Meeting of the Baltimore County Board of Education - September 9, 2025

001Good afternoon. This is Chairwoman Jane Lter. I call to order the meeting of the Board of Education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. This evening's board of education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast. And on BCPS TV, Exfinity channel 73 and Verizon Fios channel 34. In order to efficiently 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 open meetings act as found in the annotated code of Maryland general provisions article sections 3-305 B1 and B7 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 personnel matter that affects one or

002more specific individuals and consult with counsel to obtain legal advice. So move Stellleski. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Ambbe. Thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Ambbe, yes. Miss Tleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy. Mr. McMillion. Yes. Miss Pumphrey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Damonowski? Miss Han, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Leicter, yes. Thank you. The next item for close session is personnel They're awesome kids. I'm so Good evening. This is Chairwoman Jane Lter. I now call to order the meeting of the board of education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. I invite you to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag to be led by Miss Foresight Unambe. 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, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. Tonight's board of education meeting is being broadcast from the BCPS online live meeting broadcast on BCPS TV, Xfinity channel 73, Verizon 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 the consideration of the September 9th agenda. Dr. Rogers, are there any additions or changes to tonight's agenda? I'm unaware of any addition or changes to this evening's agenda. Okay, Miss Hen. Thank you, Madam Chair. I move to remove item P1, consideration of County Council Resolution 40-25. I move to postpone this item to allow legal

004board counsel um time to prepare edits to the resolution. Okay. Is so you made a motion. I'm sorry. I move to postpone this agenda item. Okay. To allow time for board counsel to prepare edits to the resolution. Okay. Um is there a second? Second. Pumphrey. Thank you. And you just kind of spoke to your motion. You want to say anything further? No, ma'am. Thank you, Madam Chair. Okay. Um, is there any further discussion, Miss Harvey? Yeah, I just want to be clear. Are the edits related to the legality of it to what what are we looking at revised? Thank you, Vice Chair Harvey. May I respond, Madam Chair? Yes. Thank you for the question. Um, I'd like to allow board counsel the opportunity to make recommended um corrections or um suggestions to the resolution as

005far as legality. Thank you. Thank you. Further discussion check teams. Okay. Um, may I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Aumbbe, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Licter, yes. Thank you. Our next item on the agenda is I'm sorry. Let me get back to where I was. Oops. Okay. The revised agenda is approved. And the agenda is approved. Early 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 personnel matter that affects one or more specific individuals, and consult

006with counsel 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 personnel matters and for that I call on Mr. McCall. Good evening, Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. I'd like the board's consent for the following personnel matters tonight. We have terminations, retirements, resignations, leaves, and deceased recognition of service. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel matters as presented in exhibit D1? So moved. Harvey. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Young. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Mr. Yes. Dr. Seavoy. Yes. Mr. McMillian. Yes. Miss Pumphrey. Yes. Mr. Young. Yes.

007Miss Hen. Yes. Miss Fong. Yes. Miss Licter. Yes. Thank you. Do I have a motion to Wait a second. Mr. McCall, do I have a motion to approve the personnel matters as presented exhibits D2 through D5? So move stles. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Hen. Thank you. Any discussion? May have a roll call vote, please. Miss Harvey, yes. Mumbbe. Yes. Miss Dleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumprey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Hen? Yes. Miss Fong? Yes. Miss Lter? Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McCome. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is administrative appointments. And for that, I call on Dr. Rogers. Thank you, Madam Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, and members of the board. I'm bringing forward the following administrative appointments for your approval. Executive Director,

008Middle School Support, and Achievement, Department of Schools. Specialist, Health Education, Department of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. and senior community school facilitator office of community schools. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel matters as presented in exhibit E1? So move young. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Pumphrey. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Mr. Gunbe, yes. Miss Stleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumprey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Lter, yes. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Thank you. Our first appointee is Michelle Anderson. Please stand to be recognized. Michelle Anderson is attending this evening and is being appointed as the executive director middle school support and achievement in the department of schools. with

00913 years of service with Baltimore County Public Schools. Her prior experiences include science teacher at Sparrow Point High School and principal at Eastern Technical High School. Michelle's prior experience be beyond BCPS includes science teacher and assistant principal in Harford County Public Schools and Academy Principal at York County School of Technology. Congratulations. [Applause] Next appointment is Nancy Bower recognized. Nancy is attending this evening with her husband Eric. You stand and is being appointed as the specialist of health education in the department of science, technology, engineering of and math. With 22 years of experience with Baltimore County Public Schools, NY's experience include family and commun community consumer science teacher at Randlestown High School, health and physical education teacher at Middle River Middle, and health education teacher at Caitensville High School. Prior to that, Nancy served as a

010health and physical education teacher at Northgate Junior Senior High School. Congratulations. [Applause] Final appointment for this evening is Whitney Leonard. Whitney is attending this evening with her daughter Noah [Applause] and is being appointed as a senior community school facilitator in the office of community schools. With three years of service with Baltimore County Public Schools, Whitney's prior experience includes community school facilitator in the office of community schools. Prior to that, Whitney served as a special education teacher in Richmond City and Howard County Public Schools. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you and congratulations to everyone. Our next item is public comment. 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

011members via email at boebcps.org. The Baltimore County Police Department's Homeland Security Unit and the Office of School Safety has recommended safety and security protocols which are posted in the boardroom and available on 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 forum 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 be

012allowed 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 that time at the discretion of the board chair. We'll start with our school system affiliated groups and our first speaker is Sam Park and I think is Sam here. Okay. And Manet Anand. Oh, okay. No, Sam Park, but come on up. Can you pronounce your name for me? I know I probably messed it up. Manit Manri Anand. Okay. Thank you. Thanks for being here. Good evening, Chair Miss Lter, Vice Chair Miss Harvey, Dr. Rogers, student member, Miss Agumbbe, and other members of the board. I am Monrian, the BCSSE president. Today we are here

013to update you on the current status of the Baltimore County Student Councils or BCSSC. In the past few months, we have elected our current BCSSE officer team, opened up applications for our executive board, and appointed a team of over 50 members, one of the biggest executive boards in BCSSE history. On Thursday, August 21st, BCSSE in collaboration with the Baltimore County Junior Councils hosted our executive board retreat at the Employee Development Center where we educated our members on the functions of BCSSC and BCJC along with their specific responsibilities as members. Additionally, all executive board members and officer team members were required to lay out specific goals they would like to accomplish during their term. These goals included three action steps per goal, check-in dates, and deadlines. Each executive board member is expected to fulfill all goals

014and go beyond their position descriptions. We are so excited to have such a dedicated team and we know we will accomplish much throughout this year. One of the main goals of BCSSE this year is to establish a strong legislative presence. This year we created a legislative affairs department within BCSSE with state and national legislative affairs coordinators. They've already been meeting with multiple senators and delegates in the Maryland General Assembly and will be writing bill stances as we approach our advocacy days later on this year. This year, we are fortunate to continue receiving support from BCPS through our monthly seminars. These seminars give students the opportunity to share their experiences and perspectives on topics such as mental health and school safety. Last year, we saw incredible success with BCPS central office members attending each seminar and

015engaging directly with students. We are excited to continue this partnership throughout the year and further uplift student voices. This past month, BCSSC won the bid to host the Maryland Association of Student Council's legislative session in January at Lock Raven High School. We are so excited to host student leaders from all across the state as they vote for the next state student member on the board of education and continue to strengthen our presence at the state level. Finally, our application for both BCSC committees and the board of selected students are officially open. These are an amazing opportunity for students to get involved beyond their school by planning activities and even providing our amazing SMOB with information. Both applications close on September 30th. Thank you for allowing me to speak here again and we thank you for

016all that you do for BCPS students. We hope to see you all again soon. Thank you. Our next speaker is Marina Coloulton PCEL from the Southwest Area Advisory Council. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening all Chair Leter, Vice Chair, Superintendent Rogers, and all on Adas. For the record, my name is Marina Colintton Purcell on the Southwest Area Education Advisory Council. And tonight, my primary goal is to reinduce, reintroduce, and to make sure that all parents and guardians um understand and the important role that the advisory council plays and the huge impact um and you can find this mission statement on bcps.org or to improve the quality of education in Baltimore County and to strengthen the relationships between school and community between the school um and community by serving as informed advisors to the board of

017education on issues that affect students, families, communities, and schools. Tonight I'm asking, suggesting, encouraging, begging for every caregiver that's in the primary, intermediate, special areas to consider joining the area education advisory. There's five areas. And I'm hoping that tonight um you will be able to go on bcps.org's website, do the search engine area education advisory council, and you will see the meetings that has been held in the last couple of years. um it is a very um impactful um volunteers that we um get together monthly and we also make sure that our voices are heard. So I am encouraging um all tonight to um consider and be a part of this group. There is um there are meetings. You can find the meetings on the website and if you have any questions you can also

018email any education advisory council chair. Thank you for your time and good night. Thank you and thank you for all you do for the advisory council. Our next group are our unions and our speaker tonight is Kelly Olds from Tabco. Good evening. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Leter, Vice Chair Harvey, Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. Um, thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight. My uh my remarks are not as timely with the change to the agenda. Um, however, I know that it's going to come back up. So, I would like to speak to you about supporting the resolution that is going to be coming before you at some point regarding the Baltimore County Inspector General having oversight over the board of education and BCPS in addition to the oversight that is already

019in those places. Part of the purpose of the Inspector General is to identify ways to promote efficiency, accountability, and integrity in the county government. There are many things that come to mind within BCPS that could be supported with that goal. For example, while I sincerely appreciate the work of BCPS staff to address issues and concerns as they come up, time and resources would be saved by addressing the cause of these issues and where it is a process issue, addressing that rather than individual cases that would promote efficiency. I also believe that independent oversight could lead to more transparency in the budget. BCPS has an internal audit, but there seems to be little oversight with following through on the recommendations as was as one of those recommendations as I understand was that the budget committee be

020maintained by the board for the budget process and that committee as I understand has been dissolved. I believe that transparency in these processes is important and constituents trusting that BCPS is handling their money with this lens is as important when we discuss taxes, where they are going, and whether there should be increases. This trust has an important funding implication. Further, in addressing the legal concerns that have been brought up regarding the board taking a position on this issue, this resolution is not asking for you to approve IG having authority over BCPS, but rather to support the ask of county council for the Maryland General Assembly to take this issue up for consideration. The board voting against the consideration of additional oversight of their own body as the fiduciary of the school system creates a concerning

021perception. In closing, I ask that when you take this issue into consideration, you vote in support of this resolution and stand with those who have already put their support behind this. Thank you. Our next speaker is from nonprofit community groups is Dr. Dorsey from the Randlestown NAACP. Good evening everyone. Thank you for your time. Good evening members of the board. My name is Dr. Tea Dorsy and I proudly serve as the president of the Randlestown NAACP branch 7032B. I thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight on an issue central to the integrity of our public school system and the educational rights of our children. Oversight of the Baltimore County public schools budget by the office of the inspector general. We strongly support the Baltimore County's council adoption of Councilman David Mark's resolution and we

022urge this board to publicly support enabling legislation that will authorize the OIG to investigate and prevent fraud, waste and abuse within BCPS budget. As advocates for equity and education, the NAACP that believe believes has always believed that transparency and fiscal accountability are civil right issues. The misuse of management of public funds disproportionately harms communities of color, lowincome families, and students who rely on fully funded schools to receive the quality education they are promised. Every dollar lost to inefficiency or misconduct is a dollar taken from classrooms, critical programming, and student services. We believe the IG is well positioned to provide this protection and we are not asking that Baltimore County to take an untested step because McGomery County already do it. Their office of the inspector general has oversight over McGomery County public schools and is

023responsible for conducting audits, budgetary analysis, financial reviews, and management performance reviews to assess and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of their school system. This independent oversight ensures their school system operates with fiscal integrity and Baltimore County would simply be following suit. Currently, BCPS budget process involve the school board's proposal reviewed by the county executive and approval by the county council, but there is no independent agency empowered to investigate how those funds are implemented, managed, and safeguarded. That's a gap that must be filled. This proposal is not about diminish diminishing the authority of the board. It is about strengthening public trust and ensuring that the Baltimore County largest investment, our education system, is managed responsibly, transparently, and ethically. We commend Councilman Markx for his leadership in a county council for his unanimous support. Now, we call

024on this board to join its effort because protecting our students, our teachers, and our students is not just issue. It is a moral obligation with integity. Let's lead with equity. Let's lead with accountability. My time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Marietta English from Baltimore County NAACP. Good evening. Sorry. It's okay. Good evening, Chair Lectctor, Chair Harvey, board members, and Superintendent Rogers. My name is Maretta English and I am chair of AXO and the education committee for the Baltimore County branch of the NAACP. The Baltimore County branch of the NAACP represents the entire county. Our membership is far and wide. I am disappointed that I have to report that this year our AXO students did not place nationally. That's the first time in I don't know how many years, 20 years maybe. However, we have

025already begun to prepare for this coming year. I would like to commend Dr. Rogers and the staff of BCPS on having high schools in the top 50 in the state of Maryland, including Pikesville High, where my granddaughter is a student and attends there. And we've also gotten students from Pikesville to attend AXO. So, I'm very happy about that. This is a great accomplishment for BCPS. But I would also like to address another issue that has surfaced. The Baltimore County branch of the NAACP under the leadership of Dr. Denita Tullson and the executive committee strongly oppose Councilman Mark's resolution to expand the authority of the office of the inspector general to include oversight of the Baltimore County public schools. Why create a local office of inspector general of education? It is totally unnecessary. We already have

026two strong oversight mechanisms in place. The office in of internal audit which reports directly to the board and the state inspector general of education which would was created to ensure the independent accountability across the state of Maryland. We know that oversight is necessary, but we already have the means to overlook for fraud in our school system. Adding another layer would divert resources away from classrooms and student support. The real question before us is not whether BCPS needs another inspector general because it does not, but are we ensuring that the academic progress continues and accelerates? We need to remain focused on classrooms and not bureaucracy. Our students deserve leaders who keep their eyes on teaching, learning, and student success, not redundant oversight. The Baltimore County branch strongly asks that you reject Councilman Mark's resolutions. Thank you.

027And I have a copy of my remarks, which I'll give to you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Aaron Bernett. Mr. Barnett. Nope. Okay. I will move on to our next category, individual citizens or students. And our first speaker virtually is Rachel Wallace. Okay, Miss Wallace, you might need to unmute or press star six. Hello, Miss Wallace. Hi. My apologies. Yeah, my name is Rachel Wallace and I'm a parent at Franklin Middle and um I think that you guys have probably heard we had an incident on August 26 um a security incident that a lot of parents are concerned about. We had um an initial meeting with some members from the school district, the board, and we really appreciated their support and engaging with parents and the school, but we really want to have some

028follow-on conversations um on how we can improve school safety. We think that what has been proposed right now by the school is very limited in scope um and it's not addressing the specific um causes that led to the incident or permitted the incident. Specifically, we really want to have a conversation about how we can look at screening firearms as they come into our school, detecting them, and preventing firearms from getting into our schools. Um, the school has made some changes initially on safety procedures, but they have not announced or um initiated a plan specific to detecting firearms that could enter our school. Um, we also have asked for a follow-on meeting um, with the school and with law enforcement and with community members to discuss how we can really move forward on this issue. And

029there's a lot of remaining questions about transparency, transparency, and um, just parent concerns about this issue. So, we wanted to let you guys know that we appreciate your attendance at the meetings, but um we still have a lot of work to do. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you so much. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sharon SH. [Music] Hope I can squeeze all of this into three minutes. Good evening. At last school board meeting during a presentation about professional development, the presenters talked about providing different pathways of learning for our teachers and our educational staff. Those pathways included both inperson and virtual. Why then do we not afford this same courtesy to our students? Currently, the only way to do credit recovery in the high school is through a so-called self-paced program available for four weeks

030in the summer or in the evenings and weekends during the school year. There are some schools that do credit recovery by doubling up one class, such as placing nine, English 9 and 10 on the same schedule. But these pathways do not consider the unique way students learn when they have an IEP or that students may need more than four years to complete their pathway. We cannot pick and choose what we want to follow on an IEP and what we don't. And that's what's going on in the classroom. Teachers are expected to provide all the accommodations and supports a child needs. Why are we reluctant to place necessary accommodations and supports on the IEP? I was in a meeting last week and every time the parent and I suggested something, we were re we received the

031response of the student has this score or the student has that score. A child is not a score on a piece of paper. If that was the case, I wouldn't be sitting here. I'd probably be in an institution because my parents were told I was mentally when I was a kid. We need to look at the whole student and recognize that some students may need to be in school part-time because that's what their disability requires. and some can learn full-time, some can learn virtual, and some need to be in person. We need to be mindful that everyone learns differently. Thank you. Our next speaker is Angela Ford. I believe virtual. No. Okay. She is not online. Our next speaker also virtually is Dr. Simkins. Good evening, Chairwoman Lecture, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board.

032My name is Dr. Samira Simkins, and I'm here today as a parent of two BCPS students. I would like to speak in strong support of um Baltimore County's council resolution to extend the Office of Inspector General oversight over Baltimore County public schools. According to BCPS's own website, this year the system operates on a $2.45 billion budget. Nearly half of it comes from Baltimore County, 41% comes from the state and the rest from other sources. As a parent and a taxpayer, um I fully support our teachers in schools and I'm glad we have this money. But at the same time, because BCPS accounts for nearly half of the entire county's budget, we also have to have a right to expect this dollars to be managed efficiently and responsibly. For perspective, Baltimore County public schools serve just

033over a 100,000 students, while Baltimore County as a whole serves over 850,000 residents, nearly 8 times more people on a roughly the same scale of funding. I appreciate the planning, monitoring, and internal audit that BCPS conducts, and I value the engagement that you do with the stakeholders. But recent audit findings of payroll fraud, theft, and other financial abuse are troubling. While I'm relieved these cases were caught, they also raise an important question. How many of cases like that went undetected? I have also observed uh the board of education budget meetings where even board members were not always provided full budget details and such situations make the process feel like a black box. even if there is a good reasoning for not disclosing all the details. That is why an independent oversight is so critical. Extending

034the jurisdiction of the Office of Inspector General to include BCPS would give taxpayers and students families confidence that even when details of the budget and funding are not public, an independent watchdog will ensure that our taxes and children's education dollars are protected from fraud, waste, and abuse. Investing in oversight is not a burden. It is an investment in trust and integrity and safe operation of our schools. Thank you for the time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jeffrey Kotaris and I apologize if I You're pretty close. That was pretty close. Okay, I'll take that. You say it so I know. I will. Thank you. I am Jeffrey Catis. Okay. Thank you. Good evening. Uh, Superintendent Rogers, Chair Licter, um, board and cabinet members, um, congratulations first of all for improving MAP MCAP scores for the

035second year running. The staff and students and their families also deserve credit for the improvement. And in order to engage, empower, and excel, there's more work to be done. That's why I'm asking you to vote for in support of Councilman Mark's resolution to support IG oversight over the budgetary process. I know that you're sick of hearing about um the 2021 efficiency review by public works. Um and uh BCPS has implemented many of the changes suggested, but they still have not we still have not completely addressed the significant problems with financial management, purchasing um and risk management. Um as stated earlier by other people, we have a $2.5 billion budget. That's half of over half the county's budget. Last week in a conversation with a friend of mine who happens to be a Maryland delegate, uh

036my partner Kelly asked, "What reason would BCPS give for not wanting IG oversight over the budget, he said they will say that they have budgetary oversight with BCPS, we already have our own in-house budgetary oversight and that the OIG for the state of Maryland has oversight um and that it would cost too much money." That was the third point. Um on the surface, they sound plausible. However, um given the number of instances of fraud, waste, and abuse in the last 3 years alone, clearly our internal auditing isn't working. The OIG Richard Henry has 24 school districts to manage and not enough resources to oversee all of them effectively. And if we follow the successful models put forth by Prince George's and McGomery counties, um it wouldn't cost any more money and nobody would lose their

037job because they rolled their um they rolled their uh county auditors under the IG. So you're just moving a resource that already exists. The BOE has a fiduciary responsibility to ensure that money is spent in the most efficient and effective way to support our most prized asset, our more than 110,000 students. Fiscal responsibility is a 955 issue. Um it is a bipartisan issue. the county council, the B uh Randlestown NAACP, the League of Women's Voters, the BCPSASC, Tabco, Delegates, Narrai, Senator Carl Jackson, and taxpayers all support this oversight over the budget. We know that our academic data, we know what our data says. In order to further improve student outcomes, BCPS needs to maximize every dollar spent, especially given the increasing economic hardships and financial demands of the Maryland Blueprint of Education. Historically, more money

038hasn't led to increasing student outcomes. In fact, the opposite's been true. Better planning, execution, and stewardship will. I believe that Baltimore County leadership wants to improve student outcomes. I believe BCPS wants to earn public trust. Voting for the IG oversight matches that the district's um actions with the words. It opens a dialogue and transparency and accountability. Thank you. Our next speaker from the wait list is um Dr. Ferrron. Good evening to all. I have a bit of shortness of breath so I hope you bear with me. I I really love engagement obviously you know and I would like to stand tonight to recognize Miss Marina Southwest chair who spoke to you today and I'd like to recognize the chair of the southeast. Southeast is the most uh active, proactive, uh politely vocal, etc. I think

039Southwest is second choice. Sorry. Uh but the rest of them to use medical language are dead in my opinion or maybe in an ICU bed on ventilator. And I really wonder why the board of education never really listened to my red flag about the ineffectiveness of the educational area councils. The system is intention is good but never worked. Many of the people who are selected they are selected in an indirect way. to be agreeable with the central office. So you really don't have enough voices that are critical or truly interested. And the proof of that is you've seen Marina today, but you don't see the central area chair. You don't see the others. And you look at the minutes on the website, there are very few of them. and many of them they really don't

040have their presentation already on the website. Furthermore, the topics are often the same topics that comes to the board. So what's the sense? I think this system requires a revamp. As you know, when I was a chair of the central area 5 years ago, it was the most active of all of them and obviously I was pushed out. Thank you. Um, not interested in going back. But do you really know the name of the chair of the central area? She never came here. I don't know if she's still chair. I really ask you to look at that. You say engagement ex needs to be engaged. They take five slots and that five slots is too many and they take too much space on the W side. They cause the executive secretary to do some work.

041They they cost us electricity in their meeting. This was a topic that was on our retreat several weeks ago and will be followed up. The next item on the agenda is the superintendent's report and for that I call on Dr. Rogers. Thank you. Good evening, Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, and members of the board. I'm pleased to provide the September superintendence report. If we can begin with a welcome back to school video, a short uh clip from BCPS TV um just to share how we open the school year. So, if you guys are ready, [Music] Welcome. Happy first day. You got it. Across Baltimore County, excitement was in the air. Happy birthday, my friend. You're good. Welcome back. Team BCPS proudly welcomed 110,000 students back for a brand new school year. Like when we're on

042stage cuz they're actively listening. I'm looking forward to an exciting school year and everybody being ready to learn. All the adults are ready for it. Just whatever you you have, you're doing a line draw. This is a fiveminute line draw. Everyone was engaged and ready to go. Embracing a new year, fresh start, new opportunities. I had a lot of fun in the first day of school. The first day of school, it's starting off good. Very good. Um, I've been learning some new stuff and it's really great. Being my last first day, it kind of just signifies the end of my journey at BCPS. I spent the last 12 years at BCPS going to elementary, middle, and high school. And just being here on my last first day, it's very bittersweet cuz I kind of have

043that ending to the journey that I've been getting within VCPS. When the teachers come back and then it's time for the students to come back, all you want to hear are their is their excited chatter and all they want to do is go into their classrooms and meet their teachers and see their friends. The excitement is palpable, not just in the building. The moment you enter the school grounds, teachers, staff, and administrators are ready to partner with students to make this year truly remarkable. getting everybody back into this community and seeing everyone return and all that enthusiasm and energy that they bring with them. Uh it's just not the same without them. So, I love it. I love being here and uh feeding into all of that energy. I would say my focus really for

044this year is all about inclusivity. Um our demographic is changing at our school. We're getting a lot of different types of populations at our school and mixing together. So, diversity has kind of always been an area where I really wanted to focus. Um, and this year I'm going to combine that love of diversity and that passion that I have for celebrating diversity with making sure people feel included in our school. From our littlest learners to soon to be graduates. Team BCPS is ready for a great school year. Thank you. If you guys can join me with giving uh team uh BCPS, BCPS TV a round of applause, thanking them for that. I also would like to publicly thank all the board members who joined me on visits along with our elected officials and cabinet members.

045We went to 23 schools and exactly what you saw in the video is what we saw. The students were ready, they were engaged, the staff was ready, everyone was focused, and what we saw most importantly was everyone uh started the school year off in content. Um, and you saw similarities across classes. And so we're very excited about this year to come. September is attendance awareness month. Our next slide, please. Coming All right, as that is coming, you guys know that we have been focused on for the last three years on reducing chronic absenteeism in team BCPS. And that is because we know students need to be in school in order to learn. We are very proud of the gains that our schools have made not only two years ago, but also this past year with

046120 schools improving attendance. Um, for the month of September, we have countywide spirit days. And, um, when the slide comes up, you'll be able to see what those days are uh, at the beginning or the ends of the weeks, uh, starting with, uh, September 5th. So, that one already happened. Um, but we have our annual attendance resolution and today we are committing to continuing to raise awareness around the importance of daily on-time school attendance through collaborative efforts through district-wide attendance campaign. Um, where we all are envisioning a future where our student, every single student is able to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally. We also encourage all of our students, parents, and guardians to sign this year's here for it attendance pledge and join us in championing daily ontime attendance each and every day in BCPS.

047Want me to keep going? Keep going. Okay. So, let's take a recess till we're told to come back. Don't move. How are you guys? No, it doesn't matter. It doesn't nothing's up. It doesn't matter. Just go through her like asking for legal advice. Thank you. He's saying she's saying at all something is We're not like I don't say I don't say we get all I haven't seen it myself, but she said she had I'm just wondering if it's like a different computer. Okay, we're going to get started as soon as I can get my board members back. I'm trying. Yeah. Have you seen how good? That works. Okay. Okay. So, you're you're as soon as Okay. Um I think we're waiting for Miss Hen. We're ready. Yes. Okay. Is the hall cleared? Uh yes. Okay.

048They'll be here. Thank you, sir. I'm good. We're good. Waiting for Miss Hen. Okay. Um I'm going to get started, right, Tracy? Yes. Okay. Can we move this off my face for the whole time or am I just stuck? I should have put more lipstick on then, I guess. Okay. There currently is a power outage that has impacted our ability to broadcast and use some presentation and camera elements. However, the live feed is not affected and the meeting will continue. PowerPoints can be accessed through public content um from home. Thank you everybody for your patience and we are going to continue with our superintendence report. Thank you. As I shared, um, we are very proud of September being attendance awareness month and we just encourage all families to keep our students coming to school. Uh,

049the last thing that I wanted to share was around community engagement. Um, please join us for our community conversations around the strategic plan for Baltimore County Public Schools. Our first one is next Thursday at Windsor Mill Middle School uh starting at 6 PM. And please save the date as well. Um we will be hosting a BCPS curriculum night with more information to come uh at Pikesville High School. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Next on the agenda is chairs report. So official welcome back to the 2526 school year. I was so happy to be able to attend many of the first week's opening visits to schools. As someone who spent the last eight years of her career in BCPS visiting schools and classrooms on a daily basis, I was encouraged and energized by

050what I was able to observe during opening week. I saw improvement. I realized it was just the first week, but to be able to see instructional shifts was very exciting. So, what did I see? I saw the use of curriculum. It was wonderful to be in a first grade class at Mars stage and watch first graders tracking and reading from HMH text. The selection centered on the first day of school, making the topic very relevant for our youngest students. Students were eager to show off their early reading skills and so was their proud teacher. I saw teachers using our math curricula immediately, both bridges and illustrative math. I saw meaningful objective posted and referred to. students were aware of the what, why, and how of what they would be learning. I saw evidence of our

051professional development efforts, especially as it relates to teaching with intentionality. I observed even on day one, teachers making a strategic effort to connect, forming relationships with the content they would be teaching. At the Carver Center, high schoolers were observed being directed by their teacher to throw a ball while saying their name. I've simplified the activity, but he gave very specific directions and also required students to project their voices. There is something fascinating about how the same high schoolers who are loud and boisterous in the hallways come in and turn into quiet and meek when their teachers call on them. But anyway, after a little while of this and his altering of directions and kids truly learning each other's names and feeling more comfortable on their first day of high school, he made the connection of

052the importance of projecting well on stage and of being able to follow the many stage directions that are required of an actor. A seemingly get to know you activity intentionally connected with the content of the class. At Caitensville Middle School, a teacher had objects that would provide students with insight into her as a person. As she presented the objects, students tried to figure out what they symbolized. After a few objects, this history teacher connected the activity to the importance of historians using evidence to describe and document important events. Again, another intentional connection between building relationships and the content of the class. I also saw firstear principles confident, poised, and ready to focus on teaching and learning. As someone who was once a first year principal, believe me, it is a scary role. You are entrusted

053with someone else's kids, a whole building of them. But it is a daunting but the most rewarding rewarding of positions. To watch the excitement in our first year principal's voices, to see the confidence they exhibited and their early interactions with students, I was reassured that our students are in very good hands. And what about what I didn't see? I did not see students with cell phones. I did not see them in elementary. I didn't see them in middle and I didn't see them in high school. I didn't see our students with cell phones. I did see a lot of adults, the visitors, with their cell phones. It was the first time that I felt awkward holding my phone in a school. And as the week went on, I did start to leave my phone in

054the car. Here, our students were modeling for the adults. I know it was the first week of the school year and everything is bright and shining at this time of year, but just as multiple BCPS data points are trending in the right direction, so is the evidence that can be observed when visiting our schools and classrooms. I look forward to continuing to gather further evidence of the professional development and structural and curricular efforts that are taking place in all of our schools and centers. Thank you to all of our BCPS staff, from the custodial staff who ensured that our buildings were ready and sparkling for our students to our food and nutrition staff who really never stopped preparing meals, but who are ready to serve breakfast on day one, hour one, to all of our

055students. To our bus drivers who had practiced their runs to ensure a smooth first day, I'm sure there were issues somewhere. to our building administrators who worked throughout the summer to prepare for a successful start to the school year. To our teachers who planned, prepared, and welcomed their new students with open arms. And to everyone else I haven't mentioned, additional adult providers, PAR educators, central office staff, to the entire BCPS community, thank you. Thank you. Yes, the first week of school is shiny and new, but under Dr. Roger's leadership and with the help and passion of everyone who is a part of BCPS, I know we will continue to improve outcomes for our most important stakeholders, our children, our students. Thank you. And our next is our student member of the board report. Good evening,

056board chair Mrs. Lter, vice chair Mrs. Harvey, superintendent Dr. Rogers, members of the board, staff, families, and the BCPS community. This school year has already been nothing short of amazing. For me personally, it has been a great milestone. As I stepped into my high school for the first time as a senior, I couldn't help but reflect on the journey that brought me here. From my f very first day of prek to now, Baltimore County Public Schools has been my home. It's the classrooms where I learned to read. The teach the the teachers who pushed me to grow, the activities that shaped my leadership and the peers who have walked this path, this path with me to now stand here as a student member of the world while also living out my final year as a

057student in BCPS. It's an honor that I did not take lightly. The start of this school year has been filled with moments that remind me just how special our community is. I had the privilege of going on school visits along Superintendent Dr. Rogers. Walking through hallways, stopping my classrooms, and seeing students reconnect with their friends was a reminder of the joy and possibility that a new school year always brings. I also began working on a new series alongside BCPS TV, which I am incredibly excited about. This goal of this project is to showcase student experiences and amplify student voices in creative ways throughout the year. Alongside this, I was fortunate to take part in a back to school kickoff video where I was able to extend my best wishes to students, families, and staff across

058the county. It was such a surreal moment to stand on camera, not just as a representative, but as a peer, wishing everyone an amazing year filled with growth, learning, and opportunities. Beyond these countywide efforts, I've also been working closely with my peers through the Baltimore County Student Councils. As a member of the officer team, I've joined forces with our president Marri Anad of Eastern Tech, vice president Sam Park of Eastern Tech, community outreach director Hayel Fitz Sum of Carver Center for the Arts, and second vice president, President Serena Bahara of Perry Hall Middle School to jump start what I believe would be one of the strongest years yet for student leadership. Each of these leaders bring unique strengths to the table and together we have been building momentum for the year ahead. One of our

059biggest highlights so far was our annual BCSC staff retreat where we gathered our newly appointed 50 member executive board. We started with orientation helping our new leaders understand the structure of the Baltimore County student councils, its missions, and the way they can serve their peers. We then transitioned into a training session designed to provide them with the practical skills they'll need. Skills like effective communication, planning events, and leading with confidence. Another powerful part of the retreat was having each member fill out their personal goal sheets. This exercise was about reflection. Each leader had the chance to think about what they personally want to achieve this year and how they can contribute to the larger vision of Baltimore County. Reading through their ideas and listening to their aspirations, I felt both hopeful and confident. Our students

060are ready to take on the challenges ahead and they are bringing with them creativity, determination, and passion. Later this month, we will hold our very first executive board meeting of the year. I cannot emphas emphasize how excited I am for this moment. All of our BCSSE departments have a role to play in making sure BCSSE remains a strong voice for all Baltimore County students. I'm eager to see how our executive board members step into their roles and begin shaping initiatives that reflect the needs and concerns of their I also want to share that applications are now open for both the board of selected students and BCSSE committees. This is an amazing opportunity for all students across the county to engage in countywide leadership and make their voices heard on issues that matter to them. This

061year, our four committees include the environmental committee, the student member of the board outreach committee, the student resources and wellness committee, and the culture and climate committee. Each of these groups will provide students with a chance to collaborate, lead projects, and influence change in specific areas of student life. As for our board of selected students, BCSC selects two representatives from each secondary school, and SGA advisors are allowed to select an additional representative. Applications will remain open until September 30th, and we are eager to see students from every corner of BCPS get involved. As I reflect on these first two two weeks, I am struck by both the progress we have already made and the potential that lies ahead. We've taken important steps to set the tone for this school year. From amplifying student voices in

062back-toschool celebrations to preparing a new generation of student leaders through BCSSE, the work ahead will continue will continue and it will require consistency, collaboration, and continued commitment to center Thank you. Thank you. Next on our agenda is the consideration of the proposed FY2027 state capital budget request. And for that I call on Dr. Grim for any questions from the board. Dr. Grim and friends. Okay. So, you don't have a presentation. We're just asking questions. Correct. No, ma'am. And we're just here for the board's approval this evening. Okay. So, before um Okay. Well, we can do it that way. So, may I have a motion to approve the FY2027 state capital budget request as presented in exhibit J. So, move Young. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Seo. Thank you. discussion, questions from board

063members. Okay. May I have a roll call vote then? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Obe, yes. Miss Tleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Leicter, yes. Thank you. Okay, thank you very much for all those answers. Um, the next item on the agenda is action taken in close session, but I don't believe we had any action in close session. So, no chairman. Okay, so thank you. Moving on. The next item on the agenda is contract awards. And for that, I call on Mr. Young, chair of the building and contracts committee. Thank you. Members of the board, the board's building and contracts committee met on Monday, September 8th, 2025. Items L1 through L6 were forwarded to the B full board for approval. Item

064L7 was forwarded to the full board without a recommendation from the committee. Thank you, Mr. Young. Board members, we will separate item L7 for the vote. Are there any additional separations? Do I have a motion to approve items L1 through L6? No second is needed since the Whoops. Do I have a motion to approve items L1 through L6? So move Prey. Thank you. No second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee. Any discussion? Okay. May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Abe, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillion, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Falong, yes. Miss Leicter, yes. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve item L7? So moved, Harvey. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. Still,

065thank you. Any discussion on item L7? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Aome, yes. Miss Dowski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, no. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young. Yes. Miss Henus. Miss Fong. Yes. Miss Leicter. Yes. Favor is eight. Okay. So, item L7 passes. Thank you. Okay. Let me get to the next thing. Next on the agenda is the report on the opening of schools. And for that, I call Miss Charlie Green, Dr. Jones, Dr. Grim and Dr. Mullenex. Good evening everyone. Good evening. Dr. Rogers will get you started. Sure. Good evening, Board Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, members of the board. Annually, we provide an opening of schools report to the board and to the public. The team is here to provide an a report on our work

066over the summer and our plans for this school year. I took you way seriously. Are you ready? Is it open? Okay. 5 4 3 2 1 The next item on the agenda, uh oh staring at is the report. It's too many Jane licers. Is the report on the opening of schools. And for that I call Miss Charlie Green, Dr. Jones, Dr. Grim, and Dr. Molnik. Good evening, Board Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, and Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. I'm excited to present with my colleagues the work that the Division of Schools has accomplished throughout the summer. The Division of Schools, as many of you know, is made up of the Department of Schools, Student Support Services, School Safety, Athletics, and Health Services. Together, we form this overarching support to all of our schools.

067Our goal is to provide high quality support and we start that literally after the first day of school. You'll hear more about some of the safety work we've done over the summer. We provided health uh mobile health clinic through health services. Athletics went on throughout the summer and so much more in our schools. As Dr. Rogers has said um and shared in her report, we're very excited about the work of our schools. And next slide, please. Next slide. One more. Thank you. Yes, we're very excited about the work of our schools. Um our these departments have come together to really create highquality support for the schools. Um if you go to the next slide, you'll see that a lot of our work during the summer really deals with evidence-based strategies, working with our schools in

068their instructional leadership teams, and really thinking about and really thinking about how we can strategically align our work with the superintendent's four priorities. We analyze and our data and come together around our school progress plans and then we create goals that we actually see kind of materialize over the summer which again we're very proud of. This year we're looking at synergy throughout our team and really coming up with this notion of amplified impact. Many times the various departments come together to solve complex problems to collaborate and to make sure that our schools again receive that high quality service. We have a sense of shared accountability and one of the things that we're continuing to do as you all have seen throughout our data points is we're normalizing progress. We're making sure that every school makes

069progress in service of every student. I'll now turn it over to Dr. Mullenex, you can do the operation slides. I will now turn it over to Dr. G. Uh so good evening. Um, you can see here the seven departments that are listed are all under operations and the honeycombs in the center just highlight some of the work that we did over the course of the summer. Uh, we have a more extensive food and nutrition services presentation for you a little bit later this evening. So, I don't want to spoil all the fun there. Um, but take a look please at some of the pictures that you see on the screen. Um you could see the hard work of our staff whether it was construction projects, maintenance, uh in transportation. Um the lower right hand corner

070is um some work that you see happening in some of our schools over the summer that can only happen when when students are not present. Um included we we talked uh last meeting or the meeting before about professional learning. Um, and the picture pictures pictures on the left really highlight some of our outdoor um, maintenance projects. On this next slide, we have not only some before and after work of some courts that we did this summer, but it's a time for us to do things like parking lots that we can't typically do when students are in session because they're they're multi-day. Um you observed in your visits to schools our work of food and nutrition services and their uh their services to our our students and our staff. Um but inset you also see transportation

071uh some of the beautifification projects we had to get things ready and the work of um the work of all of our staff. And then in this last slide, some additional pictures, but I want to highlight the smaller one in the center with the blue ladder and the blue lockers. That was one of our schools two days before teachers came back. You see bare drywall. That row of lockers was actually moved to a different location in the building two just two days before teachers came back. you see ceiling tiles out and part of that is because it's the work that we have limited timeline to do over the course of the summer but that we take great pride in in getting uh accomplished. Um other projects you can see again that that only can happen

072this time of year. Uh the lower right hand corner is uh Owings Mills High School. some desperately needed sidewalk work that needed to happen there as well as some of our our hallways and other beautifification work. We're very proud of operations. Um, but it's also important the things that you couldn't see pictured in the slides. We had a very successful uh Oracle implementation for human capital management. our first part of that in in conjunction with human resources that started in July for our 12-month employees, but we had our first successful pay for our 10-month employees just this past Friday. So again, we're happy and proud of all the work to get schools started that we do in operations. Thank you. Um the division of curriculum instruction supports schools through the development selection implementation of curriculum

073uh professional development. I'm excited to share um this list of oper um obviously successes that we had throughout the summer. Um I'm just want to highlight a couple through out here. You can obviously read the rest for your own, but we um prepared to launch my perspectives for our secondary schools this summer. Uh our math office is working hard to refine the curriculum uh resources and assessment to poise us nicely for the release of MDK MSD's math policy 2.5. We opened up seven more preschools um um I'm sorry prek full day prek and I'm excited to announce that they actually went out and set up the classrooms for the teachers. So when teachers return they were able to just jump in and get started. We had 11,000 K through2 students participate in our summer program.

074And I really want to highlight is that through K through eight, our students doubled the number number of students scoring proficiency um in their pre-EST and post- test for ELA and math. Title one had done done a wonderful job with establishing an internship program with our students who are struggling with homelessness to provide them opportunities to explore various careers and opportunities. and our community schools um office is opening up another 20 community schools which will bring us to 110 for the entire school system. As we move into this year, our focuses really are going to be very aligned with what we are seeing in our data. We have spent a lot of much needed time on curriculum and we are now going to make sure that we are focusing on the instructional practices to ensure

075that that curriculum is being delivered with not only fidelity but with the best intentions and making sure we're meeting the needs of all our students. Obviously math advisory team has already been established. I'm really excited about the work that they're already starting to do. Um they will be plan creating a plan for K through 12. However, this year our focus will be on algebra 1. Um with the release of my perspectives, um secondary schools will be really receiving support and professional development that models what was done at the elementary level. So we will partner with our vendor to provide coaching um and just in time professional development to our teachers to help them build their repertoire of skills. And lastly, um special education, we're working really closely to develop compliance um to make sure that

076we are compliant with regards to development of IPS evaluations. The other thing I want to highlight is our special education department and our multilingual learners um department is going to be working very closely with our ELA and math offices to ensure that they are part of the instruction rather than having separate. Thank you and good evening board chair licter vice chair Harvey Dr. Rogers and members of the board. I'm excited to join my colleagues tonight to talk to you a little bit about all of the work that has occurred in the division of the chief of staff. Uh tonight I'm going to speak specifically about the work um from family and community engagement face, but also the communications team, but I would be remiss if I didn't recognize some of the great folks who are

077part of the division who are doing awesome work to get us ready for school and certainly to ensure that we had a smooth uh opening. Want to highlight Mr. Tony Basmore who is one of our liaison to our government officials. He's made certain that information about what was happening at the start of school throughout the summer is communicated with our partners in law um in the various branches of government making sure that our community is aware of what's happening and really attending community events throughout the summer and throughout the school year spreading the good news about what's happening in team BCPS. So want to recognize his efforts as well as the work of Miss Joel Bilski uh who is our manager of staff relations who did a lot of great work working with our partners

078in our various associations ensuring that they were aware of what they could expect as they came back to the school year and problem solving any particular issues that they may have to make sure that they had a smooth start and could really focus on ensuring that our students were engaged and ready to learn. And then certainly I also want to highlight and lift up the work of Miss Heather Logamman who works on our grants and special projects. Um already she has hit the ground running making sure that we are supercharging our philanthropic efforts to make sure that we are creating and generating other sources of revenue to fund some of the exciting things that we have in store for students and team BCPS despite whatever fiscal challenges we face. the back to community uh communications

079and community outreach. What you see on the slide is all of the work that occurred really at the end of the school year last year to communicate the work that had happened the previous year. Oftentimes we're always looking ahead as educators to what next year will bring. And so we need to stop and take stock of what we actually did last year. And so we kicked off the school year or kicked off the end end it last year and then went right into summer with the superintendent's end of the year report where she really chronicled all the work that had happened in the previous year and forecast what some of our goals were moving forward. We quickly then started communicating to families all that they could expect over the summer to stay engaged. Our summer

080connect made sure that parents were aware of camps, programs, summer school, all the things that were available so that parents stayed engaged. We didn't want to separate from our families. We wanted to make sure that they were in the know. We be began communicating early and often when it was time to enroll students what the requirements were, what students needed, so families were armed with information and ready to go when the school year started. We certainly were excited to launch our back to school campaign, which actually occurred, it felt like a lot sooner than it did in previous years, but in the beginning of August, we were already reminding people that it was time to come back, making sure that they understood what the expectations were. One of the ones we're most proud of is

081our off and away every school every day cell phone program. Uh we're excited because it's not a new program. It's actually part of what we've been expecting from people all along. We are just doing it consistently and with fidelity and with a lot of information that goes out to families that goes out to principles that goes out to teachers. And as Dr. Rogers indicated earlier, as we go around team BCPS, we are seeing phones off and away. And just like uh chair licter said, some of us adults in the building who are used to carrying our phones were feeling a little bit self-conscious. We walked by many students who were looking at us giving us that look. And so they are engaged. They are really enjoying the start of the school year. And it's a

082reminder to all of us that when we unplug and engage, we are able to see and do many things that perhaps we were distracted from doing before. Uh couple of things that I want to just point out as well. The here for it campaign, we are excited. coming soon. We managed to get a number of folks who perhaps don't always agree and don't always sit down together to participate in a video to encourage our students to attend school frequently on time. And so we are going to be reaching out to members of team DCPS and asking them to record videos as well because our students need to hear from multiple voices how important it is for them to be in school on time every day so that they can engage in learning. So, we are

083excited about being able to launch that effort and looking forward to being able to showcase some of our folks uh really encouraging our families to take part in all of the things that are happening. And then lastly, our largest ever BCPS fest occurred. Uh it was exciting to see so many families geared up and ready to go back to school. Um, I want to really congratulate Miss Sony Jala and her team for doing a fabulous job every year creating a really festive start of the school year where families were able to engage with all of our central office as well as schoolbased staff, make sure that they took advantage of some of the resources, but also to see some of the amazing things that are offered to our students. So, that was a success and

084we're excited about being able to offer many, many more family engagement activities. Just to give you a quick preview of what you can expect, our superintendent, Dr. Rogers, you already went over very quickly that upcoming uh conversations about the strategic plan. Uh we've got a number of meetings coming up and we encourage families to take a look at this posting and identify the location nearest to your home and lend your voice to our strategic efforts to improve uh student learning in Baltimore County Public Schools. We are very pleased with what we are seeing in terms of student gains, but we're also very much aware that we're not quite where we want to be yet. And so we need all voices at the table sharing your ideas about how we can continue to see growth in

085team BCPS and continue to move toward reversing a decade of academic decline with some of the things that we are seeing. And then lastly, I will end with upcoming curriculum nights that are coming your way soon. Uh it's an opportunity for families to engage directly with the curriculum and experience what their students experience every day. Tuesday, September 16th, we will be holding our first curriculum night. Oh, thank you. That's the curriculum night. Thank you. And we would love to see families there. Again, Dr. Rogers highlighted this, but I just wanted to remind you of that. And it's also my opportunity to once again share the work of the communication team who works tirelessly to make sure that these are engaging opportunities for families where there is a mix of small group conversation, presentation, direct engagement,

086and then opportunity to have questions answered. So we do try to layer the different ways that we engage with families. That last very tiny little picture that you see there are the many, many ways to stay connected with team BCPS. And so we invite folks to join us on social media to certainly check the website to take advantage of the community messages that go directly to families. They're in your inbox. Also to make sure that you are aware that we have a contact us box where you can drop any messages about things you're concerned about or things you want to make us aware of. All of that is available to you. Uh benefit to families to be able to have two-way conversations with the system. So with that, we thank you and are certainly open

087to any questions that you may have. Thank you all for that presentation and for all the work that you've done to get our schools up and running and starting so smoothly. Are there any questions or comments from the board members? Okay, so thank you very much. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the report on food and nutrition. And for that I call on Dr. Grim and Miss Hetsler. Yep. Just move over. Good evening, Chair Leter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, members of the board. Good evening again. I'm very excited to be here uh this evening with Miss Jamie Hetszler, our director of food and nutrition services to provide a report on the amazing work of her team. So we all know that uh students need to be wellnourished to learn. They

088need to have that full belly to be available to learn. And so this slide speaks about the numbers of meals that were served by BCPS last year. Over 17.9 million. But I also want to focus on what happened over the summer. So over 400,000 meals were served this summer. But it wasn't just in our schools. It was at our churches, at Wrecken Parks, um different events that they held. It was through summer camps, through the extended year learning program. Um we had three wildly successful uh rural togo sites um that we had as well as 17 library sites. But the story behind the story of these numbers and what we don't often hear is what happens when we have an emergency in BCPS. And I'm here to assure you that when those emergencies do happen,

089when schools need to close early, when schools open late, when we have other issues that disrupt our normal operations, food and nutrition services ensures that our students are fed, that they have that opportunity to be fed. And uh Jamie and her staff go through great lengths to again make this a seamless and integrated part of the student experience and school day. So, at this time, we're going to transition and Jamie will go through the next slides. I'm super excited that the the PowerPoint is back up and working because some of this food just looks incredible. You have to see it to believe it. Miss Hler back. Uh, thank you, Dr. Grim. Um, and good evening. Uh, the fresh fruit and vegetable grant program is one of my favorite programs of all time. Um, students receive

090fresh fruit and vegetable samples twice a week in the classroom, um, outside of regular meal periods. These snacks come with a quick educational component and often feature unique items like purple cauliflower um, introducing students to produce that they may not typically see at home. The goal is to increase exposure to fresh produce, encourage healthy choices, and support nutrition education. When our youngest learners are exposed to so many fresh fruits and vegetables at a young age, they are more comfortable actually choosing these items as they grow older. This year, 51 elementary schools are participating. As you know, it's difficult for students to focus and learn on an empty stomach. Um yet we found that many students were skipping breakfast due to time constraints, cafeteria locations, or limited options. With the support of community partners, No Kid

091Hungry and Maryland Hunger Solutions, we advocated for the Maryland Meals for Achievement Flexibility Act, which passed last year with full support of state and local officials. The legislation allowed breakfast to be served in all school entrances, making it easy for students to grab a meal upon arrival on their way to the classroom. Thanks to generous grants from our partners at the Dairy Association, we p purchased grab-and-go carts to make it possible. As a result, access has been significantly increased. Students have more choices, including hot entre served daily. They can also select two different fruit, juice, or milk. Um, my team is now serving 7 million breakfast per year, um, which is among the highest in the state. When they're fueled with a nutrition nutritious breakfast upon arrival, they're better equipped to learn. Here's what a

092meal actually looks like. Um, every lunch includes five key components: protein, whole grains, fresh fruit, fresh vegetables, and milk. Students are required to take a minimum number of items for it to be considered complete according to USDA standards. A young elementary school student might only choose to take a chicken sandwich with some grapes like in the top center of the slide. Of course, that would not cut it for a senior football player who might choose a hearty meal like orange chicken, whole grain rice, two servings of fresh fruits, two fresh vegetables, and milk. If they're still hungry, there's always the share table out inside. On the bottom right, you'll see this example of a typical breakfast. There we go. Every year, we continue to introduce new things to keep the menu fresh and exciting. Um,

093our team has been highly focused on serving quality meals every day. Our guiding principle is that if we wouldn't serve it to our kids at home, we can't serve it at school either. The goal is to continually improve the menu while keeping the favorites year after year. While serving quality food is at the forefront every day. Obviously, that might for fall short at times. Students are strongly encouraged to communicate directly with the kitchen staff so they can resolve any issues right away. We've developed a fun and interactive process to ensure students have a voice in selecting new menu items. It all starts with gathering ongoing feedback from students and staff. When a potential new item is identified, we begin with a small tasting session including kitchen staff and leadership. If that gets the thumbs up,

094we moved on to student testing. This could be a student council group or a random selection of 20 students. They sample the item and share their feedback. If it passes their test, it goes to the next level, which is a large cafeteria event tasting. These are always a ton of fun. Uh during lunch service, my team visits a cafeteria, hands out samples and voting tickets. They drop their tickets into red and green buckets to show their support or not. If it makes it if it if the votes are on the green bucket, it makes it to the menu. If not, it gets cancelled. And with that, I thank you. Sorry. No, it's okay. And I just want to point out in that la in that second to last slide that you saw, that is our

095former student member of the board, Miss Ch Koo at Overly High School last year where she participated in in one of the student testing. Um, as Miss Hutzler said, uh, literally her staff walks around with red and green buckets and the kids are excited. um whether it was middle schools or or high schools that we went to or elementary schools to be able to have have some choice. Um and it was simply wonderful to listen to students talk about the different meal choices and why they were choosing to put their ticket in either a red the red or the green bucket. Um and the staff also was able to receive a lot of feedback on things that they liked or didn't like. For example, one of the things that we often um hear that Miss

096Hutzler's staff often hears is, you know, something needed more salt and pepper. And so that's an opportunity for for her staff to educate um the students on what is part of the nutritional value and what is not. And to offer also offer some alternatives. There's a variety of sauces and condiments available to students as well to u enhance their meals. So with that, we thank you and invite any questions that you have. Thank you for that presentation, for the work you do with our students. Dr. Grim, I haven't seen you that excited about most of the presentations. So, but I food is a passion of mine. Uh we see and and I think too coming coming from the school side, thank you Miss Lar for that. coming from the school side, uh, seeing how food

097impacts learning is is critical and the work that the food and nutrition services team has has done to really outreach and just improve so that so that students feel um like they're being heard and that they like the quality of what's being provided to them and with them is just so important. So, thank you and thank you for getting the student voice as part of it, Mr. McMillion. Thank you for the presentation. I don't need a lot of meat and I'll go through the protocol, but I want to try the shave barbecue. Absolutely. Could be our next board meal. No problem. It's on the menu. All right. Thank you, Mr. Millian. Miss Pumprey, I have a couple questions. Um referring first of all thank you for your presentation. Um referring to the second slide you

098noted that there was an increase in um meals. I believe that was during the school year. So my question is do you also know if there was an increase in meals provided over the summer? Did more students um and families come for summer meals? Total meals for the summer increased um as a whole. Um the rural program is really what skyrocketed quite a bit um this year. I believe the summer program was was a lot smaller, right, than the previous year. So meals in that areas shifted. Um so for us, we saw a very very very large increase in the rural program. And that was going to be part of my next question. So is there a reason um is it funding that we only have three to go sites? Um is it just operations?

099Is it funding? Is it just you don't think we don't think it's needed? Or is there maybe maybe an opportunity in future summers to add additional to to go sites? Because my understanding is if it's not a to- go site, the students have to consume the meal on site, the full meal before they leave. Correct. That's correct. So the rural program is designated locations in the county. So the specific location has to qualify as a rural area demographically to be able to operate that program. Um it would be our goal to operate that in 150 locations, 100%. So um this year we're lucky that we were able to increase by one. We'll see where the lines are drawn for next year and if they're in our favor, we'll add as many as we possibly can.

100Yeah. Okay. And um and Miss Puffrey, just to add on to that, the the fresh fruit and vegetable grant program that Miss Hetsler spoke about, we have 51 schools for that that th those are decided um not not by us. We put in for all of our students, I'm sorry, we put in for all of our schools to have that benefit, but not all of them qualify. So that those are those are selected for us. Okay. And um is any of this provided by federal funding that we may lose in Well, I can't predict the future. Um but for right now, we are locked in for at least another four years for free meals for C. Okay. Awesome. And one more thing, um regarding the graband-go breakfasts provided through, I believe the Maryland meals for

101achievement. Um, does that if students are late, are they still able to access those breakfasts? Oh, absolutely. That's one of the biggest parts of the program is breakfast after the bell. Um, any student that comes late, no matter what time, I believe the restriction is when lunch has started, but absolutely. Uh, just because you're late doesn't mean you're not still hungry. So, awesome. Thank you so much. Absolutely. Dr. Seavoy. Hi. Yes. Um, thank you for your presentation. Uh, do you serve meals to vegetarian for children that are vegetarians and pescatarians or We do have vegetarian selection. So, every day there's at least one um and then there's typically several different hot options options every week that are on the menu and then there's additional options where the primary menus can be modified to be vegetarian.

102For example, a taco salad might use beans instead of the beef. Okay. And um do you have children who only eat seafood? Pescatarians. We don't serve very much seafood anyway. Um we have a tuna salad, so they it really falls into the vegetarian section. Yeah. Okay. Thank you, M. Did you have a question? Thank you. Thank you so much for this presentation. This is so uplifting and seeing all the healthy options is just terrific for kids. When they eat better, they feel better. They're happier. So, thank you so much for your commitment. um if you can just talk a little bit about the share table um initiative which I think is great and um like how many schools out of the total number it's being used and how it's advertised so that parents know what

103to expect in terms of the waste of of the food. I think it looks like they can't share what they bring from home. Correct. From a food safety perspective, there are certain limitations. Um, but the idea of the share table is that any unwanted wrapped food um that one student might take out of the line, they can certainly put on the table and then another student can take it free of charge. Um, so it's, you know, it not only, you know, serves the purpose of someone who might just have a stronger appetite, um, but also decreases waste into the landfill. So, it's it's a win-win all around. I I love the share table. Um, it's a great solution, but it's in all schools. Oh, that's great. And do most of the students know about it?

104like is it pretty it's a thing I can say there you know there's more participation perhaps in some schools more so than others um but it yeah it's bright as day giant signage um in every cafeteria that's out there so that's great this is all really uplifting thank you no problem Miss Harvey do you have a question actually yes thank you um Miss Dlesky asked my question about the share table so thank you for that explanation and I also So, uh, and and thank you for explaining how much agency young people have over their food choices. It's good to to know that they are actually participating in what they will eventually eat in the school systems. So, the only other question I had was the graband go. Are they in all the schools, the breakfast?

105Yes. Okay. Thank I believe there's two maybe three um that don't necessarily use the carts and choose to to use the serving line. Um in those schools the serving line is located extremely close to the front door. Um and they might typically have you know very narrow passageways where they you know it would cause a bottleneck of of people in a in a tight space. So they choose to to kind of move it to the side a bit but they still have the option to grab and go. They still have the option to take it back to the classroom. Thank you. Sure, Miss Hen. Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. This is truly outstanding. Um my question has to do with um board member Stuskies and that's regarding um the share table. I think

106it's a great idea. I do hear concerns from time to time regarding food waste and I'm curious if there are any other um efforts or initiatives to prevent or reduce the amount of waste. And one specific um question I wanted to ask about is if parents can somehow opt out of the the num the required number of items that their child must take if they know they have um a child with a smaller appetite or there are specific items that they want them to have but but not I'd rather see a child get some of their preferences rather than be forced to to take a certain number of items and then for those items to go to waste or there any other efforts to to reduce food waste that you can speak to. Well, so

107I'll start with the first part and you can do the second part. So our um our energy and sustainability office within the the department of facilities uh works very closely with food and nutrition services to uh to educate both school staff and students regarding food waste, composting and other programs that are available. Um in fact it is food waste awareness month and we advertise that to all of our schools. Um many schools engage in the green schools initiative. Food waste is part of that. Um so partnering together we do have a number of of robust ways that that schools can educate not only their students but their staff regarding food waste and the steps they can take to reduce it. Um, we also provide posters and other signage around the schools again to help educate

108those pieces and I think Miss Hler can talk about the number of items. Sure. Um, the minimum number of items are required by the USDA. Um, in fact, if a student takes less than those required items, they actually have to pay. Um, so what that does is, you know, there's kind of a double-edged sword maybe for the of potential waste that could come. There are minimum amounts which is important to educate folks but that's where we encourage the share table. Um so if students take say a milk or take something that they don't necessarily want they can put that item right on the share table for someone else. So I and I think that's the the concern that I've heard raised is that they are required to take it and I understand and thank you

109for that explanation that it is a a USDA requirement. So there is no process by which parents can unfortunately opt out. So, okay. Thank you. So, with the share table, um, after lunch is over, things have been added to the share table. Anything that's still left within the bin, what happens to that? Is that thrown away? Is that So, it so it depends by school. There are um there are a number of schools. I can tell you at my old school, uh, we used to gather those items. We had we had staff that would that would take them and have that of that have that available perhaps for the students after school. Uh Miss Hetszler and her staff cannot um take them back into the the cafeteria, but sometimes uh the school staff make decisions

110in which to help students that come in late. A question earlier was um is breakfast available to students that come in late? As Mr. Miss Miss Hetsler said it is it is available until they serve lunch. How that is managed at each school is dependent on the school administration and the cafeteria staff. So the same thing happens with the shared table. Um I've seen schools where the community school facilitator may take those items back. They are as Miss Hutzler said prepackaged um items and they're available for students that come in late or to take something with them later. Okay. Okay. Thank you very much for the presentation and the answers to all the questions. Thank you. Next on the agenda is the report on safety and climate. And for that I call on Dr. Jones,

111Mr. Knox, and Miss Mustaper. And right and you must be Major Glenn Wedc. Thank you. Sorry about that. Dr. Rogers, we'll get you started. Yes. Um, Chair Licter, uh, Vice Chair Harvey, members of the board, we are pleased to present this report on safety and climate. As everyone knows, for the last three years, this has been one of our priority areas. We are especially proud of our layered approach and our partnership not only with the Baltimore County Police Department led under the direction of Chief McCulla who is available 247 and we have unfettered access to him and the team but also our partnership with families and stakeholders. Um given the changes that we've seen in school systems across the nation, uh having this report, sharing this report at the beginning of the year really gives

112us an opportunity to reinforce our consistent message um that it is safety is a shared responsibility. It takes all of us um really focused on what's happening in our communities and sharing information with each other to ensure that our students and staff members are safe. And so with that, I will turn it over to the team um to talk through specifically what our plan is. Thank you. Good evening, Bo Chair Licer, Vice Chair Harvey, and Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. As Dr. Rogers said, we are very um proud of the work that we do daily to keep our students and our staff safe. We take it very seriously. Um and a lot of times we are constantly meeting and and moving into swift action as Dr. Rogers has stated um through her priority

113area and I will read this screen for you. It is about clear expectations, consistent responses and a shared accountability that we protect and preserve safe learning environments. Again, that's just not the school buildings. That's where all of our staff actually learn and grow and and teach and work with other students and staff. I'm going to turn it over to um the team here. I'm very proud to work with Mr. Eric Knox and Miss Mustaper and they'll share more about how safety and climate converge not only just um through our presentations, but it is materialized on a daily basis. Good evening, Dr. Rogers. Board members, appreciate the opportunity to present to you tonight. Baltimore County Public Schools added to its multi-layered approach to school safety, which as Dr. Jones indicated, gives us clear and consistent expectations

114for our students. This aligns us with Komar policy and rule and keeps us aligned with our student handbook, which we updated for this school year. With that, our students are given clear presentations on the student handbook and they're also gone over with their students and their families to make sure they understand what's expected of them each and every day. Within that, our school staff encompasses our everyone and that includes teachers, support staff as well as SRO's and SSAs. So, Baltimore County Police, school resource officers, and student safety assistance. With our multi-tered approach, we've up upgra upgraded our school digital cameras, and that's in partnership with our facilities and our visitor screening system. as well. At our after school activities, we utilize the open gate system, our metal detectors for our persons that visit our school

115games to make sure everyone's safe. We've upgraded and partnered with the Maryland expectation for digital mapping and that began with our secondary school programs as well. And we still encompass and utilize omni alert weapons detection systems and over 7,000 cameras that we operate each and every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We've also continued in our approach to seek grant funding for secured vestibules at schools and have netted another $900,000 in funds this year for added secure vestibles to continue that grow. We have partnered and been trained by the I love you guys foundation. That's our new standard response protocol and we are have encompassed a train the trainer model. Dr. Rogers wanted us to train each other instead of dealing with the virtual aspect of training. So all of our school

116principles, all of the safety department staff including myself are trainers and we are on a mission to train the entire school system. We trained central office staff today and we will continue on until every staff member is trained and I love you guys and that particular protocol. Uh with that, I will let the uh major speak about the uh Baltimore County Info Center, their new roll out that supports us 24 hours a day with our partnership and how it encompasses and it partners and aligns with Omni Alert Major. Yes, sir. Yeah, Chief McColla's uh vision for the uh info center is multifaceted throughout the county, but one of the key elements is going to be the school system. Uh when an omni alert goes off, especially during the school day, I want the SRO's to

117directly be going to whatever the threat is and engaging that threat. I don't want them worrying about looking at cameras. So when the Omni alert system comes out, that's going to be transferred to the info center who will have access to the 7,000 cameras and they can focus in on what is going on at the time and as the other officers are coming in, they can direct, you know, we can look at changes of behavior. We can see if anything's dropped, if anything's placed. um the SRO's that are there will just worry about engaging that subject and taking whatever action is necessary and all this other information will be given to the officers coming in. Um if nothing's going on, we can kind of stop 500 armed police from coming into the building uh quickly

118as you know if we determine it to be a false call or something like that. So it's got uh many aspects no matter what the situation is. that that's kind that's where we're we're looking to go and it should keep building as school system and uh the police department keeps integrating our systems. I see that is a very very positive uh approach. Thank you. With this particular slide, we just highlighted continued safety procedures and sponsored events uh within the Department of Safety and Facilities for this for the school year into this current school year. We have applied for and been granted over $2 million in grant funds to continue support such as school safety assistance and school resource officers, continue to work athletic events after school, and secure vestibules. As stated in the earlier slide,

119we updated the systemwide emergency operations plan and that was all eight volumes which volumes 1, two and three available to the public and the remaining volumes are for internal staff only. We revised theou memorandum of understanding with the Baltimore County Police to again align and show our strength and partnership with the police department and to continue this work into many school years to come. We provided three additional lockdown drills in alignment with House Bill 416 for all schools and that will continue to make sure they are ready and trained and drilling each other to ensure that students and staff are ready in case of an emergency. And again, the I love you guys protocol was started on August 23rd and all schools are operating under that protocol. And this year we did hold the 28th

120annual safe schools conference that supports over 574 staff members, administrators and support staff and or one additional staff member that are trained in emergency protocol response and breakout sessions. With this particular slide, we just highlight a total number in school year 2425 of 41,828 office referrals, which means we are again aligning ourselves with the student code of conduct and the student handbook and a suspension rate of 7.46% for that school year. Thank you. Um, good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, and Superintendent Rogers, and board members. Um, the slide that's in front of you, um, represents the tiered approach, um, that we take to student support services. It's critically important that we think about what are we doing for all students at the universal tier one level right on into tier three, which is our

121most intensive level of support. Um, and the purpose of this is really scaling our supports and resources to meet the varying needs of our students across BCPS. You've seen this before, but it's always good to have a reminder of how we look at um, providing supports to our students. Um, where we're going to start this evening is just take a look on the right. There are key supports and services that are available across BCPS and across schools. The the other part is the collaborative effort that we utilize in the process we use through student support teaming. That is a problem solving team um for our students um at the schoolhouse. So I'm going to start with tier one. What are we doing universally? Well, the reason that I bring up the attendance campaign, we need

122students to be in school. One of the biggest things about um support to our students is making sure that they're present. There's two reasons I bring this up when we talk about safety and support. The first one is they need to be in school to learn. But the second part of that is they also need to know what we expect. Not just, you know, at home but in our communities in our school communities on the way to school. They need to know what our expectations are. So attendance is critically important and we've treated it in that way over many years. But you can continue to see the growth. We're continuing to see our students more consistently attend and decreasing that chronic absenteeism. One of the things that we did to kind of combine safety efforts

123last year was we took the attendance tracker that you see on the left hand side. We put that into the student handbook and the purpose was to really promote positive attendance but also to help our students to track their attendance. Take a look at when you are in school. Are you here for handbook days? Are you here for conversations, skill training, development, and of course always instruction. The other um another component of what we did on a tier one universal level is we really took a close look at our um counseling lessons. We really want to make sure that our students are confident and they have the skills when navigating the learning environment. We want to make sure that we know how we're in relationship with each other, but also again going back to expectations

124and that we have the skills to problem solve. If there's a problem, we want to know how to solve it. but that also applies to all learning spaces. Um, and and just creating that environment that is safe. So, what you'll see in front of you is kind of a chart that just simply outlines from pre preK to 12 what um what students are receiving at preK to 4. It's a lot of foundational really helping our students to understand how they interact with their environment, growing their sense of self-awareness. Um and one thing I will um stress is all of the lessons are aligned to the um castle framework which is the collaborative for academic social and emotional learning. Fifth grade we're looking a little bit more at transition. How do we get ourselves ready to

125understand the expectations of middle um critically important because there are a lot of different expectations um that occur. And then 6 through 8 is balancing that social emotional wellness and and uh our community readiness with college and career. We start to explore who we want to be. Um we start making some thoughts about this is what I want to pursue or this is what I don't want to pursue. And then of course 9th through 12th grade we're really looking at our students being community ready but then pursuing that college and career pathway. But also that comes with understanding how we engage in our environment and how we problem solve but also how do we celebrate the great moments that occur um in our lives. One um the next slide you all have heard about this

126but it's really important that you are aware of where we are going. So in 2024 um the consortium which is an outgrowth of blueprint um when we went through a process in BCPS to identify spokes. Spokes are service providers. Um so they are providers of mental and behavioral health services. Um and we went through a process of looking at spokes and looking at needs. We work directly and have continued to have great partnership with the Baltimore County Health Department um the Bureau of Behavioral Health um and partnering with them to really drill down on the needs across Baltimore County. So last year we had eight spokes um service providers. We had 111 schools that were impacted. Um and then this year what we're looking at is we have 10 spokes. Our hub has been moved

127into a coordinating um service partner. So they're coordinating many things. Um and that will service 127 schools. Um so we're already in the throws of that and have those cooperative agreements underway. Um I do call your attention to the funding at the bottom. I think that is a true testament to the investment under blueprint in the wellness and mental health. All of those funds, those funds do not come to Baltimore County per se in our budget office. All of those funds go through the consortium and are also aligned to um the health department, our hub. So those fund just making sure that there's a clear differentiation of where those funds um are aligned to. This um slide really speaks to the support by school level. It allows you to take a look at 2024 and

1282025. We've ma remained fairly consistent in our provision of services by the spokes or service providers. Um and we've had a slight increase for our high schools. Um really trying to look at strategically services in that area. Um again to support you know the data that we do hear about students needing to connect. um thinking about our youth risk behavior surveys and or uh survey data from the um government and thinking about how we are addressing anxiety and depression and building out those supports. Lastly, I alluded to the student support services um planning. Um this is for all schools and student um support teams are at every school. This is a mechanism for um general education really building upon that problem solving ability um to really address some complex issues. It's a it's a multidisciplinary

129team that's composed of many of the individuals you saw on that tier system of support to really intervene early. Uh one thing that we want to do is identify those supports and provide them just in time. We don't want to wait. We want to get those services to our students or get those supports um and and uh resources to our teachers and so that they can carry them forward in the instructional environment. Over the last two years we have um had high level focus on SST and how we are addressing student needs and we have seen growth in that area. We are continuing to see growth in that area. So we do have a team that is focused on that, coaching and supporting schools, going out meeting with teachers, coaching teachers. So we are continuing

130to see that as a pathway. Um and we want to make sure that we're planning for all students um at varied levels um and not just going to tier three at an IEP level. So with that, that concludes the presentation today. Thank you. I'm going to turn it over to Dr. Jones. Yes. Thank you. Um, and at this time we'll entertain any questions. So, thank you for that information. And are there questions from board members? Miss Pumprey, I don't know if you have an answer to this and that's fine. If anyone has an answer to this, do we know how many of our schools are remaining that need um secure vestibules? I know we're waiting on GR. I know it's always a funding issue, but do we have a approximate number? And if you don't

131have that, you can I'd just like to know for the future if possible. So, good afternoon, good evening again. Um, I don't have an approximate number, but uh, Miss Harvey had asked the same question and we have it on the schedule to provide an answer via a sub. Thank you so much. Um, and regarding the I love you guys protocol, um, is that something that changes the drills for our students? And if so, are is there certain training or learning experiences that our student might change for our students as far as the protocol? One change, the word lock out is no longer used. It's now changed to secure. That's the only change. Uh the drills are mandated by the fire marshal in the state of Maryland. So the number of drills is is different than

132what the protocol requires. And the protocol, all parents were sent information explaining how the protocols would be used. They would be used, announced, and repeated twice. So it's very clear and they're always given with instructions of what to do, not just the action. So they're very clear and very easy for students to understand because they're always given direction and the staff member is always uh the leader of that particular action. Thank you. And one last question. Um on slide nine we tal it was mentioned that 127 schools um is it have access to the spokes? Yes. So my question is what about the remaining the students in the remaining schools? Are there a way that they have access to those um to providers as well? So sometimes within that process what we um have found

133is sometimes we have to have further conversations if a school isn't identified. So, we do work through that process and expand that cooperative agreement if it's appropriate and if there is a need in those schools. But keep I want you to keep in mind we also have a continuum of services where we have other community mental health partners that are serving. I'm in the process of signing 225 agreements with schools um to ensure that they have access as well to mental health services. That's just one component. Thank you so much, Miss Harvey. Thank you. I have a couple of questions. One is, can you explain digital mapping in secondary schools as part of your safety and security approach? Digital mapping is a way to digitize the different levels of a school. So for elementary, uh,

134one level and high schools, some middle schools, multilevel, second and third floor. It allows us to build into the CAD system for the police department. When a call comes out in room 205, the dispatcher would get a map of the school and it would give them actual directions of the officers to follow to get into the buildings and they were selected when started within the high schools, the secondary schools and it is will be a state requirement uh in the in the upcoming future but that's the uh platform. Okay, great. And my next question is about the I love you guys protocol. How is that adjusted uh for the eventuality that something should happen in one of our our special needs school like maiden choice again? So at our special schools and you indicate maiden

135choice they always have staff members available. So the staff members are trained in the protocol and we have guidelines that we have to follow for those schools to navigate evacuation processes where they go to safe locations and what have you. So and within our sitebased emergency plans it is outlined of what the directions would be for schools that qualify under that umbrella. Okay. Thank you. And my last question is around the uh consortium and community supports in I'm not I don't know what the slide number is but it shows the percentages um of support levels across the schools and I see that uh most of the support is in elementary schools um pretty level around middle and high school and then we have alternative schools at 2%. So what's what's what's driving that allocation of

136resource to our alter alternative schools where kids have had some issues um in their home school and particularly uh how are we applying those resources I think particularly transitioning back and what supports are we providing in that aspect. Yeah. So with respect to the consortium um where we started was really taking a look and people were applying for letters of support. That was the initial part of of how this went. So we went through that process and then the next round was the hub applying um to be a pilot hub and in that they last year in the midst of the year they completed a needs assessment and looked at the services that we needed. Um and then trying to work with various vendors to identify the areas where we need support. You're absolutely correct

137and our students um at our alternative programs need the levels of support. What we do in those situations because they are tied you know they are anchored into a home school. We're still working with those supports to transverse across. So even um and I give an example of a um Thrive Behavioral Health. I'll give you one example. they will serve a student in their home school and if that student would go to the alternative school they would also provide the services there and some of the services we think about are mental health that's just direct you know one-on-one some of the services are very different they're community based they're connecting with the student in school they may extend to out of school time they may focus on attendance and that connects to wherever the student

138goes to um so there's there's um they can go between buildings. Um, I'm sure it's not always perverted because, you know, you're moving around a lot, but we do work with schools because we want to make sure that students have access and because there's a change, we don't want a barrier to to a student accessing services that they need. So, we do promote folks um receiving that service at the alternative school and then when they transition back to Thank you. So just so I make sure I'm understanding the 2% in the chart is ser support services that are dedicated in-house in the alternative school. However, services that are provided to students in alternative schools would be incorporated into the percentages in I'm going to say high school and middle school because those services are following

139the young person. Okay. Thank you Miss Hen. Thank you. Good evening and thank you for this presentation. My question is related to board member Pumphrey's and has to do with funding for safety and security related capital projects. I know the state provides limited grants for um safe school projects for school construction and I'm curious as to whether there are other sources of funds for capital or construction projects for schools that need um larger projects for their their safety needs and are those um grants that we're currently exploring. We're going to let Dr. Rogers respond. Yes, thank you. Um this team is uh very well-versed but I don't think any of the ones sitting up here have the information regarding grants and capital projects. Uh that is certainly something we can take back uh to our

140operations team to find out um to confirm which grants we've applied for and if there are any available grants that we have not applied for. You're welcome. Any other quilles? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. and I really like all the grants that you're using to improve safe I love you guys program sounds amazing I remember that safe school conference um so my question is about the Omni alert um some community members have asked about its detection does it detect when it when a gun or or weapon is out in the open or if something is enclosed in a backpack would that be detectable thank you thank you uh only when it's out in open it. It works off of AI and descriptive uh shapes and sizes of that particular item. Okay. Thank you.

141And then for the schools that are using the like clear backpacks, would the AI detection detect it in those kinds of backpacks or still? No. And thank you. I will be hesitant to answer that question because it depends on a lot of variables. lighting um blading of the body. So, it just depends. Okay. Thank you. Absolutely. Mr. McMillian. Mr. Knox, do we have the same number of school safety assistants this year as we did last year? No sir, we do not. Can you do you know off the top of your head how many we lost? No sir, I do not. Okay. Uh Major, this might be for you. It might be for Mr. Knox and uh I taught school for 35 years and my experience at the end of the day the school resource officers

142are very very visible and the whole dismissal process but where you don't normally see them is in the mornings during the arrival process especially in the elementary and the middle schools. Uh, I've observed them come in as everybody else is coming in, park the cars, and go in the building. It just seems to me if they were visible in the morning that that would possibly eliminate a lot of the confusion that we see as our students are arriving on the buses and cars, walkers. Has any thought been given to that? Thank you. I can tell you the first week of school, I was personally out four of the five days. Um, I was at Holliber Middle and Elementary School. Um, both SRO's were out on the middle of the road directing traffic. Um, I went

143to trying to think of every school I've been to, the SRO has been out directing traffic. I was at Kenwood or out in the parking lot greeting the students. So, I have not seen that. Um, I'll share with you I was at a school off the property yesterday and I've watched a school resourcer walk in the building. Uh, I was at the same school two weeks ago and observed the same behavior. Uh, so I'm just curious why that's not, you know, uniform across the school system. Uh, it it is, but we don't know what that, you know, maybe there's something was going on in the school. Maybe the teacher asked him to check on something. Maybe there was a threat that day. Um, I I couldn't answer without more detail and research, but um, like

144I said, I can tell you the first week of school, that's what I observe. Yeah. I'm curious, do they work a set number of hours? Are the hours determined by the precinct? Are they determined by the school? The hours that the SRO's work, they're work by contract, it would be eight hours. by union contract just like the school you need. So if a school starts at 8:15 a middle school, would they, you know, clock in at the precinct at 6:30 or 7 or or does their time would start where they would get to the precinct and pick up their equipment? Okay. Okay. Thank you. And then every there's not a SRO for every elementary school. So we're we're sharing at this point, right? Okay. Thank you, Dr. Seavoy. Yes. Um, are metal detectors completely out

145of the question? I was at a school and parents said they would be willing to pay for one at that at their particular school. Are they out of the question or what's the deal? I can respond. Dr. Seavoy, we have Open Gate in our middle schools and our high schools that we use for the athletic events. Um, uh, Chief McCulla as well as another, um, uh, one of his officers have been at our community conversations for safety and climate to explain to families why it's not a recommended, um, process for us to move to having uh, metal detectors in our schools. Um, I would do a disservice to, you know, repeating the explanation, but I'm sure we can follow up and ask them. um to either send us something or invite them to an upcoming

146meeting to explain the process to all of us and their recommendation. Okay. I know that they do work. Well, I worked with metal detectors before, but that's okay. We'll talk about it. Okay. Thank you so much for your response and thank you for your report tonight. I enjoyed it. Any last questions? Okay. Thank you again. The next item on the agenda is board member comments and any agenda setting items that you'd like to be considered. So, um if you have an agenda item or a comment, please raise your hand. Miss Dleski. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um several board members um accompanied uh the PTA meeting yesterday at Franklin Middle School. It was a very powerful meeting. Um the principal welcomed uh with open arms uh the comments from the community and it was

147a great listening session. One of um the requests from members of that comm community is clarification on the incident that occurred um I guess now it was several weeks ago regarding the um the handgun that was detected um through the wonderful work of the personnel at the school. Um, there's a misunderstanding of whether the gun was loaded or not loaded. There was a Baltimore Sun article that declared that it was a loaded gun and the community has just requested that there is clarification and thank you. And whether that's tonight or at some point like I totally understand. Let me clarify for the community right now right here. Um, it has been verified by police that there was not a loaded gun. Was not loaded. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments or agenda items? You can

148also send agenda items to me the next couple days. Miss Pumprey, just a comment. Um I had the pleasure of visiting uh Villa Cresta Elementary School. Um the Luma Project who was who is um the founder and president is Robin Bondari from Eastern Tech. He's Eastern Tech senior and he distributed back to school supply bags to multilingual students. Um, and it was just amazing to observe him and his board members who were also all Eastern Tech students. Um, just the they were so engaged with the students and they were just excited to give back to to the community. So, it was just something positive about our BCPS students that I wanted to um, bring a light on. Thank you for that. You made someone down here smile. And Mr. Young, thank you, Miss Lectar. I

149wanted to thank the uh, Continental Society. Um, I had an opportunity to meet them when they were at the Headville back to school night giving out school supplies for so I want to thank them for their support of our students. Thank you, Mr. Young, Miss Hen. Thank you. I would like to thank everyone who came out tonight um or were virtually and speaking toward IG resolution. So, I look forward to revisiting that for discussion amongst my colleagues at an upcoming meeting. Um, I'd also like to request that an agenda item be added on student discipline data. Um, we have that slide in the presentation tonight on safety and climate. I'd like to see additional data and if staff could speak to how that aligns with our code of conduct um, based on the referral types

150and incidents for the 2425 school year, that would be appreciated. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Anyone else? Okay. Thank you for that. Last item on the agenda is announcements. The board's next meeting will be held on Wednesday. So, it is a change from our usual on Wednesday, September 24th, 2025 at 6:30 p.m. Thank you everyone for joining us tonight and your patience with our tech. Um, the meeting is now adjourned. I can say something about the metal detector.