001This is Chairwoman Jane Licter. I call to order the meeting of the Board of Education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. This evening's board of education meeting is being broadcast through the BCPS online live meeting broadcast and on BCPS TV Comcast Infinity channel 73 Verizon FiOS channel 34. In order to efficiently conduct this meeting, all voting items this evening will be done 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 antidotic code of Maryland general provisions article sections 3-305 B1 B7 B8 and B9 to discuss the appointment employment you take my cart down the appointment employment assignment promotion discipline demotion compensation Miss Booker Dwer you might want to mute the appointment employment assignment promotion
002discipline 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. Consult with council to obtain legal advice, consult with staff, consultants, or other individuals about pending or potential litigation, and conduct collective bargaining negotiations or consider matters that relate to the negotiations. So, move Pumprey. Thank you. May I have a second? Second, Celeste. Thank you. May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss Goo? Yes. Miss Stleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumprey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Dominowski? Yes. Miss Hen? Yes. Miss Fong? Yes. Miss Booker Dwire? Yes. Miss Lter. Yes, thank you. Mother, who's this? Who's this photographer? Thank you. Thank you so much. How was Atlanta? Good evening.
003This is Chairwoman Jane Lter. I now call to order the meeting of the board of education of Baltimore County for Tuesday, April 8th, 2025. I'd first like to apologize to the audience for the delay in the start of our meeting tonight. So, I I appreciate your patience and I appreciate you being here. At this point, I invite you to recite the pledge of allegiance to the flag to be led by Miss Chika Kaloo. We will then have a moment of silence and recognition of those who have served education in Baltimore County. I aliance 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 through the BCPS on
004live live meeting broadcast and on BCPS Comcast Exfinity channel 73 and Verizon FiOS channel 34. In order to officially 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 April 8th agenda. Dr. Rogers, are there any additions or changes to tonight's agenda? Okay, you can say I am unaware of any addition or changes to tonight's agenda. Okay. I would like to change um make a change to the agenda. I'd like to change the order of the chair's report with the superintendent's report. Do I have a second? Second, Pumprey. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Chica Kulu, yes. Miss Stleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumprey, yes.
005Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Miss Booker Dwer, yes. Miss Licar, yes. Thank you. The revised agenda is approved. Earlier this evening, the board met in close session pursuant to the Open Meetings Act for the following reasons. to discuss the appointment, employment, assignment, promotion, discipline, demotion, compensation, removal, resignation or performance evaluation of appointees, employees or officials over whom it has jurisdiction or any other personnel matter that affects one or more specific individuals and consult with staff to obtain legal advice. Consult with staff, consultants, or other individuals about pending or potential litigation and conduct collective bargaining negotiations or consider matters that relate to the negotiations. The closed session summary and the open session information summary can be found on board docs under this board meeting agenda date. Excuse me. Sorry.
006The next item on the agenda is personnel matters and for that I call on Mr. McCall. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, and members of the board. Like the board's consent for the following personnel matters tonight, we have terminations, retirements, resignations, non-renewals, and certificated appointments. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personal matters as presented in exhibits D1 through D5? So move chair. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Harvey. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss GKU? Yes. Miss Dleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumphrey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Dominowski? Yes. Miss Hen? Yes. Miss Fong? Yes. Miss Booker Dwire? Yes. Miss Lter? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. The next item
007on the agenda is administrative appointments and for that I call on Dr. Rogers. Thank you, Madame Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, and members of the board. I'm bringing forward the following administrative appointments for your approval. One, principal Pinewood Elementary School, and two, Supervisor Assessment and Compliance, Office of Assessment and Data Analytics. Thank you. Do I have a motion to approve the personnel matters as presented in exhibit E1? So move stles. Thank you. Do I have a second? Second. Chu. Thank you. Any discussion? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Chica Ku, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumprey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fong, yes. Thank you, Miss Booger. Yes. Miss Lear, yes. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rogers.
008Thank you. Our first appointee is Monica Dillard. Please stand. Monica is attending with her sister Chameleia Clark and is being appointed as the supervisor assessment and compliance in the office of assessment and data analytics with 20 years of experience with Baltimore County Public Schools. Her previous experience includes science teacher at Woodlon Middle, Windsor Mill Middle, Stemer's Run Middle, and Woodlon high schools. Assistant principal at Chesapeake High, Owing Mills High, and Pikesville High School. Specialist research in the department of research accountability and assessment. Supervisor transition services in the department of academic programs and options. specialist secondary science in the office of science and specialist college assessment in the office of assessment and data analytics. [Applause] Congratulations. Final appointment for this evening is Lauren Lap. Please stand. Lauren is attending with her husband Steve Lap Jr. and
009is being appointed as the principal at Pinewood Elementary School with 18 years of experience with Baltimore County Public Schools. Her prior experiences include elementary and kindergarten teacher at Shady Spring Elementary School, mentor in the office of organizational development, kindergarten teacher at Vincent Farm Elementary, stat teacher at Dundock Elementary in Seven Oaks, elementary teacher at Logan Elementary School, and assistant principal at Padonia Elementary and Pleasant Plains elementary schools. Congratulations. Congratulations to both our appointees. 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 members via email at boebcps.org. The Baltimore County Police Department's Homeland Security Unit and Office of School Safety has
010recommended safety and security protocols which are posted in the boardroom and available by board docs and on the board's participation by with the public website. While we encourage public input on policy, programs, and practices within the purview of the 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 allowed to continue their remarks and will be escorted from the meeting. Please observe the three-minute clock which will
011let you know when your time is up. The microphone will be turned off at the end of the time or prior to that time at the discretion of the board chair. It is our practice of the board to allow elected officials to provide their comments to the board. First to speak is delegate Cheryl Pastor. Good evening, delegate. Good evening. Thank you. Um, good evening uh, chair, vice chair, superintendent, members of the board. I really don't know to whom I want to speak whether I'm so I'm gonna sit like this. because that's how I roll. Okay. So, I don't have any paper, which is always dangerous. All right. When I'm speaking and I don't have any. So, I'm just going to say that Delegate Phillips, where are you? He's in the back. We've been up for
012many, many hours because Sonny died was last night. That meant we were looking at bills until midnight and then we were in Annapolis all day trying to straighten up all the little things that needed to be straightened before we came out of what I sometimes most affectionately call Babylon which is um the Maryland General Assembly. So for two years now I'm so used to stand up on the floor. I really feel like I want to stand up. For two years now, Delegate Phillips and I have personally been fighting for the children in the state of Maryland, not just in Baltimore County, but for all of the children in Maryland. He and I both have done criminal justice bills. I have added on educational bills. So this year I can say that my second look bill
013and my restorative practices schools bills have passed. They will be law in Maryland. We thank you. But we're not playing because we're working under two systems in Maryland. One is that system that school boards are supposed to be handling and that's your job and you do it well. school boards don't get on here just because they want to have a day at the beach. They go to the beach. So, they're here because the work of our children is critical. The other one is what I call the second system and that's the system that incarcerates our children and those numbers are enormous and they have to stop. And part of how they will stop is by what we do in our schools. We don't have time for foolishness. Now, two weeks ago, I was speaking because
014uh Delegate Phillips and I, we were doing we had a late judiciary meeting. So, I was speaking over whatever the mumbo jumbo internet stuff, okay? But I was determined, no matter how tired or not well I feel to be here tonight because we have got to be serious and focused about the work of our children. I am so incredibly sick and tired of all of the distractions that we have in Baltimore County right now to keep us from doing the job. We have children, yes, who have special needs. I see Sharon Sarah off back there who can get on everybody's nerves. But I love this woman. And when I'm advocating for children with disabilities, when I get stuck, I go to her. And I'm seeing people, all of you out here who many of you
015tonight are going to come up here and talk about the issues that you have that need to be addressed. We have children that are living in poverty. We have children in foster care who are not getting the services that they need from the system. I'm going to do a bill next year about that, too. We have children who have needs. They need to be able to read. They need to be competitive. They need to be able to deal with math and all of those pieces. And we're out here, including the media, dealing with stuff that's nonsense. I don't give a dag on where the superintendent sleeps at night. Because I sat on the board when we said to Dr. Williams, we need you to move to Baltimore County. Why? We need you to move to
016Baltimore County so that we know that you are actively engaged in this county that you are in which you are serving. I am so sick, Dr. Rogers, of getting emails from you asking us in Annapolis while we're in session to come to one more meeting that you have because you're here, there, and everywhere. I don't know how much more involved you can get. I've asked her, Brenda Stifler, don't send me another email because if I have to look at another slideshow, another report, or hear her talk again, I will absolutely scream. Maybe I have screamed. So, she is everywhere. That is what we want. I don't care how far the apartment is, the house is, the children are, etc. But she is trying to do the job for the children of Baltimore County. and she
017has one she has to leave behind. If sometimes the people don't agree with each other up here, all right, you do it with respect, but that's to be expected because when we're talking about the lives of our children, we don't always sit on the same page and don't always agree. And we all have that right. So come on folks, we've got to stop this. Let this woman do her job. Let this school board do its job and try stop trying to pitch them against each other. This is nonsense. It's ridiculous. We just have a brand. Did she leave? She did. Okay. A brand new principle. We have someone who Lord knows has 900 years of of background to do assessments and whatever. Okay. So we are trying to get these people what I say to
018Dr. Rogers and I look I'm not a day at the beach. I'm not playing. So I say to her all those little slides. I hate graphs and I hate slides and all of that because they don't tell you what you're going to do about whatever it is you're seeing. Right? So I keep saying next time you meet with the delegation, let me say that again. Next time you meet with the delegation, I want to hear about special education. I want to know. Every Monday, I'm about to jump out this chair. Every Monday, my chief of staff and I go out to visit schools. That's what the heck we supposed to do. Okay? That's what we're supposed to do. I don't have to look at the news to know what's going on in Baltimore County. You
019go out there and be a part of it. So, for you parents that are here tonight, thank you. Thank you for taking the time. Whether we like what you say or not, I'm just happy you're out. Bring a friend. Even if they have to stand out on the parking lot, but if we don't. And look, he retired here. He's back. Okay, come on. We I've got a plan, a restorative practice plan. We're going to do it. Support this system and what's going on up here. I'm done. Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me tonight. Thank you, Delegate Pesture. All right, Delegate Phillips, you got to follow her. Next on the agenda is Delegate Scott Phillips. This is so unfair. I know. If I had known, I would have switched the order. Yeah, you should
020have done that. That's just so unfair. Uh good evening, board members, and it's a pleasure uh being with you. Um, unlike Delicate Pasture, I'm going to try to stick to a few notes, right? She No, no, no, no. You all don't understand. She is she is the orator. Um, and she has often very quickly become somewhat of the conscience of the legislature. And I love love love working with Delegate Pastor George. She's right. um we get to see some of the really most challenging situations dealing with young people. Um I'm actually on the new commission dealing with juvenile justice and uh it's hard. um the things that we're dealing with every day is hard and that's why what you do is so important as she talks about you are the first system so that our
021children don't get caught up in the second system. Um we are we're dealing with a lot. This is what I want to say to you. Um I am a alum alumnest of Woodlon High School. So I've grown up here in Baltimore County. My children are alumnest of Baltimore County Public Schools, one of which is now an administrator here in the system. Um, I am really concerned about uh some of the external distractions. Uh, and I want you all to stay focused on your mission. And that's why I'm here today. You heard it from Delegate Pasture. So, I'm just going to say ditto. as a fiduciary, a trustee. That's what I consider myself as a legislator. We're going to contribute somewhere around a billion dollars of Maryland state taxpayers money to Baltimore County public schools. What?
022Yes. And that's in spite of, right, we're really not cutting um that's in spite of the challenges that we've had fiscally this year. Um, we've retained our commitment to the blueprint. Yes, there'll be some changes, uh, but we've retained our commitment to the blueprint. And so, once again, we need you to retain your commitment to the students. Um, in the midst of of everything, the last 24 months, um, I've really had the, uh, opportunity to attend your town hall meetings. Um, and I really want to thank Superintendent Rogers for your transparency, your commitment to answering every single question that comes to you. Um, I want to thank the school board for your ability to select and to work together. And as uh, Delegate Pasture said, it's not always going to be com kumbaya, right? That's
023just it's not like that in Annapolis either. Believe me, you probably see that on the news. Um but it is just important that you continue to engage your stakeholders. Um annually I've attended the meeting with Tabco uh and the and the other union representatives and I see Miss Stexton in here in the in the audience as well and thank you for your partnership as well and we appreciate you. Uh it is extremely important the message that we send to our children. My good friend Elijah Cummings used to say that our children are the messengers we send to the world that we will never see. And you are the stewards of the resources that will make those children whatever they will be in the future. And so I'm going to be short and I'm going to
024stop there and I'm just going to say please, please, please stay focused on what's important and don't let the external distractions sway you uh to make decisions that are not in the best interest of our children. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker, we're going to start with school system affiliated and it's Ramona Basilio from the Baltimore County Council PTA. This isn't fair. Hi. Good evening. Good evening. Um, very very inspiring and difficult to follow that. You can do it. Okay. Um, good evening, Madame Chair, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board. I bring you greetings on behalf of the PTA Council of Baltimore, our president, and over 100 units that are represented throughout um the district. When we were last here, I had the pleasure of um joining Miss um Charlie Green and a
025good partner and co- co-friendl. I'm here to give a quick update on that. Um the beginning tonight actually we have a movie called Screenagers which has been updated for 25 which is being showed shown pretty much over the district. We have central areas over 50 schools have been invited to join. Um, I want to give a special acknowledgement to Principal Caster over at Sparrow's Point who is not only showing the movie, who's not only working very hard on the implementation of the cell phone policy, but working very hard to get her parents and her students engaged not just at Sparrow's Point, but also throughout her area. So, a special thank you to her and a special thank you to Delaney High School who is sending notices throughout the district encouraging parents and students to check
026out to come see the movie Screenagers. It is updated. It speaks to students. It is provocative, but it's also humorous and engaging. It's given people an opportunity to look at issues around technology in a different way. So that begins tonight. Um we have a list of those schools that are running the movie. Discussions are f are followed at each school in each each district. I also want to say in times like this, cell phone policy and what kids are doing on the cell phone seems like what? No, not this again. What I want to say is thank you Dr. Rogers for being able to do this and that this keep the system running with the support of this board and that paying attention to the impact of cell phones on our children. We had a
027report where the increase of alcoholism among young women is on the rise. We had a report sex trafficking is on the rise. We had a report bullying is on the w rise. Cell phones are just not phones. They are also instruments that are impacting our children. So, we will continue to talk about that and thank you all for your support. Thank you. Our next category is unions and we have Mr. Lloyd Allen from Tabco. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board. Thank you for your time. I am Lloyd Allen, he him speaking on behalf of Tabco with permission from President Ston in support of stability. Students need predictability and stability. We educators also need stability and predictable inpredictability in our working conditions to create
028the best learning conditions for our students. Last school year, BCPS and Tabco entered into an historic three-year agreement. Employees received a joint announcement from the superintendent as well as the presidents of the five unions on December 8, 2023, celebrating the nature of the multi-year agreements, as well as the fact that negotiations were completed within the timelines that are embedded in those agreements. Last year's negotiations recognized that the system and Tabco want to put our energy and focus into supporting our students instead of bargaining every year. We understand that next year's funding is currently at risk. Tabco's members have visited Annapolis to speak with state legislators about the importance of the roughly 45% of the BCPS budget that's anticipated from the state as well as the other MSEA priorities such as workplace safety. We also advocated
029at the county council town hall budget hearings and we thank Joel Beielski and Allison Meyers for doing the same. Yesterday, MSEA President Paul Lemley released released a statement that educators appreciate the work of legislators to restore more than$2 billion dollars in funding for our students over the next four years and goes on to say, "This session has seen dramatic progress restoring the vast majority of the proposed cuts to our schools. Three days from now on Friday, we will know the county executive's budget proposal. I hope that the restoration in the state budget is sufficient for the negotiated agreements to be funded. Part of predictability and stability is knowing that members can pay the mortgage they took on based on the contracts that they signed. When this is threatened, we can't give full attention to the
030needs of the students because we're busy with our own family and household concerns and fears. If the county executive's budget triggers renegotiations, Tabco will engage members at work sites upon return from spring break so that our member priorities inform the work of our negotiation team. We hope that you, the board, watch this round of bargaining closely and partner with us for the best possible outcome given the increasingly difficult economic outlook. We look forward to the next celebratory joint announcement from the superintendent and the union presidents. hopefully that the budget has been funded and the contracts are safe. But if need be, then that we were able to meet at the table, comb through the budget and identify a way forward both for this coming year and also looking ahead and keeping our negotiated agreement intact
031in 2627 as that would Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Dr. Nica Shaw Bart from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sari. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, board members, and Superintendent Dr. Miriam Rogers. My name is Dr. Dr. Nikia Shoelbart, pediatrician and president of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sority Incorporated, Oopsilon Epsilon Omega Chapter, proudly serving the Baltimore County community for over 30 years. As a long-standing BCPS community partner, we appreciate the opportunity to speak before the board again in support of the outstanding progress and accountability data that BCPS has demonstrated and to advocate for continued prioritization of student success programs to facilitate continued gains. During the last board meeting, we highlighted that under the leadership of Dr. Rogers. BCPS has remained one of the best school systems in Maryland and
032one of the top five school systems in the country. Success metrics include improvements in chronic absenteeism, reading and math levels, and graduation rates. As a pediatrician and advocate for child health and well-being, I am well aware that improvements of this magnitude are no small feat, particularly given the tremendous challenges that the CO 19 pandemic presented for children and families across the globe. I also recognize that advancements at this level necessitate collaboration and a unified approach. So we extend gratitude and applaud all BCPS staff, counselors, educators, resource personnel, students and families for working together towards achieving this remarkable progress. Our children are our future and we want to continue to prepare them to be competitive in this global market. As BCPS stakeholders, we the members of Oops Epsilon Omega chapter remain committed and inspired to partnering
033with BCPS to design and deliver programs of excellence and opportunity to the students of Baltimore County. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Marietta English from the Baltimore County NAACP. Good evening. Such great speakers we've had tonight. I feel like I'm It's your turn. My turn. Great. Can you hear me? Yep. Okay. Good evening, Chair Elector, Vice Chair Harvey, and Dr. Rogers in the school board. I am Marian English and I chair the education committee and AXO for the NAACP for Baltimore County and I am here to congratulate you on the fine job you're done in Baltimore County. We are applaud the partnership we've had with you and your support for our AXO program. We're just about ready to begin the competition which is April the 26 at New Town High School. We invite
034you at to come and see our children who will be competing for gold, silver, and bronze medals and will be able to go on to the national competition. So we app um appreciate your support and we continue to ask ask for your support in the coming years. We are very proud of this board and the work that you've done and the partnership that we've had and the accomplishments that you've had in Baltimore County. I had the opportunity just last week to visit Randlestown High School. I visited three second grade classes. We read stories to them. I visited with my sorority sisters of Delta Sigma Theta sorority. I'm also on their education committee. And we read stories to the boys and girls in the second grade. Let me tell you, um, Delegate Cheryl Ptor, they are
035children who are doing well. Those second graders were on it. When I tell you they were polite, they listened. They answered the questions. They did their story board. I was truly impressed. Thank you, Dr. Rogers and the school board for supporting these children. I'm not afraid of our future. I'm not afraid. I see our children. Like Cheryl said, go to our schools and visit. go to the schools and visit and see our children at work. Come and see our children compete on April the 26 at New Town. Phenomenal work. Phenomenal. You'll be surprised when I come back the next time and I tell you how many gold medals we have that we'll be taking to Charlotte in July. And will you please support our fundraiser? We're having a golf tournament, you know, and we need
036funds to take our kids to Charlotte. So, we're asking if you will please support that as well. Thank you so much for your partnership with us as we move forward. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Kesha Parker from Baltimore County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorarity Incorporated. Good evening. Good evening. Greetings, Chair Licter and Vice Chair Harvey and board members and superintendent Dr. Rogers. My name is Kesha Parker and I'm the third vice president of Baltimore County Alumni Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Savoy Incorporated. Our chapter president is Lisa Dana. Our chapter service area is Baltimore County. We have served families and students of Baltimore County area for the past 41 years. We want families and students to know that we provide uh scholarships to students. In just the last five years,
037we have awarded over uh $222,000 to SC in scholarships and support to our students. Our scholarship awards may range from 500 to two $2,500 per academic year. We have three premier scholarships. Lead scholarship was established to renewable monetary award to assist students with their educational expenses while attending accredited historically black colleges or universities for up to five consecutive academic years. The memorial scholarship was established to commemorate the memory of BCAC members who have made significant contributions to the community. This scholarship is intended to help supplement one year of expenses incurred while a registered student attends a college or university. The Quest scholarship is intended to assist adult community college or Baltimore County students who are seeking an associate degree or certification that will enhance their career and educational goals. The deadline to apply for the
038first two of these scholarships is April 15, 2025. Students and families may access our scholarships on our website at ww.bcaceltas.org. And our scholarship is in the BCPS Zello. We thank Dr. Rogers for her leadership and for ensuring students have access to scholarships. We are here as a partner to BCPS and look forward to our continued service to families and students of Baltimore County. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Lynn Lawings from the Continental Societies of Baltimore County. Good evening. Good evening. Since I only have three minutes, I I I wish we have 50 more minutes. So, take that to the board and y'all think about that, too. Okay. So, good evening, Dr. Rogers. Good evening, Vice Chair Harvey. I'm sorry, Chair Lecher and esteemed board members. I really have so
039many directions I want to say, but first I say, what about the children? Because at the end of the day, that's what's most important here. You know, we as adults, we have our education, we have our lives, but we have children who are trying to be in the comforts of the same thing that we're doing. So, we got to take and come together. I don't know how we're going to do it, but the continental society is going to keep on supporting you in every way we can because it takes a village. Remember back in the day when different people would raise you outside of your home and they would look after you. So what I'm saying to we have to stop and think because our children are hurting. And I like to say that I
040know being on the board is not easy. You got decisions. Everybody has their own ideas, but at the end of the day, we got to stop and think about the children. I want to thank Dr. Rogers for giving us the opportunity to partner with um Baltimore County Schools because it is an honor and we have 50 48 members and we pour our monies together to support the schools, the teachers, their closets because they are in their pockets spending their monies and it's just uh a great opportunity for us to give back and all of us some of us are teachers some of us are principles but I want to say Dr. Rogers, your job is not easy. I understand. And I'm looking at my minutes and I have this this poem I want to say.
041It's called The Weight of the Crown. In silent rooms where choices sleep, a leader walks the climb is steep. No crowd to cheer, no slighted stage. Just quiet storms and inner rage. The path is forked, both sides unclear. Each step is less with doubt and fear. But still they stand through knees may shake. For every soul a stand they take. The easy road it tempts it calls. But honor doesn't live in halls. Where comfort wins and truth is bent. It lives where sleepless nights are spent. A heavy yes, a painful no. They carry what the rest won't know. To lead is not to please or boast, but bear the weight that matters most. So when the fire test the clay and all the light seems swept away, the strongest lead not just with might but
042with the heart that dares what's right. So Dr. Rogers, continue to do what's right. Continue to think about the children and boy, continue to support her so that we can see the smiling faces of the children and so all of the other the community organizations out here can support. So thank you. Thank you. Next are our individual citizens and student groups. And our first speaker is foray on. Good evening. Good morning, Madam Chair. Miss Lter, Vice Chair, Miss Harvey, Dr. Rogers, student member, Miss Chik Kalu, members of the board, and BCPS students. My name is Foresight Agumbbe, a junior from Eastern Tech, and I'm incredibly honored to speak with you today and formally introduce myself as a finalist for the position of the student member of the board of education for the 2025 to 2026
043school year. Today, I do not come before you as the vice president of the Baltimore County student councils. I come before you simply as a student who has seen the impact of advocacy, felt the urgency of student voices, and who believes without a doubt that students deserve to be a part of every conversation that shapes their education. My passion for advocacy began not in a meeting room, but in everyday moments, watching friends struggle silently, seeing peers feel overlooked, and realizing that too often decisions are made about students, but not with them. I realized that silence allows systems to stay the same, and I didn't want to stay silent. What drives me is the belief that advocacy is not about being the loudest person in the room. It's about being the most committed to listening, learning,
044and lifting others up. It's showing up consistently, even when it's hard. It's having uncomfortable conversations and pushing for accountability, not just for the sake of it, but because students deserve more than the bare minimum. I advocate because I believe students deserve more than representation. We deserve action. We deserve safe, inclusive, and equitable learning environments. We deserve policies that reflect our lived experiences and leadership that don't that doesn't speak for us but with us. I know that the role of SMAB is not just to sit at the table but to serve as a bridge connecting student perspectives with decisions made. And I'm ready to do that with honesty, with empathy, and with the unwavering belief that students are not just stakeholders in our system. We are at the heartbeat of it. I I am grateful for
045the opportunity to be considered for this role and I thank you for your commitment to the student voice. I look forward to the possibility of working with you to continue building a stronger, more student centered Baltimore County. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Mr. Clifford Collins and I believe is virtual. Mr. Collins, good evening. Good evening. Um, chairman, we can hear you. Harvey. Yes. Um, I'll talk again. Chairman Ler, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Ro, members of the board. I am a longtime president of Rand community and an employee of Baltimore County Public Schools. I come to you this evening to publicly recognize Miss Kana Hinton, a mathematic educator and faculty advisor along with 15, excuse me, he led the first 11 student members of the Woodlorn school, Woodlon High School chapter of the
046National Society for Black Engineers. Student members included are Quinton Brooks the chapter president Jenno Herodia April Jazz Samuel and AA which was March 14th the student went activity cent's after school program. The purpose of this annual event is to introduce and an and engage first and eighth grade student first through eighth grade students a variety of hands-on math comp computation and problem solving activities such as pi jigsaw puzzles fraction domino stumble and relay. These activities were designed to generate positive interactions between student teachers and student learners. Expose exposes students to the role of mathematics in daily life experiences and most importantly motivate and encourage students to excel in mathematics. I abbreviated my report in the interest of time. So, I'll just say thank you for the opportunity to speak to you this evening. Thank you.
047Our next speaker is is Santina Janati. Good evening. Uh thank you, Chair Licer, uh Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, members of the board. Uh my name is Santina Janati and I'm speaking as a BCPS parent and library media specialist. Uh April is school library month. Um and this evening I want to emphasize the critical role that library media specialists play in student achievement. Uh here in BCPS we are fortunate to have a nationally recognized and award-winning department of library media specialists. Research is clear. When students have access to a strong school library program led by a licensed media specialist, they perform better academically. Uh research has consistently shown that schools with strong library programs and full-time licensed librarians teaching within their standards see higher test scores, better reading comprehension, and improved overall academic performance. Uh
048in 2022, the Every Li Library Institute cited 60 studies connecting the work of school librarians to student gains in standardized test scores across subjects. Uh in 2023, a Missouri study found that schools with at least one full-time library media specialist had significantly higher state assessment proficiency rates across English, math, science, and social studies than schools with part-time or no school librarians. a correlation that was statistically significant over nine years. Um, a Pennsylvania study with similar findings ties testing gains specifically to media specialists teaching information literacy skills more than 20 hours a week. And even more compelling are the number of studies that correlate the work of school librarians to higher test scores across subjects. Findings that persist even when controlling for socioeconomic status. And according to data compiled by MSDE in 2023, BCPS library media
049specialists alongside school librarians statewide spend 45% of our time teaching information literacy skills. Uh on the secondary level that instruction is in collaboration with content area teachers in accordance with board policy 6200 supporting student achievement by collaborating co-eing with classroom teachers in integrating information and technology literacy skills into the content curriculum. School libraries and media specialists are necessities that are statistically interwoven with student successes. For school library month, let's celebrate BCPS's commitment to our school libraries and our students access to a full-time library media specialists. Uh, school libraries and librarians are not just an investment in books or technology, but an investment in the type of academic gains our students deserve. Um, and I also want to say my own daughter's library media specialist is absolutely wonderful and her perception of herself as a reader
050is because of the relationship she has with her media specialist. Um, and her teachers have done a wonderful job, but it's that relationship and that perception that has changed the way that she interacts. Thank you. Our next speaker is my red navin. If I messed up the name, I apologize. Okay, thank you. Thanks for your grace. Okay, good evening. Good evening. Thank you, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, and members of the board. My name is Marie Naven and I am speaking as a BCPS library media specialist and a BCPS parent. In celebration of April being school library month, I would like to highlight tangible evidence that has been compiled to showcase the positive impact that licensed full-time library media specialists have on student achievement. The connection between highquality school library programs and reading
051and writing scores is no secret. A Pennsylvania study found that schools with a full-time licensed media specialist saw more advanced scores on their state reading assessment. Furthermore, they found that reading scores were consistently better for all grade levels of students and the number of advanced scores increased not only from elementary to middle school, but from middle to high school as well. The same study also noted that schools with full-time media specialists had fewer below basic scores on those assessments than those without librarians. A South Carolina study found that schools where the media specialist spent at least 20 hours per week explicitly teaching information literacy saw higher ELA test scores and more advanced scores than schools with part-time or no media specialists. A Colorado study also linked the work of media specialists with increases in reading
052scores on state assessments. What is more profound is the negative academic student impact that occurs when school systems eliminate or reassign school librarians. These impacts disproportionately affect English language learners, students of color, and students living in poverty. Here in BCPS, over the past few years, countywide school library circulation numbers have been on the rise, on target to circulate over two million books, or 20 books per student this school year. This data correlates with increases in our MCAP literacy scores. Study after study shows that when students have regular access to a strong school library program led by a full-time licensed media specialist, they read more, they read better, and they perform better across all subjects. According to a Scholastic study, the greatest predictor of reading enjoyment by third grade is the support of a school librarian.
053Media specialists are not just keepers of books. They are teachers who collaborate with classroom educators to integrate reading and research skills into daily instruction. We are fortunate in BCPS to have a nationally recognized library program with full-time licensed media specialists engaging in a practice of highquality instruction and cultivating a culture of reading to support our students in making these types of gains. Strong library programs led by full-time licensed media specialists are an investment in reading equity and student success. Thank you for supporting our district's library program. Thank you. Our next speaker is Megan Schillington. Miss Schillington. Okay. Um which means that we have um one opening. So, I'm going to the waiting list and the first person is Miss Sharon SH. Good evening. Good evening, Chair Licter, Dr. Rogers, Vice Chair Harvey. Um, for those
054people who are in the audience who don't know me, I am Sharon Sof. I am a special education advocate and I've been coming to this board meeting for many years. April is autism acceptance month. I have a child of 25 who is on the spectrum. I want to tell you a little bit about the importance of school psychologists whose jobs we find on the line right now. School psychologists are responsible for making sure that students not only with autism, but students with all kinds of disabilities get qualified for special education services and help teachers and other team members find out what services these kids need. School psychologists also provide services to specific students who may have problems processing, understanding, being around children. Anybody who knows my son thinks he's an angelic little kid. He's not.
055He never he wasn't when he was in school. He used to hang out underneath tables. He used to throw desks across the room because he couldn't communicate. A school psychologist helped him to process better his environment and now he is attending a college and he already has his associates degree. What? Right now, I have students whose IEPs are going to be out of compliance because their school psychologist isn't going to be available over the summer to give them the services they require as an essential life skill. What's wrong with that picture? We're talking about code of conduct tonight. Part of knowing and understanding code of conduct is being able to be in a comfortable environment and that school psychologist has a part in making sure that happens. Thank you. Next is public comment on board
056policies. As a reminder to speakers, comments should be related and limited to the policy. Our first speaker for board policy 5550, Student Behavior Code is Ramona Basillo. Promise I didn't plan this. Um I rise Oh, good evening again everyone. I rise in support of um policy 550. There are changes that are forthcoming. Um, but before I get to that in the brief time that's mine, I want to comment on a couple things related to policy 55. It's related to policy 55 and it has to do with the piece of policy 55 related to cell phones and technology. Um, our district has led on this since 2019 2020. We put together a policy 550 and in 5552 that addresses um electronic devices, smartphones, etc. Um what's happening now are changes in 550 which we support and
057it it expands it. It gives it more teeth. It gives it more opportunities for implementation particularly as it relates to electronic devices. There are two pieces that I noticed in the draft suggested changes. One, I didn't see wearable technology. Um, that would be an area that would be important to discuss. I I'm imagining the lawyers and the attorneys will get into this conversation about what's wearable technology, but basically we're talking about virtual reality headsets. We're talking about other headsets. So, that's one thing. The next thing is with 550 and 552 there seems to be a slight discrepancy between the rules and the policies of each. 5552 says that electronic devices are prohibited. 5550 um also speaks to that. But then when we get to the rule it's at the discretion of the administrators. So, if
058we could have some clear language on that so that when people are looking at 550, they know that we're talking about um electronic devices. And then when we're looking at 552, we're also talking about electronic devices. That discre that discretion piece is what I believe causing people to be a little confused. And I also want to say one thing. When we talk about Dr. Rogers being everywhere. She is everywhere on the cell phone policy as well. We did some research and discovered that she's also a part of the Maryland task force that will be issuing a report on cell phones um probably in April soon. So, we want to commend her for that. And I also promised one of my students that I would thank her, Dr. Rogers, for greeting her. We had an opportunity
059to meet with our students. The one thing she remembered when she was typing up her cell phone policy report was Dr. Rogers and Mr. Dingle came over to meet me at a town hall and they wanted to know if I felt safe. Thank you. Our next speaker on policy 5550 is Marriott English. Hello evening again. It wasn't my intention to speak on this policy, but I just wanted you to know that I couldn't sign up without trying to speak on a policy to speak at the board meeting. So, okay, that's why my name is here. So, okay. Well, thank you. Um, our next speaker, and again, if I call your name and it was not what you intended to speak about, just say pass. The next one is Lynn Lawings. Okay. The next one is
060Mr. Ralph Jaffy. Good evening. I'm not ready yet. Just give me a second, please. Okay. Thank you. Uh, ladies and gentlemen, I want to talk about the problems of discipline and the Bor County School system. But to be fair about this, I think this could could apply to any public school system in the country. Violence has increased, disrespect for teachers has increased. There's some serious problems with students today, especially troubled students. And I'm reminded when I first started teaching back in 1964 at Richie Junior High School in Lutherville, Baltimore County, my first PTA meeting, a parent comes to me, my first year in teaching, says, "Mr. Jaffy, I don't understand. I have two sons. One is doing very well in your class, but another one is totally lost. What am I doing wrong?" So I'm
061here's my I'm in my first year teaching and I get this kind of questions. So all I could think was like this. I said uh madam so and so it is very easy to be a producer but it is very difficult to be a parent. And when we talk about the causes of discipline in schools today, lack of respect for teachers and the violence and the shootings and so forth, I think the first cause is because we have parents who have not done a good job in supervising their children. That's a major major problem. They're so busy making money and and socializing and living up in the social scale of life, they neglect their children. The second problem is that there's only one way you're going to be able to get this problem solved. We
062have to do a better job of motivating students to want to come to school. That's a problem for troubled students. They don't see any relevance to what's going on in the classroom. They're not motivated. They don't want to be hear all this stuff. And so what I'm saying to you is I've been talking about a program that is designed to give these students something they haven't had before who are troubled and that is love and a care and attention. And so that's all the more reason why the two mentor team program which has been before you since November of 2023 is so vitally important to be implemented in this in this county and the way it works is we have Mr. Jaffy this is about the policy. Do you have suggestions about the I'm talking
063about excuse me the the problem is that the students are not getting motivated. How can they be decimated properly if they're not being motivated to come to school in the first place? That's the whole problem here. You're spending too much time on on on policy, but not not enough time on motivating students to want to come to school. And that's what this program is. Thank you. Our next speaker on policy 5550 is Sharon Sarahhoff. Mic. Yes, Mr. McMillian. I had a motion. Can I make a motion during comments on the board for M related to Mr. Jeffrey. Um, oh, you have a question. Is that Is this the right time? I'm looking for councel. I would love to have a question by the board. What? Not during this part. But you can first opportunity we
064get. You give me a thumbs up. Um, yes. Thank you. Thank you. He wasn't asking a question. He wanted to make a motion, Mr. Joffy. He was not asking a question of you. Oh, he wanted to make a motion. Yes. So, I can't make a motion now, but I'll make it later when they're going to give me the opportunity. Okay. The next speaker on policy 5550 is Sharon Sarahhoff. I understand and appreciate how distracting cell phones can be in the classroom, but cell phones also do play a very important role for students with special needs. And I think that that needs to be considered when we're changing a policy and putting in information about the cell phones. At the beginning of the school year, I had an IEP meeting and one of the things I
065found out was that the student in question was using her cell phone to take pictures of her notes. We need to be aware that that is one of things that students do use their cell phones for. So, they don't have to write the notes down. They take a picture of them and they can come back to them later and highlight them and then they don't lose those notes. I have a student whose parent had a very bad experience the beginning of the school year and I did note it to this board. And there's been several occasions with this student concerning security where the school did not know where she was. And the only way the parent knows where she is, and this is a high schooler, is that she has her cell phone available to
066her so that she can message her child and make sure the child's in class because the child does have an attendance problem. Yes, they are distractions. They are also tools to help our children be engaged, get them into the classroom, and keep them from being absent. So, I just want the board to take that in consideration when they're making a policy that it's not just a distraction, it's a tool. And for some people it's a necessity. That's what I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker on policy 5550 is Rebecca Frager. Our next speaker on the policy is Dr. Bos Fon. Good evening. Good evening to all. Kudos to the law office and PRC for making a 14page policy. However, I have a little bit of concerns. Uh page one line nine
067page one line 9 to 11 the policy says providing a safe and secure learning environment etc. I agree with that. But I think it would be better for you to consider saying the board is focused on effective and efficient education in a safe and secure environment. I think linking them together would be smarter. Page number two, line 2830 talks about positive behavior and talks in line 29 about changing the inappropriate behavior. So here is the thing positive behavior and inappropriate behavior are both are elastic words. They can easily be abused or misabused and I think you may need to elaborate on that. Page number three, line number six and seven talks about disciplinary action up and including expulsion. Now I read the 14 pages and in multiple places honestly I feel this policy is not
068really for school. It is for a prison or maybe United States army training camp or something like that. It has so much power in it as far as punishment and I think um that power is mostly in the principle and I did not really see any safeguards against abuse or misuse of that. Then page number four talks about culturally responsive something talks about culture so culture is elastic word how do we define it the policy 14 pages doesn't really have definition on it and I think it would be worthwhile to define what do we mean by culture and that we as a school system we protect all cultures because when I read it I kind of think that one culture is better than the other even though the words doesn't say it as clear as
069that in page number compliance the superintendent thank you Dr. And our last speaker on policy 5550 is Felicia Loren. Okay. Thank you. Um thank you to all our speakers tonight. Um the ones that are still here. Thank you very much for being here and again for your patience um for the delay. The next item on the agenda is the chair's report. Um, and that is me. The board met in close session this evening to discuss the findings in the April 1st report we received from the Office of the Inspector General as well as to address allegations and misinformation that have circulated in the media since the report's release. As this is a personnel matter, it was appropriately addressed in close session in accordance with the Open Meetings Act. During the session, Dr. Rogers responded to
070all questions from board of ed members and provided factual clarifications to counter inaccurate narratives that have emerged. The board also received advice from our attorney regarding contract and other legal issues, which is likewise an appropriate topic for close session discussion. Dr. Rogers contract, which began in July 2023, required her to establish residency in Baltimore County by June 30th, 2024. In advance of this deadline, and because of logistical issues related to her move, she verbally requested an extension from then board leadership. Board leadership approved the request, and the board chair signed the necessary expense documentation associated with her relocation. Dr. Rogers completed her move into Baltimore County on September 14th, 2024, and has maintained her residency since then. The contract does not require her to live alone, to have her name on a lease, or to
071reside at the location every single day. It simply requires that she maintains residency in Baltimore County, which she has done. The OIG's report concluded without making any findings of a con contract violation, let alone any wrongdoing on the part of Dr. Rogers, and it has been formally closed. The report indicated that this is a contractual matter falling within the purview of the board and the superintendent. The report also offered three recommendations for internal consideration which we will take under advisement. The residency clause and Dr. Rogers contract is intended to reflect the importance of community engagement. Since assuming her role, Dr. Rogers has made community involvement a priority. She has hosted numerous town halls, including 32 opportunities for meet and greets, providing the community a chance to share their thoughts and ideas directly with her. Community
072conversations occurred 11 times. This was community feedback sessions with the superintendent regarding BCPS progress and areas for improvement focused on safety, climate, and school operations. She led four curriculum nights. These were informational sessions on the instructional programs at all grade levels. She held three special education evenings which is dedicated to engage families of students who receive special education services. She's held nine budget input sessions and this provided the public with opportunities on the development of the annual operating budget and she's met 10 times with the council of PTA leadership roundt. These monthly meetings were to engage directly with the BCPS PTA board and school PTA presidents. All 69 of these events have been personally led by Dr. Rogers, allowing her to listen, engage with, and better understand the community she serves. In addition to these
073efforts, Dr. Rogers regularly visits schools, interacts with students, stakeholders, and staff. Dr. Rogers has gone to Annapolis and Washington 19 times on behalf of team BCPS during the last year and a half. During the legislative session that just ended, Dr. Rogers went to Annapolis nine times for a total of 12 meetings and testified twice in front of the legislature. She has emerged as a statewide leader and advocate for BCPS. She not only attends monthly principal leadership meetings, but she also facilitates her own tailored session with school administration, a first for BCPS superintendent. We have no doubt that Dr. Rogers is invested in Baltimore County. Our shared goal must remain centered on student achievement. Dr. Rogers leadership has already begun to shift the academic trajectory of our school system. After years of decline, multiple data points
074presented in board meetings suggest the downward trend has halted. Early signs of improvement are evident, including BCPS having the highest percentage of improvement in reducing chronic absenteeism in the state of Maryland. And this improvement is across all levels, zones, and student groups. The graduation rate for the class of 2024 increased by nearly one percentage point to 85.4%, 4%. Nearly double the amount of improvement from the previous year's rate and our dropout rate decreased for BCPS students. 38 of our schools received an increase in their overall star rating in the MSDE report card. Our system has the greatest number of five-star schools, the highest rated high school, and two of the highest rated elementary schools in Maryland. While we acknowledge there is still a long journey ahead, we are moving in the right direction. We must
075continue to focus our collective efforts on supporting students and ensuring that every child in Baltimore County has the opportunity to thrive. Thank you. Our next report is the superintendence report and for that I call on doc. Thank you board chair licter, vice chair Harvey, members of the board. I want to begin by acknowledging last Wednesday I sent a message to team BCPS. Nothing about that message has changed. I am a Talsson resident. I'm also a mom and a professional. I will talk about professionalism first because it's easiest. First, I did my homework before I took this position by consulting with law enforcement to make sure that we had parameters around my p personal safety in this role and making sure that I would act under the direction of law enforcement. Board leadership to ensure open
076communication and that we had a shared vision for moving Baltimore County Public Schools forward. PCPS operations proactive actions to make sure that we kept a record of all events. I am truly grateful for that homework as it provides documented evidence of facts. One of the first things I said to team BCPS on day one is that I am a mom. Being a mom to four children, my four children, is the best part of me. It informs how and why I do this work in the way that I have for the last 29 years. It is for that reason that my children are off limits. I work here, not them. Providing information about my family members means that they too are sport for keyboard warriors who without fact or care make statements and cast dispersions that
077threaten safety and well-being. I want to stop and say thank you. Thank you to all the lawmakers, the staff members, mentors, trusted advisors, and countless people who have reached out in support of me. I want to thank all of the people who are here in this room late at night on a weekday. We have in here faith-based leaders, service organization leaders, and even my staff who I served as their principal who we became family after spending seven years together. I am appreciative of all of you. Together in Baltimore County, we have started to do great difficult work on behalf of 111,000 students who are counting us stu counting on us. Students who need us to focus on them. All external data points point to us moving in the right direction. In less than two years,
078we haven't even yet set the strong foundation that is necessary to help our students to accelerate and achieve the potential that we know all of them have across all levels, across all zones. We believe in the boundless potential of our students and the 20,000 staff members who show up every single day advocating on their behalf. With that, I want to assure you my commitment remains focused to Baltimore County Public Schools and all of the students that need us. And we should move now to my formal report which is on the budget because we have tough work to continue [Applause] doing. Thank you. So this evening I do want to provide a brief update on the FY26 budget and disc discuss next steps. This slide has been shared before with our community members. We started sharing
079it last year when we were anticipating the ESSER funding cliff and we've also shared it this year with central office staff uh school leaders as well as families and stakeholders. This slide is from Georgetown University and it identifies the specific steps that school systems in particular take when addressing significant budget needs. Everything that has been highlighted in green are those steps that we have taken as a school district. We have frozen hiring for two years in a row. We have permitted contracts to expire so we can renegotiate better terms. We have with the permission of the board of education and county government uh funders uh used our fund balance, trimmed contracts, cut central office administrative positions last year and this upcoming year for the FY25 and 26 budget. We have squeezed supplies and any and
080all non- labor expenses so that we can free up much needed revenue. and last year consolidated departments. What the research tells us is after you deal with those t first categories and you're dealing with a gap that is greater than 2 to 3% you have to look at labor. We have not move forward with a significant labor reduction. But as we have heard from our partners today, it is likely that we will come back to the table to engage in a collaborative discussion. As the next few days provide us with clarity on budgets, budget from the state as well as budget from our county executive. It's important that we surface and remind people of some facts of our current budget proposed. There are new no new programs in our current budgets. We don't have any
081new supervisory central office positions. Our budget has been adjusted for enrollment. It is based on the actual expenditures. So when you see additional funding for special education, plant maintenance, and transportation, those items are based on the actual amount that it costs us. Our budget is blueprint compliant and it maximizes grant funding to free up additional funds. It includes any increased costs that we have received from vendors and the anticipated increased costs for utilities, namely gas and electric. Lastly, our budget includes reduced conference travel, phone stipens, and contractual services. We have heard and have received questions from our stakeholder about the 2021 efficiency study that was uh major investment from the county government four years ago. It's important to remind everyone we do have a public-f facing dashboard where everyone can go and refamiliarize yourself with
082the meeting notes, the agendas as well as our final report. There were 197 recommendations in that report. 193 of them had a final outcome. For the purposes of our time together, I will focus on the 19 items that were marked no. Out of those 19 items where Baltimore County Public Schools did not accept the recommendation, seven of those items were process recommendations, meaning a change of a name of a department, moving a position to a different location. They did not carry a fiscal note. We had four items that came with increased costs. For example, add another position in a specific location. Seven of those items reflected savings and one item was outside of the purview of Baltimore County Public Schools. Specifically, it spoke to the county government requirement for a sleep study for a particular
083employees. Out of those seven items that were referring to savings, I want to provide the public with a current status. Two of those items were completed in FY25. Two of those recommendations remain a no. Specifically, 3.11 and 8.17. And the remaining three are already included in the FY26 budget. And so this information information is important for us to share with the public so that there is widespread understanding that the majority of the report was implemented in 2022 and there are not a set of savings recommendation that remain in that report for implementation in BCPS. We have also heard a lot of feedback around central office. I think it's important for us to ensure that everyone understands who central office is and what central office does. Central office employees are the backbone of team BCPS. We
084are unable to successfully facilitate school system operations without people who do the work. Payroll is central office. Managing day-to-day transportation is central office. IT is central office. Human resources is central office. Facilities is central office. The support that we provide directly to schools on a daily basis for our students comes from central office. Specifically, if you think about special education and transportation, the people that go out to buildings to consult with staff members to provide additional support, the people that go out to ensure that the millions of dollars that are invested in curriculum that we're actually teaching those curricula to our students with fidelity. That's central office. Those are curriculum and instruction staff members, people who go and model lessons with teachers, who provide feedback, people who go and check on the safety plans of
085the school, make sure that there is a school improvement plan that is specific to the needs of the building. Those are staff members in the department of schools who work in central offices. Without central offices, there is no ability for us to monitor, implement or enforce our compliancing compliance and reporting requirements. There is no funding that we receive whether it is from the local government, state government or federal government that does not require monitoring and compliance. All of those reports are completed by central office staff members. And lastly, we do not have any provisions in our negotiated master agreements and all of them are listed because we have members in central office in central offices that work in all of our unions that allow us to simply abolish all positions that exist at the central
086office. Not to mention that would be detrimental to our students and the functioning of the school system. We have heard feedback or questions about whether or not we have actually made reductions. Some of the feedback has come from an MSDE report across all 24 school systems that detail specific supervisory positions at the central office level. when we checked in with our neighboring counties to find out what positions they included in their reports compared to the positions that we included in our reports. We learned that we included positions that were not included in other uh school systems. Whether we were talking about operations positions, facilities positions, etc., those were included in our count. And so our human resources team has worked directly with neighboring counties to find out what's included to make sure that we have
087an applesto apples comparison moving forward. With that being said, we also acknowledge that Baltimore County Public Schools did have a larger central office uh team. It's important to note over the last two fiscal years, we now have the smallest cabinet among medium and largesiz school systems in Maryland. That is the executive leadership team. Over the last two fiscal years, we have been able to abolish 70 central office supervisory positions. This has not been easy. This has been difficult. and in consultation with division leads with department chairs in central offices to find out what is the work that is being done where we can reduce inefficiencies and move forward. Five of those positions were vacant in FY25 and two in FY26. This is a very difficult 24% reduction over two fiscal years that has us maintaining
088staff members that we need for optimal services and support of our students and schools. It's also important to note and put on the public record that these reductions have included positions at the chief level, executive director level, directors, coordinators, supervisors, and specialists. When we look at supplies and non- labor expense reductions over the last two fiscal years, we have reduced significantly in supplies and materials to the tune of $14 million reduction. Conference fees are reduced by 79%. Our travel is reduced for the upcoming year by 85%. The only travel remaining are travel where we have contracts that require us to participate. Cell phone siphons are reduced by 42%. Every line item of our budget has been reviewed and analyzed no fewer than five times for all possible reductions that will not harm our students. and
089the reductions that we have made to schools, the non-salary reductions of 10% informed directly by the voices of our principles at all levels and the alignment of counseling department chair and psychologist positions with student schedules and needs. ensuring that we have made provisions that allow for ongoing work in the summer to meet the needs of our students, analyzing the data and what our needs have been for the last few years. None of these decisions have been taken lightly. None of them are easy. Baltimore County Public Schools is not in a different position than any other school system across the state. We have tried to be as thoughtful and intentional as possible as we made these difficult decisions. We have been asked about information on class sizes and we have completed an impact analysis. This slide
090reminds everyone that for the FY26 budget, we allocated position based on our current allocation ratios. We all know neighbors in districts that surround us and we know that in many districts class sizes are much larger as a rule. class sizes are larger, particularly in our elementary schools, as an exception, and we would like to keep it that way. But to provide people with information about the impact of uh class sizes, we've provided the data that's on this slide. We anticipate the need to hire 600 teachers this upcoming year based on retirements, on uh relocations, on resignations, on promotions. The table that you see on the bottom identifies fewer teachers that we would hire if we would increase those class sizes by those specific numbers on this slide. Again, we are not advocating for large increases
091in our class sizes. We want to make that clear, but we wanted to provide the information that was requested to the general public. And lastly, our next steps. State budget has just shared information about the blueprint. We are assessing for local impact. We continue to receive on a regular basis federal funding updates and we will continue to assess uh any and all fiscal impact to team BCPS and share that information as it is received. The county executive, we continue to work very closely, our budget teams together, her and myself, she will deliver her budget on Friday, April 11th. And lastly, the county council will share the final decision on May 3. And so we encourage you to remain involved uh to continue to read our updates. We will continue to advocate for team BCPS as
092well as make the tough decisions that we must, keeping our students front and center of any and all decisions that we make. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Rogers. Next on the agenda is our student board member report. And for that I call Miss Chiga Kaloo. All right. Well, good evening, Chair Licther, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Rogers, board members, our dedicated staff, esteemed community members, and of course, students of Baltimore County Public Schools. As we step into April, I come before you to not just share updates, but to also ground us in purpose. Because lately, amidst the noise, the headlines, the tensions, and many distraction, one question echoes louder than others. Why are we here? Lately, it feels like the conversations happening about Baltimore County are louder than the ones happening with us. And as a
093student, I want to be honest, we always hear phrases like student centered, but we truly fail to understand what that means because from where I'm sitting, it's starting to feel like we've forgotten. So, I would like to gently remind us that students are not background noise for the school system. We are the foundation for the system. Many times students are the kids trying to focus in class while their life may be falling apart at home. There are students balancing jobs, caregiving, anxiety, grief, and they're still showing up still waiting to be seen. And when the focus shifts from classrooms to controversy and from learning outcomes to headlines and hashtags, we feel it and we feel so deeply. And so we must return to the center. We must regground ourselves in students because their education is
094not collateral damage and their futures are not footnotes for disagreements. As Maya Angelo once said, there is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you. And every student in Baltimore County deserves to have their story told and their potential recognized and their well-being prioritized. So, let us not forget that we do not sit in these seats for ourselves, but we sit in them because students do not have a seat of their own. And when we lose sight of that truth, we lose sight of our mission. So I am not speaking just as a student member but as a student myself and I'm asking not for sympathy but for alignment with us because when students are truly centered not just in speeches but in our action incredible things truly happen. And that brings
095me to one of my greatest honors in this report highlighting the leading lights of Baltimore County public schools. These are just incredible students reminding us why we're here and they are leaders who are lifting as they climb. And so firstly, I would like to recognize Emily Nunan, a senior at Delaney High School who has truly been a guiding force of student advocacy. She is the founder of Not On our Watch, a student-ledd mental health initiative born by born from heartbreak, but feuded from hope. Emily has worked to create a safe space for peer support, mental wellness, and prevention in her school. But her leadership does extend beyond those walls. She also co-chared the outstanding women leaderships program annual symposium that was held on March 1st in honor of women's history month and she currently serves
096as the chief of staff for Baltimore County student councils where she has been instrumental in planning and communicating across the county and as an intern with delegate Michelle Gyen she continues to build bridges between student perspectives and policy Emily's leadership truly minders that reminds us that in grief there's power and in silence there is action. action. And for our second student, Jay Kent, a sophomore at Kenwood High School, he truly exemplifies strength and leadership. He is a threeseason student athlete and a dedicated member of the AVID program. JR is known for his consistency, kindness, and commitment to equity. And beyond his school, he volunteers through Our Lady of Mount Car Lady of Mount Caramel Church, supporting food drives and community outreach events. And while he may not hold formal titles, JR's character shines through his
097action. Whether that's through sports, balancing a part-time job, or making handcrafted chocolates to bring joy to his community. And I did not say that. His principal did. So, it's a great student. And Jess, I would like to also shout out just in recognizing student achievement and in celebrating the work students have been doing in Westchester Elementary School. I was very happy to see something called brag tags, which is kind of a vibrant and heartfelt way way to consistently spotlight students and their growth weekly and daily. And also Randle Sound High School for their students of the week initiative, which is centering student achievement and excellence. And I would also like to give a hats off to Milford Academy for their staff shoutout station where students can publicly thank faculty members and write personalized notes of
098appreciation. These programs truly are building the culture we strive for in Baltimore County, one rooted in visibility and connection. And I would just like to give a quick SMOB update since I've spent much of my time in Annapolis these last few weeks for legislative session. Again, our 25 to 26 student member of the board selection is underway. So, please check out the small finalist Q&A videos as they are posted. and beyond Baltimore County. I am proud to share that in my role as the National Policy Director for the National Student Board Member Association, our efforts to establish and strengthen student board member positions continue across five states. And following our presentation at the Advocacy and Equity Institute, I am now representing N the National Student Board Member Association with the National School Boards Association to
099expand student leadership across the country. And so though I may have just a little over two months in my term, the work does not cease. Every single day counts and I intend to make the most of the time I have left with the students who have given me the privilege of serving in this position. To all the students of Baltimore County Public Schools, keep pushing forward. There is still much work to be done. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Chica Kaloo, and thank you for highlighting other students within our county. The next item on the agenda is unfinished business puzzle pieces charter academy application and that I'm laughing some Dr. Doug and that and for that I call on Dr. Elmenorf. Thank you. Good evening board chair Licar, Vice Chair Harvey and Superintendent Dr. Rogers. Um,
100at the March 25th board meeting, I presented the BCPS charter application review team's evaluation and recommendation of the charter application from Puzzle Pieces Learning Academy. According to BCPS policy and rule 1600, the board's decision to approve or deny an application will occur within 120 calendar days of their receipt of the complete application and evaluation results. At this time, it is recommended that the board of education vote on this decision in order to align with policy in rule 1600. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the Puzzle Pieces Charter Academy application? So move, Dominowski. Thank you. May I have a second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? Okay. May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumprey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss
101Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss FMP, yes. Miss Booker Dwire, yes. Miss Lter, yes. Thank you. Motion passes. Mr. Dr. Elundorf. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is action taken in close session. And for that, I call Mr. Burns. Good evening, Chair Licter, uh, Vice Chair Harvey, Dr. Rogers, members of the board. Uh, in close session this evening, one of the items you looked at was an appeal titled SDA2-003. And now would be an appropriate time for the board to approve the action it took in close session. Thank you, Mr. Burns. May I have a motion to approve the action taken in close session on hearing examiner case SDA25-3 and authorize Miss Gover to sign for those board members not physically present. So moves. Thank you. Mayo. Thank you. Any discussion?
102I have a roll call vote. Roll call vote please. Miss Harvey. Yes. Miss Chica Ku. Yes. Miss Dleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumprey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes, Miss Dominowski. Yes, Miss Hen. Yes, Miss Fo. Yes, Miss Booker Dwire. Yes, Miss Lter. Yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is new business report on board policies. This is the first reader for this policy. And for that, I call Miss Christina Pumprey, chair of the policy review committee. Thank you. Members of the board, the policy review committee asks that the board accept this report of the committee's recommendation of proposed changes to board policy 5550, student behavior code. This policy is presented to you on tonight's agenda as exhibits L1. Thank you, Miss Pumprey. May I have a motion to accept the
103recommendation of the board's policy review committee for board policy 5550? So moved. Thank you. No second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee. Is there any discussion? Miss Pumprey, I have a motion to amend. I move to amend policy 5550 to insert the words wearable technology after the word tablets in section 2D. Second. Thank you. Any discussion or do you want to address it, Miss Pumprey, or it's based on I will just mention that um based on public discussion and comment this evening, I've realized that that was something that we probably should place in this policy. I also made I checked the definition of wearable technology to see if it covered an extensive amount of items such as headphones, airpods, those types of things. And it does include all of those things based
104on my quick research of the definition. Thank you for that followup, Miss Sleski. And then I have something to add. So I don't know. Do you want to amend the amendment? Yes. Um, but it would be to keep Miss Pumprey's suggestion, but then I had another um something else to Oh, one of these. Okay. So, do I need to go back and vote on Miss Pumphrey's first amendment first? Nope. Okay, Miss Celeleski, you can So, it would just also be adding a definition for culturally responsive. That's a different They thought you meant to add on to the wearable technology. Is that correct? What you legal advice was thinking it was That should be a separate. Okay. So, we go forward on that. Is yours about wearable technology, Miss Booker Dryer? Okie dokie. Okay. So, we
105had a second for Miss Pumpre, correct? Okay. Any discussion on the Miss Mr. McMillian? A lot of people were wearing watches that they can tune into their phones. Does that include that? When I look up definition, it does include watches. So, are we saying that a kid can't wear Not regular watches, smart watches? Yeah. So, are we saying that if a kid has a smartwatch, they can't wear it to school? I'm just curious. I'm not saying right or wrong. That's a good question. I wasn't thinking about that. Um, my intention was to not to use the wearable technology during instructional time. So, let me look at the if it's on the wrist, they won't use it. question. I don't have an answer for that, but regardless, I would still move forward with my suggestion. Further
106discussion, Miss Hen. Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, I would like to withdraw my second and ask Miss Pumprey if she would considering withdrawing her motion and I would like to introduce a new motion to send this policy back to committee for further work. Um, as several board members have suggestions and it sounds like this policy could use some work and based on public comment and feedback. Is there a second for Miss Hen? Second. Oh, I believe Miss Pumprey would need to withdraw. Okay. I'm sorry. There's a motion on the floor. Miss Pumprey would need to withdraw. Usually they don't say second so fast, but now they do. Okay. I will withdraw my motion so we can move forward. Thank you, Miss Pumprey. Okay. I move to as Miss Humphrey has withdrawn her motion, I now
107move to send the um policy 5550 back to the policy committee. Okay. For further work. Is there a second to Miss Hen's second? Okay. Discussion. Do we want to bring up the other topics as part of discussion as they take it back? So, Miss Stleski, do you want to start? Thank you. So, it would just be to add in the definition section a definition for culturally responsive. Thank you. Am I making a mistake? I just want to point out to the board that you you did have a primary motion that remains pending. So even if the motion to amend was withdrawn, right, you still have a motion to I believe a motion to adopt the policy. Did Miss Pumprey withdraw the motion? She withdrew the amendment. Okay. She withdrew her amendment. Okay. Nobody withdrew the
108motion. The original motion. But you have to do things in order. So first thing that had to happen tell me what to do next. The withdrawal of the amendment. Okay, that's the motion maker. I think agreed to do that. So I need a vote on that so I could reflect that. Well, she's withdrawing her motion. Okay. But I meant then Miss Hen made a motion to send it back to committee. Right. I had a second. So I I should do a vote on that. Point of order. Go ahead. Miss Hen withdrew. I withdrew my amendment. Miss Hen was the person who invited the motion for the policy, I believe. Is that correct? I withdrew my second to the primary motion. You withdrew your original motion. Okay. So, I introduced I believe if I'm not mistaken,
109the amendment is is gone. We need to vote. We need to whoever um moved to push the policy forward at this point, it would be appropriate for them to withdraw their motion. I'm I'm not sure who did that. Whoever invited the motion, I I withdraw my motion to send it back to committee. Then I'm going to wait for legal advice. We were clarifying that because this was a committee recommended thing, there was no primary motion with a second. So when you said you withdrew, you were actually withdrawing the committee's recommendation to adopt. So we got we got through the amendment that's been withdrawn. You've now made a motion that's a superior motion to send it back to committee and that's what's on the floor right now. And we do we have a second to that?
110You need the second for that. Miss Chakaloo, I think did second it. Okay. To send it back. Okay. So, may I have a roll call vote? Point of order. I don't think we finished our discussion on returning it to committee. Didn't. That's where it all went south. Okay. So, it's been seconded, so it's appropriate for discussion. Okay. Okay. I tried that before, but Okay. Any discussion? Miss Stleski, we're back to you. Okay. I'll repeat it. It was just to add, please, a definition for culturally responsive. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Miss Booker. Dwire. All right. I have a lot. So get that clock going. I'll get it all in in two minutes. So for page one, um when we talk about electronic communication, and to me this is just for the policy overall if we
111can update the technology. Um I get fax machines are still around, but perhaps it may be more relevant to include a more current form of technology and to include the um like to sharing files wirelessly and things like that. Um so I would just recommend to just do it. Let's update some of the technology. um for page two when we well no it's not on so smart devices defining what we mean by smart devices and I think that'll get at what um Miss Pumphrey said at about wearable devices because that gets in the rings that the glasses um all the things that students are um using and have access to on page on page three when we talk about what the the standards that the superintendent shall um what is the to also include something
112around a measure of effectiveness or how do we know that it's working um so just to include some way to measure what we are doing for page four um if we could add so I know for for item B um it say it lists where the student behavior code shall apply um are we also in thinking about including um like dual enrollment ment experiences if they're on a college campus um or internships or apprenticeships um to to clearly specify to clear to make that clear in here if that's um included or not in on page seven I was a bit troubled by the artificial intelligence one because it is a skill set to be able to code to get AI to do something exactly how you want it and and that's what we want our
113students to be able to do. And so by putting it in the code of conduct that they can't do that. So I'm just wondering how can we word that in such a way so that we get at the intent that we want students to have that skill set and not punish them for being able to code and produce something with AI time. Miss Booker, thank you. And I'll submit the rest in writing. Okay. Other comments? My only comment is when we take it back to the board to really besides the words that are on the policy to think through the logistics of how what the rule might say. So it's one thing when we're saying cell phones, we put those away, but now we're adding all of these other pieces to it. So just somehow
114to have that discussion about logistically how would this even though that's not part of the policy, I know it's part of the rule, but the rule would come next. Okay. Now any further discussion? Okay. Now we will vote on the take it back to the committee motion. Yes. Miss Harvey. Yes. Miss Chica Ku. Yes. Miss Dleski. Yes. Dr. Seavoy. Yes. Mr. McMillian. Yes. Miss Pumphrey. Yes. Mr. Young. Yes. Miss Dominowski. Yes. Miss Hen. Yes. Miss Framp. Yes. Miss Booker Dwire. Yes. Yes, Miss Leer. Yes. Okay. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is contract awards. And for that, I call Mr. Young, chair of the building and contracts committee. Members of the board, the board's building and contracts committee met on Monday, April 7th, 2025. Items M1 through M14 were forwarded to the full
115board for approval. Thank you, Mr. Young. In addition to separating number one, board members, are there any other separations requested? Okay. So, do I have a motion to approve item contract one CWA122-24? So, move Pumprey. Thank you. No second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee. Okay. Any discussion? Any dis is there any discussion on contract one? [Music] No, I'm just I'm going in order. Last time I tried that, it backfired. Sorry. That's okay. That's why I kept looking at you. Go ahead. Discussion. Yes. Yes, I do. Um, so if Miss Donado, will you Dr. Donado? Sorry. friends depending on what questions you ask. We all have different parts of information. So my first question is what is the expected um cost for the first year of implementation for this? Um the first
116year contract is just under $2 million with a total request of spending authority of 14 million over the course of a seven contract. So the first year would just be the 2 million. And if for some reason we're find that this is not in alignment, what will be our loss if we have to change curriculums? So no matter what, we actually have to have some type of reading curriculum to implement. So whether we were to say we're not implementing any high quality instructional material, actually specially designed curriculum, went back, tried to write our own, purchase novels, we would still have an investment of something to schools and students. um which that comes with a myriad of other things with having people write things and then it's not actually aligned with ed reports and all those
117other variables which then puts us even further out of alignment with what MSD's guidance requires. So every year there's an annual purchase the way textbooks vendors um are developing their products. They have consumable student books which are great because students actually get to write in things, annotate in the text. Um, so there's lots of positive with that. There's also digital components um and companions. We've looked at pricing out just a digital version. We've looked at pricing out eliminating a digital version and only using the student um anthologies. And there was only a $2 per student price difference between having the digital and the actual um consumable textbook versus just a digital version. um which then takes away the autonomy for students who that is their preferred learning style or those teachers who that is really
118a preferred instructional mode and how they can support their students better. Um so we really tried to explore every single option with purchasing including um having schools really look at what materials they might have had left based on enrollment of you know mobility of students, number of students who might have gone from um the you know self-contained classes and whatnot to really try to you know whittle down every single item um to really account for those students who are actually in classes and the mode of materials that they're using. So, I I appreciate all like taking all that into consideration. I think that that's great. My only go I should say my biggest concern with this particular curriculum is that there are so many options and so many resources available to the teachers that it's
119almost too much to narrow down. And if we could somehow I mean I'm sorry if it doesn't help if it doesn't please everyone but if teachers were really proficient in one area of whether it's you know the digital version or the print version or whatever version it was if we taught that well and prepared our teachers well in that one area that way it's not changing from classroom to classroom to classroom. And I that's just be my one recommendation and why I'm hesitant with this contract. Thank you. Any other questions about contract one? Miss Pumphrey, I had a question when this was I had some questions, but one that I think wasn't answered um during the curriculum presentation um which was about other eleas that may have used this and any data and evidence to
120support that it was successful. Great. Thank you. Um thank you for the question. So we did research. So in Maryland um there are seven other counties who are currently using my perspectives. Um and then we reached out to our vendors to find the data. Let me just pull up my note here. Um when we reached out to our vendors to get the in the data of um comparable districts that have used the program and what their data um growth data has shown. Um this is what he grabb. Sorry handy. Um so first he referenced us to Cincinnati school district which has a similar demographic to Baltimore County public schools. And what the growth data has shown is that over the last three years um student achievement on their state assessment, their standardized assessment increased um
121by six percentage points for students who scored in proficient, accomplished, and advanced. Um beyond that, they said it's really a challenge to identify um a lot of school districts that have that growth data because some school districts are frequently ch or have recently changed their state assessments. Um, and then really looking for schools that were also comparable in size. And so he specifically focused on the Cincinnati School District and that growth data point. Thank you. Sure. Other questions about the first contract, Miss Booker Dwire? Sorry. Oh, so uh thank you for sharing this information and I do think that it is important to provide our students and our teachers um with a breath of resources so to accommodate the neurodeiversity of our students and of our teachers. Um sometimes you may want a resource hard
122copy and sometimes you may need it electronic or read to you. And so I do think that this gets at that and um and I know that we always look to other school systems for their data and did it did it work? Did it grow? And there's nuances with that because they have different state assessments. They have it's different. Um, and so I think if we could do this well in Baltimore County, we could see some return on that investment, but it's really all about doing it well. So I'm I'm in support of this. Thank you. Any other comments? May I have a roll call vote, please, on contract one? Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss Chica Kulu? Yes. Musleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes, Miss Pumphrey. Yes, Mr. Young. Yes, Miss Dominowski. No, Miss
123Hen. No, Miss Frampaw. Yes, Miss Booker Dwire. Yes. Thank you. Favor is Tim. Miss Lter. Yes, Miss Leer. Sorry. It's okay. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve contracts 2 through 14? So move, Chica Kier. Thank you. No second is needed since it came from the committee. Are there any discussion on contracts 2 through 14? May I have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Ch Ku, yes. Miss Stleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Framp, Miss Framp, yes. Thank you, Miss Booker Dwire. Yes. Miss Licter. Yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the proposed board meeting schedule for 2025 2026. Pursuant to board policy 8311, each April, the board of education will adopt
124a schedule of its regular meetings for the succeeding school year. The attached dates and times are for board of ed meetings, work sessions, and public hearings for the 2025 2026 school year. May I have a motion to approve proposed board meeting schedule for 2025 2026? So moved. Harvey. May I have a second? Second. Ch Ku. Thank you. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Ch Ku, yes. Miss Dowleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumphrey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Yes. Miss Hen, yes. Miss Fmpong, yes. Miss Booker Dwire, yes. Miss Licter, yes. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is a special project request, and for that I call on Dr. Grim. Good evening, Chair Licter, Vice Chair Harvey, Superintendent Dr. Rogers, and members of the
125board. The Division of Operations and the Division of Schools are here this evening seeking your approval for a privately funded project to purchase and install a national blue ribbon sign at Chapel Hill Elementary School in recognition of their recent award earned by the school. Chapel Hill Elementary School's PTSA is in the process of procuring the sign and the BCPS facilities maintenance team will support the installation. First, woohoo. It's good stuff. Thank you. May I have a motion to approve the privately funded 7330 project request for Chapel Hill Elementary School's National Blue Ribbon School sign? So moved. May I have a second? Second, Pumprey. Any discussion? Roll call vote, please. Miss Harvey, yes. Miss Chica Ku, yes. Miss Dleski, yes. Dr. Seavoy, yes. Mr. McMillian, yes. Miss Pumprey, yes. Mr. Young, yes. Miss Dominowski, yes. Miss
126Hen, yes. Miss Fmpon, yes. Miss Booker Dwire, yes. Miss Lar, yes. Thank you, Dr. Grim. The next item on the agenda is the report on academic achievement, secondary literacy. And for that, I call on Dr. She's pointing them. Okay. I call on Miss Scosovich, Miss Swixs. Nope. Okay. Party of two. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Um, thank you for the opportunity to give a little more in information about the contract we just talked about and to share some of the results that we've gotten so far. There we go. There we go. Thank you. Okay. Okay. Great. Um so in line with the vision of our office, we are always focused on doing everything we can to support students in becoming globally competitive um graduates. And with that in mind, our current focus and efforts
127have really been concentrated on securing um highquality instruction and materials using the previously earmarked funds for the ELA curriculum in grades 6 through 12. In order to do that, we want to just give you a little bit of background of where we were and where we're going and the urgency around high quality instructional materials. So, when we talk about our previous what we what's listed as our current curriculum, really better known as our homegrown curriculum, that was neither evidence-based nor tested for validity or reliability. It was not built with a spiraling of standards in mind that really test the full mastery of understanding for students at various grade levels. It was not rooted in the science of reading. And what we saw over the last 10 years prior to piloting either of our curriculum programs
128is that literacy performance in Baltimore County public schools had really declined. And so that then sets us up for the urgency around where we are going with highquality instructional materials. And so when we think about um the use of HQIM um the benefit is really that they set students up for success with that spiraling of skills and standards across the year as opposed to being focused in just one quarter. Um it sets teachers up for success with the built-in professional development both that comes from the vendor and what's put into the curricular materials and resources themselves. there's a real sense of clarity around the expectations for implementation to allow students to all reach those high levels of expectations that will set them up for success on MCAP um as well as other assessments. And of
129course, we have MSDE requirements to adopt highquality instruction materials that we'll talk about in a second. And so this slide for um from MSDE really focuses on why HQIM in Maryland now. And the state department really focuses on and um an investment in and a prioritization on um implementation of highquality instructional materials to support teacher efficacy and student achievement across the state. And when we think more importantly around the sense of urgency beyond the requirement, what MSDE reiterates and what we know and what tons of research has shown is that high quality instructional materials are really that tipping point to help students achieve and to move um data across the state for all students as well as helping students to be college and career ready. The other thing we know, right, what we also know
130is it's not just enough, it's not enough to simply provide teachers with high quality instruction materials if we're not going to also provide them with the supports to implement them with effectiveness. And so what we have here and share just a piece of is the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching did a study on highquality curriculum implementation and they really focused on six key factors that you see on the screen to ensure successful implementation. And what you'll see in our subsequent slides is we've really focused our um professional learning trajectory around these key points. And so it talks about focusing on leaders first. We're going to share what we've done with building leaders to really support the implementation of highquality instructional materials as part of our pilot process. It talks about creating the time, structures,
131and roles to support that ongoing school-based collaborative learning. And we've really focused on that. It talks about the importance of adopting a researchbased instructional rubric to guide the conversations and anchoring the coaching and feedback directly in the curriculum to support teacher growth. It talks about recognizing the stages of curriculum implementation and what teachers need to progress to those higher stages. So really thinking about how are we working with our teachers to identify are they really still in those initial stages of understanding the curriculum and understanding all the resources or have they then move to that internalization of content where they're really able to implement more effectively and then really ensuring that districts central offices obviously work closely with schools to plan for that communication and implementing the school-based professional learning both around curriculum implementation and
132instructional practice. And so here you see the professional learning trajectory that we've embarked upon for the 2425 school year. Um and in line with what I was just sharing about those keys, when we think about those district level opportunities, we really focused on our principles and our assistant principles in our monthly profess um principal leadership development meetings. We focused on what is it that they should know and look for as their teachers are implementing that pilot. Um, we've leveraged our systemwide professional development days to make sure there was consistency of professional learning across the system so that all teachers and building leaders are hearing the same messages. We have our monthly department chair meetings where we focus on how instructional leaders can support their teachers in understanding and implementing the pilot and navigating the resources.
133And then really focusing on our staff development professional learning because we understand that our staff development teachers are a key part of that core leadership team in each building. And then we move to our school level opportunities. We've had multiple and continue throughout the year multiple school coaching visits to support that. One of the other items you see there that we're most excited about is um at the start of the third quarter we implemented our demonstration classrooms. And that's really where our um we have a specialist from our office pairing with a partner teacher in a school and they work together to co-plan really navigate the resources and identify what are the best instructional practices and then that class has been opened up so that other teachers around the district can come in and see
134the modeling of best practice with the pilot curriculum. And then when we think about our classroom teacher opportunities, the real hands-on opportunities. Also, our office has offered weekly dropin curriculum sessions um virtual at various times of the day. So any teachers or administrators who have questions about upcoming lessons about planning can drop in and get support from our office. We have had vendor coaching for individual teachers and for school teams. Um, we also have created sample unit plans and lesson plans and helped um, work with teachers and school teams in how to unpack those lessons to best navigate facilitation of the new curriculum. Oops, too fast. Um and then additionally um we've provided building leaders um and that's principles, department chairs, staff development teachers as well as school teams, the teachers themselves with a look
135and listen for tool that really lays out with clarity what each portion of the lesson should look like and what teachers and principles should be seeing when they go in the classroom. And some of those things are in the support of implementation regular opportun seeing students with regular opportunities to read and write ongrade level text studentled discussions right the teacher really taking a step back and allowing students to lead those discussions around text and topics that are in the unit. A balance of literary and informational text types for a variety of purposes. The blend as we talked about previously of you the use of the print and online materials to best support student um interaction. and then um really thinking about what are those routines that help to deepen comprehension and prompt the critical thinking
136that we're expecting of students. And with that, I'm excited to turn it over to Miss Goisovvich, our secondary coordinator, to share a bit of the feedback that we've gotten throughout the pilot process. Thank you. So, we have gathered feedback through a variety of methods over the course of the school year, and we've used that feedback to inform the professional learning, the support that we provide to our schools. So, we've partnered with DRAA to provide quarterly surveys and we've done that with our educators, with our students, as well as through classroom observations. We have also had the opportunity to gather feedback from our department chairs at our monthly department chair meetings. And from that feedback and from what they've shared with where their teachers need some additional support or have some questions, we've partnered with our
137school leaders in order to inform those next steps in supporting our teachers and working with students for implementation. We have also visited each of our schools. Um, at this point all of our schools have piloted the program. So, we have visited to see the pilot in action and we've used those opportunities to really think about the ways that we can partner with our vendor, partner with our schools to ensure that the resources used to ensure that the program is being implemented in a way that supports the needs of all of the learners in Baltimore County. And then we've included quarterly focus groups. So we have had focus group with with students with teachers and again for the purposes of informing those next steps and the ways that we're partnering with our schools. So we wanted
138to share some results from our feedback surveys. Um these are the topics that we included on our teacher surveys. So we focused on implementation and students interactions with the program. We focused on focused on resources and planning. So what are the resources available to support students? What is the planning process like? How is that supporting the learners? And then those curriculum elements. And then for student survey, we focused on the range of identities and the topics provided in the curriculum, the supports for learning and engagement and interest. And we asked educators and students to rank these on whether they strongly agree, they agree, they disagree or strongly disagree. And so we wanted to share some of those results with you tonight. So focusing here, you can see our three pilots um that we had for
139ELA. So in focusing on that first category of implementation and specifically with reading instruction, you can see the differences in for teachers who strongly agree and who agree that the materials provided in the program support the learners. And so for the first example, 70% of teachers agree that the reading instruction provided in my perspectives supports learners in moving forward and really thinking deeply about text um and building their background and building their vocabulary. You can see for implementation, we focused on active engagement with text and interest in learning. And here we had 61% of our educators agree that the resources and the materials provided in my perspectives help to support student understanding and build that engagement. and then curriculum elements with writing and discussion. Um 70% of educators agreed and as we know from my
140perspectives it is really grounded in the idea that students have the opportunity to discuss with one another to write about what they're reading. That is a major component and we can see that in the feedback that we receive from teachers and then in resources and planning and thinking about the different levels of students and the supports that are needed. You can see here that 58% of teachers agreed that the supports provided for multilingual learners, for students receiving special education services, and then students in need of enrichment are meeting the needs of populations. And then from these surveys each quarter as we administer them, we use the results here to really inform the professional learning um that's provided at our dropin sessions, that's provided at our full county PD days. We just had our March 31st
141PD day and that was based a lot of that was based on the feedback that we receive from our schools because we really want to make sure that we are partnering with our schools to support the implementation and then most importantly this the results from our student surveys. So here you can see for the topics presented in learning experiences 60% of students agreed um or strongly agreed that the topics and learning experiences supported their learning as students. And then we also included some quotes from our student focus groups. So we did student focus groups for HMH as well as for my perspectives. Um our HMH focus groups focused on text selections being interesting. And then for my perspectives, we heard a lot about it being challenging for students um in a good way to really
142deepen their thinking. And then I really love this last one. This is I want to read more and it's about biometrics. So really building some excitement for learning and helping students develop their understanding. And so it's through the feedback that we've received um after a thorough materials review, extensive pilot process, and in-depth feedback analysis from multiple stakeholders. It's the recommendation of the Office of English Language Arts that SAV's My Perspectives moves forward as the highquality instructional material to be purchased for use in ELA in grades 6 through 12. And thank you. Thank you for that presentation. Are there questions from the board? What? Yes, Miss Demanask. No, thank you for all that and I liked hearing the quotes about it improve my writing and it makes me want to read more. That's the kind of
143stuff I I do want to hear more of. Um, and I wanted to go back to the engagement. I I know that's important. A lot of curriculums are around that engagement. And I'm just I want to make sure we're focused on meaningful engagements and not just busy work like you know constantly entertaining them. Like they need to be able to sit down and and do the writing and do their reading without having a visual or like some gadget to make you know it's it's hard this day and age with cell phones and the computers and they're just instantly like having to be dazzled. Like we we need to go back to just teaching our kids that you don't have to be dazzled to learn. Like you can you can learn a boring way. So that's
144that's Thank you for including that in the student part. I appreciate that. Thanks. I just have a quick question on slide 11 that had the percentages for the three different um series. Yeah. Um the resources and planning while 58.8% was higher than the other two, it's certainly not it's a little more than half. Do you know when you did the survey, could you tell which if like if these were special education teachers or or ELLL teachers or were they classroom teachers that were that were kind of struggling with the resources? Yeah. So, I'm happy to start and then if you want to chime in. So, one of the things about resources and planning goes to the point I know that was made earlier about some of our teachers um because it is a pilot and
145they're not yet familiar with it, they were a little bit overwhelmed by the resources and not sure how to narrow in to find um the best resources that support each of the our student groups. Right. So, it isn't that the resources didn't exist, they just weren't sure how to navigate in terms of finding that specifically. Um and so then if there's anything you want to add about that and and that has informed especially with this particular category that has informed the professional learning that we've partnered with the vendor partnered with our schools to provide specifically around um not just being aware that the resources are there but how to really use them to meet the needs of individual and in going out for the pilot visits when we've had an opportunity to talk to our
146schools and talk to our teachers. This has been a a major point of conversation around how are we supporting individual students in classrooms and making sure that we are really moving all students forward to achieve at maximum potential. So that has informed many of those next steps for our office. I'm just asking because if it's a general education teacher that's struggling versus if it's a teacher who specializes in that population of students struggling, it's two different implications for professional development. Thank you. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Miss Booker Dwire. Do all schools have demonstration classes? No. Um I wish. Um however, we we are a small team but mighty. And so um at this um for quarter three um at the secondary level, we had two teachers who were out. We only have four
147um specialists for secondary. Um we had two teachers out in secondary and two teachers out in elementary. Um and then for the fourth quarter, we'll have the same. We're kind of alternating. So two more and two more. But um you know perhaps one day funding available we could have more um specialists and more demonstration classrooms but at this time no so I think demonstration classrooms are just a great idea and um and yes when the money comes pouring in from the exactly lot maybe we can hit a parlay we'll see um so um with the demonstration classes so does can teachers request to come and see it or like how does that okay that's yeah we It's great. We have a wonderful form that's set up where the principles or someone in the school leadership
148team will fill in the form to request to come visit. They identify what it, you know, which grade level it is they would like to see and then we arrange a date. And so we've had a great response thus far for the third quarter and we're really looking forward to um fourth quarter and it has given the opportunity even though we only have a few demonstration classrooms, we have then had the opportunity for so many different school teams to be able to come in and visit. So it's been great. Great. And then I also just have another question just a more general question because I feel like there's a lot h you know you have the high quality instructional materials you have science of reading you have principles of learning science you have all these
149terms and and things being thrown at teachers. How are you connecting it all so that it all makes sense especially to that teacher who's fresh out of college? That's a great question. Thank you. We really try to ground it in the professional learning even if they weren't here with BCPS. the professional learning that ended last year and started this year about going back to basics. And so whatever it is we're doing and uh obviously for us in secondary focusing on our curriculum pilot, our focus is really on clarity of instruction, right? How are we really focusing on do students know exactly what the important information is? Do teachers know what is the memorable piece? What do I need my kids to take away from this? And so for us, it really is about going back
150to basics. Are we clear in how to identify and frame our objectives? and are we really focusing on those high expectations and clarity of instruction? All the other stuff is extra, but are we really getting down to the heart of what students need to know? And that's our that's been our focus. Thanks. Thank you. Any other Miss Stillski? Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Um just with the with the pilot planning um your wonderful support programs in place to see how they grow as next year occurs. Do you have any information on the number of teachers that take advantage of the school coaching visits? I know the demonstration classrooms are limited in number, but the school coaching visits, the weekly curriculum dropins, and the um the opportunity to provide a sample unit or lesson
151unpacking like coaching service. Thank you so much. Absolutely. And so I'll just before um Miss shares the actual numbers that part about the um sample lessons. So the sample lessons have been provided for all teachers. That's part of what we've created with that scope and sequence so that they all have that and if they have some additional questions about how to unpack those then they would go to the the dropins but I'll share let you share um some of the detail. So we're really excited about the number of teachers overall that we've had attend our dropins since we started doing those um earlier in the year. We've had to date 338 teachers attend the dropins over the course of the year um with 184 distinct teachers meaning we've had several teachers who have come and
152come again. So we've been keeping track of attend that as well as for the types of questions that are asked um and using those as opportunities again to think about how we can support each of our schools through this process as well. So we hope that you know as we continue we want to see even more attend our dropins. Um and then we have offered through so just to build on the sample lesson piece so exciting we've also been partnering to get some feedback on our sample lessons with our department chairs at our school to ensure that they are really meeting the needs of their teachers um and using those sample lessons as an opportunity to really model those best teaching practices aligned with um research for better teaching. So focusing on how in those
153sample lessons, we're really highlighting the objectives and the clarity and the high expectations. So making that very transparent for teachers as we're building those pieces together. Thank you, Miss Chiao. Yes, thank you so much for your presentation. I just wanted to confirm with the curriculum being both digital and print materials, can students who may not have reliable internet at home or that technology, are they still able to engage fully with it? And if so, kahan of how are we still able to track that data in real time if they're still using paper materials at home but digital in school and likewise. Yes. So each student is provided with a consumable that allows them to still engage whether it's at home or in in class and they just choose not to use the digital version. Um
154still allows them to engage fully. We have not tracked the home piece of how many students have reliable internet and are accessing it that way. um in our classroom visits and our discussions with teachers and students, we've really been focusing on in that classroom um kind of what's that breakdown of how many students and how many teachers are using digital versus p digital versus um paper. Um and what we see when we walk through the classrooms is it's really a blend um you know and it changes classroom to classroom. And so for me you know that really just speaks to the importance of being able to provide both opportunities to engage either digitally or paper. But we haven't checked the home access what that um you know what that data is around but we know
155students still have the um consumable to participate. Okay. Thank you. Sure. Okay. Thank you very much for your presentation. Thank you. And we will go from secondary math to I mean secondary ELA to elementary math. So the next agenda item is report on academic achievement elementary mathematics. And let's see who's coming up. Dr. Dinado, chair, this is board member Fong. I had my hand raised. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. Um, Miss Wixs and company. We need I'm sorry, Miss Fong, what is your question? Thank you. I just wanted to ask more about the vendor coaching opportunities. So, is that at the teacher staff request or is it assigned? How is that determined? The vendor opportunities they spoke about on slide seven. So, kind of a mixture um based on when we've gone and we've done
156our pilot walkthrough visits, sometimes based on principal requests to provide some additional supports, sometimes based on department chair request um and really working, you know, our our specialists are working with schools regularly. So, some of those visits have come from um really determining schools that have a lot of questions about a specific aspect. So, partnering with them. so that we can go out and we can work very closely with them. So it's a combination of those pieces. Great. Thank you. And then so when you do the surveys that information that was shown in slides 10 and 11, do you know how many of those teachers actually had the benefit then of the coaching opportunity for the vendor coaching? information on it. Yes. So on slides 10 and 11 you spoke about the teacher feedback and
157and um and gave the percentages. So in that do you know how many of those teachers that responded actually had the benefit of also having the coaching so that they kind of knew the array of um opportunities that were available with this curriculum. So there's a couple of different opportunities for the vendor coaching. Um, and so there's been countywide vendor-led coaching that has occurred at our PD days and then all of our teachers from my perspectives have had that training. So that would be reflected in the survey. Then there's the vendor coaching that has occurred at our monthly department chair meetings um where we partnered with the vendor to provide that professional learning. And so when in looking at the survey again reflective of some of the schools that have had that and then there's
158been specific vendor coaching in the going out to specific schools and working one-on-one with teachers. So the survey is capturing a variety of school experiences for that vendor coaching piece. Um I don't know off the top of my head we the survey tells us which schools have participated in the survey but I don't know how many of those are ones that have had the inschool coaching support. But all schools have had the opportunity to have coaching support with our specialists in our office or in a different way through the vendor like coaching. That's the countywide PD. Great. Thank you. And thank you and congratulations on the success of this pilot. Thank you so much. Thank you again. All right. Let's change the team. So we have Miss Greenberg, Miss Machinda, and Dr. Donado to report
159on elementary mathematics. Good evening. Good evening. Good evening. Okay, I will go ahead and get us started and then turn it over to the team in a little bit. Um, Miss Booker Dryer, you're taking away a little bit of my thunder of some of the excitement that we're sharing in the elementary math update with regards to the demonstration classroom. So, if that was a teaser, you will get a whole lot more information about um that right now because we're very excited about um some of the growth that we've seen in our schools um with this model. All right. So, I want to start by articulating our continued alignment to the systems pathway to success. So, we are still situating all of our work in looking at the data, using that data to help teachers unpack
160the rigor of the standard while they're implementing our highquality curricular resource. Using that data to make sure that we know what we're planning for professional learning opportunities that will impact instruction and using that data to decide on end time monitoring and support um of intervention for students when and where they need it. So our work continues here is situated here and what you'll see in the slides is a reflection and result of this work. Um okay so to frame what you're looking at here on the left we have identified what would be considered domains from the Maryland college and career ready standards that lie within the major work of each grade level. So this is grade two and the focus in grade two is number and operation in base 10. The data that's presented here
161is the data that we've seen over unit over unit um within the grade on our curriculum based assessments. So it's aligned directly to the curriculum, directly to the standards within the grade level. The first three columns of data um is work led by the superintendent and focusing on making sure our students have access to participate in assessment. Without data, we can't make a data driven decision. So our goal and work and intention has been around increasing participation on these curriculum based assessments. So what you'll see in those first three columns is a change from last year to this year all in the upward tick direction of students participating in the assessment. With more participation, what we're getting is a well-rounded view of all of our students, inclusive of students who are receiving special education services,
162inclusive of multilingual learners, inclusive of students who struggle with mathematics. Um, and then when you look at the next three columns, we see the mean score on each of these assessments. So each row is indicating a unit. The highlighted unit is where the major work of that grade for grade two is in number and operations in base 10. And so what you see and I don't know why I sat this far away from the SC I see what you see is that with a 96 nearly 96% participation rate in grade two in the unit five we are looking at an average score on that assessment of 76.5%. And so with more and more participation, we can see where students are. We can attend to what they need based on the um widely applicable standard within
163the grade level. For grade three, uh the first thing you may notice is that there you don't see a change data. And this is a result of a design or redesign of how we provided opportunities for students in grade three to give more attention, intensity, and time to standards. We took grade three this year for the first time and provided on level grade students with an opportunity to spend additional time in depth in the standards based on their need and uh advanced students with an opportunity to access algebra 1 by grade 7. So by identifying students in grade two last spring, we were able to make a new sort of pathway and experience for grade three students and be really attentive to their needs. What you will notice is that both of these student both
164of these grade levels are attending to the same set of standards um operation and algebraic thinking. And in fact, these assessments are likely the same. What you'll notice is that in grade three, they take it in unit five. In in the advanced three, they took this assessment in unit four. Our grade three students with a 93% participation rate are just at almost 70 uh score of a 70% mean um across all grade three students. Our advanced students uh we gave them the opportunity to accelerate. They take all of grade three in the first half of grade four. And with a 99% participation rate among all of those advanced students who last year did not have this opportunity, we're seeing an average score on that assessment of 88%. and I'm outlining the assessment that is aligned
165with the major work of the grade that was identified by leadership in the elementary office for grades four and five. You see some similar indication. I want to highlight again that our focus has been on increasing participation. We want to see all of the data from all of our students to make uh support provide support for all the students. you see double-digit increases in the change in participation rate specifically in grade four and with double-digit in so I'm going to add some context here in grade four we increase the number of test takers by over 1,400 students from last year to this year so when you see that jump from 82% to 97% that's an increase of 1400 students data about 1,400 students that we did not know about and therefore could not treat um
166with regard to this standard So when you look over at proficiency, what we didn't do is we did not lose ground. The average score is still 65.5%. Not good enough. We're going to still work on it, but we know where to work on it, and we know more students who need this support. In grade five, you see that uh unit five was all around number and operation fraction. That is the domain of focus for grades four and five with 96% participation rate on that assessment. 71% was the mean score. And then here are the students who engaged in the advanced pathway. Again, these students were given an opportunity to accelerate. They have shown up. They have met the charge and with almost 100% participation rate, we're looking at all of these students, they are having
167a mean score on these assessments at greater than 70% for sure. Um, but on the ones that have the major work of the grade involved, we're talking about greater than 80% mean score on these assessments. So what we're able to see from this data is their ability to transfer their mathematical ideas and make connections unit over unit across the grade. So when you're introducing a standard in in elementary grades, it might pop up in units one or two and then that might be the introduction, but by units three and four, they're expected to demonstrate mastery on those same standards. So what we want to see is a maintenance of that understanding unit over unit. And this is what the U math office has done very well. And I'm going to turn this over to my
168colleague uh Cynthia Greenberg to discuss how that has led us to design and maintain our professional learning. So in response to the analysis of this data and also the new demonstration classroom initiative, which we were very excited about, we structured the team's work around two buckets of professional learning and direct school support so that our the work of our team was present and intentional and impactful within the schoolhouse. Specifically around professional development, we did create a content development series that we started creation in January. Um our data indicated that teachers are interested and desire to have additional learning opportunities around the foundation. So we have the series of learning that's um covers the early numerousy the foundations of base 10 fractions and fraction operation. And there's a fifth um one in development currently. So we're
169going to have a series of five in the end by the end of the year. So starting in January, these strands of learning were developed in with a tiered roll out that started with our math leaders in the elementary buildings who were then able to turnkey that for some of their school houses to represent but due to the desire and the amount of um teachers who wanted to participate. We have also then um added additional sections that were um sent out to various locations in the school. So we have had eight sections so far, additional sections of our early numeracy and five in base 10 and we're going to continue to build out so that every teacher will have the opportunity to have a series of five available to them. Of course we have our
170required bridges training. March 31st did um wrap up this series of learning with um additional work around mathematical reasoning in our bridges curriculum and we have been able to support teachers in their understanding of appropriate implementation to support success on the major work standards through our number corner intervention kit and of course the mathematical reasoning. Each of these learning opportunities are to ensure that they are well prepared in moving forward with the changes coming with MSD's newly adopted prek to 12 math policy. Along with that intervention is a large part of the math policy because beginning in 2627 all eleas will be responsible for implementing a multi-tered system of support for mathematics instruction. So in in anticipation we began frontloading work around intervention specifically. Our teachers received the additional learning around the intervention kit in
171November. And then starting in January, we began working with school leaders around developing school level systems that support effective intervention such as rostering our students in focus, collecting the data and performance matters and supporting teachers in their implementation of the intervention for all of our students. The most exciting part of course is the work of the team. So during marking period 3 alone, my team of five had 101 hours of direct coaching, modeling, and co-eing. They had 98 hours of collaborative planning. They had 51 hours supporting the professional learning communities, principal cohorts, and executive director initiatives, as well as over 640 hours in their demonstration schools, supporting not only their partner teachers, but their grade level teams as well. Dr. Donatada will now provide some additional information on the demonstration classroom. Okay. And we're going
172to go ahead and start with the video and then I'll talk a little bit more about all the components of the demonstration classroom. All right. So, Ace is going to explain why 4 * 5 = 10 * 3 is true or false. Ace, do you think it's true or false? Everybody knows that 4 * 5, right? We know that 10 * 3 is 30, right? How much The second question the first question. So the second question has 10 question. So it's a false because one of them is 21 30. Okay. Okay. So, one of the components of the demonstration classroom is really trying to empower the teacher that's in the classroom by working side by side with a content specialist. The reason it's called a demonstration classroom and not a model classroom or a lesson
173study structure is because this is truly a demonstration of a variety of things happening in a classroom. So depending on what the visit is that is facilitated in a way so that we are supporting the teachers who are visiting in getting the outcome of what they wanted to see. So when it this teacher was identified to partner with um one of the specialists she was really trying to work on discourse and how to make her classroom more interactive. Um and you can see uh the comment from the teacher was that this is truly um a win for her and the excitement that this teacher has about changing her instructional pedigogy which you're seeing students taking ownership for their learning um supporting each other in their learning explaining their understanding to one another um is really
174hallmark in changing and transforming instruction in our classrooms. So really working side by side for an entire marking period which when we're looking at some of the time commitment and the work that um CNI has been doing in schools in our secondary schools they're participating with their demonstration classroom every A day that that course is offered with that teacher or every B day. So they are out of the office in the schools um focused on planning with that teacher, delivering instruction with that teacher. And what that also does, it provides embedded um professional development for all those other nuances that happen with teaching like how do you give feedback to students? How do you communicate feedback to parents when a student isn't making progress? How do we group students? So all of that is happening
175live time together with someone from um the content team working side by side with the teachers. The goal was really out of an outcome of looking at some of our achievement data in places and trying to figure out we're providing professional development, we're coaching principles, what can else can we do to try to pair with teachers in a different authentic way um that is ongoing. So the plan was originally that this was going to be just for marking period three and a whole different set of schools would happen in marking period 4 because part of again the demonstration classroom is this specialist from the content office had to work on building relationships with the students. They had to build classroom structures and routines if that was an area of need still. So what we realized
176was that it took a little longer than we had planned to get some of those things in place. We also had some more requests than we anticipated for visits to schools and so trying to recreate that and start that whole pathway again. Um so we've extended in several of our schools for an additional few weeks within the fourth marking period to ensure that those visits could occur. Um and then we'll be moving to a shorter fourth period interval at some of our other schools. And it's certainly a model that we look to continue next year. But at the same time, we're also trying to build school-based leadership capacity because our staff development teachers who are instructional experts in our schools are also teaching classes. They too can be demonstration classroom teachers for their schools. So
177part of this model is not only working with that specific teacher and that grade level team, but also helping create the structures within a school where school administrators can bring other teachers from their school or visit between schools to see the different contents. um being implemented. And so we're really hoping to grow this in a variety of ways to not only build um the capacity of our teachers, but build school-based instructional capacity to help develop teachers within their schools. Um and finally, we want to provide an update on our Star and Freckle pilot. As you know, we launched that on February 4th. So far, we have had 16,130 students complete the Star Math English and 414 students took the Star Math Spanish during just that first assessment window. Um, this represents 72.9% of the potential
178rostered grade three, grade five, and algebra 1 students. So, it was a really great amount for a very quick turnaround on a pilot. Um, and actually updated since this presentation was created, we have actually had 9,396 active students in Freckle. Um the teachers are loving it and that is spreading like wildfire very quickly. That number just keeps going up. And despite this being a short pilot, teachers are using the standardbased data for responsive instruction. We have seen that active in the schoolhouse and there has been positive feedback from the teachers who have their students working with the freckle program and we of course look forward to seeing the results from the second assessment administration that's after spring break. And thank you and thank you for those that presentation. Um, questions from board members. Mr. McMillian,
179I' I'd just like to say something. I realize that more resources represent higher costs, but there's there's something about being in a classroom where the creativity of the teacher comes through uh with the resources, with it. Years ago, Verita White invited me and a couple other people into uh an elementary school. We went to four classes. They were all teaching the same concept, but they all were teaching it differently. And that was the beauty of it that those teachers were teaching how they were comfortable, you know, using those resources and teaching that topic. So I don't think a lot of people realize how much creativity there is in teaching and and that the creativity piece. You don't get that on a lot of jobs, but in that classroom and teaching the kids and understanding those
180concepts and using your resources, that gives you opportunity for you to be part of your teaching and that's really the beautiful piece of it. Thank you. Thank you. Other comments, Mr. Young, thank you for this presentation. Using um the grade four that you mentioned, particularly like saying 1,400 additional students um have taken it. The assumption is that the mean proficiency information you're providing us is of course aggregate aggregated data. Um I assume somewhere there is that same information that has been disagregated by school and by other groups where you've looked at those and evaluated um how those groups are performing and whether there needs to be you know additional supports provided. Yes. And I think sorry part of actually the demonstration classroom identification of first round schools was really looking at that kind of information.
181Do we see pockets where we see larger groups of students not achieving the same way as peers? Are we seeing breakdowns in achievement? Um, we do know that we still see our multilingual learners as well as our students receiving special education services underperforming their general education peers. That is still an area of need and that is part of why we're looking at what are the diagnostic tools and assessments that we're using to have a better understanding of exactly what standards do students need to work on. That was part of the relaunch of our bridges intervention kit and really creating a systematic structure for documenting how students are receiving intervention because we are seeing that we still have students and disparities between students um in their achievement. And so really trying to create those structures to
182help support teachers in intervening with students um around those skills. Thank you. You're welcome. Other questions? Miss Shakaloo? Yes. Thank you so much for your presentation. I just had to kind of do students have the opportunity to kind of reflect on their own learning. So setting goals, tracking their growth, and like doing it in programs like Freckle because I know for the ELA pilot, I know it's a lot much more difficult to get substantive feedback from elementary school students on the program, but is there still kind of an equivalent of focus groups or just seeking out elementary school student feedback on the program? We haven't yet, but we would be happy to pursue that. Thank you. And then for my second question, kind of do we kind of know what sex looks like from the
183students perspective? So outside of measuring correctness, kind of how are we gauging a student's confidence level with math and how they're applying it within this new pilot as well? So within the star and freckle. Yes. So the star assessment is just a progress monitoring tool. So they wouldn't have direct data from that. they take it and then their teachers use that data by standard to see where they might need potential intervention or acceleration. Within the freckle program itself, there are celebrations when they um master a new skill. And you know, of course, it's we have grade three, grade five, and algebra one. So the platforms look different based on kind of what grade level, but there is again constant feedback for the student as far as if they need to try again or they've mastered
184the skill, they get a celebration and all the cute, you know, digital tools. Yes, thank you so much. And then I think just for the last bit, I guess I love the video you had from the students kind of doing their own type of teaching. And so since engagement wasn't directly in this slide kind of could you kind of speak to more just how students have also been able to engage more meaningfully with freckle in itself as a program and just with improving their math proficiency rates. I'm not sure we could yet measure that because it has been just a few weeks that we've been working with the tool. But I do know that a constant area of work is just the discourse and the student ownership over their learning. So that is a constant
185area that we are continuing to build as we go. Okay. Thank you so much Miss Framp. Good evening. Thank you. Um so slide six is where my question is and um it was great to see that even with such a large influx of 1400 students um that you could see the steadiness in the participation rates and the proficiency um and it looks like they were mainly in the 90 plus uh percent. But um at like a second from the bottom um there's a number that goes from about 98.5 to 75.3 and then it goes back up again to 89.2. So what is it or what are the factors that would cause such a change like that in the participation rate? Can you clarify what grade level we're looking at? Are we looking at the purple
186bar? I'm trying to find and follow advanced math grade 4B slide six. Sure. So slide six and then this is for the advanced math the participation rate school year 2425 and in particular I guess it's the unit 7 um you have great like above 98.5 for unit 6 and then it drops down there and then it goes back up to for unit 8. So I was just asking about what would cause such a change in participation rate. Yes. So that's a great question. Um each unit is over a different set of standards. So when I highlighted a unit, I was highlighting a unit that had the standards um we had identified, but um each unit is a different set of standards. So this could be a unit and I I don't know without looking into
187my um computer at the unit assessment. That could be a geometry focused unit. Um it could be a unit that has some measurement data standards, some um operations and algebraic thinking. So the first thing is that the standards in the units are different as students engage in them. The other piece specifically for this is that it could be a not could be it would be a grade five set of standards. So what we know about the students in the advanced classes that they are moving at an accelerated pace. They're consuming and engaging with standards from grade four and grade five while in grade four which is wonderful that they're able to engage in this way. But as they engage in the grade five standards, they are engaging in in standards beyond their grade level. And
188um that could also be something. What is also really beautiful about even your noticing of the data is that this is the kind of noticing that in the math office leads them to look deeply at the assessment at the items talk with teachers engage in additional professional learning that is content developmentbased making sure that um the teachers understand the content are using best practices and strategies to make sure that students are engaging with it. So, um yeah, I think it's a wonderful noticing certainly one I am sure that this the uh content team in the elementary math team has um taken a look at for um future support. Miss Machenda, I think you gave a wonderful answer referring to unit two. I believe Miss Frimong, you can correct me if I'm incorrect. You were referring
189to participation in unit 7. I think the she was highlighting why our part I mean your answer was still a good answer. It was great to interrupt you in the but the dip in participation for unit seven. Yes. Yes. So I think you know one of the things that we again when we see those sort of dips in participation that's really when we're working in collaboration with our division of schools for the east edes to follow up and look at what might be going on with the schools. Sometimes they're off on pacing and if that's the case then we'll see depending on what day we pull the data to make a report or pull a presentation together. um that that's what we have at that moment. Um and so that there's usually follow-up with the
190schools to talk about, you know, what is going on. Is it a matter of a pacing thing? Did a class go on a field trip? And so they were planning on taking it later in the week and we pulled it earlier in the week because there is a window. There's not just a drop dead. You have to have this assessment done on that day. There is a a window for them to complete it. Um, and so you can see that, you know, the positive that I see is that in unit 8, the participation rate is moving back up, which means we've been addressed some of the things that may have been going on that created the dip in participation. And so again, that's something that we're constantly monitoring and looking at, you know, what are
191the nuances of what happens within a school at different times of year um that does create these gaps in information. Okay, thank you for all of the answers. Dr. Seavoy. Yes. I just wanted to ask a question. Um, how are the teacher leaders selected? Is there criteria? They're hired by the principal. They're selected by the school principal. So, some um principles might select their um maybe a math resource teacher might be a teacher leader that they identify to um attend the math professional development. Sometimes in some of our larger schools they because the professional development is done by grade level in elementary they might select you know one teacher classroom teacher from third grade a different teacher from fourth grade and maybe their math resource teacher is coming to the professional development for kindergarten and
192first grade. Um so it's really a schoolbased administrator decision on who they identify. Um, but it's someone that they feel that they will be able to bring back information to the school and to work with their grade level colleagues. Okay. So, it's up to the principal. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome, Miss Booker Dwire. And so, I love this foundational work that's being done. I think we're definitely moving in the right direction. Um, and that also concerns me because I feel like we're moving in the right direction right at the time that the new prek policy has come out. So, do you anticipate any significant changes um especially with our advanced math uh students who really are showing some pretty good um proficiency scores? Are you anticipating as this new math this new MSD prek math
193policy rolls out, we're going to have to do some significant changes to what we're doing now in advanced math or or not? Or are you still looking into it? I have to say there there's a lot of variables that are already coming out from just even follow-up meetings that MSD has had. So, I think we're really diving into it. We're looking at, you know, what does our instructional block need to look at look like at more at the middle school level than at the elementary school level. Um, but, you know, part of what it talks about is multiple pathways and opportunities for students to have opportunities for either intervention and support or for acceleration and advancement. And part of the redesign that was done with the shift with grade three and providing the more compacted
194curriculum versus our prior model which is just skip an entire grade of content and hope we fill in along the way. Um we've already created that pathway for students to have additional on-ramps for acceleration opportunities. So I think we're poised in that area. Um I think our focus on building out um a structured intervention model for students is also really aligned with where we need to be in more than a year from now. Um so the fact that we already have the system built, we're already working with our teachers and really providing the professional development and just even with our administrators during professional learning. Um last week we had them go in look at their data that was currently in performance matters and depending on what they saw and their scheduling and their data to
195then make a plan for how they are going to address intervention next school year. Um we talked about the principles who have lots of data binders but it's not within a system where everyone can look at it. And so that transition for the teachers in their school looks different than a school that already has it in place in certain grade levels. and we need to focus on maybe supporting teachers in other grade levels. Um, so I think we're poised with with several good pieces in place. Um, and going to have to continue to work with MSD on some next steps. Thanks. Any last questions? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Oh, oops. Oops. Oops. Miss Chica Clue. Yes. Um, I just wanted to know kind of beyond teachers, just how do you how do
196you like envision families kind of being brought into this data cycle and then just everything kind of being broken down for them so they're along this process? Um, so we do have math resources for every single unit for families and that's actually been one of the highlighted items um at our curriculum events is really helping parents to understand where to access them. also working um with Miss Han um in the office of um family engagement in how to help advertise and share those resources with families so that families understand the and examples of the math that students are doing along the way. Um part of our um you know ongoing communication with especially our elementary families is really encouraging our families to access schooly and to look at the information in there. part of what
197we're providing is, you know, not just a grade or information, but there's often notes from teachers in there as far as areas of um improvement or things that kids have demonstrated a strength with. Um so that's really a great communication uh mechanism for parents to also be able to see the progress of their students along the way. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Okay. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the report on budget financial reports for the months ending January and February 2025. And for that I call Mr. Saras and Mr. Jones. Miss Hen. Madam Chair, I'd like to make a motion regarding the agenda. Yes. Um I move to postpone items R, S, and U to the next regularly scheduled board meeting on May 6th in the interest of time. And
198for items R and S to be the first items of new business for May 6. Did you say first say RS and U? Yes. R1, S1, and U1. Okay. Is there a second? Second. There was a second. Correct. Okay. Any discussion, Mr. McMillian? my possibility for a motion. No, I don't think so. Does it Mr. Burns? [Music] About that, man. I' I'd like to amend. Oh, somebody never mind. Bless you. You You were doing that L which was passed. No, I said give me a thumbs up. there was an opportunity to do that and nobody gave me a thumbs up. Okay, let's do take care of this first one then we come back to your motion. Okay, so the motion on the floor is to postpone items R, S, and U to the next board
199meeting. Correct. Correct. We have had a second. Any discussion on Miss Hen's motion? Miss Booker Dwire, I think that you should be kept on for tonight. Are you making an amen? Are you amending the motion? I'm amending the motion to strike to strike you. Okay. So, is there a second on Second Pumprey? Okay. Any discussion on the amended motion? Okay. So, we are having a roll call vote on the amended motion on the striking. So, we are amending R and S. No, first you have to Oh, first we're voting on the amended motion. Okay. Miss Gover, is this Miss Hen's motion? No, this is Miss Booker Dryers. No, it's 10:30, so everybody focus. Ready? Okay. Thank you. Focus everybody. Go ahead. Miss Gover. Miss Harvey. Yes. Miss Chica Koop. Yes. Miss Dlesky. Yes. Dr. Seavoy.
200Yes. Mr. McMillian. Yes. Miss Pumphrey. Yes. Mr. Young. Yes. Miss Dominowski. Yes. Miss Hen. Yes. Miss Faul. Yes. Miss Booker Dwire. Yes. Miss Licar. Yes. So that motion passes. Now you're at RNS. RNS. RNS. So now we are voting on postponing items R and S to the next meeting. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Any further discussion? Can we have a roll call vote, please? Miss Harvey? Yes. Miss Choo? No. Miss Dleski? Yes. Dr. Seavoy? Yes. Mr. McMillian? Yes. Miss Pumphrey? Yes. Mr. Young? Yes. Miss Dominowski? Yes. Miss Hem. Yes. Miss FPM. Yes. Miss Booker Dwire. Yes. Miss Lar. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So, we are now on our ST. Oh, Mr. McMillian, would you like to make a motion? Yes. What? What? I know. Wait. Do do the motion during you, Mr. McMillion. for you.
201Okay, you. All right, T. Oh, goodness gracious. Wait a second. I could teach kids how to read, but I can't seem to do this. All right, the next item on the agenda is information, which includes the minutes of the Whoops. The Mi Oh dear, it says my thing has dropped. Okay. The minutes of the February 24th, 2025 Southeast Area Education Advisory Council meeting, revised superintendence rule 3160, 7240, and 7310 and an update on school legislation. Okay, that's T. Now we're in for you, which is board member comments, consideration of agenda items for future meetings. So, if you have a comment or something you want considered, please raise your hand. Mr. McMillian. Okay. I put this in the chat. I move that we, the Baltimore County Board of Education, put together an ad hoc committee to
202investigate the feasibility of implementing a pilot of Mr. Jaffy's program within BCPS. Is there a second? Second, Stellleski. Discussion. So you you want to go or I think it's more of a question. Uh and I'm wondering if this falls within the operational realm of BCPS and not a governance realm. I I believe we have a process for evaluating uh communities and organiza community groups and organizations that want to uh partner with BCPS. And I'm not sure why we would supersede or engage in that process particularly if it's not a governance function. Thank you. Other I just have a point of information if Mr. McMillan could um speak to his motion like reasoning behind your motion or what your intent is. Thank you. I think Mr. Jaffy's, you know, deserves of uh, you know, the respect
203to have the opportunity. The man keeps coming in here now whether he's bouncing heads against, you know, he doesn't know where to go, what to do. If we could come together and give him some direction, we have given him hours and hours, but go ahead, Superintendent Rogers. Yes, thank you. Uh, we have come together. We have provided um time uh face-toface in person to walk through the process. Uh provided followup in writing with phone calls. uh as Miss Harvey indicated uh making sure that there is clarity around what the process is to gain um approval and review for a new program uh in BCPS in alignment with our uh board policies and superintendent rules. Those things those measures have uh absolutely occurred and I believe Mr. Jaffy has even spoken to several of the staff
204members that he's had audience with to support him. uh in following through with the process to get it started. So, is is he actively trying to do that or is there it looks like there's some kind of stumbling block that he's having difficulty getting around. And that's what I thought if we got involved, we could help him over that, under that, around that or whatever. So, I'm going to um seek uh counsel because I don't want to give too much information. But I will say that our expectation um for Mr. Jaffy as well as anyone who wants to start an activity in BCPS uh requires an application to be filled. It requires it to be uh signed and submitted. It requires the appropriate training, the background checks. Those are the steps that we are uh
205requesting uh from Mr. Jaffy, which those are the exact same steps that we're requesting for any and all organization and partners who seek uh to have the opportunity to work directly with our students in alignment with board policy and superintendent rule. Are you aware if he started to implement this? Is that my job as someone and that would be my advice to you as uh can I withdraw my motion then? Yes. I do such. Thank you. Did you still want to speak? Miss Harvey, are you okay? No. Okay. All right. So, let's back to you. Letter U. Um, anybody else have comments or consideration for agenda items? Please raise your hand. Miss Dleski, I just have a quick comment. I know that um there's been a lot of communication about the school psychologist salary change.
206Um so whether it's through email communication or some kind of communication to um I guess clarify for the public what's what's true, what's not true um in terms of the changes in compensation for the school psychologists. So it doesn't have to be done now, but because we've received a lot of communication about it, just a followup on that. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. McMillian. Can I ask Dr. Rogers a question in regards to that to what she Yes. Go ahead. When we discussed in our in our smallh budget meetings, you explained in detail the the counseling piece of it, the counseling department chairs, but were the psychologists part of that? Yes. Um so we uh maybe in your session we only talked about the department chairs uh but an analogous um information is available for
207the psychologists uh including the data that we used and the analysis and what will be available for students over the summer. So they got the same kind of package that the counselor department chairs got. Similar a little different. The um annual stipen is higher where the number of summer days is reduced. Thank you. But similar, Miss Dominowski. Yes. I think last meeting we had a a a small discussion on the SLP special education um that element of it. I was wondering if we could get an update on what's happening with our SLPs. I am receiving emails about the workload and amount and if if there are we still hiring or is you know is there a hiring freeze or what what's going on in that direction a hiring freezes we're doing a agenda item but
208but I will just say we don't have a hiring freeze for SLPs we'll put that on the record okay other comments or agenda items yes Booker Dwire it is assistant principal week and so I just wanted to recognize all the assistant principles. They're the unsung heroes of the schools. They they kind of do a little bit of everything. So, um I just wanted to recognize that it is assistant principal week. Thank you for that, Miss Booker Dwire. Anyone else? Miss Pumprey. I know everyone's tired, but if I saved this, I would forget. So, I'm going to say it now. I just wanted to thank Dr. Grim, Mr. Bobby Wingard and Miss Liz Becker for leading my recent tour of the warehouse. Intellectually, I realized because of the size of our school system, the many areas
209of the warehouse would be expansive. However, to see the Whoops. of some of these areas in person was extraordinary. Um, copy and print, which was a relatively small area, but responsible for so much, all of our printed materials, signs, etc. at every school event was just incredible. I was able to see the area where student devices are repaired and refurbished. And again, just the vast number of devices and the number of people working on all of them at the same time was um incredible. And um just thinking about the logistics of it all made my brain hurt to be honest. Um we have so many pe so many people hard at work to keep our system running. Everyone was happy to have a visitor. So, if you're interested in seeing the sheer magnitude and expanse
210of the behind-the-scenes work and logistics in our system, I highly recommend a visit if you haven't already done so. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Pumphrey. Miss Harvey, thank you, Madam Chair. I just wanted to uh thank the public for participation uh and your interest in the board of education and BCPS. Uh I am encouraged by the data we're getting and the improvements we're seeing and I'm also encouraged by uh different sectors of our community coming uh to make their thoughts and ideas known. Our community organizations, our Greek letter organizations, our elected officials tonight, Delegate Pastor and and Delegate Phillips. It is meaningful to see that people are paying attention and I am appreciative of the fact that uh the message is really clear to stay focused on the students and the families that we serve
211here at BCP BCPS. So, thank you. Thank you, Miss Harvey. Um and I'd just like to thank my colleagues. This has been a long evening. We've had lots of conversations. So, I appreciate everyone's input um and time tonight. And I'm just going to finish like I started. We must continue to focus on our collective efforts on supporting students and ensuring that every child in our system has the opportunity to to thrive. Announcements. V because we didn't get rid of V. The last item on the agenda is announcements. If you want to see us again, come tomorrow night to Westchester Elementary School. We will hold a public hearing on the Holly Manor community boundary recommendation tomorrow, April 9th, at 6:30 in the cafeteria at Westchester Elementary School. Registration, sign up to speak begins at 5:30 until
2126:25. Our next board meeting will be on Tuesday, May 6. We got a little break at 6:30 p.m. Everyone have a one, especially staff, have a wonderful and restful spring break. And thank you everyone for joining us tonight. And I hope everyone enjoys their spring break. The meeting is now adjourned.