moved it to employee workforce development and whether it is on the operation side it's on the school building side it's on central office it is all led by Dr. Burkquist in one place. Um that way we have internal uh cohesion and there is accountability that our priorities are um conveyed. In terms of uh the training that we provide to all teachers, we moved to the work of uh John Saphir high expectations teaching um so that our teaching staff and pair professionals were very clear on the specific uh strategies that should be implemented in the classroom that display that demonstrate high expectations teaching, which is if we are truly committed to equity, what we need to be doing day in

204and day out of all all of our classrooms. So, I certainly uh along with the team receive your comments about uh the changes in names. Um we did shift our infrastructure to make sure that we were more efficient in process and our commitment to our students remains unwavering. Um and uh you know, we see that evidenced by the work that's happening in our school buildings. All of our administrators are well aware of the um uh access that they have to the team members for support. Additionally, schools also have individualized equity liaison who continue to champion that work. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions? Miss Deonowski. This is board member Fren, you're out of your three minute time. I didn't hear anyone say that. It it rang at the when you were concluding your last question.

205I just let you finish that question. Okay. I thought we were getting they were like something will be said to us when our time was going to be close to being finished. It it happened mid while you were doing your last question. Correct. But I am also virtuous. I didn't hear and I also have heard other people have been oh you have this much time left etc. And I didn't hear that is what I was saying. I'm sorry. Okay. So, I'd like to ask one last question. You, but you're out of time, Miss Domin. I mean, Miss I'm sorry, Miss Fang. Miss Dominowski had another was the next person with a question. Go ahead, Mr. Dominoski. Uh, it was just a followup from last week when I asked about um the central office um positions

206that were eliminated if or how many of them were um support services, support staff in um special education and pupil personnel services. So, we did not um eliminate pupil personnel uh workers. I know that that was some uh rumor that was floating around in the community. Again, I want to reiterate those 16 positions were moved on to a grant, a federal stable grant. We did not cut pupil personnel workers. Um special education uh we also um uh did not make cuts. We actually have proposed new spending for 20 additional positions, a combination of parah educators as well as teachers for special education in um the budget. And I think you had a third part of the question, but I don't recall it. It was not necessarily um the educators the the support staff that were

207in in central office for those departments. So there were some central office uh support staff reductions. The team would have to go back through the budget book details. Um the 69 that was shared on that orange slide, those were all supervisory level positions, but they could have been in in special education and pupil personnel services. supervisors or coordin There was 31 I mean uh 13 coordinators and 31 supervisors. None of those were from specialist. Oh, they could have been. There were certain places, we talked about this last year, there were certain places where we would have um several people um in charge of the same function and so we consolidated those numbers. I I just had asked for those numbers the last time that if I could if I could ask them again for next

208time. Thank you. I don't believe that there were any cuts in the special education department centralized s special education department had since 25. Oh, since 25. I'm sorry, I didn't hear that problem. So, is the question from FY25, FY27 budget or FY26? So, it's in reference to the slide that you've been showing us of the 69 eliminated positions since 25 and 26 between 25 and 26. So, I I'm asking which support staff were those included in special education and people personnel services. Okay. Okay. So, we're not talking about support staff because there's no support staff on that slide, but you're talking about which supervisor. Yeah. Supervisor coordinator. I meant support as in like someone in the central office supporting our our our special education educators and our people personnel services that are working in the

209school. That's what I meant by that. But I I mean supervisors or coordinators or directors that were in special education or people personnel services. Okay. Sorry, I went way over my time, but that's what I meant. Okay. Thank you, Miss Pumphrey. I'd like to invite a motion to extend time for debate to 30 seconds. Additional seconds. Second, Stleski. Thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Second. Sorry. Um, I think Miss Slesky seconded. Yes, Miss Aomebe. Yes, Miss Stleski. Yes, Dr. Seavoy. Yes, Mr. McMillian. Yes, Miss Pumprey. Yes, Mr. Young. Yes, Miss Dominowski. Yes, Miss Hen. Yes, Miss Fmpong. Yes. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Lter, yes. Thank you, Miss Fong, you have additional 30 seconds. Would you like to pose your question? I will. Thank you. So with the budget, the full amount

210that was budgeted for 2026, is that going to be the full amount that is still budgeted for that work in FY2027 as well as the staffing because that's not laid out clearly with the new department. There are no um well actually are there changes? Yes. Yes. Yes, it will be the same amount. I also there there's a change. There's a change. There was a there was a there were several reductions in employee training and development. One was a specialist position. Okay. I also want to make a correction. I do also want to make a correction to the uh record. There was uh the question miss you asked about PAR. Uh my response were there are no changes to PAR, no changes to our consulting teachers. Uh that is indeed correct. Um but I do want

211to highlight in in case the question was in reference to um any other additional support um there is a reduction that is in the FY27 book. That reduction is again not to consulting teachers or not to the um way that the program will move forward to supporting all of our new teachers in schools. Um other questions, Miss Pumprey, how much time does Miss Pumprey have, Mr. Burns? Lots. Lots. Oh, okay. Okay. Go ahead. I know I have a lot of time but my question is quick and I waited for the end because it's not really related to 2027 budget. However, we did discuss it. So, um my comment is regarding the updated format for the 2028 budget format. I said format twice. um in the process of developing that, I think it would be if

212possible the um a chance for the board to take a look at an initial overview of what it looks like and provide comment and questions before the final development of that and ad format for the 2028. Not a problem. Right. And the ad hoc committee is working on some of that. Other um other questions, comments, my question about the cost wasn't answered. there there was a there's a reduction in FTE within employee training and development. Um we'd have I'd have to get with Mr. Tantlift to see if there's any other change that would impact that individual unit within employee training and development since it's all part of the unit. We had um multiple FTE reductions in employee training and development. Thank you. But just for clarification, when the information comes back, my question is relating

213to equity since all of that was moved over. So, I'd like to understand the changes to the work in cost and in people. Mr. Grim, do you need Dr. Grim, do you need clarification or I I would request that a specific question be written and submitted that we can respond to. Um since it's we we look in in totality at the department of in employee training and development and and while um the department of equity was a separate department it's no longer a separate department or office within employee training and development. So it's part of the totality of that unit. Miss Hung, can you submit that question in writing so that Dr. Grim can work on a response? Sure, I can do that. Thank you. Okay, Dr. Seavo, you have a question. You microphone. How

214the pupil service personnel worker differs from a one- on-one aid for special ed children? How the duties are different? Uh, thank you. The duties are different in that the one-on-one um aid for a student is assigned to a specific student to um implement requirements on their uh IEP. Um they typically are with students in classes, in the cafeteria, in gym, etc. Whereas the pupil personnel worker um works with whole school communities. They really focus on attendance. They focus on issues of residency on um uh homelessness um uh special transfers. Uh that is uh really the scope of their work. They uh work on attendance teams in schools but they also work um centrally to uh follow up with those processes. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Mr. Leski,

215I think you have 30 seconds. Okay. Thank you. Um, in uh one of the budget presentations, it talked about the 50 million uh fund bal 50 million in fund balance dollars being used for ongoing costs. So, what will be the future funding source for these expenditures? So I believe there is a budget question where the budget team uh provided some response to that in the two sets. Um Mr. Tantley if if you remember that response you can share it. If not you can um someone will note that to be added to the budget set three. Uh I I think if the question was is it targeted towards a specific thing the answer is no. It's just part of the general fund budget. And as we talked about, we we have it long-term planned in in

216a sustainable manner. So, we'll step that down slowly over the next several years from 50 million today to 30 million several years from now. Okay. Great. Thank you. So, so whatever ongoing costs will be provided in FY27, um there will be a funding source of some sort to fund those costs. Is that what you're saying? Uh whether it's from the fund balance is a source of revenue in the end, just like state revenue, county revenue. So, uh, you know, every year we're projecting our revenue, we're projecting our expenses, and then making those two things balance. So, we'll take that into account with the amount of fund balance that we can we have available to use next year, which right now we're planning for that to be about $40 million. Right. No, thank you. And I

217appreciate that. Maybe my question is confusing. Um, so the ongoing costs that are going to be paid for with the 50 million in fund balance, knowing that the fund balance is going to go down the following year, is will there be a plan to fund those costs? Yeah. Um, again, when when we start the budget process, we're going to look at our revenue. So, state revenue will be growing. Um, depending on that'll be driven by enrollment. Same with county revenue. Uh fund balance will drop. So the sum of all those will be a growth in revenue. We'll compare that to our expenses. We feel like it should be a little lighter lift next year because we won't have a year and a half of salary expenditures to fund. So it'll it's just one of many

218inputs. In other words, and it's not tied to a specific expenditure. So, we have a big pot of revenue, big pot of expense, and we need to marry them in the end so that they're equal. Okay, that makes sense. Thank you, Miss Hen. Thank you. Um, question 38 C. The response reads, "A minimum salary variance of 25 to 30 million is needed in order to manage the annual budget appropriation transfer." My question is if we are budgeting um what we believe to be realistic expenditures, why do we need to allow for such a high variance for the bat? Uh that's actually not a high variance. It's uh you know less than 2% of the general fund budget. But uh as be we're putting the budget together almost a year in advance and even uh if

219overall uh our budget's very tight to uh have that precision between activities which is what the bat is doing. We're just balancing uh decisions that are made, priorities that are changed, expenditures that come up and are unexpected uh with a budget our size with as far in advance as we need to tie things down, which is really November uh generally that all the chiefs have presented to the superintendent. um it's just impossible to not uh have to move money between activities and some years will be certainly less than others depending if there was you know what's happening but but it it seem maybe it seems like a big dollar amount but it's very very low in um comparison to the totality of the budget and with the precision that would be required to not have

220to do a bat is you know just not realistic but but Mr. Dr. Tantliff, don't we also have the option just not to spend? I mean, you're monitoring that year round and if spending is over budget midyear, those departments can be advised, hey, you're over 2 to 3% and we have the option to curve our spending. Correct. Well, the department is not necessarily overspent. They're just uh spending it in a different way perhaps than was originally planned. There might be some things like let's just say our number of non-public kids uh were higher than expected for the year and our non-public uh budget uh went over. You know, that might need to be covered by under spends elsewhere, but uh we're just mindful to keep the entire budget on budget. Um and offices are uh

221able to move money between activities as uh new information is learned as uh you know priorities adjust throughout the year, but they can also move it from their own pots at any time. Why are we relying on salaries as the source for our our cushion because it's the largest portion of the budget? Miss Hend, you're out of time, but I'll let you try to respond. Do you have is there okay was there a do you want to respond Mr. Um again the budget in aggregate uh needs to um have some flexibility in it and salaries are by far the biggest part of our budget. You've seen many many times salaries and benefits are about 82% of our budget. So, uh, that's really the only place where we can plan to have a little flexibility. Most

222other non-s salary items are planned, uh, pretty precisely. How much are we going to spend on a contract? I mean, certainly there's variation, but the salary budget is just so large that, uh, that's where we have a little flexibility built in to cover any overspends that may occur in other places throughout the budget. Okay. Thank you. Um again, we'll be voting on the budget at um in two weeks. If board members have any additional questions, they can submit them as soon as possible to allow staff to respond and then we can get those answers. I encourage all board members to look at the how many pages are we up to or 151 168 pages of questions um and their responses. So, a lot of work has already been done and a lot of questions have

223been asked. The next item on the agenda is information which includes an update on key Oh, thank you everybody. I'm sorry. Trying to get you all home. So, um is information which includes an update on key school legislation. And the last item is any board member comments or any agenda setting items that you have right this minute. If not, you can email them. Miss Pumphrey, you can begin. Yes. I would like to address public comments and emails that we've received over the past several weeks regarding immigration enforcement in our schools. As chair of the policy review committee, I will be requesting at our next meeting on March 16th that the policy re review committee once again consider a policy that sets clear protocols when handling immigration related matters and safeguarding student data adhering to FURPA

224with a goal of ensuring that all students feel safe coming to school. Thank you, Miss Pumphrey, for that. Anyone else? Okay. The last item on the agenda is announcements. Our board meeting, our next board meeting will be held on Tuesday, February 24th, 2026 at 6:30. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight. The meeting is now adjourned.