Meeting of the Baltimore County Board of Education - March 11, 2025

001has jurisdiction or any other Personnel matter that affects one or more specific individuals and consult with counsel to obtain legal advice the closed session summary and the Open Session information summary can be found on board Ducks under this board meeting agenda date the next item on the agenda is Personnel matters and for that I call on Mr Mall Mr Mcall made somebody [Laughter] cry it's all good we've all been [Music] there good evening chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Dr Rogers and members of the board like the board's consent for the following Personnel matters tonight we have retirements resignations leaves deceased Rec condition of service and certificated appointments thank you do I have a motion to approve the Personnel matters as presented in exhibits D1 through D5 thank you do I have a second second

002pumy thank you any discussion may I have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss Boer DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH kou yes Mr tuski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss lter yes thank you thank you thank you Mr call thank you the next item on the agenda 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 Boe bcps.org the Baltimore County Police Department's Homeland security unit and office of school safety is recommended Safety and Security protocols which are posted in the boardroom and available in board

003docs and on the board's participation by the public website while we encourage public input on policy programs and practices within the purview of this board and this school system this is not the proper form to address specific student or employee matters or to Common 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 people 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 3 minute clock which will let you know when your time is up the microphone will be turned off at

004the end of the board end of your time or prior to that time at the discretion of the board chair we'll begin with our Union representatives and Miss Cindy seon from TCO good evening good evening chair lictor Vice chair Harvey dror Rogers and members of the board thank you for the opportunity to speak tonight the uncertainty at the federal level continues to cause angst and the trickle down effect is being felt by all we don't know if the US Department of Education will continue to exist we don't know how that will affect our schools and we are worried on many levels but especially around our students receiving special education services we do know as a school system that we don't have enough special Educators to meet the needs of our students and that special educators

005are resigning at a much higher rate than other Educators in fact a recent analysis done by tabco shows that the fiveyear turnover rate for special ed inclusion is 50% and for special ed self-contained is over 43% that does not bode well for our students and of course it isn't just our special education students who need a stable educator all our students do that brings us back to the budget and the negotiated agreements for our Educators they deserve the Peace of Mind around their contract and that what was promised will be delivered I've shared separation costs and attrition rates countless times during these board meetings it costs the school system money when Educators resign especially during the school year we need to work to do all we can to keep those Educators in our system allow

006them to grow learn and perfect their craft as Educators because this is what our students need and deserve I continue to meet with County council members around the need to fund the budget and to be sure that the negotiated Agreements are adhere to our students need us our Educators deserve this let's keep the pr promise to our Educators for our students and off the cuff I hope that the resolution around protecting our students is one that goes through smoothly because we need that peace of mind for them as well thank you thank you next to our nonprofit Community groups beginning with Craig Akerman from P flight good evening good evening chair elor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Dr Rogers and all board members thank you for your time and and for all your work my name

007is Greg arriman I'm a parent of two BCPS students one a recent high school graduate and one a current 10th grader my older child is transgender and part of the lgbtq plus Community my wife family and I are proud members of P flag an organization supporting lgbtq plus people their families and friends today I express my strongest support for continued inclusive education of our youth on topics of race ethnic ethnicity and lgbtq plus topics and here is why all students have a First Amendment right to relearn about the history and viewpoints of all communities including their own the first amendment protects Educators and students rights to receive and exchange information and knowledge freedom of expression protects our right to read learn and share ideas free from Viewpoint based censorship book bands and classroom censorship are

008misguided attempts to suppress our rights they erase the history and lived experiences of women people of color and lgbtq plus people every student has the right to receive an equitable education with open honest dialogue about us history according to the American Psychological Association student students gain legitimate benefits from inclusive curriculum research has shown student benefits include positive changes in student attitude and values better critical thinking skills higher overall achievement levels for both majority and minority group members and positive diversity experiences lead to Greater interest in improving people's lives in their communities education also needs to prepare our youth for the workplace according to recent studies from both indeed and glass door three three facts stand out the number of employers adding diversity equity and inclusion initiatives is increasing not decreasing 62% of us workers say

009they would consider declining a job offer or leaving a company if their manager did not support diversity equity and inclusion initiatives 74% of us workers say that investment in diversity equity and inclusion is very important or at least somewhat important when considering a new job working working successfully with people is a life skill I want all of our students to gain this valuable life skill so they can Thrive as working adults the actions of the current presidential Administration attacking diversity equity and inclusion are irresponsible and unamerican these unconstitutional actions set an unhealthy and inappropriate example for the education Community it's about courtesy and respect for all people listening and understanding brings us together and makes us stronger as a community and a country all are welcome thank you very much for listening and thank you

010for your time thank you our next speaker is Nichelle Hicks good evening good evening good evening Dr Rogers and members of the board I come before you as a dedicated stakeholder in two capacities as the youth and College advisor for the Baltimore County NAACP and as a veteran educator with 31 years of experience which includes five years with BCPS with budget cuts looming due to the county executive's decision to partially fund our previously approved budget the NAACP raises a critical question how can we ensure the effective and efficient appropriation of funds to support positive academic outcomes for Baltimore County students this concern is especially pressing given the recent mismanagement of funds including the poor implementation of pilot programs in English two pilot programs were introduced requiring multiple teacher training sessions two in June 2024 into

011in August of 2024 however these trainings proved both costly and ineffective teachers received vague program overviews with little practical guidance leaving them ill prepared to implement the new curriculum despite being compensated for their time they were left without materials for the first month of school this undermined both instructional efficiency as well as student learning further complicating matters the department of curriculum eliminated one of the pilots mid first quarter forcing teachers to to abruptly transition to a new online based curriculum again without adequate support these poor implementation practices not only disrupted instruction but will likely reflect in be reflected in student performance data at the end of the school year at that at the same time we are seeing critical deficits and essential areas such as transportation services many students continue to face challenges getting to

012and from school due to a shortage of bus drivers which affects attendance and ultimately academic performance it is unacceptable to see resources wasted on ineffective program rollouts while pressing needs like Transportation remains unaddressed if funding is truly limited then every dollar must be allocated responsibly and strategically to directly benefit students and their education as stakeholders we urge the board to conduct a thorough review of spending practices identify areas where money has been wasted and ensure that future budget allocations prioritize essential services and well supported instructional improvements students deserve a budget that is not only fully funded but also wisely spent thank you for your time thank you our next speaker is Irvin Gonzalez good evening good evening members of the board uh I would like to start to thank board member Pumphrey for introducing this

013important resolution to affirm The Immigrant Community uh my name is Irving Gonzalez deputy director of services at gasa in our Central Maryland region and I'm also a resident of overly I'm here today with parents Advocates and most importantly our students to urge you to pass the resolution to ensure all students regardless of their immigration status have access to a safe and supportive education since 2013 gasa has worked tirelessly to remove educational barriers for immigrant students helping them graduate and succeed through our youth programs we have built the next generation of leaders by promoting High School graduation post-secondary enrollment and career Readiness and leadership development for first and second generation immigrant students every day we work with with youth who have dreams and who want to succeed what happened at overly High School is unspeakable no

014student no parent and no one should have to go through something like that our school should be a safe space and a space where students can learn without fear or intimidation I ask that you adopt the resolution that prevents the use of school resources for immigrant enforcement the resolution should Safeguard student privacy ensur strict procedures when interacting with immigrant authorities and create an all-inclusive um environment ironment where all students feel valued and secured other districts like Baltimore City Montgomery County Prince George's County have already taken these steps and it's time for Baltimore County to follow suit and protect our immigrant students by passing this resolution you will send a strong message to all of our students and the county and to their parents that everyone is welcome and deserves an education free of fear again

015thank you again for your time and your attention and I look forward to your support in passing this resolution thank you next our individual citizens and student groups and our first speaker is Sharon sof good evening good evening everyone yes I brought props and uh that's for you to see the sharing of information is something that is very important in order for parents to be full participants in their children's education particularly in the special education environment this everyone to see is a release of Records form every year I ask my clients in this school system and other school systems to sign this form so that schools can communicate with me and provide me with their records only parents who signed this do I have access to their students records I don't have access to anything

016else the reason I'm bringing this to your attention is because there has been an inconsistency in the past year or so starting last school year that some schools are telling me they can't release records to me even though the parent has signed this form because they're being instructed by compliance and your legal office to not do so that even though the parent has signed this they don't need to do that this impedes my clients and any other parent who has given access to somebody for those records again having full access to participate in the decisions that need to be made in a special education meeting I will not bring your attention that it says other I instruct my clients to put things down like two-way educa two-way communication classroom observations because those are some of

017the things I do I'm also going to draw your attention to the fact that there is a box that says Health recently I had a situation where a client of mine was quote unquote possibly injured in the school environment the parent had difficulty getting that information and was not available to ask the appropriate questions when the incident took place and the child needed to go home to this date we still have gotten all the information because again thank you our next speaker is BOS fon good evening to all good evening thank you for the opportunity um I really like to thank all of you for the discussion last time about the budget and I like to share with you um my observation uh good or bad uh but before that I really like to thank

018Miss pmre for uh clarifying some of my comments last meeting about policies I appreciate that that is engagement and I really encourage other board members um to communicate so sitting last time listening to the budget listening to most of you asking pertinent questions and getting answers but at the end of the day you gave our good superintendent three billion dollars without really showing that the system is efficient effective and without any guarantees or warrantees that the three billion dollars will accomplish the goal of better education so one of my advantage is I have been here since mid90s um listening to boards and budgets the budget proposed in 2004 2005 2006 Etc very similar to the proposed budget that has been passed for 2026 in the last meeting and they have ilar characteristics of asking questions

019listening to answers and then making the best judgment each of you to vote Yes or No I believe three of you voted no for the budget 2026 and I really appreciate those who did not really vote for it because I have seen before that it's basically like a RAR stand um unanimous you know many years especially in the 2005 10 Soft so my my beef is that we pay taxes and you gave $3 billion without assurances that it will do the trick I bet you it would not I think the system is wrong that needs to be fixed if you don't fix it you're wasting money that's my fault thank you our next speaker is Lloyd Allen good evening good evening chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Rogers and members of the board thank you

020for your time I'm Lloyd Allen Heim educator Arizon speaking as an individual I come to you a second time to express support for first a resolution and then a policy and Rule to clarify that the entirety of Baltimore County Public Schools constitute a safe Zone that we explicitly support students and staff who have or are perceived to have immigrant status or who have mixed status families and we recognize that the above are necessary for many in our educational Community to feel safe once Basics such as food and shelter have been met safety is the next tier of maslov's hierarchy of needs required for education to be possible chair lter a member correctly stated last meeting that immigration status is addressed in two places in BCPS policies and rules from rule 5580 it is already unacceptable

021to harass an individual based on actual or perceived immigrant status or national origin and from rule 23 373 sociological information including immigration status passport and Visa numbers is already shielded from inspection or disclosure as part of a public record for students employees and job applicants the question is whether this pair of rules goes far enough for everyone in our communities to feel safe as an arizonan I have been stopped at a checkpoint in the middle of the desert on a highway in the middle of the state and I have been through border crossings by car foot and Air when I cross a border my main source of anxiety is whether I accidentally still have citrus on me my family came to Arizona in the 1970s however I grew up with folks whose families had been

022in what is now Arizona when the gadon purchase added tucon and the rest of Southern Arizona to the land annexed as the New Mexico territory of the United States in 1854 and they're expressing a different reaction to checkpoints they're not sure whether to carry their US passports on The Daily even though the US Incorporated their families years before my ancestors arrived their experiences have taught them to act in a particular way to avoid escalation during certain situations for the time being they're staying close to home and moving in familiar circles to avoid any misunderstanding that would have a serious and negative impact on their lives and those of their families I can't know their minds but I can believe their words I am not in danger but believe the individuals who say that they are

023and so I speak we need to know in our hearts there might be stuff in the world but at least at school we are safe it is unfortunate that a resolution and policy didn't happen back in 2017 a year during which Nea explicitly stressed the importance of what had been called safe zones policies but let's fix this now and hope that we never need it rather than finding out later that we had needed something that was explicitly out thank you our next speaker is meline vesas squiz vas can you tell me Vasquez I added an extra syllable good afternoon members of the board my name is meline and today is my 15th birthday happy birthday thank you normally this would be the happiest day of my life a day to celebrate my ketta with my

024family surrounded by love and joy but instead instead of celebrating with my father and enjoying this special day I'm here because I believe in the power of my voice and the voices of young people like me to bring about change in our community as young people we should be focused on preparing for colleges building strong relationships and becoming leaders in our community however many of us live in fear not knowing if we are truly safe in our schools or communities most Latina girls dream about their kinetta but for me that dream has been overshadowed by the fear that has taken away my celebration not just for me but for immigrant families and those who may not identify as immigrants I've gone to annap Annapolis DC and many Town Halls to speak about protecting immigrant rights

025I'm here because I believe that my voice matters and that youth like me have the power to change to create change we need our schools to be safe and supported for every students no matter their immigration status today I asked to pass the resolution that shows your support for immigrant communities every student deserves to feel safe and focused on their future without fear of being targeted because of their background every young person deserves the chance to celebrate their ketta reach their Milestone and follow their dreams without fear please help my birthday wish come true let's move forward with a commitment to make our school safer and more exclusive for everybody thank you thank you again happy birthday our next speaker is Raquel Martinez good evening even good evening Dr Rogers and board members my name

026is Rael Martinez vice president of the Parkville High School NAACP previously one of our members from our unit introduced the urgent need to address the issue regarding late buses we made a survey to gain more information which we shared with you on January 27th hoping to hear from you or see Improvement at our last General body meeting we had a discussion with the tab Co executive director regarding School climate several topics were brought up but one of the most notable ones was the lack of initiative to address the issue of buses arriving late ironically at the same time an announcement was made that one of the buses had just arrived we shocked glanced at the time and found that it was more than an hour since the buses were meant to arrive students still weren't

027home students should be able to come to school with the reassurance that they have a consistent way of getting safely to school and to their homes parents should be able to send their children to schools without the constant concern of the time that their child is getting home or having to make constant accommodations or calls to have them picked up from school at such short notice one response that stuck out to us from a Parkville high school student student reads I have been late to school almost every day this school year because the bus came late and my parents have never been contacted about the bus being late I also get marked tardy every day even though it's out of my control if you weren't convinced or troubled by the urgency before this should raise

028even higher concern as it impacts student attendance and education 57.5% of participants from our survey reported missing school because their bus never arrived something must be done to address this issue as it is becoming a barrier for student quality of assurance and education since January 27th which was the last time we came to address this issue in our school we have been tracking how many buses are late in arriving at school we found that an average of four buses came late every day in addition to late buses there are also buses that do not receive coverage students aren't alerted Ed about bus about their bus not arriving until minutes before the school bell and then are left with little options on how to get home what are students expected to do when your promise of

029safe efficient adequate and consistent transportation services aren't delivered thank you for your time thank you the next item on our agenda is the superintendent report and for that I call on Dr Rogers good afternoon Madam chair Lor Vice chair Harvey members of the board I'm pleased to present the March superintendence report for your review first two slides are reminders to our families focused on literacy to ensure that our students receive all the support that they need to um outside of school what you see on this slide uh the first graph is familiar this again is data from Amira showing that our students that practice uh frequently meaning 30 minutes per week week have grown at a faster Pace than students that use Amira less time than the 30 minutes per week the other graph that

030you see on the side is the data from kindergarten to grade three beginning of the year to the middle of the Year progress for our students um we have added a fourth category where we are looking uh at our students progress moving to 50th to the 74th percentile as well as 7 percentile and above you will note uh while there was a modest increase in the 50 to 74th percentile uh the great news is that the majority of the increase was in the percent percentile and percentage of students uh reading at or above the 75th percentile and you see a commensurate decrease in the percentage of students uh below the 25th percentile want to remind our families that the parent report for Amira for our Elementary grades is available and this is their opportunity to

031be empowered the parent report is individualized to the student it demonstrates their level of Mastery their subscores as well as specific tips for helping the student um at home and this is something that we would ask our families and caregivers to take a look at and to the extent possible support students at home it's also important to note that uh we our goal is to make sure that every single Elementary School receives a coaching visit from our vendors to ensure uh Fidelity of implementation with the new curriculum that is uh not only steeped in the science of reading but aligned to State Standards uh to date 107 out of the1 coaching visits have been completed um Amira and literacy hmh into reading is simply one of the new foundational curricula that we're using as the

032elementary level to reverse a decade of academic decline um it is our work to make sure that we are reversing the tra trajectory and creating conditions for Success um that means foundational work for our students it means foundational work for our staff members making sure that they come to work in places in spaces where they have a voice a climate that is safe and conducive for them to do their best work it also means that we are providing them with the necessary training to implement curriculum with Fidelity and central office is helping to monitor that implementation as well as providing that support I would be remissed if I did not comment on uh the somehow uh seemingly inability of um people to acknowledge the hard work and the efforts of our teachers and of our

033students um progress is important and progress is really the fundamental point of Education even if you are not an educator I would say to you that you're a family member and so you have seen a child from a baby babies don't get up and start to walk there are interim steps that they take and from everyone that I've ever seen and certainly as a parent of four I can recall always celebrating all of those interim steps that they took before they could walk it is with that same spirit that we use when we celebrate Sports and we celebrate other activities that I would encourage our community to celebrate the work that our teachers are doing the efforts that they're making and the work that our students are doing and their results while we are setting

034the foundation correctly there is no way that any school system Baltimore County Public Schools or anywhere in the nation reverses a trajectory of academic decline that has taken more than a decade to get into turn that around in a year or less implementation science has been very clear three years is the minimal amount of time that we should expect to see the data move forward we are seeing that data move forward in less than three years in one year and so I think it's important that we recognize and celebrate the efforts of our staff members while at the same time being very clear that we have a long way to go both things can be true at the same time talking about setting the foundation part of that is making sure that all of our

035staff members have access to do their best work that they have access to the latest strategies that they are provided with the time that they need to do this work that is why for the second year in a row we are providing high quality professional learning to our staff members where where they are compensated we have a website uh where anyone in the public can go to see what we're offering for different groups of Staff members over the summer um we also are uh excited to uh share that last year for the first time when we provided this in more than 10 years it was very well attended more than 4,500 staff members showed up to receive that training and principals along with central office staff members have continued that through line throughout the year

036to provide teachers par professionals leaders and central office Leaders with the training that they need need to help to advance academic achievement for our students we're also continuing to advance in our students in our summer programs um this is a reminder of the data that was shared in the fall uh specifically data on Elementary student progress students who participated in our summer programs and Middle School progress the elementary progress markers and that you see here compared the P performance of students in both literacy and Mathematics uh their map scores from fall 23 to fall 24 and you see the percentage of students who made improvements um or uh remain the same and then you look at Middle School Improvement because we were using lenia we they provided a pre- and post assessment both in literacy

037and Mathematics and on this slide you see the growth of the middle school students who participated in our summer program that was focused on specific literacy standards as as well as specific mathematics standards based on our data giving the same group of students preassessments and postassessments you see the level of percentage of growth for students in both literacy and Mathematics we are proud to share that we will have summer programs again in 2025 the dates are July 7th through the 31st Monday through Thursday we will operate four days per week and uh the training that students will receive or excuse me the instruction that they will receive will be five hours per day we have 51 Regional sites in elementary and our four public separate Day School sites as well as TW 12 Regional sites

038in uh Middle School both elementary and middle schools will be using the lenia summarized program curriculum and they are both focused on selected grade level literacy and Mathematics standards um and the last announcement we will make is around High School uh we are changing our model to have five Regional sites across all of our geographic regions um in alignment with the requests that we have heard uh from families from our students as well as our data we will have both in-person and virtual options for our students we will have credit recovery options as well as original credit options um our high school ERS talk to us about wanting and needing to have the option to take Health uh 910 as well as health 1112 to free up room for them to engage in internships as

039well as dual enrollment and we are pleased to be able to provide that option to all of our high school students for original credit this summer additional information is forthcoming to All Families regarding our summer programs and lastly we want to continue to engage with our families special education um as you know is one of our academic priorities uh with the support of the Board of Education we have been able to invest significantly in special education last year you will hear a detailed report this evening on some of those Investments as well as some of the outcomes of those Investments year to dat uh we will be having another conversation with our community focused on special education this Thursday at Nottingham Middle School invite you to come out and communicate with us about your experiences

040and our next steps thank you thank you next on the agenda is the chair report um over the past several weeks I've had the opportunity to visit 14 of our schools across the county being in schools and talking with staff and students reinforces my why as a board member thank you to all the principles who have taken the time to walk and talk with me I truly learn something from all my visits one reason that I cluster my school visits together is to be able to look for patterns and Trends across our system what I noticed includes an increased level of Engagement of students instruction occurring from Bell to Bell and fewer and fewer students with cell phones and hands during instruction a higher level of rigor of instruction especially in secondary schools specifically in

041the area of mathematics using illust illustrative math the use of Safety assistance their presence in our our secondary schools was noticeable what was also observed were the interactions the Safety assistance have with our students in many cases I witness students stopping to speak with them whether it was just hello asking a specific question or just wanting individual attention from a trusted adult the relationships the safety assistants had developed with our students and staff are making a difference also thank you to the many safety assistants who have taken on other roles at our schools including coaching and running after school programs sparkling buildings is something else I noticed even in the month of February when the weather makes it even harder I observe sparkly and very clean schools the ongoing cleaning of buildings whether the cafeteria

042hallways or even classrooms that needed an extra hand the efforts of our building service workers is obvious I also observed a stronger alignment between the instruction taking place in our gen Ed classrooms and our classroom serving students who receive special services during my visits I was also looking for evidence of the work of central office often when there are budget constraints or cuts that need to be made central office becomes a suggestion many central office staff have expressed their frustration to me over the perception that they are not bringing value to our system and while it is true that there have been significant cuts to central office over the past two years the work they do needs to continue their work is valuable so what did I find on my visits one example was the

043strong and supportive relationships between principles and their assigned executive directors as the three of us would walk and talk the knowledge that the executive director had concerning the work of the principal was vast and nuanced they understood the strengths and the needs of the school and the strengths and needs of the principal that they were supporting another example was the consistency of instruction and instructional materials as a board we speak a lot about consistency across our schools and Fidelity of implementation I observe the use of the hegerty program Open cord hmh Bridges and illustrative math consistency and Fidelity are the work of central office the staff of central Office Works to ensure that the materials we as a board approve are being used and being used correctly they also work work to determine aligned professional

044learning that is needed to increase teachers and administrators understanding of the use of materials as well as to increase their use of sound P pedagogical practices when students struggle when schools struggle with how to help a student who has experienced ing emotional Behavioral or academic difficulties central office is who they call on for additional guidance and support I also love to visit the cafeteria but I'm not sure principls always like me to walk past the cafeteria but I can always tell when we're getting close the cafeteria is another example of the work of central office our principles could not possibly manage the work of of the cafeteria while keeping their focus on teaching and learning and as I walked through Summit Park last week I realized the magnitude of works central office did to make

045that building the wonderful new building it is from design to ordering absolutely everything to the creation of the new School boundaries the work of central office was evident I could keep going but for the sake of time in this agenda I will stop what I'm trying to illustrate is that I am proud of the work of our central office while I realize that it's has not been easy to be part of central office over the past couple years from being asked to be long-term Subs during teacher shortages to cuts to central office staffing resulted in changes in roles and responsibility and to the suggestions of further Cuts please know your work is needed your work is valued and you are appreciated the next on the agenda is the student member of the board report and

046for that I call Miss cha Kalo thank you well good evening everyone good evening board chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Rogers my board members our staff our community members and of course our students of Baltimore County I am very excited to share all of the updates happening as we step into March and so firstly in February I kind of I had the privilege of attending the national school boards associations advocacy and Equity Institute where I colet a presentation and a breakout session with two of my colleagues with the national student board member Association and we discussed how Boards of educations and other leas can amplify or silence student representation and as a result we successfully boarded onboarded 15 new student members of the boards of boards of Education who will join us at our

047start plus conference in the coming weeks and Beyond strengthening existing representation I'm working alongside nbma executive directors to help establish smart positions across four states in Louisiana Illinois Georgia and California through our take a seat Coalition and additionally we're link the groundwork for more State student board member associations in partnership with the National Association of State student council executive directors to UniFi SMS collaborate and policy initiatives and strengthen the collective student voice and also I served as the sole student panelist on the American Conference in education there were the ace experience 2025 in Washington DC where I could engage with education leaders we just recognize the power of student representation and truly helping shape just student advocacy at any level but especially at the national level is something I do not take lightly so I'm

048very honored to contribute to that work and in Baltimore our advocacy continues the Baltimore County student council's executive board recently had their advocacy day in Annapolis at the Maryland general assembly on February 17th where the students were able to engage directly with their legislators and state representatives on key educational policies and youth related bills and I must truly give my just props and credit to the legislative affairs coordinators under the county Affairs Department the chief of staff Emily Nunan and every student on the bcsc executive board who helped make it possible and I'm also looking forward to showcasing our leading lights of B btim County so as we know Baltimore county is home to exceptional students they're not only excelling academically but they're making that lasting impact in their communities and so this month I'm

049proud to recognize Bea Louise Mont montanis and Jayden Beals who are two leaders who strive service and advocacy are shaping the future beia is a remarkable leader at Franklin High School who has dedicated herself to uplifting voices and fostering change as the president of the agian of the a student union beia is the driving force between their annual culture Fest an event that celebrates the beauty and depth of Asian Heritage educating and inspiring hundreds of students and under her leadership ASU has not only strengthened their culture appreciation within Baltimore County but has also Amplified Asian students and all of their voices Beyond her advocacy Bia is also a dedicated humanitarian through the American Red Cross she plays an instrumental role in coordinating bi biannual blood drives directly contributing to life saving efforts and she also

050leads initiatives to assemble Comfort kits for children in need ensuring those facing hardship feel seen and supported at per Hall High School jadden Beals has emerged as a Powerhouse of Civic engagement and Leadership he is dedicated to shaping the next generation of informed citizens and youth as the program programming director for the Baltimore County young Democrats and president of the Perry Hall High School De Young Dems chapter he has been working to establish BCD chapters AC across Baltimore County Schools to help Empower students in policy leadership and grads activism where he helped facilitate the BC's advocacy day in Annapolis as well and so beyond politics Jaden is Making Waves in business the business development and financial literacy with hands-on experience in insurance sales and business management he truly is hoping to break barriers beia and

051Jaden exemplify what it means to be a Leading Light they are bold they're passionate and they're unwavering in their pursuit of impact so please let's celebrate Jaden and beia beia and Jaden for just their leadership and commitment to Baltimore County they truly are leading lights and just with civic education week I really encourage all students to get involved and I want to give a huge congratulations to our two small finalists forite oon a Eastern Tech Allied Health magnet Jr and Sophie Von a talson high school law and public policy magnet Jr almost a year ago I stood where they are now and I can say without a doubt this is a transformative role I have full confidence in the both of them and I encourage everyone to watch their speeches that were posted on BCPS

052and on the YouTube page and all Secondary School students to vote in the small election taking place on April 24th via Google forms and so in closing I just want to truly say what a privilege it has been to be your student board member these past seven months wow seven these past seven months truly fighting for a student voice vo has been rewarding every single step of the day and I just want to thank you for the privilege of serving all students and so every single day counts with just the little time I have left so to all students of Baltimore County keep pushing forward I must say thank you thank you very much for that next on the agenda is Unfinished Business Report on board policies this is the second reader for these policies

053and for that I call Miss Christina Pumphrey chair of the policy Review Committee thank you madam chair members of the board the policy Review Committee asks that the board accept the committee's recommendation to amend the following board policies board policy 3160 review and approval of school sponsored activities board policy 7240 School site selection and acquisition board policy 7310 design and construction costs these policies are presented to you on tonight's agenda as exhibits i1 through i3 thank you Miss Pumphrey board members are there any separations requested may I have a motion to accept the recommendation of the board's policy Review Committee for board policies 3160 7240 and 7310 so moved Harvey thank you no second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee is there any discussion may I have a roll call vote please

054miss frong yes Miss BWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss Chik K yes Miss delosi yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss hen Sorry Miss Lector yes thank you thank you the next item on the agenda is unfinished business consideration of the Northwest area Elementary School boundary recommendation and for that I call on Dr grim good evening good evening board chair Lor Vice chair Harvey superintendent Dr Rogers and members of the board in accordance with superintendent rule 1280 on February 11th 2025 the Board of Education received for consideration and approval report from the Northwest area Elementary boundary study number two committee recommending boundary changes to schools in the northwest region to help relieve overcrowding the recommendation known as option B2 affects the boundaries of Church Lane

055Deer Park lionsville New Town Winan and Wood home elementary schools the board hearing on the recommended boundary change was held on February 26 2025 tonight we are asking for board approval of the committee's recommendation thank you may I have a motion to approve the Northwest area Elementary School boundary recommendation presented in exhibit J option B2 so move CH K thank you thank you may I have a second second thank you oh okay we okay Miss okay sorry Miss CH may I okay second sooy thank you so miss teski was one and Dr seavoy was the second any discussion may I have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes m I yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey Mr Young yes Mr dominowski yes Miss Lor

056yes thank you thank you motion passes the next item on the agenda is unfinished business consideration of the Campfield Early Learning Center closure update and for that I call on Dr grim and Dr D denado good evening again board chair ler Vice chair Harvey superintendent Dr Rogers members of the board and I think we have oh there it is a couple slides for you this evening in accordance with superintendence rule 7610 on February 11th 2025 the Board of Education received for consideration and approval a report updating the proposed closure timeline of the Campfield Early Learning Center the board public hearing on the accelerated closure of Campfield was held on March 5th 2025 at tonight's meeting we are requesting the board's approval of this recommendation we would first like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the

057great work of the Campfield staff and difficult transition as part of the school closing process that said this proposed closure is in direct support of the needs of students and families it prioritizes access to full day prek programming and students attend their home school or nearby Regional program where they would otherwise matriculate next slide please please thank you part of the decision to close uh and the recommendation to close Campfield is really looking at our youngest Learners and really investing in creating a stable learning environment for them as they progress through Elementary School um beginning with us some of them um right after their third birthday sometimes in the middle of the school year if they have IEP um receive IEP services um when we look at our students at camfield and the progression of

058students there's a couple things we wanted to highlight looking at um the graphic at the top left corner um you can see that there's students who year one um this might be their first entry to school and they're attending Campfield where they would go from this point is many students based on the program moves would actually attend their home school and be able to receive services that they previously received at Campfield within their neighborhood schools beginning some at age three some at at age4 um Others May uh go to another Regional program however with the move of the program moves at camfield many of them would be traveling a much shorter distance to school um and would be closer to their neighborhood schools again several of our programs are moving to schools where children will

059act it's actually their neighborhood and community school so they'll be able to receive Services there um when we look at campfield's current enrollment and you see um the three couple of bullet points where it says camfield Early Learning Center currently um there is an aster so the state is provided based on our September 30th enrollment um knowing that one Nuance with Campfield or any of our schools that have Regional programs for Early Childhood students can enroll at age three whenever their birthday occurs so if a student's birthday is in November upon their third birthday if they need to if they continue to require special education service they enroll at that time they then remain in a group with three-year-olds until they're they hit the birthday requirements for prek of which September 1st then starts to

060apply for them so some of our youngest students may have two years of instruction within a three-year-old program or classroom before progressing um based on their birth dates um so when we look at the number of students who would continue to um receive Services um our goal is truly to provide those Services as close to home for the students as possible and so when we look at the recommendation for this program move um it's really to create a more stable instructional setting for our students looking again trying to progress them closer to their home schools um and some of the moves that were done already this year is we did have a reduction of um more than 200 students who left Campfield um when Bedford open when their boundary study was completed when um milb

061was able to take back their kindergarten students as well as pre kindergarten students as well as the ABC program and the Judy Center that was at Campfield was always designed to be aligned with Bedford Elementary however when Bedford could not um didn't have space in their old school for prek in kindergarten that was also H housed at Campfield however when the New Bedford Elementary opened and they received all their Early Childhood programs those Early Childhood support models also transitioned to Bedford so that program has already left um the Campfield site also next slide this next slide shows the general catchment area right now as it stands for Campfield so Campfield is the only one noted there in Black in the just outside of what looks like the the rectangle there all of the other red

062boundaries are School boundaries that presently feed into Campfield and just a few short years ago we even had students as far north as Glendon that were traveling to Campfield which certainly put a a strain on not only on Transportation Services um but our youngest Learners were on the bus longer than many of our other students so as part of this move and you can see on the right hand column all of the schools that are within this catchman area that have received or will receive students as part of this transition um that really started last year and and will continue into this year uh highlighted in bold our our of our new school projects Bedford you can see there uh Deer Park which is under construction um Scott's branch which is under design and Summit

063Park which just opened as well next slide please so when we really look at a providing increased access and opportunities for our youngest Learners um this really allows us to again um provide students again opportunities to have high quality instructional learning spaces as Dr grim just stated the number of new schools um that are receiving early childhood programs as they open or as construction occurs um really allows them to move into state-of-the-art learning environments um the goal of Early Childhood programs is also to have our youngest students as members of their school Community where they are truly embraced cared for um and in a situation where um they might be able to attend school with their siblings and so being able to move our students closer to um either their home home school or a

064neighboring home school uh neighborhood school really provides that idea of uh creating a greater sense of community for our young students again Dr Grim had mentioned and I spoke before about the um reduced transition time so again um providing students access to instruction um where it is not also coupled by a long bus ride on the front and and tail end of that um there is more opportunity for students to engage in full day pre kindergarten programs so Campfield currently only offers half day pre uh kindergarten programs some of these students will be progressing to schools that have full day Pro uh prek programs there already um as part of their matriculation process so again we're providing that stronger foundation for them um and really the goal of improved attendance when students are traveling far

065to school if you have a little one who wakes up in the morning either cranky or irritable and there you know you have a long bu ride ahead of them um parents make decisions about what might be in the best interest of their child versus a maybe shorter bus ride or being able to go to a school with a sibling right around the corner um so again really focusing on ensuring even our youngest students are coming to school um every day um so that we're starting that positive pathway for them for learning so truly the recommendation um is really grounded in looking at the best needs of our students and how we can meet them um in a place that is most conducive for them and and for their learning thank you may I have

066a motion to approve the accelerated closure timeline of June 2025 of the camfield Early Learning Center as presented in exhibit k mo okay no Mr Willam were you make okay so may I have a second second still us thank you any discussion Miss Harvey just quickly I think one of the U considerations that is probably on the Forefront of many of our minds is the transition for some of our youngest uh students with some specialized and higher level needs and and for parents that can be a source of anxiety we know Campfield teachers we know Campfield school we know the the bus drivers and transport we know everyone and everyone has wrapped their arms around my child what's going to happen when they go here or there so can you speak a little bit to

067how those transitions are happening for these students absolutely and I'm actually going to ask um Miss Darren if she would mind coming up to speak to you firsthand about about some of the things that we're doing just in general with Early Childhood Pro um progressions with our students and some of the things that she's doing with our Elementary School principles so one of the things that we've started for all of our prek students this year is because we had so many arve we started doing transition snapshots so for all of our prek students if they're not in their home schools right now and this week we started meeting with principles just to give them a snapshot of everything the children have learn thus far this year so that when they transition into their school buildings

068they'll be aware of them they can reach out to their families and start to communicate them with them now so the schools already ready for them to come into the school setting so we would do the same thing for the students transitioning from Campfield we would have meeting for their schools that are taking them in so they would know everything about them they learned academically their needs their supports we have a prek Tok transition snapshot that we use and it's a strength-based model so that students they'll know how do they learn best how can we receive them so that's um um plan we have in place currently for making sure schools are well aware of the students coming to them so they can meet with their families and be prepared to welcome them into the

069school I was the princewood Campfield a few years ago so I know the importance of making sure our babies are welcomed into that environment it's one of my favorite jobs I ever had besides this one so we will make sure there's definitely a plan in place for them thank you you're welcome other questions Miss Pumphrey um of the for the 15 9 students that are now there now what who are those students what grade level are they in what's the makeup of those 59 students okay so of the students that were identified to remain there so part of this is um there are youngest Learners those would be our threeyear olds who are sort of captured in this however the number is slightly different now based on SE this 59 was September 30th we're probably

070closer to um the 80s based on continuous enrollment of three-year-olds as soon as they have their third birthday if they continue to qualify for special education services so these are students who may still require special education services and they would receive them in the same type of Service delivery model either an inside IG um uh special education setting or an OG outside general education special education um service model those service models still exist in our County they're being moved to other comprehensive schools so it actually provides a greater opportunity for Continuum of services for the students so depending on their exact address they would be um matriculated to either their exact home school if their home school is receiving one of the programs or a very close school so again the idea of getting as

071many students to their neighborhood school as possible and if not a much closer location than they are currently okay so for some of these students are these students when we initially when the board initially made a decision to close camfield were some of these students would if we continued for another year would they have matriculated through the program completely so in other words did we initially tell parents okay your students are starting here they will be able to finish before the school is closed and now we're moving that back so that that's not no longer true not necessarily because students receive Services based on their IEPs so it may be that a student was placed there originally because they were in um an inclusion three-year-old service model however at the students annual review they might

072have made a recommendation for a general education prek setting and if their neighborhood school had prek they would be recommended to go back to their neighborhood school so there would have been students who are transitioning after just a single year at camfield um whether camfield remained open for another year or not okay thank you you're welcome just to clarify when you U mentioned the 80 students was that including kids who would be coming into the building next year for the first time or those were kids that are there right now those are students who are there now okay other questions Miss Booker DWI and so I just wanted to take the time to thank the three Educators that came to the public hearing last week they gave very passionate testimonies um they are very committed

073not just to Campfield but to Baltimore County public schools that was very encouraging to hear um one of the teachers even said that it was her best teaching assignment that she had ever had um right here in Baltimore County so I that that was really great to hear and I know it's never easy to close a school um especially you know I'm very transparent my son came through camfield I know how great of a school that is um and I am just looking forward to expanded opportunities for our Campfield students um as they transition to their home schools thank you other Miss teski thank you and and just to add on to what Miss Booker DWI uh spoke about um at the hearing we heard heartfelt passionate testimony about um um how nothing can replace

074what parents and especially their students are getting at Campfield so is there anything that you can speak to that in terms of how the alternate program in their Regional School for for example would um make it Equitable or um comparable or better thank you hold on Dr dado okay uh Miss deleski I think I I would like to at least start this question and speak to the more than 200 students that we've already transitioned this year um if you guys will recall when we had the uh first hearings that was a concern of many families as well as staff members uh particularly if you spent a long time in your of your uh portion of your career at Campfield um you feel personal pride and want to make sure that the students are well taken

075care of when they matriculate Beyond Campfield whether they do all of the year you know they they complete the program or they leave Midway um our family Ames are not shy about giving us feedback and um I would say that we've received feedback that um out of our uh 200 plus students uh everyone uh we receiv received no complaints that uh schools were ready for them part of the work that uh Miss Daren our director of Early Childhood was talking about um led to that that uh students were looked at as individuals families and their needs were shared um in advance and that helped to make for a smooth transition for our students as well as you know the last slide that Dr denado talked through all of those benefits that families are seeing for

076their children um has really made a significant difference and so I would say to those families um this will be year two of that process and uh particularly with a smaller number um we know that this is going to be difficult and it is going to be handled with care for that reason to make sure that our youngest Learners have what they need Other M dominas did you have a question I just had one um so are the teachers and support student support staff that are at Campfield now are they given um priority as opposed with regards to which schools they want to go to can they follow their students um or how is that process working for for those those teachers at Campfield I'm going to probably defer to Mr Mcall to talk through

077the the priority transfer teachers process but yes they are prioritized in the transfer process so thank you for that question as a matter of fact on uh last Monday our staff went over to gamfield and had a conversation with the teachers and uh to date I want to say that there were 11 par Educators that were told to be priority transfers as well as the teachers and they were given step-by-step uh directions on what those steps would look like in terms of completing the Declaration of in and then from there um attending the job fair which we have tonight and then tomorrow night as well as on Thursday so they were given those um those steps in terms of how to submit the Declaration of intent and then also um to reach out to schools

078and attend the job fair so they are treated as priorities they all will have jobs for the upcoming school year thank you for that Mr McMillian Mr McCall you mentioned 11 par Educators how many teachers are I think it was 19 teachers thank you other questions okay may I have a roll call vote on the motion to approve the accelerated closure timeline of June 2025 of the Campfield Early Learning Center as presented an exhibit K Miss frong yes Miss Booker Dyer yes Miss Harvey yes Miss juski abstain Dr seavoy yes Mr mcmillion yes Miss Pumphrey no Mr Young yes Mr manowski no Miss lter yes favor seven favor seven so the motion passes thank you next on the agenda was the additional item um and that is resolution 20 25-01 affirming the rights of immigrant

079students and I will turn it over to miss Pumphrey I would like to invite a motion to adopt resolution 2025-the whereas through its policies precepts beliefs and values the Board of Education of Baltimore county has made clear its firm and unwavering commitment to providing a quality education for all Baltimore County public school students and whereas Board of Education policy 0100 Equity explicitly states that the board is committed to fostering the success of every student in every school by creating and maintaining environments that are safe diverse and inclusive and whereas it is a legal right of every child regardless of immigration status to access a free public K through2 education as a affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States and the Maryland state superintendent of schools and consistent with the law the Board of

080Education of Bomer County welcomes and supports all students and whereas a change in federal policy has caused fear confusion and disruption in the Immigrant Community including fear of attending school thereby preventing the Immigrant students from accessing vital instructional programs and related services that can support their educational and emotional well-being now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education of Baltimore County hereby fully wholeheartedly and unreservedly affirms the rights of immigrant students to access BCPS programming in school and throughout the school system free from fear and intimidation and affirm affirms its commitment to protection of student data privacy and adherence to all state and federal laws and regulations on student records including 20 USC section 1232 G family educational rights and Privacy Act and 34 CFR part 99 and comar 13082 as well as board

081policy 5230 student records and affirms its commitment to school safety which which includes supporting the superintendent's procedures for access to school grounds when immigration enforcement actions are salt and affirms its policies prohibiting bullying harassment and intimidation of students and BCPS rules and procedures supporting those policies and directs the superintendent to continue to provide periodic communication training and support to schools and students and parents to provide upto-date and accurate information on students rights thank you I will be honest I lost my notes for this additional item am I doing a may I have a second to miss thank you to miss pumphrey's motion thank you any further discussion I have a roll call vote please miss fro yes Miss Booker yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH Kulu yes Mr tuski Mr mcmillion yes Miss Pumphrey yes

082Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you motion the resolution passes [Applause] thank you Miss Pumphrey for your work on this also as well as board counsel and um Miss Hoy the next item on the agenda is action taken in Clos session and for that I call on Mr Burns good evening chair Lector Vice chair Harvey Dr Rogers member of the board for the record Darren Burns board attorney in closed session the board considered and took action on two appeals hea 25-13 and haa 2-2015 this would be an appropriate time for the board to consider motions to proove to approve each of those actions taken in close session thank you may I have a motion to approve the action taken in closed session on hearing examiner case haa 25- 013 so move

083may I have a second second St and authorize Miss go to sign for the board members is not physically present sorry about the ending um any further discussion may I have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss bookwire yes Miss Harvey yes Miss GK Koo yes Miss dooski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes m Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss lter yes thank you thank you may have a motion to approve the action taken in closed session on hearing examiner case ha 25-15 and authorized Miss Gover to sign for those board members not physically present still move okay we have those two second pal free second thank you any discussion we have a roll call call vote please miss frong yes Miss bger yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chica K yes meski

084yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss Lor yes thank you the next item on the agenda is a special project request and for that I call on Dr Jones good evening board chair lar and vice chair Harvey I bring before you the special project and consideration of the privately funded 7330 project request for haford High School School Stadium improvements the haford High School stadium facility is dated in several areas and needs improvements that will help increase the security safety and beautification of the whole facility the projects of note are all specifically located around the stadium entrance the list of improvements include external lighting upgrades around the concession and stand bathrooms installation of a ticket booth securing of dumpsters fencing improvements Landscaping repair parking lot back black top repair

085and stair entryway repair and improvements at this time we request uh the board to consider the privately funded 733 project request for haford School Stadium improvements thank you thank you Dr Jones May I have a motion to approve the privately Le funded 7330 project requests for stadium improvements at Harford High School sty thank you may I have a second second thank you any discussion may have a roll call vote Miss frong yes Miss bookwire yes Miss Harvey yes Miss ch yes M tuski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes M dominowski yes Miss lter yes thank you motion carries the next item on the agenda is contract Awards and for that I call on Mr Young chair of the building and contracts committee members of the board the board's

086building and contracts committee met on Monday March 10th 2025 items 01 through 016 were forwarded to the full board for approval thank you Mr Young are there any separations requested from what I've been told so far we are separating items 3 through 11 and 13 are there any others that are being three through eight thank you 11 and 13 3 through 8 11 and 13 are there any other ones that need to be separated Madam chair this is board member from pong I just had a question on contract number 14 okay so would you like it separated or you just would like to ask a question when discussion comes up we can separated asking a question during a discussion should be sufficient okay so at this time may I have a motion to approve items

087one and two 9 and 10 and 14 through 16 so move CH thank you no second is needed since the recommendation comes from the committee discussion Miss frang number 14 is that the one miss Fong you said you wanted a hold it I'm sorry which one did you want Miss Fong number 14 that's correct okay go ahead you so this lease is repl it's not replacing it's because someone else has bought um the facility where we have done our professional development my question was what year were we in the lease of the three-year lease and then what is the expectation as far as a new lease with these new owners do we expect that the lease will remain the same or will there be um an increase based on the new owners uh so thank

088you for your your question Miss frang let me make sure I captured all the questions correctly you want to know what year we are in of the lease if the if the lease conditions have changed and where are we with a potential new leasee is that correct yes okay uh so we're in the first we're in the first year of a three-year lease the lease Remains the Same only the owner of the property has changed so the new owner um part of the lease agreement that we made with L University Maryland LLC um was that if they sold the property the lease would remain binding the new owner has accepted that and has has started negotiations with us uh for for the future even um so they welcome BCPS there and the lease uh the

089tenants of the current lease will not change during this three-year period they are locked in Miss from pong any followup to that so you're saying that you you guys are in negotiations but you're not sure yet if there will be an increase in the rent once it's time to move to the new lease correct there there won't be any change over the 3 years unless we negotiate a new lease uh that changes the terms um and so we're we're in conversation of potentially a a longer lease um but again that's we're only in conversations at this point in time but the the current lease that we have is intact and the the fiscal uh points of that lease will not change okay thank you I'm saying new lease but I'm not referring to this this

090lease that will change over I'm talking about the lease that will I guess be generated once the three years is up but I think you have um I think you you answered the question regarding that where we are with that process so thank you okay other questions or discussion about the first group of contracts Miss go could you repeat the numbers of the contracts that we're going to vote on yes ma'am it's one two n 10 12 14 15 and 16 okay one last time any qu further questions on those contract numbers okay may I have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chulu yes Miss tuski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes M dominowski yes Miss lter yes

091thank you okay so we will do the rest of them individually first one is number three so may have a motion to approve contract number three educator license preparation program multilingual license pathway may I have a motion so move stesy thank you no second is needed since it came from the board um discussion on number three Miss dominowski yes um so it was unclear where this um cohort was taking place who's who's sponsoring it or leading in anybody Miss Webster Miss Simon and Mr mcau you come forward thank you for the question uh if you don't mind would you repeating the question for us as we moving forward I just was wondering who who was leading this cohort or sponsoring it where was it taking place who you're referring to the university yes Morland University

092Morland Unity it's online program oh it's online okay okay um and this is kind of going to be continuing um it said I listened to the the meeting and it said that they were reviewed who reviews them what is who was who's in that group of people that reviews them so it's a cross divisional group it ranges between HR uh employee training development cni um and um yes that was the three groups and we review all the contracts and ensure that they meet the district priorities as well as staying within fiscal responsibility okay thank you and then who is like I'm sorry who not what is the cost per teacher like to do this cohort per individual that wants to complete this well as you know institutions charge different rates but we follow the tuition

093reimbursement rate of up to $300 per credit $300 per credit yes okay so that's what teachers can be reimbursed for so yes they're receiving the reimbursement on the front end essentially um but yes they are uh taking advantage of the tuition reimbursement which is up to $300 per credit there are some institutions that don't charge that much so we pay what the tuition costs so and then this contract spending Authority it it's not like you're not prepaying this to the University at all like it's it's by it's no ma'am they the teachers or the employees must meet uh the grade expectation of C or better um once they meet that expectation then we will pay the invoice okay thank you for that any other questions on contract three may I have a roll call vote

094please miss RM yes Miss BWI yes Miss CH K yes Mr delusi yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Mr Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss lter yes thank you thank you contract passes may have a motion to approve contract from talson University Masters of Science and Mathematics education so moves thank you no second is needed any questions or discussion M dominowski this kind of involves both um four and five these are both graduate programs yes ma'am and are you aware of the grading on I think it's like the teacher National Council where they don't favor talson University's graduate programs is it included in their teach like in this specific science uh math science of math and I guess the other one was administrators educational administrators I am not 100% certain

095of the research or the documentation you're stating um or how it may apply to these programs but they are approved programs through the state department of Maryland the state department yes maam okay thank you Miss fer DWI um when we reimburse the teachers for uh this program for for participating in this program are they required to stay with Baltimore County for X number of years per the master agreement which these contracts follow it's not in that Master agreement thanks any other questions about contract 4 may I have a roll call vote please on contract for U Masters of Science in mathematics education from talson University Miss frmo yes Miss Boer dryer yes Miss CH K yes meski yes Dr Savoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski no Miss Lector

096yes thank you contract number five may I have a motion to approve contract five from talson University post post back certificate and education Administration one some moved thank you no second is needed discussion M dominasi I'm sorry could you just explain this one to me that what is this what is this cohort the ad uh educational Administration yes uh that allows our professionally licensed and teachers who hold a master's degree complete requirements for admin one so it is a pipeline creating a pipeline for our assistant principles thank you for that yep any further discussion on contract number five may have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss stesy yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss pumfrey yes Mr Young yes M dominowski no Miss Lor yes thank you

097may I have a motion to approve contract s the um historic conditional teachers open course cohort from CCBC so moved thank you no second is needed discussion questions Mr manasi could you again could you just explain this sorry could you explain this cohort to me what is is it U is it history or is it what is it okay I'm gonna I'll sum it up for you um because it's a lot um msde recently changed its regulations this was last year and then part of that change was a change from certificates to licenses so I don't want you to think that I'm speaking to you rudely but it the key is certificates licenses um so we do have conditional teachers on certificates and we're allowed um to move them to licenses and they're still required

098to complete the old requirements or the Pathway to lure so that pathway is what is historically called transcript analysis or course by course so those conditional teachers who had started on that pathway can finish it up through CCBC many of our teachers have started there and we would like to give them the opportunity to do so so this could be all different kinds of licenses yes or subject areas subject subject areas which do you know which subjects or um all content so content meaning seven grades 7 through 12 math science English um world languages art which is music which is prek through 12 um Elementary early childhood and special ed CCBC offers a range a wide range of options for our teachers to utilize and I'm sorry you may have already said this but this

099is a continuation they were already doing this through the certificate with CCBC yes okay thank you other discussion on number seven may I have a roll call vote please number seven the historic conditional teachers open course cohort they got long names Miss fra yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH Kulu yes M juski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Miss dominowski yes Miss lter yes thank you thank you number eight may I have a motion to approve the contract for masters of education of reading education so move thank you no second is needed discussion on contract number eight mrowki sorry that's okay who's leading this cohort what school with University this one is talson University this one is talson did I miss that one down

100I'm sorry this is which number again it's we number eight yes this the I think the uh titles were transposed here it at the top it says historic that's number seven number seven yeah we skipped six oh I'm sorry that's okay we're on eight says masters of that is talson masters of education reading education I how come it wasn't included in the contract I didn't see it or if I missed it is is it there oh okay never mind sorry I'm sorry yes it is there any other questions about number eight the masters of education reading okay roll call vote please miss frmo yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chk K yes mrki yes Dr seavo yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey no M young yes M dominowski no Miss Lor yes

101thank you okay sorry about number six don't want them to feel left out so educator lier Pro preparation program Elementary and early childhood is there a motion to approve contract six so moved thank you no second is needed questions about contract six this sorry that's okay uh this one's online as well correct and what so what will they essentially be learning I guess or being certified for in this one line course it's a teacher preparation program so it's geared towards our conditional teachers um it'll allow them to achieve professional lure so what does that mean conditional so we hire it's okay we hire teachers under the condition that they will meet their license professional lure requirements because we do have folks who are career Changers or are content experts that we hire to teach um

102and as I said we provide them the opportunity to meet the requirements and these programs will help them do so thank you okay we've already voted on nine and correct oh may I have a roll call vote for number six m Rong yes Miss b d yes Miss Harvey yes Miss Chik K yes Miss jeski yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes M domanowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you okay and we've already voted on nine and 10 correct Miss cover nope oh yes okay so we are on number 11 which is Baler teach so may I have a motion to approve the contract for Baltimore teacher apprenticeship program masters of education in special education so moved thank you discussion you found your answer any other discussion or questions

103may I have a roll call vote on number 11 Miss frong yes Miss Booker DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss GK Kulu yes mrki yes Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes Mr domanowski yes Miss Lector yes thank you Miss C we already voted on 12 correct okay 13 which is fresh produce so um may I have a motion to approve contract 13 fresh produce so moved thank you no second is needed questions on contract 13 Miss dominowski um I'm not sure who needs to come up for so I wanted to ask um are you do you know if any uh kenis products are part of the Maryland uh Farm to school initiative fresh I think it's like fresh fresh food fresh Maryland fresh local fresh local um thank you

104for your question that that's a very broad statement from local what exactly do you mean by well there's a there's an Initiative for uh Farm to school that Maryland MSD Department of Ed a agriculture is trying to push to get more localized farmers and their products into the schools that they're surrounding I just wanted to know um as being fresh fruit and vegetables if we were you know if Keen is involved in that or if we're involved in that there's several different programs so msde is involved in a cooperative for like the better words that focuses on Local Foods um it's in the infant stages I would call it uh for right now there's also Farm to school programs there's a grant program through the USDA there's and there's more beyond that that I'm probably

105a little less um informed on Keeny has local produce they also have much farther distances we participate in local as much as we can depending on what those items are um but the specific program that you're referring to there there's there's many different ones so it's it it's kind of hard to to answer that specific question I just wanted to make sure that we're we are looking at companies that are are specifically targeting local farms that farm to school and we're getting those products into our school systems as much there is gr grant money available I think that's like in the millions per year from the federal government that and you can get up to I forget how much it was a couple thou 100,000 um per School per District uh with that Grant so

106I just want to make sure we're utilizing that if we're you know dealing with companies that have that you know Maryland Farm to school initiative so ke Farm to school initiative is a is a very specific initiative Keeny participates in many many local local produce programs has Partnerships all across the state and and Beyond um they publish every week every month you know which farmers and where all your produce comes from and and tons of of information around all of those and obviously we participate in all those as well um the grant programs are very specialized they're very specific um and they are uh I can't explain it they they're very specialized they're very specific items they specific quantities there specific Farmers there's obviously Grant regulations that go for year over year um we partner

107with Keeny because they can service our schools so Keeny is the a large distributor if you will um that also includes those local programs so we choose that distributor that can service the the needs of our size size of a district I should say those are those are probably Grant questions that I was asking you anyway so I'm sorry about that that's and and we would just add any any vendors welcome to bid on any open contract I believe this is the fourth of of fiveyear contract um for this particular contract so we would welcome any local vendor certainly to to bid next time this contract is open that actually leads me into my next question this is the I think it say like a year and one month left and we have spent about

1087.5 million and you're asking for an increase of 16 million I'm just what why do you need such a large increase well I'll let Miss I'll ask Miss hler to answer that question but um as I've been educated over the last year and a half between between C and missler's um vantage point of getting the freshest Foods possible in our in our schools and all of you have seen those those products in our school cafeterias um the amount of the Enterprise fund that we are spending and grant funding that we are spending on fresh fruits and vegetables has skyrocketed over the last over the last couple years so that's in part through C that's in part um because those participation numbers have gone up but it's also because of um food and nutrition services focus

109on uh fresh fruits and and vegetables and fresh food in totality that's you got [Laughter] it this this is not a question you can probably answer are we going to not give kids options like and I mean this in like a night like a good kind of way like instead of giving them the option of like french fries or chips they're going to get fresh fruits or vegetables and they have to chew like kamek start knocking out some of these processed foods that are coming into our school and only offer you know Fresh Foods fruits and vegetables I mean obviously we're going to have some process but like can we are we going to start narrowing that down eventually so offerings are are dictated based on the U the USDA and and what they prescribe

110that we have in our school meals and so we are the team is constantly balancing what's available and what we can purchase at a at a price point in order to efficiently and effectively serve all of our kids um so while it is the goal to continue to improve the quality and the offerings and to make things fresh um sometimes that's not entirely possible um we've had lots ofers ations around what what isn't what isn't available to the kids um and I think that um even our student board member can share with you the taste testings that that we've had have keyed on um those those fresh and diversified offerings than than what we used to have and I'll say under missler's leadership um it used to be that we offered Pizza five days a

111week to the to the kids um we don't do that we don't do that anymore our our um our offerings are are formal con concentrated um and I think if if Missler continues on this path they they'll be even more focused in the next couple of years do you have anything on that you got it that was great thank you any other questions on contract 13 may I have a roll call vote please miss frong yes Miss Booker D yes Miss Harvey yes Miss chica Kulu yes Miss deleski yes Dr SEO yes Mr McMillian yes Miss Pumphrey yes Mr Young yes M domanowski yes Miss Lor yes thank you and thank you to sta for answering the contract questions this evening the next item on the agenda is the report on academic achievement special education

112and for that I call on Dr Rogers thank you Dr D denado and Miss Myers will come forward please good evening again chair Lor Vice chair Harvey members of the board we are pleased to provide an update on special education in Baltimore County Public Schools as you know one of our academic priorities is special education and so Dr dado and Miss Meyers will take you through the progress made to date um especially as compared to our uh Focus plan on special education thank you very much Dr Rogers next slide please so we first wanted to start with a thank you uh to the board um for your fiscal support of serving our students receiving special education services because of our funding in FY 25 and again the work and goals that we have for FY

11326 we've been able to provide IEP facilitators at our schools we're supporting our students who require more um comprehensive services within our non-public schools we have been able to drama I Ally expand um our early childhood programs and while that Focus was on um prek expansion part of that expansion process was adding um special education teachers with those full day pre kindergarten programs so that we would have the capacity to provide more inclusive opportunities for students again working um to enhance and support our related uh service providers um and uh the professional learning that we've been able to provide for not only our teachers but our par Educators um and our additional adult assistant so we want to thank you very much for your continued support of um funding for our special education services for

114our students so last year we sat um and talked about um those prioritized strategies that are aligned with our strategic road map um and as you'll see on this slide uh We've added things so there's nothing that's been removed um as far as moving forward with our work but we've added and highlighted with where some of those priority Strate prioritized strategies were going from 24 into 25 so some to highlight uh professional development and training for new and experienced staff uh obviously budget requests um really looking at workload we're going to be able to talk about that some um continuing to address um disproportionality through um the work of our CCIS funds um also looking we've added this year as far as two things we'll highlight as far as transition Services as well as uh

115a highlight of birth of five Services um and going through our culture obviously um it's great to be able to talk through some of our family and Community engagement initiatives that um hopefully some of you have been able to participate in so um this slide really talks about looking at our performance measures and really what um the special education plan and road map was designed to do was to create um results based accountability so what is it that we are doing to serve our students to serve our teachers um and to improve our culture and then how are we me measuring if it's working how it's working um on this slide you'll see a couple of areas where we have um demonstrated some of the things that we're doing so I'm not going to go

116into the details about this slide because as we go through the presentation you'll get some specific information about each of these um but truly the goal is to identify what is the key action that we're um taking or undertaking how are we measuring our progress in it um and then what is our next step based on where we are with that progress and we'll start with the priority area one so again that is our people so supporting those um teachers related service providers iip facilitators par Educators and additional adult assistants and the team so that they can do their best work for our students families and partners um you can see our special education Staffing plan um as well as again really highlighting our um FY 26 budget requests so that we can continue to

117do the work with the team that we have so Priority One focusing on our people um targeted professional learning is something that we've talked about and is a key area um that I will link um really closely to that teacher retention we know that's an area that we want to continue to improve upon um while we have some positive data with regards to our first year teachers that we know we also know that that's an area that we um agree is something that across our system um special education is a shared responsibility it is highlighted as a shared respons responsibility that something the superintendent has prioritized and with that I will say that when we look at the professional learning that we provided by being able to say that when you look at the list

118here it's beyond just our special Educators and the importance of that is going to allow for that lift of special education and support to all students to be part of that shared work so just some things to highlight for this year which we're excited about is that we provided a special educator um focused um five-part series on specially designed instruction um for school-based so we had two strs running one is for special Educators that we know they need their own professional learning that is specific to special Educators we also know that in school houses like as I said it's a shared initiative so really focusing within the schoolhouse on collaborative planning and co- teing so that is across buildings across all of the humans in the space and that it's not just special Educators um

119then a focus on prek teachers Paras and prek assistants on curriculum udl and inclusive practices you'll see inclusive practices as a through line for all of that we're doing again that's supporting all students um and as we've expanded prek really beefing up that um professional learning around those inclusive practices to allow all of our students coming into our system access to that um the best high quality Early Childhood Program possible um also you'll see here obviously IEP facilitators we are excited that this is um that first year of those being part of the operating budget and we'll be able to talk through some of the um wins with regards to the work of Ip facilitators staff development teachers again we look to provide professional learning related to special education across the system to all different

120role alike groups in order for that to be the shared um work of our system so staff development teachers are a key part of this um we highlight infants and toddlers providers on their reflective coaching authentic assessment and quality practice which is important in our infant infants and toddlers work as far as also improving the practices of our providers there and then finally listed um is for principles um being able to be part of every principal um leadership development special education as a priority area is critical to our principls um being able to support and carrying this work forward Miss Myers mentioned um the shared responsibility for supporting all teachers and staff that work with our students who um receive special education services so focusing on our new and conditionally licensed teacher support um working

121in conjunction with um our office of professional learning and Human Resources um additional supports are provided to conditional teachers um with regards to certification support additionally contractual special education coaches um are available to work with our new teachers this started in mid uh mid year this year um where we have retired uh special Educators who are working to coach and provide direct support to our new um conditional special Educators additionally knowing that it really starts with what happens when teachers join BCPS um extending the opport unities for our special education teachers during new teacher orientation so they have a more comprehensive um overview during the those few days and they actually have additional days of trainings that Focus specifically on their roles as special Educators so that they are starting the school year um with

122those foundational things in place how to use the different systems how to uh begin to work through those IEP processes um so that additional training to get them started on the right foot another area of focus of our people is really focusing on that analyzing and refining the workload standard so I'm going to pause here for a second and and be able to go through some more specifics related to our related Services we know that our related service providers um are an area that we um I know you have also heard from um with regards to the needs of our related service providers this year um I want to talk about some of the things that we have um done already and that we're going to continue to do moving into next year to be

123able to um address and um support support this group of folks um so specifically with regards to speech and language um Pathologists we um while working all year we also worked with a very targeted workg group in January with the goal of really being able to not only hear from them but work collaboratively looking at the standards for Staffing across various jurisdictions and how they're doing that um gain that feedback from providers on what's working and what's not working and then being able to kind of shift our practices where we can as we move into next year so um excited about that work and and then we also um will have similar we have had similar conversations ongoing with our occupational therapists and our physical therapists a little bit different with regards to work group

124but being very uh working to be very collaborative here where those concerns are with regarding um to workload and ensuring that as we move forward we're being responsive um where we can be that being said one of the things I want to highlight is the move to a hybrid speech and language um Service delivery this school year so as We Know know um speech and language in-person Service delivery uh there is there's a national shortage with regards to inperson Service delivery um that being said a lot of jurisdictions have moved to what is hybrid so we as a system have prioritized allowing for um those inperson providers that we have to be spread out across the system um to allow for Equitable uh Service delivery and access to inperson Service delivery as much as possible

125that is then partnered with the additional of a virtual service provider so most elementary schools have this right now have um inperson as well as virtual Service delivery um I do want to say that virtual Service delivery is an evidence-based practice it was actually around prior to covid even though that's really where a lot of us became familiar with that um we also um support virtual Service delivery with the addition of um another trained human who can help um the students be able to access the services with the virtual provider across that screen so that is something that we are using in our schools but we want to also be very clear that we have prioritized our regional programs on our early childhood um with regards to wanting access to that in-person speech and language

126provider so that's where that shift we actually made that shift in October um which really was clear how we understood it was a disruption to um the humans doing the work on some levels but folks were really actually I was thankful to the number of speech and language Pathologists who said we understand we understand that we have Littles that really need access to that inperson support and as much as that is a shift in their schedule um they you know kind of identified the fact that like this is what we need to do which is best for kids um moving into next year knowing that that's where we are they'll we are um committed to making many less shifts with regards to that wanting to communicate with folks ahead of time so that those shifts

127are not something that we're needing to do in October but that we are um going into the school year um so that folks are aware of kind of what that Service delivery model looks like and how we're able to support as far as going into FY 26 for programmatic Staffing we've taken into account moving forward that we understand that um in a lot of our regional programs we may start with a number of students that is a lower number and it may become higher throughout the year that results also in the need for um adjustments to Staffing with regards to related services so going into FY 26 one of the shifts that we made and again this has been in collaboration with providers is being able to say we understand programmatically there's three sections of

128students for this Regional program for example so Staffing according to the section which allows that provider to be in the building um and then if as there's an increase in students that person's already there so it allows for us not having to shift in the same way we're doing that programmatic Staffing in addition to um taking into account of course planning time case management time IEP team time assessment time the need for consultation Etc um around both indirect and Direct Services um and that's being taken into account for both OTS um as well as pts similarly um workload versus case load is an important P portion that we're taking into account for folks we know everyone's um we we've heard a lot about those two words and I think the important thing that we want

129to highlight is that um especially with our related Services the number of students is very different compared to the workload so you could have a student that is receiving a 15 minute per month versus a student that is receiving two 30 minutes a week so that's an example of a related service so that's an example of that difference in the workload versus the case load so a provider that may have one student that is 115 per month has a very different workload than one that would have two 30 minute sessions per week that's an exaggerated I mean not but it is you know it's a a pretty large difference but that plays into it when we look at how we are then allocating staff itinerant versus point of contact is another area that we have

130heard very clearly um and want to be clear about is that moving into 26 we're being very clear with schools that um if you are a provider if you are a school that has a little person or big person in your building with that service you have an itinerant provider if you don't have a child with that service you have a point of contact we know that as far as so for example if there's a need for a physical therapy assessment they have the person to call as a point of contact but that school is not on their case load per se at that time that's delineation um and the availability of our providers to have a very clear schedule of when they're able to meet those needs we're hoping we'll allow with providers feeling

131um kind of more uh ability I will say to be able to provide um the services they need to be able to provide for those kiddos especially related to otmpt and then finally the contractual Services um we appreciate um the work that's been done and we know within the budget you saw contractual Services as a high spend item there that is how we supplement those vacancies that we know are a thing within our um system again Nationwide with regarded Service delivery so contractual services are how we supplement um and how we support across um Service delivery for special Educators we've talked a lot about this um over time just three areas we want to highlight for special Educators with workload that we are um happy about being able to um work on over the last

132year has been the red document which we all um know as far as that re-evaluation planning document that we're able to make that um much more automated uh the special education management plan that's allowed to um it's provided uh structures for school leadership to uh support special Educators across um their building and then finally coming soon this is um exciting is that the availability of a star assessment to support present levels of performance so in a much more kind of robust way for our special Educators to be able to have that data um which again is a timesaver I talked a lot on that last one so I'm going to try to be short on the facilitators um for IEP team facilitators here this outlines just what we've done with facilitators the training that's there

133the e- handbook I'm just highlighting the work that we are so thankful for the availability of those facilitators um and the um being able to see how we're utilizing them every month we're celebrating those successes for facilitators celebrating those successes for schools uh which we know um then leads to um increased outcomes for teams our performance measures um you see a lot of checks here which are exciting a few to highlight um we do want to highlight with regards to that first year um special education retention rate being um as our HR data being at that 90% for special ed self-contained teachers and 89 um% for that inclusion teachers and then new special ed retention rate of 90% so that first year retention and then the new retention rate um are high again um the

134conversation that um Dr dado shared with regards to what we're doing with those conditional and the professional learning new teachers um as well as that ongoing professional learning across um disciplines we know is going to make a difference with this retention rate uh because it is a sh it's shared work and it's hard work um but ongoing kind of professional learning around that we're hoping to see increased outcomes there um and then highlighting as far as um we are committed to a 25% decrease in mediation filings and we are at a 22 um percent decrease from Baseline year to date from last year okay looking at our priority two area which is our services so this is really looking at how are we sharing resources collaborating so that we can create again um we've mentioned

135a couple times the cross uh division cross system collaborative work in order to support the learning of our students priority to being our services some High um highlights here as far as collaborating planning and professional in communities which I talked about Zone collaboration is something to really highlight with regards to the Department of schools and Department of special education cannot highlight enough is that shared um ownership and shared collaboration across divisions so really targeting special education working with our colleagues in Department of schools around being able to support um special education students as well as all students with regard and how we're um uh provide service delivery as well as instruction in the classroom um and then a focus support of our programs with curriculum development and implementation and um the use of a comprehensive

136review team to support um complex student cases to ensure students are getting the support to highlighting here with regards to our services is something that we're doing strategically within Baltimore County um is using um our comprehensive coordinated early intervention service um funds which are part of our special education allocation that is required to um be focused on disproportionality um with those funds what we're doing is building out um that infrastructure for change so we're able to build out um areas of our system that are focused on being able to support students um uh our general education initiatives actually and then preventative from needing special education but also supporting within special education so example being um I've already highlighted within the division of schools as far as that ongoing collaboration comprehensive support teams we've been able

137to align a support team to um each of the zones with regards to our in our department of schools to be able to support um initiatives within school buildings related to um eligibility uh suspension dis and other dis uh potential disproportionate measures expanded um student support team infrastructure really focusing on our student support teams our students with 504 plans um and then really exciting which we've talked about um with Mysterion is that expansion of Department of Early Childhood using those funds to really invest in early childhood and the support of um needing that our youngest Learners that not only our students receiving special education but also any child that's coming in in order to prevent potential the need for Special Education Service some highlights for infants and toddlers data here you'll see increases um with

138regards to timely delivery of services that percent evaluation and initial for our um ifsps and then family survey response rate is increased there um again looking at our services for our older students so our um transition Services as well as postsecondary Pathways this is another great example of the collaboration between um the office of special education and our um office of College and Career Readiness so our Workforce Development teachers as well as our career Navigators are working with all of our high school students um including our students who might be working towards an uh alternative pathway or towards a certificate and those post secondary Pathways with employment opportunities for them so we've also realigned the transition facilitators who previously had very much of like a compliance role making sure that we completed certain processes with

139our older students that's shifted so they're really working with the Workforce Development teachers working with the students on um those transition opportunities for them and the workplace experiences um our expansion of our postsecondary fouls um programs and um if you have stopped by the employee Development Center on a Monday through Thursday morning um you can see many of our students um that we now have a coffee bar that they are running working on those job related skills making change um interacting with customers um documenting purchases so all of those skills that they would need to then leave BCPS and be able to um gainfully gain employment again some of our measures to celebrate here um obviously are 100% of our schools being supported by that I facilitator and then we saw an increase in um

140the the number of folks the percentage indicating that they're having the resources and support to implement curriculum so we are um happy about that slight increase in that area um to the next slide obviously this is a huge one with regards to the number of um full day prek and options for inclusive um options for earliest Learners up to 101 full day prek um and six full day preschool 3es um programs our students the next slide talks about what I um reviewed as far as that infrastructure for change those uh very strategic um areas that we're highlighting and building out in order to be responsive to the um disproportionality and last but certainly not least priority area three which is really focusing on our culture so really creating that culture of inclusiveness trust belonging and

141service for our students and our families um you can see um highlights of many of the different activities and events um that the office of special education again in tand other offices are providing to provide these opportunities for our families in the community uh right on this slide you'll see a couple of uh key data points um highlighting some of the different activities and events that um are provided with families and you can see just and I'm not going to go through every bullet but this year number number of events of Family Outreach Wheeling trying to connect with our families providing them with resources opportunities in multiple formats um whether it's in person online training opportunities for families Outreach events um and even helping families get connected with support groups so that we are trying

142to provide all of the resources um not only to the students themselves but also to their families and helping them make those Community Connection another area Focus has been communication um with colleagues families as well as school communities uh this is just an example of um the monthly special education updates and reminders that goes out trying to ease of access for professional learning calendars parent newsletter access um parenting community activities we are talked about and then a section that's ask your IEP chair so that we have principles knowing what's been covered and the things to ask about to ensure for implementation service-minded approach is another area that we've really focused within regards to our cult culture um and we've developed uh two data dashboards actually that are able to track both requests for support and

143support interactions from the Department of special education this highlights a response time which um I would be um proud to share is less than one day um as well as the data Trend thator by level so this allows us to look at school specific area specific um human specific with regards to who's providing the support and ensure that um we're being consistent and responsive to the needs of our um to our needs of our schools this actually reflects the same thing we we committed to a a department level staff participating in customer service um and while that's a great one we did it and then how do we move forward is being able to sustain that and that comes with those measures that we're able to see under the dashboard uh and then the the

144school satisfaction surveys there um this is another proud one is that of those um surveyed we have a 92% agree or strongly agree with the support provided so that's something that we've really worked to improve upon um and so that's a really exciting point that we're seen there this is the um app parent survey and while there's uh we continue to work to um gain feedback from families related to the IEP team process um of those families um that were were responsive in the survey um 95% agreed um that their input was valued um and then 90% agreed that their child special education needs are met on a daily basis um while we know that that is a uh smaller number of responses there that what we've also listed out are those things that we're

145continuing to do to engage families for that feedback that includes um having our facilitators put links for um both access to parent Resource as well as access to the Department of special education on their signature line um parent requests for support on the Baltimore County Public Schools homepage so if there um they do need support that it's actually right on the homepage as one of the little bricks at the bottom as well as in the drop down now that goes right to our team for response and support um IEP chair trainings are actually um focused every month regards to parent engagement and Community involvement so we want our parents to feel valued and members of the team and not feel as if the team process has already been determined so that's something that we are

146committed to um being able to shift that with regards to um making sure parents have the resources and training necessary in order for them to feel like they're able to um actively participate in the meetings and then we're really proud of that increased partnership with secac we have three um really strong chairs who are committed to the work um and who are committed to partnering with with us and thank you very much for your time um we can certainly entertain questions if you have them so thank you it's obvious from your presentation the amount of work that you and your team are doing to improve outcomes for our students um with special needs I know we have a ways to go but thank you for all the efforts that you are doing and I will

147open it up for questions from the board Miss Harvey good evening everyone I thank you so much for the work you're doing this is not easy work uh and I recognize that parents always want the best for their kids and the services that they need uh and are entitled to as part of their their educational process you you mentioned this parent survey and uh the response was not what you had had hoped for what are ways or what are you planning to do differently to engage more parents uh in this process and just even in this conversation yeah so immediate those are things that we're in ongoing kind of discussion with um we as I said with the IEP facilitators I actually spoke at every IEP facilitator training last month and really highlighted the fact

148that they are that liaison and this was across across elementary middle and high they are the liaison between their school our office and families and ensuring that families have access to what they need in order to be able to um gain the resources that that they that they need we are highlighting that um the importance of the the newsletter with regards to how we are sharing things outwardly to families um we know about the resource fairs and things um but as you've seen um but we continue to look for other opportunities for engagement with families for them to have we know there's a lot happening we need it to get to families in a different way and that's been that conversation really with schools as far as with saying we know wanting to partner with

149regards to the office and the schools with regards to getting to our families working with the PTA Liaisons our um secac chair is actually one of the liaison on her PTA so that's been a conversation as well as far as wanting to lean in and saying look here's the the newsletter for families here's the um what we call the padlet of information we know that the survey is one point of you know one point and and they receive that um at the end of teams we've had chairs share that they often will share there's a QR code that some of you may be familiar with um but a lot of families choose to not complete that at the end of the team I understand you just went through an IEP team so you know kind

150of going through what are the other avenues and at least being able to to say that if they don't get that here's the access to support you know kind of an all Hands-On Deck with regards to engaging families and getting the supports they need so miss just one of those specific strategies and actually it's Myers and I just talked today um so we've had a lot of Leverage with talking points the communication tool that we started purchasing be um that we purchased um really out of cni for our multilingual Learners however schools are using it with all of their students and leveraging that as another mechanism to connect with our families of students on our Case loader for IEP facilitators to connect with families um we've received a lot of positive feedback um and just

151even looking at our data from the use of talking points um we are seeing a lot of reciprocal communication between teachers and families um through that tool and so leveraging that to also provide some additional talko opportunities for families other questions or comments Miss bger dwire so thank you for all this information and I too had some questions about the survey um you said that 80% report needs were met they met or exceeded expectations uh so for the other 20% what was the the trend that you noticed what was their key concerns and was it um in a certain area um a certain set of schools where this was coming up at so actually the survey question is do they meet or need and it doesn't actually it doesn't ask for it if not what

152is that um so to be transparent about that so it's just that they did report that they did it met their expectations what we see um in regular feedback is um support with the application so we can provide the resource but then being able to model that application and for um school teams to feel like the recommendation provided meeting the need of um what they're feeling at the moment so that's one of the things our team continues to work to do um is not only um providing a recommendation but modeling is the expectation kind of being in it with students in order for it to if we're going to make recommendations show how that works um so that's just some you know kind of feedback that we do here and also with curriculum materials not

153just providing a recommendation on planning but sitting down and co-planning that's something our especially our elementary team has done a lot with this year with regards to collaborative planning um and the majority of that Focus has not been on special Educators actually it's with General Educators um working to collaborative plan in order to show where the resources are again um so that they're able to then Implement that on their own um and and so I do recommend putting in something where they can I agree with you give some feedback there um I love that e-handbook that has so much information in it um yeah everyone should should definitely look through that I did have a question about the hybrid Service delivery so what is that age group that's receiving the virtual delivery is it all

154it is it's all yeah so and interestingly enough when we um talked with principles we actually have some um principles who've been great conversations around even um some of our students who are most impacted Maybe by autism that they've had some kiddos that actually participated more in the virtual Service delivery um out of Interest with the screen with the support of the facilitation of the trained human as I say that to help them facilitate in person um but it really does there's a broad spectrum now do we highlight the fact that yes absolutely we're focused on making sure that we have providers supporting our early childhood and our regional programs because we know that population is going to need more than likely more of access to the in person um but that virtual Service delivery

155is something that is used across and I will highlight about virtual is that being principal of white out school during um the during covid and the we had great outcomes for our kids great outcomes with regards to Virtual Service delivery I had one of the most fantastic speech and language Pathologists who was able to do that in our kids made progress so seeing it in person and being able to have that conversation with folks um it really is a a model that can work thank you other questions oh miss de manasi thank you uh on slide 16 um I was just looking at the difference in the surveys from 2023 to 25 we had 900 responses and significantly Less in 25 252 um yes sorry got across the table that's okay um yeah so our

156sta we use the Staffing plan for survey that's something that we've actually highlighted is that it went down a lot this year with regards to that survey with the the feedback one of the things we're looking to go into next year um in response to this is how we can utilize other formats within the system like the climate survey that we share out broadly in order to get those data points one of I will say that's great about that performance driven measures is that we know we're going to have that FY 26 that we will then look and and work with stakeholders to then look at our measures the progress we've made and then come back to the table to say this is where we're moving to next um and then of course looking at

157things like a lot of this was Baseline last year as you guys know when we said how are we then looking to measure what is it surveys is the best way um but we wanted to compare apples to apples for this year so that you'd be able to see that measure and then we'll shift to going forward and who sorry if you already said this but who are these surveys sent out to everyone everyone so the Staffing survey is sent out across all Communications we we work with our Communications office on that it goes out through schools it goes out through social media it goes out in various Avenues and we really strangely had a much less response this year than in past years okay uh thank you and then to uh slide 23 when

158it talks about um so you had you met you you offered 100% to that the customer service training what was the attendance so all of my staff participated in Department um as far as customer service training and I'll say it's um those that participated directly with me in that were approximately 100 staff members um in addition to that is just the expectation across the department that we are customer service oriented um and that mean that it's not just responsive to schools it's responsive to families responsive to students that is a um very much known expectation as far as how we engage um and how we ensure that um we are working always in that continuous cycle of improvement so what is that accountability matrix there how are you going to so that's part of the

159data dashboard that we look at as far as response rate and then we take feedback all the time so with regards to even with families if they're calling we know that when we have conversations with families about responses if there's a need that we're responsive to that need um that we're not only following up with the family but following up with the school um that's a huge component of our um Family Support um and and Community involvement unit we've been able to expand that so um we now have five members of that team where we Al we had one and the whole goal is that ringes from birth to 21 to be responsive um not only just to the things in the moment but then the wraparound and the followup with the school is needed

160okay thank you and then just for more about accountability there was a lot of slides uh for was one of them maybe about how you're measuring accountability as far as the implementation responses but where is the accountability um in delivery or the Matrix how how are we measuring how it's working so we look at all kinds of things right so we look at student performance which we know um our special education student group is one we continue to improve upon we look at um implementation of IEPs we get progress data with regards so it's students specific when you think about looking at um progress towards goals and objective you then expand that out to school level performance and how they're working to support student groups um we look at it um curriculum based assessment data

161we look at um broader levels of system data um so we're really really reviewing any of those data points at all times um in order to then Target where that area of um need is whether that's specific to a school or broader with regards to um system and is there like a set u schedule of like course redirect if we notice the numbers are starting to not work like how what is the immediate response so within a school you're always I mean that expectation as far as um Dr Rogers has made that very clear with regards to professional learning communities being something that we're looking at with um collaborative planning sessions looking at student data reviewing that ongoing data cycle so not just your curriculum based assessments but how are your students doing on informals

162how are they doing on um formative assessments and as well as um um summative assessments and then adjusting your instruction being responsive so it's not different than any than all students right with regards to wanting to measure how we're um our students are performing and being responsive to those needs the added later the added layer to that is then really looking at how do we need to look at specially designed instruction for our students receiving special education services to close that gap between where they might be performing and then also where the curriculum expectations are for standards thank you Mr dominasi the two minutes passed okay thanks thank you um miss frang you had a your hand up thank you I did good evening ladies and thank you for the the presentation it's great to

163see the progress that is being made um with these initiatives I have um just a couple of questions as far as the data so for slide number 24 where it says that the measure is for a minimum of a 30% response rate um and then the 80% report that their needs were met or expectations exceeded so that second piece I see with the 80% when we talk about the current status but what is the percentage rate for 2324 and the percentage rate for 189 did we meet that minimum of the 30% response rate so you can see that in 20 sorry that sounded like I didn't mean it like that sorry so when you look at the um 23 24 we highlighted there were 106 responses um and then we looked we were at 189

164responses between August and February so when we port on this status is that we know we're not getting to the point that we want to with regards to increasing parent responses so we're identifying it's that's where we I talk about that continuous Improvement cycle is that we're not seeing maybe the response where we are so then what are the things that we're going to do to engage get those responses so kind of acknowledging that it's a celebration and that we're at 95% agreeing and 90% agreeing that their needs are met in those that responded but also acknowledging where we need to be able to move with regards to um being able to engage families more for us to be able to then get that higher level of response rate okay so in that answer I'm

165not sure if I heard um what the percentage rate was so if the goal was the 30% and then it's we didn't meet it what is the percent rate that we're at Miss frong um we've moved from 106 responses over last year to 189 responses this year to date um we could get you in a separate communication what percentage that uh represents out of uh you know compared to the goal of 30% okay okay thank you thank you and then um on slide 20 where we talk about the culture and the family and Community touch points as far as what's happening this school year um the these numbers again it's it's all good information and I was going to ask about cak but I see that that had already been um you mentioned that in

166the last slide as far as the opportunity for Partnerships and reaching out to our families but for these Community points this is what it is this year um I guess again is there something to compare to from last year or are we saying this a certain percentage that we want it again just because this is a snapshot in time I'm trying to understand understand how we I guess look at it as far as you know performance is it we're doing better than last year we still have work to do um can you just give some kind of more context to this slide on slide 20 yeah so what I'd like to highlight is that um we last year was the first year that we had built out as our a family and Community Support Unit

167um it was a team of one actually um and while we had committed to having a I think our measure is like one per quarter with regards to a family um event which we absolutely did and then expanded beyond that so um we can get the um specific data with regards to the number of last year to this year I can say anecdotally without there it is expanded um extensively because of the number of people being able to do that work um never before have we had um these broad uh special education fairs with regards to families and having resources for that um we haven't we've had support groups really isolated just within that birth of 5 community and now that's being expanded out to birth of 21 um providing sessions on IEP development um

168providing sessions on um the IEP team process uh having podcasts um having the opportunity um for what we've called those um in the no videos when we talk about a specific um item we did transportation for um families wanting having to put their kiddo on the bus for the first time when they're three um you know that's an example of one so so we've really um expanded just expanded out as far as those service options obviously will continue to improve but I but I can without a doubt say that the number from last year to this year has been um extensively different I think the other part to to capitalize on that and spring pom you asked a little bit about um the relationship with secac and one of the things that just even within

169the SE uh secac meetings the amount of resources and Community Partners that come to those events to then share more information with families and provide those additional connections so that's not directly captured how many families then meet with that Community partner but they were linked to that person based on that relationship and that connection that was made during that cak meeting so there's also making bridges for families to access other resources thank you thank you with slide number 10 y 17 seconds left Miss fron go ahead okay thank you with slide number 10 um um you spoke about the decrease in the mediation filings and it looks like for both years we are under but um I guess can it give us an idea or does that how does that translate then to um like

170if we think about budget and money so um a reduction in our non-public placement do we have numbers to kind of connect to those um to these measures you can respond Miss Myers yeah so our goal is looking at that decrease in filings for ation um those don't always result in um what would be a um a non-public placement per se it's really the opportunity for us to for mediation sometimes is to come to the table with family to be able to have a collaborative conversation about what is the um item that they are concerned about and then be able to come to a resolution sometimes that may result in um a non-public sometimes it may be something that's within the schoolhouse um what we'll highlight uh is that what we've seen with regards which

171is also a measure of the um increase in the uh parent engagement is that we've had an increase in families coming to that table without a a representative so without an attorney let's say which means that we are making sure that we're being very clear that we're able to work with families and support them um and that if they feel that they need to do that they're able to do that and have an equal outcome with regards to just um our team as and not needing to then spend money on what would be um an an attorney thank you anyone else thank you very much for your comprehensive rep oh yes Miss chicao hi thank you so much for your presentation I kind of just had two questions and so you were highlighting The Falls

172program expansion where they were running the coffee bar at the EDC so I was kind of wondering do we already have other structured Partnerships that kind of exist with employers trade schools or like higher education institutions so that way we can kind of guarantee transition support and are there kind of any other plans to construct similar Hands-On training for our special education students in the later stages yeah so within thank you for the question so within um our um f programs and our cows programs that is a component that we do work with schools to be able to have so um an example would be Owen Mills has a thrift shop that their um team is able to um staff and and be able to support and we have various other um coffee shops are

173are another example that we have um so schools do that both with both inhouse um and then we also do work with um enclaves and with Partners in order for students to have other work experiences um with outside of the schoolhouse um and then that's an area that we're looking to grow upon is that 18 to 21 looking to grow out other opportunities for um engagement that's part of where that Workforce Development Group is coming into play with us thank you and then for my other question it was on for slide 16 when it said that 61% of Educators felt like they had appropriate or somewhat appropriate resources and so do you kind of know for the 40 for about the 40% what the most commonly cited missing resources were for them I don't have

174as far as what those were that's what I was referencing as far as um we wanting to be able to support with the modeling and then the the hand overhand as far as with doing collaborative planning with doing a modeling of resources supporting with um curriculum um with behavior strategies etc for um staff to have that um kind of application component is one of the things that we hear but that data point is not then captured it's just whether or not they have them or don't have them thank you and then sorry with the 25% decrease in the mediation filings have you kind of been able to identify or find like I guess areas of where parents like why parents were previously filing for mediation and kind of what has been led to that reduction

175a lot of times it's wanting to be felt that uh part of the team process um and wanting to have an understanding of um what is happening why it's happening and making sure their child's getting the resources they need um that's kind of broadly speaking as far as what is shared without getting to kind of more specific it would be student specific but that's generally what's happening thank you and for my last question for the in-person speech services for students in the hybrid model is there any like a specific criteria that determines which student qualifies for the inperson versus the hybrid versus virtual and if so is there kind of like an appeal process for parents who might think that they require more intensive support so it's an IEP team decision ultimately the team discusses

176the service delivery for the student and it is a service delivery so the team can discuss as far as if there were barriers to them being able to access and then if that is you know documented and there's it goes through the normal team process with regards to um a disagreement process that is part of um those IEP team um procedures thank you thank you thank you for your presentation and answering all your questions answering all of our questions okay next on the agenda is our BCPS progress and action with a focus on grants and for that I call on Dr Rogers and she will introduce staff just thank you again at this time Miss Charlie green Miss Laman Miss Anderson and Mr Cromwell will join us so this team is going to relaunch our

177progress in uh BCPS in action uh series that we've been sharing with our Board of Education members and members of our community um to really showcase the work that's happening in schools and in offices this uh presentation in particular is quite timely given um the changes that we know we are all experiencing around uh finances at the uh federal state and local level and so so we are very proud of the work that have been accomplished to date I shared a little bit about it in the uh overall budget presentation but really this team will speak in depth about um what has occurred this year and where they are in term of in terms of securing additional funding and supports for our students that we serve so turning it over to you Miss charot green

178thank you thank you Dr Rogers and thank you board chair lier board chair har I mean Vice chair Harvey members of the Board of Education we appreciate the opportunity to share a bit with you about the work that's been happening with the director of Grants um I am joined today with Miss Heather logman who will speak specifically to the position but I'm also joined by Mr Eric Cromwell as well as principal Anderson who will talk specifically about not only how this position guides and acquires grants but what it looks like in a Schoolhouse and how it shows up in the lives of children so we're super excited about being able to share that information with you and so if we can move to the the next slide too excited there we go so I'll talk

179a little bit about the position before turning it over to miss Logan uh the role of the director of Grants and special projects really is to identify funding sources that would help us diversify our portfolio of funding we don't want to be overly reliant on one source of funding as Dr Rogers indicated it is particularly timely when we envision this position we certainly did not believe we would be faced with you know some potential reductions in funding sources that we've traditionally relied on we are excited that we are able to really supercharge our philanthropic efforts looking to the private Community to help support some of the things that we'd like to have for all students but in addition to that having someone who is charged with making sure that their eye is on anything that's

180happening either federally at the state level and in other places to make certain that schools are aware of what fing is available so schools have the opportunity to not only liaz with Miss Logan but in addition to that um to have her guide them through the process so that if there is funding that perhaps they were unaware of she's able to take that project from beginning to end and when we first envisioned this we set a goal of $2 million which sounded like a whole lot of money and it is a whole lot of money um I will say without stealing any of the excitement of the presentation that that goal was met and exceeded and we're excited about the potential for this position so without sharing more I will turn it over to miss

181Logan and the team to share what it looks like in team DCPS thank you we can go to the next slide it has been a joy to embrace this position and it's been wonderful to really look at how can we as a system look holistically at all of the things that we need to accomplish hear all of the voices uh we had a listening session to find out from everyone what they were interested in what funding needs uh we have and then be able to go out and seek them and as you can see on this slide through research and then also through looking at how can I build relationships with businesses with local and County and state government uh colleges and universities as well as philanthropic entities and other F uh Foundation sources so

182we've used a multifaceted approach to really as Miss Charlie green said uh it's been wonderful to supercharge our funding portfolio and diversify just like we would in our own personal Investments we can go to the next slide this is a little bit about what she was alluding to with some of the funding updates to Spotlight a few of the uh things that we have accomplished the almost a million dollars in the Maryland Center for school safety Grant has gotten us some vestibules as well as some open gate funding another one that's exciting is the 200,000 for theal grant for project wayfinder which you'll be hearing a little bit more about uh later on and that's in partnership with the Education Foundation and another one to Spotlight is the Hopkins uh funding which we'll be talking

183a little bit about later uh that they've provided for us for the Maryland Mesa program uh so that we could pay for the coaching stiens and free up some Eda funding for other uses which has been wonderful if we go to the next slide we've got a few more like to Spotlight Our Stars so a couple of things to uh showcase here the Maryland Department of Natural Resources Grant has allowed us to update our science curriculum to be reflective of things that are happening locally in our environment so that we can really meet our students needs in their uh in their Community also it's been great to be able to provide that funding for incentives for attendance for uh bus drivers and attendance as well as the Maryland Center for computing education School District Grant

184which we're receiving for the first time and excited to have that provide professional development uh K12 for computer science and if we go to the next slide I'm going to turn it over to our stars of the moment it's always great to hear exactly what's happening with students good evening um it's my great pleasure to talk a little bit about the partnership we have with uh the Applied Physics laboratory um the Maryland Mesa program has been part of Baltimore County since 1997 and APPL has been a great partner for that entire time if you're not familiar with Mesa in this case the M doesn't stand for Maryland as many of the acronyms in Maryland do uh but in this case it stands for the uh the math engineering science and achievement and if that sounds

185oddly like stem you're correct uh but given that the program was started in 1970 uh it actually predates the concept of stem so uh the organization that founded that realized that there was a need for a stem Workforce uh even though we didn't know was called stem at that point and they've really put in uh and what they've realized is that the way the world works isn't about what you know it's what you can do with what you know and it's really about applying the skill sets that students have to solving real world problems and so uh the students in the Maryland Mesa program each year participate in really realistic challenges everything from uh monitoring the health of an infant to creating planetary Landers um and and a whole variety of things even you know

186to the point of computer uh computer programming right now is too uh which is uh really a growing um aspect to the to the program um and the funding that apl's bills provide this year was in direct uh reaction to uh the reduction in funding we had to support edas at schools and so uh that that funding is allowed us to maintain the program at the current level that we have and so we're grateful for that partnership um so I'll turn it over now to uh principal Anderson to talk about the uh program at her school thank you so much for this opportunity regarding um a program that we benefit from with Grant funds um for over for nearly 20 years we have been able to partner with John's Hopkins apply physics lab in participating

187in the Mesa program we have every year um every year we have approximately 50 to 60 students spend anywhere from 3 to four hours in extra time time each week working with a teacher um to work on their challenges that are provided through the Johns Hopkins program this program runs from October to march with competition season happening in the spring students work in teams to really design fabricate and test different solutions to these challenges and they really help them to develop critical thinking problem solving research and presentation skills and all of these are utilized with and stem careers of course um we have had the opportunity to participate in a state level competition every year that we've been had the program at Eastern Tech and three times we've been able to go to the national

188competition in that tenure Mesa gives our students an opportunity to um really work on real life problems that are associated with stem but it also gives them an opportunity to work on interpersonal skills so that collaborative opportunity to work team as a team to develop some leadership time management as well as communication skills is um very rewarding for them because that then helps them with their networking opportunities we've had students visit the engineering um Club they have mentors from this program uh internships as well as many scholarships we receive scholarships every year based on our participation in this program we currently have an intern who is at the Johns Hopkins apply physics lab and a part of our Mesa program program the other unique opportunity that this affords our students is the collaboration across curriculum

189so we are magnet program that has nine programs in our building but everyone is available to participate in Mesa so it gives students an opportunity to bring their expertise that is associated with their program to increase their ability to create um and problem solve and so again that's a benefit when they're applying to college and looking for stem opportunities upon postgraduation the biggest benefit for us is that the grant funding provided by John's Hopkins Applied Physics lab really enables us to provide the resources and the mentor to support our student we can't do this without the teacher support our teacher spends a minimum of three to four hours each week working individually with the students which helped to increase their engagement and participation in really developing successful projects and what that has allowed is for

190us to free up money in our school-based budget to then provide opportunities for students in other ways thank you than you and and before we move on I do want to take a moment and just to clarify why we think this is so important we know that principles really appreciate Eda funding and families do too we know that students who participate in after school activities that really augments their education and really for many provides an incentive for even being in school we have had a practice in BCPS for a number of years where schools were given a budget and perhaps saw it as a suggestion or a Target and so most recently we we've really been holding schools to the budget that is based on the enrollment of their students and we recognize that for

191some schools this does create a bit of a hardship because if you are used to overspending and all of a sudden if you think about your personal life having to stick to that budget it does create a little bit of a crunch and so the types of opportunities we're discussing here today and the money that is brought in through the grants that Miss Logan is shepherding in allows schools to free up some of those funds and better support what might be growing needs of schools that outside of the budget so we're really trying to find other ways to fund those things we know are good for kids while allowing schools to stay within their budget I did want to clarify that because I do want to make certain that we are not cutting edas we

192are but we are holding people to their budgets we are and we're also at the very same time trying to show them a way where they can actually secure additional funding to be able to provide those um activities for students that you know perhaps they had long done but because because of being held to their budget we we not able to do any further and I really want to thank Miss lockerman also for because this was one of the first times apparently that we've had we've used outside funding to support Eda so she helped pave the way to make sure that could happen so thank you very much thank you okay and so we're going to continue to shift with the community impact as a portion of um what we're focused on and that direct

193uh reflection on what we were just talking about there we've got students getting U some positive results and then also um the relationships that I'm building in the community have been wonderful resources for those supports and so just a spotlight a few the talson Chamber of Commerce as a member there able to find some partners and businesses who are able and willing to support our students with uh donations and other philanthropic entities um also uh Chick-fil-A has been a wonderful partner with that they've uh provided us with um some awards for our Champions for Children recipients as well as for the gala and so also the other one uh on the end there Cody up in Hunt Valley has been a fabulous partner with our student support network um I head up there and um

194pick up about 300 lotions and uh shampoos and conditioners for our student support network and it's just been wonderful to see how they've really stepped up as a community partner to uh help provide our students in need with some much needed resources another way that we are able to do this is through an Education Foundation collaboration it has been great to partner with uh Heather Woolridge from the Education Foundation and look at how can we build connections for again those Community Partnerships as well as grants that require a 501c3 status so those are the two major ways that we've been collaborating and if we go to the next slide that has a little bit about some of the grants that require a 501c3 uh the Baltimore Community Foundation has been a wonderful place to apply

195for things I know um Mr Cromwell has has applied for a grant recently as well for some Transportation uh so hopefully he'll be receiving that and that does require a 501c3 status so that's where um Heather and I collaborate so that we can make sure that we um can get those in and as you can see we are already in year two of the school culture Grant uh which you have seen probably on their website and then also we're in year one of two for the one I was alluding to earlier the wayfinder purpose centered Grant um and uh schools applied to participate in that I had the um privilege to see some of the professional development in action and it's great to see there really it's resonating the belonging uh curriculum that is given

196through this and the sense of identity building relationship building and um creating opportunities for students to um be a great uh community members in the future as part of the purpose of that uh and Community engagement also we are thrilled and again this is why I think Mr cromwell's here we've got lots of different science connections it's been wonderful um we've got the Ripken Foundation stem centers which are in partnership with beun and Exelon and we now are up to 16 of those thanks to them so we are very grateful for that partnership um then also as I mentioned we've got uh folks that we collaborate on looking for donations for Champions for Children like I was mentioning with Chick-fil-A BCPS Fest looking for things that we can provide to the more than 4,000 folks

197who uh come thanks to us also uh with the communications team um working on that and then of course of course we've got the gala coming up um and looking at we had Kaiser um sponsor a table which is great and we also have had uh many other folks with silent auction items and things like that so if you have not gotten your ticket Now's the Time to be thinking about a lovely evening out and we will have many things there for you to bid one so and uh lastly we are really excited about applying for the first time in BCPS history for a congressional earmark and that went in for a little over $5 million in collaboration with um Andrea Daran and our early childhood Community we're looking for playgrounds for prek expansion we

198did submit that and we'll submit um by the end of the week to um congressman oesi and so we've got those in the queue one of the things that we are making sure to do is operate on Parallel paths so we are taking advantage of applying for everything that we see in State uh Federal funding sources and then we are also looking for those philanthropic entities how can we build the donations um look at other Grant sources that we can apply for so that we are operating like I said on Parallel tracks to make sure that we're getting the fundings that we need and diversifying the places that we're looking for it and the partners that we're seeking to collaborate with so we'll end on the high note here of um really taking a look

199at our grant totals and also some of the ones where we do track what grants that um provide benefits to BCPS but not direct deposits into our account uh so we want to make sure to make that clear um so that those are some of those that are spotlighted there and I was also really excited I let Miss Charlie green know on the way in that this afternoon um found out that we got another 96,000 Grant from of we're very excited from mea so we're going to be adding that to the total breaking news do you want to describe that that was so uh that's for the uh dies decarbonization so one of the things it's going to look for it's for um energy so that's one of the things that will help our Energy

200bill which we know has been something that has uh been a point of discussion that's a big Mo over here 96,000 but we'll still keep going as we said on the slide so thank you so much for that you know we've heard from the Educational Foundation a couple times as board members and about the work they do but I think we haven't heard about the work that you're doing to secure these grants and funds for us and it's really important not only in these budget times but just to give us you know a little bit more to help supplement um what we're already providing but especially for a lot of those after school programs and the one that you described at your school um just sounds so meaningful wonderful opportunities for our kids um questions

201from board members Miss Pumphrey um you some of the grants you mentioned the Education Foundation can you describe your relationship and as far as how you work with Education Foundation do they also assist in obtaining some of these grants so we do collaborate so that if I see something I'll reach out to her and vice versa and then we look at dividing and conquering as far as the the research and the writing of it and we also then work with the appropriate content area to make sure we're getting it submitted and then um also make sure that we're looking at the fiscal implications any indirect costs that need to be added or things like that okay thank you other questions Miss soleski thank you for all of your great work just um something that came

202to mind with the energy cost increases there are a numerous solar panel companies that actually provide the panels uh free of charge and then the profits from the Surplus energy that's produced is is split you know a certain percentage would go to Baltimore County and a certain percentage would go to the company so just something else um that I wanted to recommend but thank you for all of your hard work thank you Miss Booker dwire so I love this I'm all about the Diversified funding streams and getting um all kind of funding into the school system and what I've learned that the number one reason you get money is because you ask for it and so do you have a list of priorities or plans that you want to get funded um or people or

203organizations that you would like to fund Baltimore county is there um so what's the Strategic approach I guess to to Gathering These funds sure uh yes and yes to both questions so um first uh when I began the job I did a listening tour if you will with all of the different offices and um the Chiefs appointed folks to talk with me about the needs and I've compiled all of them and continue to add to it because I have an open door for schools as well as central office so that anyone can contact me at any time and and add to that list of priorities then simultaneously I'm looking at I have a spreadsheet that I keep of all of the grand opportunities that are existing and continue to had on their Grant databases webinars

204and things like that on different funders uh to make sure that I'm adding to that and being able to look for other ones that are a match so um I've always got my priority list ready to go and particularly for like a philanthropic entity or a small Foundation something like that that I can look at what their priorities are and match them with the priority that would be a fit for us and how large is your office it's just you yes okay so so is their staff on that energy efficient oh yeah okay we cons and then um and then I would just encourage everyone if you have not already purchased your tickets to inspiring hope definitely do that it it was a wonderful wonderful event great fundraiser for um or a great way to

205to get additional funding into the school system and thank you very much U Miss Booker DWI for that plug we are also um making sure that everyone understands that we really are raising funds that will go will contribute to after school activities for students so we want to be very specific in our fundraising so that those who are perhaps concerned about funding for students and activities for students that they recognize that a ticket or even a donation to The Gayla that is our Express purpose and so we're excited about being able to support all schools with the wonderful activities we heard about uh that are going on at Eastern and the other schools that were pictured on that slide other questions or comments Miss chica Koo yes thank you so much for your presentation and

206so I was looking at kind of like the 200000 secl Grant and the improving School culture Grant and so since the improving School culture Grant is already on its second year kind of is there a way for us to kind of have a contingency or sustainability plan so if the grant is isn't renewed for a year for another reason just so that way we can still continue the program so we can reapply they do multi-year grants for the Baltimore Community Foundation so we can choose to do that or look for another funding source either one would be a possibility yes thank you but I do want to highlight thank you for that question that that having someone in this position always with their eye on you know what funding sources are still plentiful and what

207funding sources May no longer be available it allows us to be very proactive and making sure that we are not in a position where a grant you know is lost or goes away and we don't have anything to back fill with so she's always looking for that and so it's it's really key to have someone who's accountable for that work okay yes thank you that is very evident in just surpassing the goal by over double the amount of what you anticipated and then just for Miss Anderson for Eastern Tech with that 20e part parnership with John's Hopkins Applied Physics lab and just advancing to three national conferences I think what do you think has made Eastern Tech so successful in its stem Endeavors in its competitions and just in supporting students in that atmosphere so

208we have um we have kind of an unofficial motto we tend to declare that we are School of innovation and collaboration and so we really have revamped all of our programs to emphasize the design design thinking framework so so that students whether it's culinary construction engineering law all participate in that same mindset of design analysis and thinking thank you and you actually just mentioned like just remind me of my other question do you kind of know any efforts being made outside of the non- stem realm with the like you said with students interested in construction or the I think it's the law and public policy magnet at Eastern Tech just for students to also have additional opportunities that kind of Mir what the John's Hopkins collaboration is just for those concentrations yes we have um

209an abundance of opportunities at Eastern we have um on any given day in our school about 50 different student groups running um in addition to specialize support groups and so students have the opportunity to really participate in extracurricular activities during the school day as well because we don't want transportation to be a hindrance so we look for opportunities within all Fields um including our arts and um we support our arts and music programs as well as our stem initiatives thank you absolutely thank you um anyone else thank you so much and miss Anderson thank you so much for representing our principles um with your presence tonight next on the agenda is the report on the single audit 2024 and for that I call on Mr sarus good evening good evening members of the board and

210Dr Rogers do I need to uh push a button here okay thank God for that um so uh the single audit was presented to the board in on January 28th and um one of the concerns uh that was mentioned was the the finding number one uh that was uh listed in the in the report and I just want to uh mention that that finding was initially presented uh to the audit committee on November 12th uh and at that time the uh audit director from Clifton Larson Miss Sher Amos was here to uh make a presentation and be available for questions and then that same audit finding was uh presented to the full board December 3D um and the reason it appeared in the single AIT is be is because Clifton Larson's standards require that it

211was to be repeated uh but it was not a new finding uh there were no new errors uh in the single audit um and I do want to highlight that the uh the auditor's opinion on the uh annual comprehensive financial report is unmodified which is the highest level of assurance uh provid Ed Under governmental auditing standards and uh we are especially proud of that given that uh that the errors that were mentioned in to the audit Committee in in November uh were errors that were corrected prior to the finalization of the and the filing of those statements there were no instances of reportable non-compliance there were no material weakness es in internal control controls uh and all the the errors that are contained within that first audit finding uh were disclosed uh to BCPS and

212before the statements were final uh and just worth repeating those final financial statements are accurate um and the nature of those area of those errors all related to the balance sheet which is where we account for for assets and liability they did not affect cash they did not affect revenue and they did not affect grants but the item was noted again in the grant report for single audit which is uh why it was added to this agenda again this evening uh within the single audit um there were four additional findings to that first repeat finding and they were not Material I just want to summarize that um the the grant expenditures for fy20 24 were $257 million and uh the fiscal impact of two two of the four findings is just under $119,000 so I

213think that's significant uh especially given that the uh the because of the significant um covid funding expenditure still being in 2024 they did an they audited five programs instead of the typical three so the first one we've already discussed uh the second one has no dollar impact that was uh the inability to verify uh one of the two qu quotes required uh for a uh a bid under $50,000 um the the third finding excuse me was the uh inability to locate uh timekeeping Records for two employees this is something that we've already uh addressed by implementing the ukg time clock system and which will be expanded with the new Oracle uh time and attendance program that could be goes live July 1 uh the fourth item uh School uh student enrollment um and that is

214the uh accuracy of enrollment and uh we have since worked with uh student Support Services to provide training at all the schools for our uh attendance timing and attendance liaison so so we can try and uh keep all these records uh intact so that they're available when the Auditors arrive and you can imagine the the enrollments and the withdrawals that take place during the course of every year um are still kept on paper so in this case uh they I think there were about 18 records that they couldn't locate and the final uh finding for the uh Grant related items was the in involving time sheets and uh the ability to locate those paper documents which we have uh which will be all fully automated July 1 and I'm happy to take any questions thank

215you Mr SARS for that questions Mr MC Milan could tell Mr mcmillion I have the utmost respect for Mr sarus a personal respect and a professional respect for his 40 some years in this business but I want to point out that you are representing man management BCPS management this evening I'm extremely disappointed that we didn't have a representative of Clifton loron and Allen here to present the single audit if I'm not mistaken what you referenced in November was her talking about the financial report correct that's and and considering now the financial now I understand that that report wasn't gone over with Miss Amos because we canceled the committee meetings in February but then it was put down at information and we didn't talk about it at all considering that have you start started my clock

216over here Mr considering that that cost us between 350 or three 250 and $300,000 I'm confident that if we'd reached out to Clifton and arson and Allen and asked them to have a representative at this meeting that they would have done that for the fact that they've done this for a number of years and they want to continue doing it for a number of years because of the amount of money involved in their in in their pockets so I'm just disappointed I'm I'm very pleased that Mr was here talking about the audit but I'm disappointed that Clifton Larsson and Allen is not represented here tonight thank you very much thank you other comments or questions Miss domanowski yes I'm not sure if you'll be able to answer that this but um when they take the

217sample size do you know what portion of the total that sample size is typically it's you know between one and 2% so but it's a representative sample so they have a computer program that they use to generate that sample from the totality of the records that we provide so when the sample size there shows like six out of the 18 it's a one or two% of the total of the yes that the total that was tested the total that was tested there were six deficiencies in this the six out of 18 that's one okay right um uh and I'm not I think one of them had to do with non-public placement of students um um like a well unless that was not to my knowledge yeah uh it was finding 20241 the first one adjusting

218joural entries uh nonu oh correct so um this is one of my favorites because every year uh when the fiscal year ends on June 30th um we submit we have to submit all of our tuition fees to msde and uh every year they are very slow in paying us back uh typically in December we get a check and so uh every year we have to calculate uh the amount of outstanding uh receivables that we have with msde and because it's such a significant amount out um there's always uh an entry that has to be posted for that receivable and um in this case we uh under reported the amount of money that MSD owes us they actually owed us $3.2 million more than we originally recorded and that was corrected before uh the statements were

219finalized so how do you keep track of those non-public placement tuitions if so you know what to request uh the department of special ed uh submits the bills uh they're reviewed by by uh Miss Meyers and by the department of fiscal services and then they are sent to msde and then Ms we certify the invoices and we submit the request for reim imbursement and it takes a while so I was just wondering how you wouldn't know how much you know you're saying you to put in a number but you wouldn't you don't you're kind of guessing at that number what you no we should know the exact number um as uh Clifton Larson noted in the statements we had some uh untimely and unanticipated staff turnover uh right in the middle of this process last

220year and uh that's one of the errors that we found and corrected thank you sure miss Booker dwire and so when I I look at this some of the errors was just due to the fact that records were being kept by on paper and not electronically correct and as this board has now invested in timekeeping and ear P system so that we won't repeat those mistakes of the past of having the you know the the old school documents that lead to these types of audit findings and I think that is something that's very important to note because had these Investments been made previously we might not have seen these audit findings and so this board is really working to help to advance the system so that we are not not doing paper time cards and

221having these types of audit findings in 2025 um so I just wanted to make that point no question thank you other questions okay thank you thank you very much the next item on the agenda is information which includes the minutes of the January 22nd 2025 Southeast area education advisory council meeting revised superintendent rules 3113 3121 and 3125 and an update on Key School legislation the next item on the agenda the next item was added to the agenda is board resolution 202-02 centure the board is committed to modeling decorum for the public and for our students we are mindful of this Duty and want our public to know that we have heard your concerns because we take our responsibility seriously it is with seriousness and gravity that we present the following proposed board resolution and at

222this time I call on Miss Harvey thank you madam chair I just want to say that having conviction and civil discourse are not mutually exclusive displaying passion for a purpose or a cause and displaying collegial respect are not mutually exclusive so as a board we agreed to a standard of conduct and we also agreed to hold one another accountable and it is for this reason that I moved to adopt board resolution 202-02 centure as follows whereas the Board of Education of Baltimore county is committed to maintaining a professional and respectful standard of conduct conduct in all board interactions with each other and the superintendent as outlined in the board handbook board policies and the superintendent's contract and whereas the board recognizes that mutual respect and professionalism between board members and the superintendent are essential to

223the effective governance and operation of the Baltimore County public schools and whereas board member Maggie dominowski exhibited a lack of courtesy and decorum during public discussion at the board meeting on January 28th 2025 by engaging in rude and disrespectful conduct toward the superintendent about the proposed FY 2026 budget and interrupting her when she asked for clarification of a question and whereas Miss dominowski engaged in these actions using a tone and manner that was perceived as uncivil and aggressive both by by other board members and members of the public who communicated their concern to the board and whereas Miss dominowski actions in the meeting were inconsistent with the board's published standards and expectations and if not addressed could undermine the integrity and credibility of the board as a whole the board's relationship with the superintendent and

224the superintendent's Effectiveness as the board's chief executive officer now therefore be it resolved that the Board of Education formerly censures board member Maggie dominowski for her inappropriate conduct at the January 28 2025 meeting and be it further resolved that this censure serves as a public acknowledgement that such conduct is unacceptable and contrary to the professional expectations of a board member and be it further resolved that the board strongly urges Miss dominowski to immediately refrain from any fur further such unprofessional conduct and to adhere to the board's standards and expectations for member conduct and be it finally resolved that this resolution shall be entered into the official record of the Board of Education in the interest of transparency and accountability and adopted this 11th day of March 2025 by the Board of Education of Baltimore County

225is there a second second ch is there any discussion Mr McMillian uh as a 71 year old human being I have a difficult time uh at this state of my life judging and disciplining a peer uh I taught school for 35 years I didn't have an issue disciplining students I've disciplined people that worked underneath of me I've been disciplined but in this situation I just I just have extreme difficulty uh judging another human being in their actions and then voting for you know a way to you know discipline him I I'm I just I have difficulty with it thank you thank you any further discussion Miss Pumphrey I just a comment um while I agree that there was a disrespectful tone in the past that the public unfortunately had to see um I can't um

226part of my person personality is to give Grace and sometimes you know I can't separate that from the personal level and the business level and so I am um prone to give Grace um in all throughout my life um through decisions that we make and through you know and I just reiterate what Mr McMillian said that we are adults and um professionals and and although the disrespect is seen I think it can be discussed with us as a board and not necessarily something that needs to be um open discipline to the public thank you any further discussion um Miss aleski thank you um I also want to Echo What U Mr McMillian beautifully stated my preference would have been that this would have been handled privately amongst the 12 of us thank you thank you

227any further comments M oh I'm sorry Miss dominowski yes uh thank you for um giving me the opportunity to speak on my behalf um I was only seeing the the resolution briefly but I wanted to just uh point out a few things um there were references to my tone and demeanor or behaviors during the specific interaction with superintendent regarding the budget line item for College and Career Readiness these are subjective attributes based on a personal feelings opinions or individual perspectives I also wanted to note that um these opinions about my ha my behavior during the one interaction were shared by members um by the public um as far as I was made aware there were only two emails shared with myself and other board members and one of the emailers wished to remain um Anonymous

228it should also be noted that I did apologize to Dr Rogers directly for making her feel uncomfortable or as though though I was my line of questioning was meant to be aggressive in any way because that was not my intent um while my tone or demeanor may have been perceived by some as rude lacking decorum or inappropriate at no time did I actually use foul or even inappropriate language um once again I would like to apologize to Dr Rogers uh for the way my tone or line of questioning made her feel um however if or when this resolution is passed I will be following up with an appeal thank you thank you any further comments Miss Harvey just quickly I want to clarify that a censure is not discipline it is the board's expression of

229disapproval of a behavior or action and that is how we got to this place uh I we have had discussions around conduct in the past and I believe the record speaks for itself in terms of behaviors that uh people on this board or my fellow board members have identified as uh disrespectful and not conducive to the work that we need to to get done here and so while it brings me no joy to put this resolution forward I feel like as a board member who holds myself to a stand standard and who agreed to hold myself and to hold each other accountable that is the appropriate thing to do in this instance thank you Miss Cho yes and thank you Miss Harvey I would just also like to add that I personally do not feel

230accountability to be synonymous with discipline at all I truly believe accountability is for the sake of acknowledgement and saying that moving forward as a board we are setting a higher presedent and I do believe if there was behavior that was conducted in the eyes of the public I think there should be some form of resolution in the eyes of a public in the eyes of the public and I think we're setting a harmful precedent if we say that simply because someone is a colleague or peer that they are above or they are exempt from any form of accountability because if I'm looking from a student perspective or even just in the realm of educ a if I fail to hold one of my peers or another student accountable that's setting a harmful precedent of what

231truly is what truly what accountability truly is and what that means in today especially within a professional setting so as you put Miss Harvey it doesn't bring the joy the Board of Education joy to move in this direction but I think it is something that is also necessary when this has not when this has not been an isolated conversation thank you any any further comments Miss Gover can I have a roll call vote please miss fral yes Miss Boer DWI yes Miss Harvey yes Miss CH K yes Miss delaski no Dr seavoy yes Mr McMillian no Miss pumfrey no Mr Young yes Mr domanowski no Miss yes favor is seven motion carries the next item on the agenda is board member comments and agenda setting um instead of going around is there if you just

232raise your hand if you have a agenda item or any further comments okay Miss Chalo oh I would just like to recognize March as women's History Month okay thank you any further agenda items or board member comments the last item on the agenda is announcements the board's next meeting will be held on Tuesday March 25th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. also the board will hold a public hearing on the Arbutus and kensville Middle School boundary recommendation on Wednesday April 2nd 2025 at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium at kensville high school registration sign up to speak begins at 5:30 p.m. until 6:25 p.m. thank you for joining us tonight the meeting is now adjourned